Category: PS4

Games of the Month – July 2016

I’m over a month deep into Pokemon GO and still enjoying it quite a bit. BUT: There were actually other games that came out in July! Granted, I may not have played as many of them as usual, but when a worldwide phenomenon is going on I think I can be excused. Just this once.

1. Pokemon GO

Duh. I’m not sure what else I need to say about this one. I’ve met so many cool people just from playing it, and my friends and I go out several times a week to hunt down virtual creatures. The hype has died down a bit, but I still see people playing every single day. It’s great!

2. Monster Hunter Generations

More of the same, but that same is still real, real neat. There’s a few quality of life changes here and there, but this is mostly more of what I loved so much about last year’s Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. This is my favorite series to zone out and watch TV shows to, which may not seem like the best compliment…but sometimes that’s exactly what I’m looking for. My only gripe is that all of the towns are unlocked from the beginning rather than being unlocked through progression like in last year’s game, but it makes sense since these are all places players of the rest of the series have seen before. And also that I’m not playing right now. (UPDATE: My internet has been out for two weeks so I’ve played so, so much more of this. I think I like it better than MH4U now. Just the added variety of environments and movesets early on have spiced this one up a lot. I’m not how to rate this up against wholly fresh experiences come GOTY time, but just know that this is one to play, even if you’re a series vet.)

3. SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell

I’ll be bringing this one up a lot during Game of the Year talk, I’m sure. I wrote about the free demo last month, and this is just a more polished, much more fleshed out version of that. A fast-paced, first-person speedrunning game about quickly solving a demon obstacle course? Uhhhhhh, yes please.

Honorable Mentions:

Kentucky Route Zero: Act IV – I kind of fell off the KRZ hype train halfway through the 3rd Act. This one’s good from what I played, but still doesn’t hit the highs that I felt as I drove through Kentucky back roads in the first couple of entries. The writing is still top notch, and those entries alone made such a huge impression on me that I’ll definitely play through the series again in time.

Furi – Seems super neat at first, but restarting long-ass fights a dozen times didn’t do a lot to keep me begging for more.

SKULL CHAINZ – THIS SHIT IS RAAAAAWWWWW.

Super Stickman Golf 3 – This game is out. It exists and I wanted you to know. It’s a sequel to the best multiplayer game of all time. Bye.

August 18, 2016
2016 Mid-Year Wrap Up – What’s Left?

We’re halfway through 2016 and my Game of the Year prediction list is already in the trash. Surprise! Four of them aren’t even coming out this year and two of them weren’t that good. Dark Souls and The Witness were pretty sweet, and the verdict’s still out on Zero Time Dilemma and No Man’s Sky. We’ve had a few great releases this year like Salt and Sanctuary, SUPERHOT and Pony Island, but so far I’m feeling a bit down on 2016’s game output.

HOWEVER: We’re far from sending this baby off just yet.

There’s a load of cool games still coming this year, and *hopefully* some of them will actually be good. Let’s run through the ones I’m most excited about.

Zero Time Dilemma:

I’m finally getting to play Zero Time Dilemma, a game I’ve been hoping would actually get made since 2012’s incredible Virtue’s Last Reward.

Inside:

The follow-up to Limbo, Inside, is also on its way. I’ve got some very high hopes for this one, especially after hearing some early thoughts on it during E3.

BoxBoxBoy!:

The sequel to one of the best games nobody played last year. Nintendo’s best puzzle game in a long time, and one of my favorite things HAL Laboratory has done.

Song of the Deep:

Song of the Deep looks like a promising Metroidvania, and Insomniac tends to not make anything that’s outright bad.

No Man’s Sky:

You’ve probably heard enough about No Man’s Sky by now, but I don’t know how anyone can write it off yet. There’s no way this thing can deliver on all of its promises, but even if it manages to be a decent version of what Hello Games’ is envisioning… it’s going to be something very special.

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2:

Gunvolt 2 is nearly topping my most anticipated games right now. After finishing Mighty No. 9 and well, not thinking about it much anymore, I’m ready for a good action platformer that can deliver the goods. The first Gunvolt was sooooo cool. Please don’t mess this one up.

Final Fantasy XV:

Final Fantasy XV is somehow just a few months away and I still don’t have any idea what kind of beast it’s gonna be. It seems like such a mishmash of so many disparate ideas that I can’t fathom how any of it is going to work together. And maybe it won’t. But, wow…what if it does?

The Last Guardian:

The Last Guardian is finally, really, truly coming out. The follow up to one of my favorite games of all time, Ueda’s next game has a lot to live up to.

Dishonored 2:

I never finished Dishonored. I never even got halfway through it. But a lot of people I respect seem to love it, and I’m willing to give the series another chance.

Below:

Below is a mysterious adventure game that I’ve heard whispered of in the same breath as Dark Souls, and that’s about enough for me.

Cuphead:

Cuphead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2D platformer. Cool boss battles. Wonderfully drawn art style. Cuphead!!!!!!!

Nioh:

I have no idea if Nioh is actually going to make it out this year with all of the changes they’ve been making to it, but that alpha demo was promising. It definitely needed a tweak or two, but there are neat ideas there that I want to see more of.

The Intruder:

The Intruder has been talked about in hushed tones for what feels like a decade now. It’s an indie Slender-like thing, but supposedly has way more going on than your average “get chased by spooky man” game.

We Happy Few:

We Happy Few reminds me of BioShock at its prime. Terrible world that’s totally fallen apart but a subset of the population seems cool with it? Sign me up.

The Pedestrian:

The Pedestrian is a simple platformer with a cool aesthetic, and sometimes that’s all I need, ya dig?

DARK SOULS III DLC (at some point)! Yay.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided:

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the sequel to a game I love, in a series I should probably play more of. Human Revolution was my introduction to Deus Ex, but what a wonderful, memorable introduction it was.

Pokemon Sun and Moon:

Also Pokemon Sun and Moon is coming and if you don’t know why someone might be excited about that I don’t know what else to tell you. Rowlet 4 lyfe.

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And I’m sure there’s more stuff coming, too. I always get blindsided by some cool indie thing that comes out of nowhere, so don’t take this as the law of everything cool coming out for the rest of the year. And, yeah, there are other games I plan on playing, like Infinite Warfare (yes, space shooty will probably be fun), but those just didn’t feel special enough to make the “excited about” list. 2017 is already looking ridiculous with all of the currently announced games, consoles, delays, etc, but there’s still plenty to occupy our time until then.

Here’s to a good rest of the year. And please let most of these actually come out in 2016. Please.

June 29, 2016
Games of the Month – May 2016

Before I went to look at the list of games I had played in May, I had assumed it was a huge list. It was not. I’ve been playing a ton of games lately (or so it feels like) but I think I’ve just been getting a lot deeper into a handful than I usually do. And I’ve been playing Mother 3 and the original Doom a lot, and I guess it wouldn’t be fair to count those.

1. Overwatch

Even as I’m typing this, I’m not sure if Doom belongs in this spot. But I haven’t been looking at fan art, memes, and lore videos about Doom 2016, so maybe Overwatch speaks for itself. Like last year’s Splatoon, Overwatch is a fast-paced, colorful multiplayer game oozing with personality. Also like Splatoon, I don’t know how much I’ll be playing after the launch-window hype has died down. I still enjoy hopping back in with my squid buddies every once in a while, but those first few weeks made such a good first impression that it was still one of my favorite games of the year even after I put it down during its second or third month. Overwatch feels like it could live in a similar place in my gaming library. But with Blizzard’s promise of keeping the game fresh with (free!!) new characters and maps, hopefully this one will stay fresh in my mind even through year’s end. I’m gonna hurry up and finish this post so I can read more character bios on the game’s site. And maybe play a few matches. And go look at more fan-art. And…

2. Doom

I’ve never been a Doom guy. I didn’t grow up with any access to it, and by the time I started messing around with emulators, I always ended up trying the shitty GBA ports and not understanding why anybody thought that highly of the series. Then Doom 2016 came out. I’ve been blasting and shooting my way through the entire series this month, and I have a newfound respect for each game in the series. I’ll admit that I’ve played more Doom 1 than Doom 2016 since the newest one’s release, but I still enjoy both immensely more than I thought I ever would. What I had always thought of as a dumb bloody mess of bullets is so much more. It’s still that, sure, but there’s a level of thought and decision making that goes into each new area. Each game is about managing guns, ammo, upgrades, placement and more to minimize your chances of being turned into space dust. I see a lot of Doom in my future this year, and I’m happy that such an amazing sequel could be made this far into the series’ life cycle. Oh, and the explosive charge on the shotgun is clearly the only choice. Just sayin’.

3. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

Another Uncharted game, and maaaaybe my favorite in the series? I’ve never been a super huge fan of Naughty Dog’s work outside of The Last of Us, but I still respect a lot of what the Uncharted games have accomplished over the years. They’ve done a lot with just a few pulpy adventure stories, but the actual play itself hasn’t ever grabbed me. This was the first that I actually enjoyed playing a lot of. The shooting still isn’t exactly top notch, but it’s serviceable, and the climbing and swinging around while people chit chat is better than ever. TLDR: Uncharted is good. It’s never been great. This is another good one.

Honorable Mentions:

Cooldog Teaches Typing: Another good and funny typing game in a surprisingly consistent genre. Is…is every typing game just automatically good?

-I wish i had played more this month, but the big things took up so much time. I’m sure I missed some indies, and that sucks. I’ve looked around like always, though, and I can’t find any giant standouts. I’ll keep looking for things I may have missed. Here’s to June!-

June 13, 2016
The Witness – Drawing Conclusions

2016 has been rad so far, right? With Pony Island, Oxenfree, and now, serious Wow This Is Already Game of the Year Material, The Witness, we’ve been doing pretty well for ourselves.

I’ve had the game for less than a week, but I’m pretty comfortable in calling The Witness a puzzle classic along the lines of Braid, Fez, Antichamber, and Portal. It’s really that great, and I’ve barely seen a quarter of it. Though it feels similar to those games, The Witness never seems like it’s aping any one of them, and surprisingly feels like the Brand New Thing I always hoped it could be. The puzzles expand in ways that are at once brilliant and natural, and I kind of wish I was just playing more of it right now to see what they could possibly surprise me with next. (more…)

January 28, 2016
Game of the Year 2014: #6 – The Evil Within

You like Resident Evil 4, right?

The Evil Within is the first game since Shinji Mikami’s classic that feels like it actually tries to improve upon Resident Evil 4, the greatest shooter and survival horror game ever made. Though Mikami’s new attempt at recreating that magic in The Evil Within is far, far from perfect, it’s the closest we’ve seen since.

Take almost everything you liked about Resident Evil 4, make it slightly worse, and you’ll have The Evil Within. That sounds like an incredibly backhanded compliment, but, as I’ve said before, a decent Resident Evil 4 is better than most games out there. The weird horror elements are there, along with Mikami’s excellent encounter design. Many fights feel like puzzles, with your increasingly large arsenal giving you new tools to dispose of enemies in clever ways.

The story beats fall mostly flat, and there are few great character moments to speak of. The game goes on a bit too long in and in too many directions, and some of the bosses are more irritating than scary. But the core Resident Evil experience is there, and it’s one I’ve been missing since the early 2000s.

Environments are hugely varied by the end of the game, as are the bosses and enemies. The upgrade system is satisfying, and choosing what to upgrade and when is a fun system to play around in. There just so much in the game, you’re bound to find something to impress you, even if the whole thing doesn’t gel. The Evil Within is built on unforgettable moments, stability be damned.

As much as I love The Evil Within for what it revitalizes, there’s a much better game hidden somewhere deeper inside it. I just hope Mikami gets another chance to bring it out.

January 9, 2015
Game of the Year 2014: #10 – P.T.

Are you ready for a list of arbitrarily ranked games to mark the end of another year? I know I am!

As always, I’ll begin this with the disclaimer that I think ranking things numerically is a stupid, stupid thing to do. Lists always force people to make arbitrary decisions that they’ll regret when they change they’re mind a week later, and the people reading them put way too much stock into what the list “represents.”

I also think that lists are super fun to make, and one of the easiest ways to express intangible feelings and give readers a quick way to see your opinions. Lists, like review scores, may be problematic, but I still think they’re a lot of fun. They’re dumb, but I also spend a dumb amount of time thinking about and shaping them into something I’m happy with using to represent an entire year’s worth of entertainment.

Let’s get listy! (more…)

December 22, 2014