Pixelated Sausage - Attack the Backlog

Behold the second and final episode of my Attack the Backlog review of Grounded. While I really liked the game overall, one mission almost made me rage quit the game. I managed to get through it in the end, but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth and somewhat tarnished what is a mostly great game.

It doesn't matter if you're first to an idea, if you don't execute it well enough, someone else can swoop in and steal your thunder before you even manage to throw your lightning. That's the case with Stampede: Racing, a battle royale kart racer where you start with 60 players and gradually whittle it down to one after reaching select checkpoints during a race. Sound familiar? It should, because it's basically Mario Kart World's Knockout Tour mode (and also way more similar to something like Fall Guys than Fortnite). Now, I don't know if Stampede was actually first to this idea, but I think we can all agree Knockout Tour refined the idea and made it into something that's tons of fun and will last in a way Stampede never was and will never get a chance to be.

Behold the first part of my review of Grounded. It's been a long time coming. I tried playing and streaming the game once before, but got so annoyed with the chat that I rage quit both the game and streaming for years. Fast-forward to now and things are very different, not only did chat never bother me when I streamed the game--you can check out the archive for my entire playthrough if you want--I also had a great time with the game and look forward to playing and seeing more (even though I will never not be scared whenever a spider shows up). 

I had a taste for more Star Wars after playing through both Star Wars Jedi games and rewatching most of the movies and shows. I could have played something new, something I never played before, but opted for something I remembered fondly: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. My memory of the game was that it wasn't amazing, but achieved what it set out to do: deliver a satisfying Jedi power fantasy; however, sometimes things are left best as memories and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is exactly that. Instead of getting the power fantasy I expected, I got a frustrating reality of sadness and disappointment.

Broforce is a lot of fun...until it isn't. What do I mean by this? I don't mean what you probably think--that it's fun for a while and eventually stops being fun--but that it's best enjoyed in small doses instead of large ones. I played Broforce two nights in a row for roughly four hours each night and the same thing happened both nights: after about hour two, I started to get annoyed and frustrated with the game and stopped enjoying it. Long story short, I'd recommend Broforce to most--especially if you have a friend or two to play it with (even though it can get quite hectic)--just make sure you keep your sessions on the shorter side if you don't want to lose your mind.

I've always been a naysayer about Fortnite's move to the battle royale space--I am one of the weirdos who liked Fortnite when it was just Save the World--so take everything I say with a grain of salt, but I always found Realm Royale more fun that Fortnite. It wasn't good enough to pull me away from Apex Legends when I was deep in the battle royale space, but if there was any runner-up for me amongst the crowd, it was Realm Royale, so with that, let's pour one out for this here game that had a good run and is no longer with us. Cheers Realm Royale, you were one of the good ones.

Believe it or not, but this forgotten game was one of the games that inspired Attack the Backlog. I still remember thinking it looked so cool on PlayStation 4, but never getting around to it because I was all-in on Xbox One to start that generation. By the time I got a PlayStation 4, it felt like the moment had passed and I might as well wait for a hopeful Xbox One port. Fast-forward four years and it would finally make its way to Xbox, Switch, and Vita and...I still didn't play it. Now, some seven years later, I've finally scratched Mercenary Kings off my backlog and, sadly, it couldn't help but disappoint with repetitive and tedious missions, weird customization choices, and occasionally frustrating difficulty spikes.

A combination of uninspired gameplay and a completely bonkers handling of its release are just two of the factors that led to MultiVersus wasting a treasure trove of IP; add a poor microtransaction structure and spotty server connectivity on top of that and you've got a recipe for disaster, and a disaster is exactly what MultiVersus was. It's a shame, too, because with better gameplay and a better handling of its great cast of characters, MultiVersus had the potential to be one of the few live service success stories, but alas, a success story it was not.

Gameplay woes and character issues aside, the team over at Naughty Dog pulled off the impossible: they not only made me not hate Abby, they made me like her so much I think she may just be the new best character in the series. Unlike Ellie, Abby actually shows growth and an ability to make her own decisions, whereas Ellie becomes a less interesting character the longer the game goes on, eventually becoming someone I almost, kind of, don't like anymore--the final confrontation is a perfect showcase of the how feelings have changed from the beginning of the playthrough to the end of it. While I still don't think Naughty Dog is the best at gameplay, they prove with The Last of Us Part II that they still know how to make one hell of a story.

Unlike some of the games I've recently played for The Last Call, Dauntless had a good run, launching in beta in May 2018 and lasting until May 2025. That's seven good years. Well, as someone who didn't regularly play it, I can't say they were good years with any kind of authority, but as someone who played it near launch and near death, it was a fine time. Ultimately, I think it never found a way to get out from under Monster Hunter's shadow, so it was only a matter of time until it died. To all the players who will miss it now that it's gone, I hope you're able to remember all the good times you had as you try a find a new game to play with your lads.