EVERY GAME I PLAYED IN 2020 (PART 2)

And now the second part of my long, long experience with video games during 2020. They helped make the time shorter, better, longer, and worser.

At this point in my story, I’d packed up a decent amount of my things and headed back to my parents’ house because the country side was practically free from COVID-19 while my city was the only part of the state where it was thriving. Just under the wire too, as the Governor pulled a temporary block on traffic that upcoming weekend, a call we may never know how badly we needed. As for the gaming aspect, I packed up my Switch and all of it’s physical games, but my Xbox One and PS4 were left to gather dust. Console gaming would easily continue though as my beloved PlayStation 3 got plenty of use, enough so that I picked it for the heading image over the 4.

I got to clean house with old games I never finished, digitally bought more games and even DLCs while the PS3 store still existed (this was the year they finally pulled it’s plug so once again I was just under the wire), and this selection of games ranged from very average to quite great. Focusing now on two of my favorite consoles ever made now, let’s look at the second part of my gaming journey of the year! And as always, the best way to support me is to buy my most recent novel here!

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

https://store.steampowered.com/app/996580/Spyro_Reignited_Trilogy/

The Reignited Trilogy is jaw dropping in it’s artstyle. Spyroscope is such a genius way to recreate older games with better controls that I hope the technology is shared to other developers. Image the likes of Silent Hill, a series where the original code is lost, given a Reignited type of remake. With Spongebob also recently receiving a beautiful remake, I have hopes that other games that are good even with age to get that chance to shake off the dust and jump into the spotlight again.

So, I said I brought my Switch and I wasn’t lying. I played this on a Switch cartidge in handheld, and honestly Spyro did on occasion wig out when charging. I heard about glitches when I played this on the Xbox One but didn’t encounter them, not to say they don’t exist, this is just a reminder that sometimes glitches are console exclusive. The PS4 is the biggest seller, even though the Switch is serious competition right now, so my guess is most people played Spyro on PlayStation therefore the bugs were given more notice. Xbox One was practically bug free, Switch has some wonkiness in handheld mode but I can’t confirm for docked.

I did get those bugs on the PS4 version though…….

Yeah a few months in my state had a window where things were safer, so I returned briefly to grab more stuff. My PS4 being chosen since the Xbox One is just too big and heavy for a stop that quick. So, I also played Reignited on PS4. My third copy of the remake, which is also the fifth copy of these games in total for me. To be fair; I’ve done everything too. PS4 and Xbox versions, every trophy and achievement popped. Switch version was just story completion, but boy even just doing that was pure fun.

These remakes improve the first and second game so much, making the originals obsolete. As a Spyro: Year of the Dragon fan? I’m more positive then some of them were, as I think some stuff is also improved like Agent 9’s control scheme and camera, while some stuff is objectively worse but not game breaking. Also, the flying isn’t worse, we’re just not as used to it yet. In fact after playing three versions, I’m fully competent with them now myself. Swimming isn’t bad either, a bit floaty but unlike Song of the Deep it doesn’t make me irritated let alone angry.

If there’s some things in Year that I think were better in the original, I feel I can’t do a 10. However;

Rating - 9.5/10

Mortal Kombat 9

https://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-Komplete-Playstation-sony-playstation3/dp/B006ZTHFPS

I originally played Mortal Kombat 9 back when I was still in college, I want to say back in 2014. I liked what I played, but also, this was a game I borrowed from a friend of my mother (her kid wasn’t using it and didn’t mind) and figured I’d just buy it myself later on. This year, I still didn’t buy it, but my nephew gifted to me his collection since he didn’t want it and this was in there. I forgot to buy the DLC, and the Komplete Edition wasn’t the edition he had but that cover art was so nice I picked it for the picture.

Playing it all the way through the story, doing some ladder matches, I still quite liked it. Now, let’s also discuss how I get along with fighting games. I’ve always liked them, and I can understand the mechanics to ones I get really into, but that’s also the thing. I’m always decent at the single player, and decent is only decent. Mortal Kombat demands a bit more even for single player, and I could feel it, but not in a way I feel makes the game worse. I’m the type of person who calls out pointlessly hard difficulty, and even with some bosses feeling cheap, I can’t wholeheartedly say that’s what happened here. The controls were too good and the combos were too well defined to say “cheap difficulty”. I beat the final boss, and I cheesed him with a combo that felt right for me. There’s times cheesing it is actually a sign that the gameplay really is well done, and like I said, I came up with the method instead based on what was working for my personal play style even with help being something I could and did look up. It’s partly unfair, but advice online is to just cheese him, and if you can find your own method of cheesing, that’s a decent sign of good programing.

This game does ask a lot of you, in ways that mean as a completionist I can’t be bothered. The servers are down so online wasn’t a thing I got to experience anyway, and that might even say why I still liked this game, since there’s no way an online player would have let me take a step, let alone throw a punch.

Rating - 7.5/10

Ratchet: Deadlocked

https://ratchetandclank.fandom.com/wiki/Ratchet:_Deadlocked

When I bought my PlayStation 3, I started with a bundle that came with the HD ports of Ratchet and Clank 1 through 3. I was creeping up on my 50th Platinum trophy, and finally buying and playing the port of Deadlocked sounded like the right call. I’ll just say now that I did get the Platinum, and this was definitely one of the better Platinums from those first 4 games, maybe even the best one. And also, this game is an equal to the other early R&C games. It’s completely fun, the jokes land, and the corporate satire is still shockingly smart for a game series written with young teens in mind. Although that makes a bit more sense, young teens are cynical enough to be anti-corporate and youthful enough to enjoy goofy and silly humor. It’s a mix of being old enough to get what the joke is mocking, and young at heart enough to appreciate the goofiness.

As an adult with a college education, boy, those digs are layered just enough to be obvious while still being genuinely funny. Grand Theft Auto is not a series I can always call good-written comedy, but the jokes tend to still be funny since they are just juvenile enough that I can basically laugh at the joke itself. Ratchet Deadlocked is a better attempt honestly. The main villain Gleeman Vox is a reality TV host who kidnaps heroes to kill each other or die violently in an obstacle course, while also owning a news network that gaslights the populace into believing these known heroes are actually hardcore criminals. His greatest star is, a hero who went missing on purpose to live in the glory of the games and is treated on the network as still a hero. The news network, is named after main villain Gleeman Vox. Gleeman, Vox. It’s not subtle and no, I don’t think it’s tacky considering how long the thing they were mocking continued on. Reality TV too for that matter.

As for the gameplay, as fun as 3 and brings it’s own unique ideas. I have a fondness for the original, loved the second my first time playing, and also loved the third. With Deadlocked now under my belt, it’ll take a while if you ask me which is my favorite. Somehow, not having Clank with you still made great gameplay, and the series managed to continue it’s fun, funny, satirical gunfest for a fourth try.

Rating - 8.5/10

Scribblenauts Unmasked

https://store.steampowered.com/app/249870/Scribblenauts_Unmasked_A_DC_Comics_Adventure/

I love Scribblenauts Unlimited. I played it when it was new on PC, and I’ve played it countless times since then. My mother bought me the Switch version of it way back on Christmas of 2019, and that rerelease happens to come with Unmasked, which I also played on PC years back.

And, yeah. Unmasked was a big step down back then. However, in that period of my life, things were really not turning around and it affected how much I liked certain things. There were a lot of games I played and couldn’t get into, for reasons not remotely related to the games themselves. That’s why I skipped Unlimited for the time being, I wanted to see if I liked Unmasked more this go around.

And, I think it’s possible that I did? There’s some fitting character writing for the famous DC heroes and villains. Seeing Max and Lily be fans of the characters was okay, thankfully not annoying. The amount of obscure characters was fitting for the nature of the series and a nice addition for mega fans of DC whom play this. Granted, that kind of means you need to be a huge DC fan who are fine playing a very kiddy game. This game doesn’t really have sudden dark moments, and the gameplay is watered down compared to the shockingly open gameplay Unlimited did excellently. And yes, you need to be a huge fan, a casual DC fan might like some of this but there’s so many references a casual fan will not get. Do you know who Brainiac and Darkseid are? Oh you do? How about the Orange Lantern Corps? Yeah, little more lost aren’t you, and they are story based so you’ll have to hope the in-game explanation is good enough.

The grind for new levels was also annoying. Instead of new missions you could replay if you want but that will only reward you once, this time you get randomly generated quests from a sample bucket. And yes, they can end up screwing you over by accidently killing another quest giver even before you do anything, since it’s with licensed characters with code that demands they always fight certain characters. And, Mister Mxyzptlk will also sometimes force challenges that give bonus points but will honestly just screw you over since they never really work with the RNG of the quests.

I was going to say that I still liked it this time, but I also just forgot all of those problems until writing this. Sorry to Scribblenauts Unmasked, but while I can’t say bad game, I can’t say it’s worth it for too many even with it being included with a port of an excellent game.

Rating - 5/10

Batman: Arkham Origins

https://store.steampowered.com/app/209000/Batman_Arkham_Origins/

Oh hey, another DC game. I, kind of don’t remember if that was on purpose. This game I bought a digital copy from PSN, and also bought the Cold, Cold, Heart DLC. Not to spoil, but that wasn’t the only thing called “Batman Arkham Origins” I bought, but that’s in part 3!

Alright; so I’d previously played Asylum, City, and Knight. I really like Asylum and loved City, but I really did not enjoy Knight. There’s a few small bright spots, but that game’s story was a great fall from the rest of the series and the Batmobile was both overused and not fun, a mix of the two things you really do not want either of when designing gameplay gimmicks.

Now, Origins was the black sheep for some time. Rocksteady didn’t make it and the famous voice actors were replaced. The reaction from Knight was also divisive, which caused some gamers to give Origins another try, and the reaction became more positive for a decent number of them.

I’m not going to call this as great as City, but honestly, I think I enjoy this more than Asylum! Boss fights were a step-up from Asylum and had moments as great as the fights in City, with Copperhead being a new favorite of mine. The story is more interesting than Asylum with it’s twists and turns. The roster of characters gave both new information on heroes and villains we saw before and added some new characters to really expand the world.

The Riddler trophies are still fun to earn, the world map didn’t feel too reused, and the only real problem I had was Batman did feel a bit less comfortable to control this time but not enough to ruin the game. I’m just going to say it, please play this one if you didn’t think it was worth it at the time. I hear the PC port isn’t great, but the game itself has some great elements that the fans who looked over it are missing something if they continue doing so. Don’t forget the Freeze DLC though, it may just be a re-telling of the classic animated series episode, but it’s a great addition with everything it does.

Rating - 7.5/10

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch/Pokemon-Let-s-Go-Pikachu--1382836.html

We’re about to start a minor trend for the second entry of my 2020 gaming list, a game that I have already talked about on this blog before. That’s not to say I have nothing to add, it’s just to say that I covered what I loved about this game so well that I don’t need to add that much more.

Well to start, I beat the game. While I was savoring the game back in 2019, the decision to eat through my backlog as quickly as I could while I had the free time meant I practically bee-lined to the Elite Four when I picked this back up. It’s still like I said before, Let’s Go took the Gen 1 experience and really made it that special experience I feel I never got with them before. I connected with my Pokémon in the way I always hope to, the gameplay loop was satisfying and entertaining, and I really loved the changes to the narrative. It’s somehow the events of the original, takes place well after the original, and also has minor things that happen differently. It’s messy to say, but amazing to see.

Between this and the live-action movie, we’re seeing that even after all this time, Pikachu really isn’t overrated as a mascot. The mainline games certainly had a divisive take, less so after the DLC but still there, but as someone who liked that experience I still say Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee completely deserved the more warm response that it got. I now own a real Pokeball, and I’ve played one of the best Pokémon games enough to enter my team into the hall of fame.

Rating - 9/10


Sam & Max The Devil’s Playhouse

https://store.steampowered.com/app/901399/Sam__Max_The_Devils_Playhouse/

If you don’t know Sam & Max, then you don’t know one of the greatest franchises I’ve ever personally come across. Sam & Max are the freelance police, complete pyschopaths whom uphold the law from genuinely evil people no matter how wacky the situation. Devil’s Playhouse was the finale to the game series by TellTale, just at around the same time they got mainstream popularity from The Walking Dead. I’m sure that series is great, but I stuck with my favorite nutjobs and their point-and-click comedy adventures when it came to TellTale. I even own the DVD cases which you could only buy from the site, a feature they took away way before the bankruptcy.

What made The Devil’s Playhouse different from the rest was not just Max’s new gameplay use of psychic powers, it was the earnest attempt at giving these two a more important and emotional story than before. No it’s not an arthouse or the like, but that’s also why it’s so good! It’s not overwritten for the type of media it is, we still get the nutty yet nonsense yet dark yet intelligent jokes the franchise always had, but we got just the right mix of earth shattering consequence and stakes that the series usually would have scoffed at. Played just straight enough to land, not enough to be out-of-place.

Save the World (which was season one) was a laughfest that still had a final villain, but those stakes were still just funny and only threatening enough to make it clear the bad guy deserved to lose. Beyond Time and Space (the second season) tried better world building and while a good game, felt underwhelming to the first in terms of being funny and fitting. Devil’s Playhouse was nothing short of being funnier than Save the World and more intriguing than Time and Space.

Sam & Max’s identical grandfathers, General Skun-ka’pe, Charlie Hotep, Sal, Papierwaite, The Narrator, Norrington, Junior, Sammun-Mak, so many new characters whom only added and never substracted from the game.

Sam, Max, Sybil, Lincoln’s Head, Stinky, Girl Stinky, The C.O.P.S., Momma Bosco, Agent Superball, Harry Moleman, Jurgen, all returning characters we got new sides to and fleshed out better than ever before.

It’s fresh and funny still, the gameplay gimmicks work surprisingly well even on the PlayStation 3 version, and boy am I ready for Skunkape’s remaster coming in the future. I got every trophy for each episode, because this game deserved nothing less from me.

Rating - 10/10

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

https://elderscrolls.bethesda.net/en/skyrim

Hey, you, you’re finally awake. Awake enough to see that I’ve, to put it bluntly, complained enough about this game before. Here was the first time, here is the second time.

With two posts already, there’s barely anything to say. Yes, I got every single PS3 trophy, just like how I got every single Xbox One achievement. I have done everything with a pretend award other people can see. Twice. I’m an expert in this game, and I really don’t necessarily like it.

Like I said the first time I actually do like the main story despite gripes and I loved smithing. Like I said the second time I have come to appreciate the character writing of Ulfric Stormcloak despite finding a majority of other characters very flat. Like I said both times, the DLC is very good all-around even if I think the vampires are a bit flat when you side with them.

What is there to go back to? I’m done with the game, and of course I still have those pangs in my head that say it must just be that I’ll get it eventually or that my most recent experience was the objectively worst version so of course I was even more negative.

But, a lot of me still says; why? What’s there to do? Plenty of people still love this game, the warts do not bother them enough to get in the way. Well, sorry to say, these warts are just too big and bumpy for me with this game. I’ve loved games that I think I could objectively say were not as well made as this, I can even objectively say there’s quality in here that is sometimes overlooked. Of course, I don’t really need to go to bat for one of the most popular games ever made anyway. Ya’ll know why you like or don’t like it. I’m just not sure why I feel like I’ll bother again when I know I’ll probably like it less the next time. Although funny enough, I’m going to give it a slightly higher rating than last time since again, that was the PS3 version. We’ll call this the rating I’d currently give the updated versions.

Rating - 5.5/10

Hasbro Family Game Pack 3

https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-Family-Game-Night-Playstation-3/dp/B003M986Y8

I’ll be honest with ya’ll, I forgot to mark this one in my Excel doc. Good thing I did a whole post about it already, huh?

Unlike Skyrim and Let’s Go, I think the past post is exactly enough. I broke down every game in this games collection, and I stand by all of it. I have touched it since, and will be keeping it in the collection, it’s just not a game with enough nuisances or ideas that several articles are needed. But still, read the entry for yourself, because the game is quite good with some serious hiccups and reading that ahead of time isn’t a bad idea for you retro game collectors now that the Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3 era is truly retro now. Not joking, they’re retro now, which for some reason is wild to me.

Rating - 7.5/10

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

https://blog.playstation.com/2012/08/13/playstation-all-stars-battle-royale-moves-to-november/

So while I haven’t talked about this game in it’s own blog entry in the past, I did briefly touch on it when I reviewed Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL. It was to compare the two games, since both were serious attempts to try the Smash Brothers format for the Sony and Cartoon Network IPs. In the end I said I liked both games, but found myself more interested in the Cartoon Network one for it’s unique spins and decently fun mechanics for some of it’s characters.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale was also the first game I played on PlayStation 3, it was the other game bundled with my system alongside the Ratchet and Clank HD Trilogy. I don’t think that has much of anything to do with, why I ended up not jelling with the game as much this time.

Earlier I said I bought DLCs while I could, and I did that here. I bought the remaining characters and stages I hadn’t bought already, and then played with them. With those two, I finished up the campaigns for every available character, and now that that means I really have done everything this game has to offer (I even did stuff online, I got Platinum a while back), I have the perspective that this game is not much more than a letdown.

Fighting feels alright, but some characters just don’t really click in a way that feels right for even just single player. Punch Time Explosion had bad balancing, but I do think the fun characters in that game played better. Combos were fairly generic all-round in All-Stars, some characters have nice animations in their attacks but roughly you might find one attack that’s good enough to spam and you’ll be doing that. Weapons aren’t very compelling, and I can’t even think of the assist characters if there were anyway.

It’s, shockingly unremarkable. I’m with the crowd that says a sequel would improve things, but also, I think it’s been so long since this game came out that I’m okay admitting this franchise failed and we can just move on. When licensed IPs like Punch Time or even the now currently meme’d Shrek Super Slam have elements I think did concepts of Smash Brothers-like much better, I’d rather those got redo’s or sequels and I’m really not even kidding. Those two games are worth finding in a retro store for 5 to 15 dollars. All-Stars, well, you can’t even get the DLC or play online anymore, and I don’t think the single player with base characters is worth as high as 10, and you can probably find it for less than 5 without much effort. I’m still up for a second try I suppose, but I’d go in more skeptic than other game franchises I’d also give a second try to.

Rating - 4/10

And that does it for part 2. Part 3 will be coming, well, shortly but not too shortly. For some reason a chunk of the final games happen to be the games I have the most to talk about. I’m planning on stopping at part 3, but that’s going to make part 3 very beefy if I had to guess.

Every Game I Played In 2020 (part 1)

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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/358090/D4_Dark_Dreams_Dont_Die_Season_One/

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

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/346250/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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/301910/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

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/halo-5-guardians/brrc2bp0g9p0?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/460700/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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/far-cry-4/c0kj40t9qd86?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

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