a little intro
See what can happen when I don’t get swamped with a whole host of technical issues? Posted on July 1st! That’s what it’s all about.
June was another incredibly busy month for me, what with the Hornetversary livestream finally taking place and all! It was a ton of fun, we raised a few thousand for Trans Lifeline, and that’s all I can really ask for! Thank you to all those who tuned in and to those who donated!!!! I can’t wait to see you all again next year :)
I still managed to squeeze in some time to game though! In between streaming, video editing/rendering and everything else I had going on, I decided to play a bunch of games I love dearly. Almost of all these games are special or important to me in some fashion, and also PowerWash Simulator is there. That’s the only entirely new thing I’ve played this month. So I hope you like hearing me wax nostalgic about all of these games, and then hearing my unbiased first impressions of PowerWash Simulator.
HERE IS THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS MONTH’S POST !!!
what i played in june
SHOVEL KNIGHT : TREASURE TROVE (cont.) (2014, 2015)
Continuing from last month, I completed Shovel Knight : Shovel of Hope! SoH truly has stood the test of time amongst a sea of other 2D platformers that have released since. The difficulty curve feels so finely tuned, even after all these years I still find myself dying quite a few times toward the end of the game. Nothing ever felt cheap or unfair, every death was 1000% my fault (no matter how reluctant I may be to admit that). If you are looking for an all-around FANTASTIC 2D Pixel Platformer, you literally can’t do much better than Shovel Knight : Shovel of Hope.
I ended up maxxing out all of the upgrades in the base game, which does kind of make the gold you accumulate for the rest of the levels relatively useless. You definitely hit a wall when it comes to upgrades, (which is totally fine!) but an interesting feature I haven’t revisited in some time is the “Custom Knight” mode that mitigates this somewhat. If you scan your Shovel Knight Amiibo, you gain the ability to completely overhaul your Knight. There’s a bunch of new sub-weapons to use, you can change your armor design, and more. I don’t have my amiibo on me in Philly currently, but I definitively want to give SoH another run-through once it’s in my grubby little mitts again.
Additionally, I started the first of the Shovel Knight expansion campaigns, Plague of Shadows. Following the villainous Plague Knight (or Doctor Knight, if you’re Arby’s), you explode the hell out of everything that stands in your way in a story-line that plays out in parallel to the original SoH campaign. This expansion tends to be the least popular of the campaigns, but for some reason I find myself deeply enjoying it! Plague Knight feels VERY different to control (having an almost pitiful jump, but using various homebrewed bombs to navigate the terrain), and the levels are almost all the exact same stages you played through in the original. But the little added Plague Knight exclusive challenge areas, the mixing and matching of the various potion bomb effects for different traversal and offensive results, and the overall sillier tone end up making this a ton of fun every time I decide to revisit it.
Admittedly, it’s been awhile since I’ve last played PoS, so I decided to go full-on nostalgia mode and play this on my 3DS. While not the same 3DS I played SoH and PoS on at launch, it still had the same effect! I do really love the form factor and general feel of the 3DS line of systems, and there was something really nice about revisiting my good friend Plague Knight like this! It’s a really great game to just throw on for a level or two while I’m on the couch and have a couple of minutes to kill. The characters feel a lot more fleshed out despite the general sillier vibe, and as I mentioned last month, the sprite art continues to be stellar. Spoilers for the other two expansions: they’re also good. Shovel Knight : Treasure Trove is generally just a great time.
TITANFALL 2 (2016)
This was kind of out of left field, but I got a random hankering for Titanfall 2. It had been a minute since I had replayed the (stellar) campaign, so I decided to boot it back up! It’s such a shame that these games have barely ever gotten a true moment in the sun, as I feel it’s some of the tightest FPS gameplay you can get. Titanfall 2 in particular was sent out to die, releasing amidst Battlefield, Call of Duty, and the first of many Skyrim remasters. Now doomed to be part of the “Apex Legends Universe”, I feel any and all fans of first person shooters owe it to themselves to try this game.
The storyline instantly grips you by almost immedatiely throwing you into the middle of a combat encounter gone wrong. A new recruit ripped out of the training simulation early, thrust into an ambush where nearly all of your allies instantly get wiped. Talk about adrenaline pumping! In Titanfall, you pilot hulking mech robots known as “Titans”. How do you get your very own Titan you may ask? By watching your mentor (and only named NPC so far) get the shit blown out of him, causing him to transfer ownership of his Titan, BT, over to you.
I’m sure there have been entire essays written about the movement in Titanfall 2, so to sum it up quickly; it’s really good. Very few games feel THIS unrestricted in how you approach every encounter. Health getting low? Double jump up to some higher ground and escape via wall-running to safety. Want to get the drop on some enemies? Activate your stealth cloak and drop directly on top of them. Large group of enemies in your way? Hop in BT and blow them all to smithereens! I never felt truly overwhelmed, and had the ability to change the tide at nearly any given moment.
I’ve noticed a pattern in these posts so far where I tend to just gush about how the games look almost all the time. This will be no different. This game looks INCREDIBLE for releasing in 2016, I’d argue better than a lot of modern AAA releases! Nearly a decade removed, I’m still just stopping to take in the sights and sounds in nearly every mission. I really do think we’ve hit the point of diminishing returns on graphical fidelity. TF2 manages to look jawdropping and only takes up 62GB of space! The latest Call of Duty is a whopping 172GB for a complete install!!! Look how good Titanfall 2 looks. What are we doing here folks.
I’ve beaten the campaign of TF2 several times over at this point, but haven’t quite made it there yet this month. I ended up purchasing a month of GamePass Core (for another game I’ll talk about shortly) and getting majorly distracted by just how fun the multiplayer STILL is. It can take a few minutes to find a lobby every now and again, but I can normally get a match of Attrition (Team Deathmatch) going at any given moment! It’s still HEAPS of fun, and REALLY makes me crave Titanfall 3 even more. Everyone stop playing Apex Legends RIGHT NOW!!!!
MARIO KART 7 (2011)
I have spent many hours in Mario Kart 8 across my Wii U and Switch at this point. It’s my go to party game to bust out when I’m hanging out with friends! But before a decade’s worth of MK8 gameplay, I was already hooked on the series. My introduction to Mario Kart was with the DS entry, aptly titled Mario Kart DS. So much time spent playing with my older brother, via download play on the school bus, or doing time travels over and over at recess, because I was a very cool child. But when I received my 3ds for Christmas with Mario Kart 7, I was a gamer possessed.
However, I honestly can’t remember the last time I returned to Mario Kart 7 (aside from maybe picking it up for a few minutes here and there when my Switch’s battery had died.) This month, I decided to rectify this. I played through every cup in the game at 150CC until coming in first overall in every single one. I didn’t go for three stars in every cup because I don’t hate myself.
My take all these years later? It’s perfectly fine! Just like. Exactly middle of the road between Mario Kart Wii and 8. The original course selection is a little meh for my tastes, but I feel like the retro course offerings are some of the best! After playing MK8D for so many years, it felt a touch strange re-adjusting to the feel of MK7. The real emphasis in 7 was the underwater and glider segments, which 8 kept (and arguably made better!) It’s a little hard to feel a distinct identity for this game, but it’s still Mario Kart which means it’s still a bunch of fun.
Had Mario Kart DS never released, it would’ve been incredibly novel and cool to have a fully 3D portable Mario Kart game! But as it stands, it’s just kind of alright. But an “alright” Nintendo game still typically blows the competition clear out of the water, and you can’t ever go wrong with some Mario Kart mayhem. I do have a lot of fond memories associated with Mario Kart 7, so I do intend to keep it in my rotation going forward.
CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE : REMASTERED (2016)
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare : Remastered is an interesting title. Activision went back to the 2007 hit, rebuilt it fully from the ground up, and then ONLY made it available if you bought the deluxe edition of a DIFFERENT Call of Duty title. This will boggle my mind for years to come. I can kind of see the idea, the game it was paired with (Infinite Warfare) was seen as incredibly controversial and unpopular, so you guarantee sales by packing in a beloved title. HOWEVER, why not JUST release the remastered beloved title as that year’s standalone CoD release, and then take that extra time to retool the other game???? I know I don’t speak for the entire fanbase, but I’d rather have a fantastic remake of a classic game be a separate release.
Eventually Activision did come to their senses and release MWR as a standalone digital download, but they also released a PAID DLC MAP PACK at FULL 14.99 PRICE. This is insane to me! It would’ve been cool had they been entirely new maps built in the MWR engine with COD4 theming, but instead it was simply just RESELLING the map pack that released for the ORIGINAL CALL OF DUTY 4!!! You’d think a remaster would come with those by default, right? Anyways, nonsense business practices aside, Modern Warfare : Remastered is a stellar time.
Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare is an oddly important game to me. Having an older brother with an eight year difference in age led to me witnessing CoD4 gameplay at the ripe age of Far Too Young. But it totally mystified me! I had never seen a game look THIS good before. Obviously, the graphics of the original release may not hold up well to modern sensibilities, but playing through the campaign of Modern Warfare : Remastered really feels exactly how I remember the original looking back in 2006. I just kept pausing to take in the scenery and look around, which is something I don’t think I used to do with CoD games.
I was never particularly good at FPS games, despite multiple years of watching my brother crush lobbies across multiple years and consoles of CoD gameplay. But that hasn’t stopped me from having the time of my life replaying MWR! I ended up purchasing a month of GamePass using an Amazon giftcard from my aunt and have spent a LARGE PORTION of the month of June grinding in MWR’s multiplayer. Despite being nearly a decade out from release, I can still find a Team Deathmatch lobby relatively quickly! The only snag is that most of the people still playing this game ten years later are the ones who have been grinding it out since launch. So I’m getting my ass handed to me pretty often, but it just makes the kills and wins I do get all the more rewarding.
Easily where I’ve spent the most time this month, there’s just something so nostalgic and exhillerating about revisiting these maps that I know like the back of my hand. Unfortunately, the rotation gets stale pretty quick with only 10 maps (12 counting reskins) to cycle between. It really bums me out that they didn’t focus on MWR as the MAIN 2016 release, as they FOR SURE could’ve supported it for a full year. Make some new maps in the style of COD4! Add new weapons, perks, whatever! They already went through the effort of adding microtransactions and lootboxes where there weren’t any before (COD4 only had SIX TOTAL weapon skins! And they were all tied to progression and leveing up!).
The campaign is what I’m really here for at the end of the day however, as I believe Modern Warfare 2 and the Black Ops duology get most of the praise when it comes to CoD storylines. The original Modern Warfare story was wild to me as a child, obviously I had no real grip on the geopolitical themes and what war actually meant, but I will forever remember seeing the nuke go off as your squad is desperately trying to flee the area. I think one major benefit that came from this being the first major attempt at a non-WW2 FPS game is that they still kept a sense of grounding and realism. I recognize that is a very funny statement to make directly following discussion of a scene where you watch a nuke go off and aren’t instantly vaporized. However, if you’ve played the CoD campaigns that followed, I think you know exactly what I mean! There’s just something special about Modern Warfare, and it’s really nice having a version that looks THIS INCREDIBLE to return to.
DONKEY KONG COUNTRY : TROPICAL FREEZE (2014, 2018)
I got some more time in with my good buddy Donkey Kong this month, but not as much as I would’ve liked. With my time being so tied up with livestream prep and TDM lobbies, I only managed to clear a few more stages in DKC : TF this month. Regardless, I feel like I said it all last month! This game is an absolute JOY to play, the soundtrack rips, and I love how it all looks on my OLED Switch.
I’ve been having an absolute blast with DKC : TF!!! It truly does feel like the pinnacle of the genre. Everything is so fluid, yet tight. That may seem like a total oxymoron, but I swear it will make sense if you play this game (WHICH YOU SHOULD!!!!). There is always the change that after the part I’m in right now, the game suddenly nose-dives and starts to suck, but something tells me I’m in good hands with Retro Studios.
Frankly, where does one go from here? I really don’t know how the Donkey Kong Country series can improve! Besides a total reinvention, this really does feel like the peak of 2D Donkey Kong games. I really am hoping to dedicate more time toward this game next month! Fingers crossed!
POWERWASH SIMULATOR (2021)
Here’s a random one! With my one month of GamePass Core came with the small selection of games Microsoft offers to us low level plebians, but credit where credit is due, a lot of these games are perfect time-wasters! Stardew Valley, Vampire Survivors, and most important of all right now, POWERWASH SIMULATOR!!! This game is like, incredibly zen. I feel so at peace doing virtual chores while neglecting to do the actual chores piling up around me. But I’m at peace, and that’s all that matters.
I miss listening to podcasts, you guys. Whether I was commuting to Yankee Candle or fixing Chromebooks at my tech job, I used to listen to WAY more podcasts. Being unemployed does not allow for many organic opportunities to listen to a podcast without also doing some other kind of task. I’m not the type who can ONLY listen/watch a podcast, I NEED to be doing something else. Typically, I’ll listen while playing online games like CoD or TitanFall as I find it hard to listen while playing games with any kind of dialogue or background music, but those games still require a certain level of attention at all times.
I believe PowerWash Simulator has finally given me my podcast-listening life back. I don’t need to be locked in, there’s zero pressure or commitment, I just hang out and clean things and chuckle! I’ve always had a weird fascination with powerwashers, and this game lets me satisfy that strange itch entirely within the confines of the virtual space. What more could I ask for? Anyways, if you guys have any good new podcast recommendations throw ‘em my way.
PORTAL (2007)
Closing out this month is a game I know like the back of my hand. I have played both Portal and Portal 2 more times than I could ever possibly know. I have very clear memories of trying to get the original Portal to run on my family’s shared HP laptop. It was so underpowered, it would begin to overheat if you looked at it wrong. But I found if you cranked the graphics settings ALL the way down, ran the game in a tiny window, and dealt with the still subpar 15 FPS the poor machine was capable of outputting, you could get Portal running.
And get it running I did! I was ENAMORED with this game the second I saw glimpses of it on YouTube. I wasn’t familiar with Half-Life (or Valve as a whole for that matter!) but Portal instantly seemed like something I could wrap my head around. I’m not sure I had really played many puzzle games before, outside of the “puzzle games” found on my LeapFrog console when I was much younger. Having a brother eight years my senior meant playing whatever hand-me-downs he had already blitzed through at my age, or sneaking sessions of his more recent game purchases such as Call of Duty. But Portal looked like something I had never seen before, a game so different in concept while still using the familiar First Person Shooter style of gameplay to ground it.
Looking back, I should’ve just asked for The Orange Box Collection (featuring Portal) for the PS3. I’ve never claimed to be smart. But I do think my many hours of trial-and-error troubleshooting endeared me to Portal more than just popping in a disc ever could. Once it finally, FINALLY would start somewhat working I felt such a rush. I would constantly be slamming the hotkey for quicksaving in the event my laptop gave out and overheated or crashed, which it often did, but it never deterred me. I was going to beat Portal.
And I did! And then did again! And again! And have proceeded to blast through Portal every few months ever since. I have run through the corridors of Aperture Science countless times, but ever since they ported both Portal games to the Switch, it’s become a lot more frequent. But each time still feels soooo choice to me, even though I know the solutions to all the puzzles at this point. Trying to find ways to cheese the puzzles, solving them as fast as possible in timed mode, learning speedrun strats, THAT’S where the replayability really hits for me. If you’ve never looked up a typical glitches-permitted speedrun of Portal, you’re seriously missing out.
But Portal is also a game I often show to friends who aren’t all that adept in the gaming world. It does such a good job at introducing you to each mechanic, teaching you the rules of the world, and encouraging experimentation that it ends up being a perfect introduction to the world of FPS games for a lot of people. Portal is very important to me. It can run on practically anything at this point, but the Switch version adds gyroscope aiming which instantly makes it my current favorite version. Do yourself a favor, PLAY PORTAL AND PORTAL 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lightning round
Oops! I kind of did not play any mobile games this month. So let’s talk about one I’ve played previously! Pokemon TCG Pocket! (TCG = Trading Card Game)
TCGP was the aspect I was most looking forward to when it was finally time to replace my old phone (rest in peace soldier). I could finally see what all the hype was about, and hype was exactly what I was feeling. Not to mention my older brother for the fifth time, but he was the exact right age during Poke-mania, which meant that I had a LOT of Pokemon themed hand-me-downs to look forward to. I used to just flip through his binders of cards and stare at the art for hours. I didn’t even realize there was a game associated with the cards until he explained the rules to me! I just liked the pretty pictures.
I’ve never been particularly Into any card games outside of like, Balatro, but the Pokemon TCG made sense to me! It was just unforutnate that the only other person I knew that played was graduating high-school and going to college. I’ve had a lot of fun with the GameBoy Color Pokemon TCG game, but it is nice to finally have a readily available (and multiplayer!) Pokemon TCG! A lot of the mechanics have been streamlined and simplified to make it more mobile-game-friendly, and I’m here for it! But, like most people, most of my time spent in this game is purely opening card packs. You get two free packs to open a day, and open them I do! I’m still just in it for the pretty art at the end of the day.
I think if I had a lot more disposable income to burn on more packs to open, I’d like this game even more! But as it stands right now, it’s a perfect little time waster.
what i’m playing in july
PowerWash Simulator
This one really snuck up on me folks. It’s super zen and relaxing.
AstroBot
I’ve almost beaten this game! It’s time to actually do so! My PS5 lives at my parents’ house, so I haven’t been able to finish it with all of my back and forth. It’s time to finally rectify that.
Tony Hawk 3+4
I LOVED the first THPS remake they released back in 2020. It was one of the first things I purchased with a paycheck from Yankee Candle! I had kind of lost all hope that this would happen when the developers hinted at it being shelved, so I will have to support this on principle it seems.
Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
I’m just gonna keep playin’ this till I beat it baby! If it wasn’t already clear, I have really enjoyed my time so far with DKC:TF.
anyways, bye
PHEW! Now that I can finally catch my breath in the month of July, expect actual bonus posts. For REAL this time. I actually have one fully written right now, I just need to add the pictures. I’ve been so swamped getting things done for the Hornetversary livestream that I’ve barely had time to do much else! But I do want to say thank you again to everyone who showed up and helped donate to the Slender4Gender TransLifeline fundraiser. It means a lot that people keep tuning in year after year!!!!
Working on getting some other videos into production again FINALLY, I was going hard for a minute there and fell off. I might do a bonus post soon about General Updates to what I’m working on, because I do have quite a few scripts basically lined up to go. I just need to sit down and shoot the suckers! I find myself going through long stretches of feeling Not Creative, but forcing myself to write down my thoughts on video games each month has actually been super helpful so far!
Anyways, I hope you all have enjoyed reading this month’s GIPLM post. I should really come up with a better outro for these.
<3