About time, right? Every time I’ve sat down to write this one, I end up giving a whole game its own treatment instead. And, y’know, Zelda happened. Then Persona… but we’ll talk about that one soon enough.
Category: PS4
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Games of the Month – February 2017
Alright games industry, let’s pace ourselves okay? I mean, I’m not going to complain about this many great games coming out rapid-fire seemingly every single week…but I would also be okay with spacing these out a bit more. Persona 5 comes out next month and I’m not halfway through Zelda! Jeez guys.
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Games of the Month – January 2017
We’re back in this thing, huh?
While January was an epic garbage pile for a handful of reasons, the games weren’t one of them. A huuuge surprise came in the form of this month’s #1, and second place wasn’t too far behind. I wish I liked the Gravity Rush games but am glad that apparently a lot of other people do. In terms of indies…I don’t know! A few decent ones here and there but no early Pony Island like last year. AAA’s have my attention for the first time in a while this year, so I hope there are enough great indies to keep up.
#1. Yakuza 0
So whose job was it to let me know Yakuza was 100% my jam? It’s all I’ve been able to talk about this month. If you’re as new to the series as me, it’s tough to explain what exactly what this is. So let’s hit the questions:
Is Yakuza a serious crime drama? Yes, much of the game’s main story is focused around typical crime story scenes of family betrayal, honor, and that kind of stuff. It’s pretty good. Once a jumped through a window and punched a man into a toilet.
Is it a comedy? Yeah, it’s that too. Once you’re outside of the “main story” missions, the open world allows you to roam around and take on side quests. Hilarious side quests. Without spoiling anything, Yakuza 0 stands up as one of the most genuinely funny video games I’ve ever played.
Open world? Side quests? …Is Yakuza an RPG? Huh, I guess it kind of is. Yakuza 0 blends so many different things together that it’s hard to pin it down and give it a label. There are random encounters, multiple skill trees, side quests with branching dialogue options…so yeah, I guess. Yeah it is.
Is there good punching? Yes, the punching is very good. Sometimes you can punch someone while holding a bicycle. That is also very good.
I like punching, but what if I get tired of punching? Go sing one of the many songs and play the rhythm based karaoke mini games. Or the disco one in the dance hall. Or go win prizes in a crane game. Or go to an arcade and literally just play some other games made by Sega. Or go to the bowling alley or the Shogi with the old people.
Is there any reason not to play Yakuza 0? If you refuse to do anything other than the main story and you also hate melodramatic crime fiction. Otherwise, no. Not at all.
#2. Resident Evil 7
Attempting to play Resident Evil 7 in Virtual Reality with headphones on is the scariest video game experience I’ve ever had. You tiptoe through a claustrophobic house fully aware that awful things are going to happen to you, and when they do it’s not any less terrifying. If you’ve yet to try horror in VR, this is the end-all be-all of the genre so far. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the first hour after playing for nearly a month. It’s that rough. I swear I’ll see more of it by the end of the year…but man, it’s something you’ve gotta see for yourself to believe.
Honorable Mentions:
I didn’t like anything else enough this month to have a solid #3… but here are the good ones that are still worth your time!
Hidden My Game By Mom 2: A sequel to an original puzzler that has me hoping for a third one sooner rather than later.
It’s 2:51A.M. Can You Fall Asleep?: A return to form for ClickHole. This gives me hope that 2017 will have a good set of top tier adventures from some of the funniest people writing games.
ARACHNAFOE: A pretty simple dual stick shooter about wrecking shop on some spiders. They deserve it.
Ninja Spinki Challenges!!: Flappy Bird creator, Dong Nguyen, is back at it again with a mini game collection. Not quite WarioWare, but it’s a set of fast-paced challenges that kept me coming back all month long.
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I Can’t Believe Virtual Reality Is Already This Good
Virtual reality is here. It made its way from sci-fi tv shows, from our childhood imaginations, and it’s sitting next to my television as I type this. Virtual reality is really, truly here.
I’ve been playing VR since the launch of the HTC Vive, but in such small doses that I felt like I hadn’t had enough experience to come to a conclusion on it. Now that I own a PlayStation VR headset and have had several more hours with the Vive, I feel a little more comfortable saying how I feel. Here we go: If you haven’t tried VR, you are missing out on the most exciting thing to happen to gaming in a long time.
I’m the first to admit that I’m a sucker for silly gaming gimmicks. I (mostly) loved the Wii, I think the Wii U is one of my favorite systems ever, and I’ll go to a Dave & Buster’s or whatever just to play in the dumb flight/shooter sims. Traditional games are still great, but I’m hard-pressed to ignore a novelty for novelty’s sake. The thing is, I think VR is enough to satisfy the easily entertained person like myself, and the staunch “hardcore” people who desperately want to sit down with a controller.
Once you slip on your headset of choice the implications of the device are immediate. One of my favorite experiences this year is watching the first moment someone tries virtual reality. The first moment they realize they can turn in any direction, walk around, and exist inside a video game. The first time they use their virtual hands to open a cabinet, and then bend down to look inside it. The inevitable first “WOW” gets me every time. Some prefer the non-interactive experience of just being in the world, others want the tactility of holding the controller in front of them and touching everything in virtual sight. Whether it’s the mere sight that impresses, the handle of a paintbrush, or the grip of a handgun, there’s always a moment that flips a switch of when you “get” virtual reality.
Mine was during the first game I played back in June. I strapped on the headset to play the first-person shooter Space Pirate Trainer. I was able to walk around the entire play area always being able to tell exactly where I was, as I dodged incoming bullets and shot down enemy ships. That moment is still the most impressed I’ve been playing a “traditional” (i.e. not Pokemon GO) video game all year.
All this rambling is to say that you should probably try this stuff as soon as possible. Find a friend who already owns one of these things, or go to a local gaming convention (Thanks OMG!con) to try one out. Every time I boot up a VR machine I feel like I might be less impressed that this technology is able to exist. So far I haven’t been. After a multi-hour long session with Space Pirate Trainer and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood just this week, I’m still as astonished with what I’m seeing as I was a few months ago. As for the future of VR? That’s up to the software developers to support it. Is this a fad that dies down before the technology hits a reasonable price point, or is this the dawn of The Next Big Thing?
Whatever happens to VR, it’ll always be one of the things that defines this year for me. Between this and Pokemon GO, 2016 has been an exciting one of evolving what video games can be. Here’s to moving forward and always finding fresh ways to make our old toys new.
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Games of the Month – August 2016
So I played Monster Hunter some more. Oops. After spending a few dozen more hours hunting down dinosaurs and sharks, I figured I should try to find some new things to play. Turns out, not a whole lot happened in August. A few neat fan games came out, some of my favorite games ever had re-releases, and there’s a new Deus Ex that I’ve barely touched. But since I probably shouldn’t make Monster Hunter the Game of the Month for a month it didn’t come out in, I guess I’ll find the next best things.
1. Pokemon Uranium
Megaman Unlimited was my first real introduction to excellent fan-games. I had typically written them off as projects by people who couldn’t come up with better ideas, but now I realize some of them are impressive tributes that rival entries in the series they so obviously admire. Pokemon Uranium is somewhere in the middle. I’ve never played a Pokemon fan-game before and now I realize I probably should have. Did you know that some people make entirely new regions of Pokemon for stuff like this? I had no idea. Yes, a few of the ones featured in Uranium look like bad Digimon, and the bugs and framerate issues that plague it don’t do the game any favors. But even with its issues, there’s a fine Pokemon game here that can ease the wait of these next few months. And sometimes you just feel like roaming around and checking out cool new monster designs, you know? Birbie rules.
2. The House Abandon
Text adventures haven’t ever really been my thing, but this one sold me on checking more of them out. The House Abandon stays exciting throughout its short half-hour runtime and never becomes too frustrating or fiddly like so many others in the genre. It says what it wants to, does a lot of surprising stuff, and gets out. You should try it.
3. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X
Weird, right? I had heard about these games for the past few years, and until a friend of mine mentioned this one on Twitter I’d never considered giving the series a shot. I probably should have. Project Diva X is a fast-paced rhythm game overloaded with flashy visuals, and I wish I had tried one of them sooner. It isn’t perfect, and on occasion the colors and dancing get in the way of distinguishing what buttons you’re actually supposed to hit, but the game is so positive and cheerful that it’s hard to be too upset. If you’re looking for a serious high score chasing experience this may not be your thing. But if you just want to tap out quick J-pop rhythms while cartoon characters skip around on stage, this may be up your alley.
Honorable Mentions:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Uhh, the first hour or so was cool! I just haven’t made the time for it. I dumped around 80 hours into its fantastic predecessor so I’ll get to this one at some point before year’s end.
Project AMR2 – I’d never played Metroid 2 before, but this seems like the way to do it. Though AMR2 is nearly just as speedy and well-paced as Zero Mission, the monotonous Metroid fights really turned me off.
Resident Evil 4 HD: Still the best shooter ever made? Yeah.
Mibibli’s Quest (Steam Edition) – If you didn’t play Mibibli’s Quest back a couple years ago when it snuck out, here’s your newest reminder: It’s just as good as Shovel Knight and maybe the best indie platformer ever made.
hippochippies 