Welcome to another Video Game Round-Up! This is very late, but it’s the fault of Facebook and not me. ...okay, it’s a little bit my fault, but only a little bit! Facebook didn’t let me have access to the Notes function (which is where I write all these things) for about a week, but I have access now, so I get to be 11 days late!
I ended up playing a fair amount of games this past month (+11 days), but mostly to get capture for a thing the girl and I are doing with the National Gallery Singapore, so I won’t be writing about most of those because they were pretty short snippets to get specific actions/scenes (even if I played some of these for the first time). But here is the full list in alphabetical order: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch), Baba is You (Switch), Bioshock (PS4), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4), Celeste (Switch), Death Stranding (PS4), Fallout 4 (PS4), Final Fantasy VII (PS4), Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4), Gris (Switch), Hitman 2 (PS4), Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4), I Am Setsuna (Switch), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch), LEGO DC Super Villains (PS4), LEGO Marvel Super-Heroes 2 (PS4), Little Nightmares (PS4), The Messenger (Switch), NieR: Automata (PS4), Outer Worlds (PS4), Persona 5 (PS4), Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4), Resident Evil Director’s Cut (PSMini), Super Mario Bros. (Switch), Trials of Mana (PS4), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS4), What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4), The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt (PS4), and Yakuza 0 (PS4). It’s unlikely we’ll use all of these games in the final video (in fact, I can guarantee it), but doing all this has helped me learn how to do capture, and then how to trim it down to the bits I actually need.
I’ve almost (mostly) learned how to stream, and have done it twice now! I’m doing it on YouTube, and you can find my channel here. I had some videos up there from before (PS4 capture of short non-playable scenes), but now there’s some livestreams up there too. I will eventually put edited videos up there too, but that requires me figuring out how to edit video/audio in tandem, so akan datang on that front.
I have continued to watch a lot of classic movies in my free time, sometimes ten movies in a day, and I’ve been able to plug some quite embarrassing holes in my film watching career (like nearly everything pre-1980). Did you guys know people made awesome movies before color and sound were invented? :P I suggest most everything by F.W. Murnau, Carl Theodor Dreyer, and Buster Keaton (with the caveat that there are some pretty bad racist/sexist tropes that were unfortunately quite prevalent at the time), but especially Faust (Murnau, 1926), Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943), and Sherlock Jr. (Keaton, 1924). I’ve also been enjoying a lot Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, and Fritz Lang stuff, and Lon Chaney Sr. was a goddamn chameleon.
There was a fair amount of video game news in the past 5 weeks. The PS5 was finally shown off (yeah Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon: Forbidden West), Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed again (nooo!; though they did show off more gameplay just last night), a major Animal Crossing: New Horizons update announcement, and Xbox did something that I haven’t seen yet (but I’m sure was also cool and interesting).
Meanwhile, the world is maybe getting a little bit better thanks to some amazing activists around the world who are willing to brave hostile police forces and the coronavirus (which is still very much a dangerous thing, no matter what idiot politicians tell you) to ensure Black people stop getting murdered by those same hostile police forces. Also, a US Supreme Court that is maybe not as terrible as I feared (though they did just make a horrible decision that half the liberal judges agreed with for some reason)? I dunno. I hope it’s getting better.
But enough about that, let’s get to the games!
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - As is our custom now, the girl and I spent a great deal of time running around catching all the new fish and bugs. This month introduced a bunch of sharks to catch and give to Blathers and the museum. The firefly was also introduced, but only for the month of June (in the Northern Hemisphere). Luckily, they are plentiful and easy to catch, so we added one to the museum on the first day. The hardest new bug to catch was the dang Rainbow Stag, which we only finally caught last night. It doesn’t spawn very often, and when it does, it’s only on trees, so you have to angle your approach just right so you don’t scare it off. We missed it at least four other times. We have now caught all the June bug and fish.
The girl also finally did some terraforming on her island to build a couple of new ponds and a new waterfall so we’d have more spots to catch the fish that only spawn in those areas. And, excitingly, the girl found all the fossils in the game, and now our fossil collection in Blathers’ museum is complete! Yay! The art collection, on the other hand, has been painfully slow. Redd doesn’t show up as often as I’d like, and that one-artwork-per-visit limit is dang annoying. At least one of those restrictions should go, but probably both since he usually only has two legit art pieces (sometimes only one!).
We are going to stream this game together at the beginning of July. Originally, we planned to do it on 1 July and try to catch the new fish and bugs, but we may instead wait until 3 July and play with the new swimming and diving features instead! I’ll have to convince the girl not to catch all of the things on 1 and 2 July, though :P
Outer Worlds (PS4) - I was initially only going to get some capture of some conversation options, but I kept playing after I had finished that. I finally finished the first section and all the side quests I found, though there’s one area I didn’t visit, so maybe I’ll go do a bit of exploring there before I actually leave. The main story decision in this section was whether to side with Reed Tobson and the corporate town of Edgewater or Adelaide McDevitt and the deserting workers who were siphoning power away from the town. I listened to my best companion ever (and currently my only companion) Parvati and sided with Edgewater because those people were really hurting. However, I also convinced Tobson to step down so McDevitt could take over, and therefore unified everybody again. The best of all possible worlds, I think (though McDevitt might be a cannibal? man, I hope not).
The Last of Us: Left Behind (PS4) - In preparation for The Last of Us Part II, I finally played the original game’s DLC, featuring Ellie as the sole playable character. It takes place over two time periods: the first in Boston, before Ellie meets Joel, and the second after Joel gets hurt, but before Ellie meets the cannibals in the main game. The gameplay is exactly the same as the base game, and the “present day” part is fine. There are some interesting puzzle-y bits, but overall it’s just not as good as the base game (especially as the only time you play as Ellie in the base game is against the cannibals, and that was a much better, more visceral experience). No, the past sequence is where it’s at, as Ellie and her friend Riley explore an abandoned mall well after curfew, and just hang out. They talk about why Riley disappeared weeks ago, their friendship, their different responsibilities, and generally have a bunch of fun in the mall wearing masks, breaking windows, and dancing. The ending is bittersweet as Ellie and Riley kiss and decide to stay together (Riley was thinking of leaving Boston with the Fireflies), but are then attacked by infected and are both bitten. We know Ellie is immune, but Riley? Yeah, Riley probably turns, though they never show it.
It took me about 3-4 hours to play the whole DLC, so it’s not a huge investment of time. I enjoyed my time with it, even if the “present day” sequence was narratively unfulfilling.
Skullgirls 2nd Encore (Switch) - This is a fighting game with some awesome hand-drawn animation. I played through the story mode of one of the characters, Ms. Fortune, who can take off her head and fight with it. Yeah, it’s pretty weird. I enjoy the fighting a lot, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to this game. I tend to like fighting games a lot, but usually only for short bursts of time. There isn’t much narrative in these kinds of games, and the gameplay gets repetitive (which is the point, since you’re supposed to try and master the moves and techniques). Since I’ll never be an esport fighting champion, I have no desire to get super good at fighting games. I just want to punch some brightly colored sprites once in a while.
Creature in the Well (Switch) - This is a pretty interesting game. You play as a robot trying to restart some large apparatus inside a mountain, but you can only do it using pinball mechanics. That sounds weird, but I promise it’s awesome. The title refers to some kind of giant monster living inside the mountain that really doesn’t want you to turn on the apparatus. I haven’t gotten too far into the game yet, but I’ve greatly enjoyed my time with it so far.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4) - While doing capture for this, I played through the first level on regular mode (the tanker mission), and then, realizing I was dying way too much for the capture, played it again in easy mode. And man, I enjoyed the heck out this game way more on easy mode! Maybe I should play all my shooters on easy mode from now on, and not worry about what people might think of me. My hand-eye coordination isn’t the best (and it’s getting worse as I get older), so shooters can be quite difficult for me in certain game situations. But yeah, I play video games to have fun and get a good story, so I should stop trying to play on harder modes to “prove something” and just have fun.
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS4) - I was only supposed to capture one of Ryu’s fireballs, but then I got into it and played far more than I should have. My team is Ryu, Wolverine, and either Akuma or Hsein-ko. Akuma is easier to play, but Hsein-ko is a jiang shi, and I am down with that.
Hitman 2 (PS4) - Again, I was only supposed to capture a bit of one of the levels, but then I played the entire first mission (on New Zealand) and did one of those Elusive Targets (when you only get one chance to kill a target). The Elusive Target was the Sean Bean character hilariously nicknamed The Undying. I did kill him and get away with it, but through no real planning. It was basically dumb luck :P I may put the capture up at some point in the future, once I figure out how to cut out all the boring bits and add in some commentary (I did a lot of aimless walking around).
Resident Evil 2 Remake (PS4) - We mostly played this for capture, but in order to get the bit we wanted, we had to play about an hour or so. We played the whole introductory bit outside of the RPD station, and then inside a bit until we met Marvin. We’re playing as Claire because we like playing as female characters when they’re available, and will definitely continue this in the near-ish future. We might even start over and stream it from the beginning :)
The Last of Us Part II (PS4) - I have been looking forward to this game since it was announced. I won’t spoil any story stuff, but I’m only about four hours in, so I don’t know much of it myself (as previously mentioned, you can watch those four hours on YouTube). I do know there are at least three playable characters: Joel, Ellie, and a new character named Abby. I won’t say how long I played as each so far because there might spoilers in that, but yeah, it’s not just Ellie as various trailers led me to believe.
The first couple of levels were pretty linear, like in the original game, but I’ve just reached Seattle in the game, and that has opened up a lot more. It’s a mini-open world, like in certain sections of previous Naughty Dog games Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4) and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4). Each of those games only had one open world area, but The Last of Us Part II might have more of them. I’ve already discovered a few optional side quests (though they’re not referred to in that way) that have given me extra crafting materials and loot, and I’m about to attempt a bank heist next.
Sometimes you also get companion characters that help you while you’re playing. They have come in real handy to me, especially in combat situations when they stealth kill infected or humans I hadn’t even seen yet! This is far and away my favorite mechanic of this game, mostly because it keeps me from dying as often as I should. The only problem? I don’t always have a companion character, and then I die. That said, the two sequences in which I died, and died a lot, were with companions, so maybe I’m just bad at this game :P
And that’s it! Next month’s Video Game Round-Up! will definitely feature more Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Last of Us Part II, and maybe some other games that I recently purchased due to various sales and charity events. And maybe even return to some of those games that I started but then stopped and should really get back to? I’m gonna be honest; that seems unlikely until I finish The Last of Us Part II. However, the girl really wants to stream us playing Resident Evil 2 Remake or Resident Evil 7 (PS4) so the whole world can watch us be the most scaredy-cat chickens of all time, so we might play one of those? Time will tell.
Until then, play more video games!
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