The Batlord

You should check the old school thief games though.

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Key

This is one of those games that I don't mind talking to death about, because it's so damn good.

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer was just re-released onto the newer consoles. My experience is solely from the PS4 version. I know nothing about the Switch port or the PC port for that matter. It's not a remaster either. And I honestly don't mind that. I find that the game truly shows it's beauty with the older style graphics of the N64. Sure they don't look super fantastic, but they also don't look half bad. The game runs at a smooth 60fps with literally no lag. Which is important given this game is fast, and it's podracing. It has to run smooth. And it most certainly does. I guess one shouldn't be too surprised by that given that it is a 17 year old game. So of course it should run well on newer consoles. I'm just saying it's nice to see, and it's nice that it fills the entirety of my TV.

What I'm finding myself enjoying more than anything though is just the overall nostalgia I'm feeling as I'm going from track to track. It's also pretty bizarre that in some cases, I've been able to remember the tracks so as to not crash or do anything stupid. Again, I probably haven't played this game in quite a long time, so to be able to relive it again, and to remember stuff, is pretty cool.

All the tracks feel super unique as well. This wasn't something I particularly focused much on when I was a kid, but the tracks do vary quite a bit. It's also really cool that certain tracks change how they look based on which part of the tournament you're doing. For example, there are two different version of the Tatooine track. Of course, what makes the tracks really shine is the music. It's just your standard Star Wars music, but it works extraordinarily well in a racing game.

I'm certainly thrilled that not only do those of us that played this game back then get to relive it again in all it's glory, but people get to pick up one of the best racing games ever made. It just helps that it's Star Wars, and podracing.

debaserr

I played the crap out of that on N64. Maybe I will give it another spin on PC.

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Key

Old School Runescape

Yeah, we're talking about this game again. Why? Because it's the only goddamn game I play. I literally have tons of great games on both Steam and PS4 combined. But NOPE, Old School Runescape it is. Literally the same game I've been playing for the past 15 years. I just...the grind. Like, I am literally spinning flax into bowstrings while I write this. Why? I can't really explain.

See, here's the thing. I know Runescape and Old School Runescape respectively aren't exactly the GREATEST games. But, Old School Runescape specifically brings back the game that I grew up playing. And honestly, getting hit with nostalgia every time I play is pretty nice. Makes the game even more enjoyable. And yeah, like I said. I like a good grind. And this game is nothing but just one long grind. And it is really fulfilling in its own nerdy way.

I've also been setting personal goals for myself. The likes of getting full dragon armor. The armor that all the rich kids had back in the day. I finally achieved it. And I absolutely am in love with it. Here it is right here:



On top of all of this, I've been working hard on all my skills. This is something that I did way later on my main Runescape account. That one is the high level account with all the high level armor. I don't play it much anymore because Runescape 3 sucks. It's the current live version of the game. Anyway, here they are right now. I'm currently working on crafting:



And with that, back to the grind I go. Hope you're all having fun playing whatever it is you're playing.

debaserr

Same thing for me, but WoW Classic.

The progression, friends, and gameplay keep me coming back.

I have tried to play runescape a few times but I could never stick with it more than a few minutes, the gameplay seems a little jank.

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Key

This is one of those instances where I knew close to nothing about this game until its release. I didn't really follow the marketing or anything. And I wasn't really all that excited about it. Despite all that however, Ghost of Tsushima may very well be one of my favorite games of the year. Has a good chance of being my Game of the Year as well, but we've still got the rest of the year.

Ghost of Tsushima mixes together everything I love about games, and puts it all into one beautiful package. You've got For Honor style combat, Shadow of War style world progression, in regards to having things on the map to go to. A lot of games have done thing but I always credit Shadow of War as that's one of the few games I've fully completed. Not to mention the game not only runs beautifully (with literally close to 0 load times), but it looks absolutely beautiful as well. And I'm not even playing on a 4K TV (which Microsoft believes you need to have a 4K TV to enjoy the next gen games, which I fully disagree with.) And the story and overall feel of the game are done very well. Everything feels fluid and you never really feel like the character isn't responding well to your button inputs. Very few times I've had instances where I made a bad move, but it's usually my own fault for fumbling around with the controller sometimes. I lose grip of it at certain times.

On a side note, can we all just agree at this point that the PS4 has been one of the best consoles ever made for gaming? Not even talking about the exclusives that have already come out, but then you add this to the mix and it just makes the PS4 look even more enticing. I am also heavily looking forward to the PS5 and what that is going to offer. Microsoft really has to up their game from now to release if they want people to be sold on their console. Which the general consensus seems to be that not a lot of people are really excited about it. Well...Halo Infinite specifically. Anyway, that's another story for another time.

If you haven't picked up Ghost of Tsushima. Do it. You won't regret it. It's one of the most interesting and fun games I've played in a while, in this particular style.

Key

Pokemon Sword / Shield
(Currently playing through Sword)

I recently got a Nintendo Switch, and one of the first games I wanted to play was the most recent Pokemon games, Sword and Shield. I haven't played a Pokemon game since Pokemon X so I know I have missed quite a bit in terms of the series progression. I have not beaten Pokemon Sword yet, but I want to point out a few pros and cons that I have come to find during my playthrough. I'm currently right before the next Gym battle, and I recently beat the Rock type Gym.

Let's get the cons out of the way, because despite there not being many faults, there's still a few that have made a bit of a difference in terms of playing the games:

Cons:

• Gym battles: not enough things to do between each gym. feels like you go through them pretty quick
• EXP ALL: I really don't like that fact that all your Pokemon get XP at the same time, even if they don't battle. I get it for balancing reasons, but it takes the entire point of the grind out of the picture. Good for some, not for me.
• Difficulty has certainly gotten a lot easier as the series progresses. A little bit more difficult than Pokemon X, but that's probably due to these games not giving you strong Pokemon right off the bat. The fact that you got a Lucario in the beginning of Pokemon X was just a dumb move and it made the game feel way way way too easy. Again, Pokemon Sword fixes this a little bit, but it's still really easy. I miss the difficulty.
• I find the fact that it tells you in battle that a move is super effective against an opponent or not. I've played these games for years, so evidently this game is more focused on catering to the younger crowd. That's fine. Again, just not for me.

Pros:

• While I think some of the designs are god awful, I think this game brings a lot more creative designs than Pokemon X and Y did. I know NIntendo still has a lot to give in terms of Pokemon, so I'm curious to see what kind of designs they come up with next. I really like the ones in this particular game tho.
• Soundtrack is fantastic. Especially the music that plays during the wild area and in routes. Reminds me of Fallout
• The wild area is nice, though I wish they could've just made the whole game like that. It's really neat to be running around in an open field with catching Pokemon, but the game STILL manages to feel a bit too linear. Again, really solid idea. Weird way to go about it. But I like it nonetheless.
• Battling is more fun than it ever has been, despite the game being painfully easy. The gym battles are really cool and it makes Pokemon feel more like a professional sport. Nobody really gives a **** about story anyway so I'm glad more of their focus went on the battle side. Plus so far, the story kind of sucks.

While there may be more to each of those lists, that's just what I could think of right off the bat. There may be a part 2 to this post as I make my way through the game, but those are my thoughts on the matter currently.

Key

As soon as I heard Obsidian Entertainment was behind this, I knew I had to put some serious time into this game. Though despite that, I hadn't picked it up until very recently. Sony was having a great sale and The Outer Worlds ended up being 50% off. Not that I wouldn't pay full price for it. It just felt like the right time to play it, and coincidentally it was on sale. So it worked out.

Now, given that this is a first impression, there won't be a whole lot of in depth talk, given that I both don't want to spoil it for anybody, and I haven't done nearly enough to have anything super important to say. However, with the time that I've spent on it so far, I can certainly say that this is well worth your time.

Think of the first time you played a game like Fallout: New Vegas. It was a whole new world to you and the way it's laid out is done so flawlessly that everything feels fluid. Obsidian is not known to skimp out on things that make their games great. Rather, they'll continuously adapt to current gaming climates, and put everything into the project their working on. Which then provides a rich and fun experience in their games. Fallout: New Vegas did this very well, and The Outer Worlds does this well, also.

The game starts you off on a planet you know nothing about, and its your job to go around and figure things out. It's open world, and it plays exactly like you want it to play. It definitely feels like you're playing an all new revamped version of Fallout: New Vegas. I keep using that as an example, but it's the only one I can think of that makes sense. And it's not a bad thing at all. Rather, it's nice that the game wears its inspiration on its sleeve, very heavily. To be expected given that it is Obsidian. But y'know. Just my observation. The leveling system and the perks you can get are also great. I obviously won't spoil any of that for you, but it's a fun system and it works very well. Excited to see how much more it opens up as I level up.

Combat so far is really fun and satisfying. Nothing is necessarily too easy, but nothing is necessarily too difficult either. There's a nice balance. I haven't felt like I couldn't take an enemy down. You just have to be smart about it. The gunplay definitely feels like Fallout, in a good way. Nothing feels too powerful, and thinks lose durability all the time. But fortunately, you get enough loot to allow yourself to have a pretty great loadout, despite the durability loss. I haven't noticed much issue or stress with the durability. I tend to be able to use the weapons as much as I can, until I can repair them. And that's also nice that you can not only repair your items, but you can upgrade them too. Adds a whole other level to the weapon system.

The social interactions you have with characters around you is also done very nicely. And very Obsidian-esque. I've already had moments in dialogue where my persuasion mattered. And made a difference. As well, the dialog in general is very well written, and fun to go through. Games like KOTOR, and of course Fallout do this very well. And I can safely say that The Outer Worlds does is very well. I've had moments of literal laughter because of some of the things you find in the dialogue. And, the characters all seem interesting and fun to talk to. Especially when you can get those dialogue choices that are based on certain levels of your character. That's what I always appreciate. The depth of conversation. Obsidian always does this well. Bethesda sort of still does it well. But not nearly well enough.

Graphically, definitely top tier. I'm playing on PS4, and everything is super high quality and I rarely, if ever have any frame rate issues. I've actually not noticed any lag or what have you. Maybe a tiny bit here and there, but evidently not enough to notice. And, honestly it's just a fun game to run through because of how gorgeous it is. Everything feels unique and different depending on what planet you're on. And that's not an easy thing to do.

Overall, with the few hours I have in this game, I definitely recommend it for those that love games like this, and just want to see what Obsidian is doing with their time right now. I'm certainly going to love playing this more and more.

Key

I saw a lot of buzz about this game online when it came out, but I hesitated due to being occupied with other games. I just picked this up last night and I've probably put in about 6 hours already. It's a deck building strategy roguelike very similar to Slay The Spire, though they are two completely different games in their own right. Monster Train does enough things different to the formula where I don't think it's necessarily fair to compare it to Slay The Spire. Both are solid games, obviously.

Monster Train takes the formula and sort of twists it a little bit. You get your standard deck builds and you figure out how to use them with one another. The biggest takeaway for me so far is the combat. Not only is it engaging, but it's done it such a way that's both unique, and allows for creativity in how you want to play the field. You, at times, may be fighting 3 lines of enemies simultaneously, and you have to strategize with each set to take them down efficiently without losing many of your monsters on the field. You will lose them a lot. Because while the combat is really satisfying and creative, it can be very punishing. But, if you get the right combinations, it'll more often than not work in your favor.

The other great thing about this game, and it's something i'm typically a stickler about when it comes to this genre, is how each run feels. Does it feel like the same thing over and over again? Certainly not. There's so many different ways to play and different factions to choose from, whom all have different categories of cards that you use together with other cards. You'll typically never have the same run twice. Sure, some strategies carry over from run to run, but that's the beauty of the genre as a whole. Easy to pick up, tough to master.

With as many hours as I have put into this game already, and simultaneously how many i've put into other deck building style roguelikes, this is probably the best one I've ever played. And again, that's not to throw any shade at Slay The Spire or any other games in the genre. This one just does everything so well and it's already so refined that it's nearly impossible to stop doing runs.

Monster Train gets my highest recommendation.

Key

It really does not take a whole lot to win me over with games. Mechanically it has to be strong, and the game just has to be enjoyable enough in its respective genre for me to want to play it for long periods of time. Well, I've basically spent the first half of my weekend playing nothing but Monster Train. I'll tell you why - it's fun. Regardless of the difficulty or the learning curve pertaining to figuring out the combinations of cards that work the best, the game never stops being fun. It constantly makes me want to do another run, even after losing a tough run before. You know simultaneously that it's going to be fun, and it's going to be different enough to where you feel like you still stand a chance.

So far, I think I've done close to 20 runs, and no run has felt the same. Again, I reiterate that yes, a lot of the strategies feel the same, but the way you combine those strategies holds new challenges that don't show up in games too often. I've gotten to the final boss several times, but it's definitely one that's going to take practice. I've been consistently losing in the later half of the game though, which is good. A lot of the things I learned in Slay The Spire seem to work well here as well. But, there's so many unique strategies with Monster Train that there's still a pretty hefty learning curve. Basically, I feel like I do just a little bit better with each run. And the strategies get stronger and more intense as you learn more.

I'll make a quick note and tell you that the soundtrack to this game is great. Each track sets the tone for the level quite nicely, and honestly done perfectly, especially when dealing with the boss levels. Which brings me to my next point - the bosses. They work very uniquely but also very easy to figure out the more you fight them. I've gone in with just simply brutal strength, and it tends to work out. Filling up the field with strong monsters also helps out a lot, especially if you just unload perks into them before having to put them to work. That's usually done progressively from the beginning of the round though. Unless you get some nasty pulls. Like I said, lots of strategies to consider. The bosses can certainly be tough, but that's mostly due to their ridiculous HP at the start. Once you get some strong monsters though, they typically don't take too much to wipe them out.

I think I've definitely cemented it in my head that this is by far the best roguelike deck builder I've ever played. It's just got so many good things going for it, and it's gotten me addicted to doing run after run after run. Which, evidently is a good thing.