Video Games

Surge!

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

amazon prime pantry box

Surge (the late 90’s to early 2000’s soft drink) has been back since the Fall of 2014, but it’s only today that I’ve managed to get my hands on some. For quite awhile when I’ve checked Amazon the stock was low and the prices were skyrocketing (as much as $40 for a 12 pack) which kept me from ever ordering any. However, now that I have Amazon Prime, I was able to order two cases and throw them in a Prime Pantry for around $30.

Prime Pantry is a service that charges a flat $5.99 shipping fee for whatever you can fit in the box (for example, the 12-pack of Surge takes up 30% of a 45 pound box).

surge prime pantry

This was the first time I’ve used Prime Pantry and it was incredibly easy and pretty convenient. The box shipped quickly and arrived within a week of placing my order. The box was packed neatly and everything arrived intact.

So, just how was it to taste Surge for the first time in over 10 years? It was nostalgic, that’s for sure. From the instant I cracked open the can I was brought back to the days of all night Goldeneye sessions on the N64, stacking an unhealthy amount of cans as the nights wore on.

I’m glad Surge is back. Maybe someday we’ll see the return of my all time favorite soda, Pepsi Blue or heck, let’s bring back Vault (the red variety!) while we’re at it!

Cheers!

Photo on 2-5-15 at 12.19 PM #4

RISK is back (Xbox One)

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

RISK Xbox One

Back in December RISK was posted on the Xbox One store and shortly after pulled from sale. It was mistakenly listed for sale (alongside Trivial Pursuit) and quickly pulled alongside a note saying it’s official release would be expected in early 2015.

Well this time it looks like RISK is here to stay. You can pick it up for $14.99. I’m probably going to end up purchasing it, but until then have any of you played it? What do you think of it? I’m somewhat torn on the price. I feel like $9.99 might be a more appropriate price, but maybe there’s enough content to justify it.

Dying Light

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Dying Light menu

I just finished playing through the first couple of hours of Dying Light. Not bad. Well okay, some things about it aren’t great, but overall it’s competent.

Developed by Techland, the people behind Dead Island, Dying Light is an open world zombie game that focuses heavily on parkour traversal and melee weapon combat. The combat feels a lot like Dead Island, with weapons that degrade as you use them, and it feels pretty solid. The parkour, on the other hand, hasn’t impressed me. I found the parkour tutorial section frustratingly difficult to complete. Maybe it’s just because I suck at most video games (especially platformers) but I kept falling over and over again which wasn’t fun. Even once I got out into the world, the climbing and movement felt clunky and somewhat annoying. Having to try to make a jump four or five times is not fun.

So far the story seems cool, and I’ve enjoyed running around the world and fighting off zombies. Once night started to fall I felt absolutely terrified because I’ve already seen what awaits after nightfall in Dying Light (super strong, agile zombies that will rip your face off). Luckily, I was still in the opening sequence and I’m pretty sure the game was waiting for me to get to the safe zone before it became completely dark. It was still quite nerve wracking though.

I’m not sure why I’m trying to play this game. I get scared and anxious enough when night falls in games such as Skyrim (I ALWAYS sleep until daylight) so I’m sure I’ll never be able to handle the night in this game. Heck, I’ve gotten rattled enough just having zombies close in on me during daylight hours in the game. I don’t know how much more I’ll play before I get too stressed out and give up. I probably shouldn’t have purchased the digital version of the game, but I guess I’ll try to push through it.

I managed to get into a co-op game, however the player I was matched with was just standing around unresponsive so at that point I decided I had had enough and should let my heart rate return to normal. I’m interested to see how the co-op works in Dying Light as I enjoyed it quite a bit in Dead Island.

Hopefully I’ll get around to playing some more Dying Light during daylight hours (in both real world and in game). Until then, you can watch my first two hours of the game that I streamed on Twitch.

Are you playing Dying Light? What do you think of it so far? Have any advice for me? Leave a comment!

Beat Medusa in Shin Megami Tensei IV and started Persona 4

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I did it! I finally conquered Medusa in Shin Megami Tensei IV!

Medusa shin megami tensei iv

 

I spent maybe an hour or two grinding in the area around the boss fight split up over the past week and finally managed to get powerful (and lucky) enough to defeat Medusa.

sukukaja

Raiju’s sukukaja spell which increases hit and evade for your entire party, proved critical to my success. Quite a few of Medusa’s attacks missed after casting it and I was able to use critical wave with my other three party members to quickly knock down her HP and win the fight.

After defeating Medusa I descended into the forbidden lands below, otherwise known as Tokyo.

shin megami tensei iv tokyo

shin megami tensei iv tokyo

I was quite shocked to find that the game changes quite a bit once you arrive in Tokyo. I’ve spend something like ten hours in the game so far, so to have a mechanic completely change that far into the game is somewhat strange. Instead of exploring the area by selecting locations from a list, you’re presented as an icon on a top down map and you move the icon around to find people to talk to and locations to explore. There are monsters roaming around the map as well, however you cannot hit ‘X’ to strike at them (causing a preemptive strike) like you can while exploring a dungeon. It’s a little odd, and will take some getting used to.

shin megami tensei iv tokyo

Shortly after arriving in Tokyo I saved the game and decided to check out Persona 4 Golden (also by Atlus) on the Playstation TV.

Just as with Shin Megami Tensei IV, I’m going into Persona 4 knowing absolutely nothing about the Persona series. After spending twenty or thirty minutes with it so far, I can say I’m a little weirded out but strangely curious at the same time.

Persona 4 definitely feels more ‘Japanese’ or anime like than Shin Megami Tensei IV, at least from the start. Some of the dialogue is downright weird, and I’m not sure how much of that is from the localization of it or if the source material is just as awkward.

persona 4 nads

So far I can say that the game is very dialogue heavy and I’ve spent hardly any time in control of my character. I assume that this is because the story is just getting set up, but I hope there’s more to the game than just ‘high school simulator’.

persona 4 shit list

I’m looking forward to further exploring Persona 4, but for now I think I’m going to check out Dying Light. If you have any advice for a newbie heading into Persona 4, feel free to leave it in the comments!

Playstation TV (first impressions)

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

So today, on a whim, I decided to buy a Playstation TV. Heck, I didn’t even know the thing existed until I spotted it at the Bx, and it was $40 off, so I figured why not check it out!

Playstation TV bundle

 

The interface is pretty nice, though parts of it feel outdated. It’s nice to be able to see your PSN friends list, trophies and messages from the device, even if you don’t own a Playstation console (as I no longer do). There aren’t very many apps available for it (Netflix and other entertainment services are notably missing), but I already have a Chromecast in the bedroom anyway.

Playstation TV interface

I was initially under the impression that using PS Now on the Playstation TV would work just like it does on the PS4, in that for $20 a month you’d have unlimited access to the library of over 100 PS3 games available on the service. Sony doesn’t make it very clear, but as of right now you CANNOT use the PS Now subscription service on the PS TV. Well technically you can, but only if you actually sign up for PS Now using a PS4.

It’s downright crazy, that you can use the full featured version of PS Now on a Playstation TV just by signing up on a PS4 first, but if you download the app on the Playstation TV without a PS4 you’re only able to rent the games. This isn’t made clear on the product packaging or the PS Now website (at least not immediately clear, after some digging it explains you can only sign up for the service on a PS4).

That said, I went ahead and rented The Last of Us for $7.99 for 7 days. Running off WiFi in the bedroom the Playstation TV passed the streaming test and let me hop into the game. I also re-upped my Playstation Plus (I used to have a PS3) and was able to import my cloud save from the last time I played The Last of Us (the process isn’t necessarily easy to figure out at first).

The Last of Us playstation TV

Once I jumped into the game I was surprised at how good it looked. I have 50mbps cable that taps out at 47mbps over WiFi according to Speedtest.net. There was seemingly no lag in the controls at all, which was awesome! I’m sure there’s some sort of delay, but I can’t notice it at all. I only played for a few minutes but didn’t see any drops in quality while playing.

I initially wasn’t aware that the Playstation TV could read PS Vita cartridges, so once I found that out I looked up the list of compatible games and picked up Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD and Persona 4 Golden for the Vita. I’ve never played a Persona game, but since I’ve been playing Shin Megami Tensei IV on the 2DS I’ve been interested in checking out Persona.

final fantasy x hd persona 4 golden vita

I threw in the Final Fantasy X cartridge and it loaded quite quickly. The game looks better than it did on the PS2 (as far as I can tell), but still looks aged so far. Nevertheless, it’s just awesome to be playing it again! I’m excited to dig deeper into the game.

final fantasy x HD playstation tv

final fantasy x hd playstation tv

It’s also worth noting that if you’re a Playstation Plus member you’ll be able to download any PS Vita games that are in your library (and compatible with the device) to the 8GB SD card included with the device.

So far I’m pretty impressed with the Playstation TV. It’s lightweight and small which makes for a nice addition to the bedroom that doesn’t take up much space. It’ll also be great for traveling, especially once PS Now subscriptions are available on the device (they’re coming, eventually). You’ll be able to toss a small device in your laptop bag and set up anywhere with a TV and a decent internet connection and have over 100 games available to you.

playstation tv

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I’m looking forward to experiencing some Vita games I would have otherwise never gotten to play (such as Persona 4). I’m a tad upset that PS Now subscriptions aren’t currently available, but hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.

 

 

Medusa, I will defeat you (one day). Shin Megami Tensei IV

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

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So a few nights ago I hit my first roadblock in Shin Megami Tensei IV, in the form of the Medusa boss battle. Up until that point I had been cruising along, never facing any particularly challenging moments. I was enjoying the progression of the story and the flow of the gameplay, when all of a sudden the cruel and monstrous Medusa showed up and stopped me in my tracks.

The fight felt like it was going well, until the first dialogue choice came about. Medusa asked my opinion of her statues and I said that they were ugly….Oops! This enraged her, thus increasing her attack power and she wiped out my entire party on the very next turn. Not cool.

So I walked myself out of Hades, determined to put an end to Medusa’s treachery. The next battle went about as smoothly as the first, and when presented with a dialogue option, this time I praised her statues which in turn lowered her attack power. “Hooray!” I thought, this is going to be easy now.

Not so much. I made it to the second dialogue exchange, which from what I understand marks the 2/3 point of the fight (or at least 2 out of the 3 dialogue exchanges) but soon after my character was killed which left me unable to swap my creatures out for fresh ones and also left me unable to use items to heal them. I wiped again.

I tried the fight two or three more times with no success, and decided it was time to grind. I brought all my creatures up an additional two levels (to the 12-13 level range) but fared no better in the fight. So I went back to the grind and got my Gremlin to transform into a level 18 Raiju once it hit 14. I’m hoping this will give me an edge when I return to Medusa’s chamber again later tonight and finally attempt to finish her off. Wish me luck!

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I apologize for the glare, was grinding away in my car earlier as I had some downtime and it was bright outside.

 

Had a bit more fun with Destiny tonight

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I jumped right back into matchmaking Strikes tonight, and I had a lot better luck as I was matched with people interested in actually playing the game!

I was initially matched into the Devil’s Lair strike already in progress and my teammates and I made quick work of the strike and final boss. Much more enjoyable with a team that works together!

After that I stayed in matchmaking with one of the players from Devil’s Lair and we actually matched with another third team member who was just as capable as the last. We knocked out the Nexus quite smoothly and I had an enjoyable time doing so.

Screen Shot 2015-01-27 at 8.24.58 PM

My only complaint would be that no one used the team voice chat in either strike. I don’t know what it is, but no one ever wants to chat in Destiny. The same goes for the Crucible match I played to end the night, no one was using the team chat channel. Too bad.

I ended the night with a Crucible control match and went a respectable (for me) 20-13 (and we won!). I didn’t really get any notable gear tonight and still sit midway between level 24 and 25. Still, I enjoyed the night and look forward to running another strike or two tomorrow night, hopefully I’ll be just as lucky with the matchmaking!

Screen Shot 2015-01-27 at 8.25.55 PM

 

So many AFK players in Destiny Strikes

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

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So I’ve started playing Destiny here and there again, and I’m still getting frustrating by a very annoying occurrence that happens way too often. Three times since this weekend I’ve gotten into matchmade strikes only to find that one of the three players is just standing still, refusing to move (or just outright “AFK”). This makes some of the strikes more cumbersome than they should be and it’s certainly not fair to the other two players.

Each time I make sure I report the player in Destiny and also through Xbox One, and I’ll usually send them a message as well (and block them of course). It’s infuriating to constantly run into these worthless, unsporting players in strikes. I wish Bungie would add a way to vote to kick players from matchmade events, and I wish AFK players would be automatically penalized for refusing to play the game (why bother even trying).

Anyway..I guess I’ll have to find a group of players to join up with, but I’ve only just hit level 24 today so I’m a bit behind the curve.

How do you deal with AFK players?