Picross S

Date played: October 29th
Platform: Switch

Well, I bought Picross S last night. I was looking for a simple game to pick up and play while I watch TV. I was going to buy Golf Story, but I didn't know there was a Picross game on Switch, so when I saw it for 10$, I bought it right away.

Picross is a simple puzzle game, reminiscent of Sudoku. There's a grid, where each line and column has a number associated to it. These numbers represent the total number of squares that must be filled in for that row or column. It also shows the groupings of squares, so for example, it can have a value of 3;2, which means one group of 3 squares and one group of 2 squares.

It's super simple, but of course, the challenge comes from the shape of the puzzle itself. It can get very difficult, but it's also relaxing and fun. I probably won't post about this again, since there's literally nothing else to say, but Picross S is a wonderful distraction.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Date played: October 29th
Platform: Switch

I secretly played one chapter of Kingdom Battle without my daughter yesterday... I knew it was going to be kind of a middle chapter, so nothing too special story wise. I was almost right. This chapter was different because it had a total of 4 battles, 3 of which were continuous, so no healing in between.

That meant most battles weren't too hard, but I really had to be careful with my health. I really abused my counter attacks with Mario and Luigi, setting up elaborate chain sequences that feel more like a puzzle than a battle. In one map, I killed 6 enemies in one turn, leaving only 1 straggler behind, thanks to some smart sequencing on my part.

Rabbid Wario and Waluigi are back, with some reinforcements!

I thought I was doing pretty well, but then the final battle was a rematch against the Rabbid Wario and Waluigi guys, plus another heavily armed Rabbid. This battle was tough, but I kept my distance and used it to my advantage. I retreated to higher ground and dealt as much damage as I could before my heroes start dying. Rabbid Yoshi was the only one to bite the dust, but it was a really close one.

The Fall

Date played: October 28th
Platform: PS4

Halloween is just around the corner, so it's a good time to play some scary games. The Fall isn't exactly scary, but it sure is eerie and strange. To reach the medical facility and diagnose my pilot's health, A.R.I.D. must pass an 8 part test that shows proficiency at domestication and civil duty.

The 4 domestication tests were all pretty interesting. For the kitchen, I had to find some protein to serve to the family of wooden puppets sitting around the table. Outside the house was an area with some damaged pipes in the ceiling. When I shot it, a dead body slumped over the opening and some mysterious worm-like creatures appeared to eat it. I picked up a piece of the human from the ground and served it to the family.

Another had me clean a room. All I did was cover the sensor with a plastic bag, hiding the stench and filth from the old ruined room. Another had me decorate a room with flowers, but I couldn't find the right color flowers. After lots of dicking around, I eventually found a terminal that I could use to change the parameters of the test. The last one had me quiet a crying baby. I did this by making a tube fall down, then failing another test. This activated the tube, which removed the baby completely, thus passing the test.

It's really cool how I had to solve these puzzles, it rewards creative thinking and makes for some really fun scenarios to watch. At one point, I found a secret side room outside the test area, where I was confronted by the Caretaker, the weird droid that ambushed me earlier. After a brief discussion where he heavily implied that A.R.I.D. was malfunctioning, he left and sent some combat droids after me.

A.R.I.D. doesn't do small talk...

One of the droids was moving too fast for me to kill it, so the suit allowed me to activate a new system which turned my pistol into a semi-automatic, greatly increasing it's speed and usefulness. This actually makes combat way more interesting, since it moves faster. It also makes it easier, which is very welcome.

I was ready to take on the 4 civil duty tests. One of them had me fix and old truck with some wiring. Another had me help and old lady cross a busy street. The third had me help a kid have fun on a merry-go-round. The final one is a party where I had to make small talk. This one is actually impossible for a combat AI, so I have to find another way.

The Caretaker suggested that I could bypass the test by reprogramming the friendly Administrator. I don't like this idea at all, since he seems like a good guy, but A.R.I.D. seems to disagree. I set out to find a way to reach the Administrator's mainframe and reprogram him.

I haven't found the solution yet, but I have some superconductor fluid that is ready to go and I found a big turbine that needs a motherboard. I hope I don't kill the Administrator...

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Date played: October 28th
Platform: Switch

I played a few levels in the final world and it was full of difficult battles and fun bosses! After a regular chapter with nothing too special, though it had some of the best environmental puzzles yet. There was a really great puzzle with a pipe maze.

The real fun started when I reached Bowser Jr's room. It was adorably decorated, but I had to save Spawny! Bowser Jr. has a nice trick hidden up his sleeve though, as he jumped into his giant mech, armed with a dangerous punch attack and some explosive remote controlled drones. When I came into this battle, I had a few heroes that were heavily damaged, but I gave it a shot anyway.

Bowser Jr. was flanked by two Valkyries, but the real threat was the punch attack. I had to use the map to my advantage to lure Bowser Jr. away from vulnerable targets. I did ok, but it wasn't long before Luigi died. Mario died shortly after, leaving Rabbid Yoshi to fend for himself. I won the battle with less than 100 HP left... I know I could have done much better.

For my effort, I was rewarded with a new party member, the original Yoshi! He's similar to Rabbid Yoshi, but sports a rocket launcher instead of a grenade. He also has a counter attack and a ground smash instead of a shield and scream. He is interesting, but he won't replace anyone on my party.

More interestingly, we saved Spawny! He joined my team, and the next chapter had me escort him through dangerous maps. I stuck close to him and protected all sides. These missions weren't too hard. Unfortunately, we took our eyes off the little guy and he wandered off. He was promptly kidnapped by a giant fire dragon and taken to Bowser Sr.'s fortress!

Luigi takes a shot at Rabbid Waluigi from long range

Bowser Jr. is pissed, but he freaks out even more when his daddy calls him to say he's coming back from vacation earlier than expected! I fought another battle, on my way to the keep, where I fought against two Rabbids inspired by Wario and Waluigi... This was a pretty tough battle, but these guys just had more HP than most enemies, they didn't have any really special abilities. There's not much left to this game's main mode, I can't wait to see how it ends!

Gran Turismo Sport

Date played: October 25th and 27th
Platform: PS4

My schedule has been really busy lately, so I haven't had much time to play, but I managed to squeeze in 3 races in the last 3 days. I actually spent a good amount of time in qualifying, trying to improve my times on all the current Sport events. My favorite of these was running laps around the Nurburgring GP track, a world famous favorite. I was driving the AMG Mercedes SLS, one of the most iconic performance cars of the last decade. This thing is very powerful and lots of fun to drive. It was a good fit for the track too...

Yes, this is a screenshot of my AMG Mercedes SLS. Yes, Gran Turismo Sport is a technical marvel.

By far, the best race of the last few days was in a Mazda Atenza event on a very simple track, almost an oval. This meant that the only way to gain position is taking a good racing line, avoid contact and most importantly, drafting.

Drafting is a technique where you cut wind resistance by driving behind another car. This means that the car in front creates sort of a tunnel behind them where wind resistance is reduced. This actually makes a huge difference, particularly at very high speeds, going in a straight line. I started in 7th place out of 11, so I wasn't too optimistic about my chances...

I fought hard though. I kept a clean line, I didn't let go of the gas unless I absolutely had to, I drafted at every opportunity and I avoided contact with other cars at all costs. Most of the racers were very respectful and understood that contact meant losing some positions, so it was a really tight race the whole time. I managed to move up to 3rd pretty quickly thanks to good driving, but then it became a lot harder to pass.

Behind me was another guy who was really good and he managed to pass me once, leaving me in 4th. I held him off by sticking to my racing line, which allowed me to stop him from cutting me off. I fought with him a long time, while the other two guys in front fought each other. I lost the battle though and was stuck in 4th, thinking this was my fate until the end of the race.

I fight for 3rd place

But then at the very last corner, luck smiled at me. The guy in 3rd was too fast and ran into the wall. The 1st and 2nd place bumped each other slightly, losing some speed but still keeping position. However, I had the best driving line of them all, which gave me a bit more speed than the others. I caught up to them and took the inside on the straight.

These last 10 seconds were some of the most exciting seconds I've had in a racing game! I managed to win the race by an astonishing 0.023 seconds. Yes, 23 milliseconds separated me from 2nd place. 3rd place was really close too, not even half a second behind... It was so exciting to win this one, I literally jumped off my couch, pumped my fist a few times, yelling "YES! FUCK YEAH BABY!".

This is what winning by 23 milliseconds looks like

I like this game.

The Fall

Date played: October 24th
Platform: PS4

I wanted to play something that doesn't require intense concentration and quick reflexes... Gran Turismo is awesome and all, but it's very demanding. The Fall is a game I got for free with PS+ a while back and had always wanted to play because of the cool premise. Basically, an armored combat suit falls from space to the surface of a planet. The suit is controlled by an advanced AI known as A.R.I.D. She notices that her human pilot is unconscious, so she begins her journey to fulfill her primary objective, protect her pilot.

This is basically a 2D puzzle adventure. I can run, jump, climb ledges and inspect objects. With the inspect mode, I can perform a variety of actions such as interact or interface. I can also use other objects I've picked up, similar to Lucas Arts adventure games. There are few items in play at once though, as the puzzles seem fairly self-contained so far.

In the hour I played, I learned a lot about the AI and it's protocols. There are a number of functions that are blocked off by programming protocols which have to be unlocked. Cleverly, these functions can only be activated when they will save the pilot's life. For example, I activated the camouflage ability by putting the pilot in deadly danger from a sentry turret. It's a cool system that creates some fun gameplay situations, I like it a lot.

The game has a very dark look, playing often with silhouetting, shadows and other lighting, a bit like Limbo. Along with the creepy music and mysterious movements in the shadows, this creates a powerful atmosphere. The story is just as fucking creepy too...

I interacted with different AI systems, but have only seen one organic creature so far, a sort of giant rat, or raccoon. I have a feeling I'll encounter real humans at one point, but I'm not really sure. I "networked" with another combat suit, whose pilot was dead. The suit had been put up on a cross like a crucifixion. Oddly, neither of the two combat AI mentioned this during their lengthy conversation.

I meet a mysterious droid

The puzzles were varied and mostly pretty good, though some of it was a little too obscure for my tastes. For example, I got stuck a good while as I tried to lure out the raccoon rat thing. I had picked up a metal pan and had found a good spot to put some food to lure the beast, but I couldn't find any food! Hints told me I was looking for human blood, but everything I interacted with led to nothing.

I eventually solved it, but I feel like it was a little too difficult to find the small puddle of dripping blood. I knew it's what I needed, and I looked in the area multiple times, but the icon was just a little too small... Speaking of which, while The Fall has a great atmosphere and an intriguing story, it's clearly a low budget game. While the animation looks relatively nice when doing most actions, jumping is a horrible mess. The camera is slightly wonky too, and combat, well, combat is a shit show.

I appreciate what the game tries to do with combat, and at it's most basic level, it works well enough, but it's so fucking boring... When I managed to lure the animal out of it's hiding spot, I was able to grab the pistol it had stolen from the other combat suit. I then had to battle against some security droids.

The problem is that there's a cover system, but it just doesn't work well. It's clunky and it's easy to fuck it up. Half the time, I end up going out of cover when I expected to simply aim. Still, it's functional, so at least I can progress, even if those parts aren't very interesting. I hope the game stays focused on exploration and story...

There's a lot of stuff going on with the story, too much to write here, but I really love every twist and turn so far. My favorite is another AI character that has a VERY vivid personality, though he still has to follow his programming. In contrast to A.R.I.D's stone cold demeanor, the administrator is a breath of fresh air.

There's a lot of cool stuff going on in this game, let's just hope it holds up as it becomes harder...

Rocket League

Date played: October 23rd
Platform: PS4

I wanted to get some quick multiplayer games in last night so I booted up Rocket League for a bit. There's a cool event going on where new Halloween items were added. They can be bought with special currency earned during normal play. I didn't buy anything yet, but I've got my eyes on an orange and black turbo trail.

I score a beautiful goal on the newest map, Farmstead

I did pretty well last night. I wasn't scoring a lot of goals, but I was setting up good plays and playing decent defense. I'm definitely far from my skill level from the time when I played this game daily, but at least my strategy and positioning is getting back up to par. I did have one spectacular goal, as I dodged into a teammate's pass at an impossible angle.

Gran Turismo Sport

Date played: October 22nd
Platform: PS4

The daily races have changed! One of them is a Mitsubishi Lancer only race, another is GR.3 and the last is Gr.4. I spent some time setting some "bad but better than nothing" qualifying times for each track, then tried out the Gr.4, taking out my recently won Audi TT race car.

I love my Gr.4 Audi TT!

My qualifying time wasn't great, but good enough for 5th out of 11 racers. I picked up a big penalty on the second turn because the guy in front braked sooner than I expected... He was ok, but I picked up 10 seconds of penalty, so I slowed down and dropped to 8th place right away. I quickly climbed all the way to 4th, leaving the others in my dust with a good driving line.

I battled for 3rd and 2nd against a Dodge Viper and a Peugeot concept car. We were all very clean racers, accepting defeat when outplayed and being courteous when passing others. This is when Gran Turismo Sport is at it's very best. I managed to get 2nd place by a few tenths of a second, and it felt incredible.

Unfortunately, I saw the bad side of the game's penalty system in my next race. Still in the Audi, I started the race in 5th out of 10 racers. I would have had 2nd place, but in the last corner, the guy behind me rammed into me at high speeds. I controlled the skip and was still in front of him after the hit. I thought I was ok! I was horrified to see a 10 second penalty applied to me, giving me a disappointing 5th place.

That shit is fucked up, and shouldn't have happened. I was going fast, following the racing line. I was expecting him to be penalized while I kept going, but the game's code didn't think the same way. I still had an incredible time with the game, thankfully!

Metroid Samus Returns

Date played: October 22nd
Platform: 3DS

I played a good chunk of Samus Returns throughout the day, jumping in a few minutes at a time. When I last played, I had lost battery power during the robot boss, so I picked up where I left off. This was easily the hardest battle in the game yet, even more difficult than the Omega metroid, mainly because it was a long battle with many different phases to learn with a small margin of error.

This robot boss was amazing!

Each phase has it's difficulties and patterns to learn, which means that I died a lot here. The whole battle takes place in a small room, with the boss attacking from the background. In the first phase, the boss attacks with it's two giant drilling arms, forcing Samus to do some quick, precise jumps to avoid it's attacks. He would then push his head out and attack me with some rotating lasers. I had to damage the head with my strongest attacks while avoiding the lasers. Once he took enough damage, he would stomp his two drilling arms into the ground.

I then had to go into morph ball mode and wait for the mechanical rotors to be aligned to climb into the arm and drop a bomb. The first of the two arms is really easy, but the second one's timing is really tricky. Hitting the arm by accident takes off a huge chunk of health too...

Once he's lost both arms, the boss amps up the difficulty by taking out some more challenging lasers. He has a number of new attacks, including a vacuum thing that pulls Samus into it's jagged jaws and deals gigantic damage. The trick was to drop bombs near the vacuum, which the boss would then absorb, then take damage from them.

Finally, the boss would pop out it's head and electrify itself at intervals. There are three weak points in this mode, but they are only susceptible to bombs. I had to grab onto the head with the spider ball, then drop bombs on the weak spots without getting electrocuted. The boss was challenging and fun. It required many attempts, each time improving my technique and progressing a little bit more.

My reward was the incredible power bomb. This thing has very limited ammo, but it clears and entire screen... I was ready for Area 7. The new area is filled with technological relics of an ancient past and is very deep below SR-388's surface. After exploring for a while, I fought two Omega metroids, leaving only 2 left to kill on the entire planet, at least according to the counter on screen. The power bomb makes these battles a lot easier, as they immediately destroy the shield that protects the weak point.

Before progressing forward, I decided to back track, since I now have most abilities (maybe I have them all?). There's a thing with the power bomb that I don't quite understand yet, but I think I can launch myself horizontally through spiked sectors of the map. I have to test this out a bit more. I cleared most of the surface, Area 1 and Area 2, though a few secrets still escape me. 

Gran Turismo Sport

Date played: October 21st
Platform: PS4

I played a few races in GT Sport mode, even though the daily events still haven't changed... I did a few Suzuka races in a Skyline (ahem, sorry, a GT-R) and did pretty good, but nothing incredible. I tend to place in the top 10 in most races at least, so that's pretty good in a field of 24 racers.

I then went back the familiar but fun Civic race at Brands Hatch. This time, I got a legitimate victory, though I accidentally pushed my main opponent off track. I started the race in 6th place, pretty respectable. My driver rating has been going up, which means better opponents and fewer mistakes on the field. It also means that qualifying times matter more than ever, since it's hard to pass others.

I fought hard through the pack and it quickly became apparent that I only had one real competitor in this race. The guy in first place, of course. Through the 4 laps, I followed my line and drove safely and made my way to 2nd place. In the 3rd lap, I knew I had to do something if I was going to get a chance at winning, but I was still too far from 1st place.

I pushed hard throughout the lap and caught up with him. He was good, but not too good that I couldn't catch up slowly. I then made a move at a chicane that I knew I was able to take faster than him, passing on the inside. However, he was a little faster than I expected and ended up rubbing paint with him. Unfortunately, I was going at a speed that didn't allow for much room on the outside, I thought I would have already passed him by then... He flew off the track because of me and ended up in 5th place...

Victory at Brands Hatch!

I felt bad, but it was a racing incident. I was following my line, he came in from behind me on the outside, so he should have slowed down. My daughter was watching when I passed him, and we both got up, cheered and screamed about victory as I crossed the line in glory!

We then took a few minutes to try out the 2 player split screen mode, a rare feature in today's racing games unfortunately. It works surprisingly well, keeping a solid framerate and offering a good view of the race. My daughter and I both picked a Go-Kart, to make it as easy as possible for her. I also turned on most assists for her. I then picked the small oval track and we did a 10 lap race!

She was a lot better than I was expecting. The kart is a lot of fun to drive and it doesn't spin out, plus, all the assists were very helpful. This made it so I could (almost) have a real race with my 7 year old child! We both had a great time, laughing at each other and just having fun. In the last lap, I noticed she had gotten the hang of it, so I encouraged her to do a fast lap without touching walls, and I raced her at pretty high speed, following right behind her. She did amazingly well and didn't hit a single wall, even followed the racing line most of the time!

Of course, she doesn't know how to use the brakes yet, so we have a lot to learn, but I think this was a great first step in playing racing games for her! She seems to enjoy them quite a bit for some reason. 

Gran Turismo Sport

Date played: October 20th
Platform: PS4

I think there's something broken in Gran Turismo Sport... the daily races haven't changed since launch day... That kind of sucks because it's been the same Gr.3 oval, the Brands Hatch race in Civics or the Gr.4 race at Suzuka. I really hope they change the races soon because there's not much else to do.

I spent some time completing mission challenges, which are short racing scenarios. For example, on an oval, I had to use drafting to reach 250 km/h in a car that didn't have the natural power to get there. Only drafting behind another car allowed me to reach that speed. Other missions were cool too, where I was given an overpowered car and had to pass 4 slower racers in a single lap. These things are entertaining, and they grant cars as rewards when I get all golds, but I much prefer real racing.

Another thing I messed with is the circuit experience mode, where you have to set fast times in each segment of a track, then have to complete a full lap. The time targets are really tight, so it often took me many attempts to succeed. I did 3 tracks, including Brands Hatch, which rewarded me with more cars.

Later, I played one lobby race with some Canadians. The lobby had a weird setup, allowing for car tuning and few car restrictions. I was riding my new BMW M4, and it's one of my favorite cars so far. It's fast for it's class, it's got lots of power during acceleration and excellent traction. After a few laps of practice, we started the race.

I love my BMW M4 Coupe!

I fought hard, but some of these guys were kind of shitty and loved bumping into other cars. After getting wiped out and falling to 8th place out of 9, I battled all the way to second place and crossed the line! It was really exciting and lots of fun! The winner of the race was using a Porsche GT3 and drove really well ahead of the pack the whole race, so I had no chance to catch up to him, but at least I beat all the other guys in the race!

Gran Turismo Sport

Date played: October 17th, 18th, 19th
Platform: PS4

I had to buy Gran Turismo Sport. I had way too much fun with the demo, even with it's glitches and problems. I was happy to see that the final release is much improved in terms of stability and hasn't crashed once yet.

The game is just so much fun to play online... I have barely even done anything else honestly. I don't even do the lobby mode, I just go straight to the Sport mode, where 3 daily races are available, scheduled at short intervals. In the three days I played, I only played about 6 or 7 races total, a few driving lessons and a couple of arcade races. That's because I spent a lot of time in the menus, learning the different systems and learning how cars are really used, because the format here is way different than previous games.

In other Gran Turismo games, and even in Forza, cars have to be fitted with parts to improve their performance. Usually, this means that a car can be heavily modified, but not in this game. Here, cars only have a few levels of upgrades, which are bought with mileage points, a currency earned by completing tasks and just driving. This means that cars no longer require a huge investment of money to be useful anymore, so you can use any car right away, which is fantastic.

I did relatively well in my time with the game. Aside from a disastrous 22nd place in a Civic Type R race event, due in part to me not having put in a qualifying time, but also due to bad driving,.. My most memorable race is my first victory aboard a racing Nissan GT-R on a small oval track. This track is kind of like Nascar, where the only thing that matters is following the best driving line as fast as possible without hitting walls or other cars. I put in a decent qualifying time and started in 9th place, then worked my way up to about 5th place by just driving cleanly.

I battle for 5th place

Things got rougher around 5th though because the guys ahead of me were highly skilled. Still, I held on, battling for position by simply staying true to the driving line and going real fucking fast. I ended up crossing the line in 4th place, but won the race thanks to penalties to other racers ahead! I had a completely clean race, so I had no penalties, and was close enough to pass them all. It felt great!

Victory!

With my winnings, I bought myself a nice, lower class car, the beautiful BMW M4. This car is slightly faster than all others in it's class, probably due to it's drive train, so I hope it's worth the money because it cost half my savings... I then had another decent race in a Honda Civic Type R at Brands Hatch. Being one of the daily races the day I played the most, I ended up doing this event a few times. I think I had a middling 13th or 14th place in one of them, then a solid 4th place.

It was my last race that was the most interesting though. Since I had lots of time to practice and do some qualifying laps, I was starting to be really good with the track, which led to a very fast qualifying lap, clocking in at 58.571 seconds. This was such a good lap, it gave me a pole position in the next race! Starting at pole was so cool and exciting, and completely changes the way I played the game. That is to say I was leading the charge rather than avoiding idiots and driving around traffic.

This huge advantage comes at a cost though. The constant pressure from other racers behind me was a big stress. I was able to handle it rather well for most of the race. The guy behind me was clearly very good, but he was the only one that was a real threat. When I saw him take a corner slow and wide, growing my lead by about one second, I felt like I had this. For the first 3 laps of the race, I held the front of the pack like a pro.

I lead the pack with confidence!

But then it happened. I went too fast into one of the more difficult corners of the circuit, missed the apex and flew off the track, slowing me down enough for another Canadian to pass me... Deflated, I still pushed on, hoping he would also succumb to the pressure, but he didn't. I placed 2nd, a good position that felt like a blown opportunity rather than a good race.

I lose pole position, and the race... 2nd place ain't so bad I guess

I just love Gran Turismo Sport. Sure it's the most beautiful rendition of cars I've ever seen in a video game. Sure, the engine sounds make my heart skip a beat when they roar with savage ferocity. Of course, the great driving physics are fun. But that's not what makes Gran Turismo Sport a great game. No, what makes this a great game is that they managed to distill the essence of competition and put it on a race track for 24 players to enjoy together.

It's rare that a racing game allows for real sport without imposing ridiculous constraints or adding very complex rule books. This game does it with finesse, and I don't even know exactly how. I think it's a combination of light penalties, intelligent ghosting of rival cars and a player base that loves to race. It's not the same crowd as Mario Kart or Forza Horizon, so maybe that makes a bigger difference than I thought...

Cuphead

Date played: October 15th
Platform: Xbox One

Well, Cuphead is one hell of a fucking tough game folks.

I mean, I'm not an amazing gamer by any means. I see kids half my age running circles around me in FPS games and stuff, but fuck, I'm not that bad either! Still, Cuphead kicks my fucking ass to the ground and then it keeps kicking me. I must be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome then, because I just love the game so much!

It's truly brutal though. I must have played for more than 2 hours last night and managed to kill 3 bosses, cleared 1 scrolling level and 1 mausoleum. The scrolling level wasn't too bad, and the mausoleum was easy, but all three bosses were very difficult.

Up first was Baroness Von Bon Bon. This crazy lady is obsessed with everything sugar! Her first three phases each feature a random candy minion. There's a crazed gumball machine, a splattering pie, a Pac-Man inspired everlasting gobstopper, an angry flying candy corn and a yummy looking flying waffle. Most of these battles are really hard on their own, and learning each one was pretty difficult.

Baroness Von Bon Bon

None of them compared to the Von Bon Bon lady herself though. She started chasing me from atop her giant castle made of cake! The level scrolled as I tried to shoot her as often as I could from the single floating platform above me. What made this part really hard was the main attack used by the baroness. She threw her detached head at me, which then lunged at me from the air every few hundreds of a second. These attacks were very difficult to dodge. To add to the difficulty, a giant rolling piece of mint candy rolled towards me every few seconds, adding more stuff to dodge. It was hard, and it took forever, but I took the bitch down.

The next boss was a plane level, this time set around a pyramid. The beautiful rotating background filled the screen with flair as I fought a gigantic genie in a bottle named Djimmi the Great (wow, that name...) ! This was another difficult battle, with many phases, but it was probably the easiest of the three bosses I beat yesterday. There was a lot of shit to dodge, but mostly, I just made steady progress with each attempt. Only the first phase really gave me trouble, when the genie would spit out a ton of random objects at me. His final form wasn't too hard, but it was one of the most wonderfully animated in the game.

Finally, I took on Beppi the Clown. This amusement park clown is a real pain in the ass, but lots of fun to fight. His first phase is easy, but hilarious, as the evil clown charges at me from a bumper car. The second phase was trickier, because now, there's roller-coaster train that periodically appears on screen. It even has fucking spikes on it so that it's hard to dodge... Plus, there's bad guys inside, and the clown is blowing himself up with helium, dangerous attack dog balloons are coming my way, shit goes crazy all over.

Another phase features our friend the clown riding on a pair of horses, both of which have different projectile attacks. Paired with the constant roller-coaster attacks, these guys were hard to fight.

Then there's the final phase, as Beppi morphs into a merry-go-round, as the roller-coaster keeps rolling below. He then throws out rolling baseball throwing penguins to the ground. It's critical to take these guys out first because their stray baseballs are very dangerous. After a few tries, I killed the damn clown.

I got my ass kicked in the second platforming levels when I encountered some deadly brass instruments. I haven't figured out a good way to beat these yet and was tired, so I stopped playing and will try another day.

Metroid Samus Returns

Date played: October 15th
Platform: 3DS

Samus Returns keeps getting better, and that's kind of too bad, because I'm getting near the end... I don't want this amazing game to end. Thankfully, I plan on backtracking through each area soon, even though I don't have all the abilities yet, so that should extend the game quite a bit.

Area 5 was full of dangers, but it also had a few new powers for me to play with. First up was the Gravity Suit, which allows me to move freely in water. This eliminates many barriers in Area 5, allowing for new places to explore and new secrets to uncover. Second, I got the amazing Screw Attack! This thing was always one of my favorite abilities in Metroid games. This version is powerful, killing most regular enemies in one or two hits. It can destroy some new types of walls too, so that's great.

These new abilities came in handy when I fought against a few metroids. One of them was just a regular fight, but the other introduced an even bigger type of metroid! It turns out, I misnamed one of these friendly little bastards in my last post. It seems I already fought a Zeta Metroid, but not an Omega. I met an Omega yesterday and it was a much bigger challenge.

Omega Metroid are incredibly fun to fight!

Omega Metroid have new attacks, including a treacherous slow-moving beam attacks. It also has some armor of sorts to protect it's weak point. I used my Plasma Beam to damage it while dodging it's attacks. Eventually, this would break the armor, which I then attacked with Super Missiles and Ice Beam. It took forever, and I even ran out of Super Missiles, but after a few tries, I killed the big fucker.

Area 6 is quite large, but it only has a few Metroids left, most of which will be huge I'm sure. The area is filled with life that swarms in the beautiful backgrounds. It has lots of dark greens and feels very dangerous. I faced the giant machine boss finally, as it snatched away a new upgrade, but while I was fighting him, my 3DS battery ran low and I put the game down. I'm gonna beat that hulking piece of machinery next time!

Rocket League

Date played: October 15th
Platform: PS4

Well, I think I needed a multiplayer game to play regularly. I guess I got kind of tired of Overwatch for a bit and Rocket League is coming back into my gaming time. I played a few rounds, had good plays, bad plays and looked great doing it, in my sexy new Triton car. This game is always a pleasure to play!

I make an epic save (I'm on the far right!)

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Date played: October 14th
Platform: Switch

Man, the final world isn't fucking around... I played through one chapter, 4-3, with my daughter this afternoon. The two levels were very difficult, and required some creative thinking to solve. The first battle had me kill 9 enemies. While that doesn't sound difficult on it's own, the problem was that the enemies would constantly spawn. We're talking 4-6 bad guys every turn here...

This would have been ok if they were easy to kill. Unfortunately, these were the most resistant enemies yet. Big, fiery Rabbids that carry big objects on their backs. They don't have any ranged attacks, so that gave me a bit of breathing room, but one wrong move meant instant death for each character here. Luigi died rather early on, because I didn't move him with the rest of the team. Rabbid Yoshi and Mario fought bravely to the end, using every trick in the bag to survive and get the remaining kills.

This left my team decimated for the next battle. I had to just reach the end of the level, which was a big straight line guarded by 4 powerful shotgunners and two teleporting assholes. Better yet, new enemies spawned at the beginning of the level after a couple of turns. My first attempt was pretty good, considering Luigi had 10 health at the start of the battle, and Mario had 80. Still, I was too weak to make it to the end and got a Game Over.

Peach is tough, powerful and has a decent healing ability, but she's hard to use in some situations

I decided to change up my team slightly for this battle. I took Peach, because she's a tough, front line fighter, and she can heal slightly. Her and Rabbid Yoshi too the front lines, while Mario stayed back, being healed slowly by Peach. Peach's shotgun is really powerful, but also, it's hard to use in some situations, since it destroys cover and can hit friendly units. Still, my strategy worked and I made it to the next chapter.

Final Fantasy VII

Date played: October 14th
Platform: PS4

I didn't play for very long, just long enough to explore Corel and the surrounding area. I also got my first glimpse of the Gold Saucer, but didn't have time to see much of it. Corel is an old coal mining town. It's also Barett's hometown, and there's some history there.

Years ago, Barett helped convince the village to sell the mines to Shinra so that they could replace it with a Mako reactor. It seemed like the smartest thing to do at the time, but his friend Dyne disagreed. Barett ended up winning the argument though. Years later, Shinra came to burn the village down to a crisp, now that it had built it's reactor... The citizens now live in the ruins of the old town, holding a grudge against Barett and Shinra.

I explored the area outside the town, in the world map, but found nowhere to go. I think I need a vehicle of some sort to cross a desert and some rivers. The only place left for me to go is the Gold Saucer, the giant, fun-filled amusement park in the sky, high above Mount Corel.

The world famous Gold Saucer amusement park

This place was always a highlight of the game. At every corner, a new attraction can be found, including some chocobo racing! I didn't get a chance to really do anything, but I can't wait to play this part of the game.

Couch Multiplayer Special Edition

Date played: October 13th
Platform: PS4, Xbox One

3 of my brothers and a friend came over last night to play some video games, drink, listen to music and socialize. One of my brothers is a graphic designer, so he's had his eye on Cuphead for a very long time. He played it a few times with a friend, but he wanted to play it again with me, so we started with that.

We played lots of Cuphead, but since it's a 2 player game and there were 5 of us, we had to establish some rules and some sort of playing rotation. We settled on passing the controller to our right after a death. We also agreed that we were allowed one restart per team, but only during phase 1 of a boss. It worked really well and everyone got a chance to play each level.

We made all of these faces, and more, last night

We beat the Carrot, the Blob, the running level and were inches away from beating the blimp chick that turns into a giant moon. Everyone really enjoyed the game, and while it was intimidating for a few players, they quickly saw that the game was fair and that they could easily learn and improve.

After a while, we felt like playing a 4 player game and we settled on Sports Friends, with a few rounds of Hokra and Barabariball. Hokra was a huge hit, with people screaming at each other and excitement running high. The simple game is a distillation of games like hockey, football and soccer. It's easy to control, the objective is simple, execution is easy, but strategy is where the real challenge is. Dekes and mind games are common during a simple match of Hokra.

Baribariball is as fun and frustrating as ever. Thankfully, it's very chaotic and the stakes are pretty low, so everyone had a good time, even if we were playing like ass.

Finally, we ended the evening with some 2v2 Rocket League. That was fucking awesome... Everyone was pretty rusty, so we had many close matches. One of my brothers is a good goalkeeper, so when he was on the opposing team, I had a lot more trouble capitalizing on scoring opportunities. We also spent a stupid amount of time customizing our cars so that they looked cool and fit our personalities.

These types of gaming nights are just great, and I wish I could do it more often. 

Gran Turismo Sport Demo

Date played: October 12th
Platform: PS4

The thrill of racing has brought me back to GT Sport once again. I'm really enjoying myself with this game, despite it's tons of obvious, glaring flaws. I mean, it's still buggy as fuck, lobbies close on their own, connection errors all over, changing cars while in a lobby is almost impossible, etc.

But the racing... The racing is so so sweet.

MY FIRST ONLINE VICTORY!!!

It took me 45 minutes to find a decent race, but when I did, I had lots of fun. The race was at Dragon Trail, the only asphalt circuit in the demo, with my trusty Hyundai Genesis Rally car. The 6 lap race was full of action and surprises... I actually crashed a good number of times throughout the race, or spun out. Some of it was just my fault, while some of it was because of fierce battles against other racers, but I still held my own and drove fast.

The starting grid had 15 racers, and I spent most of my time fighting between 2nd and 6th place. I try to just focus on the road and ignore other cars as much as possible, making sure my racing line is good. This works well because many other players focus on passing. The trick is though, if you race well, the passing opportunities will present themselves.

About midway through the race, the guy in first place dropped out, presumably due to connection issues or maybe an urgent bathroom matter or whatever. This was great for me since he was really far ahead, but I was in the thick of fighting with the 2nd-6th pack.

I stuck to my technique, and even after a massive 360 spin out, I managed my first ever online victory in Gran Turismo Sport. I hope there are many more victories ahead, because it felt incredible. 

Gran Turismo Sport Demo

Date played: October 11th
Platform: PS4

I couldn't resist diving back into Gran Turismo Sport, which has been transformed from a beta to a demo overnight. It's all the same stuff so far, including the awful bugs. Still, there's a lot of fun to be had just racing, so I did.

Piloting my beautiful, bright pink, Hyundai Genesis Rally Car on the swervy Dragon Trail track, I had a great time racing against other players online. I stuck to the normal lobbies, since I didn't really have the patience for Sport mode last night.

I love my car

Unfortunately, I only managed to do one real race, due to bugs and crashes, but it was a fun one. I made a few big mistakes during the 5 lap, 10 minute long battle. Most of the time, I was fighting for 3rd or 4th place. The two guys up front were way better than me, but I was better than the rest of the pack for sure.

I still had to battle hard due to some of the racers putting up good fights, or even being kind of dicks with slight contact at the worst of times, but I fought hard. I secured 3rd place, about 40 seconds behind the guy in 1st. 

Rocket League

Date played: October 11th
Platform: PS4

I guess I'm kind of in between games right now. Rocket League is always a great way to kill some time, so I booted it up for the second night in a row and played a few matches. I did much better than yesterday... I was fast, I was precise and I was scoring goal.

The goal that gave me a hat trick!

In my first match, I even got myself a nice hat trick! I played against a tougher team later, and struggled to keep up with them, but for the most part, I held my own and did really well, considering how long it's been since I've played. Rocket League is always good fun!

Rocket League

Date played: October 10th
Platform: PS4

It's been a long time since I've played Rocket League, but I had an urge to play it a few days ago, so I played a few matches last night. There's been a lot of changes to all the stuff outside of the playfield. The menus are all different, there's a ton of slots for different car designs to choose from, there's a ton of new items to earn and equip, there's even some new maps and stuff! Before I actually started playing, I took a stupid amount of time to build out 4 cars.

This new stadium is set in space and it looks amazing

I gave them fun names too... There's Seb Force One, my favorite car (TAKUMI!). Then there's the Glitter Van, which is a very glittery van, as you would expect. Then there's Birth, which is basically my first Rocket League car that I used for a long time. Finally, there's Dirt Muncher, a bit of a crazier design, reminiscent of real RC cars of the 80's.

I played a few matches, maybe 5 or 6. I was very rusty... My timing was off, which is to be expected I guess. I only scored one goal in the entire time I played, but I had some good plays and a few assists. I also had one spectacular bicycle kick save. It was fun to jump back into Rocket League for a few matches.

Gran Turismo Sport Beta

Date played: October 9th
Platform: PS4

Gran Turismo might be one of the most important video game franchises ever. When the first game came out on PS1 back in the late 90's, it was a milestone moment. No other console game had even attempted anything like Gran Turismo. Even on PC, the options were few and far between. Gran Turismo brought simulation racing to millions of new gamers, myself included. The coolest thing about it was that it didn't focus exclusively on the Corvettes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the world. It made it possible to race with your real life car!

I played a LOT of Gran Turismo in my life. GT2 was huge and even added rally racing. GT3 brought huge visual upgrades on PS2. GT4 was a refinement of this. It's around GT5 that I started being fed up with the series, and that's because there was a new kid on the block named Forza.

Forza changed the console racing world forever, introducing things like fully customizable assists, online racing, a driving line and tons of other cool stuff like livery editors. Meanwhile, Gran Turismo still had great driving physics and good graphics, but it was bad at everything else. I played GT5, but didn't enjoy myself as much, and skipped GT6 completely, which came out at the end of the PS3's life.

I had very low expectations when I heard about Gran Turismo Sport. Previous games had bad AI, shitty collisions and some of the worst fucking menus in the industry. Plus, online play was always really iffy with this series...

I was pleasantly surprised by much of what I've played of the Sport beta. The first thing that I have to say is just how fucking incredible this game looks visually. I have a PS4 Pro, and it just looks amazing and runs smooth as butter. I'm also happy to report that the physics are still rock solid.

Gran Turismo Sport looks real sometimes

The biggest thing here is that Gran Turismo Sport is not a traditional racing game. It's focused on online racing and doesn't really have a single player mode. It's got some (very challenging) driving lessons and some weird little missions, but there's no real racing here. The action is all online. This is a beta, so I have to forgive it's technical limitations, but wow, this game crashes often.

The structure is very different than previous games too. Surprisingly, it reminds me a lot of Splatoon. It uses a weird scheduling system, which I'm starting to think is kind of a Japanese thing... The main online events are scheduled every 20 minutes. You can enter a race, then spend some time doing qualifying laps.

There's also a lobby menu, where players can just create lobbies and make custom races. The problem here is that the events all include practice, where people just drive around, waiting for the race to start. However, in many cases, the host never launched the race itself. This meant a lot of frustration as I was just trying to get into a real race.

It worked a few times, and it was a lot of fun.... when it worked. The game has a bunch of really weird bugs. A few times, the race would start, but I would stay stuck on the starting line. This affected other drivers too, so it sounds like a weird bug. What's worse, the game crashes when this happens, forcing me to restart the game.

It's unfortunate, and I'm hoping it's just a Beta thing, because the racing itself is so good. There's still weird collisions and stuff, but the core racing is just awesome. The game is smart about turning players into ghosts too. If someone is clearly going to fast for a corner, or if they go off track, their car will often turn into a ghost that others can drive through. This doesn't happen during normal racing, so it's a good way to prevent assholes from ruining every race, while still allowing for a bit of contact during normal racing.

My favorite moment was when I finally managed to join a Sport online race. Featuring up to 24 players on track at once, the action is fierce and mistakes are very costly. I was driving a yellow Audi TTS. I had a good qualifying time and started the race in third place, out of about 18 racers I think. I drove one hell of a race. I only made a few tiny mistakes and had a really good racing line.

I fought with a group of 4 or 5 racers for a while, ending up at the front of the pack in 2nd place. The guy in first place was using the same car as me, but somehow, he was much faster than me. There's a variety of things that could have impacted that, like car tuning and transmission type, but also, maybe he was just that good.

I ended the race in 2nd place, but somehow managed to get myself a 3 second penalty. I think it must have been from a contact or something, but I'm not sure. This meant that even though I crossed the line 2nd, I was actually 4th, because the two guys behind me were less than 3 seconds away.

Later, my 7 year old daughter asked me to play a little bit. I started by putting her in the first couple of driving lessons. It took her a while to get a hang of the steering, and even then, this is a simulation game, so no matter what, it's hard to keep the car straight. She impressed me quite a bit. It took her a few tries, but she managed to go through a pair of gates and clear the second lesson. The third lesson was too much for her, with it's 4 gates.

After this, I put her in a Mazda Miata and dropped her onto the oval track. She struggled with it, but with a bit of time, she started being a bit more agile and managed a full lap without touching the walls. She was really proud of herself, and I was even prouder. We spent the next 10 minutes watching her replay, laughing at the crashes. It was wonderful, and if she shows interest again, I'll be happy to teach her some more.

I'm impressed with Gran Turismo Sport. Sure, it's got a ton of problems, but the racing is so fucking solid, it's gonna be hard to pass on this one.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Date played: October 9th
Platform: Switch

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving, and that means a day off for everyone, including my daughter. It was raining all day, so we ended up playing some Rabbids Kingdom Battle for a while in the afternoon.

We started by completing the last two challenge levels in the second world. One of them was really easy, since we're so overpowered, but the other required some strategy. I had to escort Toad through a gauntlet of Chain Chomps. These enemies always target the closest character, so I basically had to block Toad from the Chain Chomps by putting bodies in the way. Rabbid Yoshi was great for this, thanks to his shield.

We then moved on to the fourth and final world of the game. Set in and around a volcano, Bowser Jr. has built a veritable fortress here, taking a page from the book of Saruman. I've completed the first two levels, each featuring one battle. Some new enemies showed up, but they're just beefed up versions of previous enemies. Still, some of these guys have a LOT of HP, so they take some good coordination and careful planning.

The final world has a great look

The setting and atmosphere here is great. The Rabbids that decorate the world are still silly, stuff like drinking lava or scratching their ass on molten rock. At one point, because I don't have a healer on my team, I decided to swap out Rabbid Yoshi because he had almost no health left. I subbed him with Rabbid Luigi, and it worked rather well.

Rabbid Luigi's biggest advantage is his huge movement range and very damaging dash attacks, which also apply a vampire effect on him. He also has a badass rocket launcher. I don't usually keep him in the rotation because he's very fragile and doesn't hit that hard, but he works really well in missions that require lots of movement, or where enemies are easy to hit with dashes.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Date played: October 8th
Platform: Switch

I spent some quality time with my daughter, playing Raddids Kingdom Battle. We played through the last few levels of World 3, including it's boss, and went back to World 2 to pick up some collectibles and complete challenge levels.

The first level I played was actually really hard. The problem is that I had to reach a far away area, while fighting powerful teleporting enemies, all the while avoiding Boos who teleport my players in the worst spots. In my first attempt, I fucked up by moving a character too close to a Boo, which led to Mario's early death. I was fucked. I had to restart the mission. My second time around, I did much better, avoiding Boos and methodically advancing. It was still really difficult and almost went wrong a few times, but I succeeded.

Next, I fought the world's final boss. This guy is just fucking great! Bowser Jr. combines a Rabbid with a gramophone, which created a very talented opera-singing Rabbid. Ubisoft went all out on this one... The opera singer Rabbid had a huge intro, featuring a fully voiced, full length song about how Mario is bad, and how he doesn't deserve Peach.

This song was the best cut-scene in the game!

Honestly, the writing and performance were spot on. It was really stupid of course, but it was also very funny, making us laugh out loud more than once. However, the battle itself was nothing to laugh about...

Fighting the opera singer required that we destroy some lights by dashing into them in order to damage the boss. The idea is that he's invincible when he's "hogging the spotlight". The problem wasn't really the boss himself, but rather, his heavily armored guards. This is another battle that took two attempts. On my first run, I didn't know the order that I would have to destroy the lights, and my positioning suffered for it, ultimately killing my team. My second round was a lot easier, since I knew where to go, but the secondary enemies still required extreme caution.

After the boss, I decided to go back to World 2 and complete some challenge levels as well as gather missing collectibles. My daughter has been asking to play the exploration sections pretty often, so I usually give her the controller and let her explore. She has a really good puzzle solving mind, and often will see the solutions without my help, or even before I do.

The challenge levels were actually pretty damn easy for the most part, but that because my characters are overpowered for these enemies. Still, some of them were more puzzle-like, which was fun. We even found the world's secret level after a series of complicated puzzles. There's one last challenge left in world 2, but I might just head straight to world 4 next time.

Final Fantasy VII

Date played: October 8th
Platform: PS4

I need a slow game last night, so I booted up FF VII. The last time I played, I had been masquerading as a soldier in Junon, the military city, to get some info on Sephiroth's whereabouts. All info led us to believe that he was crossing the ocean, so after exploring Junon a little bit and staring at awesome equipment that is too expensive for me, I hopped onto a large ship as a stowaway.

The trip across the ocean was interrupted by some commotion on the cargo ship. It seems that our group wasn't the only group of stowaways... Yes, Sephiroth is aboard. After a few random battles, we found him and Cloud tried speaking with him, but Sephiroth didn't recognize him, which was weird.

In fact, we somehow ended up fighting against a Jenova herself, though she's still rather weak. The battle was difficult, but Cloud, Barret and Yuffie kicked some ass. I used a lot of summons here, including Shiva, the sexy ice goddess.

Red XIII takes a well deserved break to play soccer with kids in Costa Del Sol

After the battle, we docked at Costa Del Sol, a beautiful little coastal town with a popular beach and lots of carefree villagers. This was always one of my favorite locations in the game. It's got nice music, pretty colors, girls in bikinis and a very playful vibe. This is a nice contrast to the more serious atmosphere of most environments in the game. Red XIII plays ball with local kids while Aeris and Tifa go sunbathing at the beach.

I spoke to people in the area, gathering info, which led our group to explore West of Costa Del Sol, towards Mount Corel. The path was a fun dungeon, with lots of different paths, secret items, hidden caverns and a bunch of new enemies to fight. I reached a small, decrepit village, but had to stop playing.

Metroid Samus Returns

Date played: October 7th
Platform: 3DS

Area 5 is a very dangerous place. It is filled with new variants of older enemies, but stronger. Teeming with life and vegetation at every corner, Area 5 has a big focus on water in it's mechanics. Since the space jump doesn't work in water, it's a natural way to block progress at this stage of the game.

Water plays a big role in Area 5

I fought 3 metroids in my time with the game last night. The first was a good old Alpha metroid, the weakest of the bunch. However, the battle took place near many pools of water, limiting my movement severely and adding a lot of challenge. The other two were Gamma metroids, one of which was set in a water area, the other in a thorny and fiery area. Both were difficult battles, but the good old strategy of freezing them, then countering them still works wonders. It's even easier now too because I have super missiles.

Speaking of abilities, I picked up two new abilities, both bringing huge changes to gameplay. The Plasma Beam is an amazingly powerful upgrade to the regular gun. It can shoot through almost anything, damaging all enemies in it's path. It also hits a lot harder than the previous version! Plus, it can open a new type of door.

The second ability is more of a traversal ability, though I am excited to try it against a metroid. The Phase Drift is the final Aeion ability, and it's a good one. It allows Samus to slow down time for everyone but herself. This is mainly used to navigate in morph ball mode, across collapsing sections of flooring. It can also be used to move past fast obstacles like fireballs, and can be used in combat to gain an advantage.

Area 5 is definitely my favorite of the game so far. The visuals really fit my tastes in sci-fi fiction, the music is a bit more distinct and harmonious and the puzzles are even more interesting than previous areas. More challenging combat is exciting too! There's still a lot to explore in the area...

Watch Dogs 2

Date played: October 6th
Platform: PS4

I finished Watch Dogs 2!

The final mission was split into 3 big segments, with a twist! The heat on Marcus was too heavy for him to be running around out in the open, so the DedSec team takes it upon themselves to do some of the heavy lifting.

The objective is basically to infiltrate a major Blume server, get some incriminating data on Nemec, then release it to the police. That's when both Sitara and Wrench got their time in the spotlight as playable characters!

Sitara and Wrench each had a playable segment during the final mission

Sitara was lightly equipped, with only her profiler tool and some sick parkour skills. She had to do some climbing and jumping to reach a hacking spot, then solve a hacking puzzle. This puzzle was a bit harder than usual, not because of the complexity of the connections, but because Sitara doesn't have any drones. This meant that she had to run around a pretty big area, chasing down connections hidden behind buildings, boxes and other junk.

Wrench's mission was the complete opposite. He was equipped with a ridiculous number of weapons, all with infinite ammo. This included a fully automatic shotgun and a powerful grenade launcher. He had to get into a heavily protected outdoor area to physically destroy some servers, eliminating any possibility of backup recovery for Blume.

This mission was very difficult... I really didn't spend a lot of time with combat in this game, so this required a lot of adjustment for me. The mission starts with a bang. Heavy metal music plays, Wrench cocks his grenade launcher and a large group of security guards stand before me, with the objective waiting nearby.

I had to restart this mission about 4 or 5 times. The first run, I tried just shooting everyone, but was soon overrun. The second run, I tried to be stealthy, but due to a lack of tools, reinforcements kept coming and eventually, I was overwhelmed. On my third run, I tried the shotgun instead and died quickly. The fourth run I almost had it, but was taken out by a random explosion.

Finally, on my last run, I went in guns blazing, but when shit got too hot, I took a little detour around the main area to flank. It was rough, but as I got used to the grenade launcher, it became easier with each run. I killed every single one of the guards, prevented reinforcements from coming with my phone, and destroyed the server!

Then it was time for the final mission. Josh had enough time to set up some stuff that will trick ctOS into thinking there are multiple Marcus' around the city. This meant Marcus was free to roam the city again, and it was time to take down Blume once and for all.

I had to infiltrate their main building, find a way to the server room, blow it up (after getting some valuable data), then get the hell out of there. The mission itself was very straight forward, with a simple building layout and nothing of particular note. Well, except that there were dozens of heavily armored, heavily armed guards.

This just meant that I took a bit more time to get inside, as I used my drones for almost everything. After clearing the main plaza, which took a while, I solved a short puzzle and accessed the server farm. Another set of puzzles, then I was able to blow up the place. Escaping was difficult too, because about 15 guards came rushing in with machine guns. I shot my way out like a madman, using my machine gun.

Marcus fucks up the main Blume servers

Marcus and Ray then pay a friendly visit to Dusan Nemec. I think they really just wanted to gloat... DedSec released all the data they stole to the public in a touching video by Marcus. The message was really good, very positive. It promoted peace, love, cooperation and human solidarity against profit-focused corporations. Dusan Nemec was arrested and jailed for life, and Blume took a huge hit to it's reputation and business.

DedSec celebrated with some alcohol and vowed to continue fighting as long as they are needed. The epilogue reveals that DedSec auxiliary groups, and other hacker groups, have been popping up worldwide, thanks to the San Francisco team's efforts. That's when I heard two mysterious voices, agreeing to "Do it", in response to the growing threat of hacker groups. I don't know what this means, and I have my doubts that Ubisoft knows what it means, but it sure sets up a sequel nicely.

Watch Dogs 2 was a lot better than I expected. I was expecting a good open world, a fun story and some crazy hacking stuff. I wasn't expecting that combat would be completely optional. I wasn't expecting to find the navigational puzzles to be so good. I didn't expect to play most of the game from my drone. I'm really happy I played this and I would love for the franchise to continue!