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Showing posts from September, 2016

Mind Games: I am ANGRY about CARDS.

Duelyst makes me angry. Not angry as in, professionally disappointed by sub-par mechanics or imperfect execution, no no no, though I'm glad you think so highly of me. Just in general. Standard Videogame Anger. Good old fashioned "fuck you, fuck this game, fuck everything" table-flipping anger. And I've been having a right good think about why that is and weather or not it's my fault. See, Duelyst is a good game. I can't really deny that. Mechanically, it's a very well designed little thing that, sensibly, nicks it's foundations from Hearthstone and builds that into a set of core mechanics far more interesting than it's predecessor. Check out the lovely Cool Ghosts' video on it if you aren't convinced. But even though it's mechanics are all well and good, I still spend most of my time playing it getting increasingly pissed off. So I spent some time while playing trying to isolate exactly what was gripping my ballsack and when . And aft

God Eater: Resurrection

God Eater is determined to hide it's depth behind unassuming facades. In all respects too, even the story seems to be trying it's best to not live up to it's potential. But I feel it succeeds despite it's best efforts to handicap itself, so long as you're like me and are willing and able to look past the problems. Yes, technically the screenshots are from God Eater 2, but they are (supposedly)VERY similar and everything in them is in Resurrection, so they still apply. Leave me alone. Most character creators let you choose a voice these days. You're probably used to being able to select from 20-30 packs of grunts and pain noises. But God Eater takes that a step further, for some reason. Your choice also determines your character's personality in battle. If you've played any Xenoblade game you know what to expect from the soundscape, though it's less about shouting dramatic skill names and more one-liners in response to various conditions. And your sel

Toukiden: Kiwami

After playing Generations for a sizable about of time, I think the Monster Hunter series peaked somewhere between 3 and 4, in a game we never actually got in this universe. MHGen is the result of a series packing far too much depth into an aspect of the game that nobody actually wants to spend a majority of their time doing. Thankfully, like all things bigger than Jesus, there are plenty of derivatives, and in the case of Monster Hunter at least two of them make a case for being better than their Spirit Dad: Toukiden and God Eater. The Monster Hunter "genre", for lack of a better term, is based around 2 halves, the hunt and the prep. Though calling them "halves" seems generous to the prep side, since it exists as a way of enhancing the hunt rather than as an entity of it's own. You could take the prep half of any of these games out solo and it would still hold up somewhat, it's designed to be engaging in it's own right. But remove the hunts and the entir