Games I Played Last Month: May 2024

Welcome to the first of these blog posts covering some games I have been playing in the last month. These games are either smaller, games I haven’t finished (or shelved for a later time), and/or games I don’t feel I have enough to talk about in a bigger review. This won’t include games I’ve been consistently playing over a long period. Some examples of those types of games include stuff like Call of Duty, Smite, and Fortnite. If I ever come back to a ‘live service’ game after a bit of a hiatus I’ll also mention it. At the end of the blog, I’ll also mention some games I’m currently playing, and any future plans for reviews or games I’ll write about.

Anyway, let’s jump into last month:

Immortals of Aveum (PS5)

I may be cheating a little bit, considering I played this game in April actually, when the game was made free on Playstation Plus. I started playing with the intention of writing a review of it, and was initially very intrigued in playing it. Unfortunately, I could not stomach completing this game. The whole thing felt extremely stale, generic, and uninspired. It’s an FPS that focuses on 3 different types of magic spells rather than equipping guns. I would say that is an original idea, but that does not really set it apart: the magics simply replicate what generic FPS weapons players already know. Blue: Pistol, Red: Shotgun, Green: Machine Gun.

The game does that fun thing where enemies are color-coded to what weapon it wants you to shoot it with, I guess to try and inspire some variety in your gameplay. It doesn't matter: the whole time you will be mashing the shoot button while backpedaling. Nothing else. You can jump around, use dashes, get to higher ground, whatever, but 90% of the time I'm taking hits and going near death. It doesn’t help that the game barely even tries to reach 60 fps and drops really low in pretty much every fight. Maybe it’s a skill issue, maybe its because I'm on controller, but I beat Doom 2016 on Ultra-Violence with my controller.

Anyway, I got about halfway through the game when the game started to tell me about backtracking through older levels to go down different paths. That's when I just dropped the game. I kinda feel bad because the first time I opened the game the developers showed a heartfelt message to me saying it was their passion project and their first game as a studio. I guess EA thought it was a cool enough IP to pick up and sell for $70. Sorry guys. I don’t think this game’s for me.

Helldivers 2 (PS5)

I’ve been playing Helldivers on and off over the last month, just playing by myself and matching with random players for a few missions. I think the game is great! Its fun to just drop in every now and then, the game is consistently entertaining for me. It's also great that I don’t have to slave away at the stove to experience everything the game has to offer like most other live services. I also like the idea of an ever-changing war that reacts to how the players are playing. The game has stagnated for now, and some people may say the game is ‘dying’ or something along those lines. I don’t have anything to say on the recent fiasco, considering I play on PS5 already and would have linked a PSN account on PC regardless. I DO think it's stupid to block off like a hundred countries from playing the game though. There is not much else I can say on that matter, it’s not in my court.

I sit in a comfortable camp with the game right now. I am willing to return to the game to play more frequently when new content is dropped; a new enemy, new objectives, new planets or environments… who knows. Overall the game is fun, and I can return to it any time I just don’t have any idea what to play. Looking forward to what the game brings throughout the year.

League of Legends [ARENA MODE] (PC)

In a disgusting turn of events this month, I took a bite from the forbidden fruit that is League of Legends. Don’t worry! I will never play the main mode of the game, nor will I ever play Ranked mode. I will NEVER go down that path, even at my lowest. No, Riot re-released their 2v2v2v2v2 Arena mode for the latest season, so I have been playing that with my friend. It’s one of the most fun game modes I’ve played in a MOBA. My friend and I on the weekend sometimes go for like 5 or 6 hours straight in this mode. We don’t win every game, but we have fun every match. The games play out quick, and it’s surprisingly less toxic than normal games. League has a very deep roster of interesting characters, so there are a lot of synergies to explore.

One problem I have with the mode is it can be super RNG reliant. The players are dealt random hands of buffs and if you don’t roll a buff that can actually work well with your characters you might as well toss out the game and go next. The game also favors the more tanky bruiser characters, which can end up railroading players into specific builds to counter it. Overall, the mode is fun, and the only reason I would ever open up the game to play League of Legends. I really wish Riot would just make the mode permanent, but i guess the prospect of it returning is what gets people excited to play it.

After like 2 years of delays, this game has finally come out. I was initially interested in the game and played the beta back in September, or whenever it was. I am a big fan of casually playing Call of Duty or any similar games… just casual, arcade-y, run around, shoot and die, not really caring if I win or lose. To me, Call of Duty seems like the only game that can really scratch that itch these days. Enter XDefiant, Ubisoft’s answer to Call of Duty! The wait was so long that by the time it actually launched I really just did not care, but I played it anyway. Finally, after playing for 10 hours last month I can confidently say that this is one of the games ever.

The game feels flimsy but functional, and the UI feels unfinished. Honestly half the time it feels like I’m using the menus wrong. I hate this modern gaming trend of just copying this tab-style menu from other modern live-service games. Its an absolute mess. The game has everything you need though: a battlepass, an in-game store, really long loading screens, and of course don’t forget a painfully slow progression system that begs you to play for an absurdly long time unless you buy some XP boosters. Maybe I’ll come back to play this game in some other seasons but with how the game feels now, It does not feel like something that will last very long.

Multiversus (PS5)

After like 2 years of delays, this game has finally come out. I was initially interested in the game and played the beta back in July, or whenever it was. I was surprised to see them take the game down last years and when they finally revealed the game again in May, I can’t say I was impressed. I don’t have a professional opinion on the actual mechanics of the game, but I can definitely say the game feels slower, a bit less satisfying, and overall underwhelming. The idea of a cool platform fighter is all in the bones. Warner Bros has a deep catalog of characters to draw from so its kinda excited to see the prospect of a platform fighter from that catalog.

But in the current environment of gaming, I can’t dedicate my time to “really” playing this game. I can step up and play the game for fun and I did for about a week. But unfortunately, progression is of course, slow, there are daily battle pass challenges to complete, and a really slow currency build towards unlocking new characters. When a new character drops I want to play, there is no guarantee in ANY WAY that I’ll be able to get into the game and earn enough currency on my own to unlock them for free. So they want me to pay $10 per character to unlock them, and then spend money and my time to doing daily checklists to get some gratification I guess. This is lame and almost kills my enjoyment of logging into the game to play it on a daily basis, and I haven’t since that first week.

Fallout 4 (PS5)

At the end of the month, I began a playthrough of Fallout 4, which has been getting a lot of attention lately because of the recent TV show. This month I also briefly tried out Skyrim with a multiplayer mod and played a little bit with my friends. I think that was something that got me interested in playing some Fallout 4. Every Bethesda game I’ve ever played I played no more than like 10 hours. Maybe it was my childlike attention span, but as I am playing through Fallout I am having a very good time and I am actually compelled to see this through.

Currently, I’m still playing the game, I believe I’m about halfway through the game and I think I plan on getting all of the trophies. I enjoy exploring the world and finding all the neat little things that the developers put around. The weapons feel great and a lot better than the weapons in the previous games. It feels a lot more “modern” than New Vegas or Fallout 3. That quality of life improvements is what I think gets me into the game more. I don't really have a desire to play through New Vegas or Fallout 3 after I finish 4, but I am slightly interested in doing a Skyrim playthrough, maybe with some mods. Otherwise, I’ll still be playing Fallout 4 throughout the month.

Upcoming

Currently, I am still playing through Fallout 4 and will finish it by the end of the month. I don't plan on writing a review of it. Another game I am stuck in a playthrough is Selaco. About halfway through the game, I plan on writing out my thoughts for the site. Of course, I'll need to get through all these games before the end of the month: the Elden Ring DLC is coming out and that's obviously hotly anticipated. Let's look forward to the upcoming month.