The addiction cycle of card collecting in Diamond Dynasty and catching up on podcast backlog is so real. That being said...


Playstation Now had that 99 cent discount for one month a while back, so I gave MARVEL'S AVENGERS a chance and that game really bummed me out. One, because the campaign itself was pretty charming and I really enjoyed the drip of new heroes and locations. But then the whole "endgame" portion lands in your lap with such a ponderous thud and leaves an awful taste in your mouth. The online connectivity seemed remarkably broken for a game based on teaming up with strangers to beat up bad guys - several missions where the map would populate with enemies, just not THE enemies you're supposed to fight in that specific mission. And it felt generally aimless in a way that was clearly modeled after Destiny 2, except the game also gets REALLY hard REALLY fast if you want to be earning loot at a rewarding pace so you're constantly paralyzed about what you want to do (and for how long you want to do it).

I enjoyed playing as Thor and wish it could've hooked me. Oh well.

I also sampled a few other games just for kicks and to test the streaming side of the service out. FANTAVISION was something I was deeply curious to interrogate my memory of - turns out, yea, that game is TRASH. Then I gave MX vs. ATV All Out a shot because I used to love those Off Road Fury / Jeremy McGrath games as weekend rentals as a kid, but quickly realized I just don't have the patience for that involved sort of racing anymore.

So I fired up WRECKFEST and, more than anything, it just made me want a PS5 so I could see that game in full glory. It was a blurry mess on PSNow, but surprisingly responsive and I was pretty impressed how much physics stuff was going on being beamed from that server farm to my PS4. I kind of wondered if the PSNow architecture is rooted in virtual PS4Pros at this point?

The big one other than MLB The Show has been DISCO ELYSIUM: FINAL CUT, which is basically a role play interpretation of Inherent Vice and a pretty damn good one at that. The writing is flowery in a way I've always been charmed by, the soundtrack is great, the art is eye-catching and the theory/politics driving it seem genuinely dangerous by video game standards (while not included in the final game, the Chapo Trap House guys did some voice work for the original release). This game launched in a nearly unplayable state on PS4 three months ago, and there's so much talking it's impossible to play with a podcast rolling or even for long stretches, but I'm really interested to see how the full game plays out and the amount of character customization seems so immense I could easily see myself playing this game every so often for several years if it sticks the landing.


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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
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