It’s the end of June, which means it’s time to sit down and take a hard look at the games that came out over the past six months, and pick our five favorites from the madding crowd. Jorge Albor of rival podcast Experience Points joins us to chat about the games that stole our hearts, plus we’ll look at your favorite announcements from E3! (Oh, and uhhh Mikel’s back, I guess?)
Question of the Week:
Of all the games that have come out in 2018, what’s your favorite so far?
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QotW: haven’t gotten around to many 2018 games so far but the best thing I’ve played so far is Yakuza 6: the Song of Life. A step down from 0 but it was a wonderful experience and a fitting end to the tale if Kazuma Kiryu.
QotW… I just realized I have only bought like one game that came out this year. So I too will have to say Yakuza 6. I love the virtual tourism in the game, and even when I’m depressed, nothing like beating the crap out of scrubs one moment and singing karaoke the other. I may not be able to afford to go to Tokyo this year, but I can now considered other places in Japan.
QOTW: I heard a lot about Celeste from some reviews and during a particularly difficult moment in my life, I decided to buy the game for Switch. It’s a very difficult platformer ala Super Meat Boy but it also encourages you to push forward, try your damndest, and eventually, you’ll be able to “reach the mountain peak”. It felt like a breath of fresh air and I related so much to the main character, Madeline, and her own issues with mental health. I love this game and would recommend it to anyone. Just ignore the crystal hearts and you’ll have a good time :p
Moss looks like it’s simulating augmented reality minus the reality, Salary Man Escape seems to have the same idea. As an augmented reality enthusiast first, I’m hoping this style of game becomes a trend in VR!
QOTW: Even though the Wipeout Omega Collection came out in 2017 the VR patch came out this year, and it was the reason I purchased a PS4 and PSVR this year. It’s the culmination of all my childhood Wipeout fantasy’s!
QOTW: My favorite game of 2017 was Friday the 13th. My favorite game of the first half of 2018 is Friday the 13th The Single Player Challenges. Playing through scenarios based on the films was awesome! Some of them use dialog straight from the films and there are some gnarly kills including a hanging! Pretty badass. Unfortunately, the game is not going to be adding anymore content due to the lawsuit between the original writer and director over the rights. 🙁 But they are continuing to fix bugs and issues and keeping the servers going as long as possible. At least they got the SPC out before the content cut off.
QOTW: I loooooooooooooooooooooove Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. It’s a beautifully done game inspired heavily by Castlevania III, and each of the game modes creates a perfect amount of replayability. It’s reverent of the NES, but not obsessed with it, more than happy to break out of the 8 bit era when making big, gorgeously animated bosses. I found myself getting super into the characters, much to my surprise, and by the end I was hyped as hell to find out where Marion, Gebel, Zangetsu, and Alfred have gone as of Ritual of the Night. This is probably going to be a far better game than Ritual will be, and I hope they do a second NES style game soon.
My favorite has got to be Dragonball FighterZ. Being a big fan growing up, I had either imported or (eventually) emulated all of the dragonball fighting games from genesis, super famicom and playstation, and was always baffled that for a series known for having the fastest fighters in the world, these were the slowest god damned games. After discovering Marvel vs Capcom in the arcades, I use to say that THIS is what a Dragonball fighting game needs to be. And now behold, 2018 arrives and we finally get it, and I cannot get enough of it. So chaotic and so fun, and I don’t care how many Goku’s or Vegeta’s you throw in! The roster is great, Lord Yamacha gets his due, and team Majin is my absolute favorite.
QOTW: it’s not a perfect game but I really enjoy Battletech. It has solid turn-based mech combat, and I especially enjoy Jon Everist’s evocative score. It has some minor flaws but Harebrained Schemes has always done an amazing job iterating on their games. When they created Shadowrun Returns it was good but not great, but the followup Shadowrun: Dragonfall was a masterpiece. I enjoy Battletech and I look forward even more to whatever comes next.
Matty thanks for doing a great job the last few months.
Mikel I hope you enjoyed your time away, I’m happy you’re back.
QOTW: Far cry 5 was a ton of fun! (I think I clocked over 100 hours!). While no revolution in gameplay or design, I just LOVED walking around the world finding interesting stories and places! There hasn’t been a game that’s done that in waaaayyyyyy too long! (That said, my suspicion is that it will be a distant memory for GOTY when fallout 76 and Red Dead 2 are out!
Also, WELCOME BACK MIKEL REPAREZ!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN MISSED!!!! Thank you to the hosts who have stood in during your break, great job…but Mikel is such a unique voice and my all time favorite podcast hosts!
Hey Matty did a good job but I can’t say I didn’t miss you Mikel. Glad to have you back !!!