Earthbound and Dune: Game of the Year 2015

Like my list last year this list is purely what I’ve played this year, i’ve not played every AAA title, some of which I think would have been close to making this list (Dying light) and others I played a bit of but I couldn’t get into (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). I’d have love to found a place on this list for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, just to justify the amount of hours i’ve sunk into it, but it also falls short because A. It came out a long time ago and B. I’m not sure its a game.  

Some fantastic games fell short of my list, reissues of Grim Fandango, Resident Evil, The Last of Us and the Unfinished Swan as well as Everyones Gone to the Rapture, Destiny (post patch), Yoshi’s Wooly World, 80 Days, Downwell, Gauntlet and Cities Skylines.

10 Her Story (Steam) Weirdly this was the most memorable thing I played for the weekend I played it, then instantly I forgot it. While I was getting through this mysterious game most of my time not playing it I was thinking of phrases and words to look up to help me unravel it, I’m not sure if the experience could be repeated or copied in other games but it was a remarkable and unique experience.

09 FAST Racing Neo (WiiU) With F Zero forgotten about for the time being this game snuck in and filled all my futuristic racing needs. Beneath the sparse menus lies a deep game with a variety of unique environments to race on. Adding a mechanic that involves changing the colour of your ship to boost at points makes some races feel like a rhythm game, the only downside is the cost of making a mistake can seem fairly harsh, but the speed of the game makes sure that the pack of other racers are always in reach. On top of all this it looks great, has robust online play and is relatively cheap too.    

08 Rocket League (PS4) Playstation Plus has become a great place to find gems like this. Simple in its concept, football with cars, but the delicacy of the controls and physics of the ball add much more depth. A great game online, although failed attempts at clearing the ball or stopping it on the line left me with nowhere to hide on a few occasions (luckily the community is forgiving). Not much more to add about this game, great fun and really addictive.

07 Journey (PS4) The HD reissues of this and The Unfinished Swan gave me a chance to experience two games I'd been interested in for the first time. Journeys relatively short and sombre story of a characters travels through a desert is fairly ambiguous but delves into some deeper concepts toward the end. Gameplay is fantastic, and it's a game which gives you new mechanics quickly then takes them away so nothing really gets repeated or feels overused and awesome moments like gliding down massive sandy dunes are more memorable because they feel unique. Bumping into other players made me feel connected whilst almost more alone on my journey, especially the harrowing moments when they exit your game. Loved it all the way to its emotional conclusion.

06 Splatoon (WiiU) In many ways the antithesis of an online shooter. Short easy to understand bursts of gameplay without voice chat and oozing Nintendo charm. Playing it never feels too overwhelming, and while other players are at a higher level than me (and better at the game) I always feel useful and that winning matches is within my grasp. Add to this the constantly expanding roster of levels and weapons, the surprisingly deep single player campaign and the robust online play (I've never been kicked out of a match or experienced any lag) and Nintendo have made one of the most inventive and addictive shooters i've played.

05 Bloodborne (PS4). I doubt I'll ever finish Bloodborne, and I didn't get much over halfway through the game. The time I spent with it though was unlike anything I'd played before, addictive while unsettling at the same time. Progress is painfully slow, but played at such a rhythm that I wanted to keep coming back, in fact if and when I return to it I'd be tempted to start again as the game relies so much on knowledge of the areas your in and enemy placement. The few bosses I beat took everything I'd learnt in the game to beat, and none of them felt easy while at the same time they all felt beatable, a hard thing to balance. On top of all this it's probably the best looking game of 2015 with some fantastic art direction.

04 Mario Maker (WiiU) As the WiiU began to seemingly wind down its output of games Nintendo shook things up with one of the best titles I can remember them releasing in years. A simple enough idea, give the player the tools to make a Mario game through 4 different styles, is made all the better by the ease of use and fantastic UI. Its only flaw, is a personal one. Beyond creating levels with a theme, my abilities, or patience are limited and I don't get to experience the full extent of the creative tools given to me, instead I play others levels in awe of whats made. On top off all this its got a great integration with Amiibo (and possibly the best) and continues to be supported with updates.

03 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (PS4) I had so much fun with this game, a large sandbox with dozens of bases to approach in countless ways, and it allowed a lot of leeway for my appalling stealth ability. The game gets a lot better story-wise in the second act, with the final revelation being fantastic (although predictable). I had a couple of issues with the game, it went beyond frustrating with a couple of missions (including the fantastic climax to Quiets story) and the character Quiet was way over sexualized, which is such a shame as she was a great character with an interesting story to tell, its hard to take any of that seriously when she's parading about almost naked for little reason. These issues were minors blips though in a great game. 

02 Undertale (Steam) Charming, witty and dark at the same time. Amongst a small group of games which have made me laugh aloud (intentionally) and I found it hard not to adore its twisted cast. Along with this it keeps messing with traditional turn based combat, turning most encounters into fun, skill based mini-games (think Warioware with a story). I thought it looked great, simple graphics but well done, especially at points when it played with weather and light. The ending I got was a brutal fight with a boss, but leading up to that there was a touching message from the game which made the 6 hours or so I spent with it worthwhile. Despite being wrapped in an RPG shell, probably the most accessible game on this list, and the one I'd recommend the most. 

01 Fallout 4 (PS4). Since Fallout 3 I've grown to love the world the games exist in. Whereas a lot of RPG worlds feel created or false, Fallouts world feels beaten up and lived in. Rifling through long dead peoples belongings can be tragic or funny while useful at the same time. The step up to the new generation of consoles has made the world seem less grey, small settlements are now filled with neon and storms of a bright green rage from time to time. It's still a buggy game in places, and some mechanics are either still a bit fiddly or are added and a whole new type of contrived (base building for example). Beyond that though its a fantastic experience, features added like a more streamlined weapon customisation, power armour which runs on fuel and the aforementioned base building fit into the game seamlessly and makes the hoarding through junk meaningful. Storylines unravel throughout the map as you wander about and can be funny, unsettling or sad. There was a weight to the choice of what faction I choose to join, or at least support, and instead of going with the most powerful group I actually toyed with the morality of my choice. Its a game I'll keep coming back to and is everything I'd have hoped for.

Earthbound and Dune 07.12.15

I adored Super Amazing Wagon Adventure (Xbox Live) it was silly but a load of fun. Currently its not available for mac (and I don’t see that changing soon) so i’m left with little choice but to go and play a game that heavily influenced it, and i’d never played before. Oregon Trail (DOS) on the surface its an educational game, so I felt that the only way forward with it was to name my party on this trail, Cock, Knob, Balls, Shaft and Bell. I set out with food, ox, bullets and spare parts (assuming we were already clothed) in the month of March, foolishly assuming that i’d make it to the warmer summer months. My next decision was to ration my party heavily, this wasn’t going to be a jolly. The going was easy for the first few days, and even got to a town where someone was willing to trade food for a wagon wheel, but supplies were in enough supply because of my heavily rationing that I declined. I got to a river, given the option I decided to float my wagon across, which at first seemed like the easiest option until…

just outside of my first main settlement Knob got ill. I wasn’t too concerned though, as I hoped to find supplies in the town, the very next day though (and 20 miles down the road)...

These were hard times, I decided that in the town i’d stock up on supplies, up the rations to cheer my crew up. Sadly the only thing people wanted to trade in this town were wagon parts for more wagon parts. I spent a load of cash on food anyway.

I was starting to regret crossing that river, my companions health was not getting better and we were a long way from any sign of civilisation. Things continued to get worse.

This was just a day later, we had a lot of food, so much that I was wondering if even at my more carefree rationing, we’d get much further. Bandits saw there opportunity at this point to steal all our bullets as we were sleeping. It all got too much for Shaft, who I don’t think ever got over Knobs death.

I consoled myself with the knowledge that Cock and Balls were okay, and measles didn’t seem as bad as the other illnesses being handed out on my wagon.

The weather wasn’t letting up and now Balls was on his way out. It was all getting too much.

The landmark that had been on my horizon for the past 250miles or so turned out to be just a tree stump. I hadn’t the heart to tell Bell and Balls that there wasn’t a doctor in sight, and food wasn’t the issue. At least it was warm, perhaps my plan of travelling into the summer months was paying off.

Turns out I knew very little about weather, or illnesses.

So that was it, I didn’t get very far or do very well. I didn’t have as much fun as I’d have had with Super Wagon Adventure, but its a more interesting game, especially in the context of when it was made and how many games its influenced, games which I love, like 80 Days and Fallout. It relied heavily on my imagination, and even being as basic as I was it made me smile for the hour or so I played it, and for something that I was having a go at just to play a bit of history thats great.

Earthbound and Dune 01.12.15

Not played much new stuff this week, may be because I'm now trying to assemble a top 10 of sorts for what i've played this year and don't want anything else sneaking on. Basically I've played a good few hours of Fallout 4 (PS4) I struggle with balancing this game between running through the main story (which seems quite direct) and then taking up other quests on the side. It could be because of the seeming urgency of my main objective, which admittedly is made a little less urgent by a early(ish) revelation. I got as far as taking out an early antagonist and the subsequent journey to the small town of Goodneighbor and had a feeling that I was rushing through the story too quickly. So I set about helping the Brotherhood of Steel with a few of they're tasks (generally fetching bits of technology for them) but after a few hours of this I started to get the feeling that I wasn't that keen on them as a bunch of people, and that perhaps I was aligning myself with the wrong group. The people of Goodneighbor seemed a lot more interesting, and they're was a couple of lines of dialogue in that town that suggested that if I continue to cosy up with the Brotherhood of Steel then I'd not be as welcome in the town. This balancing act is what stands this game apart for me, the weaponry and monetary rewards I'm getting from working with the kind've religious military side of the fallout world are great and it may just be the way I'm playing but the missions they send me on seem fairly easy in comparison to what i'm getting. My next steps in the game will be to try out missions for a few more factions though as the Brotherhood are quite an ernest crowd. It's great how the world gives you snippets of what went on before the bombs fell all the time too. I stumbled across a lavish bar in the top floor of a building, where all the guests where skeletons slumped in they're chairs, the left overs to collect were slim pickings, just bottles of poisoned wine. After rooting about for a bit I left with not much else but the question of where they killed or did they kill themselves or was it something else entirely. I might just be overthinking it all! 

Mechanically I've finally got to grips with the more convoluted levelling up system, where you assign points to perks rather than being given them at set points. Once I got my head round it its a much more easy path to follow. I put points into intelligence so I could get the gun nut perk, allowing me to customise my weapons (although so far weapons i'm finding in the wasteland seem more useful than anything I'm making). I then aimed for the auqaboy perk (which gives more resistance to radiation when swimming) which meant putting more into endurance. Seeing the steps you need to take to get certain things is more logical, it just meant I had to go high on luck early on to get the mysterious stranger perk. 

Thanksgiving came to Pipswich in Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) or at least the Animal Crossing version of it. This involved chasing down ingredients for a turkey with a cooking pot in the middle of my town, all simple stuff. Carp, mushrooms and an apple. Then the realisation that apples don't grow on the trees in my town, so spent time gathering ingredients for the other residents of my town, still easy things, a dace for Leonardo and a horse mackerel for Roscoe, but time consuming. They'd often then trade for things i've got an abundance of, cherries. Or things that were useless to me, vinegar. Everyone in the village had the same tip too, if you need honey then use a bees nest, punishing me for building an oil drilling operation in the centre of town. Finally Graham, the ever dependable nerd hamster, traded a tall mushroom for an apple, which I took to the turkey and he swapped me all my ingredients for a fruit basket. All l can say is that they all better put more effort in for christmas.

Earthbound and Dune 24.11.15

Fallout 4 (PS4) continues to take up most of my gaming hours, this week I made the long road to Diamond City even longer by clearing out a lot of the optional quests along the way. Taking out a lot of raiders in the wasteland and starting to accept that encumbrance in this game is a real pain in the ass. My loop at the moment is clear out an area of enemies, grab everything in the area from ammo to dog remains and typewriters then fast travel back to Sanctuary and put all my loot in storage. I have a fear that my companion (Dogmeat) will be caught in the crossfire of my very haphazard approach to combat - Throw a bunch of molotov cocktails at the enemy, hope a few hit the target and mop up the rest with a machine gun. The main thing i'm worried about is sharing my haul of junk with him. I'd hate to loose him and the junk i'm gathering, that might be too much to take. I've yet to master customizing or crafting weapons and doing things like assigning NPCs to harvesting crops or fixing my power amour is really fiddly. I'm happy to forgive all this, as for me it seems fitting for a world where surviving seems so difficult for simple tasks to be hard to complete. 

Story-wise I've just met a robot private eye who may offer some clues to my search. He's a fantastic character both to look at and talk to. After completing the first mission with him I took a wrong turn with a female character we'd kind of rescued, she continued to bad mouth my mechanical friend and I quite mercilessly gunned her down (and the rewards were just a sequin dress and a baseball bat). A continuing feeling with this game is that my actions (however stupid they are) are going to play a big part later on and I instantly regretted my choice. The story seems to be heading toward the choosing of factions from Fallout: New Vegas, I've made my first tentative steps with the Brotherhood of Steel and they're hatred toward "synths" seems like it may be a major part of the bigger narrative. 

I put my misgivings about the Battlefront (PS4) beta last month to one side and bought the full release. There was something in the hour or so I played of it that I enjoyed. So far I've had mixed feelings about the full game, it lacks the unbridled joy of Splatoon, and I found it very easy to find myself in a match where I was being killed so frequently it was just no fun at all. The supremacy mode (I think thats what its called) I find particularly infuriating as the conditions for victory are a bit confusing to amateurs like me, the fact the clock keeps resetting made games last maybe 30minutes or so (at least it felt like that) and thats hard to balance with my home life. The major problem I've got with the game though is that when everything falls into place, its really good fun. The moments when I've been flying a Tie Fighter over a packed battlefield in a dogfight narrowly avoiding missiles or sneaking through the forest picking off opponents on speeder bikes have felt really good. It looks and sounds amazing, especially the Hoth level, which is pretty much everything you'd want from a Star Wars game design wise. Personally I'd have loved some kind of campaign, I've done a couple of the training missions and they're fun, if they had been placed in the context of a narrative it would have been a bit more interesting. I'll carry on playing it when I can, but doubt i'll get to the higher levels as I'm just not really that good at these kinds of games. 

Finally I've been wasting a bit of time with Brian Lara Cricket (Megadrive) I'd never played this title until recently, always preferring Super International Cricket for my 16bit Cricket fix. I'm pleased to say it's a lot of fun, its got official license (should you want to play with international cricket teams from the mid 90s), 5 day series to contest and simple and easy to play mechanics. Wickets are easy to take (basically use any player with the ability to swing bowl and it confuses the AI) but this is balanced a bit by the fact its impossible for the computer to be run out. Batting is just as easy, aim where to put the ball and use A for a lofted shot (which the computer always seems to catch) or B to play a more cautious ground shot. Everything is as easy going as a cricket game should be, and while its still for a niche market I'd say its one of, if not the best cricket game i've played.  

Earthbound and Dune 17.11.15

Even if you forget the raiders, bloatflys, deathclaws, murderous robots and irradiated waters Fallout 4 (PS4) is still a frightening game. The scale of it alone in my first week with it has blow me away. After a brief introduction and character build, which included the devastating revelation they didn't record my name as one of the 1000+ names in the game, even though the main item in the game is a Pip-Boy! I was thrown into the wasteland once again. The impact of seeing an area pre and post nuclear destruction was a neat one, but didn't hit as hard as I would have like, what I did love however is that feeling of freedom the second I left vault 111. Despite the very urgent, mysterious objective given to me straight away I instantly started exploring the massive wasteland. Whats changed from Fallout 3 is that everything you collect can have a purpose, ashtrays, teddybears and typewriters were all but an encumbrance in previous games, and after a few hours I had to change my way of thinking a bit, now pretty much all objects are broken down into parts which can be used to customise weapons or build armour or storage (along with less useful items, like flags and paintings). When this realisation hit I spent countless hours retracing my early steps and collecting everything on my way, taking it back to my settlement. Thats the other big change so far, instead of being a lone(ish) wanderer like in the previous titles early on the concept of building up a space to live and get others to is hinted at, I say hinted as like a lot in this game I was given very little indication on what to do or why! The game then became a post nuclear Animal Crossing title, I made a basic dwelling for myself, complete with a sniper turret on the roof (and a rocking chair for comfort) and a two headed cows head was mounted above my bed. I must have done a good job because no sooner had I built my house, than one of the party of people you rescue early on was sleeping in my bed. Countless hours were now spent breaking down junk around my settlement and cleaning it up, bugs appeared in places, as I smashed up a toilet for the ceramics another character I'd rescued took issue with this and started shooting at me, instead of fight back I just darted off and soon all was forgotten. 

Once I was happy enough with my settlement I headed back into the wasteland to continue through set objectives, I met another small group of friendly survivors who set me the task of clearing an area out of wrongdoers, confused about where I had to go (the map and marker objectives seem more confusing than before) I found myself underpowered against a dude in power armour and his friends with lasers, this moment rekindled my love for this franchise, instead of running off I fudged my way through the area, using grenades and mines and anything else I'd gathered, with my health depleted and all my stimpacks used I finally got through it. The rewards were weapons and armour I felt I shouldn't have so early on in the game. I squirrelled a lot of my haul away back at my base and set back out on my mission. I was interrupted this time by two named characters holding up a diner, from what I could gather they wanted money the owners son owed them. I attempted to pass by and not get involved, but the two men took issue with me and raised they're guns at me (not knowing that I had a bunch of overpowered weapons ready to use) I killed them with ease and went into the diner to see if there was any rewards for the good deed I'd attempted to avoid. The reward was a few bottlecaps, certainly not as high as if I'd gone the other way with the situation, and assisted the men at there hold up. In the corner of the diner I noticed the owners son sitting apparently overdosing on some drug, the storytelling in Fallout games can sometimes be amazing with its ambiguity. After all these distractions I'm just finding myself getting to the objective I was set hours before, which is nothing to do with the greater story, this game is going to take a long time.

The game still has some issues with bugs and glitches, but nothing game breaking so far for me. I've been impressed with the look of it so far, not so much the characters but as ever the world feels like it was lived in and the draw distance is fantastic at times. The music is also as predictably good, it would be nice to have a few more songs though. Another improvement is the use of guns, aiming is easier and V.A.T's is less of a requirement than an assistance now (in fact it can be a nuisance at times, now time is slowed during it rather than stopped). The familiarity I had with this game instantly has been complimented by the new mechanics added and I'm having a great time with it.

Destiny (PS4) ended its story just as my copy of Fallout 4 arrived on Tuesday morning, the final mission was great, I loved the sequence with the Vex reanimating as you walked down the darkened corridors and the final boss(es) while not really explained were the right level of challenge. I then tackled a couple of Strikes, which were a lot more fun when I felt useful and not underpowered, in fact when I ran the strike in Russia I had an unusual feeling, that I was quite good at the game. The strikes have offered me something new to do post game, and i'm looking forward to attempting them all. 

Earthbound and Dune 10.11.15

First off I dug more into The Crew (PS4) this week, at the same time breaking my promise to to get further into the story, and I'm glad I did. Its all very generic find the bad guys responsible for killing your brother stuff and involves a lot of street racing type people stereotypes so far. Rattling through them at some pace, no sooner had I gained someone's respect by tormenting a female driver round the streets of Saint Louis was I being hounded out of town by the same person. Its managed to keep everything really fresh, and the RPG/Loot mechanics to the game and your car help to make the experience more personal, even though I seem to be getting getting tyres all the time. My car is certainly becoming much easier to handle as I go through the upgrade tree, the only disappointment being that I seem to be stuck with the same car now, I looked into buying a Mini in Vegas but that involved a real world money transaction which I'm keen to avoid. I did spend some time making my car a garish shade of green with a black octopus stencilled on the side so that was something. Early on (at least in the first four hours) it gave me a chance to try some off-road racing in the desert and that was great, there are bits of the game I've really enjoyed, it's certainly a great thing to do while listening to a podcast or music. The one massive frustration is one that any online required games going to have, when the servers are unavailable its obviously unplayable. So when I was thinking what a fantastic game it was, driving into the centre of New York for the first time (after an extended road trip) then the game booted me out saying the servers were down for planned maintenance for the day (or a big chunk of it, it was a bit harder to tell as all the times I was given were for US time zones) all the good feeling I had toward what I was doing disintegrated. Such a shame, I will return to it, but that feeling of not being able to play something I've paid money for and am enjoying never sits well with me.

So I jumped into another game which has done the same thing before Destiny (PS4) the first time I've played it since the massive updates, which have replaced a voice actor while taking up a lot more space on my hard drive. To put into context of how far (or not) I'd travelled in the game, I was on Venus at level 12. Now I don't know if this can be attributed to the improvements in the update, or just where I am in the game but from this point on I've adored my time with it. What's helped so far is I'm paying more attention to it for starters, realising basics like aim for the highest number possible on the clothing you select no matter how stupid it looks and get rid of all the low ranked weapons in my inventory. I got through the missions in no time, using a combination of a hand cannon (which made me feel like a space Dirty Harry) a sniper rifle and a machine gun. The online world created feels at its best when I spotted some conflict at the other side of the map and took a few well aimed shots to help out some stranger. It now pushes you in the right direction of what your doing with quest logs, so the downtime between the missions feels more direct, although I did have to google the location of places like the Hall of Guardians (my fault for not paying attention at the start I'm sure). The stuff on Venus was over pretty quickly and it lead to Mars, where the enemy design went from generic sci-fi shooter to cool and unique (for me) the meaty Cabal where intimidating as soon as I saw them (even forced me to replace my trusty hand cannon with a more powerful plasma rifle) and they're conflict with the Vex was interesting and spectacular in places. It's really odd for me to say that, as up to this point I was very much playing the game like The Crew, enjoying the exceptional gun mechanics and rushing through it, I'm now more immersed in what's going on, listening to the fragments of story I'm given and looking forward to where the game goes next. I'm near the end of the game in its original form, and I'd say that it does feel a bit short, but knowing that the three expansions can be bought with the game for a decent price helps bulk up things to do. Like I say, I don't know if the improvements of the update have made this a different game, but in a year of some really good games this version of Destiny i've been playing stands right up there with them, and I've loved returning to it.

Earthbound and Dune 03.11.15

After buying my third copy of Sega Soccer Slam I decided it was finally time to document my collection of games in the form of an excel document. I aided this with some cotton buds and alcohol to clean old cartridges and set out on a long journey through duplicate disks and tangles of wires. To save space I’ve condensed all my disk based games pre this generation to CD wallets which is a sad process, only made easier by the knowledge that they’re rendered almost unsellable after doing this, so BMXXX will always remain in my possession. While doing this I was struck by how short a lifespan a game will have, copies of NBA Live 2003 and Tour De France 2003 would have cost upward of £40 on of release and now can be found for under a pound in charity shops, its a weird balance looking at my collection, games that I bought on a whim because I wanted to see what they were about for a modest price like Gaelic Games Football 2 would have cost a much higher amount back when released and while I love that these oddities exist and in my possession its hard to make an argument for games like Americas 10 Most Wanted to be given a disk release in 2015. I listed my digital purchases as well, and theres an argument that this is a better place for the weirder titles to be released now, games like the aforementioned Sega Soccer Slam bears some similarity to the great Rocket League, my only concern as my digital library continues to expand is that it will all continue to be playable as the years go on. I know I can out my clunky first generation Playstation 2 knowing that its built like a tank and despite the amount of noise it makes usually a good clean of a disk will see all games work on it, due to licensing and other factors that safety net isn’t there with digital purchases and its something which will keep me buying disk based content where I can.

Cartridges take up even more space, but are much more rewarding to go through, I acquired a bunch of Gameboy games earlier in the month, including Pokemon Red, Silver and Gold and with a little bit of cleaning they are nice objects. Retro gaming being in fashion now means that I’ve not really picked up many cartridges in the past few years, I’ve got copies of Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Mario Allstars and Mario Kart 64 but the premium on older recognisable games is really high (especially if you put Mario in the title it seems) now with Virtual Console and ports coming to mobile devices and tablets its much more fun looking for the games which get less love, among my favourite cartridges I own are Dune 2, Body Harvest, MicroMachines, King Arthurs World, Super International Cricket and Rockmans Soccer, games which I imagine are less likely to be coming to a digital service any time soon (without emulating of course). The downside of having a bunch of Japanese titles I’ve found is that, especially in the SNES era, there is very little info on what the game is on the cartridge, so my list contains 5 records of Japanese RPG UNKNOWN, which will probably turn out to be fishing or horse racing simulators when I get round to firing them up. 

On a cleaning buzz I went through all my accessories and cables, a much less appealing task, the amount of untangling an untouched box of cables manages to do is amazing. 

I finished up by having a quick go on my new copy of Sega Soccer Slam (PS2) which looks a lot less colourful than the GameCube version, and the loading times a little longer (Nintendo where onto something with the small disk). Great game, and maybe worth owning three copies of!

Earthbound and Dune 27.10.15

I finally wrapped up on Bowsers Inside Story (DS), initially the game was meant to last a week at most, but somehow its taken me a summer to complete, weirdly the play counter is almost exactly 17 hours whereas its felt a lot longer. Thats not a slight on the game though, i've had a great time with it, the humour is where the game really shines and thats consistent from start to finish. Every team of Bowsers minions I rescued offered respite in the form of humour, and it plays with the conventions of a traditional Mario game in some fun ways, whether that being what you expect, Bowsers a thug but his hearts in the right place, or some unexpected twists (who knew Monty Moles where such dicks?), and with Broque Monsieur and the fat toad mistakenly diagnosed with the blorbs illness, two of my favourite Mario characters have been added into the Mushroom Kingdom. Another thing which is consistent throughout the game is the introduction of new mechanics, even entering the last section of the game it added something new and never resorted to the Zelda trope of throwing everything you've learnt into the last dungeon. Some elements worked better than others, avoiding bombs on conveyer belts and moving a platform through tight spaces with a stylus where frustrating tasks made more so by the controls not being tight enough. Special attacks like Luigi's Snack box (or whatever its called) and using an army of Kameks where inventive and satisfying to use. The world was small enough to traverse quickly, which is good because I was finding that I'd forget my task between playing the game and wander aimlessly between the two castles. I found the section with the laid back surfer squid thing in space and learning a new attack to be the only bit of unnecessary padding in the game, which is impressive for the time I spent with it. The use of three protagonists in the game, and separating them at various points made returning to areas two or three times bearable because I was always finding new paths to explore with the individual characters abilities. It also helped keep enemies fresh throughout, where there wasn't a massive variation of things to fight, fighting a walking tree as Bowser rather than Mario and Luigi was tactically different and helped keep the game from feeling repetitive. Adding a skill layer to traditional RPG turn based combat was a great design choice, for me it felt like the evolution of Earthbounds rhythm based attacks (I don't play a ton of RPGs so this may be in other games) and instead of combat feeling like the roll of a dice I was working out a course of action to fight most enemies, even the frustrating star things which cloned themselves where beatable when I thought it through.

I don't know if I'd rush to play another Mario RPG, as much as I've loved my time with this game it was an investment of time made much more pleasant by the unique story (for a Mario game) the fact they now seem to make these titles exclusively for the handheld Nintendo systems puts me off a little bit too certainly I hope they iron out issues with save points a bit in future titles, a few times I'd have to give up on sections of the game because I needed to jump off a train. It's still one of the most unique, funny and enjoyable things I've played this year. 

Just a quick disclaimer about all the nonsense I've written above about Blorbs, Monty Moles and Snack Boxes, if it doesn't make any sense I apologise.

I had to watch the credits in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) one final time, the mission I did after the final mission (which sees one of the lead characters exit the game) was by far the best storytelling I've watched in the game (and probably any game) wrapped up in one of the most irritating missions i've played (in any game) I'm so glad I've done it though, as a few times after being killed by one hit off a tank I considered not returning to this mission, it was well worth struggling through the mission and it's lack of checkpoints to see where it goes.

Finally I put Splatoon (WiiU) on for the first time in months to see what the countless patches and additions have added to an already great game. Pleasingly its still a load of fun, although I managed to enter on a rotation of two levels which where in the original release and I stuck with my weapon loadout which has served me pretty well, so I can't say much about whats been added really. The playerbase is still really high, I never struggled to get into a match and even though everyone is now at a level pushing 40 (compared to my 17) I still felt useful to my team and like I wasn't underpowered, I want to jump back into it a few more times to see some more of the new content, or at least some of it!

Earthbound and Dune 20.10.15

A rougelike shouldn't really work on a mobile phone, controls need to be precise and movement fluid. Somehow Downwell (iOS) manages to not only make this genre work on a touch screen device, but also creates something close to the best in the genre in my opinion. The way it does it is making it a more vertical experience, where you play a boy with gun boots (boots that shoot guns) as he descends down a well. As you're controlling a character in free fall it also strips out a lot of platforming, you can jump but its fairly limited by the fact the game plays with height a lot of the time. The jump button is shared with firing your gun boots, and ammunition is reloaded every time you touch down on solid ground, meaning a successful run in the game is carefully balanced by the amount of time falling down the well being broken up by interludes of landing. The selection of enemies you encounter range from floating blobs and worms which are easy enough to kill by landing on they're heads, bats who chase you about, tortoises which take a bit more firepower and balls of fire which cause you damage by landing on them. At no point so far has the amount of enemies been overwhelming, and my failure has always been self inflicted. Action is aided by a selection of weapons hidden in caves, normally coming with some health boost, a clever way of forcing me to try out a wider selection of weaponry, otherwise the stronger weapons like the laser would be a little overpowered, no gun i've found has been completely useless either.  The whole package is the perfect fit for the mobile market, whereas the likes of Rouge Legacy require far more precision and a bit more time to get deep into the game, this game seems to encourage dropping straight into it (literally) and playing a few quick games. The graphics look really nice for what they are, three colours and I assume help to make it run smoothly as well, not too much more to say about this great little game.

I played a bit of The Crew (PS4) as well, in scope its really ambitious, giving me an approximation of the United States to freely drive around, and thats what I did straight after I started to get entwined into a story involving Detroit, my brother being killed and gangs, I took to the open roads, attempting a drive down to Miami then getting sidetracked and heading through the Badlands toward Vegas. Luckily the pleasant lady who's waiting with my next objective at my garage in Detroit doesn't seem to bothered by my extended road trip as i've not got any intention of returning to the story. It looks good, certainly for the scale of the game. At times I wish there were a few less cars on the road, even going to some of the more remote parts of America the freeways seemed pretty crowded. If nothing else its helping me with geography, although i'm not too trusting of how true to real world it is, every route I take seems to take me through Little Amsterdam (a place I'd never heard of until this week) its got a lovely windmill though. The cars (or car which i've driven so far) don't really feel like they are gripping the surface of the road, the whole game feels quite slippery which is a shame, but its not game breaking, just took a bit of an adjustment in my playing of the game. Hopefully more cars become available as time goes on to me even though i'm avoiding the story, it would be good to see if there is anything thats got a bit more grip. The online components seem interesting, other (from what I can make out) real players appear every once in a while zipping down the motorways and i'd be keen to give the game a go with someone else I know, the idea of a point to point race across America seems pretty cool. Theres not too much wrong with it and i'll tinker with it a bit more over the next few weeks i'm sure.

Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) might as well be called Bowsers Inside Neverending Story, I've got to be close to the end surely? I had to watch two Toads have a cup of tea for about 5minutes in Bowsers lower back so that was something.

Earthbound and Dune 13.10.15

The internal clock on Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) continues to tick on, standing at thirteen hours as I edge toward the conclusion of a game I wanted to finish in a week. I still intend to finish and quantify my thoughts on this charming game at some point, just not this week.

Standing at a more impressive fifty hours or so was my playtime to get to the (real) ending of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4). I say the real ending, I've watched the lengthy credits twice and have a conclusion to the story of Big Boss circa 1985, but at the same time i'm back in my helicopter with one more important side op to complete (I think I did two missions out of sync which could lessen the drama of the way things play out). Without going into the final events of the story I really liked it, it was powerful, even to me who hasn't played that much of the other games. From my understanding this game was meant to be building toward Big Boss being the villain of later games, and it certainly does that while also angling toward what will happen with Solid Snake. One aspect of the finale I found really frustrating but could understand why it played out that way, perhaps it didn't need to go on that long though. On the whole its a fantastic game, which I've had so much fun with, I've got a bit more clearing up of side ops to do, but once thats done it would take me a while to return to it as most of the joys I had from the game were from either discovering an inventive way to complete my objectives or attempting to unravel what was going on in the story.

I played a small amount of the Battlefront (PS4) beta over the weekend, and while it looks and sounds pretty much exactly as i'd have hoped I found the other players were already at such a higher level than me that a lot of the enjoyment was sucked out of the game pretty quickly. Especially the battle of Hoth gameplay, which is a fantastic recreation of the second films opening battle, I wanted a chance to have a root around the world but sadly I was being picked off with ease (whatever side I was on), sometimes it was humorous, either being stomped on by an ATAT or coming head to head with Darth Vader in a trench but more often it was being sniped from miles away by someone at a much higher level. I found the loadouts and weapons seemed to benefit the higher level players too much, and the idea of getting to they're level seemed like too much of a grind for me (thats because I'm inept at these sorts of games though) other issues I had could well be ironed out in the full release though like every time I found a vehicle, the glee of taking control of it was taken away from me as I tried to fudge the controls, the training mode offered in the full game will help with this. For a beta I guess this did what I'd have wanted it to do, get me interested in the final product as there was more promise in the hour or so I spent with it than I was expecting. 

Finally I've been playing through Gauntlet (PS4) with a friend online, and it's been a really enjoyable experience (and also the perfect antidote for all the Metal Gear seriousness i've had going on) it takes itself really lightly, perfectly illustrated by the commentary from both the narrator and the characters we're playing. Whats most impressive about it is how it strikes the balance between arcade nostalgia and more modern games, there is a surprising amount of finesse to the combat and different attacks that can be purchased, and so far we've not found a level which has overwhelmed us or seemed impossible. So bits have been tricky, but after a few attempts we've got through everything thrown at us. It looks lovely, lighting in places especially shines (bad pun). Character design is pretty generic, but every once in a while a boss like an anthropomorphic crocodile is thrown at you which looks better than it should. It's taken us about 20 levels to release the cash we've been accumulating can be used to buy other attacks and armour, which led to a spending spree then a less harmonious approach when we see treasure in caves from then on. The end is in sight, which is another design choice I really appreciate (you can see the path to the conclusion mapped out for you) on the whole i've loved my time with it since joining up to play with someone else.

Earthbound and Dune 06.10.15

I made a promise to myself to finish Bowsers Inside Story (3DS) a few weeks back, but i’m still struggling toward the end, its not such a struggle, and i’m enjoying my time with it, hopefully i’ll finish it soon and be able to talk about my final impressions.


Another RPG I’ve picked up on (and finished in half the time) is Undertale (Steam) its a novel take on a modern RPG, the combat system is still turn based, but it adds rhythm and skill based elements in defence of an enemy attack, and this is made even more joyous by the commentary by your foe as he attacks, explaining why sweat is pouring down on you or bombs are falling. The writing of the game throughout is awesome, each character, although a monster, feels human and natural, its humour borrows from games like Earthbound in places, which is never a bad thing. Its a relatively quick game to get through (about 4-5 hours) and the ending you get is very much dependant on decisions you make through the game, I don’t know if i’d play through it again, not that I didn’t love my time with it, the end “twist” which plays on your expectations from an RPG was both funny and a surprise so I wouldn’t want to go through the game knowing how to cheat the system, it wouldn’t feel right. In places the game plays with light really well, and it looks really pretty at these points, the rest of the time its an 8-16bit look which a lot of indie games adopt, but it continually feels individual purely by the look of the characters and the feeling of the world they live in. Steam as a platform I find difficult to find things I want to play, and though the fault of having a mac sometimes find it hard to find things I can play, but Undertale is a game i’ve loved from beginning to end.


I’ve got to the end of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4), I say the end, I’ve got to the halfway point, but I’ve seen the credits. As much as I’ve enjoyed it so far, the final moments of Skullface in the game really didn’t sit to well with me, he never was fleshed out as a villain, and I didn’t really feel that much hatred for him (perhaps I should have listened to more of the tapes) so when Big Boss is dealing out his revenge it just felt uneasy, having no control over the scene as well was strange. Its one of a few times I feel what is an essentially a fantastical world of floating boys and giant robots gets caught up in trying to shock or create a brutal realism and it just didn’t click for me, it feels more like its doing it because its "cool" to be gory or hyper violent, in the end though its a great game, flawed in places but still better than pretty much anything I’ve played this year. I’m slowly battling through the post credit material (which looks like another 40hours of gameplay) and some of the variations on missions offer a neat twist on the objectives.


Built a few more Super Mario Maker (WiiU) levels too, I’m particularly pleased with Panic on the Titanic.


Owlman Vs the Bowser Snake: 0150-0000-004F-7CAB
Burger Babies Boozer: 1FAD-0000-0051-CA19
Panic on the Titanic: 4840-0000-0061-CF26
Bowserbot 5000: D2F6-0000-0069-7495
Bowser Towers: 1E4C-0000-007D-0991

Earthbound and Dune 15.09.15

Two fantastic games have drawn my attention from writing this for a while, which I guess is a good thing.

 

First off is Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4), following up from the fantastic Ground Zeroes, it attempts (really successfully) stealth on a massive scale, every mission can be attempted from pretty much any angle or mind-set, saying that the opening mission does limit you to the old trappings of a stealth game, there are fail states when people spot you and your movement is severely hampered, with narrative reasoning but I did find it annoying, It's opening was such a throwback to the old Metal Gear games which I wanted to love with no joy, strange characters doing bizarre things included, that  I was worried that it was going to stray from its predecessor  which finally bought me into the franchise. I wasn't worried for long though, so after a fairly decent length intro, with more story than I was expecting, I was thrown into mid 80's Afghanistan, if you've seen the Living Daylights you'll be familiar with this setting, desert and outposts is pretty much it, with larger details like power plants every once in a while, in contrast to the desolate surroundings though the game builds a living, breathing world, guards work shifts, some are driving about randomly, some can be found sleeping late at night, nothing feels scripted or on rails and that's fantastic. Early mission objectives are fairly standard for an open world game, kill someone, capture someone or blow something up. What makes this game so individual though is the freedom to complete your objectives, when tasked with destroying a tank I had the option to stand back and attack from distance as it was on route to its destination or, once this failed for me I ran for the hills, the tank didn't chase for long (after all I'm just one man) and carried on its business, there wasn't a fail state for taking too long or getting spotted, my mission adapted with my ineptitude and now I had to destroy a tank in a enemy stronghold. I won't bore any readers with how I achieved my goal, but it involved another armed vehicle and a lot of damage. Whether you kill a human target or not is optional as well, like everything else in this world it or they can be sent back to your base with the aide of balloons, so far I've kept a policy of capturing every target I'm set out to kill, I don't know why I'm doing this but I find it immensely satisfying. I'm not too far into the actual game (and I know its going to be a long journey) instead of progressing the story I've focused on side missions, which seem actually useful in this game for example when capturing a Russian translator your given translation to what everyone is saying. I've spent far too long getting all the music tapes from around the opening area, including a spectacular heist of Aha's "Take on Me" which ended with me avoiding gunfire as I escaped on horseback whilst listening to my new cassette, its quite a game.

 

Super Mario Maker (WiiU) gives you all the toys to build a level from either Mario Bros, Mario Bros 3, Mario World or New Super Mario Bros dresses it a lot like Mario Paint and succeeds in building just about the most charming game ever made. Being totally honest this is the game I always wanted to play or at least since having a cheat code for Sonic the Hedgehog 1 which let me redistribute enemies and tiles around Green Hill act 1. The amount of power at my hands the second I booted this game up was totally overwhelming (and that's without the unlocked elements, which now don't take a day to arrive) I've found a natural evolution to what I've made, and where I was expecting to want to make expansive levels as big as the game would let me, I've progressed more toward smaller levels with tighter platforming. I think I need to move away from theming each level, perhaps making more traditional Mario levels. Having most of the tools that the original games makers had really makes me appreciate good level design, very few levels I've built or sampled feel like a Super Mario level, and that's what's fantastic when you do encounter one. On the subject of playing others levels you can sample 8 or 16 with a limit of 100 lives, which is a great way to see what other people are making, weirdly I've only seen one penis, and that was almost subtle. The bonus on completion of the set amount of levels is a random 8bit sprite, offering another way of getting Amiibo characters as well as the likes of Waluigi. The drip feeding of items and foes for your own course creation is something that really suites me, I've not dabbled in Yoshis, Boos, Chomps or wigglers, I'm sure as I get more familiar with the game these will be thrown into the mix but at the moment I'm just absolutely loving everything Super Mario Maker has to offer. I've even found myself at times either thinking about an idea for a level or sketching out some unusable idea, its a long, long time since a game has gripped me like this. Below are the codes for my first four levels:

 

The Great White Whale : C85B 0000 001E AFA6

Mr Blockos Goomba Kids 6EAF : 0000 0023 23FF

Big Bowsers Transport Musuem : A668 0000 0024 84D9

Waluigi Goes to Hades : 47F7 0000 002F 89EC

Mowsers Monument: 1479 0000 003E 44EA 

Next week I'm trying to make a promise to myself to finish Bowsers Inside Story (DS), and then say what I feel about it...

 

Earthbound and Dune 29.08.15

Everyone's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) has been an interesting experience and a hard game to describe without getting into parts of the story, so a slight spoiler warning before I start. 

Set in the early 1980s, rural England it's filled with visual references and nostalgia which could be lost on players not from Britain, but I found it refreshing to play a game set in a familiar world. The plot places you as an unnamed voyeur on this world, slowly gliding through it listening in to balls of lights dialogue which sounds a bit like the Archers goes Sci-Fi. The movement is slow (even when pressing the run button) but I thought this added to the mysterious nature of your role in the game, it feels floaty, almost ghostlike only annoying me a couple of times, when tracing back footsteps to work out where I was going, there is a holiday camp section about two thirds in which this was particularly irritating. On the whole though your guided by the lights floating about, and you can see the from a distance pointing you in the right direction. Story can be stumbled upon by lesser characters talking between themselves and discovering these chance encounters helped make the game more alive whilst making my play-through seem unique, a great example of this was with the fate of the mechanic and the people who discover him. The opening of the game, following a vicar as he deals with the events was fascinating, ambiguous on how long a timeline your dealing with as the village descends into chaos building up to him alone questioning his faith it was distressing, aided by some fantastic acting, then I departed to the next part of the story where the mystery of what happened starts to take centre stage, graffiti on doors, discarded star charts and other clues such as crutches laying in the street could point to what happened and it builds up to the two lead characters taking centre stage. The major plot points are almost unavoidable, playing out on radios when interacted with and that takes a little bit of the chance elements of the story out of the game but there can be some detective work to find where the radio is hidden (you can hear a loop of numbers when your near). It looks good, but not spectacular bar a few scenes when night passes to day and as I mention earlier the acting throughout is fantastic. If I hadn't played Her Story earlier in the year I may have felt a lot better about this game, the comparison between the two is a bit tenuous but for a slow methodical journey through a mystery in a nostalgic Great Britain, Her Story just does it that bit better. I liked Everyone's Gone to the Rapture, just don't know if I loved it.

In my downtime I played a bit of Kung Fury: Street Rage (PS4) Two buttons, punch left and right, fighting through nazis, ninjas, dominatrix's an robots as a dinosaur watches on, perfect respite from walking slowly through the countryside. Could easily be a mobile game, but it's cool and cheap on the PS4.

Finally I played some of the reimagining of Gauntlet (PS4) from the makers of Helldivers, a game I really enjoyed. Given an arcade game most people know they've got a bit less freedom with objectives it seems, and the levels seem larger for it. There is a satisfaction to killing waves of monsters still, piles of bones still dispatch pesky ghosts and it all feels very familiar even being too sword happy can still destroy a turkey and all the health that goes with it. Looks fine, not too different from the Tomb Raider game I played a few weeks back. It's a game I'm not going to pass judgement on until playing it coop as that's where Gauntlet has always been at it's finest, it all felt a bit lonely in the dungeon on my own.

Earthbound and Dune 18.08.15

My plans to complete, or at least get through a sizeable chunk of Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story (DS) whilst on holiday didn't quite come off, the small portion I got through still trawling through tutorials. What I did play I really enjoyed. It's the first Mario RPG I've played, and it's a novel twist on the typical mechanics, adding basic platforming into the mix and stealing and building the rhythm based combat mechanics of Earthbound. It's a slow build, made more bearable by a witty story, playing off the tropes of a Mario game as you'd imagine, Bowser in particular is a much funnier character along with his sidekick Kamek, some of the humour early on is too dependent on breaking the third wall, the first few times funny but the joke wears a little thin as it continues through a lengthy tutorial. Perhaps that's why Bowser is such a breath of fresh air, whereas the Mario Bros play the same roles you imagine, Bowser seems more downtrodden, the story playing on his multiple failed attempts at capturing Peach. The gameplay itself gets pretty in depth even early on, Mario and Luigi are controlled by separate buttons while platforming but they're tied to the same movement, which makes lining up some jumps trickier. In combat your encouraged to spot tells in enemies attacks and counter them by the ever dependable head stomp it also drops green shells into fighting which can cause more damage if timing is right while also building combos up. There's a lot going on, even at this early stage, I'll hopefully keep at it as it's one of those titles that would probably require restarting if I left it too long just to work out what to do (Sadly Bloodborne has already fallen victim to that this year). The only thing I've got against it is a personal thing, I find the shoulder buttons on the form of a 3DS or DS (except for the original silver model) awkward to use, so games which require them don't feel great.

I checked into Animal Crossing (3DS) to find animals annoyed I'd not spoken to them in a week, a jungle of bamboo has sprouted around my house and I got bitten by a tarantula. Way too stressful for sitting by the pool.

Much more to talk about next week, I've taken my first slow steps into Everyone's Gone to the Rapture and plan to have some less ernest fun in Kung Fury: Street Rage and Gauntlet.

Earthbound and Dune 06.08.15

Not much to talk about this week, life got in the way of playing anything. I did download and play the first section of Limbo (PS4) so probably like an hours gameplay. Its interesting (to me anyway) how much of the game came back to me, i’d completed it about 4 years ago and not picked it up since. I only died twice in the opening bit, and both times due to attempting to rush through it. Thats not a vindication of how good I am at playing games, rather that the game is designed so well its incredibly memorable. Killing the spider and subsequently using his body as tool seemed more gross and cruel when I was finding the game much easier. Not much more to say about it, still looks and sounds fantastic but the timeless look of it shouldn’t age really. I’ll probably leave it at that, I remember some of the more physics based magnet sections becoming irritating later on and a little too fiddly for me. Fantastic game all the same.

I also played Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4), a top down duel stick shooter. Due to my limited time with Tomb Raider games since the first one the two hours I put in is the most fun I’ve had with the series from the most time put in. I ignored pretty much any story I was presented with, so was a little confused when a brief cutscene showed the protagonist with another dude and two Egyptian throwbacks, it wasn’t slow to place me in the action, fighting skeletons and giant beetles (i’m assuming mummies will make an appearance at some point). Puzzles so far have been limited to blowing stuff up and pushing rocks about, but that allowed the tighter elements of the gameplay to shine, such as avoiding rolling spiky balls and ascending walls. On my way there was a tremendous sort of boss fight with a giant crocodile monster, aided by his fantastic character design and a more underwhelming fight against some golden god chap who just followed me around as I dropped bombs for him to walk into. Puzzles and enemy count ramped up in difficulty pleasingly as I was playing, sometimes involving raising platforms with a magical staff, another shoulder button on the controller is mapped to lighting lamps, the purpose of this so far has been similar to shooting countless vases (collecting gems) also dotted around the levels are other trinkets, some applying more RPG elements to my character such as more damage or strength. The only downside to this fairly mindless game has been a confusing hub world which didn’t guide me to the next level as much as I would have liked, but this hasn’t been helped by me tapping through the cutscenes. The idea of this game existing alongside the grittier titles from the series (however preposterous it seems) I like, especially as it harkens back to the time when Lara Croft fought dinosaurs. 

Thats about it, I’m intending to get through Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) whilst on holiday next week, i’ll see how that goes.