Attack of the Backlog

Here is a blog of my attempt at completing the 52 Week 52 Game Challenge

[yugurugames]

Gaming

It has been forever since i updated this blog. I did not complete the backlog challenge. Life got real complicated. However, i have been playing Path of Exile and Overwatch off and on with friends. Perhaps i will get back to the backlog challenge and start over again.

[yugurugames]

Blog Updated

Sorry for the long time between updates. I have had so much fun playing on the Xbox One i went over my 5 game per system rule. I will attempt to stay on track as i move on to my next system. I can’t decide if i want to play Xbox 360 or PS3 first. I guess we will see.

[yugurugames]

Game 22: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 22/52

This was another Games with Gold perk. I played the hell out of this game so much that i played it twice through. First play-through was on normal and the second was on Heroic. I really get sucked into these top down ARPG games. It reminded me a lot of Diablo and that was enough for me to get hooked. I got the game for free but found myself buying an extra DLC char *SHOCK....... GASP* I even acquired it on PC so i can play the Final Cut Version * Don’t JUDGE ME!* Great Game however the online multiplayer is limited to only your friends which earns it a heavy loss in favor. There were some lag issues with the DeathTrap in game Tower Defense game. However, none of this stopped me from really enjoying the game overall. 

Rating: 7.5/10(Game feels incomplete. Multiplayer was not hashed out all the way. Great Diablo style game play)

[yugurugames]

Game 21: Wolfenstein: New Order

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 21/52

I scooped this game up on Black Friday for $12 with the expansion. I could not pass up on that deal. I remember Wolfenstein being the first or second game i played with Doom as the fathers of FPS games. This game was epic! It was over the top in every way possible but had a story that hooked you and made you want to progress. I love that it gave you the ability to play  however you want. Are you  more of a sneak around undetected, Rambo kill every mofo on the planet, chuck a grenade then say hello, or anything and everything goes type of person? This game can cover any play style which i feels makes it unique. The final boss was beyond foolishly difficult on Hard(I am Death Incarnate). Overall Great game and I will have to double back around and play the expansion as soon as i can.

Rating: 8.5/10(Great Story, Great Animations, Open Ended Play Styles, Stupid AI, Frustrating AI, Difficulty Levels not balanced)

[yugurugames]

Game 20: Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 20/52

I downloaded this game because i fell in love with the version on Xbox 360. I totally underestimated how much fun i was  missing by not getting this game at launch . I will say that the epilepsy inducing  ability of this game is strong as i found myself not able to play it for long sessions without needing a break. It totally becomes sensory overload but i found myself continuously coming back for more. Twin stick insanity shooter should be its new genre/name. The last level of the main campaign was so absurdly hard it took just under 50 attempts to beat it. I almost scrapped this game because of my frustration with it. However, i hate quitting games *I’m looking at you Dark Souls* and i pressed on to beat it jumping up and down like a little kid when i did. 

*Sidenote: I never beat Dark Souls. I raged so hard my wife stopped buying me video games. *

Rating: 80/10(Great Game, Stupidly Hard Final Level, Unbalanced Abilities)

[yugurugames]

Game 19: Pneuma: Breath of Life

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 19/52

I downloaded this game with my Games with Gold perks. I saw a person playing it on twitch and decided it would be worthy of a play. Let me say right now...THIS GAME WAS AWESOME!  The minimalist art style worked really well even in the frustrating sections of this game. This is a true puzzle game and you really have to think outside the box to complete it. I solved almost all of the puzzles without any help. I had to page Dr. Google for help on three of them only to find out i was completing them almost correctly but just didn’t have enough patience on to fully figure it out. The voice acting was high quality even though it was starting to annoy me mostly because i just wanted to get to the puzzle. Little did i know his words had some helpful meaning to giving you clues how to solve the puzzle till midway through the game. The ending definitely shocked me and i walked away with a huge grin on my face. Well played Indie Games well played....

Rating: 9.0/10 (True Puzzle Game, Overall Too Short once you get used to the system, annoying yet useful Voice Actor)

[yugurugames]

Game 18: Call of Duty: Ghosts

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 18/52

I bought this game Day 1 with my Day 1 XB1. I was so excited for the next gen call of duty however after a few minutes online with it i benched it to play other games. Returning to it felt more like a chore than anything else. Playing it didn’t inspire the same feelings MW2 or BOps had. Playing CoD with a dog feels awkward. If i were on the other side of the battle i’d just shoot the dog with my bazooka before it got close. So watching this dog zip around and take out like 8 guys without getting hit just broke the inception like trans i normally get in with FPS games. I did enjoy blowing stuff up in outer space even though i’m more than curious how bullets travel in space now. *Side thought* Is it possible to fire a bullet in space? Wouldn’t the answer be no since there is no oxygen you can’t create the fire to propel the bullet???  *Sorry Nerd Moment*. Either way i finished this boring game and went online to only find a few modes capable of being played. It felt like when i bought BOps2  on Wii U *Pardon Me while i cry*. 

Rating: 6.0/10(Uninspiring Story, Same Old Formula, No real online community, Combat Dog)

[yugurugames]

Game 17: Dragonball Z Xenoverse

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 17/52

I bought this game at launch after being coerced to join it by a friend. Wed had really high hopes for this game and it was an absolute mess at launch. You could not play at all with all of the server issues so i just shelved the game. Growing up watching DBZ gave me all types of nostalgic feelings while playing this game. The combat in my opinion is pretty horrible and the game design is poor however, the cutscenes and animations make it totally worth the play. I really enjoyed the art style and the alternate story that they told. DBZ Super is out in Japan and i have to finish catching up on the remaining cartoons/movies before I dive full into the DBZ Heaven again but overall this game was fun to play. I just wish it had more to it.

Rating: 5.0/10(Great Animation. Crappy Fighting System. Forced Archetypes. Online Integration is Poor)

[yugurugames]

Game 16: Destiny: The Taken King

Status: Completed

Platform: Xbox One

Games Completed: 16/52

I bought this game at launch after being coerced to join it by a friend. I hated every moment of it. I hated the game in the beta and to a point I still hate it. The same friend  coerced me into upgrading my game to the latest DLC. Now if you know me you know i HATE DLC!!!!!!!! Given that this is the most expensive DLC I have ever purchased I had high demands. I can say that this game is light years better than it was when it first came out however, I still cannot say I love it. For it to take a FPS game and try to merge it into a MMO I must say it failed miserably. They say this is 10 year game and that it should evolve over the next 10 years. I can say without a doubt that i will not be purchasing the next major expansion unless all of my friends do. I am marking this game complete because i completed all my solo quest that i could except for the raid content which requires 6 players. I will leave with a note: If you are playing this game with Friends aka “fireteam” then it is much more fun to play.

Rating: 6.0/10(Great Gun Mechanics and Level Design but the rest falls short)

[yugurugames]

XBOX ONE!!!!!!!!!

Game 16: Destiny The Taken King

I’m very happy to be done with my Playstation 4 games and have been waiting to return to my Xbox One. I am currently playing through Destiny: The Taken King. As i have not completed any of the DLC I will call this game complete after i finish all of the DLC missions and participate in all of the raids my gear will allow.

[yugurugames]

Game 15: Velocity 2X

Status: Completed

Platform: PS4

Games Completed: 15/52

If you would have asked me could you combine the shmup genre and side scrolling platformer i would have said no way but this game managed to pull it off very well. I will say the story was underwhelming and i found myself skipping through it after maybe the first two “cutscenes???” The action definitely kept the game moving forward. That is until i hit the XP wall(BOY WAS I PISSED!) You have 50 levels to complete and as you cruise along completing most of the levels with fair ease if you don’t score a near perfect score on the majority of the levels you cannot complete the last few levels without grinding. Forcing me to go back and grind out as many levels as it took to reach the minimum xp requirement caused me to really not like the game. It was fun until then so i will still give it a decent score for the experience.Very good control scheme and non-obtrusive UI score this high marks.

Rating: 7.5/10(Boring story and vicious XP wall)

[yugurugames]

Game 14: Resogun

Status: Completed

Platform: PS4

Games Completed: 14/52

I absolutely love this genre of game. It almost seemed as if the game community had given up on it and this comes along and shakes everything up. I was intrigued that you could use your ship as a battering ram to help stay alive. Everything in me wanted to avoid all the enemy ships at all cost. This game started to be sensational overload at times often reminding me of the Epilepsy inducing Geometry Wars but it never stopped me from playing. I am glad to see the modded ship community is very much alive in this game. I hope they continue to make these games and push this genre forward.

Rating: 9/10(wish it were longer)

[yugurugames]

Game 13: Dust an Elysian Tale

Status: Completed

Platform: PS4

Games Completed: 13/52

This game was simply amazing. I was very interested in completing this game because I heard it was created by a very small dev team. As an inspiring developer myself I can definitely say this is one of the very best indie games I've ever played. I was totally in awe from start to finish. The combat is very quick and very challenging trying to keep the combo counter as high as possible. I found myself trying to push myself to get higher and higher combos ignoring the story for sometime. This game pushed my search every corner of every stage problem into overdrive. I often felt frustrated searching the whole level only to figure out i couldn't find everything without continuing the main story and acquiring additional powers. Overall, i really loved this game and would definitely play it again on a higher difficulty!

Rating: 9.5/10

[yugurugames]

I promise to update this blog....

Just not right now.... Too focused on gaming :D

[yugurugames]

Game 12: Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition

Status: Completed

Platform: PS4

Games Completed: 12/52

I really did not want to get back into Diablo after all the time i devoted to the pc version however, a friend purchased this for me so i had no choice but to play.... With that said i found the console version of the game quite refreshing. I had a great time getting all of my characters to 70 and decked out in all legendary gear. I will say there are things that ruined my experience such as hackers coming in and boosting my paragon of all my characters to 10,000. While it is fun to run around with pretty much GOD mode turned on. The game does lose interest quickly when you do so much damage, have all the gear you need, and cannot die. Blizzard does not moderate the console version the same way they do the PC version. So unless i am playing hardcore or playing local multiplayer with friends i will most likely move on to another game.

Rating: 8/10(heavy loss due to uncontrolled hacking)

[yugurugames]

Game 11: Valiant Hearts

Status: Completed

Platform: Playstation 4

Games Completed: 11/52

This is my first game completed on PS4. This game was really amazing. It was really sad and i wanted to cry at the end of the story. It almost felt like an interactive movie and not a game which is not a complaint. I was really immersed in the puzzles and there were so many it offered a good variety. There were some unique elements which kept things refreshing and not over-the-top. Well executed story telling adventure and worth the time to play it.

Rating: 9/10

[yugurugames]

Game 10: Wonderful 101

Status: Completed

Platform: Wii U

Games Completed: 10/52

I really loved this game. It reminded me a lot of Bayonetta. I really enjoyed the combat system once i got a good understanding of it. I started getting Platinum Plus rewards quite often and would consider playing this game again to see if i can get perfect on every mission. The comedy was a bit over-the-top in spots and I found myself loosing interests in the cut scenes. However, once the gaming started all my qualms were squashed and smiles couldn’t stay off my face. Great Game!  Highly Recommended!

Rating: 8.8/10