Monday, July 20, 2015
Helldivers, Godzilla, Lost Dimension, Etrian Untold 2
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Hey hey! Welcome back to Coffeecola!
My apologies for the hiatus! I wish I could say it was due to something exotic like taking a trip to Tahiti or winning the lottery, but it was just a simple case of life catching up with me.
My apologies for the hiatus! I wish I could say it was due to something exotic like taking a trip to Tahiti or winning the lottery, but it was just a simple case of life catching up with me.
I was working too many hours, not getting enough sleep, having my oldest
son over for the summer, and having too much of a backlog when it came to
everything. I needed to take a few things off my plate for a while, and the
blog was something that was temporarily expendable.
Now that things have calmed down a bit, I'm ready to get
back into the swing of things. So, let's start off with some games. What have I
been playing?
Since I've been so busy, I've been spending a lot of time with my recent go-to, which is, of course, Helldivers. It's really easy to jump into the game and get a satisfying 30-45 minutes in, and then walk away feeling like something got accomplished.
Even better, the developers have been steadily supporting the game since
launch, and the most recent update introduced three superbosses for players to
tackle. These guys are incredibly tough, and pretty much impossible unless
you're dropping in with a full squad, correctly kitted out. The wife and I took
one of them down with two randos, but the other two bosses slapped us around
and took selfies while they did it. We will
get our revenge, though.
Also, the game has
been so successful that Sony is putting out a hardcopy version in August which
includes some special gear not found anywhere else. It's possible that the new
stuff will be available to the fans via separate purchase on PSN, but no announcements
have been made there yet.
Besides that, I took some time to review the brand-new Godzilla game from Namco-Bandai. As much as I wanted it to be good… it's crap.
There are a few cool things in
there for hardcore Godzilla fans, but they're buried under so much bullshit
that it's not worth the time and effort of unlocking them. If you want to read
more, here's a link to my review, which just went up.
In other review news, I wrapped up my piece on the Vita’s upcoming Lost Dimension. It's still under embargo so I can't spill too much here, but the embargo drops 7/27. Look for my complete writeup then.
However, in a PREVIEW
sense, I can say that fans of strategy RPGs will want to check it out, although
there are a few caveats that go along with that. More later.
Finally, it took me too long to get started, but I'm now deep in the middle of Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight on 3DS. This one also under embargo at the moment, but if there’s one series you can count on to be absolutely reliable, it's EO.
In a PREVIEW sense, it's another installment in the
long-running series, and fans will know exactly what to expect: dungeon-crawling,
mapmaking, and orchestrating nuanced combat abilities between party members. All great
stuff.
However, one thing that I AM having a problem with is that
it seems like series artist Yuji Himukai did not do the art here. I may be
incorrect, but the style looks different to me, and I'm 99% sure it's a different
person. I'm a big fan of Himukai’s art style, and it's tough getting over this new look. It's not bad,
but the character art is definitely not as sharp as it has been in the past.
Character art aside, I'm still really enjoying it in a PREVIEW sense, and would totally recommend it
to anyone who's already a fan, or to anyone curious about it.
The game has a reputation for being uber-hardcore, but the "easy" setting here is really, really, really easy, so it's pretty
much the most approachable it's ever been. Have no fear.
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