Record of Gameplay - February 15, 2018

On 02/15/2018 at 10:23 PM by KnightDriver

On this day, I played three different games on Xbox One and PS4. They were: Minecraft [XBO], Gears of War 4 [XBO] and Pinball FX3 [PS4]. They were all very enjoyable. Details are given below.

Minecraft Xbox One Edition: Mark was playing it so I joined too, wanting to play some co-op. We didn't cooperate at all though. We just did our own thing in the same world. I had some lag issues, but when I stopped my Gears 4 install, they went away. I should've thought of that long ago. I aways thought the lag was from Microsoft's servers.

I played until I mistakenly broke a block directly below my feet and fell in lava. I made only one extra strike with my pickaxe by accident, but it was enough. Usually I need at least two swipes to break cobblestone, so I'm very suspicious. Cheap death? I'll never know.

Gears of War 4: I played through most of the game. It's very much like all the other Gears games. Nothing particularly new other than the super strong storms of wind and lightning. It hasn't really impacted the gameplay all that much. The only time I really noticed it was when I threw a grenade and it got moved off target by the wind.

There's something funny about the gameplay though. It's seemingly exactly the same as other Gears games but I swear I'm a tiny bit slower when meleeing and dodging. There seems to be a tiny delay. I never noticed such things in previous Gears games. It came up because I love the Retro Lancer's bayonette to spear enemies. You have to get a running start though, and if I miss, I'm in the midst of the enemy. Then I try and melee and dodge my way out of it. I got knocked down a lot but the Ai teammates are really good at saving you.

Which brings me to my feeling that the game is a bit easier than previous Gears games. I'm on Normal difficulty, which in previous games gives me some challenge, but here I'm breezing through it. I've yet to come across anything to really get me to work.

Finally, I really dislike the voice work. I mean, technically it's fine, but the writing is so darn predicable. I also can't stand it anymore when characters announce what your seeing on screen. "Look out for that!" or "We got to get to the checkpoint!" That kind of thing. Really? I can see the lightning. I don't need anyone to say, "Watch out for the lightning." I hear this in movies too and it's really beginning to get on my nerves. I almost wanted to turn off the voice track all together.

But I'm still enjoying it. I just hope I can get Mark a copy so we can play Hoard mode sometime later.

Pinball FX3: I just played a single round and beat my own high score on one mode. I noticed Rangergirl beat my score on Classic Play. She doubled her score there, making me realize I have my work cut out for me.

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/16/2018 at 12:35 PM

Honestly, those voice tracks annoy me the most when I DON'T see whatever they're looking at.

"Oh man, look at that!" What? Look at what? What the hell are you talking about while I'm trying to land this jump?

KnightDriver

02/16/2018 at 12:45 PM

Yea, and I'm constantly searching for collectibles and they keep saying, "Hurry up!" "What are you doing?" and stuff like that. The game devs put collectibles in there and then they try and rush you along. What kind of torture game is this?

02/16/2018 at 01:09 PM

You just reminded me of the Sonic Adventure games levels where the crystal starts beepin when you're supposedly near it, but you don't know how high or low it is and what kind of terrain you need to get through, so it becomes trial and error where the indicator says the thing is right in front of you, yet no matter where you dig ... I'm shivering. May have also just vomited in my mouth a little bit.

02/16/2018 at 01:18 PM

I had that with Crackdown. You'd hear the orb pulse but you could be next to a 30 story building. It could be on any floor above or below. So annoying. I didn't get all of them because of that. Even a strategy guide with pictures wasn't enough.

SanAndreas

02/16/2018 at 01:21 PM

I remember a point in the first Gears of War. There was a checkpoint right before a boss that was giving me major problems, and every time I got killed by the boss, I'd have to listen to the dialogue over and over again. I really got sick of it after the first two or three times.

02/16/2018 at 01:23 PM

So many games do that. It's so darn annoying. Another annoying thing is when you activate something that takes you to another place before you've fully investigated the place you're in. I did that once in GoW4 because the "x" and spyglass symbol for moving on to the new level was exactly the same as the collectible symbol. So I missed an area that probably had another collectible. I am trying to get them all on the first play.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

02/17/2018 at 04:29 PM

My brother tried to get me into Gears of War back into the day. But he had already played the levels so I couldn't really enjoy it without him rushing along. It's okay, I'm not crazy about the franchise. Cool the whole cover mechanic came out of it though.

02/17/2018 at 06:52 PM

I usually hate cover shooters but Gears did it in a way that was fun. You could stick to cover really quickly, and leave it quickly. It didn't slow the pace of the game down much, unlike a lot of others.

PixlBit