Category: Games

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Trials Fusion Is Fun Until It Is Frustrating (But Then Still Pretty Fun)!

Xbox Live Gold has been kind of on a roll lately.  Delivering games that I actually want to play, and of course not charging me any extra for them.  A game from the service that I am currently playing is Trials Fusion.

In Trials Fusion you do crazy stunts on insane tracks while trying not to crash.  You do this over and over again.  The game is simple to start playing since it is 2.5 D, so you don’t have to turn.  You just hit the gas or brake to try to maneuver your way across the tracks.  Then they throw leaning in to the mix, still not bad.  You got this, and then tricks, fine.  Not a problem.  Finally comes bunny-hopping.  At first this is okay since it is mostly during the flat parts of the tracks, but then you need to bunny-hop while motoring straight up a cliff, and now you will want to throw your controller through your TV.  Still, you feel great once you manage to complete the track.

It is just that difficulty curve comes out of nowhere.  It is like being slapped in the face.  The easy rated tracks you can do pretty much just holding the gas pedal down, and the medium rated tracks just require that you are paying attention, but the hard rated tracks are scream inducing.  While once you get used to the hard tracks, you do get better, but Trails Fusion would have been better had they ramped up the difficulty in a more linear way.

All in all though it is a great game, and one that it is more than worth playing for the price of $0.  Though one other bummer is that they are constantly trying to shove DLC down your throat, but what they give with the base game is more than enough to make most people happy, so just do your best to tune out the constant advertising, and you will have a good time with Trials Fusion.

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Shmee Takes A Stroll With Oxenfree!

I didn’t know what I was getting myself in to when I fired up Oxenfree.  I knew it was an indie game that came out last year and that a lot of people really liked it, and it was known to have a lot of charm, but I was not prepared to be so completely enraptured with it.

Technically I am guessing you could call Oxenfree a 2.5D walking simulator since the gameplay is mostly walking around and solving lightweight puzzles, but really it is a conversation simulator because unlike most walking games in Oxenfree you are never alone.  There is always someone there to chat with, and the game’s three button, three dialog choice gameplay, is really fun.  Seeing how Alex’s (the main character) friends react to the things you have her say is constantly engaging.

Oxenfree’s story revolves around five friends who just wanted to have a fun weekend trip on one of the Pacific Northwest’s many costal Islands.  In this case the fictional Edwards Island.  Things obviously go sideways, but that is all that I am going to tell you.  However, if you liked Stranger Things, you will like Oxenfree.  Watching the story unfold was fascinating.  It was some of the best fiction I have watched/interacted with in a long time, and knowing that it all could have played out differently had I chosen to walk and talk to different people or said different things makes me want to play it again.

Right now if you are an Xbox Live Gold member you can download Oxenfree for free, and you need to download it.  Though it is worth the $20 it usually goes for on just about every other platform under the sun.  It is so fun and the story is so engrossing that I feel I should apologize for the couple of nights of lost sleep you are going to have while you finish the game.  Maybe even more if you choose to play it again to see things go down differently, but some things are worth loosing sleep over.

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Unpacking PAX West 2017!

PAX West was a blur this year, I did so much, and I had so much fun that it is hard to talk about anything in particular.  I enjoyed most of the panels I went too.  Two of the funniest featured Kris Straub: PAX Rumble 2017 (video game wresting at its finest) and the live version of his internet radio show 28 Plays Later (two guys talk about stuff).  Of course the Telltale group play of Batman: The Enemy Within was as fun as always, and even though it has changed to a bunch of random ads, I still love going to the Gearbox show.

I didn’t have time to play a lot of the games on the show floor or elsewhere, but I am going to say that Forza 7 is the default game of show for me.  I played it twice, and it is simply stunning on the Xbox One X.  It truly shows the craziness the X will be able to pull off this Christmas.  Board game wise, I am not going to name a game of the year.  The ones I played were all fine, but I didn’t play a game I had to have.  Though Dwarves: Dig, Delve, Die at least had some sweet dwarven shaped dice, and I won, which is always a bonus.

PAX West is always an experience, and there are some moments after all the walking and waiting in lines that make me wonder if it is all worth it, but every year I can’t wait to do it all over again.  If you like geeky things and hanging out with geeky people, try to get yourself to a PAX.  There will be something for you.  Even if you have to weed through the three hundred “how to make your stream successful” panels.  Though I can help you out with that: be funny, talented, have good screen presence, and self promote like crazy.  Until next year PAX West!

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Rune Is Coming Back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bViPhnt9Rk

Seventeen years ago Human Head Studios launched a Viking RPG that would become a LAN party staple for years to come, Rune, and they are finally making a sequel.  I know that it took some time for the studio to get back on its feet after the Prey 2 fiasco that turned some fans against Bethesda, but regardless, I can’t wait for a proper return to the world of Rune.  I am a little worried about it being open world.  I don’t think that is something every game needs to do, but I know they are a talented studio looking to do something big after the hardships they have had to endure, so I hope Rune Ragnarök blows me away!