Still playing PvZ: Garden Warfare 2, and it's still a great family-oriented shooter. Not too much more to say about it till the upcoming major content update arrives. However, I do think if you enjoyed Splatoon, you should check that game out. While much more of a shooter than Splatoon is, there's a big emphasis on rewarding support play so even if you're not a master gunner, you still feel rewarded for contributing.
I got my backer code for the PS4 version of Mighty No. 9 and...I have to be honest here: while I think the 55 Metacritic is an accurate summation of the game, I can't agree with all the hatred this game has been getting. Yes, the production values are laughably low. Yes, some of the levels are full of some really cheap instant-death traps. Yes, the game does a really bad job of explaining its mechanics if you don't read the continually-updated "tips" section of the game options. However, despite all that...I still kind of like the game. There's a great sense of momentum to stringing together absorption combos and just trying to blitz through the stages, and the addition of boss powers (which were not in the Beta or the Demo) makes a HUGE difference in addition much-needed attack variety. Before I played this game, I played a bit of the MM Legacy Collection to refresh myself on the series (playing MM 4 & 2, if you're curious), and to be frank I see a lot of the cheap design people complain about in MM9 ALSO in those classic games as well. I can't call the game any better than "mediocre" because as decent as the gameplay is, the rest of the game really does drag it all down. However, I don't think it's fair to say that there's no fun to be had blitzing through the levels and trying to improve your score.
By contrast, I also played the Bloodstained demo on my PC, which barely runs even at low settings. My PC's simply too underpowered for it. However, the game looks great, and if you're a post-Symphony 2D Castlevania fan this game is exactly what you expect it to be. Weirdly, though, that's something that kind of bugs me: the enemies look & act exactly as you expect, the UI design is exactly as you'd expect (right down to the font), the music sounds exactly as you'd expect, and the gameplay loop is an exact clone of the handheld CV loop. It's all polished, looks, sounds, and plays exactly as you remember the handheld CVs playing...and that's kind of it. For all its faults, Mighty No. 9 at least tries to be more than just a Mega Man clone. Meanwhile, Bloodstained seems content to merely being an exact clone of CV: Aria of Sorrow/Order of Ecclesia. Is that a bad thing? No. I paid the man to make a Castlevania knock-off, and that's exactly what he did. I guess I forgot just how the stale regurgitation of that formula drove the CV franchise into the ground.
In some ways, it kind of reminds me of watching a Disney Marvel movie: you'll get exactly what you expected, but at the same time you won't see any surprises or any attempt at the director putting their own mark on the experience. You get an exceptionally-packaged, expertly-crafted experience designed to cater to a very specific group of people with very little creativity. Like the CV games Iga made, it just...exists.
Topic: What are you playing? (Read 695732 times)
