Ala-Arska

One More Dungeon (PS Vita) Master of the dungeon Collect all the trophies What does the game say? Loading-ding-ding-ding-di-ding-di-ding.... A game so 8-bit that it hurts. One More Dungeon is a first person dungeon crawler with randomly generated levels. Another crawler for me, after Awakened Fate Ultimatum. Except this is very much different from that 'JRPG'. No story (that I know of), no cut scenes. Just melee, magic and simple graphics Eight levels of trial and error, as you die fast and your weapons fill a good chunk of your screen of view. Carefully, then, and you'll get there eventually. But, alas, you have to do it two more times, with handicaps on. Once with even worse view and once with limited hearts. Oh the joy of blur Even though a tad annoyed by not seeing much and constantly dying, I did enjoy the fact that every run is different and loot varies as such. One More Dungeon is a nice change of pace for someone looking outside of their comfort zone. And it's nice to see this genre still somewhat breathes

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3) Platinum Platinum You best start believing in ghost stories, Mr. Drake...you're in one! Backlog taking another beating. "Platinum in 5 years, 7 months"... I ain't young, but LOL Better late than never, though. Such an exceptional game as this should not be left alone. I apologize, Nate and Sully, for being late. As said, Uncharted 3 is a phenomenal title, no matter how you look at it. I played the PS3 version, and it holds up beautifully. Story is swash-buckling, adventuring good, and there's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade written all over it. The devs have chosen...wisely Modestly speaking, the dialogue and voice acting is one of the best I've seen in video games circa PS3/PS4/ever. I kid you not. Every interaction between Nate, Sully and co. comes naturally and the chemistry and comic timing is perfect every...single...time. A++! Main baddie is a bit 'meh' for my taste, especially when compared to U2. New good guy is great, though. Reminded me of Jason Statham. Fists! Gameplay and controls are responsive, mixing combat and platforming fluidly across planes, trains and automobiles (okay, maybe not in trains) Music is solid. Besides the main theme there ain't any earworms, but it goes very well with your current situation nevertheless. This third one is only a bit inferior to the second installment, but just because there's not any grand settings as before. Granted, the plane shootout and desert looked gorgeous and "Cruising for Bruising" was awesome. Still, no beating a train and a tank from before! Whether it's this or the Remastered version, Uncharted 3 (and 2!...and maybe 1) deserves your attention to the fullest "- All right, back up. I'll shoot the lock off. - Make sure that's the only thing you shoot off. - I said lock!"

The Awakened Fate Ultimatum Fully Awakened Obtain all other trophies Take me on your mighty wings, take me on your mighty wings tonight! Backlog reduced by one...only a "few" dozen left! Alrighty then, The Awakened Fate Ultimatum. It's a roguelike dungeon crawler, so let's get like, rogue First off, story is pretty interesting and even above average, I might say (and I will!). It's not all cute and cuddly, but with some dark themes. Basically you're a mortal made God, battling against evil (and good) and making story-changing decisions. Like in Telltale Games' titles. And much like in them, those decisions matter little, except the very final ones. Real cut scenes would've been nice, too (instead of cardboard ones) And since you have to pick all decisions, both Angel and Devil ones, two playthroughs are required to catch 'em all. Luckily items and such carry over. So, like said before, TAFU (sounds edible, right?) is a top down dungeon crawler with randomly generated levels. Plus if you die, you lose all stuff. I haven't dabbled in this genre a lot, but this is one of the easiest and forgiving roguelikes I've encountered. It still whooped my ass a few times, though With difficulty down to 'manageable' and later 'overpowered', the main time sink went to gathering every item in the game. And of course it wasn't simple. There's a heavy RNG element when opening chests and praying to get that one last ring. RNG gods hated me here The idea of changing between Angel and Devil forms added some small tactical aspect, and I found it refreshing. At least it kept things interesting a while. I also managed to nab the 14th Fastest Achiever position somehow. A nice surprise, since I was sluggish from time to time. Like a snail with thumbs! The Awakened Fate Ultimatum offers a good story (twice!) and ain't overly complicated. Small grind aside, it's a nice addition to veterans and newbs alike

LEGO The Hobbit (PS3) The Road Goes Ever On Collect every trophy My first ever self taken Plat screenshot...Beorn to be wild! I do like these Middel-Earth LEGO titles a lot. LEGO Lord of the Rings is still my favorite one, but being more of the same, Hobbit ain't bad either There were a few things that bothered me, though. Let's start with the PS3 "exclusive" issue. This game tends to freeze quite a bit on PS3, especially when skipping cut scenes (well, I never..!). Just when I got my ass print on the sofa... Voice acting was bothersome, too. Christopher Lee just read through his dialogue (sorry, you're still a legend) and side quests were a pain to listen. Otherwise it was a fun revisit. The open world offered some nice variety in scenery (Hobbiton! Rivendell! Dol Guldur!) and there's lots to do. The amount and quality of levels was just right, getting chased by a bear or riding a bunny sleigh added "fast paced adrenaline rush". If there's still room for more Tolkien related stuff in you, do check out Hobbit. It even has Tom Bombadil in it, finally

Legend of Kay Anniversary (PS3) Platinum Collect all the other trophies to unlock This game sucks. I wish I could say I enjoyed this PS2 "classic". But I won't. Because I didn't. First of, it's got the trademark PS1/PS2 era 'worst camera angles you could possibly imagine.' Which made some parts...not fun When doing pixel-perfect (lol, pixel) jumps or evading big, smelly gorillas, you don't want to see the nearest wall or main cat's ass. Dumb, furry ass. Yep, the main character is a cat. And he's out to save the kingdom from nasty rats, apes, teenage (mutant) ninja turtles and such. Which is fine as far as the story goes. Nothing spectacular, but I didn't expect much from it anyway. Voice acting is campy as f**k, though Okay, back to the "10 Things I Hate About You" stuff...so, camera and voices suck balls, check. How about controls and gameplay, you ask? Well, controls do work fine minus some minor brain farts. Gameplay is somewhat fast paced and combat-oriented, which in itself is a-okay 👍 But, when combined to the atrocious camera + Nightmare difficulty = rage, hair pulling, frustration, some crying perhaps (lie, I never cry!)... Add one near game-breaking freeze (discussed in game related forum) and several other "just" annoying ones, and it's all downhill. As an added f**k you-bonus, all of the collectables are missable, meaning you'll have to keep an eye out for those instead of "enjoying" the game I remember PS2 having better games than this. Not a lot, to be frank (PS1 rulezz!), but a few still. Sometimes losing temper just ain't worth it

Claire (PS Vita) Completionist Acquire all trophies Another game involving (in)sanity and creepy images. Now that's just nuts. Gameplay, graphics and sounds are very much like in Lone Survivor. It's a good thing I liked Lone Survivor Claire is very moody, as a person and as a game. This is all about the atmosphere and surviving the horrors ahead of you. Avoid monsters, keep yourself from panicking (when Horrified, you'll lose health and vision) and navigate like Drake. Light is nonexistent, even with with a lighter/flashlight I wasn't able to see shit. Which, of course, made it all the more unsettling 👻 It almost comes as a given, but do dim the lights from your room and use headphones when diving into this murky world. Immersion 'n stuff. As stated in title, I played the handheld version of Claire (whenever I can, baby, whenever I can...), so two playthroughs were necessary. I didn't mind, though. It's a short ride anyway, and running around in Nightmare mode gave me the much needed sense of dying and fear. Claire is a PS+ freebie right now, so even if this genre ain't your cuppa tea, at least try it out. And it's not that scary...BOO!

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Done Collect all of the other trophies Okay, so this represents the dark mind of Senua, and...who am I kidding, a failed screenshot's what it is. Insane in the membrane, insane in the brain! Going slightly mad has never looked so good. I just gotta get this out of my system immediately: Senua (game & character) is pretty darn awesome to gaze at It's almost as if I'm watching a movie instead of playing...and therein lies the rub. More often than not Hellblade feels like an interactive film, and instances of actually controlling Senua are limited. Having a good story, excellent voice (and face!) acting from the main missus and said splendid graphics do help, but still... Without spoiling anything, the side characters, especially one of them, are visioned in a very implausible manner. While trying to look as "real" as possible, their make-up and acting are straight from a campy B-movie. Like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat But enough of those visuals, one can only have so much of Night Trap flashbacks... Music is top notch, as are the sounds especially. You do have to have an expensive surround system to enjoy it though. I do not, all I heard was mumbling Controls are not the most responsive ones, but they'll get you through any hack & slash portions the game has to offer. Just counter and press ! It has a nice idea of putting a mental illness as a driving force. This creates some quite scary and unnerving images and portions. I'll give points for that. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is beautiful to look at, at times cringy and always disturbing. Not a perfect experience, but worth checking out at least