The Backlog Check-in Vol. 94: 10/19/19: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/The Outer Worlds/Trails of Cold Steel III Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Ghost Recon: Wildlands, My Time at Portia

Finished: Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Playing: My Time at Portia

I'm addicted to My Time at Portia the same way that I was to the Harvest Moon games back in the day. I'm liking it more than the Harvest Moon games because you can create your own character, it's a lot bigger in terms of world scale/content and offers a lot more RPG elements. It's less of a sim than the Harvest Moon games, and more mission and task driven.

It has a post apocalyptic setting, and you go into caves and ruins to mine for building/crafting materials, resources and ancient artifacts. It's packed with stuff to do in general, and my only real complaint so far is that the days go by too quickly. With so much to do and so much happening each day it would have been nice if the days lasted longer, but hours pass in minutes making them go by a little too quickly. But the game is charming, cute and fun with lots to do so I'm enjoying my time with it.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, MediEvil, The Outer Worlds and Trails of Cold Steel III come out this week.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 31 games

More Odyssey last week, trying to island hop and get those all cleared.

[argyle]

Games added: Nothing

Last week: Finished Uncharted: Lost Legacy & Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn. Played a little Gears 5 and probably dabbled with a few others.

This week: Nothing major until The Outer Worlds.

My opinion on Lost Legacy didn't change after beating it. It was very average overall, nothing noteworthy outside of the graphics. While the final train sequence looked super impressive I was disappointed (but not surprised by that point) that they had yet ANOTHER train segment in an Uncharted game.

Shaq-Fu was a pleasant surprise. It's a fun beat-em-up that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I played through it Sunday, if I had to guess I'd say the whole thing (including the Barack-Fu free add-on content) took around 5 hours or so. It was fun throughout, had a nice variety of enemies, some good (tho purposely cheesy, so if that isn't your thing beware) humor and just felt fun to play. For the $4 I spent on it a couple months back at GS, I definitely got my money's worth.

The Outer Worlds has been my most anticipated game for a long time now. I feel like a lot of people have been sleeping on it, but a new game in the style of Fallout from the original creators of that series has had me hyped big time. Haven't really felt like playing anything else lately because that's what I want to play, and now that it's so close I'm just really excited for it. Haven't been this excited for the release of a new game for a while now.

[isthatallyougot]

I'm addicted to My Time at Portia the same way that I was to the Harvest Moon games back in the day.

It's been on my wishlist since before it came out. I think I'll really like it too.

My opinion on Lost Legacy didn't change after beating it. It was very average overall

I loved it! That and 3 are the best Uncharteds imo. (They are probably @ the bottom for you. )

I've been playing Resident Evil Revelations (PC), started up Paper Mario (N64), still chugging away on Harvest Moon : TTOTT, and finishing up catching the final few monkeys in Ape Escape 2.

Edit: Oh and I played through a season of Tecmo Super Bowl 2020 and my Panthers beat the Titans 24-10 in the Super Bowl. I had long thought about going back to Tecmo Super Bowl and playing with the community roster updates, but never got around to it until now. Still such an incredibly fun game - even better in multiplayer though.

[Phaseknox]

More Odyssey last week, trying to island hop and get those all cleared.

How are you liking it compared to the other Assassin's Creed games? Where would you rank it at this point?

My opinion on Lost Legacy didn't change after beating it. It was very average overall, nothing noteworthy outside of the graphics. While the final train sequence looked super impressive I was disappointed (but not surprised by that point) that they had yet ANOTHER train segment in an Uncharted game.

I'm sorry that you didn't really like it, but I thought that it was great from start to finish and is my third favorite game in the Uncharted series. The final train sequence was one of the most exciting things that I've experienced in a game, isn't Uncharted 2 the only other Uncharted game with a train sequence?

Shaq-Fu was a pleasant surprise. It's a fun beat-em-up that doesn't take itself too seriously and doesn't overstay it's welcome. I played through it Sunday, if I had to guess I'd say the whole thing (including the Barack-Fu free add-on content) took around 5 hours or so. It was fun throughout, had a nice variety of enemies, some good (tho purposely cheesy, so if that isn't your thing beware) humor and just felt fun to play.

Thanks for the impressions, I'll check it out if I ever come across it for cheap.

The Outer Worlds has been my most anticipated game for a long time now. I feel like a lot of people have been sleeping on it, but a new game in the style of Fallout from the original creators of that series has had me hyped big time.

I always thought that it looked good, but it looks like a $40 or less game to me since it seems to have a lower budget compared to other big releases and the graphics look a little dated like a last gen game. I've watched a few video reviews for it and while it definitely looks fun and like Fallout: New Vegas in space, it's something that I can wait to get when it's cheaper. It's not open world but instead offers several different separate open areas, and it's only 30 hours which is on the short side for an RPG. I'm sure that I will like it, but not for $60+ on day one.

My opinion on Lost Legacy didn't change after beating it. It was very average overall

I loved it! That and 3 are the best Uncharteds imo.

Yeah, I think that we all loved it here. Argyle is the odd man out this time, it's refreshing that it's not me for a change.

[argyle]

I'm honestly surprised you guys liked LL so much. I mean, I know we all have different tastes but I just didn't expect that one to be as well loved here as it seems to be. I'm not saying it's the worst game I've ever played or anything crazy like that, but it just seemed extremely by-the-numbers to me. Oh well, glad you guys enjoyed it.

[isthatallyougot]

How are you enjoying SOMA argyle? I saw you were playing that last night.

I really enjoyed it, minus a couple of gripes I'll cover in my year end reviews.

[jfissel]

More Odyssey last week, trying to island hop and get those all cleared.

How are you liking it compared to the other Assassin's Creed games? Where would you rank it at this point?

It's great, definitely in the top 5. I'll have to see if my opinion changes through the 2nd half of the game.

[argyle]

The Outer Worlds has been my most anticipated game for a long time now. I feel like a lot of people have been sleeping on it, but a new game in the style of Fallout from the original creators of that series has had me hyped big time.

I always thought that it looked good, but it looks like a $40 or less game to me since it seems to have a lower budget compared to other big releases and the graphics look a little dated like a last gen game. I've watched a few video reviews for it and while it definitely looks fun and like Fallout: New Vegas in space, it's something that I can wait to get when it's cheaper. It's not open world but instead offers several different separate open areas, and it's only 30 hours which is on the short side for an RPG. I'm sure that I will like it, but not for $60+ on day one.

After playing it off & on all day since around 11:30 last night, I can honestly say that if TOW isn't worth $60, no game is. It looks fantastic (last gen? really? ) has an insane amount of personality oozing from every polygon, and is jam-packed with sidequests, places to explore, etc. I've heard that 20-30 hour estimate as well...if you "golden path" the game. The main story quest in Skyrim is what, 10-15 hours? Who plays these games like that? WHY would anyone play these games like that?

Anyway, the game is 100% what I was hoping it would be, and is on a fast track to being my GOTY.

[Phaseknox]

After playing it off & on all day since around 11:30 last night, I can honestly say that if TOW isn't worth $60, no game is.

Considering how quickly games drop in price these days I'm really selective with what I decide to pay full price ($60+) for on day one, games like Cyberpunk 2077 for example. As good as The Outer Worlds looks, based on gameplay videos/reviews that I've seen it doesn't look like it's quite in the same league as something like Cyberpunk 2077 IMO. I'm not saying that it's not worth $60+, just that it doesn't look like it's worth that much to me personally. But of course I could feel differently if I played it.

It looks fantastic (last gen? really? ) has an insane amount of personality oozing from every polygon, and is jam-packed with sidequests, places to explore, etc.

That's good to hear, I can only go by gameplay videos/reviews that I've seen and based on what I've seen the graphics look good but not great. Of course watching gameplay videos/reviews and actually playing the game can be quite different. But graphics aren't THAT important to me in the grand scheme of things, so it's good to know that it delivers in areas that I do feel are more important in general.

I've heard that 20-30 hour estimate as well...if you "golden path" the game. The main story quest in Skyrim is what, 10-15 hours? Who plays these games like that? WHY would anyone play these games like that?

Based on video reviews that I've watched they claim that it takes roughly 30 hours to do everything, and that the main story quest is significantly shorter. I hope that they're wrong since critics tend to rush through games quicker to finish them in time to post reviews, but it does concern me that all of them have basically said the same thing. Of course we'll know for sure when you finish it as I'm sure that you'll do just about everything that there is to do in it.

the game is 100% what I was hoping it would be, and is on a fast track to being my GOTY.

I'm glad to hear that it's everything that you were hoping that it would be, it's always nice when games are. I hope that it's on sale Black Friday so that I can get it sooner rather than later because it would probably take priority over a lot of my other games since I'm a big fan of Fallout: New Vegas which it looks very similar to.