GOTY 2014 Podcast

2014 has come to a close, which means that Game of the Year is upon us. As usual I have selected my top ten games. For a change of pace I got together with Noukeo and we recorded our talk about what we believe to be the top ten games of 2014. Our lists are both quite different but share many similarities.

The audio is a little weird for some inexplicable reason. At random intervals my mic will echo for a few seconds. It seems to be some kind of feedback from when Nouk and I talk at the same time. *Shrugs* It's not too bad, but it was enough for me to notice it.

I hope that you enjoy our discussion! If you're not a fan of Podcasts I will be posting a text version of my list within the next few days.

Party Game Sundays: Oops! Prank Party

It may have seemed like I forgot about Party Game Sundays, but I never forget about Party Game Sundays. For some reason the past few Sundays we haven't really been playing any games, and this most recent Sunday we were at a fighting game tournament. Obviously we did not play any party games while we were there. However, I have neglected to write about the last two games we did play.

Before I do that though I wanted to say that I will not be able to write about Party Game Sundays for at least another month. Noukeo will be working every Sunday for the rest of the month, so we won't get to do anything again for a few weeks. With that being said let me tell you about Oops! Prank Party. I absolutely hated it!

Get ready to look at this stupid board a lot!

I'm all for playing a party game with friends. Under the right circumstances I think that even Mario Party is fun. I've been known to enjoy it on certain occasions, but Oops! Prank Party really hit me the wrong way. Any time I see a game board in a video game I instinctively cringe. It generally means that I need to mentally prep myself for bad mini-games and slow moving animations. Sure enough Oops! Prank Party gave me both.

To start off the game had an awesome character creation screen. We took the time to make our characters, but in the end it didn't matter at all. Each time you play a mini-game the losers are "pranked" and are forced to wear some kind of dumb costume, or get a bunch of goo dumped on them. By the second mini-game you can't tell what the hell your character was originally supposed to look like.

Don't bother making a character.

When I say mini-game I use that term very lightly. Sure there were your basic mini-games like racing and bouncing each other around on balls. However, most of the games involved random chance. So many times we had to choose the right chair, or rope and just hope that we picked the right one. That kind of stuff is stupid. I want to play a game, not pray to some RNG god.

So the mini-games weren't amazing, but some of them were okay. They definitely don't explain why I felt so much disdain towards this game. I think my main issue was the fact that everything took so god damn long to happen. The camera has to follow each player individually as they move, it has to show a dumb animation for every space that's landed on, and it takes a stupid amount of time to load. All around there was just so much waiting it made me angry.

Pick the right diving board and win...

The most upsetting part is that there was no pulling pranks on other players like the name of the game promises. If you land on certain spaces you get "pranked" which basically makes you go back a few spaces. You also get "pranked" when you lose mini-games and have to wear silly costumes. What I thought was going to happen was we'd be able to screw each other over in the games and on the board. Instead we got lame mini-games, silly costumes, and a slow moving game with tons of animation.

It's been a few weeks so my anger has subsided, but when we initially played this I was legitimately angered by the game. There were so many opportunities for the game to speed up, but it instead took as long as possible. It didn't help that the mini-games took like 10 seconds each and were mostly random chance. The majority of the game is watching your characters move around the board slowly.

I definitely think that this game will appeal to some people, but for me it was like nails on a chalkboard.

Podcast Episode 4

For the fourth episode I thought it would be best to bring everyone down a bit. Recently I've been noticing how becoming what is theoretically an adult has changed my video gaming habits. If you want to hear about that for about a half hour then I suggest you listen to this. Enjoy!

Welcome to Arcade Assault

Since I finished the Bayonetta Let's Play I've been trying to come up with a new video series. I finally came up with Arcade Assault. For some reason I always force myself to play through arcade mode in fighting games with every single character.

I used to do it in order to unlock characters, and see all of the endings. Sadly arcade endings suck in most games now, and characters rarely need to be unlocked. For some reason I still force myself to do it! For the first game and episode I chose to do classic mode in Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U. There are so many characters to do it with and I need to unlock those sweet sweet trophies!

I recorded the first episode last night, and streamed it as well. I decided that I'll stream smash and put the archives on YouTube, because there are so many characters. When Guilty Gear comes out on  the 16th I'll just be recording myself playing through arcade mode in that. It seems like shorter episodes will be better for most things, but at least for Smash I have so much to get through.

Okay, enough of the introduction. I leave you with the first episode of Arcade Assault!

Game Time - November 2014

I feel like it's been a lifetime since I did the October edition of Game Time. Since that time I have "completed" a let's play and done a whole bunch of streaming. In case you missed me flooding this page with Bayonetta 2 episodes, you can now watch the entire playthrough with the exception of a chapter that got destoryed... Since I posted so much about it on here I won't be taking about it here.

Instead, I will be talking about Assassin's Creed Unity and how it straddles the fine line between being average and terrible. I did however, end up playing two excellent games this month, which were oddly enough both Nintendo games. As you might imagine I played a whole lot of the Wii-U version of smash brothers, but I also miraculously made time to complete Alpha Sapphire!

This month actually made me realize that I'm pretty much an adult now, which is both cool and depressing. I've been thinking a lot about how my gaming habits and time have changed over the last few months, which is why I'm going to be recording a podcast about it tomorrow. So you can look forward to that, but until then it's game time!

Assassin's Creed Unity

The first Assassin's Creed I played was Brotherhood. I watched my brother play through all of the first game, and a college roommate play through most of the second. I ended up really liking it and got hooked on the series. Assassin's Creed 3 let me down a great deal, but I was willing to give the series another go. When Black Flag came out I absolutely loved it, because who doesn't love pirates?

That brings us to Assassin's Creed Unity. Let's just say that just like Assassin's Creed 3 this entry in the series has shaken my faith. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Unity to a certain extent, but it could have been a whole lot better. In fact, it should have been a lot better. A disconcerting trend in modern gaming is that games come out busted and that's not something that should be happening. A lot of games this fall have been totally bunk. Unity wasn't totally busted, but it's certainly not the best.

ohh noo my spine!

The game takes place in revolutionary Paris, so there are tons of people rioting in the streets. With the current generation of consoles Ubisoft wanted to show off how awesome their crowd tech is, so they have the street lines with tons of people. The problem is that every time you run through a crowd the frame rate tanks. For some reason it's not just when there are crowds either it happens frequently. If you can't get the frame rate up with tons of useless npcs on the screen maybe you shouldn't have so god damn many? To make it even worse they claim that the game runs at 900p instead of 1080p to keep the frame rate up. What the hell was it like at 1080p!?

That's only the tip of the iceberg. I had some npcs half into the world, and a corpse fly away and freak out on me. That's the normal kind of jank I expect from an open world game though. My friend Noukeo actually fell through the game world multiple times, and that's a bug that's being reported very frequently. For some reason the faces of characters seem to be melting off for a lot of people too. Ubisoft has issued numerous patches to address these issues, but I've already completed the game, so it's too late for me.

THIS IS IN A SHIPPING VIDEO GAME. OH MY GOD.

It's a real bummer that even if this game ran perfectly it would still be kind of lame. You play as Arno Dorian, who is obviously an Assassin. The overall plot and big bad guy are both pretty lame. There is a lot of good character interaction from Arno and his childhood love, but that's really the best part of the game. You're generally running around assassinating people who are loosely explained by the plot. Since Brotherhood I feel like the plots in these games have been super disjointed with a lot of time skips for no reason. Now that they seem to care so little about the real world plot it's becoming much more apparent.

For some reason I felt like the general gameplay mechanics were worse as well. Personally I didn't like the combat at all. Unity moves away from the free-flow combat and unlimited counter kills of its predecessors in favor of a more challenging system. You can still parry your opponents, but you need to continue hitting them repeatedly. This isn't too bad once you get used to it, it just makes every encounter a chore. It doesn't help that if you have more than two guards on you you're basically toasted. For some reason when you're being ganged up on other guards will run up and just shoot you in the face real quick, which is infuriating. The climbing didn't seem to be as fluid either. I got stuck on geometry way more in this game and had a much harder time jumping where I needed to.

At least the glitches are funny?

To be fair to Unity it tried really hard to be good. The assassination missions in the past few games basically involved running up to a guy, fighting 500 guards, and then just walking away. In Unity they're at least a bit more elaborate. You need to get into locations, which have set entrances and exits. There are events to help you out if you complete them. Sadly the assassination missions alone weren't good enough to make me like Unity.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Since Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby came out the same night as Super Smash I wasn't planning on playing right away. However, I couldn't resist the allure of reliving my Sapphire nostalgia. I still have very vivid memories of playing the original on Gameboy Advance. I was so into the game that I hid my progress report from my parents, because I knew they wouldn't let me play for a while. I had a 40 in math at the time, so I got the brilliant idea of hiding it behind the couch. It worked out for around a month, but I forgot I had hidden it and my mom found it while cleaning. So I was able to beat Sapphire, but I ended up not being able to play any video games for over a month. It was totally worth it.

I've always liked the Pokemon series, but I think Ruby and Sapphire were where my love of the series solidified. Before they were fun distractions, but my obsession truly started with Ruby and Sapphire. One night a few weeks ago before I went to bed I decided to start Alpha Sapphire, and I couldn't stop. I have now completed the main story and am on the cool new post game story.

Mega Blaziken is pretty awesome.

In case you were wondering it's basically the same old Ruby and Sapphire from back in the day, but now it has hot 3d graphics like Pokemon X and Y. That doesn't mean it's exactly the same though, there are quite a few new interesting features. The first being that Pokemon actually appear in the grass. So if you're in the grass a shadow of a Pokemon will appear. If you sneak up on it by walking slowly you'll fight it. These hidden Pokemon are generally stronger than the ones you'll randomly find in the grass. You can actually search for pokemon you've run into in the grass as well, and the more you come into contact with them the better they will be.

I try to force myself to go through every game with Pokemon caught entirely during my playthrough. This time I was lucky enough to get two shinies. The first is the shiny Beldum, which everyone can get through wifi from Nintendo. The second is a shiny Magikarp, which came up on my first attempt to fish in the game. I really wanted a Gyrados to go through the game with, so now I have two shiny Gyrados'.

Secret bases are probably my favorite part of the new games.

I wish I had more to say about the game. It's an excellent recreation of the original games. Secret bases are awesome and make their triumphant return. I don't know it's Pokemon. I thought this would be the one that finally made me get sick of Pokemon, but it wasn't. As long as Nintendo keeps putting them out I'll keep buying them.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U

My level of hype for this game was unbelievable. The night it came out I was planning on staying up all night and streaming it, but that didn't end up working out. For some reason my local Gamestop didn't receive the Gamecube controller adapters, so I couldn't play locally with Noukeo. So instead we were sitting in my house playing online, so that we could both use our Wii-U game pads. Using a wii-mote is awful for smash. I don't recommend it to anyone. Around 4:30 AM I started to feel like my stomach was going to explode, so I ended up going to bed. The following days I played a ton of Smash, but didn't stream very much of it.

So as it turns out I really like Smash on Wii-U. It looks incredible. It still blows my mind that Nintendo puts out games that run in 1080p at 60fps and games on PS4 can't even handle running most games at 30fps! It helps that Nintendo has killer art direction in all of their games.

Princess Peach is my boo! Seriously she's the greatest.

I stopped playing the 3DS version weeks ago, which I now think was a good decision. While the 3DS game is good the Wii-U version is so much better. As I mentioned previously the graphics are amazing. On top of that there's a ton more content. Instead of every stage having two songs they all have a minimum of five, and there are at least extra unlockable songs! Almost any Nintendo song you can think of is in the Wii-U version to enjoy.

The main thing I like about this version is that I can use a Gamecube controller. I know I sound like some kind of weird hardcore Smash player when I say that, but it's really not the case. I find the Gamecube controller to be very comfortable and it's what I'm used to playing Smash with. Unlike the 3DS I'm not worried that I'm going to rip the analog stick off and I feel much more comfortable hitting the buttons with force. I tend to dodge a lot more and shield better when I'm using a Gamecube controller. It shows that Nintendo is trying to understand their fan base, because most companies wouldn't put out a USB adapter for a two generation old controller.

I kill myself with this move all the time.

The new characters in this generation of Smash are all pretty cool. While I think it's lame that the Ice Climbers are gone, new additions like Little Mac, Rosalina, and Mega Man are awesome. I think Little Mac is my favorite newcomer. I've always thought he would be a cool character and I was right! He's super fast, does a ton of damage, and wears a hoodie. He's like the perfect character for me, except that he has the worst recovery ever. Seriously, if he's like three feet away from the stage he can't get back. It's no good for me, especially since I main Peach who has the best recovery ever. Rosalina is cool as well with her little star friend luma. She's super strong as well, but I just don't want to learn how to use both of them in unison in order to maximize damage.

I really like this version of Smash, and I hope to stream more of it soon. One of the reasons I've hesitated streaming Smash is because I don't think I'm very good at it. Sure I can be competitive with my friends, but I don't think I'm amazing or anything. So when I think about the amount of pro players who stream Smash I get a little apprehensive about putting my play out there. Over the past few days I decided that I don't really care about the skill level of the play I put out there. I just want to stream and have fun, which is what Smash is all about. Hopefully you can look forward to more Smash streams in the future.

Ohhh the fighting games!

I was going to apologize for being light on content this past month, but then I realized that I finished an entire Let's Play of Bayonetta 2, streamed a bunch of Spelunky, and made a whole bunch more videos. I think the fact that I work a shitty retail job has made the past three weeks seem much longer than they actually were.

However, now that it's December I'll have quite a bit of content. I'm going to be streaming as much Smash as I can in my free time. Then once Guilty Gear Xrd Sign comes out on the 16th I will be playing that as much as humanly possible. If you have ever wanted to see terrible Guilty Gear play, then this will be your premiere source for just that!

I've definitely been slacking in the podcast department, but this month I'll have at least two. I will definitely be recording one tomorrow and then later in the month Noukeo and I will be doing a game of the year podcast. I'm trying my best to get content out there and I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

It's been fun, see you guys next time!

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 is Over

So, it turns out that Let's Plays aren't the best format for the way I play video games. I like to binge play games. With a Let's Play I had to stop and render videos after every chapter, which vastly slowed down the way I played Bayonetta 2. If I ever do anything like this again I'll probably just stream large chunks of me playing a game and then export it to YouTube.

I made a huge dump of episodes today, so that I could finish the series up. Sadly there were some technical difficulties though. The 14th episode mysteriously has no commentary, so that's just game audio. I am kind of against re-recording and making the same reactions again, so I left it as it was.

As if that wasn't annoying enough the 15th episode was not watchable. The video file freaked out halfway through and the frame rate halved. So you'd get to the end of the video in terms of audio, but it was only half of the actual video... Needless to say that wasn't something I wanted to upload. So I just left it out completely. It's the 14th chapter of the game, so if you want to see a mech punch stuff you can find that.

I liked Bayonetta 2 a lot, and I'm happy to post the entire playlist here so I can stop flooding this page with individual updates. Thanks!

Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack 1 Tracks

Yesterday the first pack of Mario Kart DLC came out. It came with four new karts, three new characters, and 8 new tracks spread across two cups.

I created two videos, one for each cup in order to showcase the new stages and their amazing music. I hope you enjoy them!

 

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 10

In this episode the story really starts to draw me in as we fight a floating blue guy. In all seriousness though there are important plot points in this one that relate to both Loki and Bayonetta's past. It was awesome.

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 9

Who wants to see Bayonetta fight some cubes? What if I told you that the cubes transformed into monsters? If you like what you're hearing, then this is the episode for you!

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 8

Last episode took place falling down a tower, so why wouldn't this one take place inside a giant manta ray? Also, the thumbnail for the video couldn't have possibly been any better!

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 7

This is the shortest episode yet. It takes place mostly while falling from a tower. It's nuts.

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 6

Who's ready to transform into a giant water snake?

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 5

This time I tackle chapter 4. It's probably my favorite so far, just because I like fighting strong human sized enemies. Sure, it turns into a giant battle between two ridiculously sized creatures, but that's okay too.

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 4

The fourth episode of the ever-blurry Let's Play is upon us. In it Bayonetta does some surfing while dodging churches. It's pretty insane.

Episode 3 of the Podcast

Since I've been streaming Spelunky every day I figured it was only fitting that I do an episode of the podcast about it. When I'm playing I don't exactly have my full attention to explain what I'm trying to do in game. Hopefully this episode will give you a little more insight into why I like the game, and what I'm trying to do when I play.

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 3

Episode 3 is up and ready to go, it's time to conquer chapter 2. This time I pick up the awesome katanas and start cutting stuff up!

Game Time - October 2014

This month marked the beginning of my foray into the video world. As you may have noticed I streamed quite a bit of Spelunky, and even played through the entirety of Grim Fandango for charity. I also started posting videos on my YouTube channel, like my Let's Play of Bayonetta 2. However, this is still a blog so I'm not going to stop typing up this kind of stuff.

Since you can just go and watch me playing through Bayonetta 2 we'll be talking about some different stuff here. Shadow of Mordor came out for the PS4 and it's just as amazing as I hoped it would be. A Lord of the Rings game with awesome combat? I never would have believed it a few years ago.

I also played through Dust: An Elysian Tail, which was finally released on the Playstation 4. I saw my brother play a lot of it on 360, so I'm glad I finally got to see it through to the end for myself. I'll finish up by talking about the few hours of Freedom Wars I played. It's kind of like Monster Hunter, but with an anime style prison. I need to get back to playing it, so without further ado, it's game time! 

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Arkham Asylum changed the way melee combat works in modern video games. Its system was so solid that now almost every single game with melee combat emulates. Shadow of Mordor is no exception, which is a good thing. I like the Batman combat, so when it's put into other games I tend to enjoy it. You can seamlessly go from foe to foe and use special abilities as the combo grows. This game is super brutal, more so than most games I've played in recent years. It's super easy to decapitate and maim foes, which is both satisfying and a little bit disturbing.

You play as Talion, who is a ranger. His family was killed by Sauron, and then he is possessed by a wraith. Surprise, it's a Lord of the Rings game! What's weird is that this game could pretty much be anything, but for some reason it has a Lord of the Rings skin on it. The story is absolutely secondary to the gameplay. It takes place in Middle Earth, but it could probably have taken place anywhere with any other protagonist. Sure, I like the Lord of the Rings universe, but it doesn't make any reasonable difference here,

Get ready to stab all the orcs!

The main draw to Shadow of Mordor is the nemesis system, which works exactly as advertised. Being a Lord of the Rings game you fight a lot of orcs. They have a hierarchy. So you have normal grunt soldiers, commanders, and a few other classes all the way up to the highest which is war chief. All of the elite units have names, traits, and weaknesses. What's insane is that they remember you and what you've done. So every time you come into contact with them they will remember the scenario. If you defeated them they'll want revenge, or if they killed you they'll call you out on it. On paper it doesn't sound exciting, but in game it creates a lot of cool scenarios. 

The hierarchy of elite soldiers change as you go through the game. So if you kill someone, then another orc will rise to take their place. If one of them kills you then they'll get promoted as well. This system is the main driving force behind the game. You can interact with the system in numerous ways. Events will pop up around the open world, so you can influence them. Sometimes the elites will throw parties and you can poison their booze, or two elites will be fighting and you can help one, or kill them both. Later on in the game you can use your wraith powers to control the minds of enemies. In doing so you can pit your minions against other elites and make huge waves in the overall hierarchy.

This is how you know what's happening with the nemesis system.

Shadow of Mordor was an excellent game. It's the first open world game in a long time where I actively tried to do all the side missions, because they were well implemented. The nemesis system kept me coming back, because I wanted to experience more of the game world. It's super cool to have grunts talk about you and specific things that you've done. It's even more cool when you build a personal grudge against an enemy that essentially doesn't have a story behind it. All you know is what you've done to them and what they've done to you.

When games have a good system other games tend to steal it. Much like this game borrows heavily from the Batman combat, I hope that future games borrow heavily from the nemesis system. It would work quite well in many other franchises, and it can still be improved upon. It ends up creating very personal game experiences and stories.

Dust: An Elysian Tail

This game came out for the Xbox 360 a few years ago and I've wanted to play it since then. My brother got it and I could have played it, but for some reason I never got around to it. So when I found out it was coming to PlayStation 4 and it would be free for Plus members I got super excited. It was basically made by one dude, which is insane.

In Dust you play as Dust, who is an amnesiac fox/dog man. I remember when the game first came out there were a lot of people who were super against it because all of the characters were animals. A lot of people thought that it looked like it was for kids, which always upsets me. I don't get why people need to attack things for being what they perceive as childish. Anyways, as Dust you're trying to recover your memory and learn who you really are. In the beginning he wakes up next to a tree with a talking sword named Arah. A weird furry bat/hamester named Fidget is there as well. The story is actually pretty solid and there are some shocking revelations and plot twists as it progresses. In fact, I had the game crash during a pivotal moment in the story!

Dust is a beautiful looking game.

The combat in Dust is simple, but fun. Dust can swing Arah to do basic melee combos. He also has the ability to swing Arah rapidly in order to create what is essentially a tornado. When you hit enemies with it you can easily juggle them. To add an extra layer to it Fidget can use various magic attacks. When the magic is hit by your crazy tornado move it has various effects, but they're all very damaging. You want to get as many hits in a combo as you can, because the damage you're dealing increases with the combo, so does the experience you gain. 

It's a Metroid style game with a melee combat system. There are various areas you can't access until you gain more abilities. You can also pick up quests from various characters in order to get upgrades. It's a cool little indie game that's extremely polished. Every time I look at it I'm consistently amazed that it was basically created by one man. 

Freedom Wars

I have been excited to play Freedom Wars for a very long time. I still don't know how I feel about it yet though. I know I like it, but I can't help but feel like the game is missing something. For those who don't know it's essentially Monster Hunter, but in a weird future prison. People who are considered to be a drain on societies' resources are sentenced to prison where they are forced to work off their sentence. In order to do so prisoners must fight abductors, which take citizens to other cities to work. It's okay though, because a friendly hologram bear talks to you all the time.

At first the game is super restricted, because as a prisoner you have few rights. Doing certain things will add years to your sentence. So initially you can't speak to people, leave your cell, sit down, or take more than five steps. You eventually gain these rights by purchasing them with points you get from missions. The missions are where the game is like monster hunter. There are numerous types of abductors, which are more or less monsters. There are tigers, dragons, and many more, but they all look like weird glowing robots. 

The abductors are ridiculously large and kind of scary.

Most abductors have hollow casings on their body where they hold citizens. In order to rescue them you can either defeat the abductor, or grab onto the part and slash it until it opens. Basic combat is like most other hunting games. You start with a sword, which has basic three hit combos, and strong attacks. There are numerous sword types like light and heavy, but you can also get crazy huge concrete blocks on a stick and lances. Secondary weapons are guns, which also vary greatly. I tend to use light assault rifles, but there are also  rail guns, rocket launchers, and a whole lot more,

The main differentiating part of the combat is the thorn, which is wrapped around the player characters arm. It's a thorny vine, which you use like a grappling hook. You point it at a target and then you can pull yourself to wherever it landed. Since you can't jump this makes up for it. It allows you to cling to enemies in order to hit them. There are three types of thorn, which are attack, shield, and heal. I personally use heal, because I like to have as much health as possible at all times. You can charge the thorn in order to do various things. Charging the heal allows you to heal allies, and create a tree to heal yourself as well. Just hitting someone on your team with it will heal them. Attack and shield vary in terms of charging, but their names are pretty self explanatory.

You can use your thorn to pull enemies down for easier attacks.

One of the main advertised points of the game is that you can fully customize your AI partner. They are called accessories and are essentially your parole officer. It's possible to fully deck them out in whatever clothing you've unlocked and weapons that you're not using. It's not nearly as cool as all the advertising and pre-release coverage made it seem.

There is a lot of faction based stuff going on, but I haven't really messed with it yet. When you begin the game you join a Panopticon, which is named after a real life place. Since I live in New York state, I chose New York. You can donate resources to help out the overall score, or play multiplayer matches in order increase the rank of your Panopticon. I assume you get rewards for doing so, but I don't really have any idea. 

Fight for your panopticon!

I like playing it a lot, but like I said earlier I feel there's something missing. Most games like this have you increasing your stats constantly through armor and weapons. You upgrade your weapons in Freedom Wars, but it's done through a menu and then you have to wait a set amount of time for it to finish. There is no armor either, so I generally feel like I'm not advancing at all. I'm going to continue to play it, because I'm enjoying it. I just hope that it grabs me a bit more.

November is Coming

I thought that this was a crazy month for games, but it's nothing in comparison to what's going to happen in November. On the 11th everything pops off with the release of Digimon All-Star Rumble, Assassin's Creed Unity, and Tales of Hearts R. Then the following week we have Little Big Planet 3, and Dragon Age Origins. Three days later the most important release of the year Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U comes out alongside Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. 

I have barely had enough time to play what I got this month, but I'm going to have to find a way to persevere. Going forward you can expect me to post a whole lot more videos!

It's going to be a crazy month, so I need t get cracking on the stuff I haven't finished from October yet!

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2 - Episode 2 - Squirrel With Bling

Surpriise, the video quality is still not great! With this, the second episode of my first Let's Play, I up the video quality just a bit. Now when I'm in battle you can actually tell what's happening as opposed to having the screen turn into several large pixels...

So I will continue to try and work out the kinks in my system. YouTube really has a knack for taking a high quality video and making it look completely awful!

Despite the issues I've been having this video turned out quite well. Join me as I play through Chapter 1 of Bayonetta 2!

Update: I uploaded a higher bit-rate file and the difference in quality was miniscule. The video is quite watchable, I'm just crazy and want it to be perfect. Since I've been messing with this for weeks I'm just going to have to accept the video quality of this fast moving game and move on with my life. Please look forward to the rest of the game!

 

Let's Play: Bayonetta 2

As you may have noticed over the past few years many people on YouTube play through video games in their entirety. These are generally known as Let's Plays and they are done in many separate parts. Now that I have proper recording equipment I decided to get in on the action.

For my first one I decided to play Bayonetta 2, because there aren't an insane amount of Wii-U's out there. Also I think Bayonetta was an amazing game. I have recorded the first episode, which you can find below. However, the quality of the video is not the best. The El Gato Game Capture HD I use does not do well with encoding high action sequences. So while the file looks incredible on my computer, once it's uploaded to YouTube the quality takes a major hit.

With the installments going forward I'll be using a different program to capture the footage. While the overall quality will probably not be as high, the action sequences should look much better. So please, enjoy the first episode.

Grim Fandango Stream Archive

We completed our playthrough of Grim Fandango and made a little bit of money for Extra Life in the process. Turns out people really like Grim Fandango, so I ended up getting more viewers than I expected. Anyways, if you weren't able to make it to the stream you can check it out in its entirety on YouTube. It took us about 7 hours and 40 minutes to get through it all, and it's split into five parts.

We had a super fun time doing this and I'm definitely going to do it again next year!

I hope you enjoy!

Grim Fandango Playthrough for the Kids!

The day is here at last, and we're about to go live! Noukeo and I will be streaming an entire playthrough of Grim Fandango for Extra Life. Extra life is a yearly event where tons of people stream video games in order to collect money for Children's Miracle Network. We don't have a super huge following or anything, so we're hoping to get the modest sum of $100. Hopefully you can join us in our quest through the land of the dead and maybe even toss a little money to the kids!

Like I said we'll be going live in five minutes on my Twitch channel. If the link doesn't work you can get there at www.twitch.tv/drac96.

If you're in the giving mood you can visit out Extra Life donation page. I wrote a more in-depth explanation as to why we're doing this there. It also allows for you to donate right to the Children's Miracle Network. You can go here for that, or go to www.extra-life.org/participant/drac96

It takes around 12 hours to complete our journey through the land of the dead normally. I fully expect my laptop to overheat at some point and we'll probably need food. So expect a few delays during the stream while we try to figure those things out. It would be super nice if everything goes right!

I hope to see you in the Twitch chat!

Party Game Sundays: Myth Makers Super Kart GP

I forgot the name of this game and it took me around a half hour to figure out what it was. It didn't help that there's a Wii game that's literally called Kart Racer! I finally found it and discovered that it was also ported to PS2 and I bet that version is a million times better.

So this game is obviously a kart racer. For some reason the developer decided that it would be a good idea to remove the regular controls and make it only motion controlled. That would be fine if it had the level of fidelity that a game like Mario Kart has, but it doesn't. Instead any motion you make has the kart go flying off course. What doesn't help at all is that the draw distance is almost non-existent. The road and stage are only rendered a few feet in front of you, so when you need to turn you have absolutely no idea.

This is a screenshot from the PS2 version. It looks way better!

To make matters even worse the physics in this game didn't exactly make any sense either. If you hit into anything you get immediately turned around. Normally this would be alright, but since the controls suck it's almost impossible to start going the right way again. You also lose a lot of progress any time you go off a jump. If you tilt at all then the game thinks you need to be reset, which is not the case.

We knew this game was going to be bad, and I actually expected it to be much worse. The concept of the game isn't actually terrible. You choose a bunch of mythical characters who each represent a holiday. Kart racers are generally pretty competent, but the few we've tried out on the Wii have been extremely lackluster. What's even worse is that I bet the PS2 version is way better.

We played four races and decided that we needed to stop.

Spelunky Daily Challene 10/21/2014

I don't feel like I should be posting the daily challenge videos on here every day, so after today I'm going to stop. I'm still going to be streaming them and then archiving them on YouTube, I just don't want to have a million daily challenge posts in a row on here. So if you want to continue watching them you can either watch them live on my Twitch channel, or watch the archives on my YouTube channel. Every time I go live I tweet it out, so if you want to be there as it happens follow @Manatron on Twitter!

Today's run was exceptional. After the practice stream last night I got a lot more confident and ended up with an amazing run. I needed a good one after yesterday's poor performance.

Spelunky Daily Challenge 10/20/2014

As promised I am going to stream the daily challenge in Spelunky every day until I get sick of it. Today I did the run before Noukeo did, so there was no chance for teabagging. It wouldn't have mattered though since I did so unbelievably bad!

HD Test Stream of Spelunky

Well, I tried streaming in HD. It came out super choppy and looked like skipping garbage. The game I chose to stream was Spelunky, because I've been wanting to do the daily challenge.

I am still going to do the daily challenge, and probably stream it every day. Below I will embed the video of the test stream. Beware, because the first minute or so skips quite a bit. I will also embed the video of me streaming the daily challenge for today. That one I used different settings for and it actually turned out looking quite nice. So look forward to daily videos of Spelunky I guess?

Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN Japanese Demo Gameplay Video

I downloaded the Japanese Guilty Gear Xrd SIGN demo and played it on video for like fifteen minutes. You can find the video below, which basically consists of me having a fit about how ridiculously amazing it looks. If you're not watching it in 720p you're doing it wrong!

Episode 2 of the Podcast is Here!

I have finally recorded the second episode of the podcast. In it, I discuss what Destiny actually is and why I found it to be profoundly disappointing. It's just me this time, because I wanted to see if I had the ability to hold a conversation on my own. I think I did a pretty good job. If you want to listen I'll embed the SoundCloud player in this post. However, the podcast is now on Itunes for easier access. So if you get a chance please review and subscribe. You can find it here. Episode 2 isn't showing up yet, but if you subscribe it will download. Enjoy!

Peggle 2 Test Stream Extravaganza!

Have you ever wanted to see what the credits in Peggle 2 are like? Have you ever wanted to see Peggle 2 in glorious 480p SD? If you said yes to either of those questions, then I have the perfect video for you!

Earlier I decided it was time to try my hand at streaming, and of course I picked Peggle 2. The stream itself went fine, but I didn't realize it was in SD. My internet is very slow, so I'm sure HD wouldn't work very well at all. In some point in the transfer between Twitch and YouTube the quality got even lower, so the video on YouTube looks a little awful.

Never fear though, because I will not give up. Sure my first video isn't the best, but I had fun doing it. I'm going to try streaming more often and record some videos using the record function to see how they turn out.

So please, check out the first ever Game Time With Manny video. It's the oh so compelling Peggle 2 test stream. Enjoy!



Now I can finally start saying please like the video and subscribe, but I'll try my best to keep it to a minimum. Please visit the channel here. I'll probably be posting many more videos!

Go Vacation Podium

I just needed to share how amazing the characters we made in Go Vacation were. On the right is Lander's stoner grandpa. The middle is Noukeo's creeper father. Finally on the right we have my own personal giant afro baby. I hope you enjoy this vine as much as I do.

Party Game Sundays: Go Vacation

When we booted up Go Vacation I almost died of excitement. Normally on Party Game Sundays I mentally prep myself for terrible video games. This was the first time during a Party Game Sunday that I was immediately psyched up to play a game. Seriously, I mean check out this hot intro jam.

Everybody loves the word vacation!

Last week I did a quick google search for the best Wii party games. I saw a bunch of fools saying that Mario Party 8 and 9 were amazing, but what I saw most consistently was people singing the praises of Go Vacation. Noukeo decided to order it, and it showed up in time for this weeks session. I am so happy to report that the people on a random forum I looked at were totally right. Go Vacation is the pinnacle of mini-game collections on the Wii. Trust me, I've played a whole bunch of them.

As I showed you earlier it starts out with a super hot introduction theme song. Prior to that though you get control of the cursor, which was what drew me in initially. It was super responsive, and moved at a good pace. That may sound like a minor detail, but normally in Wii games it feels like you're moving the cursor through molasses.

One island, four resorts, fifty activities.

When we actually started playing the game my mind almost exploded. You get to use your Mii, or create an in game avatar. We all opted for in game avatars, because they looked way cooler. I chose a kid, who had a sick afro and made him as large as humanly possible, He ended up looking like a giant baby. Landers opted for a super old Grandpa type who ended up looking like a raging stoner. Noukeo went with the younger father type, and went with more of a pervy style.

All three of us were dropped onto a tropical island to freely explore. The screen was split handily into four sections and the frame rate was actually consistent. What's cool about Go Vacation is that you can actually play every single game with anywhere from one to four players. It's actually a co-op experience where you need to try and play every one of the 50 mini-games. Once you play a game you get a stamp in your stamp book. The game tries to direct you around the island by marking the recommended game on the map, but you can do whatever you want, You can drive around an ATV, a jet ski, or just walk around. Getting around the island is fun on its own. If you want there are all kinds of activities. We played capture the flag, and I got a dog named Hatchi to follow me around. I guess you can also unlock special outfits from hidden treasure chests. The map is huge, and that's just the first resort. There are 3 more areas that each have their own theme. We eventually went to the city where we got to ride skateboards and put on roller-blades.

Up to 4 player split-screen action!

The majority of our time was spent on the tropical island. We played around 20 of the 50 mini-games and they were all incredibly varied. The first game had us racing between check points on a jet ski. You need to tilt the Wii-mote and nunchuck in the direction you want to go. Flicking them upwards while pressing B allows you to jump. If you get enough air you can go crazy on the analog stick in order to do flips and other various tricks. The same controls apply to all vehicles, but with things like skateboards you have to shake them both in order to gain speed.

We got to play volleyball, surf, sky dive, throw pies, do a triathlon, dance, and a bunch more. I was shocked to see that almost every game was unique and controlled well. The controls were fairly simple often involving shaking the Wii-mote with a button press, or just steering by tilting it. My personal favorite game was air hockey, which had us controlling the paddle with the analog stick and holding the Wii-mote sideways in our fist. In order to smash the puck we had to thrust the Wii-mote forwards and add B for a power shot.

Doing dope tricks is one of many things you can do in Go Vacation.

I think one of the main reasons we all got so into the game was because it's co-op. A lot of mini-game collections want you to go through the single player in order to unlock all the games. There's nothing more sad and boring than playing a mini-game collection by yourself, so it's awesome when all of us can play through the game together and unlock everything. We didn't even get halfway through, but we'll definitely play Go Vacation to completion. It's a well put together package that's a ton of fun.

If you own a Wii and are looking for some fun multiplayer action Go Vacation is definitely something you need to check out. It's so good that I'm still in shock. How can a game themed around vacations be so good? I'm very afraid that we'll never be able to find another game to top this one. At least not another third party game.

It's just a great game! I'll leave you with the full version of the theme song. Remember, everybody loves the word vacation

Party Game Sundays: Around the World in 50 Games

I've never been big on playing flash games, or really any in browser games. That's the main reason why I think Around the World in 50 Games is terrible. It's essentially a bunch of bad flash games where clicking with the most is replaced with clicking on things with the Wii-mote. There was no point while playing this game that I had fun. There was a rhythm mini-game that was decent, but at no point was it fun.

There was even that game where you're a small fish and you eat other fish to grow larger. It worked very poorly, and I was constantly getting eaten by fish that seemed smaller than me. Most of the other games were all point and shoot type games and none of them were well executed. You could easily just search for any website with flash games on the internet and have a better time than we did with this game.

This is the only screenshot I could find...

The title also makes absolutely no sense. I would have guessed that these would be mini-games themed around various parts of the world, but instead none of them are. Hell, we didn't even get the full 50 game experience. The multiplayer portion of the game only had around 15 games available to play, which was probably for the best since it was such a bad experience.What was even weirder was that it was only a 2 player game even though every single game could have easily facilitated four or more players at once...

I can't even think of things to say about this game. It was absolutely terrible. I'm being absolutely serious when I say you should go play flash games instead. This is by no means the worst game we've played, but it's pretty close to the bottom of our stack.

Party Game Sundays: Celebrity Sports Showdown

I don't understand why this game exists. It's not based on a T.V. show, and it just seems like a very odd cast of celebrities. Half of them are sports stars like Mia Hamm and Sugar Ray Leonard, while the other half are musical acts like Avril Lavigne and Fergie. Did EA really need an excuse to capitalize on the sports mini-game collection fervor that had overtaken the Wii in 2008? Probably.

That's literally what this game is. It's a sports themed mini-game collection that inexplicably has celebrities in it. They add literally nothing to the game. If this was just a collection of sports themed mini-games it would have been decent. With the addition of celebrities it remains just that, decent. The collection of games is surprisingly varied and they all work as intended, even if they're not all the height of fun.

I guess this looks kind of like her.

I picked Avril Lavigne, Noukeo picked Kristi Yamaguchi, then Landers and Bialy picked the generic characters Steve and Jimmy. At least I'm pretty sure they were Steve and Jimmy. You know everyone's favorite celebrities Steve and Jimmy... For some reason there were also a few random people thrown in and I guess it's possible to unlock more of them. Anyways, we then battled for supremacy.

Unlike most sports collection games it didn't have the staples like bowling and tennis. Instead it had a much more wide variety of things you wouldn't expect like badminton and curling. In case I've never mentioned it before I don't like curling at all. It was especially not fun in this game. It takes so god damn long and there's way too much time where you're literally doing nothing while the other team goes. It did control well though, which I guess is a plus.

Dodgeball is always fun in these types of games.

Badminton was similar to how tennis is in most Wii games. You kind of just flail the Wii-remote like a jackass and hope that something good happens. It had the added bonus of being able to jump and spike the shuttle, but that mostly ended with a giant whiff. In order to get the best possible timing there was a green circle around the shuttle indicating that's the best time to hit it. The problem with that is that since the ground is also green it was not always super easy to see.

The one I had the most fun with was dodgeball. For some reason it's always done pretty well in these kinds of games. You get to a ball and then fling the wii-mote in order to throw the ball. You push A to catch and deflect oncoming balls, so it's not just an endless barrage. It's not the most complex game, but it's fun. You have to be good at timing your throws and know when you'll be able to catch the ball.

I was not a huge fan of the jousting...

All the other games were just kind of average. Canoeing is always a total bummer, because paddling with the wii-mote is terrible. Archery worked, but there was nothing special to it. You just pull back the wii-mote while holding a and then let go. There was one unique mini-game though called Smash Joust. It was essentially a 1 vs. 1 game where each person has a foam paddle and they try to knock the other person off. You could attack high, low, or block. Obviously we just flailed the wii-mote, which caused us to clash. Whoever shook the wii-mote the hardest in the clash would win, but then you'd go right back into a clash. It was pretty awful.

The thing this game suffered from the most was convoluted controls. Every single game had 5 or 6 pages of controls to do all kinds of things. Then once you got into the game almost none of them mattered at all. Either pushing a button or flailing the wii-mote about wildly would almost always do exactly what you needed. There may have been some kind of highly nuanced play we were missing out on, but I highly doubt that,

I don't know. If you like sports mini-game collections this one is pretty fun.

Party Game Sundays: The Price is Right - Decades

I love everything about The Price is Right, which is why I assumed this game was going to be terrible. Obviously something I love couldn't be turned into a fun multiplayer video game right? Wrong! It was actually pretty damn good. While it didn't have Bob Barker or Drew Carey it does have all the necessary elements to hype you up for some sweet game show action.

It starts as all episodes of The Price is Right do. The announcer yells "come on down" and then the four players do just that. You can't even skip it, which makes it even better. Then you actually bid on a showcase. The game is called decades, because it has videos for showcases dating all the way back to the beginning of the show. This makes it kind of hard to bid, because items were rarely priced as I expected. Who the hell pays $700 for a set of ugly designer luggage? We also had a showcase with a $3,000 bed... 

LOOK AT THIS HOT CAR!

What's magical is that it's still super easy to screw everyone over just like the real game show. We were bidding a dollar, and outbidding people by a dollar just to be funny. It actually worked though. Unlike the show though everyone moves on to the next round. Otherwise it would be a pretty bad multiplayer experience. This means that we all got to play beloved games like plinko, and cliffhangers. These were also challenging, because the items we were pricing were super outdated. 

Then as you'd expect you get to spin the wheel. It was done with motion controls, which didn't work super well for me. I think that made the wheel my least favorite part of the game, because it was pretty boring. Sure, if you end up getting a dollar it's cool, but you're just kind of hoping for a miracle as opposed to using any kind of skill.

The wheel is a staple, but it's also kind of lame.

In the end it was time to bid on the final showcase. Instead of choosing one of two to bid on the game just automatically chose one and we started our bids. We played a few games and saw such amazing things as a computer with 512k Ram, a 97' Range Rover, and a sweet motorboat. 

Overall it's a very accurate depiction of The Price is Right. Sure, it doesn't adhere strictly to the show, because it's a multiplayer game, but it feels authentic. It's also cool that it doesn't seem like they shit out the game. There was a certain amount of effort put into it. The fact that there are actual videos for the showcases is a nice bonus as well. It allows you to get super excited for something that you can virtually win. Too bad they couldn't send us that sweet computer with 512k ram. 

Game Time - September 2014

I played three very different games this month. The first was a sweet sweet rhythm game, the second was a Dynasty Warriors game, and the third was a loot based first person shooter. These games couldn't be more different than each other and I had a lot of fun playing all of them. Those are just the ones I'm going to talk about here though.

In case you missed it I put up a Game Time ID of the first Danganronpa. I'm currently playing the 2nd game and it's pretty damn good. I also decided to buy Shovel Knight on the Wii-U, because I got a craving for some retro platforming action. I won't be talking about either of those this month, but I figured they were worth mentioning.

I have a lot to say, so it's probably best if I get right into it. It's game time!

Theatrhythm: Curtain Call

The original Theatrhythm, Final Fantasy Theatrhythm came out in 2012 and I was absolutely in love with it. It was only natural that I would purchase the sequel and love it more than the first one. In an unsurprising turn of events Curtain Call is basically the same game as the original. It adds a few new modes and a whole metric shit ton of content. The gameplay remains essentially unchanged though.

Theatrhythm is a Final Fantasy rhythm game in which you slide and tap the stylus in line with the beat of a song. Curtain Call added the ability to use the buttons and the circle pad on the 3DS as an alternative control style. I tried it for a bit, but didn't like it very much. I've seen a ton of people saying that they have an easier time getting good scores using the buttons, but I already don't have a very hard time using the stylus.

The gameplay remains the same in Curtain Call.

Just like the original game you create a party of four Final Fantasy characters. As you play the game they level up and gain stats. The stats don't really matter to the gameplay unless you're challenging a particularly hard song. You lose health each time you miss a prompt, so the higher level you are the longer you can stay alive. There are a ton more characters to choose from this time around. Not only are there characters from the 14 main Final Fantasy games, but there are some from the spin-off games as well. Characters from Crystal Chronicles, Mystic Quest, Type-0, and more now make an appearance.

On top of the new characters there are a ridiculous amount of new songs as well. All of the ones featured in the first game return, as well as every single DLC song from the first game. When you add in all the songs from spin-off games the total quickly jumps past 200 playable songs. If you're a Final Fantasy fan you'll recognize a vast majority of them. What's cool is that there is a such a wide array of songs to choose from, so if you're not a fan of a game there's plenty more songs to choose from.

Quest mode is a fun addition

There are also two brand new modes in the game. The game now has a versus mode where you can challenge other players to your favorite battle songs. You can battle the AI, local players, or players on the internet. I can't seem to get the online battles to work. Every time I try to join someones game I get a 3DS system error. I've seen other people complaining about it, and it seems to be fairly common. Hopefully it's something that gets fixed soon, because the battles are quite fun. You play the songs like normal, but after hitting so many notes you get an EX power-up and something bad happens to your opponent. Most of the effects make it harder for your opponent to hit notes, but some of them are totally worth it. If you just want to test your skills you can play on the hardest difficulty without power-ups as well.

The other new mode is a quest mode. Randomly generated overworld maps are created and each node on the map is a song. You choose which node you want to go to, and some of them will have boss characters. If you reach the end you have to fight a final boss, and if you kill it you'll be victorious. This is similar to the Chaos mode from the previous game, but it has a little bit more depth. It's trying to make you feel like you're on a Final Fantasy-like adventure even though it's just a rhythm game. This mode is how you unlock most of the characters, because it's the most likely to give you the shards necessary to do so.

You can hang out with fat chocobos now too.

Theathrhythm Curtain Call is an amazing game. I've played it for far too many hours already and I'll probably continue to do so. This time around each DLC song is only $0.99 as opposed to the $1.99 in the previous game. That means I'll be able to convince myself I need to buy way more songs. If you don't like Final Fantasy this game is absolutely not for you. It's essentially a nostalgia factory for fans of the series. If these games keep selling well hopefully Square will realize they need to make a similar game for all of their classic RPGs.


Hyrule Warriors

I don't know what there is to really say about Hyrule Warriors. It's a Dynasty Warriors game with Zelda characters. As you have heard me say many times in the past I love me some Dynasty Warriors action. Yes, I realize that the gameplay is super repetitive and not very complex. I also don't care. It's fun to slash through hundreds of enemies with little no no resistance while sweet guitar riffs happen all around me. The difference this time is that I get to to it as Zelda characters.

I don't really know why Nintendo let this collaboration happen, but I'm perfectly okay with it. I just don't really know how people who don't like Dynasty Warriors are going to take it. There is a buttload of Zelda references in the game, which are amazing. I just don't know if that's enough to get people to enjoy a Dynasty Warriors game if they don't already. It's the same formula, but now you can be Link.

Dynasty Warriors: Link Edition

There are actually some cool new additions to the game that I hope Tecmo Koei takes back to their other Dynasty Warriors games. Hyrule Warriors has a lot of giant monsters in it, as do a lot of other games in this series. The difference here is that all the monsters are weak to specific items. The Gohma Queen shoots her laser eye and then it's weak to an arrow show. Once the monster is knocked down they're left open to attacks, If you hurt them enough you'll do a crazy powerful move on them that takes away a ton of health.

I think that the addition of collectibles on the map is great as well. Zelda games often have you searching for Golden Skulltullas or things of that nature. They appear in this game as well. A web appears on the map and then you have to search the area. They're often obscured by a rock or something. When you attack them they give you some lame concept art, but the idea behind having collectibles in each map is cool.

Defeating large monsters is actually pretty fun.

There's only so much I can say about the game. You push the same button over and over to kill hundreds of enemies as Zelda characters. I think it's amazing, but a lot of people don't.

Destiny

Bungie is almost exclusively known for creating the Halo franchise. So when the news that that would no longer be making Halo hit it was a pretty huge deal. That was years ago, when the world found out they were making Destiny. There's been a huge amount of marketing about the game and I feel like people have been talking about it ever, It's Bungie's first non Halo game in a super long time, so it's only natural that people would be excited. In fact this is the first PlayStation 4 game that almost everyone on my friends list has. So the real question is it a good game? Yes and no.

I want to like Destiny, and I do to a certain extent. However, in the games current state I think that it's repetitive and boring. For those who don't know it's a first person shooter with MMO trappings. It also has some elements of Borderlands and Phantasy Star Online as well. It has shooting that feels very good and is easy to control, and you get guns that vary in terms of how they shoot and how much damage they do. One of the problems the game has is that the guns aren't varied enough. Sure they get better in terms of damage, but all the auto rifles are still basically the same exact thing. It's a shame, because the game is all about collecting weapons and armor in order to get better.

Get ready to shoot lots of aliens!

Playing Destiny with friends is great. It's super easy to get into a group and do whatever. There are always missions and things to do. That's where Destiny is kind of not doing it for me. The part where I have to grind the same levels and missions over and over is not exactly what I would call fun. The games story is an absolute joke to boot. Every single mission involves you putting out your little robot buddy to scan something. Immediately following that enemies attack and you fend off a few waves. That's literally the central crux of every single mission in the game. To make it even worse all of the lore isn't even accessible in the game itself. You have to go to Bungie's website to read cards you've unlocked by playing the game...

The level cap at the moment is 20, but you can advance to level 30 by grinding for loot that has light on it. When I say grind I mean it. I've done the same story missions dozens of times with friends just to try for a chance to get better armor. These missions aren't really that fun either. The act of shooting enemies is satisfying, but I find all of the bosses to be super tedious. Most of them are nothing more than bullet sponges. Shooting the same enemy for twenty minutes until it dies and maybe drops something that's worth a shit is not appealing to me. What's even less appealing is fighting those same bosses over and over to try and get faction reputation so that I can buy better armor and guns.

This is my hot Destiny character.

Destiny frustrates me, because it has flashes of brilliance in it. It's also extremely flawed, especially the loot system. When your players would rather find exploits to get loot to drop rather than play the actual game then you have a serious problem on your hands. If I didn't have friends playing the game still I think I would have given up on Destiny by now. When playing with people I'm still having quite a bit of fun, but that tends to be because I'm normally not focusing on the game. I think that Bungie can turn my feelings around with the expansion packs they're going to release. More varied missions, and a tweak to the loot system could do a lot for the game. In fact this Tuesday they're changing the drop system quite a bit. The game has so much potential and I hope that eventually it can be fully realized.

SUUUUPER SMASH BROTHERRRRRSSS

This coming Friday Super Smash Bros. for 3DS will finally be released. I tried not to get excited about it, but I ended up getting psyched anyways. Yes, I hate the way the circle-pad feels on the 3DS for playing Smash, but it will still be a fun time anyways. The new characters are all pretty cool and the game itself is pretty fun. I've played the demo a few times to get a feel for it and I definitely like playing it a lot more than Brawl. It's not quite as fast as Melee was, but it still feels pretty good. It's just a damn fun game to play. When the Wii-U version comes out I'll be 1,000,000 times more hype, but until then I'll be content playing as Peach on the 3DS.

Before Friday I'll be receiving Shadow of Mordor, which is also super exciting. It's been getting crazy good reviews, so hopefully that will be awesome as well. There are a bunch of other games I'll be getting in October as well, but for some reason they're all coming out on the 24th or later. So I'll have a huge gap between when Smash comes out and other games I want to play. I'll try to fit something in there, but it's entirely possible Shadows of Mordor will be long enough to fill that void.

These next few months are going to be hot. I need to go prep myself mentally, so I'll see you guys next time.

     -Manny