Pixels & Polygons

The close of July saw me finally beat the epic that was God of War, and so I set out to wrap up some games I was already close to finishing, rather than start a brand-new game from scratch. All told, I ended up beating eight games in the month of August!

I’d owned God of War for a while and — to be honest — I had not really gotten into heavily. However, once I devoted my time and attention to it, I found enjoyment in it and ended up beating the game on July 31st.

As August began the next day, I did not want to jump into a brand-new epic game from scratch. In fact, I noticed several titles that I had played over the course of time, but not all the way to finishing the game.

I also feel it pertinent to mention here that, typically speaking, I will beat the main story of a game, and then move on. A lot — if not most — games these days have a metric ton of side or additional content that can extend your time with that game, but — with some exceptions — I prefer to move on to the next one. After all, I can always return later. Such was the case with God of War; there was plenty left to do in the game but then, once I’d beaten the main story, it kind of felt like… why, though? However, it’s there if I ever feel the itch for more of it.

Anyway, with all of the above in mind, I set out to knock out the games that I noticed I was close to beating and crossing them off the list. And — what do you know — I ended up beating a total of eight games in August. These games were as follows:

• Diablo III (Xbox One) – This was actually the first game in the Diablo series that I ever played. It had been available for a Free Weekend on Xbox Live and I enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying it on sale. I read up on the Lore of the first two titles to understand what preceded these before jumping in fully. I played as a Necromancer and it was a lot of fun; definitely a different approach from the typical tank, elemental mage, or rogue archetypes! There’s still an expansion to play through, but the main story was a lot of fun. As long as there aren’t crazy microtransactions to alter this style of gameplay, I very much look forward to Diablo IV.
  
• Assassin’s Creed III (PS3) – This was actually a replay, as I had originally played through this back in 2014. However, Ubisoft announced a server closure, and I wanted to acquire Trophies that would become forever unobtainable. Unfortunately, one of these required a completed game save, and I had lost access to that PS3 from 2014, so I replayed the game, skipping cutscenes and such. It only took me a couple of days and, to be honest, it kind of reignited my interest in the franchise itself.
  
• Far Cry 3 (Xbox One) – I bought the remaster of this game back in the Summer of 2020 as part of a bundle with Far Cry 4 and Far Cry 5 for under $20. The first night I played this, I spent 4 hours exploring the island, doing random sidequests and hunting, or climbing towers to unlock maps. However, the gameplay eventually became monotonous to me, and I moved on to something else at some point. That said, I returned to mop this up and found the story very appealing. It made me want to hop into the next title, but I know better than to do such a thing, as I learned of the burnout that comes with such an endeavor when I played through three Assassin’s Creed titles, one right after the other, back in 2014.
  
• Max and the Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One) – This was one of the first games I played when I got my original Xbox One, as it was free that month for Xbox Gold members. I had ended up distracted and not finished it, despite being close to the end, so I mopped it up as well. It’s a fun and creative platformer that sees you drawing out items on your screen to progress past puzzles.
  
• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen (XSX) – I have a complicated history with this franchise that could merit its own blog post on here, so I may save that story for another time. The short story is that I don’t want to give Bungie any more money for this game for the path they’ve chosen to go. That said, this was free for a weekend and was the most recent expansion that I had not yet played, so I hopped on and powered through the campaign, beating it within the free weekend. I could definitely see the elements of this title that made me play it so intently for several years, but I resisted forking over any money here. Once again, the main campaign story was interesting but not completely resolved by its end, rather setting up future content instead.
  
• Twelve Minutes (XSX) – The trailer for this game grabbed me right away, and I found it intriguing as I played it when it first came to Xbox Game Pass a year prior. However, I couldn’t seem to progress any further on my own and moved on. However, hearing that it was leaving Game Pass at the end of the month, I found myself a non-spoiler guide and powered through in one evening, completing the game in just under two hours total.
  
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (XSX) – Much like Max above, this was the first game I played when I got myself an Xbox Series X, and it was beautiful. However, I got stuck and wasn’t sure how/where to proceed next with this title. I finally took the initiative to post on Reddit for some help, and some folks pointed me in the right direction. From there, I was able to power through the rest. I played the first title in this franchise, and I love the art and storytelling done in them, and I very much hope for a third game to come along as well.
  
• Sonic Mania (Xbox One) – The final game I beat was one that I had bought physically for PS4 when it first came out — including a sweet Genesis slip case for nostalgia. And I was someone that had played through those original Genesis titles (Sonic 3 & Knuckles being the pinnacle of Sonic). This game eventually also came out for free on Xbox One, and I was farther along in it on that system. In fact, I realized I only had one or two zones left before the end of the game, so I wrapped it up to close out the month.
  

And that was my August in Gaming! Having gotten through eight games in the eighth month of the year felt poetic in a way, and I felt finally ready to start up a new full game from scratch for September: Prey.