The Backlog Check-in Vol. 260: 12/24/22: Christmas Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards, The Ascent, Demoniaca: Everlasting Night, Guacamelee!

Finished: Nothing

Playing: God of War: Ragnarok

Added: God of War: Ragnarok

Games releasing this week
Barista Simulator
Chill Town
Fluffy Horde
Pathogenesis: Overcome
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soul Arena

[crimson_tide]

Played: Scarlet Nexus. I think that was it. This week sucked. Hard.

Bought: Sonic Origins, Monster Sanctuary, Zone of the Enders The 2nd Runner, Assault Suit Leynos, River City Girls.

This week: Sonic Origins because story mode, Scarlet Nexus and being a teacher for the week because my teenage kiddo needs serious help and then building her a room in our basement. Because this vacation will decidedly not rock as well.

Sorry, I a mad whiny today fam. I still might grab a few things from the holiday sale on PSN. Mulling Valkyrie Elysium Deluxe to get VP along with it for a small discount, Samurai Showdown, that Uncharted bundle for $10 because I still don't have Lost Legacy somehow and MAYBE Forbidden West. MAYBE...

Have a merry Xams all if I don't pop in tomorrow !

[argyle]

Games added: Hotline Miami Collection, Sakuna (Switch version), A Hat In Time, Disco Elysium, Cris Tales, The Eternal Cylinder

Last week: Finished nothing, played Lapis X Labyrinth, HOA, Need For Speed: Unbound

This week: Probably more of those

Been hitting up some of Gamestop's sales recently, they've had some stuff on clearance & what have you. A Hat In Time & Disco Elysium were both clearance games and also games I had been looking for deals on for a while. Heard really good things about both of those.

Really enjoying NFS. The AI rubberbanding is kinda nasty, and my main complaint right now, but the controls are great and its fun just driving around & looking for collectibles. Might end up dropping the difficulty if it doesn't improve (right now I'm honestly not sure if its due to my crappy car or that the difficulty is just borked). I'm in it for a little over $30, and I feel like it's worth that.

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. I appreciate all of you guys, you're in my thoughts & prayers, especially this time of year.

[Phaseknox]

[Phaseknox]

I got God of War: Ragnarok for Christmas, and I started playing it right away. It’s probably the best looking game that I’ve seen on PS4, even better looking than Horizon Forbidden West. It oozes AAA production values, it’s definitely an impressive game in every regard. But while I was enjoying it, I also could tell that it was going to be a huge time sink. I’ve heard that it takes 40-50 hours to finish if you play it thoroughly which I plan on doing. I just bought a bunch of digital games because the PS Store has a really good holiday sale going on right now, and I wanted to check some of them out sooner rather than later so I quit playing God of War: Ragnarok.

I started playing Diablo II: Resurrected, and I can’t believe that I had to create a Battle.net account to play it offline single player. I didn’t have to do this for Diablo III, so I don’t know why I had to do it for this. It was annoying, but I did it so that I could play the game. Considering that the game is over 20 years old it still holds up fairly well, but it definitely shows its age when compared to Diablo III. The updated 3D graphics are pretty nice and a big improvement over the original pixel art graphics, but the game itself is a little lacking in terms of story exposition, characterization and explaining things. You just start off in a camp with no backstory whatsoever, briefly talk to a few NPCs to get some kind of an idea as to what’s going on with little explanation and then start dungeon crawling with no real direction. I like that the gameplay itself is kept fairly basic and isn’t overly complicated, but the game in general is kind of lacking liveliness and personality. You basically just play as a generic avatar killing mobs of enemies in open-ish outdoor areas, and through maze-like dungeons collecting loot along the way. The characters that you can choose from aren’t as appealing as the ones in Diablo III, and unlike Diablo III where each class has a male and female option the classes are gender specific in this one. The environments are rather dark and dreary, they lack the more colorful look of Diablo III. I’ve been finding the core gameplay somewhat fun, but a little challenging. I’ve played a good bit of it so far and my sorceress has gained some really good magic attacks which help dealing with the larger mobs of enemies, but the amount of enemies at times is overwhelming and seem to be a bit much for the single player difficulty. I’m enjoying the game overall, but I’m worried that the difficulty might become too much for me. We’ll see.

[crimson_tide]

There's a story and characters in Diablo 3? I tried several times to get into it but fell flat every time. I knew I was playing that game wrong...

I have a random $100 from an uncle for Xmas, so here is what I am thinking:

Valkyrie Elysium Digital Deluxe (so I can play Profile right after)
Hot Wheels GOTY (still want a racing arc next year)
Uncharted bundle ($10, I want Lost Legacy)
Horizon Forbidden West (still iffy on this one...)

Thoughts on Forbidden West, fam? I can just wait until I get a PS5 but I did dig the STORY in the first one. Does the combat feel... snappier? It felt bloated last time until I put it on story difficulty and then it felt good.

[Phaseknox]

There's a story and characters in Diablo 3? I tried several times to get into it but fell flat every time. I knew I was playing that game wrong...

Yeah, there’s a story and cast of characters in Diablo III including companions that join you. The story and characters aren’t strong aspects of the game like they usually are in other RPGs, but they’re still good enough to drive the gameplay. Diablo II has even less story and characters, there’s just enough of each to give a purpose to the gameplay but barely.

Thoughts on Forbidden West, fam? I can just wait until I get a PS5 but I did dig the STORY in the first one. Does the combat feel... snappier? It felt bloated last time until I put it on story difficulty and then it felt good.

Based on what I played of Horizon Forbidden West it’s an improvement over the original, but still more of the same. It feels more like a continuation than a sequel if that makes sense. Combat is better, but not by a lot. It basically looks and feels like the first game, but takes place in new areas. If you like the first game then you’ll like it, but don’t expect it to be a lot different.

[argyle]

Honestly, I got bored pretty quick w/ Forbidden West. Don't get the hype on that one. It's definitely not a BAD game, but it felt like it had a bit of Ubisoft open world syndrome, and the story/characters weren't grabbing me in what I played.

If you're looking for a good arcade racer, check out the demo for the latest NFS. I've really enjoyed what I've played of that, and it's been on sale a lot recently in the $40-ish range.

[crimson_tide]

Well that's a bummer. I really, really liked the story in Zero Dawn. They do have a 5 hour demo I can try with PS whatever tier I am at. I will likely give it a go this weekend. I know j played it maybe he'll chime in too. Definitely getting Valkyrie Elysium and the rest though. Elden Ring keeps popping up as a contender but I keep talking myself out of it...

And I do want to try the new NFS but EA has been selling NFS so cheap lately I figure I can wait until the summer for it when it should be well under $20. I bought the triple pack they had for like $9 and the most recent one for $6. This and (I am dead serious) Cars 3 are where the racing bug came from to begin with. Seriously though, Cars 3 is ridiculously fun. I bought it to play with the kid but I dip in and out on my own all the time. If it's on sale and you want a goofy arcade racer (no story but you unlock stuff constantly), it's worth the $6 I paid for it.

[Phaseknox]

If you're looking for a good arcade racer, check out the demo for the latest NFS. I've really enjoyed what I've played of that, and it's been on sale a lot recently in the $40-ish range.

I do want to try the new NFS but EA has been selling NFS so cheap lately I figure I can wait until the summer for it when it should be well under $20.

Need For Speed Unbound is current gen only.