Details: Originally release in 1994 by Squaresoft (now Square Enix). Released for Windows PC in 2015. I purchased the game through Steam for about eight dollars. Played for around sixty-five hours.
Final Fantasy VI is one of the most beloved games in the Final Fantasy series. Some of my earliest memories were watching friends/family play this game. Decades later, I now have a chance to walk down nostalgia lane and play the updated version of the game for myself.
Details: Released in 2017. I got through Steam for the price of free. I beat it in about three hours.
The very first thing you see when you open up this game is a warning: “This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed.” This warning was kind of an understatement.
I learned of Doki Doki Literature Club by seeing it mentioned repeatedly on gaming news sites. I even saw it get a nomination for best PC game of the year somewhere. While I think that PC game of the year is a bit much, I do give the game credit for what it tries to achieve. However, regardless of this game’s somewhat unique story, this is still a visual novel. If you hate the idea of reading through mountains of text while staring at static images, this game is not for you. If you can tolerate the idea, then what you’ll find is a visual novel with a shockingly unpredictable plot.
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Details: Released in 2011. Played on the PC and purchased through Steam distribution platform for one dollar. Beat the game in about eight hours.
Bastion was a slog for me to get through. I don’t like action role-playing games nor do I like top down action role playing games. I didn’t like Diablo and this game plays a lot like that, but simpler. The strongest parts of this game are the art direction, music and presentation. However, no matter how good the game looked, the paper thin story and gameplay made me want to quit the game multiple times. I had to force myself to finish the game.
Details: Originally released in 2015. This is a stand alone game independent from Saints Row IV. I purchased the game for PC through Steam for $3.74. I spent about four hours playing the game.
Gat Out of Hell is standalone downloadable content for Saints Row IV, similar to how Freedom Cry was standalone DLC for Assassin’s Creed IV. That means you don’t need Saints Row IV to play this game, but it continues the story and looks the same technically.
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Details: Originally released in 2013. I purchased the Game of the Century Edition (has all DLC) for PC through Steam for around $5.00. I spent about twenty-two hours playing the game, beating it and going through the two story dlc’s.
Saints Row IV does not feel like a sequel to Saints Row III. It uses the same engine and reuses a lot of the same assets, making the game visually redundant. Saints Row IV instead feels like downloadable content for Saints Row III or, at best, an expansion for the prior game.
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Details: Released in 2016. Spent nine hours playing through all five episodes for an average of a little under two hours per episode. Purchased for $6.25 through Steam.
Batman: The Telltale Series is an adventure game from Telltale studios that retells some classic Batman tales as well as a whole new story. This game makes significant changes to the Batman mythos and also keeps some things the same. As a big fan of all things Batman, I enjoyed this game and the story it told.
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Details: Originally released in 2008 for various mobile systems and was subsequently released for the PC. I played the 3D version. I purchased this game for the PC through Steam in a bundle along with Final Fantasy IV for around $11.50. I spent about fifty-one hours playing through this game.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is a sequel to the beloved Final Fantasy IV (also known as Final Fantasy II in the United States), much like Final Fantasy X-2 was to Final Fantasy X. The version I played was the 3D remake of the original 2D version. While I enjoyed the game, there is no reason to play this game if you haven’t played and loved Final Fantasy IV.
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Details: This is the remake of the game originally released in 1991 for the SNES and known in America as Final Fantasy II. They remade the game in 3D into this game for the Nintendo DS in around 2008. It was subsequently released for iOS and Android, then for Windows and PC. I purchased the PC version through Steam in a bundle with Final Fantasy IV: The After Years for a total of around $11.50. It spent about forty-one hours playing through the game.
Final Fantasy II (or Final Fantasy IV as it was known in Japan) was a game that had a big impact on me. I first saw my older cousins playing it, which, as a child, caused me to want to play it as well. So I did and enjoyed it very much. It was one of the first video games I ever played. Fast forward a couple of decades and I nostalgically wanted to play it again. Unfortunately, the game has visually not held up very well and it only took me a couple of minutes before I decided I couldn’t play a game that looked this old. Luckily, Final Fantasy II (now IV) was remade from 2D sprites to 3D models and subsequently ported onto Windows. It’s this version that I’ve played and it was a lot of fun walking down memory lane again, albeit with better visuals.
Details: Originally released in 2012. I purchased the Game of the Year Edition (doesn’t include all DLC) on Steam for PC for $8.80. I then purchased all five Headhunter DLC’s (all extra story content are in the Game of the Year Edition and the Headhunter DLC’s) for around $4.50 and the Ultimate Vault Hunter Pack 2 for another $2.50. In total, that’s about $16.00. I spent about seventy-five hours playing through the game.
I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings on Borderlands 2. Sometimes, the game is really fun. More times than necessary though, this game is freaking boring. So much so that I’m not sure I’m going to ever play a Borderlands game again. I haven’t played Borderlands 1 or the Pre-Sequel and I know there’s no Borderlands 3, but that’s probably in the pipeline.
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Details: Released in 2014 for the PC. Purchased the game for $6.24 through Steam. Took about twelve hours to beat.
Tales from the Borderlands is a game from Telltale Studios that takes place on the world of the Borderlands franchise. I’ve played other Telltale games before, but this one was by far the best one I’ve yet to play.
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Muse Bank 