DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[DrBloodmoney]

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

This is giddy to my ears; a visual mix of Half-Life, Portal, and Bioshock you say? I may need to try this one out on this alone!

 

Wow, wow - let's not get carried away ? - those references are the shorthand for a specific visual style - but that's a small section of the game, and those games are titans - this one isn't coming close to them is scope, scale or anything like that!

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

However, with the crashing and inventory stuff, do you reckon I should give this a go? I've dealt with glitchy experiences like Cyberpunk 2077 and Sonic Colours: Ultimate, but do you think this detracts from the experience?

 

Truth be told, I'm not sure how well it was subsequently patched... it may be better now. Even then, the issues are detrimental to the gaming experience, there's no way around that. How much you are willing to put up with will obviously depend on how invested you get with the game genrerally, but I did like the game.

 

They weren't game-breaking for me personally - but as I said, I did hear tales of genuine game-breaking glitches happening, though those are probably the ones most likely to have been patched since. The loading time error - that is a pain in the arse, but not actually a deal-breaker.

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

 

Awesome review on Bald Justice 2: Titanic Boogaloo God of War II!

When it comes to the game being developed on the PS2, I think it's in part due to developing games for the PS3 being godawful at first, and I believe it's also the reason Persona 4 released on the PS2 as well (I'm still hoping for a PS4/PS5 release, can't believe the Dancing spinoff from the Vita gets a port but not the main game!!! ).

 

God, that's true, isn't it!?

Put it like that, it really does feel ridiculous!

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

I've been thinking of playing the other GoW games since all I've played are GoW 3 Remastered and GoW 4, but the rest are on PS3, and in Australia we don't have PS Now for some reason, so I gotta dust off ol' Mr. PS3 again... I believe one of the GoW games has an online trophy or something, so if I get to doing them, I'll probably do that first. I think it was Ascension? Going from the PS5 controller back to the PS3 controller is gonna feel awkward!

 

I assume the GoW game with the online trophy is Ascension - the only one I've never played! All the others are fair game, single player only as I recall, though the reason I skipped that one at the time wasn't the multiplayer, it just got pretty middling reviews, and the consensus was that narratively, it was pretty naff.

 

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

As for the sequel, GoW 3, I feel as though the writers attempted to put Kratos in a new direction, with Pandora and everything, but I wish they elaborated on it more; he only really regrets the thought of using her at the very last moment. The whole mentor thing was explored much more in GoW 4 and really fleshed out Kratos as something more than an angry guy.

With that said, if it's alright, I'd like to add God of War 3: Remastered to the priority list but only if you're okay with it. I say this because I can tell Kratos' one note character isn't your thing, but I'm so eager to hear your thoughts on his progression as a person in GoW 4 that I'd love to continue hearing your thoughts on the series!

 

Absolutely - all the God of War games are already in the priority ranking list, courtesy of @Eagle, but I wil add your name too, as a secondary push to remind me!

 

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

Gonna be cool to see your thoughts on the other dancing games, especially Persona 3: Dancing since you haven't played P3 yet; I wonder what your thoughts on the character interactions are? The social links definitely play a large part of P3/P5 Dancing and you spend most of your time doing stuff to unlock all of them, and it definitely serves a replacement for the visual novel aspect P4:D had. Admittedly, the visual novel stuff did go on for quite a long time, didn't it? I wish Specialist was incorporated in the story somehow! One can only wish...

 

Got to admit - I was pretty lost with that one!

 

When I do that review, I'm just going to have to have a big fat caveat at the beginning, stating that I didn't know the characters - as I pretty much dialogue skipped all the social stuff in that game, to avoid any potential spoilers for the main game ? To be honest, I played that one purely as a rhythm game, and for the music only - and I wasn't disappointed on that front!

 

17 minutes ago, Shrooba said:

Man, this game's been everywhere, hasn't it? I've been hearing so much positive stuff about it. Out of all the games you've played, placing it at 30 is a pretty high ranking, which means it's good stuff! When you mention the day resetting every 24 hours, Groundhog Day instantly popped up in my head. If that's the premise the game takes, that's pretty cool! If only Bill Murray were in the game... If only. When you mention that the enemies feel similar to that of the ones in Bioshock, it makes me curious to see what the devs were thinking when making Deathloop. I've only played Bioshock Infinite, so I don't have much knowledge on 1 and 2, but I can only imagine that Deathloop's enemies as a result are quite zany, and after playing the Borderlands series, I love me some zany!

Cool stuff, and I look forward to what's next!

 

Thanks man - appreciate it!

[Copanele]

Ah, that God of War II review was awesome. Really waiting for you to write more on the series It's like waiting for the new weekly episode of DBZ ?

 

I have a question, sorry to break the flow of the thread: I see that you got all but one trophy in Curse of the Dead Gods. I bought the game at your recommendation, what can you tell me about it? What should I expect? I kinda want to start this one too (having a multiple games at once mood) , got the Dungeon Crawler mood going for some reason.

Might be the Diablo II commercials everywhere idk.

[DrBloodmoney]

49 minutes ago, Copanele said:

I have a question, sorry to break the flow of the thread: I see that you got all but one trophy in Curse of the Dead Gods. I bought the game at your recommendation, what can you tell me about it? What should I expect? I kinda want to start this one too (having a multiple games at once mood) , got the Dungeon Crawler mood going for some reason.

Might be the Diablo II commercials everywhere idk.

 

Well, it's rogue-like for starters - with a weapon unlock / randomisation style that is in the Dead Cells vein (you can't directly choose starting weapons, but add to a growing pool of possible ones, and can unlock additional 'rerolls' of starting weapons, or select certain weapons you don't like to remove from the pool - though not to the extent you can in Dead Cells.)

 

The actual levels are much smaller than Dead Cells though, and obviously 3D isometric in nature, so closer to Hades in that regard. The combat is slower than Hades, and more about picking your moments to strike (though I tend towards large, heavy weapons or whips, which require fewer hits, but better timing) and works on a 3 weapon system - each attack button has a different weapon slot, and the two 'heavy' slots are stronger, but use a stamina point (you have 5, recharging).

 

There is a good parry system, which I know is good, because I SUUUUCK at it - as I do with all good parry systems ?

 

There are a lot of different risk/reward 'currencies' to manage in a run. Each time you go through a door (each area has 8 I think, before an area boss) you choose your next room 'theme' which could be a high gold room, or a mini-boss, or a rune alter, or a weapon upgrade alter etc. based on how you want to approach.

You incur 'corruption' when going through doors, which builds up (and gets added to when you get hit, or by other factors, and every time it reaches 100, you get hit with a new random 'curse'. The curses are random, but the fifth one (the highest tier) is alway the same - it reduces your health to 1HP.  Some are worse than others, and there are some ways to reduce corruption build up, or remove curses (sacrificing found high-level weapons for example) and you can, for example, take a massive increase in corruption to buy weapons or items if you don't have enough gold - but the whole game is really management of corruption, gold, curses, weapons, buffs and time, as you run through.

 

Most runs take in the region of 25-35 minutes (the very early ones aside - as those are single areas, and more like practice runs), with each completed run unlocking further difficulty runs. 

 

It's hard to fully describe all the little ways in which these things are managed - weapon buffs, elemental attacks, stamina, corruption, curses etc. - and it took me a bit longer to get to grips with it all than, say, Dead Cells, but I find the game really compulsive!

 

I have a hunch you will find it easier than I do - the boss fights are good, and I think they are all very well designed, allowing a really skilled player to no-hit them, and I suspect your Dark Souls runs will have prepared you in a way I wasn't!

 (full disclosure, I have managed at least 1 no-hit defeat of all bosses except the final one, but the reason I don't have that last trophy is that it requires no-hit defeats of every boss 10 times each, as well as 5 no-hit defeats of the final boss along with a host of other tricky challenges. I'm chipping away at it, but I'm in no rush, as CotDG is basically my go-to game for when I don't feel like playing whatever is my 'main' game at the time!

Edited September 30, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Copanele]

That was a perfect explanation, many thanks. I have a good idea about how the game works now

[rjkclarke]

On 29/09/2021 at 2:17 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

man - for a long time, between playing Myst on the Acorn computer my mom would bring home from the school she taught at during summers, and the Discworld point and click game, I thought "Try everything on everything until a thing happens" was basically what videogames were!

 

You've got to hand it to Myst - I haven't touched that game in 20 years, but I can still recall some of the images clear as any game - I remember reading they re-released it in full 3D, for VR on PC, but it never seemed to make it to PSVR. I know that crowd-funded new game Obduction is from the same devs, and I think that's on PS4, so I should really check that out...

 

I should also check out Obduction then  - sounds like I'd probably enjoy that myself.

 

As a fellow point - and - clicker, "Try everything on everything until a thing happens" - those are words to live by man! Or "when in doubt, think of the least likely solution, and it's probably that." Yours rolls off the tongue better though.

 

Myst in VR huh? That sounds..... Well - lets just say this, if I was live streaming myself playing it, I'd have to have one of those bags around my head the whole time.... You know the ones they sometimes put around horses heads so they can eat out of the bag - I wouldn't be eating from it though, it'd just be there so I don't ruin my carpet from all the y'know throwing up and junk.... I just can't get on with VR ?

 

 

On 29/09/2021 at 2:17 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Yeah, it's not like I didn't enjoy the Keeley Hawes trilogy - and Legend it definitely the best of that lot in my opinion - it's just... there's something not quite as impressive about them. It might just be that those are the ones where Crystal Dynamics are still wearing Core Designs old clothes. They can clean them up, and do some tailoring, but in the end, that retro sports coat is never going to look as fresh and brand new as it did when Core was wearing it in it's prime - back in the Tomb Raider II days.

 

As well as Crystal managed to inject their new ideas into th existing formula, both the Lara Croft games, and the rebooted trilogy proved just how much more they had in the tank, and going back now, it does feel like the original trilogy was them 'paying off Core's outstanding debts' before they could clean the slate and start their own thing.

 

Wow, yeah that's a perfect analogy for that trilogy really.

 

I would also say that Legend is the best of the three as well - Anniversary might be the more pure Tomb Raider title, but of the three of those titles. Even taking objectivity out of the equation for a second - the only one I really get the urge to replay regularly is Legend.

 

On 29/09/2021 at 2:17 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

They control very similarly, and are definitely in the same gameplay vein - the big different is that Orisis allows for up to 4player co-op rather than 2-player, but Osiris is oddly easier and more manageable - and in this day and age, when access to a PS4 game is easier, I think that could be a good way to get the flavour for them, without having to blow the dust out of the PS3!

 

Interesting to know - thanks.

 

Although, right now my PS3 is a little less dusty after playing through a lovely mediocre Harry Potter title on it fairly recently so it wouldn't be too much of a strain to install Lara Croft on it.

 

On 29/09/2021 at 2:17 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

When I finished Dishonoured, I loved it, and wanted more Dishonoured.

When I finished Prey, I loved it, and wanted more Prey.

When I finished Deathloop, I loved it... and I wanted more Dishonoured and Prey!

 

You aren't the only one who said pretty much that - a friend of mine said something fairly similar, minus the part about Prey because I don't think he realised it was by Arkane until I told him it was.

 

It could be the nature of the gameplay that hurts Deathloop - from what I read in your review, it does sound like by having that unique gameplay hook it makes some of the characters fairly redundant, and hard to invest in.

 

Although I've only played the first Dishonoured. ( I know, I need to change that right,) Arkane did such a unique job in fleshing out the world and creating incredibly memorable characters. Perhaps it's the almost disposable nature of the world that makes it seem a little harder to invest in Deathloop in the same way.  Had I played Dishonoured on PS3 without the DLC being pre-packaged with the game like the PS4 version - I absolutely would have gone and purchased the DLC at full whack just for the chance to explore more of Daud as a character - I think that's a pretty big ? for Arkane on that one.

 

Oh and @Shrooba - for what it's worth I'd also say that Ether One is probably worth sitting through some terrible loading screens to experience that games narrative. It's pretty well realised I think.

 

It might have been patched now to run a little smoother, doubly so on a PS5 potentially, you'd just have to spend half a day waiting on a loading screen instead of a whole one. ?.... I'd hope that it runs a lot smoother now than when Doc and I  played it a few years back.

[Sendai-Horatio]

6 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

I should also check out Obduction then  - sounds like I'd probably enjoy that myself.

 

As a fellow point - and - clicker, "Try everything on everything until a thing happens" - those are words to live by man! Or "when in doubt, think of the least likely solution, and it's probably that." Yours rolls off the tongue better though.

 

Myst in VR huh? That sounds..... Well - lets just say this, if I was live streaming myself playing it, I'd have to have one of those bags around my head the whole time.... You know the ones they sometimes put around horses heads so they can eat out of the bag - I wouldn't be eating from it though, it'd just be there so I don't ruin my carpet from all the y'know throwing up and junk.... I just can't get on with VR ?

 

Obduction is pretty good and there's not much you can miss when it comes to trophies. The only physical release is in Asia though if you're a collector. Unlike the previous Myst games it gets much weirder towards the end.

[DrBloodmoney]

15 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Although I've only played the first Dishonoured. ( I know, I need to change that right,) Arkane did such a unique job in fleshing out the world and creating incredibly memorable characters. Perhaps it's the almost disposable nature of the world that makes it seem a little harder to invest in Deathloop in the same way.  Had I played Dishonoured on PS3 without the DLC being pre-packaged with the game like the PS4 version - I absolutely would have gone and purchased the DLC at full whack just for the chance to explore more of Daud as a character - I think that's a pretty big  for Arkane on that one.

 

BTW - speaking of Prey, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record (though, let's face it - the horse has bolted the barn on that one long ago with me ?!)...

...I watched this NoClip the other day finally, and I have a genuine challenge for you.

 

This this is narratively spoiler-free (I made sure of it, and they give that caveat right at the start!) - but I defy anyone who hasn't played Prey to watch it, and not immediately want to fire the game up! 

 

 

 

 

EDIT - Oh, wait - I almost forgot - I meant to say to ya - I finally started a Tales of game! I'm about an hour or two into Tales of Arise on shiny PS5!

 

It's a manga-flavoured confusion-fest for me so far - but I'm liking it - and it is stylish as hell!

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

Obduction is pretty good and there's not much you can miss when it comes to trophies. The only physical release is in Asia though if you're a collector. Unlike the previous Myst games it gets much weirder towards the end.

 

Hey, thanks man! 

I must admit, I haven't seen many people talking about it, but good to hear it came out well!

Edited September 30, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Cleggworth]

27 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

BTW - speaking of Prey, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record (though, let's face it - the horse has bolted the barn on that one long ago with me ?!)...

 

 

My twitter seems to be full of streamers playing this right now because of Deathloop

 

This pleases me

 

Also obduction is on my list too but it costs a fortune and has only ever been on sale once! Two years ago!

Edited September 30, 2021 by Cleggworth

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

Also obduction is on my list too but it costs a fortune and has only ever been on sale once! Two years ago!

 

I know right?! - I remember it making it all the way into my basket in that sale, but I never pulled the trigger... curse my indecision! 

[Cleggworth]

3 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

I know right?! - I remember it making it all the way into my basket in that sale, but I never pulled the trigger... curse my indecision! 

 

Hopefully one day ?

 

I made it to your mid point break so I've just read batch 12. Observation was just fantastic right? I loved how the station was basically the ISS. No gravity, no holograms just something that could actually be real, made for a hell of an atmosphere. I play these kind of games during school holidays now as a break from the "real" stuff when I have less time to play. I got through 15 or so over the summer and I played some good stuff but Observation was easily the stand out. Stories Untold was another by the same dev and that had that similar vibe so you should check that out if you haven't already

[DrBloodmoney]

23 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

I made it to your mid point break so I've just read batch 12. Observation was just fantastic right? I loved how the station was basically the ISS. No gravity, no holograms just something that could actually be real, made for a hell of an atmosphere. I play these kind of games during school holidays now as a break from the "real" stuff when I have less time to play. I got through 15 or so over the summer and I played some good stuff but Observation was easily the stand out. Stories Untold was another by the same dev and that had that similar vibe so you should check that out if you haven't already

 

Loved Observation! Was actually just thinking about that today, as there was topic about what games might be good in VR, and that one came to mind!

 

I actually have Stories Untold on my system ready to go right now - in the 'soon' pile, and looking forward to it,  so should be a review at some point in the not to distant future! ?

[rjkclarke]

16 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

BTW - speaking of Prey, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record (though, let's face it - the horse has bolted the barn on that one long ago with me !)...

...I watched this NoClip the other day finally, and I have a genuine challenge for you.

 

This this is narratively spoiler-free (I made sure of it, and they give that caveat right at the start!) - but I defy anyone who hasn't played Prey to watch it, and not immediately want to fire the game up! 

 

I couldn't criticise anyone for extolling the virtues of their favourite games - that'd make me a massive hypocrite right? I did sneak both a Legacy of Kain mention and a Monkey Island one into the same unrelated Tomb Raider review after all haha ?

 

Anyway - Challenge Accepted! I'll watch that noclip video over the weekend.

 

For what it's worth though, I already do want to play Prey very much, and the other Dishonoured titles I just always end up starting a different game instead of those.

 

16 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Oh, wait - I almost forgot - I meant to say to ya - I finally started a Tales of game! I'm about an hour or two into Tales of Arise on shiny PS5!

 

It's a manga-flavoured confusion-fest for me so far - but I'm liking it - and it is stylish as hell!

 

That's great to hear mate - I'm really glad you're having a good time with it so far I really hope that continues too.

 

It's going to be such a hard decision whenever I get a PS5 of what to actually load up first Tales of Arise of Hitman 3, provided I don't get impatient and just buy either one of those for PS4 ?

 

16 hours ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

Obduction is pretty good and there's not much you can miss when it comes to trophies. The only physical release is in Asia though if you're a collector. Unlike the previous Myst games it gets much weirder towards the end.

 

That's good to hear - thanks for the heads up. Shame it's a little pricey even on the store, looks like we might have to do a collective Obduction dance and we might get another appearance in a sale - it might work if there's at least two of us that want to purchase it.... Doc has the requisite skills from Playing Persona 4: Dancing, so we might just manage it ?

Edited October 1, 2021 by rjkclarke

[Platinum_Vice]

Thanks for the Ether One review. I don't think I'll buy it with the current size of my backlog based on that review, which is a good thing! Inspired to buy multiple games already and now you've saved me money on a game too. 

 

Bring on the next review at a breakneck speed please despite starting to feel the pressure and difficulty in putting pen to paper. I would like to use and abuse your talent for my entertainment as you put out content in an incredibly dense field of competition until you feel burnt out and exhausted. 

 

P.S. I hope you can recognise my dry and sarcastic sense of humour by now. For some reason it is how I give compliments.

[Cleggworth]

I'm plodding along through the backlog of entries and have made my way to batch 15.

 

Your Firewatch review stood out for me. I agree with your comments on the voice work being utterly incredible. It hadn't been long since I'd watched Mad Men when I played this and the performance of Rich Sommer was so good I forgot it was "the guy who played Harry in Mad Men" almost immediately. The voice work was so well done in fact, I was totally wrapped up in the plot getting out of hand. I was genuinely feeling dread and the heart was racing as it careered towards the ending.... and I was right there with Henry in that disappointment when it wasn't what it first appeared. I think the devs knew exactly what they'd created here and they knew for it to work they needed performances like this to sell it and boy did they sell it. Just wonderful ?

[DrBloodmoney]

57 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

I'm plodding along through the backlog of entries and have made my way to batch 15.

 

Your Firewatch review stood out for me. I agree with your comments on the voice work being utterly incredible. It hadn't been long since I'd watched Mad Men when I played this and the performance of Rich Sommer was so good I forgot it was "the guy who played Harry in Mad Men" almost immediately. The voice work was so well done in fact, I was totally wrapped up in the plot getting out of hand.

 

Absolutely - Firewatch is a great example of a game that really does hinge on the voice-work. In lesser hands, even the same well written dialogue in the same very well made game could have left the game feeling flat and uninteresting - it's a testament to the calibre of the actors that they were able to pepper so much 'unspoken' bond into the tone and tenor of the dialogue to keep the player wholly invested!

 

Quote

I was genuinely feeling dread and the heart was racing as it careered towards the ending.... and I was right there with Henry in that disappointment when it wasn't what it first appeared. I think the devs knew exactly what they'd created here and they knew for it to work they needed performances like this to sell it and boy did they sell it. Just wonderful

 

I know what you mean - and I think I fall in the same camp - seeing the anti-climactic ending as deliberate, and a statement, rather than just a misstep.

 

It's a tough thing to do - and a brave one really - to use player disappointment as a way to deliver your thesis statement, as Campo Santo had to know that some portion of the ausdience would not 'get it', and would ultimately be unsatisfied, and express that dissatisfaction publicly!

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[DrunkenEngineer]

I’m in the process of playing Deathloop as well, and can echo many of the sentiments you’ve laid out.  I have two criticisms I can levy at it right now.

1. The story is easy to “skip” as it’s told through lots of notes and audio logs (just like Prey and Dishonored) but the game doesn’t pause when reading, so I find myself rushing through items lest an Eternalist sneak up on me.  I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been reading a log only to see the little alert marker start filling up.
2. The gameplay does get a little samey once one figures out the schtick, but I think that’s more an indication it’s time to go take a break and come back fresh rather than binge it over the course of a couple of days.

Arkane games are fantastic, and I’ve played them to death on a different platform.  I recently picked them up again on PS4 to play again, and am holding out hope they release 60 FPS patches (seems like a fool’s hope at this point).  Regardless, I’m happy to support that studio in any way I can.

[YaManSmevz]

Hmm.. well I do have a freshly purchased copy of Prey...

 

Just kidding, it's not a copy. I bought it in the PS store like everybody else. I saw you posted that video earlier and meant to watch it, now that it's been reposted.. well, perhaps it's a sign!

 

I'm loving your God of War reviews, they're spot on about not just the mechanics but Kratos himself. Not entirely unlike the uncle you thought was edgy and cool when you were a kid, only to grow up and realize he's actually tremendously racist and foul tempered. I wasn't even that young playing those the first time around, but the gameplay was such a blast that I kinda just ignored it. Looking back, it makes all the sense in the world why the only guys I knew of who idolized Kratos were kind of douchey themselves - same as the ones who championed Fight Club solely for the violence and cherry-picked rhetoric. You mentioned a while back that he seems contrite in the modern reboot over his character's past behavior and attitude, which makes me eager to get to it all the more.

 

Fuck, man. Backlogs are like when adultly duties pile up - you gotta see the dentist, the car needs a check up, you promised so-and-so you'd do such-and-such, there's clothes and miscellanea lying everywhere and you gotta clean up the house, it's time to get a new round of groceries, and fuck if you even know where to start!

 

I most likely will still pass on Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, but it's good to know that I'm wrong for judging a book by its cover as it were - that whole Hardy Boys-esque "_____ and the _____ _______" title format has always been a turn-off for me (I'd even pass on "Solid Snake and the Cardboard Box") - perhaps I will keep this gaming prejudice in check in the future!

 

Ether One is intriguing if only for the concept - my grandmother had alzheimer's at the end of her life (well duh, it's not as if she had it as a teen but shook it off eventually) and watching that was absolutely devastating. That Bojack episode focusing his mother's dementia had quite an effect on me, and I suspect playing this game, flaws and all, would as well. So thanks for that one! I'll be watching a trailer on that (as well as that Prey video) sooner than later!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

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

 

 

Bejeweled 2
Final Fantasy VII
God of War III
Grim Legends 3: The Dark City
Sly 2: Band of Thieves

 

Plus at least one bonus game, of

Raji: An Ancient Epic

 

 

 

Subject(s) in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @The_Kopite,  @Eagle / @Shrooba & @Slava

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Hitman 3, maintain the title?

 

Is sewage-outflow Space Overlords going to be 'Least Awesome Game' forever and ever?

 

 

Let's find out, Science Chums!

[Cleggworth]

So I planned to comment after reading a number of batches so I wasn't just spamming the thread but I've come across a momentous entry.

 

Firstly batch 16, very informative. I've just bought 2 entries, The Last Campfire and Shape of the World so it'll be nice to see how i find those in comparison to you. Batch 16 was also the home to The Return of the Obra Dinn. I've heard good things but never actually bumped it up to the to buy list, well it is now ?

 

Batch 17 brought us Fallout 4 which I agree with all of your points bar 1, the player voice. Personally I don't like voices in characters you create. Just not a fan so I found that pretty distracting. I made my dude and he spoke and my first thought was "what?!? he doesn't sound like that" ? Everything else I agree with you on though. It was a perfectly serviceable follow up, retained everything that was good about previous entries but without as much of the patented Bethesda wonkiness. The problem with that is, is a game being less broken than its predecessor actually a good thing? Its still pretty broken ?‍♂️ why is that a plus point? Its Bethesda though so they get away with, somehow

 

Edith Finch was one of the better walking sims for me, my favourite section of that was the guy in the fish factory day dreaming.... yikes ?

 

Finally, the reason I paused here in the first place. PREY WAS DETHRONED.....

 

Now I've looked into Invisible Inc out of respect for both you and the Most Awesome game of all time, as of batch 17 at any rate, but Holy shit.... I don't usually go for rarity as a measure of difficulty but yeah thats a pretty eye watering Plat rarity ? I've looked at gameplay and phewph it looks like Xcom which is totally not my cup of tea so yeah dodged a bullet there i think ?

 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

1 hour ago, Cleggworth said:

Firstly batch 16, very informative. I've just bought 2 entries, The Last Campfire and Shape of the World so it'll be nice to see how i find those in comparison to you. Batch 16 was also the home to The Return of the Obra Dinn. I've heard good things but never actually bumped it up to the to buy list, well it is now ?

 

Oh, Obra Dinn certainly deserves it! 

It's actually one of the more gratifying games I recall talking about on this site - because it's such a unique, and visually basic game, I had thought it might be one that would be an uphill battle to convince people of its merits - but what I found instead was not only a bunch of folks who had played it, but pretty much unanimous praise all round!

Shouldn't be surprising, but was certainly gratifying!

 

Quote

Batch 17 brought us Fallout 4 which I agree with all of your points bar 1, the player voice. Personally I don't like voices in characters you create. Just not a fan so I found that pretty distracting. I made my dude and he spoke and my first thought was "what?!? he doesn't sound like that" Everything else I agree with you on though. It was a perfectly serviceable follow up, retained everything that was good about previous entries but without as much of the patented Bethesda wonkiness. The problem with that is, is a game being less broken than its predecessor actually a good thing? Its still pretty broken ?‍♂️ why is that a plus point? Its Bethesda though so they get away with, somehow

 

You know - the voice thing is an interesting point. I suspect the reason I actually liked having the protagonist character get a voice, is that I have always played Fallout games (and Elder Scrolls ones for that matter) as a female character. Because of that, I'm not really "projecting" myself into the character, I'm more "controlling their journey" so to speak, and so there isn't really dissonance in hearing a voice that isn't my own, or that doesn't match the one in my head. For me, I hear the voice and, rather than going "that's not what they sound like", I'm more "Huh, so that's what they sound like!"

 

The jankiness - yeah, you are right, of course. A game being 'less janky' is not really a glowing endorsement. I wouldn't say the Fallout (and Elder Scrolls) games get a pass from me necessarily - (frankly, if New Vegas was completely glitch-free and ran like a dream, it would most likely be in contention for the top 20 on this ranking,) - but they do manage to overwhelm their negatives with some positives. The mere fact that I was willing to put up with that level of jank to see the game through to the S-Rank is something of a testament to the positive aspects of the game - if hte game was lesser anyways, I would never have put up with them, and that has to count for something. As a result, Fallout 4 being slightly less anchored by its technical problems than the previous ones has to be seen as a positive by comparison - but I agree. They are really riddled with problems - often completely unacceptably so.

 

Quote

Edith Finch was one of the better walking sims for me, my favourite section of that was the guy in the fish factory day dreaming.... yikes

 

Finally, the reason I paused here in the first place. PREY WAS DETHRONED.....

 

Now I've looked into Invisible Inc out of respect for both you and the Most Awesome game of all time, as of batch 17 at any rate, but Holy shit.... I don't usually go for rarity as a measure of difficulty but yeah thats a pretty eye watering Plat rarity I've looked at gameplay and phewph it looks like Xcom which is totally not my cup of tea so yeah dodged a bullet there i think ?

 

Well.... I will say - I don't fully understand the rarity of Invisible Inc.

 

I assume that the PS+ inclusion had to be a factor in it - plus the fact that it is rogue-like, so a lot of folks probably did play it to a single completion, then not bother with the increased difficulty runs...

...but - I truly don't think it is half as difficult as Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy or plenty of other Rogue-likes - or, for that matter, some Souls-like games or other 'tough-but-fair' games in that vein.

 

The fact that the game allows rewinds on turns, and so you can retry to your hearts content in most stages, means it is always possible to do if you have patience.

 

To me, that rarity really represents two things

1. the game can be difficult to initially pick up - it does feel difficult conceptually, and there are a lot of interdependent systems to learn quite quickly. Probably, there were a lot of PS+ samplers, who looked at the cartoonish visuals, and thought it would be easy to pick up, then gave up when it seemed too complex.

2. It requires you to really adapt to the situation - there is no "game breaking builds". It's a game virtually impossible to just look up some "OP Build" and play to that - and as a result, there isn't really any step-by-step guides out there. I don't think the game is unduly difficult, but I do think you need to learn how to deal with its mechanics effectively, and do so each time it changes.

 

For what it's worth - I'm not an X-Com guy either ?

Edited October 3, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

@DrBloodmoney Wooo bring it on! ?

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

@DrBloodmoney Wooo bring it on! 

? i know - I apologise - it feels like ages since you put in the FFVII request…?

 

…the reason I left it, was that I had it in my mind that I was going to replay the PS5 version of the FFVIIRemake, and had thought it might be cool to review both at the same time.
I want to save the Remake review for when I have done the PS5 version (including the Yuffie stuff that is exclusive to it), and so I thought it would be soon, so I held off on FFVII…

 

…but other games kept coming up, so I’ve still not got around to redoing FFVIIR.

 

Plus - now that my JRPG appetite is being whetted by Tales of Arise (my first Tales game) I figured there’s no better time to tackle FFVII!

Edited October 3, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

4 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 i know - I apologise - it feels like ages since you put in the FFVII request…

 

…the reason I left it, was that I had it in my mind that I was going to replay the PS5 version of the FFVIIRemake, and had thought it might be cool to review both at the same time.
I want to save the Remake review for when I have done the PS5 version (including the Yuffie stuff that is exclusive to it), and so I thought it would be soon, so I held off on FFVII…

 

…but other games kept coming up, so I’ve still not got around to redoing FFVIIR.

 

Plus - now that my JRPG appetite is being whetted by Tales of Arise (my first Tales game) I figured there’s no better time to tackle FFVII!

No need to apologise, it's all good!

 

Yeah I think it's fair to play through the PS5 version of FFVIIRemake along with the Yuffie DLC in order to get the full experience. That would certainly benefit your review when you come around to it.

 

Almost finished my first playthrough of FFVIIRemake myself on PS4, would love to go straight into the Yuffie DLC, but I'd need to own a PS5 for that lol

 

Been hearing good things about Tales of Arise too!

[grayhammmer]

I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but is there a reason Rogue Legacy isn't getting analyzed this week despite my request?

[Platinum_Vice]

Drama ?

Edited October 4, 2021 by GonzoWARgasm