I laughed so damn much watching this. I actually wasn’t really aware of Ali Wong, but had noticed that she was a guest on the WTF podcast last week (and have now listened to the episode), and so when I saw her stand-up special pop up on Netflix I decided to check it out, and I’m so glad I did. Truly one of the funniest stand-up sets I’ve watched in a while.
Yup, this is not a good movie at all. It’s just, boring. It takes 40 minutes before they actually do something (go into the other dimension), and after that, the whole story is just nothing. They get back, have powers, and oh, end up facing Doom who stayed there. And Doom is just so silly looking. Terrible film.
I’ve always been curious about the Tropico games, but have never played one until now (thanks, PlayStation Plus). The sim genre is admittedly not one I get very excited about, but I have had fun with some in the past – I never go really deep with them though. I’ve just gone through the tutorials so far in Tropico 5, and so far I’m finding it nice and slick, with the despot banana republic setting a fun one. I don’t expect I’m really going to get sucked into playing a lot of this, but I’m happy to have the chance to try it out, and who knows, I might end up liking it more than I expect.
Also in the PlayStation Plus lineup this month is Switch Galaxy Ultra, which from the screenshots looked pretty awesome to me. Although it looks like a hover racer, it’s a bit more limited than that, and instead plays more like the grinding levels in a Ratchet game. I haven’t spent that much time with it, but the first few levels were fun enough. I’m not quite sure how much time I’ll end up playing this, but I’ll definitely give it another play session or two.
On top of all the games I’ve been able to play courtesy of the “Friends of Nintendo” Humble Bundle, it’s also the start of a new month, which means new games from PlayStation Plus. I was quite looking forward to playing Table Top Racing – I sure love me some racing – and after putting in a bit of time, although it’s OK (especially for the price of free), it just hasn’t drawn me in enough to want to continue playing it. In the end, it just doesn’t really do anything better than Mario Kart 8, and so I’d rather just play that some more (which I still do). It’s not a bad looking game though, but I’m not sure if the balancing is quite right – I fully upgraded my first car, and on the second cup already hit races that I found impossible to win.
Another open beta for Overwatch, and yet again, I find myself having such a blast playing this game, even though multiplayer online shooters are not usually really my thing. I just love the look of the game so much, and the diverse lineup of characters are just so much fun, and I always have a hard time trying to decide who I want to try playing next. I had some pretty good matches this time too, and even got the “play of the game” in one of them, which made me feel pretty damn good. As much as I really want to play more, I still don’t think I’ll buy this on release when it comes out this month – I just can’t justify the purchase of a full-priced retail game right now (and I also really want to get Battleborn and Uncharted 4) – but I’ll definitely keep my eye out for sales down the line.
I’ll mention one last game I’ve been playing from the Nintendo Bundle, and that’s Citizens of Earth. For some reason, when you get the keys from the bundle, you have to choose whether you want the Wii U or 3DS version of this game, and so I picked Wii U. I must say, I’m having a pretty good time playing it, enjoying the nice crisp illustrated look, and gameplay that reminds me of the Mother/Earthbound games. The story is pretty funny too, and I like how it plays with RPG conventions – my party right now has my brother and mother, and during combat they use abilities like “nagging” and the like.
Another game in the Nintendo bundle is Darksiders II, which I had started playing a long time ago on PS3 I think (probably bought it in a sale or got it through PlayStation Plus) but got distracted somehow and never got back to it (and I don’t have a PS3 anymore). I quite liked the first Darksiders – it was an HD Zelda-like game back when Zelda games weren’t yet HD, with really fun combat gameplay – and right now I’m having a good time getting back into the series and playing this game. Sure, the general look of the game is a bit overly “heavy metal aesthetic,” but the gameplay is still really fun. I don’t know if I’ll have the time to really go in and play through all of it, but I definitely want to play more.
I’ve been curious about playing one of these Shantae games for quite a while, and that Nintendo bundle has finally given me the chance. It’s a retro-influenced 2D platformer, and through the bundle you get both Wii U and 3DS versions. I first started playing on the Wii U, but then when I later tried on 3DS, I preferred playing that version – the pixel graphics just look nicer on the smaller 3DS screen, and the 3D effect is nice too. I haven’t played that much yet, but I’m definitely having a fun time with it so far – although the extremely skimpy outfits on all the female characters do feel juvenile (you get large HD views of the characters when they talk). Might just be for people – like me – who still love playing platformers.
You still have 1 day to get in on the “Friends of Nintendo” Humble Bundle, and if you haven’t already taken advantage of this ridiculously good deal, I encourage you to do so. I’ve been getting some play time on most of the stuff I got, and one of the games I’ve been enjoying the most is Affordable Space Adventures. Here’s a game that really shows off an interesting Wii U experience, where the Wii U controller screen plays into an important mechanic of the game (controlling the various internal engines/electronics on your ship). At the base, it’s a 2D exploration game where you fly a ship through the inner caves of a planet, which is already really fun, but add in some really great graphics and aesthetics, and like I said, a really neat use of the Wii U controller, and you have an absolute must-play Wii U game.