Week two of Scanline Media has been a week of distractions, for myself as well as Ben. Ben has the better excuse- he has exams and schoolwork to do. I can’t claim the same– I’ve been dogsitting for a friend on vacation, and otherwise just not been writing a whole lot. At the very least, some of those distractions have been video games, giving me something to mention for this Playlist.
PLAYED
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Really not sure how to feel about this one yet. I love a good adventure visual novel, as a fan of games like Hotel Dusk, Phoenix Wright, and Dangan Ronpa, but so far the writing really hasn’t connected with me… and the setup seems so dopey. Sometimes designers go so far into illogical to set up their freaky situations that it just completely shatters my suspension of disbelief. The lengths the villain, Zero, goes to setup up the game’s events is just beyond stupid. Millions of dollars just to make a few kids get really scared before they die? It just seems stupid to me. I hear it gets incredible, though, so I’ll stick with it.
God of War: Ascension
I had no intention in getting in at the ground level with this latest God of War, but when I received it as a gift, I felt obligated to give it a look. The sequel nobody asked for didn’t look that impressive, and tacking on multiplayer as a disincentive against used sales made me even less confident. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to fun, interesting, and mildly refreshing? There is no justice, a game this safe and uninnovative being so damn fun.
Sleeping Dogs
It’s been a while since we’ve had an open world organized crime simulator. Granted, it’s also been a while since Sleeping Dogs came out– I’m late to this party. But it’s a hell of a game. An engaging story, but it has a sense of humor about itself. The gameplay is just wild enough to be fun, the mission design is wonderfully varied, staying fresh throughout the whole game.
It’s also an interesting example of restraint: the game restricts your access to guns, and in so doing, makes them feel far more powerful when you do get one. Not much restraint in the rest of the game, though- the unarmed combat is absurd and fun, and the action-hijack is a mechanic I want to see a lot more of.