Features
The Week Together: Baseball, Bastion, and a baby
The week behind us was a less eventful one in terms of gaming, but only because we were in the maternity ward welcoming our fourth player to co-op sessions.
Well, we’ve had quite a week. We played some good games since our last recap and while we’ll get onto those momentarily, we should also mention the small news that, uh, WE HAD A FREAKING BABY! Eleanor, aka Ellie (yes, that Ellie) is her name and we are home, happy, and healthy.
Naturally, this means we didn’t play a ton over the second half of the last week, but you might be surprised how easy she’s been so far, so my son and I did sneak in some quality gaming hours when she was sleeping. Now we just need to go get ourselves a fourth controller. For a gamertag, what do you think of Poops 2 Much? Onto the week of games!
Super Mega Baseball 2: Ultimate Edition
Highly Recommended
Super Mega Baseball 2 was one of 2018’s very best games, and for the first time ever, it’s on the Switch. We wrote our review of this gem (diamond to be precise, right?) elsewhere online, but we’ll have more to say about it tomorrow — by now you know what that means.
If you like baseball, SMB2 is a must-play. It packs in all the deep strategy of true to life sim baseball with the flexibility of making it a more arcadey experience for anyone who wants it that way. The visuals and sound also help it feel light and fun, even when the stakes can be as high as a World Series. I stopped watching the MLB years ago, so the lack f a license with the league doesn’t hurt me, but if you really wanted those teams to be present, you could take several hours and build them all from scratch using the customization options. They go deeper than a home run.
Bastion
Recommended
Off the top of my head, Bastion might be the oldest game we’ve recommended so far. But if you’ve been missing out like us all these years, you have to give it a try. We’d heard nothing but great things and always intended to get to it, and now that we finally have, we’re loving it.
An isometric action-RPG, Bastion stars The Kid (which keeps my son really invested) as he embarks on an exploration of a stunningly realized fantasy realm. The artwork in this game is relentlessly jawdropping, every frame worthy of a screenshot, and the combat that goes with it is often just as impressive. Tightly constructed with a great difficulty curve, this one may not be one you can play with your kids or maybe they can’t even play it themselves as the difficulty ramps up, but if your family is like ours, you may have some invested spectators as you push back against the corruption of the game’s gorgeous world.
Borderlands 2
Recommended But…
Everybody probably knows Borderlands 2, but we’re highlighting it this week because, like Bastion, we just got around to it. It’s also one of the few AAA games these days that still offers split screen co-op. That’s increasingly, sadly hard to come by.
We’ve given the game our caveat-laden recommendation because it’s rated M and definitely not for most kids. But here’s a tip: If your kids are allowed to play Fortnite, Borderlands 2 can be made to play a bit more like it, and thus isn’t such a big scary game as you might expect. You’ll want to play with the volume on low or mute and shut off subtitles because many characters do swear and say some nasty stuff. But without that portion of the experience, it boils down to a great co-op RPG/shooter that older kids or partners of yours may really enjoy. Every parent should exercise their own discretion when playing with their young ones, so we want to be clear that this game was never built for kids. If you think they can handle it, however, it’s a lot of fun.
gametogether.net 