Game Time - May 2018

Game: Yakuza 6
Developer: Sega
Platform: PS4

I finished Yakuza 6 a few days ago and can't stop thinking about the ending. The seven game saga of Kazuma Kiryu is finally over, and I don't really know how to feel. Personally the conclusion didn't really do it for me, but with a few small tweaks it would have. I don't want to talk in vagaries about an ending you may not have seen, so I won't. I'll just say that the ending was not as impactful as it could have been. However, the game as a whole was excellent. The journey was interesting, but a bit plodding. That tends to be par for the course with Yakuza.

My playthrough clocked in at right around 26 hours, which I cannot believe. I felt like I was playing for at least 50. So either the clock is just wrong, or the pacing really got to me. That's one thing that always bugs me in Yakuza games is that the pacing is all over the place. It meanders along to try and add dramatic effect. Sometimes it works, but other times it prolongs already obvious plot twists and story developments. I still don't really know if this is a cultural thing or just actual pacing issues.

I'm glad that the story of Kiryu is done now. Now Sega can focus on the upcoming remasters and then move onto a new protagonist. While I absolutely love Kiryu, I think it was his time to give up the spotlight. I can't wait to see where the franchise goes next. Over the course of 7 games they built up a lot of interesting characters and relationships so it will be interesting to see what they follow it up with.


Game: Pixel Junk Monsters 2
Developer: Q-Games
Platform: PS4 (Also out on Switch)

As sad as it is to say, I bought the original Pixel Junk Monsters because it was one of the first PS3 games with trophies in it. At first I was all about the trophies, but I ended up falling in love with the little tiki man and his quest to protect his home with towers. Now, I've never been a huge tower defense fan, but something about Pixel Junk Monsters still feels different to me. Perhaps it's the more active nature. Instead of just placing a tower and waiting for waves of monsters to attack you take part in the action directly. The little tiki man acts as your cursor. If he stands over a tower he will begin to dance and the tower will upgrade over time. On top of that when enemies die they drop coins and gems which you will need to build more towers, so you need to always be on the move.

Pixel Junk Monsters 2 works largely the same as the original. The tiki man is back again, and he still dances all over the towers. However, this time you don't get to see the whole map. Instead everything is zoomed in just enough to obscure parts of the path. At first it's annoying, but it encourages even more movement and action so I'm okay with it. In addition just moving around to collect currency and upgrade towers the little guy can throw bombs and do sweet body slams now.

My favorite part has to be the visuals. I am obsessed with stop motion animation, and that's what the game looks like. Everything has a clay look to it, and the animation is fairly stilted. The default camera is the same as it's always been, but you can now push R2 to zoom in behind the tiki mans back, but gives a fresh perspective on everything. That's when you can really check out the awesome new art style. I fully expected this to be an easy rehash of the original, but it brings new art, and concepts to an already robust product. I haven't played a whole lot yet, but I'm looking forward to checking out more of it.


Game: Valkyria Chronicles Remastered
Developer: Sega/ Media Vision
Platform: PS4

Back in 2008 when Valkyria Chronicles was released on the PS3 I got it as a Christmas gift. It's the kind of semi-real time strategy game I'd be way into, but back then I had a lot going on and just didn't find the time to play it much. By the time I got around to it, I just kept finding excuses to play new games instead. I let one of my friends borrow it, and they ended up beating it fairly quickly. They absolutely loved it and kept trying to get me into it. I have a very hard time going back to old games once their time in the sun has passed, and normally try to stick with new stuff. However, now with the looming release of Valkyria Chronicles 4 I found my gaming schedule free after beating Yakuza 6 and decided I should finally give the game a shot.

I stopped by Gamestop and picked up the remastered version for PS4, and I've been having a blast so far. I've always been a sucker for strategy games, so I feel right at home playing Valkyria Chronicles. It essentially functions like turn based strategy games like Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, except with a little more direct input from the player. In battle you are given a set amount of medals, which allow you to move a character for each one you have. When you pick a character you are then put in direct control of them. They have a stamina bar, and can move until it is depleted. Like I said it's not too far off from most turn based strategy games, but the direct control of the moving and aiming adds a lot.

I've only done the first few missions, but I'm already farther than I got initially. The game is introducing new unit types and mechanics at a decent clip and I'm really digging it. So far the plot is relatively interesting, but I don't know if I'm fully invested yet. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts as I take the rest of June to try and finish it up.

Game Time - May 2017

I played three very different games in May. I started off with the rhythm game Deemo, then moved onto everyone's favorite existentialist robot game Nier: Automata and finished with the super hero fighting game Injustice 2. 2017 is a weird year.

Deemo: The Last Recital

I love rhythm games and that's exactly what Deemo is. Somehow I found myself reading a list of what a totally random website considered the best Rhythm games of all time. To my surprise a phone game made the list, so I had to check it out. After a bit of research I found out it was coming out on the Vita as well. I played both versions, but actually prefer the phone version quite a bit.

Deemo is a touch screen only game, which is why phones have an advantage over the Vita. A line sits at the bottom of the screen as piano keys fly towards it. When the keys meet the line you need to touch them. On higher difficulties tons of notes are flying at you at a time, so the better touch functionality of my cell phone makes me prefer it. The Vita is fine, but it's a bit too big to reach all the parts of the screen at the same time. It's also not as responsive as I'd like it to be. The touch screen isn't the only difference between the two versions though.

You need to hit the notes when they reach the line on the bottom.

The plot of Deemo is that a little girl wakes up and finds herself trapped in an underground area with a weird emotionless demon guy. The demon guy, Deemo is pretty good at the piano. When he plays a tree grows, so the goal is to make the tree grow so that the little girl can escape. It's weird because the songs aren't scored. The way to make the tree grow is complete a song for the first time on a difficulty, or full combo songs. As you progress the phone game has odd scenes with still images, while the Vita version has beautiful animated cutscenes. The Vita version costs $15, while the phone version is initially free, but then two dollars if you want to remove ads, and then another $10 for a while new scenario that the Vita version doesn't have. It's a cool game that I don't think many people are aware of.

Nier: Automata

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the only people on the planet who played the original Nier. The fact that it got a sequel continues to baffle me. At first I was apprehensive, because while the original Nier was pretty rough it still holds a special place in my heart. It was kind of broken, and the combat was really rough, but it had memorable characters and tried to switch through so many genres I really liked it. It felt ambitious, which I really admired. Luckily Automata is just as ambitious, and just as weird. Yes, Automata plays a whole lot better, but it's still not anything stellar.

You need to kill all the machines!

So what is Nier: Automata you ask? Well it's a game about Robots who are fighting machines created by aliens on earth. Aliens drove humans to the moon, but the humans created an army of androids called YORHA to take back earth. Initially you play as 2B, who is a female combat unit. You have a sick sword and you kill a lot of robots in stylish, but mashy combat. It's not anything special, but it's engaging enough to keep you invested.

The real draw to Automata is the story. The game's director Yoko Taro is very weird, and that's reflected in the game. If you're interested in stories that are very into existentialism and asking whether or not machines can learn, then this game is going to be your jam.

Injustice 2

I have a weird relationship with games made by NetherRealm Studios. As a kid I was never super in love with Mortal Kombat, but I would play it from time to time. I got back into their games around Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe on the PS3. That's what I consider to be the new era of their games. Solid fighting games with a ton of solid single player content. When it comes to cinematic fighting game stories they have yet to be outdone. The problem is that I rarely have a lot of fun fighting. That's a bummer when the fighting is basically the entire game...

Get ready to beat up all kinds of DC characters for the second time!

The quality of Injustice 2 is ridiculous. The character models look great, especially when compared to the original game. It has a crazy amount of fan service for DC fans. If you're down for some super heroes beating the hell out of each other, then you'll probably enjoy Injustice. The story takes about four hours and lets you get a good sense of the mechanics and a handful of the characters. Outside of the story mode is where the game's true hook comes in. This time around you can open loot boxes to get sweet loot. The loot can then be equipped to your characters to give them different looks and abilities. It's an interesting concept that's turned off in competitive play, but it keeps me coming back to the game when I otherwise wouldn't.

The problem I tend to have with this studio's games is that I like them until I play against another human. I'm not the best fighting game player, but these games frustrate me like no other. I don't really know why, but I just can't grasp a lot of the systems in play. So I dominate the AI, but as soon as I play a real person I got stomped into the ground. This time around there's enough single player content that I don't feel like I need to try and take my skills online. This game is actually packed to the brim with content, and I'd actually recommend it to people who aren't looking to enter the competitive scene.

E3!

As with every year I am looking forward to E3. This year is going to be very interesting, because Nintendo has to prove that the Switch has a lot of stuff coming in the future, and Microsoft needs to sell the world on the Scorpio. Maybe Nintendo will announce their plans for the Virtual console on Switch. There are a lot of things I want to happen, but I'll just have to wait and see. I'll be back next month to tell you all about my favorite parts of the Electronic Entertainment Expo!

Game Time - May 2016

Anime! This edition of Game Time has a lot of anime in it. I played both Gundam Breaker 3, and One Piece: Burning Blood. Well I guess Gundam Breaker 3 is technically a game about models, but you get what I mean.

Outside of all the anime I experienced I also played Uncharted 4. I liked it quite a bit. 

I have nothing else to add. It's game time!

Gundam Breaker 3

Within the past few years I have started importing a lot more games from outside the U.S. It has become increasingly easy to get import games at reasonable prices. A trend I find to be increasingly odd is that games are being released in English for territories in Asia. It was done with Phantasy Star Online 2, and has been done with a few Gundam games now. Due to licensing issues, Gundam Breaker games have not been released in the U.S. When I was told the game was completely in English I jumped right on it!

So Gundam Breaker is a series where you build Gundam models called Gunpla and have them fight other Gundam models. It's really cool. Gunpla models are very popular, and there are models of every single Gundam and mobile suit you can think of. This game has an insane amount of parts to choose from so that you can make your own custom Gundam. I love the concept of giant robots fighting, but have never really been able to get way into any of the anime series. I get it. They're all about war, but they don't have to be so incredibly self serious all the time. When I'm watching anime I'm not looking for political arguments and land disputes. I want to see giant robots destroy things with a gigantic laser sword. Gundam Breaker 3 delivers on that.

Someone built this awesome Gundam. 

The gameplay equates to Dynasty Warriors with slightly more nuance. You have regular attacks on square, and heavy attacks on triangle. Changing up the timing and holding directions when you attack changes up the combos drastically. It helps that there are a ton of weapon types that all play vastly different from one another. It's nothing special, but it's pretty fun.

There are an insane amount of Gundam models in the game, which means that there are hundreds of parts you accrue over the course of playing. You can mix and match any part to customize your ultimate fighting robot. It's also possible to color what you've made and apply decals. What makes the game a bit tedious is how poor the inventory screens are. You have so many duplicates of parts, but can't sell them more than one at a time. There have been sessions where I've spent over an hour just selling duplicates. That's insane. Luckily I think the core game is fun enough that I am still enjoying myself.

You have to blow up all the robots in this game.

Once you complete the story the only thing left to do is grind missions for parts you need in order to make yourself stronger. There are going to be DLC missions at some point, so I might hop back in then and see what they're all about. I don't really have a lot to say about this game. If you like building custom robots, then you're probably going to be way into this.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

The year that Uncharted 3 came out it made my top ten list, which is posted on this very blog. In the little blurb I wrote about it I said that I wanted more Uncharted, but in the time following something happened to change my mind. Uncharted is fun, but the third game wrapped everything up in a way that made me think we wouldn't see any more from Drake and his cohorts. Then Naughty Dog released The Last of Us and I finally realized that I didn't need another Uncharted. So when they announced that Uncharted 4 was in the works I was extremely skeptical. The franchise pushed the boundaries of what was possible on the PS3 hardware and proved that Naughty Dog was an incredible developer. Now that I've played and completed Uncharted 4 I'm glad that they let Drake out for one more romp.

I recorded a podcast about my overall impressions on Uncharted 4, so I'll try my best to keep my thoughts here concise. When Uncharted 2 came out it blew my mind. The graphical fidelity and the quality of the motion capture performances were nothing short of amazing. At the time I don't remember anything quite like it. Then Uncharted 3 came out and it was more of the same. I was fully expecting Uncharted 4 to tow the line as well, but after playing it I believe that it made a significant jump in quality. Many people, myself included, have been disappointed with the performance of games on the current generation of consoles. Uncharted 4 throws all the preconceived notions about the PS4's capabilities out the window and turns all the available knobs to 11. The game looks nothing short of breathtaking.  The vistas and action set pieces are a complete joy to experience, and look straight out of a blockbuster movie. There were points where I actually thought that Nate and Elena were real people. Their faces show emotion in a way that's amazing. The dead eyes and cold stare of most video game characters are not present in Uncharted 4.

The faces are very lifelike.

As for gameplay everything is fairly similar to what it has been in the past. It's a third person shooter, that makes you question if Drake is really a normal person or if he's a professional killer. For a guy who likes to hunt treasure he sure knows how to handle any kind of gun he comes across. Then there's the whole issue of him murdering hundreds of people in cold blood, but I think it's a little too late in the life of the franchise to really change how the core gameplay causes narrative dissonance. That's not to say that Uncharted 4 has nothing new in the way of gameplay. Yes, you'll still be climbing around cliff faces a fair amount, but now you also have a sweet grappling hook!

Prior to this entry the franchise had been standard adventure fare. Drake would find out about some treasure and go after it. Rarely was there any kind of "real" character development. We learned about the personality of Drake and all of his compatriots, but never anything about who they really were and where they came from. Uncharted 4 actually had a narrative that I was personally invested in outside of having a fun romp in foreign locales. Nate and Elena's relationship is very well realized, and so is his relationship with his long lost brother.

There is still a whole lot of gun play in Uncharted 4.

It's not an overly long game, but it does overstay its welcome in the final few chapters. I clocked in around thirteen hours of play time, which I did in two sittings. The game was great and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. However, I think that this has to be the end of the franchise. It ties up in such a way that I will actually get upset if they decide to make an Uncharted 5. I get the feeling that Naughty Dog wants to move on though, and I hope that they do.

One Piece: Burning Blood

Burning Blood came out on the last day of May. Normally I wouldn't have enough time to play a game and spit a bunch of game about it, but I beat the story mode in three hours the same day I got it... For some reason it only covers the Paramount War arc from multiple perspectives. There aren't a whole lot of fights to do, and the only reason it even took me three hours was because some of the enemies can kill you in a few hits. Even with that artificial padding, the mode was still ludicrously short. Since it's a fighting game I was excited to jump online and mess around, but was quickly disappointed with how shallow the game truly is.

Burning Blood is an anime fighting game. Obviously. One Piece is my favorite anime, so obviously I was very excited to play this game. It has a wide variety of characters, and their animations are all really fun to see in action. Normally I go into anime games expecting them to be shallow and filled with fan service for fans of the series. It's what I've become accustomed to. What changed this about Burning Blood was the fact that I kept seeing people talk about how much hidden depth the game has. In order to find it I went into training mode when I had finished the story mode. I messed around for about an hour and still couldn't figure out where the "depth" was.

If you want to see your favorite One Piece moves, then this is for you!

The majority of the combat amounts to mashing square. If you push square rapidly you'll do a combo and then a finisher to blow the enemy away. What bugs me most about this is that you can't even time your button presses. You literally have to mash as fast as possible or the character will give up mid combo. This means that you can't push square for a few hits and then use a different move in most scenarios. You can however throw a guard break into the regular square combo to break an opponents guard. This will crumple them so you can continue to combo. If you hold L1 and push one of three buttons the character in play can use one of their three special moves. Generally you just mash square and then follow up with one of these moves, or just do it raw. Since it's a 3D game you can also sidestep your opponents attacks, which is why some of moves attack in an arc in front of you.

There are a few other character specific things, like Logia guarding. In the anime characters eat devil fruits which give them various powers. People with Logia powers can turn their bodies whole bodies into an element, like fire or ice. If you hold R1 with those characters they can't be hit by anything but a guard break. This makes these characters very powerful in comparison to others, which can get kind of annoying. Reading this is probably sounds like there is a lot going on, but I assure you that in practice it is exceedingly simple. Most characters have one or two combo stings that allow for very little variation. Since it's a tag team game you bring three characters into battle, and can switch between them. This adds a a few more hits to combos if you switch to someone else mid-combo. However, the game has an infuriating mechanic that makes characters you're hitting flash white and fall out of your hits.

Kizaru will probably fall out of this combo and punish Marco. 

Normally this kind of mechanic is used to prevent infinites. For those uninitiated in fighting game mechanics infinites are combos you can get your opponent into that don't end until they're dead. Systems to prevent them are put into place for the good of the game, but in this scenario it makes no sense. It's horribly inconsistent and ruins every combo that could potentially be cool in any way. When you smash square the combos in this game end on their own, so switching to someone should allow you co continue mashing square until the new character is done with their combo. In most cases they hit twice and the enemy drops out and they can immediately start a combo on you while you're still trying to do yours. WHAT!? It makes even less sense, because it costs three bars of your meter in order to use! You can't do it over and over. In most matches you'd be able to do it once! It makes no sense and takes all the fun out of trying to find new and interesting combos, because if you do find something it will assuredly not work.

If you're a fan of One Piece and you're looking to play as some of your favorite characters and mash the living hell out of some buttons, then this game is for you. However, if you're looking for even a bit of nuance or longevity, then you're going to want to skip out on this game. Sadly I'm stuck somewhere in the middle of those two camps. I love One Piece and think that this game is fun on a basic level, but as soon as I try to improve my gameplay I get frustrated to no end. I apologize if this was a bit technical and a slog to read, but I needed to get my frustrations out. It's a solid game that has mechanics holding it back from being something a lot better.

JUUUUUUUNE!

It's June, which means that my birthday is happening near the end of the month. It also means that Guilty Gear Revelator, and Star Ocean 5 will be coming out. I'm not super excited for Guilty Gear, but I've been craving the JRPG action of Star Ocean for a long time.

I was also very much looking forward to playing No Man's Sky as well. However, it has now been delayed until August. I can't really get upset about delays anymore, because I want games to come out as good as they possibly can. I am disappointed, but it's probably for the better.

There's also a very good chance that I will be building a real PC soon, so I may be able to write more about PC games in the future. If anything it will vastly improve the quality of my streams. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I'm 90% sure that I will be making a hot new PC.

I have a lot on my plate for June, so I hope it turns out well! See you next month.

Game Time - May 2015

This month I played two colorful happy Nintendo games and The Witcher 3, which has one of the most depressing and dark worlds I've ever seen. It was a confusing month, but I loved everything I played!

I'll bookend the post with Nintendo, with some sweet Witcher talk in the middle. Let's get right into it. It's game time!

Puzzles & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition

Man, I'm terrible at puzzles and Dragons. I can match three all day, but when I actually need to combo multiple matches together I'm toast. The point I'm at in this game sucks, because I actually have to do that! See, I'm fighting Thwomps, and if I don't kill them in four turns I due instantly! It sucks extra, because I only get three continues! I've died on this stage at least ten times, and can't seem to do anything about it. Despite that, I still think the game is pretty fun. It's essentially the exact same game as Puzzles & Dragons, but you have Mario characters instead.

For those who don't know Puzzles & Dragons is an insanely popular free to play mobile game in Japan. It makes a staggering amount of money every day. It's available in most other languages as well. I played it for a but, but had to stop, because the monsters I had weren't good enough and I didn't really feel like dropping any money into it. The goal is to match three, except the things you're matching are elements. You create a team of five characters and a helper in order to tackle a level. Each character will have an element associated with them, so when you match that element they will attack. Each character has an attack, health, and recovery stat. As you play and defeat enemies your characters will level up and get stronger.

Man, I don't have any Yoshis yet....

In normal Puzzles & Dragons feeding unneeded characters to the ones you use is one of the best ways to get experience, and it often needed to help them evolve into stronger forms. The Mario edition differs from that, because feeding your characters doesn't get them a whole lot of experience. They also will evolve by being fed items you can find as drops during the stages. All around it's a much more kid friendly version of Puzzles & Dragons, because up until the point I'm at is a very easy game. It helps that since it's a full retail game there are no bullshit mechanics keeping you from getting stronger either. Normal Puzzles & Dragons has a stamina mechanic, so you can only play so much in any given session.

This cartridge also has Puzzles & Dragons Z in it as well. I haven't played it yet, but I look forward to it. It's basically a Puzzles & Dragons RPG, so it has the same monsters as the mobile game, but without all the stupid free to play elements. I decided to play the Mario edition first, because it's supposed to be easier. Right now I'm not buying into that though, because I want to take my 3DS and smash it into a billion pieces. I should probably get better at the game!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

For the first hour or so I really didn't like The Witcher 3. The movement felt awkward, and I didn't understand the combat. After an hour or so, something clicked in my brain and now I am absolutely in love with the game and its world! Everything is so dark and miserable, it's great! Seriously though, since the world is so dark and disturbing it makes everything a lot more interesting.

In case the name wasn't a big enough clue, you play as a Witcher. There are a few Witcher's in the game, but you specifically play as Geralt of Rivia. I had not played the previous two games in the franchise so it took me a bit to get up to speed on exactly who Geralt is and what's so special about him. Witcher's are highly trained humans who undergo a ritual to become infertile mutants. The trade-off is that they have heightened strength and reflexes. The entire goal of a Witcher is to kill monsters for money. Their emotions are extremely nullified, so they rarely show any kind of emotion, which helps with the whole heartless mercenary thing. Turns out most people don't like Witchers, and see them as money grubbing mutants. However, people will still contract them, because there are beasts that need to be taken care of.

Geralt is the definition of badass.

In this game though, the monster killing is only a secondary distraction. The main quest involves Geralt looking for his adopted daughter Ciri, who is being chased down by the Wild Hunt. I'm still not quite sure what the Hunt is yet. They seem like a crazy group of skeleton men who can fly and make everything around them turn into ice and die. They're pretty scary, so I can see why Geralt wants to save Ciri from them.

This is the first entry in the series that is truly open world, and for the first time in a long time I'm enjoying it. The world is insanely large and there are icons everywhere on the map. There is literally something to do around every corner and it's almost all worthwhile. You don't necessarily get good items from everything, but there will at least be some kind of story. The thing this game has that most other games don't is good writing. Almost every single quest I've come across has intrigued me. Everything has a purpose, or at least it seems to have a purpose.

The map in this game is huge.

Traversing the world takes a while to get used to. Geralt has an odd momentum to his movement, so he takes a while to get going and to stop. It's something I've seen a lot of people complaining about, but after the first hour of the game I have absolutely no issue with it now. It helps that there isn't any kind of precise platforming. You just have to get from place to place, Combat is relatively easy to control as well, but it can get pretty complicated if you want it to. Once you get close enough to an enemy you're essentially locked into combat and will begin to strafe around. Square will unleash a quick attack, and triangle will do a strong attack. Geralt also has magic known as signs available to him. I only use about two of them, but they all have uses. He can create a shield. shoot fire, and control minds. I'm playing on the medium difficulty, so I can get by with just kind of hammering on the quick attack button and blocking occasionally. On higher difficulties that's completely different though.

The game really wants you to prepare before you fight its bigger monsters. Like I said, I don't really have to, but I can see why you would want to. There's a whole alchemy system you can brew potions with that I've barely touched. You can make everything from healing potions to oils you can coat your blades with so that you can hurt ghosts better. Every monster will be weak to a specific sign and have some super specific way to defeat it easier. I've had myself some ten to fifteen minute battles, because I didn't properly prepare. That meant that I was doing way less damage than I could have been.

There are all kinds of horrifying monsters in The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3 is a huge game, and I'm completely engrossed in its world. I can't reiterate enough just how terrible dark it is. One of the monsters in it is literally a miscarried baby. What's interesting is that it's just about Geralt and how he interacts with the world. There isn't necessarily a world ending event that's going to be taking place. Sure, you're trying to save Ciri but she can take care of herself. It's totally believable that Geralt could do all kinds of side stuff while looking for Ciri. I've been playing for like forty hours and I feel like I'm not close to finished. I seriously can't recommend this game enough!!

Splatoon

In my heart I will always love Nintendo, but for the past few years I've been questioning everything they do. They rarely ever take risk and if they do, then they do it halfheartedly. That all changed when they released Splatoon though. Nintendo launched a new franchise on their home console, and to top if off it's a fun online multiplayer shooter! Never in my entire life did I think that I would type a sentence like that. Never!

When I first saw Splatoon a few years ago I thought that it looked stupid. I'll be honest, I bought it thinking that I would hate it. I personally don't really like shooters, but I bought it to support any new IP Nintendo is willing to make. They hadn't made a new franchise on consoles since Pikmin for gods sake! Much to my surprise I started to play Splatoon and couldn't put it down for hours. A friend and I switched off every match and had an absolute blast.

Splatoon just looks like a fun time!

In Splatoon you play as an Inkling, which is a humanoid squid teenager. You get to deck them out in fresh clothing and shoot ink. At the beginning of a match you are randomly put with three other people on a team of four. The goal is to paint the stage your color. At the end of the match whichever team has more of their color on the map wins. It's so simple, but everything about it is satisfying. Nintendo must have focus tested the living hell out of this game. The movement, gun-play, stages, and match time all feel near perfect. Each match is only a few minutes long, so it never wears out its welcome. All the guns feel good, and the physics on the ink are great. You can turn your Inkling into their squid form and swim through your own ink at a decent clip, which just feels right.

As you level up by completing matches you can buy more clothing, and new guns. Clothing has abilities that will help you out a little bit, but nothing overpowered. Nintendo seems to be very keen on the idea that everyone is on the same level. They only have five maps in the game right now, because they claim the game is more fun when everyone knows what's going on. Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. The weapons are going to be changing your experience the most. There are tons of guns that shoot ink at a decent clip, and then there are paint rollers that cover a large area quickly, but you don't have any range.

The paint roller is a very powerful weapon.

This past Monday on June 1st Nintendo unlocked the ranked mode, which is different from the regular battle mode. It has you trying to control specific points on the map. My only issue with it is that I don't have fun while playing it. If you lose, then you get absolutely no reward. It isn't helped by the fact that it has a really severe rubberbanding technique. It's way more about getting kills once you've taken over the point, which goes against everything I think is fun about the game. The good thing is that you can just play regular battle if you want, but it has me worried about future mode that the game will introduce. It's cool that the two modes are so vastly different in what you need to do to succeed.

Splatoon has style. It reminds me a lot of Jet Set Radio, which is always welcome. I've been trying to play it once a day, which is normally something I don't really do. I am still having trouble comprehending the fact that Nintendo took a risk on this franchise. I really wish that other companies would follow suit, because this console generation needs something other than sequels to already established franchises.

All Aboard the E3 Hype Train!

Can you hear that sound in the distance? That's right, it's the E3 hype train! In just about two weeks E3 2015 will be upon us and I couldn't possibly be more excited. There have been very few leaks so far, so either this year is going to be super lame, or there are going to be a ton of surprises. I'm really hoping we get a ton of surprises, Keep your eyes on the blog, because I'll probably be posting some stuff during E3.

Other than that I'll be ready with another edition at the end of June!

Game Time - May 2014

Finally the month of May is behind us, and it was just as good as I had hoped it would be. It all started off with Transistor the new game from Bastion creators Supergiant Games. I enjoyed Transistor so thoroughly that I beat it in a single sitting. Drakengard 3 came out the same day, but I didn't like that at all...

Then there was Watch Dogs. The game that everyone on the internet that everyone was so excited about until a few weeks ago when everyone started to hate it more than anything else in the world. I'm glad to report that once again people on the internet have overreacted. Sure, it's not as good as it could have been, but it's still a competent open world game.

I also played a whole butt load of Mario Kart 8, but we'll save that for the hot new edition of Party Game Sundays that will be up in a day or two. So without further ado, let's get right into talking about the sweet games of May 2014

It's game time!

Transistor

Supergiant games released Bastion in 2011 right around the time I started this blog. In fact, it was one of the first games I reviewed on this blog. Since then I've moved away from writing reviews, but that's not really the point. I absolutely loved Bastion and gave it a perfect 5/5 rating. It was a great RPG, and the way they had the narrator react to what you're doing was incredibly unique.

Now it's three years later and Supergiant has released their new game Transistor on the PS4 and PC. I pre-ordered it for PS4 and started playing it as soon as it became available. As I stated in this month's introduction I completed the entire game in one sitting. Well, I technically did it in one sitting, because I got up to go to the bathroom multiple times. Either way, I really liked Transistor, but not as much as I liked Bastion.

I also ate food during my very long play session.

Much like Bastion, Transistor has a narrator. It takes the form of your sword, the Transistor. You play as a woman named Red, a singer, who has had her voice taken from her. In the opening scene you pull the Transistor out of a man's body and are immediately thrust into the game with little to no explanation. I'd set the game up more, but that would take away from the game quite a bit. All you really need to know is that there is an evil force known as the process, which is taking over the city.

The way Transistor presents its story is odd. Little to no information is given to you up front and it's not ever really thrown at you either. If you want to get a feel for the city of Cloudbank you need to go looking for its secrets. Since Red can't talk the Transistor has to tell you the story, but since he's a direct participant in what's happening he doesn't necessarily have all the answers. One of the ways you learn about the world is through combat and it's technically optional.

This is the menu where you mess around with your functions.

Battling in Transistor has you wielding the Transistor, because it's a sword. As you progress through the game you'll earn various functions, which are the games equivalents of skills. Each function is a different ability, but it also has to do with a person from the game. My favorite part of the game is how much customization there is. You can use each function as an ability, but you can also use it as a modifier for other abilities, or use it as a passive buff. This allows for a ridiculous amount of combinations, so in theory everyone could be using their functions completely differently. In order to get all the information about a given person you have to use the function in all three ways to see all the information about them. This is how the game encourages you to experiment. It allows you to figure out how you like to battle, and find out more of the worlds story in the process.

The combat never got old for me. You can walk around and hit enemies with button presses, or you can stop time in order to enter a string of commands and then watch them play out. Figuring out how to chain functions together was one of my favorite parts of the game and doing so was extremely satisfying.

Combat in Transistor is very compelling.

What's kind of unfair is that I can't help but compare this game directly to Bastion. They both have music composed by Darren Korb, which is incredible. They also both have Narrator figures, which makes it easy to draw direct comparisons. In that way I think that Transistor has a weaker story, because a lot of the information isn't readily available and you have to go looking for it. Even when you find it all the world still leaves a lot to the imagination. The plot in Bastion came together on its own, which was something incredible when it happened. With that being said Transistor is an incredible game, and it shows that Supergiant wasn't just a one hit wonder. They sure know how to create beautiful worlds that truly draw you in.

Drakengard 3

I'm always down to play niche titles, which is one of the reasons I bought Nier on the PlayStation 3. It had weird characters and gameplay, but had a special charm to it. It was super weird and rough around the edges, but I enjoyed the living hell out of it. I was trying to unlock all the endings, but in order to do so I needed to find rare crafting materials with a super low drop rate. Instead of searching the same bush over and over for a large egg, I decided to put the game to rest and remember it fondly.

I played Nier years ago, so when I found out that Drakengard 3 would be coming to the U.S. and that it was a prequel to the other games in the series I was ecstatic. See, one of the many endings in Nier leads to the creation of the Drakengard world. I also know that people really liked the first two Drakenhard games for the PS2, which I've seen likened to Game of Thrones. I guess they both have tons of violence and deal with what are considered taboo themes. Needless to say I was excited ti play it.

I like nothing about Zero as a character!

Upon playing the game all hope I had that I would enjoy it was quickly smashed into oblivion. I've played my fair share of bad games, but this one was almost immediately unbearable. It begins with a fairly cool pre-rendered scene that sets up the main character Zero and her dragon Mikhail. Right off the bat Zero is not portrayed as a likable character. She is an intoner, which is basically a god-like figure that is meant to keep balance in the world. For some reason she wants to kill all of her sisters and be the only intoner. This is all fine and good, but there's really no reason for it. It definitely doesn't help that she just seems like a bad person. She swears a lot and most of her dialogue is what I would refer to as insufferable. I think it's supposed to be funny, but it just seems like the writing is trying way too hard.

Granted I only played about two hours, so maybe Zero gets better as a character. What's the most upsetting is how inconsistent she is. One second she's sweetly telling her dragon not to roll around and the next she's screaming about how she wants the dragon to shut up with a whole lot of obscenities thrown in.

Scenes like this often destroy the frame rate.

Sometimes for games like this I can try and look past the story if they have decent gameplay. Unsurprisingly Drakengard 3 doesn't have that either! It's basically Dynasty Warriors with like three enemies on screen at once. You have strings of square and triangle that differ depending on your weapon. You can switch to a variety of weapons, but so far that hasn't proven to be very beneficial. I'm sure there are various enemy types each weapon is good against later in the game.I might even enjoy the combat if the entire game didn't run like total garbage. For starters the game looks pretty terrible graphically, so I don't have any idea why the frame rate slows to a crawl if there are more than two things on screen. It's mind blowing, because all the locales are essentially barren wastelands with crates in them.

I've been reading that the game gets a lot better around halfway through, but I just don't know if I'll be able to get there. Everything about the game so far has put me off to it. It just seems like a bad game, and not in an endearing way like Deadly Premonition. It just seems poorly optimized and generally bad.

Watch Dogs

When Watch Dogs was first shown I pretty much lost my mind. The concept of an open world game where you played as a hacker was something I was very much interested in. It helped that the graphics looked insanely good too. I, and many other people at that time thought that this was going to be one of the first true next generation games to come to the PS4 and Xbox One. Over time more footage of the game was shown, and it was clear that the graphics shown at the original E3 event were a thing of the past. They still looked fine, but were nothing spectacular. I feel like this is the point where a lot of people turned on Watch Dogs.

Somehow people got a wee bit too hyped up for this game, because the backlash it's seeing across the internet now is mind boggling. There are numerous reasons people are freaking out about it, but the graphical downgrade is a very prominent one. I guess people feel like they were lied to, which is a semi-legitimate complaint, but it's nothing to condemn the game over. It still looks perfectly fine for an open world game. I feel like that's where the legitimate complaints stop though. Now people are upset because it's an open world game that isn't much different from all the others. You still get behind cover to shoot people, find collectibles on the map, and drive around a whole bunch. What really gets me is that the game was never advertised as anything else. Hell, this type of gameplay was even shown in the original E3 demo everyone was losing it over in the first place.

I think the game still looks fine graphically.

Yes, Watch Dogs is an open world game that has you hacking the objects around you to make them do things. You hack everything with the push of a button, which is the main thing that makes Watch Dogs different from other open world games. I've said it once, and I'll probably say it many more times, but Watch Dogs is a fine game. It's nothing spectacular, but it's not the kind of thing that you immediately condemn either. It's a perfectly competent game. The hacking actually adds to the gameplay in a meaningful way. It allows for combat to be done stealthily, as opposed to going in guns blazing. Sure, I went in guns blazing 90% of the time, but at least I had the option not to.

You play as the vigilante Aiden Pierce. His goal is to get revenge on the people who killed his six year old niece. Throughout the game you'll work with various people in order to find out the truth behind the savage murder. It's not exactly the most compelling story, but it does have it's interesting points. The main issue I had with it, is that about 3/4's of the way through the game there are some plot events that seem to only happen so that the game is longer. The game is already long enough, due to the fact that collectibles and side missions are literally everywhere, just as they are in other Ubisoft open world games. Most of the stuff is totally pointless and not very fun. The rewards were definitely not worth completing everything in my opinion.

Watch Dogs is another open world game, except that it has hacking.

Watch Dogs was fine. It probably took me around 30 hours to complete, and that's with me mostly main lining the story. I ended up doing a fair amount of side stuff on the way, but I'm sure if I wanted to keep playing I could go for another 20-30 hours to collect the rest of it. Overall it's just an average open world game with a whole lot of third person shooting. The hacking element is very interesting though, even if it does just have you pressing a single button. I feel like Watch Dogs is a proof of concept that can be expanded into something much better the second time around. Hopefully it makes an amazing transformation like the Assassin's Creed franchise did between its first and second games. Despite all the backlash from the gaming community there will almost certainly be another one of these games. It around 4 million copies worldwide already, which is nothing to sneeze at.

E3 Hype Train!

This coming Monday, June 9th, E3 2014 is taking place. I'm very excited as I tend to be every year. This year is kind of weird though, because so many game announcements are happening prior to the show. Hopefully there are still a bunch of Surprises left to be unveiled, because with almost every single cool game being delayed to 2015 the gaming community could use a little bit of excitement.

As for games that come out in June I'm kind of drawing a blank. Tomorrow I'll be picking up Tomodatchi Life for the 3DS, which should be pretty fun. I'm also currently playing through Murdered: Soul Suspect on the PS4, which has been being completely blasted in reviews. So far I think it's actually pretty good.

It's probably good that I won't be getting much this month, because I'll be going on vacation from the 16th through the 27th, which should prove to be very exciting. I'm sure I'll cook something up for the blog though.

     -Manny