So let me just start out with what I've been playing as of late. I got Just Cause 4 for the Xbox One X in December and I was so excited for it! Absolutely loved Just Cause 3 for the PS4, and now that I got a more powerful Xbox One X, I was expecting this game to look incredible. That was not the case. The game looked awful. So awful in fact, I thought there was something wrong with my Xbox One X, or my 4K TV. I tried messing with some settings but couldn't get anything to improve. The textures were just terrible. It looked no better than a first generation Xbox 360 game. I went online to do some research and it turns out, I wasn't the only one. People reported the game not looking that great on the PS4 as well, and even a few PC users complained about the graphics. Very disappointing.
Was the game fun, though? I mean... yeah. It was typical Rico Rodriguez going around blowing shit up, but the structure of the game changed. It became this boring rinse and repeat format of take over this base to expand your borders to get access to new missions. The side activities also became very monotonous having you do "stunts" in cars you don't care about and doing gliding challenges that were so simple and uninspired. In Just Cause 3, the gliding challenges were usually around 15 to 20 rings long and took you across scenic paths and the final one started you out on the game's highest peak were you finished several minutes later at the ocean. It was fantastic! The gliding challenges in Just Cause 4, however, were only three rings long and over in seconds. Even the hyped up weather effects didn't help much to make the game more fun. I was actually underwhelmed with the tornado. It looked so much better in the E3 videos... This was another case of a game getting downgraded. Square-Enix said they patched the graphics, but this was long after I already beat the game, so I've no desire to return to it.
December was also heavily occupied by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Let me just say that I was heavily disappointed by Super Smash Bros. U due to its lack of quality single-player content. I know that Smash is mainly a party fighter, but earlier Smash games had a lot of fun stuff to do by yourself. When Smash Ultimate was announced, I was so concerned that it wasn't going to have much in the way of single-player content. I didn't care that it had a complete roster of every fighter from the previous games or any of the new fighters. I didn't care that it had almost all the stages and music as well. I didn't care about the online modes. All I cared about was just one offline single-player mode that was worth my time and money and Nintendo delivered it in the form of World of Light.
World of Light was actually pretty lengthy. It started out by only giving me access to Kirby and I had to work through the game's overworld map in order to unlock the other characters, and I made it a point to only unlock the characters through this mode. So while everyone was exploiting the system by restarting their Switches and battling the new characters and having everyone unlocked in an hour, I was working hard to get everyone unlocked via World of Light. I'm glad I did it because it felt so much more rewarding that way. The only problem was that some fights were excruciatingly difficult. I didn't understand the spirit system at first, and I hit a roadblock pretty early on and almost gave up. But, once I got the hang of it, I started winning. Every so often, I'd hit another ridiculous fight and kept trying until I got lucky and my opponent suicided themselves. Once I got to the halfway mark, though, it got far more frustrating than fun, so I actually did something I haven't done in years: I turned the difficulty down. Even then, I came across some really hard fights. Once I got all the characters and World of Light finished, though, I felt I had enough, so I didn't really bother playing online until a friend of mine got it. We played online a lot... until he decided he wanted to give up video games for lent, so yeah...
Also in December was the PlayStation Classic. What a freaking letdown. I mean, I knew what I was getting into, but still. What a letdown. I was actually thinking of canceling my preorder, but I decided to keep it because we were having a retro gaming day the week of its release, and I wanted it so I could bring it in along with the NES and SNES Classic. I played Battle Arena Toshinden and Tekken 3 with one of our teens and although Battle Arena Toshinden was basically unplayable, Tekken 3 wasn't that bad. When I played the Classic at home, I tried most of the games out and actually got addicted to Mr. Driller. I tried out Destruction Derby, which was one of the original PlayStation games I own, and it was pretty awful. It wasn't just the fact that it didn't age well, but it was also one of the nine games I think that was the PAL version, so it ran in 50mhz instead of 60. Oddworld was also another game that was terrible because of that, and it was also far worse to play because I just finished Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty on the Vita prior to getting the Classic. I also decided to try out Rainbow Six. Why that of all games was on the Classic, I have no idea. It was also completely unplayable. Some day, though, I'm going to get around to spending more time with RR4. That was one of the few gems on the Classic.
I started January with Assassin's Creed: Odyssey on the Xbox One X. Unlike Just Cause 4, AC:O was jaw dropping gorgeous. I mean, I'm sure it would have looked just as good on the PS4 Pro, but it was still quite the looker. I decided to play as Kassandra, because I usually lean towards playing female characters when given the option to. They're usually a bit more interesting. But man.. it started becoming a drag later on in the game. It's because of the way I play sandbox games. I have to try to explore as much as I can before I continue on with the main story, and well... that's how Ubisoft was trying to sell the game. You can explore anywhere! True, but you can't really do much without dying because you'll be in areas you're not supposed to be because of the leveling system. They also modified it from Origins by making the enemies level with you once you started getting to their level. This meant you couldn't just plow through lower leveled enemies anymore.
I liked the story, but I thought the whole "your choices will affect the story" thing was way overblown. I also thought it didn't make sense with the way the franchise's story has been told. Everything is through genetic memory, so to have an installment in the franchise that allows you to choose two different characters but having the same story, and also making choices that affect their story, goes against genetic memory. You can't have multiple gamers having different experiences in a game that's all about reliving something in the past. I want Ubisoft to return this franchise back to its action roots. All the RPG elements are just muddling the games for me.
I finally began Wolfenstein: The New Order on the PlayStation 4. I absolutely loved that game. It's been a while since I played an FPS and I loved the concept of an alternate timeline when the Nazis won World War II. After finishing it, I went straight into Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, but this time on the Switch, and the continued story drew even closer parallels to The Man in the High Castle, a show I was currently watching at the time. I decided to get this game on the Switch just because of the novelty of a current AAA game running on the Switch. I'll say this... yes, it runs but after playing the first game on the PS4, this is the last time I'm going to buy a AAA title on the Switch if it's available on the PS4 or Xbox. Sorry to say, the loss of visual fidelity isn't worth being able to play it on the go. I have other games I can play on the go if I want to. I've supported third party for Nintendo long enough, but thanks to the Switch being severely underpowered, that support stops now. Back to the game, though, I enjoyed the gameplay of the first better, but the story and presentation of the second game was crazier and far more entertaining.
Wolfenstein II carried me into February and I finished it just in time for Crackdown 3. I kept debating back and forth whether or not I wanted to keep my preorder of this game, because I knew it wasn't going to live up to the hype. As launch drew closer, previews came out saying that the multiplayer was extremely disappointing, but I didn't care about the multiplayer. I just wanted a solid campaign and it seemed that Crackdown 3 was at least going to show up for the party. So when I played Crackdown 3, I actually had a lot of fun with it. It felt more like the first Crackdown than Crackdown 2, which was a very good thing. Unfortunately, it became a victim of its own gameplay design. It would have been much better received had it actually launched in 2014, but open world games have evolved so quickly during that time that it was inescapable for Crackdown 3 to feel dated. Dated, yes. But I still had fun with it. I was dying to play an exclusive game for the Xbox because I haven't in years and even though I had fun with it, I regret spending full price for it. It would have been the perfect 20 dollar game.
I ended February by finally starting Shadow of the Tomb Raider for the PS4 Pro. When it launched last year, I was actually trying to decide if I wanted it for the Pro or the X, but when I read a graphics comparison and learned that the X version had screen tearing, that was a deal break for me. Xbox always had issues with screen tearing in their games and the fact that we're still seeing it on their new 500 dollar box is inexcusable. Anyway, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is my least favorite of the rebooted trilogy. Although I enjoyed the locals and the tombs more than the previous games, Shadow suffered greatly with pacing issues. It bogged down in many areas and also didn't have much in the way of combat. I guess they were trying to focus more on exploring and tomb raiding, which everyone always complained about in the first two games, yet they didn't find the balance between that and combat. I'm glad I played it, though, because the story was good and I got a couple of really good wallpapers from its picture mode, such as this one:
I finished Shadow in the first week of March and then finally began Knack II on the PS4 Pro. What should have only took a few days to finish ended up taking a couple of weeks, because I came down with one of the worst colds I've had in a while, the kind that I didn't even feel good enough to play video games. I slowly plodded through it, though. I actually enjoyed the first Knack. It wasn't the greatest game by a long shot, but it was a well put together game in its own right. I think it caught a lot of flack for basically being a game aimed at the younger crowd. Knack II actually got a weird following with people making memes calling Knack II Game of the Year 2017. No one was actually serious about that, but it was improved from the first game with bigger set pieces, but not really evolved in the gameplay department. Still, I'm happy I played it.
The last game I finished this month was Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. This was a game I was meaning to get on the PlayStation, but I waited for whatever reason. When it got announced for the Xbox One X as a physical copy, I knew I just had to jump on it. I was REALLY impressed with this game! Not only was it a gorgeous game, but it was also extremely well directed. I loved how they had a character dealing with psychosis and I loved the fact that it was dealing with Norse mythology. It felt like God of War's little sister. The game also had some clever puzzles as well. The game actually recommended you to play it with headphones on to experience the 3D audio because of all the different voices that spoke to her, but I'm always watching a TV show or movie while I play, so I opted not to use the headphones. But as I played the game, I wish I would have used them. There were parts that I knew would definitely make great use of them. If I can find some time, I'd love to play it again, this time with headphones. My only gripe with the game was the fact that the combat never evolved. It was just the same hack and slash moves on roughly four different enemy types. I did really love the way they handled the bosses. If you haven't played this game yet, make sure you do. It's worth it!
I'm trying to remember if I played anything else since my last blog entry, and I want to say I did. I finally got around to playing Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and I actually didn't buy that game until a few years after it was out. For me to wait so long to jump on a Zelda game seems like sacrilege (just wait until the next paragraph...) but the reason why I didn't get it right away was that I couldn't get behind the concept of the game. I know it was a new Zelda, but the world was almost completely recycled from A Link to the Past. I'm not a fan of games that reuse previous installment's assets, so I just didn't bother with it until I got in the mood to play a Zelda game, and that mood dissipated when I finally ordered the game. But well, I waited long enough and the itch to play it happeed and the fact that it reused the world from Link to the Past no longer bothered me. It did enough new things to make it feel like its own game and it managed to keep impressing me throughout. It also had some of the best dungeons I played in a top-down Zelda.
Now, are you ready for this? Guess what game I never played until I started it earlier this week? The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. ... Are you ok? ... Do you need a moment? ... Did you get all your screaming out of your system? ... Good. So anyway, yes, I never got around to playing Majora's Mask, which I still own on the N64. When Nintendo released it on the 3DS, I bought it but failed to land the collector's edition with the Skull Kid, which I really wish I tried to get. So, why haven't I played it before? To be honest, the game intimidated me. The time mechanic of having only three game days to get things done before everything got reset really bothered me. I hate being pressured when playing games. Time limits especially drive me crazy. It makes me anxious. But after finally talking to some people and learning that there were added features to the game to make tracking quests and whatnot easier, I decided I'm finally going to play it.
It didn't take long before I immediately went to GameFAQs and looked up a walkthrough. I don't like playing games with a walkthrough, especially on the first try, because I like to experience things by myself and solves puzzles on my own. But knowing that I was on a timer changed the way I felt about that. I have so many games that I still need to play that I don't have the time to keep repeating things on a game, so I started using a walkthrough right away. Then, I made the mistake of not using the walkthrough when I got to my first dungeon, because I really wanted to do it by myself, which I did, but then I found out I missed a fairy. I ended up spending roughly an hour looking for that one missing fairy. I hate wasting time in games. I really, really do. Anyway, aside from the time mechanic, I'm enjoying the game so far. I love the weirdness of this particular Zelda, clearly the strangest of all. Right now, I'm working my way towards the the second dungeon, which looks to be one that involves ice. I love ice dungeons so I'm really looking forward to it.
Well, I planned to talk about a topic in this blog entry after I brought you up to speed on what I was playing in the last few months, but this blog has really gone on. I'm going save talking about a topic for the next blog and give you guys something to look forward to. As always, thanks for reading!
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