Tuesday, June 30, 2015
The king returns, Lara Croft & Osiris, [embargo!], Undead Darlings, and Kingsman: Secret Service
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To start things off tonight, here’s a link to our podcast discussing E3. The full crew covers the show, the press conferences, and the
games that caught our eye.
I couldn’t be happier.
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So, let's talk about some games.
Witcher
3: This is going to be my last Witcher update for a while, I promise. I got back into it hoping I
could push through until the end, and although I still really like the game, I
just can't play it right now.
I
totally overdosed on the sidequests and I gotta put it down for a good, long
while to recover. I still want to finish it, but I have clearly proven to
myself that it is possible to have
too much of a good thing.
Lara
Croft and the Temple of Osiris: I picked this one up on
sale a while ago because I really enjoyed the first (Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light) and I'm definitely all about
the co-op these days. Although it’s not as good as the first, it’s a pretty
similar thing – basically an isometric action/puzzle game, totally playable by
one person but greatly enhanced by the addition of partners. This time, up to
four friends can adventure together.
The biggest gripe I have is that the screen feels too
zoomed-out. Lara and her pals look like miniature versions of themselves, and
it’s hard to discern depth in some areas. Some of the boss fights feel a bit
cheap, too.
I don’t want to sound too negative, though… Many of
the puzzles are pretty neat, and the co-op dynamics are still good. Lara can
throw a grappling hook to some of her teammates to let them wire-walk across
gaps, teammates can boost or pull each other up to higher areas, and a whole
bunch of other little things pop up like that. There’s always something
requiring a second person’s input, in a good way.
I've been grooving on it overall and I would have happily sprung for the DLC, but it's
only sold as a season pass for about $30, which is three times more than what I
paid for the base game. Squeenix’s pricing structure here is completely out of
whack, and while I'm happy to complete the game, I'm going to pass on the
extras.
[Embargo Game]: I got a pre-release code for this one on Vita (it's also on PS3) and I've been putting a lot of time into it. I can’t type up a formal preview at the moment, but I think giving some general impressions is probably fine…
Basically, you control a team of psychics, each with
their own different kind of power. Pyrokinesis, flight, precognition, and so on.
It plays out like an SRPG similar to XCOM and the like, although it’s not
based on grid movement; characters can travel anywhere. However, the biggest twist
here or is that this game takes quite a bit of direction from Danganronpa
in that there’s a traitor(s) within the group, so it's up to the player to
figure out who it is.
I'm going to stop talking about it now, but I will say
that while the inspirations are clear to see, it definitely takes the material
in a fresh direction. I’ll also say that at this point, it seems like a real
winner.
Undead
Darlings: I'm not a big fan of Kickstarters and I
don't usually back them, although there have been a few exceptions here and
there. That said, one was just announced today that I think will be of interest
to a great many of you who read this blog.
Coming from people who used to work
at NIS, it's a dungeon crawler/visual novel and oozing with anime cuteness.
These guys know their audience and I'm interested to see what they do with
this. If this kind of content is up your alley, go check out their page and see
what you think.
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…And now a bit of movie talk to round things out. The
wife and I just watched Kingsman: The Secret Service the
other day, and it kinda blew my socks off. I didn't have a lot of interest when
it came out because the trailers made it look like a kids’ film, but we rented it
on a lark, and I have to say, it was a total surprise -- it's basically the
best James
Bond movie that's ever been made.
In a nutshell, a lower-class British kid gets drafted
into a super-secret spy agency and goes through the insane training just in
time to help stop an evil mastermind from carrying out his nefarious plan. Simple
and straightforward, but well-done.
Samuel L Jackson absolutely shines as the Apple/Google-like quasi-CEO bad guy, his henchwoman
(Sofia Boutella) is awesomely deadly, there are loads of cool gadgets and the
action sequences are amazing.
Although it's quite graphic (unexpectedly so!) the fights are full of "oh
my God" moments that thrill.
If you’re like me and dig spy films but have been
unimpressed with the recent Bond flicks,
this is the perfect remedy. Kingsman
takes everything that's cool about spies, jacks it up to 11, and freshens
everything from top to bottom. Total thumbs up.
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