Podcast Episode 85 - Waning Brothers

As Matt predicted last week there was too much news and now we're getting absolutely nothing. We scrape the bottom of the news barrel before Matt talks a bit about what he's been playing.

For the grand finale we talk about WB Games and CD Projekt Red while going on several tangents about the films Cars and Spiderman 2.

News - 00:33 to 18:18
What We Played - 18:19 to 34:16
WB Games and CD Projekt Red - 34:17 to 1:44:41

Specific Game Timestamps
Spiderman - 20:59 to 23:28
Hyperdot - 23:29 to 25:05
Uncharted 4 & Middle Earth: Shadow or Mordor - 25:06 to 34:16
 

Game Time With Manny · Episode 85 - Waning Brothers

Top Ten Games of 2014

Since I've started this blog I've posted my top ten games of the year in text format. I'm going to continue doing that, but this year I also recorded a podcast where I discuss each choice a little more in-depth.

Keep in mind that these are my personal opinions, which may differ greatly from your own top ten picks for 2014. As usual I will start with the number ten game on my list and work my way to what I thought. If you want to read some more in depth thoughts on each game just click its name.

Let's this list going!

10. Transistor

The second game coming out of SuperGiant games, which shows they know how to make a good game. You play as Red, a singer who has lost her voice in a cyberpunk world. Armed only with a talking sword she must travel through the deserted city in order to find out what's going on.

The soundtrack, atmosphere, and combat blend together to create an unforgettable experience. I can't wait to see where SuperGiant goes from here.




9. Mario Kart 8


Mario Kart games don't really change much from year to year, but it's easy to tell when one is a quality product. Mario Kart 8 is certainly a quality product. It's the first HD iteration of the series and it looks beautiful. Nintendo has proven time and time again that they have the best art direction around.

On top of it looking beautiful it plays well. The karts have weight to them, and you actually have to slide in order to succeed. The game wasn't super surprising to me, since Nintendo knows how to make a solid kart racer. If you like Mario Kart, it's more of that!


8. Dark Souls 2

I got into the Souls franchise this year, and while the original Dark Souls is my favorite the sequel is pretty good too. It's more Dark Souls, but not necessarily as well thought out as the first. Still, you travel through numerous environment types and meet with infuriatingly difficult challenges.

With new mechanics it differentiates itself from the original, while keeping the experience fresh.




7. Rayman Legends

Rock solid platformers are getting increasingly hard to come by. Lucky for me Rayman Legends came out on current generation consoles, so I could take a crack at it. The Ubiart engine renders a beautiful world, that is backed up by some incredible platforming.

Rayman feels weighty, but glides through the air just right. More platformers should feel as tight as this does. It helps that there are a ton of unlockable stages and characters to boot!



6. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

This game made the list predicated entirely on the nemesis system. The Lord of the Rings elements
are completely ancillary to the experience. The nemesis system allows for you to make your own enemies and rivals. You get into fights with unique enemies who will remember you and react with tons of unique dialogue depending on the situation.

Rarely do I hope that developers directly steal from other games, but in this case I do. The nemesis system is super cool and I'd really like to see it in more games.

5. Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

Guilty Gear has finally made its return. It looks incredible and is super fun to play. The story mode is like watching an anime, and more fighting games should follow its lead.

Very rarely do I go into training mode and practice combos in a fighting game, but with this I have. The combat system has been brought back down to a level that the average person has a chance of breaking in to. I'm not saying I'm going to get good at Guilty Gear, but I'm sure as hell going to try.


4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii-U

Smash is back. I love Melee, and what Project M is trying to do is admirable. I think that I enjoy
playing the new smash more than a mod though. The speed is the right distance between the slow motion of Brawl and the hyper speed of melee. It's a perfect blend of what makes smash very accessible and competitive.

The game is so jam packed with content it's hard to see it all. Out of all the games I played this year this one had the most fun multiplayer by a mile. Smash continues to be one of my favorite franchises of all time.


3. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call

Curtain Call brings back everything I loved about the original Theatrhythm, but adds the ability to
play multiplayer, and use the buttons as inputs. I still love to use the stylus, but it's cool that there is another option now.

The amount of music in this game is staggering. It has all the songs from the original, plus all of the DLC from that game. They then decided to add around one hundred more songs, and continue to throw out DLC. If you like rhythm games, and Final Fantasy you need to play this game.


2. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Initially I wrote this game off as being another dumb visual novel. I saw some footage of the game and decided to try it out. It's a visual novel, where you go into Phoenix Wright style trials, play insane
mini-games, and forge relationships. It mixes so many elements I love.

The main character is a talking bear, who wants high school kids to murder each other! It's over the top in a way that I can really get behind, but is appropriately grounded when it needs to be. The sequel somehow came out this year as well, and I'm chomping at the bit to play it.


1. Inazuma Eleven

I don't have the appropriate words to describe how much I love Inazuma Eleven. It's anime soccer on the DS. This year it finally got released in the U.S. on the 3DS Eshop. I bought it on a whim and couldn't put it down. Shortly afterwards my obsession with the game spiraled out of control and now I've beaten every game released in English and imported a European 3DS.

It's an appropriate mix of action, strategy, fun characters, and cool moves. There's a lot of content in Inazuma Eleven, and it's fun to find all of it. You put eleven players on the field and draw lines with the stylus to lead them, or tap the screen to have them pass/shoot. If they intersect with someone, or shoot on the goal they have the opportunity to use a special move, most of which are amazing. Axel Blaze catches the ball ON FIRE!

Inazuma Eleven grabbed me in a way that a game hasn't in a very long time. You could say I became obsessed with it. It was consuming every ounce of my free time for around three months until I had completed all four of the games released in English currently. It's a blast to play, and I'm glad I found it.

     -Manny

GOTY 2014 Podcast

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

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

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

Game Time - October 2014

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

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

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

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

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

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

Get ready to stab all the orcs!

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

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

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

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

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

Dust: An Elysian Tail

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

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

Dust is a beautiful looking game.

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

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

Freedom Wars

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

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

The abductors are ridiculously large and kind of scary.

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

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

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

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

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

Fight for your panopticon!

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

November is Coming

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

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

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