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DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!


DrBloodmoney

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9 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

@DrBloodmoneyJust wanted to say that was a really interesting and detailed review of FFVII. Certainly agreed with a lot of it, including the graphics of the characters etc lol Definitely well worth waiting for, and nice to see it nestled in the top 10! Hoping it'll stay that way! lol

 

Thanks man - that top 10 is getting pretty tough to break into now, that's for sure!

 

9 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Also I think for most fans of Final Fantasy, there are 3 games that seem to come up as being regarded as the best in the franchise - VI, VII and X. If they ever released the new Pixel Remasters of FF I-VI on Playstation with platinums for them all, then I'd be intrigued to see how high up VI went in your list.

 

I'm actually one of the few that doesn't rank X quite as highly - still a great game, of course, and it did some pretty great stuff with paving the way for the new style,  but the story and characters didn't quite grab me as hard as some others - personally, IV, VI, VII, VIII and IX, would all most likely come above X. (Actually, I need to give it a second play at some point, but I must admit, despite only playing it the once, I had a real soft spot for XIII-2 as well actually! - maybe the time travel aspect, which is always something I love in games - seeing the same places across different timelines)

 

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I thought I should finally throw some of my thoughts in on this......

 

As usual mate, absolutely stellar material! Fantastic reads all of them.

 

Bejewelled 2 definitely doesn't seem like it'll work as effectively on consoles - it sounds like the same kind of reason why people end up wanting to use their consoles as a punching bag with the Puyo-Puyo mini-game in Judgment. It isn't quite tailored for a controller - so it doesn't have that same fluidity, a swipe on a phone might. So from everything you said Bejewelled suffers the same fate on consoles.

 

Interesting you brought up gaming on the toilet - I've never quite gotten that one, are there folks out there that need to sit there for hours straining themselves out of existence like Elvis or something....... Anyway, enough of that, I know there are plenty who do - I do know of someone who used to keep a PSP in his toilet, and he'd often refer to it as the PooSP - so no guesses what he was doing in there. Well, unless  some of those UMD's you could get came some naughty material on them... :lol:

 

So Final Fantasy VII.......

 

We've reached a milestone folks - we've found the first game that I think Doc and I strongly disagree on - although I imagine, it'll be the politest disagreement you're likely to see for a while ?

 

That's not to say that there aren't plenty of things I do agree with in your analysis - in fact I agree with practically most of it - except the story - and I'll be totally honest, I wish that wasn't the case. I wish I loved Final Fantasy VII's story the way everyone else seems to, I just never have, and I'm not sure if I ever will. I understand that's a ME problem - perhaps the remake might completely change that, I guess I won't know until I try.

I wish I loved the narrative to Final Fantasy VII the same way everyone else seems to, and I do like it, don't get me wrong, I just can't stress enough that I don't love it, actually it might be similar to how you mentioned above; how you don't particularly love Final Fantasy X - whereas I do.  I've often said that there's small margins between my personal preferences of those PSOne era Final Fantasy titles, but after reading your frankly awesome write up of Final Fantasy VII I started to remember how much I don't love the amnesia thing.

 

Whilst I can recognise how well they did it - I think it's a trade off that I've never really been a huge fan of - people go nuts over Clouds character, and yes, he's very complex, but he's never truly himself until about two thirds of the way through the game, arguably further, so even on repeat playthroughs, I struggle to really invest in him much as a character, because I know he's not truly figured himself out yet - I know that's part of what makes him interesting for plenty of people, but for me it's a double edged sword, in that - I wish we'd gotten more of that Cloud. instead of:

 

"THE NURSES HAVE TAKEN MY MONEY, YOUR ELBOW IS IN MY SOUP, WHERE AM I..... HI FLOWER LADY, ARE YOU MY MUMMY? DO YOU LIKE MY PURPLE JUMPSUIT."

 

............. Okay - so Cloud isn't that much of a confused simpleton I grant you, but I do wish he was a more complete entity earlier on..... It's a small gripe I know.

 

I also think Final Fantasy VII suffers slightly from having too many  party members, and not enough development for them - and erm..... Cait Sith - who's inclusion in any game sullies my opinion on it even further - Cait Sith is the only word that this site censors! ?

 

That was a hell of a good review though - and I absolutely enjoyed reading it - I love the art design too, I think it's pretty astonishing, and that side of it does hold up very well. It is a shame the characters when actually traversing those awesome environments, look like either child's drawings, or something made in about ten minutes in MSPaint....... Find a potion in the environment? Are you sure that's on the screen and someone didn't just colour my TV in with Felt Tip Pen? Strange Indeed.

 

Whilst we're on Final Fantasy still.....

 

48 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I had a real soft spot for XIII-2 as well actually!

 

You and me both! See we're back to agreement again. Just as the lyrics of Drowning Pool might come screaming out of the Emo Prince of Persia's TimePod..... Or my iPod too actually "we've come FULL CIRCLE"  ?.... Traffic can stop going in the wrong direction now, and the sky can get off the floor and go back to where it was - Status Quo has been resumed....  That reminds me I'm gonna go listen to Pictures of Matchstick Men!

 

That's a little worrying about Grim Legends - the art style/design is usually one of the strongest features in those AM titles - so to hear it's a little drab there is a bit disappointing - I felt one of the Eventide titles was a little like that myself - although if you asked me I couldn't tell you which one, except that it wasn't the first one.

 

I loved what you had to say about God of War III - in a way that game reminds me of when a film franchise goes so deep down a specific rabbit hole that it becomes almost a complete caricature of what it started out as....


How tone deaf was that though.... To think that Kratos was even remotely redeemable, after everything we'd seen across those three games, and the spin-off titles...... 

It'd be like someone thinking Hitler was "alright" because his dog liked him (look where that got poor Blondie)....Or that Saddam Hussein was also fine because he looked like Father Christmas..... There is context to this, Russell Brand said those exact words on his Radio show at one point.. So odd.

 

It does make me more interested to play the new one, to see how they turn that on its head. It's in my basket on the store right now. 

 

On Sly 2:

 

Ooof - I'd love to say I didn't agree with all of that but I do - I feel like the Sly games for as much as I quite like them, take a tumble off a cliff the further you get into hat series, not a sheer drop either, you know that famous video of that skier tumbling down a mountain and bouncing off of rocks on the way down - well that is almost the perfect analogy for the Sly series. It's a gradual and effing painful descent.

 

You aren't the only one that muted the TV either by the way - was this the first time Murray started referring to himself as "The Murray?" If it was then this was about the time when I really started to dislike his character -  grating voice is an understatement in his case..

 

I still can't figure out why they did the misery porn thing with Bentley either - especially as he's a pretty likeable character - and it isn't just exclusive to this title either, as they seem to just heap more and more misery onto him in each subsequent game. It's like Sucker Punch decided - yeah let's make him a misery sponge - people will love that. I mean it does work to illicit sympathy (well it did for me) but that doesn't stop what happens being such a ridiculous tonal shift compared to the cutesy anthropomorphic animals we'd seen up till then.

 

 

Raji - looks like I'll probably pick it up at some point in a sale - from reading your review, I think there is enough there to justify playing it, even if it doesn't work 100% of the time, especially as it is exploring something rarely done in video games, I can get behind that. I've always debated picking it up whenever I see it on sale, but it's not dropped to a price I've wanted to commit to yet.

 

Great stuff as ever man - I don't know how you manage to get at least five of these out a week - I struggle to even do three, you're killing it though! Apologies for the essay of a reply, but there's almost always plenty of interesting things to comment on.

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2 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Bejewelled 2 definitely doesn't seem like it'll work as effectively on consoles - it sounds like the same kind of reason why people end up wanting to use their consoles as a punching bag with the Puyo-Puyo mini-game in Judgment. It isn't quite tailored for a controller - so it doesn't have that same fluidity, a swipe on a phone might. So from everything you said Bejewelled suffers the same fate on consoles.

 

Absolutely - I'm not a big mobile gaming dude, but the ones that really last for me are always the simple, effective, addictive little puzzlers, and Bejewelled is one of the kings of that genre - it just doesn't really make sense on controller and on TV - you end up doing things back to front, with netflix on the iPad and Bejewelled on the TV, and that just feels weird!

 

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So Final Fantasy VII.......

 

We've reached a milestone folks - we've found the first game that I think Doc and I strongly disagree on - although I imagine, it'll be the politest disagreement you're likely to see for a while 1f602.png

 

That's not to say that there aren't plenty of things I do agree with in your analysis - in fact I agree with practically most of it - except the story - and I'll be totally honest, I wish that wasn't the case. I wish I loved Final Fantasy VII's story the way everyone else seems to, I just never have, and I'm not sure if I ever will. I understand that's a ME problem - perhaps the remake might completely change that, I guess I won't know until I try.

I wish I loved the narrative to Final Fantasy VII the same way everyone else seems to, and I do like it, don't get me wrong, I just can't stress enough that I don't love it, actually it might be similar to how you mentioned above; how you don't particularly love Final Fantasy X - whereas I do.  I've often said that there's small margins between my personal preferences of those PSOne era Final Fantasy titles, but after reading your frankly awesome write up of Final Fantasy VII I started to remember how much I don't love the amnesia thing.

 

Whilst I can recognise how well they did it - I think it's a trade off that I've never really been a huge fan of - people go nuts over Clouds character, and yes, he's very complex, but he's never truly himself until about two thirds of the way through the game, arguably further, so even on repeat playthroughs, I struggle to really invest in him much as a character, because I know he's not truly figured himself out yet - I know that's part of what makes him interesting for plenty of people, but for me it's a double edged sword, in that - I wish we'd gotten more of that Cloud. instead of:

 

"THE NURSES HAVE TAKEN MY MONEY, YOUR ELBOW IS IN MY SOUP, WHERE AM I..... HI FLOWER LADY, ARE YOU MY MUMMY? DO YOU LIKE MY PURPLE JUMPSUIT."

 

............. Okay - so Cloud isn't that much of a confused simpleton I grant you, but I do wish he was a more complete entity earlier on..... It's a small gripe I know.

 

You know, I do think that FFVII is one of the simplest of the FF canon narratives - which could be viewed as a bad thing under some circumstances, but for me, that simplicity helps, rather than hurts in VII due primarily to the strength of the world and the characters. Yes, it lacks some development on some characters - the late game entry of Cid does mean that, while he gets a good arc, his actual interactions with other characters is pretty limited, and yeah...

 

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I also think Final Fantasy VII suffers slightly from having too many  party members, and not enough development for them - and erm..... Cait Sith - who's inclusion in any game sullies my opinion on it even further - Cait Sith is the only word that this site censors! 1f609.png

 

Cait Sith is pretty weird as an addition - though I can't completely hate him, because the whole Reeve controlling him angle did get me the first time through! Maybe it's just the Scottish thing though - I might be the only person in the world who pronounces "Cait Sith" as it should be said (It's "KAT SHEE", I assume, since it comes from the Cait Sidhe - a Scottish mythical beast!)

 

Sure, he's about as much use in battle as a cock flavoured lollipop, and yeah, he looks ridiculous, but I always liked the idea of having an insider of the enemy working remotely within the party - should have been done better, but still... I just can't hate him!

 

 

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That was a hell of a good review though - and I absolutely enjoyed reading it - I love the art design too, I think it's pretty astonishing, and that side of it does hold up very well. It is a shame the characters when actually traversing those awesome environments, look like either child's drawings, or something made in about ten minutes in MSPaint....... Find a potion in the environment? Are you sure that's on the screen and someone didn't just colour my TV in with Felt Tip Pen? Strange Indeed.

 

Haha, it's true - it's amazing how you can be fully invested in a complicate narrative, yet if someone walked in and looked at the screen, it'd look like you were playing Clay Fighter, for all the art actually comes through in the character models ?

 

 

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That's a little worrying about Grim Legends - the art style/design is usually one of the strongest features in those AM titles - so to hear it's a little drab there is a bit disappointing - I felt one of the Eventide titles was a little like that myself - although if you asked me I couldn't tell you which one, except that it wasn't the first one.

 

You know, the individual scenes are still nice, it's just... so grey and green. It's like the whole game is set on the pass of Cirith Ungol, and after a while, it ends up blending into itself. Usually in those games, you really remember each frame scene - you can go "Oh yeah, to get to that place, I go, here, then here, then here... In this one, that gets harder, because everything just congeals into an amorphous grey/green blob..

 

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I loved what you had to say about God of War III - in a way that game reminds me of when a film franchise goes so deep down a specific rabbit hole that it becomes almost a complete caricature of what it started out as....


How tone deaf was that though.... To think that Kratos was even remotely redeemable, after everything we'd seen across those three games, and the spin-off titles...... 

It'd be like someone thinking Hitler was "alright" because his dog liked him (look where that got poor Blondie)....Or that Saddam Hussein was also fine because he looked like Father Christmas..... There is context to this, Russell Brand said those exact words on his Radio show at one point.. So odd.

 

Oh, yeah, that is a weird thing - I have to assume the guys making Ghost of Sparta must have been mad as hell - they were busy creating a game - to release 6 months later - where the main narrative point is supposed to be a heartfelt scene where Kratos gives up his daughter again, experiencing all that pain again, and the player is supposed to really feel for him...

 

...but in the mean time, GoWIII comes out, making Kratos such an abject piece of shit, that they completely salted the earth on that one! By the time I got there, I was just like "Nope, no redemption for you, Baldy"!

 

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On Sly 2:

 

Ooof - I'd love to say I didn't agree with all of that but I do - I feel like the Sly games for as much as I quite like them, take a tumble off a cliff the further you get into hat series, not a sheer drop either, you know that famous video of that skier tumbling down a mountain and bouncing off of rocks on the way down - well that is almost the perfect analogy for the Sly series. It's a gradual and effing painful descent.

 

You aren't the only one that muted the TV either by the way - was this the first time Murray started referring to himself as "The Murray?" If it was then this was about the time when I really started to dislike his character -  grating voice is an understatement in his case..

 

I still can't figure out why they did the misery porn thing with Bentley either - especially as he's a pretty likeable character - and it isn't just exclusive to this title either, as they seem to just heap more and more misery onto him in each subsequent game. It's like Sucker Punch decided - yeah let's make him a misery sponge - people will love that. I mean it does work to illicit sympathy (well it did for me) but that doesn't stop what happens being such a ridiculous tonal shift compared to the cutesy anthropomorphic animals we'd seen up till then.

 

It'll come up eventually here, but I do actually think Sly 3 went some way to salvaging the series for me. I feel like a lot of the worst aspects were still present, but they were smoothed out quite a bit - and a lot of the technical stuff like camera was fixed quite a bit, so for me, the series never dipped as low as Sly 2 did. By the time we got to Sly 4, I actually quite enjoyed it again - that game is a bit forgettable, but was never frustrating or bad - just a little bland at times.

 

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Raji - looks like I'll probably pick it up at some point in a sale - from reading your review, I think there is enough there to justify playing it, even if it doesn't work 100% of the time, especially as it is exploring something rarely done in video games, I can get behind that. I've always debated picking it up whenever I see it on sale, but it's not dropped to a price I've wanted to commit to yet.

 

Oh, yeah, it's still worth a look from the appreciation side, and it's not like the game has nothing to say or to offer. The stuff it does well is actually done very well, it just stumbles in the control aspects. Still worth checking out for the good stuff - and it's not a long or difficulty game, so the negatives can be dealt with to see the good stuff without it becoming too much of a chore!

 

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Great stuff as ever man - I don't know how you manage to get at least five of these out a week - I struggle to even do three, you're killing it though! Apologies for the essay of a reply, but there's almost always plenty of interesting things to comment on.

 

Well, thank you sir - I suspect these will be slowing down a little as I go now - work is heating up, and with the october holidays coming up, I suspect my updates will take a hit, but I'll be trying to still get something out when I can!

 

 

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

You know, I do think that FFVII is one of the simplest of the FF canon narratives - which could be viewed as a bad thing under some circumstances, but for me, that simplicity helps, rather than hurts in VII due primarily to the strength of the world and the characters. Yes, it lacks some development on some characters - the late game entry of Cid does mean that, while he gets a good arc, his actual interactions with other characters is pretty limited, and yeah...

 

It's ironic actually - because I usually,prefer simplistic narratives told well myself  - there's just things about it I like less than in other Final Fantasy entries released  around the time - although ironically VIII and IX all feature amnesia as a theme in some form too. JRPG's really love that trope huh? You just can't escape it. I'd argue VIII probably tackles it in a slightly more organic way, even if it did make clutching at straws virtually an art form.

 

The Cid thing is probably the one I've always struggled the most with, as it goes - there's entirely optional characters that potentially have more time in the party than he does, and he suffers a little as a result.

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Cait Sith is pretty weird as an addition - though I can't completely hate him, because the whole Reeve controlling him angle did get me the first time through! Maybe it's just the Scottish thing though - I might be the only person in the world who pronounces "Cait Sith" as it should be said (It's "KAT SHEE", I assume, since it comes from the Cait Sidhe - a Scottish mythical beast!)

 

Sure, he's about as much use in battle as a cock flavoured lollipop, and yeah, he looks ridiculous, but I always liked the idea of having an insider of the enemy working remotely within the party - should have been done better, but still... I just can't hate him!

 

Is that Scottish mythical beast usually portrayed as a complete wanker with a megaphone? ?......If not then there was definitely some creative license being used.

 

I actually don't know why I dislike him so much at this point - it's so unlike me to be so negative about one thing, but man I dunno he just infuriates me. I don't think Smevz is his biggest fan either, so at least I'm not alone ?

 

I didn't have a clue about how his name was meant to be pronounced though - that's awesome to know.

 

His type of character is done better in about two or three different Tales of' titles - which might be part of why I dislike him, as I can't help but compare him to those characters.

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Haha, it's true - it's amazing how you can be fully invested in a complicate narrative, yet if someone walked in and looked at the screen, it'd look like you were playing Clay Fighter, for all the art actually comes through in the character models 1f602.png

 

 

That's never good - someone walked in on me playing Beholder and asked me why I was playing Gothic Bill and Ben, because of the weird way all the characters talk

 

It would have been nice if when they put the original version out on PS4, they had re-tooled some of the character models so they blended in a little better - because as you said, they are all such a contrast compared with everything else.

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Oh, yeah, that is a weird thing - I have to assume the guys making Ghost of Sparta must have been mad as hell - they were busy creating a game - to release 6 months later - where the main narrative point is supposed to be a heartfelt scene where Kratos gives up his daughter again, experiencing all that pain again, and the player is supposed to really feel for him...

 

...but in the mean time, GoWIII comes out, making Kratos such an abject piece of shit, that they completely salted the earth on that one! By the time I got there, I was just like "Nope, no redemption for you, Baldy"!

 

 

I actually like the two PSP titles a fair bit - they at least tried to do something to justify why Kratos might have been all the more furious and vengeful between games, but yeah GOW III does turn him into King Arse-biscuit..... Which is something you can't disassociate with him from that point onwards.

 

You know we've all been joking about him being bald for so long - I'd love it if in God of War: Ragnarok he just showed up with the worlds most ill fitting toupee (think Christian Bale in American Hustle, or Agent 47 as the head doctor in Hokkaido) - and nothing was said about it, and everything just carried on as is. That's what I want to see.

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

It'll come up eventually here, but I do actually think Sly 3 went some way to salvaging the series for me. I feel like a lot of the worst aspects were still present, but they were smoothed out quite a bit - and a lot of the technical stuff like camera was fixed quite a bit, so for me, the series never dipped as low as Sly 2 did. By the time we got to Sly 4, I actually quite enjoyed it again - that game is a bit forgettable, but was never frustrating or bad - just a little bland at times.

 

I guess they do iron out the technical kinks like the camera that's true - I just personally found the further you get into the series the less you actually play as Sly. In fact Sly 4 you probably play as him less than any other character. In a game that's kind of built with stealth as the focus, and other characters have less of the necessary tools like:Bentley, Murray (especially) or Carmelita, it tends to drag that down a bit. That's just my experience with it though, I still like them, but I was always still hankering for something more like the original Sly was.

 

It's a problem that Crash Bandicoot and Spyro suffer a little from too (in my opinion at least) in that a lot of the later titles decided to go in fairly gimmicky directions in the pursuit of varied gameplay that they lost sight of what made them special to begin with. 

 

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Well, thank you sir - I suspect these will be slowing down a little as I go now - work is heating up, and with the october holidays coming up, I suspect my updates will take a hit, but I'll be trying to still get something out when I can!

 

You absolutely deserve it man.

 

You've probably made a pretty huge dent in the games you are planning to tackle already though - I doubt if I've even covered 15% of mine so far, so I might need to borrow a little of whatever magic you must have imbibed to manage to both get these out in a timely manner, and for them to be such high quality.

 

I suspect I might be the opposite regarding slowing down a bit, but who knows - works drying up for me a little at the moment, so I'll have a bit more time to actually get stuff written in a more timely fashion. 

 

Take your time with them if you need to,  you know we'll be here eagerly awaiting the latest scientific results.

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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That's interesting, I always wondered what the hell Cait Sith was supposed to mean! Mr. Clarke is right, I do not care for him either, but that one's on me - a rather unpleasant person (the one who ruined the Aeris event for me, in fact) LOVED Cait Sith, and by extension made me dislike him.

 

Well, that and the fact that I've had the misfortune of killing my party with his limit break a couple times.

 

I like how VIII was a reaction to VII in so many ways, one of which being "that last game's story was fairly direct, let's get fuckin WEIRD this time around."

 

I too wish that Cid had some more time in the game - he did suffer a bit, especially with the final visit with Aeris - everybody's reactions are so powerful (yes, I absolutely played this part with every character in the party at some point), and with Cid it just feels like "I been here for five minutes, but uh yeah sorry n shit."

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21 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Thanks man - that top 10 is getting pretty tough to break into now, that's for sure!

I can imagine!

 

21 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I'm actually one of the few that doesn't rank X quite as highly - still a great game, of course, and it did some pretty great stuff with paving the way for the new style,  but the story and characters didn't quite grab me as hard as some others - personally, IV, VI, VII, VIII and IX, would all most likely come above X. (Actually, I need to give it a second play at some point, but I must admit, despite only playing it the once, I had a real soft spot for XIII-2 as well actually! - maybe the time travel aspect, which is always something I love in games - seeing the same places across different timelines)

Certainly with it being my 2nd favourite FF, I would highly recommend you go through X again. The platinum is a pretty good challenge as well! It was very satisfying to get. 

XIII-2 I enjoyed quite well considering, though I know @rjkclarke can't stand Noel lol I still preferred XIII for the story (and personally feel like they should have just left it at the one game rather than going for a trilogy) but they expanded upon certain aspects of XIII-2 really well such as the battle system with the monsters, and the time travel aspect was very interesting.

I was excited about Cris Tales for that same reason of seeing the same place in different times, but sadly it didn't seem to review as well as I'd hoped and it has gone into the wait and maybe get it category lol

 

20 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I wish I loved Final Fantasy VII's story the way everyone else seems to, I just never have, and I'm not sure if I ever will. I understand that's a ME problem - perhaps the remake might completely change that, I guess I won't know until I try.

It might do, most of the same story beats are there, but certainly the ending chapters are extremely different and I'll leave it at that. 

 

19 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

the late game entry of Cid does mean that, while he gets a good arc, his actual interactions with other characters is pretty limited, and yeah...

Yeah but....Cid is a great character anyways, and you root for him straight away which makes up for that. Plus Cid's theme is fricking awesome. 

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Sure, he's about as much use in battle as a cock flavoured lollipop,

Dodgeball!!!!!!!

 

17 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I actually don't know why I dislike him so much at this point - it's so unlike me to be so negative about one thing, but man I dunno he just infuriates me. I don't think Smevz is his biggest fan either, so at least I'm not alone ?

If I suddenly see a hashtag on twitter of something like #caitsithistheworstvideogamecharacterever, then I'll know you and @YaManSmevz started it hahaha

 

14 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I like how VIII was a reaction to VII in so many ways, one of which being "that last game's story was fairly direct, let's get fuckin WEIRD this time around."

Haha could do a massive discussion on the plot intricacies and the gambles that VIII took with it's story alone

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I just read your GoW III review and loved it. Have to admit, around the time where I played that game first, I played Final Fantasy whenever I wanted a deep, engaging story and relatable characters, and I played DmC or GoW whenever I just wanted gory and brutal action. As such, I never really stoped to think about Kratos' motives and need for justification. Though I am sure that, would I play the game again today, I would definitely focus more on him as a character, not only on the action. 

 

That is also made clear to me because I indeed did care a lot about GoW 2018, and while many people have criticized the game for being story-driven and less "hack 'n slash", I actually welcomed the change, and that game allowed me, for the first time, to really engage with Kratos as a protagonist. 

 

Definitely looking forward to what you have to say about that game! :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

1f6a8.png1f6a8.pngSCIENCE ALERT1f6a8.png1f6a8.png

 

Guys, I know I'm slacking, (October holidays are doing a number on my spare time, what with the youngling tearing apart my house, my time and my soul.)

As a result, my usual habit of including all new S-Ranks on the next available batch is getting to the point where I feel like I'm running up the 'down' escalator ?

 

As such, I am going to try and get the current batch out in the next few days, but I'm going to draw a line under the bonus games, to let me catch up!

 

As such, Tales of Arise will be on the next batch (as promised), however, I'm going to leave R&C: A Crack in Time until the next one - that will allow me to do it in tandem with R&C: Nexus, which is probably a sensible thing from a review point anyways... (look at me with my justifications! ? ?)

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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Don't put yourself under too much pressure mate.

 

I'm sure when you get to them it will undoubtedly be great!

 

Did Tales of Arise have co-op gameplay by the way, like the others do? Not true co-op, but you can have a shared couch co-op experience as other people can jump in with a controller and control a character in battle. I just wondered if they kept that for Arise.

 

In the nicest way possible - and I can only speak for myself obviously, although I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks this, but I know we're going to get plenty of awesome stuff from you to read and enjoy, so it'll feel like any wait was almost certainly worth it....  So in the meantime, this is where you can find me ?

 

futurama-1.jpg?w=640

 

 

Edited by rjkclarke
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Seymour! ??

 

Haha, no the pressure is from other places - waxing lyrical about games is the fun stuff!  ?

Appreciate it though.

 

4 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

Did Tales of Arise have co-op gameplay by the way, like the others do? Not true co-op, but you can have a shared couch co-op experience as other people can jump in with a controller and control a character in battle. I just wondered if they kept that for Arise.

 

Hmmm... you know.... I don't know?

 

I didn't see any option for it, though that was a game I never even considered might have co-op, given how few RPGs ever do, so I didn't go looking for it...

...certainly nothing stood out as being obvious about it - but it could have been one of those aspects I just didn't think to consider, given I don't know the franchise too well.

 

Tales of Arise is definitely one that I have a big fat "CONTEXT" warning at the beginning!

It always feels weird reviewing a game from a franchise that is longstanding, but I have only dabbled in - so I always like to forewarn people that I might be saying:

 "WhY U dO DiZ, GaMe?"...

and the answer comes back:

"because all us real fans love it, you Johnny-come-lately! Get back to your Arkane games and leave the JRPGs to us!" ?

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35 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I didn't see any option for it, though that was a game I never even considered might have co-op, given how few RPGs ever do, so I didn't go looking for it...

...certainly nothing stood out as being obvious about it - but it could have been one of those aspects I just didn't think to consider, given I don't know the franchise too well.

 

It isn't obvious in the other games to be fair - I only found out about it because one of my friends was playing it with his two younger brothers, as one was always complaining that he had to play as the healer of the group ?......  That was all the way back when certain Tales of' characters were a little more specialised in one area than the others, whereas these days most characters tend to have at least some form of healing artes.

 

It's really not something you'd think would be in an RPG like that to be fair.

 

Seymour Asses... To give him his full title xD

 

 

35 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Tales of Arise is definitely one that I have a big fat "CONTEXT" warning at the beginning!

It always feels weird reviewing a game from a franchise that is longstanding, but I have only dabbled in - so I always like to forewarn people that I might be saying:

 "WhY U dO DiZ, GaMe?"...

and the answer comes back:

"because all us real fans love it, you Johnny-come-lately! Get back to your Arkane games and leave the JRPGs to us!" 1f602.png

 

Something tells me that I don't think it'll be a problem with you not having played much of the series beforehand. I have a feeling that you might have some of the same criticisms about it that a couple of people I've spoken to about it have had, and that's nothing to do with context, and more about the game itself.

 

I get what you mean though - I'd kind of feel the same obligation if I randomly played one of the Call of Duty titles, or something like that I'd feel the need to state my position first,and be like " I've barely played stuff like this..... So.... I'm gonna just strap this flack jacket on and prepare for the hail of bullets."

 

In this case, I don't think you'll have to worry, I think even long standing fans of that series might see some of the same missteps that you see, and that's from people that very much enjoyed it too.

Edited by rjkclarke
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38 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

 

futurama-1.jpg?w=640

 

 

Why you wanna make me cry, bro... that's excellent! I saw that and was like "Haha! Oh that's great! That's... damn... wait, are my eyes wet?"

 

4 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

1f6a8.png1f6a8.pngSCIENCE ALERT1f6a8.png1f6a8.png

 

Guys, I know I'm slacking-

 

I gotta stop you right there.

 

Clarkie's right, you shouldn't put too much pressure on yourself. You're not slacking, you have a life. Remember - you're doing us the favor of providing wonderful content and conversation, you don't owe anybody anything!

 

We're just along for the ride, homie. It has to stay at your pace, whatever you're comfortable with, otherwise things will suffer. Nobody wants that! 

 

In the meantime, I'll have a seat next to Mr. Clarke and Seymour in front of Panucci's. Don't worry about us, we'll be busy making fun of passersby until the next batch is ready!

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Given how many reviews you've done so far, do you think you might take a break at some point in the near future? Also please analyze Uncanny valley next, as I have been sitting on that one for a while now, having started it but barely making any progress, and I want to know if I should get back into it.

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9 hours ago, grayhammmer said:

Given how many reviews you've done so far, do you think you might take a break at some point in the near future?

 

The Science cannot be stopped! ?

 

Well, maybe, but for the moment, I'm settling for just slowing down a little!

 

9 hours ago, grayhammmer said:

Also please analyze Uncanny valley next, as I have been sitting on that one for a while now, having started it but barely making any progress, and I want to know if I should get back into it.

 

Added to the priority list, with your name ??

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After reading the God of War review...I am thoroughly satisfied. Even my beard grew when reading that.

In less words I felt the same. Switching the narrative for Kratos was a franchise saver in my opinion. I can barely contain my excitement for God of War Ragnarok now.

Plus, not spoiling much, that moment where Kratos goes to retrieve "that something" from his house at the middle point of the game was a feels overdose.

 

Awesome reviews as always :D

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6 minutes ago, Copanele said:

After reading the God of War review...I am thoroughly satisfied. Even my beard grew when reading that.

In less words I felt the same. Switching the narrative for Kratos was a franchise saver in my opinion. I can barely contain my excitement for God of War Ragnarok now.

 

Haha, me too - It was a very weird thing to be playing a GoW game, and get to love it completely - story and gameplay - free of irony or eye-rolling!

 

Quote

Plus, not spoiling much, that moment where Kratos goes to retrieve "that something" from his house at the middle point of the game was a feels overdose.

 

I know - half of me was like "Fuck yeah!" and the other half was like "Uh Oh... Well.... there goes Norway..." ?

 

 

Quote

Awesome reviews as always :D

 

Thank you sir!

Edited by DrBloodmoney
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My god, I'm going to be reading this thread all day. I've seen @DrBloodmoney around and think they seem genuinely cool, but without hyperbolising this is probably the best forum post on an gaming site I've ever seen. What an project with beautiful writing. Reading the Deathloop write-up, I'm not convinced they haven't entered my sub-conscious ?.

 

On another note, I'd love to see what you thought of Outer Wilds one day. One of my all-time favourites, and I hope it may be up your alley. To me, one of those games that does everything right, unique, and fully committed to its vision.

Edited by PhantomFear94
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11 minutes ago, PhantomFear94 said:

My god, I'm going to be reading this thread all day. I've seen @DrBloodmoney around and think they seem genuinely cool, but without hyperbolising this is probably the best forum post on an gaming site I've ever seen. What an project with beautiful writing. Reading the Deathloop write-up, I'm not convinced they haven't entered my sub-conscious 1f602.png.

 

Thank you mate - I'm currently out of rep points, but suffice to say - you just made my day! ?

 

11 minutes ago, PhantomFear94 said:

On another note, I'd love to see what you thought of Outer Wilds one day. One of my all-time favourites, and based off the way you seem to rank things, I think it may be up your alley. To me, one of those games that does everything right, unique, and fully committed to its vision.

 

I have played Outer Wilds - it was actually on the list of eligible games until very recently, but the DLC release has pushed it off it for now, until I play through that.

For sure I will be playing it though, (to be honest, I probably would have already, but I'm trying to stick to Orange/Pink games for now, as part of the Trophies for Cancer event going on elsewhere on the site!)

I will try to remember to add a 'Priority' flag to it in your name when it returns to eligibility.... which shouldn't be too long!

(Spoiler Alert - It is likely to rank very, very well, as I fucking adored that game ?)

 

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Ah yes, Dad of Boy.

 

I can apply personal experience to the beard effect: people take you A LOT more seriously. 

 

When I played GoW 1, 2 and 3 I was never as passionately anti-Kratos as it sounds like you were. Other than what may be differences in yours and my personality that may account for this, I was also younger than yourself if I'm keeping track and therefore maybe not as... mature? The endless rage washed over me like water off a duck's back and I mainly enjoyed the spectacle for what it was... just continued gore in a world thirsty for it. With that said, I was only thirsty enough for the three mainline games (and that waned midway through the second one as I played the first two back-to-back). 

 

As you and even Copanele have said, the major changes to the series were more than welcome; they were necessary.

 

Great write-ups as per usual. I agree with everyone else: there is no rush to pump these out. I don't know if you are doing this, but maybe add your own "request" for a game to review to help with keeping the passion alive...? Nothing is reading like you aren't passionate about your checklist, so don't stress about quality mate :)

 

Edited by GonzoWARgasm
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5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I have played Outer Wilds - it was actually on the list of eligible games until very recently, but the DLC release has pushed it off it for now, until I play through that.

For sure I will be playing it though, (to be honest, I probably would have already, but I'm trying to stick to Orange/Pink games for now, as part of the Trophies for Cancer event going on elsewhere on the site!)

I will try to remember to add a 'Priority' flag to it in your name when it returns to eligibility.... which shouldn't be too long!

(Spoiler Alert - It is likely to rank very, very well, as I fucking adored that game 1f60d.png)

 

 

Awesome! And I'm not surprised. Outer Wilds is an utter masterpiece, and I know very few people who didn't like it, even if its not their usual genre! 

Edited by PhantomFear94
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And God of 2018 gets yet another violent shove towards the top of my backlog....

 

After following all your Kratos reviews, I must say you did their conclusion justice. Excellent work as always, Doc!

 

And crap, I guess I've finally heard enough good things about Outer Wilds to place it on the wish list!

 

Sometimes I feel like if I'm lucky, I'll finally conquer this backlog while playing ports on the PS12, and then immediately after my moment of triumph do an unintentional impression of Godfather III's ending.

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