Tag Archives: video games

Oxenfree

by Revis Edgewater

To be honest, I thought I did a post about this game a while ago. When I went to write a post about the sequel to it, and looked for the old post so I could put in a link to it, I was a little surprised to find it wasn’t there. So, that means I either somehow convinced myself that I did write it, even though I didn’t, or that Jetpack’s search bar didn’t find it for some reason. Since I don’t have the time to go back through all my posts and look for it, I’m going to assume that I’m at fault and write this post as if I didn’t post about this before. After all, I’ve been on this blog for 14 years now, and sometimes it’s hard to remember what I’ve written about and what I haven’t.

Back when Xbox Live was still giving away free games every month, one of those games was called Oxenfree. I watched the trailer for it, and while the graphics didn’t look great, the story looked like it might be interesting. The premise of the story is: a group of teenagers go to an island because they heard rumors that if you tune a radio to certain frequencies at certain places on the island, strange things happen. The rumors were true.

So, I gave it a try.

Oxenfree is unlike any other game I’ve ever played before. Pretty much every game I’ve played are sports, fighting, or RPG games. There’s generally a lot of button pushing involved. That’s not the case with Oxenfree. There’s not much gameplay involved. It’s almost all story and character interaction. You control where the main character goes, interact with the radio (and other various objects), and pick what, if anything, she says. Compared to other games that I’ve played, the story gets done fairly quickly, but when you beat it, you’re not done. You find yourself right back at the beginning of the story.

You play through it again, only it’s different this time. There’s spots where the dialog is changed. You’re even told by the story’s antagonist that you’ve been through it before. There are also a few spots in the story where you can give yourself some advice. On your first playthrough, if any of your friends played it, it will show what dialog they chose. On subsequent playthroughs, it will show what you chose the last time.

When I first started playing it, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I really did. The story was indeed interesting, even through multiple playthroughs. I think I went through it three or four times.

Then, not too long ago, I saw that they released a sequel. Once I beat all the Final Fantasy games I needed to catch up on, I started Oxenfree 2 immediately. It, too, had an interesting storyline. The events of the first game bled over onto a neighboring island, and you have to walk a new main character through it. The island is bigger in this game, with more areas to explore. They added a few new minigame type things to go along with the radio, but the gameplay was mostly the same.

The biggest difference was the ending. Unlike the original, Oxenfree 2 had one. They even had some dialog where two of the characters talk about a book where the story ends where it began and how much they hated that (which I found amusing). Judging by the options at the final decision you make, I’m thinking there’s at least two other endings, so I’m going to play through it again to try to see them all.

If you like story driven games, I recommend these two. I played the first one on Xbox, but the sequel wasn’t available on it. I had to buy Oxenfree 2 for the Playstation.

RTOTD: 24152

by Revis Edgewater

I think someone other than EA (because Madden isn’t really as good as it should be) should make a football video game called FFL, or the Fictional Football League, and it would be filled with players and teams from your favorite movies and TV shows. It would take some money to buy the rights for them, but I think it’d be worth it.

You could have two conferences. One for professional fictional sports teams (such as the Miami Sharks from Any Given Sunday or the Washington Sentinels from The Replacements) and one for collegiate fictional teams (such as the Texas State Armadillos from Necessary Roughness or the ESU Timberwolves from The Program).

You could also have free agents, fictional players who played for actual college or professional teams, but you don’t want to pay to use those names (such as Chadwick Boseman’s character from the movie Draft Day who played for Ohio State or Ray Finkle from Ace Ventura who played for the Miami Dolphins). You could even have other random characters, like Al Bundy (who once scored 4 touchdowns in one game for Polk High). The company that makes the game could also release new players and/or teams after the game comes out as DLC to make a little more money.

I need someone with the money to get the ball rolling on this. If done right, I think this idea would make a lot of money.

The Return of Pu Onyu

by Revis Edgewater

It has been a long time since Pu Onyu last roamed. I’d say it’s been at least 15 years. Now he’s back, hopefully to save the world once again.

You see, whenever I play a video game that lets you put in a name of your choice, I always (as long as they allow enough letters) put in something goofy. The name Torr Nupp (from my Star Wars fan fiction series) was originally a name I had used on KOTOR. I recently played through a dark side campaign of KOTOR 2 as a female named Krushen Yernutz. As the people who stood in her way could testify, if they were still alive, she lived up to her name.

Pu Onyu was a name that I used on the game Jade Empire. It was made by Bioware (the company that also made the KOTOR, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect games) and was released on the original Xbox system. I honestly remember very little about the game other than the character name I made up. The story is kind of a blank to me right now. All I really remember is that it’s a martial arts RPG and that I enjoyed playing it.

So, I was a little excited when I was looking around on my Xbox One and saw that I could buy it from their store (Yes, I realize that it’s been up on Steam for a while, but I don’t really like playing games on the computer. Personally, I prefer consoles). Using part of a gift card I got for Christmas, I bought it, which was an ordeal unto itself.

First, it wouldn’t let me use the gift card from the One so I tried my PC. Again, using the card was not an option to buy it. It said it had to be a credit card. Then, I went to Microsoft’s website and it said that it should work from my 360 (although I don’t see why the console or computer I was using made a difference. It’s all connected to the same Xbox Live account). So, I tried it from my 360 and it kept throwing up an error message about communicating with their server. I gave up for the night and tried it again the next morning.

It finally worked.

After every time I download a new game, I’ll play it for a few minutes to make sure it works correctly. For Jade Empire, I played the first half hour of the game before turning it off. I learned 2 things during that 30 minutes. One: Nathan Fillion (probably most known for his role as Private Ryan) does one of the voices on the game. Two: it plays differently than I thought I remembered. Not that it being different is a bad thing. I’ll just need to get used to playing it again.

That will have to wait for now, however. I’m still going through my light side playthrough of KOTOR 2 and I want to finish that before I start getting back into Jade Empire. For now, it’s enough to know that Pu Onyu is out there again and he will soon go back to kicking bad guy asses.

It Shouldn’t, But It Does

by Revis Edgewater

I’ll admit that when I was younger, I was a very bad sore loser. I would get incredibly angry when I’d lose at something. It was especially bad when I’d lose at a video game against one of my brothers. This was especially vexing for me because they’re both better at video games than I am. Well, in general, anyway. I’m sure there’s a video game out there that I’m better at.

As I’ve grown older, that sore loser streak in me has lessened and, for the most part, is gone. I still have those moments, though, where it rears its ugly head. Take this morning, for example. Well, the morning I’m writing this. Not the morning it’s being published…

I was playing Madden.

I called a pass play. None of my receivers were open, so I had my quarterback start running the ball. He gets a yard or two past the line of scrimmage and a defender comes up to him. In an attempt to evade the tackle, I hit the button to spin away.

That’s not what happened.

Instead, despite being past the line of scrimmage, he threw it to the receiver assigned to that button where it was immediately intercepted. Plus, to top it all off, they threw a flag for me illegally throwing the pass. On every other Madden game I’ve ever played, it wouldn’t let you throw it once you got past the line of scrimmage. Now, it penalized me for doing it even when that’s not what I wanted to do in the first place.

I know that it shouldn’t have bothered me. After all, it’s just a video game. Plus, I was winning by a pretty good margin at the time. It ended up not making any difference in the game, but I still found myself yelling at the TV screen. Thankfully, I had already dropped Baby E off at school, so she didn’t hear me tell the Xbox what it could do to itself.

It only took me a moment to regain my composure, but I still felt crappy for losing my cool like that, especially over something so trivial. It shouldn’t have bothered me, but it did.

Pay Attention to Your Companions

by Revis Edgewater

The title of this post is good advice in general. Whether those companions be friends, family, or coworkers, it’s generally a good idea to pay attention to them. It’s an even better idea if the companion in question is a significant other. Then, not only is it a good idea, it’s a necessity.

I’m not referring to any of those people, though.

No, the companions I’m talking about are the characters that video games give you to help the main character complete their quest. Generally, these companions come in RPG style games, which are the ones I tend to gravitate towards. And, as anyone who has played these types of games before can tell you, those companions can be the difference between beating the game or giving up in frustration.

Recently, I found out that I did not pay nearly enough attention to my companions.

I’m playing through Dragon Age: Inquisition again. I’ve already beaten it, but I’m playing it on the Xbox One this time around instead of the 360. There is some DLC available for the One that I couldn’t get for the 360. So, at least there will be some new content for me during this playthrough.

I went to fight one of the game’s dragons. This is where I learned that I had spent too much time focused on the main character and not enough time on his companions.

About 15 seconds into the fight, every single one of my three companions was dead. Somehow, through luck (and using every potion in my inventory) I was able to defeat it by myself…. barely. Had it not been one of the weaker dragons in the game, I probably wouldn’t have been able to.

After the fight, I went to my inventory and looked at the weapons and armor they were equipped with. It wasn’t even close. The equipment for my main character was much, much better than theirs. It was as if I was wearing steel plate armor and they were wrapped in toilet paper.

Needless to say, I have made more of an effort to upgrade their gear. Since then, I have fought, and killed, a couple more dragons and my companions have fared a lot better.

Hopefully, you learn from my mistakes and pay attention to your companions. Otherwise, the next ass the dragon fries might be yours.

D.C. Universe Online

by Revis Edgewater

My wife and I finally got an Xbox One about two months ago. One of the first games I tried to play for it was one you could download for free called Marvel Heroes Omega. It is a MMORPG. They give you a list of characters to choose from, you pick one, and then you play the game as that character. I chose Blade.

The first hour or so was cool. It played a lot like the Ultimate Alliance games, except you only had a one character party, instead of four. Then, I read up on it a little bit. Now, maybe I just read it wrong, but the way it sounded to me was that the game was free to play, but if you wanted to level your character past level 10, you had to pay for it (if anyone out there plays it, please tell me if I got it wrong).

It wasn’t worth the hassle, nor the amount of space it took up on my hard drive, so I deleted it and moved on. Then, my nephew told me abiut DCUO. I was hesitant about it after the Marvel game was so disappointing, but he assured me that while you would have to pay if you wanted to get the best equipment in the game, there were no pay restrictions on leveling your character up. Plus, you are able to make up your own character on the D.C. game instead of using one of theirs.

I tried to create my character DICO. It didn’t go well. His power is…. unique, so I didn’t think I’d be able to get close to it (although, in retrospect, I probably should have looked to see if you could specialize in throwing Batarangs, which would be pretty close). Instead, I gave him hand blasters, kind of like Iron Man. I also tried to name him DICO, but, surprisingly, the name was already taken. After a couple more failed attempts, I was forced to settle for Detective DICO. 

I like it so far. 

The combat is smoother than I was expecting. The story, while not great, isn’t bad. I’ve been able to level up fairly quickly. So far, the only thing I don’t like about it is the PvP (player vs. player mode). There doesn’t seem to be a system in place to ensure that the two people fighting are at similar levels. The one time I tried it, I wailed on this guy with everything I had and barely made a dent while he could kill me in three hits. Fortunately, PvP is optional, so I don’t have to do it again if I don’t want to.

For now, I’m going to keep playing it.

What about you? Have you played either of them? What are your thoughts on them?

Versus: Season 2 Episode 2

by Revis Edgewater

Ok, I’ll admit it. The first post of the second “season” of Versus didn’t go as planned. Matticus and I both made our pitches and waited for our awesome readers to vote in the poll. Then, the time came for the poll to end…. only it never did. At last glance, which was about a week ago, it was still active. I’m still not sure what happened there.

At some point, Matt and I are going to go to battle in the virtual arena that is Versus again, but I need to iron out the kinks in the system first. So, with that in mind, I’m going to subject you all to some of my regular Versus posts, only I’m going to start including polls on those. That way I can practice, and hopefully figure out what I did wrong the last time, before we have our rematch. Unlike my older Versus episodes, however, I’m only going to be doing one matchup per post.

Let’s try this poll thing again. Onto the matchup!

MORE ANNOYING VIDEO GAME PARTY MEMBER: CARTH (STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC) VS. SERA (DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION) VS. LOUIS (LEFT 4 DEAD)

We’ve got us a three way battle. I also had a Three Way for dinner (which means nothing to you unless you’re from the Cincinnati area), but that’s beside the point. This matchup consists of three characters from video games that I have spent a lot of time playing. I’m pretty sure that I’ve logged over 100 hours on each of them. So, these characters have had a lot of time to get under my skin. Let’s go through them one by one, shall we?

Up first is Carth. He is the first actual party member you pick up in KOTOR. Then, he spends the rest of the game annoying the crap out of you. He goes on some whiny tangent about how he doesn’t trust anyone anymore because he was betrayed before. If you take the time to ask him about it, he gets defensive and snaps at you. As the story progresses, if you keep asking him about it, he reveals that the person who betrayed him was his mentor and the betrayal was the bombardment of his home planet which led to the deaths of his wife and child (Although, you find out later in the game that his child survived and turned to the dark side). Granted, if my wife and child were killed, I’d be devastated, but I don’t think I’d be a whiny ass and blame it on everyone I meet. I beat this game at least 5 times and I think the only time I talked to Carth enough to get the side quest that involved his kid was the first time. I couldn’t take it for any of the others.

Next is Sera. In Dragon Age, certain people have accents that mimic those that are on Earth. For example, the Orlesians all speak in French accents. Sera, on the other hand, speaks in a heavy British accent. Normally, that wouldn’t bother me. When Sera speaks, however, she goes 100 miles an hour. I can’t understand most of what she says she’s usually talking so fast. Even when you have the text appear on the screen and read it, most of what she says is still nonsense. She uses metaphors that just don’t make sense to me. Her answers to questions are usually vague and leave you with more questions than when you started. I won’t even talk to her anymore unless it’s absolutely necessary to complete a quest.

And last is Louis. Quite frankly, Louis is a little bitch. When any of the other characters from either of the Left 4 Dead games get entangled with one of the special infected (a hunter/smoker/jockey/what have you) they cry out for a teammate to help them out. Louis just cries. I looked for an audio clip so I could show you what I mean, but I couldn’t find one. The most annoying one is when he gets pounced on by a Hunter. He screams, “Get it off me! Get it off meeeeeeee!” while sobbing. Literally sobbing. If it wouldn’t lessen my chances of survival, I’d let the little bitch die every time.

But, who is more annoying? That is for you to decide, dear readers. I’m going to put up this here poll thing and hope it works correctly this time around. Cast your vote and let me know who you dislike having in your party the most. If I get it right this time, I’ll post a follow up with the winner in 8 days.