EVERY GAME I PLAYED IN 2020 (PART 3)

February 27, 2021 Wyatt Grondin

And here we come to the finale of my gaming journeys of 2020. This final list has 12 entries, and some of those entries are going to be the games I have the most to talk about. I’ll try and be as quick as I can for the other games, but they must also be given their fair chance. There’s not a single bad game here, although there will be some criticisms very harsh.

I think it’s best if we have not much else before we dive in. As always, you can keep this blog running by purchasing The Romance Novel, and please enjoy this lookback at the tail end of 2020 gaming-wise for me.

Donut County

Donut County is an indie puzzle game that never ceases in it’s unique charm and gameplay. The premise alone; that you are a donut delivery service worker who is instead delivering holes, is the kind of concept that suits the nature of video games better than other mediums.

There’s also Donut County’s likely intended but maybe accidental social remarks, the corruption of greed and industrialization, invasion of said things among unsuspecting citizens. It’s a story that only takes two to three hours, and is thoroughly wonderful through them. There’s still a debate within gaming on if being too short is a bad thing, but like many others, I’d rather enjoy every second of a tightly-packed game than try to force myself through a complete slog. I beat Donut County in a nice afternoon, and the afternoon was nice because I spent it playing through Donut County. Like another short indie gem Firewatch, this is a game that needs to be always played in a single sitting, letting the entire experience happen without pausing for another day. Donut County is lovely, the opposite of trash, as it can be described.

Rating - 9/10

Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren’s Call

I do remember my experience with Nightmares from the Deep 2, a game I’ve never played the original for yet one that I have certainly played the exact same experience for. Don’t get me wrong, hidden object games have their place in not just gaming but also for my own personal tastes. Buying this game and playing it was no accident, I felt the urge to play a hidden object game and the pitch for this one on the store page is what won me over.

Nightmares from the Deep 2 has a solid story, it’s all excuses to find objects, but it’s sensical and feels rewarding to go through to the end. The name implies scary imagery, and it didn’t really scare me personally but the sudden jump scare cords and zoom-ins weren’t annoying either, so it might do either to you should your tolerance for either be different from mine.

Hidden object games without the franchise name of “I Spy” tend to be considered old lady games, but they can still be a fun evening should they not be too frustrating. Their biggest problem being how yes, they do all feel the same but with a coat of paint. I’ll likely never play this one again, and any other game like this from the same studio would have been practically the same game, but it was still fun and these are still a decent thing for a lazy afternoon.

Rating - 5.5/10

Spy Fox 3: Operation Ozone

Humongous Entertainment is still beloved by many for their fun, creative, and colorful point-and-click adventure games. The company may not really get up to much of anything anymore, but at least these well-aged games are easy to legally buy and play.

Spy Fox was probably the better written franchise the studio did. They were for slightly older kids, so wittier jokes and references were seemingly more allowed. Putt-Putt, Pajama Sam, and Freddi Fish were far from uninspired of course, but I find the puzzles were a bit more sharp here even if they aren’t exactly hard for an adult.

Out of all the Spy Fox games, I’m going to go on record saying I think this one was the best. The set-up is fresh, the villain the nastiest, the environments fantastic, even in a sea of gems it managed to shine brighter. A high rating may look weird for those who’ve yet to play the catalogue, but for we nostalgic to the games, the rating will seem pitch-perfect:

Rating - 8/10

Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate

And like I promised last time, we are back to Arkham once again. Well, we’re really in Blackgate, and this time Batman moves left to right and sometimes up and down.

Blackgate was an interesting experience, especially in my first run-through. See, the game is pretty short because to fully experience it, you have to play it three times with you purposefully choosing a different third boss each time. The third boss always sets up a final trap themselves you have to diffuse afterwards, and not only that, those traps each have one specific item to unlock which you keep on those further playthroughs. Those plus the other items will go towards 100%, giving you more batsuits and goodies to try out.

And the thing is, I really didn’t like that first playthrough. Some stuff was cool, but bosses were terrible, death happened to me several times from cheap shots I had little time to learn from. I could do the correct method and the game would refuse to believe it. The developers might have realized that, because by looking through every crate, on just your first playthrough you can unlock a batsuit were you do not take any damage anymore. This changes the game for those new game plus playthroughs. You not longer worry about dying, only in planning how to grab that 100% in your own way. Which, I did.

Maybe not great to play it’s first time, Blackgate Deluxe is shockingly clever in how it treats and rewards completionists and that makes it an oddity that I came around to. It’s mediocre since I can’t recommend it too much to non-completionists, but I think there is still some kind of audience out there for it should they be interested.

Rating - 5/10

Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 has the honor of being one of the most critically acclaimed video games ever made, yet listening to genuine opinions tend to actually range from “very perfect, no problems!” to “It’s great and I want to love it but the gameplay is frustrating.” I played the game when it came out, and without a doubt was in the latter camp.

I can’t deny with any fiber of my being that the story and characters of the game are some of the strongest I have experienced in any form of fictional media. Arthur Morgan proved to be one of the greatest examples of playable characters and it will be a very long time before he’s topped in any fashion. He’s the kind of man who would empty his purse for a beggar, and the kind of man who would rob a beggar, neither contradicting thanks to just how believable he can enter situations and how he reacts based on a combination of the writing and the adaptability of the games control output.

The moral choices pop up far more than the original, being harder than before too. I play as good characters, and yet found myself so morally grey both times I played this. Sometimes it was too sensical to do the morally dirty thing, I felt horrible yet could not regret allowing Arthur to do it. I loved his flawed man who does have plenty of bad in him, but whose heart is gold enough that redemption is something you know he is more than capable of. I’m almost impressed by those who earn the bad endings, the name of the game is Redemption and the themes are of redemption, being able to peel that away smells of wanting the game their way so much I do have to admire their will in some ways.

Fishing in the game is so fun I kept doing it just because, even after fishing every type of regular fish and doing the legendary fish quest. Clothing options were so open and fresh that there is nothing like it even in simulation games with similar ideas. The environments are fresh and beautiful. The hand-to-hand combat involves thinking even if you try giving up and using a knife. Side missions are all unique with characters whom all broke my expectations in ways that earn my love or hate for all the right reasons. Even shopping adds this nice idea where you can use the catalog or just buy the item by picking it up and confirming.

And.

Horse riding still feels imprecise despite the last game nailing it. Guns have a great range of color but engravings honestly felt lacking in amount and variety. Cleaning them is a great idea but it’s hard to tell when they work poorly since sometimes it’s after long use and others you start missing not long after cleaning. Gun fights don’t feel as inspired as they did in RDR 1 or GTA V. The epilogue is too long and has too many random evil gangs for the sake of it. 100% demands too much despite not needing literally everything in typical Rockstar fashion, for once they didn’t cut back enough and had too many collectible side missions making only some feel worth their weight.

So the question is, how much of that really bothered me the second time?

I played on PC on lower graphics this time, and despite how muddy it looked, it still looked great. The horses seemed to control better, which was either from using a keyboard or from experience. That last word means a lot, so many problems feel lesser after experience. It demands too much experience, but then again, it’s a game that turned out to be really worth replaying.

I kinda loved the game the first time, this time, I really loved the game.

Arthur Morgan’s story was worth going through again. As was John Marston’s, Dutch Van Der Linde’s, Bill Williamson’s, Micah Bell III’s, every character gets to shine and they all earn the respect and love and/or hate to do it all over again. I almost even got 100% completion this time, and I still say it’s too much, but this time I can also say I think I can do it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a very strong type of game. I still cannot be sure it’s for everybody, but even then, maybe everyone needs to try it anyway.

Rating - 9.5/10

Maneater

Maneater was a $40 game with plenty of polish and tons of fun things to do. Remember when that happened more often? Budget games that lacked the grandiose elements of the Triple A market and many times were more worth that money than those more expensive games?

Maneater sees you play as a deadly shark, whom can eat so much she comes across as more like a black hole than a shark. Shark controls pretty well, with minor clunkiness where I still felt like I was in control most of the time. She could still flip around or freak out, but this did feel intentional while not as ridiculous as Surgeon Simulator or Octodad, which I still feel are good comparisons.

Maneater wasn’t a surprise or anything, but it was a very fun game that I actually ended up getting two copies of. She’s a brutal little girl that shark, and her game really utilizes that. This is the kind of game I always say would make it on my “game of the year” list if I worked for gaming journalism, since purely fun smaller games like this need more praise for being exactly what they are without wearing the gimmick out and being easy to get right back into. It’s on consoles both current and future-that-didn’t-really-come-yet-to-most-of-us-because-they-are-hard-to-get, so I really do say give it a play. Blood and guts are sometimes all you really need, and the added comedy from the nature documentary spoof really adds even more.

Rating - 8/10

Hitman Absolution HD

https://www.destructoid.com/stories/hitman-absolution-and-blood-money-headed-to-ps4-and-xbox-one-real-soon-537815.phtml

I’m saying it. I know Hitman fans weren’t hot on this one for the changes to the settings and game world style, but I really enjoy Hitman Absolution personally.

I can’t fault people for loving the James Bond inspired wacky and open games that came before it. I can understand being disappointed it’s a lot different. However, changing the formula doesn’t instantly mean a product is bad, sometimes the black sheep has a lot to offer. Absolution added a lot that ended up staying, how you can finally garotte and immediately go into a drag, how you can knock people out with your bare hands instead of needing an item with the side effect that it takes time, the instinct system that got retooled later but isn’t that far off from the hardest difficulty versions from here.

Now, speaking of difficulty, this time playing it I actually do have a criticism. I don’t dislike the linear levels, I think linear game design can lead to very clever and unique gameplay and also storytelling. Absolution has great levels with the linearity, however, that stays true only on normal. Once you try a “professional” difficulty level, things go a bit more south purely because some levels are not built around doing it.

You have to stealth at all times now since combat is much riskier than on normal, and as a stealth fan I’m actually fine with that, on paper. The problem with Absolution is how some levels were pretty clearly designed more for action stealth from the get-go, and harder difficulty makes them shockingly hard for all the wrong reasons.

Attack of the Saints or King of Chinatown add simple more amount of guards that the styles I did on normal weren’t as easy so I thought more outside the box and still had a solid times. Levels like Rosewood Orphanage were frankly broken in the enemies favor, there’s too many of them and the levels was clearly meant for a player to happily wipe out these professional killers who went way too far, which is basically impossible in a difficulty level that tries everything to make that gameplay style impossible. I remember being able to sneak about the level on normal once or twice, but on professional they leaped out of corners and huddled around the item I needed. Full instinct wasn’t enough to blend in, there wasn’t enough time to hide bodies. I finally beat the level by instincting, grabbling the item, then mashing instinct again, and I genuinely think the game glitched and gave it to me since I did that method several times in a now and it usually failed within a heartbeat. Also, just in general, I never liked the level Hotel Terminus and I still feel that way.

However, I still beat the game and I still loved it overall. It was more challenging in ways I didn’t care for this time, but I didn’t put it down, and I even still went back for all the challenges and all the collectibles. I have Platinum now and I’m incredibly happy I do. Fans won’t be ready to forgive this entry for a while, but I’m with the critics on this one. On it’s own, it’s a strong game with some noticeable problems depending on the level or difficulty.

Rating - 9/10

Saints Row The Third Remastered

Another game that riled some feathers in the fandom that I loved so so dearly. And like the last one, this is the remastered version for PS4, but this time it really is remastered and not just a port job.

Good God the graphics are weirdly realistic, especially for such a bombastic and goofy game. For my money some of the style has been erased so I will still prefer the original version, but the graphics are incredible despite that.

I wish that was my only complaint, but I also felt some of the controls did not work quite as well as the original. I don’t know if it was button lag, or framerate issues, but I’ve played buttery smooth on both PC and Xbox One Backwards Compatibility for the original, and a remaster should at least be as good as those ways to play the original.

So now that my criticisms are out of the way, allow me to gush about one of my favorite video games ever made!

The wacky nature of this game delivers tons of fun gameplay, from the side stuff you can do on the Bosses’ phone or from icons in the game world. I love all of the Saints; Oleg the smart muscleman, Pierce the whiny yet lovable scamp, Kinzie the kinky super genius, I know Shaundi is divisive compared to her past self since she’s radically different, but I think she still shines in the comedy department while keeping the new characterization. Your choices weren’t moral decisions in this game, just which type of fun thing you wanted to play with, and boy that could be just as hard, although I just remembered you absolutely get a final moral choice for the ending but that one’s lovingly not hard to make honestly.

Engaging, bombastic, crass, Saints Row The Third is still all those things and this pretty version is not a bad way to experience it at all. Again, somehow the original is still better and still easy to get since it’s even on Switch, so the rating has to reflect that but it’s barely going to look like that.

Rating - 9.5/10

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix

Birth By Sleep has a very big reputation. It was everyone’s favorite Kingdom Hearts game until more people started playing it. See, fans who were devoted enough to play it back on PSP were all enthralled by the new story, the tragedy of the three main characters, the bigger impact on the lore of the franchise. Once it got on the PS3 and later PS4 and Xbox One, the rest of the fanbase and newcomers sometimes had that reaction but seemingly just as often were massively off-put by the floaty combat, the mechanics, and finding the story and character nowhere near as well-written as they’d been hearing for years.

When I played the game back on PS3, I had every single one of those bulletpoints for the critical half. I hated the game, it frustrated me how the grinding was far more enforced than ever with spongey enemies, how bosses were allowed invincibility frames when the player wasn’t, allowed bosses to easily escape attacks and suddenly juggle the player without many options to escape. I hated the command deck and the way new commands and especially abilities were tied behind alchemy of the moves. Ven had my interest but Terra and Aqua were flat and uninteresting, not to mention Eraqus being thoroughly unlikable.

However, I gave the game a second chance on the PS4. This time, no, I didn’t hate it.

I didn’t fall in love with it at all either.

The command deck is still not as easy to use as the one from Dream Drop Distance, and the alchemy is still a silly requirement for unlocking new abilities. However, this time I noticed that anytime you learn a command you can always then buy that command at a moogle shop, meaning I never really lost a command I just had to start from the beginning with it’s level. A pain but not an immense hassle.

I still find the main trio undercooked, but less flat this time. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus suffer a lot from needing to go to all of the same worlds, I feel that if each character had each world they visit to themselves only that they would have had better chances at the character development the game really acts like they got. Raident Garden, the Land of Departure, and the Keyblade Graveyard worked fine sharing the three of them, but for example I think only Ven should have had the Dwarf Woodlands since he got to meet the most characters and interact with them more, or how only Terra should have had Enchanted Dominion and Deep Space as those two worlds helped establish character growth and would have worked far better without Ven’s pointless feeling visit and Aqua’s horrible fight with Dragon Maleficent especially.

I also realize how last time I practically never used Shotlock or Links, and they make a world of difference to the gameplay. Links help remove character weaknesses when used right and are powerful, and Shotlock can remove enemies from a room or wipe out more than a whole health bar from a boss. From here onward Kingdom Hearts started having too many mechanics, and even here it was easy to forget they existed, even though they are sometimes essential to winning a fight.

The story is, fine. It does not break ground, it’s cliched, and as I explained has pacing problems from how the game forces all three characters to go everywhere when picking and choosing would have been far better. It has some highlights though. In fact, that’s how I’d describe the entire game.

It has it’s highlights. The Mirage Arena was full of challenges while the other minigames were poor, some worlds had very nice stand-alone experiences despite still following the movies and not always mixing with another character’s world story too well, the Unversed sometimes looked cool and had some interesting mechanics but sometimes were painful to fight, Xehanort wasn’t as pointlessly masterful as he gets later and has some great lines and scenes even if this is where he took too much of the spotlight, and bosses ranged from pretty unique to wishing I could skip it from how unfair it was. But, I really cannot forgive how this is the first time the extra secret bonus movie is a playable level, it’s too much work that I didn’t do and don’t know if I ever will, I settled for the regular bonus and the horrible final fight that turned out to be.

End of the day, this is not the best Kingdom Hearts game but I found it had more merit than when I played it before. It’s not a bad game, just a mixed bag with very noticeable flaws you kind of need to work around, as they will make or break you.

Rating - 6/10

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix

https://kingdomhearts.fandom.com/wiki/Puzzle

Kingdom Hearts II isn’t the best game in the series either but boy do I see why so many people feel it is! The original will still hold that title in my heart, it’s exploration and warm simplicity still beats most other games I’ve played in my life even now. Still;

Kingdom Hearts 2 goes for a far more complex narrative that may be confusing but at least there was a purposeful mystery angle to it to justify the feeling. The combat is overhauled so much that the player is basically creating a ballet with video game violence and it rarely lets up for even a nanosecond. Especially with the major improvements final mix brings.

I don’t like everything in final mix, I still say the mandatory Roxas fight is too hard for a story fight and that not every data fight nor Mushroom XIII are worth the inclusion, but other than the story fight I can’t complain much as I feel non-mandatory stuff rarely detracts from a rating unless it’s truly egregious and that’s not the case here despite how daunting it felt before I got the Platinum trophy a while back.

The best thing it added though, is critical mode. Video game difficulty is not a perfect medium, some people love extra spicy challenges while people like me are only out to have fun and find plenty of hard modes to not bring that fun. Critical mode for Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix is easily not just one of the best hard modes I’ve ever played, but is the only way to play the game for me now. I played this game again last year, and it was Critical for just that reason. I had no trophy this time, I just wanted to replay the game and it was my instant reaction.

The gameplay is phenomenal, the story does work, the characters are wonderful, and dare I say the artstyle makes the graphics hold up. I may love the first game more, but nothing will stop me from saying II is a masterpiece of a game as well. It could have ended here or after Days, and I’d have been satisfied, and I think a lot more fans than they realize would have too.

Rating - 9.5/10

Pokémon Emerald

https://nintendowire.com/news/2020/05/01/pokemon-emerald-is-now-15-years-old-in-north-america/

Pokémon Emerald is a game I’d be able to talk for way too long about. I mentioned it before in a Pokémon game review, but this is my favorite of the series and currently my favorite video game period. While Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch theoretically gave me more of what I look for in a game, there is no game I played more than Emerald and that will never change.

I love the graphics of this game, which hold up for someone who is not fond of pixel art all that much thanks to a vibrant color palette that also has clever use of darker shades. I love the pair of villainous teams who are truly out to better the planet despite how simple-minded and short-sighted they ultimately are. The fights, sceneries, so many elements are basically iconic to me: fighting Maxie both at the top of Mt. Chimney and the space station, Archie before he unleashes Kyorge, champion Wallace whom does work as a water champion since it fits the region, Flannery’s difficult to understand yet easy to remember gym puzzle, New Mauville, Sootopolis, secret boss Stephen Stone, the ridiculously impressive Battle Frontier, even the cave with only Smeargle and items.

Ruby and Sapphire’s glow-up was the best the series ever had to offer, not that I’ve been lacking for great picks afterwards either. It’s the one I think of when I think of Pokémon and even just when I think of the joy video games can bring you. Every gym is great, every character is great, the Pokémon are chosen perfectly for the region and the region itself is so well designed. Yeah, Gen 3 is my favorite generation of Pokémon purely due to this one game being it’s star attraction. Every Gen has one, but Emerald was the gem of gemstones it turns out.

Rating - 10/10

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory

From Pokémon to the franchise a surprising amount of people assume ripped it off. Thanks to the names and the fact both have people interacting with monsters as friends I sort of understand, but to make it short Digimon started life as a Virtual Pet for keychains and then grew to manga and anime, it’s much less consistent with it’s rules on how that works than Pokémon since it does multiple continuities even though they will always have similar within the franchise so they don’t feel out of place. Both are fun franchises with their ups and downs but really couldn’t be much less alike since both keep to their own strengths and neither have tried to copy the other honestly at all.

Cyber Sleuth was a Digimon Story game, a spin-off dating back to at least the Nintendo DS. The focus was on having Digimon partners for party members while experiencing a story line, and Cyber Sleuth was held in high regard among the line as it continued to have an excellent story while also buffing out the massive issues older games had. I didn’t play them, but I understand it was fixes to gameplay difficulty asking way too much of the player without being fun or rewarding in return, and I believe also less bugs. I did play Cyber Sleuth and I loved the game, feeling it a normal 7 for RPG fans but a 9 for Digimon fans as it really captured the best the franchise does for character strengths, hateable villains, heartbreaking moments, and I was happy to hear that game was getting an interquel called Hacker’s Memory.

I played it when it came out too, and at first the shock of a great Digimon game wasn’t there so I wasn’t as instantly surprised, yet felt it was better anyway. Then I played even more.

Hacker’s Memory is essentially a perfect game despite needing the first game to understand some of the story elements.

Hacker’s Memory is excellent in how it treats RPG narratives and characters. You aren’t the ultimate hero, you are a nobody who has their own story that earnestly has nothing to do with the main plot. You get to taste herodom, but you are still a face in the crowd, never the chosen one and never able to change how the story has to still go. No matter how great or bad things go for you, it’s only your story, which funnily enough means you have more personality than the real hero whom must be stuck with RPG tropes.

It makes your victories truly feel like yours, and your crushing moments even worse. Chitose, Wormon, Ryuji, Yu, and Erika. Your trusted companions who are side characters just like you, never mentioned before and shown why. No matter what they will mean to you.

Other sides of the real main characters, new mechanics to freshen up the monotony, better online, customization, and hell now you can even get the game bundled with the first on PC and Switch. I got Platinum in my replay, and you need to play both. Enjoy that first game, because the real game is right after.

Rating - 10/10

And that my friends, is the end of the list. This took around as long as I couldn’t help but assume. Among the mess of the past year, it was good to have some very great games to keep me sane. I don’t like how the game industry treats it’s employees, pumps out soulless cash grabs, overcharges for DLC and minor details, and so I will always champion great experiences I'm clearly not getting many other places these days with video games.

As for the games I’d recommend the most, let’s end the story with them. The eleven games that earned a 9 or more! Take care everyone. Play some video games, eat something tasty, and stay safe so normalcy can come back.

Best of the Best!

Pokémon Emerald

Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory

Sam & Max The Devil’s Playhouse

Brother’s A Tale Of Two Sons

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix

Red Dead Redemption 2

Saints Row The Third Remastered

Donut County

Destroy All Humans! 2

Pokémon Let’s Go! Pikachu

Hitman Absolution HD

Every Game I Played In 2020 (part 1)

January 12, 2021 Wyatt Grondin

2020 very early on turned out to be a year where staying inside was needed, social norms no longer mattered, and so many of us expected to get through a great deal of their back catalogues for many hobbies. When it comes to movies and even some TV, you can see my adventures through my Letterboxd page. When it comes to reading, there’s my reading challenge from my Goodreads page. And so, that leaves video games as the odd man out for what hobby I had an outlet to catalogue. When this year started, I did serious consideration into restarting online content, and with video game year lists being popular, I actually started an Excel doc that marked down every game I played, separated by finished and 100%’d. I’m not in a location or position for those video prospects, but thankfully I can instead use every single game on that list by talking about them here. It’s a fairly long list, so we’ll be segmenting into 3 parts. I’ll say if it’s a game I’d never played, a game I replayed, a game I got 100% or not, and I’ll give them an out of ten rating.

2020 is dead and over, so let’s see if there really where any positive memories in terms of my media. Or, if there’s some memories that may pale in comparison to the rest of that year but were something nasty none the less.

I have no outside sponsor for this post, so any purchases of my book The Romance Novel (pennamed under Erika Ramson) are greatly appreciated and help me continue posting!

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die

For those who don’t remember, seeing how it feels a hundred years ago, but near the end of 2019 Microsoft held a special offer where you could try out Xbox Games Pass for three whole months for the price of only a dollar. So the first few games on this list ended up being Game Pass games, which remains one of the best deals in gaming specially since now the $70 price tag we never should have welcomed is finally here. Some of those games were played in December, but I started the transition into 2020 with D4.

And wow, this is a complete trip of a good game. I’m the type that did like Deadly Premonition, for the first 2/3 it’s so-bad-it’s-good and likely purposefully so, then in that last third it becomes this shockingly great game that puts everything on it’s side. Twist after twist that feel right and earned, better gameplay and pacing, it’s end is somewhat masterpiece, you just have to survive the crap. Since some hated the crap, it’s sad they will never see the beauty but I absolutely can’t blame them.

So enter D4, which just cuts right to the charming delights that Deadly Premonition took way too long to get too. The unique gameplay leads to some great moments, and you can finish the mystery of the game without having to find every single clue, different paths opening up and the like. These characters are also ridiculously charming and endearing, making the dinner scenes this time around more spectacular and worth seeing than last time.

It makes it all the more a shame I’ll never bother with Deadly Premonition 2, since supposedly that game had story ties to the sadly unfinished story here. But, I’ve seen enough of the game to know it’s cynical existence. I’m not holding my breathe for an unswelled ego after that, still, my review for this game is only based on this game. So:

Rating: 8/10

Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons

So imagine for just a second the idea of physical game discs being printed under labels instead of only through the game publishers. In that world, Brothers would be picked up by Criterion.

Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons is one of really only a few examples of an art game. Art is a genre with film, and for as jealous as video games are of film, art isn’t a genre they go for often and usually when they do it’s just not something they can do since that pesky gameplay can be a determent. However, Brothers knew how to have unique gameplay that added to the experience and that even helped heighten the story in certain scenes.

There’s a made-up language you can eventually start to understand, there’s a world that progressively gets both more interesting and more terrifying as it goes along, the story is strong while still being easy to digest for the format of gaming, and one of the most interesting things is how it handles achievements/trophies. There are no story achievements, each one is based on a separate action you can do, each one having it’s own moment in time you don’t have to do to finish the game. If you don’t care about achievements, you can beat the game and literally skip every single one. If you do care about achievements, each one will feel like an accomplishment since you do have to actively do something. I’d played this before on PlayStation 3 and earned every trophy, and thanks to Game Pass I did the exact same on the Xbox One version.

Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons is, well, a masterpiece. Something A bit harder to call with how many elements games have to juggle, but boy, Brothers certainly did it.

Rating - 10/10

The Old Tree

Well, here’s why it was important to write down every game. In fact, I think this might have been the point where I made sure to do so since games like this can be forgotten even when they shouldn’t.

The Old Tree is a very straight forward puzzle game that is free on Steam, and that only took me 13 minutes to beat. I’m not the biggest fan of puzzle games since sometimes they try way too hard to be difficult, but Old Tree was simple enough while still rewarding. However, I can’t say I remember those puzzles, only that I had a good time playing it. For that, I’m already out of things to say, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s not worth playing.

Rating - 6.5/10

Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell

I only started Saints Row on the third installment, but I was hooked ever since. I love the angle of a goofier and more fun focused open world crime drama style of game, and 4 jumping even further into it with super powers and alien overlords worked quite well even, if I do still have that softer spot for The Third. So, did going to the depths of Hell bring something to the table?

Mostly yes but still also no. Gat and Kinzie are fun to control, and there are some improvements over the also fun gameplay mechanics of 4, such as being able to fly instead of only glide. The change of setting is also nice after two games set in the same city. Still, there is a variety in 4 that Gat Out Of Hell did not match let alone beat, also 4 had additional locations in certain missions and the Christmas DLC while here you only have fiery pits and hints of suburban buildings, which can feel samey.

Satan also didn’t stay with me as an endearing antagonist, and only his daughter became interesting out of the side characters Kinzie and Gat befriend. Boring, no, but nothing to shoot any of them up into my favorite characters from the series. As for weapons, the couch with a minigun was fantastic, to the point I used it the rest of the game and barely anything else.

Gat is, good. Overshadowed by it’s far superior main games. Hardcore fans already played this, and people who become hardcore fans will play this, so while it’ll be worth the players time I can’t find a group to recommend it to.

Rating - 7/10

Speedrunning Uncharted 1 and 3

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP9000-CUSA02320_00-UNCHARTEDTRILOGY

So, what to say about Uncharted other than, I’m part of the slightly growing number of people who aren’t all that impressed by the series. For their time, I can see it, but I don’t find the story or characters truly engaging and I find the gameplay to lack in all the places it really needs to shine. I much prefer the Tomb Raider reboot which took many cues from this series but stuck the landing a lot harder.

And yet, when it comes to Uncharted 3 I have tried very hard to like it. I saw much more improvements to my issues than in 1 and 2, and a lot of the “wow lookit those set pieces” moments work much better such as the car chase near the end. As such, I do have the Platinum trophy in both 3 and 1, and I thought to myself that if I was going to play more games than usual, might as well do the surprisingly easy feat of speedrunning two games I’m not that big a fan of. With Doughnut Drake enabled of course.

Uncharted 1 is still the clunky and goofy time it always was for me, with some charm in that straightforward goofiness I wish the series hadn’t pretentiously erased in the sequel, and again 3 did the best at bringing the cheese back while still being better written and with mechanics I could enjoy more times than the last two games.

Ultimately though, they were two games I beat in one sitting each while listening to podcasts and music. I may not be a fan after all, but there’s bits I think still work and if a non-fan can easily get the speedunning trophy, there’s something to say positively about how the game works mechanically. Just, you know, don’t think too hard about how I haven’t said these positives about 2….

Rating - 5.5/10 (rating is for Nathan Drake Collection by the by)

Halo 5: Guardians

Well, back to Game Pass with what was supposed to be a big game for the Xbox One, Halo 5: Guardians. Opinions seems pretty concise on this entry in the franchise; The story is the weakest it’s ever been but the gameplay is fresh and fun. Both are truth and it’s kind of strange just how understated those truths ended up being.

The return of Cortana and the newest characterizations and actions of Master Chief basically seem to undo the very well-written takes we saw in Halo 4. So many things that worked for the story in 4 are just brushed away without a thought here. In many ways, it’s insulting to the fans and especially to the characters. I kept hoping something interesting would happen with them, but it was below generic every step of their side of the story.

Then there’s the B-Team as it were, who while not free of stereotypes did at least have a much stronger dynamic together and their overall story of tackling the Covenant civil war did a decent job of digging into one of the only weak story parts of 4, finally making it believable. They are also were the new combat and abilities are best utilized. I honestly wish this was their game, no Master Chief at all. It worked for Reach, and this would have felt to many like a more fun but less strong Reach, which is much better than what 5 turned out to be.

I did have fun, and that’s important. Still, I see a game that did not meet the potential it showed.

Rating - 6.5/10

Song of The Deep

Insomniac Games are an old favorite developer of mine. The original Spyro and Ratchet & Clank games are classics, thoroughly engaging in both character and gameplay. As such, I was very looking forward to finally playing their attempt at a more indie-style game.

I ended up hating every second of it.

Full of utterly generic characters and a cliched and tired story, Song of the Deep also suffers from very floaty controls that while do make sense for it’s underwater setting, do not work for it’s exploration platformer gameplay stylings. The art style did not win me over at any point of the game, seeing it in motion it’s stale and uninspired now matter how the promotional footage originally made me feel. Combat and difficulty felt forced to extend the handful of hours instead of simply embracing a shorter play time. It’s been a good while since I enjoyed not a single aspect of a video game.

Sometimes I get all the achievements or trophies because I really enjoy the game, sometimes it’s because they are just easy enough for me to bother. Other times, I do it to tell myself I never have even the slightest excuse to play it again. That happened here, I have every single one of the handful of trophies on PSN, and they were only worth doing so I never ever need to play this game again. If I hadn’t, well, I still never would have.

Rating - 1/10

Monsters Inc. Scream Team

With all of the recent generation games on here, it’s probably not hard to guess you weren’t expecting a PlayStation 1 movie tie-in game on my list. Well truth be told, movie tie-ins are my favorite retro games and I will unironically go to bat for them quite a lot.

Monsters, Inc. Scream Team seems to be somewhat getting traction as of late online, with people other than just me replaying it and seeing how it holds up. For my money, it does, but I suppose bear in mind other people seem less positive. Especially for the PS2 version weirdly enough. You’d think that’d be the better version, but I think the lower polygon count seems to please more people for these character designs.

The controls are weird here, they are certainly not the tightest but I didn’t have much of a problem platforming my way around the worlds. You can slide off of some surfaces and jumps can be too long a distance, both with Sulley and with Mike. Speaking of, Mike’s ground pound allows him to continuously bounce while still counting as an attack, while Sulley can only body slam once. Mike has an advantage here, and there is nothing else like that for Sulley. Mike is the better character and I do wish Sulley had been given his own advantage, even if I would have stayed playing as Mike more often anyway, the lack of advantages is way too noticeable.

I like how the collectathon elements work. Once you get every bronze medal, you unlock an ability that is needed for the silver medals. Once you get every silver medal, you unlock an ability which will help you get to the locations needed for the gold medals. I got 100% completion in an afternoon, just like I did countless times as a kid.

I’m not saying go out and buy this long out-of-print retro game, and sadly the recent shutdown of PlayStation 3’s online functions means you can’t even get the digital version I think they used to have up on the store front. Still, for fans of the PS1, I think this is a very fun movie tie-in game and I had a blast reliving my childhood experiences with it.

Rating - 8/10

Far Cry 4

It’s really not a stretch to say Far Cry has become basically a controversial franchise directly after 3. 3 was met with universal acclaim and might still be one of the most popular Ubisoft titles from the 360 and PS3 generation of games. Blood Dragon started division by either being very fun, or pretty fun but too short, there’s a similar division with Primal. 5 is in my personal opinion a disappointing game and straight-up bad, but going back in time to play 4, 4 I found things to like.

It’s been a very long time since I played 3, but that game stuck with me enough that I remember what playing it was like. The criticism that 4 played too much like 3 is one I mostly agree with, I didn’t find the few newer mechanics to add anything to the formula, but I wasn’t bored by the game either since while it’s not as strong as I remember 3 being it is still more fun than 5 ended up being. For as much as Ubisoft wants to backtrack their era of control towers, I’m sorry but the control towers weren’t actually the problem. You can climb a tower to reveal the area and have it be one of the best parts of the game, it all depends on how you vary the towers and how important you make them to the games. Here in Far Cry 4 I found them decent enough until the very very end, but by then I was so far into the game I could easily get a flying vehicle and plant myself at the top without much of a problem.

Collectables are simple but rewarding. Burning propaganda posters is cathartic; Pagan Min is charming but unhinged enough that fighting to overturn him is rewarding without him being an empty character, a problem I find happens in Far Cry since sometimes only one villain is interesting, and thankfully this time it’s the final one instead of a main lackey. Back on the collectables track, I found nothing too irritating unlike the race tracks in 5, and I was able to get 100% completion and while I didn’t get every achievement, I did get all of the ones involving the Yeti DLC. Said DLC was alright, not fascinating but didn’t take too long.

Speaking of length, there’s a lot to do here and it’s a bit overwhelming. Ubisoft and Rockstar like to put tons of content to justify their open worlds, and while Rockstar likes taking specific locations to place collectibles or just have hidden characters and situations, Ubisoft tries to place five or six things in every pixel of the map. While I can feel you can run out of things to do in Rockstar games unless you go for 100% and beyond, Ubisoft’s approach leads to monotony and repetition. I wasn’t as stressed as Red Dead Redemption 2, but I wasn’t as overloaded as, again, Far Cry 5.

I liked the characters and story more than in Far Cry 3, but this wasn’t without it’s problems in those departments. Ubisoft had more than started on their “but both sides can be bad” narrative and that’s never been as compelling as they think. Being critical and introspective on life can be intriguing, but not with the level of writing Ubisoft goes for. Making Far Cry more black and white morality wise would make a far better entry, or if they have to do a both sides narrative, hire more writers and treat them much better so they are happy and capable enough to write that narrative for the game. Still, to be fair, yes I liked this game and had an above decent amount of fun. Play 3 instead of 4, but play 4 instead of 5.

Rating - 7/10

Destroy All Humans! 2

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP4389-CUSA05233_00-SLUS214390000001

So honest question here, but do you remember or were you even aware that for only about 2 years or so, Sony took old PS2 games and ported them onto the PS4? The original developers were called, the games were upscaled to HD, and they added trophy support. It was a great way to get new value out of older titles and help introduce them to newcomers.

There were just under 50 of them. Rockstar’s back catalogue were in, the Jak and Daxter games were in, but everything else was a complete scatter. Even official Sony properties didn’t have much luck, as none of insomniacs games came over, and even though movie tie-in The Warriors was approved, licensed games didn’t gain any other representative such as one of the many Disney, Dreamworks, Marvel, or DC games which have a notable fanbase.

However, both of the first Destroy All Humans! games were given the treatment, and from what I understand the sales from those were what convinced the studio to make the remake that surfaced last year, which I bought but have yet to play. But I did play the original a few years back through PS2 on PS4, and last year I purchased the sequel.

Said original is a darkly witty comedy, it’s story a big homage to the alien abduction and invasion B-movies except from the point-of-view of the evil aliens. Cryptosporidium is a hysterical Jack Nicholson soundalike alien who may be here to help save his species, but is still more than down for extra needless carnage against the human race. For all the murder and destruction you are causing, there’s an almost whimsical nature with it’s oddball humor coming through, and the human cast has notable villains far nastier and selfish than Crypto to keep you still feeling like you have something you are fighting for, not all that bad while still very much bad.

But notice, I didn’t mention the gameplay. The serviceable, yet sometimes completely broken gameplay. Destroy All Humans! 2 fixes that problem. Crypto has a much more mobile jetpack, the gunplay feels more unique and powerful, the mental powers are even more fun, and the spaceship sections are finally fun. In addition to adding so many new ways to destroy, the game also tries upping the comedy from the original. As such, it isn’t as witty as the original and some punchlines feel not nearly as earned. A great joke is a laugh festival, but there’s enough weak jokes and just far too silly character moments to believe.

But stale is not what I’d call the game. It’s a less funny game, despite having more jokes, but it’s the game that’s more fun to play with more fun bits to experience. There’s less ways to fail a side quest by accident, there’s more variety in side quests, and the story still has elements that match the original’s at the very least. Tracking down an original copy is all fine if you have a PS2 or original Xbox, but I’d say this uprezzed version is a great game too. Bear in mind not only did this sequel and the first get the PS2 on PS4 treatment, but the original Destroy is also backwards compatible on Xbox One, which means it’s also playable on the Series S and X, be it a disc or a download you can now do. I think the two are equal in my eyes, and I hope to check the remake of the first off my backlog sooner than later. As for the prettier version of Destroy All Humans! 2, it was a platinum trophy where I never had a low spot in anything I had to do.

Rating - 9/10

Top Ten Things You Can Do In Naughty Bear Language NSFW

November 16, 2016 Wyatt Grondin

There was once a video game that people called Naughty Bear. They all called it that because that was the name it had been given by the people who created and named it. This game with the naughtiest of teddy bears was a stealth game, where you had a specific target you had to eliminate in any way you felt, and unlike other stealth games where you needed to be silent as possible, this game rewarded players more when they did their best to leave no witnesses. You were a surprisingly tragic agent of chaos in a world of stuff and fluff, angry at how everyone you know completely hates your guts to the point of bullying and sometimes outright death threats, and the game ended up critically panned by thousands of people. However, as unbelievable as it is that someone could disagree with other people's opinions, there are people out there who played the game and decided it was fairly average and could have their fun with it, and now one of those a-holes is about to tell you a list of ten things you can do in the game. Yes, I am telling you them, not writing them down and asking you to read them. That is how a blog works.

Number 10: Play Naughty Bear

In the video game Naughty Bear, you play as the character Naughty Bear as you play the video game Naughty Bear. Therefore, the number 10 thing you can do in the game Naughty Bear, is play Naughty Bear.

Number 8: Drive other bears insane

While you could just straight up kill any bear whose back was turned to you, you could also scare them by saying boo like you were three years old. They could also be scared by witnessing your carnage, and when scared enough, they would go crazy, and one further boo could cause them to commit suicide by inhaling so hard they became balloons and exploded. Somehow.

Number 9: Knives

Because knives, are weapons.

Number 7: Break shit

You can finally live out your Hollywood gangster fantasies by walking over to someone else's shit and breaking it for no real reason. Some things would be repaired, making them a trap for the bears because they have no sense of danger when they are focused on something. Others didn't do a Goddamn thing except give you more points. To fully appreciate Naughty Bear you really had to go out of your way to punch the fuck out of a stone statue of a unicorn-teddy-bear hybrid. Break all the shit. No shit gets unbroken.

Number 6: Realize the gun mechanics in the game kinda suck

Once you finally enter a level with guns, you realize how easy it is for the enemy bears to pump you full of lead, and then when you get your hands on them, the aiming is bullshit and the damage is somehow pathetic. Also why does a stealth game lack silencers for their guns?

Number 5: Forget that there was a much better sequel

Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise was released sometime after as a download only title that was cheaper and lacked online multiplayer, which was weird as it used to be the law that all video games needed a shitty online multiplayer implemented that no one fucking played anyway. They also changed up the formula to prevent you from being bored by doing exactly the same thing every time, had graphics that worked very well for the style, was a lot more fun, made you never have to use guns because the developers went into the future and realized me and only me complained about how shitty they were, and ended up just plain being a good game that managed to get good reviews. And nobody fucking played it anyway because nobody knew it existed despite the first game being infamous. I am going to believe in a conspiracy theory that a select cult of people worked together to erase the sequel from people's collective memory after the first game reminded them of how evil they could be if they felt like it. .............. Because it makes as much sense as any of those fucking shit-ass half-baked theories I keep hearing from people who are so far up their own ass they throw the fuck away anything they've actually seen just to come up with some ludicrous bullshit so they don't have to ever think about facing reality and how uncomplicated and straightforward it is so they can live in fucking fantasy land instead of contributing to society-

Number 4: Bananas

There are no bananas in Naughty Bear, however, you can eat a banana while you play Naughty Bear, so therefore bananas are the fourth top thing you can do in Naughty Bear. It mostly got up this high because I forgot I was going to do this joke.

Number 3: Watch this creepy trailer for the sequel.

Because holy shit it's creepy as much as it is funny.

http://www.505games.com/games/naughty-bear

The other thing that makes it a top ten qualifier is that the ad reminds us of the existence of Panic in Paradise, which makes those theorists, who don't exist and who I made up, have been given the middle finger. Which is good. I mean, come on, the poor game didn't even get a Best Picture nomination. :(

Number 2: Be sad that the game's official site no longer exists.

The url would have been http://www.naughtybearthegame.com/ so use that if you want your little heart broken. Unless it becomes a porn site or something, which wouldn’t suprise me with a domain name like Naughty Bear. …… Yeah you know what don’t clic… — The url would have been http://www.naughtybearthegame.com/ so use that if you want your little heart broken. Unless it becomes a porn site or something, which wouldn’t suprise me with a domain name like **Naughty** Bear. …… Yeah you know what don’t click on it it’ll probably become a porn site or something actually bad like a Trojan virus site or a third-party candidates campaign page!

Yet somehow the multiplayer still works. I got the multiplayer trophies in the game just a couple of weeks ago, so they at least paid one server fee, that's nice of them. (It’s currently 2019 as I tidy things up and I think the multiplayer is still available today as well. Genuinely pleasantly shocked the devs care that much)

Number 1: Shove a teddy bear's head in a toilet

You cannot beat the classics, but Naughty can beat the ever-loving shit out of his prey with an open toilet. Some of which are in the kitchen because piss, shit, and uneaten food work wonders together. The newest Hitman game lets you do that to, but not nearly as often and this game came first anyway so who cares? Because I don't.

And those were the top ten things that you can do in a video game people don't really care all that much about. An in-depth description of how to beat every level will appear on this blog never, because I was an asshole who unlocked a costume to hide in plain site and beat the game with it, so my strategy is too cheap for you to care. May your bears be naughty, may you play Naughty Bear, and remember one thing;

http://www.505games.com/games/naughty-bear

Where the hell is the rest of this picture? Naughty's poor little featsies.