Games I Beat: Far Cry Primal

Far Cry Primal
Mass Caveman Murder Simulation
1 Player
System: PS4
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: December 4th, 2016

Far Cry is a series that has seen little to no change since the third entry dropped. I remember falling utterly in love with that game when it came out. It just felt so good from the controls to how the game visually responded to your input. It tends towards the easy side, but can offer some interesting challenges, primarily when it comes to taking over enemy bases. My two favorite entries may have only shaken up the game superficially, but for me that's enough. Both Blood Dragon and Primal drew me into their world in such away that I could easily forgive their repetitive Ubisoft natures.

Games I Beat: The Deadly Tower of Monsters

The Deadly Tower of Monsters
B-Movie Climb and Shoot 'Em Up
1 Player
System: PS4
Developer: ACE Team
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: November 11th, 2016

Sometimes I see a game title and I write it off entirely, and sometimes this turns out to be a huge disservice to not only the game, but myself. The Deadly Tower of Monsters is one of those cases. It's funny too because as soon as I had the game described for me I was all in. At first glance I assumed it was just another indie title that I wouldn't have time for, but when it was announced for PS+ I finally looked into it. I'm so sorry for turning my back on you for so long you wonderful cheesy B-movie styled game.

Pulp of a Dead Horse: Hyrule Warriors Legends

Hyrule Warriors Legends
Musou (Kill 'Em All Simulator)
1 Player
System: 3DS
Developer: Omega Force/Ninja Theory
Year of Release: 2016
Beat Legends Mode: November 5th, 2016

I've hardly been able to use this, my favorite of all titles! Over two years ago now (wow!) I beat, and wrote about, Hyrule Warriors. I didn't think it reinvented the wheel or anything, but it never set out to do that. It brought fast and frantic, if simple, gameplay to the Wii U in the universe of Zelda. And it was, honestly, a ton of fun. Since then not only has a great deal of DLC been released, but a remake on 3DS has come out as well. Does that conversion worry anyone else?

Games I "Beat": Overwatch

Overwatch
Online Heroic FPS
Mostly 12 Players
System: PS4
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: Ongoing

Hi, my name's Adam. I'm an avid video gamer, I mainly enjoy single player games, peruse the sidebar and you'll see most of the games I've talked about are single player by nature. Don't get me wrong, I love playing cooperative games with friends, some of my favorite memories grew out of co-op experiences. When it comes to competitive games, I typically don't get into them. There have been a few stints, but nothing has ever grabbed me for more than a week. Weird shit too. Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare, Mass Effect 3's online mode, Rocket League, and random bits of the "mainstream" FPS games. Then Overwatch had a free weekend.

Games I Beat: Dragon Quest Builders

Dragon Quest Builders
Minecraft Clone
1 Player
System: PS4
Developer: Square Enix
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: October 25th, 2016

Mixing Minecraft with Dragon Quest was never something I would have asked for, or even, frankly, thought of. When the first trailer came out I wasn't really interested. Which was good considering at the time there was no guarantee we'd be seeing any more Dragon Quest games outside of Japan for a good long time. Luckily since then the ebb and flow of Dragon Quest releases is back at high tide with Builders, 7 and 8 coming out recently/soon, and apparently more interest in bringing over other titles like the Monsters remakes, 11, and maybe even X, though I'm not convinced a four year old MMO is going to be making it's way over I'd happily give it a shot if it ever did!

Freemium Perdition: DC Legends

DC Legends
Turn Based Combat
1 Player
System: Android
Developer: WB Games
Year of Release: 2016

I randomly stumbled upon an article that was announcing DC Legends, at first glance I thought it was a straight up Marvel Future Fight clone, which I was not at all opposed to. I'm a massive DC fan, much more so than Marvel, and immediately I, uh, "pre-ordered" it, for lack of a better term, which just let me know when it came out and gave me a bonus character. The game is quite a bit more simple than Future Fight come to find out.

Spooktober: Freddy vs Jason

Freddy vs Jason
Directed by: Ronny Yu
Starring: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger
Released: 2003

A burnt child murderer vs an immortal super strong mentally stunted lad. Not much of a match up. After rewatching this movie with a friend I described it as an unfortunate child of it's time, and I think that's the best way to put it. Freddy vs Jason is an interesting movie, that could have lead the way for more fun horror crossovers, but didn't. Jaws vs Terminators! C'mon!

Spooktober: Misery

Misery
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Starring: Kathy Bates, James Caan
Released: 1990

While I'd known of this movie through references for years I'd never sat down to watch it. I was pretty sure it would appeal to me, but it's just one of those movies that I never went out of my way for. I was a fool.

Spooktober: The Devil's Rejects

The Devil's Rejects
Directed by: Rob Zombie
Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley
Released: 2005

I remember when I saw the first trailer for this movie and was immediately enticed. I believe I watched this first, then went back and watched Rob Zombie's earlier House of 1000 Corpses, which, like all of his other movies, was terrible. Somehow though, The Devil's Rejects shines through in all of it's absolutely disgusting splendor.

Games I Beat: Kirby Planet Robobot

Kirby Planet Robobot
Platformer
1 Player
System: 3DS
Developer: Hal Laboratory
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: September 14th, 2016

Kirby has always weirdly been in the background of my life without me ever realizing it. One of the few earliest memories I have is of Kirby's Adventure, I just remember the look of it with Kirby climbing up ladders. In the initial batch of Game Boy games I got with the handheld was Kirby's Dreamland. Kirby Super Star was one of my stand out all time favorite Super Nintendo games growing up. When I rented Kirby 64 one of the files had access to the final boss which fucked with my head. I played more Air Ride than Double Dash. Canvas Curse is one of the main reasons I wanted a DS. I don't really think about it too much, but I really love the series as a whole. In between games I tend to forget, but every time I play through them I absolutely adore my time with it. Canvas Curse, Squeak Squad, Mass Attack, and now Planet Robobot all bring me (a few difficult levels aside) nothing but joy while playing them. So yeah, spoilers, Planet Robobot is great.

Dem Bones: Into the Echoside

Into the Echoside
Dark Carnival Themed Deck Building Game
2-4 Players
Playtime: Under an hour, usually
Designer: Jumpsteady, Louis Simpson, Tom Wood
Publisher: Psychopathic Records
Year of Release: 2016

Surprisingly the Insane Clown Posse has had multiple forays into the world of games prior to this. Penedulum's Promise was a fairly rudimentary tabletop RPG. Morton's List, the end to boredom, was, well really just a big list where you rolled a die to see what you and some friends should do that day. The Quest for Shangri-La is this big mysterious entity to me that is way out of print and I think was drawn by one of the members of the group. And now Into the Echoside, a deck building game. I may have grown disillusioned with the band years ago and don't really enjoy their new music, but after getting really into the band and the "lore" they created for around five years I can't deny I have an affinity for that universe. Of course I had to pick it up.

Too Soon: Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online
STAR TREK MMO
MMO
System: Playstation 4
Developer: Cryptic Games
Year of Release: 2016 (Originally 2010)

This game came out right around the time I was heavily getting into Star Trek. I had always been a Star Wars kind of kid and aside from that one time my dead beat father got me a fucking Quark action figure (because hey! Star Something huh, you little twat) my experience with Star Trek was as close minded as the feud between the franchises would have led you to believe. Eventually in late high school I marathoned every episode of the original series and a convert was made. Well, not so much a convert. As an aside, of the seven deadly sins I most closely identify with gluttony. Not just literally, with food, but with media, and ideas. I just voraciously devour as much as fucking possible as quickly as I can. So, for me at least, there's room in my soul for Wars and some good old fashioned Trek.

Fangasm: Trumptendo

Trumptendo
Political Parody NES Romhacks
1 Players
System: PC
Developer: Jeff Hong
Year of Release: 2016
Trumptendo Games

I don't discuss politics on this blog often, if ever, because, well, I don't have much faith in them anymore. Especially with this year's election. However, Trump does provide some promising things. Such as being able to add him as the final boss in old NES classics. There isn't really much to say about these games, the Trumptendo series is literally just Trump plopped into classics. But I felt like it was a humorous enough concept to warrant me talking about it. Until Nintendo comes and DMCA's it because they forgot what fun fucking is.

Dem Bones: Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter
Zombie Survival
2-5 Players
Playtime: 30 Minutes to 2 Hours
Designer: Jonathan Gilmour, Isaac Vega
Publisher: Plaid Hat Games
Year of Release: 2014

It takes a while to stop dying in Dead of Winter. It took my group about five or six games before we actually won at all, much less with any frequency. It has an interesting learning curve, we honestly aren't sure what we're doing much different. For me at least I respond to problems as they come up while focusing on the group's current needs and being as stingy with items as possible. I thought that's what I did when we first started playing. But no. We usually wound up getting torn to shreds by the hoards of the undead.

Games I Beat: Until Dawn

Until Dawn
Story Driven Horror
1 Player
System: Playstation 4
Developer: Supermassive Games
Year of Release: 2015
Beaten: September 2nd, 2016

I don't technically enjoy this game. Until Dawn isn't really a game though. The bits I enjoyed were the same sort of bits I enjoyed in Telltale's Walking Dead series. Getting to take part in a movie is an interesting experience, but unfortunately it doesn't have any staying power. Being worth experiencing while not necessarily being worth owning can pose a bit of a problem. Although Red Box exists, but I've never used one and don't know how quickly games get removed from their catalogs. This is weekend rental movie, game, is what I'm trying to say.

DLC I Beat: Fallout 4 Season Pass

Fallout 4 Season Pass
Open World Shooty "RPG"
1 Player
System: Playstation 4
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Year of Release: 2015
Beaten: August 31st, 2016

It's a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in. In regards to how RPG's have become streamlined action games. In regards to Bethesda continual slide into mediocrity. In regards to how downloadable content is handled. In regards to the practice of overpricing games and downloadable content. In regards to the lack of communication in the world of video games. In regards to the Fallout series as a whole. In regards to the current elections. Truly, this is a time of chaos.

Fangasm: Super Smash Land

Super Smash Land
1-4 Players
System: PC
Developer: Dan Fornace
Year of Release: 2011
Download Here

The concept of the "demake" has always fascinated me. Trying to take a modern-er game and scaling it back to a previous generation can be an interesting experiment, both as a final product and as a learning process for the creator. Dan Fornace took his love for Super Smash Bros and trimmed it down to what is essentially an original Game Boy game. And it works.

#SaveConstantine

When Constantine first aired I really enjoyed the show. I recall thinking less favorably on some episodes, but overall I saw nothing but the basis for an excellent show. For anyone who paid it any attention you're probably aware of the drama surrounding it's possible cancellation and the (allegedly) immense fan outcry against that. Thus, #SaveConstantine was created and used to communicate just how many people enjoyed the show. It was one of the few times I bothered using a hashtag,  because Constantine could have, should have, grown into an excellent series. I planned on writing about the series then, but before I could they announced the show was officially cancelled and by then I didn't feel like thinking on it any further. Having re-watched the first, and only, season over the last couple of weeks I realize only now that Constantine didn't just have potential to become excellent, it already was.

DLC I Beat: Sunset Overdrive Season Pass

Sunset Overdrive Season Pass
Open World Hardcore Parkour Murder-fest
1 Player (More online)
System: Xbox One
Developer: Insomniac Games
Year of Release: 2014/2015
Beaten: July 8th, 2016

Having picked up Sunset Overdrive on the cheap, beating the game over the course of a few, long session, nights and loving the game (for the gameplay at least) lead me to really want to pick up the DLC once I realized there was actual content packs available. For twenty dollars you get about four hours of additional gameplay and a pack of weapons. For me, this was very much worth it, and to save you time, if you liked the base game, especially if you picked it up for the low ten dollar price point I managed to buy it for, this is well worth it. The only downside is the relatively short play time, but that's just kind of the times we're in now isn't it?

Games I Beat: Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive
Open World Hardcore Parkour Murder-fest
1 Player (More online)
System: Xbox One
Developer: Insomniac Games
Year of Release: 2014
Beaten: June 29th, 2016

From a strictly game play perspective this is exactly what I've been needing for a while now. You know when you're yearning for something in particular, though you aren't quite sure what that thing is? Sunset Overdrive scratched that itch for me. I don't know why this game wasn't more critically acclaimed. I guess it's because of how incredibly obnoxious every bit of the plot is, but seriously fuck all that. Playing Sunset Overdrive is pure fun fresh squeezed out of freshly picked joy.

Pit of Despair: The Crew

The Crew
Open World Racing Game
1 Player (More online)
System: Xbox One
Developer: Ubisoft
Year of Release: 2014

It's disheartening when you're playing a game and in order to keep yourself plugging along you find that you completely disregard the story and characters opting, instead, to substitute your own goals. So it was that The Crew, for me, was more about finding my way home from Chicago. How I got there, I'm not certain, but the Pacific Northwest was calling to me. The journey didn't take that long, but something was off. I couldn't find home.

XNA: PLATFORMANCE Castle Pain

Here’s a real gem of a game! Platformance: Castle Pain revels in how old school and punishing it is. See it’s deceivingly simple, and honestly the easier difficulties don’t prove to be much of a challenge at all. But once you crank up the difficulty, it becomes a gauntlet of countless deaths and infinite frustration. And it’s glorious.

XNA: Nuclear Wasteland 2030

I really want to open with "this game is garbage", because as much as I really hate this game, it's not technically garbage. Pointless, not great.. but not garbage. The main problem is that this game has no real reason to exist. It's an FPS for a dollar, and boy do you get what you pay for.

XNA: Breath of Death VII

How about we kick this off with the game that cemented my faith in the Indie channel in the first place? Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, a retro style RPG that parody’s pop culture and the RPG’s of days long gone. It might not sound terribly exciting, and truthfully I’m one of the few people who still really enjoy JRPG’s, but it really is amazing.

XNA: Intro to Xbox Indie Games

(I originally posted these on another blog back in December of 2010 and early 2011. Really though it didn't make much sense to have another blog, and was very short lived anyway. So I plan on posting the four entries about Xbox Indie Games here starting with this introduction. I also may, or may not, finish the last review of another indie game I was planning way back then, but maybe not. This might lead to more Xbox indie games getting covered, or is a cheap ploy to post more. You decide!)

Triggered: The Metroid Series

Every so often I find a podcast that I really enjoy and binge listen to it. Bonfire-side chat is a Souls-centric podcast that I discovered when they had just started diving into Dark Souls II. I wound up forgetting about them waiting for them to finish covering the game, and recently stumbled upon them again. They do appendix episodes between most regular episodes to cover listener questions and whatever else. In Appendix 55: 3D Dot Heroes one of their listener's raised a point about how they felt Metroid isn't actually a good video game series, but that it has one great game. I'm here to say, fuck that person.

Road to Justice: An Unjust Path

Simply put, I just don't give a shit anymore.

Dem Bones: Cat Tower

Cat Tower
Reverse Jenga
2-6 Players
Playtime: 15 Minutes
Designer: Aza Chen
Publisher: IDW Games
Year of Release: 2013

For a while now I've been fairly interested in board games. Sure as a kid I played plenty of the standard cavalcade of games, Monopoly, Sorry, Yahtzee, Apples to Apples, Clue, etc. And I think everyone's played Cards Against Humanity by now. But I've always been aware of this larger world of hobby board gaming. Sporadically I'd read or watch reviews and wish I had money to try some of these games out. Slowly, but surely, I've finally started amassing a collection. So let's start off with a kid's game that is essentially backwards Jenga! Meow!

Games I Beat: Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III
Action RPG Lore 'Em Up
1-3 Players via summons
System: Playstation 4
Developer: From Software
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: April 29th, 2016

Dark Souls has quickly ascended the ranks and become one of my absolute favorite series, including precursor Demon's Souls and spin-off Bloodborne. There's just something about the world From Soft has managed to craft that speaks to me, even the least liked of the series, II, was an amazing game in my opinion that I played through several times. This is one of the few series where I say "fuck it" and purchase the outrageously expensive collector's editions (glad I skipped that "Estus" Prima guide bullshit though) because of just how much I know I'll connect to these games. Even at their absolute worst they provide an interesting world with fun, engaging combat. Dark Souls III is no different

Pit of Despair: Pokkén Tournament

Pokkén Tournament
Pokémon Fighting Game!!??!!!
1-2 Players
System: Wii U
Developer: Bandai Namco
Year of Release: 2016

Don't be fooled by the title, Pit of Despair doesn't mean these games are horrible, just that they let me down in a big way. And oh, how Pokkén Tournament let me down.

Freemium Perdition: Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest

Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest
Match-3 "RPG"
1 Player
System: Android
Developer: D3PA
Year of Release: 2015

I didn't think I would wind up writing another Freemium Perdition, then something comes along and proves me wrong. I think it's telling that instead of keeping me engaged for a few months, and even longer (though in shorter bursts), this one only held my interest for a few weeks. Although I think I'll continue to play sporadically. Magic the Gathering takes two franchises I'm a fairly big fan of. Magic the Gathering is a rich universe that's been around almost as long as I have, I've been playing off an on for sixteen years now (I hate already being able to feel old) and for anyone who's a fan of tabletop games it's well worth checking. I'll never advocate for organized play, but getting a decent collection and playing with customize decks against friends is ideal (for my friends and I at least). Mix that with Puzzle Quest, which made match-3 puzzle games appeal to me on a grander scale (although the series basically died for me personally after the first when none of the sequels seemed to keep up with it's lofty ideas), and you've got a great idea.

DLC I Beat: Automatron

Fallout 4: Automatron
Open World Shooty "RPG"
1 Player
 System: Playstation 4
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Year of Release: 2016
Beaten: March 22nd, 2016

Where has the time gone? I sincerely apologize for my lack of attention to this blog, but life has gotten the better of me. Rather than lament that, let's just move ever forward shall we? Fallout 4 is a weird game for me, I remember it fondly and had quite a bit of fun with the plethora of hours I dumped into it, but it felt lacking to me overall. This feeling manages to persist in this first bit of DLC, though it honestly surprised me quite a bit.

Freemium Perdition: Pocket Mortys

Pocket Mortys
Morty Collecting RPG
1 Player
System: Android
Developer: adult swim games
Year of Release: 2016

Rick and Morty was one of the many shows I was regrettably late to the party on watching. Luckily this meant that I had two full season to indulge myself with in one massive sitting. It was lovely. Season two didn't quite live up to the first for me (why did Rick stop stuttering so much?) but I'm here to talk about Pocket Mortys, not the show at large. This is a brilliant idea for a game based on this property. Rick travels through dimensions forcing his Morty to fight other Rick's (and various other aliens) going around collecting their own Mortys to fight with. Not only is it heavily inspired by, but it basically just rips off Pokemon wholesale. And it works well.

Moving Forward 2016

I have a lot planned, which usually ends poorly for me, but I'm hoping to set myself up with a lot of opportunities so that even if I miss a few I still land a few others. Firstly, I'll be going back to college almost as soon as the New Year hits, so a lot of my time will be devoured by that. Losing weight, or at least a bigger focus on personal health is another one of my major goals, it's something I've been putting off for far too long now, and I know it'd really improve many aspects of my life. I also have many "projects" I'm working on (a campaign setting for a tabletop game, making a board game, writing a book, some blog related things, starting a youtube channel, that Pokemon rom hack, and a few other possibilities come to mind) and I've decided to make sure to complete at least one of these in 2016, or at least make damn good progress, I'm leaning towards making a board game, but I'm still not totally sure. I want to travel too, not far, just around, which will require me getting my shit together financially in order to pull that off, I'm hoping that will be feasible this year, but that's kind of a toss up. There are some other minor goals, like cook more, continue playing DnD and continue writing for this blog as much as I can of course. Speaking of this blog, here's some plans I have for It Is A Title this year.