#like i know the dlc is pretty hard and i managed to beat many levels by myself without skipping them (expect some with many attempts)

[evicrystal7]

Finished with Octo Expansion today as a casual player with going for the shortest route to collect the all the thangs. Like not for a 100% gameplay since I stumbled more into the complicated levels and used the "Ask Help" feature since I got frustrated.

Same goes for the Agent 3 and Commander Tartar boss fights because I skipped them entirely after many attempts. Like they were pretty difficult even for me who managed to beat DJ Octavio on my third try (fourth phase was hard). No way I'm not battling Inner Agent 3, no thanks.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy that I got to play the DLC because of the story and Agent 8. I'm not a player who likes to do 100% and be hardcore. Hell, I'm even proud even trying playing the hardest levels despite that.

And that's a proud accomplishment for me as a casual player at least👍

[aion-rsa]

Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game

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With their acquisition of ZeniMax Studios finally complete, Microsoft is poised to challenge Sony’s recent reign of exclusivity dominance by potentially making the next generation of Bethesda releases exclusive to Game Pass platforms. For the moment, though, the biggest benefit of this acquisition is undoubtedly the ability to access a good portion of Bethesda’s library of classic games via Game Pass.

While most of the Bethesda games recently added to Game Pass are worth playing for one reason or another, few are more intriguing than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Sandwiched between the releases of the revolutionary Morrowind and the eternally re-released Skyrim, Oblivion is sometimes thought of as the middle child in the modern history of one of gaming’s most beloved RPG series. Nearly 15 years after its release, though, it’s remarkably easier than ever to appreciate the many ways that Oblivion represents the very best of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Don’t believe me? Use its recent addition to the Game Pass library as an excuse to play Oblivion again (or perhaps for the first time), and you’ll find these reasons (and more) why it remains arguably the best Elder Scrolls adventure so far.

Oblivion Has (By Far) the Best Elder Scrolls Quests and Stories

Let’s start with one thing that few Elder Scrolls fans will argue against. When it comes to quests and stories, Oblivion is a far better game than Morrowind or Skyrim.

I’ve talked about this more extensively in my look at the best Elder Scrolls quests ever, but I remain truly amazed at how much thought and creativity went into even the most “average” quest in Oblivion. That baseline level of quality is really the key point here. While many of Oblivion’s biggest quests (such as the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild assignments) are obviously memorable, even the little quests along the way that you may have forgotten about offer something special that helps them stand out.

I don’t know why the Elder Scrolls quest design and writing teams were at the top of their game at this time, but I doubt even The Elder Scrolls 6 can top the work they did here.

Oblivion Found a Nice Middle Ground Between Accessibility and Depth

For quite some time, the line on Oblivion has been that it’s the “middle” game between Morrowind and Skyrim. While that’s obviously true of its release date, that idea speaks more to the suggestion that Oblivion represents Bethesda’s struggles to balance the more hardcore RPG ideas of a game like Morrowind and the accessibility improvements featured in Skyrim.

Some say that means Oblivion doesn’t truly excel at either pursuit, but I don’t see it like that. In Oblivion, you get a taste of Morrowind’s incredible RPG philosophies and mechanics without having to deal with that game’s most annoying aspects. At the same time, Oblivion manages to be much more playable than its predecessor while still feeling deeper overall than its successor from a role-playing perspective. 

Oblivion doesn’t necessarily combine the best of Skyrim and Morrowind, but it finds a nice middle-ground between those styles that’s easy to appreciate to this day. 

Shivering Isles is Still the Best DLC Expansion Bethesda Has Ever Made

Granted, I can’t (and would never try to) defend most of Oblivion’s DLC. There’s a reason that “Horse Armor” is still used as the gold standard for exploitative and uninspired video game microtransactions.

However, it’s easier to forgive Oblivion‘s DLC stumbles when you realize they all eventually led to the Shivering Isles expansion. That was the expansion that finally dared to answer the question “What if The Elder Scrolls just got weird with it?” By transporting players to a land ruled by Sheogorath (the often hilarious Daedric Prince of Madness), Shivering Isles dropped most of the stuffier fantasy elements of the franchise in favor of allowing the talented Oblivion design team and writers to breathe life into their wildest ideas.

The golden age of single-player DLC expansions was highlighted by the idea of letting studios break free and truly experiment with new and strange creations that would otherwise not likely see the light of day. Shivering Isles is perhaps the greatest example of that era.

Oblivion’s Atmosphere is Consistent and Helps Tell a Story

I will freely admit that the province of Cyrodiil isn’t always the most interesting place. There are certainly times when it comes across as “Capital City, Fantasyland.”

Yet, there’s a consistency to Oblivion’s atmosphere that I remain fascinated with years after its release. While Morrowind’s alien-like worlds are hard to beat from a pure design perspective and Skyrim’s tundras offer a welcome deviation from the most common fantasy tropes, there’s something about the way that everything flows in Oblivion that I’d argue Bethesda has never quite replicated.

Individual regions of Oblivion’s map manage to remain distinct while also feeling like the logical progression of the area you just arrived from and the area you’re going to. There’s also something to be said for how Oblivion sells the idea of people battling to protect their land from invasion and corruption by presenting a fantasy world that you might actually want to live in.

Get Past Their Voice Acting, and Oblivion Might Have the Best NPCs in any Elder Scrolls Game

I’d like to argue that Oblivion’s “bad” voice acting and awkward NPC designs actually give the game a personality you don’t find in refined titles, but I understand that some rough edges are hard to ignore.

Instead, let’s focus on the ways that Oblivion’s NPCs are advanced even by modern design standards. Nearly every NPC in Oblivion has a personality of their own, something unique to say to you, and will legitimately go about a daily schedule that even changes from day to day due to their ability to make dynamic decisions rather than simply follow a tightly scripted path.

At a time when developers are sometimes more interested in putting more characters on-screen rather than crafting richer NPCs (looking at you Cyberpunk 2077), there’s something undeniably refreshing about a game that emphasizes offering more unique interactions rather than simply relying on the quantity of NPCs.

Oblivion Let You Build Wild (and Broken) Characters

The “highlight” of Oblivion‘s character-building system in the minds of many fans will undoubtedly be the time they discovered it’s possible to make a truly invisible character who can pretty much do whatever they want. That kind of mechanical exploitation is certainly one of the most noteworthy examples of how Oblivion let you run wild with the characters you created.

Yet, when I think back on my hours with Oblivion, the kinds of broken characters I appreciate most are the ones who didn’t make it far. While Oblivion’s enemy scaling system has been (often rightfully) criticized for its shortcomings, there’s something to be said for how the game’s attempts at offering a consistent challenge level meant that your design decisions were tested more often throughout the game.

It wasn’t a perfect system, but when compared to a game like Skyrim, or even titles like Destiny, where building a viable character is really about reaching higher levels and reaping the rewards, I miss, at the very least, Oblivion’s attempts to challenge me to master the character I built and the times it would actively punish my worst decisions.

Oblivion is Less About Combat and More About Adventure

In terms of pure combat, Skyrim is really in a class of its own when compared to the other Elder Scrolls games. Its improved controls, cinematic qualities, and smoother animations are more than enough to make it the favorite among Elder Scrolls fans looking for the best action.

I certainly recognize that some of Oblivion’s combat system problems are the result of bad decisions and outdated technology, but years later, I really appreciate how the game was never really about the action; it was about the adventure. Much like how Fellowship of the Ring utilized action sequences as the response to danger that our heroes otherwise tried to avoid, combat in Oblivion is just one of those things that you’ll come across as you explore but isn’t necessarily meant to be the grand set piece or the big draw.

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While Oblivion’s main questline betrays this philosophy somewhat during its most action-heavy (and often worst) moments, there’s still a sense that the game is more about exploration, storytelling, and the little discoveries you make along the way rather than a desire to get you to the next big sequence or other chances to simply fuel a power fantasy.

The post Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[coolgreatwebsite]

Cool Games I Finished In 2019 (In No Real Order)

We’re here. The end of the decade. 2019 was a weird, turbulent year for me. Despite my cross-country move already being a year behind me somehow, nothing’s really settled yet. Living situation is still weird, still separated from most of my belongings, I left my full-time QA job for a contractor position at a mobile game advertising company that may or may not convert into a full-time position... everything about what’s going on with me still just feels like I’m completely winging it, and while that’s not a position I’m really comfortable being in for such an extended amount of time, everything seems to be working out okay enough despite it. All this is probably why I spent most of my time playing the shit out of a handful of games rather than playing a bunch of different games this year! Needed some sort of stability. Also when I did manage to pull myself away from the timesink games and play something else, a lot of them ranged from “okay” to “real bad”. But I still managed to play just enough stuff that I liked to where I can put out yet another one of these.  Here’s a bunch of cool games I experienced for the first time in 2019.

Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst (PC, 2005)

I haven’t bothered to do two thirds of the story quests yet and have barely touched any Episode 4 content so this game technically doesn’t count for this list, but if I left it off I would be neglecting to mention an extremely large portion of my video game playing time this year. I fell back into PSO preeeettty hard this year after the surprise announcement of Phantasy Star Online 2 finally coming to the US. Guess what: game still rules. It feels stiff to play and it’s obviously far less expansive than it seemed back in 2000, but the core of Phantasy Star Online is still as fun as it ever was and the aesthetics are still entirely my shit. I love everything about the way this game looks and sounds, I love stumbling on a weird new weapon, I love participating in the custom seasonal events the server I’m on runs, and I love how oddly relaxing the experience of playing this game and taking it all in is. I will probably continue to play Phantasy Star Online into 2020. I will probably still dip back into it after PSO2 US servers finally launch. If I know you and you want to join my Discord server for PSO get at me. PSO forever.

Cookie’s Bustle (PC, 1999)

You ever play a game that just speaks to you? Even through a language barrier? A game so incredibly out there and bizarre in the exact way you love that you can’t help but adore it despite barely understanding it? Holy moly did I ever find that game. I learned about Cookie’s Bustle through a news story last year about some rare games leaking from a Japanese collector’s stash. Didn’t manage to get it to run back then, but my off and on attempts to get it working finally paid off in March of this year and I’m so glad I kept trying. I knew nothing of this game other than it had a weird name and was about a bear doing sports, and it turned out to be a fully voice-acted and mostly unsubtitled adventure game starring Cookie Blair, a 5 year old girl from New Jersey who sees herself as a teddy bear and has traveled to Bombo World, an island nation once visited by aliens and currently in the middle of a civil war, to participate in the Bombo Sports Tournament. Dead level, I probably shouldn’t have been able to genuinely love Cookie’s Bustle as much as I did. The only context I had for what was happening and what I was supposed to do was provided by a 20-year-old Google translated walkthrough with broken images, the game’s slightly higher than usual reliance on English loan words, and 30-ish years of video games and anime allowing me to halfway pick up on a handful of Japanese words. However, Cookie’s Bustle is dripping with an undeniable and off-beat charm that genuinely transcends language. Even if you can’t understand the words and specifics, you can understand the basic plot, characterizations, and emotions they’re going for. Cookie’s Bustle manages to both be completely off-the-wall bizarre and feel totally genuine and heartfelt at the same time, a balance very few games manage to successfully hit but many of my favorites do. One could say that’s why it seems to have resonated with a decent amount of other people this year, too. Games rarely make me feel sad that they’re over. but when they do that’s how I know they’re one of the good ones. Seriously, go look up a longplay or stream of Cookie’s Bustle if you (understandably) don’t want to go through the hassle of setting it up and figuring out how to play it, it’s impossible not to love.

Devil May Cry 5 (PlayStation 4, 2019)

Here’s something crazy to think about: Devil May Cry 4 came out 11 years ago. Aside from being a potent reminder that time is moving too fast and we’re all going to die soon, that means that there hasn’t been a DMC for over a decade. Devil May Cry 5 does not bare this fact even a little bit. Not only did they pick up right where they left off and manage to make another Devil May Cry game without missing a beat, they made arguably the best Devil May Cry game. I mean I still like the story and single-character focus of DMC3 the best, but DMC5 is the best playing game in the series without a doubt. Nero finally feels like he has a complete and complex toolset, Dante is the most mechanically dense and fun to play he’s ever been, and they even added a new guy that’s... neat to play as, until you start trying to S-rank the harder difficulties. Then he’s kind of annoying to play as. But it’s still cool that they tried something totally different and mostly got it to work! They also did something very stupid that I love and used this game as an excuse to make literally every single piece of Devil May Cry media canon. Like, characters exclusively from the anime and the books show up and act like they’re someone you already know and love? And they go out of their way to explain the most esoteric lore shit possible?? And despite it all they still intentionally give DMC2 as short a shrift as they can??? It’s so dumb, it rules. It’s just one of the many things about the game that show that even with so long of a gap between entries, no love for the series was lost by the people that make it. I don’t think the suits at Capcom expected this game to hit as hard as it did though, because despite there being clear areas where the game could be expanded on with DLC there still hasn’t been anything announced. I hope they’re maybe saving it for some sort of DMC3-esque special edition, or maybe just already working on DMC6, because even after getting all S-ranks I still wanted to play more. The game’s just that damn good.

Hypnospace Outlaw (PC, 2019)

I expected very little from Hypnospace Outlaw. I backed the game on Kickstarter solely because it looked cool and I thought a game about fake GeoCities was neat, and then I immediately forgot about it until it released. Admittedly my lack of expectations stemmed mostly from the fact that it’s kind of hard to set expectations for a game you never really thought too hard about, but even in the brief period of time where I considered it enough to give it money, I never expected it to be much more than a pretty-looking 101 Great GeoCities Jokez delivery vehicle. Boy was I wrong. I mean, it is incredibly good at that, but Hypnospace Outlaw is so much more than a funny period piece. The basic premise is that you’re in alternate universe 1999 and have just become a community moderator for an Internet service provider that allows people to connect to the Internet while they sleep. You’re tasked with browsing the game’s weird fake Internet and issuing demerits to users who violate the five basic Hypnospace rules, but it quickly evolves into something way bigger. Hypnospace Outlaw’s greatest strength is its exceptional ability at weaving together subtle world building, small and engaging character arcs, esoteric microjokes, and a genuine sense of mystery and discovery into an incredibly cohesive and engaging package. It’s as much a game about the people that use and run its weird fake Internet as it is about that weird fake Internet itself. And a lot of the problems both face echo the problems we face with our real world Internet today. When I was mapping out writing this article like a month or two ago I was prepared to go on about how at its core, Hypnospace Outlaw is an incredibly poignant story about how uncaring tech corporations actively harm their users and always have, but then a couple of days ago I read Colin Spacetwinks’ game of the year list and his #1 entry put most everything I would have said about that topic down in a way more eloquent and well-written way than I ever could have. And then I remembered that Friend Of The Site Heidi Kemps covered some of the same angle but from the perspective of the early Internet in an article earlier this year, again way better than I could have. So I highly recommend you read those when you’re done here. What I wanna bring up instead is just how effortlessly surprising and interconnected a lot of stuff in Hypnospace feels, using a mildly spoiler-ish late game example. Two of the first “zones” you’re allowed to moderate when you start Hypnospace Outlaw are Teentopia and Goodtime Valley, which are essentially alternate universe Yahooligans and a little slice of Hypnospace just for Boomers respectively. On Teentopia you’ll see a bunch of kids that are wild for Squisherz, Hypnospace’s alternate universe version of Pokémon, and over in Goodtime Valley you’ll see (much like there was back in real world 1999) a few pages made by religious fundamentalists convinced that everything the kids like these days is the work of Satan. This of course includes Squisherz, and you can find a page by one organization full of crackpot conspiracy theories with flimsy evidence that TOTALLY DEFINITELY backs up their claim. Squisherz contains a wolf, which the Bible warns about many times! This giraffe monster CLEARLY has a pentagram in its design!! And the eye of this snake-like Squisherz is the eye of Horus, an Egyptian occult symbol and NEED I REMIND YOU that Lucifer took the form of a snake in the Garden of Eden!!! It is very clear what this page is goofing on and throughout the course of the game it doesn’t get updated at all, so it’s very easy to laugh at it and forget about it. Very late into the game, you get an optional sidequest. Adrian Merchant, one of the CEOs of Merchantsoft, the company that created Hypnospace, was found out to have logged traffic indicating he was a frequent visitor of a website called Children of HORUS, and a call is put out to investigate what that even is. You can easily find the website, but it asks you for a password if you click the Enter button. Adrian Merchant is consistently portrayed throughout the game as a complete idiot, and the solution to this puzzle has you capitalize on that. Another early game objective ended up with you finding a list of cracked passwords, and one of those passwords happens to be for the instant messenger account of Adrian Merchant. If you can remember that he was even in that text file from forever ago, and then put two and two together that of COURSE that dumbass would use the same password for everything, you just punch in his messenger password and you’re granted access to the Children of HORUS page. It turns out that HORUS is an acronym that stands for Hiding Occult References in Utmost Secrecy, and the page itself is a basic leaderboard with a list of names and two numbered columns reading “Hidden” and “Found”. In that list of names you’ll find A. Merchant, along with the names of various other CEOs and celebrities you might have read about elsewhere in Hypnospace. One of the other names on this list is F. Kazuma, the CEO of Monarch, creators of Squisherz. The funny conspiracy theory website from the beginning of the game that you most likely forgot about was, about this one specific thing, correct. There was an eye of Horus hidden on the snake from Squisherz. Not as any sort of Satanic plot, mind you, but only as part of some weird millionaire dickwaving contest. This dumb tiny revelation is not called out by the game at all and nothing comes of it, it’s just there for you to notice if you’ve been paying enough attention. Hypnospace Outlaw is LITTERED with stuff like this. Weird small interconnected things you wouldn’t expect to be interconnected. Little dumb things you wouldn’t expect to have any sort of payoff but somehow do. And it’s also just as chock full of big things. Having all the pieces fall into place at once to where I was able to access Hypnospace’s equivalent of the dark web was the best sequence in a game this year for me, even beating out the outlandish shit in DMC5. Getting and solving the final case was a rush. Hypnospace Outlaw is full of incredible moments big and small. It’s genuinely engaging and affecting, which is so much more than I was expecting from a game that was pitched to me as “Funny GeoCities Cop”. It almost has no right being so good. But it is. Hell, even the music rules! I didnt even get into that! I don't have enough time or space to get into that now! The music is so goddamn good! I know I started these lists because I had no interest in ranking games, but every year I sort of jokingly-but-not-jokingly say “haha this game sure would be my number one if I did that!” for at least one game. It’s time to fully lean into it. I don’t gotta rank ‘em all, but I can pick a favorite. Hypnospace Outlaw is my favorite game of 2019 with a goddamn bullet.

These games were also cool, I just had less to say about them:

Etrian Odyssey (Nintendo DS, 2007): Man, this series just started out good, huh? I dabbled with the first two games in college when I got a DS flashcart but never really dug in until EO4, and the first game is enjoyable in just about every way the modern ones are. Definitely more barebones and punishing though. Kero Blaster (PlayStation 4, 2017): This is a game by the creator of Cave Story that does not aim to be Cave Story, and that’s fine! A fun little shooter in its own right, though I do think the shooting in Cave Story felt a little better than it does here. Space Invaders Extreme (Nintendo DS, 2008): I played the shit out of this game in college thanks to that flashcart I mentioned before, but I never finished a playthrough in full until this year for some reason. Still way stylish and way fun! I need to get a copy of the second one... CROSSNIQ+ (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Incredibly chill puzzle game that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. Almost uncanny in how well it emulates the style of late PS1/Dreamcast games. Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Mario Maker 2 is kind of weird for me. It’s a solid improvement in a lot of aspects, but a clear regression in a lot of others. Also the online multiplayer is the second least amount of fun I’ve had with a video game this year (Secret of Mana swooped in and stole the number one slot near the end). Still, I had a lot of fun with it and I’ll probably end up going back to it eventually. Katamari Damacy Reroll (Nintendo Switch, 2018): The original Katamari Damacy is still every bit as fun and charming as it was upon its original release. This port is weirdly based on the Japanese version with the English text inserted, which means no English voice acting and Wanda Wanda only plays in the multiplayer mode. The Joycon sticks also aren’t the greatest for doing charge rolls. But none of these faults detract too much from the game. Bring on We Love Katamari Reroll! Earth Defense Force 5 (PlayStation 4, 2018): Sandlot somehow keeps finding ways to make each new EDF bigger and explodier, and EDF5 is the biggest and explodiest yet. I think the mission design in 4.1 was more solid overall, but 5 feels the best to play and has the most fun tools. Also the dialogue is the most absurd its ever been, and the final boss goes for it way harder than the series ever has. Pokémon Shield (Nintendo Switch, 2019): This game is honestly just okay, but leaving it off would again be neglecting a game I put a ton of time into this year. Pokémon Sword is fun in the way most Pokémon games usually are, and extremely half-baked in basically every other aspect. I’m still having a good time putting together teams and finding shinies and doing The Pokémon Thing regardless.

And that’s 2019 (and this decade) in the bag! I don’t know where anything’s going from here, but I’m going to ride it out as best as I can! I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for getting to the bottom of all these words. I’m hoping to be in a more stable place mid-2020, and then I want to get back to all the things I haven’t had time to do. I want to get back to streaming, I want to write more dumb articles like The Best Babies, I want to do it all! I hope I will be able to do it all. Until then!

[dynamite-derek]

My top-10 games of 2018

It’s that time of the year where you are flooded with lists of the best stuff from 2018 and I’m no different. Originally I was going to just make a list of the top 10 games I played in 2018. I even had a giant list I was updating throughout the year. But one day my phone randomly reset and I lost that list. So, business as usual this year. Maybe next year. 

Before I start with the numbered list, I’d like to note a couple of games that won’t be appearing for various reasons.

Games I liked a lot but haven’t played enough of to place on a list like this: Into the Breach, Dead Cells

A critically acclaimed game I haven’t played: God of War

I don’t want remakes on my list, but these games were really good: Shadow of the Colossus, Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Ports aren’t eligible but I like these a lot too: Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Shenmue 1&2, Hyrule Warriors and the PC port of one of the best games ever, Yakuza 0.

Okay, let’s get started.

10-) Red Dead Redemption 2: Actually had to debate between this and Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu for this spot. Ultimately I chose this game because the narrative is spectacular. Well that and the fact that Let’s Go is sort of a remake. This game absolutely nails atmospheric storytelling and creates one of the most interesting protagonists in AAA gaming. This game does a lot of things well, but the actual gameplay portion is...pretty mixed. I didn’t have fun with the open world at all and most missions involved long bouts of horseback riding with dialogue or ambient music. But RDR 2 does everything else so well. It also knows when to go all out. Every major mission in the game is memorable for one reason or another, especially with intelligent usage of music. It’s a game I will never play again, but despite some problems with the gameplay I can safely say that I enjoyed my time with it.

9-) Mario Tennis Aces: This game was a lot of fun. I wrote about it earlier in the year and my opinions on it are still the same.  Even though the gameplay is fairly simplistic, every match against another human felt unique and different. You have to learn the styles of your opposition and adapt. It’s like a fighting game! The online gameplay was also pretty solid. I felt pretty damn good whenever I would win a tournament. Really, Smash Bros. Ultimate would have done well to borrow this mechanic in some way. The only real problem with the game is that there is just a major lack of content. The heavily advertised story mode is barely worth playing and the cups, well, you might as well be playing against an unmanned player 2. I haven’t touched the game in a while, so this might have been fixed via update. As I said a few months ago, this game could have been a masterpiece with a bit of extra fine tuning.

8-) Dragon Ball Fighter Z: This game feels like it was made specifically for me. I have a lot of love for the Marvel vs. Capcom games and even more love for the Dragon Ball franchise. The game is easy to approach for newcomers to this type of game by keeping the inputs simple and having very easy to pull of auto-combos. You won’t do too well online if you stick to the auto combos, but it’s a good way to start and learn how to play. I think a lot of people could start with Fighter Z and transition into more complicated fighting games, which is exactly what you want with a game like this that will attract many people who might not otherwise play a traditional fighter. Oh, and sometimes it looks like you’re playing an episode of the anime which is insane. The story mode is pretty tedious at times, which is a let down, but Fighter Z is an absolute blast to play and is easily the best playing Dragon Ball game yet. Hopefully season 2 of the DLC goes less heavy on all the Gokus. 

7-) Mega Man 11: The blue bomber returns! It’s been a long wait, but after playing through both collections last year and then the X-collection earlier this year, I was ready for Mega Man to get back into the spotlight. It’s a little hard to get into at first because the level design seems pretty tied into the main new mechanic, the gear system. Basically the player can slow things down to a crawl or boost Mega Man’s power. If you just play this game like you would any other Mega Man game, you’re probably going to throw your console out the window during Tiki Man’s stage. Once you figure this out, the system adds a unique flavor to the Mega Man experience and feels like an actual new Mega Man. I love MM9 and 10, but those did not feel like new games. The only thing that I didn’t like about this game was the music. Which, uh, is weird for a Mega Man game. Here’s hoping they get it right in the inevitable Mega Man X9. 

6-) Marvel’s Spider-Man: I don’t particularly like super hero movies and I haven’t enjoyed a Spider-Man game thoroughly since the first PS1 Spider-Man, so you wouldn’t normally think this game would appeal to me. But it absolutely does. The gameplay is outstanding and combines an improved version of the swinging scene in Spider-Man 2 with a combat system that is fairly similar to the Batman Arkham games. I recommend playing the game on hard because, while it’s hard to get used to, it makes every encounter feel unique. You constantly have to adapt to what the enemy is doing. You can’t just mash on the attack button and then press the dodge button when the dodge prompt comes up. 

The story is also interesting throughout. It has my favorite interpretation of Peter Parker I’ve seen in a while and has a pretty enjoyable cast of characters. Really Mary Jane is the only character I didn’t like and even with her, there are moments that hit home - specifically the text exchanges between MJ and Peter. The game is littered with references to past Spidey adventures and just feels like a giant love letter to fans of the hero. Can’t recommend it enough.

5-) Celeste: I didn’t know what to expect with this game. Sometimes I feel very leery of when a bunch of people prop up an indy game too much. Gone Home a couple of years ago told a pretty mediocre story that was held up as some form of high art. Just didn’t get it. So I went into Celeste wanting to not like it and came out fairly surprised. The gameplay feels like a better version of Super Meat Boy and the narrative tells a pretty compelling tale about depression and how to come to terms with yourself. I even don’t mind the pixel art. I am getting sick of indy games going for the retro aesthetic, but when combined with the great soundtrack it’s hard not to love what it’s presenting. 

The game is simple enough to complete on its own. I would argue that anybody could do it as long as they keep at it. But for those platforming veterans, the game also offers a heavy challenge. The B-side and C-side levels will test your skills and remind you of some of the most challenging bits of hard platforming games like Super Meat Boy and I Wanna Be The Guy. Basically, come for the compelling narrative. Stay for the wickedly difficult and addicting gameplay.

4-) Yakuza 6: I believe I enjoyed this game far more than most folks. It told the end of Kazuma Kiryu’s story. It had some problems along the way but my god did I enjoy the ride. The cast of characters surrounding Kiryu in Hiroshima are all great and one of the main characters is Beat Takeshi. It also has a ton of things to do and see. I love the clan wars sidequest featuring New Japan wrestlers, I love the baseball manager quest, I LOVED becoming a regular at a bar and getting to know everyone in it like I was playing some sort of weird Cheers game, I even loved the adult cam chats that came with wacky dialogue. This game is full of charm.

I haven’t mentioned the gameplay yet you might have noticed. That’s because, well, it’s a new direction for the franchise. It focuses on allowing more people to fight Kiryu at once and as a result feels less refined than recent entries Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 5. I am excited to see where they take it in Yakuza 7, but I would be fibbing if I suggested that I felt 6 plays as well as previous entries. Still, the entire Yakuza package is compelling and I never felt like I was scrambling for things to do or see. I don’t 100% games out of obligation. I’m not one of those people that feels the need to 100% every game I play. I 100%ed Yakuza 6 though. And I loved every minute of it, combat and all.

3-) Valkyria Chronicles 4: As none of you might know, I used to review games for a website called 411mania. One of the games I reviewed for them was the original Valkyria Chronicles. Nobody else wanted to do it because it looked like a generic jRPG and I was really the only person on the site who liked jRPGs so the game fell to me. And I absolutely loved it. The story was captivating, the graphics were stylish and and the gameplay felt like a breath of fresh air. It was the combination of a tactical RPG and a (very, very simplified) shooter. To this day it remains one of my favorite games ever. Conversely, Valkyria Chronicles 2 on the PSP is one of my least favorite games ever and 3 never came to the states - though it does have a fan translation. The franchise has felt dead in the west for ages. The musou-like Azure Revolution sure as fuck didn’t get me going.

4 came out this year and it felt like I went back in time. Everything I loved about 1 was back. It’s even expanded upon. The grenadier is a great new troop that feels overpowered at first, but really forces the player to rethink how to approach certain situations. The story isn’t as good as the story in 1, but I found it simple and enjoyable. I genuinely liked the main cast and wanted to see them do well. That’s more than I can say for a lot of games. I know I mentioned earlier in my blurb about Mega Man that what I liked about it was that it actually felt like a new game. The difference here is that I have 10 other Mega Man games that play like Mega Man games. With this franchise, I have 1 (or maybe 2, I hate how maps work on the PSP but I have not played enough of 3 to judge). Sometimes a franchise revival needs to go “like the one you like but more” route. I loved this game and I hope as it gets cheaper more people try it. 

2-) Dragon Quest XI: Hey you might notice this about my gaming preferences, but I really enjoy Japanese RPGs! And this sure as hell was one of those! DQ XI felt like a game from another dimension in a lot of ways. It’s a traditional playing Japanese RPG with a big AAA budget. It looks breathtaking. Big budget JRPGs feel like something out of the PS2 era, which is great because I sure love PS2 era RPGs. It’s lengthy, it has a crazy amount of postgame content and has a lot of side stuff in case you get tired of fighting down the main path. It’s a great throwback. 

This game also has the most balanced party in recent RPG memory. Usually games like these have one or two party members that you just don’t enjoy. For instance, Final Fantasy X is one of my favorite games ever. But I just don’t like Kimahri. I don’t like using him and I don’t think his character is interesting. DQ XI has nobody like that. I found everybody likable. Sylvando and Jade in particular stand out and are among my favorite characters in gaming. Really, I enjoy everything about this game. Even the music! I know a lot of people complain about the simplified score in the western version, but I honestly found it to work out pretty well for the game. Obviously the Japanese version is superior, but I still enjoy it. If you’re a fan of RPGs and you haven’t played DQ XI, you’re missing out.

1-) Super Smash Brothers Ultimate: This was my most anticipated game of 2018 from the moment it was announced and the final product delivered everything that I had hoped it would. You have a large cast of characters, a crazy number of stages and a bunch of single player content to consume in between bouts of online or local multiplayer. The single player is what ranks this game so high for me. The classic mode - think arcade mode in standard fighters - is easily the best it has ever been. Each character has their own route with their own gimmick, which gives the player incentive to play each and every one. With a roster of over 70 fighters, that’s impressive. The adventure mode can start off slow, but once you get into the groove of it I really think it stands out as something special. It’s an expanded version of event battles from past games. You face off against a fighter (or fighters) embodying the personality of a character that isn’t in the game. They range from obscure stuff you haven’t heard of to a fight with Geno’s spirit that has you do battle with the cast of Super Mario RPG (with substitutes for Geno and Mallow). It feels very creative. It can be grindy for some, but I really enjoyed my time with it.

I think the online could be more fleshed out. I don’t experience as many laggy matches as most people, but even still the options online are fairly bare bones. You don’t even have leaderboards. I want to compare how good I am with how good my friends are! I think Nintendo plans to keep this game alive for the duration of the Switch’s lifespan, so I believe there will be plenty of time to get the online situation perfect. That doesn’t really excuse Nintendo from still not getting online even close to right in 2018, but I find Ultimate to be such a complete package that I can look past these shortcomings. Ultimately, it is my favorite entry in one of my favorite franchises. So it’s pretty easily my game of the year.

[stephicness]

What are your thoughts on a fan theory that all the events of episode prompto only happened in Prompto's head and weren't real? (Is it safe to discuss the episode now?)

Well, on my blog it is, at least, but I’ll tag for spoilers just in case. c: Because I REALLY want to talk about this theory because, to be honest, I’m really close to agreeing with it. To an extent, I mean, since Episode Prompto was an odd one in my eyes.

So spoilers ahead, because we’re talking EPISODE PROMPTO! Read below for my rambling!

So to me, this idea that Prompto had this all running through his head can be really plausible, I think. Of course, Square can pretty much tell us that they changed up Prompto’s story a bit to fit with his own episode, but honestly? I don’t buy it that much. Episode Prompto is a DLC that Tabata and the others KNEW they wanted to happen, just as they knew they wanted Episode Gladiolus to talk about him running off in Chapter 7, and Episode Ignis to discuss just how in the world Ignis was blinded. I like to give Square credit, and perhaps it might be too much credit, but I will when I say that Episode Prompto should be more well-thought out than we all assume.

Like, for me, and I’ll level with you here, I didn’t like Episode Prompto as much as I could have because it was so odd to me. Literally. Wandering through the snow after mysteriously finding a new outfit, stumbling upon an MT base where Verstael is trying to conduct an immortal experiment that turns him into a sentient version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Aranea miraculously finding Prompto in a period of about two days/less after meeting Noctis and the others in Tenebrae and sending them on their way to Gralea? Perhaps it’s me being overly analytical, but Aranea isn’t THAT good at tracking someone. In a snowstorm. In, again, less than two days or so. Because by train, you can probably make a trip across a country (which I personally assume is about the size of Europe, more or less) in about a day if you really didn’t have any complications. Sans, of course, Ardyn appearing and Gentiana blessing Noctis with her icy presence.

Needless to say, ALOT of things didn’t add up in Episode Prompto, more than they actually did. They of course try to give us the bonus Episode Prompto stuff nevertheless though, like the outfit and the Lionheart gun too (which is super cute by the way…!).

But that’s where this whole fan theory comes into play: There’s so many weird things in the Episode that we can only assume that there’s something FAR more intriguing about just a Metal Gear wannabe DLC. One of the only real ways that can explain EVERYTHING in this DLC is by the fact that it is, in fact, a dream. An illusion that Ardyn conjured up to make Prompto relive the guilt about being an MT, to unravel himself and become the monster he was truly destined to become.

AND HERE’S A BUNCH OF REASONS WHY. SO KICK UP A SEAT BECAUSE THIS POST IS GONNA GET LENGTHY.

1) How the hell did he end up in the middle of the snow? Without any help? In a few days?

So the time frame of FFXV is super weird because we’ve got moments where they’re riding on a train, they’re suddenly stopping in Tenebrae, and those sorts of fun and merry things. So we never really get a rough timeframe of how long it took the boys to travel from Altissia to Gralea where the keep was. But we know for a fact that a good majority of the boys’ traveling is done by train. If you want to go in the comparison of the empire being about the same size as maybe Russia just for relativity sake, it takes you about seven days of train traveling to get across the continent to Gralea, give or take. (Again, this is all just speculations and guessing). Either way, they’re VIA train, at one point by car too with only one major stop to restock in Tenebrae. Beyond that, we pretty much see them make an almost continue train ride to Gralea.

Prompto, however, was thrown off the train just outside of Tenebrae, probably meaning he was traveling with the boys for about 2-3 days already before he had an early departure. He’d have to catch up with Noctis and the others in about 2 days or three after spending about two to three days dealing with the Verstael situation in Episode Prompto. BRINGING IN MATH HERE, but that means Prompto would have to make up that distance at approximately 150 MPH on a snowmobile to catch up to a train going about 80 MPH. Again, in about 2-3 days to catch up on a snowmobile while also taking in account breaks, nights to rest, and getting around obstacles that a snowmobile might not be able to traverse through. Mountains for example? It’d be hard for him to do, no matter how cool he was in Episode Prompto running down a mountain on a snowmobile as it was. Possible, but highly unlikely too.

2) How did Aranea find Prompto so quickly after dropping everything in Tenebrae?

It strikes me odd that we find Aranea suddenly in Episode Prompto because wasn’t she helping in Tenebrae to get people out of the burning manor and escape from the daemon outbreak from the city of Gralea? Why would she immediately drop whatever she was doing to go help out a blond-haired kid that conveniently was there to help her stop a mad scientist from making himself into a human centipede with robo-lasers? To me, I find it hard to believe, considering that she, for one, only met Prompto once direction for about two days to help Noctis go through a dungeon, and maybe a few times within Chapter 8 when she appeared before them all in a mask. (or when she again dropped in and beat up Noctis, again in a mask). She didn’t even acknowledge Prompto throughout most of the Myrtlewood dungeon, I think, so why give a damn about Prompto being lost?

It’s good that we saw Aranea there, but if you think about it, Prompto would probably imagine her the most out of anyone else to save him. He can’t imagine Noctis, Ignis, or Gladio saving him because they’re gone by then, and he already felt like he wasn’t good enough for them. Cor as well wouldn’t be someone Prompto would imagine helping him because Cor’s a Lucian. He doesn’t know anything about the MTs. Aranea, however, does, since she’s a commodore in the Niflheim Navy and someone strong enough to kick Prompto’s ass into shape and help him. He respects her enough to want her aid, but also knows that she wouldn’t push an MT away after working with them for so long.

3) Why did Verstael turn into a goo boy?

From what I remember about Episode Prompto, Verstael was making a machine infused with daemons and humans that would act as his vessel to basically become something more powerful than the Astrals themselves. He was obsessed with this god-like complex of his, which we all can understand seeing how he behaved in his conversation about Lunafreya in Chapter 3 of the base game. He wanted her alive because she could communicate with the Astrals, basically acting as a conduit for him to discover what makes the Astrals so strong. So he made the machine to become some god-like beast.

But why was he turning all gooey anyways? Why did he have to die in order for him to trigger the machine? When he approached Prompto, he radiated dark energy that he was becoming a daemon, turning into a monster. Half of his face was messed-up, after all. But these kinds of traits of daemofication while still alive never happens unless they DIED at some point. If he wanted immortality, he could have just gotten Ardyn to turn him into a daemon like he did with Iedolas and Ravus. Unless Verstael was the first, I mean. This only adds onto the fact that perhaps Verstael was dead and immortal as it was? It’s odd to me that if he wanted to become immortal, he could have easily just struck a deal with Ardyn to become a daemon pet. Instead, he was infused to a giant worm? Why? Why go through all that trouble when daemification and infusing a daemon into something is possible? Verstael is a smart man and knows how to get stuff done, so the trouble he went through to turn into a goo boy, die, get infused with a worm, and get blown up is pretty cray to me.

4) What’s with the flashbacks and paradoxes? 

This, I feel, is one of the bigger pieces of evidence to why Episode Prompto can be a dream theory. Things get really strange with Noctis trying to kill MT-clad Prompto, with Prompto reconciling with his younger self, with Pyrna appearing, etc. ESPECIALLY PYRNA. Because it was said that she had died when Lunafreya died, of grief at that. How is it that the dog managed to wander around when they were supposedly dead? They may be an Astral dog, but they still had an actual minimalistic form. We see that they too can die in the Omen trailer, despite that being a dream too. But still, even the Astrals can be killed somehow – just like how Eos was killed during the whole Lucian royalty are half-astrals theory. Why did these memories and illusions come trick him? Stress-induced hallucinations? A drug injected into him without us knowing? How? It’s odd to me, but most people assume it was an Ardyn mind-trick. He was there, as we see at the very end of the DLC, but why nearly freeze your immortal dick off just to mess with the broken child?

And most importantly – and my favorite detail about this in why Episode Prompto might be a dream theory – 5) How come Prompto wasn’t burned in Chapter 13?

We see at the very end of Episode Prompto that he’s strapped to the torture device and is just hanging there, not doing much and out of his change of clothes by now. Odd that he’d be redressed, but we see Noctis and the others come up and run to him to help Prompto. But later on in that chapter and during some of the Episode Prompto cutscenes, Prompto has that barcode on him. I believe there was a picture (Photoshopped or nah?) that showed that he had done something to his code. But still, those are not burn marks nevertheless, if that picture is real or altered. If they were burned, they be almost like something Ignis has on his face, not red and swollen looking like that, I don’t think. Yes, we get the option to say no to burning Prompto, but still. That barcode would have seen some pretty bad damage on it if Prompto clawed it off, burned it off, anything.

Instead, we see only the mark from when he was the restraint mark on his wrist from perhaps struggling to break free, or from hanging there limply. Fishy that there isn’t any other injuries on him, even after Episode Prompto. That mark over his nose isn’t there during the DLC, the injuries on his wrist aren’t during the base game. For the most part, the injuries that we know of besides you burning off his barcode are all injuries from the base game.

And most importantly, I bring this up too: During Episode Gladiolus, his ending was him walking with Cor to get back to Lestallum to meet the others, right? We see his resolution and ending, his reward and success for completing his task. How come at the very end, we only see Prompto hanging there in that prison? He’s not riding to Gralea to return to Noctis. We don’t see him get kidnapped by any of the Imperial Officers or Ardyn either. We only see Prompto. Trapped. Imprisoned. Why? After all we saw in Episode Prompto, how come they left out the major plot hole that we wanted to know: HOW DID PROMPTO GET TO GRALEA?

Well, with all of those details, wouldn’t it be logical that Prompto never left Gralea to begin with…? That Ardyn had him relive the psychological torture of Verstael and his insanity in hopes of Prompto turning against Noctis? We even know from the Versus XIII plotline that Prompto was initially supposed to betray Noctis during the point where he reveals he’s Verstael’s son. That was Prompto’s crisis point in the initial game, and he was going to turn on Noctis during Versus XIII. Perhaps Ardyn used these mind-tricks to try swaying Prompto to do so during XV. Perhaps he wanted to see their friendship break apart.

That, and Ardyn humming that Chocobo theme at the very end of Episode Prompto. Prompto only ever hummed that with Noctis and the others. How would Ardyn know that Prompto sings that too unless A) he’s a super mega-stalker (which I wouldn’t put it past him to be) or B) he knows Prompto’s mind and secrets and saw the memory of Prompto having sung/hummed that before. Ardyn knew Prompto’s mind more than we really thought, I feel.

So yes, I actually really do agree with the dream theory idea for Episode Prompto because alot of it is strange to me. But even if it all actually did happen, this theory is a fun one to ponder on. c;

[scales-of-fate]

So I think(???) I’m going to quit playing Fates. I finished Birthright over a year ago and I just. Really don’t enjoy the game anymore. I remember looking back on the trailers and even the original teaser and expecting great things and overall? The game just hasn’t done it for me. It honestly never even really had me from the start. I’ve just kind of stopped having fun with it. Obviously I have my characters I love, and since I started with Awakening it was great to see some of the Fates kids (and my son Inigo) grow up and have kids but. I just really can’t stand it. Yeah I’m thinking of quitting halfway through conquest and that kind of a waste but honestly? It’s just not for me. It’s supposed to be a challenge but the only thing I’m getting out of it is frustration at how tedious it is. In complete honesty, I legitimately do not think it’s a hard game. The only hard part about it is how you manage your exp distribution which is a massive loss in my book when I’m looking for a challenge, especially when most people I know that have played it have restarted to be higher level. When I play a fire emblem game I think about characters first and I’m really not that impressed with alot of the Fates characters save for the Nohrian royals and a couple other characters. I don’t really care to get to know many of them and those that I did and was interested by don’t really seem worth revisiting to me. And what reward do I get for beating all 3 games and suffering through all their stories? Well now I get to play some dlc. I came to this series because I wanted deep, epic stories with heroes and villains and tragedy and victory and fates was… Not that. Not to me at least. I’d honestly much rather play Shadows of Valentia because it actually looks like a challenging FE game without being stupid about it like Conquest, where strategy actually matters vs. playing the will I hit or will they crit game. I like the characters from that more already than I like most of Fates cast, and not only that but it’s only one game, not 3 (Thank God). The setting looks beautiful and vast versus Fates various re-skins of the same maps between games and the kinda generic landscapes of Hoshido and Nohr, and again I need to stress that I actually feel a connection with the characters. I’m not saying you’re not allowed to like Fates by any means. I understand why so many people have fallen in love with it and why alot of people have enjoyed as much as they have, and visually, I think the game looks pretty good. I’m not going to say anything bad about anyone that likes it because it’s just a game and if you had fun with it, then it’s done it’s job for you. I personally really haven’t so that’s why I’m making a little cathartic post about it. Who knows, I might be playing it again in a year, or a few weeks or hell even a few hours. But I just really needed to get out of my system to myself that I do not think this game is for me and explain to myself what my issues are with the titles.

[grimmhelm]

TSW.L Breakdown/Slight Rantyness -ye be warned :)

First of all I am NOT in the beta, though I hope to get in just to see if any of this is better than it currently sounds.

So I have played TSW on and off since launch -I was in the beta, this is a game that I want to see flourish and be the best it can be.

Recently however they have announced the ‘Relaunch’ of The Secret World, which there calling TSW Legends.

-Cool more eyes on the game, more people to play with, that’s exactly what the community wants and needs to keep the game alive and updated for years to come and frankly still is.

However….

Nothing lasts forever as they say and with the coming of “Legends” a lot of stuff is shifting and changing, unfortunately from a lot of interviews I have scrounged and posts that people under the NDA shouldn't really be talking about but are in places (Reddit, TSW fansite forums under new account names, etc), it seems that this is not going to go well.

That said: THIS IS EARLY BETA. - also a bit of this is maybe a little out of date.

A ton of this can and will change before the launch of Legends, I just hope its for the better, ontop of that some of this is taken from forums and I can’t be 100% sure that some of the users aren't just string the pot and are not actually playing the game.

-we know 120 keys have already been sent out.

Because a lot of this is in the air i will mark it with stars.

Red: Confirmed though subject to change.

Blue: Confirmed -but there in the process of changing as i write this.

Yellow: Unconfirmed/Forum posted

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

My primary gripes:

1) Clothing: Does this set make my butt look big?

One of the things that made TSW interesting was being able to wear what you wanted, cloths had no bearing on your stats at all -pick a hat, a different shirt and a jacket, those jeans look good and some high heels! Good to go!

Not so much anymore, apparently it’s all set as ‘costumes’ now -sets that you have no customisation over at all…

This is the most likely to change, but if it does not there will be a flood of people leaving just because of that, many of us like our own unique looks that we have built over time from earning clothing through hard work or with money we have managed to scrounge up through our misadventures.

If it remains this way there will be a lot of people who simply wont play the game anymore, a ton of games took TSW lead on this system. -This also may already be outdated.

I have been informed that the Dressing room isn’t even in the Beta yet, So all this was bunk on forums.

2) The Ability wheel: Gone, it’s just gone.

In it’s place is pretty much an excel spreadsheet with abilities linked to weapons, they unlock as you gain enough points -oh what’s that want to change to a different weapon line. POOF, sorry your points you didn’t spend are gone, even if you jump back -guess you gotta grind them back out.

The ability wheel was another great feature but had a lot of the more childish members of the community up in arms because “it was too complicated” -it really was not, you pick a weapon you wanted to raise, you follow a set chain of abilities each a little more expensive but more powerful than the last, complete a certain set you unlock a ‘deck’ and its costume.

No more of that. (For now).

EDIT: This is apparently just a placeholder for what they actually have in store -the points vanishing is a bug that not everyone is experiencing.

3) Levels: Numbers!!!.

Before in TSW your level was an abstract concept, you had to judge for yourself when you was strong enough to take on an area and the creatures within.

Get your ass kicked -come back after doing some other stuff, did OK? Keep going, Kick ass yourself -maybe time to check that other corner of the map, in a fight with a tough foe who might be just a little stronger than you but you JUST manage to scrape by-nothing beats it.

As it was it was based on your ability choice and the gear level you had, the better stuff you had the better chance you had of pushing past an area.

Not so much now, There giving us a good old fashioned Levelling bar and a number next to our name.

Fuck. That.

I completely understand why, it’s easier for new players to come in and know how tough a bad-guy is compared to you, but the guess work added to The Secret World’s ambiance, despite your god-like powers your still a brittle human compared to the horrors that slip out of the darkness and into your waking nightmare, judging if you can actually handle something or not was part of the charm.

Nope, gone now, its level 23 your 18 better run.

4) Combat: DODGE!.

This maybe the only good thing I have heard? Maybe? That said I like the combat as it was.

Right click: Primary weapon attack, Left click: Secondary weapon attack, Dodge is now an action key instead of a direction double tap or a direction space bar, potions and mount are on an (currently) unmovable hotbar.

The abilities are all 1 to 8 as normal in MMO’s. Not the 6 button round up we have normally. I know those of us who played TSW before are going to get killed ALOT because of these changes, were not going to doge because our habit and instinct tells us to double tap, were going to forget to click to attack after we fire off abilities.

However this may turn out to be decent if it’s improving the feel of battle, though I will miss the combat they originally had.

5) Loot: Minor change. Maybe.

Apparently the items will no longer scatter the ground when you slay your foe, instead everyone in the party will get there own individual loot added directly to the inventory.

Don’t want to pick stuff up? Tough. Your friend got the weapon you was after and you got something you don’t even use? Tough, chances are there bound on pickup.

It used to be that items got left on the ground if you didn’t grab them, if you ran away a certain distance or didn't touch the items for 2 minuets, another play could pick them up -this was incredibly useful for helping lower geared friends in areas, letting them get a few extra resources to make weapons/gear/potions, but all that is apparently just a dream of the past now.

HOWEVER. This is only partially confirmed from a few interviews, it is unknown if items won’t drop as normal outside of parties.

6) Crafting: Gone is the template of old.

Apparently this is the largest change for us old TSW players, the crafting system has been scrapped.

It used to be you dragged certain materials such as metal or water or fire into a pattern on the crafting window -build a shotgun make a L longways with certain materials, a potion? Draw a bottle with the items.

Now it’s just a list like in WoW, or any other MMO these days.

Have the materials? Good, select how many wait a few seconds, off you go.

I know some players had trouble with remembering the combinations for items, but just give us an item window with the patterns on, don’t carve out the whole thing with a damn crowbar.

7) Story: The wheels on the bus go round and -OHGODITATETHEDRIVER.

The Main story for the factions remains almost untouched with the exception of some corrections in the lore and mechanical touch ups.

However.

Some of the side missions will be altered, some completely others just a tad.

Apparently some of the investigation missions -a unique mission type to TSW will be altered to combat ones since some players considered them a hassle or ‘too hard’ -these guys I want to lock in a TSW parking lot -if you play you know that’s a special kind of hell to be savoured!

Honestly if they remove the investigation missions, it will be a massive loss to the game and it’s unique play-style, having to figure out puzzles -logic based, history based, item based, etc. Was an amazing experience and sometimes required research and time to crack.

If even a few are gone it will make a lot of people turn there back on the game since they live for those missions.

Turns out this will mostly be tweaking, repairing some of the broken aspects and small click-boxes for some of the missions, a lot of this is fixes and moving onto improving.

8) Lifetime Subscriptions: Hahahahaha...haha...ha...*sobs*

Those of us who purchased the very extravagantly priced ‘Lifetime subscription’ and becoming Grandmasters in the game will apparently be getting the shaft.

Whilst we retain our Grandmaster status we will no longer receive monthly points to spend on the in-game store.

We will occasionally get subscription awards though not at the level we have been getting them the last year or so but mostly our lifetime subscription means that we just get the base future DLC for free.

Want the extra stuff? The clothing? Potions? Gotta pay cold hard cash.

Fortunately we keep our exp/currency/drop boosts, were gonna need them.

This I am ok with, they need to make money somehow now that there going this route with the game, but it’s still a difficult pill to swallow.

Oh and I made a point of saying DLC, not Expansion. If an expansion to TSW actually releases then you gotta pay for that too.

This is apparently undecided at this point.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a lot more but I've already spent 2 hours putting this together, I would have included links but most of the forums are deleting whatever comes up when they see it.

However here is the main interview going around right now:

http://massivelyop.com/2017/03/31/the-daily-grind-are-you-excited-about-secret-world-legends-2/

http://massivelyop.com/2017/04/01/exclusive-interview-romain-amiel-on-secret-world-legends-story-monetization-membership-tokyo-and-more/

You can check out the regular places and try to catch the forum posts that aren't removed a few minuets after there posted, but that’s a hard thing to do -and as stated before, we can’t be sure the people posting are actually playing or stirring the pot of those who are getting wound up.

All that said here are people you CAN trust with TSW stuff:

@biomechanicaltomato​

@matovilka​

@councilofvenice​

@thehiveislive​

@existentialdents​

@fuckyeahtsw​

@tswshutterbees​

@pgirl1986​

(sorry if I missed anyone, this has been a ton of work XD )

[entergamingxp]

Guard Crush on Possible DLCs, Development Stories and More

May 13, 2020 7:00 AM EST

Guard Crush, developers of Streets of Rage 4, shared fun stories behind the revival of Sega’s legendary series in a video interview.

French Twitch team Gwak held on May 10 a video interview with Olivier Deriviere, Cyrille Lagarigue and Jordi Asensio, developers of Streets of Rage 4. Cyrille Lagarigue and Jordi Asensio are the founders of Guard Crush. Olivier Deriviere is one of the many talented composers of Streets of Rage 4, who handled nearly all the stage BGMs. Gwak is a pretty cool Twitch group made of talented individuals, though it’s not like the majority of those who’ll click on this article can understand french. Anyway, through the interview, we learned many fun details and development stories on the game. Most notably how Asensio wished to put iconic Sega character, Shinobi‘s Joe Musashi, as a playable character in Streets of Rage 4, but was turned down by Sega Japan. We’ve translated and summarized the whole interview below.

Streets of Rage 4 Development stories from Guard Crush

Streets of Rage 4 was first pitched by Guard Crush to Sega Japan. Guard Crush, Lizardcube and Dotemu already had a link open with Sega Japan thanks to the remake of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. Sega Japan approved the project and pretty much gave the french developers free rein, only giving regular feedback.

Sega is a huge company, and the French developers were only in touch with a small division at Sega Japan, which they regularly sent new builds to, with new features. They always got positive feedback. That division is made of people who also played Streets of Rage in their childhood, so it was very easy to talk with them about SoR 4‘s development. Adding ramen as a recovery item was a suggestion of Sega Japan.

Sega of America learned of Streets of Rage 4‘s existence at the same time as everyone else with the reveal trailer.

After the reveal, the majority of the vocal Streets of Rage community: in Europe, in South America, etc, was very supportive. The french devs mostly got positive messages during development. There were nearly zero “noooooo don’t ruin my childhood!!” type of reactions, often seen with sequels like these.

The developers mentioned they’re happy with how the game turned out. It’s only been out for a few days though, so they don’t really realize yet tons of people around the world are praising the game. One thing the developers feared is people not understanding the game, and claiming it’s just a nostalgia fueled shallow game where you walk to the right and hit people. IGN’s review got cited as an example of people not getting the game. The Streets of Rage 4 team did a lot of choices that can be considered unconventional or anti-modern by some, like how they didn’t add things like EXP, levels and skill trees. Game systems from the RPG genre that pretty much every mainstream game borrows nowadays. In the end, judging from feedback, a vast majority of players do understand the game, and the devs are happy a lot of people dig  the combo-based gameplay.

Another thing the devs were wary of is whether fans’ enthusiasm on the net would actually translate into sales, but it seems like it went well. Streets of Rage 4 publisher Dotemu is the sole entity deciding to share sales numbers or not. For now, they didn’t share any, so the devs didn’t explicitly talk about sales numbers either.

Streets of Rage 4 gameplay philosophy by Guard Crush

Guard Crush has some Streets of Rage 4 DLCs ideas in mind. However, no DLCs are officially in development, and they don’t know yet if they’ll actually make DLCs or not.

Guard Crush tried to make Streets of Rage 4 as accessible as possible, that’s why the game has many difficulty levels.  The game was developed on hard, and the other difficulties were added later. Overall, they wanted the game to focus on scoring, that’s why the stages are short, and there are few waves of enemies.

Bare Knuckle 4‘s main base is Bare Knuckle 2. One reason why 2 is so memorable is because where and when you choose to move is important. It’s the same in 4. Where you choose to position yourself, where you decide to gather the enemies, learning where the enemies will spawn, is important. All of this was thought up with scoring in mind. That’s also why the game doesn’t include a running system like Streets of Rage 3. It would make placement less important. The developers wish for Streets of Rage 4 players to think ahead, not to react by reflex. It’s not a reflex based game like most 3D beat em all nowadays. That’s why there’s no dodge button either.

Another reason why there’s no running function like Streets or Rage 3 is how it can make your fingers tired pretty fast to dash all the time. If all characters could dash, there’s no point in not dashing, so you just keep doing it.

The Guard Crush developers also gave some good words of wisdom when it comes to game development. They stressed how developers who work on triple A games are just as passionate as indie developers like them. However, triple A devs simply can’t express that passion as much, as they’re only a small part of a huge machine. They also stressed out many players nowadays forget developers are human beings and players too. Developers do realize it when the game they released is bad. There are always reasons why a game turned out badly, and these can be either valid reasons or bad reasons.

In Streets of Rage 2, using your special move uses some HP, which leaves the player frustrated. Using the special move feels as if you’re playing badly. Guard Crush improved this system by making the HP loss temporary, and getting it back if you manage to net a combo.

Streets of Rage 4 includes many references to other games, anime, etc. These just came in naturally, and the developers didn’t really think about it when making the game. A lot of the references and Easter eggs in the stages were added by Background Artist Julian Nquyen You, who was greatly praised during the interview.

Streets of Rage 4 players already managed to find every gameplay subtlety in the game, including things Guard Crush didn’t know themselves.

On Streets of Rage 4 ‘s music

The developers managed to get so many different composers, most notably Japanese composers, thanks to Brave Wave Productions. It was decided from the start that Olivier Deriviere would handle the stage BGMs. Meanwhile, each one of the other composers would do a boss BGM. Each composer got some visuals of the boss they were composing for.

The title screen BGM, character select screen BGM and the first part of the first stage’s NGM are handled by Yuzo Koshizo. The final boss BGM is him as well. Olivier Deriviere explained this is to show the link between the past works and to show Yuzo Koshiro’s importance in the series. The game starts and ends with Yuzo Koshiro music.

Jet Set Radio composer Hideki Naganuma did not participate in Streets or Rage 4′s OST as planned. He ended up not having enough time in his schedule.

DotEmu only got the rights for the Streets of Rage 1’s Game Gear version OST, not the Megadrive version. That’s why only the Game Gear OST is in SoR 4.

Most of the BGM names are references to anime, games, etc. Ti un fou, which means “dude you’re crazy” in French, is named this way because this is what the others at Guard Crush replied when Deriviere finished and sent them the track.

Streets of Rage 4 is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. If you’re planning to grab the game, you might want to check out DotEmu’s statement on physical editions. Be sure to check out our review. I personally didn’t have the time to try out the game yet, but I can’t imagine myself disliking it, seeing I’ve been regularly playing Streets of Rage games since as far as I remember.

May 13, 2020 7:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/05/guard-crush-on-possible-dlcs-development-stories-and-more/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=guard-crush-on-possible-dlcs-development-stories-and-more

[indiehangover]

There’s a secret world of tabletop gaming that many people aren’t aware of. Games like Monopoly, Risk, Life, and the slew of card games that can be played with a standard deck are solid games, don’t get me wrong, but there are as many different types of board games as there are video games. Light, quick games, heavy games that require loads of thinking, party games, cooperative games, games based almost entirely on luck, even solo games… Honestly, I could go on and on, just like Forrest Gump did with shrimp, but my point is this: out of all of the tabletop games that exist, Catan is one of the most well-known.

I’ve dipped my toes in those waters a bit myself: Smash Up lives up to its name due to its humor, Pandemic is infectious fun, and Takenoko is as much fun for us as it is for the panda eating a smorgasbord of colored bamboo. But it wasn’t until recently that I was able to explore Catan, and I’ve certainly learned why it’s earned a place on so many gamers’ shelves.

Title: Catan Developer: Exozet Publisher: Asmodee Digital Platform: Nintendo Switch Game Version: Final Review Copy: Provided by publisher Interface: Handheld Switch Console Available on Nintendo Switch

The island of CATAN ™ is an uninhabited land rich in resources for you to settle. Unfortunately, your opponents have the same plans.

Build settlements, roads and cities strategically to gain supremacy on CATAN! Some resources you have in abundance, other resources are scarce.

Trade resources wisely & skillfully to stack the odds in your favor and become the greatest settler of CATAN!

Catan is a resource management board game. That means pretty much exactly what it sounds like: players manage the accumulation, trade, and use of resources, and whoever does the best job wins! 3-4 players (AI or online human opponents) face off on a board full of various types of resources like lumber, ore, and grain. These resources are used to expand across the board, presenting players with access to more resources, obtaining victory points, and battling for different types of supremacy.

As someone who has never played Catan before, I was incredibly happy to have a brief tutorial to play. It managed to explain the most basic rules, but there were still some things that I was confused by once I started a game of my own. Luckily, the game does a terrific job of ramping up the difficulty and complexity: you begin with The First Island, a very basic map, and work your way through the base game’s three campaigns before entering into numerous campaigns in the Seafarers expansion (included free). I really loved the various ways the campaigns not only added new rules to learn, but they also messed with the board: one level puts most of the grain on islands you have to sail to, for example, and another allows you to alter the board itself as you reveal more of the map. I’ve got to admit, though, it was a bit funny that the one rule I was confused about – where you’re allowed to place a settlement – was missing part of the text in the almanac (digital in-game rulebook).

The biggest thing that took me a while to get used to was the absolute importance of setup. At the beginning of each match, players take turns setting up their first settlement, and you only have a chance of obtaining resources from hexes around them. I ended up failing one of the campaigns five times because I kept starting myself off in terrible places. Once I learned what all of the resources are used for and which ones were the most important, things got a lot easier. You can easily move the camera down and look at the “recipes”, and you can even pull up the menu to craft the various things any time. Heck, there aren’t even many things you can make: in the base game’s three campaigns there are only four combinations you need to worry about, and there are only five types of resources.

Once I fully grasped building and expanding, I was amazed by just how many ways there are to earn points. Whoever has the longest road gets 2 points, settlements and cities each give you points, and you can earn points through drawing cards via your army or just drawing a card that grants you a point. Some campaigns allow you to get points from settling on another island, and my favorite campaign includes treasure chests to loot. Not only are there various methods to gain points, but there are also various tactics for attaining resources as well! If your opponents claim the spots with the best types of resources, you can try to specialize in one or two others and claim a port that lets you trade one of them at a great price. I had a blast in one game amassing loads of wool and trading them 2:1 for anything else I needed, and since I practically had a monopoly on it, the AI players were offering all kinds of sweet trades. In another game, I built a huge armada of ships and used them to find the best resources on islands, settling down on the best ones while ruling the seas. Ticket to Ride players will also know the pain of having paths cut off by other players, which I may or may not have done a few times to mess with opponents…

The world of Catan is a colorful place, and the graphics really nail the tabletop vibe. Hexes actually look clunky and solid, and the pieces you lay down look real enough that one may try to pick them up (note: there are no touch controls, though, so you can’t no matter how hard you try). The hexes, cards, and UI are colorful and clear, allowing players to quickly see everything at a glance. I’m particularly grateful that all of the controls are shown on the screen at all times as well; at one point I didn’t play for a few days, and when I came back I forgot pretty much all of the controls. Finally, by using the right stick (the only control not shown), you can look around the table to get a peek at the build cost reminder card and the number of each type of piece you have left. As the campaigns get more and more advanced, and the victory point requirement to win gets higher, this becomes more and more important. Plus, come on, it’s just cool to see that stuff laid out as it would be in the tabletop version of the game instead of seeing it in a pause menu or something.

As for the system itself, Catan does a terrific job with the UI. Information is easily accessible, and games against AI have no time limits. Once you have a grasp of how everything works, it’s incredibly easy to lay down roads, build settlements, and trade with other players or the bank. I was worried when I saw that you could turn AI trades off that this would be like those old Monopoly video games where the AI would try to make ridiculous trades 500 times in a row while I beat my head against a wall, but that wasn’t the case at all. Trading with other players is much more strategic in Catan anyway: accepting a trade usually means getting at least one or two resources that you need, but it also means giving up a card an opponent needs for sure. But when you have lots of resources and don’t want anything no matter what an opponent is trading, skipping their trades takes mere seconds no matter how many attempts they make. My only wish for the UI is that it explained why you can’t do things when you try. For example, it took me a while to realize you have a limited number of pieces, so you can’t build a new settlement if you’ve used them all up. It also took a while to learn that cards you draw can’t be used right away, or where settlements can be placed. A simple popup that says “You can’t do this because (reason)” would’ve gone a long way. Oh, and for some reason, I’ve yet to get used to setting up trades: you press up to select which card(s) you want to trade and down on which card(s) you want to get from the trade. My brain refused to accept this concept, and even now I fumble at first each time.

While the game doesn’t allow you to play with local human opponents, it does allow for online play. I don’t have anyone to play with online, so I only tried the random player option, but I found opponents within less than a minute! The online match was fun, even though I got my butt kicked by someone of a way higher level (your level doesn’t give you any kind of advantage, it’s just for pride). As someone who has a crappy internet connection, I really loved that the AI opponents were just as fun to play against as the human opponents, even after playing dozens of matches. So many of the matches came down to the wire, and I managed to pull off numerous last-second wins. Not only that, there are three difficulty levels you can choose from, so people who have experience with the tabletop game can face off against very difficult AI and people like me who are new to the game can work their way up from the lowest difficulty.

While campaign levels require you to complete sets of levels before moving onto the next levels, you can dive into any campaign whenever you’d like from the Campaign menu. Not only can you select any of the campaigns, but you can also adjust all sorts of settings as well. For example, if I wanted to take my favorite campaign – one with treasure chests – and add a fourth AI player to it, I could. I could also raise or lower the victory point total (which adjusts the game far more than you might think), randomize the map, and more. Best of all, individual AI can be altered, so you can play against two easy AI and one hard one if you’d like. The game comes with three campaigns in the base game and fourteen in the included Seafarers expansion, and you can sort by the number of players (some campaigns are only available for three OR four players). Most important of all, though, pressing the left stick will let the game pick one randomly for you! Don’t worry though, if it selects a campaign you really don’t want to play, you can just press the left stick again!

Finally, the game has another expansion available via DLC: Cities & Knights. I didn’t get the DLC and haven’t tried it out, but I enjoyed Catan so much that I’ll almost certainly buy it (it’s only $5.99 anyway!). People who are familiar with the rules of Catan will learn how to play the digital version quickly, and for people like me who haven’t touched the game before, a half-dozen matches or so is all it takes to pick up the basics and learn the UI. It’s a game that’s fun to play over and over, especially when there are so many campaign setups and difficulty levels to face off against. It’s also perfectly portable, allowing you to save your progress anytime you want. I found this particularly useful when I lost track of time and the battery was about to die! Catan has also taught me that I want to purchase the physical game so I can play against my gal, and now that I’ve learned all of the rules from the digital version it’ll be easy to dive in! But most importantly of all, I now understand and share in the pure, unequaled hatred toward the robber and their foiling of my plans. Sure it’s a great way to balance the game and add stress to each roll of the dice, but he’s a jerk that always seems to know exactly when to strike!

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Catan from @AsmodeeDigital and @exozet_games has arrived on the Nintendo Switch! Should this classic tabletop game settle onto your console, or will you lose half of your resources to the robber? Check out the review to find out! There's a secret world of tabletop gaming that many people aren't aware of. Games like Monopoly…

[williamsjoan]

DualShockers Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Tomas’ Top 10

I consider 2018 to be one of the best years for gaming in recent memory, even when compared to the lofty heights of 2017. No matter what genre you are a fan of, there was likely a great game for you to enjoy. I played a ton of games this year, both for review and for leisure, and the following 10 are the titles that stood out to me the most as favorites.

Keep in mind that I didn’t play every game that came out this year, so you won’t see titles like Octopath Traveler or Monster Hunter: World on my list. There were also a lot of great games that I would still recommend but didn’t make the list, including Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido, SoulCalibur VI, Dragon Quest XI, and Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. 

On that note, here are the 10 games I consider to be the best that 2018 had to offer:

10. Dragon Ball FighterZ

A Yamcha-only tournament mode exists…10/10.

2018 started very strong with a weekend that was home to two games present on this list, as well as Monster Hunter: World. One of the games to release on this weekend was Dragon Ball FighterZ, a 2D fighter from Arc System Works. While I’m not the biggest Dragon Ball fan, I couldn’t help but to be in awe of this game’s utterly gorgeous visuals that really make it feel like the anime has been brought to life and is playable in your hands.

From a gameplay standpoint, Dragon Ball FighterZ is still just as strong, being accessible to newcomers while still having the depth to satiate the hardcore community. After the disappointment that was Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, it was nice to kick off this year with a fast paced 3v3 fan-service-y fighter, albeit one from a different franchise. I’ve returned to it time and time again during 2018, and the fact that it still sticks out in my mind so vividly long after release really solidifies it as one of the best titles of 2018.

Check out the DualShockers review of Dragon Ball FighterZ.

9. Sonic Mania Plus 

Ray the Flying Squirrel, my son. We are united once more…

Is it unfair that Sonic Mania has made my GOTY list two years in a row? Maybe, but that’s just a testament to how great the game is. I’m sure everyone and their mother has told you how this game, made by fans-turned-developers, brought the series back into a positive light for the first time in years upon its release due to its great visuals, music, and level design. Leaving it there would’ve been fine, but the developers knew the Sonic fanbase needed to wash Sonic Forces out of their minds and released some hefty DLC alongside a physical release.

Sonic Mania Plus added several quality of life improvements, slightly redesigned levels, and most importantly new playable characters with two of the series’ most notorious MIA characters: Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Both of them add unique spins to the gameplay with their abilities. That, coupled with the redesigned Encore Mode, adds more content for die-hard fans to sink their teeth while also cementing Sonic Mania Plus as the best Sonic the Hedgehog game to date, in my eyes.

Check out the DualShockers review of Sonic Mania Plus.

8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Remember Geno? I sure do. 

Despite what I may have said just above, I’m still in awe of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s roster. If you had told me that Ridley, King K. Rool, and Pichu all would’ve been playable in a new Super Smash Bros. with characters like Piranha Plant and Joker from Persona 5 on the way, I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are. I’ve always loved the Super Smash Bros. series, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate delivers pretty much everything that fans would want and then some.

I’ll admit that the reason Super Smash Bros. Ultimate isn’t higher on this list because I’ve spent comparatively spent less time with it than the other entries. That being said, I’m sure I’ll only fall in love with this title even more once I beat World of Light and unlock the last couple elusive characters. Now just add Geno, Sakurai, and we’ll talk about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate making it onto my 2019 GOTY list as well.

Check out the DualShockers review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

7. WarioWare Gold

The whole game is set-up for a poop joke…really!

If there’s one title on my list that won’t be getting much attention during this awards season, it’s WarioWare Gold. This series usually either begins or closes out a Nintendo system’s library, with this game doing the latter for the 3DS. WarioWare Gold was also actually quite refreshing as we hadn’t gotten a traditional microgames package like this in years. While it may be a bit too short for its own good, the microgames and various modes present are still a ton of fun to return to whenever I decide to boot up my 3DS.

It’s fairly clear that the 3DS is on its way out, with the only major releases on the horizon including ports and western releases of Japanese titles. Fortunately, WarioWare Gold was one last great original title to see the 3DS off with, topping off the library of what may be my favorite handheld of all time. While titles like WarioWare Gold and Ever Oasis that came later in the system’s lifespan may have been ignored for GOTY consideration, I’d still vehemently recommend them if you don’t mind dusting your 3DS off.

Check out the DualShockers review of WarioWare Gold.

6. Tetris Effect

I can’t think of a joke for this game because it’s just so damn mesmerizing.

Those who know me are aware that I’m not into music at all. I didn’t pay enough attention to music-related things to notice that the Beatles’ name was a pun until this year. Despite all that, I was instantly hooked the first time I played Tetris Effect, and it wasn’t just because I’m a sucker for the classic puzzle game.

Tetris Effect engrossed me in a way no other title did this year and for reasons that are quite hard for me to put into words. The soundtrack was great and the way it blended its gameplay and visuals to create a euphoric gaming experience will make Tetris Effect a title that is seared into my brain for a long time, despite my milquetoast nature towards music. Also, the traditional Tetris is just really dang fun.

Check out the DualShockers review of Tetris Effect.

5. Valkyria Chronicles 4

Squad E, to the Beach! is one of the greatest DLC titles ever. I didn’t really have anywhere else to put that.

Valkyria Chronicles 4‘s existence makes me immensely happy, and the fact that it is one of 2018’s best games makes it all the better. This series’ unique take on the typical strategy game formula still feels as fresh as it did 10 years ago and the game’s amazing level design only bolsters its quality. While it may strip back some features from Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3, that allows it to be the most refined and focused entry in the series yet.

The story of Valkyria Chronicles 4 also managed to be the best in the series yet, focusing on a group of well-fleshed out characters on what seems like a suicide mission. While 2018 was home to some really great strategy games like Into the Breach, the engaging story, refined gameplay, and excellent level design helped cement Valkyria Chronicles 4 as my favorite strategy game this year, as well as one of my favorites overall. I hope SEGA continues to pay attention to this series, as it seems to have come back strong from a mainline series hiatus.

Check out the DualShockers review of Valkyria Chronicles 4.

4. Celeste

From here on out, the games git gud. Like really good.

Celeste was a very special game for me this year. When I initially played the game for review pre-launch, I wasn’t expecting anything more than a tightly-designed platformer reminiscent of Super Meat Boy from the developers of Towerfall. What I ended up experiencing was something much more than that. Not only was it one of the most tightly-designed platformers I had ever played, it had an excellent soundtrack and masterfully wove themes regarding social anxiety into both the story and gameplay to make Celeste immensely relatable.

I couldn’t wait for this game to be exposed to the world and was happy to see it get such a warm reception out of others that same busy weekend as Dragon Ball FighterZ and Monster Hunter: World. Like all of the aforementioned games, Celeste has stuck with me since that first magical playthrough in January. I had a bigger connection to its story than any other this year and its tight gameplay design cements it as one of my favorite 2D platformers of this decade. The fact that Celeste is only at the #4 slot really speaks to the quality of the games released this year.

Check out the DualShockers review of Celeste.

3. Red Dead Redemption 2

DualShockers gave this a 10 because the horse poops realistically. 

Despite the controversy surrounding it, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 remains a remarkable achievement for gaming. It features a world with a scarily thorough attention to detail throughout every inch of its enormous map, and tons of unique events and interactions to populate it. On top of that, gameplay has been vastly improved from the already-great original, and an amazing story highlighting the decline of the Wild West kept me captivated throughout with great characters like Arthur Morgan, Dutch Van der Linde, and Sadie Adler.

On a technical level, I would say Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably the most impressive game that has ever been made. While its pacing was a bit too slow in some parts, especially considering its lackluster fast travel systems, Red Dead Redemption 2‘s intricate design means I’ve only scratched the surface of what it has to offer, even after putting over 50 hours into it.

Check out the DualShockers review of Red Dead Redemption 2.

2. Marvel’s Spider-Man

I’m just going to plug Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse here. It’s really good too.

While Red Dead Redemption 2 my be a better game on a technical level, Marvel’s Spider-Man just clicked with me on so many other levels. I’ve had a long history with Spider-Man video games and even have a soft spot for some of the more mediocre titles like Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Fortunately, Insomniac truly delivered with this game on both the gameplay and story fronts.

The story, while surprisingly reserved with its villains, understood the character and world of Spider-Man so well that it has become the most definitive portrayal of the character since the early days of Ultimate Spider-Man. The open world design of Marvel’s Spider-Man may be a bit too formulaic for its own good, but the web-swinging and combat are more than satisfying enough to make up for that.

Physics-based web-swinging had been a heavily requested feature in Spider-Man games for year, so to see it implemented so well meant I could spend hours just swinging around (and I have). Combat also remains fun, mixing Batman: Arkham-style combat with Insomniac’s classic gadget setup to create a really fluid and enjoyable experience, even when you aren’t experiencing the great story or swinging. That being said, THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.

Check out the DualShockers review of Marvel’s Spider-Man.

1. God of War

Kratos is DualShockers’ honorary Best Husbando: just look at that face. 

Wow. Even with all the great games mentioned prior, Sony Santa Monica’s God of War has still managed to come out on top. With the exception of a few annoying combat sections, it’s a nearly flawless package that knocks it out of the park with an unexpectedly personal story, brutal yet satisfying gameplay, and stellar visuals to top it all off. There’s a reason it got our Game of the Year Award.

By making Kratos a damaged father attempting to connect with his son in order to prevent him from making the same mistakes, the developers managed to make a previously belligerent character sympathetic and surprisingly relatable. Combat was also fine-tuned to be more focused and engaging; not even the web-swinging in Marvel’s Spider Man came close to the satisfaction of pulling off a devastating kill with the Leviathan axe, or to throw it and have it come back instantly.

God of War has refined itself to the point where it might be the best game of the generation just because of how well it does everything it set out to do. I’d go as far to say it’s one of the best games ever made, and that twist ending has only left me wanting more. God of War 2 (or 5?) can’t come soon enough.

Check out the other DualShockers’ staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 17: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2018 December 18: Lou Contaldi, Editor in Chief // Logan Moore, Reviews Editor December 19: Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor // Tomas Franzese, News Editor December 20: Scott Meaney, Community Director December 21: Reinhold Hoffmann, Community Manager // Ben Bayliss, Staff Writer December 22: Ben Walker, Staff Writer // Chris Compendio, Staff Writer December 23: Eoghan Murphy, Staff Writer // Grant Huff, Staff Writer December 26: Iyane Agossah, Staff Writer // Jordan Boyd, Staff Writer December 27: Max Roberts, Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Staff Writer  December 28: Noah Buttner, Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Staff Writer  December 29: Steven Santana, Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer December 30: Travis Verbil, Staff Writer // Zack Potter, Staff Write

The post DualShockers Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Tomas’ Top 10 by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

DualShockers Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Tomas’ Top 10 published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[operationrainfall]

Title EARTHLOCK Developer Snowcastle Games Publisher Snowcastle Games Release Date March 8th, 2018 Genre RPG Platform PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, XBox One Age Rating E for Everyone – Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood Official Website

EARTHLOCK might seem like a strange choice after my last RPG review. After all, it was also crowdfunded and developed by a small indie group, so it might seem as though I was stepping into a trap once more. But I’m nothing if not an optimist, so I decided to give EARTHLOCK a shot. It’s actually been on my radar for a while, ever since I saw it listed on Steam and Wii U as Earthlock: Festival of Magic. Turns out it’s a good thing I waited, since this is the most complete version of the game. The question is, was this indie RPG worth the wait? Or should I have left it on my wishlist?

It’s quite evident early on that EARTHLOCK was inspired by RPGs of yore. Several of the typical tropes can quickly be checked off. Mysterious energy source providing magical creatures? Check. Sinister forces at play trying to take over or destroy the world? Check. Band of merry miscreants brought together in common cause? Double check. Honestly the plot is the least interesting thing about the game, despite dropping you into a compelling and rich world. But that’s not to say it’s necessarily a bad thing. Much like Legrand Legacy, EARTHLOCK is more of a loving tribute to the games of our past than just trying to cash in on our nostalgia.

If only you were playable, sweet Frogboy…

One of the things I like most about the game is how well streamlined many aspects of it are. Ranging from the combat, the exploration, the side quests and the crafting, every major part of the game is easy to implement and typically easy to understand. Take crafting, for example. So long as you have a recipe and the right ingredients, you can turn them into new weapons, items and other goodies. Most important are Harvesting seeds, which your lovable bookish Hogbunny Gnart specializes in. By watering plants grown on Plumpet Island or in pots found in cities, you will have more than enough raw ingredients to craft the majority of your healing items, which has the upside of you rarely needing to spend money in stores.

Side quests are as simple as talking to someone to generate them, satisfying their request and then reporting back. While many of them are simple fetch quests and hunting trips, they still provide good experience and other rewards. Best of all, the game makes use of mysterious froggy Onurasi statues to offer a way to warp back to the HUB area of Plumpet Island. It flows like delicately interconnected clockwork, and the upside is that you’ll always know what you’re supposed to be doing, though you are given leeway to wander about.

You can grow nearly all the ingredients you need from your beautiful garden.

Like many classic RPGs, there is a varied cast of characters, and for the most part the tone of the game is whimsical and somewhat laid back. You’ll eventually recruit a group of six very different characters, all with their own personality quirks and distinct combat utility. While part of me does feel there was a missed opportunity not allowing characters to change into different classes and thus offer more replay value, the variety here is still appreciated. That is especially true because each character has two different stances they can alternate between in battle, which provide very dynamic combat options. For example, your thief Amon can steal and poison or switch to a gun-toting stance, which allows him to hit high-flying foes. Another example is Taika, your loyal stormdog who can use elemental breath attacks in one stance and protect the entire team from the elements in another. You can probably tell there’s a lot of nuance in combat, and that’s one of the things I most enjoyed about the game.

Much as I liked the combat, this boss was a giant pain in the ass until I found the Cloak Talents.

One thing the game does differently is the use of Bonds between characters. You can go into battle with two pairs of characters. As they fight together, their Bond will increase, unlocking passive perks (such as immunity from poison or increased critical attack chances) as well as additional Talent Points (more on that later). Each pairing provides different benefits, so it’s in your best interest to constantly change up your teams, since you’ll never know what the next battle may require, especially the boss battles. That Bond is also used for your Super moves, which are essentially powered up versions of their regular attacks that hit multiple targets. While I may have been a bit underwhelmed by the Supers lack of visual and audio flair, they were nevertheless vital in battle.

Additionally, the higher your Bond, the more times you can use the Supers, which is why you never want to go into battle with a pair of units at anything other than max Bond. The only thing that detracted from my desire to max out the Bonds with every character was when I discovered the max level cap for all characters is level 20. While not every game needs to max out at 99, the moment I reached that precipice I lost a lot of interest in casual combat, since doing so only provided a minor amount of Daler (currency in the game) and occasional items for crafting. It didn’t ruin the game for me, but I do hope that Snowcastle Games has designs to implement DLC for EARTHLOCK later on that increases the level cap and gives more areas to explore.

Though I enjoy the battles in the game, I do have to admit they lost their luster in the latter part of the adventure. This is because I had maxed out my levels about 20 hours before I beat the game, which turned the last third of the game into a grindfest. Not for levels, but to get items for crafting and especially for Talents. By using the Talent Board, you can equip your character with Stats, Abilities and Perks. Stat Talents are pretty basic increases to things like Armor (boosting your DEF and Magical DEF) and a variety of others. Ability Talents open up new attacks, but are pretty much character specific, so don’t get too excited about crazy combinations. Perk Talents meanwhile are passive bonuses that help you in combat, such as allowing you to auto revive or providing an extra turn when you dodge an attack. The only catch is having Talents to equip on the Board and having enough TP to equip them, since each placement requires one TP. Luckily, each time you level up or increase your Bond to a certain point, you’ll get more TP. The only thing I didn’t much like about the Talent Board was that you couldn’t remove Talents, only swap them with different ones in your inventory. I would have loved an option to clear my Boards and reapply Talents, but that’s sadly not possible. Overall though, I felt the Talent Board opened up your options in a positive way.

The Talent Board was reminiscent of similar systems in some Final Fantasy games, and opened up some nice options.

Visually, EARTHLOCK is a delight. There’s a certain handcrafted charm to the design, as is evident in the well drawn portraits that show up when the game loads or in the distinct feeling of each area of the game’s world. While the character models are a little more primitive, I still thought they did a good job of exhibiting distinct personality just in their visual style. Though the music in the game is fine, I found it to be really quiet when playing the Switch portably. Anything less than turning it up all the way left the game sounding muted. Even when dialed all the way up, the sound effects lacked the distinct punch or memorable tunes I associate with many classic RPGs. Still, what’s here is obviously lovingly made, so I am not saying this to be cruel, but just to offer my honest appraisal of the art. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but there’s a lot more good than bad.

This handsome gentleman will assist you with all your warping needs.

While I enjoyed my 70 something hours playing EARTHLOCK, I do feel the need to summarize some of my irritations with the game that kept it from a perfect score. Even though overall the game runs fine, I’ve encountered some odd quirks. Perhaps the most perplexing is how one tutorial says to use the X button to activate abilities on the world map, when Y is what actually activates them. This was a bit problematic early on, since you need some of those abilities, such as Gnart eating berries or Amon excavating scrap, to satisfy side quests. More serious was in a couple of dungeons I was exploring and managed to loop to the beginning of one area from its own exit. Visually, the game has a few oddities as well. The Mirror enemies would knock themselves backward with their own attacks, often pushing them off the screen, meaning I couldn’t see their health meter or tell when I was targeting them. Also, the way icons are stacked over character’s heads during battle to indicate buffs or debuffs is very hard to translate in a coherent way, especially when there a bunch of them.

It’s a pretty wide world to discover.

While I do like the crafting aspects of the game, it’s sometimes hard to know where to go to get the right items for recipes. Many are only found in quests or by hunting monsters, which was exacerbated since the bestiary doesn’t show you what their drops are. Also, since you mostly craft all your items, I wish there was an option to split a crafted item into its component parts to use to them in crafting higher tier items (Spud Blast and Spud Blast+, for example). Lastly, I wish you didn’t have to return to the HUB area of Plumpet Island to warp to other Onurasi statues. In a game so well streamlined, it would have made more sense if you could jump from any statue to another one.

The camera mostly behaved on the world map, though occasionally I encountered issues like this.

All in all, I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to take this game off my wishlist. I did enjoy my time with EARTHLOCK, and felt I got a really solid little RPG for $29.90. Though there are some quirks that prevented this from a perfect score, there’s a lot more to enjoy, from the crafting to the combat to the characters. While I do wish the plot was a bit more elegantly crafted, since it mostly felt like a haphazard rollercoaster ride, what’s here is a worthy effort. If you are nostalgic for the RPGs of yore and want to play one on the go, you need to pick up EARTHLOCK on your Switch.

Never forget, Gnart is the very best Hogbunny!

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Provided By Publisher

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REVIEW: EARTHLOCK Title EARTHLOCK

[tininsteelian]

My Game Of The Year Top 10 List Thing, I Guess

Is this what you’re supposed to use Tumblr for? I have no idea. Anyways, here’s My Game Of The Year Top 10 List Thing, I Guess!

This list only includes games I’ve actually played that came out in 2017. I haven’t played all of the big-name games that came out this year, so here’s a list of every new game I played this year that isn’t objectively shovelware:

Android: Fire Emblem Heroes, OK Golf, Monogolf, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Nintendo Switch: Fast RMX, Infinite Minigolf, Kamiko, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Namco Museum, Picross S, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Snipperclips, Sonic Mania, Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Ping Pong Trick Shot, Vroom in the Night Sky

PC: 100ft Robot Golf, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, Golf It!, Guts and Glory, Jackbox Party Pack 4, Pictopix, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, Project Cars 2, Tacopocalypse

Xbox One: Forza Motorsport 7

I bought a few more decent games that came out this year, but I haven’t gotten around to playing them yet, so they’re not included in the above list. I also bought a lot of old games and shovelware this year; you can check out my Backloggery here for proof. Anyway, here’s the list:

#10: 100ft Robot Golf

One of the best concepts for a game ever made. The game itself is pretty good, too. I might personally prefer the live-action cutscenes from No Goblin’s previous game Roundabout, but the anime cutscenes are also cool. My favorite mode is the one where you control four robots at the same time, trying to hit four golf balls into the same hole in a given time limit. I also really like the mech that’s controlled by five dogs, they’re good dogs.

Technically this game first came out last year, but it didn’t come to the PC until February of this year, which is when I was first able to play it.

#9: Sonic Mania

I have a couple of controversial opinions related to the Sonic series. I think that Sonic Adventure 1 is the best 3D Sonic game ever made, and I also think that Sonic Generations isn’t any better than Sonic 06. But I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Sonic Mania is a great game. The first playthrough is kind of annoying because you can’t go back and do old zones again until you beat the game. Also, you go back to the beginning of the zone, not the level, when you get a game over. And most of the deaths I had felt cheap in one way or another. But it was fun! Unlike almost every other Sonic game ever made, all of the stages are designed with going fast in mind, even the final few stages. There are definitely slow-paced platforming segments, but there aren’t very many instances where trying to go fast will hurt or kill you, so you can hold right and enjoy the great graphics and scenery flying by. I also really enjoyed the new-to-Mania zones, more than the old zones, in fact. The music in these zones in particular is fantastic, although it’s great in pretty much every level in the game.

#8: Picross S

It’s Picross, on the Switch! What more could you want? Well, a few more puzzles would be nice. There are 150 puzzles, but none of them are larger than 20x15 pixels, so I got through all of them fairly quickly. There’s also a Mega Picross mode, which is the same 150 puzzles, but sometimes the numbers of two adjacent rows or columns are combined. It’s kind of dumb. I also wish you could draw pixels on the touch screen, but the pixels do get pretty small in the bigger puzzles. Hopefully we’ll see a Picross S2, Picross S3, Picross S4, Picross S5, Picross S6, etc. in the coming months and years.

#7: Forza Motorsport 7

I have a LOT of complaints about this game.

The single player campaign sucks. I haven’t played a mainline Forza Motorsport game since 4, as I didn’t get an Xbox One until recently. Therefore, I don’t know what the campaigns were like in 5 and 6, but apparently 7 was supposed to make the campaign races feel like an actual racing series, with more realistic points distributions and all that. Great in theory, but the execution is terrible. In real racing, even the best drivers lose more than half of their races. In order to beat a series in Forza 7, you have to win every race in the series. Forza Horizon 3 did it right by not requiring you to win every race; you could finish last in every race in a championship, and you’d still beat the championship. Credits rewards are tied to the difficulty of the AI, so you want to turn it up to get more money, but then you’re more likely to lose races, which makes you want to turn the difficulty down or compensate by using a bunch of assists, like the stupid one that makes you drive as fast on the grass as on the road. There’s also no qualifying, so everybody starts in the same position every race, and the AI tends to finish in the same position every race as well. You also have to finish every race in a series before moving to the next series, which is annoying. So basically, every mechanic in single player is designed against having fun. Great!

Then there’s the progression. It’s slow, to say the least. There was controversy surrounding the VIP credits bonus, as it initially only gave you a few temporary cards that doubled your credits. However, it was updated to double your credits after every race, so that’s good. It still feels like you don’t gain credits fast enough to be able to buy and upgrade as many cars as you want, and that’s after I abused a glitch that allowed you to get infinite rewards (which has since been patched).

The game is also crash-prone, to the point of being almost unplayable on PC. The PC version has a memory leak which crashes the game after a few minutes if you look at your garage or upgrade your car. The Xbox version is more stable, but it’s still crashed a couple of times for me.

You’d think all of these criticisms would push the game off the top ten, right? But here’s the thing: multiplayer is super fun. Sure, it takes about ten minutes to get into your first race, because you always end up in a lobby where the race has just started. And sure, half the races end up in disaster because the guy behind you crashed into you at full speed at the first corner, but when you get near the front of the pack and have a good race with some other drivers, it’s a blast. I tried ghost racing for the first time the other day, and it led to surprisingly close and fun racing.

So yeah, Forza 7 is a pretty fun game, as long as you only play multiplayer.

#6: Monogolf

Decent mobile games are hard to come by these days. For a while, my go-to phone game was True Skate, but then it stopped working on my phone. Thanks, Huawei! Before that, I played Desert Golfing, but it got a bit boring after 3,000 holes. I saw Monogolf in the Google Play Store recently, thought it looked cool, and downloaded it. Now it’s my new go-to game.

Like many phone-based golf games (believe me, I’ve played a lot), you simply drag on the screen to point where you want the ball to go, and how fast it should go. The catch is that you have to get a hole-in-one on each hole. If you don’t, you lose a life. Beat as many holes as possible until you run out of lives. It’s super fun to try and beat your record, and you often do, as you’re constantly unlocking new lives. You also unlock extra level packs for reaching certain milestones.

The game’s art style is also really cool. A lot of mobile games go for the modern look, but it ends up looking cheap. Monogolf’s graphics don’t, helped by the variety of vivid colors and textures on the holes.

As far as in-app purchases are concerned, you can pay about $4.50 to unlock everything, including all of the pieces for course creation and the maximum number of lives, but everything can also be unlocked through normal playing.

I said a lot about Monogolf. The top five games are all Switch games, that wasn’t intentional, sorry.

#5: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Tin, why is this game not number one?

Because I liked the four games above this one better. That’s not to say Breath of the Wild isn’t a great game, because it is. And it deserves the overwhelming praise it’s gotten, too. I’ve just never been a huge fan of RPG or adventure games. Having never played more than a few hours of a Zelda game before, I expected to only play the game for a few hours just because using the Switch was a novelty at the time. However, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Running around the vast open world is fun, as are the shrines. Somehow, I managed to defeat a Divine Beast before finding a single korok seed, so now there’s a korok seed permanently in the middle of my Divine Beast orbs in my inventory. I really need to go back and beat the two Divine Beasts I didn’t get so I can try out the DLC, because that skeleton bike looks super cool.

#4: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

So this is just an updated version of Mario Kart 8, which came out three years ago. Some might say that makes it ineligible for 2017 awards, but I don’t care.

Deluxe adds several new gameplay mechanics, new characters and karts, and an updated Battle Mode. The addition of a second item box makes for an even more hectic experience than Not_Deluxe, and also adds a bit of an extra layer of strategy. Should you go for the double item box, or will someone else snatch it up, leaving you with no items? The triple boost is also nice. Deluxe adds the Inklings from Splatoon as playable characters, which automatically makes the game twice as good (this is a scientifically provable fact). The Battle Mode is also really good, although I haven’t played it that much, because regular racing is so great. Given how all of this was added on to an already-great game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is probably the best game in the series, and arguably the best racing game this generation (the other major contender being Forza Horizon 3).

#3: Puyo Puyo Tetris

Yes, I know this came out years ago. I imported a Vita copy back in 2015 for my PSTV that I never use. However, I’m including it in this list because it didn’t receive an English release until this year, which means that I can actually read the menus and story.

It turns out that combining two of the best puzzle games ever made creates another great puzzle game. Who would have thought? The story mode is great fun, and the story itself is surprisingly enjoyable, particularly the part where Schezo makes a bunch of innuendos. As far as the main modes go, Swap mode is objectively the best mode, as both players play both Puyo Puyo and Tetris, and do so on an even playing field. Versus mode is the next best, particularly when both players are playing the same game. Puyo vs. Tetris matches can be a bit lopsided, due to the two games having different garbage rules. Big Bang mode is alright too, particularly the Puyo version. You should avoid the Party and Fusion modes though, they’re bad.

Playing online is super fun, although most people play Tetris, unsurprisingly. Playing against someone at a similar skill level results in super tense and exciting matches, often with both players scrambling to clear enough garbage to be able to make a decent combo again. Lopsided matches do happen pretty often, though. Fortunately, you can disable matches in modes you don’t like, even in ranked mode. I usually just play Swap and Versus, although I’ll sometimes play Big Bang as well.

#2: Super Mario Odyssey

While a lot of games recently have focused on huge, expansive worlds, with various places to do things, Odyssey instead has relatively small levels with things to do EVERYWHERE. There are essentially as many moons in this game as there are korok seeds in Breath of the Wild, which means that moons are probably 50 feet apart from each other on average. There’s always something new to do that won’t take more than a couple of minutes when you go back to a particular level (unless you’ve gotten all the moons on that level, of course, but even then you might have to go back for a thing or two…). Some people have said that it feels like busy work to get all of the moons, and it is to some extent, but I found it wasn’t that difficult to get most of, if not all the moons in a level in a few-hour session or two.

New Donk City is one of my favorite levels in any video game, ever. The music, atmosphere, and level design are all so fantastic that I had fun for hours just messing around, jumping through the city and up to the top of buildings. It’s definitely the standout level of the game IMO.

Mario has probably the best movement I’ve ever felt in any video game. There are so many different things he can do that I feel like I still haven’t learned all of his abilities, even though I’ve 100%ed the game. The jump -> throw cap -> dive to cap -> jump off cap -> throw cap again -> dive to cap again mechanic is super fun to perform, and not as complicated as it sounds. It takes a couple of tries to get used to, but it’s very intuitive once you get used to it.

The capture ability is also amazing. It surprisingly doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, as each of the objects you can capture let you do the things you’d want to do in a given level. Cheep-Cheeps can let you swim more quickly, Goombas let you walk on ice without slipping around, posts let you spring up the sides of buildings, and so on. My favorite object to capture is probably the pokey thing in Bowser’s Castle that I don’t remember the name of that lets you snap to and spring up walls, although it’s also one of the more finnicky objects to use.

Overall, SMO is probably the best platformer I’ve ever played, and I thoroughly enjoyed 100 percenting it. It would be my game of the year, except I happened to like one game even more. Can you guess what it is?

#1: Splatoon 2

You probably guessed what it was.

Splatoon 2 is the only game from this year that I played for more than 100 hours. For comparison, I played one game for more than 100 hours in 2016, Forza Horizon 3, and three games for more than 100 hours in 2015: Super Mario Maker, Rocket League, and Splatoon. Super Mario Maker and Rocket League are probably two of my top ten games of all time, and Forza Horizon 3 isn’t far behind. Splatoon would also be one of my top ten favorite games, if it wasn’t for the fact that Splatoon 2 is objectively so much better.

If you’ve never played Splatoon, the goal is basically to paint the floor with more ink than the other team (also you should play it right now). It sounds silly, but it’s super fun. The ranked modes are also great, and your rank is now broken up per mode, instead of all the modes contributing to the same rank. That’s great, because now you don’t have to only play one ranked mode if you’re better at that mode than the others.

There are a bunch of new gear items, some of which are really cool. I really like the tye-dye shirt, and also the jungle hat that everyone hates. You can also wear a plant if you really want to. I need to make it as clear as possible that the visual aesthetic of this game just oozes with coolness. It’s probably the coolest game I’ve ever played.

There are several new weapon types, too. The Splat Dualies are neat because you can dash twice while firing, making yourself a difficult target. The Splat Brella gives you a shield, but it isn’t very useful in practice IMO.

The new stages feel a lot more open than the stages in Splatoon 1. Humpback Pump Track has an incredible name and is a great smaller level, while Mako Mart has a more open feel, and the supermarket design is fantastic. It’s definitely my favorite level in the series. Most of my favorite stages from Splatoon 1 have made also their way to the sequel, including Port Mackerel, Kelp Dome, Walleye Warehouse, and Moray Towers (yes, I like that map).

Splatoon 2’s single player campaign is similar to the first game’s, with the added twist that you have to use various different weapons throughout the missions, instead of just the Splattershot. This adds a lot of replay value, as you now have to beat each level with each different weapon to 100 percent (or 1000 percent) the campaign. I’m about halfway through doing this, and I intend on finishing it eventually.

Salmon Run is new to Splatoon 2, and it’s a great new mode. You have waves of hordes of enemies that want to murder you, and you have to murder them first. There are probably much better explanations of the mode available. It also makes you try out new weapons, as the weapon you use is randomly assigned at the start of each wave from a set of four weapons. My main complaint with this mode is that I wish there were more rotations with completely random weapons, as a lot of the rotations with preset weapons tend to have a lot of weapons with low firing rates, which makes the mode more difficult and arguably less fun. Also, you can only play the mode on certain days, which is kind of silly.

Splatoon 2 is one of those games that’s greater than the sum of its parts. On paper, it sounds cool, but not as amazing as it really is. I almost didn’t buy the first Splatoon, which is something I have a hard time believing now (the same thing is true for Rocket League). It’s hard to put into words why, but the finished product, with all the great gameplay mechanics and super cool style blended together, is simply amazing. It’s more fun and cool than any other game I’ve played this year, so it’s an easy choice for my Game of the Year.

Hooray!

Honorable Mentions

These are games that would probably be on the list if I had a PS4 so I could play them:

Everybody’s Golf: I like golf games, as you might have noticed by the number of golf games I’ve played this year. This is a golf game, therefore I should like it.

Gran Turismo Sport: Gran Turismo is one of my favorite series of all time. A lot of people haven’t liked the more serious mode of racing that Sport offers, but I think it’ll be right up my alley. The livery editor also looks super cool.

Wipeout Omega Collection: I really liked Wipeout HD, and this is basically that, but with an even higher definition! Also, it has the tracks from Wipeout 2048 which I haven’t seen before.

These games almost made the Top Ten, but didn’t:

Jackbox Party Pack 4: It’s fun, but JPP3 is better IMO. Don’t worry, I’ll still be streaming more Jackbox in the future.

PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS: I haven’t played this game much because it gives me anxiety when I play it. I really don’t like loud noises, so hearing a random gunshot after 20 minutes of silence startles me a lot. It’s also kind of slow-paced. I do like the concept more, so I’ll probably play it again soon, maybe with some music in the background.

Come back next year for my 2018 list, which will probably be the post after this one, given how little I use Tumblr!

[grabey]

Horsing around

After watching the Darksiders III trailer I’m surprised Gunfire Games didn’t take the opportunity to retcon out Vigil’s bizarre decision to rename Famine and Pestilence. Instead we are left with a game featuring that famed horse rider of the Apocalypse, Fury (the other one is Strife).

The series has always seemed weirdly reluctant to make full use of the cool premise of the Four Horsemen battling against Heaven and Hell. Darksiders II was set largely in a fairly generic fantasy world with the Apocalypse pushed into the background and Death portrayed as an elite warrior rather than the actual Grim Reaper.

I don’t know if they’re just worried about stirring up religious controversy, but I can’t help but feel the setting would be more interesting if it went deeper into the Book of Revelation inspirations. TGN Professor

GC: It’s almost certainly the religious aspect, particularly with regards to the American market. As you imply, we can’t help but feel they would’ve been better off making up their own fantasy universe from scratch.

Stuck in time

Hooray!

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing through Darksiders, having enjoyed the sequel a few years ago. I was just thinking about what they could do for a third entry then saw the news about the new game which is great. Although watching the IGN reveal trailer I’m a little disappointed to see that the story doesn’t seem to have moved on at all.

Darksiders has you as War trying to clear your name. Darksiders II has you as Death in a concurrent story to the first game – trying to clear War’s name. The trailer for Darksiders III starts with War in chains, so it looks like his name is still not cleared yet?! Don’t tell me Fury now has to clear his name!

I was also thinking the format might have changed slightly. It’s probably a bit ambitions for a smaller studio (assuming Gunfire Games are smaller studio compared to a company like Bungie) but maybe they could have or will do something like a four-player co-op where you each play one of the horsemen and have to take on Destiny style raid dungeons. Anyway, can’t wait to hear a bit more info.

If Darksiders III does OK, it’s pretty certain we’ll eventually get a fourth staring Strife but let’s just hope it’s not all about clearing War’s name again! PsillyPseudonym (PsillySeudonym – gamertag)

GC: According to IGN it’s ‘set around the same time as the events of Darksiders II’, so we think you’re right. It certainly doesn’t look like War’s name has been cleared in the trailer.

Big impression

Can I just say what a wonderfully creepy game Little Nightmares is. I think walking through the dark with all the mannequins around toward the end was great/nerve racking!

But I’d also like to draw people’s attention to the PS Store, where, if like me, you were happy with the news of a third Darksiders game there is a bundle of both remastered games for £16. Which considering it’s £16 for the first one alone is pretty good! Liam

Furniture land

Thank god Bethesda chose to release a Prey demo, indeed. Wanted to write in to defend against Phil’s point. I was always planning on getting Prey based on the premise, alone but was probably going to wait for some sales first.

After playing the demo on hard difficulty I was not disappointed by the previews suggesting it was ‘a thinking man’s game’, which is undoubtedly a dig at the Call Of Duty crowd. It was a challenge of nerve and mind, like a cross between Garry’s Mod prop hunt and The Thing. I raised my wrench against any and all mugs and chairs. Playing with headphones on, even mop buckets I knew were black spiders made me touch cloth because of that damn music sting!

After multiple playthroughs of the demo I now have a good idea of what skill trees to level up (hacking seems like a very useful starting point) and have now pre-ordered the game (£40 on Amazon Prime). Really looking forward to exploring the rest of the game and I hope it’s not too short. And I’m really glad Bethesda decided to release a demo.

They got extra money out of me by doing so, as the demo convinced me to buy as soon as possible because it is so different from the majority of other first person shooters available now. I never got round to playing Dishonored 2, so I can’t comment how much of a clone Prey may be to it but I like Arkane and hope they do well. Beware the chair! Stretchy Grunt

The second year

I’m seriously beginning to wonder whether the Nintendo Switch could be a hit on the scale of the Wii. Every time we hear a new story about it the situation seems even more positive than before. And despite what it seemed like before launch I think the release schedule is working out pretty well, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe clearly off to a great start and Splatoon 2 likely to do very well too. I’m not so sure about ARMS, but I’m beginning to think it won’t be ignored as others were predicting a few months ago.

But of course with E3 approaching it only makes me wonder more about what Nintendo has coming up next. Super Mario Odyssey should be the perfect way to end the year but what about after that? We know about literally nothing at the moment and they’ve already used up all their biggest franchises: Zelda, Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario. If Nintendo think they can follow that up with second-stringers like Pikmin and Kirby then I would’ve hoped they’d learned their lesson by now.

Maybe a new Metroid, since it’s been so long since we’ve had a proper one, but they need to keep with the new franchises. Splatoon worked out great and ARMS might do too. That’s what we need more of, not diminishing returns with a new Donkey Kong and a new Star Fox, until they get down to franchises not even their biggest fans care about. The Switch in 2017 seems to be working out great but it’s the Switch in 2018 I’m worried about now. Goose

You get what you pay for

Well, I just bought one of them retro game controllers from Argos with 200 games on it (you know the one where it’s in the shape of a joypad the size of a matchbox, priced at a tenner). However, I wasn’t expecting much for the price. Unfortunately, I will never know because my two-year-old LG 4K UHD smart telly hasn’t got the phono plugs to plug the game controller in so I can play it.

Now I not what you’re all going to say – why didn’t you go and get a converter to play the Damon thing? So off I went to my local Maplin store, only to be told it would cost me around £50 to buy a converter so I can see it on my screen. Or go and buy a new telly with the phono jacks already built into it. I wouldn’t mind but the whole gaming box only cost me a tenner in the first place.

So my question is how do other people manage to have all these other retro gaming devices like your new retro Ataris, Mega Drive, and the Nintendo gadgets to work on their tellies, because mines at least two-years-old now and surely any newer telly made after mine is just not compatible for these latest retro-crazed gaming devices to be played on due to the phono plugs. JAH

GC: We don’t know about the others but the NES Mini uses a HDMI cable. We assume you bought this, but it doesn’t seem to contain any real retro games – just a bunch of cheapo Flash games (there’s a PDF list here).

Oldest school

All this talk of remasters from gaz be rotten has got me thinking. I’d like to see much older games put onto games consoles, ones that were invented long before video games.

When I was growing up in Mevagissey many years ago my mates and I used to enjoy a jolly game of Poohsticks. I sure that some sort of video game could be made out of that.

Here’s hoping for some Inbox magic The Dark Fud

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

Making the list

I have just finished playing Titanfall 2 and although it’s a great game, it doesn’t quite beat the other multiplayer shooters I’ve played in recent years.

My list goes in reverse order: 4. Titanfall 2 3. Overwatch 2. Star Wars: Battlefront (controversial!) 1. Splatoon (of course)

I’ve got a feeling not everyone will agree with that list. One thing I’ve noticed in all four games is the lack of emphasis or downright absence of a free-for-all mode. Titanfall 2 obviously has one, but the wait for a match was 10 times longer than the team modes – making it very unappealing to actually play. Free-for-all used to be the only game in town, with several different variants, but slowly it is being wiped out by team modes/games.

It seems a real shame as I am naturally a lone wolf player and free-for-all is a much more fitting mode for me to play. Not that I don’t enjoy team games at all, with Splatoon my favourite game ever, but I miss the more cutthroat and chaotic play of having everyone out to get you. Free-for-all is something I’d love to see as an option in Splatoon 2, I’m sure they could find a way to make it work. Ryan O’D PS: I know some would cry foul that they weren’t included already, but I hope they release new DLC tracks for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Inbox also-rans

What’s everyone assuming Bethesda’s two new games at E3 are? Wolfenstein must be one of them, but what’s the other? The Evil Within 2 by the sound of the rumours I’d say. Ollie

Do you know what Link’s favourite song is? A Good Heart These Days Is Hard To Find by Feargal Sharkey. DMR

This week’s Hot Topic

The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Steiner, who asks how much money do you spend on gaming a month?

Do you have a specific budget that you stick to, or some other kind of system to make sure you don’t spend too much at once? What do you do when multiple games come out at the same time? And do you try and have money in reserve for the launch of new consoles and other hardware?

What percentage of your games do you buy for full price and how much do you take advantage of sales? Do you resell your games or buy second-hand, and how are your habits changing as digital downloads become more prominent?

from Blogger Darksiders III reaction, Titanfall 2 free-for-all, Nintendo Switch