rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[The_Kopite]

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

5? Geez, that's quite a few..... I find the prospect of potentially writing just one pretty daunting. You weren't kidding about being on a roll.

Yeah I just had a flow and a few games I was playing seemed interesting to do trophy guides for too so it just kind of worked out that way lol

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

They might have switched channels, because I caught the end of an episode yesterday on ITV4 at about 8 in the morning, so they might be showing it on there these days. It looked like they were about to start showing series 2.

 

It's ironic you mention it going downhill - because the stories are excellent in series 3, probably better than some in series 1 and 2, but the new Robin just didn't work, and in a show called Robin of Sherwood, he kind of has to right. You had all these possible small story inclusions, like the other characters don't trust him completely, that kind of thing,but they pretty much leave that out, and Jason Connery doesn't quite have the same acting clout as his Dad, or at least he didn't when he did that show.

Righteo, I'll try to remember that!

 

To be fair, Sean Connery had extreme acting chops so not like loads could compete.

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't really think Resident Evil 4 actually needs to be remade - maybe I'll change my mind on that when I play it soon, but I don't think it really needs it.

 

I do think Code Veronica should have gotten one though. I know you don't mind creepy Steve, but I can't stand that absolute slimy little freak, so I'd like a Code Veronica Steveless edition please! Interesting about having all 3 PS1 Classics on one Bluray, so long as we didn't get the Directors Cut of RE1 - nobody needs to have bleeding ears from the music in that version. I'm guessing you know about that weird controversy with the composer of that version,about the fact the composer pretended that he was deaf? Strange.

Hey if it blows my mind and is the best thing ever and they have reinvented the wheel and elevated RE4 to a god like tier then I'm all for that, but I highly doubt they will be able to considering what the game was compared to remaking 1, 2 and 3. Code Veronica would make so much more sense for a remake in terms of the RE franchise but there you go. Not like I won't play that RE4 remake lol

Haha as part of the Capcom press announcement for a remake of Code Veronica - "...and for those of you who didn't like Steve Burnside in the original game, this version comes with a Steve free option as part of the Capcom RE battle pass DLC." lol

 

Yeah that was very strange with the music in the Director's Cut of RE1. I need to get a copy to add to my collection, but I would never play it over the original. Classic music vs my god what is this red stuff coming out of my ears music lol sadly looks like BF1 took inspiration judging from the Angry Joe review I watched haha

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

He's basically got three different distinctive looks, and none of them are all too consistent.... You've got RE1- Code Veronica, where he looks, well like he does, then you have his Gibbon phase as I like to call it, from RE5 through Revelations and RE6..... Then he changes again for RE7, which I think is their attempt to try and make him look like he does in his I.D photo thing from the PS1 version of RE1, it's so strange. I think they wrote him fairly well in the Not a Hero  DLC, so hopefully that consistency continues going forward.

Yeah he has. His original look was absolutely fine, his second look was way too beefy and boulder smashy but I got used to it before seeing him recently in RE7 where he had decided to lose some of that muscular definition but seemed to be a happy middle ground. Yes I agree he was written well in the Not a Hero DLC, as I said to you I enjoyed that DLC quite a bit.

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Yep - that's a little too accurate - tried to please everyone, and managed to please very few. I quite like how the stories end up intersecting with each other, I think that aspect of it is pretty cool, and Ada's campaign does a pretty good job of showing how everything ties together. So it definitely does have plenty of positives.

One thing I will give a lot of respect to RE7 for is after 6 it was simply (in terms of the main game at least) this is one story with one tone (for the most part). This is survival horror again. Yes I liked how the stories in 6 linked together and Ada always seems to give that extra insight. I know there is a lot of encouragement from fans to Capcom to get Ada involved in a future DLC for RE Village.

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think you'd probably like them, that and NieR (all part of the same universe) - one of my favourite Square Enix franchises - dark as anything, but they are great. Drakengard 3 is a comedy as black as night, but so hilarious in places. One of the few times I've spent £25 on DLC and not felt ripped off.

O yes that's where I've heard it from most recently. It will have been in a review for the newer Nier games in one of the magazines I read and they must have mentioned Drakengard as the director/ game creators (I'm not sure) previous work and connection to it.

 

Wow £25 on DLC, must have been really good. That's a high price.

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well I'm glad someone had a positive memory of it, ..... I really am.

 

Yep I'm all up for the new Lego Star Wars, I'm worried it's going to be a bit too overambitious, which is why it keeps getting delayed. I mean it was literally meant to be out by now, but it just keeps getting delayed more and more.

 

It was those challenges in Marvel Super Heroes 2 that I liked the least - they were so tedious, if there was a way to have them appear on the map like they do in most Lego titles I probably would have enjoyed them a little bit more.

Oh don't worry there were other glitches too and it was bloody infuriating at times certainly (those challenges as you say was a big part of that), but yeah there is a lot of good memories there too and that's why it has a place on my milestone list lol plus I like Lego and Marvel so...

 

Yeah that's true, but hopefully it will be something close to a revolution for the Lego video game formula. They have imrpoved it over time, but it needs a real shot in the arm now and this game is the perfect opportunity. I mean, 7 of the 9 films they have done before so they have to bring something new and fresh to the table surely. That reminds me, I need to get back to Force Awakens on my Vita lol

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's a fair point actually - I did the same thing, by just doing the side content as it came up, but some of the crimes in progress were pretty tedious - as those one seem the most like they don't have to be there. But I do agree that Spiderman PS4 suffers from the same thing a lot of open world games do, which is fairly lacklustre side content. Yet most people don't seem to call it out for it, I guess because there probably isn't an overabundance of it to really get offended by.

 

I got really sick of some of it in the DLC though - as it really felt tacked on to some of the crimes in progress into those.

Yeah that was definitely the best way to play it in my opinion, helped to spread out the potential tedium a bit. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game as a whole and that's why I was trying to get my hands on that cheap Tesco Miles Morales deal even though I don't have a PS5 (don't know when I will lol) because I'm looking forward to that and Spiderman 2 in the future, but certainly some of it felt too long and too padded out. 

 

I played the DLC's and enjoyed the stories but had certainly had my fill of the side content at that point and so streamlined my playthrough of those DLC's as a result. Hence my lower percentages for them.

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Tell me about it!

 

I'm very much looking forward to having that feature on hand too - I hate that uncertain feeling you get when you think you should have unlocked something by now, but it just hasn't. Makes me really paranoid I've had a glitch, so hopefully we won't have that as a problem on the PS5, fingers crossed.

 

Is Road Rage any good? I keep seeing that on sale, and can never decide whether or not I actually want to play it.

 

Cheers on the review by the way, I ought to review something not point-and-clicky soon though, been doing a lot of those lately it feels like.

O yeah definitely. Think loads of other people were/are excited by a PS5 by it's new exciting Dualsense controller, the super fast SSD etc etc and they'd be right to be, I am too but I'm just as excited by a trophy tracker for that grindy arse trophies haha

 

Fingers crossed no glitches, but think they will always exist in some way.

 

As for Road Rage - check out my ShakeUrGeek Youtube channel for funny and random glitches that happen in the game, but as for the game itself, noooooo it's not good and that's being pretty kind. Paid £2.99 I think for it off PSN and let's just say I'm happy to have got a platinum out of it and to be done with it.

 

Yes, always good to mix things up!

 

 

EDIT - The irony of putting that sentence about the glitches, the website had a biff whilst I was trying to post and nearly lost this whole response lol

 

Also, Mass Effect is a great franchise (The original trilogy is mostly fantastic) and yes I even like Mass Effect Andromeda lol it helped that I played it a long time after release and got it for £6 off the PSN store, but still I really liked some of the characters like Peebee and I think the Andromeda galaxy had/has potential. To be fair, it didn't have the epic "Come on, let me in!" guy outside Afterlife on Omega though, what a guy. Just my two pennys worth.

Edited December 15, 2021 by The_Kopite
Updated information

[YaManSmevz]

On 12/14/2021 at 2:14 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Well, House of Leaves is one of the best book I've ever read that genuinely deserves that accolade.

 

It's an awesome experience - and I say experience, because it doesn't even feel like just "reading" - it's like a cross between reading, doing sudoku, solving a cross-word, having a migraine and looking at an MC Escher painting!

 

Here's a small sample of some of the pages, to give you a glimmer of an idea...:

 

 

Looks like somebody figured out how to take E.E. Cummings to the next level... looks like I'll have to check this out.

 

Doc I'ma just send you my Amazon info, send me whatever comes to mind. And get yourself something nice too?

 

On 12/14/2021 at 11:01 AM, rjkclarke said:

I struggle with even 3D in films - they tend to give me a huge head ache.... I had a really funny experience with 3D though - I went to see the animated Christmas Carol film (the Jim Carrey one,) from like 2009 really drunk on my birthday, not just a little tipsy, proper leathered, and as I walked into the cinema the adverts were playing, me being three sheets to the wind I'd already put my 3D glasses on, and they had one of the 3D enhanced adverts, and someone in the advert kicked a football at the screen which naturally flies out towards you, to which I audibly shouted "ARGHHHHHHHHHH" as I jumped onto the floor to avoid it coming straight at me.... There have been few times where I've felt that stupid!

 

 

For some of y'all I have people I just blindly assume you look like, and thanks to this awesome story I now have one for you!

 

 

Clarkie McFly!

 

On 12/14/2021 at 11:01 AM, rjkclarke said:

I've not seen Across the Universe, but I've just looked into it, and it sounds pretty interesting, so I might have to give it a look at some point. I'll probably skip out on foraging for some shrooms for my viewing though, if that was how you reacted to it.

 

If you like the Beatles, corny musicals, and artsy visuals, definitely give it a shot! Haha yeah maybe sit out the shrooms! To be fair though, in this particular instance it wasn't necessarily a bad kind of intense, things just started looking like they were coming out of the television. I didn't think they were out to get me or anything like that, fresh air just sounded nicer at the time?

 

Now there's a good example of being happy leaving the past where it belongs - do I look back fondly on that "let's see how drugs can augment any given situation" mentality? For better or worse, yes! As a married man pushing forty though, I'm perfectly content leaving that in a box upstairs somewhere!

 

Well, excluding the occasional trip?

 

On 12/14/2021 at 11:01 AM, rjkclarke said:

Well said - that's a great point too by the way, I absolutely agree that art in any form really holds that power better than a lot of things - especially when it's often open to so many different interpretations too.

 

It's definitely worth watching -  but it's just so unbalanced, to the point where watching it frustrates me more than I enjoy it at times...... You have some of the darkest, beautifully satanic imagery that you could ever see in a Disney film, and then two minutes before that, you have talking Gargoyles flying around drawing stupid pictures in a scene where Tom Hulce is pouring his heart into singing about how he doesn't feel like he deserves to belong anywhere, because of what he looks like. Then it gets undermined by those Gargoyles.  Nothing is ever consistent, and it is so frustrating.

 

If you never watch the film - at least watch this scene...

 

 

It's probably the best scene in the whole film....... Tony Jay is phenomenal in it too, and you'll pretty much get a sense of why I talk him up so much every time I casually drop a mention of him into a review....... "Choose me, or, your fire, be mine or you will burn!" The fact they have a priest - saying what he's implying in that scene in a Disney film, it still surprises me that they actually went that far, but then everything else in the film is so tonally all over the place it makes my brain hurt.

 

Damn, that's crazy! The willingness to let a villain be so full-on... well, awful, is not really something I've heard much about from Disney as of late.

 

Cinderella was forced into indentured servitude. Snow White and Aurora got poisoned. Anna and Elsa.. are.... cold?

 

I was really impressed by that, I'll have to peep it. And Tom Hulce is always a plus. Unevenness can be frustrating for sure, but perhaps I'll just have to see for myself!

 

On 12/14/2021 at 11:01 AM, rjkclarke said:

.....You just aren't doing it with people that look enough like Barney Gumble.... There's someone who lives in the same city as me that looks a little bit like him funnily enough - he looks like a mix of him and Haggrid from Harry Potter.

 

Haha aw man, woof.

 

On 12/14/2021 at 11:01 AM, rjkclarke said:

I don't really think Resident Evil 4 actually needs to be remade - maybe I'll change my mind on that when I play it soon, but I don't think it really needs it.

 

I do think Code Veronica should have gotten one though. I know you don't mind creepy Steve, but I can't stand that absolute slimy little freak, so I'd like a Code Veronica Steveless edition please! Interesting about having all 3 PS1 Classics on one Bluray, so long as we didn't get the Directors Cut of RE1 - nobody needs to have bleeding ears from the music in that version. I'm guessing you know about that weird controversy with the composer of that version,about the fact the composer pretended that he was deaf? Strange.

 

Once I get 5 out of the way, I really wanna revisit 4. I actually did not know about that controversy, I now have wiki reading to catch up on!

 

I completely forgot about Steve??? he sucked. And Claire was such a bad ass! Code Veronica's intro was almost on par with FFVIII's where I was just like Neo-level "whoa." Did I buy that one yet? I might have to...

[rjkclarke]

19 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

 

 

@rjkclarke please upload audio and/or video of you in a dark room putting your hands into wet ham. Slowly.

 

I think a video like that would probably be better on Onlyfans?

 

Thanks for pointing out that that was Legion in that shadow image by the way - I actually somehow forgot Legion existed, despite quite liking him...... Love the way they do the whole Shepard,Commander thing.

 

You and I might have had a similar DLC problem in the PS3 ME games - the ME trilogy I bought, actually turned out to be from a different region from the PAL one, and so the blu ray on those discs is incompatible with the PlayStation Store here, so I've had to re-buy ME 2 and 3, and get the DLC from the store here, to ever be able to use it, so I wonder if you might have had a similar problem.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Hey if it blows my mind and is the best thing ever and they have reinvented the wheel and elevated RE4 to a god like tier then I'm all for that, but I highly doubt they will be able to considering what the game was compared to remaking 1, 2 and 3. Code Veronica would make so much more sense for a remake in terms of the RE franchise but there you go. Not like I won't play that RE4 remake lol

Haha as part of the Capcom press announcement for a remake of Code Veronica - "...and for those of you who didn't like Steve Burnside in the original game, this version comes with a Steve free option as part of the Capcom RE battle pass DLC." lol

 

Well I mean RE 4 probably needs the remake the least of all - but ironically they know it's going to sell well, because as much as it does divide fans a little bit, I think there's more people that love it, than don't. I'd play it too, but I'd rather see Code Veronica get the remake treatment - I guess even if Steve has to be in it.

 

That would probably the first time I'd be happy about going for a Day One Season Pass kind of thing - if it meant no creepy Steve Burnside in it. He is 100% the kind of person that sniffs seats. Walks around in big grey coats with nothing underneath them (but still wearing shoes, and no socks,) randomly opening it up to strangers and going "DIDIDDLDLDDIDLDLDLEIEDEEE" and then closing it again. If you couldn't guess I really want that Steveless edition. Absolute Freak

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah that was very strange with the music in the Director's Cut of RE1. I need to get a copy to add to my collection, but I would never play it over the original. Classic music vs my god what is this red stuff coming out of my ears music lol sadly looks like BF1 took inspiration judging from the Angry Joe review I watched haha

 

The ironic thing is, is that it does sound like it was made by a deaf person...... Some of it sounds like someone left accordions all over the floor in a room full of cats, then closed all of the doors, leaving just a tiny window to get out from - all the cats see it, and then it becomes a mad scramble for them all to get straight out through it, all at once.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah he has. His original look was absolutely fine, his second look was way too beefy and boulder smashy but I got used to it before seeing him recently in RE7 where he had decided to lose some of that muscular definition but seemed to be a happy middle ground. Yes I agree he was written well in the Not a Hero DLC, as I said to you I enjoyed that DLC quite a bit.

 

Gibbon Chris is my favourite - there's a specific shot of him in Resident Evil 5 where he's on the Helicopter near the end and he just looks so much like one that me and one of my friends always referred to it as the Gibbon shot, we played that game a lot, so it ended up being a running thing..... Have you noticed that, that era of Jill looks like a fish as well, like Jilll in 5 and Revelations look quite fish-like I thought.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

One thing I will give a lot of respect to RE7 for is after 6 it was simply (in terms of the main game at least) this is one story with one tone (for the most part). This is survival horror again. Yes I liked how the stories in 6 linked together and Ada always seems to give that extra insight. I know there is a lot of encouragement from fans to Capcom to get Ada involved in a future DLC for RE Village.

 

That's definitely one of my favourite elements of 7 too.

 

On Ada though - I don't know man, I like Ada and everything, but I think she directly plays into a lot of the problem that a lot of people have with RE5 onwards, and that's the weird over reliance they have on trying to make things look cool, and often end up overly edgy as a result. Resident Evil 6 goes a bit too far into anime silliness territory at times, and Ada doing all of the things she does is a big part of that, I'm not sure Ada would fit with the tone that 7 had, whether they lighten that in Village or not who knows, but she just feels of a different time to me. I'd like to see her again, but I'd like to see them do something different with her. 

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

O yes that's where I've heard it from most recently. It will have been in a review for the newer Nier games in one of the magazines I read and they must have mentioned Drakengard as the director/ game creators (I'm not sure) previous work and connection to it.

 

Wow £25 on DLC, must have been really good. That's a high price.

 

That is probably where you've heard about Drakengard most recently - that and I bring it up fairly often, Copanele and I discussed it a little bit in here not too long ago as well.

 

I think it's the most I've spent on DLC that I can think of - I don't think it ever did go on sale, but I thought it was really good - and it's almost required to get the most out of that games story, not in so much as you miss out on endings or anything, just that it really enhances the experience that much by having it.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah that's true, but hopefully it will be something close to a revolution for the Lego video game formula. They have imrpoved it over time, but it needs a real shot in the arm now and this game is the perfect opportunity. I mean, 7 of the 9 films they have done before so they have to bring something new and fresh to the table surely. That reminds me, I need to get back to Force Awakens on my Vita lol

 

I think half of the problem will be making game adaptations of The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker...... The Last Jedi especially so. It has maybe two or three scenes you could crowbar into a level for a LEGO game. Rise of Skywalker has a similar problem, except I don't know how they really do a LEGO adaptation of horrible contrivances and deus ex machinas that are absolutely littered throughout that film, to the point where I have to check my ears to make sure it isn't leaking brain fluid having to think about how stupid that whole film is.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah that was definitely the best way to play it in my opinion, helped to spread out the potential tedium a bit. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game as a whole and that's why I was trying to get my hands on that cheap Tesco Miles Morales deal even though I don't have a PS5 (don't know when I will lol) because I'm looking forward to that and Spiderman 2 in the future, but certainly some of it felt too long and too padded out. 

 

I played the DLC's and enjoyed the stories but had certainly had my fill of the side content at that point and so streamlined my playthrough of those DLC's as a result. Hence my lower percentages for them.

 

Oh I liked it too, a whole lot - and I'm never EVER touching the PS5  remaster version - even if I was into stacking, I wouldn't. Purely because Peter Parker should still look like a Chinchilla like he does in the PS4 version, and the fact he doesn't makes me sad.

 

The DLC's - I don't know man - I loved the first one, a whole lot - I'm a sucker for Black Cat too, I think she's really interesting in almost any form...... I just have such mixed feelings about those DLC's it's why I've not put the review out for PS4 Spider-Man yet, I just don't quite know how I'm going to tackle talking about the DLC's, there are parts I love, and then parts I extremely disliked and thought were colossally stupid like what they did with Hammerhead, so I need to get a real handle on all of those things at some point.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

As for Road Rage - check out my ShakeUrGeek Youtube channel for funny and random glitches that happen in the game, but as for the game itself, noooooo it's not good and that's being pretty kind. Paid £2.99 I think for it off PSN and let's just say I'm happy to have got a platinum out of it and to be done with it.

 

Yes, always good to mix things up!

 

I think I'll give Road Rage a miss then haha ?...... I'll check your YouTube out though and see what I might have left myself in for if I hadn't asked.

 

10 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

EDIT - The irony of putting that sentence about the glitches, the website had a biff whilst I was trying to post and nearly lost this whole response lol

 

Also, Mass Effect is a great franchise (The original trilogy is mostly fantastic) and yes I even like Mass Effect Andromeda lol it helped that I played it a long time after release and got it for £6 off the PSN store, but still I really liked some of the characters like Peebee and I think the Andromeda galaxy had/has potential. To be fair, it didn't have the epic "Come on, let me in!" guy outside Afterlife on Omega though, what a guy. Just my two pennys worth.

 

That's why I usually write anything long-ish into a word document first. I've lost far too many really long replies or reviews to the site having a meltdown and then having to start from scratch all over again - which makes me real sad. 

 

You'll get no arguments from me about Mass Effect being a great franchise -  I have yet to play Andromeda, so good to hear another +1 from you too. But I do have it, I just won't allow myself to play it until I have the platinum in Mass Effect 3, which will be early next year I suppose realistically. I'm probably in for a fairly pleasant surprise judging by Doc's review of it, when it was hit by the science a few months back.

 

3 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

For some of y'all I have people I just blindly assume you look like, and thanks to this awesome story I now have one for you!

 

 

Clarkie McFly!

 

Haha!

 

I like to think I'd do a better job of stopping our resident mad scientist @DrBloodmoney from being gunned down by Libyans...... Or whoever else might be driving this van.

 

 

In this world's case that camper van is either driven by the guys who developed L.A Cops out for revenge, for their placement at the bottom of the rankings, or it's driven by that one really disgruntled Jak II fan.....

 

3 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

If you like the Beatles, corny musicals, and artsy visuals, definitely give it a shot! Haha yeah maybe sit out the shrooms! To be fair though, in this particular instance it wasn't necessarily a bad kind of intense, things just started looking like they were coming out of the television. I didn't think they were out to get me or anything like that, fresh air just sounded nicer at the time?

 

Now there's a good example of being happy leaving the past where it belongs - do I look back fondly on that "let's see how drugs can augment any given situation" mentality? For better or worse, yes! As a married man pushing forty though, I'm perfectly content leaving that in a box upstairs somewhere!

 

Well, excluding the occasional trip?

 

I like two out of those three things - so I should enjoy it at least a bit ?..... Think I'll swerve the shrooms though.

 

I definitely think you HAVE to dust that box off, if they ever make a Cuphead 2 - that's the secret to success with that game remember - just become The Lizard King, or Queen I guess - depending on how Lisa Simpson-ish you feel.

 

Worked before, I don't see why it wouldn't work again!

 

3 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Damn, that's crazy! The willingness to let a villain be so full-on... well, awful, is not really something I've heard much about from Disney as of late.

 

Cinderella was forced into indentured servitude. Snow White and Aurora got poisoned. Anna and Elsa.. are.... cold?

 

I was really impressed by that, I'll have to peep it. And Tom Hulce is always a plus. Unevenness can be frustrating for sure, but perhaps I'll just have to see for myself!

 

There's a lot of that really awesome dark imagery in that film - and Frolo is absolutely one of my favourite Disney villains, although strictly speaking the book version of Frolo makes that one look like the friendliest little puppy dog with the wettest of eyes - he is pure evil. But to push the limits the way they did in Hunchback I appreciate that they went there, but it almost feels like every turn they were asking to go darker someone at Disney was like "NO, we need more scenes of talking Gargoyles, the kids will love it" I don't know why but when I was writing that I was imagining Vince McMahon's voice, so hopefully you will too.

 

I can't promise you'll love it if you watch it though - I'm pretty sure I love and hate it in equal amounts. I think you'd absolutely appreciate what is good about it though, and as you know, in my case I prefer to see the good  in things when I can, instead of just focusing on what sucked.

 

3 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Once I get 5 out of the way, I really wanna revisit 4. I actually did not know about that controversy, I now have wiki reading to catch up on!

 

I completely forgot about Steve??? he sucked. And Claire was such a bad ass! Code Veronica's intro was almost on par with FFVIII's where I was just like Neo-level "whoa." Did I buy that one yet? I might have to...

 

I keep avoiding starting 4, and I have no idea why, when I jumped on the backlog challenge I got pretty excited at the thought of having an excuse to go back to it, but I haven't yet, we're halfway done with the event and I haven't touched that one yet!

 

It probably doesn't help I played it on PS2 not that long ago, so I could at least tell you it holds up pretty well too. So I definitely think you'd have a fun time with it once you get 5 all done and dusted.

 

I really like Claire - if you ever want a bit of extra Claire, check out Resident Evil Revelations 2, she's one of the main characters in that one.That's one of my favourite modern RE titles that one.

 

Fantastic point about Code Veronica's intro - I do love it when a game can wow you like that, right from the off.

 

I guess I'd better go and get my little experimental post finished and posted.

Edited December 16, 2021 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Sideshows and Curiosities

 

Five Of My Favourite Television Shows

 

Okay - so I'll level with you all. I've been thinking about doing this for a long time, but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet. There have been times when I've meant to write a review on a specific day, or that I feel like I should have done by now, that for some reason when I come to it I find I just don't have the mental energy for it. Usually I still want to write something though - so I figured any time that I have that sort of feeling I should write one of these. A nice fun easygoing post that just shoots the breeze a bit, helps me stay passionate about something, and is uplifting hopefully for both me and for you.

 

They won't all be like this one either, I've got plenty of ideas, a lot of them will be gaming related, it's just that this one isn't. I figured as a lot of us have been talking quite a lot about non video game related things quite a lot in this thread lately, and as I haven't been playing them all that much either myself, due to incredibly limited free time.  That I'd throw one more thing out there that isn't video game related.

 

I love some of the thought provoking pieces that @realm722 writes, that aren't all directly related to trophies or gaming - don't worry I'm not going to be stealing your shtick or anything like that, but hopefully we can have a bit of fun with some of these down the line.  I have been thinking about writing  more than just reviews for a while now - and as I often tell people "Checklists don't all have to be about trophies if you don't want them to be" then perhaps I ought to take some of my own advice here and just have a little bit of fun.

 

Before we get into this - this isn't a best to worst, or a numbered order, these are just five of my favourite TV Shows. I have plenty more than this, this just happens to be the ones getting their time in the sun today, perhaps we'll see some others at some other point who knows.

 

Ashes to Ashes

(2008-2010)

 

 

In all honesty - I could probably dedicate the entire post to just this show. I just have an almost unending amount of love for it. It's one I constantly have to fight the urge to rewatch, because it ends up making those eventual rewatches all the more special.

 

Ashes to Ashes ran from 2008-2010, and is the sequel series to Life on Mars. Life on Mars, is a show that I like, but I don't love. A story about a man who falls into a coma and is transported back in time to 1973 is interesting on a conceptual level sure, but I never thought Life on Mars quite did enough with that concept. At least not as much as it could have done. Ashes to Ashes on the other hand, absolutely doubles down on some of the more cerebral (and yes at times supernatural,) elements of Life on Mars, and I believe it's all the better for it. This time set in the 80's if you couldn't quite tell from the image.

 

Ashes to Ashes, is in essence a hybridisation of a police procedural and a science fiction show, that's a fairly basic description, but it is so much more than that, it's funny, it's incredibly dark in places and it really makes you think.

 

If you've ever visited my profile page on this site - then you've probably seen the two people I've had as my banner image for the longest time, Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) and Gene Hunt (Phillip Glenister). I'd  just finished watching through the entire series in a  short space of time when I started actively posting on the forums, and I thought I'd rather have something there than nothing.

 

In a show brimming with fantastically written characters, I am only going to focus on Alex, but perhaps I'll revisit this at some point - as I really could dedicate an entire post to this one series. (Sorry for anyone, that finds this post a bore).

 

There's many fantastical elements - like the small scenes where it looks the entire fabric of the universe is breaking away and all the characters can see is endless stars, before snapping back to reality. 

 

 

 

So.... Some of you will know that Keeley Hawes is my favourite actress, this show is one of the main reasons why. All the way back in my reviews of The Camilla Luddington  Tomb Raider trilogy, I mentioned how I probably couldn't have handled Keeley Hawes doing motion capure as Lara in those games(she'd be great, it'd just be upsetting,) it would break my heart. This show is why, I always liked her as an actress, but that expressive face she has, and the ability to just convey so much raw human emotion with just her face, and voice, Alex Drake soon became one of the most compelling characters I've ever seen.

 

She has such a fascinating story arc too, one of the few times where a character evolves over three series and by the very end of it every single action they took along the way ends up making perfect sense. Especially in those closing episodes where she starts to figure out what's really going on. One line she delivered, wrecked my brain for days. I'm not kidding, I couldn't sleep, it whirred around in my head, to the point where it almost gave me a slight existential crisis. The thing is though, it isn't about her character, and I won't spoil it either, but she is a hell of a powerful actress, and everything she does she seems to put one hundred percent into everything 

 

I'm interested to see if the proposed Lazarus  series that is supposedly in the pipeline actually ends up happening, or being decent, I'm really not sure I need or want that show, but we'll see. It'd be a third sequel series, notice the David Bowie song theme they are going for, so I'm morbidly curious about that one.

 

 

Robin of Sherwood

1984-1986

 

 

Something that a lot of you won't know about me (at least one of you does,) is that Archery is one of my hobbies. So I've always had kind of a vague interest in any form of Robin Hood related media. I can't tell you how bummed out I was when I found out that recent game was a solely multiplayer experience, that made me real sad.

 

However, Archery is not what drew me to this show - or constantly draws me back to it. It is so many reasons.

 

I love the music of Clannad (they are Enya's brothers and sisters, if you were wondering,) who provide the entire musical score for this show, they are one of my go to bands to listen to whilst writing, whatever form that might take, and they capture the atmosphere of this specific world so brilliantly. They bring so much depth to this show, and really play into the ethereal nature of some of the stories, and locations

 

I also think Enya's sister Moya beats her as far as having a powerful voice goes, especially when she sings in Gaelic..... This song live would probably move the stoniest of hearts.  Coinleach Glas an Fhómhair

 

The beautiful cinematography - always this, I'll never tire of this, EVER. The story I'm watching could be completely interminable arse (which it isn't here,) but if it was, I know I'd always have something interesting to look at.

 

A picture can say a thousand words and all that. So have a few..... This show does such a brilliant job of using colour, shadow and light, to such brilliant effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show never quite goes too far with it's supernatural element, and I love that - nor does it rely on that one concept. None of the characters have super powers, they DO DIE. It feels like a feasible world. 

 

Does it have the greatest acting you'll ever find? No, definitely not, but the characters themselves, the stories they tell, that amazing Clannad soundtrack marrying together so brilliantly with all those incredible shots are more than enough to keep me satisfied.

 

I wish all Television shows were made with as much love as this one was - you could tell the people making it really cared, and to me that always means a lot.

 

Blake's 7

1978-1981

 

Admit it...... You totally expected to find Doctor Who on this list right? Well not quite this time...... You know how I love janky EuroRPG's? Well I find myself loving jank in almost all of its forms...... Yes, yes... praise be the jank, and some such!

 

As far as old school British sci-fi goes, you don't get much more janky than Blake's 7, a show that looks the television equivalent of a hot-dog made with all the floor scrapings, anuses, beaks noses and ear lobes of Doctor Who's props that they thought " nah we don't want this one" and shoved it through a band-saw.

 

Blake's 7 was brave though - it dealt with some really dark subject matters under the surface. The opening episode sees a former rebel fighter (Blake,) being brainwashed by the federation (government) into thinking that he himself, and the general populace too think that he was a child molester as a means to control him and destroy his image. For a show that was released in the tail end of the 70's, that's pretty brave script writing.

 

To be perfectly honest - I'm not even entirely sure why I like it as much as I do, it has far more bad episodes than good ones, yet it was made with love, a whole lot too (noticing a theme here?) I watched a documentary about the making of this show, and hearing about how enthusiastic one of the Directors was getting (for a bit of context here, the director was well over seventy,) as he was trying to explain to the stuntmen exactly how he wanted the scene to play out, and they were near a hillside, and the crazy old bastard threw himself down the hill, got back up ran back up and essentially said "that's how I want it done old chap".

 

When it's good though - it's really good. Ironically the show is best when it doesn't have Blake in it. The minute Blake left in Series 2 and Avon (the guy in the centre of the image, played by Paul Darrow,) replaced him the show was all the better for it.

 

What an actor Paul Darrow was - he made a really initially unlikeable character in Avon into an absolutely fascinating layered character, he knew never to show too much emotion, because that meant that when he does, it's that much more impactful. One episode in particular Rumours of Death is completely Avon centric, and the way he unravels over the course of that episode is fascinating, made me really appreciate Paul Darrow as an actor.

 

 

 

I love this shot! Where Avon, the person who likes to think he's in control all the time has that sudden realisation that he absolutely isn't, and that he'd been utterly deceived and betrayed, for years and years in the most personal and brutal way possible. Remind me of The Simpsons episode where they say you can pin-point the exact moment Ralph Wiggum's heart breaks. 

 

 

Flowers

2016-2018

 

Look - I don't throw the term genius around lightly...... But, for William Tomomori Fukuda Sharpe, you are a genius!

A show made by an Japanese-English writer/Director, and absolutely feels like a perfect hybridisation of those two different brands of film-making, for me this kind of show is an absolute dream. I cannot recommend this enough.

 

Seriously Will Sharpe wrote one of the greatest scripts that have ever been put onto television (in my opinion obviously,)..... I think this is one of the greatest examples of a shows marketing being the thing that might stop people watching it. I thought this show was going to be a generic comedy show about hippies. I didn't watch it for the longest time because of this. But it isn't, it is one of the most important shows you could ever watch if you've ever suffered with any form of mental health issues.

 

Plenty of awesome cinematography here too

 

 

Love that Framing!

 

This show does not pull any punches, it's raw, it's honest, but what it is trying to say is important. So so very important. One of the main characters has suicidal thoughts, but Will Sharpe handles this incredibly intense subject matter with such extreme care and detail, that it paints an unrelenting idea of how that can feel for someone, and how it makes others around him feel, then in turn how it makes him feel, for making them feel that way. It shows how destructive and vicious a cycle certain mental health issues can be for us.

 

Without going into too many details, I have close friends and family members who have had feelings similar to Maurices's in this show. I haven't seen mental health explored in such an open and honest way, like this show does. I don't want to give any of it away, because I think everyone who is able to see this, absolutely should. This could change your perspective on rather a lot.

 

Flowers might be a comedy in essence, it's absolutely hilarious in places too, but it never once pokes fun at it's subject matter. Like some tasteless comedies can do on occasion. It might be the reminder that you need, that you aren't alone, and feelings you might feel, plenty of other people do too, and offer you a chance to really think about how to deal with them.

 

You could argue that Will Sharpe wrote the best character for himself in Shun, but I've asked other people who I've managed to persuade to watch this, and they've given different answers so perhaps Shun just spoke to me the most. I don't think I can think of a time watching anything where I've quite literally cried, laughed, cried, and then laughed again all within seconds of each other. Will Sharpe is a hell of an actor too, I'm tellin ya Shun might break your heart, the amount of empathy I had for him, hurt so much. Shun is the guy at the top of the post sat down.

 

This is one of the greatest examples of how much a writer also being the Director can help a project, Flowers feels like Will Sharpe telling the story that he wants to tell, never wavering. Ever since I saw it, I have had an insane amount of respect for him as a creative mind. Visually this show is absolutely stunning, series two especially so.

 

Star Wars: Rebels

2014-2018

 

I'm not going to go into great detail on this one - because I don't think I really need to. It's way better than I ever expected it to be. 

 

I'm not here to bash the Star Wars Prequels, they are what they are - but I think most of us can universally agree that they don't capture quite the same feeling that those original Star Wars films did.

 

I think Star Wars: Rebels does feel tonally at least, so much  like the original trilogy, which for any nostalgia junkies out there can't be a bad thing right?. I didn't expect it to, but it absolutely did, it feels like such a worthy part of the Star Wars universe. It isn't perfect obviously, as it's primarily a children's show there are the obvious things that come alongside that.

 

It felt like such a breath of fresh air, when I finished watching this show a couple of months back, I'm pretty sure I watched about fifteen episodes in one sitting, but by the end I was very happy that I went along for the ride.

 

It also ties up Darth Maul's story for any of you who might have wondered what happened there. Then again I guess most people might not even know that being sliced in half isn't quite enough to put that guy to bed! Haha.

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

 

Woooooooo, I got a bit carried away there, I meant to be fairly brief with these. I think in future instalments I'll just have to do one or two, as this went way longer than I expected, but this was a hell of a lot of fun to write. Hopefully this wasn't too boring for anyone reading, I'm not going to be doing these all the time, so don't worry if you weren't too fond of this one.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by rjkclarke

[The_Kopite]

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well I mean RE 4 probably needs the remake the least of all - but ironically they know it's going to sell well, because as much as it does divide fans a little bit, I think there's more people that love it, than don't. I'd play it too, but I'd rather see Code Veronica get the remake treatment - I guess even if Steve has to be in it.

 

That would probably the first time I'd be happy about going for a Day One Season Pass kind of thing - if it meant no creepy Steve Burnside in it. He is 100% the kind of person that sniffs seats. Walks around in big grey coats with nothing underneath them (but still wearing shoes, and no socks,) randomly opening it up to strangers and going "DIDIDDLDLDDIDLDLDLEIEDEEE" and then closing it again. If you couldn't guess I really want that Steveless edition. Absolute Freak

Of course I agree, Capcom know it's a guaranteed mega hit for them, hence why they are willing to put the money in to remake it. 

 

I'm going to push for Capcom to do a Collector's Edition with a big figure of Steve just for you haha

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

The ironic thing is, is that it does sound like it was made by a deaf person...... Some of it sounds like someone left accordions all over the floor in a room full of cats, then closed all of the doors, leaving just a tiny window to get out from - all the cats see it, and then it becomes a mad scramble for them all to get straight out through it, all at once.

Haha great and apt image. 

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Gibbon Chris is my favourite - there's a specific shot of him in Resident Evil 5 where he's on the Helicopter near the end and he just looks so much like one that me and one of my friends always referred to it as the Gibbon shot, we played that game a lot, so it ended up being a running thing..... Have you noticed that, that era of Jill looks like a fish as well, like Jilll in 5 and Revelations look quite fish-like I thought.

Well hey you got some enjoyment out of 5 in some odd way haha Chris is just that memorable lol

 

Can't say I ever thought Jill looked like a fish tbh lol

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's definitely one of my favourite elements of 7 too.

 

On Ada though - I don't know man, I like Ada and everything, but I think she directly plays into a lot of the problem that a lot of people have with RE5 onwards, and that's the weird over reliance they have on trying to make things look cool, and often end up overly edgy as a result. Resident Evil 6 goes a bit too far into anime silliness territory at times, and Ada doing all of the things she does is a big part of that, I'm not sure Ada would fit with the tone that 7 had, whether they lighten that in Village or not who knows, but she just feels of a different time to me. I'd like to see her again, but I'd like to see them do something different with her. 

Indeed, I admire it for that as I said.

 

I can see your point regarding Ada, but I think they did it really well in RE2 Remake and she would be in RE4 Remake I'm sure and if they can keep the same style then Capcom know the popularity of her hence the rumours of her appearing in an Ada-specific DLC for Village. Obviously neither of us have played Village so it's hard to work out properly if she would fit, but certainly I agree it would have been far fetched for her to have appeared in 7.

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That is probably where you've heard about Drakengard most recently - that and I bring it up fairly often, Copanele and I discussed it a little bit in here not too long ago as well.

 

I think it's the most I've spent on DLC that I can think of - I don't think it ever did go on sale, but I thought it was really good - and it's almost required to get the most out of that games story, not in so much as you miss out on endings or anything, just that it really enhances the experience that much by having it.

Yes of course you two did, my bad. Well I'm glad you really enjoyed that DLC, I've certainly never paid that much for DLC before but if it really completed the experience then what more can you ask for?

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think half of the problem will be making game adaptations of The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker...... The Last Jedi especially so. It has maybe two or three scenes you could crowbar into a level for a LEGO game. Rise of Skywalker has a similar problem, except I don't know how they really do a LEGO adaptation of horrible contrivances and deus ex machinas that are absolutely littered throughout that film, to the point where I have to check my ears to make sure it isn't leaking brain fluid having to think about how stupid that whole film is.

Watched The Last Jedi once and still not watched Rise of Skywalker yet (The pain of the film backlog me and the wife have lol). Clearly you would not give a glowing reference for it lol It'll be interesting, certainly with The Last Jedi as you say in terms of content for a Lego game, all the films before it had more obvious and easier to implement scenes. 

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Oh I liked it too, a whole lot - and I'm never EVER touching the PS5  remaster version - even if I was into stacking, I wouldn't. Purely because Peter Parker should still look like a Chinchilla like he does in the PS4 version, and the fact he doesn't makes me sad.

 

The DLC's - I don't know man - I loved the first one, a whole lot - I'm a sucker for Black Cat too, I think she's really interesting in almost any form...... I just have such mixed feelings about those DLC's it's why I've not put the review out for PS4 Spider-Man yet, I just don't quite know how I'm going to tackle talking about the DLC's, there are parts I love, and then parts I extremely disliked and thought were colossally stupid like what they did with Hammerhead, so I need to get a real handle on all of those things at some point.

No, I'll buy the standard Miles Morales game, not the Ultimate Edition with the Spiderman original game included. Sounds like you've got a lot of interesting thoughts about Spiderman nd especially it's DLC so I'll be really interested to see what kind of review comes out for it when you do it.

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's why I usually write anything long-ish into a word document first. I've lost far too many really long replies or reviews to the site having a meltdown and then having to start from scratch all over again - which makes me real sad. 

 

You'll get no arguments from me about Mass Effect being a great franchise -  I have yet to play Andromeda, so good to hear another +1 from you too. But I do have it, I just won't allow myself to play it until I have the platinum in Mass Effect 3, which will be early next year I suppose realistically. I'm probably in for a fairly pleasant surprise judging by Doc's review of it, when it was hit by the science a few months back.

Yes, good idea certainly. Only reason why I don't do that here is because of quoting. I do that for trophy guides though. 

 

That's more than fair, get that Mass Effect 3 platinum knocked off and then just don't expect Andromeda to be as good as the original trilogy and it'll help you to appreciate it for what it is. There you go, if Doc gave it a good scientific review then my +1 for it is just the flame on top of the bunsen burner............or a better analogy that I can't think of right now lol

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I really like Claire - if you ever want a bit of extra Claire, check out Resident Evil Revelations 2, she's one of the main characters in that one.That's one of my favourite modern RE titles that one.

I'll second this, really good game.

[DrBloodmoney]

11 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

That's more than fair, get that Mass Effect 3 platinum knocked off and then just don't expect Andromeda to be as good as the original trilogy and it'll help you to appreciate it for what it is. There you go, if Doc gave it a good scientific review then my +1 for it is just the flame on top of the bunsen burner............or a better analogy that I can't think of right now lol

 

Andromeda is decent - it's certainly not the tyre-fire some folks make it out to be, despite paling in comparison to the original trilogy. - My real take-away from it was - Andromeda is a good 'Sci-Fi Dragon Age' game... it's just not a great Mass Effect game!

 

It does have it's good elements -combat is fun and varied, the MP is great, some of the lore is actually really fun (even though they seem to not be planning on finishing the arc.)

Also -( it might seem like a small thing to some folks, but really )-  I love how the game sounds.

The music is much odder and weirder than the (great) bombastic soundtrack of the trilogy - much more minimalist and lonesome - it reminded me of some of the original scores of the more 'grown up Sci-Fi' movies of recent years - Ad Astra / Gravity / Interstellar - and the foley work in weapon sounds, tyres, environmental sounds are genuinely among the best I've heard in games!

Edited December 16, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

Just now, DrBloodmoney said:

Andromeda is decent - it's certainly not the tyre-fire some folks make it out to be, despite paling in comparison to the original trilogy. - My real take-away from it was - Andromeda is a good 'Sci-Fi Dragon Age' game... it's just not a great Mass Effect game!

 

It does have it's good elements -combat is fun and varied, the MP is great, some of the lore is actually really fun (even though they seem to not be planning on finishing the arc.

Also -( it might seem like a small thing to some folks, but really )-  I love how the game sounds.

The music is much odder and weirder than the (great) bombastic soundtrack of the trilogy - much more minimalist and lonesome - it reminded me of some of the original scores of the more 'grown up Sci-Fi' movies of recent years - Ad Astra / Gravity / Interstellar - and the foley work in weapon sounds, tyres, environmental sounds are genuinely among the best I've heard in games!

No absolutely not, of course I played it a long time after it initially came out so thankfully experienced none of those bugs and glitches that were present at it's initial release, but still it was a good experience overall. It helps that I really like Dragon Age too, so I can go between the two and just enjoy myself. 

 

Combat is fun and varied yes. Took a little bit of time to get used to that jump boost thing. The story definitely had some really interesting elements to it and it would be quite a shame if the Andromeda galaxy wasn't referenced further at the very least. The music definitely helped the atmosphere and feeling that you were all alone and broken up from your very limited amount of allies. Definitely worth a play.

[YaManSmevz]

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

On Ada though - I don't know man, I like Ada and everything, but I think she directly plays into a lot of the problem that a lot of people have with RE5 onwards, and that's the weird over reliance they have on trying to make things look cool, and often end up overly edgy as a result. Resident Evil 6 goes a bit too far into anime silliness territory at times, and Ada doing all of the things she does is a big part of that, I'm not sure Ada would fit with the tone that 7 had, whether they lighten that in Village or not who knows, but she just feels of a different time to me. I'd like to see her again, but I'd like to see them do something different with her. 

 

AA-DAAAAAAAA

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

The DLC's - I don't know man - I loved the first one, a whole lot - I'm a sucker for Black Cat too, I think she's really interesting in almost any form...... I just have such mixed feelings about those DLC's it's why I've not put the review out for PS4 Spider-Man yet, I just don't quite know how I'm going to tackle talking about the DLC's, there are parts I love, and then parts I extremely disliked and thought were colossally stupid like what they did with Hammerhead, so I need to get a real handle on all of those things at some point.

 

Ugh, that reminds me that I never finished the Spiderman DLC... one of these days I'm gonna get to that. Almost finished the Black Cat, but those stupid screwball challenges just irritated me so I dropped the whole thing. Back when I was blissfully ignorant of completionist endeavors.... oh, I WAS SO YOUNG THEN???

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I like to think I'd do a better job of stopping our resident mad scientist @DrBloodmoney from being gunned down by Libyans...... Or whoever else might be driving this van.

 

 

In this world's case that camper van is either driven by the guys who developed L.A Cops out for revenge, for their placement at the bottom of the rankings, or it's driven by that one really disgruntled Jak II fan.....

 

Oh god???

 

"JAK II WAS THE GREATEST GAME SINCE MARIO 3!!!!"

 

If he gets another one of those, let's start a gofundme to get him a popemobile...

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I definitely think you HAVE to dust that box off, if they ever make a Cuphead 2 - that's the secret to success with that game remember - just become The Lizard King, or Queen I guess - depending on how Lisa Simpson-ish you feel.

 

Worked before, I don't see why it wouldn't work again!

 

I picture it being like in Silent Assassin when the priest gets kidnapped in the beginning and 47's gotta bust out his guns and his suit...

 

"Cuphead 2? I can't beat that... TIME TO DIG UP THE PAST."

 

two hours later...

 

"I CAN SEE THE MUSIC"

 

That's why of all the druggin I did back in the day, psychedelics are the only thing I'll still indulge in on occasion. They're just so fun!

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

There's a lot of that really awesome dark imagery in that film - and Frolo is absolutely one of my favourite Disney villains, although strictly speaking the book version of Frolo makes that one look like the friendliest little puppy dog with the wettest of eyes - he is pure evil. But to push the limits the way they did in Hunchback I appreciate that they went there, but it almost feels like every turn they were asking to go darker someone at Disney was like "NO, we need more scenes of talking Gargoyles, the kids will love it" I don't know why but when I was writing that I was imagining Vince McMahon's voice, so hopefully you will too.

 

I can't promise you'll love it if you watch it though - I'm pretty sure I love and hate it in equal amounts. I think you'd absolutely appreciate what is good about it though, and as you know, in my case I prefer to see the good  in things when I can, instead of just focusing on what sucked.

 

Maybe Vince - er, I mean Disney - offered a compromise, like "fine, you can have your character exhibit toxic masculinity and make clear why this is a bad thing and the terrible actions that can result... but in return, we want more cute and cuddly gargoyles! Otherwise... YYOOOU'RE FFFIIIIIIRED!!!"

 

Jesus, I'll bet McMahon and Trump go golfing and compare "you're fireds" while their caddies nervously chuckle nearby.

 

....I don't feel so well all of a sudden!

 

18 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I keep avoiding starting 4, and I have no idea why, when I jumped on the backlog challenge I got pretty excited at the thought of having an excuse to go back to it, but I haven't yet, we're halfway done with the event and I haven't touched that one yet!

 

It probably doesn't help I played it on PS2 not that long ago, so I could at least tell you it holds up pretty well too. So I definitely think you'd have a fun time with it once you get 5 all done and dusted.

 

I really like Claire - if you ever want a bit of extra Claire, check out Resident Evil Revelations 2, she's one of the main characters in that one.That's one of my favourite modern RE titles that one.

 

Yeah, I need to get going on that... I've been itching lately to re-play 0, 1, 4, and get into the remake of 3. Part of me wants to knock out all the games I've already played so I can feel like everything on my backlog is new to me, if that makes sense.

 

8 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I'll second this, really good game.

 

If memory serves, I got this with Res 2.... with both of you fine gentlemen giving a recommendation, guess I'll have to peep it!

 

16 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Sideshows and Curiosities

 

Five Of My Favourite Television Shows

 

Great read! I was particularly happy to see that it was all shows I knew nothing about, I learned quite a bit, particularly the further elaboration on your admiration for Ms. Hawes, what Paul Darrow must've been like as a younger actor (I only knew him as Zarok) and Flowers - they all sound great, but that one in particular struck a chord. Absolutely keep tossin these out whenever the urge hits you, I really enjoyed this!

[The_Kopite]

16 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

If memory serves, I got this with Res 2.... with both of you fine gentlemen giving a recommendation, guess I'll have to peep it!

Let us know what you think of it! ?

[rjkclarke]

Rob Where have you been? (Oh you didn't ask ? haha )

 

Ooooops - this is probably the longest I've gone without actually replying in here.

 

Sorry about that, I've been way busier than I expected the last week, I shan't bore you with all of the details. Real life yada yada, all that stuff, some of it was awesome though.

 

That and the final Snooker tournament of the season was on, and I just had to see that final over the weekend, it was literally my two favourite players fighting it out like gentlemanly warriors with wooden sticks, fighting for £100,000 on a battlefield of green baize. It was awesome, and I loved every single minute of that tense uneasy final, full of incidents, ups, downs and everything else in between. A great end to Snooker in 2021! It absolutely went out on a high with that one.

 

I should have plenty of time on my hands over the next week or two - so I'm hoping to get back to cranking some reviews out (One for Arcania, later, the game that was Gothic 4, and then it wasn't, don't  worry you'll know why,) plus I need to catch up to Yakuza 3 review wise, so I'll have to do Kiwami and Kiwami 2 in the coming weeks. I'm planning on  getting some games finished up too. I really want to start Yakuza 3, so I really need to put Stranded Deep to bed, as I'm not allowing myself to play anything else until I've ticked that one off.

 

So once I've got these replies written, I'll go and make a bunch more progress on Stranded Deep, I think.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

I'm going to push for Capcom to do a Collector's Edition with a big figure of Steve just for you haha

 

I guess the melting plastic fumes will at least get me a little high (or make me very ill,) from the inevitable bonfire that I end up throwing that onto .....

 

You know somewhere out there, there definitely will be someone whose favourite character is actually Steve, those people are almost certainly two-pin din plug's and Shrub Rocketeers.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

Can't say I ever thought Jill looked like a fish tbh lol

 

Have you never seen a fish before?

 

 

 

Granted they aren't identical, but there's definitely a resemblance....... She looks the most fishy in that game to be honest, but I can't see Jill and not think of me and my friend playing the RE5 DLC and running up to each others screens saying " HEY CHRIS,  I LOOK LIKE A FEEEEEEEEEESH!"

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

I can see your point regarding Ada, but I think they did it really well in RE2 Remake and she would be in RE4 Remake I'm sure and if they can keep the same style then Capcom know the popularity of her hence the rumours of her appearing in an Ada-specific DLC for Village. Obviously neither of us have played Village so it's hard to work out properly if she would fit, but certainly I agree it would have been far fetched for her to have appeared in 7.

 

Well I hope so - I'm totally open to the idea of bringing Ada back if it makes sense to do so,  although it'll be bizarre seeing her in the the timeline Village is at, she'll be pushing 50 by then surely, so she can't quite be the same temptress and "sexified" character that she always has been for the most part. So from that perspective I'm very interested to see if they slightly change her, or whether she essentially stays the same.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

I've certainly never paid that much for DLC before but if it really completed the experience then what more can you ask for?

 

 

A discount? So you don't have to actually fork over all your pennies like an old lady getting on a bus and deciding to pay for her ticket with only 5p's before realising that she could have gotten on the bus for free anyway.

 

Other than that, yes, that's all you want for it to feel like a worthy use of your money, because sometimes afterwards I have had that instant regret and thought, oh I shouldn't have paid a lot of money for this one.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

Watched The Last Jedi once and still not watched Rise of Skywalker yet (The pain of the film backlog me and the wife have lol). Clearly you would not give a glowing reference for it lol It'll be interesting, certainly with The Last Jedi as you say in terms of content for a Lego game, all the films before it had more obvious and easier to implement scenes. 

 

 

Don't avoid watching Rise of Skywalker because I don't like it, you might enjoy it so definitely give it a watch, I know someone who saw it like nine times at the cinema.....

 

.....I don't like it by the way, if you couldn't tell - I can't stand that film, I think it is literally the worst Star Wars film ever made, and as a conclusion to a forty year old saga, the fact that film was what we got is a reals shame.

 

When the most emotion you feel in a film is two scenes with Chewbacca of all characters, then I think something has gone disastrously wrong.

 

The Last Jedi doesn't tonally fit a LEGO game either, I love that film, but it is quite dour and serious, and especially with the fact that LEGO Skywalker Saga is apparently going to give you the option to play it with voices off like the old games, they are going to have to go overboard goofing it up with that game.

 

I don't know I'm very curious to see how that one ends up getting implemented, in the final product.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

No, I'll buy the standard Miles Morales game, not the Ultimate Edition with the Spiderman original game included. Sounds like you've got a lot of interesting thoughts about Spiderman nd especially it's DLC so I'll be really interested to see what kind of review comes out for it when you do it.

 

That makes sense, Screw the PS5 version where Peter doesn't look like a Chinchilla anymore, at least Aunt May still looks like one of those troll dolls that used to go on the end of your pencil. You know the ones I mean I'm sure.

 

I have written the main game portion of that review, but I've never gone back and written the DLC part, I'm struggling to find a way to talk about it without giving too many spoilers away. Some of the story direction in that DLC made me scratch my head and really question why they did certain things with certain characters, but I guess I'm going to have to find a way to at some point, so I ought to just do it.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 9:52 AM, The_Kopite said:

That's more than fair, get that Mass Effect 3 platinum knocked off and then just don't expect Andromeda to be as good as the original trilogy and it'll help you to appreciate it for what it is. There you go, if Doc gave it a good scientific review then my +1 for it is just the flame on top of the bunsen burner............or a better analogy that I can't think of right now lol

 

I'm kind of on the fence on what I'm going to think of it, but I am excited to find out - Doc compared it to a Dragon Age game, which is fine. But out of the three Dragon Age games that have been released, I can honestly say the one I like the most is the first one, and the one I think Andromeda will be like is Inquisition, and that game exemplifies everything that frustrates me about open world games. 

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Ugh, that reminds me that I never finished the Spiderman DLC... one of these days I'm gonna get to that. Almost finished the Black Cat, but those stupid screwball challenges just irritated me so I dropped the whole thing. Back when I was blissfully ignorant of completionist endeavors.... oh, I WAS SO YOUNG THEN

 

 

You can do eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!

 

I'm hoping a review that I've got coming up in the next week or so might nudge you back into playing Arkham Asylum, because I think you'd love playing the other Arkham games too. No pressure obviously, but I also want to read a sweet Smevz flavoured spin on an Arkham Asylum review.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Oh god

 

"JAK II WAS THE GREATEST GAME SINCE MARIO 3!!!!"

 

If he gets another one of those, let's start a gofundme to get him a popemobile...

 

I think we should yes ?!!!

 

With some in built flame-shields, just for y'know extra protection.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I picture it being like in Silent Assassin when the priest gets kidnapped in the beginning and 47's gotta bust out his guns and his suit...

 

"Cuphead 2? I can't beat that... TIME TO DIG UP THE PAST."

 

two hours later...

 

"I CAN SEE THE MUSIC"

 

That's why of all the druggin I did back in the day, psychedelics are the only thing I'll still indulge in on occasion. They're just so fun!

 

I suspect that'll probably make you the first and the fastest achiever if that happens.

 

 

Platinum Achieved!

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Maybe Vince - er, I mean Disney - offered a compromise, like "fine, you can have your character exhibit toxic masculinity and make clear why this is a bad thing and the terrible actions that can result... but in return, we want more cute and cuddly gargoyles! Otherwise... YYOOOU'RE FFFIIIIIIRED!!!"

 

Jesus, I'll bet McMahon and Trump go golfing and compare "you're fireds" while their caddies nervously chuckle nearby.

 

....I don't feel so well all of a sudden!

 

I think you are probably far more on the money with that than all of us would probably like to admit, I expect that is exactly the kind of conversation that goes on at Disney these days, but it is what it is I suppose.

 

At the rate McMahon has been firing wrestlers in the last year, it's been so many over the last year I genuinely think he's be giving Trump a run for his money on that one, which if you'd ask me a year ago I'd probably think wasn't possible.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah, I need to get going on that... I've been itching lately to re-play 0, 1, 4, and get into the remake of 3. Part of me wants to knock out all the games I've already played so I can feel like everything on my backlog is new to me, if that makes sense

 

 

You know what? That's a great idea, I'd never really thought about doing that, but that really is a good idea, you'd practically always be having a fresh new experience if you went that route, and that sounds awesome.

 

When you do get back to RE1 you are in for a real treat man - that is honestly one of the most fun times I've ever had going for a platinum, it has almost the perfect trophy list I think, just the right amount of challenge, so much fun, so many specific challenges to do. By the end of it you really feel like you're the master of that game,and I absolutely loved that feeling. The way you start off quite trepidatious not really knowing your way around, and then each run you just grow in confidence to the point where you can side step zombies better than you can drunks on a Friday night, by the end! It's so awesome.

 

I really enjoyed 0 too, it's a real bizarre experiment that they did with that game, so yep you're in for some good times there I think dude - but I genuinely quite like it, although they did have a fetish for insects in that title or creepy crawlies in general in that game more than they do in the others...... Oh and those evil white monkey things, they effing terrify me even to this day, they put me right on edge when I played it last year. Even in the lite-gun RE game I played at the start of the year they scared the crap out of me.

 

Definitely jump in Revelations 2 at some point if you get a chance, that's a real underrated entry in the series I think. Plus you get to actually play as Barry Burton, what's not to like.

 

On 16/12/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Great read! I was particularly happy to see that it was all shows I knew nothing about, I learned quite a bit, particularly the further elaboration on your admiration for Ms. Hawes, what Paul Darrow must've been like as a younger actor (I only knew him as Zarok) and Flowers - they all sound great, but that one in particular struck a chord. Absolutely keep tossin these out whenever the urge hits you, I really enjoyed this!

 

Thank you man! I'm really glad you enjoyed that one, because I really worried people wouldn't like me changing it up a bit, but I thought I'd give it a try and see  - because that was a whole lot of fun to write that, I'll definitely do more things like that from time to time, if the mood takes me, it's something that I can just sit down and have a bit of fun with, without the pressure that I sometimes put on myself when I'm writing a review.

 

I've got a few ideas about some film specific ones as well, which should be fun. 

 

Paul Darrow was a real talent, it's kind of a shame he didn't become a bigger star than he did - I actually have another Paul Darrow starred series from when he was even younger, that I might shine a spotlight on, as that's another fairly interesting take on Robin Hood. That won't be for a long while, as I think me blathering on about a Robin Hood show even once is enough for everyone for now haha ?

 

 

I might do like a proper deep dive on Ashes to Ashes and Flowers at some point - more than likely Flowers though, because that series is so special. If you ever get a chance to watch it you should, it's incredibly powerful. There are only twelve episodes that are about twenty-five minutes each, so it wouldn't take all that long, but that show really does have something important to say, that I think would be beneficial to so many people.

 

 

 

[Copanele]

5 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I should have plenty of time on my hands over the next week or two - so I'm hoping to get back to cranking some reviews out (One for Arcania, later, the game that was Gothic 4, and then it wasn't, don't  worry you'll know why,) plus I need to catch up to Yakuza 3 review wise, so I'll have to do Kiwami and Kiwami 2 in the coming weeks. I'm planning on  getting some games finished up too. I really want to start Yakuza 3, so I really need to put Stranded Deep to bed, as I'm not allowing myself to play anything else until I've ticked that one off.

 

Good good, if you start Yakuza 3 imma fire up Yakuza 4 as well. I want to discover " everything is made out of rubber" meme myself, since apparently this meme originated in Y4. NO SPOILERS PLS!

But yeeeees, Arcania revieeeew!

 

5 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Don't avoid watching Rise of Skywalker because I don't like it, you might enjoy it so definitely give it a watch, I know someone who saw it like nine times at the cinema.....

 

.....I don't like it by the way, if you couldn't tell - I can't stand that film, I think it is literally the worst Star Wars film ever made, and as a conclusion to a forty year old saga, the fact that film was what we got is a reals shame.

 

When the most emotion you feel in a film is two scenes with Chewbacca of all characters, then I think something has gone disastrously wrong.

 

I can't call myself a Star Wars fan, more like a casual enjoyer. I like my lightsaber whoosh whoosh "use the Force" moments, but I never can say that I was an avid fan who knew the Jedi/Sith code by heart and knew the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise in Polish or some stuff.

BUT I have to agree with one thing - Rise of Skywalker is probably the worst Star Wars film, no, even worst Star Wars piece of media that I ever encountered.

 

Let's forget the original trilogy and even the prequels. From my side, who dabbled in this universe, I played the Jedi Knight series. Pretty fun, solid plot, mad gameplay, anyway.

Then I dropped into KOTOR series. Be amazed but I love KOTOR 2 way more than 1 because of goddamn KREIA who is probably THE BEST character ever written in this dumb ass universe. Like the writing of KOTOR games is something impeccable, a thing that present Bioware could not hope to replicate no matter how many space goats they sacrifice to the almighty Plot Gods. So you know...the epicness of the first movies paired with the godlike status of these games plot wise, I really looked forward to this new trilogy.

 

First I hear that everything that appeared after Return of the Jedi chronologically is now non-canon - alright, retarded move (pardon my words), but sure, whatever.

Force Awakens - cute beginning, laser stopping mid-air is sick, the "WOW" thing at the end was ...wow. Ok enjoyable.

Last Jedi - idiotic plot devices, but ok I can respect the direction. I was "sure, it was worth the popcorn"

Rise of Skywalker - my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. What the hell is this movie? What's this plot? What's the "....they fly now"? What what WHY DID I PAY THIS MUCH FOR A TICKET TO THIS MOVIE? I want my money back. After all the build up you serve me THIS? I would rather go watch Emoji Movie and I am pretty sure that movie would get me free brain damage together with the soda cup. At least it would hurt less.

 

Again, not speaking it as a Star Wars fan, but as a person who kinda wants coherency in a plot. What we got were 3rd rate jokes, a knife plot that was beyond stupid, MUH ROMANCE and MUH REDEMPTION and the conclusion that "whoops, Skywalkers did it again lads". And probably I am one of the very few, The Last Jedi was bad, don't get me wrong, but I prefer that to the Rise of Shitwalker. No thanks I'd rather watch paint dry next time.

 

Sorry for the unsolicited rant, you just reminded me how much I hated that movie The Mandalorian is 1000000 times better. Bless Jon Favreau.  

[rjkclarke]

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

Good good, if you start Yakuza 3 imma fire up Yakuza 4 as well. I want to discover " everything is made out of rubber" meme myself, since apparently this meme originated in Y4. NO SPOILERS PLS!

But yeeeees, Arcania revieeeew!

 

 

You'll get no spoilers from me! You don't have to worry about that one - I think Yakuza 4 is actually my least favourite entry in the series (if we aren't counting Dead Souls,) but - and this is a big but, it's still very much a great game. It's like the difference between an 8.5 or an 8, it really is still very good, but the whole series is literally just littered with quality at every turn.

 

There is a whole lot that I really like about it, and there are some fascinating bits and pieces you learn about Majima in that one,so I'm really interested to see where your thoughts end up after that one!

 

That gif is what you will have turned me into by the time I've written that Arcania review ?

 

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

I can't call myself a Star Wars fan, more like a casual enjoyer. I like my lightsaber whoosh whoosh "use the Force" moments, but I never can say that I was an avid fan who knew the Jedi/Sith code by heart and knew the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise in Polish or some stuff.

BUT I have to agree with one thing - Rise of Skywalker is probably the worst Star Wars film, no, even worst Star Wars piece of media that I ever encountered.

 

I don't think that I'd argue with that - certainly when I was younger I would have considered myself  a big Star Wars fan, and to some extent I still do, but I'm much more Zen about it than a lot of people seem to be.

 

I'm happier separating myself from being a fan when I think about the films, which I think is why I have a higher tolerance for The Last Jedi than most people seem to do.

 

Rise of Skywalker is not just a terrible Star Wars movie, it just is a terrible movie, the plot is wafer thin, and the film in general just feels artistically barren, and it honestly annoys me to even think about it. Like when Rey goes "that's the Death Star, bad things happened there" like, no Shit Sherlock? I thought it was a clown convention with multicoloured people riding unicycles and it fired a concentrated beam of love and rainbows and unicorns - not a concentrated lightsaber crystal to turn the Ewoks into mush. 

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

Let's forget the original trilogy and even the prequels. From my side, who dabbled in this universe, I played the Jedi Knight series. Pretty fun, solid plot, mad gameplay, anyway.

Then I dropped into KOTOR series. Be amazed but I love KOTOR 2 way more than 1 because of goddamn KREIA who is probably THE BEST character ever written in this dumb ass universe. Like the writing of KOTOR games is something impeccable, a thing that present Bioware could not hope to replicate no matter how many space goats they sacrifice to the almighty Plot Gods. So you know...the epicness of the first movies paired with the godlike status of these games plot wise, I really looked forward to this new trilogy.

 

Nice to see Kreia getting a nice shout out from you, she was fantastic, I like the fact that throughout the whole game you couldn't influence her light or darkside level at all, which plays really well into some the plot with her later in the game..... I do prefer KOTOR1 truth be told, but it's a very slight preference I love both of those games, and I have played them probably more than any other RPG I've ever owned.

 

I do wish Bioware could get back to some of the lofty heights they used to be able to, as far as video game stories go.

 

9 hours ago, Copanele said:

First I hear that everything that appeared after Return of the Jedi chronologically is now non-canon - alright, retarded move (pardon my words), but sure, whatever.

Force Awakens - cute beginning, laser stopping mid-air is sick, the "WOW" thing at the end was ...wow. Ok enjoyable.

Last Jedi - idiotic plot devices, but ok I can respect the direction. I was "sure, it was worth the popcorn"

Rise of Skywalker - my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. What the hell is this movie? What's this plot? What's the "....they fly now"? What what WHY DID I PAY THIS MUCH FOR A TICKET TO THIS MOVIE? I want my money back. After all the build up you serve me THIS? I would rather go watch Emoji Movie and I am pretty sure that movie would get me free brain damage together with the soda cup. At least it would hurt less.

 

Again, not speaking it as a Star Wars fan, but as a person who kinda wants coherency in a plot. What we got were 3rd rate jokes, a knife plot that was beyond stupid, MUH ROMANCE and MUH REDEMPTION and the conclusion that "whoops, Skywalkers did it again lads". And probably I am one of the very few, The Last Jedi was bad, don't get me wrong, but I prefer that to the Rise of Shitwalker. No thanks I'd rather watch paint dry next time.

 

Sorry for the unsolicited rant, you just reminded me how much I hated that movie The Mandalorian is 1000000 times better. Bless Jon Favreau. 

 

I'm very much in the camp of "I love Last Jedi" but I will concede that the plot is ridiculous.... I love Rian Johnson as a director, and he's the only person that has ever actually done what George Lucas wanted when he sold his franchise which was to do "different and exciting things" and whilst the plot of Last Jedi is largely nonsense. There are bits of it that I dearly love, I love how it explores a broken down jaded and self loathing Luke as a character, I think the way Mark Hamill plays Luke Skywalker weighted down by the shame of his own actions was fascinating, and I could of watched a whole film of just that. The way the pay homage to Rashomon (one of my favourite Kurosawa films, and Yakuza 4 pays homage to that film too,) is really interesting. It equally has a lot of stupid decisions in that film, that really hamper it as far as the plot goes though.

 

I have always said this of The Last Jedi, it's a terrible Star Wars film, but a fantastic film in its own right. I know that doesn't really make sense, but it's made exceptionally well, the cinematography is beautiful, the sound design is great, and the general artistic direction is excellent. Yet nothing about it feels like a Star Wars film really, so I do somewhat understand peoples frustrations about it.

 

Rise of Skywalker though - yeah my reaction was similar to yours, I really despised that film, I've seen it three times and each time I've disliked it just a little bit more. Well next time you're going to go watch paint dry, let me know and I'll grab myself a ticket too, because that definitely sounds more fun than Rise of Skywalker.

 

No it's an understandable rant, so go nuts, better to let it out and have a laugh about it I think ?

 

To my shame, I still haven't seen a single episode of The Mandalorian yet, but I'm glad to hear that it's a winner!

Edited December 21, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

You'll get no spoilers from me! You don't have to worry about that one - I think Yakuza 4 is actually my least favourite entry in the series (if we aren't counting Dead Souls,) but - and this is a big but, it's still very much a great game. It's like the difference between an 8.5 or an 8, it really is still very good, but the whole series is literally just littered with quality at every turn.

 

There is a whole lot that I really like about it, and there are some fascinating bits and pieces you learn about Majima in that one,so I'm really interested to see where your thoughts end up after that one!

 

That gif is what you will have turned me into by the time I've written that Arcania review

 

Oh yes  I like to see that Yakuza 4 is for Yakuza fans what Dark Souls 2 is for most (NOT ALL) Dark Souls fans. Least favorite entry but oh no it's only a 8.5 compared to 9+. The shame  

 

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm happier separating myself from being a fan when I think about the films, which I think is why I have a higher tolerance for The Last Jedi than most people seem to do.

 

Rise of Skywalker is not just a terrible Star Wars movie, it just is a terrible movie, the plot is wafer thin, and the film in general just feels artistically barren, and it honestly annoys me to even think about it. Like when Rey goes "that's the Death Star, bad things happened there" like, no Shit Sherlock? I thought it was a clown convention with multicoloured people riding unicycles and it fired a concentrated beam of love and rainbows and unicorns - not a concentrated lightsaber crystal to turn the Ewoks into mush. 

 

 

I legit forgot how "hurr durr" Rey was in the last movie. Not blaming the actress, she did all she could with that toilet paper of a script, but my god I was like "please someone take the sparkly flashlight from this girl before she accidentally cuts herself". The level of "people die when they are killed" logic. And yeah, it's a terrible movie overall.

 

You know a Star Wars movie is truly bad when they don't even bother to make memes about it. For all the weak plot points, at least the prequels could be mad hilarious in their stupid plot. Now I can't go to the seaside without cracking at least one "I duhn't loike sand" to my wife.

Bless the prequels. The movies that we didn't want and didn't deserve  

 

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Nice to see Kreia getting a nice shout out from you, she was fantastic, I like the fact that throughout the whole game you couldn't influence her light or darkside level at all, which plays really well into some the plot with her later in the game..... I do prefer KOTOR1 truth be told, but it's a very slight preference I love both of those games, and I have played them probably more than any other RPG I've ever owned.

 

I do wish Bioware could get back to some of the lofty heights they used to be able to, as far as video game stories go.

 

Overall I felt KOTOR1 was way better quality wise. The planets and vibe were way better than the murkiness of KOTOR2. I'd gladly replay Taris from KOTOR1 compared to Peragus mines from KOTOR2. But from pure story standpoint, KOTOR 2 wins in my heart, just because it doesn't feel like a happy-go lucky story, as most SW stories are. The tones were mad serious and stuff had crazy consequences to everyone in that world.

 

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm very much in the camp of "I love Last Jedi" but I will concede that the plot is ridiculous.... I love Rian Johnson as a director, and he's the only person that has ever actually done what George Lucas wanted when he sold his franchise which was to do "different and exciting things" and whilst the plot of Last Jedi is largely nonsense. There are bits of it that I dearly love, I love how it explores a broken down jaded and self loathing Luke as a character, I think the way Mark Hamill plays Luke Skywalker weighted down by the shame of his own actions was fascinating, and I could of watched a whole film of just that. The way the pay homage to Rashomon (one of my favourite Kurosawa films, and Yakuza 4 pays homage to that film too,) is really interesting. It equally has a lot of stupid decisions in that film, that really hamper it as far as the plot goes though.

 

I have always said this of The Last Jedi, it's a terrible Star Wars film, but a fantastic film in its own right. I know that doesn't really make sense, but it's made exceptionally well, the cinematography is beautiful, the sound design is great, and the general artistic direction is excellent. Yet nothing about it feels like a Star Wars film really, so I do somewhat understand peoples frustrations about it.

 

Rise of Skywalker though - yeah my reaction was similar to yours, I really despised that film, I've seen it three times and each time I've disliked it just a little bit more. Well next time you're going to go watch paint dry, let me know and I'll grab myself a ticket too, because that definitely sounds more fun than Rise of Skywalker.

 

Yep that movie wasn't so bad, I did not even try to understand all the arguments, but yeah it didn't feel like a Star Wars movie. It was an interesting direction for sure but man did it generate a lot of hate. Just convinced me again that ... I should never be an avid fan of anything, if it means that I have to deal with an angry fanbase  

Not a great film, but at least I saw the effort put in it and I can appreciate that.

 

Now...why did you watch Rise of Skywalker 3 times? That's enough to drive a person mad ?

 

20 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

To my shame, I still haven't seen a single episode of The Mandalorian yet, but I'm glad to hear that it's a winner!

 

Not gonna tell you to go watch it, because that kind of recommendation would only make people postpone it even further. The Mandalorian is the perfect show for when you want to watch something that would make you feel good, like "damn this is some great writing!". If I were to put an equivalent from the gaming world, think of Transistor (yes it's THAT good). It's Star Wars Western without the dumb politics n stuff. Just a man, his blaster, his creed and the lil adorable Baby Yoda child. Nothing more, nothing less. 

It's a show that you start thinking "hmmm, I am in a mood for something interesting but I don't know about this..." and before you know it you get hooked by the amazingly good script, the strength of the characters and the fact that Disney didn't shove their agenda in it yet ?

 

Damn this was mad Star Wars topic. Gotta let the others reply too  

[YaManSmevz]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, rjkclarke said:

I'm hoping a review that I've got coming up in the next week or so might nudge you back into playing Arkham Asylum, because I think you'd love playing the other Arkham games too. No pressure obviously, but I also want to read a sweet Smevz flavoured spin on an Arkham Asylum review.

 

It just might. I think it's like starting a paper or going to the gym - I know once I'm doing it I'll be fine, but bringing myself to pull up Arkham Asylum, wait for it to load, go to the menu... just exhausting, i tells ya!!

 

Seriously though, looking forward to said review. Are you knockin out Knight? And you've got Kiwami reviews in the works too? Aaawwwww shit... you spoil us, sir!

 

On 12/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, rjkclarke said:

I suspect that'll probably make you the first and the fastest achiever if that happens.

 

 

Platinum Achieved!

 

Looks like I'll have to try and get the wife out of the house for the day when that DLC finally drops?

 

On 12/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, rjkclarke said:

When you do get back to RE1 you are in for a real treat man - that is honestly one of the most fun times I've ever had going for a platinum, it has almost the perfect trophy list I think, just the right amount of challenge, so much fun, so many specific challenges to do. By the end of it you really feel like you're the master of that game,and I absolutely loved that feeling. The way you start off quite trepidatious not really knowing your way around, and then each run you just grow in confidence to the point where you can side step zombies better than you can drunks on a Friday night, by the end! It's so awesome.

 

I really enjoyed 0 too, it's a real bizarre experiment that they did with that game, so yep you're in for some good times there I think dude - but I genuinely quite like it, although they did have a fetish for insects in that title or creepy crawlies in general in that game more than they do in the others...... Oh and those evil white monkey things, they effing terrify me even to this day, they put me right on edge when I played it last year. Even in the lite-gun RE game I played at the start of the year they scared the crap out of me.

 

Definitely jump in Revelations 2 at some point if you get a chance, that's a real underrated entry in the series I think. Plus you get to actually play as Barry Burton, what's not to like.

 

"Barry. WHERE'S Barry."

 

"I'm sorry, he's probably... in Revelations 2."

 

".....no."

 

The cool thing about 0 and 1 is that I don't remember much about playing them, so it very much will be like having new gaming experiences! I think all the scares and creepy locales and whatnot will get their desired effect - all I remember is that the remake of the original moved a lot of stuff around, and that in 0 there were no item boxes. A weird gaming engine flex, but interesting idea nonetheless!

 

On 12/20/2021 at 7:24 AM, rjkclarke said:

Thank you man! I'm really glad you enjoyed that one, because I really worried people wouldn't like me changing it up a bit, but I thought I'd give it a try and see  - because that was a whole lot of fun to write that, I'll definitely do more things like that from time to time, if the mood takes me, it's something that I can just sit down and have a bit of fun with, without the pressure that I sometimes put on myself when I'm writing a review.

 

I've got a few ideas about some film specific ones as well, which should be fun. 

 

Paul Darrow was a real talent, it's kind of a shame he didn't become a bigger star than he did - I actually have another Paul Darrow starred series from when he was even younger, that I might shine a spotlight on, as that's another fairly interesting take on Robin Hood. That won't be for a long while, as I think me blathering on about a Robin Hood show even once is enough for everyone for now haha

 

 

I might do like a proper deep dive on Ashes to Ashes and Flowers at some point - more than likely Flowers though, because that series is so special. If you ever get a chance to watch it you should, it's incredibly powerful. There are only twelve episodes that are about twenty-five minutes each, so it wouldn't take all that long, but that show really does have something important to say, that I think would be beneficial to so many people.

 

I think it served its purpose wonderfully, and absolutely you should toss another one out there whenever the urge pops up.

 

I'm down both for watching Flowers and reading reviews of episodes! Especially if it's just twelve episodes... I've torn through that much pretty quickly in the past, can see no reason why I shouldn't exercise that now!

[rjkclarke]

A word to the wise folks - just like you shouldn't get your hair cut in a shed underneath a railway bridge, by a barber that says you have "The hair of a Chinese man" like Karl Pilkington did, he now has the hair of a bald Chinese man though.

 

So my advice for today is, you should also avoid buying Sushi from a train station very late in the evening.

 

I kind of wiped myself out a bit the last few days because of that - I felt just a little rough, which is why I never got that Arcania review done, it's done now though, I'll post it in a bit.

 

Oh and I got really sidetracked playing Stranded Deep, as I actually started enjoying it quite a lot, so I'm hoping to be done with that soon.

 

On 20/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Copanele said:

Oh yes  I like to see that Yakuza 4 is for Yakuza fans what Dark Souls 2 is for most (NOT ALL) Dark Souls fans. Least favorite entry but oh no it's only a 8.5 compared to 9+. The shame

 

That is pretty accurate yes haha ?

 

Although we both know someone who is very fond of Dark Souls II - and although you'd never think looking at my profile I like Dark Souls II as well (I played them both on 360) I've yet to play them on this account, but I do plan on doing that in the near future though.

 

I don't know why, but I always found Lucatiel fascinating, and is probably one of the things I remember the most about that game.

 

On 20/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Copanele said:

 

You know a Star Wars movie is truly bad when they don't even bother to make memes about it. For all the weak plot points, at least the prequels could be mad hilarious in their stupid plot. Now I can't go to the seaside without cracking at least one "I duhn't loike sand" to my wife.

Bless the prequels. The movies that we didn't want and didn't deserve  

 

That's a good point actually - the only thing I see about Rise of Skywalker, is basically just the "they fly now" thing, and that just makes my brain cells melt faster than the fella from Raiders of the Lost Ark..... You know the one

 

On 20/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Copanele said:

Overall I felt KOTOR1 was way better quality wise. The planets and vibe were way better than the murkiness of KOTOR2. I'd gladly replay Taris from KOTOR1 compared to Peragus mines from KOTOR2. But from pure story standpoint, KOTOR 2 wins in my heart, just because it doesn't feel like a happy-go lucky story, as most SW stories are. The tones were mad serious and stuff had crazy consequences to everyone in that world.

 

That is true about Peragus actually - my least favourite thing about KOTOR II were the opening couple of hours. Peragus is just not all that fun, it's claustrophobic and restrictive too - oh and screw that spacewalk you have to do as well, where you move slower than 47 in Silent Assassin sneaking up on Usain Bolt.

 

It did have some great locales though - like Onderon, Nar Shaddar (my favourite in that game) particularly and Dxun were real highlights for me.

 

Whereas with original KOTOR, I universally liked all of them, only one I didn't like as a kid was Manan (because barely any combat,) but I like it quite a bit now, as it's a welcome change of pace.  Still - Manan was a source of a lot of laughs for me as a youngster because Manan, sounds like My Nan depending on what part of the UK you're from ?..... That and the Selkath look pretty funny too. 

 

On 20/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Copanele said:

Yep that movie wasn't so bad, I did not even try to understand all the arguments, but yeah it didn't feel like a Star Wars movie. It was an interesting direction for sure but man did it generate a lot of hate. Just convinced me again that ... I should never be an avid fan of anything, if it means that I have to deal with an angry fanbase  

Not a great film, but at least I saw the effort put in it and I can appreciate that.

 

Now...why did you watch Rise of Skywalker 3 times? That's enough to drive a person mad 

 

 

Yep, agreed it's probably a little healthier to be a distant fan sometimes.  That's the downside to being a fan of something, all the EXTREME elements of that fandom, like those that have Star Wars bed sheets well into their thirties, eat off of Star Wars plates, and only watch Star Wars when they come home.

 

I think it's true of a lot of fandoms - but often the people that hate a product the most are usually the fans, as they are very rarely truly happy with the outcome, because it often isn't the exact thing that they themselves envisioned, shame really.

 

The first time I watched Rise of Skywalker was at the Midnight screening, and the cinema I went to showed Force Awakens and Last Jedi before it, I didn't like it that time, but I thought it might have been because I'd already watched two films, I watched it a second time to find out if that was the case, I liked it even less. The third time was my own fault, I really wanted one of my best friends to experience it, just because I wanted him to despise it the way I did (he did,) but when I came out of the cinema, boy was I furious about that film, and I don't think I'd care if I never saw that again. 

 

On 20/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Copanele said:

and before you know it you get hooked by the amazingly good script, the strength of the characters and the fact that Disney didn't shove their agenda in it yet 

 

Damn this was mad Star Wars topic. Gotta let the others reply too  

 

SOLD!

 

No worries, we go off topic all the time here, I don't mind - I'm sure it's almost certainly going to happen again. It's all part of the fun.

 

20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

It just might. I think it's like starting a paper or going to the gym - I know once I'm doing it I'll be fine, but bringing myself to pull up Arkham Asylum, wait for it to load, go to the menu... just exhausting, i tells ya!!

 

Seriously though, looking forward to said review. Are you knockin out Knight? And you've got Kiwami reviews in the works too? Aaawwwww shit... you spoil us, sir!

 

I get the apprehension. I really do, but you've got this!  I think the same thing I think is putting you off doing Asylum is also putting me off of jumping into Arkham Knight, so to answer your other question, no I haven't knocked out Arkham Knight yet, I haven't grown the dangle bits to go back and actually attempt it yet.

 

I am planning to, but once I get Stranded Deep put to bed, then I think I will jump back into Arkham Knight for at least an hour or so a day, so I need to catch up to it, so I think I'll have to drop the reviews for Arkham Asylum and City, and yes Kiwami and Kiwami 2 as well, to prep for me finishing Yakuza 3, so it's probably going to get a bit busy in here review wise in the next couple of weeks. Not a bad thing I guess, as I've been slacking on some of those lately.

 

20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

"Barry. WHERE'S Barry."

 

"I'm sorry, he's probably... in Revelations 2."

 

".....no."

 

The cool thing about 0 and 1 is that I don't remember much about playing them, so it very much will be like having new gaming experiences! I think all the scares and creepy locales and whatnot will get their desired effect - all I remember is that the remake of the original moved a lot of stuff around, and that in 0 there were no item boxes. A weird gaming engine flex, but interesting idea nonetheless!

 

??

 

Haha!

 

That was very much the case from my perspective when I played RE1 certainly, as it had been so long since I had played the PS1 version

, that it all felt pretty new to me anyway. I remembered RE0 being very different to how it actually was when I actually did play it. It takes a bit of getting used to that no item box thing, but it ends up being really interesting the way you have to leave items and characters in specific places, there's a bit of strategy involved with that, but it's very interesting in the same regard I think.

 

20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I think it served its purpose wonderfully, and absolutely you should toss another one out there whenever the urge pops up.

 

I'm down both for watching Flowers and reading reviews of episodes! Especially if it's just twelve episodes... I've torn through that much pretty quickly in the past, can see no reason why I shouldn't exercise that now!

 

Flowers is on Netflix in the UK - I don't know if it is in the US too, but if it is, absolutely give it a watch.

 

There's definitely some of those episodes I'd like to go a bit more in depth with at some point in as spoiler free way as possible, I'll just need to do a bit of homework for it, as it isn't a show with a huge fanbase, so I want to throw some screenshots in there, and I'm going to have to make them myself, as it's tough to actually find a lot of decent ones through google.

Edited December 22, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

A word to the wise folks - just like you shouldn't get your hair cut in a shed underneath a railway bridge, by a barber that says you have "The hair of a Chinese man" like Karl Pilkington did, he now has the hair of a bald Chinese man though.

 

So my advice for today is, you should you also avoid buying Sushi from a train station very late in the evening.

 

I kind of wiped myself out a bit the last few days because of that - I felt just a little rough, which is why I never got that Arcania review done, it's done now though, I'll post it in a bit.

 

My man played "Tracking Hayamoto" from Silent Assassin in real life...except you were Hayamoto Jr  ? Thanks the good Doctor for that trailer

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

Oh and I got really sidetracked playing Stranded Deep, as I actually started enjoying it quite a lot, so I'm hoping to be done with that soon.

 

 

That is pretty accurate yes haha

 

Although we both know someone who is very fond of Dark Souls II - and although you'd never think looking at my profile I like Dark Souls II as well (I played them both on 360) I've yet to play them on this account, but I do plan on doing that in the near future though.

 

I don't know why, but I always found Lucatiel fascinating, and is probably one of the things I remember the most about that game.

 

Ok here's one funny thing and I really have to summon the good @DrBloodmoney , because he will find this one hilarious. As much as I like to laugh at Dark Souls II for being the dumb Souls kid, my main character in ALL games since I played DS2 the first time has been Agnatiel, she's a red haired rapier wielding DEX badass. You already mentioned Lucatiel, her brother is Aslatiel...you can guess where my Agnatiel comes from  

 

SO YEAH! Lucatiel is the very best! You said it and I can't agree. Another point for me, laugh at DS2, yet my main character (except the first time I ever played DS1) is Dark Souls 2 inspired. That includes Bloodborne too.

 

As for KOTOR... no, that's too much of a sidetrack ? Imma let you post that review before you eat another plate of train sushi!

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, Copanele said:

 As much as I like to laugh at Dark Souls II for being the dumb Souls kid, my main character in ALL games since I played DS2 the first time has been Agnatiel, she's a red haired rapier wielding DEX badass. You already mentioned Lucatiel, her brother is Aslatiel...you can guess where my Agnatiel comes from  

 

? - look, as much as I love Best Souls Dark Souls II, (and you know how I do,) even I have to admit - it is the red-headed step-child of the family....

 

...hell, even FROM Software acknowledges that:

 

...But what can I say...

 

...I've always rooted for the underdog, (years watching Rocky movies saw to that,) and...

....from my formative years watching Agent Scully do her thing... to Julianne Moore, to Christina Hendricks, to Jess Chastain, to Amy Adams....

....I guess I just kinda got a thing for redheads too ?

[Slava]

@rjkclarke @Copanele I'd like to quickly add my 2 cents to the Rise of Skywalker discussion, if I may ?.

 

I saw the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS at relatives' house as a little kid, all 3 in a row. Don't remember much now, but it was a magical experience. After the first two prequels came out, I used to watch them over and over at home. Did the same with Episode 3, but not as much. Then I grew up and rewatched the original trilogy which made me appreciate these films more. Don't know how much of a SW fan that makes me, considering I never really played the games or checked out other related stuff.

 

Saw all 3 sequels at the cinema.

 

The Force Awakens - I liked that one, it felt like Star Wars. The music was on point, Rey's theme made me feel like a kid. Didn't have any problems with the plot or characters. Just more Star Wars.

 

The Last Jedi - I didn't like the direction they chose, some scenes bothered me, some things didn't make sense to me. I really hated some people's takes on the movie like "TLJ finally fixed Luke's character". Later I learned to appreciate the good parts, at least this movie presented new ideas to the table. I thought I hated that movie, but I realized I didn't because oh boy...

 

The Rise of Skywalker - this is the only movie that actually made me angry after I left the movie theatre ?. Not The Last Jedi, not even the first Suicide Squad gave me such emotions. I remember walking home, getting more and more mad, and thinking "How is this real, who let this happen?". It was a roller-coaster in the worst way. Not a single quiet moment, non-stop meaningles dialogue, retcons out of nowhere. Even the new ideas of the predecessor were thrown out. The knife scene - I legit could not believe my eyes. I can't name one thing I liked in this movie except for some visuals and the music in some scenes. 

 

I liked The Mandalorian though. Watched the first season, and I agree: it feels like the original trilogy mixed with spaghetti western. Not every episode was a banger, but I liked the season overall. I also want to watch the new anime anthology series - Star Wars: Visions. 9 short stories from different Japanese animation studios. I heard it was great too.

 

Edit: the last scene of TROS was memed a lot BTW. 

Edited December 22, 2021 by Slava

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Platinum #106

Arcania (PS3)

 

Geek
Obtain all other trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 5 August 2016 : 6:30:01 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 year, 11 months, 3 weeks

Platinum Rarity  - 5.97%

Trophy Number - #5,857

 

It’s almost certainly a good thing that I adopted review requests, because if I hadn’t I fear it might have realistically been something like 2023 or 2024 or later before I actually got around to reviewing Arcania. It isn’t a particularly bad game, and I don’t hate it by any means – I  just have incredibly mixed feelings about it, to the point where I sometimes feel like I’m betraying my love for the Gothic series any time that I actually want to afford this game any positivity. So I might have just kept putting it off, until I had to do it.

 

Let us have a bit of fun with this though – so before we really get into the review in full, I think it’s time for a little sing-song, if it helps, just imagine I’m Dean Martin and Copanele (my fellow EuroRPG and general jank lover,) is Helen O’Connell ...... One, two......one, two, three, four

 

How do you like your EuroRPG’s in the morning

I like mine with some Jank!

Bugged, or glitched, I’m satisfied, as long as I get my EuroRPG

How do you like Diego in the morning

I like mine with a moustache

Dark or light, this game looks shite, as long as I get his moustache.

 

........ I could go on, but your toes are probably curling so much from the absolute cringe, that you either look like the people in The Guinness World Records who have toe-nails that look like Ryvita’s from growing them overly long – or they’ve curled over so much that you could support yourself in a tree with them, like some primates are able to do.

 

Either way, it’s time for the review.

 

If you just looked at the PS3 version of the game – you’d see that the title is actually just called Arcania, but – and this is a big but here, this game has many names, and many identities. It really should be called Arcania: Gothic 4.

 

Don’t believe me?

 

Look at this box art for its original release.

 

 

However this version isn’t, this game was received so poorly by long time fans of the Gothic series, and I believe the developers of Gothic themselves, that this game essentially has had its Gothic status taken away from it, and all that is left is shame – well, shame and Diego, he’s about the only thing left in this title that really makes it a Gothic title. All future re-releases have been called Arcania or Arcania: The Complete Tale.

So in essence, Arcania will forever remain to the Gothic universe, the unloved ginger step-child (sorry to any ginger readers, no judgment or agenda from me, it’s just an expression). Or for want of a sillier, funnier analogy, Arcania is the son that was kept in the attic and fed off of fish-heads and nothing else. Arcania is essentially Hugo Simpson.

 

With all that being said, is this actually a functionally decent game? There’s no real straight answer for that one, there should be, but there really isn’t. There’s aspects of it that I really enjoyed, and obviously my tolerance level for jank is a bit higher than most. I feel like to get the most out of this game you have to have a pretty high tolerance level for certain common occurrences, if you don’t mind clipping through walls, rocks or floors – then you’ll at least be fine on that front.  

One constant staple of almost every entry in the Gothic series is the fact melee combat is often the least viable option. Now – here’s the thing, Piranha Bytes didn’t make this game, but that constant staple where melee is one of the least viable options does persist here. I’m okay with that, Ranged and Magic are suitably overpowered like any stalwart Gothic lover would expect it to be.

 

In all honesty though, the combat doesn’t have very much complexity to it, but it works, melee combat does become more viable as you craft better weapons, but when ranged weaponry, and magic use offers you a safety net, then most players are probably going to use that option I’d say.

This is slightly off on a tangent, but if any of you who are fans of the Gothic series wondered if Piranha Bytes ever managed to fix that problem and make melee more viable. Having played and gotten the platinum in all of the available titles from them, I can safely say – wait for it........ That no, they haven’t fixed that problem, but they don’t suffer as games because of it.

 

The crafting system in this game is very satisfying too and as you have to play it on the hardest difficulty aptly called Gothic (another of the last vestiges left in the game from the series that birthed it,) for the platinum. So being able to craft good items is absolutely tantamount to success in this game, it really helps to be able to craft a lot of the best gear as soon as you can, just to give you that extra chance of survival, because much like in a lot of EuroRPG’s on the hardest difficulty two or three hits and you’ll most likely be turned into a fine paste by a horde of goblins, or Orcs – or both in this game.  

 

Ahem, back to Arcania though – so you’re all familiar with the term familiarity breeds contempt right? Arcania’s biggest fundamental flaw is essentially this - in my opinion, “linearity breeds contempt.”  I can’t ignore the fact that this game is set within the Gothic universe, a place where linearity isn’t a welcome word. I have no problem with a game being linear, but when it exists in a world where choice has always been such an integral and important part of proceedings then you really do have a problem. The developers had a story they wanted to tell, but they didn’t want you to have any real involvement in how that plays out. There are a few choices and options, but they are so few and far between that they actually feel fairly inconsequential.

 

As a story though – it does move along at a fairly brisk pace if you aren’t diligently stopping to do side-quests everywhere. A little uninteresting in places, sure – but from my perspective at least, I can safely say that there was enough to keep me from truly getting bored.

 

I obviously don’t go into spoilers, or if I do I keep them as brief as possible. Diego, a fan favourite of the Gothic series, is for want of a better phrase “done dirty” here, he makes the briefest appearances. Diego is also supposed to represent the main characters mentor, and a huge driving force of the narrative. All of that is fine, but he appears so fleetingly, that to anyone unfamiliar with what he represents to the world of Gothic, he’s just an old chap called Diego.

 You know the “protagonists village has been burned to the ground and they must seek revenge” trope? Well that rears its charming little head here and it is done fairly well actually I must admit. You spend quite a decent amount of time in the starter to village getting to know all of the inhabitants, instead of its destruction being the first thing you see, this time around you are given a little more reason to actually seek revenge, as you can see how much the main character actually does care about these people.  So much like it is in Venetica, it was actually implemented fairly well into Arcania, Venetica is a game I love far more than it probably deserves to be loved.  

 

An aspect of Arcania that surprises me, is that it actually looks quite decent, not great, but not bad either – I know, I know – I made that little joke in the song thing at the start, but it really doesn't look that bad, it'd just look rough around the edges next to a Triple A title, which this obviously isn't. I think it goes without saying that with a game like this you have to go in with fairly middling expectations, but for a game originally released in 2010, and this specific version released in 2013, it really doesn’t look half bad.  The protagonist looks a little like Billy Bob Thornton, which is certainly a bit unusual but there you go. Obviously it looks better on a higher spec PC than it would on a PS3, but even then, it still looks quite decent on a PS3. It’s a little muddy and sludgy looking in places, and the game looks particularly ugly in any dark areas, but other than that it isn’t offensive. It can look very nice though.

 

 

There are plenty of games released even in the last two or three years that look worse than this does, of all the things to criticise this game for, I don't think its visual element should really be at the top of the list.

 

I think it would be unfair of me not to point out that from a design perspective there’s a lot of variety on show here, each new area you visit has a very distinct and unique feel to it, they all feel like very different parts of the same world – which is an aspect that I can always appreciate, in games like this. For a game with a relatively low budget, there was a good amount of detail in a lot of the areas that you visit.  

 

Whilst I recall very little about the specifics of each voice performance in Arcania (it has been five years after all,) I do remember bits of lines here and there though. From the protagonist being quite funny, he has quite a sardonic tone at times, especially when he’s tasked to find some “scabooze” from some Orcs and he goes on a little sarcastic rant that was a thinly veiled little joke about pointless fetch quests that I’ve always remembered and found funny. Diego is very good in the little screen time that he actually does get, but other than that my memory is drawing a little bit of a blank on any other specifics.  

 

Arguably one of the strongest areas of the whole thing is its soundtrack – not every single aspect of it hits the highs that it could, but some of it is very atmospheric and relaxing, particularly some of the pieces you hear in more ambient settings, when you are questing through areas like Silverlake and Stewark.

 

In all honesty I think the soundtrack is actually a little too good in places. It’s genuinely excellent in some ways. I know that doesn’t quite make sense, but let me explain. What I mean by that, is that this as a game  is very much a middling experience – whilst I doubt the people making it expected, or wanted it to be that way. Yet you can't ignore there exists a certain grandiose nature to some of the musical pieces that feel like they really don’t belong. It’s as if they try and go a little overboard in making the experience feel “epic” and as a result in places it feels exactly the opposite, just a little artificial, this genuinely feels like a film score in places.  It’d be like putting an orchestral piece written by someone like John Williams against a video of a dog licking its you-know-what, you’d end up just thinking why?

 

So in essence it’s a really well composed soundtrack that doesn’t quite end up working in conjunction with the game – and believe me the soundtrack really is good, you could listen to it in a vacuum of never having played this game, and still get a lot satisfaction from it. Ironically it’s usually the other way around to how some games can be, and I hate to say this, for as much as I enjoyed my time with this game, the games quality actually lets the soundtrack down.

 

What are you looking at to grant yourself the fabled title of Geek (yes, that’s the platinum name,) this has a truly bizarre trophy list, it isn’t a bad one, either just odd. There are plenty of things it asks of you, complete the game on the hardest setting, learn all recipes (do most of the quests,) kill X with X weapon/magic; find all collectibles (seriously you get great rewards for this even if there wasn’t trophies involved, which they are obviously). There are plenty of missables too, but stick to a guide and you’ll be fine. As strange as it is to just sit in a chair for an hour to pop a trophy, and it is believe me. Strangest of all though, is the Jackrabbit trophy – asking you to jump one thousand times. If someone walked in on you playing this game, they’d probably think you’d had a big old knock to the head with something blunt, as you spend a lot of your time just hopping around everywhere like some Bipedal Billy Bob  Bunny. That is both a sentence I never expected to type – and alliteration that I never expected to use, but hey I went there.

 

Do I recommend this one? Maybe, this is a toughie; it all depends on your preferences. If you like EuroRPG’s , yes, so long as you don’t have other games in your backlog you’d sooner play. This is a good in-between type of game. I played this after playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, which is a fairly intensive platinum, so I remember going back to this for a bit of a harmless chilled out RPG romp.

I was always going to like this game on some level, because I have a liking for games that feel like they should be played on a PC running windows XP, so the fact you can get trophies in them is just a pleasant bonus for me. I definitely like this game, but it isn’t a patch on the Gothic series that is too embarrassed to admit that Arcania came from its dangle parts. If you have the choice between playing Arcania or Risen, I’d suggest playing the Risen series, or Elex they feel much truer to Gothic.

 

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

 

Thanks go to @Copanele on this one for the torture  request of a review for this game. I guess it was kind of fun to delve very deep into my memory banks to try and pull something out of my long forgotten memories with this one. I came out the other side pretty much the same, seeing the game as just a fairly enjoyable time. but not one anyone should probably go out of their way to play, unless they specifically like this kind of game to begin with - and even then, there's better games to scratch that itch with first.

 

Agnatiel sounds like a nice go-to as well, love that Lucatiel connection there, so yes Lucatiel is the best! I like Pate too, the character not specifically the food, although I think it's more to do with me liking Peter Serafinowicz who voices him than specifically Pate. 

 

Also funny coincidence that @DrBloodmoney would post a readheaded step-child gag just as I was posting a review that has that exact reference in it, that's a little spooky, I guess that train Sushi also gave me clairvoyance. Now I'm beginning to think it wasn't a bad idea eating it, although I don't want to see what kind of "fresh fish abomination"  could possibly live in London Victoria so it's probably best not to think about it eh.

 

On 22/12/2021 at 7:52 PM, Slava said:

Don't know how much of a SW fan that makes me, considering I never really played the games or check out other related stuff.

 

As you posted this whilst I was in the midst of posting this review - I'll reply here.

 

Probably a fairly healthy one...... A fan that doesn't need to just drown themselves with every single piece of media that one franchise puts out, sometimes that isn't a bad thing.

Thanks for taking the time to drop your thoughts as well by the way - those were nice to read. Magical is definitely how I'd describe my first exposure to those three originals too!

 

On 22/12/2021 at 7:52 PM, Slava said:

The Force Awakens - I liked that one, it felt like Star Wars. The music was on point, Rey's theme made me feel like a kid. Didn't have any problems with the plot or characters. Just more Star Wars.

 

I think that film was exactly what it needed to be - something fairly familiar, that would draw in new audiences and wouldn't really alienate any people new to the series by weighing it down with too many references to old things. It's similar to the Original Star Wars,  but it kind of had to be, that original film has massive universal appeal that is easy to digest and understand, so I can see why they went the Direction they did with that one, I liked it too.

 

On 22/12/2021 at 7:52 PM, Slava said:

The Last Jedi - I didn't like the direction they chose, some scenes bothered me, some things didn't make sense to me. I really hated some people's takes on the movie like "TLJ finally fixed Luke's character". Later I learned to appreciate the good parts, at least this movie presented new ideas to the table. I thought I hated that movie, but I realized I didn't because oh boy...

 

I very much like The Last Jedi - and I do get a fair few of the criticisms that get levelled at it, some not so much - and I genuinely think it's people whining that Luke isn't the all powerful SUPER SAIYAN GRAND MASTER MEGA LORD MILLION LIGHTSABERS JEDI, that he was in the books or the comics that frustrates me the most. 

 

There are A LOT of things that don't make sense in that movie - I don't especially like the direction of the plot, it feels so much more like an ending than a part 2, but the actual technical direction, I loved pretty much all of that.

 

I'm a film fan before I'm a Star Wars fan, and some of the cinematography is excellent, this shot is exactly what it should be - it gives all the focus to just them, and it comes at exactly the right time and makes it feel exactly like it should, that just as everything around them is starting to completely go to hell , there's enough time to have a quiet moment between two characters, where they are the only important thing, and  they very much needed that.

 

 

The sound design was excellent, some of the music was incredible, some of the visuals as I alluded to are spectacular...... I don't agree with every single decision that was made in The Last Jedi, and I'd never say it fixed Luke Skywalker's character (I don't think it needed fixing,) I did find it very interesting in the film where they did a little introspective deep dive on how everything has effected him personally. I like things like that anyway, but I will concede they probably don't quite belong in a Star Wars film. 

 

As I said before, in a previous post I think Rian Johnson did at least do what George Lucas wanted when he sold his franchise " to do new and exciting things" whilst not all of them worked, I can very much appreciate the effort. I'm not bigging his direction up just because of the homages to Rashomon either, even if it is a fantastic film made by probably my favourite film-maker of all time (kurosawa). 

 

I'm happy to hear you can appreciate the good parts, a lot of people do tend to just write the film off a bit unfairly I think.

 

On 22/12/2021 at 7:52 PM, Slava said:

Rise of Skywalker - this is the only movie that actually made me angry after I left the movie theatre . Not The Last Jedi, not even the first Suicide Squad gave me such emotions. I remember walking home, getting more and more mad, and thinking "How is this real, who let this happen?". It was a roller-coaster in the worst sense. Not a single quiet moment, non-stop meaningles dialogue, retcons out of nowhere. Even the new ideas of the predecessor were thrown out. The knife scene - I legit could not believe my eyes. I can't name one thing I liked in this movie except for some visuals and the music in some scenes. 

 

I liked The Mandalorian though. Watched the first season, and I agree: it feels like the original trilogy mixed with spaghetti western. Not every episode was a banger, but I liked the season overall. I want to watch the new anime anthology series - Star Wars: Visions. 9 short stories from different Japanese animation studios. I heard it was great too.

 

We are in absolute agreement on Rise of Skywalker though - it's probably just better to leave it at that - in case I put my blood pressure up too much writing about how artistically barren and just soulless I felt like that film was. Where a lot of people say Last Jedi is an insult to the other films, Rise of Skywalker is not just an insult it's a middle finger, and a big old hoof in the nads to creativity - that film could have been written by a limited amount of monkeys, with very few type writers and not very much ink, and it would still probably be a better experience than Rise of Skywalker was.

 

I'm actually planning to watch both The Mandalorian seasons and Visions fairly soon, so I'll have to let you know what I think of them.

Edited February 2, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Let us have a bit of fun with this though – so before we really get into the review in full, I think it’s time for a little sing-song, if it helps, just imagine I’m Dean Martin and Copanele (my fellow EuroRPG and general jank lover,) is Helen O’Connell ...... One, two......one, two, three, four

 

How do you like your EuroRPG’s in the morning

I like mine with some Jank!

Bugged, or glitched, I’m satisfied, as long as I get my EuroRPG

How do you like Diego in the morning

I like mine with a moustache

Dark or light, this game looks shite, as long as I get his moustache.

 

........ I could go on, but your toes are probably curling so much from the absolute cringe, that you either look like the people in The Guinness World Records who have toe-nails that look like Ryvita’s from growing them overly long – or they’ve curled over so much that you could support yourself in a tree with them, like some primates are able to do.

The last time I felt such pain was when I played Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods. And Not the Enhanced Edition. Ah, loving an EuroRPG must have its downsides too...?

 

Fantastic review, probably not the best game to review near Christmas  it did rekindle some beautiful memories. Not of Arcania, mind you, but of the old Gothic games. From all my old and ancient memories of "trying" this game, I do remember something along the lines "this is a travesty, this can't be...I am not playing Gothic, what?"

But yep, by doing Diego dirty, they put the final nail in the coffin of Gothic  

 

Regardless I also want to try this game at some point, I mean from a fresh standpoint with more experience under my belt. Another one added to the evergrowing backlog, although I think I will follow your advice and play Risen 2 first. Would play Risen 1 but...I don't think I have the energy to go back to PC, search for the game, the patches, do 3 Ave Marias for the control schematics and then remember I have to set the compatibility mode

In order to play an EuroRPG, you really have to be the Bear Grylls of videogames. Everything is out there to kill you.

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Ahem, back to Arcania though – so you’re all familiar with the term familiarity breeds contempt right? Arcania’s biggest fundamental flaw is essentially this - in my opinion, “linearity breeds contempt.”  I can’t ignore the fact that this game is set within the Gothic universe, a place where linearity isn’t a welcome word. I have no problem with a game being linear, but when it exists in a world where choice has always been such an integral and important part of proceedings then you really do have a problem. The developers had a story they wanted to tell, but they didn’t want you to have any real involvement in how that plays out. There are a few choices and options, but they are so few and far between that they actually feel fairly inconsequential.

 

Oh boy, this hurts me deeply. Didn't reach this late in the game back in the day but yes, if you have nothing to say in the outcome of the game then my god that's not a good thing. That was the entire fun, the sauce, the spices of Gothic - the fact that what YOU do mattered in that world, from the "Hello friend, sit down and have some meat" to being pelted with crossbows if you punched the wrong guard in the mouth. The moment you bring linearity in Gothic universe is the moment when not even Xardas can save your reality.

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

As a story though – it does move along at a fairly brisk pace if you aren’t diligently stopping to do side-quests everywhere. A little uninteresting in places, sure – but from my perspective at least, I can safely say that there was enough to keep me from truly getting bored.

 

I obviously don’t go into spoilers, or if I do I keep them as brief as possible. Diego, a fan favourite of the Gothic series, is for want of a better phrase “done dirty” here, he makes the briefest appearances. Diego is also supposed to represent the main characters mentor, and a huge driving force of the narrative. All of that is fine, but he appears so fleetingly, that to anyone unfamiliar with what he represents to the world of Gothic, he’s just an old chap called Diego.

 

To further go into Diego's importance, and this is for the fellows players who will read this review - imagine that Diego is for the Nameless Hero what Vesemir was for Geralt in Witcher. The driving force who molded the man, the myth, the legend. Without Diego, the Nameless Hero would be another chump hunting for meatbugs. Diego's importance is insane in this universe and to see him reduced to a cameo...not nice  

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

 

Despite all that however, THIS SPECIFIC SCREENSHOT warms my heart ? at least they got the feeling right. That's how these games should look like. And honestly that's what worries me at the upcoming Gothic Remake - game looks so pretty, so many lens flares, so much class...that it loses its charm somehow. This is old man Copanele speaking, I know, but an EuroRPG is kinda supposed to be "dirty", muddy, fighting with hogs in the mud level. You don't need Ghost of Tsushima levels of graphics, more like Metro levels.

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Arguably one of the strongest areas of the whole thing is its soundtrack – not every single aspect of it hits the highs that it could, but some of it is very atmospheric and relaxing, particularly some of the pieces you hear in more ambient settings, when you are questing through areas like Silverlake and Stewark.

 

In all honesty I think the soundtrack is actually a little too good in places. It’s genuinely excellent in some ways. I know that doesn’t quite make sense, but let me explain. What I mean by that, is that this as a game  is very much a middling experience – whilst I doubt the people making it expected, or wanted it to be that way. Yet you can't ignore there exists a certain grandiose nature to some of the musical pieces that feel like they really don’t belong. It’s as if they try and go a little overboard in making the experience feel “epic” and as a result in places it feels exactly the opposite, just a little artificial, this genuinely feels like a film score in places.  – it’d be like putting an orchestral piece written by someone like John Williams against a video of a dog licking its you-know-what, you’d end up just thinking why?

 

So in essence it’s a really well composed soundtrack that doesn’t quite end up working in conjunction with the game – and believe me the soundtrack really is good, you could listen to it in a vacuum of never having played this game, and still get a lot satisfaction from it. Ironically it’s usually the other way around to how some games can be, and I hate to say this, for as much as I enjoyed my time with this game, the games quality actually lets the soundtrack down.

I don't really remember the soundtrack too well, but I had a similar problem with Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Soundtrack was the true stellar point of the game but honestly...every time you were doing an upgrade, collecting some knives or idk whacking a random goblin, the choir and orchestra sang for their lives...it got tiresome at one point. Just spamming glorious music doesn't mean shit if it's not applied in harmony.

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Thanks go to @Copanele on this one for the torture  request of a review for this game. I guess it was kind of fun to delve very deep into my memory banks to try and pull something out of my long forgotten memories with this one. I came out the other side pretty much the same, seeing the game as just a fairly enjoyable time. but not one anyone should probably go out of their way to play, unless they specifically like this kind of game to begin with - and even then, there's better games to scratch that itch with first.

 

Always a pleasure to torture you with memories  hey, you were the one who gave me the opportunity. Never thought you'd get hitman'ed by a fellow EuroRPG lover!

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

Agnatiel sounds like a nice go-to as well, love that Lucatiel connection there, so yes Lucatiel is the best! I like Pate too, the character not specifically the food, although I think it's more to do with me liking Peter Serafinowicz who voices him than specifically Pate. 

 

Also funny coincidence that @DrBloodmoney would post a readheaded step-child gag just as I was posting a review that has that exact reference in it, that's a little spooky, I guess that train Sushi also gave me clairvoyance. Now I'm beginning to think it wasn't a bad idea eating it, although I don't want to see what kind of "fresh fish abomination"  could possibly live in London Victoria so it's probably best not to think about it eh.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

- look, as much as I love Best Souls Dark Souls II, (and you know how I do,) even I have to admit - it is the red-headed step-child of the family....

 

...hell, even FROM Software acknowledges that:

 

...But what can I say...

 

...I've always rooted for the underdog, (years watching Rocky movies saw to that,) and...

....from my formative years watching Agent Scully do her thing... to Julianne Moore, to Christina Hendricks, to Jess Chastain, to Amy Adams....

....I guess I just kinda got a thing for redheads too 

I can also agree that I have a weakness towards redheads, so I have to say that "bear seek seek lest" girl is the best firekeeper of the series for me. And unlike rkjclarke, I haven't eaten any sushi lately, just a dubious bowl of pasta  

Guess that's why my Agnatiel HAS to be redhead. Damn that's an odd coincidence!

 

2 hours ago, Slava said:

Rise of Skywalker - this is the only movie that actually made me angry after I left the movie theatre . Not The Last Jedi, not even the first Suicide Squad gave me such emotions. I remember walking home, getting more and more mad, and thinking "How is this real, who let this happen?". It was a roller-coaster in the worst sense. Not a single quiet moment, non-stop meaningles dialogue, retcons out of nowhere. Even the new ideas of the predecessor were thrown out. The knife scene - I legit could not believe my eyes. I can't name one thing I liked in this movie except for some visuals and the music in some scenes. 

YEEEP! That's it! The only other movie that made me go like this was the final Pirates of the Caribbean movie, don't even ask me why I went to that one, and even THAT I enjoyed more than Rise of Skywalker.

What pains me more -- the actors knew the script is shit. Just look in the eyes of Oscar Isaac when he delivered this line (for spoiler purpose, I will put it under a tag):

Spoiler

If you can't see what I posted due to spoiler issues, it's the infamous "Somehow x has returned" line.

Truly, a band of drunken chimps could have written a better story.

[rjkclarke]

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

The last time I felt such pain was when I played Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods. And Not the Enhanced Edition. Ah, loving an EuroRPG must have its downsides too...

 

 

Haha!

 

It probably doesn't help when some Nameless Idiot (not Hero ?) puts your name in a terrible rejigged song, to take the edge off of having to write a review about a game that is baffling at the best of times.

 

Sorry about that!

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

Fantastic review, probably not the best game to review near Christmas  it did rekindle some beautiful memories. Not of Arcania, mind you, but of the old Gothic games. From all my old and ancient memories of "trying" this game, I do remember something along the lines "this is a travesty, this can't be...I am not playing Gothic, what?"

But yep, by doing Diego dirty, they put the final nail in the coffin of Gothic  

 

Regardless I also want to try this game at some point, I mean from a fresh standpoint with more experience under my belt. Another one added to the evergrowing backlog, although I think I will follow your advice and play Risen 2 first. Would play Risen 1 but...I don't think I have the energy to go back to PC, search for the game, the patches, do 3 Ave Marias for the control schematics and then remember I have to set the compatibility mode

In order to play an EuroRPG, you really have to be the Bear Grylls of videogames. Everything is out there to kill you.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate that!

 

That cracked me up, "it did rekindle some beautiful memories. Not of Arcania," That's never a good sign is it, when thinking about a shameful sequel all it does is make you pine for the older games in its series. 

 

You aren't missing that much by skipping Risen 1 - it's alright I suppose, but Risen 2 is better - where Arcania has no choice, Risen 2 has some big ones, that pretty much mean the entire game and quest structure plays out differently, so the multiple playthroughs you can do, do end up being quite refreshingly different. I feel confident you'd probably like Risen 2, if you don't you can always feed me more Train Station Sushi.

 

The torturous process you described for playing Risen on PC is the reason why I always talk myself out of starting a playthrough of Thief: The Dark Project, except with that, you have to do all the processes you described, whilst standing on one leg, reading the Product Key upside down, and singing Hakuna Matata in Japanese.

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

Oh boy, this hurts me deeply. Didn't reach this late in the game back in the day but yes, if you have nothing to say in the outcome of the game then my god that's not a good thing. That was the entire fun, the sauce, the spices of Gothic - the fact that what YOU do mattered in that world, from the "Hello friend, sit down and have some meat" to being pelted with crossbows if you punched the wrong guard in the mouth. The moment you bring linearity in Gothic universe is the moment when not even Xardas can save your reality.

 

^^ This - is why I think you'll probably get on with Risen - and why I think you'll see through some of it's more glaring issues and probably just have a good time with both Risen 2 and 3, like I did. Dare I say it, whilst I know you're not into the setting of Elex, everything you listed as a positive above and something you enjoy about Gothic, is in Elex too. Plus you can basically become a Techno Viking Berserker - it's more Gothic than you think.

 

 

Maybe a little prettier than it should be, not quite as dung covered, and grimy as you and I would probably prefer, but it does have that unpolished look that you'd expect to find in a EuroRPG.

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

To further go into Diego's importance, and this is for the fellows players who will read this review - imagine that Diego is for the Nameless Hero what Vesemir was for Geralt in Witcher. The driving force who molded the man, the myth, the legend. Without Diego, the Nameless Hero would be another chump hunting for meatbugs. Diego's importance is insane in this universe and to see him reduced to a cameo...not nice  

 

Man I'm so glad you said it!

 

That is one of the most glaring omissions from that entire review - how silly of me, especially as I'm always saying context is key, and I didn't even provide the context for why Diego is as important as he is. Thankfully you said it perfectly though, I can't and shouldn't always assume that everyone else has played the Gothic games very extensively. The Vesemir comparison is perfect too. That is spot on dude.

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

Despite all that however, THIS SPECIFIC SCREENSHOT warms my heart  at least they got the feeling right. That's how these games should look like. And honestly that's what worries me at the upcoming Gothic Remake - game looks so pretty, so many lens flares, so much class...that it loses its charm somehow. This is old man Copanele speaking, I know, but an EuroRPG is kinda supposed to be "dirty", muddy, fighting with hogs in the mud level. You don't need Ghost of Tsushima levels of graphics, more like Metro levels.

 

Of all the screenshots I could find, it had to have Diego in it, and I felt like it had to look like Gothic, or just the general vibe you'd want from a game like this - and I genuinely think Arcania does nail that pretty well, whether it's in the creature designs, the characters or the environments, they all do have somewhat of a charm to them.

 

I don't quite know what to feel about the Gothic remake - I was initially quite excited about it, but it does look a bit too glamorous really - and it only bothered me after you and I had a brief little chat about it in your thread a couple months back, I kind of looked at it again, and thought " damn, he's right, it's got barely any of that gritty plucky charm that you'd want from this."

 

Metro is a great comparison point actually - those original two titles are absolutely brimming with charm its ridiculous, even down to the really terribly voice acted kids that all look the same, and don't know what an Elephant looks like.

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

I don't really remember the soundtrack too well, but I had a similar problem with Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Soundtrack was the true stellar point of the game but honestly...every time you were doing an upgrade, collecting some knives or idk whacking a random goblin, the choir and orchestra sang for their lives...it got tiresome at one point. Just spamming glorious music doesn't mean shit if it's not applied in harmony.

 

That does seem a bit much - I want to play that, but then also don't want to play that game at the same time, it's got a lot of actors in it that I quite like doing some of the voices. Which admittedly is not a good reason to want to play a game, but reading between the lines with your own experiences with it, it does make me feel like running away from it screaming would probably be a better decision.

 

I think when a soundtrack is the most stellar thing about a game, yet it just doesn't quite gel with everything else, then something has gone terribly wrong, it should feel appropriate, and it doesn't in Arcania. Some bits do, but mostly it feels so out of place. I think unlike Castlevania though, it's more the soundtrack doesn't feel appropriate for how wishy-washy and flat the main quest gets in places. It's very much a mixed bag.

 

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

Always a pleasure to torture you with memories  hey, you were the one who gave me the opportunity. Never thought you'd get hitman'ed by a fellow EuroRPG lover!

 

I did - and I'm glad that I did too, because otherwise I really would have put this one off for so long I don't know when I would have gotten to actually reviewing it. 

 

You also gave me Bloodborne to review, which will give me a nice excuse to jump back into NG+ real quick and grab the one DLC weapon that I missed for 100% completion, because I was too busy absolutely howling my tits off at the noises Ludwig was making on the floor instead of actually y'know getting the weapon from him, so I'll have to go and grab that one haha.

[The_Kopite]

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

I guess the melting plastic fumes will at least get me a little high (or make me very ill,) from the inevitable bonfire that I end up throwing that onto .....

 

You know somewhere out there, there definitely will be someone whose favourite character is actually Steve, those people are almost certainly two-pin din plug's and Shrub Rocketeers.

Haha well there you go then, something to look forward to!

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

Granted they aren't identical, but there's definitely a resemblance....... She looks the most fishy in that game to be honest, but I can't see Jill and not think of me and my friend playing the RE5 DLC and running up to each others screens saying " HEY CHRIS,  I LOOK LIKE A FEEEEEEEEEESH!"

I'm not seeing it personally but hey each to their own, but I am looking forward to playing the RE5 DLC someday. Should have played it a long time ago lol

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

Well I hope so - I'm totally open to the idea of bringing Ada back if it makes sense to do so,  although it'll be bizarre seeing her in the the timeline Village is at, she'll be pushing 50 by then surely, so she can't quite be the same temptress and "sexified" character that she always has been for the most part. So from that perspective I'm very interested to see if they slightly change her, or whether she essentially stays the same.

That's true. That's Capcom's chance to grow her character and move it forward in order to make sure she doesn't become stale. It's a good opportunity.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

A discount? So you don't have to actually fork over all your pennies like an old lady getting on a bus and deciding to pay for her ticket with only 5p's before realising that she could have gotten on the bus for free anyway.

 

Other than that, yes, that's all you want for it to feel like a worthy use of your money, because sometimes afterwards I have had that instant regret and thought, oh I shouldn't have paid a lot of money for this one.

Discounts are always nice lol 

 

Yeah I have paid too much before for certain games and even DLC's occasionally, so my list of games to get from PSN store now has very hardline prices that I am willing to pay, making sure that I get the best value and don't overpay. It's working for me considering the amount of games I've got in the backlog already lol

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

Don't avoid watching Rise of Skywalker because I don't like it, you might enjoy it so definitely give it a watch, I know someone who saw it like nine times at the cinema.....

 

.....I don't like it by the way, if you couldn't tell - I can't stand that film, I think it is literally the worst Star Wars film ever made, and as a conclusion to a forty year old saga, the fact that film was what we got is a reals shame.

 

When the most emotion you feel in a film is two scenes with Chewbacca of all characters, then I think something has gone disastrously wrong.

 

The Last Jedi doesn't tonally fit a LEGO game either, I love that film, but it is quite dour and serious, and especially with the fact that LEGO Skywalker Saga is apparently going to give you the option to play it with voices off like the old games, they are going to have to go overboard goofing it up with that game.

 

I don't know I'm very curious to see how that one ends up getting implemented, in the final product.

Yeah it'll get watched eventually, it's sat on the Sky box recorded from god knows how long ago.

 

I know a lot of people feel that way, so it'll be interesting to see how I end up feeling about it once I have watched it.

 

It being that bad for you that two scenes with Chewbacca is the best you could get out of it, then I'm sorry it was such a let down.

 

Hmmm, I didn't know about the potential option to turn the voices off. That's a blast from the LEGO past lol I reckon this is part of the reason why they have postponed this game a lot tbh. It will certainly be an interesting final product.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

That makes sense, Screw the PS5 version where Peter doesn't look like a Chinchilla anymore, at least Aunt May still looks like one of those troll dolls that used to go on the end of your pencil. You know the ones I mean I'm sure.

 

I have written the main game portion of that review, but I've never gone back and written the DLC part, I'm struggling to find a way to talk about it without giving too many spoilers away. Some of the story direction in that DLC made me scratch my head and really question why they did certain things with certain characters, but I guess I'm going to have to find a way to at some point, so I ought to just do it.

I did find it random that they decided to change the actor who played him. 

 

Ironically when looking at my previous post, I actually have since then purchased the Ultimate Edition for PS5 but for a specific reason. I managed to get Currys to price match it with Tesco who on the app at the local store showed that they were selling it for £25. I then listed the code for Spiderman Remastered on ebay and sold it for £28. So yeah that's one way of doing it hahaha

 

Yes do your DLC review, it'll be an interesting read. 

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

I'm kind of on the fence on what I'm going to think of it, but I am excited to find out - Doc compared it to a Dragon Age game, which is fine. But out of the three Dragon Age games that have been released, I can honestly say the one I like the most is the first one, and the one I think Andromeda will be like is Inquisition, and that game exemplifies everything that frustrates me about open world games. 

I agree that Dragon Age:Origins is the best DA game but I really enjoyed Inquisition (it ended up being a milestone plat) but Andromeda might seem that way to you. All you can do is give it a go at some point.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:44 PM, Copanele said:

Then I dropped into KOTOR series. Be amazed but I love KOTOR 2 way more than 1 because of goddamn KREIA who is probably THE BEST character ever written in this dumb ass universe. Like the writing of KOTOR games is something impeccable, a thing that present Bioware could not hope to replicate no matter how many space goats they sacrifice to the almighty Plot Gods.

Gotta respect the appreciation for KOTOR. That remake is a game I'm so pumped for, but they could balls it up so badly. Bought an OG Xbox just to play KOTOR 1 and 2. True Story. Also Buffy. Kick ass game that was too. Lots of fun.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

n 12/16/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Ugh, that reminds me that I never finished the Spiderman DLC... one of these days I'm gonna get to that. Almost finished the Black Cat, but those stupid screwball challenges just irritated me so I dropped the whole thing. Back when I was blissfully ignorant of completionist endeavors.... oh, I WAS SO YOUNG THEN

 

Finish it! For the love of Marvel/Spiderman/Peter Parker/whatever works for you.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

At the rate McMahon has been firing wrestlers in the last year, it's been so many over the last year I genuinely think he's be giving Trump a run for his money on that one, which if you'd ask me a year ago I'd probably think wasn't possible.

Here comes the monnnnneeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Money talks

Here comes the money

money

money

money

money

money

money

money

money

Dollar Dollar

Dollar Dollar

Ching Ching

etc etc

 

Wrong McMahon I know, but it's all about the money with them. They don't give two hoots about the people.

 

On 12/20/2021 at 3:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

  On 12/16/2021 at 6:56 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah, I need to get going on that... I've been itching lately to re-play 0, 1, 4, and get into the remake of 3. Part of me wants to knock out all the games I've already played so I can feel like everything on my backlog is new to me, if that makes sense

Make it happen! It can be a Christmas treat! Like Die Hard! Or a yule log. Whatever works for you.

 

Need to have and then play the remake of 3 myself. 

 

 

Oh and all I'm seeing after posting this is more hate for Rise of Skywalker. My god that is going to be one interesting film to watch. Sadly it sounds like it's going to be a massive letdown.......

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by The_Kopite
Updated information

[YaManSmevz]

On 12/22/2021 at 9:53 AM, rjkclarke said:

A word to the wise folks - just like you shouldn't get your hair cut in a shed underneath a railway bridge, by a barber that says you have "The hair of a Chinese man" like Karl Pilkington did, he now has the hair of a bald Chinese man though.

 

So my advice for today is, you should also avoid buying Sushi from a train station very late in the evening.

 

Oof. Yeah, that's definitely a gamble... I also learned the hard way that sushi from alternative sources is sus as fuck, though my lesson wasn't quite as harsh as yours?

 

On 12/22/2021 at 9:53 AM, rjkclarke said:

Oh and I got really sidetracked playing Stranded Deep, as I actually started enjoying it quite a lot, so I'm hoping to be done with that soon.

 

I seen you knockin dem trophies out, that's what's up? I know you been sitting on it for a while, so I'm sure it feels good to end up enjoying it to boot!

 

On 12/22/2021 at 9:53 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

I get the apprehension. I really do, but you've got this!  I think the same thing I think is putting you off doing Asylum is also putting me off of jumping into Arkham Knight, so to answer your other question, no I haven't knocked out Arkham Knight yet, I haven't grown the dangle bits to go back and actually attempt it yet.

 

I am planning to, but once I get Stranded Deep put to bed, then I think I will jump back into Arkham Knight for at least an hour or so a day, so I need to catch up to it, so I think I'll have to drop the reviews for Arkham Asylum and City, and yes Kiwami and Kiwami 2 as well, to prep for me finishing Yakuza 3, so it's probably going to get a bit busy in here review wise in the next couple of weeks. Not a bad thing I guess, as I've been slacking on some of those lately.

 

Thanks, man? it's up next, too.. I have until my self-imposed deadline of January 2nd to complete it.. so long as I just dive in and make a genuine go of it, I should be fine! Here's hopin at least. Let's activate those dangling bits!!

 

Er... y'know, separately, and in the privacy of our own homes. And metaphorically! Sheesh, you'd think i would have said that one first?

 

Wifey: Hey babe, playin some Batman?

Me: Yup, I sure am!

Wifey: But why are your pants off?

Me: Well why aren't YOUR pants off?? It's BATMAN, bro!!

 

On this week's episode of Divorce Court...

 

Dude I am looking forward to all of those reviews! Maybe I'll even take that as inspiration to finish Asylum quicker! Friendly competition and all - "last one to post an Asylum review is a penis pump!"

 

Not to mention that Yakuza 0 (and FFIX if I'm bein real) have been sorely neglected, and are starting to give me dirty looks. Your Kiwami reviews may be just what the proverbial doctor ordered!

 

On 12/22/2021 at 9:53 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

Flowers is on Netflix in the UK - I don't know if it is in the US too, but if it is, absolutely give it a watch.

 

There's definitely some of those episodes I'd like to go a bit more in depth with at some point in as spoiler free way as possible, I'll just need to do a bit of homework for it, as it isn't a show with a huge fanbase, so I want to throw some screenshots in there, and I'm going to have to make them myself, as it's tough to actually find a lot of decent ones through google.

 

I daresay we've both found our homework assignments?

 

On 12/22/2021 at 11:28 AM, Copanele said:

 

My man played "Tracking Hayamoto" from Silent Assassin in real life...except you were Hayamoto Jr   Thanks the good Doctor for that trailer

 

 

 

 

Well played, sir!

 

On 12/22/2021 at 11:45 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

...But what can I say...

 

...I've always rooted for the underdog, (years watching Rocky movies saw to that,) and...

....from my formative years watching Agent Scully do her thing... to Julianne Moore, to Christina Hendricks, to Jess Chastain, to Amy Adams....

....I guess I just kinda got a thing for redheads too 

 

I am also guilty on both counts.

 

My formative years had Shirley Manson as well?

 

23 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I'm not seeing it personally but hey each to their own, but I am looking forward to playing the RE5 DLC someday. Should have played it a long time ago lol

 

Is that right...

 

???

 

23 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Finish it! For the love of Marvel/Spiderman/Peter Parker/whatever works for you.

 

Here comes the monnnnneeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Money talks

Here comes the money

money

money

money

money

money

money

money

money

Dollar Dollar

Dollar Dollar

Ching Ching

etc etc

 

I can't say no to Shane-O Mac!!

Edited December 24, 2021 by YaManSmevz

[The_Kopite]

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

Is that right...

 

Haha yes. Hoping to have it soon, heard good things about the DLC's.

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

I can't say no to Shane-O Mac!!

Haha good?

[rjkclarke]

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

I'm not seeing it personally but hey each to their own, but I am looking forward to playing the RE5 DLC someday. Should have played it a long time ago lol

 

That's fair - I see animals in lots of things - like I said, I think PS4 version of Peter Parker looks like a Chinchilla. I'm sticking by that one too, because he really does.

 

Which reminds me.........

 

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yes do your DLC review, it'll be an interesting read. 

 

I'm actually going to post that one later on, so I'll throw a tag in it so you can read it whenever you get a chance to, if you wanted to. It isn't actually that long either, so I guess that will be a welcome change from my usual longer posts.

 

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I have paid too much before for certain games and even DLC's occasionally, so my list of games to get from PSN store now has very hardline prices that I am willing to pay, making sure that I get the best value and don't overpay. It's working for me considering the amount of games I've got in the backlog already lol

 

That's a fair point - probably a good idea too. You'll save yourself a lot of money and frustration that way I'd expect. 

 

Plus that way if you wait a bit before purchasing a game you tend to have a better time with them for the most part, as they've usually had some of the bugs and kinks knocked out of them by that point. As it seems a lot of games get released an absolutely broken mess sometimes, which makes me pretty sad.

 

I know both myself and @DrBloodmoney probably had a better time with Assassin's Creed: Unity because we both played it quite a while after it's initial release so it wasn't quite as much of a meme worthy experience as it was for some people.

 

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah it'll get watched eventually, it's sat on the Sky box recorded from god knows how long ago.

 

I know a lot of people feel that way, so it'll be interesting to see how I end up feeling about it once I have watched it.

 

It being that bad for you that two scenes with Chewbacca is the best you could get out of it, then I'm sorry it was such a let down.

 

Yes, well now you've seen everyone else's thoughts on Rise of Skywalker, it's at least nice now to know that I'm not alone on that one.

 

I was going to mention there's a good scene with C-3PO as well, but that literally gets undermined and retconned within about twenty minutes anyway, so yeah, I chose not to mention, instead I'll just use it as another reason to use that films script as toilet paper.

 

Still - don't be too put off, you might like it, so get and watch it and decide for yourself - then come here and tell us all how much you hate it ?

 

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

I agree that Dragon Age:Origins is the best DA game but I really enjoyed Inquisition (it ended up being a milestone plat) but Andromeda might seem that way to you. All you can do is give it a go at some point.

 

Oh I do like Inquisition, I just find it's open world elements really bland and frustrating - I thought in that game they were the definition of filler content. So outside of those, and the fact the romance options are a bit naff in that game, I actually do like it, it's never going to be the worst Dragon Age all the time that Dragon Age II exists. 

 

Still, that being said - WHY DIDN'T THEY LET ME ROMANCE LELIANA! Heck I would have romanced Old Lady Leliana too, you've played it so you know the bit I mean. 

 

That's very true all I can do is give Andromeda a go, it can always win smelliest game at my 2022 Gaming Awards if I decide I can't stand it.

 

On 23/12/2021 at 7:09 PM, The_Kopite said:

Ironically when looking at my previous post, I actually have since then purchased the Ultimate Edition for PS5 but for a specific reason. I managed to get Currys to price match it with Tesco who on the app at the local store showed that they were selling it for £25. I then listed the code for Spiderman Remastered on ebay and sold it for £28. So yeah that's one way of doing it hahaha

 

Oh so you've basically gotten Miles Morales for free AND £3 profit! Congrats Kopite you sly dog you........ Best of all though, you don't have to experience Non-Chinchilla faced Peter, well apart from when he appears in Miles Morales, because let's face it there is almost no chance that he doesn't show up in that game.

 

 

 

EDIT: I HIT SUBMIT BY ACCIDENT, SO I'LL TAG YOU AGAIN. I think that'll work.

 

@The_Kopite

 

Quote

Gotta respect the appreciation for KOTOR. That remake is a game I'm so pumped for, but they could balls it up so badly. Bought an OG Xbox just to play KOTOR 1 and 2. True Story. Also Buffy. Kick ass game that was too. Lots of fun.

 

I actually bought a Nintendo Gamecube to play Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, and a few other games, and ironically as it turns out all of the games I have on Gamecube are probably the rarest ones in my collection, which turned out to be a funny little twist of fate.

 

KOTOR 1 and 2 are worthy reasons to get that original Xbox though!

 

Quote

Wrong McMahon I know, but it's all about the money with them. They don't give two hoots about the people.

 

That does unfortunately seem to be the case, I mean he literally fired about 80 people this past year, claiming that they were all budget cuts, and then it turns out that they are having one of the most profitable times in the companies history, something about that just seems a little bit wrong.

 

@YaManSmevz

 

I'll have to edit the post this way too, sorry about that one, so if you don't read this, then it's my fault for hitting submit by accident.

 

Quote

Oof. Yeah, that's definitely a gamble... I also learned the hard way that sushi from alternative sources is sus as fuck, though my lesson wasn't quite as harsh as yours?

 

Sorry to hear you've also been struck down by some dubious seafood in the past...... Although the jokes on me really because you don't really associate the sea faring creatures with trains - so common sense should have kicked in, alas it did not ?

 

I still don't quite feel right even now. So that's definitely something I'll try and avoid in the future.

 

Quote

I seen you knockin dem trophies out, that's what's up I know you been sitting on it for a while, so I'm sure it feels good to end up enjoying it to boot!

 

I was going great guns with that game, like I legit think I would have had the platinum yesterday, and then I ran into a horrendous glitch, where the trophy for crafting all the boss kill trophies decided to glitch on me, and the trophy didn't unlock, but the trophy for crafting every item did, so the game thought they counted, but whatever it is that unlocks the trophies didn't think it counted, so now I've lost about 4 or 5 hours of progress to that, and I've gotta reload a pretty far back backup save that I had.

 

I was enjoying it though, and it's definitely quite fun for what it is, but I think after that glitchy nightmare I'll probably just be happy to be done with it to be perfectly honest.

 

Quote

Thanks, man it's up next, too.. I have until my self-imposed deadline of January 2nd to complete it.. so long as I just dive in and make a genuine go of it, I should be fine! Here's hopin at least. Let's activate those dangling bits!!

 

Er... y'know, separately, and in the privacy of our own homes. And metaphorically! Sheesh, you'd think i would have said that one first

 

Wifey: Hey babe, playin some Batman?

Me: Yup, I sure am!

Wifey: But why are your pants off?

Me: Well why aren't YOUR pants off?? It's BATMAN, bro!!

 

On this week's episode of Divorce Court...

 

haha! That's quite the scene......

 

You'll be fine, tackle the Shock and Awe challenge first or something, that way you'll know you've done the hardest one first, that's usually how I approach games with difficult things in them, almost a trial by fire kind of thing haha.

 

It's a good thing you haven't played NieR yet either, so that you wouldn't have already had the awkward conversation about you sitting around with a pair of Underpants on your head, her leggings on and a pair of flip-flops, so at least you'll avoid that one for the time being.

 

Quote

Dude I am looking forward to all of those reviews! Maybe I'll even take that as inspiration to finish Asylum quicker! Friendly competition and all - "last one to post an Asylum review is a penis pump!"

 

Not to mention that Yakuza 0 (and FFIX if I'm bein real) have been sorely neglected, and are starting to give me dirty looks. Your Kiwami reviews may be just what the proverbial doctor ordered!

 

You'll beat me to it at this rate ?

 

Glad to hear it though!

 

I just remembered that Spider-Man is likely to win perhaps an award or two at the end of year thing I'm planning to throw together next week, so I thought I should at least put my review of that up for it as a frame of reference.

 

I just needed to tidy it up a bit, because that review predates even this checklist, so it's a little rough around the edges, but I'm not going to change a whole lot, just go into greater detail with the DLC that kind of thing.

 

Poor Yakuza 0 and FFIX is all I can say!

 

Although playing Hitman 2 is a pretty hefty time sink and it's awesome, so you know sometimes sacrifices have to be made in the pursuit of playing other awesome games and all that!

 

Quote

I daresay we've both found our homework assignments

 

 

Dude that's going to be the best homework assignment ever if I get to just chill out and rewatch Flowers, whilst making screenshots of all the pretty cinematography, or really important moments. It'll be like I'm back at film school or something ?..... Win Win!

 

If you do watch it though - I hope you enjoy it, because it's one hell of a good time. A little bit of an emotional roller-coaster in places, but I think in a positive way, one that really makes you think. The best kind!

 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by rjkclarke