Game Time - December 2018

Game: Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight/ Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight
Developer: P-Studio
Platform: PS4

A few years ago a Persona 4 spinoff titled Persona 4: Dancing All Night came out exclusively for the Vita. It was a rhythm game featuring the characters of Persona 4 who would dance in the background of every song. It was an interesting concept that has now been copied almost exactly into dancing games for Persona 3 and Persona 5. The gameplay of these three games is exactly the same. Stars fly from the center of the screen and you need to push the corresponding button when the star overlaps it. It starts off simple, but obviously ramps up on higher difficulties.

The key difference between these two new games and the previous title is that they drop the visual novel-esque story mode and replace it with smaller bite size visual novel scenes. Now you don't need to sit through hours and hours of middling dialogue if you don't want to. It's entirely possible to stick to the actual rhythm gameplay, which I greatly appreciate.

Sadly there isn't a lot to these games. They each have around 30 songs in them from their respective games. I got the platinum trophy in Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight the first night I got the game in under 12 hours. I'm still working my way through Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, but the music and remixes are less appealing to me, and I need to complete the exact same challenges. While the games are fun enough on their own I don't know that they should have been split into two full priced games.


Game: Detroit: Become Human
Developer: Quantic Dream
Platform: PS4

David Cage games usually aren't my jam. I tried Indigo Prophecy and didn't really like it. In college I played through Heavy Rain, which I thought was okay aside from the totally unearned plot twist that came at the end. Something about the writing in these games never sat right with me and that feeling transitions over to the newest Quantic Dream game as well.

If you've seen a science fiction movie in the last few decades then you're familiar with the concept of androids developing emotions. Too many works to count have tackled this subject, but it's presented in Detroit as if it is some new and amazing. I'd give it a pass if it had any new ideas or amazing presentation, but it doesn't have either of those things. It's a story about racism, except it forgets that real racism exists.

At no point did I genuinely care for any of the characters in this game aside from a dog named Sumo. For the first two thirds of the game it feels like a random series of events revolving around the three playable characters rather than a cohesive story. Like previous Quantic Dream games Detroit is mostly a game about walking around and doing various quick time events for mundane actions. Previously I've been able to poke fun at the story of these games, but this time it was less comical. While it looked nice I don't know that it presented its ideas in the best way possible.


Game: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Developer: Bandai Namco/Sora Ltd.
Platform: Switch

Smash Bros. has been a part of my life since its inception. I have vivid memories of playing the original for the first time at a friends birthday party. It has always been a fun game to mess around with, but over the course of the past few years I had the fun of Super Smash Bros. sucked right out of me. A few of my friends got hyper competitive in it and somehow that drained all the fun out of the series for me. Instead of trying to improve for fun, I was trying to improve so I wouldn't be judged harshly for my lackluster play. That's no way to play a game that's supposed to act as a love letter to everything Nintendo.

I told myself that I would reclaim the fun of Smash Bros. with Ultimate and so far I have been very successful. I've played the game for over 80 hours now and have been having a blast. I was able to unlock all 73 characters during the first two days of its release. Since then I have played hundreds of matches and completed the single player mode.

This truly is the ultimate Smash Bros. game. It has an almost comical amount of content and caters to the casual player and people who want to play competitively. While it is largely the same as Smash 4 it brings meaningful mechanical changes to the gameplay. I won't get into all of them here, but I will say that the action has been sped up quite a bit, which is always a plus for me. It's more Smash Bros. and that's something I'm always down for.

Game Time - December 2016

Just when you thought 2016 was behind you, here I come with the December edition of Game Time. I honestly meant to do this a few weeks ago, (when it was still 2016) however I got caught up in some other shenanigans. I then went on a trip for five days, and got myself a sweet cold! So for the past week I've either been gone or in bed. That's not a great excuse because I should have been done sooner, but that's the one I'm going with! In 2017 I'm going to try and be more on top of my blog posts!

Normally I use December as a month to finish up smaller games I missed out on earlier in the year. I did a bit of that, but for Christmas I also have myself the gift of an MMO addiction... I decided it would be a good idea to get Final Fantasy XIV on the steam sale and try that out. Now I'm deep down the MMO hole!

The short game I finished was SUPERHOT, and boy did I enjoy the hell out of that game. It's about two hours long, but those two hours were ridiculous and awesome. At some point I also bought Gravity Rush Remastered on a PSN sale and have been chipping away at that.

Let's talk about all of these video games! It's game time!

Final Fantasy XIV

I tend to not play MMO's because I have can get addicted to things very easily. I've gone pretty deep in the past, so I tend to stay away from the genre. It also helps that I generally move from game to game very quickly. I don't generally have a lot of time to stick with one thing for the amount of time an MMO requires. However, I have a few friends who really like FFXIV, and they had been wanting me to try it out. The cost of the game and expansion were $20 during the Steam winter sale, so I took the plunge.

At first I was really not enjoying the game. The story was so slow, and boring that I almost stopped playing. The thing that kept me going was the fact that leveling up makes me feel good. After playing for around ten or so hours the "real story" starts and the story actually got interesting. I started to do cool and challenging missions, and began to have a great time. I've played for around 30 hours and am currently at level 28 on my main job.

It's me, Manny Manatron!

If FFXIV was a traditional MMO in every sense I may have dropped it already. It does have the usual combat. The main attack is an auto attack, so you click on an enemy and your character starts to go ham. The real "challenge" comes from using your skills and managing their cooldowns. I chose a Pugilist, so I use my fists to attack. I chose the class, because you have to pay attention and use the skills in a certain order to get damage buffs. That way I don't just zone out forever while I play.

Where FFXIV differs from other games in the genre is that you can have every class at once if you want to. They all start at level 1, and can go up to level 60 if you have the expansion. Currently my highest level job is a pugilist, but I have also leveled up the rogue job to level 12. This means that at any time I can change to a rogue and use a completely different set or armor, weapons, and skills. The benefit to doing this is that each job gets specific skills and perks that carry over to other classes. It's a really interesting system that reminds me a bit of Bravely Default.

It looks and plays like an MMO

I guess I don't really have a lot to say about this game. I'm enjoying my time with it, but outside of my addictive personality and the job system there isn't a whole lot of unique stuff going on. I just wanted to give the game a shot, because I've been on a bit of a Final Fantasy binge lately. I'm going to keep playing it, but I don't know for how long. I want to try finishing the content in the game currently, but that's a crazy amount of time I could spend playing newer games. I just have a weird compulsion to do everything in MMO's even though most quests are absolutely worthless and don't give you good rewards.

SUPERHOT

You may be thinking the title should be Super Hot, but you're wrong. It's SUPERHOT, and boy is it something to behold. I initially saw someone try out the browser game that the SUPERHOT Team put out to show their initial idea. The game revolves around a simple concept that doesn't sound cool, but when you're experiencing it in practice it's one of the coolest things I've ever done. It's a first person shooter where time moves when you move, and moves very slowly when you stand still. This allows you to pull off amazing feats that never really get old.

Initially I thought that the browser game was a cool tech demo that wouldn't really be able to become something more. I was proven wrong on every level. The setup for the story is that you meet someone in a chatroom and they hook you up with SUPERHOT.EXE. It's a cool new game that everyone's playing. You boot it up to be greeted by white environments filled with red polygonal men who are trying to kill you. Depending on the level you may start with a gun, or nothing. If you have a gun, then you can shoot your foes until you run out of bullets. The best option when you run out of bullets is to throw your empty gun, which will cause your enemy to reel and throw their gun into the air, which you can then catch and use. That description probably doesn't sound very exciting, but imagine pulling off that string in slow motion, and feeling like a badass. Then when you've cleared the stage your character inexplicably chucks whatever they're holding and the words SUPER, then HOT, accompanied by chanting of said words will happen until you click to start the next stage. It's awesome.

Shoot your enemies.

Outside of guns you can also pick up objects in the environment to throw, or punch your enemies to death. A bullet will kill an enemy in one shot causing them to shatter. Throwing objects will cause them to drop their gun for you take take, the same goes for throwing your gun at them. There are various points where you will also get a sword, which can be thrown for one hit kills, or used to kill enemies by swinging until it breaks. In my opinion the sword, and other melee weapons like the baseball bat are the most fun to use.

When I use the words first person shooter to describe SUPERHOT I'm only using them to describe what you're doing. You're shooting people in first person. Despite that fact it actually plays more like a puzzle game due to the time mechanics. The fact that you can essentially pause time means that you can think your way out of most scenarios. If you're skillful enough you can dodge bullets, or even shoot them out of the air with your own. If you get hit and die, then you can start the level over almost instantaneously. Each level offers a completely new challenge.

Melee weapons are my favorite.

While the story is over in about two hours, it felt like no time at all because I was having so much fun. Once it's over you unlock challenges like katana only runs, and things of that sort. There is also an endless mode which you can use to test your skills. The story is interesting and will sometimes have you quitting the game to chat with the person who gave you the game, and then going back in. It takes some pretty weird turns, but it just adds to the game's extreme sense of style. Overall SUPERHOT is an experience I would recommend to anyone.

Gravity Rush Remastered

Gravity Rush is one of the Vita only games that I was interested in playing. When I got one I tried to play the game for a few hours, but had to put it down. I loved the characters and the world, but using the gyroscope to control the main character Kat's gravity power was not something I wanted to do at all. Lucky for me the game was re-released on the PS4, but I almost let that pass me by as well. The only reason I'm playing it now, so far after its release is that Gravity Rush 2 comes out in a few short weeks and it looks amazing. In order to be ready for it I decided it was time to play through the original.

Gravity rush follows the amnesiac Kat who finds herself in the unfamiliar town of Hecksville with her gravity controlling cat Dusty. The central crux of the game is using gravity powers to traverse the world and destroy floating enemies called the Nevi. I really enjoy the gameplay now that I don't have to move the Vita around like a moron. On the PS4 you can just push R1 to activate Kat's abilities and then aim a reticle with the right stick to get you where you need to go. You're traversing a lot of floating islands and going to high areas, while upside down. It's like a super intense version of Mario Galaxy. There are often times where I forget if I'm actually on the ground or not so I have to look at Kat's scarf for reference.

The gravity powers are fun to use.

Throughout the world there are crystals you can collect that are used as the currency for upgrading your abilities. These crystals can also be gained by completing challenged like racing through checkpoints, or defeating a ton of enemies. It seems like none of the upgrades  are necessary to complete the game, but they sure make things a lot more fun. You can upgrade things like your falling speed, kick attack, and gravity meter. It's always good to be able to use your powers for longer.

The thing that strikes me about Gravity Rush the most is the world and its characters. The models and the world of Hecksville look beautiful. There are a lot of bright colors. Each district of the city has its own style, so the visuals change greatly over the course of the game. As a character Kat is very charming. Despite the fact that she's lost her memory she is very witty and genuinely funny. A lot of games recently get a little too heavy on the Internet humor and memes, but Gravity Rush is able to be funny in its own right.

For a remaster of a Vita game, this looks incredible.

I am about 3/4's of the way through now and the story is really heating up. New characters have introduced themselves and I actually don't really know where the story is going to end up, but I'm happy to go along for the ride. There's something about Gravity Rush that's super endearing to me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Yes, the world and characters are great, but there's something about the package as a whole that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside while I'm playing it. I look forward to the second game!

2017

We're a few weeks into 2017 now, and I have yet to do any serious gaming, Like I said I've been on a trip for the majority of it and now I have a stupid cold. As we speak I'm hacking up a lung and it's very unpleasant.

In two weeks I will start my 2017 gaming binge by diving into Gravity Rush 2, and Yakuza Zero. I am super excited for all the games coming out this year. The Nintendo Switch is going to be detailed tomorrow night, and I'm getting super hype about it. I set my money aside as soon as the NX was announced, and the rumors are that it'll be cheaper than the $500 I put aside for it. If that's true it means I'll be able to get more games at launch than I anticipated!

Man, this year is going to rule and I seriously cannot wait!

Game Time - December 2015

2015 is over, but me talking about the games I played in 2015 isn't. I'm here to give you the low down on three games I played in December.

Originally I intended to play all the way through Xenoblade Chronicles X before the end of December, but SEGA decided they wanted to surprise me with the release of Yakuza 5. I played a few hours of Xenoblade, but then took a break from it in order to play Yakuza 5 to completion.

Other than that I played quite a bit of Nuclear throne. This was another surprise release. I've had it on early access for months, but could never really get into it. Now that it's been released on  PS4 I have been having fun, but the immense number of bugs is becoming upsetting.

Let's get right into it!

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Okay, I played a whole lot of Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii. In fact, I played it so much that I got burned out on it before I even beat the final boss. Eventually I did, because my brother reminded me that I had never beaten the game. So when I saw that Xenoblade Chronicles X was supposed to be fairly different I was quite pleased. However, that isn't necessarily the case.

The main way Xenoblade Chronicles X differs from its predecessor is that it's a much more dense game. In fact, it may be one of the most dense games I've ever played. The game doesn't really helpo you either. You're thrown right into the game with only a basic tutorial on how combat works. Most of the deeper combat mechanics and other things the game wants you to read the in game manual for. Even when doing that the explanations are fairly poor, so it doesn't help very much. I had a friend watch me play through the first hour or so, and he explained to me what he had learned in his time with the game.

Xenoblade Chronicles X looks beautiful.

I can't stress enough how overwhelming Xenoblade Chronicles X is at first. The open world is monstrously huge, there are quests everywhere, monsters everywhere, overpopulated UI, tiny text, and unlimited menus. At first I thought my mind was going to explode, but through playing I learned a lot. The game definitely doesn't hold your hand and encourages you to learn things on your own.

The plot sees two warring alien races fight outside of earth's atmosphere and cause catastrophic destruction to the surface. Evacuation ships had been prepared, but many were lost in the escape. You  were aboard the last remaining ship to survive, New Los Angeles. While drifting through space the ship was attacked again and forced to make an emergency landing on the nearest inhabitable planet. In the beginning "you" are woken up from your escape pod. I say "you," because the main character of this game is player created. You make a character and then immediately start your adventure.

THE WORLD IS HUGE!

So far in my approximately ten hours of play I have seen very little story. From what I have read it seems that Xenoblade Chronicles X isn't so focused on an overarching story, but instead focuses on the exploration of the world. This to me makes it feel like a single player MMO much more than its predecessor did. Yes, there are story scenes, but they are so few and far between that it gives you plenty of time to forget everything. It's an odd choice, but at least the game is still fun.

The combat is very similar to the previous game. You have a skill bar on the screen, and you play it like an MMO. You use skills to attack, and then they have to cool down. Outside of that you auto-attack. It's all about managing cool downs. It doesn't work exactly like the previous game, but it;s similar enough that anyone who played it will be able to pick up the system with little difficulty.

Manage all the cooldowns.

I haven't played enough to form a full opinion yet, but this doesn't really seem like my kind of game. There isn't a whole lot of structure to the game. It's about exploring and taking generic quests while you work towards unlocking story missions. Since the story isn't a huge focus you have to make your own story, and I'm not really about that kind of thing. Perhaps as I play more it will grow on me.

Yakuza 5

Sony took the initiative to push for Yakuza 5's localization, and now it's out in English. Well, the text is in English. All of the dialogue is still in Japanese, but that's par for the course. I began playing this series with Yakuza 3, and it hasn't changed a whole lot since then. The general feel of the games has continued to be the same, but that's both a blessing and a curse. The best way to describe Yakuza is that it's a Japanese drama about the Yakuza mixed with a beat-em-up, and mini-game collection. It's probably the only game where you can rub a man's face on the pavement, and then enter the nearest building to play Taiko Drum Master. That's what I love about it.

In Yakuza 4 the concept of controlling multiple main characters with different fight styles was introduced, and that has continued on to Yakuza 5. This time however, you play as five characters! The first is series main stay Kazuma Kiryu. He's the ultimate badass, but now he's trying to get out of the Yakuza life and become a humble cab driver. As you'd expect he gets pulled right back in. Saejima, and Akiyama return as playable characters from Yakuza 4 as well. The Two new protagonists are Shinada who is a baseball player who has fallen from grace, and Haruka who is Kiryu's adopted daughter turned pop idol.

From left to right: Akiyama, Shinada, Kiryu, Haruka, Saejima.

Each character has their own story and fighting style. Well, except Haruka. She doesn't fight. She just has dance battles to increase her skills. No fighting sadly. The fighting is my favorite part of Yakuza though. It feels so smooth and satisfying. Random thugs will accost you on the streets of Japan and you have to beat them down. You have weak attacks, and strong attacks. Pushing them in combinations will perform combos. When you hit enemies enough your heat meter will fill, which lets you perform "super" moves. Depending on the context the character will perform brutal moves that do a ton of damage. As I mentioned before Kiryu can rub an enemies face on the pavement, Saejima can clothesline fools, and they can all smash people into walls. These moves are context sensitive and there are tons to discover.

At the end all of the stories converge and the characters meet. I must say I was a bit disappointed with a lot of Yakuza 5's story though. It had some serious pacing issues. Yes, all of the games have had pacing issues, but 5 takes those issues to the next level. Most scenes go on for way too long, and characters reiterate the same points over and over. It can be excruciating at times. This made me sad, because when the story is in full swing it's a lot of fun. If Yakuza 6 isn't drastically different I don't know if I'll be able to continue playing the series.

This is a real thing that happens in the game.

I loved Yakuza 5, but it's definitely not for everyone! It was originally released in 2012 and its age shows. The frame rate can get a bit rough in spots, and the character models don't look amazing by modern standards. If you like Japan, the Yakuza, and mini-games then you should try it out. If you do want to give the series a shot I'd recommend starting with 4.

Nuclear Throne

If you've been reading my stuff for long enough you already know how much I love Spelunky. I learned about it for a long time and was even doing daily runs for a while. At some point I fell off, but it started my love affair with rogue likes. Rogue likes are games that have you start a game from the very beginning when you die and nothing carries over. The only thing getting better is your skill. Some of them have unlocks such as characters or weapons. My newest rogue like obsession is Nuclear Throne.

Vlambeer has been working on Nuclear Throne for what seems like forever. I bought it in early access on steam six months ago and it had been out for a long time at that point. I played it a bit then, but I couldn't really get into it. I was trying to play with mouse and keyboard then. In Nuclear Throne you control a mutant in the post apocalypse. The goal of the game is to shoot your way through the wasteland and reach the nuclear throne.

Nuclear Throne can get out of control at times.

I got into it now that it has been released on PS4. During PSX in December they put up a ton of games on PSN and Nuclear Throne was one of them. It's now at version 1.0, so it's officially released. I don't know if it should have been released on PS4 yet though, because it has a lot of issues.

It's a fast paced game where you pick up guns. There are many types of guns. You have to use the ones that work best for you. When you kill enemies they drop radioactive material or "rads" as the game calls them. Once you collect enough rads you level up. Once you kill all of the enemies in a stage a portal opens to take you to the next level. Before going to the next level if you have leveled up you get to choose a mutation. Mutations grant various bonuses for the remainder of the run. These things range from regenerating health when you kill to not taking damage from fire when you have low health.

These are all of the playable characters!

What I love about the game is that it's super fast paced and there are a ton of options when trying to reach the end of the game. You have to know how the enemies move and how much health they have. You need to pick the right weapons, and conserve your ammo. Character choice is also very important. Each character in Nuclear Throne has a special ability that can be used by pushing L2 on the controller. The character I use is named Crystal. He has a lot of health and his ability works as a shield to stop bullets from hurting him temporarily. What's cool is that every character works so differently so no two characters feel the same. You start off with two unlocked, but the farther you get into the game the more you unlock.

This is where I rage a little bit. The PS4 version is busted. It was not ready for release. It is undeniably the most unstable PS4 game I have ever played. I've had games crash on me before, but I've had Nuclear Throne crash on me dozens of times! I'll be doing super well on a run and then when I finish a level the game crashes for no apparent reason. Sometimes when accessing the leaderboards the game crashes. Certain gunshots make the game crash. It's infuriating! I gave it a pass the first few times, but now it;s getting ridiculous. Also the frame rate is crazy bad in some spots. If you're going to buy it definitely do it on PC, because the PS4 version needs to be patched VERY BADLY. I guess it speaks to how much I like the game that I keep playing it though.

I'm Ready for February

There's not really anything coming out in January that I will be buying. It's a slow start to the new year, which is fine. Maybe I'll have time to beat Xenoblade Chronicles X and Fallout 4? The way I've been managing my time I probably won't though.

Things really start popping off in February though when four games I've been looking forward to for a very long time come out. Expect to see a lot of Digimon and a lot of Street fighter over the next few months.

See you next time!

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!