I almost opened this post with “crikey, month two already?” but if I’m being honest, this last month in gaming hasn’t actually flown by. I’ve certainly played less, but I’ve played more of what’s included on this list than I did last month. That being said, there’s still a hefty heap of games to discuss. I’ll open with a new section that I’m calling The Duds – games I’ve downloaded and played for one or two sessions, typically for less than an hour or two, because they didn’t grab me. This doesn’t mean they’re bad games by any stretch, or that I won’t revisit them in the future, they just weren’t for me when I tried them.
This month’s duds:
- Slime Rancher
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
- Joy Ride Turbo
- Feeding Frenzy
Much as I’m loathe to admit it, there’s a very specific theme for this month’s games in that they’re mostly games which I own and have played on other platforms. This all began when the Microsoft-Bethesda acquisition finally yielded a very familiar fruit.
Xbox Game Pass (including EA Access)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
For those of you who are familiar with this blog across the years, you’ll know that Skyrim became one of my favourite games of all time when I finally pushed myself to focus on the game past Bleak Falls Barrow. This was five years ago, when I already owned the game on PC and PS3. Since then, I’ve owned it on PS4, PSVR, and Nintendo Switch, because of various sales and moments of weak willpower. When it came to Xbox Game Pass, then, what did I do? Download it, of course!
I initially downloaded it to see what the loading times were like on the Series S’ SSD, and I was not disappointed in that respect. In fact, here’s a link to a video of my gameplay experience, for those curious. It’s crazy fast. My curiosity sated, then, I naturally went on to uninstall the game and get on with my life.
Except wait no I didn’t do that I played lots of bloody Skyrim again didn’t I.
Partially due to the minute (rhymes with newt) loading times, partially due to my love of the game, partially due to a fresh slate of achievements to go and earn, I spent a good few weeks delving deep into the game. Before I knew what I was doing I was listening to lore, building my character’s attributes, and working towards owning a house. More specifically this month, my adventures included completing the Thieves Guild and Dawnguard questlines. Despite committing several murders, though, the Dark Brotherhood don’t seem to care about me, so I’ve been unable to continue down my projected questline order.
Inevitably, my time in Skyrim had me thinking about Elder Scrolls Online, my second favourite MMO (which is not an unkind accolade when you consider my multi-MMO history). I haven’t had time to check out the Markarth DLC between the latest World of Warcraft expansion dropping and me getting the urge to revisit Star Wars: The Old Republic. That being said…
The Elder Scrolls Online
There’s no way to share account progress between PC and Xbox, so I initially had no desire to play this game beyond my original account. That being said, it did sound like an excellent title to test mobile game streaming on, so I did just that. A quick summary of that experience, then: I found there to be some noticeable input delay which was mildly distracting but not experience-ruining, and for some reason the Game Pass app refuses to use my entire phone screen, leaving me with black bars to the sides and bottom of my game. The thing that irks me the most, though, is my inability to play with headphones in. You can connect bluetooth earphones to your phone at the same time as your controller, but on the Pixel 2 at least that results in delayed audio to the earphones. Sadly, you can’t use the headset you have plugged in to your controller as part of that controller-phone bluetooth pairing either. It’s a personal preference for sure, but I find it much harder to become immersed if the audio is playing out of my phone speakers.
After playing around on my phone for a bit, though, I got the urge to download the thing to my Xbox, for many of the same reasons that I downloaded Skyrim. I realised that yes, it’s a shame that you can’t share an account across platforms, but most things in ESO are character-bound anyway, so starting a new account isn’t much more of a setback than starting a new alt would be. Plus… eyeroll alert… the bundle with all current expansions was on sale for £15, so just that and a month of ESO Plus would restore my purchases anyway. Which isn’t ideal, of course, but the outcome of that was me getting super attached to my new Orc Dragonknight and being as absorbed in the game as I ever have been. I ran him through Greymoor quickly to remind myself of those events, and then continued through to Markarth, which has surprised me wonderfully with its beautiful barbarian atmosphere and recontextualisation of that part of Skyrim during the second era. Plus, unlike with Skyrim, my PC has some trouble running ESO without intermittent lag spikes, and playing the game without those on Xbox has been a dream. And we’re still due an X/S optimisation patch!
Like a moth to a flame, I now find myself drawn to the idea of earning as many Xbox achievements in ESO as possible, specifically because they’re so insanely time-consuming to get. There’s multiple instances where 20/30 hours of gameplay will award you a measly 20 gamerscore. Everyone I’ve mentioned this to has balked at the idea of it, but I just look at my game time in World of Warcraft and imagine how many rare achievements I’d have in it if it had some kind of platform-wide achievement system. And I’m aware of my failed attempts at getting every Assassin’s Creed Platinum or completing sets of games before moving on to others; my attention will absolutely wander elsewhere sometime during my mission to complete ESO’s achievement list. But I decided some time ago that I’d rather be someone who tries and fails than someone who never bothers to try. And even if I were to tunnel-vision ESO for achievements, it would still be a multi-year undertaking. Seriously, look at that list.
Minecraft
It was inevitable. Especially after I downloaded Skyrim. Skyrim was the “do not cross” line for games which I already own elsewhere. I’m decidedly not going for Xbox achievements for this one, though, as I already dedicated an entire livestream series to getting the Platinum trophy for it. No, I figure that seeing as the game has such a small install size, I may as well keep it on the drive and have one constant world that I slowly work on whenever I fancy chilling out and listening to a podcast.
So far, I’ve spawned on a desolate island in the middle of nowhere, and I’ve built myself a big house. Where we go from here, who can say?
No Man’s Sky
Before you ask, yes, I own No Man’s Sky on PC. And PS4. This one I downloaded to see how well it would run, given that it’s an X/S optimised title, and while the game does look gorgeous I’m a little saddened to say that it does dip below 60fps on performance mode at points. But honestly, that’s just me being picky. It’s mostly fine. And the second planet I ever visited was a Paradise planet with mild weather and low sentinel activity!! Which is the dream. And weirdly, also kinda killed my motivation to play further. But I’ve yet to uninstall it. We’ll see.
Oh, I also downloaded it because I knew the achievements weren’t difficult to earn, and the January achievements-to-Microsoft-points event had started. But given how obsessively I’ve laser-focused ESO in the last two days alone, I don’t think I’m getting many points out of that particular event.
Need For Speed Heat
My friend was kind enough to buy me this for my birthday last year on PC, but sadly my PC can’t quite hack it. Well it can, just… at around 20fps with some fairly regular frame drops. Which is totally on me for wishlisting the thing before checking recommended specs! But hey, I now get to play the game as it was intended and it’s… not… terrible?
It’s difficult to know what to say about a modern Need for Speed game. It looks good, there’s cops in this one, no you can’t play as them, it does a story but it’s not too cringeworthy (shudders in NFS2015), the racing is… okay. For some reason the handling in this one feels very 0-100 (I’m having to use the e-brake for most corners), but maybe that’s just my specific car being trash. My one major issue with the game so far is that at one point I had to grind races I’d done already to get to a level which let me progress the story, and also the day/night dynamic could be less annoying to swap between. I’ve had moments where I’ve accepted night dailies, left the garage, loaded into the world and been met with a story breadcrumb which can only be played during the day. But besides that, hey, it’s Need for Speed.
Remaster Underground already, you cowards!
Streets of Rogue
It’s a game that I don’t own elsewhere and have never played before! Actually, it’s been on my radar for quite some time now, and it’s every bit as fun as I hoped it would be. It’s the perfect blend of goofy world simulation and actual roguelike experience. If I wanted to I could choose a character with perks I want and very tactically go around, completing the missions on each floor, visiting pubs to buy food to heal myself before moving on, and buying items that would give me an edge. But it’s way more fun to charge into a high security building with nothing but a baseball bat and a banana peel that I can throw at people to trip them up. Also you can play as a gorilla. Always play as the gorilla.
Streets of Rogue is one of those roguelikes that wants you to mess with the experience as much as possible to find your favourite niche mode of play. It comes packed to the brim with unlockable characters and mutators to change things up, and that’s alongside more traditional cross-life progression such as unlocking new level-up traits in the store and buying items to take with you into your next run. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes fun. And beating people up as a semi-sentient banana-skin throwing gorilla.
Owned Xbox Titles
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
So Christmas happened, and with it the perfect excuse to splurge on some titles that I knew I’d love. Crash 4 is one of those titles. The original trilogy of Crash Bandicoots were basically my introduction to gaming, and hearing that they were making a fourth that aimed (and was allegedly successful) at being a true sequel to Warped definitely piqued my interest. I never beat the original games as a kid, but when they remastered them in the N.Sane trilogy I went back and thoroughly whooped those old levels, completing my twenty year long gaming quest and achieving nirvana.
Anyway, I’m a few worlds into Crash 4 and the perfectionist within me is ruining the whole experience. Here’s why. Each level has five gems to collect, the first three for various levels of Wumpa collecting, the fourth for not dying more than thrice and the fifth for hitting every box. Collect all five gems on a level and you unlock a new skin for Crash or Coco. As this is my first run through the game, I shouldn’t care about any of this right now, but constantly in the back of my mind is the idea that if I either get all the boxes or survive well enough to the end, I only need to replay the level once later on, not twice. So when I inevitably fail at achieving either one of these gems, I get super frustrated!
I need to talk some sense into my stupid dumb dumb idiot-ass brain though, as the gameplay is swell. The controls are tight and reminiscent of the originals, the level design is familiar but with a fresh coat of paint, the new mask abilities switch things up in a very fun way, and the extra-perspective levels from new characters is super creative, if slightly repetitive in the second half. There’s no reason for me to not love this game. I just need to get back on the horse and ignore the gems!
DOOM 64
It’s DOOM! Not Eternal. I’ll get there. But as someone who didn’t know this game ever existed until the remaster was announced, I’ve been super intrigued about this game for a while now. I played the original DOOM for the first time when I was around 21, and it stood out to me as one of the first “classic” games to be genuinely fun in the modern age to somebody who has zero nostalgia for when it was new. DOOM 64 continues to follow this model, though I did note the loss of the MIDI soundtrack in favour for a more spooky atmospheric mix, which is fitting but less fun. I also feel like DOOM 64 has more puzzles, and they aren’t afraid to punish you for not figuring things out right away. I’m not too far in but I’ve already been crushed into Slayer Paste more times than I’m willing to admit.
Agents of Mayhem
This is a weird one, because on the surface of it, this is a great game. Saints Row style combat and open world objectives wrapped up in an Overwatch-inspired hero shooter blanket? I’m all about it! Except I’m clearly not, because every time I open the game up to do a mission I just find myself running around the city for a few minutes and quitting out. There’s something about it which just doesn’t capture my attention, and I’m not sure if it’s because of my terrible attention span, or something which I can’t put my finger on but which all the game’s numerous mixed reviews can.
I’m not ready to quit on it just yet, and I don’t regret spending my Microsoft Points on it in the sale. Part of me thinks I should have picked up an old Saints Row instead, though.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has two sequels. One of them follows the Assassin’s Creed formula, taking that franchise to a new historical location and building on the systems of Odyssey in major ways. We talked about that one last month. Immortals is the other sequel, and it takes the Greek world of Odyssey and approaches it from a mythological perspective rather than a historical one; it also goes even further down the RPG route, finally free of its limitations as an Assassin’s Creed title. The result is a magical game which, despite being compared to Breath of the Wild for obvious reasons, constantly reminds me of the PS2 era of gaming in how the world is structured and how explorable it all feels. I don’t know. I can’t quite put to words how it’s reminiscent of PS2 games to me, so the BOTW comparison is definitely the more accurate one, but what I’m essentially trying to say is that it’s entirely up my alley, and I’m loving every second.
It’s just got everything I could possibly want. Gorgeous world with a colourful, animated art style? Check. Greek mythology? Check. Upgradable, meaningful gear and armour sets? Check. Transmog? Character customisation? Collectible mounts? Check, check, and check. The open world is littered with objectives to do, optional puzzle vaults, and secrets to discover, and the entire story is set against the fantastic backdrop of Zeus and Prometheus narrating the entire thing as the wise guy and the straight man.
I cannot express how much I love this game! I am so glad it exists.
In Summary
I’ve spent the last two days absolutely binging Elder Scrolls Online, so I guess if there’s one lesson to take away from this entire blog post it’s the human nature is to repeat the same things over and over until you die. But if you have fun doing it, what’s the harm?
Don’t answer that.
Next month I hope to try more new games in-between the hours-long sessions of ESO, now that I’m satisfied to see how some of the games I’m most familiar with run on my new hardware. That being said, if Morrowind or Oblivion get added to Game Pass in the next thirty days, I will absolutely not apologise for diving into those headfirst. I’m less familiar with those, anyway.
Before we go, here’s a new section: Games which I didn’t play enough of to talk about this month, but will endeavour to next month! We have one entry this month.
- LevelHead
Thank you very much for reading. Feel free to let me know what you’ve been playing this month! Otherwise, I’ll see you in February.
Gamerscore as of December 9th: 6035
Gamerscore as of January 10th: 7435
32 Bit Brain 