rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[dieselmanchild]

On 2022-02-09 at 3:28 AM, rjkclarke said:

A New Medievil Flavoured Platinum is Entering the Vault

 

Awesome write up on MediEvil RJ!
 

I’ve got this game sitting at the very top of my backlog right now so when I saw your link in the Backlog Challenge thread I knew I had to come here and check it out. I never played the original (or even the sequel) so it’s all completely new to me, yet there’s something very comforting and familiar about the things I’ve seen of the game so far. It undoubtedly has that flavour of the era and conjures up a nice dose of nostalgia as it reminds me a lot of the type of games I grew up playing. The modern graphics really do bring it all to life though, it looks gorgeous! A feast for the eyes. I plan on getting to it before the month is up.

 

On a side note, I played Pumpkin Jack a few months ago during Halloween and enjoyed it a lot, but I was quite surprised to find it wasn’t made by the same people. It looks and feels like it was heavily inspired by MediEvil (from what I’ve seen at least), so if you’re in the mood for another helping of a chilled-out love letter to the past, check it out. It’s a very short game, and if you don’t get around to it right away it would be perfect for the spirit of the Halloween season. ?

Edited February 13, 2022 by dieselmanchild

[rjkclarke]

2 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

Awesome write up on MediEvil RJ!
 

I’ve got this game sitting at the very top of my backlog right now so when I saw your link in the Backlog Challenge thread I knew I had to come here and check it out. I never played the original (or even the sequel) so it’s all completely new to me, yet there’s something very comforting and familiar about the things I’ve seen of the game so far. It undoubtedly has that flavour of the era and conjures up a nice dose of nostalgia as it reminds me a lot of the type of games I grew up playing. The modern graphics really do bring it all to life though, it looks gorgeous! A feast for the eyes. I plan on getting to it before the month is up.

 

Cheers man! I really appreciate that.

 

I think this would definitely scratch that little nostalgia itch you might be having for games from that kind of an era. It's very strange in that the type of game MediEvil was, the remake hasn't really shone a huge spotlight on a lot of the flaws that some remakes from games of that era can do sometimes. I think because the levels are short and fairly concise, and often incredibly varied. The essential gameplay loop of: Find a Rune> Open a door> Exit level, doesn't ever become boring, because they did such a wonderful job of every level feeling distinct and unique. It's a real plus for the game.

 

Those modern graphics are gorgeous..... I honestly didn't expect it to look that good. Let's face it not every remake can look as good as people want it to. Whilst I never played the original, I'd only played the second game.... It did always have a very interesting visual style, and they spared no expense by the looks of it, in the pursuit of faithfully recreating that.... To the point where I almost thought it looked a little too good. Weird criticism I know.

 

2 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

On a side note, I played Pumpkin Jack a few months ago during Halloween and enjoyed it a lot, but I was quite surprised to find it wasn’t made by the same people. It looks and feels like it was heavily inspired by MediEvil (from what I’ve seen at least), so if you’re in the mood for another helping of a chilled-out love letter to the past, check it out. It’s a very short game, and if you don’t get around to it right away it would be perfect for the spirit of the Halloween season.

 

Thanks for putting me onto Pumpkin Jack as well.

 

I just had a little look at the gameplay, and I can totally see where you're coming from there. You can absolutely see the MediEvil inspirations there, along with a few other interesting infusions from some other well known games,which is really cool.

 

I Especially liked the sound of  the music, judging by the relatively short video I just watched, it has a pretty good soundtrack. That's also incredibly MediEvil-esque, or I guess Danny Elfman-esque by extension..... Need to stop saying "esque" 

 

I love the fact it has a wise cracking Raven as a little companion character too. I might just have to pick that up if it goes on sale soon! I'd get it now, but y'know got to save the pennies and what not!

 

I'm almost glad that you said it was a very short game, because I could imagine some of those sections like the minecart section I saw on the gameplay video, or the horse riding one might start to wear a little thin if you have to play too many of them. So making the game shorter probably helps it in that regard.

Edited February 13, 2022 by rjkclarke

[dieselmanchild]

31 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

It did always have a very interesting visual style, and they spared no expense by the looks of it, in the pursuit of faithfully recreating that.... To the point where I almost thought it looked a little too good. Weird criticism I know.

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a game being criticized for looking too good, but if that’s all your game is being criticized for that I’d say you’re probably doing something right. ?

 

 

31 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks for putting me onto Pumpkin Jack as well.

 

I just had a little look at the gameplay, and I can totally see where you're coming from there. You can absolutely see the MediEvil inspirations there, along with a few other interesting infusions from some other well known games,which is really cool.

 

I Especially liked the sound of  the music, judging by the relatively short video I just watched, it has a pretty good soundtrack. That's also incredibly MediEvil-esque, or I guess Danny Elfman-esque by extension..... Need to stop saying "esque" 

 

I love the fact it has a wise cracking Raven as a little companion character too. I might just have to pick that up if it goes on sale soon! I'd get it now, but y'know got to save the pennies and what not!

 

I'm almost glad that you said it was a very short game, because I could imagine some of those sections like the minecart section I saw on the gameplay video, or the horse riding one might start to wear a little thin if you have to play too many of them. So making the game shorter probably helps it in that regard.

 

No problem! I think Pumpkin Jack was perfect for what it set out to be. It’s quite simple and nothing in the game (not even the minecart, boat, or horse riding sections) is particularly challenging. It’s just good plain fun, with that same sort of witty banter and silly characters that was so common in platformers and games of the past. And yes, the soundtrack is really great too!

 

I’m a budget gamer myself and always prefer to buy stuff on sale when I can, and picked up Pumpkin Jack in the Halloween sale a few months back. I’m sure it will be on sale again in the near future, so keep an eye out for it. It’s only a 5-6 hour game iirc, but it feels like the perfect length for what the game was, it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and if you save it until October it is a really great game to get you in the mood for Halloween!

[rjkclarke]

49 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a game being criticized for looking too good, but if that’s all your game is being criticized for that I’d say you’re probably doing something right.

 

It was just me criticising it a little bit for that really .....

 

....More of an observation than a true criticism anyway, just because I think some of the more jagged and angular sharp looking nature of those PS1 games graphics really suits MediEvil's style, whereas it looks incredibly finesse and polished in that version, but admittedly still awesome!

 

49 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

No problem! I think Pumpkin Jack was perfect for what it set out to be. It’s quite simple and nothing in the game (not even the minecart, boat, or horse riding sections) is particularly challenging. It’s just good plain fun, with that same sort of witty banter and silly characters that was so common in platformers and games of the past. And yes, the soundtrack is really great too!

 

I can get behind that - a bit of silliness never goes amiss for me! I mean Smevz and I spent a good long while talking about a kid with a Bowlhead haircut from Yakuza 3 the other week, so I encourage silliness if anything ?

 

Sometimes good plain fun is all you need. So I'm really happy to hear that, for as much as I can dig a really absorbing or emotional experience, sometimes you need something like you've described there.... So, yep going to have to check this one out I think.

 

49 minutes ago, dieselmanchild said:

I’m a budget gamer myself and always prefer to buy stuff on sale when I can, and picked up Pumpkin Jack in the Halloween sale a few months back. I’m sure it will be on sale again in the near future, so keep an eye out for it. It’s only a 5-6 hour game iirc, but it feels like the perfect length for what the game was, it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and if you save it until October it is a really great game to get you in the mood for Halloween!

 

I might just do that then - even if it goes on sale sooner - just hold back on it until October - sounds like that could be a good plan.

 

Games like Pumpkin Jack are definitely one of the huge upsides to being a bit of a budget gamer, means you're a little more likely to stumble on a nice little time like that more often than not.

 

Definitely can run into some stinkers for sure that way too. There is a reason why the game I don't want to mention *cough* Agents of Mayhem *cough*...... Winner of my worst game I played in 2021 at the Rusties (My retroactive Awards Ceremony from the start of the year. Maybe I should just call my End of Year Awards post that from here on out )... Anyway, that turned into a stream of weird consciousness fast, I essentially bought that because it was cheap, now I know why it's constantly on sale, just so people are that little bit, more inclined to buy it.

Edited February 13, 2022 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Platinum #287

My Brother Rabbit (PS4)

 

 

Super Explorer
Unlock all the Trophies.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 27 November 2020 : 1:20:45 PM

Time Taken to Platinum :  3 hours, 38 minutes, 31 seconds

Platinum Rarity  - 81.73%

Trophy Number - #14,215

 

Don’t you just love it, when a developer decides to venture outside of their usual comfort zone and try something new? I know I do, I think it takes a huge amount of courage artistically, to go in an entirely different direction than your player base might usually expect.

 

My Brother Rabbit, is Artifex Mundi doing exactly that, trying something new – whilst, yes there are still some familiar elements of previous Artifex Mundi titles, this is them trying something entirely new, and to be perfectly honest, it works here far more often than it doesn’t.

 

For those of you who might be unaware of the type of game you’d typically expect from Artifex Mundi – what you’d probably come to expect are usually: a very specific setting, plenty of Hidden Object Puzzles, some lighter puzzle elements and usually paper thin plots.

They are just very relaxed and usually pretty enjoyable puzzle games that won’t ever tax you too much mentally, but can almost always be relied upon to be a nice peaceful experience.

 

So what sets My Brother Rabbit apart from the Artifex Mundi roster? Ultimately it is a few fairly specific areas. Instead of a multitude of Hidden Object puzzles – contextually at least, My Brother Rabbit is one giant Hidden Object Puzzle, with the smaller puzzles being the catalyst for some of the findable objects appearing.

If you’ve played an Artifex Mundi title before, think of it being like when you have to do something to make a certain object change (like pouring out a glass of wine,) but on an exponentially larger scale.

 

This might be the shortest focus on gameplay ever, but it is, by design rather minimalist. The gameplay is what you’d expect from a game like this, not truly point-and-click in nature, but fairly close. It’s incredibly functional and responsive though.

My Brother Rabbit does contain a Boss – and much like our resident game scientist, I don’t usually like Artifex Mundi’s approach to bosses either. Here it’s actually quite well thought out, and is more of a specialised puzzle than a true Boss Fight, but it’s better than you’d usually expect to find.

 

It must also be said, that unlike almost every other Artifex Mundi title, the story is actually one of – if not, the, most important parts of the experience. Not every single element of it works quite the way that I think they wanted or – perhaps even intended. It can’t be understated how beautiful it is in places though, and how far reaching and understandable the core message is, even if you don’t bother to dig too much into the subtext.

 

All that I’m really willing to say about the story will be fairly little, this is still spoiler free, and I’ll mention a few things, I think are interesting. I just want it to be clear, I’m not mentioning it because I think it’s bad, quite the opposite, I don’t want to take discovering some of the more fantastical elements away from any of you that might decide to play it.

 

I’ll tell you this much – you play as a Rabbit, yes, but the entire plane of existence that the game exists on, is all set within the imagination of a small boy. All the while, he’s trying to process his own thoughts and fears regarding his sister’s illness (you find this all out within a minute of the game’s opening, so I’m not spoiling anything here,) whilst attempting to make her feel more comfortable and at ease. It’s something that has some real poignancy to it, when you see the rabbit appear in the gorgeous illustrated scenes that frame the story.

 

I’m glad that I played this in 2020, and not last year, or this year, because whilst the game is actually much more optimistic, hopeful and upbeat than the premise might suggest, playing a game about a character who feels powerless to help someone they dearly love, who is ill, is something I know that I couldn’t handle right now. It’d be a bit too close to home. With someone incredibly special to me, fighting so fiercely and bravely against an illness she can’t control. Whilst I’m completely powerless (and I feel it, too) to help, I just couldn’t handle it I don’t think.

 

The game opens with an absolutely haunting song titled, Dreams (which I’ll leave a link to, if you wanted to listen) – with the vocals provided by Emiko Evans of NieR and Drakengard 3 fame. Her voice has an undeniable ethereal and haunting quality to it – so hearing it here, it sets the tone almost perfectly.

 

That reminds me – audio – not only is that opening track of a very high quality, as is the entire soundtrack. This game doesn’t have any real voice acting to speak of. Whilst the opening song is a little morose, the majority of the rest of it has overtly optimistic tones, and the soundtrack is often incredibly relaxing and upbeat, through many of the games sections. In places it’s tonally perfect, and I really can’t find any fault with it.

 

An aspect of Artifex Mundi games that you can almost always rely upon is there visual style. Some are – of course – better than others, but I’d probably put this one at the absolute peak of the ones that I’ve played myself. I’m going to throw out a few screenshots here, but I think this games specific art-style is incredible. Especially if you look into some of the scenes in detail – and apply the context, that this is an upset and frightened child trying to contextualise some of his emotions.

 

Between each of the games chapters – the story of what’s really going in the real world are told through these beautifully illustrated storybook styled pictures, that have a real distinct charm to them.

 

 

One element that I particularly liked about the opening, is that they appear in full glorious colour, then when the sister’s illness is revealed, the colour drains just a little bit and it starts to look a little more bleak, which is the perfect contrast to how bright and colourful everything involving your playtime as The Rabbit is.

 

Each chapter has a few distinct locations, which look in many of the places, visually astounding. Now – this might be an issue for you, or it might not – but it is admittedly hard to imagine a child as young as he’s presented to be interpreting certain things in such an abstract way.

 

 

Did this bother me? Not really, in the pursuit of some amazing visual spectacle I can just about forgive that, because to say this looks interesting, is honestly doing it a disservice, it’s so much more than that.

This is so visually interesting, I could probably fill this entire review with screenshots from the games many locations, and you’d find something interesting to be found in almost every one of them.

 

Remember, this is all in the context of a child’s mind, so whilst he’s trying to distract himself and his sister from the situation – you can’t avoid it forever, so in the backdrops of some of the scenes, pieces of medical equipment become important parts of the scenery. I think the artistic design is absolutely My Brother Rabbit’s strongest feature.

 

 

You’re looking at a pretty short playtime to reach the platinum in My Brother Rabbit. At a guess probably two to three hours, depending on how you play. The trophies are pretty straightforward too. The game also has a chapter select, so if you wanted to play it blind you could quite happily do so, and tidy up afterwards.

 

Do I recommend My Brother Rabbit? Yes, basically, I think there are plenty of reasons I would – this one is actually pretty easy to recommend.  It’s incredibly relaxing and enjoyable, emotionally weighty in places. It hits with what it’s trying, far more than it misses and has an absolutely gorgeous aesthetic and soundtrack that make it stand out in an absolutely unique way.

 

I don’t think this would be a bad jumping in point for a first Artifex Mundi title either – because whilst it isn’t particularly like anything they’ve made before, the puzzles are very much in that vein, so it’d be a good way to gauge whether or not you might like some of the other titles.  

 

 

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

 

This is going to seem weird initially but I thought I'd drop a tag for @Copanele here.... I know you were asking in Doc's thread recently about Artifex Mundi titles, and whilst this isn't quite like everything else they've done, it might be worth a look. I know you like a bit of Emi Evans too, and you know how much her voice can hit you right in the feels, so I thought this one might just interest you, but feel free to tell me to go sit on a cactus for tagging you

 

@DrBloodmoney - I was honestly really surprised that you hadn't played this when we spoke about it the other day.... Although it is the thing that reminded me I wanted to write about this at some point, so in a way I'm really glad of the reminder!

 

I don't think too many people I know have played as many of the Artifex Mundi titles as you have. I really think you'd probably dig this, to some extent. At the very least I think you'd appreciate what it's trying to do, so I thought I'd slap you with a big fat notification, you didn't ask for too ?

Edited February 13, 2022 by rjkclarke

[DrBloodmoney]

11 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

@DrBloodmoney - I was honestly really surprised that you hadn't played this when we spoke about it the other day.... Although it is the thing that reminded me I wanted to write about this at some point, so in a way I'm really glad of the reminder!

 

I don't think too many people I know have played as many of the Artifex Mundi titles as you I have.  I really think you'd probably dig this, to some extent. At the very least I think you'd appreciate what it's trying to do, so I thought I'd slap you with a big fat notification, you didn't ask for too

 

Damn - not sure how this one managed to slip past me - you're not wrong, I have a pretty sizeable Artifex Mundi collection under my belt at this point (and that's only the Playstation ones you're seeing - I started on iPad! ?)... but for some reason, this one has never broken through into my field of view... until you mentioned it!

 

Sounds good though - and I'll be very interested so see AM ply their trade in a slightly different wheelhouse! Cheers!

Edited February 13, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

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

 

This is going to seem weird initially but I thought I'd drop a tag for @Copanele here.... I know you were asking in Doc's thread recently about Artifex Mundi titles, and whilst this isn't quite like everything else they've done, it might be worth a look. I know you like a bit of Emi Evans too, and you know how much her voice can hit you right in the feels, so I thought this one might just interest you, but feel free to tell me to go sit on a cactus for tagging you

I see tag from rjkclarke.

I see EMI EVANS.

I hear the "Dreams" song.

MuhFeelsNierIsBack.mp3

Time to punish the credits card again. THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF MY MONEY!

 

Dude, if you tag me for Emi Evans & Feels, I will never ever send you to Cactus-realm ? holy damn this is an insta-buy. Especially since I DID want some Artifex Mundi chill.

Actually, tag me whenever lol  never gonna get tired of being assaulted with 10/10 recommendations.

 

[rjkclarke]

18 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Damn - not sure how this one managed to slip past me - you're not wrong, I have a pretty sizeable Artifex Mundi collection under my belt at this point (and that's only the Playstation ones you're seeing - I started on iPad! )... but for some reason, this one has never broken through into my field of view... until you mentioned it!

 

Sounds good though - and I'll be very interested so see AM ply their trade in a slightly different wheelhouse! Cheers!

 

I don't know either - like I said, I was genuinely surprised you'd not played it. You make my pile of 12 or 13 AM titles I've played, look like some tiny grains of sand compared to the mountainous amount you've played, and even more I guess when factoring in an iPad?.... So if that My Brother Rabbit review might have gotten you interested in giving it a go then that can only be a little bit of a bonus!

 

I'm planning to start Irony Curtain at some point this week, that one I told you about where AM  went really and I mean REALLY outside of their usual wheelhouse by trying their hand at a traditional point-and-click game. So that one I'm quite excited for just out of curiosity as I'm really interested to see how that one turns out!

 

17 hours ago, Copanele said:

I see tag from rjkclarke.

I see EMI EVANS.

I hear the "Dreams" song.

MuhFeelsNierIsBack.mp3

Time to punish the credits card again. THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF MY MONEY!

 

Dude, if you tag me for Emi Evans & Feels, I will never ever send you to Cactus-realm  holy damn this is an insta-buy. Especially since I DID want some Artifex Mundi chill.

Actually, tag me whenever lol  never gonna get tired of being assaulted with 10/10 recommendations.

 

That's good to hear! Haha ?

 

The minute I'd seen Artifex Mundi had made a traditional point-and-clicker I was all.................. TAKE MY MONEY NOW! As usual it's taken me a long time to even play it, so, it's funny how those things turn out ?

 

Fingers crossed I'll escape the clutches of the Cactus realm for a little while longer. I was a little hesitant about tagging you, then I thought - well, he likes Emi Evans, well, I mean who doesn't? But yeah - and he also asked about Artifex Mundi recently those two things match up, so time to see what he thinks.

 

Glad you're up for the game - it's very, very good for what it is - I think had it been longer the premise might wear a little bit thin, but as the game is really short it never outstays its welcome.

 

This game isn't depressing either like I might have made it seem. Just because real world things going on right now. I'd find it sad. Let's not dwell on those though, keep the POSITIVITY going! Especially as the games overall message is a very  positive one - you'll get some feels for sure, but more good ones than sad ones I hope!

[The_Kopite]

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

It does seem like the Gamecube isn't quite the best fit for the Resident Evil franchise to exclusively be on for a period, I must say.

 

Yep that's the one Summoner A Goddess Reborn...... Ouch man it's £50...... I'm going to have to swerve that one. Guess I should have bought it all those years ago when I saw it for about £12, but I didn't want to because I already had the PS2 version...... I'd love to know if actually does play better than the original Summoner 2 though.

No clearly not. They obviously realised that at the time, with the RE4 steelbook version for PS2. (Man that steelbook is awesome!)

 

50 quid was just me scanning quickly. Might get a deal on bids or something?

 

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

I was about to say that you and I have probably played the Final Fantasy games for roughly that amount of time too.

 

I think even if I was a teenager with no responsibilities then I still would swerve away from Final Fantasy XIV....... But that's mainly because MMO's just aren't really my jam. Even to this day I struggle to play one type of game for too long. Which is why I still constantly flit between genres on the regular.

 

Nosgoth almost got me.... The one set in Legacy of Kains universe..... Then Triad Wars (the one set in Sleeping Dogs universe) almost did too.  But I just couldn't bring myself to play something that long, not even in a franchise I really love......

 

Watch me eat my words when I get  my 100% trophies in Warframe back, and show a screenshot of how many hours I've sunk into that game I guess

Haha we probably have! 

 

Yeah I can understand that. Sometimes I can get really engrossed in a game but other times I will rotate between a couple for a bit. 

 

Surprised you didn't go for the one set in Legacy of Kains universe. Sleeping Dogs was a good game, played it on PS3.

 

Haha looking forward to seeing how many hours you've put into Warframe now!

 

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

I think Obsidian did a pretty good job with KOTOR 2.....  With the amount I know that Aspyr loves Star Wars from playing the other ports they've put out, I think the KOTOR remake is in fairly safe hand. I hope I'm not proven wrong there.

 

I certainly think Obsidian made the better of the two Fallout 3 era games with New Vegas..... Well it is, so long as you don't play it on a PlayStation anyway!

 

 

Haha! The Kopite Megazord? Koptimus Prime...... Too early in the day for puns

 

I hope you aren't either. Really hoping the KOTOR remake will do the original justice. Getting a platinum for that would be a must!

 

Ah yes Fallout. The glitchyness of those games on lots of platforms but certainly PS3 was outstanding. I've played an extemely small amount of Fallout 3 and well that's it lol

 

Damn, never thought of Koptimus Prime before! lol pity I'm not interested in Transformers lol

 

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

That sounds like me against Marguerite on Ethan Must Die mode..... You get the scream..... Then you hear someone sing "Go tell Aunt Rhody" and you really do get sick of that after a while, however much I might like that game mode.

I can totally imagine. Ethan Must Die mode isn't something I'm ever likely to play.

 

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

I didn't even know that was a thing.... That's really cool. I always struggled to get one of the weakpoints that Jack has...... It was usually the one of the ones that you can only get when he's above you and you're below, I just always had a problem with him not going in the right spot before he battered me to depth with his spindly, limbs? Yeah, lets call them that!

 

I just thought I'd give it a try as she had attacked me on stairs and nothing had happened, so I went for it and it paid off!

 

Yes getting those weakpoints underneath Jack were bloody infuriating!

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

Yep if it can save anyone some of the hassle of that 10,000 kills trophy I'm really glad.

 

I'm sure you'll find some time to get some gaming in soon......

 

..... I'm also pretty Interested to see what guide you're working on as well. You go hard on those, so that is probably eating up a fair bit of your time.

Yes thanks!

 

Sadly yes it is eating up more of my time than I'd like it to. Let's just say I'll never do a guide of this scope on my own ever again! lol

 

On 2/13/2022 at 0:56 PM, rjkclarke said:

I was with Wreckfest, so I thought why not pop it on and give it a blast. I was actually really surprised by exactly how it played, and the fact that it's far more complex than it appears to be on the surface....But I'll erm.... save that for a review haha

 

I expect there's probably a few racers out there that you'd get a kick out of - as you say, it's finding the right one. I know Kopite had fun with Horizon: Chase Turbo recently. Which is like a modern spin on Outrun, but as a racer. I might have to check that one out myself at some point.

Got Wreckfest sat ready for PS5 from PS Plus a little while back, looking forward to that in the future. @YaManSmevz I'd recommend Horizon Chase Turbo even for someone who isn't really into racers. It's arcade fun with some depth. Had it for free through PS Plus too which was a nice bonus!

[rjkclarke]

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

No clearly not. They obviously realised that at the time, with the RE4 steelbook version for PS2. (Man that steelbook is awesome!)

 

Hell yeah it is! It's sat on my shelf about 10 feet away from me right now. I've still got a couple of PS2 games out there.... Although most of them have gone to live in the loft now, because, y'know space and what not.

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

Surprised you didn't go for the one set in Legacy of Kains universe. Sleeping Dogs was a good game, played it on PS3.

 

Haha looking forward to seeing how many hours you've put into Warframe now!

 

Well I guess the fact I didn't should be a pretty good indicator that I just don't get on too well with MMO's...... I'm glad a lot of people like them, they just really aren't my jam. Warframe is the closest I've come, and that isn't really one either.

 

I'm genuinely a little worried about how many hours I have put into that, it's a whole lot I know that much, and if DE actually dropped content more regularly and didn't seem to be progressively running out of fresh ideas each new update, I'd probably still dip in and out on the regular, as I've got quite a lot of friends that still play it.

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

Really hoping the KOTOR remake will do the original justice. Getting a platinum for that would be a must!

 

Ah yes Fallout. The glitchyness of those games on lots of platforms but certainly PS3 was outstanding. I've played an extemely small amount of Fallout 3 and well that's it lol

 

Damn, never thought of Koptimus Prime before! lol pity I'm not interested in Transformers lol

 

I'm going to get a platinum in it even if it sucks ...... It's still KOTOR after all

 

Fallout 3 and New Vegas are really great games, like truly great games - I just can't justify telling people to play them on a console that they perform abysmally badly on. To the point where they're actually near enough unplayable sometimes. If people can play them on a PC then they absolutely should.

 

Well if you ever get into Transformers (it isn't my kinda thing either) then you've got a ready made username for you if you ever fancied a change with that one!

 

1 hour ago, The_Kopite said:

Got Wreckfest sat ready for PS5 from PS Plus a little while back, looking forward to that in the future. @YaManSmevz I'd recommend Horizon Chase Turbo even for someone who isn't really into racers. It's arcade fun with some depth. Had it for free through PS Plus too which was a nice bonus!

 

Wreckfest was a good time I thought... You should have fun with that. 

 

I'm currently in the process of writing a review for it, which hopefully I'll have out later, but yeah it should be even more visually appealing playing that on a PS5, because there is some staggeringly good attention to detail when it comes to bits and pieces of vehicles flying off, to an incredibly minutely satisfying degree.

[rjkclarke]

I Found This New Platinum Amongst The Wreckage of Wreckfest!

Platinum #345

Wreckfest (PS4)

 

 

Master of Crashes
Collect All Trophies.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 13 February 2022: 9:40:18 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  3 days, 8 hours, 16 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 14.60%

Trophy Number - #16,459

 

 

Every once in a while a video game can just sneak up and surprise you completely out of the blue, for me, Wreckfest is one of the most recent examples of that.

 

Wreckfest was brought to you by Bugbear Entertainment – the company that gave us the first few titles in the FlatOut series. Wreckfest is a game that lets you race in traditional Races, Banger Races, Challenge Events and Destruction Derby’s.  FlatOut was a series that I very much enjoyed back on the PS2, so to see its spirit being kept alive in the body of Wreckfest was a pleasant treat. Until doing a bit of research for this review, it had slipped my mind completely that they had made those games.

 

Is Wreckfest the best game I’ve ever played? Absolutely not, but for a game I went into, with practically no expectations and just a vague idea of what the game would be like, what I didn’t expect was for it to be quite what it was.

 

There’s an underlying sense of fun and light-heartedness that has been woven into the game that I personally really enjoyed. Not only can you drive cars, you can also drive motorised sofas, lawnmowers, school buses and probably the most curious inclusion a Supervan (Three Wheeler,) based on Reliant Robin/Regal’s. The latter was something I found particularly funny as my Dad owns one, so competing in the event where you have to outrun some Big Rig Trucks, driving a tiny three wheeled car that keeps tipping over made it all the more amusing for me.

 

Rightly – or wrongly, I suppose – depending on your specific perspective, one cursory glance towards Wreckfest would probably remind you of a more modern take on Demolition Derby. So by extension you’d expect it to be a little more of an arcade-racer than a simulation racer, which was certainly my idea of it before I’d even loaded the game up for the first time.

 

What I didn’t expect was the amount of depth that Wreckfest possesses as a racer – there are many, many gamers more qualified to talk about racing games than I am, so take this with a hefty grain of salt if you like. I didn’t go into Wreckfest thinking the racing would have all that much depth to it outside of wanton destruction, but depth there is – and far more than I ever expected there to be.

 

One of the best aspects of Wreckfest in my eyes – was the huge amount of customisation options that are available to you. I don’t just mean within the confines of changing a cars appearance, it goes far beyond that. You can customise events, cars too, obviously, and in my opinion, greatest of all the customisable options, the difficulty.

Here is where the depth of the game manifests itself – you can essentially tailor Wreckfest to almost play however you want it too, and I loved that. The difficulty options are incredibly broad and varied, offering quite a large amount of distinct differences, depending on which settings you use.

 

I ended up experimenting with quite few of the difficulty options like this. I must be clear when I say difficulty too – it isn’t one size fits all. For example you could change the damage, to realistic, but keep the opponent A.I difficulty at whatever level you personally feel comfortable with. Making the game as hard or easy, as you like.  

What this essentially means is that if you’re looking for a more arcade style experience, then you can turn the damage down as low as possible – tinker with the A.I settings until you’re comfortable, and just go hell for leather ramming opponents with almost no consequences, that is just as valid – and arguably just as fun as how I approached parts of it.

A lot of the time I played it, I set the damage to realistic, and again, found an A.I slider that I was comfortable with and raced like that. For me that turned the game into a really interesting – arcade/simulation racing hybrid, and I ended up having a lot of fun as a result of that.

 

I’m not here to tell you how to play your own games, far from it – which is exactly why I’m trying to shine a light on how much you can tailor this to your own personal preferences, and that really is a positive, I think.

 

On a visual level Wreckfest has no business looking as good as it does. Sure, Need for Speed titles might look a little more polished and shiny, but Wreckfest KNOWS, that it’s getting down and dirty, in pits of mud, with broken car chassis aplenty and sparks and debris flying through the air.

  

When I said the damage was realistic, the game means it – and, that is no lie. There were so many times during some of the longer races where I found myself nursing a car around a track full of wrecks with one less wheel than I should have had. For me this was one of the highpoints of Wreckfest, its driving mechanics and gameplay.

 

The controls are tight and responsive all of the time the car is intact, but the minute it isn’t, then you have a constant battle with your car to even drive in a straight line. I distinctly remember having a slightly damaged car, and thinking it was fine to take my hand away from the controller for a second or two and scratch my nose, the reality? I crashed into the wall, very hard, and very fast losing a wheel in the process, because my Car was a little too damaged to even drive in a straight line. If none of that appeals to you, don’t worry about it, turn the damage down as low as possible and you’ll almost never encounter that aspect of the game.

 

When I reviewed Dangrous Driving not too long ago, I was very critical of the fact that the wrecked cars stay on the track. That happens in Wreckfest too, but in this games case it’s a positive, as the racers don’t re-spawn.  Whereas it significantly hampered the experience in Dangerous Driving, as the racers would just re-spawn straight away.

Wreckfest’s modus operandi is very much in the vein of Chaos, carnage, and destruction. So, when you have a lot of car wrecks build up during a race, that makes the races that much more exhilarating, as you have to suddenly brake incredibly hard, to swerve around a car wreck that might not have been there before, on the previous lap. In that same regard, almost no race feels the same, as you can never quite predict what’s going to happen.  

 

From an audio perspective Wreckfest is really well realised too – it has a pretty minute attention to detail too, something I really liked. A real testament to the abilities of the foley artists here, as almost every vehicle sounds distinctly different on impact, as well as the engine sounds themselves, there was clearly a lot of work that went into this aspect of the game.

 

The licensed soundtrack in Wreckfest is also pretty decent too, it isn’t the best ever, but it’s varied at the very least. I’ll be honest though, after a while I basically turned the in-game soundtrack down and played my own playlists through Spotify.

I think that was the right decision in the end. How many people can say they’ve listened to Gimme Chocolate by Babymetal whilst riding a lawnmower, racing against twenty-three other lawnmowers, as you drive past them as they burst into flames as they crash into one another? That was definitely surreal, but incredibly memorable at least.  

 

The journey towards the platinum in Wreckfest is a fairly simple one.  You have to complete each of the championships in career mode, complete all of the challenges in career mode, too, reach player level 50. Then there are just a few miscellaneous trophies and then get twenty wins in the online multiplayer. Nothing in the career mode is difficulty specific so you’re free to play it at whatever difficulty levels you feel comfortable with, which I thought was a nice addition.

 

Would I recommend Wreckfest? Yes, this is actually a very easy one to recommend – maybe I’m just a little shocked by how much of a pleasant surprise this was, I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did, but this game really did surprise me with how much I enjoyed it.

It won’t be for everyone of course, but if any of the aspects of the game I covered seem appealing to any of you then, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out for yourselves. I think it has the potential to appeal to a fairly broad player base, in that regard.

 

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

 

What an absolutely pleasant surprise that game was! I love it when a game can completely surprise you like that.

 

Got to give a shout out to @mezuki94 too for helping me out with the one online trophy.... Thankfully that trophy didn't take us much longer than about half an hour.

 

After writing about My Brother Rabbit yesterday, I feel the need to scratch a little point-and-clicky itch, it's been too long since I've played something like that. So before I'm going to jump into Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders later and check that out.

 

Catch you all in the next one folks!

Edited February 15, 2022 by rjkclarke

[DrBloodmoney]

Dammit man!

 

This sounds good - and I had basically written off this game based on some notion of negativity... that I'm now starting to wonder if it was real, or just in some bad mood dream I had!

 

That difficulty customising sounds really interesting - the idea of adding difficulty sliders to different aspects is a pretty neat idea!

 

Also - and this is entirely by the by...

 

but I want to use this line for the title of my autobiography:

 

13 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

nursing a car around a track full of wrecks with one less wheel than I should have had

 

?

 

[kingofbattle8174]

My Brother Rabbit is my one and only Mundi completion. It looks very cute when you watch the trailer and I think I got it in a sale. I was not prepared for the feels though as I went through it. I think I did it very early on in the pandemic. and yah it sucks when you think about being helpless and watching someone you love go through something like that. I loved the color though of the game and how it played. For an EZ game at least it was a good experience. 

[YaManSmevz]

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

It was a choice of,push myself to spend a good chunk of yesterday afternoon writing a review.... Or hang out with my nephew who has just had Covid (he's fine thankfully, but it did hit him pretty hard). So he's had to isolate for a while, and he's been a bit lonely and stir crazy, so I thought I'd rather spend the afternoon watching a film and having a laugh with him.

 

Aww, that's nice?

 

Wait, not that he had Covid! Or that it hit him hard! The whole, y'know, spending time with the sick family thing. I'll bet that meant the world to him, good on you. Uncle Clarke in the house!!

 

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

Those are two incredibly good examples of that actually. I don't know if it's on every version of the Blu Ray for M, but the one I have has an English language dub where pretty much everyone is dubbed. Peter Lorre still did the English lines in that version, and that loses so much impact just by having the language be tweaked slightly - so much so that it really surprised me. If you watch that scene at the end where he's trying to justify his actions, they read very differently depending on the version of the film you watch it in.

 

Huh... I don't think I ever watched the English dub! I could imagine - not only is it a very intense scene with a lot of unfiltered emotion, but switching to a second language requires a bit of a pause - not just remembering words, but often idiomatic language and stuff like that can be vastly different and render it impossible to say precisely what you would've in the first language. I could be talking out of my ass because my Spanish isn't quite fluent, but the idea of expressing something as passionate as his plea at the end in the exact same way but in a second language sounds kinda tricky!

 

Now I want someone to post a video of that scene, and at the end Lionel Hutz walks up and says "That was a right pretty speech, sir..."

 

There was a made for TV remake of All Quiet in the 70s, and it was good, but oddly enough the original, even with its over the top theater-ass acting and threadbare production, was far more powerful. It really captured the devastation of the book, and Baumer's journey from joyful naivete to dread and hopelessness is done perfectly.

 

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

I absolutely love that film - there's a few bits that one of my friends and I still quote pretty regularly to this day, and it's such an innocuous part of the film. When the coach pulls them to one side and just goes "Hey, erm......nice one on the Dickbuttkisss"

 

???? DID YOU HEAR THAT COACH, HE'S CURSING!!

 

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

He and I are probably far too white to quote some of the other parts though without it seeming in poor taste, love that film though!

 

Better to pretend How High 2 didn't happen. Looks like that's how Method Man and Redman look at it. I never knew they had their own TV Show though - that's pretty interesting.

 

Hey, I'm a shade too light myself?

 

The show is definitely not without its charm! If you can find episodes on YouTube or somethin, I'm sure you'll at least have a few laughs. I believe it was just called Meth and Red show or something like that.

 

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

Just Bring It is really weird..... Everything about it just seemed a little..... I don't want to say rushed, but it just feels a bit lacking. The entrances were great though I agree - especially coming off those first 2 Smackdowns where you had the wrestler just walking across the wrestlers entrance video and music..... Just sort of takes you out of the moment a bit, so that step up in Just Brint It was awesome..... Then they just improved on that tenfold with Shut Your Mouth, which I think turns 20 this year, but still plays so well, back when I had my PS2 set up still I used to fire that one up fairly regularly.

 

I dunno, I certainly thought JBI felt rushed, like they just wanted the game on the new system out as soon as possible. To be clear, it blew my mind when it came out, but the replay value didn't stand up to Know Your Role, and I found myself playing that one again after a while. Shut Your Mouth was a game changer though, absolutely!

 

On 2/13/2022 at 4:56 AM, rjkclarke said:

At least they didn't give you a traditional choice...... Like, save him or her...... Because let's face it, if you had the choice of saving a hot pixelated Redhead..... Or..... saving a scientist that uses his pants as a toilet, cowering in a cupboard..... How many people are actually going to bother saving Otacon?

 

If I only got one playthrough, I certainly wouldn't have! Especially with how cheesy the ending with Otacon is...

 

"Huh... Hal and Dave... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

 

Seriously, what is that about??

 

On 2/13/2022 at 11:22 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

Platinum #287

My Brother Rabbit (PS4)

 

 

That sounds heavy. I really like when media takes a childlike approach to something obscenely serious, but it almost feels as though that would make it hit even harder. When you mentioned how the hospital equipment would force its way into the fantastical visuals by sheer force of harsh reality, just reading that alone stung a bit! Sounds like an excellent game though!

 

On 2/14/2022 at 0:05 PM, rjkclarke said:

 

Platinum #345

Wreckfest (PS4)

 

Two awesome reviews, good work dude?

 

Maybe I'll have to watch some video on this one... you make it sounds very fun!

 

On 2/14/2022 at 0:05 PM, rjkclarke said:

maybe I’m just a little shocked by how much of a pleasant surprise this was

 

Is it weird that in my head I heard you bursting into Paul McCartney "Maybe I'm Amazed" when I read that part?

 

.....I'll see myself out.

[rjkclarke]

On 14/02/2022 at 8:20 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Dammit man!

 

This sounds good - and I had basically written off this game based on some notion of negativity... that I'm now starting to wonder if it was real, or just in some bad mood dream I had!

 

That difficulty customising sounds really interesting - the idea of adding difficulty sliders to different aspects is a pretty neat idea!

 

Also - and this is entirely by the by...

 

but I want to use this line for the title of my autobiography:

 

 

 

 

That's awesome to hear man!

 

It isn't too surprising to hear you had a little bit of a notion of negativity around it... I sort of did, for a little bit as well. I can't place why either now that I think about it.

 

The customisable difficulty really brings a lot to the table I think, I really appreciated that I could essentially just have the game play however I wanted to within the confines of what you could, obviously.

 

If you picked up the PS5 version when it was a freebie, then it might be something worth considering at some point in the future if you get the urge to play a racer, like I do every now and then.

 

Oh and have at it if you want to use that for the title of your autobiography - that's pretty hilarious in that context.... I'd read it anyway!

 

Also...... I think we're about to see the first time I post a possibly negative review about a point-and-click adventure. It had to happen sooner or later right? I've got one more trophy left in Agatha Crhistie: The ABC Murders, and I can't exactly say that I loved it.

 

I really should have known better considering it's made by the same developers that brought us @Copanele's all time favourite game ? Garfield Kart...... What is their deal with mistreating fat characters? Like I literally got Poirot stuck in a table by accident when I last played it, and that's the bottom of the pile when it comes to some of that games issues.

 

On 15/02/2022 at 8:47 PM, kingofbattle8174 said:

My Brother Rabbit is my one and only Mundi completion. It looks very cute when you watch the trailer and I think I got it in a sale. I was not prepared for the feels though as I went through it. I think I did it very early on in the pandemic. and yah it sucks when you think about being helpless and watching someone you love go through something like that. I loved the color though of the game and how it played. For an EZ game at least it was a good experience. 

 

I totally get what you mean... It almost catches you off guard with its visuals.... Where you think you'll be getting something fairly cutesey and light-hearted. Then you play it for a bit, scratch beneath the surface a little and as you say, all those feels just kind of wash over you a bit.

 

That's a great point you bring up about the colour too - because I wish I'd mentioned that more in the review, but I kind of chose not to, because I thought I might have given away a lot of the appeal if I'd gone into too much detail.

 

I didn't even mention the giant robot Moose.... What the hell is wrong with me for not bringing that up?

 

It's pretty interesting that this was the first Mundi game you played. There are some pretty good ones out there, if you ever decide to dip your toes in a bit more with them.

 

45 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Aww, that's nice

 

Wait, not that he had Covid! Or that it hit him hard! The whole, y'know, spending time with the sick family thing. I'll bet that meant the world to him, good on you. Uncle Clarke in the house!!

 

I know what you meant haha!

 

It was a pretty fun day actually. We got to watch a couple of films he'd never seen before, and some I hadn't watched for the better part of two decades. Really funny little time, hearing someone react to some of those films for what would be the first time for them.

 

We watched, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask and Short Circuit (which is one of my personal favourites). He was pretty shocked when I told him that Fisher Stevens is actually white.... Which is another one of the things that really hasn't aged all too well in that film.

 

48 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Huh... I don't think I ever watched the English dub! I could imagine - not only is it a very intense scene with a lot of unfiltered emotion, but switching to a second language requires a bit of a pause - not just remembering words, but often idiomatic language and stuff like that can be vastly different and render it impossible to say precisely what you would've in the first language. I could be talking out of my ass because my Spanish isn't quite fluent, but the idea of expressing something as passionate as his plea at the end in the exact same way but in a second language sounds kinda tricky!

 

Now I want someone to post a video of that scene, and at the end Lionel Hutz walks up and says "That was a right pretty speech, sir..."

 

You are most certainly not talking out of your arse..... That scene is still good in the purely English version, but it really does lack something. It just feels less impassioned. It's almost as if Peter Lorre cashed in his emotional chips for the German language version, and then just was contractually obligated to redo it.

 

Perhaps I'm being cynical, but it really isn't as impactful, because that plea, is, in my opinion at least one of the greatest scenes in cinema history, so I hate to seeit losing its impact like that.

 

55 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

There was a made for TV remake of All Quiet in the 70s, and it was good, but oddly enough the original, even with its over the top theater-ass acting and threadbare production, was far more powerful. It really captured the devastation of the book, and Baumer's journey from joyful naivete to dread and hopelessness is done perfectly.

 

I agree man, well said!

 

It's a shame that the sequel, The Road Back isn't really too hot either..... If it was made now, there'd be a social media campaign to give us the James Whale cut..... I often wonder how good The Road Back could have been, had James Whale been allowed to make that film the way he wanted to, instead of basically getting replaced midway through, because he was an incredibly talented film-maker and some of the positives we both have about All Quiet, he almost certainly would have brought into the sequel, after all, he did dread,hopelessness and naivete very well in Bride of Frankenstein.

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

Hey, I'm a shade too light myself

 

The show is definitely not without its charm! If you can find episodes on YouTube or somethin, I'm sure you'll at least have a few laughs. I believe it was just called Meth and Red show or something like that.

 

I might have to give that a look later on, got me curious now.

 

I did look it up after you told me about it, but never bothered to search up any clips or anything - that's always fairly hit and miss when they're playing versions of themselves, the show always just seems like a vehicle for the performers, over having something more specific to keep it interesting.

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

I dunno, I certainly thought JBI felt rushed, like they just wanted the game on the new system out as soon as possible. To be clear, it blew my mind when it came out, but the replay value didn't stand up to Know Your Role, and I found myself playing that one again after a while. Shut Your Mouth was a game changer though, absolutely!

 

I had the unfortunate time of playing JBI long after I'd played some of the later ones, and that really didn't help things by the sound of it. Especially if you even thought it was rushed at the time. 

 

I'm totally with you on Know Your Role having so much more re-playability. Part of my issue with JBI is that it's career mode was about 20 minutes long. Whereas KYR for a late PS1 game had a whole lot going for it, and that career mode was long, but not in a bad way, and even after the one year, there was still little storylines that it put you in afterwards where you could fight those weird "Unknown" people and unlock the createable parts from all the ECW and WCW wrestlers. I loved that aspect to it, kept it really fresh, I thought.

 

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

If I only got one playthrough, I certainly wouldn't have! Especially with how cheesy the ending with Otacon is...

 

"Huh... Hal and Dave... HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

 

Seriously, what is that about??

 

This is probably a controversial opinion.... But, I really struggle to like Otacon..... I think he's a proper fanny.

 

If I was Snake, after hearing that, I would have just been like.....

 

Solid Snake: "You're infected with FOX DIE right? I don't have to talk to you the whole way home? Death, is going to embrace me, right, right?"

 

Otacon: "Sure, Dave..... We're so cool Dave, it can be like a buddy cop film, or something from one of my Manga comics, OH LOOK, SOMEONE PEED IN MY PANTS" 

 

 

He's also been the punchline of a running joke between one of my best friends and I for the better part of twenty years now with the whole, "Hal, just this once, please call me Emma"...... To which he just goes "OH E.EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

 

Then he goes and cries to a parrot.... Yep, he's weird, and so are we I guess, for still quoting that almost twenty years later.

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

That sounds heavy. I really like when media takes a childlike approach to something obscenely serious, but it almost feels as though that would make it hit even harder. When you mentioned how the hospital equipment would force its way into the fantastical visuals by sheer force of harsh reality, just reading that alone stung a bit! Sounds like an excellent game though!

 

Yep, My Brother Rabbit is heavy.... But it's worth it I think. I don't think all of it necessarily works as much as the developers want it to, but I appreciate the fact they put a whole lot of effort into it, especially when story is usually one of the least impactful things in an Artifex Mundi game,but I appreciate the attempt.

 

I wanted to post a few more screenshots of the hospital equipment making it's way into the world, but I thought half the appeal of the game is its visuals, and I don't want to take away the chance of people discovering them for themselves.  I loved the fact the hospital equipment was mostly always in the background too.  Like it was in the kids subconscious, as if he couldn't really escape from it completely, however much he tried, or wanted to.

 

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

Two awesome reviews, good work dude

 

Maybe I'll have to watch some video on this one... you make it sounds very fun!

1 hour ago, YaManSmevz said:

Is it weird that in my head I heard you bursting into Paul McCartney "Maybe I'm Amazed" when I read that part?

 

.....I'll see myself out.

 

Thanks man!

 

Wreckfest was really fun - and I never expected it to be, it's definitely something that's better experienced with a backdrop of Podcasts or music I'd say - but a huge part of my enjoyment was the fact you can essentially play it on your own terms.

 

That does really help I think. I'd say give it a look and see if it interests you, can't hurt to at least check some vids out and see if it really would be up your street.

 

If that's what's in your head haha ?.... Or, maybe The Long and Winding Road...... I guess that one fits my ass-backwards out of order trip through the Yakuza series more than Wreckfest I guess.

[Copanele]

36 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Also...... I think we're about to see the first time I post a possibly negative review about a point-and-click adventure. It had to happen sooner or later right? I've got one more trophy left in Agatha Crhistie: The ABC Murders, and I can't exactly say that I loved it.

 

I really should have known better considering it's made by the same developers that brought us @Copanele's all time favourite game Garfield Kart...... What is their deal with mistreating fat characters? Like I literally got Poirot stuck in a table by accident when I last played it, and that's the bottom of the pile when it comes to some of that games issues.

No friggin way. I wanted to play that game too, I have it bought, but somehow there was something at a gameplay that gave me the " you should probably skip this one" vibe.

... just to tell me that it's the devs behind that monstruous torture device called GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING!!!!!!!?????QUESTIONMARK?

 

I am so cancelling my plans to play that game ever, just out of spite for GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING! I can never look at lasagna the same after that fat cat-astrophe. Sad to hear they did Poirot dirty as well.

 

Thus being said, I can't wait for your review  

Edited February 17, 2022 by Copanele

[YaManSmevz]

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

We watched, Dumb and Dumber, The Mask and Short Circuit (which is one of my personal favourites). He was pretty shocked when I told him that Fisher Stevens is actually white.... Which is another one of the things that really hasn't aged all too well in that film.

 

Yeah.... yeah that was unfortunate. I wonder if there was anybody behind production who had a flicker of "maybe this isn't 100% cool," or if it was just one of those "Hey it's *insert era here*, we don't know any better!" type deals.

 

Quote

It's a shame that the sequel, The Road Back isn't really too hot either..... If it was made now, there'd be a social media campaign to give us the James Whale cut..... I often wonder how good The Road Back could have been, had James Whale been allowed to make that film the way he wanted to, instead of basically getting replaced midway through, because he was an incredibly talented film-maker and some of the positives we both have about All Quiet, he almost certainly would have brought into the sequel, after all, he did dread,hopelessness and naivete very well in Bride of Frankenstein.

 

I had heard meh things about The Road Back so never bothered... makes me sad to see that it wasn't entirely the wrong choice. Also I know Bride of Frankenstein is very much a classic of its genre, but I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did!

 

Quote

I had the unfortunate time of playing JBI long after I'd played some of the later ones, and that really didn't help things by the sound of it. Especially if you even thought it was rushed at the time. 

 

I'm totally with you on Know Your Role having so much more re-playability. Part of my issue with JBI is that it's career mode was about 20 minutes long. Whereas KYR for a late PS1 game had a whole lot going for it, and that career mode was long, but not in a bad way, and even after the one year, there was still little storylines that it put you in afterwards where you could fight those weird "Unknown" people and unlock the createable parts from all the ECW and WCW wrestlers. I loved that aspect to it, kept it really fresh, I thought.

 

That's a shame! JBI was definitely best played upon release. I remember playing that along with MGS2, and when you'd pick up dead/unconscious guards by their legs I'd think I was about to put them in the Walls of Jericho?

 

The graphical leap was stunning, as were the entrances and the ability to walk around backstage. Everything felt so new... and wore off mad quick when you realized it was essentially all bells and whistles.

 

KYR... aw man. I loved the ratings on your created PPVs especially, and as you mentioned the season mode was a lot of fun. I LOVED the unknown wrestlers! That storyline would always pop up at just the right time, when things were starting to feel stale. Playing with a CAW was fun too, since you'd randomly pop up as one of the characters on the titantron or pointing at the ring with a mic. Good times!

 

Quote

This is probably a controversial opinion.... But, I really struggle to like Otacon..... I think he's a proper fanny.

 

If I was Snake, after hearing that, I would have just been like.....

 

Solid Snake: "You're infected with FOX DIE right? I don't have to talk to you the whole way home? Death, is going to embrace me, right, right?"

 

Otacon: "Sure, Dave..... We're so cool Dave, it can be like a buddy cop film, or something from one of my Manga comics, OH LOOK, SOMEONE PEED IN MY PANTS" 

 

 

He's also been the punchline of a running joke between one of my best friends and I for the better part of twenty years now with the whole, "Hal, just this once, please call me Emma"...... To which he just goes "OH E.EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

 

Then he goes and cries to a parrot.... Yep, he's weird, and so are we I guess, for still quoting that almost twenty years later.

 

Yeah he was a little weirdo! And not in the charming, idiosyncratic way... just weird. And we're expected to believe an older woman would be trying to get with his pasty ass?? Suuuure.

 

Poor Emma. Her brother couldn't even call her by her actual name!

 

I don't especially dislike him or anything, but if somebody cited him as their favorite I'd be like "....really?"

 

Quote

 

Thanks man!

 

Wreckfest was really fun - and I never expected it to be, it's definitely something that's better experienced with a backdrop of Podcasts or music I'd say - but a huge part of my enjoyment was the fact you can essentially play it on your own terms.

 

That does really help I think. I'd say give it a look and see if it interests you, can't hurt to at least check some vids out and see if it really would be up your street.

 

If that's what's in your head haha .... Or, maybe The Long and Winding Road...... I guess that one fits my ass-backwards out of order trip through the Yakuza series more than Wreckfest I guess.

 

The looong aaand wiindiiing Yakuzaaaaaa....

 

Hmm.. I'll have to work on that one.

 

Welp. I'll be looking into it then. You have a pretty sizeable lead when it comes to recs, man! They would make it three or four if I'm not mistaken!

[Destructor-8]

On 04/01/2022 at 11:24 PM, rjkclarke said:

Thanks so much dude! It might have taken a while but I felt like I had to say all of that - and I meant every word too. Yep we're in total agreement on how much starting to use the site a lot more regularly has been great for the both of us. We can never have too many nice people around, so it's always nice to interact with so many on the regular, that's for sure!

 

I appreciate that - if I could have helped in any small way then I'm glad to hear it..... I really am.  To be fair we probably don't actually chat enough - and that's probably more on me. I'm notoriously bad at managing time so I usually leave it - what I feel like is too long between replies and then I feel really awkward about it. It's the same with plenty of my friends in the non digital world too. That's totally a me thing though, and something I ought to work on in the future.

 

Likewise, it is always nice having a good old chat with you, especially one of the more recent ones when you thankfully dropped some knowledge on me on Motrocross games and the fact I was thinking of starting one that was different to what I thought it was. That's one of the many many. upsides to having a racing game expert who's also a thoroughly awesome chap to run things by, and make sure you don't make silly mistakes. ..... I'm planning to play NFS: Hot Pursuit Remastered soon, so I wouldn't be surprised if I message you like "TIME TRIALS SO HARD? HOW YOU DO!" - we'll see though,  time trials are some of my favourite things in racers so I'll probably quite enjoy those. 

 

I have taken way too long to respond to this but I didn't get around to it at the time. That's cool, I think the same thing as you when it comes to how it is around here. I always look forward to reading how people find something although it's just nice to see the kind of activity that is here. I know we haven't had much of a chat as much as we should & it's something I need to improve on. I sometimes just take awhile to get around to this or that but I eventually make sure I do, as is the case with what I'm doing now lol. Yeah I'm the same as you there. I sometimes respond to a message quickly then other times I will respond to another message longer than usual. I will definitely try to catch up a bit more with you.

 

Oh yeah anytime I play a game then I will try to recommend something based on what one might experience with it so I will try to stay positive about a game but still mention whether it will be worth it or not lol. I think you will definitely like that game as you've played a few similar recently it seems so nice going on that! It's a great game so I hope you enjoy it!

 

On 14/02/2022 at 8:05 PM, rjkclarke said:

Platinum #345

Wreckfest (PS4)

 

Would I recommend Wreckfest? Yes, this is actually a very easy one to recommend – maybe I’m just a little shocked by how much of a pleasant surprise this was, I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did, but this game really did surprise me with how much I enjoyed it.

It won’t be for everyone of course, but if any of the aspects of the game I covered seem appealing to any of you then, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out for yourselves. I think it has the potential to appeal to a fairly broad player base, in that regard.

 

I saw you mentioned this recently & I'm glad you did this game as it would have been one that I would have recommended for you. It was a surprisingly good game & it was interesting to try out since there aren't many other games out there quite like it. That was a great review also!

 

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

No friggin way. I wanted to play that game too, I have it bought, but somehow there was something at a gameplay that gave me the " you should probably skip this one" vibe.

... just to tell me that it's the devs behind that monstruous torture device called GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING!!!!!!!?????QUESTIONMARK?

 

I am so cancelling my plans to play that game ever, just out of spite for GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING! I can never look at lasagna the same after that fat cat-astrophe. Sad to hear they did Poirot dirty as well.

 

I still have yet to do this game so I will have to see what it's like lol.

[The_Kopite]

On 2/14/2022 at 4:48 PM, rjkclarke said:

Hell yeah it is! It's sat on my shelf about 10 feet away from me right now. I've still got a couple of PS2 games out there.... Although most of them have gone to live in the loft now, because, y'know space and what not.

I hear ya! 

 

On 2/14/2022 at 4:48 PM, rjkclarke said:

Well I guess the fact I didn't should be a pretty good indicator that I just don't get on too well with MMO's...... I'm glad a lot of people like them, they just really aren't my jam. Warframe is the closest I've come, and that isn't really one either.

 

I'm genuinely a little worried about how many hours I have put into that, it's a whole lot I know that much, and if DE actually dropped content more regularly and didn't seem to be progressively running out of fresh ideas each new update, I'd probably still dip in and out on the regular, as I've got quite a lot of friends that still play it.

Yeah I tried Warframe right at the start of having a PS4 I think....might even have a trophy for it randomly lol can't quite remember but certainly I've heard it's popular and clearly it's been going strong as seems to have been around for years now. Must be so many new DLC trophies lol

 

On 2/14/2022 at 4:48 PM, rjkclarke said:

I'm going to get a platinum in it even if it sucks ...... It's still KOTOR after all

 

Fallout 3 and New Vegas are really great games, like truly great games - I just can't justify telling people to play them on a console that they perform abysmally badly on. To the point where they're actually near enough unplayable sometimes. If people can play them on a PC then they absolutely should.

 

Well if you ever get into Transformers (it isn't my kinda thing either) then you've got a ready made username for you if you ever fancied a change with that one!

Haha yes I can agree with you on that one!

 

Again heard great things about 3 and NV but tbh I just couldn't get into 3, found it boring and surprisingly didn't like the combat much really.

 

Yes thanks for the username suggestion haha happy with what I've got to be fair.

 

On 2/14/2022 at 4:48 PM, rjkclarke said:

Wreckfest was a good time I thought... You should have fun with that. 

 

I'm currently in the process of writing a review for it, which hopefully I'll have out later, but yeah it should be even more visually appealing playing that on a PS5, because there is some staggeringly good attention to detail when it comes to bits and pieces of vehicles flying off, to an incredibly minutely satisfying degree.

Yes I'm looking forward to Wreckfest, good ps plus game to have in the bank to look forward to!

 

Nice, well I'll definitely have to try and pay attention to that! Really enjoyed Destruction Derby back in the day!

[rjkclarke]

On 17/02/2022 at 6:37 PM, Copanele said:

No friggin way. I wanted to play that game too, I have it bought, but somehow there was something at a gameplay that gave me the " you should probably skip this one" vibe.

... just to tell me that it's the devs behind that monstruous torture device called GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING!!!!!!!?????QUESTIONMARK?

 

I am so cancelling my plans to play that game ever, just out of spite for GARFIELD FURIOUS KART RACING! I can never look at lasagna the same after that fat cat-astrophe. Sad to hear they did Poirot dirty as well.

 

Thus being said, I can't wait for your review  

 

Haha - I guess I ought to drag my sorry arse up off the ground - find some motivation, and actually complete ABC Murders so I can review it, then if I've got time I'm gonna try and write that well overdue Jedi Outcast review, I've been busier than I expected to this week, so I've not really had a chance yet. 

 

I definitely don't hate it, but ABC Murders has got some really finicky and buggy trophies, which mean that I'm going to have to do a whole extra playthrough, just because Poirot didn't make a comment about me turning a clock to 12, and it's a little buggy as to whether or not he'll bother to mention it...... Yeah, THAT finicky.

 

It sounds like its better than Garfield Kart at least ?....... Not gonna lie though, I would have liked to have seen that fatty Poirot stuck in the table I got him stuck inside of with four lovely wheels on it getting dragged around a racetrack ?, as an unlockable extra for Garfield Kart

 

On 17/02/2022 at 9:29 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah.... yeah that was unfortunate. I wonder if there was anybody behind production who had a flicker of "maybe this isn't 100% cool," or if it was just one of those "Hey it's *insert era here*, we don't know any better!" type deals.

 

I actually did a little digging the other night - because my favourite type of procrastination is actually just reading about film.... From what I've read, and this may or may not be true he started out as a white character, Fisher Stevens got fired, then the other guy left, they re-hired Fisher Stevens again and just neglected to make the character white again. But the other guy wasn't of Indian descent either, so......

 

Fisher Stevens has said that he kind of regrets doing it though, and that it haunts him a bit, so I guess now, he knows, but I don't know if he thought it was a bit off at the time.

 

I also read that Steve Guttenberg's character was written as basically having Asperger's, but that kind of got lost in the film that did get made, from what I'd read it was a big part of the film that Newton couldn't quite relate to humans so put all of his energy into building the robots. That kind of makes sense with how some of the film plays out where Newton just can't quite accept Johnny 5 might be sentient. 

 

Ahhh well.... I still love that film, and its sequel.

 

On 17/02/2022 at 9:29 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I had heard meh things about The Road Back so never bothered... makes me sad to see that it wasn't entirely the wrong choice. Also I know Bride of Frankenstein is very much a classic of its genre, but I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did!

 

I don't think I'd probably rush to recommend you go our of your way to watch The Road Back..... Far better uses of your time... We could stand around in tribal gear for another two hours shooting each other in the face with a machine gun again and that might be a better use of time

 

I never really get tired of watching Bride of Frankenstein, it has aged remarkably, but then all the greats do I suppose. It's another one of those genre defying things, where you can enjoy it even if you're not really a big fan of the genre I feel. 

 

On 17/02/2022 at 9:29 PM, YaManSmevz said:

 

That's a shame! JBI was definitely best played upon release. I remember playing that along with MGS2, and when you'd pick up dead/unconscious guards by their legs I'd think I was about to put them in the Walls of Jericho

 

The graphical leap was stunning, as were the entrances and the ability to walk around backstage. Everything felt so new... and wore off mad quick when you realized it was essentially all bells and whistles.

 

KYR... aw man. I loved the ratings on your created PPVs especially, and as you mentioned the season mode was a lot of fun. I LOVED the unknown wrestlers! That storyline would always pop up at just the right time, when things were starting to feel stale. Playing with a CAW was fun too, since you'd randomly pop up as one of the characters on the titantron or pointing at the ring with a mic. Good times!

 

I'd never thought about how much Snake/Raiden picking them up by their legs looked like him putting them in the Walls, but it totally does now that you've said it.... That is another little mind = blown moment haha

 

I went from KYR to SYM, so that felt like a huge leap from what had come before, totallyafree that the graphical leap seemed fairly astronomical even in JBI. I also struggled with the fact it came out in that weird transitional period where there was loads of WCW and ECW wrestlers in the company,but barely any of them were in the game, so it kind of felt immediately obsolete.

 

My only real criticism for KYR's season mode was not being able to skip that little back and forth battle of the health bars thing, when you were skipping matches. I remember thinking it was really cool when I first got the game, then the more I played it, the more it became a nuisance.

 

On 17/02/2022 at 9:29 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah he was a little weirdo! And not in the charming, idiosyncratic way... just weird. And we're expected to believe an older woman would be trying to get with his pasty ass?? Suuuure.

 

Poor Emma. Her brother couldn't even call her by her actual name!

 

I don't especially dislike him or anything, but if somebody cited him as their favorite I'd be like "....really?"

 

Hal's Dad was just as much of a weirdo, if not more of a weirdo, and he did alright in the lady department too..... and I hate that, because I like Hal's Dad even less as a character.

 

Part of that, is some of the stuff you find out about him in MGSV, but mostly he's just a more nefarious version of Otacon, played by the same voice actor.....and I'll be honest I refuse to call him anything other than NOTACON, and that is about all he deserves!

 

On 17/02/2022 at 10:23 PM, Destructor-8 said:

I have taken way too long to respond to this but I didn't get around to it at the time. That's cool, I think the same thing as you when it comes to how it is around here. I always look forward to reading how people find something although it's just nice to see the kind of activity that is here. I know we haven't had much of a chat as much as we should & it's something I need to improve on. I sometimes just take awhile to get around to this or that but I eventually make sure I do, as is the case with what I'm doing now lol. Yeah I'm the same as you there. I sometimes respond to a message quickly then other times I will respond to another message longer than usual. I will definitely try to catch up a bit more with you.

 

Oh yeah anytime I play a game then I will try to recommend something based on what one might experience with it so I will try to stay positive about a game but still mention whether it will be worth it or not lol. I think you will definitely like that game as you've played a few similar recently it seems so nice going on that! It's a great game so I hope you enjoy it!

 

Don't sweat it man! I appreciate the response, I really do, however long it took, after all you didn't have to reply at all.

 

I know exactly what you mean - it's one of those things where you kind of mean to respond at the time, and then just kind of let it slip your mind for a little bit, it happens to almost all of us I expect.

 

I'm always up for some expert advice when it comes to racers though, I'd hate to play the racing equivalent of that Voldemort game I played last year who's name I dare not speak, just in case a sequel gets announced....and  so I'm pretty sure you'd steer me in the right direction (pun may or may not be intended, you decide ).

 

Once I've run out of good racers, I might have to pick your brains again though, as I know you've played some of the very obscure ones that seem to come up on sale on the store quite often, that I could never quite decide whether I'll hit that big old purchase button! I look forward to it.

 

On 17/02/2022 at 10:23 PM, Destructor-8 said:

I saw you mentioned this recently & I'm glad you did this game as it would have been one that I would have recommended for you. It was a surprisingly good game & it was interesting to try out since there aren't many other games out there quite like it. That was a great review also!

 

Thanks man!

 

You know - that's actually a very good point, and because I'm not quite the racing game extraordinaire - I totally neglected to mention that, there aren't too many games out there like this.

 

Surprisingly good is almost the perfect description, because I just didn't expect it to be that good going into it either.

 

On 18/02/2022 at 2:04 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I tried Warframe right at the start of having a PS4 I think....might even have a trophy for it randomly lol can't quite remember but certainly I've heard it's popular and clearly it's been going strong as seems to have been around for years now. Must be so many new DLC trophies lol

 

Wouldn't surprise me if you had, it's one of those games you see for free and think "I'll try that" then you have to dig yourself out of the rabbit hole the game has sent you down ?

 

It was very good for quite a long period of time - and then even its most loyal fanbase started to turn on it a little bit - because the developers were constantly promising content that just never quite materialised. I'm pretty sure one of the story updates that dropped last year The New War was actually announced somewhere back in 2016 or 2017 maybe, back when I was still a pretty active player.

 

I reckon it's got at least 15 DLC packs, probably more to be honest. I think I could get my 100% back on it fairly quickly, but once I do, I think I might officially retire from the game, but who knows. ?

 

On 18/02/2022 at 2:04 PM, The_Kopite said:

Haha yes I can agree with you on that one!

 

Again heard great things about 3 and NV but tbh I just couldn't get into 3, found it boring and surprisingly didn't like the combat much really.

 

Yes thanks for the username suggestion haha happy with what I've got to be fair.

 

Like Pizza - even bad KOTOR is good KOTOR..... Hell, look at KOTOR 2, I could defend that game for ages, despite it not being as good.

 

Nah I get that struggle with Fallout 3, it does have pretty arse combat, it's one of those games that I find pretty interminable combat-wise unless I play Melee only, or I use VATS a lot.... For all that I'm not the biggest fan of Fallout 4 - I really do appreciate how much they improved the combat, so, if and I guess it's a big if, you wanted to give Fallout another crack, then Fallout 4 might be the way to go.

 

It's a better username than mine is, to be fair!  That's basically just my name ?

 

On 18/02/2022 at 2:04 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yes I'm looking forward to Wreckfest, good ps plus game to have in the bank to look forward to!

 

Nice, well I'll definitely have to try and pay attention to that! Really enjoyed Destruction Derby back in the day!

 

I think if you liked Destruction Derby back in the day then you're almost guaranteed to like Wreckfest, it definitely feels like a modern take on Demolition Derby, so you ought to have fun with that, when you can get it nice and fired up on a PS5.

[rjkclarke]

After A Little Investigation, I Found A New 100% Completion

 

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders (PS4)

 

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

100% Achieved - 20 February 2022: 4:40:29 PM

Time taken to 100%: - 5 days, 4 hours, 9 minutes

100% Rarity - 14.01%

 

 

 

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders is a point-and-click adventure mystery title in which you play as Hercule Poirot, on a quest to solve – you guessed it, The ABC Murders. The game is brought to you by creative genius developers Artefacts Studio, the developers of the universally critically acclaimed Garfield Kart: Furious Racing. Okay, okay, stop sharpening your blades, put your pitchforks down, and put out your torches – sarcasm mode disengaged. No need to chase me towards a burning windmill on a hilltop.  

 

This review is going to read a little awkwardly – this is a game that I very much wanted to – no, expected, to have a good time with, the problem is I just didn’t. It isn’t even a bad game, it’s mechanically quite sound, yet there’s just something so fundamentally lacking about it, on quite a few levels, that are impossible to ignore. There are some aspects of it that I thought were excellent – and then I’d run into about five other things that really tarnish the experience in a bad way, so if this ends up reading a little conflicted, I’m not surprised.

 

I have been a lover of point-and-click adventure titles for a long while now – honestly, probably getting on for a quarter of a century (way to make myself feel old, right?) once you’ve played a lot of them you tend to find some of the things you like, and don’t like the most out of them – and in some cases expect from them. ABC Murders is admittedly a little all over the place in this department also.  

 

I must point this out – I’m not all that well versed in the Agatha Christie canon and I haven’t ever seen or read any version of The ABC Murders prior to playing this – I was always more of a fan of Sherlock Holmes whenever I did choose to take a brief sojourn into murder mystery novels.

I have watched quite a lot of television adaptations of her work. I’ve seen a fair bit of Poirot, and I’m very fond of Margaret Rutherford’s version of Miss Marple. (She was a terrific actress, and if you ever have an hour and a half free, give the film Blithe Spirit a watch, it might be seventy-seven years old this year, but she steals practically every scene as Madame Arcati, an eccentric medium.)

 

When it comes to that lack of familiarity with the source material, and this game – I think that’s actually a benefit, if you already know going into this, who exactly the killer is, and how the story plays out, I think you’d have a much less enjoyable time of things, as you’d get even more bogged down with how static the gameplay is, as you don’t even have the mystery being unravelled to keep you entertained.

 

Herein lies part of the problem – this game is pretty rigid. A point-and-click game doesn’t need quirky humour or obtuse puzzles to be good, let us make that very clear, but it should at the very least be interesting, and ABC Murders just isn’t all that interesting.

 

The story is good, yes, but the way you go about progression in the game is just a little too basic. ABC Murders borrows elements from a few games for its gameplay loop – yet each version is a watered down simplified version of said element. There are observations and clue finding, the sort of thing common in Frogwares Sherlock Holmes titles, and also like the previously mentioned Sherlock Holmes games, a lite equivalent of the deductive reasoning, where you put ideas into a spider diagram and form conclusions for more clues. There is also some very lite-hidden-object finding, that you might find in an Artifex Mundi title too.

 

Very rarely will you find me complaining about puzzle difficulty, but these are just too easy, and that’s without the use of a guide. They make Artifex Mundi games look like a Mensa exam. Perhaps I’m asking too much, but even contextually, some harder puzzles really would have tested Poirot’s intellect a little better than is seen here.

 

This is also – it must be said, a poorly optimised game. The PC version might have released at the same time, but it’s very clear that the game was intended to be played on a PC and this console version was more of an afterthought. When you do the – you know, fundamental part of one of these games, the pointing and the clicking, you expect it to be fairly fluid, and responsive, that is unfortunately not the case here.

 

It isn’t all bad though – there are some things I genuinely liked about this game – but as I mentioned previously, they come with a little bit of a caveat. So let’s delve into those a little.

 

ABC Murders has a pretty decent soundtrack – it feels both era appropriate, and complements some of the more plot focused scenes rather well. Dialogue is never overshadowed, and the ambient music is never intrusive. In that same regard the sound design, is also quite well implemented. You get some nice little audio stings to tell you that you’ve successfully solved a puzzle or have access to another breakthrough.

 

What isn’t so good is the voice acting – or at least the female voice acting. As is often the case with lower budget titles, voice actors tend to get re-used. In ABC’s case, almost every female character is voiced by the same actress. This is going to sound so brutal, but she’s got very little range to her voice, and that’s being kind.  Some of that might be down to how she was directed, but half the time it sounds exactly like she’s just reading off of a page, with almost no commitment to any character – almost every female character feels the same as a result, and it’s honestly a little distracting when this game features quite a large cast of female characters.

 

Without flip-flopping too much, however, the actor that plays Poirot, is nothing short of excellent. Poirot here is very much moulded on the David Suchet version of Poirot, even down to his appearance, but I think Robert Hackwill gives a really strong performance, and almost carries a lot of the game on his back. Poirot is – I would imagine at least, not an easy character to voice, or at least voice well. There are some very small and specific intricacies to how he speaks, as a result of the character being Belgian, and English not being his native language. Almost all of those subtleties are given due care and attention and it was an element of the game that I couldn’t help but be very impressed by, his version of Poirot has a real charm to him.

 

On a visual level ABC Murders I think will either appeal to you, or it won’t. ABC Murders takes on a cel-shaded art-style. I’m still not quite sure exactly where I sit with this exactly. I both like and dislike things about it, in almost equal measure; it’d be easier to show you some screenshots for an easier reference point.

 

The scenery for example – I think looks excellent as a result of the cel-shading, it really brings a lot of character and personality to each of the games distinct locations.

 

I think what works less, is the character models themselves. I think they look a little too unreal and overly stylised personally.

 

 

This is – I think, one of the elements of the game that might be fairly divisive. Given the nature of the game – and the fact it takes itself very seriously, containing little to no humour.  

Having a design aesthetic that is reminiscent of Broken Sword was probably not the best idea; it gives you an almost false impression of the games tone, had they gone with something a little more close to reality, it might have suited the game tonally a little better.

 

The trophy side of ABC Murders is fairly straightforward, if not a little finicky. You can either play the game two times, or make strategic backup saves to get slightly differing outcomes in a few places. I should say that there are a few things that are very missable. You can use a guide – or you can do a second for cleanup, the game is fairly short, I played my initial playthrough over a whole afternoon. 

I had to do a partial extra playthrough because of one finicky element to a puzzle, however, that didn’t give me an audio cue to tell me I’d solved it. So when I got to the third increment of a three stage trophy, I was disappointed to find I’d missed it completely. So make sure if you ever play this that you get the audio cue on the clock for the Cesium-133 crystal trophy. Oh, and don’t get Poirot’s tubby self stuck in a table like I did, because you tried to interact with an object too far away from you.

 

Would I recommend the ABC Murders? Probably not to be perfectly honest, there are far better investigative mystery games you could play instead. Unless of course you’re a diehard Agatha Christie fan and are interested in seeing how her fiction plays as a video game, then this might be worth a look, otherwise I’d suggest finding one of the many better point-and-click adventure titles that are available. This is one of those exasperating games where you can see the potential, and when it isn’t realised it just makes it all the more frustrating as a result.

 

 

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

As is often the case - they can't all be winners. This is absolutely not a bad game - neither is it a good game, with games like that I find them more frustrating than anything.

 

That being said - playing Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders has given me a good idea for a classic review that I've not done yet, in The Raven. Which is a game that doesn't get a lot of love, but I think it pays homage to Agatha Christie as an author a little better, and is a pretty fitting pastiche to her story-telling style. So I might have to give that a review soon.

 

Not before I venture to a galaxy far,far,away though..... When I finally get around to reviewing Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (sorry it's taken a while, busy week). That's a mouthful so for the review let's just go with Jedi Outcast.

Edited February 20, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders is a point-and-click adventure mystery title in which you play as Hercule Poirot, on a quest to solve – you guessed it, The ABC Murders. The game is brought to you by creative genius developers Artefacts Studio, the developers of the universally critically acclaimed Garfield Kart: Furious Racing.

 

Too late, the crowd is on its way  

Nah jokes aside, I now am glad for not starting this game, I would have definitely given it a way worse treatment probably ?. I too like point&click games and I don't really like when this particular genre messes up.

 

But well, looking forward to Kyle Katarn's glorious adventure review :>

[DrBloodmoney]

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders (PS4)

 

 

That's a pity about this one - I kinda knew this game existed, but not much else about it, ands had kind of filed it away in my "Rainy day possibilities" pile... not quite in the backlog or wishlist, but orbiting it distantly!

 

I must admit - those screenshots are interesting - I didn't realise this was cell-shaded, I had pretty much imagined it to be visually adjacent to the frog ware Sherlock games - and the cell-shading looks good at least in those shots...

...but that's pretty unfortunate that an Agatha Christie game fails to have good puzzles, or much in the way of a distinct personality. That character has had a lot of strong portrayals elsewhere, so not managing to put your own stamp on it in the game means you're guaranteed to never step out of those big shadows.

 

Appreciate the write up though - I think this lived alongside The Raven in my backlog head-canon, but now it's slipping down, and The Raven seems to move up a notch by default! 

Edited February 21, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[rjkclarke]

13 hours ago, Copanele said:

 

Too late, the crowd is on its way  

Nah jokes aside, I now am glad for not starting this game, I would have definitely given it a way worse treatment probably . I too like point&click games and I don't really like when this particular genre messes up.

 

But well, looking forward to Kyle Katarn's glorious adventure review :>

 

Haha! I guess I deserved that one!

 

Shouldn't have brought up that unholy FATCAT SIMULATOR.

 

I kind of feel rough for you that you'd already bought the game though - don't rule out ever playing it, you could probably knock it out in an afternoon if you wanted to feel like you'd got your monies worth. I'm sure like the rest of us though you've probably got a backlog the size of the earth, full of better games you'd rather be playing though ?

 

Okay, so I have a little question for you.....

 

A request, about a request, I guess. Right, so going forward I'm planning to knock out at least one request a week going forward, as I'm seriously slacking on some of those (mainly due to writing about Yakuza for a lot of last month taking a lot of time). 

 

What I wanted to know, is do you mind me putting off Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage for a while? It'd only be about a month and a bit,I only say that because I happened to glance at it the other day, because I was thinking about writing it, and then I noticed that game is coming up on the tenth anniversary of me getting the platinum in it. it's also my tenth platinum. So y'know, I figured Tenth Anniveresary, Tenth Platinum, blah,blah,blah... those sort of go together nicely.

 

If you want me to get to it quicker though I can just not bother.

 

I'm actually going to go and write that Jedi Outast one after posting this reply - I've got a chilled out week this week, fingers crossed it remains that way, so I'm hoping to get a bit more productive and get a lot of things done.

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

That's a pity about this one - I kinda knew this game existed, but not much else about it, ands had kind of filed it away in my "Rainy day possibilities" pile... not quite in the backlog or wishlist, but orbiting it distantly!

 

Seems like we're in a similar boat on that one - I knew of it, but knew very little about it. I really don't know what possessed me to finally jump into this one and give it a spin.

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I must admit - those screenshots are interesting - I didn't realise this was cell-shaded, I had pretty much imagined it to be visually adjacent to the frog ware Sherlock games - and the cell-shading looks good at least in those shots...

...but that's pretty unfortunate that an Agatha Christie game fails to have good puzzles, or much in the way of a distinct personality. That character has had a lot of strong portrayals elsewhere, so not managing to put your own stamp on it in the game means you're guaranteed to never step out of those big shadows.

 

I didn't realise it was cell-shaded either, and I'm usually a sucker for the cell-shaded aesthetic, but here, I just don't know - something about it just didn't quite work for me. I think it does wonders for the scenery and all of the locations, but the characters, just look a bit too unreal for my tastes, really shiny too, for some reason.

 

I don't know man - one of those situations where the games tone didn't really match up with it's general aesthetic. I'd also imagined it would look fairly similar to the Frogware Sherlock Holmes. I think, rightly or wrongly - that was more wishful thinking on both of our parts. Although I do think that look might have benefited ABC Murders more than harmed it.

 

And that indecisiveness that I basically just showed above, is why I'm not too fond of that review. I read it back earlier and I feel like I gave the game far more time than it probably deserved, yet at the same time I can't be all that negative about it, because it really isn't that bad. It just isn't good either.

 

I think the puzzles are probably one of my biggest problems with it, and I didn't dwell on it in the review at the risk of sounding like a fanny and worrying  it'd read like "these puzzles were too easy for my supreme intellect." It'd probably wouldn't have read like that, but I just left that bit brief, just in case. They're too easy in general.

 

Considering how bright Poirot is supposed to be, he probably could have solved those with his eyelids glued together, cotton wool in his ears and whilst on a particularly trippy Mescaline high.

 

There is another Poirot game, which came out last year - so it'd be interesting to see if that one does a better job of stepping out of the shadows a little bit more and standing on its own, but I think I'll have to look into that one a bit more before jumping right in.

 

Put it this way, I wasn't dissuaded enough by ABC Murders that I wouldn't play the other one at some point, as it had some real potential there, it just didn't really achieve any of it.

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Appreciate the write up though - I think this lived alongside The Raven in my backlog head-canon, but now it's slipping down, and The Raven seems to move up a notch by default! 

 

Cheers man!

 

I'd put The Raven far and above this.... Granted I played that game when I was in a particularly bad place mentally, I played it right before Broken Sword 5, so it was another one of those friendly hugs in video game form, but The Raven has got  so much more about it than ABC Murders does, but I guess I'll get into it more when I get to reviewing it soon.

 

I think you'd definitely appreciate some of the homages and allusions that it has going on - they aren't really lazy either, they're very much a love-letter to that kind of fiction more than a shameless rip off, and it's fairly cleverly baked into the plot too.

[Copanele]

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

What I wanted to know, is do you mind me putting off Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage for a while? It'd only be about a month and a bit,I only say that because I happened to glance at it the other day, because I was thinking about writing it, and then I noticed that game is coming up on the tenth anniversary of me getting the platinum in it. it's also my tenth platinum. So y'know, I figured Tenth Anniveresary, Tenth Platinum, blah,blah,blah... those sort of go together nicely.

I legit have to search my original post to even remember WHAT I requested  You can review that one whenever you desire, you're the master!

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Haha! I guess I deserved that one!

 

Shouldn't have brought up that unholy FATCAT SIMULATOR.

 

I kind of feel rough for you that you'd already bought the game though - don't rule out ever playing it, you could probably knock it out in an afternoon if you wanted to feel like you'd got your monies worth. I'm sure like the rest of us though you've probably got a backlog the size of the earth, full of better games you'd rather be playing though

 

 

 

Yeah I cannot even explain how many games I have to play. The backlog is the size of the planetary system. Really, I have friends who say they have nothing else to play, while I am here going crazy because I don't have enough years in a lifetime to finish all that I have planned ?

But yeah, whenever I feel like trying something COMPLETELY RANDOM or I just stumble across this game by pure chance, I will give ABC Murders a go.