PlayStation Plus Catch Up!

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MooseyMcMan

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Edited By MooseyMcMan  Online

I had been meaning to write this last week, before the Destiny Beta, but you know how these sorts of things tend to go. Anyway, the idea was that I had a whole bunch of PlayStation Plus games that I hadn't gotten around to playing, so I was going to play them all (to completion or otherwise), and write something about all of them. And I will do that, but don't be surprised if the bulk of this is just me gushing over every aspect of Destiny, but that'll be for the second part of the blog. Anyway, here's the PS+ Catch up!

Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt.

And, of course, the PS+ Catch up starts with a game that was not a PS+ game. But, it was on sale for under $5 with PS+, and I played it in the near past, so shut up, I'm writing about this game. Anyway, if you didn't catch the Quick Look of the 3DS version of the game, this is a game where you play as a future old west robot that does some mining and stuff. It's pretty good, and looks nice on PS4. Not really a whole lot else to say about it, other than that I really liked the level of customization for the controls. You don't see that in a lot of console games these days, but I really like it when games let me do things like that. Ideally, I don't have to, but sometimes default control schemes just aren't exactly how I'd make them. This was one of those games, and I ended up switching around a couple of the buttons.

Verdict: Really fun game that I completed.

Skullgirls Encore.

Okay, now I'm into the games that I got free on PS+, and more or less in the order that I tried them in. I wasn't sure what to make of this game before playing it. I mean, I enjoy most fighting games. Not great at them, but I enjoy them. I did not enjoy what I played of this game. Granted, I did not spend a lot of time with this game, so it's very possible (and likely, I'll say) that more time spent would have led to a greater understanding of the game.

That said, even going through the tutorial, it just felt like something was off. It's hard to put into words, but I just didn't care for the feel, or flow of the game at all. Fighting games are no fun to me if I can't get into a good flow, and I didn't here. Also, I wasn't able to pull off quarter circle forwards with the d-pad, so I was switching back and forth between the d-pad and the stick, which seemed like a bad way to play. And it's a six button fighting game, which makes sense for arcade sticks, but not for controllers. Having to go to the shoulder buttons for regular attack buttons in this sort of game is not something that I enjoy doing. It's the thing that stopped me from wanting to keep trying Street Fighter IV the one time I played Street Fighter IV with my then-college roommate, and at least in that game, I was able to get something resembling a flow with a couple of the characters, even without using the shoulder buttons much.

Verdict: Didn't like it much, will probably delete it.

Mutant Mudds Deluxe.

Like Steamworld Dig, I believe this game falls under the category of "started as a 3DS game, later ported to console." I think. Anyway, this is probably something you've never heard of or conceived before, but this game is a "retro-platformer." That means it's meant to look and play like a game from a much older generation of consoles. I know, it's a new and radical idea, but that wasn't enough to keep me interested for more than a few levels. The look wasn't the problem, it was the stiff platforming that was the problem. I can see why some people might like that type of platforming, but I'm not one of them.

Verdict: It's okay, but I'm not coming back for more.

Thomas Was Alone.

This game is interesting in that it is literally the most conceptually boring idea for a game (jumping rectangles) married with halfway decent narration. Apparently narrated by the British guy from the Assassin's Creed games (you know who I mean if you've played them), which I didn't realize until after I beat the game and looked up who it was. I needed to, because I knew he sounded familiar, but couldn't put my finger on it through the game. And it's decent narration, with some decent writing. Actually, if the game didn't have the narration, I probably wouldn't have played it through to the end. I didn't care for most of the actual game play, and I reallydid not like the music in the game. It didn't help that I had to turn the music down to 40% to get it quiet enough that I could clearly hear what the narrator was saying. I get wanting to have your music loud, but unless you're Deadly Premonition, and have the greatest soundtrack in the history of man, don't make it so loud that it almost drown outs the dialog. Also don't make it terrible.

Verdict: Finished it, enjoyed it enough. Could have been a little shorter, if anything.

Doki-Doki Universe.

When I started "playing" this "game," I fully expected it to be something stupid that I would give up on after an hour. So, naturally, I not only played it to completion, I played it to 100% completion, both in terms of in game stuff, and the Trophies. Well, not if you count the DLC, of which I played none, but I cleared out all the non-add-on stuff. There's a few different reasons why I spent my time 100%-ing this game. One of them is that I have way too much free time on my hands, and I make a lot of dumb decisions.

But the real reason is that I actually enjoyed the game a fair amount. Yes, it's really simple, really easy, and in a lot of ways, pretty clearly designed for kids. But it's also one of the strangest and most absurd games I've ever played. This is a game about an abandoned alien and his friend balloon (named Balloon) that get picked up by a guy named Alien Jeff (who comments how he thinks it's weird that his parents named him "Alien") who tells the robot (named QT3-something something) that he needs to acquire humanity to prevent his model of robot from being recalled and destroyed. And to do that, he must travel the stars atop steeds like flying pigs, and a flying cheeseburger with eyes. As he goes from planet to planet, he must do various tasks for the people there, to get a better understanding of what humanity is.

QT3 has the ability to summon objects out of thin air (he uses Dust Bunnies as his energy source, which you have to replenish occasionally, but the only time I ever ran out was intentional, to get a Trophy), and those are the main collectibles in the game. New objects to summon, that is. It's a great concept, but most of the puzzles are very simple, because as I said before, the game is clearly aimed at kids. Nothing wrong with that, and in a way, I kinda liked the game's cutesy style, and...naivety. That's not to say the game isn't cynical at all, because some parts of it are (especially Alien Jeff, who does have some legitimately really funny stuff in the game). But it was really refreshing to play such an optimistic and happy game. It was great to play a game where one of the main ways to interact with NPCs is to blow kisses at them, or hug them.

It warmed my cold, dark heart, just a little bit. Then again, sometimes you have to make NPCs hate you to get their collectibles, which I think goes completely against the rest of the game in a way that I don't think is cool. Especially when one of the planets in the game is explicitly trying to teach you that bullying is bad. If I was going to change anything about the game, it'd be to remove that. It just feels completely out of place. It's not for most NPCs, but it still doesn't feel right.

Verdict: Fun, silly, and worth some of your time just for the personality quizzes, which I didn't mention above, but were pretty cool.

No Caption Provided

Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark.

Now, if you know me (and you probably do if you're reading this), then you know that I like stealth games. A lot. So, you're probably thinking that I would enjoy this game, because it has stealth right in the title. Or, at least you were until I started writing this, because why would I be writing this way if I enjoyed it? Well, the answer is that I didn't care for this game much, so you were write, I didn't enjoy it. It's not terrible, but it didn't appeal to me in the way that the stealth games that I like do. Really, it's not like them at all, aside from the stealth.

This is a 2D side scroller where you have to avoid cameras, turrets, etc. I like 3D stealth games where you have to spend a bunch of time observing enemies, sneaking around, knocking dudes out, etc. Stealth Inc is a puzzle game, not a stealth game. I certainly like a fair number of puzzle games, but I didn't find the puzzles here enjoyable, so I didn't play a ton of it. Maybe it gets better later one, I don't know, but I lost interest. Also, I didn't like the music.

Verdict: I might try some more of it in the future, but probably not.

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut.

The first thing I noticed about this game was that I hate the art style. It takes pixelated to the extreme, and then some. I could barely tell what anything was in this game. At least at first, I kinda got used to it after a little while. But even then, I didn't enjoy it very much. I mean, this game's not bad, I'm not going to knock it, but I just don't like survival-horror stuff very much, and I got lost very easily when I was playing this game. And unlike something like Resident Evil, this game didn't have hilarious voice acting to keep me playing in spite of the lack of interest in the game, so I stopped playing

Verdict: Not my thing, but conceptually sound.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

I was not expecting this, but this ended up being the one I was the most disappointed in. Despite never having played any of the Sly Cooper games before, I was expecting to enjoy this game. I didn't. Well, I did enjoy some of this game. See, when playing as Sly (or one of his ancestors), the game is pretty good. It's got simple platforming, and simple stealth. It works, and it's fun.

Everything else about the game seemed pretty bad. Playing as Bentley the Turtle would have been passable if not for his atrocious voice acting, and the hippo (whose name I don't remember) didn't even have passable game play to go along with the voice acting. Okay, real talk. I know I'm the guy who always picks dubs over subs, and has talked a big game about how I always think that voice acting is better than no voice acting, because I think bad voice acting is funny.

This is the game that proved me wrong. Oh man, the level of HATE I have for Bentley's voice is something that I have not felt toward a video game in some time. It's not just the actual performance, it's how he never stops talking! And how he's talking to himself about in game mechanics when a simple box with a sentence of text could appear on screen and tell me what I need to know in a quarter of the time! AAAAARGH.

It's too bad too, because if this game was just the sneaking and platforming with Sly and the Coopers of yore, I would have played it beyond the first "world." And hey, maybe it gets way better past there, but I doubt I will see it.

Verdict: The best part of this game is that there is a ninja named Rioichi Cooper.

Vessel.

This game is all right. It's a side scrolling puzzle solving game with fluid dynamics, and it's enjoyable. I don't care for the art style much, and I was getting some weird slow down in spots, but I was enjoying it. Not really much else to say, there is a Quick Look on the site if you really want to know more about the game part of it.

Verdict: Cool, and a game I will return to later when I'm not playing stuff I'm more interested in. Probably.

Puppeteer.

Like Doki-Doki Universe, I'm surprised as how much I'm enjoying this game. I haven't finished it yet, far from it, but I was having fun with it before Destiny took over my life (more on that later). Also like Doki-Doki Universe, a lot of what I enjoyed was in the absurdity of the game. It's non-stop ridiculous in a way that I wished more games were, and I think it has a great art style to match it. The part where it's a game isn't as good, and some of the writing is a little hokey, but overall I enjoy it.

Verdict: I'll come back to play more of it in the future.

I think that's it for the recent PS+ games that I've been playing. You know what? Despite teasing about writing about Destiny here, I'm not going to do that. This blog is long enough as is, and I'll wait until after the Destiny Beta ends before I write about how obsessed with the game I am. Sorry. Here's a picture of one of the characters I created in the Beta. Also, it's a dude.

No Caption Provided

Look forward to that, and more, in my next blog!

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Fredchuckdave

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#1  Edited By Fredchuckdave

I've gotten back into Dark Arisen since I was busy playing regular Dragon's Dogma when that went on PS+; and its been pretty sweet. Dragon's Dogma always feels a little off, like you're somehow exploiting the system by succeeding because ordinarily the pawns are super retarded and virtually everything kills you in 2 hits on hard. Its nonstop creative usage of game mechanics more or less.

Stealth Inc is one of the best games to be on PS+ this year, stick with it; fun platformer/puzzle game with mild stealth elements. It can be tough but there's only one moment that I thought was unnecessarily precise with weird controls, the rest is reasonably fair game (obviously you have to play somewhat perfectly to win). Fantastic music.

Thomas Was Alone is really short so I guess if it was 5 minutes that would be ideal?

Skullgirls seems to work fine for controllers. I had fun 100%'ing it. For multiplayer it just depends if memorizing 50 buttons long strings is your thing or not (the timing isn't difficult), e.g.:

0:00- Lightweights, Vial, ~7.4k

c.lk, c.mk (1), c.hp, j.lk (1 hit), j.hp, j.hk , AD, j.mp (2), j.hk, j.lp , j.mp (2), j.hk, vial toss, dash, s.lp (3), s.lk, s.mp (2), s.mk, s.hk (3) xx HK Bypass xx EKG Flatliner

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ShaggE

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I am so, so with you on Bentley's voice. I had to mute the game after ten minutes just to keep playing.

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Karthas

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Mutant Mudds I had no intention or inclination to like as the whole "Masochistic Platformer" trend of late (1001 Spikes, Super Meat Boy, They Bleed Pixels, etc) just hold no appeal for me, but it felt like a Fisher Price "My First Difficult Platformer" and that stuck with me for some reason. Being on the Vita, it was fun to pick up anytime I had a few spare minutes and crank out a level or two, to the point where I just went and 100%'d the thing.

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csl316

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Oh, right, reminds me that I've had Space Marine waiting on me for a couple years.

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MooseyMcMan

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#5 MooseyMcMan  Online

@csl316 said:

Oh, right, reminds me that I've had Space Marine waiting on me for a couple years.

That's a good one too!

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GunstarRed

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#6  Edited By GunstarRed

I've been playing the HD Sly collection games on and off for what feels like two years now and I cannot stand any of the voice acting. It is really , really poor. I don't find any of the characters charming in that series. I would have downloaded Thieves in Time on PS+ if it wasn't so huge. I cannot for the life of me understand why the filesize for that game is so huge, 21 GB is absurd. The HD collection games are also really, really big for some reason.

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rorie

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Anyone else find it a little difficult to actually find the PS+ free games on the store? Everytime I go to look for them it feels like they're really obfuscated.

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MooseyMcMan

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#8  Edited By MooseyMcMan  Online

@rorie: I do all my PlayStation Store stuff on the website, which is a little easier to navigate. I think it's store.sonyentertainmentnetwork or something along those lines.

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Lucifunk

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@rorie: The website is much easier to find them on and you can tell them download from there too:

https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-us/free-games/cid=STORE-MSF77008-PSPLUSFREEGAMES

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Fredchuckdave

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@csl316: Its okay. Space Marines! Space Marines? Space Marines.

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I_Stay_Puft

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@rorie: Finding the backlog on the psn store, yes. I agree with @lucifunk and go to the sony entertainment network store to make purchases so much easier to find stuff using it.

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Shindig

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Playstation Plus is arguably the only way I'll be seeing new games on my console for the next couple of months. Maybe longer if Pro Evo turns out to be a complete lemon.

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Nodima

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#13  Edited By Nodima

@rorie said:

Anyone else find it a little difficult to actually find the PS+ free games on the store? Everytime I go to look for them it feels like they're really obfuscated.

no. on the PS3 and PS4 once you go to the Playstation Plus tab there is a Free Games sub-tab. I think they've made it a little more awkward to navigate with the huge (and admittedly pretty) art tabs instead of the more simple 3x3 table they'd been using forever, but it's pretty obvious where the free games are.

If you're talking banked games you saved for later (or for hard drive space), then yea that's harder because you have to scroll the slow-loading, awkward My Downloads/Library tab. I also don't like that the search engine resets what letter you were on every time, sometimes I think that'd be faster to find a game I either bought or banked before but it takes just about as long sometimes if there are a lot of things with similar names (like Walking Dead).

I also had an issue with some games on PS3 that it'd say I purchased, when truthfully all I did was play that Playstation Plus Free Game Trial or the demo. But I haven't looked at those games in a while so I'm not sure it still says that; I'd bet it does.