Games Completed 2018
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
The sequel doesn’t need a guide to finish and is in my opinion far superior. I would wholly recommend it!
- duskvstweak
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Re: Games Completed 2018
I finally found AND finished the main story in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. It really is a strange entry in the series. Those final bosses were the easiest things I've ever encountered in a Final Fantasy game. The story is a strange one, the combat is compelling, but, once I figured out a system that worked, I rarely adjusted my Gambit systems. Still, I missed the melodrama of FF games and had a great time getting back to one of my favorite series of old.
Now, time to see what the fuss is about FFXIII...
Now, time to see what the fuss is about FFXIII...
- KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2018
Ah, I see. The characters instantly clicked with me which is probably why I was so motivated to see their adventure through to the end. But perhaps some of the anime-tropes were a bit too much for someone without any previous experience in the genre?
Anyway, one out of two is not toooo bad, right?
Bunch of reasons!
First and foremost, and perhaps it went under the rest of my temper tantrum in the RE thread, but I'm really not a fan of the first-person perspective in the vast majority of games that use it. There are exceptions of course (Halo, Metroid Prime, DOOM + various puzzle games like Portal or The Witness), but for the most part I find it to be arbitrarily restrictive, aesthetically uninspired and that it usually comes at the cost of a memorable protagonist design.
Simulations in general aren't my thing either. I think the best use of the medium is to craft intricate systems with clear internal logic, not to try to emulate reality in a comparison that will automatically end up being to the game's detriment in the long run. Realism can work in certain genres, but in action / stealth games, it almost always means "fancy long-winded unresponsive animations with a bunch of randomized factors". Now obviously, Dishonored doesn't aim for the same realism as, say, Kerbal Space Program, but a lot of its systems are nevertheless meant to simulate the protagonist's sensory experience in a way that the systems in Mark of the Ninja aren't, which inevitably leads to tangibility and readability issues. The devil is in the details on that one.
Genre hybrids are basically my repellent these days. Deus Ex HR tries to be a shooter, a stealth game, and a branching dialogue-based RPG all at the same time. But because it spreads itself so thin, it's either a mediocre FPS or a barely above average stealth game no matter which way you choose. It simply doesn't have the mechanical polish of curated experiences such as Halo or Splinter Cell. And the branching story ends up cannibalising itself at the cost of Adam's characterization in my eyes, like I explained after playing Dr. Dekker. Plus a progression system that arbitrarily locks important upgrades behind hours of grinding... *sigh*
So yeah, first person immersive stealth games are just not my cup of tea, I'm afraid. I played a bit of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on Xbox, but I couldn't make it past the first few hours. I don't play on PC and I hear the PS2 port is trash, so I've never had the opportunity to try out the original Deus Ex. I bought Human Revolution at launch because the trailers looked so promising, and while I found enough about it to like (some of the visual design is very pretty and the social commentary is interesting enough), I had to give up on it later on due to the aforementioned reasons. Plus I was trying to play it as a pure stealth game and customized my character accordingly and hit a brick wall on one of the bosses. I hear they've rectified that in the Director's Cut, but it was too little too late for me at that point.
I tried a few hours of the first Dishonored at a friend's place, and it didn't really grab me. Everything I've since heard about the game confirms my suspicion of it simply not being my thing. My idea of a great stealth game is one that can be "ghosted", which means played through without any kills or alerts and only minimal item usage. I really need that high skill ceiling to motivate me through, even on my initial failure-prone playthrough. Hitman for example is absolutely marvelous in that regard. But Dishonored wasn't built for that. One of the panel members (Josh, I think?) on the CaR issue apparently shares my tastes and expressed great frustration at the game because of it.
Basically, I'm a very difficult customer! I love stealth games in theory, but there are very few that I consider "great" in practice. The next one on my list is Styx, because that one seems to tick most of my boxes.
PS: For the record, I think both of them are perfectly fine games with some great qualities, but nothing that gets my blood pumping.
PPS: I'm perfectly willing to step outside of my comfort zone following your recommendation, of course.
- Spoiler: show
- 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)
April 4th - Floor kids (Switch)
April 9th - Rime (Switch)
May 6th - Celeste (Switch)
May 7th - Nintendo Labo (RC Car / Motorbike)
May 30th - Axiom Verge (Switch)
July 17th - Wolfenstein II: The new Colossus (Switch)
July 20th - Golf Story (Switch)
July 23rd - Inside (Switch)
September 17th - Human fall flat (Switch)
Man, I'm on a frustrating roll. Games I can't quite beat and add to the list (Dead Cells), games I've bounced off of (The Sexy Brutale) and games I've put loads of time into but which don't likely count here (Rocket League, Splatoon 2).
Thought Human Fall Flat might break the bad run and provide some light relief.
OH. MY. GOD. HOW. WRONG. I. WAS.
I think, in theory, I like this game. The physics based puzzles are probably the cleverest I've played outside of a Portal game, it looks nice, the music is quirky and it has an interesting way of making you learn the controls.
But, Christ, is it maddening to control. I nearly always knew what to do, but getting the floppy little fucker to do it was like performing root canal surgery on myself in the dark. The controls are infuriating. I nearly snapped my Switch in two on multiple occasions, and I am NOT someone who gets riled by a game.
In fact I got so curious with it, I had to put it down several times and refused to go back to it. But I'm someone who needs closure once I begin a game, and I kept coming back to it to see it through.
I honestly don't know why. I don't feel good having done so. The ending wasn't life changing. I wouldn't say I'd recommend it to anyone unless you have friends to tackle it with. I just have a compulsive need to get things off my plate.
But it's over. I'm free. I no longer will need to consult a YouTube walkthrough (of someone magically beating the entire game in 7 minutes) to make sure my hunch is correct, before spending an hour attempting to whack a crate off of a high ledge and lodge it under a makeshift ramp.
Human Fall Flat, then. I'd skip it.
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)
April 4th - Floor kids (Switch)
April 9th - Rime (Switch)
May 6th - Celeste (Switch)
May 7th - Nintendo Labo (RC Car / Motorbike)
May 30th - Axiom Verge (Switch)
July 17th - Wolfenstein II: The new Colossus (Switch)
July 20th - Golf Story (Switch)
July 23rd - Inside (Switch)
September 17th - Human fall flat (Switch)
Man, I'm on a frustrating roll. Games I can't quite beat and add to the list (Dead Cells), games I've bounced off of (The Sexy Brutale) and games I've put loads of time into but which don't likely count here (Rocket League, Splatoon 2).
Thought Human Fall Flat might break the bad run and provide some light relief.
OH. MY. GOD. HOW. WRONG. I. WAS.
I think, in theory, I like this game. The physics based puzzles are probably the cleverest I've played outside of a Portal game, it looks nice, the music is quirky and it has an interesting way of making you learn the controls.
But, Christ, is it maddening to control. I nearly always knew what to do, but getting the floppy little fucker to do it was like performing root canal surgery on myself in the dark. The controls are infuriating. I nearly snapped my Switch in two on multiple occasions, and I am NOT someone who gets riled by a game.
In fact I got so curious with it, I had to put it down several times and refused to go back to it. But I'm someone who needs closure once I begin a game, and I kept coming back to it to see it through.
I honestly don't know why. I don't feel good having done so. The ending wasn't life changing. I wouldn't say I'd recommend it to anyone unless you have friends to tackle it with. I just have a compulsive need to get things off my plate.
But it's over. I'm free. I no longer will need to consult a YouTube walkthrough (of someone magically beating the entire game in 7 minutes) to make sure my hunch is correct, before spending an hour attempting to whack a crate off of a high ledge and lodge it under a makeshift ramp.
Human Fall Flat, then. I'd skip it.
Re: Games Completed 2018
^^^ @seansthomas this whole post is hilarious.
@simonsloth - noted!
@KSubzero1000 well, nobody can say you haven't thought it through
I thought the Dishonored games could be ghosted, or at least I remember the first one seemed to have a bug where the no-kill run always resulted in a single unknowable kill. I hadn't thought that the simulation meant a simulation of reality, but merely a bunch of simulated systems that you interact with via a subset of very specific tools. Anyway!
*surreptitiously hides a piece of paper with 'MoOncarsh' written on it*
I thought about shilling for the game a bit in this forum, as quite a few people here played the base game, but I can't be bothered really. There is a decent video by Skill Up that I was going to post in the criticism thread but it's a little hectoring in tone, and we don't want that
No, will think of something better.
@simonsloth - noted!
@KSubzero1000 well, nobody can say you haven't thought it through
I thought the Dishonored games could be ghosted, or at least I remember the first one seemed to have a bug where the no-kill run always resulted in a single unknowable kill. I hadn't thought that the simulation meant a simulation of reality, but merely a bunch of simulated systems that you interact with via a subset of very specific tools. Anyway!
I lasted maybe 15 minutes with Styx. Should be right up your alleyKSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm The next one on my list is Styx, because that one seems to tick most of my boxes.
Not even that, I'm not familiar enough with them to even identify what tropes were used. But there was a complete lack of characterisation at the start. Here is a woman dressed as a belly dancer. Here is a blind guy who is dressed like a prince etc. No other detail is given, nor are any of them questioned as to their background. I thought that was odd.KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm Ah, I see. The characters instantly clicked with me which is probably why I was so motivated to see their adventure through to the end. But perhaps some of the anime-tropes were a bit too much for someone without any previous experience in the genre?
Not at all!KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm Uh-oh, I sense a Prey Mooncrash shill incoming! Any minute now...
*surreptitiously hides a piece of paper with 'MoOncarsh' written on it*
I thought about shilling for the game a bit in this forum, as quite a few people here played the base game, but I can't be bothered really. There is a decent video by Skill Up that I was going to post in the criticism thread but it's a little hectoring in tone, and we don't want that
No, will think of something better.
Re: Games Completed 2018
Blues and Bullets Episode 1
This is a real curiosity. Here is the plot:
You play Eliot Ness, who has retired from the force to run a diner. One day you are summoned to the Hindenburg, which has been converted to a luxury hotel high above the city, accessed via cable car(!). The occupant of the penthouse suite is Al Capone, who has just been released from prison. He wants you to team up with his Titus Andronicus-reading henchman to find his missing granddaughter.
With that, and the stiff animations and weird visual trappings (it's in black and white, with splashes of blood red everywhere), I didn't have high hopes, but the episode really won me over by the end.
The downside is that the studio who made this game went belly-up, and only one more episode was released out of a planned five. So I guess tomorrow will wrap that up.
This is a real curiosity. Here is the plot:
You play Eliot Ness, who has retired from the force to run a diner. One day you are summoned to the Hindenburg, which has been converted to a luxury hotel high above the city, accessed via cable car(!). The occupant of the penthouse suite is Al Capone, who has just been released from prison. He wants you to team up with his Titus Andronicus-reading henchman to find his missing granddaughter.
With that, and the stiff animations and weird visual trappings (it's in black and white, with splashes of blood red everywhere), I didn't have high hopes, but the episode really won me over by the end.
The downside is that the studio who made this game went belly-up, and only one more episode was released out of a planned five. So I guess tomorrow will wrap that up.
Re: Games Completed 2018
SNK Heroines (Switch)
A duff purchase, and a true stinker of 2018. Yes, I must shoulder some of the blame for not researching adequately and not realising that it featured a dumbed down approximation of the typically wonderful SNK 2D fighting mechanics. I also knew it would probably appeal somewhat to the Asian Babes subscribers but I genuinely thought it'd be a 'girl power' effort with a load of OTT Japanese cultural confetti. Turns out that ninety percent of the development time went into 'does my arse look big in this monocle and cat ears?'
And yet, I have enjoyed playing it very very casually with mates a couple of times, as well as some online - though that already seems dead. It's flashy, it's silly, it's excessive and dumb but in the right mood with the right company, it can be a bit of a laugh. I couldn't recommend it to anyone, though. Genuine waste of money.
Blade Strangers (Switch)
In a similar vein, and I'm not entirely sure why I bought this, Blade Strangers nevertheless has some relative depth to the fighting mechanics. It also features some fairly pervy costumes and the roster is predominantly skimpily dressed anime girls and the like, as well as Isaac from TBOI (yeah, honestly). I don't know what the concept is, but I think it's a kind of Nicalis compilation fighter which is a weird thing in the current fighting game market. I expect it'll be a Blue Baby as soon as DBFZ comes out.
Nevertheless, it's a pretty tight, aggressive, flashy fighting game with lots of combo potential and a variety of meters and supers and ultras to contend with while your bikini clad princess swings a Dragonslayer at a robotic maid. That's the vibe. There's actually a cool range of characters with a handful to unlock and I suspect it has quite a bit of depth to it, and certainly much more than SNK Heroines. I would say hold on for DBFZ if you're keen for this kind of anime fighter, though. I'm sure the player base will last much longer.
Psyvariar Delta (Switch)
Crikey, this is one hell of a game. I've really enjoyed a range of different shmups of late, from Azure Reflections to Deathsmiles to Shikhondo and I've also loved going back to some of my absolute favourites in Mushihimesama and DOJ and Ikaruga, and I can therefore say in total confidence that Psyvariar Delta is right up there with the very best I've played. It's also one of my GOTY.
It's little more than a port of the PS2 games (one of which was in fact a revision of the first release) and from what I understand, and can see from YT superplays, it's barely been touched besides a lick of paint. The generic art direction looks at least a generation old, the music (while excellent) is firmly stuck in 2002 (even the superb, updated Delta OST) and the gameplay appears at face value to be nothing new, but with the pad in your hand, it opens up quite magnificently.
It's in the fairly small graze shooter niche, alongside the excellent Danmaku Unlimited 3 which I discussed earlier in the year, or the recent Shikhondo: Soul Eater. Where it differs, though, is that these both use grazing as a means to charging up a limited use ultra attack which boosts both damage and score for ten seconds or so. In Psyvariar, you graze and graze and graze and your basic ship will continue to "LEVEL UPPPP" and grant you ever more destructive firepower as well as changing its cosmetic appearance. This means that every single wave, no, every single bullet is an opportunity for you to exploit to boost your shots and tilt the balance in your favour. It's simple lizard brain stuff but it really pushes your buttons to see that BUZZ counter go up into the hundreds (and thousands!) as you graze and milk enemies and bullets for all they're worth, sending your level spiralling and your ship becoming hard as fuck.
This superb mechanic also goes even further in that each time you level up, you have a small window of invulnerability during which you can dive head first into the descending mass of bullets and level up faster and faster as the i-frames keep you safe while you milk bosses and swarms of enemies. It means that you feel encouraged to play on the front foot, exploiting the enemies' aggression and using it to serve your own ends. That's such an exciting feeling when you time things right and get your spacing where it needs to be to trigger one level up after another. The HD rumble on the Switch also really reinforces this pleasurable feedback loop as it buzzes excitedly with every grazed bullet. To play it with headphones on and to feel the physical response to your developing skills is one of the most exciting gaming sensations I've had all year. I feel that it's a classic of the genre and also that I've barely scratched the surface.
---
I don't really know why I've not contributed to this thread before. I've completed about fifty or sixty games this year in an effort to clear my backlog and play all the stuff I bought on the eShop last year. I've written them all up elsewhere and it's probably a bit gauche to repost a massive text dump but I'll add to this thread from now on.
If anyone is interested for whatever reason in my year in gaming completions, I will copy and paste inside spoiler tags below. There are possibly a few missing here but it's interesting (to me) to see how I went from the eye opening curiosity of Dodonpachi and Danmaku Unlimited 3 back in March to being utterly blown away and enraptured by DaiOuJou and Mushihimesama not long after to falling down the rabbit hole chasing everything on every system which sprayed a few bullets in my direction to my current habit of watching superplays in bed every night once my wife is asleep and then being unable to drop off because the patterns are dancing in my mind's eye for hours and almost all other games now seem boring and shit and I've utterly ruined myself. Plus some other stuff I played. Strap yourself in.
A duff purchase, and a true stinker of 2018. Yes, I must shoulder some of the blame for not researching adequately and not realising that it featured a dumbed down approximation of the typically wonderful SNK 2D fighting mechanics. I also knew it would probably appeal somewhat to the Asian Babes subscribers but I genuinely thought it'd be a 'girl power' effort with a load of OTT Japanese cultural confetti. Turns out that ninety percent of the development time went into 'does my arse look big in this monocle and cat ears?'
And yet, I have enjoyed playing it very very casually with mates a couple of times, as well as some online - though that already seems dead. It's flashy, it's silly, it's excessive and dumb but in the right mood with the right company, it can be a bit of a laugh. I couldn't recommend it to anyone, though. Genuine waste of money.
Blade Strangers (Switch)
In a similar vein, and I'm not entirely sure why I bought this, Blade Strangers nevertheless has some relative depth to the fighting mechanics. It also features some fairly pervy costumes and the roster is predominantly skimpily dressed anime girls and the like, as well as Isaac from TBOI (yeah, honestly). I don't know what the concept is, but I think it's a kind of Nicalis compilation fighter which is a weird thing in the current fighting game market. I expect it'll be a Blue Baby as soon as DBFZ comes out.
Nevertheless, it's a pretty tight, aggressive, flashy fighting game with lots of combo potential and a variety of meters and supers and ultras to contend with while your bikini clad princess swings a Dragonslayer at a robotic maid. That's the vibe. There's actually a cool range of characters with a handful to unlock and I suspect it has quite a bit of depth to it, and certainly much more than SNK Heroines. I would say hold on for DBFZ if you're keen for this kind of anime fighter, though. I'm sure the player base will last much longer.
Psyvariar Delta (Switch)
Crikey, this is one hell of a game. I've really enjoyed a range of different shmups of late, from Azure Reflections to Deathsmiles to Shikhondo and I've also loved going back to some of my absolute favourites in Mushihimesama and DOJ and Ikaruga, and I can therefore say in total confidence that Psyvariar Delta is right up there with the very best I've played. It's also one of my GOTY.
It's little more than a port of the PS2 games (one of which was in fact a revision of the first release) and from what I understand, and can see from YT superplays, it's barely been touched besides a lick of paint. The generic art direction looks at least a generation old, the music (while excellent) is firmly stuck in 2002 (even the superb, updated Delta OST) and the gameplay appears at face value to be nothing new, but with the pad in your hand, it opens up quite magnificently.
It's in the fairly small graze shooter niche, alongside the excellent Danmaku Unlimited 3 which I discussed earlier in the year, or the recent Shikhondo: Soul Eater. Where it differs, though, is that these both use grazing as a means to charging up a limited use ultra attack which boosts both damage and score for ten seconds or so. In Psyvariar, you graze and graze and graze and your basic ship will continue to "LEVEL UPPPP" and grant you ever more destructive firepower as well as changing its cosmetic appearance. This means that every single wave, no, every single bullet is an opportunity for you to exploit to boost your shots and tilt the balance in your favour. It's simple lizard brain stuff but it really pushes your buttons to see that BUZZ counter go up into the hundreds (and thousands!) as you graze and milk enemies and bullets for all they're worth, sending your level spiralling and your ship becoming hard as fuck.
This superb mechanic also goes even further in that each time you level up, you have a small window of invulnerability during which you can dive head first into the descending mass of bullets and level up faster and faster as the i-frames keep you safe while you milk bosses and swarms of enemies. It means that you feel encouraged to play on the front foot, exploiting the enemies' aggression and using it to serve your own ends. That's such an exciting feeling when you time things right and get your spacing where it needs to be to trigger one level up after another. The HD rumble on the Switch also really reinforces this pleasurable feedback loop as it buzzes excitedly with every grazed bullet. To play it with headphones on and to feel the physical response to your developing skills is one of the most exciting gaming sensations I've had all year. I feel that it's a classic of the genre and also that I've barely scratched the surface.
---
I don't really know why I've not contributed to this thread before. I've completed about fifty or sixty games this year in an effort to clear my backlog and play all the stuff I bought on the eShop last year. I've written them all up elsewhere and it's probably a bit gauche to repost a massive text dump but I'll add to this thread from now on.
If anyone is interested for whatever reason in my year in gaming completions, I will copy and paste inside spoiler tags below. There are possibly a few missing here but it's interesting (to me) to see how I went from the eye opening curiosity of Dodonpachi and Danmaku Unlimited 3 back in March to being utterly blown away and enraptured by DaiOuJou and Mushihimesama not long after to falling down the rabbit hole chasing everything on every system which sprayed a few bullets in my direction to my current habit of watching superplays in bed every night once my wife is asleep and then being unable to drop off because the patterns are dancing in my mind's eye for hours and almost all other games now seem boring and shit and I've utterly ruined myself. Plus some other stuff I played. Strap yourself in.
- Spoiler: show
- KSubzero1000
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- Joined: August 26th, 2015, 9:56 pm
- Location: Germany
Re: Games Completed 2018
Well, there goes the rest of my evening!
Do we have any idea as to when exactly Psyvariar Delta might hit our shores? You make it sound veeery enticing...
Edit: Love The Ringed City write-up. I think it might be the first time I've ever heard you have anything positive to say about DS3! I think it's the best area in the entire game as well.
Do we have any idea as to when exactly Psyvariar Delta might hit our shores? You make it sound veeery enticing...
Edit: Love The Ringed City write-up. I think it might be the first time I've ever heard you have anything positive to say about DS3! I think it's the best area in the entire game as well.
- MajorGamer
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- Joined: October 14th, 2016, 6:33 am
- Location: Toronto, Canada
Re: Games Completed 2018
You can finish them with 0 kills but there is a common problem with games that keep track of that. Often there is something that ends up killing someone you knocked out and you end up overwriting a save before you realize it. From Dishonored, a wayward rat swarm can kill an unconscious guard and there is a kill that counts towards you. Ragdolling an enemy the wrong way is another common way to accidentally get a kill. There is another game (think it was Human Revolution) where due to how the level spawns on loads, a body may spawn before the ground so it just falls through, giving you a kill count.
Time to write up the next two games I finished.
- Spoiler: show
This looked like Recettear so I went for it. Gather and make items to sell while you go on adventures to get your supplies. The basic premise is there. The execution is terrible.
The items you obtain from the adventures aren't able to be sold. You must craft things from them to sell. The items you get are complete RNG. There are some items that give better odds towards certain encounters (monsters, chests, etc) but the drop pool within them is still complete RNG. There is a ton of adventuring to get the supplies to make what you need for your orders or general selling. It wouldn't be bad but adventures consist of sending your worker out to whichever place and... that's it. All you do is wait for their return or tell them to retreat if they are about to die. Craft the items, fulfill the orders to get more recipes, and repeat. You will have plenty of orders that you can't do because you don't have the recipe for that item and you just need to hope whatever order you do will give you the recipe for it.
It is incredibly boring as most of the game is sitting there doing nothing. It felt like a slightly advanced clicker game (got bored of those in about 5 minutes).
Sept 11 - Hard Reset Redux (PC)
A very straight forward FPS with a cyberpunk theme. I'd mention more of the story but the cutscenes happened during the loading screens. It loaded so fast I didn't notice this until several levels in at which point it was too late. Things were stopped, I guess.
Nothing stands out for your weapons. Standard stuff except you only have two types of ammo that gets split between your guns. All guns beyond the starters are obtained via upgrade points instead of found in the game.
Enemies are where the big problems come in. They hit you when they very clearly missed. They can charge at you, you side step, they hit the wall 5 feet away, and you take damage. Same goes if they pound the ground. There is no shockwave effect but you still take a hit from quite a distance away. Even if it isn't much damage, it is frustrating to get hit by things that shouldn't be or have no visual indication that they do. There are also invisible walls everywhere.
It starts as a fairly generic FPS brought even lower by its problems.
Re: Games Completed 2018
Thanks, I appreciate there's a lot to wade through there with a million shmups and Neo Geo games. Glad to hear you enjoyed the TRC bit, it pretty much salvaged my memories of the whole game though it's still below original DS2 and rock bottom in my own personal ranking.KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 17th, 2018, 10:12 pm Well, there goes the rest of my evening!
Do we have any idea as to when exactly Psyvariar Delta might hit our shores? You make it sound veeery enticing...
Edit: Love The Ringed City write-up. I think it might be the first time I've ever heard you have anything positive to say about DS3! I think it's the best area in the entire game as well.
As for Psyvariar, the official website still says 2018 for the EU/US and the trailer actually says Summer 2018, so fingers crossed it'll be here very soon. I've played probably fifty shmups for the first time this year and it's comfortably top five. I'd say DOJ, Mushi, Ikaruga, Psyvariar and then I can't decide the fifth between Deathsmiles, Ketsui, Crimzon Clover, Tengai, Zero Gunner 2 and Danmaku Unlimited 3!
Re: Games Completed 2018
Ah yeah, that makes sense, thanks! I did hear the same about one of the recent Deus Ex games. So keeping a close eye on your kill tally as you work through them should 'solve' that issue.MajorGamer wrote: ↑September 18th, 2018, 6:07 am You can finish them with 0 kills but there is a common problem with games that keep track of that. Often there is something that ends up killing someone you knocked out and you end up overwriting a save before you realize it. From Dishonored, a wayward rat swarm can kill an unconscious guard and there is a kill that counts towards you. Ragdolling an enemy the wrong way is another common way to accidentally get a kill. There is another game (think it was Human Revolution) where due to how the level spawns on loads, a body may spawn before the ground so it just falls through, giving you a kill count.
Just to go back to this if you don't mind, and to make some big assumptions....so for example if you had a gameplay section where a character has to navigate a maze. You'd much prefer a view from above or offset from the maze, where you can see your character and part of his/her surroundings, rather than a first person view where you are looking at the walls of the maze? So the aesthetics are better, you're able to 'situate' your character better, giving a greater connection to your surroundings, and there's the added bonus of your character design being visible in this scenario? Makes sense.KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 17th, 2018, 5:19 pm First and foremost, and perhaps it went under the rest of my temper tantrum in the RE thread, but I'm really not a fan of the first-person perspective in the vast majority of games that use it. There are exceptions of course (Halo, Metroid Prime, DOOM + various puzzle games like Portal or The Witness), but for the most part I find it to be arbitrarily restrictive, aesthetically uninspired and that it usually comes at the cost of a memorable protagonist design.
Do you know why those exceptions you mentioned work better? Just examples of better game/character design all round?
- KSubzero1000
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- Location: Germany
Re: Games Completed 2018
I don't mind whatsoever, my friend. I'll talk to anybody about anything.Chopper wrote: ↑September 18th, 2018, 7:01 am Just to go back to this if you don't mind, and to make some big assumptions....so for example if you had a gameplay section where a character has to navigate a maze. You'd much prefer a view from above or offset from the maze, where you can see your character and part of his/her surroundings, rather than a first person view where you are looking at the walls of the maze? So the aesthetics are better, you're able to 'situate' your character better, giving a greater connection to your surroundings, and there's the added bonus of your character design being visible in this scenario? Makes sense.
Do you know why those exceptions you mentioned work better? Just examples of better game/character design all round?
I would probably prefer a view from above in that case, yes. With that being said, if the section had been carefully designed around the use of the first-person perspective and fine-tuned accordingly, I wouldn't necessarily mind. Some of the greatest puzzle games ever created are first-person games, after all. That's a big if, though.
Basically, my issues with the first-person camera can be summarized as:
1. Lack of character screen presence / visual design. (Aesthetics) I really appreciate strong character design even in the absence of great writing. Most first-person games completely bypass this. Example: Half -Life. Who's Gordon Freeman? No idea. Just "some dude", I guess.
2. Lack of organic body language feedback. (Mechanics) Example: Almost every FPS in the past 10 years with their blood-spatter effect that tries to emulate danger through artificial HUD elements rather than through actual in-game elements. Just compare the way Alien: Isolation communicates damage with the way Dead Space does. It's night and day.
PS: And this also negatively impacts platforming sections / any sort of athletic components, which in turns leads to shallow context-sensitive animations.
3. Readability issues. (Mechanics) The first-person camera is one of the most restrictive ones. I don't necessarily mind restrictions if they have been properly designed around, but a lot of (western) developers don't seem to understand the difference between on-screen and off-screen attacks, or how to communicate incoming danger to the player, to name but two issues. Example: Call of Duty. All I remember from playing through MW on the hardest difficulty was getting annihilated from barely visible off-screen attacks stemming from enemies that blend with the background while my screen was getting progressively more obscured (!!). Nex Machina and its constant particle effect fireworks and kaleidoscopic color palette has a readability that puts the entire CoD series to shame. Massive problem for me.
4. First-person cutscenes. (Aesthetics) It's just the most uninspired and boring creative choice imaginable. You're just standing in a virtual room watching mannequins go through their scripted routines. This method brings out the worst aspect of cutscenes (dry exposition), without their best aspects (creative cinematography and editing potential). Example: Half-Life, forever the original sinner in that regard.
I find that the first-person games I like usually find a way to circumvent most of the above issues. Just off the top of my head:
Halo
Halo has third-person cutscenes that showcase the memorable character design of the protagonist(s), a fantastic readability that never leaves you puzzled as to where enemy damage comes from, and excellent audiovisual feedback with its shield mechanic. But most importantly, the numerous vehicle sections are all in third-person, and I think it speaks volumes about the aforementioned issues that those are widely regarded as some of their respective games' highlights, whereas the fist-person vehicle sections in Half-Life 2 are widely considered to be the low point of the game.
Metroid Prime
It bears repeating that Metroid Prime is not a shooter. It's an adventure game centered around exploration and level traversal, with standard enemies being a mostly secondary consideration. The Scanning mechanic in particular works perfectly well in tandem with the camera. It has great audiovisual feedback as well (like how Samus' face is sometimes reflected on the internal surface of the visor), and the Morph Ball sections are all in third-person, sometimes even straight up side-scrolling.
DOOM
DOOM has the same readability as Halo, not least because every single enemy attack is a projectile instead of hitscan. It's amazing how fast and frenetic the game can be at times without ever becoming overwhelming or confusing. Full props to the AI coders, visual and sound designers. The game also commits to the mysterious nature of its protagonist by elevating him to the status of a time-transcending myth, which resonates with the uninterrupted camera work.
Overwatch
Again, impeccable readability. I haven't played the game in six months, and yet I have zero issue with knowing exactly what goes on in the above screenshot. Every single character in the game has his or her own animations, silhouette, voicelines, color palette, visual cues, and even footsteps. The attention to detail is simply mind-blowing. To convey so much information at any given time without ever confusing the player is something that a lot of other designers should take note of, if you ask me.
Puzzle games (Portal, The Witness, Infinifactory, etc...)
Those games aren't strictly speaking dexterity based, which means that the players can take their time to solve the puzzle without becoming frustrated. And without giving too much away, at least Portal and The Witness make very creative use of the first-person camera in their perspective-based puzzles. Those games simply wouldn't work with any other kind of camera design.
Hope this clears things up!
Re: Games Completed 2018
Yes, thanks for the comprehensive reply, much appreciated! I have no further questions m'lud
I completed Blues and Bullets Episode 2.
This one ends with Eliot Ness and Al Capone on the lam from some shadowy underworld figures.
I wish there were more episodes, I haven't played anything like it. I'd almost recommend that people check out these two episodes if they see them for pennies, but an unfinished game is a hard sell.
I completed Blues and Bullets Episode 2.
This one ends with Eliot Ness and Al Capone on the lam from some shadowy underworld figures.
I wish there were more episodes, I haven't played anything like it. I'd almost recommend that people check out these two episodes if they see them for pennies, but an unfinished game is a hard sell.
Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
Much like Kiwami 1, I was a bit lukewarm on this one in comparison to the main releases, although I did enjoy this one a fair bit more. So while I would put Kiwami 1 at the bottom of how I rank these games, this one would definitely be significantly higher. The story felt like it had more energy than K1, but it still didn't really excite as much as some of the more recent entries. Ryuiji Goda was a good antagonist, but he needed more screen time than he got, and Sayama was also a good character with a strong personality, but some of the places they tried to take her relationships near the end of the story didn't really feel like it made sense. And while it did improve the combat mechanics somewhat over Yakuza 6, in the end it didn't feel like it was improved anywhere near as much as I was hoping or expecting.
The Majima side-story they add in to this version was pretty forgettable too. Didn't really add anything of note, with production qualities that felt kind of sub-par. The way you unlock it in parts spaced out throughout the main game means that you only get to play a very short bit at a time, and what little plot there is there gets forgotten between each part. There's also the fact you can't upgrade Majima's combat skills or stats. You're stuck with what you get at the beginning, which is a very limited move set, low health, and very slow movement speed. While being able to upgrade the speed of attacks helps a lot with the issues the main game has with its combat, that option is unavailable here.
Right now I think I'm feeling a little burnt out on Yakuza. While this one was a good time overall, I don't think I want to play another any time soon. This intensive release schedule has gotten a bit much, as I suspected it would. So I don't think I'll be picking up that Fist of the North Star game any time soon, and I might not even pick up the PS3 ports on release either. I was hoping for a compilation of those games anyway. Maybe they'll release one when they get around to porting Yakuza 5.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
super Mario Bros 2
What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
Re: Games Completed 2018
I do love this game.Simonsloth wrote: ↑September 18th, 2018, 11:42 pm super Mario Bros 2
What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
Which version did you play ??
The All-Stars one is the common one I suppose but the one I spent the most time with was the GBA Mario Advance.
The music is probably up there as my favourite Mario score with World and Odyssey.
Re: Games Completed 2018
- Spoiler: show
This one was a really nice little surprise. Found it to be very enjoyable and charming. Some great artwork and really inventive use of sound design, and a very nice soundtrack too. Mechanics are pretty simple, with some light puzzle solving and occasional combat, but they do some cool things with both. Being set in someone's subconscious mind, a lot of the puzzles have this really neat theme of being associated with various parts of the mind and the memories contained within. The look of the environments follow this theme, so it's full of imaginative and surreal features. Lots of puns to do with various mind-related things too, in a Psychonauts vein, which were pretty amusing. The soundtrack also dynamically changes depending on where you are in the level too, with certain features of the background decorations being themed on various instruments, having them fade in to the background music as you get close to them. The boss fights do a similar thing. The bosses are all based around various types of fears and anxieties, and when you fight them they sing a song about themselves, which has some fun lyrical writing, and their attacks are synced up to the rhythm of the music. Visually the game is pretty great too. Aside from just the imaginative environments, it has a very nice painted style that mixes 2D and 3D assets seamlessly. It's pretty impressive actually, as a few times I was surprised to find that something which I assumed was part of the 2D background was actually a 3D asset and could rotate and move, while never looking out of place. (EDIT: I just found out the game is actually all 3D after all! Fooled me, very impressive.) So yeah, a very nice little game. Not a whole lot to it, but you can tell what it does do was done with a lot of heart and inspiration.
- KSubzero1000
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Re: Games Completed 2018
I finished The Wonderful 101 earlier today.
My feelings on the game are mixed, but mostly positive. First and foremost, I believe it deserves full props for committing so firmly to its completely unique premise and core structure. In such a risk-adverse industry, it's amazing to see a studio develop a game that is so bold and delightfully different in so many ways. It's full of creativity and charm, and it's heartwarming to see just how much love has gone in every facet of its design. The story is also surprisingly good.
I don't think it'd be fair of me to knock points off the game itself considering the reception it has received among expert players, but I'll just say that the combat system didn't completely click with me in the way that I had hoped for. I consider myself to be at least decent at action games in general, but I'll admit to have struggled with some of the mechanics, especially in regard to the defensive options. The majority of my encounters ended with me getting a platinum medal in combo but a silver or bronze in damage and me not really knowing how I could have avoided most of it. This is probably due to me not being able to pick up and capitalise on the enemy tells, but it left a sour taste in my mouth regardless.
I'm very glad that this game exists, I'm sad that it sold so poorly despite being such a perfect fit for the hardware it was developed on, and I truly appreciate the unique twist it provides on the action genre. Unfortunately, I don't feel very motivated to revisit it and to go for the Pure Platinum medals at this point, which is usually the main appeal of this type of game for me.
Great game overall, but it doesn't trouble RE2 / Õkami for my favorite Kamiya game or Bayonetta 2 / Vanquish for my favorite Platinum game.
My feelings on the game are mixed, but mostly positive. First and foremost, I believe it deserves full props for committing so firmly to its completely unique premise and core structure. In such a risk-adverse industry, it's amazing to see a studio develop a game that is so bold and delightfully different in so many ways. It's full of creativity and charm, and it's heartwarming to see just how much love has gone in every facet of its design. The story is also surprisingly good.
I don't think it'd be fair of me to knock points off the game itself considering the reception it has received among expert players, but I'll just say that the combat system didn't completely click with me in the way that I had hoped for. I consider myself to be at least decent at action games in general, but I'll admit to have struggled with some of the mechanics, especially in regard to the defensive options. The majority of my encounters ended with me getting a platinum medal in combo but a silver or bronze in damage and me not really knowing how I could have avoided most of it. This is probably due to me not being able to pick up and capitalise on the enemy tells, but it left a sour taste in my mouth regardless.
I'm very glad that this game exists, I'm sad that it sold so poorly despite being such a perfect fit for the hardware it was developed on, and I truly appreciate the unique twist it provides on the action genre. Unfortunately, I don't feel very motivated to revisit it and to go for the Pure Platinum medals at this point, which is usually the main appeal of this type of game for me.
Great game overall, but it doesn't trouble RE2 / Õkami for my favorite Kamiya game or Bayonetta 2 / Vanquish for my favorite Platinum game.
- Simonsloth
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Re: Games Completed 2018
I played the 3DS store version. The music is pretty special I haven’t played world or Odyssey either. Aside from mario 64 (and super Mario bros 1/2 recently) I haven’t actually finished any other Mario games. A huge gap in my history which I am addressing now.Suits wrote: ↑September 19th, 2018, 10:26 amI do love this game.Simonsloth wrote: ↑September 18th, 2018, 11:42 pm super Mario Bros 2
What a bizarre game! I had no idea about the history having never played it before (to my shame) so was quite nice listening to the podcast to find out about its history. Onto number 3.
Which version did you play ??
The All-Stars one is the common one I suppose but the one I spent the most time with was the GBA Mario Advance.
The music is probably up there as my favourite Mario score with World and Odyssey.
Re: Games Completed 2018
I still own my Wii U (still connected up and everything), and I think this might be one of the few unique games left that I don't own for that system. I'll definitely have to make an effort to get a copy, if only to experience it.KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑September 19th, 2018, 8:36 pm ...I'm very glad that this game exists, I'm sad that it sold so poorly despite being such a perfect fit for the hardware it was developed on, and I truly appreciate the unique twist it provides on the action genre. Unfortunately, I don't feel very motivated to revisit it and to go for the Pure Platinum medals at this point, which is usually the main appeal of this type of game for me...