Game 153 - Butcher - Week X - August 24

utcher is a perfect game. Not among the greatest of all time by an means, just that it executes all its ideas perfectly. The high concept is Quake meets Hotline Miami as a side-scroller. The enemy design, weapons, pickups and world are all Quake with a touch of Terminator. The quick snappy twin stick gameplay and unforgivably punishing difficulty is very much Hotline Miami. It's unapologetic in its approach with a difficulty tier of Hard, Harder and Hardest, and this will filter a lot of people but I'm all for it. The mechanics and gameplay are a struggle at first, but once you get the hang of snap shotting enemies you'll be running through levels in your first, second or third try. The presentation is superb. Whether it be the human enemies, which seem augmented in some way whether that be cybernetic or exosuits or a combination I'm unsure but splattering them into a puddle of gore, or listening to their whimpers and yelps as you Butcher them never gets old. Wielding a chainsaw, rifle, shotgun, grenade launcher and rail rifle the inspiration for its weapons are clear. I loved the depth in weapons and the amount of ammo you receive is perfect, requiring you to manage your resources to deal with the right enemies. Assault rifle is ideal for the grunts but quickly runs out of ammo and is best for crowds. So the shotgun is best used for single or dual humans, while the grenade launcher is best for heavy enemies and the rail life is good for everything, charging it up and lining up multiple elite enemies for a one shot kill is super satisfying. 

The enemies range from civies ripe to be chainsawed, to generic foot soldiers who can use any weapon you can (RIP Rail Rifle), jetpack wearing humans to minigun toting super soldiers or hijacked ambulances fitted with missile launchers. It's very rustic and feels appropriately scavenged. Took me way too long to realise what the story was. A terminator-esque drone created to seek out and destroy the last bastions of humanity. Eventually fighting the guardian Robot and destroying the core of Earth itself, including you. All the levels are unique from grey industrial ironworks, yellow old military bases, a deep green jungle outpost, orange volcano research station or the dirty and colourful last city of humanity. I tried the user created levels as well, and disappointingly could only find test levels from the devs. Not sure if I need to download these but I decided to move on. At 3 and a half hours Butcher was the perfect length to romper stomp my way through the last remnants of humanity as a cold machine. 

The inspiration here is evident...

Game 152 - GoNNER - Week X - August 24

oNNER is a minimalist adorable side-scrolling rogue-lite shooter. You play a water droplet where you must help your best friend Sally the Whale, by descending into a world to find the holy grail and heal her. As the blob you can select a skull which sets various perks, health or melee abilities. You can select a number of weapons from pistol, shotgun, rail rifle and scythe as well as a backpack that gives you an active ability like explosion, jetpack or my favourite a shark fin which gives you a rapid fire that costs no ammo. On the last or no bullet, your next kill will drop ammo. 

If you get hit you drop everything and must collect it, if you get hit without head you have no health and will die. You can also drop items off ledges entirely, which will make even the most seasoned players heart sink. Finally you can jump on enemies heads. All this adds for a very strategic and in-depth gameplay loop. Each level has its own layout and set of enemies. The first has porcupines, guys that run at your or fish that swim to you. The second has clouds that fire other clouds at you. The third has explosive enemies and the fourth and fifith I don't know because I didn't get that far. After finishing each level you have a randomized shop where you can change your weapons, this is important as some loadouts are better for certain levels, which you also figure out as you go. After this you also fight a boss. The first are floating heads that dash you, the design of which reminds me of Kids See Ghosts. Simple in premise, but can deteriorate very quickly. I was actually dreading the second boss but to my surprise it was more of a unique platforming section with wall hugger shooting enemies. The art and soundtrack is very lo-fi and the vibe offsets how intense the gameplay can be at times. My one major issue with the game is it does get stale, as you tend to find a a favoured loadout and stick to it and the game doesn't throw enough at you through your attempts to justify experimentation. It'd be cool if through grinding the game allowed you to unlock other items. So a skilled player could unlock it quicker, but a more casual player could also get them eventually (perhaps an increasing change to see new items in the shops after each level). As I mentioned earlier I wasn't sure what the final boss was and after more attempts at the third level than I cared for I decided to look it up on YouTube. Third boss, a giant blob thing with armour, destroy all the armour, pretty simple compared to the others. There are other explodey tree things shooting at you. The fourth level basically turns into down well with the boss requiring you to escape tendrils (that look like the ones you use to transport between stages) as they come for you. The last stage seems to be some kind of graveyard, basic platforming section kind of like the second boss, however you start at the top and it has death pits from stage 3. All enemies seem to be on display here. Final boss is a giant skull that has a poison cloud power. 

The story is pretty cool. Ikk the droplet is friends with Death, who is helping you by keeping you alive to help save Sally. You realise this quest is futile, somewhat analogues for the rougelite gameplay and in the end Ikk turns on Death and kills him. After realising both his friends are gone he returns to the Tree of Life and finds Death's mask, donning it and seemingly becoming the new Death. The cycle continues. Perhaps Death had been on a similar path and allowed it to happen, sympathizing and also knowing how it would end one way or another. An unexpected tale for an seemingly simple arcade experience that's very much open to interpretation. Even though I gave up this was a fantastic roguelite I could see myself coming back to, putting it in the same camp as Down well with a fantastic level of replayability. 

Allsorts 7 - Sports Games Suck (Mostly...)

ports games were always beyond me. I understand the appeal to the fans of those sports, and I did have my time with games like Rugby League and WWE, but for the most part I would much rather play the sport IRL than a boring simulation of it. There's certainly an appeal to playing a top tier athlete, especially online competing against human intelligence. Or if you were past your prime or unable to play for another reason I'm glad these games exist even for that reason alone. But in general they're not for me. On top of that a lot of the games don't seem like they've really changed much since the PS2 era, which seems to be reflected as the biggest complaint in their reception. Most have a mid 6/10 or less with excerptions like NHL24, MLB, Grid and F123 which are both by Codemasters and have surprisingly enjoyable  well voiced campaigns even if a little melodramatic. 

Tennis World Tour 2  

This game didn't have a lot going for it considering out of all the sports Tennis interest me the least. I wasn't wrong in this regard, it's boring as fuck. You serve, they hit the ball, you run and hit the ball back. Like a lot of games on this list I wouldn't be surprised if there's a level of mechanical depth I'm missing, but I didn't care enough to find it. The basic character customisation is very bare bones but still cool. They even let you choose serve and stance style which is a nice touch. Playing my first opponent I noticed I could equip 3 green basic cards, 2 of which duplicates. While the opponent had five epic rainbow gold cards. My first thought was oh boy, here we go. But to my surprise it appears they can only be earnt, unless I just missed it or perhaps they intended to add it and got gun shy. The career mode is cool, where matches give you XP and fatigue. You need to metagame and make sure your player gets RNR. I don't think this goes far enough however and should go full second life. Let me visit the physio or massage parlour. Hell take it a step further and have the player balance initially small income, by having to choose by cheap options that worsen performance or premium RNR such as a remedial massage. Then when I make it big I can spend a lot, hit the bars, purchase a bunch of stuff for my crib and pick up. Fulfil that fantasy of struggling to breakthrough. This one gets hidden. 

NHL24 

First impression was the settings are insane; especially the difficulty options you have. The presentation was phenomenal, the crowd, music, the sponsors, commentators, advertisements and visual noise all combine to create an atmosphere that really adds to the experience which is often missed and creates a much more dull experience in other games usually with a barebones commentator.  The game is very easy to control with twin stick shooting (right analog to hit pick in a direction). Yet its difficult to master with a surprising amount of moves you can do with just one stick, such a deke, a feint maneuverer. This was the only game I played the teaches you as you go, which is fantastic as you can just jump right in without overbearing text or an extensive tutorial. The replays when you actually score are absolute fire as well, really adding to the presentation and hyping up the joy you get from scoring. 

There are an insane amount of modes on display here like team manager and franchase, where you make a team, trade players, manage morale and owner expectations all while it full simulates play. It'd be cool to combine this mode so you could actually play the game or maybe even a hot seat mode where you play and a friend or stranger manages your team; or vice versa and you can send feedback. Perhaps they can spectate during the game and you can get into blues. Speaking of, the fact that you actually get into a fight and have moves for this is just perfect. You might think this is an obvious essential part of a Hockey game, but I thought it might be missing in the new world of PC cotton wool. The career mode is cool as well, setting up the fantasy of a new up and coming player perfectly. You start in the snow mountains while your coach sells you to some industry commentators. As the career goes on you have to give your input and balance your comments to favour your team, manager and the fans; adding an RPG factor. You get XP for doing actions which is cool. I never played a team sports game as one player before and its a unique feeling to have to consider passing and setting up your team. This is definitely one I could see myself playing again. Ice Hockey is something I always wanted to play as a kid and being an Aussie that wasn't really a possibility, also its not a cheap sport to get into. But at least here I can get a taste of what it would have been like. This one remains in the library.

FC24 

It's just... Soccer, just as boring as I remember. It honestly feels like the PS2 version, especially in terms of graphs and detail. Pass, pass, shoot, repeat. I'm sure there's more depth in the types of passing, feints, etc and when you get into the action it gets complicated especially online but it was jut not interesting me. It has the same career and franchise mode as NHL which is cool. This one gets hidden. 

2K23 NBA  

Same feeling as soccer tbh. Just pass, pass, shoot. Presentation and graphics are a little better but nothing special here. It probably has a high level of complexity and depth in moves, especially in multiplayer, but didn't interest me enough upfront to dive into that well. Same career and franchise mode again, I'm starting to think this is the standard. Both this and soccer got slammed by user reviews so I get the sense that this might be the norm for these games, probably why they were free on PSN as well. This one gets hidden. 

2K21 PGA 

I always joke that Golf isn't really a sport, or an old man's sport, but this was actually very enjoyable. It's pretty Zen and I could see myself playing this again. Perhaps a novelty version instead like Mario Golf. There is immediately a lot of depth in this game in how terrain factors into it. You can see the topography in hills, breaks, etc with the green and red grid they show you. There's also an insane amount of clubs and they balance it really well by choosing the best club for you on lower difficulties but advanced players can choose for themselves. Career mode is here but no franchise obviously as a non-team sport. However to compensate they do give you a course creator which is pretty darn cool. NHL is the only one that has in built tutorial but so does PGA to an extent. It does force a short tutorial at the start, but that might be necessary. I'm starting to think there could be a pattern here for the most enjoyable sports games. Instead of just sucking for X amount of games, or make the AI so bad to compensate the game becomes boring, it shows you the ropes in a effective way. This one remains in the library.

MLB: The Show 19 

I put this in the same department as Soccer and Tennis, pretty boring. Pitch and hit, and run. There seems to be a lot of depth in both actions but unlike NHL or PGA they don't do a good job of explaining it at all. For example I have no idea why my character doesn't run to next base after I hit the ball. Not really sure what the rules are beyond the basics and this is the only one where I didn't actually finish a match. Leave this one to the baseball nerds, because for filthy casuals like me it holds no interest. This ones gets hidden.  

AEW: Fight Forever  

Just. Superb. No campaign, just pure wrestling and I'm here for it. I love how intense and savage the moves are. Wrestling is pulled back or orchestrated but here no punches are thrown or held as blood splatters from each hit. The signature moves go hard, where you drop peoples spine into your knee or leap of a ledge and coat hang someone so hard it would have snapped their neck if this was real life. The taunts are fantastic as well and do a great job of making the wrestlers feel distinct and not just muscly reskins, but also have mechanical benefit by adding to your Signature move meter. The game is exactly how I imagined my eight year old self viewed wrestling before he realised it was all "fake". The outfits and presentation of AEW go ham like WWE and yet it all feels like real wresting. The game has the basic modes but also a few novelty like Ladder (climb and grab coin) or exploding barb wire for the laughs. Though to honest they'd be better as a 4 player free for all. Imagine trying to climb the ladder and constantly being knocked down or throwing each other into explosive barb wire. For this reason battle royal is my favourite, four teams with each having a rotating tag team of 4 players. This would be fantastic in local coop, one I'll be returning up for exactly that with the boys. Also its the best because unlike the 4-player fre for all its last man standing, and not the first knockout wins, which befuddles me why they did that. This one remains in the library. 

F1 23 

It's somewhat simulated for a casual audience to fulfil the F1 fantasy. This is no more apparent then the breaking point mode which is F1 + Soap Opera, which has some great voice action and soap opera level melodrama. Not actually a bad idea, and helps justifying the annualization of the series, each containing a new season of the soap. The career simulation is cool as well, with plenty of drama as you blow up on social media and news, which you can read between races as the days go by and you mark races off your calendar. Gives you a good taste of an up and coming driver, same as every other career mode. That being said that actual gameplay did not appeal to me at all. As far as I could tell it was mostly cock pit view, go round and round on a track and get penalties for any corner cutting. This one gets hidden. 

Grid Legends

Now this is pod racing. It's immediately apparent to my tastes are arcadey. I love the flash back mechanics that you can use when you make a mistake, it's a novel idea and adds an extra dynamic of resource management. Especially for causals like me or someone going for that perfect run and they make that one mistake that puts them in last place. Gameplay reminds me of NFS Most Wanted but genuine racing and the campaign has less cheese, presented well as an up and coming professional new racing team on the block and the protegee leading the charge (you). Not my style though, I prefer underground racers like Midnight Club or rally games like Motor Storm. This one gets hidden. 

Dirt 5  

It's in the name, you start with a pristine car glistening with awesome decals which by the end is covered in grunk. This is actually a satisfying feel as your "own that dirt". Driving feels great, tight, not clunk but a touch arcadey. Campaign is cool, no story, just unlocking cards as you progress like MotorStorm. The commentary is a night touch as well, adding an element of story, especially as you can choose your own nickname and they refer to you as such. This adds a degree of personalisation and investment, as you improve I'm sure you'll go from rookie to legend. I certainly like it more than the others but I think it's a bit of a fence sitter for my tastes still, I'd much prefer OnRush or MotorStorm. Reading online it doesn't seem prior games are like this, more dirt sim and fans hate 5 for that reason. Between this and Grid there also seems to be a trend of give away season 1 or on PS+ and then sell 2-5 as DLC. Actually a smart way to monetize the game via something via Gamepass or other subscriptions. Reading up on MotorStorm I noticed that after Driver Club most of Evolution went to Codemasters and you can certainly see that DNA on display here and in OnRush. As it turns out I'd been playing Code Masters games for years, as they made Micro Machines V3 for the original Playstation. They also made Colin McRae Rally 2.0 which would become the ongoing Dirt series, which I remember seeing around. This one gets hidden. 

Descenders  

Probably the coolest game of the bunch here. BMX simulator with a lot of physics and cool tricks. Very sandbox and Zen campaign, just descend down hill and don't stack with very chill music. The level of creativity on display here is indie AF and I'm all for it. Steam certainly agrees with an overwhelmingly positive status. They also give you a certain amount of lives and if you lose them all you have to restart the campaign, which is an interesting choice to keep it challenging. It's just not for me though as I'd much prefer my four wheels in Pro Skater, Session or Skate. This one gets hidden. 

Game 151 - Retro City Rampage DX - Week X - August 24

etro City Rampage DX is a retro GTA inspired arcade game. The map is small and tight and mostly comprises of roaming around in a car running people and cars down for money, or pulling out a Worms level of weapons to destroy any pursuers. The combat itself is nothing to write home about but the missions themselves have a great deal of variety and do a good job of breaking this up. There is an insane amount of references her to both retro games and pop culture alike. Frogger, Mega Man, Bionic Commando and Mario down to having the exact pixel animated Mario jump. There are entire levels based on this such as escaping prison by using a cardboard box ala MGS; sewers that have ladders and pipes, areas reminiscent of Contra or Pokémon. In terms of pop culture I noticed Doctor Who, Dark Knight, Back to the Future, TMNT and many more. One villain is easily based on Dark Knights Joker as the prince of crime and another is Dr Wiley from Mega Man. Your ally is Doc Brown and you spend a great deal of your missions helping him repair the DeLorean with various McGuffins you scavenge during missions. The final mission is very cool. You assault a castle, take down a private military, fight Dr Wiley in a Mario style mission, then escape as the evil castle crumbles around you in a green van, running down turtles in a sewer. The view then switches to a 3rd person POV with 2D sprites, reminiscent of Mario Kart as you speed your bike down the high way to catch the DeLorean. Once you do you and Doc take down the big bad Wiley as he fires rockets and many other obstacles at you. The final boss is true to form for the series, running people down in your rampage. The game overall is pure retro, the graphics, 8-bit music and voiceless dialogue with "chirps" and "beeps" to simulate dialogue. There are some really standout missions and side missions. One mission has you steal recording tapes of a corrupt publisher that show them saying "employee indies for nothing, then when they complain say they don't understand the industry" or "charge players x10 what they are currently". You give this to a journalist who thanks you. Only to see them report "Publisher donates millions...". 

A flurry of clever jabs at the AAA games industry. Or the Ice Tea mission which apes the infamous Hot Coffee mod in San Andreas. After a one night stand with a lovely lady you find she's pregnant, our degenerate career crime wants to get tested and instead he's thrown in prison and must escape. Combing back for the final time has her get a bunch of muscly guys to try drag you somewhere. There are also several arcade games you can play, mean of which are knock off version of games also inspired by the arcade error like 8-bit runner, Minecraft, Super Meatboy, and even the YouTube channel Epic Meal Team gets a reference (someone on the team must be a huge fan). The levels of meta on display here are awesome. Last but not least is the garbage mission. One of my examples of what makes GTA V so boring is a mission where you Franklin covers for his deadbeat friend, at the request of his partner, and does his day-job; literally driving around and picking up garbage. Here you do the same thing but instead you're "taking out the trash" by throwing people into a garbage truck. And it takes less than 5 minutes. I always preferred my GTA games arcade which is why I've never truly like one since IV; but Retro City Rampage captures that spirit perfectly and I enjoyed almost every moment of it. 

Game 150 - Infamous: Second Son - Week X - August 24

nfamous: Second Son is a game that I'd avoid for the longest time. I'm a diehard fan of Cole and without him to me there was no Infamous. Even so the game still intrigued me and after starting to use my static bike again, I decided this would be a good one to play through on the bike. 

To begin with my impressions of the game was somewhat mix. The controls were fantastic and the powers felt just as good as any other Infamous game. But Delsin felt a little bit like Troy Baker playing Troy Baker. This dissipated as time went on and that faded and his character became more believable. Even so I do wonder if Delsin is what they wanted Cole to be in Infamous 2 before the backlash (of which I was involved by sending a strongly worded email to Sucker Punch lol). As the game went on I did appreciate him and the other characters he has a strong relationship with, such as Reggie, Betty and Fetch. Making the Rowe family Inuit is a cool, especially for the brother dynamic and it sets up a good motivation for Delsin and what's at stake after the villain terminally disables several of them. In other words do I stop and nothing to gain power, defeat Augustine and abuse Conduits and Normies alike as Reggie would want "You protect the tribe". Or do I take the highroad, build a group of allies and set everyone on a path to freedom. The ability to absorb powers on touch via pure conduits is a great idea for a power and way to evolve the gameplay. It also sets up the potential to reset his powers in any future games considering they're not his natural power. When he absorbs the power he also absorbs their memories, otherwise known as "Sympathy Gate". But you do get a dope water colour splash comic cutscene similar to the first two games, which is always welcome. I love all the new powers. Smoke is dope and it's not just fire with a new skin. It stuns enemies by making them cough allowing you to subdue, you can blast rockets. All the other powers follow the same pattern of normal blast, rocket/beam/spears, grenade, shotgun blast; with the except of video powers which also includes an invisibility power. The major differentiator between the three are the movement abilities. Smoke includes a dash that moves through grates or bars and the ability to move through vents in buildings that will bringing you through to the roof giving you some airtime. Its fluid and fun and has fantastic synergy with the parkour early on in the game; reminding me of the ice launch. Video includes wings giving you the ability to fly for a short period; Concrete has a armoured dash and my favourite Neon has a flashing dash allowing you to run up walls and dash from building to build that you can upgrade to go forever. The  movement is always a highlight of these games and reminds me of the better part of DCUO. I also love that he uses a Ghost Rider style chain as his melee attack, continuing the tradition of using random ass objects to fuel power. It matches his whole punk anarchist vibe as well having a chain wrapped around his arm. The melee attack augments differently depending on the power whether it be a smoking whip or straighten into a neon sword or video claymore. You can tell this game is  a product of its time, a launch title that grossly overuses the touch pad in various unnecessary ways like the spray paint mini games across the map. 

The story really centres around its villain as it always has, true to any good comic hero story. The government has given full power to a shady tasks force, removing rights and freedom, to arrest "bio-terrorists" seems like a natural and historical way to evolve the story after events of prior games. Augustine is the head of this imitative and after our first encounter she sentences many tribe members to their death by interrogating them to find Conduits. This sets the Rowe brothers on their path to absorb her powers and save the tribe, a pretty simple premise. Along the way you can influence others and decide if you want to corrupt or uplift them. At first she seems a little one dimensional, an evil tyrant using powers to torture, but as the game goes on all is not as it seems. She manipulates Hank, even though he has escaped many times, she doesn't put him down or lock him in a deep dark dungeon. She spares Delsin on many occasions and even asks him to join her. She also has no problem killing Reggie, RIP. Eventually its revealed that she did it all to create a Haven for Conduits, foreseeing that they would be killed by the military. She's basically Magneto, an ex-soldier gaining the trust of the government. Pretty much the plot of any X-men movie. She's no Kessler, but still a good enjoyable villain overall and somewhat relatable, an essential aspect of any good villain. I saw what they were going for with Delsin's libertarian ideals, freedom at the cost of danger as opposed to Augustine's security at the cost of control. Unfortunately the choice system at this point, like Mass Effect feels very outdated. Especially when compared to games like The Witcher 3 and BG3. The choices are between selfish or self-sacrificing with very little grey. Do you want be a hero or an arsehole? Not much of a choice. I understand what they're going for, as mentioned stop at nothing to save the tribe. But they do a poor job of reminding you of this in the moment and also hinting at any risk of not taking the darker option at the cost of the tribe. Even at the end you choose to expose Augustine for who she is, a fraud, or kill her. But you decided before she reveals her motivations, now somewhat relatable, without any opportunity to change your mind after learning this. The other character standouts are Reggie. The older brother struggling to remain the voice of reasons, when he realises he doesn't have the power in this situation to protect the tribe like he normally does. But he does try to guide Delsin in his own way and protect his brother. His sacrifice was one-for-one with Zeke and I think his character deserved a little better if I'm being honest. But that's only a testament to how good this character is. He's less of a goofball than Delsin and much more enjoyable to begin with. Lastly there's Fetch, on a revenge quest to avenge her brother, who died after they went on the run due to her being a Conduit and succumbed to drug dealers. You can accelerate her path or course correct but her character is just as enjoyable as Lucy Kuo as a partner in crime, and as a love interest. Sucker Punch know how to do those really with without them coming across as cheesy. She also gives you Neon, which is a closer runner up to lightning for my favourite power. 

Last but not least the final boss deserves special mention. It's pretty lackluster, especially when compared to prior fights with the Beast or Kessler where Cole absorbs energy directly from thunder strikes in a storm. An absolutely epic spin on every way you'd recharged and gained power previously. The show down with Augustine is basically a rehash of the prior fight but with video power instead of smoke. Then you absorb her powers and learn them as you fight her in stone golem form, full cutscenes and awkward Delsin absorb scene interrupting flow of the fight and making it very awkward overall. It's kind of cool to dismantle her and her empire with her own power (including post game) but still a let down overall. Especially considering how emotionally charged the fight is after Reggie's death. It should have been a giant arena that requires you to use all four powers, each one being the key to a specific puzzle as you disable her defences and destroy her empire. Give us stone but ignore the rules, let us absorb a "mega power source" and get everything in one hit. Then we can just figure it all out at once and fuck it, make it over powered. While a little shorter than prior games it was still very enjoyable and I'm glad I got around to playing it. I would love to see a sequel where we play as both Delsin and Cole, and they can team up and bond over their lost brothers.