DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[JoesusHCrust]

36 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

It's telling that you don't have any Arkham games on your profile - I actually think that if more people had played Mordor without having any Arkham experience prior to it, there would be a lot more folks sharing this sentiment.

 

I owned an Xbox 360 before my PS4 so I have played I think 2 of the 'arkham' games but not on this profile. I really didn't like them either and wouldn't have started SoW if I'd realised it was similar!!!

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, JoesusHCrust said:

I owned an Xbox 360 before my PS4 so I have played I think 2 of the 'arkham' games but not on this profile. I really didn't like them either and wouldn't have started SoW if I'd realised it was similar!!!

Ah - okay - fair enough!

 

Like I said - I like that combat style, but it is very much it’s own thing - so it isn’t super surprising that you disliked Arkham games too - Shadow of Mordor is the bigger scope, but looser and less precise version of the exact same model - one entirely about ‘flow’ and ‘tempo’, as opposed to more traditional ‘precision’ and ‘combos’ that other games traffic in.

 

Did you ever try the Insomniac Spiderman game?

I do wonder if it would have the same effect for you - it’s in the same vein, but is a step even further in the ‘loose’ direction, even from Shadow of Mordor, so starts to spilt the difference a bit more between ‘Arkham Style’ and a more traditional ‘brawler style’...

Edited July 25, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[rjkclarke]

This was my reaction on entering and reading @JoesusHCrust discussing his thoughts on Shadow of Mordor ?

 

 

 

 

To be honest though, it's a perfectly valid response to that game, unless you specifically like that sort of combat you probably would struggle with it a fair bit. I think it would probably be the same if people suddenly played Mad Max, but probably to an even greater degree - that game has even less of the Arkham style finesse that at least Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War have more of.

 

If you do ever go back to it, I'd maybe recommend going in with a more stealth focused approach, at least until you have some more of the combat abilities. It's one of the things I think that game does quite a poor job of early on, which is that you can go in and fight hordes of Orcs early on, but it is significantly harder than later in the game where you have plenty of abilities that let you crowd control a bit more. The game just never really does a great job of sign-posting that, so when I played it I found I was often getting quite overwhelmed by Orcs once an alarm had been sounded. Then it just gets a bit frustrating.

 

As far as the story goes, I'm probably in a similar boat to @DrBloodmoney, I'm a long time Lord of the Rings fan. I've read The Silmarillion too, (not as many times as my Dad he's read that an unusual amount) which this game... Well.... I'm hesitant to say borrows from, because if you talked about Shadow of Mordor and War in the sense that they are dishes, the Silmarillion elements are treated like things that were found in the back of the cupboard and then just thrown in. Or at the very least just did something strange with like.... I don't know.... Boiling a Gammon steak. I don't personally mind the changes though and in the case of Shadow of War I think they do some genuinely interesting but very different things with their source material. I'm quite looking forward to what the science has to say about Shadow of War.. I think I probably enjoyed that game a bit more than most did.

 

3 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Karate Chop?

 

Whilst I'm here, I think I should say good job on the latest scientific rankings by the way.. I meant to say that around the time you posted them, but I think I just forgot. Sorry!!. It was nice to see Prince of Persia 2008 getting some positive representation, although I knew it would... I think we've discussed that game in this thread actually, quite a few pages back now. I just wish the Prince was a little more than a bland Nolan North performance..

 

Your Bloodborne review reminded me how much I like that game, I really ought to go back to it and grab that one DLC weapon I'm missing that's stopping me from 100%.. That way I can do review on it and tell the funny story about why I missed it in the first place.

 

I'm kind of tempted to try Flower, I might even own it, I'd have to check on PS3... It's one of those "I've just never quite gotten around to it" games.. We'll have to see, but from what you said it's one of those where it seems like there are more modern stylistic yet  similar alternatives, that might be a slightly better option.

 

Nice to see @YaManSmevz nominate The Saboteur... That game is such a forgotten title, I mean I had practically forgotten it myself (despite being very fond of it), until I saw it mentioned and I love it and have the platinum in it, it just kind of flies under the radar a bit.

 

Looking forward to your application of the science to Beyond Good and Evil HD... Going to be a weird one whenever I get around to reviewing that myself... I'll share a story about that game.. I literally bought Beyond Good and Evil on the PS2 because a really hot girl who worked in GAME was like.... "Hey, you should play this, this games really good, I really love it you can do this and that etc...." and my teenage brain was like... "SOLD" I thought if she liked it, it must be good right... Well thankfully she wasn't wrong, at least I don't think anyway.

 

Keep up the scientific analysis man!!

[Platinum_Vice]

Was browsing Aussie EB games store this week... found used copies of Prey (Aus$9) and Dishonored 2 (Aus$4).

 

On the lookout now for a decent copy of Dishonored 1 and a PSN discount of Transistor.

 

As the recommendations were prescribed by a real doctor based on unquestionable science, I expect to enjoy these offerings. Otherwise (as is to be expected), you will be hearing from my legal representative in 1-2 working weeks for recompense, damages and mental anguish.

Edited July 26, 2021 by GonzoWARgasm

[DrBloodmoney]

17 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

Was browsing Aussie EB games store this week... found used copies of Prey (Aus$9) and Dishonored 2 (Aus$4).

 

On the lookout now for a decent copy of Dishonored 1 and a PSN discount of Transistor.

 

As the recommendations were prescribed by a real doctor based on unquestionable science, I expect to enjoy these offerings. Otherwise (as is to be expected), you will be hearing from my legal representative in 1-2 working weeks for recompense, damages and mental anguish.

 

Haha - awesome man, that is a serious chuck of awesome gaming right there!

 

I only guarantee that they are awesome - I take no responsibility for the loss of social standing, income or mental stability that comes with taking on so much good gaming all at once! 

I can only caution that you pace yourself, for fear of overdosing on awesome - that's part of my Hippopotamus Oath.

 

 

 

23 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm kind of tempted to try Flower, I might even own it, I'd have to check on PS3... It's one of those "I've just never quite gotten around to it" games.. We'll have to see, but from what you said it's one of those where it seems like there are more modern stylistic yet  similar alternatives, that might be a slightly better option.

 

Nothing wrong with Flower - totally valid use of gaming time, sure, I certainly think there are better examples of artistic games with artistic messages out there (This War of Mine was one I know you checked out,) but that doesn't mean Flower is to be avoided - and I hear the HD version that was remastered by Bluepoint looks even better than the one I played...

 

Quote

Looking forward to your application of the science to Beyond Good and Evil HD... Going to be a weird one whenever I get around to reviewing that myself... I'll share a story about that game.. I literally bought Beyond Good and Evil on the PS2 because a really hot girl who worked in GAME was like.... "Hey, you should play this, this games really good, I really love it you can do this and that etc...." and my teenage brain was like... "SOLD" I thought if she liked it, it must be good right... Well thankfully she wasn't wrong, at least I don't think anyway.

 

? - Hey, I can think of worse reasons to buy a game 

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[starcrunch061]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I can only caution that you pace yourself, for fear of overdosing on awesome - that's part of my Hippopotamus Oath.

 

A thread that uses science AND quotes the Simpsons? Greatest thread ever.

[DrBloodmoney]

 

 ?? NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! ??

 

 

Hello Science-Chaps and Science-Chaplets, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour!

 

 

 

Beyond Good and Evil HD

 

Summary: 

2003 was a packed year for character action games on the PS2 - and games in general.
Beyond Good and Evil launched the same calendar year that saw Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando, Jak II (insert joke here,) a new Sonic game, a new Dynasty Warriors and a new Devil May Cry, as well as competition for consumer currency from the likes of Rockstar (with Manhunt), Square (with Final Fantasy X-2) and a litany of much desired sequels (Castlevania LoI, Silent Hill 3, SSX 3, Tony Hawks Underground, Fatal Frame 2 etc.) Hell, BG&E even had to compete with stiff competition from within its own studio structure, from both a new 3D Rayman game, and the launch of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
It is unsurprising, in that context, that - despite near unanimous critical acclaim, Beyond Good and Evil ended up coming up short in the sales, and being considered a resounding commercial flop at the time. Full Disclosure - I am as much responsible for that lack of success as anyone. I did not play the game on PS2. It was not until, after 8 years of word-of-mouth acclaim had turned it into a cult-classic, and offered a goodwill springboard from which Ubisoft could re-release it as Beyond Good and Evil HD on the PS3, that I checked it out - and was able to see why it had been such a sleeper hit over the previous decade, and why I had missed out buy not playing this particular game during the time it was originally released.

 

Note - I rarely go out of my way to avoid spoilers in these reviews, particularly in older games like this one, but here, I am going to to some extent, for 3 reasons:
Firstly, I think this game has a genuinely interesting story.

Secondly, despite being better known now than at the time of release, it it still wildly underplayed.

Thirdly, I suspect some people who haven't played it may well want to soon, as there is a sequel in the works (or hopefully still is - it has gone a little quiet on that front, but I remain hopeful!)

 

The basic premise is: part-time photo-journalist, part-time orphanage worker and full-time green-outfit-wearing Jade, and her uncle - an inexplicably Pig/Human hybrid creature named Pey'j, get swept up in a resistance movement after witnessing the lack of protection afforded to their orphanage when the funding for a shield protection is cut, resulting in the abduction of a number of the children in their care. The story is a winding and interesting one, treading a fine line between adult-themes and kid-friendly visuals and conversations, and it walks that tight-rope very well, with a stop-and-start gameplay loop gating progress by collection of collectibles, but still allowing its strongest card - its story - to keep pace and never lose focus.

 

Beyond Good and Evil is an interesting game tonally. Visually, and in the actual beat-by-beat character interactions and story pacing, it very much operates in the same wheelhouse as the character action games of the time (Sly Cooper / Jak / Ratchet and Clank et al,) and uses a similar Nickelodeon, Saturday Morning Cartoon aesthetic. However, the overarching narrative and thematic hooks are far more 'grown up' and it approaches much more actively subversive political commentary than any of those games would ever have been willing to veer within a country mile of. 

 

The story starts in a dystopian, militaristic landscape on the planet Hillys, in which a dictatorial military government - the Alpha Sections - is locked in a seemingly unending war with a malevolent force - the DomZ -  who are a constant threat, abducting and killing citizens. the Alpha Sections use propaganda and iron rule to maintain power, based on the ever present threat of the DomZ, however, they seem incapable of providing the safety they promise, and instead, simply use the threat to further their own stranglehold on the planet.

While that might seem relatively innocuous, or par-for-the-course game narrative in 2021, it is worth remembering the political climate in which the game was made, and when it released. With a 2003 release date, principal development had to have started right around 2001 - the era of the World Trade Centre attacks, the Patriot Act in the US (and the equivalent draconian laws in other western countries) and the era of militaristic governmental over-stepping and iron-fisted curtailing of civil liberties, in response to a conveniently magnified and aggrandised, ever-present, yet curiously nebulous, threat from an ill-defined evil force - one that said governments never quite seemed to actually be willing to directly address, but were more than willing to use as a straw-man argument in favour of any power-grab over their citizenry they felt like.

It's a hot-button issue, and one that had to have felt, at the time, like the game was grabbing the 'third-rail' of political satire, in a way other games were unwilling to do. It is notable how far the symbiotic relationship between the 'evil force' and the government supposedly fighting them are shown to be throughout the story. If taken as further political commentary (which I believe it is intended to be,) then the game is making a strikingly accusatory political statement, going beyond mere satire and veering into the realm of out-and-out accusatory conspiracy.

 

Mechanically, the game works relatively well, though there are some issues. Movement and combat is fun, if basic, and (in the HD release at least) the frame-rate is buttery smooth and a pleasure to play with. There can be some issues with camera control, as it gets rather too often 'caught' on the environment, and in fights in close quarters, does have a habit of snaking around and focussing on anything but the action. 

There are also a fair number of stealth sections in the game, with instant-fail-states, which are not particularly fun to play, and tend to drag in a game that, otherwise, has excellent pacing and variety. None of the issues are individually so detrimental as to hamper the game, however, in combination, they do stand out in comparison to, for example, R&C2: Going Commando, which released the same year, and had none of the same problems.

 

As said, the artistic palate is one familiar to any fan of PS2 games of the era - working in a semi-cartoonish, highly stylised visual milieu that was the perfect compensation for the lack of graphical prowess inherent to the ageing system it ran on. While it's worth noting that far superior visuals were still possible with enough effort at this time, as Final Fantasy X-2 would prove, artistic stylisation was the more common approach, and this is a good example. It means that, while clearly dated, the visuals still hold up as artistically interesting in 2021.

 

Audio is one area the game is markedly ahead of its peers of the era. Voice work is good - full of personality and serves a good script well - but more than that, the original score for the game is really top-notch - and one of only a handful of games of that era that I would listen to the music from independent of the game.

 

Overall, Beyond Good and Evil is a peculiar game of its time - a mechanically sound, if never outstanding - but a visually interesting, fun to play, and auditorially excellent game driving a genuinely great and unusually politically pointed narrative that operates as both cautionary tale, satire and gloomy funhouse mirror reflection of the difficult political climate in which it released.

 

The Ranking:

For comparison, we are looking at 3D action games of the era currently on the list - namely the Ratchet and Clank series, and the Prince of Persia series as a first look.

 

In terms of mechanical gameplay, and art-design, Beyond Good and Evil probably falls a little behind the best of the Prince of Persia games - The 2008 one - however, the sum of its other positive aspects in which it does outdo that game - the narrative, variety of gameplay, the audio and the voice-work - in addition to the inherent originality of it being a new IP, means it is destined to fall above that game on the rankings.

Despite those great aspects though - even the oddly political narrative - it is unable to compete with the current high-water-mark of the Ratchet Series, in Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando, and so we find ourselves in-between those two game.

 

The issues with the slightly janky camera and irksome (and overly abundant) stealth sections does give the game difficulty in going up against fellow Ubisoft game Assassin's Creed II, and despite having some of their own technical problems, the sheer size, scope and variety of Skyrim and Fallout 3 mean that they overwhelm Beyond Good and Evil, however, I think the tight narrative, audio and fun of the game are enough to place it just a smidge above early PS3 Zelda-like Darksiders, and so it finds it's place on the list.

Now, where's that sequel Ubisoft?

 

 

 

 

 

Eventide 2: Sorcerer's Mirror

 

Summary: 

The follow up to the current lowest ranked Artifex Mundi game on the rankings, Eventide: Slavic Fable, Eventide 2: Sorcerer's Mirror is a marked step-up in terms of quality.

 

Art is in the same milieu as its predecessor - a nordic flavoured fairytale aesthetic, heavy on vibrant colour and animal themes, but here, it is a little more grounded, and a little more detailed, to its great benefit.

 

Puzzle variety is better, though still not among the best of Artifex Mundi's games, and there are not many particularly challenging ones, however, the stronger art does mean the hidden object scenes are more enjoyable and well rendered.

 

Story-wise, it is better than it's predecessor, and actually more compelling than quite a few other Artifex Mundi games. It does feature a 'boss fight', which is never a great addition to these games, however, this one is not terribly bad.

 

 

The Ranking:

Still falls well below Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, and doesn't have enough variety to outdo Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne, however, is a better overall game than Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, and even falls just slightly above Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride.

 

 

 

 

 

Far Cry 3

 

Summary: 

A First-Person, heavily narrative driven open-world shooter form Ubisoft, Far Cry 3 took some of the aspects of its cult-classic predecessors - open-world, jungle-based FPS gameplay, a focus on variety of approach and the feeling of being dropped in the middle of an ongoing conflict - but softened some of the more esoteric and less approachable aspects, smoothing the player experience and heightening the focus on the narrative through-line, resulting in an extremely finessed, well polished and gorgeous looking game with both variable gameplay, an unusual narrative tone, and mainstream, mass-market appeal.

 

Narratively, the game is fairly strong, and does some interesting stuff with use of unlikable characters. From the opening scene in which we watch our protagonist Jason, along with his brother, girlfriend and a few friends lark about on a skydiving trip to MIA's Paper Planes, two things are obvious - the game looks great, and these characters are deliciously grotesque, over-privileged douche-bags, wilfully ignorant of the dangers they have put themselves in. 

After being - rather predictably - captured by a group of slave-trading pirates who use Rook Island as a base, led by wonderfully unhinged and genuinely frightening pirate leader Vaas, Jason escapes, with the help of his brother, but at the cost of his life. From there, the game opens up into an open-world, mission-based narrative structure, telling a long, but fairly well paced and plotted tale of Jason's transformation from cowardly, narcissistic layabout to unhinged, bloodthirsty killer. He methodically progresses around the island, aided by various eccentric characters and a native tribe - the Rakyat, led by Matriarchal leader Citra - destroying the pirate slave-trading stranglehold on the island, and freeing his foolish friends from their captors.

 

From a tonal point of view, it can feel jarring to start a game playing as a character that the game takes such obvious strides to ensure is thoroughly unlikable - and to have the story focus, as least primarily on his quest to rescue his even less likeable friends. In many respects, the game is taking cues from Hollywood horror movies (think Hostel / The Human Centipede etc.) where specific effort is made to ensure the principal characters are so obnoxious and abhorrent that the audience can not only stomach the torture they are to endure - but even take some perverse pleasure in witnessing it. 
It is a filmic trope I have seen very rarely employed in videogames - aside from occasional homage use in games specifically aping the horror movies themselves (Until Dawn, for example, played this concept to a tee with a plethora of douche-bags worthy of any slasher film.)
It is certainly a bold move, and, as the game progresses, it is demonstrated to be a very smart one. If Jason was a likeable or relatable character, the game would run the extreme risk of falling into the tiresome 'White Saviour' trope - where it turns out all these natives needed to find peace and victory was the intervention of a sole caucasian to show them how its done (think Rambo III, for example.) 
However, because Jason's (very well played and well realised) character arc is one going from bad to another kind of bad, and because - even at the end of the game - he is shown to remain nothing more than an ignorant pawn being used by native forces to their own ends, it neatly avoids such categorisation, and instead become more of a slow-burn, dramatic-irony fuelled horror movie, and serving as an inditement of that racist trope, rather than a proponent of it. 

 

Having said all that - there is a massive problem with everything I have just said: it is only true if one specific ending is chosen. 

Spoiler - there are two endings to this game, based on a player choice in the final moments. 
One, (the down-beat, 'correct' one, from a narrative point of view,) serves to make the entire tone and narrative of the game make sense. 
The alternate one, on the other hand, completely undercuts everything the game writers have spent 30-40 hours carefully crafting, and awkwardly ret-cons the entire game into exactly the kind of white-saviour trope it has been fighting against and ridiculing throughout the whole game. 

This alternate ending is a mistake, and is extremely ham-fisted done. There is no other part in the game that has a narrative choice like this one, and I have a strong suspicion that it was tacked on, as a result of some corporate interference or focus-testing, or out of fear of turning away some portion of the audience looking for a more palatable, 'Hollywood' ending. 
It has a similarly 'Frankenstein' feel that movies often do when a more 'upbeat' ending has been forced onto the end of a film never intended to have one, (The most recent Fantastic Four film, anyone?) and is a very unfortunate addition to an otherwise interesting narrative. 

 

It is a baffling, disjointed and tremendously disappointing decision. However, as it is optional, for the purposes of this review, I elect simply to ignore it.

 

Mechanically, the game is astoundingly good. The gameplay loop is very familiar to anyone familiar with the 'Ubisoft formula' - with everything from main missions, side missions, towers to be climbed to unlock waypoints and map icons, strongholds to be conquered and taken over etc. Whether that formula is palatable to the player or not is, of course, a matter of personal taste (I have never had any issue with it - it's a formula that works,) however, I think even those who baulk at the use of said formula would be hard pressed to find a better implementation of it. 
Even acts such as climbing the radio towers is made interesting, as each one is unique, and involves its own little puzzle. Each stronghold is unique, and has specific aspects than make approaching in different ways more or less viable. Upgrades in the game involve the use of animal pelts, which, while a little convoluted (why exactly does a big money pouch need to be shark-skin? Wouldn't honey-badger skin work to hold coins too?) means that hunting down individual animals in the island's veritable menagerie is a fun, engaging and rewarding task in and of itself.

Gunplay feels good, and combat puzzle type mechanics - while never particularly necessary - are a ton of fun to use. The decent AI of the enemies means that use of fire, or traps can result in realistic (and often brutally sadistic) methods of scaring pirates before killing them. Causing chaos in a camp while remaining unseen has an emergent-chaos to it that never fails to be fun to engage with. The substantial upgrade tree- based across 3 distinct branches of play-style - means there is always a new thing to try out.

 

Visually the game is great looking - the lush environments are vibrant and colourful, with a beauty running counter to the sweaty, fearful underbelly that Vaas (and latterly, his South African, slave-trading overlord) occupy within it. The island feels alive in a way that is very impressive - the abundance of roving, wild animals, patrolling guards, the Rakyat and the few non-native NPC characters give a very distinct flavour to the place, and it feels rounded in a way few open world games do. Animations of characters - in particular in cut scenes from the first-person perspective (a difficult thing to get right) - are uniformly excellent, and even smaller, tertiary characters, such a Dr. Earnhardt (a non-native living on the island,) and CIA agent Huntley (posted there too long and a little crazy,) are rounded fairly well, and often add some moments of surprising levity or comedy.

 

Audio in terms of voice work is great, and some of the licensed music choices are inspired - previously mentioned MIA hit Paper Planes is a perfect opening gambit, and one would be hard pressed to imagine a better song to use in the 'burning the opium fields' section of the game than 'Make It Burn Dem' by Skrillex and Damian Jr. Gong Marley - however, the original score is fairly bland and not much to write home about.

 

All of these good aspects of the single player, on a mechanical level at least, are present in the multiplayer component (on PS3,) however, the narrative aspects as a driving force are gone, and as such, the game loses a lot of its forward momentum. The multiplayer component was perfectly acceptable - good even - however, certainly not the draw of the game, and was - unsurprisingly - absent from the re-released PS4 version of the game - to very little detriment of the experience.

 

Overall, a mechanically excellent FPS open world game, with a strong, interesting narrative, a wealth of well-realised and interesting character - in particular the standout performance of the terrifyingly unhinged and maniacal Vaas. There is little in the way of truly original concepts aside from the narrative tone (and this is a little undercut by the ability the player has to undo all the writers good work in the last few minutes,) but - in much the same way as Horizon: Zero Dawn - that lack of originality is more than made up for by simply being unoriginal in an astonishingly well-crafted way.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

It's a difficult call to decide exactly what the closest analogous games are for Far Cry 3. In terms of the current list, I err on the side of treating Far Cry 3 as an open world, mission based game, rather than a strict FPS, for two reasons:
Firstly, while it did feature a relatively good multiplayer component, that was never the strong suit, and was dropped on re-release, and so comparisons with primarily multiplayer shooters such as Battlefield and Call of Duty feel a bit off. 
Secondly, The strongest aspect of the game is its structure and variability - aspects that inherently make games like Fallout, Horizon, Assassin's Creed and Shadow of Mordor its closest peers, rather than other shooters.

 

As such, first comparison is Horizon: Zero Dawn. It is probably the closest corollary to Far Cry 3, in the sense that the gameplay loop and the environmental surroundings are similar, as well as both featuring a 'fish-out-of-water' protagonist. However, despite Far Cry 3's strong story, and admirable variety, when stacked against Horizon's duel-narratives and complex lore - and its genuinely likeable main character, it isn't able to compete, and for all the variation of gameplay, Horizon's plethora of robot animal encounters have it beat. 

 

Shadow of Mordor's actual gameplay is not quite on the level of Far Cry 3's in terms of tightness, and its story is less interesting or well told, however, its Nemesis system means there is a repeatability and emergent story on a level that Far Cry 3 is totally unequipped to deal with.

 

In terms of Assassin's Creed games, I think Far Cry 3 handily beats out ACII, on virtually every front, however, with AC:Brotherhood, that games mechanics had been refined enough that - by adding the excellent multiplayer component, it manages to squeeze out Far Cry 3. It's a closer call there though, and so we begin looking at the games right below.

 

Dead Nation is a tough call against Far Cry 3, but its endless replayability, and its viability as both a co-op and a single player game means I am comfortable with it retaining its spot. 

As great as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is though, the small scope of the game is very difficult to match up against a game of the size, scope and polish of Far Cry 3, and so Far Cry 3 finds its spot between those two games.

 

 

 

 

 

Resident Evil 3 Remake

 

Summary: 

As I stated in my review of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, while I am a casual fan of the Resident Evil series, I have not played every entry. 
Resident Evil 3 Remake, while clearly using the same engine, design philosophy, tone and tenor of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, and certainly being a very clear counterpart to that game, is an interesting one for me personally, for one very important reason: While I was extremely familiar with the original Resident Evil 2 on PS1, and had played it many many times through prior to playing that remake, I have, to this day, never played a single second of the original Resident Evil 3.

 

That puts this review in an odd position. I am aware (through a combination of gaming osmosis, forum complaint scouring, and my best mate who is far more of an RE fan and historian than I am!) that there are, unlike in the RE2 Remake, some sections of the original game that are cut out, or heavily minimised in the RE3 Remake. However, I prefer to judge games based on what they are, as opposed to what they are not, and as I never played the original, I am not in a position to really feel that those cuts are any kind of detriment, and can only view the game through the lens of the current version.

 

Taking place on the day before the events of Resident Evil 2 begin, in Racoon City, Ex STARS member (and character from the original Resident Evil) Jill Valentine has a nice front-seat view of the downfall of the city driven by the viral tomfoolery from the shady Umbrella Corporation, from her squalid apartment. That is, until a violent, (highly cinematic and pretty awesome looking,) home invasion by a hulking genetic super-mutant named Nemesis, whose mission appears to be the destruction of all members of the original team of the first game. 

After fleeing and meeting up with an Umbrella Corp employed special tactics operative named Carlos (or "Carlos-With-The-Good-Hair," to give him the moniker MsBloodmoney assigned him,) the pair embark on an attempt, first to flee the city via subway train, and latterly, to stop a government nuclear plan to decimate the city by retrieving one of only a few samples of a potential cure for the outbreak from the labs of Umbrella Corp.

 

To say the RE3 Remake is similar to the RE2 Remake barely hints at just how closely aligned the two games are - make no mistake, this game would feel completely at home as a 'C-Story' route within that game, to Leon and Claire's 'A' and 'B' ones. 
All the positive mechanical, artistic and auditory aspects of that excellent game are still on show here, from the grotesque shambling B-Movie zombies, to the feel of the weaponry, to the controls. There is a slightly greater focus in this game on high-octane set-pieces, and a much more liberal and abundant use of the excellent fire-tech, and a fairly dramatic reduction in the prevalence of metroidvania style puzzle solving mechanics, meaning that the game moves at a much faster clip than RE2 does.

 

Environments look great - possibly even a little better than in RE2. there is a much greater variety of art on show, and some of the set pieces - the bridge in Racoon City, the hospital, and even the underground facility are beautiful looking and lit to perfection, and in terms of  artistic design, even outshine most locations in the RE2 Remake - though there is no single location as iconic as the phenomenal police precinct that comprises the first half of that game - except, of course, when we return to that location, for a short period within this game.

 

In the case of the ever-present 'big-bad' Nemesis is a far more defined and much better looking unkillable entity than RE2's MrX was, however, some of the fear-based horror of that previous game has been ham-strung to some extent, by the fact that Nemesis, unlike Mr.X, is only encountered at specific story beats. Where Mr.X was a constant, looming threat, liable to burst into any room that the player lingered in too long, Nemesis is seem at the same spots in every playthrough, and as such, in repeat playthroughs, the tension he presents is dramatically lessened. 

 

The game is also, while much faster paced, also significantly shorter than even one 'route' of its predecessor, and has only a single story, across which both playable characters are used at the same points. This further reduces the scope for replays, as each subsequent playthrough is likely to be almost entirely identical to the last.

 

In terms of characters though, here, RE3 is a big step up, even from the high bar RE2 set. While the two playable protagonists in RE2 varied from acceptably bland (Leon) to interesting and likeable (Claire,) the Jill Valentine on show in this remake is one of the most enjoyable characters I have played a game with in quite some time. The portrayal is written, acted and voiced (by Nicole Tompkins,) to an absurdly high level, and renders this version of Jill as a capable, determined, vulnerable and panicked beneath the surface, yet bad-ass, human, and incredibly compelling character. I have liked many characters in the RE universe across my time with the series, but can away from this one never wanting to play another RE game as anyone else! Carlos is fairly well written and voiced too - and works well in the story, never becoming irritating in the way his character could easily have, however, the strength of the Jill portrayal had me counting the minutes until I could get back to playing form her point of view whenever the narrative took me into his.

 

Overall, RE3 Remake is great addition to the series - and stands proudly alongside the RE2 Remake in many ways, though, despite the incredible charm and compelling nature brought by the fantastic lead character's performance, the smaller scope, lack of variation between playthroughs, and the more limited nature of the Nemesis, means it is destined to be finished, and disposed of quicker, and returned to less often than its predecessor.

 

 

The Ranking:

There is one obvious comparison point - can you guess what it is?

 

The odd thing when ranking the RE3 Remake against its predecessor is that, if comparing purely my first playthroughs of both games (Claire's A Story vs. Jill's only story) I would have to side firmly on RE3's side. I enjoyed Jill as a character vastly more than Claire, and found the variety of locations, the high-octane nature of the game and the snappier pace more compelling. However, there are two distinct aspects of note - firstly, I had never played the original RE3, and so the story was entirely new, and therefore inherently more exciting. Also, that was just the first part of RE2 Remake - I still had a B story, as well as an A & B from the opposite perspectives.
As such, by the time I had played all the playthroughs required of both games to get the S-Ranks, the cracks in RE3 began to show in a way RE2's didn't.
As a result, RE3 Remake has to fall below RE2 Remake.

 

Interestingly, as we slip down the current list below RE2, it is the same aspects that caused it to lose to that game - the lack of variation across playthroughs and the short length - that hurt it against other games too. Games like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, with it's long, complex story and robust multiplayer make a 3 hours game (even a very high quality one) tough to compete against. (Full disclosure, yes, I am aware that RE3 came with a multiplayer component - Resident Evil Resistance - however, I did not play this, and as it has its own distinct trophy list, I do not consider it a part of this game for ranking purposes.)

 

It slips down a fair few places as a result of these factors, but he first time it gets a foothold is with excellent narrative based walking sim Firewatch. The strongest aspect of that game is it's characterisation and acting - and while I believe on those specific fronts it still beats RE3 Remake, the fact that Jill is so compelling, means it is not an out-and-out wash, and RE3's many other great aspects combine to overwhelm that shorter game. As a result, Resident Evil 3 Remake find's its (still pretty high) spot, just above Firewatch.

 

 

 

Unit 13

 

Summary: 

A PS Vita 3rd Person shooter, Unit 13 has the rather questionable distinction of being the swan-song of Zipper Interactive. The Sony Owned studio, responsible for a long and successful run on PS2 with their SOCOM series, began to flounder in the PS3 era with the critically well received but commercially under-performing MAG, and the weak SOCOM 4, before finally releasing Unit 13 to virtually no fanfare, and being shuttered shortly thereafter.

It's difficult, in that context, to see Unit 13 as anything other than "The game that killed Zipper", however, while that may be true from a commercial point of view - and certainly its gameplay and resulting critical reception was not on a level that might have saved a studio - the game is not an abject failure - and could often be quite fun.

 

Unit 13 is a game that understands the console it is designed for. The Vita had relatively few shooters at the time of it's release (some of the larger franchises would dip their toes over the course of the following year, with entries coming from Call of Duty, Killzone and Resistance, to varying levels of success,) and Zipper - who's focus, across the SOCOM series and certainly in MAG had shifted away from narrative focus, to concentrate primarily on mechanical gameplay, multiplayer and tactical play above all else - were well placed to start that ball rolling.

 

Given the portability of the Vita, some aspects of Unit 13 seem a perfect fit - on a console where players are likely to be having a quick blast while making a morning commute, or on a train or bus journey for example, a game in which missions can all be played discretely, and there is no lengthly narrative to follow seems ideal - however, Unit 13 does hamper itself a little in this regard. Yes, the structure of the game is perfect for Vita - missions are all individually selected from a list, with successful completion unlocking more missions, and each is presented as a bite-sized chuck of gaming, devoid of lengthly narrative or interconnection. However, there is a level of dissonance in the premise, in the fact that Unit 13's focus is, at least in part, on multiplayer co-op. Presenting these missions in bite-sized, commute-friendly chunks makes sense in single-player, however, the majority of commutes do not have access to wi-fi networks even now. In 2012, even less did. As such, the situation for which one half of the conceptual design is geared, makes the other half untenable.

 

Mechanically, the game functions reasonably well, given the platform. Making some limited use use of the Vita touch-screen, as substitute for the fewer discrete input buttons, Zipper manage to transpose traditional shooter controls to the Vita very well. The game looks good for the platform, and moves fairly well. Obviously, there are significant compromises that have been made visually in comparison to the PS3 games Zipper made around the same era, however, visually, comparison to the PS2 era SOCOM games is fairly accurate.

The game moves relatively smoothly, though getting in and out of cover is pretty stiff, and in chaotic firefights involving significant movement, the nature of the vita, combined with the use of a full 'console shooter' control scheme, does mean that it can get overly fiddly, and where the screen in attached to the controller, requiring such complexity of twitch controls does sometimes mean it can get difficulty to focus on the action.

 

Missions are somewhat varied - there are different 'types' that are specified at the outset, some more stealth focussed, some out-and-out firefights and several in-between, however, the actual difference in mission can be fairly minimal. Environments are not particularly varied, though level design is uniformly pretty good. Audio is bog-standard - guns sound and feel okay, never bad but never outstanding, and the score is serviceable, but forgettable.

 

AI in the game is where it really trips over itself though. The AI is wildly unpredictable in a way that makes a repeatable 'high-score-focussed' experience suffer. Playing the exact same mission twice, in exactly the same way, can result in completely different levels of enemy awareness, with little warning. In one run, an enemy combatant may remain oblivious to you, even as bullets fly past his ear and bury themselves in his buddy, whereas other times, he might sense your presence from two rooms away, through the walls, and manage to turn and take a shot that would make Angelina Jolie in Wanted's jaws drop.

 

There is an issue with 'monster closets'. As the enemies are 'spawned in', the player can never be certain their back is covered. A room that is clearly a dead-end, will have multiple enemies spawn inside later, meaning, for what is ostensibly sold as a 'tactical' game, there is remarkably little  benefit to playing 'tactically' by inspecting and clearing out areas to protect yourself. 

There is also something of an uncanny 'staged' nature to some encounters. Enemies do not seem to being their patrols / routines until the player approaches within a set distance of them (presumably a memory saving tactic on the limited Vita system,) however, it routinely breaks, meaning you can enter an area where everyone seems to be in a catatonic trance, only for them to all wake on mass right before your eyes.

 

All that being said though, the game is actually fairly fun, if a little middle-of-the-road, as a simple single-player cover shooter. I rarely engaged with the multiplayer - I found it to be functional, but add little to the experience when playing with strangers. I would imagine that, with a human partner you knew and were conversing with, the game would have some added fun, however, the lack of viability of tactical play would likely minimise this a bit.

 

A decent enough TPS on a platform that, while not necessarily well-suited to them, was desperately in need of bigger games, and one could do a lot worse than Unit 13 to fill that void. 

 

 

The Ranking:

For comparison, the first game to come to mind is fellow single player / co-op TPS Kane & Lynch 2. While that game certainly has less of a focus on tactics and a less robust set of 'missions', what it does focus on - narrative, chaos and visuals - I think it executes better than Unit 13 executes its particular areas of focus.
K&L2's multiplayer, while certainly flawed, is not as fundamentally misaligned with the console it runs on in the way Unit 13's is, and it certainly has more interesting ideas in each single mode than Unit 13 has in its entire game.

 

There aren't many shooters on the list still, particularly below K&L2, and so it comes down more to Vita games. In sliding down the list, I am left to look at games, and Vita games in particular, and ask "would I replay this before replaying Unit 13?"

 

There are a few where the question is touch and go, but the first one where the answer is definitively "No" is interesting, worthwhile, but ultimately dull and unsuited to repeat play Neverending Nightmares, and so Unit 13 finds its spot just above that game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

⚛️⚛️BONUS GAMES⚛️⚛️

2 Additional eligible S-Ranks earned this round!:

 

 

 

Demon's Souls (PS5 Remake)

 

Summary: 

 

☢️☢️SCIENTIFIC NOTE ☢️☢️

Under normal circumstances, where I have played multiple versions of the same game, I have not decided to review them separately, as I feel the rankings would be roundly similar anyways.

The one notable exception to this was in the case of Shadow of the Colossus, where I felt the issues present in the PS3 version were enough of a problem, and the improvements made in the PS4 remake were so staggeringly beneficial, that there would be a distinct resulting difference in ranking.

I have gone back and forth as to whether to give the same treatment to Demon's Souls (interestingly, also a console-jumping, from-the-ground-up remake from Bluepoint Games - the king of remakes,) and have decided that it is worth doing. 
While the original Demon's Souls did not suffer from quite as many issues as the PS3 version of Shadow of the Colossus did, it did have some, and the jump in visual and technical quality between the PS3 Demon's Souls, and Bluepoint's new PS5 remake is startling, and likely to result in some difference in ranking, even if not quite as big a disparity as in Shadow of the Colossus's case.

 

In remaking Demon's Souls, Bluepoint have really outdone themselves. Keeping every aspect of the game identical from a mechanical level, yet finessing every aspect from a technical and artistic point of view, they have done exactly what a remake of a classic game is supposed to do - turned it from the game it was, to the game you remembered it being.

 

Consider weapon animations. In the original Demon's Souls, many weapons had identical looking moves for moves such as parries, backstabs etc. In the remake, Bluepoint had added a significant number of variations to those moves for different weapons, making each one feel more unique, however, an attention to preserving the 'flow' of the original games was clearly paramount, and so each new flourish has been meticulously refined, so ensure it takes the exact same number of frames of animation. 

 

That is, to my mind, the perfect approach to a remake, and appears to have been extrapolated across all aspects of the projects. The game plays virtually identically from a player input standpoint as the 2009 release, but the output to the player, via art, animation, UI, feedback etc, has all been refined to a level allowing that original input matrix to lattice perfectly over the framework of a 2020 game - one that looks, feels and moves in such a way as to be indistinguishable - and in many cases outshine - current videogames.

 

Demons and enemies all feel the same as they did in the original, but now look, to the eye, as fearsome and grotesque as they always felt in the player's mind. 
The iconic locations, remain as iconic and distinct as they ever did, however, artistic flourishes have been made across the board, marginally redesigning the overall flavour of locations, but - crucially - without ever modifying the actual geometry of them. The Boletarian castle, for example, appears far less of a squat, brutalist building, and now appears more architecturally gothic, and feasible, yet it is only by looking at a side-by-side comparison that it is easy to distinguish exactly which parts of these flourishes are new, and which are simply updates of existing features. 

Character models - a weaker aspect in the original game - are now very well animated and characters much more distinct from one another, and the re-recorded voices are slightly different in tenor, though still fell entirely natural within the peculiar world.

 

UI is an area that has been vastly improved. Item Burden remains a factor, and item management still requires use of the games humanoid item chest Stockpile Thomas, but now, items can be remotely sent there, negating the requirement for needless back and forth to avoid over-encumbrance. Healing still requires items (never a strong suit of Demon's Souls) and, curiously, the ability to cheese using huge numbers of these items has been curtailed, as a set limit is now imposed on individual healing item 'stacks' in the player inventory.
Purchasing of spells, or miracles, or the crafting of weapons using 'boss souls' no longer requires the player to have said soul in their inventory. 
Comparisons of weapon or armour effects on the character, and the effects of soul upgrades etc. are all vastly improved, and the entire player interface screen has been given a complete overhaul. 
World and Character tendency is much simpler to gauge and view - and I believe, has been rendered somewhat less problematic, in the sense that World Tendency appears to no longer be influenced by any mass consensus across the network, meaning the issue that caused thousands of players (trophy hunters in particular) to play the entire original game 'offline' is no longer an issue. 

 

It is also worth noting the two massive difference that are made by the technological leap from PS3 to PS5 - load times, and frame-rate. 

The ability to load from one are to another in a second or so, as opposed to 15-20 makes an enormous difference to the playability of a game inextricably tied to a claustrophobic feeling of immersion, and one in which dying and starting over are a major component. 

Frame-rate was, lets face it, one of the major detrimental factors of the original game, granting some areas of the game (5-1 in particular), along with certain bosses, a level of difficulty that was never truly intended. With the game now running at a smooth 60FPS, it is notable how the difficulty of some bosses drops - and how a level of confidence in the game's ability to keep up, can foster a level of confidence the player has in their own abilities. (It's funny how much easier the Tower Knight, or Man-eater, or the Adjudicator is to fight when you can reliably see where their attacks are coming from!)

 

All in all, I found the remake to be simultaneously a warm, nostalgic and familiar game to return to, yet one in which I was constantly surprised by the level of finesse and additions, and found myself often calling up YouTube videos of the original to answer the question:

"Was that always like that?"

 

The answer was almost always the same: 

"Yes, but never that beautifully."

 

 

The Ranking:

With the remake, Bluepoint have removed many of the detrimental factors that hampered the original Demon's Souls when stacked up against other Souls games, as well as finessing the artistic side to a level that goes beyond what most others are able to offer in terms of graphics. 

 

While there are some elements inherent to the mechanics of Demon's Souls - namely the lack of an interconnected world, the consumable-based healing mechanics, and the slight lack of variety in some areas that do still mean it is unable to beat out Dark Souls III, I do believe that it is now in a position to ride comfortably past The Surge, and outdo a number of the outrageously good games in between based on it's best aspects. 

 

Only when butting up against a game as infinitely replayable and astoundingly compulsive and addictive as Cities: Skylines does its more limited world begin to hamper it, and as such, this new version finds its spot just below that game.

 

 

 

 

The Pedestrian

 

Summary: 

Flat-plane, simplistic puzzle platformers have come in all shapes and sizes pretty much since the invention of videogames as a medium. It's a genre that allows for a near infinite level of puzzle variation and mechanics, yet, as a result of the minimalistic input requirements and relative simplicity of interface, it is, at this stage, both a pretty saturated market and a thoroughly tapped well.
It can, at times, seem a difficult genre in which a game can really stand out, and some games - even ones featuring very good, well crafted puzzles - can meld into the amorphous blob of barely-remembered games awfully quickly.

The Pedestrian, from first time developer Skookum Arts, happily, will not.

 

A short game, primarily operating in the 2D plane for its puzzles, The Pedestrian  may have relatively few - if any - genuinely unique singular puzzle mechanics, however, it has two major things going for it in the 'originality' stakes:

 

Firstly, the combination of mechanics. While no one could argue that 'jigsaw' style construction of level 'pieces', or mechanical levers controlling lasers, or box pushing/pulling, or 'door & key' type mechanics are original on their own, even as a self proclaimed puzzle-game enthusiast, I cannot recall a game that used them in such consistently satisfying combination. Essentially, the game comprises 2 distinct sections to each puzzle - the construction of the puzzle, and the solving of it. Each one features jigsaw style pieces of level, with doors / ladders as connection 'nodes' which can be moved and connected to one another in a variety of ways. The gameplay loop involves first crafting the level into a solvable manner using these jigsaw pieces and connectable thoroughfares, then actually solving the individual puzzle or puzzles within that crafted level. Its a duel-engagement that gives each overall puzzle an atypically multi-dimensional flavour for the 2D genre the game plays in.

 

Secondly, the artistic package - and this is where the game really stands out from its 2D peers. While the actual puzzles are in 2D, they are presented as interactive signposts in a fully rendered 3D environment. Between each puzzle, as the stickman protagonist walks between signposts, the camera pans across a city environment that is both nice to look at, and absurdly well detailed, given that it is essentially window dressing. 

95% of The Pedestrian's puzzles would work perfectly well as discrete, 2D-only puzzles, with each simply fading to black and switching to the next one, and so it is fascinating to see the level of artistry that has gone into rendering the background environments, camera movements and contextualisation of the puzzle elements within a realised environment. 

(Note - I say 95%, and not 100%, because of a turn the game takes near the end. I will not spoil it here, but suffice to say, it is surprising, very clever and interesting - and did make me exclaim "Holy Shit" to an empty room. While this game never reaches the heights of The Witness and its "Oh my God" moment (very few games do), I think that moment at least places The Pedestrian in the same category as that game, as opposed to, say, that of Hue or Dokuro.)

 

The game does an excellent job of progressing mechanics and encouraging learning without actively tutorialising. Where a mechanic becomes possible, but not mandatory in one puzzle, it will become necessary several puzzles later, and then become a subversible mechanic several puzzles after that, without the player ever really feeling like they were 'taught' that element directly. That is both hard to do, and extremely impressive when executed well.

 

The progression of puzzle complexity is also fair and smooth - where early puzzle objectives are simply to progress to an exit, later, puzzles become less about simple escape, and more about escaping with specific puzzle objects in hand, adding a complexity and cleverness to the routine required to be crafted and traversed. Single-screen puzzles give way to multi-screen ones, requiring multiple items to be gathered to solve a central puzzle, from which many others stem out like spokes.

 

The game looks great - the 3D environment looks good, and peculiarly well detailed, and the 2D sign-post puzzles have both variety and a verisimilitude, the protagonist moving within them with a satisfying smoothness. Music in the game is pleasant and non-distracting, if a little bit milquetoast coffee-house.

 

The Pedestrian is a fairly short game - around 40 puzzles total - but rarely repeats a gimmick, walks an excellent tightrope of mild-challenge and satisfaction, and carries itself with a confidence and flair that few puzzle games manage, towards a twist that is surprising, and very clever.

 

 

The Ranking:

The first comparison puzzler that comes to mind is Hue, as that is also a very satisfying 2D puzzle platformer with a unique and cool look to it. While Hue does have a slightly more original singular hook (its colour-flipping backgrounds,) and is a little more challenging that The Pedestrian, I think pound-for-pound, there is more variety of puzzle mechanics, and certainly more variety of aesthetic in The Pedestrian. Also, Hue never has an "Oh My God" moment in it like The Pedestrian does, and so The Pedestrian does beat it in a match-up.

 

In terms of other Puzzlers, The Pedestrian does beat out The Spectrum Retreat, whose puzzle variety is more limited and a little more derivative. It does not, however, get close to beating Superliminal, whose mechanics are more unique and more interestingly conceptualised into puzzle variants. 

 

Between those, The Last Campfire offers some puzzle comparison - its lack of challenge does hamper its puzzles a little, but it has a much more defined story and narrative, as opposed to The Pedestrian's rather minimalistic and interpretive one. It also looks gorgeous.
It's a harder call here, however, what take it for The Pedestrian is the twist towards the end - that moment got me in a way that really stood out, and is something special, and there is no comparable moment in The Last Campfire. All of The Last Campfire's puzzles are discrete, whereas The Pedestrian's only seem discrete, until that moment when it becomes apparent that they are part of a larger, previously unseen pattern.

 

In the few games above The Last Campfire, there are no direct comparisons, and so it comes down to the question "would I do a full replay of this game before replaying The Pedestrian?"
For the original Ratchet & Clank, Detroit: Become Human, and Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, the answer is no, but when we get to Grim Fandango, I know the answer to be yes, and so, The Pedestrian finds its spot right below that game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

 

 Invisible Inc stays on top for now as  'Current Most Awesome Game'

And Space Overlords stays as king of the crap-tastic olympics, as  'Least Awesome Game'

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the shining gold... or the aged turd?

That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU!

 

Remember:

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! 

 

The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank)....

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

 

 

 

Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! ☮️

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

As usual, beautiful review there, one line caught my attention though:

10 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

UI is an area that has been vastly improved. Item Burden remains a factor, and item management still requires use of the games humanoid item chest Stockpile Thomas, but now, items can be remotely sent there, negating the requirement for needless back and forth to avoid over-encumbrance.

That alone would get 10Umbasas/10. Item Burden was A PAIN in the main game! That remake is truly beautiful  

[Slava]

I mentioned the camera as one of the flaws in my review of BG&E as well. I remember it being annoying in a couple of places and breaking completely one time. Most of the time it was fine though. The music in this game was definitely great. The highest praise I can give to an original game soundtrack is that I can recall the songs and play the melody: the Mammago's garage reggae tune, the song "Propaganda" that played in the bar, even the piano music from the credits. The OST had a great mix of represented cultures as well. My favourite part of the game has to be the animal photography mechanic ?. A great example of how to make a collectible in a game enjoyable. It also fits the character well - Jade's camera finds some use for things other than, you know, uncovering the secrets.

 

I'd say Resi 3 on PS1 is still worth playing if you like the second game. Don't know about the remake, but the old version had a cool mechanic where you needed to choose quickly one of the two options in a cutscene which led to different paths or risk vs reward battles. It was kind of a different approach to making the game replayable instead of having scenarios A and B. For example, you can run away from Nemesis or fight him. If you choose to fight and win, you spend more bullets but get some weapon parts as a reward. In the branching paths scenes, you get to explore small sub-areas. Yeah, and Jill was very cool even back then ?.

 

Speaking of Jill, I recently heard one streamer mention that she might be one of the videogame characters with most re-designs alongside Chris Redfield. The RE1/RE3 Jill model looks different from the RE Remake Jill model, which looks different from the RE5 model, which looks different from the RE3 Remake model. Other than Sonic and Mario, I can't really think of many characters with more design iterations ?.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Slava

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, Slava said:

I mentioned the camera as one of the flaws in my review of BG&E as well. I remember it being annoying in a couple of places and breaking completely one time. Most of the time it was fine though. The music in this game was definitely great. The highest praise I can give to an original game soundtrack is that I can recall the songs and play the melody: the Mammago's garage reggae tune, the song "Propaganda" that played in the bar, even the piano music from the credits. The OST had a great mix of represented cultures as well. My favourite part of the game has to be the animal photography mechanic . A great example of how to make a collectible in a game enjoyable. It also fits the character well - Jade's camera finds some use for things other than, you know, uncovering the secrets.

 

Yeah - it's definitely one of those game that when I went back and played it (I think it was for one of the Project Platinums back when those were more a thing here) I realised very quickly that I had missed out by not playing it at the time of release - still held up well, but it's one I think I would have really fallen hard for had I played it at the time!

 

Quote

I'd say Resi 3 on PS1 is still worth playing if you like the second game. Don't know about the remake, but the old version had a cool mechanic where you needed to choose quickly one of the two options in a cutscene which led to different paths or risk vs reward battles. It was kind of a different approach to making the game replayable instead of having scenarios A and B. For example, you can run away from Nemesis or fight him. If you choose to fight and win, you spend more bullets but get some weapon parts as a reward. In the branching paths scenes, you get to explore small sub-areas. Yeah, and Jill was very cool even back then .

 

That's a cool concept- I should maybe go back and check it out - there are a few from that time that I missed out on - I kind of started strong with RE, so played 1 and 2, but missed 3, Code Veronica, then picked them back up with 4 &  5  (and 6 unfortunately ?). 

 

Quote

Speaking of Jill, I recently heard one streamer mention that she might be one the videogame characters with most re-designs alongside Chris Redfield. The RE1/RE3 Jill model looks different from the RE Remake Jill model, which looks different from the RE5 model, which looks different from the RE3 Remake model. Other than Sonic and Mario, I can't really think of many characters with more design iterations .

 

That could well be true - I went back to finish up RE5 after playing the RE3 Remake, and seeing the Jill in that game was jarring - it's such a weaker design, and doesn't feel anywhere close to the Jill I knew from this one!

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Slava]

19 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Code Veronica

 

Probably my second favourite RE game after RE2. Don't know if I'd call it "The REAL RE3", but I certainly liked it more than many Resident Evil fans did. You'd often see it low in someone's tier list or whatever.

 

As for me, the ones I skipped were RE0, RE4, RE6 (thankfully ?) and everything after that. Still want to play 4. A lot of people like it to the point of calling it the best game in the series.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Slava

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Slava said:

 

Probably my second favourite RE game after RE2. Don't know if I'd call it "The REAL RE3", but I certainly liked it more than many Resident Evil fans did. You'd often see it low in someone's tier list or whatever.

 

As for me, the ones I skipped were RE4 and RE6 (thankfully ). Still want to play 4. A lot of people like it to the point of calling it the best game in the series.

 

Yeah - my mate who is a big RE fan (and enjoys castigating me for my lack of care in missing some!) agrees with you - Code Veronica is, of the ones I missed, the one he most often tells me I need to play! There were some rumblings that it would be getting the remake treatment at some point too (I mean, it's Capcom, and they are remake-happy at this point - I'm half expecting to hear a remake of Black Tiger is in the works any day now ?)

 

On RE4 - and I'm aware that I might be the only person to ever tell you this - but... I don't really think you missed all that much.

 

It's fine, but I didn't really think the game was all that revelatory.

It did some great things for advancing TPS controls at the time - we'd probably not have things like Gears of War without RE4, but I actually enjoyed RE5 significantly more than RE4.

I would even say (and I know this is heresy) some of the (few) good bits of RE6 (The Leon / Helena stuff) was more enjoyable to me than most of RE4 - though I acknowledge that I love co-op, and those games were basically doing RE4 stuff, but with split-screen co-op.

[Slava]

Right. I heard the co-op is what makes RE5's gameplay great. Sadly, I played alone (11-12 years ago), so the game felt weird for me.

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, Slava said:

Right. I heard the co-op is what makes RE5's gameplay great. Sadly, I played alone (11-12 years ago), so the game felt weird for me.

 

Yeah - I played a little in single player, but the AI companion never felt great to me - it always felt like they were either doing too much, and I felt like I was just a bystander in someone else's game, or too little,  and they became a bit of a burden I had to look out for.

 

TBH, that's part of what annoyed me sometimes in RE4 - you spend a lot of time protecting an AI companion, but they are not a fighter, so you ended up spending a lot of time putting her in conveniently placed dumpsters, then fighting, then taking her back out again, for fear that she would get killed - man, she must have smelled terrible by the time that game was done ?

Edited July 29, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[JoesusHCrust]

Doctor, I'd like to recommend a game for you to play, rather than review! I'm currently playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance and I think you'd enjoy it. You know that I'm not a fan of combat in games but in this one, the combat is so uniquely novel that even I enjoy it. The game has a very steep learning curve as you play as a medieval blacksmith's apprentice and have the combat ability, equipment and general skills that a medieval blacksmith's apprentice would have! Anyway, Games writing isn't my strongest skillset so I'm not really selling it but trust me and give it a go! 

[DrBloodmoney]

4 minutes ago, JoesusHCrust said:

Doctor, I'd like to recommend a game for you to play, rather than review! I'm currently playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance and I think you'd enjoy it. You know that I'm not a fan of combat in games but in this one, the combat is so uniquely novel that even I enjoy it. The game has a very steep learning curve as you play as a medieval blacksmith's apprentice and have the combat ability, equipment and general skills that a medieval blacksmith's apprentice would have! Anyway, Games writing isn't my strongest skillset so I'm not really selling it but trust me and give it a go! 

 

Hey man - glad you are enjoying the game!

I'll start by saying, I love getting game recommendations (it's basically why I like reading so many of these trophy checklist threads in the first place!), and definitely want people to feel free to recommend me stuff (so don't be deterred by this one instance!) - but in this particular instance, I'm gonna decline...

 

That game, along with a few others (Shadow Complex / Undertale / a couple of others) belong to a (tiny, almost statistically insignificant,) but very specific subset of games that - while I am confident I might enjoy them quite a bit - I will, under no circumstances, purchase, play or review them, for reasons that have nothing to do with the games, and everything to do with the actions/ public comments etc. of their creators or people closely tied to, or representative of, the games.

 

I won't go into the exact nature here, as it's my own choice, and not something I feel I need to try an foist on others, (the reasons are, i'm sure, freely available online,) but I'll simply say - not gonna happen I'm afraid... but happy you are enjoying it, and always happy to be recommended stuff!

 

 

[JoesusHCrust]

54 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I will, under no circumstances, purchase, play or review them, for reasons that have nothing to do with the games, and everything to do with the actions/ public comments etc. of their creators or people closely tied to, or representative of, the games.

Ah! Politics! Now this is a subject I do care about and can write about!! I stood as a prospective parliamentary candidate in the 2019 UK general election and am very involved with left-wing politics. I won't hijack your thread but I may start another one in the 'off-topic' section of this website so we can discuss.........stuff. 

 

 

[JoesusHCrust]

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Undertale

P.S. in my humble opinion, you're really not missing out on anything by skipping this game which is hugely over-rated! The 'USP' is supposed to be the breadth of ways you can complete the game (including the infamous pacifist method that according to certain fans you're 'supposed' to do!) but honestly there are hundreds of games that offer more gameplay variety including pacifist options (actually KC:D can be played through only making one kill).

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

The next 5 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Burnout Paradise
Far Cry Primal
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
Sound Shapes
The Saboteur

 

 

 

 

Subjects in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @Copanele , @Slava & @YaManSmevz  ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Invisible Inc, maintain the title for another round?

 

Is new last-in-show Space Overlords going to have any competition for 'Least Awesome Game' ?

 

Let's find out!

[The_Kopite]

On 7/29/2021 at 9:19 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

the Jill Valentine on show in this remake is one of the most enjoyable characters I have played a game with in quite some time. The portrayal is written, acted and voiced (by Nicole Tompkins,) to an absurdly high level,

Haven't got around to playing it yet (massive RE fan that's fair poor but then I'm miles behind lol) but Nicole Tompkins is awesome, and her youtube channel with playthroughs of RE games with fellow RE alumni are well worth a watch ?

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Haven't got around to playing it yet (massive RE fan that's fair poor but then I'm miles behind lol) but Nicole Tompkins is awesome, and her youtube channel with playthroughs of RE games with fellow RE alumni are well worth a watch 

huh - I’ve never heard of those - I’ll need to have a watch. Good shout min!

 

[The_Kopite]

2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

huh - I’ve never heard of those - I’ll need to have a watch. Good shout min!

 

Yeah, she has done playthroughs of (in terms of RE games) REmake, RE2R, RE3R and RE Village at least. Possibly RE7 aswell (I forget lol) and has lots of fellow voice actors on like Jeff Schine (Carlos RE3R, Chris RE Village), Heidi Swan (Jill REmake), Stephanie Pasinello (Claire RE2R) and more. They can be really insightful and very fun.

Edited July 31, 2021 by The_Kopite
Spelt a name incorrectly

[DrBloodmoney]

On 31/07/2021 at 7:25 PM, The_Kopite said:

Yeah, she has done playthroughs of (in terms of RE games) REmake, RE2R, RE3R and RE Village at least. Possibly RE7 aswell (I forget lol) and has lots of fellow voice actors on like Jeff Schine (Carlos RE3R, Chris RE Village), Heidi Swan (Jill REmake), Stephanie Pasinello (Claire RE2R) and more. They can be really insightful and very fun.

 

You were right about these man - watched a few of the RE3 ones in the background while working today - and she's charming as hell - good shout ?

Edited August 3, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

18 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

You were right about these man - watched a few of the RE3 ones in the background while working today - and she's charming as hell - good shout

You're very welcome and yeah she's very cool ?

[DrBloodmoney]

 

  NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! 

 

 

Hello Science-Chums and Science-Chumlets, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour!

 

 

 

Burnout Paradise

 

Summary: 

There is a world, somewhere out there in the vast complexity of the multiverse, in which players in their gaming utopia huddle around the internet equivalent of star-lit campfires, joking, laughing, shivering a little in the chill night air, and keeping their spirits high by telling scary stories to one another. Nightmare, 'what-if' scenarios, like videogame ghost stories, of awful, imagined lands where things are not as they should be. 
One such tale - the scariest of them all - is of a horror-infested world, in which the Burnout franchise died, but the Need for Speed franchise lived on.

We live in the world that haunts their nightmares.

 

Burnout Paradise, released in 2008, is at this point nearly 14 years old, and yet I cannot think of an arcade racing game that has been released since that out does it. Can you? I bet you can't. Seriously - think about that. Think about what that means.

 

Taking the elements that made the previous Burnout games stand out from the crowd - the incredible sense of speed, the smooth, satisfying controls, an excellent feeling of weight and momentum of the vehicles and the very detailed and well crafted damage models - and transposing them from games about discrete races to a free-roaming, free-wheeling open-world environment was a risky proposition. Burnout Paradise does it with such confidence and aplomb, that it feels a completely natural evolution of the series. The fact that it came a little before 'open-world-ification' began to spread to so many franchises that the term 'open-world-fatigue' was born certainly helped, though I cannot imagine that - even if it had dropped after that term gained traction - this game would have been dismissed as such. The fact is, the open world nature of this game works much better than it could possibly be imagined to on paper - and much better than almost any other racing game has managed to achieve, before or after.

 

The game is not simply dipping its toe in open world. While the temptation with a racing game that takes place in an open world would be to have that freedom curtailed when 'in-race', Burnout Paradise avoids doing so. Races are not 'funnelled' into one specific path, and roads are not ''blocked off' during them. 
This has positive and negative aspects associated with it. 
On the plus side, it makes races genuinely interesting - the player is free to chose a less obvious route, or take a riskier choice (eg. via one of the thousands of ramps in the game (seriously, Paradise city is one in which the architects who built it seemed to be given 100,000 ramps, and told to built a city out of them!), however, it does also mean that it is easy for a player to get lost.
Those unfamiliar with the city layout may be in first place, then simply go the wrong way, and drop immediately to last. 
For a long time, the player will be heavily reliant on the map, and calling it up to confirm / choose a route for a longer race does have the effect of breaking the adrenaline rush that is so quickly built by the games incredible sense of speed.

 

The other potential downside to open-world racing is that it can become simply 'dressing'. In many open world racers, failure allows the player to pause, then hit 'restart' on a race, essentially negating the whole concept of the open world, as they simply restart each race and play it as a discrete entity until it is mastered. Burnout Paradise does not allow this, and instead, forces the player to continue from wherever they are. This means, if a player wishes to 'replay' a race, they are forced to drive all the way back to the starting line from whatever part they failed at. 
Again, on paper, this may be seen as a negative, however, I think it is one of Burnout Paradise's great strengths. By allowing the player to slip in and out of races seamlessly (indeed, to 'quit' a race, the player need do nothing more than brake, and come to a stop for a few moments, and the game knows that they mean, and ends the race,) it forces a much more natural gaming experience. Unlike many racing games where each race will be played over and over until mastered, with the player then moving on to the next, Burnout Paradise's design means it is far more conducive to simply doing a race, doing the best you can, then driving to the next closest race and trying that one. New races are available at virtually every crossroad in the game, and are started simply by lining the car up at them. New records can be set for every road in the game. A new challenge is - quite literally - always right around the corner. 

 

That inherent flow of the game means two things most of all - the player is forced out of a perfectionist mentality that can breed boredom and frustration, and is also forced to explore the map in a way they otherwise wouldn't. That is a process through which they will slowly come to learn the city layout, and naturally become better at navigating and route-finding within races, without feeling like they are specifically setting out to 'learn' the routes. The player, after a certain amount of time, will simply realise they have gained a natural understanding of the city, but will likely never have specifically sat down and forced themselves to 'learn it'.

 

Speaking of the city layout - it is uniformly great. Paradise city is not aping any one real life city, but has elements of many, and across the vast expanse, different areas have different flavours and feels, while retaining a clean, bright, fun (if not particularly  artistically interesting) aesthetic. The visuals are well done, and look great for a 2008 game. The actual surroundings are not on the level of a genuine open world city like GTA or Assassin's Creed - there are no pedestrians here (indeed, even cars have no visible drivers) and there is no attempt to make the city feel like a genuine 'living' city, however, this is not the focus. 
What is done incredibly well, is the most important part - how it is to drive through. 
Paradise City is not just huge, it is also incredibly intricately designed from a driving point of view. Every detail, it seems, is built, from the ground up, to be interacted with at breakneck speed. Virtually every obstacle is a ramp of some form. Every billboard can be blasted through. Every overpass has convenient gaps allowing for stunt jumps from higher roads to lower ones. Simply driving around, with no active mission is still a hell of a good time here.

 

Online multiplayer is available for up to 7 additional players, and is accessed easily from in game - and each 'level' of additional players comes with its own set of specific challenges. There are different sets for 2 players, 3, players, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8, meaning any combination will give new goals to shoot for, and offer some limited organisation to an already absurdly fun and chaotic multiplayer experience.

 

The crash models are a clear point of pride for Criterion Games. Because Burnout, as a franchise, never trafficked in licensed vehicles, and every car is, (while often having a recognisable 'real-life' equivalent,) fictional, they are not bound by any requirement to curtail thier damage models. Every serious crash results in a super-slow-motion crash-cam view, showing splintering steel, bursting windshields, and cars crumpling like paper in a way that is so satisfying and fun to watch it almost makes the player forget they probably just lost their place in the race.

 

The lack of requirement to show cars surviving crashes is never more apparent than in the Showtime mode. The replacement for the 'Crash Mode' of previous Burnout games, Showtime is essentially a mini-game that can be started anywhere on the map with the click of a button, and immediately makes the current car flip, and start smashing into other cars, with an associated score and multipliers attached, allowing records to be set for every single road in the game. A good run in this mode can, after some time, turn the car being controlled into something closer resembling a tooth filling than a vehicle. 
Personally, it is not a mini-game I spent a huge amount of time with or found terribly engaging, beyond simply seeing the work done in the damage modelling, however, that only speaks to the strength and variety of the game - there is so much to do and to keep a player entertained, that one could entirely ignore entire modes, and still feel they get their money's worth out of the game, such is the size and scope of it.

 

The variety of cars is impressive - all cars in the world of Burnout Paradise fall into one of 3 categories - Stunt, Speed or Aggression - and have specific peculiarities to the way they drive. Different ones are more or less viable for different event types, and there are loads to unlock. The smooth, natural nature of the open-world mechanics extend even to this unlocking mechanics - when a car is unlocked, it is not often simply added to the players garage - instead, it appears in the open world, driving around, and is granted to the player upon them successfully hunting it, and 'taking it down' i.e. causing it to crash. Thus, the game gives yet another good reason to simply enjoy driving around in between events.

 

The sound in the game is excellent from a foley point of view - car engines roar, and tyres screech and burn with satisfying car-porn-y sounds. The music is all licensed, and is all either good, or terrible in the best way possible, with an eclectic mix varying from Junky XL to Avril Lavigne, with Guns and Roses 'Paradise City' providing the oh-so on-the-nose, yet clearly required, auditory signature.

 

Overall, while a self confessed racing game novice, I am still confident in stating that Burnout Paradise remains one of the best ones I've played, and one of - if not the - pinnacle of open world, arcade racing. The sense of speed is uncanny, the bright, cheery visuals sublime, and the variety of events and design of the city are unparalleled. The game was also one of the pioneers of adding extensive, mostly free dlc, and while not everything added is a winner (the micro-machines RC cars stuff is pretty lacklustre,) the combination adds up to a package that is extensive, fun and incredibly worthwhile. 

 

That Burnout was eaten by Need for Speed, and not the other way around, remains probably the greatest gaming injustice of all time - and we should all - every one of us - be hopping mad about it!

 

The Ranking:

The closest comparison on the current list is Driver San Francisco. That game is a ton of fun, and has a robust and very well implemented narrative story mode to go along with its open world driving credentials, in addition to having some of the oddest, and most fun mechanics ever found in a driving game (owing to the 'hot-swapping' of cars and PSI powers stuff,) but, in terms of open world design, variety, sense of speed and car handling, it simply isn't on the level of Burnout Paradise.

 

Given that Driver San Francisco is the current top-ranked driving game, Burnout Paradise becomes a more difficult one to rank appropriately, and so it comes down to a few factors that are its big strengths - open world design, variety, visuals and fun.

 

Working up the list, Burnout Paradise outpaces a lot of great games on these factors. So many, in fact, that I gave up on working up from Driver San Francisco, and instead, began at the very top of the list, and started working downwards instead, with the question "Which game has factors that combine to make it more awesome than Burnout Paradise's pure, unadulterated fun?".

 

There are a fair few at the top that easily retain their places, however, the first game where I see the the answer being questionable is Mass Effect 3. While I still like that game immensely (more, I would say, than most,) it has quite a few specific flaws, and quite a few low points throughout its playthrough. That, combined with the fact that it came right after Mass Effect 2 - a game doing all the same things, but overall, markedly better - means that I can be comfortable placing Burnout Paradise higher than it. 

Burnout Paradise, therefore, finds its spot on the list, and starts doing doughnuts in the carpark outside the citadel.

 

 

 

 

 

Far Cry Primal

 

Summary: 

Far Cry as a series has settled into a pretty comfortable routine. Each mainline entry sets itself in some version of present day, in whatever far flung location it chooses, and for each mainline entry, there is a more esoteric or unusual spin-off game released in the interim, using the same engine but crafting a more genre-specific or peculiar setting, tone or narrative.

Far Cry 3 had the excellent 80s-action-and-cocaine fuelled Blood Dragon, later entry Far Cry 5 had the 'alternate future' Mad-Max-inspired, post-apocalyptic New Dawn. For Far Cry 4, Ubisoft took perhaps the most ambitious leap outside of the standard format of the series for its spin-off - taking what is ostensibly a gun-based FPS, and setting it 12,000 years in the past, with Far Cry Primal.

 

Primal, it should be said, works far better that it really has any right to. The engine is one that is not only designed to work with modern weaponry - it is one of the best examples of open world games to do so. Far Cry 3, Blood Dragon and Far Cry 4 have fantastic shooting models that are blisteringly fun to engage with, and so the fact that one of the strongest aspects was abandoned entirely for Primal should, by all rights, be considered a misstep, and evidence of someone at Ubisoft taking leave of their senses. However, replacing modern weaponry with thrown spears, close combat clubs and bow and arrow mechanics (okay, to be fair, the modern Far Cry's have bows too, and do them well,) works really quite well.

 

Narrative wise, the game is relatively simple. The player takes the role of Takkar - a member of a dwindling and disorganised tribe called the Wenja, and the only surviving member of a doomed hunting party. Meeting up with other Wenja in the wake of the sabre-tooth attack that killed all his brethren - a woman named Sayla and a shaman named Tensay  among them - Takkar begins a quest to unite the Wenja, repel attacks from other tribes (including the cannibalistic Udam tribe,) learn the ways of the animals, and establish Wenja dominance over the region.  

 

The basic staples of Far Cry survive the trip back in time pretty well. The narrative is certainly weaker than previous and subsequent entries, and is not particularly helped by the reliance on subtitles, as the language spoken is unintelligible, however, the thematic notes are strong, and it does what it needs to - set up the strong gameplay loop of 'mission, conquer, upgrade' that all Far Cry games share. 

Individual characters are interesting and varied, though again, the lack of nuanced dialogue does make actual interactions with them less memorable than in other Far Cry games. 
The game does a good job of making the world feel alive - however, this tends to be much more about the natural environment and the animal life around it that the npc human (or neanderthal) characters, who tend to stick to their assigned outposts or domiciles.

 

Visually, the game looks good - the environments are on par with Far Cry 4 (indeed, the world map is actually a direct 1-1 re-use, with the landscape palate-swapped to suit the prehistoric timeframe,) however, this is no great issue, as the mechanical differences in the gameplay mean navigating it is markedly different, and it does not feel like the rehash it technically is.

Character models are uniformly excellent, and each character is interestingly designed, with use of tattoos, face paint and scarification to give distinct looks. Animals look great here too, and can be very impressive and scary when close up and in combat. The ability Takkar has to tame and ride wild beats provides the facsimile for vehicles in other Far Cry games, and while a little unwieldy, can be genuinely fun as a chaos amplifier when taking over a tribal outpost, for example.

 

There is some of the usual Far Cry humour here, though the lack of english dialogue makes this a harder sell. The 'Hurk' stand in is woefully unfunny, and a source of eye-rolling (though I must admit, I find Hurk to be a low point in every Far Cry game, and find his continual reuse to be a cringe inducing flogging of a long dead horse.) 

The actual narrative does suffer somewhat from the lack of a distinct and memorable 'big bad' however. There is no single antagonist with anywhere near the menace or character of Far Cry 3's Vaas, or Far Cry 4's Pagan Minn, and given that Primal has the same issues both those games had with protagonists - unlikable (Far Cry 3,) or unmemorable (Far Cry 4) - in this case, Takkar is completely under written and given very little characterisation - it does mean the story needs a good 'big bad' for levity, and suffers for the lack of one. The secondary NPC characters do carry the plot somewhat in ones absence, but only from 'dull' to 'middling',  and not all the way to 'good.'

 

The mechanic of building the tribe is a smart one, and means that Takkar's home-base, which is always expanding and gaining tribespeople as the story progresses, is a fun place to go back to, and to explore, and the added benefit of a larger home-base meaning more plentiful resources means that the requirements for upgrades need to be specifically farmed less frequently, allowing the game to maintain a snappier pace than some other entries in the series. 

 

Overall, it is genuinely impressive that so much of the genetic code of Far Cry was made to not only work, but flourish in a prehistoric, pre-guns and technological world, and Primal is certainly an interesting take on the formula. However, I do think that the less varied combat, flatter narrative and less dynamic or variable gameplay does make Primal something of a less appealing prospect to return to than, say, Far Cry 3 or 4. The lack of a truly interesting big bad, and the less consistent humour renders the game less memorable, and while I enjoyed my time with it, it would likely be the last Far Cry game I have played that I would return to, with the possible exception of Far Cry 5.

 

 

The Ranking:

In comparison to Far Cry 3, Primal is not really in contention. While it still looks good, and plays well, the variety of approach is hampered by the timeframe and the weaponry, and the narrative is not on the same level. Far Cry 3 had genuinely interesting things to say about the 'White Saviour complex' in filmic narratives, and did interesting things with its unlikable protagonist and cast of characters. Primal's protagonist is a blank slate, and is never given much characterisation at all. There is also no enemy even close to the level of Vaas from that game. 

 

Looking at open world FPS games further down the list, both Skyrim and Fallout 3, while mechanically inferior to Primal, absolutely stomp all over it in terms of narrative and variability, as well as size, and even despite their technical flaws, are not ever troubled by Far Cry Primal on the list.

 

Further down still though, we get to Metro 2033. That game has a much richer, more interesting narrative, and does a lot of interesting things with realism and mechanical density, as opposed to Primal's easy-breezy, arcade-style feel. However, the variety of art, and the level of it are no competition with Primal, and sound design pales in comparison. 
In the end, I feel like Metro 2033 still beats out Far Cry Primal - simply because I would be more likely to replay that game - however, the next FPS open world game just below it - Fallout New Vegas - while on paper a far superior game, is so hopelessly riddled with glitches and bugs, and performs so poorly on the PS3, that it's negatives overwhelm it's positives, and allow Far Cry Primal to take a spot above it.

 

 

 

 

 

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus

 

Summary: 

2002 was in interesting year for the 3D character action platformer. It was the year that saw what is to this day, the only genuine misstep the Mario franchise ever took, with what remains arguably the only truly bad game in its mainline series - Super Mario Sunshine. Yet, the genre received a sizeable injection on the PS2, with the release of two new IP's, each of which would go on to kick start franchises of their own that would define the genre in that era: Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. 

 

The Sly Cooper series certainly never quite hit the heights in terms of sales, nor zeitgeist that Ratchet and Clank did (few series do,) however, in terms of first outings, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was particularly notable, even in the crowded field, in the sense that, unlike most of its peers, it came from a relatively unknown and unproven studio. 
Prior to Ratchet's blistering debut, Insomniac had already cut their teeth with the Spyro trilogy. Prior to Jak and Daxter, Naughty Dog had proven themselves with Crash Bandicoot. Insomniac, however, had only released one game prior to Sly Cooper - the fairly well made, if unremarkable and long since forgotten Rocket: Robot on Wheels for N64. 
In that context, it is remarkable that Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is not only able to stand proudly among those other games, but actually, if comparing only the first entries, out-class them in a lot of areas.

 

Sly Cooper, the furry, personified raccoon and descendent of a long line of infamous thieves, who's parents were murdered during a home invasion by a group of dastardly criminal animals and who subsequently grew up in an orphanage, has made something of a name for himself as a small-time thief, aided by his childhood friends from the orphanage - a smart but stuffy tortoise named Bentley, and lovably blundering hippo Murray. Setting out on a quest to retrieve the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus - his family heirloom and collection of generations of Cooper's thieving techniques from the gang members who orphaned him - we take him across a short, enjoyable platforming romp through 15-odd hours of simple, yet satisfying action platforming fun.

The narrative is simple, and well designed to fit the platforming genre, with each page of the book recovered resulting in new abilities for Sly to use. The relative ease of the game, along with the brisk pace of these upgrades, and the subsequent additional  mechanics and level particulars means the entire affair is snappy, zippy and pleasant. 

Sly himself is a charmingly, well-realised character - roguish and wise-cracking, though rarely grating. Both Bentley and Murray are fairly well realised too, and while they would go on to become a little irritating in subsequent games, I find in this first one, both to be quite charming too. In terms of dialogue and narrative, the game is pitched a tad younger than either Ratchet or Jak, and so some of the comedic elements are a little more simplified - think an 8-11 year old humour pitch, as opposed to 12-14 - however, there are still some smiles to be drawn, if not out and out chuckles for an old bastard such as myself.

 

In terms of mechanics, the game is extremely competently done. Sly moves smoothly and animates really well, and the simple gameplay (attacks, double jumps, swings, and the 'snap to object' platforming that Insomniac would recycle in their excellent Infamous series,) all work seamlessly together, and navigating levels is made a pleasure as a result. There can be, on occasion, a little too much on screen in the foreground as to obscure what lies ahead (a minor issue exacerbated by Sly's bushy tail!) but these sections are not so common as to become a source of particular frustration.

 

The game looks great - I would argue that the cell-shaded look, with crisp, hard black outlines on characters and bright, distinctive visual environments, actually stands taller than either Ratchet's first outing, or even Jak's second (which would follow the next year.) Animations are great across the board, and the physics engine - honed on Rocket: Robot on Wheels - is incredibly satisfying, making jumping and swinging a highlight and never less than fun.

A special mention also has to be given to the inter-gameplay story beats. All aspects of the non-game game - the UI, the cut scenes, the interstitials - are presented beautifully - with a striking comic book noir, motion comic style, and are reminiscent of later games by the likes of Klei in their confident, stylistic choices.

Sound is fairly pedestrian - the music is not bad, though can be a little frenetic and distracting, and is rarely memorable, but not overtly bad.

 

The game has some stealth sections that do hamper the pace a little, however, these are notably well done as compared to other games doing similar things at the time. Beyond Good and Evil, for example, as discussed previously, and coming a full year later, suffers in its own implementation of these stealth sections far worse than Sly ever does.

Boss fights are fairly interesting and each is unique, though the more simplistic gameplay does mean each is relatively simple to learn and beat. Given that the game is aiming at a slightly younger audience, it is difficult to see this as a detriment, however.

 

One area that can be a detriment, however, is the lack of repeatability. Sucker Punch does a reasonable job of at least nodding towards repeat play, in the form of timed challenge versions of the levels, however, for a game involving distinct upgrades gated by completion, it is odd how little the designers leaned into the 'metroidvania' elements. 
Sections where certain collectibles can be seen, but not yet accessed until a future upgrade is achieved do exist, but are not abundant, and I can't hep but feel if the game had more of these, it would encourage a level of replayability that would keep a relatively short and easy game fresher for a longer time.

 

Overall, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is a great little platform game - not one likely to keep a seasoned gamer going for any great length of time, but also not one that will bore the player during the time it does ask of them, and is a pleasure to play all throughout.

 

 

 

The Ranking:

The natural points of comparison are three-fold here: The original Ratchet and Clank, the original Jak and Daxter, and the similarly action-platforming PS2 entry Beyond Good and Evil.

 

In terms of Jak and Daxter, despite that games more robust challenge and more open gameplay and resulting length, this first Sly game really outshines it on mechanical gameplay, and on visuals and narrative. 

 

In terms of their overall series, Ratchet is - spoiler alert - guaranteed to have higher placed games than the Sly series has, as there was never a Sly game to compete with the best Ratchet has to offer. However, I do think that purely in terms of these first games, Sly is the winner - its visuals are crisper and cleaner, its mechanics simpler, yet smoother, and  level design, while less challenging, is a little more interesting. I also think the narrative - while simpler and less satirical or funny - is more tightly drawn, and is helped by the excellent artistic flourishes in the motion-comic interstitials.

 

Beyond Good and Evil, however, is a different matter. The look is maybe a little weaker than Sly purely in terms of artistry, but in terms of design it is markedly better, and the narrative is far, far more interesting, nuanced and worldly. It is also a much more repeatable and mechanically accomplished game on top of that, and repeatable in a way Sly isn't.

 

In the space in between, we can look to the Prince of Persia series for 3D character action. While not mascot games necessarily, they have a lot of the same hallmarks. 

 

I think Sly Cooper beats out The Warrior Within, as that game's oddly dour tone, unlikable protagonist, and uneven gameplay hurt it, but I do not see Sly Cooper beating out The Sands of Time, which has more interesting level design, an equally likeable protagonist, and a good, solid, simple story. 

 

Looking at the three games in between those - Superliminal, Trine and Telltale's The Walking Dead - each of those I think wins on its own merits, whether through originality, narrative or visuals, and so Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus finds it's spot just above The Warrior Within.

 

 

 

 

 

Sound Shapes

 

Summary: 

Okay - let's address the elephant in the room. 
Sound Shapes, on this particular site, has a serious repetitional problem. 

It is a game - like Ratalaika games, or LEGO games, or Artifex Mundi games to a certain extent - that suffers immeasurably in its preconception by trophy minded players, due to factors that have nothing to do with the quality of the game, and everything to do with the trophies. 

It is a game often cited as a 'textbook example' of poor trophy sportsmanship. 'Trophy-whoring', to use a term I personally despise. 
The reason for this is relatively obvious - Sound Shapes was not only a fairly simply game to complete, it also had a myriad of simple to complete dlc packs, an over-abundance of silver trophies, and was one of the earliest examples of multi-console, multi-region cross-buy, cross-saving, auto-popping and stacking. 
Indeed, I think one would be hard pressed to find a profile featuring Sound Shapes completed at the time of release, that does not have at least one additional auto-popped stack of it. (full disclosure, I have 3 - come at me!) 
Auto-popping stacks of it was, by virtue of being such an early example of the practice (and at the time, merely a curious novelty, and not necessarily a harbinger of our auto-popping future,) a frivolous indulgence partaken of by huge numbers of players. In the subsequent years though, it has become, it seems, a source of embarrassment to some of those players who now bristle at the abundance of the auto-pop, avoid such practice now, and who see Sound Shapes as a stain on their 'clean' profiles.

 

That is a shame really, because at its core, Sound Shapes is one of the most enjoyable, satisfying and genuinely smart and original games to ever grace the under-served Vita. 

 

A deliberately simple platformer, in which the player controls a small blob through a variety of flat-plane, 2D environments, collecting 'blips', then rolling towards a record player at the end to complete the level, Sound Shapes might seem on the surface to have nothing to it. In fact, play it with the sound off, and I might agree (though doing so would make you a monster of the highest order!)

Turn the sound on though, and the game comes alive in a way that turns its simple platforming into a work of art.

 

Each level starts with a very simple, metronomic beat played on a few simple instruments. As each blip is collected though, a new instrument or musical sting is added to the background theme, meaning that as the player navigates the levels, the music grows and swells, going from a simple, flat composition to a complex piece of music. It is a wonderfully satisfying and cleverly implemented mechanic, and one that is incredibly well served by the abundance of excellent music in the game. 

 

Almost all the music is original to the game, and is provided by different artists, including some highlights from personal favourite Beck.
Each level worlds (called albums) is artistically distinct, with a colour palate and theme befitting the genre and tone of the music it contains (designed by different artists,) and the flat, simple visuals are uniformly nice to look at. 

In some ways, the consistent mechanics, offset by the variety of musical genre and accompanying artwork brings to mind similarly music themes games like Lumines or Chime, though here, the game is much more a meditative experience. There is no fast-action to the game, the experience of playing it is much more 'music-forward.' There is rarely any level to truly challenge a player (outside of an additional mode unlocked upon completion - more on that later) but the enjoyment comes from simply enjoying the music, and feeling a sense of interaction with it as you collect the blips and increase its prevalence. 

 

The game is short - completable in around 3 or 4 hours, however, I have frequently found myself returning to the game as something to enjoy, not in the way that repeating a game is enjoyable, but more in the way I might return to an album. (The irony is, for all the auto-popping, I could probably have earned the game's trophies 4 times legit at this point!) 

There is some additional longevity granted by the inclusion of high-score leaderboards, though I question the inclusion of them, in the sense that aiming for high scores and quick runs does feel somewhat antithetical to the experience the gamine is aiming for, and succeeds at nailing.

 

There are also two modes unlocked upon initial completion of the 'story' mode - Beat School and Death Mode. Death Mode is a much harder version of the main game, and involves a heavy aspect of randomisation in terms of level layout. That means some unlucky players might find the mode harder than others, as it does have a tendency to create almost impossibly difficult layouts, however, the instant restart mechanics do lessen any frustration this might entail. 

 

Beat School is a more esoteric mode, in which the player has to recreate musical themes and sections using the level creation tools, and is interesting, though a little unwieldy on any platform other than the Vita - where the touch screen control makes the game tremendously more fun to engage with on that level.

 

All in all, Sound Shapes manages to do what many music games try (and often fail) to do - create a genuine symbiosis between the auditory and visual media - and not only does it better than most, but manages to do something virtually unprecedented - craft a meditative, almost zen-like experience in which the player is affecting the auditory stream, but where failure does not cause auditory dissonance. Doing well makes the song better, but doing poorly does not necessarily make the song worse - just less rich and full. It does so with confidence, technical competence and visual and auditory skill, and ends up being a package that is almost wholly unique, genuinely fun, and engaging from start to finish.

 

 

The Ranking:

There are almost no music games currently on the list besides Invector, and as fun as that game is, the fact that it showcases only a single artist, and its derivative nature as a fairly pedestrian rhythm game mean it is woefully under-equipped to take on something as original and interesting as Sound Shapes in a match up.

 

Without other music games, we need to look to other Vita based platformers to find any kind of starting point on the list. 

Type:Rider is an interesting game that has some value as a comparison point, in the sense that it is also an abstracted, 2D platformer with a non-platform game premise (in that case, typography, as opposed to music.) In that case, I think Sound Shapes outdoes it, simply by virtue of its originality, and the symbiosis between its thematic inspirations and its genre ones. While the typographical aspects of Type:Rider are overlaid well onto the 2D platformer, they are not 'baked in' on a conceptual level in the same way music is to Sound Shapes. I also think that while they are both short, pleasant games to play, Type:Rider lacks a replay value that Sound Shapes has.

 

Slightly higher though, is Vita based puzzle platformer Hue. Hue is not quite as original as Sound Shapes is, but it does bake its hook (colour swapping) into every single aspect of its gameplay in the same was Sound Shapes does with its music. It is not as variable in visuals as Sound Shapes is, but its singular look is more impressive than any individual one of Sound Shapes' ones. It is also, despite being a little less interesting or original, just a better, more engaging product from a gameplay point of view.

 

Therefore, we find ourselves somewhere in between. Of the games in that gap, I think Sound Shapes does enough in originality and has few enough flaws that Maquette - which while enjoyable, has quite a few flaws - cannot beat it. 
However, Astro's Playroom has almost no flaws, and has a lot of originality and personality too. While it is not doing any single thing as revelatory as Sound Shapes, it is a fun, engaging and - most of all - surprising game, and as such, can hold on to its place above it.

 

 

 

 

The Saboteur

 

Summary: 

In the last batch, the science was applied to Unit 13 - the game that was the swan-song of its soon to be shuttered development studio, Zipper Interactive. 
I said in that review that, while the game was not great, it was a shame that it could be seen as "the game that killed Zipper," as, while it was certainly not a good enough game to have saved a flagging studio, it was also not a game bad enough to shoulder the responsibility for killing it.

 

Well, now we come to another swan-song game - The Saboteur - from once illustrious developer Pandemic, creators of the Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans and Star Wars Battlefront games.

If Unit 13 can be seen as a sad tale of a game being undeservedly shackled with the notoriety of having killed its creator, The Saboteur's tale is a full-blown tragedy. 

If there were any justice in the world, we would still be seeing Pandemic developed games coming out to this day, because, unlike Unit 13, The Saboteur is exactly the kind of product that should have been able to at least stabilise, if not out and out save, a flagging studio. Had it not come so late that the financial damage done by the cancellation of their Batman: The Dark Knight game had already signed the studio's death warrant, I suspect it might have.

 

A 3D open-world game, The Saboteur operates, from a gameplay and mechanical standpoint, as very much a hybrid of crime sim games like GTA and Saints Row, and the newly burgeoning Assassin's Creed, "Ubisoft-formula' open-world narrative games. Control wise, it is much closer to GTA in its combat and action, but from a mission structure point of view, (and, of course, the historical context of the setting,) Assassin's Creed is a much closer cousin.

 

The player takes the role of Sean Devlin, an Irishman with a taste for drinking, fighting and blowing stuff up (so no stereotypes here whatsoever...) Having moved to Nazi occupied Paris in an attempt to break into the racing scene, he finds himself at odds with a rival (Nazi) racer, which soon escalates into a full blown blood feud. As a result, Sean gets slowly embroiled in the local resistance movement, and begins what is - to all intents and purposes - a one man anti-Nazi explosion crusade to free Paris.

 

What that amounts to, in practical terms, is a series of narrative missions (most of which are fun, and bombastic and silly,) a smattering of car races (which are fairly good within the limited quality afforded to racing within non-racing games,) and an absurdly fun orgy of shooting and blowing up Nazi checkpoints and soldiers with a frequency and level of destruction that would make BJ Blastowitz proud. Nothing about the controls or shooting / combat mechanics are revelatory - in fact, in some cases they are outright amateurish - however, the game somehow manages to be fun and engaging despite that. 

 

There is stealth mechanics here - actually quite a few of them. You can dress up as a Nazi, or sneak around and stealth takedown enemies etc... but make no mistake - the game does not want you to. The stealth meter shoots up so quick that it may as well not exist. Sean can take so much punishment, and has such fast regenerating health, that caution is clearly not the intended path. This game is not Hitman - it is much closer to the current incarnation of Wolfenstein. Is stealth feasible - sure... for a hot second. But then? Once you get seen? They the chaos starts, and you just start shooting, and the game is at its silly, fun, wise-cracking Irishman best.

 

The game straddles an interesting line in many ways. Ostensibly a B-Game, it carries itself with much more arcade-style action tropes than something like Assassin's Creed, and very much avoids ever taking itself as seriously as those games often do. However, despite all the carnage and bombast, the Parisian WWII setting does mean there is a level of 'prestige' that is at least hinted at, that holds it back from entering the full-blown chaos of early GTA, or Saints Row. 

 

The game is structured and paced pretty well - of course, pacing is difficult in a mission based open world game, where the player can simply chose to ignore the story and go on a bender for a few hours, but it does a good job of distinguishing side content and main path narrative missions, and of doling out said side content at a fairly consistent pace. (This is something the Assassin's Creed games could learn from, as, unlike those games, The Saboteur never feels like it is simply firing icons onto the map like a shotgun full of side-quests.)

 

Visually, the game looks reasonably good, though never much more than that in terms of graphical fidelity. Certainly, it never reaches the heights that Assassin's Creed II (released the same year) reached, and lacks the architectural grandiosity of that game. However, there are some artistic flourishes that are really admirable here, and go further than anything that game did in a stylistic sense. Areas of Paris that have yet to be liberated from Nazi occupation are rendered in a mostly black and white colour palate, with only flashes of colour - Nazi Armbands, Blood etc. - showing through. It is a striking look, and it works really well. When an area is liberated, it blossom's into full living colour. 

It's a great mechanic, and one that both looks cool, and allows the player to easily identify the status of the area they are in - however, it also is a little counter-intuitive, in the sense that the black and white palate does a lot to disguise a slight lack of graphical fidelity, and looks so much better than the full colour one does. It almost creates a situation where the player doesn't actually want to do what they are supposed to be doing - liberating the city - as the game looks so much better before they do!

 

In terms of sound, the game is pretty good foley wise - not outstanding, but serviceable, and that carries through to the score, but the licensed music is where it shines a little brighter. There are a major few standouts (I'd wager there are few moments that feel as good as driving out of the dense parts of the city as the sun comes up, with 'Feeling Good' by Nina Simone playing on the radio,) and even at its worst, it is merely okay. 
Granted, some of the music is a little anachronistic for the era, but actually, I am someone who doesn't really mind that - if it evokes the right feeling, it matters less to me whether it was actually exactly period appropriate.

 

It would be easy, reading what I have written here, to feel like The Saboteur is nothing but a B-Grade also ran, not quite sure whether it wants to be a less serious Assassin's Creed, or a more serious Saints Row. The fact is, there is more than a little truth to that statement, but to simply have that be the takeaway misses the one thing that I think The Saboteur absolutely nails, and that compensates in a large part for a significant amount of minor shortcomings in other areas - the tone. 

 

The Saboteur was, prior to, I would say, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, the closest thing in games to the silly, fun, schlocky revisionist historical tone of something like Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. It is cartoonishly, devilishly fun to blow Nazi camps up, and the game knows it. It makes Sean near invincible in the accomplishment of that, arming him with more ammo than a barracks, more dynamite than a strip mine, and more wise-cracks than five barbers. 

Pandemic know what the player wants, and gives them the tools to make it happen - even if that is at the expense of challenge, fidelity or accuracy.
That might be silly, or dumb, or juvenile. It might be all three.
It doesn't matter though - because it is one thing above all that - it is fun.

 

 

The Ranking:

A few comparison points jump out immediately.
Driver: San Fransisco is an equally tonally consistent big-dumb-fun story with gameplay to match, and with The Saboteur's focus at least partly on driving, there is some gameplay crossover. While the driving is nowhere near as good here as it is in Driver, the overall package of The Saboteur does beat Driver in a game-for-game matchup, on variety, design of the open world, and on style.

 

Similarly 2009 released open world historical game Assassin's Creed II, however, despite lacking some of the artistic flair of The Saboteur in terms of implementation, does tend to overwhelm it with sheer size, higher quality writing, and a less stylish, but ultimately more detailed and impressive game world.

 

In between those games, working up the list, there are a few games that I love, and execute their desired intentions better than The Saboteur executes any of its individual parts, but I'd be hard pressed to say I would play them again before firing up The Saboteur, and so fail to hold their spots against it.

However, when I get to Void Bastards, The Saboteur begins to flounder. 
That game's well-rounded sense of humour and silliness outclasses The Saboteur on its strongest front - its tone - and it also has astounding style and visuals and an addictive gameplay loop. That means, for all its positive aspects, The Saboteur cannot get a fist in in the fight. 

As such, The Saboteur finds its spot just below Void Bastards.

Sean would, most likely, be proud. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks!

Thanks to @Copanele , @Slava & @YaManSmevz for putting in requests! 

 

 

 Invisible Inc stays on top for now as  'Current Most Awesome Game'

And Space Overlords stays as king of the crap-tastic olympics, as  'Least Awesome Game'

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the sad bottom?

That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU!

 

Remember:

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! 

 

The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank)....

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

 

 

 

Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DrBloodmoney