“Whatcha Playin’, Pixels?” – #038
10 min read
A weekly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Ahh, Friday, ’tis a fine day indeed. Best day of the week, in my opinion. Not just because it’s the weekend, but because it’s that wonderful time of the week when our writers share what they’ve been playing! Let’s see what they were up to this time around:
Hey, hey. I’ll try to keep it short, but there are a lot of games to get through. I played several this past week.
Rumbleverse
It’s a goofy brawler royale, as in it’s a battle royale that focuses on melee attacks (or wrestling moves). I like the idea of a melee-based battle royale, but this title isn’t for me. Rumbleverse can be rage-inducing. There are a few combos that work too well not to abuse, and plenty of players abuse them. Griefers of the world unite.
After several miserable games, I finally found a combo I could exploit. One of the moves was “Toxic Spray.” Toxic indeed. I rode my combo to victory and then promptly took a shower. No more, please.
Overwatch 2
I haven’t had this many issues logging into a game since SimCity (2013), and that game ended a publisher. Seriously, it took almost a week to download and log in and after I did, I had countless problems accessing certain features. And I’m having issues with my PS5 crashing if I’m idle too long. What? Just log me out. Blizzard had better fix this. Soon.
There’s also community outrage about Overwatch 2’s transition to a free-to-play business model. Understandable. Overwatch 2 does take advantage of its player base, but Blizzard isn’t too far off the mark. The game needs to offer more coins (the main in-game currency) for completing weekly challenges and make their battle pass longer by at least two weeks. Overwatch 2 could also bring back loot boxes (and maybe not dole at as many) like the previous version.
And that’s my biggest gripe about Overwatch 2. Besides the log-in issues, that is. It’s less of a sequel and more of a new version or update. There aren’t enough new characters and features to call it a sequel. Sure, the gameplay is great, but it’s the original Overwatch with better FPS mechanisms and dumping the shields for everyone quagmire the game had become. I’m also glad they got rid of stuns–for the most part.
I’d wait on reviewing this title until the promised story modes and PVE are added. Those features should make this a true sequel.
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Something’s missing with this title. An identity? A soul?
Hot Wheels Unleashed is a cross between a driving sim like Gran Turismo and a cart racer like Super Mario Kart in all the best and worst ways. It has a goofy premise (toy cars) and taps into the nostalgia of building one’s own racecar track. But it also deploys toy car physics, so your vehicle can end up on its side for zany reasons. This happens WAY too much. I raged quit on more than one occasion.
The game relies on good driving, like a driving sim, and there are ridiculous obstacles like spiders spitting webs at cars. But the lack of characters makes the game hollow. And I’d like to throw a red or green shell at an enemy for retribution. Hot Wheels occupies this odd space between game genres. At times it can work.
The preset tracks are repetitive, so it’s user content to the rescue. Yes, you can create your own tracks, but Hot Wheels Unleashed locks some of its track-building content behind paywalls. Why?
I get why the game charges folks for licensed material like Scooby Doo, TMNT, DC Comics, and Looney Toons, but all the dinosaur tracks (and other generic themes) should be unlockable. It’s as if Bethesda charged its modders to make their games playable. Wait. Does Bethesda do that?
Anyway. The main game has about 8-10 hours of content; it’s the user content that provides the most fun and replayability. Give users more free tools to create.
Multiversus
I’m nearing the slog of the first battle pass. I didn’t realize how long finishing this battle pass would take. It’s not difficult, just long. Perhaps I could’ve dedicated more time to complete it—I only log in about fifteen to twenty minutes daily—but there’s no way to expedite the Multiversus battle pass. I’ll finish it by next week, but I’m hoping the next one won’t be as slow to roll.
As I’m writing this, I learned that Stripe (from Gremlins) has arrived. Oh yeah. It’s time to terrorize Gizmo. Kaka!
Genshin Impact
I’m finishing up the dendro archon quest–another banger of a story. Cyno and Candace seem like a good combo; I have them on my PC account. I’ll try them with other characters to see what can happen.
And I’m farming for materials for my PlayStation account. I may skip Nilhou, who should get released in the next few days. I’m sure she’ll be a fun character. But the dendro archon should be an upcoming playable character in version 3.2, and she’s going to be broken–in the good way.
Note to those who plan to wish for Nahida (dendro archon): start collecting the lotus that hang by waterfalls. She might just need them. 😉
I can’t wait to pair Nahida with Raiden Shogun (electro archon). I have a hunch that’ll they’ll be a cheat code.
Apex Legends
Overwatch 2 dropping last week didn’t help Apex Legends’ player count, but Apex brought back its popular Shadow Royale game mode where players turn into shadows (Apex’s version of zombies) after they die. It’s still a solid game mode, and players get to explore Olympus at night. Fun.
And there’s a golden ticket one can craft. We’ll have to wait another week to see what the golden ticket does, but Respawn promises a hint of the new map coming out next season. That’s less than a month away. Woo hoo!
-Kyra Kyle
Streaming! Yay! I was finally able to return to Wind Waker on Tuesday after dealing with Kid Espresso’s maladies. He’s doing great, by the way, no complaints haha. To recap: I picked up the Master Sword and proceeded to raid the Forsaken Fortress. I had a few issues (like how to get inside, I had the worst brain fart on that!), but I got through it without too much trouble. Also picked up the Skull Hammer, so it was HAMMER TIME ALL THE TIME! Next up, some big princess-y revelations! I’ll have to save that for next week as I’m spending the rest of this week streaming my beloved God Gundam build. I’m terribly behind on that one.
Off stream, I’ve finished my second run-through of Shantae and the Seven Sirens. Rule Breaker Mode plus the Hula Costume makes for an interesting challenge. Combined together, Shantae spends two-thirds of the game as a glass cannon and then becomes an absolute goddess of destruction for the rest of it. It was enjoyable. Now, I have to figure out what to play next… I’ll probably go back to CrossCode to finish up my critique on it and then move on to Collection of Mana.
More of The 7th Saga for me this week, a Super Nintendo RPG that really comes off as very underrated. I hardly hear anybody talking about it at all! Furthermore, the big talking point for this one is almost the antithesis of Mystic Quest, that being that it’s really very hard.
Its difficulty is apparent from the first boss. You have to choose 1 of 7 starting characters when you start the game and your initial choice can really affect how tough the game is. I’ve met with some fairly steep difficulty spikes, particularly after securing the 3rd Rune, but at the same time, it seems like some of the difficulty talk is a little overblown. Grinding is your friend here, and that’s to be expected, perhaps, in an RPG of its era.
Thus far, though, I can happily report that I’ve been really impressed with 7th Saga.
Not much to report this week. In honor of Spooky Season, I gave the DLC of Little Nightmares a try. It’s three chapters of another kid’s story, and ultimately, I’m not sure how I felt about it? I think I liked the main story better. The DLC gave some interesting extra background, but I don’t feel like I needed it. I don’t regret doing it, but it’s not making me rush out and get Little Nightmares 2. Aside from that, I’ve been back into Terraria since they decided to drop a new update with new achievements literally a day after I finished my last set of achievement hunting. Luckily since I was post-endgame, it’s been mostly breezy to redo. At this point, I’ve only got one more achievement left. Just gotta, you know, get it.
We are in the middle of Spooktober, and I try to theme my gaming around those things that go “bump in the night.” There are plenty of sinister series to choose from, but the Castlevania franchise is the perfect go-to series for those like myself who are fans of both the retro and newer renditions of the games. I’ve been plugging through the four titles on the Castlevania Advance Collection, and I am happy to say that three are down, and I have one more to go.
I first beat Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, which left me quite unsatisfied (as you can read from last week’s post). The game did not provide heavy-hitting satisfaction through its music or massive boss fights, so it’s a good thing I didn’t base the collection’s worth on that title alone. The second game I played through was Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and this is a game I was far more familiar with and enjoyed much more. This non-canon Castlevania title was an attempt to reboot the story of the Belmont clan for the next generation, but its arc was scrapped, and this game received a reputation for being an “outsider title.” That’s a shame because it is a genuinely great title that performs much better today than it did when it first launched on the GBA before backlit screens were the norm and gamers could easily enjoy games with a dark aesthetic like CotM. I completed the game at the beginning of the week with 96%…the last 4% be hanged!
That left Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as the last GBA title to complete in the collection, which I beat last night at 93%. This game is easily the best title in the collection by standards of graphics, gameplay, weapon mechanics, and soundtrack…which is basically everything. The “out of left field” story of Soma Cruz is a tad bizarre and meta, but I suppose fighting through a monster-infested castle trapped in an eclipse is pretty cool. I really enjoyed it, but my personal preference will always go back to the whip and magic mechanics of CotM. Castlevania: AoS heavily inspired the next game on my list, which I will reveal next week.
I will end by saying this: the fourth game in the Collection, Castlevania: Dracula X, is not one to be passed over. This is a much shorter game, which was originally on the SNES and not the GBA, and is one I plan on beating before the weekend is up. It is more in line with what the Castlevania games were like before Symphony of the Night came around. Yes, Richter moves like he has concrete in his joints, but the game presents a challenge few modern gamers are equipped to handle. Pray for me as I take it on.
I’ve been playing too much Fall Guys but it’s hard to stop when you just keep WINNING. The latest season has changed a lot about the game including mixing up existing courses, adding new mechanics, and giving us a great new finale. Currently, I play Fall Guys every day but normally I don’t mention it here because of redundancy. I always have a blast while playing and winning multiple times in a session just keeps me going. The last couple of events has given cool new outfits along with a slew of challenges to overcome.
On the topic of unique games I’ve been playing this past week, the 2010 version of Aliens Vs Predator is a game I finished. It really should be called Marines Vs Aliens Vs Predator but I digress. The key part of the game that makes it worth playing is using the Xenomorph character. You can crawl on walls, stealth kill enemies, and put a facehugger on unsuspecting humans. The marine campaign was also really fun, mixing horror with action pretty well. The first-person shooter mechanics are as basic as you can get but it’s always fun to use the weapons in the Alien universe.. Unfortunately, the predator campaign was a snooze fest. It’s mostly melee-focused with some gadgets but I didn’t find controlling the predator to be fun. The gore was done pretty well and the sound effects were on point. Some people would say that Aliens Vs Predator is underrated but I disagree. If the rating is an average score, it hits the nail on the head.
So, what were you playing this week?
Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Twitter as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
