The Backlog Check-in Vol. 202: 11/13/21: Battlefield 2042/Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Pokémon Shining Pearl Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: LEGO City Undercover, The LEGO Movie Video Game, Trulon: The Shadow Engine

Finished: The LEGO Movie Video Game

Playing: ?

Added: Castlevania Advance Collection, Children of Zodiarcs, Chroma Quaternion

I finished The LEGO Movie Video Game, it took me 7 hours which was just the right length for it. The combat and platforming elements presented no challenge since you respawn right where you die, but the environment puzzles were often clever and usually took some figuring out which along with the humor made for a fairly entertaining time throughout.

I liked the movie, so I naturally liked the game since it’s basically an interactive version of the movie. However, while it includes a lot of scenes from the movie the story is still a little hard to follow since the scenes are brief and jump around a lot. I think that they could have done a better job overall with that aspect of it, especially with how rushed the ending is. But I also realize that it’s basically a LEGO game made for kids, so the focus is primarily on the gameplay, collecting studs and unlocking characters.

I paid $5 for it, and it was definitely worth that much. I hope that the other LEGO games that I have are similar to this one since I found it cute and humorous offering some decent puzzle solving.

Games releasing this week
Battlefield 2042
BloodRayne: ReVamped
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade
Despotism 3k
Dysmantle
Exo One
Grow: Song of the Evertree
Hextech Mayhem: A League of Legends Story
Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
Klang 2
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond
Pokémon Shining Pearl
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One
Smoots Golf
Space Moth: Lunar Edition
Star Wars Jedi Knight Collection
Surviving the Aftermath
Tamarin
Them Bombs
Two Hundred Ways
Whiskey Mafia: Leo’s Family
The Wild at Heart
Undungeon

[crimson_tide]

I was browsing my digital games to decide what to play next, and LEGO City Undercover sounded fun so I decided to check it out. I played a bit of it and found it to be somewhat cute, mildly humorous and semi-entertaining. I think that the best way to describe it is Grand Theft LEGO. It feels somewhat like a LEGO version of GTA, but cartoonish, comical and kid friendly of course. It seems like a fairly sizable open world game with a lot of content, so I’m going to wait and play it when I’m more in the mood for it.

It got me in a LEGO mood, so I decided to check out The LEGO Movie Video Game since I liked The LEGO Movie. It includes scenes from the movie, and follows its plot. It’s a linear level based action platform puzzle game, and I’m mildly enjoying it. Other than figuring out some environment puzzles, there’s not really any challenge to it. It’s colorful, comical and cute, but ultimately a kids game. I’m sticking with it for now since I’m having some fun with it, but I’m not sure if it will keep me wanting to play to completion. We’ll see.

Watch out for crim with these LEGO game comments...

Bruh...fam...welp, I'm guilt free because I warned you . Seriously, I'm sure these games are fine. I just bounced off really quickly when I tried them before and I am especially not fond of collect a thon style games which is this series' apparent bread and butter. It is compounded by the fact that I HAVE to play it with the kiddo. She bounces off everything else we try. I downloaded The Sims 4 for her (it was a PS + game at some point, who knew). She sees it on YouTube and all the kids at school talk about it for some reason. That might be goddaddy/goddaughter playtime going forward.

I personally am not able to get into anything. I like DBZ Kakarot but aside from the Cyber Connect 2 bat**** insane boss fights, it's really, really slow. It's fine to come down for the day, it's just really dragging its feet because there was, for whatever reason, about -$37 invested in this game. I am not a graphics type but man it is bad in places. And so much jank. I don't know who CC2 pissed off but hopefully this game sold well enough to get them back in someone's good graces...

I really want to go ahead and play P5 Strikers but I'm awful at it. So I will crank it down to easy and listen to the glorious soundtrack, dig the story, relish in the style and ignore the fact the enemies are just targets on Easy . I don't have the time to play this game seriously but I really want to see what it has to offer so that's the route I am taking. I gave it a shot, oh well .

[Phaseknox]

Seriously, I'm sure these games are fine. I just bounced off really quickly when I tried them before and I am especially not fond of collect a thon style games which is this series' apparent bread and butter. It is compounded by the fact that I HAVE to play it with the kiddo.

The LEGO games can be somewhat fun if you’re in the right mood for them which I was when I played LEGO City Undercover, and The LEGO Movie Video Game. But I’m also not fond of collect-a-thon style games, and the stud collecting is my least liked aspect of the LEGO games. They’re in abundance everywhere in the levels, and are nothing more than an annoying distraction IMO. But I’m still compelled to collect them for some reason, and I have to tell myself to ignore them.

I downloaded The Sims 4 for her (it was a PS + game at some point, who knew). She sees it on YouTube and all the kids at school talk about it for some reason. That might be goddaddy/goddaughter playtime going forward.

I have The Sims 4, but I haven’t played it yet. I like The Sims games, but I’m surprised that kids like them since they’re adult life sim games that I would think that kids would find boring. While they’re cartoonish, comical and cute, their gameplay is essentially mundane real life tasks. I know that they appeal to teens and older, but I would think that young kids would find them dull.

[Phaseknox]

I started playing Blue Reflection since I was in the mood for a JRPG, but one that was a little lighter in terms of mechanics, systems and tone. It’s somewhat reminiscent of JRPGs like Persona and Tokyo Xanadu where it’s one part high school social sim, and one part otherworldly dimension dungeon crawler. It takes place at an all girls school, and features an all girl cast. It has a magical girl theme similar to Sailor Moon. It’s very anime almost like an interactive anime at times, but I like anime so that’s fine.

The school portion of the game basically has you walking around the school interacting with NPCs, and building stronger bonds with friends. The otherworldly dimension has you traversing dungeons engaging in turn-based combat with enemies. The turn-based battle system sticks to the basics for the most part without any overly complicated mechanics, and/or systems which is a good thing IMO.

I’ve been somewhat enjoying the game, but it’s a little slow paced and repetitive. The only two areas that you interact in are the school, and the otherworldly dimension. The school is primarily halls and rooms, and the otherworldly dimension has four different zones that don’t look that much different from each other beyond their color scheme. While the story and character interaction are decent, it’s hard to imagine the entire game only taking place in these two areas.

It’s been a tad bit easy on the normal difficulty setting so far, but I’m still early in the game so I expect the difficulty to ramp up. If it gets too difficult, there’s an easy setting to choose. But I’m not sure that I’m going to stick with it since the school social sim stuff is a little dull, and the otherworldly dimension dungeon crawling isn’t all that fun. But the story, characters and turn-based battles might be enough to keep me playing. We’ll see.

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Lost Judgment PS5

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 40 games

I'm approaching 25 hours in Lost Judgment, still going strong and the story has picked up a bit.

Also, on the GTA front - I think 2 things are clear about the remaster:
1. You can buy it and have a good time playing through them again.
2. It's some shoddy work. So many things (big and small) are wrong with these releases that it's pretty clear this needed a better developer and/or more time.

I will not be purchasing it in the current state.

[isthatallyougot]

I will not be purchasing it in the current state.

Yeah, from what I've seen I'd much rather boot up the ole PS2 or emulate the originals. Incredibly lazy/sloppy work. I don't get it. It's not like R* doesn't have the funds, smh.

[Phaseknox]

Also, on the GTA front - I think 2 things are clear about the remaster:
1. You can buy it and have a good time playing through them again.
2. It's some shoddy work. So many things (big and small) are wrong with these releases that it's pretty clear this needed a better developer and/or more time.

I will not be purchasing it in the current state.

I wasn’t all that interested in it to begin with, but now I’m not interested in it at all knowing that it has a lot of bugs, frame rate inconsistencies and graphical issues.

I think that if they charged $30 for it instead of $60 then it wouldn’t be receiving quite as much backlash, but charging $60 for it is ridiculous.

[argyle]

Games added: Shin Megami Tensei V

Last ...whatever Finished nothing that I can remember. Most recently I've been playing Forza Horizon 5 courtesy of GamePass, and I started SMTV but I haven't put much time in it yet. Oh, and a little MK 11 here & there.

This week: The same.

I've been having a lot of fun w/ Forza - it's a really good open world arcade racer. Something I wouldn't have bought but am glad I got to play via my GP sub. I've played the opening bits of SMTV and it's very promising but I can't say much else yet. Spoiler Alert: The world ends at the beginning of the game.

I finally fired up Metroid Dread about a week ago, and I gotta say I'm a little disappointed. They made one of my least-favorite game mechanics the core of the game - locking you in an area w/ an unkillable creature that can one-shot you if it catches you. Makes those areas very needlessly frustrating. I'll get back to it, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with that right now.

Far Cry 6 is just a mess, so I sold it. Thought I would have some fun just running around in a sandbox for a bit, but it's too janky to have fun with.

There are 3 or 4 games I'm hoping for good deals on during the holidays, but otherwise I think I'm set game-wise for the year. I scored a sweet turntable from an estate sale recently that I'm having serviced right now - really starting to get into my vinyl collecting.

[canedaddy]

Played recently: Diablo II, Shakedown Hawaii

Finished: Shakedown Hawaii

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 17 (13 PS4, 1 Vita, 3 Switch)


I finally quit on Diablo II. I tried cheesing my way past the glitch I mentioned, but no luck. It's probably doable, but I'm not going to invest dozens of hours into overcoming a broken game.

That has also made me hesitant to pick up the GTA remasters. Apparently they have plenty of issues too.

Before I jump into another game, I decided to wrap up Shakedown Hawaii. I beat the game and am almost done with the collectibles. Not sure if I'll go for platinum after that. It is a great game, just like Retro City Rampage. Fun, funny, smart, awesome.

[Phaseknox]

There are 3 or 4 games I'm hoping for good deals on during the holidays, but otherwise I think I'm set game-wise for the year.

There’s several games that I want such as Biomutant, Far Fry 6, Guardians of the Galaxy, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Life is Strange: True Colors, Little Nightmares II, Lost Judgment, Resident Evil Village, Scarlet Nexus, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Tales of Arise that I’m hoping will be on sale Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Games don’t seem to drop in price like they used to for some reason, so I’m hoping that there’s some good deals on some of the ones that I’ve been wanting on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.