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Monday Gaming Diary: It’s been a year of the point-and-click

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All weekend long, I powered through a point-and-click adventure to review for work, Heaven’s Hope. After I finished and logged it in my spreadsheet of games started and finished (yes, I do keep records), I realized that the last three games I’ve finished were all point-and-click adventures: Order of the Thorne: King’s Challenge, Firewatch (yeah this counts), and now Heaven’s Hope. It’s really crazy to think that just a few years ago, this genre was pretty dead and gone. Thanks to Double Fine and Telltale and their successes, they have made quite the comeback.

As much as I love Telltale’s games, if you play enough of them back-to-back, they start to feel the same-ish. Telltale has a fantastic formula that will keep players guessing, as well as laughing and/or crying, but there is only so much of that formula you can take before it all runs together and feels stale. Maybe stale isn’t the right word, but you do want something new.

Heaven's Hope

One thing I can say about all three of these games is that none of them were alike. They were each challenging in their own way, except for Firewatch. I’ll just leave that one out of my thought process here. None of them were like Double Fine’s zaniness either in solving puzzles. Even when I got absolutely stuck, discovering the solution made sense. Also, none of these had an insane amount of backtracking that consistently grew old with each step. Heaven’s Hope helped alleviate this with a fast travel ability. Every point-and-click adventure should contain a fast travel ability. I might not have raged at Broken Age as much in the second act if there was a fast travel option.

I’m glad to see so many options coming to this genre. I loved it a lot when I was far younger, and I love them even more with the inability to get into an unwinnable situation. Not even Telltale has fail states, unless you don’t react quickly enough and you get the main character killed. That’s probably the worst problem with those games; no one enjoys quicktime events, Telltale. No one.

However, I am afraid of oversaturation of the genre as well. I think we’re witnessing this with space sims, and I’d hate to see the point-and-click become overdone as well. At least with the point-and-click, there are a wide variety of stories and ideas one can play with the genre. Space sims are slightly more limiting.

I’m writing up my review of Heaven’s Hope today, but I can say that I recommend it as much if not more than Order of the Thorne: King’s Challenge.

Oh wait, look…The Division showed up for review. Well, it’s been nice knowing all of you. Time to take that MMO plunge!

The Corner of Randomness: Winter Brawl X

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Winter Brawl XWinter Brawl X took place last weekend, and that means I was firmly planted at my computer watching all the greatness. Winter Brawl X is the first Major for the FGC (fighting game community). It is essentially the season opener. It’s not a CPT (Capcom Pro Tour) event, thus players won’t be earning their points for that. However, there is prize money and pride to be won at this event.

Friday night was the customary teams format. I watched the Street Fighter V battles. It was rather interesting to see who teamed up with who. These team formats usually happen at the beginning of the tournaments and is more of a warm up to the actual tournament that starts the next day. There is often a fair amount of joking going on with the commentators, stream setup tweaking, and overall shenanigans happening. It’s entertaining.

When the actual tournament began on Saturday, it was all business. This is where players are working to get into the top slots for the Sunday finals. Just because a player is knocked out of the winner’s bracket, doesn’t mean they are out of the tournament. They drop into the loser’s bracket, where they can then work through that bracket to have a chance at a reset and a possible championship win.

Sunday is really the time most people will be interested in tuning in as this is where the winner of each game at the tournament is crowned. You get to see a variety of games played on one stream. You also get to see just how many different games one player is willing to learn and master.

Now, what were some of my impressions of this event? Well, it was crazy fun. I thought FilipinoChamp would win Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but he lost in the grand finals. He just didn’t seem to be able to read his opponent at the end and took a pretty rough beating.

I don’t follow Killer Instinct as much, but I still watched the finals. I always think I want to try this game after I watch it, but then the interest fades pretty quickly. UA Bass put on a clinic in the finals and walked away the winner.

Guilty Gear Xrd is always an enjoyable watch as it’s just so insane looking. VV BT Marlin Pie looked pretty solid the whole tournament. Thus it really didn’t surprise me that he walked away with the win on this one.

Onto one of my favorite games: Mortal Kombat X. This game is just so much fun to watch. What surprised me the most is that the YOMI guys didn’t place as high as they usually do. I don’t know if they were rusty or what, but they were all out before the semifinals. What is not surprising is that cR SonicFox took the win. This kid has some wicked good skills and it shows every time he plays. You never really know what character he will pick, but man does he know this game so well.

Finally, the game that closed out the tournament was Street Fighter V. If you listened to our Street Fighter V vs Mortal Kombat X podcast, you’ll remember we said that SFV was truly designed with tournaments in mind. Well, that was extremely evident at Winter Brawl X. Matches were fast and full of action. Button checks went a lot fast as most people used the button config screen to verify their sticks/pads were functioning properly.

What caught me by surprise here was to see cR SonicFox had entered the SFV tournament. I could tell he was still learning the fundamentals, but he didn’t do too badly. Sadly, he was knocked out in losers round four. FilipinoChamp had stated he was spending a lot of time with this game. I had expected him to go a bit further than he did. However, he was taken down in losers round six by TA Moons. LI Joe would fight his way out of losers, reset the bracket, and ultimately walk away the winner. He just destroyed in the grand finals.

There were plenty of other games at the even that I didn’t tune in for. Some of them I do go back and try to catch a replay of, some I just don’t enjoy watching streamed. It’s all personal preference. Yes, Smash has a massive showing at these tournaments, so fans of that series have an insane amount of stuff to watch as that is pretty much non-stop. At the end of Sunday, I closed out Twitch.TV and went to bed excited about the upcoming tournaments. Street Fighter V is a lot more fun to watch than Ultra Street Fighter IV was. Mortal Kombat X just had four new characters added and some mechanic changes. It’ll be interesting to see if cR SonicFox keeps his domination in MKX and how he improves in SFV. Exciting times are ahead, that much is for sure!

Monday Gaming Diary: LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Pursuit of Platinum

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LEGO Marvel's Avengers Platinum Trophy

I went on an incredible overdrive over the weekend to get the LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Platinum Trophy complete and get this strategy guide review done. I didn’t have to get the Platinum Trophy to get everything out of the guide that I needed, but it was so easy to get the other trophies before reaching that coveted 100% completion in a LEGO game. That part had to achieved before reviewing the guide, and it happened to be the very last thing I did, as the screenshot above evidences. One trophy is to witness the 100% fountain in the Avengers Tower, which was the second to last trophy I earned.

I brought in Falcon and Quicksilver to the party, because they were my heart and soul for getting all of the Hub worlds completed. Quicksilver was primarily my man for Manhattan, as it’s quite easy to run around the Big Apple with his super speed. Falcon I used in every Hub, as he was my man for flying. He was far smoother to control than any other flying character, and it’s thanks to him (and Quicksilver, really) that I finished any of the races. The vehicle handling is atrocious in the game, and thanks to these two, I was able to complete each race with ease.

Other honorable mentions include

  • Hawkeye, both Kate and Clint, as their weapons made them the veritable jacks-of-all-trades,
  • Jane Foster Thor, because I like her comic,
  • Tigra, because using her scan ability avoids one of the dumbest mini-games in the game,
  • Ultron, for his repair ability because switching him out was easier than Iron Man every damn time, and
  • Vision, for his tunnel grate ability and host of other abilities that made him more efficient to use than others who could use the grates.

Thank you all so much for making LEGO Marvel’s Avengers a better game than LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, even though that one had Deadpool.

Another thing I will say about this game is that getting the Platinum has given me additional courage in getting the other wayward Platinum trophies from the LEGO games. I never did finish LEGO Batman 2 or LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, because the Hub world overwhelmed me too much. But now thanks to this game, I have a method to transversing the Hubs. However, I think I also need a break from LEGO games for a little while. They’re fun, but they do get tedious.

The Corner of Randomness: Deadpool Marvel Collector Corps Unboxing

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I come home from my recent trip to Texas to find my Marvel Collector Corps waiting for me. It was hard being in Texas knowing this was going to be waiting my arrival. It’s probably why I drove a bit faster to get home. Anyway, this one is Deadpool themed, which is badass. After ripping into this box, I’m left with one question. Deadpool is such an adult oriented character. So why do they make all his toys so damned adorable? Yeah, this box contains so much fun. I’ll stop babbling and get ya to the video right now!

Monday Gaming Diary: Keeping the LEGO Marvel’s Avengers in Focus

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Crystal - LEGO Marvel's Avengers

Last week was insane for my review schedule. Three reviews written and published last week, all while the husband was once again out of town. This weekend, even though I have another game to review, I refused to work on it. Instead, when I did sit down to play a game, I focused upon LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, because seriously, I do have a strategy guide to review, and the best way to review is to nab that 100% completion.

I played way too much last night as a result, and my eyelids are already heavy today, which should make my Monday podcast very entertaining.

But!

I have made some great progress, as in I’ve cleared 3 of the Hub Worlds and completed all of the Free Play mode for the missions. So that’s about 4 Hubs to go, and one is all of Manhattan. I’m saving that one for last because I’m dreading it something fierce. Such a huge Hub World is a big reason why I never got the 100% completion in LEGO Batman 2 or LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. It’s probably not so bad if I tackle it piece by piece, but this shit overwhelms me most of the time. That’s kind of also why I haven’t completed either Dragon Age Inquisition, The Witcher 3, or Xenoblade Chronicles X. I love all three, but day-um they be big.

Today I decided to spend Lunch with LEGO, and perhaps I’ll make that a tradition. Gotta plow through these games somehow, and it’s fun to break up the day with a game for enjoyment instead of work.

And speaking of that, I should get to the PC RTS game I am reviewing for this week. But maybe I’ll clear the Barton’s Farm Hub first…

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