DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[DrBloodmoney]

3 minutes ago, Copanele said:

You got a good point there! I also read the novel and watched the movie (didn't think the movie was that bad either, the Comedian was the highlight for me), but yes, the whole story is more of a meta-commentary and less of a bone cracking experience with Nite Owl and Rorschach. If it focused on the fights, it defeats the entire purpose of the novel...

...but with Rocksteady you at least win a battle. With Deadline Games(googled them) they lost the battle, the war and the brawl behind the pub.

 

Oh for sure - and actually, in the movie, the whole origin of Dr Manhattan section with the Phlip Glass song over it is absolutely magnificent - I think that was the highlight for me - along with the intro and literally everything with Jackie Earl Haley!

The movie was totally fine for the most part - to be honest, the ending was actually marginally better than the comic really - swapping out the fake alien for what they did is actually a neater, smarter way to conclude the thing in my opinion - Even Alan Moore isn't completely untouchable!

 

It's true about the potential for a game too - I mean, that woeful game I played (current 4th least awesome game of all time!) was, I think, trying to do an "Arkham Style"... it just was so painfully bad at it, that it barely resembled what it aimed for... 

 

It was like looking at a scribble that your two-year-old does, and you're trying to discern the intent, squinting, and being like... 

"Wow! That's great!.... It's... a.... *please say something child, so I don't hurt your feelings*...a ...  house?"

"A Octoputs!"

"Oh, yeah... an Octopus, of course! Silly Daddy!" ?

 

 

 

[JoesusHCrust]

Again I've enjoyed reading the reviews. Arkham Asylum had some enjoyable aspects but ultimately I just don't enjoy those mob vs one rhythm games.

 

I've heard many folks mention Persona 5 as an excellent game but I've been reticent to buy it as I don't tend to enjoy the combat in JRPGs. I'm not sure what the proper term is but you know the way you get like a 'set piece' which plays out in a turn based manner? Anyway, I don't like that! Will I like P5 then?

 

Going off on a tangent, you often mention replayability in your reviews. I'm curious to ask.....I'm not sure how to ask without sounding rude! Why? I can't think that I've ever really replayed any games except for the big Bethesda RPGs (fallout and elder scrolls). Surely a game can be enjoyed once and then put aside without that distracting from the quality of the experience? There's a number of my favourite films that I'd not go back and watch a second time incase they weren't as good as I remember them being!!! 

1 hour ago, Orenn16 said:

It was clearly, (or rather I assumed clearly) a joke

 

Both are meant to be playful and sarcastic.

I can't believe I got out-sarcasmed by a Yank! The shame! Her Majesty will probably revoke my citizenship or something now!  

[DrBloodmoney]

11 minutes ago, JoesusHCrust said:

 

I've heard many folks mention Persona 5 as an excellent game but I've been reticent to buy it as I don't tend to enjoy the combat in JRPGs. I'm not sure what the proper term is but you know the way you get like a 'set piece' which plays out in a turn based manner? Anyway, I don't like that! Will I like P5 then?

 

P5 is certainly a version of turn-based combat, so I’d hesitate to go so far as to say you’ve nothing to fear here, but what I will say is, Persona games are not really massively combat focussed.
There is a fair amount, but the bulk of the games (and certainly the most memorable and unique parts) are the story and non-dungeon stuff.

If the combat is simply not your bag, but you did fancy the game generally - while I wouldn’t say you could avoid it, you could certainly ratchet the difficulty down to the lowest level, trivialising it, and still get a lot out of these games.
They certainly aren’t games where difficulty is a selling point or anything, so it’s not like you’d be missing a ‘key component’ in the challenge… and the best parts of the game would still be the same!

 

 

11 minutes ago, JoesusHCrust said:

Going off on a tangent, you often mention replayability in your reviews. I'm curious to ask.....I'm not sure how to ask without sounding rude! Why? I can't think that I've ever really replayed any games except for the big Bethesda RPGs (fallout and elder scrolls). Surely a game can be enjoyed once and then put aside without that distracting from the quality of the experience? There's a number of my favourite films that I'd not go back and watch a second time incase they weren't as good as I remember them being!!! 

It’s not an unreasonable point, but I do like to mention it - for a couple of reasons. 
 

Firstly, in terms of ranking, it is basically only a potential positive - I don’t think lack of replay-ability would ever drag a game down, but variability and replay-ability can definitely drag a game up for me. I don’t often replay games, but if I do, that means something pretty positive, so it’s worth a mention.

 

Second - I’m ranking a lot of older games here - in a lot of cases, I think folks might have already played them, so I feel like it’s more likely I might tip someone towards replaying a game, than playing it for the first time.

There is also the trophy thing - we are on a trophy site after all!

Alot of these games require multiple plays to platinum, and in those cases, when I say a game is very replayable, what I’m getting at is “you won’t get bored over the three seperate playthroughs you need to platinum the game”.
 

If it is so variable that it can support even more than that, though? Even better! A game that can be played multiple ways isn’t just good from a financial point of view - it also speaks to good game design… a game that can be replayed lots of times in different ways is a game that a lot of care was taken to craft - and that deserves a mention, I think. 

[JoesusHCrust]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

P5, replay-ability

OK, I might well give p5  go then. I do really want to like JRPGs as there are so many of them, and so few 'western' RPGs on the PS4! RPG is really my genre, so I'm always looking for new options. 

 

Good answers on the replayability thing. That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the response. 

[DrBloodmoney]

8 hours ago, JoesusHCrust said:

OK, I might well give p5  go then. I do really want to like JRPGs as there are so many of them, and so few 'western' RPGs on the PS4! RPG is really my genre, so I'm always looking for new options. 

 

Absolutely - P5 (P5R specifically) is a hell of a game, and one I'm confident that anyone who gives it the old college try would have to really struggle to not find something to love in it!

 

As for where it stands as an example of the JRPG genre though... I'm not sure... 

...Certainly, it is a JRPG primarily, though, in my (at this point relatively limited) experience, I wouldn't necessarily view Persona as being a textbook example of the broader genre, as these games have a lot of stuff that is very specifically 'Persona' as opposed to specifically 'JRPG', if that makes sense?

 

Still - that's all semantic - bottom line: Persona 5 rules!

[KindaSabbath]

Hey Doc, just want to say that was THE BEST review of Arkham Asylum that I've read. I'm a huge fan of the Arkham games, a huge fan of Batman. I played through Asylum back on the PS3 and have played through the other games with my son on his xbox. 

 

I hope you don't mind but I'd like to send your review to a friend of mine who is not on this site, nor a trophy hunter. But he is what I would consider a Batman maniac. I think he'd really enjoy what you've written. I mean, have you ever considered doing this professionally? I've always thought that game reviews would be so much better if written by people who fully complete their games. You definitely have the gift when it comes to writing. I think you could potentially set a new bar with game reviews if it were something you desired to go after.

 

Anyways, awesome as always! 

Edited September 7, 2021 by KindaSabbath

[DrBloodmoney]

18 minutes ago, KindaSabbath said:

Hey Doc, just want to say that was THE BEST review of Arkham Asylum that I've read. I'm a huge fan of the Arkham games, a huge fan of Batman. I played through Asylum back on the PS3 and have played through the other games with my son on his xbox. 

 

I hope you don't mind but I'd like to send your review to a friend of mine who is not on this site, nor a trophy hunter. But he is what I would consider a Batman maniac. I think he'd really enjoy what you've written. I mean, have you ever considered doing this professionally? I've always thought that game reviews would be so much better if written by people who fully complete their games. You definitely have the gift when it comes to writing. I think you could potentially set a new bar with game reviews if it were something you desired to go after.

 

Anyways, awesome as always! 

 

Thank you mate, I really appreciate that ?

 

- and sure, no issues with sharing or anything like that, these are public domain once their in the forums, as far as I know, so freel free   

(hopefully there aren't too many grammar and spelling issues with that one!) ?

[rjkclarke]

Great reads as ever Doc! That Persona 5 review was making my wallet want to explode and go and purchase that. Especially as it's the only Persona fix I can get without digging my PS2 out, as I'm sorely lacking in the Vita department.

 

Strange to see Enter The Matrix get brought up multiple times ?....... Far more than I think it probably ever deserved to be mentioned in 2021. Although I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't mention how much I loved playing that when I was younger, only to later to realise it just wasn't very good - and had incredibly awkward controls. It's ambitious at least, but it just doesn't quite work. 

 

You did a lot of justice to Arkham Asylum with that review, that was excellent. That's my personal favourite in the Arkham series, although I don't think it's the best one. I really enjoyed the almost claustrophobic feeling that the smaller scale of that game gives you. Arkham City is more expansive and open, sure..... Yet I always like the feeling of skulking around one very large interconnected location. Plus the metroidvania-esque backtracking probably works best in that game, as the smaller scale jogs your memory when you go back to places and you think "ooooooh that's why I couldn't do that before" I always found that aspect just a little more satisfying in Asylum.

 

I'm so glad you drew attention to the sheer abundance of puzzles in Nightmares from the Deep. I loved that aspect of it myself.  If anything, I think that game gives you a false sense of what to expect from Artifex Mundi titles. That was the second AM title I ever played I believe.  The puzzles are my favourite element of those games, so when I started to play a few more of them and noticed that they aren't quite so puzzle centric I was a bit bummed out. Especially the ones where they define a puzzle as a really basic story book thing, where it's almost "find this very discoloured and obvious item, in a very small picture where it could only realistically be a few places" those just seemed a bit too simplistic.  Plus that series has Mahjong (or at least a version of Mahjong that isn't really Mahjong at all) as the alternative mini game which I really enjoyed. Was it this the one, that had a bonus story on an ocean liner ship, or was that one of the other titles in that series?

 

I actually really want to play Superhot now - I'd sort of assumed that game was just a gimmick that would be - maybe, fun for a couple of hours or so, but it sounds like a really good time. I'm hoping you can play it without VR though because, VR makes me want to stick my head in a toilet.

 

All you had to do was compare Rainswept to Twin Peaks to get me invested haha - although if there's no Log Lady equivalent NO BUY!!! Even Deadly Premonition managed that. Even if driving that stupid bitch around whilst she screamed "my pot is getting cold" was just a little bit tiresome ?...

 

I loved the way you described Operation Tango - that sounds like an absolute blast. Especially played with a real life buddy. I'd struggle not to laugh most of the time I think. I played through Resident Evil 5 and 6 a few years ago with a close friend of mine and we died so much on Professional difficulty just laughing at something ridiculous - or getting distracted cracking wise. So it was lovely to read that Operation Tango almost makes that a necessity to play alongside someone you're very familiar with for the best experience. That sounds awesome. 

 

I'm planning on diving into Supergiants titles soon - I've only played Transistor up to this point, but I thought that was fantastic, so to hear the others are all top quality titles is great to hear.

Edited September 7, 2021 by rjkclarke

[DrBloodmoney]

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Great reads as ever Doc! That Persona 5 review was making my wallet want to explode and go and purchase that. Especially as it's the only Persona fix I can get without digging my PS2 out, as I'm sorely lacking in the Vita department.

 

Yeah, the fact P4G is still confined to the Vita is bizarre at this point (well, aside from PC) - I would think surely that's something they're going to release for PS4 / PS5 at some point, given that the Vita has been circling the drain for years at this point...

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You did a lot of justice to Arkham Asylum with that review, that was excellent. That's my personal favourite in the Arkham series, although I don't think it's the best one. I really enjoyed the almost claustrophobic feeling that the smaller scale of that game gives you. Arkham City is more expansive and open, sure..... Yet I always like the feeling of skulking around one very large interconnected location. Plus the metroidvania-esque backtracking probably works best in that game, as the smaller scale jogs your memory when you go back to places and you think "ooooooh that's why I couldn't do that before" I always found that aspect just a little more satisfying in Asylum.

 

You know - I'm actually with you on Asylum being the strongest - it's not like any of the games was bad, but I do think they go successively less impressive and less focussed. City had some great parts (the score was great, and I really liked the catwoman stuff, and all the challenge rooms being more fleshed out) - but the actual pacing, narrative felt flabbier, and the open city just felt like an empty gulf between the specific buildings you actually cared about - I didn't think it added too much really. 

By the time they got to Knight, I still enjoyed it, but the map was so massive that I struggle to remember any specific part of it at this point... and the less said about that tank-control batmobile stuff the better!

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm so glad you drew attention to the sheer abundance of puzzles in Nightmares from the Deep. I loved that aspect of it myself.  If anything, I think that game gives you a false sense of what to expect from Artifex Mundi titles. That was the second AM title I ever played I believe.  The puzzles are my favourite element of those games, so when I started to play a few more of them and noticed that they aren't quite so puzzle centric I was a bit bummed out. Especially the ones where they define a puzzle as a really basic story book thing, where it's almost "find this very discoloured and obvious item, in a very small picture where it could only realistically be a few places" those just seemed a bit too simplistic.  Plus that series has Mahjong (or at least a version of Mahjong that isn't really Mahjong at all) as the alternative mini game which I really enjoyed. Was it this the one, that had a bonus story on an ocean liner ship, or was that one of the other titles in that series?

 

I vaguely remember that cruise liner bit, but that wasn't this one - the bonus chapter in this one is on an island and a half-sunk pirate ship - may be one of the others in this series though!

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I actually really want to play Superhot now - I'd sort of assumed that game was just a gimmick that would be - maybe, fun for a couple of hours or so, but it sounds like a really good time. I'm hoping you can play it without VR though because, VR makes me want to stick my head in a toilet.

 

You know - the thing with Superhot is - it basically is a gimmick... in the sense that the whole game is essentially predicated on playing with one, and only one, singular mechanic, but that's not to say that makes it bad - it's such a good gimmick, that it really is worth playing!

 

There was a VR game made - it's a separate entity (and from what I've heard, it's actually great - though I haven't tried it. I've actually done virtually nothing with the VR - I've had one for almost a year, (second hand as a hand-me-down) but I've set it up a total of once ? I really should try it out more, but it's such a hassle to put together, and I need such a specific set of circumstances to align in order for me to be able to play something with a weird eye-covering hat on and a bunch of wires attached to me, that it puts me off. I basically need the kid and the wife to be out, and not have any chance of coming back - and any time that does happen, I end up not being able to summon the energy to actually play it ?

 

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

All you had to do was compare Rainswept to Twin Peaks to get me invested haha - although if there's no Log Lady equivalent NO BUY!!! Even Deadly Premonition managed that. Even if driving that stupid bitch around whilst she screamed "my pot is getting cold" was just a little bit tiresome ...

 

Yeah - it's a tough one to recommend. It has some good stuff, but man, does it fall over on the stuff that isn't!

I feel like there are other games that did the Twin Peaks thing better, so as much as I wouldn't want to necessarily shoo people away from Rainswept, it has enough issues that I would warn people - go in with your expectations tempered and your eyes open!

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I loved the way you described Operation Tango - that sounds like an absolute blast. Especially played with a real life buddy. I'd struggle not to laugh most of the time I think. I played through Resident Evil 5 and 6 a few years ago with a close friend of mine and we died so much on Professional difficulty just laughing at something ridiculous - or getting distracted cracking wise. So it was lovely to read that Operation Tango almost makes that a necessity to play alongside someone you're very familiar with for the best experience. That sounds awesome. 

 

Co-op does make almost any game better I find - though what I like about OT and the (few) other co-op only games, is that the co-op feels baked-in in a way it almost never does in a co-op mode of a single-player game. Most co-op add-ons are better with communication, but you can spend most of the time just playing in parallel, with occasional "Chris, Come On!" doors to keep you at the same pace, but with something like OT - or even A Way Out - the game can be much more specifically crafted - of course, the devs of those games generally have to accept losing half the potential audience, and dealing with a mountain of abuse about how their game "excludes" single player gamers... ?

 

3 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm planning on diving into Supergiants titles soon - I've only played Transistor up to this point, but I thought that was fantastic, so to hear the others are all top quality titles is great to hear.

 

Probably the one to go for next, in my opinion, would probably be Bastion - they are all great, and Bastion is the shortest and tightest of the lot - but it is also the simplest, so going from the others back to Bastion would maybe make it feel a little simple by comparison? 

Pyre is, I think, the most divisive - Ive heard some big fans of Bastion and Transistor who really hated it, but I thought it was very cool - definitely a weird direction for them, to go semi-sports - it's a kind of NBA-Jam level mystic ball game with a strong visual novel component... that was certainly ballsy!

 

 

[rjkclarke]

58 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

You know - I'm actually with you on Asylum being the strongest - it's not like any of the games was bad, but I do think they go successively less impressive and less focussed. City had some great parts (the score was great, and I really liked the catwoman stuff, and all the challenge rooms being more fleshed out) - but the actual pacing, narrative felt flabbier, and the open city just felt like an empty gulf between the specific buildings you actually cared about - I didn't think it added too much really. 

By the time they got to Knight, I still enjoyed it, but the map was so massive that I struggle to remember any specific part of it at this point... and the less said about that tank-control batmobile stuff the better!

 

I expected to be very much in the minority on that one - well I guess we both might still be actually.... I've got a really big thing with "bigger doesn't equal better" when it comes to open world games...  I'd take a much tighter quality in a smaller space any day. In much the same way a really tightly written film that's maybe 80-ish minutes like - say, Before Sunset can be just as worthy a film as something that's twice it's length.

I enjoyed Knight too, but I'd put Origins probably slightly above Knight. That doesn't get enough love. I also remember very little of it Knight outside of it's story, Gotham itself was just yeah, what it was - enormous... Which I guess is why they introduced the batmobile into it, because it was so much larger.

 

Fingers crossed for some version of Persona 4 - I'd very much like to play that one at some point.

 

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I vaguely remember that cruise liner bit, but that wasn't this one - the bonus chapter in this one is on an island and a half-sunk pirate ship - may be one of the others in this series though!

 

Might be the third one..... The second is all focused on the fish people from what I remember. The third -  I think.... That's the one where you play as the Daughter instead of the Mum and the ghost pirates take you to an island.... Like the worlds creepiest taxi service. Looks as if I shouldn't be reviewing that one any time soon - as I seemingly remember naff all about it ?

 

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

You know - the thing with Superhot is - it basically is a gimmick... in the sense that the whole game is essentially predicated on playing with one, and only one, singular mechanic, but that's not to say that makes it bad - it's such a good gimmick, that it really is worth playing!

 

I don't think I'd mind that too much - the fact it isn't just tied to VR makes me happy - that's just not for me. I tried it once and I just couldn't get along with it.

One whole game being based around one singular mechanic is fine. I can get on with that. After all I really loved playing Shadwen and that game essentially lives and dies by it's stealth and physics manipulation. If you've never played that one, I'd absolutely recommend it. Although it's one of the few titles that doesn't play on  a PS5.  It's got that cool feature too, where you can rewind time. Yet, time is also frozen all the while you are standing still, much like it seems to be in Superhot.

 

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Probably the one to go for next, in my opinion, would probably be Bastion - they are all great, and Bastion is the shortest and tightest of the lot - but it is also the simplest, so going from the others back to Bastion would maybe make it feel a little simple by comparison? 

Pyre is, I think, the most divisive - Ive heard some big fans of Bastion and Transistor who really hated it, but I thought it was very cool - definitely a weird direction for them, to go semi-sports - it's a kind of NBA-Jam level mystic ball game with a strong visual novel component... that was certainly ballsy!

 

I was planning to dive into Bastion pretty soon actually - probably a few games down the line. Someone said almost exactly the same thing you just did, about it. So that seemed like the logical jumping in point. So thanks for the pointer too.

I was actually interested in Pyre before I knew it was a Supergiant title, I thought purely the fact it was a mixture of those two genres was Incredibly cool. I love it when developers decide to just go completely experimental and see what happens, those are two genres you'd just never naturally think to put together.

 

 

[YaManSmevz]

I'm late!

 

As usual good doctor, you have outdone yourself. Stupendous work!

 

Excellent Arkham Asylum review, so much so in fact that all I really can do here is send you a digital high five?

 

Intrigued by Rainswept and Superhot! The former I get the sense might be overly frustrating due to a good concept failed by mediocre execution, and I'll probably avoid playing but watch some YouTube videos? The latter just sounds like a good time. I actually very much enjoyed Max Payne (more the second one though, a recent re-visit of the first game reminded me of that!) but I too remember when the bullet time phenomenon crept into gaming and for the most part lazily disappointed us all. It'd be a nice thing to see fully realized.

 

Operation Tango sounds cool, I'm always in the market for good co-op!

 

Interesting take on Hades, as that's kinda the new kid on the block that everybody's talking about (did he say anything about me??). I'll definitely need to tackle Transistor before I even entertain the notion of hittin up Hades, though!

[DrBloodmoney]

40 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I expected to be very much in the minority on that one - well I guess we both might still be actually.... I've got a really big thing with "bigger doesn't equal better" when it comes to open world games...  I'd take a much tighter quality in a smaller space any day. In much the same way a really tightly written film that's maybe 80-ish minutes like - say, Before Sunset can be just as worthy a film as something that's twice it's length.

I enjoyed Knight too, but I'd put Origins probably slightly above Knight. That doesn't get enough love. I also remember very little of it Knight outside of it's story, Gotham itself was just yeah, what it was - enormous... Which I guess is why they introduced the batmobile into it, because it was so much larger.

 

You know - I don't really know why, but I never did play Origins, but I think that sentiment is becoming more common now - for a while when it came out, there seemed to be quite a bit of negativity surrounding it, but more and more, recently, I feel like the popular consensus has shifted on that game, and people have been giving it a fairer shake - a little like Bioshock 2 went through maybe?

Folks were maybe ready to dislike it because it wasn't the original dev, but over time, that gets lost and people treat it on more of an even playing field?

 

Certainly, I do like the idea of it being a winter game - as a Batman Noel fan, that does appeal!

 

 

40 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

After all I really loved playing Shadwen and that game essentially lives and dies by it's stealth and physics manipulation. If you've never played that one, I'd absolutely recommend it.

 

Had a look, and I'm interested - added to the (bottomless) wishlist!

 

40 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

I was planning to dive into Bastion pretty soon actually - probably a few games down the line. Someone said almost exactly the same thing you just did, about it. So that seemed like the logical jumping in point. So thanks for the pointer too.

I was actually interested in Pyre before I knew it was a Supergiant title, I thought purely the fact it was a mixture of those two genres was Incredibly cool. I love it when developers decide to just go completely experimental and see what happens, those are two genres you'd just never naturally think to put together

 

You know - I can't help but wonder if part of what hurt Pyre in some folk's estimation, particularly around these parts, is the trophies. The game does a great job of having the story totally work and account for every eventuality - the story still makes sense, even if you win every game, lose every game, or any combination - but this being a trophy site, naturally, a lot of folks only saw a single outcome - the win every game one - as you could reload and replay, in order to achieve that - and that helped with the trophies.

 

I can't blame people wanting to see the 'good' ending type stuff, (we've all done it in lots of game, me as much as anyone!)  but on the other hand, if that's the only playthrough you do, then you miss a lot of what was most impressive in the actual design of the narrative side of the game

 

28 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Intrigued by Rainswept and Superhot! The former I get the sense might be overly frustrating due to a good concept failed by mediocre execution, and I'll probably avoid playing but watch some YouTube videos The latter just sounds like a good time. I actually very much enjoyed Max Payne (more the second one though, a recent re-visit of the first game reminded me of that!) but I too remember when the bullet time phenomenon crept into gaming and for the most part lazily disappointed us all. It'd be a nice thing to see fully realized.

 

You know - I reread that part of the review, and I think I structured that sentence poorly, as it makes it sound like I was saying I didn't like the original Max Payne games at all ?

Actually, I thought they were cool - I liked the first one quite a bit actually, I just meant that, as fun as the slow-mo diving was, it never quite felt as cool as The Matrix looked - it was probably the closest a game came (prior to Superhot) to capturing "bullet-time"... but you still never quite felt as awesome as Neo!

 

28 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Operation Tango sounds cool, I'm always in the market for good co-op!

 

Interesting take on Hades, as that's kinda the new kid on the block that everybody's talking about (did he say anything about me??). I'll definitely need to tackle Transistor before I even entertain the notion of hittin up Hades, though!

 

I feel like that is one of those reviews where I spent the whole time caveating my own thoughts ?

 

The fact is, I loved the game (it did go in strong at No.31 after all!), but I was kinda surprised myself by how many little things about it didn't quite wow me like other Supergiant games did - I guess all the praise for years, and all the talk about it being Game of the Year back when it hit PC and Switch meant I built my expectations to an unattainable level - in reality, probably nothing could have matched the game it was in my mind.... though I was genuinely surprised when I ended up enjoying Returnal a little more than Hades!

[YaManSmevz]

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

I really loved playing Shadwen and that game essentially lives and dies by it's stealth and physics manipulation. If you've never played that one, I'd absolutely recommend it.

 

Crap.

 

That does sound good. *makes note*

 

1 hour ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I expected to be very much in the minority on that one - well I guess we both might still be actually.... I've got a really big thing with "bigger doesn't equal better" when it comes to open world games...  I'd take a much tighter quality in a smaller space any day.

 

Y'know, I played Asylum on the 360 originally and LOVED it. Dove into City straight after, and... I dunno, I thought it was kinda disappointing! That claustrophobia of being trapped in the asylum was such a big part of the charm for me, and it was a great example of being, for lack of a better term, just a tad too much, which is saying something because I am a huge open world game fan. I'll definitely give City another shot (I bought the bundle, after all!) but I don't expect to enjoy it more than Asylum.

 

19 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

You know - I can't help but wonder if part of what hurt Pyre in some folk's estimation, particularly around these parts, is the trophies. The game does a great job of having the story totally work and account for every eventuality - the story still makes sense, even if you win every game, lose every game, or any combination - but this being a trophy site, naturally, a lot of folks only saw a single outcome - the win every game one - as you could reload and replay, in order to achieve that - and that helped with the trophies.

 

I can't blame people wanting to see the 'good' ending type stuff, (we've all done it in lots of game, me as much as anyone!)  but on the other hand, if that's the only playthrough you do, then you miss a lot of what was most impressive in the actual design of the narrative side of the game

 

That us definitely a downside of trophies - if every story path has its own slew of trophies, it can seem overbearing. But if there aren't, there's a huge chance of missing some really cool shit! Beholder is the most recent one where I explored a bunch of branches even though trophies weren't attached, and that was every bit as rewarding as that little trophy popping sound! Well, if only slightly?

 

This Pyre you speak, of... sounds interesting. *makes note*

 

23 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I reread that part of the review, and I think I structured that sentence poorly, as it makes it sound like I was saying I didn't like the original Max Payne games at all 

Actually, I thought they were cool - I liked the first one quite a bit actually, I just meant that, as fun as the slow-mo diving was, it never quite felt as cool as The Matrix looked - it was probably the closest a game came (prior to Superhot) to capturing "bullet-time"... but you still never quite felt as awesome as Neo!

 

This reminds me of Homer trying to be a teacher, saying "I can tell the difference between butter and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!"

 

"I can make bullet time feel as satisfying as it looked in the Matrix."

 

"No you can't Remedy, no one can!!"

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

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

 

 

God of War (PS3)
Hitman
Hitman 2
Hitman 3
Life is Strange

 

 

 

Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @Eagle , @YaManSmevz

 

That's right - it's a weird one this time- as stipulated by popular opinion- and Science, of course - it's a Hitmandango this round, with all three releases of the reboot trilogy being ranked in one go!

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Invisible Inc, maintain the title again?

 

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

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

Edited September 13, 2021 by DrBloodmoney
Persona 4: Dancing All Night swapped for Life is Strange - for reasons!

[Shrooba]

Just finished reading the latest batch of scientific reviews, @DrBloodmoney!

Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely a unique entry for the Batman video games. It's been very interesting to see interpretation of games for him; for as many comic book entries and universes there are for him, you'll find a different game interpretation.. Well maybe not as many interpretations as the number of comic book ones but you get the idea. ?
It reminds me of how different it is from Telltale's Batman episodic structure, but a game like that is a lot different of course, with more emphasis on dialogue as it's gameplay focus.

On the note of dialogue, P5R is such a long game, so don't worry about not addressing every aspect. I know if I tried talking about every minute detail of P5R it'd be worthy as a college thesis! Whenever I try writing, I always find it that writing something short is harder than writing something long. Especially in regards to maintaining the same detail as something long in such a short word count. But with your review of P5R, I actually think that works out better, because the best part of it is experiencing the story for the first time; I think a brief overview of the plot was the best way to go about it. There's many twists and turns in P5's story, more so with Royal, and experiencing it and wondering what would happen next kept me playing for a ton each day. It's one of those special games you can't stop playing! ?

I can't wait to see your review on God of War as well! Through the brutality and bloodshed, I find that GoW also has a fantastic story that spans across multiple games, it's definitely an awesome series and I can't wait to see where it goes with the next release. The Hitman series is something I can tell you like quite a lot, so I can't wait to see the passion you'll be putting into your reviews on that! And as for P4: Dancing, I wonder what your favourite song will be? I suppose all these questions will be answered soon! I look forward to what you'll be writing in the future!

[rjkclarke]

On 07/09/2021 at 8:05 PM, YaManSmevz said:

Y'know, I played Asylum on the 360 originally and LOVED it. Dove into City straight after, and... I dunno, I thought it was kinda disappointing! That claustrophobia of being trapped in the asylum was such a big part of the charm for me, and it was a great example of being, for lack of a better term, just a tad too much, which is saying something because I am a huge open world game fan. I'll definitely give City another shot (I bought the bundle, after all!) but I don't expect to enjoy it more than Asylum.

 

I like City a lot myself - I just think it lacked something... I'm a huge open world game fan myself, especially if they're done right. Where it's got enough variety in the play area that most  of the extra curricular stuff doesn't feel like a chore.

 

I hope you and Doc both enjoy Shadwen if you get to playing it at some point - I don't think the entire platinum is longer than about 12 hours. It makes you play pure stealth and then a full chaos kill everything playthrough too. It's one of the rare times in a stealth game where I've preferred the kill everything playthrough. That's not a knock on the stealth either, that's fantastic, it's just the physics in that game are so fascinating to tinker around with and experiment with different things that the kill all trophies end up being so outrageously fun.

 

On 07/09/2021 at 7:03 PM, YaManSmevz said:

I actually very much enjoyed Max Payne (more the second one though, a recent re-visit of the first game reminded me of that!)

 

That reminds me - I had honestly totally forgotten that Max Payne has a trophy list... I even saw it on your profile so I should have remembered. Shame they never ported the second one. I'd buy that day one.... I like them both, but something about that second one just really filtered into my brain. The song that plays over the credits in that game is usually the song I say is my favourite song of all time too, when asked that question. I'd never claim it's the best song ever, it's just one of the ones I like the most.

 

Doc!! I'm so pumped to read your reviews on the recent Hitman trilogy. God of War too - because Kratos is a massive fanny at that point, so I'm really interested to read your thoughts on him.  That's going to be super interesting. Especially what you think of Whittleton Creek - I thought that area had such an unsettling eery vibe to it, that really stood out. Although, picking out just one level of prominence in Hitman 2 will be tough as most of them are all excellent for a multitude of reasons. I'm less keen on Haven Island - I think that's what it was called, I thought that map needed a bit more verticality to really stand out - I found it a bit too, well - flat I guess. The targets themselves though, sort of give it a free pass, because that aspect of it was really well executed.

Edited September 9, 2021 by rjkclarke

[YaManSmevz]

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I hope you and Doc both enjoy Shadwen if you get to playing it at some point - I don't think the entire platinum is longer than about 12 hours. It makes you play pure stealth and then a full chaos kill everything playthrough too. It's one of the rare times in a stealth game where I've preferred the kill everything playthrough. That's not a knock on the stealth either, that's fantastic, it's just the physics in that game are so fascinating to tinker around with and experiment with different things that the kill all trophies end up being so outrageously fun.

 

If it's that short, I might have to put it on the proverbial menu for my self-imposed plat minimum this month, it sounds great!

 

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

That reminds me - I had honestly totally forgotten that Max Payne has a trophy list... I even saw it on your profile so I should have remembered. Shame they never ported the second one. I'd buy that day one.... I like them both, but something about that second one just really filtered into my brain. The song that plays over the credits in that game is usually the song I say is my favourite song of all time too, when asked that question. I'd never claim it's the best song ever, it's just one of the ones I like the most.

 

The second one was awesome! HOWEVER the first one is awesome too, but replaying the first, I had forgotten how frail the platforming is - the nightmare sequences where you have to follow the red lines were... hmm.. can't think of a metaphor for an overpoweringly unpleasant experience... but they were awful! While MP2 was undoubtedly superior in every way, I find myself wondering what gameplay shortcomings I'm not remembering... oh well. Probably a moot point anyway since for whatever reason they don't seem to want to port it to PS4!

 

And hell yeah, that theme is the shit. I remember being really into this band called The Faint at the time, and they had a song called Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen which had an opening that strongly reminded me of the MP theme. Should check it out if you've got some time to kill!

 

It's funny, my likes just got replenished and I'm running all across the forums tossin em out like they're condoms on a college campus. There's so much great content getting posted these days!

 

10 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Doc!! I'm so pumped to read your reviews on the recent Hitman trilogy. God of War too - because Kratos is a massive fanny at that point, so I'm really interested to read your thoughts on him.  That's going to be super interesting. Especially what you think of Whittleton Creek - I thought that area had such an unsettling eery vibe to it, that really stood out. Although, picking out just one level of prominence in Hitman 2 will be tough as most of them are all excellent for a multitude of reasons. I'm less keen on Haven Island - I think that's what it was called, I thought that map needed a bit more verticality to really stand out - I found it a bit too, well - flat I guess. The targets themselves though, sort of give it a free pass, because that aspect of it was really well executed.

 

SAME. Want to try and finish the first Hitman before the revi-... scientific results are revealed.

 

Also did you say "Doc" like Marty McFly? Because for some reason that's how I heard it in my head?

[Platinum_Vice]

On 06/09/2021 at 7:30 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

 ?? NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! ??

 

 

Finally finished reading up on this batch.

 

I had to Google THREE words that I hadn't heard before: effete, nadir and pastiche (apparently that's not a pasty-quiche).

 

And you've convinced me to add Persona 5 to my wishlist. And Hades. And Operation Tango. And you've convinced me to put Superhot back on the backlog to revisit it for the platinum.

 

So really you've just added to my problems. Therefore I will review your review: 1/10: how dare you.

[rjkclarke]

21 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

If it's that short, I might have to put it on the proverbial menu for my self-imposed plat minimum this month, it sounds great!

 

That sounds like a good idea to me....

 

21 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

The second one was awesome! HOWEVER the first one is awesome too, but replaying the first, I had forgotten how frail the platforming is - the nightmare sequences where you have to follow the red lines were... hmm.. can't think of a metaphor for an overpoweringly unpleasant experience... but they were awful! While MP2 was undoubtedly superior in every way, I find myself wondering what gameplay shortcomings I'm not remembering... oh well. Probably a moot point anyway since for whatever reason they don't seem to want to port it to PS4!

 

And hell yeah, that theme is the shit. I remember being really into this band called The Faint at the time, and they had a song called Ballad of a Paralysed Citizen which had an opening that strongly reminded me of the MP theme. Should check it out if you've got some time to kill!

 

It's funny, my likes just got replenished and I'm running all across the forums tossin em out like they're condoms on a college campus. There's so much great content getting posted these days!

 

 

I love the first one too.... Although I don't know that looking directly at Max is the wisest choice - I think I remember back in the day one of my friends was like what do you think he looks like? My response was something like " a shaved racoon, that's been caught in the woods in a trap, then electrocuted whilst in the process of evacuating its bowels" I know that's a bit harsh on Sam Jarvi, who's likeness it is, who I appreciate immensely as a writer, but I can't help but think that whenever I see Max Payne 1's Max.

 

I doubt they will port the second to the PS4 at this point - they seem to have abandoned that PS2 to PS4 thing, despite the fact I thought it had an almost unlimited amount of potential. But I can see why Sony would kind of push it to one side, just to encourage people not to just drown themselves in nostalgia and dabble with some newer things.

 

How do we even find out when our rep points get replenished? I've always assumed that they reappear 24 hours after you used the individual ones last - but I really don't know. It's too easy to just burn through them though isn't it.

 

I will check that song out later - that sounds awesome.

 

21 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

Also did you say "Doc" like Marty McFly? Because for some reason that's how I heard it in my head

 

Maybe

 

Can you imagine how stupid that would be if we were Doc Brown and Marty McFly - Could you imagine how comically long the letter would be that Doc would send me - to take the Delorean back to 1885...  Then unlike Marty McFly I'd probably write a stupidly long reply that he'd never see because I'd have forgotten that he's in the past - and then all of Back to the Future III wouldn't happen. Although Doc probably could manage to find a diplomatic way of Buford not killing him, I'm sure Doc would even find a way to make him feel positive about face-planting into some Manure.

 

@GonzoWARgasm

 

This is unrelated to anything - other than your profile picture I suppose - it's been bugging me for ages what that's actually from, I've seen the GIF version and I finally went and checked out the clip it's from. That's..... Well - that's definitely like no laugh I've ever heard that's for sure. Very funny though, so I'm glad I've seen it now.

[Platinum_Vice]

21 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

@GonzoWARgasm

 

This is unrelated to anything - other than your profile picture I suppose - it's been bugging me for ages what that's actually from, I've seen the GIF version and I finally went and checked out the clip it's from. That's..... Well - that's definitely like no laugh I've ever heard that's for sure. Very funny though, so I'm glad I've seen it now.

 

Out of curiosity... what exactly did you type in to find the clip? ?️

[rjkclarke]

2 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

Out of curiosity... what exactly did you type in to find the clip? 

 

Toothless old man laughing

 

Took me straight there!

Edited September 10, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Platinum_Vice]

4 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Toothless old man laughing

 

Took me straight there!

 

?? My go-to was always "laughing Mexican." Got me there straight away too. The clip is such a great little back and forth ?

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

Toothless old man laughing

 

Took me straight there!

 

2 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said:

 

 My go-to was always "laughing Mexican." Got me there straight away too. The clip is such a great little back and forth 

I have to admit guys - I wasn’t familiar with the meme prior to seeing it as your profile pic - but saw enough other people reference that it was a meme, and laughing about it, that I wanted to know… and can confirm that “laughing moustache man” also works as a google-route to the same?

[grayhammmer]

Of the games on your profile that you haven't gotten 100% on, which ones do you think you'll never get around to completing and thus will never do an analysis on?

[DrBloodmoney]

5 hours ago, grayhammmer said:

Of the games on your profile that you haven't gotten 100% on, which ones do you think you'll never get around to completing and thus will never do an analysis on?

 

Honestly?

At this point, most of the PS3 ones are not realistic propositions for completion - I figure if the mood hasn't struck me to go back to them by now, then it probably isn't going to happen - I'd never say never - I mean, there were a couple (Shadow of the Colossus and Kane and Lynch 2) that I would have said that about, but did eventually go back to an clean up, so it's still possible that I might do the same for some of them... I have been thinking about trying to finish El Shaddai recently... and I do give Dark Void's DLC a go once in a while (it's defeated me every time!)...

...but for the most part, I wouldn't expect much of the PS3 fare to be returned to.

 

For the PS4 stuff - there are some like, Outer Worlds, Far Cry 5, Skyrim, The Last of Us II which I will be going back to, and it's just a case of finding the time (The Last of Us II for sure - I'm really just savouring that one!)...

... the only PS4 ones I really wouldn't expect a review of are Battlefront, Wolfenstein II, GTAV, Pang! and Killzone Shadowfall, as well as probably Uncharted 4, given that has that survivors mode that seems too tough for me!

Edited September 11, 2021 by DrBloodmoney