I wish I didn’t have to fall off the face of the planet when I get busy, because I miss out on things. Things like wanting to be a strange voice of reason during the No Man’s Sky problem, or jumping aboard the hype train during Battlefield 1’s beta. Maybe I can be part of the conversation of "Wow! they're really trying to talk to me about colours, the PS4 pro seems CRAZY!"

Priorities are a hard thing to balance when there’s always a lot to do. Especially when (for once), a lot of my priorities involve playing games that have been out for months. So let’s face it, I don’t even want to bore myself with the conversation of “Overwatch is still a lot of fun, they make changes, they add things, everyone complains about something, yeh yeh. Zenyatta4lyfe.”

Tangentially, I’m in the middle of playing Phoenix Wright right now, (Wright now!) The Spirit of Justice! Mr. Wright takes a trip to a country that has been murdering accused people for the past 20 years without a fair trial, because religion says so. Which I’m sure there’s more to it, But it’s insane how corrupt these people are. So being the good guy lawyer that he is, puts his life on the line to save a life.

I feel like after that first case alone, after bumbling through it and winning, They should have thrown the new mechanic for the game out the window because HOLY SHIT, if this is what they base all of their trials on, there’s gotta be some sort of human rights violation coming into play.

So whatever, that happens. I’m on the second trial, and suddenly, so many things about this game just dawned on me.

Looking back, I gave Dual Destinies a pass because it was years before I touched that series again. So for me it was nice to see all these characters, and their quirks, the mechanics that I remember about them, and the stories they’re involved in.

I thought that’s what the point of Dual Destinies was, for the game to say “Hey remember all of these things and these peoples! It’s like a parade of favourites!” I really enjoyed that experience with DD.

I haven’t even dug that deep into the game yet, and I’m already getting the opposite feeling with SoJ. I’m sitting on the fence thinking I’d rather see something new, or that maybe it doesn’t have to give me every mechanic they’ve ever introduced. Because it’s a court drama, the interesting parts are the trials and the characters and not about a bracelet that shakes every time someone winces.

Another thing that really surprised me, was about how much of a bubble these characters live in. Trials always seem to involve the main cast or friends of the main cast. This is the sixth game, and yet Maya Fey or Trucy Wright are still involved in some kind of murder plot.

They’re not so much an actual law firm as they are putting on a play for themselves and it has this scooby doo like quality that always seems to involve the same people but different masks.

It makes me wonder if “stale” is the word that I want to use to describe it. Stale in the overall plot, stale in adding yet another mechanic to bullshit through a lie, Stale in “here’s all these characters we created over the course of the series so we have to keep using them.

But like I said, I’m only the second case in, so maybe my opinion will change over the course.

So now that we’re getting ever so closer to the end of the year, a question I want to ask is: How many people are already thinking about what they’re game of the year is, I know that there’s still plenty more games to come out (I’m sure there’s plenty. Is plenty the right word? Nothing major has been moved to 2017?) But has anything already solidified a top spot for you?

I’m asking this, because for those of you who have read older blogs of mine, know that I’m a bit of a fanboy for Picross games. I, and some friends, have been waiting for the NA release of Picross 3D 2 for quite some time. It’s lived up to my expectations of being good, not only with execution of the mechanics but the amount of puzzles and the rules behind them has been a little too addictive.

While it does have the guise of being a puzzle game, it’s element of 3d is what makes it more compelling than that?

So… ok, if you have a slab of stone and you want to chisel away to make a sculpture or a bust. You might be saying to yourself, “I’m not very good at the art. If I chisel away at this it’s going to look like garbage.”

But lucky for you, the slab of stone is actually a ‘chisel by numbers’ art project for beginners and you end up making something with ease.

So then you're at the top of your slab carving class, and the teacher walks up to you and says, "Well now it's time for you to take 6 or 7 of these stones and chisel them all to make a larger piece."

And you're like "Well that's not a problem. I'm basically a master." and you make Japanese temple with little people running around.

It happened.

It’s that dumb way of looking at it that kind of appeals to me from an artist perspective. Why I think, out of all the puzzle games it’s the most interesting, and it’s saying a lot of I can say “It’s the most fun I’ve had more than any other game this year,” while keeping a straight face.

But the year ain’t over yet, and maybe FFXV will win me over.

Now that I’m done spouting nonsense, I can go back to being a busy recluse. I’ve actually been doing less of these blogs because I’ve had different platforms to talk about games and news, and I’ve been flirting the idea of doing something with a friend. But in this age of having all these different live streams and podcasts out there which are all essentially the same thing, It takes a while to get something new out of it.

But I think I’m onto something, and hopefully I’ll get around to producing and sharing it.

I hope that it could at least be different. When I mention stale about Phoenix Wright, I wonder if I could ask that question about the kind of entertainment we’re all consuming because there seems to be a lot of the same things these days. I’m not really looking to have a deep conversation out of it, but when creating an idea that the one thing I always ask myself, what can I do differently?

I blame the reason episode of the Beastcast and their conversation of consumption for making me think that way.

Maybe a story mode in Street Fighter V was too much to ask for.

I mean yes, they seem to be pulling out all the stops when it comes to the way the game is being handled. Systems are broken, characters can’t make their release window. If I was playing this game a lot more than I am, I’d be able to give an honest opinion on whether or not the damnable fate of SFV affects me.

I would have cared a great deal about story mode. It’s like junk food. Ryu’s ongoing struggles with his inner demons, the quest to take down shadaloo, camaraderie between fight bros. It’s always sucked me in. I have various animated films, comics and mangas about how ridiculous Street Fighter lore is. It’s not like the bar for a quality street fighter is high enough, so SFV could have easily pulled something out of their ass without trying, so what went wrong?

No focus for one. There’s a lot of characters on the roster, and I understand they’d want to give as much air time as they could to everyone, but you still need to have the one character to move everything along. It started out interesting with Charlie, coming back from the dead and being greeted by a mysterious Russian parka in the middle of a jungle. But then you have all these subplots competing for equal attention. Ryu is sitting down through most of the story, Rashidoooooo has a friend, Chun-li wants to have a baby. Characters that don't really have much of a story are designated to being loud, obnoxious and slapstick, because they needed to be included anyway so why not give them the roll of grunting paperweight? It becomes various moments of action figures smashing into each other and they all play out like a series of vignettes rather than weaving a consistent plot.

Which is probably due to there being no smooth transition between story and gameplay. In between each instance is a 10 second-or-so load time chopping up the pace, which depending on your own patience can really take you out of it. (who has patience these days.)

The series of events plays out, then the only thing left for anyone is for Ryu to show up and be Goku. Then everyone stands in front of an exploding building as if they’re watching the smouldering hot mess that is SFV unravel.

Is it good enough to wait for? It’s hardly the price of admission. Story mode would have been a lot more effective if it stayed at those little single character story beats. At least then, they could have used them as a ‘try before you buy’ to characters you haven’t purchased yet. Hell, they way they did story for the normal arcade mode in the previous games was good enough, or dare I say, more effective?

It sticks out as a thing that took too long to come out, which is an ironic twist for something that clearly needed more time. Motivations/and scenarios are put together with tape, and character development is non existent.

The only thing that really stood out for me is that Chun-li wants a kid, and I’m pretty sure she just decided to steal one in the end.

I could say that Capcom tried their best with the story mode... but did they?

Now I have to play catchup on some things:

Overwatch competitive mode is out although I haven’t had much of any time to play it this week. But how do we feel about it? Was competitive going to be the make it or break it moment for you? Have you had more fun, or have the more serious players turned you off from the experience? Do you do well enough on a solo queue and play nice with others, or do you roll with a crew because strangers give you anxiety?

How come there’s not any love for Symmetra? Is it because a lot of people think of her as pointless because her Ult is a teleporter? I always find it very interesting to see how people play her. Yeah a lot of people seem to just pile all of the lasers in one spot, and some have actually done a good job hiding them. and for the most part that's probably all she can really do because she's so squishy, but I love seeing that character get use because of how different she is from the regulars. I don’t know why I find myself to be such an apologist/defender for that character most of the time, but here we are.

I'm currently jumping between both PC and PS4 versions of the game, because I have friends that play on both, and it's certainly night and day the types of people I'm playing with. I do play a controller with both versions because why the hell not? It's actually pretty easy to be just as good as those with the keyboard and mouse, maybe that's the way Blizzard designed it.

But with the way PC games are these days, would you find yourself preferring the controller or is it Mouse and Keyboard all the way?

----

When I'm not at home sinking into OW, I’m still playing a hell of a lot of Hyrule Warriors on commutes. (I've actually put more time into the 3DS version than the Wii U one at this point, poor reviews of the game be damned, it's still a lot of fun.) That Marin DLC was released on Thursday and the best way to describe that character is ‘Constantly shaking water out of a bell.’ But it’s great that their batch of dlc characters are focused on the portable Zelda games. In the case of Marin, is pretty cool to see a 3D model of a character that would have otherwise been lost to time.

And hell, this is the largest roster of female characters that any Zelda game has ever had right?

----

Before I end, I should mention and share that the News Friends podcast that I run, actually had the time to get together and talk about video games. Specifically E3. It was a lot of fun and worth checking out. Since I spend every week talking about news, it’s kind of a relief to sit and talk vidja games.

But we don’t have enough time to make it part of the regular family of podcasts, and I’m not really sure if there’s enough interest in doing something weekly.

But when we do get around to it, it’s fun. So please enjoy.

There’s a lot of things I wish I could drum up for my time with Uncharted 4. Naughty Dog has really come along with their ability to tell a story. For the most part Uncharted always seemed to be about it’s presentation and spectacle. But there was always that one element that could use a little more tweaking.

What the developer learned when tackling The Last of Us seemed to find it’s way into the Uncharted series, Because their ability to tell an engaging story was complemented by some truly human moments throughout the game.

The best example was a scene involving Crash Bandicoot.I’m sure it’s already been talked to death but it can be one to separate those that think it’s Naughty Dog and others that see it as two people that love each other’s company.

But by the end of the game I was just exhausted. Done with climbing, and shooting. Thinking about how it’s probably more convenient to find whatever treasure, planted firmly on the ground, then a constant stream of jumping puzzles hovering above a vast pit of death.

It overstays its welcome... Which gives me guilt, when the story part is being so endearing. It’s a fitting end and more of a positive one than I was expecting... throughout actually. I was suspecting Sam, the older brother, to be a tired stereotype. Something typical to the kind of person coming back into Nathan’s life, pulling him back in for one last job. But he’s just as adventurous and knowledgeable as his little brother.

That’s great.

Something I’m grateful to leave behind with that franchise is a serious case of vertigo. I can’t really recall any other franchise doing me in as much as Uncharted has. Not even the high altitude parkour party that is Mirror’s Edge (though it did give me a massive headache).

I suppose they could consider it a job well done when I get a weak feeling hanging off the side of a cliff that may or may not crumble. Y’know, that’s something they certainly did a lot of. I can see why a critic would give a game like this an impressive score, because what it sets out to do, it accomplishes quite well.

But maybe there's a chance they didn't know how to end it, and dumped excessive amounts of gameplay into the bottom half, without understanding a balance.

It was exhausting, but I’m happy to be finished. I guess I should also be happy to finally play one of those games all the way to the end and not dig my face into the couch telling the heights to stop.

What are some games that felt terror inducing for you, just by environment alone?

A big reason as to why I could barely compile these thoughts to blog about Uncharted, was an overabundance of Overwatch play.

No, I haven’t played Doom yet because holy shit. Maybe I jumped in at the right time to play a ‘competitive team based first person shooter.™’ because that’s all I want to do with my time. I have work to look for, I have podcasts to edit and videos to make, I can’t just sit here and….

…. Okay, one more game.

Tried as I might, these kinds of competitive multiplayer games were always a clog in my enjoyment to play them, I wanted to tackle them with a level of skill that kids half my age were, and always will be, 10x better at. But there’s something about having a game that I can go out of my way to play with friends, and be significantly good with much of the roster.

And it’s because I’m seeing it for what it is, and having fun with that.

Maybe it’s the comfort of using a controller in what I can only assume is predominantly a mouse and keyboard playing field (on the PC). A concept that’s only crazy because I’m pushing myself to get gud with Hanzo.

Armed only with a bow, arrows and the heart of a dragon.

I doubt it’s the missing link to help me understand a concept and change my attitude towards any game of this nature. But this? It’s just finally nice to have something to get into just as much as friends are.

And that should be enough right? What games are all about?

Where’s my sponsor? Am I going to nationals?

...

I’ll… I’ll get around to Doom eventually.

ps. Hyrule Warriors update: It is still being played. Thanks portable version.

There’s an isolation to Firewatch that I can only want to experience on my own. I’m slowly wandering from one point of the map to the other and I just want to take it in, a natural impulse I guess given the way I like to play a game.

I can understand the possibility that Campo Santo wants me to get immersed with the environment. Yet at the same time, it clearly has this undeniable urge to get me to talk about the environment with somebody else.

Well… it’s not really forcing my hand to do such a thing. But a clean HUD tells me otherwise when a prompt appears on screen. Sometimes used to tell me where I am, but often times used to let the other person know where I am.

“Uh, okay. I’m at the campsite, and there’s all these beer cans on the ground. What do I do about it?”Some details are important and help the story along, but every little thing invites your character to seem lonely, and ignorant. Ignorance is a strange feeling to have with a game that gives you very few tasks that aren’t complicated.

In the grand scheme of the narrative I can see that. Given what has happened to your player character (Henry) up to that point, earnest conversation could be right up his alley. Talking because he misses talking without all the worries of the world, even if he’s only there because he wants to get away.

During my time with the game, (Which I apparently decided to live-stream) I opted to keep things to myself when I could. I didn’t want to bore my contact Delilah (the only other person you talk to) with every little detail. Well… perhaps she is just as lonely as I am. Who’s to say she wouldn’t be bored with things like:

“Good view, huh?”“Nice trees, hey?”

“There’s a lot of grass over here, yeah?”

Does it help with the immersion? Does it help you feel like Hank? Would I really have needed to talk to Delilah all the time to get a sense of the story?

It makes me curious to see what it takes to get into the story. How different of an experience it would be if Henry was on his own with no one to talk to, trying to figure out everything for himself.

But you know, Henry doesn’t talk to Delilah to ground himself, he talks because she wants someone to talk to. There’s a greater story at play that she strings you along for, and it gets interesting albeit biased. (which could be a crutch in the storytelling. When a plot point in a story is heavily one sided. By the time you hear the other side, it might not even matter to you.) There’s something up with her, with the history of this place.

And you and Henry start to forget why he’s even there.

It got me thinking a little bit about conversations in games, and how much of it you need to have in order to get the point.

The worst case scenario I can always think of is the modern Bioware RPG. When talking to a character for plot points, you have the options that string the story along on the right of the dialogue wheel, and the explanations of every little exhaustive detail on the left.

These are usually the kinds of details that one should already be aware of, or are going to be told naturally through storytelling. How often do you, as the gamer, exhaust every option given to you thinking you need to consume it all or you’ll miss out on what you paid for?

With the thought of: “It’s there and I need to know why, even if I’m aware what I’m going to be told.”

Going to back to Firewatch. There was a point in the game where I found all of these things, and every single one had the option to tell Delilah about it. So I did it to the first one, and she answered back. Then I did it with the second one, and nothing. The third item gave me the same response. Nothing.

At this point, it could have been me thinking about the situation in game. Telling myself that I don’t have to bug her about every single detail, because she probably doesn’t care. The details in front of me are interesting for me to know, sure... but that doesn’t mean it’s interesting for every other person whether it’s in the game or in reality.

So I wonder, what is that threshold for everyone else. When you play something, do you need every detail, or do you just get to the point?

I ceased all completion of Fire Emblem Birthright when I stumbled into a retail store and Hyrule Warriors: Legends fell into my bag and forced me to play it.

I can’t help myself. As I’ve said years ago, these ‘Dynasty Warriors’ style games are a guilty pleasure. It’s also clear that the limitations of the (new) 3DS’s hardware is not enough to stop me from enjoying countless hours of hacking and slashing in the most mindless way.

Having more story and levels is a welcome addition to it, sure... but it’s not really important to something that is typically the same thing many times over. With a set of stages set in the world of Wind Waker, you could tell yourself that variety is awesome. But is it really? It would probably make more of a difference if those stages were also being put into the WiiU game, but I haven’t seen anything as evidence that they would.

I suppose I should have a paragraph to the character Linkle, a conceptual character that they weren’t sure about executing, but eventually said “fuck it, why not” When there was a loud enough voice for a female Link (I’m sure it’s how it went down). She’s an easy characters to use, perhaps almost too easy. The kind of character you give your 6 month old child because of her effortless ezpz control.

That’s not bad. Her quick execution makes her fun to use, and stands out when there’s a fair amount of characters that have an animation priority. Also, her overall presence is a bit jokey. Thinking she’s the hero of time, but has no idea where to go and what to do. Passing through story mode missions like a happy accident.

Am I supposed to say “It’s cute that you’re such an idiot.” ( Is this an anime trope by the way?)

The moral of this story is now I can play Hyrule Warriors pretty much all the time! This is probably a bad thing and will bring my productivity down to an all time low, but at least I’ll be happy…It’s weird to be a critic to a single character that was put into the game for fun's sake. It would be like sitting here trying to make an argument for why Waluigi should be treated as a serious addition to the Mario universe.

...right?

Perhaps you could say that it was a great start to the new year™.

The ever popular trivia night at the EXP bar in downtown Vancouver, which hosted the regular folks all battling for supreme video game knowledge after cramming wikipedia articles into their memory before it begins. (I might be half joking, because I know I've seen it happen a couple of times.)

Our table of 5 dudes under the name “Cat Mario” never win as much as the other kids, Our vast knowledge doesn’t do as well with the modern games, and we’re quite limited to the older consoles of our generation. But I mean, we're older than most of the people filling that space.

For as long as Cat Mario has appreciated participating, there’s always the odd chance that we win big. It's a rare sight for sure. Some like to think that we really knew what we doing, but I always feel like the music part of the trivia is when we really shine.

Or I may have been the only person in the room that night, that has ever played Skullmonkeys.

That win was the only reason I found myself playing Destiny. The top prize, a big old case of redbull cans and a legendary download code for the taken king. Splitting up these prizes wasn’t the hardest thing to do because nobody, save for my roommate and I, had any interest in playing that game/a PS4.

The next month, we saw ourselves back in the rightful place of 4th. "Fight on, Cat Mario."

So let’s get excited about playing Destiny shall we?

[Hell… I sure am late to the party for the “excitement”, aren’t I?]

Well… let’s get excited when we get around to the Taken King expansion. That’s when it really opens up. By “opens up”, I mean “has a story”. But I’m not even sure that was an issue, since I was just mainlining everything?

I appreciate what the game is trying to do here: Expansive areas, where you just move around to beacons accepting quests and bumping into other space bros as they shoot their way through environmental hazards. There’s always going to be something neat about that.

Am I going to join with them on their quest? Not unless I know them, and my circle of friends seemed to be responsible enough to not spend their money on this game. (Well, except for those that have, of course. At least one of them that I’ve talked to, didn’t actually like the Taken King dlc, which is funny knowing that I’ve had the opposite reaction with it.)

I guess, at it’s core it was just boring. I mean, boring as a game that wants you do to multiplayer based raids/dungeons and constant drops for sweet loot. But I give it a pass because I got this all for free and I suppose if something interesting ever does come down the line, then I’m always available to give it a try.

Or I could just wait for Destiny 2, m i rite juys?

Let’s talk about Streety fights for a minute. Let’s talk about it’s rocky launch, which is par for the course with every game where the online part is crucial to its well being. Let’s talk about how the roster in this game is a lot of fun to play. Let’s talk about how I’m maining Rashid, because he looks cool and is totally relatable, because one day I’m going to be face-to-face with Ryu and all I’m ever going to want is for senpai to notice me.

Let’s talk about how I should finally get around to buying myself a fight stick, because I’ve been telling myself to do that for the past 6 years... But the only thing that I can find at a decent enough price is a mini HORI, but I’m hesitant on spending 50$ because at least one person is raising a loud enough stink to make me think otherwise.

Let’s talk about how Chun-li fighting in her police uniform is pretty bad ass.

Let’s go back to the issue of the servers for a second and be grateful that I can get into ranked matches now, but am discouraged to play at the moment because I keep getting paired up with super bronze ranked fellows far beyond my pay grade.

But let’s not forget that every experience should be one to learn from.

I haven’t touched Street Fighter since Super Street Fighter IV, because I didn’t want to keep buying version after version of it. If Capcom is to be believed, then the current game sitting in my PS4 is the only one I’ll ever need as long as they promise to keep adding onto it, because I’m trying to get back into fighting games with an open mind.

I’ve always loved the scene, and I have enjoyed plenty of games within my time, but I never had the privilege to play around any scene. Watching fighting tournaments online and playing the occasional game with a group of friends that actively ‘enjoy’ it, has nudged me into thinking about it differently.

And being told about “Vancouver Street Battle” in Burnaby is something I’ll definitely make myself go to.

But of course, we’re all biding our time right now because the game isn’t really ‘out’ till March. The lack of the 8 player lobby is slowing down the momentum.

And… um.. Playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates is slowing down that momentum a bit as well… but I’ll let that be a story for another time.

Perhaps it’s because all I really do with time is play puzzle games. I mean of course that’s an exaggeration, but how hard could it be to get someone interested in a game which the core feature is puzzles?

By having it take place on an island?

Maybe it was the talking leading up to release, Those that got to look at early builds seemed to be blown away by the very concept. (or was it how pretty everything looked?)

Then upon release a lot of reviews read like.“Ah man! It’s got the thing and then it does this, and Fuck man you don’t even know. Well of course you don’t even know, how could you? I can’t really talk about it, I don’t want to spoil anything for you, for if I did the very fabric of time would shred.”

Again, exaggeration.

What most can tell me is that they take a feeling of discovery away from their experience. Finding out how to solve the puzzle in front of them, after hours of hitting their head against a brick wall.

But I think it’s my experience with puzzle games throughout life that I just know what to look for, and it leaves me coming up short. Although I appreciate the idea of using the island itself to solve the puzzles, at times it’s like sticking your hand into a jar of mad-libs. using all of these tricks to have the outcome essentially be the same answer.

I don’t want to be down on it completely, because it does have it’s moments here and there... But I’m sitting here wondering if Jonathan Blow is trying to get you excited about solving puzzles or if it’s a series of elaborate monologues discussing his own level of intelligence/insight and each series of puzzles is just another key to unlocking the next part of his lecture.

I did like the forest stuff, but then got annoyed when the game acted, as if to say “Oh jeez, we really have to find a way to make this hard because I don’t know.”

My attitude towards this game, makes me wonder of the actual ratio of people that are in awe of what this does versus the people aren't, (and secret option those that get it, but choose to dislike it because everyone loves it.)

Is it like, the Undertale of puzzle games? (I'll never play Undertale, so I don't even have any ruddy idea.)

*Ahem*

Hi...

I’m sure I’ve said this multiple times, but I’m a journalism student. Since my time attending J-school (in the past, what? year and a half.) The Canadian news industry appears to be waning. Newspapers both community and national are either downsizing or ending completely. We’re also not just talking print here, broadcast stations are experiencing the same problem.

So it makes you wonder why I even chose that profession in the first place. yeah, I feel like I've already brought this up on a blog before.

With the news of the Game Trailers shut down I suppose I should be running about feeling anxious. I do feel something for the downsizing of a great industry, but I feel it even more when it’s related to games.

It’s always something to think about y’know. What games coverage should be, what it’s going to be. It would be a bummer to think that youtube is a nail in the coffin of a site like game trailers. I know I don’t want it to just be people sitting in their bedrooms riffing on Sonic. There needs to be variety.

A site like Gamespot does such a great job of making variety. With the different types of shows, and the different ways to look at and talk about video games. So it's always exciting to watch them change around. Giantbomb as well, takes these formulas and runs with them in a way that they almost seem to be the new standard. With Austin Walker pushing the initiative for good writing, I look forward to what that will even mean, and the kinds of people with something to offer.

It should be inspiring for others to find new and exciting ways to make things happen with the stuff that they love.

I know can’t say much to the effect of Game Trailers but with them closed, the variety of this industry is fading just a little bit more. Honestly, I still miss the days of 1UP and the things that they experimented with in terms of multimedia.

Now I’m just making myself nostalgic, and I might as well be sad.

(And congrats to Matt Paget to getting the Gamespot gig, getting out before the entire B.C. news industry dies off. But when you have the drive anything can happen. Maybe we can make a website that just about replays in esports games.)

There’s another game that I have played, that I would have talked about in greater detail, but the video for it is not done. The person just hasn’t gotten around to her VO, and I suspect I just haven’t put my foot down enough.

But I guess that’s what happens when people live on opposites sides of the continent, there’s zero time for coordination.

I will say that I’m still finding the time to enjoy Battlefront. But maybe I’m also just saying that because it hit me over the weekend as a game to play, since I’m in the middle of projects and didn’t want to give myself more time to think.

Shooty games really are a great way to turn your brain off.

2015 was a difficult year for me from a game playing perspective. In fact there never should have been a single moment for me to play anything because school was very difficult and if I were to add playing video games to the mix, then surely I would fail some classes.

Hilariously I’ve managed to put together a list of things that are probably good enough to been on a list for MOST people, or maybe just some. Perhaps it’s just as likely that every single game on this list is exactly up someone’s alley (and you should know exactly which game I’m especially referring to).

Heroes of the Storm is League of Legends for babies and what DOTA 2 secretly wishes it could be if only because this is a game made by Blizzard. So in my head I’m thinking this should be the industry standard for MOBAs because It’s a garbage game for babies, but it’s MY garbage game for babies. I’m a garbage baby and if I’m going to play a goddamn MOBA it’s going to be one that I understand. Something where I don’t feel like I’m the only person letting the team down because we’re all in this together and we’re all screwing up.

I’m not even emotionally attached to the roster but I can identify with winning, and I win the most with Kerrigan (in my heart). I bought her a dress and she looks really good in it. Don’t take this away from me.

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Star Wars: BattleFront is great because I spent $100 on this game. The Canadian economy is mostly to blame for that aside from my financial ineptitude. In fact when I walked into the EBgames and told the guy I was looking to purchase a copy, he gave me a look that was trying to hold back a shit eating grin as he said, “You can get the special edition for $10 more.”

In the back of my head I’m still thinking games are $60 dollars because I still manage to live in a year where games are that price and I say, “Sure okay whatever.”

“That’ll be $100,” he said without skipping a beat.

I bought the game because I went that far to be bad with money.

That being said, as someone that has exclusively played Battlefield games for many years, I really enjoy the fast pace of the games and their shorter time frame. There’s an enjoyment with it that I managed to leak out of the purchased price, and I would even go as far to recommend it.

Just don’t buy it in Canada.

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Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate is great because it was the one that finally turned me around on the series. Granted, I only really played the very first one that came out on the Playstation 2, and I really wanted to enjoy it, but the entire experience was enough to sour me for years to come.

The funny thing is I don’t think I can really explain why. Fundamentally I don’t think anything about it has really changed. Perhaps this is a case of it finally being the right time for me to get into the franchise. I really dig it. It’s got style, it’s methodical nature is very well implemented. And I look like a doofus in all that armour. That’s not even a good talking point but whatever!

God… I really should play some more of that game.

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Rocket League is great. easily hands down. But you know what had a better theme song?

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Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is the best one of these yet. In fact, if I had to call it anything I would have to say that it is easily the best season of a show you would find on the SyFy network (Showcase, in Canada) When you compare it to the first Revelations game, the writing is much better and there’s actually personality to it. There is an air of Campy-ness that just works.

Top it all off they throw in a reveal that you’d be more likely to expect in what would have been RE 7, but the fact that they did that to this game gave me the one moment of the year where I jumped out of my seat as if to say “Oh my gawd, no way!”

There’s a part of me that still can’t get over that, and I wish Jake could have been involved in some way (I’m really invested in the story of Resident Evil by the way, so there’s that).

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Let me tell you guys about an amazing game I’d like to call Regency Solitaire. I wouldn’t have known this game existed if it wasn’t for Alex ‘Wolfcub’ Navarro. It’s got the joy of Solitaire-like elements and it breaks the rules in the strangest way. Not only does it introduce crazy, it crams in a Pride and Prejudice inspired storyline that will make you wonder if you should call up your mother and actually recommend her a game.

Normally this is actually the part where I’d tell you that this entire list is a ruse and it’s all just a front to keep recommending Picross games, but I’d have to tell you. Pokemon Picross is just not as good as it should be, so needless to say the Picross game of the year goes to Regency Solitaire for being something I invested so much time into when I first purchased it, and then almost immediately sucked me in again as I was coming up with a list of games for this stupid blog post.

Augh, this game. Maybe I should put it higher on the list.

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Metal Gear Solid kind of feels like a bit of an unfair choice, because there’s a lot of us out there that all think so highly of this series. Because it’s crazy, and there’s a cult of personality situation with Hideo Kojima where you can say “Fuck this guy, he’s alright.” and everything is fine.

I mean, if Geoff Keighly wanted him on that award show so badly he would have pushed back the date by like what? a week? I mean he dedicated a segment to not understanding how that one clause in Kojima’s contract worked.

Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Menace is a lot of fun. To play. It’s as open world as an afghan desert would allow. The different ways you can tackle a scenario makes it the best game that it’s been in a long time, companions are interesting and the story definitely gets places.

I kind of wish it was more of a Swan Song than it was an extension of Peace Walker, but it doesn’t deter the fact that you can just jump in a mess around in the world and not have to think about doing anything.

I did a lot of that.

I did it so much that it kinda got old actually.

If the game really just turns into you going into a base and then fultoning everyone, then that’s actually a serious flaw.

It also gets extra points for bringing MGO back. I really enjoy me some MGO.

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I already talked about Fallout 4 in my last blog post. Read that.

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Splatoon does it for me in all the right ways. It’s got the style, the 90s attitude, an amazing soundtrack. It packs all that into a shooter that I actually didn’t think I’d enjoy as much as I do. I mean, I knew I was going to pick it up. I think what tipped me over to the side of it continuing to interest me, is the frequency of incredibly good Japanese players that play this game.

It was a feeling I haven’t had since Tetris DS many a moon ago.

And you know… sure, you can play this game like a maniac and just seek people out and shoot them, or you can try and play it smart, since it’s a game about claiming territory over everyone else, there’s a lot of strategy in just doing that ALONE, that make it a compelling experience for me. Something that I’m happy it gets explored so well that other games about shooting doods just doesn’t.

It also gets my award for “most videogame of the year.”

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Super Mario Maker is my number one game, and so much of it has already been said by so many people, so I’ll just leave it at that.

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Thing I wish I had time for this year

Multiplayer games. Aside from spending so much time at school in 2015, and the living room television really just a ruse as it spent more time as a personal computer, a lot of the games I really wanted to play the most this year involved other people. So because of these obstacles that I’ve constantly had to face in the day-to-day, nothing could ever be properly planned to do with friends, and so many experiences were just lost to the wind with the only likely options being very early in the morning, or incredibly late at night.

No thank you, I would really like to have my sleep.

Maybe this year could be different, and I’ll be better at planning.

What have I done?

To no fault of my own (or every fault whatever), I fell into the amiibo trap a little bit. But here’s the thing... Those Smash Bros amiibos are pretty great, because at least they look like cool figurines. BUT I CERTAINLY HAVE A LOT OF ANIMAL CROSSING AMIIBOS HUH? I mean, it just sort of happened. We’re not even talking just the figurines here, I bought a bunch of card packs too.

What the hell?

While we’re at it, Let’s talk about How Nintendo’s Badge Arcade thing just came out of nowhere and started taking my money without even having to ask. I’m such a stickler for customizing my themes the tiniest bit that I would happily fork over money to get the badges I think would LOOK SO GOOD on my theme.

And I mean, this way I can continue to show love to Swapnote by buying those swapnote themed badges because damnit, Nikki’s pretty cool.

What have I done?!

Best new way to play a video game:

Playing the PC version of Resident Evil 6 on it’s lowest settings came to me in a dream, the moment I seen it for sale on steam. So I grabbed one of my favourite people and set out to co-op our way through what can only be described as “a really good looking PS2 game”.

That game really operates on a whole other level when you dumb down the graphics, and I think I’m feeling inspired once again to grab Dolph and take on another scenario. Should we just get Chris and Piers out of the way?

Game that is much better as a stage play:

I think I’m better at coping with these kinds of games then previous years, the kind where all you have to do is walk around and explore the story that happens around you. Even through my tolerance is growing, they really dropped the ball on what Everyone's gone to the Rapture could have been. The pacing is far too slow, and the design choice of everyone being a ball of light does absolutely nothing for me, in any semblance of identifying. I kept hoping for the end.

It’s only saving grace is that the VO is actually quite nice. Though it’s not exactly an impressive story by any means, the performances are well enough, that I feel it would have been better executed as some kind of sunday afternoon radio drama.

Aside from that, I really don’t think I care for games like this.

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There. That was easy, my game of the year blog is done. Now we can all move on with our lives and look forward to what’s coming out. I have a feeling I’m probably going to by a lot of 3DS games, because that’s exactly what happened last year.

but only time and good games will tell for sure.

With love,

Bon

The first thing that I wanted to do in the Christmas break between terms of failing at journalism school, wasn't to catch up with other video games... It was to hunker down with Fallout 4. Sure I've got a lot on my plate that I want to do: Play more Splatoon, Battlefront, MGO, and eventually get started on Yakuza 5, but for some reason Fallout 4 just happened to become my priority.

It's not like this is the first time either. It's was exactly around this time many years ago where I couldn't turn off Fallout 3, So it felt very fitting to put some thoughts together (and a little video piece at the bottom I did for funsies). It took a lot of willpower to step away from the game to write anything about it, because thinking about it would always lead to playing it, so I consider this a personal victory.

I love playing this game.I love wandering the world, taking out raiders, robots and ghouls even while sometimes in power armour.

I love finding new locations and finding all the useless garbage and bringing it back to my sanctuary just to make something with it.

I love standing on high and looking off into the endless horizon of rubble.

But let’s be fair, it’s all because I have a love for post-apocalyptic fiction.

That's the one thing Bethesda does really well. Out of all the open world games that I’ve played in the past year (maybe even as far back as two or three I guess? I don't know. when did uh..... Skyrim come out?), Bethesda has really mastered the ‘sense of place’ that a lot of other games don’t seem to have.

They pull this off because of all the little things. It’s what you can pick up, it’s the queries from your companions, it’s the other people that you walk by which have their own set of problems that they need to deal with on their own.

They throw all of this into a radiated melting pot of dread.

I have to applaud the Commonwealth for being what it is, and consider the land as a whole to be more of a main story, than the critical path you were supposed to go on. I mean let’s talk about that... There’s always a vault dweller, which is limiting the way you can start the story. Granted, having the main character be frozen in a vault for over 200 years is an interesting way to do it, but the game didn’t spend enough time in the pre-war era for that to even matter.

You’re not given the chance to know much about your character other than they love their son very much.

So when you wake up from your frozen slumber, and you’re wandering aimlessly murdering people, you bump into factions that all have their own ulterior motives (Save for the Minutemen. They don’t really do much of anything other than ask you to save the same settlement five times in a row. It’s no wonder the people of the Commonwealth have a lack of faith in them). But even with the amount of factions, only two of them seem to be important to the story.

Well… One other faction is trying to be just as important, but I hate the Brotherhood of Steel so much, and they tried really hard to get me to like them!

Altogether it plays out in an ending that I know I didn’t want. I sat through a couple of story beats several times exhausting all hope for a diplomatic option that would never happen. Which gives me the reaction, “Well if you can’t agree with me you might as well die, because you’re only going to be a pain in the ass later.”

So what I think I want to tell people is, it’s okay to not go to this game for the main story and I think I have a good reason why:

There’s one character in particular by the name of Nick Valentine, a detective in Diamond City and someone that becomes your companion. He had a back story that went on just as long as mine, but because he wasn’t me, it was more fleshed out. We wander around the Commonwealth doing business like a couple ’o’ gumshoes, getting all of the intel on his last big case. AND while there was a part of me convinced that what I really wanted was to be a wasteland detective, my time with him got me excited to seek out other companions. It pushed me to do more side content. Suddenly, finding my son wasn’t the most important thing in the world.

I think regardless of your character’s start point and motivations, everything should be level in an open world. The ending of a game with this design is so lackluster because there’s just more to it than that. It tells you, “congratulations, you’re done,” but you’re not really done. The game knows that you’re not really done, so it immediately reminds you that you can do something else and that makes the experience very ‘middle of the road’. I can’t really look at the main story as priority when everything else is just as good (if not better), so who’s to say what that main story is.

I want to throw all of that out the window and say none of that even matters, because I just want to be left alone in the world doing whatever I feel like.

That's what keeps it good, and keeps you invested.

(and I made this, because I'm practicing.)

And now we get to some... personal matters?

The thing about putting this together (especially with the video piece) is that I always gotta think about my career ahead. Spending a lot of time at journalism school, has made me think about what I want out it. Since April, other classmates and I started a news podcast called NewsFriends and it's been exciting. It started out as a small goof of a show (with ridiculous news videos). It's been cool to watch it grow not only with an audience, but seeing what the people involved are getting out of it, is pretty damn exciting too.

But as much as I do that stuff, and how interest in news is important to me (wether it's feature writing or beat reporting), It's strange to feel more excited about games press. To watch it grow and change, it's something I want to be a part of. So I need to tell myself that I need to do more of this, but the balance is difficult when you're not exactly a spring chicken (but I guess that's debatable when you think about how old a young person can be).

There's job postings always popping up, but it's weird to use general news as a portfolio for games press (but we all gotta start somewhere). So I'm going to work on my games-of-the-year-end-blogstravaganza soon, and I'll be hopeful in getting more time into writing and making videos, audio things about this kind of stuff. In the meantime, I would say check out news friends, in the case that I may eventually just crack and straight up put video game content on that site. (We did record a podcast about Battlefront one time, but I haven't had the chance to put it up yet. Is it too late for that?)

Some questions before I go:

• How do we feel about this SMTxFire Emblem game now that it's out in Japan? The fact that it just looks like a Persona game with Fire Emblem on the back-burner really bums me out. Am I the only one that feels this way?
• Since thinking about end of the year game stuff, what are you having a hard time believing came out this year? Follow up: does anyone's game of the year lists increase with the playing of games that came out 1-2 years ago? (I'm finding a lot of my time was spent with nothing new. Is that just because of this years games?)

GIZMO GOT A ROOM!

It’s been too long... Seriously, so much content has happened in this game from when I’ve last played. Even though I’ve been at it for a week now, I still don’t really know when to begin.

Everything that’s happened before the “Heavensward” expansion, hangs in a balance, Characters come and go, plots are seemingly twisted here and there, and you’re pushed forward in a direction that is both exciting, and gives a lingering feeling of how it will all work out in the end.

Then Heavensward opens up to much wider areas to explore, new ways travel, and a really interesting way to tell the story. I found it interesting how the expansion opens with a Narrator indulging in plot points, and new areas. It’s an interesting perspective.

With the new expansion came a new cast with it, Mostly all of the recurring characters (from what I can tell) have a completely different voice actor, and most of them are actually for the better. The only one that weirds me out is Merlwyb. I always felt that her original voice really matched her character.

But instead of me rambling on about content that I’ve barely scratched the surface of, it’s time for me to get to the meat of this blog post.

I changed my race.

Weird right?...

I mean, the new race is weird, right?

It’s not like it’s any big deal to make a change. I’ve actually been that Elf character model since FFXI. (I was actually pretty surprised that you were capable of remaking your FFXI character for this game.) I just wanted to give the new race a look without going through the trouble of making a new character (I have two other characters that I barely touch).

The Au’Ra is weird in an animation sense. Out of all the others, their motions feel the most cartoony. and yeah, let’s talk about that look. Not really what I expected. I mean the horns are alright, but what’s with all the scales? I now have a BEARD of SCALES. I might as well put an eye patch back on and call myself SCALEBEARD. a ferocious pirate of the (however many seas there are in this world.)

I’ve gotten used to it, he’s grown on me. I wonder how many others in the guild are sticking with it, or will I get to be the cool unique guy?

There’s been three new job classes added to the game as well, though I’m only bothering to try Machinist. Which seems pretty great, for a DPS class it’s not too fast, sure? What do others think of it? How have the other classes been for people?

There should probably be a proper one of these blogs later, but for now I’mma leave you on a note that’ll make Esme shudder:

Gallery

“Crisis averted!” as they say in the business. My NNID recovered thanks to the fine folks at Nintendo. I was keen to keep my old 3DS as a backup, surely thinking that way incase anything went sour (which it most certainly did). It’s nice to have access to all my PicrossE games again, and in a way it’s even better that I get to play them all over as if it was a first time, and fresh fresh puzzles.

It’s a shame that friend code stuff wasn’t tied to the NNID as well, because it’s a bit of a drag to ask for all those friends to code with me again.

I tell you what though. After sending a considerable amount of time on an XL sized (new) 3DS, it’s hard to go back to the smaller original. It’s not just the screen-size itself, (Which is, by comparison… well, yow!) but the boxy design makes it feel old. Which is a weird thing to say, but I guess It just takes some getting used to again.

I sure do miss that eye tracking tech though.

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Puzzle and Dragons is a curious sort of game that is equal parts interesting and a little bit dumb. Sure, I can understand the addictive nature of the ‘match-3-and-up’ puzzle grid mixed with battle elements, but the game board feels flawed.

Perhaps it’s the size?

I’m still fairly early into the game, but I’m already riddled with frustration of not having anything to make a combo with, MOST of the time. I could see where people would be coming from if they were to say “Oh, well most of the time those combos are really just sheer luck.” That really shouldn’t be the case. To get a big combo, you should have accomplished that on your own, and not blindly move orbs into place and hope you get it.

Should I mention I’m playing the Mario version first?

It’s that tiny grievance that doesn’t necessarily stop me from playing, but it does slow down my need to. I guess I’m trying to grasp why it has such a popular base in Japan, but I also suppose it’s because it’s one of those free to play games that you can buy items to do more stuff?

I mean, I don’t know, but it’s clear that would definitely be an element missing from that game, if there ever was one.

Still, I be poking around the game ever so slowly, because I like me some puzzles. Though, it does give me an incredibly strange urge to play Gyromancer again.

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Witcher III continues to be an interesting experience that I feel sad about missing out on two other times before.

The combat is a bit tough when put into the perspective of the way I’ve been playing it. I lack the patience that it’s probably asking for, but I don’t have time to be methodical in most scenarios where I feel otherwise ganged up. Countering is actually easier than most seem to make it out to be (so I hear?), but I always come out of most fights always getting hit way more than I’d like.

The horse is a bit daft too, but I appreciate that it stays on the road and all I have to do is hold a button down. It let’s me choose the ride along option more than fast travel. More than often I always take the long way in a videogame whenever I feel immersed in a world.

The characters in this game so far, are absolutely fantastic and well realized. Each character on Geralt’s journey feels unique and not just a common voice on a different body. There’s so many creatures within this world that also get their momentary story beats and aren’t just quests that fill out on details afterwards (well they still do, Bestiary and all).

I know I’m under-utilizing a lot of what this game is offering me. There’s a whole world of crafting and alchemy that I’m too afraid to touch at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll come around. I’ve collected so many things for crafting materials, but I don’t think I have the right kind of schematics for things (and at least a couple of times now, I’ve acquired schematics for gear at times where it no longer mattered as I’ve long since found something better from a quest or a loot crate).

But I dig it, and will continue on. Although I really shouldn’t, I have plenty of school and work to do.

Also: its should be noted that Johnny the godling has been my favourite character so far.

"I really want to write more. Hell, I really want to write about games more. where the hell is the time going?