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Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 13th, 2018, 7:21 pm
by AndrewBrown
Spoiler: show
02/01: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES Classic]
04/01: Oxenfree [Switch]
13/01: Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition [Switch]
14/01: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [Switch]
15/01: Super Mario World [SNES Classic]
20/01: BioShock Infinite [360]
23/01: The Fall [PSN]
26/01: Celeste [Switch]
31/01: Super One More Jump [Switch]
05/02: Night in the Woods [Switch]
08/02: Dandara [Switch]
14/02: Dragon Quest Builders [Switch]
20/02: Bayonetta [Switch]
21/02: Puzzle Puppers [Switch]
23/02: Fe [Switch]
24/02: Old Man's Journey [Switch]
26/02: Portal Knights [Switch]
28/02: Bayonetta 2 [Switch]
07/03: Subsurface Circular [Switch]
14/03: Coffin Dodgers [Switch]
15/03: OPUS: The Day We Found Earth [Switch]
18/03: Tesla vs. Lovecraft [Switch]
22/03: Fear Effect Sedna [Switch]
23/03: Destiny 2 [PS4]
31/03: Devious Dungeon [Switch]
31/03: Warp Shift [Switch]
01/04: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap [Switch]
02/04: Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated [Switch]
09/04: Attack on Titan 2 [Switch]
11/04: The Bunker [Switch]
14/04: Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe [Switch]
16/04: Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut [Switch]
18/04: L.A. Noire [Switch]
23/04: Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition [Switch]
01/05: Saturday Morning RPG [Switch]
05/05: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze [Switch]
06/05: God of War (2018) [PS4]
13/05: Secret of Mana (2018) [PS4]
15/05: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle [Switch]
19/05: Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition [Switch]
22/05: Shadow of the Colossus (2018) [PS4]
25/05: Runner3 [Switch]
30/05: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Gold Edition [PS4]
06/06: PixelJunk Monsters 2 [Switch]
09/06: Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn [Switch]

Sometimes irony gets in its own way. Was there really sincere demand for an update of a 90s fighting game starring Shaquille O'Neal whose mediocrity is only surpassed by its inexplicability? Questions of sincerity aside, the videogame that once had a website devoted to tracking down and destroying copies of it was successfully Kickstarted into a pseudo-sequel with Shaq himself on board.

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn looks good and plays competently, eschewing the Mortal Kombat-in-Egypt trappings of its origins to be literally reborn as an arcade beat 'em up. Shaq, discovered floating down a river in China as a baby, is raised to be an ultimate warrior to combat a demon invasion. It immediately stumbles: Shaq's Chinese peers are buck-toothed caricatures, and his mentor, Ye-Ye, is a tiny man who speaks broken English and struggles to conceal his attraction to Shaq, which is treated with disgust. When Shaq's idyllic village is destroyed by demons, he learns his destiny: That he must stop a demonic invasion which is trying to conquer the world by flooding it with vapid celebrities. Bosses include parodies of Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Mel Gibson, and the current President of the United States. Jokes aren't always current, likely a result of development lead time--when was the last time Justin Bieber was relevant? The whole adventure is narrated by Shaq's memetically monotone voice, or you can just listen to its title theme which summarizes the entire plot in rap form. It's a premise and a package that has promise; its heart is in the right place and it's fully aware of how absurd a sequel/reboot to a 90s Shaquille O'Neal fighting game is, but is undermined by its juvenile sense of humor and its xenophobic and homophobic social sensibilities.

Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn was given away free to people who bought NBA Playgrounds at launch back in 2017 as a sort-of apology for the state of that game at release, which was extremely cool of the publisher to do. But playing it for free is the only way I can recommend playing this game. Don't give money to it. Don't encourage its existence. It's not a bad game by any degree, but it is a misguided and an unintentionally offensive one. You can't tear down a celebrity-obsessed culture with a game starring Shaquille O'Neal as the legendary warrior chosen to do it, and you also can't do it while reinforcing walls of racist and homophobic caricature behind you at the same time.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 13th, 2018, 8:17 pm
by AndrewBrown
Spoiler: show
02/01: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES Classic]
04/01: Oxenfree [Switch]
13/01: Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition [Switch]
14/01: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [Switch]
15/01: Super Mario World [SNES Classic]
20/01: BioShock Infinite [360]
23/01: The Fall [PSN]
26/01: Celeste [Switch]
31/01: Super One More Jump [Switch]
05/02: Night in the Woods [Switch]
08/02: Dandara [Switch]
14/02: Dragon Quest Builders [Switch]
20/02: Bayonetta [Switch]
21/02: Puzzle Puppers [Switch]
23/02: Fe [Switch]
24/02: Old Man's Journey [Switch]
26/02: Portal Knights [Switch]
28/02: Bayonetta 2 [Switch]
07/03: Subsurface Circular [Switch]
14/03: Coffin Dodgers [Switch]
15/03: OPUS: The Day We Found Earth [Switch]
18/03: Tesla vs. Lovecraft [Switch]
22/03: Fear Effect Sedna [Switch]
23/03: Destiny 2 [PS4]
31/03: Devious Dungeon [Switch]
31/03: Warp Shift [Switch]
01/04: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap [Switch]
02/04: Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated [Switch]
09/04: Attack on Titan 2 [Switch]
11/04: The Bunker [Switch]
14/04: Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe [Switch]
16/04: Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut [Switch]
18/04: L.A. Noire [Switch]
23/04: Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition [Switch]
01/05: Saturday Morning RPG [Switch]
05/05: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze [Switch]
06/05: God of War (2018) [PS4]
13/05: Secret of Mana (2018) [PS4]
15/05: Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle [Switch]
19/05: Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition [Switch]
22/05: Shadow of the Colossus (2018) [PS4]
25/05: Runner3 [Switch]
30/05: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Gold Edition [PS4]
06/06: PixelJunk Monsters 2 [Switch]
09/06: Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn [Switch]
13/06: The Banner Saga [Switch]

I don't get on well with RPGs that make me allocate stat points myself because I always do it "wrong." The function and usefulness of individual stats are frequently opaque and while many RPGs are forgiving enough that I can muddle through even with a poorly-built character, some will punish me severely for not understanding that the way I chose to build my character wasn't really viable for the combat systems I'm required to participate in. Such was my experience with The Banner Saga, where on my first attempt I so thoroughly botched my stat allocation I had to start over from scratch as battles quickly became insurmountable, even on Easy difficulty. I'd run into a similar situation in Mario + Rabbids, but luckily that game lets you reassign stat points at any time; no such luck with The Banner Saga. My only choice was to start the whole videogame over again from the beginning. But I'd heard good things about The Banner Saga and my fellow Switch Focus podcasters love the series, so I was determined to give it a second chance. In attempt #2, I made it further but started to run into the same problems late in the plot. I was informed by a person watching my livestream that I had, once again, developed my characters poorly.

All of this is unhelped by how numbingly boring the combat in The Banner Saga is. It's a strategy RPG typified by completely barren and flat level design; I can recall exactly one map that had meaningful terrain obstacles. Characters have both an Armor and a Strength rating; Strength functions as HP and is more difficult to lower until Armor is also lowered, but also determines physical strength. A character near-death is functionally useless and may as well be actually dead, and there is no way to heal them in combat. The systems that govern these two stats are byzantine and arcane; sometimes my characters would deal a lot of strength damage to a unit with full armor, and other enemies require their armor to be taken down before their strength could be damaged. Combat is slow, the interface is often muddled and difficult to read, it's not particularly interesting to look at, and has little variety in skills to mix up strategy. The later parts of the game are dragged down by frequent skirmishes with bandits that only add padding to the already plodding plot, and by the final two chapters I was deliberately avoiding combat whenever possible because I just couldn't take it anymore.

But most of The Banner Saga is spent watching your party's caravan creep across a stunningly drawn landscape, interrupted periodically by story sequences portrayed by terse, laconic narration and dialog. Of the two parties I followed, I liked Rook's the most as they had a lot of personality and I was easily swept up in their journey as they were forced to flee their home when an invading army of Dredge suddenly appear from the north. The other party The Banner Saga follows consist of a race called the Varls; I had far less attachment to them as I struggled to tell most of them apart and their presence in the story evaporates after chapter 3. This caravan mechanic feels like The Oregon Trail meets Dungeons and Dragons, balancing resource management with some light multiple-choice narrative mechanics. Like the combat it is slow, but more gently paced, and though some of the twists and betrayals feel artificial and easy to see what the other possibility would be had you made a different choice earlier in the plot, it kept me engaged much more than the combat ever did. We've seen some story-heavy RPGs recently which excise the combat to keep the player in the story, and I'd be far more enamored with The Banner Saga were this option present.

The Banner Saga clearly tells just the first act of a three part story, and I tempered my bitter disappointment with its first installment by setting an ultimatum: "If I reach the end of this game and I decide I don't care what happens next, I'm not going to play part two or three."

Last night, after dropping the difficulty down to Easy so I could slog through the last two chapters, I finished the first entry in The Banner Saga.

I won't be playing parts two or three.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 14th, 2018, 5:20 am
by duskvstweak
Finished Metro 2033 Redux. What a strange game. I'm wondering if the books are as weird as the game's story? Interested to find out. The whole game was much different than I was expecting. Very thoughtful, with a lot more world building and atmosphere than I assumed. I'll definitely check out the sequel.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 14th, 2018, 2:50 pm
by Todinho
AndrewBrown wrote: June 13th, 2018, 8:17 pm
Last night, after dropping the difficulty down to Easy so I could slog through the last two chapters, I finished the first entry in The Banner Saga.

I won't be playing parts two or three.
I dont feel alone Andrew I also cant stand Banner Sage, funny because it is the sort of game I should love but like you I found the combat to be both incredibly dull and a slog and the story to be initially interesting but I also quickly lost interest. I dont know if this will make you change your mind but I did hear they overhauled the gameplay for the next 2 entries.
duskvstweak wrote: June 14th, 2018, 5:20 am Finished Metro 2033 Redux. What a strange game. I'm wondering if the books are as weird as the game's story? Interested to find out. The whole game was much different than I was expecting. Very thoughtful, with a lot more world building and atmosphere than I assumed. I'll definitely check out the sequel.
Well yes and no, the books are certainly weird in fact even abit weirder but the story in the game is only a very superficial look at what the story of the book I would compare it almost to a theme park, Metro 2034 on the other hand does a better job capturing the spirit of what made the story in the first one good and I think it has alot to do with the author of the books being involved, it has a few issues and its abit more "hollywoodian" then I'd like but its solid overall. But yeah the one aspect both games nail is the atmosphere an the world in that regard I think they are pretty much impeccable.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 14th, 2018, 8:33 pm
by AndrewBrown
Todinho wrote: June 14th, 2018, 2:50 pm I dont feel alone Andrew I also cant stand Banner Sage, funny because it is the sort of game I should love but like you I found the combat to be both incredibly dull and a slog and the story to be initially interesting but I also quickly lost interest. I dont know if this will make you change your mind but I did hear they overhauled the gameplay for the next 2 entries.
I hadn't heard that the battles were that dramatically overhauled before, but I'll keep it in mind. I'm going to give my podcast cohosts an opportunity to talk me into playing the sequels this weekend, but it's gonna be a tough sell.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 15th, 2018, 7:22 am
by Chopper
Battles were changed up a little in Banner Saga 2 but I wouldn't say it's a dramatic overhaul. Terrain becomes a minor factor and there's more variety in unit types but it's the same gameplay, more or less.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 15th, 2018, 1:52 pm
by Scrustle
Spoiler: show
04/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Normal)
05/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Jetstream Sam DLC (Normal)
06/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Blade Wolf DLC (Normal)
10/01 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Hard)
14/01 - Killer Is Dead (Hard)
18/01 - Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut
20/02 - Okamiden
23/02 - Bayonetta 2 (Normal)
27/02 - Shadow of the Colossus
02/03 - Monster Hunter World
06/03 - Snake Pass
08/03 - Deus Ex: The Fall
10/03 - Bayonetta 2 (Hard)
22/03 - Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
28/04 - Warden: Melody of the Undergrowth
03/05 - Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
05/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Nero/Dante - Devil Hunter)
08/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Vergil - Devil Hunter)
12/05 - Yakuza 6: The Song of Life
13/05 - Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (Lady/Trish - Devil Hunter)
21/05 - Omensight
26/05 - Mafia II
27/05 - God of War
31/05 - God of War: Ascension
12/06 - Unravel Two
15/06 - Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion

Not really sure what to make of this one in the end. It was an experience of very high highs, and very low lows. And if I'm being honest, very few of the highs were gameplay-related. On the one hand, this does dive much deeper in to the mechanics form the existing Hero Mode, and adds in a few new ideas too. Sometimes this makes for a few pretty good levels. Some of my favourites were actually the few where they translated some of the mechanics of the online ranked modes in to a solo form against AI. Here the enemy Octolings actually put up a decent fight and are pretty aggressive, instead of being the dumb versions previously seen that can barely walk forward without issue. But there were many levels that I just did not enjoy at all. Full of frustrating, fiddly mechanics that were often overwhelming, and sometimes just tedious. Among the worst were the levels where you have to guide a large ball around a level without it falling off the edge of the narrow path. If it drops off, the game instantly kills you and resets you at the last checkpoint.

The difficulty scaling is all over the place too. There seems to be no logic to it whatsoever. It doesn't feel like you're being gradually taught skills that you develop across the time playing. It feels pretty much random whether the next stage you come across, even in a single sequence, is going to be impossibly brutal, or just a breeze.

I have to admit, I did end up using the skip level ability more than I wanted. I mean, ideally I don't want to use it at all, but I could have perhaps gotten over using it just once or twice on some non-essential levels. Had to do it a bit more than that here. I'm not happy about that. It made "finishing" those levels feel really bitter, even if those levels happened to be cheap garbage sometimes. It may have been my choice to do it, but the design decision to have something like that in there is kind of an admittance of failure. It's a crutch to brush over the fact that the difficulty curve is totally broken, and that they've failed to teach the necessary skills for a situation before putting you in it.

I did enjoy a lot of the story aspects though. Most of it is told through online chat logs that you get to browse through after every few levels. You get an insight in to Pearl and Marina, as well as Captain Cuttlefish. See their personalities, and a bit of an origin story for Off the Hook. Lots of genuinely charming and funny moments there, and even some tension with Cuttlefish, him being a war veteran who fought against the Octolings before. The finale was also pretty great. Or at least it was, once I fumbled around enough to work out what the hell I was supposed to do in that final level. But either way, the music, and the cutscenes surrounding that part were great, and at least managed to make this expansion end on its highest high.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 15th, 2018, 11:25 pm
by Simonsloth
Spoiler: show
January 2018:
Bleed
Crackdown
Rez Infinite
Resident evil directors cut
Bioshock
Resident evil 2
Bioshock 2
Resident evil 3:Nemesis

Feb 2018:
Bioshock infinite
Def Jam: fight for Ny
Zone of The Enders
Resident Evil:code Veronica
Resident evil zero
Hyper light drifter
Braid
Yoshi’s Woolly World
Resident evil 4

March:
resident evil 5
resident evil 6
Lostwinds
lost winds 2
Ico 3D
Dead space
Dead space 2
Heavenly Sword

May:
Horizon Zero Dawn plus Frozen Wilds
Enslaved
Dmc
Steinsgate 0
Hellblade
Shadow of the Colossus Remake
Resident Evil 7

June:
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Bastion
Detroit
Vanquish
Battlefield 3 Singleplayer
15/06 Alice Madness Returns

Looks very nice still but was far too long for its own good and became very repetitive to its detriment. Far superior to the original I think.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 16th, 2018, 1:30 pm
by ratsoalbion
06 Jan: Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PAL PS1 on PS3)
09 Feb: Final Fantasy II (GBA)
16 Feb: Resident Evil 2 (NTSC PS1 on PS3)
26 Feb: Yoshi's Woolly World (WU)
09 Mar: BioShock Infinite (PC)
10 Mar: BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode One (PC)
12 Mar: BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two (PC)
18 Mar: Shadow Complex Remastered (PC)
19 Mar: Splatoon (WU)
29 Mar: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (NTSC PS1 on PS3)
06 Apr: Actual Sunlight (Vita)
08 Apr: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
27 Apr: God of War (PS4)
07 May: Resident Evil - CODE: Veronica X HD (PS3)
20 May: Pikmin (Wii on WU)
28 May: Zone of the Enders HD Edition (PS3)
10 Jun: Final Fantasy IV (PSP on Vita)
16 Jun: Resident Evil HD Remaster (PS4)

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 16th, 2018, 1:42 pm
by Chopper
Simonsloth wrote: June 15th, 2018, 11:25 pm
15/06 Alice Madness Returns

Looks very nice still but was far too long for its own good and became very repetitive to its detriment. Far superior to the original I think.
I think Kintaris(?) finished this recently too, what's going on?

I liked it a lot for its inventiveness and visuals but it was exhaustingly long. Each stage could have been chopped in half for a start. Didn't finish it.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 16th, 2018, 5:23 pm
by Todinho
Into the Breach(PC)- remember when I said the hadnt clicked with me yet, oh boy it now and this is a time vampire I went to sleep 05:00 am last night because I didnt notice the time pass, yeah I think I really like this game.

While playing I realized the the game really boils down tatics to its bare essentials, the 3 mechs numbers does makes perfect sense and I realized that you can mix and match squad members but also that each squad very well balanced on their own each favoring a different play style.

Positioning here is king, which is a given in any tatics game but here I'd say its the most important out of any tactics game I've played, because of how little health you and the enemies have each turn and action matters that much more so every action you take is vital and if you screw it up you will get punished harshily. Once you realize how important the pushing enemies is and how to best utilize your mech skills the battles almost become like a puzzle in which there always an optimal way out of every situation. All that is great but it also means if things go bad they go really bad, losing a mech in the middle of a fight is catastrofic, way more then in any other tactics game I played but you still can claw your way back to victory from the jaws of defeat, in fact the 4 island run I won looked really really bad for awhile but I was able to turn it around mission by mission and ended up winning. The Roguelike elements are just the icing on the cake adding that little element of randomness and variability that makes every run unique, like say running into a mountain to find a super good alien pilot inside.

One last thing, the fact that this was essentially made by 2 people is really impressive and I never got super into FTL because while I liked the game getting a win was so rare and the rate you unlocked things was so slow I lost interest, here you're constantly unlocking things because every achievement you get gives you currency to unlock squads and also the game has in built difficulty within normal, which you can do the last mission at any point after clearing 2 islands so you can try the last mission there or try to clear 3 or 4 islands which will makes the enemies harder but will also give you a higher score at the end.

Yeah I love it, no joke its up there with Monster Hunter as my game of the year so far XD.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 16th, 2018, 10:29 pm
by Simonsloth
Chopper wrote: June 16th, 2018, 1:42 pm
Simonsloth wrote: June 15th, 2018, 11:25 pm
15/06 Alice Madness Returns

Looks very nice still but was far too long for its own good and became very repetitive to its detriment. Far superior to the original I think.
I think Kintaris(?) finished this recently too, what's going on?

I liked it a lot for its inventiveness and visuals but it was exhaustingly long. Each stage could have been chopped in half for a start. Didn't finish it.
I’m working through old cane and rinse episodes either replaying games I fancied giving another whirl or ones I never played. That’s I’ve ive recently gone through vanquish, bayonetta, battlefield 3 and now Alice.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 17th, 2018, 11:29 am
by Chopper
Vampyr (PS4)

I liked Remember Me more than the consensus, so this was on my radar early and I even preordered (using Smyth's excellent preorder program). I enjoyed this one a lot - it's an interesting blend of action and RPG that isn't quite like anything else.

It's extraordinarily wordy - I'd estimate that 30% of the game is spend in conversation. The RPG aspect suffers a bit here, as the actual meaningful choices are few and far between. And the big failing of the game is possibly that the meaningful choices are pretty ambiguous - you're not given enough information in the prompt to guide you, I think. However the conversations are all pretty well written (apart from the odd translation issue) and acted and really contribute to the atmosphere of the game. But there is an absolutely unbelieveable amount of conversation, Bioware have nothing on this.

The combat is pretty decent - functional and potentially fairly deep (I think, my playstyle doesn't lend itself to experimentation), where you manage health, stamina, and 'blood', which is a kind of mana counter filled by biting people and which can then be converted into special moves, refilling your health bar, or 'ultimates' which I never used because of my conservative playstyle as they used too much blood and I needed it to refill my health usually).

The difficulty in the game is preset, and the player influences this by choosing to kill or not kill NPCs (the game gets easier if you feed on NPCs, while the highest difficulty (which isn't massively high) is reserved for a pacifist run where you don't kill anyone (you can still bite in combat and kill mooks)). This then plays into the conversation system where you unlock different options and get to know the NPCs better, making killing them a more moral choice.

And then there's a background state of the game meter - the condition of the four London boroughs fluctuates based on your decisions, how many citizens you've 'disappeared' and the health of the inhabitants (which you can influence by crafting cures for colds, fatigue, bronchitis etc as you are a doctor). The monsters and enemies in the environment become more numerous as the borough begins to fail.

All in all it's a fascinating game with some intricate interlocking systems, good combat, and a plot, while heavy on the mumbo-jumbo at the end, really holds up well and successfully takes a new look at the vampire myth. Top marks.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 17th, 2018, 10:03 pm
by MajorGamer
Spoiler: show
Jan 1 - Neon Chrome (PC)
Jan 2 - Dispersio (PC)
Jan 9 - Numbus (PC)
Jan 11 - Hero Siege (PC)
Jan 14 - Castle of no Escape 2 (PC)
Jan 20 - Toy Odyssey (PC)
Jan 23 - 20XX (PC)
Jan 25 - Battle Chef Brigade (Switch)
Jan 29 - Kamiko (Switch)
Feb 1 - Guild of Dungeoneering (PC)
Feb 3 - KByte (PC)
Feb 7 - Cat Quest (Switch)
Feb 11 - DYE (PC)
Mar 7 - The End is Nigh (Switch)
Mar 10 - Shadow Warrior 2 (PC)
Mar 16 - The Keep (PC)
Mar 17 - The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd (PC)
Mar 18 - Hue (PC)
Mar 22 - Song of the Deep (PC)
Mar 28 - Metro: 2033 Redux (PC)
Apr 4 - Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King (Switch)
Apr 6 - Xeodrifter (Switch)
Apr 8 - Has-Been Heroes (Switch)
Apr 14 - Slime-san (Switch)
Apr 20 - ReThink (PC)
Apr 22 - Little King's Story (PC)
Apr 24 - Headlander (PC)
Apr 28 - Dex (PC)
Apr 30 - SUPERHOT (PC)
May 6 - Azure Striker Gunvolt (Switch)
May 7 - The Ball (PC)
May 21 - Drakensang (PC)
May 23 - Spectrum (PC)
May 25 - Oceanhorn: Monster of the Uncharted Seas (Switch)
May 27 - The Sexy Brutale (PC)
Jun 4 - Immortal Redneck (PC)
Jun 5 - Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (PC)
Jun 11 - Prey (PC)

This is the 2017 version and it co-opted the name despite it being more appropriate to have another, probably done for marketing purposes. This is, without a doubt, more akin to the Shock (System, Bio) line of games.

The intro is fantastic. It is an incredibly strong start to the game that manages to hide the tutorial inside the beginnings of the story. It really sucks you in to the mystery going on in this world. Unfortunately it does drop the ball a bit due to very long periods with no real story progress and not one but two 11th hour villains. It got to the point it felt like The Return of the King in videogame form where you fully expect this will be the end only for it to continue on and it does it multiple times. Granted, Shock games do have that pattern with System Shock 2 from the Rickenbacker, Bioshock beyond its big twist, and Infinite past the main menu (sorry, couldn't resist).

Where the story is really strong is in all of its side content. There are over a hundred named people that worked in the area and, shockingly, you can find every single one of them throughout the game, usually in corpse form. There are quite a few different permutations that can play out depending on who you save or kill during your journey that has some noticeable differences. Some of the choices presented here you won't even notice was a choice unless you go back to play again or look at how someone else played. It is really impressive in that regard.

The combat is another area where things stumble. Mimics are one of the main enemies of the game and it is fantastic they can hide as literally any doodad. It makes you really paranoid when walking through areas. Sadly, you can get an upgrade fairly early on that lets you easily identify them, taking away from all of this. The other enemies are not so great. Most of the rest are rather quick moving so you simply miss the telegraphs or the aoe from them are so large you take a hit anyway. Then there are a couple that are slow moving but have attacks are actually impossible to dodge. The fear effect from one enemy (randomly shakes your screen for a good 5 seconds) is one that I need to question its existence. Then you get a shotgun along with one of the perks you can learn and proceed to kill everything like it was nothing. There is no middle ground. Stronger enemies are introduced way too early which caused a ridiculous amount of save scumming leading to laughing in their faces. It is very weird.

One last note. The level designers should win an award. They made this feel like a real, livable area instead of rooms built explicitly for a videogame. This is pretty rare in gaming. There are also multiple solutions to getting around depending on what abilities you choose to get.

In the end, it is still a strong title that I'd recommend to anything who enjoys the Shock games and their type of gameplay. Just try not to watch Besthesda's 2018 E3 conference. For some reason they thought it would be a good idea to have Prey spoilers in it while they announced the DLC for the game.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 18th, 2018, 12:37 am
by duskvstweak
I finished Max Payne 2. Such a cool series. I feel slightly ashamed for having never played these games before. Trying to decided if I like either 1 or 2 more than the other or if I just like them as a whole. I wish there were more of the series like that, before it went to Rockstar (though I still have to play that one too!)

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 18th, 2018, 1:25 pm
by Chopper
I Expect You to Die (PSVR)

Finally got around to finishing this one. Good 'Escape the Room'-type game with plenty of humour.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 18th, 2018, 9:40 pm
by Simonsloth
Chopper wrote: June 18th, 2018, 1:25 pm I Expect You to Die (PSVR)

Finally got around to finishing this one. Good 'Escape the Room'-type game with plenty of humour.
It’s great isn’t it! A lot of trial and error but wacky fun along the way. I’m hoping for a sequel!

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 19th, 2018, 11:44 am
by Chopper
Yes, everybody seems to love it! Hopefully they're working on the sequel. That they released a free DLC level would seem to indicate that it's viable.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 19th, 2018, 12:55 pm
by ratsoalbion
06 Jan: Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PAL PS1 on PS3)
09 Feb: Final Fantasy II (GBA)
16 Feb: Resident Evil 2 (NTSC PS1 on PS3)
26 Feb: Yoshi's Woolly World (WU)
09 Mar: BioShock Infinite (PC)
10 Mar: BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode One (PC)
12 Mar: BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode Two (PC)
18 Mar: Shadow Complex Remastered (PC)
19 Mar: Splatoon (WU)
29 Mar: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (NTSC PS1 on PS3)
06 Apr: Actual Sunlight (Vita)
08 Apr: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (PS4)
27 Apr: God of War (PS4)
07 May: Resident Evil - CODE: Veronica X HD (PS3)
20 May: Pikmin (Wii on WU)
28 May: Zone of the Enders HD Edition (PS3)
10 Jun: Final Fantasy IV (PSP on Vita)
16 Jun: Resident Evil HD Remaster (PS4)
18 Jun: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA on WU)
Just the credit roll at 100CC though. 150CC still to be beaten before we record the podcast.
Update: 150CC Special Cup beaten and trying to get through the extra tracks cups on 150 before Sunday evening.

Re: Games Completed 2018

Posted: June 19th, 2018, 1:11 pm
by Suits
ratsoalbion wrote: June 19th, 2018, 12:55 pm 18 Jun: Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA on WU)
Just the credit roll at 100CC though. 150CC still to be beaten before we record the podcast.
:lol: I'm playing this too, working my way up to 150CC.

Managed to get myself one of those Hori controllers for the GameCube GameBoy Player - such a better D-Pad on that compared to the GameCube controller, which makes it more enjoyable I find.