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Games I'm Excited For [pt.1]

I realize I just did a standalone post about the new Zelda but I feel that deserved it's own post for various reasons

these are also games that were released in 2022. i have plans to go in depth about games that i haven't played yet from previous years

While there has been a little bit of a lull when it comes to new releases, there still have been a large number of games that either passed right by me, or I have made future plans to play those games, but have yet to get around to it. This is where I'll briefly talk about those as I'm sure at some point in the future, I will be talking more in depth.

Stray
Developed by: BlueTwelve Studio
It may surprise you, but a game where you play solely as a cat has been on my radar for quite some time, and once it released, I just didn't get right to it as I was and am still currently playing through other games. It's on both PS5 and PC, and unfortunately I don't have a PS5, nor do I have a comfortable place to sit down and play PC, so I don't want to waste the first time experience until I have the time for it, simply. Also, maybe it'll come out for Xbox at a later time, in which case I'll jump right into it. It's definitely on my must play list, and fortunately I have dodged spoilers. Though I think people are nice enough not to spoil a game like this as it is evident that it is very puzzle based, which will be really fun when playing as a cat. I've heard good things. Looking forward to it.

Scorn
Developed by: Ebb Software
Coincidentally, Scorn actually released on the day of me posting this, and I am very much looking forward to playing it. I've actually had it pre-installed on my Xbox since about a month or so ago, so I am so ready to jump in. Based on the teaser photos and imagery, it looks like this is going to be a treat. I'm anticipating a more in depth look at in a day or so once I have some good time with it.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Developed by: Game Freak
Although I have not played it for myself, I have seen a lot of gameplay of this, and I still want to jump in and try it out for myself. When it comes to Pokemon games, I don't really mind watching gameplay before actually playing it for myself, because you can still make it your own unique experience depending on the way you want to tackle things. I'm looking forward to when I can sit down and put some time into this one, because based on what I've seen, I really like the way this game presents itself the most in comparison to other games in the Pokemon series. And boy we've had a lot of changes along the way. I think this one certainly looks as though you have the most freedom in what you do, more-so than ever before.

Key

Scorn - My First Impressions
Developed by: Ebb Software

Keep in mind that I have probably played close to two hours of this game, and while I have heard the game is rather short, I will plan to finish it at some point as I do like what it has going on, however it does fall short of what I had expected. And while that may be the case, it doesn't necessarily mean my experience with it has been bad, though not necessarily good either.

So, Scorn. What is it? Well, from what I gathered before its release, it's a horror survival game with shocking and twisted visuals with puzzles throughout. And while I don't really see myself as being great at puzzle games, these ones, though cryptic, are not the hardest to figure out. Though again, keep in mind I haven't gotten that much further past a few puzzles. Otherwise, you'll find yourself going through hallways, big rooms, old machinery, all with its own twisted atmosphere to it that doesn't make it super unique, though adds a nice creepy factor to sort of get lost in visually.

And subsequently, I have heard that the game does differ from its atmosphere walking simulator type deal and gets a little bit more involved with combat, but the general consensus is that the combat tends to take away from the atmosphere that the game is trying to portray, due to the fact that you focus more on how to take down the enemy quickly to get back to the creepy atmospheric vibe instead of the combat being an integral part of the gameplay. Some have said the combat shouldn't have been in the game altogether. And although I have yet to experience that aspect for myself, I can certainly understand how it would take you out of an immersive experience. To each their own, and surely I will play it for myself up to that point to get my own feel of it. But I imagine I'll go along with what others have said.

For the time being, this game will just sort of sit on the backburner and I'll jump into it from time to time. But given that it is meant to work as more of an experience and less of a fully fleshed out game, I think the timing and place in which to play it would definitely make or break the experience. I imagine the expected route would be to go full on horror game style and set your room up to be dark and just immerse yourself into the gameplay. But, again, only as far as I've seen, I didn't find many moments where I was truly freaked out. However, I imagine that will change as I progress through the game.

Unfortunately, however, I do feel that if I really want to see what this game has to offer, I may take some time away from it for now as my first experience with it hasn't necessarily been bad, but I think I just want to jump in at the right time. For the moment, I have other games that I'm putting time into, and for this game to work for me, I have to really immerse myself into it to get the full advantage of it. I did the same for Amnesia The Dark Descent and I'm happy I did that instead of just trying to get through the game as quickly as possible. Horror games are meant to take time, and artistically and visually, this game is great. As far as it being a video game? Well, like I said, I imagine more people will fall into the opinion that this is more of an experience and less of an actual game.

Do I recommend it? Sure. If you like puzzle games mixed with a horror creepy vibe, jump in.

Key

Fallout 76 [pt.2]

I know I literally just posted about Fallout 76, and I'm sure everybody by now knows that I'm having a good time playing it, especially recently. However, I wasn't anticipating that it'd become a regular gaming experience for me even after I decided to plunge into it randomly a few weeks ago. There are probably numerous reasons why I've decided to not only randomly jump in to see how things are with the game, and I know I've talked about them over and over and over again. But I think what the biggest main reason behind my enjoyment of the game is simply down to the fact that I know what kind of state this game was in back when it was released. And instead of Bethesda putting the cap on the game and moving onto something else, they decided instead to continue improving the game and putting more into it to fit the experience we were all hoping to get upon release.

Now, as it always goes with games like this, once the hype dies down, and especially if that hype was met with criticism, there are still a lot of people along with myself that decided it was time to jump back into it, prompting myself, and again, I'm sure others to enjoy the game for what it is and to try and take the faults that still linger and just sort of forget them.

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Fast forward to current times: What is present in Fallout 76 that keeps bringing me back, despite it's faults? Well, as I said previously, in relation to the game when it was released, when I jump in now, I feel like I have choices as to how I want to experience the game whether it be through doing daily quests, continuing on with the main quests, or simply choosing a location on the map and stopping at landmarks along the way Skyrim style. It's got the same feel as far as gameplay goes as any other Fallout game, but I feel like I've explored more than enough of the previous games, and its honestly nice to see what this map has to offer. As it definitely feels like they put a lot into the little parts of the game to make the experience worth going through time and time again.

And although the quests are not the greatest I've ever seen in a MMO or even a Fallout game in general, it still gives the game more to do as far as activities go than it did when it was released. Which says a lot given there wasn't much to do to begin with. And even if its simply doing quests that don't have a lot of substance, I still enjoy it because I just like running around in Fallout 76 doing all kinds of things all the time. Never feeling like I absolutely have to follow a certain quests line etc.

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My general consensus of Fallout 76 is pretty simple, as it is with pretty much any MMO/RPG that I want to put time into. It'll always be there for when I get the itch. Much the same as Elder Scrolls Online, I have a pretty good character on there if I get the itch to play something in the Elder Scrolls universe, and similarly I treat Fallout 76 the same way. At least until we see another mainline Fallout game. But if Fallout 76 is what we have for now, well I'm perfectly content putting my time into it.

Key

Despot's Game: Dystopian Battle Simulator
Developed by: Konfa Games

I want to get this out right off the bat by saying "god damn this game is good". Now that that's out of the way. God damn, Despot's Game is good, great even. It's an autobattler, it's tactics style combat, it's a roguelike, it's got upgrades, mutations, items, several ways to take on enemies every run since you can freely move your units around however you wish. Maybe you'll have a line of range fighters in the back and have some tank fighters up front to take the damage while the range fighters take down HP. I only say that because that was a run I literally just had. Convinced yet?

So, what is Despot's Game? Hell, I didn't really know how to answer that question myself, at least until I put a decent amount of time into the game to kind of figure it out and let it breath a little bit. From the outside, it just looks like your typical pixel graphics type game, but of course, with the brilliant minds of indie developers, this game has so much more than what it seen on the surface.

A typical run of Despot's Game, at least how it's been for me lately is this: you start with a group of 4 humans, one ranger, one tank, one swordsman, and one unarmed I believe. As you progress each room Binding of Isaac style, you take on enemies in each room, and the reward for doing so varies depending on what kind of room you're on. You can either use tokens that you gain through combat on food that you will need to continue to venture with your group further, or you can purchase more people to add to your team to create an arsenal of pain. However, this doesn't mean you can just keep buying more and more people to upgrade and subsequently have a powerhouse army that can't be messed with. No, they have something called hunger, which is where the purchase of food comes in. For every human you have on your team, it takes 1 piece of food to progress to the next room with that person. And so on for the rest. So, sometimes it's best to keep your team size low for the first few rooms or levels, then bank some food in your inventory by purchasing it after certain rooms. Then later on boost your army up. The only drawback to that as well however is you miss the chance to level them up, which can drastically change the look of a run depending on which kind of build you chose to go with. Basically, there's a positive and a negative to how you set your team up, which is why it's been so much fun jumping back in even after dying because one run never feels like the same run. You are open to try new strategies and see which weapons work well together which allows this game, as a roguelike dungeon crawler at its core, to shine, at least for me.

In a time where we see a lot of these devs try to mix certain things together and end up falling short, Despot's Game actually hits all the right notes for me. It's a roguelike dungeon crawler at its core as I mentioned before. But the different kinds of mutations and team builds you can come up with to take on the enemies floor after floor is some of the most creative that I've personally ever seen. It's also really nice that its an autobattler because it gives you all the satisfaction of going full on strategy mode, then basically having no control once you press "GO" and sometimes it's good to learn from your mistakes in certain situation which once again, allows the game to shine due to its high level of replayability. I strongly suggest playing the game for yourself to really get the feel for what I'm talking about, because if I were me and I had not played this game before and was listening to someone explain it, it'd be hard for me to get it, at least. It's certainly a different take but I love it all the same.

I'd also stretch a bit to say that my overall feeling towards roguelike dungeon crawlers in general is pretty positive so although this particular one took a little bit more time to kind of understand and see the depth of it, I actually have enjoyed every session I have played of it, and as of right now, I'm probably closing in on 10 hours. It's a great game to not only play, but a great game to get lost in, as most roguelikes are. Just an overall good time, and oops, I forgot to mention one of the most important aspects of any roguelike dungeon crawler, the music! And how is it?

Well...it's fantastic. Not only for this game but as a standalone soundtrack as well. Why do I know that? Well, I listened to the whole soundtrack on my way to work today and I got so immersed that I genuinely thought about playing this game the minute I got home. And I did. And it was wonderful. I'd rather not spoil it and explain what the music is like as I think it's worth it to jump in and see for yourself. It fits the game better than you'd expect, and the whole vibe that's going on really works in its favor. You can tell from the soundtrack alone that this was a work of passion from all sides, and it really shows.

Is it the greatest roguelike dunegon crawler I've ever played? Certainly not, there are many that do these same things and do it better. But what I love about Despot's Game that sets it aside from the others is that it has a lot of unique qualities working in its favor that make the experience of playing it all the more enjoyable. It's not just a roguelike, you're strategizing your team builds and finding out different ways to take on waves of enemies. It's a great time for if you're just looking for a relaxing getaway or really wanna get those juices pumping. It's also not the hardest roguelike I've ever played though it certainly does boost in difficulty as you traverse deeper and deeper. But that's what you'd expect.

I wholeheartedly recommend this as it is certainly a gem and a fun one to play.

Key

Video Game Trailers
and also my favorite one

As some people enjoy seeing movie trailers, I get a lot of the same enjoyment out of watching video game trailers. Whether it's just a cinematic or actual gameplay, I always think it's fun and fascinating to see what sorts of things we can expect as technology and the ability to make games evolves. Sometimes they fall short and the expectation vs reality comes into play, sometimes harder than others. But...either way. Even if a game falls short of its expectations, I still think it's always a neat time to go back and watch the trailers for certain games. Which...I won't really be doing here. I'm just more-so giving a general consensus of why I want to talk about this in the first place. And i'll tell you why:

On this day, 10/20/2022, while we have had many many years of many many games since then, I still think that the Breath of the Wild trailer that was released on 01/12/2017 is still by far the best video game trailer I have ever seen. And again, I have seen very many since then, but none of them seem to have been able to not only capture the very essence of what it was representing, but to also allow such a thing to continue to capture that essence, even watching it now, 5 years later. It still gives me chills every time, and I have to proceed to watch it each time I pull it up for something like this, because it just brings me joy:

Key

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Developed by: Konami

I don't think in the history of this journal or any of my past journals have I talked about my absolute favorite Castlevania game, being Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I recently got the collection of Castlevania games on Xbox and have since played through all of them which was not the case prior to the collection being released. Hell, Circle of the Moon was the only one I actually had played out of all of them. But they are all fun in their own ways, however I still think I had some of the most fun with Circle of the Moon.

Growing up, I had played this game for the first time on Game Boy Advance, and I think I may have spent hundreds of hours getting through it because, as a kid I didn't really understand the concept of what was going on in some cases, but I understood overall that you have to fill up the map and find secrets etc. But to the extent of what I know now, the game is such a fun experience to go through and doing so once I got older just made that even more fun. The whole concept of playing a character with a whip and can upgrade with certain abilities found throughout your playthrough is a really cool way to present a game like this. I found the card system to be quite interesting however if you know this game well enough, you know about the exploit that is super easy to pull off with said card system, thus making it completely pointless to get cards in the first place.

While the other games are certainly of high caliber when it comes to quality, and while I did actually enjoy my time immensely with the other games, I think the nostalgia for the music and everything in Circle of the Moon is why I tend to go back to it more than the others. I'll always remember the music that starts when you first fall down in the hole into the cave and you start your journey. It just lets you know right off the bat that your in this alone and you have to figure out how to traverse this castle. Most of my fun in these types of games is the unknowing part, where every path you take is something fresh and new, and it certainly was back then as well as when I played it recently. Playing it on next gen consoles as well makes the experience even better since I can now play it on my big screen as opposed to a small Game Boy Advance screen. But, that was what it was for the time so it worked.

Even talking about it in this journal makes me want to boot up Circle of the Moon and just do a full on playthrough again, while using that little exploit to make the game a bit more interesting. Hell, I may do that actually.

Key

I'm excited for...
Gotham Knights

Basically, I know little to nothing about this game other than the title and maybe a few minutes of gameplay that I saw on Youtube before I turned it off, since I realized that maybe this is one of those games that I want to have my own experience with, as the Arkham games have certainly given Batman a good light as far as video games go. And on top of that, knowing very little about this game, I hadn't even realized that it was actually released on the day of me posting this, though I had planned to write this for a few days now. So, maybe it's just a coincidence. Either way, I'm hopeful for this game as it seems like it'd be cool based on what little I have seen so far, and maybe it'll be a different scenario altogether once I put some time into it. I do know that, like Scorn, there will be a first impressions of this game if I decide to look into it further. And obviously I want to stay away from any reviews as like I said, the game came out today, so there will be spoiler reviews posted all over the place. And I would rather see what this game offers before I jump into reading other people's thoughts.

It's Batman, and while I know the Arkham games are both loved unconditionally while also having some faults as the series progressed, I'm sure this one will do just fine in setting up a fun or interesting experience to play. I'm not necessarily expecting a masterpiece, though if you go into any game with that mindset, you're preparing yourself for disappointment. And maybe Gotham Knights will bark up the disappointment tree, though I tend to have a bit more of a relaxed approach when coming to new games. Ultimately, I just want to have fun and whatever this game does to achieve that, I'm on board.

The Batlord

I got that Castlevania bundle too and been playing some Aria of Sorrow, one of the best looking gba games of all time. Also recently beat Symphony of the Night for the first time and it was awesome.

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Key

I wholeheartedly agree. I was always interested in playing Aria back in the day solely on how it looked and playing it later still managed to keep that going. Definitely one of the best bundle collections I've come across, and there's been some good ones for other games in the past. Symphony of the Night is fantastic as well.

Key

Games I'm Excited For [pt.2]

A few more games to look forward to as the year quickly comes to a close, or at least that's how it feels. Hell, we're almost to the end of October, the year is basically done. And still, many different kinds of games coming out that could potentially be mind bogglingly good. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Sonic Frontiers
Developed by: Sonic Team
I'm no stranger to Sonic games as far as what people think about them, however I don't honestly remember the last time I actually put some real time into the Sonic games. Most of that definitely has to do with the fact that Sonic games in general typically don't do that well as far as what the developers delivered on and what the community thinks of it. Usually it's seen as a sort of joke when a Sonic game comes out, but based on what I've seen from trailers and the like, this looks like a sort of shift from the usual Sonic formula, however it does look like it's going towards another popular formula of bringing this franchise to an open world setting. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be bad, but I think a lot of people may not give it a fair shake solely based on that fact alone. But, like I said, i'm in it for the fun. I don't think it will be groundbreaking for the Sonic series, and honestly I just want it to be good. Give Sonic some form of redemption.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Developed by: Gearbox Software
As much as I would like to say that I enjoy Borderlands 3 as much as I enjoyed the previous two, I would be lying. Yes, Borderlands 3 has a lot of great stuff going for it, but it didn't feel like anything new or exciting, rather it felt like just a slightly improved version of Borderlands 2. Not the worst thing, surely. So, here comes Tiny Tina's Wonderlands ready to change all that. Initially this game was released back in March, so I haven't really been in a hurry to check it out, but it's on my list. The unfortunate thing about it, and i'm my own worst critic, is that I've allowed reviews to sort of keep me from dumping money on it. However, I think that will change once I've given some other games a good amount of time as I'm itching for something like Borderlands that isn't Borderlands as I feel I have played plenty of Borderlands to where I feel satisfied with it as a whole. So, we'll see. This game could potentially be good, but I won't know until I try.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Developed by: Ubisoft
I haven't even touch a Mario + Rabbids game and I already know that I'm excited to play this one. I remember wanting to play the previous one many many times but never found the time to get into it. And what sounds better than mixing Mario, Rabbids, and tactical strategy? Not many things. I don't know a whole lot about this series so I'll be excited to check this one out and of course the one that came prior.