Matthew Przybysz
Week ending 12/04/14
So last week I still didn’t play a whole lot of games and I’m fearing that I’m getting back into a big rut where nothing feels appealing to me, but then I remembered that I did have an ace up the sleeve to get back out of it, and hopefully I’ll remember to actually play it, instead of just sitting around trying to find something to play. Also, there are some pretty explicit spoilers this week, which will be marked in RED, so be careful when it comes to those days if you don’t want to be spoiled…on a nearly 2 year old game at this point.
Friday
Trials Evolution
I was searching for something and realized I hadn’t played any Trials in a while, and immediately made sure to correct that oversight. I was hopeful there was gonna be new DLC to download, and while there wasn’t, they did introduce a new team aspect where you join a team and they get a combined score based on the experience levels of all the members. I have no idea what this score is used for, if anything, but I know that I joined a team that already had 25 members in it (the first recommended one) and my score was far and away the highest of the group. Which of course led to immediate friend requests from people and requests to join their team instead. Seriously how did they instantly have that information? Either way I spent around an hour or so getting new best times on courses and farming for trophies.
Saturday
WWE Supercard
Make no mistake about it, I play this game EVERY day, but I normally don’t list it because it’s only for about 20 or 30 minutes at a time so I wouldn’t have much to say…plus I’m ashamed of how much I play this. Today, however, I put in a few hours as I was grinding for energy and boosts for the King of the Ring that I’m currently in. I know I won’t win, because I refuse to do the “3MB” strategy that’s popular in the game, where people make a team out of their three best cards and two severely weaker cards to drop down a tier and beat up on easier competition. It’s a complete fuckin bitch move and CatDaddy needs to do something to take that out of the game.
Sunday
Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
Did the next Phoenix Wright chapter, and if there’s one good thing about this crossover, it’s that it cuts right to the awesome court room sections, and completely eliminates the boring investigation parts. It appears to be trying something new in the courtroom sequences by having multiple witnesses testify at the same time, to slightly change up the way you cross examine them. It was a longer courtroom sequence this time, probably a bit over an hour and while I’m slowly making my way through this game, but that’s normally how I play Layton games, unless I’m at work in which case it’s something easy to play and have people not notice.
Monday
WWE 2K15
Somehow I managed to get talked into playing this some more, but to be clear, in this case “play” means load up Universe mode and just simulate months on end to see what, if any, dumb shit happens. My Universe stayed relatively normal though, so it was a complete waste of time.
DmC: Devil May Cry
I finally started playing this a few months ago, when I was home for a few weeks and didn’t write up GADDs (because it was only a few weeks) and I freakin loved it. I only played until somewhere around the midpoint, but that was enough for me to already put it on a list of the top 20 games of the last gen. I’m a really big fan of Ninja Theory’s style of storytelling and the action in this just flows so freakin smoothly. I know this game is divisive on the internet, but I honestly don’t see how people could dislike this game for reasons other than it not being the same as the rest of the series. Did missions 10 and 11 tonight, and man was I rusty as hell. I couldn’t even remember what a lot of the controls did, which made the boss fight in chapter 10 a lot harder than it should have been, but they probably didn’t design this game with people taking months long breaks between missions.
Tuesday
DmC: Devil May Cry
Back in for more DmC and played levels 12-14, and one of them had a level inside a night club which was so fucking cool looking. Seriously both the audio and visuals on that level are one of the best moments I’ve had in a video game in a long time, so of course because Ninja Theory decides to be assholes and make the next boss fight fucking disgusting. Seriously, *I* was thinking that shit was nasty. It takes a lot to make me think something is messed up but…a giant deformed unborn baby protecting it’s mother by hiding her inside it’s uterus? Yeah that’s messed up.
Wednesday
DmC: Devil May Cry
This is the game that I knew would get it’s hooks into me again once I started playing it, and that’s exactly what happened. Only two levels, 15 and 16 as I started playing it way too late into the night, but I’m going to attempt to start it up earlier tomorrow and beat it before GADD gets put up, because I’m pretty sure that I’m near the end. But maybe the game is longer than I think it is, because I still haven’t encountered a Vergil heel turn, and he HAS to turn heel, right? I mean, it’s a DMC game, and while I don’t know much about DMC lore, but I know enough to know there’s no way he’s not turning on Dante at some point.
Thursday
DmC: Devil May Cry
THE GAME IS FINISHED! Holy crap I really enjoyed that game, and I didn’t really care for any of the others in the series. I had some fun with 1 and 3, but never really got into them the way I did with this one. I’m actually considering going through it on harder difficulties, since it’s supposed to seriously change up the way the game is played, giving you harder enemies earlier and that kind of stuff. The fight with Mundus was actually really easy compared to other boss fights in the game, and sure enough, almost immediately after the boss fight, the obvious Vergil heel turn happened. I did NOT enjoy that fight whatsoever though, as it was just a mess of frustration and just waiting for him to do the right move so you could counter attack. Plus that boss fight was really the only time in the game I had issues with the camera, hell of a time for them to start forming. Despite that aggravating final boss fight I still had a GREAT time with DmC, and it’s a shame there won’t be a sequel made due to poor sales. If you picked it up earlier in the year when it was on PS+ and still haven’t played it, what are you waiting for? Go for it! If you didn’t get it free on PS+, it’s still well worth the $15 or so it costs to get a new copy nowadays, assuming you still have your PS3 or 360 hooked up, and assuming you’re not a Devil May Cry purist (which I can’t believe even fucking exist, but they do!)
So I’m super psyched to get done with DmC and have a few days in a row of just flat out fun gaming that I consistently enjoyed, but now I’m wondering where I go from here. Am I actually going to replay DmC? Probably not, but I might at least go through a few levels just to see what’s changed. I also downloaded Transistor during the PSN Black Friday sale and that game always interested me, so there’s a good chance I’ll at least be playing that. I’ll probably be going back to Split Second next week again, but I’m starting to cool off on that game pretty fast due to all the events that aren’t races. Other than those two, I have no idea.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
What is the biggest hole in your video gaming history? It can either be the “biggest” game that you’ve never played, or just a game that you always wanted to play, but never got a chance to. I think mine might be the Rock Band series. Yes, other than maybe a few times at a friends house while drunk, I NEVER played any of the Rock Band games. Even though I knew the Rock Band series was superior, I was always more of a Guitar Hero player, due to already having the plastic instrument from previous GH games, and never being willing to spend the ridiculous amounts of money for the full band kit for Rock Band. I could probably get a Rock Band set nowadays for dirt cheap, but who the hell wants that junk now? Still, I wish I could have played it more back when those games were relevant.
