Angela : Queen of Hel (2015-2016) # 1
Doomwar 1 of 6
New Invaders (2004-2005) # 1
I’ve read Doomwar and the first issue was pretty good from what I remember.
A savings of $5.97 so that isn’t bad.
Also, just “Add all to cart” and you’ll save yourself having to click page after page of comics looking for items to add instead of read. Seems like only Marvel ever adds anything new, which I appreciate.
Get them now, they might be up for another week but one never knows.
My lovely wife spoiled me this past Christmas! Besides the other wonderful things she got me, she got me four new games!
Spider-Man
Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice
Detroit : Become Human
Life is Strange : Before the Storm
She also got me a $25 PSN card and renewed both my subscription to PS Plus and at GameStop, so I can keep getting my monthly Game Informer magazine that I so look forward to every month.
So she did a great job of setting me up!
I immediately stopped playing Beyond : Two Souls, I just wrapped up the Navajo chapter.
Which turns out to be Chapter 14 of 24, so I’m a little more than halfway, which I thought I was much closer to the end. I failed a crucial moment in the Homeless chapter (thus far, my favorite chapter) so if it is like Heavy Rain and allows Chapter Selection (I imagine it must), I’m going to go back and make Aiden do his job at the end as I mistook the controller vibration and thought I was shielding Jodie and it looked like I was but clearly I wasn’t.
While organizing Walker Dennis’ Christmas presents, I accidently happened upon my box and saw Detroit : Become Human on the top of it and immediately stopped looking. But that encouraged me to get one playthrough of Heavy Rain successfully done and I missed out on two nights of playing Beyond : Two Souls, but even if I could play those levels, I wouldn’t have finished it. I do like how there are longer chapters and short chapters, so nothing feels like it drags, and the longer ones feel more important. I’m getting to know Jodie a lot and get invested in her story as I’m aware of the big moments in her life and the smaller more character defining moments.
There was a moment when Jodie really wanted to go outside and I was fully supporting her, until we got almost outside, and then I started regretting the decision. First chance I had to go back, I took it. It wasn’t the most exciting chapter but I felt like I was actually making real chapters. That was Chapter 12, Like Other Girls.
. . .
There was this fun thread on the subreddit, patientgamers, about backlogs.
That seemed like it was in good fun the first day and then the second day, people starting cropping up about making lists makes a fun entertainment pastime into more of a chore. Which I guess one could view the challenge like that, if they wanted too. Essentially, the thread was about trying to minimize one’s backlog of games, by dedicating a month to one game, with the goal of beating or finishing that game within the month. I imagine, if you beat a game early, then you can start the next game in the backlog.
Some people were very committed and knew they could finish multiple games in one month but I liked the idea of prioritizing 12 games. With my hour and a half I get to game at night, there’s no way I’m finishing a game a month but I like the thought exercise.
Plus, it gives me a chance to actually list out the games I have and see which ones I want to play next.
So here’s my list and the order I think I roughly want to work on them.
Spider-Man
Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice
Heavy Rain
Uncharted 4
Life is Strange
LittleBigPlanet 3
Beyond : Two Souls
Uncharted : The Lost Legacy
Life is Strange : Before the Storm
SOMA
Detroit Become Human
The Last of Us Remastered
Knack
Those are probably be higher priority ones and the ones I’m mostly interested in playing. I from Heavy Rain to Life is Strange : Before the Storm, I wanted to break up franchises as well as not have similar playing games like Heavy Rain and Life is Strange, where they are story based games with decision trees, being played back to back.
SOMA, I’ll probably play with YouTube walkthroughs in front of me, or at the ready, as I clearly can’t go more than three or four sections before needing help.
My wife is clearly never playing with the PS4 again as I think she played a little last January but it has been a full year so the games I got for her or the games we played together, are up for grabs. Those would be LittleBigPlanet 3, Crash N Sane Trilogy, Atari Flashback Classics Vol 2, and Inside / Limbo. I’ve been wanting to get some DLC for LittleBigPlanet 3, like the TMNT hero pack and Batman. That should cost me around ten dollars or so. Those would be the ones I seek first, my PlayStation wishlist on the store is filled with other DLC packs from that game. She’s a huge fan of Atari’s Maze Craze, so whenever I see I can get a copy of it, I buy it as we now own it for both the PS3 and the PS4.
My son and I have started the 2016 Ghostbusters game, and he seems to be done with it but I hope to get to that game eventually and finish it one of these days. It’ll be nice if I had two more controllers but at $50 each, that’s not going to happen.
That’s You was a 98 cent game I got at the GameStop in Bozeman. So that’s on my bottom of the list. I figure I’ll do it like I did with Hidden Agenda and at least get a two player game done. I’ll never get the six player trophies but still, a game that cost less than a dollar, that sounds like a deal to me.
Hellblade looks and sounds like an amazing game, so I really want to follow Spider-Man with that game.
I really want to get into Uncharted 4 after playing 3 and I want to clean up a few more trophies in 3 which I’ll probably do before playing 4.
Knack, I’m well into the fifth chapter so I need to get back to that game as well. Especially if I can finally commit to playing a chapter section before going back to whatever is my main game. Which I rarely want to do as I love jumping back into my current game and not having to suffer those thirty seconds to load the game and get back into the flow.
I was enjoying Grand Theft Auto V but I clearly am not stressed about getting back into it so I have that lower on my list of games.
So my second tier list would look like this
Knack
Ghostbusters (2016)
Darksiders II
Grand Theft Auto V
Crash N Sane Trilogy
INSIDE / LIMBO
Mad Max
Atari Flashback Classics Vol 2
That’s You
Darksiders II, was the my first free PS Plus game so I gave it more attention than I did with future titles (that I didn’t complete), so I want to get that one done too.
Subscribing to the Trophies subreddit really influences me too, as I see what games other people have got the platinums for. Then I want to play those games. I’m also subscribed to the Uncharted subreddit so that encourages me to want to play Uncharted 4 and clean up 3.
I finally got to Rank 14 on the PlayStation, it has only taken me ten years (with five of those being a gap year) but I’ve finally done it. I was edging 98/99% for the longest time but with the help of Uncle Ben, I got to 14!
I doubt I get to any of these games but my goal is at least play the top six games.
I did get a few trophies in OnRush so I should try to get through that game some more too.
Going down my list of trophies through the PS App, I do have several games with one or zero percent complete so I’m not worried about those but OnRush has five percent, and Sparkle 2 has four percent so clearly I can quantify an interest in one game over another game by one mere percentage.
Walker Dennis and I also started Foul Play, but we haven’t gotten back to that game either. I sort of forgot about it.
Trackmania Turbo I’m done with even though we didn’t finish it but ten percent might be all I can do.
Knack I have eight percentage so maybe that game has more chapters than I think it does. I know there is a slew of collectibles that I don’t have. Both Knacks have 15 chapters so I’m a third of the way complete with that game. I thought maybe it had seven chapters and I was close to the end but that adds up. I’ll probably never get Knack 2 on my own either.
Crash Bandicoot sits at 13 percent complete.
forma.8 sits at ten percent but I’m also done with that game as no YouTube has attempted that game with the lack of videos.
Shoot, Darksiders II is only at one percent and I feel like I’ve played that game for a while. I’m probably only on the third section of that game but it was fun and the third game is out now. I’ll never get it on my own but I’m aware of it. A new developer too, if I recall correctly.
. . .
With the $25 PSN card my wife gave me, I quickly bought the entire $24.99 The City That Never Sleeps DLC packs for Spider-Man, so that felt pretty good. Later that week, I really wanted to use a Spider-Man theme and avatar but couldn’t find it in the store. I reached out to Insomniac through twitter and they told me to check eBay. Thanks to a great eBay seller, hi_corp, I was able to get the PRE-Order DLC Bonus.
For $7.50, and same day delivery through e-mail, I got so much!
There is a second Battle dynamic theme that I could also have bought for $2.99 but I took on a chance on the above as it came with an avatar, that I didn’t know I wanted until I saw it listed. 5 extra skill points is nice, and early access in the game to three suits, that also saved me resources as I could spend those resources on other suits and other gadget upgrades. Oh, and it gave me the spider drone gadget early too. Plus those suits abilities as well.
I’ll probably never use the Spider-Punk suit or the Velocity suit but I’ll probably use the Avengers : Infinity War suit one of these days. So all of that sounded amazing. I’m not sure who is paying an extra $2.25 from another seller while my guy was selling it for less but I went with the guy who was selling it for less. Turns out there are two different themes but I’ll never use two themes, so I was okay with the first one.
I like how mine is pretty basic and it makes a fun thwip sound when I move from item to item on the Home bar.
I’ve started really enjoying having the theme match the game I am playing. I was using the Life is Strange one, but hadn’t started the game, and with Spider-Man, I knew I wasn’t getting back to Life is Strange anytime soon, so I didn’t want the constant reminder about it.
While playing Uncharted 3, I wanted an Uncharted theme but they were all $2.99. Then while looking at the available themes, I had realized I already own an Uncharted theme, so that was a missed opportunity.
I’ve checked and I couldn’t find a LEGO theme, so that was disappointing. I’m not sure what determines which games get themes.
. . .
True to my word, as soon as I could unlock the Scarlet Spider suit, I definitely did. I also did a few too many side items or found a few too many collectibles as I was leveling up but I was enjoying swinging around so much. There is a main story mission that instructs us to start taking pictures of landmarks, and once you have taken two landmark photos and stopped three crimes, you can use those tokens to unlock Scarlet Spider at level four.
A very handy guide on what it takes to obtain all of the base game suits. I really want the Stark suit too, so I made a point of getting that one and the classic suit.
My next suits I really wanted and unlocked were the Spider-Armor MK IV suit (the All New All Different suit), the Spirit Spider (as my son thinks it looks cool). My next goals are the Vintage suit (the one that looks like it is straight from a comic page), and the Last Stand suit.
I’m getting a slew of trophies which is fun and the game is known for being an easy platinum but now I’m getting worried I’ll be one of the few that can’t get the plat but I’m hoping to do the work and earn it. The ones that I think are going to be hard hurdles are going to be getting Spectacular (Silver) on the Taskmaster challenges. I can do the Combat ones very easily but the drones and bombs seem to be beyond my abilities. I’m hoping as I rank up, I’ll get increases in swing abilities and such.
. . .
So expect a more detailed Spider-Man write up and a Beyond Two Souls one. I figure I’ll finish my first Beyond Two Souls one, then go back to Homeless and do a one and a half playthough but making different choices, then recommit to Heavy Rain but I’ll do a Beyond Two Souls post while replaying Heavy Rain.
So those are my gaming goals for 2019!
Also, whenever Man of Medan gets released, like Spider-Man, that’ll move up in my list of games I play.
I finally beat Uncharted 3 on Normal! I had such a great time with the game. I was a little concern when Elena wasn’t showing up but then she showed up and all was right with the world!
I attempted a Crushing playthrough and got to the fifth chapter when I wasn’t in the mood to continue doing so.
After I beat the game, I went back and got all of the treasures and the Strange Relic. I was pretty proud of myself for only missing 29 out of the 101 treasures, so that’s not a bad percentage.
While hunting for the treasures, I was attempting to get a couple trophies. I was attempting to kill 75 enemies in a row without dying, kill 30 enemies in a row with only my side arm, and defeat 50 enemies in a row without auto-reloading. I must have killed 100 enemies without dying or if I did die, I exited to main menu as soon as I was dead, and selected Continue so that the death didn’t count. I figure, once I get back to the game, whenever that day will be, and I’ll choose a later chapter and continue on from there. I was doing pretty well for myself and then at one point, I had to use grenades for a tutorial and I knew that reset both my side arm kill and my reload, so I’ve attempted to do get these trophies twice now. I bet I was pretty close to the 75th kill but it felt like I had killed at least 100 foes. From the stats page, it looks like I’ve killed 64 people in a row so that’s either my current number or the highest I’ve gotten before.
So while attempting that, I couldn’t try the kill 10 enemies in a row, alternating with melee attack then kill with a gun.
This has been my main guide during my post game adventures.
I also committed to the idea of not getting the platinum. I don’t have the platinum for the first game but I do have the platinum for the second game. Maybe I’ll do better during the fourth game.
I figure I’m close to killing 50 enemies by melee attacking from behind. Then again, I would have thought I was close to killing a number of people with specific weapons at least 30 times but turns out, I wasn’t as close to those numbers as I thought. I have 25 stealth kills so I just need to do that twice more and I’ll get the trophy.
I must be close to killing 20 enemies by blind firing while in cover too. I was worried about reloading and losing track so I wasn’t attempting it during my treasure hunting. I just have to kill one more people using this technique as I have killed 19. Which makes me want to really turn on the game tonight and just get it done.
I have no idea of how many dumb people I’ve killed by throwing their grenades back at them. I would have sworn I’ve killed at least 10 but according to the trophy, I haven’t. Also, I haven’t killed two people with the same thrown back grenade as well. The game doesn’t keep track of that, or at least, it won’t tell me that number but it clearly keeps track of it somewhere for the trophy management.
I’ve attempted to kill four enemies with one explosion but I didn’t get all four of them in the explosion during Chapter 16.
When I’m hanging off of a ledge, I either don’t think about grenades or I don’t have them. I just need to kill one more person doing so as I’m at nine of the required ten. The guide recommends Chapter 12 or Chapter 7 when we first learn the technique.
I know I have killed at least three riot shield enemies so I just need two more for the trophy. It could be one more as well. The game doesn’t keep track of this either. The guide recommends the beginning of Chapter 15 so I might just replay the beginning until that is done.
I have the following weapons that I have to get 30 kills with:
So that’s not bad. The Dragon Sniper is a weapon I can call upon whenever I want now that I beat the game, so I’ll get that one easily. RPG-7 is hard to come by and we don’t get too much ammo with it either. I do enjoy using the Mag 5 when I get my hands on it. PAK-80 is also a hard one to come by and then I usually only had the guy who was holding it left on the field so I bet I only have three kills with it.
The Dragon Sniper can be found in both Chapter 8 and 12.
The RPG-7 can be found in Chapters 12, 13, 19, and 21. So that’s two 12s.
The Mag 5 can be found during Chapter 16 and 19. I know I’ve gotten it in an early chapter as well but jumping in and out of chapters for the treasures might be tripping me up.
The PAK-80 can be found during Chapters 14 and 20.
I attempted the speed run for Chapter 7 and the nine and a half minute mark came and went and I’m not sure I’m good enough to shave three minutes off of my speed. I should attempt Chapter 16 and 20 as those have 12 and 15 minutes respectfully. On Easy, it should be a tad better to do. 16 has a long fight in the middle that I’m already anticipating taking forever as it felt like that on Normal. 20 feels doable as it is just racing to the front of a caravan and only killing a few people along the way.
That makes up the normal trophies, the disc came with additional DLC related trophies. I’m never going to beat the game on Brutal, and from what I’ve read, few have.
I probably can defeat 5 Djinn with a sniper rifle during Chapter 21. That would work towards my Dragon Sniper goal too. I’ll probably will try Chapter 21 first to get the Dragon Sniper trophy and this one at the same time. That’ll be working smarter and harder, which is usually the Klein way.
I’m not sure about completing a speed run as Doughnut Drake in less than 4 hours and 15 minutes. From what I’ve read, if you don’t do it in one go, the trophies can be a tad glitchy. Also, how horrible would it be recognize it isn’t going to happen when you are at the three hour mark. I guess to take full advantage of the opportunity, I should attempt the speed run and the other trophies at the same time.
Now I just have to try to get some of these trophies above and jump into Uncharted 4.
I’ve heard so many great things about Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy (that I will play after 4, eventually). My only grip is how different Nathan looks from the original trilogy.
I get that 4 was the first game for the franchise on the PS4 so Naughty Dog took advantage of the more powerful console but he just looks like a completely different person.
I just have a hard time seeing how we got from 3 to 4 and I’ve stared at these faces for a very long time.
Whereas Elena pretty much looks the same, but in higher definition.
But she’s looked great throughout the entire original trilogy for that matter.
. . .
I’ve attempted SOMA and was having a good time, if not an overly challenging time. The game is fine but there are times where I just feel like I’m missing direction on where to go and the locations are a tad confusing. I just got to the Theta station. The story is super interesting but I’m doing that thing I hate and I’m resorting to walkthroughs to get me to the next point. Once I’ve done that a third time, it kills my buzz for a game. IGN has a great guide as does Game Pressure. I’m just disconnected from the game. I’ll come back to it eventually.
. . .
I’m going to make Heavy Rain my next game I’m going to tackle.
My Twitter app did right and told me three separate times that the above Dev Diary had been released. I accounts I’m following are : @SuperMGames, @TheDarkPictures, and @PlayStation. Which I didn’t mind at all getting these notification blasts.
The video is Part One of Designing the Ghost Ship and I really enjoyed the interviews. The video is barely two minutes and twenty five seconds. Production Designer Lee Robinson, Audio Director Barney Pratt, and Art Director Robert Craig were interviewed. I’m very eager to see what Part Two looks like.
I’m already committed that when I buy my wife’s Amazon Christmas presents, I’m throwing in my preorder to the game. I’ll try to caution myself to not get too deep in the weeds but I’m sure they won’t spoil anything in these interviews and teases.
. . .
PlayStation announced the free games for December 2018 –
Arcade_Master22 made a great thread for it over at the PS4 subreddit:
I hadn’t heard of any of these prior to the announcement but they sound like pretty fun games.
SOMA is a horror game that I’m pretty excited about. OnRush came out in June of this year and looks like a racing game that you try to damage the other cars more than try to come into first place, so Walker Dennis should be a big fan of that game. Iconoclasts is a crossbuy Vita game that can be played on the PS4, it looks like a fun medieval platformer.
I’ve been told Papers, Please is super fun on the Vita and now I regret not making a point of going to the online store and making sure I downloaded all of the pure Vita and PS3 games, I have three months left before the PSN Plus no longer offers PS3 and Vita games to correct that. I’ve heard great things about the visual novel, SteinsGate, so I’ll download that and while I’m there, I’ll get Steredenn too.
Nice when I copy and pasted his list of the games, it copied over the links, that’s pretty handy for my purposes.
I’m starting to try to start speculation about what PlayStation is going to do about the lack of six free games come March 2019. I think what they should do is offer four PS4 games, one from each year : 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. I’m sure, like OnRush, that there might be some games they can offer from 2018 but I figure they can definitely find gems that are popular but interest has started to wane. It’ll be nice if they could throw in a free VR game every four months, but I’m not sure if there are enough of those to just toss about. I think it’ll be a truly wonderful idea if, whenever Man of Medan comes out, that month PlayStation offers Inpatient. They already made Until Dawn : Blood Rush a free game back in December 2017. Which is nice as whenever we buy a PlayStation VR, we would have all of these games already. Inpatient is the only Supermassive Game I don’t own but it is hard to justify buying a game for a system I don’t have.
Which is true for these Vita games but since I only downloaded the crossbuy ones, I’ve already played them. At least I only missed out on a years worth, I guess I could create a list of which ones I missed out on and if I ever get a Vita, I’ll know which games were the free ones.
According to this great website, here are the games I missed out on :
Wanted Corp (December 2017)
Furmins (May 2018)
Squares (June 2018)
Atomic Ninjas (June 2018)
Zero Escape : Zero Time Dilemma (September 2018)
Draw Slasher (August 2018)
Space Hulk (August 2018)
So only seven games, that isn’t too bad. PlayStation was wise enough to offer several cross buy games and then I was dumb enough not to take the extra step to purchase them through the online store. It would be nice if the PS4 store would just offer me handy links to download all of the free PSN Plus games and not make me go through a different route to get the other games but it is only one additional step and the problem is fixing itself soon.
Wanted Corp is $11.99
Furmins is $6.49 right now and comes with a bonus world.
Squares is $4.99
Atomic Ninjas is $9.99
Zero Escape : Zero Time Dilemma is $39.99 and that’s heart breaking!
Draw Slasher is $5.99 and I see there is a Bundle for $5.99 but I can’t tell if the Bundle includes game and whatever else or just added content. The website could be a tad more informative.
Space Hulk is typically $19.99 but there is a 40% off right now and is only $11.99.
So over all, I’m an idiot to the tune of one hundred dollars! That Zero Escape game being a full price game upsets me. That’s why you always add everything to your library. You don’t need to download everything, just add it to your library and you can download it whenever you like, as long as your membership is active. If it goes inactive, you are just blocked from the games until your membership is renewed and then you pick right up again with your progress. Also, membership stacks, so if you buy a 12 month membership and then see a three month membership discounted, those three months just tack on to your 12 months. Which might be obvious but I didn’t know any of this up to like six months ago.
People complain about the quality of games that are given away but just Vita games alone in 2018, half of the ones that were given away for free, are a hundred dollar value right there and we only pay $60. Well, during Black Friday, there was a deal for $40 and that was incredible! Some people bought two and I hope we can be that lucky going forward. Just never worry about it.
Which is why I’m trying to speculate on what they are going to do come March when the six free games (two for each system, PS4, PS3, and the Vita) go down to two guarantee games. To justify the $60 membership, I think they should offer two older games (2014/2015) and two newish games (2016/2017/2018) as I’m sure asking for six PS4 games might be asking too much but four seems reasonable. I started with just three but then I remember 2014 was almost five years ago so there has to be a slew of games that can be given away.
Membership to PSN Plus also gets you the ability to play multiplayer and access to 10 GB worth of cloud storage space. I use it for the free games and the cloud storage space. I’ll restate, by March, I felt like I had gotten my $60 worth.
If you are interested in a nice summary of the games, here are two great videos!
Thanks to PlayStationGernade for hosting his video.
I really like how he discusses the reviews and his own experience with the games, if he has any. Also a nice benefit is that he plays the trailers and game footage too.
Thanks to Platinum Chasers for hosting his video.
What I like about Platinum Chasers, and I only discovered his video for the November 2018 games, is that he strictly talks about the trophies. I now know SOMA doesn’t offer a platinum and has one missable story trophy. That’s good to know before launching into the game. Apparently it is one where you have to talk to someone and if you don’t follow the blue lights to green lights to blue lights once you are outside again (I hope it makes sense within the game). I usually like to wait until I earned my first trophy in the game, and then I will go check the trophy list on the PS4. I look at the top one, the two surrounding the first one I earned, and the last one and I try to memorize those ones. Then usually at some point later that night or in the morning, I’ll check to see if there are any missable ones.
I don’t usually care about if a game has one or not, it is disappointing but turns out, I have several games that don’t offer a platinum. I’m not even that crazy about getting the platinum or all of the trophies, some games, I just know I’m not going to be able to get several of the trophies and that relieves some stress.
OnRush has some multiplayer trophies so that’s nice to know ahead of time.
Iconoclasts has a trophy that is pretty grindy, so that’s good to know ahead of time.
. . .
I’m at Chapter 17 of Uncharted 3 and I keep thinking of Golden Abyss, the Uncharted game that is for the Vita. I looked on Amazon and that game is still $70 and it came out in 2012.
Worst, it is $78!
I’m not even sure if it comes with a Vita or not. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t but there is a Batman : Arkham Origins : Black Gate that is only $25 and that game came out in 2013. I imagine that boils down to one game being amazing and the other game being Batman Arkham Origins Black Gate. he he he
So if I ever get a Vita, I want to be able to purchase Golden Abyss too.
$210 makes me hesitate, naturally, but maybe a pawn shop would have it for $100 or something. Way too much for me to spend on myself and also too much to ask for it as a present.
PlayStation VR, with two games, is still $300 but you can get it for $275 right now. I’m told it isn’t good for five year olds to use it, much less, it probably wouldn’t fit on his head, so I’m probably a year away from legit being able to buy it. I just know that Walker Dennis is going to want to play with it and it isn’t fair to have it if he can’t just play around with it. Plus, it is three hundred dollars! It is still new technology so that makes sense. People who own it love it though. I wished GameStop could offer a demo of it but someone would probably steal it or break it.
. . .
We had gotten Walker Dennis the Nya from Ninjago set for Lego Dimensions
But the box came in pretty rough shape so we just gave it to him. We don’t have any connection to Ninjago, we tried the first episode of the series on Netflix and it seemed fine enough. I believe he is getting the Lego Ninjago movie for either his birthday or Christmas, so that should be nice and then we’ll have all three Lego movies too.
Thanks to Glenn Builds Bricks for hosting the in game video of how to build the Samurai Mech. We like to build it prior to putting it on the gateway so that Walker can play with it when he isn’t playing the game and I don’t have the pressure of trying to build it while the game is active and he wants to be in the World.
Thanks legogamesguy for writing a nice FAQ of all of the gold bricks.
We are missing two water ones, one needs a Chima person, which Walker is getting, I forget if it is the eagle or the lion. I’m pretty sure it isn’t the crocodile guy but it is probably the crocodile guy. The other water one requires someone to be able to laser gold items underwater, and he isn’t getting the Cyberman so we’re probably not going to be able to get all of the gold bricks. The third gold brick we couldn’t get requires us to get all of the minikits from the Ninjago level of the main game, Elements of Surprise, the third level. We are only missing one minikit and it is in the beginning of the level. We need Chell from Portal 2 which he is getting so that’ll be nice that we’ll be so close to getting all of the gold bricks.
See the Portal wall on the bottom left corner? That’s where Chell will open a portal and then open a second portal under the middle snake head. You can barely make out the minikit behind the bars in the photo. Once we have that minikit, we will quit and save the game, and go back to Ninjago World and activate the mini game there. Is how I imagine it will play itself out.
Because of this discovery, I finally figured out which gold brick we are missing from the DC World, as there is a gold brick behind completing all ten minikits in the DC World level, Paint the Town Black, that we’re missing a couple minikits in. It is a work in progress.
We essentially completed the Ninjago world in two play sessions, which was faster than I thought we were going to do it but we’ve been starved for new content in the game.
I wished we were getting Wonder Woman in December as she has mind control abilities and that is one of the missing abilities we need in the DC World and a couple other locations. Sometimes the game would let us rent characters but not in either of those two situations.
. . .
Happy Tenth Anniversary to my love wife! We made it to ten years!
Thanks to PlayStation for hosting the trailer for this game.
Yesterday, I earned my 13th platinum!
This was a fun game, it has 12 different endings, spread out over three story branches. You get swallowed by a whale, from there, you can either put on barrels, don’t put on barrels, and wait it out with three ladies who were previously swallowed by the whale. Since the game presents it from left to right, that’s the order I went in.
It wasn’t a bad game, and I enjoyed it for the most part.
There is this one segment where you race against Death that I completely didn’t understand what I was doing so I kept holding down the R2 button and nothing was happening. Then I read that I was either supposed to click on one of the men or Death. By then, I was pretty tired and went to bed.
Then I played a few more times and got two or three playthroughs completed. I think that’s the best way to play this game, maybe do all four storylines of a branch and then come back the next day, or just remember you choose the right cave so next time, you will choose the left cave.
The game can become very repetitive, once you finish an ending, you will come across this sea monster who will tell you that you have finished an ending but she hopes to see you again. I was hoping when you finished the very last one, she would say a different line of dialogue but she just repeated the different ending line. That was disappointing.
You will see the sea monster either underwater or above water, pending how you finished an ending, then you will go to a coffee shop and the guy there will essentially say the same thing. But he will show you a bookcase of all of your endings as you progress through the game.
He will say you have completed the shelf, which was nice. I’m not sure why they wrote one character with a conclusion line but not the other.
I didn’t use a guide until the very end, to get my last two trophies.
I was missing Out of the Deepening Darkness and Nice Day.
There is a segment when you are stuck in a maelstrom that I made too much of a game out of, you are supposed to either widen (R2) it so the men go all the way down, or shorten (L2) it and have the men break free of the storm. I was going back and forth and essentially, kept it open so I ended up doing that playthrough twice as I didn’t realize which I one I did originally. If I had thought about it, I should have known I didn’t close the storm but I was just ready to get the Platinum at that point.
For the other trophy, there are two seals that turn the men into seals and they say as long as you stick together, you’ll make it to the surface but I didn’t keep them together so they just got carried up to the surface. It took some doing but I had them stick together and got them to the surface and got the platinum.
It is supposed to take two hours but I was using it mostly as a break from Arkham Knight.
. . .
Last update regarding Arkham Knight, as I’m done with the game. I attempted some additional AR Challenges but I’m not doing anymore of those, knowing I can’t get even 20 of them, kills my buzz. I’m pretty sure I barely got ten or 15.
I did beat the game on New Game Plus, and the fights were not all that bad, including the underground tank vs tank fight and I didn’t even have a harder time with Arkham Knight, I avoided his crew, got underneath him, grappled up and did those quick moments and then took out his goons then. Then repeat that twice more, so all for all, the only real problem I had was the 60 tanks outside of GCPD during the assault. After like 15 tries, I finally wussed out and stuck to the left side of GCPD (where that breakable wall is), and I would come out, attack, and hide out. A few tanks and drones came to me, which was nice but for the most part, I would take out five or six tanks, fire a slew of missiles, and let Barbara do her business. It was a frustrating matter prior to the final time I completed it. Same for the underground tank fight, that third round took forever! I was able to acknowledge that the long load time was for me to strategize and to calm down but I just wanted it to reload immediately. Same for the tank battle, just get me in there, I heard Batman and Oracle counting down from five so many times, it started becoming a tad maddening.
I only got two additional trophies
The Long Halloween, beat New Game Plus
Savage Metal, smash 10 militia transport vehicles off the road without using the immobilizer
I was hoping to get Savage Metal so it was nice to finally get it when I did, it was during one of the AR challenges. At first, I though Long Halloween was a bronze medal but I see now that it is a silver medal. I was expecting a gold medal so when it wasn’t gold, I didn’t note what type it was until typing this. Silver is better, as it does take a lot of time and skill to get through the story. Besides the tank battle, I wouldn’t even say the game was that much harder.
I could do the side missions but there is no real incentive to do it so I’m pretty much done with it.
. . .
I’ve started Roundabout, I’m not sure how many chapters there are but I’m on the third chapter, with the farm. It is a fun game thus far. You play a revolving limousine driver, Georgio Manos, who is a lady. Whenever you pick up passengers, you get a fun live action sequence. The story is fun and the driving mechanics take a minute to get used to them but there is no way I’m going to be able to get everything done in the game.
Especially as one of the trophies is unattainable right now but even if was an option, I probably wouldn’t be able to get it. It is the trophy you receive from completing everything, so of course, that would be the trophy that would be glitched.
The game only has 18 bronze trophies and one silver, so I don’t feel compelled to get everything.
I do want to just go down the list and just get those trophies as it seems pretty doable that way. I’m definitely going to finish the main story first, and then from there, I’ll start checking the list. I have to start pressing L3 for the horn as having to do it literally a thousand times doesn’t sound great and it isn’t like the horn does anything in-game. I’m in the habit now of dying, blasting my horn ten times, and trying again, as I’m not concern at all about the time limit, so I imagine I’ll get that trophy eventually.
There is a trophy where you have to drive for 8 hours without pausing, and I’m not doing that one either so the pressure is off from this game.
. . .
Once I’ve had my fun with Roundabout, I’ll go back to Uncharted 3 Normal play, I’m on the chapter with all of the boats and I need to figure out the proper route through them all.
I was thinking about playing a different game in-between my Normal and Hard mode playthroughs, and I thought Life is Strange would be a wonderful game to put some distance in-between the two games. But now that I’m typing that, I wonder if I shouldn’t waste the muscle memory and just go back to back playthroughs. My problem is that the way I’m planning on doing it, I have to play Uncharted 3 three times, Normal, Hard, and Crushing. Which I’m all for doing (so Crushing doesn’t, well you know, crush my desires), but that is a lot of time to spend with one game. A great game but still. I’m just thinking back on how Crushing was like in Uncharted 2 and having a Hard playthrough would get me even better at the game (I’m hoping), so Crushing will feel doable. I’m all about the self-motivation.
I’m using psnprofiles to check and that is how I did Uncharted 2, Normal (which gave me Easy), Hard, and Crushing. Apparently it only took me six days to beat the game on Hard.
Whenever I see that giant gap in my gaming timeline, I have to realize that was when Fallout 3 killed my PlayStation 3 with the Yellow Light of Death (YLOD). Which I’ve learned that Fallout 3 and New Vegas both killed many PS3s back in the day.
. . .
Proving that Supermassive Games has an awesome PR team, they released another trailer for Man of Medan!
Thanks again to PlayStation for hosting this video as well!
Also, thanks to WordPress for it keeps capitalizing the S for me.
Odd that PlayStation is hosting the video as the game is supposed to be on all systems but who knows, I’m a PlayStation guy so that works for me.
Such an amazing trailer and it gave me real Peter Stormare/Dr. Hill feels from Until Dawn. Which I’m sure is on purpose.
Of course, I didn’t know about the trailer until recently so I changed my Google account to notify me of all news pertaining to Man of Medan so I’ll be even more updated.
Which, also on my own, I found that we can preorder the game through Amazon!
But since it says December 31, 2019, I’m holding off in case my lovely wife wants to buy it for me for either a late Christmas gift or early Birthday present. I love that it is a thirty dollar game, as it is supposed to be half the length of Until Dawn, so a five hour game, and $60 seems a bit much for that. I was willing to spend $60 but $30 makes it even more doable.
I was tempted just to download the game straightly from PSN, but I’m still old fashion and I like to have my disc. I’ve read numerous times that it doesn’t change the download size, and the free games from the PSN has gotten me in the habit and appreciation of just scrolling over and starting a new game. That’s what happened with Arkham Knight, I beat the game, attempted some AR Challenges and didn’t want to make all the noise of ejecting the disc, opening Uncharted 3’s case and inserting that game into the PS4. I wouldn’t think it makes a lot of noise at noon but it is so much more quiet at 11:30pm, that it could wake someone up. So I just went back to Burly Men at Sea and committed to that game. I also learned how to spell “Burly” as I keep wanting to throw an e in there but that isn’t how you spell it.
Another game I have my eye on is Hellblade : Senua’s Sacrifice, which has been strictly a downloadable game, but might be coming to disc. Which I guess I’ve been waiting for a disc copy so then I can add it to my wife’s Amazon account so she can maybe buy it for me. A little harder to do without the hyperlink. I’m having that issue now with the $40 PSN membership (down from $60). She used the link but since it isn’t a physical card, she’s bummed that she’s going to have to print it and give it as a lame presentation of a gift. I told her not to worry about it but I get it too.
Heck, even Batman : Enemy Within, TellTale’s second Batman game (and most likely last), that disc only comes with the first episode and a code for the season pass, so buying the disc is essentially pointless as you are still downloading the rest of the episodes.
Yet, it is another game that I want and it is hard to put aside $30 for a game but these are nice goals to have.
I imagine Man of Medan is more of a placeholder date and it will come out earlier in the year, which is another reason why I don’t want to preorder it now, as I might not have the funds for it when it first comes out. Not like it will surprise me (I hope) but I rather not get ding for it either.
My wife and I have been wanting to buy the NES Classic Edition and the Super NES Classic Edition consoles. Then news came out that PlayStation was going to make a classic version of the PlayStation One, which I was super excited about.
Like most items of this nature, what games are put on it is the huge selling point. My mind wandered with what could be included. I figured Chrono Cross wouldn’t be or Chrono Trigger via a redone Final Fantasy Chronicles. Crash Bandicoot being on there would make it an easier sell for my wife, though we own the trilogy through the PS4. I adored Legend of Mana, still the only Mana game I’ve played, and thought that could have a chance of being part of the set as it is (or was?) a popular franchise for a time. Looking over the list of PlayStation One games over at Wikipedia, I’m starting to think I hardly played the system but I recall spending hours upon months with it so I’m not sure. Maybe I just played six games and moved onto the PS2?
I enjoyed Pac-Man World, that series got better with future games.
PaRappa the Rapper, I thought had a great chance of being included as I still like to kick, punch, chop, and maintain a funky flow.
I attempted Paradise Eve but wasn’t good at it or there was a disconnect.
Was there only one Marvel vs. Street Fighter game? I played that one a bunch too, but I figured the rights to the characters would make that a hard one to get released now. I played that one and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, I thought there were at least two games.
We got one of the Rampage games, not sure which one, most likely, World Tour.
There we go. Activision’s first two Spider-Man games, self-titled and Enter Electro, With the success of Sony’s latest Spider-Man game, I thought there was a slight chance the first Spider-Man game could make it onto the list. I was searching the web for any news about Spider-Man when it was coming out, I remember being in a summer camp program and just using all of the limited computer time searching information on Spider-Man. Of course, no one else wanted to talk about it or even knew the game was coming out. It was that game and the first X-Men movie that was stealing all of my focus.
My other great love of PlayStation One was Star Ocean : Second Story, that’s the game I legit played so much! I was a huge RPG fan back in the day and I devoted so much time playing it and drinking Apple Juice and eating Yogurt covered Raisins. Which was my go to gaming food for a long time.
I tried Tomb Raider but couldn’t get into it for whatever reason, same for Twisted Metal.
I did have the WWE games that came out in a yearly fashion. They got a lot better with time.
There was also a snow racing game but googling that did not get me any results that matched my memory.
. . .
The first five games they announced, of the 20, were:
Final Fantasy VII – which makes sense as people love that game. I picked Chrono Trigger so I have no real connection to Final Fantasy. Even when I got VI with Chrono Trigger, I attempted it but didn’t get too far into it.
Jumping Flash – I never heard of it
Ridge Racer Type 4 – It sounded familiar
Tekken 3 – Which I did attempt but I’m not much of a fighter gamer.
Wild Arms – Which my buddy Greg was way into and it looked interesting being a Western RPG, like a cowboy western and not Western world.
So a Final Fantasy game I wouldn’t mind playing after decades of hype and Wild Arms were the big sellers to me. But the other three seem questionable, so it wasn’t like someone would google “Top 25 PlayStation One games” and just assume those were the 20 games.
Then we got the entire list and it seems like a head scratcher to me.
Battle Arena Toshinden – Never heard of it
Cool Boarders 2 – Never heard of it
Destruction Derby – Never heard of it
Grand Theft Auto – which I’ll be super interested in attempting but I worry it’ll be like playing Fallout 1 after playing 3, it is a completely different game with different mechanics and interface.
Intelligent Qube – Never heard of it
Metal Gear Solid – I tried my best to get into IV but just couldn’t, and I tried for hours. The first one is pretty legendary though.
Mr. Driller – Never heard of it
Oddworld : Abe’s Oddysee – sounds cute, just from the title.
Rayman – I have Raymen Legends for the PS4 but haven’t even attempted it, but it’ll be nice to play the game that launched the franchise.
Resident Evil Director’s Cut – I’m not much of a zombie guy and I haven’t played any Resident Evil game but playing the first one, that is also pretty legendary, would be nice.
Revelations : Persona – Persona sounds familiar
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo – Never heard of, that title could use some work
Syphon Filter – Never heard of it
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six – I’m not much of a fighter, racing, nor first person shooter gamer, but here’s another game I wouldn’t mind playing the beginning of another mega franchise.
So out of 20 games, maybe seven games I want to play? For $100, that might be too much. None of them are games I have played myself so that isn’t great. I like how, for the general public, there is something there for everybody. Five marque names, a fighting game, a racing game, a zombie game, and a platformer, those are not bad. Heck, there even is an RPG so that satisfies an itch I’ve been having lately.
So we’ll probably be passing on this, until it is like a $50 item.
Goliath listed their top 25 games for the PlayStation One:
Chrono Cross came in at 24 (so the list is pretty questionable 😀 )
Spider-Man at 22 might actually confirm the questionability of the list.
It does list games that are on the Classic so that’s good to read a paragraph regarding games like Oddword : Abe’s Oddysee.
PaRappa the Rapper at 15.
Spryo not being on there goes back to my theory about remakes not making the list. Tony Hawk goes towards my other theory that it might be licensing issues.
Nice that two of the top five games, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII made it the PlayStation One Classic.
. . .
Now, the NES Classic is up our alleys. This does not disappoint at all!
Castlevania
Donkey Kong
Double Dragon II : The Revenge (I’m not sure if I’ve played this one)
Dr. Mario
ExciteBike (which I used to put quarters into at the arcade but I’m not sure I actually owned it on the Nintendo)
Kirby’s Adventure
Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Ninja Gaiden
Pac-Man
Super Contra
Super Mario Bros 1, 2, and 3
Legend of Zelda 1 and 2
I mean, just putting all of the Mario games and both Zelda games probably made this a guarantee seller. I’ve seen it at Shopko for $50 and twice have passed up on it but now that a copy can sit on the shelf for a week, I may have to throw down fifty and pick it up. I would definitely be getting my moneys worth from it.
Then the American exclusive ones got:
Castlevania II : Simon’s Quest
Donkey Kong Jr.
Final Fantasy (which we bought at a yard sell and I totally used the previous guy’s game file to first experience the game with)
Kid Icarus
Punch-Out!!
Tecmo Bowl
With a few other games I’ve heard of but would eventually play too.
. . .
With the huge success of the Nintendo Classic, of course they would make a Super Nintendo Classic.
My only thought was, if they put Chrono Trigger on it, I’ll throw down the pre-order money, as soon as they teased it. So me not owning it right now, should be a sign that Chrono Trigger didn’t make the list, which is a super shame! As it would work perfectly on this as opposed to the PlayStation Classic (I would imagine they would improve on the load times, right?).
It still has some pretty great games on it though!
Donkey Kong Country
Final Fantasy VI (they were so close!)
Kirby Super Star
Legend of Zelda : Link to the Past
Mega Man X
Secret of Mana (I would love to play the first game of this franchise, not like I was lost with Legend of Mana)
Star Fox 1 and 2
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario World 1 & 2
Super Metroid
Again, just being able to play the Mario games, plus one Zelda game makes this a must buy. I’m not the biggest Link guy, as I chose Mario back in the day, I still chose Mario, we’re a Mario house – minus us owning a Switch but one of these days.
Then the American exclusive got the following games:
EarthBound
Kirby’s Dream Course
Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting
Super Castlevania IV
Super Punch Out!!
Which I adored EarthBound and would gladly play that game again.
I don’t have much connection with the N64, as I had moved to PlayStation after that and have pretty much stuck with them every since. We’ll supplement it with a Wii and WiiPlus, and I’ll accept an XBOX 360 as a gift, and have plans for the Switch, but I’m a Sony guy. Nintendo is great for family games though. I do like how they are still committed to platformers.
We owned like three games for the N64, and one of those was a WWE game, No Mercy, and I pretty much only played that. We didn’t have Mario 64 or GoldenEye but I was able to play GoldenEye at a friend’s house. I played Mario 64 on the DS and that wasn’t ideal. I’m not sure if it was a problem with the port or if that’s how the actual game was, so I missed out on that. I also missed out on Mario Sunshine too.
If they made a PlayStation 2 Classic, I’ll be curious about that but with the let down of what the One is like, I’m not sure.
. . .
Has anyone had any luck with the Sega Genesis Classic Game Console?
Usually it goes for like $20 or something which makes it seem like it’ll be a pretty cheap product but for that price, it would be worth a risk. Plus, just keep the receipt and return it if it isn’t quality.
81 games and two controllers sounds pretty good. You get the Sonic games and Mortal Kombat seems to be the main games of interest.
Atari also has put out a similarly priced product with 105 games that I’ve seen around plenty of times. Pit Fall and Maze Craze would be the two games I want on it but I’m not sure if Maze Craze is on the list. It might not be as if it was, we would own it but maybe it is. My wife is a huge fan of those two games.
My wife got me the Ms. Pac-Man plug n play for Christmas and that was pretty nice. I think she spent too much on it and I wished it had a couple other games included as I turn it on, I play my four (five?) lives and then turn it off, so it can be a fun five minutes or twenty minutes, then I just lose interest or want to google a gif of the cut scenes moments.
I have been tempted to buy the Ms. Pac-Man game for the PS4 but I have a hard enough time pulling the trigger on buying a $20 or $25 PSN card but if I can ever justify it (or be gifted it), I’ll throw four dollars towards Ms. Pac-Man.
. . .
I was going to buy a PSN card to get the season pass for Batman Arkham Knight but now I’m back to wanting to buy a few smaller things like the Ninja Turtle pack and Batman in LittleBigPlanet 3 and keep some money in the wallet for other small purchases. Or just buy the story and costume content and not the additional challenges in Arkham Knight but the costumes come with challenges so I should just buy the season pass. What I need is a $50 one and buy everything I want and not even have an issue with anything. Oh, the goals I have!
Thanks to The Flintstones over at Dailymotion for hosting the video (I expect it’ll come down eventually). You might also have to refresh this page to get the link to work.
When Halloween Was Forever is from Season 1, Episode 8
He only gets one additional spotlight episode, Halloween II 1/2
Thanks to Cartoons TV, also of Dailymotion, for hosting this episode. It probably has a higher chance of staying up as they at least modified it enough to avoid copyright, I’m not sure.
Every year, I wish I had the Time Life The Real Ghostbusters gorgeous series set.
Luckily, Netflix is currently streaming the episodes so I’m definitely going to watch these episodes tonight.
. . .
When Halloween Was Forever is written by J. Michael Straczynski, who had a awesome run on Amazing Spider-Man, until he didn’t.
I still love that Spider-Man : Last Stand storyline that was hinted at in Amazing Spider-Man 58 (the second volume) and continued in Amazing Spider-Man 500 (parts two and three of an arc celebrating Peter’s birthday and Spider-Man’s 500th issue of Amazing).
It is barely a handful of pages but it captured my imagination so much!
I’m so happy that Insomniac made it available as an alternate costume in their PS4 exclusive video game.
Thanks to YouTuber sebanatic5000 for hosting the video.
Thanks to kwingsletsplay for a great lore video. Like he says in the video, there isn’t a lot of information with the suit and storyline but it looks sensational!
I do wish his mask was the same shade of red, as it just looks too bright next to that collar.
Here is a link in case you want to know more about him.
Pamela Hickey and Dennys McCoy wrote Halloween II 1/2, and I want to say one of these episodes aired during prime time which I remember feeling like a big deal.
If you want to learn more about the festival, Samhain, Wikipedia of course has an excellent article about it.
Apparently there is a group of people trying to move Halloween to be the last Saturday of October, which I get but I also rather we not change a tradition that is hundreds of years old just for commercial purposes.
Sure, I remember being a child and wishing Halloween could be longer or trying to manage it and negotiating so I can stay up a little longer on a school night. That was part of the charm. Plus, I also vividly remember just sitting around all Saturday, just waiting for nighttime so we finally go out and start looking for houses with lit porch lights.
I also grew up on an Army base (Yuma Proving Grounds, represent!), so we were pretty limited in activities.
Nowadays, Walker Dennis has a full social card and we go or try to go to every Halloween event Helena has to offer, which is a bunch. Every Saturday, there has been an excuse to put him in his super cute Rookie Ghostbuster costume and take him to an event. As an adult, I just like being able to get my dollars’ worth.
He’s going to be so cute and he loves that cloth proton pack. Not bad for $35, it is a tad thin for Montana fall but he’ll wear some layers under it.
We took him to an event and there was a teenage boy in a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume and Walker Dennis immediately went for his proton gun and the teenager was nice enough to play along. It was super cute.
We’re way into Ghostbusters now.
. . .
The other cool thing about Samhain on The Real Ghostbusters, is that he would just appear in the containment unit from time to time, as it costs nothing to just throw him into the back of a scene. Might as well reuse a design than pay someone to create a new ghost for one second of screen time.
He appears in the following videos
Xmas Marks the Spot (1×13)
The Devil to Pay (2×58)
Partners in Slime (5×6)
Jailbusters (5×13)
Deja Boo (6×10)
He also has a storyline in the first four issues of the second volume of IDW’s Ghostbusters run.
So like an hour and a half of content there.
. . .
For my adult plans for Halloween, I’m hoping to play another round (or at least start) a new Until Dawn playthrough but this time, making Matt the aggressor in his relationship with Emily, instead of her bossing him around. I just want to experience something new with what will be my six or seventh playthrough.
I still can’t believe Jordan Fisher was Matt in Until Dawn, how did that come about? He’s such a big deal right now.
I sort of want to do this so that Matt and Emily would be the duo survivors. Which I know I can do by having Mike not catch up to Jessica (though I hate getting Jessica killed), Ashley locking Chris out, Ashley following the sound. Then I’m not sure how the final sequence will play out, have Sam successfully complete the Don’t Move sections until Emily gets out, then have Sam fail one, she dies, and Mike sacrifices himself to set up cabin ablaze? That’s how I envision it having to be.
I know that I have to get Matt to refuse to want to go the radio tower, so Emily would give him the flare gun and he won’t use it as I want him to use it in killing a wendigo.
I’m reading up and there is a way to get Matt to describe both the wendigo and the Psycho but does he ever meet the Psycho? I know he knows of him and is aware he exists as Chris and Ashley tell him and Emily about Josh’s death. That must be what Matt is repeating, and how the cable car was tampered with.
I sort of then want to do a playthrough where only Mike and Jess survive the night as well.
I guess there might be a way to get only Chris and Ashley to be the only ones left too.
I wouldn’t mind trying to do a playthrough where only Josh lives too.
I definitely still think about Until Dawn and how much fun I had and there’s so many different end game possibilities.
. . .
Have a safe and happy Halloween! It is supposed to rain and snow this evening.
In my anticipation of Supermassive Games’ Man of Medan, I actually bought Hidden Agenda for the PS4. Walker Dennis really wanted the latest Ghostbusters game, and after seeing it for $15, I bought it as well. I had planned on buying Hidden Agenda but I figured it’ll be one of those things I plan on buying but don’t really follow through. But I did it and I’m super happy I did.
I’ve read people saying it isn’t worth $20 as it is only two hours of content but for $15 and it being three hours of content, I think it is pretty worth it.
Thanks to PlayStation Europe for hosting the reveal trailer.
The game uses the PS4 PlayLink, so you have to download the free app and you use the PS4 controller to select menu settings but once you are ready to start either Story mode or Competitive mode, you start using your handheld device. I used my Android and my Kindle, which was pretty nice. I had put the app and the app for Knowledge is Power on my wife’s phone but I’ll probably delete this app from her phone as she doesn’t have to play with me anymore.
I was able to use my phone and the Kindle at the same time and I didn’t really notice it being all that difficult. I really wanted the trophies that are required with a Competitive play so on my second night with the game, I did all of that.
My very first gameplay, I went with Story mode, to experience the full aspect of the game. I only committed an hour to it and when I came back the second night, I found out I was so close to finishing the first chapter.
I’ll say the second chapter is the shortest as I’ve spent two different nights finishing the final two chapters and the first chapter seems to take up my limited hour of gaming (sometimes I can get an hour and a half a night).
There have only been two real gripes I’ve had with the game. One is when you are looking for clues, it takes a long time for the cursor to register on the screen, so you lose like five seconds of the twenty you are given. Which is great when you have two player mode (in either Competitive or Story (two player Story is required for one specific trust trophy) mode) as either you get more time to find them all or moving two different devices at the same time, gives you more opportunity to go around the room.
The only clue I ever missed was due to whatever delay that is caused between clues. I couldn’t find the magnifying glass (that represents where the clue is), it is on the police uniform. The other two are the pictures of Becky in the middle and the rat trap below the pictures, next to the pink box.
My second gripe is a real bummer for a huge Until Dawn fan. We get the option again to look at Global Statistics, so if you want a run where you pick all of the least proper choices, you can do that. But if you have to turn off the game and come back to it later, the option is still selected as “On” but you no longer get the stats. Every time I came back to the game on the next day, I’ll get an error message. I’ll try to experiment if I quit the game proper, if I can still get the stats to continue but it was a real shame losing those as I continued. So I had to just choose the opposite choice or the choice that would lead to a trophy as I was aware of which ones I’ll need after my first playthrough.
The motion captures and voice talent (I’m not sure if they are one and the same) are amazing. Like a very limited Until Dawn, they hired Katie Cassidy (from Arrow fame) to be Detective Becky Marney.
Christy Choi plays Felicity Graves, the other main character, who is the District Attorney to the Trapper’s case.
The two of them have great chemistry together, and there were times I thought about shipping them together but thought that was silly. My first playthrough, I had them look at case files at night together.
They seemed to be very friendly, but none of my other playthroughs required them to look at the case together, which was a shame.
Olivia Carass wrote this fun article commenting on it as well:
They can resolve their issues and get a beer together
But be mindful if Becky should have that beer or not.
The only real legit suspenseful part of the game was when this lady joined Becky at the bar:
She just shows up, sits there and watches as Becky passes out. We get a glimpse of her, well I guess two glimpses of her prior and never again (as far as I can tell), so she shows up, gets the job done, and we never see her again. I was like, who is this?! And then with what happens after that, oh boy!
The entire cast is very well done. Leonard Roberts is Tom, Becky’s police partner. I know him as DL from Heroes, who had the phasing power and dated Ali Larter’s character. He is King Idri of Loria on Magicians, a show I really want to start watching. He’s also been on Mom and The Client List.
Tom was my favorite of her partners, if you make a different decision in the very beginning of the game, you get Karl Carter as her partner, but he always feels an alternate choice to me. West Liang does a great job but I always got Tom as my main partner.
If Karl is your partner, that means Tom is your sergeant which is another shame as Sergeant Riggs is such a great police sergeant. Riggs is played by Chris McKenna. Apparently McKenna and Roberts were on Major Crimes together, during the Conspiracy Theory arc, so I should try to watch that to see if they have any scenes together.
In one playthrough, my final one actually, Becky had to do something horrible to Riggs that made me happy that it wasn’t also Tom in the role. But still bad.
I got the platinum for the game within five days of playing it, and four playthroughs. This makes my eleventh platinum, as my tenth is Fallout Shelter (which is why I’m able to finally play other games).
PlayStation Trophies was a great website to help with the proper playthroughs:
I did one on my own, I attempted an unpopular decisions play (but being aware of other trophies), a third one, the Rat in the Trap, and Antitrust.
Another fun hold over from Until Dawn was that the writers of Until Dawn wrote this game and Larry Fessenden came back to portray Vernon Lemay, a brother to one of the Trapper’s victims. Feessenden co-wrote the game and was the Stranger in Until Dawn. Graham Reznick is the other co-writer, I’m not sure why he doesn’t lend his voice to a character.
There are three other actors that make up the main cast.
Yan Feldman plays Jonathan Finn, who Becky arrests as The Trapper. He’s been in various things but nothing I recognized him in.
Chad Michael Collins is Jack Calvary, who was the detective on the Trapper case that Becky closed for him. They do not get along. He’s a jerk with a heart of jerk so it is easy to take Becky’s side in every exchange. But there is also, not a charm, but charisma about him too. He’s confident. He’s been in things too that I may have recognized him if I rewatched them.
Finally, there is a Gabriel Miller as Simon Hillary, the police medical examiner. He’s credited as Gabriel Schwalenstocker but imdb lists him as Miller. I didn’t recognize any of his credits.
Something I did recognize in the game, and once I recognized it, I couldn’t stop seeing it. As that the game will flick or have a delayed pause, like I could tell when the game was choosing either Response A or Response B, which was smoother for Until Dawn. Also, a character would be talking at one angle, and then Response B would be chosen, be shown at a different angle, and then go back to the original angle to go back to the main plot. I wouldn’t say it was distracting but something that I did notice.
Maybe if I did one playthrough a week and didn’t spend so much time with the game, I wouldn’t have noticed it as much but it is hard to unsee once you have seen it.
Overall, such a fun experience, even the gripes I have, are minor and I would clearly recommend the game to anyone interested in it. I love Until Dawn, I really enjoyed this, and I’m eagerly anticipating Man of Medan.
. . .
As I foretold, once I got the platinum in Fallout Shelter, I haven’t gone back. I have thought about it but like Fallout 4, just spending ten minutes in the game, makes me want to spend an hour in the game. So I’m distracting myself with other games. I did start a new character in Fallout 4 to play on Survival mode to get myself prepared for Fallout 76 but I modeled him after our son and he just wanted to play instead so that took up my 30 minutes. I wished I could have made the character shorter and more younger looking but Walker Dennis thought it looked enough like him to get into it. He’s gotten much better at controlling the character. Of course, he immediately went looking for Dogmeat, and that was pretty cute. I’m filling his memory banks with unimportant things like the map of Fallout 4 but he pretty much went from the vault to Sanctuary (spending no time there) and going to Red Rocket to get Dogmeat. Ideally, I’ll play him as a Railroad member but I’ll also not play at all.
It is easy to be a prophet of your own actions.
Someone on the Trophies subreddit got the RiME platinum and I realized I should pick that game up and figure out where I left off. I was in Chapter 2 and I had unleashed the second windmill and realized I didn’t do the first windmill.
Which, again, was a complicated puzzle that I had made harder than it had to be. I saw several YouTube videos that had completed everything within 30 to 45 minutes and I must have made that level a two hour affair. Someone was nice enough to inform me that the next three chapters are super easy compared to two and they were definitely right about that. So we beat the game, Walker Dennis and I hugged for maybe four minutes after beating the game, it was a long and good hug (it may have been more like a minute of silence) but even he recognized that it was a sad but hopeful moment. I had it originally spoiled for me, conceptually, but actually playing the game and seeing the actual content, hit me on a different level I wasn’t quite ready for. We’ve gone back and did all of the trophies for Chapter 1 and gotten all of the collectibles. I also started a YouTube playthrough for Chapter 4 and just did it along with the video, it still took me an additional 10 minutes but that was more on me than the video.
Thanks Sylvain LUCE for hosting such a good video! We couldn’t have done it without you.
So ideally, we just need Chapters 2 and 3 and we’ll have our 12th platinum. I promised to not play without Walker Dennis there, who is really good at the game. So we’ll probably play on the weekend but still follow a guide. We’ll get the platinum during Chapter 3, at some point, as typically, people get it during their second playthrough when they unlock a costume in Chapter 4 and have to go back to Chapter 2 and we’ll be doing that next.
We got all of the collectibles from Chapter 4 but we definitely need two trophies and once we find all of the white shades (I believe we only need three’s now), we need to replay Chapter 5 as well. So all of my assumptions were wrong. But like they say, when you make an assumption, you are right the bulk of the time.
As I got the platinum at around 11pm for Hidden Agenda, I didn’t want to make all of the noise of ejecting the disc, opening Arkham Knight’s case, and inserting that game into the system (it is louder than you think it would be). So I started Heavy Rain again, did the section with the FBI guy (I have to learn their names eventually) and that section ends with the father informing the police. I clearly didn’t remember what his shirt was, after a few months of not playing, but I got the rest of the questions right, there were no ellipses during the other responses like the shirt response got.
Last night, I did get to play Arkham Knight for a while, and I’ll probably be sticking with that game for some time. I got a little further in The Perfect Crime and the firefighter storyline. I ended the session with attempting a Militia Watchtower but a drone was stopping me from making any real progress. I read I have to hack the drone but I haven’t gotten the hacking device just yet. I also made a little progress in the main storyline as Barbara Gordon caused Arkham Knight’s car to crash and that was a very fun sequence to play. I felt like a real detective, an overly financed one, but a detective nonetheless.
I still need to unlock that third island, so I can get the Batmobile over there, as there are so many threats still. I can access it but the bridges are still up.
It felt great coming across the body in Bristol all on my own, I knew the district it was in but I had to figure it out on my own. That’s the case I’m trying to focus on at the moment, as it was the first case presented to me. So my main goal right now is to get the hacker device so I can get that one particular watchtower completed.
Looking at this website, not the one I found last night, apparently I should just go to the Watchtower by Ryker Heights on Founders’ Island as that’ll give me access to Stagg’s Airship, which is the mission that gives me the hacker device.
. . .
Okay, I’ve typed “hacker” so many times that it triggered something I’ve been wanting to look up on YouTube for too long.
Walker Dennis is obsessed with Chad Wild Clay’s Hacker storyline, he’s on the prowl for the Hacker and the Game Master and I’m either overhearing the YouTube videos or just hearing the word “hacker,” like all of the time.
Thanks to Chad Wild Clay for hosting his own video.
It is this massive (and maybe never ending?!) crossover with other YouTubers like Steven Sharer and his siblings (who I haven’t heard about in a while).
I’ve been meaning to look up if there is a conclusion but I’ll have to watch this video to see what is happening. I’ve heard one video at least six times, where they are looking for clues in their basement. I can’t seem to find the basement video but in my searches, there is at least six or seven different YouTubers who are continuing this massive crossover. I was looking for a video with a blonde lady with glasses but not having much luck.
Well, I’m clearly down this rabbit hole. Rebecca Zamolo is her name.
Thanks to Rebecca Zamolo for hosting her video.
It is the Gamemaster who has a secret tunnel in her house. Though I get the feeling it is a second video where she’s telling another peep about the tunnel and she’s going back in the second time.
Like the Sharers, she has an entire industry with her
Thanks to Matt and Rebecca for hosting their video. Whoever Matt is, he doesn’t appear to have his own video series.
Every time Walker Dennis starts one of their videos, I think about Netflix’s Alexa and Katie as they share the same theme song (somehow).
Thanks to Netflix Kids & Family for hosting the video.
Turns out, they don’t but it sounds similar. Or it did until I listen to both of them.
Wow, there’s research I did that only satisfied me. But seriously, I’m always hearing about the hacker and the game master but I get it now as one video sort of leads into a second video and from there, you’ve seen six videos in thirty minutes.
. . .
According to that Arkham Knight website from forever ago above, the Watchtower I’m currently on (to end this on a video game note) is
Watchtower 19 Location: Founders’ Island – Otisburg, east of Port Adams
You will come across 2 Gun Emplacements in the northeast edge of the area in addition to 3 armed soldiers including a Boa Sentry Operator. It is advised to deal with the Boa Sentry Operator before rest of the thugs to make things a tad easier.
I remember it being near Port Adams but I was doing a search for drone but eventually found it on the page. I was throwing explosive gel at the drone and batarangs at it but I clearly need that hacker device. Which is officially called the Remote Hacking Device, which was called the Cryptographic Sequencer, but I imagine most people called it “the hacker device” and why try harder?
Trying Watchtower 19, I was being painfully reminded that Founders’ Island is further along in the story than I should probably be at as there were tanks all over the place and the Batmobile couldn’t get there as the bridge is still up.
I believe this will be my second Watchtower and I stopped the first one that introduced the threat.
Amazingly, I still don’t know who the Arkham Knight is. Unfortunately, for this post, I had to get the Perfect Crime spoiled for me as I couldn’t remember the mission name and when I found it, the helpful website listed who the boss was but that is what happens when you are a patient gamer.
The bridge will come down eventually as I make progress in the story, I don’t want to just do the story, I like to spice it up with side quests, keep it fresh. The only reason I went to that particular Watchtower was due to it being the closest mission after I did The Perfect Crime event and I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night.
I’ll probably get in the habit of doing one main story point and then a side thing, with a focus on The Perfect Crime. The latest victim was from Tucson, Arizona, which was pretty cool as a guy from Arizona.
I feel like answering the question of “what pizza you want tonight?” shouldn’t be that hard. I’m 36 years old, I should know by now what pizza I prefer. I went through a real Canadian bacon and pineapple phase but that was a pizza only I enjoyed and I rarely ever have pizza by myself. When I do, I’m usually at Costo getting a slice of pepperoni. Which then led me to go through a phase of only getting pepperoni for a while.
When we were shopping the other day, I came across Red Baron’s Supreme Pizza
Pepperoni, Sausage, Green and Red Peppers, and Onions
This is by far my favorite frozen pizza and I have started recreating it when we get Papa Johns or Dominos. I prefer Papa Johns if we’re going with one of the big chain places but where I work, we have Bridge Pizza across the street and they are pretty fancy with their pizza slices.
Broccoli, Artichoke, and Gorgonzola on White – $3.50
There was a while there, I was pretty dedicated to checking the website around 10:30am to figure out if I was getting pizza that day. They are huge fans of Gorgonzola and I don’t care for that cheese so I’m usually pretty good about sticking with the Pepperoni. Bridge did introduce me to pepperoncini and I love those now. I got a jar of them for home and I went through it pretty quickly. Lately they have being doing BBQ instead of red as the alternative, sometimes they have three slices of the day with red, white, or BBQ. They are very fancy.
We also have Bowman’s Pizza but it is awkward to get to them so we rarely go but they are huge supporters in the Catholic community so we like that about them.
. . .
Most places don’t offer red peppers so I usually end up ordering pepperoni, sausage (spicy, if they have it), green peppers, and onions. My main problem, when I’m trying to get a deal or use a coupon, is that you are limited to only three items. I usually default to onion as the third over green peppers as the peppers feel like a bonus item to me.
If only limited to two toppings, I’ll go pepperoni and onions, or sausage and green peppers, but if you could combine all four, that is a delight. I like the combo of meat and vegetable. In my twenties, I was all about meat lovers, which was always my go too and I guess is what left me in this tailspin of indecisiveness. My mother-in-law was awesome about ordering the nephews and me a meat lovers deal but either I got burnt out on it or it because too much of me and I started really wanting vegetables to be added for balance.
. . .
Remember how great Pizza Hut was back in the day, like during the Book-It Program? We lived in East Helena for at time and Pizza Hut was our closest pizza place. There was this one bad month where their onions were straight horrible, and we kept thinking it would be different but they were plain bad. Maybe it was two months but we haven’t gone back. The Subway down the street from it was also going through a bad onion phase but at least you know what to look for in a tray of bad onions, you really don’t have that opportunity when ordering pizza.
I also really like Papa Johns garlic dipping sauce, we’re usually good for ordering two or three extra cups of it.
I’ve tried Domino’s Garlic dip and I wouldn’t say it is better than Papa Johns but it is pretty good.
I have learned that Supermassive Games, the studio that brought us the incredible, Until Dawn, is working on a new series of games to be released next year. Their first game is Man of Medan under The Dark Pictures Anthology label.
Thanks to Supermassive Games hosting their own trailer.
That looks super intense! Also looks like Shawn Ashmore. I just checked his Wikipedia page and that totally is! He’s no stranger to video game likeness as he did Remedy Entertainment’s Quantum Break, the same studio that did Alan Wake. A game I tried my best to get into but I wasn’t good with my flashlight / gun abilities. Also, it was XBOX 360 exclusive and I barely played with that console.
Apparently, I’m like a month behind on this news but there isn’t an official Wikipedia page for the game yet either so I’m not the only one behind.
The imdb page only lists Ashmore as part of the cast.
When trying to find the link to the reddit page, I stumbled onto the Wikipedia page for Ourang Medan, the clear inspiration for the game.
I haven’t heard of that legend before, but I’m all in with it!
I like how it appears to be Until Dawn but in the ocean, I’m all for how different the two games are going to look.
I still need to get a copy of Hidden Agenda, Supermassive Games’ other game. I had my hands on it at GameStop but put it down, like a dman fool.
As soon as I can preorder this game, I’m going to do it! Also, I’m probably going to GameStop this weekend and getting me Hidden Agenda, I’m beyond hyped!
Here is the official announcement on their website :
Unlike Until Dawn’s eight playable characters, this game will have five. Which makes perfect sense as poor Emily and Matt were essentially just also-rans. Five makes it tighter. Also unlike Until Dawn, this will be available on PS4, XBOX, and PC.
All the games in Dark Picture will be horror centric, so that’s good to know that’s what the studio really likes to do. Hidden Agenda is a detective story, as far as I know.
Like Until Dawn, lots of branching storylines and choices will be made.
They made the announcement on August 21, so over a month ago.
I’ve started following Supermassive Games on twitter and on YouTube, so hopefully I’ll be more informed as we go forward.
Here is the official website for The Dark Pictures Anthology:
Thus far, Supermassive Games is committed to making four games in the Anthology. I suspected it’ll be more than three games, as they would have just called it a trilogy.
Once they game comes out, another one will come out every six months, which seems super tight for a deadline. I’m sure they have massive teams just working on each one. Each game takes place within the same universe, but most likely not interact as you should be able to play each game in any order.
So that’s going to get expensive but I’ll have to start saving now.
Each game will focus on a different sub-genre of horror. So we’ve gotten the cabin in the woods story, plus that was in winter time, Man of Medan appears to be a sudden ship / treasure hunting / possibly ghost related, in the summer time. Until Dawn was a PS4 exclusive, I wonder if they can release it wide now (it came out in 2015) and put that under the Dark Pictures umbrella.
Aaron Souppouris wrote the article and got to play 15 minutes of the demo (so lucky!) and gathered all of the information.
The game is supposed to be around five hours of gameplay, so half of Until Dawn’s length. Which makes sense as I was envisioning it being like TellTale’s Batman or Life is Strange, where those had five episodes, and I wonder if this series will have that same interface.
It uses a different engine than Until Dawn, but the games look similar enough that I’m sure there won’t be a dip in quality.
Hopefully, the game won’t be $60, I bought Until Dawn for $20 but I’m not sure how much it cost when it first game out, most likely $60 but I’m committed.
I’ll try to keep up on the story and let you know what I know so if you read something, please let me know!
Shadow and Flame with Magik 