PixlBit

All done with Halo Infinite. I wasn't too thrilled with returning to Ratchet & Clank for some reason, and so I started clicking the "surprise me" button within the sort drop-down menu in my digital library on Xbox. Here was the result. 

Overlord: Fellowship of Evil: This was the last Overlord title to be released back in 2015 or thereabouts. It has the feel of a Diablo III. Environments are linear and kind of floating in space; dungeons with one path through them. The other games in the series were more open world. 

The dialog, written by Rhianna Pratchet, is still funny. I love the Pikmin-style gameplay. You're the overlord who controls minion hoards to help you fight, loot and solve puzzles. Problem is, this old game freezes up every time you need to load a new level. It has a strong online component for multiplayer play, so maybe the neglect of this title has made is less than functional.

I played Microsoft Solitaire on my phone while waiting, but levels just wouldn't load unless I restarted the whole game. Too bad. I really wish this series would make a comeback. At least there's Tiny-kin to fufill my Pikmin urge on non Nintendo systems. 

Wreckfest: Reminds me of old Destruction Derby 2 on Playstation. You race, you cause damage to other cars and yourself; mainly because the controls aren't ideal and you crash a lot. I got pretty frustrated with it after a few races. I am yearning for a return of a game like Burnout. Forza Horizon is close but not destructive enough. 

Potion Craft: Nice little game that reminds me of a 3DS title by Level-5 I used to play called Weapon Shop deOmasse. Here in Potion Craft you make potions for customers. You have a lab, a garden, shop, bedroom and a mysterious basement I didn't use but probably has some large furnace in it. 

My only issue was, how am I to figure out what plants make what potions. It seemed like you aren't given any clue as to how to make specific potions for specific uses. Like I had to make a rat poison but didn't know what ingredients to use. I just had to guess and made something that didn't work. I'd appreciate some sort of clue or way to find out what are the right ingredients. The task had too much guess-work in it, so I stopped. I liked it though. 

Halo Reach: Why not revisit Bungie's last game after playing 343's recent Halo Infinite. I have to say I really enjoyed the opening cut scenes better than any post Bungie Halo game. They did something special with the cinematics, story, and music that was really good. It begins like a great action movie. You feel excited about the coming trials as the spartans squad up and start a dangerous mission. 

I played the first couple levels on Legendary to see how far I could get. I was surprised that I was better at it then before. Perhaps Halo Infinite training helped me. But it get's too slow moving and desperate after a while. You run out of ammo constantly and have to hide a lot behind cover. It just gets very tedious and methodical at that difficulty. But boy, I enjoy the whole presentation of this game though. 

Hot Wheels Unleashed: It's neat to race classic Hot Wheels on an orange track, but I kind of wish it wasn't all at the level of toys. That is, it's as if you were playing with the toys, not actually driving them. Forza Horizon's Hot Wheels DLC is more like you are actually driving the Hot Wheels, which I like better. I also don't like the controls very much and the tracks are often without guard rails or other things that keep you from flying off, which happened too much for my liking. 

I played some of the story missions and then a multiplayer round with real players. The maps for multiplayer are pretty darn cool, but often I lost my way where there was little indication of where the track was going. I've decided I don't like this game very much. Ah well. 

Gears of War Tactics: I didn't actually play it because I wanted to download it and it was taking way too long. I'll play it another day. So I played the next one. 

Fuga: Melodies of Steel: This game looks like a Metal Slug with hand-drawn graphics also reminicent of Valkyria Chronicles. That alone was enough to get me to play it.

It's a strategy game with turn-based battles. You drive a tank manned by children of a town taken over by dogs outfitted like German WWII soldiers. The children are cats and so this is like the French vs Germans in a fantasy version of WWII.

You have three means of attack which you assign to each of the children, who each have different skills. In between battles you can develop the realtionships between the kids and upgrade the tank. Very cool. Only thing was though. I kept losing the first boss fight. Whatever. I liked what I played anyway. 

Phoenix Point: I ran out of time to play it, but I started the install because I really wanted to play this again. It's a XCOM clone. Nuff said. I'm in.