The Backlog Check-in Vol. 185: 7/17/21: Pokémon Unite Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Added: Nothing

Games releasing this week
Aery - Calm Mind
Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed
Bloodroots
Blue Fire
Cotton Reboot!
Death’s Door
Fatal Twelve
Gigapocalypse
Ice Cream Surfer
The Last Rolling Hero
Last Stop
Lost Grimoires 3: The Forgotten Well
Mind Maze
Mini Motorways
Orcs Must Die! 3
The Origin: Blind Maid
Pokémon Unite
Scrap Garden
Urban Trial Tricky
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Where the Snow Settles
Within the Blade
Wobbly Life

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Immortals: Fenyx Rising PS5, Final Fantasy VII Remake

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 40 games

No gaming last week, can hopefully get some FF VII Remake in this week.

[canedaddy]

Played recently: The Outer Worlds, Immortals: Fenyx Rising

Finished: The Outer Worlds

Added to backlog: nothing

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


The Outer Worlds was a good time. It's clear the budget was nowhere near Fallout/Skyrim level... the environments are repeated a lot and you can see corners were cut elsewhere too... but the writing is very good, as you'd expect from Obsidian. The last boss gave me some headaches till I started using the mind control gun.

After that I started Immortals, and it is a blast, as advertised! It reminds me of a PS2 game in some ways... all of which are good. It's kind of a mashup of Amalur, Zelda and God of War... definitely hitting the spot. Thanks for the recommendation.

[crimson_tide]

This week: DQ11S (it's a jam fam, going to just see it through I think), House Hunters XVII (I think...) :







My long, national nightmare is over!!!...now comes the Spiderman Far From Home bits because it's time to move by 7/31...Neo: The World Ends With You will have to wait at least a few days . But at least we're finally homeowners!

This week: Packing and whatnot .

Bought: A goddamned house. Like...c'mon fam, those things ain't cheap, might not be getting games for a minute...

So DQ11S got really gripping at the worst time. The rest of July is now moving and whatnot so hopefully in August, I can get back to it in earnest .

[Phaseknox]

I made it to Act 2 (of four) in Diablo III, and I’m starting to find it a little repetitive. Act 1 was pretty fun due to its story beats and environments/settings, but Act 2 is feeling like more of the same (which it is) but taking place in a somewhat less interesting desert setting.

It’s a fairly repetitive gameplay loop of venturing through open-ish outdoor areas and maze-like indoor areas (dungeons) fighting mobs of enemies, and collecting lots of gear/loot.

I became OP fairly quickly with all of the good gear/loot that I got and abilities/skills that I unlocked, and the gameplay has basically become button spamming.

I never came close to dying even once while playing on normal, so I bumped the difficulty up to hard and it feels a little more like what I consider normal now.

The story and characters aren’t that engaging, and the core gameplay is fairly basic. It’s kind of fun in a somewhat mindless easy to pick up and play sort of way, but I’m not sure that it will be able to hold my interest until the end since I’m already starting to somewhat tire of it’s rather same-y gameplay structure.

[canedaddy]

That's fair, Phase... the appeal of Diablo III and the like is the co-op adventuring and the loot.

Congrats on getting that house thing done, crim! You and j are landed gentry, what is the world coming to...

[isthatallyougot]

I started up Minish Cap (Zelda) and I'm enjoying it. It's got great 2D art and lots of personality. It does have some of that familiar Zelda tedium you can find if you're not sure where to go, what to do, what item to use, etc. But that's all part of the formula and Zelda adventure, for better or worse.

I'm playing via emulation - I sold my sealed copy a year or so ago, and honestly I prefer playing on a bigger screen than the GBA. (I'm playing this on a smaller desktop monitor.)

I guess I'm around half way through. (beaten 2 of 4 dungeons) The concept of shrinking down to reveal another world along with the different areas of exploration provided depending on whether you are big or small really make this feel like a grand adventure.

[jfissel]

Congrats, crim!

[isthatallyougot]

Congrats, crim!

Oh yeah, that too. Good luck with the boxes.

[Phaseknox]

Way to go, crim! Good luck with the move, and everything.