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To give proper credit, I saw these ideas presented on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/3yao8c/2016_52_games_in_52_weeks/) and thought I'd steal it over, maybe a wee bit modified. :3
The original suggestion is to aim to complete either a game a month (so 12 games in 12 months), or in a week (52 games in 52 weeks, which is insane, yes).
However, at least the 52 one I think I would modify to simply giving a game a try for a week. It would work well with someone (like me!) with a ton of random games to try but little eagerness to commit to completing them; this would give the player the inspiration or motivation to install the game, try it for a few hours, then uninstall or continue playing it if it's a lot of fun. :P The hardest part is always getting started, right?
Everyone interested in participating could set their own goals! Make a plan that makes sense for your life situation.
TL;DR: Complete or sample either 12 games in 12 months, or 52 games in 52 weeks. :shocked :drool:
You could also create the list of games ahead of time to help keep track and not lose any precious gaming time to making decisions on the fly!
In the movie watching challenge threads we've had people have sometimes grade the movie they've watched, so you could also grade the game or write a longer report on it, either here or the gaming postwhoring thread, whichever makes most sense at the time. :lol:
WHO'S IN?
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...OKAY, I'M IN!!! And I've already made my list! Did some extra shopping on Steam :lol: 9 games for about 26 euros, not too bad... (And I wasn't going to buy anything this year...) OH AND thanks to Stryfe for gifting me some of his extras!!
I may have to make some changes along the way; for instance, if I travel I may have to move around some games. And well, you can never know what life throws at you. But this is where we start!
My goal is to SAMPLE a new game each week for a few hours. Then if I like it, I can continue it later, whenever I have time. lol I want to also have time for my other games, but since I play every day pretty much... I think I can squeeze in a day or two's game session a week for this challenge :P
I also aim to have Wednesday as the day when I pick up a new game.
Most of these games I have never tried before. Some I have played a little before (marked with 'continued'), but have been stuck for one reason or another, and this challenge gives me the reason to finally keep going. The games are PC games unless otherwise indicated.
I tried to list them so that there is variation and I don't have to be exposed to depressing narratives or platform jumping hell for weeks in a row. :lol:
:D = want to play more later
:) = would recommend
Week 1: Euro Truck Simulator 2 :)
Week 2: Fallout 4 (continued) :D
Week 3: Spelunky :)
Week 4: BasketBelle - completed :)
Week 5: Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - [FAIL] :shocked
Week 6: ibb & obb :D
Week 7: Fallout 2 - more play recommended
Week 8: Super Castlevania IV (SNES) :D
Week 9: Tomb Raider: Legend :)
Week 10: Her Story :)
Week 11: Jet Set Radio - [FAIL] :shocked
Week 12: Aerena - about to be closed
Week 13: LISA - :D
Week 14: Rogue Legacy
Week 15: Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition
Week 16: Child of Light
Week 17: Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past (SNES)
Week 18: Just Cause 2
Week 19: Bastion
Week 20: New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)
Week 21: Eldritch
Week 22: Botanicula
Week 23: F.E.A.R.
Week 24: Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash (3DS)
Week 25: S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat
Week 26: Monochroma
Week 27: Beat Hazard
Week 28: Mass Effect 3
Week 29: Dear Esther
Week 30: Super Mario World (SNES)
Week 31: Assassin's Creed II
Week 32: Guacamelee! Gold Edition
Week 33: The Walking Dead (continued)
Week 34: Secret of Mana (SNES)
Week 35: Thief 2
Week 36: Limbo
Week 37: Tropico 3
Week 38: Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Week 39: Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna)
Week 40: Star Fox (SNES)
Week 41: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Week 42: Papo & Yo
Week 43: Half-Life 2
Week 44: Fallout
Week 45: Terranigma (SNES)
Week 46: Monaco
Week 47: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
Week 48: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (continued)
Week 49: Hitman: Blood Money
Week 50: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Week 51: The Stanley Parable (2nd try/continued)
Week 52: Kirby's Dream Land 3 (SNES)
If nobody else signs up I'll just basically turn this into my experience journal thread LOL.
EDIT: I've replaced Mega Man X with Spelunky, gifted by Stryfe (thx!!). I may have played Mega Man before and using the SNES emulator is my least fav part of this challenge, so that would be why I chose to replace it.
EDIT: Replaced Earthworm Jim (SNES) with Jet Set Radio, thanks to Tuffty's tip of it being free on Steam. Also I accidentally tried Earthworm Jim before and it was really hard so... >_>
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Great idea! What a list of games to play as well, so I'm curious to see what you think of some.
Sign me up! I think I will opt for the 12 games in 12 months challenge. I've a number of huge open world games on the go at the moment in Yakuza 5, AC Syndicate, Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 to complete so those would be on my list to finish off. Will have to take a look and see what other games are out already to bulk up the list a bit as well as plan ahead for any games I want to play this year to add to the list. I won't be stuck for choice I think!
January: Life is Strange (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1362422#msg1362422), Beyond Good And Evil (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1363766#msg1363766)
February: Call of Juarez : Gunslinger (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1364864#msg1364864)
March: Broforce (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1367711#msg1367711), Galak-Z (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1368799#msg1368799)
April: Salt and Sanctuary (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1371132#msg1371132), I Am Alive (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1371279#msg1371279), Zombi (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1372062#msg1372062)
May: Invisible Inc (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1373406#msg1373406)
June: Gone Home (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1376007#msg1376007), Uncharted 4 (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1377601#msg1377601)
July: Furi (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1378984#msg1378984). SOMA (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1380361#msg1380361)
August: Inside (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1382639#msg1382639)
September: Hyper Light Drifter (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=40024.msg1385682#msg1385682)
October:
November:
December:
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Either this will be the dumbest or boldest decision I will make for next year:
I will complete 12 games in 12 months and sample 52 games in 52 weeks.
For the 12 games, 12 months challenge I'll include games with multiple endings. Don't know if I'll include those 12 games to the 52 games, 52 weeks challenge. That would mean I would have to play 64 games next year. :panic:
I have a few games that I've bought and never played and a lot that I've yet to continue. Good thing most of them are in series. Just have to space them out so that I don't get bored. Also have a list of games I'm thinking of buying for next year.
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^ YOU CRAZY MOTHAFUCKA! I like it!!!!
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Count me in for 12 games in 12 months. :)
I leave so many games half-played nowadays. I don't remember finishing any video games in 2015. :nervous
Also. I haven't done console/PC gamng for months. XD I'll first have to escape from the gravitational pull of the black hole, better known as Puzzle and Dragons.
Start up with what I got now, then build up on it through the year. (listed in order of how likely I think I'll finish it):
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void
Transformers: Devastation
Tales From The Borderlands Ep1-5
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Dragon Quest Heroes
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Fallout 4
Grand Theft Auto V
Pillars of Eternity
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If one plays 1-2 hours every day and picks only short games it shouldn't be too difficult to finish that 52 challenge.
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I could probably do the 12 in 12, but I have such a bad habit of replaying games XD
We'll see how this goes.
I JUST got Xenoblade two days ago, so I may count that for my January one because I've only played it once since opening and it's a huge open world. We'll see how that goes. Haha!
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I think I have the solution to my dilemma:
Of the 52 games I'll be playing next year, I'll choose which 12 games I plan to complete. Right now I've planned these games and months:
January: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix *Completed
February: [Zero Escape]Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors *Completed
March: Deadpool (I've wanted to play this in February, 'cuz of the movie, but I'll be in the Philippines for 2 weeks :() *Completed
April: Persona 4
May: Professor Layton and the Last Specter
June: Shadow of the Colossus
July: Hotel Dusk - Room 215
August: Uncharted 2 - Among Thieves
September: Radiant Historia
October: Life is Strange*
November: Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
December: The Walking Dead - Season 2
*Unable to accomplish
Don't know which games to play for each week, but I think I have enough until I buy some new games:
Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts - Re:Chain of Memories
Kingdom Hearts - 358/2 Days
Kingdom Hearts II (original PS2 unless I decide to get HD 2.5 remix, then KH II Final Mix)
Kingdom Hearts - Re:coded
Kingdom Hearts - Birth by Sleep
Kingdom Hearts - Dream Drop Distance
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Lego Dimensions
The Wolf Among Us
Game of Thrones - A Telltale Game
Syberia
Syberia 2
Bastion*
Transistor
The Stanley Parable*
Catherine*
Persona 3 - FES
Secret of Monkey Island
Monkey Island 2
The Blackwell Legacy
Blackwell Unbound
Blackwell Convergence
Blackwell Deception
Blackwell Epiphany
Assassin's Creed - Revelations
Assassin's Creed III
[Zero Escape]Virtue's Last Stand
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
The Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Ages
Legend of Zelda - Oracle of Seasons
Phoenix Wright Trilogy (Ace Attorney, Justice for All, Trials & Tribulations)
Ni no Kuni - Wrath of the White Witch
République
Kirby's Adventure
Last Window - The Secret of Cape West
The World Ends With You
The Last of Us - Left Behind (technically DLC, but since I've never finished it, The Last of Us isn't complete to me)
* means 2nd playthough and multiple endings
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Well, I managed a wrecking 17 Games in 2014 and for this year I'm currently at 13 going on 14, so I'm probably save with 12 games in 12 months.
Count me in!
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Thought I would get a head start and begin both challenges immediately.
Month 1, Week 1: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (part of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 remix)
The last time I played the original KH game was over 12-13 years ago on the PS2. Lots of great memories. Endless hours spent listening to Dearly Beloved and Simple & Clean/Hikari instrumental. Bad camera angles though. And don't get me started on the various times Donald and Goofy wasted my supply of potions and ethers. :angry: This time around I'd try to see if I can complete the game in Proud mode. It would be funny to say that I will be dreading the fight against Sephiroth considering he is voiced by Lance Bass. :lol: I hope that by the time I've beaten 'Ansem' I will be motivated to complete all the other KH games this year.
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My first game for 2016: The Last of Us
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OKAY! I'M ENTERING! :cow:
I think what I shall do is the sample one day each week like Shi, but I can continue playing for the rest of the week if I like it! or maybe one day complete it, I don't know.
I'll pick Saturday to do this as my weekday time is super limited (and I'm likely to be asleep, let's be honest)
Also due to the gigantic nature of my backlog I'm going to use the random choice feature on my Backloggery, and force myself to play them, even if it's a Tomb Raider game, but I'll only skip if it's like something 5 and I haven't played 1-4 yet.
Also this may involve me having to hook up an old console to get it working!
Week 01: Alien: Isolation (Steam) (lucky!!!)
Week 02: Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii)
Week 03: Mickey Mouse no Fushigi na Kagami (Gamecube) ..I may have to open the sealed packaging on this one D:
Week 04: Capcom Generations 4 (Saturn)
Week 05: House of The Dead 2 & 3 Return (Wii)
Week 06: Street Fighter V (PS4)
Week 07: Biohazard: Operation Raccoon City (PS3) (Resident Evil)
Week 08: Spider-Man: The Movie (Gamecube)
Week 09: Thief: Deadly Shadows (Steam)
Week 10: Hitman: Blood Money (Steam)
Week 11: Pokken Tournament (Wii U)
Week 12: Conflict: Denied Ops (Steam)
Week 13: Biohazard: Outbreak File 2 (PS2)
Week 14: Scramble Commander (PS2)
Week 15: Katamari Forever (PS3)
Week 16: Sakura Taisen (DC)
Week 17: Dark Souls II (Steam)
Week 18: Fist Of The North Star: Ken's Rage (PS3)
Week 19: Makai Eiyuuki Maximo: Machine Monster no Yabou (PS2) (Maximo)
Week 20: F.E.A.R 3 (Steam)
Week 21: Heavy Rain (PS3)
Week 22: P.N. 03 (Gamecube)
Week 23: Deus Ex: Invisible War (Steam)
Week 24: Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! (PS3) (Yakuza: Kenzan!)
Week 25: Rockman's Soccer (SNES)
Week 26: Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition (PS2)
Week 27: Shellshock 2: Blood Trails (Steam)
Week 28: Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash (3DS)
Week 29: Witcher 2 (Steam)
Week 30: The King Of Dragons (SNES)
Week 31: Ghost Squad (Wii)
Week 32: Capcom Generations 3 (Saturn)
Week 33: Infernal (Steam)
Week 34: Resident Evil Revelations 2
Week 35: Bioshock 2 (Steam)
Week 36: Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii)
Week 37: Sonic And The Secret Rings (Wii)
Week 38: Scramble Commander The 2nd (PS2)
Week 39: Final Fantasy XIII-2 (360)
Week 40: July (DC)
Week 41: Capcom Generation 1 (Saturn)
Week 42: Viewtiful Joe Battle Carnival (Gamecube)
Week 43: Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City (Wii)
Week 44: Ryuu Ga Gotoku 2 (PS2)
Week 45: Demento (PS2)
Week 46: Hotline Miami (Steam)
Week 47: Tomb Raider 5: Chronicles (PS) :smhid
Week 48: Chou-Makai-Mura (SNES)
Week 49: Super Robot Wars F Final (Saturn)
Week 50: RockMan EXE Transmission (Gamecube)
Week 51: Killer 7 (Gamecube)
Week 52: Space Venus: Starring Morning Musume (PS2) :lol: what luck!
I may actually have to get a replacement PS2 looking at this list, mine is a bit busted! Otherwise I'm surprised at how few Steam games it picked, and I only ended up with one Tomb Raider :DD
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Went through my games list and picked some games that I want to play this year, not in this particular order and no guarantee.
Life is Strange
Batman Arkham Knight
The Last Remnant
Xenoblade Chronicles (WII)
Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock 2 - Minerva's Den DLC (does that Count as a game? XD)
Hope I can also finish Dark Souls, Quantum Theory, Battle Princess of Arcadias and FF9.
Games I'll play, if I can get them cheap in a sale: Soma, Until Dawn
And of course Xmas 2016 is hopefully dedicated to Rise of the Tomb Raider on Ps4!
For now The Last Of Us!
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I think I already have a good enough 'feel' of this game, so... :D
Euro Truck Simulator 2
After spending about 25 minutes unsuccessfully trying to back up a truck into its parking space, I knew I would never view trucks the same way again.
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip08934.jpg)
I can't drive. I don't have a driving licence. I was slightly worried about playing this game, as I had heard that it's possible to play it with pretty advanced, even realistic driving settings. However, at the start it was possible to choose very basic controls, which is obviously what I went for. I couldn't even understand the options for the more advanced driving, even if they were in Finnish, so that's my experience level when it comes to cars and driving.
The game doesn't actually ask that much of the player at least with the most basic settings, so trying to drive better or add more challenge is completely up to the player. I drove my first two courses entirely only using WASD and mouse, but then added on proper light use (or at least attempting it) and turn signals. Which sounds very simple, but somehow without muscle memory these things can be tricky to do in time... Without trying to drive better, the game becomes rather boring quite quickly, so the player needs to take some responsibility for how challenging - in a fun way - the game is.
After four to five hours of play I can say that Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a relaxing, decently fun game that can eat up a surprising amount of time once you get on the road. It seems that even if you make quite a few mistakes - crashing, damage to your load or truck, red lights etc. - the punishments are not so harsh that you won't be able to drive again. Things like lane changes, which I am very bad at, the game doesn't even seem to track. I still find it enjoyable to try and get them right all the same. Another fun thing is that there are many routes and destinations to unlock and drive, and those will probably tempt me to keep playing the game a bit more in the future.
Another nice little plus it that you can listen to your own music while driving, although you need to manually copy files to the correct music folder.
All in all, I'm quite happy with Euro Truck Simulator 2 8) If driving has been enjoyable to you in games before, and especially if you have been let down by how simplistic driving controls are in other games, I'd say this game is worth a try.
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^ Sounds like the kind of game I would play while listening to the radio, just like I do in actual driving XD
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Week 1:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00002-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00002.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00004-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00004.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00006-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00006.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00009-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00009.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00012-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00012.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00016-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00016.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00018-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00018.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00021-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00021.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00022-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00022.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 7 hours.
Playing this game on hard at approx 2am in the dark was either the best idea ever or the worst idea ever, I was SCARED and really involved in the setting and felt like I was really part of an Alien movie somehow. The graphics are amaaazing, it started up on ultra setting by itself which for some unknown reason my PC was capable of running smoothly. Every computer and decor is just like the 70's feel of the original movie and you really feel part of it a lot!! This feeling continued for many hours until I got kind of screwed over and stuck at one room where there was only one way in, and all the humans in there would shoot at the door and kill me anytime I tried to enter so I just died repeatedly and suddenly the feeling of ohh...... VIDEO GAMES :/ creeped in and killed it for me a little. I was actually thinking of stopping there but I still hadn't really seen the Alien yet so I continued on for the sake of this thread!
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00015-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Alien%20Isolation/2016-01-09_00015.jpg)
Sorry you guys.
I dropped the difficulty and managed to escape but that just didn't feel good, so I went back in and just made them chase me, then bonked them on the head one by one, haha... also didn't feel good but, eh, what can you do. I've gotten up to a point where the Alien is around a lot and it's super hard to avoid and not be killed instantly by this monster... but exciting at the same time!
Recommended? Yes.
Replay? Yes.
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Status of Kingdom Hearts Final Mix - ~34 hours of gameplay, ~40% of game completed, Sora & Co. are above level 35 after sealing the Agrabah keyhole
Game for Week 2 - Contradiction: Spot the Liar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urFuiFpfXKg
From the Steam store page:
Contradiction is a unique adventure / murder mystery game that uses live-action video for the entirety of the game play. All you have to do is interview characters, spot their lies and catch them out!
Contradiction is a brand new take on the concept of an interactive movie and brings the genre to a whole new level of playability. It plays as smoothly as a 3D graphic game. You can wander freely around the game environment, collecting evidence and witnessing constantly changing events.
But the game is all about interviewing the characters you meet, questioning them about all the evidence you’ve collected and things you’ve seen, then spotting contradictions in their answers. Pair two contradictions together and watch them try to worm out of it!
Works best plugged into a TV preferably with a bunch of people to help spot the lies - but can be played alone on your laptop or PC just fine!
Been on my Steam wishlist for a while, after playing Her Story last year. Might as well buy it for the 52in52 challenge. Installed the game on my crappy old laptop and surprised to see it run smoothly, although the FMVs are a little bit slowed down. Other than that the only problem I've been experiencing is the interface if I'm using a mouse. There were times where I couldn't select something and had to restart the game. Good thing I switched to keyboard controls. Even though I don't have to for the 52in52 challenge, I think I can finish this game this week.
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Dammit, unlike the film challenge, this sounds like something I would do... well would have done, back when I was into gaming. For a few years I actually did try the complete 52 games in one year challenge... never succeeded, the best I ever did was 41 apparently. But yeah, ended up playing a bunch of short games to bulk up the numbers.
But, I'm surprised a couple of you have actually picked out in advance what games you are going to play for an entire year :bleed eyes:
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January (1/12): Life is Strange
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tuffty/Life-Is-Strangetrade_20150328152238_zpsc1wjiyhf.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Tuffty/media/Life-Is-Strangetrade_20150328152238_zpsc1wjiyhf.jpg.html)
Made by the same developers of Remember Me, Life is Strange is the product of what I wanted them to have done next. Because while the concept of Remember Me was interesting and appealing, the execution fell a little flat as it was bogged down with average combat which let the game down overall. Life is Strange also takes an interesting concept (time travel) and scales the gameplay back to a modern day adventure game like The Walking Dead where your investigation and moral decision making can have an impact on the story and your relationships with the supporting characters. What keeps this interesting above it's peers is the time travel mechanic, allowing you to literally rewind time and reverse any decisions you may have made or act as a solution of any puzzles that the game throws at you, which it does often and in interesting ways.
Of course an adventure game is only as good as the story it tells and Life is Strange tells a solid, engaging story around Max, a female teenage art student who has these powers after witnessing a tragic accident on campus. From there the story branches out to include a premonition of the surrounding town being hit by a tornado and the investigation of why it's happening, to the more personal stories surrounding Max's friends and classmates. Few games have a teenage girl as a protagonist or is set in this environment or even approach some of the subject matters that this game does and for that reason I was pretty compelled by it. I wasn't entirely on board with the script, I couldn't tell if some of the dialogue was bad writing or actually good writing in that the writer knew exactly how annoying teenagers talk to each other. But on the whole, it had me interested from start to finish, with plenty of twists and turns that tug at the heartstrings that made me see it through to the end and I'm glad it did. Any good story makes me think about it long after I've finished and I have a feeling I will still do that with Life is Strange. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
8/10
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^ I'm glad you enjoyed Life is Strange as much as I had last year. Like The Walking Dead Season One and The Last of Us, this game was a huge emotional roller coaster. I'd like to add on to your review the soundtrack is amazing, even though most of them are licensed songs. They fit perfectly (with the exception of episode 5 for a specific reason that I do not like to discuss) to many parts of the story.
I can't wait to play this game again in October, but I'm not gonna like the choices I will take this second time, especially for a certain episode which almost gave me a mental breakdown.
For those who are unable to play this game, I'd recommend Geek Remix (https://www.youtube.com/user/GeekRemix/), not only for their let's plays, but their commentaries, theories, and knowledge on various parts of the game.
(btw, you mixed up Max and Chloe. Max Caulfield, the timid, doe-eyed, polaroid loving, brunette hipster is the one with the powers. Chloe Price, the blue-haired, beanie wearing, tattooed pot-head with trust issues, is Max's childhood best friend.)
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Week 2:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_072731-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_072731.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_072432-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_072432.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_074457-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_074457.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_075451-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_075451.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_082730_002-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_082730_002.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_083112_001-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_083112_001.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_093009-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_093009.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_093018-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_093018.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_095609_009-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Battle%20Revolution/20160117_095609_009.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 2.5 hours.
I didn't end up playing this game for long, but I think it was long enough as the game doesn't really change much. If you've ever played Pokemon Stadium or Pokemon Colosseum this is essentially the Wii version of those games, the announcer is back (missing in Colosseum) and the minigames are still not back from the N64 game, sad times.
The presentation is quite nice, and again you can transfer over your pokemon from your DS game and play your team through a set of new challenges and some new game modes, you can also use rental pokemon, which was what I did. The female trainer had pokemon from the original 151 so I picked her \o/ You can also play online.. well you could, but the old Nintendo servers are now shut down.
I'll probably play this again, maybe with my DS pokemon team, mainly because when you complete the game you get a few special pokemon that you can keep ^^
In saying that, even though some of the battles are unique, that's all the is to the game.
Also weirdly the pokemon theme park this game is set in has art deco styling like Rapture, and is floating in the sea. :lol: coincidence?
Recommended? No.
Replay? Yes.
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Week 3 - The Room Three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oD-q8jHTRg
The eagerly awaited sequel to the BAFTA award winning ‘The Room’ (Apple Game of the Year 2012) and ‘The Room Two’ (App Store Best of 2013-14) is out now on iOS & Android devices.
Continuing the story from The Room Two, your obsessive search for the Null results with being lured to ‘Grey Holm’, a mysterious mansion located on a remote island. You must use all your puzzle-solving abilities to navigate a series of trials devised by a mysterious figure known only as “The Craftsman”.
The Room Three is significantly larger than our previous games, taking place in a variety of stunning new environments, each spanning multiple areas. New for The Room Three is the new eyepiece ability which allows you to explore the world in miniature, and also for the first time in The Room series you are able to return to Grey Holm between Chapters and solve its unique puzzles which will decide your fate and determine which of the alternate endings you will experience.
I've been a fan of The Room when I first downloaded the game last year. As soon as I finished that one I immediate downloaded the second game. The Room Three is an excellent addition to the series. Better graphics than the previous game and more challenging puzzles. Reminded me of Myst when I heard there was gonna be multiple endings. Spent about 5 hours solving every puzzle and an additional 30 minutes to get all four endings. I might play all three games back to back later this week.
As for Kingdom Hearts Final Mix: Not much progress last week. Completed Monstro, Sora almost at lvl 40, 4 summons (Simba, Genie, Bambi, Dumbo), and obtained all magic spells (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Cure, Gravity, Aero, Stop). Five worlds left to complete, about 50% of the story to finish plus additional stuff like gummy missions, dalmatians, trinity marks, item synthesis, 100-Acre Woods, Colosseum Cups, and Secret Bosses.
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Week 2: Fallout 4
"They stored me away for 200 years and all I got was this shitty uniform."
(http://i.imgur.com/x3evb0Q.jpg)
I got Fallout 4 on the release day, yet I have only about 9 hours of gameplay. I think that might already reveal that I haven't fallen in love with it instantly. It's hard to say if it's the game's fault or my own laziness in feeling so bothered with having to learn to do new ways of combat quite soon after I feel like I've more or less mastered Fallout 3. The combat has truly felt frustrating, and now that I am less frustrated, I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting more used to it, or because I have been avoiding raiders on purpose, since raiders appear to have (I've said this many time before) an endless supply of molotovs and/or missile launchers. I really don't like it when situations feel unfair. Endless molotovs does feel unfair. But maybe that's just me.
I haven't made it to the more difficult areas yet, obviously, but I'd still say that the game feels overall scarier, possibly because I'm still not comfortable with combat, but when I see a feral ghoul I actually get worried.
I think visually the difference between feral ghouls and ghouls is smaller now. I've only met one ghoul so far, but he was sleeping, so I thought he was a feral ghoul waiting to attack, and I shot him. Imagine my reaction when he got up and returned fire. Had to reload the game because I don't want to be an asshole who shoots harmless ghouls. Oh well...
The world feels more open with going wherever you want to go (that has always been the case in theory but let's be honest here, most people head to Megaton first on Fallout 3, and New Vegas instantly gives you a town to explore, as well). Because of this, my character didn't have a moment where she meets her first ghoul and goes "wait, what happened to you?" like you have in Megaton with Gob. So here we have another example of how more open world means less tight storytelling in some ways. Other than that, the indexical storytelling - signs left in the world for the player to interpret - seem to be just as rich and great as in Fallout 3. The skeletons and other signs of past life. And there are some really fun details of the past way of life, too. I found a broken food automatron (or some.. bakery..tron) with a delicious looking piece of cake inside that could be activated, only to witness the automated tool being unable to pick it up. Darnit.
The doggie can't die, that's nice.
The most bothersome bug I keep getting - I've got this three times in my 9 hours of play - is that sometimes when I open the Pip-Boy, it doesn't load properly, or more like at all. I have to save and reload the game to be able to do inventory management or view the map again, since the map is also on the Pip-Boy. This is quite bothersome. I'm not sure, but I think I also experienced a Protectron teleporting itself. I was trying to follow it inside the Super Duper Mart for personal safety reasons, and suddenly it disappeared and was on the other side of a shelf. Okeydokey!
The settlement building side of things doesn't feel too interesting to me. I don't want to be looting absolutely everything; it actually makes looting less fun for me. I'm even lazy about gun mods normally, but I have a feeling I need to invest in those here to improve my combat prowess. But I did complete the first quest line that involves getting a settlement started, and that felt somewhat fulfilling.
Overall, despite the personal troubles I've had getting into Fallout 4, I'd say it has a lot of promise. I may have been focusing on the negatives, but it has some lovely surprises, too. I've mostly been delighted every time I've approached a 'landmark' and been convinced that I'll have to fight someone, only to find out that people in there are actually willing to work with me. I'm not sure if this is only the north-west corner of the map, but it's nice that it's not only full-on hostile. I swear every time I meet a friendly in this game my reaction is "thank you for not shooting me on sight!!" like, funnily enough, some Wasteland ghouls greet the player character in Fallout 3...
I think I'd recommend the game to anyone who's been enjoying the open world RPGs of recent years; my feeling of the game is that it's similar and different enough to be sort of generally enjoyable to fans of the genre. It does have flaws, yes. I might also recommend to get it when it's on discount for this reason. But it's not a smelling turd of a game. I'll likely continue it, but on an extremely slow pace...
I keep forgetting to take screencaps; this one is from like my first play session...
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The world feels more open with going wherever you want to go (that has always been the case in theory but let's be honest here, most people head to Megaton first on Fallout 3, and New Vegas instantly gives you a town to explore, as well). Because of this, my character didn't have a moment where she meets her first ghoul and goes "wait, what happened to you?" like you have in Megaton with Gob. So here we have another example of how more open world means less tight storytelling in some ways.
Preach! This is a problem I've had with the story from the get go. They craft this fish out of water character that they could have done interesting things with and instead they chose to do next to nothing about it. When you're 200 years out of time you should be looking at the landscape and things like bloatfly's and be like "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" but the player character seems to just take it all in their stride. Same too with the NPC's, they should also see you're just out of the vault but when you walk up to them they just have the stock responses of "Hello there." "Yes?" "Excuse me". It takes me out of it and it seems like a bad mix of trying to craft this fish out of water story and then giving up on it halfway through because the developers probably expect players to already know what things like Super Mutants are and they don't want to be told about it again.
It affects the main narrative too, as something as urgent as seeking out your kidnapped baby son seems to be on the backfoot when you have all this freedom to do what you want. Now, that's a criticism that can apply to all open world games I know, it's a downfall from giving the player the freedom to go at their own pace. But games lately do a better job at keeping you up to speed. The Witcher 3 for example when you're loading the save from the main menu plays a nice animated still with spoken dialog giving a quick recap of what's happening in the main story at this point as the game is loading. That's on top of having detailed, lengthy descriptions of any previous quest you completed that you can read at any time.
Encountered a few bugs in Fallout 4 so far, nothing major but one of the most annoying was that the radio wouldn't play. Even reloading earlier saves didn't fix it. Turns out I had to rest for 24 hours to reset it. I'm playing on PS4 and also noticed some considerable drop in framerate when going inside buildings. And I met a fairly important character by the looks of it and I just can't believe they made a character whose hair clips through her own clothes all the time. They could have made the hair shorter or changed the outfit but no, they stuck with it and I laugh everytime I see her and her clippy hair.
Also, I don't like how quests are so simplified, especially when compared to New Vegas in which case the difference is really staggering (https://i.imgur.com/mAENC.jpg). It amounts to the person asking you to take the quest and your options are Yes, Yes but said in a snarky way and No (But still ends up Yes). And you almost always go to a place just to kill raiders or ghouls, that's it. Fatigue's already kind of setting in. I put points into Charisma as I wanted dialog options to unlock based on my stats but it has little benefit to me other than maybe bartering for a higher reward for a quest. In Fallout 4 your stats really don't seem to matter so much and to my mind it feels less like an RPG when even compared to Fallout 3.
Apologies for the rant! But it's just to back up your impressions of it. Fallout 4 is still a great game that I continue to enjoy but I guess I was hoping after all this time that they would have evolved it a bit more but instead they've simplified it, the weird inconsistent bugs are still there and it doesn't really feel like a true sequel, just purely another Fallout. Even the music is mostly the same.
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Okay, I'm in, I think, maybe... well, we'll see how long it lasts.. at least trying the 52 games tried for now... and I did two games since I started a week behind. Actually started last weekend, and guess it's about time to start a third now...
Game tried 1/52: English of the Dead - Nintendo DS
(http://i.imgur.com/Dc6Wf4K.jpg)
So once upon a time there was an arcade lightgun zombie shooter game by Sega called The House of The Dead. It spawned a number of sequels. For some reason, they decided to take the lightguns away from The House of the Dead II and replace them with keyboards to become The Typing of the Dead... words (and later on phrases/sentences for bosses etc) appeared above the zombies heads, and you had to type them as fast as possible. The aim was to teach you typing and it was a surprisingly fun and hilarious game. Many many years later, they decided to take the keyboards away from The Typing of the Dead, and replace it with the DS touchscreen... So now, words appear above the zombies heads, and you have to write them on the screen which it reads via handwriting recognition (which works quite well here). Now, they also re-badged this as an English teaching game (hence the name). So... given I speak English, but can't speak any Japanese... this would be interesting. Basically for most of the zombies, they show the word in Japanese, and then the word in English, but minus a few letters. So, not being able to read the Japanese word, I have to guess what the English word is, and sometimes multiple options fill the space and I get stuck. But then helpfully the game reads the English word out to you. It also repeats this when you get it right. So far so good. However, for the special missions and the bosses, they mix things up a bit. Have fractions of a sentences you have to put in the correct order and other games like that. But then it came to the Stage 3 Boss and I was completely stumped. Basically, it asks you a question in Japanese and you have to select the correct answer in English... yeah, completely stuck here...
Game tried 2/52: Hatsune Miku: Project Diva extend - Sony PSP
(http://i.imgur.com/XI9eWQk.jpg)
So this is the 3rd game in the series, and I've completed the first 2 some years ago. It's a rhythm game with vocaloid songs and very good. #2 added gameplay elements but extend doesn't, it's just more songs... It's really good fun, and so far I've completed (at least on normal) about half of the songs so far and aim to play it through to completion. I still don't like the using both hands to hit some buttons thing they added in 2nd, but hey. Strangely, so far, it's the slower songs which stump me, with getting the timing for those right I find difficult. I tend to enjoy the songs more on harder difficulties, but then when it uses all the buttons on the PSP, I sometimes get stuck and confused which symbol maps to which button on the PSP... yeah, I was never much a PlayStation guy so find it hard to remember...
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1/12 StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
(only played SP on casual. Don't judge me...) :P
Nothing much to say about the gameplay. Pretty much the same button-clickfest RTS gaming.
More missions that I was expecting.
And it was a really nice wrap up for the series story and its characters. :heart:
One down. Eleven to go.
Onto Transformers Devastation. You got the touch!~ :)
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Week 3: Spelunky
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip08958.jpg)
Spelunky is a roguelike. It's like Binding of Isaac in a platform jumper form, meaning that it takes a long time to master (or even become half decent). I'm still in the process of "mastering" The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth myself, so unfortunately I do not have the time to master this game... And not necessarily the interest 8)
There are lots of good things about the game. The controls are pretty smooth as long as your muscle memory remembers correctly which key does what (I have issues). It's quite easy to figure out what you should be doing by just doing and encountering stuff. However, actually doing "what you should be doing" is not always so easy. About 80% of the time your death is entirely your own fault, and I admit after a stream of failures it starts to hurt. (Because the game is roguelike and everything is randomized, I am reserving 20% to shitty luck.) I only managed to beat level 1-4 twice in three hours. Can you imagine how much death was included in those three hours? And after each death you start from the very beginning again. Which is particularly annoying if you manage to die immediately upon finally reaching 2-1. But basically TL;DR THIS GAME IS HARD. It's not quite as charming or addictive as Isaac is to me, and I didn't make it far at all, but I still think it's a good game and I would recommend it to anyone who is up for a challenge, especially in a 2D platformer form.
Basically, not my cup of tea/not what I'm into right now, but definitely not a bad game.
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2/12 Transformers Devastation
So Bayonetta with a G1 Transformers skin? Totally for me! :lol:
Some things that hurt the game. Seven short chapters with each one taking around an hour. Environment is pretty bland, basically running around 2 maps. And the Weapon/item system is a little too convoluted.
But playing characters like Optimus in their G1 cartoon version was fantastic. :)
Next up. Tales From The Borderlands
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation01.jpg~original)(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation05.jpg~original)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation06.jpg~original)(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation10.jpg~original)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation12.jpg~original)(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/transformers%20devastation13.jpg~original)
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Week 3:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/1-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/20160123_145140-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/20160123_145140-350.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/20160123_150206-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/20160123_150206.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/2-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/2.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/3-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/3.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/4-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/4.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/5-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/5.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/6-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/6.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/7-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Mickey%20Mouse/7.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 3 hours.
Again like last week I didn't end up playing this game for long, but I think it was long enough as I was actually extremely close to the end. This was not a continuation of the great Capcom Mickey platform games as I thought it was, it's actually a point and click adventure where Mickey's soul is sucked out of his body and trapped in a mirror because he decided to trust a ghost. Never trust a ghost in a mirror!
The puzzles aren't too hard and there's no dialogue whatsover, it's all done by gestures and Mickey saying "Hot dog!" "mmmm" "hmmmm" "haha!" over and over again, definitely a game for kids! As I mentioned I was 2 pieces away from completing the mirror and finishing the game even in 3 hours, it wasn't too hard at all, you could usually figure out the puzzles easily.
Also if you check out the screenshots, Capcom snuck in a few rooms that are straight from Resident Evil one including the main mansion hall.
WOW, WHAT A MANSION!
Recommended? If you want something quick and love Mickey!
Replay? I actually turned the game off before completing it so that I could play it again. but.. we'll see!
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Game tried 3/52: Sturmwind - Sega Dreamcast
(http://i.imgur.com/bQSsJ4I.jpg)
This is one of those posthumous commercial homebrew games released for the Dreamcast. And, like, most of those, it's a shoot-em-up. This one horizontal. And I don't much like horizontal shooters, they play completely differently to vertical ones, with enemies coming from all sides, often more solid walls etc, and not constantly scrolling etc. What's interesting about this one is the weaponry system, which you are constantly playing with. There are 3 weapons, and each can be switched between at any time. The power-up icon can be used to add a drone (up to 2) to any of these weapons, and the usual shoot the icon with change the power-up icon between the 3 weapon types. If you collect it when it's on a weapon that you aren't using, you don't get anything. Now, when you get hit, you actually just lose the ability to use your current weapon. And if you pick up that weapon's power-up icon, you gain that ability back. So the weapos types are kindof like lives as well. So you have to juggle and restock those. Also, as I said, this game is very multi-directional, and you can switch your main weapon (and drone) separately to fire forwards or backwards. So it's very useful to have a drone to fire in both directions for the cases you need it. Also, only one weapon type can fire up or down, but it's annoying to do so, as holding the fire button rotates the shot direction from behind to in-front. So you need to control your tapping to shoot in the direction you want. Apart from that, the game has an arcade mode with 6 normal stages, but this is kindof the extra to the "normal" mode which has 16 stages, and basically you unlock one by completing the previous level, but can pick to start each level separately, you don't have to start from the beginning each time. So each level is it's own challenge, and indeed, some of them are just a boss fight.
Here's the launch trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN9mdItmoBs
On a related note, my controller port 1 for my Dreamcast finally died (this is a common problem) so I'm using controller port 2 for now. But kinda want to pick up another unit, hopefully one not as horribly yellowed as mine, which may be hard. Also, instead of playing this, I spent more time playing another posthumous commercial homebrew shoot-em-up, Fast Striker ver1.5. That one is a lot more fun, as is vertical. And was actually a commercial homebrew project for the NeoGeo.
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Game completed 1/12: Sturmwind - Sega Dreamcast
As above post. Well, I went through and finished all the levels on normal mode. Kinda weird cuz first time after the end, it kinda froze and then went back to the main menu, so I had to beat the last level again and the credits did actually roll... I was a bit confused. Anyway, I can see why people go on about the graphics here - they do pull out loads of tricks. And the levels are all really varied in gameplay and graphical elements etc. But, I dunno, still kindof an average game for me cuz I'm not into that kind of game much. And the last level/boss was a bit disappointing. One annoying thing in this game, is sometimes there's too many effects and things and similar colours to backgrounds and you don't see the thing that killed you the first time.
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Week 4 - Rhythm Heaven/Rhythm Tengoku Gold
(http://i.imgur.com/o8e8Sy2l.jpg)
Anyone else bought this game because Tsunku produced the music? Bought the Japanese version at Anime Expo 2009, I believe a few hours after Tsunku's panel. :nervous Anyway, finished 30 levels so far, 20 bonus levels to go. A few were easy. The rest, difficult until I got the pace and tempo right. 13 years of playing the clarinet paid off when it come to rhythm. :lol: Maybe in the future I'll get to getting all perfect medals. For now, just completing all 50 levels is good enough for me.
Update on Kingdom Hearts Final Mix: about 95% complete
- All keyholes sealed
- All 99 dalmatians found
- All Trinity Marks located
- All Summons found
- All keyblades, shields, and staves found, bought, won, or synthesized
- All mini-games played
- All Colosseum Cups completed (together, solo, time trial)
- All synthesis items made
- All 3rd-tiered spells learned
- All Heartless, included exclusive ones, found and defeated
- Sora, Donald, & Goofy at level 100
A lot of progressed made since my last post. And to think all I had to do was give all the AP, Defense, and Strength boosts to Sora. :banghead: Before that I had difficulty not only in defeating some bosses, I had problems with a few Heartless and wasting a ton of potions and ethers. With all those stat boosts, I was going through enemies in single hits.
As for level grinding: a lot faster than I had anticipated, especially after beating Riku in Hollow Bastion. I think after synthesizing about 15 items I got the Encounter Plus ability, which increases the rate and spawning of Heartless. And a certain accessory that gave me an additional 20% exp for every Heartless defeated. I was getting almost 100-200 exp for every enemy. Synthesizing 2 more exp boosting accessories gave me an additional 50% increase. Most of the hours of gameplay were obtaining synthesis materials, and a rare shield and staff for Goofy and Donald that are rarely dropped from Defenders and Wizards (~0.02% drop rate). :fainted: Having 3 Lucky Strike abilities to increase drop rates made things a little bearable.
All those hours spent on farming items and level grinding were worth it.
Why?
I fucking beat Sephiroth on Proud Mode!!!! :cool1:
(http://i.imgur.com/EkiMefCl.jpg)
Took me 3 tries to beat him. 3 tries. Back when I played the original PS2 game on normal mode it took me days to beat him. At max level. With the Ultima Keyblade. :bleed eyes: The first two attempts he got me with one move where all my MP is gone and my HP is dropped to 1. Used Sonic Blade only once, Ragnarok maybe as well, and 1 or 2 Elixirs. All I can remember is casting Aeroga and Curaga throughout the match, a few hits here and there, and a lot of dodge rolls and jumping to evade most of his attacks. Everything went so quickly I wouldn't be surprised that I only fought Sephiroth in less than 10 minutes.
With the 'One-Winged Angel' out of the way, only 1 more Secret Boss left to fight before going after Ansem. Also need to complete those gummi missions, find all the gummi ship blueprints, and fill out Jiminy's journal entries.
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Another one to add for January!
January (2/12): Beyond Good And Evil HD
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tuffty/miackmygpomnkht0ios3_zpsb0j4i3kc.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Tuffty/media/miackmygpomnkht0ios3_zpsb0j4i3kc.jpg.html)
In today's industry it's now common practice for companies to resell older games for the latest consoles. Capitalising on their lack of pure backwards compatibility, particularly for PS4, it's often criticised as a quick money making scheme for developers to put in a little work prettying up a fan favourite game and selling it again for hardcore fans and newcomers alike. There is an upside to the consumer for this however as players can get the opportunity to play games they may have missed as they move through console generations or as certain games become more difficult to obtain. Re-releases combined with digital distribution makes it easier than ever to visit these games. That is certainly true for myself as I got Beyond Good And Evil HD and I'm glad I did.
Showered with praise as a PS2 cult classic, I went into the game without knowing much about it and was immediately thrown for a loop by the opening as the game drops you into a bizarre world and scenario which leaves you to work the rest for yourself. There are no lengthy cutscenes or exposition, you're simply introduced to Jade and before you can question why her Uncle is a walking, talking pig or why she lives in a futuristic lighthouse with orphans, the story is pulling you along. Some broad strokes get filled in along the way, you're an inhabitant of a planet along with other humans and anthropomorphic animals that are frequently under attack from an alien race known as the DomZ and the planet is protected from these aliens by a security group known as the Alpha Section. Sure enough, Jade gets wrapped up in discovering that the Alpha Section aren't as clear in their intentions as they claim to be and she joins with a resistance group to go on a conspiracy hunting adventure. I thought it was really well told with Jade a good protagonist. What makes her interesting is that while she can defend herself with a staff, her greatest weapon and the core of the game, is her camera and how she can document what she finds to uncover the truth, a good example of video game action that doesn't have to involve pulling a trigger or breaking a few limbs and still be interesting.
It's a tightly focused game and that extends to the actual gameplay itself. Over the course of the 10 hours it took me to complete I was surprised at how many varied things I was doing and how it all seemed to blend together seamlessly, keeping my attention throughout. There's exploration through platforming, stealth sequences, a fluid (if very simple) combat system...it even had an open world RPG feel as you can explore the over-world in upgradeable vehicles and linear dungeon areas. There are side activities to do as well like wildlife photography, mini games and racing. The only game that I can think of to compare it with would be Zelda and like it, it all works really well to create a rich and lively world that demanded my attention into a game I couldn't stop playing. There are frustrations, I was really fighting with the camera to have it work for me sometimes but those frustrations were not enough to stop it from being a very enjoyable game and I can now add myself to the list of people hoping that it will finally get a sequel.
8/10
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Week 4: Basketbelle
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip08974.jpg)
The reason why I'm posting so early this week is that I managed to beat this game in 55 minutes. :lol: Maybe less, because I paused it a few times.
Basketbelle is a lovely indie game with a cute little story, a quite unique graphics style, good music implementation, and fun ways of using a basketball. It's an incredibly short game and I felt that jumping in particular felt a bit slow and clumsy, but despite these very minor 'flaws', it's one of those little game creations that is worth it just to experience something different. Nobody recommended this game to me; I somehow found it during the latest Steam sale and it looked interesting to me, and I wasn't disappointed. So hooray for random discoveries 8)
I'd recommend it to someone who wants to sit down one evening to experience something a little special.
The developer seems to have other interesting stuff, too: http://www.onemrbean.com/
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Week 4:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1358-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1358.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1355-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1355.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1329-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1329.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1357-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1357.JPG)
Time Played? 3 hours.
OLD ARCADE GAMES ARE REALLY HARD
So yes, Capcom Generations 4 on Sega Saturn is a collection of these, and specifically Capcom's upscrolling Run & Gun shooters which are: Commando, Mercs and Gunsmoke.
Commando (Senjō no Ōkami)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1361-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1361.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1422-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1422.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1424-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1424.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1430-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1430.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1435-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1435.JPG)
This is one of Capcom's first games, and influenced a lot of others at the time. It's pretty much a WW2 style run and gun game, but you can shoot in all directions and throw grenades straight up. A main source of the difficulty for me is not being able to see the enemies bullets, which are the same colour as yours so it can be really confusing. This is probably due to these games being vertical shooters, in the arcade these have portrait aligned monitors so the game fills the whole screen up, but here on the home version it's in the right ratio but really small.
Anyway, I got stuck after a while and had to quit :lol: you can see how great I did on the first level in the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W11tmPuWxBc
Mercs (Senjō no Ōkami II)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1370-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1370.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1368-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1368.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1390-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1390.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1412-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1412.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1416-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1416.JPG)
So if Commando is WW2, this is RAMBO!! everyone takes their tops off and starts shooting everything, blowing everything up and destroying a dam with a flamethrower. The main improvements over the first game are 3 players, vehicles and the grenade is actually useful now and makes a massive explosion \o/
Luckily freeplay was on and I was able to make it to the end of the game, it was still just as hard as the first one but with an energy bar and being able to continue from where you left off. Awesome :DDD
I found the rocket launcher had the most satisfying pew pew noise (please excuse my clicking)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTeSd0wSZwc
Gunsmoke
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1438-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Capcom%20Generations%204/SAM_1438.JPG)
Okay this was TOO HARD, haha. It was made a little after Commando but instead of having one shoot button it has three, so you can shoot in three directions, or others with some button combos. I... never made it past the first level and even my camera turned itself off in disgust XDD It has the same invisible bullet problem as Commando except in this case it really is true because they're the same colour as the ground and there are pebbles everywhere D:
Recommended? Yes. well, just play Mercs!
Replay? Yes. Mercs.
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Game Tried 4/52 Rush Rush Rally Racing - Sega Dreamcast
(http://i.imgur.com/Aj8PEgm.jpg)
Another independently released posthumous Dreamcast game - and for once not a shooter! This is a top-down racing game in the style of Micro Machines - and since Micro Machines 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, I was really looking forward to trying this one out. And it delivers! The gameplay is just like that, with the cars sliding about in a really enjoyable manner. This one has 10 standard tracks in single-player mode which you have to go through in a campaign with 3 continues. The tracks are really varied with good design, a couple of shortcuts and jumps, Micro Machines style, and some tracks which take place in a large city with other streets available, reminiscent of the original GTA. When you run over cows and pedestrians, the blood splodge graphic is much like GTA as well. Highly recommended. Only slight downpoints is the music, and the small number of tracks.
Here's the trailer, I think the game is also available on WiiWare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i42KijPx6Vs
Game Completed 2/12 Rush Rush Rally Racing - Sega Dreamcast
Yeah, so you have to place in the top three to finish a track, and after a bunch of goes, I managed this, and the credits rolled! However... then I found out when the achievements unlocked, that by default the game places you in Easy mode... so... maybe I'll go back through on Normal, or, I've heard if you place 1st in each track there is a bonus 11th track.
I mentioned in the Gaming Postwhoring Thread (http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=20042.msg1363189#msg1363189) that I heard of a couple of new (2014/2015) Dreamcast vertical shooters, so I got them. And they are my next two played games. I don't think I'm going to be as strict as others here on one game a week, and, also, there are definitely weeks I'm away, so for me the aim is 52 in the year:
(http://i.imgur.com/9ALJFeT.jpg)
Game Tried 5/52 Neo XYX - Sega Dreamcast
So this is a new (2014) vertical shmup for the NeoGeo, released on the Dreamcast. It looks and sounds brilliant. It's just put together outstandingly. It is also hard as balls.
The controls are typical Cave-style, C for auto-fire wide shot, A for slower movement and more focussed shot, B for bomb. Now I think I'm getting the hang of it a bit more, in that the C movement is super fast, so you are meant to use that to zip about a lot, and also bomb a lot. This is due to the bomb collecting method, which is interesting, in that you pick up these "bomb fragments" a lot, and several of those gives you a bomb. So there's a lot of that. Also, an interesting chaining item scoring system. On the whole a really nice, challenging game.
Here's the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OGpcCsOD0
Game Tried 6/52 Ghost Blade - Sega Dreamcast
Ghost Blade is another independent release for the Dreamcast from 2015, and another vertical shooter. Coming from playing Neo XYX, the initial impression is that everything is sluggish. Your ship speed is slow, the enemies are slow, their bullets are slow, there's lots of slowdown etc etc. So initial impressions are it's a bit boring compared to Neo XYX. But, over time, I enjoy it in it's own right. There are different ship types, and the controls are Cave-esque as per Neo XYX, but it's just a very different style of shooter. And a lot lot easier, and also rewards you with lots of bombs if you score correctly. I can make it up to stage 4 on this one so far, so will likely try for the 1CC.
Again, here's the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHD9
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3/12 Tales From The Borderlands
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_07.jpg~original)
Some of the most memorable and fun gaming moments I've had in a long time.
Surprisingly mixing the Borderlands world with TTG's game-mechanics getting 100% success. A great adventure with characters I got so attached to. Filled with laugh scenes, and action, and drama, and plain crazy. Fantastic! The script writers and the awesome voice cast should really be praised for pulling it off.
There's the one letdown TTG has with all their games though. The choices really don't matter that much. Sure it'll affect scenes, but not in a way you hope it would.The story will still basically go through the same path.
But that's just picking at things. This game is perfect. xxoo :heart:
Take a bunch of spoiler pics! (smallened for ppl who haven't played it yet)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_01.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_04.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_05.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_08.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_12.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_22.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_24.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_26.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_30.jpg~original)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_32.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_36.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_45.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_50.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_55.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_58.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_61.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_63.jpg~original) (http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/kyot777/video%20games/tftborderlands_64.jpg~original)
Again. Spoilers. if you want to see one of the most epic fights of all time. Search youtube for "borderlands finger gun" :bow:
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Month 2, Week 5: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=869azSXO1BI
If I had to describe this game, I would say it's part Saw, part Battle Royale, and part The Poseidon Adventure. A visual novel with 'escape the room' puzzles. There are six endings to this game, 3 which are bad and descriptively gruesome, 1 neutral, and 1 true good ending. I don't count the last ending since it's more of 'To Be Continued' until you meet certain requirements to reach the final part of the game. I've had this game for years and only completed 4/6 endings. I think I was tired of playing the same puzzles over and over again and searching for every single piece of line or dialogue. This time however I've got a notebook to write down all the solutions and draw a chart for which rooms lead me to which ending.
From what I remember the first time I played this game was "There's a lot of reading to do." :lol: I think that's a good thing. I've enjoyed the visual novel parts of the game, the suspense in trying to get these characters to survive before their 9 hours are up. And through the various endings I've learn more about the characters. As for the escape the room puzzles, a nice amount of difficulty. Also love the comments the characters make. Unfortunately, it becomes dull after repeating them over and over for all the endings.
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I'm running into a bit of a problem here... I can't play Deus Ex because it's too anxiety-inducing. T_T I was completely failing the stealth part of the training, and nearly died in the final part of the training section (because when trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do the bot saw me >_>). AND THAT'S JUST THE TRAINING!!! Then I started a new game, was trying to be stealthy, but noticed a bot coming my way and had nowhere to go and insta-quit because it was too scary...
Stealth games are so not for me hey... How many more do I have on my list... T____T
I don't know what to do now, it's so scary...
Somehow I thought Deus Ex was one of those games where you just do random shit, I didn't know you have to actually be good 'n shit... :lol:
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If it makes you feel any better even though I got past the tutorial I got super stuck and couldn't continue soon afterwards ^^; no idea what to do or where to go.
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First game for 2016 finished!
The Last Of Us
(not really a review XD)
After slmost three years of media hype and extreme bullying from my friends how awesome this game is and "why the hell haven't you played this masterpiece yet?" (it's not that I didn't want to XD) I'm finally done with it!!!
Pro
- story (simple but effective)
- characters
- world and atmosphere
- enemy AI (when working in my favour)
- good gameplay
Con
- weapon upgrading felt useless
- Ellie running around in front of enemies without being seen, really broke the atmosphere
- enemy AI (when working against me)
- bad, bad gameplay, because I SUCK at stealth games!!!!
30h07m56s filled with 279 painful to watch deaths!!!! My deaths! :banghead:
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Week 5:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1455-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/l7whjsgfica95tc/SAM_1455.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1447-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/longb1ihmpmwgs5/SAM_1447.JPG?dl=0)
Time Played? until my fingers hurt.
OLD ARCADE GAMES ARE AWESOME
This is a Wii collection of 2 of Sega's arcade classics, House of the Dead. Now... where the hell is 1? Well it's either, Sega had a Model 2 and Model 3 emulator available for Wii but not Model 1. Or it's these are the PC versions of the game ported over, which is what I suspect because 2 looked MUCH better on Dreamcast, here it's pretty low res and jagged..but still fun!!
3 came out on original Xbox so I didn't get to play it until now.
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1456-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/kphfrtw3e7h2bpq/SAM_1456.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1459-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/zm9ufhk7hgjrlzp/SAM_1459.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1463-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/mde4fpn5sv2tyn6/SAM_1463.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1472-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ad7fz4rj1vf53z6/SAM_1472.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1473-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbm8cpg8k21i4t6/SAM_1473.JPG?dl=0)
This one I had on Dreamcast and played LOTS so I know it very well, great fun arcade game :DD lots of things in the background are shootable, and the game follows multiple routes depending on what you do/shoot or people you save. It is really hard so you have to play it again and again, but you get better at it, find other ways to go.. it's great! Another thing that's great about it is, TERRIBLE VOICE ACTING which was at a time when it totally wasn't done on purpose, so it was actually hillarious!
Here's a video of me playing the first level:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mDdQV6OHyc
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1477-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/vm0u85h2aj6xusg/SAM_1477.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1481-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/21n8eo9nwps6mrx/SAM_1481.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1483-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/2sl6jru5rgn9g3e/SAM_1483.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1484.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6g8tmnmofrltlk/SAM_1484.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/House%20of%20the%20Dead/SAM_1488-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2sd3zeln02z03p/SAM_1488.JPG?dl=0)
Now this game is quite different! the first difference is the guns have changed from pistols to shotguns, so you do much more damage than before, but you can shoot just as far and fast as before, so it's fine. Another difference is it's a lot easier, maybe because of the guns, I don't know? You shoot your way through a high rise building and this time you can choose what floors to get off at and play the levels in any order you want. Also there are no hostages, you just have to rescue the other player (maybe it's different in 2P mode?)
Here's a video of me playing one of the levels (I zoomed in too much, sorry!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BtZaLAfqB8
The Wii is probably the last console that was capable of releasing old light gun games in a collection because of the wiimote, and old light gun games no longer working on new TVs (the ps3 wand too I suppose, but not many people actually have those? WiiU doesn't come with wiimotes either..) so it's a shame that only most, but not all of Sega's light gun games were brought out.
No HotD1, no Confidential Mission no Virtua Cop, also I would love a Time Crisis collection, but that would probably be on PS3 ... which is also discontinued now so.. sheesh XD
Recommended? Yes!
Replay? Yes, over and over again :twisted:
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Week 5: Deus Ex - Game of the year edition... kinda
Maybe I won't even bother with a photo. I explained before in this thread that my sampling of the game was cut short because the game was too anxiety-inducing for me. Stealth games... ohohoo. I still got further by doing the sampling challenge than I ever would have without it, so that's cool! I'm a little bummed because I think the game could have had a lot to offer and I was a little intrigued with what was happening in the game world storywise, but eh. Couldn't do it.
In other news, I received a new USB SNES controller this weekend, so I gave a try for a few SNES games to half-assedly make up for missing out on Deus Ex. I think Kirby's Dream Course was the most fun one because I was able to actually get through a few of the courses... A lot of SNES games are just really hard, man. :P
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That's a shame about Deus Ex. There's a lot to that game design that was revolutionary at the time, huge environments, different methods to complete an objective etc. But I can totally understand why it's intimidating though, there's a lot of mechanics at work all at once!
The story does a lot of cool things and goes interesting places. One of my favourite moments from the game comes from an existential conversation between Denton and Morpheus, an AI, which is something that can be missed on any playthrough. It touches on subjects that when you listen to it now, were quite prophetic considering it was released 16 years ago.
d (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-bijO3uEw)
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February (3/12): Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tuffty/2013-05-22_00008_zpsi7tndilm.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Tuffty/media/2013-05-22_00008_zpsi7tndilm.jpg.html)
A digital only title released 3 years ago, Call of Juarez is a first person shooter set in the Wild West. The story revolves around Silas Greaves, a bounty hunter who makes it to a saloon and beings recounting stories from his past to a receptive audience of a more civilised time. What sets it apart from other shooters is that as you play the levels, Silas is also narrating the story as you're playing which then affects what you're doing in the game. The bare bones of the level will be there for you to go from point A to B but as you progress he might say "And that's when I was ambushed by bandits" and next thing you know bandits show up and you have to fight them off. I've also seen him say "The barn just appeared right in front of me" and you actually see the barn being made as part of the level for you to go into. His audience also interjects at times, I've progressed all the way to the end of a level only to be teleported straight back and replay it differently because someone poked out a flaw in his story and so Silas had to retell it. Silas stories are indeed unbelievable considering he brushes up with famous figures from history like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and that often makes him an unreliable narrator, which keeps things slightly unpredictable from a storytelling and even on a gameplay front. But it doesn't get frustrating, as there's a bit of humour in there and you often want to see what the game has to offer next. My disappointment is that the gameplay itself is little more than just shooting any enemy you see peeking behind a corner, there are no grand set piece moments to speak of which the story could have allowed.
The actual run and gun gameplay of Call of Juarez fits comfortably like a well worn cowboy's hat. Adopting the same control scheme of any modern shooter, the mechanics are the same even though the dressing around it changes to fit the setting. So grenades become dynamite, blood on the edges of the screen to indicate you're hurt become bullet holes, pistols are six shooter revolvers etc. The difference between this and Call of Duty however is it strictly feels like an arcade shooter, focusing on killing enemies extravagantly and quickly in exchange for experience points. Being able to kill an enemy with a headshot is more impressive than a shot in the arm for example which in turn gets you more XP and you are rewarded for dispatching enemies quickly, as it builds up a multiplier score the more you kill. These experience points then feed into a levelling system, allowing you to pick out skills which benefit you such as faster reload times, being able to hold more ammo, a bullet time mode, being able to shoot dynamite out of the air etc There are three tiers of skills for those who prefer dual wielding pistols, marksman rifles and close quarter shotguns, but I stuck with the first two as shotguns were rare to find during levels and ultimately not of much benefit to me because you die so quickly in the game that there's no benefit to take the risk of getting up close.
At the end of each level you will have a showdown with Silas's bounties. These play out exactly as you would expect from a spaghetti western as the two of you lock eyes. The aim is to use the left analog stick to get your hand close by to your gun while the right analog stick is to focus on the person opposite you and you have to manage the two together. After a time, a heart pounding will sound indicating it's time to draw and kill the man opposite you before he does the same to you. You can do it immediately but that counts as a dishonorable death. Waiting until your opponent draws first and then pulling your own gun out counts as an honorable death, granting you an XP bonus, but obviously requires quicker reaction times. It maps the tension behind a showdown pretty well, but I died so many times trying to go for the honorable death for what I felt was seemingly no fault of my own so this mode frustrated me more often than not.
Speaking of frustration, this game is a serviceable shooter but I feel that I was really hampered by the PS3 controller I was playing it with. Having used the PS4 controller for a while as well as the 360 controller, going back to using the PS3 controller for this made me see how it just isn't used to shooters. The analog sticks don't line up the same way I would expect and so I had a bad time trying to line up shots and that often wound up in me getting killed due to the game being unforgiving in how many bullets you can afford to take. Not necessarily a knock on the game itself, but that was my experience of it at least. As a minor note as well, Call of Juarez also has collectibles scattered throughout the levels to find and in typical Ubisoft fashion, these are meaningful and worth seeking out as each one has actual history facts about events and characters from the Wild West.
Not much else to say really, I thought it was a decent shooter with some cute moments lent by the game's narration that was entertaining but can't really say much more than that as you're doing the same thing over and over throughout the course of the game by shooting at disposable bandits until you reach the end of a level. I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap decent shooter while yearning for a decent Western story to be told as well. And whatever you do, don't play it with a PS3 controller.
7/10
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Week 6:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160213211653-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/f9oa6l112pkpuvh/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160213211653.jpg?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214021624.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctegcabjtq6kial/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214021624.jpg?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160213212623-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwtdaa1bbsl9z6u/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160213212623.jpg?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214001822-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/m1pqf95ehmpstjb/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214001822.jpg?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214022656-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/03sz2syoltd52jy/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214022656.jpg?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214023900-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/3v3syomhgmfn4ar/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214023900.jpg?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Street%20Fighter%20V/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214135816-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/wciqsvs9656pyuo/STREET%20FIGHTER%20V_20160214135816.jpg?dl=0)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 10 hours.
Surprise! Okay, I got a copy of this several days early and I spent all weekend playing it, so I swapped this week's original game for a later week.
This game is really good! hard, but yeah, very enjoyable. I am struggling a little with it, which I suspect is the PS4 controller's fault, also due to all the people playing are beta testers or reviewers, and they are kicking the crap out of me XDD I decided to play as Chun-Li which may have been another bad decision as she doesn't seem too strong and has a short range, but seeing as she is a short character, it's nice that it has an effect this time!
The game as it is has a short story mode for each character, which does seem to just be a prelude for the cinematic story mode that's coming for free in the summer. It also has a survival mode and (this was added in a patch today!) challenge mode.
What it does not have, and this is the first time in a Street Fighter game ever, is an Arcade Mode. The only way to play against AI characters is in Survival Mode or training, and there is NO FINAL BOSS or secret characters or anything. It seems to be geared more to online play, and Capcom Fighters Network is the biggest icon on the screen.
Online play is smooth (although in the first patch it chugged along for the first few seconds) and there are some killers out there already, which can lead to some depressing win records as people have been beta testing and reviewing for months now.
All of this could change! it's still not out until the 16th, and I've already had my data wiped from the server once already :nervous because I'm a bad boy who is playing early.
Hopefully these screenshots won't get me in trouble, and this is also why there's no video ^^;;
Another good thing is it takes screenshots anytime you earn a trophy! so.. that's where 99% of these screenshots came from XD
Recommended? Yes.
Replay? I will be playing this all year, pretty much!
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Week 6: Ibb & Obb
(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip08989.jpg)
Ibb & Obb is a two-player co-op puzzle game, kind of like a 2D Portal 2. I started playing the game solo ( :? ), but soon realized that eventually I would not be able to get the timing right trying to control both characters, so I asked Stryfe to play with me. There's no text chat option in the game, so we couldn't communicate properly, but were still able to make progress eventually, so that was fun! lol We have not beat the game, but I hope we'll still play it in the future.
To me, the game is fun and almost relaxing, except those times when you have to ponder a bit about the next move, tho I wouldn't call it exactly stressful then either. Dying is not a big deal; you don't get thrown back a long way, you just need to try that one bit again. I like this! Not every game has to be a pain in the ass (aka "challenging")!
I can't tell yet what the game is "worth" because I don't know how long it is (and I received it for free, anyway), but at least now initially it's been a nice, light gaming experience, with very simple controls, so I think you could play it even with someone who's not a very experienced gamer. :D
I'm pleased!
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Second Game for 2016 finished!
Battle Princess of Arcadias
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2GgQVXyZ3Y
A sidescrolling JRPG that feels and looks similar to games like GrimGrimoire or more closely Odin Sphere.
I loved the look and Music and the characters (as cliched as they are) are all likeable.
The gameplay is fun, though involved some grinding, but that was probably only the case for me XD
I started the game in december, playing all the tutorial stuff, then left it a few weeks and when i came back, I had forgotten most of the controlls.
Since the game is so niche the Internet wasnt helpful at all!
That left me in big trouble in the combat mode called "Skirmishes" where you have to give commands to your fighting brigades and I couldn't figure out how that worked again!!!
Luckily for me, with a high enough Brigade/character Level you could simply overrun the enemy. This strategy doesnt earn you S-Ranks but wins the battle and that was all i wanted.
The story was nothing special (save the world blabla) but had some nice minor reveals and worked for me. Sadly towards the end it felt, like there was supposed to be more(?) but was left out maybe because of time/money issues, I dont know.
Also the narrative had some minor hiccups.
Over all a maybe flawed but None the less enjoyable game!
(and hell i want to grind my characters to level 99 and maximum honor, as stupid as that is! XD)
Also I played the DLC "Left Behind" for The Last Of Us and that was soooo soooooo goooooooood EXCLEMATION MARK
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Week 7: (late)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1493-700.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/13yb0t47vnam59w/SAM_1493.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/IMG-20160221-WA0001-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/IMG-20160221-WA0001.jpeg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1496-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/befz8f8byr75y8k/SAM_1496.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1500-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/w4qchn2surfotm8/SAM_1500.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1503-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/nb5uncvfhxfewlq/SAM_1503.JPG?dl=0)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1506-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/9tguc1sa2wpaw3h/SAM_1506.JPG?dl=0)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Raccoon%20City/SAM_1504-350.jpg) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9jw103qeko3iuy/SAM_1504.JPG?dl=0)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? Completed on 'Casual'
I had to make another substitution because I couldn't find where I put Yakuza 1 sooo.... I picked this! And what a mistake that was :lol:
This game had some controversy about it when it was released because you're playing as the bad guys, and the end of the game you have (the choice anyway) to kill Leon and Claire from Resident Evil 2 and lots of people freaked out about it because, no-one wants to do that!
Another minor villian from RE3 shows up as a "boss" but eh.. it doesn't really do much or go far story wise, it's just a bunch of unrelated stuff that happened, ending with a mission that never ever happened.
Gameplay wise I'm guessing it's supposed to be a GoW clone? it's a 3rd person 4 man online squad shooter, where you do every boring thing you could possibly think of in a game like this, hang out behind waist high walls which are everywhere, shoot from behind the walls, avoid grenades, throw a grenade, shoot forever because the bad guys don't die, repeat 500 times.
There is, for whatever reason, a real lack of zombies, and these parts are incredibly easy to clear. One of your team will scream SPEC-OPS every 5 minutes or so, then you have to hide behind cover and shoot soldiers over and over again (again)
Here is a video of me not having that much fun XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUV60Y7EMUU
Seriously, they just stagger if you shoot them in the face with a shotgun.
Then if you ignore the "wait behind walls for far too long" rules because you're bored and don't want "TACTICAL ACTION" you die. Even on casual it was annoyingly hard.
Recommended? No.
Replay? Only for trophies buuut I doubt that will happen anytime soon.
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Week 7: Fallout 2
I delayed my report by a week because I thought this game, as an RPG, needed more time. Well, I still didn't end up playing it that much more... Oop...
I've always heard great things about Fallout 2, but it's hard to get started because I don't like how the combat and movements work. Mainly I don't like how much of the combat is based on luck. Like if you replay a fight, you can lose most of your HP on the first try, then on the second try get through without a scratch, and you literally did not do anything differently. I don't understand what is charming about that.
In the time that I played I was able to clear the first temple, do two quests at the first village and travel to the town that is marked on the map... And that's really not enough to form a good opinion of the game :lol:
...I had to use google to discover how to unlock a door in the temple, if I'm actually supposed to kill things or just run through, how to rest, how to find the hunting grounds at the village (lol), and just... I swear I was playing games back when they didn't hold the player's hand. But damn, am I one helpless motherfucker. :lol:
Anyway, I definitely do not have enough information of the game to say good or bad things about it. I have to apologize for another really crap quality "review" - I'll have to add to some games perhaps at the end of the year. It would take me so much time to get into the groove of this game and I just currently don't have enough of it.
Week 8: Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
I've made it to stage 3 in this game so far and I have to say, this game is really good! Challenging and good. I feel like it introduces very naturally what you should do to proceed in a level. There are a variety of different enemies which have different types of attacks and movements. Bonus points for a Gothic setting. I'm not sure I'm skilled enough to get very far in this game, but it has to be one of the best, most 'effortless' feeling platformers I've tried. Sure I've had a few frustrating moments when my skills are failing me, but the miraculous part is that I kept trying. Do you know how hard that is to achieve? There were parts where I thought that I wasn't going to be able to get past them, but something made me try again and I actually got through. I think this game feels exactly how a platformer should feel like.
Sorry no photos, got a lot of stuff to do!!
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Since I was in the Philippines for pretty much the entire month of February, and the lack of access to the internet, here are the games that I played for Weeks 6-8: The Blackwell Legacy, Super Mario Bros., Kirby's Adventure
Week 6: The Blackwell Legacy
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/80330/header.jpg?t=1447355127)
From the Steam store page:
When Rosa Blackwell's only relative dies after twenty years in a coma, she thinks the worst is over. This all changes when Joey Mallone, a sardonic ghost from the 1930s, blows into her life and tells her that she is a medium. Whether they like it or not, it is up to them to cure the supernatural ills of New York in this critically-acclaimed series of point-and-click adventure games.
When three NYU students kill themselves one after the other, nobody thinks that a sinister force is at work. Nobody but fledgling medium Rosa Blackwell and her new spirit guide Joey Mallone. It's trial by fire as they set these troubled spirits to rest.
Week 6 was suppose to be Super Mario Bros., but my 3DS died on me and I wasn't able to recharge it without a power converter. (That also meant I couldn't play 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors as well.) Good thing I brought my laptop with me and had this game already installed as a backup game. There isn't much to say about The Blackwell Legacy. Pretty short game. The story peaked my interest. Liked the pixelated look. Enjoyable soundtrack. I look forward to playing the rest of the Blackwell series.
Week 7: Super Mario Bros.
(http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2014/06/mario-bros.jpg)
Who hasn't played this game? The first game I ever owned and played. Actually it was the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Track Meet version that I owned. Not bad for 4 year old me. :D
(http://940ee6dce6677fa01d25-0f55c9129972ac85d6b1f4e703468e6b.r99.cf2.rackcdn.com/products/pictures/181674.jpg)
27 years later I downloaded this game on my 3DS. Didn't take long to remember where most of the Power-Ups, 1-ups, and Stars were located. Still remember how tricky Worlds 7 & 8 were without knowing the layout of the levels. Don't think I ever finished the game when I was a kid. Surprised to find out that I can beat the game without using any Warp pipes. Granted it took me about 2 hours and losing over a dozen lives. :nervous Didn't think I would feel so satisfied to see Princess Toadstool at the end instead of Toad.
Week 8: Kirby's Adventure
(http://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/gwyGRpYHYtU3HaE3BtXX9bXqiwksE5M1/wTysoN4zvrES0anorD6MuaB0VlzC-3X1.jpg) (http://images.nintendolife.com/games/3ds-eshop/3d_classics_kirbys_adventure/cover_medium.jpg)
Another game that I once played on the original NES and never finished. Thoroughly enjoyed it on the 3DS. Never realized it was the second game in the series. The version of the game that I played looks similar to the original. Only difference I could see is the pop-up look of the levels and mini-games when changing the 3D settings. Didn't have too much trouble beating the bosses of each level. Took a while to see their pattern of attacks. The mini-games were enjoyable. Liked Crane Fever the most. Wasn't too difficult to find all the switches to get 100% completion. Might play the extras that I've unlock after beating the game someday.
So that's it for February. 8 games down for the 52in52 challenge, 2 games completed for the 12in12 challenge.
Up next for Week 9/Month 3: Deadpool
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91n9WHUp2xL._SL1500_.jpg)
I still need to watch the movie. Nolan North may be great for the game (and the Hulk vs Wolverine cartoon short), but Ryan Reynolds is perfect to be Deadpool.
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Week 8:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1512-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1512.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1514-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1514.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1516-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1516.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1520-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1520.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1521-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1521.JPG)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1523-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1523.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1532-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Spiderman/SAM_1532.JPG)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 3 hours.
A week late as the site was down when I wanted to post this the first time ^^;
I remember this game being a really big deal at the time! not only was it an actual 3D city, but you could swing around as SPIDERMAN in it, and fight bad guys! Today? hmm... I got a little bored XD
At first you're playing a tutorial mode, and there's an announcer guiding you, in the English version a lot of the voices are from the movie's cast, so the announcer is BRUCE CAMPBELL but however, this is the Japanese version so he's not in it, so instead this guy is MASASHI EBARA (I think).. who is this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMnndeDxGuI
And I kept cracking up at him, I think he's even eating during one of the button explanations haha
So after this you're replaying the first part of the Spiderman movie and chasing the guy who killed Uncle Ben and stole his rice, but for some reason you're just swinging around finding 10 identical bald guys hanging out on rooftops, then you get to fight him.. hmm .. after that I got to a part where I was in a warehouse fighting more identical bald guys and this took me a while because of it being in Japanese and not understanding what I was supposed to do.
Eventually I got up to where the videogame exclusive characters were in it, like the Shocker and the Vulture, but I wanted to do something else at that point, lol.
I hear that the actual game only lasts for about 3 hours, so maybe not understanding things actually helped since I didn't manage to finish it, it was okay I guess!
Recommended? No
Replay? Maybe.. not sure.
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March(4/12): Broforce
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tuffty/zOy4Nsr_zpssluowcf4.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Tuffty/media/zOy4Nsr_zpssluowcf4.jpg.html)
Available this month on PS Plus, Broforce is a 2D pixel art side scrolling platform shoot em up with an interesting hook. Think The Expendables but where every TV and action movie character you care about is in it and playable. You start off as Rambro (no, not a misspelling, every character will have Bro shoehorned into their name somehow) and move from left to right shooting up enemies to reach the goal. Along you way you will save other Bros, scattered through the stage. Each one, when rescued, acts as an extra life and also becomes your new player character. The more you rescue, the greater the pool of choices becomes as they are all randomly selected. Each character can only afford to get hit once, take a hit and you die where you respawn at the last checkpoint with a different character.
There are a large number of characters to play as and the draw for me throughout the game was to see which character you could unlock next. The game feels like an homage to 80's action flicks and each character has their own unique weapon or abilities to distinguish one from the other. Commando (Brommando) uses a rocket launcher, Robocop (Brobocop) has a gun which fires larger burst rounds the longer you hold the fire button down for, Machete (Brochete) throws machetes around and can shock enemies if he hits an enemy with a gruesome melee attack. Amongst the rampant testosterone, the game also includes female heroines to the team too, Ripley, Kill Bill's Bride and Cherry Darling from Planet Terror, all unique from each other and require a subtle difference to how you play the game.
The game itself is pretty straightforward with the exception of destructible environments. Bullets, bombs and explosions can affect the terrain and shape how you handle situations. Can't get up because a team of bad guys are looking your way? Shoot the ground from underneath them and watch them fall to their death. Chain reactions are frequent, as one explosion can lead to another and another and another and another, where it feels deliberately designed in order to display as much anarchic chaos as possible. There is co-op multiplayer as well, but I tackled the game single player only to completion with relative ease with the exception of some later levels and boss fights.
My biggest complaint with the game is that the random selection of bro's can often screw you over sometimes when you're randomly assigned a Bro and it's not the best fit for the situation. When a boss fight shows that throw grenades into it's mouth deals the most damage, it doesn't help when the game chooses a melee only character to work with who's a poor match against someone who you can't get close to due to a barrage of fireballs. It leads to a frustating death and depending on if that was your last life, having to go back to the checkpoint and work up to the boss fight again hoping for a better match up, where the chances get less frequent the more Bro's you unlock. Boss fights can also be hit and miss depending on which character you have, I particularly struggled with a boss for 20 mins only to get Ba Baracus and have his flamethrower defeat the boss effortlessly.
There are some noticeable technical issues too such as big framerate drops, especially on later levels where more explosions causes the game to crawl to the finish line rather than power slide through it. Don't know if this is true for any other version, but on the PS4, there is also a consistent bug where almost 2-3 seconds into the start of a level, the game will refuse to accept any input you make from the controller. Your character won't move and you can't attack for about a second. Mostly it's ok but where death can be frequent and restarting a level is common, then this adds up and can get frustrating. In particular with levels which require you to dodge enemies right off the bat.
Ultimately, it's a fun game, the draw of seeing more playable 80's action heroes realised in what looks like a gory Saturday morning cartoon is what kept me interested, but the game is challenging and fun to play. Also, the ending song is almost worth a point in itself, I'm singing along to it as I listen to it again here. :lol:
d (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk-87jzhVhs)
7/10
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Week 9:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-05-28-96-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-05-28-96.png)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-07-09-42-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-07-09-42.png)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-14-29-07-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-14-29-07.png)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-58-13-38-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2011-58-13-38.png)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2012-05-22-17-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2012-05-22-17.png)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2012-53-11-73-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2012-53-11-73.png)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2013-06-11-33-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Thief%203/T3Main%202016-03-12%2013-06-11-33.png)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 3 hours.
I only played this for a little while as I am pretty far behind with these and have another one to play too!
I wasn't expecting this game to be an FPS, so it really reminds me of Skyrim. I know it's a lot older so maybe it was influenced by this game, it's okay so far! Generally the missions I've done take a reeeallly long time, but I think that's more my playstyle than the game? I was similarly slow in Alien Isolation, which is another game this reminds me of, but I do feel like I'd rather play that again first, than play this one again, but maybe one day.
Recommended? Yes
Replay? Yes
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Week 10:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312180837_1-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312180837_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312181322_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312181322_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312182219_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312182219_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312185759_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312185759_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312185805_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312185805_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312211942_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312211942_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312211954_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Hitman%20Blood%20Money/20160312211954_1.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 105 minutes.
^ It's amazing how well the last few screenshots captured my facial expressions while playing this :lol:
I realise I'm probably going to be told how I'm doing it wrong, this game is so amazing and there are SO many ways to do each level and it's so enjoyable and I'm quitting too early and being an asshole for not enjoying this game. But, I don't care, I didn't like it, I'm an asshole!
This isn't my first bad experience with Hitman, I didn't like the original game mostly because of clunky controls and anytime I tried to do what the game asked of me all hell broke loose and I did it wrong, and died, repeatedly. I also played the recent one with the nuns, I think I beat that on easy, which is what I tried to do with this one.
I died on the first non training mission like 15 times before I quit, bored and pissed off.
This one has good controls but the menu and window size were unresponsive and this was already pissing me off before I even started anything XDD so not off to a good start. I don't really know what this game expects, but I was doing the stuff it suggested, like throwing coins, walking towards the ! points, but it didn't work and guards would literally teleport in behind me and other unfair stuff.
I just wanted to play the game on easy to see what it was like but... :banghead:
Recommended? No
Replay? I'm not very enthusiastic about it
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Week 9: Tomb Raider: Legend
I feel like I'm really failing this challenge...
I only played this game for about an hour. I actually really liked the beginning, how the controls are taught etc. It uses the rather typical "learn by doing" method, except if felt more natural than in some other games because you were actually making progress in the map as you were learning. Tho some things still feel clunky to me, like when you want to jump down and instead Lara clings on to the side of the platform you were just on. lol
Anyway, what halted my progress so soon? The stupid checkpoint save system, really. There was a part I found challenging that took place after a somewhat time-consuming puzzle, so every time I died at that point I had to re-do the damn puzzle because saving after completing the puzzle made no difference. And the reasons for dying were so dumb, too; the game says if you press F you will drop down to the ledge of the platform you are standing on, but I guess you have to be facing it a certain way because I kept falling off when the F wouldn't work. And this part is followed by a part where Lara ended up hanging with just one hand and there is supposedly a way to fix it but I missed the advice on how to do it so..... Yeah. ANYWAY once I was faced with the puzzle for the fourth time I decided I did not have "time for this shit" and I quit. I really have a limited time for this challenge so if I feel like I have to re-do the same thing over and over again instead of making progress, what choice do I have but to quit?
Aaahh it sucks to be so bad at video games... :lol:
I'd still like to give the game a new try when I can just chill and play because it did seem fun, but now is not the time. It SEEMED fun.
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I realise I'm probably going to be told how I'm doing it wrong, this game is so amazing and there are SO many ways to do each level and it's so enjoyable and I'm quitting too early and being an asshole for not enjoying this game. But, I don't care, I didn't like it, I'm an asshole!
This isn't my first bad experience with Hitman, I didn't like the original game mostly because of clunky controls and anytime I tried to do what the game asked of me all hell broke loose and I did it wrong, and died, repeatedly. I also played the recent one with the nuns, I think I beat that on easy, which is what I tried to do with this one.
I died on the first non training mission like 15 times before I quit, bored and pissed off.
For what it's worth, despite the praise it got, I dislike Blood Money the most of the series. Really felt something was missing from it that previous games had. Plus the way save files work in that game is abysmal as it only saves the progress you made in that session so if you had to leave and come back to the game you would have to start the level all over again.
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Week 10: Her Story
Her Story is really cool! ... I had a pleasant 86 minute session and I feel like I "finished" the game (I didn't see all the videos, but whether you want to look them all up is up to you)...
I don't really want to say more because I went in blind and I think that's the best way to do it... :3
Worth checking out for a bit of "detective work" :3
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March (5/12): Galak-Z
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v243/Tuffty/19949285685_e16ea36e77_h_zpsyqhojb9n.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Tuffty/media/19949285685_e16ea36e77_h_zpsyqhojb9n.jpg.html)
Also available this month on PS Plus, Galak-Z is a 2D space shooter with roguelike qualities. What immediately grabs you about the game is the style. If the above picture didn't make it obvious, it wears it's affection for 80's mech anime like Gundam on it's sleeve and that is present in every aspect of it's presentation. The art direction is reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon and even hitting the pause screen produces a similar effect as you would pausing a VHS tape. Sadly that's about all I have to say around this aspect. The story just isn't there, communicated in very brief cutscenes at the beginning of a new Season (more on that below). All you need to know is that you're the sole pilot of a much larger spaceship that has to make it back to Earth. That's about it for the whole game. The protagonist and the female commander of the ship, Beam, throw out a few funny quips here and there but not enough to make you care about the characters or the overarching plot at all.
As for the game itself, it is divided into 5 'Seasons' (aping the TV show format I described above) where each one is made up of 5 randomly generated levels that must be played through in succession before you can complete a Season and move onto the next one. The closest comparison to any other game would be with Gradius, as you pilot your ship blasting enemy spaceships, pirates and giant bugs into pieces with your lasers and missiles. The roguelike qualities come in as stages are randomly generated, from level design right through to the upgrades you can collect during the mission. Each mission is either 'Destroy this' or 'Collect this', with no impact to the story whatsoever, but the main draw for me has never been the primary mission objective but what upgrades you can collect. Some allow you to change the performance of the ship itself like booster capacity, thruster speed, temporary shields etc while others can change the effect of your lasers from widening the spread to being able to bounce off walls to setting enemies on fire. These upgrades can then carry on through to the following levels. As such, because each level arrangement is randomly generated it's not necessarily about knowing the layout of levels or enemy placements but rather more on how capable you think your ship is and how you can handle it in certain situations. You can boost, dodge, circle strafe, lock on and fire missiles and even change into a laser sword wielding mech that can grab enemies and objects in the environment to throw at others. There are also random environmental hazards to deal with as well like lava or electricity conduits. As you can imagine, the hunt for upgrades is important, especially when you consider the penalty for failure.
For you see, if you die, you not only lose all those upgrades you collected, but you lose all of your progress into the season as well and have to restart from the beginning. Not at the beginning of the level mind you, from the beginning of that season. There were a few times I made it to the final level, died and had to restart all over again from the first level onwards. The penalty for death is as brutal as it sounds. Granted, each level takes maybe 10-15 minutes to complete, but it is so frustrating and disheartening to reach the end, lose maybe an hours progress and have to do that all over again just to get back to where you were at the chance of making it past a difficult boss. Or even at any point in a level because the random nature of the game can work against you and result in a swift death. And no, the randomly generated levels and missions doesn't help this as you will still end up going through the same looking environments and same enemies, only slightly arranged differently. It also doesn't help when the game deliberately places multiple difficult enemies by each exit point of a level, preventing you from progressing until they're all defeated which can cost you to lose missiles and health points which carries over to the next level. And unlike say, Dark Souls, which counterbalances its strictness with largely dependable enemy placement and behaviour, in Galak-Z the randomness that comes with each retry adds one layer of complication too many.
Also, I mentioned there were 5 seasons as shown on the main menu, but the 5th one was greyed out when I came to it. I felt I perhaps missed some hidden conditions to unlock it but it turns out that Season 5 isn't even completed or will be patched out to the PS4 anytime soon so...yeh. Ultimately I came away disappointed, it had much promise in the beginning but the game quickly shows it's cards too soon with little incentive to go on to complete it as there's just no story there and the gameplay will quickly get as repetitive as the sound bites that the pilot will say on destroying an enemy for the 100th time.
5/10
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Week 11: Jet Set Radio
Hello, I'm here to fail again! Basically, I can't play JSR because the controls require you to have like a round stick movement to complete some very basic stuff and I don't have a controller with one.
Other than that, the beginning of the game reminded me of Parappa the Rapper which is legendary.
I'm just not going to stress about this challenge too much, k. :lol:
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Sorry I haven't been updating on my progress.
Month 3/Week 9: Deadpool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WCcRRs3s6c
What is there to say about a game about 'The Merc with a Mouth' who breaks the Fourth Wall? Just some good old-fashion hack-&-slash/shoot-up with Wade Wilson's brand of humor. Surprised at how short the game is. Could've finished the game within a week if I wanted to. Still enjoyable though.
Week 10: Syberia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmT1WD8EPYY
Nice point-and-click game. Loved the visuals and soundtrack. Hated how I had to backtrack for solving each puzzle and progressing the story. Still....can't wait to play the sequel. As for why it's spelled with a 'y'? It's part of the storyline that I won't spoil.
Week 11: Evoland II - A Slight Case of Spacetime Continuum Disorder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB19vpCXttU
Loved the first game. When I heard there was a sequel I knew I had to buy it immediately. Sorta like Chrono Trigger, mixed with all types of gameplay (RPG/strategy/shoot-ups/puzzles/music/etc), and a lot of video game and pop culture references. More content than the first game and a bigger storyline.
Week 12: A Bird Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCSK0yrakxY
Not much to say. Not as great as To the Moon. Extremely short (just 1 hour long). Enjoyed it anyways. Anxiously awaiting the sequel for To the Moon, Finding Paradise.
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Week 11:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBACtkocl0g9V-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBACtkocl0g9V.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBAWxAUhZ9IZF-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBAWxAUhZ9IZF.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBAEBE6tQXsIP-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jBAEBE6tQXsIP.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbaFUIwSXNDN-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbaFUIwSXNDN.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbmfAztZtFkB-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbmfAztZtFkB.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbsrglwzhHG_-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbsrglwzhHG_.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbXqoI4Zxr1E-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Pokken%20Tournament/WVW69jCbXqoI4Zxr1E.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 5 hours or so.
This is a surprisingly unique fighting game from Bandai Namco & Pokemon!!
One thing it is not is a clone of Tekken with Pokemon characters shoved into it, which I'm really glad about because I have a terrible time with anything Tekken related XDD so this makes me very glad.
Each match starts off in a 3rd person Virtual On/Naruto style mode where you look behind the Pokemon like in the Pokemon games, after you do a certain amount of hits you end up in a 2D style battle like Tekken (it's not very Tekkenish though) and there are 3 buttons and a jump button. It's all very simple and follows a janken style system.
Since they came out quite close together it's hard not to compare it to SFV, SFV suffers from long loading times and long waits in general when it comes to online battles, this game shows SFV how it's really done. You fight your opponent in less than 10 seconds, and if you take any longer, it gives you a CPU match to practice with, but this has never happened to me once yet, I always connect in about 3 seconds and I'm fighting soon afterwards. Another thing it has over SFV is SINGLE PLAYER STUFF like tournaments, leagues, character customisations, a better training mode (seriously) and an official controller that actually WORKS.
I got the SFV Chun-Li Mad Catz controller and it has a shitty d-pad and the analogue stick is falling apart :angry:
I may go back when the update comes out, but my PS4 has been off for weeks now ... I honestly regret buying it, I knew it was stupid :/
Oh and the character I play for now is Pikachu Libre who has a STONE COLD STUNNER :rockon: as one of his moves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laHakEPUp9I
Recommended? Gimmie a hell yeah!
Replay? HELL YEAH!
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Week 12: Aerena
Maybe I should have done some research on some of the games I'm including on my list?
Aerena is a multiplayer game. This is something I learned only after doing the intro of three matches that the game forces you to do upon first launch. So basically I was only able to do those practice matches because I only play co-op style multiplayer games 8)
Aerena is a turn-based strategy game with a sort of pirate-y theme, as the goal is to eventually 'sink' your opponent's ship that is defended by his dudes, and you also have your dudes. It seemed to have some fun mechanics available and if I at all was into games like this I'd probably love it. But I think if Final Fantasy Tactics couldn't convince me to get hooked on this 'strategic aerena' type battling, nothing could.
Anyway, aside from the multiplayer aspect, it turns out that in the end of April the game is shutting down altogether, as the developers don't have the money to keep the servers running. If you want to give the game a try, now would quite literally be the last opportunity to do so. This piece of news made this week's game a wee bit more depressing even if it wasn't the type of game I would play much, anyway.
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(http://picroda.jphip.com/misc/jphip09084.jpg)
Week 13: LISA
I did not have enough time to play this game this week, but this game seemed... unforgiving, gritty, funny, quirky, intriguing. It's another game I started playing rather blind and even though I did not get far, it was fun watching it unfold in front of me.
So I would definitely recommend it!
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I've been postponing this for weeks now.... I was so lazy... still am... lol
Submerged
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfNF5Aj-wj8
A Ps4 download game. I became interested in, when I saw that trailer last year. Without further knowledge I bought it on sale and that was, in hindsight, a good thing, because I still feel like the 9,99 I paid was too much.
First of all I have a huuuuge weakness for postapocalyptic worlds and the quiet atmosphere and music (though consisting of only two tracks) is beautiful and soothing, The way the Story is told through pictograms is also fitting for the game. The Story can probably be beat in under 2 hours, but if you try to get all the 86 collectibles to discover the backstory of the City, you can dunk in some more (it took me around 6 hrs maybe).
My main problem with the game is that I didn't care about the characters at all!!! The exploration part alone is too boring and repetitiv. Or maybe this is just my problem, I read comments that complained the map was too small! Uhm hello? How big a city with almost nothing to interact with do you need???
Never Alone
Another download game. It's cute and best played with a friend (sadly I had to Play with me and myself). I love how it tells a story while teaching about Inuit culture. I enjoyed playing as much as watching the Video Clips. Another game that combines playing while learing something is Valiant Hearts! We really need more of this kind of game.
Digimon Story Cybersleuth
Back in the days you were either into Pokemon or Digimon XD I was into the latter, though it never became that big over here. I watched the TV Show, well the first two seasons and that was it. I once bought a Ps1 game, but it was so ugly, I sold it after playing for ten minutes.
Since then I had almost forgotten about Digimon, that was until this game was announced for the west! I was super excited and i didn't even know why exactly. Thats what nostalgia does to you!
I beat the Story in 83 hrs and are at 100+ hrs still counting with collecting stuff and doing challanges. Pretty (stupidly) impressive for a game I don't consider that good. But man, you gotta digivolve them all!!!!
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April (6/12): Salt and Sanctuary
(http://i.imgur.com/vn4kgzp.jpg)
Where does the line blur between something that can be seen as an homage or plagiarism? I only ask because Salt and Sanctuary, a 2D side scrolling brawler platforming RPG (phew) shows it's influences within minutes of first playing the game and continues well on through until the end. To say the game is inspired by Dark Souls is not an over simplification of the game, it literally comes through in the game's mechanics. There are modified version of bonfires to rest at and level up, you lose your exp upon death and have the opportunity to make the way back to the area you died from the bonfire and can claim it back if you don't die again, there are attribute scalings with weapons, covenants to join, fat rolling, fog doors, message left behind by other players, parrying, overarching narratives that you seek out via NPC dialogue and item descriptions, environments and monster designs that seem almost uncanny right down to very specific lines of dialogue lifted wholesale from Dark Souls. It almost feels like one step away from receiving a lawsuit.
But all of the above is fine if the game also manages to introduce some different mechanics to the mix as well as be a good game in it's own right and I'm happy to say it succeeds on both counts. There is a sphere grid system which you now use to level up your character as opposed to pumping xp to build up your stats. It gives you the freedom to persue a job class of your wish as well as grant additional benefits like being able to carry more healing potions or wield higher classes of weapons. Bonfires are customisable, allowing you to determine what merchants or services you can have at an area which also grants passive bonuses upon your character. It also acts as the game's covenant system, where if you choose to stick closely to the covenant you have selected you can be granted additional buffs and bonuses each time you spawn. You have gold to spend on merchants rather than using your xp, which also acts as another incentive not to die as any time you do you lose a percentage of the total gold you have. Perhaps the biggest and most fundamental difference between this and Dark Souls is the combat. Unlike Dark Souls you have more freedom to create combos in this, combining light with heavy attacks that allow the combat to feel slightly faster. You can combine a light attack with a heavy attack to launch your enemy in mid air and juggle him in the air, Devil May Cry style. It feels faster, more vertically viable than Dark Souls could be, which isn't a slight at all, it just helps to make this game unique. Dark Souls itself is not unique, drawing on inspiration from Castlevania games and at a certain point in the game I realised that Salt and Sanctuary too, can be classified as it's own Metroidvania game, as abilities you acquire in the game can be used to access areas you were unable to reach before, leading to new treasure or access shortcuts to new locations.
What the game also shares with Dark Souls is the level of challenge. Paying attention to enemy attacks is almost as critical as ensuring you are finding and upgrading new weapons and armor which creates a sense of dread and awareness in every area. This game isn't without a sense of threat lurking behind the oppressive darkness in each area as you venture ever deeper into it. It's why it works as an homage to Dark Souls, it really nails what makes those games so appealing and rewarding to play. As mentioned before it even draws inspiration from Castlevania games, making it almost like a slower paced Symphony of the Night. All this with a hefty amount of content and replayability with different character classes (I hadn't even touched on what magic you can use), secret areas, branching sub questlines and optional bosses and areas to see that can only be found on one playthrough, demanding that you play it again to see the alternate path. All this, achieved by Ska Studios, literally a husband and wife team. To see this game with this amount of content made by two people can put others to shame and surely even makes the studio behind Bloodstained, the Kickstarted project from the founder of Castlevania, get a little nervous.
Of course, with two people, there's only so far this game can reach and sadly that does show with it's lack of polish and graphical fidelity. It has a healthy number of bosses but the vast majority of these are not really well thought out as one strategy (attack a few times, roll to the other side before the enemy attacks, attack again, repeat) can be applied to most if not all of them which makes them very easy to kill and immediately forgettable. The second half of the game suffers from perhaps being too easy, enemies die faster than expected if you upgrade your weapon of choice a little bit. The artstyle is decent enough with some nice looking environments and monster designs but the player created protaganist, along with other human characters look, dare I say it, downright hideous. What really hurts is that there is no map, making it very difficult to not only remember any areas you could go back to in order to revisit with a new ability, but even just to imagine in my own head where it was I needed to go and know how exactly I was going to get there proved more difficult than a Souls game, considering the extra level of verticality that this game allows. Imagine playing a Castlevania game for the first time without an in game map to refer to and you can understand the frustration.
Taking it all into account, Salt and Sanctuary is definitely a game that wouldn't be possible without some heavy inspiration from Dark Souls and Castlevania. But what the game lacks in creativity is made up for the quality in it's level design, combat system and the depth and scope of it's content which adds up to a very good game in it's own right that begs to be replayed and deserves anyone's attention.
9/10
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April (7/12): I Am Alive
(http://i.imgur.com/0S3khL4.jpg)
I Am Alive is a game focused on survival. Set in a city devastated by a natural disaster, you follow an unnamed protagonist searching for his wife and daughter, documenting his travels as events unfold around finding a sickly young girl also looking to be reunited with her mother.
Resources are scarce from the get go, armed with a gun and a machete, you rely early on with your ability to manage your stamina. Actions like running and predominately climbing will all drain stamina. Let it drop below the limit then your maximum capacity will drop each second, making the hunt for a resting spot all the more dramatic unless you fall to your death. You also have a machete and a gun, where the latter handles one of the game's more interesting concepts. Because I've played enough video games to just accept that using guns is second nature, but what if you play a game where the very fact that you own a gun is enough to be seen as a threat? That it scares anyone who threatens you to give up or plead for their life? That's what this game does and with ammo being scarce, you often use it as a means of turning the table as you wily assess how to deal with any group that threatens you. As an early example, a group of three scavengers come towards me threatening to kill me. Assessing the situation as they get closer and closer, I know they all have machetes and so as one gets just closer enough, I brandish my machete and take him out in one strike, quickly pointing my gun at the remaining two. They raise their hands begging not to shoot and I shout at one to back off just over a precipice where I'm able to kick him off. The other gives up and gets on his knees where I pistol whip him to knock him out. They weren't to know my gun was empty. It's as if the confrontations are as much psychological as they can be physical, I really think that's a cool idea I wish more games tackled.
It's definitely an interesting concept, it treats ammo as a rare commodity that you should think twice about before using on any enemy. As the game goes on more difficulties emerge such as bigger groups, enemies who also have guns etc that makes you have to act quick to survive......until about the halfway point of the game. At that time you are given a bow and arrow and it completely trivialises the difficulty of the combat for the rest of the game. Because while you only have one arrow and arrows are very rare, it can be picked up to be reused after you kill someone. It never breaks, so in essence you have a source of ammo that is unlimited. There's little disadvantage to using it either, you can pull the bow out quickly and notch the arrow in no time at all. The game always auto aims to whoever you point the weapon at so there's no danger of missing. It just completely breaks the balance of the game, even on Survivor mode, the more difficult option of the difficulty levels you can choose to start the game with.
In any survival game, the threat of failure should be hanging over the player and in this game if you die you have to restart the level over again. That can be offset by retry tokens, something found within the level, usually at the expense of using a bullet to shoot off a locked door, or give one of your resources to any survivors that you may find. Personally it was never much of an issue, the levels are so short that even if you die and have no retries left, you only have to replay about 5 mins of gameplay at most before getting back to where you were, now familiar enough with the level to have a better go at it.
The game feels like it's half done. You get a grappling hook to use to swing from point to point but I can count the number of times I've used it on one hand. You can find a retry in the level, lost it when you die, and then regain it back in the same spot, meaning you never lose one. The game wants you to feel an emotional connection between the player and the girl you find but it's hastily thrown together. The balance of the game becomes far too easy in the second half of the game, I ended it stacked with resources so I was never in any real danger. There's also some high score system, seemingly to encourage replay value when the game simply doesn't need it. The game is not without issues itself. The controls are difficult to work with, adding unnecessary frustration during climbing sections. The whole of the game world is slathered in this ugly grey filter. Hell, I had a consistent issue with the game where the game wouldn't even reach the start menu when I selected it, locking up my PS3 in the process. In QA testing, 'Does the game switch on?' has to be the first, most basic question and the game doesn't even answer that convincingly.
I was surprised to see that the game is also surprisingly short. On the Survivor difficulty, the hardest one available, I was able to complete the game in slightly over 4 hours. Pretty surprising for a game that supposedly took over 6 years in development. It's a game with ideas that are ripe for potential, but sadly I Am Alive doesn't make the most of them in it's all too brief playing time.
5/10
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I'm thinking of calling it quits for the challenge... :lol: I saw this week's game was supposed to be Arkham Asylum and I just cracked up like OH HELL NO. :lol: I'd install that and end up playing it for like 30 minutes, and that's supposed to give me some kind of an idea? The challenge is not going well for me, or maybe it's going too well. I've already found four to five games that I'd like to spend more time on, including the previous week's game that I haven't reported on, which was Rogue Legacy and SEEMED like great fun, but again, I've only played it for a meager 30 minutes. I think the challenge has been great for getting me started in looking into games I've been meaning to look into for a while anyway, but overall it's just impossible even just to SAMPLE a new game each week. It's a great initial motivator, but after a certain point it doesn't make sense to really go on anymore because I've already discovered some great games and likely the experience will inspire me to keep looking once I'm "done" with those.
Then again I'm pretty impressed that I made it to mid-April. :lol: I might have bet my money on February.
If this kept going on, I'd have lost all my computer space by the end of the year to games I really wanted to keep playing, but couldn't because they were no longer the game of the week. :lol: And I'd only have like 30 mins play time in each.
I think the list of games will still be useful to me regardless, though!
Mang maybe I will enjoy gaming more again :lol:
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I hope so! Don't be putting pressure on yourself when it's not needed!
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April (8/12): Zombi (sorta)
(http://i.imgur.com/PSnCKJh.jpg)
A port of the Wii U launch title of the same name, Zombi is available on the PS4 and is just as bad as the name of the game itself. On the surface it sounds like a great collection of ideas, a true survival horror borrowing an element of Dark Souls into the mix (more on that later) with punishing first person combat set in post zombie apocalyptic London. But it just doesn't mesh well together and that's without including the massive technical error I had discovered...
The story is somewhat fresh in the many examples of video game zombie fiction, a zombie outbreak that is seemingly brought about as the result of a medieval prophecy that nobody paid attention to. You have the help from an ex soldier called Prepper, who communicates via headset but really, there isn't much more to it than that. You're given no reason to care about the state of the world or the very few survivors within it as you're just given tasks to do that have very few story revelations. Even the protagonists have no background, silent and disposable.
The game itself asks that you go out to complete mission objectives, often leading you to new areas of London. You initially have no map and have to rely on your own wits to keep a sense in your own mind of where things are, but venture far enough and you will have the means to unlock a map. Zombies are slow and puny to manage in ones or twos but can be threatening in groups so you have to try and isolate them. The gimmicks with the Wii U version are now all handled on a single screen, meaning that the mini map is always displayed as is the inventory, whereas in the Nintendo original you were forced to handle all that stuff on the second screen. I can imagine this has taken away the tension from playing the original as your eyes are never kept off the screen and thus removing the thrill of say having to force yourself to look away from the TV monitor down to the gamepad and potentially get ambushed by zombies. Without a second screen, I would say that it makes it an easier game overall too, of the few times I had died it was a result of the game spawning in zombies directly behind me as I was taking on a group, making it feel quite cheap and unearned. It's a shame that the bread and butter of the game, the combat, isn't very good. You will mainly rely on your trusty cricket bat to crack open some zombie heads but it's always the same animation, over and over and over again until it feels like you too are getting bashed around the head with it. No variety at all in say, maybe swinging horizontally to hit a group in front of you, it's always a vertical swing. Guns simply don't feel good, they're pithy, not loud enough and no good feedback from using them. The interesting gimmick around the game is how death is handled. If you get killed, then the generic person you were playing as also becomes infected. Your supplies are lost forever unless you are able to go back as a new character from the safe house to the place you were last killed and there you will find the previous survivor as a zombie, and you have to attack them until they're dead before collecting your supplies again. It's got clear influence from how Dark Souls handles it and it's a cool idea, one of the few things the game has going for it.
So I say that I sorta completed the game for a reason. Reason being that 10 hours into the game I hit a game breaking bug. I reached a section in the game where you have to fight in an arena of sorts and got up to the point where I was told I could escape, only to have a zombie come up behind me and kill me. So I died, I get a new person and I went back to get my stuff from the last survivor but then...nothing else happens. There's no other mission on my mission list and there's no mission objective on my map or anything leaving me in limbo as the scripting has been completely broken. Did a search online to see that it's happened to plenty of others on the Wii U version too. More than that, the issue was patched and resolved on the Wii U but wasn't included for this version. Like I said, 10 hours into the game, I felt like I had played enough at that point anyway to make a fair judgement on the game itself. Don't waste your money.
3/10
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May (9/12): Invisible Inc
(http://i.imgur.com/Ddu9wlU.png)
As far as I'm aware, Invisible Inc is the first turn based stealth game in existence, creating it's own sub genre that I hope others continue to follow. After your future spy organisation has come under attack, you assume the role of the 'Operator', essentially XCOM's Commander by any other name, as you lead the organisation back to survival. The organisation is powered by an AI program known as Incognita, but as she is running on backup power via a helicopter, you have 72 hours to prepare for an all or nothing final mission to infiltrate a rival company and find a power source for Incognita otherwise your company goes under. That's about as much story as you will get from the game, but there is well written dialogue and a captivating rogues gallery of characters to choose from. I only wish the game give them more opportunity to flesh them out better.
The campaign in Invisible Inc requires you to undertake missions to infiltrate rival corporations for different benefits to you. As you start with very limited resources it is up to you to decide how you want to strengthen your party. But it takes time to travel to that location and each mission you take will subtract a number of hours from the 72 hours you have remaining. But the game offers a wealth of opportunities, all of which are beneficial, so how do you balance it out? You could fly to Alaska to get that new gun but that takes 12 hours to get to, time enough where you could do 2 missions closer to you but may be more difficult to take. These choices matter. And that extends into the moment to moment gameplay of Invisible Inc as well. As mentioned it's a turn based stealth game where you guide your chosen spies around a level. Movement is simple, but positioning is crucial. This is a game where a door left unclosed can spell disaster as an unseen guard runs his patrol and can see your spy through the gap. Each movement or actions costs action points from your spies and you choose to end your turn, allowing the enemy to use theirs. Part of the game's brilliance comes from the addition of using Incognita, your AI, to hack objects that you want to bypass. Safes can be opened, security cameras can be turned on your side so you can see the layout of that room and any objects of interest or guards inside. As an example, you can get a spy to peek through a door to see a safe and security camera inside, you then shift to Incognita mode to hack that camera and reveal a guard inside with his back turned to the door, shift back to the real world where you can then get the spy to move inside the room behind cover so that when the guard takes his turn, his patrol won't spot you. In your next turn you can then use the spy to sneak to the safe, steal the money within and exit the room via another entrance. Every victory in Invisible Inc comes from using these two elements in combination with each other. After working through the level and reaching the primary objective you must secure your exit, a teleporter found elsewhere in the map.
But it's important to note that Invisible Inc is so tightly designed that every little facet of gameplay and the rules and restrictions within it all require you to do one thing. Be decisive. Using Incognita sounds like easy mode for your spies as you hack your way through the level until you realise that each hacking action uses up PWR. It's added resource management on top of getting your agents to move around the level and it is so crucial. Mismanagement of PWR could result in victory or defeat for your mission, where the penalty is an end to your campaign, requiring you to restart all over much like a rogue like game (the game even erases your save file). You quickly learn you can't hack everything in a level so choosing what objects could and should be hacked becomes important. Incognita can acquire abilities to allow her to hack firewalls using less PWR for example, but to counter that are Daemons, rival viruses housed within certain hackable objects which can then counter hack you, restricting movement, costing you more PWR to hack things and even recapturing any device you hacked into back under enemy control. Every turn your agents take is important as each turn raises the security level up by 1, eventually bringing in new guards, new cameras, tougher firewalls and other nasty surprises. In short, the longer you spend in a mission, the harder it will be. Each mission is a balance of rewards for a successful mission against the cost of reaching that objective. Yeah, the teleporter to exit the level is in the room next to me buuuuuuut there are 2 safes further down the hallway and I have just enough PWR to hack both, both the alarm level is going up next turn and an elite guard could be spawned in to give away my position immediately...
You're always considering the here and now and what you can earn, but you also must think of the long game in Invisible Inc, of that final mission looming over you that you feel so woefully unprepared for. Satisfying stealth, in this game, is a mix of exploration and innovation through decisive thinking. The game teaches you the mechanics and the rules and restrictions so that the control is entirely in your hands. Due to the fact that each level is procedurally generated, it allows you to create stories of tense, unlikely escapes and huge screw ups, even in one mission. Let me tell you a story. Early on in my first campaign I took on a mission to steal a prototype weapon. As I was exploring I was hacking everything I could see and stealing credits from safes but hadn't really found the objective in a while. I eventually did, an L shaped corridor led to two doors, both locked by a security key card. On realising I didn't steal one from a guard at this point, the alarm raised up to 4 and an Elite Enforcer was brought in, who's ability is to instantly know the location of one of my agents, alarming him and all guards to move to that area. I positioned one of my agents next to the only open entrance so that when the nearest guard came through on his turn, I ambushed him, knocking him out. To my luck he had a keycard on him, but then I had a choice. At the end of the corridor is the room with the weapon, but closer to me is another locked door which leads to an exit out and around a blind side of the guards leading straight to the exit. I decided I couldn't survive by sticking to the mission so my agent ran to the door and unlocked it, opening it only to find a security camera inside. I didn't have enough PWR to hack it that turn but would gain +1 PWR on my next turn which would allow me to hack it for my use. But then the next guard would come in through the door in the next turn! It was after considering my options for a very long time that I realised my other agent had a gun. Killing a guard would immediately raise an alarm level and what nasty surprise it brings but it was a chance I had to take, otherwise one of us would be dead. So I armed his gun at the door and killed the next guard coming in on his turn. That happens and the alarm level goes up again, bringing another Elite Enforcer in, closer to our team this team. I finally hack the camera with my last remaining PWR and get both agents to sprint into the room, closing the door behind them so as not to be seen. In the next two turns I was able to get my agents to sprint out of the room and past the guards towards the exit. I failed the mission, but I survived, living to see another day. It's moments like that will stick long in the memory, as thrilling and tense as any other game could offer and all done within the gameplay and not via a cutscene.
Invisible Inc can be exhausting to play at times, but that is because of the emotional investment on top of the need to remember the rules of the game and how you can use them to your advantage. Each new campaign you start allows you to play the game in different ways. Each agent has their own unique abilities, with different avenues to upgrade them and you can give them weapons and gadgets. Different agents have different perks, new Incognita abilities change the way you can handle the PWR resource management struggle and different means of hacking objects. Different missions you take also change what kind of rival corporations you go up against, including guards with augmentations or a guard force using drones, requiring different methods to work around them. A combination of all these things results in a game with genuinely different ways of approaching the game that are s equally rewarding as any other. There is real depth here in this game through it's many layers of strategic thinking and the roguelike elements offer nearly unlimited replayability, without even factoring into the different difficulty levels. It's a tactics game that's strategic, flexible and empowering. It's about as close to video gaming perfection as you can get.
9/10
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^ Glad that you're keeping the challenge alive :lol:
I've just basically ended up playing more Sims 2 since giving up . . .
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Okay, since it seems I lost direction completely after giving up on this challenge, I'm thinking of starting going through games again from the top, but this time with no time limit. Just trying to make use of the list that I already have :lol: It seems a lot of gamers have some sort of a backlog list of games they want to play next, so even if I'm not doing a challenge, this can still be of use to me ^^;; Tho I will be skipping the games I'm not enjoying or can't play...
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Ok, a little update on my gaming!
At the beginning of April Nights of Azure/Yoru no nai kuni from Gust was released. A game I was really REALLY looking forward to.
It was advertised as a more mature, darker action RPG and coming from Gust, hell what could go wrong?
In the end it was just ok'ish, but at least it had (the promised) yuri XD
The game for May was Batman: Arkham Knight
I got this together with the insanely priced Batman Ps4 last year (i just had to have it), but somehow wasn't in the mood for playing it until now.
It took only minutes to get right back into the world and controls and I was THE BATMAN again!
Everything looks fantastic, the city is gigantic, i still discover new corners, the batmobile is a nice gimmick, thogh Gotham doesn't need supervillians to get destroyed, me in the batmobile can do that job just fine! XD
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June (10/12): Gone Home
(http://i.imgur.com/CT7TpFB.png)
It's difficult to provide a comprehensive review of this game. For one, there is little gameplay to talk about. You walk throughout an empty house, investigate some items, solve very few light puzzles. Secondly there is little of the game itself to talk about, I managed to start and complete it in one sitting, in an hour and a bit of my time. The focus is on the narrative and to that end, Gone Home feels more interactive fiction than an actual game.
The story has you play as Katie, the year is 1995 and you're returning to your family home after a long vacation in Europe. The game starts outside the house, the door is locked, the house seemingly empty as a storm rages on outside. A note is stuck to the door and raises some immediate questions, what happened and where are Katie's mum, dad and teenage daughter Sam? As you enter the house you go through room by room, searching through drawers, reading notes etc piecing together the story on what happened. With so short a running time, I can't talk about the story that much but the creators of the game decided that family drama should be the subject of the game and I applaud them for it. You don't see many games approach it and it was an interesting experience to be able to understand and form a story in my own head just by inspecting objects or through looking at the environment around me. It doesn't always work, finding post-it notes stuck to the walls from the mother's perspective on her relationship troubles seem pretty forced and obvious. The game also makes it seem like there is something darker than it really is. The house is empty on a stormy night and you find information on rumours of the house being previously haunted and dubbed 'The Psycho House'. It all hints at a darker secret but never capitalises on it. It's unresolved, a plot thread that bares no impact on the main stories being told, as if the game was doing to have this horror element but was stripped away leaving only a few clues.
The main thrust of the story centers on teenage daughter Sam and her coming of age story. If you dig deeper into her personal life and find key clues you will get to hear a voiceover for Sam reading a journal she's been keeping which is addressed to Katie. As more and more of this continued I really grew to dislike this narration because it is such heavy handed means of communicating the story to the player that it almost felt like the game didn't have the confidence in me to be able to piece together the story for myself and so just straight up told me what was happening for fear of the story somehow being lost on me. Sam's story is not often told in the medium and I applaud the idea, but the writing of the narration would very generic and trite in some coming of age TV soap like Dawson's Creek. There are some interesting short stories you find in the house through exploration, which Sam has written herself at different stages of her childhood, fantasy tales of pirates, which do a much better job of communicating her struggles with her own identity. It's a method of storytelling that can only be done in this medium. To have the narration spell out her struggles for you almost defeats the entire purpose and focus of the game itself, working against it.
When the credits roll on Gone Home I was left disappointed. There was an interesting idea here but the total running time makes the story frustratingly slight. There's nothing new in the gameplay worth mentioning either making Gone Home an interesting piece of interactive fiction that I would recommend watching a playthrough of if you have an hour or two to spare. Sadly, there's not much more to it than that.
5/10
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Thanks! even though it's free this month you've given me good reason to not even try it XD I could probably watch this on youtube.
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^ I actually enjoyed the experience of Gone Home, if it's free why not spend one hour on it ?_?
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June (11/12): Uncharted 4
(http://i.imgur.com/a11dcD5.jpg)
In what could be the last game in the popular action adventure series, Uncharted 4 may just well be the best of the series. Naughty Dog is just better at this than anyone else. When it comes to matching narrative and gameplay, creating an interactive experience where you can be the participant and the audience, they just nail the balance right and Uncharted 4 does it better than any other edition in the series.
The story centers on Nathan Drake once again, famous explorer and adventurer now retired and living a quiet life of domestic bliss with the love of his life Elena. Although, it's not too easy for him, as he yearns to go back into adventuring rather than getting stuck with paperwork. That all gets turned on it's head once his older brother Sam, once thought dead, comes back into his life unexpectedly and it's to drag Nathan back onto the trail of treasure belonging to the notorious pirate Henry Avery. Nathan has sworn off the fortune-hunting life, but Sam's life is at stake, which eventually pulls Nathan in to seeking out the treasure on a globe trotting adventure.
Going into this, I was most curious about what the story would be like. The game itself seemed like it had a difficult period during development where the series writer and creative director Amy Hennig left, as well as the director of the game. They were replaced by The Last of Us' leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley and, according to star Nolan North, swathes of Hennig's story and months of work were scrapped. So it was interesting to me to see what tone the story would be. Would they stick to the series roots with high octane Hollywood movie esque action and set piece moments with the down to earth good humor and sentimentality or maybe strip it away and focus on something darker in tone? The truth is somewhere in the middle. Where Uncharted 4 differs from the previous games and in an obvious touch from The Last Of Us, is that the story is grounded in the characters and the relationships between them. As good as Uncharted 2 is, you couldn't help but feel that it was a series of set pieces thrown together with a story built to serve around it. Like I said, that's fine, earlier games were on another level in terms of structure, plotting and tone, it's just that what we have here in Uncharted 4 take a different approach and places the emphasis on the characters. I've always enjoyed Nathan, Elena and Sully and their banter between them but Uncharted 4 allows these characters, including fresh faces, to shine. You get insight into their true natures and desires to stay with each other, even if Nathan is such a mess of conflicting motivations and desires. It results in Uncharted 4 being a game that's paced very differently, the first half of the game, particularly the beginning, has quite a few sections where there's very little action happening. In truth, the game has a pacing issue at the beginning of the game because it's fairly slow, but it picks up a few hours in to make a consistently excellent adventure. Ultimately I really like the balance, the quiet sections means that the action hits home that much harder.
The spectacle comes from Naughty Dog's attention to detail, incredibly rendered landscapes that are fully explorable from intricately detailed buildings and ruins that impressed me the more I further I got into the game. Again and again, the game shifts emphasis from combat to puzzle solving to climbing platforms to exploration, interspersed with cinematics to let you have a breather. There are new additions this time round such as the grappling hook. It allows for greater variation in world traversal while also used as a tool in combat. Instinctively deciding to take a risk by using the grappling hook to swing from one point to another as enemies are shooting at you, only to swing just far enough for you to fall and land an instant knockout punch on an enemy is every bit as exciting as you would imagine it to be. It also opens up the maps wonderfully, creating real playgrounds to explore and find secrets or hidden notes which rewards you with game bonuses.
The open nature of the playgrounds also feeds into Uncharted's new mechanic of stealth. As Nathan is more agile than Joel from The Last of Us, you're free to leap and jump between cover, hide in tall grass and choosing your moment to take an enemy down. Nathan and the crew are against a private army, so the odds should feel stacked against you that using stealth is a viable option and while it's satisfying, playing it on hard like I did seemed impossible to follow through completely. I assume lower difficulties have fewer enemies to deal with as it seemed impossible for me to take someone down without being spotted most of the time. I learned to accept it and use stealth as far as I could and if I got spotted then I would get into the firefight and use the environment to my advantage. It's as close to an Indiana Jones adventure as you can get. There is puzzle solving but they're pretty brief and not particularly challenging.
Last to mention is the jeep. A little before the halfway point, you get to drive one around an environment. It's a neat addition, it's fast, fun and opens up it's own smaller puzzles to deal with. For example, you have to use the winch at certain points to get the jeep up a particularly muddy slope and so you have to get out of it and run and jump your way up and across until you find a sturdy tree to use as an anchor to drag it up. It's these sections that also makes you appreciate the level design, gorgeous environments that leaves you in awe over just how much time, skill and money it takes to create something of this scale.
I also have to mention the multiplayer as it's enough on it's own to keep me away from Overwatch sometimes. It's not a heavyweight onling experience and it does nothing fancy at all but it is a lot of fun. Respawns are fast, loadouts kept pretty simple but offer a lot of variety in what you can get. It's the flipside of the coin, where single player is dictated by logic and physics and plot, in multiplayer it's pure insanity. Totems that can drain the life out of your enemies, a magic lamp that allows you to dash like the Flash and being able to summon AI partners out of thin air to help in the fight are commonplace within tightly constructed maps amongst gunfire and explosions. They are making good already on promises with continuing to support the multiplayer with free maps, gear, weapons etc so there's a good platform there to build upon.
Overall, the combat can maybe feel a little loose and perhaps the setpieces aren't as grandiose as falling out of an airplace, but the construction of it all is much more impressive than it has been before. This is without a doubt one of the best looking games I have ever played, not just in terms of graphical fidelity, but scene composition, camera positioning and lighting. It boggles my mind that there are assets and environments built which are so detailed in themselves that they could serve as great backdrops to games in themselves and yet they are never seen in the game again. It's been true of all the Uncharted games but to see it here, looking the best it's ever been and in the longest Uncharted game there has been, is something special. There's so much that goes into making every aspect shine that creates a masterful piece of storytelling, packed with jaw dropping scenes as well as touching character moments backed up by the always impressive cast of Nolan North, Troy Baker and Emily Rose. As a celebration and fond farewell of what the Uncharted series has offered, I really couldn't have asked for too much more.
(http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/89f4ef492993143.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/89f4ef492993143) (http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/72a830492993148.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/72a830492993148) (http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/10d9c7492993151.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/10d9c7492993151) (http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/6b201d492993154.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/6b201d492993154) (http://thumbnails116.imagebam.com/49300/3b957e492993160.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/3b957e492993160) (http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/017b6d492993163.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/017b6d492993163) (http://thumbnails115.imagebam.com/49300/e3452e492993168.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/e3452e492993168) (http://thumbnails116.imagebam.com/49300/04fa8f492993174.jpg) (http://www.imagebam.com/image/04fa8f492993174)
9/10
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Actually finished this game weeks ago, but I haven't beaten anything other yet so here I am.... whooop... Child of Light
Beautiful Visuals and Presentation and a superb Soundtrack!
On normal the game is way too easy, but that was ok for me, I didn't have the nerve to play on hard anyway.
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SOMA
The best time and 7,99 I spent in a long time!!!
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^ I bought it on sale too and I'm not sure at what point I am in the game but have to agree with you. Absolutely enthralled by it so far.
Now I can say.... CHALLENGE COMPLETE though I like doing these so I want to keep going XD
July (12/12): Furi
(http://i.imgur.com/gz1uiAd.jpg)
There's usually one game in a year that will catch me by surprise. Sometimes it's a game I hadn't played before and only got a chance to play it, wondering how I missed it at the height of it's popularity. But mainly it's the release of indie games with very little marketing behind it until right around the point it comes out. Last year it was Rocket League, now one of my favourite games and something I play almost daily to this day. This year it's Furi and while I doubt I'll be playing it as much next year, what is here is a game that feels specifically made for me.
The premise is as straight forward as they come, Furi is essentially a boss rush game. Defeat nine bosses and the credits start to roll. The mechanics are even simpler, the combat is stripped to the core tenants of any action game, slash, shoot, dodge and parry. There is some hidden depth to the combat, such as you can parry enemy projectiles back at the boss or you can charge your boost to dodge further, or dodge as you're charging your melee but that's about it. There are no hidden combos, no collectibles, no upgrades. It is a mixture of an isometric twin stick shooter and a 3D hack and slash game. But what makes Furi stand out is that each boss encounter is fairly unique and genuinely requires a mix of strategies and gameplay in order to succeed. Some bosses are constricted to small arenas, some take place in large almost labyrinth type areas, some are mainly melee focused, others can only be damaged by ranged attacks. Each boss has multiple lifebars, take down one and different attack patterns get thrown into the mix, keeping you on your toes. Some boss fights stick out more than others but I enjoyed each encounter. Most of these bosses take up to 10 minutes or more to beat, not including any times you die against them as you learn their attacks. I've only briefly tried the first boss once again on the harder difficulty and was thrilled to learn that it includes even more attack patterns not seen on the normal difficulty which adds a whole new layer to the boss fights now. I love character action games like this, one where through practice you can fine tune the combat to your will and each victory feels well earned and rewarding.
I must also include the fantastic soundtrack to this. Backed up by electronica artists, the game feels like a descendant of Hotline Miami and the choices are fantastic, really adding to the excitement of fighting a boss. The visuals are quite nice, the neon esque landscapes all differ between each boss and the character designs themselves are pretty crazy although sometimes the garish lighting can really detract from the look of the characters when viewed up close. If there are criticisms, I'd say the plot is incredibly simple and doesn't give us any time to care for the characters within it (the protaganist is silent). Each chapter begins with a lengthy prologue where your character very slowly walks up to their new challenger while a creepy man in a rabbit head cryptically narrates the plot. While I appreciate the downtime between each boss which allows me to appreciate the visuals and the music, but the sluggish walk speed and awkward camera angles can often make it more of a slog than was intended.
Playing Furi I felt the inspirations were clear, a love letter dedicated to Platinum Games and bullet hell shooters and so I was glad to see that they along with Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, Hideo Kojima and others are given a shout out in the end credits. Furi isn't for everyone, it's made for a specific audience in mind and you have to respect that. While the above criticisms stop it from being a masterpiece, the white knuckle action it offers along with it's presentation makes for a gem of a game I'm delighted to have played. It's free on PS Plus this month and if you have it, it's well worth downloading it and giving it a try.
8/10
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@coachie: YES! INDEED! great game. have you seen the end?......ahhh goosebumps 9,99 /10
my games are: life is strange, SOMA, the vanishing of ethan carter & doom (2016)
but i can't complete 12 games in 12 months. impossibru~
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July (13/12): SOMA
(http://i.imgur.com/ZWVzrMK.jpg)
There doesn't seem like a whole lot to say about SOMA from a gameplay perspective. Much like the studio's previous game Amnesia, it is a survival horror game where you have a series of objectives to follow, solve puzzles to progress and hide from the threats wanting to kill you. The idea of having no weapons at all and having to hide from any monsters rather than confronting them was fairly ground breaking at the time of Amnesia's release and it's been copied over since by many other titles. So it was a pleasant surprise to me to find that SOMA doesn't try to do more of the same and it's all the more horrifying and a better game as a result.
You play as Simon Jarrett, a man who at the beginning of the game must undergo some radical brain therapy in order to try to help cure brain damage after a car crash. Once he wakes up, he's in a completely different place than the hospital he went into. It's dark, industrial, almost futuristic and most definitely abandoned. Eventually you discover you are in an underwater base, one of many, about a 100 years into the future. Through dialogue, visual signs and logs found in old computers you'll uncover more of the story and want to see it through all the way to the stunning end.
To say any more would be spoiler territory but let me just say that SOMA has some absolutely fantastic writing and delivers one of the best video game experiences I've ever had. I think what impressed me so much about it is that the horror that the game portrays is in the existential, not mechnical. There are sections where you must hide from the monsters that can instantly kill you but these instances can be counted on one hand and typically fill these sequences with tension rather than outright scares (although it must be said, there's a section like this near the end that absolutely terrified me). For me, the true scares came through the unconventional, the existential the game forces you to confront that makes me think about it long after the game is over. As an example, there came a point, maybe 2 hours into the game where you find yourself walking on the ocean floor. I was walking through the area, processing the information I had just found out and I just stopped and looked all around me and I felt like I didn't belong. That I was truly, completely alone in this world. Having known what happened, what had happened and where I was with this vast space all around me, I felt genuinely scared thinking of the prospect if I were in that situation. It's something the game does so well and it continues to raise some difficult existential and ethically grey questions that are so difficult. Discoveries that are usually game ending twists in other games are delivered within the first few hour or so of gameplay. It's not a game about sudden gotcha moments, it's more of a slow drip of information that gets you absorbed into the game's fiction more and more until you reach the end of a typically 10hr playthrough. It's not that other games haven't asked these same questions before, but SOMA does it the most clearly through some clever writing.
There's very little to talk about in the way of missteps. The puzzles are challenging but not too much to grind the pace to a screeching halt and they make a nice change of pace. It looks fantastic, the lighting and water effects are on point. The audio brilliantly keeps the tension alive at every turn. The game didn't feel so short as to be fleeting but didn't overstay it's welcome either. I guess the only weakness to the game is the monster encounters themselves, they're drawn out instances of hiding then sneaking or running to the exit of an area but they do raise the tension and set the heart beat racing when you feel one might be chasing you.
To some, SOMA might not be the horror game they're looking for. They might want more monsters jumping out or more instances of having to hide from some terror. That can be disappointing if that's the only thing you want out of it. But don't let it scare you into thinking it's not worth playing at all. It's one of those rare video games that is paced perfectly from start to finish and like any good science fiction story, will stick with you long after the stunning ending. Suffice to say that while the themes being explored are far from new to science fiction, this game puts a unique spin on them and uses your own first-person involvement in the tale to build and deliver a killer and emotional payoff that can only be achieved within the video game medium. It's dirt cheap right now, I cannot recommend it enough.
9/10
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I really regret that I couldn't keep up with this! work and life just ground me down until I couldn't manage it.
Saturdays I always looked forward to starting something new, making screenshots and having a good time.
Maybe I can pick this up another time.
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August (14/12): Inside
(http://i.imgur.com/e8Q99uS.png)
Much like SOMA, there's very little to say about Inside, the latest game from the makers of Limbo. After a lot of reviewer praise and fanatical support for the game's setting and ending, I came away from it feeling let down.
You play as a nameless boy constantly moving forward as you make your way into a base where officials appear to be conducting some dark experiments. I wish I could say more but it is a very short game (3-4 hours for me max, I started it on Thursday and finished it the next day) and secondly there isn't really much to talk about. The reason why you the player are constantly moving forward is not just because it's the design of the game but because you want to see what happens next in the hope that more will be revealed to you to get a better understanding of the story. But that never happens. There is no dialogue, no hidden logs in journals to read, any questions you have right from the beginning of the game go unanswered. The game's only communication of story are events that are happening in the background so really the whole game just feels like moving from scene to scene. Survival is initially the objective but as you get deeper into it, more questions are asked but very few ever get explicitly answered. Show, don't tell is a good thing for story telling, but only if you show things well. If you leave an important part of it too vague or unconnected, you have less of a story and more of a series of fragments which people then have to randomly guess and speculate the answers to. That's how I feel about this. The much discussed ending also fell flat for me personally. While there's definitely a basic structure of a story you can piece together here, I don't think it's something I enjoy that much. It doesn't make me care for any characters or make me think about it afterwards on any issues it raises, like SOMA does so well. Personally not for me, but if you can appreciate that method of story telling then I think you'll like this.
Not much to say about the game itself, much like Limbo it is a 2D platformer with often physics based puzzle solving. The platforming is serviceable and the puzzles are mostly straightforward enough that you shouldn't be too stuck on any particular one. With such a limited moveset at your disposal, there are only a few areas of experimentation you can make before you work out what needs to be done.
I will say the presentation of the game is also great, there is some really great direction, lighting and camera angles and overall the game is very dark and unsettling. It's an interesting game, worth playing because it feels so unique, but personally I was hoping for something more around the story considering the amount of hype I've heard about it.
7/10
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Week 12:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410115921_1-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410115921_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113030_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113030_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113159_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113159_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113244_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113244_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410114324_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410114324_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410114954_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410114954_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113013_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Conflict/20160410113013_1.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 30 minutes
I actually had this ready to go months ago when it actually was week 12! But this game? yeah, I don't have much to say about it, it's a standard FPS where you can switch characters around and I got bored and deleted it after the first level :lol:
It's another one I got in the Eidos bundle I think, I'm sure I had more to say about it at the time, but it left such a huge impression on me I've forgotten everything!!
Recommended? nah
Replay? nope
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Week 34:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820180556_1-700.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820180556_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820144423_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820144423_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820154835_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820154835_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820160816_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820160816_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820162839_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820162839_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820210142_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160820210142_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821143536_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821143536_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821144933_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821144933_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821164804_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821164804_1.jpg)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821173956_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160821173956_1.jpg)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160823213641_1-350.jpg) (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/90052901/test/JPH%21P/VG%20Challenge/Revelations%202/20160823213641_1.jpg)
Smaller screenshots may contain spoilers.
Time Played? 23 hours (beaten on normal)
Now this is a game I was kind of looking forward to, then it felt a bit flat and I forgot all about it!
Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS was released around the same time as RE6 and was the real "survival horror" game to complement it.
Except this wasn't true :lol: Revelations was a good attempt however!! it was kind of it's own thing with the Raid mode (different from Mercenaries) and item collecting and upgrading, I ended up having a lot of fun!! The 3DS was pushed to it's limits, which also added the survival horror element of smaller levels and taking your time and being scared of what was coming. Rather than the huge, long endless linear levels in RE6 which you could just run straight through in a lot of cases.
Rev 2 was hyped up as being the continuation of that, plus some RE2 elements and characters and Survival Horror. Along with the return of fan favourite character Claire Redfield.
Oh dear.
Well, they tried? haha. The first problem was Claire was not voiced by Alyson Court, the actress who had played her since the 90's, this actually stopped me from buying it for a long time as I am a big fan of hers (I actually played it through in Japanese the first time just to avoid the acting), the other is the long, long levels from RE6 were back. The survival horror gameplay is there but it is toned down somewhat (there is a "survival mode" but that too just doesn't feel right) and in general feels even more derivative and inauthentic, it really plays a lot like Rev 1 had an RE6 makeover since they weren't limited by size anymore since this isn't a 3DS game. I don't know it's odd.
Regardless of that, it is a good game, and better than RE6! Barry and Claire have second characters in their stories, Moira and Natalia who are actually more fun to play as, Moira has a torch and Natalia can spot enemies and hide and get through small holes, I tend to spend most of my time playing as them. Raid mode isn't as good as Rev 1 but I have been playing it through, some Rev1 characters are in it like Jessica who was my fav in the last game.. and for some reason has a better character model than anyone else, the graphics seem oddly downgraded somehow, I know Rev 1 got a HD makeover for consoles, so it's just another odd thing.
Recommended? if it's cheap, because it's a good game!
Replay? Yes, raid mode and S ranks and things
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September (15/12): Hyper Light Drifter
(http://i.imgur.com/MAUFekh.png)
Hyper Light Drifter is a 2D action RPG released earlier this year that can easily be compared to early Legend of Zelda titles. That is no faint praise, but it is the best way to describe this fantastic pixel art indie game. Much like Nintendo's series, the game values exploration and skill, invoking the same sense of adventure as you discover secrets and fight enemies from a top down perspective. Where Hyper Light Drifter differs is it's sense of style, it's incredibly challenging difficulty brought about by it's fast combat system and a basic, but cryptic narrative. Needless to say, all things I have come to love in a video game.
The narrative revolves around the protaganist (the name is never mentioned but is referred to online, rather sensibly, as the Drifter) navigating through a land decimated by Evangelion looking giants in searches for the cure to a mysterious illness affecting your character. The interesting aspect to the narrative is that it doesn't give you much in the way to fill in the blanks. Aside from the opening cutscene which establishes the character and the world, the game doesn't expose much other information to the player. There are very few characters to interact with and aside from gameplay hints, there is no dialogue and no written text logs to further emblish the world or what has happened. The storytelling is largely left to the player's interpretation as they wander through the various environments like the snowy mountain tops to the underground robot factories. What helps is the game's striking appearance, the game uses a variety of colors that is easy on the eye and begging for the player to take a moment to appreciate. It's a world brimming with life that has begun anew, but also living in the shadow of a long dead civilisation that was much grander and more luxurious than the current one could possibly hope to be.
The cryptic nature even extends to the gameplay. From the get go, you start in a central town area where you can purchase upgrades to weapons, skills etc and have the freedom to explore any area you see fit, either North, East, South or West, where some areas are more suited than others if you're just starting out. The game subtly gives you some hints about what you should be doing but largely leaves you to figure out on your own how game mechanics work such as the combat, managing the health system or even how to purchase upgrades. Only through playing do you realise that in each area you must track down 4 terminals containing gems tucked away in their own mini dungeons or hidden in the overworld, as well as defeating a boss in the area in order to progress towards the final part of the game. Navigation is an early hurdle, as the map is quite basic but I found that I got pleasantly lost without feeling frustrated. I was constantly seeking out new paths or secret areas to see what it would lead me to. It has a slight Castlevania element were certain sections of the area couldn't be accessed without a specific weapon or skill found later in the game, so it was also one where I had to take notes on so that I could come back and discover what was there. There's good incentive to do so as well, areas such as this often lead to even more challenging gameplay areas leading to new upgrades, cosmetic differences to your character and even leading to mini games and optional bosses. If I had any gripe, it would be that each area is distinctly separate from each other and not connected like a Lordran or even a Hyrule.
Navigation is the least of the player's problem anyway. Most of the game's difficulty comes through it's combat which can be swift and brutal at every encounter if not handled correctly. You come to learn the basics in a few hours, sword slashes are the primary method of attack but you also have firearms to use like pistols, rifles and one of the best, useful shotguns I've seen in a while. Rather than bullets, the ammunition for the guns require recharging through sword slashes against the enemy. You can dash in any direction, which lets you get away from danger or navigating the environment by crossing over ledges, but it does not make you invincible. With all of that in mind, you must make use of them during combat which sees you come up against a group of enemies. It takes a while to come to grips with the combat, the Drifter is fragile, and health packs can be hard to come by, of which you can only carry 3 at a time so at times you can feel overwhelmed by having to manage so many enemies at once. Eventually once it all clicks, you learn that enemy prioritisation is key, identifying who is going to be a problem will allow you to target who you should deal with first. Acquiring upgrades can also make it easier e.g. you can deflect projectiles back at enemies if you swing the sword at the right time, or you can acquire bombs which can clear a group of enemies fairly quickly but has a long recharge time. While you may occasionally fumble at the beginning, it is always satisfying to tackle a group of enemies and dispatch them all within seconds, like a swift whirlwind of death. It's one of the closest feelings I've had playing a game to feeling like a lone samurai.
Overall, the game exhibits a nice combination good game design and enchanting aesthetic direction. It's filled with secrets that encourage thorough exploration and the combat is challenging and satisfying. The visuals and synth soundtrack are both great as well making it a game very much worth your time.
8/10
There's also a good documentary about the creator who made the game as he was battling a fatal illness and how that transpired into his work.
f (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUT5SBZkVys)
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Games payed and finished since my last update
- Bioshock 2 Minerva's Den DLC
- Bioshock Infinite
- Layers of Fear + DLC
- Atelier Sophie - Alchemist of the Mysterious Book
- Silent Hill - Shattered Memories
Challenge Complete!
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November (16/12): Hitman
(http://i.imgur.com/G1SfHkm.jpg)
This week saw the release of the final level of what is 'Season 1' of the latest Hitman game. A pre-existing AAA franchise making the switch to an episodic release was always going to be controversial, but aside from a few hiccups and long standing issues (which I'll get to), the end result has been a resounding success culminating in not only my favourite Hitman game of the series, but one of the best games this year.
The latest Hitman game is true to the series roots by offering large sandbox levels offering you the player the freedom to assassinate the target however you so chose, but it must be as clean and silent as possible. Stealth is the way to get around the levels and adopting disguises allows you to progress deeper and closer to the target without the fear of being spotted. Taking out the target stealthily however is usually a challenging proposition and each game in the series has offered creative methods to carry this out. Sure, you could take out a target from distance with a headshot from your pistol but what if you were to poison the target's drink? Set up an explosion? Tamper with the ejection safety of a harrier jet so that when the target goes through a routine safety check the target is ejected high into the sky without a parachute? These are some of the options available, with each game creating a sophisticated sandbox that was both approachable and ripe with creative opportunities for advantageous players to feel like they performed the perfect hit. In essence, Hitman is as much a puzzle game as it is an action stealth game.
From a design and gameplay perspective, the latest Hitman game offers some of the biggest, most varied and intricately designed levels in the series.The first level, set in a fashion show in Paris, is a fantastic way to start the game. With 2 targets to kill, the game has a multitude of ways to complete the mission. Hundreds of civilians bustle from dance floor to bar, caterers weave purposefully through the crowds, all as models take to a gorgeously lit catwalk set to a booming soundtrack in the centre of a sprawling mansion with multiple floors – it’s down to you to decide how you want to proceed. It truly feels organic, a realisation of the type of game Hitman always aspired to be, but now with the hardware to support it. The next level, Sapienza, is my personal favourite. The largest map of any Hitman game and gorgeous to look at, even later levels don't really match it. In a sense, the game almost peaks too early as other levels don't quite match, but that's not to say they're bad. Indeed, each one is unique and challenging in their own right and absolutely gorgeous to look at. Each level has a number of unique opportunities to kill targets, you will usually hear NPC dialog which hints at a character flaw or weakness of the target which you can exploit. By following the on screen prompts, it will often lead you to being alone with the target or kill them in a hilariously unique manner. Swapping out the targets golf ball with one that explodes will always be funny. The game can be pretty dark but also has a wonderful macabre sense of humour to it as well.
I was rather sketchy of the new episodic release format at first, but thankfully IO and Square Enix pulled through. Despite a rocky launch period at first, the game has been supported really well between the release of each new level. Bug fixes and game updates would regularly be provided to make the game smoother and better performing but they've also added in additional content with Escalation and Elusive targets. The former are unique contracts set in a level, requiring you to kill someone but there will usually be conditions around it e.g. kill someone wearing a certain disguise. After completing it the first time, the game asks you to do it again but this time with an added condition, such as kill another target or hide the body in 30 secs. Complete that and you get another condition, leading up all the way to 5 levels, often forcing you to re adapt how you approach the mission. I really enjoy these because they tested my knowledge of the level layout and how to complete it, really highlighting the puzzle aspect of the game. Elusive targets are also interesting, essentially real time limited missions where you have limited intel on how to find a target with the added caveat that you have only one chance at getting it right. Fail it and you can never play that mission ever again. When I said they are real time limited, I meant it, past missions can never be attempted even now. I really like the idea, it ramps up the tension in each mission as you plan ahead on how to get it right and one of these missions in particular led to one of my gaming highlights of the year as I timed it just right so that I sabotaged a church bell to drop and fall on the targets head, making it look like an accident.
There are a few downsides to address. The most obvious one and one I have a hard time justifying, it that this is essentially an always online game. Yes, you can play the game offline, however for some reason it not only seperates out offline from online saves, but also any equipment or weapons you unlock in the online version, cannot be used offline. Indeed, they can't be used at all, as they are exclusively available online. That in turn has also created problems where I can and have been disconnected from their servers and so end up forcing to quit mid mission and retry connecting. It was a fairly regular problem in the first few weeks but since then things have been much more stable that I can't even remember the last time I was kicked off. The main story thread started off promisingly but ultimately was rather weak. The cutscenes are gorgeous, as you would expect from Square Enix and it was interesting at first, but once news came out that a Season 2 might be in the works, it ends just as you would imagine. But ultimately the story is just not that interesting to be engaged with in the first place and can't really be told effectively as it's fractured between each episode in small doses. My other gripe is voice acting. You get to go to Paris, Italy, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado and Japan. Yet every NPC in the game has the same voice actor, using the same British/American accent throughout. It's kind of immersion breaking.
The final level of the season may have been released, but the developers have a plan to continue releasing side content and elusive targets for weeks to come and it's great to see the game get that level of support. It thoroughly deserves the success, as each level shows the developers have a good grasp on the basics of Hitman enough to twist it in interesting ways for each level. A full boxed edition will be released in January and the game has so much content and replayibility already that, in my mind it's easily worth the money. I hope that Season 2 is confirmed for next year, as they won me over with the episodic format, making each level the focus of a string of weeknights, exploring every corner and taking out every target, rather than ditch it the second you’ve played it once. While I wouldn't be happy for that format to apply to every AAA game in the future, it fits Hitman considering it was a set of disconnected sandboxes anyway. It also just happens to be the best game in the series.
9/10
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It sounds like I would hate this a lot :lol:
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I've continued playing Spelunky (yes, after all this time); it can be so brutal, but I am experiencing some (slow? normal?) progress and that's good times. I don't know if I highlighted that before, but it really is such a good game. I'm mentioning it in this thread specifically because it was one of the games I 'sampled' earlier this year :lol: I will make use of the list I've already made for this year, but really my gaming is such a mess. I play with Stryfe and xerony a lot (they tend to be around; it would be fun to have a +1 for full 4nin play sessions) and then I have my Sims and then there are games I've just recently bought like Stardew Valley and then this list and other unfinished games... :lol:
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Ahh I miss our 4 player game sessions, what has this job done to me? D:
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November (17/12): Titanfall 2
(http://i.imgur.com/PDHcOAN.jpg)
2016 is, surprising to all, the year of shooters. Some of the biggest, most critically well received games this year are first person shooters. Titanfall 2 is the most complete package of the lot, offering a brief but thrilling single player campaign and multiplayer that is fast and chaotic.
The single player campaign sees you, Jack Cooper, training to be a Pilot, an elite soldier who is capable of swiftly moving across the battlefield with lethal efficiency but also able to commander a giant mech capable of turning the tides of battle, known as a Titan. The story is even more generic than you expect. Future sci fi universe under threat from an Empire that considers all human life expendable and a plucky rebellion to fight against it. Early on you link up with BT, an experimental Titan who also has more of a personality than the man you're playing as. Like all cinematic shooters, the campaign funnels you through from level to level but rather than strict linear corridors there is usually a wide open space to take advantage of. The levels and enemy placements are designed in such a way that you can't help but experiment with. Running along a wall shooting enemies at the same time will never ever get old and that's also down to how good the game controls. It's fluid, fast and weapons feel satisfying to use. You also get to control your Titan in other sections which is as empowering as you hoped it would be. There are different loadouts to select for it which opens up new abilities to use and the game makes the best use of it when fighting other Titans.
But where Titanfall excels is the variety of what the game asks you to do. The game controls are satisfying in their own right that the developers could have just left it to be a straightforward experience without too much work, but instead they chose to give each level a unique element which keeps things interesting. An early highlight is a level where you're in a factory line as these houses are being constructed. This level is more puzzle like in nature than shooter focused, as shifting planes requires you to think how you will navigate through the level. When enemy encounters do happen, you can use the environment to your advantage as you run, double jump and sprint your way across. There are other levels that give you a piece of equipment that ties into the level design in some way or drastically changes how you handle enemy encounters. These ideas are not worthy of me spoiling here, but with each level introducing a new idea or game mechanic and then disposing it for the next level, it almost feels like a Nintendo game. The campaign is short, 4-5 hours and I do wish it was longer, but that's a testament to how well the campaign is put together, it's the most enjoyable shooter I've played in a long while, perhaps as far back as COD4 (not so surprising considering the developement team is composed of veterans from that game.)
The single player campaign is a triumph, but the multiplayer is also a fantastic addition. The fast movement and Titan battling all makes it's way to the multiplayer and it creates an online experience that's fast, frantic and chaotic. You can select your weapons and equipment in a create a class system like COD, but thankfully the game doesn't throw in so many options that it's overwhelming. You can select an ability per class which offers some unique advantages. The one most used is the grappling hook, which just feels very satisfing to use as you can zip across the map or even grapple onto other enemies. There's also a pulse knife which where thrown, sends out a ripple effect and highlights where the enemy is in your field of view, perfect so you can set up an ambush. You can also turn invisible, move at 3x the normal speed, produce a cover which amplifies any firing shots going out which are all useful in their own way. The best game mode is Bounty Hunt, where NPC soldiers and Titans come in rounds. You compete with an enemy team to kill these NPC's as it earns you money. At the end of each round, each player scrambles to a bank terminal so they can deposit their winnings and contribute to the team effort. The fastest to earn $5000 wins and the tables can turn because when a player is killed, half of their bounty goes to the player who killed him. Player progression earns you new weapons to use, different titan classes, cosmetic items etc and it's fast to level up so I never felt like I was being denied anything cool and having to grind for it. It's the action on the battlefield that really cements Titanfall 2. That rush of clearing out a few grunts, capping a couple of enemy pilots, earning your Titan, calling it in right in front of you, wall-running and jumping as you hear "Stand by for Titanfall" then sliding on the ground into the space where your giant metallic buddy slams into it, seamlessly being picked up and placed aboard, then terrorising the ant-like soldiers below... that's Titanfall. It's truly unlike anything else you can feel in a competitive shooter, it has never ever felt old and I don't think it ever will.
In recent times, first person shooters have felt like they have had either their single player or multi player modes tacked on, usually made by another development team and you can tell it's not given the same focus as what makes the other mode so compelling. Titanfall 2 is truly the complete package, a well paced, inventive campaign and a chaotic multiplayer that makes most of the competition look stale by comparison. It is such a tragedy that EA decided to release it between Battlefield 1 and COD. It doesn't have the same name brand as those two so it can't really compete and it shows. The fact that one of the highest critically rated Xbox One games ever (8th of all time last time I checked) is released to low sales should be something that EA should be ashamed of.
9/10
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November (18/12): Deus Ex : Mankind Divided
(http://i.imgur.com/bbLgGCm.png)
The sequel to Human Revolution, Deus Ex Mankind Divided was one of my most anticipated games of the year. The latest entry to a series highly regarded as one of the best of all time, the original proving to be a revolution in game design still felt to this day, I was excited to continue the story of Adam Jensen. Unfortunately, the latest game isn't as much of a revolution as it is an evolution. That's ok in it's own right, but it also introduces some problems across the board which left me feeling ultimately rather disappointed.
One of the most interesting things about the series is that like any decent science fiction, it takes real world struggles and concepts and are able to use these to tell an interesting story. The original Deus Ex is a cyberpunk global conspiracy spy thriller but also oddly prophetic for its time regarding surveillance, data mining and artificial intelligence. There’s a general theme throughout the series around big business interests in politics, augmentations and transhumanism that raises interesting questions and makes the player think. Mankind Divided approaches a different subject, racism, but the results are not as successful. Two years after the events of Human Revolution, people are basically divided into two categories, human and augmented, with the former deeply fearful of the latter after *Deus Ex Human Revolution Spoilers* ‘The Aug Incident’. Basically a global catastrophe where people with augments where driven to violent insanity after a biochip embedded in people’s augments was activated. Augmented people turned on non-augmented people which resulted in the death of 50 million people worldwide, particularly where the population of augmented people were highest. Adam Jensen stops it from continuing on and pulling the people back to themselves but the damage was done and governments around the world decided to pass laws on how to deal with people’s fear and anger. In Mankind Divided’s case, a ‘mechanical apartheid’ is imposed on Prague where augmented people have human rights taken away and segregated to live in ghettos under constant police surveillance.
If that all sounds a bit far fetched as the narrative basis for this game then that’s because it is. To know that the upper class individuals from the first game who were able to afford augments in the first place now become a poverty stricken oppressed class, in the space of two years since the events of the previous game, is pretty far fetched. The level of open racism on show by civilians and even police forces seems comically over the top. There are even examples of ‘Aug Lives Matter’ printed across the world, a real world allegory about as blunt as a sledgehammer to the face. It’s not new for Deus Ex games to take real world issues and exaggerate them to fictional extremes and as we near some cyber dystopia of our own here in the real world, a story around identity politics could be interesting. But the handling of it in this game, having to incorporate it to events of the previous game, seems ham fisted and indeed even a little disrespectful to the very issues it is attempting to explore and expose.
The main narrative isn’t much better. You play as Adam Jensen once again, a fully augmented secret agent who gets caught up in a terror incident in Prague and finds the strands connecting to a bigger conspiracy involving the Illuminati and must uncover them. The problem is that the story told over 30 hours isn’t particularly meaningful. I got my money’s worth but it doesn’t feel like I had accomplished much by the end of it. It’s hard to feel you’re involved in a global conspiracy if the majority of your time is spent in Prague, as opposed to previous games that would have you globe trotting. The ending came more abruptly and anti-climactically than any game I’ve played since Halo 2, leaving the game with several plot threads left unresolved and where the real conflict will be addressed in a future sequel. But as a prequel to the original Deus Ex, we already know the outcome so it just seems like delaying the inevitable for the sake of more games to release in the series which is pretty shady.
The main strengths of the game come from the other aspects that Deus Ex is renowned for, it’s first person stealth RPG hybrid combined with expansive level design. In many ways it feels like fine tuning the formula laid out from Human Revolution as opposed to doing anything drastic to try and break it. You will often find that there isn’t just one solution to an obstacle in your way but many, all catering to how you approach the game. As an example, if you need to get to a location but need to get through a room of guards in order to do it, you have a number of options as your disposal. You can hack into terminals to unlock doors or bypass security systems in order to progress or you could find a vent shaft that leads to where you need to go, you could use your augments such as an invisible cloak to move from cover to cover or you could even construct your own path using crates and boxes to reach a higher elevation that allows you to traverse right above them without them seeing you. You could also use a lethal approach but I wouldn’t recommend it, the FPS mechanics just aren’t on the same level as a Titanfall or other FPS you care to mention. It’s fairly clunky, imprecise and slow, even pulling out the gun takes longer than you expect. Stealth is the best way to approach the game and it shows as you are given experience point bonuses for completing an objective for not raising an alarm or being spotted. For what it's worth, I played on the hardest difficulty option available to me when I started the game and didn't feel challenged at all when taking this approach. I imagine it's probably more difficult to go in each encounter all guns blazing but I can't imagine why you ever would if it doesn't feel great to begin with.
Your actions in the game like completing objectives or hacking terminals gives you experience points which you can use to upgrade your abilities and define your own play style, especially when combined with the array of lethal and non-lethal weapons. New to this game are new ‘experimental’ augmentations, which offer new abilities. The inspiration from Dishonored is apparent, even including it’s own ‘Blink’ mechanic to be able to teleport short distances across. While interesting, the trade off is that you must permanently turn off one of the core abilities to facilitate it’s inclusion. An interesting dilemma to begin with, however these new abilities don’t have a fundamental impact on the way you play the game in the same manner that your base abilities do and they often use up a lot of your energy meter, which can’t be so easily replenished without a fairly rare resource you must buy or find through digging meticulously through every container in the environment. Remote hacking and firing a concussive blast don’t amount to much other than a fancy parlor trick, the trade off with your base abilities is too high to even warrant the deal and you’re not going to be challenged without using them. It even seems like the developers were aware of this as halfway through the game you can complete a side quest which allows you to bypass the limitation. Any base ability you had previously disabled is now re enabled ready for use and every experimental augment is available to upgrade without penalty. Again, it’s a case where the gameplay doesn’t quite match with the story they’re trying to tell. How am I meant to feel part of an oppressed class and made to be treated as such when I can kill multiple security guards with the push of a button? I can launch explosive blades from my arms but I’m meant to feel scared of the security checkpoints and racist police force? There are a few tonal inconsistencies like this which only highlights that maybe there were missed opportunities they could have taken with the story.
There is a lot to like about Mankind Divided, it has smart level design, a cool looking cyberpunk world and offers the freedom to approach the game in a combination of ways that make the player feel smart and rewards their curiosity. I feel the core gameplay loop is solid enough to shine through its mechanical flaws and hasty writing but as a fan of the original and of Human Revolution, I was hoping for more from the story and it doesn’t leave me with confidence that it’s in good hands with the series going forward. In addition the game feels like a fine tune of Human Revolution that I felt like I was playing more of the same with incremental changes. It’s a good game from a series where I was expecting greatness, even excellence.
6/10
Side note: One 'improvement' from Human Revolution is that there is only one boss battle in this compared to the several that plagued the previous game, unanimously the worst parts about it. It’s saved to the very end but I feel the boss may have helped to my overall impression that the ending was so anti climatic. You're fighting a villain who you've only seen maybe twice throughout the whole game at this point and the room is fairly large, there are various avenues to go down, rooms to explore, potential doors and turrets to hack. I think what they intended was for you to make use of the whole environment, using it to your advantage but I tried a tactic by hiding behind cover, moving to the side of him where he couldn't see me, threw an EMP grenade at him and whilst he was stunned I ran up and pressed Circle to perform a non lethal takedown. It worked, the boss fight lasted roughly 20 seconds, dispatched as easily as any other human enemy in the game. Going forward, they should just stop making boss fights altogether, it’s not worth it.
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Sorry it's been so long since I last updated. I haven't given up on both challenges, but stuff happened (mostly a walking toddler who can't be unsupervised for more than a minute) and I couldn't follow with the plan I made at the beginning of the year. Rather I should say my nephew figured out how to turn on and off my PS3 as well as constantly pressing the eject button. He also knows how to turn on my PS3 with my wireless controller. I've had to hid my controller for the past several months. :nervous
So far I've played one game per week since my last post, which I think was back in.....April. Since then I've completed at least one game per month. Can't remember the games I've played for the moment, but I'll be sure to list them eventually.
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December (19/12): Everybody's Gone To The Rapture
(http://116.imagebam.com/download/91w2MMaUZ796RwrwSdl35w/51908/519075435/everybodysban.jpg)
Famous for it's 'walking simulators' The Chinese Room's latest game came out last year. In it, you play as a silent, unnamed protaganist wandering through a completely deserted English countryside village piecing together a mystery of what happened to all it's residents. I don't even consider it a spoiler to say what happened, it's established in the first 15 mins of the game and it is the title of the game after all. I eventually learned that the draw to the story is not the mystery of how this happened but of who it happened to. You wander from place to place in first person view and when you stumble upon a location of interest, ghostly apparitions of light assemble in front of you and disembodied voices start to be heard, reliving out interactions between members in the community and it's through here that you get to know people's back stories and how they coped with the impending crisis as people start to disappear one by one. As you encounter these scenes by location rather than through a linear sequence of time, you start to realise that these scenes are played out across different time periods, making it a challenge as you try to piece together the overall story in a coherent timeline. Turning on subtitles is a must, without any physical character models, voices tend to blend in making it hard to remember character's or know who is even involved. All that's left is finding out more about these character's who aren't particularly interesting or likeable having interpersonal conflicts with each other which all ends anti climatically as, well, everybody goes to the rapture. It's established within the first 15 mins of the game that this is what happens to everyone because of some ethereal light source which causes people to disappear one by one but by the end of the game no further explanation is given which led me to wonder what I had been learning throughout the running total of 3 hours or what enjoyment I had out of it.
Other than the story, there is little of the game itself to discuss. A walking simulator in the true sense of the word, there is nothing else to do in this game but walk around this vast open world hoping to find the next scene to play out in order to progress further. There are no puzzles to solve and you can't interact with the most basic of objects meaning the game itself is more akin to a virtual museum tour and oh boy it is a slow one. My biggest grievance by far is the awful, plodding walking speed of your character. You move at such a snails pace in this open environment that it really starts to frustrate if you want to deviate off the main path to see if there's anything of interest down a side route and realise you have to slowly walk all the way back again. This is especially frustrating when the magic ball of light that acts as a guide to show you where to go to trigger the next event decides to have wonky AI. The guide is inconsistent, often leading you down a path and then suddenly turning around 180 degrees and going back down the path it just led you down on for the past minute, making you walk back the way you came because it got the pathing wrong which happens more times than it should. It only gets more frustrating each time it happened. I'd strongly advise not wandering too far away from it either. One particularly bad moment early on came when I moved away from it to see if there was anything to discover only to find when I moved back the light had gone away from view, leading me to very slowly walk from area to area aimless and lost, hoping to find the light or trigger an event. There is a run button which is never explained in the game, but you must hold down R2 and after 8-9 seconds your character moves probably 20% faster than before. The walking speed is by design, presumably to maintain a slow pace like a Sunday stroll through the village but I really don't think it would have hampered on artistic vision to include a proper run button. When a 3 hour game feels like 30 by the end of it, you know something went wrong.
The best parts about the game are the visuals and the audio. It really is an impressive looking, realistic English countryside village. Cottages and small shops and pubs built in with nature surrounding it and it all feels lived in and real. It also helps that some events change the environment from day to night in a flash, giving the location a different look and feel as this event plays out with the night sky covered with stars. Once it's over, the sun rises back to it's previous location again only sped up, as you see the sky colour start to change and shadows move across the environment. However, the performance can start to noticeably drop particularly as the scenes play out which is rather immersion breaking. The soundtrack might be my favourite part about the game. The choir arrangements are haunting and beautiful, playing at the right times throughout the game usually as some past interaction had finished. That, combined with the visuals at times would often make me stop and appreciate it all.
Everybody's Gone To The Rapture is all about piecing together a story on your own, not so much about the apocalyptic event itself, but of who it has affected. Unfortunately, the characters themselves don't support it, making the driving force behind the game become a real issue. Without that, the game really suffers as any enjoyment you wish to have through player interaction simply isn't there. It doesn't even feel like a game at all, but might be better served as an audiobook or radio play. It's not a criticism on the walking simulator genre, SOMA is a horror game but one can also call it a walking simulator and that happens to be one of my favourite games this year. But while both games have fascinating concepts, SOMA has strong characters, unique environments, light puzzles, interactions, additional means you can find and flesh out the backstory and environment through scrounging through emails and the story challenged me and makes me think long after the credits rolled. EGTR really suffers without a compelling story that's disjointed and has minimal gameplay to back it up. The fact that design issues like the slow walking speed and technical performance issues also plagues the game makes this the worst of it's genre that I've played. No doubt it has it's audience, maybe some will appreciate it more than me. But I do think there are far better examples of these kinds of games out there.
3/10
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Thank you for that review, Tuffty!
Had this on my must play list for the longest time, always usure if I should get it or not, now i finally kicked it! XD
Since my last post I played two games
Rise of the Tomb Raider
After a year its finally here for the PS4!
Long story short: I enjoyed it, maybe not as much as the Reboot but for different reasons
The Story: its Tomb Raider so... nothing new here :P
Here I prefer the first game over RoTR, just because there was Sam and saving Sam played a large part in my motivation to get on with the story. So that alone puts it in my personal opinion above RoTR.
The Challange Tombs are still not very hard, but they were a step up from the previous game and one or two took me a while longer to figure out
From a technical standpoint I cant say anything bad about the game. It looks and sounds goregous and I didnt encounter any bugs apart from the occasional enviremant (mountain, tree) that took three nanoseconds longer to load.
I played on Survivor difficulty and it is totally managable. The game throws so much crafting material at you, I was rarely out of ammo and never out of healing items.
But you die after what feels like two or three direct htis and dying i did a lot... like really A LOT (like 322 times, yeah i actually counted)
But that was always my fault for being incompetent, cant blame the game at all!
So even with Sam missing and some frustrating moments, I overall enjoyed the game.
My only wish for the next game... please get rid of the whole Trinity storyline as motivation for Lara... but I fear that wont happen...
Which brings me to the next game
Limbo... I mean Inside
Aaaah, I was so happy,, when I saw this was released on Ps4. This was one of the veeeery few games I envied the Xboners for.
In exactly 6h I was through with the story and wow... mind blown!
But after a good nights sleep i started feeling that i actually enjoyed Limbo more(?) and I cant really tell why.
I feel like i felt more emotionally connected to the boy in Limbo than the boy in Inside. So dying in Limbo "hurt" me more than seeing the Inside boy die.
But still a great game! The riddles were fun and at one or two points I got stuck for a few minutes, but in the end, I figured it all out by myself. Yay me!
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Quick reccap from my previous posts:
Week 1: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix Completed
Week 2: Contradiction Completed
Week 3: The Room Three Completed
Week 4: Rhythm Heaven
Week 5: Zero Escape: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors Completed
Week 6: The Blackwell Legacy
Week 7: Super Mario Bros. Completed
Week 8: Kirby's Adventure Completed
Week 9: Deadpool Completed
Week 10: Syberia Completed
Week 11: Evoland II Completed
Week 12: A Bird Story Completed
And now the rest of the year....
Week 13: République Completed
Week 14: Persona 4
Week 15: Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney (Ace Attorney Trilogy) Completed
Week 16: Don't Starve
Week 17: Kingdom Hearts Unchained x
Week 18: Shadow of the Colossus
Week 19: The Talos Principle Completed
Week 20: Transistor
Week 21: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Completed
Week 22: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Picross Completed
Week 23: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Week 24: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Week 25: Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations - Prosecutor's Path
Week 26: Flow Completed
Week 27: The Room Two HD Completed
Week 28: The Longest Journey
Week 29: The Silent Age Completed
Week 30: The Legend of Zelda Completed
Week 31: Radiant Historia
Week 32: Super Mario Bros. 2 Completed
Week 33: Lego Dimensions
Week 34: Pokemon Picross
Week 35: Super Smash Bros. 3DS
Week 36: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice Completed
Week 37: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Week 38: Rain Completed
Week 39: Beyond Good and Evil HD Completed
Week 40: The Secret of Monkey island
Week 41: Young Justice Legacy
Week 42: Red Dead Redemption
Week 43: A Story About My Uncle Completed
Week 44: Blackwell Unbound
Week 45: Parasite Eve
Week 46: RWBY Grimm Eclipse Completed
Week 47: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Completed
Week 48: The Wolf Among Us Completed
Week 49: HuniePop Completed
Week 50: Oxenfree Completed
Week 51: Papers, Please
Looks like I completed the 12in12 challenge twice over. :lol:
Just one more week to go. And I think I have an idea of what game to play to finish of the year......
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RUM85_rgTtM/VLxAn0qMd8I/AAAAAAAAyww/lrwb9XywHac/s1600/Super_Mario_Bros_3_(NES)_02.gif)
EDIT: Uh.....change of plans. :nervous
In honor of getting the Lego Ghostbusters Firehouse set as a Christmas present, as well as getting Ghostbusters: The Video Game (a.k.a. the 3rd movie) really cheap during the Steam winter sale, I'll be playing that instead for Week 52.
(https://cdna2.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/000/281/478/large/GB_Render.jpg?1472273495)
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Any suggestions, ideas what should be done with this challenge next year? :3 Do we want it to make a comeback (but maybe, er, lose the 52 in 52 aspect)?
EDIT: I guess that's a no? :lol:
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I still want a comeback! I'll take on 12 in 12 again and maybe hope to do even better this time! I don't know what else you could do with the challenge. Was thinking maybe something like a book club, where a game is assigned each month and those taking part play it and offer a review at the end of each month. But then you'd have to arrange which game to play, new games are expensive, people might not have the right console or PC to play it if it's an exclusive and ultimately I prefer reading impressions from people on the games they choose to play as I get to better know their likes or dislikes and it might open my eyes to a game that I wouldn't have considered otherwise.
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^ I was thinking something similar to what you're talking about. Like each month is a specific genre (like RPGs, fantasy, indie, adventure, etc.) Or how about we select games that we've bought that we've never got the chance to play or complete? I know I have a couple of games on my backlog that I haven't tried out yet. :lol: All I know is next year I'm sticking only to the 12 in 12 challenge. I'm burnt out playing a game each week and trying to complete a game each month. :depressed:
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OK it shall be back then. :lol: Honestly I already made a tentative 12 game list for myself, but I won't try to stick to it too much in case it's not fun.
I think, if I make assigned monthly categories they would be very loose to still allow freedom :) Thanks for the suggestions!!
EDIT: The new thread is up XD http://forum.jphip.com/index.php?topic=41745.0
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Come to think of it, I did complete a few games in 2016, although many of them were co-op games with other JPHiP dudes:
BasketBelle (solo), Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Dead Island, Dead Island Riptide, Her Story (solo), Spelunky kind of (solo; I beat the boss, but didn't go to hell etc.), Grim Dawn kind of (played thru the map on normal difficulty??), Starbound kind of (completed the main quest line). Then some other co-op games were the kind you can't really "finish" (although Grim Dawn and Starbound are arguably like that, too). And I think I played Isaac enough to consider myself kind of done with it, tho I can always go back. That's ~kind of~ ten games, and I wasn't really even trying :lol: I think I need to keep co-oping since that seems to be by far the most efficient way for me to complete games. :lol:
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Time to show my face on the forum for once :jphip:
I've been playing too much this year ohoho. Good going at all the people trying to play games! Somehow I'm hanging around on steam a lot, feel free to stalk me there!
Conclusion: I played over 52 games this year :jphip:
First Up:
List of games I played with the JPHIP CREW this year. Because Co-op stuff is much fun :theking
Borderlands 2
Borderlands: The Pre-sequel
Dungeon Defenders II
Grim Dawn
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
Single player madness. All games actually finished this year... The secret to this amount (37?) games is lots of games that are short or story based.
January: Tomb Raider (2013)
February: Lumino City, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Tomb Raider Legend
March: Tiny and Big: Grandpa's leftovers, Yosumin!
April: Brothers - A tale of two sons, Never Alone, Tales from the Borderlands, Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior, The Wolf Among Us
May: Mafia II, Mushroom 11, Shadow Warrior, South Park: The Stick of the Truth, The Swapper
June: Guacamelee! Gold edition, Read only Memories
July:
August: 1.000.000 , The Beginners Guide, Her Story
September: Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered, Hexcells, Mad Max, Psychonauts, Puzzle Agent, Regency Solitaire
October: 140, Expand, Puzzle Agent 2, You Must Build A Boat
November: Back to the Future, Beyond eyes, Hexcells Plus, Octodad: Dadliest Catch
December: Gunpoint (started this early in the year and felt like completing it), Styx: Master of the Shadows
Games I cannot call 'completed' because of replay value
April: This War of Mine
May: The Binding of Isaac - Rebirth, Sunless Sea
June: 80 Days, No time to explain remastered
July: Please, Don't Touch Anything
October: Mini Metro (I've been playing this through the year)
September: Spelunky (I should give this game a real shot at some point)
November: Stardew Valley (This game is so relaxing)
And the list of games I started yet somehow didn't pick up again
January: Contraption maker, Saints Row IV
April: The Next Penelopy, Renowned Explorers: International Society, Stikbold!
May: Galak-Z
June: Retro City Rampage DX, Valkyria Chronicles
July: Human Resource Machine
October: Epistory - Typing Chronicles, Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, Snakebird, Solar Flux, Titan Quest
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In the end I beat 17 games + 3 DLC this year, a new personal record!!!! :)
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Play 52 games in 52 weeks - Challenge completed
Finish 12 games in 12 months - Challenge completed
Week 1: Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix Completed
Week 2: Contradiction Completed
Week 3: The Room Three Completed
Week 4: Rhythm Heaven
Week 5: Zero Escape: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors Completed
Week 6: The Blackwell Legacy
Week 7: Super Mario Bros. Completed
Week 8: Kirby's Adventure Completed
Week 9: Deadpool Completed
Week 10: Syberia Completed
Week 11: Evoland II Completed
Week 12: A Bird Story Completed
Week 13: République Completed
Week 14: Persona 4
Week 15: Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney (Ace Attorney Trilogy) Completed
Week 16: Don't Starve
Week 17: Kingdom Hearts Unchained x
Week 18: Shadow of the Colossus
Week 19: The Talos Principle Completed
Week 20: Transistor
Week 21: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Completed
Week 22: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Picross Completed
Week 23: Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Week 24: Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Week 25: Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations - Prosecutor's Path
Week 26: Flow Completed
Week 27: The Room Two HD Completed
Week 28: The Longest Journey
Week 29: The Silent Age Completed
Week 30: The Legend of Zelda Completed
Week 31: Radiant Historia
Week 32: Super Mario Bros. 2 Completed
Week 33: Lego Dimensions
Week 34: Pokemon Picross
Week 35: Super Smash Bros. 3DS
Week 36: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice Completed
Week 37: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Week 38: Rain Completed
Week 39: Beyond Good and Evil HD Completed
Week 40: The Secret of Monkey Island
Week 41: Young Justice Legacy
Week 42: Red Dead Redemption
Week 43: A Story About My Uncle Completed
Week 44: Blackwell Unbound
Week 45: Parasite Eve
Week 46: RWBY Grimm Eclipse Completed
Week 47: The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Completed
Week 48: The Wolf Among Us Completed
Week 49: HuniePop Completed
Week 50: Oxenfree Completed
Week 51: Papers, Please
Week 52: Ghostbusters: The Video Game Completed
Finishing 30 out of 52 games overall is not bad. 8)
Let's see what's in store for 2017.
....except maybe don't do two challenges at the same time. :lol:
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^ Honestly it's jaw dropping. :lol: (the rest of you, too)
But I'm jealous because you guys know so many games now. :lol:
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I did complete Dark Souls 3 before the end of 2016 but I think I'll get round to a review in the other thread once the final bit of DLC is out.