Board 8 > May Game of the Month Club ft. Ghost of a Tale, Evil West, and Umurangi

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mays Games:
Ghost of a Tale (PC/XB1/PS4/Switch)
Evil West (PC/XSX/PS5/XB1/PS4)
Umurangi Generation (PC/PS5/Switch/XB1/PS4/Meta)

What is Game of the Month Club?
Game of the Month is a community project open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a select few games every month. The games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck)

The Basics
- Each month will usually feature three games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each game you beat, you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's games is usually on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will obviously think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules
- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for every featured game that you beat
- Each game you nominate has to be unique from all other nominations and cannot include a game that has already been selected for GotM
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next month's games but before the end of the month
- You also have the option of supporting 1 game each month. Your only limitation is that you can't support your own nomination

Just-for-Fun Top 15 Standings
KCF - 186
gameking - 116
ArkOfTurus - 114
Mr Crispy - 106
Lolo Guru - 71
Cody - 63
Seanchan - 42
KnightOfNee - 35
ViolentAbacus - 34
MegamanX - 28
Wickle - 27
FakeAccount - 26
Arti - 23
scarletspeed - 23
darkx - 19
Kenri - 19

Spreadsheet with history
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM/edit?usp=sharing

We have another birthday poll, this time Great_Paul! We will feature one of the following two games in June, so if you have an opinion, feel free to vote for one of them.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Switch/WiiU)

vs

Sonic Colors (PC/Switch/XB1/PS4/Wii/DS)

I've owned Sonic Colors since 2012 and never played it so maybe this is the year.

Bit of a down month in April for participation...

I'm hoping to hit Evil West this month. We've officially hit the warm weather time of year, so it does means less time for gaming for myself.

Tropical Freeze

PLEASE force me to use my Wii U soon so it doesn't brick from inactivity.

I can probably play Evil West

Umurangi Generation looks sick, will wait for that to hit ps plus

I started Evil West. It feels like a throwback game that I would play in the mid 00s. It's gory and fun, but I'm struggling to get a handle on the cooldowns. There are like two different sections showing cooldowns on the screen, not to mention I'm not entirely sure how to interpret the meter that let's me know if I can heal myself or not. I wouldn't call the UI a nightmare, but it could use quite the overhaul (and also maybe change things so that you don't need so many cooldowns!) I would have thought that I could switch guns, but I guess that they correspond to specific buttons, and I don't really understand why there is both a reloading and cooldown mechanic (latter doesn't make any sense!) for them.

I sure said cooldowns a lot

I'm 2 levels into Evil West. No strong opinions so far.

Partway thru Level 6 in Evil West.

It's a pretty dumb, fun game so far, though definitely in a "7 out of 10" kind of way. I agree with the mid 00s vibes. It feels like a throwback in the same way the Maximo games felt like throwbacks in their time.

The cooldowns seem to be time based. ...And maybe they go faster if you use melee attacks? You can heal when the meter around that icon is full.

When I said get a handle on the cooldowns, I meant have an idea of how long they take. I see nothing listed anywhere in the menus the specifics of how long any of the various cooldowns are. The game is fast-paced enough with little to no windows for rest, so I don't feel like I have a great opportunity to gander at any of the three or so areas on the screen where cooldowns/circles/meters exist to time things out.

Oh yeah, no idea on the length, other than longer than I'd like. I know there's an upgrade to decrease the cooldown on the shotgun 20%.

I've been focusing on using the zapper, since it seems pretty OP. The shotgun I've been using as an interrupt, since I can hit that faster than clicking in the right stick

I've now gotten to the point where there's cooldowns on both sides of the screen. It just feels like there's a few too many mechanics going on than are necessary.

I'm also tired of going back to town all the time and having to run around the same area again and again looking for money/collectibles.

Thru Level 10 now. That last boss was a bit of a pain and a fairly long fight.

I'd say to grab the electric upgrades for the weapons ASAP. There's also a seemingly crucial upgrade that allows you to use energy to heal. Not sure I beat that last boss without that...

Played Umurangi Generation for about an hour and either there's something about this game's 1st person perspective that makes me motion sick or I just got insanely nauseous for an unrelated reason. It's a short enough game that I can probably get through it but man, I wish I knew what causes this. I play plenty of games and so far only this and Tomb Raider (2013) have ever given me issues.

Game-wise it's much more of an actually-using-a-camera sim than other photography games like Pokemon Snap, Toem, etc. The time limits seem pretty strict and they are but there's really not a penalty for going over them. I suspect you're meant to take your time on your first run and then redo the level knowing where everything is to get a clean run that's under time.

Surprised by how dark the game's lore and general tone is. Did not expect the setting to be the aftermath of kaiju attacks and at least one atomic bombing.

Kenri posted...

Game-wise it's much more of an actually-using-a-camera sim than other photography games like Pokemon Snap, Toem, etc.

Yeah, that was one of my dislikes about the game, as I don't have a lot of interest in that aspect. For me, it's about the photo hunt, not the actual photo.

I kinda agree. I do photography IRL and I care about the actual photo there, but there's something inherently unsatisfying about doing it in a video game. It doesn't mesh well with the time limit aspect either -- even with no penalty for going over time, just having a timer makes you feel the need to rush.

On the other hand I dislike how some other photo games let horrible pictures slide, i.e. you got 3 pixels of the right subject in frame so it counts for the photo hunt. Umurangi is more strict about that, which I appreciate.

I think I said in the April topic, but there was a similar type of game, Sludge Life, that I played around the same time as Umurangi. I ended up liking that one more because it was more about the hunt. Also I much different, lighter, more funny tone.

Beat Evil West

Pretty damn fun once you get used to using the variety of abilities that you have. Never used the flamethrower in combat though.

Seanchan posted...

Thru Level 10 now. That last boss was a bit of a pain and a fairly long fight.

I'd say to grab the electric upgrades for the weapons ASAP. There's also a seemingly crucial upgrade that allows you to use energy to heal. Not sure I beat that last boss without that...

I managed to beat it before getting that upgrade. That boss definitely felt like the longest in the game, since no other boss throws enemies at you.

Two levels left in Evil West. So glad the boss at the end of Level 14 had checkpoints. Not that I don't think I could have eventually done it all in one go but it was nice to be able to restart at phase 2 and 3.

Some tips for Umurangi for anyone struggling with it:

-You can super jump by double-tapping the jump key as quickly as possible. The faster you do it, the higher your jump. Your regular jump is pathetic so you should basically do this by default. Above all else, I wish I had known this from the start.

-Most levels are smaller than you'd think. There is never any guidance about where to go for your delivery but what you're looking for is a glowing red box and it's typically not very hidden. It only appears once you've completed the photo bounties, so focus on doing those before looking for it.

-If you're going for the postcard bonus, there's a glowing green box somewhere on the level that indicates where you should stand to take the photo.

-Falling off the level or into a hazard will respawn you at the stage's start, which can be useful as a shortcut since you keep all your progress.

-Doing a level's bonus objectives (including beating the time limit) just unlocks more fuck-around gear for your camera and some achievements, at least in the main game (I'm still working on the DLC). Nothing important seems to be locked behind it.

-A lot of times the game will give you credit for a photo subject that's partially (or even completely) hidden behind something else. So if you're really having trouble finding a photo bounty, you can just take a couple shots with the wide angle lens and see if anything works (unless the shot requires a different lens/closer proximity).

-I've found that half the fun of the game is absorbing all the advertisements, fake movie posters, propaganda posters, etc. There's a lot of detail and world-building put into each level if you care to look for it!

Beat Umurangi

I don't have much to add. The vibes are immaculate, the photo hunt aspect isn't the best. Scoring is almost completely unimportant. I enjoyed it, though. The environmental storytelling is great! Overall, definitely the best Full Metal Jacket x Evangelion fangame I've ever played.

Evil West beated!

A perfectly cromulent "3 out of 5" videogame. It was a nice throwback to non-open world design. A lot of shit going on in combat, and it could at time be a little overwhelming. Later on, it got to the point of just flipping through all your weapons until the cooldowns were done. They were at least nice with giving multiple mid-fight checkpoints to the last 2 boss battles.

That said, I wish the game was a little more lenient with letting you go backwards to get missing collectibles. There were many times where the main path wasn't clear, and if you happen to jump over the "main" waist high obstacle, then you couldn't go back to explore the side paths. Did it really matter that much? No, since there's no way to max out everything on one playthrough, but still.

I made the mistake of taking a week break from Evil West. Having to re-learn moves and on-screen stuff in a boss fight was not ideal lol.

KCF0107 posted...

I made the mistake of taking a week break from Evil West. Having to re-learn moves and on-screen stuff in a boss fight was not ideal lol.

It was bad enough when taking a day break!

Monthly Progress
Ghost -
Evil - JONA, Sean
Umurangi - Kenri

Nominations

Supports

Birthday
DKC: TF - MZero, darkx, Cody
Sonic - Kenri

Note to self: Nobody else probably uses GOG, so remove related games from being potential nominations

I'm glad that prompted me to look out for sales for any of our games

Ghost of a Tale is on sale for $7.50 USD on Switch and PS4 ($6.25 if you are a PS+ subscriber)
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/ghost-of-a-tale-switch/
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1309-CUSA14335_00-GHOSTOFATALE0000

I recently got the scorcher in Evil West, and I hate how they keep putting the dead plants in succession as if that's a fun way to make an environmental obstacle since you have to wait a little bit for the one in front to burn away.

I kept meaning to go back to PBB last month, but had something pop up IRL.

May try out Evil West this month, but still pretty busy.

KCF0107 posted...

Note to self: Nobody else probably uses GOG, so remove related games from being potential nominations

I do, and I looked at it, but I haven't even gotten around to starting the game I meant to play, so...

Yeah I use GOG too (on occasion, but just as much as Epic), I'm just not super interested in Ghost of a Tale.

KCF has beaten Umurangi Generation

Two years later, and it is still disappointing but far from bad. I think that I appreciate the photography aspect a little more. I enjoyed getting multi-object objectives into frame. It takes a lot more work than it should to get a photo to not be blurry, but luckily the quality of a photograph doesn't matter, so I can submit whatever if I know my subject(s) is in the frame.

My main issue was and still is about its movement. It feels unnecessarily heavy and maneuvering around the levels is rough and frustrating with how easy it is and how frequent it occurs of getting caught up with geometry. I should not be fighting the game climbing stairs.

I had kind of the opposite problem lol, a lot more phasing through geometry than getting stuck on it. Either way that part of the game was definitely busted.

Twice I did pass through a wall unintentionally while lining up a shot

Don't think I'm going to bother with Umurangi.

Nominate Nine Sols

KCF has beaten Evil West

I finally figured out some things. The cooldowns on the right are time-based, the cool downs on the left are attack combo/hit based, and this random meter east of the left cooldowns was actually the XP bar. I'm so glad this was all properly explained in the game.

That being said this was a lot more fun as the game went along as I gained access to all of my combat stuff. Aside from the Parasiter boss, the game did a good job at keeping boss fights opened up and flexible so all of your weapons and abilities were on the table and useful. I feel like not a lot of 3D linear action games do that, so I appreciated that. While I let the enemy composition dictate how I fight, my preferrence was alternating between the X-Bow, rapid-fire revolver from the hip, and crippling rod followed by melee combo.

There was a lot that could be improved upon in the game, but I was ultimately very satisfied with what I played.

I'm finally going to start Ghost of a Tale soon, but I can't imagine I will get it done before the drawing, so I'm going to dump my noms now

Bat Boy
Patrick's Parabox
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa

Monthly Progress
Ghost -
Evil - JONA, Sean, KCF
Umu - Kenri, KCF

Nominations
Ark - Nine Sols
Cody - Alba
KCF - Bat Boy, Patrick's Parabox, Ringo Ishikawa

Supports

Birthday Poll
DKC: TF - MZero, darkx, Cody
Sonic Colors - Kenri, Abacus