4 Jul - R-Type & R-Type II
Lost count of the amount of times I hit continue in the later stages... which isn't really how I like to play these types of games. So did I really complete them, then? More on the podcast.
Games completed 2017
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games completed 2017
Tease!
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Games completed 2017
35MM (PC)
A post-apocalyptic journey through a Russia that has lost 83% of its inhabitants to a plague of some kind. Nice environments, some terrible gunplay moments, dodgy translation, and of course lots of despair and bleakness. This review on RPS last year sold it to me - it looks amazing there but the reality is that it is really rough.
A post-apocalyptic journey through a Russia that has lost 83% of its inhabitants to a plague of some kind. Nice environments, some terrible gunplay moments, dodgy translation, and of course lots of despair and bleakness. This review on RPS last year sold it to me - it looks amazing there but the reality is that it is really rough.
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Todinho
Re: Games completed 2017
Dragon Age Inquisition(PC)- So yeah I finnished the game including the DLC which is the actual end of the game(I hate that companies can do this nowadays btw) at my thoughts after playing it revolve much more about other games and game development in general rather then the game itself, for instance while playing I kept thinking of Andromeda now I havent played that game but the complaints that people had like bugs(this is without a doubt the buggiest Bioware game I ever played),dodgy face animation, and uneven writing very much apply to this game as well.
I dont think it's as bad as Andromeda(though I havent played it to have an informed opinion)and it's certainlly way better then the dumpster fire that is Dragon age 2, it has some genuine great moments and some interesting ideas and characters but at the same time it also loses something, Like I mentioned one of my favorite aspects of the world from Origin how it dealt with religion is completelly gone now and the game just drives that further into the ground with the DLC, I understand that this is likely not gonna bother 99% of players but to me it made the universe lesser for lack of a better term, to be fair it's giving some interesting awnsers but to questions I dont think should ever have one, they are tring to creat conflict in the universe but they are going the wrong way bigger isnt always better and that got me thinking of the Witcher, I dont actually think the Witcher universe is all that interesting but the politics and people in that world are if that makes any sense, meanwhile in dragon age it became the opposite it's this really interesting world but the politics of it are really dull and it's not like there's no political intrigue because that's half the game but it doesnt have any bite if you get what Im saying, instead of improving on that the decided to try and expand on the world and by doing that I think they are making it worse, this probably doesnt make alot of sense but it really frustrates me.
One thing the game made me appreciatte though was the difficulty and near impossibility of making these branching storyline RPGs, not even from a creative standpoint but a purely pratical one, that both made me appreciatte the game a bit more but also left me a bit depressed XD, I mean for example in Mass effect 1 you can either kill or not kill Wrex well I always saved him and he shows up in 2 and 3 ok, but what if you did kill him? Well things dont change all that much other then you not having that character, but they should especially given his role as a leader. But what do you do then? Do you completely change assets and story in Tuchanka to compensate?What about ME3? And the more of these you get the worse it gets because then the opposite ends of the branchs should be almost 2 completelly different games story content wise, the witcher 2 actually did that it gave proper consequence to your choices and the game splits in basically 2 games at that point but that was 1 choice in one game and in witcher 3 they backpaddled pretty quick because they barelly take into account your major choices at the end of 2. Thinking on this Tactics Ogre is probably the best game I've seen doing this branching storyline stuff, every branch is really different from one another but the budget concerns arent the same it's much easier when you dont voice acting, where your gameplay scenarios are pretty similar,etc. It still must've taken alot of work and I really appreciatte it but even then Matsuno next similar game FF tactics lacked all of the branching storyline.
In a big open world RPG like Inquisition with a bunch of voiced npcs's,detailed 3D models,etc. Each area, each npc are not only pieces of the game but they also exclude other pieces from being made, and this ties in with story now because these pratical facts prevent wide variation from happening, for example if the writer wants a certain side character to play a major role in the sequel but the player say killed him in the previous one, how can that work?Do you make a game following just the line where that character lived and piss off another part of the audience that's upset their choice didnt matter? Do you then do a middle ground making the narrative that you want but switching characters? That's is still gonna leave part of the game being subpar because you clearlly had a plan and you're just making backup lesser version for the players who chose different, or do you simply doesnt use the character at all and make your narrative?Then where do you put the consequences of player choice? Even big games like witcher 3 that have done theses player choices really well, these choices cant change the state of the world all that much they have to be either localized to characters that doesnt influence the world that much(the world state at the end of the Bloody Baron quest is the same regardless of what happens) or they are these big decision that end the game and change the world but to which you dont need to follow up on like say fallout, but in that case you dont much see as you read the impact your choices had XD.
Im saying all of this because I was at the same time impressed by how much they were able to take into account from the previous games in inquisition despite these limitations and at the same time as I looked at the epilogue from Inquistion I was sad because I knew despite proclamations that my choices were very important for the world, their impact would be limited, or at least I wont see then fully represented in the game, at most there`ll be people just talking about these consequences but I doubt there will be areas or quests locked to certain world states, but hey maybe they'll surprise me, hell I`d just be happy if they let me play as the character from Origins again that would be awesome.
But yeah on the game itself it's hard for me to judge this on it's own, it's not among the worst Bioware has done but I dont think it's among the best either it's somewhere in the middle, it's certainlly a good game maybe even a great one if you`re not looking through my very especific lense but even then i dont think it's a game that excells in anything in particular that makes it a must play, you want an open world fantasy RPG? Witcher 3 is better, you want an immersive party based rpg?Origins is still better in the depth of the strategy and world building, the only thing this game provides that you cant get anywhere else is this hybrid action-strategy rpg with open world sections, if that`s your thing Inquisition is for you.
I dont think it's as bad as Andromeda(though I havent played it to have an informed opinion)and it's certainlly way better then the dumpster fire that is Dragon age 2, it has some genuine great moments and some interesting ideas and characters but at the same time it also loses something, Like I mentioned one of my favorite aspects of the world from Origin how it dealt with religion is completelly gone now and the game just drives that further into the ground with the DLC, I understand that this is likely not gonna bother 99% of players but to me it made the universe lesser for lack of a better term, to be fair it's giving some interesting awnsers but to questions I dont think should ever have one, they are tring to creat conflict in the universe but they are going the wrong way bigger isnt always better and that got me thinking of the Witcher, I dont actually think the Witcher universe is all that interesting but the politics and people in that world are if that makes any sense, meanwhile in dragon age it became the opposite it's this really interesting world but the politics of it are really dull and it's not like there's no political intrigue because that's half the game but it doesnt have any bite if you get what Im saying, instead of improving on that the decided to try and expand on the world and by doing that I think they are making it worse, this probably doesnt make alot of sense but it really frustrates me.
One thing the game made me appreciatte though was the difficulty and near impossibility of making these branching storyline RPGs, not even from a creative standpoint but a purely pratical one, that both made me appreciatte the game a bit more but also left me a bit depressed XD, I mean for example in Mass effect 1 you can either kill or not kill Wrex well I always saved him and he shows up in 2 and 3 ok, but what if you did kill him? Well things dont change all that much other then you not having that character, but they should especially given his role as a leader. But what do you do then? Do you completely change assets and story in Tuchanka to compensate?What about ME3? And the more of these you get the worse it gets because then the opposite ends of the branchs should be almost 2 completelly different games story content wise, the witcher 2 actually did that it gave proper consequence to your choices and the game splits in basically 2 games at that point but that was 1 choice in one game and in witcher 3 they backpaddled pretty quick because they barelly take into account your major choices at the end of 2. Thinking on this Tactics Ogre is probably the best game I've seen doing this branching storyline stuff, every branch is really different from one another but the budget concerns arent the same it's much easier when you dont voice acting, where your gameplay scenarios are pretty similar,etc. It still must've taken alot of work and I really appreciatte it but even then Matsuno next similar game FF tactics lacked all of the branching storyline.
In a big open world RPG like Inquisition with a bunch of voiced npcs's,detailed 3D models,etc. Each area, each npc are not only pieces of the game but they also exclude other pieces from being made, and this ties in with story now because these pratical facts prevent wide variation from happening, for example if the writer wants a certain side character to play a major role in the sequel but the player say killed him in the previous one, how can that work?Do you make a game following just the line where that character lived and piss off another part of the audience that's upset their choice didnt matter? Do you then do a middle ground making the narrative that you want but switching characters? That's is still gonna leave part of the game being subpar because you clearlly had a plan and you're just making backup lesser version for the players who chose different, or do you simply doesnt use the character at all and make your narrative?Then where do you put the consequences of player choice? Even big games like witcher 3 that have done theses player choices really well, these choices cant change the state of the world all that much they have to be either localized to characters that doesnt influence the world that much(the world state at the end of the Bloody Baron quest is the same regardless of what happens) or they are these big decision that end the game and change the world but to which you dont need to follow up on like say fallout, but in that case you dont much see as you read the impact your choices had XD.
Im saying all of this because I was at the same time impressed by how much they were able to take into account from the previous games in inquisition despite these limitations and at the same time as I looked at the epilogue from Inquistion I was sad because I knew despite proclamations that my choices were very important for the world, their impact would be limited, or at least I wont see then fully represented in the game, at most there`ll be people just talking about these consequences but I doubt there will be areas or quests locked to certain world states, but hey maybe they'll surprise me, hell I`d just be happy if they let me play as the character from Origins again that would be awesome.
But yeah on the game itself it's hard for me to judge this on it's own, it's not among the worst Bioware has done but I dont think it's among the best either it's somewhere in the middle, it's certainlly a good game maybe even a great one if you`re not looking through my very especific lense but even then i dont think it's a game that excells in anything in particular that makes it a must play, you want an open world fantasy RPG? Witcher 3 is better, you want an immersive party based rpg?Origins is still better in the depth of the strategy and world building, the only thing this game provides that you cant get anywhere else is this hybrid action-strategy rpg with open world sections, if that`s your thing Inquisition is for you.
Re: Games completed 2017
6 Jul - Nex Machina
1CC'd Rookie with a so-so score of 110 mil plus. Now I can allow myself to move onto the higher difficulties.
1CC'd Rookie with a so-so score of 110 mil plus. Now I can allow myself to move onto the higher difficulties.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games completed 2017
Well, allow me to retort!
7 Jul - Nex Machina
1CC'd Rookie with a so-so score of 672 mil plus (and the current #2 on the leaderboards). Now I can allow myself to move onto the higher difficulties.
7 Jul - Nex Machina
1CC'd Rookie with a so-so score of 672 mil plus (and the current #2 on the leaderboards). Now I can allow myself to move onto the higher difficulties.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Games completed 2017
Yeah I won't be beating that!
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Games completed 2017
Don't worry, Leon. First thing I did afterwards was to send you a provocative PSN message.
Re: Games completed 2017
Just this second finished Persona 5 after 97 hours! I have to say I really enjoyed this in a way I rarely do enjoy games nowadays - the story, characters and style of the game all made it a very enjoyable experiance and one I will likely return to, even if some of the places were lengthned with annoying puzzles 
Onto Nier: Automata next - wish me luck
Onto Nier: Automata next - wish me luck
Re: Games completed 2017
YIKES! What was your multiplier at the end? And did you pick up all secrets in your run?KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑July 7th, 2017, 5:53 pm Well, allow me to retort!
7 Jul - Nex Machina
1CC'd Rookie with a so-so score of 672 mil plus (and the current #2 on the leaderboards). Now I can allow myself to move onto the higher difficulties.
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KSubzero1000
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- Location: Germany
Re: Games completed 2017
My multiplier went up to x100. It even announced "Max Multiplier" or something of the sort. I received the Conqueror bonus (for picking up all secrets) in 4 of the 5 worlds, I think I missed one beacon and one secret human in Machine City. And I dropped the human combo once in Future Labs like an idiot. So there's definitely still some room for improvement! I'm thinking of going back to it later today, actually.
PS: The leaderboards are cross-platform, right? What platform are you playing this on, PC?
PS: The leaderboards are cross-platform, right? What platform are you playing this on, PC?
Re: Games completed 2017
On PC, yes. The leaderboards are cross-platform, but friends aren't. Which makes it a bit tough to find people, unless they tell you at what position they are.KSubzero1000 wrote: ↑July 8th, 2017, 11:07 am My multiplier went up to x100. It even announced "Max Multiplier" or something of the sort. I received the Conqueror bonus (for picking up all secrets) in 4 of the 5 worlds, I think I missed one beacon and one secret human in Machine City. And I dropped the human combo once in Future Labs like an idiot. So there's definitely still some room for improvement! I'm thinking of going back to it later today, actually.
PS: The leaderboards are cross-platform, right? What platform are you playing this on, PC?
I ranked in somewhere between the 14- and 11 hundreds and looking at your score, I have something to aspire to. More than anything, however, I look forward to more friction coming from the more challenging enemy and bullet patterns of Expert level and up.
7 Jul - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Hero Mode)
I started replaying the game on the more challenging Hero Mode at the tail end of 2016, for the then upcoming Cane and Rinse episode, with my kids by my side. I had to be a responsible parent, though, and spread the 50 odd our playthrough out over a longer period of time. So with us ordering/buying a Switch and Breath of the Wild tomorrow (or: today), the time was ripe to see the final stretch of the game through.
If you've played it, you'll surely remember that proto-Hyrule Warriors, massive enemy gauntlet, leading up to the final confrontation with Ghirahim. It's surprisingly tough on Hero Mode. There are a lot more stronger enemy types mixed in and if you overdo your spin attacks a tad, when surrounded by foes, you'll lose stamina quickly and find yourself the whipping boy of hordes of delighted Bokoblins. Very different experience this time around and I burned through a fairy bottle and two upgraded red potions, reaching Ghirahim with six hearts (= 2 hits and you're done).
It took me a few tries to get re-acquainted with his patterns and readability of his animations in his final form, which was fun, but also slightly irritating as my kids lose interest when I don't beast challenges and have to redo parts.
The pressure is real, I guess.Demise was tougher too. I didn't go for the Hylian Shield in this playthrough and he managed to destroy my Goddess Shield in phase 2. I thought I was done for, but an upgraded protection potion kept me free of damage for 3 minutes, in which I rediscovered I could at that point actually use Skyward Strikes to overpower him and I managed to take him down within that time period, on my first attempt. After that, my kids could enjoy the rather sweet and touching conclusion to the game and go to bed with smiles on their faces.
LEGEND OF GROOSE!
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Games completed 2017
- Spoiler: show
Just the 132 hours on my playthrough for this
. It's a worthy successor to the previous 2 games in combat, style and themes. The bespoke dungeons are also a great improvement over the randomly generated dungeons. I probably didn't click with the characters as well as in Persona 3 or 4, but they're still stronger than in most games I've played. There are less light comedy moments with the characters than in 4 which probably meant I took longer to warm to them. Also it has my favourite plot sequence (as opposed to character moments) in the series.
- Spoiler: show
The story is nonsense and thankfully skippable. I think adventure mode is to encourage playing the different modes and get some experience in each of them and for that it was fine.
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Todinho
Re: Games completed 2017
Resident evil 7 Biohazard(pc)- This game is fantastic what more can I say, it really did give me everything that I wanted and what I didnt know I wanted out of a new RE game, for instance the First person view, alot of fans moaned about it complaining that it wasnt a real RE because of this and other insane complaints like thinking it was just gonna be a game like amnesia where you cant fight, etc you name it.
What all of them failed to see though was that it's thanks to this new perspective that the devs where able to bring the classic style of RE back, people seem to think that the devs chose first person just because it's the new hotness for horror games but I dont think so, I might be wrong but to me the perspective came from a simple question: How do we make a classic style resident evil game with the aiming and combat of Resident evil 4 and above? You might say that all you have to do is put the camera over the shoulder and have the same structure but it isnt the same thing, the tank controls and camera of the original werent just for show they were core parts of the game design, each encounter in RE was tense because of how limited you were, from RE4 foward you had alot more freedom to handle a single zombie so the challenge then became aiming and dealing with alot of enemies at a time. What the first person perspective brings is something akin to the tank controls and fixed camera, not only are the enviroments in this game tigher akin to the classic games your movement is also more limited just like in the old days, the situation where I took the most damage was when I often overstimated my speed in getting away. But it`s not just that, with the aiming the game manages to blend in these two styles, so the encounters now are tense because of how limited you are but you now have the added aiming you have to do, as a result avoiding damage gets harder but they accounted for that with a block button that mitigates alot of it but you still need to know when to use it, the more I played the game the more I was blown away by how genious the switch to first person was and it`s one aspect of the game.
Storywise I think the game does remarkbly well, it`s certainly the best narrative an RE game ever had as far as Im concerned(tied with revelations 2),I love the backers the are equality entertaning and terrifing and have so much personality the kind we havent seen since the villains in RE4, also thank god we're not playing as a super soldier anymore and we enter a situation we know nothing about, people were once again pissed that we werent playing as one of the recognizable heroes of past games but they are all super soldiers at this point also how is the franchise supposed to continue if you just keep reusing the same characters over and over, Chris Redfield isnt getting any younger it's all Im saying, if people were up in arms about wanting to play as old characters and not new ones we wouldnt have Leon or Claire,etc. I do like the cast here it's the best acting out of any game in the series and while Ethan isnt the most emotive of protagonists he does his job and everybodyelse more then makes up for it.
And for those concerned this game doesnt tie into the greater RE lore, boy does it tie in, any Resident evil fan worth their salt will be losing their shit at the end.
Lastly I heard alot of people compare this game RE1 especifically but after finnishing it I think the game has most in common with RE2, especially the progression, RE1 takes place in this entire interconnected area while RE2 and this are more linear, you have multiple interconnected areas and you go through them in a linear fashion. Also the game is pretty generous with resources, playing it on normal I was swimming in bullets most of the game and only really had to worry about not having healing itens during some points, thankfully the game unlocks a hard mode after finnishing it so Im excited to jump on that.
Yeah so I really love this game It's easilly in my top 5 RE games and I pray to whatever god will listen that capcom allows the RE team to stick to and build on this formula for future instalments and honestly I know this will sound like heresy to many but I wouldnt really mind if the RE2 Remake used the First person perspective either.
What all of them failed to see though was that it's thanks to this new perspective that the devs where able to bring the classic style of RE back, people seem to think that the devs chose first person just because it's the new hotness for horror games but I dont think so, I might be wrong but to me the perspective came from a simple question: How do we make a classic style resident evil game with the aiming and combat of Resident evil 4 and above? You might say that all you have to do is put the camera over the shoulder and have the same structure but it isnt the same thing, the tank controls and camera of the original werent just for show they were core parts of the game design, each encounter in RE was tense because of how limited you were, from RE4 foward you had alot more freedom to handle a single zombie so the challenge then became aiming and dealing with alot of enemies at a time. What the first person perspective brings is something akin to the tank controls and fixed camera, not only are the enviroments in this game tigher akin to the classic games your movement is also more limited just like in the old days, the situation where I took the most damage was when I often overstimated my speed in getting away. But it`s not just that, with the aiming the game manages to blend in these two styles, so the encounters now are tense because of how limited you are but you now have the added aiming you have to do, as a result avoiding damage gets harder but they accounted for that with a block button that mitigates alot of it but you still need to know when to use it, the more I played the game the more I was blown away by how genious the switch to first person was and it`s one aspect of the game.
Storywise I think the game does remarkbly well, it`s certainly the best narrative an RE game ever had as far as Im concerned(tied with revelations 2),I love the backers the are equality entertaning and terrifing and have so much personality the kind we havent seen since the villains in RE4, also thank god we're not playing as a super soldier anymore and we enter a situation we know nothing about, people were once again pissed that we werent playing as one of the recognizable heroes of past games but they are all super soldiers at this point also how is the franchise supposed to continue if you just keep reusing the same characters over and over, Chris Redfield isnt getting any younger it's all Im saying, if people were up in arms about wanting to play as old characters and not new ones we wouldnt have Leon or Claire,etc. I do like the cast here it's the best acting out of any game in the series and while Ethan isnt the most emotive of protagonists he does his job and everybodyelse more then makes up for it.
And for those concerned this game doesnt tie into the greater RE lore, boy does it tie in, any Resident evil fan worth their salt will be losing their shit at the end.
Lastly I heard alot of people compare this game RE1 especifically but after finnishing it I think the game has most in common with RE2, especially the progression, RE1 takes place in this entire interconnected area while RE2 and this are more linear, you have multiple interconnected areas and you go through them in a linear fashion. Also the game is pretty generous with resources, playing it on normal I was swimming in bullets most of the game and only really had to worry about not having healing itens during some points, thankfully the game unlocks a hard mode after finnishing it so Im excited to jump on that.
Yeah so I really love this game It's easilly in my top 5 RE games and I pray to whatever god will listen that capcom allows the RE team to stick to and build on this formula for future instalments and honestly I know this will sound like heresy to many but I wouldnt really mind if the RE2 Remake used the First person perspective either.
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KSubzero1000
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Todinho
Re: Games completed 2017
hahaha maybe as an unlockable mode thenKSubzero1000 wrote: ↑July 9th, 2017, 9:09 pmI was nodding along in benevolent curiosity while reading your post, and then you just had to ruin it all at the end like that. Shame on you!
Re: Games completed 2017
The Solus Project (PC)
This turned out to be quite interesting. Reading back to find some old reviews, it seems the Xbox reviewers found the survival aspects quite undemanding, which was the opposite to my experience (and I had them set to 'normal') but the good news was that there is a survival difficulty slider in the game on PC at least, and I eventually set this to very low as I would never have finished it otherwise. The environment was either roasting hot or freezing cold, with meteor showers, twisters and lightning storms, all of which could kill you instantly. The last couple of levels also plumbed both temperature extremes, which could be obviated by using a doodad which then meant you couldn't carry your torch to light up some great scenes. Bit annoying, but at that stage I just ramped up the game's brightness levels so I could see everything.
All that said, it was an excellent romp with a decent mystery and some good levels to explore. I'm quite amazed that it is also on VR (and the game is about 15 hours long, so quite an achievement). It's a pretty good soft sci fi game with the emphasis on exploration/simple puzzles, and has a customisable level of hardship if you want it to be more about survival. Well worth checking out if you're interested in that kind of thing.
Working through the backlog continues....
This turned out to be quite interesting. Reading back to find some old reviews, it seems the Xbox reviewers found the survival aspects quite undemanding, which was the opposite to my experience (and I had them set to 'normal') but the good news was that there is a survival difficulty slider in the game on PC at least, and I eventually set this to very low as I would never have finished it otherwise. The environment was either roasting hot or freezing cold, with meteor showers, twisters and lightning storms, all of which could kill you instantly. The last couple of levels also plumbed both temperature extremes, which could be obviated by using a doodad which then meant you couldn't carry your torch to light up some great scenes. Bit annoying, but at that stage I just ramped up the game's brightness levels so I could see everything.
All that said, it was an excellent romp with a decent mystery and some good levels to explore. I'm quite amazed that it is also on VR (and the game is about 15 hours long, so quite an achievement). It's a pretty good soft sci fi game with the emphasis on exploration/simple puzzles, and has a customisable level of hardship if you want it to be more about survival. Well worth checking out if you're interested in that kind of thing.
Working through the backlog continues....