Last month, as you may remember, was kind of disappointing for me, in terms of the PS+ games. I mean, I try not to complain about "free" games that are a part of a service that I'd pay for anyway (given the amount of games I've been playing online the last few months), but it was not up to the usual level of quality that I've come to expect from PS+. Or, I guess that's still not being fair. I didn't really care for those games.
This month, however, was surprisingly good! I still have some issues with some of this stuff, but I definitely enjoyed them much more than the ones last month. But enough beating around the bush, let us beat into the bush!
I lied! More beating around the bush! So, I actually wrote this blog (or most of it) a while ago. To be specific, it was even before the last blog I put up on the site (about the Metal Gear games on MSX). The problem is that I couldn't play Ether One, because that game didn't have an option to invert the y-axis. However, the developers said that a patch was coming to address that, so I decided to wait on publishing this until they did that, and I had a chance to play it. The problem is that patch didn't end up coming until after Witcher 3, so instead I'm publishing this now, along with this and maybe something at the end added on.
That said, given that I've already played two of next month's PS+ games (Ground Zeroes and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger), having one more to play for that month's PS+ blog actually works out well. Anyway, enjoy this blog that I wrote a couple weeks ago! Mostly! You might think that I would have taken that opportunity to proofread any of what I wrote here, but you'd be wrong!
Race The Sun.
Race The Sun is one of those games that is pretty simple, doesn't have a whole lot about it that I can really write about, and yet I enjoyed it a lot. All you do in it is steer a solar powered plane as you fly toward the sun, trying to get as far as you can before sunset. And when I say steer, I mean all you normally have is left and right movement, no up and down.
Of course, there is more to it than that. There's pickups that increase your score (which is constantly raising anyway) and increase your multiplier, and there's powerups that either grant you a jump, or teleport you out of danger should you ram into something (normally instant death). And there's a pickup that gives you a speed boost AND makes the sun go a little higher in the sky (thus extending the amount of time you have). There's upgrades to equip too, like a magnet that increases the range at which you collect items, better steering of the plane, or being able to hold more powerups at once (IE, three jumps instead of one).
Three different modes, two of which are endless, and one that isn't (the one that isn't has a different perspective, which is neat). It's simple, but fun. One interesting layer is that the layout of the levels change every day. It's like the daily challenge in a game like Spelunky, except instead of never seeing it again after you make a stupid mistake and die, it stays that level for the rest of the day. That lets you practice up on it and know your way around some stuff if you play for that long in one sitting. Which, the first time I played it, I played for like three hours straight, or something. But I also got all the upgrades and unlocked all the modes, so I also kinda did most of everything in the game.
Though, to be fair, I never did finish the mode than has an end, so I can't honestly say I've done everything. Will I ever finish it? I dunno, probably not. But this is a fun game, and it's worth checking out. At least for free, I dunno how much I'd pay for it in cash money dollars.
Unfinished Swan.
Unlike Race The Sun, which I knew nothing about beforehand, I did at least know a little about this game. I knew it was that first person adventure-y type game where you shot out balls of paint (not to be confused with paint balls). I also thought of it as an, "artsy indie game" in the back of my head, so I wasn't expecting to really enjoy it. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. The game itself is kind of underwhelming in some aspects, but there's a goofy charm about it, and none of it ever overstays its welcome.
I say underwhelming because this game has some really cool stuff in it, but never really uses it that well. I feel like the game is so close to being a really cool puzzle game, but instead chickens out and never really has any challenging puzzles. I dunno if that's because the developers didn't really think of the game that way, if it's because they wanted it to be pretty easy, for kids or something, or what. But it's a shame that some of the more interesting things in the game aren't used better than they are.
For example, there's a part later in the game (if you haven't played it yet, and plan to, just skip ahead, I don't want to spoil anything for you) where you enter a blueprint world. Instead of your balls of paint covering stuff in paint like they usually do, they mark spots on the areas that you can then use to create 3D platforms. You're literally shaping the world around you to progress, and that's a super cool idea! But it's barely used, and not used nearly as effectively as it could have been. And that's a shame.
Another part of the game that really surprised me was when it suddenly turned into a horror game. I'm not even joking, there's a part of the game in a dark forest where if you stay out of the light for too long, giant spiders start attacking you, and eventually kill you. It's totally out of left field, and a really good change of pace. But, like everything else, it's over really quickly.
Which, I suppose that's better than having everything last so long that it gets tedious, if really rad puzzle solving game isn't an option. And, I dunno, I can only assume that those types of games are super hard to make (because making regular games is easy (sarcasm)), so I'm not going to throw stones. But I still wish there was more to Unfinished Swan. Either way, it's an enjoyable time. Glad I played it.
Hohokum.
I'm...not really sure what to say about this one. I didn't really play a ton of it before deciding that I didn't like it, and that I wanted to stop playing. It's just...Confusing? Perplexing? Indecipherable? Incomprehensible? Bizarre? I'm not going to say it's not a game, because I think it has objectives, and it has collectibles, so I assume it has some sort of win-state, and thus is a game. But...I don't know, I just got really confused and then deleted the game. Something about it just made me want to never play it again.
Maybe if you're the sort of person that consumes recreational drugs and likes to play video games and see weird nonsense whilst doing so you might enjoy it. I, however, don't, and don't condone the use of recreational drugs, so I don't know.
Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition.
This isn't the first time that a game I had already played a lot of on another console came to PS4 as a PS+ game. It happened with Dust: An Elysian Tail, Fez, Spelunky, and Hotline Miami (I think, I just know I randomly had access to the PS4 version of that at some point). Of those, I hadn't beaten Spelunky before, so I had ample reason to keep playing that on PS4 (which is where I eventually did beat Olmec), but the others I had completed. In the case of Dust and Guacamelee, I had finished both at least twice, and S-Ranked them (all the Achievements in Dust on 360, and the Platinum Trophy on Guacamelee on PS3). But as much as I told myself I would totally replay Dust, Fez, and Hotline Miami on PS4, I did not play much of any of them on the system.
Guacamelee, however, I did. I dunno if it's because Guacamelee is just super rad, or if it's because this version has new stuff in it (as opposed to those other games just being ports), but I played it to completion again. And I kinda want to get the Platinum in it again. But then I'd have to play through it AGAIN, this time on hard. Couple other things I have to do too, like get 100% of all the items (I missed like three), and beat the final boss with a specific costume without taking any damage (which seems like it'd be really hard).
And I really enjoyed the game all over again. The new content seems pretty good, and is mostly well integrated into the game. It's new areas, some new enemies, and new story stuff. Not that I really cared about the story, especially now that I was in my third playthrough of the game. If anything, I kinda feel like the writing (especially some of the "jokes") just gets in the way of the game. Stuff like getting the side special move, and remembering that it's called, "Dashing Derp Derp." That's just embarrassing. Whoever wrote that into the game should be ashamed. Conversely, it does seem like a few of the meme things in the background of some of the areas have been removed. Not all, but some, so that's a little more palatable than it previously was.
Though, I will say that having one of the three new areas in the game just exist for challenge rooms was a little disappointing. They're not bad, as I'd say the platforming ones are pretty good. But the combat ones gets a little frustrating. Rather than just being all regular combat, several of them take away some of your abilities, and still task you with achieving really high combos for the Gold Medals (I got all the Golds, by the way). Like, one doesn't let you grapple or throw enemies, and another doesn't let you use special moves. And it made me realize that part of why I liked the combat was that it all meshed together as a whole really well. Removing parts of it only made it less fun. But, those are just challenges, and they're optional (unless you want the good ending of the game).
If you haven't played Guacamelee, this is 100% the version to play. It's the same great game, but with more (good!) content. It's still super fun, and it still has a lot of great charm, even if it does still make my eyes roll with some of its "humor." Definitely worth your time.
Anything else?
In terms of games, as I said earlier, I've been playing The Witcher 3, and really loving it thus far. But I'm not going to write something up about it until I'm done, which will likely be some time from now. I also bought Nidhogg and Trials Fusion when they were on sale, both of which I've also enjoyed my time with them. In terms of other games, I doubt I'll be playing anything else new until Batman next month. Not counting PS+ games, that is. It'd be a good time to get back to MGS stuff, if I can.
But that's all! Thank you for reading, and stay tuned at some point for a long and rambling blog about The Witcher 3! Probably!
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