Gamescom's 2024 Opener Felt Surprisingly Dull

Before we start this discussion, I’d like to just give a quick apology for the likelihood of spelling errors or inconsistencies this go around. I am on my own here but strive for professionalism, which means I typically reread these blog posts multiple times before I finish them, but I need to be timely today so the chance of spelling goofs is much higher than normal. I will also be speaking off the cuff for many of the game trailers, as one does, so expect an easy breezy attitude.

Gamescom happens every year, hosted by none other than Geoff Keighley, an industry man so well known that spellcheck was able to correctly identify his surname. For what it’s worth, I’ve liked Geoff for a while now. I noted back at my tenure freelancing for DualShockers that he is capable of being too commercial-focused, but, his love for video games is genuine and he can let it shine brightly.

Gamescom’s 2024 opener didn’t feel too commercial thankfully, it more so just happened to showcase games I overwhelmingly didn’t find myself caring about.

Let’s just get one thing out of the way; I’ve already stated my worries about Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, so I won’t replay that record this evening for you. We can also start with positives just for the sake of argument:

I’m excited for the Mafia series to come back, but then again, the trailer was nothing more than a teaser, and I have become far too cynical to be fully excited when that happens. I also think it’s great that Genshin Impact is coming to Xbox platforms, as while my time with Honkai Star Rail has still been short, I can tell there’s fun and quality from Hoyoverse, so allowing even more players to try their games out is welcome. It’s fun to hear about Secret Level, assuming it does live up to the hype of a full series that looks exactly like a modern video game cutscene.

There were too many games that looked technically fine but were elbow-deep into a franchise I am not familiar with and seemed very comfortable marketing off that familiarity. That is no fault of theirs, but it left me cold. I was also briefly intrigued by the above Call Of Duty, but entirely for the secret agent aspects. I found myself uninterested once it became a shootout and motorcycle chase, but I can still say I understand why fans would be pumped. It still looked more interesting to me than the last decade of the franchise, and it’s likely something I’ll play around with when I resubscribe to Game Pass, which is more than I have said about Call Of Duty in a long while.

But I’m sorry to say the event itself started off sour for me. The Borderland 4 announcement is a victim of terrible timing due to the movie being a massive critical and commercial flop, but it can also be slammed for featuring no gameplay or even as much as a character reveal!

The trailer for Goat Simulator Remastered is quite funny until the title drops. There is no reason to remaster a game that looks like crap on purpose and runs perfectly well on modern hardware. Polishing the turd would ruin the joke, and anyone who wants to play Goat Simulator can already do so. Putting it on stage for a large crowd only made it feel shallow.

What on God’s green Earth was Masters Of Albion? Directed by Fable creator and Lionhead founder Peter Molyneux, this game is an apparent return caused by an alleged yearning to come back to the console space after developing for mobile. I’m nothing short of worried that the mobile phone game market tainted Molyneux’s design, however, as Masters Of Albion reeks of mobile phone gaming down to even having a hand as a cursor to drag the objects of characters. It lacked any wit or charm to keep my interest. Molyneux has enough spite against him on the web, so I see no need to begrudge him just because of the internet’s beef, but I do wonder why this game was allowed on the show floor. Perhaps it’s secretly a masterpiece, but time will have to tell us that, as my eyes sure didn’t seem to think it is.

I’m outright confused about what there is left to talk in-depth about. As I said in the positives, many trailers felt like I was left out of the loop, and sadly that’s just as much a negative. Many new IPs and franchise staples had trailers leaving me puzzled and empty. I don’t wish to attack these games without knowing anything about them, all I would like to say is how I was left knowing nothing about them. I was just as empty from Little Nightmares 3 and I was Reanimal. As empty from the Zenless Zone Zero update trailer as I was from Marvel Rivals’s and Warhammer’s. I’d go as far as to guess these may very well all be good games, but the marketing was so underwhelming, especially as I have been intrigued by previous Little Nightmare game trailers and Zenless update trailers.

For everything E3 did wrong, it was rare to be so bored by an E3 conference, yet this year’s Gamescom has started as dull as a rusted nail. The tempo is off drastically, and I hope the following days are of more interest to those in attendance. I do if this is the case, as I could not help by notice that the oversized crowd made hardly a peep during the show. Unless they were not properly miked, they were as disinterested as I was.

The Games Industry Needs To Stop Being Jealous Of Movies

Well here’s a topic I think nearly everybody’s shaken a stick at. But it’s a topic that seems evergreen, so sometimes you just have to add to the pile.

But before we move on to our showcase, let’s have Timothee Chalamee and Margot Robbie take the floor to talk about this next game! Later on, we’ll have Dolly Parton and Arnold Schwarzenegger discuss this cute open-world quadruple-A instant masterpiece with zero percent gameplay; guaranteed!

This little song and dance has been going on for over a decade, both parts of the song and dance honestly. The less subtle dig being this sad fear you see at modern games showcases, where they simply must bring up some celeb who doesn’t give a frog about games, stand there like a deer in headlights, and try and remember what their handler told them to say. Else the whole affair goes to shambles! “But Wyatt, Timothee Chalamee used to mod Xbox 360 controllers!” Whoa, that definitely means he should be on stage instead of an actor who was actually in one of the games getting an award.

If anything though, saying that gaming showcases have no positives to gain by mimicking the Oscars is a separate discussion. Believe it or not, my second dig at the industry’s trends is the meat of this entry.

I am tired of games relying on just their cut scenes to prove they’re good. It’s not 2004 anymore, I’m not that same preteen with no money watching long plays online for my only experience with a game I heard about. I’ve matured, and my pockets even sometimes have money in them! I see video games as video GAMES now, that video part sure is nice and all but I need me some game to continue being interested. And I ain’t alone here you know, the industry even secretly agrees considering how much it’s also still chasing Fortnite, a game that doesn’t come across like a movie you pretend to play. (Although the movie industry may be jealous of Fortnight given the premiere of feature films on the platform).

I’m missing my own points, I think, I’m just a little too mad this is still going on to think straight. Let’s stick to my points by just focusing on one game, a game that currently isn’t out: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

It’s amazing how much they’ve perfectly captured the feeling of an Indiana Jones movie, and I say this as someone who thinks Last Crusade suffers from feeling like watered-down Raiders, completely forgetting it’s a love letter to film serials in the process, so it takes a lot to impress me with this franchise.

And as for the gameplay; by this point dawg I’m not even sure it exists. That bit where Indy chucks a sledgehammer right at an enemy’s heart got my attention, but frog me there’s so little else. I want to be fair to Machine Games in that I’ve heard so many other people state they know it will be fun because of how great the Wolfenstein games are, and I still haven’t gotten around to those, so perhaps I’d be less worried if I was familiar with the game feel Machine Games has. However, it’s a weak argument that I shouldn’t be worried about the gameplay of Great Circle just because Wolfenstein was good. I still say I should have seen a deeper gameplay dive by this point, when all we’ve gotten so far is corporate slideshows that briefly discuss different puzzle elements.

They use the word gameplay in the title but it’s a collection of animations. I want a pure gameplay trailer, and the longer I don’t get one, the more I’m genuinely concerned that The Great Circle will be style over substance.

And yes, I do think this came from jealousy. Jealousy of the film industry. See, way back when the PlayStation 3 was still struggling, Naughty Dog did the unthinkable and created Uncharted. Ultimately not much more than a love letter to, well funny enough, Indiana Jones and the film serials that inspired it. Uncharted had pretty simple combat and overall gameplay, nothing terrible mind you, just more serviceable than anything else, but also put a big emphasis on capturing the swooping cameras and lighting of blockbuster films. It set the gaming world on fire.

Which is fine in and of itself. There’s a video inside of me that wants to discuss why Uncharted doesn’t strike me with remotely the same fervor it did everyone else, but I certainly don’t hate Uncharted for existing, nor do I blame it for what happened next.

More games started copying those camera angle choices and jumped into having bigger and better cutscenes. We also have both Uncharted 2 and Red Dead Redemption 1 to point to the moments when gaming suddenly had story writing most people considered good. There were good stories before those two, but the common opinion was that no games had real storytelling, with RDR and Uncharted 2 being the first to truly challenge that notion.

Red Dead Redemption I do hold the same fervor as everyone else did, but that doesn’t mean I love how many games these days now shoot for story over gameplay. RDR at least balanced gameplay and writing to be equally important, something its own prequel doesn’t even try (I love RDR 2 but there’s little defending many aspects of the gameplay as those are very much style over substance).

I’m sure some of you are hoping I trash The Last Of Us next, but hey, since I didn’t gell with Uncharted I never gave LOU a playthrough, so I don’t have opinions on how it treats story over gameplay. I can say I remember people loving the gameplay and especially the multiplayer of the original, and never hear anyone talk about the sequel’s gameplay unless it’s in a trailer for one of their endless remasters.

If we want to use hard evidence all of this stems from a jealousy of films, instead of just innovating the existing styles; we have no evidence harder than the fact cutscenes are now called cinematics. When and how did we let that change happen? Cinematics, pffp, yeah because when I play Conker I wish I was in a cinema. The Great Mighty Poo needs to be experienced in 4K UHD surround sound while my shoes are stuck to the floor from a cola stain older than I am. Wouldn’t be immersed without it.

The sad thing is this scenario has already started to happen. When the HBO Last Of Us came out (side note; it may have been for the already-forgotten Uncharted movie), Sony got famous YouTubers to go to A CINEMA to not just watch the first episode but ALSO USED THE SPACE TO PLAY UNCHARTED! I’m sorry, but you didn’t convince me Uncharted is a masterpiece, you accidentally claimed your game is just a movie.

Every medium has its own strengths and weaknesses, and while there is overlap, that doesn’t mean you can copy one-to-one. Hell, I’m the kind of person who for years has been saying a great game is a closer experience to the immersion and personal-attachment that a good book can give you. Visuals be damned! That doesn’t mean I want games to be just like books, not even Visual Novels, because even those should focus on the gameplay aspect that only video games provide.

It’s why LEGO games can be still charming with only minor changes to their formula every few entries. People like to rag on Pokemon when the stories are mid, but the original game has the midest story of the bunch and still remains the best seller, almost as if the selling point is how good it feels to catch the monsters.

Stories don’t make games. Graphics do not guarantee a game. There’s been some good cash by chasing movies, but rose-colored glasses tend to fade. I’m sure Uncharted, Last of Us, Horizon, new God of War, Red Dead 2, et all., will continue having lifelong fans who adore their stories. But, those exact fans also love the gameplay loops. People keep saying a games crash is coming, and frankly, it’s not. Not to the extent people seem to think anyway. But we are very likely on the cusp of a massive industry shift. And if there’s anything worth losing in this shift, it’s big-budget games sniffing the asses of blockbuster movies.

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Featured Image Credits: Microsoft, Machine Games, Sony Interactive, Naughty Dog, The Game Awards

EVERY GAME I PLAYED IN 2021! (PART 1)

It looks like we have a yearly tradition on this blog now, where I pull out an Excel document that catalogued all the video games I played to completion the previous year and say my thoughts on each one. A little bit later than the last time, but considering I made a 2-hour video in January about my favorite art/media experiences of both 2020 and 2021, I think it’s fair to say I had good reason.

That said, the 2021 games that made it into that video won’t be covered as deeply for this second time, I go over them pretty well in the video so I’ll only share thoughts that skipped my mind. I also won’t at all be covering the games I reviewed separately on my YouTube channel, there’s not even enough left for quick thoughts due to the nature of the games I reviewed. While I was originally going to make an exception for Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, it made it into the 2-hour retrospective so there’s no air left anymore other than to say again it’s an all-time favorite and a 10 out of 10 I highly recommend.

With the formalities out of the way, let’s begin:

- Shrek Super Slam -

- Shrek Super Slam -

I bought a Nintendo GameCube off of eBay at the start of 2021, with the intention of not just diving into retro gaming after some disillusion with modern gaming, but also because I no longer own my childhood PlayStation 2 let alone it’s games and felt it would be interesting to try different versions of some of those games if I have to buy them again anyway.

Super Slam had to be first as it was my first PlayStation 2 game, and yet honestly even I am surprised it still held up as well as it did playing it again. This was a great test to get used to the controller as muscle-memory came back quickly, as did the reasons why this game is very fun. I have very little complaints about it, which is why it got a mention in the video and unironically so. I ended up completing all the bonus objectives, unlocked every character and stage, even did them a bit faster than I expected as some challenges seemed pretty hard even with the prior knowledge. Admittedly some of that was control or timer based and once I got it things went much easier.

Just a very solid fighting game with the characters from the first two Shrek films, and even brand new characters that fit the world and style so well part of me always wondered if they’d be used for a future film. Like I said, the right choice to test out the GameCube.

8/10

- Madagascar The Video Game -

I suppose it really isn’t shocking the next game for the GameCube was also a Dreamworks game. I’m also going to break a few hearts now and say this is the last GameCube game on the list, as while I did play around with some other games I bought, this was the last one I beat and that’s the criteria.

Again the PS2 version is from my childhood, as is the film, and both of those things have aged a bit to me much more than the Shrek examples. Madagascar the film is mediocre with some great moments, and honestly so is the video game, I guess it’s a perfect adaptation despite how much it deviates! Marty, Alex, Gloria, and Melman do all feel fine to control and the environments work quite nice. The Penguins are an okay change-up but they felt a lot less fun than I remembered and a bit more stiff. The game is a bit slower too, and I think it’s because I’m older and not because of the different hardware, I doubt the PS2 version actually felt different than the GameCube version ultimately.

That said, some jokes land well and again nothing in the gameplay is really offensive or unplayable. This licensed game reeks of needing too much free-time with nothing else to play, I think I liked it more as a kid due to a limited library and now that I don’t have that, it’s just an alright game I have nostalgia for instead of a game I’ll play a lot. Will definitely go back to the Shrek game more often.

5/10

- Red Dead Revolver -

I’d previously played the second and third Red Dead games, I’ve even covered my thoughts on Red Dead Redemption II both on this blog and that already mentioned video, but until 2021 I hadn’t played the very original Red Dead game. Revolver, from the PS2 era and one of the few games picked up for the “PS2 on PS4” program, all shiny with HD upscaling and trophy support. I’ve talked fondly of the program and a couple of those games already, but unfortunately I won’t be as fond speaking of this specific game.

For it’s time it would not have been all too bad, but by today it feels very confused in what it wants to do. A lot of games were back then, trying to mix things up and experiment, give something unique and for the time a lot of that experimenting worked for me. Even the Madagascar game I just discussed did that exact same situation with it’s rotating cast of playable characters. Heck, while I don’t like I game I do understand what it was going for and can understand if there’s still a fanbase.

Red Dead Revolver is a love-letter to both the corny westerns and the more serious ones, it’s always silly but people are still dying with chunks of blood and gore flying out of them. It’s very arcade-like, something I would not mind trying again with this series despite how far away that is from Redemption II.

It’s too hard for pointless reasons a lot of the time, I was actually enjoying the first levels a lot for the atmosphere and hints of story but after the cliff level not only did the difficulty spike rear it’s head far too high, but the disjointed nature of the story did as well. There’s tons of playable characters and they all have to connect to this plot and I wish they didn’t. This would have worked better as vignettes if they wanted to keep the multiple characters, or they would have had to scrap the other characters besides Red if they wanted to keep the story.

I got a big mad at it some times, but like some other retro games I’ve played I think it was good for it’s time but now something I give a negative score to as I don’t see the point of going back to it. Madagascar the game had nostalgia going for it so maybe this game is actually better, but this game also annoyed me much more anyway.

4/10

- Fallout 4 -

As I said in the video, I love this game and really don’t care about the things some long-time fans feel isn’t up to snuff. The crafting is fun and rewarding, the quests are great to complete, the world still feels realized and unique, the characters are both lovable and hateable in the right circumstances. I don’t mind the loss of the karma system since it’s clear to me the companion system has taken it’s place and effectively so. While I can see why the story writing is considered weaker to many, I don’t really see that as so bad a thing since this game is more fun than the previous ones and again the character writing is still great in the right places. New Vegas does branching a bit better but even then I feel overwhelmed by that game and don’t honestly feel every choice is as fleshed out as others feels. 3 is more concrete in the binary path of it’s main plot and the open-ness of the side stuff, so yes while there is a bit less choice for the side content here in 4 again there are at least things it does with the combat and companions that I am okay with the trade-off, and 4 is more open in it’s main story as you can flip whenever you want until it’s finally time to make your decision, and it makes it clear how final that decision is.

And as usual, the DLC is great. The story ones are fun and add new ideas and characters, and the creation stuff honestly gave me more than I expected and actually help out way more than I thought. I had only played the Xbox One version before, and with my new PS4 copy from that year I managed to earn every single PlayStation trophy in the span of only a month or so, and even with the prior knowledge that is a relatively small amount of time. Those tickets were the biggest nightmare, even making a whole settlement happy wasn’t as time-consuming

I really love this entry and my complaints are incredibly minor. 3, 4, and New Vegas are all thrown into a pile that fans pick their favorite out of, and honestly I don’t think that’s fair to any of them as each one does have unique attributes that just get ignored or outright insulted if it’s not the favorite, something I’m guilty of too. Ultimately it’s the one I play the most of the three and I think I’ve stated my reasons well enough. It’s also a Bethesda game and so it’s too buggy and clunky to be perfect, but when you have a favorite you ignore that for the score anyway so here we go:

10/10, but like a buggy and clunky 10 so theoretically a low 9 or a high 8 that I love like a perfect 10 despite itself.

- Spider-Man PS4 -

I suppose let’s “rip the band-aid off now” despite how really it’s not a band-aid and wouldn’t even need a description like that if game opinions didn’t cause so much pointless debate versus other media.

This game is fine. Sometimes pretty good and very fun, certainly above mediocre, but at the end of the day it’s fine.

While very competent and again quite fun plenty of times, part of me wonders if this game kicking out the sour taste of bad Spider-Man games is why some people really latched onto it like they did. For quite a while this fairly new game was “the best Spider-Man game ever!” and while it’s still very highly regarded I am seeing that statement slightly die. Sure, there are some concepts done better here than in previous Spider-Man games.

The gadgets really feel fleshed out and are a great evolution of not just this character but also from Insomniacs Ratchet & Clank games. The way it treats collectibles is a highlight, once you unlock one type you can just immediately go collect all of them without any need to unlocked another ability or finish a story beat, once it’s on the map you can grab it. You also don’t need the gold medal in every challenge in terms of in-game completion bonus nor the trophies, bronze is good enough, and as someone who is getting tired and annoyed at how much you have to do in some games I love that Insomniac recognizes that beating something with a good score really is enough plenty of times. There’s a lot of technical things right with this game, enough that I do think playing it again might make the score higher.

But let’s cut the chase for real here:

This story is stale and not always interesting. I heard plenty of people say this is one of the best Spider-Man stories ever, and I could only find myself agreeing with that if I read and played a lot of Spider-Man stories and found them full-on bad or boring. I didn’t like having to get back together with Mary Jane as it felt cliched and incredibly tired considering how often I see these two have relationship issues in other stores. The corny jokes sometimes just felt genuinely not funny instead of “ha ha the characters think he’s not funny”. I also think the villains are sometimes there just to be there, which isn’t too different than other superhero games but as an Arkham fan I also know it can be done so much better now that I felt more should have been done since there is a bit of Arkham influence here, hopefully next time there are more villains whom are only in side quests instead of forced into the main plot as that helps so much so.

Again, I think it’s worth another try, but I also think I’ve enjoyed a lot more Spider-Man games more than I did this. Mechanically it’s fantastic, but plot and character wise I wasn’t nearly as strong. Maybe that won’t bother me a second time and I can just melt into the combat and web-zipping instead.

6.5/10

- Super Mario 3D World -

This one got a full segment in the video, not just tacked on during the montage like Fallout 4 and Shrek Super Slam, so it’s just best to mostly skip this one. As I said there, it’s such a fun game and I didn’t even play Bowser’s Fury yet! Sometimes jumping around as Mario is all I need as he and his friends control so incredibly well, and this series really understands that games are often at their best when they are fun.

9/10

- Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy -

Mostly can say the same thing here as 3D World, but I am also going to do something I realized during the video editing made much more sense to do here in the blog post. I will quickly chop up my thoughts on each individual game in the set:

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Amazing how well this first game holds up and how much it can pull you in. Despite sometimes feeling non-sensical, once it pulls you back in it feels so right you don’t care anymore. Lovely story and great introduction to the series.

Justice for All - Weaker, but not always. Some cases feel so good and the new gameplay mechanics do feel right at home, as do the new story ideas that pay off very well both here and later.

Trails and Tribulations - Easily the best, a near perfect culmination and great send-off for this story arc. Best cases out of the three even with how iconic some of the early ones are.

8/10 - Ace Attorney

7/10 - Justice For All

9/10 - Trails and Tribulations

- Dead Rising 2 -

I’m in a weird spot with this game in that, a lot of me swears I’ve talked about it off-hand on this blog before but I really don’t have a clue if that’s true or not. It could have been on a post I deleted when I revamped the blog, it could be something that never made the cut the first time, I could have never actually done it, and it could just be staring me in the face and I don’t know where to look!

I love Dead Rising 2, it’s a favorite of mine and that’s why it was the first game I played after I was finally able to move back into my apartment. I played it on the Xbox One where everything feels buttery smooth and just like many other times I went from start to finish without any worry on what to do.

The Dead Rising games not only have zombies as the antagonistic force, there are also human villains and an in-game timer. It’s wise to just play the game without trying to beat it when you first go in, as you carry your level and such when you start over. If you keep at it, you can even master the games to the point where just like I said, you actually can start at level one and beat the whole game no problem. You’ll have spare time, bosses won’t be such a hassle, and you’ll get the golden ending while barely even having to pay attention.

I really need to remember my own advice and finish Dead Rising 1 some day. I gave up because it felt hard, but of course it did, that was also how Dead Rising 2 felt the first time I played it and it’s such a long ago memory I have to remind myself I once truly sucked at it. If I can get this good at Dead Rising 2 I can also master the original, but I’m positive I will still prefer this sequel. It’s a game with a time limit that is somehow a fun blast and practically soothing to the soul. I love it, from blood to guts to combo weapons to psychopaths to orange juice.

10/10

- Dragon Ball FighterZ -

When it comes to FighterZ, it’s placement on the list is not so much that I finally played the game this year, it’s that I decided to finally finish it. I enjoy fighting games but am not all that great at them, and sometimes I get through some or even most of the story campaign and just end up telling myself I’ll finish it some other day. That was the case for FighterZ even though I was really enjoying my time with it.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a mechanically well-structured game, even as someone bad at fighting games I found combos easy to figure out and the characters felt different to play while rewardingly so when I found ones I liked. I stuck with mostly Majin Buu, Krillin, Vegeta, and Nappa, so when it came to the final story arc and I was stuck with Android’s 16 and 18 it was a bit too jarring and then I just forgot to finish it.

But, I picked it back up, learned how to play as those two and finally finished the story. It was worth it as now I can play as Android 21, so the roster is close to full (I don’t have the DLC). I can picture coming back to it, doing the story again with the characters I’ve enjoyed playing as the most. All in all, there’s lots of reasons this is considered one of if not the best Dragon Ball games.

8/10

- Halo The Master Chief Collection -

As said in the video, I decided to get the collectibles across all the games in this collection. I may be short one data pad, but I got everything else. Every skull, every terminal, countless easter eggs and I even did a lot of the playlists. The playlists personally sell this collection for me more than anything else, the remaster of 2 is beautiful but if there’s any gameplay improvements to 3 I can’t tell and I’ve played 3 a lot. I’m also fairly critical of Halo 1, and even though I liked Halo 4 it’s not one I go back to much. ODST and Reach were great additions, but again, I mostly play this game by opening up a playlist I haven’t done yet.

This has become a game I just play when I want to listen to some podcasts and the like. I assumed that might end when I got the collectibles, but since there’s still some playlists left, that may not be changing anytime soon after all. A great collection and one of the best releases on the Xbox One, which admittedly showcases how few first-party releases there were and why Microsoft really needed the change ups that thankfully seem to be happening in full force.

10/10

- Batman Arkham Knight -

Arkham Knight got a very decent amount of time in the big video, so I will wrap up my thoughts pretty well with some stuff I didn’t mention.

Did you know that during the opening where you play as the cop, there’s a bit where a nightmare citizen grabs you and forces your hand in the air after you’ve drawn your gun, and you can fire all of your bullets harmlessly into the ceiling? If you do, you can still keep clicking it empty after you are freed, so you don’t end up killing any of the civilians.

Also, massive spoiler so feel free to skip, but you know when Joker finally takes over Batman’s body and you gun down the rogue’s gallery in Batman’s head? Riddler hides behind a hostage and you’re supposed to just fire your shotgun as Joker would never care. BUT, if you angle it right, you will only kill The Riddler and the hostage does in fact survive, she cowers in fear but the game acknowledges you avoided killing her as she even mumbles to herself. It’s such a nice little touch you the player can do, and in a way, technically foreshadows that Joker really isn’t fully in control like he thinks. Batman did not allow him to kill an innocent.

Great game that I understand why I hated it first go around. First time playing, a 4 or even a 3, but on replay?

8/10

- Dead Rising 2: Off The Record -

When I bought the Xbox One version of vanilla Dead Rising 2, I actually purchased the bundle with DR 1 and Off The Record. Off The Record for those that don’t know is an example of a practice Capcom is fairly fond of, taking a game they already released and making a brand new version of it that’s mostly the same but with minor changes that do add to the formula in sometimes big ways. It’s a mixed practice, sometimes this new version is the better by far and sometimes it’s weaker but still at least contains what you loved from the regular game.

The latter is my feelings for Off The Record. I can see why some fans might like this version better; Frank West has a dedicated fanbase and it’s earned as he does have a unique character that is admittedly less cliched than Chuck Green. There are some new survivors whom are just as interesting as the regular ones, and the returning survivors and psychopaths mostly feel no different so they basically at least still work as well as they normally do. There is some new dialogue both spoken and written to re-justify some of the scenarios and they don’t detract nor add other than sometimes it’s pretty funny to watch a survivor gush over Frank as it’s so poorly timed on their part between the zombie outbreak and Frank’s fallen stardom.

I really don’t like the new final boss fight though. The special ending secret boss has a new phase I also really didn’t like but I’m mostly talking about the basic final boss, whom I could not figure out the pattern to.

Sandbox mode was a great addition though, allowing the player to have an overtime mode without going through a game over is a fun concept even if you can level up way faster as the game wasn’t really ready for the amount of PP you get from taking pictures.

It’s a solid and fun game, based on a much better game, but like I said I can actually imagine people preferring this version so all-in-all I think this was a worthwhile experiment this time.

7/10

And there we have the end of part 1. Part 2 will be coming soon, probably before this week is over but we will see. Thanks for reading.

EVERY GAME I PLAYED IN 2020 (PART 3)

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

http://donutcounty.com/

http://donutcounty.com/

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

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/nightmares-from-the-deep-2-the-sirens-call-switch/

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/nightmares-from-the-deep-2-the-sirens-call-switch/

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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/292260/Spy_Fox_3_Operation_Ozone/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/292260/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

https://store.steampowered.com/app/267490/Batman_Arkham_Origins_Blackgate__Deluxe_Edition/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/267490/Batman_Arkham_Origins_Blackgate__Deluxe_Edition/

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

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/rockstar-reveals-plot-details-red-dead-redemption-2-1139857

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/rockstar-reveals-plot-details-red-dead-redemption-2-1139857

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

https://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2020/05/22/swim-as-the-shark-in-maneater.cnn

https://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2020/05/22/swim-as-the-shark-in-maneater.cnn

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

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

https://www.pcgamer.com/saints-row-the-third-remastered-is-coming-next-month-and-it-looks-great/

https://www.pcgamer.com/saints-row-the-third-remastered-is-coming-next-month-and-it-looks-great/

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

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/10/30/kingdom-hearts-birth-by-sleep-final-mix-i-revisit-the-best-kh-game-in-2-5-hd-remix/#/slide/1

https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2014/10/30/kingdom-hearts-birth-by-sleep-final-mix-i-revisit-the-best-kh-game-in-2-5-hd-remix/#/slide/1

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

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/

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

https://www.facebook.com/DigimonGaming/posts/digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-hackers-memory-will-include-two-new-female-characters/764664913707197/

https://www.facebook.com/DigimonGaming/posts/digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-hackers-memory-will-include-two-new-female-characters/764664913707197/

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 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/

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

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

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/

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/

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

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/

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

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

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/

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/

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

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/

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/

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

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

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/

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

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

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

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

Doki Doki Literature Club Review: Doki Doki My Heart

This article is not intended for children

 

2017 saw the release of many a fanstastic game. Super Mario Odyssey, LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2, Cuphead, so many that a quick glance at any game journalist or YouTuber's list of "Game of the Year" titles could easily convince you to put all of those games on your backlog if you missed them.

My game of the year is a different choice than many, even if it is gaining in popularity, having been downloaded over a million times already. My game of the year is Doki Doki Literature Club, a free visual novel dating sim. My new favorite game within it's genre.

From left to right: Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri, Monika

From left to right: Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri, Monika

You play as a high school boy whom you name whatever you like (I named mine Turd), the next door neighbor of Sayori, the vice president of the Literature Club. Sayori worries that the main character may have no social skills after graduation, so she convinces him to join the club.

This is where the game play comes in. Those of you who have played visual novels before may be worried about playing this one when it comes to game play. Many an infamous visual novel completely lacks game play; the point is supposed to be that the player can choose an outcome, similar to a choose-your-own-adventure story, but there are some that simply lack the choice at all, save for many one button to click at only the very end of the two-to-three hour "game". Do not worry, I assure you there is nothing about the game play of Doki Doki Literature Club to make it infamous, you have my word.

There is real game play, you choose specific words to write a poem. Depending on the words you choose, you will write a poem that pleases one of the girls. Well, one of three, for some reason you cannot write a poem that specifically pleases Monika.

Doki 2.png
Doki 3.png

Whichever girl you pick, she starts to open up to you. You learn her backstory, watch her grow through character development. You'll get a different scenario with them based on which day it is, so if you mix-and-match, there is still merit, don't worry so much about only appeasing one of the girls the entire game if you don't feel like it. It's more dynamic in how it plays out than others in it's medium, the game does remember if you suddenly changed your mind, instead of acting like you only treated one girl kindly, the latter of which I've seen happen before, it breaks the immersion by a lot and sometimes means you end the game without any closure. 

It's the sort of thing I have wanted many visual novels to have, but so many didn't. Massive kudos to the developer for creating completely fleshed out characters for this game, I wish that was not something so rare in visual novels, but for my money, it can be. I believe the creator has similar feelings on the subject.

The girl I chose was Sayori. I was spoiled for a massive section of the game, and I just felt right finding out the most I could about her before future replays.

Doki 4.png
Monika sometimes interrupts you just when you're making headway with the girl you chose to spend alone time with. The little devil.

Monika sometimes interrupts you just when you're making headway with the girl you chose to spend alone time with. The little devil.

There is so much more I'd like to talk about the game, but sadly, there are spoilers to follow. If you have not played this game, and would rather play it without any forewarning or spoilers, please log off of this blog post and go to the game's website here:

https://ddlc.moe

 

...........

......

............

do do do do de de dee de de..............

.....................

 

And now this is the part where I tell you this is actually a psychological horror game.

NOTE: The foreshadowing is heavy and obvious. Which is good, subtle foreshadowing can feel like a waste of time. Obvious foreshadowing can make you feel like an idiot and in the BEST way. Hell, I did it here, the game needs it and loves it.

NOTE: The foreshadowing is heavy and obvious. Which is good, subtle foreshadowing can feel like a waste of time. Obvious foreshadowing can make you feel like an idiot and in the BEST way. Hell, I did it here, the game needs it and loves it.

This game, man. This game.

Holy crap.

So like I said above, I found out ahead of time that Sayori commits suicide and the game suddenly bugs out. She's erased from the games files, you can go into the files for yourself and see her character file is completely gone. The games bugs get SO much worse, so much that the suicide becomes one of the tamest things the game has to offer for you.

fucking monika.png

AND, they depend on the choices you make in the next poems you make. AND, there are some out-of-knowhere scares that are triggered RANDOMLY. You can play through the whole game and not get them. There's no way to activate those scares, one way or the other. Nothing you can do to get them on purpose, nothing you can do to avoid getting them. You are at the mercy of what the game just feels like setting off.

In my playthrough, Natsuki's eyes turned black, blood flowed through her sockets, a wide slasher-style smile suddenly appeared across her face, her neck cracked completely to the side, and she just rushed as me leaving this scream that somehow seemed quiet and directly next to my ear. This was ONE scare, all of it together. 

I am not the kind of person who loses sleep over something scary. This game caused me to lose sleep. Yuri's blood-soaked eye, the glitchy faces, the rapid reveal of the characters broken home lives and minds capes, the game straight-up tricking me by no longer obeying the rules of it's game play at any moment. This was the first time I did not trust a video game. The game told me it's mechanics, and let me get used to them so much, that once they stopped working I didn't know what to believe anymore. One time, it forced my cursor so I could only hit one of the three buttons, but I thought to myself "what if I hit up on the arrow keys, and then enter?". Even though you don't select in the game using those buttons, and it actually worked! But, then the game quickly replaced those three options with a long list of the same choice it wanted me to choose, so many the screen couldn't show them all.

I sorry I don't have any more screenshots for you, I was so fascinated and terrified that I simply stopped taking them. The game had my complete interest, and my fear on the end of a string. This is, and this is only on a personal level of course, the scariest thing I've ever experienced in all forms of media.

I have a high fear tolerance, so I do heavily enjoy when something really scares me. Mostly, what scares me is surreal horror. Hellraiser, Escape from Tomorrow, I don't have too many examples that terrified me, and this game is now on the top of the list. I have to play it again soon!

Also, just so you get a real taste of this game's horror, I found out about a scare I either didn't get, or that I didn't notice. During one of the poem sections, Yuri's face can be replaced with a horrific nightmarish face instead. Briefly, brief enough to convince you she didn't. This face:

AAAAAHHHH.png

Some of you may not find this so scary, but here's the thing. You now know this face is possible, you'll go look for it. Because it's so sudden, will you actually see it? Will you convince yourself you saw it? Plus, yeah it is rather creepy and a FAR cry from the usual sprite. Simple changes to what he know can truly mess with us, the uncanny valley affect. Elongated arms and legs, alien-looking eyes on a human-looking head, horror is often the unknown, but also the unknown mixed with the easily known.

Although to be fair this Yuri face is far more terrifying

I didn't get this one either, but I knew about it when doing research for the blog post. It's super rare, BUT, the Game Grumps were unfortunate enough for it to happen. I beat the game before they got to the scary stuff, and I was handling their play through well enough, but when this popped on my TV (was using Xbox One app) I straight-up had to sit down and pause the video to calm my nerves. NEW UPDATE: Of all scares this is one of the ones I got when I played Plus!!!

I didn't get this one either, but I knew about it when doing research for the blog post. It's super rare, BUT, the Game Grumps were unfortunate enough for it to happen. I beat the game before they got to the scary stuff, and I was handling their play through well enough, but when this popped on my TV (was using Xbox One app) I straight-up had to sit down and pause the video to calm my nerves. NEW UPDATE: Of all scares this is one of the ones I got when I played Plus!!!

So yeah, go play this game. Like I said, it's free from the game's website via Itch.io. It's also available for free on Steam, if you feel like using that. You can donate money to them, and if it's ten or more dollars, you get a soundtrack and an art book. You can also just buy the fan pack directly through the store they link on the site.

By the time you read this, I will have donated thirty-five dollars. I believe the game deserves nothing less from me, and I may even give more later. There are posters and key chains of the characters you can buy as well from the site's store page, and I'm not a key chain or even a poster guy, but I saw an amazing Monika poster that I have to buy (there's also a real chance I'll be getting the others posters too because I went back to look at them all and I ended up liking them all more the second time). Speaking of, hey Dan Salvato, if you end up reading my dorky blog post about your game, I would pay good money for plushies of all of these characters. Even if they're like 45 bucks a pop. Even Yuri, and Yuri was personally my least favorite even before she scared the shit out of me. HELL, even the nameless main character, and I don't know what he even looks like.

The title says review, so here's my review score:

 

10/10

Game of the year.

My favorite horror game.

One of my favorite games in general.

 

And tune in soon. I forgot to talk too much about Monika, and honestly, she deserves her own post. I have that much to say. They all deserve a post, now that I think of it.

 

auagkadsmcdkalg/jrigurahsfklfjfutyas;okjd OPEN YOUR THIRD EYE

Video Game Review: Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL

Game played on: PlayStation 3

Also available on: Wii, Xbox 360

Is a remake of a game for: 3DS

 

When a mascot fighter game comes out, such as Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion XL, I always hear many legions of gamers cry out that the game is obviously a rip-off and no one should buy it. All this says to me is that there are not enough mascot fighters yet for everyone to realize this is in fact a genre, not just something done by Super Smash Bros. and not allowed by PlayStation or Cartoon Network or Small Arms or any other game companies and titles I can't remember right now. What I'm getting at, is that when this game was first announced, I had no problem with what the promise was. Personally, I'm a fan of Cartoon Network's programming, and earlier this year I finally bought the game and tried it for myself.

It's alright.

I spoil that now as the common opinions of the game tend to only be in two camps: You hate it or you think it's okay. For the same reasons, actually.

First let's get into what the game is supposed to be. Punch Time is meant to be a crossover fighting game for many of the popular cartoons from Cartoon Network. Most of the shows featured were no longer airing at the time, the only exception being Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. With that in mind, the game sort of feels like a celebration of Cartoon Network's past, their successes all coming together and letting us know how much they've appreciated our love for them.

However, not every former show received the love. It has been pointed out by many fans before me that both Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd n' Eddy were not in the game. I've heard there were trademark or copyright reasons behind this, the Eds couldn't join in because they technically belong to AKA Studios for example, but I have no idea if this is true or not. They could have just glanced over them, or felt they had enough characters already.

I read one forum post about someone being infuriated that Flapjack and Chowder were playable when the Eds and Courage were not. I like those latter shows more as well, but, come on, it's nothing to be that riled up about. Granted I think this person didn't like Chowder or The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, but this is a forum post, they may normally be okay with those shows as far as I know. Even if I didn't like those shows, which I do, even more than I did when they originally premiered now that I've gone back to them, again, I still would not think it's worth getting riled up about.

You know what I'm riled up about? Every stage in this game is related to a show, baring the final stage, typical for these types of games. However, all of the shows related to the stages, also have characters you can play as. This is a missed opportunity. In Smash Bros. or PlayStation All-Stars, stages could be used to represent franchises that didn't get a character to represent them. Here, that is not the case. Not only that, but out of all the characters, only two of them are from franchises that are not also represented by a stage. Captain Planet and Johnny Bravo (Let's not count the also unlockable younger Ben Tennyson, I'm counting Ben 10 as it's own franchise and we also had Vilgax, older Ben, Kevin 11, and some stages). Bravo was an assist in the 3DS version, meaning in that version, the assists had one character to represent something different from the stages, but we'll talk about assists in a second.

Imagine how many more shows we could have gotten from stages. Picture it: Camp Kidney. Charles Darwin middle school. If you didn't want the Eds, I would have been happy fighting in the Cul de Sac, or Nowhere Kansas would have quelled some complaints as well. Some of you may say that Camp Lazlo or My Gym Partner's a Monkey don't need to be represented in this game, but I fully think they should. This is a celebration of the channel, put everything in that you can. Put in the live-action shows no one liked, put in Out of Jimmy's Head, get Hanna-Barbera characters, get the dubbed anime you used to air on Toonami, get Tom. Tom could be the next narrator, and that's not saying Space Ghost was a bad narrator nor a bad idea, just a thought in case they go somewhere different. Make the cross-over big enough that you add in Kid's WB characters. People would lose their minds if you did that, and everyone knows Warner owns both, I can imagine this happening. Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes air on CN, and I've already seen how open to Warner is with cross-overs thanks to LEGO Dimensions.

What I can't imagine happening is a cross-over with Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. Disney and Viacom aren't part of Warner, stop acting like it in forum posts. It won't happen. I did see someone say they'd like to see Ash Ketchum on, and I can picture that considering where Pokemon played on both CN and Kid's WB. It'd be weird as I'm almost positive a lawyer or someone would prevent Pikachu from appearing as well, but hey, I'd still be for an Ash Ketchum without his Pokemon in a fighting game. It'll work or it won't, and I'm fine with either due to how cool and hilarious it would me.

To get back on track, let's discuss the assist characters. They are, hands down, the best use of assist characters I've seen in a mascot fighter. Each one either does a lot of damage, or heals a lot of damage. Sometimes, they screw you, because they can damage anyone in the area including you, but they can still be worth it. Now, where they really shine, is when you activate a certain assist with a certain character. Their powers combine and they unleash an incredibly powerful attack. Many of these do better damage than the character's special move, and most of them outshine what the assist would normally do. Some of them made sense, other combinations came out of nowhere, and that only added to the joy of what was happening.

Speaking of, I never realized how much the candy pirates from Codename: Kids Next Door and the characters of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack had in common until this game realized it and had the two meet. It was one of those "OH!" moments that made this game worth playing as a CN fan.

Now, mechanically, as a game. Here's the problems:

Many characters control fine, but there is no balancing. This game, while having a local multiplayer (no online but I don't consider that a downside), was clearly built with single player in mind only. Some characters just don't do much damage, and others are practically unstoppable. I found I liked playing with Flapjack a lot, but once I played again in hard mode, I never really used anybody other than Aku and HIM. Kevin 11 is overpowered and recommended by many for hard mode as well, and I saw why. Granted, yes this means the characters you figured would be powerful are hilariously fun in how overpowered they are, but this is a game I would like to play with other people, and all that would happen (I assume) is that whoever picks Aku or HIM would be the winner by default. Monkey was the only exception, in my opinion. I figured a superhero would be really useful, but I ended up hating this control scheme and just kept playing as Flapjack.

One small grip I found was with a section of the unlockables. Stages and characters were fine, minus the previous complaints, it was the bonus videos. All short, which is fine, but the one for Johnny Bravo was just the the opening theme, and that made me wish each show had that as an unlockable as well. That's the kind of thing people scour YouTube for, it's nice to have an official source for it. Ever hear the Ben 10 theme? If you have you'll know why I'd consider that a great unlockable.

On the opposite end, the unlockable costumes were fantastic. For some, it unlocked an outfit that character has worn in a certain episode. For example, HIM gets his exercise clothes, or Numbah 1 in a tuxedo.  For others, it lets you play as other characters. For example, each Powerpuff Girl has a costume that turns them into the Rowdyruff Boy equivalent. Or Captain Planet becoming Captain Pollution. Alternate costumes are usually fun, and this extra bit of care did not go unnoticed by me or the other fans.

It's funny how really, I only mentioned one major actual problem, a few minor grips, and many things I loved, but I still only thought the game was alright. If anything, this game needs a sequel so it can try again. Some games get it so right the second time, and this one needs a look back at. Like I said, vary up the stages so they can represent other franchises the characters didn't. Don't be afraid to give some love to the shows you are sure we don't care about, we'll appreciate the effort to attention.

And fix the balancing. If you do this right, you could finally be the ones to say "We beat Smash Bros. at their own game". Every company wants that, no one's done it just yet. We'll all be better off for it. Including Nintendo really, having a strong game to compete against can start the coals burning and the capitalism running through their veins.

So yeah. This game's okay. Would love a much better sequel. I think Cartoon Network has earned a stab at a great crossover game (and yes I did already mention LEGO Dimensions, which I like, I mean one that is just CN, versus everything under the sun like Dimensions pulls off surprisingly well), to show to the gaming world they have a great legacy that people would love to really dive deep into. After all, this game unlocks bios for everyone if you beat arcade mode and they put in information you wouldn't know off hand. They know their fan base, I do think they can deliver if they try again.

But it won't involve characters from Nickelodeon or Disney channel or Nintendo barring maybe an anime-only character, so stop guessing that TVTropes Wild Mass Guessing page!

 

6/10

Better than completely average, will play again with friends despite balancing issues.

Also, easy Platinum/1000 gamerscore, if you care.

Video game review: Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD

Game played on: PlayStation 4

Is a remaster of a game originally on 3DS

 

I've been playing games in the Kingdom Hearts franchise since the original title. While the original is still one of my favorite games, my opinions of the overall series highly differ between what I am playing. Some I highly enjoy for their gameplay or story, and some I can barely wrap my head around and end up cursing the bizarrely implemented controls. Remember when Kingdom Hearts II decided we needed the ability to skateboard? I mostly remember that it never came back as a mechanic.

With a series as complex, convoluted, and contended as this one, allow me to be a little bit more relaxed in this review than I normally would. Now, the truth of the matter is that I did not play the 3DS version of this game. I'm fully aware that all games in the franchise have important plot points, that skipping out on one game can leave you completely in the dust. I learned this lesson when I originally skipped over Chain of Memories, which led to complete confusion during Kingdom Hearts II up until I played the remake on PlayStation 2. But before I finally played Dream Drop Distance, I did make sure I was up to speed, with some minor exceptions due to my increasing frustration in certain boss fights of games I had beaten once before anyway.

Also, to be frank, I knew several of the story's spoilers before I went in. I don't tend to care about spoilers, at all, so I learned everything about this game's story just by random searching about the franchise's plot. Anyone who has played only a couple or even all of these game will admit that isn't a horrible idea. The series does make sense once you ingest everything, but even then, there's nothing wrong with a guide by this point.

Due to the spoilers, I didn't think I'd like this game.

I was wrong. I really loved playing this game.

The first thing to catch my attention was the combat. I was not a fan of the command deck from Birth By Sleep, and it returned here, but this time it felt much more straight-forward and easier to figure out. It still had it's glaring problems, but I didn't hate it this time around, and it was much easier to decide which attacks I should keep stocked now that I did not have to level them up along with my character.

The real star of the combat show was the flowmotion. Flowmotion involves Sora or Riku dashing against a wall, streetlamp, or other surface. Suddenly the character glows, and you are given a possible attack where you get to spin around, hit very hard, and cannot be hit from what I could tell. The franchise had been getting more and more unfair boss fights as of late, and this equally unfair style of attacking has made it so we are back to being on equal playing grounds instead of just hoping you might win.

Flowmotion also allows you to jump again in the air, then dash again, and continue until you reach the top of the wall you dashed against. Similar to Saints Row 4, it is very cathartic to know that any item you want is now easy to get, even if it's on the top of a tall building.

There are certain commands that can allow you to interact to certain objects and weakened enemies, and they are different depending on the world. Take for example the image below, where the command lets you encase an item or enemy in a large bubble, and you can use said bubble to trap further enemies in until it pops, a lot of the time instantly killing anything inside.

Your companions are now little battle monster style creatures you create with the synthesis method, which meant they gave a purpose to synthesis that I finally liked and did not feel nearly as tedious.

It's also surprisingly fun to play with them. And the original game came out before Pokemon X and Y, so it did Pokemon Amie before Pokemon did.

It's also surprisingly fun to play with them. And the original game came out before Pokemon X and Y, so it did Pokemon Amie before Pokemon did.

The graphics and the framerate are also quite nice. True, nothing is particularly beautiful, especially for PlayStation 4, but even without playing the original game I can tell this port looks far better. All the vibrant colors the series loves to employ are still here, and they still look very good, even if they are not beautiful this time around.

Now, the story. For many players, the story this time went too far. There were a couple of explanations that didn't make sense and did not fit with the previous games. The overarching villain became so overpowered and seemingly flawless that players are calling him badly written. I kind of agree.

Behold the awesome power of balloons.

Behold the awesome power of balloons.

But I also kind of really like that.

The original Kingdom Hearts is, again, one of my favorite games. One of the reasons is because of how much silly stuff is in there, even stuff that wasn't supposed to be. I'm a little more than done with the harp strings and the single game plots that branch off fifteen different ways. The plot is getting stupid, so to me, by all means let it get stupid. I enjoyed this story so much. The moments I thought were moving, did move me. The moments I thought didn't, made me laugh or otherwise enjoy myself. It had been a while since a Kingdom Hearts game had a good mix of fun game play and fun story telling, and this one did it for me.

Fans are gonna hate me for this.

8/10.

I Am the First Person to get Every Trophy in Solbrain: Knight of Darkness *Language NSFW*

In August of 2016, forgive me for forgetting which exact day, there was a certain game that appeared for sale of the PlayStation Store. The game cost $13.99, and was called Solbrain: Knight of Darkness. There was, however, a special sale for members of PlayStation Plus that made the game only cost $9.79, and during that sale, I bought the game for myself because I knew it wasn't going to stay on the store for long.

You see, Solbrain: Knight of Darkness is a fucking terrible game. I knew it was when I first heard about it, and I had to spend time debating with myself about buying it, because I knew it would suck, but I had to decide if it was worth getting the game as I knew without a doubt it would eventually disappear forever. Not because it was bad though, because if that was the case, it wouldn't have appeared on PlayStation to begin with. It's because the game was full of completely stolen assets.

Allow me to show you the video that first informed me about this pile of shit calling itself a game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ9XpnDlv00

Video belongs to Roosterteeth.

Channel name: Inside Gaming (Formerly The Know)

I think that's enough backstory, I'm going to now tell you the story of this blog's title. You see, because Roosterteeth did not play the game themselves (not that they had any reason to, let's be fair) they didn't know about about just how broken this game was to play.

For starter's, the fucking camera does not stop moving if you don't touch it. It keeps moving to the right if your finger isn't directly over it and guiding it. I've, no joke, never seen a video game with a broken camera like this. Then there's the enemies sometimes not getting hurt by your attacks because I guess you're too close to them or something, even though all enemies only need two hits to die. Unless you use your only magic attack, which somehow fucking kills everything around you. In fact that there are limited uses for it, making that one spell the most "video game" thing about this video game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAbrgSMEfJQ

 

Video done by: Cornshaq

Channel name: CornshaqGaming

Cornshaq can describe the rest to you, especially the fact that the enemies will sometimes glitch behind something and you can't kill them. And you can't save, or even fucking pause.

So until Monday, February 13th 2017, 2:48 A.M. Eastern Time, nobody had beaten this game on the PlayStation 4. No one had even beaten the tenth level, meaning they could not move to the eleventh/final level.

Until me.

I'm so far the only person who had the patience to beat this game on PlayStation.

And I watched the non-existant ending. Which was the credits, followed by a thank you to someone, and a promise the franchise will be back. I'm sure it will but I doubt it'll be on PlayStation.

And I watched the non-existant ending. Which was the credits, followed by a thank you to someone, and a promise the franchise will be back. I'm sure it will but I doubt it'll be on PlayStation.

This garbage banished from the PlayStation store until the ends of time. This game only sixty or so people bought and played before the plug was pulled. None of them could finish level 10, let alone the final one. I took the challenge and I fucking won.

The funny thing is, anyone who's never played this game will think this is a minor victory. You'll just think "The game was shit, clearly everyone else just gave up because it was so bad."

That's half of it. A game being hated will prevent people from finishing it. Such as Naughty Bear, which I have admitted to liking on this blog the last time I went uncensored, or the new game based on Ghostbusters that also came out in 2016. Both of those games have quite a low percentage of players who bothered to continue, let alone finish.

But anyone who has played Solbrain knows that is not the entire case. A shit game gets people to give up because they are tired of how awful it is, and they need something else.

But when a shit game is also difficult, purely due to the fact it's broken, that is when people stop because they end up being afraid this beyond shitty game will put them in a mental ward.

Hell, hours after I'd beaten it. After I'd gone to bed and woken up. I got this message from someone on PlayStation Online:

I ended up having a nice chat with this guy about it. We apparently had the same strategy of keeping enough enemies alive so that if anyone was stuck, we could still die so it would restart the level. Because thankfully dying doesn't put you at the beginning of the game, only the level, this isn't an "old school" game, just a broken one.

So let me repeat, if you get stuck you cannot pause and you cannot save. If you can't die, you have to exit the game and start from the very beginning. A game that is broken in every single fucking way, and I'm the only PlayStation player to have beaten it thus far. This poor sap is probably going to try it again now, he or she actually had more trophies than I did before I beat it, they were the original number 1 player before I kicked them down and took a crown they can't ever have because I got it first. Sure, whoever this was will probably be the second person to beat it, and I would wish 'em luck, but I also hope they decided against it. Not because it diminishes my win, because it doesn't, but because I wouldn't wish having to suffer through this game on anyone. (UPDATE: They beat it not long after the original posting here. No one else has done so in the almost three years it’s been since this post though, I’ve heard trophy support got pulled for newer players after a while because of the delisting but I still see the game in my trophies list so I don’t know if that’s true or not)

It took me over two hours just for the tenth stage, as stated above, they kept getting stuck on the fucking roofs. I didn't quit because I knew I would be the first forever, and with a game like this, that's an honor nobody wants but I am so proud of myself that I did it.

Then again, this game is so infamous others want to try it now. This is a section of another PlayStation message I got, from before I went back to complete it:

I had no idea people were actually considering hunting down this game. And I'm the asshole who bought it because I knew it'd get taken down. (By the way, I’ve recently turned off the ability for random people to message me. LOTS of people ask for this game and it’s obnoxious as it is shady as fuck.)

So I am the king of Solbrain, for whatever that is worth. These trophies are so rare, as the above picture shows, they remained at 0.0% even after I became the first person to get them. Speaking of, here's a picture from popular PlayStation trophy help site PSNProfiles.

Before you ask about the ad I got, I have a blog post about my love for toys-to-life games, and Toys R Us was the most convenient place to buy them. Usually my ads are Pizza Hut or Roosterteeth so take this one for what you will.

Before you ask about the ad I got, I have a blog post about my love for toys-to-life games, and Toys R Us was the most convenient place to buy them. Usually my ads are Pizza Hut or Roosterteeth so take this one for what you will.

They couldn't figure out that I'm in the "100% club" even though if you click on it, I'm fucking there. They later fixed it but here is visual proof of the situation:

Yes, that's a PlayStation move controller on the far right of the ad. Never bought one but I consider getting PSVR ever now and again for some reason.

Yes, that's a PlayStation move controller on the far right of the ad. Never bought one but I consider getting PSVR ever now and again for some reason.

They list 1 person, and they changed my percentage. BUT, when I check the trophies on my personal PlayStation 4, it still says they are 0.0% earned by players. I think PlayStation official doesn't keep track of the game anymore because they removed it, so for the sake of argument, let's see who's closer to the truth.

According to my calculator app, 1/62 is:

0.0161290322580645

Move the period to the right two places, then round up, and you have 1.61%. So PSNProfiles does in fact use proper math. However, I kind of like 0.0% better, because it makes me look even more impressive. I also assume the number pool they are using is the same or close to 62 players, because if you cared about this game I can't imagine you are somebody who doesn't use PSNProfiles. Either way, my real percentage is 1.61%, but I personally think I deserve the much more brag-worthy 0.0% (UPDATE: The above did change but I was stuck at 0.0% for over a week after earning the trophies, the servers failed to recognize anyone had played the game.)

Hey, I want to get semi-serious for a moment, while on the note of what I deserve. Because it's something everyone who played this game deserves.

A refund.

I admittedly could play through this game kind of having an alright time, it was my kind of unforgivable shit. People like me don't just have a list of the worst things they've ever played or seen. They also have a list of the most objectively bad things that they didn't hate. Those lists sometimes contain the stuff that truthfully goes beyond the realms of horrible, media that has no reason to have existed and that no one truly gains anything from. This game tops my latter list, no competition.

And no one got a refund. If you're going to refund anyone, refund the guy who stood up to this game and kicked it's ass. And if you're going to refund me, you better refund all 62, maybe more, who bought this fucking stolen-asset-ridden broken pile of game. If hardly anyone bought it, which is what happened, then how much money would you really lose?

I may be proud of myself for beating a game before anyone else did on your system, but I should have never known about this game, because that would mean it didn't exist in the first place. This was not a slip-up, this was an abomination that you let go buy hoping no one caught it. I mean the developers, but I can't imagine the person from PlayStation who approved it simply "didn't know better".

Fuck, the orcs from Skyrim are an enemy. That's not rhetoric:

Oh, and the Spriggans are as well:

I sort of understand a shady developer stealing one thing from a super popular game, but two? And Skyrim of all games? That's almost asking to get caught.

I sort of understand a shady developer stealing one thing from a super popular game, but two? And Skyrim of all games? That's almost asking to get caught.

I'll always find a disgusting charm for this game, but it's this game that let you open the flood gates. This game is why you are now selling Life of Black Tiger and Firefighters: The SImulation, because after Solbrain, anything looks better. I almost love my time with this game, I am proud of beating it, and I also hate everything this game stands for and what followed suite.

By the way, the main character's face looks like a doll's head. Just me? It's creeped me out since the beginning.

Whatever, I'm the winner and this game sucks. Here's a picture of the problem that other guy mentioned:

Squint and you can see it. He's a ninja or something with to orange curved swords. I assume it's from another game.

Squint and you can see it. He's a ninja or something with to orange curved swords. I assume it's from another game.

Also, in case anyone was ready to correct me, there was a PC version of this game but it's also gone from history. I don't know if I'm the first person to beat the game in general because of that, only the PlayStation 4 version, but if you own the PC version I would assume someone could mod the game for you to give you the ability to save and at least pause, and I would not consider that cheating. I would consider that as doing the developers job for them. I did it the hard way, no one else has to.

Also also, the fairy lady you see promoting this game in the header, that's artwork stolen from a deviantART page. Here's the link so you can see who really made it: 

http://coocooon.deviantart.com/art/Elf-wallpaper-196617416 

Well, I didn't get a Platinum trophy for this game, it didn't have one, so I'll just make one myself the same way the people who made this game would do it. I'm going to use the picture for Cabela's Big Game Hunter: Pro Hunts's Platinum and crappily edit in a description that has poor grammar.

The Rise and Sadly Possible Decline of Toys-to-Life

In the year 2011, Activision decided to give a completely new concept for a character they owned the rights to. This character was Spyro the Dragon, the hero of games such as Spyro the Dragon, Spyro: A Hero's Tail, and before this newest series, a trilogy under the franchise name of The Legend of Spyro. This new series was named Skylanders, and it started with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. The idea was that Spyro, and every other playable character in the game, was usable by placing a toy onto a device (called a portal) that would read the chip in-bedded in the bottom. These games were aimed for children, and at the time of release, I did not think it would be something I'd be interested in. I'll also be the first to admit that a bit of my teenage arrogance had yet to shake off, I had only just gotten into college, and at the time I was simply nothing more than mad that a franchise from my childhood was receiving another reboot that was not enough like what I was used to. A completely unfair mindset I am glad is long gone from my personality.

In hindsight I can easily call this a genius bit of marketing. Children already hound their parents to buy them toys and action figures, and in today's age, video games are hardly the niche crowd they used to be. I'm willing to bet most children today now own a gaming console or handheld, or at the very least have parents who are willing to let them use theirs with the parental controls turned on or maybe even off. Plus, aside from Spyro and Cinder (another The Legend of Spyro character), all of the games characters were new and unique to the game (and that has held true until the inclusion of Crash Bandicoot characters from this year's installment and the brief cross-over with Nintendo characters Donkey Kong and Bowser). Any child who enjoyed the game would want to get more of them, without needing prior knowledge to all but two characters. This was a completely new game franchise, and they had nice advertisements as well. Ones that showed you just how many unique characters you could collect and play as.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yYMw0TnZRY

The games ended up becoming a success. Activision has even admitted the franchise has, by this point, earned them over a billion dollars in sales. As with any major success, there are always those who decide to try their own hand at it. Enter the Disney Corporation, and their toys-to-life game, Disney Infinity.

Infinity's goal was to let you play with your favorite Disney and Pixar characters, and once the second game came around they added in Marvel, and the third game added the Star Wars franchise. Disney Infinity 2.0 was the first toys-to-life game I played. I randomly decided it was time to give this genre a chance, and I figured I might have fun collecting the toys.

I was more right than I thought. I immediately fell in love with this style of game. I'm the kind of person who has always liked collecting things, but many times I ended up getting rid of my collection because I came to the conclusion that I never used them for anything. I understand why many people my age will buy toys or figurines and place them on their shelves, but for me, I always just sat there wishing I could actually use them for something. Disney Infinity solved my problem, and I could now collect very impressive looking figures, and I could use them with something, in this case an addictively fun video game.

I have heard from some that they do not like this genre, without remotely trying it for themselves, as they believe it is the gaming industry succumbing to greed. I have always been a realist, and this outlook makes it a little easier to counterpoint this kind of idea: finding smart way to charge customers for more money was not remotely new when the original Skylanders came out. I will even be the kind of person to argue that this formula is kinder to the customer than others ways.

This is far kinder than buying an extended warranty for something that some makers have intentionally made sure will have an issue just after the regular warranty will run out. This is far kinder than paying up to two to five dollars for an extra outfit your character can wear in a game, or for an extra weapon for them to shoot. Toys-to-life had to pay roughly fifteen dollars for an action figure or well designed figurine, that you could use with a game you've bought or just something you could look at. You never had to buy the game if you just wanted some of the figures, and fifteen dollars for a toy is fairly average a price when you see what some collectibles are selling for today. Especially since whenever they released a variant, they tended to be the same price as the usual toy. Infinity had crystal versions of eight characters that were exclusive to Toys-R-Us (supposedly the variant for Mickey Mouse was not exclusive, but I never saw him in a store other than Toys-R-Us), and would later take their Star Wars figures and release a version where their lightsabers would glow when placed on the portal. Skylanders on the other hand took their most popular characters and would release several different paint jobs for them.

My personal experience for Skylanders only goes as far as the most recent game; Imaginators. It has made me wish I'd given one of the older games a chance, as I really enjoy the beat 'em up style, and I think the humor and writing is very solid. It reminds me a lot of the Ratchet & Clank games, it's made for children and you can tell, but they make the characters unique from their first word, and there are several jokes smarter than you'd expect. As for Infinity, I have played all three games in the franchise, and I love each one for exactly what they are. Infinity 1 is a fun sandbox game that lets me play very fun stories set in Disney worlds, Infinity 2.0 is a very in-depth builder that lets me create whatever I want and then some, and Infinity 3.0 is an even better mix of both.

Now, there are other games of this genre. (Heads-up but even with the new editing I’m doing in 2019, I haven’t played Starlink: Battle for Atlas or Lightseekers. I own a Lightseekers toy and I want to play Starlink, but i can’t comment on what I know far too little about)

- Amiibo -

The one to release after the first two was Nintendo's example, the Amiibo. I only have six of these little guys myself: Kirby, King Dedede, Metaknight, Wedding Suit Bowser, and Pac-Man. They mostly sit on the shelf because the idea was they are useable in any game with Amiibo support and not just select games, but when I have used them I’ve loved what they do. I did in fact get every purple coin in Super Mario Odyssey thanks to Bowser, and I don’t regret. They may mostly be decorations, but they did help bridge the gap for me maybe more than Infinity did for buying collectible figures. I still have less non-toys-to-life figures than other people my age, but I get the appeal now and it’s probably because of Amiibo.

- Lego Dimensions -

I was very excited when this one was announced, as I have been a fan of the LEGO video games since LEGO Star Wars, and I had already started playing Infinity 2.0 by that point. Having played it, it does feel a little too close to a LEGO game than a Toys-to-Life game, if that makes any sense, but it also features some of the greatest levels and game play moments that I have ever seen in a LEGO game. I also assume they made some decent money from LEGO collectors, who can now buy single characters plus a vehicle, versus the hundred or so dollars per building set. Especially with some characters/franchises who are exclusive to the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGT9PrwRHdY

 

And now, for the other part of this posts title.

Earlier this year, Disney Interactive made an announcement that to many, myself included, hit very hard. Disney Infinity, for reasons they would later reveal, would be cancelled. The company behind the game was going to be closed, and Disney Interactive would basically be shut-down, the only games from the studio would now be licensed out to other companies. At the time, it was hard to see where the complete sense came from. I could not kid myself that they had to still be making enough money, cancellation would mean they weren't making enough in some fashion. Part of me felt like they should at least release the rest of the intended figures for 3.0, but I give them my respect for deciding to release as many as the did, as the original deadline for those chosen was so close to the cancellation announcement. We still got Alice, the Mad Hatter, Time, Nemo, and Dory, even if Peter Pan and other announced and soon-to-be-announced figures will not see the store shelves.

They have since explained more. Basically they could not keep up with how many extra characters they had unsold, as they put that duty on themselves versus another company. These are still the best looking Toys-to-Life toys, so I can easily look at them and believe that were too expensive to make for them to allow these problems.

But it was also no secret that Disney Infinity still managed to top the charts (when compared to competitors) before it's cancellation, even with Lego Dimensions stealing that spot on it's release date. The death of the strongest led many to question the entire genre's demise, but at the time Activision and Warner Bros. attested that they were not leaving the scene. LEGO Dimensions currently had a four-year plan, they will release toys for the game for four years, and then after that, they either create a sequel or they continue with just the first game, depending on what audiences crave after the time limit. But, since the original post, Dimensions was cancelled after their final character packs. Unlike Infinity, they left the game with all promised characters, but, unlike Infinity they did not give a compelling final playset, making the end still hollow when if it was some of their best characters. Beetlejuice, the Teen Titans, and the Powerpuff Girls were still great even if they had nothing much to show for it, even counting their fairly robust worlds and an exclusive episode of Teen Titans GO!.

As I said earlier, Activision has now released the sixth installment of their franchise.

And it has sold worse than the last year's game. If that sounds bad, I have a tweet that is unfortunately far more worrying.

I found it through a retweet from the Toys for Games Twitter, so both Twitters are good sources for further information.

I found it through a retweet from the Toys for Games Twitter, so both Twitters are good sources for further information.

Skylanders had already spawned off into Skylander Academy on Netflix. With no irony I can say it was one of my favorite exclusive shows on the platform, and as of 2019 the show has ended after three fantastic seasons. Activision is currently no longer keeping it a secret that they are trying new things to stay on top, the last Skylanders game was only on mobile, and Spyro was given a remaster/remake for the original three games. I feel it is safe to say the series is dead, but, I can’t shed too many tears as this finale felt more like a finale than the others got. Dimensions and Infinity tried their best to end on great notes, and both did and didn’t. Skylanders had a great last game, and a TV show with a finale that while did feel open enough to expand did in fact conclude the themes and story.

As for myself, I will of course still play the games I have bought, and am still going to buy more of the toys. I have earned the Platinum trophy for Infinty, Infinity 2.0, Infinity 3.0, Lego Dimensions, and Skylander Imaginators, and I even got the DLC trophies for 3.0 and Dimensions. I even got a second copy of both Infinity 1.0 and 2.0. Toys-to-Life started, for me, as a way to get collectibles I could justify owning. Now, it's a genre I have had countless hours of mindless fun in, and if its future depends on me spending a little more of my money, I won't complain. It may have been a fad, kind of like pogs, but I’ll be damned before even feeling remotely upset that I found my personal equivalent of pogs!

Many of us have a weakness when it comes to our money. Some of use shill out for fun mobile games, some of us like bar-hopping, expensive cars. For me, I have no problem admitting I am a grown man who likes buying video games where you can place toys on a device to play as that same character.

A Retrospective: L.A. Noire

On May 17th, 2011, Rockstar Games and Team Bondi released a game for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. In fall of that year, a complete edition was released, which also saw it's PC port. (And not too long after this original blog entry, the game was given a port to the Nintendo Switch, where it shockingly looks as good as it did before, as well as VR support for the PC port which I never tried) That game, L.A. Noire, promised to be a detective story unlike video games have ever told. A new type of facial recognition technology had been used for the game, one that captured a face to near life-like proportions. You would have to actually watch a real human face when they told you something important, and you would have to decide if they were flat-out lying, holding something back, or telling you the honest truth. When I saw the trailer for the game, I was excited for everything they promised.

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1851/9481/

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1851/9481/

My previous experience with Rockstar games was with Red Dead Redemption, their now classic western deconstruction. I knew Rockstar were utter geniuses with character and story, and their graphics and gameplay weren't anything to sneeze at by this point. I knew they would deliver on their promise of a fantastic detective game.

One thing I specifically remember being excited for was that protagonist Cole Phelps would be a far more heroic character than the norm for Rockstar. My least favorite part of Red Dead Redemption was the fact you could still go on a shooting spree should you see fit; as it betrayed the character growth of former-outlaw-just-trying-to-get-his-family-back John Marston. The completely immoral characters found in Grand Theft Auto could barely get away with an understandable reason for a completely player-controlled feat, and the complete removal of the feature made me happy.

Remember that in just a short bit.

I got the game either the day it came out, or just after. I didn't pre-order the game but I did immediately head out to give them my sixty dollars, not willing to wait a few months for a price-drop. Something I only do for Rockstar games and RPGs, for the record. From my first few minutes of the game (disregarding my inexperience with the controllers leading to me running over a streetlight being literally the first thing I did), I was hooked, it was already proving to be everything I wanted it to be.

I loved Cole Phelps, I loved solving crimes, I loved the setting of a noir 1940's. I remember thinking the only thing that could have been better was if the game let me play it in black-and-white. A quick search through the options resulted in me finding out that I could indeed play the entire game in black-and-white, and I did.

Halfway through that first playthrough, the very thing I didn't want somehow ended up bugging me. I ended up missing the carnage I could ensue from Red Dead Redemption. Normally I don't care for doing such things, but when I play a Rockstar game, and they let me, I do realize I am bored of being the greatest and most heroic person in that games world, and I fall into the murderous sprees that almost everyone who plays these games eventually do. L.A. Noire felt so much like the Rockstar game that it was, that my brain rewired itself to try and convince me the game needed to let me do anything. This proved fruitless and the game was so hard-wired into keeping Phelps an honest and good cop that even if you tried running over a pedestrian, they manage to evade your vehicle roughly eight or nine times out of ten.

After my first playthrough, I went back to the missions so I could get one hundred percent on every single case, and I also went out of my way to find every single collectible.

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1881/6601/

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1881/6601/

The man being questioned above is from the prologue, meaning the game outright tells you the answers to what you need to do for everything he says. You will wish the game was that easy when you try to get one-hundred percent, while not every performance is exactly subtle in the correct answer, making sure you have the right evidence to back up a claim can be an easy miss that sets back the entire chapter. The game is supposed to be hard like that, and it achieves it. I did in fact complete the game but I don't remotely remember a third of the correct choices.

The mentioned collectibles were even more of a nightmare. The golden film reels were easy to find with an online guide, and the street crimes you need to stop show up on your map whenever you are not in story mode and driving to them will activate them without the phonecall that the story version requires beforehand, but the cars were almost impossible from sheer annoyance. Some only showed up in one place, meaning a guide was usable. Others just happened to maybe spawn with an NPC riding in them, which meant you'd have to commandeer them, claiming a police emergency. So many cars looked so alike that it took ages to get them all, and you gained no reward outside of and achievement.

My first playthrough and a half tainted my opinion.

Thankfully, it didn't taint my final opinion. I decided to play the game again one more time. Without bothering to get everything, willing to mess up without restarting the chapter. Just actually play the game for what it was.

The game was not Grand Theft Auto, Bully, or Red Dead Redemption. The collectibles were just something else to do if you wanted it. L.A. Noire was a well-written crime story with wonderful characters and the best facial recognition technology of the time. When I let the game be itself, I realized just how great it was.

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1891/6471/

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/screens/album/1891/6471/

I believe the best way to discuss my second playthrough would be to mention the character in the above screen, wearing the pink suit on the far right. That is Cole Phelps's partner in the Vice cases, the bigoted and corrupt Roy Earle. I hated Roy the first time, and for all the right reasons. The man was a corrupt cop, doing anything for a dollar, along with easily going along with the harsh bigotry of 1940's America. He was meant to be hated, and it worked. Then I listened to him a little more the second time. During one of the cases, Roy and Phelps discussed corruption, as it dealt with the case. Phelps, good boy at heart that he was, showed disgust and could not understand how anyone could sink so low.

Roy's reaction, surprised me.

Roy spoke like corruption was a terrible, lowdown thing, and he also outright stated that with the way to world worked, there was no other way to do anything. So much of Roy made sense to me, he almost garnered my sympathy out of it. He was no Archie Bunker, but I stopped seeing a man who was simply evil and spiteful, instead I saw somebody who well and truly believed he was a terrible person because the world only lets the terrible people get anything done. It did not redeem him, and it didn't need to, it simply gave me a surprisingly relatable layer to a character I originally didn't think he had or needed.

For those you don't know, Team Bondi (the other studio behind this game) has since closed it's doors. Despite loving this game, I sadly have to say it may have been deserved, as I've heard many terrible business practices, including towards Rockstar despite the latter studio being the only reason the game likely got it's final funding at all. We'll never see a sequel to this game, the technology is too expensive, and Bondi's original plan of the sequel adding full-body motion scan just as good as the facial would have made it even more so. Instead L.A. Noire sits in that pile of great games that are complete stand-alones in a vast ocean of games that for some reason needed a large franchise. I do highly recommend seeing just what I love about this game for yourselves. I played the 360 version, and I also own the complete version for the PC (and as edited in above I also have the remastered Switch port since this original posting), awaiting the day I finally get a high-end gaming computer so I can play the game in the way I truly believe would be best (although having it portable it fantastic as well).

I do still think it's worth completing, despite the time and effort, but L.A. Noire is a story experience and it's best to never forget that whilst playing.

Now here's a blooper reel made from the people behind the motion capture. They actually took real flubs and dully modeled them just for the sake of doing it, and in five minutes it really shows just how great the motion capture was. (Please note this version of video is uploaded by a fan, but the company hasn't released the footage themselves, and this is the best quality one. Should that change I will re-upload the official version)