Westerado: Double Barreled
You fantastic bastard. Recommended by a friend and sitting in my Steam library for months, as games tend to, I never thought I'd play this game, but it seemed short enough to squeeze it in this week. This is a 16 bit rpg set in the wild west, but with a difference. Sure, there's a world map to explore, quests to take and side activities to take part in like any rpg, but there's also the simple to understand, but difficult to master shooting mechanic. You can only shoot directly in front of where your character is standing but you have to reload and cock your weapon before every shot. This works both on foot and on horse back.
The main difference to the classics of it's genre here and this game is that instead of levelling up your character, you get an additional part of the description for the man who killed your family (don't worry, that's not a spoiler (well, it might be if you don't want to know what happens in the first 30 seconds of the game)) as you are out for vengeance. I'm not sure if at the end of all the missions you get a location for him because I just ran in to him in the world and took him down.
The map is very interesting with different types of areas and hidden locations to explore. There are branching storylines that can add replayablity (which the game encourages by letting you unlock another character to play through after you finish), Hats to collect, poker to play and other interesting little things to see (just like in all 16 bit rpgs). Hell, my guy became such a bad ass that bandits started running away when I came near them (I still showed no mercy though, obviously). The only problem I have is that the last 10 minutes of the game, after you find the killer when you have to tare through all his cronies to take him down which is a long shooting section that you can't get wrong or you have to start it over again.
Don't worry about that negative though, this is a fantastic twist and call back to classic games that we all loved as a kid. Play it
So, after this I wanted a game to play in the background while watching something, so I tried Oddworld again, but decided I'm stuck and game up, So swapped to 'shootsumi', which is a space style shooter (think R-type) but with small 10 second levels and everything is fish based (yeah, good name, I know), but I'm terrible at these games and you don't get infinite lives so I couldn't get very far. So then. to keep with space shooters but a change in perspective I swapped to hyper void. A behind view space shooter. It started well but the difficulty shot up, very fast and it became clear that I would never finish this game, so I gave up. If there is one thing I learned doing these game rushes over the years (and there really is only one)it's that I shouldn't force my way through games I don't enjoy. videogames are maid for entertainment and if I'm not enjoying it then I should stop. So, speaking of R-Type...
R Type: Dimensions
Now, obviously I could never finish this game properly, how could anyone? seriously? These side on (or top down in the case of Truxton, a Mega drive clssic) space shooters were made to eat your change in arcades and are infamously extremely difficult. This game includes R type 1 and 2 with revamped graphics (although you can switch back to the old at any time (which actually looks better anyway)). Now, you can play it the proper way, with 3 lives, but I couldn't even finish the first level, so that wasn't going to happen. However, there's an infinite mode where you constantly respawn over and over, which is how I could play it. Problem is, this really feels like cheating. Granted, I'd never have done it any other way but you can essentially compete these levels by not pressing anything until you get to the bosses, and when you get there you don't need any thought as you can't really die, you just respwan a second later in the exact same place. I still did try and play it as best I could though, but that's not saying much with my average 30 deaths per level approximately (levels are about 7-8 mins long...). I wasn't going to put this on my completed games list, but my xbox achievements say I've finished it, and who m I to argue with Microsoft?
Dead Rising 4
So, I plugged my Kinect back in so I'm able to get photos (yes, I actually took this one) and videos off my Xbox, which means I have also got this:
Exciting I know. So, back in 2006 everybody loved the first Dead Rising, and the sequel as well. Dead Rising 3 then came out as an Xbox One launch exclusive, which got away with being very average because of the general lack of competition for console release games (that said, it was the same year as GTA 5, the last of us, Tomb Raider and many more modern classics, but they were all last gen). So it was time for them to kick this franchise up the arse and bring the glory back from the original. they bought back Frank West (the protagonist from the original) and the shopping centre and went for it.
So, I enjoyed it largely, it's fun to play with a decent story, there's the weapons to find and build, survivors to rescue, side missions to complete and more collectibles than a Ubsioft open world (well, maybe not, that would be insane). If you liked the original then you will like this one too. It's not without problems though. A lot of the weapon blue prints are locked away and you have to search the map for loads of separate keys, which is a pain in the arse. A lot of the interesting boss battles from the original against maniacs are gone as well, which is a shame. The returning shopping centre is pretty disappointing too as it only makes up about a quarter of the map, and you can only get in to it from one location. The outside world really isn't as interesting as it is inside and in my opinion, I think the centre should probably have took up about three quarters of the map.
There are improvements on the original though. For one the game auto saves, you don't have to keep going to the toilet to save the game (I went to the loo in the first game more often that I do irl, which is a lot).When you rescue a survivor now you don't have to escort them back to the safe house, they can make their own way. There is also no time limit, which was annoying in the first couple of games where it was nearly impossible to do everything in one game, however, this opportunity was wasted here as there is no continue option when you finish the game, sure you can skip back to the penultimate chapter but you've missed a lot of progress and have to repeat a lot of the already completed tasks. I'm not saying it has to make storyline sense to be able to continue at the end, but let us do it anyway.
A late top tip for this game, during the week I played it (about 2 months after its original release), there was a ridiculously sized 7 gb update, but, it did add on loads of street fighter outfits for your character, like M. Bison, a hot Cammy outfit for Frank West as you can see above, a muscle bound Zangief costume that allowed me to see the finale of the game from a super buff outfit, and more. That's on top of all the street fighter gear that already cones in the game. I know Capcoms big thing is Street fighter, it's one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming, and I do love me some Street fighter 2, but who actually wants a T-Hawk Costume?
Completed
Mekazoo
Bastion
Sound Shapes
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
Pony Island
Undertale
Mighty Morphon' Power Rangers Mega Battle
Batman: A Telltale series
Super Mario run
Ratchet and Clank into the Nexus
Westerado: Double Barreled
R-Type: dimensions
Dead Rising 4
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