Tag: Resident Evil 7

State of the Game: Resident Destiny, Evil Fantasy XV

Izlain

sotg

For a long time it was difficult to find a happy medium when it came to gaming. I was either knee deep is some story-rich RPG, or for a time I was playing one MMO at a time and little to nothing else. I played nothing but MOBAs and other lobby-based competitive games for a long period of time, and I still dip my toes into new entries in all of these genres. I have always been a little wishy washy or fickle in nature, so I’ve always gone in waves where I delve deeply into one genre, grow tired of its tropes and move on to something new. I usually come back around time and again, but with that bits of real life interspersed I will also go in waves where I don’t play as much. Having other hobbies like Magic also take away from gaming, but provide valuable face time with real people. It seems that over the years I have found myself becoming neurotic over purchases made, my backlog and/or spending all of my time on one game. When I was hosting the Couch Podtatoes Podcast, it made sense for me to be on top of all the sales and play the newest games, because people who were listening to the show weren’t there to hear us drone on and on about the same game. There are game specific podcasts for a reason, and if that’s the only game you play then that podcast would probably suit you better. This isn’t to say I had a massive audience, but the people who were listening were expecting Eri to have a list of new Indie games to rave about and I’d typically have some list of recent big titles to hype up. It became our thing but also part of the stress I put on myself to actually play these games but also work and have a social life. It became a trying thing, and eventually something have to give. As such, the podcast is no more (but I long to produce another) and I’ve reduced my output on the blog. I’ve put more time into social outings (like Magic) and have actually started to get into somewhat of a routine, finding the balance to be not exactly to my liking but better for my individual personality on the whole.

The result of that stream of consciousness drivel above is that I’m in a happy head-space these days; the self-induced pressure to perform to some inhuman standard no longer rests on my shoulders. I suppose this should should have been a rant better saved for some other post, but the words keep flowing so I’m going to continue on anyway. Don’t worry, I have games to discuss in a moment. The gist of it all is that I’ve found some sort of happy medium where I’ve managed to have a few days a week to myself to game away and make progress on more than one game, and I don’t feel as guilty about the laundry list of games I haven’t completed. In many cases, I’ve cleared out games from the backlog simply because the titles weren’t engaging. If I’ve played a game for a few hours and it’s not grabbing me, I’m not pushing myself to finish it. Uninstalling has been a great weight off of my mind. There are still too many titles that I’ve procured during sales that I need to get to, and games that I currently enjoy are constantly pushing DLC down my throat (Total War Warhammer was the early unlock for next month’s Humble Monthly, but getting all of the DLC for the game was pricey… I also picked up the 3 DLC packs for Civ VI… sigh) but if I’ve already seen what I need to see, I’m okay with letting some lie in the pile. I have been making progress on more than one game here recently though, so let’s get this State of the Game on the road, shall we?

The three games I’ve put the most time into this past couple of weeks are Resident Evil 7, Destiny, and Final Fantasy XV. Yeah, the latter was finally on sale for $20 off so I picked it up. It looked too damn cool to pass up, and I’m glad I made the purchase. Despite having an RPG (Destiny) I was already working my way through, I didn’t want to miss the sale and I’m nearing the end of Destiny so that one will soon be out of my steady rotation.

I finally hit level 40 the other night on my Hunter, and managed to also complete The Taken King expansion (outside of raids). One thing that immediately stood out to me as being sort of fucked up is that despite playing through the whole game to that point, I only had a light level of 208 after finishing TTK, while Rise of Iron requires a minimum light level of 280… which means grinding for light before I even get to finish the storyline. Out of curiosity, I loaded up my Warlock who was level 7, and used the level 40 boost on him. He got a pile of blue gear, that gave him a light level of 280, just in time to run through RoI. So at this point I’m questioning whether or not I want to continue to level my Hunter until 280 light and then move on to the new expansion, or just play the Warlock through the new storyline and call it quits. Honestly I’m at the point where I’m pretty much done with the game, especially with Destiny 2 supposedly dropping this year. I’d almost rather save the effort and just quit now so I can jump into the sequel on the ground floor (and not wait until the end of its lifecycle like I did with the first game). I do want to see RoI though, as I did pay for the priviledge. I suppose we’ll see how it goes and how sucked into these other games I get. Here’s some pics of progress:

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Resident Evil is one hell of an experience. I have only played for a few short hours, but it is screenshot gold. I don’t really have much to share, and these pictures will likely be spoilery, but damn if it isn’t visceral. I will give a final impression once I’ve completed it, but if you like scary games you absolutely need to do yourself a favor and buy this. VR not required (but likely to require a diaper!).

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Last but not least, as I mentioned I picked up Final Fantasy XV. I’ve been a fan of the FF series for a long time, with some stand out favorites were Tactics, 6, 7 and 9. I actually recently bought the FF9 port because I didn’t get to finish that one back in the PS1 days. FF7 will always be incredible and I still can’t wait for the remake. Tactics is my all time favorite just because I loved the setting and the gameplay. 6 is a classic that would also be great for a remake. I have played most of the others classic titles, but for some reason lost touch with the series during the PS2 era. I never played X, XI, XII or XIII. XIV was a decent MMO that unfortunately came at a time when I wasn’t really into MMOs. With that said, I was really impressed with XV when it was revealed and knew it was a game I wanted to play. After it released and I read some reviews, I knew I’d purchase it. I told myself I wouldn’t buy it when it was $60 because I couldn’t rightly justify the cost knowing I have other deep RPGs sitting on my hard drives. But $20 off? Yeah, I’ll buy that. Overall the game is completely different than any FF game I’ve played, and that’s not a bad thing. Having more of an open world is a nice touch (though I hear it becomes fairly linear later in the game) and I love the main characters and their banter. The combat system is awesome, if not a little confusing at first. After a few battles though, it really takes off. I look forward to seeing this one to its end, and will really start powering through it once Destiny is off of my list. Here are some pics of the early game:

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That’s all for this edition. Happy gaming!

State of the Game: Progress Report

Izlain1 Comment

sotg

I had a few different games I wanted to talk about today, but I don’t think I have a full post’s worth of thoughts to write down on each, so instead we’re back with another State of the Game round up. It’s been a little while, but I should be able to fill this out pretty well. So what games are we talking about this time? Resident Evil 7, SMITE, Clash Royale and Destiny are on the menu. Let’s get started shall we?

Resident Evil 7

I mentioned getting started with RE7 and gave my initial impressions in a recent post, and I have played the game a little while longer since then. When we left off, I had just killed my girlfriend who was clearly not herself, but who then appeared to be herself again during the killing blow. She disappeared after I received a phone call, but it didn’t take long for her to show up again. I knew something was coming because Resident Evil games don’t give you a shit ton of ammo and healing supplies unless there’s a boss fight up ahead, and sure enough my lover appeared once again. This time she managed to cut my hand off, before I eventually let her have a ton of bullets to the face. She appeared dead, but then someone new showed up. I was welcomed to the family, and then attempted my escape. Unfortunately, my game time was cut short that day, but I do plan to get some more time in this week so I’m sure I’ll have more to share before I’m done. From what I’ve read, the game is only 10-12 hours long, so it shouldn’t take long to beat this one and get back to my backlog.

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Destiny

Speaking of my backlog, the one game I’ve been focused on for the past couple of months is Destiny, and I’m nearly level 40. I’ve nearly completed The Taken King storyline. I know there’s more to do in Rise of Iron, and I also know that there are raids and/or more difficult Strikes that I can go back and do. I also know there’s PvP and likely more end game content once I’m 40, but I’m still on the fence about doing the Light grind or about leveling another character. I have a boost, so it’s really only one other I have to level, but I’m thinking that once I’ve completed the storylines I’ll probably put it down for a while. There are too many other games on my list that I want to complete, and though I’ve written off some titles after a short amount of time, there are games I truly enjoy that are just collecting dust. At least I can say I completed the game, the main story, what have you. I won’t feel as guilty and will have at least gotten my money’s worth.

SMITE

I’m still playing Smite several times a week. After completing The Odyssey, there was a new Celtic event added to the game, as a new God from a new Pantheon was added and I guess that’s a big deal. I didn’t really care for the new God, but I did enjoy the event, and I got a skin for her as a result (plus a few chests). At this point I have 41 mastered Gods and I have officially hit level 30. I still need to start playing conquest and play a few ranked games, but I’m nearing completion of the Platinum trophy, and that’s part of why I’ve continued to play as long as I have. That and it’s the only game I play with a couple of my friends so it gives us something to do and time to chat.

Clash Royale

Clash has become a daily thing. The clan gets a chest every few days and we have managed to churn out the crowns and get the full reward each time. I’ve grown my deck considerably, and think I only need 10-20 cards to have them all. Leveling them up is a different story. I have 3 legendaries, but can’t seem to get extra copies of them. I have even more underpowered epics and rares, but things are progressing each day. I’ve made it to Arena 8 and am account level 9, so I guess you can say that I’ve moved up, but I’m starting to rise and fall a few hundred crowns day in and day out. It’s rather frustrating, especially knowing I’ve now spent some money on the game and still don’t have some of the best cards, while others might have lucked out and earned those cards for free. Ah well, it is the nature of the game. It’s still fun, and a great way to kill a few minutes relatively anywhere you go.

Lastly, I downloaded the new games from my Humble Monthly subscription. As usual, there were some extra copies of games I already own, some games I had zero interest in, and that’s about it. I did pay early for next month though, as Total War: Warhammer was the early unlock, and that’s a game I’ve wanted for a while but was waiting to go on sale. $12 for it is a great deal, and it’s not really all that old just yet. I have yet to play any of these new games but I will check them out and be back with another mini-impressions post on that. Playstation Plus games released today as well, and though I know I’ll probably play Little Big Planet 3, the others weren’t as exciting. I also picked up the Alien Isolation collection during the mid-week madness sale ($12 for the whole shebang isn’t bad — and a deal I couldn’t refuse), and Disgaea PC 1 & 2 in a bundle. It’s an old series that came out during the PS2 days but is similar to FF Tactics, so it sounded up my alley.

The backlog grows, and I can’t make it stop.

The Return Of Evil

Izlain3 Comments

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It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to talk about a Resident Evil game. A fan of the series since its inception, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this title. Unfortunately, I have yet to put together the funds to pick up a PSVR, and though I was hyped for that experience, from what I’ve seen on offer there aren’t a whole lot of games that would really benefit from the peripheral. However, this game is amazing even if you aren’t playing with a VR headset (and I imagine even more intense with one). I’ll probably still pick one of those headsets up eventually, and if/when I do, I’ll have to give this game another whirl. All I know is that within the first few minutes of playing, I was already talking to the screen and feeling rather uneasy. “No I don’t want to go into that room” has been a regular utterance.

So, the big kicker here is that the series has shifted from its traditional third person over-the-shoulder camera, which in turn had evolved from static purposefully-placed cameras from the first few games, to full first person. This is not the only change for the series, but it is the most prominent. Also gone is any mention of Raccoon City, main characters from earlier games (which have been involved in most every title) or the appearance of any zombies. Sure, there’s a scene where a corpse is floating in some water and looks a little like a zombie, and your girlfriend seems to want to break up with you at another point, also vaguely resembling the living dead. But I have yet to encounter an actual zombie, or really many enemies for that matter. Admittedly, I am only about an hour into the title, but I wanted to share my early impressions.

First person brings a whole new perspective that brings the game’s intimacy level up a notch. Seeing things as if they are through the character’s eyes means shit coming at you feels more real. I can only imagine this being a pants-shitting experience for those wearing VR rigs. Honestly, I haven’t been this scared playing a Resident Evil game since the first. Playing that in the dark was terrifying, and this game is no exception, particularly because things look very real as opposed to the low poly graphics of the classic that still scared the crap out of me. The pacing has been slow, but there is a tension that builds as each new area is explored and things get more janky, to the point where you are finally in your first battle, completely caught off guard. There are flashes of an underlying story that feels ripped out of horror movie, but as I’ve said there are no mentions of zombies. My gut is telling me there is something sinister afoot, particularly within this first hour or so of gameplay, to the point that I feel things are going to accelerate fairly quickly. Soon I will know more about what is going on in this house, and I can’t wait to find out more!

If you have ever enjoyed a Resident Evil title, enjoy horror games in general, or are looking for a good scare, this game should be up you alley. Here’s some screens from my initial stint. There could be some potential spoilers ahead!

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#E32016: Most Anticipated

Izlain3 Comments

I’ve made a tradition of sorts to nerding out about E3 for the past few years. In that spirit, I present to you now, my ten most anticipated games that I saw come out of E3 this year. It was near impossible to narrow down this list, and there were games that I didn’t know about that sort of snuck into this top ten. Other games I’m looking forward to I already discussed in yesterday’s podcast, and there are many other titles that I wanted to put on this list. But for now, let’s dive into the games I’m most looking forward to after E3 2016.

Oh, and yeah I know that Nintendo hasn’t even done their stream yet, but I’m not a Nintendo guy anymore, so I already know there isn’t anything I’m looking forward to out of that.

Titanfall 2

I knew about Titanfall 2 already, but after having seen the above trailer plus the multiplayer trailer, I was instantly sold. I really enjoyed the first one, which I played on my friend’s Xbox and later on my PC, so I was already fairly certain I’d go for the sequel as well. The addition of new animations, improved graphics, and a single player campaign, I think this one is going to knock it out of the park. How can you go wrong with mechs?

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Speaking of Mechs, how about Mechanized dinosaur robots? The first time I heard of this game I wasn’t as excited for it as others I know (Like Eri). After seeing this gameplay footage, I was aboard the hype train. I’m pretty sure this one is a Playstation exclusive as well, which is good news for me, but might force some people (like Eri) into buying the console after all. Regardless, this game looks ridiculous, and I can’t wait to play it!

Prey

Coming out of left field (sort of) is Prey. Apparently there was a game by this name some years ago, and I never heard of it. Then there was a sequel in the works that was canned, and now the game has been rebooted. Eri mentioned it to me prior to the announcement, but after seeing this trailer, I am so psyched to check it out. Psychological Horror and Thrillers both make me giddy, so I’ll definitely be checking this one out, but not until next year it seems.

Resident Evil 7

Speaking of Horror, one of my favorite franchises has finally revealed a sequel, and this one seems to be worthy of the title. The trailer was in first person, but I’m not sure if that’s how the game will play or not. Apparently there will be the option to play the entire game in VR mode, so I assume first person it is. This one looks super creepy, didn’t show any of the original cast members, and might be something completely original. Time will tell.

Death Stranding

Another title from one of gaming’s most recognizable names, featuring a recognizable actor from that one show we all watch. The trailer leaves us with more questions than answers, and there was clearly no gameplay, but at least we finally know what Kojima Studios has been up to. I’m looking forward to finding out more, but these sorts of teasers don’t give me the same sort of hype as the gameplay trailers do.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Continuing with the theme of no gameplay in our trailers, comes another teaser from Bioware. We saw some artwork with the last announcement about the game, and now we’ve got some in game assets. Perhaps in the coming months we’ll see more, but I highly doubt they’re going to meet that original December 2016 release window. Still, it’s Mass Effect, so we know it’s going to be good. I can’t wait for more information!

Skyrim Special Edition

We talked about the Skyrim remaster on the podcast, and it was a known thing prior to E3 that the remaster was coming. No, we didn’t get any Elder Scrolls VI announcement. There were other bits from the universe, in the card game and more stuff for the MMO, but no TES6, alas. Before seeing the above trailer, I thought that the Skyrim remaster was sort of a crap idea, but now seeing the ridiculous difference between the two, I’m sold on the idea. It was also announced that those of you who bought Skyrim and all of the DLC (or GOTY bundles) would get the upgrade for free. It’s unclear though, in the case of someone like me who bought the game on PS3 along with all of the DLC, will get the PS4 version for free (same goes for Xbox 360/One users). This version brings mod support to the consoles, along with a bunch of graphical improvements. It’s been pointed out that you can already make Skyrim this pretty with mods and a decent PC, but once the upgrade comes along it looks like it’s easier to switch mods on and off, so that’s a plus for you too. Now I’m trying to decide if I should just buy the Legendary edition on PC prior to this release and get the upgrade that way, or wait and see about the console edition. Either way I think running through Skyrim again would be fun. It’s been a couple of years since the last time I played it.

Final Fantasy XV

I’m surprised by Final Fantasy XV. I haven’t really paid attention to the series in a long time. I’ve played most of the classic titles, though few to completion. VII was the first I actually finished. I loved IX. I recently bought that again when it was released on Steam, with the intention of finishing it this time around. I’m hyped about the FFVII Remake. But after IX, I stopped caring about Final Fantasy. I never played X, XI, XII, and when I saw XIII in action I was turned off. I also didn’t really care for XIV. However, XV has that open world feel, amazing graphics and actually looks like a really fun game. It will be interesting to see what they’ve done with the battle system, and to see how that might correlate to the FFVII Remake. Either way I plan to check this one out.

God of War

God of War is another surprise on this list. I never played a GoW game. I missed it on PS2 because I was playing MMOs. I didn’t pick it up on PS3 because I was late to the party and didn’t care. I’ve seen a few other iterations over the years and have even watched them played but never really felt like it was the title for me. This trailer sold me on this new reboot, which seems to be moving from whatever mythology used in prior titles to a more Norse oriented one. And I like that shit. That is all.

X-Wing VR 

I had to include at least one VR video, because this conference actually sold me on the concept. They’ve been talking about Occulus, Vive, and other smart-phone based VR for a while now, and I’m not typically an early adopter when it comes to these sorts of things. VR hasn’t really looked that good until very recently. Seeing the announcement for Sony’s Playstation VR (formerly Project Morpheus) has opened up the possibility of VR for me. Occulus is $600 or so, Vive is $800, and I’m sure both would require hardware upgrades. The Playstation VR is only $400, and is said to work with existing PS4 hardware, meaning it won’t be necessary to upgrade to PS4.5/Neo. Seeing the above video along with several others during the presentation really sold me on the idea. I’m sure that in the future, better tech will come along and will be less money, and it will be more affordable to get the hardware for PC, but I think now I’m heading in the direction of VR on the console.

What games were you most excited about this E3?