KKP Weekly Gaming Recap: Soulframe, John Romero, Stray

Hello and welcome, fellow viewers and readers new and old. This is me again, your Kakuchopurei content director, Jonathan “Mr Toffee” Leo, with this week’s video game and pop culture recap.

Our site is going through a revamp, so that’s exciting news. We can’t wait to share in great detail what’s available and what this means for us. Stay tuned to thekkp.com in the next few weeks for more info. 

Video Games: What We’ve Done

Here’s our latest PC Gaming News video recap, if you want a video version of what we’re going to go through today. You’re sure to love it!

Digital Extremes is making a new game called Soulframe, which is a mass multiplayer action RPG with swords and slow-paced combat; the complete opposite of the guns-ablazing Warframe.

John Romero, the co-creator of the legendary first-person shooter Doom, is going back to making an all-new first-person shooter. He’s currently hiring for his Romero Studios and looking for talent from all walks of life, especially those who know Unreal Engine 5. 

We also have covered a number of high-profile titles like the PlayStation/PC cat-focused adventure game Stray and the Square Enix JRPG remake of Live A Live, which came out in 1994 for the Super Nintendo but was exclusive to Japan. 

The former is a well-crafted and beautiful adventure game set in a dystopian city filled with robots, with the titular cat protagonist trying to get out of the city while being aided by a floating robot named B-12. You have puzzles, environmental hazards, and enemies to solve, avoid, and outrun. You’re a cat; you can’t do much except run, jump, and scratch inanimate rugs. Still, with a little ingenuity, you can make it far. The game is about 5 hours long or less, but there are collectibles, and speedrunning achievements to hit. 

The latter is a Nintendo Switch title where you play as eight different protagonists in different eras and storylines, with each of them converging at the climax of the game. Each character from a cowboy to a caveman has to deal with their own scenarios with a malevolent force somehow tying these story threads together. While the game’s combat is standard turn-based fare with some tile-based movement thrown in for good measure, the story and music are epic and noteworthy. 

Pop Culture: What We’ve Done

We have covered the majority of the San Diego Comicon 2022 comic book and movie expo online. Highlights include a new upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender animated movie release date, the new X-Men ’97 animated series which premieres Fall 2023, and the new Dungeons & Dragons fantasy movie from Paramount starring Chris Pine and Hugh Grant. 

We also have a feature talking about Malaysian historical epic films that are better than Mat Kilau. While Mat Kilau has its entertainment value, we believe that there are other Malaysian movies that handle historical matters in Malaysia in a better and more respectable fashion. 

Last but not least, our pop culture guy Alleef “Comicslord” Ashaari has interviewed the creators and one of the actors of the upcoming Predator franchise movie entry, Prey. 

What We’ve Been Watching

John Walsh, better known as Super Eyepatch Wolf and a purveyor of anime, has talked about the dark side of content creation in a close-to-two-hour YouTube video. He talks about why influencer courses are garbage and what the real experience is like if you’re a content creator with 1 million subscribers. Without spoiling much, we can assure you that the experience is a nightmare on a psychological level. 

While Kakuchopurei’s channel is growing, the online platform algorithm is just all over the place and is still the same kind of Wild West scenario it has been years ago, albeit with ever-changing rules. All I’m saying is that if you think content creation is easy peasy, this insightful video will prove otherwise. And you shouldn’t give your money to people who think they cracked the algorithm code. 

What We’ve Been Playing

Apart from Stray and Live A Live? Well, I’ve been playing a bit more Diablo 3 and DNF Duel as of late. I feel that both these titles can offer quick bouts of entertainment for about 15 to 30 minutes before I resume back to work or for meetings.

In Diablo 3, I’m going back and forth with my Marauder Sentry Demon Hunter build and my Arachyr Spiders Witch Doctor build. The DH summons turrets and uses Multishots to deal a ton of damage to mobs and bosses (via the Marauder set), while the WD uses a giant spider pet (ala the Arachyr set) and all sorts of spells to apply debuffs that lead to even more burst damage. I was trying out a Legacy of Dreams Wall of Light build with a Monk, but I didn’t get the Ancient tier Legendary armour pieces I wanted throughout the Season, so naturally I just gravitated towards the other two classes. As I only have 3 choices of existing characters in my roster to carry over to the new Season, I had to choose wisely. 

All in all, I had a lot of fun dealing damage and playing through the highest Torment level available (not counting the insane Greater Rifts levels) using the DH and WD to mow through mobs and enemies like nobody’s business. The new Echoing Nightmare mode, where I kill wave of enemies until I’m swarmed or dead, gives players a new leveled Legendary gem to help with Ancient item-buffing. The better you do in an Echoing Nightmare run, the higher-leveled the gem becomes. With the new Season 27 coming next month, Diablo 3’s lifespan is not going to be in jeopardy anytime soon, which is more than I can say for its mobile cousin Diablo Immortal. 

I am slowly getting the hang of DNF Duel’s fighting game and combo mechanics. Every single character in the game has their own infinites and high-damage combos, though right now, I’m maining one of the lower-tiered characters: The Vanguard. While he has great damage, he is slow and can be blown up with a well-timed counterhit from most of the cast members like Striker, Hitman, and Swift Master.

Having said that, my fighting game fundamentals do help in keeping less-patient players at bay. It’s so satisfying just to lock down opponents with well-timed anti-air reads, then sweeping them with a combo and a meter burn combo when they least expect it. It’s rewarding to say the least, especially with the lance sounds the Vanguard makes with his weapon. 

I still stand by my review of DNF Duel: it’s a fun fighting game with a lot of broken things here and there, and should hopefully keep the fighting game community entertained for the next few months. 

That’s all for this week of our gaming news recap feature and what we’ve been up to for the week of 16-22 July. Catch you next time, readers new and old. As always, do check out our awesome content on kakuchopurei.com and on our YouTube website. We post new content every day and every week!