AuthenticZac

Another big gap with updates. Played a few games from December-January, then had a bunch of things happening that ruined my desire to play anything (intense stomach pain for a few months, followed by the illness[lung cancer] and ultimate passing of my cat, Velvet).

Quick update

(December 23-January 27)

  • Alwa's Awakening

    8 hours playtime

    12 of 15 achievements

  • Cat Quest

    7 hours playtime

    6 of 12 achievements

  • Dust: An Elysian Tail

    17 hours playtime

    30 of 30 achievements

  • Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope

    24 hours playtime

    38 of 45 achievements

  • Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows

    24 hours playtime

    15 of 20 achievements

  • Super Puzzle Platformer

    3 hours playtime

    34 of 44 achievements

  • Alwa's Awakening

    9 hours playtime

    42 of 61 achievements

  • Kevlin and the Infamous Machine

    5 hours playtime

    20 of 20 achievements

  • Bit Dungeon II

    4 hours playtime

    14 of 15 achievements

  • Alwa's Awakening - I'll be honest, I can't remember much about this one. It was over 5 months ago, and was really forgettable. The only thing I can recall was that while it was a mediocre metroidvania, with nothing standing out about it. The platforming was fine, but the abilities were boring. Very middle of the road

  • Cat Quest - Fun little action game. The humor was definitely hit or miss, but the gameplay was solid, if easy. Going through dungeons to get gear is rather quick, and the exp gained seems to be a bit high. It didn't take long before I was one-shotting most enemies with the spike spell+slowdown combo. I imagine hard mode is where the game truly begins, but will save that for another time

  • Dust: Elysian Tail - The story and characters honestly felt like they came from a middle-schooler. None of them were likeable, and everything felt forced. When the characters weren't acting manic with their emotions (especially the underground creatures... Good lord, their attitudes changed just about every sentence), they were complete dullards. Outside of the god-awful writing though, the gameplay itself was solid. Mute the game, skip the dialogue, and the game itself is fun.

  • Shovel Knight - Awesome platformer, and totally worth the praise it gets.

  • Shovel Knight: Plague - The plague-knight campaign, however, felt a bit off. While dashing around with the scythe (edit: jumping around with the explosions) was fun, it also made maneuvering around rather difficult.

  • Super Puzzle Platformer - super chill game, good for just unwinding. Once you get the rhythm of the levels, it becomes very calming just jumping around and shooting.

  • Pixeljunk Eden - Another chill game. Some of the later levels, however, were less so, once they introduced fluctuating gravity, but excluding those, it was a nice game

  • Kevlin and the Infamous Machine - Disconected, the game. An alright point-and-click game, but I wish they had put more effort into making the levels feel more connected. As it was, it felt like a cheap imitation of Day of the Tentacle. Once you finish a time-period, it's suddenly "oh, there is a problem somewhere else now", with no real rhyme or reason to it.

  • Bit Dungeon 2 - The game looks like a zelda-like game, but outside of the dungeons that you explore, is nothing like it. You kill mobs on your way to dungeons, level up, enter the dungeon, get to the boss and annihilate him to unlock a piece of the door to the final area. Rinse and repeat 8(?) times. The catch, however, is that you only have one life, and if you die, it's back to square one, with each door-piece now lost. As long as you loot the caves, and buy the weapons, you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

(January 28-May 6)

  • Ratchet: Size Matters

    2 hours playtime

    PS2 Game

  • Shadow of War

    20+ hours playtime

    40 of 53 Trophies

  • Started up Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and played through the first few planets. Some of the controls are wonky, and it definitely missed some polish, but no where near as bad as the R&C fans make it out to be. In fact, the last planet I completed had some incredibly fun minigames (basketball, lemmings, and robot wars)

  • Shadow of War - Definitely missing some of the charm of the original game (not to mention some of the OPness from certain skill combos, which have now been reduced to "either or" skills). Definitely more difficult, which is a major plus - no more attacking a stronghold, then retreating for health 10 feet away. Though, the difficulty modes need some balance. The difference between normal and hard is miles apart. On hard, orcs will adapt to your moves almost instantly, making it so you have to change your strategy against them multiple times. Some captains, based on their perks, become practically impossible though, what with their healing and invulnerabilities. Haven't completed it yet, but have yet to see the major "grind" people complain about...

(May 7-May 14)

  • Just Cause 3

    35+ hours playtime

    33 of 67 Trophies

  • Just Cause 3 - This game definitely plays like a continuation of a previous Just Cause game. However, having never played any of the other games in the series, I feel as though I missed out on some important connection with the characters. Perhaps the story will better resonate with people actually familiar with the games, but for me, I didn't care for it. It also didn't help that once the whole country had been liberated (spent a few days doing this first), the story missions themselves could be completed in under 5 hours.
    As for the gameplay, it was extremely repetitive and rather frustrating. Certain skills and features that should have come standard required tedious grinding to unlock (ex: After you get fast-travel, you may only use it once before restocking the feature at a supply depot... unless you spend hours liberating towns to gain access to mini-games that allow you to allocate skillpoints to increase your "max fast travel" slots...Then you have 3, or eventually 5)... After a while, once you unlock the best helicopters, and the ability to fast travel multiple times, it gets better. Having more options to liberate towns and plow through missions makes it almost worth the time investment.
ninglor03

Ah no! I’m so sorry to hear about your cat! Losing pets is so, so painful! I’m still not over the loss of my old cat lady (november last year). I still miss her and kinda expect to see her in places she usually lied. But it hurts less at some point. I wish you all the best and loads of strength! hug

AuthenticZac

Yea, it’s the muscle memory that really gets at ya. Walking into a room, and having that instant bolt of realization that she isn’t going to be in one of her spots, or going to be under my feet. And the fact that she was black makes it so that any shadows or dark clothing that I see out of the corner of my eye also triggers that bolt.

Took me over a year to “recover” from the passing of my other cat, Tigger (April 9, 2015), so yea, totally can take a while. The only bit of relief I have, is that unlike Tigger (whose passing came out of nowhere), I actually had about 3 months to say goodbye to Velvet.

ninglor03

Yeah, I know drop I had that pretty intense the other night, when Ameno decided to be nice cat and sleep in my bed. And for a moment I thought it was her… until I realized she’s gone. Ugh. Looking at her grave in the flowerbed is still pretty sad - maybe more so, because we haven’t planted any flowers there yet. Guess I should get my things together and plant something nice, so she can rest in the shade like she loved to do :)

True, it makes it a bit easier if one can say goodbye. I had 2 1/2 years time to say goodbye to my old lady cat. In the end it was still a bit of a shock when we had to put her to her final rest. But, yeah, I feel with you hug
Do you still have pets? I got my boys, when I started to worry she might leave me and I am really glad I have them! They are not the same, but still, without a cat would be horrible -_-

AuthenticZac

Yea, it’s definitely not easy when you are used to your cat sleeping with you. For the past 3 years, Velvet would regularly sleep at the head of the bed, right by my pillow (a spot previously “owned” by Tigger). No more pets now though. Have always had cats in my life, so these past few weeks have been… different (though to be honest, 2 weeks later and I still haven’t boxed up all of velvet’s toys/scratching posts). My parents have been wanting me to adopt one of their pups, but not really looking to get anything else, be it cats or dogs.

A flowerbed sounds nice though, I’m sure your kitty would appreciate it.

ninglor03

Yeah, it can certainly be though getting a new one right away. A neighbour of mine lost her cat and she never wanted a new one (since she is older), until a stray decided to stay with her :)

Yeah, she loved lying there in the shadow and just lazily let the days go by.

stef

I’m sorry you are having such a a rough time. I hope gaming has been a good distraction for you. You’ve reviewed a lot of games I’ve been thinking about getting recently, so I appreciate the review and opinions! I hope the rest of your month gets a little bit better.

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This comment was deleted almost 6 years ago.

Bangledeschler

Shovel Knight: Plague… scythe? Do you perhaps mean the Specter Knight?

AuthenticZac

I thought that sounded… off. Did Specter last year, and was just remembering the scythe jumps for some reason. It was the Plague knight and his explosions jumps that caused many-a-deaths.

Hyo

To this day, the saddest day I have ever had in my entire life was the passing of my first dog, it was due to veterinarian negligence and a failed operation. The only thing that helped me at the time was to eventually get another pet, with time, and learn form the first one, as to improve as an owner. Now we go to a better veterinarian, keep our new pet more healthy overall and is already towards her fourth year with us :)

On other news, I’ve been keeping an eye on Cat Quest, it gave me the impression of not having a strong story, so, the fact the gamepley compensates sounds good.

KroganAlly

I love PixelJunk Eden. I mastered so much of it on PS3 and totally agree about how the later levels get frustrating. I should probably get to playing it on PC again. Thanks for the memories.