I mentioned once before, at the start of this year when I resubbed to Gamepass, that the Xbox Gamepass and myself have an awkward history. Now we can add "Indian Giving" to our awkward history. Because on the 1st of January, this year, I ordered a 3 month deal from them. Pay $1 and get 3 months of gamepass, and then pay full price on the 1st of April.
Cool, I thought. I ordered it. Paid a measly dollar. And downloaded a few games ready to enjoy over this lonnggggg period of waiting for Lost Ark.
Today I opened the Xbox app and saw some new games available! I squee'd with glee and tried to download one of them -- the one I shall be writing about after this rant -- only to have an error message pop up because apparently I didn't have administrator rights. Which I do.
Annoyed, I force-opened the app with my admin rights and tried again. Only this time the Xbox app reckoned that I did not have an active Gamepass subscription. Wut? So I went to the microsoft page, only to discover that I had no recent order activity, and, in fact, the last time I ordered Gamepass was in August of last year. Wut?
After a few annoyed rants to my partner, I shook my fist and just paid another measly dollar to regain my sub. But what the hell? How does a subscription just magically disappear and not even have any history of it on their website? They're a global multibillion dollar corporation and they can't even do that right?
breathe...
...
Puppies!
Pupperazzi advertises itself as a game where you're a canine photographer. Take photos of dogs, build your career, upgrade your camera, and discover more pooches to play and pet and photograph.
It sounded chill, and after my xbox gamepass annoyance something "chill" was something I definitely wanted.
Unfortunately, Pupperazzi might be a little "too" chill, if such a thing were possible. The way the game is described in the store pages, it seriously appealed to me. Take photos? Puppies? Complete photographic related quests to grow your Doggo Social Media Following and make money to upgrade your camera? Great!! Unfortunately, the manner in which this grand idea is actually presented, is not really my style.
I mean, I should have expected as much from a game where in the settings there is an option to disable possible "triggers" because apparently cars driving in the background at a normal, videogame speed could be scary.
But apart from Millennial Generation Whining in the settings, the manner of play in this game is what bugs me most... this game feels like it belongs on a phone rather than computer or console. If this were a phone game, I'd be quite pleased I think. But it's not. And I was expecting something "more" from a computer game.
It started out fine. You start the game, you get a little tutorial telling you how to move and what to do and how to do it.
My first quests are simple: take a fancy photo of this puppy, and con 5 people into following my Doggo Instagram. Easy peasy.
After completing various introductory quests, I am soon rewarded with enough of the in-game currency -- bonks -- to start equipping my camera with some new filters and lenses.
I purchase a pack of different lenses first, and prepare to snap away!
After gaining a few more followers, more of the map becomes available to me.
Each location has different dogs, different things happening, and different landmarks to complete various quests. There are Bonks hidden in each location too that you can find, and of course earn more Bonks by fulfilling quests and reaching follower milestones.
In each of these new locations, there are dogs being "lolrandom" and I'm honestly not too sure what I was actually expecting of this game.
Parks, beaches, dog-friendly locations, yes. The locations are alright. And as you do quests in each location, you unlock being able to visit at other times of the day like sunset, night, etc. I like that.
Taking photos of pups, yes. The pup AI is terrible though, and they're all "lolrandom." I mean, I enjoy a little bit of "lolrandom" every now and then, but this game is just full of it. Dogs skateboarding, riding bikes, riding scooters, playing arcade games, wearing layers upon layers of clothing, sitting on top of trees... maybe I just wanted something more normal and less jokey? And maybe a more reasonable amount of dogs rather than 200 per area?
Upgrading your camera with new lenses and filters and things, yes. I guess I was expecting a bit more work to go into that though, instead of buying a fish eye lens with a whole 12 Bonks? I don't feel as though I'm earning my gear?
I think the most disappointing feature is the social media following you're supposed to be expanding. The "twitter" in Cities: Skylines is more personable than this! The game is happier with a photo of a single dog just staring up at you, than with a nicely composed photo with your person crouched, a dog off to the side, and some nice scenery. Instead of being thoughtful about your photos, you're better off just happy-snapping everything and anything since that's considered better than something more thought out.
I was thinking that maybe I could gain friendship with various followers, gain their trust to meet their dogs and take photos of them studio style. Meet people walking around the city, the park, the beach, wherever, and meet their dogs and take photos of them.
Instead, it's a dog utopia with hardly a human in sight, and they're all lolrandom. It's disappointing.
Overall, if this were an android game that I could pop onto my phone, I think that I'd be pretty content with it.
But I was just expecting too much. Whilst the "idea" is definitely my type of game, I feel that this in particular is more catered towards the squishy hide-under-your-pillow triggered-by-everything PC generation. I don't even think my son would be interested in this.
It's a.... nice... game, I guess? But it's not something I'd recommend, and its actual price-point when not on Gamepass is nearly $30 Australian!!!!! Holy moly. Not worth it. Nope.
At least it stopped me thinking about my annoying earlier gamepass experience for a little bit. 🤷♀
Until next time! 🐕
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 