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July 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on June 30, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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 July games lineup & a thank you for 10 years of supporting PS Plus from PS4

PlayStation Plus

As PS Plus reaches its tenth anniversary, your games for July are revealed: NBA 2K20, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Erica from PlayStationPlus

PS4Deals

PS+ Free Games July 2020 – NBA 2K20, Rise of the Tomb Raider & Erica | PSN | Available July 7th from 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!

April 2020 Free PS Plus Games

Posted by John Klein III on April 1, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Sales. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I meant to do a post about games I am playing during the Coronavirus but I have been working four tens for the past few weeks and I knew the announcement for the Free PS+ Games was coming soon, so I have been drafting this in head for a bit.

The April 2020 PS+ Games are Uncharted 4 and Dirt Rally 2.0.  PlayStation Access accidentally revealed these last week, and now we know it was probably Nathan who did it, as he provides the narration in the video below.

I already own Uncharted 4, so I am going to wait for another bonus credit deal at GameStop and I can turn in both the Uncharted Collection and Uncharted 4 at that time.

Dirty Rally 2.0, seems to be a game that no one has taken the time to create a guide for, which seems bonkers to me.  I will at least play it until I earned one trophy.

.  .  .

 PSPrices

Uncharted 4 is typically a $19.99 game, but goes as low as $9.99.

Dirt Ralley 2.0 is typically $59.99, it is currently $39.99, so hopefully no one buys it this week!  It has been as low as $17.99.

So the games together are a value of $28, at their lowest.

Our running total was $61, so another $28, makes $89, so PS Plus is definitely paying for itself.

PS Store

Uncharted 4 has quite a few items on the PlayStation store :

You can buy points for the mutliplayer.

300 Points, $2.99
500 Points, $4.99
1,500 Points, $9.99
3,200 Points, $19.99
6,500 Points, $34.99
10,000 Points, $49.99

A slew of avatars, that are all .49 cents :

Harry Flynn
Orca
Knot
Katherine Marlowe
Victor Sullivan
Nathan Drake (which you may have already as it was part of the Player Appreciation package).
Sam Drake
Elena Fisher
Zoran Lazarevic
Charlie Cutter
Victor Sullivan (Hero)
Sam Drake (Hero)
Nathan Drake (Hero)
Elena Fisher (Hero)

Pack 1, $1.49 (including both brothers, Sully, and Elena)
Hero Pack $1.49, which includes Cutter and the characters from Pack 1’s hero version)
Villain Avatar Pack, $1.49

Themes

Fire, $1.99
Shipwreck, $1.99
Ink, $1.99, which I bought, as it was the only one that featured Elena.

Dirt Rally 2.0 DLC includes :

Vehicles 

Subaru Impreza, $1.49
Fully Loaded Rallycross Pack, $1.99
Fully Loaded Mini Pack, $1.99
Fully Loaded Ford Pack, $1.99
Citroen C$ Rally, $1.49
Ford Fiesta Rallycross (STARD), $1.49
Sea Ibiza RX, $1.49
Renault Megane R.S. RX, $1.49
Mini Cooper SX1, $1.49
Peugeot 208 WRX, $1.99
Volkswagen Golf Kitcar, $1.49
Opel Manta 400, $1.49
Lancia Delta S4 Rallycross, $1.49
H2 RWD Double Pack, $1.99
Ford Fiesta Rallycross (MK8), $1.49
Lancia 037 Evo 2, $1.49
Porshe 911 SC RS, $1.49
SKODA Fabia Rally, $1.49
Ford RS200 Evolution, $1.99
Rnault Clio R.S. RX, $1.49
Peugeot 206 Rally, $1.49
MG Metro 6R4 Rallycross, $1.49
Seat Ibiza Kit Car, $1.99
BMW M1 Procar Rally, $1.49
Peugeot 306 Maxi, $1.99
Peugeot 205 T16 Rallycross, $1.99
Subaru Impreza (2001), $1.49
Starter Car Upgrade, $0.99
Car Variety Pack, $3.99
Opel Kadett C CT/E, $0.99
Porsche 911 RGT Rally Spec, $1.49
Audi S1 EKS RX quattro, $1.99
Ford Focus RS Rally 2007, $1.49
Ford Focus RS Rally 2001, $1.49
Ford Fiesta RXS Evo 5, $1.99

Maps

Greece Rally, $3.99
Sweden Rally, $3.99
Finland, $3.99
Monte Carlo, $3.99
Bikernieki, Latvia, $3.99
Wales, $3.99
Estering, Germany, $3.99
Killarney, International, South Africa, $3.99
Yas Marina Circuit, $3.99
Lydden Hill, UK, $3.99

Various

Colin McRae : Flat Out Pack, $9.99, which includes 40 challenging scenarios, 12 new breathtaking rally routes through Scotland, and two vehicles.

Year One Pass, $19.99
Seasons 3 & 4 Pack, $11.99

There is also a Game of the Year Edition for $59.99.

.  .  .

Here are reddit’s responses to the news :

[Video] PS+ April Titles: Uncharted 4 and Dirt Rally 2.0 from PS4

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and DIRT Rally 2.0 are your PlayStation Plus games for April from PlayStationPlus

PS+ Free Games, April 2020 | Uncharted 4 & Dirt Rally 2.0 | PSN | Available 4/6 from PS4Deals

Some seem annoyed that now everyone owns the entire Uncharted franchise, minus Lost Legacy.  Some predict Lost Legacy will be the free game in a few months.  Almost like a movie is in the works, or something?

Then poor Dirt Rally 2.0 seems to be a real head scratcher.

.  .  .

Here are my YouTube peeps :

Nathan with PlayStation Access :

Adam with PlayStation Grenade :

Ben with Platinum Chasers :

Ben’s video finally made it to the top of the list of results for “PS+ April 2020 Games.”  Usually I have to do that search and add “Platinum Chasers,” to the search, so hopefully that means people are finding his excellent videos and he’s moving up the list.

.  .  .

Here is the PlayStationTrophies.org guide to Uncharted 4 :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/uncharted-4/guide/

Here is the link to their list of trophies for Dirt Rally 2.0 :

https://www.playstationtrophies.org/game/dirt-rally-2/trophies/

Looking at the list, I am hoping I can at least earn one of these :

Antilog Engaged, Purchase your first FIA World Rallycross Supercar
That’s Dedication, Complete 3 Weekly Community Events
Eat my DiRT, Complete 20 Custom Events
Clown Car, Complete 50 Joker laps
CAUTION, Don’t Cut, Complete a stage without damaging your car (I doubt it though)
Qualified, Complete Your first AI Challenge
Adaptable, Complete a stage in Dry, Overcast, Rain and Wet conditions
Fine Tuned, Create and save your own tuning setup

I imagine I will at least earn Qualified and Adaptable, those would be my main goals.  I am not great at racing games, or races in general, if I have learned anything from the Lego games.

.  .  .

There is currently a big April Spring Sale going on right now :

Spring Sale – US PSN (Ends 4/28) from PS4Deals

I bought Walker Dennis Lego Jurassic World, as the base game is $5.99, the lowest it goes, and the three DLC plus game came to $10, so that was a pretty good deal.

.  .  .

In Batman Arkham Asylum, I got to the point where I have to leave the Asylum, to chase down Warden Sharp.  Then I got distracted by the big March sale and my new games.

Walker Dennis and I completed Lego DC Supervillains, on his account.  I earned trophies like every other session, so I have to play on my own.  We completed the six bonus missions, so now we have full access to the open map, so he’s excited about that.

.  .  .

Slender The Arrival was pretty cheap, like three dollars, and I saw there were like four trophies we could earn during the simple Prologue, so I bought it and earned those trophies.  Maybe in October, I will really commit to playing the game again.

.  .  .

I bought Walker Dennis Lego City Undercover, and we completed the Prison Island mission, which is essentially a complete homage to Shawshank Redemption, which I really appreciated.

.  .  .

Walker Dennis has been at home as his school is closed until April 10 (hopefully!), and he just loves the Goat Simulator game.  My wife was kind enough to buy a $20 gift card and now he has the DLC collection.  I was hoping she was going to buy a $25 card and I would have gotten five dollar credit, but she outsmarted me.

I really enjoyed the MMO and the Payday DLC.  Zombies is alright, I am not much of a zombie guy, and Space seems to be the one Walker Dennis really enjoys the most, and it is the one I earned the least amount of trophies in.

.  .  .

My wife and I have started really playing Jeopardy on the PS4, and we are having a blast.  I do not forget how smart she is but I am reminded of how smart she is and also how competitive she gets.  I definitely enjoy Jeopardy over the Wheel of Fortune game, but we have been playing that as well.

.  .  .

I treated myself to Joe Mad’s Battle Chasers Anthology, that collects the first nine issues and has a slew of extras :

The reviews state that the spine of the trade is pretty weak but I did not have any problems with my copy.

During the March sale, Battle Chasers Nigthwar was around eight dollars, so I snatched it up.  I like how it purposely takes place in a different area, so you do not have to read the collection, but it helps to get to know the characters better.  The game gives little hints at previous adventures.  I am at Junktown, and just having my butt handed to me.  Most of my team is Level 12, and I get the impression I am probably two levels below where I am.  But I really wanted a RPG, so I am trying to not forget the game and come back to it as often as I can.  The main town has a mission where I have to clear out all of the slime, the same city that had the spider problem, and I am clearly supposed to be level 15 for that.

I want to be at least at the level of the main threat, which I believe was level 13 for the slime, and most enemies at Junktown seem to be level 12 to 13.  I have four members and I know I am supposed to recruit two more members, one I am very familiar with and the other seems to be unique to the game, as I do not believe I saw him in the comic.

.  .  .

I started Life is Strange : Before the Storm, and I barely started it.  I downloaded the bonus episode four, and I am still in Episode 1, Chloe has gone downstairs, and I have the fourth graffiti to still do.  My gaming goal is to finish an episode, getting all of the graffiti at the same time, then play Battle Chasers until I level up, and go back and forth between the two games until I earned the Platinum for Life is Strange : Before the Storm, and make serious headway into Battle Chasers Nightwar.  I really just want to fill my team with all six characters, and see what clicks.

I feel a tad bad for Calibretto as he was one of my original three with Gully and Garrison.  I recruited Knolan, and he was a level higher than my party, so I sort of knew then that I was below where I should be.  I believe I am close to getting Red Monika, as the notes around Junktown are referencing a red hair assassin, so that is pretty exciting.

Knolan has a group heal, and that’s sort of what I need.  I am still learning the mechanics and finally understanding the merits of using the overcharge battle system, so I have my team hit once, then on their next or third turn, use an attack or heal, that uses up mana (or overcharge) points, and that, I preserve my mana for when I really need it.  Which has taken me hours to finally click with the system.

A fun game, I enjoy it, besides the long time it takes to load into the game, but even if I can just load into the game, and complete a few battles on the map, those are less battles I have to do later to level up.  It is a bit of a grind fest, but I am here to try for it.

Junktown is such a bigger dungeon as well, with lots of options.  I have yet to find a second portal within it so that I can finally save time, as I keep having to leave, go back to the village, rest, and go back.  I have committed to stop buying revive potions, as they are expensive and i might as well just die and use the 80 gold to auto return to the village and make my way back to Junktown, going through minor villains, who are not minor at all.

I do like how, with lesser enemies, I get the option to engage in the fight or just move on.  If we engage, then we do not earn any xp, but do earn materials and gold.

I like the fishing mechanic as well, but I clearly need better bait and a better fishing rod.

I am clearly just in the beginning of the game, going up against my first real hurdle in it.  I will get there eventually, but unlike with Arkham Asylum, I want to commit to this as I have not beaten it before.

Also, owning Nightwar, makes me less incline to purchase other games in the Spring sale.  Though seeing Waking Violet for only $2.09 is pretty tempting, even if I just do a few of the puzzles, but I am resisting that urge.  Plus, I have these Lego games I can be playing as well.  So I really do have plenty of games to play.

Now that my wife is playing on the PS4 (she has really taken to the Switch with Mario Odyssey and Toad Treasure Tracker), I am tempted to buy a few more games for the PS4 for her and I to play, such as Uno or Trivia Pursuit Live.  Uno is $4.99, and Trivia Pursuit Live is $5.99, so those are pretty good prices.  We used to play Trivia Pursuit on PS3 a bunch, back in the day.  Which was a Tuesday.

Playing Sonic Forces and Shadow of the Colossus

Posted by John Klein III on March 12, 2020
Posted in: Fun With YouTube, Games, Websites. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I have been enjoying the heck out of Sonic Forces.  It is a pretty solid Sonic game, I may be even enjoying it so much more than Sonic Mania.  I like how there are super simple daily challenges.  I will admit I am mostly doing it so that I can earn the 10 daily challenges trophy but I do to mind playing a level a day and doing a daily challenge a day.  The level designs are varied and I am enjoying all of the customization I get to do with my avatar.

This is what my avatar looks like right now :

I have over 50 items unlocked thus far.

Will I play after I unlock that trophy, only a few more days will know.

I earned that trophy and I already feel like I am done with Sonic Forces for a bit.

.  .  .

I killed the first Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus.  I liked playing enough, but like I initially felt, I don’t feel compelled to keep playing.

After watching Nathan of PlayStation Access kill the first few Colossi :

Makes me want to at least kill the second one, but I am not super excited to make the attempt.

.  .  .

I moved my plans to make Life is Strange : Before the Storm my March Platinum to my April Platinum.  I made this decision as I finally earned the Lego Batman 3 Platinum!

I really missed these early Lego games, where the missions do not feel like they take forever and the subchapter selection is nice.  I have to play the full level in Free Mode but for clean up purposes, it is great to jump in and out of levels once obtaining minikits, or character tokens, or rescuing Adam Wests.

Walker Dennis and I have been playing Lego Incredibles and like Lego DC Supervillains, we are not both earning trophies so that has been highly disappointing.  So for now on, I will just play games with Walker Dennis on his account, as I can only imagine how disappointing not earning a trophy is.  I already started this policy with Lego DC Supervillians, and I am annoyed that I have to play that game separately, but earning several trophies in Lego Incredibles that he should have rightfully earned, was enough for me to make that decision.  He also tells me how disappointing it is, so it is not a secret or anything.  Such lousy game design, and with Lego games too.  These earlier games are just the way to go.

I also already know I will not get the platinum for Lego Incredibles, as I can’t earn the gold in two races, so that has been a lousy feeling as well.  I still want to finish the levels in Free Play, and I do like how there is a trophy for each main level.  What I don’t like, is that there is no minikit red brick so I am going to have to look up how to get all of the minikits, which is also annoying.  We still want to get more characters, I just have some work to put into it.

Whenever Lego Jurassic Park goes on sale again for under ten dollars, I will probably pick it up as I can only imagine it is a fun game.  I know there is no DLC, so hopefully it is more like Lego Batman 3 and not Lego Incredibles.  I should probably wait until we have finished Lego DC Supervillians, as it was causing some silly stress having three ongoing Lego games.

.  .  .

I also earned my second bonus trophy for the year with Hitman Go!  Which I can already see myself, once earning 12 platinums, just cooling my quest to earning a platinum a month.  12 sounds good enough to me, one way or the other. I am at five already.

Hitman Go was a lot of fun and so relaxing.  Did i just follow a guide the entire way?  I sure did and it was just a nice way to start a night’s gaming session.  From what I have read, Lara Croft Go is not as good, there are puzzles added to it, which makes sense, and I imagine it is as easy to play but I have never been much of a Tomb Raider guy.  I am not much of a Hitman guy either, but playing his games at least exposed me to the character and encouraged me to get this game.  That and it being only three dollars.

.  .  .

I was looking through the Double Discount sale and saw Bulletstorm : Full Clip Edition is currently $24.  It was a PS+ title back in November 2018.  We also got Yakuza Kiwami, Roundabout, and Burly Men at Sea, that month.  I got the platinum for Burly Men at Sea, I enjoyed the silliness of Roundabout and I allowed myself to get stuck on the first real boss of Yakuza Kiwami, and that was enough for me.  I never got around to Bulletstorm, as I am not the biggest FPS guy, but I also am trying to make a bigger point of playing these free games I have received.

I finished Act 1, Chapter 1, and got to the train sequence of Chapter 2.  I had earned a few trophies along the way, and the game is pretty enjoyable.  I keep running out of ammo, so I end up leashing a guy, and kicking him into walls or off cliffs, so that was a fun night.

.  .  .

I heard Call of Duty Modern Warfare : Warzone was a free battle royale so I gave it a shot.  I did the tutorial and the extra practice course for the free item both provided.  I then joined the 150 other peeps who were also playing.  I was grouped up with two other people for a squad of three.  The game looks amazing.  It took a while to find a gun with a scope that I prefer.  I am a simple man, so I like a scope that just puts a dot on where I am aiming.

I essentially just followed the one guy around the map, and made it all the way to ninth position, so I felt pretty good about that.  I probably will not go back to it but it was fun during the 10 minutes or so.  There is no trophies for Warzone, so I felt pretty free to just enjoy it.

The one thing I would have liked was to know how to crouch, as I could not figure it out.

.  .  .

I have made it to just past the Bane fight in Arkham Asylum.  I am not sure if the game starts to look worst towards the end, as the main complaints I hear about the Return to Arkham remasters is that the cut scenes look drastically different (and for the worst), but the game looks good to me.  The controls are slightly different from Arkham Knight, so that took a little getting used too.  Mostly it is realizing I want L1 for detective mode, and not up.  Everything else feels pretty good. That and in the fighting, I can’t seem to string a combo together.  I am used to punching with Square, and pressing X to evade, and then follow up with punch again, but that does not seem to work as well, just I end up just punching and pressing Triangle to counter, to get any real combo going.

.  .  .

I sort of feel like I am inbetween games.  I really like Arkham Asylum, but I feel like I am waiting for another game to make an appearance to get pulled into.  Chrono Trigger celebrated its 25th birthday on March 11, and I think I really want a JRPG to enjoy.  I found a list of 50 games like Chrono Trigger on PS4 but the bulk of them are not really jumping out at me.

https://www.50gameslike.com/games-like/chrono-trigger/ps4

The main games that do look interesting are :

Persona 5 (1), but I would also just wait for the Royal edition to release.  Though the 100 hour time cautions me.
Battle Chasers : Nightwar (6), which next time it is on sale for under ten, I will probably buy it.
I am Setsuna (8), which I know was made to be in the same spirit of Chrono Trigger but the game is rarely on sale, staying at $40.
Cosmic Star Heroine (9), which i played and platinumed, and is the type of game I want to play.
Ni no Kuni II : Revenant Kingdom (18), is on my psprices wishlist but is also an expensive game.
Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition (23), I am not sure what “Pocket Edition” means, but if the Royal Edition ever drops to under ten, I could be convinced to buy it.
Lost Sphear (25), is the other game inspired by Chrono Trigger like I am Setsuna, but is also a rather expensive game.

What I am looking for is a game I can complete in, ideally, one playthrough, and is not like a 50 hour game, or the 12th entry in a franchise that I have never heard of.  What I should do is just buy the Final Fantasy VII game for the PS4, play the heck out of that, and maybe get excited for the Remake.  I tried the Demo and there is just something about playing a demo to a game I either will not buy or will buy in a year, that I could not adjust to it.

What I really want, is to be able to buy Chrono Trigger and play it on my PS4.  I read that Chrono Cross is also available for the PS3 and Vita through the PSOne Classics line, but those do not have trophies and also, I do not currently own a PS3 or a Vita.  If only!

Though seeing Battle Chasers and being tempted to play the game, has made me want to read the comic again.

I know it was never finished and I have the first seven issues (somewhere), but I should treat myself to the Anthology series, actually read it, and then get the game.  That is how I should do it.