TYF Column: What We’ve Been Playing

Gamers unite! The “What We’ve Been Playing” column is back and one of our newer features for TYF that will go out monthly, with various TYF writers talking about what game they’re currently playing. This could include old games, new games or, in my case, board games…maybe not that one. Ideally this will give you all ideas of what to play next or, greater still, a place to chat about what you’re playing now.

My non-gamer contribution? I played some Super Smash Bros on Wii U and had my ass handed to by a seven year old. Please someone, tell me what on earth is the point of the Yoga Instructor? How is doing push-ups going to help you ward off Meta Knight?

Check out the staffs picks below, I promise they are all much more knowledgeable than I am. Make sure to let us know what game you are currently addicted to in the comments below!

To read previous installment, go here.

Ryan’s Been Playing: OpenRCT2

Five months into 2016 and we already have three different theme park building video games hoping to capture the attention of old Rollercoaster Tycoon fans. All three are in Early Access but you can already seen where each is going. Parkitect and Planet Coaster already play great and each have different visions in game play and design; they even compliment each other well. Whereas the less said about Atari’s disappointing Rollercoaster Tycoon World the better.

 However, there’s also a fourth option, OpenRCT2, a fan-made, open source remake of 2002’s Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. It’s full of a ton of graphical improvements, optimizations, bug fixes and intriguing new features like co-op multiplayer support and changing the game speed. It’s pretty much the same game, but the improvements under the hood make it a fantastic experience that will act as something to compare the other three games to. It even fixes a crashing glitch with RCT2 that has with computers running Windows 10.

Right now, OpenRCT2 requires a digital copy of the original Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 to run, which should be no issue considering that the game is readily available on Steam and GOG and is still well worth your money 15 years after it was release. If you’re interested in playing an improved version of an old favorite, daily (and in some cases, hourly) builds of OpenRCT2 are available on its website.

Nathanael’s Been Playing: Digital Devil Saga

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for JRPGs. My first Playstation game was Final Fantasy VII and since then my life has been one long continuum of over-sized swords, preposterous outfits, and gravity-defying hairdos. Over the years I’ve worked my way through the entire Final Fantasy series (sans the online games) and most of the Dragon Quest franchise. But recently I’ve dived headfirst into the Shin Tegami Tensei games. Persona 3 and 4 were two of my favorite games of the PS2 era…even though I only played them when I was in college and the PS3 was already the go-to console. I’ve worn my 3DS out playing through every single one of the franchise’s games that Nintendo decides to release on the Virtual Store: Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Soul Hackers, and Strange Journey. Still hungry for more, I moved back to the PS2 for Nocturne, a game which I found thoroughly disappointing with its threadbare story, uninspired setting, and a sadistic lack of in-game directions for players. I spent more time trying to figure out where I was, where I needed to go, and what I needed to do in Nocturne than I did actually fighting monsters.

Disheartened but still determined, I decided to give Digital Devil Saga a go. Technically a duology, I’ve made it about 3/4ths of the way through the first game which follows a tribe named the Embryon trapped in a post-apocalyptic world where six tribes fight for supremacy. Digital Devil Saga is the game Nocturne wishes it was—emotionally engaging and thought-provoking in its explorations of the breakdown of human society and the human soul. Whereas the world in Nocturne felt unfinished, the world of Digital Devil Saga feels under populated and empty-deliberately so. To borrow a phrase from Stephen King, this feels like a world that has “moved on.” And it’s a world that I can’t wait to explore more of in the second game.

Donald’s Been Playing: Shovel Knight

A major complaint from gamers these days is how big budget titles have gotten “too easy.” Whether it’s the latest Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed, developers today are more focused on providing adventure-esque narratives that can incorporate everyone into buying the title, without leaving anyone too frustrated from difficulty. This is in large part why retro gaming has remained popular throughout the decades, because titles released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis or any other console in between provided both a challenge and an adventure for people to enjoy. This is clearly the era Shovel Knight is inspired from, as the title has both a fantastic retro adventure vibe to it, and a demanding difficulty that leaves the player feeling all the more enthralled.

Evan’s Been Playing- Ms. Pac-Man

Well, this is really embarrassing. I haven’t really played a lot of games this past month. However, I have a high quality excuse in that I was attending Tribeca Film Festival in one weekend of April, and had a blast of a four day weekend at PAX East 2016 immediately afterwards. I did a lot of demoing, interviewing and hustling about the expo that whole weekend, resulting in the coverage of about 8 games and a concert. You can find all my TYF @ PAX East content here.

Other than that, I haven’t played much. However, when in an uncommonly vacant Boston Convention and Expo Center, I stopped by PAX’s freeplay arcade and played on a Ms. Pac-Man game cabinet for the first time ever. Ms. Pac-Man played almost exactly like Pac-Man, but stars his very pretty wife. I actually wanted to check my facts so as to be respectful to her true relationship to the Pac-Man, because I was genuinely confused by why she was titled Ms. Pac-Man if she was, in fact, married. Wouldn’t she be named Mrs. Pac-Man? Nope. She, just  decided to keep the Ms., but let’s not get too caught up in the lore of Pac-Man, because if I go too far searching to answers I may not like what I find.

It was a fascinating experience playing any arcade cabinet from the 1980’s like this, really, as it was in the hour and a half that normal attendees of PAX were filing into the convention hall, including my three friends that would be with me last Friday who didn’t have the good graces of a media badge. So while the majority of this hallway was empty, the Ms. Pac-Man cabinet sat alone, outside the vacant Freeplay room, calling to me. If you’ve read Ready Player One you may be thinking “oh great, he’s just copying what happened in the book.” First of all, that chapter is fantastic, amd I understand why you’d think that, but second, no I did not get a “Perfect Game of Pac-Man.” I did, however, play for a solid 25 or 30 minutes and lost complete track of time while munching away at the dots and cherries, and dodging Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Sue.

Jose’s Been Playing- Destiny: Spring Update

I jumped into Destiny as a “Year 2” player, coming in right after the massive content drop that was The Taken King. By all accounts from Year 1 players, TTK “fixed” many of the issues that Destiny had. Eventually, the luster of TTK faded and the game hit the same problem all MMO style games get: it became a grind. Don’t get me  wrong, I had plenty of fun. I had about 200 hours worth of fun if we want to get specific but I was feeling a bit fatigued. Soon enough Destiny faded from my weekly gaming rotation and I completely stopped checking in.

Destiny’s “Spring Update,” though not the most originally named content drop, has reeled me back in. In terms of new content, the update is fairly slim. It’s really only added in a few new missions and one new game mode that’s really just a variation of an old game mode. Why Bungie has done to get me back into Destiny is tweak existing systems in order to make it feel like the game is actually rewarding me for the time I put in. New ways to get gear a few more places to get gear you actually want have put Destiny back in the quick play rotation. I can hop in for an hour for some solid shooting with my friends and make some meaningful progress or get some cool gear. It will be interesting to see how long it keeps me playing but for a free update, you could do much, much worse.

Alexander’s Been Playing- Dark Souls 3 and Rocket League

So if you couldn’t tell from my long-winded review, I’ve been enjoying “Dark Souls 3.” After banging my head against the wall of boss monsters, I’m now putting myself through the ordeals of challenging every other player I can in order to max out the rewards for engaging in PVP. Those Pale Tongues and Vertebrae Shackles don’t come easy.

But in between my Dark Sword R1-spamming, I’ve been putting a lot of hours back into “Rocket League” because of the new Hoops update. It turns out rocket-boosting cars don’t just mix nicely with soccer, they work wonders with basketball as well. I always loved “Rocket League” for being such a simple, elegant concept that’s easy to pick up and relax with, yet complex to fully master. That challenge of mastery is then given a new layer when you have to transition into playing an entirely different sport with the same mechanics. Sure, the game is mostly one of managing your boost and jumps to control the ball, making passes, and making shots on the goal. But with soccer, you just have to move the ball horizontally, whereas in basketball, you need to think vertically as well, shooting the ball up as much as forward to get it in the basket.

I don’t know if it will replace the default soccer mode for me, though. Don’t get me wrong, there are things I prefer about the basketball mode, like the valid strategies of bouncing the ball off the walls to bounce into the hoop. However, it’s exasperating that a team can keep getting quick points by just boosting into the air, singing “I Believe I Can Fly” with reckless abandon, and tapping the ball during its mid-air drop at the start of each round. Or maybe I just need to master the particular technique myself. After all, if all the “Dark Souls” has taught me anything, it’s that frustration of something is the first step at mastering and enjoying that thing.