We got two PlayStation 2 releases this week. I know who would have thought it. Hold on I am getting a message here. WWE 2K20 is a release is for current consoles? Are you sure? Did you see the character models and background detail in the story mode? Alright fine but you can’t tell me Street Outlaws: The List is a modern game… Oh, come on.
Well, here we are at the end of a console generation so naturally here comes all the shovelware. Street Outlaws is a reality show (that I had never heard of) that features drag racing in Oklahoma City (Okay that might explain why I never heard of it) and somehow someone decided to create a licensed game with ugly graphics and a very small number of cars. In which you drive in a straight line… in Oklahoma City. (In fairness to the developer I don’t know if the graphics are really that plain and ugly or if Oklahoma City just looks like that. )
Look at me here picking on some indie developer who got a big break with the suits at the Discovery Channel. This is probably the first real game for the folks at GameMill Entertainment LLC we should be encouraging them… What they have made other games? Well I mean this is probably their first driving game… Oh, they do have other driving games? Let me see here… Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. Oh dear.
I understand why the go fast in a straight line in Oklahoma City by the people who brought you the Big Rigs game looks like it does. I mean their entire market is confused grandmas at Walmart. But really what is 2k’s excuse with WWE 2K20?
Is it me or are wrestling games getting worse every year? (As written above I am going to give your Grandma bedsores? Really? Plus bedsores is one word, not two.) And what is with the graphics? Fight Night Champion had better character models than these guys and gals. Fight Night Champion came out eight years ago.
Anyway, we have a decent week with our Game of the Week (year?) The Outer Worlds and a PC game Disco Elysium that technically came out last week but has been nipping at my radar and I have to put on the list
The Outer Worlds
It’s Fallout… in… Space… Obsidian Entertainment is one of my favorite developers. Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, etc. And here they have had time (three years) and a budget (Microsoft) and have launched a gorgeous version of Fallout in Space.
The Outer Worlds really looks good and it is a step up visually and choice wise from the last fallout game, Fallout 4. (Don’t write in. Fallout 4 is the last Fallout game. capiche). In fact, the choice system seems at another level from most games of this type.
Caveats: Obsidian Entertainment has made some of the buggiest games I have ever played Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas… etc. Early reviews have not had a peep about any issues with The Outer Worlds but I recall a sacred vow about never buying an Obsidion game at launch I made sometime soon after the launch of Fallout New Vegas.
I am disappointed there are no romance options in the game (A beautiful dialogue-heavy game like this is perfect for such things). I understand that is an artistic choice by the designers and I respect that. Plus I don’t need any companions just me and my dog traveling from planet to planet on a great adventure like that movie A Boy and his Dog but with less rape and less Jason Robards. Hold on what? There is no Dogmeat? How can you make Fallout… In… Space and not put in Dogmeat. That’s it cancel the preorder.
Disco Elysium
In any other week (such as last week when it came out) Disco Elysium would be my pick of Game of the Week. This is sort of a neo-noir dialogue-heavy very adult descent into madness. Oh, and it is a detective RPG. Also, your body parts and some clothing options are voiced and talk to you. And you die a lot.
What kind of game is it? Everyone will have a very different experience. It takes The Outer World’s concept of choice and dials it up to eleven. One unfortunate Twitch streamer had her adult male character forcibly sodomized by a twelve-year-old meth addict. It’s that kind of game.
Why isn’t it belatedly this week’s Game of the week? I think it might be a little too dark and nihilistic (See above) and while some have praised the graphics from what I have seen they seem a bit muddy. I love the concept and have been fascinated by the stories of those that have played. I am looking forward to it but I admit, like before playing a good horror game, I am a little scared.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
When it comes to Call of Duty I am a single player mode kind of guy. I will dabble in the multiplayer after I get my feet wet a bit against the computer but I have always enjoyed the over the top single-player campaigns included in the Call of Duty franchise (well most years).
I will admit I find the naming convention of just using the same name as before irritating. This seems to be a new trend (We just had Grid pull the same stunt a few weeks ago) and it is a new trend we need to kill with fire.
My only other note I that I can’t recall a Call of Duty game with less hype attached to it. If I wasn’t doing this list I would have had no idea it was coming out this week. I don’t know if it is a change in marketing to focus more on streamers and social media and less on regular media, or the fact I simply don’t see the volume of ads I used to. Either way, the days of massive ad campaigns with Hollywood stars seem long past.
Cat Quest II: The Lupus Empire
The original Cat Quest action RPG is cute. For Cat Quest II: The Lupus Empire they have added a dog (boo) and couch co-op (boo) and now you control two characters at once (boo) which honestly doesn’t appeal to me at all. The reports on the ground are that the game works perfectly fine as a single-player experience, however. Plus it has cute cats and lots of puns.
MediEvil
If I were to make a list of Playstation One games I would like to see remastered… well Medievil would not be on that list. I have never played it, I had barely heard of it and it is one of the colorful 3d adventure game that is fine but also was plentiful back in the day. (While typing this I have been thinking of the games I would like to see remastered, but that is a long list and I would like to finish Games to Buy this week sometime this week)
Okay, fine Twisted Metal 2 and Project Overkill would be a good start for remastered and the one where you are some sort of rabbit that jumps really high. (I looked it up. It’s Jumping Flash!)
MediEvil remaster looks like a labor of love and as these types of games go it looks like a decent one. So to mix things up and spread some retro love I will include it towards the bottom of the list.
Raging Loop
A visual novel with a twist where one of the villagers is a werewolf and you have to deduce who it is. It has a nice game plus mode where you can get into the thoughts of the other characters. An interesting twist on the visual novel genre. Like the game Clue but someone gets eaten after every fifth turn.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel III
Before starting The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel III you definitely need to play The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel and The Legend of Heroes: Trails Of Cold Steel II at the very least (There are fourteen entries in the entire series many over various Sony platforms) and maybe take a semester on The Legend of Heroes history at a local community college.
I am not kidding above. Almost everyone who has reviewed or previewed the game state that you are thrown into the middle of a very complicated collection of relationships. The game does provide a tremendous amount of material to review about the world and factions but it is the relationships that may still be a mystery for those going in with this chapter.
Honestly, this is the same issue many gamers with Kingdom Hearts. The story kept getting more complicated as the game travel over different platforms and different versions. (To a much lesser extent Yakuza suffers from this as well.)
This issue makes gamers hesitant to enter into long-running series (The first Legend of Heroes game Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes came out in 1989). It can be difficult or even impossible to catch up through natural gameplay in the previous entries are on older systems or have never been translated. Plus older games don’t have the quality of life adjustments we expect from modern gaming often souring one on the franchise before even getting to the modern games.
Anyway, this game (and its series) is going to the maybe after I retire pile.
Eastshade
Wander around the beautiful country listening to peaceful music while channeling your inner Bob Ross and painting pictures. Not thrilling but a nice palate cleanser.
Pixel Gladiator
Side-Scrolling swarm tower defense indie game. Honestly looks a touch fun and I am willing to give a spin despite the cliche pixel graphics.
