The Backlog Check-in Vol. 82: 7/27/19: Madden NFL 20 Edition

[jfissel]

So I'm cleaning out a filing cabinet and I found a folder with video game receipts going back to when I started seriously gaming again in late 2001. Looks like I can account for most everything, so I'm going to tally it up and see how much I've spent on physical games/consoles/accessories over the last 18 years...any guesses on the number? I'll provide more data to help you guess soon (like the number of games included, etc). Quickly going through them, I did find a receipt for Final Fantasy X-2 where it cost $2 at K-mart. Must've been a pricing error or something.

And cane, I found a pristine Sam Goody receipt from 2002 for the purchase of GTA Vice City.

Wow, that's sooo jfissel. Full price GTA VC, I assume? Just got me thinking about the glory days of the IGN GTA board.



My guess is $2,400.

Yep, full price at $49.99 back when games were $50. And yep, the IGN GTA board was where I went when San Andreas was announced...don't think I was on there for Vice City.

[canedaddy]

I got there a little earlier... I was a part of many endless, heated debates over which was better, III or VC. Good times.

[Phaseknox]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night ROCKS!!!! It's the best Metroidvania game that I've played. I've played some good somewhat low budget indie ones, but they've always felt low budget and indie. Ritual of the Night doesn't. It's a somewhat big budget retail released game as opposed to a digital only indie game like the genre usually is.

The graphics and music are really good, but it's the design and gameplay that really stand out. While it's an open-ended side scrolling action platformer at its core, it also has RPG elements. Basically, it's an action platformer with depth. Side quests, leveling, loot, shops, crafting, etc. it's all here. Exploring is rewarding making you want to explore everywhere possible since there's almost always something to find off the beaten path.

The game is challenging making you need to change weapons and shard magic depending on the enemies that you're up against. There's a lot of variety to the enemies, and a lot of them require different tactics. So you definitely can't just use one type of weapon and shard magic all the time, you need to mix it up based on the enemies that you're fighting. There's a lot of different weapons and shard magic, and they keep combat varied since you have to use most of them in different situations.

This is basically a Castlevania game which used to be one of my favorite series back in the day. As much as I liked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, it didn't really feel like a Castlevania game. Ritual of the Night does despite not officially being a Castlevania game. It's nice to basically play another old school style Castlevania game now with current gen bells and whistles.

[isthatallyougot]

As much as I liked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, it didn't really feel like a Castlevania game.

Yeah, it was good for what it was, but Castlevania, it was not.

Glad to hear both you and argyle are digging this though.