rjkclarke's Carnival of Diamonds and Rust

[YaManSmevz]

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke said:

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

 

Shit, I'm down. I'll even take up knitting as well, why not? Last one I read was Steve Martin's Shopgirl, which I found shockingly bad.

 

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke said:

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

 

Why thank you! I imagine yours dwarfs mine though, what with your penchant for physically bought media coupled with your extensive cinema knowledge (not to mention a certain fictional doctor). I will say though...

 

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke said:

Just don't display the ones you think are duds, just put those in a shoebox somewhere people won't see them.

 

...I do own Crash. A preachy, overly maudlin and dramatic film, but for whatever reason I've always liked it.

 

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke said:

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.

 

The PS4 has turned me into a dirty degenerate digital shopper, and I take no pride in admitting this - the PS store absolutely ruined me in this regard, and it opened my eyes to how much so when I went on a shopping mission to procure PS3 games... I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the act of simply browsing in a physical store!

 

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke 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.

 

Ah, Benny and Joon, another 90s af classic. When I first started buying DVDs it was the norm for them to all come with that insert, then I wanna say around '08 or so that just kinda stopped. Maybe I have more completionist genes than I realize, but to this day that still bothers me!

 

On 3/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, rjkclarke said:

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,

 

Neither have I! Clerks II was surprisingly enjoyable I thought, though of course not without its flaws. I do remember Strike Back being cool at the time but for me it didn't hold up as well as I would've hoped upon re-watch. Still good, but eh...

 

On 3/19/2022 at 3:17 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..

 

I remember blood codes being a thing too? if memory serves though the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive just had blood as it was. It got marketed as the cooler system on the back of things like that!

 

I think The Crow is kinda like The Goonies in that if you didn't see it at its peak, you probably won't get the most possible enjoyment out of it. Cool flick though, if you're about gritty supernatural shit then a watch certainly couldn't hurt ya!

 

Look at me, talkin like I'm Majima?

 

On 3/18/2022 at 2:50 PM, rjkclarke said:

 

Platinum #347

Chicken Police (PS4)

 

 

Excellent work as always my friend, and you may have just made a sale. Looking at my recs for the year, you're pretty comfortably in the lead so far!

[The_Kopite]

47 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

I remember blood codes being a thing too? if memory serves though the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive just had blood as it was. It got marketed as the cooler system on the back of things like that!

 

I think The Crow is kinda like The Goonies in that if you didn't see it at its peak, you probably won't get the most possible enjoyment out of it. Cool flick though, if you're about gritty supernatural shit then a watch certainly couldn't hurt ya!

 

Look at me, talkin like I'm Majima?

Yes of course! Genesis does what Nintendon't! Though of course it's the Sega Mega Drive but there you go lol

 

Well I watched The Goonies 1 or 2 years ago, and can't say I disagree with your statement. It was ok, but that was about it for me tbh. It was one of those that the wife highly recommended to me but yeah think I watched it too late. Ferris Bueller's Day Off was another one.

 

Just looked up 'Majima' and it says they are a character from Yakuza, which I've never played so yeah...lol

[Copanele]

Just a random fact: I also started playing Child of Light and:

On 3/14/2022 at 3:29 AM, rjkclarke said:

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.

No need to seek professional help, I also started rhyming everything around. Trust me it's worse when your main language isn't English  

 

Anyway just dropping by to say - thanks for this review, else I would have ignored the game. Now that I am playing it, damn it's a fun one! Digging the Turn Based mechanics.

 

 

[rjkclarke]

 

Sorry for the lateness again - I decided against using my laptop to write anything substantial, due to lack of a table or a desk, I thought I was liable to give myself a repetitive strain injury. I'm back at home now, so normal-ness will resume.

 

It's a shame where I was, that I couldn't find myself a nice Starbucks to sit in and write on my laptop with, like when I used to do scriptwriting in a coffee shop (yes I realise that makes me a douchebag probably haha ).

I did have my PS4 with me last week, but I didn't make any substantial progress on anything apart from Limbo. So no new game reviews for a little bit, so time to write some Classic Reviews. I've genuinely missed writing about games the last week, so it'll be nice to get back to that.

 

I mean this with all the sarcasm in the world...... aren't you all lucky, you get to read my thoughts on Erica later, as that's the next Classic Review on the slate.

 

I ought to do a review request or two soon, but all the ones I have are the size of mammoths that are going to really take some time (if I want to give them all the attention they deserve) , so in the meantime, I'm going to do Erica and Detroit: Become Human as I played them both with my sister last week so they're a little fresher in my mind now.

 

Let's get back to some of you lovely folk......

 

On 21/03/2022 at 1:53 PM, The_Kopite said:

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

 

Well I can't exactly say to you...... "You should totally watch E.T"..... I've made no secret on this thread and Smevz' too that E.T terrifies me, and has done since I was about 3 ?.....

 

I will say this though, for what it's worth.It is a very good film, it still creeps me out, but it is absolutely worth watching it.

 

Quote

 

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.

 

That sounds really cool with the PS4 lightbar actually being used for something functional in a game, because off the top of my head I can't really think of that actually getting utilised all that often.

 

The fact that you'd buy it for around £10 still means it's worth playing, so that's awesome to know.... I'll have to look into bumping it up the list a little bit. Concrete Genie isn't very long either from what I understand, so it isn't like it would take an insane amount of time to play through it.

 

 

Quote

 

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

 

 

That's exactly it isn't it!..... I think you said it perfectly, you at least know what you're getting with Magus, but when you know something has a bigger budget, or you have a certain expectation about it and it still ends up sucking, then that is just unforgivable.

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Shit, I'm down. I'll even take up knitting as well, why not? Last one I read was Steve Martin's Shopgirl, which I found shockingly bad.

 

Maybe hold off on the knitting - I worry I'd turn myself into a pin cushion.... and y'know we need our hands for gaming and such. Alright Shopgirl sounds like something to avoid then. I think the last book I read fully was Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind. I do recommend that one though, it's an amazing read if you're interested in American Independent Film (which I know you are).

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

...I do own Crash. A preachy, overly maudlin and dramatic film, but for whatever reason I've always liked it.

 

How did you know I meant something like Crash..... haha ? I think I've mentioned it before actually, I prefer the much weirder Crash that David Cronenberg made, but I don't actually mind the Oscar bait Crash, I just wouldn't rush to rewatch it.

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

The PS4 has turned me into a dirty degenerate digital shopper, and I take no pride in admitting this - the PS store absolutely ruined me in this regard, and it opened my eyes to how much so when I went on a shopping mission to procure PS3 games... I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the act of simply browsing in a physical store!

 

Oh god, what a faux pas by me on that one. I meant to say I buy more PS4 games digitally due to convenience.... Oops.. I know what you mean though, because physical is totally the way to go with those PS3 games now, what with them discontinuing deals on the PS Store, some of those can cost an arm and maybe even someone else's leg! ?

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Ah, Benny and Joon, another 90s af classic. When I first started buying DVDs it was the norm for them to all come with that insert, then I wanna say around '08 or so that just kinda stopped. Maybe I have more completionist genes than I realize, but to this day that still bothers me!

 

Johnny Depp was on a real hot streak of quality films in the 90's, wasn't he.  It's scary the amount of consistently great performances he gave us all in that decade.

 

As much as I  don't want to turn this reply  into an "OMG DO YOU REMEMBER SPACE-HOPPERS & WHITE DOG POO, WEREN'T THINGS GREAT BACK THEN" type of deal, but as we're sort of around that kind of thing. I actually miss those weird Cardboard Sleeved Early DVD's I love running into those when I'm browsing around for some hidden gems. The only downside is that they don't quite fit in with the other things on the shelf. So I had to fit them with other Cardboardy things like this odd limited edition version I have of The Elephant Man.... but hey, there's far worse problems to have, so perspective and all that!

 

You might just have a few other completionist genes, I'd say, yeah, as do I. No bad thing though!

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Neither have I! Clerks II was surprisingly enjoyable I thought, though of course not without its flaws. I do remember Strike Back being cool at the time but for me it didn't hold up as well as I would've hoped upon re-watch. Still good, but eh...

 

I really liked Clerks II.... That's a pretty perfect description "surprisingly enjoyable"  I think because it isn't remotely what I expected it to be. I genuinely thought Brian O'Halloran gave a brilliant performance in that film. It's got a lot of subtly to it, and that scene where he's driving around after finding out that life-changing thing he does, the look of contemplation, fear and intrigue on his face is really well done. He plays a thirty-something at a crossroads really well I think.  Seeing how much he grew as an actor between the first and second film was something that I really loved.  

 

A lot of the performances in Clerks are a bit raw, but still very good. And that dialogue from Kevin Smith I thought was fantastic, so I expected that from Clerks II, but I didn't quite expect the evolution across the board from it.

 

I haven't rewatched Strike Back for a while myself, so I think I'd probably have a similar feeling on a re-watch. Almost something I want to avoid, to not have to confront that feeling.

 

On 21/03/2022 at 5:55 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Excellent work as always my friend, and you may have just made a sale. Looking at my recs for the year, you're pretty comfortably in the lead so far!

 

Thanks so much man! Much appreciated as ever!

 

I want as many people to play Chicken Police as possible, it's just absolutely brimming with charm, and there is so much about it that shouldn't work, that just does. I couldn't help but love it.

 

Those kinds of games to me are still some of the best surprises, so I hope you love it too!

 

On 23/03/2022 at 7:02 AM, Copanele said:

Just a random fact: I also started playing Child of Light and:

No need to seek professional help, I also started rhyming everything around. Trust me it's worse when your main language isn't English  

 

Anyway just dropping by to say - thanks for this review, else I would have ignored the game. Now that I am playing it, damn it's a fun one! Digging the Turn Based mechanics.

 

 

 

I've also gotta say thanks so much! I really appreciate that.

 

I know you've completed it now too - and I've read your write up of it too, which is awesome by the way, and I'll drop a comment on it soon, and some rep, but my rep points have been stolen again, so I'll have to throw them your way when they reappear.

 

Glad I'm not the only one that was doing the rhyming thing.... Were you rhyming in your main language, or in English? Hopefully not a mixture of both, I think my brain might have melted if that had started happening. ?

 

I guess I'd better go write that messy Erica review, I reckon that one will switch between hot and cold more than a faulty fridge ?

 

Self indulgent gif incoming.....?

 

 

Edited March 28, 2022 by rjkclarke

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Platinum #295

Erica (PS4)

 

 

That's a Wrap
Unlock all bronze, silver and gold trophies.

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 8 January 2021: 1:48:02 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 23 hours, 36 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 21.45%

Trophy Number - #14,591

 

 

Sooner or later I think I’m going to have to make a context warning banner image. I have often experimented with different game genres and will continue to do so for a long time to come, context warnings will appear again.  

 

So with that in mind – time for another one – Erica is my first true foray into an FMV game. I’ve played games in the past with FMV’s of course, but not one where it’s practically the entire focus of the game.

 

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Erica. I’ll give you fair warning, this is going to be a little all over the place. As usual I won’t be giving any spoilers away.

 

There are things I like – no, love, even, about Erica, and things that I found really obnoxious, so my feelings are a little conflicted, but as always we’ll get into that as we go.

 

Released in 2019, and developed by Flavourworks, Erica is essentially an interactive film, more than it is truly a videogame, and as such this’ll probably lean more into film critique in a few places, more than anything.

That being said, you also can’t ignore its status as a game, this ironically, is part of the reason I believe Erica gets a fair amount of criticism (some deserved). Erica’s interactivity comes in the form of choices, usually split second ones that can alter the way the narrative plays out (I’m sure you all know the drill).

 

Due to its nature, Erica’s gameplay comes in the form of a choice based narrative – that, more than anything, for all intents and purposes, is the gameplay. You have two choices open to you as far as controls go, make the choices with the touchpad on your controller, or use a companion app. I must admit, I don’t think the touchpad gets used often enough, but after playing Erica to completion perhaps I can see why.

It does have a tendency to be a little finicky on occasion – so when that’s coupled with split second decision making and no chapter select, it can cause a little bit of frustration. I personally had to do one or two extra playthroughs just because I accidentally swiped the touch pad the wrong way. A few of those decisions are salvageable but some require you to play the game an extra time, which can – from experience, be more than a little frustrating.

 

I truly think some of the criticism that Erica receives is an “us” problem, more than it is a problem with the game itself. As completionists we want to do everything, trophies included, obviously. That becomes a little bit of an issue in Erica, when you factor in the game has no chapter select and scenes can’t be skipped. What this means, is that you’re essentially forced into watching a film a minimum of five times, in a very specific way to achieve everything you wanted to.  

 

That isn’t necessarily a good thing in Erica’s case – as it’s one of those situations where the more you experience it, the more you start to see some of its more apparent flaws. I won’t say what happens in the plot, but I think it gets progressively more ridiculous the longer it goes on (yet still entertaining in a way). Something that is only heightened when you see pretty much all that the game has to offer.  

That is a completionist’s curse rearing its ugly head again – ask yourself this, how often do you instantly re-watch a film after an initial viewing?  I would expect, very rarely, if ever. Erica being a game, you’re far more likely to do that.

 

I fully believe Erica is probably best experienced as something you do a single playthrough of every now and then. I’ll say this much, I ranked it the third worst game I played in 2021 in my end of year awards post (a ranking I stick by). However, after a year away from it, playing it last week – I enjoyed it much more without having to constantly worry about making the right decisions.

 

I think I ought to send the review home with some positivity though – because I said that I loved aspects of Erica, and I genuinely mean that.

 

In the same way that I can forgive certain aspects of certain films, like story structure or specific individual elements, that’s also the way I see Erica.

 

If you critique Erica purely from a filmic standpoint – apart from the story being a little nonsensical and full of more plot holes than a wedge of Swiss cheese, there is quite a lot to like. Direction is good quality for example.  I’ve always considered the overall presentation and certain individual elements in Erica to actually be incredibly good. I’d say maybe even brilliant in certain areas. Erica in film terms would be the sort of film, where I think you’d strongly praise some of the individual elements rather than the product as a whole.

 

I never see people focus on the better areas of Erica – and it really does have some of them. Holly Earl gives a pretty strong performance as the lead Erica Mason. She’s a very capable actress (capable of more than she’s given,) I’d say she gives a better performance in the TV show Humans, but I can’t think of too many moments where I didn’t find her portrayal of the character at the very least interesting. Equally the supporting cast are rather strong; if you’re from the UK then you’ll probably see a few familiar faces amongst the cast, Hannah, Tobi, Ballard and Lucien were some of the stronger cast members I thought.  

 

One of the most criminally underappreciated areas of Erica is its cinematography. This is not hyperbole; I genuinely think Erica’s cinematography is beautiful. I can think of plenty of films that probably had at least ten times the filming budget of Erica, yet failed to make their film look as good as this game does.

 

Almost every scene is lit superbly. Especially the darker scenes, which would have taken hours of tweaking to likely, get right. As much as I don’t want to sound like Ted Mosby, I will. Fun Film-making Fact! When I was at University, we once spent at least three hours trying to light a scene in such a way that Cigarette smoke billowing across someone’s face in a dark room would be the main focus of the shot, so I know first-hand how much effort can go into just one atmospheric shot like that.

 

Take this one for example....

 

 

...Perhaps I’m over-praising it because I love film as much as I do, and was surprised, yet very happy to see such high quality film-making in an FMV game.

 

Equally some of the ways certain shots have been framed are outstanding, I certainly never expected to find anything like the quality that presented itself in this game. 

 

Take this shot of Lucien and Erica in the grounds of Delphi House for example.

 

 

Erica also boasts an incredibly rich soundtrack – an aspect of the game that I thought of long after finishing the game. Austin Wintory (composer of Journey, Abzu and the Banner Saga, amongst others) has an uncanny ability to create a very specific atmosphere with his soundtracks. He is a truly gifted individual. That gift has also been lent to Erica, the soundtrack is both enigmatic, and unsettling in different areas. Aria for Delphi is a pleasant piece of music, even if every time I hear it, I get flashbacks of “I think that you are magic too.”The sound design is also of a very high quality – I’m quite envious of the person who got to create the soundscape. Recording all of those individual sounds, then hearing them layered into the game, feeling as natural and pristine as they do must have been a real treat.

 

 

When I see and hear things like that, I can briefly forget some of Erica’s weaker elements, like the fact that the many of the choices lead to the same piece of story. Admittedly, I’d find some of Erica’s filmic aspects more interesting than some, but I still thought it was worth shining a light on some of its stronger elements, because they are the things I choose to remember the most about the game.

 

Would I recommend Erica? That’s tough to say, I’m genuinely not sure, I think so, but with a few huge caveats. The game definitely got me interested in the FMV Game genre, something I’m quite excited to explore more of. But as far as the pursuit of the platinum trophy is concerned, playing through the game multiple times in a short timeframe can definitely become a bit of a chore, so perhaps it might be better to dip in and out than play it quickly, like I did.  

 

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

 

Well that was about as all over the place as I expected it to be, still an enjoyable one to write about though. It's a very odd game Erica, it could have been so much better than it is, but there are some elements of it that have always been very memorable to me, some of those for good, some of those not.

 

I should really say thanks to @Thirsty_Otter for mentioning Erica in here recently as it might have ended up being one of those games that I left off reviewing for a very long time. I'm happy that Erica was essentially my gateway drug for FMV games, so I'll always be thankful to it l for that.

 

I'm tempted to sneak in a bit of gaming, but it's 2.30AM for me, so maybe that isn't the smartest idea.

 

Either way, I'll catch you all in the next one!

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by rjkclarke

[The_Kopite]

On 3/27/2022 at 5:49 PM, rjkclarke said:

Well I can't exactly say to you...... "You should totally watch E.T"..... I've made no secret on this thread and Smevz' too that E.T terrifies me, and has done since I was about 3 .....

 

I will say this though, for what it's worth.It is a very good film, it still creeps me out, but it is absolutely worth watching it.

Clearly I've missed that lol sorry

 

My wife loves that film so one day she will get me to watch it lol it will happen, like The Goonies.

 

On 3/27/2022 at 5:49 PM, rjkclarke said:

That sounds really cool with the PS4 lightbar actually being used for something functional in a game, because off the top of my head I can't really think of that actually getting utilised all that often.

 

The fact that you'd buy it for around £10 still means it's worth playing, so that's awesome to know.... I'll have to look into bumping it up the list a little bit. Concrete Genie isn't very long either from what I understand, so it isn't like it would take an insane amount of time to play through it.

 

 

Now that I've finished it, I would definitely recommend Concrete Genie. It helps that it was a PS Plus freebie (What do you think about the new announcement of the tiers btw?) but I had it on my 'to buy list' long before that and can confirm that I would have been definitely been happy paying a tenner for it. Maybe a not great quirk (unless you have PSVR) for completionists is that there are 3 trophies that can only be obtained with PSVR so it will sit at a 95% platinum for me which I'm perfectly happy with. Nice story (Wasn't as keen with the gameplay turn towards the end of the story but it was fair enough), fun gameplay with additional use of the lightbar (shocker lol) and around 8-10 hours for a platinum really so I'd say to you, check it out! Bump it up that list a bit! 

 

Also don't forget about Horizon Chase Turbo! Can't remember if you have it as a PS Plus freebie, but it's on sale right now with the Aryton Senna DLC (which I haven't played) but worth worth the price it's on sale at right now.

 

On 3/27/2022 at 5:49 PM, rjkclarke said:

That's exactly it isn't it!..... I think you said it perfectly, you at least know what you're getting with Magus, but when you know something has a bigger budget, or you have a certain expectation about it and it still ends up sucking, then that is just unforgivable.

Absolutely agree 100%

 

On 3/29/2022 at 2:23 AM, rjkclarke said:

Would I recommend Erica? That’s tough to say, I’m genuinely not sure, I think so, but with a few huge caveats. The game definitely got me interested in the FMV Game genre, something I’m quite excited to explore more of. But as far as the pursuit of the platinum trophy is concerned, playing through the game multiple times in a short timeframe can definitely become a bit of a chore, so perhaps it might be better to dip in and out than play it quickly, like I did.  

Erica is another PS Plus freebie, I haven't downloaded but have debated whether to do so or not. That review has certainly helped me decide (along with trying to trim this backlog down) to not bother at the moment with it. Thanks.

 

 

[The_Kopite]

@rjkclarke Also just wanted to say that my new guide has been published! Still working on bits of it and it certainly could have been better, but I'm proud of what I achieved! As I've said to you before though, I'm never doing a guide of that scope on my own ever again! lol 

 

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/13652-final-fantasy-x-hd-the-remaster-supplement-guide

[rjkclarke]

On 30/03/2022 at 4:10 PM, The_Kopite said:

Clearly I've missed that lol sorry

 

My wife loves that film so one day she will get me to watch it lol it will happen, like The Goonies.

 

Don't worry about it, I've only mentioned it maybe four times - I wouldn't expect many people to remember ?

 

I hope you enjoy E.T though because it's a pretty damn good film even if it does make me want to sleep with the light on for about a week! ?

 

On 30/03/2022 at 4:10 PM, The_Kopite said:

Now that I've finished it, I would definitely recommend Concrete Genie. It helps that it was a PS Plus freebie (What do you think about the new announcement of the tiers btw?) but I had it on my 'to buy list' long before that and can confirm that I would have been definitely been happy paying a tenner for it. Maybe a not great quirk (unless you have PSVR) for completionists is that there are 3 trophies that can only be obtained with PSVR so it will sit at a 95% platinum for me which I'm perfectly happy with. Nice story (Wasn't as keen with the gameplay turn towards the end of the story but it was fair enough), fun gameplay with additional use of the lightbar (shocker lol) and around 8-10 hours for a platinum really so I'd say to you, check it out! Bump it up that list a bit! 

 

That is very good to hear then - I've heard so many differing opinions on that game, but I've still always been pretty interested in it. Especially as it's pretty short, so even if I didn't have the best time with it, it's not as if I could complain all too much about how long it took.

 

I can live with having 3 unearned DLC trophies for VR though. VR makes me pretty ill, so I'm fine with it sitting at 95% too, and if I ever change my mind about it, I'm sure one of my friends wouldn't mind me using his VR set for a couple of hours.

 

Thanks for the info! I might just have to give it a bump up then.

 

I'm kind of intrigued by the new tiered version of PSPlus. I think the allure of having a library of older titles to download will certainly catch peoples eye! Maybe myself too, because being able to play some PS1 and PS2 games without having to actually have the consoles set up is definitely an attractive prospect. It'd be nice if the reintroduced that PS2 games with trophies thing that they abandoned a while ago, but that might be wishful thinking.

 

What's your take on the whole tiered system thing?

 

On 30/03/2022 at 4:10 PM, The_Kopite said:

Also don't forget about Horizon Chase Turbo! Can't remember if you have it as a PS Plus freebie, but it's on sale right now with the Aryton Senna DLC (which I haven't played) but worth worth the price it's on sale at right now.

 

Thanks for this reminder too, I appreciate that. I do have the PSPlus version, but if the DLC is on sale as well then I might have to pick that up and jump on in with the game, it's definitely one of those games that keeps flitting into my mind from time to time, and I've even had it installed on my console for quite a while, so perhaps soon would be a good time to actually take the plunge with that one.

 

On 30/03/2022 at 4:10 PM, The_Kopite said:

Erica is another PS Plus freebie, I haven't downloaded but have debated whether to do so or not. That review has certainly helped me decide (along with trying to trim this backlog down) to not bother at the moment with it. Thanks.

 

That's probably for the best. I guess this is another case of "I played it, so you don't have to" haha . Like I said it's a fairly good experience once or twice, but then the more you play it the less you enjoy it. Or I did at least. I think there are some FMV games out there that are probably a little more interesting that I'm looking forward to exploring in the future.

 

5 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

@rjkclarke Also just wanted to say that my new guide has been published! Still working on bits of it and it certainly could have been better, but I'm proud of what I achieved! As I've said to you before though, I'm never doing a guide of that scope on my own ever again! lol 

 

https://psnprofiles.com/guide/13652-final-fantasy-x-hd-the-remaster-supplement-guide

 

Oh damn dude! That is very impressive, and it let me jump on and give this one the five stars you deserve as I actually own the game. NOW I know exactly what you mean about the guide being so labour intensive, I had no idea it was this game you were working on, Absolutely stellar job as usual though, with an incredibly impressive attention to detail.

 

I'm sure @YaManSmevz mentioned to me at some point last year that he was planning to play through Final Fantasy X in the future, so I think your guide might end up being super helpful for him, especially as you covered pretty much all bases in very intricate detail. Hats off mate! Let's hope you get yourself another guide of the year nomination for this one too!

 

Interesting that it's Final Fantasy X you wrote a guide for. That was the review I keep putting off finishing that I mentioned a couple of weeks back that you'd probably find interesting. I'm planning on doing that and FF X-2 soon-ish if I can/

 

I guess, I'd better go post my latest review too actually.

[rjkclarke]

I  Massacred A Few Lords For My Latest Platinum

 

Platinum #348

Lords of the Fallen (PS4)

 

 

 

Lords and Judges
Unlock all Trophies

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum & 100% Earned - 31 March 2022 3:19:16 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  1 week, 6 days, 1 hour

Platinum Rarity - 4.17%

100% Rarity - 1.1%

Trophy Number - #16,681

 

 

Lords of the Fallen, released in 2014 is an ActionRPG developed by Deck 13 Interactive – and in the most obvious statement I’ve made in a while, this is not Dark Souls, however much it desperately wants to be.

 

You play as Harkyn, a convict with face tattoo’s that would make Mike Tyson recoil in horror, saying “those are a bit much, man” on an adventure to destroy the various Rhogar Lords found in and around Keystone, and The Rhogar Realm. The story really is as simple as I’ve made it sound by the way, I haven’t spoiled anything, it just has very little substance to it.

 

I actually had fairly lofty hopes for this game – more than most I should expect, because I absolutely love one of Deck 13’s earlier titles Venetica. That is a real underrated and janky little EuroRPG, and as some of you will know, those are two things I can definitely get on board with. I wasn’t disappointed in Lords of the Fallen, I just expected it to have a little bit more charm and atmosphere than it ultimately did, as Deck 13 did a pretty excellent job of creating that in Venetica.

 

I’ll try and avoid making that Dark Souls comparison too often, but it is unfortunately unavoidable. I don’t want to sound too much like that South Park episode where you constantly hear “Simpsons did it” just with Simpsons replaced with Dark Souls.

 

For what it’s worth, I think at this point you can safely say that Souls-likes are a genre all of their own. There is of course, nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from something and making a concerted effort to create something unique.

 

That being said – Deck 13 have created a huge problem for themselves with Lords of the Fallen, in that almost nothing about it feels unique. I’m not exaggerating either. Lords of the Fallen in a way feels like a paint-by-numbers approximation of Dark Souls, if the only available colours were grey and beige. That doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had with the game though, because I did enjoy the game, I just wouldn’t expect it to blow people away at all.

 

If you were wondering why you can’t find any souls games on my profile, and might be questioning why I’m talking from experience, I have played Dark Souls I and II on Xbox 360 quite a while ago, so I do have some experience with the series.

 

For some reason, and one that I haven’t quite figured out yet, I actually really enjoyed speedrunning this game, especially when going for the final two trophies for playing as the two different magic types. Whilst the gameplay is a little flawed in a few places, I actually found it incredibly satisfying to just run through once I’d figured out each areas specific layout. To put it in perspective, my first playthrough took about thirty hours – give or take, and I was at about thirty-eight by the time I had achieved the platinum and one hundred percent, if you’re an efficient speedrunner, that didn’t get sidetracked killing things and opening chests for fun, you could cut that down even further.

 

I almost feel like I should have wired myself up to one of those devices that give an electric shock every time you do a certain thing before I started writing this review. I should have done that for each time I make a Dark Souls comparison, but I fear I’d be a pile of cinders by the end of this review.

 

So it’s time for one more – but an important one nevertheless.

 

You know how the Soulsbornesekireldenring games (trying saying that after a few drinks) are famed for having fairly obtuse, yet incredibly rich lore? Lords of the Fallen seemed to decide, right, let’s add lore, but make it as dull and uninteresting as possible so that the person playing the game can care about our world we’ve created as little as possible. It’s a shame because there are interesting things they could have done with the ideas and the universe they’ve set up; I just didn’t feel as if they added to anything in a positive way.

 

One thing that does set Lords of the Fallen apart from its slightly more refined forebears is the fact it contains a rather vocal protagonist in Harkyn. Unfortunately – at least in Lords of the Fallen’s case, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. Harkyn is about as unlikeable a protagonist as you could get, regardless of how you respond to some of the dialogue choices. Even going as far as to reply with what looked like at the time, an innocuous and neutral dialogue choice, with “I don’t care.”  Early RPG’s from Spiders: Mars: War Logs and Bound by Flame also suffer from this same problem. It always irks me a little, when games go down that route, as unless you’ve got strong gameplay to fall back on, it’s hard to really care about anything that’s going on all that much.

 

Thankfully, I did rather enjoy the gameplay – is it as finessed, tight or nuanced as the thing I’m desperately trying not to compare it to? No, of course not, and I never really expected it to be, but I do think its good enough that I never took all that much issue with it. There’s plenty of high-quality things that it has going for it, I was really fond of the fact that the game let’s you cancel attacks mid animation for example, it doesn’t seem like much, but in a game where one combo string from an enemy or boss could end you, things like that are rather important.

There are quite a few weapon types in Lords of the Fallen and each one is viable depending on your preference. It isn’t a case of every weapon having a unique move set in this game though – more the case of each weapon type has its own unique move set, but I think there’s just about enough variety there that if you enjoy a bit of experimentation you won’t be too disappointed.

 

I know these kinds of games aren’t designed with platforming in mind, but if you’re going to have platforming, even in the smallest form, then it should at least work. In Lords of the Fallen’s case I’m not quite sure it does. It’s incredibly imprecise, there’s a knack to it though, it’s almost as if you have to jump too early, or at least earlier than you think, because the roll that comes straight afterwards is more than a little lengthy (an understatement, if there ever was one). Outside of a few specific bosses, I think I died far more to imprecise jumping than I ever did to regular enemies.

 

I feel as if the bosses could have been designed a little better on a mechanical level – aside from maybe The Guardian and The Keeper (who we’ll get to later in the DLC section) a lot of the bosses have some very specific attacks that seem far more straightforward to telegraph and punish. I’m not saying I necessarily wanted them to be made harder, perhaps just a little more punishing, or less obviously exploitable.

Half the fun – for me at least, in these type of games is learning attack patterns and openings, through repeated attempts, whereas with some bosses in this game. It’s sometimes the very first attack that they use on you that can give you a very obvious opening.  

I really love it when you face a foe or section in a video game that you keep dying to, yet you always know every time that it was your fault, forcing you to improve yourself to get through, both the bosses I mentioned gave me that feeling, so I was very glad for that.

 

Some of the visual elements of Lords of the Fallen are – it must be said, quite interesting, but never particularly standout. For a game that was released in 2014, and is probably on the lower budget end of the spectrum, the graphical quality is much better than I expected. The visual designs of locations are all fairly well done, if a little unoriginal. Something I personally really enjoyed was the distinct differences between locations in between the human and Rhogar, even down to smaller aspects, like the distinct differences between fixtures, fittings and even furniture between the two locations. The enemy designs are suitably grotesque, across the board.  Especially a few specific bosses like The Worshipper and The Infiltrator. The final boss particularly so, which you can see an example of in the platinum screenshot at the top of the page.

 

Sound is one of the factors in Lords of the Fallen that is a little all over the place. It manifests itself in quite a head scratching way too, especially in the voice acting department. Harkyn isn’t badly acted per se, he just had almost nothing about him that felt memorable, or made me remotely care about him as a character – the voice actor was only reading the lines he was given after all. As is the case with some of the audio notes, a lot of really strong actors would struggle to make some of that dialogue sound good.

It’s a shame that Adyr doesn’t appear in more than one scene, I’d read Nathan Constance voiced a role in the game, I was quite interested in that, as having seen him in a few things recently, he’s quite a versatile actor.  He didn’t disappoint either, as the one scene he appeared in instantly made me care a little more about what was happening in the story, so that absolutely can’t be a bad thing.

 

I don’t really have anything positive or negative to say about the soundtrack, there isn’t anything predominantly bad about it, yet nothing about it really stands out in any meaningful way either. For some reason I don’t like using the word adequate, but it’s pretty much the only appropriate word to describe the sound design, it’s another element that doesn’t really stand out at all.  

 

DLC

The Ancient Labyrinth

 

 

I firmly believe that without the DLC Lords of the Fallen is a far lesser experience. I’m not suggesting that the DLC elevates it to greatness, but I do feel as if it does stop the game from being wholly generic and fairly unoriginal. It adds a lot of intrigue to a few elements only briefly touched upon in the main story. One of those being the enigmatic blacksmith – getting to spend a little more time with that character, was a real highlight.

 

It must be said, that The Anicent Labyrinth does something far better than the main game did, which was to build and maintain a unique atmosphere. Even the one NPC that you interact with, The Mysterious Stranger is very intriguing and during my time with the DLC I wanted to know as much as possible about him.

 

Whilst the core enemy designs found within the DLC leave a little to be desired – they are after all, just ghost versions of the human enemies from the base game. The singular boss The Keeper, more than makes up for it in his design, however. He’s referred to as “The Lost Rhogar Lord” and he does look like a Rhogar Lord, but distinctly different too, in his own unique way.

Where the DLC really shines – is in the area design. I thought it was incredibly well done, when there’s a word like labyrinth in the title, you have a certain expectation from just the word alone. It absolutely is labyrinthine too. The way it works is through an interconnected ring system, where different areas are discovered by pulling levers inside the rings, leading to further areas, sometimes needing to be pulled multiple times.

 

The pursuit of trophies is actually one of the best things about this DLC as it causes you to see all there is to offer within the labyrinth. I’ll be perfectly honest, some of the most fun I had during this game, was exploring every single nook and cranny of the labyrinth, alongside fighting the area boss.

 

Due to the build that I’d given myself (pretty balanced) I was getting killed by The Keeper fairly regularly – this caused me to rethink my strategy massively. The Keeper is a phased boss fight, so he has to hit three distinct phases, and damage himself enough before you can make the killing blow. I thought that was quite a unique way to structure a boss fight.  What ended up working for me in the end was this odd combination of doing some damage, then switching to an armour set with high magic resistance quickly to take a few hits that you can’t avoid easily. Then it was a case of switching back, to do a little damage again until his shield was permanently gone, then going in for the kill. Of course that isn’t the intended way to do it, but it worked, even if jumping into the menu continuously did break up the flow of the fight a little bit.

 

Through the trophies the DLC is integrated almost seamlessly with the main game, as one of the DLC trophies requires you to kill the final boss, with the weapon you receive from The Keeper, a weapon that is also dependent on what Magic School you set him to within the labyrinth itself, I always find it incredibly refreshing when a DLC adds to the experience in the way that I think this one does.

 

Alright, it is that time again. Would I recommend Lords of the Fallen? That really is a tough one, because I quite liked the game, but I can’t deny that the game has both good and bad points in almost equal measure. As always that decision is entirely up to whoever is reading this. I think unless you really want to scratch a souls-like itch, then there are probably other games you can play instead and have a more worthwhile time doing so.  Yet I can’t say I didn’t enjoy my time with it, just not quite as much as I wanted to. So there absolutely is enjoyment to be found there, and I’m very interested to see what Deck 13 did with both The Surge titles too, after playing this. As I’ve heard much more positive things about those two.

[Copanele]

Oh man, this game  brings up memories. Not necessarily good. Obviously, congrats are in order, I also took the liberty of adding you to the Hall of Fame in the UR event, you are the only player who actually got this game done within the time limit  

 

Now let's start!

 

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

For what it’s worth, I think at this point you can safely say that Souls-likes are a genre all of their own. There is of course, nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from something and making a concerted effort to create something unique.

 

That being said – Deck 13 have created a huge problem for themselves with Lords of the Fallen, in that almost nothing about it feels unique. I’m not exaggerating either. Lords of the Fallen in a way feels like a paint-by-numbers approximation of Dark Souls, if the only available colours were grey and beige. That doesn’t mean there isn’t fun to be had with the game though, because I did enjoy the game, I just wouldn’t expect it to blow people away at all.

 

Honestly for me, the only game worse than a bad game is a boring game. And sadly the biggest reason why I can't stand LotF is that it's incredibly dull. Not only it copy/pasted from the Souls formula without adding too much innovation (that souls recovery system countdown wasn't much of an innovation), it was so bland and...meh it really got me snoozing throughout the entire game. This was the textbook Souls porridge: Bland and odorless, there to only keep you alive.

 

Thank god Deck13 improved by leaps and bounds with The Surge. That game is a completely different thing.

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I know these kinds of games aren’t designed with platforming in mind, but if you’re going to have platforming, even in the smallest form, then it should at least work. In Lords of the Fallen’s case I’m not quite sure it does. It’s incredibly imprecise, there’s a knack to it though, it’s almost as if you have to jump too early, or at least earlier than you think, because the roll that comes straight afterwards is more than a little lengthy (an understatement, if there ever was one). Outside of a few specific bosses, I think I died far more to imprecise jumping than I ever did to regular enemies.

 

This is what I also remembered. Harkyn did a hiccup when jumping and my god was he jumping like a drunk frog. Not sure why did the developers insist on platforming of all things but eh.

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I feel as if the bosses could have been designed a little better on a mechanical level – aside from maybe The Guardian and The Keeper (who we’ll get to later in the DLC section) a lot of the bosses have some very specific attacks that seem far more straightforward to telegraph and punish. I’m not saying I necessarily wanted them to be made harder, perhaps just a little more punishing, or less obviously exploitable.

Half the fun – for me at least, in these type of games is learning attack patterns and openings, through repeated attempts, whereas with some bosses in this game. It’s sometimes the very first attack that they use on you that can give you a very obvious opening.  

I really love it when you face a foe or section in a video game that you keep dying to, yet you always know every time that it was your fault, forcing you to improve yourself to get through, both the bosses I mentioned gave me that feeling, so I was very glad for that.

 

For me the bosses had another fault. It's not that they are too simple - heck, The Surge has trivial bosses too - but they are not memorable. Starting from their name. The only ones that I remember are the duo fuckers from the sewers and the DLC boss that you mention. The rest? Idk there was a boss who was spinning with a sword...I think.

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I don’t really have anything positive or negative to say about the soundtrack, there isn’t anything predominantly bad about it, yet nothing about it really stands out in any meaningful way either. For some reason I don’t like using the word adequate, but it’s pretty much the only appropriate word to describe the sound design, it’s another element that doesn’t really stand out at all.  

 

It had a soundtrack???? ?

 

 

35 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

DLC

The Ancient Labyrinth

 

 

So this piece of shit DLC....

My god!

This is where our opinions differ the most  you think this DLC improved the game, I believed that the DLC was the final nail in the coffin.

The concept - I agree, the labyrinth was interesting and the boss was abit more fleshed out, especially having to figure out how to deal with the instakill mechanic.

But the enemies - oh LORD THE ENEMIES were so SHIT it robbed me of all enjoyment.

My first playthrough was a dexterity assassin. It's kinda how I usually play so I went full on crazy with this class. Imagine arriving in this hell hole with NO magic defense and NO way to counter those fuckers except some teleportation invisible insta-stab that 2 shot them. And no I had no proper stat to even bother with any magic resistance because my assassin couldn't wear the armors for...some reason. And obviously enemies LOVED to teleport towards my location and whomp me with the big hammeridoos.

 

God I hated this DLC with a passion  

 

But well, Lords of the Fallen 2 was announced, by a DIFFERENT team. Curious how that will turn out. Meanwhile, awesome read, waiting for you to start a Souls game on a Playstation console as well  

[DrBloodmoney]

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Platinum #348

Lords of the Fallen (PS4)

 

Sweet write up, my man!

 

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I’ll try and avoid making that Dark Souls comparison too often, but it is unfortunately unavoidable. I don’t want to sound too much like that South Park episode where you constantly hear “Simpsons did it” just with Simpsons replaced with Dark Souls.

 

For what it’s worth, I think at this point you can safely say that Souls-likes are a genre all of their own. There is of course, nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from something and making a concerted effort to create something unique.

 

I guess, in a way, the biggest claim to fame Lords of the Fallen has is that - in a technical sense - it is the game that created the Souls-like genre. Yes, that sounds dumb when I write it down... but by being so slavishly devoted to the style FROM started, and aping it (however inferiorly) they effectively demonstrated that Souls-like was a genre, accessible to other developers, and not just a single developers signature style.

 

I mean, if you take the idea that for a genre to actually be a genre, and not just a style, it needs to have both positive and negative examples within it, the Deck 13 accidentally fell on the sword for the whole genre - creating the first "Meh-Souls", and defining the scope of the genre....

...so.... congrats, Deck 13?  ?

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

For some reason, and one that I haven’t quite figured out yet, I actually really enjoyed speedrunning this game, especially when going for the final two trophies for playing as the two different magic types. Whilst the gameplay is a little flawed in a few places, I actually found it incredibly satisfying to just run through once I’d figured out each areas specific layout. To put it in perspective, my first playthrough took about thirty hours – give or take, and I was at about thirty-eight by the time I had achieved the platinum and one hundred percent, if you’re an efficient speedrunner, that didn’t get sidetracked killing things and opening chests for fun, you could cut that down even further.

 

You know - I was thinking about this exact phenomenon recently - due to Elden Ring.

 

A lot of folks did the whole "Save/Loading" thing at the end of Elden Ring to see all the endings in a single playthrough, and while I'm not judging, (I did it too, for a couple of the endings, and also, play your games as you like, not how other people tell ya!) I do think they missed out on one of the really enjoyable, satisfying parts of the genre - the "Catharsis Run"!

 

Elden Ring took me like 100 hours to do my first playthrough, and I found a lot of bosses truly tough... but in that second playthrough, I stormed through 90% of the critical path in like 3 hours! Once your skills have been honed to perfection, there is something so goddamned satisfying about absolutely blasting your way through the game again, wrecking the bosses who had cause you so much trouble before! 

Every previous Souls game has some version of that - Sekiro, I remember being particularly satisfying - but it just feels great - you go from being the hunted to the hunter - like picking up the blip in PacMan, and suddenly seeing all the ghosts start fleeing!

 

It's like a reward for all the effort you put in to learn the bosses and the mechanics the first time - a way for you to get closure for all that initial suffering, and to me, it's as much a part of the genre as estus flasks, bonfires mechanics and animation-priority combat!

 

 

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You know how the Soulsbornesekireldenring games (trying saying that after a few drinks) are famed for having fairly obtuse, yet incredibly rich lore? Lords of the Fallen seemed to decide, right, let’s add lore, but make it as dull and uninteresting as possible so that the person playing the game can care about our world we’ve created as little as possible. It’s a shame because there are interesting things they could have done with the ideas and the universe they’ve set up; I just didn’t feel as if they added to anything in a positive way.

 

That's true - the Pagan-like thing could have yielded more - I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that at some point, a Pagan-like Souls-like will happen elsewhere, and it will work better - it just needs a bit more interesting narrative to bolster the stylings.

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I know these kinds of games aren’t designed with platforming in mind, but if you’re going to have platforming, even in the smallest form, then it should at least work. In Lords of the Fallen’s case I’m not quite sure it does.

 

Ain't that the truth! ?

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I feel as if the bosses could have been designed a little better on a mechanical level – aside from maybe The Guardian and The Keeper (who we’ll get to later in the DLC section) a lot of the bosses have some very specific attacks that seem far more straightforward to telegraph and punish. I’m not saying I necessarily wanted them to be made harder, perhaps just a little more punishing, or less obviously exploitable.

Half the fun – for me at least, in these type of games is learning attack patterns and openings, through repeated attempts, whereas with some bosses in this game. It’s sometimes the very first attack that they use on you that can give you a very obvious opening.  

I really love it when you face a foe or section in a video game that you keep dying to, yet you always know every time that it was your fault, forcing you to improve yourself to get through, both the bosses I mentioned gave me that feeling, so I was very glad for that.

 

Some of the visual elements of Lords of the Fallen are – it must be said, quite interesting, but never particularly standout. For a game that was released in 2014, and is probably on the lower budget end of the spectrum, the graphical quality is much better than I expected. The visual designs of locations are all fairly well done, if a little unoriginal. Something I personally really enjoyed was the distinct differences between locations in between the human and Rhogar, even down to smaller aspects, like the distinct differences between fixtures, fittings and even furniture between the two locations. The enemy designs are suitably grotesque, across the board.  Especially a few specific bosses like The Worshipper and The Infiltrator. The final boss particularly so, which you can see an example of in the platinum screenshot at the top of the page.

 

 

I thought some of the visual design on the enemies and boses were actually pretty good - they were only really let down by some janky looking animations. The actual sketches of the designs, I'd bet, looked pretty awesome!

There's no enemies that would really be obviously lower-tier in terms of design if they were slipped into a FROM souls-game, it's just that the game goes for a more cohesive look, and so there isn't the level of slightly playful, off-kilter elements to the enemies. You never see an enemy and think "What the hell is that?"... they all just kinda look... how you expect them to look.

Not a crime... but in a genre where "What the hell is that?" is an intrinsic part, that made it all feel a bit bland by comparison!

 

 

9 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

 

DLC

The Ancient Labyrinth

 

 

I firmly believe that without the DLC Lords of the Fallen is a far lesser experience. I’m not suggesting that the DLC elevates it to greatness, but I do feel as if it does stop the game from being wholly generic and fairly unoriginal. It adds a lot of intrigue to a few elements only briefly touched upon in the main story. One of those being the enigmatic blacksmith – getting to spend a little more time with that character, was a real highlight.

 

It must be said, that The Anicent Labyrinth does something far better than the main game did, which was to build and maintain a unique atmosphere. Even the one NPC that you interact with, The Mysterious Stranger is very intriguing and during my time with the DLC I wanted to know as much as possible about him.

 

Whilst the core enemy designs found within the DLC leave a little to be desired – they are after all, just ghost versions of the human enemies from the base game. The singular boss The Keeper, more than makes up for it in his design, however. He’s referred to as “The Lost Rhogar Lord” and he does look like a Rhogar Lord, but distinctly different too, in his own unique way.

Where the DLC really shines – is in the area design. I thought it was incredibly well done, when there’s a word like labyrinth in the title, you have a certain expectation from just the word alone. It absolutely is labyrinthine too. The way it works is through an interconnected ring system, where different areas are discovered by pulling levers inside the rings, leading to further areas, sometimes needing to be pulled multiple times.

 

The pursuit of trophies is actually one of the best things about this DLC as it causes you to see all there is to offer within the labyrinth. I’ll be perfectly honest, some of the most fun I had during this game, was exploring every single nook and cranny of the labyrinth, alongside fighting the area boss.

 

Due to the build that I’d given myself (pretty balanced) I was getting killed by The Keeper fairly regularly – this caused me to rethink my strategy massively. The Keeper is a phased boss fight, so he has to hit three distinct phases, and damage himself enough before you can make the killing blow. I thought that was quite a unique way to structure a boss fight.  What ended up working for me in the end was this odd combination of doing some damage, then switching to an armour set with high magic resistance quickly to take a few hits that you can’t avoid easily. Then it was a case of switching back, to do a little damage again until his shield was permanently gone, then going in for the kill. Of course that isn’t the intended way to do it, but it worked, even if jumping into the menu continuously did break up the flow of the fight a little bit.

 

Totally agree on the DLC - way better than the main game, and actually, something of a demonstration that with more time, Deck 13 are perfectly capable of doing Souls-like much more competently. The showed it, of course, in The Surge - but I wouldn't necessarily roll my eyes at the idea of Lords of the Fallen 2....

... I bet that they know so much more now, and could make it something worthy of the genre!

 

 

[The_Kopite]

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Don't worry about it, I've only mentioned it maybe four times - I wouldn't expect many people to remember

 

I hope you enjoy E.T though because it's a pretty damn good film even if it does make me want to sleep with the light on for about a week!

I'll bet I'll enjoy it enough when I do eventually watch it haha

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That is very good to hear then - I've heard so many differing opinions on that game, but I've still always been pretty interested in it. Especially as it's pretty short, so even if I didn't have the best time with it, it's not as if I could complain all too much about how long it took.

 

I can live with having 3 unearned DLC trophies for VR though. VR makes me pretty ill, so I'm fine with it sitting at 95% too, and if I ever change my mind about it, I'm sure one of my friends wouldn't mind me using his VR set for a couple of hours.

 

Thanks for the info! I might just have to give it a bump up then.

 

I'm kind of intrigued by the new tiered version of PSPlus. I think the allure of having a library of older titles to download will certainly catch peoples eye! Maybe myself too, because being able to play some PS1 and PS2 games without having to actually have the consoles set up is definitely an attractive prospect. It'd be nice if the reintroduced that PS2 games with trophies thing that they abandoned a while ago, but that might be wishful thinking.

 

What's your take on the whole tiered system thing?

No, certainly it is something you could rip through in a weekend easily I'd say.

 

I really want to try VR one day, but I know lots of people have had bad experiences with it and can't play for long before feeling sick. Sucks to hear you are one of those people. 

 

You are very welcome!

 

It would be nice if the PS2 games with trophies thing was there again absolutely. Can you imagine if they put (even simple) trophies for all PS1, PS2 and PSP games on that specific tier they are offering? Would be insane, but probably cost too much lol

 

I think it's a good strategy by Sony to get rid of PS Now as a brand and bring it all into one brand, the stronger PS Plus brand. Sadly I haven't got the time to make going to a higher tier worth the price, even though I'm sure it would easily pay for itself. 

 

Returnal is going to be one of the games offered when the service comes in, and it'll have been out around a year I think by that time, so will Sony start doing that with a lot (possibly thought not likely all) of their big first party studio games? It's an interesting thought.

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks for this reminder too, I appreciate that. I do have the PSPlus version, but if the DLC is on sale as well then I might have to pick that up and jump on in with the game, it's definitely one of those games that keeps flitting into my mind from time to time, and I've even had it installed on my console for quite a while, so perhaps soon would be a good time to actually take the plunge with that one.

Well I definitely think you'll have good fun with it, so go for it if you want! If you do, let me know what you think!

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's probably for the best. I guess this is another case of "I played it, so you don't have to" haha . Like I said it's a fairly good experience once or twice, but then the more you play it the less you enjoy it. Or I did at least. I think there are some FMV games out there that are probably a little more interesting that I'm looking forward to exploring in the future.

Yes, I would be interested in playing one properly at some point. Maybe this one isn't the one. Appreciate the review though. Helped me to make up my mind.

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Oh damn dude! That is very impressive, and it let me jump on and give this one the five stars you deserve as I actually own the game. NOW I know exactly what you mean about the guide being so labour intensive, I had no idea it was this game you were working on, Absolutely stellar job as usual though, with an incredibly impressive attention to detail.

 

I'm sure @YaManSmevz mentioned to me at some point last year that he was planning to play through Final Fantasy X in the future, so I think your guide might end up being super helpful for him, especially as you covered pretty much all bases in very intricate detail. Hats off mate! Let's hope you get yourself another guide of the year nomination for this one too!

 

Interesting that it's Final Fantasy X you wrote a guide for. That was the review I keep putting off finishing that I mentioned a couple of weeks back that you'd probably find interesting. I'm planning on doing that and FF X-2 soon-ish if I can/

Really appreciate you giving me 5 stars for the guide and those positive words. Thanks! Yeah I knew you'd get it when you saw the guide lol never again am I doing that big of a guide on my own. Happy that it's on 4 stars overall at the moment, it's gratifying to see along with all the positive comments on there. It's not a perfect guide, far from it but I'm proud of what I achieved and hopefully it'll help others.

 

@YaManSmevz If you do end up playing FFX in the future, let me know if my guide helps you a little at least! That'd be really nice  

 

Really looking forward to those FFX and FFX-2 reviews! Bring it on I say!

[DrunkenEngineer]

Just gonna leave this right here...

 

 

[rjkclarke]

Oh dear - right now I feel like I'm starting every single reply in this thread off with an apology - and it seems this one won't be any different.

 

So here we go, sorry it's been a while between replies, AGAIN!

 

I am notoriously very bad at multitasking - and the last week has required rather a lot of it. So I'll catch you all up to speed quickly. I have wanted to drop some replies in here, I've just not really felt up to it, I've just been dishing out rep points like an invisible non threatening stalker dressed as a tree in all of your various threads.

 

I got the nasty filthy virus that seems to keep people indoors again (or not, depending on if the thing a few months ago really was a false negative). Basically I've felt rough, I'm doing alright now, just dealing with a mild headache and a throat that feels like I've been gargling razor blades, and a bit of general lethargy. Things could be worse though, so I can't complain all that much. 

 

Then the Snooker has been on the last week - one of my favourites of the year too. The top 8 players in the world battling it out for a massive prize of £150,000. The Snooker did not disappoint and it really helped keep my spirits up. It also makes me question why some people have a patriotic loyalty to sportsmen/women who just come from the same country as them. My favourite Snooker player is Australian Neil Robertson, who won the event. He also played another of my favourites in John Higgins a Scottish player, Watching Robertson make the spectacular comeback he did from 9-4 behind, to come back and win the last six frames and the entire tournament 10-9 was nothing short of amazing, for a man of his talent I still can't believe he's only picked up one world championship in his career.

 

And at the weekend after the Snooker matches,  Wrestlemania was on too - and I actually found it really enjoyable, which surprised me because on paper it didn't look all that interesting. Hey as the Douglas Adams quote I love so much goes, "I'd far rather be happy, than right, any day"

 

Due to all of those things I barely had time to do anything else apart from try and exist as a functioning human, I didn't get any reviews written, or really make any gaming progress, but hopefully I can fit that in somewhere else.

 

Tonight/ tomorrow morning I'm going to get that Detroit: Become Human review finished, then hopefully later in the week we can all go on a little two part Final Fantasy trip with Final Fantasy X and X-2 alongside anything else I might manage to get played in the week.

 

Time to get back to some of you awesome folks!

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

Oh man, this game  brings up memories. Not necessarily good. Obviously, congrats are in order, I also took the liberty of adding you to the Hall of Fame in the UR event, you are the only player who actually got this game done within the time limit  

 

Now let's start!

 

Haha thanks man! It certainly won't be one of those games that I rush to recommend to anyone, despite the fact I did have a fair bit of fun during it, there's just so many better games people could play instead.

 

I really ought to play one of the games in Q2 or Q3 on the bounty list just so that I'm not sitting in the Hall of Fane looking as if I should have my name in brackets with a subheading saying Hall of Shame haha!

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

Honestly for me, the only game worse than a bad game is a boring game. And sadly the biggest reason why I can't stand LotF is that it's incredibly dull. Not only it copy/pasted from the Souls formula without adding too much innovation (that souls recovery system countdown wasn't much of an innovation), it was so bland and...meh it really got me snoozing throughout the entire game. This was the textbook Souls porridge: Bland and odorless, there to only keep you alive.

 

Thank god Deck13 improved by leaps and bounds with The Surge. That game is a completely different thing.

 

I agree with that bit in bold particularly. In any game when it's just boring, it's really unforgivable, and I find those sorts of things stick in my memory in a bad way, far far more than a game that's got a particularly rubbish elements in it for example. 

 

I don't think I disliked Lords of the Fallen quite the same as you did - but I can certainly see why you would. I think if Lords did at least one or two things differently to separate itself from just being a clone of a better game than I don't think it'd get half as much mud slung at it.

 

I'm very pleased to read that The Surge is a pretty vast improvement.

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

This is what I also remembered. Harkyn did a hiccup when jumping and my god was he jumping like a drunk frog. Not sure why did the developers insist on platforming of all things but eh.

 

I think the weirdest thing about the jumping, is that it actually works better if you're in that weird over-encumbered state where you're equipment is too heavy for you to jump properly. You jump a slightly shorter distance, but not noticeably, and when you land you don't instantly roll. Haha a drunk frog is so right ?... There's loads of secret areas tied to the games stupid platforming too which just makes things worse that they don't work very well.

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

For me the bosses had another fault. It's not that they are too simple - heck, The Surge has trivial bosses too - but they are not memorable. Starting from their name. The only ones that I remember are the duo fuckers from the sewers and the DLC boss that you mention. The rest? Idk there was a boss who was spinning with a sword...I think.

 

I suppose they do blend together a little bit now that you mention it, I'd never really given it all that much thought until you mentioned it, but I think once I've not played the game for about a month or so then I'll really struggle to remember who was who when it comes to the boss fights.

 

Yes..... The Sewer ones, The Lost Brothers...... Who magically absorb the other one's power when you kill one....... I wonder where they got that genius idea from.... ?.... nope nowhere I could think of ??

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

It had a soundtrack???? 

 

Allegedly, although when I tried to listen to it to write the review it all just blended together in the most nondescript way possible. Probably a better game to play with a podcast as your soundtrack, I think. 

 

On 31/03/2022 at 10:09 PM, Copanele said:

So this piece of shit DLC....

My god!

This is where our opinions differ the most  you think this DLC improved the game, I believed that the DLC was the final nail in the coffin.

The concept - I agree, the labyrinth was interesting and the boss was abit more fleshed out, especially having to figure out how to deal with the instakill mechanic.

But the enemies - oh LORD THE ENEMIES were so SHIT it robbed me of all enjoyment.

My first playthrough was a dexterity assassin. It's kinda how I usually play so I went full on crazy with this class. Imagine arriving in this hell hole with NO magic defense and NO way to counter those fuckers except some teleportation invisible insta-stab that 2 shot them. And no I had no proper stat to even bother with any magic resistance because my assassin couldn't wear the armors for...some reason. And obviously enemies LOVED to teleport towards my location and whomp me with the big hammeridoos.

 

God I hated this DLC with a passion  

 

But well, Lords of the Fallen 2 was announced, by a DIFFERENT team. Curious how that will turn out. Meanwhile, awesome read, waiting for you to start a Souls game on a Playstation console as well  

 

 

Oh god - now that you've said that, I can totally see why you'd hate it.

 

I was playing as your basic bitch, sword and shield person when I was on my first playthrough, just because it seemed like the safest option when I hadn't played a souls-esque game in quite some time, and I was getting torn apart pretty badly by the magic attacks myself, but at least I could equip the armours in that DLC that have insane magic resistance. 

 

Ignoring for a moment that they're just terrible ghost versions of the regular games human enemies from a design perspective.  They definitely do inflict too much magic damage on you, it's like the main game where you first encounter a mage, and realise they explode upon death and if they're magic didn't one-shot you then their death explosion would. It's just very frustrating, and the DLC regular enemies definitely come from that same type of annoying bloodline.

 

I definitely really liked the DLC  a whole lot myself as you know, but it was more for the map structure and the boss more than anything - I can totally see why you didn't get on with it, because I tooled around with an Assassin set up in my second playthrough and magic hitting you is very much not your friend.

 

No need for us to fight shirtless on millennium tower over this one -  even if we did, after you've Tiger Dropped me about a bit I'm sure we'd just grab a drink in The Champions District, and discuss our mutual love for the Gothic series, and all would be well again

 

I'm semi-interested in a Lords of the Fallen 2, I definitely would be interested to see what another dev would do with it.

 

I might be starting a Souls game in the not too distant future, I almost bought the trilogy when I was browsing on Amazon the other night, but I'd already picked up a few things, so I thought save the mountain of pennies it would cost, as I have plenty I could play instead.I don't think it will be too long before I hit purchase on that set though. 

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Sweet write up, my man!

 

Cheers dude!

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I guess, in a way, the biggest claim to fame Lords of the Fallen has is that - in a technical sense - it is the game that created the Souls-like genre. Yes, that sounds dumb when I write it down... but by being so slavishly devoted to the style FROM started, and aping it (however inferiorly) they effectively demonstrated that Souls-like was a genre, accessible to other developers, and not just a single developers signature style.

 

I mean, if you take the idea that for a genre to actually be a genre, and not just a style, it needs to have both positive and negative examples within it, the Deck 13 accidentally fell on the sword for the whole genre - creating the first "Meh-Souls", and defining the scope of the genre....

...so.... congrats, Deck 13?  

 

 

I like that logic - that is the positive way to look at it, so it's probably the preferred one for me. I hadn't really thought about the fact that it was Lords of the Fallen that actually spawned the genre, I'd sort of just assumed it was part of it.

 

I guess if that's Lords of the Fallen's claim to fame, that it's the proof positive that souls-likes can be a thing - then that's no bad thing, because from what I understand there's a whole slew of pretty interesting games under that banner now, and I'm looking forward to delving into some of those in the future too.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

You know - I was thinking about this exact phenomenon recently - due to Elden Ring.

 

A lot of folks did the whole "Save/Loading" thing at the end of Elden Ring to see all the endings in a single playthrough, and while I'm not judging, (I did it too, for a couple of the endings, and also, play your games as you like, not how other people tell ya!) I do think they missed out on one of the really enjoyable, satisfying parts of the genre - the "Catharsis Run"!

 

Elden Ring took me like 100 hours to do my first playthrough, and I found a lot of bosses truly tough... but in that second playthrough, I stormed through 90% of the critical path in like 3 hours! Once your skills have been honed to perfection, there is something so goddamned satisfying about absolutely blasting your way through the game again, wrecking the bosses who had cause you so much trouble before! 

Every previous Souls game has some version of that - Sekiro, I remember being particularly satisfying - but it just feels great - you go from being the hunted to the hunter - like picking up the blip in PacMan, and suddenly seeing all the ghosts start fleeing!

 

It's like a reward for all the effort you put in to learn the bosses and the mechanics the first time - a way for you to get closure for all that initial suffering, and to me, it's as much a part of the genre as estus flasks, bonfires mechanics and animation-priority combat!

 

Oh yeah! Well said man! Although that very much surprised me about Elden Ring, that it cuts the playtime down by that much, but that's also really awesome at the same time.

 

I think it's particularly satisfying when you just tear through an area that gave you a lot of trouble before. To use your Souls examples, I remember playing through The Gutter in Dark Souls II on another playthrough after having a nightmare in that place the first time through, (probably due to me being clumsy, and not paying attention to my surroundings very well ?) then it didn't really give me any bother on a subsequent run.

 

It isn't quite the same - but the fact that you specifically brought this feeling up, makes me think you're going to be pretty satisfied with your Grade Shop enhanced New Game plus playthroughs of any Tales of' games that you might pick up in future. They essentially hand you the keys to being overpowered as a reward for doing all of the other side things and seeing all that the game has to offer. Being able to then blaze through with all of these abilities and things that you've earned - again feels very cathartic, which is nice as some JRPG's/RPG's are very limited in what they usually let you carry over between playthroughs. Instead of mad things like 10X EXP, and all the other things that you feel like you've earned. I assume Tales of Arise has a grade shop, but the people I know that have played it never really mentioned that they ever needed to use it, as you can do pretty much everything in one playthrough.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

That's true - the Pagan-like thing could have yielded more - I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that at some point, a Pagan-like Souls-like will happen elsewhere, and it will work better - it just needs a bit more interesting narrative to bolster the stylings.

 

I'd be down for that, especially if it's done right....... Yes I agree it needs a bit more interesting narrative OR, just SOME narrative ?, I know most of us aren't really playing these sorts of games solely for their stories.

 

But a caveman that had just eaten a few pages of the dictionary could probably retell Lords of the Fallen's story.... It'd just be "Harkyn..... GOOD?BAD? AM NOT KNOW, HARKYN KILL BAD LORDS. END"

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

I thought some of the visual design on the enemies and boses were actually pretty good - they were only really let down by some janky looking animations. The actual sketches of the designs, I'd bet, looked pretty awesome!

There's no enemies that would really be obviously lower-tier in terms of design if they were slipped into a FROM souls-game, it's just that the game goes for a more cohesive look, and so there isn't the level of slightly playful, off-kilter elements to the enemies. You never see an enemy and think "What the hell is that?"... they all just kinda look... how you expect them to look.

Not a crime... but in a genre where "What the hell is that?" is an intrinsic part, that made it all feel a bit bland by comparison!

 

Thank you for this! Seriously.

 

I can always rely on you for another fascinating way to look at something that I'd not really given all that much thought to, when I probably should have. It hadn't really occurred to me that it might be the enemies uniformity that didn't really end up doing a whole lot for me. Sometimes uniformity in a game can be a good thing, but I don't quite think it was here.

 

You very much might be onto something there, because I don't think they're bad per se, just a little bit too similar across the board. As you say I'm sure at the concept stages they looked very cool.  I do think that applies to the bosses too. I'm in almost a middle ground between finding they blend together like Copanele, and genuinely liking some of them.

 

I just thought they could have been more. Doing a giant spider is all well and good, but why does it have to just be a giant spider, look at the spiders in Bloodborne, those things I found really unsettling for some reason, because they weren't just a spider.

 

They could have really gone hard with designing odd creatures especially for the sections in The Rhogar Realm, that was where they could have implemented some really out there ideas. But I guess there's no real point dwelling too much on wasted potential, it was what it was.

 

 

On 01/04/2022 at 7:24 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Totally agree on the DLC - way better than the main game, and actually, something of a demonstration that with more time, Deck 13 are perfectly capable of doing Souls-like much more competently. The showed it, of course, in The Surge - but I wouldn't necessarily roll my eyes at the idea of Lords of the Fallen 2....

... I bet that they know so much more now, and could make it something worthy of the genre!

 

Yep! I remember thinking after I'd finished it - why couldn't the main game have been a little more like this, but unfortunately I did it before I'd even finished the main game once, so I was already like, okay, back to it then.

 

I'm quite looking forward to The Surge, especially after reading about how much of an improvement it is over Lords of the Fallen, so hopefully I'll enjoy that one. I was just surprised at how flat Lords of the Fallen felt compared to Venetica.

 

I'm pretty intrigued to see what Lords of the Fallen 2 comes out like - considering Deck 13 aren't onboard, or if the game even happens, but I guess only time can tell on whether or not that'll be interesting or not.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

No, certainly it is something you could rip through in a weekend easily I'd say.

 

I really want to try VR one day, but I know lots of people have had bad experiences with it and can't play for long before feeling sick. Sucks to hear you are one of those people. 

 

I expect I'll tear through Concrete Genie at some point once I've played through NieR: Replicant. That's the downside to me breaking my usual habit and specifically setting aside an allocated game for a milestone. Usually I'd take what comes up, but here I am not too far off of 349, getting ready to play it. After that though, I guess anything is on the table really.

 

If you know someone who has VR I'd suggest having a go with that first, then you'll be able to see if its for you. I tried it once for about ten minutes and my body definitely didn't seem to like it, but you might be completely different so definitely give it a go! Might open up a whole new avenue of gaming possibilities for you.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

It would be nice if the PS2 games with trophies thing was there again absolutely. Can you imagine if they put (even simple) trophies for all PS1, PS2 and PSP games on that specific tier they are offering? Would be insane, but probably cost too much lol

 

I think it's a good strategy by Sony to get rid of PS Now as a brand and bring it all into one brand, the stronger PS Plus brand. Sadly I haven't got the time to make going to a higher tier worth the price, even though I'm sure it would easily pay for itself. 

 

Returnal is going to be one of the games offered when the service comes in, and it'll have been out around a year I think by that time, so will Sony start doing that with a lot (possibly thought not likely all) of their big first party studio games? It's an interesting thought.

 

I don't think that PS2/PSP etc..... with trophies thing is completely off the cards you know. I remember having a discussion with a friend a while ago after I think we'd read somewhere that a patent was extended to do with the PS2-PS4 emulation for trophies type thing to include other platforms, so we speculated at the time they might try to bring it to other platforms in the future if the technology would allow it.

 

I'd love to see some trophies in those older titles - but then they'd be fighting a constant battle between all the consumers that want to live in the past (and there are quite a few) by just playing old games, so they'd definitely need to find that balance. I guess people who are into trophies make up a much smaller proportion of Sony's user base though, so even if they don't have trophies I'd be glad of another way to play those games without having to physically load up that console.

 

I think PS Now going is probably the right move too - even though I quite like it. It just doesn't have the appeal for a lot of people even after the rebrand. You hit the nail on the head though, how many people are actually going to have the tangible free time to actually play the games that they'll end up paying so much extra for, to have access to.

 

That would be interesting if Sony started doing that with their first party titles, especially if it ends up being around a year in-between them going onto the service, a bit like how it's usually a year or so before a film goes onto a streaming service these days if it's not one that's released straight onto there.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

Well I definitely think you'll have good fun with it, so go for it if you want! If you do, let me know what you think!

 

I will do, I think it keeps flitting in and out of my head for a reason, so I really ought to get and play it. That way I'll put those thoughts to bed one way or the other.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yes, I would be interested in playing one properly at some point. Maybe this one isn't the one. Appreciate the review though. Helped me to make up my mind.

 

I think The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a pretty good FMV one, for what it's worth. So that might be one to look at. I really liked that, and it's fairly unique in that almost everyone's playhthrough will be slightly different, as who the killer is, is randomised before every playthrough, so it means your experience of it will often be a little different to how some others are.

 

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

Really appreciate you giving me 5 stars for the guide and those positive words. Thanks! Yeah I knew you'd get it when you saw the guide lol never again am I doing that big of a guide on my own. Happy that it's on 4 stars overall at the moment, it's gratifying to see along with all the positive comments on there. It's not a perfect guide, far from it but I'm proud of what I achieved and hopefully it'll help others.

 

You're welcome! You deserve them, that guide must have taken an insane amount of time, and dedication - there is a whole lot going on in that game, so to get down as much of that complex information in there is going to end up helping a whole lot of people. You should be proud too - I feel pretty confident that will help a whole lot of people. Especially the fact you gave people options too. One example is when you wrote the section about methods for obtaining lots of gil, you didn't just stick to one, you gave plenty of suggestions, which will really help those that find just doing one thing continuously really frustrating.

 

On 01/04/2022 at 2:37 PM, The_Kopite said:

Really looking forward to those FFX and FFX-2 reviews! Bring it on I say!

 

That's awesome to read man! Thanks. I'm playing a little bit of catchup right now, but once I've gotten Detroit's  review  written, then I'll be doing FFX and X-2 as the next two Classic Reviews, problem is I know FFX is going to go quite long reading wise. Even if I'm pretty brief in certain areas, I love that game too much to cut corners with it, a bit like with your guide. Where you basically covered almost everything you could conceivably think of, like even the armours and weapons from airship locations you don't actually need to go to for trophy purposes. ?

 

8 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

Just gonna leave this right here...

 

Monkey Island thing.... because apparently it shows blank when I quoted it to reply to good ol' DrunkenEnginer

 

Wow! You know when I saw this earlier, you were actually the first person I found this out from, which is awesome.  I'd not been anywhere near the internet all day, so I was more than a little surprised when I saw this.

 

I had to a double-take for a moment, because I thought it was a late April Fools joke, I genuinely had to check the date on when it was posted on Twitter to make sure, but I'm so glad that it isn't.

 

I can't say that I'm exactly overjoyed that they're deciding to just ignore everything after LeChuck's Revenge, but hey, it's a new Monkey Island, it's a game I think I gave up on ever seeing AND Ron Gilbert is onboard too, so even better! He proved with Thimbleweed Park that he absolutely still has the chops to make a great point-and-click adventure game.

 

I'm very much looking forward to this! Thanks so much for posting it, that really did brighten my day when I found out about it, I hope you're also pretty pumped for it, especially as LeChuck's Revenge is your favourite (I think I'm remembering right) so hopefully it just improves upon the really weird way that, that game ended.

Edited April 4, 2022 by rjkclarke

[The_Kopite]

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I expect I'll tear through Concrete Genie at some point once I've played through NieR: Replicant. That's the downside to me breaking my usual habit and specifically setting aside an allocated game for a milestone. Usually I'd take what comes up, but here I am not too far off of 349, getting ready to play it. After that though, I guess anything is on the table really.

 

If you know someone who has VR I'd suggest having a go with that first, then you'll be able to see if its for you. I tried it once for about ten minutes and my body definitely didn't seem to like it, but you might be completely different so definitely give it a go! Might open up a whole new avenue of gaming possibilities for you.

Sounds the same with me. On 249 at the mo and trying to make RE2R 250 milestone, then it's time to rip through more games to trim this backlog lol 

 

I'd love to have a go on VR but sadly I don't know anyone who has it which is a shame. Hopefully it would be alright for me as the potential of VR is pretty phenomenal and exciting for sure. 

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I don't think that PS2/PSP etc..... with trophies thing is completely off the cards you know. I remember having a discussion with a friend a while ago after I think we'd read somewhere that a patent was extended to do with the PS2-PS4 emulation for trophies type thing to include other platforms, so we speculated at the time they might try to bring it to other platforms in the future if the technology would allow it.

 

I'd love to see some trophies in those older titles - but then they'd be fighting a constant battle between all the consumers that want to live in the past (and there are quite a few) by just playing old games, so they'd definitely need to find that balance. I guess people who are into trophies make up a much smaller proportion of Sony's user base though, so even if they don't have trophies I'd be glad of another way to play those games without having to physically load up that console.

 

I think PS Now going is probably the right move too - even though I quite like it. It just doesn't have the appeal for a lot of people even after the rebrand. You hit the nail on the head though, how many people are actually going to have the tangible free time to actually play the games that they'll end up paying so much extra for, to have access to.

 

That would be interesting if Sony started doing that with their first party titles, especially if it ends up being around a year in-between them going onto the service, a bit like how it's usually a year or so before a film goes onto a streaming service these days if it's not one that's released straight onto there.

If the tech would allow it, then I'd love Sony to implement it and I bet they would get so many sales from doing that honestly. To be fair people who want to play the older games usually are collectors who have their PS1's, PS2's etc and therefore can just play the original proper way if they don't want to deal with any trophies. 

 

I liked PS Now for what it was. Appreciated being able to get 2 free 7 day trials out of it and being able to access the pretty decent collection of games there, of which some would have cost a fair bit for a physical copy. Sadly it wasn't worth more than those free trials for me due to not having the time to play them. The concept and value proposition is definitely there and great, even if it can't compete with Game Pass. Microsoft are willing to loss lead though in order to get those subs due to the seemingly endless amounts of money they have, whereas Sony are like most companies and need to actually make money from these services.

 

If Sony did carry on implementing their massive first party titles around a year or so after release, then considering how long it takes me to play the games I have then if I could get the backlog considerably down, then maybe it would become worth it as for me those titles would be new.

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a pretty good FMV one, for what it's worth. So that might be one to look at. I really liked that, and it's fairly unique in that almost everyone's playhthrough will be slightly different, as who the killer is, is randomised before every playthrough, so it means your experience of it will often be a little different to how some others are.

I will look into this game, not sure if I've heard of it before. Maybe it popped up in one of my PLAY mags......

 

That's a clever way of going about it. Those types of games can get tiresome playing through multiple times when the main story and outcome is pretty much the same.

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You're welcome! You deserve them, that guide must have taken an insane amount of time, and dedication - there is a whole lot going on in that game, so to get down as much of that complex information in there is going to end up helping a whole lot of people. You should be proud too - I feel pretty confident that will help a whole lot of people. Especially the fact you gave people options too. One example is when you wrote the section about methods for obtaining lots of gil, you didn't just stick to one, you gave plenty of suggestions, which will really help those that find just doing one thing continuously really frustrating.

To be honest it took over a month and a lot of hours were put in each day when and where I could do so. My wife thought at one point I was just glued to it lol 

I am proud definitely, and I truly hope that it will help out a decent amount of people. Certainly the comments I have received on the guide itself have been really fantastic and I;ve been very grateful for them. 

Yeah I tried my best to offer up as many options as possible where I could, as I know that offering up just one when there are so many can be annoying for some.

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That's awesome to read man! Thanks. I'm playing a little bit of catchup right now, but once I've gotten Detroit's  review  written, then I'll be doing FFX and X-2 as the next two Classic Reviews, problem is I know FFX is going to go quite long reading wise. Even if I'm pretty brief in certain areas, I love that game too much to cut corners with it, a bit like with your guide. Where you basically covered almost everything you could conceivably think of, like even the armours and weapons from airship locations you don't actually need to go to for trophy purposes.

Yeah I've just seen that, looking forward to them defo!

I won't care how long they are, the more quality content the better I say! lol 

lol I was just trying to be as thorough as possible, and hopefully people will appreciate that. I know they do appreciate that with your indepth reviews.

 

14 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I had to a double-take for a moment, because I thought it was a late April Fools joke, I genuinely had to check the date on when it was posted on Twitter to make sure, but I'm so glad that it isn't.

Kudos to @DrunkenEngineer for posting this. Brill news for you man, I know how much you love Monkey Island so hopefully it'll turn out how you want! ?

[rjkclarke]

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Sounds the same with me. On 249 at the mo and trying to make RE2R 250 milestone, then it's time to rip through more games to trim this backlog lol 

 

I'd love to have a go on VR but sadly I don't know anyone who has it which is a shame. Hopefully it would be alright for me as the potential of VR is pretty phenomenal and exciting for sure. 

 

I hope you enjoy your time with RE2: Remake. Then you'd get another one of your favourite franchises pinned down onto another milestone too.  I really ought to play that one, I've wanted to for the longest time but I just haven't. Same with RE3 especially as I never played the original because of being too terrified of Nemesis ?.

 

Oh that's a pain about VR, because otherwise it's a hell of a gamble to buy something that might turn your front room/gaming area into a lake of vomit. There's certainly bucket loads of potential for VR to be awesome, so if you do try it, hopefully it'll be something you'll get onboard with. Doc's found a few VR games that you can play without moving too much, so it would seem like there's a few even I could manage to just about enjoy without ruining all of my carpets and furniture. ?

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

If the tech would allow it, then I'd love Sony to implement it and I bet they would get so many sales from doing that honestly. To be fair people who want to play the older games usually are collectors who have their PS1's, PS2's etc and therefore can just play the original proper way if they don't want to deal with any trophies. 

 

I liked PS Now for what it was. Appreciated being able to get 2 free 7 day trials out of it and being able to access the pretty decent collection of games there, of which some would have cost a fair bit for a physical copy. Sadly it wasn't worth more than those free trials for me due to not having the time to play them. The concept and value proposition is definitely there and great, even if it can't compete with Game Pass. Microsoft are willing to loss lead though in order to get those subs due to the seemingly endless amounts of money they have, whereas Sony are like most companies and need to actually make money from these services.

 

If Sony did carry on implementing their massive first party titles around a year or so after release, then considering how long it takes me to play the games I have then if I could get the backlog considerably down, then maybe it would become worth it as for me those titles would be new.

 

You're probably right - I think I was just getting a bit snarky about the subsection of gamers these days that seem to want to live solely in gamings past, instead of embracing all of the awesome new things that are coming our way. I'm a little guilty of that too on occasion, as a lot of us are, I suspect. But I'll always try and strike a healthy balance if I can. I'd be well up for those implementations if they did happen though. If someone offered me the chance to play Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, or Legacy of Kain:Soul Reaver pretty much untouched, but with trophies I'd be there in a heartbeat.

 

That's a good point about PSNow. Although I think whether you think it's worth the money or not is up to you, whenever I've had it, I've always used it for games I wouldn't really feel happy paying full price for, so if I can knock out a few of those for however much it is a month these days, I usually think it's money well spent, so I guess it all depends on how you view it. I certainly think you can get your moneys worth out of it if you chose to, but then that requires just playing things from that service to really make it count I suppose. 

 

I think one of the downsides to PSNow, is that not everyone has a particularly stable internet connection.Or a particularly fast one either as it happens. So to a lot of people the PS3 games are pretty much off the table, as they require a bit more stability to be able to be streamed easily. Even then there's a bit of a lag issue. I understand it is an issue created by the fairly bizarre Eldritch Magic that is used to run the PS3 and it's games, which is why downloads aren't a thing, but even a small thing like being able to download PS3 games would be an improvement for some people. Especially when you factor in some of the very good PS3 games that are on that service and have yet to actually get the remaster treatment yet.

 

Fingers crossed then that they do implement that for first party titles. I totally get where you're coming from as I tend to play most games literally years after they come out, even if I've bought them day one.I mean I have Dishonoured 2 still in it shrink wrap, and I'm pretty sure I got that the day it came out. So I get where you're coming from on that one. I'm interested to see how it all pans out either way.

 

7 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I will look into this game, not sure if I've heard of it before. Maybe it popped up in one of my PLAY mags......

 

That's a clever way of going about it. Those types of games can get tiresome playing through multiple times when the main story and outcome is pretty much the same.

 

 

 Shameless self plug and all, but....... haha ?I have actually reviewed it in this thread.... Technically before this thread (then posted it later, as I want all my reviews in one place). Although it's a little light on detail as I wrote that before I was starting to write more in-depth reviews.  I just noticed yo stuck a rep point on that one, so the game might have just fallen out of your head, which is totally understandable.

 

It was a really fun experience though, so I'd recommend that one, you can usually find it pretty cheap - and it makes very interesting use of the text box feature that we have on PSN when you're sending messages. So to see that implemented into the game, as the way in which you ask the questions to the patients was very cool.

 

8 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

To be honest it took over a month and a lot of hours were put in each day when and where I could do so. My wife thought at one point I was just glued to it lol 

I am proud definitely, and I truly hope that it will help out a decent amount of people. Certainly the comments I have received on the guide itself have been really fantastic and I;ve been very grateful for them. 

Yeah I tried my best to offer up as many options as possible where I could, as I know that offering up just one when there are so many can be annoying for some.

 

I think it will help a lot of people! You can definitely see the amount of effort that went into it - or at least anyone that has actually played it will. I'm sure once people have used it themselves they'll definitely see that too. 

 

That's an underrated addition, the fact you've given people a lot of options. For as much as I love that game, I don't particularly love its trophy list, at all actually. It's got far too much obnoxious (and sort of pointless) grinding involved in it. Like, why did we need to fill in the sphere grid completely with every character. Especially when most peoples end game team are usually just 4 or 5 of the characters, switching out where appropriate. So to give people options even if it's alternative options for getting spheres or items or gil, is one that will really help break up some of the monotony for a lot of people.

 

8 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Yeah I've just seen that, looking forward to them defo!

I won't care how long they are, the more quality content the better I say! lol 

lol I was just trying to be as thorough as possible, and hopefully people will appreciate that. I know they do appreciate that with your indepth reviews.

 

 

Thanks man! I'm just making a few final edits to the Detroit: Become Human one, I'll post it later, then get back to where I was with Final Fantasy X's review. They'll be as long as they have to be I guess, so I guess strap in for some long-ish ones on those Final Fantasy ones. I think they already appreciate how thorough you've been from the comments that are already there. Thanks again, I definitely always try and go as in-depth as I can (sometimes even when I don't want to haha ?)

 

8 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Kudos to @DrunkenEngineer for posting this. Brill news for you man, I know how much you love Monkey Island so hopefully it'll turn out how you want! ?

 

It is! I'm really hoping it gets a physical edition. It'd be nice as I've only got two physical Monkey Island games. The Third and fourth ones. I know there's a physical edition of the remake of the first one. But it's on Xbox 360 and for a console where I can't open the disc tray anymore (and as every Xbox I've had has busted the same way, I don't want to get another one anytime soon) I'm not bothering with that. Might pick up a physical edition of Tales of Monkey Island though if I ever feel particularly collectory ?

[rjkclarke]

Classic Review

 

Platinum #254

Detroit: Become Human (PS4)

 

 

DETROIT MASTER
Collected all trophies!

 

A Few Trophy Stats

 

Platinum Earned - 22 April 202: 4:45:52 AM

Time Taken to Platinum :  3 weeks, 10 hours, 51 minutes

Platinum Rarity  - 14.58%

Trophy Number - #12,760

 

 

We’ve finally arrived at a Quantic Dream game. I suppose it was always going to happen at some point along the way, in my quest to have every game I’ve ever gotten the platinum or one hundred percent completion reviewed,.

 

Having played this game through again fairly recently, I decided now would be a good time to tackle this one. If my tone reads a little negative in places, I apologise now, it won’t stay that way there is just a few things I just can’t allow myself not to mention with this game.

 

As usual we’ll be spoiler free (even regarding the TV Shows I make slight reference to further in). I might mention specific details about the characters, but I won’t mention the overall plot too much, that is there for you to discover for yourself – something that I must say, is something well worth doing.

 

This is one of those times where quite a few of my own personal thoughts are going to bleed into this review – I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, it’s just a case that I’ll be a little less lenient in some areas that other people might cut this game a bit of slack in.

For what it is worth – I quite like this game, it isn’t my favourite game by Quantic Dream, and at this point I’m not even quite sure why I even like them as much as I do. Especially considering how much of a colossal fanny I think David Cage can be as a human being, coupled with my usual disdain for QTE’s.  

 

Due to the nature of this game I’ll more than likely be flitting around between specific games aspects during the review, instead of just tackling them piece by piece like I usually might. For example I’ll be mentioning specifics to do with visual elements, voice acting, and sound design/soundtrack when talking about the characters, as those are all important factors, especially in this game when discussing those elements. So apologies if the structure is a little chaotic with this one.

 

So to stop myself from waffling on any further, let’s get into the write up properly shall we? 

 

Detroit: Become Human – for those who are unaware (hey it’s possible) is an interactive adventure game by Quantic Dream released in 2018. It’s baffling to me that this game is four years old this year, for some reason I keep thinking it released much earlier.

In Detroit: Become Human, you take the role of three separate Androids over three distinct stories, which can eventually link up. This is of course dependant on your choices, which is where the interactivity comes in. You play as Kara, housekeeping android, Connor an android investigator specifically tasked with hunting down deviant (sentient) androids and your third character comes in the form of Markus a caregiver android under the ownership of artist Karl Manfred.

 

So now that we’re up to speed with the basics of what the game essentially is, for the benefit of anyone that might not have known, there’s something I absolutely must address. This is something I really feel like I need to mention as it directly affected my own enjoyment of this game. It might not affect yours, but it did for me.  

 

That is – as brutal as it’s going to sound, the issue of unoriginality and how prevailing it is in Detroit: Become Human. I’m not saying there isn’t anything original in Detroit, but the lack of what I felt was originality, certainly was an unavoidable issue that I had with the game. Plenty of people manage to do unoriginal concepts in a completely original way, yet Detroit doesn’t do that, not at all. Detroit is essentially one step away from plagiarism in my eyes.

 

You might think I’m overreacting a little bit, but Detroit: Become Human has almost too much in common with the British television show Humans that first aired in 2015. Humans itself is an adaptation of a Swedish show Real Humans first airing in 2012 –  even if you were to say it was just a coincidence, there’s plenty of things that might suggest otherwise. If you look at the timeline, David Cage’s tech demonstration Kara, the thing that spawned Detroit essentially was released in 2012 and features an android gaining sentience, and not a whole lot of other context. It must be said I really liked that tech demo when I first saw it as a bonus for Beyond Two Souls. There isn’t anything in Kara that really related to Detroit, apart from the name Kara.   

 

Fast forward six years to the release of Detroit and two series of Real Humans and Humans have already aired the third series of Humans was airing as the game released – you start to really get a feel for where some of David Cage’s ideas for the story might have come from. Humans and Real Humans, it must be said are also just building upon ideas explored by Isaac Asimov and Phillip K. Dick themselves to name just a few of the writers who have also explored this specific type of fiction.

Again – I must stress this, there is nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from other works, it is incredibly commonplace in so many forms of media, but most people tend to do something noticeably different to the piece of media they’ve drawn inspiration from.

 

Detroit isn’t a carbon copy of Humans, but there are so many things in it that overlap that I really struggle to imagine it was just a coincidence.  I’ll list a few; hopefully any of you that have played through Detroit might see where I’m coming from. I won’t go heavy into spoilers, as Humans is well worth watching too I think.  

 

Humans contains a synth character that wants desperately to become a mother to a human (Kara). During Humans one of the main characters is a female sex worker synth that also despises being mistreated by humans, breaks their programming and lashes out in anger escaping (The Traci’s and North).

There’s also a human police officer (who is also curmudgeonly, wary and untrusting of synths just like Hank) and a synth police officer who starts to break down the boundries between Human and Synth, similarly to how Hank and Connor’s stories could potentially pan out on one of the games many potential pathways.

Markus even has his own counterpart of sorts in Leo (there’s another important character in Detroit, with a son called Leo, who even looks like Leo from Humans  too, coincidence?) a character that is essentially presumed dead only to be rebuilt using synth parts – becoming an almost Synth messiah in a similar way to how Markus does.

Not only this, Humans deals with issues of Synth rights, and also labours the question of whether or not they’re truly “alive.” That has been done before too, but Detroit does it in almost the same way that Humans does.  In Series three of humans there’s also a stronghold for the Synths that is incredibly reminiscent of Jericho, but as that was released the same year as Detroit, I really can’t criticise them for that.

 

I could list plenty more examples from the show – where certain other things overlap, certain ideologies, as well as certain pieces of small subtext here and there, but I don’t wish to labour the point too much.

 

I just get incredibly frustrated when I see people praise David Cage’s storytelling and scriptwriting in this game, because more than any of his other work, I think so much of it has been done better elsewhere. When something feels like it’s copying something instead of drawing inspiration from it, for some reason that really frustrates me. David Cage wrote Detroit over two years – and if Cage completing the script in late 2016 is to be believed, then two series of Real Humans and at least one (probably two) of Humans had already aired at that point. Let me put my tin-foil hat on for a moment, but there’s a part of me that thinks David Cage just hoped people wouldn’t notice the similarities. He’s certainly never mentioned either shows that I’m aware of, despite there being so much similarity.  So for me, it’s like people are giving David Cage a pat on the back for something he doesn’t quite deserve, and in my head there’s something a little unjust about that. I guess at least there’s nobody out there that probably thinks David Cage is as good of a screenwriter as HE probably thinks he is.

 

It might surprise a lot of you having just waded through the last couple of paragraphs, but I do like Detroit as a story, and as a game. As much as I’ve bashed David Cage a little (there will be less in future reviews,) the sheer feat of writing two thousand pages worth of text for the story and a lot of its potential branches and outcomes, is absolutely impressive, and I can’t help but be impressed by that, credit where credit is due after all.  

 

So now I’ve gotten my little bit of David Cage bashing over with, let’s get back on the old positivity train and  take a look at the game itself a bit more.

 

You won’t find all too many games on the PlayStation 4 that look quite as good as this game does. That isn’t an understatement either, this really does look phenomenal. It is an absolute masterpiece when it comes to pushing the limitations of the hardware at the time. If you’d told my nine year old self playing the original Metal Gear Solid that video game characters would one day  look like real people – and actually genuinely, look like real people, I don’t think there’s any way I would have thought video game graphics could evolve as much as they have over that nearly twenty year period.

 

It really is impressive how gorgeous Detroit looks, whether that be the lighting and shadows, the architecture, the vibrancy of the colours, or the characters themselves, purely on that level the game is astounding. I don’t think everything is perfect – on repeat playthroughs some things have really bugged me – like certain pieces of decoration in Karl’s (an artist) house. I understand art is very much not a one size fits all thing – but the type of person they present Karl as, is not the type of person I think would fill his house with taxidermied animals, everything the game tells you about him, that he values life, whatever form that takes would probably be staunchly against having something like that in his house. 

 

I thought Quantic Dream did a marvellous job in Beyond Two Souls, managing to do a terrific job of capturing Elliot Page and Willem Dafoe’s likeness with that game, but Detroit takes that to a whole new level. When you see a photograph of the actor Jesse Williams (Markus) then look at a picture of what his character looks like in the game it is astounding how accurate a depiction it really is. Especially the eyes – almost all of the characters look very much like their real life counterparts, uncannily so at times.

 

One of the aspects of Detroit that I think is genuinely masterful is in its soundtrack. Each individual lead character in Markus, Kara and Connor each had a different composer assigned to them  It might not sound like much on paper – but just that implementation alone goes an incredibly long way in already establishing who those characters are, what they represent and what you might come to expect from them. it really gives each one their own distinct feeling.

Detroit’s sound design elements are also masterfully crafted, well, mostly, the fact there was only one stock scream sound effect given for Alice becomes pretty noticeable. Depending on how forgiving you are, you could even argue that was a deliberate decision, and a brilliant one at that. There is a particularly good example of well utilised scene when Markus' audio receptors aren't working and the cacophonous difference between when you can hear, and when you can't is brilliant, it's jarring, but deliberately so.   A lot of the individual sound effects are very well put together, and feel appropriately how you might imagine “future tech” to sound like, if you can think of it, however small it might be, there’s probably a sound effect included in Detroit to accompany it.

 

In that same vein, if there’s something you feel like you should be able to interact with in the game then you probably can. There are so many small side interactions you can both see and be involved with during the game, that really help to immerse you in the games world.  

 

Detroit’s gameplay is as you’d expect from an interactive adventure game experience like this one, very reliant on the story, the characters and the world building itself being the thing keeping you engaged throughout. Certainly if you don’t have the hang ups and baggage that I did, then you’d surely be pulled into this games world almost instantly.

Detroit also leans heavily into QTE’s, but I don’t mind them in this case as they’re usually fairly well implemented, and responsive, even containing some accessibility options for those that might prefer them to be a little more simplified. Thankfully one wrong move doesn’t always result in a story path being closed to you like some other games do, which for me is an absolutely welcome to feature to be given a bit leeway.

 

I will say this though, the gameplay is an absolute cut above anything else that Quantic Dream has done up to this point – some of it does feel a little more gamified, than it perhaps should, but I can understand the motivation behind it. There are a few spots that are worth mentioning like that. Things such as where Markus is able to assess a situation using his android brain, finding the solution to what is essentially a small platforming puzzle for example.  After all we are discussing a game here, however much the gorgeous graphics might convince you otherwise in a few places. I understand the need to implement these features so that we as players feel a little more in control of the situation.

 

An interesting implementation is the way the game presents you with a timeline at the end of each chapter, showing you all of the branches that you could have taken, and could still find in the future.....

 

Here’s an example....

 

 

I think whether you like this or not is up to the individual player, some might find it completely superfluous and immersion breaking, whilst others might enjoy perusing it just out of genuine curiosity. I was very much the latter of the two things I just described.  

 

I think the way the game is paced is nicely done – you rotate through the characters on a fairly regular basis. So even if you aren’t particularly fond of one character, you’ll be with another one fairly soon. This is something that Quantic Dream has always done well even as far back as Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy.

 

With that in mind are the characters themselves worth investing in emotionally? Let’s have a little look at what I thought, one by one.  After all emotional investment is absolutely imperative when it comes to a story driven game like this; if you feel personally invested in the events, then the way they play out will seem that much more impactful.

 

Kara, motion capture acted and voiced by Valorie Curry is one of the elements of Detroit that I see criticised a fair amount. Not necessarily for the way she’s played by Curry but for her story itself. For what it’s worth I think Valorie Curry is spectacular as Kara, she’s compelling, she has the potential to be very interesting and there’s almost an instant likability about her character.  

If anything Valorie Curry deserved better than the material that she got to work with here. Kara’s story is fine – it’s just a little basic – I actually think the twist that comes alongside it rather undermines it too, as it really wasn’t necessary and almost detracts from how impactful it could have been.

Whilst I always looked forward to scenes with Kara, because of how well she was played – I couldn’t shake the feeling that the whole thing felt like two siblings playing house. That’s certainly how the dialogue is written at times.   

 

Kara’s gameplay sections lean more into the kind of thing I specifically prefer in these types of games, where you’re often able to talk your way out of situations with conversational nous. Kara’s personal soundtrack is very well put together – very melancholic and perhaps a little overly manipulative in places. I can think of a few scenes where I could imagine the composer standing there watching me play the game, poking me with a sharp stick exclaiming “FEEL FEELINGS”

 

We need to talk about Markus – actually I wish we didn’t, as I really, really can’t get on with Markus as a protagonist. It’s not that I think he’s particularly bad, I just think he’s incredibly bland, one note, and pretty uninteresting in general. I don’t wish to discredit anyone’s acting ability, after all Jesse Williams doesn’t have all that much to work with as far as interesting material for Markus goes, but he does deliver some very important lines in a very Tommy Wiseau-esque way. They aren’t just any lines either; some of them are really important ones, which literally change the entire outcome of certain elements of the game.

 

You know what my real problem is – and hear me out here. I can’t seem to let go of how strongly I think North should have been the protagonist in this part of the story.  Everything about her, her backstory, her general demeanour, everything about her made for a more interesting and compelling playable character. The light and the dark, the shades of grey, her motivations, everything just sort of makes sense for her to take the lead in this part of the story, and for her to genuinely grow as a character as a result of it. That being said – would I still roll my eyes if North was using the force to reprogram androids? Yeah, I probably would. So who knows?

 

I know, I know – if wishes were fishes, the world would be an ocean. In my opinion she could have been the difference between a pretty damn good game – and an incredibly great one.  You change her outlook depending on your decisions as Markus anyway, so organically seeing that change through your own actions might have made them that much more impactful. Whereas with Markus, I’ve always found the decisions you’re faced with as him to be very black and white, with very little middle ground, just due to what he’s been like as a character up to those points, there’s just not a whole lot of natural progression – just BAM “I’m like this now.”

 

I do think Markus’ musical motifs fit the character far more than the portrayal of the character ultimately does. Whichever way you specifically choose Markus’ story to play out, the inherent sadness and mournful regret that permeate throughout some of his musical pieces very much fit the character David Cage wants him to be (yet not necessarily is). I think the fact that the music just feels right, regardless of the path you’ve chosen for Markus is an absolute testament to John Paesano’s ability as a composer.

 

I saved the best for last in Connor, played terrifically by Bryan Dechart – I think those of us who have played Detroit: Become Human can almost universally agree on the fact that the relationship between Hank (played masterfully by Clancy Brown) and Connor, however that plays out for you, is one of the things that you’ll probably remember the most about the entire experience. In my opinion at least, Connor has an almost instant likability to his character from the very first moment that he appears. I love the way you can have him try and bond with Hank by talking to him about certain things – yet end up saying them in the most artificial way possible, it’s hilarious and endearing at the same time.  They play off of each other so brilliantly – the way that Hank is so very human, is such a brilliant juxtaposition to how monosyllabic and cold Connor can appear to be in places (depending on your responses).

 

I also found Connor’s gameplay sections to be the most enjoyable – they’re the ones that feel the most involved – and I’d say the most like a video game. If you’ve played Heavy Rain then you can probably compare them to NAMAN  (sorry, Norman, the way he speaks has conditioned my brain to write it like that) Jayden’s investigation sections, where you’re meticulously combing over evidence a bit like you might in Sherlock Holmes video games. When you couple that with genuinely wanting to know more about the story, these lead to some really interesting passages of play. Some of the most memorable sections of the game for me were during the Connor sections.

 

I absolutely love Connor’s portion of the soundtrack – it’s one of the few areas where Detroit: Become Human’s derivativeness really works in its favour I think. There is a very obvious parallel between Connor as a character and that of Deckard in Blade Runner. Uncannily so – this is one of the areas I think they knew people would definitely see the similarities though, and they really play into that with the musical composition for Connor, it is so reminiscent of Blade Runner, but also unique enough to stand out and be memorable as something you associate with Connor, a fantastic job by Nima Fakhrara. There are a few games I’ve yet to review (ones I’m quite looking forward to writing about) that they also provided the soundtrack for, there’s some real talent there.

 

We’ve reached the end of the road with Detroit – as you can probably tell if you’ve read this far, my overriding feeling towards Detroit is actually a good one – I could never deny that it’s a good game, I just have a few issues with the way it’s written – more than anything, I’d say an issue around the person who wrote it, but the game itself is very good.

 

Would I recommend this one? Yes I would, it’s absolutely worth experiencing I think – it’s a technical marvel, and even the fact you have to do multiple playthroughs for specific trophies tied to choices and collectibles didn’t really hinder my enjoyment of it. However, the new things that you’ll see will probably keep it fresh and exciting; you might even find yourself coming back for multiple playthroughs after the platinum.

 

Having recently replayed this alongside my Sister (she was making all the decisions this time) it was fascinating to see how other people play a game like this and how differently the game can play out as a result. I saw some parts of the game I've never even seen before.  Watching her play it absolutely purely, without any sort of need to think about the trophies or collectibles was really refreshing to see her react to each specific situation. Especially in a few areas where I knew what would happen if she chose a specific thing. She’s also a big fan of Humans and noticed quite a few of the similarities, so I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

 

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

 

Well I certainly didn't expect to re-edit this one the amount of times that I have done - there was far more to say than I initially thought there would be. Could I have cut the stuff where I called out David Cage? Maybe, but I can always cut that out in the future if I really think I need to. It's something I feel very strongly about, so I felt like I at least had to mention it, even if it might have made me come across like a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist. I promise I don't have a mad spider diagram somewhere with all of the evidence proving that David Cage stole some ideas.... honest....... ? STOP LOOKIING AT ME LIKE THAT ?

 

Anyway this was quite a fun one to look back on - looking forward to delving into the other three parts of the David Cage tetralogy of misery. Especially when I'll be able to write SEEEEEAAAAAAN AND Jaaaaason, JAAAAASON, throughout the Heavy Rain one at random intervals, and nobody will be able to call for an ambulance to cart me off to a padded cell,having electricity fired into my brain. ?

 

Onto Final Fantasy X as far as the next classic reviews go. Although the next review you'll see in here will likely be Peaky Blinders: Mastermind I would have thought. Which will probably be my next platinum.

 

So I guess I'll catch you in the next one JAAAAAAAAAAASON..... sorry, sorry folks I meant folks! ?

[Copanele]

Damn what a nice write-up - glad you didn't cut the David Cage stuff, because it just made up for more good lecture  

I will definitely not play this game, or any David Cage for that matter (swear if I play any other QTE adventure game I will lose my mind), but reading about them, that's a different story.

 

Now...this is an odd review that I am looking forward to  

Quote

Although the next review you'll see in here will likely be Peaky Blinders: Mastermind I would have thought. Which will probably be my next platinum.

I also can't wait you to tell more about this game (after you've finished it of course). I watched 3 seasons of Peaky Blinders, I thought the first 2 were phenomenal and the 3rd one made me drop the show completely  but regardless it was a nice watch, as much as it lasted. Game also was discounted several times.

[The_Kopite]

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I hope you enjoy your time with RE2: Remake. Then you'd get another one of your favourite franchises pinned down onto another milestone too.  I really ought to play that one, I've wanted to for the longest time but I just haven't. Same with RE3 especially as I never played the original because of being too terrified of Nemesis .

 

Oh that's a pain about VR, because otherwise it's a hell of a gamble to buy something that might turn your front room/gaming area into a lake of vomit. There's certainly bucket loads of potential for VR to be awesome, so if you do try it, hopefully it'll be something you'll get onboard with. Doc's found a few VR games that you can play without moving too much, so it would seem like there's a few even I could manage to just about enjoy without ruining all of my carpets and furniture.

I played it ages ago and got a lot of trophies from it. Next step which I'm trying to do at the mo is the first of the 2 speedrun trophies, but it's taking longer than I'd like it to sadly. It's a brilliant version of RE2 so yeah definitely would highly recommend it to you! RE3R didn't get the same praise compared to RE2R, but haven't played it either yet so will be looking to get to that sooner rather than later, but very much looking forward to it too!

 

Yeah sadly it's a gamble in that sense definitely but with VR1, I haven't got the setup and space to be able to implement and use it correctly, so it'd just be a pain in the behind. VR2 sounds more appealing and easier in that sense so I'd love to give that a whirl properly and with VR1 just give it a test run to see how I'd be with a VR headset.

Haha, well there are a fair few games that definitely would interest me so will see how it goes.

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You're probably right - I think I was just getting a bit snarky about the subsection of gamers these days that seem to want to live solely in gamings past, instead of embracing all of the awesome new things that are coming our way. I'm a little guilty of that too on occasion, as a lot of us are, I suspect. But I'll always try and strike a healthy balance if I can. I'd be well up for those implementations if they did happen though. If someone offered me the chance to play Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, or Legacy of Kain:Soul Reaver pretty much untouched, but with trophies I'd be there in a heartbeat.

 

That's a good point about PSNow. Although I think whether you think it's worth the money or not is up to you, whenever I've had it, I've always used it for games I wouldn't really feel happy paying full price for, so if I can knock out a few of those for however much it is a month these days, I usually think it's money well spent, so I guess it all depends on how you view it. I certainly think you can get your moneys worth out of it if you chose to, but then that requires just playing things from that service to really make it count I suppose. 

 

I think one of the downsides to PSNow, is that not everyone has a particularly stable internet connection.Or a particularly fast one either as it happens. So to a lot of people the PS3 games are pretty much off the table, as they require a bit more stability to be able to be streamed easily. Even then there's a bit of a lag issue. I understand it is an issue created by the fairly bizarre Eldritch Magic that is used to run the PS3 and it's games, which is why downloads aren't a thing, but even a small thing like being able to download PS3 games would be an improvement for some people. Especially when you factor in some of the very good PS3 games that are on that service and have yet to actually get the remaster treatment yet.

 

Fingers crossed then that they do implement that for first party titles. I totally get where you're coming from as I tend to play most games literally years after they come out, even if I've bought them day one.I mean I have Dishonoured 2 still in it shrink wrap, and I'm pretty sure I got that the day it came out. So I get where you're coming from on that one. I'm interested to see how it all pans out either way.

It's always good to try and strike a healthy balance in life in general but certainly in gaming. Haha, I know you would be! I'd be the same for any of the PS1 Resident Evil's for example. 

 

Yes absolutely, everyone is different and it is fairly obvious that the value proposition with the service is good and there. However some will get more out of it than others, and it has to work for you personally.

 

100% agree about the lack of solid and stable internet connection for everyone across the world. True even just here in the UK certainly. It's a shame but it's life with the infrastructure that has to be setup and maintained. I found streaming the PS3 games mostly fine, but certainly for others it would be off the table altogether as you say. It's Sony's fault that they persued the cell technology which took an age for developers to get a handle on correctly and sadly has made backwards compatibility, especially downloads of PS3 games an expensive dream that Sony won't foot the bill for.

 

Surely you will end up just keeping Dishonoured 2 sealed now? It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who doesn't get to play brand new games that they are really looking forward to, until ages after their release lol 

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Shameless self plug and all, but....... haha I have actually reviewed it in this thread.... Technically before this thread (then posted it later, as I want all my reviews in one place). Although it's a little light on detail as I wrote that before I was starting to write more in-depth reviews.  I just noticed yo stuck a rep point on that one, so the game might have just fallen out of your head, which is totally understandable.

 

It was a really fun experience though, so I'd recommend that one, you can usually find it pretty cheap - and it makes very interesting use of the text box feature that we have on PSN when you're sending messages. So to see that implemented into the game, as the way in which you ask the questions to the patients was very cool.

I've opened a new tab and will read that review tonight! I'm sorry, a lot of things fall out of my mind honestly lol it's a bad trait of mine it seems. Also I like to give you rep because I know your posts are quality even when I haven't read them. Then I'll forget to read them sometimes lol Yeah, that's just me. 

 

Sounds fun and pretty unique too!

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I think it will help a lot of people! You can definitely see the amount of effort that went into it - or at least anyone that has actually played it will. I'm sure once people have used it themselves they'll definitely see that too. 

 

That's an underrated addition, the fact you've given people a lot of options. For as much as I love that game, I don't particularly love its trophy list, at all actually. It's got far too much obnoxious (and sort of pointless) grinding involved in it. Like, why did we need to fill in the sphere grid completely with every character. Especially when most peoples end game team are usually just 4 or 5 of the characters, switching out where appropriate. So to give people options even if it's alternative options for getting spheres or items or gil, is one that will really help break up some of the monotony for a lot of people.

I certainly hope so, it's the whole point of being a guide writer lol It's what I always strive to achieve with my guides.

 

Yes as much as I love the game as you know, I agree in regards to the trophy list. It isn't great and it elongates the game, especially having to fill out every party members sphere grid. Hopefully the tips I gave will help a lot and give them options, especially as it is very easy to just fill in the sphere grid in a way that means you can't beat the Dark Aeons etc (unless Yojimbo bails you out of course) and that'll end up adding even more time to the game. Annoying too.

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Thanks man! I'm just making a few final edits to the Detroit: Become Human one, I'll post it later, then get back to where I was with Final Fantasy X's review. They'll be as long as they have to be I guess, so I guess strap in for some long-ish ones on those Final Fantasy ones. I think they already appreciate how thorough you've been from the comments that are already there. Thanks again, I definitely always try and go as in-depth as I can (sometimes even when I don't want to haha )

Ironically, I'm looking to play that game sometime soon lol It's been on my PS4 for years since it was given away as a PS Plus freebie. 

Looking forward to those FF reviews! Will definitely read those properly lol

 

19 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

It is! I'm really hoping it gets a physical edition. It'd be nice as I've only got two physical Monkey Island games. The Third and fourth ones. I know there's a physical edition of the remake of the first one. But it's on Xbox 360 and for a console where I can't open the disc tray anymore (and as every Xbox I've had has busted the same way, I don't want to get another one anytime soon) I'm not bothering with that. Might pick up a physical edition of Tales of Monkey Island though if I ever feel particularly collectory

Hopefully (like with TMNT Shredders Revenge coming up and SOR4 before that) Limited Run will sort out a physical release for the collectors out there! Sadly being based in the US, it's expensive delivery but they do quality stuff.

Sounds like eventually, you'll have all the physical versions of all the Monkey Island games. Sounds like a quest all of it's own for you to undertake haha 

 

 

EDIT - Just read that Doctor Dekker review properly and yeah it sounds interesting though it certainly sounds odd as well. What's with the toes thing? lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by The_Kopite
Updated information

[realm722]

12 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Platinum #254

Detroit: Become Human (PS4)

 

Good read! I am always here to read through someone's thoughts on Detroit. I've seen/read a lot of discourse on the game and never before seen anybody mention the number of similarities between Detroit's arcs and that of the show Humans. I've also had a hilarious experience playing one of Cage's games and after watching another type of media think: "oh my god... he ABSOLUTELY watched this show before making his game." I played Heavy Rain in Dec. 2019 and of course, it released in Feb of 2010. For whatever reason, I started watching "The Life of David Gale" starring Kevin Spacey in July 2021, and good lord I will fight anyone who thinks Cage wasn't inspired by that film. It has his bloody name in it!!!

 

Aside from that, I think you and I are in agreement for a lot of what makes Detroit a fun game to play/talk about it even if the core material itself kinda crumbles once you dig into it. (See: uricksaladbar's critique) Even despite all of the awful stilted sections as Markus (who I thought was by far the worst of the 3 protagonists) and the horrific allegories that are presented to the player with a sledgehammer - when Connor starts bantering with Hank and you get to see the utterly gorgeous graphics the game has to offer, it kinda washes it all away. I love seeing someone's first time experience with the game and I think that's one of the reasons the games still remain relevant even today despite how scrutinized they've been. 

 

I'm very curious to see how their Star Wars game is gonna turn out though. That seems like a huge departure from their past work and as someone who has never really cared for Stars Wars, I'll likely be right there on Day 1 to watch a Let's Play of it just to see what Quantic did with the IP. 

[DrunkenEngineer]

On 4/4/2022 at 2:54 PM, rjkclarke said:

Wow! You know when I saw this earlier, you were actually the first person I found this out from, which is awesome.  I'd not been anywhere near the internet all day, so I was more than a little surprised when I saw this.

 

I had to a double-take for a moment, because I thought it was a late April Fools joke, I genuinely had to check the date on when it was posted on Twitter to make sure, but I'm so glad that it isn't.

 

I can't say that I'm exactly overjoyed that they're deciding to just ignore everything after LeChuck's Revenge, but hey, it's a new Monkey Island, it's a game I think I gave up on ever seeing AND Ron Gilbert is onboard too, so even better! He proved with Thimbleweed Park that he absolutely still has the chops to make a great point-and-click adventure game.

 

I'm very much looking forward to this! Thanks so much for posting it, that really did brighten my day when I found out about it, I hope you're also pretty pumped for it, especially as LeChuck's Revenge is your favourite (I think I'm remembering right) so hopefully it just improves upon the really weird way that, that game ended.

 

LeChuck’s Revenge is indeed one of my favorite’s from my childhood.  I revisited it last year on PC about this time to clean up the smattering of achievements I had left.  I’ll definitely be checking out the new one, and probably sticking with PC just because, you know, point & click

[rjkclarke]

15 hours ago, Copanele said:

Damn what a nice write-up - glad you didn't cut the David Cage stuff, because it just made up for more good lecture  

I will definitely not play this game, or any David Cage for that matter (swear if I play any other QTE adventure game I will lose my mind), but reading about them, that's a different story.

 

Now...this is an odd review that I am looking forward to  

I also can't wait you to tell more about this game (after you've finished it of course). I watched 3 seasons of Peaky Blinders, I thought the first 2 were phenomenal and the 3rd one made me drop the show completely  but regardless it was a nice watch, as much as it lasted. Game also was discounted several times.

 

Thanks man! I appreciate that.... Especially the David Cage thing, because I was really fighting with myself on that one. Poor Smevz was on the receiving end of a few messages late last night of "should I, should I not include this" type of thing haha?.... Ultimately I think I had to include it, it's a big part of my experiences with that game.

 

I wouldn't rule out ever playing a David Cage game, they're interesting in their own way, the Star Wars one they have coming up might pique your interest, you never know - just don't expect high art levels of nuance and depth from them and you'll be fine. That's never what I expect from them, I just wish they weren't such blatant ripoffs of other things.

 

I've got you covered on if you want to read about them though ? - as I've done all of the David Cage ones that have trophies - someone probably should put me in an institution just for that alone ?!

 

The other thing you mentioned though! Yeah, that's an interesting one for sure.

 

So you aren't the first person to tell me that they checked out of Peaky Blinders around series 3. I can see why as well, I stayed with it - but the show definitely morphs into something completely different from specifically that series onwards.

 

Out of curiosity what was it that specifically turned you off about Series 3?

 

I should be able to finish the game today actually - it's actually pretty short, I think.  I played the first four levels a couple of days ago in about two hours and there's only ten levels so I don't think the game is very long.

 

It's one I'm quite looking forward to writing about - but it's also very odd in that it isn't probably what you'd expect from a Peaky Blinders video game. I think just on tone and feel you might like it. It's actually set right before the first series, and it does a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the early period of the show, but that's all I'll say for now. 

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I played it ages ago and got a lot of trophies from it. Next step which I'm trying to do at the mo is the first of the 2 speedrun trophies, but it's taking longer than I'd like it to sadly. It's a brilliant version of RE2 so yeah definitely would highly recommend it to you! RE3R didn't get the same praise compared to RE2R, but haven't played it either yet so will be looking to get to that sooner rather than later, but very much looking forward to it too!

 

Yeah sadly it's a gamble in that sense definitely but with VR1, I haven't got the setup and space to be able to implement and use it correctly, so it'd just be a pain in the behind. VR2 sounds more appealing and easier in that sense so I'd love to give that a whirl properly and with VR1 just give it a test run to see how I'd be with a VR headset.

Haha, well there are a fair few games that definitely would interest me so will see how it goes.

 

Can you apply the usual Resident Evil speedrun logic to that game,which is just run past everything that you can avoid shooting? That's usually the best way to zip through those games pretty quickly, just don't stop moving haha ?. One of these days I'll get RE2: Remake, I keep thinking of picking up the bundle that has RE2 and RE3 together, but I don't think it comes with the DLC for RE2. So that's a bummer. I guess I'll get hem separately.

 

Sounds as if VR2 is probably the way to go for you by the sounds of it. If it was backwards compatible I'd be tempted to jump on board just to try out that Vader Immortal VR game, but I'd have to turn where I game into one of the kill rooms  from Dexter (floor to ceiling plastic sheeting) beforehand just to make sure I have somewhere I can catch my insides when the VR inevitably makes them fall out ?

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

It's always good to try and strike a healthy balance in life in general but certainly in gaming. Haha, I know you would be! I'd be the same for any of the PS1 Resident Evil's for example. 

 

Careful what you wish for dude...... You just said any of the PS1 Resident Evi'ls

 

So you'd go and grab the platinum for this monstrosity?

 

 

I mean if the platinum name wasn't "Am I Vincent?" Then no buy from me, but surely even you have your limits on the Resident Evil games you'd want to go for haha?!

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

100% agree about the lack of solid and stable internet connection for everyone across the world. True even just here in the UK certainly. It's a shame but it's life with the infrastructure that has to be setup and maintained. I found streaming the PS3 games mostly fine, but certainly for others it would be off the table altogether as you say. It's Sony's fault that they persued the cell technology which took an age for developers to get a handle on correctly and sadly has made backwards compatibility, especially downloads of PS3 games an expensive dream that Sony won't foot the bill for.

 

Surely you will end up just keeping Dishonoured 2 sealed now? It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who doesn't get to play brand new games that they are really looking forward to, until ages after their release lol 

 

When I had a lot of internet problems about three years ago - one of the engineers actually told me that we all could have had fibre optic internet, across the country, years and years ago as standard if the government at the end of the 80's had actually bothered to spend a slight bit of extra money to have the cabling installed. Instead we have what we have, and it's mainly new homes that have true fibre broadband, instead of what they sell as "Fibre Broadband" which we found out wasn't exactly the same thing.

 

I would imagine anything on the PS3 on PSNOW that required very specific button timing might be a no-no unless you have really tip-top internet, but I always stay away from games like that from PSNOW.

 

We can dream right, one day we might be able to play PS3 games on a PS6 - that you have to stand on a specific rock and do a specific dance at quarter to three in the morning, for a magic gnome to appear and sell you one.

 

Nope - the minute I get the 100% nailed down on Dishonoured: Definitive Edition that bad boy is getting ripped open and played - I have put that game off for far longer than I should have. Especially when it's one I'm pretty much guaranteed to love, so that one is not going to stay sealed I'm afraid ? INSTANT DEVALUATION haha!

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I've opened a new tab and will read that review tonight! I'm sorry, a lot of things fall out of my mind honestly lol it's a bad trait of mine it seems. Also I like to give you rep because I know your posts are quality even when I haven't read them. Then I'll forget to read them sometimes lol Yeah, that's just me. 

 

Sounds fun and pretty unique too!

 

No need to apologise at all. I really do appreciate the support, there's no pressure to read every single thing.  I don't expect anyone to remember every single review that I've written in here and or thing I've written about. Even I forget what I have and haven't done, which is one of the reasons I keep track of everything on the first post, so I know where everything is and what I've actually done haha ?. Otherwise I totally would forget, and combing through nearly 40 pages takes a while, especially as the odd time I have, I've gotten sidetracked reading back certain conversations we've all had in here over the last year with a big fat smile across my face.

 

Fun and unique are definitely two words I'd use to describe that game.

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

I certainly hope so, it's the whole point of being a guide writer lol It's what I always strive to achieve with my guides.

 

Yes as much as I love the game as you know, I agree in regards to the trophy list. It isn't great and it elongates the game, especially having to fill out every party members sphere grid. Hopefully the tips I gave will help a lot and give them options, especially as it is very easy to just fill in the sphere grid in a way that means you can't beat the Dark Aeons etc (unless Yojimbo bails you out of course) and that'll end up adding even more time to the game. Annoying too.

 

You're doing a pretty great job of that so far.

 

I did have an idea for a thing I was going to write about great games with terrible trophy lists - and I think Final Fantasy X would definitely make it on that, as would FFIX actually as much as I hate to say it.

 

That's so true about filling in the sphere grid badly - because most guides don't bother to really tell you that you need to buff up the Luck stat a fair amount - I like that you didn't put in that people should try and max it out, more hit a specific spot and then stop. Because I took my Luck stat pretty high in that game and realistically you don't need to go too high at all, it can help sure, but it's not a necessity.

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

ronically, I'm looking to play that game sometime soon lol It's been on my PS4 for years since it was given away as a PS Plus freebie. 

Looking forward to those FF reviews! Will definitely read those properly lol

 

I definitely think Detroit is worth a look - even if you don't end up going for the platinum (it can be quite a fun one though). Might be something you could play alongside your wife. I played it recently with my sister and having someone there alongside to lighten the tone of proceedings definitely might mean you don't get caught up on how silly the story can get in places.

 

You never know - I might get you going back to Final Fantasy X-2 after reading the review, you and I can write a 100% guide together.... Actually what am I saying that sounds like a nightmare for us both. Still after you've heard the tale of my weird accidental milestone, you might find yourself playing Last Mission, as that game mode as I always say is brilliant.

 

That's definitely one that as a Final Fantasy fan you don't exactly want as a milestone forever, right haha ?

 

6 hours ago, The_Kopite said:

Hopefully (like with TMNT Shredders Revenge coming up and SOR4 before that) Limited Run will sort out a physical release for the collectors out there! Sadly being based in the US, it's expensive delivery but they do quality stuff.

Sounds like eventually, you'll have all the physical versions of all the Monkey Island games. Sounds like a quest all of it's own for you to undertake haha 

 

 

EDIT - Just read that Doctor Dekker review properly and yeah it sounds interesting though it certainly sounds odd as well. What's with the toes thing? lol

 

I have yet to actually buy anything from Limited Run - but I'm sure one day I'll get the urge to do it - let's face it Monkey Island will probably be one of the things that nudges me in that direction. That'd be nice to have a physical copy of all the Monkey Island games.

 

Doctor Dekker is definitely all of those things you mentioned - but I think it's totally worth playing - and the most it will take you is 8 hours, so that's good at least. The toes thing, your guess is as good as mine - I'd probably assume the director had a bit of a foot fetish. I'm not going to kink shame them though, it's just a bit odd the way you've got actual staff members and patients in the game wiggling their toes at you every now and then.

 

3 hours ago, realm722 said:

Good read! I am always here to read through someone's thoughts on Detroit. I've seen/read a lot of discourse on the game and never before seen anybody mention the number of similarities between Detroit's arcs and that of the show Humans. I've also had a hilarious experience playing one of Cage's games and after watching another type of media think: "oh my god... he ABSOLUTELY watched this show before making his game." I played Heavy Rain in Dec. 2019 and of course, it released in Feb of 2010. For whatever reason, I started watching "The Life of David Gale" starring Kevin Spacey in July 2021, and good lord I will fight anyone who thinks Cage wasn't inspired by that film. It has his bloody name in it!!!

 

Cheers I appreciate that!

 

I don't know how well Humans did outside of the UK - I'm sure I remember reading that it was a co-production with AMC so it must have at least aired outside of the UK I would have thought. Hilarious is right though it's one of those things where you just sit there and think IT'S SO OBVIOUS WHERE YOU GOT THIS FROM!

 

I don't know - perhaps I just have a really low opinion of David Cage (actually that's not even a perhaps) - but I just think the way he never acknowledges the things that have clearly inspired him just rubs me up the wrong way a little. Like he thinks he's above being inspired by other things, so he just desperately hopes people won't notice the similarities.

 

I've not seen The Life of David Gale, but I just read that films plot synopsis in that handy link you provided - and yep, I can totally see the similarities with Heavy Rain from just a cursory glance at it. David Cage really has no shame does he haha.

 

3 hours ago, realm722 said:

Aside from that, I think you and I are in agreement for a lot of what makes Detroit a fun game to play/talk about it even if the core material itself kinda crumbles once you dig into it. (See: uricksaladbar's critique) Even despite all of the awful stilted sections as Markus (who I thought was by far the worst of the 3 protagonists) and the horrific allegories that are presented to the player with a sledgehammer - when Connor starts bantering with Hank and you get to see the utterly gorgeous graphics the game has to offer, it kinda washes it all away. I love seeing someone's first time experience with the game and I think that's one of the reasons the games still remain relevant even today despite how scrutinized they've been. 

 

That's good to read - glad I'm not alone there then. I've opened that uricksaladbar video on another tab - so I'll have to give that a watch later on, looks interesting.... I got up to the bit where he mentioned Beyond Two Souls. Then I remembered I have to review that in future - and both an evil smile and a feeling of dread entered my body all at the same time haha! ?

 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found Markus as boring as sin too. I just couldn't get over how flat some of his delivery of dialogue was in certain sections that really should have meant something, but ultimately I ended up either rolling my eyes or going " OH GOD WHAT WAS THAT! THAT WAS THE TAKE YOU WENT WITH? REALLY," You're not kidding about those allegories being incredibly on the nose, and really really unsubtle. I'm not saying it had to be hidden in subtext at all. Unsubtle things can be just as valid for an audience  - but as David Cage is always pushing for maturity and EMOOOOOOSHUNS when it comes to his games, he really should put a tiny bit more thought into exactly what it is he's trying to say. He can't have it both ways.

 

3 hours ago, realm722 said:

I'm very curious to see how their Star Wars game is gonna turn out though. That seems like a huge departure from their past work and as someone who has never really cared for Stars Wars, I'll likely be right there on Day 1 to watch a Let's Play of it just to see what Quantic did with the IP. 

 

I am also morbidly curious to see what Quantic Dream do with Star Wars.... I don't feel like it can be much worse than anything J.J Abrams did with it in Rise of Skywalker, so at the very least I hope it'll be interesting.

 

It could potentially work really well -some of what made the original Star Wars films so accessible and enjoyable for folks is their simplicity - the thing is, I haven't heard that David Cage is actually involved as of yet, but as David Cage seems to have a particular penchant for taking ideas from other things - is he just going to rehash a Star Wars thing that's already been done before? I hope not, because Star Wars fans can be fiercely critical to an almost psychotic level, so he's got a lot on his hands with that one. Especially with the backlash Quantic Dream have already faced with that game.

 

It'll certainly be interesting that's for sure - maybe you've got the right idea and a Day 1 let's play is the way to go with this one. I guess we'll find out in 2027 when the game is predicted to come out haha ?

 

2 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

LeChuck’s Revenge is indeed one of my favorite’s from my childhood.  I revisited it last year on PC about this time to clean up the smattering of achievements I had left.  I’ll definitely be checking out the new one, and probably sticking with PC just because, you know, point & click

 

I thought I'd remembered right.

 

I haven't played LeChuck's Revenge in a while - I might have done last year around the time I wrote the review of The Secret of Monkey Island. I ought to give it another playthrough soon because I really like LeChuck's Revenge, especially how batshit crazy it goes right near the end.

 

PC is definitely the way to go with point-and-clickers I think. So I really hope you and I both end up really liking the new one.  I must say, I like being able to get the trophies in them too much though, to not dabble with them on consoles. But you do lose out on a lot of sensitivity with some of the games with a controller instead of a mouse, so there's definitely a bit of an issue with that.

 

If the new Monkey Island releases on console - then there's no way I'll be able to turn down having a Monkey Island platinum - that is going in the Trophy Cabinet straight away ?

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Copanele]

Quote

 

So you aren't the first person to tell me that they checked out of Peaky Blinders around series 3. I can see why as well, I stayed with it - but the show definitely morphs into something completely different from specifically that series onwards.

 

Out of curiosity what was it that specifically turned you off about Series 3?

Honestly the first 2 seasons were awesome - I couldn't wait to see what happens next, what kind of crazy plan will Tommy cook up etc.

But in season 3....Tommy is a complete moron, the Russians feel just ...extra and are mostly annoying, Polly does an 180 in terms of character and my GOD I hate Michael. I simply can't stand him.

The only character that is compelling to me was John Shelby and Alfie Solomons. Never expected Tom Hardy to be so versatile in acting  

 

But yeah, at some point I was just browsing my phone without watching the show. That's when I decided I won't follow with a Season 4 watch.

[rjkclarke]

15 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Honestly the first 2 seasons were awesome - I couldn't wait to see what happens next, what kind of crazy plan will Tommy cook up etc.

But in season 3....Tommy is a complete moron, the Russians feel just ...extra and are mostly annoying, Polly does an 180 in terms of character and my GOD I hate Michael. I simply can't stand him.

The only character that is compelling to me was John Shelby and Alfie Solomons. Never expected Tom Hardy to be so versatile in acting  

 

But yeah, at some point I was just browsing my phone without watching the show. That's when I decided I won't follow with a Season 4 watch.

 

Spooky - you replied to this just as I'd fired the Peaky Blinders game up to get finishing it off.

 

Those are pretty valid criticisms of  series 3 that's for sure. I'll say this much though. Series 4 does sort of bring it back around to the whole "How are the Shelby's going to get out of this one" type of situation. In that Tommy actually has to return to being not a dumbarse - and using his brain. As he's being hounded by American Gangsters - yes even complete with Tommy Guns and Striped suits.

 

You're not alone in despising Michael - I can't stand him either, and I never have particularly liked him - in the non video game world I'm very much a pacifist but he does have quite the punchable face ?.

 

Interesting that you found John really compelling, as I don't hear people talk about him too often amongst those I've spoken to about the show - he's got a quiet sort of enigmatic intensity about him hasn't he.

 

Alfie Solomons is probably my favourite character that isn't a Shelby in that series - Tom Hardy ca be real versatile, and really strong acting wise actually when he wants to be, and he's clearly interested in what he's doing.

 

If you ever get the chance, and you haven't seen it before, I recommend checking out the series Taboo. It's only eight episodes long, Tom Hardy wrote it alongside his Dad and Steven Knight (the Peaky Blinders writer) and his character in that very much has that same crazy genius plan thing going for him that you liked about early Tommy Shelby.

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by rjkclarke

[The_Kopite]

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Can you apply the usual Resident Evil speedrun logic to that game,which is just run past everything that you can avoid shooting? That's usually the best way to zip through those games pretty quickly, just don't stop moving haha . One of these days I'll get RE2: Remake, I keep thinking of picking up the bundle that has RE2 and RE3 together, but I don't think it comes with the DLC for RE2. So that's a bummer. I guess I'll get hem separately.

 

Sounds as if VR2 is probably the way to go for you by the sounds of it. If it was backwards compatible I'd be tempted to jump on board just to try out that Vader Immortal VR game, but I'd have to turn where I game into one of the kill rooms  from Dexter (floor to ceiling plastic sheeting) beforehand just to make sure I have somewhere I can catch my insides when the VR inevitably makes them fall out

I am trying my best with that, but bloody Mr. X is a bloody big nuisance to say the least lol so that gameplan isn't as easy to implement as I would like. Various amounts of frustration has happened at various points so far and it's only the Leon speedrun haha. At least for the Claire speedrun, I should have an infinite ammo weapon which will help!

 

The only significant story content DLC for RE2R was The Ghost Survivors, and that was a 'What if?' type thing and it was free too. The rest of the DLC that I know of was just alternative costumes and the like. Correct me if I am wrong though.

 

Yeah it is a real pity that most likely (unless Sony confirmed it and I missed it?) VR2 won't be backwards compatible as there are loads of VR1 titles I'd like to play - Vader Immortal, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Everybody's Golf VR, Blood and Truth, Moss etc etc. 

 

Haha that is a funny image! Make it so!

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I mean if the platinum name wasn't "Am I Vincent?" Then no buy from me, but surely even you have your limits on the Resident Evil games you'd want to go for haha?!

To be fair to my comment, I've never been able to play Resident Evil: Survivor so I'd at least give it a try lol 

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

When I had a lot of internet problems about three years ago - one of the engineers actually told me that we all could have had fibre optic internet, across the country, years and years ago as standard if the government at the end of the 80's had actually bothered to spend a slight bit of extra money to have the cabling installed. Instead we have what we have, and it's mainly new homes that have true fibre broadband, instead of what they sell as "Fibre Broadband" which we found out wasn't exactly the same thing.

 

I would imagine anything on the PS3 on PSNOW that required very specific button timing might be a no-no unless you have really tip-top internet, but I always stay away from games like that from PSNOW.

 

We can dream right, one day we might be able to play PS3 games on a PS6 - that you have to stand on a specific rock and do a specific dance at quarter to three in the morning, for a magic gnome to appear and sell you one.

 

Nope - the minute I get the 100% nailed down on Dishonoured: Definitive Edition that bad boy is getting ripped open and played - I have put that game off for far longer than I should have. Especially when it's one I'm pretty much guaranteed to love, so that one is not going to stay sealed I'm afraid INSTANT DEVALUATION haha!

O yeah of course. That's why Internet Providers always use their 'Up to' terminology before the speed amount, in order to entice you to get that super fast broadband and you end up getting 10% of that potential amount due to the naff cabling sadly. Governments in general will never use the money they have correctly. Just look at that Big Ben project.

 

Yeah indeed, there is certainly those occasions where you wouldn't want to require relying on streaming the PS3 game via PS Now. The magic gnome scenario sounds about as likely as being able to play PS3 games (properly/officially) on anything other than a PS3 without requiring streaming lol

 

Wow, well each to their own lol was one of those given away as a free PS Plus game though?

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

No need to apologise at all. I really do appreciate the support, there's no pressure to read every single thing.  I don't expect anyone to remember every single review that I've written in here and or thing I've written about. Even I forget what I have and haven't done, which is one of the reasons I keep track of everything on the first post, so I know where everything is and what I've actually done haha . Otherwise I totally would forget, and combing through nearly 40 pages takes a while, especially as the odd time I have, I've gotten sidetracked reading back certain conversations we've all had in here over the last year with a big fat smile across my face.

 

Fun and unique are definitely two words I'd use to describe that game.

Any plans to do a contents type page on the start of this thread? Would be a big undertaking, but would be cool for new people starting out here if there was a specific game that they wanted to properly read your opinion on.

 

It's a great thread with great content and great conversations too!

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You're doing a pretty great job of that so far.

 

I did have an idea for a thing I was going to write about great games with terrible trophy lists - and I think Final Fantasy X would definitely make it on that, as would FFIX actually as much as I hate to say it.

 

That's so true about filling in the sphere grid badly - because most guides don't bother to really tell you that you need to buff up the Luck stat a fair amount - I like that you didn't put in that people should try and max it out, more hit a specific spot and then stop. Because I took my Luck stat pretty high in that game and realistically you don't need to go too high at all, it can help sure, but it's not a necessity.

Well honestly thank you, I really appreciate it. ?

 

OMG, have I suddenly inspired a new feature for this thread? That is an interesting topic of discussion in general I think, as obviously we have discussed the importance of trophies in general in PS gaming now and how lots of people enjoy them. How much impact can a terrible trophy list have on a great game? Can it actually negatively impact a person's experience with the game? Can they separate the two? Would be an intriguing feature. 

 

Yes you are absolutely right, certainly I've read through forums and seen lots of people who has filled in the Sphere Grid wrong in order to deal with the biggest boss challenges in the game, and part of that I think with the HD Remaster version is that trophy and sadly people will just want to do it as efficiently as possible for that trophy. It is a massive grind, and more so if you try to go for 255 Luck stat. I certainly never tried to bother and you don't need to. Could have spent another god knows how many hours doing that on top, and my platinum time was more than long enough as it was.

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I definitely think Detroit is worth a look - even if you don't end up going for the platinum (it can be quite a fun one though). Might be something you could play alongside your wife. I played it recently with my sister and having someone there alongside to lighten the tone of proceedings definitely might mean you don't get caught up on how silly the story can get in places.

 

You never know - I might get you going back to Final Fantasy X-2 after reading the review, you and I can write a 100% guide together.... Actually what am I saying that sounds like a nightmare for us both. Still after you've heard the tale of my weird accidental milestone, you might find yourself playing Last Mission, as that game mode as I always say is brilliant.

 

That's definitely one that as a Final Fantasy fan you don't exactly want as a milestone forever, right haha

I'm a bit odd with those types of games and going for platinums. Played lots like Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Until Dawn etc and haven't bothered going for plats but for some reason I might with Detroit. I think any Quantic Dream game can have a bit of silliness in them sadly. Not even intentional either. The whole Jason thing in Heavy Rain was prime meme material right there. Noticed you were talking to someone else about the Star Wars one they are doing. Think it was @realm722. I've got about a quarter of an eye on that, not even half an eye simply because it's rumoured to be in trouble already and not scheduled to release until 2027!

 

Yes I've definitely got the urge to give Last Mission a proper go at least. Just need to knock off RE2R first for 250, and then try to balance all the games I've got and want to play lol doesn't help that Everybody's Golf PS4 online is shutting down in 6 months. Got to see if I can try get that platinum now or if it isn't feasible. 

 

No haha certain FF's, RE's and Sonics don't come into consideration in terms of making them milestones. Type-0 HD wasn't, RE7 wasn't and FFX-2 is I ever got that plat, wouldn't be either. Not to say I don't like parts of any of them of course lol Just got to prioritise with every milestone now being a gap of 50!

 

11 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I have yet to actually buy anything from Limited Run - but I'm sure one day I'll get the urge to do it - let's face it Monkey Island will probably be one of the things that nudges me in that direction. That'd be nice to have a physical copy of all the Monkey Island games.

 

Doctor Dekker is definitely all of those things you mentioned - but I think it's totally worth playing - and the most it will take you is 8 hours, so that's good at least. The toes thing, your guess is as good as mine - I'd probably assume the director had a bit of a foot fetish. I'm not going to kink shame them though, it's just a bit odd the way you've got actual staff members and patients in the game wiggling their toes at you every now and then.

Yes certainly. If you do decide to buy from Limited Run Games, just be prepared for a looooooooong wait lol 

 

It certainly sounds like quite the experience, and is one I'll have to think about playing lol