The Backlog Check-in Vol. 149: 11/7/20: PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Nothing

Finished: Nothing

Playing: ?

Added: Nothing

I still haven’t been feeling well enough to play anything. Some days I feel a little better than others, but not quite better enough to play something.

In other news, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X come out this week.

Games releasing this week (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Switch)
Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Astro's Playroom
Boreal Blade
Bright Memory
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Death Come True
Demon's Souls
Enlisted
Evergate
The Falconeer
Fuser
Gears Tactics
Godfall
Just Dance 2021
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory
Liftoff: Drone Racing
Manifold Garden
Overcooked! All You Can Eat
The Pathless
Planet Coaster Console Edition
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin
Slide Stars
Sparkle 4 Tales
Spider-Man: Miles Morales
XIII
Yakuza: Like a Dragon

[crimson_tide]

I hope you start feeling better, Phase. I have had those moments (like weeks at a time too) where I don't want to play either because depression. I hate the feeling of not wanting or being able to do the thing you like or love. I will continue keeping you in my prayers sir.

Played: Mummy demastered, FF12, DQ11S demo

This week: Seriously? Y'all gonna make me say it? Because we all know it's...KINGDOM HEARTS MELODY OF MEMORIES...wait no, I'm lying. It's all Yakuza Like a Dragon all the mother flippin time BABY, YEAH WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!! I'm even splurging and getting the $90 one since it will get the PS5 upgrade for no extra cost. Plus I haven't done day one uber edition since...Disgaea 2 I think? It's time...but Kingdom Hearts will have to wait until at least Xmas. Oh, and Miles Morales is PS5 which my wife is determined to find for me for Xmas. So I will hold out a minute for that.

Oh DQ11S is the business. This game is mad chill. How can somebody not like this? I am eating it up. It'll be a solid RPG followup after Like a Dragon (getting actually HYPED). I already uninstalled FF12. Maybe some other time, it was just way too many little things that added up and I am in no mood for at the moment.

We still do game of the year lists here? I can totally crush one this year!

[argyle]

Games added: Strikey Sisters

Last week: Finished nothing, finished WITH Genshin Impact. Played Strikey Sisters.

This week:

Strikey Sisters is a little brick-breaker game I've had my eye on for the Switch that went on sale this week for $3, so I bit. It's a fun little diversion, although it's not quite as polished as it could be and I think they could have done a little more (it looks like an RPG combined with Arkanoid, it's really more of a basic Arkanoid w/ RPG window-dressing). But for $3, I'm not really complaining, it's a decent enough time waster.

The problem with Genshin Impact is 100% its monetization model, but at the same time not really how you'd think. It's not so much that it forces you to spend money on it, because it doesn't. The problem is it feels like a team got together and made a REALLY good game, then they passed it to a marketing department and they completely crippled it to try to make a buck. There are only 2 chapters of the game up right now, but because of the F2P-ness of the game they want you continually playing it, right? So what do they do? They gate the story missions behind increasingly hard-to-reach "Adventurer Rank" goals. Your Adventurer Rank (AR) is basically just an overall level you work towards as you play, since your characters can all be leveled individually it creates more of a "this is your REAL level" type situation. And like most leveling, the higher it gets the more XP it takes to level it again. But since there's a very finite amount of content available right now, that devolves into a LOT of grinding just to get 30mins to an hour's worth of story, then you start grinding again. Their hope is that stretching the game out like this will cause you to get bored & spend money, but for me it's caused me to get bored & stop playing. I won't be wasting precious HDD space on the Cinco to install it, so this truly is the end. I'll have to let it marinate before I make my top 10 in a couple months or so, but it will be interesting to see if it makes the list or not - there IS good in it, which really makes the whole experience more frustrating. If it was a standard $60 game that was paced normally, it'd be top 3 for the year easy (Xenoblade Remake is still *firmly* in the #1 spot).

BIG gaming week for me this week. I've been killing it on eBay this year & saving mainly for this week - Tam and I are moving firmly to the next gen. Granted, with this round of systems that partly entails upgraded hardware to better play existing games, but I'm actually really happy about that - there's still a lot I need/want to get to.

[crimson_tide]

I was so curious when you might bounce off Genshin, Argyle. I would have thought you would just play over on the Cinco but I get the feeling now I shouldn't bother and just dive into FF14 at some point (as I keep threatening to do) if I am finally committing to something like a daily grind. Thanks for the input!

I might have to use my wife's computer at some point for my games of the year list for pics and vids (P5R music is so flipping good, I must post examples). Also, I need an icon at some point. Still leaning towards Yuri in that baller ass balling out hat...Velvet from Berseria lacks said hat game so it's just not as much fun. I would so love Berseria if she has a baller ass balling out hat...what a shame.

Wait...does the Luminary in DQ11 get hats? Oh man, if he gets a baller ass balling out hat, I might be in JRPG heaven...

[jfissel]

Finished: Detroit: Become Human (platinum #70!)

Now Playing: Yakuza: Like a Dragon and PS5 games hopefully

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 34 games


Crim - Yes, hats are part of some of the outfits for all characters, IIRC. And I'm with you on Yakuza, though I just got the steelbook Day Ichi edition. You'll have to let me know how those 2 extra jobs turn out.

[argyle]

I ordered some games from Target's b2g1 sale yesterday, and Like a Dragon was one of them, so I guess I'm in the club! If you guys are gonna start it soon I may join in so we can have us a good 'ol fashioned game discussion around here.

Oh and crim, shoot me 2 or 3 screenshots of Yuri in said hat through the Playstation and I'll whip you up an avatar.

[crimson_tide]

Done Argyle, thanks!

Getting ready to download Like a Dragon! Going to finish the last hour or so of the DQ11 demo (got a hell of a hook to get the full game if I wasn't convinced already especially if since j says there's hats). Hopefully a few of us can bounce some thoughts off each other so I'm not yelling into a vacuum about how baller it is . I will keep you apprised of the dlc jobs, j!

[canedaddy]

I look forward to hearing y'all's thoughts on the new Yakuza. I'm not ready to jump in for a while myself... it feels like I just finished Yakuza 0 and I still haven't played 6.


Played recently: Ghost of Tsushima, Velocity 2X, SteamWorld Dig 2

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 36 (15 PS4, 9 Vita, 8 3DS/2DS, 5 PS2)


I'm still loving Ghost. I'm in the third area. Going to be sad to see this one end, but glad to hear there'll be a sequel.

I flew back to Arizona last week for work so the time was right for some handheld gaming. I hit a wall on Velocity 2X... it's a great game but you reach a point where you need to master earlier levels to be able to unlock the next level, and I don't see me managing to get past 42 of 50, unfortunately.

Soooo I fired up SteamWorld Dig 2 on the 3DS, and it is great, like all the SteamWorld games. Maybe the best yet? A lot more game there than I expected, too.

[jfissel]

Finished the first chapter in Like a Dragon last night and will play some more tonight. I've only seen the basics of the new fighting system (turn-based), but it's fine so far. I'll be able to give a better opinion once more people are on my team and I can use other jobs.

[argyle]

My Yakuza shipped yesterday, so hopefully I'll have it by the weekend.

I owned Valhalla for maybe a day? No knock on the game, I never even booted it up so I can't comment on that one way or the other, but the CE was VERY disappointing and not worth what I paid for it. It was definitely a big step down from the last 2, which were both very nice sets. And this set was $50 more than what I paid for Odyssey's CE. So I put it up on ebay & it sold very quickly. Got my money back, so lesson learned - I'll pick the game back up at some point when I catch it on a good sale. No hurry tho, I have more than enough to play right now.

Cane, Steamworld 2 is excellent. I thought the first one was good but not spectacular, but the second one is better on every level. Reminds me, I have Steamworld Quest - the card game - in my backlog, I need to get around to that soon. Maybe I'll take it with me when I visit my folks for the holidays.