It’s the Freakin’ Weekend! Good and Bad News Edition!

Friday! Video games! Let’s talk… a little more.

This week I have to share a combination of good and bad news with you folks. Getting it out of the way early, the bad news is that I won’t be updating Cheap Boss Attack nearly as often. Barring the occasional PS4 or Vita review and this traditional weekend wrap-up, you won’t be hearing much from me. Well, won’t be hearing much from me here.

I was offered an editorial position with Switch Player, which is a published magazine that covers all things (as you’d expect) Nintendo Switch. I’ll be on news duty over there for a bit, hopefully mixing up reviews and the like since that’s what I enjoy doing most of all.

Since I was a kid religiously thumbing through issues of Nintendo Power like it was the Bible, all I’ve wanted to do is write about games. If I’m not playing something or buried under school work, chances are I’m writing, researching, and doing everything I can to improve the quality of my writing. There’s only so far self-teaching can take you, though, and with any luck, this jump to Switch Player will be a chance for me to grow as a writer, gain exposure, work with a motivated staff, and continue to provide unbiased news and reviews to you fine folks.

So thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my work, maybe even shared a post or two, and kept my comment section lively. I write for you just as much as I write for me, and your positivity and warm reception has and will always mean the world to me.

Again, I’m not going anywhere. I’m just to be posting far less often here.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the games, shall we?

The biggest announcement is that I’ve finally put an end to Calamity Ganon and saved Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It was an incredible experience and, in my opinion, the greatest Zelda game ever made. As someone who has championed the NES original since its release, that was a hard sentence to type, let me tell you. But I stand by it. The open world, the sense of adventure, the amount of faith Nintendo has in the player… it’s fantastic. I’d be surprised if anything topped it as my Game of the Year.

However. Having just invested a bunch of time in Breath of the Wild, I became spoiled with Link’s ability to climb and paraglide off of everything. After finishing Zelda, I made the mistake of immediately diving into Horizon: Zero Dawn; another open-world game. Aloy’s inability to climb mountains or glide off of them severely hindered my enjoyment of Horizon to the point of shelving it, in favor of a palate cleanser.

I know damn well that I’d have been far more impressed with Horizon had I played it before Zelda, but Breath of the Wild sets the open-world bar incredibly high. Running around hilltops and buildings looking for Assassin’s Creed-like grip spots felt a bit dated by comparison. The story and characters are fine, the combat is fine, but the open world didn’t do anything for me. I look forward to getting back to it later on, though.

I wanted something linear and a little mindless as a palate cleanser, so I dug into the ol’ backlog and decided to check out the recent PS4 remaster of Darksiders, the Warmastered Edition. I picked it up recently as part of the THQ Nordic PS4 Humble Bundle, which came with a ton of decent games for $15 (including both Darksiders remasters).

I’d never played a Darksiders before, but always thought they looked like God of War if they were filled with World of Warcraft characters. I definitely wasn’t wrong, though it does feel a bit more like a slower Devil May Cry. Regardless, I’m enjoying it quite a bit. Combat is satisfying, the story is intriguing, and War’s attacks have some serious weight behind them (which is something I love in action games). The Todd McFarlane aesthetic also works rather well.

Otherwise, much like last week, I’ve mainly been focusing on Overwatch’s Uprising event. I haven’t gotten anything I’ve wanted out the lootboxes, but there’s still one more week to go. I’d really like to get Widowmaker’s new skin and D.Va’s selfie intro, so if RNGsus can smile upon me next week it’d be greatly appreciated.

I put Mr. Shifty aside for now since they’re working on a patch to fix the late-game lag issues. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played, but I’d rather wait for the performance improvements. I also received Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds on Vita to review, despite it not releasing until next month. The folks at Idea Factory are always great about providing ample time to review their games. I’ll talk more about that next Friday since I’m still in the game’s opening hours.

I decided to wait for summer break (one more week to go!) to start Persona 5 because juggling a 100+ hour JRPG with college finals and essays doesn’t sound like a good time. Super Bomberman R for Switch and Root Letter for PS4 just arrived from GameFly as well, and I have no idea when I’ll ever get to them. I should probably just cancel GameFly for now, honestly, since my backlog is big enough.

What about you folks? What are you getting into this weekend?