Games that I played
I thought I'd start off with two of the games I bought and played.Cuphead
What a very cool game. I've never played a boss rush type game, but really enjoyed it.The visual style of the game is great. Where other games have used flash type animations, this game used hand drawn animation, and it really made the characters/bosses come alive. I wasn't the only one by the way that loved the art direction, as the game won Best Art Direction at this years Games Award show.
In addition to the wonderful look of the game, the mix of shooting, platforming, and figuring out how to beat those dastardly bosses was great. The game is hard, but for the most part if feels fair. Each boss fight has several phases with patterns that you have to learn. The tricky part of these boss fights is that the patterns for the phases switch up, so the fight always feels fresh and challenging.
Here's a playlist of Cuphead videos I recorded while playing:
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
I was such a big fan of Wolfenstein: The New Order, that I bought its sequel on day one. After playing the game, I have to say that I was a little disappointed with it but would give it a B grade overall.
The story was pretty good, but just didn't hit me the way the first game did. It had some moments where you feel for them and the struggle they're up against, but it didn't feel as sincere, plus they pushed the b-movie silliness to a new level, which took away some of weight of what the Nazis were up to.
The shooting aspects of the game were good, while not all that different than TNO. The stealth aspect was what I felt really didn't work. In the TNO I really felt like I could complete each stage using stealth, even if I did end up being detected, it felt like it was my fault. With TNC stealth really didn't seem like a viable option in any of the stages. Part of the problem could be due to the verticality of many of the levels. I would get spotted by guys higher up that I didn't notice. In other cases I just couldn't see how I was supposed to sneak by, or stealthily take-out enemies. In addition to the poor stealth aspect, the last fight, <SPOILER ALERT> really isn't a boss fight but a fight against a large group of enemies<END SPOILER ALERT> and it felt anti-climatic. Sure the last fight was tough but I wasn't really invested in it.
Here is a video of me riding around on a Panzerhund:
The story was pretty good, but just didn't hit me the way the first game did. It had some moments where you feel for them and the struggle they're up against, but it didn't feel as sincere, plus they pushed the b-movie silliness to a new level, which took away some of weight of what the Nazis were up to.
The shooting aspects of the game were good, while not all that different than TNO. The stealth aspect was what I felt really didn't work. In the TNO I really felt like I could complete each stage using stealth, even if I did end up being detected, it felt like it was my fault. With TNC stealth really didn't seem like a viable option in any of the stages. Part of the problem could be due to the verticality of many of the levels. I would get spotted by guys higher up that I didn't notice. In other cases I just couldn't see how I was supposed to sneak by, or stealthily take-out enemies. In addition to the poor stealth aspect, the last fight, <SPOILER ALERT> really isn't a boss fight but a fight against a large group of enemies<END SPOILER ALERT> and it felt anti-climatic. Sure the last fight was tough but I wasn't really invested in it.
Here is a video of me riding around on a Panzerhund:
Games that I skipped
For one reason or another, these are the guys that I was looking forward to that I didn't buy.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
I really liked what I played of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, so I was looking forward to this as soon as it was announced. Then they said it was going to be a showcase game for the Xbox One X console, so I became even more excited about it. With my excitement levels at pre-order levels, they showed off their loot crate system for the game, and my hype dropped to nothing.
Introducing loot crates, which you could buy with real money, to this full priced/mostly single player game felt like just pure greed. You could play the game, and earn enough in-game money to purchase the loot crates which could give you orcs, weapons, and armor, but most of the fun in the first game was earning orcs that joined your fight. In the first game you earned a skill that allowed you to bend an orc to your will. You had to find them, fight them, and brand them, but now you could just get a random powerful orc buy spending some dough. I just couldn't get myself to feel good about the inclusion of adding these microtransactions to a full priced single player game and what that might mean for future games if this sold well.
Introducing loot crates, which you could buy with real money, to this full priced/mostly single player game felt like just pure greed. You could play the game, and earn enough in-game money to purchase the loot crates which could give you orcs, weapons, and armor, but most of the fun in the first game was earning orcs that joined your fight. In the first game you earned a skill that allowed you to bend an orc to your will. You had to find them, fight them, and brand them, but now you could just get a random powerful orc buy spending some dough. I just couldn't get myself to feel good about the inclusion of adding these microtransactions to a full priced single player game and what that might mean for future games if this sold well.
Super Lucky's Tale
I'm the type of gamer that plays many different genres, and one of the genres that I enjoy is platforming. There's something rewarding about figuring out how to navigate through an obstacle course that these games include.
As a Sega kid, I played and enjoyed most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis, and Dreamcast. Recently I really enjoyed the Rayman Origins/Legends games, so I was really looking forward to Super Lucky's Tale. When it comes to game developers that I don't know I wait for reviews, and the reviews for SLT just weren't that good. For example, one complaint that I heard was that the game has laggy controls, and a bad camera. Because of these reviews, I haven't purchased this game.
What about you?
What games from this last E3 were you looking forward to, and did you play them?
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