Weekend Gaming Review – April 2021

Greetings! It’s been….<checks calendar> just over a month since my last blog post and I wanted to sit down and write up a simple update post on what I’ve been up to lately, along with what I’ve been playing, which is something I haven’t actually done since last fall sometime I believe…

Mini-hiatus

I hadn’t originally intended to put any WordPress stuff on hold, and certainly not for an entire month. It happened around the middle of last month that I had spent most of my time writing blog posts as more of a response to different prompts/tags and not necessarily out of feeling inspired to write down something. Over the course of the past few months, particularly the second half of March and into April, I had started to feel my own mental health beginning to wear down a bit. As my own attempt to combat this, I made the decision that I don’t need to sit down and force myself to write out anything just for the sake of having something to post every weekend(or so) and wanted to pull back just a little bit from some of the WordPress stuff I was beginning to stress myself over. I decided I wanted, well, needed to take some time and just focus on taking care of myself and spend more of my time “offline”. Over this time I also took a few days off from streaming on some of the Tuesday/Thursday mornings, something I had been doing pretty consistently since this past August, as well as spending minimal time on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram. The weather had started to warm up outside, so it made for perfect weather to go outside for short walks around the neighborhood; I even managed to make it out to the driving range at our local golf course, something I hadn’t done in several years. It was also nice to go back and spend time sitting listening to a lot of different albums I haven’t played in a considerable time, or simply relaxing with a cup of coffee/tea and rewatching some old favorite tv shows and movies. Moving forward I still have every intention to pick up where I left off and resume blogging and streaming. In my little blogging break I was able to come away feeling slightly recharged and have begun taking notes and working on some post ideas all while staying mindful about not stressing myself over so many things…

Games Played

Despite the fact I’ve been attempting to set aside a bit more “offline” time the past several weeks I’ve still logged plenty of time playing video games. I mean….a single player game or something on a console released prior to 2006 is technically offline, right? Hell, I even managed to finish up a couple games; something I’ve set out to do a little more of this year.

Ghost of Tsushima – I dove back into Ghost of Tsushima after setting it aside this past summer as I started my trophy hunt in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and then starting up AC: Valhalla after it was released. While I enjoyed Ghost, I felt like I *should* like it more and it hadn’t really hooked me just yet. After I finished up the main game(and remaining trophies) in Valhalla, I wanted to give Ghost of Tsushima another shot. I can say now that I think I’ve finally turned a corner with the game and it finally “clicked” for me. I have a little better familiarity/understanding of the mechanics and controls, though I still think some of the button bindings are a bit strange compared to other games(R2 is your main interact button?). I still have a ways to go, but I’m enjoying the game a lot more now in the meantime…

Super Mario 3D World – I never picked up a Wii U, like so many others(obligatory joke), so I was eager to pick up a copy of Super Mario 3D World when it was released on the Switch this past February. I had known others that had played it to rave about the game and declare it one of the strongest 3D Mario entries. After playing through it, I can say I also feel it’s one of Mario’s better 3D outings. 3D World is a little more of a traditional platformer in the emphasis of the game is simply to clear the obstacles that lie ahead of you, finish the stage and move on to the next before attempting the next world; a little different than something like Super Mario Odyssey, in which you run around collecting power moons in any one of the worlds(Bowser’s Fury is similar to this). There’s three stars to collect in each level(well, most of them) along with a stamp of a different character or item. I think I finished the game with right around 240 stars, leaving an additional 140 to come back and clean up. I’d probably still have to lean towards Odyssey as my favorite Mario game on the Switch, but I’d be willing look at it as a 1A/1B scenario with 3D World.

Contra: Hard Corps – I’ve been playing Contra games for many years now, but I’d never been able to beat Contra: Hard Corps on the Sega Genesis. The overall series has been (in)famous for its difficulty as long as I’ve known of it, but for whatever reason Hard Corps always felt like it was just, ever so much easi….less difficult? I managed to make it all the way to the last boss, well, one of the game’s three final encounters as a kid but had never made it back. I was determined this time to sit down and make a few attempts every day until I was able to beat the game, so I guess the stubborness in my older age is finally paying off…

INSIDE – I had been meaning to play INSIDE for quite some time, but had always figured I’d play through Limbo – PlayDead’s previous game first. I finally decided to just jump in and play INSIDE on stream last week and I really, really liked the game, despite running out of time to finish up on stream and had to finish the game later – turns out I was only about another ten minutes from completing it…go figure. I do have an upcoming post of my thoughts on the game planned out, so, I’ll save anything else for a later time.

Resident Evil 8: Village(Demo) – The “Village” demo for Capcom’s upcoming Resident Evil 8: Village was released just a couple nights ago. The previous demo, “Maiden” was a PlayStation 5 exclusive, so I wasn’t able to check that out(yet?) and I hadn’t watched really any of the game coverage from the two Capcom showcases, outside of the released trailer from the PS5 presentation last summer. Part of this is likely due to the fact that, while I enjoyed RE7 overall, I can’t honestly say I LOVED the game. I have come to accept the fact I generally prefer to play horror games in third-person rather than first-person; I usually end up frustrated/annoyed as much as I’m ever frightened while playing from a first-person perspective. I decided the worst that would happen with the RE8 demo is I don’t particularly care for it and decide to hold off on trying out the full game, so I downloaded it and tried out the demo on my PS4 the other night. After playing the demo, I am genuinely intrigued/excited to check out the full game. The idea of combating werewolves & vampires sounds interesting, and the European village/castle setting gives serious RE4 vibes, which I have mentioned(many times) how much I love that game. So….alright, Capcom. I’m in…

Coming Up…

After my little break from WordPress, I do actually have a few posts lined up that I’m currently working on. So….uh, stay tuned!

• INSIDE – My thoughts on
• Conformity in game controls
• Gaming Omnivore Art Gallery – Ghost of Tsushima
• The Legend of Zelda music post

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things….thanks for reading!