Game Time - December 2014

Looking back at all the games I played in 2014 I realized that this has actually been a pretty good year. I legitimately forgot that half the games I played in 2014 even came out during 2014. It was a long year huh? 

Even though we're living in the brand new year of 2015, I still have this final edition of Game Time to wrap up 2014 with. I did a lot in December. Much to my dismay I didn't especially complete any games. Instead I started a whole bunch more that I've just been pecking away at. However, it was the holiday season. I had to see my family, and hang out with friends who were home to visit.

It certainly didn't help that I purchased an Xbox One the day after Christmas to round out my current generation console collection. I purchased three games for it, all of which I've only scratched the surface of.

Another thing it seems I've only scratched the surface of is Dragon Age Inquisition. How in gods name am I 40 hours into this game? The game I probably played the most of though was Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-. I played it both for my own personal enjoyment, and to record a bunch of video for my YouTube Channel. I thoroughly enjoyed it! In fact, I'm going to keep practicing it will into 2015. From the looks of it I may still be playing Dragon Age well into the year as well. It just keeps going.

Xbox One

Everyone seems to be upset with my purchase of an Xbox One. I don't really care though. I stand by my purchase. Never before have I had all the major consoles of a generation. Yes, there was an Xbox 360 in my home, but it was being used almost 100% of the time. So I missed out on a lot of great games this past generation, because I didn't really have the means to play everything. The same can be said about the GameCube generation. I had a GameCube when it was new, got a PlayStation 2 near the tail end of its life, and never had an Xbox.

I am now officially set and capable to play every single new game that's released, barring PC exclusives. I have all three major consoles and both handheld systems on the market. To be honest I thought that I'd immediately regret my purchase, but I don't. It was a little frustrating at first due to the Christmas hack attacks on PSN and Xbox Live. I needed to download some digital games and crazy large patches. The only thing that wasn't working on Xbox Live was downloading games.

It's so huge, and it still has a large power brick!

After a few hours of being pissed off Killer Instinct let me play the tutorial. I'm not good at fighting games, so Killer Instinct was pretty much made for me. That's not to say it's easy, but it is easy to do really cool long combos. Every move is a linker, opener, or ender. That means that you just need to figure out what links into what in order to do some crazy stuff. Since the combos are so long you have to end them or the opponent takes significantly less damage. You can also break out of combos if you know what strength attack the opponent is using. Overall it's a cool fighting game and I want to play it more.

I also purchased Sunset Overdrive, which I only played for about an hour. As a third person shooter with weird guns it seems pretty standard. The cool part is that you can grind and jump all around the city in a way that's very reminiscent of Jet Set Radio. I really haven't played a lot, but I find what I did play enjoyable.

I can't appropriately show how awesome the combos are in a picture.

My only problem so far with the Xbox One is that the UI is terrible. I don't even know how to describe how much I dislike it. There are square icons all over the place, but the ones you want to find are never there. Most of the tiles also do a poor job of explaining what they actually do, which adds an extra layer of bullshit. Like mobile phones the Xbox One has apps, and for some ungodly reason some of them default to a snapped view. If you view achievements it starts up in a snapped view. So you can see almost none of the information you're looking for. If I had a Kinect it might be better, because I could just yell where I want to go instead of looking for it. 

The Xbox One runs games well though, and it's going to have some killer downloadable exclusives in the next few months. There may not be many full retail games I want right now, but there will be. I figured I should save $50 by getting the thing now.

Dragon Age Inquisition

Dragon Age Inquisition seems like it's never ending. I've been playing for 40 hours and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Part of that is due to the structure of the game. There are sidequests everywhere, and they all give little to no reward. Being a weirdo I am compelled to complete as many as I can, which has taken me hours upon hours. I've only done a handful of story missions, so I think in reality I'm only around halfway through the game. That's crazy.

Noukeo has played for way longer than me. He was at around 120 hours last time I asked, and he's at the same point in the story that I am! Due to that fact I've mostly given up on the side stuff, because it's my least favorite part of the game. In fact I don't really even enjoy playing Inquisition. Like most Bioware games I'm there for the story and the characters. What's sad is that in this case the overall story hasn't really grabbed me yet. The characters however, are all pretty good.

The Inquisition is a very diverse group of characters.

Bioware games have great character moments. If you listen to the game of the year podcast I describe a specific one I thought was amazing. The way you get to know the members of the Inquisition is cool, it just takes a while to get there. The beginning of the plot is wrought with political struggles, which can be a chore to get through at times. Where I am in the game now that has let up a bit, but politics is still at the forefront of the game. Once all the characters in your party settle down a bit they're actually pretty fun to hang around.

The big lug The Iron Bull is a Qunari mercenary, who talks a lot about sex and for some reason plays cards a lot. Seriously, I think I've played cards in like half of his character events. He's crazy and always has something interesting to say. The same goes for Cole. He's a spirit who has taken human form in order to help people. He can make people forget his existence. All he wants to do is help, since he can feel peoples emotions and hear their inner thoughts.

The Iron Bull is my favorite party member in Inquisition.

It would all be so much better if the combat in the game was any good. I loved Dragon Age Origins on just about every level. The characters were cool, and the gameplay was tough and filled with strategy. Dragon Age 2 came along and basically made it into an action game. Inquisition fits somewhere in the middle. It's mediocre MMO combat, that tries to shoehorn in strategy elements. Essentially you hold a button to auto attack and use your skills when they're not on cooldown. I'm on the normal difficulty and I tend to plow through most enemies with no strategy. You can however pause the combat and get a tactical view. If you want to can select skills and have the game move forwards at a snails pace. There's no reason for it though.

Inquisition is an odd game. I like it, but I don't seem to be having any fun while playing it. I like interacting with the characters, but the combat feels hollow, and the endless fetch quests are wearing thin.

Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign looks incredible. At first blush it looks like a brilliantly drawn 2D fighter, but then it zooms out to show you that everything is fully rendered in 3D. When you win the camera spins around to reveal that everything is polygonal. The first time I saw it happen in a trailer my mind almost exploded. Now that I can do it whenever I want it's still one of the coolest visuals I have ever seen in a video game. 

On top of its crazy visuals Guilty Gear is actually fun to play. It helps that I like all the character designs a lot, and the characters themselves are actually interesting. This iteration of Guilty Gear continues the story, but is a reboot in terms of the fighting system. Guilty Gear got so complex that there wasn't really an entry level anymore. With Xrd Sign they made it accessible again. No longer are Roman Cancels super hard to pull off, and not every move needs to be frame perfect. Sure the depth is still there, but now I can actually approach the game without feeling immediately overwhelmed.

Sol Badguy is my dude!

I don't want to talk too much about it, because it's another anime fighting game. That's super reductive, but it is. No one wants me to get into the intricacies of how Guilty Gear is played, especially since I'm not very good at it. I will say that I'm trying to get good though. I've actually been practicing combos with my boy Sol Badguy. I've got a few that I can whip out in a real match, but I still have a long way to go. 

The story is probably one of the best in fighting game history and that's because you don't ever play it. It's essentially a three-four hour anime. You watch as the characters talk and occasionally sweet animations happen. It's cool, because you get a sense of what all the character are like and since they're all fully 3D it's the same models that are being used in fights.

The seamless transition to 3D is ridiculous.

Overall Guilty Gear is an excellent package. The story mode is cool, the online works well, and the fighting is fun. If you like fighting games you're robbing yourself of a great time if you don't pick this up.

2015 is Coming

In the end 2014 ended up being a decent year for video games. I feel like I end up saying this every year, but 2015 is going to be batshit crazy. Half the games I was looking forward to in 2014 were delayed to 2015, which means that 2015 is filled to the brim with games I absolutely want to play.

What's even crazier is that we're not going to have to wait until the fall. Tons of games are going to start coming out in early February, and even March. It's going to be a crazy year and I hope that you'll stick around and see all that Game Time With Manny has to offer.

I haven't been streaming as much lately, but I plan to change that in the near future. As you may have heard in our sweet Game of the Year Podcast. I really liked Inazuma Eleven, and within the next two weeks I am going to be getting a 3DS capture card. I don't know how long it will take to get to me, but I'd guess around one or two months. So you have a lot of Inazuma Eleven to look forward to!