Thursday, October 17, 2019

Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
2 hours

My thoughts:
Kind of a new review/update to my original review. 

This game broke me and I don't see myself going back. Started the expansion by trying Gambit out and was having some fun. Then I started the Shadowkeep campaign, and about two/three missions in, I was done. 

I can't play this game anymore. Nothing about Bungie's design decisions (from the interface, quests, bullets, leveling, etc) make any sense to me and everything about it drives me crazy.


Rating:
1/5 stars

Next game?
The Division 2

Sayonara Wild Hearts

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~2+ hours


Thoughts:
Game is simply the analogue stick and one button. The music is wonderful. The art style/color palate is very well done. And at about 2 hours long it certainly did not wear out its welcome. Glad I picked it up.


Rating:
4/5 stars.

Next game?
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

Monster Hunter: World (again)

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~25+ hours


Thoughts:
I love this game, and I don't understand why I can't finish it. Hopefully I will come back and get the base game done.

Rating:
N/A

Next game?
Sayonara Wild Hearts

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~15 hours

My thoughts:

Graphics:
Right in line with part 1. Varied locations in this one are pretty nice.


Sound/Music:
Leaning more on hating than loving. If it was there the music was very low and barely audible. Could've been used more to set a mood.


Gameplay:
A mess. I don't think the game has any idea what it wants to be. Stealth shooter? Run and gun? Cover shooter?

Yahtzee describes it perfectly here:
https://youtu.be/m-RzmFTaWCc?t=190


Story:
As much as I hated the game play the story is the complete opposite. The story beats are big, bombastic, ridiculous, unrealistic and I loved it. Maybe just watch the cut scenes on YouTube instead of playing the game...?


Outro:
As soon as the credits rolled I was done with this game. Glad I got to experience the story, but I don't see myself going back for another sequel.


Rating:
3/5 stars.

Next game?
Monster Hunter: World

Friday, August 16, 2019

Year 2 in review and stats

Games played: 14
Games beat: 11*
Games abandoned: 3
Total hours played: ~370 hours
Games purchased and not played: 10

Review Totals:
5 stars - 5
4 stars - 3
3 stars - 1
2 stars - 1
1 star - 1

*See Golf Story

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~80 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Happy to be back (again)! 3rd time back in and I finally beat ARR (A Realm Reborn)!

Graphics:
I have a love/hate with these graphics. Not offensive to look at, but definitely feeling date in 2019. The character animations driving me up a wall. And the art design (when i comes to outfits) - I can't stand.


Sound/Music:
When there is music it usually doesn't disappoint. With the chocobo (mount) music turned off the field is definitely too quiet. The sound effects are grating; they all seem low quality "simple" effects.


Gameplay:
Since I am playing it 5 years after launch, there is a TON of things to do and that's great. Thankfully I was able to join a great "free company" so that adds to the fun. And knowing someone who is 40 levels above you and knows everything about the game definitely makes getting (back) into the game much more doable.

This time around I concentrated mostly on the +! side quests (these side quests open up additional things to do in the game), main mission quests (these progress the story forward) and leveling roulettes (run a selection of randomized dungeons with 3 other people - great/fast way to get experience). The side and main story quests are mostly done solo - which i enjoyed, but once you get into 4 or 8 person dungeons I felt like I was a 2 pound dog on a leash running with Usain Bolt. Didn't hate it, but I never knew what was going on nor did I feel like I actually contributed to anything.


Story:
The story in this game developed worse than an RPG my friends and I made on the PS1 using RPG Maker. I know they were stumbling from the disastrous initial launch of FF14, but wow.


Outro:
After 5 years of playing on and off (but mostly off), I finally beat ARR! I will keep playing but only until Borderlands 3 releases. I'll be back though...


Rating:
3/5 stars.

Next game?
Borderlands 3
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Outer Wilds

Store Page:
Epic Game Store

Total play time:
3 hours

My thoughts:

Unfortunately I wasn't able to hack-it and beat this game. After playing about 3-5 hours the game made me anxious and I couldn't continue. I wasn't feeling it.


Rating:
N/A stars.

Next game?
Went back to The Division

Monday, June 17, 2019

Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~7 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Happy to be back!

Graphics:
Borderlands 2 that I know and love, but more crisp.


Sound/Music:
Some of the voices sounded off, like a bad audio mix. Kind of weird. Overall not bad!


Gameplay:
Everything I remembered and loved about Borderlands 2, but with some new fun additions; like the planet poison AOE, stand in and cause more damage. Nothing big, but just a little touch that made you mix up your tactics.

I did notice that the enemies were really aggressive. Mostly funneling into the front of the room, leave a lot of areas of the room "unexplored" for combat (meaning, explodey barrels were never exploded).


Story:
Nice little story that reminds you of all the old characters and sets you up for the new adventure (part 3). Definitely didn't wear out it's welcome.


Outro:
Barreled through the main story missions and didn't bother with side missions. I would like to go back and do those, I would also want to go back and do all the DLCs I never completed back in 2012.... We'll see if that happens.


Rating:
5/5 stars.

Next game?
Outer Wilds

Friday, June 14, 2019

Tom Clancy's The Division

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~80+ hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Gold Edition v1.8.3

Graphics:
Overall I would say these graphics are good, right in line with what you're expecting from a AAA title. Yet another shout out to the city of Manhattan, it is amazingly constructed, feels lived in, real, oozing with character!


Sound/Music:
Gun sounds are great! Music is minimal, but when it does pop, it's a cool techno-synth thing. Love it.


Gameplay:
Cover based looter shooter. The game is basically a collection of missions, story main missions and optional missions including: side missions and encounters.

There are also a ton of collectibles that adds context to the world and story.

All the above took me like 50+ hours to do! Then there is endgame stuff to do (which I'm definitely not well versed in) which I'm looking forward to trying out!


Story:
Ubisoft/Massive built a super interesting world. Starts about a month after a bio-terrorist unleached a disease that has ripped through NYC. The near post-apocalyptic premise is very well done, which unlike something like Mad Max, The Division is still very much grounded and relatable. The story unfolds through the series of main missions, and context is add to those characters and the world at large via the in-game collectibles, side missions, etc.


Outro:
I've barely touched the DLC.... I need to keep playing this game more. This might be one of my favorite games of all time....


Rating:
5/5 stars.

Next game?
Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Bloodborne

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
6 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Friend lent me the game; a game I've been wanting to try!

Graphics:
Perfect for the game. Grotesque..? And that's a compliment.


Sound/Music:
Neutral. Nothing sticks out good or bad.


Gameplay:
Tough. But I guess that is the point. I wasn't expecting have to kill, and re-kill everything after a death or a visit to the dream. That grind, I definitely, wasn't expecting and ultimately it is what turned me off.


Story:
From the little bit I experience, I very much enjoyed! Intrigue was definitely there!


Outro:
I play games to relax and boy- this game is not a relaxing game. I was way too tense during all of my play through. Though, I would like to revisit in the future.

Rating:
N/A

Next game?
The Division 1

Sonic Mania Plus

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
3 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Has all the charm you'd expect from a love letter to those all original Sonic games, but not enough to make me care.

Graphics:
16-bit perfect.


Sound/Music:
This was... annoying. Big big turn off.


Gameplay:
16-bit Sonic perfect.


Story:
Dr. Robotnik (/Eggman/Whatever) steals stuff, you go get it back.


Outro:
Not sure what it was about the game, but didn't hold me. More I played it, the more i felt my time could be better spent playing something else.

Rating:
N/A

Next game?
Bloodborne

Spider-Man

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
45 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Spider-Man and City Never Sleeps DLC

Graphics:
Environments were so nice to look at! Faux-City of New York is an amazing creation. The faces of characters were at times jaw-dropping and at other times "ehhhh".


Sound/Music:
The music that was queued up whenever you started swinging was on point! Otherwise, nothing stood out.


Gameplay:
So so so much fun! Not too hard (until you got to those challenges!) and not too easy!


Story:
Loved it! Fun remix of all the characters you know!


Outro:
CNS DLC was definitely worth it. Added a lot of character stuff that I really enjoyed!


Rating:
5/5 stars.

Next game?
Sonic Mania Plus

Monday, February 4, 2019

Donut County

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
~2 hours

My thoughts:

This game is short and sweet (pun intended!). Great AAA-game detox. It's Katamari with holes. It's fantastic.

Rating:
5/5 stars.

Next game?
Sonic Mania Plus
Spider-Man

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Store Page:
Nintendo Switch

Total play time:
7 hours

My thoughts:

It's Mario Kart at it's best, what else needs to be said?

I found this useful:
https://kotaku.com/how-to-get-a-perfect-starting-boost-in-mario-kart-8-1599227060

Rating:
5/5 stars.

Next game?
Not sure...

Friday, February 1, 2019

Destiny 2

Store Page:
PlayStation 4

Total play time:
45 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Destiny 2 (vanilla) + expansion 1 + expansion 2 + Forsaken, picked this up for <$30 over the 2018 holidays. One of my best purchases ever!

Graphics:
The backgrounds blew me away. Sense of grandness is amazing! Love it.


Sound/Music:
The orchestrated music in vanilla blew me away. Loved it. The music became more generic as the game and expansions went on, though.


Gameplay:
Bungie getting close to perfecting the FPS as a genre. Controls were tight and guns felt great. Played it mostly for the PvE experience and had a great time doing it. I'm not much into the PvP-side nor the grindy endgame, but I hear they are both great!
Loot drops in the end game is broken. As a compose this I'm currently power level ~523 with max item level ~544. This week, I can do a heroic adventure on Mercury for a power item. Go to Mercury, that adventure is locked because didn't do the optional quest line to unlock Mercury adventures. Okay fine, let's start that. Took me ~30 minutes, in that time i got a ~514 drop (YAY! Close enough to my level) and a ~375 drop (WTF?! Why 375, why not 250?!) The req power level for this adventure is 250! This makes no sense!! So now I'm stuck doing a quest line almost 300 level below me, just to do another adventure that will get me one item. Yeah... No.


Story:
Vanilla had this because solar system spanning stories, the expansions brought them down to a single setting and very character focus. Then Forsaken, that was a self-serious revenge tale, I'm sure the pay-off will be great whenever Bungie decided to follow up on these plot threads.


Outro:
I enjoyed this game very much. By the end of completing all the Lost Sectors I felt burnt out. I would like to return and finish all those undone Adventures and Planetary Quests.

Rating:
5/5 stars.
4/5 stars.

Update (4/2019):
The endgame is broken and/or not for me.

Next game?
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Golf Story

Store Page:
Nintendo Switch

Total play time:
17+ hours
3 hours

My thoughts:

Intro:
Don't listen to the hype. This game is bad. I can't recommend this game, at all.

Graphics:
I enjoyed the pixel art. And the emotional speech bubbles were a nice touch.

Gameplay:
When I wasn't running into bug after bug, if you like GALF I guess it is okay.

Story:
What story? Whatever paper thin garbage they pass off as a story was... garbage.

Outro:
I'm stuck on the final 9 hole course of the game. I guess I've played the whole game wrong because I leveled up my stats uniformly thus unable to beat this game because I can't hit the ball far enough? I don't know. I've tried like 6 times.

This isn't Xenoblade Chronicles 2 bad, though, mostly because it didn't go on for 100+ hours.

Original thoughts 3 hours in:

This game broke me. I can't play this as my "main course" any more.

Game started rough with Australian colloquialisms that made no sense to me and totally took me out of the experience.

As I finished the first 7 holes of Wellworn Grove, I could only think to myself - wow this is boring...

Lurkey Valley started off with more promise, but then it broke me.

The first (only?) 7 hole challenge of LV, if you lose - back to the main menu you go! Bug or feature? Not sure.

On the 4th hole, I tee up and SMACK! the ball goes flying towards the hole. I overshoot the hole and it goes BOUNCE BOUNCE into the area of Hole #1. And low and behold, it goes into hole #1! I get a hole-in-one!!! The game scores appropriately. And I move on to Hole #5.

Wasn't able to replicate, but WTF? Weird bug.

Hole #6 has a fun OOB bug, when if you miss the green and land just south of it by a couple of yards in the rough. you get an OOB fail.

Menu navigation nitpick - has anyone else noticed this?! You hit + to go into the menu, select an item, hit B to go back and it kicks you out to the game... What if i wanted to select another menu item?

This page may get updated if I ever play again, maybe during lunch time at work I'll get some more playtime in...

Rating:
1/5

Next game?
Destiny 2 (Base + Forsaken + Exp 1 and 2)