The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[Disposed Hero]

Silent Hill 4: The Room - I've put much more time into this and am close to the end now. It's a very interesting game. I have a lot of mixed opinions about it, but overall I have enjoyed it and am having a hard time putting it down.

[MetalFRO]

Nearing the end of Sonic Mania. I finally reached the Titanic Monarch Zone, which, if it follows the same convention as the other zones, should be 2 stages, and a final boss encounter. I really like how the previous zone's first boss encounter was a redux of the original Sonic the Hedgehog end boss fight, with a twist. It was a nice sendup of the original game.

[EZ Racer]

Since I don't have Monster Party, wanted something retro for the October theme, so I figured it was as good a reason as any to do a playthrough of Uninvited for NES. And it took about five minutes for me to remember about the really cheap deaths in that game, as I died by forgetting to "open" the can of no ghost spray before trying to use it.

[Disposed Hero]

Silent Hill: 0rigins - Definitely the worst Silent Hill game so far. I played the PS2 port, but it's pretty obvious that it was originally a PSP game. The combat is pretty bad, with some ill-advised QTEs thrown in the mix.

Super Mario Bros. 3 - Did a co-op run of this with a friend. We played the SNES All Stars version, and I could immediately tell that it didn't feel as smooth or responsive as the NES original. It's still a great game, but stick with the NES version.

Resident Evil - Just finished a couple of runs of the PS1 original. I played Arrange mode for the first time, and it was quite a different and more difficult experience than the Standard mode. Then I did a run of Standard mode as Chris, which I'm not sure I've ever done on the PS1 original. Again, definitely more difficult than playing as Jill.

[MetalFRO]

Super Mario Bros. 3 - Did a co-op run of this with a friend. We played the SNES All Stars version, and I could immediately tell that it didn't feel as smooth or responsive as the NES original. It's still a great game, but stick with the NES version.

Totally agree. It feels like there are liberties taken with the physics on all 3 ports, to make them feel more "real" than the originals. You have to adjust the way you play in order to do some of the same things. It's not bad, per se, but as someone who put hundreds of hours into the original, it's a bit jarring.

[Boshamp]

Back from the dead after 6 months away from gaming. Back right where I left off.

Gears of War 4 - Still grinding away at these achievements. They even released more content since I disappeared. Mastery achievements for almost every weapon require all of my talent to grind out, but they are rewarding. The online matchmaking is still wonderfully balanced and hopefully I will be able to get through the rest of this one before I get the fifth installment.

[Disposed Hero]

Silent Hill: Homecoming - The next stop on my Silent Hill marathon brings me to the nearly universally maligned Homecoming. You know what? I like this game. I think this one gets an unfair bad rap just because it's different (particularly the combat system), but I think there's some depth to it that goes unappreciated. I'm noticing that different weapons seem better tailored toward fighting certain enemies, which brings more strategy to the game than previous games. It's not perfect by any means, and certainly not the best game in the series, but it's at least better than Origins.

[Sirgin]

So I've been playing on the Xbox One S for a bit. Forza Motorsport 6 is a fun game that strikes a good balance between simulation and fun. I love how you quickly amass a lot of great cars and drive interesting races. I remember back in the old Gran Turismo 3 days, I would spend hours grinding the "Sunday Cup" and the "Yaris Cup" or whatever it was, just to earn enough credits to buy a car capable of competing in the next section.

[Link41]

My kids have discovered the joys of Mario Paint. So that's what I've been "playing".

[Disposed Hero]

Silent Hill: Homecoming - I got about halfway through it, and I'm starting to agree with the consensus on this game. While I can appreciate what they were going for with the combat, it starts to get pretty old after a while. I don't know, I remember really enjoying it when it first came out, so maybe it just hasn't aged well.

Resident Evil 2 - I did the 'canon' Claire A/Leon B scenarios. Great game, and I think it's objectively the best of the PS1 RE games, but I still prefer the first game. I love exploring the Spencer Mansion more than the police station.

Red Dead Redemption 2 - As a big fan of the first RDR and Rockstar games in general, it would have been impossible to ignore this game. After playing it for several hours, I feel like it's not quite living up to the hype. It does many things very well, such as the graphics, story, writing, acting, and the world that was built, but the gameplay feels lacking in my opinion. The overall game speed feels slower than what I remember from the first game, and there are so many tedious things you have to do to maintain your character for the sake of realism that I just don't find to be fun. Having to eat/drink/smoke/whatever else all the time to maintain Health/Stamina/Dead Eye gets old fast, not to mention constantly doing it for your horse too. You even have to groom your horse every time it gets dirty, which is pretty much all the time, or else its health will drop. I mean, seriously? That's really just the tip of the iceberg, but the word that keeps coming to mind while playing the game  is 'cumbersome.' There are so many different mechanics and systems at play, and I still feel like I don't really understand it all that well even after spending several hours with the game. I'm still enjoying it for the most part, and I'm sure I'll finish it with a positive lasting impression overall, hoping that it will all 'click' somewhere along the way, but it feels like they focused way too much on realism and forgot that it's a video game and is supposed to be fun.

But the game has a 97 on metacritic, so what do I know?

[MetalFRO]

Been messing around with the Mega Man Legacy Collection Volume 2. Mega Man 9 was totally kicking my butt, so I switched over to MM8, which is much more manageable. The graphics are still good, but I don't know that the way they're scaled to 1080P is very clean. They look...off to me. I'd almost rather pull out my PlayStation version and play on my original console on CRT.

[MetalFRO]

In addition to obviously playing the Shmup Club game for November, Steel Empire, I'm going to jump into the regular play through with BioShock, and I'm also going to attempt to join the Cartridge Club for their CC Portable entry this month, with God of War: Ghost of Sparta. Technically, I played through the game a few years ago and beat it, but that was via the GoW Saga PS3 port. Since I can play my PSP at work during lunch breaks, this makes for a perfect way to squeeze some more gaming into my day.

[Disposed Hero]

Red Dead Redemption 2 - So I've put much more time into this, and I think it has finally 'clicked' like I hoped it would in my last post. This is a game that is very easy to play for hours on end and still not want to put it down. The 'cumbersome' mechanics that I mentioned before aren't nearly as tedious as I initially thought, and I'm getting a much better feel for the gunplay. I don't think it will dethrone God of War as my GOTY 2018, but RDR 2 will definitely be in my top 5 and possibly in my top 3.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - Although I knew it would be a lazy port, I couldn't resist buying the Castlevania Requiem collection that was just released on PS4. I've already played through Rondo and 100%'ed it, and it is still just as awesome as ever. I plan to start Symphony of the Night soon, but I want to finish RDR 2, BioShock (for the community playthrough), and a couple of other games I have on deck first.

[Link41]

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Playing again in honor of the 20th anniversary this month.

[MetalFRO]

Really digging into God of War: Ghost of Sparta quite a bit. I had forgot how good the PSP GoW games were, and though I originally played the up-rezzed PS3 versions, this game is stunning on the PSP screen. Sony really got the most out of the hardware with this game.