rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[The_Kopite]

2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

Hell yes! I saw Turtles in Time had a brief availability on PS3 and I was bummed to have missed it (ditto Simpsons arcade game). Although it would require re-playing the atrocious NES game by the looks of it?

Nice! Yeah I have the Simpsons arcade game, bloody good fun too! Haven't played a lot of them like the NES one as never owned one though is that the hard as nails one?

 

Hyperstone Heist and the Arcade Game are more than enough for me! 

[YaManSmevz]

9 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Nice! Yeah I have the Simpsons arcade game, bloody good fun too! Haven't played a lot of them like the NES one as never owned one though is that the hard as nails one?

 

Hyperstone Heist and the Arcade Game are more than enough for me! 

 

I'm a little put off by how many duplicate titles there are, but definitely on board for the arcade games alone! Also never played Manhattan Project or Hyperstone Heist so I'm about that too!

 

Yeah, the NES game has that infamous NES difficulty, and while granted I was a kid, I could never get farther than the third level? I'm curious to see how far I could get playing now!

[The_Kopite]

4 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

I'm a little put off by how many duplicate titles there are, but definitely on board for the arcade games alone! Also never played Manhattan Project or Hyperstone Heist so I'm about that too!

 

Yeah, the NES game has that infamous NES difficulty, and while granted I was a kid, I could never get farther than the third level I'm curious to see how far I could get playing now!

Hyperstone Heist is often (and probably fairly so) viewed as the lesser cousin as such of Turtles in Time but having a Mega Drive and no SNES back in the day, it was the only option I had and I couldn't get enough of that game. Brilliant music, gameplay and just loads of fun. Yeah there are a fair few duplicate titles, but I think that's almost a given with these kind of compilations.

 

Hey, I'll be interested to see how far I can get through that one too! Have a little friendly competition between the two of us haha

[YaManSmevz]

2 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Hyperstone Heist is often (and probably fairly so) viewed as the lesser cousin as such of Turtles in Time but having a Mega Drive and no SNES back in the day, it was the only option I had and I couldn't get enough of that game. Brilliant music, gameplay and just loads of fun. Yeah there are a fair few duplicate titles, but I think that's almost a given with these kind of compilations.

 

Oh shit, well that makes sense then! I was a Sness kid myself.

 

And yeah that's true. You never know if somebody woulda come out the woodwork like "Wait whatchu mean you ain't got the SNES versions of the arcade games, that's BULLSHIT" so I get that move.

 

2 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Hey, I'll be interested to see how far I can get through that one too! Have a little friendly competition between the two of us haha

 

[rjkclarke]

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Oh fuck! That's really heavy. I wonder how he found out. You may have given me some deep diving material...

 

"Oh God, why weren't you there that day..."

 

"Uh cuz I died, asshole."

 

Haha! Right! That's about the best excuse you can have though, unfortunately.

 

If I'm remembering right, I think a friend of hers let him know - you would have to assume she watched the at the time, two Before films, and probably put two and together maybe. It must have been a pretty gutting thing to find out, that's for sure!

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Oh wow, I'd feel like I was looking at Hawke's Reality Bites stunt double if such a thing had existed?

 

I think it's actually because of Boyhood's brilliant concept that I shied away from it, I was worried it would feel too gimmicky, or that like you said, I would be too dazzled by how the film was made to just pay attention to the plot (however odd all that may seem coming from someone who enjoyed Waking Life).

 

I have never actually seen Reality Bites - looking it up just now, I had no idea that Ben Stiller started directing as early as 1994, that's crazy.

 

I totally get where you're coming from on that one - your brain does get out of that mode eventually, or at least mine did, so I expect yours would.

 

One of the things I really like about it, is watching that kid develop as an actor, over the various time jumps - It's interesting because early in the film, the scenes are stolen by the actress playing his sister (who is also Richard Linklaters daughter) then further and further in, the reverse starts to happen, she's still good, but he gets even better.

 

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Hidden Fortress was the first Kurosawa film I bought - my local video rental store was gradually selling their stock as that whole style of business was on its way out, and when I saw it on sale I just shrugged and grabbed it (eventually copped Seven Samurai from that same place as well). Glad I did, it's kind of a wild movie, I wasn't expecting that! 

 

Oh boy do I know that feeling, just seeing something and picking it up because it's cheap, you can find yourself some real great films you probably wouldn't see otherwise that way. I'm glad Hidden Fortress ended up being one of the things you picked up though, that's very cool,

 

I did the same thing when our local Blockbuster was going out of business, it was sad in a way, as I was pretty gutted to see it close down, picked up some great games and films around that time. I refuse to take the label off my copy of Singularity on the PS3, as it still has some Blockbuster store branding on it.

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I meant to comment on this, great work on your review of 6! It does however rectify my decision to leave this game be indefinitely.

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Aww man... they even got a little dick there and everything?

 

Cheers man! - there was part of me that wanted to make that Resident Evil 6 deliberately short, because I just don't really like it all that much, but unfortunately I couldn't allow myself to not give it a fair go at analysis, and I went pretty in-depth. Which turned out to be in-depth on why I think it isn't worth peoples time haha ?

 

I'm glad you can somewhat see that from that logo image too - it just......yeah, that's all I've seen whenever I look at that. I can't unsee it now?

 

4 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Excellent! Yet another bump up in the backlog it gets.. between you, Doc, and Sabbath, I have full confidence that it's gonna be a great time?

 

Thanks again! I think you're going to love Little Nightmares personally, it is a heck of a good time. It was one of those things like a TV Show or a Film you really like, where right afterwards you instantly want to go and tell people to experience it because it's so awesome.

 

3 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Haha that's very true. Well I found my copy of RE0 so I will try for that platinum again at some point, and found some others too like Dissidia FF and Sonic Unleased so more of those games will be getting added though as for platinums, we will see how I do lol

 

No I know, it was just a joke but I know some do view it that way which is fine for them.

 

I've got to get back to FFXII at some point, got both steelbooks and they are very cool! 

 

That's a very fun platinum to go for Resident Evil 0 - it's not quite as fluid as the RE1 remake is, (if I do a list of Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinum's ever, then you can be sure that'll make the list)  but it's still very enjoyable as far as going for the trophies feels. I reckon you'll get through that one pretty quickly once you play it again and get reacclimatised to it.

 

I don't wish Dissidia FF or Sonic Unleashed on you though - I haven't heard great things about either of those, but as you love the franchises I'm sure you'll definitely find something to enjoy there with those.

 

Those Steelbooks do look gorgeous, I might have to pick that up, if there are any available that I won't have to sell my Organs for ?

 

I haven't played Final Fantasy XII since about 2012-ish, so it's been a while for me too.  I was attempting a perfect game around that time - and I think I got about 130 hours into that before I just stopped for whatever reason, but I ought to pick up the PS4 version, again the chance to write a review on that game is definitely something I'd look forward to, as I really dug FFXII, more than most people did I think.

 

4 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yes, the saving graces for RE on the PS3 were the 2 Revelations (though I played the 2nd one on PS4 but still). Haven't played Operation Raccoon City (don't even have it in the collection at the mo) but didn't hear the best things about it.

 

I'm never going to touch Operation Raccoon City or Umbrella Corps  and if anyone ever questions why that is, I will simply tell them it isn't canon. I don't know why they'd be asking, just a what if haha!

 

I don't think it is canon it's a what if version of RE2's events, so unless you're really into the lore of Hunk, and seeing him explored in a bit more detail, I can't really think of all that much reason to want to play it.

 

4 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

No we are definitely not in the minority. There is definitely a lot of people who want a Revelations 3 from what I've seen around the internet. Would sell really well. Knowing our luck, Capcom would do it but make it a Switch exclusive.

 

Then that would be the time to buy a Switch.... maybe..... maybe not ?.. You've got more of an excuse that way, to buy one to introduce your kids to gaming with though if Revelations 3 was on it.

 

4 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yes just saw the Little Nightmares review, keep up the great work!

 

Cheers dude! I really did end up loving that game.

 

4 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

 

Yeah indeed, like the rest of it (aesthetics, story bits, the map part) seem really intriguing but the gameplay, well yeah I'm on the fence. If I like it, it should all click and be really good, if not then I'll most likely leave it.

 

I've heard of Child of Light. Thought I might have played it back in the day even. Apparently that was Child of Eden lol yes I think I was put off a bit by the fact it had a 100% only, but I've heard very good things about it and to be fair, I didn't realise it was co-op, but that's more interested. Turn Based too!

 

We shall see with Diofields, fingers crossed it will be good though.

 

I think you'd probably really like Child of Light - I'm actually off to write a review of it once I've written this reply.

 

The co-op is a little bit tacked on, in that you only get to control a little floating ball thing as the other player, so it might not be super engaging for the other person on that level, but if you were both invested in the story, which is pretty interesting, and told in quite an interesting way, then it might not bother either of you. It's only about 8-10 hours too, so it isn't like it'd outstay its welcome. 

[realm722]

21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

@realm722 - You get a tag too. I can't find this on your profile, so I'll go ahead and assume you haven't played it yet. If you ignore the obvious comparison to Team Ico games that I made, I suspect you might like this. It's also a fairly quick completion if yo want it to be. It takes about 10-12 hours for the 100% if that. I just left it a few days between doing the speedrun.

 

So this could potentially tick two of your monthly quota boxes for games, in a 100% and an ultra rare completion (assuming the ultra rare doesn't have to have a platinum). If this is totally not up your street then I apologise for the tag, and I'll go and hang my head in shame somewhere haha!

 

Hehehe, thank you for the tag. I have never played Little Nightmares. I've gotta be honest, it's one of the hit indies I've avoided since I REALLY don't do horror. Like at all. I don't think I've played a true horror video game... ever. I'm so much of a coward the underwater sections in Horizon Forbidden West made me deeply uncomfortable. In terms of film, only 6 of the 393 films I have in my movie spreadsheet have the word "Horror" in the genre title. 

 

Despite that, you've piqued my interest. I'm always scooping out 100%'s to complete as I can very often find myself scraping the bottom of the barrel on what's out there. Checking the recent gigantic indie sale, I see it's on sale for $5 but I'd prefer holding off for the complete edition so I can snag the 3 DLC's. Given the fact it goes on sale every few months for $7.50, I'll scoop it up next time I see it available! I can guarantee I'll 100% @ you post-review whether it be praises for the fun experience or lashing out for taking me out of my comfort zone. ?

[rjkclarke]

8 minutes ago, realm722 said:

Hehehe, thank you for the tag. I have never played Little Nightmares. I've gotta be honest, it's one of the hit indies I've avoided since I REALLY don't do horror. Like at all. I don't think I've played a true horror video game... ever. I'm so much of a coward the underwater sections in Horizon Forbidden West made me deeply uncomfortable. In terms of film, only 6 of the 393 films I have in my movie spreadsheet have the word "Horror" in the genre title. 

 

Despite that, you've piqued my interest. I'm always scooping out 100%'s to complete as I can very often find myself scraping the bottom of the barrel on what's out there. Checking the recent gigantic indie sale, I see it's on sale for $5 but I'd prefer holding off for the complete edition so I can snag the 3 DLC's. Given the fact it goes on sale every few months for $7.50, I'll scoop it up next time I see it available! I can guarantee I'll 100% @ you post-review whether it be praises for the fun experience or lashing out for taking me out of my comfort zone. 

 

That makes sense actually. If it's any consolation I'm really not that much of a horror person either. Despite really liking Resident Evil, I don't get on too well with horror myself. It tends to make me a lot more nervous than I'd like. Every once in a while though I do like to play the odd video game you could call horror as well as dip into the odd horror film too. Just whenever the mood takes me - and it seems to have done a fair bit lately ?

 

If an underwater section in Forbidden West freaked you out, then probably avoid ever playing SOMA, as much as it pains me to say that. I genuinely think that game is brilliant but some of the underwater and claustrophobic aspects of that game terrified me in places, I'd be lying if I said otherwise ?

 

I'm really glad its got your interest though, because I think Little Nightmares is absolutely worth peoples time. Plus y'know it ticks at least one of your boxes, maybe even two. I'd absolutely wait for the sale on the complete edition yeah. The DLC is really top notch stuff, as I said, turns an already great game into an even greater one!

 

Either way I look forward to seeing what you think of it but the fact it controls a bit like a Team Ico game was why I was a little hesitant in recommending it to you, but there isn't any friendly A.I that you have to worry about, so it isn't like you have to yell at a digital Catbirdog in this one either .... Something I know you aren't too fond of haha!

[rjkclarke]

An Illuminating New 100% Completion

 

Child of Light (PS4)

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

100% Achieved - 13 March 2022 : 6:16:14 PM

Time taken to 100%: - 3 days, 15 hours, 29 minutes

100% Rarity - 21.36%

 

 

Child of Light is a stunningly unique and fairly original turn based RPG brought to you by Ubisoft. No, you don’t need to readjust your varifocals, spectacles monocles or whatever else you use to enhance your vision.  I did just say unique and Ubisoft within the same sentence. I shock myself sometimes.  

 

I don’t want this to deviate too much from the review, but it must be said that while it’s easy to throw a little bit of criticism Ubisofts way for stale formulas. And bland shallow feeling open worlds, some of their smaller scale games, can often be something very different.

 

I’m talking about games like, Grow Home, Grow Up and Valiant Hearts: The Great War to name just a few – and now, after playing it, I’d happily add Child of Light to that list too.

 

So what exactly is Child of Light? You take the role of Aurora, a girl who has just died in her sleep and been transported to a fantastical land, called Lemuria. You wake up on an altar, and you’re off on an adventure spanning Lemuria with your floating firefly Igniculus, and a gaggle of Lemuria’s inhabitants. I’m not even going to try and go into detail with the story, I’m  always as spoiler free as possible, and I think this one is very much worth experiencing first hand.

 

I mentioned that Child of Light is unique, yes? One of the areas where this is the case is the way the dialogue is written for the game. You only ever hear one voice actor the whole game, in the form of the narrator, all of the other dialogue is written and shown via text bubbles, exactly the way it would be in a more traditional RPG of years gone by. The unique thing about it though, is that everything is told via rhymes.

 

I could quite imagine that this might be one of the more divisive areas of the game – I suspect you’ll either find this charming, or you’ll probably find it irritating. I found it to be pretty charming – I really appreciated how creative they had to get to fit certain rhymes in, and I can always appreciate an obviously large effort like that.

Whilst we’re on that subject, that rhyming scheme did scramble my brain for a while. I remember after playing the game for a good four hours or so in one session, whenever I’d read something – in my head, it would be in this odd almost rhythmic cadence you’d get from rhyming. If any of you played it and had that same effect I’d love to know, otherwise I should probably seek some professional help.

 

But I digress – (surprise surprise, right?) Child of Light is full to the brim with an intriguing world, some fascinating characters and an interesting lore that you could easily mine multiple games out of. Am I pleased that one of the few video game characters I’ve encountered with the same name as me – also happens to be a money obsessed horny little talking mouse (yes, that’s a thing). Not really, but I guess it could be worse.

 

I’d say one of the most distinctive aspects of Child of Light, comes in the form of its absolutely gorgeous art-style. Practically every section of the game has this distinct and unique storybook aesthetic – an almost painstakingly yet lovingly crafted hand painted watercolour fell, too. If you’ve played Oxenfree, then you’ll get the gist, but if you haven’t I’ll give you an example.

 

This is one of many I could have chosen.

 

 

Not only do they look stunning – each distinct area has its own look and feel, which I think really goes a long way in setting the tone for the different areas of Lemuria. I suppose a very minor criticism is that whilst all of the characters – even NPC’s that you meet during smaller quests look very unique. You can’t quite say that about the enemies, as they are often just re-skinned or re-coloured versions of earlier ones. This just comes with the territory in RPG’s though; it didn’t in anyway detract from my enjoyment of the game.

 

Child of Light’s music is something very special – the problem – or more dilemma, is that I struggle to listen to it for very long. Beatrice Martin (Couer de pirate) did an absolutely stunning job with this soundtrack. The thing is – there’s just something about it that makes me desperately sad. There are elements of it that are very whimsical, and a lot of it is quite upbeat. Yet some of it also has a really melancholic feel to it, which brilliantly reminds you of some of the underlying themes the game deals with.

The more I started to think about it, as I was floating along absent mindedly as Aurora, myself drifting off in thought, there was the odd time I could almost feel my eyes starting to leak.  A fantastic soundtrack, but not one I’d rush to listen to, just because of how sad it made me feel. It almost perfectly fits the tone of the entire game though, so that is an absolutely impressive thing. There were elements that really reminded me of the Scottish sections of Yesterday Origins (my absolute favourite pieces of music from that game). I could see myself listening to Off to Sleep quite often though – much like Ashley Barrett did in Transistor, Beatrice Martin’s voice has a real power to it.

 

I had the soundtrack on as I was writing this – and I hopped into the comments section out of curiosity. I don’t wish to mock the person that said this at all – their comment made me read it in Forrest Gumps voice for some reason, but they put “Every time I hear this, I feel depressed and happy at the same time” I can absolutely understand that one.  

 

Another very interesting area of Child of Light comes in the form of its gameplay, and more importantly its turn based combat. Gameplay itself is fairly simple, you get access to flight very early into the story, so you essentially fly everywhere avoiding some environmental obstacles.

 

The real main course of the gameplay – as I said is in the form of the turn based combat. For a game that is no more than about fifteen hours at most, they certainly managed to cram a lot of variability into this. It might seem a little intimidating at first, as enemies hit hard, and the further you get they only hit harder.

 

This particular brand of turn based combat actually has a lot in common with Final Fantasy X, in that you and the enemies are on a timeline of when you can attack, there are various ways you can increase your speed too, equipment, potions, that sort of thing. The enemies however, are on the same timeline as you – you can push them back, to stagger them to delay when they can attack, yet they can do the exact same thing to you.

That aspect is where it really starts to get interesting, there are plenty of options open to you with how you approach them, and almost all of them are viable. Igniculus also plays into the combat too – as he can either heal the player or slow down the enemies, at the cost of his own magic, adding another layer of variability.

After all, you get a lot of party members, each specialising in certain battle quirks, so you can essentially play the way you want to, and so long as you find a strategy that works for you, you’re golden. You could play it as a risk or reward, by not defending yourself in favour of extra damage, or you could equally play very strategically with the intention of repeatedly staggering enemies to give yourself as much breathing room as possible. That choice is yours.

 

Child of Light also contains a co-op element to it, although I don’t personally think it’s as well realised as it could be. Instead of controlling the other party member in the battle like you might expect, the co-op player has control over Igniculus, and whilst that could be helpful during the game, I doubt that probably translates to a dynamic experience for the one controlling them. It’s a very small complaint though, you could choose not to play co-op and still have a very enjoyable time with the game.

 

If you’ve got ten hours or so free, you like a genuinely interesting visual aesthetic, or just enjoy turn based RPG’s then I think there’s something there for you with this game. I still think this game is worth experiencing, it might not blow you away, but elements of it are utterly and almost undeniably interesting. The trophies are pretty simple and straight forward, even finding the collectibles isn’t a chore. It took me about twenty minutes of post game cleanup to find any that I missed. They’re fascinating reads too, exactly the kind of collectibles that you want, where there aren’t too many, and what there are, end up enhancing the world building greatly.

 

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

 

I honestly didn't expect to enjoy that one, as much as I thought I would - one of my friends has been telling me to play this one for quite a long time, and as usual I'm a little bit ticked off that I didn't play it sooner!

 

Oh well I have now, I'm glad that I did. Now I'm off to go and play Skyrim for a little bit before I pass out from sleep deprivation, see if I can unlock my first trophy in that game for over ten years haha ?

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Yo, two different awesome reviews in one weekend?!

 

Outstanding work!

 

 

On 13/03/2022 at 1:31 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

Little Nightmares (PS4)

 

Indulge me for a moment please – my inner mole person needs to take over this review momentarily. Little Nightmares has got some of the very best sound design that I have ever encountered in a video game – it might not seem like it on the surface, it’s very minimalist in nature, yet that is absolutely to its benefit. What that means is that every single sound is deliberate – and as a result, means something.

Whether it’s the horrible rattling breaths of The Janitor, the unsettling coughing from The Twin Chefs, sometimes tricking you into thinking you’re about to be spotted, to even the smallest and slightest creaks and metallic groans that punctuate the brief moments of silence. Every little thing is purposeful and each small detail means something.

Creating a soundscape can be such an enjoyable process, and judging by the amount of minute detail that went into this one, you can absolutely tell that the sound designer put an incredible amount of effort into making it as good as it can be.

 

When you couple that near immaculate sound design, with an incredibly rich soundtrack, just those two components lashed together usually leads to something very special. To say that listening to the soundtrack to Little Nightmares is enjoyable would probably be a lie. I must say, I love it, I think it’s incredibly well made – yet, it also happens to be shockingly unsettling in places, and not something I’d listen to for enjoyment. Throughout the ambient atmospheric pieces, you have cacophonous noises – that in a sense really compliment the games visual element.

One that I found particularly haunting can be heard during the final chapter of the game – there’s this unsettling dull humming, against a backdrop of harsh ambient sound – it reminded me so much of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. I can appreciate how good it is, but it definitely made me want to plunge my fingers into my ears, crawl up into a ball and rock back and forth shouting “SCARY BAD” like Raymond from Rain Man.

 

Totally - it's pretty rare for me to specifically go out of my way when playing a game to "set the mood", so to speak, and even rarer for me to go out of my way to recommend other people do the same - but with Little Nightmares games, I absolutely would tell anyone - play with headphones, at night, with the lights off!

So much of the creepy atmosphere is built out of the audioscape - and they seem to just know exactly how to fuck up the player in the most effective ways! It knows exactly when to stay quiet - and when to go loud... (The Inception-style BWAAAAAAAHHHHMMM at the "gnomic-sausage-flavoured nightmare-fuel moment, for example!)... and you're right, since every sound is meaningful, they can end up sending a chill through your occipital with just a distant metal clang, or a shuffling sound! 

 

That's funny that you mention Eraserhead - that's not one that occurred to me during play, but you're absolutely right... there is some of the same kind of "This isn't just horrifying, it's strangely horrifying" element to it... and that can be so much more fraying on the nerves!

 

On 13/03/2022 at 1:31 AM, rjkclarke said:

I think Little Nightmares visual element is equally masterful. Could you tell I really enjoyed the game yet? Seriously though – I am admittedly a real sucker for evocative imagery. I think considering the amount of film I’ve watched over the years, that’s a given at this point. However, Little Nightmares imagery is both haunting, and evocative, in places even in equal measure. Even down to small little things, like seeing small movements in the background as you’re running through particularly dark areas reminding you, you’re absolutely not alone.

 

There was a very specific part of the game that momentarily turned my brain into a spinning top for a little bit. It’s a part that might not even register as scary for some people – yet it’s a perfect example, of how well this game taps into some psychological aspects that can affect us all, object and image association.  

If you’ve played it, it’s the area where you’re in a room full of shoes. That sounds innocuous, right? Here’s the thing, I have a very vivid memory from when I was about seventeen, visiting the Imperial War Museum in London and seeing an incredibly harrowing image of concentration camp victim’s shoes just piled high, it has stayed with me for years, and it is absolutely heartbreaking.

All the while I was playing that section of Little Nightmares I couldn’t shake that horrific feeling, and then, well, to quote Luke Skywalker from the original Star Wars film “There’s something alive in here.” In that brief moment I was Six, relentlessly and desperately moving as quickly as I could to get out of there, to the safest possible place.   

 

That isn’t really even scratching the surface with how powerful some of the imagery is. It’s incredibly interesting from a design point of view too; none of the characters look wholly realistic. If you’re familiar with the work of Henry Selick, then you’ll probably find some familiarity there, it almost feels like Henry Selick merged with Terry Gilliam in its styling, it’s incredibly vivid and interesting, the way it handles human characters, the way the game over-exaggerates certain proportions.

In that same vein, the objects are deliberately scaled up, to make every little facet of the world look that much more foreboding and formidable contrasted against Six’s much smaller stature. It’s a brilliant touch.

 

This is totally right too - the Gilliam thing really struck me - the enemy and character design feels like the Monty Python interstitials, but viewed through the lens of a bad dream!

 

On 13/03/2022 at 1:31 AM, rjkclarke said:

The gameplay also does a wonderful job of building atmosphere excellently, at least in my opinion it does. It’s simplistic in nature – you can: run, jump, push, pull, crawl, sneak, slide, sprint and use a lighter. But the game does a fantastic job of making sure you learn how to utilise each of those pieces of movement effectively. In this case, less really is more.

 

Little Nightmares contains some very small scale stealth and combat sections – to tell you the truth the stealth is closer to hide-and-seek than anything, but that doesn’t stop your heart racing even when you’re about ninety percent sure you’re safe. Whereas the combat, is more like a discrete puzzle than strictly the sort of combat you’d expect from a video game.

 

If you aren’t a fan of platforming don’t be too put off here – the platforming is imprecise, and doesn’t require perfection, just understanding the weightiness of Six more than anything.  In fact, as it happens, almost every element of the gameplay is a little imprecise. But – you guessed it; I think that really adds to the atmosphere.

 

This might be a bit of personal bias creeping in here – if it is, feel free to set the spindly armed Janitor on me. I think this game is all the better for having imprecise platforming. Some of the tensest moments I ever encountered in this game, came as a direct result of not managing to judge the distance of a slide to get under a table – or even something as simple as running on the wrong part of the floor, being heard and having to platform on the fly, in the moment.

For me it created this stomach churning feeling, where you know the imprecise platforming could be your downfall if you do something as simple as approach something from the wrong angle – an element that is only magnified during the deathless speedrun.

 

Yeah.... I won't go into a whole thing about that one,(since I write a whole essay about that one trophy ??,) but that is maybe the one element of the game I take issue with - I think the imprecision of the controls, and the unpredictability of the enemies is fantastic for the game, but doesn't marry well at all with that speedrun / no-death trophy. They removed that kind of challenge from the sequel, and I think it is better for it.

Something like Limbo (which I'm sure was an inspiration for LN generally, and that trophy specifically) makes it work, but while that game feels 'floaty' in the same way, it's actually a much more precise control scheme, and the 2D plane takes away a lot of the issues LN has in that regard.

 

 

On 13/03/2022 at 1:31 AM, rjkclarke said:

 

If you’d like a comparison point – then I’d personally say that Six controls fairly similarly to characters from Team Ico’s roster of games. Even down to element of a specific grab button, that has to be held down during traversal. It takes a while to get used to, but eventually it will start to feel natural.  

 

Totally - and actually, another game that has a speedrun trophy that I don't think suits it terribly well either!

 

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Child of Light (PS4)

 

 

Child of Light is a stunningly unique and fairly original turn based RPG brought to you by Ubisoft. No, you don’t need to readjust your varifocals, spectacles monocles or whatever else you use to enhance your vision.  I did just say unique and Ubisoft within the same sentence. I shock myself sometimes.  

 

? Poor Ubisoft... I really like their games generally, but they really do bring this on themselves!

All they need is a few more Child of Light style indie adjacent games, and they could counter that perception... but they just don't seem to have the wherewithal of late!

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I don’t want this to deviate too much from the review, but it must be said that while it’s easy to throw a little bit of criticism Ubisofts way for stale formulas. And bland shallow feeling open worlds, some of their smaller scale games, can often be something very different.

 

I’m talking about games like, Grow Home, Grow Up and Valiant Hearts: The Great War to name just a few – and now, after playing it, I’d happily add Child of Light to that list too.

 

man - Valient Hearts, that was an Ubisoft too! They have the chops for doing this kind of stuff - they just need to lean into it!

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

So what exactly is Child of Light? You take the role of Aurora, a girl who has just died in her sleep and been transported to a fantastical land, called Lemuria. You wake up on an altar, and you’re off on an adventure spanning Lemuria with your floating firefly Igniculus, and a gaggle of Lemuria’s inhabitants. I’m not even going to try and go into detail with the story, I’m  always as spoiler free as possible, and I think this one is very much worth experiencing first hand.

 

I mentioned that Child of Light is unique, yes? One of the areas where this is the case is the way the dialogue is written for the game. You only ever hear one voice actor the whole game, in the form of the narrator, all of the other dialogue is written and shown via text bubbles, exactly the way it would be in a more traditional RPG of years gone by. The unique thing about it though, is that everything is told via rhymes.

 

I could quite imagine that this might be one of the more divisive areas of the game – I suspect you’ll either find this charming, or you’ll probably find it irritating. I found it to be pretty charming – I really appreciated how creative they had to get to fit certain rhymes in, and I can always appreciate an obviously large effort like that.

Whilst we’re on that subject, that rhyming scheme did scramble my brain for a while. I remember after playing the game for a good four hours or so in one session, whenever I’d read something – in my head, it would be in this odd almost rhythmic cadence you’d get from rhyming. If any of you played it and had that same effect I’d love to know, otherwise I should probably seek some professional help.

 

? I'm with you - it's the same effect I used to get back when I was reading young children books to my kid a lot - you get so used to reading everything out loud and in a meter, that I would be sitting in work reading the technical documentation for an industrial centrifuge or something, and in my head, it'd be in trocaic tetrameter ?

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I’d say one of the most distinctive aspects of Child of Light, comes in the form of its absolutely gorgeous art-style. Practically every section of the game has this distinct and unique storybook aesthetic – an almost painstakingly yet lovingly crafted hand painted watercolour fell, too. If you’ve played Oxenfree, then you’ll get the gist, but if you haven’t I’ll give you an example.

 

Not only do they look stunning – each distinct area has its own look and feel, which I think really goes a long way in setting the tone for the different areas of Lemuria. I suppose a very minor criticism is that whilst all of the characters – even NPC’s that you meet during smaller quests look very unique. You can’t quite say that about the enemies, as they are often just re-skinned or re-coloured versions of earlier ones. This just comes with the territory in RPG’s though; it didn’t in anyway detract from my enjoyment of the game.

 

So, a lot of games have done the 'sketchbook/ watercolour" art-style - it's hardly original, especially in the indie sphere - but I genuinely think Child of Light might be my personal high watermark of that style. Even more so than Gris - and that's saying something!

 

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Child of Light’s music is something very special – the problem – or more dilemma, is that I struggle to listen to it for very long. Beatrice Martin (Couer de pirate) did an absolutely stunning job with this soundtrack. The thing is – there’s just something about it that makes me desperately sad. There are elements of it that are very whimsical, and a lot of it is quite upbeat. Yet some of it also has a really melancholic feel to it, which brilliantly reminds you of some of the underlying themes the game deals with.

The more I started to think about it, as I was floating along absent mindedly as Aurora, myself drifting off in thought, there was the odd time I could almost feel my eyes starting to leak.  A fantastic soundtrack, but not one I’d rush to listen to, just because of how sad it made me feel. It almost perfectly fits the tone of the entire game though, so that is an absolutely impressive thing. There were elements that really reminded me of the Scottish sections of Yesterday Origins (my absolute favourite pieces of music from that game). I could see myself listening to Off to Sleep quite often though – much like Ashley Barrett did in Transistor, Beatrice Martin’s voice has a real power to it.

 

Totally agree - I actually think the boss battle theme in Child of Light (the one with the choral chanting) remains one of my favourite pieces of game OST - it's a style that countless Final Fantasy games have done, and yet I don't think any of those have ear wormed into my subconscious in quite the same way!

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

This particular brand of turn based combat actually has a lot in common with Final Fantasy X, in that you and the enemies are on a timeline of when you can attack, there are various ways you can increase your speed too, equipment, potions, that sort of thing. The enemies however, are on the same timeline as you – you can push them back, to stagger them to delay when they can attack, yet they can do the exact same thing to you.

That aspect is where it really starts to get interesting, there are plenty of options open to you with how you approach them, and almost all of them are viable. Igniculus also plays into the combat too – as he can either heal the player or slow down the enemies, at the cost of his own magic, adding another layer of variability.

After all, you get a lot of party members, each specialising in certain battle quirks, so you can essentially play the way you want to, and so long as you find a strategy that works for you, you’re golden. You could play it as a risk or reward, by not defending yourself in favour of extra damage, or you could equally play very strategically with the intention of repeatedly staggering enemies to give yourself as much breathing room as possible. That choice is yours.

 

The combat in this game is actually the one thing that really made me want a Child of Light 2 - generally, the game is very much self-contained, and narrative-wise, I don't think it needs, or would really benefit from a sequel - but I thought the combat was actually much more interesting and nuanced than one might expect from it, and I'm fairly sure it could sustain a game twice the length of Child of Light no problem.

 

 

6 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Oh well I have now, I'm glad that I did. Now I'm off to go and play Skyrim for a little bit before I pass out from sleep deprivation, see if I can unlock my first trophy in that game for over ten years haha ?

 

Excellent...

....keep diving back into that game, my friend...

...that exploration of an open world will set the table nicely for when I force you, at gunpoint if necessary, to try Elden Ring!

Mwaahahaahahaahaha! ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The_Kopite]

13 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Oh shit, well that makes sense then! I was a Sness kid myself.

 

And yeah that's true. You never know if somebody woulda come out the woodwork like "Wait whatchu mean you ain't got the SNES versions of the arcade games, that's BULLSHIT" so I get that move.

Haha the old Nintendo vs Sega rivarly, epic.

 

You know there would have been someone like that!

 

?for the friendly comp!

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's a very fun platinum to go for Resident Evil 0 - it's not quite as fluid as the RE1 remake is, (if I do a list of Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinum's ever, then you can be sure that'll make the list)  but it's still very enjoyable as far as going for the trophies feels. I reckon you'll get through that one pretty quickly once you play it again and get reacclimatised to it.

 

I don't wish Dissidia FF or Sonic Unleashed on you though - I haven't heard great things about either of those, but as you love the franchises I'm sure you'll definitely find something to enjoy there with those.

 

Those Steelbooks do look gorgeous, I might have to pick that up, if there are any available that I won't have to sell my Organs for

 

I haven't played Final Fantasy XII since about 2012-ish, so it's been a while for me too.  I was attempting a perfect game around that time - and I think I got about 130 hours into that before I just stopped for whatever reason, but I ought to pick up the PS4 version, again the chance to write a review on that game is definitely something I'd look forward to, as I really dug FFXII, more than most people did I think.

Yes indeed, I think I talked about how I did the Leech Hunter mode and fudged it up and never went back to it, so I'd have to do that one properly this time and then I;m sure I'd be back in a groove with it. 

 

That Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinums ever list sounds like an interesting future read!

 

Yes I haven't heard great things about either tbh, and they are very hard difficulty and long platinums so probably won't get either, but might as well give them a go! As you say, they are from my favourite franchises so I'll get enjoyment out of them still in some ways.

 

The Steelbooks are wicked.

 

Yes absolutely, you'd get it for reasonably cheap nowadays I'd guess. I have my save set up with all characters (I think) having that overpowered bow (can't remember the name) so that'll be pretty funny to one shot enemies haha

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm never going to touch Operation Raccoon City or Umbrella Corps  and if anyone ever questions why that is, I will simply tell them it isn't canon. I don't know why they'd be asking, just a what if haha!

 

I don't think it is canon it's a what if version of RE2's events, so unless you're really into the lore of Hunk, and seeing him explored in a bit more detail, I can't really think of all that much reason to want to play it.

Haha I don't think any one will question that decision. Umbrella Corps was digital only I believe, but Operation Raccoon City will be added to the collection one day. If it's released physically, it gets added for my favourite franchises, whether the quality is questionable or not lol

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Then that would be the time to buy a Switch.... maybe..... maybe not .. You've got more of an excuse that way, to buy one to introduce your kids to gaming with though if Revelations 3 was on it.

My kids and wife would love a Switch I'd bet. Maybe start them with Sonic or Mario rather than jumping straight into an RE title haha

 

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

We shall see with Diofields, fingers crossed it will be good though.

 

I think you'd probably really like Child of Light - I'm actually off to write a review of it once I've written this reply.

 

The co-op is a little bit tacked on, in that you only get to control a little floating ball thing as the other player, so it might not be super engaging for the other person on that level, but if you were both invested in the story, which is pretty interesting, and told in quite an interesting way, then it might not bother either of you. It's only about 8-10 hours too, so it isn't like it'd outstay its welcome. 

Fingers crossed!

 

Yeah just saw your review, sounds like a very good game. I'll discuss the option with the wife at some point!

[YaManSmevz]

16 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Child of Light (PS4)

 

 

You're on fire, homie!

 

This seems right up my alley, looks like I'll have to do a little sniffin around. Especially if there's a horny, money-hungry mouse. Having a disgusting, gluttonous rat worked for Charlotte's Web after all. Great job as always!

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I have never actually seen Reality Bites - looking it up just now, I had no idea that Ben Stiller started directing as early as 1994, that's crazy.

 

Very much a time capsule, that movie! It's kind of just a rom com with a few wacky Ben Stiller-isms and a heaping dose of 90s eeeeedge, and it's entirely possible I wouldn't love it as much as I do had I not seen it as a kid, but it's a good one. An impressive representative of its era in look, style, music, characters, and issues tackled, plus anybody who remembers how it felt adjusting to adulthood (or is in the process, for that matter) will find a lot to relate to.

 

Quote

One of the things I really like about it, is watching that kid develop as an actor, over the various time jumps - It's interesting because early in the film, the scenes are stolen by the actress playing his sister (who is also Richard Linklaters daughter) then further and further in, the reverse starts to happen, she's still good, but he gets even better.

 

Interesting! Perhaps it's time I add Boyhood to the film backlog. ...man, sometimes I can't tell which backlog is longer, movies or games!

 

...actually books, I think that's the biggest one?

 

Quote

I did the same thing when our local Blockbuster was going out of business, it was sad in a way, as I was pretty gutted to see it close down, picked up some great games and films around that time. I refuse to take the label off my copy of Singularity on the PS3, as it still has some Blockbuster store branding on it.

 

Dude I got so much great stuff from my local renter! Before the end was all too near, they were selling used DVDs and they'd go something like 4 for 20 and 5 for 25, or maybe the other way around. But I picked up so many 00s indie films thanks to those sales, it was ridiculous. Then when they were officially on their way out, the place essentially got ransacked, and cool stuff aside, it was pretty sad. I wish I'd saved some of those labels myself?

 

Quote

Cheers man! - there was part of me that wanted to make that Resident Evil 6 deliberately short, because I just don't really like it all that much, but unfortunately I couldn't allow myself to not give it a fair go at analysis, and I went pretty in-depth. Which turned out to be in-depth on why I think it isn't worth peoples time haha

 

I'm glad you can somewhat see that from that logo image too - it just......yeah, that's all I've seen whenever I look at that. I can't unsee it now

 

What I want to know is why Capcom knows the exact ratio and sizes involved when depicting a dolphin blowing a Giraffe!

 

That's your curse man, you are morally incapable of not giving a game its due discourse (no, not blowing giraffes). But it makes for good reading, so know that there are no complaints from me!

[rjkclarke]

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Yo, two different awesome reviews in one weekend?!

 

Outstanding work!

 

 

Thanks so much man!

 

It helps that they were awesome games, so they were not remotely a chore to motivate myself to write about..... unlike *cough* Resident Evil 6 *cough*  ?

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Totally - it's pretty rare for me to specifically go out of my way when playing a game to "set the mood", so to speak, and even rarer for me to go out of my way to recommend other people do the same - but with Little Nightmares games, I absolutely would tell anyone - play with headphones, at night, with the lights off!

So much of the creepy atmosphere is built out of the audioscape - and they seem to just know exactly how to fuck up the player in the most effective ways! It knows exactly when to stay quiet - and when to go loud... (The Inception-style BWAAAAAAAHHHHMMM at the "gnomic-sausage-flavoured nightmare-fuel moment, for example!)... and you're right, since every sound is meaningful, they can end up sending a chill through your occipital with just a distant metal clang, or a shuffling sound! 

 

That's funny that you mention Eraserhead - that's not one that occurred to me during play, but you're absolutely right... there is some of the same kind of "This isn't just horrifying, it's strangely horrifying" element to it... and that can be so much more fraying on the nerves!

 

For some reason when I read "set the mood" I imagined closing the curtains dimming the lights, taking all clothes off and folding them neatly into a pile and then picking up a controller. I should get my mind out of the gutter I guess.

 

Ahh yeah, that Nomicsausagenightmarefuel hit me in the feels - which if I ever start a band, I'm definitely going to lobby should be the name of it - and yes, we will dress up as those little mushroom fellas too!

 

Couldn't agree more man, the audio element to Little Nightmares is really something special, more games ought to put as much thought into its audio element as Tarsier did with this one, it was fantastic.

 

I thought about Eraserhead quite a lot actually whilst playing it - after the previously mentioned Gnome bit - I could totally imagine Henry looking down at Six and going "oooooooooh, you are sick!"

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

This is totally right too - the Gilliam thing really struck me - the enemy and character design feels like the Monty Python interstitials, but viewed through the lens of a bad dream!

 

Yep, we're on the same page on that one too, that was the thing I was thinking of most, those Python-esque cutaway animations.

 

It's a little funny that I mentioned the Henry Selick thing too, because I did read after playing it and reviewing it that Selick himself is actually onboard to make a TV show based on Little Nightmares, which almost seems too perfect.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Yeah.... I won't go into a whole thing about that one,(since I write a whole essay about that one trophy ,) but that is maybe the one element of the game I take issue with - I think the imprecision of the controls, and the unpredictability of the enemies is fantastic for the game, but doesn't marry well at all with that speedrun / no-death trophy. They removed that kind of challenge from the sequel, and I think it is better for it.

Something like Limbo (which I'm sure was an inspiration for LN generally, and that trophy specifically) makes it work, but while that game feels 'floaty' in the same way, it's actually a much more precise control scheme, and the 2D plane takes away a lot of the issues LN has in that regard.

 

Absolutely - like when you lose about 45 minutes of progress in a speedrun because your plane of view is really dodgy on a pipe - so you think you're walking straight along it, until you just slip off the side of it, because the camera has changed ever-so-slightly, that stuff can definitely be disheartening. When you fail for reasons you think aren't actually down to you, in a deathless speedrun, I agree that does become a bit of an issue.

 

I would have happily  dealt with another deathless run for LN2, but I'm glad that I don't have to.

 

That's also very good to hear about Limbo, because I've been planning to play that fairly soon, I've been meaning to get around to it for absolutely ages.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Totally - and actually, another game that has a speedrun trophy that I don't think suits it terribly well either!

 

I didn't mind the fact that ICO had one actually.

 

However, I do agree that the fact it has one - well, it doesn't suit the game at all, because it kind of defeats the purpose of some of the plot, that you're exploring this castle and slowly building a bond with someone via your direct actions. That definitely doesn't translate as well, when you're just dragging Yorda around like a giant white shopping bag full of milk and rice ? as fast as you possibly can, or letting her get caught on purpose, so she'll be in a specific spot to be dragged to a zone exit faster

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

 Poor Ubisoft... I really like their games generally, but they really do bring this on themselves!

All they need is a few more Child of Light style indie adjacent games, and they could counter that perception... but they just don't seem to have the wherewithal of late!

 

So do I man! I do something quite satisfying about playing their often bloated open world fare, even the non bloated ones. There's an almost familiar feeling about their games, right? Where you can just sort of switch your brain off and just have a good time, when you usually know what you're getting going into it.

 

It also doesn't help that Ubisoft have said they're shifting away from smaller games too, so things like Child of Light will be even less common for them, which is a shame.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

man - Valient Hearts, that was an Ubisoft too! They have the chops for doing this kind of stuff - they just need to lean into it!

 

They really ought to just dedicate one of their studios to just making this type of game - that'd be the ideal thing. Valiant Hearts is great, I actually held off playing that to a very specific date. My first trophy was earned on November 11 2018, it just seemed right y'know, really great game that one.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 I'm with you - it's the same effect I used to get back when I was reading young children books to my kid a lot - you get so used to reading everything out loud and in a meter, that I would be sitting in work reading the technical documentation for an industrial centrifuge or something, and in my head, it'd be in trocaic tetrameter 

 

Glad I wasn't the only one haha! I suspect that's more distracting than when you're just trying to read some of the preparation instructions for that nights dinner though ?

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

So, a lot of games have done the 'sketchbook/ watercolour" art-style - it's hardly original, especially in the indie sphere - but I genuinely think Child of Light might be my personal high watermark of that style. Even more so than Gris - and that's saying something!

 

That is very high praise actually, well done Child of Light - especially as I know you think very highly of Gris - I really need to get and play that at some point, I'm always a little worried it's just going to make me incredibly sad though, but I'll just have to brave it, as both you and Smevz and plenty of others have had pretty much nothing but good things to say about it!

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Totally agree - I actually think the boss battle theme in Child of Light (the one with the choral chanting) remains one of my favourite pieces of game OST - it's a style that countless Final Fantasy games have done, and yet I don't think any of those have ear wormed into my subconscious in quite the same way!

 

Absolutely man! That is one hell of a good piece of music, and so are the many variations of it - I don't want to sound too much like a childrens TV presenter, but it really does sound EPIC, every time it plays, you just know something major is about to go down, as the in-game camera swoops in to a huge Dragon and you know it's time to get serious.

 

I think the difference between that, and something from Final Fantasy, is that you don't really hear it in Final Fantasy during boss encounters as much, or as often - whereas Child of Light you hear that in a far more deliberate way, so that might be part of why it earworms you just a little bit, think that was the case for me anyway. 

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

The combat in this game is actually the one thing that really made me want a Child of Light 2 - generally, the game is very much self-contained, and narrative-wise, I don't think it needs, or would really benefit from a sequel - but I thought the combat was actually much more interesting and nuanced than one might expect from it, and I'm fairly sure it could sustain a game twice the length of Child of Light no problem.

 

I did read that there were plans to make a crossover game with Aurora and Igniculus, but not necessarily a Child of Light 2. I'm also not quite sure that it needs a sequel, or where they'd go with it, but I sure would like to play another game set in Lemuria on a grander scale, as that had such a rich lore, and really interesting characters. If you partner that with that same awesome battle system, you've got a hell of a good game right there.

 

That was my surprise too actually, how nuanced and in-depth the combat could be. I usually expect it to be a bit scaled back in shorter titles, but they really put a lot of thought into it, which was a real pleasant surprise.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 8:48 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Excellent...

....keep diving back into that game, my friend...

...that exploration of an open world will set the table nicely for when I force you, at gunpoint if necessary, to try Elden Ring!

Mwaahahaahahaahaha! 

 

 

I don't think any gun will be necessary with that one, it's definitely one that I'm looking to play in the future. I deliberately didn't look at many trailers and things as I knew it'd probably want to make me rush out and buy it haha.

 

That was a real culture shock returning to Skyrim though - I loaded up my most recent save, from 2012, only to find all of the Blackbriars furiously attacking me in Riften - I had no idea what the hell I'd done to piss them off, but they sure weren't happy ?...... thankfully I had another one where a whole town wasn't hostile towards my presence.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 11:05 AM, The_Kopite said:

Yes indeed, I think I talked about how I did the Leech Hunter mode and fudged it up and never went back to it, so I'd have to do that one properly this time and then I;m sure I'd be back in a groove with it. 

 

You did tell me about the Leech Hunter mode thing - you shouldn't feel bad though, I'm fairly sure I did it too, I'm sure I had to replay that mode, as I specifically just missed one leech somewhere. Once you've got that done, and all the nice rewards from it, you'll be pretty much good to go, to get all of the other awesome trophies out the way in RE0.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 11:05 AM, The_Kopite said:

 

That Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinums ever list sounds like an interesting future read!

 

Yes I haven't heard great things about either tbh, and they are very hard difficulty and long platinums so probably won't get either, but might as well give them a go! As you say, they are from my favourite franchises so I'll get enjoyment out of them still in some ways.

 

The Steelbooks are wicked.

 

Yes absolutely, you'd get it for reasonably cheap nowadays I'd guess. I have my save set up with all characters (I think) having that overpowered bow (can't remember the name) so that'll be pretty funny to one shot enemies haha

 

I'm not sure how to format that Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinums thing, I'm either going to do it once I've reviewed those specific games, so people will understand my take on them a little more, or just do them, and then write the reviews later on down the line, but it's definitely one of the things I'd like to put together in future just for a bit of fun really.

 

I heard good things about the PSP version of FF Disidia but not the recent one, weirdly.

 

Was that the burning bow in Final Fantasy XII? that was one I used for a good while in that game, it can pretty much one shot everything that isn't a hunt monster for a good portion of that game.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 11:05 AM, The_Kopite said:

Haha I don't think any one will question that decision. Umbrella Corps was digital only I believe, but Operation Raccoon City will be added to the collection one day. If it's released physically, it gets added for my favourite franchises, whether the quality is questionable or not lol

 

I can certainly understand why you'd buy it just for the collection purposes - even if I didn't. I'd have no leg to stand on, as I literally bought the PS4 version of the Yakuza trilogy, the limited edition one, specifically for the English PS3 case that it gives you for the digital only Yakuza 5. Even though I also own, the Japanese disc copy of Yakuza 5, because at the time it was the only physical one available. So yeah, we all do fairly "out there" things for our collections ?.... I mean I also know someone who spent about £200 on the Collectors Edition version of The Witcher 3.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 11:05 AM, The_Kopite said:

My kids and wife would love a Switch I'd bet. Maybe start them with Sonic or Mario rather than jumping straight into an RE title haha

 

Well yeah, that's probably best, start with something nice and colourful - you don't want to do what my brother did with me when he introduced me to my first Nintendo console on the SNES and he had me playing Mortal Kombat when I was about 5 or 6. I guess that'll happen when you've got a brother sixteen years older than you haha!

 

On 14/03/2022 at 11:05 AM, The_Kopite said:

Fingers crossed!

 

Yeah just saw your review, sounds like a very good game. I'll discuss the option with the wife at some point!

 

I think you'll definitely like Child of Light, so if you can endure the lack of platinum I think you'd love it, even if your wife wasn't up for it, after all one of you would have to just control a floating ball.

 

Talking of reviews (which we weren't, it's just barely in your quote ) I might write that stupid Magus review later, I don't really fancy writing anything that'll take me a while tonight, too busy playing Chicken Police , so writing about the tyre fire that is Magus could be a nice little bit of fun.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 5:50 PM, YaManSmevz said:

You're on fire, homie!

 

This seems right up my alley, looks like I'll have to do a little sniffin around. Especially if there's a horny, money-hungry mouse. Having a disgusting, gluttonous rat worked for Charlotte's Web after all. Great job as always!

 

Cheers dude, I really appreciate that.

 

Yes! I think you'd probably get a good kick out of this game, it's short and sweet, with a really nice bit of old-school RPG'ing, like Kopite I think you'd probably have a great time with this. Especially knowing your fondness for those older Final Fantasy titles!

 

On 14/03/2022 at 5:50 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Very much a time capsule, that movie! It's kind of just a rom com with a few wacky Ben Stiller-isms and a heaping dose of 90s eeeeedge, and it's entirely possible I wouldn't love it as much as I do had I not seen it as a kid, but it's a good one. An impressive representative of its era in look, style, music, characters, and issues tackled, plus anybody who remembers how it felt adjusting to adulthood (or is in the process, for that matter) will find a lot to relate to.

 

If I see it come up on anything like Netflix or Amazon I might have to give that one a watch then, I'll just go into it with my eyes open, and see if I have a good time with it. They're always quite interesting those films - the ones that just ooze the era they they were made in from almost every element of them.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 5:50 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Interesting! Perhaps it's time I add Boyhood to the film backlog. ...man, sometimes I can't tell which backlog is longer, movies or games!

 

...actually books, I think that's the biggest one

 

Books are also my biggest backlog - and it isn't something I'm proud of either, it's just an unfortunate fact of there only being so many hours in a day. I really ought to make more time for reading though, it's something I really love doing too. So I ought to do more of it, even if I do have to sacrifice a bit of gaming time, or film watching time.

 

Please do check out Boyhood though.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 5:50 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Dude I got so much great stuff from my local renter! Before the end was all too near, they were selling used DVDs and they'd go something like 4 for 20 and 5 for 25, or maybe the other way around. But I picked up so many 00s indie films thanks to those sales, it was ridiculous. Then when they were officially on their way out, the place essentially got ransacked, and cool stuff aside, it was pretty sad. I wish I'd saved some of those labels myself

 

Those are the ones that are too good to miss, when you see those kinds of offers - that's how you end up running out of shelf space really quickly. BELIEVE ME

 

It'd be like if I'd see somewhere that did like, buy 2 get the third free or something, I'd usually always try and find something new and exciting as the "free" thing as in my head I was like " IT'S FREE, IF IT SUCKS, YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN"......  That indies thing must have been a pretty global thing, that they were always on offer, as they'd always make their way into sales over here too, I think that's how I watched Brick for the first time, which is one of my favourite US indie films. Also the reason I rate Rian Johnson as highly as I do, as a director.

 

It is a shame that stores like that died a bit of a death, but I definitely can't complain about the convenience of things like Amazon or Netflix the being able to just hit play on something without even moving that much is definitely something I'd never complain about.

As is being able to buy a film like Spirit of the Beehive (an amazing Spanish film, that I'd recommend to anyone) digitally, which I've seen go for as much as £40+ as a pre-owned DVD.

 

On 14/03/2022 at 5:50 PM, YaManSmevz said:

What I want to know is why Capcom knows the exact ratio and sizes involved when depicting a dolphin blowing a Giraffe!

 

That's your curse man, you are morally incapable of not giving a game its due discourse (no, not blowing giraffes). But it makes for good reading, so know that there are no complaints from me!

 

I wouldn't like to be the researcher tasked with that one ?...... That job would really blow...... s-seeee what I did there , I'll let myself quietly out of my own thread shall I ?

 

I appreciate that, even if that is a bit of a curse, writing in detail about a thing I didn't particularly like. Thankfully those games are few and far between on my list, so that isn't going to crop up too often ?

[The_Kopite]

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You did tell me about the Leech Hunter mode thing - you shouldn't feel bad though, I'm fairly sure I did it too, I'm sure I had to replay that mode, as I specifically just missed one leech somewhere. Once you've got that done, and all the nice rewards from it, you'll be pretty much good to go, to get all of the other awesome trophies out the way in RE0.

Yeah I think you said that to me the last time. Yeah having a break from the disappointment of that run will help me in the future.

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm not sure how to format that Top 10 Most Enjoyable Platinums thing, I'm either going to do it once I've reviewed those specific games, so people will understand my take on them a little more, or just do them, and then write the reviews later on down the line, but it's definitely one of the things I'd like to put together in future just for a bit of fun really.

 

I heard good things about the PSP version of FF Disidia but not the recent one, weirdly.

 

Was that the burning bow in Final Fantasy XII? that was one I used for a good while in that game, it can pretty much one shot everything that isn't a hunt monster for a good portion of that game.

I'm sure you will work it out and it'll be another feature well worth reading. ?

 

Yeah I heard that the PSP ones were really good, but the PS4 one isn't that great but I'll give it a go at some point.

 

It didn't look burning but I can't remember. Haven't loaded up the game in well...years lol so maybe it is burning lol

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I can certainly understand why you'd buy it just for the collection purposes - even if I didn't. I'd have no leg to stand on, as I literally bought the PS4 version of the Yakuza trilogy, the limited edition one, specifically for the English PS3 case that it gives you for the digital only Yakuza 5. Even though I also own, the Japanese disc copy of Yakuza 5, because at the time it was the only physical one available. So yeah, we all do fairly "out there" things for our collections .... I mean I also know someone who spent about £200 on the Collectors Edition version of The Witcher 3.

Yes, when collecting we can all do things that other people would look at us and go "What the hell are you doing?!", "Why are you wasting your money?!", "How much double cheeseburgers are you buying?!" and they are all valid questions for them, but you got to do what makes you happy. One man's junk is another man's treasure and another man's treasure is one man's junk, or treasure also. Depends.

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Well yeah, that's probably best, start with something nice and colourful - you don't want to do what my brother did with me when he introduced me to my first Nintendo console on the SNES and he had me playing Mortal Kombat when I was about 5 or 6. I guess that'll happen when you've got a brother sixteen years older than you haha!

Ouch, yes definitely not a kid friendly game! Did the SNES version have the blood? I can't remember.

 

TBF I was playing Street Fighter 2 on Mega Drive as a kid, and I turned out alright. I think lol

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think you'll definitely like Child of Light, so if you can endure the lack of platinum I think you'd love it, even if your wife wasn't up for it, after all one of you would have to just control a floating ball.

 

Talking of reviews (which we weren't, it's just barely in your quote ) I might write that stupid Magus review later, I don't really fancy writing anything that'll take me a while tonight, too busy playing Chicken Police , so writing about the tyre fire that is Magus could be a nice little bit of fun.

Yeah I will think about it definitely. The backlog is real though as you know. That's without even having a blasted PS5 lol

 

Haha Magus fun?! That'll be the day!

 

Talking of chicken......nah I'm just pulling your leg! hahah

 

 

[YaManSmevz]

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

 

Cheers dude, I really appreciate that.

 

Yes! I think you'd probably get a good kick out of this game, it's short and sweet, with a really nice bit of old-school RPG'ing, like Kopite I think you'd probably have a great time with this. Especially knowing your fondness for those older Final Fantasy titles!

 

Sold.

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

If I see it come up on anything like Netflix or Amazon I might have to give that one a watch then, I'll just go into it with my eyes open, and see if I have a good time with it. They're always quite interesting those films - the ones that just ooze the era they they were made in from almost every element of them.

 

Also Ethan Hawke has the same greasy hipster look from Before Sunrise, so there's that too!

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

Books are also my biggest backlog - and it isn't something I'm proud of either, it's just an unfortunate fact of there only being so many hours in a day. I really ought to make more time for reading though, it's something I really love doing too. So I ought to do more of it, even if I do have to sacrifice a bit of gaming time, or film watching time.

 

Please do check out Boyhood though.

 

Same. Every so often I'll read something I've been putting off for a long ass time, enjoy the fuck out of it, and then have a serious talk with myself about why i don't read as much as i used to. Then any random amount of months later the cycle repeats...

 

How can I say no to manners like that? I'm on it?

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

Those are the ones that are too good to miss, when you see those kinds of offers - that's how you end up running out of shelf space really quickly. BELIEVE ME

 

Oh I know exactly what you mean...

 

This is supposed to hold 500 and managed to stretch it to a bit more, but yeah. Even after a sharp decline in the amount of movies I buy over the last decade, it's still a problem - and that's not even all of them?

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

It'd be like if I'd see somewhere that did like, buy 2 get the third free or something, I'd usually always try and find something new and exciting as the "free" thing as in my head I was like " IT'S FREE, IF IT SUCKS, YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN"......  That indies thing must have been a pretty global thing, that they were always on offer, as they'd always make their way into sales over here too, I think that's how I watched Brick for the first time, which is one of my favourite US indie films. Also the reason I rate Rian Johnson as highly as I do, as a director.

 

That's how I found out about Brick too! Yeah those were such an easy and inexpensive way to try getting into some new films, I can't tell you how much my collection expanded in that period, it was ridiculous. And yeah, if I wasn't that crazy about something, I was only out five bucks, like big deal, y'know?

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

It is a shame that stores like that died a bit of a death, but I definitely can't complain about the convenience of things like Amazon or Netflix the being able to just hit play on something without even moving that much is definitely something I'd never complain about.

As is being able to buy a film like Spirit of the Beehive (an amazing Spanish film, that I'd recommend to anyone) digitally, which I've seen go for as much as £40+ as a pre-owned DVD.

 

That's true, the convenience really can't be beat. I think it's kinda like the whole digital/physical argument with games - I just enjoy knowing that I own something, and if the internet takes a shit or a streamer loses the license to something, it won't matter because I can watch it of my own accord. Plus there's just such a tactile joy in picking something out, opening it up and slappin it on. I still remember how sad I was when DVDs stopped including chapter selection inserts, in fact I still am!

 

On 3/15/2022 at 0:01 PM, rjkclarke said:

I wouldn't like to be the researcher tasked with that one ...... That job would really blow...... s-seeee what I did there , I'll let myself quietly out of my own thread shall I

 

You know that researcher probably got teased relentlessly too...

 

[rjkclarke]

On 16/03/2022 at 2:57 PM, The_Kopite said:

I'm sure you will work it out and it'll be another feature well worth reading. 

 

Yeah I heard that the PSP ones were really good, but the PS4 one isn't that great but I'll give it a go at some point.

 

It didn't look burning but I can't remember. Haven't loaded up the game in well...years lol so maybe it is burning lol

 

 

Eventually I will haha, can't just talk about Films and TV in those Sideshows and Curiosity posts, gotta add some gaming into the mix with those at some point too.

 

I'll wait for your verdict on the PS4 version of Dissidia Final Fantasy then.

 

It might not have been the burning bow then - I don't think it actually burns haha ?... it's a weapon drop from the big flying bird things in the Estersand at the start of the game area, that you aren't actually meant to be able to kill that early, but you can if you do some clever levelling in a few places. It definitely carried my team through a lot of the game getting everyone nicely set up with one.

 

On 16/03/2022 at 2:57 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yes, when collecting we can all do things that other people would look at us and go "What the hell are you doing?!", "Why are you wasting your money?!", "How much double cheeseburgers are you buying?!" and they are all valid questions for them, but you got to do what makes you happy. One man's junk is another man's treasure and another man's treasure is one man's junk, or treasure also. Depends.

 

That is so true..... and the cheeseburgers thing is too - someone literally asked me that once. I wasn't collecting the cheeseburgers, but I'd bought more than one double cheeseburger let's say from McDonalds, because they're cheap........ and very nasty ?, but they were pretty fixated on the fact I picked up more than one.

 

Collecting is also about striking a good balance between collection and just accumulating crap. Hoarding seems to be a pretty big issue in my family, so it's something I always try and avoid if possible. That can spiral real quick. To the point where you're naked sitting in a room surrounded by empty milk cartons and plastic bags, and newspapers piled up to the ceiling.

 

On 16/03/2022 at 2:57 PM, The_Kopite said:

Ouch, yes definitely not a kid friendly game! Did the SNES version have the blood? I can't remember.

 

TBF I was playing Street Fighter 2 on Mega Drive as a kid, and I turned out alright. I think lol

 

Yep the SNES version had blood I think.... I seem to remember Mortal Kombat 3, the one I played the most did anyway. I'm hoping that isn't just a false memory though.

 

I think we probably turned out okay considering. My brother also showed me The Crow when I was about 6 or 7, which probably isn't a film you should show a kid that age either haha!

 

On 16/03/2022 at 2:57 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I will think about it definitely. The backlog is real though as you know. That's without even having a blasted PS5 lol

 

Haha Magus fun?! That'll be the day!

 

Talking of chicken......nah I'm just pulling your leg! hahah

 

I do genuinely think you'd get on well with that one. It's only about ten hours long too, So no real harm done haha ?

 

Yeah that's true Magus is a bit poo - I'm gonna go write that one now, as I've been putting it off for ages. Better just get it done y'know.

 

17 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Same. Every so often I'll read something I've been putting off for a long ass time, enjoy the fuck out of it, and then have a serious talk with myself about why i don't read as much as i used to. Then any random amount of months later the cycle repeats...

 

How can I say no to manners like that? I'm on it

 

That's the real curse haha! Maybe we ought to start a Checklist book group like a couple of old ladies ?.... Perhaps that's the solution to finally cutting our reading backlog down a bit

 

17 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

This is supposed to hold 500 and managed to stretch it to a bit more, but yeah. Even after a sharp decline in the amount of movies I buy over the last decade, it's still a problem - and that's not even all of them

 

That is quite the collection dude, impressive! It's a shame my eyesight is a bit crap, as I don't quite have laser vision. I'm sure I spied Barton Fink and Friday amongst those, as well as some others that after glancing over at one of my big shelves I can see quite a bit of overlap in what the DVD spines look like

 

I think I have at least a third of something that size that just has Doctor Who DVD's in it (I have a problem) ? NOT ENOUGH SHELF SPACE

 

At least you're never likely to have to give yourself the "I just don't have anything to watch" talk

 

17 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

That's how I found out about Brick too! Yeah those were such an easy and inexpensive way to try getting into some new films, I can't tell you how much my collection expanded in that period, it was ridiculous. And yeah, if I wasn't that crazy about something, I was only out five bucks, like big deal, y'know?

 

It never seems a lot at the time though does it, 4 for 20, 5 for 25, even spending like £/$250 you're still ending up with 50 DVD's/Blu Rays and as far as shelf space goes that sure does get taken up faster. That's a slight upside to Blu Rays in that you can squeeze slightly more space out of those.

 

Just don't display the ones you think are duds, just put those in a shoebox somewhere people won't see them. OR give them to charity shops (if you have them in the US, I would assume so) and hope someone else has a better time with them than you did.

 

17 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

That's true, the convenience really can't be beat. I think it's kinda like the whole digital/physical argument with games - I just enjoy knowing that I own something, and if the internet takes a shit or a streamer loses the license to something, it won't matter because I can watch it of my own accord. Plus there's just such a tactile joy in picking something out, opening it up and slappin it on. I still remember how sad I was when DVDs stopped including chapter selection inserts, in fact I still am!

 

I'm pretty comfortable with either digital or physical. Although admittedly I prefer physical for Films and TV for the reasons you outlines. I must admit though, I think purely down to convenience since the PS4 generation I tend to buy more games physically than not, but I really think that is down to convenience alone. As you say that feeling of putting in a disc is pretty satisfying, it must be said.

 

I hadn't really thought about those Chapter Inserts going away being a thing, but then I guess it just became ingrained in me not to notice. I did think it was odd when I bought a used copy of I think it was Benny and Joon a couple of years ago and it had those in it, I remember at the time thinking it was cool that they were there. Just never thought about the significance of it too much.

 

I haven't thought about that Clerks quip for a good while haha! I'm a bit on the fence about Clerks III coming out this year. I haven't actually gotten around to watching Jay and Silent Bob Reboot yet,

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Platinum #84

Magus (PS3)

 

 

Perfection
Obtain all trophies.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 23 September 2015:  7:52:56 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  5 hours, 51 minutes, 28 seconds

Platinum Rarity  - 71.99%

Trophy Number - #4,663

 

Magus – released in 2014 (yes really) is an action RPG brought to you by developers Black Tower, their only other game of note being 2017’s Friday the 13th the game. This will be a short-ish review, because Magus simply just doesn’t have a whole lot going on that’s worth any sort of real discussion.

 

In this game you play as Magus, imprisoned in a tower in the Waterfall Kingdom until he’s set free by a fellow prisoner called Kinna. You then embark on a quest of vengeance uncovering your true identity along the way. I have, I must say – just with that description alone, made the game sound far more interesting than it actually is.

 

For a little context – this game used to be one of the go to “Easy Platinums” – this absolutely isn’t why I played it, I played it because I, as a lot of you will be aware,  really like a bit of EuroRPG jankiness.  However, I don’t think even if you combined both Coapnele's and my own fondness for EuroRPG jank that you’d probably enjoy this game. It simply isn’t good at all.

 

A small side not – some of the place names and lore, puts – what I imagine at least, is an unintended (by the developers) smile across my face. Every time I see the words Waterfall Kingdom, I think of the Sasquatch from the Tenacious D film singing “Let’s take a dip in the strawberry river.”

 

You notice at the very beginning, I practically scoffed at the idea that this game was released in 2014 – off to a good start I see. Magus barely looks as if it’s from 2004, let alone 2014.  I guess we’re starting with Magus’ visuals. The main character himself is incredibly bland looking, he looks like the sort of character you’d come out with if you used only the default options in a character creator menu.  

The graphics themselves though - these are poor, incredibly poor by PS3 standards, and arguably even by late era PS2 graphical fidelity standards. Graphics don’t equate to quality of course, but for a game that released the year after The Last of Us, you can’t help but wonder if the game was developed by a visual design team led by Mr Magoo.

 

I’m all about finding the positives though – and whilst the graphics might be ugly as sin. Some of the enemy designs and location work is actually fairly decent, if a little lacking in creativity, for a short game. I think the vast amount of areas and enemies don’t ever really become particularly tiresome.

 

The sound is a little over the place. The soundtrack ranges from fairly peaceful and relaxing straight into attempting to create a tense atmosphere (something which often doesn’t work). The sound design is really inconsistent too, there are very obvious unpunctuated sections of dead air, and that is unforgivable, yet the sound mix is also just plain wrong, the thing you hear the most is Magus’ spells and in a game where the gameplay is as limited as it is here, that isn’t a good thing.

I can’t confirm it anywhere, but I’m sure the voice actress that plays Kinna is Ali Hillis (Liara from Mass Effect and Lightning from the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy) this game seems like a colossal waste of her talent, as well as the other fairly familiar voices that sound as if they appear here.

 

Magus’ gameplay – and I’m really not exaggerating here – can be refined down to a description as simple as this.....

 

“You aim, you shoot, the enemies die.”

 

That is it; each level is basically a mix of rudimentary objectives whilst you slay hordes of enemies. It is absolutely mindless, but it really isn’t all that boring, the game is mercifully short so while the repetition is heavy, you won’t ever spend too long on it.

 

Would I recommend Magus? Absolutely not, not even when I played it, would I have done, so certainly not in 2022. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy parts of this though. This game is terrible, unequivocally so, that much is undeniable, but I can’t say that I really hate it either.  

As you can see from the trophy stats section, they are very easy trophies too by the way. I finished this game very early in the morning after another of my many bouts of insomnia, in one sitting; it kept me busy during that sleepless night, so I can’t complain too much about that.

 

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

 

Just as I thought, that was nice and quick to write - should leave me enough in the tank today to write a Chicken Police review later on, future spoilers, that one will be much more positive!  So alls well that ends well and all that.

 

Either way it's nice to get that ugly monkey off my back.... Seriously, just look at the banner image, it just looks like a painting, that has been painted using someone's insides, then left in an attic near a lit candle, and all the dust and entrails have started to melt together..... and now I've created a horrific image I wish I hadn't...... ANYWAY, enough about that. 

 

Looking at all the other games that it sits in a panel with in the platinum vault, all of the others from that one will at least me more interesting to review further down the line.

The next classic review should be something a little more interesting.... well and less crap, something that may or may not be a Final Fantasy game ?

 

Catch you all in the next one folks!

Edited March 18, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

When I first saw the title of the post I was "hmmm this might be another good Eurojank game that I've missed"

After reading your review and checking some videos...especially after this phrase

38 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

However, I don’t think even if you combined both Copanele and my own fondness for EuroRPG jank that you’d probably enjoy this game. It simply isn’t good at all.

Yeah...I'll steer clear of this one  

 

At least I found a cool playthrough where the player modded Goku's Super Saiyan hair on the main character and made him run 5xtimes faster  

 

[rjkclarke]

3 hours ago, Copanele said:

When I first saw the title of the post I was "hmmm this might be another good Eurojank game that I've missed"

After reading your review and checking some videos...especially after this phrase

Yeah...I'll steer clear of this one  

 

At least I found a cool playthrough where the player modded Goku's Super Saiyan hair on the main character and made him run 5xtimes faster  

 

 

I'm afraid not dude ? - if I thought you'd get on with it and hadn't played it I probably would have tagged you in it. It is a really bad game, usually there's plenty to like in Eurojank games, but this one, it just has nothing really stand out about it at all.

 

There's a saying in scriptwriting that something that feels lazy or rushed had been "written on the back of a cigarette packet" (well not cigarette, but the  F word used doesn't translate too well if you don't have that UK context ?)...... Anyway, Magus feels like that, it just feels rushed and almost as if no care went into it at all. Very strange.  

 

It doesn't even have the whole "LOL EASY PLATINUM" thing going for it anymore, because you could play every single version of KZ the Buttplug Level 1-5 (Extreme Edition) about three times over in the time it would take you to play this one game. ?

 

I basically  just wanted to get this one reviewed so I didn't have to think about it for a while......if not, ever again ?..... It's games like this when my mission of "review every game I've got a platinum or 100% in comes along to bite me on the arse.

 

That picture though! That's great! I'm glad someone found a way to inject a bit of fun and humour into that game, it sorely needed it, I tell you that much haha!

 

Unfortunately someone stole my shopping bag full of rep points, and Spider-Man wasn't there to get it back for me, so I'll have to throw it at you later once I have some again ?

Edited March 18, 2022 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Everything Tastes Like Chicken Apparently, Including My Newest Platinum!

 

Platinum #347

Chicken Police (PS4)

 

 

The Chicken Police
Unlock all trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 17 March 2022: 4:24:28 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  2 days, 3 hours, 7 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 45.26%

Trophy Number - #16,612

 

 

Released at the closing part of 2020, Chicken Police is a film noir inspired hybrid of a few different genres. Namely – classical point-and-click adventures, visual novels and interactive adventures, with a few more peppered in for good measure. In reality it’s a little bit of all of those thrown into a big cauldron, then left to simmer until cooked, after which a generous sprinkling of incredibly surreal humour are added as the finishing touches.

 

In Chicken Police you take the role of Santino “Sonny” Featherland and his gun loving partner Marty MacChicken, two bipedal chickens, as you embark on a case that ends up taking all manner of twists and turns as you stick your beaks into the seedy underworld of Clawville.

 

Cluck me!  I enjoyed this game. It is absolutely my kind of bizarre wheelhouse. It’s incredibly transparent and open from the get go, that this is supposed to be funny – and, thankfully it does actually manage to maintain that humour throughout the experience. Some games attempt humour and as a result miss far more than it hits, but I genuinely found this very funny in places. If surreal humour is something that you can appreciate, then I suspect you’ll have a good time with this one.

 

One aspect of Chicken Police that genuinely surprised me, in a good way of course – is the fact that it successfully managed to straddle the line between being a parody and a lovingly crafted genre pastiche. It must be said, that is no easy task, and Chicken Police absolutely manages to find that balance throughout. 

It’s also fairly interesting how the influence of both Film Noir as a film genre, and classic point-and-click adventure games are woven into the plot too. You could argue of course, that it is shameless fan service, but I like to see it as a kind nod to past influences. Hearing Marty and Sonny talk about the case of “The three-headed monkey,” sure did put a smile on my face as a long time Monkey Island fan.

 

A big part of the reason that it works so well – is that the developers make it very clear that you’re in on the joke too, from the very beginning. I suspect a little bit of working knowledge of certain film noir tropes might factor into your enjoyment. I think it works in a similar way to Sin City – and whilst Sin City is not a parody, it is very much a lovingly crafted pastiche too – it assumes you’re very much in on a lot of the references and allusions, and works all the better for it, Chicken Police works in the exact same way.

 

As I alluded to briefly, Chicken Police’s gameplay is a mixture of a multitude of genres. Whilst I personally liked that element, as a little bit of everything kept the whole thing feeling quite fresh and interesting. It doesn’t lean too heavily on any of these genres in any great detail. If for example you were expecting a deep investigation suite, or sprawling and complex interrogations, featuring flowing dialogue, it’s certainly possible that you might be a little underwhelmed. It does all of these elements very well, but they’re also admittedly quite simplistic.

 

This will be the only time I’ll compare this with L.A Noire, but I feel like I need to make mention of this, is how authentic sounding, some of the noir-esque dialogue is.  I’d say in some areas even more so than in L.A Noire. An example is the way that Sonny will deliver a monologue whenever he enters a new location. Essentially this just gives a little flavour and context to the location you’ve just reached.

 

Here is a fairly good example.....

 

 

..... I just think that brilliantly captures that “Hard-boiled gumshoe” type spiel that you’d so often hear in a film noir.

 

I think what Chicken Police lacks in budget, it more than makes up for in its ability to maximise what it does have – and that is, character.

Whether that comes in the form of dialogue or art design, it is absolutely just brimming with good intentions.

 

It could definitely be argued that the designs themselves are quite simplistic – after all, the animal creatures are all just Animals heads photoshopped onto human bodies, with some markings or fur added for extra authenticity, it does work surprisingly well though. I will say this though; some of the bipedal animals really caught me off guard by how surreal and unusual they looked. They can really catch you off guard if you aren’t expecting to see what you end up seeing.

 

The decision to have all of the characters take the form of bipedal animals was absolutely the right one, in my opinion at least, adding humans into the mix would have made the animals a little jarring I think. As the animation is fairly limited, I think the actors that provided the poses for the specific animals did a terrific job. Some of them almost perfectly capture the essence of that character in just the way that they stand.

 

The combination of a mostly monochromatic palette, with colour only really being used for emphasis in a few areas, ends up being a really interesting detail. In the same way that practice is used in film to make you take notice of specific details, that same principal is used very effectively here too.

 

Audio in Chicken Police as a general rule is absolutely clucking magnificent – although, I did have a few very minor gripes with it. Those came in the form of audio mixing. Sometimes the soundtrack itself tends to drown out the volume of the voice acting, so I’d suggest tweaking the settings a little bit until you find something you’re personally comfortable with, should you play it yourself.

I must say, I really like the soundtrack too; the audio mix itself was my slight gripe. The way that Chicken Police’s soundtrack manages to evoke that specific film noir vibe is tremendously good in spots. It does a fantastic job of being moody and suspenseful, and then in some of the lighter sections a big emphasis on moody atmospheric jazz. If you’re familiar with Twin Peaks, it’s not dissimilar to how Angelo Badalamenti uses transitional music, whilst not particularly similar, I couldn’t help but be reminded of that.

 

Chicken Police’s voice acting is absolutely spectacular. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, the game as a whole does character so well. It’s important to remember that when you’re limited to very few animations – at least outside of a little artificial sway, to mimic movement, quality voice acting ends up becoming a necessity.  

Thankfully the voice acting is absolutely tip-top across the board. This is not hyperbole at all, but Kelly Shale is near perfect as Sonny. That deep gravelly voice, sounding like he’s lived off of nothing but cigarettes and whiskey his entire existence, is just so appropriate for a character like Sonny. If you were to think of the type of voice that a hard-boiled gumshoe noir inspired detective would sound like, then what Sonny sounds like will actually probably be what you’d just thought of. It’s a brilliant touch, but it absolutely works.

I’m singling out Kelly Shale but the voice acting is excellent across the board, with so many small attentions to detail that really bring the characters to life and make them memorable. Even down to small things like a skittish Rabbit stumbling and stuttering over his words, or a Snake over accentuating every single S, mimicking a snake’s hiss. As much as I don’t want to bring out this old cliché, but it all goes some way to making the world feel lived in.

 

Would I recommend Chicken Police? Absolutely I would, the game isn’t much longer than eight hours, and it’s a wild ride. Featuring as you’d expect – from a film noir inspired piece, twists and turns aplenty along the way, some you might see coming, some you might not depending on how familiar you are with the tropes. There are a fair few missable trophies, I’m not here to tell you how to play your own games, that choice is always your own. So either play through it using a collectibles/trophy guide, or come back for a cleanup run which should take roughly two hours.

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

 

If any of you were interested in playing this and have PSNow it's available on that service right now, so it might be worth a look if you fancy it, it has a criminally low amount of owners. The EU version I played has 601 as of writing, but this is a real hidden gem of a game, I absolutely enjoyed my time with it, far more than I expected to. I've been saying that a whole lot lately, but that can't be a bad thing! I'm very much hoping for a sequel now!

 

If you want to learn a little bit more about it, on top of that review.  I'll leave a link for a few little titbit's of information, you can even see some of the voice actors in action too.

 

https://press.handy-games.com/take-a-look-behind-the-chicken-police-paint-it-red#

 

I'm off to play Slow Souls...... Oops I meant to say Lords of the Fallen ? for all the negatives I've heard I don't mind it so far, although I'm admittedly only up to the second boss. I think the mechanic of killing a boss under specific constraints to unlock a special weapon is a very cool idea I must say. Although it has kind of given me the nudge to rebuy the souls games available for PS4, I have played DSI and II for those wondering why you can't see it on my profile it was just way way back when I used to play on the Xbox 360. I can't have Lords of the Fallen on my list but not the three great souls games, now can I ?

 

I'll catch you all in the next one!

Edited March 18, 2022 by rjkclarke

[The_Kopite]

On 3/17/2022 at 5:25 PM, rjkclarke said:

Eventually I will haha, can't just talk about Films and TV in those Sideshows and Curiosity posts, gotta add some gaming into the mix with those at some point too.

 

I'll wait for your verdict on the PS4 version of Dissidia Final Fantasy then.

 

It might not have been the burning bow then - I don't think it actually burns haha ... it's a weapon drop from the big flying bird things in the Estersand at the start of the game area, that you aren't actually meant to be able to kill that early, but you can if you do some clever levelling in a few places. It definitely carried my team through a lot of the game getting everyone nicely set up with one.

That's fair. Whatever works for you man! Whenever I play it I'll try and give you some feedback on it. Only played once on Concrete Genie so far but that's fun and relaxing.

 

Ah sweet, didn't know about that one! 

 

On 3/17/2022 at 5:25 PM, rjkclarke said:

That is so true..... and the cheeseburgers thing is too - someone literally asked me that once. I wasn't collecting the cheeseburgers, but I'd bought more than one double cheeseburger let's say from McDonalds, because they're cheap........ and very nasty , but they were pretty fixated on the fact I picked up more than one.

 

Collecting is also about striking a good balance between collection and just accumulating crap. Hoarding seems to be a pretty big issue in my family, so it's something I always try and avoid if possible. That can spiral real quick. To the point where you're naked sitting in a room surrounded by empty milk cartons and plastic bags, and newspapers piled up to the ceiling.

Haha yes I've seen that happen before lol

 

Yeah sadly it can be quite hard in some ways for some people to differentitate between collecting as a hobby and it going across the line into hoarding which is a shame. 

 

On 3/17/2022 at 5:25 PM, rjkclarke said:

Yep the SNES version had blood I think.... I seem to remember Mortal Kombat 3, the one I played the most did anyway. I'm hoping that isn't just a false memory though.

 

I think we probably turned out okay considering. My brother also showed me The Crow when I was about 6 or 7, which probably isn't a film you should show a kid that age either haha!

I remember there was codes to enable the blood but think that was for the SNES versions, or maybe the Mega Drive too? I can't remember. Can't think if there was ever a Game Boy or Game Gear version of those games either but I do distinctly remember playing Street Fighter 2 on the Game Boy lol

 

I've never watched The Crow, but heard it's a pretty dark film and then well there's the real life death of the actor on set so yeah..

 

On 3/17/2022 at 5:25 PM, rjkclarke said:

I do genuinely think you'd get on well with that one. It's only about ten hours long too, So no real harm done haha

 

Yeah that's true Magus is a bit poo - I'm gonna go write that one now, as I've been putting it off for ages. Better just get it done y'know.

Awesome! haha

 

Yes indeed, just saw it and there you go. It's off your to do list. Feel better now? lol

[Copanele]

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Everything Tastes Like Chicken Apparently, Including My Newest Platinum!

 

Platinum #347

Chicken Police (PS4)

 

Added on my "MUST BUY" game list, together with Hitman HD Collection for PS4.

I didn't know anything about this game, but after reading your review I checked it and...this is the kind of classic Point & Click game that I've been waiting for! No weird QTE thing, atmosphere and good taste humor! Not to mention that the game gives me the vibes of a crossover between "Columbo" and "Police Squad"  (something tells me you know both of them)

 

Nice find  !

Also why are the photoshopped animal heads working so well in this game? wow!

 

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I'm off to play Slow Souls...... Oops I meant to say Lords of the Fallen  for all the negatives I've heard I don't mind it so far, although I'm admittedly only up to the second boss. I think the mechanic of killing a boss under specific constraints to unlock a special weapon is a very cool idea I must say. Although it has kind of given me the nudge to rebuy the souls games available for PS4, I have played DSI and II for those wondering why you can't see it on my profile it was just way way back when I used to play on the Xbox 360. I can't have Lords of the Fallen on my list but not the three great souls games, now can I

After getting through the combat in Jedi Fallen Order...ok, Lords of the Fallen is not AS ATROCIOUS as I thought. I still believe it's a pain in the liver but I warmed up to it. I'd raise its score by 0.1 if I were to re-review it.

Do tell me what you think of the DLC once you get to it however! I do have the hunch that you will love it big time 

[Thirsty_Otter]

On 8/15/2021 at 3:58 PM, rjkclarke said:

 

Platinum #310

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker (PS4)

 

 

Platinum Trophy

Acquire all trophies.

 

Originally Written - March 11 2021

 

 

 

This game has been in my backlog for a while! Yeah, as is the case with a lot of these FMV, they don't exactly go for the highest budget actors, but the way I look at it is: it's basically like a school play or something. I don't know why I choose to look at it that way, it just makes the experience more enjoyable for me. At least the actors do decent at getting the job done, that's the main thing. I've played Late Shift, The Shapeshifting Detective and I own The Bunker on Xbox. I sort of really enjoy these types of games. I know you said that Erica has flaws, but (I'm not going to lie) the fact that you mentioned it as being the only one you played up until this point sort of piqued my interest in it more.

 

Just a quick note (since you enjoyed this one): You should play Late Shift and The Shapeshifting Detective. They're both pretty good - especially Late Shift. I'm reserving my judgement for The Bunker until after I get further in it.  

Edited March 19, 2022 by Thirsty_Otter

[AJ_Radio]

Oh god, Magus. Soon as I saw that I thought “What a piece of turd”. 
 

You’re literally a god in that game as nothing takes you down unless you’re just going to stand still for 10 - 15 minutes. Still had that charm. So bad it was good kind of way. 

[rjkclarke]

Sorry for the super late replies everyone, I'm not at home at the moment - I'm on my laptop, I'd use my phone, but I'm fairly sure the contraption E.T uses to contact his parents probably functions faster than mine does, so laptop it is.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 10:17 AM, The_Kopite said:

That's fair. Whatever works for you man! Whenever I play it I'll try and give you some feedback on it. Only played once on Concrete Genie so far but that's fun and relaxing.

 

Please do, I'm always up for more opinions on Concrete Genie, I've heard such a varied mix of opinions on that one where it's actually pretty tough to get a gauge on whether or not I'll actually like it. The obvious solution is to just play it I guess. I'll be interested to hear what you thought of it though.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 10:17 AM, The_Kopite said:

I remember there was codes to enable the blood but think that was for the SNES versions, or maybe the Mega Drive too? I can't remember. Can't think if there was ever a Game Boy or Game Gear version of those games either but I do distinctly remember playing Street Fighter 2 on the Game Boy lol

 

I've never watched The Crow, but heard it's a pretty dark film and then well there's the real life death of the actor on set so yeah..

 

 

Quite possibly, I remember my brother doing fatalities on me, but I can't remember if he had to put in a code beforehand to actually have some of the gore enabled. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Game Gear version. I'll dig around my in my Dads Game Gear stuff at some point and see if he had a Mortal Kombat for it, something rings a bell about that.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 10:17 AM, The_Kopite said:

Yes indeed, just saw it and there you go. It's off your to do list. Feel better now? lol

 

yes thank you!  It does feel good to get Magus off of my to do list. Now that I've put it under the microscope I wonder if by the end of all of this when I've finally reviewed everything what I'll actually consider the worst game I've played with trophies. I don't think Magus is particularly good, but I actually enjoyed parts of it. Whereas something like Agents of Mayhem I genuinely couldn't get on with, and it has no excuse to be as devoid of content and artistically barren as it is.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 11:49 AM, Copanele said:

Added on my "MUST BUY" game list, together with Hitman HD Collection for PS4.

I didn't know anything about this game, but after reading your review I checked it and...this is the kind of classic Point & Click game that I've been waiting for! No weird QTE thing, atmosphere and good taste humor! Not to mention that the game gives me the vibes of a crossover between "Columbo" and "Police Squad"  (something tells me you know both of them)

 

Nice find  !

Also why are the photoshopped animal heads working so well in this game? wow!

 

That makes me really happy to read man! I hope that you really enjoy it when you actually get to it.

 

Chicken Police was so much fun, and if more people end up playing it, that can only be a good thing. As you know I love point-and-click games, so when they're done poorly like that iffy Poirot game I played recently it hurts even more, when they aren't quite up to snuff.

 

You don't know how close to the truth that is, your quote of " a crossover between Columbo and Police Squad"  that is absolutely a good thing too.

 

The photoshoppped animal thing is really surprising, because I thought it would just be a gimmick that would be initially funny, but not really stick all that well, but I think the fact they go really hard in trying to just normalise it, and make it feel natural makes it all the better. Whilst also leaning into the odd bit of animal humour.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 11:49 AM, Copanele said:

After getting through the combat in Jedi Fallen Order...ok, Lords of the Fallen is not AS ATROCIOUS as I thought. I still believe it's a pain in the liver but I warmed up to it. I'd raise its score by 0.1 if I were to re-review it.

Do tell me what you think of the DLC once you get to it however! I do have the hunch that you will love it big time 

 

Hey I mean a 0.1 increase is better than none ?.... that's not such a +1 for Jedi Fallen order though. now that I've gotten a bit further into LotF I can see some of the bigger issues I've just gotten a fair way through the catacombs and that place has some awful enemy placement, giant shield wielding enemies in a narrow corridor. JOY OF JOYS.

 

It's got some really odd parry mechanics too, that don't really work the way I think they should. One of my favourite things about Dark Souls is the whole parry and riposte thing. But Lords of the Fallen seems to just have a really awkward opening, where when you think you need to parry is not when you need to, even when you think you've timed it perfectly.

 

Looking forward to the DLC then based off of that! Bring that on, I might try and do it as early as possible, like I did with the Bloodborne DLC, I'll see about that one.

 

On 19/03/2022 at 0:11 PM, Thirsty_Otter said:

 

 

This game has been in my backlog for a while! Yeah, as is the case with a lot of these FMV, they don't exactly go for the highest budget actors, but the way I look at it is: it's basically like a school play or something. I don't know why I choose to look at it that way, it just makes the experience more enjoyable for me. At least the actors do decent at getting the job done, that's the main thing. I've played Late Shift, The Shapeshifting Detective and I own The Bunker on Xbox. I sort of really enjoy these types of games. I know you said that Erica has flaws, but (I'm not going to lie) the fact that you mentioned it as being the only one you played up until this point sort of piqued my interest in it more.

 

Just a quick note (since you enjoyed this one): You should play Late Shift and The Shapeshifting Detective. They're both pretty good - especially Late Shift. I'm reserving my judgement for The Bunker until after I get further in it.  

 

 

Wow that is an oldie, I haven't thought about that one for a while.

 

That tolerance for the sometimes less than stellar acting will be really good for when you get to actually playing Doctor Dekker, it does have some scenery chewing moments. Although I do think that really adds to the charm. It's such an awesome concept though, that everyone will always have a fairly unique experience as not everyone will have the same killer. It's very interesting.

 

I think a lot of my problem with Erica actually comes from being a completionist. It's very much quite a good time the first time through. then the more you play it the more you start to see the flaws in it. There's a whole lot of good in it though.  You know what, you bringing it up might have given me the little kick up the arse I need to actually review it, because I can't put it off forever. If you do play Erica though I'll be interested to hear what you think of it, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

 

That's quite spooky you recommended I played those two. I actually have both of those now, and The Bunker, so I really ought to play those at some point soon. I actually bought Shapeshifting Detective based on Aislin De'ath's performance in Doctor Dekker, she's really good in that. So when I saw she was in Shapeshifting Detective I was instantly interested. Late Shift looks really cool as well, so I definitely need to start exploring more of what the FMV games have to offer as experiences.

 

On 20/03/2022 at 2:27 AM, AJ_Radio said:

Oh god, Magus. Soon as I saw that I thought “What a piece of turd”. 
 

You’re literally a god in that game as nothing takes you down unless you’re just going to stand still for 10 - 15 minutes. Still had that charm. So bad it was good kind of way. 

 

Haha! I think most people think that when they look at Magus.... that is one of those times my interest in janky European RPG's came to bite me firmly on the backside, As did my plan to review every game I'd gotten a platinum/100% in, as it meant tackling this at some point too. everything gets a go eventually though.

 

You're right, the whole literal god thing doesn't do the game any favours at all. Add to that the fact it has practically no gameplay variety, it just makes the whole thing a little mindless.

 

Can't argue it does have some charm though. I genuinely enjoyed bits of it, I think probably because it's so relaxing in its mindlessness, It's also very short too, which definitely is in it's favour. 

[The_Kopite]

32 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Sorry for the super late replies everyone, I'm not at home at the moment - I'm on my laptop, I'd use my phone, but I'm fairly sure the contraption E.T uses to contact his parents probably functions faster than mine does, so laptop it is.

You know I've never watched E.T. (shock horror haha). Never got around to it lol one of these days.....

 

33 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Please do, I'm always up for more opinions on Concrete Genie, I've heard such a varied mix of opinions on that one where it's actually pretty tough to get a gauge on whether or not I'll actually like it. The obvious solution is to just play it I guess. I'll be interested to hear what you thought of it though.

Just played some more today, and yeah it has an interesting quality to it and it is fun and relaxing like I said before. It is one of those rare PS4 games that uses the lightbar on the controller to actually aim the painting that you do. Would I have bought this game? If it was around a tenner, yeah probably so it being PS Plus free game is an extra bonus. It is a hard one to judge overall, and yes I agree, playing it is the one way you'll know for sure if it clicks with you or not.

 

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Quite possibly, I remember my brother doing fatalities on me, but I can't remember if he had to put in a code beforehand to actually have some of the gore enabled. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a Game Gear version. I'll dig around my in my Dads Game Gear stuff at some point and see if he had a Mortal Kombat for it, something rings a bell about that.

From a quick Google search, looks like there was a Mortal Kombat on Game Gear. If you end up finding that at some point, let me know how it plays lol

 

36 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

yes thank you!  It does feel good to get Magus off of my to do list. Now that I've put it under the microscope I wonder if by the end of all of this when I've finally reviewed everything what I'll actually consider the worst game I've played with trophies. I don't think Magus is particularly good, but I actually enjoyed parts of it. Whereas something like Agents of Mayhem I genuinely couldn't get on with, and it has no excuse to be as devoid of content and artistically barren as it is.

Excellent! Yes I'll bet there are far worse games that you would factor in ahead of Magus, which is a rubbish game but it's easy and it's short and if it's gonna be rubbish, those two things help it to be less rubbish lol