For the week of June 17 to 23
Check out what I played last week
This was a weird week. I spent most of the Week playing World of Warcraft. Their Welcome to Azeroth Bundle is a great offer that I couldn’t refuse. I went back to the character I had when I was playing the free trial.
At the same time, I’m fooling around with Remix: Mists of Pandaria. Plus, I used the Level 60 boost that comes with the bundle, so I can try out the Dragonflight content. I don’t know if this will get me to buy The War Within, but I have two months to decide.
For this week, I went into the vault to try a few older games. I also played this week’s second notable game. On top of that, I also tried what is considered one of the “most popular games in the world”.
June 17 – Gears of War: Judgment
There are quite a few marque franchises seeing new releases in the coming months and into 2025. Because of that, I’m going back to play games from those series that I missed out on. Although I worked at The Coalition in 2020 and 2021, I haven’t played every Gears of War game. One that I missed out on was Gears of War: Judgment. Considering it too is a prequel like the announced Gears of War: E-Day, I wanted to finally give it a shot.
Tonally, this feels very much like the Epic-developed Gears games. The comic book feel of the characters and dialog reminds me so much of the original trilogy. From the start, I like the Rashomon effect this game features. The first mission is re-told from Baird’s perspective. As you progress, there are opportunities to do side quests that change the story.
I think they use this mechanic throughout the game. You don’t have to do them, but they are a nice addition to the story. My only gripe is that I’ve been doing these but it feels like I’m not getting credit for them. In one, you’re supposed to protect this priceless war armor from destruction. I am certain that I completed this goal but I didn’t get credit for it. If I’m doing something wrong and not getting the credit, then that’s frustrating.
For now, I will put this aside but return to it as we get closer to E-Day’s eventual launch. I suspect a lot of people will be going back and replaying the Gears games in anticipation of the prequel. So, I will come back in 2025 and do the same.
June 18 – Still Wakes the Deep
This week’s big release (outside of Shadow of the Erdtree) is the survival-horror game Still Wakes the Deep. This takes place on a drilling platform in the 1970s. You play as one of its members who gets wrapped in a strange anomaly that suddenly happens. I don’t play too many survival-horror games, but this sucked me in and I couldn’t stop playing.
Part of why is because it’s not that scary. I don’t see the monster(s) as gruesome or frightening. For me, this game leans more toward suspense. It’s the uncertainty of what’s going on that is keeping me engaged. I don’t mind that the game is linear with very little room to wander. The narrative wants you to stick to the main plot, there’s no time for side content and exploration.
I finished this a couple of days later. Without going into spoilers, the story near the end throws in a few misdirections. It’s unlikely this has many endings. Yet, some things made me feel like if you do (or don’t) interact with them, it impacts your understanding of the game.
As it stands, Still Wakes the Deep is one of my favorite games this year. Even with a few annoying sections, it kept me wanting to see what happens next. Again, this isn’t a scary game but it has plenty of WTF moments that will keep you on your toes.
June 19 – Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
The first two Arkham games were so much fun. I didn’t get into the third game, but I looked forward to Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. That changed when all evidence pointed towards this being a live-service game. For a game that looks incredible, it does not start on a good foot.
The first part of the game makes you play the same section four times. This wouldn’t be too bad if there was greater variety between them. The differences between the four characters are minor. So, having to do a lot of the same things multiple times sucks. Then, once you pick your starting character, the first mission is also pretty bland. They do a piss-poor job of getting you excited to play this game.
Don’t get me wrong, this game looks great. Unfortunately, the rest of it is generic. This has already dropped in price, with the Ultimate Edition selling for a 50-60% discount. Heck, the three-hour PlayStation 5 trial that I used is more than enough to see if you’ll like this game. When they drop this in price even more (which they will), then I’ll return to it and see how the story unfolds. Otherwise, this was a huge disappointment I will easily forget about.
June 20 – Highwater
Highwater comes from the same studio that developed Golf Club Wasteland and The Cub. This time around, they give us a turn-based tactical game. This serves as a prequel to those games, which all take place in the same world. I’ve been looking forward to finally playing the full game for a while now, but it’s not as good as I had hoped it would be.
As part of their extended universe of games, this one takes place before the events of the earlier games. The world is flooding, resources are sparse, and order is pretty much gone. It is clear that the elites of Earth are looking to leave (for Mars), but those still around are trying to make due.
For a game that has a rich story, there isn’t a lot to do here. As the main character Niko, you spend most of the start of the game riding around your boat. You can stop off in certain locations but most don’t have much to do. Sure, there might be books or newspapers that shed light on what’s going on, little else.
When there are combat sections, they are pretty standard. Early on, the fights aren’t hard but they’re not that engaging either. I got bored quickly and I’m not sure I’ll come back to this one. It’s disappointing that the third game by Demagog Studios is their weakest of the bunch. If I go back, it’s only to see if this shows how Alphaville goes to shit.
June 21 – Freshly Frosted
This week’s main free game from the Epic Game Store is a puzzle game called Freshly Frosted. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started playing, but this is one delicious puzzle game – pun intended.
For this one, you’re working on a donut conveyor system. You need to link the start of the track to the necessary toppings. Depending on the donut, you will need to add toppings in a specific order. Once they look right, they need to reach their final destination. It’s a simple concept but the placement of the tools is where the puzzle aspect comes into place.
The first dozen puzzles are straightforward. I only struggled with one but when I finally solved it, it was much easier than I was making it out to be. The second set of puzzles starts incorporating more varieties. So you’re not only making one kind of donut, you’ll need to create a few. Again, not that difficult, but it kept me on my toes.
June 22 – Honor of Kings
Until this year, I didn’t play MOBAs. I tried in the past to get into many of them. I tried DOTA 2. Heroes of the Storm is still installed on my Macbook even though I never played it. But earlier this year, I tried League of Legends: Wild Rift and had fun with it. I never heard of Honor of Kings until I saw ads for it on the Google Play Store. This is the most popular game in China, and it’s finally available worldwide. So, I downloaded it and began playing.
To be honest, I’m having fun. But at the same time, this doesn’t feel any different from Wild Rift. The gameplay feels identical. It’s a fast-paced MOBA designed for mobile play. Yet, if you put both games side by side I can’t tell the difference.
I suspect more experienced MOBA players can tell the difference. In any case, I’m at least enjoying myself after a half-dozen matches. I’ve experienced winning and losing. I’ve certainly gotten better at understanding the keys to victory.
The key here is that Honor of Kings is doing a good job at their global release to entice you with a ton of free content. They’ve made unlocking heroes and other items (skins) easy. Because of that, I could see myself sticking around for a few more days until I unlock everything that I can. After that, I don’t know if I’ll play for too much more after that.
June 23 – Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
I’ve only ever played the old-school point-and-click Indiana Jones adventure games. With the upcoming launch of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I wanted to try out some of the 3D Indy games. They’re incredibly cheap on GOG, so I bought the two that were released on PC. I began by playing 1999’s Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.
Unfortunately, this game was practically unplayable through GOG. I got to start working but while trying to figure out the controls, I caused the game to crash. When I attempted to restart the game, it wouldn’t boot past the pop-up start menu. After reinstalling the game, it finally got to work, but I had to play on the game’s lowest resolution.
The problems continued after that. For whatever reason, if you exit the game and then try to load your save, the game crashes. I would have to start a new game and then load my crash after the opening sequence finishes. But after doing that a few times, I would then crash and was never able to continue playing.
For what I did play, this isn’t anything special. The controls are tough, even on a controller. This feels like a game from the 90s and even if I wasn’t encountering game crashes, I wasn’t having fun. I plan on trying 2003’s Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, which I hope runs better.
