The Backlog Check-in Vol. 82: 7/27/19: Madden NFL 20 Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Days Gone

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Days Gone

I'm at the end of Days Gone, and I should have it finished soon. As much as I've enjoyed it, I'm ready to wrap it up and move onto something else at this point.

Madden NFL 20 comes out this week:

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Judgment

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 30 games

I'm nearing the end of the Judgment story - about 67% and 46:30 played. Still plenty to do...

[isthatallyougot]

Madden NFL 20 comes out this week:

Wake me up when NFL2K? comes out. Some people will tell you that it's hyperbole that 2K5 (& All-Pro 2K8) are better than current Madden in the gameplay / realism department. Those people are incorrect. (And it's not even close.)

I finished up the campaign of Horizon Chase Turbo with 100%. There are still some things to do if you're interested, but I don't think I'll be subjecting myself to the 109 consecutive races in the "endurance race" mode. Although I don't think you have to do it in one sitting. Overall, I've had my fill. It was a really enjoyable old-school arcade racer though. Well worth playing.

I've also been sitting at the doorstep of the last boss in Dark Souls III for a good while, but I haven't made the plunge. I'm still not sure if I'm ready to finish it. There are a few things I'd like to do - if I'm able. This has certainly been the most difficult Souls for me. I thought it may have been just me getting older, but I googled it, and it seems that I'm far from alone in that opinion. Granted some of the most challenging elements have been non-essential (DLC or otherwise), and I'm too stubborn to make things easier on myself, but it's still easily the toughest overall. Fantastic game and sense of accomplishment, along with the usually incredible sense of atmosphere, art direction, sound, level design, etc. etc.

Also still loving Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns. I'm in the spring of year 2, and still plugging away at the farm life. Just harvested a huge crop of cucumbers and potatoes. Have a couple sheep, cows and chickens along with a 2 pet dogs, a pet cat, and a pet owl that all have their functional uses. I'm really happy that you don't have to exclusively focus on crops or animals, as I thought that may be the case going in. I like doing both, although sometimes getting all your chores done feels like a race and you struggle to find time to do some things you want to do because your daily routine is SO full.

Also playing PES 2019. As always, I love PES and soccer in general.

When I finally decide to wrap up Dark Souls 3, I think I'll fire up the new God of War or Spiderman. Since I picked those up a while back, I'm interested in seeing what they're like and if they're deserving of the praise they received - from my perspective.

[Phaseknox]

Days Done, I finished Days Gone last night. It ended at the point when I was ready for it to, and it had a satisfying ending. What I really liked about it is that it was consistently good throughout. There were no dips in quality, or difficulty spikes. There were no parts that dragged, or that were overly frustrating. It's a well balanced game that's continuously entertaining from beginning to end which is saying something considering how long that it is.

Unfortunately, there were some aspects about it that hurt the overall experience a bit. The load times are extremely long, some of the longest that I've experienced in a game. The initial loading to start the game, cut-scene loading and fast travel loading all take forever and hurt the flow a bit. There's also a lot of performance issues while playing such as frame rate dips/stuttering and even freezing. It has its fair share of bugs, and open world jank as well.

The design structure of the game is also somewhat repetitive, you're almost always outside in same-y looking forests, mountains and wilderness doing the same things a lot of the time. The story missions are fairly varied, but the same side stuff is repeated constantly. And there wasn't much effort put into the side stuff, especially the hostage rescue missions that barely give an explanation as to why they were taken. It doesn't help that the non-important NPCs are so dopey and same-y looking, during cut-scenes when there's groups of them it's laughable.

But despite some of my complaints, it's still one of the best games that I've played this gen and one of the best zombie apocalypse games that I've played in general. I'm definitely looking forward to the inevitable PS5 sequel.

9/10

[isthatallyougot]

Days Done, I finished Days Gone last night. It ended at the point when I was ready for it to, and it had a satisfying ending. What I really liked about it is that it was consistently good throughout. There were no dips in quality, or difficulty spikes. There were no parts that dragged, or that were overly frustrating. It's a well balanced game that's continuously entertaining from beginning to end which is saying something considering how long that it is.

Glad you enjoyed it so much phase. I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop when you start playing something you like. You're a hard man to please.

[jfissel]

So I'm cleaning out a filing cabinet and I found a folder with video game receipts going back to when I started seriously gaming again in late 2001. Looks like I can account for most everything, so I'm going to tally it up and see how much I've spent on physical games/consoles/accessories over the last 18 years...any guesses on the number? I'll provide more data to help you guess soon (like the number of games included, etc). Quickly going through them, I did find a receipt for Final Fantasy X-2 where it cost $2 at K-mart. Must've been a pricing error or something.

And cane, I found a pristine Sam Goody receipt from 2002 for the purchase of GTA Vice City.

[isthatallyougot]

So I'm cleaning out a filing cabinet and I found a folder with video game receipts going back to when I started seriously gaming again in late 2001. Looks like I can account for most everything, so I'm going to tally it up and see how much I've spent on physical games/consoles/accessories over the last 18 years...any guesses on the number? I'll provide more data to help you guess soon (like the number of games included, etc). Quickly going through them, I did find a receipt for Final Fantasy X-2 where it cost $2 at K-mart. Must've been a pricing error or something.

And cane, I found a pristine Sam Goody receipt from 2002 for the purchase of GTA Vice City.

Wow, that's a cool find.

I used to always stick receipts inside the game case - inside the manual side. I did it for a while anyway. So I sometimes get a surprise when I open up some old game where I forgot I stuck an ancient receipt in there.

I'll guess you spent $8K.

I have no idea how much I've spent, and I probably don't want to know.

[Phaseknox]

Glad you enjoyed it so much phase. I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop when you start playing something you like. You're a hard man to please.

Yeah, I know. I've always been somewhat selective with the genres that I enjoy, and they're lessening even more now. Also, I've been gaming so long that it takes a little more to hold my interest these days. I know pretty quickly if a game clicks with me or not, and if it doesn't then I'm not going to waste my time with it because there's so much else out there to play.

[isthatallyougot]

Glad you enjoyed it so much phase. I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop when you start playing something you like. You're a hard man to please.

Yeah, I know. I've always been somewhat selective with the genres that I enjoy, and they're lessening even more now. Also, I've been gaming so long that it takes a little more to hold my interest these days. I know pretty quickly if a game clicks with me or not, and if it doesn't then I'm not going to waste my time with it because there's so much else out there to play.

Well, it's just all the more special when something is a great time for you then.

[canedaddy]

So I'm cleaning out a filing cabinet and I found a folder with video game receipts going back to when I started seriously gaming again in late 2001. Looks like I can account for most everything, so I'm going to tally it up and see how much I've spent on physical games/consoles/accessories over the last 18 years...any guesses on the number? I'll provide more data to help you guess soon (like the number of games included, etc). Quickly going through them, I did find a receipt for Final Fantasy X-2 where it cost $2 at K-mart. Must've been a pricing error or something.

And cane, I found a pristine Sam Goody receipt from 2002 for the purchase of GTA Vice City.

Wow, that's sooo jfissel. Full price GTA VC, I assume? Just got me thinking about the glory days of the IGN GTA board.



My guess is $2,400.



Played last week: Red Dead Redemption II

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 37 (15 PS4, 9 Vita, 7 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)

No, I haven't finished RDR2 yet. Hoping I can make that happen before I hit the one-year mark of playing it.