November 2014 Recap

On 12/07/2014 at 12:11 PM by daftman

Hey, everybody. I know I've been pretty much MIA except for the odd comment. November was a busy month and December is even crazier. I just finished a 60-hour week at work and have two more of those to look forward to. That's why we're nearly done with the first week of December and I'm just now posting the November recap. Let's get to it!

Games Beaten

-Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Wii—Game Boy)

Even though DL2 carries over the copy ability from Kirby's Adventure, it is definitely the sequel of the original Dream Land. The adventure is much longer this time, spread across seven islands. And there is a rainbow piece to find on each island, too, if you want to get the real ending. Kirby has help this time from his animal buddies Rick, Coo, and Kine. They add a nice bit of variety to the gameplay, and the graphics and music are excellent for the Game Boy. It's another great adventure. Dream Land 2 is an old favorite from back in the day. I bought it when it first came out in 1995, so it was a pleasure to finally revisit it again.

-Costume Quest (Mac)

Costume Quest is basically the perfect holiday game. For Halloween, at least. The graphics are full of charm and personality and the music fits the game well, though it isn't memorable on its own. The story and funny dialogue are great. That's easily the standout part of the game. The battle system is a little rudimentary but the costumes add some needed variety. And with a playtime of about 6 hours, it could easily be a yearly Halloween tradition. Next year, though, I hope to play its sequel.

Games Bought

This list isn't as long as I expected it would be but I still got quite a few games in November. Things started with a sale at Best Buy. If you bought two Nintendo-published 3DS games, the second one was half off (well, the cheaper one). We picked up Fantasy Life and Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. We also found some good Xbox 360 games at Goodwill for the first time ever: Sleeping Dogs, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Battlefield 4. They also had original LEGO [insert popular license] game, LEGO Star Wars (GameCube), which I've never played. Target then had a sale on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Mac) for $10 and I couldn't resist that. Heart of the Swarm was $10 as well but they didn't have any copies left. That's fine since I still need to finish the original anyway. My wife bought Dragon Age: Inquisition (360), which she's been waiting for for years. Meanwhile, I finally got a copy of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (3DS) and on Black Friday I bought Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor for the PS4 because hopefully we'll be getting one soon and I doubt I'll find a new copy for less than $25 in the next couple years.

It's a dream come true!

Then there are the PS+ games, of course. Top of the list for me is SteamWorld Dig (PS4/Vita). I bought a Humble Bundle a couple months ago for this game but I'd much rather play it on the Vita, so it was a nice surprise. Frozen Synapse Prime (PS3) looks interesting to me—some kind of sci-fi simultaneous turn-based strategy game—as well as Luftrausers (PS3/Vita). I'm not so sure about the others: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (PS34/Vita), Escape Plan (PS4/Vita), and The Hungry Hoard (Vita).

Now Playing

-Mass Effect 3 (360)

Finally had some more time play this. I love it but fitting it into the schedule can be difficult. At this point I'm just hoping to finish it before the end of the year.

-Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

Just farming for marterials to upgrade my equipment. I finally got my ice sword upgraded, so I have nice fire, ice, and raw damage weapons. Working on a better thunder sword but I don't have anything for water or dragon yet.

-Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (PSP) (PS+)

I'm not sure what to do about this one. I've tried the Tower mode and discovered that it's pretty brutal. I'd have to put in a lot of time to learn these characters well enough to finish it and I just don't want to do that. It's not how I play fighting games (except Smash Bros.). Plus the PSP d-pad is not conducive to pulling off combos. I might just mark that I'm finished with it and move on (this is just a question of what to do with it on backloggery).

-LEGO Marvel Superheroes (Wii U)

We started this a couple weeks ago and have played it sporadically but I kept forgetting about it. It's a pretty typical LEGO game. Lots of shallow fun to be had!

Super Step Contributing Writer

12/07/2014 at 01:30 PM

Good luck over the holidays.

daftman

12/08/2014 at 09:24 PM

Thanks! Seems like I'll need it O_O

jgusw

12/07/2014 at 02:32 PM

I've been playing Dragon Quest IV (DS) and Dragon Age 3 (360) when I can. My wife is playing through DA3 also. She's really enjoying it, but has run into issues with loading save files and connecting to Bioware/EA's servers. It's becoming a headache.

12/08/2014 at 09:28 PM

Man, I wish I had DQIV. It's super expensive now though Dragon Age: Inquisition, from a technical standpoint, seems pretty janky on the 360. My wife is talking about buying it again when we get a PS4.

12/09/2014 at 04:59 AM

Dragon Age has it's problems all over. When I researched the problems my wife & I were having on the 360, the PC, XBO, and PS4 kept popping up mostly. No matter what console you get, you're going to have technical problems with the game until they patch it. At least on the new systems, the problems are more likely to get patched. I wouldn't be surprised if Bioware/EA abandon fixing a few issues on the 360 and PS3.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

12/07/2014 at 03:21 PM

does your wife like DA so far? I like it.

Nice to hear from you! Hope things settle down soon!

12/08/2014 at 09:32 PM

Yeah, she likes it a lot. It's awfully buggy on the 360 though.

I'm looking forward to Christmas, New Years, and having days off again

Cary Woodham

12/07/2014 at 05:39 PM

Hooray for Kirby's Dream Land 2! I wish they'd bring back the animal friends. Have you played 3?

Dream Team was good but a little too long and meandering. Most RPGs today are like that.

12/08/2014 at 09:37 PM

Yeah, I played Dream Land 3 back in the day, though it might have just been a rental. They had animal friends in that one too, as I recall, but they haven't been seen since. There also hasn't been a proper Dream Land sequel since then either. Nightmare in Dream Land for GBA was a remake of the original game and Return to Dream Land was called Kirby's Adventure Wii in Japan. I hope we get some sort of Dream Land 4 eventually, complete with animal buddies.

12/09/2014 at 07:31 AM

I could get really nitpicky and say that some games like Kirby 64 and Kirby Triple Deluxe have the animal friends as cameos. Sometimes in those games when Kirby turns into a rock, it's in the shape of one of his animal friends. And of course, they're also in Kirby Star Stacker.

Ranger1

12/08/2014 at 07:53 AM

Did you play the Christmas levels of Costume Quest (Gubbins on Ice)?

I got sleeping Dogs free through Games With Gold but didn't play it until recently. I had a blast with it.

12/08/2014 at 09:40 PM

No, but I do have the expansion. Didn't know it was Christmas-themed. I wonder if I could fit it in this month.... Only if I finish Mass Effect 3!

My wife has already played Sleeping Dogs and I have it on the PS3 thanks to the free PS+ games, but for $2.50 we just couldn't turn down owning a physical copy on the 360

KnightDriver

12/08/2014 at 04:36 PM

I love the Mario & Luigi games. I played Dream Team but didn't finish it because I got stuck on one of those big battles where you have to turn the screen sideways. It's a great idea but I couldn't get the timing down. I'll go back to it sometime and try and finish it.

12/08/2014 at 09:41 PM

I love this series too. I've wanted Dream Team since it came out but things just hadn't worked out yet to get it. Gonna wait till after the New Year to start it though. Got enough going on right now lol

GeminiMan78

12/08/2014 at 08:35 PM

Man, with a 60 hour work week how do you find time to play anything? Or the energy to? Much less 4 games at the same time. You are hard core my friend.lol

12/08/2014 at 09:55 PM

There have been a couple nights where I just came home, helped with dinner and the kids, and went to bed. I use the phrase "Now Playing" pretty loosely though. There is one night a week when I play Monster Hunter online with some friends. I don't often get much of that in by myself. I'm basically done with Darkstalkers, like I said. And it's taken me a couple months just to play through the arcade mode with all the characters. Mass Effect 3, man, I wish I could play that all the time but it's hard to fit it in. And I gotta share the 360 with wife for Dragon Age (she's playing it tonight lol). Finally, LEGO Marvel is sporadic too. We haven't played it since DA came out. Hmm...

All that to say that it sounds like more than it is lol. But hey, I'm still hardcore

NSonic79

12/12/2014 at 02:53 PM

Sleeping Dogs at Goodwill?!?! I've been meaning to get taht game so I can remove the digital version I got for free from MS's GwG so I can free up my 360's HD space!

I finally got around to buying Mass Effect 2, I just need to force myself to play the first one. Not looking forward to it but it's suppose to be fun right?

12/16/2014 at 11:22 PM

It's the first time I've ever seen 360 games at Goodwill that were any good lol. And you should definitely try out Mass Effect. The story is really great, especially in that first game.

PixlBit

November 2014 Recap

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