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Late posting this one! Thoughts on the pod.
Games Completed 2018
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games Completed 2018
Late posting this one! Thoughts on the pod.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
I enjoyed the bits you mention but I remember feeling whatever I did had no impact as opposed to heavy rain. It may have been because I played in co-op that some of the impact was lost.Chopper wrote: ↑March 25th, 2018, 10:45 am I thought there were some great moments in Beyond
...and it had an underwater Arctic base!
- Spoiler: show
I rebought Beyond and Heavy Rain on PS4 but haven't replayed Heavy Rain yet. If you haven't listened to that particular podcast yet you should prepare yourself
I only got to Fahrenheit last summer and enjoyed it a lot; is Nomad Soul worth checking out then?
I listened to the Fahrenheit podcast and I can extrapolate how heavy rain was received based on that. They are definitely marmite.
Nomad soul is so different to these games but is excellent in its own right. It’s more of an open world adventure game with FPS and beat em up sections thrown in. If you can get it going on your system (Dreamcast or PC) then it’s definitely worth it. There’s so much going on that it’s a little overwhelming and easy to get lost within it’s sprawling open world. It’s got to be good for Bowie to write the soundtrack right?!
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
Tried this out on Playstation Now which just came to Austria recently. Apparently this is one of the best 3D sonic games so I thought I would try this out and it's alright. Classic Sonic definitely does not control as smoothly as his Mega Drive counterpart, there is a slight delay when you move in any direction so that he takes one or two additional steps after you take your thumb off the d/pad/analogue stick. This made certain tight platforming spots way trickier than need be. However I did get accustomed to it overtime. Modern Sonic on the other hand, was pretty fun for the most part with a nice flow to the levels but again trying to slow down and do some more precise platforming is next to impossible. Thankfully the levels are designed in such a way that you are mainly moving forward and just trying to keep your speed going for as long as possible. While Green Hill and Chemical Plant are way overdone it was nice to go through them in 3D and most of the other levels were pretty fun to go through with the exception of Seaside Hill (water levels....ugh) and Crisis City (Sonic 06....ugh).
However, the final boss is an incredible disappointment with you just simply boosting into the enemy while the controls are way too slippery meaning you will have trouble getting enough rings to keep on going. Also, the constant chatter from Sonic's friends was an incredible distraction and I could only beat this awful boss by putting the TV on mute. Could concentrate much better but made the final battle even more anti-climatic than I had wanted it to be.
But overall, I had a decent enough time with this and could actually see some of the appeal of 3D Sonic with how it was done with Generations. Done well it is an enjoyable spectacle and was a nice bit of light fun after the heavy natured but brilliant Nier Automata.
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MajorGamer
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Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
Mar 22 - Song of the Deep (PC)
Two decent games there. Hue is a puzzle platformer revolving around color. You control the color spectrum which lets you see or not see obstacles based on their color. If you can't see them, they essentially don't exist. Good puzzles throughout with only the ones towards the end taking a bit of thought to get through them for me. There are hidden collectibles but they felt like they were added after the rest of the game was done as there really isn't anything to any of them.
Song of the Deep is an underwater Metroidvania that is very pretty with a nice soundtrack. Movement is a bit weird but is fine once you get used to it since you are in a little sub for most of the game. Enemy variety is a bit lacking. Not a bad play through and only about 5 hours or so.
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James
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Re: Games Completed 2018
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By the end of BioShock 2, I was generating more Health and Eve in combat than I was using. I love that it's possible to specialise so effectively in these games. Electro Bolt/Drill, with as many Drill and Electric tonics as I could slot. Ridiculous!
The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind tour of most of what Rapture and Columbia have to offer. By the end of BioShock 2, I felt like I needed some time to sort my thoughts and properly reassess this series. With that in mind, I decided to save Minerva's Den for now. It is my favourite corner of the BioShock garden, and I intend to let the whole thing recover from such an intensive period of attention before settling in for a sunny afternoon to enjoy its fruits.
Tortured horticultural metaphors aside, it's been great to come back to Columbia after 5 years away, and even better to return to Rapture 10 years after first swimming ashore at the lighthouse. I'm not sure I love the games in the same way I once did, but I do love them as much.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
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Dead space 2
Probably a better game than the first but I prefer the original for some reason. Incredibly well paced, exciting and imaginative. Several heart in the mouth moments which were exhilarating and the choice of weapons are well considered without being overwhelming.
Better than I remember it being.
Next up heavenly sword
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Todinho
Re: Games Completed 2018
Uncharted 4(PS4)- I dont wanna be too rash because I just finnished it but I think this is the best Uncharted game.
First of let me talk about how this games looks, this is the best looking game I ever seen but that in itself isnt so noteworthy but the quality of the animations,etc really help the story, like I said before my jaw was on the floor watching these characters interact because of how lifelike they were, I laughed like everybody when David Cage said awhile back the line about polygons and emotions but man Uncharted 4 makes a case for it because I dont think I would`ve been so into the story and the relationships if the graphics and the animations werent as good as they are, Im sure I would still have liked it but not to the level that I do.
Storywise I dont know why but I had the impression that the game was gonna be really depressing and it wasnt, it was your standard uncharted fair but more subdued I guess and with a bigger focus on the character relationships then ever before, they were always there in the previous games but here they are at the forefront and I definetly cared way more about what was gonna happen to Drake and Elena`s relationship rather then whatever the treasure was gonna be, speaking of which that is by far the best thing about the whole game and Uncharted 4 made Elena my favorite character of the entire series for sure(Sorry Sully, you`re still great though) and her voice actress Emily Rose should win all the awards for performance as far as Im concerned.
The rest of the cast is great but I have abit of an issue with Nadine and Sam, her because while I liked her character she was kinda of pointless in the story, like there was no reason for her to be there she only appears a handfull of times to basically kick Drake`s ass and be a general badass but you could`ve easilly removed her from the game and the plot wouldnt be affected at all, with the context of Lost Legacy her being here feels way more like them setting up her character for that game then she needing to be in this story, that being said I previously had 0 interest in playing Lost Legacy but after seeing Nadine in this game I kind of wanna see where they take her there.
Sam is more of a problem I have, I mean from the get go the concept is a stretch, Nathan long lost brother that nobody knew or talked about previously comes back to take him to an adventure, I really dont like stuff like that and it was what initially put me off playing the game alltogether.
His effect on the story goes way deeper the the plot though, his inclusion means that the intro to the game is extremely long because you have set him up, in most uncharted games you`re on the main adventure by chapter 2 tops while here you have to wait until chapter 6 and even then the game only feels it has started around 7&8. That`s something they had to do otherwise he would feel completelly outta place but it makes the beginning of the game drag a little until it finnaly kicks into gear. More then that though I dont like him and I really dont like the resolution with him and that ties into the ending,I think the ending is a bit cheap it`s not that I mind how the game ended but I dont think it earned it, especially with everything that was happening before there was a collection of deus ex machina moments and character making weird decisions for seemingly no reason and sure those types of things happened in other uncharted games but since the tone of this one is more serious and down to earth they kinda stood out and bothered me. Also I dont know any of the details as to why Amy Henning left Naughty Dog but given how she ended Unchated 3 I can see how she would not like how the story here plays out and in some ways the story feels like a slap in the face of 3.
Now for the gameplay this is without a doubt the best Uncharted game I dont think there`s anyway you could argue that it isnt, the shooting never felt better(not a high bar granted)but the best part is that the encounters are way more open ended, now you can sneak through an entire encouter without touching a guard, you can take out most with stealth and then shoot the rest, you can be in the middle of a fire fight and go back into stealth and, last but not least, you can run away.
In previous games once there were enemies you knew you had to kill them all and that to me was what really brougth the whole ludonarrative discobiscuits to light because you could only progress by murdering everyone, now you can not only stealth around them but even if you`re in the middle of a gunfight you can keep progressing through the level and leave the enemies behind, that`s great because that`s what they actually do in movies like Indiana Jones, Indy doesnt stay in a room for 15 minutes until every bad guy is dead he just shoots them to defend himself while he makes his way towards his goal, I love that I can finnaly do that in this game and this might be one of my favorite additions to the gameplay no joke.
As a result of all of these additons the game feels like it has the least amount of combat out of all the uncharted games because you dont have to do it all the time,which was my biggest problem with 3 where you`re thrown into kill room after kill room that by the end I couldnt be bothered, the game also has alot of quiet time where you`re just walking around looking at stuff and exploring the enviroment and I think it`s great because it gives you time to breath só when the action kicks in again you`re kinda of craving it.
Speaking of action I do like the set pieces in this game but none of them are memorable as the ones in 2 or 3, they are still fun but arent really the high point of the game which for an uncharted game feels very weird to say. The puzzles are better then ever I really like most of them and I think they are the best the series ever had. The one thing I dont like as much is the climbing because now you have multiple ways to climb stuff but all that did for me was increase the time I spent trying to work out the right path foward and by the end of the game it was really starting to bother me, I do like the inclusion of the grappling hook and the slides though.
I ended up really enjoying playing Uncharted 4, it was also good to play it way removed from the hype of it`s release because I dont think it`s a 10/10 masterpiece but I still think it`s a really good game, I really liked what they did with the characters here, I think in terms of creating believable relationships Naughty Dog did a great job overall and though I might have problems with the ending and how characters end up it`s not something that ruin that for me and Im not gonna lie I did have a smile in my face at the end.
First of let me talk about how this games looks, this is the best looking game I ever seen but that in itself isnt so noteworthy but the quality of the animations,etc really help the story, like I said before my jaw was on the floor watching these characters interact because of how lifelike they were, I laughed like everybody when David Cage said awhile back the line about polygons and emotions but man Uncharted 4 makes a case for it because I dont think I would`ve been so into the story and the relationships if the graphics and the animations werent as good as they are, Im sure I would still have liked it but not to the level that I do.
Storywise I dont know why but I had the impression that the game was gonna be really depressing and it wasnt, it was your standard uncharted fair but more subdued I guess and with a bigger focus on the character relationships then ever before, they were always there in the previous games but here they are at the forefront and I definetly cared way more about what was gonna happen to Drake and Elena`s relationship rather then whatever the treasure was gonna be, speaking of which that is by far the best thing about the whole game and Uncharted 4 made Elena my favorite character of the entire series for sure(Sorry Sully, you`re still great though) and her voice actress Emily Rose should win all the awards for performance as far as Im concerned.
The rest of the cast is great but I have abit of an issue with Nadine and Sam, her because while I liked her character she was kinda of pointless in the story, like there was no reason for her to be there she only appears a handfull of times to basically kick Drake`s ass and be a general badass but you could`ve easilly removed her from the game and the plot wouldnt be affected at all, with the context of Lost Legacy her being here feels way more like them setting up her character for that game then she needing to be in this story, that being said I previously had 0 interest in playing Lost Legacy but after seeing Nadine in this game I kind of wanna see where they take her there.
Sam is more of a problem I have, I mean from the get go the concept is a stretch, Nathan long lost brother that nobody knew or talked about previously comes back to take him to an adventure, I really dont like stuff like that and it was what initially put me off playing the game alltogether.
His effect on the story goes way deeper the the plot though, his inclusion means that the intro to the game is extremely long because you have set him up, in most uncharted games you`re on the main adventure by chapter 2 tops while here you have to wait until chapter 6 and even then the game only feels it has started around 7&8. That`s something they had to do otherwise he would feel completelly outta place but it makes the beginning of the game drag a little until it finnaly kicks into gear. More then that though I dont like him and I really dont like the resolution with him and that ties into the ending,I think the ending is a bit cheap it`s not that I mind how the game ended but I dont think it earned it, especially with everything that was happening before there was a collection of deus ex machina moments and character making weird decisions for seemingly no reason and sure those types of things happened in other uncharted games but since the tone of this one is more serious and down to earth they kinda stood out and bothered me. Also I dont know any of the details as to why Amy Henning left Naughty Dog but given how she ended Unchated 3 I can see how she would not like how the story here plays out and in some ways the story feels like a slap in the face of 3.
Now for the gameplay this is without a doubt the best Uncharted game I dont think there`s anyway you could argue that it isnt, the shooting never felt better(not a high bar granted)but the best part is that the encounters are way more open ended, now you can sneak through an entire encouter without touching a guard, you can take out most with stealth and then shoot the rest, you can be in the middle of a fire fight and go back into stealth and, last but not least, you can run away.
In previous games once there were enemies you knew you had to kill them all and that to me was what really brougth the whole ludonarrative discobiscuits to light because you could only progress by murdering everyone, now you can not only stealth around them but even if you`re in the middle of a gunfight you can keep progressing through the level and leave the enemies behind, that`s great because that`s what they actually do in movies like Indiana Jones, Indy doesnt stay in a room for 15 minutes until every bad guy is dead he just shoots them to defend himself while he makes his way towards his goal, I love that I can finnaly do that in this game and this might be one of my favorite additions to the gameplay no joke.
As a result of all of these additons the game feels like it has the least amount of combat out of all the uncharted games because you dont have to do it all the time,which was my biggest problem with 3 where you`re thrown into kill room after kill room that by the end I couldnt be bothered, the game also has alot of quiet time where you`re just walking around looking at stuff and exploring the enviroment and I think it`s great because it gives you time to breath só when the action kicks in again you`re kinda of craving it.
Speaking of action I do like the set pieces in this game but none of them are memorable as the ones in 2 or 3, they are still fun but arent really the high point of the game which for an uncharted game feels very weird to say. The puzzles are better then ever I really like most of them and I think they are the best the series ever had. The one thing I dont like as much is the climbing because now you have multiple ways to climb stuff but all that did for me was increase the time I spent trying to work out the right path foward and by the end of the game it was really starting to bother me, I do like the inclusion of the grappling hook and the slides though.
I ended up really enjoying playing Uncharted 4, it was also good to play it way removed from the hype of it`s release because I dont think it`s a 10/10 masterpiece but I still think it`s a really good game, I really liked what they did with the characters here, I think in terms of creating believable relationships Naughty Dog did a great job overall and though I might have problems with the ending and how characters end up it`s not something that ruin that for me and Im not gonna lie I did have a smile in my face at the end.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
Couldn’t agree more. I think it’s the most consistently enjoyable once it gets going. It doesn’t have the peaks and troughs of the previous two which made them tiresome outside of the exhilarating set pieces.
It does the basics better and I’m more likely to replay it than the others.
It does the basics better and I’m more likely to replay it than the others.
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seansthomas
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Re: Games Completed 2018
February 4th - DOOM (Switch)
February 7th - Oxenfree (Switch)
February 17th - Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
February 25th - The Fall Part 2: Unbound (Switch)
February 28th - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
March 4th - Subsurface Circular (Switch)
March 28th - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
I'm totally unsure what I made of this one? The original Xenoblade is in my top ten games ever. I loved the world, the music, the combat, the story, the twists and the sheer scale of it. X took a different path and jettisoned a lot of those qualities for a more amazing looking and vast land; as a game it was complex and flawed, but it felt like genuinely crash landing on an alien world.
This is much more like the former game, with a better (albeit poorly explained) battle system, but it never grabbed me in the same way. Could be over familiarity with the series formula potentially. I hadn't played a JRPG in years when I played XC so found it charming. Two further games on, those characters are a bit annoying and the tropes of Japanese storytelling are beginning to grate (are they good or bad? / Jiggling boobs left, right and centre / token comedy furball / plot twists that get introduced out of nowhere with lengthy exposition rather than seeded storytelling).
The game didn't seem to have the scale or imagination of the previous two titles either, and some of the Field skills they introduced to aid side quest rewards end up blocking your progress and forcing you to grind for ages at several points, due to a lack of decent tutorials. It's different in tone artistically to the others though, with more cities and races which was visually interesting, but less coherent.
But I did find it emotionally affecting (in no small part to the music being back to being brilliant), I invested in Rex and his gang and some of the epic cut scene sequences were amazing. And if you put 70 hours into something, that says in itself that you're probably enjoying aspects of that experience.
I struggle to see how it fits into the series wider story, but am told it does for the super fan. I also think it's one of the few Switch games that performs far worse in handheld mode.
So all in all... yeah, odd one. I suspect if you've not played a JRPG in ages, there's a lot to love. Or if you adore the genre I'm sure you already have it. But it never quite wormed it's way into my heart like the original Chronicles game did or the planet Mira did from X, despite being probably the best actual game of the three.
February 7th - Oxenfree (Switch)
February 17th - Steamworld Dig 2 (Switch)
February 25th - The Fall Part 2: Unbound (Switch)
February 28th - Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment (Switch)
March 4th - Subsurface Circular (Switch)
March 28th - Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)
I'm totally unsure what I made of this one? The original Xenoblade is in my top ten games ever. I loved the world, the music, the combat, the story, the twists and the sheer scale of it. X took a different path and jettisoned a lot of those qualities for a more amazing looking and vast land; as a game it was complex and flawed, but it felt like genuinely crash landing on an alien world.
This is much more like the former game, with a better (albeit poorly explained) battle system, but it never grabbed me in the same way. Could be over familiarity with the series formula potentially. I hadn't played a JRPG in years when I played XC so found it charming. Two further games on, those characters are a bit annoying and the tropes of Japanese storytelling are beginning to grate (are they good or bad? / Jiggling boobs left, right and centre / token comedy furball / plot twists that get introduced out of nowhere with lengthy exposition rather than seeded storytelling).
The game didn't seem to have the scale or imagination of the previous two titles either, and some of the Field skills they introduced to aid side quest rewards end up blocking your progress and forcing you to grind for ages at several points, due to a lack of decent tutorials. It's different in tone artistically to the others though, with more cities and races which was visually interesting, but less coherent.
But I did find it emotionally affecting (in no small part to the music being back to being brilliant), I invested in Rex and his gang and some of the epic cut scene sequences were amazing. And if you put 70 hours into something, that says in itself that you're probably enjoying aspects of that experience.
I struggle to see how it fits into the series wider story, but am told it does for the super fan. I also think it's one of the few Switch games that performs far worse in handheld mode.
So all in all... yeah, odd one. I suspect if you've not played a JRPG in ages, there's a lot to love. Or if you adore the genre I'm sure you already have it. But it never quite wormed it's way into my heart like the original Chronicles game did or the planet Mira did from X, despite being probably the best actual game of the three.
Re: Games Completed 2018
Nice write up Sean.
I put about 40 hours into it before I put it down, without too much of a solid reason as to why. Reading your thoughts has given me some potential reasons why, that maybe didn’t feel obvious at the time.
I put about 40 hours into it before I put it down, without too much of a solid reason as to why. Reading your thoughts has given me some potential reasons why, that maybe didn’t feel obvious at the time.
Re: Games Completed 2018
MAR - Infamous: Second Son (PS4)
Really enjoyed this. I like the Infamous games, and I know they've all been well received, critically, but for some reason (and I could be wrong) anecdotally, people on forms haven't seemed so keen on them. I've played all three in the main series now and really had fun with all of them. I think I still prefer the New Orleans setting of the second game, but this was probably better overall. The powers you unlock are awesome, in the truest sense of the word, and by the end of the game traversing the city is such fun. The story is pretty much just an excuse for the gameplay and nothing to write home about, but it's just a riot to play from start to finish. I thought the characters were OK, and it even had some interesting and pretty decent boss fights.
Also, I really liked tagging graffiti everywhere...
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Games Completed 2018
ratsoalbion » Mon Mar 19, 2018 8:50 pm
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 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)
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Todinho
Re: Games Completed 2018
Wolfenstein the new order [fergus timeline](PC)-
Man that last level is really good, it's so good that it almost makes up for the rest of the game, everything from the beginning of the level to the end with Deathhead taunting you all the way through to the music and the story that narrows down to saving a few people and you realizing you're not gonna save the world. For a moment Wolfenstein was exactly the game I wanted it to be and then I remebered there was a sequel and it was as if the devs took every great thing they did with the ending of this game and threw it in the garbage.
But enough of me complaining about what Wolfenstein isnt, despite me being disappointed with the story overall there are things that I really like and that I think are brillant(which is why Im so frustrated by the rest of the story).The worldbuilding here is great from classic songs reimagined into german versions to the newspapers, the letters and even the architecture(btw I really liked the subplot of the concrete until it turns out it was sabotage).
I also really like how all the resistance characters are broken in someway, speaking of which having now played both timelines the Wyatt one is way more interesting because of the character J(aka jimmy hendrix) he's not only a more compeling character but I really like how he challenges BJ saying that back in America people like him were the nazis and how Bj can only react with violence. I hope the sequel goes there and really explores it because I havent seen that from the cartoonish trailers of KKK members walking the streets.
Deathhead is a great villain and its a shame that he isnt in the game more, some of his lines are just perfect like when he is judging BJ for just destroying things and saying: "In the end we will be judged NOT by what we have destroyed but by what we have built" while he unveils his mechanical monster it's amazing.
Gameplaywise the game is fine and is certainly better then your average FPS but I really dislike that I have to recollect weapons at every level also the stealth here is so overpowered and braindead is almost insulting like you can throw knives at an armored part of a guard and he'll just drop dead anyway its ridiculous, so you can easily down all guards in a section with barely any effort.
The combat does encourage you to search around the enviroment to look for armor and health and keep moving but there's still alot of shooting and hiding behind a pillar and there are still these annoying heavily armored enemies that are complete bullet sponges, the enemies also dont get very interesting to fight they dont evolve much from the average nazi grunt. I do like the perk system but I never felt they impacted the gameplay enough for me to notice unlike in say DOOM and if I keep the comparisons to DOOM Wolfenstein doesnt stand a chance, the combat in that game is great because you're constantly on the move and you can dodge every projectile thrown at you, the enemies are all interesting and you can move around the enviroment with way more freedom and the level design is way better,etc,etc.
I know this isnt a fair to compare both games, they are going for different things but I cant help it because if I was trying to play the game in a more tatical fashion using stealth It would be so uninteresting but if I them tried to play more with a more action style I couldnt play it like DOOM so I felt like I was being punished either way.
I wish I liked this game more then I do and there alot of things to like but replaying it has been very frustrating because of all the reasons I gave, the game is certainly trying and it succeeds in some aspects but overall it just falls short for me and I cant say this replay made me want to try the sequel especially given everything I heard and seen from it.
EDIT:
If there is one thing is this game that is spotless is the soundtrack, amazing work by Mick Gordon it really elevates alot of sequences in the game and as far as Im concerned it's the best thing in the game by a wide margin.
Man that last level is really good, it's so good that it almost makes up for the rest of the game, everything from the beginning of the level to the end with Deathhead taunting you all the way through to the music and the story that narrows down to saving a few people and you realizing you're not gonna save the world. For a moment Wolfenstein was exactly the game I wanted it to be and then I remebered there was a sequel and it was as if the devs took every great thing they did with the ending of this game and threw it in the garbage.
But enough of me complaining about what Wolfenstein isnt, despite me being disappointed with the story overall there are things that I really like and that I think are brillant(which is why Im so frustrated by the rest of the story).The worldbuilding here is great from classic songs reimagined into german versions to the newspapers, the letters and even the architecture(btw I really liked the subplot of the concrete until it turns out it was sabotage).
I also really like how all the resistance characters are broken in someway, speaking of which having now played both timelines the Wyatt one is way more interesting because of the character J(aka jimmy hendrix) he's not only a more compeling character but I really like how he challenges BJ saying that back in America people like him were the nazis and how Bj can only react with violence. I hope the sequel goes there and really explores it because I havent seen that from the cartoonish trailers of KKK members walking the streets.
Deathhead is a great villain and its a shame that he isnt in the game more, some of his lines are just perfect like when he is judging BJ for just destroying things and saying: "In the end we will be judged NOT by what we have destroyed but by what we have built" while he unveils his mechanical monster it's amazing.
Gameplaywise the game is fine and is certainly better then your average FPS but I really dislike that I have to recollect weapons at every level also the stealth here is so overpowered and braindead is almost insulting like you can throw knives at an armored part of a guard and he'll just drop dead anyway its ridiculous, so you can easily down all guards in a section with barely any effort.
The combat does encourage you to search around the enviroment to look for armor and health and keep moving but there's still alot of shooting and hiding behind a pillar and there are still these annoying heavily armored enemies that are complete bullet sponges, the enemies also dont get very interesting to fight they dont evolve much from the average nazi grunt. I do like the perk system but I never felt they impacted the gameplay enough for me to notice unlike in say DOOM and if I keep the comparisons to DOOM Wolfenstein doesnt stand a chance, the combat in that game is great because you're constantly on the move and you can dodge every projectile thrown at you, the enemies are all interesting and you can move around the enviroment with way more freedom and the level design is way better,etc,etc.
I know this isnt a fair to compare both games, they are going for different things but I cant help it because if I was trying to play the game in a more tatical fashion using stealth It would be so uninteresting but if I them tried to play more with a more action style I couldnt play it like DOOM so I felt like I was being punished either way.
I wish I liked this game more then I do and there alot of things to like but replaying it has been very frustrating because of all the reasons I gave, the game is certainly trying and it succeeds in some aspects but overall it just falls short for me and I cant say this replay made me want to try the sequel especially given everything I heard and seen from it.
EDIT:
If there is one thing is this game that is spotless is the soundtrack, amazing work by Mick Gordon it really elevates alot of sequences in the game and as far as Im concerned it's the best thing in the game by a wide margin.
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AndrewBrown
- Member
- Posts: 357
- Joined: November 21st, 2015, 8:37 am
- Location: Portland, OR
- Contact:
Re: Games Completed 2018
31/03: Devious Dungeon [Switch]AndrewBrown wrote: ↑March 24th, 2018, 5:16 am 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]
Devious Dungeon is a simple-but-solid action platformer. You play as a burly hero who descends into a dungeon to defeat a dragon, building experience levels and gathering riches along the way. Dungeoneering is hard, and the hero will fall along the way, but they can resurrect with their experience and riches in tact, letting them invest in better equipment to dive deeper in. Devious Dungeon nods towards roguelite mechanics, but there's a generous checkpointing system every few floors and each floor is crafted, not procedurally generated, albeit drawn from a random pool of possible floors. Devious Dungeon does absolutely nothing new or exciting but it does it competently, challenging with its powerful enemies but fairly with telegraphed attacks and consistent rewards even from failed attempts. Defeating each encountered enemy is a simple matter of knowing their movement pattern and how to evade it. IT'S THE DARK SOULS OF FAUX-ROGUELITE PLATFORMERS. Enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable.
Re: Games Completed 2018
January - Jade Empire: Special Edition (PC)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Jill playthrough (PC)
February - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)
February - Super Metroid (SNES Classic Mini)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Chris playthrough (PC)
March - The Walking Dead: Michonne (PC)
March - Tomb Raider: Legend (PS3)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Jill playthrough (PC)
February - Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (PC)
February - Super Metroid (SNES Classic Mini)
February - Resident Evil HD Remaster, Chris playthrough (PC)
March - The Walking Dead: Michonne (PC)
March - Tomb Raider: Legend (PS3)
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Simonsloth
- Member
- Posts: 1639
- Joined: November 22nd, 2017, 7:17 am
- Location: London
- Contact:
Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
March 31st: heavenly sword
I almost gave up on the awful final boss but managed to get through with a sliver of health remaining. Phew!
Next up:
Enslaved and vanquish
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AndrewBrown
- Member
- Posts: 357
- Joined: November 21st, 2015, 8:37 am
- Location: Portland, OR
- Contact:
Re: Games Completed 2018
31/03: Warp Shift [Switch]AndrewBrown wrote: ↑March 31st, 2018, 10:11 am 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]
A puzzle game with unusually high production values, Warp Shift opens with a young girl finding an intelligent cube in the forest. After taking an Alice in Wonderland-type tumble down a pit, the girl and the cube climb up a tower to reach the surface. The tower is divided into 75 puzzle-floors. Each floor exists as a grid, and players can shift the rooms on the grid; shifting a room off the edge of the room will cause it to appear on the opposite edge. Players must guide the girl from room to room to an exit. Later puzzles add new mechanics, such as doors which must be opened by a button and a portal network. Progress is determined by earned stars; the fewer moves you make on the floor, the more stars you earn. I tend to brute force puzzles of this nature, which can make the particularly devious ones absolutely miserable and frustrating for me, but luckily Warp Shift will take pity on you and offer to solve the level for you once you've invested enough time in it. I was able to puzzle my way to the top floor on my own, but getting top ranks I was happy to just pick at the levels until the game offered the solution for me. This was significantly less rewarding, but also significantly less frustrating. This is a very clever and good-looking puzzle, but too clever for me.
I really should stick Picross, a puzzle game I don't have to brute force to solve.
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Dante Fireseed
- Member
- Posts: 356
- Joined: September 5th, 2012, 1:26 pm
- Location: Somewhere within the Multiverse
Re: Games Completed 2018
4th January - X-Com 2 (PC)
6th January - Last Day of June (PC)
22nd January - What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)
4th February - Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
10th February - Uncharted: Lost Legacy (PS4)
16th February - Rime (PS4)
3rd March - Watch_Dogs 2 (PC)
8th March - Layers of Fear (PC)
10th March - Superhot (PS4)
12th March - Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) (All golds on driving school and mission challenges)
18th March - Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)
6th January - Last Day of June (PC)
22nd January - What Remains of Edith Finch (PS4)
4th February - Final Fantasy XV (PS4)
10th February - Uncharted: Lost Legacy (PS4)
16th February - Rime (PS4)
3rd March - Watch_Dogs 2 (PC)
8th March - Layers of Fear (PC)
10th March - Superhot (PS4)
12th March - Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) (All golds on driving school and mission challenges)
18th March - Shadow of the Colossus (PS4)
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MajorGamer
- Member
- Posts: 135
- Joined: October 14th, 2016, 6:33 am
- Location: Toronto, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
It probably would have helped the story if I knew anything about the books as it is mostly a post-WW3 world where nukes were used and there are weird things going on that this game covers. It is a fairly standard FPS and nothing really impressed me but nothing was poorly done, either. There is, however, one thing it does that is mostly deserving of praise. It's difficulty levels.
Most games just do some modifier to enemy stats and leave it at that. This one goes further and removes UI elements to the point there are none. There is nothing to see how many bullets are left in the gun (except for a few where you simply see the bullets) or on yourself. No health indicator or how many supplies in your inventory you have. It would have been nice if you can look down or open your jacket or something to check supplies but it is never an issue. The bad thing here is that it removes the prompts for a couple of the instadeath QTE's in the game so those were trial and error if you don't know about them beforehand. It also does health uniquely. The higher difficulty you are on, the lower health you and the enemies have. While you go down fast, so do they. Enemies are more of a bullet sponge on the easier easier difficulties, funnily enough.
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AndrewBrown
- Member
- Posts: 357
- Joined: November 21st, 2015, 8:37 am
- Location: Portland, OR
- Contact:
Re: Games Completed 2018
01/04: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap [Switch]AndrewBrown wrote: ↑April 1st, 2018, 7:09 am 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]
It's perhaps too easy to be dismissive of videogames from certain eras of time, especially those from the 1980s. These videogames come from a different philosophy of design where difficulty and the concept of fairness is at odds, if not outright alien, with today's standards. But this perception may be overblown, as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap demonstrates that maybe all an old-school platformer needs is a fresh coat of paint to seem remarkably relevant and contemporary... or maybe it was way ahead of its time in 1989 and just needed this rerelease to be recognized.
The Dragon's Trap is not a mere remake of the original title. Those bones still exist here, with what is almost literally a new paint job laid across it. The press of a button reveals the original game pixel-for-pixel, and it handles identically regardless of what graphical style you're using. Lovingly animated in the style of Franco-Belgian comics, the new style helps to sell the scale of an admittedly-limited world which feels small an d claustrophobic using its original graphics.
Metroid was not new when The Dragon's Trap came out, but Symphony of the Night was still some years away and this is the videogame which I am most immediately reminded of: In a brief prologue where our protagonist storms the castle and defeats the villain, they suddenly find themselves stripped of their considerable power and cast aside, fighting through the environment to regain their lost power. Progression is determined by a new transformation ability unlocked after each boss fight. It's a template which Symphony of the Night follows almost verse-for-verse.
But in a few places, those perceived problems still shine through. Rather than a cohesive, intertwined environment, each area spreads out from a central hub. Several of these areas can be quite sprawling, traveling to their end and accessing a new transformation proving quite a gauntlet. Most frustratingly are several platforming sequences where the player comes under a barrage of ranged attacks and enemies that only spawn when you've already made the do-or-die jump. It's not as bad as Ninja Gaiden, but it's still frustrating. But surmounting these obstacles felt especially rewarding as a result, and a relative brevity kept these sequences from feeling too obnoxious. Getting prepared for the final area required a certain amount of farming which could have been grating if not for the virtues of the Switch (I ground out enough cash to get the top-end items while at the laundromat).
The updated graphics are little more than a paint job over old bones, but they're wonderful to look at and they reveal that there is still life in those oft-dismissed bones. I'm a big fan of Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap.