Conan Exiles (Xbox One) Game Preview

I'm sure many people's first knowledge of Conan Exiles was that it allowed nudity, and even had a character creation slider to set size.  Once I sat down to play the game preview of the Xbox One version, I realized I didn't even know what type of game it was.  Needless to say, I was surprised to find out it's an open world survival game.

I tried my first run, carefully setting up my character and reading stuff.  I didn't have much time then, so I had to quit out and hope that it had saved.  I tried to return later, but the single player needs an internet connection.  Sigh.  After finally getting it to work again, I found it had saved my stuff.  However, it also seemed to stop giving me experience.  I also quickly learned that the game tells you nothing.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there is a huge area between too many tutorials and not enough.  Conan Exiles is, at the moment, firmly in the "not enough".  I don't think it tells you how to do anything other than the button prompt to read stuff.  This wouldn't be as big of an issue, but you kind of need to know a lot of stuff in a survival game.  I need SOMETHING to go on here.  What are these meters?  What should I actually do?  How do I build stuff?  I don't really have time to figure it out if doing so makes me starve or dehydrate.

I eventually figured out a few things I could harvest, and that I could eat bugs for a minuscule food boost.  I also ran into a lake...and monsters.  I somehow won my first fight.  Then I lost my second.  The game respawned me...somewhere.  There is no map or minimap that I could find.  Since you asked, yes, that IS a bad decision.  Even so, I could only craft five things, and was unsure what to do.

So, I started over with a new character.  Unfortunately, it seems you can only have one offline character, and that co-op is only online.  Hopefully that changes in the full release.  Like 7 Days to Die, I'd love to play it offline and couch co-op with my wife.

Even so, I was finally gaining experience, and had some ideas of what to do.  Still annoyed about the lack of map, though.  When I leveled up, I could increase a stat!  I don't know what each stat does, though, since as I might have already mentioned, the game doesn't tell you things.  You also use level up points to purchase crafting recipes.  This is kind of neat.  Plus, I finally found how to get more than five things to craft!

Sorting through all of the things you can craft is a pain, though.  Once you do find what you want, or think you want, you then have to have enough stuff to actually make it.  Even basic things seem to take a lot of stuff to actually make.  So, I hope you grabbed a ton of stuff while on your way, since no map will make it harder to find your way back.  Don't grab too much and become encumbered.  Also remember to make a bed roll!

Finding a place to put it was a bit of a chore, too.  I build a few walls, a door, and a foundation to put it on.  Good thing, since you actually need a foundation to attach the walls to.  The problem was getting them to play nice.  The foundation pieces, walls and ceilings didn't always attach to each other.  I'm not sure why.  So, my "house" has a hole at the top.  The interface to build and actually put them down was kind of a mess, too.  In fact, most of the UI in general wasn't that good.

Combat isn't much better.  You have to be pretty precise with your aim, which is just as annoying in combat as it is for mining and gathering.  Well, humans have that problem, not the AI.  When hit, it moves your aim to the side, so you have to re-adjust to actually hit the next blow.  I don't think that happens to your enemies when you hit them.  You seem reasonably sturdy, as it took several hits to down me.  Unfortunately, the same applies to your foes.  That's only really annoying when attacking the animals for their skins, as it's a chore to chase after them after each attack.

So what things am I hoping they fix or add?  Well, a few optional tutorials, and some in game info to start.  I'd really like a mini-map, or a compass so I can figure out where to go.  No, I don't want to have to craft them, just give me something basic so I can find stuff.  It would be nice to have single player not need online, and have multiple save slots for multiple worlds.  If at all possible, I'd like couch co-op instead of online only.  Other similar games have it, so I would think it's possible.

If you are a fan of Dark Souls-like difficulty and like survival games, then boy do I have the game for you!  For everyone but those ten people, I'd say wait and see how the game develops closer to launch and see if it's been improved before forking over your money.  Conan Exiles is definitely a game preview, as it's not ready to be released, but does have a lot of potential.


The Good:
Fans of survival, crafting and hard difficulty will get some fun out of it.  Plus, the music is very reminiscent of Conan.

The Bad:
The game offers no help, tutorials, or information to get you started.

The SaHD:
Once it's more complete, I'll play with the server options, as it looks like there's some nice settings there.

(Review code for Conan Exiles was provided by the publisher)

We Happy Few (Xbox One) Game Preview

We Happy Few had a very attention-grabbing trailer at E3 that appropriately sets the stage for this first-person procedurally generated game.  The game starts off the same as that trailer, where the player character decides not to take his Joy, a happy-making medicine.  After that he escapes the authorities, and wakes up in an underground safehouse.

That's it for the story, so far, as the game is still in alpha.  A screen of text at the start of the game warns about this, so it wasn't a surprise.  It also notes a few other things, like that certain things might not work, or that the game might crash.  Fun!

I have had some of the stuff not work.  I didn't have a main quest the first time I played, which made the opening minutes much more aimless.  I just pretty much walked around and grabbed items.  I wasn't sure what else to do.

Luckily, I came upon some sidequests after about 20 minutes.  These, too are randomly placed in the world.  One tasked me with repairing the valve on a water pump.  Once I did it, the nearby people attacked me.  I'm really not sure why.

This was my introduction into the game's combat.  You attack with the Right Trigger, and each attack takes stamina.  The Left Trigger allows you to block, and you can even parry with correct timing.  Thankfully the enemies attacked one at a time so I could figure out what I was doing, and it is strangely satisfying to stab them with a long stick.  I was victorious, but not unscathed.

A few times I had to eat some food because my hunger was low, and at one point I had to sleep.  Finding a bed was a lot harder than I would have thought.  I couldn't get back into my safehouse (another bug), so I looked around until I found another bed.  The person who owned it wasn't too happy with me, and this started another fight.  Being critically wounded from some trapped treasure chests, I was quickly put down.

That was the end of my first foray into the game.  Since I had accidentally left the "permadeath" box checked when starting up (I didn't see it was an option until I had already hit "ok"), I had to start again.  This time, I had a main quest, and was allowed back into the safehouse.  I also turned off permadeath.

Items you find around the world can be weapons, food, or ingredients for crafting.  The menus aren't the most intuitive, but I was able to craft a few things and figure out where various things were, like my inventory and the quest log.  Your inventory is made of connected boxes, like the first Diablo game.  It is expandable, but I'm not sure yet how.  You can also somehow gain another weapon slot.

What there is of We Happy Few is promising.  The unique and stylized world stands out from the crowd, and the random nature of the world and quests should give a lot of replay value.  My only real complaint is how little they tell you at the start, and how aimless the game can be.  Other than that, I am looking forward to trying out the game when it is finished.


The Good:
Lots of replayability in a unique world.

The Bad:
The game is very much still in alpha.

The SaHD:
You can sneak around, but it seemed like everybody could easily see me.

(Early access code for We Happy Few was provided by the publisher)

Bravely Second: Hours 20-30

So after reviewing Langrisser, I went back to Bravely Second.  I'm going to try and limit spoilers, but in some cases it will be hard to, and they will be noted.  This whole journey is kind of meant to be read when you are either past me or don't care, but be prepared just in case.

My Fort Lune is coming along nicely, as I got the scene for 80% completion near the end of the 30 hours.  I've also started using my ships to weaken the Ba'als, as I wanted to try fighting one to see how it goes.  I first chose a Turtle Dove, since it was a lower level than me (23 to my 25 or so).  Yeah, that didn't pan out.  It had a stupid high HP amount (120k or so).  I probably could have done it once I learned what its gimmick was, but I'll just weaken its level and fight it later.

I finally met the sniper (she was in the demo) named Aimee.  She has the hawkeye asterisk, but I can't remember that and usually call it sniper or marksman or something similar.  I rolled my eyes at her name, and sighed at how overpowered she was.  Not only did she shoot very accurately across an ocean, she is holding an army at bay by herself at the bridge.  Seriously?  The other army has shields!  Even if she can magically redirect bullets, I'm sure she couldn't do both 100 times in a minute.  The army v army stalemate in the last game made sense...this one tries to up the ante but fails.  Or she is a dynasty warrior.  The dungeon leading to her wasn't too bad, but I could have sworn I was able to use resurrect on the undead enemies inside, but then it wouldn't work later.  I guess I'll have to stick to healing them instead.

I also saw the chef job...sigh.  I was hoping I was wrong about that.

There was a princess I met that had a unique graphic, so I assume she is some future job.  She has a brother, who looks like Yojimbo.  Looks like a future job too, but I'm not sure what they would do for a third swordsman...maybe iaijutsu like the samurai in Final Fantasy Tactics?

We traveled with them to a hot springs town.  Of course we did, Japanese game gotta be Japanese.  There was also a hot springs themed dungeon to go with it, which had a really interesting idea.  Each area had different steam that gave a battle effect.  The first area favored magic, and wasn't really a big deal.  The second area gave everyone berserk, which was stupid.  I really dislike that ailment (but it's not my most hated), so I turned off battles and just ran through it, except for the one forced fight (it's on the map).  The third area gave every physical hit a critical effect.  This area was awesome for my two attackers, and I made short work of enemies.  However enemies were also really dangerous if I let them live!  The fourth area might even be better, as both sides start with full BP.  Great for doing chain battles, so I took advantage of that for a bit.

-Spoilers-

At the end of that dungeon, they had some story scenes.  At first, I thought it really strange/stupid that the princess' story matched up perfectly with Yew's.  Then, she revealed it was all an illusion and it made sense that it was a copy/paste.  Also, she also used the illusion on Aimee who then thought the bullets were being deflected?  I'm not so sure about that...

Anyway, she then tells Yew to feel bad because he got someone hurt because he wouldn't reveal his backstory.  The hell?  He told the princess not to go for the sword because it was cursed, so he did try to stop her.  He shouldn't have to tell her the entire sob story for her to not make a terrible decision, as she has done that herself.  Plus, she set the whole thing up, so she would have done it anyway, making her whole point moot.  I get what they were going for, but it was stupid and done wrong.  There's many points like that in games and shows where they attempt to make a point, but fail to very hard if you stop and think about it.  Sigh.

-End Spoilers-

Side quest-wise, it started with the white mage versus the merchant.  From the game perspective, I chose to side with the merchant so I could get the white mage job.  However, I also agreed with his proposal more than Holly's (the white mage).  Building up the economy of the entire continent is totally worth one family living in a childhood home.  The bit about the old only looking at the past and the young looking at the future was really insightful, too.  The end scene was kind of funny, even if it nullifies your choice.  The white mage, though...it's somehow not as good as the bishop.  I was shocked, but it won't be the last time we see something like that...

The black mage/hunter side quest had an interesting premise, with us being trapped with little food.  I understood the mage's thoughts about the food, but I really don't agree with him.  Plus, I wanted to cut the job from his belly and he's still an ass, so it was easy to side against him.  While normally I would want the ranger job, I have the thief for bow usage, so I don't need it yet.  Somehow, the ranger wasn't a psychopath, either.  I guess they toned down most of the previous asterisk holders so you could be somewhat sympathetic to their cause (most were horrible people).  At the end, I would have liked an explanation of how we got out, you just get some dialogue, it flashes white, Edea wakes up and it was all over.  Uh...what?  Did Moe save them?  What a cop out.

Just before the thirty hour mark, I finished the side quest for the ninja.  Thankfully it was between the ninja and knight (and not the dragoon or something I really like), so the choice was easy for me.  The quest itself was enjoyable too.  It reminded me of the section of the previous game where you fought the ninja.  I'm still not sold on choosing one job or the other, but most of the choices haven't been too bad so far.

While the game as a whole is going well so far, I have had the game freeze/hard lock/lock up on me 2 or 3 times so far.  It's always in battle when I'm selecting my moves and sometimes canceling them.  Whenever I want to investigate a bug, I have to stop and remind myself that I'm not a game tester anymore.  Still, it's sad to see this happen in the game, because usually Squeenix and Nintendo stuff is pretty solid.

< Hours 10-20   |   Hours 30-40 >

Grand Kingdom [Beta] (PS4) Preview

I tried the Grand Kingdom beta a few days ago.  First off, I really like the art style of the game, and the animation is nice.  It's like a good version of Battle Princess Arcadias.

The gameplay is pretty unique, like a mix of rpg and board game.  You move around a map as a chess-like piece. There are treasures and shortcuts around the map, and a turn limit.  If you come into contact with an enemy piece, a fight starts.

Your four person party fights on three planes against another enemy group.  Each character has a movement meter that shows how much they can move, and an attack meter than depletes with each attack.  Attacks are pretty neat, since melee people have a combo you can execute, and can even launch opponents.  Archers and mages have a target mark that moves through the area, and you have to time your press to correspond to where the enemy is.  They also get multiple attacks you can chain together.  It takes some getting used to, since the mage's targeting isn't as nice as the archer's.

It worked...well enough for the most part.  It was way too easy to hit your own people (heals can also work on enemies, yuck), since the target areas and arcs aren't accurate.  Plus a rebounding enemy can hit other characters causing some damage, which is more annoying than I would have thought.  Battle controls aren't very intuitive, and took me some getting used to.  Even after an hour or so I would mess up the buttons occasionally.  The in-game tutorials teach the map and battles well enough.

What they don't teach is some of the other nuances.  While they over-explain some things like menu selections, something as important as the stats of your characters are left up to your imagination.  When you level up, you can give some bonus points, but I wasn't sure if some things affected others.  Str gives physical attack damage, but does it affect bow attacks?  Usually that is dexterity or agility, but no stat in Grand Kingdom mentions bow damage.  I wouldn't be so bothered by this, but I always get the sense that I was messing up my characters, or not getting what I should be doing with their growth (more on that below).

Even so, the single player experience was really fun.  After doing the one map, you are then forced to do some of the multiplayer versus.  It is thankfully not actual pvp, but more kingdom v kingdom.  I don't fully understand it all, but I had to do it, which isn't fun.  I tried it once, won a battle, and then the entire war was lost.  I have no idea why, it just said it was over.  The enemy group was the same level as my party, but a really hard fight.  That's where I started thinking I messed up my bonus stats, since player enemies had much longer combos than I did.  At least you can just leave the AI to do it for you, and I'm hoping the full game has enough single player that I can ignore the pvp nonsense.  I'm game to try it!

The Good:
Nice art style, unique gameplay and the fights were fun.

The Bad:
I don't like pvp, and it didn't make much sense here.  Hopefully it isn't forced in the full game like it was in the beta.

The SaHD:
It seems the beta is the "lite" version, so maybe the pvp focus is in some kind of free-to-play version which will bump up the people playing the game.  Or people will just do it on alternate accounts to beef up the armies they want to win...

Bravely Second (3DS) Preview - The Second 10 Hours

Done with chapter 1 and onto the next 10 hours of the game!

First off, there is a job called Catmancer.

Just let that sink in.

Yeah, I'm right there with you if you face-palmed at that.  It's... a unique choice, to be sure.  It is this game's version of a Blue Mage, since they can learn some enemy attacks.  Unlike a Blue Mage, the Catmancer is really good at heavy armor, axes and fist weapons, making it a useful and unique combination.  Who knew?  It's a silly concept, but they made the Blue Mage a better class, rather than a worse version of a Red Mage.

Although, instead of MP, it uses items to fuel its abilities.  While I prefer MP, as it is readily renewable, the items thing might be ok if there are plenty available.  It gets an ability to dig and get a cat item that varies by location, which is good.  Plus, there are special ways to kill some enemies to get more.  The best way is to simply buy them if you upgrade the right stuff at Fort Lune.  There are also food items that unlock with them... wait, is there a chef class?  Sigh...

They are also going all in the Ba'als.  I fought one in the story (it was the last boss of the demo), and then they show up at Fort Lune as optional fights.  They love that their name sounds like "ball" and pun it up with that.  Stuff like "ba'al busting" and the like.  Kind of chuckle worthy, but gets old fast (which is weird because I normally like puns).  I've also assembled a full team of guests from the daily net invites, so my base is proceeding nicely when I have the game in sleep mode.

Last time I was complaining about the recycled characters, and I'll expand that here with the recycled locations.  They do add new towns, but you seem to repeat many places that you went to in the last game.  Some may have changed layouts, but I don't think they all did.  If there are no changes, then I really don't like just recycling the locations, as it comes across as lazy.  I'm fine with reuse if they do something unique with them, or enough time has passed.  Two in-game years isn't really enough for much change.

On the progression of the story, the bosses aren't giving me too much trouble.  When they start to, I can sock it to them with the Special attacks.  Unlocking some of the modifiers for them makes them even better.  The special my bow thief uses can easily do over half of some bosses' health.  Admittedly, I don't nuke them outright, and try to save the Special for if I need it, or to finish them off when low and I don't want to deal with their crap any more.  I probably should do it from the start and just be done with them.

This next part might be considered a spoiler.  The last boss of the chapter is a two headed... snake... frog... thing.  It's gross looking.  It looks like a de-winged Gigginox for anyone that has played Monster Hunter Tri/3 Ultimate.  It's one creature, but the heads are separate targets.  When one dies, it pops and leaves an...interesting looking hole.  Eww.

It worked out pretty well, since I ended the first chapter at just under 20 hours.  I'll have to take a break from the game for now, since I need the 3DS to review another game, Langrisser (review coming soon!)

< The First 10 Hours   |   Hours 20-30 >

Bravely Second (3DS) Preview - The First 10 Hours

Well, I talked a bit about the demo, so I figure I might as well chronicle some of my progress in the full release of Bravely Second (and limit the spoilers as much as I can).  I really enjoyed the first one, but didn't finish it sadly (put in over 60 hours though).  I got to the part that everybody hates, where you start playing Groundhog Day Simulator.  I got the idea they were going for, but it was too long and could have been done much better.  So, I moved on to other games, since they don't review themselves!

Thankfully the game starts off with a recap of the first game.  Besides being a great refresher for fans, it helps people like me who didn't want to put up with the bulls ideas the first one had at the end.  Note I had a used copy of the original, so I did see the subtitle change, and hence, had some idea what was going on.

From that good part we then jump into the story, which starts with an unwinable fight versus a stupidly over-powered foe.  Yup, two of my least favorite things right off the bat!  I guess they have to make the new foe threatening, but the party fighting him would have done much, much better than that.  Sigh.

After that the story gets much better, as you assemble the game's main cast during the prologue.  This part clocked in at 5 hours for me, which is crazy for a prologue (the previous record was 4 for Trails in the Sky).  Also near the end of it is a great scene that makes good use of the 3DS's gyroscope.  You see the point of view of the last party member, and can move the system around to see various things.  You can focus on people talking to you, or look at the extra details in the scenery.  It's really cool, and apparently was also shown at the end of the previous game.  Either way, I wouldn't mind another scene like that, or more games to have something cool like that (but I wouldn't want it overdone).

In Chapter 1, you also get your first side quests.  These will reward you with a new job.  Well, new to you in the game.  Since Bravely Second boasts new job classes, the previous ones are gained from side quests.  This would be neat, but they worked in a choice system to it.  So when you do a side quest to unlock a job, you have to choose which side to fight, and that is the job you get.  You get the other one later, but it's still kind of dumb to me.  The philosophical choices presented would be more impactful if I wasn't siding with whichever job I wanted less instead of who I agreed with.

Plus, since these jobs are from the first game, the same people have them.  I'm sure they should be dead, since you kill them several times during the previous game.  I don't really like recycling a lot of characters, especially when it doesn't make sense.  At least previous players will have an idea how to fight and beat them.

The "one more fight" mechanic is great and a real time-saver.  If you kill the enemy during the first turn, you can battle again immediately.  While you won't recover any BP, meaning you can't go on forever, you get a bonus multiplier to money, experience and job points.  It is almost always worth doing.  I have the encounter rate set lower most of the time.  Using the "one more fight" I can fight less often on the map, but I still don't need to grind.  I love it.

The last thing I'll talk about for my first 10 hour foray into the game is the chomper making mini-game.  At one point a creepy owl gives you stuff to make plush chompers.  You do this while the system is open, and you just...watch your characters make dolls.  There are upgrades you can buy and use to make them faster, make more per batch, or sell them for more points.  You can also exchange the points for money (the starting rate is atrocious).  I have no idea why this was put into the game.  It doesn't really add anything, and just comes across as bizarre.  I guess it doesn't hurt anything, but it's a very WTF inclusion.

|  The Second 10 Hours >

Bravely Second [Demo] (3DS): the Good, the Bad and the SaHD

The Good:
Meaty demo that gives you a good taste of the final game.  Once I understood how to use it effectively, the "One More Fight" mechanic is great.  It's free and you can easily play it for 8 hours+!

The Bad:
The second to last boss fight is brutally hard.  Even harder than the final boss of the demo on the hard setting.  Ugh, such bad memories.

The SaHD:
I'm glad that there are bonuses to transfer over to the full version, but some of them are really tedious, like filling out the beastiary.  You have to fight each non-boss monster something like 100 times.  Yuck.  The bonuses are nice, but not worth seeking out in the demo, unless you are killing time until you can get the full version.

(Bravely Second [Demo] was obtained as a free download from the Nintendo E-shop)

Battleborn [Beta] (PS4): the Good, the Bad and the SaHD

The Good:
I can't overstate how much I appreciate that there is a story that can be done solo or co-op.  I'm bad at the competitive portion of most games, so I like having a fun option for people like myself.

The Bad:
The game is fast paced and hectic...I didn't always know what was going on.  Plus, the story missions were pretty hard.

The SaHD:
I tried one round of the versus.  I was on a team of low level people (1-5), and our opponents were very high level (20-50+), so it was really unbalanced.  There was a vote to surrender only 4 minutes in, and it just seemed to instantly pass without me even getting to vote.

Yeah...I'm definitely interested in checking out the campaign levels, but will likely not put much time into the versus modes.  The game felt very much like a fast-paced Borderlands, which isn't a bad thing.  Just one I would have to get used to.

(Battleborn [Beta] was obtained as a free download from the Playstation Store)

Black Desert Online (PC) Beta Preview

I was recently supplied a code for the closed beta test of Black Desert Online.  It only ran for a week, but I got in a little time to play at, and after seeing the character creator, so did my wife.

Before I get into the creator, though, I would like to say the game looks really nice.  My machine is likely ancient by now (purchased 7 months ago), but the game ran smooth on the medium settings.  Setting it on high had a noticeable dip in the frame rate.  Either way, the character models looked really good, as did the environments.  The opening cinematic was a little choppy though.

The character creator was really, really good.  It had far more details than I would have thought.  Granted, there weren't a lot of costume options, likely because your character shows what they have equipped, but there are several selections to show you what some of their armor sets look like.  You first set a family name, that all characters on your account will share, but later name each individual.  You can set their astrological sign, which seems only good for RP purposes right now, and even see what they look like in different lighting conditions.

Many body parts are editable with sliders to the three axes (depth, length and width) to give some good freedom.  It reminds me a lot of the systems found in the WWE games for creating a wrestler.  Each hairstyle also has many points that you can click and drag around to give personal touches to it.  That was pretty impressive.

There were several character types/classes to choose from, but they seem locked into predefined genders.  There might be some reason for this, but it's not what I would prefer.  Either way, I spied at least 2-3 that I would like to try out, and so did my wife.  I first went with a sorceress, who, according to the description, has some strong ranged and melee attacks.  Sounds fun.

I don't play many games on the PC, but I have played my fair share of MMOs, so I have a decent point of reference for using the keyboard and mouse.  In Black Desert Online, it just felt...awkward.  Aiming with the mouse worked fine, and your two primary attacks were on the two mouse buttons.  So far, ok.  Moving was with the WASD keys.  A and D would strafe, but turn you if you were moving.  That may be a newer thing, but I prefer to have strafe and turn to be different buttons.  Nearby keys, like F, were other attacks that you could learn.  You could use the number keys above to do the hotbar attacks, like many other MMOs, but that also felt weird, simply because the combat was so action-oriented.  Using the keyboard, you just needed  a lot of different buttons, and no configuration seemed to fit me.

However, you can use a controller!  I was happy to see that, since there are just some things a controller does better.  And once I got used to the controls, I felt it did work better overall.  There are a lot of shortcut functions plastered on it, and remembering them all can be a chore.  The game does try to remind you of the buttons, but most times it reminds you in the default keyboard layout, which doesn't really help when you are using a controller.  There were a variety of combat moves, so keeping them all straight wasn't easy.

The environments looked nice, but there was a bit too much scenery for me, to the point where it interfered in combat.  Enemy types blended in to each other, and it felt liked I rushed through the first several missions on my way to level 9.  This of course may well be because it's the beta, but I just kinda went to the marker, killed stuff, and moved on.  Nothing really stuck with me afterwards.

The beta for Black Desert Online was kind of fun.  The combat was nice and action-oriented, and using a controller felt good.  There were a lot of commands to remember, which was a tripping point for me.  The UI was busy and needed a lot of tweaking before I got to something I liked.  Most of my small issues could easily be cleaned up by the next closed beta.  I'm looking forward to see any improvements they've made in the future.

PAX Prime 2015 - Day 2

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes
I played this with two other guys.  The goal of the demo was to figure out how to get through the puzzles and fight the boss.  Strangely, it worked and, all things considered, it was kind of fun.  I doubt I'd want to do the whole thing with three people, but at least trying it was ok.  I did like the different costumes Link can get and wear, and they each have a specialty, for better or worse.  I picked the samurai one because it looked cool, but was no extra help in our dungeon.  The dungeon we did required bombs and arrows, and it wasn't too hard to figure out what to do.  Actually doing it, on the other hand, wasn't quite as smooth.  Trying to get the order right of who picks up who with strangers can be a challenge.  Communication and listening are key for this game.  Oh, and patience, too.

Chasm
Who doesn't love Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?  (If you don't, just skip to the next one)  I do, so when I happened upon Chasm in the Indie Megabooth, I stopped and checked it out.  It is a 16-bit side scrolling action adventure/ metroidvania.  The guy at the booth explained that there are a few different map types, and that it is set once the opening cut scene starts.  So the map isn't random, but there are a few variations to give some replay value.  The game was pretty fun, but a bit clunky in movement and attacking.  It, like many other games, isn't very forgiving.  It's all well and good, since I do like the genre, so I will try my best to play the game when it releases next year.

Final Fantasy Explorers
When first shown, the game seemed like the Final Fantasy version of Monster Hunter.  While that is somewhat true, the game resembles the previous Square Enix release Lord of Arcana.  Combat was easy to understand, but I did have to be careful.  I wasn't treating it like a Monster Hunter game, and did die to the boss.  It was fun though.  At the start there were multiple jobs to choose from, so I choose the monk, one of my favorites.  I do want to try the finished game later this year (or next, whenever it comes out).  My only complaint was that the C-stick didn't operate the camera.  Hopefully it is a menu option or defaults to that in the full release.  To operate the camera, it was like Phantasy Star Online, where a button will center it.  No touch screen d-pad or anything, and I don't recall if the actual d-pad did it (which would be uncomfortable anyway).

Cuphead
When Cuphead was first unveiled, I really liked the look of it.  Once they later showed gameplay, I knew I had to try it.  And... well, both of those held up.  The look of the game is very much like the old 1930s animation and it works.  The demo at PAX had only a tutorial that showed the controls and boss fights, so I tried three of them.

The first was in a plane against a giant bird.  It was very much like a shmup, a genre I enjoy, but it's not quite as smooth.  It's workable, but not quite as good as a dedicated shmup system.  Almost beat that boss, but didn't.  Second was against a giant potato and then a giant carrot, which I did manage to win.  Third was against a pirate on a boat that would attack with shots, a hanging chest and a shark/octopus from different parts of the screen.  That one I didn't win.

It was a pretty fun game, although very unforgiving.  Enemy shots were small, and your graphic not so much, so dodging was, well... dodgy.  You only get three hearts, so three hits and you are out.  No continuing in the demo, as it just put you on the map/menu and you had to do it again.  Two player might be fun, so I'm still looking forward to trying the full game when it releases.

Xenoblade Chronicles X
First off, I didn't play Xenoblade Chronicles X, since they were only having gameplay demonstrations with a dude I used to work near (there is 0% chance he remembers me, though).  Anyway, I watched several of the demos and went to the panel about the art, where they showed off the special edition coming this winter.

They showed off getting quests, skills and even mid-air battles in the mechs, which I didn't know was a thing in the game.  The guy also ran around various parts of the map, enemies and talked about weather effects.  Xenoblade Chronicles X looks like it has a ton of content and I am looking forward to it.

The special edition also got me excited.  The lithograph is ok, and the art book looks really nice (and big!), but the USB drive is what I really like.  It looks like a zohar!  It also has 10 tracks of the soundtrack on there.  Sure, it could, and should, have the whole thing on it, but I'll just get the other tracks through some other means.  I'm glad it was still able to be pre-ordered when I got home, since I couldn't do it while at the show.

PAX Prime 2015 - Day 1

LEGO Dimensions
This was the first game I got in line for.  I almost got to go to the station that had a lot of figures, like Ghostbusters and Jurassic World, but a press guy came in and, of course, got preference.  First impressions of the figures, though... they are smaller than I thought.  Not the minifigs, they are the right size, but the vehicles are small.  They are closer to the minis that you can find next to the register for $3-4.  So, even more than before, I feel the packs are overpriced.  Yes, I know they fit in line with normal LEGO costs, but I also feel those cost too much.  Anyway, seeing the figures didn't dissuade me from thinking the set is more expensive than it should be.

I decided to play the Scooby Doo level, since I saw the kid in front of me do the Doctor Who level.  First off, I like that the look of the game changed to more closely resemble the newer Scooby Doo cartoons.  Cool, I like that they try and match the property in their respective level.  Also, the Doctor has two sets of health, which is cool because he has two hearts.  Nice small touches, which I do appreciate.

However, the game itself seemed overly complicated.  I'm used to puzzles in the LEGO games, but these seem even more involved for no real reason.  It started out normal - break things to get pieces to build stuff, and use certain characters to do certain actions.  Fair enough.  Then I dug up an item which could either show where switches were, change the colors of the pad (or something similar) and another function to solve the puzzle.  I had to attack it, pick the right one, switch my character, get to an area, then switch where the character was on the physical portal.

While I appreciate that they do something with the placement of the characters in the physical space to add something unique, I know it will quickly get tiresome.  Unless the portal is wireless, I won't have it close, since kids + cords = disaster.  I don't want to have to mess around with the physical pieces so much.  That's better for children, but the puzzles seem better for adults.  So... no one wins?  It could turn out ok, but I'm much more leery of buying the game on its release than I was two weeks ago.

Viking Squad
Located in the indie megabooth, I wondered by Viking Squad, a 3 player beat-em-up.  It was pretty fun.  Unforgiving, like the trend it nowadays, but fun.  I teamed up with 2 random guys and we beat the sub-boss (which the developer assured us many people hadn't done), and lost to the boss (which the developer claimed only 1 team had defeated).  It was really easy to get hit, and damage was high.  There is a helpful slide maneuver, but it didn't seem possible to cancel into it, which would make it much more useful.  There is one character who can block, so hopefully you can cancel into that to make it more survivable.  It is a game I'm looking forward to playing next year when it releases on PC and PS4.

Mad Max
Even though Mad Max was releasing soon (when I was at PAX, it just came out yesterday), I figured why not check it out.  As another WB game, it too lifts the combat from the Batman Arkham series, but then adds some Grand Theft Auto driving.  That was fine.  After looting a few things and fighting three guys, I then had to do car combat.  Aiming while driving was somewhat automatic, which was nice, but it took me a bit to understand that.  If you are in the right position, you can shoot the gas tank on the back of an enemy car and it will explode.  However, it is hard to get into the right position.  That said, I ran out of ammo and was reduced to ramming the objective vehicle to try and complete the mission.  That was long, annoying and boring.  So hopefully it isn't quite so bad in the full game.  Overall, the on foot segment was fun but the driving wasn't.

Warhammer 40,000: Regicide (PC) Preview

I've been a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 universe (called Warhammer 40k or just 40k for short) since I was a teenager.  My friends and I collected and painted the miniatures, and had some pretty big battles (I play Eldar for those wondering).  So I tend to at least see what games are coming to the franchise and check out what they have to offer.

So Warhammer 40k: Regicide comes along with quite a unique offering, mixing strategy gameplay with chess.  Or, if you play Classic mode, just chess.  This is actually pretty cool, since the pieces are troop types from the actual game, and they even get kill animations.  So, it is basically like the old Battle Chess, which is a good thing, since that is probably the most fun and entertaining chess to play.

The other part of the game is Regicide mode, which is like small scale strategy RPG battles.  There is a whole campaign, of which the first act is currently playable.  These are pretty cool, since the chess movements and "instant kills" still work.  You get other abilities like grenades and taking cover to increase defense.  So far these battles are pretty fun.

Still, the game seems pretty cool despite a few problems with it letting me continue the campaign.  I like that it is not only a unique take on a game by combining strategy RPGs with chess, but also including chess itself, now with bloody murder animations!

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 and 2 (PC, Steam) Quick Look

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1

Last year, Idea Factory International announced they were bringing some titles to PC by way of Steam.  I'm not much of a PC gamer, but I thought it was pretty cool, since the more people that can play them, the better.  The first one they released was Hyperdimention Neptunia Re;Birth1.

At first I wasn't sure if my PC would even run it competently, since it is a mid-range machine from 4 years ago.  Surprisingly, it ran well.  There were no hiccups or anything like that, but the screen would go black at the end of the results screen.  I'm not sure why, since I don't remember that from the Vita version.

I tried the keyboard and mouse for the game, to get the true PC experience.  It was serviceable but  weird.  It might be different if you are used to playing games like that on a keyboard, but I vastly preferred the controller.  Since the game was first developed for (home and portable) consoles, the controller is perfect for playing it.

Content-wise, it is the same as the Vita version, and so is the story.  Hyperdimension Neptunia games are centered around Neptune, who is representative of the Sega consoles.  Each nation and CPU goddess are a different first party game manufacturer, so in a way you are playing through the console wars.  It's not as knock-down drag out nasty as it is in the real world, though.  The game is pretty light-hearted and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Since I already reviewed the PS Vita version, you can check out that review if you would like more details on the gameplay and other stuff.  It surprising ran fine on my machine at the time, which is a big plus for me.  Neptunia looks really good and fluid in 1080p!
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Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation

Since I already covered the Vita version of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2 and the content and story is the same, this will mostly cover how it ran and felt.  For starters, much like the first Re;Birth on PC, the game looks really nice and fluid.  The visuals sure are a step up from the Vita version.  Yes, this is to be expected, and graphics aren't everything, but it does looks better, so I felt I should mention that.

I learned last time to just stick with the controller instead of the keyboard and mouse combo.  I used the Xbox 360 controller, and it worked perfectly.  So perfectly, in fact, that maybe they should bring the series to the MS platforms... well, a man can dream.  Between playing this and the previous game, I had purchased a new computer.  The newer one is considerably more powerful, and ran Re;Birth2 with no issues for the few hours I played it.

For both titles, if you have been interested in the series and didn't have a Vita, then you should get the PC versions.  They aren't connected much story-wise, despite having many of the same characters, so no need to play one before the other in order to get the whole story.  The first game deals with introducing the four CPU goddesses, and the second focuses on their sisters.  The main CPUs represent the consoles, and the sisters are the portable consoles.  The PC version's content is identical to the Vita, and you can play it in nice 1080p and a smooth frame rate, plus on a bigger screen!