Week of 29 May 2022
“Dog report item.”
Achievements Earned In:
- Far: Changing Tides
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
- Raji: An Ancient Epic
I’ve had my eye on Far: Changing Tides ever since it launched into Game Pass back in March, but I’d just completed the first game recently and knew what this game would entail by looking at the achievement list. With this in mind, I wanted to wait until there was a good walkthrough for the speed run achievement. Well, I decided to peak on Sunday and there is one over on Neoseeker! I was excited to get to this one, so I quickly loaded it up and started on my journey. Apparently, they have named the character from the previous game “Lone”, so is this character’s name “Tide”? Or “Changing”? Anyway, you take a machine similar to the Okomotive from Lone Sails through a world, getting past obstacles and now venturing underwater. Besides the submarine functions and the additional polish, this is very similar to the last game. There’s no game-long collectible, though! The vast landscapes are still very cool and the scenery is lovely to look at. I managed to get the speedrun achievement without really trying on my first run, mopping up the game on my second. There’s actually a skill-based achievement this time around, to maneuver through an underwater section without bumping into anything, but it was no trouble to get on my second try as my final achievement on Monday. Apparently there’s a Windows stack. A possible double-dip in the future?
Achievements unlocked: 35 (+35) | Completed
Oh wow, I wonder if I can eat these?
With my plate clear, and my spouse now at the rental with me and wanting to watch me play something, I figured I’d start something more cinematic. One game that joined Game Pass back in March, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, was one I really wanted to play, but on my Xbox on a TV so I could enjoy the cool visuals and soundtrack, instead of on my phone and muted in the hospital. This seemed like the perfect game for the situation, so I started it Monday and… wow. I’d heard this was an unrecognized gem, being released after Square’s less-than-stellar take on the Avengers and ignored, but holy heck was this game amazing. It takes its style from the one James Gunn established for the team in the 2014 film, but is unrelated to the MCU and is much more in line with the comics version of the characters. This adds a lot of Marvel Universe backstory to them, and the nuggets of world buildings dropped by both dialogue and favor text is so much fun as a huge fan of the comics. The writing and story are fantastic! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll laugh some more. The standout for me was Drax, whose hard-headed and earnest delivery of his lines is spot-on. After you get passed how these seem like cheap knock-offs of the beloved MCU interpretations, all the characters shine. Even Groot, with his trisyllabic language, brings the laughs and nuance. It does bug me that EVERY character spoken about by name shows up at some point, in some way, in the game. Visually, the game is a treat, though I’m never sure how much of that is me just not being used to playing newer games on my Series S. The last one I played was Sniper Elite 4, but it was on my Galaxy S20+ screen over a wireless connection, so not much in the way of awesome visuals or fidelity. But here, it blew me away with how good the scenery and facial animations were. The gameplay itself isn’t a whole lot to write home about; it’s very basic action shooter combat and limited exploration. Which, is fine, because while the combat itself isn’t super exciting, it DOES help when you’re fighting a giant boss as meteors rain from the sky, “I Need a Hero” blasts in the background, and the characters are quipping away. Really elevates everything! To top it off, the achievements are all very straightforward and easy. There are collectibles, but following a guide makes that easy enough. I ran into no issues and, besides having to go back and collect a missed outfit in the first level, everything popped when it should by the end of the game. I can’t recommend this one enough.
Achievements unlocked: 58 (+58) | Completed
Surely this will please Lady Hellbender and get us paid!
My tenure in Rochester as caregiver to my spouse is coming to an end, and once I return I’ll be switching from Game Pass games to playing Shawn1991’s collection while I have access to it. With that in mind, I wanted a game that I could finish fairly quickly once I returned home. Raji: An Ancient Epic stood out as an option, so I started it on Saturday and completed the first level before getting distracted with the arrival of my kiddo and the replacement caregiver. This game is pretty neat, though, because it is about Indian mythology, a topic I, as an American, am exposed to almost never. I look forward to playing more!
Achievements unlocked: 4 (+4) | Completion: 19%
Highest ratio: 8.49
Changing Tides (Far: Changing Tides)
Lowest ratio: 1.00 (tie)
Cast Off (Far: Changing Tides)
Durga’s Blessing (Raji: An Ancient Epic)
