Hemiak

Earned the plat for Mirrors Edge Catalyst yesterday. Good game with a few irritating flaws. I enjoyed the story much more than the first, and the side missions were decently varied and fleshed out a few of the characters. As a whole movement is easier than the first game, which in my book is not a plus. In the original you had to work to get up to top speed and maintain it. In Catalyst you hit R2 and she's immediately sprinting, she also loses less speed when you make mistakes. More beginner friendly, but less incentive to learn to play well. Imo the Dashes were a poor substitute for the time trials and speedruns from the first game. Instead of learning to pull off outrageous move combos at top speed, you pretty much just need to figure out the correct route and not make any major mistakes. I feel like in trying to make this more appealing to the masses they lost a lot of what made the first game amazing. Don't get me wrong it's still a ton of fun to play through the story, but the collectibles and random side tasks (not The actual missions) are all pretty bleh. Still I'd stay with my rating for this game, because I don't want to lower it due to stupid plat requirements.

Earned the for Knack this morning. It wasn't one of my KYC events because my son had already earned a trophy in it on my account last month. It's a mediocre game at best imo. It looks cool but the story is pretty bland and predictable, and the combat is atrocious. Going to plat was an exercise in frustration, and patience, and I'm glad I never have to touch this game again. Will definitely never spend money on the 2nd game. Now I'm going to focus on Rime with Mim, and Catalyst in my spare time. @voodoo_eyesKnack does the same thing in regards to saving. Doesn't matter how far you get, you always start at the beginning of whatever chapter you're in. At least it tracks if you opened any chests, though everything else resets. Does GR2 save your progress on collectibles, challenges, and upgrades at least. If not, then there's really no reason for the random saves.

Post Event Wrap Up I pretty much half assed the event. While I did get my three hours per game I was much more focused on the plat race I was in off site. I did end up winning that by the way, though it kind of seems like I was really the only one taking it seriously so I don't keep track of too many stats, my starting completion was 75.05%, at one point it was just over 74%, and it's currently at 74.93%, though it was over 75.1% before I started a new game last week. I started 8 games this month, 3 for the race and 5 specifically for the event. Since the event started I've earned one trophy from Lego Jurassic with my son, a bunch from Knack, which is almost complete, and I Started Magicka 2 with some buddies. Game rankings Furi This game easily takes the top spot for the month. I had been wanting to start this for a while but always putting it off for one reason or another. The combat is tight, the story is minimal but well written and presented. Each boss has its own personality and makes you play slightly different. The visuals are amazing, and even as a guy who normally doesn't even notice audio, this game sounds fantastic. I found the game satisfyingly challenging without being frustrating. I would recommend playing this to anyone who isn't turned off by a bit of difficulty. The Witness On the other end of the gaming spectrum is The Witness. It's a first person puzzle game about a guy trapped on an island. You have to solve increasingly difficult puzzles for some vague purpose, with very little explanation unless you find/solve some completely optional side puzzles. I really enjoyed learning new mechanics in each area and combining them to solve the complex puzzles. I probably figured out 95%+ of the game without any hints, and that helped me finish the final challenge with about an hours work. I would definitely recommend this one to anybody who likes puzzles and exploration. Mirrors Edge Catalyst I loved the first game and I like this one a lot. It's better in some ways, worse in others, but still a lot of fun to play. They took more effort in the story this time and fleshing out the characters. I'm not a huge open world fan so that feels like a step in the wrong direction for me, but there isn't an overwhelming amount of side stuff that you have to do unless you want a ton of xp. The upgrades could be cool, except that they're locked behind story completion so you can end up with a bunch of points you can't spend if you do side stuff early. Complaints aside it's a blast to run around Glass City and find the various routes to get where you are heading. Downwell It's an Ugly AF 2D action game about a boy falling down a well. There's no story, 8 bit graphics and sound, and a good bit of challenge to overcome. That being said it's pretty darn addicting to master the controls and enemies and keep pushing deeper into the well. It's also a pretty good game to pick up and play for short bursts, and I've played through normal a few times since I earned plat, though I haven't completed hard a second time yet. I would recommend this if you like a challenge, 2D shooter gameplay, retro arcade graphics, or your name isn't Billy. Bound A very interesting game. Basically two games in one. A 3D platformer where a dancer navigates a crazy polygonal world, and also a journey of self discovery and overcoming child hood fears. Visuals are pretty amazing and the story is told in a creative way. / Rime An exploration game with light puzzle aspects. The game is presented well but gets boring after a while. It's becoming more interesting the farther I get so this may change. Shantei: Riskys Revenge An HD remake of a game from... Eh, I don't remember. It's a. 2D.action platformer about a half-genie... However the hell that works. The game feels stiff and kind of awkward. I'll go back eventually, but it definitely didn't grab me on my initial time with it. The Witcher 3 Reserving judgment of this one for now. Game looks fantastic and seems really good, but my three hours was barely enough to scratch the surface, and the combat feels off to this point. I despise that the game allows me to continue after death but takes my gold. I'd rather just reset to an earlier save since I've reached a point where I have no healing items, and no money to buy/make more. I need to dedicate some serious time to this before I feel justified in giving it an actual rating. The only game I didn't earn a single trophy in during the event. And that's all. 8 games, four plats, a slight decrease in completion. Felt like a decent selection of game genres and overall enjoyment this time. Nothing truly terrible but a few that didn't meet expectations. As always, feel free to continue posting updates or whatever at this point. And happy gaming everybody.

Well, it's that time again people. The event has officially reached its conclusion, but we have a bonus day in March if you need if. Feel free to sneak in some extra gaming time and write up any last minute reviews. Ad always the thread will stay open, so feel free to continue to post progress or thoughts on any of your games you return to. Thank you to everyone who participated, and those that follow along. I know I've been a bit of a slacker lately and you all keep things moving along nicely. So again, thanks to everyone who has helped make these events successful. Hem

Game 5 - ME: Catalyst 3 hrs played, 7/50 trophies Well, here it is, my final game. I went back and forth between a few before deciding on this one. I played the first one and loved everything about it. The story was basic, but it was serviceable and that isn't what it's about anyway. People complain about the controls, but what I found is that they were super strict. You mess up even a little on angle or where you jumped and wouldn't get where you needed to link a move. That isn't the games fault, it's yours. Anyway, Catalyst is the sequel to the cult classic Mirrors Edge from last generation. It was a linear first person traversal game, using various techniques to get from point A to point B while avoiding sporadic enemies. Catalyst changes that formula. It's still about moving around climbing and jumping things, but now it's an open world with a lot of side stuff to do and a lot more enemies to avoid. The game follows Faith. A runner for hire that just got out of Juvie, even though she looks to be in her mid 20s. O.o You start out during her release. You are given a monitor bracelet and told to be a good girl, then walked out of the building. If you run they yell at you, or jump, or slide. If you walk too close to a guard he hits you in the face with a gun.... Seriously who does that to a minor, unless she's being released because she just turned and 18, then .... No wait, who does that to anyone? You aren't even out of the building when a side door opens and a guy tells you to follow him. The door leads to a street outside the facility. What kind of prison / detention facility has a random unguarded door directly outside? I mean, we're already kind of in an outside courtyard but still. Anyway, dude makes some snark remarks, gives you a computer contact lenses, then cuts off you bracelet, 50 feet from the jail. "Bro seriously? You didn't want to at least turn the corner first?" Anyway you're forced to run and learn the basic movea for traversal and fighting, and then sent out on your first missions. Being open world, each mission you complete unlocks a few more side objectives to check out and explore. These come in several forms but always involve getting to a certain point, usually with a time limit. Every mission, objective, or collectible rewards you with xp. Getting enough earns you a skill point you can use to unlock an ability. There are three trees, traversal, combat, and equipment. After your first mandatory upgrade you can choose whatever you want From a list of about 7 unlocked skills I bought both the traversal skills, the one piece of equipment, and one extra hp from the combat tree. I'm now sitting on three skill points waiting for more stuff to become available because I don't want to waste them on combat skills. :/ From the start you can run, jump, springboard off an object, wall run, wall climb, dash up to speed quickly, swing on a bar, and soften your landing. I already bought the quick turn and ability to roll out of a fall or slide. It plays like the first game, but feels like Faith isn't quite as fast as she was. A new addition is a focus bar. As you run at full speed for a while you have a bar that fills up. When the focus bar is filled it acts like a shield, protecting you from enemy attacks and shots. This is pretty handy if you just want to run past enemies, which I do. All in all I'm enjoying it so far. The story again isn't really anything super special, but it gets the job done. It's fun to run around and explore the city with a little more freedom this time, even if most of the side stuff is either finding collectibles or running short timed missions. Definitely be playing more in the next two days.

Game 4 3 hours played, 0 trophies. Well things have been pretty busy for me lately, weekends are always packed. I got the minimum time with this but no more, and I feel like that was barely enough time to scratch the surface. For those who don't know, TW3 is an Action RPG following the adventures of a man named Geralt. He is a Witcher, which is basically a Monster Hunter who trains and undergoes some ritual that gives them special abilities that allow them to fight magical creatures more effectively. He basically travels around accepting quests and slaying evil. At the start of this game he has received a letter from an old friend he is now trying to track down. Long the way random villagers and soldiers have tasks for you to perform. I'm currently on the trail of a griffin that has been causing problems and attacking people in the area. The game looks fantastic, I usually don't care much about graphics but this game truly does look amazing. Along with that, the voice acting and facial animations are spot on. I haven't noticed much about music but the ambient sounds work well also. So far I'm not blown away by the gameplay. I don't know what exactly it is but everything just feels stiff if that makes sense. Every enemy seems to jump attack, which means they can usually hit you before you are ready, which means you have to block or dodge. Problem is your block isn't super effective, it knocks you backwards and you take some damage anyway. The roll always seems to go farther than necessary and then you are out of position to follow up with an attack. I wouldn't mind as much if I had some time to actually play around and learn the controls better, but every fight seems to be with 3-6 enemies, and hits from low level enemies still do 30% of your hp. To be fair in playing on the hardest difficulty, so I'm basically asking to get rekt. My next complaint is my dumb ass horse. It works pretty good when out in the open, but when you get near obstacles he becomes unreliable. Also, what kind of a horse can't step over a 6 inch stone wall? As I said I haven't spent nearly enough time with the game as of yet. The game seems like it will be great once I actually get into it, but it will probably be a while before I return. Also haven't had a chance to start my final game yet, and I'm not even sure what it will be. Some friends want to start Magicka 2, but we haven't settled on a time yet so that might not work for this.

Started game 4 two nights ago , The Witcher 3. Only got about an hour a night so I won't review yet, but the game looks amazing and the voice acting is really good so far. Race Game 3 - Furi 8ish hours played, 27/34 trophies. Well I've entered the home stretch with the race with a solid lead. I've had a good amount of time with Furi now. I've been able to clear my first run on Furi(standard) difficulty. It took 4 hrs to clear my first run, I was KO'd 32 times, killed 9, and I took 900+ hits. I then did a little practice on two bosses and some trophy cleanup, then tackled the speedrun. Speedrun mode removes all the cut scenes and walking between bosses, allowing you to just fight the enemies back to back. I cleared that with 11 KOs, only one game over, 317 hits, in 1:21:xx. Needed 1:29 to get both trophies. Then I cleaned up two more battle trophies and started a new story playthrough to get an S rank. So what is Furi? It's a 3rd person hybrid hack n slash / bullet hell boss rush. You start out in a prison torture chamber being mocked by your jailer 'The Chain'. When he walks out the door an improbable hero shows up to set you free. He's a dude with a giant purple rabbit helmet on and purple leggings carrying what looks like a microphone on a stand. He gives you a little pep talk and tells you "The jailer is the key, kill him and be free." This phrase is repeated before almost every boss you fight. You head up the short ramp and the fight begins. This is pretty much the entire game. You fight a boss, The Voice (rabbit man) shows up, congratulates you, and sends you on your way. You walk to the next boss, and fight again. You can control the walking yourself but the constantly shifting camera angle and perspective make that both slower and more irritating. You can just press X and your character will walk the shortest path on his own. Along the way The Voice will continually teleports ahead of you and offers information about your situation and the upcoming boss's character and motivations. Apparently he's a prisoner here as well, and needs you to help him escape. Not going to lie, I had this guy pegged as evil from the start and thought he might be one of the later/last bosses. I won't spoil that though. Your character has a fixed hp bar, with no way to increase it. Under your bar are 3 small squares that represent your retries. Getting KO'd will prompt a scene, then you'll stand up with full hp, ready to rock. This also fully resets the boss to full hp and the beginning of their phase. Beating a phase of a boss refills your hp, and grants one extra retry if you have already used one. This was very handy on my first run. I would fight, lose a phase but learn the attacks, and win the next round, getting my retry back. Then we'd move to the next phase and repeat. You only lose if you get KO'd ok your last try. Combat is fluid, and the controls are tight. Square smacks things with your sword, in a 4 hit combo. Or you can hold square to charge up a dash attack, but it's harder to find openings to land this. Pressing towards an enemy with right stick fires your automatic laser pistol. Holding R2 charges up a big laser shot. It takes about 2 seconds to fully charge for max damage, but releasing early will still shoot a smaller shot. The charge shot can also be used to clear enemy projectiles. Hitting X or either L button dodges, and holding one for a short time charges it up so you can dodge farther, which can be really helpful at times. Circle parries enemy attacks. This is mainly used for melee, but can also reflect some enemy projectiles back at them. If you time your parry well you get some hp back, and your armor glows with green neon. Perfectly parrying certain attacks will open enemies up for an immediate punishment attack. Most enemy attacks come in the form of 1-4 hit combos, with varied timing. Some enemies have much longer attacks. 6, 8, and even 15 hits are possible from certain bosses at certain stages. Each boss has a number of phases, visible as little squares under their hp bar. Each stage brings new attacks and patterns. One interesting thing is that some boss phases have two hp bars. It starts blue, and once you empty it you get a prompt, in the form of an orange circle around the boss. Hitting them initiates a 2nd part of the phase, where you are confined to a small melee circle with the boss. During these duels you cannot use your guns, but can charge your sword by holding the right stick any direction. Fully charging your sword and then landing an attack, without being hit first, does massive damage. I won't cover them all but I'll talk a little about the bosses. They are all different, and vulnerable to different types of attacks. The first boss acts as a tutorial, he's slow and each phase pretty much does one or two attacks and is only vulnerable to one attack. His last two phases are a Mish mash of the first 4 and its up to you to use what you learned. The 2nd boss is a prisoner like yourself, kind of. They locked her up in this huge multi layered revolving room and tied her hands behind her back. However they left her helmet, which functions as a laser. Her legs are also clamped together... But they are attached to a little platform with a motorcycle wheel. They also left her light scythe attached to the back so she can easily pull it out when she frees her hands. O.o Just why? If they confined her feet why give her the wheel and leave the scythe? If she already had the wheel WHY NOT TAKE THE SCYTHE?!?! Ahem, either way, as annoying as she is she isn't all that hard. The third boss is an old skinny dude with a huge beard and head of white hair I've nicknamed Afro Ghandi. He can stop time and uses mind bullets to mess with you. Other guys include a Knight with a shield, a wierd dude with a diving helmet, and a samurai guy who has trained for hundreds of years to be the best. Each has their own reasons for fighting you, but fight they will, except for one who tries to talk you into staying with her for an optional ending. Even she will fight you if you scorn her offer... Women amirite? All in all I'm having an absolute blast with this game. The fast paced combat feels great, bosses are challenging but not unfair, the visuals are amazing, and the sound track is awesome. Would definitely recommend this to people who like a challenge, or hack n slash games in general. The platinum is tough but not impossible. The speedrun is plenty lenient, I got it first attempt and I'd only fought most of the bosses once. The S ranks can be save scummmed if you need, so it just becomes a matter of persistence and getting better. Also, you can play the entire game on the easiest setting at first, and the game won't give you any trophies. So if you don't like it you can try it out and walk away with no impact.

Legend of Zelda : Link to the Past. Favorite ps game either Dark Souls or Bloodborne.

Nope. Buy a new TV or you're banned from all future events. Seriously though, go ahead and substitute so you can stay involved man.