The Backlog Check-in Vol. 301: 10/7/23: Forza Motorsport/Lords of the Fallen Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Baldo: The Guardian Owls, Final Fantasy XIII-2

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Baldo: The Guardian Owls

Added: Nothing

Games releasing this week
Alphadia I & II
Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs
Bioid
Blinnk and the Vacuum of Space
Company of Heroes Collection
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Dwerve
Forza Motorsport
The Front
Genotype
The Grinch: Christmas Adventures
Harvest Island
Haunted House
Hearts of Iron IV: Arms Against Tyranny
Honkai: Star Rail
Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure
Land of the Vikings
Lil Gator Game
Long Gone Days
Lords of the Fallen
Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions
Mercenaries Saga 2: Order of the Silver Eagle
Mercenaries Saga 3: Gray Wolves of War
Mercenaries Wings: The False Phoenix
Railgrade
River City: Rival Showdown
Saltsea Chronicles
Star Trek: Infinite
Terra Alia
Total War: Pharaoh
Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition
Tribe: Primitive Builder
Wild Card Football

[canedaddy]

Baldo: The Guardian Owls????


Played recently: Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 33


Having a great time with Amalur. Playing a warrior/rogue mix with a little sorcerer thrown in. Mostly slaying fools with a flaming sword at this point, although some get daggered.

[argyle]

Amalur is an awesome game - I need to play the remaster at some point. And I've looked at Baldo a few times, it looks gorgeous - how does it play Phase?

Games added: Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy (PS4), Crash Team Racing (XBOne), Airoheart (XSX), Callisto Protocol (PS5) - also, my Play-Asia order from about a month ago came in. It included: TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight, Drainus, Final Fantasy Pixel Collection, Ghost Trick, & Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Chronicles

Last week: Finished nothing, played mainly Starfield but I started Ghostwire last night

This week: Probably those 2, but who knows?


Gamestop started a really good sale yesterday for Pro members, they have a lot of games 50-75% off. I picked up CTR for $5, Airoheart for $18, and Callisto for $5. That's what my local store had that I wanted, but I have a pretty big order coming in the mail too. The N Sane Trilogy was a yard sale pickup for $5 Saturday. Turned out to be a Crash weekend.

[Phaseknox]

Baldo: The Guardian Owls????

I've looked at Baldo a few times, it looks gorgeous - how does it play Phase?

It definitely looks good with a cartoonish and colorful aesthetic similar to Studio Ghibli animated movies. The game itself is an isometric view action adventure puzzle similar to classic Zelda. It has charm and personality, and plays decently for the most part. But the overall presentation is better than the actual design and execution IMO. Gameplay and combat are really basic, you run, roll and slash with a sword. You can buy shields to block with, but blocking isn’t very effective and your shields break after only blocking with them a few times. Combat is just simple mashing the sword attack, there’s no combos or anything.

It’s actually more of a dungeon crawler puzzle game than an action adventure which is unfortunate because it had the potential to be more of an RPG than it is. Story and characterization are actually on the light side, it’s definitely more of a gameplay experience. I don’t really like the main character because he’s mute, and the supporting cast of characters aren’t very interesting either. But since it’s more of a gameplay driven action puzzle game the mute main character doesn’t bother me THAT much.

Apparently the game had a lot of issues at launch, but the devs listened to the complaints and improved it over the years. They also made three free DLCs for it which are quite substantial. The game is good based on what I played of it so far, but the focus on dungeon crawling and puzzles is a little disappointing because I was expecting more of an action adventure. Also, the core gameplay and combat are more basic than I would like. Some environment interaction such as climbing and platforming would be nice, because you’re pretty grounded when it comes to traversing the environments which feels a bit antiquated and limited. However, I still think that it’s a game that everyone here might like.

[argyle]

Baldo: The Guardian Owls????

I've looked at Baldo a few times, it looks gorgeous - how does it play Phase?

It definitely looks good with a cartoonish and colorful aesthetic similar to Studio Ghibli animated movies. The game itself is an isometric view action adventure puzzle similar to classic Zelda. It has charm and personality, and plays decently for the most part. But the overall presentation is better than the actual execution IMO. Gameplay and combat are really basic, you run, roll and slash with a sword. You can buy shields to block with, but blocking isn’t very effective and your shields break after only blocking with them a few times. Combat is just simple mashing the sword attack, there’s no combos or anything.

It’s actually more of a dungeon crawler puzzle game than an action adventure which is unfortunate because it had the potential to be more of an RPG than it is. Story and characterization are actually on the light side, it’s definitely more of a gameplay experience. I don’t really like the main character because he’s both a boy and mute , and the supporting cast of characters aren’t very interesting either. But since it’s more of a gameplay driven action puzzle game the mute main character doesn’t bother me THAT much.

Apparently the game had a lot of issues at launch, but the devs listened to the complaints and improved it over the years. They also made three free DLCs for it which are quite substantial. The game is good based on what I played of it so far, but the focus on dungeon crawling and puzzles is a little disappointing because I was expecting more of an action adventure. Also, the core gameplay and combat are more basic than I would like. Some environment interaction such as climbing and platforming would be nice, because you’re pretty grounded when it comes to traversing the environments which feels a bit antiquated and limited. However, I still think that it’s a game that everyone here might like.

Thanks for the impressions! While it sounds like it's not perfect, it still seems like something I'd like to check out. I see there's a physical version too, so I'll add that to my wish list.

[canedaddy]

Wow, that game looks great. Who woulda thunk something with such a goofy name would be Studio Ghibli plus Zelda?

[jfissel]

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Code Name: STEAM

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 40 games

Ordered Spider-man 2 for the 20th, decided to start Code Name: STEAM (one of 3 3DS games left in my backlog). It's a turn-based strategy game that is lightly connected to...Fire Emblem? I just remember I got it for like $3 at Best Buy a few years ago when it was on super clearance, lol. I'm in the 2nd area, but hopefully can beat it in 2 weeks.

[Phaseknox]

Thanks for the impressions! While it sounds like it's not perfect, it still seems like something I'd like to check out. I see there's a physical version too, so I'll add that to my wish list.

Wow, that game looks great. Who woulda thunk something with such a goofy name would be Studio Ghibli plus Zelda?

While I still recommend the game, I played it more today and the tedium of the room based puzzle dungeons became too much for my patience so I quit playing. I played a good amount of both the prequel adventure The Three Fairies and the main game The Guardian Owls, and they start out promising for the most part but it isn’t long until you reach the dungeons. They consist of a lot of interconnected rooms with puzzles that involve slow and tedious block/object carrying/pushing/throwing, pressure plates, levers, switches and timed stuff as well. I just wasn’t finding them very fun. The game in general had the potential to be better than it is, unfortunately while the look of it is really appealing the core design of it is kind of a slow paced dungeon crawling puzzler which I don’t like very much.

[isthatallyougot]

I finished up TWEWY, and when all is said and done my opinions are a bit mixed on it. It did a lot I enjoyed - fun combat, plenty of variety, some fun and memorable main characters, some nice tunes and an interesting vibe and presentation that really emphasized the hardware to which it belonged. But on the other hand, the combat was pretty repetitive - if flashy and entertaining, was needlessly complex for some of the "expert" maneuvers (although to be fair, it is highly customizable in terms of your input and difficulty), the narrative was (for me) low rent anime / manga that, despite interesting and worthwhile themes and some good characters, just didn't have the quality of writing that I was looking for overall. I won't go more in depth until I can fully digest it and review it for my year-end countdown. In short, I found it to be a good game, and I can see why some people really love it, but for me it had too many issues to engender great enthusiasm upon completion. (don't hate me crim - as I said, I still think it's a *good* game)

[argyle]

So I started playing Ghostwire Sunday night because I wanted to play something "spooky". Had heard good things about GW, plus it was on Gamepass so I figured why not? It starts a little slow, but once it opens up it gets really good. It's basically what you'd get if F.E.A.R. and Yakuza had a baby. It's more-or-less a shooter, but you shoot energy/magic/whatever. It's VERY Japanese, which I dig - it's a very different take from the Western view of ghosts/spirits/etc. It's not supposed to be super long either, which is a plus - I'd like to at least knock 2 of my survival horror games off my backlog this month. The Dead Space remake is next on the list.