What other Zelda games should I play?

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Breath of the Wild has ignited an interest in Zelda games that no other game has been able to do. As I’ve said before, my first experience with Zelda came from renting Ocarina of Time as a pre-teen and being completely confused about what I was supposed to be doing. Even then, part of me was mesmerized by the art and music, and I enjoyed running around the world so much that I rented it twice and just poked around in other people’s saves, not really getting anywhere in the game.

I tried to go back to Ocarina of Time once or twice in recent years, and but I ultimately got put off by the clunky feeling controls and my inability to competently fight off most enemies. I also didn’t have the patience to try to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be doing as the game didn’t make it very clear (yet unlike Breath of the Wild there are many roadblocks preventing you from doing anything you want at any time).

Now, however, I’m interested in checking out a few of the other Zelda games. I don’t really want to try out Majora’s Mask as it seems too much like Ocarina, which, unlike a majority of gamers, I’m just not into. Instead, I’m somewhat curious about Windwaker and Twilight Princess. I figure these games could allow me to get some more use out of my Wii U after I finish Breath of the Wild, and I’ll be able to see how the series has matured into its more modern state.

Windwaker HD sure looks pretty

Which game do you think I should start with after Breath of the Wild? Which is the most accessible? I understand the recent games are often looked down upon, but part of me wonders if the negative perception is more from fans of the series and could easily be looked past from an outsider like me.

Should I dive into Zelda’s past, or will playing anything after Breath of the Wild only disappoint?

Two weeks with the PS4 Pro: Love it!

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I’ve had the PS4 Pro for just over two weeks so far and I thought I’d share my thoughts on the system. First off, the Pro is my first experience with the PS4 platform, and the first time I’ve owned a PlayStation since the PS2. I’ve always been more of an Xbox gamer, however with the lineup of recent Playstation games I felt the time was right to see what Sony had to offer.

One of the immediate benefits of jumping into the PS4 ecosystem is access to a whole new world of video games. One of the first games I played on the system was Tales of Berseria, the first game in the series I have ever played, and the only other JRPG I’ve ever played outside of Final Fantasy. I was immediately hooked by the interesting characters and the incredibly satisfying combat system. The game also has a great visual style and some incredible music. Every time I launch it I just let it sit on the menu screen for awhile, enjoying the beautiful theme.

Horizon Zero Dawn has really justified my decision to purchase the Pro over the Slim. The game is visually stunning on a 4K TV with HDR, and it seems to perform better than most console games I’ve played in the past. The game isn’t all visuals though, it’s a blast to play as well. The different bows are incredibly satisfying to shoot and landing a well time shot to either down a foe or knock of a critical component never gets old. Aloy is one of my favorite video game characters to date, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the game has in store for her.

I’ve also been enjoying Until Dawn, Yakuza 0 and The Last of Us Remastered on the system, however they’ve taken a back seat to Horizon and Zelda.

As someone who never really liked the feel of the PS3 controller, the Pro’s controller feels solid and I haven’t had any issue at all getting used to it. I’ve also been impressed with how snappy the system is compared to the clunkier Xbox One interface (though it’s gotten better recently). Flipping through menu items is quick and smooth, and it’s easy to switch between games and apps without much of a delay.

VR complications

The Pro is also a tempting platform to get VR for. I’ve been thinking about jumping into VR for awhile, and having a Pro has made that decision more complicated. I have a capable gaming desktop, however it is in a small room that wouldn’t be entirely practical for an Oculus set up. I could move the desktop to the living room any time I wanted to mess around with VR, but that would be a nuisance I’m sure. A PS VR would be easy to set up in the living room, but it’s a more limited platform. I was leaning pretty heavily toward a PS VR, at least until Oculus cut its price by $200. So I could spend $499 to get a complete PS VR set up, or just $100 more to get an Oculus. This is a complicated decision that I don’t think I’ll solve any time soon. Maybe I’m better off waiting for a more refined set of VR devices, but I’m also a very impatient man.

Too many platforms

Ultimately I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve spent with the PS4 Pro. The only downside is that it has complicated my decision making process when it comes to third party games. For example, I was previously almost certain I would get Mass Effect Andromeda on the Xbox One, since that’s where I played the previous games, but I had started debating about getting it on PC to put my 1060 to work. Now that I’ve seen just how great Horizon Zero Dawn looks in 4K, I’ve started considering getting Andromeda on the PS4 to take advantage of HDR and a higher resolution. I’ll probably be going back and forth right up to release night, before deciding which platform to get the game for.

Final thought

 The PS4 Pro is one heck of a system. Maybe it seems more impressive to me since it’s also my first experience with a PS4 in general, but I’d like to think that the Pro upgrades give it even more of an edge. The system is incredibly quiet, even while cranking out beautiful visuals in Horizon Zero Dawn, and again I’m in awe at how snappy everything feels. The load times even seem quicker than what I’m used to, but I haven’t played a game like Battlefield 1 or GTA V (which have annoyingly long loads on Xbox One) for reference (Battlefield 1 doesn’t seem to load much quicker on PC, but I’m not sure if that’s more of a server thing).

Austin Walker is like the NPR of video games

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Check out Austin Walker’s non-review of Breath of the Wild on Waypoint, especially the audio version (available at the top of the article).

Austin’s write up is beautifully written, but it’s especially mesmerizing in its audio form. The way it’s read by Austin made me feel like I was listening to something on NPR. His voice is soothing, yet you can hear his enthusiasm about the game in every single sentence. If you weren’t sold on the game before, listening to his story might just do it for you. Even if you’re not interested in Zelda at all, I still recommend listening to the story, as it’s an incredible piece of video game journalism.

 

Breath of the Wild: Every time I pick up the controller I have a new story to tell

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Tonight I finally got around to playing some more Breath of the Wild, and I was able to learn some valuable lessons. I started out by heading out toward a spot I marked on my map, up on top of a mountain. I figured I’d try to take a somewhat direct route, and I started climbing some pretty sharp and jagged cliffs. I made sure to scope out an area which had a few resting points so that I could recover stamina on the way up. What I didn’t account for, however, was the drop in temperature that would occur as I got close to the summit. As I neared the top I started to see snow, and was greeted with a notification warning me that if I didn’t find warmth I’d start to lose health. The game wasn’t messing around, because less than 30 seconds later I started losing health in half heart chunks!

I immediately tried to make my way back down the mountain, however I couldn’t seem to climb fast enough. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and rather than trying to eat a few apples to slow my impending death, I decided to continue climbing down as quickly as possible. By the time I reached the second point in which I could rest, Link keeled over and his dead body rag-dolled down the mountain before I was met with a ‘game over’ screen.

Usually dying in frustrating ways in video games angers me and causes me to want to stop playing the game, but fortunately Breath of the Wild has a generous auto save system and rather quick load times ensure you’re right back in the action, near where you left off. This meant that I respawned on one of the resting points, and I was able to climb to safety below. Once I reached level ground I decided I’d better find another way to reach the shrine high above, and I started wandering around the area. It was then that I ran into the old man, chopping down some trees near an impassable gap. He mentioned something about being mindful of how you chop down a tree, and this led me to believe that I could somehow chop down a tree to use as a bridge to cross the chasm, thus putting me more directly beneath the shrine I was trying to get to (and possibly further away from the snowy parts toward the east that I ran into earlier). Unfortunately, after chopping down three trees I was unable to get them to bridge the gap (I assume it’s possible, but I just had bad luck), however not all was lost because I followed the old man back to his campfire where I learned how to cook.

It turned out that learning to cook would prove incredibly important, especially if I wished to survive the cold of the mountain peak above. I whipped up some dishes that will give Link temporary cold resistance by throwing some chili peppers into a pot alongside other random ingredients. I also ended up with several dishes that will heal more hearts than I currently have, which is pretty cool.

Yet I also ended up with a huge stockpile of barely edible dishes that “shouldn’t” hurt me.

This series of events tonight really helped to show just how amazing Breath of the Wild can be. Everything that happened to me was entirely unscripted. There was no forced tutorial teaching me how to cook, but rather a chance encounter after a reckless attempt to scale a mountain went south. When I learned that I could combine chili peppers with other ingredients to grant cold resistance, I had an “AHA!” moment that I’ve rarely experienced in modern video games. Suddenly the cold weather above would no longer prove to be a deterrent.

Despite gaining the tools I needed to have another crack at scaling the mountain, I instead decided to head in the opposite direction and tackle one of the other shrines I marked on my map. I ended up running into the bomb shrine (Ja Baij). This shrine was pretty quick, easy and painless, though I managed to die a few times on the outside before heading into the trial. After I completed the trial, I warped back to the Shrine of Resurrection and once again set my sights on the snowy path standing between me and the shrine I originally set out to find.

That’s where my adventure ends tonight. I decided I will venture into the brutal cold another time, but I’m still in awe at just how much can happen in Breath of the Wild. I feel like nothing will ever go exactly as planned, and each time I pick up the controller I’ll be left with a different story to tell. I can’t wait to see what lies ahead, and I hope to continue sharing my stories with you.

Playing Breath of the Wild on the Wii U

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

zelda

I’ve never been a huge Zelda fan, but with the release of the Switch and the huge amount of hype leading up to the release of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I figured I needed to see what all the excitement was about. I never did get into Ocarina of Time on the N64. I rented it a few times, but as an impatient eleven year old I never could figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Even in recent years I’ve tried to give it another shot, but often found myself running in circles trying to figure out what to do, or if I did find myself headed in the right direction I would repeatedly die at the hands of the enemies I’d encounter.

My time with Breath of the Wild so far has been pretty positive. First off it looks great, with a beautifully unique art style and it runs relatively smoothly even on the Wii U. I absolutely love the way they handle the map in the game, where you do all of the icon placement yourself. This keeps the map from becoming overwhelming early on, as you can climb a tower, mark a few things on your map and then set out to see what you’ll find there. That doesn’t mean you won’t get sidetracked along the way, however. I’ve found myself headed toward a tower or shrine, only to veer off in a different direction when a camp of enemies catches my eye.

The game has a reputation for being a little difficult, and that may prove to push me away from the game eventually. I’ve died a handful of times in my first hour or so with the game, but the quick reloads into a recent autosave make it more bearable. Oftentimes I’ve found that I died because I’m rushing into combat with multiple enemies and missing a way to use the environment to my advantage.

One other minor gripe, is that the Wii U version completely ignores the gamepad. I assume it’s because Nintendo has basically abandoned the Wii U at this point, which is a shame, because there are many ways they could have effectively used the gamepad, and therefore justified its existence one last time. Of course you can play the game on the gamepad (though I’ve found this seriously detracts from the game’s beauty), but otherwise you’ll just get a black screen with a message telling you that you can play on the gamepad.

Breath of the Wild Wii U gamepad

I’m looking forward to spending more time with Breath of the Wild, but at the same time Horizon Zero Dawn is also calling my name (and Mass Effect Andromeda is quickly approaching). If you have a Wii U and want to dust it off one last time, I can definitely recommend picking up Breath of the Wild for it.

Enjoying Horizon Zero Dawn so far

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Last night after work I played about an hour and a half of Horizon Zero Dawn, and I’m pretty impressed so far. It looks downright amazing on a PS4 Pro and a 4K HDR TV. I also really like how they try to make the tutorial into something that actually has a narrative, and is more interesting than following prompts on screen. Things really get fun once you’re given control over the adult Aloy, and I’m really enjoying the combat so far. The bow feels like it has real impact when you land a shot on a critical part, and everything just looks and sounds great during combat. It’s especially thrilling to get into a scuffle with several enemies as once, and the music during these instances works to amp up the adrenaline as enemies close in on you.

I’m looking forward to putting some more time into Horizon Zero Dawn as the week goes on, but I can already tell it’s going to be a great time. The last thing I’ll say is that the game has a real polish, and I’ve run into zero bugs or hiccups so far which is rare for games on their release days lately. I can’t wait to play more!

MLB The Show 16’s beginner mode is a tad too easy…

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

MLB The Show 16 too easy

I’ve been playing MLB The Show 16 on the PS4 Pro I picked up this weekend, and it’s felt great to be able to play baseball again (after too many years of hoping for an MLB game to return to Xbox). That said, I think I need to step it up from the beginner difficulty setting. I won my first game of the season 17-0 (with a little help from two created players with uber stats), and I hit six consecutive home runs in a single inning! Regardless I’ve been playing a blast, and just wanted to share! I hope to share my first impressions of the PS4 Pro after I spend some more time with it. Until then, enjoy the hilarity:

 

Halo Wars 2 first impressions

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Yesterday I excitedly fired up Halo Wars 2 on PC, and from its first moments it was impressive. There is one problem I’m having with it, however, and that’s the way it controls on PC. It doesn’t control like an RTS at all, which I assume is because the game was designed with console gamers in mind (it is a Play Anywhere title). I had to dig into the key bindings menu a lot, even after finishing the tutorials, just to figure out how to do things that should be common sense. I’m incredibly puzzled by some of the control decisions they’ve made on PC. For example, to rotate or zoom the camera you must first hold down the ALT key. It just doesn’t feel right. The worst problem of all, however, came when I tried to figure out how to bring up the pause menu. The ESC key did nothing, and I tried just about every key I could think of, but nothing happened. Eventually I turned on my Xbox controller and took control that way just to get into the key bindings menu to find out that F10 is the pause / menu key, not ESC. What the heck?

I haven’t tried to play Halo Wars 2 with a controller yet, so maybe that will end up being the way to play it, but I’m a little disappointed that it doesn’t control as smoothly as I expected it to on PC. Other than that it runs great, and I’ve had a fun time with it despite the control hiccups.

Dreaming of a future in which A.I. designs video games

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

image via ThinkStock

image via ThinkStock

I’ve been thinking lately about an interesting possibility for the future of game development. It may not be a realistic idea, but it’s one I figured I’d share anyway. I was imagining a day when artificial intelligence is advanced to the point where anyone in the world can ask in simple language for an A.I. assistant to complete a complicated task. If these A.I. assistants were capable of taking simple human input (no programming required) and learning the skills necessary to complete the requested task, so much would be possible. Just imagine if you could explain to an A.I. your dream video game idea, and then the A.I. would start toiling away, day and night working on creating a video game for you. Obviously game development is a complicated task, as proven by the fact that many talented programmers and designers often start with ambitions ideas and fail to create an enjoyable end product (cough: No Man’s Sky). But if A.I. got to the point where it could learn and work rapidly, I want to believe that it would be able to churn out “perfect” video games with regularity.

I should mention, that I have very little understanding of how artificial intelligence or machine learning currently works, but I don’t think that it’s entirely impossible for machines to someday outperform humans at any and all tasks. When this day comes I could imagine a person sitting down at a terminal and brainstorming video game ideas with an A.I. The A.I. would ask questions to help guide it along the creative process, but it could take care of most of the more intricate work (art design, programming) without much input. It would of course have studied everything there is to know about game design, and already know, for example, the general rules that apply to most genres. The A.I. would have the opportunity to observe you play other video games and have an understanding of the things that you enjoy and those that frustrate you.

It’s difficult to imagine a future where machines become excellent story tellers (though I doubt it’s impossible), so I think A.I. game designers would best be suited to craft sandbox games, or games that tend to follow widely accepted rules (such as sports or driving games). Still, it would be incredibly empowering to have an A.I. that could take my simple gaming desires and translate them into effective code and artwork, and ultimately a fully functional video game built just for me.

I’m sure there are many more practical and important tasks that A.I. will help us accomplish in the coming years, but I’m still going to keep dreaming about the possibility of having a personal video game development team in the cloud, even if it’s not likely to happen in my lifetime.

 

What I’ve been playing

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Again, I have to apologize for not posting much lately as I’ve been busy, and the crappy weather hasn’t helped to motivate me.

Recently I’ve still been playing a lot of Battlefield 1 and enjoying the heck out of it. Other than that, I started Oxenfree and was impressed with the opening moments. I’m looking forward to digging more into Oxenfree this weekend if I have a chance. I progressed a little more in Firewatch and have to say that game has me on edge. I can’t wait to finish it out and try to figure out what the heck is going on. Lastly, I played a few hours of Watch Dogs 2 and enjoyed it much more than the first game. It has a fun, goofy style to it that just makes me smile. The post mission graphics and sound effects are just dumb in such a good way, in a way that reminds me of Amped 3. The gameplay has been enjoyable, although I’ve been frustrated with the combat a few times already.

It’ll be kind of a short weekend for me as I’m working late tonight (like getting home at 4 or 5 Saturday morning late) and then switching to day shift Monday, but if I have time I’d like to write something more significant. Until then, thanks again for not forgetting about me.