Scrustle wrote: ↑November 28th, 2018, 9:58 pm
After beating him with Vergil I went back to him with Nero to see if I could learn his Buster timing, and I actually managed to start getting the hang of it! I was never able to catch the spear he throws at you before, but I managed to do it quite a few times when I was focusing on that. It's really hard to judge though, as the timing can vary a lot depending on how far you are away from him. But damn, is it satisfying to pull off. I also managed to do a few Busters on his lunging move too, which was also very fun. Such a brilliant boss. Easy to see why people say it's one of the best in the whole series.
Yaaaay, that's the good stuff. Congrats, I knew you could do it!
Proper action games are just the gift that keeps on giving. It's fantastic to be able to revisit them and discover new things even ten years after their initial release.
Think I've hit the end of the road for Splatoon 2, I'm on Sector 5 but the campaign keeps throwing really strange difficulty spikes at me, counteracting the (very) fun bits. There's a level where I'm forced to use the brush, and the latter stages of it are absolutely infuriating and seem to require as much luck as they do skill. With the 3 strikes and you're out checkpoint system before needing to restart the level, I've been sent back to the start more times than I now care to continue. Given that I'm not buying Nintendo Online to be able to play the multiplayer alone, the game is basically done for me.
I'm really enjoying Puyo Puyo Tetris in it's place. It's nice to get into a puzzle game again, having been inspired by all this talk of Tetris Effect and remembering I still had this pretty much unplayed. It's wonderful, making my way through the Story Mode, and gradually getting better at Puyo Puyo.
Also started Thimbleweed Park which I was very excited about but feels AWFUL to control initially... I expected dated and that's what I got, not sure it's going to get it's hooks in. I will persevere.
Noted Suits! One thing with Puyo Puyo Tetris - I note that in the battle levels, Puyos go down in judders (like Tetris) if that makes sense, whereas in the levels where it's just score attack, the Puyos go down smoothly... Why is it different? Also why can't you drop a piece immediately like you can with Tetris?
Side note: I can't play with the ghost piece. It feels like cheating!
Finished Mad Max on PS4. I like the Mad Max world, and it’s not a bad game, but there’s not a lot of variety in an awful lot of busy work that goes on for a very long time, and I just got bored many hours before I got to the end. Glad I stuck it out though, after it had sat in my games library for years!
Starting the original Uncharted on the Nathan Drake Collection as soon as those credits rolled was a great antidote to the post-apocalyptic monotony. It’s age is definitely showing in several ways, but it still looks vibrant and having sailed through the first three wonderfully linear chapters, it seems like exactly my kind of story with some great characters already emerging. I’ve only ever played Uncharted 2 before, so very much looking forward to the rest of this and the rest of the series that have also been sitting waiting for quite some time!
hazeredmist wrote: ↑November 29th, 2018, 2:52 pm
Think I've hit the end of the road for Splatoon 2, I'm on Sector 5 but the campaign keeps throwing really strange difficulty spikes at me, counteracting the (very) fun bits. There's a level where I'm forced to use the brush, and the latter stages of it are absolutely infuriating and seem to require as much luck as they do skill. With the 3 strikes and you're out checkpoint system before needing to restart the level, I've been sent back to the start more times than I now care to continue. Given that I'm not buying Nintendo Online to be able to play the multiplayer alone, the game is basically done for me.
I'm really enjoying Puyo Puyo Tetris in it's place. It's nice to get into a puzzle game again, having been inspired by all this talk of Tetris Effect and remembering I still had this pretty much unplayed. It's wonderful, making my way through the Story Mode, and gradually getting better at Puyo Puyo.
Also started Thimbleweed Park which I was very excited about but feels AWFUL to control initially... I expected dated and that's what I got, not sure it's going to get it's hooks in. I will persevere.
I enjoyed Thimbleweed Park a lot for what it's worth, but I wasn't embarrassed to use the hint system a lot.
I know what you mean about Splatoon 2. I bought the Expansion DLC expecting to find another wonderful set of levels a la the Story mode in the two games, but they struck me as brutally hard Metal Gear VR Missions. I plan to go back to it but it just felt more like learning the pattern over and over than a fun challenge, and after about 20 or so levels I put it to one side sadly. Hope to go back, but may have lost the muscle memory now...
My family bought me Jedi Challenges this week for my birthday (8 months early, oddly, but hey...), an AR game where you do various Star Wars related things like play big games of Holochess, RTS battles on a giant scale and most importantly have Lightsaber battles.
The build quality of the weapon itself is incredible. Feels like holding a weighty, authentic sword. The headset gets heavy on your neck after a while but feels good.
Haven't unlocked the Holochess yet but the RTS game was pretty wicked, if incredibly easy at entry level.
The Lightsaber battles are the big draw though and are very good indeed. Once you learn the way the game wants you to play them. All about calm, considered placement, blocks and jabs. Go in arms waving and, like Skyward Sword or Wii Sports Resort, the game glitches, gets out of whack and seems fairly garbage. Play it calmly, and it's bloody immersive.
I'm not sure I'd say to spend £100-250 on it, as you'd have to outside of sales, but as a gift and party game, it's great fun!
Just being going through Spiderman on PS4 so far and I am loving it. It is wonderful to control and just traversing through New York is a joy. Combat is beautifully fluid with a constant trickle of new skills and gadgets to play with so things never get stale and the story is compelling enough to keep playing with plenty of nice nods to the lore of the series throw in for good measure. Also glad that while there is the odd QTE in place, it is not a massive component of the gameplay like I feared it would be from previous trailers. Still got a lot to do before completion but rating this very highly so far.
From my infrequent postings on the games completed thread, I've realised that I have a lot of ongoing games ...
Currently I'm playing on and off the following (and have been for most of this year):
Destiny 2; The Division; Battlefield 1; Neverwinter; Elder Scrolls Online; GTA V Online (all on Xbox One)
I'm also getting into Brawlhalla as a cheap and cheerful Smash Bros knock-off that I can also sink a few minutes into here and there
With my daughters, I find myself in either Minecraft (XB1) or a Lego City/DC/Marvel (XB1/X360/PS3) title and when I'm out and about my current 'waiting on the train platform' game is Picross Luna 2 and I'm just trying out Assassins Creed: Rebellion (both on Android phone)
Made it quite a way through the first Uncharted game on PS4 over the weekend, and I’m still really enjoying everything about it. I was really expecting a fight against ageing controls, similar to what I recently experienced with God of War 3, but not the case at all. Everything feels fine.
Got the final piece of Triforce in the original Legend of Zelda on NES Classic Mini (then Switch), so I’m now wandering around looking for what I assume is a scrap with Ganon. The challenge has certainly ramped up over the last couple of dungeons, so I’m looking forward to a slog when I find him!
Also been doing very badly on Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts on the SNES Classic Mini. Great looking and sounding game, but hard as nails! I’m determined to at least make it past the first stage though! And on a lighter note, last week I got around to listening to the C&R Mario Kart Double Dash podcast, so made a point of spending some time on that over the weekend. Still plays great, though I must admit it did just inspire me to spend a few more hours on Switch Mario Kart last night!
Grand Theft Auto V- finished up this playthrough a week or so ago. This may be an unpopular opinion, but for all its flaws I think it's a ham dinger of a game and its story is more interesting and memorable than Red Dead Redemption. One of the things that amuses me the most about it is how Michael asserts he is "Finally doin' somethin' with my life" when he goes to work for Soloman Richards as a new job. He never valued his reputation as a thief, not really- it was just a means to an end. And he's now entering the movie business, which in its own way is incredibly shallow and ripe for disappointment- but I think in Michael's mind he's CREATING, not taking from people. Even if it's shitty art, it's respectable. Or as respectable as things get. To Michael. As he says in a post game call to Davey, "I'm behaving now"
Of course, the Housers also have him bullying actors for asking for time off and more money. I kind of imagine Michael Hollick playing this and shattering a molar.
The mission where you have to go after Weston's lawyer, at that airport, is pretty awesome, but... they sort of shortcut it with a gag saying it was entirely unnecessary... then why was Molly so out of her mind trying to secure the print, since Solomon had backed it all up?
In this playthrough I killed Dr. Friedlander, in the previous one I let him live to see if he'd text me (he did). This time he didn't even turn on the ignition because I shotgunned him in the face. The sequences with him this time around didn't work quite as well as they did in the first game, mainly because it's hard to understand why Michael didn't see through his bullshit. Sends some mixed messages about therapy.
I often speak of Trevor and Franklin's story arcs feeling unfinished. And I just don't mean they have clear end points like Michaels, it feels like stuff was left on the cutting room floor. Take Tanisha for example, we only see her through texts and the occasional switchover cut scene. Then in "Lamar Down" she barges into Michael's house to inform him about Lamar's situation. For a girl trying to extricate herself from the lifestyle of her friends, she certainly knows a lot about Lamar's moves and whereabouts. This scene still plays as so WEIRD to me. She wants away from Franklin, away from that life... and yet, Franklin IS away from the hood, he's in a nice house and has a lot of money. He can do anything he wants (he has no real goals other than making money and he doesn't seem excited about that either. Even Trevor is trying avoid loneliness). I get that Tanisha believes that if Lamar dies Franklin would never be able to forgive himself, but Franklin from practically his first scene was annoyed and put off by Lamar's scheming, and with good cause. The only time Lamar revealed any depth was, well, when he was in that truck with Trevor, and Franklin was asleep for that entire scene. The conversation between Trevor and Lamar is one of the best scenes of the game. It's not hard to see Franklin's possible point of view that Lamar is bad news for him and letting him fry wouldn't be so bad. IT's not that I was mad about saving Lamar- it was a good mission, and yeah, Franklin probably wouldn't have been able to get over Lamar's death. It's just that Tanisha's presence seems there to also sort of tie off loose ends on Franklin's character, because the game has avoided depicting this relationship for so long even though it's central to this character's movtivation and now here it is, for Tanisha to rush in and scold Franklin and tell him their relationship is well and truly dead, but one of the central reasons our relationship ended, the life I tried to escape, well you have to deal with a part of that like right now, kay? I'm not sure where I'm going with this. Can anyone help me out here?
This time around I went with the "Kill Trevor" ending, just to see what it would be like. I would like to know how many players chose this and why, since Trevor has done some horrible things and he's geuninely threatening to Michael all through the final few missions before this. I wonder if anyone felt a moral obligation to ice the guy. It's much like that "Do the Deal" decision in Grand Theft Auto IV (whose story is tighter but much less fun and thrilling), in that it really makes no damn sense. Weston and the FIB make separate threats to kill Trevor and/or Michael and yet, only killing one of these guys has to happen. Even when Franklin explains it to Trevor it doesn't make any sense. And Franklin would, realistically go to Lester for help instead of just resolving himself to betraying one of his friends. But since I made that decision... Ogg is fantastic in his final scene, and what you do to Trevor is truly horrific.
Will I do a third go round? Most likely, but It will probably be on the XBox One or PS4 when I get a better TV.
Full Throttle Remastered- this was one of the first PS4 games I bought and I was extremely excited to try it out, since I've heard things I've heard things. And... boy, it's a LucasArts Adventure game from 1995. I find this game more interesting than Day of the Tentacle but it felt more frustrating as there were points where I simply did not know how to proceed and needed a guide. I always feel stupid when I look for a guide.
I enjoy the atmosphere of this game. Schaefer doesn't have his characters deliver too much exposition about the world, which would have slowed things down. Just the image of the open road and the beautiful, tricked out bikes contrasted with the antiseptic, dull looking hover cars communicates why Ben "won't touch anything that doesn't have wheels". Even if technology is moving on, don't Ben and his crew have a right to a small part of the world where they can just ride?
The voice acting is all around good, with Kath Soucie being a stand out as Mo (Who I'm sure will not have a more to do with the plot than any of us realized).
As janky as the bike combat is, it's neat to see a SCUMM game that introduces a little variety.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise- up to chapter four here. From what I can tell, this is meant to be an alternate universe story- that is, after defeating Shin, Kenshiro comes to a mysterious city called Eden because he heard Yuria might be there.
To the game's credit, the fighting only partially feels like a Yakuza game. you're still tapping square and triangle but there's much more of an emphasis in triggering combos that will in turn trigger a quicktime event attack. Imagine if Heat mode was... BEATS mode? Ugh, that was terrible. But anyway, boy it's fun, just as it was in the Musou games, to take a dude out so hard he explooooooodes while screaming "I Don't wanna DIIIIIIIIIE!" BUt I worry that only a few hours in this is going to get super repetitive. We'll see what happens now that the city has finally opened up.
Got my physical disc-based copy of Deathtiny (aka Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi) yesterday. The main advantage of the physical copy is that it comes with all the DLC already on the disc (no typing in codes), and also, if your not interested in creating a Japanese PSN account, you don't really need one - just pop the disc in.
I won't bang on about the quality of M2's work - truly the antithesis of Bethesda: no bugs, attention to detail, actually give a shit about what they do. Like other titles in the ShotTriggers line-up it's a fantastically generous and well presented product.
The real strength of this release is inclusiveness. Theres the arcade version for the hardcore; Super Easy Mode is self-explanatory; the Deathtiny in the title refers to another alternate, more forgiving mode; there's the arcade challenges, similar to the sort of challenge modes you find in fighting games; there's the IKD 2007 Special mode, which from my understanding is a remix mode they had exclusively to promote the game at HEY Akihabara... the point being, whether you're looking for a challenge or just to chill out and spam through levels, the barrier to play is low and open to everyone.
The Deathtiny mode... I'm way to dumb to explain it properly. The best way I can explain it is: when I play normal arcade mode, on one credit I can usually get to the beginning of the second level before losing my last life. In Deathtiny mode, my one credit got me to the penultimate level. The scoring is different, there's a meter in the bottom left that does... something. To be fair, I was having too much fun to really care!
I have no trouble whatsoever recommending this game. Just fantastic, and you better believe I'm shovelling money into M2's hands in anticipation for Esp.Ra.De!
Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑December 6th, 2018, 9:26 pm
I won't bang on about the quality of M2's work - truly the antithesis of Bethesda: no bugs, attention to detail, actually give a shit about what they do.
Oh snap, shots fired!
You make it sound very enticing. I don't really want to pay a fortune and go through the trouble of importing a brand new game from Japan again, but I'll make sure to keep an eye out for it later down the line.
Joshihatsumitsu wrote: ↑December 6th, 2018, 9:26 pm
I won't bang on about the quality of M2's work - truly the antithesis of Bethesda: no bugs, attention to detail, actually give a shit about what they do.
Oh snap, shots fired!
I thought you'd like that! Couldn't resist the cheap shot!
Started ‘battle princess madelyn’ yesterday and I’m not impressed. It’s all too imprecise and directionless, doesn’t get what makes ghost and goblins the game it is at all. Shame.
Couldn't resist the cheap shot!