Before I get into the meat of this blog, I think I should address my previous blog here. I was having a really bad day emotionally, and feeling really depressed. Not the first time it's happened (not by a long shot), and (unfortunately) it probably won't be the last time either, but these things happen. And while feeling so down and out, I wrote that blog, and put it on the site.
I do also want to thank everyone that commented, your kind words did help. Quite a bit, actually. And some fun days of doing stuff with other people have helped as well since then, so I'm doing much better overall (despite some other stuff going wrong, but that's neither here nor there).
Now that I've got that out of the way, let me get down to business. The "theme" of this blog is "Games that I mostly really like but get quite frustrating in parts, mostly at the end." And by "theme" I mean it applies to two of the games.
Anyway, you know what I mean, right? You'll be cruising along through a game, having a blast, and then suddenly there's a weird difficulty spike. Sometimes they're completely arbitrary and out of nowhere, and sometimes it's the final boss, which was the case for these games I recently played.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
In retrospect, I'm a little surprised that I didn't play this game sooner. I mean, it speaks to me on several levels. First off: Nazis. Not only does this game have a higher Nazis per minute quotient than any game that I've played since Call of Duty 2, it also uses Nazis better than any other game I've played. See, in most games with Nazis, they just use Nazis as an easy way to make sure that the player wants to defeat the enemy. Granted, in most games where you fight Nazis, it's set in World War II, which makes shooting Nazis make sense. It makes less sense when it's something like Nazi zombies, or what have you, but never mind that, those are also zombies.
Wolfenstein, on the other hand, spends quite a lot of time (at least by first person shooter standards) on the actual beliefs of the Nazis (in a negative fashion, of course, because Nazis were assholes), and even (SPOILER) has a level that takes place inside a concentration camp. Though, from what I've read about the actual concentration camps, it doesn't really come close to showing what it was actually like (and to be fair, it's not really doing that, given the setting of the game being after the war, and what the camp in question is doing in the story of the game). And I really like that the game does present these things, even if the end goal is still, "Just shoot these Nazis unless you feel like stabbing them, which is also cool."
It's important to keep that stuff in mind, because if you don't, it's real easy to fall down the, "Nazis are kinda cool" hole, especially in this game where they have plenty of cool stuff. There's robots, cyborg dogs, giant robots, lasers, and even a base on the moon! You take out the Nazi part of it, and suddenly they seem like a pretty cool bunch. But they're still assholes. And while Hitler himself is not actually in the game (fingers crossed for the sequel), I think Wolfenstein does a pretty good job of making you really dislike the villains in the game. There wasn't a single one of them that I didn't want to stab and or shoot by the end of the game. Of course, there's only a small handful of named villains in the game, it's not like Batman where there's a whole crew of bad guys with weird gimmicks waiting for a piece of BJ Blazkowics.
I only mention this stuff because I know I've had a weird relationship with Nazis in my life. Which is not to say that I've ever met a real life Nazi, mind you. It's just, well, I guess it starts with my dad. See, he was raised back in a time where people amused themselves by going outside and playing with friends. I know, weird, right? Anyway, whenever they would do things like play "cowboys and Indians," or "Americans and Germans," he always played the bad guys, namely the Indians and the Germans. And while Native Americans (as I usually prefer to call them) are proud peoples with storied histories and traditions, Nazis are still kinda just assholes. But, getting back on point, my dad (no, he's not a Nazi, I'm heading that off now) grew up with that, "Sympathy for the bad guy" kind of thing, and he ended up passing it on to me. It's why I (especially as a kid) wound up rooting for the bad guys in a lot of movies, whether it was Darth Vader and the empire in Star Wars, or the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (shut up, I was like three years old the first time I watched that movie).
And, when you grow up with Hogan's Heroes, The Blues Brothers, and Indiana Jones as your reference points for Nazis, it becomes easy to think they're kinda cool. I mean, once I got into middle school, and started actually learning about WWII (at that point mostly from the History Channel, back when it was actually a halfway decent source for shows about actual history), I very quickly realized that Nazis are, in fact, not cool. But even so, it's hard to completely remove all that stuff from your head after so many years, and I still find myself thinking things like, "Nazis make every [piece of fiction] better!" I actually heard my dad say something like that just last week. He, however, doesn't specify that it's just in fiction (again, he's not a Nazi), even though that's what he means.
Not to get this even further off topic, but this same "Nazis make things better" mindset even weaseled its way into one of my books. When I started writing SPACE COPS 5000, I ended up including Space Nazis as one of the "factions" in the book. It started mostly as a joke, but as I got further into the book, as the result of a lot of other things in my life outside of book writing, video games, etc, I ended up feeling more depressed, and "darker," and the book went darker as well. And as it did, I eventually decided to make the Nazis more...Well, I've gotten enough off topic, I'll just say that I did my best to make the Nazis in there not JUST a joke. I feel like if I don't, I'll be getting dangerously close to just full on advertising for my book, which was not the point.
The point, was that as someone that has gotten dangerously close over the years to liking Nazis, it was nice to play a game that was very up front and forward with the fact that Nazis are assholes. I'm glad the Nazis weren't just there for a punchline, or because they're easy villains. I mean, that's why they were in the original Wolfenstein games, but I'm happy that Machine Games decided to go above and beyond what they needed to in order to make a Wolfenstein game, even if at the end of the day, it's still a game about dual wielding automatic shotguns and blasting Nazis to pieces.
Speaking of Machine Games, playing this game reminded me that I've still never played Starbreeze's good games, from "back in the day." If you don't know, my understanding is that a bunch of people left Starbreeze (makers of games like The Chronicles of Riddick: Butcher Bay, and The Darkness) to go form the core of Machine Games. And while I haven't played those games, I can tell that this new Wolfenstein feels like a Starbreeze games. Certainly more so than the LASTStarbreeze game (man, I really did not like that one). Those other games aren't known for the parts where you shoots things, they're known for atmosphere, and for the parts where you AREN'T shooting things. And while I would still say that a majority of Wolfenstein is about shooting things, it still has a lot more not shooting things than most first person shooters.
While I definitely appreciate that, it doesn't always work. There's one level in the game where a decent chunk of it involves piloting a small watercraft through some flooded tunnels while you turn some things, and pull a lever or two. It's literally as exciting as my description of it. Actually, most of the not shooting things parts of the game aren't great. Well, that's not true. The objectives that you have during them aren't great. They're usually really simple and boring things like finding a thing. But having an opportunity to walk around for a few minutes, talk to people, and explore? That I really like.
I kinda wish this game had been set up a little more like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. That was a game that overall I really loved (one of my favorites of last generation), but also a game that had a lot of issues. But maybe the thing I loved most about it was the "flow" of the game. It was part stealth game, and part RPG. There were cities (small, but still cities) that you walked around in when not on missions. There were larger stealth missions that moved the story forward, and smaller side missions that often involved a mix of some stealth, with some more RPG type stuff like dialog trees.
I'm not saying that Wolfenstein needs to become an RPG (though I'm not saying I wouldn't be all for it), but if the game had leaned more into that sort of stuff, with a bigger area to explore, and more meaningful things to do in those non-shooting parts of the game, I would have really liked that. And maybe if they make a sequel, and are given enough time/money, they might do something more along those lines in the next game. Even if it doesn't turn out exactly as intended, I still think it would be fascinating to see.
Boy, I sure did get off topic, didn't I? I was planning on writing about games getting frustrating, and how hard the end boss of this game was. I dunno, I feel like the stuff I did write about is more interesting than, "Hey they made the end boss hard because it's the end of the game."
That's about all I have to say about the game without getting into the nitty gritty of game play mechanics. For the most part, I think it's a really fun, and well playing shooter. It feels good, most of the guns sound good, and the ones that don't, don't for a reason (either silenced, or are lasers). The one thing I would definitely change in the game play department would be to add either a complete pause, or some level of slow motion when using the weapon wheel to select weapons in the game. It's not game breaking or anything, but I do feel like it would have been better with something like that.
Anyway, it's a really fun game, and a really interesting game in a lot of ways. I wouldn't really call it a looker, because it really (at least on PS4) just looks like an up-rezzed last gen game, but it ran well, for the most part, so I'm fine with that. But if you haven't played this game, it's definitely worth your time. Maybe not for $60, but you can probably find it for cheaper than that if not now, then soon. I got it for $30.
Sorry, I just couldn't resist.
PixelJunk Shooter: Ultimate
This game was free on PlayStation Plus, so I downloaded it, and have been playing it here and there ever since then. It was only yesterday that I actually beat it. But, perhaps the better place to start would be in what this game is.
See, PixelJunk Shooter was a PS3 game, one that I got for free, as my second PS3 (which I bought after my first decided to stop reading Blu-ray discs (games and movies)) came with a download code for it (and a copy of Uncharted 2, which I already owned, but that's irrelevant). And then PixelJunk Shooter 2 came out a while later, which I also played. I enjoyed both, but both ended up being kinda frustrating in parts.
But I didn't remember HOW frustrating until I played Ultimate. Ultimate isn't a new game, it's those two PixelJunk Shooter games redone for PS4, and combined into one game. And I must say, they definitely did change up the graphics quite a bit. It definitely looks like a new game, and for the most part, I like the graphical changes. The interface is better overall, and the various fluids in the game look and move better than before. I dunno that I would say it looks like something the PS3 couldn't have done, but I would say that overall, I like the look of it better than the originals.
I haven't actually gone back and played the originals since then (but I did re-watch the Quick Looks for both), so I don't really know what, if any, changes were made to the feel of the game, or the actual levels. I didn't really pay THAT much attention to the Quick Looks, I just wanted to hear Vinny say "fluid dynamics." But I do still really enjoy the core game play of the PixelJunk Shooter.
If you don't know, it's a 2D game where you fly a ship through caves looking for scientists and diamonds. You need to rescue the scientists to proceed to the next part of the level, and you need to find enough diamonds to unlock more levels. And generally speaking, it's not super difficult to find all the scientists, and all the diamonds. I didn't, because I think I missed one scientist (a secret, named one, of which there is one on each level), and I missed ten or so diamonds (there's over 450 total, I think). But getting enough to proceed isn't too much of a challenge.
But that's not to call the game easy. You can die pretty quickly, and the game isn't big on checkpoints. Once you enter a part of a level, there are no checkpoints until you find the scientists, and go to the next part of the level (there's seven parts per each level). Some go quickly, others don't, and having to redo four or five minutes of carefully flying around enemies and magma gets tedious quickly when I keep dying on something stupid because I refuse to not get diamonds, even though I had way more than enough to proceed to the next level.
And then there's the final boss of the game. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I was being quite vocal with how much trouble I was having. The worst part was that I had already beaten that boss at the end of PixelJunk Shooter 2, at which point I probably thought, "Well, at least I never have to do that again."
It's more than a little funny, in retrospect, especially given that my thoughts were, again, "Well at least I never have to do that again." At least not until they decide to remake it again for PS5.
But, frustrations aside, I still had a lot of fun with it, despite those issues. And the music. Man, I just don't get the music in there. WAY too much hip hop in there. And that end of level bit of music? TERRIBLE! Hate it! But I never have to listen to it again, right...?
If you have PS+, and remembered to redeem this game, I'd say it's worth your time. Maybe not if you already played those games on PS3. Hard to say if you only played the first one. Ultimate isn't set up to let you go straight into the stuff from the second game. You have to play through the first one first. Makes sense for people that haven't played it before, but I could definitely see there being people that played the first, but not the second, and who would like to just jump into those levels. But I'm not one of those people, so oh well!
Towerfall: Ascension
Here's the last game on this here blog of mine. It's another free on PlayStation Plus special, but a much more recent one (this month). At first I was a little miffed that this was going to be one of the games, not because I didn't want to play it. Quite the opposite, but my reaction was that I would probably not have many chances to play it with people (which is probably going to be true in the long run). If you don't know, I live with my dad (no job, out of college), and while I could probably play with him, I dunno how much he'd like it, and I haven't really done that in years. And I don't have friends over very often.
BUT, last week my sister came over for a few hours, and I decided to try playing it with her. And we had an absolutely blast, and must have played about four hours straight. It's a pretty simple game, all things told, so I don't really have much to say other than I was surprised at how much fun we had, even with only two players. I was impressed with how I was able to jury rig some "handicaps" to even the playing field a bit. My sister isn't particularly great at video games (about all she plays is Burnout Paradise, which she loves, but isn't great at), and I am pretty good at games, so it was either that, or go so easy on her that I wasn't having a ton of fun. But the game has a lot of options for turning things on an off, and for doing it on a player by player basis. So, I was able to turn off seeking arrows for me, and turn on a shield, max arrows, and wings (for flying) for her, which ended up making it a lot more even. And like I said, we both had a ton of fun.
Unfortunately, she doesn't come over as often as I'd like, partly because of Towerfall, but mostly because she is my sister, and I should spend more time with her than I do. And for the foreseeable future, I don't foresee many opportunities for be playing this game with other people. My friend was saying that we should do a "local multiplayer games" night or something, but given that we recently were able to go through the end of MGS4 together (it was his first time), I doubt we'll get around to it any time soon. It might not make a lot of sense, but just trust me when I say that we're terrible at organizing things, and getting around to doing things with each other.
Also, if you want a fun time, find someone that is receptive to the type of insanity that is MGS, and watch that person play through the end of MGS4. It was a ton of fun to go through that stuff with him.
Sooooooo good. (You get what I mean, friend of mine).
I think that's about it for the stuff I have to write about. I haven't really made any progress on my book, but I'm not going to give up on it. Just need a little time away before I plow back into it. Been seeing some movies, and I'm going to see more in the near future, but I'm not really into talking about movies. That's not my thing. At least not the whole, analyzing movies thing. I could go on about dumb movies, and dumb stuff in dumb movies that I like for dumb reasons, but I'm not going to.
I do, however, have plans for my next blog. I have a bunch of PS3 games that I got on PS+ over the last few months that I never got around to playing, and I feel like they might make for a good, rapid fire blog. So, look forward to that!
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