Game #19: Ducktales Remastered

Ducktales Remastered
Platform: PC
Duration: 2 Hours

Pros:

• Dat music.
• I actually haven't played a platformer in a while and it was quite enjoyable.
• 2D sprites look great.
• OG voice actors. 
• Himalayas.
• I got really good at the last level...because I had to reply it 3 times since the final boss kept crashing. Had to disable all of my processors except one to get around a 100% crash with multi-core systems. Real edge case bug, I mean who even has more than one processor?

Cons:

• The controls weren't as tight as they could have been. Felt a bit floaty.
• The hit boxes in this game were abysmal.
• Cutscenes were longer than a Metal Gear title.

Game #18: Dragonball Xenoverse

Dragonball Xenoverse
Platform: XB1
Duration: 15 Hours

I made a girl Buu. She is kawaii as fuck. Vegeta was my mentor until I blasted the shit out of him with his own Final Flash. I then defeated the God of Destruction, which even Goku couldn't do, and then killed the God of Space and Time.

10/10

The first picture is just moments after saving Trunks' bitch ass.

Game #17: Pillars of Eternity

Pillars of Eternity
Platform: PC
Total Playtime: 33 Hours

I have been bad. I have a backlog of games I need to update but its been a crazy few months.

So. Pillars. I was really looking forward to this one. I grew up on CRPGs like Baldur's Gate and I am super happy that Obsidian was able to make this game. I am also quite happy that it turned out to be a really solid game.

Unforgiving difficulty? Check.
Correct and incorrect customization options? Check.
So many inventory items that you spend most of the game sorting them all? Check.
More reading than a college English class? Damn straight.
Bioware style romances? NO AND I'M MAD.

This game hits pretty much every box on the CRPG checklists (except romances which I'm not bitter about at ALL). This definitely isn't a game that the 14 year old who insinuated he had sexual relations with my mother on HotS would be able to complete, or even really comprehend. If you have a more refined taste in games, you will enjoy your time with Pillars.

By the way, make sure you do every side quest ever. If you don't, the game makes you feel like a gigantic asshole about any unresolved plot lines.

Game #16: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Platform: PC
Total Playtime: Umm, a lot

"An MMO?! But Trevor, how can you 'beat' an MMO?" - Everyone who reads this ever

Well, when the MMO has a dedicated series of story quests and over an hour and a half of cutscenes to end the base game, I think it is pretty safe to say I "beat" FF14. There were even end credits! Also, shut up, I can do what I want.

I say this at the start of this blog, but I think I need to reiterate here that although I am an employee at Blizzard Entertainment, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are ENTIRELY my own and do not represent the company I work for.

So with that out of the way, I just have to say that I love this game. Ever since WoW came out and changed the entire environment for MMO's forever, most (not all) major MMOs that have come out have followed a pretty standard formula.

I call it the "It's like WoW, BUT..." principle.

Rift is like WoW, BUT it has a ton more character customization options and classes. SWTOR is like WoW BUT it has lightsabers. Conan is like WoW BUT it has boobies. Now I know this is a gross oversimplification, but for the most part MMOs for the past decade don't stray too far from the basic formula of WoW but with a unique spin on a few things. Now the unique things that these MMOs introduce are often better than the way that WoW handles things, but the rest of the basics never seem to match up. I think that is a big reason why nothing has dethroned WoW in ten years.

I know I have experienced this myself. I play most major MMOs and I start to get frustrated when there are similar systems like dungeon finder that just aren't as good as WoW's. Or, more often than not, it functions identical to how the system did in WoW maybe 2 years ago but while it has been iterated on in WoW, it has just stayed the same in the competition. If I wanted to play something similar to WoW, I would just play WoW.

So how does FF14 come into this? Well, all the pieces of it that are similar to WoW, actually are as good as WoW's iteration of them. There's a great dungeon finder, combat is similar and functional, and the quest system is nearly identical. Add on top of that a heavy dose of Final Fantasy nostalgia and a very strong story line where YOU are the focus, not the heroes around you and, well, you got yourself a game I have kept playing consistently since it relaunched. It builds off of what Warcraft has established already works, but it also feels like a wholly unique game.

I seriously cannot wait for the expansion. I am thrilled that this game is performing well and it really is a result of the dedication that their Devs pour into this title. Keep up the outstanding quality, and I will keep playing.

Game #15: Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4
Platform: PC
Total Playtime: 25 Hours

Was really not expecting this game to be this long. I also only completed about 52% of the activities and collections. I tend to not 100% open world games as I don't really like collectibles. PC was definitely a ported platform for this title, as the default controls are all over the place and took me a non-trivial amount of time to figure out.

So this game plays almost exactly like Far Cry 3, which is both good and bad. One new system though is a branching campaign where you can do good guy missions for the whiny guy, or more morally gray missions for the hot chick. I think that was done on purpose to get people to be evil since the large majority of players will take the "Good" route in games that offer a choice like that. Gear upgrades come by killing and skinning animals just like in FC3, though the pacing is incredibly weird this time. You can get the second highest tier of all of your gear within the first 5 hours of the game. I don't know if that was the intent, but I felt it trivialized the entire upgrade system when I was walking around kitted out like a badass so early in the game.

I wanted to call out something that particularly stuck out to me. Now I know I am playing a video game and at the end of the day, player enjoyment trumps realism, but there were two really glaring things that just didn't make sense to me.

•  While hanging on a rope attached to a grappling hook, you can detach the hook and throw it onto another ledge...while you're still on the rope. You won't fall, and you can keep climbing up like nothing happened. This isn't a bug, there are sections of the game where this mechanic is mandatory.
• You can silence a .50 cal Sniper Rifle. I would take out entire Outposts like a thief in the night with this silenced monstrosity and no one would ever know what was going on.

Also for a game that had unskippable cutscenes, the ending was so short and abrupt that I didn't even have time to skip it. The ending I got was an incredible letdown, and just left me feeling disappointed. Great gameplay, but the story never really got me engaged.

Game #14: Tales of Hearts R

Tales of Hearts R
Platform: PS Vita
Total Playtime: 31 Hours

So most people I know have heard of "Tales of Symphonia", a pretty popular JRPG from the Gamecube era. That game was great for its time and I beat it way back when, but that was the last "Tales of" game I played since I picked up Graces 2 years ago. Graces blew me away, and I really wasn't expecting such a great game when I picked it up on a whim for something to play. Ever since then, I have been working my way through the back catalog of Tales games, something Namco has been making a lot easier with recent re-releases. The latest one is Tales of Hearts R.

The problem with these re-releases is that the games have been getting better (for the most part) with each iteration. Going back and playing the older entries, while still fun, just makes me appreciate the more recent ones even more. Being limited to only one set of special abilities, a pretty basic story, and a comparatively small play time jump out to me as the biggest areas that are improved in future games. The play time alone was a pretty big shocker to me. For comparison, I completed Tales of Graces after about 80 hours.

Still though, combat in Tales games is always fun, even if this one was a bit on the easy side. I enjoyed my time with this game, and it passed the time very well during my flight to Japan.

Game #13: Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition

Homeworld 2 Remastered Edition
Platform: PC
Total Playtime: 9 Hours

Okay, much fewer bugs this time around. Probably because they didn't have to redo nearly as much for this campaign. Mostly just texture work.

I always thought Homeworld 2 was the weakest of the trilogy. It's still a great game, but the story gets all mystical and weird. The pacing in the campaign is also pretty damn brutal. There's about 5 missions in a row where you have to keep fighting off enemies until the moment the mission ends, then you are thrown into the next mission immediately and enemies fly in without a chance to rebuild your fleet, or even pause for a breath.

Aside from the pacing issues, resources were not balanced at all throughout the campaign. By mission 5, you have more money than you would ever spend since you have a cap on how many of each type of ship you can build. Since the game gives you all unharvested resources at the end of each mission too, you don't even have to have your collectors...collect. I had all twenty resource collectors do nothing but heal my ships. It felt like I was playing with a money cheat or something.

Still a great game. Still super difficult. Still great to play through again with the new visuals.