(Belated) Valentines Loves đ
Now donât come at us, itâs been a very busy week for both of us (the main reason why there wonât be a podcast episode this week). But, we thought in the spirit of Valentines Day having just passed we would write up a little post on the games weâve fallen in love with. Now these donât have to be games that have come out in the last 2 years or anything like that, no no. Weâre talking games that hold a special place in our hearts, for a variety of reasons.
Rammo:
To start us off, Iâm going with The Batman: Arkham Series (yes I know Iâm cheating by using a whole series)
I consider the Arkham Series to be the gold standard for what a superhero game should be these days. I remember getting Batman: Arkham City in a bundle with my Xbox 360 and I could not stop playing that game all weekend, I honestly think I finished the main story in a couple of days. I spent hours upon hours gliding around the city, looking for Riddler trophies, and bad guys to throw down some serious combos on. The combat was easy enough to get into without there having to be a complete in-depth tutorial that took your attention from the city away for 45 minutes, but it was also fleshed out enough that once you started unlocking and upgrading gadgets that you really had to think about what the next combo was going to be (if you wanted them to be really awesome combos, which I mean, who didnât want that?).
Each of Batmans colourful rogues gallery that appears in the game gets their own time to shine as well, with well thought out and epic boss fights that were all so different from one another. Each time you met up with one of the villains and the camera shifted to initiate the boss fight, it was met with cheers instead of groans because of just how fun they were. If there was a challenge mode added to the game where you could just try and see how fast you could take down each of the bosses, that would have been the cherry on top of the cake.
Honestly if you have somehow made it this far and still havenât managed to play these games yet, I implore you to give them a go, you truly wonât be disappointed!
Next up for me is the Resident Evil 2: Remake. Now I want to preface this by saying that I have never played the original RE2 (it came out in the same year that I was born).
This remake should be used as a benchmark for future developers who are doing remakes of their older games. Capcom went ahead and decided to update everything, and took it from a 1990âs game to a modern, polished, and beautiful re-imagining of the Racoon City Police Department. If they hadnât changed the bulky and jarring camera and control system from the original, I probably would have looked straight past this without a second thought. But when I saw that they were updating the controls to something modern, my ears perked up. This is also the game that I tell everyone to play if theyâve never played a survival/horror game before, because it has a little bit of everything. It has engaging combat, thrilling boss fights, puzzle solving, and of course, some good scares. If you play this on one of the easier difficulties (defs recommend for someone new to the series), then you can go about your experience with minimal hiccups. But if youâre looking for a solid challenge, then play it on one of the harder difficulties for capped save slots, and ammo and health will be spread out a lot thinner throughout the map, making your really cautious of hitting those headshots.
To me I would still suggest âREmake 2â over Resident Evil 7 and the newly released Resident Evil 8, because, and I know this sounds weird considering I havenât played the originals, it just feels a bit more âResident Evilâ? I donât know if that makes much sense to anyone, but its the main reason I still recommend it over the newer releases [but that might change once the Resident Evil 4 remake comes out].
Iâm gonna throw it waaaaaay back to Super Mario 64. When I got gifted my Nintendo 64 from my cousins, I also inherited a bunch of games. Goldeneye 64, Banjo - Kazooie, Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Wave Race 64, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and many many more. But one game stuck out to me the most, and that was Marioâs first foray into the 3D realm.
Slowly unlocking as many Power Stars as I could, unlocking new levels, ruining my joystick from spinning Bowser around too many times before throwing him off a platform with an accidental slur (itâs meant to be âso long kinga Bowserâ). This game really captured my brothers and I attention. We would collect a Power Star, then pass the controller on to the next brother until they got a Power Star, cheering each other along the way. I was over the moon when Nintendo announced that Super Mario: 3D All Stars would include a copy of Super Mario 64, because it meant I could go back and play it all again, in a console that I could throw in my backpack. I am still yet to get all 105 Power Stars that are scatted throughout the Mushroom Kingdom and all their fancy paintings, but I am still slowly working towards that goal on my Switch.
Weâre almost at the end of my list, so bare with me here.
Next up for me is going to be the Hitman series (yes I know Iâm cheating again). Hitman 2: Silent Assassin might have been my first video gaming experience that I had to hide from my parents. They were kind of ok with Goldeneye (as it was based off the James Bond film of the same name, which I also love) and Turok as you were mostly killing giant dinosaurs. But in Hitman youâre brutally killing other people. Yeah theyâve probably done some horrendous things but my parents didnât understand that. But we would play hours of this game, figuring out the best ways to infiltrate rooms and get close to our targets, what costumes we could change into, and what weapon was going to be our targets final vision.
I also want to give a shoutout to Hitman: Absolution, which is a hot contender for my favourite game in the Hitman franchise. This was the game that really shook the formula up for Hitman, by making it more of a fleshed out story focused game which the previous ones had been lacking (besides a couple of cutscenes here and there). It also introduced a handful of new features and tools that Agent 47 could use, the biggest one being âInstinct Modeâ. This was a mode that would let you see the path that an enemy might take, helping you to plan out your paths and sneak by enemies. Absolution also pushed to be a bigger Hitman game in almost every way, with multiple stylistic ways to eliminate targets, better enemy AI, and a pretty impressive crowd system in which you could blend into large groups of people to help conceal your identity.
The Hitman series is still going strong to this day, with the newest entry (Hitman 3) being released just last year to positive review. What also gets me very excited is that the developers of Hitman (IO Interactive) are making a DAMN JAMES BOND GAME. YES I KNOW THIS IS NOW OLD NEWS BUT ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? James Bond is one of my favourite movie franchises, and when I found out that IO Interactive, a studio that is known for making one of, if not THE, best stealth and espionage games of all time is behind it, I got literal chills down my spine.
Alright I think Iâm done nowâŚ
Jokes I still got one more in me. This last one is quite a bit different from the rest, but I think it deserves a spot on the list as its the game that got me into PC gaming. Most Australians that were born when I was (or earlier) will probably remember the promotion that Kellogs did with Microsoft Game Studios in 2002. I am of course talking about the FREE copy of Age of Empires that you got if you bought a box of Nutri Grain. What was probably a $5 box of cereal got us hours upon hours of strategic gaming goodness. And honestly, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I was just enjoying sending waves and waves of soldiers out to conquer the lands and build as much infrastructure as I could (omg was I a bad person?).
Playing the newer Age of Empires these days leads me to believe that I was most defiantly playing the game wrong, but I think without this game I would never have gotten into PC gaming (or gotten into it as early as I did), and wouldnât really be who I am today.
Jenz:
So I went into gaming very late compared to Raammo. The first game I remember playing was at the internet cafe playing Call of Duty or CS Go with friends after high school.
The first time I ever connected with a game was Uncharted 4. It was the first time I fell in love with the story and the characters and just couldnât put the game down. I needed to know more, I needed to keep going. Even though I started the Uncharted series with the latest one (I know some people are cringing at this fact), I still connected deeply with the characters which I think is such a great testament to Naughty Dogâs story telling and ability to show off the connections and relationships between the characters. So if you havenât yet checked out the Uncharted series, I would definitely recommend it. The graphics still hold up and they paint such a beautiful world.
Moving on, another game that I had a great connection with is Hellblade Senuaâs Sacrifice. The immersion in this game is on another level. The story telling, the performances, the music and atmosphere is just so magical, dark and intriguing and I absolutely adore this game. A lot of people do find this one hard to play because of the voices that the character (and you) experience throughout the game. I also love the emphasis (and subtlety) of mental health and the impacts of that is such a big feature in this game and itâs story telling. This game is on Xbox game pass and would highly recommend picking this up and experiencing it with good quality headphones!
Of course I will mention the Little Nightmare series. I cannot express how much I loved playing the first and second game. They are such simple platformer/puzzle games but set in such a dramatic world and the imagery in this game is so twisted and dark, I love it so much. You play as a small child and the whole world is just massive, and you have to traverse this world (house) and avoid the enemies you find along the way. I just love how creative the enemies are in this game, almost reminds me of Studio Ghibli in the sense that it's a very cute looking character amongst very twisted and scary enemies and that contrast is perfect.
This may be an obvious and an early one to add but I think I have to include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. I feel like this is a lot of peopleâs favourite game so I wonât talk too much about this but it really is an incredible game. I have always loved puzzle games and exploration (to an extent) but I have always been afraid of open world games from feeling overwhelmed with all the things I have to and can do within the world. BOTW combines the elements of open world with puzzles in shrines and I adore that. Itâs almost a big tutorial game in a sense as the shrines that are scattered throughout the map reiterate or teaches you on how to use the abilities, as well as how to fight things, and I love that. The world is beautiful and we have to mention the music in the game. Itâs absolutely breath-taking. * said smugly because breath is in the title of the game *
Lastly, I will have to talk about the Resident Evil franchise. I started RE with the Biohazard game (no. 7) and that was such an experience on itâs own. I love horror games and I love how Resident Evil isnât just about cheap jump scares but intricate settings with interesting enemies. Now I will talk mostly about my favourite series amongst the franchise. This is a tough one because itâs a hard call between RE 2 Remake or RE: Village (8). But I think I have to give it to Resident Evil: Village. There was so much hype leading up to the game, mostly because of Lady Dimitrescu, and so already I was very excited to see the Dimitrescu family, but then when you play it, you realise that there is more than just the Dimitrescu family you have to deal with and that was so fun to discover! Most of the Resident Evil games occur in one location but this one explores varying places which was such a nice change, as well as Duke, the beautiful Duke who would be there for you and provide you with whatever you need. From my knowledge, Resident Evil Village combined the best bits of 4 and 7 and put those together to make a masterpiece and I am so glad they did.
