The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

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Phaseknox
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The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

Played: Darksiders III, I am Setsuna

Finished: Darksiders III

Playing: I am Setsuna

Added: Nothing

I finished Darksiders III, and I don’t know why a lot of critics and gamers were somewhat down on it when it came out because it’s a really good third person action adventure platformer. It’s basically a Metroidvania where you can’t access certain areas of the levels until you gain the abilities to do so. There’s a good bit of exploration, and you’re rewarded for doing so. The entire game world is interconnected, and the levels are really well designed. The art style/graphics are good, the combat is fun and the platforming is plentiful. The overall story and ending are ok, but it’s a gameplay first and narrative second game.

Most of my complaints with it are from a technical standpoint - the load times can be long, the game occasionally pauses to load while you’re playing and it can be a little stutter-y at times with frame rate drops. But these are small annoyances in the grand scheme of things, because the game itself is one of the best of its kind that I’ve played in a while.

I started playing I am Setsuna, and I’m liking it. It’s a retro style top-down view turn-based JRPG with 3D graphics. The story is interesting, the characters are likable, the graphics are appealing and the combat is classic ATB turn-based style. Things are kept fairly simple in terms of gameplay mechanics and systems which I like.



Games releasing this week
The Cycle: Frontier
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Hinokami Chronicles
The Elder Scrolls Online: High Isle
Mario Strikers: Battle League
Metal Max Xeno: Reborn
Meteor World Actor: Badge & Dagger
My Lovely Wife
Nummels
Please Fix the Road
Postal: Brain Damage
The Quarry
Tour de France 2022
True Fear: Forsaken Souls - Part 2
Square Keeper
SpellForce 3 Reforced
Super Impossible Road
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

I'm still playing Unreal World and having a blast.

And I'm still debating about firing up Morrowind. I think I'll probably do that in the next week or so. If I do, I'll do it without mods, although I'll use OpenMW - not technically a mod - for a smoother experience (on modern hardware) and so that I can upscale text since I'll be playing on TV and the font is pretty small by default. Vanilla Morrowind tends to crash a lot on modern hardware unfortunately, and this "recreation" fixes that issue. It doesn't add or remove anything from the base game though in terms of content/mechanics, and I want my first time through to be as "original" as possible.
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canedaddy
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by canedaddy »

Played recently: Elden Ring

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 21 (20 PS4, 1 Vita)


I FINALLY got past that boss who was giving me trouble... now lots of new stuff has opened up. Good times.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

I am Setsuna is a bit slow paced, somber and vanilla, so I’m not sure that I’m going to stick with it for now since I’m kind of in the mood for something a little more action-y. I’ve been in the mood to play through games that I’ve played before for some reason, but I have a lot of games that I haven’t played yet that I want to play as well. Decisions, decisions.
Last edited by Phaseknox on Mon Jun 06, 2022 4:42 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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jfissel
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by jfissel »

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Bugsnax DLC

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Finished up the last 2 "easy" GT7 trophies, so I'm done for now and I'll check back in a few months to see what they've added. I may continue to log in and do some daily races though.

I finally started the Bugsnax DLC yesterday.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

It’s time for a Phase rant since I haven’t done one in a while. :P It would appear that gaming has pretty much reached its peak for me last generation as the current generation of gaming (PS5, Xbox Series X) just doesn’t really interest me all that much. I realize that it’s still somewhat new and that it might get more interesting in the future, but as of right now there’s nothing that really has me excited about it. And a big part of that has to do with current gaming trends. It just seems like gaming is even more of a business now, and is moving away from the type of games that I enjoy most - dedicated story driven single player action adventure games and RPGs without any co-op or multiplayer included to water down the core single player experience. It just seems like a lot of games these days are co-op/multiplayer focused, or shoehorn co-op/multiplayer into them that hinders the single player experience. And we’re seeing less action adventure games and RPGs, and more pure action games and shooters because they lend themselves to co-op and multiplayer better.

Another problem is that there’s less mid-tier games being made now as well. Games are either AAA or indie, there’s very little in-between. AAA games are more expensive than ever to make now so they’re made to appeal to the mainstream masses, and the majority of indies are low budget keeping them at a retro game level of quality (2D, pixel art) and are mostly arcade-y, artsy-fartsy, or quirky. Of course I like a lot indie games, but I don’t want a steady diet of them. My favorite type of games are mid-tier or above dedicated single player action adventure games, and RPGs. Unfortunately, they’re not what a lot of companies seem to want to make anymore.

I just played and finished Darksiders III, and it was a really good mid-tier third person action adventure platformer. It’s not the type of game that we see much anymore. It did poorly, so the follow-up Darksiders game was a co-op isometric view action game with two male protagonists. Single player action adventure games with female protagonists bad, co-op action games with male protagonists good and make lots of money *thump on chest*.

I’ve been in the mood for a third person action RPG, so I decided to play Fable II again. Oh how I’ve missed games like this, charming and fun with a real sense of adventure. These types of games were somewhat big during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, but have dwindled since. There have been a few here and there over the years, but not nearly as many as I would like. Now if I want to play these types of games I have to play older ones that I’ve already played before, because we barely get any new ones.

I have more than enough games to play for my Xbox 360 and PS4, so I don’t need a current gen console. But the future of gaming just doesn’t seem all that bright to me. I guess that it’s sort of a good thing that I’m 52 now and have plenty to play, because I don’t think that gaming is going to be quite as good this generation as it has been in the past.
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:59 am It’s time for a Phase rant since I haven’t done one in a while. :P It would appear that gaming has pretty much reached its peak for me last generation as the current generation of gaming (PS5, Xbox Series X) just doesn’t really interest me all that much. I realize that it’s still somewhat new and that it might get more interesting in the future, but as of right now there’s nothing that really has me excited about it. And a big part of that has to do with current gaming trends. It just seems like gaming is even more of a business now, and is moving away from the type of games that I enjoy most - dedicated story driven single player action adventure games and RPGs without any co-op or multiplayer included to water down the core single player experience. It just seems like a lot of games these days are co-op/multiplayer focused, or shoehorn co-op/multiplayer into them that hinders the single player experience. And we’re seeing less action adventure games and RPGs, and more pure action games and shooters because they lend themselves to co-op and multiplayer better.

Another problem is that there’s less mid-tier games being made now as well. Games are either AAA or indie, there’s very little in-between. AAA games are more expensive than ever to make now so they’re made to appeal to the mainstream masses, and the majority of indies are low budget keeping them at a retro game level of quality (2D, pixel art) and are mostly arcade-y, artsy-fartsy, or quirky. Of course I like a lot indie games, but I don’t want a steady diet of them. My favorite type of games are mid-tier or above dedicated single player action adventure games, and RPGs. Unfortunately, they’re not what a lot of companies seem to want to make anymore.

I just played and finished Darksiders III, and it was a really good mid-tier third person action adventure platformer. It’s not the type of game that we see much anymore. It did poorly, so the follow-up Darksiders game was a co-op isometric view action game with two male protagonists. Single player action adventure games with female protagonists bad, co-op action games with male protagonists good and make lots of money *thump on chest*.

I’ve been in the mood for a third person action RPG, so I decided to play Fable II again. Oh how I’ve missed games like this, charming and fun with a real sense of adventure. These types of games were somewhat big during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation, but have dwindled since. There have been a few here and there over the years, but not nearly as many as I would like. Now if I want to play these types of games I have to play older ones that I’ve already played before, because we barely get any new ones.

I have more than enough games to play for my Xbox 360 and PS4, so I don’t need a current gen console. But the future of gaming just doesn’t seem all that bright to me. I guess that it’s sort of a good thing that I’m 52 now and have plenty to play, because I don’t think that gaming is going to be quite as good this generation as it has been in the past.
Maybe you should go back and play some more older games that you've missed phase. You can't have played every good older game.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

isthatallyougot wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:14 pmMaybe you should go back and play some more older games that you've missed phase. You can't have played every good older game.
I’ve actually played almost every older game that I’m interested in, there’s very few that I haven’t. But my rant wasn’t really about not having games to play, because like I said I have plenty. Not only do I have a big collection of Xbox 360 games that I’ve played and want to play again (and a few that I haven’t played), I also have 600+ PS4 games. But admittedly a good amount of my PS4 games are not my favorite genres, or are retro style indies. Basically, games that I want to play but not games that I REALLY want to play if that makes sense.

The PS3/Xbox 360 generation just had a lot more games that really did it for me compared to the PS4/Xbox One generation, and it appears that the PS5/Xbox Series X generation is going to have even less based on what has come out for it so far and what has been announced. So for me the current generation of gaming is the least excited that I’ve been about gaming since I first started, but since I have so much to play from the two previous generations that’s kind of ok. It’s just that I don’t feel like I have a lot to look forward to anymore, but with my current backlog of PS4 games that’s probably for the best anyway.
Last edited by Phaseknox on Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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canedaddy
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by canedaddy »

Phaseknox wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:59 am My favorite type of games are mid-tier or above dedicated single player action adventure games, and RPGs. Unfortunately, they’re not what a lot of companies seem to want to make anymore.
And yet you're avoiding Elden Ring. ;)

Your overall point is solid... because games cost a lot more to make, we're getting fewer top-tier games and a narrower variety of those from generation to generation, and many of them have microtransactions, online modes, etc. to try to keep people playing them and spending money on them. Everybody wants that Fortnite cash flow, and it makes the upper-tier gaming landscape bland and samey.

But there's still plenty of stuff out there. Part of your problem is you have very limited interests overall... mid-tier and above dedicated single player action adventure games and RPGs that aren't challenging or repetitive and have hot female protagonists. :lol:
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 231: 6/4/22: Mario Strikers: Battle League/The Quarry Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

canedaddy wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:54 pm
Phaseknox wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:59 am My favorite type of games are mid-tier or above dedicated single player action adventure games, and RPGs. Unfortunately, they’re not what a lot of companies seem to want to make anymore.
And yet you're avoiding Elden Ring. ;)
Yeah, to save my TV from me throwing my controller through it. :P
canedaddy wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:54 pmYour overall point is solid... because games cost a lot more to make, we're getting fewer top-tier games and a narrower variety of those from generation to generation, and many of them have microtransactions, online modes, etc. to try to keep people playing them and spending money on them. Everybody wants that Fortnite cash flow, and it makes the upper-tier gaming landscape bland and samey.
Exactly, well said. That’s what I meant when I said that gaming is even more of a business now.
canedaddy wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:54 pmBut there's still plenty of stuff out there. Part of your problem is you have very limited interests overall... mid-tier and above dedicated single player action adventure games and RPGs that aren't challenging or repetitive and have hot female protagonists. :lol:
You’re not wrong. :lol:
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