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rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust


rjkclarke

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13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

VA-11 HALL-A (PS4)

 

L9f2a7e.png

 

 

 

Dammit man!

 

This sounds really good! ?

 

...so not only have you increased my backlog by adding this one... you've also managed to add 2064: Read Only Memories at the same time ?

 

Luckily, I'm 99% sure I actually own 2064 already - I think that's one I've got sitting on the dusty Vita, saved for the day when I'm away from home...

...(though, with the way the world has changed in Covid times, I may meed to reevaluate that stance. Things like Timespinner, which I really want to play, but keep saving for an away-from-home situation are going to be ancient by the time I ever actually am on the road again!?)

 

I had no idea this was an offshoot of 2064, so I guess I've some catching up to do!

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12 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Dammit man!

 

This sounds really good! ?

 

That's what I said. Then I had a sigh of relief when I saw it was no longer on sale?

 

Seriously though I think its brevity is a big lure for me. I don't feel too bad about adding onto the backlog if I can knock it out in a few days.

 

14 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Luckily, I'm 99% sure I actually own 2064 already - I think that's one I've got sitting on the dusty Vita, saved for the day when I'm away from home...

...(though, with the way the world has changed in Covid times, I may meed to reevaluate that stance. Things like Timespinner, which I really want to play, but keep saving for an away-from-home situation are going to be ancient by the time I ever actually am on the road again!?)

 

I say get a hotel room, light some candles, and play your Vita there???

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22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I absolutely respect the decision that Sukeban games made by not giving you any player choice at all. It’s uncompromising sure, but I feel like a lot of the time in choice based narratives – the choice element is usually quite an illusory one anyway, more often than not you get funnelled down the story path that the developers truly wanted to tell, instead of one the player might have stumbled down themselves. Valhalla eliminates that problem entirely, by just letting the story play out.

 

@realm722 - I actually went on your profile before writing this to see if you'd played it - because I thought if you hadn't you'd absolutely enjoy the majority of this I expect, and I would have recommended it to you - then I went full sleuth mode and tracked down your review of this (great by the way)...... I honestly worried that you wouldn't have enjoyed it, because I know you weren't the keenest on 2064: Read Only Memories - so I was pleasantly surprised that you and I played the game almost identically, and loved it almost identically - even almost down to the playtime. Ironically - the thing you really didn't like, was one of the ones I did - in the removal of choice. So that's kind of funny when you think about it. I need to drop a comment on your thing about Objective Reviews as well by the way, that was another very interesting read.

 

Wonderful review man! I read the whole thing out loud ?. This is a game that I don't think I've seen touched at all in many trophy checklists here so to see someone give it such a deep dive was a delightful callback for me given it's been over a year since I played it. Fair play on mentioning the point of "choice-based narratives" often does not really offer the number of differences the player desires. Hell, this is an issue with AAA studios. Asking an indie dev to make profound differences between how you interact with patrons would have been asking for a lot. I am VERY curious to see if in a sequel they decide to go down this route. An article came out a year ago that the game was suspended indefinitely. The reason for this is the game is proving to be an even more "complex beast" than the original. If this is just an issue of trying to magnify the scope is one thing, but we'll just have to wait and see. 

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On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah absolutely. I've had a day recently where I got 1 hour sleep the night before, yeah it's not fun.

 

Were you up late doing some guide writing?

 

Or just admiring yourself in the mirror - in the Wharf costume that you've secretly been making for the last few months for Cosplay purposes and just lost track of time? ?

 

Damn though - that is brutal man, I had more than one of those myself last week - I almost feel like it feels better having no sleep than having just one hour.

 

On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

Sweet, looking forward to it! For me, Aladdin is my favourite Disney film. Always liked the songs, the characters, humour etc. Watched Return of Jafar back in the day which was decent, don't think I ever got around to watching The King of Thieves though I know Robin Williams returned to play the genie.

 

You know, Doctor Dolittle is one of those films I've never watched. Yeah I'm quite bad with missing classicly regarded films lol

 

This is going to sound very odd - but I actually watched King of Thieves before I actually saw the original Aladdin, so I totally get why it'd be a favourite - for some reason I didn't watch Aladdin until I was about 25, so by that point - it didn't have that wondrous magical feel to it, that it might have done had I seen it as a child.

 

It is definitely good though - my prevailing thought was how much fun Robin Williams must have been having during recording sessions - from what I understand they didn't really give him a script, just a vague outline and let him just run wild, good decision!

 

Even the original Doctor Dolittle film from the 60's is not that stellar - it's the best adaptation for sure, but that's not saying much. The Eddie Murphy ones aren't terrible, they just play so fast and loose with their source material that the only thing they really have in common is the name Dolittle and talking animals.

 

But I'd love to make one myself - there's scope for a really good film there, so long as you y'know change the whole culturally insensitive thing the first couple of books have with how they characterised Africans. I'd definitely get rid of that aspect, or at the very least drastically change it, but yeah we've gotta have dreams I guess.

 

On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

I've never encountered any feedback about a word limit personally.

 

Yeah you should go for it, honestly I think you'd be great. It takes a bit to learn how to create one, what structure the guide team are looking for etc but it's fun!

 

Yup, that's the plan! Just platinumed Day of the Tentacle earlier and need to get RE7 Madhouse run started to wrap up that platinum. Going to be hard I'm sure.

 

Cheers man - I'll definitely think about doing one at some point.

 

How time consuming is writing one - on average would you say? Because if I was going to write one for Brunswick Pro Billiards, I can see a few areas where you can save time in certain areas, but I'm not sure I'd have the time or the patience to realistically play test those things for a guide..... So do you have to rigorously do things like that when guide writing?

 

Congrats on Day of the Tentacle! I loved that game - Tim Schafer could practically attach his name to almost any game or genre, and I'd probably trust that I'd enjoy it in some form.

 

I don't think you'll struggle too much with Madhouse - there's only a couple of sections that I found particularly tough. Everyone is different of course - but so long as you have the circular saw to play with you should have a fairly easy time of things. I think you should have the Albert W Pistol too, which is pretty useful on Madhouse.

 

On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

Final Fantasy XIII 's trilogy I did quite poorly in terms of trophies, but then I wasn't really going for platinums back then to be honest. 

Oh don't give Square Enix any ideas, if they gave only one platinum for all 6 of the games that'd be a gaming travesty!

 

Very lucky! ahem....

 

You could always go back for those Final Fantasy XIII platinums if you fancied it - or if you wanted to cut and run with just one extra Final Fantasy Platinum, Lightning Returns is at least pretty short and sweet as far as Final Fantasy platinums go.

 

I shouldn't have said that bit about not having individual platinums - I'd be pretty gutted by that, I'd like as many as I can get my grubby little hands on. Except FFXIV - I'm just never touching that, and I've made peace with that haha.

 

On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yes you seem like you are an afficiando of the point and click adventure games genre, so I respect your recommendations.

 

True, it's a hard one sometimes. Games like The Simspons Game, X Men Arcade are classics and though it's a pity they didn't have a platinum, it was still very fun to play them regardless. 

 

Mars: War Logs, never heard of it. Another point and click adventure?

 

I probably play far too many point-and-click titles to be fair - what's worse is that I have even more in my backlog. I saw two more on sale today that I might have to pick up as well. Maybe I have a problem.

 

I'm fairly relaxed about games that don't have platinums - I always figure that whilst it's nice to have a platinum to remember it by at the end of it, having that 100% completion can be just as nice sometimes. I'm usually just content with enjoying the experience, whether that comes with a platinum or not, and if I don't enjoy it, then I can always write a passive aggressive review about it like I did with Agents of Mayhem ?

 

Mars: War Logs is basically a janky EuroRPG - it's one of the first RPG's that Spiders made ( the company that made Bound by Flame, The Technomancer and Greedfall,) I really like them as a company, as they seem to genuinely improve with each game they make - so I wanted to see where their RPG journey began - but to say it's janky or rough around the edges is an understatement. It feels like playing a mid 2000's PC game, and I love it haha :lol:

 

On 02/12/2021 at 8:18 PM, The_Kopite said:

Wow that's a really impressive achievement! Kudos! Hows the trophy list for Snooker 19? I do enjoy my sports games when the trophy lists are reasonable.

 

Yeah absolutely. Everyone had raved about Steve Davis before he came along, then he took his world championship record and the new king was around. O'Sullivan is great too.

 

100% agreed.

 

It probably wasn't that impressive to be fair, but thanks!  - I never understood how the rankings worked to be honest, I just played it online a lot, and one day there I was, for a few days at least.

 

Snooker 19 is a fairly decent trophy list - it's got fairly involved online trophies - but I do have a friend who hasn't done them yet, so if you ever fancied playing it, he could probably help you out with the Online trophies. I ended up just doing those by myself, I was playing a load of Online games inbetween the sessions of the 2020 World Championships, because back then with lockdown and covid there wasn't a whole lot of choice on things to do.

 

There's even a trophy in Snooker 19 for winning eight world titles and breaking Hendry's record... Plus the game is in a much better state now, the Rocket Fueled trophy was glitched for ages. I was the first achiever for that trophy for ages - until I saw someone synced their profile and did it 2 minutes sooner than me, who I suspect was on the dev team - as I literally got the trophy about 10 minutes after the patch was released that fixed the bug.

 

Steve Davis I suspect would have been great in any era of Snooker - he had a hell of a good tactical brain, and was a pretty good breakbuider even in his day, so the fact that he was still a Top 16 player well into his 50's kind of proves that almost. 

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I have all my swaps too, and I think I'll be bustin them out this or next month, as I've got a few quicker games on deck. I'd like to see how long I can go without using them, though... last time I busted them out last minute, and while I did complete all my games, it was quite a photo finish!

 

I'm excited for Grim! I got it really cheap. The Día de los Muertos vibe grabbed me right away, and when I looked into it more and saw how funny it seems to be, I was sold.

 

I do indeed have Res 5 and I am all about that! I've been cherry picking easy things here and there until I'm ready to start tackling it seriously, but when y'all are ready just give the word! I'll finish my playthrough so I can have the controls down and we can handle business?

 

Use them if and when you need to I guess - you should totally add Dex to your challenge though - because erm....... Dex is awesome? ?

 

I'll hold off on using my swaps too - I might jump in with the DLC event that's going on right now, because some of the games I have on my challenge list have a lot of DLC in them - that way I could probably be a bit more productive and do something like Darksiders III or Mass Effect 3....... Dropping about £40 on DLC for Mass Effect 3 makes me sad though, so I keep putting that off, but I have to do it sooner or later right? haha :lol:

 

Hope you have an absolute blast with Grim Fandango - might get you hooked on Tim Schafers output as a writer too, so there's also that upside - there's plenty of games he's involved in that I'd love to chuck recommendations at you with.

 

I'm well rusty with Res5 myself - I haven't touched it since like early 2019, so I might have to refamiliarise myself with the stuff that won't require us to just wait out a timer like a load of chuckle heads

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Thanks! I'm trying to knock out as much as I can - as of right now, while of course I wanna keep tryin on new games and such, my top priority is finishing as much of what I've already started as I can, and then go from there.

 

I say do it! Give it the old college try (whatever exactly that means). It's a good feeling watching your unearned trophies number dwindle, and I'll bet you'd make a huge dent in a fairly short amount of time!

 

That's what I'd like to do, so you've got absolutely the right idea and approach - then I realise most of mine are online trophies in really old games - or a 400 hour supergrind in a JRPG, and it makes me want to go and cry in a shower in black and white like Ed Norton in American History X - but for much different reasons obviously :facepalm:

 

If I go on that DLC-athon though - that definitely might help, so thanks for the suggestion - I could wipe about 50 out just from doing Skyrim and Fallout 4...... So perhaps I should, I can't have 100% ever - but I could still get fairly close. I'd make a few more games eligible for review along the way too, so I guess that'd be a bonus for me to actually get to write about some of those things.

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Speakin of controls! It really is. Sometimes I'll have a split second where I'll either be playing Hitman 2 and wonder why the auto aim targeting isn't working, or be playing San Andreas and wonder why my intuition isn't working?

 

I like bikes too! I didn't mind the lack of speed either, for me the only real downside (other than potentially flying off, of course) was not having the radio. Which reminds me, I gotta get my biking skill up so I can knock that BMX challenge out!

 

Having intuition certainly would have made some of those tacked on stealth sections in San Andreas a little less irritating!

 

That's a great point actually - I forget that there aren't radios on those bikes - and half the joy in San Andreas comes from cruising around to that absolutely killer soundtrack right?

 

Oh yeah, that BMX bit that's not too far from Grove Street in the skate park thing - I'd forgotten you have to do that for a trophy. It's less frustrating than PCJ Playground could be in Vice City though - I sucked at that.

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I used to write music, and I remember there being such dizzying creative highs - there's nothing quite like that "Eureka!" moment when you're crafting something that is in some way artistic - but some lows that really require some unwavering determination and confidence.

 

I was gonna touch on something your mentor said that I heavily identified with, the bit about not worrying about stealing. Sometimes I would start something with a piece by somebody else in mind, and not that I wanted to replicate it, but wanted to maintain the same vein. However, it would always end up completely different, just sounding like some crap that I made. Initially this bothered me, but eventually I realized what a good problem that is to have! Er... I don't know if that's applicable or not, but oh well. It's already on your forum AND YOU'VE ALREADY READ IT MWAAHAHAHAA!!

 

Absolutely man! But those lows are really low, or at least they were for me, it just really got to me for some reason.

 

Do you still write music or is that one of the things you just don't really dabble with too much anymore?

 

That is absolutely applicable too by the way - what you described makes perfect sense to me. It's exactly what he meant too, that we should use these things that have influenced us as inspirations, but not be ashamed of that.  If you're truly creative that's all it will be, an inspiration, but an apparent one. So there you go, there's your proof right there that you were creating something completely unique to you - that's absolutely a good thing!

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Firstly, I love picturing you voicing all your characters. I need to get back to FFIX so I can tell you what the characters sound like to me?

 

I saw that you were playing this! 'Cyberpunk' and 'Bartender' being in one title definitely made me go "huh!" Also, when you wrote 2064 my dyslexic ass thought you said 2046 and I thought "how the hell did they make that movie into a game??"

 

Sidenote: I loved that movie, but never got around to seeing In the Mood for Love. I am uncultured swine?

 

I like how you describe the gameplay, and the effect it has on you where you start out sneaking looks at recipes like "crap, am I doing this right?" to cranking out things nonstop without a second's thought while entertaining your guests. That really is a great microcosm of having that job long term. Then again, I suppose that's any occupation really!

 

Please do - I'm looking forward to how differently to me you characterised those FFIX voices.

 

I would play a game of 2046 to be fair....... Although I suspect Dreamfall Chapters which I have in my backlog - might be fairly close to what a videogame version of that film might be like.

 

Get and watch In the Mood for Love though! Everybody needs more Wong Kar-wai in their lives! I'd never call you an uncultured swine though, just a person with a film backlog that needs addressing ?

 

That's honestly what I'd hoped you'd say about the gameplay aspect - I honestly couldn't say whether that was or wasn't the case as a Bartender. when doing that job in real life. So if you ever play it you'll probably enjoy that element.

 

23 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Good to see you gushing over Jill and her story - it may have in and of itself made a sale! The Dorothy character you mentioned sounds like she was handled well, which makes me glad - I played a game earlier this year that I thought was excellent, until it featured a similarly creepy element in its twist that was not at all given the serious examination it deserved. Happy to see that kind of subject matter being discussed in an honest, healthy way!

 

I don't think busman's holiday is a thing in the states - it should be though, as that's very apt! I dunno, I loved Overcooked and that isn't entirely dissimilar from what I do for a living so who knows! Don't think I've ever played a Visual Novel game before, but this could be as good as any a place to start!

 

Great work as always, homie?

 

I think they could have gone into a bit greater depth with that element of Dorothy to be honest - but I'm glad they at least acknowledge the more unhealthy side of that, and pay attention to it, and don't just gloss over it.

 

The story spoke to me far more than I expected it to that's for sure, I'm glad it did though - because if a Visual Novel's story isn't quite grabbing you it is doing something wrong. Steins;Gate 0 kind of didn't really blow me away as a story - and I very much wanted it to, so I'm glad that Valhalla really hooked me in that regard. 

 

You need to start getting that term into mass use in the states then - although I guess there aren't really many opportunities to use it now that I think of it ?

 

Thanks for the feedback though man - much appreciated as always. Always a joy writing about something like the experience I had with that game - when you come away from the game with such a positive feeling. 

 

This definitely wouldn't be the worst place to start with a Visual Novel - probably this or Steins;Gate Elite might be one of the better titles to dip your toes in with. Especially as the latter has some really dynamic cutscenes so it'd probably feel fairly close to an interactive narrative experience over a true Visual Novel.

 

4 hours ago, realm722 said:

 

Wonderful review man! I read the whole thing out loud ?. This is a game that I don't think I've seen touched at all in many trophy checklists here so to see someone give it such a deep dive was a delightful callback for me given it's been over a year since I played it. Fair play on mentioning the point of "choice-based narratives" often does not really offer the number of differences the player desires. Hell, this is an issue with AAA studios. Asking an indie dev to make profound differences between how you interact with patrons would have been asking for a lot. I am VERY curious to see if in a sequel they decide to go down this route. An article came out a year ago that the game was suspended indefinitely. The reason for this is the game is proving to be an even more "complex beast" than the original. If this is just an issue of trying to magnify the scope is one thing, but we'll just have to wait and see. 

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!

 

You know what I'm like - if there's something about a game that really grabs me - I usually can't help but do a really deep dive on it, I always want to try and make sure I get as much of what I liked or didn't like about it down as possible. So unfortunately that does sometimes lead to eye bleedingly long reviews for some poor folks I'm sure.

 

I haven't seen it covered that much myself in trophy checklists. Hopefully mine won't be the last one we see for a while.

 

in fact I didn't know this game was a thing until my friend played it late last year. Ironically he played this first and then 2064 later, so he did it the other way around.

 

You know - I think the way 2064 handled choices - or at least the way you can influence the games outcome was a fairly subtle one. Like if you are a jerk to Turing an speak to him in a horrible way, too often, that leads to another ending.  I guess it's sort of like what you mentioned in your own review of Valhalla about getting the wrong drinks ever so slightly changing the dialogue - but not quite enough. I think in the end they just weren't willing to compromise - I mean that little Anna Bonus chapter you can do after you finish the game, where you actually do have dialogue choices was actually fairly effective, so if they can find a way to do it in the next one I'll be pretty interested to see how it plays out.

 

I actually read that after I wrote the review about the sequel being on hold indefinitely, I really hope that doesn't become a permanent thing, because those writers have got a pretty rare gift of being able to tell some really engaging low-key and thought provoking stories, so it'd be such a crying shame to see that change.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Dammit man!

 

This sounds really good! ?

 

...so not only have you increased my backlog by adding this one... you've also managed to add 2064: Read Only Memories at the same time ?

 

Luckily, I'm 99% sure I actually own 2064 already - I think that's one I've got sitting on the dusty Vita, saved for the day when I'm away from home...

...(though, with the way the world has changed in Covid times, I may meed to reevaluate that stance. Things like Timespinner, which I really want to play, but keep saving for an away-from-home situation are going to be ancient by the time I ever actually am on the road again!?)

 

I had no idea this was an offshoot of 2064, so I guess I've some catching up to do!

 

 

It is really good - well I thought so at least.

 

I keep using this but SORRY NOT SORRY!!!

 

I did think about tagging you at the end of the post - but I'm not too certain on what your stance is on visual novels - I know you've done Steins;Gate, so I don't know if the genre was just something you don't really dabble with very often. Or just plain don't like so I was kind of on the fence on that one. 

 

I'm actually going to hop in and give 2064: Read Only Memories the classic review treatment next week once I've gotten through that Hitman HD trilogy revisit. I really enjoyed that game - that's a good game to have in your backlog though because it's both pretty short, and pretty awesome.

 

I think you'd really love Turing as a character too - I mean who wouldn't love a sapient robot who is obsessed with The Joys of Painting with Bob Ross - and talks in depth about it? Oh and the game contains a  Polar Bear Butler called Pat.... Yes - that is as surreal as you probably think it is.

 

So I suggest you take Smevz' suggestion on board - book a hotel room, light some candles and play 2064: Read Only Memories

 

Ironically my main motivation for playing it was because it was an offshoot of 2064, I just desperately wanted even more of that world to experience, I thought there'd just be a slight tangential connection too, but it really does feel like a shared universe - and that was an aspect I really liked about it.

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On 02/12/2021 at 2:34 PM, rjkclarke said:

You still have RE5 on your list on the challenge right? I know @Destructor-8 was playing it fairly recently - and I asked Destructor if he wanted a hand with it because you and I were planning to do it ourselves at some point, so if we can find one other person to give us a hand, we can probably get those versus mode trophies knocked out fairly quick sharp. So That'd be one less thing to worry about for the challenge.

 

I can help you guys out whenever you wanna do this as right now I'm just getting through some games. The trophies in it don't take very long as well but happy to do it whenever you guys want to do it.

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20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Were you up late doing some guide writing?

 

Or just admiring yourself in the mirror - in the Wharf costume that you've secretly been making for the last few months for Cosplay purposes and just lost track of time? 1f606.png

 

Damn though - that is brutal man, I had more than one of those myself last week - I almost feel like it feels better having no sleep than having just one hour.

Haha nothing that exciting! When I have been to Comic Cons in the past, I always just wear a geeky t-shirt. Fully respect the effort that others go to with the cosplay, there are some wicked ones out there!

 

In a way, it possibly is.

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

This is going to sound very odd - but I actually watched King of Thieves before I actually saw the original Aladdin, so I totally get why it'd be a favourite - for some reason I didn't watch Aladdin until I was about 25, so by that point - it didn't have that wondrous magical feel to it, that it might have done had I seen it as a child.

 

It is definitely good though - my prevailing thought was how much fun Robin Williams must have been having during recording sessions - from what I understand they didn't really give him a script, just a vague outline and let him just run wild, good decision!

 

Even the original Doctor Dolittle film from the 60's is not that stellar - it's the best adaptation for sure, but that's not saying much. The Eddie Murphy ones aren't terrible, they just play so fast and loose with their source material that the only thing they really have in common is the name Dolittle and talking animals.

 

But I'd love to make one myself - there's scope for a really good film there, so long as you y'know change the whole culturally insensitive thing the first couple of books have with how they characterised Africans. I'd definitely get rid of that aspect, or at the very least drastically change it, but yeah we've gotta have dreams I guess.

Ah I see, that's interesting. I've never known anyone who has watched that film before the original. Yeah I have had that experience with a lot of films where I have watched them many years after their original release and sometimes they don't resonate with me in the same way that they might have.

 

O yeah, Robin Williams just had that natural talent. He had such comedic timing. 

 

Well I've never read the books either but I suppose if they are old books then sadly characterisations of certain people, cultures etc can be wildly insensitive nowadays to say the least.

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Cheers man - I'll definitely think about doing one at some point.

 

How time consuming is writing one - on average would you say? Because if I was going to write one for Brunswick Pro Billiards, I can see a few areas where you can save time in certain areas, but I'm not sure I'd have the time or the patience to realistically play test those things for a guide..... So do you have to rigorously do things like that when guide writing?

 

Congrats on Day of the Tentacle! I loved that game - Tim Schafer could practically attach his name to almost any game or genre, and I'd probably trust that I'd enjoy it in some form.

 

I don't think you'll struggle too much with Madhouse - there's only a couple of sections that I found particularly tough. Everyone is different of course - but so long as you have the circular saw to play with you should have a fairly easy time of things. I think you should have the Albert W Pistol too, which is pretty useful on Madhouse.

Excellent, think you would have the support and backing of many people here. ?

 

There are some trophies where if there is a group like say win 1 match trophy, win 5 matches trophy etc. you can just put something like "Please see the trophy description for win 5 matches" in the win 1 match trophy description so you can save time there. Really I would say the length of writing a guide depends on the game itself. You can put recommended strategies for trophies, with videos and photos to help like I did with my Sonic trophy guide. The guide team would give you feedback once it had been reviewed if they felt somethings needed tweaking.

 

Thanks! It was certainly quite an experience lol

 

I have followed the guide here on the site, so Madhouse and the 33 Antique Coins are the last two trophies for the platinum so I should have everything unlocked that I need to make Madhouse more manageable. I just need to remember to use block for starters lol

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You could always go back for those Final Fantasy XIII platinums if you fancied it - or if you wanted to cut and run with just one extra Final Fantasy Platinum, Lightning Returns is at least pretty short and sweet as far as Final Fantasy platinums go.

 

I shouldn't have said that bit about not having individual platinums - I'd be pretty gutted by that, I'd like as many as I can get my grubby little hands on. Except FFXIV - I'm just never touching that, and I've made peace with that haha.

I actually got stuck in FFXII Lightning Returns on the final boss. There were 4 stages to it, and I could get them down the last stage and never had the required energy or something to finish it off (it's been a long time, I forget exactly). I still need to go on Youtube and watch the end of that lol I might try in the future but for now I have no access to those games.

 

Yeah same, FFXIV is such a time sink, I wouldn't ever be playing anything else sadly so there you go. 

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I probably play far too many point-and-click titles to be fair - what's worse is that I have even more in my backlog. I saw two more on sale today that I might have to pick up as well. Maybe I have a problem.

 

I'm fairly relaxed about games that don't have platinums - I always figure that whilst it's nice to have a platinum to remember it by at the end of it, having that 100% completion can be just as nice sometimes. I'm usually just content with enjoying the experience, whether that comes with a platinum or not, and if I don't enjoy it, then I can always write a passive aggressive review about it like I did with Agents of Mayhem 1f612.png

 

Mars: War Logs is basically a janky EuroRPG - it's one of the first RPG's that Spiders made ( the company that made Bound by Flame, The Technomancer and Greedfall,) I really like them as a company, as they seem to genuinely improve with each game they make - so I wanted to see where their RPG journey began - but to say it's janky or rough around the edges is an understatement. It feels like playing a mid 2000's PC game, and I love it haha :lol:

Haha, everyone has a backlog and certainly in one of their favourite gaming genres. Haha well you are good at writing passive aggressive reviews.

 

lol ooo a mid 2000's PC game, sounds like fun in it's own way lol

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It probably wasn't that impressive to be fair, but thanks!  - I never understood how the rankings worked to be honest, I just played it online a lot, and one day there I was, for a few days at least.

 

Snooker 19 is a fairly decent trophy list - it's got fairly involved online trophies - but I do have a friend who hasn't done them yet, so if you ever fancied playing it, he could probably help you out with the Online trophies. I ended up just doing those by myself, I was playing a load of Online games inbetween the sessions of the 2020 World Championships, because back then with lockdown and covid there wasn't a whole lot of choice on things to do.

 

There's even a trophy in Snooker 19 for winning eight world titles and breaking Hendry's record... Plus the game is in a much better state now, the Rocket Fueled trophy was glitched for ages. I was the first achiever for that trophy for ages - until I saw someone synced their profile and did it 2 minutes sooner than me, who I suspect was on the dev team - as I literally got the trophy about 10 minutes after the patch was released that fixed the bug.

 

Steve Davis I suspect would have been great in any era of Snooker - he had a hell of a good tactical brain, and was a pretty good breakbuider even in his day, so the fact that he was still a Top 16 player well into his 50's kind of proves that almost. 

Well hey I still think it's something to be proud of.

 

Fill in the time between real Snooker championship sessions by playing gaming Snooker sessions? Sounds like a pretty decent day to me lol

 

Damn, that's a shame. Would be so cool for you to be the first achiever of that trophy! Got 3rd in a FFIX trophy myself, like to put those in the signature here otherwise there is no way of showing them off lol

 

That's very true. Definitely a great player no doubt.

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20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Or just admiring yourself in the mirror - in the Wharf costume that you've secretly been making for the last few months for Cosplay purposes and just lost track of time? 1f606.png

 

Hey buddy, what I do in my free time is my busi-

 

..oh.... you were talking to somebody else...

 

Ahem. Carry on!

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 Use them if and when you need to I guess - you should totally add Dex to your challenge though - because erm....... Dex is awesome? 1f60f.png

 

I'll hold off on using my swaps too - I might jump in with the DLC event that's going on right now, because some of the games I have on my challenge list have a lot of DLC in them - that way I could probably be a bit more productive and do something like Darksiders III or Mass Effect 3....... Dropping about £40 on DLC for Mass Effect 3 makes me sad though, so I keep putting that off, but I have to do it sooner or later right? haha :lol:

 

Hope you have an absolute blast with Grim Fandango - might get you hooked on Tim Schafers output as a writer too, so there's also that upside - there's plenty of games he's involved in that I'd love to chuck recommendations at you with.

 

I'm well rusty with Res5 myself - I haven't touched it since like early 2019, so I might have to refamiliarise myself with the stuff that won't require us to just wait out a timer like a load of chuckle heads

 

Dex actually is a candidate to step in, along with a few other games I got on your recommendation - Dr. Dekker (for some reason I kept wanting to say Mengele?), Hue, Deus Ex, and of course Grim. Quite grateful for those really, I think between you, Doc, and Realm alone I've got the bunker full of reinforcements!

 

I totally get wanting to maximize productivity with the challenge, but may I humbly suggest that you not let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.. when I first joined the challenge I wanted to go strictly for games on my profile, but in particular Fallout 4 and (bafflingly) Overcooked 2 held me up to such a degree that last minute I had to tap out and tag in a few shorter games further down the backlog just to finish in time. This may just be my own experience of course, I'm not always the fastest, most productive gamer, but the challenge's end comes surprisingly quickly and you don't want to be scrambling at the end!

 

And good! I would've felt like a real loser if you were like "Well I been ready to go, waitin on your slow ass, but whatever #Res5Memorized #AlwaysReady" I actually should get on that one sooner than later, cuz I've got quite a lot more ground to cover than you do!

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

That's what I'd like to do, so you've got absolutely the right idea and approach - then I realise most of mine are online trophies in really old games - or a 400 hour supergrind in a JRPG, and it makes me want to go and cry in a shower in black and white like Ed Norton in American History X - but for much different reasons obviously :facepalm:

 

If I go on that DLC-athon though - that definitely might help, so thanks for the suggestion - I could wipe about 50 out just from doing Skyrim and Fallout 4...... So perhaps I should, I can't have 100% ever - but I could still get fairly close. I'd make a few more games eligible for review along the way too, so I guess that'd be a bonus for me to actually get to write about some of those things.

 

Gaming do be like that. I wanna learn how to photoshop gifs just so I could make one of that shower scene with 100+ hour games' covers superimposed over the white supremacists' faces?

 

I say do it! I can speak for Fallout 4, at least - it's certainly time consuming, and it has its share of obnoxious trophies for sure, but it's very doable, and I'd argue that some of the DLC is superior to even the base game (Far Harbor bay-beeeee). Ever since I left Spiderman and Tsushima unfinished, every game I play with DLC I try to knock it all out right then and there. As for those two, well.. they shall have their day - as you say, it would be nice to be able to write about them!

 

21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Having intuition certainly would have made some of those tacked on stealth sections in San Andreas a little less irritating!

 

That's a great point actually - I forget that there aren't radios on those bikes - and half the joy in San Andreas comes from cruising around to that absolutely killer soundtrack right?

 

Oh yeah, that BMX bit that's not too far from Grove Street in the skate park thing - I'd forgotten you have to do that for a trophy. It's less frustrating than PCJ Playground could be in Vice City though - I sucked at that.

 

Bruh, you ain't lying about that! I fondly remembered the emphasis on stealth with certain missions, but it hasn't held up very well upon replay - although playing one of the greatest stealth games of all time alongside it definitely doesn't do it any favors!

 

I sucked at the PCJ Playground too! Also that obstacle course in Vice City, in the stadium? I was dreading that, cuz I remember what a pain it was the first time around. Anyway hearing you say that it's not as frustrating is reassuring - I don't remember it being that bad, but with my memory who knows!

 

22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Absolutely man! But those lows are really low, or at least they were for me, it just really got to me for some reason.

 

 

Do you still write music or is that one of the things you just don't really dabble with too much anymore?

 

Dude the lows got me questioning all sorts of things nobody wants to doubt about themselves, at first I was able to power through those feelings of self doubt but after a while I have to confess I kind of let them win. I still look at the pen, pad, and the equipment every so often, and I miss it a great deal. Hopefully I'll mister the courage to dive back in before my mid-life crisis hits!

 

Which brings me to something I wanted to mention earlier - if you wanna put together a Doctor Dolittle adaptation, absolutely ? DO it. It is not fun to look back on things you wish you'd done, take it from me! It would most likely come with a staggering amount of mini-nightmares, but you would never regret it!

 

22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I would play a game of 2046 to be fair....... Although I suspect Dreamfall Chapters which I have in my backlog - might be fairly close to what a videogame version of that film might be like.

 

Get and watch In the Mood for Love though! Everybody needs more Wong Kar-wai in their lives! I'd never call you an uncultured swine though, just a person with a film backlog that needs addressing 1f602.png

 

That's honestly what I'd hoped you'd say about the gameplay aspect - I honestly couldn't say whether that was or wasn't the case as a Bartender. when doing that job in real life. So if you ever play it you'll probably enjoy that element.

 

 

I think they could have gone into a bit greater depth with that element of Dorothy to be honest - but I'm glad they at least acknowledge the more unhealthy side of that, and pay attention to it, and don't just gloss over it.

 

The story spoke to me far more than I expected it to that's for sure, I'm glad it did though - because if a Visual Novel's story isn't quite grabbing you it is doing something wrong. Steins;Gate 0 kind of didn't really blow me away as a story - and I very much wanted it to, so I'm glad that Valhalla really hooked me in that regard. 

 

You need to start getting that term into mass use in the states then - although I guess there aren't really many opportunities to use it now that I think of it 1f606.png

 

Whaaaaaat?? That sounds amazing! Crap, another game for the backlog! Damn you, Clarke!! *shakes fist*

 

I know, In the Mood has been on my to watch list for yeeeaaaars. I may have mentioned before, my wife is sadly not a movie person so my watching habits have plummeted dramatically the last six years that we've been together. I did rediscover my inner gamer during my tenure as her hubs though, so there is still hope for my inner movie buff!

 

So, my to do list has these new additions:

 

-Find video of Dreamfall Chapters.

-Amazon yourself a copy of In the Mood, and watch it when it arrives.

-Subtly start sprinkling "Barman's Holiday" into your daily speech.

Can do??

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1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

@rjkclarke Just had my Sonic Colours:Ultimate trophy guide published, check it out when you can if you want 1f44d.png

 

Congratulations man! That's awesome!

 

I read through the whole thing just now...... Damn dude- I wish I owned the game so I could actually give it a rating. That was fantastic!

 

I don't think I've seen very many guides on the site, that are as thorough and pay as much attention to details as that one does. I really like the fact you practically covered all bases - even down to like enemy types, and powers - and the best ways in which to utilise them.

 

Well done on doing such a through and intricate job with the guide - a lot of people are going to end up finding that incredibly useful I think. 

 

@Shrooba - if, or whenever you read this - could you pop over and give Kopite's guide a rating? I know you've played this in the last couple of months, so it would actually let you do it. Don't worry if you can't, I'm sure within no time - the positive feedback will start appearing on the guide, I think it absolutely deserves it!

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Haha nothing that exciting! When I have been to Comic Cons in the past, I always just wear a geeky t-shirt. Fully respect the effort that others go to with the cosplay, there are some wicked ones out there!

 

I've always liked the idea of it - but I've never really done it as an adult. I've done fancy dress as characters before for like fancy dress parties (obviously,) and stuff when I was like 17 - like one of the Doctors from Doctor Who and Eric Draven from The Crow, If you've got long-ish hair like I have I guess you're a bit limited by what you can do..... I think I could do a halfway decent Heath Ledgers Joker right now - as that's almost the exact length my hair is. But I think I'll just not haha

 

You should totally Wharf it up though - or if you aren't tall enough for Wharf then  as Wharfs kid from that one episode. :lol:

 

Or this Chewbacca made out of Cardboard boxes - which to be fair I actually think is quite decent.

 

2f937b1a70103e714e74fd982c69d4ff.jpg

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Ah I see, that's interesting. I've never known anyone who has watched that film before the original. Yeah I have had that experience with a lot of films where I have watched them many years after their original release and sometimes they don't resonate with me in the same way that they might have.

 

O yeah, Robin Williams just had that natural talent. He had such comedic timing. 

 

Well I've never read the books either but I suppose if they are old books then sadly characterisations of certain people, cultures etc can be wildly insensitive nowadays to say the least.

 

I have a habit of doing stuff like that - where I watching or reading things in the complete wrong order - and it ends up usually fundamentally changing what you think of what the original thing is as a result, shame really.

 

Underrated dramatic actor too Robin Williams, but then a lot of comedians often are.

 

Yeah insensitive is a bit of an understatement really. Outside of that one thing - the books are quite nice enjoyable child friendly adventures - which could make really good films, yet nobody ever does them very much justice - Robin Hood kind of suffers that same problem, of having very few actually good cinematic outings or even TV Shows, shame really.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Excellent, think you would have the support and backing of many people here. 1f44d.png

 

There are some trophies where if there is a group like say win 1 match trophy, win 5 matches trophy etc. you can just put something like "Please see the trophy description for win 5 matches" in the win 1 match trophy description so you can save time there. Really I would say the length of writing a guide depends on the game itself. You can put recommended strategies for trophies, with videos and photos to help like I did with my Sonic trophy guide. The guide team would give you feedback once it had been reviewed if they felt somethings needed tweaking.

 

Thanks! It was certainly quite an experience lol

 

I have followed the guide here on the site, so Madhouse and the 33 Antique Coins are the last two trophies for the platinum so I should have everything unlocked that I need to make Madhouse more manageable. I just need to remember to use block for starters lol

 

I'll definitely bear it in mind - and I appreciate the support and suggestions.

 

Your guide is incredibly thorough - which is a good thing - I think I'd like to try and cover as many bases as possible myself. I always find that a little frustrating when guides kind of give you the bare minimum they can, instead of offering you as many options for strategies and things, so you aren't locked to playing it exactly how the guide writer played it. 

 

This isn't exclusive to this site of course, it goes back to even like the PS2 and original Xbox days, that kind of problem

 

Blocking will save you far more than you'll expect it to on Madhouse - but I think you'll be fine. I think I only really struggled on the second Jack fight - the one in the boathouse, and I think possibly Marguerite too.

 

I think I had to - and this'll sound manky as anything - but let's just say I had to do some  front hedge trimming with the circular saw, because I ran out of ammo - I'm sure you know exactly what I'm alluding to there ?....

 

.... You've got this though, even if you do need to do a bit of trimming.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

I actually got stuck in FFXII Lightning Returns on the final boss. There were 4 stages to it, and I could get them down the last stage and never had the required energy or something to finish it off (it's been a long time, I forget exactly). I still need to go on Youtube and watch the end of that lol I might try in the future but for now I have no access to those games.

 

That makes perfect sense actually - that last boss on Lightning Returns is pretty unreasonable to be fair.

 

In fact quite a lot of the bosses in that game were - well, that and I initially sucked, and didn't really enjoy it, or bother to delve into any of the games systems, so I was struggling A LOT haha! I was stuck on Caius for the longest time - had to get some very specific sword you can get from making the Skeletons in the desert area extinct, it was pretty overpowered for how early into the game I was.

 

I'd definitely recommend looking up the ending - the true ending too, because that is truly weird - and I want to hear what you think about it, as the ending to that all over the place trilogy haha.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Haha, everyone has a backlog and certainly in one of their favourite gaming genres. Haha well you are good at writing passive aggressive reviews.

 

lol ooo a mid 2000's PC game, sounds like fun in it's own way lol

 

I guess passive aggressive is better than full on angry in some cases - I always try and just make those ones a little bit funny to stop myself wanting to just write a really frustrated tirade ?

 

Well it's kind of fun Mars: War Logs , like you said "in its own way" - I don't think I'll be recommending it to anyone - once I review it. Even our resident KratosChu Copanele for as much as he loves janky EuroRPG's too this one has some really abysmal combat - I've lost count of the amount of times in the last two days I've been murderified (I know not a word :facepalm:,) by an army of asshole moles..... Why are there even moles on Mars? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 7:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Fill in the time between real Snooker championship sessions by playing gaming Snooker sessions? Sounds like a pretty decent day to me lol

 

Damn, that's a shame. Would be so cool for you to be the first achiever of that trophy! Got 3rd in a FFIX trophy myself, like to put those in the signature here otherwise there is no way of showing them off lol

 

That's very true. Definitely a great player no doubt.

 

It was pretty fun, and a nice distraction considering the terrible state the world was in last year  - and I do love Snooker - in fact that's why I've barely gamed the last 2 days because the UK Championships have been on - and I wasn't going to miss any of the final today if I could. What a top quality final that was too - nice to see two younger players starting to break on through as well.

 

It's also why I still haven't finished writing that Hitman Contracts review I haven't managed to post yet - I'll finish it tonight however long it takes haha.

 

It would have been kind of cool to have been the first achiever - I barely ever buy games at launch too, so barely any chance of that happening otherwise haha:lol:

 

Judging by your sig that's for beating ten different people at Tetra Master right? That's a decent one to get in early on - because there isn't exactly a lot of access to good cards, and whilst there's a lot of players to play in Alexandria, beating them with bad cards is a whole lot more impressive. So good going on that one.

 

Alright so all this talk of Snooker players...... Do you have a favourite? Mine is not someone you'd expect, so I'll be interested to see if you have one - doesn't have to be a current one obviously.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Dex actually is a candidate to step in, along with a few other games I got on your recommendation - Dr. Dekker (for some reason I kept wanting to say Mengele1f62c.png), Hue, Deus Ex, and of course Grim. Quite grateful for those really, I think between you, Doc, and Realm alone I've got the bunker full of reinforcements!

 

I totally get wanting to maximize productivity with the challenge, but may I humbly suggest that you not let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.. when I first joined the challenge I wanted to go strictly for games on my profile, but in particular Fallout 4 and (bafflingly) Overcooked 2 held me up to such a degree that last minute I had to tap out and tag in a few shorter games further down the backlog just to finish in time. This may just be my own experience of course, I'm not always the fastest, most productive gamer, but the challenge's end comes surprisingly quickly and you don't want to be scrambling at the end!

 

Man - I'm so glad that I didn't have a drink nearby, or in my mouth when I read the bit about you wanting to say Mengele every time you say Dr Dekker, it might have ruined my screen, that'd be quite the unfortunate faux-pas.... That would be a hilariously inappropriately different game if it was called that. Somehow - some of the characters in it might still be the creepiest things in it, some of the ones in that game made my skin crawl.

 

That's awesome to know - that a couple of those are in reserve - just for the purely selfish reasons that I want more people to experience Dex.....

 

I'll take your advice and probably not go overboard with the challenge - I can realistically do the ones I've added right now - so if I get through those quick enough - we'll see how I feel after that.

 

I can't add Fallout 4 anyway - as it's over the allowed threshold of completion percentage. I think it's like 66% or something, whatever it is after just getting the platinum. I've got some long stuff on my list too, like you do, that I probably think of getting to first, before I notice that all the time has rapidly flown by.

 

On 03/12/2021 at 10:57 PM, Destructor-8 said:

I can help you guys out whenever you wanna do this as right now I'm just getting through some games. The trophies in it don't take very long as well but happy to do it whenever you guys want to do it.

 

Thanks Destructor! 

 

That's awesome of you - I'll make sure that I've got the game installed so that I can fire the game up whenever Smevz fancies knocking out versus mode - that's all I have left to do on it.

 

I think we need like one more person, because I'm sure you need 4 people to do Team Versus don't you, but I do know someone that would probably give us a hand if I asked nicely enough.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

And good! I would've felt like a real loser if you were like "Well I been ready to go, waitin on your slow ass, but whatever #Res5Memorized #AlwaysReady" I actually should get on that one sooner than later, cuz I've got quite a lot more ground to cover than you do!

 

Nope, never that man...... I'm happy to hold off on until you are ready to do it - the games not going anywhere, so no pressure or anything, thankfully Destructor has at least made it seem less daunting by letting us know it at least doesn't take long,

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Gaming do be like that. I wanna learn how to photoshop gifs just so I could make one of that shower scene with 100+ hour games' covers superimposed over the white supremacists' faces1f604.png

 

I say do it! I can speak for Fallout 4, at least - it's certainly time consuming, and it has its share of obnoxious trophies for sure, but it's very doable, and I'd argue that some of the DLC is superior to even the base game (Far Harbor bay-beeeee). Ever since I left Spiderman and Tsushima unfinished, every game I play with DLC I try to knock it all out right then and there. As for those two, well.. they shall have their day - as you say, it would be nice to be able to write about them!

 

I would very much like to see this - so if you ever do learn that specific photoshop skill set - please make it happen ?

 

I do hope so regarding Fallout 4 - of all the Fallout games with trophies it is by far my least favourite one - and that includes Fallout New Vegas, which runs as if it's being played on one of those Tiger Electronics things

One of those bad boys!

81ftIcTDWqS._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

...... Plus one of the DLC's of New Vegas literally sees Cam Clarke play a brain in a jar that describes Feet and Toes as hand penises - and that coming out of his mouth, is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Can't not hear Liquid Snake or Kratos from Tales of Symphonia y'know ?

 

I don't hate Fallout 4 by any means, I quite like it actually - it's just something about it never quite clicked with me the same way other titles did - I'm hoping I like the DLC a lot though, so that my opinion of it ends up a bit more favourable.

 

So you have put my mind at ease that I'll have a good time with it - I literally picked the season pass up after reading your review of Fallout 4 a couple of months back so. Trust in the Smevz on this one!

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Bruh, you ain't lying about that! I fondly remembered the emphasis on stealth with certain missions, but it hasn't held up very well upon replay - although playing one of the greatest stealth games of all time alongside it definitely doesn't do it any favors!

 

Yeah, wish I wasn't on that one....... No they didn't age well - they're frustrating more than anything.

 

Although - yeah playing Hitman 2 alongside it probably doesn't do it the world of favours either, in highlighting how shallow and janky that stealth was - at least they were trying though - it's one of the things I like most about that GTA Trilogy, they were always trying to do new and innovative things in each new game.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I sucked at the PCJ Playground too! Also that obstacle course in Vice City, in the stadium? I was dreading that, cuz I remember what a pain it was the first time around. Anyway hearing you say that it's not as frustrating is reassuring - I don't remember it being that bad, but with my memory who knows!

 

Yep, that obstacle course in the stadium was a nightmare for me too. I was not good at that. Glad it wasn't just me that was woefully bad at PCJ Playground

 

How did either of us forget to mention the one from GTAIII - the one you have to do on a hillside in Shoreside Vale... Patriot Playground, that made me want to scream every time that patriot tipped over haha

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Dude the lows got me questioning all sorts of things nobody wants to doubt about themselves, at first I was able to power through those feelings of self doubt but after a while I have to confess I kind of let them win. I still look at the pen, pad, and the equipment every so often, and I miss it a great deal. Hopefully I'll mister the courage to dive back in before my mid-life crisis hits!

 

Which brings me to something I wanted to mention earlier - if you wanna put together a Doctor Dolittle adaptation, absolutely 1f4af.png DO it. It is not fun to look back on things you wish you'd done, take it from me! It would most likely come with a staggering amount of mini-nightmares, but you would never regret it!

 

Well, and I hope this doesn't sound too preachy, but - to me it sounds like if it's something you still look at and think about fairly often, then it's something that is absolutely still worth pursuing, even if it's just for you, to exercise your own creativity - you'll almost certainly still find that part of it fulfilling.  Even if some of that negativity and self doubt might come alongside it. Unfortunately I think that kind of goes hand in hand with creative endeavours.

 

There's never really a time that is  too late for it though - that skill and interest you have it in it would remain regardless of how old you were when you decided to go for it again.

 

Just don't do what my brother did when he had his midlife crisis (he'd probably not appreciate reading that ?.......which I suspect he's still having,) buy a motorbike and then buy loads of toys and things and try and relive your childhood, because that's just odd..

 

If on the incredibly slim chance I'll ever have the chance to actually make that Doctor Dolittle adaptation - yes, you're right I probably should at least have something concrete to try and work from, because as you say I'd definitely regret it if I didn't do it. The chances are astronomically low of course - but never say never and all that! So I appreciate you saying that. To be able to make that - I'd probably put up with any number of mini-nightmares that might come alongside it.

 

On 04/12/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Whaaaaaat?? That sounds amazing! Crap, another game for the backlog! Damn you, Clarke!! *shakes fist*

 

I know, In the Mood has been on my to watch list for yeeeaaaars. I may have mentioned before, my wife is sadly not a movie person so my watching habits have plummeted dramatically the last six years that we've been together. I did rediscover my inner gamer during my tenure as her hubs though, so there is still hope for my inner movie buff!

 

So, my to do list has these new additions:

 

-Find video of Dreamfall Chapters.

-Amazon yourself a copy of In the Mood, and watch it when it arrives.

-Subtly start sprinkling "Barman's Holiday" into your daily speech.

Can do1f601.png

 

 

I hope it is, I haven't played it yet, but I hope Dreamfall Chapters is  like 2046 - I hope it is, and from what I've seen of trailers and screenshots, and a spoiler free story synospsis - it doesn't seem too dissimilar, but I also worry it's also fairly similar to Cloud Atlas - which isn't something I think I'd go out of my way to look for in a video game.

 

Your inner movie buff will make a reappearance at some point I'm sure.... My movie backlog as I've said before is far greater than my gaming one is haha...... When the day comes when I actually have more tangible responsibilities. I'm either going to have to invent that pill Carl takes in Beholder 1 to never sleep but still function (I'll send you one too,) or I'd just have to resort to wearing  this...... Just without the brainwashing please 

 

clockwork-orange.gif

 

 

 

On that happy note! I guess I'd better go and finish that Hitman Contracts review! :lol:

 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks Destructor! 

 

That's awesome of you - I'll make sure that I've got the game installed so that I can fire the game up whenever Smevz fancies knocking out versus mode - that's all I have left to do on it.

 

I think we need like one more person, because I'm sure you need 4 people to do Team Versus don't you, but I do know someone that would probably give us a hand if I asked nicely enough.

 

Yeah whenever you need it then I'll be on so that's cool. It didn't take as long as I expected & it's even faster depending on how many need it. I don't need anything really since I've already done it recently.

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6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

@Shrooba - if, or whenever you read this - could you pop over and give Kopite's guide a rating? I know you've played this in the last couple of months, so it would actually let you do it. Don't worry if you can't, I'm sure within no time - the positive feedback will start appearing on the guide, I think it absolutely deserves it!

 


Thanks for letting me know @rjkclarke, I checked it out, and...

@The_Kopite Great stuff man! I like how you even go in-depth to explain each of the items and enemies as well. Colours is a good beginner-friendly entry to the series, and with this in mind you went beyond just discussing the trophies; you even pinpointed individual elements of the game itself, like the types of platforms and icons (eg. home-attackable asteroids and bouncing poles) which is good for newer players.  And on that, I see you've made a ton of videos as well, another good detail and something that would've taken a lot of time. The Metal Sonic races also have great tips, noting key sections in videos on where to gain the upper hand. A very well researched guide. ?These little things all add up and show you've put a ton of passion into it! From an Aussie to a fellow UK brother, well done mate. ?

As a side note on the blue blur, I see you've got SA1 and SA2 on your profile! There was that whole imminent PS3 store shutdown fiasco earlier this year that they've went back on, but I have no doubt that they'll close it one day, so I recommend getting the DLC (Directors Cut and Battle respectively) so you don't miss out on those 100%'s if you ever go back to finish 'em.

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21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Yeah insensitive is a bit of an understatement really. Outside of that one thing - the books are quite nice enjoyable child friendly adventures - which could make really good films, yet nobody ever does them very much justice - Robin Hood kind of suffers that same problem, of having very few actually good cinematic outings or even TV Shows, shame really.

 

I dunno man, I fucked with that Disney Robin Hood from the 70s...

 

21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Man - I'm so glad that I didn't have a drink nearby, or in my mouth when I read the bit about you wanting to say Mengele every time you say Dr Dekker, it might have ruined my screen, that'd be quite the unfortunate faux-pas.... That would be a hilariously inappropriately different game if it was called that. Somehow - some of the characters in it might still be the creepiest things in it, some of the ones in that game made my skin crawl.

 

 

"Who killed Dr. Mengele?"

 

"I dunno, somebody with a conscience?"

 

You win, thanks for playing!

 

*Platinum pops*

 

21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I do hope so regarding Fallout 4 - of all the Fallout games with trophies it is by far my least favourite one - and that includes Fallout New Vegas, which runs as if it's being played on one of those Tiger Electronics things

One of those bad boys!

81ftIcTDWqS._AC_SL1500_.jpg

 

...... Plus one of the DLC's of New Vegas literally sees Cam Clarke play a brain in a jar that describes Feet and Toes as hand penises - and that coming out of his mouth, is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Can't not hear Liquid Snake or Kratos from Tales of Symphonia y'know 1f602.png

 

I don't hate Fallout 4 by any means, I quite like it actually - it's just something about it never quite clicked with me the same way other titles did - I'm hoping I like the DLC a lot though, so that my opinion of it ends up a bit more favourable.

 

So you have put my mind at ease that I'll have a good time with it - I literally picked the season pass up after reading your review of Fallout 4 a couple of months back so. Trust in the Smevz on this one!

 

Daaaaaamn, you are taking me back sir!

 

Also Cam Clark plays a brain in a jar... so you're telling me Leonardo was Krang?? Shit, hand penises is just a bonus after that!

 

Full disclosure, some of the Nuka World stuff is a real pain, but I thought the concept was a lot of fun. Far Harbor, I would've played a full game of that. They did a much better job of juggling factions and establishing lore in that one, and I think after the Night School stuff, the finality of a lot of the choices may be refreshing for you!

 

I'm just glad I helped ease you in that direction, and hope it doesn't disappoint.

 

"Hey Clarkie, did you play Far Harbor?"

 

"Yeah and it was shit, thanks for nothing ya douche."

 

?????

 

22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Although - yeah playing Hitman 2 alongside it probably doesn't do it the world of favours either, in highlighting how shallow and janky that stealth was - at least they were trying though - it's one of the things I like most about that GTA Trilogy, they were always trying to do new and innovative things in each new game.

 

 

 

Yep, that obstacle course in the stadium was a nightmare for me too. I was not good at that. Glad it wasn't just me that was woefully bad at PCJ Playground

 

How did either of us forget to mention the one from GTAIII - the one you have to do on a hillside in Shoreside Vale... Patriot Playground, that made me want to scream every time that patriot tipped over haha

 

They absolutely did, every game was a genuine push to try and be better than the last - a huge reason why seeing them devolve into fat, lazy complacency is so heartbreaking!

 

Patriot Playground!! The Sniper rampages were the only reason I didn't name those courses as the roughest trophy for me. That shit was AWFUL! So much going uphill and driving alongside a cliff, and that uneven terrain in general was such a biiiiitch. You are on point with that one, what an awful challenge that was.

 

22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well, and I hope this doesn't sound too preachy, but - to me it sounds like if it's something you still look at and think about fairly often, then it's something that is absolutely still worth pursuing, even if it's just for you, to exercise your own creativity - you'll almost certainly still find that part of it fulfilling.  Even if some of that negativity and self doubt might come alongside it. Unfortunately I think that kind of goes hand in hand with creative endeavours.

 

There's never really a time that is  too late for it though - that skill and interest you have it in it would remain regardless of how old you were when you decided to go for it again.

 

Just don't do what my brother did when he had his midlife crisis (he'd probably not appreciate reading that 1f60f.png.......which I suspect he's still having,) buy a motorbike and then buy loads of toys and things and try and relive your childhood, because that's just odd..

 

If on the incredibly slim chance I'll ever have the chance to actually make that Doctor Dolittle adaptation - yes, you're right I probably should at least have something concrete to try and work from, because as you say I'd definitely regret it if I didn't do it. The chances are astronomically low of course - but never say never and all that! So I appreciate you saying that. To be able to make that - I'd probably put up with any number of mini-nightmares that might come alongside it.

 

You're absolutely right. I think it's just a matter of mustering up the motivation. It's a bit too easy to fall into the same routine, to forget about other things you might like to be doing instead. Maybe after the challenge is over I'll start re-prioritizing my hobby time... often the best way to start doing something like that is to force yourself to make time for it, and regardless of whether you're productive with it or not initially to just stubbornly keep at it.

 

I think that's the standard midlife crisis reaction - "Nooo, I don't wanna get old and die! Wait.. but what if I'm a child again? They don't ever get old. Sounds like I just solved all my problems..."

 

I had a homie pick up biking when he started pushing forty. I couldn't help making fun at the time ("most guys havin a midlife crisis buy a car... you bought a bike"), and while I still think having any sort of desperation in that stage of life is a bit unnecessary, I definitely get now how much you realize that there's more stuff you wanted to explore than you knew before.

 

I think not only would you do a great job, but you'd feel tremendously fulfilled, and really what's more important than that?

 

I'll start the gofundme?

 

22 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I hope it is, I haven't played it yet, but I hope Dreamfall Chapters is  like 2046 - I hope it is, and from what I've seen of trailers and screenshots, and a spoiler free story synospsis - it doesn't seem too dissimilar, but I also worry it's also fairly similar to Cloud Atlas - which isn't something I think I'd go out of my way to look for in a video game.

 

Your inner movie buff will make a reappearance at some point I'm sure.... My movie backlog as I've said before is far greater than my gaming one is haha...... When the day comes when I actually have more tangible responsibilities. I'm either going to have to invent that pill Carl takes in Beholder 1 to never sleep but still function (I'll send you one too,) or I'd just have to resort to wearing  this...... Just without the brainwashing please 

 

clockwork-orange.gif

 

 

Yo all Dreamfall Chapters has to do is look remotely similar to 2046 and I'll be sold. It's a stunningly gorgeous film. I remember when I saw the trailer I was absolutely floored, and bought it not long after!

 

There definitely is a huge movie backlog I have to get to, and I look forward to being bitten by that bug again. And yes please to the Carl pill!

18 hours ago, Destructor-8 said:

 

Yeah whenever you need it then I'll be on so that's cool. It didn't take as long as I expected & it's even faster depending on how many need it. I don't need anything really since I've already done it recently.

 

You're a real one dude, thank you?

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4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Hitman: Contracts (PS3)

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I’ll elaborate on the gameplay more shortly – but I want to take a slight detour, and discuss some of Contracts visual elements. An aspect of the game that I don’t think this gets enough credit for. Silent Assassin looked decent for its time, as does Contracts, but there’s an element of Contracts where visually it really excels. Bearing in mind the fact that certain levels from the original title have been lovingly remade into this one – and they look incredible too.

To the point where if you were just playing this Hitman HD trilogy for the PS3, I don’t think you’d necessarily even know they were remade levels, they just fit seamlessly into the main game – and as roughly half of the levels are remade, that can only be a good thing. The designs themselves though – are quite the leap, even from Silent Assassin, they are larger, more intricately designed, and they feel so much grander as a result.

 

I can vouch for this first hand- I played Contracts before playing the original game, and I had no idea those were remade levels until I saw the original versions pop up!

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Essentially in Contracts in this HD version at least – you end up having to play through remasters of remade levels, which I always thought was a funny little idiosyncrasy. Much like Silent Assassin however, it is a good remaster. This game looked pretty good at the time I don’t want to get too caught up on the debate about remastering games in 2021 and how lazy and lackadaisical that all seems to have gotten.

Personally I feel as if the Hitman HD trilogy was released in that brief time period where remasters were made as a means to attract a new audience to an intellectual property, actually I’d probably say at the very least they were released to proudly celebrate beloved games on newer hardware – I wish that still felt like the case these days.

 

That whole debate about HD remasters is a pretty valid one all told, though I never really saw the Hitman HD collection as a part of that, simply beach I think those older Hitman games are exactly the kind of games that should get remasters. Those older games are ones that a lot of people know about, but didn't necessarily have the audience back then, and with the wild popularity of the new trilogy (particularly through streaming games - I know, for example, the two sites I watch -  Giant Bomb and Nextlander - have like 60 videos and special competitions and stuff on the new Hitman trilogy alone!) it makes sense that a lot of folks new to the series, but who have heard of those old games would want an easy way to go back and check them out.

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

However, I think Jesper Kyd put a much greater emphasis on a narrative through line in the soundtrack to Contracts, and I absolutely love it. It’s ambient, moody, and in places mesmerizingly hypnotic and haunting. But it totally fits the narrative, as Contracts is as much a journey through 47’s memories and his own psyche than it is anything else, so to hear that reflected in the use of music, is an absolute treat, and an element that I feel really elevates this game.

 

I might be misremembering, but I think Contracts was the first game where I really noticed how smart the dynamic changes in the score were - how the music would heighten or soften depending on the level of danger and awareness of the enemies... I think some of that existed before, but it was pretty much a "Seen" and a "not seen" situation, whereas Contracts felt like it was doing more than that, and the score was working even more subtly...

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Something that I think Contracts achieves exceptionally well is in the creation of atmosphere, in some areas more so than even the more recent entries in the series. There are few areas in the Hitman series, which feel quite as dark and disturbing as the Romanian abattoir turned fetish party, seen within The Meat King’s Party.

 

The Meat King’s Party, a mission I touched upon briefly before – is one of the first instances of an “outside of the box” type of kill – you can literally hide weapons inside of a roast chicken, how clever is that? Let’s be honest here – there are plenty of targets throughout Hitman’s history that deserved their fate, but that disgusting fat Scottish freak Sturrock and his sickening brother (who you aren’t required to kill, but probably should at least once,) definitely do disgust you enough to almost think – “You know what 47, I kind of get this one.” Not quite but almost.

 

Haha, the Meat King's party is such a great level, and so gross! I don't know if you've read Preacher, but I'm certain someone in IO did - the Meat King feels like a cross between Odin Quincannon and the Allfather... and as such, so delightfully killable!

 

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Much like with Silent Assassin – I’m having a hard time recommending this to anyone who doesn’t already have a vested interest in the series. I love Contracts (obviously, or I wouldn’t have written extensively about it,) but I can’t deny that the recent Hitman games still aren’t the better alternatives. With that in mind though, if you enjoy the series enough, and you don’t mind a bit of clunk or jankiness – then you’d almost certainly have a good time here, as for its time it was a hell of a good game. Even seventeen years on it holds up pretty decently.

 

 

Great review mate - was a trip down memory lane... and made me want to play Beldingford Manor again... though, maybe I'll just cracnk up H3, and play the Isle of Sgail and Dartmoor again!

 

 

Oh, ps...

 

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

my review of Blood Money (which I’ve typed more than once as Blood Monkey, spell-check won’t get that one,)

 

I think Free Radical kept making the same mistake so often, they just decided to give up and make a whole game out of it... 

 

Blood-Monkey.jpg

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Hah sneaking in to say another good job with Hitman Contracts :D truly a great game and a great review!

I am so eager to play this one, especially since I remember that Silent Assassin on every map is actually achievable and not just a fever dream like I don;t know...accomplishing Silent Assassin on Hidden Valley mission on the previous game xD

 

Quote

For as much as I praised the soundtrack for Silent Assassin (praise it deserves,) I think more than anything it really shines in a location or situational manner. Each locations musical accompaniment felt at home, in that location. I don’t feel like you can quite say the same about Contracts.

 

However, I think Jesper Kyd put a much greater emphasis on a narrative through line in the soundtrack to Contracts, and I absolutely love it. It’s ambient, moody, and in places mesmerizingly hypnotic and haunting. But it totally fits the narrative, as Contracts is as much a journey through 47’s memories and his own psyche than it is anything else, so to hear that reflected in the use of music, is an absolute treat, and an element that I feel really elevates this game.

Again, Jesper Kyd "assassinating" it with his genius soundtrack. If I remember correctly, in Contracts there was rain in every single level (since it;s basically a recollection of 47's past missions heavily influenced by his in-game situation - therefore he remembers all the missions as being rainy and moody despite the actual missions being accomplished in daylight in Codename 47). Jesper Kyd captured that mood perfectly.

When will this man stop being awesome? xD

 

Quote

As far as advice goes, if ever you decided to play it, make sure you pick up a specific keycard in mission 9, so that you can get the two extra special weapons that are found in the first mission, the Gold Desert Eagle and the Minigun. One of the funniest things I remember about my Contracts playthrough came from getting the Minigun. One of the disguises in the asylum level is a patient disguise. I have such a vivid memory, of laughing along as I was wandering through the asylum at a snail’s pace with a Minigun in hand and wearing an open backed surgical gown – so 47 was essentially wandering around with a giant gun in one hand and his arse on show for everyone else – it was just such a surreal image.

 

I completely forgot about that one instance ? i have trouble remembering this game compared to Silent Assassin, but now with your review I recollect bits and pieces. Except Lee Hong Assasination, I could do that one with my eyes closed.

30 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I might be misremembering, but I think Contracts was the first game where I really noticed how smart the dynamic changes in the score were - how the music would heighten or soften depending on the level of danger and awareness of the enemies... I think some of that existed before, but it was pretty much a "Seen" and a "not seen" situation, whereas Contracts felt like it was doing more than that, and the score was working even more subtly...

I can confirm that :D in Silent Assassin, you had 3 moods: pre-target, being seen , post-target with glorious music on the background. It got way more subtle in Contracts, when you were in danger the music got you alerted without you even noticing the change in tune, as opposed to the "HA HA YOU'RE IN DANGER" sound.

 

All in all, fantastic review @rjkclarke. Do not rush for Blood Money (the game, not our good doctor), I will take my time with Hitman Contracts xD After that it's uncharted territory for me, I really want to experience this series to its fullest, because DAMN I never knew I missed stealth games up until now. These games are so stealthy they snuck past me.

Although me playing as a rogue/assassin in every other game(Skyrim, Dark Souls - don't ask) should have been a dead giveaway...

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16 minutes ago, Copanele said:

DAMN I never knew I missed stealth games up until now. These games are so stealthy they snuck past me.

Although me playing as a rogue/assassin in every other game(Skyrim, Dark Souls - don't ask) should have been a dead giveaway...

 

Ahhh....

...yessss....

....yesssssss....

...feel the stealth....

....FEEL IT.....

 

...my plan to force you - at gunpoint if necessary - to play the Dishonoured series is all falling into place!

 

Mr-Burns-evil.gif

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1 minute ago, DrBloodmoney said:

...my plan to force you - at gunpoint if necessary - to play the Dishonoured series is all falling into place!

 

Mr-Burns-evil.gif

Damn that's ONE stealthy approach! I will have to watch my back!

As long as I am not forced by the Shadows to play that godawful Thief game...i might just take a stab at DishonoUred :D

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4 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Damn that's ONE stealthy approach! I will have to watch my back!

As long as I am not forced by the Shadows to play that godawful Thief game...i might just take a stab at DishonoUred :D

 

Haha - I feel bad for the Thief franchise - I get this image in my head of Garrett from thief picking up a PS3 controller in some house he's snuck into,, and playing Dishonoured... halfway into the first level, he notices his hand has become translucent, as the mere existence of Dishonoured makes his once powerful form fade into nothingness like in Back to the Future ?

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Haven't been much active in the forums recently (real life problems getting in the way) so I have a lot to catch up on your checklist my friend, just wanted to drop by and say hi, hope you're doing good. I can see that you made quite some progress on a bunch of games but you haven't finished Arkham Knight yet, are you planning on getting back to it anytime soon ? 

 

I also wanted to hear your thoughts about Pure Pool. I can see that it's your rarest platinum, I've been eyeing this game for quite some time (even before starting this account), I didn't realize you got it done until now. Is it as hard as people make it to be ?

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On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

Congratulations man! That's awesome!

 

I read through the whole thing just now...... Damn dude- I wish I owned the game so I could actually give it a rating. That was fantastic!

 

I don't think I've seen very many guides on the site, that are as thorough and pay as much attention to details as that one does. I really like the fact you practically covered all bases - even down to like enemy types, and powers - and the best ways in which to utilise them.

 

Well done on doing such a through and intricate job with the guide - a lot of people are going to end up finding that incredibly useful I think. 

 

@Shrooba - if, or whenever you read this - could you pop over and give Kopite's guide a rating? I know you've played this in the last couple of months, so it would actually let you do it. Don't worry if you can't, I'm sure within no time - the positive feedback will start appearing on the guide, I think it absolutely deserves it!

Cheers man! Honesty I really appreciate that feedback. Yeah I'm hoping to get some good ratings and views for it, put a lot of effort into it but then Sonic for me is a passion project so it was a lot of fun. I hope it helps people, that is the whole point after all haha lol

 

On 12/4/2021 at 9:24 PM, YaManSmevz said:
On 12/3/2021 at 10:16 PM, rjkclarke said:

Or just admiring yourself in the mirror - in the Wharf costume that you've secretly been making for the last few months for Cosplay purposes and just lost track of time? 1f606.png

 

Hey buddy, what I do in my free time is my busi-

 

..oh.... you were talking to somebody else...

 

Ahem. Carry on!

Hahaha great comment ?

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

I've always liked the idea of it - but I've never really done it as an adult. I've done fancy dress as characters before for like fancy dress parties (obviously,) and stuff when I was like 17 - like one of the Doctors from Doctor Who and Eric Draven from The Crow, If you've got long-ish hair like I have I guess you're a bit limited by what you can do..... I think I could do a halfway decent Heath Ledgers Joker right now - as that's almost the exact length my hair is. But I think I'll just not haha

 

You should totally Wharf it up though - or if you aren't tall enough for Wharf then  as Wharfs kid from that one episode. :lol:

 

Or this Chewbacca made out of Cardboard boxes - which to be fair I actually think is quite decent.

I couldn't do Worf or his kid lol maybe Data....

 

That Cardboard Chewbacca is wicked btw

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

I have a habit of doing stuff like that - where I watching or reading things in the complete wrong order - and it ends up usually fundamentally changing what you think of what the original thing is as a result, shame really.

 

Underrated dramatic actor too Robin Williams, but then a lot of comedians often are.

 

Yeah insensitive is a bit of an understatement really. Outside of that one thing - the books are quite nice enjoyable child friendly adventures - which could make really good films, yet nobody ever does them very much justice - Robin Hood kind of suffers that same problem, of having very few actually good cinematic outings or even TV Shows, shame really.

Yeah that can happen. Getting spoiled in films can be a horrible thing and watching them out of order can have the same impact sadly. 

 

Yes he was very good all around tbh.

 

Yeah indeed, sometimes it can be really hard to do justice to a source material whilst trying to make it acceptable to totday's standards with some things. Robin Hood I will admit the only version I think I've watched is the Disney one lol so can't be the best judge of that.

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

I'll definitely bear it in mind - and I appreciate the support and suggestions.

 

Your guide is incredibly thorough - which is a good thing - I think I'd like to try and cover as many bases as possible myself. I always find that a little frustrating when guides kind of give you the bare minimum they can, instead of offering you as many options for strategies and things, so you aren't locked to playing it exactly how the guide writer played it. 

 

This isn't exclusive to this site of course, it goes back to even like the PS2 and original Xbox days, that kind of problem

 

Blocking will save you far more than you'll expect it to on Madhouse - but I think you'll be fine. I think I only really struggled on the second Jack fight - the one in the boathouse, and I think possibly Marguerite too.

 

I think I had to - and this'll sound manky as anything - but let's just say I had to do some  front hedge trimming with the circular saw, because I ran out of ammo - I'm sure you know exactly what I'm alluding to there 1f631.png....

 

.... You've got this though, even if you do need to do a bit of trimming.

 

You're very welcome, what are we here for if not to support each other? That's what these forums are supposed to be about.

 

Well look, if you think that my guide could be a good example for you personally to help you know what kind of stuff the guide team are looking for and the detail they want, then obviously use it to help you with one if you decide to do one in the future. Always helps when you're doing one for a game you really feel something for.

 

Yeah sometimes trophy guide can end up being more like walkthrough with one specific style of play - do this, then do that etc etc. Some don't realise they are structuring it that way. Even for proper guide books.

 

Yes indeed, I know that blocking is an integral part of being successful on Madhouse difficulty. There is a video on the trophy guide on this site of boss strategies for this mode which should hopefully help me too.

 

Haha front hedge trimming, now that's an image........lol

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

That makes perfect sense actually - that last boss on Lightning Returns is pretty unreasonable to be fair.

 

In fact quite a lot of the bosses in that game were - well, that and I initially sucked, and didn't really enjoy it, or bother to delve into any of the games systems, so I was struggling A LOT haha! I was stuck on Caius for the longest time - had to get some very specific sword you can get from making the Skeletons in the desert area extinct, it was pretty overpowered for how early into the game I was.

 

I'd definitely recommend looking up the ending - the true ending too, because that is truly weird - and I want to hear what you think about it, as the ending to that all over the place trilogy haha.

Yeah I found it to be that way, like the rest of the game I was fine with. It was a bit absurd tbh. Discounting XI and XIV for the sake of argument due to them being MMORPG's, XIII:LR is one of 2 mainline FF's I've yet to finish. The other is FFV.

 

Yes I really need to make time to watch that ending. The true ending. Thanks for the tip. Didn't realise there was a true ending. Like X-2 then.

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

I guess passive aggressive is better than full on angry in some cases - I always try and just make those ones a little bit funny to stop myself wanting to just write a really frustrated tirade 1f602.png

 

Well it's kind of fun Mars: War Logs , like you said "in its own way" - I don't think I'll be recommending it to anyone - once I review it. Even our resident KratosChu Copanele for as much as he loves janky EuroRPG's too this one has some really abysmal combat - I've lost count of the amount of times in the last two days I've been murderified (I know not a word :facepalm:,) by an army of asshole moles..... Why are there even moles on Mars? Your guess is as good as mine.

Yes absolutely. Passive aggressive with a bit of humour is a far better style than just a rant. Think that would get boring pretty quickly.

 

Murderified by an army of asshole moles........that's a sentence I didn't think I'd ever read lol You could sell people the game with that!

 

On 12/6/2021 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said:

It was pretty fun, and a nice distraction considering the terrible state the world was in last year  - and I do love Snooker - in fact that's why I've barely gamed the last 2 days because the UK Championships have been on - and I wasn't going to miss any of the final today if I could. What a top quality final that was too - nice to see two younger players starting to break on through as well.

 

It's also why I still haven't finished writing that Hitman Contracts review I haven't managed to post yet - I'll finish it tonight however long it takes haha.

 

It would have been kind of cool to have been the first achiever - I barely ever buy games at launch too, so barely any chance of that happening otherwise haha:lol:

 

Judging by your sig that's for beating ten different people at Tetra Master right? That's a decent one to get in early on - because there isn't exactly a lot of access to good cards, and whilst there's a lot of players to play in Alexandria, beating them with bad cards is a whole lot more impressive. So good going on that one.

 

Alright so all this talk of Snooker players...... Do you have a favourite? Mine is not someone you'd expect, so I'll be interested to see if you have one - doesn't have to be a current one obviously.

Yeah, players finally fulfilling their potential. That's what you want to see.

 

I'm the same. Apart from CE's of FF's etc. last physical game I bought at launch that wasn't one of my favourites was Dead Space 2 for the PS3. Games go down in price so quickly nowadays. Haven't got a PS5 yet, but got a couple of games for it already due to the prices dropping so quickly. Missed out on that £15 Spiderman Miles Morales Tesco deal though grrr

 

Yeah that's the trophy. Bought the game at launch and tried to get that as quick as possible, was so close to top as well lol Eventually I'l get around to going for the platinum. Just glad you enjoyed that game so much. 

 

I wouldn't say there was any players that I ever disliked, so it's more just appreciating the quality some of the top quality players had/have and their abilities. Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Ken Doherty, John Parrott. There will be more but I can't think of them right now. Always found it impressive that Dennis Taylor managed to defeat Steve Davis at the height of his powers in that classic final frame decider.

On 12/6/2021 at 6:56 AM, Shrooba said:

Thanks for letting me know @rjkclarke, I checked it out, and...

@The_Kopite Great stuff man! I like how you even go in-depth to explain each of the items and enemies as well. Colours is a good beginner-friendly entry to the series, and with this in mind you went beyond just discussing the trophies; you even pinpointed individual elements of the game itself, like the types of platforms and icons (eg. home-attackable asteroids and bouncing poles) which is good for newer players.  And on that, I see you've made a ton of videos as well, another good detail and something that would've taken a lot of time. The Metal Sonic races also have great tips, noting key sections in videos on where to gain the upper hand. A very well researched guide. 1f44d.pngThese little things all add up and show you've put a ton of passion into it! From an Aussie to a fellow UK brother, well done mate. 1f60e.png

As a side note on the blue blur, I see you've got SA1 and SA2 on your profile! There was that whole imminent PS3 store shutdown fiasco earlier this year that they've went back on, but I have no doubt that they'll close it one day, so I recommend getting the DLC (Directors Cut and Battle respectively) so you don't miss out on those 100%'s if you ever go back to finish 'em.

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

 

Yeah I thought with the game being a good beginner-friendly entry to the series as you said, that most people would grasp the basics and the structure of the game easier so I could focus on going more in depth offering advice on certain aspects that people might not pick up on. There is quite a lot of depth to the game which I was able to get into the guide as best as I could. Yeah you can always just use someone else's vids and credit them of course, but I always like to try and make my own videos if I can. Trust me, it wasn't nearly as much effort as the vids I did for my Toy Story Mania trophy guide lol recording using an actual camcorder lol

The Sonic races I used the idea that I implemented in my Sonic the Hedgehog 1991 PS3 trophy guide, where I was looking for ways I could create a guide that would improve on the one that was already there and that was one of the ideas I came up with. Using that in the Sonic Colours one to supplement my videos just seemed logical. Appreciate all your great feedback again, honestly I do these guides to help other people and it's nice to know that people like them ?

 

Yes I need to go through SA1 and SA2 again, the trophy amounts for them is woeful at the moment lol It was the first time I'd properly played them due to not having a Dreamcast, and found it a bit more difficult to get into them than I thought it would be so I'll need to have a proper go again soon. Yeah I'll have to look at the prices for the DLC's, though it's the PS3 store so they are probably extortionate.....

 

 

 

 

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Sorry for the late-ish replies everyone.... I did read a lot of these yesterday, but I wasn't really in a spot where I could dedicate enough of the time I'd like to, to actually reply to a lot of them.... Shame really, but I did enjoy the little back and forth about stealth titles though :lol:.

 

16 hours ago, PlutoRico said:

Haven't been much active in the forums recently (real life problems getting in the way) so I have a lot to catch up on your checklist my friend, just wanted to drop by and say hi, hope you're doing good. I can see that you made quite some progress on a bunch of games but you haven't finished Arkham Knight yet, are you planning on getting back to it anytime soon ? 

 

That's not good to hear man, that you've got some real life things stacking up on you - it seems like so many of us are kind of getting sidetracked at the moment with real life problems. I guess it's a little unavoidable. 

 

I hope everything with you is alright though? Thanks for stopping by and saying hi again though - it's great to see you pop back in.

 

Thanks for the reminder about Arkham Knight - I did mean to actually finish that up a couple of weeks ago, but I never went back to it, so thanks for the reminder, so that I know to actually do that. I did go through a patch where I didn't sleep more than about 10 hours across a whole week recently, and I thought my reaction times would be really shot to pieces if I tried those community challenges. I guess I'd better jump back in with them though.

 

16 hours ago, PlutoRico said:

I also wanted to hear your thoughts about Pure Pool. I can see that it's your rarest platinum, I've been eyeing this game for quite some time (even before starting this account), I didn't realize you got it done until now. Is it as hard as people make it to be ?

 

Pure Pool is a tough one..... I think I ought to do a redux on the review I wrote of it coming up on a year ago..... It was one of the first ones I did, and to be honest, it's more of a story of my time with it, than actually a review. I think if I do one for in here, I'd like it to be both of those things so it will need some tweaking. But I might try and release that one soon-ish.

 

Is it is as hard as people make it out to be? Hmmm...... That's an interesting question.  I think it depends honestly. The Platinum is very tough, but getting the 100% in all the DLC is an even tougher prospect. There's been ten people who have done it so far, I was the ninth I think. That perfect 147 break in the Snooker DLC is something I never actually expected to achieve, I just gradually chipped away at it, until I finally managed it one day. You have to be pinpoint precise in the Snooker mode too, as the pockets are so much tighter, you can't just power in balls.

 

How knowledgable of Pool are you? Because a lot of the difficulty comes from the positional side of it. So being able to know how the various types of spin work when applied to a ball, knowing those really help, because the game doesn't give you any indication of position, so you have to account for lots of things when playing shots.

 

At least half of the difficulty in Pure Pool I'd say comes from having no overhead camera - it really hampers your ability to tell if cut shots are going to actually go in, and also you can't easily see the best balls on the table to play position on.

 

The CPU A.I is evil as well - and pretty much every criticism you see online about it, is a valid one. The game is called Pure Pool, so you'd expect the A.I to play like real people, unfortunately they don't, they'll pot balls that no human could ever pot, they never play safe, and even if you get them snookered (where they can't hit their ball,) about eight times out of ten they'll pot it anyway.

 

I'm not trying to put you off by the way, just laying it out there - it's a nice platinum and 100% to have for sure, but I feel like to really enjoy it you have to really enjoy playing or watching  Pool. If you just want a nice ultra rare I'd be a little worried you'd find the whole experience incredibly frustrating. If I can do it, you can too. So I'm sure you've got the skill for it though, so ultimately I guess it's up to you on how much you want to torture yourself? ?

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I can vouch for this first hand- I played Contracts before playing the original game, and I had no idea those were remade levels until I saw the original versions pop up!

 

So did I actually - it was a pleasant surprise though. I'm fairly sure I didn't play Codename 47, until after I'd played Absolution.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

That whole debate about HD remasters is a pretty valid one all told, though I never really saw the Hitman HD collection as a part of that, simply beach I think those older Hitman games are exactly the kind of games that should get remasters. Those older games are ones that a lot of people know about, but didn't necessarily have the audience back then, and with the wild popularity of the new trilogy (particularly through streaming games - I know, for example, the two sites I watch -  Giant Bomb and Nextlander - have like 60 videos and special competitions and stuff on the new Hitman trilogy alone!) it makes sense that a lot of folks new to the series, but who have heard of those old games would want an easy way to go back and check them out.

 

I very nearly cut that bit out - and I'm still not certain me mentioning it has any relevance, I just worded it a bit poorly. I think that was back in the days of the remasters that had love put into them. As opposed to nowadays, where I'm sure they still do, but when a remaster releases, which somehow drives people back to wanting to play the earlier, much less visually appealing versions, like the recent GTA ones, then you've done something fundamentally wrong.

 

Like the Shenmue I and II remasters - those are actually very poor remasters - to the point where, really I'd argue they are closer to being ports than anything. I guess not every company can be Bluepoint I suppose.

 

I agree too, those are the kind of games that should get remasters, the ones that just deserve a newer audience to find them - that's what HD remasters should be for really, letting new audiences know exactly why certain forgotten or less talked about franchises got so much love and attention in the first place.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I might be misremembering, but I think Contracts was the first game where I really noticed how smart the dynamic changes in the score were - how the music would heighten or soften depending on the level of danger and awareness of the enemies... I think some of that existed before, but it was pretty much a "Seen" and a "not seen" situation, whereas Contracts felt like it was doing more than that, and the score was working even more subtly...

 

No I don't think you are misremembering - I did watch a playthrough of Contracts before writing the review, I did consider firing it up and playing it again, but I didn't think I needed to.

 

I also listened to the entire score over the course of writing the review - you're pretty much on the money though. There simply is more subtly to the music in Contracts - the persons playthrough I looked at was basically playing it fairly carelessly too, so they got seen fairly often, so you do hear the more subtle uses of the score.

 

I really love Silent Assassin's score - but, it's patently obvious when you've been spotted or are about to be, because whatever you were hearing before, gets suddenly drowned out in favour of the alerted score. It can be a little immersion breaking too now that I think about it.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Haha, the Meat King's party is such a great level, and so gross! I don't know if you've read Preacher, but I'm certain someone in IO did - the Meat King feels like a cross between Odin Quincannon and the Allfather... and as such, so delightfully killable!

 

I haven't read Preacher actually - maybe that ought to go on the reading backlog..... There's two other books on that backlog that I very much ought to read too.... You know the ones ?....... Well, obviously - because you *cough* wrote them *cough..

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Great review mate - was a trip down memory lane... and made me want to play Beldingford Manor again... though, maybe I'll just cracnk up H3, and play the Isle of Sgail and Dartmoor again!

 

Thanks mate - that's actually the level I'm most looking forward to in Hitman 3, and not just because a lot of my family are from that general neck of the woods - more Exmoor way, but some of them are around the Dartmoor area too.

 

I got real Beldingford Manor vibes from seeing some of the gameplay sections of Dartmoor in Hitman 3.

 

I'm looking forward to revisiting the Isle of Sgail in Hitman 3, that one does atmosphere so well - I've always thought the location was such an interesting contrast to everything else that's going on, story-wise going into that level.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Blood-Monkey.jpg

 

 

Haha Oh that cracked me up....

 

But....... Why Doc, why did you have to go and remind me that probably the only thing I'd like remastered more than the Legacy of Kain games - are the Timesplitters games. Beacause they actually would still function and be good games - Legacy of Kain always had janky fairly poor gameplay, so people aren't as likely to get pissed off at Timesplitters.

 

Something which is still awesome. Holds up pretty well too.  Me and a friend of mine spent like an entire day playing through all the various challenge modes in Timesplitters 2 a couple of years back, and it was an absolute joy.

 

Whilst we're on a bit about a photoshopped image by the way Doc.

 

Thank you so much for the absolutely wonderful job with those Trophies to Fight Cancer badges - I don't think I'd actually vocalised it yet, but seriously good job with those - they're really good. It's nice to be able to display something that looks so great coming off the back of that wonderful event.

 

You absolutely killed it there - so thanks mate. You did fantastic!

 

On 07/12/2021 at 8:32 AM, Copanele said:

Hah sneaking in to say another good job with Hitman Contracts :D truly a great game and a great review!

I am so eager to play this one, especially since I remember that Silent Assassin on every map is actually achievable and not just a fever dream like I don;t know...accomplishing Silent Assassin on Hidden Valley mission on the previous game xD

 

 

Thanks man!

 

Funny you mention that - about being able to Silent Assassin every map - that's one of my favourite things about it too. You can get Silent Assassin on Hidden Valley I'm sure, but it's beyond me that's for sure. I'm sure I saw a Speedrunner do it.

 

Hidden Valley can go to hell though - it reminds me of one of the bits you mentioned in your Silent Assassin review - where on some levels you basically just thought " nah, screw this I'm out" and just ran to the exit instead of actually sneaking there.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 8:32 AM, Copanele said:

I completely forgot about that one instance 1f602.png i have trouble remembering this game compared to Silent Assassin, but now with your review I recollect bits and pieces. Except Lee Hong Assasination, I could do that one with my eyes closed.

 

I'm finding some of the games have blended together a bit in my memory - like there's missions that I thought were in Blood Money that were in this one, and ones I thought were in Silent Assassin, but were actually in Contracts.

 

I reckon I could probably do Anathema from Silent Assassin pretty much with my eyes closed - I wouldn't do it well :lol:, but I'd give it a damn good go.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 8:32 AM, Copanele said:

Again, Jesper Kyd "assassinating" it with his genius soundtrack. If I remember correctly, in Contracts there was rain in every single level (since it;s basically a recollection of 47's past missions heavily influenced by his in-game situation - therefore he remembers all the missions as being rainy and moody despite the actual missions being accomplished in daylight in Codename 47). Jesper Kyd captured that mood perfectly.

When will this man stop being awesome? xD

 

 

With any luck Jesper Kyd will just continue to be awesome for as long as possible!

 

Interesting you mentioned that - because that would have been a really interesting contrast, had they actually put those rainforest missions from Codename 47 into Contracts - those are probably the most glaring omissions I'd say. But then perhaps if those did take place amongst moodiness and rainfall, that might have been one step too far, so perhaps that's actually the reason those were left out  

 

On 07/12/2021 at 8:32 AM, Copanele said:

All in all, fantastic review @rjkclarke. Do not rush for Blood Money (the game, not our good doctor), I will take my time with Hitman Contracts xD After that it's uncharted territory for me, I really want to experience this series to its fullest, because DAMN I never knew I missed stealth games up until now. These games are so stealthy they snuck past me.

Although me playing as a rogue/assassin in every other game(Skyrim, Dark Souls - don't ask) should have been a dead giveaway

 

 

Thanks again! I appreciate that.

 

How about this - as it was you putting forward Silent Assassin as a requested one - basically starting this whole Hitman revisit off.  How's about I leave off putting out the Blood Money one until you've played it yourself? Because I'd be likely to talk about a few specific missions in it, and as you've not played it, I'd hate to spoil how awesome some of those are. You should see those for yourself first, without any preconceived ideas I might have given you.

 

I can basically just write it,and then post it in here once I know you've finished Blood Money - don't rush to either, take as long as you need or want to on that one - you gave me plenty of other interesting requests to review, that I still haven't gotten to and I think @DrBloodmoney - was curious as to what Yesterday Origins was all about - so I might have to give that one a revisit too, so there'll be plenty of other things I could be writing in the meantime.

 

On 07/12/2021 at 8:53 AM, Copanele said:

As long as I am not forced by the Shadows to play that godawful Thief game...i might just take a stab at DishonoUred :D

 

+1 for Dishonoured from me..... The recent Thief isn't too bad, but I wouldn't rush to play it - I love those original Thief games, but the newest one doesn't quite hit the same highs, all the atmosphere that the originals created - those Hammerites scared the absolute crap out of me in any game they appeared in, the recent one just doesn't quite have that.

 

Yes, yes - Doc I know - I need to play Dishonoured 2 and Death of the Outsider & Prey - but I have some jank EuroRPG's to attend to first ?

 

On 07/12/2021 at 9:00 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Haha - I feel bad for the Thief franchise - I get this image in my head of Garrett from thief picking up a PS3 controller in some house he's snuck into,, and playing Dishonoured... halfway into the first level, he notices his hand has become translucent, as the mere existence of Dishonoured makes his once powerful form fade into nothingness like in Back to the Future 1f602.png

 

Oh man........ I so wish that wasn't true.

 

But it so is!

 

I've always sort of looked at Dishonoured as what a modern Thief absolutely should or could be.

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Cheers man! Honesty I really appreciate that feedback. Yeah I'm hoping to get some good ratings and views for it, put a lot of effort into it but then Sonic for me is a passion project so it was a lot of fun. I hope it helps people, that is the whole point after all haha lol

 

You're very welcome!

 

You should absolutely be proud of that man - it's incredibly good, so detailed too.

 

It is patently clear just from reading even a few of the early parts how much care and attention actually went into making that guide - so all the praise and love I'm sure it is going to receive are absolutely deserved!

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I couldn't do Worf or his kid lol maybe Data....

 

That Cardboard Chewbacca is wicked btw

 

I love that Cardboard Chewbacca - I saw that years ago, and thought it was really well done.

 

I reckon most of us saw so little sunlight last year - that a good proportion of people could probably rock Data's pale face - although give it about five years or so, and I might have a giant Brent Spiner forehead if I start to lose my hair ?....

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah indeed, sometimes it can be really hard to do justice to a source material whilst trying to make it acceptable to totday's standards with some things. Robin Hood I will admit the only version I think I've watched is the Disney one lol so can't be the best judge of that.

 

If you could only ever watch one Robin Hood related thing (that would be a strange imposition, but bear with me,) if you could only watch one.

 

It should be this

 

5443767520a65254881a10ab46085cc302e126fd

 

 

It's from the 80's but it's honestly one of the most unique instances of Robin Hood that I've seen (well apart from the Disney ones where they're animals).

 

It's a little hokey in places - and it deals with  quite a few supernatural themes. There's a lot of thematic elements about reincarnation and spirituality. A wonderful ensemble cast, and in the first two series at least some of the best cinematography you can find in British TV - Jesus do the Blu Ray releases, really showcase how beautiful some of the imagery was in this series.

 

But it's an incredibly unique take on the Robin Hood mythos - and one of my favourite bands Clannad also wrote and made pretty much the entirety of the score.

 

I'll erm shut up about Robin of Sherwood now?

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

You're very welcome, what are we here for if not to support each other? That's what these forums are supposed to be about.

 

Well look, if you think that my guide could be a good example for you personally to help you know what kind of stuff the guide team are looking for and the detail they want, then obviously use it to help you with one if you decide to do one in the future. Always helps when you're doing one for a game you really feel something for.

 

Yeah sometimes trophy guide can end up being more like walkthrough with one specific style of play - do this, then do that etc etc. Some don't realise they are structuring it that way. Even for proper guide books.

 

That is very true! Well said!

 

I absolutely agree...

 

I think you hit the nail on the head that it helps if its something you feel something for - otherwise I'd worry I'd lose a little motivation, writing so much about something that I probably don't care about enough to do it justice.

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yes indeed, I know that blocking is an integral part of being successful on Madhouse difficulty. There is a video on the trophy guide on this site of boss strategies for this mode which should hopefully help me too.

 

Haha front hedge trimming, now that's an image........lol

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

 

It's another sweet platinum to have Resident Evil 7..... 

 

Before you know it you'll be on 249, the way you're going, then straight into Resident Evil 2

 

Seriously one of the most pleasant surprises I've had in the last few years was how much I really loved that game, I guess after Resident Evil 6 broke my spirit a bit, it was a nice change of pace.

 

RE6 is fine I guess - as a game at least - but as a trophy list, it is horrible, grinding out all of the currency to upgrade all of the currency felt so tedious,even with podcasts and music to keep me entertained the whole way through.

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yes absolutely. Passive aggressive with a bit of humour is a far better style than just a rant. Think that would get boring pretty quickly.

 

Murderified by an army of asshole moles........that's a sentence I didn't think I'd ever read lol You could sell people the game with that!

 

I could use Murderified by an army of asshole moles - as a working title for that review haha - I think I've got a funny-ish one though, so we'll see. I got doubly murdered by the moles, for the small bit of time I played of the game yesterday.

 

Hoping to be done with that soon though - and get it reviewed, because the less I think about that game, probably the better - what is my weird fascination with completing games part of a series (although I'm still a bit pick-and-choosy with that,) even if they aren't that good. Yet I refuse to play Metal Gear Rising, even though I know it's good - I just think it really damages the franchise its a part of, undermining the end of a certain characters story arc from MGS4.

 

Yeah I think rants kind of have to be a little bit humorous, otherwise as you say they just get boring pretty quickly - I find the more you read of one, you essentially just start to think, okay, okay, we get it you didn't like it,you had a bad time? But some of it must have been enjoyable on some level, or why did you carry on ?

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I found it to be that way, like the rest of the game I was fine with. It was a bit absurd tbh. Discounting XI and XIV for the sake of argument due to them being MMORPG's, XIII:LR is one of 2 mainline FF's I've yet to finish. The other is FFV.

 

Yes I really need to make time to watch that ending. The true ending. Thanks for the tip. Didn't realise there was a true ending. Like X-2 then.

 

I haven't finished FFV either to be fair - it's installed on my PS3 too - every now and then I just look at it, and then think NAAAAAAH

 

Absurd is actually a pretty apt description of Lightning Returns - some aspects of it are really, really good. Like, they build atmosphere and a specific feeling they are going for really well, and then in other areas, yeah absolutely absurd, and ridiculous. 

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah, players finally fulfilling their potential. That's what you want to see.

 

I'm the same. Apart from CE's of FF's etc. last physical game I bought at launch that wasn't one of my favourites was Dead Space 2 for the PS3. Games go down in price so quickly nowadays. Haven't got a PS5 yet, but got a couple of games for it already due to the prices dropping so quickly. Missed out on that £15 Spiderman Miles Morales Tesco deal though grrr

 

Yeah that's the trophy. Bought the game at launch and tried to get that as quick as possible, was so close to top as well lol Eventually I'l get around to going for the platinum. Just glad you enjoyed that game so much. 

 

 

That's a fair way back - Dead Space 2 must have released about ten years ago haha.

 

That is true - they drop in price so quickly, it's ridiculous - I end up Ebaying quite a lot of physical editions - you can get some real bargains, obviously. I picked up Lego Movie 2 the Video game, for like £6 sealed last year, which still seems too much actually - now that I've played it ?

 

Damn was that the PS5 version of Miles Morales? I totally would have snapped that up myself had I known about it - that's a frustrating one to miss out on for sure, I'm with you on that one.

 

You were so close to being first! Even closer to being second - by like a minute - how frustrating. I had a little look just now. 

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I wouldn't say there was any players that I ever disliked, so it's more just appreciating the quality some of the top quality players had/have and their abilities. Stephen Hendry, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Ken Doherty, John Parrott. There will be more but I can't think of them right now. Always found it impressive that Dennis Taylor managed to defeat Steve Davis at the height of his powers in that classic final frame decider.

 

That's fair yeah - there's no real reason to dislike certain players - well apart from Quinten Hann, that guy was a complete cock.

 

Nice to see Crafty Ken Doherty and John Parrott make your list - Parrott was probably one of the best players of all time of being able to pot balls when the cue ball was up against the cushion - he had an uncanny knack for that,

 

Ahh yeah that Dennis Vs Steve  85 final.  They actually did like a little comedy rematch in 2010 - that you can find on YouTube which is really funny - it's just them pratting about and having a laugh, but I remember seeing it on the BBC when it aired and thought it was hilarious.

 

Dennis really cracks me up anyway as a commentator - there was a bit in the World Seniors Championship, last year when Jimmy White was playing, and you know how they used to nickname him "The Whirlwind"......... Well, in the middle of the match after Jimmy had missed an important ball, Dennis comes out with the immortal line

 

" They used to say that he was The Whirlwind....... These days he's more of a light breeze"

 

That just absolutely had me howling for some reason.

 

I guess I ought to go and do my science homework  - by seeing how the latest batch of games fares against the old game science!

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Interesting you mentioned that - because that would have been a really interesting contrast, had they actually put those rainforest missions from Codename 47 into Contracts - those are probably the most glaring omissions I'd say. But then perhaps if those did take place amongst moodiness and rainfall, that might have been one step too far, so perhaps that's actually the reason those were left out  

Oh man...those would not have fit in the direction Hitman was going in Contracts... ? The first rainforest mission you had to basically gun down enemies to save that chief's son (no stealth option), second mission was sprinting past the Jaguar and third mission...Say Hello to My Lil' Friend. The most Max Payne missions in the series. They really had to remake those missions from scratch if they wanted to add them in Contracts, cause those were not fitting.

 

Actually that final mission where you go against bootleg Scarface WOULD have been interesting at night...sneaking past guard lights and trying to get him in the cover of darkness. Well, one can only dream xD

 

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Thanks again! I appreciate that.

 

How about this - as it was you putting forward Silent Assassin as a requested one - basically starting this whole Hitman revisit off.  How's about I leave off putting out the Blood Money one until you've played it yourself? Because I'd be likely to talk about a few specific missions in it, and as you've not played it, I'd hate to spoil how awesome some of those are. You should see those for yourself first, without any preconceived ideas I might have given you.

 

I can basically just write it,and then post it in here once I know you've finished Blood Money - don't rush to either, take as long as you need or want to on that one - you gave me plenty of other interesting requests to review, that I still haven't gotten to and I think @DrBloodmoney - was curious as to what Yesterday Origins was all about - so I might have to give that one a revisit too, so there'll be plenty of other things I could be writing in the meantime.

Big thanks! I will try to move as fast down the list as possible and reach Contracts and Blood Money, right after finishing...whatever the hell I am playing right now (sometimes even I have no idea). Yeah, I recall requesting a pretty big list back then, whoops xD

 

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If you could only ever watch one Robin Hood related thing (that would be a strange imposition, but bear with me,) if you could only watch one.

 

It should be this

I'll double the stake and recommend this as one other REQUIRED Robin of Sherwood that must be watched:

robin-hood-men-in-tights-342376l-600x0-w

He is also speaking with a British accent :awesome:

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2 hours ago, Copanele said:

Oh man...those would not have fit in the direction Hitman was going in Contracts... 1f605.png The first rainforest mission you had to basically gun down enemies to save that chief's son (no stealth option), second mission was sprinting past the Jaguar and third mission...Say Hello to My Lil' Friend. The most Max Payne missions in the series. They really had to remake those missions from scratch if they wanted to add them in Contracts, cause those were not fitting.

 

Actually that final mission where you go against bootleg Scarface WOULD have been interesting at night...sneaking past guard lights and trying to get him in the cover of darkness. Well, one can only dream xD

 

 

Those missions are the only time across the entire series, that I think they are anywhere close to the most recent Hitman movie...... The terrible Agent 47 one, not the Timothy the Elephant one (I'm never going to refer to Timothy Olyphant correctly ever, ?) the other terrible one. 

 

Comparing them to Max Payne is a pretty perfect analogy for them actually - especially with the whole slow down time thing that Codename 47 had.

 

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

Big thanks! I will try to move as fast down the list as possible and reach Contracts and Blood Money, right after finishing...whatever the hell I am playing right now (sometimes even I have no idea). Yeah, I recall requesting a pretty big list back then, whoops xD

 

Go as fast or as slow as you need to man - don't rush on my account - I'll just have it written and ready for whenever you finish Blood Money.

 

That really made me laugh - the whole "whatever it is I'm playing thing" I'm in the same boat, with Mars: War Logs..... It tells me I've played it for about fifteen hours, but I still don't quite know what it is I'm playing.

 

Although I'm hoping to have that finished tonight soon - so I'll try and get a review of that out tomorrow, I'm going to have to resort to humour in it I think to stop it being some long rant about how much I hate the mole enemies, :lol:...

 

I don't mind the big list at all - pretty much all of them are really awesome games too, so it'll be fun getting to have a little stroll down memory lane with those. I might knock off Jedi Outcast & Jedi Academy next off the list you gave me.

 

2 hours ago, Copanele said:

I'll double the stake and recommend this as one other REQUIRED Robin of Sherwood that must be watched:

 

That's the second time you've had to remind me of that films existence good sir!

 

I Appreciate the reminder too  that's another good bit of time in the spotlight for Cary Elwes.

 

I really ought to rewatch it, it's been a good long while.

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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On 12/6/2021 at 7:15 PM, rjkclarke said:

Classic Review

LH1e246a.jpg

 

Platinum #78

Hitman: Contracts (PS3)

L49332c.png

 

 

Hot damn man, you're handling these Hitman reviews! Good shit as always... between you and @Copanele I'm starting to dread if the HD trilogy should ever go on sale!

 

It's dope to see a quick progression in the series even then, and I like that they went back for those old missions. A meat king fetish party? 47 flashin them cheeks with a mini-gun?? Fuck man, don't be temptin me!!

 

Again, great review. Can't wait for Blood Monkey!

 

I've always loved those 70s Disney movies.. I dunno, even as an adult, I just think they're cool, and very openly of their era!

 

Early 90s Kevin Costner though... sheesh. Hit or miss at best! I don't remember being all that fond of his mulleted Robin Hood, but I do remember loathing how they crammed as many Native American stereotypes and tropes as possible into Dances with Wolves!

 

Fallout 4's settlement thing is definitely a mixed bag. I thought the variety of things you could do was cool, but it felt pretty inconsequential to be honest. Not to mention that God awful 100% happiness trophy!

 

Bro if those remasters are based on ports of ports, on top of being apparently rushed, and then having a sixty dollar price tag slapped on with the originals being taken away altogether... damn man. I already thought the whole thing was kinda fucked up, that's a whole new level of shady! I'll have to watch that video.

 

Hopefully we'll both age gracefully where that's concerned! I feel fortunate in that I find myself always trying to embrace what's new - not to be young and hip or anything like that, but I just don't want to be that person who's stuck in the past, always listening to the same music, playing the same games, talking about the same pop culture until the end while the world passes by. There are people my age who manage to seem far older just because they have exactly the attitude you describe!

 

I will, however, always be guilty of having countless 90s Simpsons references on deck at any given time though, while disregarding anything post-2002. Sadly, I do have my limits?

 

I remember when Tree of Life came out! It was one of those "Oh wow, looks cool! Anyway, I'm gonna go do something else and never come back to this again" type deals... perhaps you are showing me the error of my ways!

 

On 12/6/2021 at 11:58 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Blood-Monkey.jpg

 

Hawt.

 

On 12/7/2021 at 0:32 AM, Copanele said:

"HA HA YOU'RE IN DANGER"

 

Well put?

 

10 hours ago, Copanele said:

robin-hood-men-in-tights-342376l-600x0-w

He is also speaking with a British accent :awesome:

 

Unlike some other Robin Hoods!

 

I too am in the same boat.. sometimes when I fire up my PS4 I'm like "okay... which of these was I doing again? What were the controls? Crap... I'm not gonna have fun today, am I.."

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12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's not good to hear man, that you've got some real life things stacking up on you - it seems like so many of us are kind of getting sidetracked at the moment with real life problems. I guess it's a little unavoidable. 

 

I hope everything with you is alright though? Thanks for stopping by and saying hi again though - it's great to see you pop back in.

I'm getting there hopefully ? 

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks for the reminder about Arkham Knight - I did mean to actually finish that up a couple of weeks ago, but I never went back to it, so thanks for the reminder, so that I know to actually do that. I did go through a patch where I didn't sleep more than about 10 hours across a whole week recently, and I thought my reaction times would be really shot to pieces if I tried those community challenges. I guess I'd better jump back in with them though.

Curious to see follow your progression on those community challenges and the 100% as a whole but there is no rush haha, the game is full offline so it's not like you're hard pressed by a server closure or anything, you can take as much time as you want ? 

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Pure Pool is a tough one..... I think I ought to do a redux on the review I wrote of it coming up on a year ago..... It was one of the first ones I did, and to be honest, it's more of a story of my time with it, than actually a review. I think if I do one for in here, I'd like it to be both of those things so it will need some tweaking. But I might try and release that one soon-ish.

I'll make sure not to miss out on that if you decide to release a full write up ?

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

How knowledgable of Pool are you? Because a lot of the difficulty comes from the positional side of it. So being able to know how the various types of spin work when applied to a ball, knowing those really help, because the game doesn't give you any indication of position, so you have to account for lots of things when playing shots.

 

At least half of the difficulty in Pure Pool I'd say comes from having no overhead camera - it really hampers your ability to tell if cut shots are going to actually go in, and also you can't easily see the best balls on the table to play position on.

 

The CPU A.I is evil as well - and pretty much every criticism you see online about it, is a valid one. The game is called Pure Pool, so you'd expect the A.I to play like real people, unfortunately they don't, they'll pot balls that no human could ever pot, they never play safe, and even if you get them snookered (where they can't hit their ball,) about eight times out of ten they'll pot it anyway.

 

I'm not trying to put you off by the way, just laying it out there - it's a nice platinum and 100% to have for sure, but I feel like to really enjoy it you have to really enjoy playing or watching  Pool. If you just want a nice ultra rare I'd be a little worried you'd find the whole experience incredibly frustrating. If I can do it, you can too. So I'm sure you've got the skill for it though, so ultimately I guess it's up to you on how much you want to torture yourself? 1f606.png

My knowledge is pretty basic I would say. I got introduced to pool a couple years ago, I wasn't really good at first so I kind of had that obsession where I wanted to get my game up. I started playing everyday to get better until I could beat all my friends consistently haha. As for the technical part like the various types of spin, I feel like I will learn everything on the fly while actually playing the game because my knowledge of pool doesn't go that far to be honest haha ?

 

I got Hustle Kings in my backlog, a game I would like to tackle in the future. The experience acquired with that game may be useful for Pure Pool. I'm honestly motivated by having a nice UR plat but I definitely enjoy pool enough in real life to make this not just about some rare trophies, so we will see. ?

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