Pixelated Sausage - Attack the Backlog

This was a long time coming. I've talked about wanting to play The Last of Us Part II for years now, but the mood was never quite right. After luckily stumbling into a 30th Anniversary PlayStation 5 Pro, I said The Last of Us Part II would be the game to break my new console's cherry. Fast-forward six months later and that time has finally come (insert eyebrow raising here). This episode covers a little over half of the game's story and this shouldn't need to be said, but expect heavy spoilers. With all that out of the way, give this episode a listen to see if I think The Last of Us Part II is a significant improvement over its predecessor, or just more of the same.

Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles is one of the few games I've not completed for Attack the Backlog. The reason is twofold. First, it's structured in such a way that you can just play whatever level you want in whatever order you want and actually "beating" the game feels inconsequential. Second, and more importantly, it's just an incredibly frustrating game. That said, however, there's so much potential in a game like Jedi Power Battles, which reminds one of games like Gauntlet Dark Legacy and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, that I'd love to see either a proper remake or a brand new game in the series. Sadly, I doubt that will ever happen, but I'll continue hoping because if you lose hope with Star Wars, what do you have left?

Or it could just be that LEGO games are no longer for me. (It's probably a little bit of both.) What I thought was going to be a nice chill time and a return to a game formula I remembered loving, quickly turned into a sad realization: maybe I've grown out of LEGO games. The constant need to change characters in order to interact with this and that, and having to randomly smash bricks until you find the ones you're looking for, frustrated me more than I expected in my old age--it's surprising how often I got stuck, unsure of what I needed to do in order to progress. My only hope is not Obi-Wan Kenobi, but that maybe LEGO Batman is just a bad LEGO game and the next time I return to the series will have a more favorable outcome. Until then, I'll just be left with a sour taste in mouth.

If Road Redemption was a pleasant surprise, Road Rage was a crashing disappointment. It didn't help that I played Road Rage immediately after playing Road Redemption, but where Road Redemption found a few elements to focus on and refine, Road Rage went the other route and tried doing too much. I can see a version of Road Rage that's good, but the Road Rage we have fails on all fronts and only manages to frustrate and bore instead of giving players anything to enjoy.

For a game with drift in the title, the drifting in KartRider: Drift felt terrible. That could be excused if everything else was good to great, but that wasn't the case. Sure, there's a lot of content there, from a large cast of drivers to a decent selection of tracks, but none of that mattered when the game wasn't fun to play, and when you're in a crowded genre full of some very big hitters, you need to be more than fine to stand out. Unfortunately for KartRider: Drift, that never happened. Now KartRider: Drift is dead in all forms except on PC in Korea and Taiwan, so let's toast to it one last time in this here episode of The Last Call.

Anyway, that's it and that's all folks. You can get an even more in-depth discussion by listening to the podcast and, if you're feeling extra generous, you can become a patron to show your support for the site, the podcasts, the streaming, the videos, the art, and everything in between--and you'll get a few nice bonuses while you're at it. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to consume any of the content I make and thank you for being a fan. I can't begin to express how much I appreciate each and every one of you. Cheers.

Email: atb[at]pixelatedsausage[dot]com - Twitter: @PXSausage

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This was a surprise. Early this year I wasn't sure what to play and wasn't quite ready for anything too big, so I perused my various libraries and picked out a few games that caught my eye. Road Redemption was one of those games. As someone who grew up with Road Rash and loved every iteration of it up to and including Road Rash 3D, any game that looks like Road Rash is going to get my attention. That said, I wasn't expecting much from Road Redemption based on the visuals, but as soon as I started playing, I fell in love. It may not be the prettiest game out there and it's rough around the edges, but it's great where it counts: it's just a lot of fun to play.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn't a bad game, it's just a bad Arkham game. If you asked anyone what they wanted out of a sequel to Batman: Arkham Knight, I doubt a single person would say, "I want a co-op, live service Suicide Squad game," but that's what we got: a perfectly fine cooperative shooter with enough cutscenes to rival the runtime of The Return of the King: Extended Edition and four playable characters who feel mostly the same outside of unique traversal mechanics. But I guess it could have been worse; it could have been Gotham Knights instead.

It's unoriginal to blame negativity towards Batman: Arkham Knight on the batmobile, but hear me out. While most (all?) complained about the batmobile from a direct gameplay standpoint--how it felt and the repetitive missions--my complaint is an indirect one: I think the batmobile ruined Arkham Knight by forcing Rocksteady to change the way other aspects of the game controlled in order to accommodate the batmobile controls. It may seem like a small complaint to most and something I should've have "just gotten used to," but I never got used to the small changes in how Arkham Knight controlled and that ultimately ruined the game for me.

As my full Arkham playthrough continues, we find ourselves at a new low with the game most people forget even exists: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, the downloadable side-scrolling Metroidvania that's 90% tedious, 10% interesting. In many ways it feels like a bonus little side story to Arkham Origins and not an essential entry, so it's easy to see why it's often forgotten about; though, the fact it isn't that great of a game (probably) doesn't help either. It's biggest crime, however, is its desire to stay too true to the Arkham formula, instead of trying to find an identity of its own.

I thought I played Batman: Arkham Origins when it originally came out. I was wrong. When I booted up the game on my Xbox 360, all I had was a 5% completed save file from 11 years ago to the day, so what I thought was going to be another Second Run was actually an Attack the Backlog. I don't know if it's because it was all new to me or if it's just a better game (or maybe a little of both), but I had a significantly better time with Arkham Origins than I did with Arkham City. Arkham Origins takes what Arkham City did and simplifies and focuses it, delivering an overall more satisfying experience for someone like me who isn't a Batman super fan. It may not reach the heights of Arkham Asylum, but it's a worthy addition to the Arkham saga and should be treated on an equal footing with the Rocksteady-developed Arkham games.