The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[bombatomba]

Finished Rollerball for the NES Challenge.  Onto High Speed while also playing Gauntlet II.

I recently bought and finished Yo-kai Watch due to it hitting the $5 bins at Five Below.  Man, I don't know how I missed this the first time.  I've only played about seventeen hours (the main quest plus about nineteen side quests) and will do more, but I am already looking towards the sequel.  I just about finished the first draft of an article for this, so I will explain my love later (October maybe?), but this has an amazingly engaging battle system, one that requires as much work (and more) than Xenoblade Chronicles (in my opinion).  And I love it! 

I also noticed that the demo for Dragon Quest XI S dropped, which is a huge surprise to me.  I will be slowly crawling across this demo over the weekend.  Hopefully I get access to 16-bit mode (which I will be playing exclusively when I eventually purchase it).  Busy weekend!

[Mr_Stubbes]

After finishing Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair last week, I caved in and I picked up a Japanese PlayStation Vita in aqua blue. Along with that I picked up a few games. One of which that I been playing all week is Tearaway. It’s a cute little game and I like that it utilizes all of the features on the vita like touch screen and touch pad on the back. I can wait to play even more of it and possibly finish it this weekend.

[Disposed Hero]

Metroid Fusion - I finally finished this and felt like I didn't enjoy it very much overall. It retains some of the elements that makes Metroid so great, but the linearity and annoying X parasite enemies didn't gel with me. I also felt like the abilities/items and overall gameplay mechanics weren't as good as Super Metroid which I've played quite a bit over the last few years, so the comparisons are inevitable.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Still playing this and really enjoying it.

Chrono Trigger - I finished my New Game+ run. It really made me wish I had been doing a standard playthrough. Being so overpowered eliminates any strategy from the combat, and there was no excitement from finding new equipment since I already had the best gear. I still really enjoyed it overall, but I don't see myself doing a NG+ again.

Devil May Cry 5 - I started this thanks to Xbox Game Pass. I wasn't that into it at first, but it grew on me after an hour or two.

Jeanne d'Arc - Fire Emblem has been monopolizing my handheld time, so I haven't played this in a few weeks, but I plan on coming back to it.

[MetalFRO]

You guys are making me jealous with all your gameplay listed

In all seriousness, though, I plan on playing more. I participated in the Super Mario Land 1/2 play through, and am down to join in for Saints Row 3. I'm also hoping to ramp back up play of Game Boy games to capture footage for my YT channel, and to write more reviews. I just need to start chipping away at the backlog.

[shaggy]

Started Lolo 2 for the NES.

[Disposed Hero]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Making slow progress, but I still really enjoy this game. I only wish I had more time to play it, but unfortunately handheld games tend to get pushed aside for console stuff.

Jeanne d'Arc - Spent a few minutes with this game the other day and was immediately reminded of why I like it. Again, I just wish I had more time to put into it.

Devil May Cry 5 - Finished this and enjoyed it overall. I feel like I didn't enjoy it as much as most people however, and I think this is because I tend to prefer more slow-paced and methodical action games as opposed to the frantic over-the-top action of something like this. Still a solid game that I would recommend.

Blair Witch - I was intrigued by this game when it was first shown earlier this year at E3, but I was definitely skeptical that it would be something good. Speaking from a purely technical standpoint, it has a lot of problems, but it turned out to be a surprisingly good horror game in spite of that. Short and sweet!

Metro Exodus - Two Colonels - After being somewhat conflicted on the new pseudo-openworld approach of the new Metro game, I was intrigued when I heard that the first DLC episode for the game was a return to the more linear nature of the first two games. I'm really enjoying it so far, but I just checked a walkthrough video and discovered that the entire thing is only about 2 hours long, which means I'm already halfway through it. I'm a bit disappointed by the short length, but I'm sure I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

[calebjross]

About 5 hours into Dishonored. Lots of sneaking, killing, and magic. Then, suddenly, there's a giant plant that opens up to spit acid. For some reason, only after that plant do I feel my willing suspension of disbelief (and subsequent engagement) waning. Perhaps its the lack of plant-based hazards and enemies that makes their sudden introduction so jarring.

And why is stealth so hard for me. For any lawyers reading this in the future, trying to find evidence that I'm guilty of manslaughter, please believe me when I say that I meant to just choke all those people into unconsciousness. Seriously. Why can't I remember that R1 is choke and R2 is kill? Perhaps that both action buttons are so proximate is the real crime here.

[Seno]

My Friend Pedro (PC) - 2d shooter with a huge amount of fun with matrix style slow-mo shoots outs

[Link41]

Game & Watch Gallery (GB) - I've been playing Octopus taking turns with the kids beating each others high scores.

[Disposed Hero]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Making slow progress, but I still really enjoy this game. I only wish I had more time to play it, but unfortunately handheld games tend to get pushed aside for console stuff.

Jeanne d'Arc - Spent a few minutes with this game the other day and was immediately reminded of why I like it. Again, I just wish I had more time to put into it.

Resident Evil HD - It's been a few years since I've gone through this, so I wanted to fire it up again. I've played this game so many times over the years that I know it very well, but having played the PS1 original a few times somewhat recently, I was really getting my wires crossed. I kept thinking certain items and events would occur in certain locations only to find out I was remembering the wrong version of the game. Anyway, I completed a Hard mode playthrough as Jill, and I was attempting a no death/no save speedrun so I could unlock the infinite ammo rocket launcher, but I got knocked off the platform during the Lisa 'boss fight' right before you get to the Laboratory, which I didn't even know was something that could happen.

Ghouls 'n Ghosts - A friend of mine wanted me to play this, so we sort of tag-teamed it. It was pretty good, but it won't go down as one of my favorite games for the system.

Carrier - With everyone talking about the 20th anniversary of the Dreamcast, I thought I'd do something I rarely do and actually play something on the Dreamcast. I started up Carrier, a fairly lousy Resident Evil clone. Despite all of its problems, I'm actually enjoying it. Not something I'd recommend to most people, but survival-horror fans may want to check it out.

Gears 5 - Thanks to Game Pass, I downloaded this and played through the tutorial. I'm holding off on going further since I think my friend and I are going to co-op it on the weekends.

[MetalFRO]

I played through some of Metroid II again, to capture the footage I needed for my review video (on the front page, shameless plug!). I started Saints Row 3 a couple nights ago, on Switch, for the play-through this month. I'm mostly enjoying it, though I find that some of the missions are really hard. When you're targeting a vehicle or other moving target, while you're also in a moving vehicle, is very difficult. Maybe I'm just not used to this kind of thing, but I'm not sure I could do it in real life. Wiimote type controls would help compensate for this, but for me, right stick aiming is a negative in situations like that. For most stuff, it's fine.

[Disposed Hero]

Carrier - Finished this and it's pretty much what I figured: lackluster Resident Evil clone. I still enjoyed it for the most part, despite its problems. The last third or so of the game became pretty stressful because I was getting frequent disc read errors.

Gears 5 - Started this in co-op with a friend and got a few chapters in. Pretty good so far!

Days Gone - Started this and played for a couple of hours, but I'm really not feeling it. I'll give it some more time and hope it clicks.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - I originally started this when it came out earlier this year, but I got distracted by other things and it fell to the wayside. I just restarted it and am a little ways into Episode 2. It's pretty good so far.

[Link41]

Resident Evil 2 (N64) - Just starting Leon Scenario A.

[Disposed Hero]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - I've got 40+ hours in this game and am still enjoying it a lot, but I'm starting to wonder where the finish line is. Seems like I've heard most people say around 70 hours, so we'll see. I'm not even tired of the game or anything, but there's just so much else to play.

Jeanne d'Arc - I like this game a lot, but getting through it has been very slow going for me. I'm wondering if I should just put it down for now and come back to it when I have less going on.

Gears 5 - This has been pretty good so far. My friend and I just got to the more open-ended environment, so I'm curious to see how that plays out.

Days Gone - This game has grown on me a bit, but I still find it to be pretty underwhelming. I'll keep going and hope it clicks, but I can't see myself sticking out a 40 hour playthrough at this rate.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season - I'm well into episode 2 now. The story has had a couple of interesting twists and turns.

Resident Evil 7 - I've been itching to revisit this, so I started it up and am already at the big turning point about halfway through the game. It should come as no surprise, but I really enjoy this game.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Remake - I technically haven't started this yet, but I just got my copy and am anxious to get started. The original Link's Awakening is a big game from my childhood, and I still really enjoyed it when I revisited it a few years ago.

[Addicted]

I really disliked the open house ended areas in Gears 5. It kills the pacing.