Dead Space 3 (PS3)

Date Purchased: November 1, 2016
Date Completed: February 22, 2017

Price: $5.99 (PSN Halloween Sale)

Dead Space 3, you are so far from the Dead Space I loved, however you are not a bad person....errr...game. You are just not Dead Space.  If Dead Space (the original) is Michael Jordan, and his son (Michael Jordan 2) went on to be an amazing soccer player (but not one of the greatest of all time), that son would be Dead Space 2, quite different, but still really good.  And if Michael Jordan 2 were to have  a son (Michael Jordan 3) and he went on to win his city bowling league, that son would be Dead Space 3, competent in what he does, but fallen oh so far from grace.

Okay, so basketball and bowling ball analogies aside, I still kind of enjoyed my time with Dead Space 3.  I started playing it and I was thinking “hey this is kinda cool, fighting humans, using my stasis in a big city, this could really go places!” … and then that stopped and I was back in outer space doing more Dead Space things, just not as well.  The games later 2/3’s becomes a little more interesting as your environments open up and that’s really where the game comes into it’s own, and by it’s own, I mean Gears of War.

Dead Space 3 is a co-op shooter that I played solo.  That comes with being a patient gamer, you play games when few others do.  Now don’t get me wrong, you can play the game completely on your own, but I couldn’t help feel like I was missing something as there reminders everywhere that I should have a partner with me.  On my own it took me just over 13 hours to complete, which felt stretched out as I was going on a lot of “fetch quests” for lack of a better term (rebuilding that Rosetta alien!  Oyyyyyy!!!).  The puzzle sequences I didn't particularly enjoy and I felt threw off the pacing of the game.  

Graphics and sound are…fine.   The game seems to seem less polished than previous entries, perhaps intentional to make the game seem more “gritty”, the voice acting is well done despite the writing being a little suspect at times.  The overall story left some to be desired.

What Dead Space 3 did very well in my opinion, was make me appreciate Dead Space 2 so much more, which I gave a pretty hard time for beingso different from the first game.  I'm sorry Dead Space 2, you deserved better.  I really can’t recommend Dead Space 3 on it’s own merits, if you want to see the series through like I did, you may as well just play it to see for yourself, but if you’re looking for a good game to play?  Pass.

Reddit post comments.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (Vita)

Date Purchased:  January 1, 2014
Date Completed: February 19, 2017
Price: Free (PS+)

While looking through the Vita games I have tied to my account I came across Sonic Racing and thought it would be a good title to have on the go.  I played the game quite a bit on the Wii U when it's software library was sparse, but it had been a while since I took Sonic and friends for a spin.  The Vita version holds up surprisingly well and really looks fantastic.  I'm so used to playing small indie titles on the system it always comes as a surprise when I play a game that really shows off the systems capabilities.  This is a great little Kart racer, but not necessarily a Mario Kart killer, which in my opinion is a good thing.  I feel the pure racing is better in Sonic Racing than the Mario Kart series, I'm sure there's some rubber banding in here, but it feels far less obvious.  If you find yourself in first place, it's not a given that a certain item *cough*blue shell*cough* is all but guaranteed to knock you around.  The single player campaign has a nice variety of challenges that consists of more than just racing.  The transforming courses really are the star of the show, and while the vehicles transform, it's when the courses change after laps that the game really shows it's full potential.  Being so late to the party I didn't get to try out any of the online features or multiplayer, but the game still satisfied with it's single player content.  I only had a few issues with some of the geometry particularly in the water sequences where my vehicle would completely turn around for no apparent reason.  It didn't happen often, but was frustrating when it did.  Other than that minor hangup, I'd recommend this game, even in 2017.

Reddit Comments.

Letter Quest Remastered (Vita)

Date Purchased: November 3, 2016
Date Completed: February 15, 2017
Price: Free (PS+)

After finishing Dead Space 2, Resident Evil Revelations, and Doom recently, I figured, why stop there?  Let’s continue the massacre on Vita!  So I grabbed my trusty Bone Crusher and continued my way defeating monsters on a set path.  This game is a cartoony take on a horror game, it feels more like a Halloween game really.  It’s quite cute, has a nice presentation to it, but ultimately is too easy.  The game has 40 levels, each consisting of  4 stages and I managed to breeze through them all only stumbling on a couple of timed challenges, but I’ll chalk that up to being distracted by my family or work.  A fun little word game though with some neat upgrades along the way.  It’s available on iOS which might be the ideal platform, but this was ad free and also free with PS+.  Depsite it’s simplicity, I still enjoyed my time with the game, recommend.

Dead Space 2 (PS3)

Date Purchased: November 1, 2016
Date Completed: February 14, 2017

Price: $5.99 (PSN Halloween Sale)

Dead Space 2, after finishing the first game a couple months ago, I had such high expectations and while that may have led to some of my disappointment I can’t say it was merely a victim of hype.  

I like a silent protagonist, I feel it allows the player to connect with the character better when he’s not quipping one-liners that are out of place.   I’m showing my age here, but I much preferred the original GTA III with our silent anti-hero, to the much more critically acclaimed Vice City which had our character speaking with full voice acted dialogue.  So when Isaac Clarke escapes near death in Dead Space 2, narrowly defeating a horde of monsters, removing their limbs and stomping their corpses, exhausted, barely able to walk, only to open a door and act like nothing’s happened, able to carry on a full conversation, not mentioning anything that just happened and even throwing out a few one liners Nathan Drake style, I feel it takes away from the experience.  Yes, this is true of all games, but not those with a silent protagonist, all you need to accept there is that he’s not limping anymore.  Okay, this has evolved into a more general game rant now. 

The action is much more intense in the 2^nd game, but I preferred the slower pace of the original, making mention to how it was “relaxing” in a some strange way.  This game is far from relaxing and I feel brings the game truly into the Survival Horror genre.  There are so many scares along the way, they stop being scary, you just expect necromorphs around every bend. 

The game still looks great for a “last generation” title, the sound design is top notch, and overall it plays great.  As a standalone experience it’s a fantastic game, just not the game I wanted.  Still have to recommend though.

Edit: (Clickable) I've started putting some of my pile of shame reviews on Reddit's subreddit "patientgamers" where they've been relatively successful.  

Resident Evil Revelations (3DS)

Date Purchased: April 2, 2016
Date Completed: February 7, 2017
Price: $5.99 (eShop)

I picked this game up for $6 along with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D during an eShop sale last April, I've seen it go on sale now and again since then, so it can be found pretty cheap if you're willing to be patient.  First of all, let me say, the graphics are quite impressive, technically one of the best looking 3DS games I've ever played.  The environments look really nice as do the character models.  The cut scenes are nicely done although clearly not "in engine" as the 3DS compresses the video to the point where it can look pretty bad in spots, but the game does feature a large quantity of cut scenes for a 3DS game at least.

Things begin to fall apart with enemy character animations, they repeat the same animations over and over, and from what I gathered with my time with the game, they don't take damage when lying down.  Essentially you have to wait for the enemies to pop back up, then knock them down again. This is especially infuriating in a game where limited ammo is a game play mechanic.  I really struggled with the controls of the game as well.  This was my first game that heavily used the new C Stick and it was surprisingly difficult.  I went as far as searching reddit to see if it was an isolated problem to my console, but it works fine with every other game, and as far as I can determine I was using it properly.  The camera moves frustratingly sluggish in a game where you want to be aware of your surroundings at all times.  I wanted to quit on multiple occasions, but I'm just so stubborn when it comes to finishing games I've purchased I decided to power through playing it in short bursts whenever I was feeling extra patient.  I can't recommend this game, even at $6.  Pass.

Reddit post with comments.