Episode 7 – Tekken Shark

This week on Make Me A Gamer TMan & HarveyZ go on a wild ride of gaming tangents. We talk about the leaked Harry Potter RPG footage and somehow end up on the topic of how the world of wrestling and fighting games intersect. We also talk about Civilization 6 and Diablo 3 coming to the Switch, along with our views on gaming collectibles and collecting art in general. (This episode was recorded October 6th.)

TMan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmanplaysgames

HarveyZ on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ThaZIsSilent

Make Me A Gamer on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MakeMeAPodcast

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Traversal Problem

My play timer on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey sits at around 25 hours right now. It’s not entirely accurate – I have a short attention span and will often be doing things on my computer at the same time – or sometimes I will leave the game running and forget about it until the PS4 auto-sleep modes after an hour. But I’ve definitely been playing for somewhere between 20 and 25 hours, which I estimate is about how long it took me to 100% Spider-Man on the PS4. Meanwhile in AC: Odyssey I’ve explored maybe a fourth of the map at most, the main plot of the game is only barely beginning to come into focus and I’m only level 20 out of a soft level cap of 50. (Spider-Man’s soft level cap was also 50 – in both games you can level past 50 but the rewards are minimal.)

Both are considered “open-world action” games that have an RPG element to them. Both have skill trees that you can upgrade and customize your play-style through. Assassin’s Creed has loot-drops and equipment to upgrade, along with a system of tracking mercenaries out to kill you and the ability to recruit people for your ship crew, while Spider-Man has gadgets to acquire and special suits and powers to unlock and upgrade. Spider-Man, however is a very story-focused game with a smaller overall map that allows for a high density of things to do in the playground you’re given, while AC: Odyssey gives you an extremely large map that is still dense with things to do, but is more focused on letting you explore and find those quests at your leisure.

So why is it that, even though the map is clearly larger and encouraging you to explore everywhere, getting anywhere in Assassin’s Creed is a chore? But in the smaller map of Spider-Man I had the most fun I’ve ever had getting from point A to point B?

Continue reading “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Traversal Problem” →

Episode 6: The Laser Is Powered By Steam

Make Me A Gamer is now releasing on Tuesdays! Hooray!

On this week’s episode, TMan and HarveyZ manage to talk a little bit about games – Red Dead Redemption 2, Fortnite, and the minor Total War: Rome 2 kerfuffle. We also delve into the Bowsette fad that’s been sweeping the internet and get into a long debate about steampunk, cyberpunk, and….Renaissance Fairs? (This episode was recorded September 29th.)

TMan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmanplaysgames

HarveyZ on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ThaZIsSilent

Episode 5: The Mukbang Ninja

On this week’s episode of Make Me A Gamer, HarveyZ immediately goes off on several tangents involving his latest internet adventures. Once we get down to business, we talk about some Pokemon Go news, the Playstation Classic, and Telltale Games’ closure. We may even mention the unfortunate Toad comparisons that were circling the internet. (This episode was recorded September 22nd.)

TMan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tmanplaysgames

HarveyZ on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ThaZIsSilent

What I’ve Been Playing – September 2018

It’s already October, holy cow. Well in case you hadn’t noticed I’ve been a little busy in September as I launched my first podcast Make Me A Gamer with my pal Harvey Z. As such I haven’t had as much time to write articles – I’ve also been kind of saving some of the more interesting topics that I would normally write about for discussions on the podcast. So please check it out – all four episodes so far are available here on this site as well as on Apple, Google, and Stitcher Podcast apps.

But since it’s October, it’s time for another update on what I’ve been playing! There’s not as much this month – a majority of my gaming time was taken up by Spider-Man which I already wrote a full review for here. But what else did I play? Well I dabbled a little into Destiny 2 since it was free for PS+ users this month in hopes people would then get addicted enough to buy the new expansion. I also jumped back into Fortnite for a bit thanks to the new season 6 launching. On PC I played a lot more of Into the Breach and Audiosurfed for a little bit. And on Switch I finally tried out Breath of the Wild – a year and a half after the hype died down.

So what did I think about all these games? Let’s find out!

Continue reading “What I’ve Been Playing – September 2018” →

Episode 4: Internal Taco Trucks

On this week’s episode of Make Me A Gamer, TMan and HarveyZ briefly discuss the Overwatch League expansion teams and Valve’s upcoming card game Artifact. Then we experiment a little bit with format as TMan tells HarveyZ the story of the rise and fall of 38 Studios. (This episode was recorded September 8th.)

**NOTE** There was a minor recording error for this episode and we lost about 20-30 seconds of audio at the beginning of the 38 Studios discussion. Thankfully, it was just me explaining how Curt Schilling named his studio 38 Studios after his number from when he was a pitcher. So there you go – that’s all that was missing and hopefully the edit doesn’t seem to abrupt. Thanks for listening!

Episode 3: You’ve Gotten Shivved, Too?!

 

In this episode of Make Me A Gamer, TMan and HarveyZ discuss the controversies leading up to the Spider-Man game along with a few games they’ve been playing like Into The Breach and Candy Crush but with Vikings. And Harvey Z tells a story about an early experience with an arcade tough guy. (This episode was recorded September 1st.)

Review: Marvel’s Spider-Man

Earlier in April of this year I posted this article – and on September 7th, I was finally able to get my hands on Spider-Man to play it. I got the Collector’s Edition and also upgraded my PS4 to the limited edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro. It is an understatement to say that I was excited to play the game. And a little over a week later I’ve completed the game – I earned the Platinum trophy (only one of five that I’ve earned, the others being Horizon: Zero Dawn, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, and two Telltale games which basically only require you to play the entire game to get them).

Spider-Man was an amazing game that I loved almost every minute of – it will almost assuredly be between it and God of War for what I consider my personal game of the year, unless something coming in the next three months manage to impress me more (here’s looking at you Super Smash Bros). It wasn’t a perfect game, though – in fact it actually had a few glaring problems. But considering how Insomniac absolutely nailed everything else, the highs totally outweighed the lows.

So as someone who’s pretty much done everything the base game has to offer, it’s time for my review. There will be mild spoilers for certain parts of the game, but nothing regarding the major plot points that Insomniac wanted to keep secret.

Continue reading “Review: Marvel’s Spider-Man” →

Episode 1: Mario Was Murdered

On the inaugural episode of Make Me A Gamer, TMan (the gamer) and Harvey Z (the non-gamer) introduce themselves and talk a little bit about whether the Nintendo Switch is considered a console, all the information we know about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the Ninja Polygon interview from August. (This episode was recorded August 18th.)