Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a Surprising Mess | My Gaming Landscape

I’ve been playing through the Prince of Persia sands trilogy since a new Prince of Persia game was just released. Despite me being a big fan of Sands of Time, I’ve never finished Warrior Within or Two Thrones. I’ve been playing them on the original Xbox, as I have the trilogy on that console and I just finished Warrior Within this past Monday. First off, I played through Sands of Time again and it’s still a great game. The combat does feel a bit shallow and the level design does feel obtuse to me (to open the door in a mess hall, you have to pull all these hanging lever switches, what?) but the story is intriguing, the platforming is top notch, and the game is fun to play. 8 out of 10.

Dead Island 2 is…fine | My Gaming Landscape

I got Dead Island 2 from Gamefly. I’ve played the original but only for a few hours and I’ve never touch Riptide. However, I was interested since this game took over a decade to finish. I’ve played, maybe, two hours or so, and…it’s alright. The combat is really basic. It feels like something that was developed in the seventh generation of consoles. It’s easy to get tired of it really quickly. Dropkicking a zombie is fun the first 10 times or so but then it gets tiresome.

The upgrades you can get don’t feel that impactful and do little to change up the mechanics. Dodging and parrying doesn’t feel good either. The weapon crafting is at least a bit interesting but games like Dead Rising have done this in a much more interesting way. Still, finding materials is rewarding as it’ll allow you to upgrade your weapons with notable and useful upgrades.

The story is also indicative of a game from ten years ago, with thinly written characters, stereotypical motivations, beat by beat zombie story points, and an uninteresting, uncompelling plot. I guess it’s not terrible, but man, we’ve been here so many times. Many of the missions feel like busy work and lack a motivating incentive.

The graphics are a mixed bag. The zombies look terrifically gruesome and the way they fall apart and splatter into pieces. However, the faces of the humans are…off. They don’t look terrible but they got a bad case of the dead eyes. The graphical design isn’t anything special either. The game does look pretty good, with its bright colors and Hollywood aesthetic, but it’s unmemorable.

So far, that’s been this game in a nutshell. I’m going to continue playing it for awhile, as it’s not terrible, but it’s kinda boring. Which might be worse. Disappointing for a game in development for so long.

Dragon Wanted | My Gaming Landscape [August 1-6, 2023]

Weekly Gaming Landscapes are back! I’m determined to keep up this time and I’m doing it! There may not be a lot to say but I got to say it so let’s not waste anymore time and jump into it!

A Lot of a Little | My Gaming Landscape [July 2023]

Last month was a weird one. I kept putting off doing a Gaming Landscape because I didn’t have a lot to say about the games I had played. Now we’re at the end of the month and, honestly, I still don’t. I have a lot of games that I played but very little to say about most of them. In fact, there’s only one game I’m going to focus on so this won’t be as long as you think it will be.

Scrambling! | My Gaming Landscape [June 2023]

It’s been a month since my last Gaming Landscape and a big reason for that was due to Summer Games Fest and all of the presentations. Despite the fact that E3 is pretty much dead, I should just throw out June of every year and just dedicate it to presentations because they still happen. Some are announced a day before it happens so the entirety of June should just be me on alert. I’ll be going back to the weekly to bi-weekly schedule now but I need to do some catch-up so here’s a super-sized edition of My Gaming Landscape!

Sonic Shocks and Raziel’s Revenge | My Gaming Landscape [May 22-28, 2023]

Welcome to this week’s My Gaming Landscape, the weekly to bi-weekly series where I talk about the games I’ve played and acquired in the past week to two weeks as well as anything else gaming related that happened to me. Emphasis on that last part because I got a doozy for you today!

Sixth Time in the Streets, Sonic’s Indie Film, and Time Traveling Temple | My Gaming Landscape [May 15-21, 2023]

Welcome back to My Gaming Landscape. I’ve missed doing these. They are a constant that makes me write and talk about video games at least once a week. I feel like I haven’t been gaming as much as I want to despite me getting a PlayStation 5 early this year AND there being so many amazing games coming out. I hope to change that soon, especially with Summer starting (unofficially) next week.

Tales of Symphonia is a Bloated Classic | My Gaming Landscape

I’ve been playing Tales of Symphonia Remastered on the PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility and I think I’m about a third of the way through. I’ve played 12 hours or so and I’m getting to a point of exhaustion. I like the game, and the combat is fun. The remaster does have problems, such as the visuals being really rough and the occasional bug, but it’s not stopping my enjoyment of the game. However, the pacing of the story is a little long in the tooth. It feels bloated and unnecessarily long, and this is after going through only a third of the game. There’s one section of the game where you’re constantly going back and forth to this one town essentially just to watch a cutscene before you hoof it back to another somewhat nearby location. This is my first time playing through Tales of Symphonia, although it’s not my first time playing it. So I’m enjoying my time but I think I’m going to need to play something else while playing this to break up some of the bloating coming from this game. What do you think though? Do you think Tales of Symphonia is a little bloated? Let me know in the comments.

Godfall is a Fun, Shallow Time | My Gaming Landscape

This is coming out a little late but I wanted to talk about this launch PlayStation 5 game, Godfall. I recently got a PlayStation 5 and with the help of PlayStation Plus Premium and Gamefly, I’ve been working through games on the platform from roughly the beginning. I started with Spider-Man: Miles Morales and then moved on to Godfall. I heard about this game during the launch of the console and the reception was lukewarm. So my expectations were pretty low. I rented it from Gamefly since the PlayStation Plus version doesn’t include the campaign, and gave it an honest college try.

MultiVersus is Better Than It Should Be | My Gaming Landscape

MultiVersus is a 2D platform fighter in the vein of Smash Bros and as far as Smash Bros clones go, it is better than it has any right to be. It’s a free to play game littered with cosmetic microtransactions with a battle pass system, limited roster to play as freely, minimal modes, and a lot of missing features. The presentation is nothing special at best and extremely basic, bland, and boring at worst. The gameplay is overly simple and is missing some basic actions such as blocking and throws, and items are nowhere to be seen. And yet, I find myself having a lot of fun with the game. I played the game throughout the beta and this first three weeks of Season 1 for a grand total of about a month. I bought the initial pre-battle pass and have even streamed the game on Twitch. Eventually, I’ll give the game a proper review, probably at the end of the first season, but my initial impressions are higher than I thought they would be.