Luckily for me most of what I just went on about has happened in December. As you know this past month I got the PlayStation 4. I think it's pretty cool. You can read more about that here if you like. So as you may have guessed I've been playing the thing a fair bit. I played some of both Need for Speed Rivals, and Lego Marvel. Perhaps I'll get around to beating them at some point, but with my current amount of games to play I don't know that I will. Both games are pretty fun though. I'm not going to talk about Lego Marvel today. It's another open world Lego game.
I did however play all of Assassin's Creed IV, and it was awesome. I don't know how you can go from having III be such a disaster to having IV be so well put together. Being a pirate and sailing the open seas is a magical experience that I highly recommend.
At some point I bought Super Mario 3D world, because I decided I wanted to play another Wii-U game. At this point I can safely say that Super Mario 3D world is the best Wii-U game out there. Somehow the Super Mario Galaxy team can spin straw into gold time and time again. They should probably be allowed to make every Mario related game from here on out if they keep doing such solid work. I couldn't stop myself from playing until the end of the game in two sittings. I still have a lot of collectibles to find and I'm eager to jump back in and get them all.
Also, sorry if this becomes an incomprehensible mess.
Ready, set, video games!
Need for Speed Rivals
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit was an amazing game. Every Need for Speed game since then has not been. You could even say that they were kind of bad. Rivals gets so close to bringing back what I loved about Hot Pursuit. It has a lot of potential, but it's held back by some of it's own mechanics.
Much like Hot Pursuit, Rivals is a good old fashioned game involving cops and racers. If you choose a cop you have to try and take racers off the road using any means necessary. You also get time penalties if you drive dangerously, which totally sucks. If you choose a racer you just race and try not to get taken down by the cops. In my opinion playing as a racer is much more fun. Being penalized for getting knocked around isn't something I want happening to me in a racing game. Especially when other cars are constantly smashing into you.
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| Races start out simple enough, but the cops ALWAYS show up to ruin them. |
When it comes down to it Need for Speed Rivals is a competent racing game. You drive around an open world and go from event to event. The terrain is extremely varied. One moment you'll be in the desert and then all of a sudden you'll be on a mountain with snow all around you. As you race around the world and complete events you'll get speed points, which happen to be the games currency. You'll use it to purchase new cars, power them up, and purchase power-ups. You get them for doing almost anything, what's hard is keeping them. In order to get the speed points to keep you need to bank them at a hideout. If you get taken down before that point you lose them all. This is a huge risk-reward scenario. The longer you stay out the more speed points you get. When you complete an event you get a multiplier, but it's nearly impossible to stay alive for more than an event.
Normally the game will throw you into a server with around 8 other players. It doesn't tell you if they're cops or not. When you're with other humans you'll almost surely die very quickly, because they actually know how to be efficient. Normally I turn off the internet so I live a bit longer. The problem is that so many computer players spawn. Playing as a racer doing almost anything will trigger a chase. Then before you know it you have a million cops on your ass. It ends up getting pretty frustrating. Sometimes I just want to do an event in peace, but that just can't happen. At least in Hot Pursuit you knew which events would have cops in them before starting. Since Rivals is in an open world the cops are everywhere all the time!
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| On average this many cops are chasing you... |
It wouldn't be as bad if the open world was put together better. If you want to race with friends you really can't unless you challenge them to a head to head race. This requires that you find them on the map first, which is kind of hard, because everyone is driving as fast as possible. If you want to do events with other players you might as well forget about it. That would require all the necessary players to be at the event starting position. On top of that you have to not get killed on the way there, or you'll have to start super far away from the event again. I wish there was some type of party system in the game or something to make multiplayer a little more playable. As it is right now it's basically a single player game where other players happen to be in the same world for their single player experience.
Oh yeah, there's a story too. Surprise, it's not good. Every story scene consists of a computer screen with video of racers or cops on it and some weird chat. In the background a racer or cop is spouting off nonsense about freedom or justice. It's all super self righteous bullshit, but in a funny kind of way. There's a racer named F8 in the story, which is pronounced fate. That's edgy I guess? The story seems to be trying way too hard to be something it's not. Need for Speed the Run taught us all just how terrible stories in Need for Speed games can truly be. So I guess I should be thankful it's not that awful.
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| At least it's not this game. |
As a racing game it's fine. It handles how you'd expect it to. That's what makes it mediocre. With an untapped open world and bad multiplayer mechanics Rivals is kind of disappointing. If you're looking for some free roam racing you'd probably be better off playing something like Forza Horizons, or better yet Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
I really liked the real world plot of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Then Assassin's Creed 3 happened and killed it for me. I don't really know where it went wrong, but it went horribly wrong. On top of the real world plot being destroyed, the in animus plot wasn't very good either. It felt very disjointed and there were way too many time skips for absolutely no reason. Connor was a decent character in the beginning, but unlike Ezio in the previous games he was a major bummer. Assassin's Creed 3 was a disappointment on many levels for me and it almost made me stop playing the franchise.
The first few trailers of Assassin's Creed IV looked interesting to me. I'm a huge fan of pirates, so that helped out a lot. I had originally decided not to purchase it at all, but Watchdogs got delayed and I needed a game to play on the PS4 at launch. Much to my surprise it even got excellent reviews. I ended up liking AC 4 a whole lot. It somehow managed to reinvigorate my interest in the franchise.
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| You'll be stabbing lots of people in AC IV. |
As you may have guessed you play as an Assassin in Assassin's Creed IV. Well, he's not actually an Assassin to start with, but he sure is good at assassinating people. You play as Edward Kenway, who is the grandfather of Connor from Assassin's Creed 3. Edward is a happy go lucky pirate trying to make his way in life. The best part about Edward is that he's a fun character. He doesn't really have a whole lot going on except for the fact that he wants to find treasure and have fun. Sure, he's not the deepest character ever, but he's just fun to play as. He's a pirate and he acts like one. He still dons the Assassin's robes and stabs fools from behind, but he can also sail a ship on the high seas.
While Connor could sail a ship in Assassin's Creed 3, Assassin's Creed 4 expands on that concept quite a bit. In order to get from place to place Edward must sail across the ocean in his ship the Jackdaw. It's an open world game, so there are tons of places to explore and things to do. You can fish, take over naval bases, battle other ships, and sing some sweet sea shanties. On land you can do the same things as you could in every other Assassin's Creed game. There are additions, but none of them are really worth nothing.
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| Edward is a fun character who's a bit of a badass. |
The overall story isn't anything to write home about. Edward is looking for a place called the observatory, because with its power he will be able to get rich. It's an interesting enough tale, but it really starts to feel like a slog in the middle section of the game. It felt like one of the longest games I've every played, but that might be partially due to the fact that I was trying to do all the side activities. There are way too many side activities.
Much to my surprise the game actually has a story outside of the animus as well. All of the terrible events of Assassin's Creed 3 have still happened, but somehow the setting manages to be interesting. You are a faceless employee at Abstergo Entertainment, which is a video game company the Templars use as a front. They develop games for the animus. You are a developer on their newest pirate game, which is why you're playing as Edward. You can get out of the animus and walk around the offices in first person. It's really weird, but in an interesting way. There is still an overarching plot, but it's nothing special. I think they're floundering after what happened after AC3 and decided to just keep an overarching plot, because the series has always had one.
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| Sailing the high seas is surprisingly fun. |
Assassin's Creed IV is another Assassin's Creed game. The difference is that it's actually good again like Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed 2 were. The gameplay is largely the same as it was in previous iterations with the addition of boat combat on a much larger scale than in Assassin's Creed 3. I played it on the PlayStation 4 and the graphics were incredible. The topical environments look very vibrant, but the water in the ocean is absolutely mind blowing. If you have any interest in the Assassin's Creed franchise still you should probably give Assassin's Creed 4 a chance.
Super Mario 3D World
Video games have become much more complicated over the past few years. In most cases games put complex systems and graphics over the gaming experience itself. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but sometimes it just gets tiring. Sometimes I just want to sit down with a game and have fun. That's exactly what happened with Super Mario 3D World. I've been getting increasingly frustrated with Nintendo recently, but for a brief moment they've done something beautiful. The Wii-U now has a game that I'd say makes buying the system worth it.
I didn't buy New Super Mario Bros. U, or Super Luigi U. My stance on 2D Mario games that take around 4 hours to beat and cost a full $60 is that they're a load of bullshit. While it might be a great game for those four hours it's just another rehash of the New Super Mario Bros. formula that Nintendo thinks is the greatest thing ever. Truth be told I'm kind of over 2D traditional Mario games now. I think 2D Mario games died when Super Mario 64 came out. If I want to play classic Mario I'll bust out my Super Nintendo and play some classic Mario.
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| I'm pretty much over 2D Mario games. |
Nintendo has always been able to make the most out of the hardware they have. Even though the Wii-U is on par with the PS3 and 360 I thought it would be left behind in graphical potential. Much to my dismay I'd say that 3D looks far better than anything I played on the PlayStation 4, which is a next generation console. Much like Pikmin 3, 3D world uses its art style to its advantage. I would be willing to go so far as to say that 3D world is the best looking game I have played this year.
What's funny is that it's looks don't really mean that much, because it's just straight up fun to play. In essence it's the same game as Super Mario 3D land for the 3DS. Despite that it doesn't seem like a rehash, because there's enough new content to keep things interesting. Every single level is unique, and there are quite a few levels that introduce mechanics only used for that specific level.
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| Many levels use mechanics that are never seen again. |
Much like Super Mario Bros. 2 you have the option to play as multiple characters who each have their own special abilities. Mario plays exactly how you would expect him to play. Luigi can jump a little higher and flutter his legs to get farther. Peach can float for a while, which allows her to get much farther with her jumps than other characters. Toad's ability to pick stuff up super fast in Mario 2 wouldn't really help him in this game, so now he just has the most mobility. Once he starts running he can fly through the stages with incredible speed. You can also unlock Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy once you complete the main levels. She can jump a second time by spinning, which wasn't very impressive to me. Much as I do in all Mario games that allow me to I stuck to using Princess Peach. Her floating ability makes precision jumps so much easier.
When I first saw the trailer for 3D world I didn't know what to think. Mainly because the new suit turns you into a cat. The pick-up is a bell, which then puts the person who picked it up into a colored cat suit. It allows you to slash and run straight up walls. I don't like cats, but the cat suit is amazing. It pretty much breaks the game and makes it easy to get anywhere. I often found myself going back to the first level to pick it up.
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| Princess Peach was my character of choice for most of the game. |
What I don't like about it is that it's meant for four players. The levels start off super wide and seem a bit empty, because four people could be there. This also makes the starting levels a little bit easier than I'd like. I don't think that games that involve precision platforming should be multiplayer. It just makes every level pure bedlam, because everyone dies all the time when someone gets ahead. Lucky for me the later levels get very challenging and I can't even fathom how you'd be able to get through them with multiple people. There are a ton of levels in the game, and you can unlock extra worlds and levels by getting all of the collectibles. Each level has three green stars and most of them have a Miiverse stamp to collect. You will also want to reach the top of every flagpole, which seems easiest to do with Peach.
Super Mario 3D World is fun. I can't say that enough. The game controls amazingly. When mixed with the truly incredible visuals and jaunty orchestrated soundtrack something truly memorable is born. I want to get back to collecting everything the game has to offer, but with so many other games I need to play I sadly might not get to for a while.
Christmas is Almost Here
It's almost Christmas, which means that this edition of Game Time is horrendously late. I'm going to warn you that the December edition of Game Time will probably be horrendously late as well. I've already played a ton of games this month and I'm sure to get a whole bunch more to play on Christmas. Perhaps by Christmas I'll be able to breath out of my nose again!
Since I have so many things to talk about I'm thinking I might do two editions of Game Time to be able to fit everything in. Perhaps I'll just write up a thing about the Vita and how awesome it is. It's a real shame that Sony isn't helping it sell at all.
I don't know. I have a lot of games to be playing, so I'll see you next time.
-Manny
