PixlBit

I'll post New Year's Resolutions tomorrow maybe, but for now I'll just do a quick update blog about what I've been playing. 

First though, let me just say F&*^%$#!@ 2016. On paper, it was a good year for me, but my first year teaching was marred by major depressive disorder which really put a cloud over most of my year. The celebrity deaths didn't affect me personally even though I really liked a lot of the people we lost this year (well their work anyway), but they did add to my sense of death and doom that clouded my judgment as part of this medical disorder. What's going on in Aleppo, the election (I don't care whose side you were on, that was one of the more ugly elections this country has seen and we're really divided right now), and being in Dallas when five officers were shot during a peaceful protest also didn't help the whole "world ending" narrative my brain decided to take on this year.

Returning to a part-time job in the summer that was meant to boost my self-confidence and be somewhat of a vacation from my teaching job, only to find out everyone was leaving and those remaining were incredibly negative about it didn't help either. Oh and working 12 hour days back to back with maybe 3 hours sleep a few times because we were short-staffed and it actually became a full time job (sometimes with overtime) probably wasn't a good thing to do given how weird sleep patterns can excaerbate depression. On the plus side, it meant more money, while on the downside it meant less time to plan for a more successful semester teaching. I also think that lack of sleep helped compromise my ability to memorize and focus a bit. Blech.

My income is higher than it's ever been though, and therapy and medication have me feeling MUCH better, so let's celebrate that part of 2016 by reviewing some compulsive PlayStation Store sale spending! And let's hope the abrupt tonal shift in this blog will be the same as the one between now and next year!

Resident EVII: biohazard Beginning Hour Demo: Ok, so this is a free demo, but let me just say I could not handle this in VR. I usually have no problem with horror movies or games. Mostly I'm not scared by them, I just think they're kind of dumb or silly. I can watch Exorcist in a room by myself and be fine or play a good amount of a survival horror game without being scared. 

But as with Eternal Darkness back in the day, something about actually controlling what you're doing (YouTube videos of REVII don't phase me) and the sound design really get to me. The first person perspective is I think the main difference that takes this game from "whatever" and plunges it deep into "nope" territory. It's not often I can actually hear my rapid heartbeat when playing a game, but they managed. 

I'm sure some will be able to get through the game just fine, but for me the first-person perspective immerses me in a way that makes me think if I do pick this up (never really played RE before, but really impressed; however, also not sure I can handle it given the reason I'm so impressed) it ain't gonna be in VR. 

I was able to go back a couple times to pick up more items, explore more places and try for the good ending, but I did stop midway through on some of those attempts because of the "nope" factor. 

Star Wars Battlefront has basically been the disappointment for me everyone warned me it was, even if it was only $10. I'm already feeling the lack of a campaign mode, and even from what little I have played it seems bare bones. Also, its graphics don't blow my mind like they did last year and playing through a Hoth training level made me realize that gameplay-wise this shit was better on N64. 

Ok, ok, so I have basically only played a couple online 40-on-40 matches (where I die quickly and my blaster is the beginner one) and training missions, but aside from the mission missions, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot more to this game. I'll give it a chance so I can get my money's worth (including playing online with friends here; I'm JimBeamHortonWho on PSn and despite what I said, I would like to play this with you) but I can't imagine how betreayed I would have felt picking thios up new. 

Need for Speed was also about $10 (maybe less?) and I'm addicted to this one. I almost couldn't buy it because of the online verification horsecrap that I ran into when buying an NFS title on Steam. But I've been itching for an arcade racer and it was on sale, and while we'll see if I regret ignoring the online nonsense (my roommate's Internet is the lowest you can get, so we'll see how frustrating connecting is when I leave my parents and the holidays officially end) so far I l love it. It's been only a few days and already I'm at level 25 (out of I believe 50) and have customized my Subaru quite a bit already. Looking to get a Ferrari with the six figures in cash I have saved up. 

This is ironically probably the game I'm most happy I purchased despite my near hard pass due to online verification. 

Mirror's Edge Catalyst seems pretty fun so far. It was maybe $12? Reviews seemed to complain mainly that it was too similar to previous games. I've heard that before with Arkham Origins, but enjoyed that game and I never played Mirror's Edge other than a demo, so what the hell? I am starting to see why maybe some people find the characters unlikeable, but maybe I don't have the full story yet. I think the cutscenes look pretty good to bott. 

I have yet to actually download Mad Max (another I think $12 one? I liked the rental I got last year) and Mortal Kombat XL, which was the only game I bought for as much as $20 (my total for these games came to slightly more than one physical game would cost) and I bought partly for myself and partly so that my horror-movie loving friend could play it when he comes over. I might not buy another 2D fighter for a while, since I also own BlazBlue and Guilty Gear already. Trying to resist buying Revelator. 

Oh and I got The Last Guardian for Christmas. I've played it in fits and starts, but holy crap it is gorgeous. Despite already running into a couple of problems where I get stuck on an obvious puzzle (Zelda has trained me to stay in a room when stuck, but some puzzles are solved by traversing elsewhere) I am loving this one. I think the updates may have fixed some of the issues people had with Trico, cause he seems pretty responsive so far. 

Those are the new games I bought or received this year. 

I am pissed at myself for not redeeming my PS+ titles between March and December, especially because 2K16 (I have yet to own a sports title), Journey (been meaning to play it for some time now), Resident Evil Remastered (there are a few week 4 Holiday Sale titles I'm considering like The Evil Within and Resident Evil 4 when I could have just had this free) and Transformers Devastation (currently about $15) were some freebies. I'm about ready to kick myself in the face over it. Again, I really wish PSN just assumed I wanted all my PS+ games and put them in my library every month. 

I've also been wanting to get Until Dawn, Ratchet and Clank, and Uncharted 4, though I may get The Nathan Drake Collection first since I have never played those games the whole way through. Then again, I want to save money for Horizon: Zero Dawn. Also, I need to stop spending money on games. Hmmm ...

I decided to delete Bloodborne and Withcer III to make room for my newly purchased games, since I wasn't getting far in either (I'll redownload them, don't worry), but I've been playing Shadow  of Mordor: GOTY a bit as well. It's really empty and looks kinda meh, but the Arkham-like combat and stealth are decently entertaining so far. What exactly is this nemesis system everyone keeps mentioning? Is it where you choose what captain to go after?

I also finally got around to playing through BlazBlue ChronoPhantasma Extend arcade mode. It took me a bit more time to learn since it's slow compared to Guilty Gear, and I'm not sure how to block upon getting up yet, but it has its own cool style apart from GG both in art style and gameplay, as well as some music cues being more classical than metal. I tried playing through story mode, but so far it is WAY too involved and has a lot of anime traits I don't like. I know I watched all of GG Xrd -SIGN- story mode, but while it was also overly convoluted and extremely anime, there was more to look at than 2D figures you'd see in a portable title. I'm looking forward to learning the different fighting styles in the character roster though. That's a lot of characters!

Glad to be back, Pixlbit! Have a great New Years!