October 2016 Recap

On 11/03/2016 at 10:14 PM by daftman

Games Beaten

-Mega Man Legends (PS1)

Mega Man Legends is old but only the controls feel antiquated. It came out before analogue controls were standard and so it's a little clunky, but the team did a great job with what they had. There is even an enemy lock-on...before Ocarina of Time! Clunkier than OoT but still, props. The graphics look so good for a PS1 game and the characters are really charming. There is lots to do outside the main quest and some story-related action missions help break things up. It's a really good game! I want more :P

-Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (Vita)

VLR is very similar to 999 but with MORE. The story is bigger this time but still does not feel bloated. Everything is important. The characters are all well developed again but the story—again—is the main star. It is sprawling and heady and awesome! I spent 47+ hours on it. The graphics move to 3D but if anything it helps with immersion. The music and sound effects do a good job setting the mood and voice acting is by and large quite good. The puzzles help break up all the exposition.

-Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PS4)

Deus Ex is back and it's great! All the technical stuff is really good (graphics, music, voice acting, etc.). The hub area of Prague feels like there is a lot going on in it. The story has a great sense of mystery and conspiracy about it and offers some tough choices. You have gobs on choices on how to spec Adam and, consequently, there are multiple solutions to any problem. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Adam Jensen's shoes and am looking forward to the next installment.

-Until Dawn (PS4)

Your enjoyment of Until Dawn will depend mostly on how invested you get into the story and characters. The moment-to-moment gameplay is certainly full of tension for much of the game but it doesn't carry the experience. Good graphics, excellent character performances, a moody score, collectables that fill in story details, meaningful choices that affect the narrative—Until Dawn is a game I had a hard time putting down. I hope more narrative games follow in its footsteps.

Games Bought

For the first time in quite a while, a month came and went without any game purchases. Woot! But we still had PS+ games, the best of which was the remake of the Resident Evil (PS4). Somehow I've managed to never play the original RE, so this is a great chance to do it. Transformers: Desvastation (PS4) is also supposedly quite good. But the others...who knows? Actual Sunlight and Code: Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ are for the Vita and From Dust and Mad Riders are PS3.

Now Playing

-Sonic: Lost World (Wii U)

I'm more than half way through this, I think, and have enjoyed it mostly. It does a good job of switching things up pretty regularly so that you don't get bored.

-The Walking Dead: Season One (Vita)

After a year off I finally started the second episode, though I haven't finished it yet.

-Destiny: Rise of Iron (PS4)

Finally ready to try the raid but getting a group together can be pretty challenging.

-God Eater 2: Rage Burst (PS4)

Slowly making my way through the story.

Cary Woodham

11/03/2016 at 11:29 PM

The Mega Man Legends games may not have aged as well, but you could tell that the team who made them put so much heart into the games. Something you don't see as much anymore.

daftman

11/05/2016 at 12:50 AM

Like I said in my little blurb, I thought that only the controls had aged poorly and the rest held up quite well. Perhaps my expectations were just set very low since it is such an old game but I was pleasantly surprised.

FAF101

11/04/2016 at 06:59 AM

I really liked Until Dawn myself too. I need to pick it up again to get the achievement to have everyone survive. Which also it surprised me at how hard it was to kill everyone off to get that achievement. Another fun way how I played it the first time because a friend of mine wanted to as well was we swapped turns and each did a chapter and turned out to be fun to play that way too.

How is God Eater 2? I was contemplating getting that game but I wasn't sure how it was.

11/05/2016 at 12:54 AM

I'm planning on going for all the trophies on Until Dawn but I haven't started on that yet. I'm kind of surprised I didn't lose more people in my initial run lol.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but I only find games like God Eater 2 fun when I have people to play it with. It's like Monster Hunter. Lots of fighting the same big monsters over and over. GE2 does have a lot of story scenes between missions, so that helps keep things interesting, especially if you like the anime vibe it's got going.

Jamie Alston Staff Writer

11/04/2016 at 02:43 PM

I played through Mega Man Legends a couple of months ago. It had been years since I last played it prior to then-- I'm talking around 1999 or so. But this was the first I beat the game without using any cheats. I had no choice, since I'm playing a digital copy from the PS Store.

I just started over a couple of weeks ago. I want to gather the correct items to get the ultimate special weapon. Some sort of laser. I vaugely remember it from back in the day, but I had used the Game Shark cheats to acquire everything, so I didn't really earn it.

11/05/2016 at 12:56 AM

I finished it without any sort of giant laser, though the last boss was pretty tough. I'm surprised by how much extra stuff there is to do. When talking to all the NPCs at the end I realized how many side quests I'd missed

Alex-C25

11/05/2016 at 03:22 PM

Looking forward to the first two Zero Escape series games coming to Steam as they've confirmed about three months ago.

I have Sonic: Lost World, but I wanna beat Sonic Colors before tackling that one.

11/05/2016 at 11:58 PM

Those first two Zero Escape games are so good. I still need to pick up the third one but I'm really looking forward to playing it.

Sonic: Lost World is pretty good so far. Feels like it's trying to take some cues from Mario Galaxy but never gets close to that game's quality. Sonic Colors is probably the better game of these two, I think, because it integrates the Color powers so well. Lost World is fun, though, and I'm enjoying it.

PixlBit