Star Trek: Beyond, Carcassonne, Gears of War Ultimate, and Crystal Defenders

On 08/02/2016 at 01:22 AM by KnightDriver

Mark and I finally went and saw Star Trek: Beyond today. I thought it was really good. I got a strong feeling of the original series in this one. It's still very different from TOS, but I got serious nostalgia goose bumps hearing the original music theme, Chris Pine looking so similar to a young Shatner, and all the Scotty, "It's impossible, sir, but I'll do what I can." attitude. It was kind of sad too. The actor for Chekov died tragically this year as did Leonard Nemoy (or was that last year?).

Then we trucked it back to Mark's place and I started playing my next backlog game Carcassonne, the board game made digital on XBO. This isn't a new play, but an old one I wanted to revisit. I played it solo since Mark was playing something else. This game is really cool, but I think what I really wanted to do was build a castle and surrounding countryside in some kind of sim world and not just battle for territory with an AI opponent. So I moved on.

I returned to Gears of War Ultimate. This game got such an amazing amount of graphical upgrade from the original. Mark started playing the 360 version and I got to compare. There's no comparison. GoW: Ultimate is absolutely gorgeous. I got to the part where you are faced with a spider-like boss you can't shoot or avoid. I always get stuck at this point because I always forget the thing you have to do, which, I found out later, is to topple a pillar to crush it. There's seemingly no hint to doing this but maybe in all the noise of this game, I missed the dialog suggesting the solution. Anyway, I quit out temporarily to play something else not being able to figure it out right away.

And that something else was Crystal Defenders. This is a tower defense game using the characters from Final Fantasy Tactics A2. It's very basic, very much for a handheld system, but I like it on my TV, same as everything else. I got really into it and played it the rest of the night. You get six characters to place on the maze to stop the enemies, then you can level them up as you go. I got as far as wave 27 on one maze. I'm not sure how many waves there are, maybe infinite, I'm not sure, but I would usually lose around wave 25 or so. I was having a lot of fun experimenting with different strategies. I'm still thinking about it right now.

Well, that's about it for today. I hope to get back to Disruptor on PS this week as long as music collecting doesn't take up all my time, like it has the last few weeks. Then next weekend I'll try and finish Gears Ultimate and play my recent PS4 purchase, The Order 1886. Can't wait. Bring the weekend already.

VisuaLIES

08/02/2016 at 02:25 PM

The most Gears I played was a little of 3, but the characters/story didn't appeal to me (maybe if I had started from the first game?). I only put about an hour into the Order, but from what I heard, that's most of the game :p.

KnightDriver

08/03/2016 at 02:47 AM

The characters didn't appeal to me at first either. That's why it took me until Gears 3 to play the whole series and realize the gameplay was great. It's like a bunch of macho football players chummin' around a battlefield. The excellent mechanics sucked me in though.

The Order 1886 is short, which is why it's high on my list. I'll be getting to it this weekend I think.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

08/02/2016 at 02:41 PM

My mom and me keep on saying we're gonna see Star Trek. Maybe thursday at last. Excited. Sad about Chekov though, especially how he died. Not fair.

I think I played Crystal defenders. Wasn't into it.

08/03/2016 at 02:44 AM

I love tower defense as a temporary diversion.

Cary Woodham

08/02/2016 at 08:27 PM

Yeah that's sad about the guy who played the new Chekov dying. When I was a kid I had a Russian Blue cat that I named Chekov.

Hey I've got another game for your to add to your list of things you should play: Gotta Protectors! It's a downloadable 3DS game by Yuzo Koshiro.

08/03/2016 at 02:33 AM

Oh cool! I played some Protect Me Knight and it was great. It's on the list. Thanks.

08/03/2016 at 05:34 PM

Gotta Protectors is basically Protect Me Knight 2.

08/05/2016 at 02:22 AM

Yea, it looks it.

goaztecs

08/03/2016 at 12:08 PM

I really should catch up on Star Trek and watch the second of the reboot flicks before checking out Beyond. I wasn't a fan of TOS but I did enjoy the movies and the more recent flicks.

08/05/2016 at 02:24 AM

This one is an original story. No previous knowledge needed.

ThatKidOverThere

08/03/2016 at 06:42 PM

Crystal Defenders seemed cool. I remember playing the demo for it way back when. I absolutely LOVE the FF Tactics style sprites.

08/04/2016 at 12:55 AM

Yea, the sprites are way cool. They only give you four maps (really two with two being "advanced versions"). I want more maps darn it. Maybe DLC? I'll have to check.

PixlBit