Quick Tokes / Quick Takes with Logan: Sega Genesis Mini & MORE!

Gaming News can come at you fast but it’s even faster when you are high. I’m Chris Logan of Higher Mentality / Press “X” To Get High, and I’m here to break it down real quick with my thoughts and opinions.

“Blasphemous”

Image Courtesy of https://www.team17.com/games/blasphemous

Blasphemous is a wild ride. This 2D action platformer Souls-like game is hard, but pretty fair. Published by Team17 and developed by The Game Kitchen, Blasphemous is a very interesting take on the genre with its themes of dark, gothic, and vaguely religious imagery. The game focuses on the idea of repentance in its characters and landscape. If you like fun and gory action with a hint of screaming at your TV screen, this is the game for you. Blasphemous was released September 10th on all platforms.

“The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan”
Man of Medan is the most bittersweet of the games on this list for me. Developed by Supermassive Games who created the highly acclaimed Little Big Planet and more specifically Until Dawn.  Man of Medan is an interactive drama survival horror laden with QTE (Quick time events) and Consequence driven choices. I loved Until Dawn and was very excited for what promised to be the first of a slew of these titles in this anthology. Unfortunately, I finished the game in roughly one sitting. Full of bad horror tropes and flat unlikable characters it was completely unmemorable, short, and I found myself questioning if I’ll even pick up the next installment. It dropped August 30th on Windows, PS4, and Xbox One.

“Borderlands 3”

Image Courtesy of https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/borderlands-3-ps4

The King of the looter shooter has returned. After being exiled to the wasteland for many year, Borderlands is back. The colourful eccentric FPS is back with a whole new set of world’s, enemies, and guns to blast your way to more loot and co-op fun. There are lots of new innovations to the formula, but it’s mostly what it’s always been about, a fun addictive gameplay loop to grind away the hours with friends. Gearbox Software has come back with its signature style and humour. I experienced significant technical flaws such as incredible UI lag and I’m hearing of lost save data issues plaguing the games launch. But, that being said, personally I’m excited to spend some more hours in the cell shaded barren worlds over and over again. I’ll see you out there vault hunters. Borderlands was released on Windows,PS4, and Xbox One on September 13th.

“Control”
Control is another game released recently that I was very eager to get my hands on. Developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by 505 Games. Remedy has been making some pretty amazing titles such as Max Payne, and Alan Wake (one of my favorite games ever to be released due to its strange overly narrated story and Twin Peaks feel.) They are coming off of the release of Quantum Break, a game that was divisive amongst the studios long-time fans. I feel like Control will be another one that divides the masses. It is an interesting but strange  – and sometimes convoluted – story. It really feeds you bread crumb after bread crumb and always asks the player to keep waiting without ever really delivering a true payoff. The Core gameplay mechanics feel fluid and keep things interesting but often times I just felt unfilled within my journey of the closed off walls with which Control takes place. I say try it out for yourself, but this long time Alan Wake fan is just left saying, Where is my sequel, Remedy? You can get Control, out now for Windows, PS4, and Xbox One.

“Gears of War 5”
GEARS…. just reciting the words fire me back to chain sawing through Locust and timing out those perfect active reloads. Playing Gears 5 feels so familiar it’s like slipping into a warm bath. It feels smooth, looks great and is everything I want in a Gears Title. But there is something mundane about that…we’ve done this all before. I mean this game can sell systems right? Sure there are all new multiplayer modes, and the story is great, but after six installments of Gears of War, and countless hours dispatching the oncoming horde, it may be time for this soldier to put down his Lancer for good. But I’m just one stoned gamer, and Mileage may vary so try it out for yourself. You can get back into the epic story of Marcus Fenix and the boys now! Gears 5 was released September 10th On Windows, and Xbox One.

“Sega Genesis Mini”

Image Courtesy of Sega

The Sega Genesis Mini (also known as the Mega Drive outside of North America) is another piece to the puzzle that is old consoles being remade into convenient packages that are more accessible to the public. After the success of the NES mini and SNES mini – but also the failure that was the rushed PS one mini – Sega has decided to jump into the party. The Sega Mini is dropping with 42 games a double of the current standard seen with these collections and a pretty darn smooth emulation of the games we grew up on. I’m pretty excited to have a solution to hauling out the old CRT television to get your Sonic fix.  You can pick up the Sega Mini now…if you can find one!

Check out my next article coming soon. I’ll be doing quick tokes, hitting you up with my quick takes. It could be movies, comics, product reviews, or other fun stuff…who knows? But, you can always find me on Higher Mentality’s Twitch Feed for our show Press X to get High at www.Twitch.tv/highermentality420 or my own channel www.twitch.tv/Logan_vs  or at any of our socials at Press X to get high.