Hey there internet. Notifications are still broken. My computer is finally fixed, and while I’m reinstalling a bunch of crap that I bought during the summer steam sale but have yet to play much of (Hi there Transistor! Hi there State of Decay!) I figured I should bother telling you all what I’ve been up to over the past month as summer ends and school finally starts. I’d lie and say that you should probably expect less stuff from me as this semester winds up, but my writing output has been sparse enough that the status quo 1 blog/month continues to seem likely.

Pillars of Eternity: The Beta

I guess I’m a sucker for paying extra money to look at early-access betas of games I backed on Kickstarter. I did so for Wasteland 2 (only $10ish) and didn’t have to pay for Divinity Original Sin, so it only made sense that I would also take a look at another one of my more anticipated games of this year, Pillars of Eternity. It’s… definitely a beta! The current version is, quite frankly, something of a janky mess. While I appreciate Obsidian taking out the story stuff and basically giving players a small chunk of the game to mess around with, calling it playable might be a bit of a stretch. I’ve suffered total party wipes from combat (currently way too fast to keep track of what is going on without continual pausing or “slow mode”), bugs (losing equipped items upon reloading a game) and good old fashioned crashes! It’s sort of hard to give feedback to a beta when I can’t progress in said beta, so maybe I’ll have to check back when they release another build or something. I’ll give them this: everything in this beta, from the menus to the character portraits to the pre-rendered backgrounds (with 3D character models, actually reminiscent of Temple of Elemental Evil) evokes the Infinity Engine (probably helps that all the placeholder spell icons are from Icewind Dale II) and the little writing I’ve engaged with is about on par with any given Obsidian game (Good). Just… I’ll get back to you all with more substantive criticism when I can actually finish what appears to be a 2-3 hour experience.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica X HD

So this was on sale on Xbox Live a few weeks ago, and being the generally broken human being that I am, I figured that $6 or so was an acceptable price to pay for what is still probably my least favorite old Resident Evil game, a somewhat questionable qualifier given that I still think it’s a totally okay Resident Evil game. You don’t need to hear me go into details, I’ve done so elsewhere. It’s a little too long, somewhat awkwardly paced, surprisingly hard at times and is probably the moment when the plot of Resident Evil went off the rails. At least it’s a bunch of easy achievement points, Infinite Rocket Launcher (beat the game in under 4 hours, no saves or first aid sprays) and Linear Launcher (Get the highest rank in the battle game with all characters) aside.

Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer

Speaking of games I consider to be totally okay despite their inferiority to other games in the series… Might and Magic VIII sure fits that bill! Being the third Might and Magic game in that many years using the same engine, it’s probably only to be expected that the series would reach diminishing returns after the massive, open-ended Might and Magic VI and the more contained, polished Might and Magic VII. The gimmick for this one is that the player only creates one character and instead recruits the rest of their party from NPC hirelings found throughout the game. This presents a weird conundrum where you can sort of break the game by getting certain characters early on (The level 50 character who knows every elemental spell up to master level and any of the dragons come to mind) and also occasionally have to dump one of your party members in favor of a required NPC for a handful of quests. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still well made and I’ve enjoyed replaying it over the past couple of weeks, but you can see some of the cracks where things aren’t quite as polished. Dungeons are generally smaller, the game is still pretty easy even without delving into overpowered NPCs, at no point do you get laser guns, etc. It’s the kind of thing where I wouldn’t recommend it as anyone’s first Might and Magic game but still recommend it.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance.

There was a point where I was going to say that Metal Gear Rising was my favorite Platinum game. After thinking for a bit, that’s obviously not true (It’s still Bayonetta), but man is it good. A character action game focused around parrying for defense over blocking or dodging is a fun thing, as is slicing dudes into hundreds of pieces and then ripping out their robot spines. It’s short as hell (Took me around 4-5 hours, clearly meant to be replayed for S ranks and higher difficulties), maybe not as mechanically dense as a Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, but maaaan does it make you feel super cool. The game’s brand of crazy is more Platinum than Kojima, but it’s still a mix that works incredibly well, especially given a final boss fight that is appropriately bananas and also a lot harder than anything else I faced on normal difficulty. I briefly messed with the Jetstream Sam and Blade Wolf missions and died repeatedly, so it’s at least good to know that those characters control differently from Raiden. I think I’ll stick with it for a little while longer. I’ve sort of fallen off Divinity: Original Sin on account of losing my save from 30 hours in, and Wasteland 2 doesn’t come out until next week, so I’ve got time to polish up my cyborg slicing skills.

Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

As opposed to my playthrough of Etrian Odyssey III, which I almost managed to finish before I screwed up my character builds after re-speccing and didn’t want to grind my way back up, I actually did finish Etrian Odyssey IV last week, even going as far as to venture into some of the crazy post-game stuff it throws at the player. Having messed with all of the games in the series sans the second one to varying degrees, I definitely think this is the best one by an appreciable amount. While Etrian Odyssey III had some interestingly unorthodox character classes, I’d say that this fourth one is a lot more flexible. Part of that? It’s not as ball-bustingly hard as its predecessor (in fact, I’d go as far as to call the final boss “a joke”). But also classes are laid out in such a way as to encourage experimentation (a respec only costing 2 levels instead of 5) and less about putting points into crap you don’t want because they are prerequisites for stuff you do want. Add in the improved production values as a result of moving to 3DS and I’d say anyone who is vaguely interested in these sorts of games should give it a try. If you want a story that isn’t window dressing, or characters you actually care about (for what it’s worth I think there’s some decent writing in said window dressing), maybe head elsewhere? I guess I’m all ready for Persona Q* now, which I will similarly play in fits and starts and maybe not finish until months after I purchase it.

King’s Bounty: Dark Side

Yo, it’s like every other King’s Bounty game but you play as the bad guys. Sold.

And that’s the sort of shallow look at the variable grab bag I’ve dealt with over the past month or so. I hope you enjoyed it?

*You do know that Persona Q is basically an Etrian Odyssey game with Persona dressing and not the other way around, right? Just saying, some people on the Giant Bomb forums are setting themselves up for disappointment otherwise.