rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[rjkclarke]

Ooops - I meant to post that Linger in Shadows review, and something else didn't I. Well life gets in the way sometimes I guess. I also haven't been running around back and forth in Gizmalukes Grotto becoming increasingly more frustrated for the last 3 days. Back to that later I guess.

 

I'll post that Linger in Shadows review later.

 

On 26/08/2021 at 2:01 PM, YaManSmevz said:

No Keeley Hawes in Tomb Raider Makes rjk a Dull Boy

No Keeley Hawes in Tomb Raider Makes rjk a Dull Boy

No Keeley Hawes in Tomb Raider Makes rjk a Dull Boy

 

...okay I'ma stop doing that...

 

Don't play anything on my account, I'll happily read whatever you put out! Also you're probably closer to 10k than you think. I'm sorry to hear that it's wearing you down, but it'll be all the more satisfying once that guy finally pops!

 

Well if you find those words scrawled on a wall underneath a bridge - you've probably stumbled near where I live haha ... I promise when I write that review I'll try not to make it sound like that.

 

I doubt I'll need to play them again to review them. At least not that substantially anyway. I only played them about a year and a half ago (I think anyway), so I think I still remember enough about them to do them justice. Or my own brand of justice. I absolutely loved doing my little deep dive on The Keeley Hawes trilogy - that's one of my favourite things I've written in this thread so far. Plus I actually think the recent trilogy of Tomb Raider are far better games, so there's going to be a lot to potentially discuss in those.

 

On 27/08/2021 at 7:20 AM, Arcesius said:

Yeah I didn't want to say anything, but this trophy is among the worst ones I have ever earned. I spent over 15 in Gizamalukes Grotto, and as the hours passed by, I started questioning my gaming habits  

 

It is a terrible trophy that has absolutely no place in a game like this. I hope it pops for you soon!

 

I'm kind of glad you didn't - I've now discovered that boredom for myself though.

 

Glad I wasn't the only one questioning my gaming habits as a result of this then ?. It's honestly the first time in a long time where I've genuinely questioned myself, and said "couldn't I be doing something better with my time?" You completely hit the nail on the head. It's an absolutely terrible trophy, that just shouldn't be a thing. I doubt you'd get 1000 by naturally playing through the game - so to expect ten times that from people is absolutely ridiculous.

 

I hope it pops for me today. It's one of the worst trophies I think I've ever had to sit through, it's just so boring.

 

 

On 27/08/2021 at 7:42 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Haha - sorry about that mate - I did remember, and had your prophetic curse in the back of my mind when I was writing Aabs up! 

 

I had half a notion to actually assign you as the "Priority Assignment" name to Aabs, just as a little goof - but I didn't want to sully your good name to those not in on the joke! 

 

So I managed to squeeze 950 words out of Linger in Shadows - although strictly 300 of that is not actually talking about the game, but talking about an experimental film from 1963 ?. Still we did it, we got those monkeys off our backs.

 

I sort of wish you'd tagged me on that Aabs Animals review, that would have been funny. "rjkclarke just had to know whether a game with kittens, with heads like effing oranges, was worth his precious time." I would have saved it for a milestone, but it had no platinum, deal breaker unfortunately ?. No Karl Pilkington's head shaped Cats for me. Seriously why are they so round? I mentioned it when we spoke about it before, but one of them looked so much like Zippy from Rainbow from the screenshot it was unsettling, yet cute at the same time - how confusing!!

 

 

[YaManSmevz]

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well if you find those words scrawled on a wall underneath a bridge - you've probably stumbled near where I live haha ... I promise when I write that review I'll try not to make it sound like that.

 

I doubt I'll need to play them again to review them. At least not that substantially anyway. I only played them about a year and a half ago (I think anyway), so I think I still remember enough about them to do them justice. Or my own brand of justice. I absolutely loved doing my little deep dive on The Keeley Hawes trilogy - that's one of my favourite things I've written in this thread so far. Plus I actually think the recent trilogy of Tomb Raider are far better games, so there's going to be a lot to potentially discuss in those.

 

Yo I really enjoyed your dip into those games! I didn't think I would find myself wanting to play them at all but you drew the curiosity from me like Squall drew Alexander from Edea. Not to mention that I already went through the trouble of getting me a PS3?

 

5 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It's honestly the first time in a long time where I've genuinely questioned myself, and said "couldn't I be doing something better with my time?" You completely hit the nail on the head. It's an absolutely terrible trophy, that just shouldn't be a thing. I doubt you'd get 1000 by naturally playing through the game - so to expect ten times that from people is absolutely ridiculous.

 

I hope it pops for me today. It's one of the worst trophies I think I've ever had to sit through, it's just so boring.

 

Oh the dread...? FFVIII popped into my head because of this very remark - I remember the 1000 kills trophy popping shortly before completely finishing the game - if not for finishing every single side quest, hunting down GFs and weapon parts and generally playing for considerably longer than I did back when I first played it, that would not have happened organically. Ten times THAT.. I shudder to think.

[rjkclarke]

18 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Yo I really enjoyed your dip into those games! I didn't think I would find myself wanting to play them at all but you drew the curiosity from me like Squall drew Alexander from Edea. Not to mention that I already went through the trouble of getting me a PS3

 

Thanks man! Much appreciated - I'll try my best with the newest ones. I definitely didn't pull punches with how I felt about Underworld, but I couldn't exactly lie and say "Big Boobs and hotpants = 10/10 game," even though my younger self would probably tell me otherwise. Great Final Fantasy VIII reference by the way ?. That reminds me, I think I need to dust off my PS3 and give it some love soon (not like that ?). I wish the trophy noise still sounded like it does on PS3, it just sounds so much more satisfying I think. It's way louder too.

 

 

24 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Oh the dread... FFVIII popped into my head because of this very remark - I remember the 1000 kills trophy popping shortly before completely finishing the game - if not for finishing every single side quest, hunting down GFs and weapon parts and generally playing for considerably longer than I did back when I first played it, that would not have happened organically. Ten times THAT.. I shudder to think.

 

Well...... On that trophy..... IT FINALLY UNLOCKED!! So that's one less thing to slow my progress. Just one slightly annoying trophy left, and then I'll be finishing the story tonight. Then I have one more trophy to get, that I need a whole new playthrough for. So I think I'm going to finish up Breach Mode in Deus Ex and then play the first Beholder before going back to it.

 

What you brought up about Final Fantasy VIII was exactly what was going through my mind too, I only played that about 2 months ago, so I kept thinking I did practically everything in VIII and I still had to go just a bit out of my way for 1000. I wouldn't have minded 1000, in this game. That I could have lived with.  If there was a way to track the 10,000 kills I honestly think it would be way less frustrating. At least you'd know how close you are. Most of the time you are just hoping it will unlock soon. When you think it should, it never does.

 

You'll be alright though when you get to it - @Arcesius and I are proof, that all it really requires is a lot of patience. So if you get really hacked off with it - you can always vent to one of us I expect, I think we could both probably identify with the frustration! I mean let's not forget how much I've moaned about it so far, and I consider myself very laid back 99% of the time ?.

[YaManSmevz]

26 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

IT FINALLY UNLOCKED!!

 

DUDE CONGRATS!!! I'll bet you felt like a million bucks when that happened. Or like a gentle hand on your shoulder and a soft voice saying "that's enough buddy, you're good."

 

26 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I think I'm going to finish up Breach Mode in Deus Ex and then play the first Beholder before going back to it.

 

Yay! I'm very excited to see what you think of Beholder. And frankly you deserve a quick break from IX! Would you recommend Deus Ex? Seems like it's always on sale for damn near pennies. Ugh, what am I doing... I complain about the size of my backlog, then when a game seems interesting I'm like "come on in, there's plenty of room!!"

 

27 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

What you brought up about Final Fantasy VIII was exactly what was going through my mind too, I only played that about 2 months ago, so I kept thinking I did practically everything in VIII and I still had to go just a bit out of my way for 1000. I wouldn't have minded 1000, in this game. That I could have lived with.  If there was a way to track the 10,000 kills I honestly think it would be way less frustrating. At least you'd know how close you are. Most of the time you are just hoping it will unlock soon. When you think it should, it never does.

 

Yeah, 10,000 is just too much.

 

"10,000 KIIIIIIILLS can give you such a crick in the neck."

 

I remember feeling that way with getting to 150 in UFC 3. Like really, it ABSOLUTELY HAS to be that much? People sat down, thought about this, and decided THAT'S the number to go with? Although at least UFC 3 gave me a counter of sorts. Going through that blindly is a misery I am not looking forward to... and I will most definitely hit you up with the AAGHs and UUGGHs likely to come along with it?

 

30 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

"Big Boobs and hotpants = 10/10 game"

 

What?? WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO??

 

Gotta go!

[rjkclarke]

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Or like a gentle hand on your shoulder and a soft voice saying "that's enough buddy, you're good."

 

Definitely 100% this - or just like in films when someone has to stop you and say "dude I think they're dead" ? Bloodlust was right haha.

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Yay! I'm very excited to see what you think of Beholder. And frankly you deserve a quick break from IX! Would you recommend Deus Ex? Seems like it's always on sale for damn near pennies. Ugh, what am I doing... I complain about the size of my backlog, then when a game seems interesting I'm like "come on in, there's plenty of room!!"

 

Yes!! I do think Deus Ex is worth it. So worth it! I think our resident @DrunkenEngineer probably would recommend it too. I'd personally recommend maybe picking up Deus Ex Human Revolution first, but it's on PS3 if that's a pain. You can get a Directors Cut version that comes with all the DLC and the DLC in that game is excellent to boot. Curse of the backlog man, you think you're cutting it down and then something interesting comes along and just makes it a little bit bigger again.

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I remember feeling that way with getting to 150 in UFC 3. Like really, it ABSOLUTELY HAS to be that much? People sat down, thought about this, and decided THAT'S the number to go with? Although at least UFC 3 gave me a counter of sorts. Going through that blindly is a misery I am not looking forward to... and I will most definitely hit you up with the AAGHs and UUGGHs likely to come along with it

 

That's the thing isn't it - some chuckle head decided it would be a great idea to set this out as something for people to do. For FUN no less. I'd always take something challenging over something that arduous and grindy everyday. At least with challenging things you can at least recognise you are getting better and it gives you some hope, and something to aim towards - much like you described in your awesome Cuphead review.

 

Honestly - when you get to the 10,000 kills, have another game you can play on the go, it's what I think I should have done - because even if I hadn't been really busy the last few days it was really starting to sap my motivation.

 

Guess I'd better post up my clutching at straws Linger in Shadows review in an hour so once I've seen the ending to Final Fantasy IX.

Edited August 28, 2021 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Linger in Shadows (PS3)

 

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

100% Achieved  - 4 October 2014 - 2:31:37 PM

Time taken to 100% - 10 hours, 9 minutes, 52 seconds

100% Completion Rarity   - 56.46%

 

 

 

Linger in shadows ultimately ends up being more of a conceptual and experimental piece of technology, than specifically a game itself. That’s not to say linger in Shadows isn’t worth talking about, although admittedly I don’t think I’ll be able to talk about it all that extensively – but hey I’ll take a crack at it nonetheless. It can’t hurt to try right? I was going to replay it for this review, but to be perfectly honest – you don’t really play Linger in Shadows anyway, you just kind of watch it unfold and occasionally interact with a few buttons. That’s a basic description I know, and one you could probably tangibly describe many “interactive” video games as. So instead I chose to just watch a playthrough of it.

 

I was very surprised by how many of the images found within Linger in Shadows had actually remained fairly entrenched in my memory. That’s a good thing I think.  I can’t help but compare Linger in Shadows to a really interesting experimental film Mothlight, that Stan Brakhage made in 1963 – whilst it isn’t exactly long, and it is made entirely without the use of a camera it’s always remained incredibly memorable for me, Linger in Shadows less so, but both pieces of media are an interesting proof of concept at the very least, which is something I can always appreciate. Anyone that is interested in reading about Mothlight and even fancied watching it (it’s only 4 minutes long); I’d recommend looking up the article found here.  Full disclosure though, some of the intent is lost with the silent YouTube video. Brakhage’s intention was always that the film would be a way to reanimate the dead moths, which always made him terribly sad, he felt that the “tick – tick “ noise made by a 16mm film projector, would help enhance the illusion of movement, mimicking the flapping of their wings. Even knowing that, it’s still very interesting, I think.  

 

But I digress. As much as I’d love to make this review all about Mothlight (to be honest that would probably make it easier), I can’t do that. So, back to Linger in Shadows we go. It’s probably easier to discuss the audio and the visual elements at the same time regarding this game. Both of these elements complement each other rather well. As I alluded to at the start, the visuals are actually very memorable – even more so, considering this game was released in 2008. You have to commend the developers Plastic, for at least trying to stand out. They don’t exactly tell the most cohesive story, but watching it unfold is still quite interesting, and never actually long enough to outstay its welcome. The soundtrack, is actually very grandiose, it does complement the visuals effectively though – it gives the really off kilter aesthetic an almost “epic” feel to them, I mean who doesn’t want some grandiose music whilst you watch a dog spin through the air and turn into concrete. Yes, you did read that right - that happens! I often wonder what this game would be like to experience if you were under the influence of several types of narcotics, you might have a completely different experience to one without them.

A lot more care than I expected actually went into creating the sound effects too,  I think in a game like this, they’d be quite an easy thing to neglect – when it comes to sound design, sometimes the hardest thing to do will be the thing that most people expect to be the easiest. Sound design isn’t the strongest element on show here. It's not bad, I can see the potential, it's just not quite as atmospheric as perhaps it should be.  This is me diving into that hypothetical rabbit hole I just love jumping down.  Personally, I think they could have made it a little more David Lynch-esque, although doing that, with already fairly unusual visuals; this might have made this far more unsettling than it needed to be.

 

Linger in Shadows has very limited gameplay, as I mentioned earlier, it more or less consists of either pressing one or two buttons, or fiddling around with the Sixaxis controls. I deliberately wrote fiddling, because I’ve never been a fan of the Sixaxis controls, I can’t think of a time in a game I’ve played where they’ve been implemented in a way that felt natural – as opposed to forced and cumbersome, which I often felt they did.

Don’t be put off by the fact it took me ten hours to achieve the 100% in this game, I don’t think it actually takes any longer than about half an hour at the most. I started this in the middle of the night and then finished it the next day. Probably a little bout of insomnia again. Difficulty isn’t a factor here because it isn’t like you can really get stuck on Linger in Shadows – “insert difficult game” this is not.

 

This is a tough one to say whether I recommend this one or not – the thing is, it’s not long enough to really tell anyone not to play it, purely going by how long the game is. If you enjoy fairly experimental games, you can’t really go wrong with this one. It won’t take up enough of your time for you to really find it offensive, just go into it with a fairly open mind if you were to play it. It’s at the very least interesting. Plus you’ll get some trophies out of it.  I believe it’s on PSNow - so if you didn’t wish to pay whatever price it is, you don’t have to, you could just fire it up on there and away you go. I never expected to write this much about Linger in shadows, although strictly speaking, a good chunk of that was about Mothlight and this semi conclusion.

 

 

      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

@DrBloodmoney - Either you and I have a penchant for rambling (which in my case is definitely true haha) - or we've both managed to carve fairly lengthy reviews out of games that probably didn't ever warrant them. At least we've crossed them off our respective "to review" lists now though. I feel like I should have gone the light hearted approach like you did with Aabs curiously round headed Animals. Instead, I compared this to a 1963 experimental film about dead moths... Well it takes all sorts as they say ?.

 

 

 

Final - Final Fantasy IX Update.

 

Well, I'm finally at the end of the road..... Almost - I have one thing left to do now, which is to do another quick playthrough to get the Excalibur II. Then the platinum will finally be mine.  I'm not going to do that till I've gotten the 100% on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and played through the first Beholder game though.

 

So it looks like I've now got a definitive top two if I ever do a list of my favourite Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy IX has been such a great experience - it's dropkicked Squall off the second place podium and sent him down into third, or at least  onto a big pile of Ice Crystals. He seems to be fine when that happens to him usually, so I don't think he'll mind.

 

What an interesting ending to the story that was. I'm glad that Bloodlust is over and done with. I've mentioned it a lot in this thread today, but I still can't get my head around why that was included. The jump rope really isn't the worst trophy in this game, it's just probably the most intimidating one for most people. I'll take a test of skill over running back and forth in a cave questioning my own life choices haha. 

 

The hard part is going to be writing a review of Final Fantasy IX that doesn't end up being the length of a small pamphlet. I'll try as best I can, but there's so many really interesting things to dive into that it's going to be hard to keep it brief. I think I could write the length of that Linger in Shadows review just about the characters, without even once going into spoiler territory, so.... Yeah - I'd better start preparing that soon. Just so my fingers don't become little worn down nubs ?.

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Shrooba]

Nice review! It's really interesting to think about all the experimental games that rose during the PS3 era; from games like Telltale's The Walking Dead, to Heavy Rain... it's neat that, from what you've described, this game tries to tell it's own sort of story.

You're in the final stretch for Final Fantasy IX as well! One more trophy to go, keep at it! ?

[DrBloodmoney]

On 29/08/2021 at 1:36 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

@DrBloodmoney - Either you and I have a penchant for rambling (which in my case is definitely true haha) - or we've both managed to carve fairly lengthy reviews out of games that probably didn't ever warrant them. At least we've crossed them off our respective "to review" lists now though. I feel like I should have gone the light hearted approach like you did with Aabs curiously round headed Animals. Instead, I compared this to a 1963 experimental film about dead moths... Well it takes all sorts as they say .

 

Haha - awesome review mate - actually, it's funny you mention obscure movies, because I totally agree about Linger in Shadows - I came away not really knowing what exactly it was trying to say - or if it had anything to say at all - but with a lasting impression of a mood. In some ways, it really reminded me in that sense of a movie called "L'étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps" (The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears) from a few years ago - that's a movie I still, to this day, don't know if I actually liked, but having seen it with no prior knowledge, it still occupies a space in my mind, and occasionally crops up, only for me to spend 5 minutes pondering "what the hall was all that about?" before it ebbs away, to resurface 6 months later ?

Edited August 30, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[rjkclarke]

7 hours ago, Shrooba said:

Nice review! It's really interesting to think about all the experimental games that rose during the PS3 era; from games like Telltale's The Walking Dead, to Heavy Rain... it's neat that, from what you've described, this game tries to tell it's own sort of story.

You're in the final stretch for Final Fantasy IX as well! One more trophy to go, keep at it!

 

 

Thank you - although maybe I shouldn't, because you just reminded me I have to review Heavy Rain at some point haha ? - it's all good. Thanks for reading through that mess of a Linger in Shadows review haha. Let's see how difficult that Heavy Rain one will be to write whilst constantly fighting the urge to pepper in SEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN or something like "Ethan Mars is a fascinating character when you scratch beneath the sur.......... JAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSOOOON." I'm tempted to try and save all of those David Cage games for one week and just review them all in release order like I did with the Keeley Hawes Tomb Raider trilogy recently. I'm finding having some sort of theme to work towards, keeps me fairly motivated to get them out on time, although I often don't actually post them when I mean to ? Oops.

 

I agree by the way, it's very interesting to think about those interesting experimental games that released on the PS3 around that period, there's still quite a few of those that I'd like to play myself at some point that I haven't quite gotten to yet. Linger in Shadows does try to tell some kind of story - I'm not sure what it is, but it tries, I think an alien passing himself off as a human, that only learned to speak via their own interpretations of cave paintings might be able to tell you - but I'm not sure that I could.

 

I'm actually reviewing more of a traditional game tonight. One that y'know, actually has some gameplay. Tonight I'm getting to Deus Ex: Human Revolution, as I'm probably going to be finishing off my 100% on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided later on, provided I have enough time to, which hopefully I will.

I'm not sure how I'm going to define that Mankind Divided review - I'm not sure whether I can call it a classic review, because I'm finishing up the 100% now, yet I got the platinum all the way back in 2018, so I don't know whether to just term that as something different. I'll figure something out.

 

 

7 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Haha - awesome review mate - actually, it's funny you mention obscure movies, because I totally agree about Linger in Shadows - I came away not really knowing what exactly it was trying to say - or if it had anything to say at all - but with a lasting impression of a mood. In some ways, it really reminded me in that sense of a movie called "L'étrange couleur des larmes de ton corps" (The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears) from a few years ago - that's a movie I still, to this day, don't know if I actually liked, but having seen it with no prior knowledge, it still occupies a space in my mind, and occasionally crops up, only for me to spend 5 minutes pondering "what the hall was all that about?" before it ebbs away, to resurface 6 months later 

 

Thanks man!! Yeah, there is definitely something in Linger in Shadows, that even long after playing it you kind of can't help but look back and think, but why? Specifically the spinning dog turning into concrete, that's just very puzzling. Perhaps it wasn't saying anything at all as you say.

I did consider comparing it to Lost Highway, by David Lynch - which I'm going to assume you've probably seen. In reality that was just too unfair to compare those two. I feel like I'd be doing Mr Lynch a disservice.  One is an incredibly high quality film, drowned in subtext and the other is...... Well it contains a spinning dog, with floppy ears, that gets turned into concrete and then later smashed into miniscule pieces..... They just aren't really comparable. One also has a really underrated David Bowie song in it too..... So, yeah there's also that haha.

 

I haven't seen The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears - I'm fairly sure that someone I went to university with used to bring that up quite often as one we should all watch..... But he's also someone that used to claim he'd frequently write 90 minute screenplays over the course of a day or two.... So he's one of those people you just kind of, go "yeah..... That sounds interesting mate." From what you've described though - it at least sounds like it might be worth a look, if it's managed to bounce in and out of your heard over the years. So I guess I should actually watch it at some point?  Unless you start claiming that your scientific rankings take you " 5 minutes after a shower to write up,"   because then I might have to question your scientific credentials a little bit ?.

 

Those are often some of the most interesting films - the ones where you can't figure out if you even liked them, yet aspects of them stay with you for a very long time. Inland Empire was a little bit like that for me for a while. I couldn't ever figure out if I liked it or not, I'm still not 100% sure. I can appreciate it and what it's trying to say, but I don't know whether I actually like it. There's also a film I watched a few years ago called The Long Day Closes - which left me so ridiculously miserable after watching it, despite there not being anything in it that's noteworthy as being sad. It's just got the most melancholic downtrodden vibe, that whilst the film itself is incredibly good, you can't help but walk away a little bit sad. But I still think about it fairly often too. Unusual isn't it.

[DrBloodmoney]

14 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks man!! Yeah, there is definitely something in Linger in Shadows, that even long after playing it you kind of can't help but look back and think, but why? Specifically the spinning dog turning into concrete, that's just very puzzling. Perhaps it wasn't saying anything at all as you say.

I did consider comparing it to Lost Highway, by David Lynch - which I'm going to assume you've probably seen. In reality that was just too unfair to compare those two. I feel like I'd be doing Mr Lynch a disservice.  One is an incredibly high quality film, drowned in subtext and the other is...... Well it contains a spinning dog, with floppy ears, that gets turned into concrete and then later smashed into miniscule pieces..... They just aren't really comparable. One also has a really underrated David Bowie song in it too..... So, yeah there's also that haha.

 

I love Lost Highway! Probably my favourite David Lynch (...though I claim every Lynch is my favourite Lynch whenever I finish watching one... ?) but Lost Highway is probably the most consistently my 'favourite'! It's either that or Mulholland Drive, but really, every time I watch that one it just makes me pine for the TV show that it was supposed to be, rather than the movie it became...

Having said that - Linger in Shadows does have something more of an Eraserhead quality to it - it wouldn't have felt completely out of place if that game zoomed out, and you passed the singing lady with the puffy cheeks, and realised the whole game was happening behind Henry's radiator ?

 

 

Quote

I haven't seen The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears - I'm fairly sure that someone I went to university with used to bring that up quite often as one we should all watch..... But he's also someone that used to claim he'd frequently write 90 minute screenplays over the course of a day or two.... So he's one of those people you just kind of, go "yeah..... That sounds interesting mate." From what you've described though - it at least sounds like it might be worth a look, if it's managed to bounce in and out of your heard over the years. So I guess I should actually watch it at some point?  Unless you start claiming that your scientific rankings take you " 5 minutes after a shower to write up,"   because then I might have to question your scientific credentials a little bit .

 

Oh... I don't know - it gets 10/10 for weirdness, but it does often feel like it is trying a little too hard to be Lynchian, if you know what I mean - it has stuff that makes you think, but my musings when it comes back to me aren't on the Lynch level. With Lynch movies, my lasting thought are "what did that part mean?" - with The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, the question is more "did that actually mean anything?" - it's a little bit more... up it's own backside, but without the Lynchian good reasons for it ?

 

Quote

Those are often some of the most interesting films - the ones where you can't figure out if you even liked them, yet aspects of them stay with you for a very long time. Inland Empire was a little bit like that for me for a while. I couldn't ever figure out if I liked it or not, I'm still not 100% sure. I can appreciate it and what it's trying to say, but I don't know whether I actually like it. There's also a film I watched a few years ago called The Long Day Closes - which left me so ridiculously miserable after watching it, despite there not being anything in it that's noteworthy as being sad. It's just got the most melancholic downtrodden vibe, that whilst the film itself is incredibly good, you can't help but walk away a little bit sad. But I still think about it fairly often too. Unusual isn't it.

 

i remember The Long Day Closes - it was a sort of 60s British mix of The 400 Blows, and something like The Dreamers, right? (obviously, minus the outrageous amout of boning and Eva Greene boobage ? Where the kid kind of sees his own imagined life through movies clips? 

Edited August 30, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[DrunkenEngineer]

If you review Heavy Rain that’s going to motivate me to clean that one up on my profile!

 

This is something I really enjoy about these trophy checklists - other people’s experiences getting me hyped up!

[The_Kopite]

On 8/24/2021 at 4:40 PM, rjkclarke said:

That FF Type 0 review is at the top of this page if you wanted to read it. It was certainly interesting to write that's for sure. You and I have discussed it before a little bit. But I think if anything that write up does get across how mixed I feel about that entire game. 

 

I'll try and put some ideas together for that Quina thing haha - funnily enough Quina ended up being the person that reached level 99 first in FFIX. Which I thought was quite fitting considering how much I'd talked about them.

So it is! haha I'm so tired at the moment and busy that I completely missed it. Sorry. I'll get to reading it definitely at some point. Interested in your viewpoint. Sorry for the extremely slow reply too lol

 

Haha not surprising Quina reached it first! 

 

On 8/24/2021 at 4:40 PM, rjkclarke said:

I'm definitely going to check it out. I genuinely had no idea it had a bit of a troublesome development cycle, because yeah as you say it is surprising how a game can turn out, for good or ill with a strenuous development cycle. I mean look at what FFXV started out as. The fact I predicted Versus XIII would become XV tells me I should have been playing the lottery those years haha

That's really impressive that you predicted that. When you win the lottery, you'll share it around yeah? lol

 

On 8/24/2021 at 4:40 PM, rjkclarke said:

Why not, I write enough nonsense as it is!! Why not add a little more just for some light hearted fun - I don't think distributing them underneath a hollowed out treee stump in the forest is the best distribution method , but erm..... We can work on that part haha!

Works in most JRPG's doesn't it? Why can't it work in real life? I walk down the street and find loads of crystals and other things I can just go to the local shop and sell for loads of money and then go upgrade my strength and magic stats all the time lol

[rjkclarke]

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I love Lost Highway! Probably my favourite David Lynch (...though I claim every Lynch is my favourite Lynch whenever I finish watching one... ) but Lost Highway is probably the most consistently my 'favourite'! It's either that or Mulholland Drive, but really, every time I watch that one it just makes me pine for the TV show that it was supposed to be, rather than the movie it became...

Having said that - Linger in Shadows does have something more of an Eraserhead quality to it - it wouldn't have felt completely out of place if that game zoomed out, and you passed the singing lady with the puffy cheeks, and realised the whole game was happening behind Henry's radiator 

 

Blue Velvet has always been my favourite - although I pretty much love all the ones I've seen. "he put his disease inside of me" still gets quoted to me, by friends and family I've convinced to watch that film. I haven't seen all of them. I've not watched The Straight Story yet, despite owning it for a very long time. I really ought to remedy that one and get it watched. I'd have a hard time arguing that Mullholland Drive wasn't his best film though. It's absolutely fantastic. It's one of those huge what ifs of cinema isn't it. What it could potentially have been as a TV series. It could have been incredible - or I guess it could have eventually lost it's way a bit like Twin Peaks did in a few spots. Watching Series 3 of that is another one I need to get around to actually.

That would certainly make more sense if that had all taken place behind Henry's radiator... There we go, that's the critical reading we should all take away from this game haha. Needed a bit of "ooooooooh, you are sick" when the concrete dog explodes though - y'know just for extra authenticity.

 

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

with The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, the question is more "did that actually mean anything?" - it's a little bit more... up it's own backside, but without the Lynchian good reasons for it 

 

Oh - it's more one of those type of films. That's a shame. If you have to question whether it actually means something, instead of actually trying to unpack "the why" then yeah, it's probably memorable for some of the wrong reasons I guess.

 

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

i remember The Long Day Closes - it was a sort of 60s British mix of The 400 Blows, and something like The Dreamers, right? (obviously, minus the outrageous amout of boning and Eva Greene boobage  Where the kid kind of sees his own imagined life through movies clips? 

 

That's actually a pretty accurate description yeah - with a little bit of Cinema Paradiso peppered in on top. It's a really interesting film - it just made me ridiculously sad. So I've never really felt the urge to go back and watch it. The child actor in it is incredible though, I think that's part of what ended up making it really sad - he's a really easy character to feel a huge amount of empathy toward, at least it was for me anyway.

 

2 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

If you review Heavy Rain that’s going to motivate me to clean that one up on my profile!

 

This is something I really enjoy about these trophy checklists - other people’s experiences getting me hyped up!

 

I'm definitely planning to. Next week I think is going to be another Tomb Raider week I think. The new reboot trilogy is going to to get it's time in the sun - so I'll try and start that David Cage game reviewathon? Sometime after that, that didn't sound right haha ?.

 

Yep - that's the thing I enjoy probably the most about these checklists is that very thing, either getting completely new ideas about games to play, or just reading peoples experiences with the particular things they're playing. I mean your review of Deus Ex Mankind Divided, got me pumped to go back and play Mankind Divided myself. So I'm very thankful for that - I'm going to end up with a 100% I never expected to bother with, as a result.

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

So it is! haha I'm so tired at the moment and busy that I completely missed it. Sorry. I'll get to reading it definitely at some point. Interested in your viewpoint. Sorry for the extremely slow reply too lol

 

Haha not surprising Quina reached it first! 

 

No worries man - I'm not exactly quick in replying myself a lot of the time. I try, but it doesn't always happen. Hope you like that Final Fantasy Type 0 review, I didn't pull any punches with it. Brutal honesty is what you'll get from that haha.

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

That's really impressive that you predicted that. When you win the lottery, you'll share it around yeah? lol

 

Yes I would -  what's the point in having a load of money if you can't share it around with your friends. You'd all be receiving a digital copy of all Monkey Island games  as well as the entire Legacy of Kain series and the various consoles you need to play them on. Which to be honest, these days you'd probably need to win the lottery to afford anyway. ?

 

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

Works in most JRPG's doesn't it? Why can't it work in real life? I walk down the street and find loads of crystals and other things I can just go to the local shop and sell for loads of money and then go upgrade my strength and magic stats all the time lol

 

Damn dude - wish I'd known about that. Well if you live near where I live, you aren't likely to be finding Crystals - maybe some crystal meth, and some dog poo, which you definitely shouldn't put in your pockets ? - nor I expect could you trade for actual currency in a shop. So unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to stick to running around in circles in the woods fighting foxes and spiders to try and improve my real life stats. ? Or get tasered and carted away in a straight jacket - one of those things.

Edited August 30, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I love Lost Highway! Probably my favourite David Lynch (...though I claim every Lynch is my favourite Lynch whenever I finish watching one... ) but Lost Highway is probably the most consistently my 'favourite'! It's either that or Mulholland Drive, but really, every time I watch that one it just makes me pine for the TV show that it was supposed to be, rather than the movie it became...

 

I saw Lost Highway as a teenager, almost entirely because of The Perfect Drug. I just remember this eerily mesmerizing quality, and really enjoying it and vowing to follow up on the David Lynch filmography and never doing so. I very much enjoy reading your and rjk's cinema conversations but I must admit it reminds me that I have several glaring holes in my cinema knowledge!

 

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

i remember The Long Day Closes - it was a sort of 60s British mix of The 400 Blows, and something like The Dreamers, right? (obviously, minus the outrageous amout of boning and Eva Greene boobage  Where the kid kind of sees his own imagined life through movies clips? 

 

I do know that one?

 

56 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Blue Velvet has always been my favourite - although I pretty much love all the ones I've seen. "he put his disease inside of me" still gets quoted to me, by friends and family I've convinced to watch that film.

 

I friggin own a copy of Blue Velvet, have for many years, but always wanted to make it a special occasion of sorts when I finally slap that on and have never done it. If I were force-fed it a la Clockwork Orange I wouldn't even be mad, I'd just think I deserve this.

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm definitely planning to. Next week I think is going to be another Tomb Raider week I think. The new reboot trilogy is going to to get it's time in the sun - so I'll try and start that David Cage game reviewathon? Sometime after that, that didn't sound right haha .

 

Woohoo Tomb Raider! Kinda woohoo David Cage! Haha I'm weirdly tempted to try and beat you to a Detroit review, it's my lone David Cage experience. Although knowing you, you'll probably get me wanting to try out Heavy Rain. You've already got me teetering on the fence with Tomb Raider and Doctor Dekker!

 

1 hour ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

If you review Heavy Rain that’s going to motivate me to clean that one up on my profile!

 

This is something I really enjoy about these trophy checklists - other people’s experiences getting me hyped up!

 

100%! In fact, you yourself made me both start pondering a GTAV revisit and indecisively watch the Deus Ex trailer a few times, wondering if I should take the dive?

[rjkclarke]

29 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

I friggin own a copy of Blue Velvet, have for many years, but always wanted to make it a special occasion of sorts when I finally slap that on and have never done it. If I were force-fed it a la Clockwork Orange I wouldn't even be mad, I'd just think I deserve this.

 

That might not be the best approach - there's definitely a few points in Blue Velvet where you'd probably want to either look away, or at the very least close your eyes. ?

I kind of know what you mean about having certain films set aside for a special occasion that never quite happens - I still to this day haven't ever watched Schindlers List, despite owning it in I think more than one format for at least  six or seven years. Shame on me right?

 

29 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Woohoo Tomb Raider! Kinda woohoo David Cage! Haha I'm weirdly tempted to try and beat you to a Detroit review, it's my lone David Cage experience. Although knowing you, you'll probably get me wanting to try out Heavy Rain. You've already got me teetering on the fence with Tomb Raider and Doctor Dekker!

 

You probably will beat me to the Detroit review - I'm already a little concerned about that one. I get really wound up by how people seem to overrate David Cage's creativity when it comes to that game, when - and I've said this before in multiple places on this forum it was done better before, by other people on television. Yet he gets lauded as some creative genius (well maybe not.... That much, but certainly more praise than I think he deserves). I'll be really interested to read your take on it though. I actually like Cages games for the most part, I just  really struggle to get on board with how pretentious he seems, if that makes sense.

 

Glad to hear it!! I hope it does get you wanting to play Heavy Rain - if I was going to recommend any of his games to anyone, and I only was allowed one, it would definitely be that one. Be great if you ended up playing Doctor Dekker - that'll be an interesting one to discuss, purely because your mystery would probably turn out quite a bit different than mine did, due to the nature of the game.

 

29 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

indecisively watch the Deus Ex trailer a few times, wondering if I should take the dive

 

DO IT. I'm reviewing them this week. Not that it will sway you otherwise or not, but DrunkenEngineer definitely reignited my interest in them, far more than I expected it to be. So great job on that one.

Edited August 30, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

That might not be the best approach - there's definitely a few points in Blue Velvet where you'd probably want to either look away, or at the very least close your eyes.

I kind of know what you mean about having certain films set aside for a special occasion that never quite happens - I still to this day haven't ever watched Schindlers List, despite owning it in I think more than one format for at least  six or seven years. Shame on me right?

 

It's an easy thing to do! I've had Blue Velvet for even longer than that - between around '04 and maybe '15 my movie collection expanded at such a rapid rate that I still have SEVERAL movies that I haven't watched yet. Perhaps we should both try to remedy these ills, yes?

 

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

You probably will beat me to the Detroit review - I'm already a little concerned about that one. I get really wound up by how people seem to overrate David Cage's creativity when it comes to that game, when - and I've said this before in multiple places on this forum it was done better before, by other people on television. Yet he gets lauded as some creative genius (well maybe not.... That much, but certainly more praise than I think he deserves). I'll be really interested to read your take on it though. I actually like Cages games for the most part, I just don't really struggle to get on board with how pretentious he seems, if that makes sense.

 

For me, I was never impressed with the story or the "MESSAGE" so much as I was with how it came together aesthetically. The graphics and soundtrack are absolutely stunning! It was one of the first games I played on the PS4 too, so it was very much a showcase for me. I think I encounter more people who find David Cage annoying than to be some creative genius (sadly it's my understanding that nobody feels the latter more than the man himself), and honestly that's why I never took much interest when I'd hear people talk about Heavy Rain. Who am I kidding though, I'll probably give in at some point... as for Doctor Dekker, I doubt it'll go on sale any time soon but it's cheap enough! I've got a lot of heavy hitters coming up but I'll still want to squeak in some guaranteed monthly plats, that might could fit the bill nicely?

 

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

DO IT. I'm reviewing them this week. Not that it will sway you otherwise or not, but DrunkenEngineer definitely reignited my interest in them, far more than I expected it to be. So great job on that one.

 

?‍♂️ you're the boss ? ?

 

No seriously that sternness actually worked, I'm going to the PS store right now?

 

EDIT: Aw fuck Heavy Rain is on sale too

Edited August 30, 2021 by YaManSmevz

[DrunkenEngineer]

I enjoyed Heavy Rain for just how hammy it was.  Like everything I heard going into that game is that it’s like watching the video game version of “The Room” in how over the top and seriously it takes itself.

 

Damnit I might boot that bastard up as my next backlog S-rank.

[rjkclarke]

I Got a brand Spanking new 100% Completion!!

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided!!

 

 

 

So thanks to @DrunkenEngineer - for getting me back in the Deus Ex groove, because if you hadn't I'm not sure I ever would have gone back and gotten Breach mode done. Thanks for that man - and obviously thanks for the helping hand getting those challenge trophies knocked out lightning fast.

 

I actually ended up quite enjoying it - it's not the greatest mode ever envisioned, and it's very clearly catered towards Mr Michael Transactions - but he can put on some lead shoes and go swimming, because you don't ever need to use them.

 

Essentially Mankind Divided just got bumped up the list of games to get reviewed on account of me just getting the 100%, despite getting the platinum about three years ago. First I'm going to write one for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so I'll go do that now. It just makes sense to do it that way, otherwise it'd be a bit weird to go back and do Human Revolution at some potential  time in the future.

 

My unearned trophies are down to a record low of 629 now. For any of you that are interested in that sort of thing. Onto Beholder next - and then straight back to Final Fantasy IX.

 

 

10 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

It's an easy thing to do! I've had Blue Velvet for even longer than that - between around '04 and maybe '15 my movie collection expanded at such a rapid rate that I still have SEVERAL movies that I haven't watched yet. Perhaps we should both try to remedy these ills, yes?

 

 

So do I man!! I may have gotten a little addicted to buying Blu Rays back between about 2013 and 2017 - they used to do so many good deals in HMV here where it was essentially 5 for £30 and I used to be such a sucker for those. Seems too good an opportunity to pass up.

I think you are on to something there - we ought to try and remedy that and get some of them watched - start another checklist and tick off the films in our film backlogs haha!!

 

10 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

For me, I was never impressed with the story or the "MESSAGE" so much as I was with how it came together aesthetically. The graphics and soundtrack are absolutely stunning! It was one of the first games I played on the PS4 too, so it was very much a showcase for me. I think I encounter more people who find David Cage annoying than to be some creative genius (sadly it's my understanding that nobody feels the latter more than the man himself), and honestly that's why I never took much interest when I'd hear people talk about Heavy Rain. Who am I kidding though, I'll probably give in at some point... as for Doctor Dekker, I doubt it'll go on sale any time soon but it's cheap enough! I've got a lot of heavy hitters coming up but I'll still want to squeak in some guaranteed monthly plats, that might could fit the bill nicely

 

That's actually a very good point about the graphics and soundtrack. It's scarily true as well. If you'd told my seven year old self, who was probably either eating tissue paper or eating PVA Glue off my fingers depending on where your particular time ship landed. That instead of playing as  a pixely green hatted plumber (I always preferred Luigi, I didn't like Mario because he was fat haha)  - that instead I could play as characters that actually looked fairly close to real people I would have seriously questioned that. Detroit as an absolute technical powerhouse though.

I think I've interacted with more people that find David Cage annoying, but I can't help but get a bit tweaky when I see someone praising his creaitvity. When Koko the Gorilla ripped a sink off the wall and blamed her cat in sign language; THAT was creative. Mr Cage, not so much. Doctor Dekker might go on sale - I bought it in a sale, so it's bound to come up at some point.

 

10 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

?‍♂️ you're the boss

 

No seriously that sternness actually worked, I'm going to the PS store right now

 

EDIT: Aw fuck Heavy Rain is on sale too

 

Something........Something..... Complete!!! Haha

 

I actually think of all David Cage's games, that Heavy Rain is the one that probably has the best story, which I guess isn't saying much - and it still has some insane plot holes and even more whacky dialogue than you could shake a polka dot stick at. But it's definitely interesting that's for sure.

 

9 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

I enjoyed Heavy Rain for just how hammy it was.  Like everything I heard going into that game is that it’s like watching the video game version of “The Room” in how over the top and seriously it takes itself.

 

Damnit I might boot that bastard up as my next backlog S-rank.

 

That's not too far from the truth that's for sure. I'm fairly sure some of the voice actors were aliens, from the same planet as David Cage that learned to speak English off of a persons sunburned back through a stencil, and the further they got the less they actually learned.

 

I mean one of the characters can't even say his own name - "HELLO, Ahhhhhm Deeetective Naaaaaahhhhhmin Jadun!!" In what world does Naaaaaaahmin sound like Norman. Should have just called him Armin Tamzarian and just left it at that ?

Edited August 31, 2021 by rjkclarke

[DrunkenEngineer]

Congrats on the 100% for MD!

 

I really wish Human Revolution was available on PS4; I 100% it on Steam and almost did it again on the Director’s Cut. Fantastic game. 

[The_Kopite]

15 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Hope you like that Final Fantasy Type 0 review, I didn't pull any punches with it. Brutal honesty is what you'll get from that haha.

I did, honestly I couldn't really have worded it any better myself. It has a weird place in the series overall, a weird place in gaming in general and that's where it'll stay tbh lol

 

15 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Yes I would -  what's the point in having a load of money if you can't share it around with your friends. You'd all be receiving a digital copy of all Monkey Island games  as well as the entire Legacy of Kain series and the various consoles you need to play them on. Which to be honest, these days you'd probably need to win the lottery to afford anyway. ?

That is very true, well said! Looking forward to it haha

 

15 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Damn dude - wish I'd known about that. Well if you live near where I live, you aren't likely to be finding Crystals - maybe some crystal meth, and some dog poo, which you definitely shouldn't put in your pockets ? - nor I expect could you trade for actual currency in a shop. So unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to stick to running around in circles in the woods fighting foxes and spiders to try and improve my real life stats. ? Or get tasered and carted away in a straight jacket - one of those things.

Haha now that would be a video that would go viral lol 

 

Congrats on the progress on FFIX btw!

[YaManSmevz]

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

So do I man!! I may have gotten a little addicted to buying Blu Rays back between about 2013 and 2017 - they used to do so many good deals in HMV here where it was essentially 5 for £30 and I used to be such a sucker for those. Seems too good an opportunity to pass up.

I think you are on to something there - we ought to try and remedy that and get some of them watched - start another checklist and tick off the films in our film backlogs haha!!

 

Hah! I had exactly the same thing. 3 for 10, 4, for 20, 5 for 25, 5 for 30, hell there was the time the local video rental store went out of business and I got my hands on Seven Samurai for a measly few dollars? I hear you loud and clear on that, homie. I need to take inventory of what I actually need to watch.. I don't even have a number!

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's actually a very good point about the graphics and soundtrack. It's scarily true as well. If you'd told my seven year old self, who was probably either eating tissue paper or eating PVA Glue off my fingers depending on where your particular time ship landed. That instead of playing as  a pixely green hatted plumber (I always preferred Luigi, I didn't like Mario because he was fat haha)  - that instead I could play as characters that actually looked fairly close to real people I would have seriously questioned that.

 

No shit! Remember consoles like the N64 and PS2 just knockin your socks off? Shit, when I was just playing my SNES I didn't think it would get any better, and that was fine by me.

 

I guess Mario could have stood to lose a few pounds, huh? I like that as a kid you were just like "nah, I'll take the guy who knows what a treadmill looks like. Maybe next time, tubby."

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Detroit as an absolute technical powerhouse though.

I think I've interacted with more people that find David Cage annoying, but I can't help but get a bit tweaky when I see someone praising his creaitvity. When Koko the Gorilla ripped a sink off the wall and blamed her cat in sign language; THAT was creative. Mr Cage, not so much. Doctor Dekker might go on sale - I bought it in a sale, so it's bound to come up at some point.

 

Too late, I bought Doctor Dekker at full price?

 

Actually methinks I will do Detroit next. I'm surprised that just this conversation alone has reminded me how much I have to say about it! You're on point about the creativity, or lack thereof rather... anybody could easily take a bunch of things they've seen in stories, re-package them into one larger story, tie in a poorly integrated message (like 'racism is bad,' for instance), and hand it over to a talented team of developers and say "HEY MAKE THIS" right before harassing the new girl in the office.

 

Yeah... I haven't heard many redeeming things about Mr. Cage as a person!

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I actually think of all David Cage's games, that Heavy Rain is the one that probably has the best story, which I guess isn't saying much - and it still has some insane plot holes and even more whacky dialogue than you could shake a polka dot stick at. But it's definitely interesting that's for sure.

 

That's not too far from the truth that's for sure. I'm fairly sure some of the voice actors were aliens, from the same planet as David Cage that learned to speak English off of a persons sunburned back through a stencil, and the further they got the less they actually learned.

 

I mean one of the characters can't even say his own name - "HELLO, Ahhhhhm Deeetective Naaaaaahhhhhmin Jadun!!" In what world does Naaaaaaahmin sound like Norman. Should have just called him Armin Tamzarian and just left it at that

 

I actually look forward to getting the Heavy Rain dialogue jokes, if nothing else! I'm anticipating characters speaking like drug-addled Raoul Duke struggling to speak English with the hotel staff in Fear and Loathing?

 

"I'm.... AN IMPOSTER!" THAT man is the real Norman Jayden!"

[rjkclarke]

18 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I did, honestly I couldn't really have worded it any better myself. It has a weird place in the series overall, a weird place in gaming in general and that's where it'll stay tbh lol

 

Thanks!!! Glad to hear it.

 

It's got such a weird placement in the series that's for sure. When I was doing a little bit of extra research for that review I read that they actually considered more and it was called Type 0 to begin like a separate numbering order. So at one point or another they were actually pretty invested in it as a whole. Which to be honest, looking back on that with current day eyes, just seems absolutely barmy doesn't it.

 

 

18 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Haha now that would be a video that would go viral lol 

 

Congrats on the progress on FFIX btw!

 

It would be better than the video that exists on YouTube that already has me in it doing some "acting." Which thankfully you aren't ever likely to see. Unless I decide to link to it in here if I have a few too many drinks or something and decide it would be a good idea!!

 

I dug out some of the Heavy Rain voice cast - but I mean, I'm just as bad ? I was playing a sleazy informant in a  really hokey Film Noir thing that we had to make as a school project when I was about 18. Whatever my accent was, barely constituted as an accent, it came off sounding like what I imagine Billy Bob Thornton might sound like if he just got lost in a Louisiana bayou for about fifteen years and only retained parts of his own accent, but also tried to pick up the local dialect. Funny times ?

 

Thanks  - I'm getting there in FFIX, I'm going to start writing the review for that soon, because I doubt I'll have to significantly change much upon getting Excalibur II and the platinum. That way I'll almost be able to post it up straight away. When I'm done.

 

On 31/08/2021 at 1:16 AM, DrunkenEngineer said:

Congrats on the 100% for MD!

 

I really wish Human Revolution was available on PS4; I 100% it on Steam and almost did it again on the Director’s Cut. Fantastic game. 

 

Thanks!! I literally couldn't have done it without you. So much appreciated man.

 

I wish Human Revolution was available for PS4 as well. It's such a fantastic game. That's some real dedication almost getting that hundo twice!! I'm honestly not sure which of the two I actually prefer. I guess I'll have a clearer picture when I've reviewed them both. I'll have that Human Revolution review up tonight. I only broke away to write this reply. I'm about 1,300 words in right now and I'm about two thirds done. So it's going to be a little bit of a long one. What's new when it comes to things I write? haha ?

 

9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Hah! I had exactly the same thing. 3 for 10, 4, for 20, 5 for 25, 5 for 30, hell there was the time the local video rental store went out of business and I got my hands on Seven Samurai for a measly few dollars? I hear you loud and clear on that, homie. I need to take inventory of what I actually need to watch.. I don't even have a number!

 

I don't have a concrete number myself - that's just scaring yourself unnecessarily ?. I'm fairly sure it would make my gaming backlog possibly look small though. Do you also add loads of stuff to your Netflix or Amazon watchlists and then, well y'know, never actually watch them, or very rarely - because I do that far too often.

 

9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

No shit! Remember consoles like the N64 and PS2 just knockin your socks off? Shit, when I was just playing my SNES I didn't think it would get any better, and that was fine by me.

 

I guess Mario could have stood to lose a few pounds, huh I like that as a kid you were just like "nah, I'll take the guy who knows what a treadmill looks like. Maybe next time, tubby."

 

For me the most startling leap was from PS1 to PS2 - or I guess more specifically in my case as I went PS1- Xbox-PS2, so the jump from PS1 to Xbox. One of the first games I got was Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance which I'd wanted to play for absolutely years. I was super stoked to get the one with all the VR missions too. I'd just replayed the first game in anticipation and the graphical leap blew me away. But I'm happy consoles can still do that kind of thing. Detroit did such a fantastic job of that, whether or not I thought the story could have been written better had it been conceived by a dog scooting along on some paper with some crayons up its bum - that part is irrelevant ?

 

What a strange kid I clearly was. I remember when I used to play Mario All Stars on the SNES I'd favour playing Super Mario Bros 2 or the Lost Levels one just so I could play as Luigi instead. The ultimate irony is, when I became a teenager I was so fat I still have clothes from that time I occasionally wear if I run out of clean ones haha ? - despite being much much taller, and a whole lot thinner. Yes, that tubby. So looks like maybe Karma bit me on the backside for mocking super Flabbio.

 

9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

(like 'racism is bad,' for instance), and hand it over to a talented team of developers and say "HEY MAKE THIS" right before harassing the new girl in the office.

 

Yeah... I haven't heard many redeeming things about Mr. Cage as a person!

 

It genuinely saddens me that we still live in a world where people feel like they need to point that out, that racism is bad. That should be second nature to people really, yet it clearly isn't. Which is an awful shame. Using video games as a platform is not the worst place to do it, but you probably need to do it in a slightly less ham-fisted way. They should have taken inspiration from the way Tales of Symphonia did it - and just have the protagonist be a very relatable but naive idealist  that desperately wants the world to be a better place and can't understand why things just aren't that simple.

 

 

9 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I actually look forward to getting the Heavy Rain dialogue jokes, if nothing else! I'm anticipating characters speaking like drug-addled Raoul Duke struggling to speak English with the hotel staff in Fear and Loathing

 

"I'm.... AN IMPOSTER!" THAT man is the real Norman Jayden!"

 

As you brought up Fear and Loathing

 

 "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."

 

 

That might actually be the key to truly understanding all of David Cages games. Mystery Solved?

Edited September 1, 2021 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

Platinum #38

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PS3)

 

 

Platinum
You unlocked every trophy in the game.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 17 June 2013: 9:41:32 AM

100% Achieved - 20 January 2020: 6:23:43 PM

Time taken to Platinum - 1 year, 7 months, 5 days

Time Taken to 100% - 8 years, 2 months, 1 week

Platinum Rarity   - 5.92%

100% Rarity -  1.78%

Trophy Number - # 2148

 

 

 

Strap in for a long one folks. Our time travel destination today, is the year 2013. Yes, eight whole years since I got the platinum in Deus Ex: Human revolution. However, I did revisit this last year to get the 100%. I’d actually previously played the DLC on Xbox 360, but at the time I’d gotten the platinum, I didn’t quite fancy spending the extra money that the DLC cost. Thankfully I managed to pick up the complete edition of the game in one of the last PS3 sales (I really wish they would make a comeback too), so some of the game is fairly fresh in my mind still. It also helps, that I think this game is incredible; so much of it has actually remained memorable for me, so I don’t think this one’s going to be much of a struggle to talk about.

 

Before we really get into this, I feel like I should explain my slightly odd history with this series. Whilst I consider myself a long time fan of this series, I played them in a pretty unconventional order. My first venture into the series came in the form of Deus Ex: Invisible War on the original Xbox – which was the second game in the series, and quite honestly, probably not a very good game, compared to the original at the very least. The original I played quite a bit later on the PS2, which is the wrong way to play the original Deus Ex, I’ve seen the difference between the two and there is such an astonishing quality difference between how the two versions play, it’s quite staggering. Part of the charm of these for me when I was younger, and still is actually, is the fact you can do viable pacifist playthroughs, which at the time I thought was amazing, and that’s always stuck with me ever since.  

 

Thankfully to get the most out of your experience with Deus Ex: Human Revolution you don’t actually have to play any of the other entries in the series, for this one to make sense. Whilst it is the third game. This is – and this might seem like an egregious word to plenty of people, but this is – a prequel. There I said it, that demonic word, that people seem to often get so up in arms over, I know it’s more when talking about very specific prequels, I just thought I’d add a bit of light heartedness to proceedings. Its set before the first game takes place, but does have plenty of interesting references for fans of the original to notice and go “oooohh, that’s cool, I get that.” It works fantastically as a prequel too, because it doesn’t assume knowledge, you end up discovering this terrifying cyberpunk future-scape in the same way that the protagonist Adam Jensen does.

 

As ever, you’ll find no real mention of the story here. It’s very good though (that’s an understatement, to be completely honest) – and in all truth it’s one of the game’s best features. If you’re interested enough, you can always play the game and experience it for yourself.  I’ll talk a little about Adam Jensen though, and how I think he’s a far stronger protagonist than most people give him credit for. I know, I know there’s that one famous line everyone associates with Jensen, something about not requesting something. Aside from that, he’s almost the perfect character to experience this story alongside. Whilst Jensen isn’t new to the world – due to Jensen’s recent change in physiology and newly found augments (you find this out in the first half an hour, so I don’t consider these spoilers), you end up experiencing the game in a way that’s quite different as a result of this, Jensen and by extension YOU end up having much more of a connection to the world you’re inhabiting as a result of this. The conflicts and interplay between augmented and un-augmented people become much more personal as a result of this.

You could - if you’re being very over analytical, possibly level the criticism at Jensen that he’s a little bland. Therein sort of lies one of the problems, he is a little bland, on the surface at least. I’ll freely admit that, but he has to be, because this game presents you with so many choices – that Jensen ends up being shaped around how you play him, much the same way one persons Commander Shepard might differ greatly from another’s, aside from the obvious voice comparison. Unfortunately it’s a criticism you can’t really ignore, he’s a named character so as a result, certain personality traits are obviously mapped out for him, and because he’s designed that way, some situations he’s always going to react a certain way. Despite the fact this game does contain a lot of dialogue choice. I do think he’s a likeable character though – I’d say he’s written slightly stronger in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but that makes a little more sense, because of the nature of that games story, but we’ll get to that one, when we get there. I could talk for a long time about plenty of other characters, but I’m a little worried I’d be going very deep into spoiler territory, so I’ll just leave it at Jensen.

 

So how does this game look? Honestly, even looking back in 2021, this game still looks tremendous. I understand having a fairly big budget factored in with being published by Square Enix obviously helps – but even so visually this game is marvellous. Cyberpunk, is not the easiest genre to actually stand out in visually, everyone has their own picture in their head when they think Cyberpunk right? Well, Deus Ex does stand out in its own unique way in that department. There was clearly a very deliberate effort here to represent many different elements in a futuristic way. Fashions a good example of this within Human Revolution, as fashion is often changing like the wind, so would certain things go in and out of fashion. At the very least Human Revolution stands as a visual representation of how cyclical fashion can be, which I thought was a really important attention to detail in building the world.  In Human revolution, the fashion styles of several characters are almost a mix of Tudor dress (complete with ruffs) and an evolution of how we currently dress. If I had to call it anything – and this sounds so obvious – I think I’d call it Tudorpunk.  

The attention to detail of the locations is one of the most impressive things; every single area feels very unique. I’m not doing that any justice either, because words are hard to when it comes to visual design in video games, but the dishevelled police station, really feels like an anachronistic throwback – especially so, when you consider the game is set in 2027. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though; most of the locations are for the most part we could all imagine ourselves, with their own very unique twist. That’s something I’m always going to appreciate when it comes to level design. Even though level design, seems to be a bit of a redundant term in this game, as it doesn’t strictly contain levels, they are more or less interconnected spaces. A personal favourite of mine was the Picus building. It’s not all perfect though, your immersion does get broken fairly regularly, when you can’t help but notice conveniently placed objects and items, that reveal secret entrances and exits, or in some cases a vent or two situated in areas they never realistically would be. That’s a fairly small complaint though, you do have to stop yourself occasionally and say “It’s a video game just treat it as one.”  I guess - based on that logic it has no obligation to be anything other than a video game.  

 

I was fully prepared to talk about how unoriginal I think the soundtrack to Deus Ex: Human Revolution was – the thing is, I should probably strike that thought from my head pretty quickly. I’ve since given it a thorough listen again and I couldn’t have been more wrong.   One of my long lasting memories is how much the soundtrack reminded me of Blade Runner (which just seems obvious as Blade Runner has been such a clear inspiration for so much over the years), yet even when hearing the very Blade Runner-esque  pastiche, Human Revolutions soundtrack absolutely stands out individually as its own thing.

The thing that I personally find strikingly memorable, about this soundtrack is the very fine line that Michael McCann expertly strides - between being a terrific mix of both a filmic and video game soundtrack. When you factor in the fact he has experience in both of those fields, it does make more sense. This ends up elevating the really key story moments, whilst also providing an excellent backdrop for the gameplay segments themselves. Now, you could argue that this is a little personal bias creeping in here, as I absolutely adore ambient electronic soundtracks in film and video games – but some of the music found within Human Revolution wouldn’t sound out of place amongst the cinematic outings of someone like Nicolas Winding Refn. This is why going back and doing a little bit of extra research paid off, because otherwise I might have written this off as just another “Blade Runner” soundtrack clone.

 

I’d also like to point out how well realised the sound design is in this title. It’s something I’m always going to pay fairly close attention to.  Part of my training in film production (I felt like that needed a little context as to why I end up focusing on sound design, or deliberately avoiding it in case it made the review too long) - came in the form of learning the ropes of sound design, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned in at least one of these reviews in the past. I'm not claiming to be a master of that craft or anything, it's just why I tend to focus more on it sometimes, I find that aspect really interesting. Ultimately, due to this - you can’t help but notice when it’s done well or not. It is in all honesty far easier to take note of when it’s bad than when it’s just good. Sometimes just good is exactly what you want, otherwise it can detract from everything else, instead of naturally enhance the core product.

Occasionally though – the odd piece of media exists where the sound design is so good you can’t help but pay attention. It might just be me, but I ended up thinking “hey that sounded cool, I wonder how they made that sound” or “that sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before.”  Alongside this it does have very familiar sounding foley, yet still incredibly competent. The sort of which you’d definitely associate with sci-fi media, but part of that familiarity is, in my opinion at least, necessary for player engagement. Whilst I could talk for a long time about the various voice performances in Human Revolution,  there are definitely a few that stand out far more than others, some for good reasons – some, well -  much less so. Elias Toufexis does a very good job as Jensen; whichever way you decide to take his character. He only betters that in the second game. Stephen Shellen as David Sariff is a strange one – I’m not entirely sure what I think of his voice performance, I honestly still find it quite puzzling. It’s nothing if not absolutely memorable; Sariff’s whiny voice is another one of those running joke sorts of things with one of my friends, so perhaps it is memorable for the wrong reasons. Something I can’t ignore though is the character Letitia – she’s a very minor NPC that appears very briefly, but goodness me is her characterisation racially insensitive, not just a little bit either, but to a ridiculous degree. It’s always really puzzled me, because it seems so out of place, when the game is quite progressive in other areas. It’s almost Jar Jar Binks level of bad. Thankfully your encounters with her are fairly limited, so it’s not something you have to contend with for very long.

 

Now – this is probably going to sound completely blasphemous from a Metal Gear Solid fan such as myself, but hey, I’m going to just go right ahead and say it, the gameplay found within Deus Ex: Human Revolution is absolutely what Metal Gear Solid wishes it could be, and in reality probably should be. It’s quite rare for stealth to feel as satisfying as it does in Human Revolution. The depth found within this games stealth mechanics only really start to become apparent when you attempt the game on its hardest difficulty, yet in a way it still feels fair. You never sit there and think “did that guy have telescopes instead of eyes or something” which I definitely remember thinking playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on it's hardest difficulty.   Not only this, but there is such a huge variety of ways you can go about achieving your tasks even if stealth isn’t your preferred approach – that just happened to be mine. Don’t want to game the system by using the cloak augment? Then don’t -spec yourself into the skill where you can pick up heavy objects and jump high, that way you can pick up a vending machine and jump to a higher point on the map where there aren't patrolling guards, or traverse through areas via roof vents and lighting rigs. Fancy hacking your way through the levels to make cameras and turrets friendly? That’s an option too. Are you like me, one of those people that absolutely adores being able to resolve conflicts in RPG’s via the use of peaceful means and speech checks. Then that’s also an option. Amongst a plethora of other viable options.

 If you’ve read anything I’ve written previously, you’ll know that I absolutely adore - almost above anything else, appreciate variety in the games that I play. In this game variety is absolutely in abundance. Not only that, but in almost all of these areas the game excels. Sometimes a game can have one specific gameplay hook that ends up being the meta way to play, but Human Revolution and the Deus Ex series in general contain so many options, that you can’t help but want to try out all the different play-styles. Whilst all of the above remains excellent, one thing that really doesn’t – and honestly has always remained a constant source of annoyance for myself, are that the game occasionally takes that choice out of your hands, making it almost seem illusory. I specifically mean the Boss fights – I wouldn’t mind them, if they had an option to do them a few more ways than open conflict, but unfortunately that’s not an option. They thrust you into them completely at the deep end, even if you’d never entered open combat to that point and expect you to just learn on the fly, which to me always seemed pretty unforgivable as going in blind you’d never expect to experience that - just based off of your previous experiences with the game.

 

If you’re still reading up to this point, then - well you’re a real trooper. But potentially this might have been the bit you’ve been waiting for. The trophies. For what essentially amounts to a fairly short RPG, you’re looking at about thirty plus hours to attain the platinum. I’d say at least 70% of the trophies if not more are missable, so either grab a guide from the get go, or do what I did way back in 2011 and play it blind first.

 Much of those thirty-ish hours are going to involve saving and reloading and doing quests a multitude of ways. I’ll give anyone a tip if they ever pick this up themselves and wanted an easier time with some of the no alarm and no kill aspects of a playthrough – specialise in cloak and your augment battery, alongside the takedown abilities. Even doing the minimal amount this’ll have you sailing through the game in no time even on the hardest difficulty, which you have to do anyway for a trophy. Plus – on top of that, playing stealthily grants you ridiculously high EXP bonuses too, so you’ll always be able to upgrade at a fairly fast pace, which in turn makes things go smoother and smoother.

 

Trophy Lists like Deus Ex – Human Revolution are my personal favourite kind, they’ve got the perfect balance between gameplay questing and side-questing and miscellaneous fun. I mean, you even get to dunk a basketball for a trophy? Well I suppose long term fans of the series might as it’s sort of a running joke, much like “look behind you there’s a three headed monkey” is in Monkey Island. I just couldn’t resist mentioning Monkey Island again, oh well. It is halfway appropriate here. I never brought it up whilst discussing the gameplay, but this has some of my favourite trophies in any game, which are all based around winning what essentially amount to “speech duals” it’s an aspect that - to this day I love so much in this game and Mankind Divided (someone who writes a lot, likes characters talking a lot. Go figure?). Yet these shine such a bright light upon some of the quality character writing in this game, whilst yes you can make them easier by using augments, just understanding some of the back- stories to certain characters end up becoming enough to sometimes sway the argument. I thought they were such a brilliant addition and I’d personally love to see more trophies like that implemented in games, but I expect I’m very much in the minority of players who really love speech-craft as a viable gameplay option in their video games, but I can dream right?

 

I don’t really think I need to say that I’d recommend playing this game; it seems too obvious that I would. Even if this was released in 2021 I still think it would be considered a good game. I don’t believe that it’s necessarily underrated or anything of that nature, but I do think it’s a lot less loved than perhaps it deserves to be. But I think that sums up the series as a whole.  If you have access to a PS3 or even an Xbox 360 or a decent PC I’d absolutely recommend giving this a try at some point in the future, even if it is nearly ten years old you might just love it. It’s a true testament to some of the high quality video game fare that was available at the time. Is it all perfect? Of course not, nothing is, but it’s got far more positives than negatives – and so much variety you’d definitely consider going back to it after the platinum to try out new things.

 

DLC

The Missing Link

 

 

I know, I know. I bet you’re sitting there thinking, “What he has MORE to talk about? For goodness sake, I never asked for this.........” I mean come on; you must have known that somewhere in this review I’d find a way to sneak in THAT line. You know the one that’s become so synonymous with Jensen he practically can’t escape from it at this point.

 

I’m not going to really go too in depth with discussing this DLC, it’s not that it doesn’t deserve to be discussed or anything, but it’s rather short and essentially – it should really be considered part of the main story anyway. In fact in the Directors Cut version of the game it is. There aren’t any significant gameplay tweaks or changes, it is essentially, just a missing part of the story, that’s been put back in for you to enjoy.

 Now, this DLC was released in that period of time, where developers decided to try and lock important story content behind a piece of DLC. Whilst in Human Revolution it’s not quite as egregious as it is in some other games. I’m glaring at you EA with your strange introduction of important story elements through DLC packs. The DLC’s name itself almost sums itself up. This Missing Link – it’s got some really interesting story developments that end up a little lost in translation if you end up playing the story first and skipping over this, much like I did the first time through.

 

The Missing Link actually contains probably my favourite trophy in Human Revolution - Factory Zero. This actually adds a nice bit of challenge to the game, as it forces you to play through the entirety of The Missing Link without using Praxis kits (upgrades and augments), weapons or explosives. So you’re essentially relying on pure stealth. Some of it can get very intense, but it’s really satisfying when you end up finding the perfect routes to traverse your environment with little to no upgrades. Factory Zero ends up being another example of the addition of trophies really enriching the experience. Without the incentive of trophies I don’t think that I ever would have felt the need to attempt something like that, so I’m ultimately very glad it ends up pushing you in that direction.  

 

I seriously need to stop getting so carried away writing these things.

Edited February 2, 2022 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I dug out some of the Heavy Rain voice cast - but I mean, I'm just as bad  I was playing a sleazy informant in a  really hokey Film Noir thing that we had to make as a school project of when I was about 18. Whatever my accent was, barely constituted as an accent, it came off sounding like what I imagine Billy Bob Thornton might sound like if he just got lost in a Louisiana bayou for about fifteen years and only retained parts of his own accent, but also tried to pick up the local dialect. Funny times

 

Sounds like you nailed 'sleazy informant' at least!

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't have a concrete number myself - that's just scaring yourself unnecessarily . I'm fairly sure it would make my gaming backlog possibly look small though. Do you also add loads of stuff to your Netflix or Amazon watchlists and then, well y'know, never actually watch them, or very rarely - because I do that far too often.

 

I reeeeaaaally try to avoid that with Netflix and the like, I've got enough of an entertainment surplus as it is! A lot of the stuff I'm into my wife doesn't especially care for, so that actually helps quite a bit - when she's not around, between looking up Netflix options vs. gettin some PS4 time in, the latter is a very easy choice!

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

For me the most startling leap was from PS1 to PS2 - or I guess more specifically in my case as I went PS1- Xbox-PS2, so the jump from PS1 to Xbox. One of the first games I got was Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance which I'd wanted to play for absolutely years. I was super stoked to get the one with all the VR missions too. I'd just replayed the first game in anticipation and the graphical leap blew me away. But I'm happy consoles can still do that kind of thing. Detroit did such a fantastic job of that, whether or not I thought the story could have been written better had it been conceived by a dog scooting along on some paper with some crayons up its bum - that part is irrelevant

 

Metal Gear Solid 2 blew me away, I know exactly what you mean! I also know exactly what you mean about Detroit's graphical prowess as opposed to its story. You've gotta pretend you're watching a John Waters film or something to enjoy it, but it does work?

 

It was N64 and PS1 for me. The whole 3D thing was a total mindfuck at the time! Plus I was like twelve or thirteen or something... we're easy to impress at that age!

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It genuinely saddens me that we still live in a world where people feel like they need to point that out, that racism is bad. That should be second nature to people really, yet it clearly isn't. Which is an awful shame. Using video games as a platform is not the worst place to do it, but you probably need to do it in a slightly less ham-fisted way. They should have taken inspiration from the way Tales of Symphonia did it - and just have the protagonist be a very relatable but naive idealist  that desperately wants the world to be a better place and can't understand why things just aren't that simple.

 

Sadly nothing is that simple. Acknowledgement is such a crucial step, and a lot of people have trouble with just that. But yeah, preaching and coming across as self-important about it, like certain video game writers, wish a name would come to mind, doesn't help at all, and in fact can have the opposite effect. Nobody wants to feel lectured, after all!

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

As you brought up Fear and Loathing

 

 "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."

 

 

That might actually be the key to truly understanding all of David Cages games. Mystery Solved?

 

Way a*hic*head of you!

[rjkclarke]

On 01/09/2021 at 3:29 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Metal Gear Solid 2 blew me away, I know exactly what you mean! I also know exactly what you mean about Detroit's graphical prowess as opposed to its story. You've gotta pretend you're watching a John Waters film or something to enjoy it, but it does work

 

It was N64 and PS1 for me. The whole 3D thing was a total mindfuck at the time! Plus I was like twelve or thirteen or something... we're easy to impress at that age!

 

I must admit - thinking of Quantic Dreams games like John Waters pictures is something I'd never really considered, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Markus dining out on some dog poo. Well, actually no - that's still gross, but it might make him slightly more interesting than just being a shallow CyberJesus!

 

Maybe it's a twelve to thirteen years old thing, because that was how old I was when I first played Metal Gear 2. I don't think I appreciated the leap from PS1 to N64 as much as I should. I just never played the console as much as I should have, because I got a shiny new next gen Xbox about a year later. I spent practically the majority of my time with my N64 playing about 4 games. Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, WWF No mercy and Wrestlemania 2000 and Mario 64, although I did play Ocarina of Time as well, I just never finished it - I was another pathetic victim that fell to the water temple haha ?...... So I guess more than 4 actually. 

 

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply by the way - I hold you responsible as well. I've gotten really into Beholder and that's taking up most of my spare time right now. It's super addictive. Yet also makes me completely dirty the whole time I've been playing it, such an unusual experience.

 

I think I should probably cut down the amount I'm writing for some of my write ups too, that Deus Ex one went stupidly long. They can't all be like that, or I'll eventually be able to release a book with all of these in, the length they are currently going.

 

 

On 01/09/2021 at 3:29 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Sadly nothing is that simple. Acknowledgement is such a crucial step, and a lot of people have trouble with just that. But yeah, preaching and coming across as self-important about it, like certain video game writers, wish a name would come to mind, doesn't help at all, and in fact can have the opposite effect. Nobody wants to feel lectured, after all!

 

I 100% agree with this. Preaching doesn't really help I agree, which is why nobody takes those people in London seriously that stand on street corners saying the world will end seriously. We're all going to look like complete nutbags if they turn out to be right though.

 

It's ironic this has come up because Deus Ex: Mankind Divided actually tackles that issue in a much less preachy way - there's still an element of obviousness to it, but I think parts of it are done in a much more subtle way than "Androids go on the back of the bus!! Look guys see how deep I am, you could scuba dive in a lake of my emotions if you like..... Hey look that lady dropped her pencil" - not that I'm referring to anyone specific there of course!!

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by rjkclarke