PixlBit

The update containing the new event, Maliwan Takedown, was supposed to drop at 8pm, but I never saw it. My friend Mark got the update at almost 9pm, which is when we both stop playing. So I didn't get to play it. Instead I tried out a bunch of new Game Pass and Games with Gold games. Here's a quick breakdown. 

Tracks:The Train Set Game is a train building game. You build with those wood sets you find for little kids. In this case, though, the trains move under their own power, as if electrified. The controls are good and you can build a lot of stuff. I played the short tutorial and built a simple track in a premade Christmas living room setting. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of making up my own tracks. I was hoping there was a campaign of sorts that would lead you through the building of a really cool set. No dice, so I moved on. 

Final Station is a 2D adventure game and train sim. It's very good. You are a train driver in a distopian society afflicted with a periodic plague, or alien invation, or zombie attack. It wasn't clear for the time I played. You have to maintain the functions of the train and take care of passengers while it's moving. When you stop, you leave the train to get a code to travel to the next stop (the train stopping is also the checkpoint save marker). To get the code you talk to people and search the towns for supplies and investigate to figure out what's going on. I got several stops into the game before I started getting attacked by these infected humans, or aliens, or zombies, or whatever they are. They behaive like zombies covered in a black goo like Venom. Well, you get some bullets (not many) and have to survive long enough to get back to the train. You also save people and put them on the train.

I eventually stopped because I was getting overwelmed by enemies. You get very little ammo. You can throw items in the environment but it's still not enough. I couldn't figure out a solution in this one town. Too bad it gets so hard, I really love the story, visual style and gameplay - just give me some weapons already. 

Munchkin: Quacked Quest is a kind of Gauntlet style game for four people. I played solo with three A.I.. You're given fixed screen environments with various objectives like capture the duck or get the most kills, or knock the most enemies in pits. After a while you get a boss fight. You level up and gain cards that give you special abilites. I liked it but solo it wasn't fun for very long. This is best with a group of live players. I was going to see about getting online players, but I found the gameplay a little too limited. I like to explore and fixed screens don't give you that much. Actually, I think the screens were slightly larger than was was viewable, but not much. Anyway, I moved on. 

The Talos Principle was made by Croteam with an upgraded Serious Sam engine. This only made me wonder why this isn't a Serious Sam game instead of an environmental puzzle game. I got stuck on getting past this turret. In my annoyed frame of mind, wanting a new Serious Sam game, I couldn't persist long enough to figure it out. I just kept thinking, I could be racing around as Serious Sam fending off hoards of baddies. I hope Croteam is making that kind of game next. 

Lego Ninjago The Movie Video Game is just what you'd expect, a lego game in the Ninjago universe. I really liked it, but I was kind of bored because it isn't that challenging. I mean, its for kids of course. Sometimes I'm fine with that, but I was thinking of the Borderlands Maliwan Takedown and how it's supposed to be hard, designed for four players. I really wanted to play that. 

Well, next week I'll certainly be playing Maliwan Takedown, right up 'til Thanksgiving. Happy holidays.