zizimonster Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 38 minutes ago, kingofbattle8174 said: I was not impressed at all by Black Mirror. It felt like the weirdness of Silent Hill with the clunky controls of an early RE game. Yeah, it is mediocre and has too many loading screens ? ...but the atmosphere of that game isn't bad. I consider the game a stress-reliever. ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted June 28, 2022 Author Share Posted June 28, 2022 (edited) On 27/06/2022 at 0:07 AM, AJ_Radio said: Lone Survivor is definitely one of those games where you either like it or you don’t. That is definitely reflected in the trophy stats. Most of the trophies are very rare despite the game being around a 3/10 in difficulty for most players. Not my cup of tea though. Horror in general I just never really got into, even though I ended up enjoying Resident Evil HD. I agree actually. I could totally see it being quite the Marmite game. I couldn't quite figure out why it was an ultra rare platinum either. I figured it was probably a PS+ thing, more than anything. It's interesting you say that about Resident Evil HD, because I found Lone Survivor has that similar satisfaction Resident Evil HD does, where just the learning process alone is a fun one, as you get better and better at the game each successive time you play it. On 27/06/2022 at 7:28 AM, DrBloodmoney said: You know - there really needs to be some better descriptor for those games like this one that are Horror-adjacent, but not necessarily beholden to a strong predilection for horror in order to be enjoyed I know what you mean about this - Lone Survivor is definitely Horror of a sort, but it's one of those ones I think non-horror fans, or even horror-adverse folks can easily get next to - like Bioshock, or Alice: The Madness Returns, or even something like Dark Souls - there's a horror root that is weaved all through it, and it's probably taking more inspiration from Horror cinema than any other brand of fiction, but still has enough of a foot outside that sphere, that non-horror folks can pretty much just tell themselves it isn't one! Absolutely! I don't think it's quite horror in the truest sense, and interestingly yes I agree it shares more with horror cinema than video games. I need to post that Sidehow Bob stepping on a rake gif on myself now.... BUT, yeah the horror is definitely there, but it doesn't define it. I'd like to think those that steer away from horror might at least consider this one, because I thought it was an incredibly good time! Quote I was thinking about this - most of the time with non-voice acted games, I have a rough notion of what I think the characters would sound like... but Lone Survivor, I have no idea who could be the cast! I can't tell if it would be super deadpan - like, Aubrey Plaza as Chie, and Stephen Wright as You... or maybe grim dark, with Troy Baker doing You, and Jennifer Hale as Chie... or if it would be sort of comic dissonance with Chie weirdly upbeat like Kristen Schall and You played by Office Space style Stephen Root! They all kind of make sense to me in that strange world! Oh man! That Aubrey Plaza as Chie thing is an inspired choice.... I love that! Especially as I saw Chie as a pretty indifferent kind of character from the way she speaks. Aubrey Plaza would nail that one, Yes please for more Jennifer Hale in anything to be perfectly honest! So I would take that Chie too. I'd also be up for the Kristen Schall and Stephen Root versions too, Kristen Schall would be great for that weird change in tone Yellow ending version specifically. You know what's weird though? In my head "You" was Japanese. So I kept thinking how good Mamoru Miyano (The actor that plays Okabe in Steins Gate, amongst other things) could have been as "You." He already showed in Steins Gate 0 how well he can play different facets of a characters mental wellbeing, and he could have brought something really special to some of the interactions with The Director for example. Like the one directly after you face "Mother." Quote I thought that monster sound was super cool - with headphones on it felt like the roaring rush you get when something terrible happens, and you feel your pulse in your eardrums, and the blood rushing through your head! I haven't listened to that with earphones in. I really should, because that sounds even more intense than it already was! I loved that sound effect too, I kept trying to wrack my brains for a while to figure out exactly what went into actually making it ? Quote This is an awesome idea. Just sayin... and for all that it makes sense, I'm struggling to think of a narrative game like this what does the randomised rogue-like thing... I think you might be onto a genuine new genre here! Really? I would have been sure something like that would have been done before already. I thought it would have been a great idea for either a DLC for the game, or just something a little different. The thing is for it to work in another game, the area design would have to be as immaculately designed as they were in Lone Survivor, otherwise I think in execution it would likely fall flat on its arse, which would be a real shame! ? Quote Awesome write up as always m'dude! Thanks man! Much appreciated as always. I've got some of your own to sit down and read once I've gone and posted up some bits and bobs! Looking forward to it! 18 hours ago, kingofbattle8174 said: I was not impressed at all by Black Mirror. It felt like the weirdness of Silent Hill with the clunky controls of an early RE game. A good Point and Click series that is more light hearted, Agatha Knife Neither was I! In fact I just finished writing my review of it, which I'll post up after this.... and I pretty much massively shit on the game as a whole .... I particularly like point-and-clickers so when one fails as epicly as I thought this one did, I tend to get pretty worked up about it I'll have a look at Agatha Knife in a bit, I'm not familiar with that one. Thanks! 17 hours ago, zizimonster said: Yeah, it is mediocre and has too many loading screens ? ...but the atmosphere of that game isn't bad. I consider the game a stress-reliever. ? Oh Zizi! I think that's hilarious.... only because I thought it would be too. I played it in between torturous boosting sessions on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and I was desperately hoping it would have been a stress reliever too. Instead it just frustrated me mostly ? They sure do like their loading screens! Edited June 28, 2022 by rjkclarke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted June 28, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 28, 2022 (edited) I Looked Directly Into A Black Mirror, Unfortunately, This New Platinum Appeared There. Platinum #357 Black Mirror (PS4) Every Trophy accomplished Accomplish all Trophies and complete the game A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 28 June 2022: 4:47:43 PM Time Taken to Platinum : 1 day, 3 hours, 51 minutes Platinum Rarity - 51.62% Trophy Number - #17,090 I hope you have appropriate medical insurance Black Mirror, because...well, without being too crass – I’m going to absolutely tear this game a new bottom-hole with this review! Time to go to the emergency Clannad playlist, to keep myself relaxed for this one! Let’s get the most obvious thing out of the way first – Black Mirror fails on so many monumental levels, that it’s pretty tough to account for every single one. For my money though – the most egregious one of all, is that it could not have done a worse job as a reboot. Here’s the thing – for those who aren’t aware, I’ll catch you up to speed, Black Mirror is in fact a reboot. Yes, whilst it’s sometimes referred to as Black Mirror IV, this is indeed a reboot, and prequel of sorts. Where this game falls down, is that instead of generating new interest in the series, (a series I’ve always wanted to, but never played) all it generated from me was a want to play the previous games. It is impossible to deny that the lore and the world itself of Black Mirror is in fact, actually a rather interesting one. It taps into some interesting and not too often explored aspects of Celtic legends and mythology, so to see it manifested in a game like this was a real shame. Yes, there is some bad mispronunciation of Gaelic here and there, but that’s pretty forgivable. Where does this one fit in? Well, Black Mirror, released in 2017, being developed by KINGArt Games, is probably easier defined as a graphic adventure, instead of the point-and-click lineage that it hails from. Set almost a century before the events of the original Black Mirror trilogy. You take the role of David Gordon as he travels to his ancestral home in Scotland, as you eventually unravel the secrets of Sgathan Dubh castle, and “The Gordon Family Curse.” All that sounds quite interesting – and as a premise, it absolutely is. Where that unfortunately falls down, is the execution. As I said, the premise of the game is most definitely a good one. I actually think the story itself is Black Mirror’s strongest feature. I found it intriguing the whole way through, but sometimes that isn’t quite enough. The characters are as a general rule well fleshed out. They’re unsettling in a way where you almost instantly know something is “off” about them, you just can’t quite figure out exactly why. The two leading characters David Gordon and Dr Leah Farber are both quite compelling, and the growing fondness between the characters as they slowly grow to understand one another, was actually very well written I thought. On paper at least – Black Mirror SHOULD be the love child of Silent Hill and Broken Sword, I certainly think that’s what it is trying to be. If it was that, I’ve no doubt I would have loved it. In reality, a lot of what it is trying to achieve falls incredibly flat. Take the lighting for example. It is an element of the game that is actually very well done, or at least, in a sense it is. KING Art Games clearly had the intention to use natural light as much as possible. That’s something that’s admirable considering the game is set at the start of the twentieth century. There wouldn’t be much light. That aspect feels realistic, but that does not translate in any way towards good gameplay. There are certain sections in the game where there is absolutely no light at all, and as the camera seems to like changing angle of its own free will, you’ll end up spinning yourself around constantly just looking for a hotspot to interact with. I quite literally had to set the brightness of the game up to the highest setting to see anything, and even then it still felt too dark. The visual design of Black Mirror is, again, a tale of two halves. Great area design, paired with character designs, that don’t quite marry together well. The mansion is very well designed (what you can see of it anyway). There are lots of small attentions to detail that you really appreciate from both a design perspective and as a player. Often times there are small objects near the doors that denote exactly where the door leads, which is a handy visual cue, as the game doesn’t contain a map. For example, outside of the hallway leading to the kitchen, is a table with a cloche on it, reminding you that it leads to the kitchen. There isn’t anything bad per se about the character designs – I actually think as a general rule they’re rather good. I just don’t feel as if they fit in with everything else – the character designs themselves feel a little like a mixture of those found in Telltale games, mixed with those in Dishonoured. The issue with that is that in Dishonoured and Telltale games, everything else has that uniformity to their art-style (and if it doesn’t there’s usually a good reason). Whereas in the case of Black Mirror. It has these quite stylised character designs, in settings that are trying to look as authentic as possible, which doesn’t quite work like it should. It ends up feeling a little jarring. Like with everything in this game, the audio is a rather mixed bag. The sound design is pretty decent, in so far as the foley work goes. I don’t think it’s fair to say the soundtrack is bad, because it absolutely isn’t. It’s actually very good in a few places; the song in Gaelic that plays over the credits was actually pretty calming. I just thought it plays a little too much into stereotypes for its own good. I almost think the composer was thinking: “Scotland....Scotland, what do they have in Scotland?.... AHH THAT’S IT! BAGPIPES, EUREKA! We’ll have as many of those as we can get please.” Somehow a fairly miniscule section in Yesterday: Origins managed to feel more authentic (to my ears at least) than the majority of Black Mirror. Some of the voice acting was a genuine delight though. Megan Maczko was particularly good as Dr Leah Farber, she did a wonderful job of nailing the subtler elements you find in a person’s English accent when the person has Austrian heritage. She really brings a lot of depth to that character; she seemed to really grasp what made that character tick. Her organic change from austere scientist to caring and concerned friend was so well performed by her, a real personal highlight for me. Now we come to the biggest problem of all – the gameplay. It’s really tough to say anything good about this – and to be perfectly honest, I’m not going to try to. I cannot understand the logic behind creating a game in this genre, one that is widely known for rich puzzles I might add – and then failing to really add very many puzzles at all. What there are, are quite miniscule, and would barely constitute as a puzzle in any other game. It was such a baffling inclusion. I’m not saying every single game has to have hard puzzles, but it would have felt nice to get that satisfying feeling you obtain when solving a trickier puzzle, that point-and-click adjacent games tend to do so well. One of the puzzle types takes the form of seeing ghostly events play out (if you’ve played The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, you’ll know what to expect,) and having to discern the relevant information from them. A good idea in theory, in practice not so much – these are poorly explained, and contain fail states that can put you as far back as ten or fifteen minutes of gameplay if you’re unprepared for them and die. In a game that has almost as much time in loading screens as functional gameplay, this becomes impossibly frustrating. I think even if you played this on PC or a PS5, the loading screens would still be an annoyance. This game must be so poorly optimised to need so many. I’m really not exaggerating either. There’s a set of corridors in the game, where you’ll spend thirty seconds loading in, walk forward for ten seconds, then have at least another thirty loading into the next area. It is so unbelievably immersion breaking. Oh I’m not done digging this game out quite yet – this game performs worse than almost any other game that I’ve played on the PS4. Quite frankly it plays like a low budget PS2 game – not the charming kind either. I’m not the sort to get offended by occasional frame drops, but this game is absolutely littered with stuttering and jerky movements from the characters, who are already animated quite poorly to begin with. I actually laughed out loud during a cutscene, where one of the characters is on the floor (although he was visibly floating ABOVE the floor) with blood across their middle, not dripping, not pooling, BUT FLOATING. Yes, you read it right folks, the blood was just floating. I audibly said out loud to myself “Yes game, that’s how blood works.” I could see how this would be a little more functional with a mouse, but with a controller finding the desired hotspots to interact with is a nightmare, as David controls, and moves like a person learning to play QWOP for the first time, it's bothersome at best. So here’s the burning question, would I recommend Black Mirror? I absolutely would not. I don’t even have to think about it, it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever played or anything that extreme. But all I came away thinking was “How did you manage to get what could have been something so much more, so very wrong.” There are probably several dozen games that are point-and-click or point-and-click adjacent that I’d recommend to people before ever playing this one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man does that feel good to get some of those frustrations written down! Sometimes the general consensus is right, and a bad or mediocre game is just that.... Why do I sometimes feel the need to be a fanny and discover for myself whether that's true or not ?. Now that my hot streak of awesome games has ended, it's time to get that going again! So time to fire up The Artful Escape soon and get that played, which I'm actually looking forward to! I'm also inching closer and closer to finally having the online done for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.... Once that's done. I'm tempted to have a little Assassin's Creedathon in here and review some of those games I've been putting off until I finished Brotherhood! Anyway I'll catch you in the next less negative one folks! Edited June 28, 2022 by rjkclarke 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I think I remember that cut scene. In all it was a forgettable experience. Speaking of the transition times, I remember times that the game would have you facing back towards the exit as you entered an area, so you will exit by accident, meaning another load screen, to turn around again to get back to where you were going, meaning another load screen. Agatha Knife is a funny game. You play as Agatha, who works in a butcher shop. You don't want the animals to fear you though, so you decide to make a new religion call Carnivorism, which teaches them not to fear death. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 I wondered where I heard the name Black Mirror before(not the show)...it was a weird 2003-2004 Point& Click that I played on PC and abandoned to (re)play Broken Sword 2 Heard it was a commercial success but mneh, didn't catch me It's really rare to see you disliking a game this much but damn it looks like a true mess. That blood floating thing sounds hilarious, truly horror. At least you got rid of it 2 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I'm also inching closer and closer to finally having the online done for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.... Once that's done. I'm tempted to have a little Assassin's Creedathon in here and review some of those games I've been putting off until I finished Brotherhood! Assassin's Creedathon you say???? I am so looking forward to that 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted June 28, 2022 Share Posted June 28, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, rjkclarke said: with a controller finding the desired hotspots to interact with is a nightmare, as David controls, and moves like a person learning to play QWOP for the first time, it's bothersome at best. I guess if the abundance of Bagpipes is any indicator of the low-hanging fruit they are leaning on with regards to Scottish stereotypes, it’s possible this is deliberate… …they’re just leaning into the other famous thing about us - he’s drunk AF! ? Oh man - that sounds like a belter! Must admit, I never played any of the old Black Mirror games… but I suspect I would ha e done the same, and started with the reboot… …I appreciate the signal to body-swerve it! If only to avoid the cultural defamation of course… I can’t endorse a game that leans so hard into the bagpipes just to show my country’s character. Cultural stereotyping is the worst… …I’ll just bid you och-aye-the-noo, and get back to my Haggis and Buckfast platter while I’m still sober enough to find it on this tartan tablecloth. Now where did I leave my sgian dubh? ? Edited June 28, 2022 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted June 28, 2022 Author Share Posted June 28, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, kingofbattle8174 said: I think I remember that cut scene. In all it was a forgettable experience. Speaking of the transition times, I remember times that the game would have you facing back towards the exit as you entered an area, so you will exit by accident, meaning another load screen, to turn around again to get back to where you were going, meaning another load screen. Agatha Knife is a funny game. You play as Agatha, who works in a butcher shop. You don't want the animals to fear you though, so you decide to make a new religion call Carnivorism, which teaches them not to fear death. Oh man.... Yep, so many times did I do that! I don't think I'd mind quite as much if they weren't so long.... and, well.... boring I suppose. At least gimme some flavour text or something? Just so that I don't have to start counting how many freckles I have on my arm! Agatha Knife looks awesome dude! I just looked it up, I love some of those trophy icons too, those are nice... Massive thanks for the heads up by the way, I'll be getting that in a sale, OR just soon and slapping your name on it when I eventually get around to playing and reviewing it! I hope you're up for a bit more Doctor Who discussion this week! I'm hoping to get part 2 of that list done, so you can let me know how iffy my picks for 10-6 are going to be ? as I'm planning to play some longer games, so I'll have more spare time in-between reviews to get that written up! 1 hour ago, Copanele said: I wondered where I heard the name Black Mirror before(not the show)...it was a weird 2003-2004 Point& Click that I played on PC and abandoned to (re)play Broken Sword 2 Heard it was a commercial success but mneh, didn't catch me It's really rare to see you disliking a game this much but damn it looks like a true mess. That blood floating thing sounds hilarious, truly horror. At least you got rid of it Well I would never argue with anyone that would abandon something to go and play the ALWAYS GLORIOUS (despite evil Satan Goat) Broken Sword 2! Man I love that game..... and oh boy oh boy did I not love Black Mirror. Which you have evidently found out for yourself now. That floating blood thing was so funny. I took a screenshot of it, but I didn't add it just in case someone was sick in the head enough to want to play the game after I tore it some new bum flaps! I think it was just a mixture of all of the wasted potential, and my frustrations creeping in from playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood that just made me go hard at Black Mirror for just not being good enough (OR EVEN GOOD AT ALL) ..... Well and almost making me do this .... 1 hour ago, Copanele said: Assassin's Creedathon you say???? I am so looking forward to that Haha! That's brilliant, I've never seen that before.. Yep, I was planning to write the review of Brotherhood then do Revelations, and then maybe go up to the point Desmonds story stops review-wise and then we take a break from them for a little bit coming back to them later. Bit like I left Yakuza hanging, around the point where I'm up to reviewing those (Yakuza 4). I'm quite looking forward to writing them though, because I really like the series, but a lot of folks probably wouldn't know as the only one I've written about so far is a woefully short one I wrote of Assassin's Creed II when I was too paranoid about writing things too long. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: I guess if the abundance of Bagpipes is any indicator of the low-hanging fruit they are leaning on with regards to Scottish stereotypes, it’s possible this is deliberate… …they’re just leaning into the other famous thing about us - he’s drunk AF! Well.... I didn't want to say that ? The weird thing is, I don't think they especially half arsed the research all that much. That old fella I sent you a screenshot of, he actually uses quite a lot of Scottish colloquialisms... Like "I kenned that" or "ya ken, Laddie" (alright that one is a little sterotype-ish). I think he even uses Ned's once or twice too. But they don't add those to the subtitles either, you either understand what they mean.... or they're a bit lost on you. In my case from watching practically all of Ken Loaches films in Scotland, where he insists upon the dialogue sounding as authentic as possible, so I got the gist of most of them. So it's a little weird how they made more of an effort in some areas than others. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Oh man - that sounds like a belter! Must admit, I never played any of the old Black Mirror games… but I suspect I would ha e done the same, and started with the reboot… …I appreciate the signal to body-swerve it! If only to avoid the cultural defamation of course… I can’t endorse a game that leans so hard into the bagpipes just to show my country’s character. Cultural stereotyping is the worst… …I’ll just bid you och-aye-the-noo, and get back to my Haggis and Buckfast platter while I’m still sober enough to find it on this tartan tablecloth. Now where did I leave my sgian dubh? My pleasure dude! I was so hopeful that people were just dogging on the game unnecessarily, but no... unfortunately it just isn't very good...or particularly bad, but somehow it was a much more offensive experience than that mediocre Poirot game... Hey I mean look at it one way... We've got the two front runners for the worst game I've played of the year so far when it comes to our Checklist awards season at the end of the year This one is the ultimate case of "I played it, so no other human on the planet should have to ?" I actually was going to write some long thing about toxic exoticism in Black Mirror, but I already gave the game a hard enough time, and who really wants to read about me applying various bits and pieces of advanced film theory to a shite game using Scottish stereotypes ? Aye.... I ken what y're sayin laddie..... OH SHIT IT'S CONTAGIOUS RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN..... Nah you go enjoy your Buckfast (one of my ex girlfriends was always trying to get me to drink that) wolf down your platter of Haggis, set your Tartan coloured alarm clock that plays bagpipes to wake you up.... and I'll, erm.... I'll throw my pitchfork at your dog to keep quiet, lend someone the key to my brand new combine harvester, and go and drink some cider on a bale of hay with no shoes and socks on, with a piece of straw in my mouth, giggling toothlessly at the sunset? That's mostly all of the west country farmer stereotypes (where my family are mainly from) all sewn up, right? ? Edited June 28, 2022 by rjkclarke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 7 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Agatha Knife looks awesome dude! I just looked it up, I love some of those trophy icons too, those are nice... Massive thanks for the heads up by the way, I'll be getting that in a sale, OR just soon and slapping your name on it when I eventually get around to playing and reviewing it! I hope you're up for a bit more Doctor Who discussion this week! I'm hoping to get part 2 of that list done, so you can let me know how iffy my picks for 10-6 are going to be as I'm planning to play some longer games, so I'll have more spare time in-between reviews to get that written up! There are three games in the series. Both Agatha and MechaNika are pretty sweet point and clicks. Art style is on point, cool easter eggs and yah the trophy images are nice too. Game three changes it up, it is this challenging side scroll action game. Dont look at it until you play the other two first though. I am always down for some Doctor Who talk. First and fore most are you ready for another new doctor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted June 29, 2022 Author Share Posted June 29, 2022 41 minutes ago, kingofbattle8174 said: There are three games in the series. Both Agatha and MechaNika are pretty sweet point and clicks. Art style is on point, cool easter eggs and yah the trophy images are nice too. Game three changes it up, it is this challenging side scroll action game. Dont look at it until you play the other two first though. I am always down for some Doctor Who talk. First and fore most are you ready for another new doctor? Oh they are part of a series too! Nice, I'll have to save them to my wishlist and keep a look out then! I did really like the look of the art-style for Agatha, so that's almost already a winner that one! Noted, I'll try and remember not to touch the third until I've played the other two! I'm a bit on the fence about the "another new Doctor thing" especially as it looks like Tennant might end up possibly being 14 instead of reprising 10. I've got a sneaking suspicion that because he's wearing Tartan trousers, Tennant might actually get to play The Doctor with a Scottish accent, which would be cool. I'm, not really fond of Jodie's era of the show, so personally I am about ready for a switch up - hence why she wound up at the bottom of my rankings, It isn't her fault. I just wish she'd been given better material to work with, she really deserved better. I'm also really worried Chibnall is going to kill off one of those classic companions that is coming back for the Centenary special later in the year. That would bum me out so much! I am however, pretty excited to see how Ncuti Gatwa plays the part. He's completely new to me as an actor, as I've yet to see Sex Education, or anything else that he's been in. So I'm pretty excited to see the direction they go in with his Doctor. How about you? You read for the change up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofbattle8174 Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 8 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Oh they are part of a series too! Nice, I'll have to save them to my wishlist and keep a look out then! I did really like the look of the art-style for Agatha, so that's almost already a winner that one! Noted, I'll try and remember not to touch the third until I've played the other two! I'm a bit on the fence about the "another new Doctor thing" especially as it looks like Tennant might end up possibly being 14 instead of reprising 10. I've got a sneaking suspicion that because he's wearing Tartan trousers, Tennant might actually get to play The Doctor with a Scottish accent, which would be cool. I'm, not really fond of Jodie's era of the show, so personally I am about ready for a switch up - hence why she wound up at the bottom of my rankings, It isn't her fault. I just wish she'd been given better material to work with, she really deserved better. I'm also really worried Chibnall is going to kill off one of those classic companions that is coming back for the Centenary special later in the year. That would bum me out so much! I am however, pretty excited to see how Ncuti Gatwa plays the part. He's completely new to me as an actor, as I've yet to see Sex Education, or anything else that he's been in. So I'm pretty excited to see the direction they go in with his Doctor. How about you? You read for the change up? As criminal as it is, I am behind this season or so. I have alot on my dvr still from new years. Yah know the only time of year bbc shows more than 6 episodes. By that I mean thoughout they show about 6 to 10 of the same episodes all year long. It drives me crazy. Well I have lots of issues with bbc anymore but it is the same with just about any channel on cable that they no longer show what should be in that channel. Bbc now is star trek, nature documentaries, and random American movies. I know the parent company is now amc but the programing seems lost. I heard the Tennet rumors but I took them with a grain of salt. As cool as it would be, I think they will keep moving in new directions. He is the most popular Doctor though which is why he was added to the vr sequel. I am interested to see how the new season goes. I havnt looked into the big special though. I will have to look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 On 6/26/2022 at 3:10 PM, rjkclarke said: I think we were literally having one of our long late night back and forths when I brought it actually, which is probably what tricked me into thinking you had it. We were definitely perusing the store I remember that much. I mean with DLC and all, with the sale right now I ain't lookin at more than seven bucks or somethin like that... Quote I know! It sucks, right! That's sometimes the curse with Sports games, is that they can be incredibly fun to play if you're fond of the sport, but have a horrible trophy list, that will detract everyone but those that already like the sport. I know being a completionist is niche enough, but it's kind of a shame when that happens. If it didn't have such a shit trophy list I'd recommend picking it up, which I hate saying, I really do! Upon a glance I noticed it said 'up the antenna' when I quite deliberately typed 'up the ante.' Spellcheck, more like Spellchump, amirite??? It's just a shame. Sports games in particular, but games with multiple modes in general without a trophy list including at least most modes do everyone a disservice. Particularly since in many trophy hunter spheres, if there's no trophy, they won't bother. You'd think the whole point was to encourage players to see as much of a game as possible! *insert dramatic sigh about the kids these days here* Quote You know the drill, dude! Just strike me on the nose a few times with a newspaper, that should snap me out of it! ??????????????? I got ammo fool, so you be nice to yourself. Don't be mean to my homie? On 6/26/2022 at 3:28 PM, rjkclarke said: Platinum #356 Lone Survivor (PS4) First off, fantastic work! Secondly, you talk about sound design all you want. On a more general level, it's just interesting. As someone who's made music and has a bit of (layman, admittedly) experience with recording and editing software though, it's a real treat! My inability to remember where I knew Jasper Byrne from was bugging me til I looked it up and saw he worked on the Hotline Miami soundtrack. Already interested!! Looks like another game with your name on it in my backlog! Love the mental health approach, love the horror aspect, and well... if you AND Doc are going on about it, I feel I have little choice other than to give it a shot! 8 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Platinum #357 Black Mirror (PS4) So as I'm sure you can guess, it's nice to be given a break and for once be convinced NOT to try a game out??? For a game to not even be able to get you, possibly the most warm-hearted video game enthusiast I know, to say a nice thing about its gameplay? It's officially erased from my memory, and as far as I know Black Mirror is an Arcade Fire song and nothing more. 8 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Oh I’m not done digging this game out quite yet – this game performs worse than almost any other game that I’ve played on the PS4. Quite frankly it plays like a low budget PS2 game – not the charming kind either. Because I know this is you really making a strong effort to be nice... ouch. 8 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Now that my hot streak of awesome games has ended, it's time to get that going again! So time to fire up The Artful Escape soon and get that played, which I'm actually looking forward to! Best of luck too on your Assassin's Creed multiplayer.. you've been expressing the unpleasantness of it and I've been meaning to give you my sympathies! Just keep at it man, you got this? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: Those games should be on lots of peoples to buy in the future list! Although one of my best friends played through Oxenfree recently and told me that the game had a recent patch that screwed a few trophies up, but I expect that'll be fixed soon. Ah right. It's annoying when games get patched and then trophies become unobtainable or the requirements get fudged. On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: Haha! I said that pre-emptively it seems. What with me replying to this now, instead of when you sent it. There's a half funny story though, apart from boring adult business, I got bitten by a False Widow Spider a couple of times, and I've had this weird pins and needles-ish wooly feeling in half of my hand, so typing pretty much anything was a no go, as it just felt weird. Otherwise I would have gotten back to you sooner. And got that Lone Survivor review finished, which I've just done. So I'll have to post that up shortly. Haha well you're almost there. It's better than a lot of people! I'm not sure that quite qualifies as being a half funny story lol Geez man, you got to take care. Surely you should have gotten that looked at? On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: I believe you just have to get a completion time of under 3 or 3 and a half hours overall in Resident Evil 5. It isn't as bad as it sounds though. As you can just replay certain levels really quickly to get your overall completion down. Ouch - I've got no desire to play Dissidia Final Fantasy. That needlessly grindy trophy list makes me want to go and eat a pile of twigs. Good luck man! I hope you enjoy it though, because if it is anything like the PSP one you'll probably have fun with it. (Typing this after having to hit my keyboard to get it to type....joy) That's a very good idea. I hadn't thought of that. Honestly the last few RE's have had their speedruns as being "Go for it in one go" pretty much, rather than being able to break it up with a chapter or level select and just working on that particular bit. That could help me out. I can't lie, it is needlessly grindy. 100%. The "In the Nick of Time" trophy especially is annoying as something that rhymes with wit. However at the same time, because it is FF and I've got into it I am having fun with it. Haven't even played the story mode yet. Just doing all the online stuff and then gonna give it a break for a while but potentially it is being lined up with my 350th platinum so we will see! Never played the PSP ones but heard they were very good. On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: Give yourself as much of a break from it as you think you need! That was a huge undertaking with your Final Fantasy X guide. Even playing through the game takes a good long while, and that's without throwing trophies into the mix or all the extra stuff you put in there. I'm going to try and record a Century break tomorrow (or soon at the very least) in Pool Nation to probably use in the guide. That should be easy enough, it's just making one where I'm not all over the place positionally, but that might actually be a better one to use, as it'll show the kind of shots you can pull off in that game to keep a break going. I'm hoping it turns out decently. We definitely got a very thorough understanding when we played the game for a good ten hours almost in one day. Yeah indeed. I am doing. I've got a potential few lined up but need to get through all the online stuff I mentioned before in Dissidia in order to let myself concentrate on something else. I think actually that yeah, recording a video that isn't perfect and shows that you can still achieve that Century break would be really beneficial. I would certainly feel that way. I was like that with my Sonic Colours Ultimate rival rish vids. They aren't perfect, I made mistakes yet still showed that leeway you have available and still succeed. I'm sure your thorough understanding of the game will show through. Like I said, if either of you need a helping hand with anything in terms of the guide I am happy to help! On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: I like BOTH of the first two things! And the last thing I DON'T LIKE AT ALL Sorted then! Go find them lol On 6/25/2022 at 8:43 PM, rjkclarke said: Haha! well I've previously said that a lot of my family are from The West Country, so I felt the need to clarify it.... People do have some stereotypes about inbreeding and folks from that part of the country. One of my Great Uncles was quite literally a Goat farmer as well I remember taking the GameGear for granted, in that I never wanted to play it very much because it didn't have Pokemon on it. My little child brain was like "I don't want to play Shinobi or Sonic, Where's Pikachu? Well yes there are those stereotypes but there you go. Not something I subscribe to lol Yeah sadly even though Sega had Sonic for the Game Gear, it never had that absolute sensational game like Pokemon with the younger audience to the extent that Pokemon became. A craze. On 6/26/2022 at 1:34 AM, YaManSmevz said: And you better not forget it! Cuz if you mess with me... I'll stand in front of you while you repeatedly shoot and kill me. Oh yes. And THEN who will look foolish, hmm?? Me obviously! hahaha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sora9427 Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 (edited) On 27/6/2022 at 0:10 AM, rjkclarke said: Well whatever console they land on I'll definitely be playing them! I've been a bit out of the loop with the Persona games for such a long time now, so it's about time that changed really. Nice to know it had good VA's in it, because yeah those can definitely be a bit hit and miss at times. I've come across some really good ones, and some that make my ears want to bleed and then never stop bleeding Nope Wreckfest is Arenas and Crashing and Racing. I think if someone were to actually figure out some sort of a ratio for it, there is actually more racing in Wreckfest than there is those crashing events, and I did think it was a pretty good racer too. In fact we have a resident racing expert in the thread, and he liked it too! so definitely check out Wreckfest if you can! Connor was indeed a massive fanny! He's about as interesting as a pile of rocks with a loosely adorned feather! I might be a little biased as I quite like the Assassin's Creed series, but I'd definitely say there's been some good protagonists after ACIII I thought Edward Kennway was great in Black Flag, Arno from Unity was great so long as you play the game in French. In fact almost all of that game plays better in French, with subtitles on. Evie was great in Syndicate too. Don't discount ever going back to them, I still think there's some fun to be had with them. I haven't played any past Origins, so I can't speak on the ones that are Odyssey onwards. Haha good point! I don't mind whether they do Kingdom Hearts 5 or 6 - I just want a little more progression, there is still ways to keep Sora and his crew fresh, I just don't think they're mining those possibilities as much as they could be. I hope I like KHIV though! There's no way that I won't play it eventually, I'm too deep into that universe to stop now. I still haven't touched that KHIII DLC, I've heard it's really good it's just a really too offensively high price tag for me to pay for a DLC. If it ever drops in price substantially I'll definitely get it though! I think I had a stopwatch going when I did my last Limbo run, and it was something like 53 minutes for me. And that was with 3 deaths. So it's definitely not as long as you think! You can do it! I'll look forward to reading your eventual write up about it in your thread! I really need to get back to Dishonoured soon, thanks for the reminder! I did go a bit long with that Pool review, but I do really love Pool and Snooker, so I had to put a bit more into that one. It's a great game with a bit of a rubbish trophy list unfortunately. Definitely try out Vanishing of Ethan Carter if it's available to you! I really liked that, and it's pretty short too, hope you have a good time with it. I loved Lone Survivor, I'm going to post the review of it once I've written this post, that's another one I'd definitely encourage you to go back to, I thought that was a really great game. Well P3-4 on Ps4 and P5R i guess On Ps5 because we already have it Then when you'll play them if needed (I don't think so but still) ask me whatever! On P5 especially i can tell you everything! I'm curious about your thoughs then. I Mean just play in japanese and you are fine. I guess you prefer english since you tell me this but i always think original language is always the best one. It would be strange and not as great playing Uncharted in Japanese despite loving the language for me for example ebcause i know the game is English where it's born. AH i see, that's great news for wreckfest then, absolutely gonna check it out in the next months now that i have it! I mean doing worst than a character with no personality at all is kinda hard i would say. But i don't like Pirate stuff that much and i don't like the new AC formula. So i'll pass the only one that catch my interest is Unity, the city and location looks great and everything too so, if as the rumors say, all the AC end up on the PSPlus i'll gladly play that one. The others nope. Glad to read you saying the Main for Unity is a good one i hope so then! Well they can keep it as fresh as they want by adding new enemies and stuff after all the universe in KH could be infinite, i just wanna see Kairi and Sora togheter come on it's been since 2006 that i'm waiting I just hope the star wars stuff isn't awful, i don't like the series so ugh. for me it's a D1 KH4 obviously instead It dropped half price 1-2 sales ago i think and 15 € (Or 10? Can't remember if it's the Deluxe or not that) it's absolutely a good price for it, it offers quite a lot and explains even more, the Final battle is brutal. Definitively keep an eye on sales because lately ti's going with other DLCs! I see, then i guessit's faster than i remember Limbo! Good to know, if it was on the PSPlus i would play it streamed on my Ps4 Since it's not whenever i feel like going back on the Ps3 i'll surely downlod it to try and finish then! Well good luck in Dishonored, i don't blame you for dragging it out, i HATE luck based stuff. Ah i see, i do enjoy some pool myself but yeah i know there aren't really easy ones around trophy wise. Thanks! I'll have it on my console i'll try it out once i clear some other games on my list! Well congrats again for Lone survivor, yeah i know it's good i like dit, i have to go back for the different endings, i just Suck at reaching properly the different endings in the game i play, not only Lone Survivor, any kind of game with Mutiple endings requiring steps for them. Sorry for the late reply but i was busy first and the went on a Trip, got back yesterday I see you played a LOT meanwhile, congrats onthe 5 Plat you got O.o I relaly have to get into AC Revelation to finish the tirlogy on Ps4 too! And Ape escape is on my next list too gonna start it this days Edited July 11, 2022 by Sora9427 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted July 12, 2022 Author Share Posted July 12, 2022 Before I really get into this, sorry for the incredibly late replies everyone, I just kind of caught in a bit of a loop, where any free time I had I was practically spending all of it gaming, so I neglected this place just a little bit, sorry about that! Although I'm going to make an effort to catch up on reviews in the next couple of days. I've got a couple I need to finish, but I'm going to post the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood one, once I've written these replies and given it a once over and a bit of a proof read. On 29/06/2022 at 2:12 AM, kingofbattle8174 said: As criminal as it is, I am behind this season or so. I have alot on my dvr still from new years. Yah know the only time of year bbc shows more than 6 episodes. By that I mean thoughout they show about 6 to 10 of the same episodes all year long. It drives me crazy. Well I have lots of issues with bbc anymore but it is the same with just about any channel on cable that they no longer show what should be in that channel. Bbc now is star trek, nature documentaries, and random American movies. I know the parent company is now amc but the programing seems lost. I heard the Tennet rumors but I took them with a grain of salt. As cool as it would be, I think they will keep moving in new directions. He is the most popular Doctor though which is why he was added to the vr sequel. I am interested to see how the new season goes. I havnt looked into the big special though. I will have to look it up. That's a pain that, it's not even particularly viable for you to be able to watch the show at all! It seems really silly, when Doctor Who has actually garnered quite a popular following in the US since its revival, and even before that it had a bit of a cult following too. So the idea of them not putting it out on television in a way that people can easily keep up to date with it seems massively stupid! On the upcoming specials though - Doctor Who is in a weird place right now, where I'm somehow more excited for next years specials, than I actually am for Jodie Whittaker's final 90 minute "extravaganza" that she's getting at the end of this year. Which should be exciting, but I'm just worried it'll be terrible. On 29/06/2022 at 6:30 AM, YaManSmevz said: I mean with DLC and all, with the sale right now I ain't lookin at more than seven bucks or somethin like that... Well if you see Aragami on sale, and you decide to hit purchase, it's definitely an option for a bit of co-op goodness! On 29/06/2022 at 6:30 AM, YaManSmevz said: Upon a glance I noticed it said 'up the antenna' when I quite deliberately typed 'up the ante.' Spellcheck, more like Spellchump, amirite??? It's just a shame. Sports games in particular, but games with multiple modes in general without a trophy list including at least most modes do everyone a disservice. Particularly since in many trophy hunter spheres, if there's no trophy, they won't bother. You'd think the whole point was to encourage players to see as much of a game as possible! *insert dramatic sigh about the kids these days here* Aaaaaaay I see what you did there ? It is a shame though, obviously the people that like the sport will play it, but I don't think it would encourage those that don't, and somehow picked up the game, to then learn more about the sport, or potentially generate an interest. Sometimes I think developers underrate the ability trophies have to generate interest in certain areas, even if ours is a pretty niche hobby. Spellcheck is so weird, as is autocorrect. Like if I'm messaging one of my friends, and his brothers name comes up it always defaults to Ethanol instead of his actual name ? On 29/06/2022 at 6:30 AM, YaManSmevz said: First off, fantastic work! Secondly, you talk about sound design all you want. On a more general level, it's just interesting. As someone who's made music and has a bit of (layman, admittedly) experience with recording and editing software though, it's a real treat! My inability to remember where I knew Jasper Byrne from was bugging me til I looked it up and saw he worked on the Hotline Miami soundtrack. Already interested!! Looks like another game with your name on it in my backlog! Love the mental health approach, love the horror aspect, and well... if you AND Doc are going on about it, I feel I have little choice other than to give it a shot! Thanks a lot man! I appreciate it as always. I've gotta get and comment on your own recent horror trip, I loved your Soma review, I just don't think I had any rep points at the time when I read it, so I'll have to jump in and more officially tell you how awesome it was! I totally think you'd have a great time with Lone Survivor though - it's got some big love from Doc and I, and it's just an overall great experience! I only found out as I was reading up a few things for the review that Jasper Byrne was involved with Hotline Miami, he's a talented dude! So it definitely explains why you enjoyed that soundtrack as much as you did! Quote So as I'm sure you can guess, it's nice to be given a break and for once be convinced NOT to try a game out For a game to not even be able to get you, possibly the most warm-hearted video game enthusiast I know, to say a nice thing about its gameplay? It's officially erased from my memory, and as far as I know Black Mirror is an Arcade Fire song and nothing more. Then I did a good job then! Because I would not want anybody else to have to experience that game if they could otherwise avoid it! It's one of those cases where sometimes what you hear about a game being bad, really is the case. I just had to find that out the hard way haha! Definitely stay away from that craptastic adventure! It shall remain an Arcade Fire song, and an awesome TV Show available through Netflix ? On 29/06/2022 at 6:30 AM, YaManSmevz said: Best of luck too on your Assassin's Creed multiplayer.. you've been expressing the unpleasantness of it and I've been meaning to give you my sympathies! Just keep at it man, you got this Yes, it was definitely frustrating, but thankfully, as of right now, I need two more multiplayer trophies across all of the PS3 Assassin's Creed games, and I'm all done! So it'll be nice to FINALLY have those knocked out. Now I can feel even more comfortable about reviewing the ones I was missing DLC for. I also need to actually write that The Artful Escape review now too, which I'm quite looking forward to writing, as I have got nothing by positive things to say about that one! On 29/06/2022 at 6:38 AM, The_Kopite said: I'm not sure that quite qualifies as being a half funny story lol Geez man, you got to take care. Surely you should have gotten that looked at? It's kind of ironic, that I'm responding to you telling me not to worry about a late reply, a week and a half later.... what a tit! But nah, I should be fine, I get bitten by Spiders a lot, they really seem to like me for some reason, so I'm kind of just used to it at this point! I don't like it, but if you can avoid getting tagged by a false widow do it, because they really can mess you up for a good day or two, their venom makes you feel really odd. But maybe I'm particularly susceptible to it? On 29/06/2022 at 6:38 AM, The_Kopite said: (Typing this after having to hit my keyboard to get it to type....joy) That's a very good idea. I hadn't thought of that. Honestly the last few RE's have had their speedruns as being "Go for it in one go" pretty much, rather than being able to break it up with a chapter or level select and just working on that particular bit. That could help me out. That probably will help you out in Resident Evil 5! Just because you can skip the crappy vehicle levels entirely, as you can't really speed those up, and replaying them is not exactly fun either. I think it's really awesome of them to allow you to get the Infinite Rocket Launcher, so long as your overall time is under 3 and a half hours. It'll be a lot easier to whittle down than you think, especially when you get yourself an infinite Magnum, or an L.Hawk. On 29/06/2022 at 6:38 AM, The_Kopite said: I can't lie, it is needlessly grindy. 100%. The "In the Nick of Time" trophy especially is annoying as something that rhymes with wit. However at the same time, because it is FF and I've got into it I am having fun with it. Haven't even played the story mode yet. Just doing all the online stuff and then gonna give it a break for a while but potentially it is being lined up with my 350th platinum so we will see! Never played the PSP ones but heard they were very good. Eurgh, Online grinding yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, said not me ever! I'm glad you're enjoying it though, certainly enough to select it as a milestone, not sure I could hold off for 80 games to platinum something I'm enjoying, but that's the one part of me that's impatient gaming wise. It was a real struggle to not start Nier Replicant, before I hit 349 Platinum's. I expect you'll end up enjoying it even more once you actually get into the story modes a bit more, which I assume is what you're probably looking forward to the most with it! On 29/06/2022 at 6:38 AM, The_Kopite said: Yeah indeed. I am doing. I've got a potential few lined up but need to get through all the online stuff I mentioned before in Dissidia in order to let myself concentrate on something else. I think actually that yeah, recording a video that isn't perfect and shows that you can still achieve that Century break would be really beneficial. I would certainly feel that way. I was like that with my Sonic Colours Ultimate rival rish vids. They aren't perfect, I made mistakes yet still showed that leeway you have available and still succeed. I'm sure your thorough understanding of the game will show through. Like I said, if either of you need a helping hand with anything in terms of the guide I am happy to help! I still have yet to actually record any videos, I got super sidetracked playing loads of other games haha! One of these days I'll sit down and actually make the effort to do it. I doubt it will even take long. Thanks, I appreciate that by the way, I'm sure I'll probably shoot a few questions your way about formatting and stuff, that I'm pretty in the dark about once I actually come to write the guide haha ? On 29/06/2022 at 6:38 AM, The_Kopite said: Well yes there are those stereotypes but there you go. Not something I subscribe to lol Yeah sadly even though Sega had Sonic for the Game Gear, it never had that absolute sensational game like Pokemon with the younger audience to the extent that Pokemon became. A craze. Good! Although I wouldn't blame you, it's one of those prevalent stereotypes, like the silly one about welsh people and four legged woolly creatures. Completely baseless, well probably anyway. None of my family down that way are inbred I know that much WHY DIDN'T MARBLE MADNESS ON THE GAME GEAR TAKE OFF LIKE POKEMON? I think you did kind of hit the nail on the head there, it didn't really have anything on it to really make it a must have console for a young audience to actually want to play, and that's a bit of a shame really! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: Well P3-4 on Ps4 and P5R i guess On Ps5 because we already have it Then when you'll play them if needed (I don't think so but still) ask me whatever! On P5 especially i can tell you everything! I'm curious about your thoughs then. I Mean just play in japanese and you are fine. I guess you prefer english since you tell me this but i always think original language is always the best one. It would be strange and not as great playing Uncharted in Japanese despite loving the language for me for example ebcause i know the game is English where it's born. I'd probably play in Japanese to be honest, if there's English subs available. If it's the more authentic and better sounding alternative. Some of the Japanese VA's in the Tales of' series are much better than the English versions. And I would never in a million years play the English dubs of Yakuza, I've heard some of the recent ones, and whilst they're fine enough, they kind of just feel so wrong! I'm sure once I do get to play Persona 4 you'll be able to read my probably novel length post about it, once I'm done ? 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: AH i see, that's great news for wreckfest then, absolutely gonna check it out in the next months now that i have it! Please do! I'll look forward to checking out what you think of it, as modern racers go, I thought it was a pretty decent and unique one, so I hope you like it! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: I mean doing worst than a character with no personality at all is kinda hard i would say. But i don't like Pirate stuff that much and i don't like the new AC formula. So i'll pass the only one that catch my interest is Unity, the city and location looks great and everything too so, if as the rumors say, all the AC end up on the PSPlus i'll gladly play that one. The others nope. Glad to read you saying the Main for Unity is a good one i hope so then! Funny you mention, games in their native language actually! If you're going to play Assassin's Creed Unity, I thoroughly recommend you play it in French. The English version is fine, it just makes Arno seem like a bit of a wet fish, in French he's a little different, and it really does make Unity a more authentic experience in French, with appropriate subtitles of course, I thought. You'll definitely have the benefit of playing Unity, now that its been patched to within an inch of its life. I've only ever played the fixed version of it, and I've always rather enjoyed it for what it was. If you can play alongside a friend, then its even better! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: Well they can keep it as fresh as they want by adding new enemies and stuff after all the universe in KH could be infinite, i just wanna see Kairi and Sora togheter come on it's been since 2006 that i'm waiting I just hope the star wars stuff isn't awful, i don't like the series so ugh. for me it's a D1 KH4 obviously instead It dropped half price 1-2 sales ago i think and 15 € (Or 10? Can't remember if it's the Deluxe or not that) it's absolutely a good price for it, it offers quite a lot and explains even more, the Final battle is brutal. Definitively keep an eye on sales because lately ti's going with other DLCs! I must have missed that, I'd be tempted to pay half price for it, so if I see it again I might have to hit purchase. One of these days I ought to get around to Melody of Memories, but I'm pretty useless at rhythm games, so I'm dreading it ? I really like Star Wars, but I don't think it will mesh well with Kingdom Hearts. I think the only way to make it work really is for it to be in one of the child friendly IP's like The Clone Wars series, or something like that, anything else might be a bit jarring. I'd be well up for having like Darth Vader as a cameo boss like Sephiroth was, or something like that, so that would be cool at least! I'd love to say KH4 wouldn't be a day one purchase for me, but I said that about KH3, and got that one day one, so I'm sure I will too haha! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: I see, then i guessit's faster than i remember Limbo! Good to know, if it was on the PSPlus i would play it streamed on my Ps4 Since it's not whenever i feel like going back on the Ps3 i'll surely downlod it to try and finish then! Absolutely! if you get the itch to dust off your PS3, give Limbo another go, I'm sure you'd probably have a great time with it! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: Well good luck in Dishonored, i don't blame you for dragging it out, i HATE luck based stuff. Thank you! I've gotten mostly all of the luck based stuff done now! I've just gone off to play a load of different games and left it sitting there unfinished! Oooops! 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: Well congrats again for Lone survivor, yeah i know it's good i like dit, i have to go back for the different endings, i just Suck at reaching properly the different endings in the game i play, not only Lone Survivor, any kind of game with Mutiple endings requiring steps for them. I know that feeling all too well - I sometimes just try and push through and do them anyway, because immediately the minute you've done one, you're like.... "oh do I have to really go back and do those again, but ever so slightly differently" 10 hours ago, Sora9427 said: Sorry for the late reply but i was busy first and the went on a Trip, got back yesterday I see you played a LOT meanwhile, congrats onthe 5 Plat you got O.o I relaly have to get into AC Revelation to finish the tirlogy on Ps4 too! And Ape escape is on my next list too gonna start it this days No need to apologise at all! I have been away from the thread for the last two weeks pretty much anyway, so I'm the one that should be apologising to everyone else really haha! Hope you had a good trip though! I did play quite a lot in the meantime, got quite a bit of gaming in when I could, now I've got the problem of having a few reviews to catch up on! You should totally go back for Revelations, it's really good. I'm planning to replay it soon in preparation for the review, and get that last piece of DLC finished. You're going to have a good time with Ape Escape as well I think, that is a great time! Pretty quick platinum too, but really very fun and light hearted! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted July 12, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) An Entire Decade Went By, Before I Earned My Latest Platinum! Platinum #358 +100% Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PS3) Julius Caesar Win every trophy. A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 2 July 2022: 2:11:41 AM 100% Achieved - 8 July 2022: 5:57:25 PM Time taken to Platinum - 10 years, 11 months, 1 week Time Taken to 100% - 10 years, 11 months, 2 weeks Platinum Rarity - 3.62% 100% Rarity - 1.5% Trophy Number - # 17,103 Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, was actually one of the games, that in my head, I had pretty much written off the idea of ever getting the platinum at all. At least until this year, that is. Long before the server closure announcements I had planned to play this, at some point this year, and it turns out, I finished up with the online about a day before the server closure was actually announced, which would have made this whole online experience significantly easier. Thank goodness for friends though, because sometimes an encouraging friend is all you need (and certainly all I needed) to give you that push to finally return to something that you never thought you would have done. So here I am ten years, eleven months and two weeks on from earning the my first trophy, finally able to discuss in detail my favourite entry in The Ezio trilogy, and I’m so pleased I can. So without further ado, let’s get into it! Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, was released all the way back in 2010, coincidentally on my twentieth birthday. The second entry in the Ezio trilogy, you take the role of Ezio Auditore da Firenze once more, and for spoilers sake, I’ll keep this part brief. You embark on a journey filled with twists and turns, as you seek to undermine the influence of the Borgia’s across all of Rome. There is, as usual, some present day shenanigans going on too, but if you’re playing these games for the present day story, well, why are you? Before I really touch on the game as a whole, I’d like to mention, that I think it’s quite odd, how the much more intimate and personal tale Assassin’s Creed II, is the one that plays out over multiple locales. Brotherhood, however, is one of reclamation and restoration (of Italy’s Assassin Order,) yet, Assassin’s Creed II is actually the story that plays out over multiple locations, not a singular one, a little strange perhaps? Where Assassin’s Creed II is a tale of revenge, and fulfilling a personal vendetta, I feel like that suits one predominately singular location a little better. Whereas with multiple locations, the spread of influence over territories and multiple locale’s could really enhance that feeling, that you are indeed, rebuilding the order, whilst simultaneously dismantling the Borgia influence over the land. Obviously, Brotherhood has to be set partly in Rome, due to the Papal influence on the story being as centrally important as it is. Everything you just read is just an idea after all. (If you’ve read anything else I’ve written you’ll know I’m partial to a hypothetical tangent or two.) None of it at all, stops Brotherhood from being a pretty excellent game from start to finish. Exactly why, should become clearer once I explore the gameplay as a whole, in a little more detail. I must say, even revisiting this game, almost twelve years after its release it still holds up remarkably well. I’m not going to try and rustle any feathers and make any claims about “what an Assassin’s Creed game should, or shouldn’t be” – after all, I am forever praising video game series when they try to evolve and try something different. That being said – I couldn’t help shake the feeling, that I miss this particular brand of Assassin’s Creed game. I know I’m not alone in this either, as I was pretty much playing the game at the same time as a friend, and she pretty much shared those same sentiments, that we both were lamenting the decision to go a little overboard with content in the recent games. That doesn’t stop Brotherhood from being a pleasant reminder of exactly what it has always been, a great game, filled with great characters and great locations, so let’s get back on track before I find myself arguing with myself for pages and pages about the current state of the franchise. I’ll have to see that for myself firsthand to really form a valid opinion. As I just alluded to, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, is absolutely littered with memorable characters – arguably none more so, than returning protagonist Ezio Auditore. One of the things I think really shines brightly across the entire Ezio Trilogy, is Ezio’s character arc. His gradual organic journey from being mentored, to being the mentor, is one that is explored particularly well in this game, and arguably even better in Revelations (we’re not quite there yet though). Yet, he’s written in a way that he still feels like that same character, just naturally progressing, he still possesses that effortless suave charisma, and sense of humour, whilst also proving that he has both the acumen and the assertiveness to be, the mentor, not the mentee. Assassin’s Creed’s fictionalised versions of history, handily allow the writers some breathing room to cleverly play with what we as players know about certain historical figures. Brotherhood plays brilliantly with the notion that – essentially, established fact would suggest to us that a prevailing undertone of Nicollo Machiavelli, is that he is not to be trusted, or at the very least rather duplicitous. This essentially forms an interesting part of the overall narrative, and I think the way the writers used misdirection was cleverly done here. I think it’s fair to say that the Borgia’s are fairly strong antagonists throughout this game, almost every member of the Borgia family are detestable, in some way or another. Although rather ironically, the least seen Borgia, Lucrezia, is actually the most complex of all of them as a character, and I thoroughly enjoyed how that’s explored even further in the excellent DLC. I do think Brotherhood suffers a little bit from an antagonist problem, in that outside of the Borgia’s, the other targets feel largely forgettable. I did think it was a clever crossover, how many of the targets end up being controllable characters in the online multiplayer, which was an inspired touch. The problem is that you don’t have much personal reason to care about their permanent removal from the world, like you do with select targets in the other games, particularly the previous entry Assassin’s Creed II where everything felt so much more like each successive kill was a weight off of Ezio’s broad shoulders. When I initially sat down to replay Brotherhood, I strongly suspected that visually it might have aged a little badly. I was so pleased to find out that, this was in fact not the case at all. On a visual level, this game has aged remarkably, especially for a game from 2010. A time when a lot of games seemed to be under the impression that “murky and brown” were what we all wanted to see. Thankfully, Brotherhood is brimming with vibrant and dynamic colours, which complement each other remarkably well. I thought it was a brilliant attention to detail on the designers part to try and make the characters based on real people bear at least somewhat of a resemblance to the available portraits of their real life counterparts, Machiavelli’s is predominantly quite good, capturing his facial structure particularly well I thought. From an area design perspective, Brotherhood is an absolute treat too – although, I must say not one I’m particularly fond of myself, on a gameplay level. I can appreciate how well it is designed, but that didn’t translate into enjoyable map traversal. Rome is, as you’d expect, incredibly densely populated, and filled with buildings, and people. This is perfectly fine – that is, until you come to the realisation that the map itself is gargantuan. So essentially you’re encouraged to travel by horse where possible. The problem is, manoeuvring a horse through tight and winding spaces, filled with pedestrians is a little cumbersome, so I often found myself just sprinting everywhere. My own gripes aside, overall, I can’t deny how well each area is actually designed, whether it’s the ruins in Rome, the dilapidated Coliseum (a real treat to explore) or the Romulus lairs, littered with those immensely enjoyable platforming puzzles that Assassin’s Creed does so well, it’s undeniable how good this side of the game is. Some of you are about to want to run away screaming – it’s time to discuss sound. I’ll try and keep this as brief as I can. Jasper Kyd, returns again to compose the original soundtrack for Brotherhood, and he does an absolutely stellar job with it – as you’d absolutely expect from him. I cannot stress this enough, he really does an excellent job here. I’d argue it’s not one that you’d perhaps appreciate as much, if you aren’t attempting to pass all of the mission constraints for “Full Synchronisation” (the games equivalent of 100%). The ambient music is great too, of course. Some of the early pieces of music you hear at Monteriggioni, are almost the perfect examples of “the calm before the storm” in musical form, and they work tremendously well on replays of the game. Kyd really excels at mounting tension through music fantastically. There are moments in sequences where you’re trying to pass entirely undetected, and a guard catches sight of you momentarily – only for the tempo of the music to change almost instantaneously, into a foreboding tension building piece that really heightens your senses. I’m not kidding here, there were several times where at the risk of losing potentially a lot of progress that my heart started pounding, and without Kyd’s tremendous soundtrack, that would never have happened. The voice acting is consistently great across the board too, as you’d expect from the series from practically the whole cast. Roger Craig Smith is phenomenal once more, in his performance as Ezio (as you’d expect). The standout for me was actually Andreas Apergis, who gave a pretty layered voice to Cesare Borgia, despite his appearances in the game being fairly fleeting. His instability, brutality and hotheadedness is played to great effect, especially later in the game where Cesare is acting like a petulant child – one who also has the capacity to slaughter you mercilessly, without remorse. He really gets the dangerous, unpredictable side to the character across well. Due to the fact that the DLC contains the Il Principe trophy (for achieving full main game and DLC 100%) I’m going to combine delving into the gameplay with the DLC, as they complement one another so well anyway. DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance This is without a doubt one of my favourite DLC’s that I’ve ever played. In part that is probably down to it funnelling me down a path to re-experiencing the whole game again, and I can’t help but appreciate that. I know most people would be against the idea, but I’d love it if more games did what this DLC does, and adds a retroactive incentive to achieve one hundred percent completion of the main game. I’m sure I’d probably end up eating my words on that, as Assassin’s Creed games have become obnoxiously large now, so for those sized games, I imagine it wouldn’t be much fun. In Brotherhood’s case though, I really do think it works. I have always found it so easy to just get completely lost in Assassin’s Creed’s open world locations. That feeling hadn’t changed over time when revisiting Brotherhood. I encountered something I hadn’t experienced for some time – which is playing a game for what doesn’t feel like a long time, looking at the time, and suddenly realising that more than a few hours have passed by. This warm feeling isn’t exclusive to my most recent playthrough of the game, I remember the first time I played it, I absolutely powered through it, and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. There’s just something that fundamentally appeals to me about completing some of the open world activities. A few can get a little repetitious, sure, but they are somewhat varied, so you’ll usually never find yourself doing the same thing for too long, so it’s very easy to just get lost among the world. Da Vinci Disappearance’s story as a whole is one of those where you don’t actually realise you missed out on something special, until you actually play it. I am so glad that I played this. I can’t stress that fact enough. It’s not overly long, it doesn’t outstay its welcome (or at least it didn’t for me). To be perfectly honest – the more discrete character moments, and the lore explored within this really are really well woven into the overall tapestry of the series, and feel more important than I realised. This folks, is DLC done right. The final sequence of the story, I thought was particularly excellent – it contains some beautiful, and honestly, quite moving character moments between Ezio and Leonardo. Their mutual friendship has always been one of the most believable things in the Ezio trilogy, and to get that moment of validation for Leonardo as a character, that his dear friend, Ezio, accepts him wholly for who he is, is really quite something beautiful, that scene really caught me off guard emotionally. It is a quiet, brilliantly nuanced moment, the like of which I never would have expected to get from Assassin’s Creed. So I’ve got to tip my hat on that one. You thought I forgot the online didn’t you? Well I didn’t, I just don’t want to particularly talk about it. It exists and is part of the game, I’ll say that much. I don’t feel qualified to give a real opinion on the online portion of the game. I loved playing the multiplayer in the other Assassin’s Creed games; I just never bothered with this one. So on returning to Brotherhood, I had to boost it, as the servers are pretty empty at this point. With everything like this, you’ll meet some awesome people (some might actually become a friend, and the whole experience will feel more than worth it) and you’ll equally meet some absolutely woeful individuals, who, without being too dramatic, might make you question your faith in humanity a little. Online boosting really does attract some selfish people, and as I said, plenty of good ones too (I’ve encountered both during this process). One example, is how I wasn’t let into a session because I wasn’t French, I’m not exaggerating, that was literally the reason. To make things clear, you don’t need to co-ordinate to boost experience points in this game, it is universally simple. So on paper the language barrier shouldn’t be an issue, yet apparently it was. I spent literally hours waiting around for a spot to open up, only to be not let in for that reason. That was, erm, something. So as you can imagine, I didn’t have the greatest time with the online side of this game, not overall at least. If standing in a circle and punching people for hours, seems appealing to you, then you’ll love the 2022, equivalent of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s online. I should have played it properly back when the servers a little more active. But, as I always try to be positive where possible, everything really does have a positive, and being able to make what absolutely feels like a genuine friend along the way, is probably the thing I’ll actually end up remembering most fondly from the my time with Brotherhood’s online. Now then – here’s the burning question? Would I recommend Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood? Definitely, but it probably wouldn’t be this version. Let’s be real here, the game is great, it really is. But as we’re in 2022, the servers are being shut down within 2 months of writing this, so do yourselves a favour and pick up The Ezio Collection instead. All you’ll miss out on is an ultra rare platinum, and that really shouldn’t be a problem, or a factor in playing this game anyway, in my opinion. You’ll still have an awesome game to play, as well as a fulfilling and enjoyable trophy list to experience, and really what’s not to like about that? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now we're back on the horse with some reviews... and as it turned out a bit of a long one too? What? You were expecting something else? ? Seriously, I'm so pleased that I've managed to finally get this Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood monkey off my back at long last, there were highs, there were some lows, but ultimately, I still have a real genuine fondness for this game, and I'm so glad that I finally got to discuss in detail. Getting to write these fun as hell reviews, has definitely helped with motivation, well that and something else but I'll get there in a second! I'd like to say a huge thank you to my friend, who I'll only call Red, because not everyone is as comfortable with their name, or perhaps even their username being out in the public sphere, I just think my username is so boring, I'd rather people just used my name ........ anyway ?... Yep, right, back on track. Honestly Red, thank you so much for just being an absolutely awesome companion, and just all round awesome person throughout the entire process of my return to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I honestly think, no I KNOW, it would have been a much less memorable experience without you! Whether it was the awesome conversations that have gone from, light to very dark, in almost the blink of an eye, or some of the less than savoury characters we encountered (let's be real though, some of them were awesome too) it was quite the adventure wasn't it? For that I really am grateful. I have no doubt you'll be nabbing your own 100% on Brotherhood shortly too! I'm sure I'll be getting dragged along by you for more online adventures too in the foreseeable future! Heck we've had one already since Brotherhood ? I also should say thanks to some of my other friends, who are probably going to read this, and just say thanks for putting up with my more whingey self, like you had to a couple of weeks ago, The constant encouragement and reassurance didn't go unnoticed, believe me! But it was appreciated! So thank you ladies and gents! Right... Now I've got two more reviews to catch up on soon! So I'll catch you in the next one folks, which will be The Artful Escape! Edited July 12, 2022 by rjkclarke 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted July 12, 2022 Share Posted July 12, 2022 (edited) 18 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Before I really get into this, sorry for the incredibly late replies everyone, I just kind of caught in a bit of a loop, where any free time I had I was practically spending all of it gaming, so I neglected this place just a little bit, sorry about that! I feel that! Read these and was like nice, I'll have to respond later on! But then I looked in the mirror and saw this: Really freaked me out. Turns out the wife said Kanye West three times and it had nothing to do with me at all, but the spirit of the whole thing wasn't lost on me. I don't wanna end up leaving another word avalanche because I missed six reviews!! Quote Well if you see Aragami on sale, and you decide to hit purchase, it's definitely an option for a bit of co-op goodness! Looks like I'm pokin my head back in the store? Quote It is a shame though, obviously the people that like the sport will play it, but I don't think it would encourage those that don't, and somehow picked up the game, to then learn more about the sport, or potentially generate an interest. Sometimes I think developers underrate the ability trophies have to generate interest in certain areas, even if ours is a pretty niche hobby. Exactly! It's like a microcosm of trophy lists in general, I confess to being one of those players who have shied away from a potential game because of a shitty trophy list. Something I wouldn't have cared about before I picked up this hobby... I tell ya. Trophy hunting is like a dirt that won't come off once it's come into contact with your skin. And believe me, I have scrubbed? Quote Spellcheck is so weird, as is autocorrect. Like if I'm messaging one of my friends, and his brothers name comes up it always defaults to Ethanol instead of his actual name Funny how it never seems to work when it would help though! Can't tell you how many gibberish jumbled of letters have made it past spellcheck and made me feel like an illiterate with fat fingers. Good job spellcheck, CLEARLY what I meant was "mothrrfuxker," not the popular curse word that you've seen me use countless times in the past. Give yourself a raise. EDIT: Okay, that one was fair game, I meant jumbles but that's probably less of an actual word than 'jumbled.' Guess I am an illiterate with fat fingers.. touché, spellcheck. Quote I've gotta get and comment on your own recent horror trip, I loved your Soma review, I just don't think I had any rep points at the time when I read it, so I'll have to jump in and more officially tell you how awesome it was! I totally think you'd have a great time with Lone Survivor though - it's got some big love from Doc and I, and it's just an overall great experience! Thanks a lot my dude! No worries on that. I liked that game quite a bit and was hoping writing that one would be a springboard into the other reviews I gotta get crackin on... sadly, that has not been the case just yet? Sounds like I've got little choice, on the list it goes! Quote I only found out as I was reading up a few things for the review that Jasper Byrne was involved with Hotline Miami, he's a talented dude! So it definitely explains why you enjoyed that soundtrack as much as you did! I believe he curated that soundtrack along with his own additions, but I could be mistaken. Either way, it's an absolute banger. Speaking of banger soundtracks, Transistor?? Goddamn. Quote Then I did a good job then! Because I would not want anybody else to have to experience that game if they could otherwise avoid it! It's one of those cases where sometimes what you hear about a game being bad, really is the case. I just had to find that out the hard way haha! That you did! Bro if you of all people are spitting bile at a game, it is truly one to run away from at top speed. If you played '82 ET, phobia and all you'd probably still find more nice things to say about that one than Black Mirror! Quote Yes, it was definitely frustrating, but thankfully, as of right now, I need two more multiplayer trophies across all of the PS3 Assassin's Creed games, and I'm all done! So it'll be nice to FINALLY have those knocked out. Now I can feel even more comfortable about reviewing the ones I was missing DLC for. Frustrating no doubt, but that's quite the feather in your cap now! I applaud your patience and determination, man. That's no easy feat, especially now that those servers are um... likely not the most pleasant places to be. Quote I also need to actually write that The Artful Escape review now too, which I'm quite looking forward to writing, as I have got nothing by positive things to say about that one! ????????????? 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Platinum #358 +100% Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (PS3) First of all, congrats! I know this has been a labour of love (you deserve the U on this one) and I'm so pleased to see all your patience paying off, especially given that this is clearly a game you've wanted to see through to completion for so long now! That sounds like a whirlwind of an experience, man! Also I bought the Ezio Trilogy a long while back because I played maybe ten minutes of AC2 on the 360... looks like I'ma have to dive into that after all! You do a wonderful job (as you always do) of highlighting a game's strong suits. I've been curious about this franchise for yeeaaaaars but so far my wallet has spent more time with it than I have! You make me want to change that. Also glad to hear you got a friend out of the deal! Boosting can surprise you sometimes, man. You love to see it. As always, stupendous work my dude. Huge props for tackling this guy and getting that proverbial monkey off your back. Excited for you to finish off these games for good! Edited July 12, 2022 by YaManSmevz 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KindaSabbath Posted July 13, 2022 Share Posted July 13, 2022 On 12/07/2022 at 2:35 AM, rjkclarke said: An Entire Decade Went By, Before I Earned My Latest Platinum! Well, this is my kinda pace! Ain’t nothing wrong with that haha! ? Honestly though mate, I’m glad you’ve smashed this one out of the backlog once and for all! You made a great new friend and got to write a fantastically-epic review! We all win here ? This is Assassins Creed as I remember it (at it’s best too imo) - the last game in the franchise that I played was actually Revelations which unfortunately I never got to finish. I had this mad issue where during a sequence, where you’re being dragged by a horse / horse and cart irrc - every time I tried to complete the sequence my controller would disconnect. Weird right? No matter what I tried (uninstall / reinstall / wired controller) nothing worked. This was actually one of the first games I ever purchased digitally as well, at full price I’ll add! So yeah, that was my last venture into the AC games ? Back on track: I massively agree with you and much prefer the older games. I’m not really sure what Assassins Creed is trying to be in the present day but whatever it is, it’s not for me personally. The take home for me here - I wish I had played the DLC back in the day! Sounds like it truly made a great game even better, and that’s always what DLC should be. Additional content that adds to the overall game and provides a rich experience with fun new elements to explore. Lastly, I’ll say that it’s fucking outrageous that you had issues boosting because you’re not French. I’m sorry you had to endure that dude. Those people missed out on hanging out with a great person and honestly, fuck those people! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted July 15, 2022 Author Share Posted July 15, 2022 On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: I feel that! Read these and was like nice, I'll have to respond later on! But then I looked in the mirror and saw this: Really freaked me out. Turns out the wife said Kanye West three times and it had nothing to do with me at all, but the spirit of the whole thing wasn't lost on me. I don't wanna end up leaving another word avalanche because I missed six reviews!! It happens! I'm in danger of doing that myself in your thread soon I think.... I'll definitely hop in tomorrow though, because you've been writing some real awesome stuff in there (well, like you always do) so it's about time I head on back in! I might have given myself a lot of bad luck if he'd appeared in my mirror ? On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: Looks like I'm pokin my head back in the store Looks like you already hit purchase ? Awesome!! On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: Exactly! It's like a microcosm of trophy lists in general, I confess to being one of those players who have shied away from a potential game because of a shitty trophy list. Something I wouldn't have cared about before I picked up this hobby... I tell ya. Trophy hunting is like a dirt that won't come off once it's come into contact with your skin. And believe me, I have scrubbed I try not to do that myself - but I'd be a big fat dirty liar, if I said I hadn't swerved one or two games because they had a terrible trophy list. Sometimes you just can't stop common sense taking over and making you do an ultra sharp U-Turn. That is a pretty damn good analogy man, even if it is an annoyingly sobering one too On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: EDIT: Okay, that one was fair game, I meant jumbles but that's probably less of an actual word than 'jumbled.' Guess I am an illiterate with fat fingers.. touché, spellcheck. Haha! To me, jumbles just sounds like the name of a really fat really useless clown, who only does adult parties, and his one signature pieces is pulling his pockets out of his clown trousers, unzipping his flies and showing everyone "The Elephant with the smallest trunk in the world, but the biggest ears" And that's why sometimes people shouldn't be encouraged to say their thoughts out loud ? But erm... SPELLCHECK BAD, AUTOCORRECT BAD,,, Right? On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: I believe he curated that soundtrack along with his own additions, but I could be mistaken. Either way, it's an absolute banger. Speaking of banger soundtracks, Transistor?? Goddamn. Oh man that soundtrack is so good. That "I will always, always find you....." from Ashley Barrett pretty much broke me a little the first time I heard it, and that whole "I love you Red" from the sword midway through the game! Man I love that game so much, you've got a treat in store whenever you play Bastion too, and now you've reminded me I haven't played Pyre yet ? I am going to play Hotline Miami at some point, so I look forward to hearing it, Jasper Byrne is a talented fella! On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: That you did! Bro if you of all people are spitting bile at a game, it is truly one to run away from at top speed. If you played '82 ET, phobia and all you'd probably still find more nice things to say about that one than Black Mirror! I think I would as well. I'd be like, "I actually ended up appreciating this game immensely because it helped me conquer my TOTALLY NOT IRRATIONAL fear of E.T." On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: Frustrating no doubt, but that's quite the feather in your cap now! I applaud your patience and determination, man. That's no easy feat, especially now that those servers are um... likely not the most pleasant places to be. It definitely feels good, and as of two nights ago, I've gotten all of the multiplayer for Assassin's Creed games that I want to play (because I won't be stacking any). It is a very freeing feeling that's for sure! To answer your comment that was a row of smiley happy faces, I just finished The Artful Escape review, going to give it a quick glance over and then post it up real soon, writing about it was such a nice reminder of how powerful that game really was. On 12/07/2022 at 7:05 PM, YaManSmevz said: First of all, congrats! I know this has been a labour of love (you deserve the U on this one) and I'm so pleased to see all your patience paying off, especially given that this is clearly a game you've wanted to see through to completion for so long now! That sounds like a whirlwind of an experience, man! Also I bought the Ezio Trilogy a long while back because I played maybe ten minutes of AC2 on the 360... looks like I'ma have to dive into that after all! You do a wonderful job (as you always do) of highlighting a game's strong suits. I've been curious about this franchise for yeeaaaaars but so far my wallet has spent more time with it than I have! You make me want to change that. Also glad to hear you got a friend out of the deal! Boosting can surprise you sometimes, man. You love to see it. As always, stupendous work my dude. Huge props for tackling this guy and getting that proverbial monkey off your back. Excited for you to finish off these games for good! Thanks so much man! I definitely have been chasing this one down for quite a while, it's funny in a way how I ended up pulling the trigger on it before even the servers were announced to be closing. I would have had an easier time grouping up 6 people right about now, but it is what it is. It's thankfully done now. You should definitely dive on in with the Ezio trilogy, if you think you're up for it! It's a really great quality trilogy that one, with not a single bad game in it, or one that's any less than very good (in my opinion) and each one is very good for slightly different reasons I think. You'll also miss out on the online shenanigans. Which is a shame in a way, as I genuinely enjoyed the online multiplayer back in the day, but now it's like constantly standing on a plug socket or some Lego with bare feet. You know what, the platinum in Brotherhood is nice and all, but I think finding an absolutely awesome friend out of it is what I'll end up remembering the most, and I think that's what I'm probably most grateful for, ultimately. Any amount of shitty online is worth suffering through that for, it really is. On 13/07/2022 at 10:51 AM, KindaSabbath said: Well, this is my kinda pace! Ain’t nothing wrong with that haha! Honestly though mate, I’m glad you’ve smashed this one out of the backlog once and for all! You made a great new friend and got to write a fantastically-epic review! We all win here Thanks Sabbath.... Also, it's is awesome to see you back posting more on the regular, although it isn't like we haven't spoken recently, it just might look like it to the wider PSNP world haha. Your kinda pace indeed!! ? ? I think that's kinda cool though. A Long ass completion, usually has a fairly interesting story to go alongside it doesn't it? I like seeing weirdly long completions all over peoples profiles. Exactly, who is going to complain about making an awesome new friend, and then getting to write a definitely too long review (see I corrected you there ). Especially when it's kind of opened the door for me being more comfortable about writing about the others I deliberately skipped over now too! On 13/07/2022 at 10:51 AM, KindaSabbath said: This is Assassins Creed as I remember it (at it’s best too imo) - the last game in the franchise that I played was actually Revelations which unfortunately I never got to finish. I had this mad issue where during a sequence, where you’re being dragged by a horse / horse and cart irrc - every time I tried to complete the sequence my controller would disconnect. Weird right? No matter what I tried (uninstall / reinstall / wired controller) nothing worked. This was actually one of the first games I ever purchased digitally as well, at full price I’ll add! So yeah, that was my last venture into the AC games Back on track: I massively agree with you and much prefer the older games. I’m not really sure what Assassins Creed is trying to be in the present day but whatever it is, it’s not for me personally. The take home for me here - I wish I had played the DLC back in the day! Sounds like it truly made a great game even better, and that’s always what DLC should be. Additional content that adds to the overall game and provides a rich experience with fun new elements to explore. Oh shit man! What an absolutely bizarre glitch! That must have stung a bit.... I'm not surprised you kind of ran away from the series at that point. It's a shame, because I think Revelations is really good on a gameplay and a story level. I think the way Ezio controls ever so slightly differently, and has to adapt because he's older is an incredibly cool and nuanced touch that I really liked! So I hope you end up getting to actually play through all of it with the Ezio collection, might be a nice little nostalgia trip, and a few healthy ones of those never hurt anyone! You can smash it out in style the Sabbath way! With some constraints like playing it one handed whilst making a cheesecake ? Oh actually, I did something you'd have done this afternoon, and I went back and did the bits of Brotherhood that aren't required for 100%. A True 100% if you will, and I'll edit something into the review about them, because one of them adds a whole lot of richness to Ezio as a character, and I think it's a shame the trophies didn't encourage you to do it! On 13/07/2022 at 10:51 AM, KindaSabbath said: Lastly, I’ll say that it’s fucking outrageous that you had issues boosting because you’re not French. I’m sorry you had to endure that dude. Those people missed out on hanging out with a great person and honestly, fuck those people! Fuck those people indeed! I appreciate that dude! My awesome friend told them off in French anyway..... So I guess they got told off for being absolute cockwombles in their own language, so hopefully they felt like complete arses, but I really doubt it! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted July 15, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 15, 2022 (edited) My Newest Platinum Was Artful Indeed! Platinum #359 The Artful Escape (PS4) All Done Unlock all trophies A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 2 July 2022: 8:27:02 PM Time Taken to Platinum : 2 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes Platinum Rarity - 78.08% Trophy Number - #17,107 I’ll give you fair warning here, it would probably be almost infinitely harder for me to try and find something I found negative about The Artful Escape, than to just explain exactly why I thought it was brilliant (spoiler free as always, of course). I loved almost everything about The Artful Escape, so I feel quite fortunate that negativity won’t be rearing its ugly head once in this review. I played this game at an almost perfect time; I was practically offended by the lack of creativity on show in Black Mirror. As it turned out, this was a game I didn’t realise I NEEDED to play. Experiencing this game almost directly afterwards was so gratifying to see such a fantastic piece of art never once get in its own way, just content to be exactly what it needed to be. So without further ado, I’ll put on an obligatory pair of glasses – when you see how many people wear them in the game, you’ll know why. Nevertheless, I think there’s a truly special time to be had, so let’s get into it! Released in September of 2021 (and ironically probably the most recent release I’ve played in some time) developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur and published by Annapurna Interactive. The Artful Escape is a visually stunning platformer with a number of light rhythm and puzzle elements thrown in for good measure. It feels wrong to deconstruct The Artful Escape like that, but believe me; it’s far more than it initially appears from that descriptor. You take the role of creatively unfulfilled folk musician Francis Vendetti, nephew of the famed folk music sensation Johnson Vendetti (who casts an impossibly large shadow over Francis’ career) on the eve of his debut concert, with some large shoes to fill, resulting in a journey through the Cosmic Extraordinary, aboard the good ship Cosmic Lung. Meeting a plethora of colourful and interesting characters along the way, voiced by some real acting greats, such as Jason Schwartzman, Carl Weathers, Mark Strong and Lena Headey to name just a few, and they are all excellent characters and performances to varying degrees. No, I didn’t trip and fall into a tab of acid, that is indeed unusual, but more than anything, it is the beginning of an amazing, yet important journey, for both us as players and Francis as a protagonist (if you let it be, that is). The Artful Escape is, in reality, one of those video game situations where the gameplay is an accompaniment (appropriate wording considering the musical trappings) more than it is the lead vocal. The story and the sub-textual (and sometimes more overt) prevailing message, are the real main event. Something which – if you’re open to them, will likely resonate with you more than you might initially expect. It must be said – gameplay being a slightly lesser focus here, is no bad thing at all and I’ll get to the “why” of that shortly. I’ll level with you here I’m going to be fairly free flowing and unstructured (more than usual at least,) because like quite a few games I’ve played recently, this game is a phenomenal example of almost perfect symmetry between the games core components. An aspect of The Artful Escape that I truly think works phenomenally well is its universal appeal. Yes, on the surface, it is a game about a struggling musician searching for creative freedom, and a desperate inescapable and unwavering need for his own artistic expression. Yet, it’s also a fascinating exploration of how genuinely freeing it is when – as a creative – you’re truly given that independence to express yourself exactly the way you feel is best for you. That is something that can be applied to all areas of creativity, the written word, painting or drawing to not even scratch the surface of the sheer amount of inner gifts that we all possess, which can and do exist within all of us. I’m sure many of us, at some point in our lives; we’ve all heard the words “Be the best you, that you can be” or words to that effect. I really do feel that the message The Artful Escape is trying to convey, could genuinely inspire people to do just that, and I really hope that it does. It is so easy to become disillusioned, like Francis and fold in on yourself creatively, but this game, whilst fiction, of course, shows us that the creativity, and satisfaction that it gives us is always lying dormant somewhere, and that it can be one of the most liberating feelings when we discover, what exactly that is. Interestingly, I don’t feel as if your music taste really holds much relevance over whether or not you’ll have an enjoyable experience with this game. Whether you like the type of music Francis struggles to connect with, or you live for screaming guitar solos (I’m partial to both by the way). I think so many of us – on some level – can understand and appreciate how truly wondrous it can feel to be creatively fulfilled, yet also how crushing it can feel, not to be. If you haven’t felt either feeling, perhaps playing The Artful Escape might inspire to seek that feeling out, because take it from me, The Artful Escape captures that feeling as well as almost any piece of media I’ve ever experienced has managed to. Something The Artful Escape leans into very heavily is self expression, and interestingly the game gives us as players enough of a feeling of agency to decide what that truly means to us as individuals – at least I think it does anyway. Later in the experience you’re given the choice to customise your appearance, once you’ve established your new “persona.” I think this can lead to several different choices for us as players, either you embrace what you think Francis might do himself, which is perfectly valid, or Francis’ persona becomes a truer version of you, yourself. This was the direction I took, perhaps to exorcise some of my own creative daemons; Fancis became me, well me, rocking as close to a Gibson J-200 (one of Tom Petty, my favourite musician’s preferred guitars) as possible. I mentioned earlier, how the gameplay is more of an accompaniment than the main attraction. Well, much like it is in music, an accompaniment is still wholly important. I one hundred percent feel like if the gameplay was anything more than it is, the game would suffer immensely as a result. You can shred your (essentially magical) guitar at will, manipulating the environment in the process; you can run, jump and slide too. Boss fights and “Jam Pads” take the form of the Simon Says style memorisation game that many of us will be familiar with. All of that sounds simple, and it is simple – but by being so, it is exactly what it needs to be. I absolutely believe this was a deliberate choice, the simplistic gameplay allows you to focus on everything else to such an intensified degree. Had the gameplay been a little more complex, it would have been far harder to take in how breathtakingly beautiful each of the games locations are. The Artful Escape is absolutely awash with bright and colourful scenery and fantastical creatures that could only be conjured by someone’s imagination (perfect for the setting). It is an absolute visual spectacle. Each location is distinct and memorable in its own way, a constant reminder that you are on a journey. The soundtrack provided by Johnny Galvatron and Josh Abrahams is honestly breathtaking. I do not use the “G” word lightly, believe me – but the way the gameplay, the visual and the audio elements meld together are nothing short of genius. I have been listening to the soundtrack the whole time I’ve been writing this review, and I have had goosebumps several times, as the memories of those locations came flooding back. The Artful Escape has become one of my favourite game soundtracks of all time, and I don’t see that changing any time soon, it has a real almost ethereal power to it. There have been several times playing this game, where I felt huge waves of emotion just wash over me, almost relentlessly. It is more of a “wow that’s powerful” way, not an “I am overcome with such deep sorrow” kind of way. There is something almost magical about the way Francis slides down ravines, manipulating the environment as he wails away with his guitar to his heart’s content. Every little thing you do, feels like it’s directly affecting the world, and it’s a real sight to behold. I never expected a video game to be able to capture that absolutely euphoric feeling of inner peace and fulfilment, that you get in that moment (however brief it might be) that you are doing exactly what you want to be doing, and that no negative feeling in the world could take that away from you. That, ladies and gentleman, is an immensely impressive thing to be able to achieve, I just can’t overstate how much that wowed me. It is a rare and powerful thing, and I will forever be grateful to this game for reminding me of just how satisfying that can feel. Asking myself the rhetorical question of whether I recommend this seems redundant. Of course I recommend this game, incredibly highly in fact. The game is a very short experience, but it’s likely one you won’t forget in a hurry either. This game is going to stay with me for a long while; if you let it be, whilst it might be a little short,it is an absolutely beautiful experience. Yes, the trophies are easy, yes the rarity is high, but I feel like you’re massively missing out on an absolutely wonderful time if you skip over the game because those particular factors are a problem for you. This game is a genuine contender for the best game I’ve played this year, and in a sea of really great games, that really is something! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm almost sad I had to stop writing there, but I almost didn't want to stop gushing about how potently powerful this games message as a whole is. This is one of those instances where a piece of art can capture your attention so much that you instantly just want almost every single person you know to want to go and play this for themselves. I love that this game has had quite the review train over the last year, one that I know isn't going to stop either ?... This is further proof that we do listen to our friends here! @DrBloodmoney started off us off in this fantastic batch here in February, then @YaManSmevz took over with another fantastic review, and then I wrote one that's probably far too long as usual . I know I won't be the last either! Let's keep that train moving team! This game deserves as many eyes on it as possible! I say this a lot, but this is further proof, that sometimes when a friend tells you you'll like a game, you probably will. So thank you to both of you. We've got some real big contenders so far this year for game of the year, at the end of year awards ?. And we're barely halfway done. I think I might conjure up some creative categories so as many things as possible get their day in the sun. One more to catch up on with Ape Escape, and then we're back in the " let's dig in out of old and new games trend" in the thread! Been too long since I've actually written a true classic review. Catch you in the next one folkerino's! Edited July 15, 2022 by rjkclarke 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 33 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Platinum #359 The Artful Escape (PS4) Fantastic! An RJK review is always a joy, but this one had me grinning wide for the entire time. So glad that you enjoyed this game as much as you did and that you gave it your solid write-up treatment. Just good shit wall to wall, man! I wish I had more to say, you already said it all. And beautifully, might I add! I'm right there with you in hoping that as many peeps as possible play this one, it's such a deeply affecting piece of art. Oh, and thanks for the shout! 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: It happens! I'm in danger of doing that myself in your thread soon I think.... I'll definitely hop in tomorrow though, because you've been writing some real awesome stuff in there (well, like you always do) so it's about time I head on back in! Thanks bro! Haha there's no need for worry. You've always been way better about that than me, I fall behind way more often than I'd care to say? 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: Haha! To me, jumbles just sounds like the name of a really fat really useless clown, who only does adult parties, and his one signature pieces is pulling his pockets out of his clown trousers, unzipping his flies and showing everyone "The Elephant with the smallest trunk in the world, but the biggest ears" And that's why sometimes people shouldn't be encouraged to say their thoughts out loud Hahaha nice? Now that I think of it, my first thought is an adult setting too - for me what comes to mind is a super clumsy stripper who trips all over the place and is constantly like "oops.. oh gosh, I'm so sorry... oh no, I hope that comes out." "AND NOW COMIN OUT TO THE STAGE, JUMBLES! YESSIR GENTLEMEN SHE I- ..OOOHH, AW THAT LOOKED LIKE IT HURT.. BOUNCERS, CHECK ON HER, WILL YA?" 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: Oh man that soundtrack is so good. That "I will always, always find you....." from Ashley Barrett pretty much broke me a little the first time I heard it, and that whole "I love you Red" from the sword midway through the game! Man I love that game so much, you've got a treat in store whenever you play Bastion too, and now you've reminded me I haven't played Pyre yet I am going to play Hotline Miami at some point, so I look forward to hearing it, Jasper Byrne is a talented fella! I need to get to writing about that one, Transistor is so stupidly well put together. And agreed, that song at the end hit me hard, it was one of those where you hear it and can't help stopping what you're doing and just ingesting the song whole in awe. Brilliantly written and performed track man, and the perfect ending. Bastion and Pyre definitely got shot up the list, and while I know it will be a difficult one, Hotline Miami 2 is another candidate as well. Eager for you to get into HM1, that one is a fuckin trip! 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: I'd be like, "I actually ended up appreciating this game immensely because it helped me conquer my TOTALLY NOT IRRATIONAL fear of E.T." I would read that review just for that aspect, I think that its historical significance would take a backseat? "How I Learned to Stop Worrying About E.T. and oh God get him away GET HIM AWAY," coming soon to a PSN thread near you! 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: You should definitely dive on in with the Ezio trilogy, if you think you're up for it! It's a really great quality trilogy that one, with not a single bad game in it, or one that's any less than very good (in my opinion) and each one is very good for slightly different reasons I think. You'll also miss out on the online shenanigans. Which is a shame in a way, as I genuinely enjoyed the online multiplayer back in the day, but now it's like constantly standing on a plug socket or some Lego with bare feet. I may have to do that. I've always been down for those early ones, but I gotta be honest, those newer ones don't appeal to me at all. Actually made me glad to see you reference that in the review, made me think all the more that these ones may in fact be for me after all! 1 hour ago, rjkclarke said: You know what, the platinum in Brotherhood is nice and all, but I think finding an absolutely awesome friend out of it is what I'll end up remembering the most, and I think that's what I'm probably most grateful for, ultimately. Any amount of shitty online is worth suffering through that for, it really is. Real talk! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather342 Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 Awesome review of The Artful Escape, I'll definitely put it on my list as one to check out. But after reading this it got me wondering, have you ever played Sayonara Wild Hearts? It's another one by Annapurna Interactive, and your review of Artful Escape sounded very similar to my experience with that game. I think you may like this one too ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 Fantastic Artful Escape review mate! It's really gratifying seeing this game getting to more people, and becoming the cult classic I am almost certain it is destined to be! It's funny reading this one right now, as I've been furiously typing up another review over the past week, for a game I am convinced should be sold in a double-pack called something like "The Power of Art" pack - Chicory! Reading this one, I am more convinced than ever that you need to play Chicory - the things in The Artful Escape that so spoke to you (and me) are exactly the things that I think would connect you to Chicory in the super-glue-like way I did ? It does it with visual art, while The Artful Escape concentrates on music, but both are such pointed and astute discussions of the perils, trials and glory of putting your expression out in the world! In fact, funny that dear @Heather342 should also mention the third game that could be added to that pack to make it a triple - Sayonara Wild Hearts! If The Artful Escape, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and Chicory were ever put into a Triple Pack, it could just as easily be called "Buy This Pack RJKClarke!" as it could "The Power of Creativity Extravaganza" ? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted July 15, 2022 Share Posted July 15, 2022 On 7/12/2022 at 1:03 AM, rjkclarke said: It's kind of ironic, that I'm responding to you telling me not to worry about a late reply, a week and a half later.... what a tit! But nah, I should be fine, I get bitten by Spiders a lot, they really seem to like me for some reason, so I'm kind of just used to it at this point! I don't like it, but if you can avoid getting tagged by a false widow do it, because they really can mess you up for a good day or two, their venom makes you feel really odd. But maybe I'm particularly susceptible to it? Just a bit ironic yes but who doesn't love a bit of irony every now and again? Maybe so. I'd be more annoyed at the fact you haven't turned into Spiderman yet tbh lol On 7/12/2022 at 1:03 AM, rjkclarke said: That probably will help you out in Resident Evil 5! Just because you can skip the crappy vehicle levels entirely, as you can't really speed those up, and replaying them is not exactly fun either. I think it's really awesome of them to allow you to get the Infinite Rocket Launcher, so long as your overall time is under 3 and a half hours. It'll be a lot easier to whittle down than you think, especially when you get yourself an infinite Magnum, or an L.Hawk. Yes indeed, sounds more positive the more I think about it! Yeah any infinite ammo in a Resident Evil game definitely helps the experience and speedrunning of course! On 7/12/2022 at 1:03 AM, rjkclarke said: Eurgh, Online grinding yaaaaaaaaaaaaay, said not me ever! I'm glad you're enjoying it though, certainly enough to select it as a milestone, not sure I could hold off for 80 games to platinum something I'm enjoying, but that's the one part of me that's impatient gaming wise. It was a real struggle to not start Nier Replicant, before I hit 349 Platinum's. I expect you'll end up enjoying it even more once you actually get into the story modes a bit more, which I assume is what you're probably looking forward to the most with it! No I agree with you 100 percent but apart from one match a day for the next few days in order to get a title for playing a match 30 days in a row (Need 50 titles for a trophy) then I'll be done with the online - already got all the online trophies so great to get that out of the way and will be able to give it a much needed break. Definitely got it locked in for my 350th platinum. Would be the rarest FF plat I'll probably ever get lol Yeah of course everyone is different. I get where you are coming from and sometimes I get annoyed with how I have it set up but then eventually I get into the groove I need and it all (hopefully) falls into place! Yeah absolutely! You know me, love my single player games so really intruiged by how the story will play out, especially when I've never experienced one like this before. Firstly I'll have to get my 300th platinum milestone - FFVII Remake. I'll get an autopop PS5 plat bonus there like RE2R, and then I'll be able to play the Intermission DLC which I've been looking forward to for ages as well! On 7/12/2022 at 1:03 AM, rjkclarke said: I still have yet to actually record any videos, I got super sidetracked playing loads of other games haha! One of these days I'll sit down and actually make the effort to do it. I doubt it will even take long. Thanks, I appreciate that by the way, I'm sure I'll probably shoot a few questions your way about formatting and stuff, that I'm pretty in the dark about once I actually come to write the guide haha I doubt it will for a master of the potting such as yourself! Yeah no worries. Happy to help! I'll take a credit somewhere in the guide thanks lol joking On 7/12/2022 at 1:03 AM, rjkclarke said: Good! Although I wouldn't blame you, it's one of those prevalent stereotypes, like the silly one about welsh people and four legged woolly creatures. Completely baseless, well probably anyway. None of my family down that way are inbred I know that much WHY DIDN'T MARBLE MADNESS ON THE GAME GEAR TAKE OFF LIKE POKEMON? I think you did kind of hit the nail on the head there, it didn't really have anything on it to really make it a must have console for a young audience to actually want to play, and that's a bit of a shame really! Marble Madness! That could have been the rival to Pokemon and taken the handheld crown! Maybe it happened in another universe lol Yes indeed, stereotypes sadly are very damaging. Sega really had some great tech and great games, but sadly they had too many decisions they got wrong like creating the Sega CD and 32X, not having a proper Sonic game on the Saturn etc etc. but certainly the Game Gear with the tech and potential it had compared to the Game Boy was a massive missed opportunity. Sony are quite like Sega in a lot of ways. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 Catching up to this thread a hundred years later...big congrats for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood! I've heard horrors about boosting that game, I too interacted way too much with Ubisoft servers and let's say potatoes form a better peer2peer connection than whatever they have there. However that "French business" ... goddamn, Rome really didn't want to be conquered this time. Other than the online yes, the game is great, I think that's still my favorite AC game to this day, however the PS4 version is recommended since it's purely single player! Best of luck with AC Revelation's "Lost Archives DLC", that Impress Warren Vidic trophy will be fun, I promise you Also good luck with Valhalla you know why lol! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sora9427 Posted July 23, 2022 Share Posted July 23, 2022 On 12/7/2022 at 2:03 AM, rjkclarke said: I'd probably play in Japanese to be honest, if there's English subs available. If it's the more authentic and better sounding alternative. Some of the Japanese VA's in the Tales of' series are much better than the English versions. And I would never in a million years play the English dubs of Yakuza, I've heard some of the recent ones, and whilst they're fine enough, they kind of just feel so wrong! I'm sure once I do get to play Persona 4 you'll be able to read my probably novel length post about it, once I'm done Please do! I'll look forward to checking out what you think of it, as modern racers go, I thought it was a pretty decent and unique one, so I hope you like it! Funny you mention, games in their native language actually! If you're going to play Assassin's Creed Unity, I thoroughly recommend you play it in French. The English version is fine, it just makes Arno seem like a bit of a wet fish, in French he's a little different, and it really does make Unity a more authentic experience in French, with appropriate subtitles of course, I thought. You'll definitely have the benefit of playing Unity, now that its been patched to within an inch of its life. I've only ever played the fixed version of it, and I've always rather enjoyed it for what it was. If you can play alongside a friend, then its even better! I must have missed that, I'd be tempted to pay half price for it, so if I see it again I might have to hit purchase. One of these days I ought to get around to Melody of Memories, but I'm pretty useless at rhythm games, so I'm dreading it I really like Star Wars, but I don't think it will mesh well with Kingdom Hearts. I think the only way to make it work really is for it to be in one of the child friendly IP's like The Clone Wars series, or something like that, anything else might be a bit jarring. I'd be well up for having like Darth Vader as a cameo boss like Sephiroth was, or something like that, so that would be cool at least! I'd love to say KH4 wouldn't be a day one purchase for me, but I said that about KH3, and got that one day one, so I'm sure I will too haha! Absolutely! if you get the itch to dust off your PS3, give Limbo another go, I'm sure you'd probably have a great time with it! Thank you! I've gotten mostly all of the luck based stuff done now! I've just gone off to play a load of different games and left it sitting there unfinished! Oooops! I know that feeling all too well - I sometimes just try and push through and do them anyway, because immediately the minute you've done one, you're like.... "oh do I have to really go back and do those again, but ever so slightly differently" No need to apologise at all! I have been away from the thread for the last two weeks pretty much anyway, so I'm the one that should be apologising to everyone else really haha! Hope you had a good trip though! I did play quite a lot in the meantime, got quite a bit of gaming in when I could, now I've got the problem of having a few reviews to catch up on! You should totally go back for Revelations, it's really good. I'm planning to replay it soon in preparation for the review, and get that last piece of DLC finished. You're going to have a good time with Ape Escape as well I think, that is a great time! Pretty quick platinum too, but really very fun and light hearted! Sorry for my really late reply, almost 2 weeks! I've been into gaming mode last week and back to work this one but here i am, gonna try egtting back to my weekly routine! I'm happy to know you are one of the Sane persons that prefer the Original Version of Japanese games rather than the english one just because it's his language, i see waaay too many people like that, it's stupid it's just logic, The opposite it's true of course Uncharted or GoW are better in English than japanese it's just their native language. Ah Yakuza has even English dub now? Didn't even know or wanna know how it is Oh i wanna 3 50k each post about P4 When you play it Well, i got GT7 too so i guess now i have 2 Racing games And gues si'll play the Ps5 version of Wreckfest at this point, gonna try it out maybe in the coming months! I see, well i guess it's indeed a good point, i Love the Ezio trilogy in my Language because it's the setting language! So i guess that's true for here too, if it's possible to choose french language and EN (Or IT it's not the Text language that bothers me in my language) text i'll definitively do that! And yeah Unity catchs my interest, the only AC that does, glad to hear now it's in a much better state too! I'll play it alone not having anybody when i'll do you'll see Indeed, try checking when there are DLCs sales it usually goes. And well Melody of Meomroy shouldn't be an hard Rhytm game so don't worry even if you're not great at the genre you could plat it no doubt I Mean i guess sit could work with the Gummiship and stuff but Meh. I don't like space stuff be it star wars trek or whatever so for me the hope is to not see neither Star wars nor superheroes! Ah Nostalgia Power always comes back in the end Personally as Said no matter what if i can it's D1 KH4 probably the only Blind D1 i can say alreayd i'll get whatever. Yeah limbo is indeed a great short game, i'll try get back into it, i even have Inside to play. I see you are still bored to gettign back to dishonored, i understand Oh don't worry it happens to be away after all! I mean look at me i did the same as you now so this time i'm the one to apologize I Have to Play Revelations on the Trilogy on Ps4, alreayd played it years ago on Ps3, You remind me of the DLC yeah i coudl get it on Ps3 now actually to 100%. Well thanks but change of programs i guess I'll delay Ape escape for a little first Comes Stray on the Genre sinc ei was waiting for it, probably after that Ape escape! I see meanwhile you wrote about the Artful Escape, it loooks interesting, being ont he Plus i'll add it in my library! And Congrats on RDR surely one of the most boring and annoying 100% to get out there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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