Popular Post rjkclarke Posted February 21, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 21, 2022 (edited) Classic Review Platinum #296 Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (PS4) May the Force Be With You, Kyle Unlocked all Trophies A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 11 January 2021: 5:04:13 PM Time Taken to Platinum : 2 days, 20 hours, 28 seconds Platinum Rarity - 12.33% Trophy Number - #14,628 Time to hop in the time machine and revisit Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Which from now on, for ease, I’ll just refer to as Jedi Outcast. Originally released in 2002 and the third Entry in the Jedi Knight series, even though the series started life as Star Wars: Dark Forces. Jedi Outcast was developed by either Raven Software or Vicarious Visions depending on the platform, you played on – but in this case, the PS4 version was developed by Aspyr. You take the role of Kyle Katarn former Jedi Knight and smuggler as he embarks upon a quest to avenge a fallen friend, fighting alongside a fair few familiar faces from the Star Wars universe in the process, as he seeks to bring down the Dark Jedi Desann. Every once in a while I get the sudden urge to play a game from years gone by, sometimes I even get to earn a few trophies along the way – this was one of those times. Is this the best remaster you’ll ever find on the PS4? Absolutely not, I’d struggle to really say there is that much improvement at all outside of the graphics being a little more polished. What the PS4 version essentially is – is a PS4 port of the PC version. That was enough for me, but some people might have been expecting more. I think I’d better get some of the easier things to talk about out of the way first. Jedi Outcast on PS4 has got an absolutely abysmal saving system, and whilst it doesn’t ruin enjoyment of the game overall, it can get in the way of your experience somewhat. For those who might not be aware, there is no way to overwrite your game saves in this game. Each new save creates a new save file, and as this is an older title with a sizeable amount of jank involved, it’s easier to play it cautiously and save before platforming sections. So with that in mind – as you can imagine, save files build up pretty quickly and eventually you hit a hard limit. Unfortunately the only way I could find to delete them was to quit the application and manually delete the save files from the PS4. You also have to be careful doing this as you can accidentally delete your profile save, and the secrets file that contains all the progress tied to the secrets you’ve found (these are essentially the games collectibles). So it can be a little bit of a laborious process when you have to stop the flow of gameplay to go and delete some more save data. I think on a visual level Jedi Outcast looks decent enough – but not perfect. I think Aspyr had inkling that people would buy this regardless. I think they were quite savvy, when marketing this, not to market it with a tag like Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast HD or something similar. That would have just given people some free ammunition to throw at the game. Essentially the game looks like a more polished version of what it did twenty years ago. That will either disappoint you, or it won’t, which of those, will depend upon how lofty your expectations are. Would you believe it? That is just about all the slight negatives about the game that I really feel the need to mention about the game. So let’s get to what I loved about the game – there’s a lot, I must say, I’m very much not blinded by nostalgia here either. If I think something is bad, whenever the game released, you can be damn sure I'll mention it. That being said, for a game that is twenty years old this year, it plays incredibly smoothly. This feels like a worthy entry into the wider Star Wars lore. At least it did at the time, before Disney decided to hit the big fat reset button – rendering everything before a certain point non-canon, including this. It still exists in what is now termed the “Legends” continuity. Although I’ve never personally been one to get too bogged down with the whole “What is, or isn’t canon, in Star Wars” debate. Just take it for what it is, and be content with it, I suppose, it isn’t something you can control. I mentioned feel, above – because feel is so important here, really very important actually. There are certain things the majority of people usually expect from a Star Wars video game. Does it reflect the tone of the films? Does it feel suitably connected? Those sorts of questions get answered pretty quickly, in Jedi Outcast’s case – yes it very much reflects the tone of the films. The plot is simple, yet engaging and fast paced, and flows together very well, something its sequel Jedi Academy doesn’t quite manage, but we’ll get to that, when we get to it. It obviously feels connected too, as this is the third part in the Jedi Knight series. Time to backtrack to the visuals for the moment – one vast area of improvement comes in the form of colour. The colours in this version are more vibrant, across the entirety of the game. Take this shot of Luke and Kyle, for example. I don’t ever remember the colours looking that good or particularly well defined, back when I played this on the original Xbox. For a twenty year old game, I also think some of the character models look quite good – I’ve played more recent games based on licensed properties where the characters don’t look anything like they should. At least Luke..... and Lando too, look appropriately like they should. Luke especially does – this is a particularly good rendition of Luke’s Return of the Jedi appearance, especially for a game released in 2002. I could happily write about this game’s audio aspects for a very long time – I won’t though, I’ll save your poor eyes the trouble and try and simplify my thoughts on it a little bit. I don’t think there are many examples of licensed video game properties that mix stock music and original music quite as seamlessly as this game does. It is a real testament to Todd Masten’s ability as a composer, that he could make some of the original music feel as fitting as it does. This is about as high a compliment as I could pay him, but if someone told you that John Williams composed the score for this, I don’t think you’d question it. Yes, admittedly a lot of John Williams’s music is used, but original music is in this game, but the stock music has also been re-mixed and reworked into other pieces to make new ones, and in that regard they almost feel completely brand new. Sound design is of a particularly high quality – quality sound design is something that is synonymous with Star Wars, so you’d expect it to be good, and thankfully it is. Whilst I’m sure they were just pulling sound effects from a huge sound library that is probably available to them from Skywalker Sound, having them sound as authentic as they do, absolutely did not go unnoticed. Of a similarly high quality is some of the voice acting – future cast member of the excellent TV show Star Wars: Rebels, Vanessa Marshall (Hera) appears here as Kyle’s love interest Jan. Billy Dee Williams also briefly reprises his role as Lando Calrisian, which was a nice touch. Bob Bergen doesn’t feel out of place voicing Luke either – this could be down to me though, as I’ve played a lot of games where he’d voiced Luke, so perhaps it isn’t as jarring for me as it might be for some. Jeff Bennett also provides an excellent performance as protagonist Kyle Katarn, he plays some of Kyles more intricate qualities very well, such as his constant struggle between the light and dark side of the force, which is only exacerbated by the situation he’s in, in this game. I feel like it’d be wrong of me not to mention how well designed some of this games levels are too. They are incredibly varied, meaning you never linger in one location for too long. As some of you might have noticed, something I’m particularly fond of in games is a lot of variety, and that is absolutely the case here. Levels include light puzzles, platforming elements and combat in equal measure in some cases. What was my personal favourite? Probably the sections on Bespin, that level in particular feels so satisfying as you tear through waves of enemies at a brisk pace, moving towards a showdown with one of the games four bosses – it’s at this point that your force powers have started to re-develop a bit too, so it’s a bit more viable to light up rooms with Force powers. This leads me onto one of the best areas of Jedi Outcast. How it plays. Whilst the platforming can be a little tricky (to be expected with games from this time period, overshooting and undershooting jumps was a common occurrence) the other aspects of it are very sound. It’s hard to imagine, but even twenty years on – I don’t think there’s a single Star Wars game where the combat feels quite as satisfying as it does here. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed admittedly came close in a few areas, but the combat and gameplay in Jedi Outcast is just undeniably excellent. There’s a good reason Jedi Academy still has a competitive multiplayer on the PC version to this day. There’s an incredibly satisfying progression to it too, the fact Kyle’s gradual return to power being baked into the plot is something I’ve always thought was a really cleverly organic inclusion – this isn’t a spoiler, but you might need some context here. Due to the events of the previous game, Kyle has abandoned the way of the Jedi, so starting out he has no access at all to force powers. So at the games outset you have access to guns, and guns alone. Even the gunplay in this game is incredibly satisfying. I personally think it works best in first person, but third person is a viable option too. After a certain event in the story takes place Kyle decides to fight fire, with fire, so to speak. He decides to wield the force once more. This event leads him to reclaiming his, lightsaber. This is where the gameplay starts to take an interesting turn as even more options become open to you. At this point Kyle has access to the available force powers – light and dark. That might seem odd, but it really fits the character of Kyle as he’s previously walked the path on both the light and dark side, so it doesn’t feel like a tacked on element that he has access to both sets of powers, like it does in some Star Wars games. Each increment of power you get here – whether it is a force power, or even the ability to change lightsaber styles, feels natural and earned. I personally loved the way you get gradually more powerful as the game goes on, instead of being instantly overpowered. Whilst you have no control over your upgrades, you can always check which elements have improved. Whilst the lightsaber combat is not as good as it is in Jedi Academy, it is still ridiculously satisfying, whether that takes the form of fighting Stormtroopers or the Reborn (Dark Jedi). Fighting enemies who have a lightsaber can be a real treat; it has some genuine strategy too, as they can kill you, just as fast as you could potentially kill them. So it becomes a matter of waiting for an opening, instead of just swinging wildly, and hoping for the best. I won’t go into all the specifics, I might do more of that in Jedi Academy, because believe it or not – it is incredibly nuanced, but suffice to say, you’ll be hard pressed to find a Star Wars game with better combat in them since these games. What is the road to the platinum like in Jedi Outcast? After a quick glance at the trophy guide twelve hours seems about right. It’s a pretty quick, very enjoyable ride. Or at least it was for me. If you wanted to, you can also just knock out all of the difficulty trophies in one swoop with some clever use of the cheat menu, if you didn’t fancy playing through the game on the hardest setting. You’ll actually unlock most of the trophies along the way, during the story. If I was going to give any advice (you don’t have to follow it of course,) then I’d say start the game with a text or video guide for the secrets so you can keep track of them the whole way through the game. I was very fond of the fact that the trophy titles themselves are full of some nice little Star Wars references. Those often get a smile out of me when licensed games often do that kind of thing. Would I recommend this? Yes, obviously. If you’d asked my fourteen year old self I would have told you to just play Jedi Academy, but I actually think Jedi Outcast is a better game. It just flows together very nicely. I also think a non Star Wars fan could probably have a good time with this, just from the gameplay alone. Even for a twenty year old game, it is still mechanically sound, and I cannot stress how satisfying the gameplay really is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for requesting this one @Copanele !! Even if I did take a bit of a while to actually get to it (sorry about that, I'll start to motor through these requests a little quicker now that I'm not specifically covering sequential games in a series right now). So I expect I'll get to Jedi Academy this week too. I had a blast writing this, it was nice to have that bit of reminiscence and remember exactly why so many people love this game. It comes to something when one of the things I like least about the game is the lazy ass sin trophy icons! If any of you lovely folks wanted me to get to reviewing a particular game I've played a little quicker - then let me know, and I'll consider it a request and make a point to get to it a little sooner. Just as a reminder, everything is fair game so long as I have a 100% or a platinum in it. They all have to get done eventually so nothing is really off the table. If you want to look for what has and hasn't been reviewed yet you can dig around in the platinum vault and 100% sections on the first page of this thread (I know, I know sorry to give you homework) but that's the easiest way to go about it I think. Right, I'm off to go and do some hopefully quality point-and-clicking, just to y'know wash the taste of Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders away! Edited February 21, 2022 by rjkclarke 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 On 2/19/2022 at 2:35 PM, rjkclarke said: 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. I'll have to look at my trophy list lol the further back you go in time, the more you see 1%, 2% trophy lists sadly lol hence my completion ratio not being the best. Wow, well it's not a surprise that people would turn on it if they had to wait 5 years for a piece of story content! You know, I had around 15 in my head for those DLC packs lol you'd think they would have done a Warframe 2 by now! On 2/19/2022 at 2:35 PM, rjkclarke said: 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 Haha yes that's a good comparison. Let's just hope it's closer to KOTOR than KOTOR 2. I'd take it being as good in quality as Jade Empire. Don't hear a lot of people talking about that one. Was that free on PS Plus at one point? If so, maybe I'd give it a go but I dunno. Well yes I kinda guessed that was just your name, but you don't give it all away. RJK could be like MJF or CM Punk, what could it mean? Maybe part of it was a stage/made up name, maybe the letters reference something else? AFAIK well IDK BTW haha Could be Royal Joker King, could be Really JK (Jamiroquai), could be Red Jelly Kick. The possibilities are endless! On 2/19/2022 at 2:35 PM, rjkclarke said: 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. That's what I've heard and that's what I'm hoping. There's lots I'm looking forward to on PS5 like RE: Village, FFVII Remake Integrade DLC, Horizon Forbidden West etc. but a free ps plus game in Wreckfest is pretty high up there. Destruction Derby just clicked back in the day, lots of fun! Still the search for a PS5 continues lol As does writing this first gameplay guide of mine lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 (edited) 17 hours ago, The_Kopite said: I'll have to look at my trophy list lol the further back you go in time, the more you see 1%, 2% trophy lists sadly lol hence my completion ratio not being the best. Wow, well it's not a surprise that people would turn on it if they had to wait 5 years for a piece of story content! You know, I had around 15 in my head for those DLC packs lol you'd think they would have done a Warframe 2 by now! You could always go hard at your completion rate if you ever felt the need to. I wouldn't mind getting mine up to 98% this year if I can manage that. I think the lowest on mine is 6% and that was from Hustle Kings..... Surprisingly that was about the only pool game I've never quite been able to get along with. I guess that'll happen when you make a pool game where it feels like smashing spherical concrete together. Sad times. 5 years is far too long to wait for just one piece of story content - especially when they were considering hot fixes and weapon buffs and nerfs as "new content" they are apparently a little better now for releasing content, but as I've not played the game since 2019 I wouldn't know. I checked just out of curiosity after you said that, and I was way off on the amount of DLC. It has 31 DLC packs. It has even more on the PS5 version So erm yeah, that's quite a lot. I should just power through it though, I put it down to be done for the ultra rare cleanup event. One of the trophies is for driving I think 1 million miles on this little skateboard thing called a K-Drive and that is really putting me off. I don't have a clue if they'll ever get to a Warframe 2. I don't know if you ever played it, but Warframe is actually like the, sort of sequel to Dark Sector,which was a pretty good PS3/360 game back in the day. 17 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Haha yes that's a good comparison. Let's just hope it's closer to KOTOR than KOTOR 2. I'd take it being as good in quality as Jade Empire. Don't hear a lot of people talking about that one. I can't remember if I've ever asked you this, but did you ever play Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy back in the day? If not I reckon you might have a good time with the PS4 versions of those. I'm trying to get those both reviewed in here this week. Jedi Outcast is at the top of this page if you haven't read it. Those games might be up your alley if you fancy a bit of old school Star Wars goodness. 17 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Was that free on PS Plus at one point? If so, maybe I'd give it a go but I dunno. I don't think so - but the Game of the year edition goes on sale pretty often for about £9 sometimes which is a pretty good deal for the amount of content you get with it. I still need to go back and finish off all that DLC in it myself. 17 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Well yes I kinda guessed that was just your name, but you don't give it all away. RJK could be like MJF or CM Punk, what could it mean? Maybe part of it was a stage/made up name, maybe the letters reference something else? AFAIK well IDK BTW haha Could be Royal Joker King, could be Really JK (Jamiroquai), could be Red Jelly Kick. The possibilities are endless! No, gotta leave some of it a mystery haha I've posted my first name in here plenty, but I'll leave the others a mediocre mystery haha! I'm sure I saw an interview somewhere, where CM Punk said that the CM part of his name came from when he was in a tag team way, way back at the start of his career where they were called The Chick Magnets. Then he just kind of kept the CM part at the start of his name for the rest of his career. Hey, I mean it worked for him though. Haha! Royal Joker King is really good actually, I rather like that one. I can't really be JK though ?... I was at a Jamiroquai gig a couple of years ago, and I wasn't on the stage..... You ever noticed how much he looks like Danny Dyer these days. Come to think of it, I've never seen the two of them in the same place either! 17 hours ago, The_Kopite said: That's what I've heard and that's what I'm hoping. There's lots I'm looking forward to on PS5 like RE: Village, FFVII Remake Integrade DLC, Horizon Forbidden West etc. but a free ps plus game in Wreckfest is pretty high up there. Destruction Derby just clicked back in the day, lots of fun! Still the search for a PS5 continues lol As does writing this first gameplay guide of mine lol Yeah I'm looking forward to a lot of PS5 titles myself - I'm just having to be an adult about not actively seeking one out. I'm learning to drive at the moment (I know I started very late) and I think I'm going to need a lot of lessons, and they unfortunately aren't cheap. I'll definitely need a few, especially considering the fact I've made the car bounce around like a Kangaroo a few times whilst trying to get the hang of smoothly changing gears. I feel pretty confident you'll have a great time with Wreckfest based on what you've said. Are you willing to share with us what the gameplay guide is on? Or are you keeping that under your hat? Edited February 23, 2022 by rjkclarke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 On 2/21/2022 at 9:40 PM, rjkclarke said: Thanks for requesting this one @Copanele !! Even if I did take a bit of a while to actually get to it (sorry about that, I'll start to motor through these requests a little quicker now that I'm not specifically covering sequential games in a series right now). So I expect I'll get to Jedi Academy this week too. I had a blast writing this, it was nice to have that bit of reminiscence and remember exactly why so many people love this game. It comes to something when one of the things I like least about the game is the lazy ass sin trophy icons! Many thanks for the awesome review glad you also enjoyed this game because my god I absolutely LOVED it on PC. To this day, this game has the best lightsaber combat, bar none. I doubt any other Star Wars game comes even close to the sick ass wall flips into flurries, stance switching, zapping a storm trooper from across the room while choking the other. And Kyle Katarn himself is an amazing character. Always seen him as a Han Solo/Luke Skywalker hybrid, absolutely loved him. I guess he was written so well that Disney had the urge to absolutely annihilate this more interesting universe and give us REY. Honestly, the PS4 port does turn me off with all the save system shenanigans, but at some point I will replay this and Jedi Academy. I will be honest, Jedi Outcast had the better story, but Academy had the better combat. And Jedi Academy DOES still have an online community. I even remember the rules, thou shalt not use the butterfly attack in honorable duels(forward+attack with the dual lightsaber, where you do a butterfly move which is so busted everyone in your front dies instantly ) Good times ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrunkenEngineer Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 Oh man, a review of Jedi Outcast. Is that the game with the standalone DLC Mysteries of the Sith or some such? I played all the Dark Forces games mightily on the PC in my youth. 2002 was when I went to college/university (different meanings for you Europeans, went to the latter), and I started moving in to playing World of Warcraft, but there was an overlap where Half-Life, Unreal, and Jedi Outcast dominated my PC hard drives. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 On 2/19/2022 at 6:35 AM, rjkclarke said: 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...... "Hey Fisher, welcome back. So we decided to go in a more diverse direction and make your character Indian. Great, huh?" "Oh, um... sure, but wouldn't an Indian actor be more appropriate? I'm not sure I feel comfortable with this..." "Here's your check!" "....where's that face paint at? Let's DO this thing!" Quote 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 That also reminds me of making Raiden do his little flip after he was captured and running around the base nude? Quote 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. Yeah, I think JBI had Raven and that was about it. I can only imagine how going straight to SYM must have felt, though as mind-blowing as that transition surely was, it pretty much renders JBI obsolete! Quote 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. I actually liked that! My friends and I would place bets on who would win and it was kind of fun. Then again we usually also had a fair amount of alcohol in our systems when we'd play KYR, so that probably had a hand in it! On 2/20/2022 at 11:10 AM, rjkclarke said: Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders (PS4) I know point and clickers are your jam, so it saddens me that this one had so much squandered potential. I remember you mentioning having to do an extra playthrough of this game and you did not seem pleased about it??? That's pretty unfortunate about the voice acting, too. I wonder if the actress was burned out from having to read for so many different roles and was just like fuck it. It does look cool visually though, I do have to give it that. Excellent stuff as always, my dude? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 (edited) On 22/02/2022 at 8:16 PM, Copanele said: Many thanks for the awesome review glad you also enjoyed this game because my god I absolutely LOVED it on PC. To this day, this game has the best lightsaber combat, bar none. I doubt any other Star Wars game comes even close to the sick ass wall flips into flurries, stance switching, zapping a storm trooper from across the room while choking the othe Cheers dude! No, thank you.... for being the one to get me to write about it quicker. ? You'll get no arguments from me on that one, there is something really timeless about how satisfying this games combat is. It's just so damn good. I love the way that further into the game you can feel like a complete badass walking into an entire room full of Stormtroopers and just lighting them up with Force lightning. On 22/02/2022 at 8:16 PM, Copanele said: And Kyle Katarn himself is an amazing character. Always seen him as a Han Solo/Luke Skywalker hybrid, absolutely loved him. I guess he was written so well that Disney had the urge to absolutely annihilate this more interesting universe and give us REY. That's really interesting - I'd never thought of Kyle like that, but you know what, I see what you mean. Especially the fact that he has a real edge to him that Luke just doesn't quite have. I don't just mean the fact Han and Kyle are smugglers either haha. The fact that he kind of skates that line between not being good or bad, just doing what he thinks is right. But Rey can lift rocks, and erm....... find things in the sand....... and....... Spoiler KISS PEOPLE BACK TO LIFE. .....Can Kyle do that? Actually I'll shut up, because Kyle probably would find a way to do that On 22/02/2022 at 8:16 PM, Copanele said: Honestly, the PS4 port does turn me off with all the save system shenanigans, but at some point I will replay this and Jedi Academy. I will be honest, Jedi Outcast had the better story, but Academy had the better combat. And Jedi Academy DOES still have an online community. I even remember the rules, thou shalt not use the butterfly attack in honorable duels(forward+attack with the dual lightsaber, where you do a butterfly move which is so busted everyone in your front dies instantly ) Good times I can safely say that the save thing is pretty much the worst thing about the game, and only really the only negative, aside from the whole twenty year old jank thing. It's more of a problem in Jedi Academy I'd say, as that game has a few tricky platforming sections, and that game gets mega hectic later on, when you're playing on the hardest difficulty so you end up saving a lot. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! You aren't supposed to mention that Outcast had a better story, but Academy had better gameplay, that's what a big part of the Jedi Academy review is going to be about....... SPOILERS ??? haha I only ever really played Jedi Academy in local multiplayer when I was younger, but I used to have a hell of a lot of fun with that one. I used to like playing as that fat Rodian Reelo from Outcast with a double-bladed lightsaber, just because I thought it looked funny! I did enjoy playing it when I was going for the trophies though. That part of it is still pretty good. 21 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said: Oh man, a review of Jedi Outcast. Is that the game with the standalone DLC Mysteries of the Sith or some such? I played all the Dark Forces games mightily on the PC in my youth. 2002 was when I went to college/university (different meanings for you Europeans, went to the latter), and I started moving in to playing World of Warcraft, but there was an overlap where Half-Life, Unreal, and Jedi Outcast dominated my PC hard drives. It's the sequel to the game that had the Mysteries of the Sith expansion. They all have really convoluted names ? Dark Forces was real good for a Doom clone wasn't it? I remember when I originally played it back on the PS1, because when I was younger I could probably grow vegetables in the garden that could run a game quicker than my early PC could have done .... But I digress, what's new right? I was never bothered about how similar to Doom it was, to me I was just happy I could play something like Doom, that had a Star Wars skin on it. When I did get to play Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, the one that has the Mysteries of the Sith add on - I remember being really excited about the fact you could wield a lightsaber in first person mode, that seemed so cool and new to me at the time. Dude those are some fine games to have taking up room on your hard drives.... I played the hell out of Half-Life once I did have a decent PC. I played pretty much any of the expansions I could find for it too, even that weird Blue Shift one. I only ever played the console version of Unreal, the one that was called Unreal Championship, but I used to really enjoy that too in local multiplayer! Awesome times! Although I could imagine it was probably better on the PC? 19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: "Hey Fisher, welcome back. So we decided to go in a more diverse direction and make your character Indian. Great, huh?" "Oh, um... sure, but wouldn't an Indian actor be more appropriate? I'm not sure I feel comfortable with this..." "Here's your check!" "....where's that face paint at? Let's DO this thing!" Haha! Yes, that's how I, imagine it went down. Here he is walking away from that meeting..... Then again, when he heard Short Circuit 2 was going to have him be the lead actor! 19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: That also reminds me of making Raiden do his little flip after he was captured and running around the base nude As weird as it is, I always liked the fact that he had an oddly specific animation to that cartwheel flip exclusive to when he was naked. Where he would hold his dangle parts when he did it, and do like an armless cartwheel to stop things flying around. Kojima is a weird fella. 19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Yeah, I think JBI had Raven and that was about it. I can only imagine how going straight to SYM must have felt, though as mind-blowing as that transition surely was, it pretty much renders JBI obsolete! 19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I actually liked that! My friends and I would place bets on who would win and it was kind of fun. Then again we usually also had a fair amount of alcohol in our systems when we'd play KYR, so that probably had a hand in it! Eurgh yeah Raven......in the WWF, the least said about that the better. As a big ECW fan, seeing someone who had a tremendous ability to capture attention with just his words alone, they sure did waste him. Even if seeing him, Kane and Big Show driving around in a Golf Cart at Wrestlemania 17 is still one of the funniest and surrealist things I've seen in wrestling. Or just the bit when Kane drives along by himself with the ref in the back like it's all fine and normal. Then, splat! I think Big Show just stumbling around like a confused Bear that's just had a log fall on it, makes it pretty funny too. There's a funnier bit earlier in the match, but I couldn't find a gif of that bit. I can see how placing bets on the battling health bars would be good after a few drinks..... Unfortunately when KYR came out I had just turned 10 only a month previously, so that wasn't really an option for me ...... Sorry if that suddenly makes you feel old, in reality, you're not that much older than me at all though. 19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I know point and clickers are your jam, so it saddens me that this one had so much squandered potential. I remember you mentioning having to do an extra playthrough of this game and you did not seem pleased about it That's pretty unfortunate about the voice acting, too. I wonder if the actress was burned out from having to read for so many different roles and was just like fuck it. It does look cool visually though, I do have to give it that. Excellent stuff as always, my dude Thanks man! Yeah..... It's sad when something from one of your favourite genre's turns out to be a bit of a naff one. I don't think it'll make any worst of the year lists at the 2022 end of year awards, or any of the positive ones either, it's just one of those kind of games, middle of the road, nothing stands out kind of thing. Well, yeah I guess apart from the visuals. It does have those I guess! I really couldn't say about the voice acting - it could be that she got burned out I suppose. But you'd think she would have done at least one of them well, and then got burnt out, but some of them, I think I could have just pointed a Microphone at my sister, told her to read the lines and she might have done a better job! Which I feel harsh saying, but I know someone else would say it much harsher I suppose. The upside is, I've just a played a pretty damn good point-and-clicker, balance is returned, so it's restored my faith in the genre (not that ABC Murders could make me lose it).... Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to review it right now, so it's still fresh. I'll probably hold off till tomorrow now, as it's pretty late. Edited February 23, 2022 by rjkclarke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrooba Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 (edited) Nice work on Jedi Outcast! I know you've played lots of Lego games too, so you may be interested in the new Lego Star Wars game coming out. I believe it spans across the entire cinematic story line, so I expect it to be chock-full of content! ? On 22/02/2022 at 6:10 AM, rjkclarke said: For those who might not be aware, there is no way to overwrite your game saves in this game. Each new save creates a new save file, and as this is an older title with a sizeable amount of jank involved, it’s easier to play it cautiously and save before platforming sections. So with that in mind – as you can imagine, save files build up pretty quickly and eventually you hit a hard limit. Funnily enough this reminds me of the dreaded saving in the PS3 version of Fallout: New Vegas. I'm not sure exactly how it works since I've steered the heck away from that port from the nightmares I hear, but something with the saves makes the game so bloated with data that it brings the frame rate to an absolute stand still after an hour or so of playing, practically forcing you to make a new save file for when you tackle the DLC. In that regard, I find it quite similar to the woes of Jedi Outcast's saving! On 22/02/2022 at 6:10 AM, rjkclarke said: For a twenty year old game, I also think some of the character models look quite good – I’ve played more recent games based on licensed properties where the characters don’t look anything like they should. Considering the game came out in 2002, Luke's model looks pretty damn good for the standards back then. Hell, I'd say the look of that screenshot you put is on par with a model from 2004's Half-Life 2... I always find ways to bring up this game. ? Also, good work with the ABC Murders. Point-and-click is a nostalgic genre for me, especially some of the missions in Disney's Club Penguin of all things. It's a shame the puzzles aren't up to par. I haven't dabbled in the genre for a long, long time but I know for a fact that interaction is the most essential aspect of it's gameplay, so seeing the puzzles not being that great conflicts a lot with the type of game it sets out to be. Point-and-click has the absolute advantage of letting you sit an admire each background and setting, so seeing as the gameplay isn't too compelling can be an unfortunate juxtaposition to this. It is valiant that they'd take a cel-shaded direction though. Games like Borderlands (and I think Okami too) pulls it off quite well and can add a lot of artistic charm... But when push comes to shove, I suppose the most important thing is the gameplay itself, which is a shame for the case of this one. An important point you said at the end was that it was neither good or bad, and for me this is the worst thing a piece of art can do. Art in it's very nature insists on evoking an emotion, and for something to be simply mediocre is the worst. I've mediocre games like Sonic Forces, and in all honesty I have a stronger impression of the infamous Sonic 06; simply because it's known as a bad game. At least in the case of 06 I feel something out of it, but with Forces -- a game that's mediocre -- it's the worst feeling. Mediocre art, at least for me, is the art I see the most unfortunate. And in that regard, it's sad to see the ABC Murders has fallen down that route. Or TLDR: It do be like that. ? Edited February 23, 2022 by Shrooba 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 16 minutes ago, Shrooba said: Nice work on Jedi Outcast! I know you've played lots of Lego games too, so you may be interested in the new Lego Star Wars game coming out. I believe it spans across the entire cinematic story line, so I expect it to be chock-full of content! Guilty as charged ? I do love a good LEGO title every now and then! I am very interested in the new Star Wars one actually. I'm actually very, very curious to see how they gamify some of The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker, both films have sections in them that are pretty tough to make a game out of, so it'll be interesting considering the light hearted tone of LEGO games where they decide to go with that. 19 minutes ago, Shrooba said: Funnily enough this reminds me of the dreaded saving in the PS3 version of Fallout: New Vegas. I'm not sure exactly how it works since I've steered the heck away from that port from the nightmares I hear, but something with the saves makes the game so bloated with data that it brings the frame rate to an absolute stand still after an hour or so of playing, practically forcing you to make a new save file for when you tackle the DLC. In that regard, I find it quite similar to the woes of Jedi Outcast's saving! You'd probably be right to shy away from the PS3 version of Fallout: New Vegas. I hate saying that too, because it's my favourite Fallout game,but playing it on a PS3 is just something that will severely test probably even the Dalai Lama's patience. All of those horror stories you've heard about bloated savefiles and horrendous framerate are all true. Honestly, bits of the Dead Money DLC played like a PowerPoint presentation. I was too stubborn to start a new save file too OOOOPSIE 23 minutes ago, Shrooba said: Considering the game came out in 2002, Luke's model looks pretty damn good for the standards back then. Hell, I'd say the look of that screenshot you put is on par with a model from 2004's Half-Life 2... I always find ways to bring up this game. Nothing wrong with a segue into talking about Half-Life 2.....We can always go to Ravenholm! Screw what everyone else says ? I picked that specific Luke one, of the ones I had, because you can really see Mark Hamill in that I think, and for a game that is that old, to be able to actually decently resemble something is pretty impressive I must say. 25 minutes ago, Shrooba said: Also, good work with the ABC Murders. Point-and-click is a nostalgic genre for me, especially some of the missions in Disney's Club Penguin of all things. It's a shame the puzzles aren't up to par. I haven't dabbled in the genre for a long, long time but I know for a fact that interaction is the most essential aspect of it's gameplay, so seeing the puzzles not being that great conflicts a lot with the type of game it sets out to be. Point-and-click has the absolute advantage of letting you sit an admire each background and setting, so seeing as the gameplay isn't too compelling can be an unfortunate juxtaposition to this. It is valiant that they'd take a cel-shaded direction though. Games like Borderlands (and I think Okami too) pulls it off quite well and can add a lot of artistic charm... But when push comes to shove, I suppose the most important thing is the gameplay itself, which is a shame for the case of this one. It seems more people than I realise have got quite a few nostalgic point-and-click memories. I literally had a conversation on PSN earlier about that very thing, so it's interesting to hear that you have some too. Despite what I might have sounded like in that review, I actually have an incredibly soft squishy spot for cel-shaded games. I do admire the fact they tried it with ABC Murders, because it at least sets it apart from some other games that you can closely compare it to. I just didn't really think it worked all too well outside of the backdrops and scenery, Hastings looks like a big shiny beetle. Instead of an older gent Good shout with Borderlands and Okami, because they are such great examples of cel-shading done well. Especially Okami, which I know you've recently conquered, congrats on that by the way! 30 minutes ago, Shrooba said: An important point you said at the end was that it was neither good or bad, and for me this is the worst thing a piece of art can do. Art in it's very nature insists on evoking an emotion, and for something to be simply mediocre is the worst. I've mediocre games like Sonic Forces, and in all honesty I have a stronger impression of the infamous Sonic 06; simply because it's known as a bad game. At least in the case of 06 I feel something out of it, but with Forces -- a game that's mediocre -- it's the worst feeling. Mediocre art, at least for me, is the art I see the most unfortunate. And in that regard, it's sad to see the ABC Murders has fallen down that route. I love that you brought this up man! I had a section that read a little like that at the end of the ABC review originally, but I ended up cutting it, because I worried I'd made that sound fairly negative already, but the way you worded it, it doesn't make it sound negative. It just very much echoed my own frustrations dude! That is for me also the biggest sin any form of art can commit, is to just be mediocre, or boring. At least if it's objectively bad, it will still linger in your memory, even if it isn't for the right reasons. That kind of thing almost - and I'll probably sound very pretentious here - but, it almost feels disposable. I hate when anything that could, and should be considered art can ever feel like that, because it absolutely never should. Thanks for the feedback Shroob! Nice to see you dropping some awesome wisdom bombs as always! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrunkenEngineer Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 55 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: It's the sequel to the game that had the Mysteries of the Sith expansion. They all have really convoluted names Dark Forces was real good for a Doom clone wasn't it? I remember when I originally played it back on the PS1, because when I was younger I could probably grow vegetables in the garden that could run a game quicker than my early PC could have done .... But I digress, what's new right? I was never bothered about how similar to Doom it was, to me I was just happy I could play something like Doom, that had a Star Wars skin on it. When I did get to play Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, the one that has the Mysteries of the Sith add on - I remember being really excited about the fact you could wield a lightsaber in first person mode, that seemed so cool and new to me at the time. Dude those are some fine games to have taking up room on your hard drives.... I played the hell out of Half-Life once I did have a decent PC. I played pretty much any of the expansions I could find for it too, even that weird Blue Shift one. I only ever played the console version of Unreal, the one that was called Unreal Championship, but I used to really enjoy that too in local multiplayer! Awesome times! Although I could imagine it was probably better on the PC? Ahh yes, Dark Forces II had the standalone DLC (weren't even called DLC then!) Dark Forces was excellent for a Doom clone, yes. I played it more than Doom back in the day. You could tilt your view up and down, unlike the latter! The only Unreal I truly remember playing was the first one, on PC. Back when you had to have a graphics accelerator card to run a lot of games, but Unreal and Half-Life and Quake II were the first to include a software renderer, I think. In any case, all the cool kids had SLI Voodoo2s but those were ungodly expensive back in the day. I'm old. Where is the old man emoji? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 23, 2022 Author Share Posted February 23, 2022 (edited) 16 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said: Ahh yes, Dark Forces II had the standalone DLC (weren't even called DLC then!) Dark Forces was excellent for a Doom clone, yes. I played it more than Doom back in the day. You could tilt your view up and down, unlike the latter! The only Unreal I truly remember playing was the first one, on PC. Back when you had to have a graphics accelerator card to run a lot of games, but Unreal and Half-Life and Quake II were the first to include a software renderer, I think. In any case, all the cool kids had SLI Voodoo2s but those were ungodly expensive back in the day. No I suppose they weren't haha...... Expansion pack sort of has a better ring to it, too. You know - I didn't even remember you couldn't do that in Doom, so that almost certainly means I played Dark Forces more myself. I can still picture a lot of the layout of that first Dark Forces level too. Well the one I played, Unreal Championship was just a port of that anyway, just set to whatever the limits of the original Xbox was, so I expect it was much better experienced on a PC. I know I wouldn't of been one of those cool kids that had a SLI Vooodoo thingymajig. We had PC's in our house but they pretty much wouldn't run anything like that. I think I would have found more joy from playing with a hoop-and-a-stick than I would trying to play Quake II on the first PC that was ever mine. Which had a 6GB hard drive, and a whole 64kb of RAM...... Corrrrr blimey Mr, now you can see why I played a lot of old point-and-click games because they were for a while the only thing that would run stably. 16 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said: I'm old. Where is the old man emoji? I genuinely did a google search to try and find one for you - but I decided on this instead ? Which is what I felt like the other day when my nephew and I watched Short Circuit, to which he said "This seems very old, it must have been from like 2011, or something" and I was like.........." I wasn't even BORN when that film released" but to think he thought something like that, was only ten years old, that made me feel ancient haha! Edited February 23, 2022 by rjkclarke 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrunkenEngineer Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 I WAS born when Short Circuit was released! ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 23, 2022 Share Posted February 23, 2022 1 hour ago, DrunkenEngineer said: I WAS born when Short Circuit was released! Bro I relate to this so hard? 17 hours ago, Shrooba said: Games like Borderlands (and I think Okami too) pulls it off quite well and can add a lot of artistic charm... But when push comes to shove, I suppose the most important thing is the gameplay itself, which is a shame for the case of this one. Shrooby! Well said. Cel shading (and really any quirky or generally gorgeous presentation) is awesome, but if the gameplay is wack then it just comes across as a crutch, like bells and whistles to distract you from the fact that the game ain't all that. 17 hours ago, Shrooba said: An important point you said at the end was that it was neither good or bad, and for me this is the worst thing a piece of art can do. Art in it's very nature insists on evoking an emotion, and for something to be simply mediocre is the worst. I've mediocre games like Sonic Forces, and in all honesty I have a stronger impression of the infamous Sonic 06; simply because it's known as a bad game. At least in the case of 06 I feel something out of it, but with Forces -- a game that's mediocre -- it's the worst feeling. If I put art out into the world and the general consensus was "this made me feel nothing," I would definitely need to have a serious talk with myself? 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Here he is walking away from that meeting..... Then again, when he heard Short Circuit 2 was going to have him be the lead actor! Everybody has a price? 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: As weird as it is, I always liked the fact that he had an oddly specific animation to that cartwheel flip exclusive to when he was naked. Where he would hold his dangle parts when he did it, and do like an armless cartwheel to stop things flying around. Kolima is a weird fella. There's no way they didn't know we would all try that! I feel like the more normal route would be to say "well, I'm naked, so maybe looking cool with a cartwheel doesn't need to be my top priority right now and I could just do Snake's dive or something." Perhaps they could've given him a sock? 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Eurgh yeah Raven......in the WWF, the least said about that the better. As a big ECW fan, seeing someone who had a tremendous ability to capture attention with just his words alone, they sure did waste him. Even if seeing him, Kane and Big Show driving around in a Golf Cart at Wrestlemania 17 is still one of the funniest and surrealist things I've seen in wrestling. Or just the bit when Kane drives along by himself with the ref in the back like it's all fine and normal. Then, splat! I think Big Show just stumbling around like a confused Bear that's just had a log fall on it, makes it pretty funny too. There's a funnier bit earlier in the match, but I couldn't find a gif of that bit. Oh yeah, Raven was criminally underused. In the WWF he was basically the "hey, I like weapons" guy. It was infuriating how they continued doing that with the huge influx of talent, like Vince's ego just wouldn't allow for guys from the other companies to look good or something. How they did DDP is another example! *sigh* Anyway. I just remember Big Show throwing that fucking shopping cart at Raven's head??? Their backstage antics in that era were somethin else, man! Every once in a while I'll find myself watching old WWF/E shit, that was a great time to be a wrestling fan. 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I can see how placing bets on the battling health bars would be good after a few drinks..... Unfortunately when KYR came out I had just turned 10 only a month previously, so that wasn't really an option for me ...... Sorry if that suddenly makes you feel old, in reality, you're not that much older than me at all though. Hahaha it does, the difference between 10 and 17 utterly dwarfs the difference between 31 and 38, but it's true you and I are not super far apart. At least at the time we were underage too (how often is that okay to say)! When I said that it probably sounded like we were twenty somethings, we were just teen delinquents? 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I really couldn't say about the voice acting - it could be that she got burned out I suppose. But you'd think she would have done at least one of them well, and then got burnt out, but some of them, I think I could have just pointed a Microphone at my sister, told her to read the lines and she might have done a better job! Which I feel harsh saying, but I know someone else would say it much harsher I suppose. It really does make you wanna record a demo or something when you see voice actors coasting like that. I would love to do that for a living, and would try whatever I could to make a name for myself. Like if you turned in that type of performance, how could you be proud to see your name pop up in the credits, y'know? Like you illustrated, it's not to shit on her or anything, but it's just an unfortunate thing to see. 17 hours ago, rjkclarke said: The upside is, I've just a played an pretty damn good point-and-clicker, balance is returned, so it's restored my faith in the genre (not that ABC Murders could make me lose it).... Unfortunately, as much as I'd love to review it right now, so it's still fresh. I'll probably hold off till tomorrow now, as it's pretty late. I saw you were rackin up trophies playin something new! Good on you man, can't wait to hear your thoughts? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 24, 2022 Author Share Posted February 24, 2022 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: There's no way they didn't know we would all try that! I feel like the more normal route would be to say "well, I'm naked, so maybe looking cool with a cartwheel doesn't need to be my top priority right now and I could just do Snake's dive or something." Perhaps they could've given him a sock? It was definitely a weird decision that's for sure. If you ever get the HD collection - or you ever played the Substance version of MGS2 in the extra VR Missions there's a whole set of unlockable missions that you have to do as Naked Raiden, which is quite odd. Where they kind of double down on the "Hahaha look a naked person" thing 22 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said: I WAS born when Short Circuit was released! 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Bro I relate to this so hard? Oh dear! Sorry guys! Hey I mean it was only four years before I was born..... I don't know why that specific thing made me feel old, but it did 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Oh yeah, Raven was criminally underused. In the WWF he was basically the "hey, I like weapons" guy. It was infuriating how they continued doing that with the huge influx of talent, like Vince's ego just wouldn't allow for guys from the other companies to look good or something. How they did DDP is another example! *sigh* Anyway. I just remember Big Show throwing that fucking shopping cart at Raven's head Their backstage antics in that era were somethin else, man! Every once in a while I'll find myself watching old WWF/E shit, that was a great time to be a wrestling fan. Yeah that was pretty much Ravens thing in the WWF back then..... I did read that Vince didn't even realise for the longest time that Raven was employed, saw him backstage one time and later exclaimed " WHO THE HELL RE-HIRED JOHNNY POLO" (or similar words) which was his gimmick from the early 90's. The less said about DDP the better. Poor guy! How do you go from being the peoples champion in WCW, to being the stalker of The Undertakers wife. He had a mental career though when you think about it. He was a manager for the longest time, and then at 36 he decided, y'know what, I fancy actually wrestling. So hats off to him for actually committing to it. Raven was bumping hard in that match - he even got thrown through a window by Big Show if I remember right. I guess they blew their budget for sugar-glass that day. 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Hahaha it does, the difference between 10 and 17 utterly dwarfs the difference between 31 and 38, but it's true you and I are not super far apart. At least at the time we were underage too (how often is that okay to say)! When I said that it probably sounded like we were twenty somethings, we were just teen delinquents When you put it like that, yeah..... 10 and 17 are miles apart haha. Certainly when you put it in those terms. I was bugging my Mum to play it early on Christmas Eve, and you were off trying to procure some fine beverages to make the experience even more enjoyable ? 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: It really does make you wanna record a demo or something when you see voice actors coasting like that. I would love to do that for a living, and would try whatever I could to make a name for myself. Like if you turned in that type of performance, how could you be proud to see your name pop up in the credits, y'know? Like you illustrated, it's not to shit on her or anything, but it's just an unfortunate thing to see. Exactly, it seems like it would be a pretty fun job to have. I'd love to at least have a go at something like that myself. But I've also been on the other side of it, where I've had to re-record audio for ADR for short films and stuff and it can be quite stressful on both sides. So maybe that actress just doesn't perform well under pressure - or, they didn't put enough on her, and just let her deliver it and they just said it was okay. It's hard to say, because sheesh, if those were the best takes they had, then I dread to think what the worst ones sounded like. I feel bad for the actress because asking her to play so many parts is a real big ask! 20 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I saw you were rackin up trophies playin something new! Good on you man, can't wait to hear your thoughts I'm actually off to go write that review after doing this reply. Yeah man! Those trophies were coming thick and fast, it was raining trophies fora fair while whilst playing that game, but it was an awesome time, so I'm really looking forward to writing about that one. Then I've gotta write one for RE5 too I guess now ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 A speedy response for once!! 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: If you ever get the HD collection - or you ever played the Substance version of MGS2 in the extra VR Missions there's a whole set of unlockable missions that you have to do as Naked Raiden, which is quite odd. Where they kind of double down on the "Hahaha look a naked person" thing That reminds me of how teenage boys will try to prank one another in the locker room by faking like they're gonna rip the towel off of you. Even then, this baffled me! Like what is the goal here? You're trying to see me nude? Oh no, you sure showed me! 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Oh dear! Sorry guys! Hey I mean it was only four years before I was born..... I don't know why that specific thing made me feel old, but it did No worries??? I don't think I really started noticing that until the last few years... I expect it to only get worse? 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Yeah that was pretty much Ravens thing in the WWF back then..... I did read that Vince didn't even realise for the longest time that Raven was employed, saw him backstage one time and later exclaimed " WHO THE HELL RE-HIRED JOHNNY POLO" (or similar words) which was his gimmick from the early 90's. AAAUUUGGGGHH that's awful... and even more so because it's so easy to believe. 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: The less said about DDP the better. Poor guy! How do you go from being the peoples champion in WCW, to being the stalker of The Undertakers wife. He had a mental career though when you think about it. He was a manager for the longest time, and then at 36 he decided, y'know what, I fancy actually wrestling. So hats off to him for actually committing to it. That's not a good thing - that's a bad thing! ? Yeahmann, and what a remarkable run he made of it too. And apparently he's quite a stand up dude as well! I saw he helped numerous wrestlers sober up, most notably Scott Hall. 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: Raven was bumping hard in that match - he even got thrown through a window by Big Show if I remember right. I guess they blew their budget for sugar-glass that day. He had a match like that with the Undertaker too where he was just obliterated. It's like they thought "ooh, he's from ECW? That means he can take all kinds of punishment that we wouldn't dare ask of our actually respected performers. This is great!" 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: But I've also been on the other side of it, where I've had to re-record audio for ADR for short films and stuff and it can be quite stressful on both sides. This is true, I am quite familiar with this! EQ settings, audio and video alignment, proper mic'ing, mixing... there's a lot to it beyond the fantasy of it for sure! 17 minutes ago, rjkclarke said: I'm actually off to go write that review after doing this reply. Yeah man! Those trophies were coming thick and fast, it was raining trophies fora fair while whilst playing that game, but it was an awesome time, so I'm really looking forward to writing about that one. Then I've gotta write one for RE5 too I guess now Yuss!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 24, 2022 Author Share Posted February 24, 2022 39 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: That reminds me of how teenage boys will try to prank one another in the locker room by faking like they're gonna rip the towel off of you. Even then, this baffled me! Like what is the goal here? You're trying to see me nude? Oh no, you sure showed me! Yeah that specific one definitely happened to me once or twice, baffled me then too. I wonder how a closet nudist would react to that, I guess they'd just stand there and be like "AND......... you expected something else" 41 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: That's not a good thing - that's a bad thing! Yeahmann, and what a remarkable run he made of it too. And apparently he's quite a stand up dude as well! I saw he helped numerous wrestlers sober up, most notably Scott Hall. Absolutely! Whoever would have expected he would have been as successful as he was - he certainly didn't from what I can gather, he just made it his mission to get better, and better. DDP has to have some magical abilities of some sort - because he's worked some absolute miracles with some of the people he's helped. Some really impressive stuff, especially the fact that he managed to get both Scott Hall and Jake Roberts to clean up and pretty much stay clean. I keep trying to get both of my parents to try out DDP Yoga as it's meant to do wonders for people suffering with arthritis, and help them get a lot more mobility, which I'm about 90% sure they both have a bit of now (arthritis ,) but I've not been able to sell them on the idea quite yet! 46 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: He had a match like that with the Undertaker too where he was just obliterated. It's like they thought "ooh, he's from ECW? That means he can take all kinds of punishment that we wouldn't dare ask of our actually respected performers. This is great!" I'd like to have seen him try that with New Jack..... He might be a real dead man a little quicker 47 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: This is true, I am quite familiar with this! EQ settings, audio and video alignment, proper mic'ing, mixing... there's a lot to it beyond the fantasy of it for sure! Yep, absolutely man - that and the first person that usually gets blamed is the sound person...... So even if you have someone giving a terrible voice-over somehow that still becomes your fault ?.... .............Sometimes it is though haha! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted February 24, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 24, 2022 (edited) After Drawing Back The Curtain, I Discovered My Newest Platinum Platinum #346 Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love (PS4) Mythical Onion Collect all Trophies A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 23 February 2022 1:20:48 AM Time Taken to Platinum : 1 day, 24 minutes, 15 seconds Platinum Rarity - 63.28% Trophy Number - #16.524 Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love, which from now on I’ll just refer to as Irony Curtain, is a traditional point-and-click adventure game brought to you by Artifiex Mundi. You don’t need to adjust your bi-focal lenses, you didn’t read that wrong, yes, that Artifex Mundi, with the hidden objects and the lite-puzzles, decided to do something very different and make a traditional point-and-click adventure game. I can’t lie here – I was very excited to see that Artifex Mundi had decided to take a chance and try something completely different to the game they’d usually make. I was even happier to see it actually succeed. You know what the greatest thing of all about that is? Is the fact that their gamble actually worked. Whilst I was very much excited by the idea of a point-and-click game developed by Artifex Mundi what I ended up thinking, rightly, or wrongly is that it’d be a typical Artifex Mundi game where the layout is just changed from a first person perspective to that of a third person one. For a first effort, what I hoped for was competence, and what I expected was maybe a little derivativeness – what I wasn’t prepared for was near excellence. To give you a brief rundown of the setting – you play as Evan Kovolsky, an American journalist and for all intents and purposes is a card carrying communist, the interesting thing being, that the game is set during the cold war. So as you’d expect from something like that, Irony Curtain very much leans hard and heavy on some satirical elements, but they don’t over-egg the pudding with just those, it just provides some context for Evans eventual character arc. As you see his naive but endearing attitude towards his beliefs slightly change as he begins to see the real Matryoshka first hand as the game unfolds. That’s all I’m willing to say though, as people should absolutely see the plot unravel on your terms, but for what it’s worth, I thought it was incredibly engaging the whole way through. As is often the case with a successful point-and-click adventure title, they usually contain a vast amount of memorable and often funny NPC characters. Irony Curtain is no exception. It boasts a huge amount of memorable and oftentimes hilarious characters, the kind you’ll meet once and then spend parts of the game wondering and maybe even hoping they’ll crop up again. This was a genuine surprise to me – as I worried the thing that would fall the flattest would be the way Artifex Mundi utilised the characters and the overall tone, as that has never been one of their strongest suits – incredible art-style, oftentimes yes, but memorable characters are found in Artifex Mundi games far, far less often. Evan himself is a very effective protagonist – he’s bumbling and naive, but ultimately very endearing. An element that you can almost always guarantee from an Artifex Mundi game is strong artistic direction – and this is absolutely the case here, too. The general aesthetic is that of individual hand-painted scenes, that are just brimming with character and vibrant colours in the scenes that need them, but also a real understated and grimy. With an excellent attention to detail in parts of Matryoshka that look suitably dishevelled and dilapidated. There’s an interesting little Easter egg that you’ll come across in your pursuit of the trophies, which I thought was a gorgeous little touch by Artifex Mundi. For a little context Evan is adopted, so his family created a family tree for him – and to paraphrase his own words “some made up people, my family made to make me feel happier.” That’s fairly innocuous and cute, right? It’s only when you look at the family tree in more detail that you see how awesome it is. Each of the family members is an artist’s rendition of popular point-and-click characters, obviously tweaked ever so slightly to avoid copyright infringement, but you can absolutely see who’s who. That being said – the aspect of that picture that I loved the most – was the two people that Evan directly descended from, and when you look at it, and you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Those two characters are Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island and Goal from Deponia. It’s fascinating to me that Artifex Mundi decided to directly address their closest influences like that – because, there is something about that, which rings very true – to me at least, about Irony Curtain being a mixture of Monkey Island and Deponia. Irony Curtain is very similar to Deponia stylistically, whilst also having some of the sensibilities and plot eccentricities of Monkey Island. Even down to small things, like Evan’s naive bumbling likeability that he has in common with Guybrush. It’s a real love letter to the genre, but not in the same way something like Thimbleweed Park is, this game is a statement that the genre can still thrive, and still be worthy of attention, even in the modern era of gaming. I’d even argue that the puzzles found within Irony Curtain are of a general quality improvement over the usual type you’d find in an Artifex Mundi game (not that they are bad either, they just reappear very often, and if you play a lot, become a bit over familiar). I was absolutely, impressed by the fact that they leaned into being more in line with the genre, as opposed to going to the well with some of the familiar puzzles you’d expect from them. How many times can you say you’ve made a lever rise, by tying a condom inflated with helium onto it? Not many of us I’m sure, unless you work in a particularly odd subsection of engineering. The audio in Irony Curtain is of a pretty high quality across the board. Or at least its individual components are. What I mean by that, is that on start up the game has flatly balanced audio, but I’d personally recommend tweaking that a bit, as I found on a few occasions the soundtrack would completely drown out the dialogue sections, but it’s simple enough to fix that to your own preferences, and that’ll never be an issue. The original soundtrack itself pretty much feels appropriate for each situation, it does loop fairly often, but not in an obnoxious way. An element I thought that was of incredibly high quality was the voice acting, the audio was nice and crisp (especially after tweaking the soundtrack down a notch or two) I can’t think of any bad voice performances in the game, some of them caught me off guard with how genuinely funny they were. A good example being – Anna the games femme-fatale, and the way she sarcastically reacts to some of the patently obvious things Evan says whilst he’s none the wiser. A nice little touch is that the audio subtly, and unsubtly changes when you learn to speak Matryoshkan, as now the character speak in very deliberate ways – like the character you meet who makes Alcohol from mushrooms....sorry,sorry, SHROOMCAHOL, to give it its proper title, who speaks similarly to the most stereotypical hill-billy you can probably think of. Christopher Ragland was a real treat as Evan, in some respects he reminded me of Ren from Oxenfree where some of the ridiculous things he says at times you can’t help but crack one of those eye-rolling smiles. The route to the platinum in Irony Curtain is a fairly straightforward one – it has got a fair few missable trophies, as the game is one long linear line, so either have a guide to hand, or replay the game (it’s relatively short, between four and six hours I’d say, so either option is valid). There are a lot of miscellaneous trophies to be picked up, but some of them can give you a real smile from how obscure they are, this isn’t a game where the platinum will set you back a major amount of your time. Would I recommend this one? Absolutely, even if you never play another Artifex Mundi game again, this should appeal to you, even if you just like point-and-click adventure titles. It's chock full of funny references to plenty of things that aren't just from point-and-click sphere, and some of them did get some genuine laughs from me. I can safely say that this is one of the point-and-click games I’ve enjoyed the most in recent times. It has got a few hiccups here and there, sure, where some sections are a bit longer than they should be, but overall it was a great experience for me. For a first attempt at the genre, they did a fantastic job, and I’m really hopeful that this isn’t the last time they make one either. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing like washing the taste of a disappointing game away, with an awesome one like this! Consider my never actually absent faith in point-and-click adventure titles restored! I really hope that Artifex Mundi make more than just this one, because they have shown some real potential for making some absolutely top quality point-and-click fare here, for a type of genre that has a lot of lesser quality entries, it's so refreshing to see a company nail some of the tone and humour so well on just the first attempt. After getting the 100% completion ticked off on Resident Evil 5 last night..... Thanks so much @YaManSmevz for the assist, by the way dude! it looks like I've got to write my fist Resident Evil review in this thread, so I guess I'll start that later on after I've gone out for some driving practice this evening! Edited February 24, 2022 by rjkclarke 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 4 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I wonder how a closet nudist would react to that, I guess they'd just stand there and be like "AND......... you expected something else" I imagine the newly outed nudist being very grateful, and chasing the dude who pulled off his towel trying to give him a big hug? 4 hours ago, rjkclarke said: DDP has to have some magical abilities of some sort - because he's worked some absolute miracles with some of the people he's helped. Some really impressive stuff, especially the fact that he managed to get both Scott Hall and Jake Roberts to clean up and pretty much stay clean. I keep trying to get both of my parents to try out DDP Yoga as it's meant to do wonders for people suffering with arthritis, and help them get a lot more mobility, which I'm about 90% sure they both have a bit of now (arthritis ,) but I've not been able to sell them on the idea quite yet! I forgot about Jake Roberts... Damn, I'd try out DDP Yoga, even without the arthritis! 4 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I'd like to have seen him try that with New Jack..... He might be a real dead man a little quicker Too true??? that is a truly frightening man, New Jack! 3 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Platinum #346 Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love (PS4) Great write-up as always, sir! Really glad you were able to find something great after that ABC Dreckfest! I'm gonna start taking note of these point and clickers, I never had much interest before but I think I've finally read enough reviews to be more open to giving one a shot! 3 hours ago, rjkclarke said: After getting the 100% completion ticked off on Resident Evil 5 last night..... Thanks so much @YaManSmevz for the assist, by the way dude! it looks like I've got to write my fist Resident Evil review in this thread, so I guess I'll start that later on after I've gone out for some driving practice this evening! Dude, thank you! I'm this close to the hundo myself? Doo it! Doo it!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Kopite Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 On 2/22/2022 at 5:30 PM, rjkclarke said: You could always go hard at your completion rate if you ever felt the need to. I wouldn't mind getting mine up to 98% this year if I can manage that. I think the lowest on mine is 6% and that was from Hustle Kings..... Surprisingly that was about the only pool game I've never quite been able to get along with. I guess that'll happen when you make a pool game where it feels like smashing spherical concrete together. Sad times. 5 years is far too long to wait for just one piece of story content - especially when they were considering hot fixes and weapon buffs and nerfs as "new content" they are apparently a little better now for releasing content, but as I've not played the game since 2019 I wouldn't know. I checked just out of curiosity after you said that, and I was way off on the amount of DLC. It has 31 DLC packs. It has even more on the PS5 version So erm yeah, that's quite a lot. I should just power through it though, I put it down to be done for the ultra rare cleanup event. One of the trophies is for driving I think 1 million miles on this little skateboard thing called a K-Drive and that is really putting me off. I don't have a clue if they'll ever get to a Warframe 2. I don't know if you ever played it, but Warframe is actually like the, sort of sequel to Dark Sector,which was a pretty good PS3/360 game back in the day. Firstly, 98 percent completion rate would be highly impressive so congrats in advance if you achieve that! Secondly, yes I have tried and improved my completion rate a bit. When I first started trying to work on it, it was around 33 percent I believe so I've done a lot considering. My personal goal is not as high as 98 percent type amount, I'd be happy with 66.66. Yes absolutely. if a game franchise I was excited about did that, I'd be really miffed to say the least. Woah, 31 DLC packs?! That's insane! Got to be a record surely. Oooo any gamer loves those kind of trophies - drive 1 million miles types ones. They are delightful! lol I've heard of Dark Sector, but I've never played it. Recommend it? (Like I need more games lol) On 2/22/2022 at 5:30 PM, rjkclarke said: I can't remember if I've ever asked you this, but did you ever play Jedi Outcast or Jedi Academy back in the day? If not I reckon you might have a good time with the PS4 versions of those. I'm trying to get those both reviewed in here this week. Jedi Outcast is at the top of this page if you haven't read it. Those games might be up your alley if you fancy a bit of old school Star Wars goodness. Yes I played both and they were both very fun. I preferred Outcast personally (Probs in the minority there). I will probably get around to those PS4 versions at some point lol On 2/22/2022 at 5:30 PM, rjkclarke said: I don't think so - but the Game of the year edition goes on sale pretty often for about £9 sometimes which is a pretty good deal for the amount of content you get with it. I still need to go back and finish off all that DLC in it myself. ? On 2/22/2022 at 5:30 PM, rjkclarke said: No, gotta leave some of it a mystery haha I've posted my first name in here plenty, but I'll leave the others a mediocre mystery haha! I'm sure I saw an interview somewhere, where CM Punk said that the CM part of his name came from when he was in a tag team way, way back at the start of his career where they were called The Chick Magnets. Then he just kind of kept the CM part at the start of his name for the rest of his career. Hey, I mean it worked for him though. Haha! Royal Joker King is really good actually, I rather like that one. I can't really be JK though ... I was at a Jamiroquai gig a couple of years ago, and I wasn't on the stage..... You ever noticed how much he looks like Danny Dyer these days. Come to think of it, I've never seen the two of them in the same place either! haha fair do's Wow really? Never knew that. I've seen some of his interviews, very straight talking kind of guy. Yep the name works for him. I haven't seen JK for years so having an image in my head of him potentially being Danny Dyer is random lol You can keep Royal Joker King, just give me some credit for it haha On 2/22/2022 at 5:30 PM, rjkclarke said: Yeah I'm looking forward to a lot of PS5 titles myself - I'm just having to be an adult about not actively seeking one out. I'm learning to drive at the moment (I know I started very late) and I think I'm going to need a lot of lessons, and they unfortunately aren't cheap. I'll definitely need a few, especially considering the fact I've made the car bounce around like a Kangaroo a few times whilst trying to get the hang of smoothly changing gears. I feel pretty confident you'll have a great time with Wreckfest based on what you've said. Are you willing to share with us what the gameplay guide is on? Or are you keeping that under your hat? Firstly, kudos on learning to drive and I hope it goes well! Yes sadly they cost a lot of money when I learned so I'm sure its even more expensive nowadays. Yes I think I'll enjoy Wreckfest too, and yes I have to be an adult about getting a PS5 too lol having kids does that to you. I am pretty close to finishing it, so I'd prefer not to reveal what it is until it has been submitted for review at least. Let's just say that I will not be writing a gameplay guide again for a long while, it's taken way longer than I thought it would. Hope the end product will all be worth it! Once it has been hopefully published at the very least I would definitely tell you what it is. ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 12 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Platinum #346 Irony Curtain: From Matryoshka with Love (PS4) 12 hours ago, rjkclarke said: You know what the greatest thing of all about that is? Is the fact that their gamble actually worked. Whilst I was very much excited by the idea of a point-and-click game developed by Artifex Mundi what I ended up thinking, rightly, or wrongly is that it’d be a typical Artifex Mundi game where the layout is just changed from a first person perspective to that of a third person one. For a first effort, what I hoped for was competence, and what I expected was maybe a little derivativeness – what I wasn’t prepared for was near excellence. Fucking A! That's awesome to hear - what a pleasant surprise to see AM step outside their wheelhouse and have it work! I've always been convinced they had more chops than their rather conservative business model showed, and this one is going straight on my wishlist - not just because I want to play it, but because I want to encourage this kind of gamble - from all of the industry! 12 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Each of the family members is an artist’s rendition of popular point-and-click characters, obviously tweaked ever so slightly to avoid copyright infringement, but you can absolutely see who’s who. That being said – the aspect of that picture that I loved the most – was the two people that Evan directly descended from, and when you look at it, and you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Those two characters are Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island and Goal from Deponia. It’s fascinating to me that Artifex Mundi decided to directly address their closest influences like that – because, there is something about that, which rings very true – to me at least, about Irony Curtain being a mixture of Monkey Island and Deponia. Irony Curtain is very similar to Deponia stylistically, whilst also having some of the sensibilities and plot eccentricities of Monkey Island. Even down to small things, like Evan’s naive bumbling likeability that he has in common with Guybrush. This is actually really interesting when you think about it - I've always kind of wondered whether AM themselves consider their own output to be in the Point-n-Click Adventure genre, or if they saw themselves as more their own thing - born out of iOS style and Frogware / Nancy Drew stuff, as they have a lot of that side of influence too. I think this seems to confirm they see themselves as one prong of a progression from Lucas Arts / Sierra, rather than Frogware - not that I would mind either way, but it's interesting to consider how they see themselves! 12 hours ago, rjkclarke said: It’s a real love letter to the genre, but not in the same way something like Thimbleweed Park is, this game is a statement that the genre can still thrive, and still be worthy of attention, even in the modern era of gaming. I’d even argue that the puzzles found within Irony Curtain are of a general quality improvement over the usual type you’d find in an Artifex Mundi game (not that they are bad either, they just reappear very often, and if you play a lot, become a bit over familiar). I was absolutely, impressed by the fact that they leaned into being more in line with the genre, as opposed to going to the well with some of the familiar puzzles you’d expect from them. How many times can you say you’ve made a lever rise, by tying a condom inflated with helium onto it? Not many of us I’m sure, unless you work in a particularly odd subsection of engineering. This is just sounding better and better to me - the puzzles are the thing that brings me to AM again and again - the lazy-Sunday-Afternoon simple puzzle-style is a cozy blanket to me, and so hearing they keep those, but try the new style is just what I wanted to hear. 12 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I can safely say that this is one of the point-and-click games I’ve enjoyed the most in recent times. It has got a few hiccups here and there, sure, where some sections are a bit longer than they should be, but overall it was a great experience for me. For a first attempt at the genre, they did a fantastic job, and I’m really hopeful that this isn’t the last time they make one either. This - coming from you specifically, is quite an endorsement! Awesome stuff as always dude! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 22 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I forgot about Jake Roberts... Damn, I'd try out DDP Yoga, even without the arthritis! It does seem to have a remarkably good success rate, so I'd definitely consider it myself..... Might be good for the next time I accidentally have a fight with a flight of stairs and fall down them back first again, and end up walking around like an 96 year old again 22 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Too true??? that is a truly frightening man, New Jack! Any person that manages to make their own forehead look like a beetroot because of the amount of times they've sliced into it on purpose during a match, is yes...... A TRULY FRIGHTENING MAN, and that is an understatement. 22 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Great write-up as always, sir! Really glad you were able to find something great after that ABC Dreckfest! I'm gonna start taking note of these point and clickers, I never had much interest before but I think I've finally read enough reviews to be more open to giving one a shot! Thanks man! I am really glad that I found something to help get rid of whatever feeling that ABC Murders had given me. Irony Curtain was a real breath of fresh air. I must have reviewed quite a few point-and-clickers at this point thinking about it. You've already played a very good one in Grim Fandango if you want another Tim Schafer flavoured one then you might have a good time with Broken Age, that's one I'd recommend to anyone, it's got Doc's seal of approval too, or maybe Day of the Tentacle, that's another very good one, but it also feels as old-school as you can get. I guess the upside to Day of the Tentacle is - if you didn't like it it's still pretty short. It's my quickest platinum I think. and that was without even remotely trying to go fast, and I was done within under 4 hours. 14 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Firstly, 98 percent completion rate would be highly impressive so congrats in advance if you achieve that! Secondly, yes I have tried and improved my completion rate a bit. When I first started trying to work on it, it was around 33 percent I believe so I've done a lot considering. My personal goal is not as high as 98 percent type amount, I'd be happy with 66.66. Cheers.... Well right now I'm basically 1.1% away from hitting that, but in reality I don't know how tough that's going to be to really push that up, I guess diving back in and cleaning up some of my older games is the only way to find out. Fingers crossed I can though Getting to review an awesome game like Singularity is a big motivator though, so hopefully it won't feel like a chore. That's awesome to go from 33, to where you are now. Go with what you are comfortable with, and if that ever changes and you want to go higher, then at least you have the option too. That's kind of the approach I've taken with the little "cleanup jobs" as I like to call them. Otherwise I'd worry it'd become workmanlike and nobody needs that with a hobby that should be fun, right? I think you can hit 66 nicely, then you can always decide if you want to go higher from there I guess. 14 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Woah, 31 DLC packs?! That's insane! Got to be a record surely. Oooo any gamer loves those kind of trophies - drive 1 million miles types ones. They are delightful! lol I've heard of Dark Sector, but I've never played it. Recommend it? (Like I need more games lol) It very much might be, I wouldn't know. It has 32 on PS5 haha, so I'm guessing that one will end up even larger. Yeah actually, I would recommend Dark Sector, if you come across a copy for a decent price in CEX or something or Ebay, I'd give it a go. It doesn't have any trophies so it's essentially just a pretty enjoyable run through a decent third person shooter, with the really cool glaive controllable flying glaive mechanic that it has. It's only about 6 hours long. 14 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Yes I played both and they were both very fun. I preferred Outcast personally (Probs in the minority there). I will probably get around to those PS4 versions at some point lol No I don't think you are the minority - I used to prefer Academy, but when I replayed them last year, I preferred Outcast overall. But Academy still has vastly superior gameplay, which will probably be the thing I focus on most when I come to review Academy. I'd definitely recommend those PS4 versions - outside of the terrible save system they're very good experiences I found. 15 hours ago, The_Kopite said: I haven't seen JK for years so having an image in my head of him potentially being Danny Dyer is random lol You can keep Royal Joker King, just give me some credit for it haha I didn't think so either, but when I saw him live during his Automaton tour, a couple of years back I couldn't help but notice the resemblance They've got like the same facial structure and everything..... Also @YaManSmevz - if you ever wondered what the guy who plays Kent Paul in GTA looks like, he's the dude in the bottom picture. And yes, you can have the Royal Joker King credit if I ever make the change haha 15 hours ago, The_Kopite said: Firstly, kudos on learning to drive and I hope it goes well! Yes sadly they cost a lot of money when I learned so I'm sure its even more expensive nowadays. Yes I think I'll enjoy Wreckfest too, and yes I have to be an adult about getting a PS5 too lol having kids does that to you. Thanks for the belief man! I'm getting there slowly, I'm almost past the point where I'm constantly stalling..... but I also feel like I have about five feet, and nowhere to actually comfrtably put them yet whilst driving, but I guess it'll all come in time I guess sacrifices are the very small downside to being a responsible adult I guess. 15 hours ago, The_Kopite said: I am pretty close to finishing it, so I'd prefer not to reveal what it is until it has been submitted for review at least. Let's just say that I will not be writing a gameplay guide again for a long while, it's taken way longer than I thought it would. Hope the end product will all be worth it! Once it has been hopefully published at the very least I would definitely tell you what it is. Awesome! I'll keep my ear to the ground then..... Hopefully all your hard work will pay off - it sure doesn't go unnoticed in here, even though we're a select few I suppose, but clearly we absolutely aren't the only ones after you did really well at the guide of the year awards! 13 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Fucking A! That's awesome to hear - what a pleasant surprise to see AM step outside their wheelhouse and have it work! I've always been convinced they had more chops than their rather conservative business model showed, and this one is going straight on my wishlist - not just because I want to play it, but because I want to encourage this kind of gamble - from all of the industry! Absolutely mate! Those were my thoughts almost exactly - although I must admit I expect I was a little more sceptical than you were, that they quite had the chops it turned out they did have. I think you'll have a really good time with this one! Especially with the fact that like me you've played plenty of other AM titles, so the fact that this one is so, very different I think you'll probably enjoy it all the more for those reasons. It's a gamble that I'm so happy paid off, and just like you, I'd love to see some other companies industry-wide try their hand at a few other things too. 13 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: This is actually really interesting when you think about it - I've always kind of wondered whether AM themselves consider their own output to be in the Point-n-Click Adventure genre, or if they saw themselves as more their own thing - born out of iOS style and Frogware / Nancy Drew stuff, as they have a lot of that side of influence too. I think this seems to confirm they see themselves as one prong of a progression from Lucas Arts / Sierra, rather than Frogware - not that I would mind either way, but it's interesting to consider how they see themselves! It's interesting isn't it, because I've never really considered AM games to be truly point-and-click titles myself. I mean yes, you do point and click. But not in the same traditional sense that this is done. So I found it very interesting that was sort of how they seemed to perceive themselves too. I had always assumed they saw themselves as their own specific thing, and I still personally think they are. Realistically when I think of Hidden Object games, these days I almost always associate that with AM. Despite there being plenty of other developers that also make those games, so I definitely think there's an argument to be made that they've carved their own little specific thing out for themselves. 14 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: This is just sounding better and better to me - the puzzles are the thing that brings me to AM again and again - the lazy-Sunday-Afternoon simple puzzle-style is a cozy blanket to me, and so hearing they keep those, but try the new style is just what I wanted to hear. I feel like I might have been accidentally throwing a bit of unfair criticism their way with that statement. I like the familiarity of those puzzles too, and the cozy blanket analogy is almost a perfect one actually. There is definitely a nice balance of old and new ones too.... You know those cool little fuse box puzzles they have where you've got to make a shape out of putting the different fuses into the different coloured symbols to make a pattern? That one is there, along with a few other regular AM staples, but I like the fact they really lean into some of the weird eccentric puzzle solutions you'd associate with point-and-clickers too. They really balanced it well I thought. 14 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: This - coming from you specifically, is quite an endorsement! Awesome stuff as always dude! Cheers man! I really hope that you have a good time with it, when you play point-and-click games fairly often as I do, and whilst I generally love them, it's so refreshing when something like this just comes along and stands head and shoulders above some other ones..... As I have already wittered on about plenty for their first attempt, this was a really impressive effort. So I really, really hope this is not their last either, it'd be such a shame. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 26, 2022 Share Posted February 26, 2022 19 hours ago, rjkclarke said: It does seem to have a remarkably good success rate, so I'd definitely consider it myself..... Might be good for the next time I accidentally have a fight with a flight of stairs and fall down them back first again, and end up walking around like an 96 year old again Interviewer: Stairs, what's your prediction for your fight with rjkclarke? Stairs: Prediction? Interviewer: Yes, your prediction. Stairs: .....PAAIIINN.... 19 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I must have reviewed quite a few point-and-clickers at this point thinking about it. You've already played a very good one in Grim Fandango if you want another Tim Schafer flavoured one then you might have a good time with Broken Age, that's one I'd recommend to anyone, it's got Doc's seal of approval too, or maybe Day of the Tentacle, that's another very good one, but it also feels as old-school as you can get. I guess the upside to Day of the Tentacle is - if you didn't like it it's still pretty short. It's my quickest platinum I think. and that was without even remotely trying to go fast, and I was done within under 4 hours. You guys have definitely fleshed out the shortlist! Grim Fandango was excellent, I really enjoyed the emphasis on a goofy story and funny characters, and from what I've seen you say about the genre, there's much more of that to be expected, which I'm about! Sidenote: I really like Parappa the Rapper being my fastest plat, but It's a day and nine hours, so every time I play a game that can be finished in hours I end up deliberately stretching it out, because I have a problem? 19 hours ago, rjkclarke said: They've got like the same facial structure and everything..... Also @YaManSmevz - if you ever wondered what the guy who plays Kent Paul in GTA looks like, he's the dude in the bottom picture. I can very easily see this face saying "LOOK AT THE ASSSS ON THATT." Also I'm envious, I've never seen Jamiroquai? On 2/24/2022 at 11:25 PM, The_Kopite said: Secondly, yes I have tried and improved my completion rate a bit. When I first started trying to work on it, it was around 33 percent I believe so I've done a lot considering. My personal goal is not as high as 98 percent type amount, I'd be happy with 66.66. First of all, ??? Secondly, You should be proud of the progress you've made thus far, that's a big feat! I feel you'll hit that goal in no time dude. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted February 27, 2022 Author Share Posted February 27, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: Interviewer: Stairs, what's your prediction for your fight with rjkclarke? Stairs: Prediction? Interviewer: Yes, your prediction. Stairs: .....PAAIIINN.... Haha! Yes! Brilliant..... .....I wouldn't like my chances if some book-makers were actually trying to set up some odds on that one. That's not a fight I've actually managed to win just yet, so I guess for the moment I'll keep falling down them and having to walk around sideways like a crab, or with my arse stuck out like Donald Duck until I manage to put enough real life skill points into Strength and Vitality and can withstand the stairs barrage a little better . 6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: You guys have definitely fleshed out the shortlist! Grim Fandango was excellent, I really enjoyed the emphasis on a goofy story and funny characters, and from what I've seen you say about the genre, there's much more of that to be expected, which I'm about! Sidenote: I really like Parappa the Rapper being my fastest plat, but It's a day and nine hours, so every time I play a game that can be finished in hours I end up deliberately stretching it out, because I have a problem Goofy story and funny characters usually go skipping down the street hand-in-hand when it comes to point-and-clickers especially ones that have had some of Tim Schafers influence on them. So I think you'd definitely be in safe hands with one of those, but they can be a real good light-hearted way to relax, for me they're like a nice warm hug in video game form, although you have a Wife for that whereas I don't haha..... Not to sound too much like a lonely little tit ? I don't think that Parappa thing makes you too weird - I'm sure I've done that at least once, I think a long, long time ago when I played Magus on the PS3 I was pretty certain that was going to be my fastest platinum, and I was hoping it wouldn't be. I actually didn't hate that game though, so even if it had been I wouldn't have much cared. I'm not going to sing that games praises when I review it, but I'm not going to outright shit on it either. It isn't as bad as people say it is. 6 hours ago, YaManSmevz said: I can very easily see this face saying "LOOK AT THE ASSSS ON THATT." Also I'm envious, I've never seen Jamiroquai Kent Paul is basically just Danny Dyers public persona turned up to 11 ? Dude whilst we're on the subject, if you ever wondered what Maccer looks like... This is him... He's a fairly odd chap Shaun Ryder - he very much sounds like Maccer too in his everyday speech, I've told you about it before, but I remember almost howling with laughter at the way he reacted to a question about Alopecia and what had happened..... His response was just "I DUNNO WHAT HAPPENED REALLEH..... I JUST WOKE UP AND ME HAIR WAS GONE" In the exact Maccer voice that you can probably imagine. If you get a chance to see Jamiroquai live I'd absolutely recommend it man - hell of a good atmosphere when I saw him, pretty much the whole place was dancing including me, and I never usually dance unless I'm more than a few drinks deep ?? Edited February 27, 2022 by rjkclarke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted February 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 27, 2022 Classic Review Platinum #297 Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PS4) Jedi Grand Master Unlock all trophies A Few Trophy Stats Platinum Earned - 13 January 2021: 5:25:59 AM Time Taken to Platinum : 1 week, 6 days, 9 hours Platinum Rarity - 6.51% Trophy Number - #14,661 Picking up where we left off with Jedi Outcast – it’s time to throw some light onto the game I used to – rightly or wrongly think was superior to Jedi Outcast, back when I was a much younger person. It’s time for Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, which I guess we’ll call Jedi Academy from here on out. Released in 2003, just one year after the release of Jedi Outcast, we have Jedi Academy developed by Raven Software once more (I can’t be the only one that wanted to say NEVERMORE, instead of once more). This is the final instalment in the Jedi Knihjt/Dark Forces series. A game where you take on the role of fully customisable protagonist Jaden Korr as you adventure your way across a galaxy far, far away to bring down the Dark Jedi cultists, the Disciples of Ragnos. Let’s get this out of the way now – the nightmarish save system from Jedi Outcast makes its return here, it isn’t any better and I’d argue it rears its ugly head a little more egregiously in this one too. As you’re forced to play on the hardest difficulty for the platinum, which combined with an increase in platforming sections means you’ll probably be saving and reloading quite a lot. This is, as before, the game’s most glaring issue. A new edition in Jedi Academy comes in the form of Jaden the protagonist – depending on your stance the decision to have series mainstay Kyle Katarn take a backseat will either be a welcome one or an entirely unwelcome one. If you were asking me, I don’t particularly mind – for all intents and purposes, Kyle’s story reached a fairly natural conclusion in Jedi Outcast, so to see him take a lighter role in this game was not a problem for me. One of the most interesting things about Jaden as a protagonist is as I mentioned earlier the fact they are customisable. You can choose their gender and their specific species from quite a wide range of alien species from the wider Star Wars world. When I was younger I particularly loved this aspect, as I used to make it my mission to try and play through the game as every single species and gender at least once. Hey, I mean, you get what you can out of a game when you can’t afford to buy new ones all that often. With that customisation also comes the ability to personalise the lightsaber you start with, later on also being able to choose between a double-bladed lightsaber or a dual wielded set of lightsabers – something you can tweak and change as the game progresses too. The option to change both the appearance and the blade colour is open to you. I must say, even with the limited options of 2003 Jaden feels like your own unique creation, to a point. Here’s the thing – I have always found Jaden slightly less interesting as a male character than as a female character. Whether it’s the fact male Jaden is voiced in a fairly nondescript way, whereas female Jaden is voiced by legendary voice actress and one of my childhood crushes Jennifer Hale is the difference (can we have crushes on just a voice? I guess I can). Or it could be the fact that the dynamic throughout the story between Rosh and Jaden works better when you’re female. My personal take is that this plays better from a narrative standpoint with a female protagonist anyway. Here’s what the Jaden I chose for my first playthrough in the PS4 game looked like if you were curious. Unfortunately you don’t get too many customisation options for the clothing As you can see, whilst not overly polished the visual fidelity on display in Jedi Academy is still quite good, as it was in Jedi Outcast – not good enough to fully be considered a HD remaster, but as it’s not being sold as one I didn’t find it an issue. Jed Smith does a similarly good job to Todd Masten’s musical efforts from Jedi Outcast, in his ability to organically remix famous pieces of music from the Star Wars film series, yet configure them in such a way that they feel familiar and fresh for this game, and plot appropriate too. I do think Smith possibly went to the well a little too often with the Binary Sunset theme. It’s something that’s hard not to associate with anyone other than Luke Skywalker so when it isn’t used in that context, it does feel a little unusual. Jedi Academy’s narrative is actually quite versatile too – unlike Jedi Outcast you have a direct choice presented to you part way through the game. As you’d expect from Star Wars, it takes the form of a choice between light and dark. It ends up being a real divergent point in the game too – as whilst things play out in roundabout the same way, the way people react to you becomes very different, so for once the choice does end up being a fairly divergent one, one that will make the game harder or easier for you as a result. This leads me onto the mission structure – there are positives and negatives with this. To simplify it, Jedi Academy essentially contains three Acts, with five missions in each of them – and some sparse interlinking ones between the acts themselves. You aren’t required to do all five missions, you were allowed to skip one of your available choices, and proceed through the game. The positive to this, is also sort of a negative. The idea that the game is giving you somewhat of a choice – but unfortunately, it is an illusory choice. Your only real choice is the order you choose to do them, and to a degree which one you might choose to skip. Where the positives come in, is in the variety of the mission structure – almost no level in Jedi Academy is similar to the last one. This is a real hard one for me – I believe Jedi Outcast has a better structure, and a flow to its missions, but the sheer versatility and variety on offer in Jedi Academy almost wins me over too. If I was pitting the two games off against each other one-on-one then Jedi Academy would have to win in mission design too, just because you never stay in one place long enough to outstay its welcome. There’s a real flow to this game if you really get into it – and that’s helped by the huge variety in the level design and mission structure – you can go from solving puzzles, to plating bombs, to an escort mission (that is not terrible here surprisingly, who doesn’t love protecting innocents from becoming Rancor food?). I digress, where was I again, right, last but absolutely not least – and this really is just scratching the surface with variety this is just a few examples, you get to play a particularly dangerous game of hide-and-seek with a series fan favourite. What this means is that you never really stay doing the same thing for too long – but unfortunately, as a result it does make the plot feel a little disconnected, as a lot of the missions don’t actually have all that much relevance to the plot itself aside from those that take place between the Acts. At the missions conclusion you might get a little bit of expositional dialogue – which honestly, does feel a little too lacking at times. The gameplay will keep you going though – this game might be nearing its twentieth birthday, but you would never ever be able to tell, if this had modern graphics. I might have sung the praises of Jedi Outcasts specific gameplay feel – but this takes it to a whole new level – and that my friends is not hyperbole, those are facts. Jedi Outcast’s combat was nuanced, yes, but it was limited to just the singular lightsaber and force powers. Jedi Academy however, gives you three choices of lightsaber and customisable force powers. You heard that right folks – this time, you have a little more control over progression, as you can choose to upgrade certain force powers at your own pace. Want force lightning that will decimate an entire room full of enemies? Sure, you can do that before you even finish the first Act if you choose to. Or, if you fancied playing a little more conservatively and erred slightly on the side of caution, max out your force heal early and reap the rewards that way. I’m sure you get the picture – there is a lot on offer for you to choose from, and each one is just as valid as the next. There is just so much depth to the lightsaber combat – it is unreal – I never really even scratched surface with it in Jedi Outcast. So let’s take a little in-depth look. It might not seem like it is nuanced, but it really is. You could play the game wildly flailing your lightsaber around like a demented glowing helicopter, but that’s likely to get you killed pretty fast even on the lower difficulties. Instead, you could open your own copy of The Little Book of Calm, and assess your options and the situations strategically, even if you have to think on the fly at times. There really is something to be said about choosing the right move, for the specific situation you’re in – some lightsaber moves and flourishes work better on some enemies than others. This is fairly obvious I suppose, but when it really becomes apparent is when fighting the Dark Jedi’s. In Jedi Academy whilst fighting saber-to-saber with an opponent, if you want to block you can’t be attacking at the same time, so what this leads to, is the need for well timed openings, then seizing your opportunity to get a stray hit in or two where you can. Every single opportunity is an important one – and on the higher difficulties every single lightsaber encounter becomes an exhilarating one. Whilst they don’t really look like they do in the films – there’s some real satisfaction to be had when trading blows back and forth with opponents as you end up traversing an entire room in pursuit of one another – or in the case of later game areas, fighting multiple Dark Jedi and trying to control the flow of the fight, by leaping onto a wall running up it and performing a back-flip only to land right next to another enemy and get stabbed in the back whilst my defences were up. This game does a wonderful job of conveying how dangerous the lightsabers are presented as in the Star Wars films – the life or death aspect to them, that one or two stray hits from one could end you in seconds. I think Jedi Outcast and Academy get that feeling across so well. It really can get intense – I distinctly remember one bit in the PS4 version where I thought I had control of the situation. I was fighting several lightsaber wielding enemies at once, I had one in a Force Choke – as I was trying to manoeuvre him over a large drop for a quick kill, as another came at me from the side, as I had to momentarily stop, buzz him full of force lightning to keep him at bay before dropping his friend to his doom – then proceeding to do this to his friend, after a cautious battle.... .... As you can see I was on the brink of death when I finally managed to relieve the poor chap of his arm. It’s immensely satisfying gameplay like this, which has managed to keep an online multiplayer community for this game still populated to this very day – almost twenty years later. I must admit, I haven’t played too much of the online outside of the pursuit of trophies on the PS4 – but I can happily say that the local multiplayer in general in Jedi Academy is incredibly fun. I have some real fond memories of playing this late into the night with friends, when I was much younger, as that exhilarating combat can just bring out some of the most enjoyable and funny situations – especially when you marry that with some of the odd characters skins you can use in the multiplayer. Jedi Academy’s route to the platinum is a fairly interesting one – as there’s quite a lot of variability to how you approach it, you can either play it twice, or keep a specific save and then reload that, and play through a third of the game for the light or dark side choice trophy. You need to play through it on the hardest difficulty regardless, which you can’t get around on this game via the debug menu. You have half the health you’d usually have, but it does force you to learn some of the games intricacies in a little more detail so I really appreciated that aspect to it. It’s also got some nice references in the form of miscellaneous trophies, and mercifully you aren’t required to find all of the games secrets, so you aren’t required to meticulously check a guide, always a plus in my book. My only real complaint about the trophies is how bland they look – but hey, if that’s all we’re complaining about, that’s not really a problem at all. Would I recommend this one? Absolutely – It’s worth playing for the combat alone I’d say – you still to this day, will not find a Star Wars game with better combat in it, and that is a statement I’m happy to stick by, and I still expect to be the case after I get around to playing Jedi: Fallen Order. Does Jedi Outcast have a slightly more cohesive narrative flow and probably a slightly better game overall? Yes, but I think Jedi Academy has the far superior gameplay, and it isn’t even a closely run fight, despite what I might have thought initially. The fact that each bespoke mission is its own unique little playground that truly lets the gameplay shine absolutely helps a great deal here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks again go to @Copanele for putting in a request for this specific review... I've had a real blast looking back over these games - I have for the record always kept Jedi Academy installed on my console, so I might have to give it another go through soon, just because it's so damn enjoyable. Now that I've finally gotten Resident Evil 5 finished to 100% I guess that's the next review on the slate - which feels odd as that's going to end up being half classic review half fresh thoughts kind of one what with it actually being my 201st platinum yet my latest completion funny how that goes, huh - so I expect that's going to be all over the place to read... but we'll see ? Then I'll hopefully be able to cram in playing Little Nightmares finally, because I have put that game off for far too long at this point. Either way, I'll catch you all in the next one folks! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted February 27, 2022 Share Posted February 27, 2022 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: .....I wouldn't like my chances if some book-makers were actually trying to set up some odds on that one. That's not a fight I've actually managed to win just yet, so I guess for the moment I'll keep falling down them and having to walk around sideways like a crab, or with my arse stuck out like Donald Duck until I manage to put enough real life skill points into Strength and Vitality and can withstand the stairs barrage a little better . Just train in the wilderness like Rocky! You saw how high that got his vitality, my man was gettin knocked across the ring and kept comin back for more! ...what is it with me and Rocky all of a sudden... I'd put money on you. Especially with that Donald Duck technique? Aw man, that'd be a wrap! 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Goofy story and funny characters usually go skipping down the street hand-in-hand when it comes to point-and-clickers especially ones that have had some of Tim Schafers influence on them. So I think you'd definitely be in safe hands with one of those, but they can be a real good light-hearted way to relax, for me they're like a nice warm hug in video game form, although you have a Wife for that whereas I don't haha..... Not to sound too much like a lonely little tit This made me picture my wife coming home and walking in on me hugging my PS4, murmuring about dear sweet Timmy. Might not have a wife for long if that sort of thing happens on the regular? 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: I don't think that Parappa thing makes you too weird - I'm sure I've done that at least once, I think a long, long time ago when I played Magus on the PS3 I was pretty certain that was going to be my fastest platinum, and I was hoping it wouldn't be. I actually didn't hate that game though, so even if it had been I wouldn't have much cared. I'm not going to sing that games praises when I review it, but I'm not going to outright shit on it either. It isn't as bad as people say it is. Magus?? That's not a Chrono Trigger spin-off, is it? 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: Kent Paul is basically just Danny Dyers public persona turned up to 11 Dude whilst we're on the subject, if you ever wondered what Maccer looks like... This is him... That right there is a true happy sack of a man! 16 hours ago, rjkclarke said: If you get a chance to see Jamiroquai live I'd absolutely recommend it man - hell of a good atmosphere when I saw him, pretty much the whole place was dancing including me, and I never usually dance unless I'm more than a few drinks deep I would love to! I could only imagine... and I'm sure you couldn't help yourself! Jay's hat sent out the signals and next thing you knew your shoulders and hips were moving on their own - a phenomena I know all too well? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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