Video Games – Page 20

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: August 2020

~ Game Over ~

Ellen (Switch) – Pixel-art, side-scrolly, spook-’em-up adventure. Head and shoulders above nearly any other similar game I’ve played. It’s right up there with The Cat Lady on my list of best horror-themed adventure games. Only a few hours long, but told an interesting (if somewhat clichéd and poorly translated) story and did an excellent job of maintaining its creepiness all the way to the end.

The Talos Principle (PS4) – Wrote lots of words. Actually beat it twice to claim all the trophies, and then played the DLC expansion.

Erica (PS4) – I wonder if I should actually put this here, as it’s less a game than a choose-your-own-adventure movie. Played through twice to see a couple different endings, but two was enough. There isn’t nearly enough variance in the story to bother with more replays. At least not right away. Notably, there’s an companion app that you can download to use as a controller, which is good since the game is otherwise controlled entirely by the DualShock 4’s touch pad, and the DualShock 4’s touch pad sucks ass.

You should definitely play The Talos Principle

For years, it seemed, every time I checked my Steam inventory I would find a new discount coupon for a game called The Talos Principle. I had no idea what it really was, but the promotional image was of a humanoid robot holding a cat. Not exactly the ideal way to pique my interest. So I ignored it over and over until just recently.

When the 2020 Summer Sale started on PSN, I was browsing the games, and saw that The Talos Principle was on sale. I don’t recall exactly what it was that made me change my mind, but I clicked on in and noticed that it was described as a “philosophical first-person puzzle game” which made something click within me. I quickly Googled it and saw that it holds a 10/10 rating on Steam and has generally excellent review scores. So I bought it.

Even at that point, I didn’t even start playing it until weeks later, when I needed to clear out some space on my PS4’s hard drive. The Talos Principle seemed like it wouldn’t require a huge time commitment, so I hopped in.

I am so frustrated with myself for blowing this game off for so long.

The Talos Principle is, without a doubt, one of the most satisfying video games that I have ever played. Not only is the puzzle solving a ton of fun and mind-bending in all the best ways, but the theme and narrative of the game are maybe the deepest that I’ve ever seen in a video game.

Diving straight into that theme, I don’t think that I’ve ever played or even heard of another video game that so thoughtfully explores the realms of philosophy, faith, and artificial intelligence. The Talos Principle is a deep dive into existentialism, examining concepts such as the meaning of life and what it means to be a person. Many of these ideas are touched on in short text logs -either diaries or emails of in-game characters- or excerpts from (what I assume are) real-world texts. In addition to that, the main throughline of the the game is your constant interaction with an AI who presents philosophical questions to you and then challenges you to defend your points of view. It’s so unique, and really made me think about the ideas that I was working through. It’s also an awesome coincidence that I’ve actually been getting into philosophy in real life, so it it was all that more impactful to me.

There’s also a concurrent plot about figuring out exactly where you are, how you got there, and whether or not you should really be listening to the booming, disembodied voice that claims to be your character’s creator. It’s interesting stuff, and I always appreciate when a game’s backstory and world building is parceled out into little chunks that you discover throughout your journey, giving you the chance to come up with your own theories as you slowly put all the pieces together. It’s maybe been a little overused, but I still like it. Fortunately, The Talos Principle never really gives you the hard details of the backstory, so you get a nice picture of what happened while still being able to fill in the gaps with your imagination.

What I’m getting at here, is that I really like games -or any other media- that keeps me thinking about it even after I’m done interacting with it.

As far as the gameplay? It’s highly reminiscent of Portal. The game is broken up into worlds and levels, and each level has a handful of bite-sized “test chambers” for you to solve. There are a number of tools that you unlock along the way, each one adding more complexity to the puzzles that you’ll be tackling. So I guess it’s really more like Portal 2 in that way. While the designers were able to come up with many puzzle variations for each tool, it’s when you have to use multiple tools in a single puzzle that things get really nutty. One tool in particular, the recorder, allows you to make a ghostly copy of yourself and sort of duplicate all your other tools. Every time I came across a puzzle that used the recorder I got a pre-emptive headache because those puzzles were always the most mind-bending and really force you to think several moves ahead. There are even a few rare examples where you have to figure out completely new concepts on your own. The finale is an epic multi-tier series of puzzles where you have to work alongside another robot to make your way to the end.

Your prize for solving each main puzzle is a tetromino, which are used for various things: the green pieces unlock each world, the yellow pieces unlock new tools, and the red pieces unlock the finale. To unlock anything, you’re presented with a square or rectangular grid and smattering of tetrominos, and your job is to fit all the pieces into the grid. They start small, but the bigger grids near the end of the game get really tough. They may have even been some of the toughest puzzles in the game, since there isn’t really a good strategy (that I was able to discover) for reliably solving them.

And then there are the stars. 30 stars are hidden throughout the worlds, and they unlock bonus worlds that unlock a bonus ending. Many of the stars are maddeningly difficult to find, never mind actually figuring out how to claim them. Some require you to sneak tools out of puzzle chambers, some require you to criss-cross beams across multiple puzzles, some make you come up with unexpected ways to use your tools. One particularly nasty one requires you to follow a QR code to a hex code that you need to convert to a time and date, from which you need to pull numbers to punch into a giant dial. Basically, the stars tend to go way beyond the scope of the way that The Talos Principle teaches you to think, and I don’t feel bad for looking up hints or outright solutions for several of them. To my credit, I solved every other puzzle in the game on my own. It’s just that those damn stars could be so obtuse that I don’t think I would have even had the mental capacity to collect them all without help.

The PS4 version (and I’m assuming all versions at this point) even comes with an extra DLC chapter, Road to Gehenna, which is essentially a super-very-hard expansion pack. As of this writing I’m only a few puzzles in, but they have been absolutely crazy, and the stars have been just as obnoxious to find as ever. There’s also a whole new sub-plot about a bunch of androids who deal with being caged within the world’s puzzles by forming an online community. It’s intensely in-depth and you’d best bring your reading glasses because there is tons of text to burn through.

(Editor’s note: I’ve finished it now, and Road to Gehenna is incredible.)

I said earlier that The Talos Principle has much in common with Portal. Robots, puzzles, turrets, a disembodied voice directing you through puzzles. Portal goads you along with the false promise of cake, The Talos Principle goads you along with the false promise of ascension and immortality. Although maybe it’s not actually a false promise? You’ll have to play it yourself to find out, and I absolutely recommend doing so. The Talos Principle is an incredible game, a profoundly thoughtful experience unlike any other in the realm of video games. And also it’s just a lot of fun to solve all those puzzles.

Indie World Showcase 8.18.2020 – Ry-actions

Nintendo has been pretty quiet about games announcements this year, probably almost entirely due to the good ol’ coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, we’ve still been getting little bits of info here and there. One such bit is today’s Indie World Showcase – what I’m sure will be an extended sizzle reel of indie games that I’ll think look neat and then completely forget about because they’ll get no marketing at all after this.

That said, let’s go ahead and see which of these games may get lucky enough to get placed on my wishlist!

Hades – Supergiant’s other games that I’ve played, Bastion and Transistor, were good and I can see why they have a following, but they didn’t really turn my crank. And this is a roguelike dungeon crawler? Ehhh, I dunno about that. The animation they showed looked great, but it’s kind of irrelevant. The brief glance at gameplay looks just like the previously mentioned games but with a different coat of paint. I’ll definitely pick it up when it inevitably goes on sale for $3, but probably not before then.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: July 2020

~ Game Over ~

KIDS (PC) – Art (non-)game. Weirdly satisfying, except when it becomes tedious. You can only appreciate milking people through a digestive tract so many times. But it’s only like 20 minutes long, so.

LOVE (PC) – Retro platformer built for speedruns. Tense and occasionally frustrating, but not quite masocore. Interesting in that it allows you to plop down a respawn point just about anywhere. Very fun, but super short and of limited value if you’re not planning to learn and master it.

A Hat in Time (Switch) – Achieved 100% by clearing the DLC chapters. Seal the Deal was fun and super cute, but tragically short. I was less enthused by Nyakuza Metro’s massive, confusing, maze of a world. Didn’t play past the first two Death Wish challenges because ehhhhh I only have so much time, and I don’t really want harder remixes of all the things I’ve already done.

On The Topic of Horror in Video Games

It’s become something of a Friday night tradition for me to browse the Switch eShop in search of an interesting-looking horror game for under five bucks. I don’t find something every week -not even every month- but I am delighted by the times when I do, because I surely do enjoy me a good spook-’em-up.

It’s also worthy of note that I am a complete baby when it comes to such things. When it’s late at night and I’ve got all the lights off, a horror game that builds tension effectively will absolutely scare the pants off of me. It’s not uncommon that I will creep through them at a rate of one checkpoint per session, because I simply cannot bear the terror of what spooks may be hiding around the next bend. Also I have a crazy overactive imagination and pretty much anything that frightens me will invade my mind for weeks, keeping me in constant fear of what lies around a dark corner or over the edge of my bed at night. This is despite me being a grown man who knows perfectly well that ghosts and monsters aren’t real.

Now, when I say “builds tension effectively”, that generally means that the game in question will hold off on throwing any actual monsters or whatever at you. It’ll drop objects to create a clatter, give you blurred glimpses of unexpected movement, work in creepy sounds like growls or scratching, and make you think that you’re being threatened by something. At that part, that’s when I’m scared the most. When I know that there’s a threat, but I don’t know what it is, when it’s going to show up, or how I’m expected to deal with it. The unknown is the most frightening thing.

Among the Sleep is the most recent spooky game that I’ve played, and it does a pretty good job of keeping that tension at a very high level. I want to say that it’s a fairly generic survival horror game, but it really does do a good job of standing out from the crowd. At least in the spectrum of games that I’ve experienced. This is largely owed to the fact that you play as a baby, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It gives the player a unique viewpoint both literally and narratively, and makes for some interesting gameplay elements, like having crawling be your ideal mode of locomotion.

What Among the Sleep did right was to reserve any actual monsters for the second half of the game. In the first two and a half stages, you’re actually completely safe, but you never really know that. The darkness is overwhelming, doors close by themselves, you hear oppressive footsteps thumping around every now and then, large objects move around just past the point where you can see clearly. It’s impeccably designed, from a horror perspective.

But then you get into the second half of the third stage, and there’s an actual monster tromping around, and the tension dissolves completely. It wanders around in the open, chases you if you’re spotted, and can spawn in and out of the map wherever it likes. From there, it becomes about learning how the monster moves and how to avoid it. It becomes a game mechanic, and game mechanics aren’t scary. They’re problems to be solved.

Stage four reigns it back a little, by resigning the monster to popping out as a jumpscare or quickly whooshing by on the opposite side of a chasm. The only time that it’s a threat is -again- boiled down to another gameplay mechanic. In this stage, instead of avoiding a patrolling foe, you come across a hallway replete with glass bottles perched atop small towers of blocks. It’s painfully obvious that knocking over a bottle will summon the beast, but there is plenty of cover to hide underneath. So you quickly learn that the ideal way to stay safe is to pick up a stray block, run under a table, and then chuck the block at a bottle. It will crash to the ground and the monster will float by harmlessly. Repeat as necessary until you get to the end. So much for that section.

And so, it’s unfortunate that Among the Sleep’s horror element completely fizzles out halfway through the game, but I did appreciate the time when it kept me on the absolute edge of my seat. I had a lot of fun with it regardless, and I’d say that it’s easily one of the better horror games that I’ve played recently (note that it was originally released in 2015). But it does make me wonder if there are, or even can be, any video games that remain scary from beginning to end. If you happen to know of any strong candidates, by all means, please share. I’m constantly on the hunt for the next thing that will keep me from being able to sleep.

Duke Nukem 3D is a weird video game

I purchased Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour on Switch last weekend on a whim. Partly because it had a 50% launch discount, and partly because nostalgia. Unlike most games I buy, I wasn’t even sure I was going to play it. I mostly just wanted to know that I could play it.

Truly, I live a life of six-dollar luxuries.

But then I did start playing the game, and so many things started jumping out at me as weird. Immediately I was taken aback to learn that the first episode only has five levels. Like, what? I guess it came as a surprise because no version of the game I’ve played before let you choose any stage you want right from the word go (which is a really cool feature, actually).

The first two stages didn’t hold anything particularly new or exciting for me. Those are the ones I’ve played the most and am mostly familiar with. I used to play Duke 3D all the time when I’d go over to my uncle’s house, and apparently saving was not a thing I would do, because I barely remember anything past level two. Or maybe someone deleted my saves? I don’t know. I don’t remember ever playing it at home, either, so I have this feeling that my mom wouldn’t allow it in the house. Did my dad have a secret copy? Couldn’t tell you. But probably yes.

Anyway, the thing I’m trying to get to here is that the second level ends with Duke being captured by aliens, and the third level begins with him being zapped in an electric chair. This is troublesome since if you end level two with less than about 30 health, you’ll die immediately upon entering level three with absolutely no recourse. So then you have to start the stage with no weapons or items, which is a real problem because the first two monsters are pig-cops, and their shotguns can kill you real fast while you try to kick them to death. While I appreciate the setpiece, it really works against the gameplay. I was stuck retrying that first room for like 20 minutes before I was able to play it well enough to survive to the point where I could locate a few health pickups.

So, I lied before. There actually is something that blew my mind in the first level. Throughout the game, you can find women trapped in alien goo, who whisper “Kill me…” if you interact with them. I found one of said ladies in level one, and tried and tried to save her from her sticky prison, but to no avail. As it turns out, you can’t save them. You either leave them to their fate, or honour their wishes and murder them. I think that this confused me because I played the Nintendo 64 version a lot in my youth, and apparently that is the only version where you can free the trapped babes. Weird!

The one other thing that has thrown me for a loop is that Duke 3D is hard. I chose to play on the “Let’s Rock” difficulty level, which is the default and presumably the counterpart to “normal” in other games. And in the first three levels, I died a lot. I know I’m not very good at these old-school shooters, but wow do enemy shots ever hurt a lot! A mid-range shotgun blast from a pig-cop can knock off over 20 of Duke’s health points. The scrub aliens don’t hit quite as hard, but they usually come in groups and have a higher rate of fire, so they can pile it on pretty quick. Also they often have jetpacks, and those guys… man, those guys.

On the other hand, the Switch port has motion control aiming, which is nice. Really good for fine-tuning your aim when the control sticks just aren’t giving you the fine control you need. Also I was playing it during my lunch hour at work and man was that weird. It almost felt like I was doing something wrong, what with all the strippers in level two. I can only imagine what might have happened if someone took a peek at my screen at the wrong moment. Perhaps I ought to stick with A Hat in Time during lunch break.

Aside from my few little quibbles, it has been fun to dip back into Duke 3D for a bit. I’m sure that I’ll have to knock down the difficulty level to easy before I’ll have any hope of finishing it, but… I don’t know that I’ll even play it that much. Even with the intent of playing it through to the end, I have a feeling that this is going to be a “finish the first episode then completely forget about it” kind of game. A fun, nostalgic distraction, but nothing more.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: June 2020

~ Game Over ~

Nirvana Pilot Yume (PC) – Part visual novel, part high-speed space racing. Except the “racing” was actually just straight-line obstacle courses where the camera was too close to the ground to see half the obstacles (holes and very short barriers) until it was too late. It became more of a frustrating memorization challenge than a test of reflexes and/or skill. Soundtrack was bumpin’ though.

Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Switch) – After the last couple of Shantae games deviating from the formula a bit, it’s nice to see the series go back to a more standard Metroidvania setup. I really liked that the transformations are all button presses now, instead of powers you have to turn on and off with dances. Music was a step down because it wasn’t done by virt. I’d like to play it at least once more in NG+ mode, but… I don’t think there’s time.

Monthend Video Game Wrap-Up: May 2020

~ Game Over ~

Pikmin 2 (GC) – Did you know that I’ve never actually finished Pikmin 2 before? But now I’ve beaten the final boss (twice) and claimed every treasure. Huzzah. I win. It’s still not really 100% clear because I didn’t do the 2-player mode to get the secret ending, but I have actually done that before, so… we good?

Ocarina of Time Randomizer (Wii) – It was exciting to play through a very messed-up version of OoT, and I appreciate how it really tests your knowledge of the game. I think I need to do a second run with Master Quest dungeons, because I still feel like it’s not making me work hard enough.

I’m really feeling it

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition came out on Friday, and the very fist thing that I did after leaving work was to go out and purchase myself a copy. And it wasn’t easy, mind you.

It seems that there may have been a bit of a shortage of boxed copies going around, presumably somehow related to to good ol’ Coronavirus. Or maybe it somehow has to to with the horrible goings-on in the USA right now. But I doubt it’s the latter. Awful, awful stuff though. #BlackLivesMatter, guys.

Anyway, my first stop was EB Games in the mall, because I thought that for sure that would be the place that would definitely have copies in stock. But then the woman working there told me that every EB in the city had only received enough to fill pre-orders. So I suppose that “a global pandemic” can be added to the very short list of reasons to pre-order a high-profile Nintendo game.

Fearing that most other electronics- or entertainment-focused shops would also be sold out, because those would be the first targets for savvy shoppers, I decided that my next stop would be Wal-Mart. Also you can just stroll into Wal-Mart without having to sanitize your hands and hear the rules for navigating the store. I sanitized my hands no less than four times in less than half an hour that day.

Long story short: Wal-Mart was also sold out of copies. Or at least that’s what the guy who helped me figured. They certainly didn’t have any on hand, but there was also no proof that there had been any in the first place. I’d also like to point out that for every employee I dealt with during this adventure, I was super nice and understanding when they told me that they did not have any Xenoblades or had no idea what I was asking about. I’m always nice to people who are just doing their jobs, but… I think that especially right now, we all need to be extra nice to each other. even when mildly frustrated by first-world problems.

After that, I jogged across the parking lot to Toys ‘R’ Us, a place that I secretly wish that I had a reason to be at more often. You know, because I’m far enough away from that job that I didn’t like very much, that it’s all pleasant memories now. Anyway, the girl in the electronics department did a very good job of looking every which where for the game I had asked for, but came up with nothing. It seemed like they hadn’t gotten any in at all, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. Late new release shipments are the Toys ‘R’ Us way.

It was at that point that I was about to give up, go home, and just buy a digital version of the game, when my brother sent me a text suggesting that I give Best Buy a try. Now, I had heard that Best Buy had been closed to shoppers and doing curbside pickup for online orders, so I didn’t know what to expect. Lo and behold, not only was Best Buy open to the public, but they also had copies of Xenoblade Chronicles DE to go around, and the woman who helped me knew what I was talking about. Talk about your hat tricks! So there it was, in the place that I should have gone directly after EB failed me. So much for outsmarting the average consumer.

Walking back to my car after my small victory, I mused on the fact that I had actually had a fun little adventure that afternoon. It’s been forever since I’ve had to literally run from store to store looking for a copy of a new video game. It used to happen all the time, but pretty much anything that comes in a physical edition is a high-profile title that gets millions of copies printed, or licensed trash than I couldn’t care less about anyway. All those weird, niche games that I love so much are exclusively digital releases these days, so there’s never a hunt.

Anyway, I guess that’s what passes for an exciting story in my life these days. Not exactly edge-of-your-seat material, I know. But when I’m looking back on this post six years from now, it’ll serve a a nice reminder of that one time I had a moderate amount of trouble finding a video game because of Coronavirus. And how frivolous and carefree I was in 2020, a year that will probably turn out to be one of the bleakest in human history.

Back to the Bionis

The last couple years have seen a wealth of high-profile remade and remastered video games… but few have gotten me quite as excited as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Xenoblade is easily one of my favourite games of all time, and I am so very looking forward to a version that irons out a bunch of the kinks, improves the visual presentation, and adds a big chunk of new content.

To help put this into perspective, I’ve already spent close to 150 hours on the Wii version of this game, and I am thrilled at the idea of doing it all again. Although I hear that the quest system has been streamlined to remove a whole lot of back-tracking, so it’ll be probably way less than another 150 hours, but you get what I mean.

I’ve also heard that one particular part of the combat system has been completely removed, which is super exciting to me. Namely, the part where your character’s accuracy is reduced when facing monsters with higher levels, which made fighting stronger enemies almost literally impossible. I always though that was a really stupid “feature” and I’m so glad they’ve done away with it. Taking out a foe that is way more powerful than your party is always incredibly satisfying, and I strongly disliked how Monolith Soft went out of its way to take that way from players.

Mostly I’m just really excited to go back and explore the Bionis again. I’ve been longing to replay Xenoblade for some time now (roughly since my playthrough of the 3DS port stalled out), even without the graphical overhaul of the remastered version. It’s just going to be all that much better now. Looking out over the incredible vistas was mesmerizing even when it was rendered in blocky Wii graphics, it’s going to be so nice to revisit all those memorable locations in high definition.

One last thing I need to point out is that it’s an insane coincidence that Nintendo decided to release Xenoblade DE on the same week as what would be my wedding anniversary (which is today, in fact). Why is this relevant? Because our first dance as a married couple was to “Beyond the Sky”, the song that plays over Xenoblade Chronicles’ credits. Kinda nuts, right?