Month: April 2017

A New Frontier Episode 4

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Episode 4 of TellTales latest season of The Walking Dead series was strange. It simultaneously felt like there was less playing time (less QTEs and less exploration) than any of the other episodes in the whole series, but it felt like one of the most intense episodes. TellTale has mastered this storyline, and has dropped in subtle tie-ins to previous seasons that will tie bits of the story together and tug on your heartstrings. The little details are the most striking, and the fact that every little choice  you make will come back to haunt you is superb. Things I had forgotten doing came to light in this playthrough, and that alone will catch you off guard. There are little sub-stories going on here too, like falling in love with Kate, seeing Clementine grow into a young adult (even “becoming a woman” so to speak), and the rivalry between two brothers. I really love the lore of this game series, and it really captures what it means to be human, and how it can tear you apart if you aren’t careful.

My choices were mostly in line with others, though it seems that some people held a grudge against Tripp (I just thought perhaps I would earn his forgiveness for taking out Conrad). Others held a grudge against Joan, which makes complete sense, though I was banking on David doing something stupid to screw things up for himself. The cliffhanger here is not knowing what happened to Kate at the end of the episode, and knowing that David is likely still alive. I managed to keep one of his kids upright, and would likely take better care of him, but he still wants his father, and well Kate wants Javi, so that makes things complicated, doesn’t it. We’ll see how things wrap in Richmond soon enough, but like each season before it, I don’t want it to end. Here were my choices, officially:

It’s been nice having something Walking Dead related to keep me going now that the latest season of the TV show has ended. That was a hell of a cliffhanger ending too, and it’s a long wait until October to find out what happens next. All I know is that I’ve grown tired of the Telltale formula for the most part, but can’t get enough of this series. I hope a new season is to follow in the coming years. I’ll be back when episode 5 drops to wrap things up.

Thoughts on the SMITE Tactics Beta

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Hi-Rez studios got its start over a decade ago. Many of you will recall a game called Global Agenda, and might even remember their reboot of the Tribes game, Tribes Ascend. It’s doubtful any of you played or cared about the above titles, neither did I. But along came the game that changed my mind about this company and their product: SMITE. Those who have followed my history with the MOBA genre in particular will know that I try most but only really dug into a couple. My obsession with League of Legends has given way to a love for SMITE, and I’ve played it seriously for about a year now. Hi-Rez hooked me with this game, but suddenly they started announcing new titles, and my interest was piqued again. Soon I was playing Paladins, and looking forward to the company’s expansion of the SMITE universe with their Tactics and Rivals games. The latter sounded like it was going to be a mobile title (of which they have one already called Jetpack Fighter), but it seems that development of that particular game has been put on hold. Tactics however, has been advanced to the closed beta stage, and I happened to receive an invite.

SMITE Tactics is a title that will appeal to those of you who like CCGs and strategy RPGs. If you’ve ever played the game Duelyst, you’ll understand the concept quite well. I didn’t think about it til right this instant, but it is also identical to Shardbound, which I wrote about last week. It’s card based. You have a deck, you have a leader the deck is based around. It’s true to SMITE and its own particular brand of lore, and many of the iconic Gods are present. The cash shop seems fair, the currencies are familiar. It’s something you’ll completely understand if you’ve played any of these types of games, but will appeal to you on another level if you already happen to enjoy the SMITE world. If you are unfamiliar with SMITE or this style of game, here’s a video of a couple rounds of my gameplay:

Overall I enjoy this game and Shardbound more than I did Duelyst, but to be fair I didn’t give the latter much of a chance. I enjoyed what I saw but I like the art direction and feel of the other two titles. If you’re interested, I’m sure open beta is around the corner, and it will likely be a Free to Play title upon release. It’s only available on PC, but if their track record is any indicator, it will likely end up on consoles as well.

Thoughts on the NES Classic

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I first wrote thoughts down about the NES Classic when it was announced last summer. Like most gamers my age, I was hyped for a chance to play not only some games that I owned a loved as a child, but some of the titles that I missed. With the updated system, we get a small sample size of the existing games catalog, but in that regard the packed-in titles are worth every penny. At the $60 price point that was announced, that is. In typical Nintendo fashion, demand outweighed supply so when the console released in November 2016, they sold out rather quickly. I know I looked everywhere I could think that sells games around the release date and had no luck. One of my friends camped out and got one, but he was the only person I knew that did. Nintendo’s next press release said that they would have more consoles out to retailers soon. Units were still available online, but prices soared and it seemed the best bet was to wait until they got a handle on the demand and produced enough units to meet that demand.

Just last week, Nintendo made another announcement, and this time it was to say that the new shipments were on their way but that the console was officially discontinued. They didn’t say why, but the rumor is that an SNES Classic is on the way. Time will tell if that’s correct, though I’d be interested in that console as well, mainly because I never owned an SNES but there are plenty of games I’ve played that I’d like to play again. I’d wish for a Genesis type version as well, but I have already collected those games on other platforms due to Sega being smart about licensing their products. Anyway, with the demise of the NES Classic I knew it was time to make a decision: Tempt the fates and attempt to get one for MSRP, or pony up the extra dough and buy one online, now.

I think you can guess what I did.

It cost me nearly $200 to pick up the console, an additional controller, two cable extensions, and a carrying case. My Prime membership netted free shipping. Was it overpriced at that point? Yes. Do I have regrets? Nope.

It’s so cute sitting on my PS4! I’m going to have to invest in an HDMI splitter or switch to use it more efficiently though, as my TV only has 2 ports that are both currently being used. Outside of that hassle, I fired it up and took a trip back to the 80’s, in which ironically I also played my original NES in this very room! I played several games and had a blast, but there are titles that are going to take some time to play through that I really can’t wait to get into. I also look forward to introducing my girlfriend’s son (he’s 9) to games I played when I was his age, because he’s a little gamer in training and needs to learn to appreciate the classics!

Overall I was impressed with the console’s construction. The controller looks and feels just like the original. I was disappointed with the look and feel of the secondary controller that I picked up, not realizing it was some 3rd party knockoff, but I will live with it, or maybe I’ll go pickup one of the official controllers later on, I know I’ve seen those in stores. The carrying case was official and will do the trick. I’m satisfied with the purchase, and I think you would be too, but try to get it on the cheap if you can!

Mini Impressions: April Humble Monthly

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Another month has passed and another new bundle of games has been unlocked from Humble Monthly. The early unlock for April was The Witness which I already knew wasn’t my thing so I gifted that copy away to my sister. The remaining bits of the bundle unlocked earlier this month, and I finally had a chance to check out some of the pieces of the puzzle. I didn’t play all of the games but I still have thoughts to share, so let’s take a look at the list:

Black Mesa
Kingdom: New Lands
Layers of Fear
Tumblestone
Event Zero
Slime-San
Jawns

I’m not sure why, but I basically never play any of the Humble Originals. They’re always DRM free copies and I just don’t install games that aren’t via some sort of launcher. I don’t know why that is, but you can bet that I didn’t play Jawns for this reason. Same goes for prior months. I also didn’t play Event Zero which is one of those narrative games that bore me. Slime-San falls into the same uninterested category, as it was a pixellated platformer and I’m just not that into platforming these days.

Layers of Fear looks interesting. I get more of a Amnesia or SOMA vibe to it, but I haven’t played either of those titles despite owning both. If I remember correctly SOMA was in a bundle a few months back. Having just completed Resident Evil VII, I thought it might be worth jumping into right away to keep up with the creepy vibe, but I have yet to jump into it. Still on my to do list.

Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half-Life that is supposed to add some modern convenience along with better graphics to the beloved title. However, it’s still in Early Access and apparently the tail end of the game is not present just yet. I had my eye on this one for a while and wish to play it, but I think I’m going to let the developers finish it before diving in.

Now, on to the games I actually did try out. Kingdom is a cute little side scrolling base management game that came out a while back. I remember friends talking about it and I almost picked it up myself a couple of times. The bundle came packed with both the Classic version of the game, and the expansion “New Lands,” Though having experimented with them both, it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of difference between the two. Let me show you what I mean:

Kingdom Classic
Kingdom: New Lands

I mean honestly, do you see a difference? All I noticed was that my character went from having light skin to dark skin, and now there’s some clouds. I’m sure it’s one of those types of expansions that adds new stuff, I did notice that the tutorial was more fleshed out in the latter game. Both install and play seperately though, despite not being a sequel. They both had their own Steam cards and whatnot too, so it’s probably more like a directors cut or additional bits added in. You guys that have played more of the game could probably clear that up for me. Overall, it’s a fun little time waster but not a game I’d spend a load of time with.

Lastly, a little puzzle game called Tumblestone. It’s got match 3 elements, but you match bricks that are already existing, and don’t add to it. You also have to clear bricks to get to bricks behind them, so each puzzle has one or more ways to solve it, rather than being more like traditional match 3 games where you can add extra bricks and then clear them later. It seems alright as far as puzzle games go but nothing super engaging.

That’s it for this month’s games. The early unlock for next month was Dirt Rally, and if you’ve been paying attention, both Dirt 3 and one of the other titles in the series were free on Humble Bundle’s site over the past few months. So plenty of rally racing to be had. Apparently the 4th game in the series is coming out soon as well. Inside was the other early unlock (two this month, which is different) and it looks like a little platformer with some cool art direction and a mysterious story. I’ll check these out and get back to you next month. Until then.

Early Access Gem: Shardbound

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Games that combine multiple genres into one are becoming a trend, don’t you think? We’ve had plenty of CCGs developed over the years, both in physical and digital form. Tactical, turn-based games are also nothing new, with various iterations spanning multiple generations of consoles and PCs. We can come up with many examples of genre-bending or melding just in the last few years, with standouts like MOBAs and the new Hero Shooter genre taking center stage. The free to play model itself has also gone through various iterations, though the lockbox has taken precedence, and despite these differing costs to speed up progress, typically you can play the full game without spending anything at all (at least with the fair developers).

Enter Shardbound. A free to play title that has a cash shop, that is a combination of CCG and tactics, that sounds like it would be a little on the weird side but works fairly well. In the above picture you can see a bit of everything, and that will allow me to explain. So, just like Hearthstone and other CCGs, you’ll have a deck of cards to take with you into battle. You also have a Hero unit. This unit will have its own special ability, along with being a representation of your life total. They start with 25, and if they die it’s game over, no matter how many minions you have left standing. Like Hearthstone, you’ll get one mana per turn. More like Magic: The Gathering, cards have various effects and you can play from your graveyard. Like Final Fantasy Tactics, Shining Force et al, you’ll be using turn based tactics to eliminate the enemy. That’s the main gist of it. The tutorial will do a better job explaining things than I just did, but if you’ve played any of the games I’ve mentioned here you will likely understand things rather quickly.

Deckbuilding looks like fun. You’ll use a hero and their color cards (think class specific cards) and then flesh out your deck with various neutral cards. I rather enjoyed the purple deck, being graveyard focused. Some of the Heroes feel better than others, but their decks tend to make up for their own shortcomings. As of now the game is in Early Access so it has a bunch of temporary artwork and is definitely not complete but it is very playable in this state.

The game provided me with 30 chests right off the bat. In them, I received cards of different rarities, and that seems just about the norm. Buying chests seems a little steep and probably unnecessary at this point, but the welcome pack comes with another 30 chests for $5, so that’s not bad. I’m sure you will have ways to earn or craft the cards as well as the game is further developed.

 The interface is nicely done. Rather than having a series of menus, the devs decided it would be cooler to have your character represented by a space ship, and a series of floating islands represent the various menus. You have a home base of sorts, where you can train, build you deck, buy stuff and form a “house” which I assume is just like a clan. From there you fly to other “shards” where the PvP battles take place. I did well in my first couple of fights but there is definitely a learning curve as to how all of the mechanics work. Overall though, I think this one is worth checking out!