Shadow and Flame with Magik

To celebrate PlayStation Plus turning 10 years old, the July 2020 Free PS Plus Games are :

NBA 2k20, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Erica!

Apparently NBA 2k20 was recently four dollars, but I bought NBA 2k19 when it was three dollars, so I must have missed that other sale.  One basketball game would typically be enough for me, but I’m looking forward to playing the latest version of NBA.  Apparently 2k21 is slated to come out soonish.  Which I forgot it was announced during the PS5 Future of Gaming event.  To get back into the game, I redownloaded 2k19 and tried to get some of the easier trophies in MyNeighborhood.  Once I got my character from Preclude to the Phoenix Suns, I’m pretty sure I didn’t even play one game as a Sun.  Just having the jersey was enough for me.  Looking into it, it is a real shame that 2k20 doesn’t have a Prelude, as I saw 2k18 did.  It is a nice free DLC tutorial, but I get incorporating it into the game itself, if that is what they even did.  My gaming goal for 2k20 will be to start a new character and get him to the Suns again.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the second sequel to the rebooted trilogy.  I have been having Tomb Raider on my mind, since replaying Uncharted 4, and wanting to watch the Tomb Raider films again, especially latest one that I have never seen.  Neither of the three films are available for streaming, but hopefully that changes relatively soon.  I added 2013’s Tomb Raider to my psprices wishlist, and I see the Definitive edition goes on sale for five dollars, but I wouldn’t mind playing Rise prior to the first game, as that’s what I have.

Erica is a game I bought when it was five dollars.  I had remembered it as I had completed two playthroughs and had been forced into making a decision I didn’t want to due to not getting the cursor to land where I wanted to in a third playthrough.  Turns out, I had only completed the one playthrough and that had occurred in my third.  So I completed my second playthrough last night, using the app, and it did seem to work out better than using the touchpad.  I’m going to complete a third playthrough and keep the game in my game rotation for the month of July.  There is only six playthroughs, so I should be able to do all six of them in July or August.  Using the app did seem to give me a few additional seconds to make a choice, but I could be remembering it wrong.

Some people are complaining about these being the games to celebrate 10 years, but it seems like a pretty decent month to me, and I’m pretty happy that Erica is getting some attention that it deserves.

.  .  .

PSPrices

NBA 2k20 is currently a $60 game, but goes as low as $19.79, so maybe people are remembering 2k19’s amazing sale and not 2k20.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is typically a $30 game, but goes as low as $8.39.

Erica is typically a $10 game, but goes as low as $4.99.

Our currently running value of PS Plus is $131, with us considering Call of Duty WWII a bonus game.  So we’ll round up and add $34 to the total to make $165, and that’s us now in the second half of the year, so I’ll say we definitely have gotten our value from the service for our $45 investment.  Plus, hopefully the price doesn’t go up too much for the PS5, but hopefully it still goes on sale for either Black Friday or the holiday season.

PS Store

NBA 2k20 has the standard edition for $60, and the game is heavily influenced by microtransactions.

5,000 VC for $2
15,000 VC for $5
35,000 VC for $10
75,000 VC for $20
200,000 VC for $50
450,000 VC for $100

There is a Digital Deluxe edition for $80 and a Legend Edition for $100.

Free International Commentary so I’ve downloaded that already.

I’ve never been tempted to buy VC (the game’s currency), but you do earn a small amount with most things you do in the game.  Just not as much.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 20 Year Celebration edition, so it comes with all five DLC.

Erica also does not have any additional content.

.  .  .

Here are reddit’s reactions to the games :

PS4

PlayStation Plus

PS4Deals

Not sure what is happening with the Plus subreddit, they were trying to link to Twitter.

.  .  .

Here are my YouTube peeps :

Nathan of PlayStation Access :

Adam of PlayStation Grenade :

Ben of Platinum Chasers :

Ben has a fun little intro as the announcement came on a Monday instead of the traditional Wednesday, is like three months in a row of the announcement breaking from tradition.

Turns out, Walker Dennis is quite familiar with PlayStation Grenade thanks to Adam’s great videos relating to Goat Simulator.

.  .  .

Here are PlayStation Trophies.org’s guides to the games :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/nba-2k20/guide/

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/rise-of-the-tomb-raider/guide/

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/erica-na-ps4/guide/

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/erica/339001-erica-platinum-walkthrough-text-guide.html

Hey, NBA 2k20 has a guide!  I immediately checked and no one made a 2k19 guide, so I’m still just stumbling my way through getting those.

I apparently made some mistake in my first two playthroughs of Erica and did not earn Fall Out Girl, so hopefully one of the other playthroughs has me redo one of those activities, but it is pretty early on in the game, so it shouldn’t take too much and the recommended sixth playthrough is essentially play the entire game except do this one thing towards the end, so that’s when I will ensure I annoy each of the ladies then.

.  .  .

I’ve been making some great headway and keeping with my gaming rotation.  I will have to modify it to include two new games, but it was fun during the previous cycle.  It really just helps when I have so many episodic games to play.

I finally earn the Kifflom trophy in Grand Theft Auto V, which was one of the non-story related trophies I felt I was capable of earning.  I believe I did what was necessary to earn my million dollars for Online, but clearly I never checked again.  I will sometime around July 15, when I try to earn another million dollars.  Then I will play another mission or so.  I left the game where Michael is working for a movie producer and Franklin and Trevor are doing some mission Michael is not involved in.  So I will do the Franklin/Trevor mission and another studio mission as that was fun, and call it good.

I started playing Ratchet & Clank, and kept just thinking to myself, what an amazing game!  I really want to watch the movie now, but it isn’t streaming anywhere and I really don’t want to spend more than five dollars through VUDU and I want to say it was still asking $15 for it, and it came out in 2016 and I’m probably the only one wanting to watch it who hasn’t.  Well, I guess they just announced Rift in Time, so the desire is probably coming back, but I will watch for a sale for it.

Just because I was already at VUDU, they want $18 for the Angelina Jolie two films, and $15 for Alicia Vikander’s 2018 remake.  I do like how Lara Croft has been portrayed by two Oscar winners, she deserves that.  Jolie won for 2000’s Girl, Interrupted, Best Supporting Actress, and Vikander for 2016’s The Danish Girl, Best Supporting Actress, so also fun that they both won for Supporting Actress, as well.  $33 is a bit much for those three films, I’ll say.  Shame VUDU isn’t doing a three movie bundle like they often do for other movies, but that’s probably a rights issue.

I left Ratchet & Clank on Gaspar looking for 60 brains, which was super annoying to me as I found 40 on my own, and can’t really fathom where the other 20 could be.  Then I was reading the guide, and at some point, we earn a map that makes finding the brains way easier, so I’ll have to make progress and come back.  I really liked the flamethrower weapon, the Pyro Blaster.  I have it completely leveled up to 5, so I’ve taken it out of my weapon setup, but I’m missing it dearly, but I clearly won’t use other weapons otherwise.  Well, that isn’t true, I was using Mr. Zurkon as well, who I also loved as our buddy buddy.  I do wonder if Clank is jealous or annoyed by Mr. Zurkon.  Mr. Zurkon gives these amazing quips and I also have him maxed at level 5, so he’s out of the rotation.  The game is a lot harder without my main assets, but that’s on me, I should have been balancing them more.  Turns out, in New Game Plus, I can raise these higher to level 10, so I’m excited about that possibility.

I really got into Detroit Become Human playing for several more nights than I was expecting.  I was also surprised to see Connor come back, as I got him killed in the very first mission.  My Connor, unfortunately, is not very good, he’s let Kara escape (as how could I let him capture her?  She’s the best!), but he also failed to catch the bird Android person and also failed to figure out where murderous sex robot went, which he’s upset with himself almost as much as I’m upset with myself over it.  The bird android, I get, as we lost track of him in that final stage, but the sex robot, we were doing everything possible, but I was having to talk to more androids than expected.

Kara and Alice are still save, and we got new buddy Lucifer now too.  We’ve been to the abandoned amusement park.  That mansion where we meet Lucifer was intense!

Markus has met his crew and I want to ship him and North so hard!  Turns out, she’s played by Minka Kelly, so she’s giving Kara’s actress, Valorie Curry a run for her money.  But I still like Kara more, especially as Markus keeps doing at least one thing that annoys North, but then she makes it pretty clear what she wants to have happen next happen, and I make those decision so easily, even if it annoys the rest of the crew.  Valorie Curry was on Amazon’s The Tick, so now I really want to watch that show.

I meant to keep playing even more but then I was reading up on what skills I need in The Council and it made me really want to play that game.  Seriously, I really want more people to play The Council.  The first episode is free, and I love how it is a TellTale style of game, but with a skill tree.  I love the act of finding out which skills I need, I make a list, when it comes time to pump skills into the tree, I find out which ones I really needed during the previous quest, and I raise those skills and see how it effects the next quest.  I completed Episode 2, and just having a great time with this historical fiction.  I can’t wait to jump into Episode 3!

I finally got around to playing Metal Gear Solid V : Ground Zeroes.  I thought I was doing a pretty decent job at stealth, but I would blow my cover, but I eventually got my two buddies rescued.  It got intense towards the end of it, but I figured out a path, and got her out of there.  I hate to write this, as it may be controversial, but I think I much prefer Sniper Elite IV’s stealth to Metal Gear Solid V, but I was instantly taken by Sniper Elite IV, and I will give Ground Zeroes a couple more tries and try to get good with it.

I finished Chapter Eight of Uncharted 4, such a fun game.  Here is another game where there is just a lot of fighting, and I forget that besides amazing set pieces, that the game is a cover shooter.  Like, I forget all of the combat that is required to get through, just to get to the next place.  I’m playing on Normal, and I’m sure the two lower difficulties probably has less enemies, but after completing a chapter, I usually feel pretty good with my progress.

I finished the second episode of King’s Quest.  Still really enjoying the game.  I had to do one full run of Episode 2, and then pretty much two thirds of a playthrough, twice, to get the other two endings.  I recall reading Episode Four might be the same way with having to create saves to save time, but I’m still here for it.  A fun game, the characters are fun, not enough of Amaya for my taste, but she was barely in the first episode as well.  I doubt she becomes the future queen, but if she is, that would be amazing.

Doing these episodic games, I was reminded that we never completed the first episode of TellTale’s Back to the Future game.  So I completed my run, and then I helped Walker Dennis complete his run.  He started the second episode and the controls seem to be a tad better.  There was a lot of back tracking in 1955 that I wouldn’t have minded so much, if when I press the left direction, Marty walked in the left direction.  Because of camera angles, or not implementing a better control scheme, I was holding down to make him to across the screen in the right direction.  It wouldn’t have been so bad, but I was running across the central area and going to the soup kitchen and the jail a bunch, and the controls could have been a tad better.

A game that has pretty much perfect controls is Batman : Arkham Aslyum.  I finished the game with locking Harley up and moving onto the Botanical Gardens.  I forgot how creepy those lunatics are, and two different ones jumps on my back and gave me quite the freight!  That’s when I knew it was bed time.  I meant to play more, but then the free games were announced I wanted to play Erica’s second playthrough and that took almost two hours, but I still had enough time to knock out some easier trophies in NBA 2k19.

.  .  . 

Because I had filled the PS4 with my current game rotation and to make room for Erica and NBA 2k19, I had to delete Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank, GTA V (which was probably the only one I really needed to delete), and Detroit Become Human.  It was fun to revisit those games, but removing those games freed up a bunch of space.  Oh, and I deleted Final Fantasy XIV as well.  I clearly was not coming back that game any time soon.  So I should have enough space now for Rise of the Tomb Raider and I will delete NBAS 2k19, once I have 2k20.  I thought progress carried over between games, but I also clearly never finished a season, so what would I be carrying over?  I just checked and NBA 2k20’s demo is not the prelude, it does not have a story mode that benefits the game, so that’s pretty disappointing.  So I will spend a night (hopefully) of running around the neighborhood to earn the Marathon Man trophy and delete 2k19 in preparation of 2k20.

I’m sure I will redownload Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank again as the desire will return, especially Ratchet & Clank, as I’m sure Rise of the Tomb Raider will scratch the Uncharted itch.

.  .  .

My beautiful wife got me the best Father’s Day present ever!  I am now the proud owner of a PlayStation Vita!  I’ve been wanting one for so long!  She also treated me to a 16GB SD card so I was able to fill the thing up with so many games, that I eventually had to delete a few as I got carried away with wondering how many filled up the 16GB as the first few games I downloaded, were super small.  Turns out, and I’m still getting used to the store format through the Vita, but I did claim some additional games that I didn’t think I did.  So that has been nice, and even one game I didn’t even know I had access too.  That game is Super Mutant Alien Assault.

At first, I had no intention of redownloading games I have played on the PS4 that were cross play, but then I realized how silly that was as that eliminated like 20 games, and I decided against that policy when I realized I had 20 Vita games, when I thought I only had like six.

Every Wednesday, I’m going to check psprices (I do this regardless) to see the cheap Vita games and slowly start building my collection.  Especially if the game is cross play as I like to give them a shot on the big TV before playing them on the Vita.  I bought Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition as it was $1.19, and worth a risk.  I saw Cel Damaged was on sale for $3, but I think I can hold off on buying games until they are under $2, especially as I have so many new games I haven’t even played yet.

I did buy Demetrois : Big Cynical Adventure after reading it was a visual novel with a twist, and I think I really want to turn my Vita into a Visual Novel machine, as those seem to be perfect carry around and play type of games.

I write that but I have been playing King Oddball like crazy!  To the point, where I want to reinstall it onto the PS4 as I’ve been making crazy progress, but I’m also okay with not doing that.  Such a great game, if you want Angry Birds, but with a floating head that throws rocks using his tongue, King Oddball is the game for you!

I also been playing Sparkle 2 for a lot longer than I ever gave it a chance on the PS4.  I am mentally committed to playing it until I earned the Play for 4 Hours trophy, but I’ll probably see it to the end.

Divekick is a very fun fighting game, either we jump or we are divekicking.  I did one playthrough as the bear character and now I’m currently playing as Dive, brother to Kick.  Though I am playing with the YOLO gem, so one kick to me, and I lose and I have to kick my opponent five times, one kick per round.  It is for a trophy, and it like King Oddball, as a real “just one more go” feel to it.

Draw Slasher is not the Ninja Fruit clone I thought it was going to be, but I understand now where they make that comparison.  It is more of a side scrolling fighting game, where we are constantly swiping our sword at opponents.  Pretty fun, I beat the boss and felt good with my progress.  I’m essentially just trying out a slew of games to see what I take too.

For instance, I did not take to Atomic Ninjas, there is a lot of depth and abilities to the game, maybe a few too many, and I’m just plain not good at it.  Like, I felt good at the beginning of the tutorial, but then it goes on for like six additional abilities and then I try it for real, and I just end up bouncing around the area and shoving people into fire.

I sort of want to buy a 32GB SD card, but those things are so expensive but I just want to have access to all of my games.  Which is silly a the PS4 has clearly trained me to only keeping like six games at any given time.

Blasting Agent : Ultimate Edition was fun until I got to the second boss fight.  It took so many tries, but I did it, and felt I got my $1.19 out of it.  It also served as a cautionary tale to maybe not just buy every dollar game out there.

I really want to get Uncharted : Golden Abyss, I rather not spend $15 on it, but I think I might just be getting to the point that I want to play one of the best Vita titles out there.  I also saw there was Batman Origins Blackgate for the Vita, and I sort of want that game too.  Hopefully with people’s interest in the Vita since that one moment in The Last of Us Part 2, sales for games will start kicking in.  I saw there are already two company’s who are going back to developing games for the system, so hopefully that is a new trend.

I’m still no good at 36 Fragments of Midnight, but I feel like it could be a perfect Vita game.  Usually I tuck Walker Dennis in at night, then I sit and play on the Vita until he falls asleep, which has been nice as there were a few nights (too many, to be honest), where I started getting sleepy myself, and either dozed off or became to sleepy to hang out with my wife.  Now I am pretty alert and ready to hang out, so it has been worth it.

The Vita has a tutorial to learn more about its function, Welcome Park, and there were trophies associated with it, so I gave that a try.  I’m no good at that jigsaw puzzle, but I’m never good with those where we are missing a piece and have to move all of the tiles along to form the puzzle.

I’m hoping Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross go on sale, they were on sale in March or so, and if I knew I was getting a Vita then (it was still a dream at that point), I would have bought them when they were $5 each, instead of $10.  If they had trophy support, I would just buy them right now, but they don’t, so I’m holding out for a sale.

So a lot of gaming stuff is happening around me and I’m super excited for July!