My copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris arrived today from Japan! After the rather dull and plain Tetris Ultimate, I was excited to check out the eccentric and energetic Tetris (and Puyo Puyo) game from Japan.
The first thing worth noting is that the game comes with a manual. Not just a slip of paper, but a full blown instruction manual, something that’s a rarity these days (not that I think they’re useful. I buy all of my games digitally anyway).
So far Puyo Puyo Tetris is an absolute blast to play! I’ve been enjoying the “story mode” which features some lengthy, strange cut scenes in between each match. Yep, that’s right, this Tetris game has a story! Each cut scene is actually pretty lengthy, and I have absolutely no clue what’s going on but I’m enjoying it! You’ll face a variety of opponents and different challenges as you progress and you can earn 1-3 stars from each level depending on how well you do.
There’s also a variety of VS modes which can be played with 1-3 computer opponents, local co-op (which can also involve CPU opponents if you like) and online play (which I haven’t tried yet). Every mode is a blast to play, and it’s interesting that one person can be playing Tetris while the other is playing Puyo Puyo as you battle it out (there’s even a mode that uses both Tetris pieces and Puyo Puyo pieces at the same time!).
I’m definitely looking forward to playing more Puyo Puyo Tetris, and I definitely recommend picking it up over the U.S. release of Tetris Ultimate. It’s a far superior game! Also, it’s pretty cool to get some Japanese achievements 🙂
I stepped outside earlier tonight to run down to the gas station and was met with a thick, creepy fog. There’s something peaceful about the fog as well, in the way that everything around you fades away into the quiet night.
After seeing the quicklook on Giant Bomb and realizing that current gen consoles aren’t region locked, I immediately went over to Solaris Japan and ordered a copy of Puyo Puyo Tetris from Japan. As many were, I was a bit underwhelmed by the recent release of Tetris Ultimate here in the states, but was immediately sold once I saw the Japanese game. The game offers a unique style (very Japan) and a twist on the gameplay with the Puyo Puyo integration.
If you don’t know anything about Puyo Puyo, I invite you to check out Giant Bomb’s quick look, it’s quite entertaining! Can’t wait to play it after it arrives!
I had never imported any video game before, but Solaris Japan made it quick and easy. I was able to pay using PayPal, and after selecting the quickest shipping option the total came out to just over $60 which seems pretty reasonable. The game shipped quickly (the day after I ordered it I believe) and everything has gone smoothly so far. It’s scheduled for delivery tomorrow by DHL, so hopefully I’ll be able to pop it in and give it a try before heading into work tomorrow night.
I don’t know what made me want to check out Shin Megami Tensei IV. I’ve never understood the appeal of anime and most of the time try to avoid everything that comes out of Japan like it’s the plague. There’s just a weirdness about most Japanese things that I can never wrap my head around.
Yet here I was last night playing one of the most strange and absurd video games I’d ever come across. I had never even heard of Atlus, the company behind the game. Heck I’d only heard the name spoken once before, and that was while listening to a Joystiq podcast in which one of the podcasters spoke of Persona Q (I think), and games with such weird titles as Etrian Odyssey and Shin Megami Tensei came up in the conversation. Maybe that planted a seed of curiosity?
Somehow or other, Shin Megami Tensei IV made its way into my GameFly Queue and recently arrived in my mailbox. I started playing it, and as much as I detest anime I felt a drive to see what the game was all about. It certainly starts off in a strange manner. Heck, I think the Final Fantasy games rest just barely over an acceptable level of weirdness, so the dialogue and scenes early in Shin Megami Tensei IV definitely rest below my usual tolerance level.
After an hour or so of gameplay, I’m still not quite sure what to think of the game. I think the travel system is a little weird (where you just select a destination from a list and magically teleport there), but I guess there’s a simplicity to it that may actually be appealing. The enemies I’ve encountered in the initiation cave were certainly interesting and the ability to have conversations with the enemies is appealing and entertaining (though the dialogue is off the wall strange).
The game feels like a mix between Pokemon and Final Fantasy which feels a little familiar while also intriguing. Collecting demons to fight alongside you feels fun so far, and I’m interested to see what other types of enemies I’ll stumble across as I progress. I have to admit I’m not very good at video games in general, so after I died a few times I was happy to be presented with the option to lower the difficulty (otherwise I probably would have already given up).
If there’s one major downside to the game so far, it’s Burroughs character / AI / whatever it is. Over and over and over again you’re presented with the same, annoying “Did you get all that?” after every explanation / tutorial item. I’m not sure whether it’s some sort of inside joke, but if not it’s incredibly annoying and downright lazy to repeat the same line so many times.
I’m hoping I can continue to enjoy the game, though I’m a little worried it’ll start to get more complex and I wont have the patience to try to understand everything. Until then I’ll keep chugging along.
We headed up to Bogus Basin for the first time of the season on Friday for some night skiing. The sunset was beautiful, the snow was awesome and we had a great time!
I love the view from atop the Showcase chair, especially at nightfall. Showcase is my favorite run, and that’s pretty much all we skied Friday night. I brought up my GoPro and took some fun videos as well. Nothing fancy, just enjoying the snow and the mountain. Enjoy!
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
On New Year’s Day we saw The Imitation Game, the absolutely must see movie that follows Alan Turing’s life and his secret work to crack the German’s Enigma code during World War II. Whether you know anything about Alan Turing or not, I highly recommend seeing the film. It tells a wonderful story about an amazing man and his struggles being both a socially awkward genius and a closeted homosexual. The pacing of the story is just right and the build up to the ultimate climax and breakthrough are amazing. The Imitation Game joins The Theory of Everything as not only one of the best films of the year, but also one of the best biographical films in recent years. I can’t recommend both films enough.
Alan Turing’s arrest and punishment (chemical castration) for being gay are an absolute outrage, and it’s hard to believe just how recently humanity has done horrible things to those who chose to live differently. Turing certainly lived an interesting life and I’m left wanting to learn more about it. I’m certainly looking forward to reading the biography the film was based on (Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges) and seeing him mentioned in Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators which I bought awhile back but haven’t started reading yet.
If Turing’s name sounds familiar you’ve probably heard it in the form of the Turing Test, the test meant to determine whether a computer can “think” enough like a human and fool a person into believing it is a human. You may have read that this past summer a computer passed the Turing Test for the first time.
If you haven’t yet seen my top 5 games of 2014, be sure to check that out. Now I’d like to throw out some honorable mentions that just didn’t quite make the cut.
A significant game that didn’t land in my top 5 is Dragon Age Inquisition. I absolutely loved the first two Dragon Age games, and I’ve enjoyed my time with Inquisition so far, but it just hasn’t grabbed my attention enough to merit making a top 5 list.
I’ve put maybe 18-20 hours into it so far, which overall isn’t a lot, and I’ve never really felt all that involved. It feels like the game is trying to accomplish too much, or at least more than I care to pay attention to and I never have any idea what’s going on. Also I’ve been annoyed by the insane amount of loot that appears in the game. If I want to pick up everything possible I find myself hitting ‘A’ every 20-30 seconds and picking up a bunch of items and then I have to go to the inventory screen and see if I picked up anything worth using. It’s just downright annoying, and at this point I’ve just stopped looting the enemies I kill.
Maybe I’ll start to enjoy the game more as I get further into it, but so far I feel like it’s been pretty mediocre at best.
Another game worth mentioning is Madden 15. I really wanted Madden to make my list, but I couldn’t squeeze it in alongside the other great games that made it. Madden 25 didn’t feel like much of an upgrade on the new consoles, but Madden 15 was a wonderful step forward. The game looks and feels amazing to play and is one of the best football experiences to date. I didn’t end up getting FIFA 15 this year, but I’m sure that’s just as good of an experience (I love FIFA 14 still!).
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a refreshing take on the Call of Duty formula with the exo skeleton freshening up the online play and Kevin Spacey bringing an amazing performance to the campaign. I’d probably still be playing Advanced Warfare if I weren’t so swept up in the Master Chief Collection.
Diablo III Ultimate Evil Edition not only provides a great value by including the Reaper of Souls expansion but it also offers a revamped Diablo III experience tailored for current gen consoles. The game is a blast to play either via couch co-op or online with friends and strangers alike, and there’s more epic loot than you’ll ever be able to carry. It’s a great experience and one of the best co-op games of the year!
Forza Horizon 2 is an absolutely beautiful racing game that makes exploring the world just as fun as competing in races. The road trips that take you between each racing hub or a wonderful way to explore the world and see all the amazing scenery. The online multiplayer modes are a blast, whether you’re free roaming or playing the zombie attack mode. There are plenty of beautiful cars and a ton of road (and off road) to cover.
It’s strange to think Titanfall came out this year. It came out early in the Xbox One’s life (at least early enough so there wasn’t much else to play) and I was quite excited for it. Initially I was amazed by Titanfall and found it refreshing to play and a lot more enjoyable than the other shooter available at the time, Call of Duty Ghosts. Although I enjoyed Titanfall at the time, it quickly became lost in a sea of other releases and I haven’t given it a second thought since.
Last, but certainly not least, is GTA V. Rockstar put a lot of love into making GTA V a superb experience on current gen consoles. The world looks even more stunning than ever before, but they also added an entirely new experience with first person view. I haven’t used the view much, but it certainly changes the way things play throughout the game. I’m just in awe at how amazing the world looks and how fun it is to run around in it still.
Gumballs Plays Games 