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Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted December 7, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2021 NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! Hello Science-Chums and Science-Chumps, as promised (and in some cases requested), here are the latest results of our great scientific endeavour! Bastion Summary: It's interesting looking back at Bastion, the original 2011 debut release from Supergiant - considered one of the most consistent and high quality indie developers of the past decade - from the vantage point of 2021. It becomes apparent that Supergiant both came out of the gate swinging, have been on a continual forward journey, via games like Transistor, Pyre, yet have somehow looped back, with Hades, to somewhere close to where they began. In a very real sense, the gameplay of Hades, divorced from the Rogue-like aspects, feels closest to Bastion than any of the intervening games... and if anything, Bastion still outclasses it on that front. Bastion is, without question, the simplest of Supergiant's games - a straight hack-n-slash game with a few light RPG elements thrown in, and a relatively simple plot. Set in the fictional lands of Caelondia, in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event know only as 'The Calamity', 'The Kid' is sent out on a quest by old man (and game narrator) Rucks, to collect the power cores that once powered the great city (and they believe can rebuild it,) and take them to the 'Bastion' - a mythical muster point for use in the event of any grand catastrophe. The gameplay of Bastion is essentially linear levels with combat arenas and dispersed enemies throughout. There is some RPG-lite mechanics, in the form of multiple weapon types, elixirs (buffs,) special attacks and totems (the early equivalent of 'Heat' from Hades, essentially a risk/reward system, increasing difficulty and potential rewards.) That could be a negative in some games, but not so with Bastion, as the base mechanics are just so damned fun. The game moves smoothly and satisfyingly, combat is fun and varied, and everything just looks and feels so... cool. Yes, later games would take Bastion as a baseline, and iterate on the top of it, however, the reason those iterations work as well as they do is that the fundamental core of Supergiant games is so Goddamned good - and that the base ingredient formed in Bastion. Despite the relative simplicity of the gameplay and narrative, it really is remarkable how many of the elements of game design that have since become the most iconically 'Supergiant' tropes, are not only present in Bastion, but came out fully formed and fully realised in that first game. The visuals of Bastion are gorgeous, and set not only a bar, but really, a broad style, that Supergiant would play in for every one of their subsequent games. While each game has some slight variations in the overall aesthetic and colour palate, the hand-crafted, sumptuous amalgam of colourful watercolour and translucent looking over-stain is on show in full force right from this very first outing. Where the game is perhaps a slight outlier is in the character models themselves - unlike in Transistor, Pyre or Hades, the humans of Bastion are more cartoon-like and cheebie, (fitting the indie landscape of 2011 more, one might argue, than their more fleshed out models of later games,) however, that cheebie-ness never extends beyond these models and visuals. Bastion is not an immature game by any stretch. The tone of the game is certainly playful at times - in particular, in the companionship of the ever-present narration of Ruck, who comments on virtually all aspects of the game, and has a huge amount of dialogue tailored to the specifics of how the player chooses to approach the game - however, the tone is remarkably sombre and cohesive in spite of the humour. There is a gritty, weatherbeaten flavour to Ruck's narration - a sort of combination of old-west cowboy and jaded-yet-hopeful warrior - which more than anything else imbues the whole game with a melancholic, wistful and serious tone that really works well in juxtaposition to the bright, clean visuals. The world of Bastion is wildly unique in design. Levels are relatively linear affairs, through which The Kid walks and battles his way, but are made interesting by the gorgeous art design, the unique 'blocks of terrain filling in as you move' mechanics, and the intricate attention to detain that makes the entire world look brilliant, and knit together so utterly seamlessly that it is baffling for a debut game from a new studio. Other developers can take five or six games, and a decade or more to reach this level of flair and visual fidelity. Supergiant does it in one. Without hyperbole, I can confidently state that anyone not impressed with the visuals and design of Bastion should really trade their eyes back in. They just aren't using them right, and don't deserve them. Audio in the game is phenomenal. The score, by Darren Korb, is an absolute triumph (like Gris from the last batch, the OST for Bastion is in regular play in my Spotify, however, unlike Gris, this one isn't purely played while working - Bastion gets play anywhere, any time!) I generally shy away from specific superlatives in terms of individual elements of games in these reviews, but I would argue that if a list of the greatest original game soundtracks were ever put together, I don't know what would win, but any way I sliced it, Bastion (and the other Darren Korb soundtracks) would be near the top. (For a taster, play "In Case of Trouble", then play "Build that Wall"... then try and argue with me. You won't succeed!) Not only that, but the general audio is fantastic too. weapon sounds and enemies sound impactful and awesome, and every bit of voice work (as in all Supergiant games,) is pitch perfect and of a qualitative level as to put Hollywood films to shame. Bastion, unlike, arguably, all the subsequent Supergiant games, is a little less repeatable in some sense. The game is a linear affair, and while it does feature a number of challenges and difficulties, and the games fundamental core is good enough to easily draw players back for more, it cannot be denied that Supergiant would, in future games, lean more heavily into the idea of repeat play - with the breathtaking variability of build in Transistor, the malleable storyline of Pyre, or, of course, the rogue-like aspects of Hades. Having said that, there is something to be said for a game that manages feel incredibly compulsive and replay-able even without actually baking those aspects into it - Bastion is highly likely to draw you back in even without giving a narrative or mechanical excuse for doing so! Overall, Bastion really is an incredible game. It is tempting to continually praise it as a "blistering debut" - and it is, of course - but actually, that tends to undersell the game somewhat. Bastion is not an incredible game for a debut... it is an incredible game AND a debut. The fact that it was Supergiant's first foray into games is incredible, but divorced from that, it remains a fantastic game regardless - compulsive, polished to a degree that puts 'Triple A' games to shame, variable, beautiful, auditorially stunning, and a tonal and stylistic triumph from top to bottom. The Ranking: The obvious comparisons on the current list are both Transistor and Hades. In terms of Supergiant, I think I'm already on record as thinking Transistor is the best game they have, all things being even, and I still stand by that. The music is the best selection (though they are all great,) the world is my favourite, and the variable builds I found so fascinating and awesome, as to eclipse other strong elements in the other Supergiant games. The real question, then, is - does Bastion beat Hades? Both games have elements in which they win. I think Bastion takes it on raw combat, certainly on level variety and design, and I think it has the better enemy selection. I also think Bastion, has the slightly superior soundtrack, and the Narrator voice element is excellent. Hades, on the other hand, wins on replayability, on overall narrative, on characters, and on compulsivity. In the end, I think Bastion does manage to hold its own against Hades. Its a marginal victory, however, the fact that Hades bases all its best elements on a fundamental gameplay that is very similar to Bastion, and actually a little weaker, means that despite its breadth and scope, it has trouble competing. Hades also had the fact that it, while an original take, is based on existing mythology, while Bastion is wholly original. It is, however, a very close call. While I think Bastion does do enough with story and with emotion (owing a big debt to Darren Korb and vocalist Ashley Barrett on that front,) to beat out Life is Strange: True Colours (who's strength is also in characters, performances, visuals and music,) but I'd have trouble elevating it past Returnal, which does a lot of similar things to Bastion, but has the Lynchian narrative elements and an even more pointed sense of originality and wonder to it... plus the baked-in repeatability that the rogue-like element adds. As such, The Kid finds his spot! Black & White Bushido Summary: A curious little multiplayer game from Good Catch Ltd, Black & White Bushido is a multiplayer brawler for up to 4 players, in which players take the role of ninjas of either the Black or White team, and battle in single-screen arenas, a-la original Mario Bros, or, if you will, a sort of mash-up between Smash Brothers and Bushido Blade, by artistic way of White Night. The game is almost entirely monochromatic, (the only colour outside of black and white is some shades of grey, and the red pools of blood,) and therein lies the crux of the game. Ninjas on the Black team are all but invisible in dark areas of the level but stand out completely in the light areas, and vice-versa, however, each level is constantly changing, with different areas becoming light / dark at different times, meaning there is constant switching between hunter and hunted, as there is a massive advantage to the player of the same delineation as the background area. The movement in the game is slick and incredibly fast, and the ninjas are all very nimble, able to wall jump and scurry around the levels like lightning. Kills in the game are just as fast - like Bushido Blade, there are no health meters - one good slice, and that ninja is a ninj-was - and so when 4 players are in a match, there is a feverish twitchiness and staccato rhythm to the pace of the game, trying to stay in areas of advantage, while zipping around and trying to catch an opponent unaware or slacking, all the while avoiding all opposing players. While the black and white aesthetic is a simple one, I actually think it looks fantastic here. The lack of graphical requirements is probably key, not only to the gameplay, but to the speed - it allows the game to move at breakneck pace while still feeling smooth and responsive in the way it needs to. The audio in the game is quite satisfying too - music and stings are fun and silly - in the vein of Fruit Ninja - but slicing and the grunts of the ninjas are super satisfying. The gameplay is remarkably simple, and so very easy to pick up for non-game-savvy players, however, the smooth, nimble feeling of the movement means there is a deceptively high skill ceiling to the game - good players can pull off arial kills and breathtakingly quick traversal that look cool, and feel great. There are 9 stages overall, and each has some slight variations and eccentricities, and the game adds a challenge mode that makes for good practice for multiplayer, as well as becoming quite tricky in the back half, however, really, Black & White Bushido is a party-game through and through. It is at its best with 4 players of roughly even skill all gathered around the same TV and laughing as they slice and dice one another. Overall, Black & White Bushido isn't a game likely to hold a single players attention for terribly long, and it is a small game of limited scope, but as a party game, it is tremendous fun - a quick game to pick up, but a tough one to master, and gives rise to a cat-and-mouse back and forth that is great fun. The Ranking: Black & White Bushido is a tough one to find comparison points for, and double so as it is a game far better in party multi-player than solo, and is, fundamentally, a narrow genre with little scope. One games that come to mind for comparison, while quite different in gameplay, is Joe Danger. That game is a single player experience, but also small, 2D and has fun, smooth movement as the primary arrow in its sheath. While there is great fun to be had in Black & White Bushido, I do think it falters by comparison to Joe Danger though, as the single player elements are slight, and there is far less longevity or replayability solo. There is no true comparison below, however, I do think it would be wrong to rank Black & White Bushido lower than Bentley's Hackpack, which while fun enough, never has the raw, giddy thrills of Black & White Bushido, or anything to really compete with them. I don't, however, feel comfortable ranking Black & White Bushido above the current best of Artifex Mundi, Enigmatis 3: The Shadow of Karkhala, and so, that finds a sweet spot for Black & White Bushido! Lumines Remastered Summary: Lumines, the seminal PSP rhythm-based answer to Tetris from 2004, was remastered and re-released for the PS4 in 2016, and has really never looked or felt better. Conceptually, Lumines is really a remarkable game - combining the endless, timeless compulsiveness of Tetris with a slew of great electronic music, simplifying the puzzle elements down to simple squares, but then re-complicating the removal of them by adding a metronomic, rhythm-based 'clear-line', set by the particular level's soundtracks BPM. As with all abstracted puzzlers, Lumines is a game that is very easy to understand the broad strokes of, but the nature of its scoring and the ability for the player to continually improve and speed up their own play, means there is a near infinite skill-ceiling. You know immediately when you see an abstracted puzzler in this vein whether you are down with it - and if you (like me) are, then there is a near infinite amount of gaming ahead of you. You will only get better, and the compulsive draw of the "just-one-more-game" factor is never stronger than in this genre! Essentially, games of this genre are the anchovies of the industry. People who like them tend to love them, and people who don't won't ever. Luckily, I'm one of the former! Firstly, the game looks great. For a game originally on the PSP, there is remarkably little evidence of its age. The game looks smooth and crisp, each stage is uniquely designed, with the puzzle bocks changing appearance to natch the unique background, and each stage is themed to the specific music. A few of these backgrounds can still look a little unfocussed or grimy, but its debatable whether this is a negative, or deliberate, in order to keep the focus on the action. Effects and transitions look great, and the whole game looks bright, colourful and perfectly fitting when stacked against modern games in the genre (Tetris Effect and Chime Sharp being my two obvious comparison points.) While not every single stage's aesthetic is perfect - there are a couple where I think the colour scheme isn't quite as distinct enough to tell one block type from the other when the game gets to breakneck speed, or where the background can pop a little more than the on-screen action - but these elements are minor and fleeting, given that you are always but a minute away from a new song, and a new aesthetic transition. The game moves flawlessly - on the original PSP there were occasional issues with frame-rate, which was particularly noticeable in a game designed around a steady beat and where exploitation of a fixed rhythm is a key to success, but those issues are entirely absent from this version, as far as I could tell. The game also really benefits from the 4K output of the PS4 Pro - though, curiously, for a game with such popping visuals and style, does not seem to support HDR. Audio is, of course, wonderful. I'm not necessarily a huge Electronic Music aficionado, though I can certainly dig some now and then. (I'm not a 'specific genre guy' - in writing this morning, I have already listened to Marilyn Manson, Aphex Twin, Taylor Swift, Wu-Tang and Carpenter Brut, so the Spotify algorithms really don't know what to do with me.) The particular set of tracks in the original Lumines, though, is a really eclectic and satisfying mix. While this original Lumines soundtrack is, I believe, generally considered the best selection the series ever saw, I personally am a slight outlier, as I actually think the Vita launch title Lumines Electronic Symphony takes that crown. However, even considering that, this game would be a close second. As with the visuals, not every track is likely to be a personal banger - there are a few I don't particularly care for, but again, this is a minor issue, given how many there are, and how quickly they switch up. If a song you don't like is playing, stick it out - the odds are that one you do love is coming along any second now! The actual package of Lumines Remastered is really impressive. In addition to the main campaign mode, which is generally the main draw, and cycles through every track and level the game has, there is a puzzle mode, a speed mode, and endless mode and a versus mode. (Full disclosure, it's been a very long time since I cracked out my PSP, so I can't immediately recall if any of the modes here are new to this Remaster, however, my gut feeling is that they existed on the PSP version too.) These are all fairly fun distractions, though personally, I could do without the puzzle mode. That mode takes the base mechanics and repurposed them to a picross style game. It feels a little dull as compared to everything else, and is a bit too long for its own good. Having said that though, the real meat-and-potatoes of the game is in that main mode... and in the Versus. Versus mode is both the source of tremendous multiplayer fun in couch co-op - good play by one player adds hazards and issues for the other, meaning there is a good push-pull between the players and fates can flip on a dime - and the source of one of the hardest trophies in the game: beating the CPU in all ten stages without losing once. The CPU is fiendishly good at the game, and that mode had me struggling for over a year of attempts before I managed to best it - but that, I think, is actually a quiet testament to the enduring compulsivity and high quality of the base game. It took a year of attempts, but I never disliked the game during that time - and actually, my nightly 15 minutes with Lumines felt missing once I no longer had that challenge to draw me back... ...there is a reason I purchased the Tetris Effect recently... ...I'm trying to recapture that frustrating, awesome magic! The Ranking: There are fairly few abstracted puzzlers on the list currently - the obvious comparison being EA's Tetris - however, that comparison is moot, as that offering was bare-bones and a stain on the Tetris name, while Lumines Remastered is one of the best of the genre. There are a few others - Metropolis: Lux Obscura, Cuboid, even Sound Shapes that could offer some loose similarity, however, Lumines Remastered beats these handily, due to it's huge offering in the package, its music, and its overall polish... plus the fact that the fundamental game is just better. Critter Crunch offers a little more of a fight - it doesn't quite lie down in front of Lumines Remastered, but it still can't compete on any real level. We have to go pretty far up the list, in fact, to find a real contender for Lumines Remastered to spar with - the awesome stylings of Pac Man Championship Edition DX. I thought on this one a while, but pound for pound, I think Lumines Remastered has to win that bout too. Both games are incredibly addictive and moreish, but Lumines Remastered has the soundtrack that edges out Pac Man's, and fundamentally, I know I have returned to Lumines Remastered more often than I have Pac Man (and that isn't purely based on trophies.) Plus, while this is a remaster, it is a remaster of the original Lumines, and so benefits from originality. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is incredible as a lesson in how to modernise an existing game, but it remains based on just that: an existing game. It is close though, and therefore, comes down to feel with the games above. I am comfortable saying I think Lumines Remastered beats out Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, however, I'm not so sure I can claim the same for Assassin's Creed Revelations - a game I find to be not only fantastic, but a little under-appreciated - Lumines get's its due far more! A little unscientific perhaps, but that gives Lumines Remastered the comfortably high spot it deserves, and feels right to me! Persian Nights: Sands of Wonder Summary: A decent, if a little flawed entry in the Artifex Mundi camp, Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders takes their usual brand of hidden-object/ puzzle-lite mechanics and this time sends it on a magic carpet ride to the lands of Arabian Nights. Art-wise, Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders is... flawed. I don't think its art is among the strongest of the stable, (actually, punch for punch, I'd argue this is a weaker entry on that front,) however, the Persian flavour is an outlier in the Artifex Mundi canon, and as such it does stand out. Particularly from the wealth of European-flavoured fairytale lands on show in the Eventide, Queen's Quest, Lost Grimoires and Grim Legends series, or the spooky wheelhouse of the Nightmare from the Deep, Enigmatis and Endless Fables yarns. The story is relatively familiar territory for anyone well versed in the worlds of Prince of Persia, or the Arabian Nights tales, and voice work is nothing to write home about, but the puzzle variety is pretty good here. The hidden object sections however, are a little dry, as the particular aesthetic doesn't seem to lend itself to those terribly well - they become rather easy with this colour palate. There are, unfortunately, quite a few instances of the rather tiresome 'boss fight' mechanics in this one - a 'puzzle' skew I never enjoy, (just give me a good knot puzzle, or measuring puzzle instead or something!) - and it does lack a bonus chapter, which feels odd, as the main story feels a little shorter than the typical Artifex Mundi game. Not bad, and milks some milage from the uncommon setting, but not quite enough to compete with the better Artifex Mundi games out there. The Ranking: Not among the best of Artifex Mundi - gets a few points for the more original setting, but loses a fair few for the abundance of 'boss' mechanics, the lack of bonus chapters and the lack of good Hidden Object sections. Doesn't compete with the Enigmatis or the Grim Legends offerings, and fails to outdo some of the less serialised ones such as Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, or Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink. I think, slipping down a bit, Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders also loses to lesser AM game Lost Grimoires 2: Shard of Mystery, however, I do think it manages to outdo Dark Arcana: The Carnival. The only game in between in Gem Smashers, and I would rather play Persian Nights: Sands of Wonders again than that game, so it beats that one, to find its spot. Pyre Summary: Coming out in 2017, after the successes of Bastion and Transistor, the idea that Supergiant were making a game inspired (by their own admission,) by NBA Jam felt like a bizarre decision. I don't think I had felt such a feeling of WTF?! since hearing Paul Thomas Anderson, post-Magnolia and Boogie Nights, state his next project was an Adam Sandler comedy. Well, of course, there is a reason I'm not a creative, and Anderson and Supergiant are... like Punch Drunk Love, Pyre is certainly true to the letter of what they said - Punch Drunk Love is and Adam Sandler comedy, and Pyre does have some glimmer of NBA Jam in it's DNA - but but both projects retained all the sensibilities of their crafters, becoming something splendid that I could never have envisioned, but fell in love with upon experiencing. Pyre takes place in a fantastical, post-apocalyptic realm, in which the dark, arcane, mystical and fairytale live side-by-side, in a single, cohesive and thoroughly well-realised world - a sort of cross between Mad Max, Dark Crystal, ancient Pagan tradition and new-age hippie commune. The player takes on the role of the 'Reader', an unseen scribe documenting the journey of a group of criminals banished from the 'Commonwealth' to 'The Downside' as they form a sort of arcane sports team, to compete with other criminal teams in an ancient ritual known as 'The Trial' to win back their passage to the Commonwealth. The Trials - forming one half of the game - play out like a sort of old-times take on a future-sports game, (a sort of mix of Speedball, Dead Ball Zone and NBA Jam, by way of Fallout,) in which each team of three players tries to destroy the opposing team's 'Pyre' - a totem at either end of the playfield, by throwing a glowing ball at it. Different characters have different strengths and weaknesses and play-styles, and throughout the narrative element of the game, characters can be met and recruited to the team, as they work their way through the tournament - to freedom, or to ruin. The actual gameplay is great fun - the inclusion of, to this date, Supergiant's only multiplayer mode in the form of The Trials is testament to the level to which they have polished the action aspects and rule-set of their original sports game here. In the single-player game though, as good as the Trials gameplay is, it is likely to take second place to the narrative elements. That narrative is just fantastic. An interactive, player-choice and player-victory dependent shifting story, filled with humour, sadness, tough choices and poignant moments. While the Trials gameplay is actually extremely good and compulsive, this is the side of the game most 'Supergiant-specific' and most interesting. All Supergiant games are, we know by now, absurdly well written, well acted and well designed, however, Pyre is the only one in which the additional complexity of shifting narratives is present. that would seem, on paper, to be a vastly more difficult task to design, but if the writers struggled with this element, the player would never know it. There is an incredible level of variation that can happen in the narrative, based on (often gut-wrenching,) choices the player has to make along the way in a narrative sense, and on the outcome of each game of The Trials, yet no matter how the game transpires or what choices the player makes, the game never seems to show its seams. The narrative seems to flow perfectly, no matter what happens, to the extent that even losing every single match, the narrative still flows correctly, and works as the tragedy it, (under those circumstances,) becomes. The world design of Pyre is, if anything, the most impressive and broad Supergiant have ever done. Every world they craft has a believable and cohesive history and tone, though Pyre, due to the nature of its malleable story, (and lack of pre-existing basis, a-la Hades,) requires a huge amount of explanation. The temptation would be for this to necessitate huge exposition dumps, however, the game does a great job of letting the player learn all this history in natural conversations between and with the characters, rather than in long tomes or lore-dumps. The art is beautiful - character designs are crisp, complex and interesting, and the art style is a clear step away from the more cheebie elements of Bastion, or sketch-stylised visuals of Transistor and towards that which would form Hades. The visuals of these character, even in motion during The Trials looks smooth and feel and sound excellent. The actual over-world has a more stylised look than anything seen before - a kind of 2D painterly background of flat cell-shaded elements - a sort of more colourful version of the visuals of Oxenfree, spliced with something like a Samurai Jack. Audio is great again, I'm likely going to sound like a broken record, particularly in reviewing Bastion and Pyre so close together - but it's just so fucking rad! Darren Korb once again provides a score that is so outstanding as to threaten to eclipse the gameplay of a lesser game. While I think punch-for-punch, my personal favourite selection comes from Transistor, Pyre is a very close second, and really, it is a matter of minor degrees. Frankly, my Spotify playlist of Darren Korb features all 4 games on shuffle, and there is barely a single track I ever skip past across all four games. The voice work is of Supergiant's usual high standard too, and never once falters or fails to live up to the sharp writing. There is one point that should be noted, that does affect Pyre negatively in the particular context of this website - the trophies. While the actual platinum journey of Pyre is, like all Supergiant games, a genuine pleasure - unlike all other Supergiant joints, the trophy list in Pyre is something of a hinderance to the game, rather than a boon. Because Pyre, unlike their other games, is very much built on the idea of a malleable story, wherein the plot is designed to shift and weave to account for all eventualities, and winning/ losing different games throughout the game makes sizeable changes to that story, the presence of a trophy list tends to encourage players to see less of the game, rather than more. Because the trophy list actively rewards winning, there is a distinct temptation to save-scum through the game to achieve the 'best' ending. While I completely understand this inclination, I do think it works against the player experiencing the real meat of the design and writing work that went into the game as a whole. It is actually much more pleasurable, from a gaming point of view, to simply play the game, win some, lose some, let the chips fall where they may, and see the narrative play out as it does. While Supergiant do a reasonable job of encouraging varied play within the framework of the game with their trophy list, the fact remains, the list does discourage losing, and in losing, there is great writing to be seen, and a more dynamic feeling game to be experienced. Overall, Pyre is a really impressive - and more importantly, wholly unique - thing. The game is conceptually bizarre, and feels like it shouldn't work, yet, every element is so perfectly woven together, as to feel completely correct when actually playing. The morphing narrative elements are tremendously effective, and while the trophy list runs counter to seeing it all, the game itself is so well designed that it would be a tragedy to simply save-scum through the game and see nothing more. The lore and world-building are great, and - maybe most importantly - the unusual sports elements in the form of The Trials, are incredibly fun to play. It almost feels moot to say "This Supergiant game is great" at this point - references to greatness in terms of Supergiant almost feel redundant - but, well... This Supergiant game is great! The Ranking: The playing field for Pyre is fairly easily narrowed on the list, by virtue of it falling certainly below Transistor, but still being of a quality that needs to be considered against Bastion and Hades. As Bastion is narrowly above Hades, the question is - does Pyre beat Bastion? Again, it comes down to rounds, with both games taking some victories. I think on art-style, Bastion wins in terms of world, while Pyre wins on characters. Bastion has the tone probably, however, Pyre takes it easily on narrative - partly owning to the choose-your-own-adventure variability... though actually, any single story of Pyre probably still takes it anyway, simply on great writing. In terms of raw gameplay, I think Bastion probably wins - as fun as the Trials are, I still prefer the hack-n-slash of Bastion - but on music, while both are great, Pyre takes it. (Just listen to "Path to Glory"... it just has to win!) It's heartbreaking to pit such great games against one another, as I love them both, but in the end, I think Pyre is the winner. The replayability that the flexible narrative offers, and the multiplayer-enabled, shockingly original gameplay is just too interesting for it not to. There are a thousand good hack-n-slash games out there, but precious few good fictional sports games, and none with the narrative elements of Pyre. Couple that with the incredible lore and world-building, and the music, and it just overwhelms Bastion. There's nothing like Pyre between Transistor and Bastion (or, really anywhere on the list!) so it comes down to gut feeling again... and for some reason, (call it scientific intuition,) there is a spot that just feels right - and that is one notch below Deathloop, but one above The Surge. Got to go with my gut on this one - come at me Science Gods! BONUS GAMES 3 Additional eligible S-Ranks earned this round!: Gods Will Fall Summary: Gods Will Fall, the latest game from small UK developer Clever Beans (of When Vikings Attack! fame,) is a curious little game. Part dungeon crawler, part Souls-Lite, the game is probably most aptly characterised as a Rogue-like, though is takes the existing rogue-like formula and adds quite a few specific nuances to it. The game feels brimming with smart ideas, and while almost all of these ideas work, and translate to benefits to the game, the game does have some issues, generally relating to the fundamental template those ideas are draped upon. The premise is relatively simple - in an ancient, Pagan world of old Gods, humans are tired of being mere pawns and playthings of higher powers. A group of warriors set out to the island of the Gods, to slay the ten Gods, one by one, freeing Humanity from their bondage. After their ships are hit by storms, however, only a few survivors wash ashore, and band together to complete the task. What this boils down to is, essentially, a group of 8 warriors with randomly selected traits, weapons and strengths / weaknesses, are controlled, moving en-masse across an island with 10 available, unique dungeons to traverse, each of which contains one of the Old Gods, along with their specific worshippers and acolytes. At the entrance to each God's domain, a single warrior is selected by the player, to delve into the dungeon, and try their hand at defeating the God within. Once all ten Gods are defeated, the run is complete. That seems simple, (and it is,) however, the game does a good job of making each run feel quite distinct and unique. The warriors available at the start are randomly assigned, and each has a multitude of possible variables - there are three 'sizes' (types), different weapons, different traits / fears / relationships to other warriors, and different health and strength stats. The difficulty of the different dungeons is random each time - in one run, one God's domain might be the easiest, and in the next, the hardest - and so there is a benefit to poking and prodding at different areas, rather than simply bashing ones head against the same one over and over. However, there is a smart push-pull to this. Completing a dungeon results in a smattering of changes to the group as a whole - some warriors gain stats, some lose stats, some gain new abilities, and each God defeated brings a smattering of new weapons and items to use. However, if a warrior fails in a dungeon, they are rarely 'perma-dead'. Instead, they are 'trapped' within the dungeon. If the player manages to then defeat that God with another warrior, that will 'rescue' the lost warrior too, meaning if they have lost 3 or 4 warriors in a single dungeon, there is a real benefit to sticking it out there, rather than moving on, with a vastly reduced party. The game does some smart stuff with this mechanic too - certain warriors will receive buffs if a close friend is 'lost' in a dungeon, making the party feel dynamic and different each time - as if they have genuine history with one another. There is also a pretty smart thing done, in the sense that, even if successful, the warrior who kills a God is generally exhausted, and gets some temporary nerfs applied. This means the player needs to become familiar with multiple warriors over a run - simple using the 'best' character for every God is not an option, as they will be slowly weakening, and never get a chance to recover. The actual dungeons are quite nicely designed. The randomisation of dungeons extends only to enemy quantity, difficulty and placement - the actual layouts are static for the most part - however, the various dynamic elements of weapon / character / enemies makes this still feel quite different from run to run. There is a really cool, quite unique mechanic present in the game, in the sense that the Gods are genuinely empowered by the worship of their followers. Their health bars are visible from the moment of entering a dungeon, and can be reduced in various ways before ever even seeing them - sometimes by destroying totems or doing other level-specific tasks, but primarily by killing the enemies. If a player chooses to run through the level quickly, slipping past the regular enemies, that is valid, but the boss will have full health when thy face it. If they meticulously slaughter every one of their followers before facing them, however, the God's health bar may be up to 50% gone right from the outset. The game looks pretty nice. There is a painterly aspect to the world design, giving a look of a kind of Pagan-flavoured Rime, and the (minimal,) cut scenes are simple, but well done. Enemy design is fairly good, and the individual bosses all look cool and distinct - cartoonish in a cell-shaded, slightly PS3 way, but still aesthetically pleasing, and varied. Audio is really top-notch - the general score is a cool, thumping, ritualistic affair, filled with sombre groans, creaks, and threatening tones, and the voice over (in some ancient pagan language, I believe,) and subtitled in English, is appropriately tonal, booming, and sounds great. Combat is a bit of a mixed bag, however. There is a bit of an issue with hit-boxing - it can be difficult to tell if a weapon swing will connect at times, particularly in boss fights, or to gauge how far the player needs to be from an enemy swing to avoid it. There is a parry system, but it feels at times a little finicky in the timing. (Personally, I tended to avoid parrying, unless the warrior I was using had a particular trait, which extends the timing window, as that was the only time I felt comfortable with it.) There can also be an issue with 'elevation' in the game - if the enemy and the player are on uneven terrain, and slightly elevated from one another, hits that should clearly connect can often whiff. There is also, it must be said, something of an issue with balance. Certain weapons and traits are vastly superior to others. Speed is much, much more important than stamina or strength, and so 'large' characters and 'heavy' weapons are pretty useless. The range and power of a spear is so vastly over-powered as to render all other weapons senseless, and so a run can be trivialised to a large extent by having a few particularly fast warriors armed with decent spears. The actual boss fights are mixed - the designs of the fights are pretty good, however, the same hit-box issues remain, and that can be frustrating. Frankly, most bosses can be defeated by simple attrition - standing ground, and wailing on them until they are gone - and while that can be fun, it is also a little unsatisfying. There are specific trophies for killing each boss a specific way, which alleviates some of this, but from a pure game point of view, it can make the game feel less than it should be. I do also think there is something a little lost by the absence of a 'final' boss. The first time through the game, I was specifically saving certain items / warriors, assuming there would be a final encounter with a 'big bad' once all then Gods fell. As it turns out, there isn't - the ten you have available form the start is all there is, and while that is fine in terms of content, it does mean the game feels a bit lacking in catharsis or finale. It just kind of... ends. Overall, there is a lot to like in Gods Will Fall. It's a game that looks cool, sounds cool, and is brimming with genuinely smart ideas that I could easily see influencing future games in the rogue-like camp. It is a little let down by its base mechanics, however. The combat is a little easy to cheese, the over-world, while nice to look at is a little barren, and it could really do with a big 'final' encounter to make the whole thing feel more complete. Not a bad game, and worth of your time, but one that doesn't actually ask as much of the player than players of this genre have come to expect. The Ranking: Gods Will Fall is a tough one as rogue-likes go on the current list. It certainly isn't in competition with the likes of Dead Cells or Rogue Legacy, and realistically, I think the fundamental gameplay prevents it being in contention with the likes of RAD or Void Bastards either. However, it does have plenty of original ideas, and is quite compulsive, despite it's shortcomings, which keeps it well above something like pretend-Rogue-like Chasm. This one is going to end up being rather unscientific, as there is precious little that is directly comparable in between, so I'm really looking to smaller, less well known games that I have as points to factor. I think as compared to Through the Darkest of Times, Gods Will Fall prevails, as while Through the Darkest of Times has a lot of good historical stuff to learn and a tone that works, Gods will Fall beats it in terms of mechanics and aesthetic, and has more original gameplay ideas. I don't, on the other hand, think it beats out either Gris or The Pedestrian, both of which are great smaller games, and both of which win on visuals and sound, and - certainly in The Pedestrian's case - on gameplay. Gods Will Fall probably, by rights, sits above The Spectrum Retreat, but doesn't quite manage to outdo Operation Tango, so that narrows it further, and fundamentally, I think there is enough good ideas in Gods Will Fall, and enough of them are successful, to outclass indie art-puzzler Rain. That leaves only a few games in between. I have trouble ranking Gods Will Fall above Concrete Genie or Little Big Planet 3, however, I think it does do enough with its concepts that are original an interesting to just outdo the original Jak and Daxter, and so it finds its spot! It Takes Two Summary: It Takes Two, the third game from Josef Fares, and the second to be released under the banner of his Hazelight Studio, continues his penchant for duel-play, co-op game design, first dabbled with in the wonderful single-player-but-duel-control art-puzzle game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and continued in his interesting-though-flawed co-op-only 70's exploitation prison-break crime-thriller A Way Out. A co-op-only, action 3D Platforming Puzzle-lite, It Takes Two follows a married couple - stay-at-home dad Cody and engineer May - who are on the verge of divorce, and their young daughter Rose. After they inform Rose of their plan to divorce, she is playing with dolls of her parents, play-acting a reconciliation. Through the power of wishful magic, the two adults are transformed into the dolls, (leaving their corporeal bodies comatose in the house,) and are introduced to Dr.Hakim - a magical self-help book with an inexplicable (and tremendously grating) faux-Italian accent - who proceeds to send the couple on a series of odd, semi-metaphorical quests around the (now massive,) family home, dealing with anthropomorphically enlivened versions of the general household objects, in order to repair their relationship and, ultimately, to return to their human forms. The game looks great. Really, really great. There is a visual fidelity in the graphics that is smooth, bright, lively and really pops. The smooth frame-rate is pretty impressive, considering the level of rendering on screen, and the fact that the game is (most likely) being played spilt-screen most of the time. While the actual design for the levels that May and Cody traverse does, I think, lack much of the charm that they aim at, (the kind of genuinely child-like, wonder-filled aesthetic of a Little Big Planet,) and tends to revert to twee or rote, (more on that later,) there is an admirable amount of variety in the far-longer-than-one-might-expect game. The pairs travels take them from the gardens, to the attic, to a squirrel-ruled tree-world, to Roses room, to a snowy snow-globe, and a host of other locations. Each is chock-full of nice looking details and a really impressive level of art design, as well as a remarkable amount of interactive objects and fun, silly diversions. Exploring a new area, and finding all the little ways Cody and May can interact with it is a consistent source of fun. The actual gameplay is a bit of a mixed bag, but generally levels out to 'pretty good'. The main thrust is 3D platforming, which is loose and free, with a fun, slightly floaty quality, though some of the more intricate platforming can often cause the camera to jerk around, or get hung up on environmental elements. (One challenge in particular - the aptly named 'Hell Tower' is certainly a hellish affair, though this is less as a result of the actual platforming, and entirely down to the camera's total inability to focus on the action - deciding to randomly swivel 180 degrees at random during particularly perilous jumps!) There are a huge number of little competitive mini-games to be discovered (each playable from the main menu after finding once,) which while varying in quality, are generally pretty good fun. These are, in fact, the only real 'collectibles' in the game, and huge credit has to be given to Hazelight for only including collectibles that are genuinely interesting, and no - as platformers often do - simply adding needless busywork to the trophy list. Where the gameplay is at it's best, is generally in the level-specific, more puzzle-y elements. The whole game is geared towards finding different ways for Cody and May to be forced to work together to proceed, and the game does a genuinely good job of consistently coming up with new twists on this. In one, for example, one character can fire flammable sap, while the other can ignite it. In one, (a personal favourite,) both players have opposite poles of a magnet, and can push or pull different elements of the environment (or each-other). In another, one player can rewind time on certain objects, while the other can teleport - and there are quite a few specific puzzles crafted to make use of these powers. This is certainly the strongest card in It Takes Two's hand, however, it must be said, it does know it, and tends to over-play it. As said, the game is long. Over long, in fact. This isn't a case of too many levels necessarily, but of each level simply being two or three times longer than it really should be. For every smart smart puzzle solution the player comes up with, they can bet they will be using it 5 or 6 separate times per level - and each time, the effect is a little lessened. Frankly, the actual beat-by-beat story simply isn't able to support levels of this length - while there is a lot of interplay and dialogue between Cody and May, none of it is particularly interesting or funny, and so, while it does a valiant effort, it doesn't do enough to stop the longer levels from dragging. All of these minor negatives don't really do much harm though, and the actual gameplay is fun enough to stand up to them... however, where the game completely falls over, (and I do mean completely,) is in the writing. This game really hurt - as it forced me to admit that Josef Fares, creator of my beloved Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, simply isn't at his best whenever there is an explicit narrative or actual dialogue to contend with. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons worked incredibly well, but those characters only emoted and the narrative was evident through the actions. They spoke only in gesture and mock-simlish, rather than explicit dialogue. In actual writing, it seems Josef Fares games fail, and tend to fail big. A Way Out suggested it, but It Takes Two confirms it. There are multiple elements to this - some general, but less egregious - and one specific and extreme. In general, the writing of It Takes Two suffers for a lot of the same reasons A Way Out did - its characters simply do not talk naturally, or behave realistically. While in A Way Out, this was more a vocal issue - the characters felt emotionally coherent, but the way they actually spoke felt a little tin-eared, as if the script had been through a google-translate prior to recording, in It Takes Two, the opposite problem is on show. The actual dialogue is largely fine, (never good, but acceptable,) but what makes no sense is the emotional coherence of the characters. Cody and May seem to have a sort of selective amnesia about their daughter and their situation. One minute, they will be shouting at Dr.Hakim about how they need to get back to Rose immediately, (as one would expect,) but the next minute, they will take a time out to play some chess, or some Laser Tennis, or to jump on a merry-go-round, and be gleefully chatting about how much fun their entrapment in their new toy-bodies is. Of course, some portion of this is par-for-the-course - after all, the game is marketed at children, and so keeping the tone light and the stakes in check is understandable - however, because the game is so long, and the tone so uneven within, there is a constant problem of remembering what the actual stakes from section to section are. It Takes Two is a co-op required game, and one in which the two players really need to be the same two players for the duration. Because the game is so long, it is highly likely that it will take most pairs of players several weeks to finish, given that finding time to play together is much more difficult for most people than finding solo-gaming time. Because of this, and because individual levels are so long, and lack obvious 'break points,' the lack of consistency in the characters' goals is exacerbated and extended to the players - it feels like Cody and May are constantly forgetting what they are supposed to be doing, along with the players. The other aspect to the general writing is the charm and the humour of the game... or rather, the attempt at those elements. Charm is a tough thing to define, but - like pornography - we know it when we see it. In It Takes Two, we incredibly don't. It has all the elements of other, more charming games, (most notably Little Big Planet,) - magical realism, a world of wonder within every-day objects, whimsical characters made of anthropomorphised object etc, however, it just doesn't quite add up to charming. It feels like an approximation of a Little Big Planet-style game, made by someone who not only doesn't believe in magic, but never even did as a child. It's 'charm' feels borne out of committee and focus-testing, rather than imagination. A sort of "Brett Ratner's Little Big Planet", if you will. Humour, on the other hand, can be done myriad different ways, but here, it fails almost every single time. Neither Cody nor May is particularly likeable or endearing, and so their playful ribbing and antagonistic back and forth is far more often wearying than funny. Dr. Hakim, who is clearly intended to be H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S, is so profoundly irritating and try-hard in his jokes, that all it really does is make you despise his mere presence. It is debatable whether, even if the humour were to work, that it would save the character, given Dr. Hakim's part in the overall narrative - after all, he is responsible for ensnaring these struggling parents in this situation, endangering the well-being of their child, and forcing them to complete an arduous series of increasingly difficult, ironic-punishment-based trials in order to win back their freedom and lives. A sort of cheebie-Jigsaw from the Saw franchise, if you will. However, because the humour never hits, it really takes the legs out from under the game's tone. These elements drag the game down, but they are nothing in comparison to the narrative finale. Let me not mince words here: I think the finale is grotesque. Simultaneously saccharine and false-ringing, but also genuinely dangerous to impressionable children (arguably the game's intended audience) on a multitude of levels. FAIR WARNING - I generally don't spoil the endings of narrative games, but I'm going to here. Normally, I would avoid compromising the integrity of the narrative, but, as the last 15 or so minutes of the story of It Takes Two proves, it has no integrity to compromise. Let me be clear - I played this game with my wife of ten years. We have a young son, and we are both children of divorce. The ending of the game made both of us FUCKING LIVID! Okay - everyone ready? Cody and May are going to divorce at the start of the game. They have made that decision. They tell Rose so. They then go through their whole adventure, being forced to address the (laughably minor) problems in their relationship by the satanic Dr. Hakim, and finish that nightmarish situation in victory - by kissing.During this time, Rose has decided she is the problem in their relationship, and runs away from home, leaving a letter telling her (currently catatonic) parents that without her, they will be friends again. The game ends, with Cody and May, (back in corporeal form,) running to the bus stop, stopping Rose, telling her they are going to stay together, and everyone lives happily ever after. Where do I fucking start with this?! To begin with, to any adults playing the game this is obviously laughable and frivolous, but for the intended audience - children - many of whom will either have divorced parents themselves, or will experience divorce at some point - this is downright dangerous. Firstly, on a surface level. It leaves the impression that running away from home is all a child need do to provide the catalyst for their parents to reconcile their differences, and become a smaulchy, TV-cereal-commercial family again. Secondly, on a much more insidious level - it suggests divorce is something that parents choose to do on a whim. That adult relationship problems are something that can be solved by mere circumstance or minor changes - and that they would not have explained to Rose early on that it was not her fault. If Cody and May's problems were simply that Cody didn't comment on May's singing often enough, or May didn't appreciate Cody's gardening (both actual narrative points in this game,) then the game is suggesting to children that their parents may divorce (or have divorced) over tiny, minor annoyances, and not genuine irreconcilable problems. Or, worse, that Cody and May do have fundamental relationship issues, but they that they are going to ignore them, and stay together anyways, suggesting, with the faux-happy-ending, that two miserable parents who do not like one-another living together is a preferable situation to having two happy parents who live separately. Like a lot of 90's family films did, It Takes Two minimises true relationship issues, and the serious emotional issues that arise from unloving couples raising children together, glossing over these in pursuit of a "Happy-on-the-Surface-Nuclear-Family-is-Best" 1950's attitude. It is further perpetuating the stigma of divorce, and further complicating the issue when it (inevitable) does arise for many children. Children are not stupid, and in 2021, you would have to go deep into the unexplored, tribal jungles of Papua New Guinea to find any child over the age of five who does not understand that having divorced parents is something they need not feel ashamed of. That divorce is not the result of their actions. That if both their parents love them together, they would also love them apart. That leaves It Takes Two's narrative in a peculiarly unnecessary place at best - even a generous interpretation of its morals would conclude that it is trying to impart a lesson that everyone already knows - but in a much worse one really. It is actively contributing to, and attempting to revive, a stigma that is largely squashed already. This is both unfathomably stupid and dangerous, but also... could have been so easily avoided! By simply not raising the spectre of divorce in the story - just having Cody and May be in a bit of a relationship funk (as happens to most couples from time to time) - and having Rose pick up on that negative stuff more than they realised, the entire existing narrative could be re-contextualised to a large degree. Or - more appropriately - the game could have imparted a genuinely useful message to it's audience: by having the parents not kiss, not reconcile, but still run to the bus stop and talk with Rose, they could have explained that they love her, that the divorce isn't her doing, and that things will be okay anyway. That would have solved 90% of the games issues - Dr.Hakim (and the for-profit self-help-as-commodity industry,) would have been proven wrong and shown to be as insidious and ineffective as it is, Rose would have learned that divorce is not the grim spectre she feared, Cody and May would have been able to live happy, separate lives, and everyone would still live happily ever after... ...it would just be a little more realistic, and a little less... fucking disgusting. Okay. Rant over. Overall, It Takes Two is a game that has a fair number of good point - the gameplay is relatively slick, varied, fun and quite clever in parts. The visuals are great, and a lot of the design work is impressive. There is genuine fun to be had across almost all of the game, at least to some degree. The story pretty dull, and is massively undercut by the ending, however, and the light tone does not extend to actual humour. I do think the game also requires some discussion as to whether it is actually appropriate for children, given the damaging and dangerous message that is its central statement. While I think a child could enjoy the gameplay part, it would be best if the story could be contextualised and discussed with them by a parent after the fact. In the end, this is an odd one, as I feel the different aspects of the game are of such disparate qualitative levels, that I am addressing different areas of the game with completely different messages: To the art designers, I say "Great job!" ...to the game designers, I say "Solid performance!" ...and to the writers, I say "Go FUCK yourselves!" The Ranking: So we are back in a real pickle here, asking the question: how much does a massive misstep in the narrative affect a generally good game, with great visuals, fairly fun mechanics, and that plays in an under-served genre (the co-op only franchise)? The most clear comparison is the other game on the list that was marketed at kids, but had a rather problematic message to them - Concrete Genie. Concrete Genie's issue was less egregious - its message was false, but not necessarily dangerous, while I think It Takes Two's one is. I do think It Takes Two is a better game from a mechanical point of view, but aesthetically they are somewhat even - It Takes Two takes it on graphical fidelity (and quantity,) but Concrete Genie takes it on art-design and originality, as well as on audio and music. Overall, while on a purely mechanical level I would argue It Takes Two wins that match-up, the combination of the charmless story, the less imaginative design, and the massive issues with the tone and message force it lower. Just below is Little Big Planet 3 - and that only confirms the issue with It Takes Two's lack of charm. For all its issues, LBP3 is still dripping with the charm It Takes Two so desperately tries to milk from the barren teats of its characters. I keep looking at games as I move down, and It Takes Two keeps failing that same "charm-test", relying on its gameplay alone, but where it finally finds a foothold is at Arcade Archives: Gradius. In 2021, Gradius has aged so much that despite It Takes Two's issues, the raw gameplay and visuals are just too much to be ranked lower than it. There is a world in which It Takes Two is half as long, and has a different story ending, and places much higher in the ranking... but this just isn't that world. In this world, it finds its spot here. Lost in Random Summary: Looking at the catalogue of Zoink Games, the Swedish developer of Lost in Random, there emerges a particular penchant for the unusual and the peculiar. From the oddly grotesque visuals of comedy adventure game Stick it to the Man, to pointed, geometry of animal-based platformer Fe, to the whimsical art styles of Flipping Death or VR exclusive Ghost Giant, Zoink clearly have range, and can work in a multitude of visual tones, but in every instance one thing is constant: their love of, and commitment to - aesthetically curious crafted realities. Lost in Random is no outlier in this regard. In the magical land of Random, the citizens of its six townships - Onecroft, Two-Town, Threedom, Fourberg, Fivetropolis and Sixtopia - all have their fates decided (where they live, what they do, and what they will be,) at the age of 12, by the roll of the Queen's magical die. When the Queen's emissary, the grotesque Nanny Fortuna, arrives in Onecroft and a little girl named Odd rolls a six, she is whisked off by the royal mechanical spiders, to Sixtopia. Her sister, Even, haunted by dreams that convince her the fabled Sixtopia is not the paradise she and the other citizens have been led to believe, decides to set out to rescue her. After stumbling across a magical die - Dicey - who is much the worse for wear, having had most of his 'pips' (dots) removed after all dice were outlawed by order of the Queen, she discovers Dicey still retains some of his power from the old days - enough to battle the guards and soldiers of the land. The pair set out to travel across Random, traversing each of the six townships, fighting the Queen's clockwork soldiers all the way, learning of the past and present of the land, to rescue Odd from the Queen's clutches. The actual narrative of the game is pretty good all told. The through-line narrative is a simple rescue mission, and is kept ever-present across the game by the dream-sequences peppered throughout, and in the interactions between Even and Dicey, (who speaks in unintelligible bweeps and bwoops, but are discernible by the available responses on Even's part,) the real meat of the game is in the six different townships Even and Dicey's quest takes them to. Each area is not only visually distinct and interesting to look at, but is also given a remarkable amount of Grimm Fairytale style backstory and real personality. Onecroft, where every citizen is downtrodden, and the whole place is crafted out of brick-a-brack and (oddly,) giant teapots. Two-Town, on the other hand, where every citizen has two personalities, decided each day by the roll of the Queen's die, is where Even learns everything is duplicitous... right down to the second Mayor - Royam (get it?) - who grows upside down out of the Mayor's head, and is wasting the entire towns budget on building a second Two-Town upside-down above the main one. Threedom is a town riven by war between the three siblings - The Duke, The Count and The Duchess, each of whom claims full rights of reign, and Even is tasked with bringing an end to the pointlessness of the civil war. It is impressive how much each individual area is able to conjure its own flavour within the overall aesthetically cohesive world of Random, and draw its own host of new missions and side-quests, without the main thrust of the plot being lost. A lot of this comes down to simple good pacing, however, one of the best elements of the game also very much plays into this element - the Narrator. Like in Bastion, the Narrator of Lost in Random supplies a fair mount of both information and the personality of the game itself, as well as a lot of the humour. The Narrator in this game is the source of much fourth-wall breaking and when used effectively, can be very funny - taking a cue from things like The Stanley Parable, Lost in Random milks a good portion of humour from the player's ability to tease the Narrator by doing the opposite of what he says, and quite a bit of additional dialogue has been recorded to fit to this. Lost in Random actually goes a little further too, in the sense that the Narrator mechanic is used in a variety of out-of-the-box ways. At one point, for example, while in the middle of a line of narration, a door can be heard bing broken down, and the Narrator is audible carried off by guards, leaving Even suddenly feeling rather alone. When, with the task of narrating switching to the Queen herself, her rather more vindictive take on narration... "Even suddenly realised what a terrible person she was..." causes Even to feel rather overwhelmed and sad, for reasons she can't quite explain. At one point, Even even comes across a prison door, from which a different narrator of another character's story can be heard. This kind of 4th wall breaking does help to keep the tone of the game light, as do the plethora of differently accented and oddly drawn NPCs Even and Dicey encounter, though there is no shortage of good world-building to flesh out the world in spite of this lightness. In terms of aesthetic, the game does look good, though this is, it should be said, much more down to the excellent art design than the technical graphics. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are perfectly adequate, however, the game does have a bit of a PS3 era feel, and some of the movement can feel a little stiff. The slightly older feel of the game is particularly exhascerbated by the lack of any jump mechanic (this is not, despite how it seems in screenshots, a platformer,) and Even can sometimes feel like she is getting stuck on geometry when a minimal 2-inch difference in height of some floor panels are, to all intents and purposes, a brick wall to her. The actual design work is really top notch though. There is a significant debt to be paid to American McGee's Alice, and to the filmic output of Tim Burton. The world design is Grimm Fairytale crossed with Alice in Wonderland, in much the same vein as Burton's Corpse Bride or Nightmare Before Christmas, though the actual characters have a marionette, sculpted, hand-made quality, more reminiscent of Burton's James and the Giant Peach. These character designs - both humanoid and less so, are deliciously macabre and grotesque, but the light tone prevents them ever feeling scary, and instead, live just on the edge of reality - peculiar and odd, but never horrific. Audio is good - the music is fun and perfectly fits the tone, and voice work is well done. NPCs talk in a broad variety of accents, from Australian to Irish to loads of different English and Scottish dialects, and the mishmash works to the game's 'everywhere-and-nowhere' tone well. Even herself is voiced well, and the Narrator - easily the most prominent voice - is well cast and pitched just right - working for both the fairytale aspects and the comedy. The main mechanic of the game is essentially adventure game/ RPG-lite, and most missions involve one of two things - talking, or fighting. The talking is good, and the missions simple but funny for the most part, though one major issue with the game - the worst one by far - is highlighted in these in-town sections. The game provides a map, which shows the locations of mission critical NPC... but does not show where the player is in relation! It gives a rough indication of which 'zone' of the town they are in, but no indication of compass direction, meaning that in a new town, it can take far longer to orient oneself than it really should. This decision feels baffling - I suppose feeling lost could be argued to be the point in a game called "Lost in Random"... but being forced to constantly peer at the map every ten steps to work out if I'm going the right direction is not really conducive to immersing oneself in the delightful worlds Zoink has built! Combat in the game is a really odd affair - and genuinely interesting - a mash-up of card-battling with 3D action RPG mechanics. Even has a deck of cards she can build from her card-collection, each of which has different abilities. Some are weapons (Even has only her trusty slingshot to begin each encounter,) or different traps/ hazards/ buffs etc. In each encounter, crystals will form on enemies, which can be sling-shotted to break. Dicey is then commanded to collect these, which translate to dice power. This dice power makes available different cards, and once at least one card is available, dicey is 'rolled' and the number he lands on corresponds to a value which can be 'spent' on using these cards. This means that building an effective deck becomes a main mechanic of the game, and finding new, better cards can make all the difference in a battle. The system sounds complex - an on paper it is - but actually works pretty well, and while it does mean each encounter tends to start a bit slow, as Even tries to weave around the playfield, shooting crystals and avoiding incoming threats, once it gets going there is a fun, odd dynamic to the whole thing. Occasional 'special' battles are also introduced, wherein a meta-element of a massive board-game is added - the movement of which is also tied to Dicey's rolls, and these, while a little cumbersome in concept, actually work pretty well too. There is a bit of an issue, in terms of combat towards the latter portions of the game, in the sense that there begins to be a little too much of it - once a really good deck is built, the player tends to stop innovating with it, and so combat can feel a little flat by that point, and certain encounters can last far too long. Overall, Lost in Random is very much a game that works better in reality than it, by rights, should on paper. It's mechanics are obtuse and strange, and it's world is both over-complex in some areas and over-simple in others, however, those complaints aren't really valid, as actually playing the game, it all comes together to create something charming, fun, unusual and certainly unique. The art-style may be heavily influenced by Tim Burton, and Lewis Carroll, but I think there is enough originality injected into it that Lost in Random becomes its own beast - and it's a pretty engaging one. The Ranking: The most apt comparison points for Lost in Random feel of a certain era - that of the PS3 character action games. That's not to say Lost in Random is of that genre necessarily, but it feels the closet in terms of tone and design, in an odd sense. I think, based on that, Lost in Random falls certainly below Beyond Good & Evil HD, who's story and world building are great, but also manages to have a really interesting allegorical story, and music that does beat Lost in Random quite handily. I'd say the slightly stiff controls, and the slightly bloated feeling of exhaustion that comes from the end-game sections where there is too many repetitive and over-long combat encounters does ensure it falls below some heavy-hitters like Ratchet & Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal, the original God of War and Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, however, a little further down is Jak and Daxter, and that game feels like a more appropriate fight. Both games deal in highly stylised worlds, with visual flair, cool cut-scenes and world-building, but in that match-up, I do think Lost in Random takes the edge. Its world, while heavily Tim Burton inspired, is still very original and cohesive, and brimming with ideas in a way Jak and Daxter has trouble competing with, and the age of that game means that the issues of stiff controls are less egregious as a comparison. In the end, I think Lost in Random does do enough to marginally outclass the original Jak and Daxter, and as such, it finds its spot! So there we have it folks! Thanks to @Xylobe for putting in a request! Hitman 3 remains as 'Current Most Awesome Game'! LA Cops stays as the worst-of-the-worst, with the title of 'Least Awesome Game' What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the top spot... or the bottom rung? That's up to randomness, me.... and YOU! Remember: SPECIAL NOTE If there are any specific games anyone wants to see get ranked sooner rather than later - drop a message, and I'll mark them for 'Priority Ranking'! The only stipulation is that they must be on my profile, at 100% (S-Rank).... and aren't already on the Rankings! Catch y'all later my Scientific Brothers and Sisters! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grayhammmer Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) Okay, so I saw a post you made about 10 recommended games for the ps vita and saw Super Time Force Ultra, so I'd like you to go back in time and rectify the mistake of not having analyzed this game sooner. Also, I looked up how It Takes Two's bosses and I'm disappointed that the Book of Love thing didn't end up being the final boss. Also also, I noticed that you said that Lumines Remastered beat out Shadow of Mordor in your analysis, but the Main list shows Lumines as one slot below Shadow of Mordor. Edited December 8, 2021 by grayhammmer I noticed a small error that I felt needed to be addressed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Bastion & Pyre So... Supergiant, Klei, FromSoftware... obviously a pattern for you as far as enjoying their games. Any others devs that I'm missing that you'd posit as being on a long-term hot streak? Very enjoyable reviews this bunch mate. 6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: It Takes Two Cody and May are going to divorce at the start of the game. They have made that decision. They tell Rose so. They then go through their whole adventure, being forced to address the (laughably minor) problems in their relationship by the satanic Dr. Hakim, and finish that nightmarish situation in victory - by kissing.During this time, Rose has decided she is the problem in their relationship, and runs away from home, leaving a letter telling her (currently catatonic) parents that without her, they will be friends again. The game ends, with Cody and May, (back in corporeal form,) running to the bus stop, stopping Rose, telling her they are going to stay together, and everyone lives happily ever after. Where do I fucking start with this?! To begin with, to any adults playing the game this is obviously laughable and frivolous, but for the intended audience - children - many of whom will either have divorced parents themselves, or will experience divorce at some point - this is downright dangerous. Firstly, on a surface level. It leaves the impression that running away from home is all a child need do to provide the catalyst for their parents to reconcile their differences, and become a smaulchy, TV-cereal-commercial family again. Secondly, on a much more insidious level - it suggests divorce is something that parents choose to do on a whim. That adult relationship problems are something that can be solved by mere circumstance or minor changes - and that they would not have explained to Rose early on that it was not her fault. If Cody and May's problems were simply that Cody didn't comment on May's singing often enough, or May didn't appreciate Cody's gardening (both actual narrative points in this game,) then the game is suggesting to children that their parents may divorce (or have divorced) over tiny, minor annoyances, and not genuine irreconcilable problems. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. The writing in A Way Out was my biggest gripe with that game. Josef Fares pushed it out into the forefront before that game released. I remember thinking that he seemed disengenuous and that English didn't seem to be his first language. My wife and I didn't really rate A Way Out, and I think Fares falls a little more into the David Cage or Sean Murray bracket than a Miyazaki/Schafer level of shining promise. I had specifically added It Takes Two to my own wishlist to play it with my wife but she would be equally frustrated by that ending as you (and I). Thanks for helping me bump this one much, much lower down the list of priorities. Looking forward to the awards ceremony. I've rented a tux. I keep checking my mailbox everyday for the invite... can't be far off now as the ceremony is fast approaching and I still don't know the date and place... better go check the mailbox again... the mailman already drove past but maybe he came back when I stepped away from the front window for a minute... better check again. Brb. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlutoRico Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) On 11/12/2021 at 9:34 AM, DrBloodmoney said: Quantum Conundrum I was waiting for this review and I missed out on it Good job getting it done, I discovered this game recently and added it to my wishlist, might tackle it in the future so it was nice to have your thoughts beforehand. Now I'm patiently waiting for that Tetris write up ? I also wonder why you changed your avi to Bojack ? Does it have some sort of significance or is it because you got into the show recently ? Edited December 8, 2021 by PlutoRico 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted December 8, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) 8 hours ago, grayhammmer said: Okay, so I saw a post you made about 10 recommended games for the ps vita and saw Super Time Force Ultra, so I'd like you to go back in time and rectify the mistake of not having analyzed this game sooner. Flagged with your name on the Priority Rankings! ? Quote Also, I looked up how It Takes Two's bosses and I'm disappointed that the Book of Love thing didn't end up being the final boss. You know - as MsBloodmoney and I were playing, we were talking about how it would end, and we kind of thought the same thing - we had assumed the finale would be Cody and May finally refusing to keep participating in this charade, fighting the book and winning, (winning back their human forms)... thus proving the simplistic view of the book (and of the self-help-for-profit industry) nonsense wrong. They would still be divorcing, but would learn a different lesson - addressing their only real transgression - that they had failed to adequately nurture and talk to Rose through the demise of their own relationship, and had instead tried to simply shield her from it, rather than teach her and help her through it. Had that happened, I think I'd have much better things to say about the game, even if the actual writing was still ham-fisted. Quote Also also, I noticed that you said that Lumines Remastered beat out Shadow of Mordor in your analysis, but the Main list shows Lumines as one slot below Shadow of Mordor. Thank you! ? The list is pretty big now, so when I do the update, I'm transferring the new entries manually - but nice to know someone is fact checking that part! (to be honest, I'm amazed it's taken this long for me to make a mistake there! ??) 7 hours ago, GonzoWARgasm said: So... Supergiant, Klei, FromSoftware... obviously a pattern for you as far as enjoying their games. Any others devs that I'm missing that you'd posit as being on a long-term hot streak? hmmm.... Well, certainly Housemarque would be in that camp, along with Arkane - those two really haven't put a foot wrong in my eyes. DoubleFine, I think, have earned my continual interest - there might be some variation in final product quality, but there is a pretty high floor to their games, and they have done enough to at least have me always interested in their stuff. There is a temptation here to say a bunch of devs like Night School, Tarsier, Dennaton & Long Hat House - studios that only have one or two of games so far but everything has been good - and I'll certainly look out for anything they do - but it's hard to think of them the same way, as they haven't really had the catalogue to make a misstep yet - it's much rarer to find the likes of Supergiant that have 4 full releases, all separate, that are all excellent. There are studios like 4A (Metro series), or Colossal Order (Cities), where I love the series they make, but they only make one series primarily, so they're a little different too - more a case of liking a franchise than a dev. Really, FROM, Supergiant, Housemarque, Arkane and Doublefine... and probably IO at this point, are the ones that I would say have a long legacy, but have earned enough points in my mind, that even if they did put out a real stinker, I would still say "I'm gonna play their next one anyways" sight-unseen. Quote Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear. The writing in A Way Out was my biggest gripe with that game. Josef Fares pushed it out into the forefront before that game released. I remember thinking that he seemed disengenuous and that English didn't seem to be his first language. My wife and I didn't really rate A Way Out, and I think Fares falls a little more into the David Cage or Sean Murray bracket than a Miyazaki/Schafer level of shining promise. I had specifically added It Takes Two to my own wishlist to play it with my wife but she would be equally frustrated by that ending as you (and I). Thanks for helping me bump this one much, much lower down the list of priorities. You know - knowing it is clunky in the writing, and the ending is a whiff going in - it's really not a bad game. A lot of the gameplay is genuinely fun... that ending just really soured me, and cast the whole thing in a negative light. I do think the game is fun to actually play though - and I can't deny MsBloodmoney and I did have a lot of fun and a lot of laughs - it's just that what we were generally laughing at was our comments to each-other after the characters spoke... I swear, the number of times I heard MsBloodmoney cap off a scene with some variation of "God, shut up you whiney rag doll, it's not our fault you married a spanner!!", or "Fuck you demon book, you're not funny!"... ... or my personal favourite, (when we first entered the snowy wastes inside a snow globe)... "Oh look... we're inside May's Vag now..." ? Quote Looking forward to the awards ceremony. I've rented a tux. I keep checking my mailbox everyday for the invite... can't be far off now as the ceremony is fast approaching and I still don't know the date and place... better go check the mailbox again... the mailman already drove past but maybe he came back when I stepped away from the front window for a minute... better check again. Brb. It's a socially distanced affair - you don your Tux, roll out your own red carpet from the bathroom to the living room, then settle in with some store bought champagne (or a 40) and just imagine a crowd around you! ? 5 hours ago, PlutoRico said: I was waiting for this review and I missed out on it Good job getting it done, I discovered this game recently and added it to my wishlist, might tackle it in the future so it was nice to have your thoughts beforehand. Thanks! - it's a great little game, really enjoyed that one - prepare for some serious puzzlement when you get to that DLC though - I don't like to use guides for those kind of games, but after 90 minutes of not even figuring out what to do in the first level, let along how to do it quickly, the temptation got pretty damned strong! ? Quote Now I'm patiently waiting for that Tetris write up ? haha, well, I wouldn't hold your breath on that one - I like to think I will get it done eventually, but that one wasn't really bought with the intention of platting quickly (if ever) - I'm not the greatest Tetris player, and some of those SS challenges seem absurd! ? Quote I also wonder why you changed your avi to Bojack ? Does it have some sort of significance or is it because you got into the show recently ? Oh... just for a change really. To be honest, the 'Moist' thing was kind of an antagonistic joke against a specific site user, and was only really supposed to be there for a day or two - I just never got around to changing it ? I am a huuuuuge Bojack Horseman fan though, and did recently rewatch the entire series, so there was certainly a little bit of Bojack on my mind! Edited December 8, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neef-GT5 Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 Quite a heavy but interesting reading as usual ? @DrBloodmoney - possible to add Journey to your priority list? It’s one of my all-time favourites, quite eager to have your verdict on it ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 8 minutes ago, Neef-GT5 said: Quite a heavy but interesting reading as usual @DrBloodmoney - possible to add Journey to your priority list? It’s one of my all-time favourites, quite eager to have your verdict on it Flagged it with your name! ? As I said before - will likely be in the new year before I get a new batch with old games on, but will keep all of these in mind, and crack them all out for a wee familiarisation play over the holidays! ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 15 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Marilyn Manson, Aphex Twin, Taylor Swift, Wu-Tang and Carpenter Brut I forgot to mention that your playlist sounds dope. 2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Well, certainly Housemarque would be in that camp, along with Arkane - those two really haven't put a foot wrong in my eyes. Oh yes, I should have guessed these two: you mentioned Housemarque a bit lately (think it was the Returnal review that gave that away) and then of course I knew you rate Arkane - I've got three Arkane discs ready to go based on your recommendations! 2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Really, FROM, Supergiant, Housemarque, Arkane and Doublefine... and probably IO at this point, are the ones that I would say have a long legacy, but have earned enough points in my mind, that even if they did put out a real stinker, I would still say "I'm gonna play their next one anyways" sight-unseen. Noice. I thought of IO but I only know of Hitman being any good. The only other games I can think of that they made is K&L's Dog Days... I think. And if I recall that was particularly... niche. I've never heard of Long Hat House. Please consider enlightening me with a review of one of their best when you get around to it in 2022. 2 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: "Fuck you demon book, you're not funny!" She sounds like a hoot ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) 9 minutes ago, GonzoWARgasm said: Noice. I thought of IO but I only know of Hitman being any good. The only other games I can think of that they made is K&L's Dog Days... I think. And if I recall that was particularly... niche. Yeah, the IO love is pretty much a 1-to-1 with love of Hitman, butI will say, while both K&L games are pretty fundamentally flawed... they are interesting. There are cool ideas in both - the squad mechanic stuff in the first one - and in the second one, it's unfortunate that the multiplayer was so dead when I played it because some of the concepts around the actual MP mechanics are genuinely innovative and smart - they are just both let down by base mechanics. They also put out a kid-friendly action platformer called Mini-Ninjas which didn't exactly set the world on fire, but was pretty decent, all told - I guess the real test will be their next project - they're taking on the James Bond licence, and with Hitman DNA, I reckon there's potential there for the best 007 game since GoldenEye... Quote I've never heard of Long Hat House. Please consider enlightening me with a review of one of their best when you get around to it in 2022. Noted - I shall add their only game to the Priority list with your name ? - one you may have already heard me extoll the virtues of in other peoples checklists actually - a shockingly cool and incredibly fun Metroidvania called Dandara! Quote She sounds like a hoot I'll say this - she don't take no shit from magical books! ? Edited December 8, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 I swear, I need to unfollow your thread my good Doctor. Every time I read your reviews there's a high chance I activate my "supermarket cart" mode and buy some of the stuff that you played ? For instance these are now in my library, already purchased, to be played at a later date: Quote Bastion Quote Gods Will Fall I did buy Gods Will Fall when you recommended me first on my list, but now I am positive I have to play it. Got me from the themes themselves. Lost in Random is another interesting game, might decide on that later as well. I loved "American McGee's Alice" , the original game, it's one of the best executed ideas. Aesthetics are awesome as well, quite the fun part. Too bad that the map is so ... Random Can't wait what the Science will have to say to the next batch in 2022 P.S. I finally understand what you meant with "It Takes Two" review. Wtf writers... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Copanele said: I swear, I need to unfollow your thread my good Doctor. Every time I read your reviews there's a high chance I activate my "supermarket cart" mode and buy some of the stuff that you played For instance these are now in my library, already purchased, to be played at a later date: I did buy Gods Will Fall when you recommended me first on my list, but now I am positive I have to play it. Got me from the themes themselves. Nice! Bastion is an easy recommendation for anyone really, and Gods Will Fall I think, while it does have some issues, there's enough of the good juice in there that you'd get a kick of of it too - and TBH, it's not a particularly hard game, so for the few days it takes to plat, its got more than enough to sustain! Quote Lost in Random is another interesting game, might decide on that later as well. I loved "American McGee's Alice" , the original game, it's one of the best executed ideas. Aesthetics are awesome as well, quite the fun part. Too bad that the map is so ... Random Yeah - the map is an odd one, though it did end up being a bit less of an issue than it first appears - when I made that status update, I was in the fourth town, and that was the second one that was complicated enough and confusing enough that the map issues were really getting to me, but as it turns out, really, it's only an issue in Threedom and Fourberg. The other areas are a bit more linear, and a bit more forward-directed, so while I do think it's a pain in the arse in those two areas, it isn't an issue for all of the game. Very odd game, but one I came to quite like - and that visual style and the imagination of it is what really drove it through for me, so I reckon if you (like me) were down with Alice (which, lets face it, was a really imaginative and visual game, but not a particularly good one from a mechanical point of view, even back in the day!) you'll be able to more than look past the slightly older feeling movement of Lost in Random - it's issues are far less than Alice's were in its day! Quote Can't wait what the Science will have to say to the next batch in 2022 P.S. I finally understand what you meant with "It Takes Two" review. Wtf writers... Ugh. Someone get Josef Fares a proper writing team please. There's a great game in there somewhere, if they stopped running everything via google-translate, or through the viewpoint of people who have never talked to a child, a parent, (or a human) before! Edited December 8, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Together_Comic Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Really, FROM, Supergiant, Housemarque, Arkane and Doublefine... and probably IO at this point, are the ones that I would say have a long legacy, but have earned enough points in my mind, that even if they did put out a real stinker, I would still say "I'm gonna play their next one anyways" sight-unseen This is definitely helpful for my Christmas list. lol. I don't know that I've ever seen someone with a negative review of a supergiant game, and FROM is one of the big devs that people are always excited for (something, something, Elden Ring.). I know Arkane did Dishonored, and Deathloop.. did they do Prey as well? I know you're high on that game, enough to make me consider picking up the game... ?. All I know about Doublefine is that they did Psychonauts. Anything else you'd particularly recommend from them? Housemarque is similar in that all I know from them is Resogun. I'd have a similar question about recommendations from them. I'd like to see something from IO that isn't a shooter. Hitman and Kane and Lynch always review well, but I'd like to see them branch out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Together_Comic said: This is definitely helpful for my Christmas list. lol. I don't know that I've ever seen someone with a negative review of a supergiant game, and FROM is one of the big devs that people are always excited for (something, something, Elden Ring.). I know Arkane did Dishonored, and Deathloop.. did they do Prey as well? I know you're high on that game, enough to make me consider picking up the game... . Yeah, Arkane did Prey, bless them! In terms of the future, it's looking bleak on Playstation since Microsoft has gobbled them up as part of the Zenimax thing, though there is a new studio - Wolfeye - which was started by one of the main Arkane guys (Raphael Colantonio) along with another Arkane dude, who's first game I'm pretty excited for - Weird West - coming soon... so hopefully they can fill some of the Arkane shaped hole in the Playstation lineup! Quote All I know about Doublefine is that they did Psychonauts. Anything else you'd particularly recommend from them? Well, DoubleFine have the old Tim Schaffer games - Day of the Tentacle / Full Throttle / Grim Fandango - which are all great, and they made the modern take on the adventure game in Broken Age, which is awesome too if you dig the genre. (The whole process of making Broken Age was a also documented in what is probably the best documentary series about making videogames ever - "Double Fine Adventure" (all available on YouTube!)) Aside from those, on Playstation they have Stacking (a cool, weird puzzle game,) Headlander, RAD, (those two are reviewed on this thread) and Brutal Legend (a heavy metal-themed RTS on PS3), all of which are cool, plus a few I haven't played, but hear good things about - Costume Quest 1/2 and The Cave (I haven't played The Cave, but my sister did and swears by it!) There also did some Xbox exclusive ones - Iron Brigade (which you might have heard of as "Trenched" - there was a copyright issue, and they had to patch the game to change it's name!), Massive Chalice, which looks cool, and a Sesame Street Kinect game for young kids (which I have actually played with a young family member, and is I think the only actually functional Kinect game I've ever seen!) Quote Housemarque is similar in that all I know from them is Resogun. I'd have a similar question about recommendations from them. Housemarque are easy, as basically everything is dope - all the ones I've played - Dead Nation, Nex Machina, Matterfall and Returnal are varying degrees of awesome (I've reviewed all but Matterfall on this thread,), plus I hear nothing but praise for the ones I haven't - Super Stardust, Alienation, Outland... even Furmins! Quote I'd like to see something from IO that isn't a shooter. Hitman and Kane and Lynch always review well, but I'd like to see them branch out. Well, yeah, that's true I guess, the only game IO have made without any shooting is Mini Ninjas... ..though I'd argue that if you are shooting in Hitman, you're doing it wrong! ? Diana is only going to give you a raised eyebrow for that, not a "Well Done 47"! Edited December 8, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 Dammit Doc, just drive up to Supergiant headquarters with a dump truck full of my possessions, why don'tcha... For whatever reason, neither Bastion nor Pyre ("mix of Speedball, Dead Ball Zone and NBA Jam by way of Fallout" is simply something I'ma need to see for myself) sounded up my alley, and I never really bothered to try to put a finger on why, and now I know - it's because I am a dumb, dumb man. You've given Transistor some company on my backlog? Black & White Bushido sounds intriguing as hell, and I'm in the very least gonna peep out a video or something. A few friends and I were all on that Squaresoft dick back in high school, and we LOVED Bushido Blade. "Yeah Mortal Kombat's cool, but... can you take away your opponent's limbs??" Also I love a good black and white aesthetic. And with red blood?? Sounds sweet? Lumines Remastered I may just get sight unseen. You've made me start looking at puzzle games with interest after The Witness, you awful, awful man. You know the other day, when I was wandering around looking for particular puzzles, I thought about doing The Challenge again? For fun? I don't know what you did to me, but I don't appreciate it and I'll thank you to stop being so good at this. All that to say I'm probably just gonna buy Lumines and not ask questions? I wasn't at particular risk of buying It Takes Two, as my wife would rather hang upside down and pick her nose than play video games, but I always thought it looked cute, and I'm a bit disheartened. That is indeed a shitty message, and I can relate to how y'all would be massively turned off by a sickly sweet narrative turn like that. Especially if the character you see the most obnoxiously considers himself having this-a kind of darling accent and equally delightful malapropisms (I love Bojack too). That just seems out of place this day in age - the whole "hah, they talk different!" gag is largely out of vogue, so any seemingly flippant use nowadays is almost more confusing than offensive. Like "Oh, he's trying to be funny... yeah, somebody should have a talk with him." Even all that aside, it's always a shame to see great ideas go to waste, and making an overlong game with too much repetition is a solid way to wear out the welcome of even the best mechanics - too much of any good thing is a bad thing, for instance look at when Stan Lee visited Springfield? On 12/7/2021 at 11:58 PM, DrBloodmoney said: It's a socially distanced affair - you don your Tux, roll out your own red carpet from the bathroom to the living room, then settle in with some store bought champagne (or a 40) and just imagine a crowd around you! I haven't had a 40 in years, but given the prestige of the occasion, you can bet I will come equipped - paper bag and all! I can't afford a tux at the moment, but I will definitely be wearing a bow tie. Probably only the bow tie though, depending on how many 40s I have... On 12/8/2021 at 3:14 AM, GonzoWARgasm said: I forgot to mention that your playlist sounds dope. Agreed. And I had a laugh thanks to Ms. Bloodmoney as well, but the thing that got me was the snow cave vag comment? On 12/8/2021 at 4:51 AM, Copanele said: I swear, I need to unfollow your thread my good Doctor. Every time I read your reviews there's a high chance I activate my "supermarket cart" mode and buy some of the stuff that you played Real talk! Boy-cott! Boy-cott! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: Dammit Doc, just drive up to Supergiant headquarters with a dump truck full of my possessions, why don'tcha... For whatever reason, neither Bastion nor Pyre ("mix of Speedball, Dead Ball Zone and NBA Jam by way of Fallout" is simply something I'ma need to see for myself) sounded up my alley, and I never really bothered to try to put a finger on why, and now I know - it's because I am a dumb, dumb man. You've given Transistor some company on my backlog Haha, year, you really gotta see Pyre, it's something special. Definetely do yourself a favour though, and play through a couple times first without any kind of save-scumming, because the story is so cool the way it plays out any way you end up falling. (I did it wrong. I did reset to get the 'best' ending the first time through, and idd my 'regular' playthroughs after, and kinda wish I hadn't! Oh - and... ...I probably don't need to pile it on... ...but seriously. Listen to this... and just try not to buy it. I dare you. ? 2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: Black & White Bushido sounds intriguing as hell, and I'm in the very least gonna peep out a video or something. A few friends and I were all on that Squaresoft dick back in high school, and we LOVED Bushido Blade. "Yeah Mortal Kombat's cool, but... can you take away your opponent's limbs??" Also I love a good black and white aesthetic. And with red blood?? Sounds sweet? Yeah, kinda a tough recommend for a single player, but totally cool in party play, so if you have the numbers, It's genuinely one of the most fun games of that type I've played! 2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: Lumines Remastered I may just get sight unseen. You've made me start looking at puzzle games with interest after The Witness, you awful, awful man. You know the other day, when I was wandering around looking for particular puzzles, I thought about doing The Challenge again? For fun? I don't know what you did to me, but I don't appreciate it and I'll thank you to stop being so good at this. All that to say I'm probably just gonna buy Lumines and not ask questions Oh man - I salute you! God speed on beating that CPU in all 10 rounds... ...no seriously, that's not empathetic, it's actual advice. That's the speed you need to play at... God Speed! ? 2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: I wasn't at particular risk of buying It Takes Two, as my wife would rather hang upside down and pick her nose than play video games, but I always thought it looked cute, and I'm a bit disheartened. That is indeed a shitty message, and I can relate to how y'all would be massively turned off by a sickly sweet narrative turn like that. Especially if the character you see the most obnoxiously considers himself having this-a kind of darling accent and equally delightful malapropisms (I love Bojack too). That just seems out of place this day in age - the whole "hah, they talk different!" gag is largely out of vogue, so any seemingly flippant use nowadays is almost more confusing than offensive. Like "Oh, he's trying to be funny... yeah, somebody should have a talk with him." Even all that aside, it's always a shame to see great ideas go to waste, and making an overlong game with too much repetition is a solid way to wear out the welcome of even the best mechanics - too much of any good thing is a bad thing, for instance look at when Stan Lee visited Springfield Oh man, that's something I barely talked about - yeah, it feels like half the 'jokes' the book makes aren't actually jokes - they're just statements made in a heavy accent, with the cadence of jokes! 2 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: I haven't had a 40 in years, but given the prestige of the occasion, you can bet I will come equipped - paper bag and all! I can't afford a tux at the moment, but I will definitely be wearing a bow tie. Probably only the bow tie though, depending on how many 40s I have... Ah, see, this is the advantage to being Scottish - after you've bought that kilt, you never need to think about what to wear to fancy event again! ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 16 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Oh - and... ...I probably don't need to pile it on... ...but seriously. Listen to this... and just try not to buy it. I dare you. You poached ivory dealer, you??? That's dope, dude. I thought it sounded great already and then they drop the break beats! Ah, simple pleasures? Question - since I still haven't started Transistor, and now I've got three out of Supergiant's four games in the backlog, is there any order you would recommend going in? I just might go for it and have a Supergiant flavored couple of months sooner than later? 23 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Ah, see, this is the advantage to being Scottish - after you've bought that kilt, you never need to think about what to wear to fancy event again! Hmm! Maybe I'll buy a charro suit and we can make that baby international?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 9, 2021 Author Share Posted December 9, 2021 (edited) 7 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said: You poached ivory dealer, you??? That's dope, dude. I thought it sounded great already and then they drop the break beats! Ah, simple pleasures Question - since I still haven't started Transistor, and now I've got three out of Supergiant's four games in the backlog, is there any order you would recommend going in? I just might go for it and have a Supergiant flavored couple of months sooner than later Not really - TBH I’d just go in order. They’re all standalone, but going in order would let you progress with supergiant mechanically, and having Bastion as a baseline is probably the easiest way to feel comfortable before they go adding complexity with Transistor and Hades. Pyre is totally it’s own beast though, so I guess that could fit anywhere - maybe as a ‘combat break’ between Bastion and Transistor, though it works between Transistor and Hades. Quote Hmm! Maybe I'll buy a charro suit and we can make that baby international ? Edited December 9, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaManSmevz Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 9 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Not really - TBH I’d just go in order. They’re all standalone, but going in order would let you progress with supergiant mechanically, and having Bastion as a baseline is probably the easiest way to feel comfortable before they go adding complexity with Transistor and Hades. Pyre is totally it’s own beast though, so I guess that could fit anywhere - maybe as a ‘combat break’ between Bastion and Transistor, though it works between Transistor and Hades. I feel it's a rare treat to get into a developer fresh, with all their games waiting for you, so im excited. Bastion first it is then! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 (edited) Might have taken me a while but I've finally done my science homeowk - Fantastic as always! DrBloodmoney - Making homework fun, since 2021 I'm so late to the party on this one....... ....... That the moment someone answered the door things had gotten so hectic already, they proceeded to throw up on my shoes! (I originally did type shoe by accident, had to change it in case you thought I was some freak, that shows up at parties just wearing one shoe!) Wooooooooo - my wallet is safe! Well, for the most part (because I own a lot of these already,) but my backlog is not. Thankfully due to the Backlog Challenge me and Smevz joined, I do already have Bastion and Pyre already installed on my console, ready to fire up soon, it's been on that list for a few months though, so I really ought to tackle Bastion soon. On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Bastion and I'm very much looking forward to these now (not that I wasn't already,) but yeah....... Even more so now..... ...... For as good as the review is, and believe me it is this........ On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: While I think Bastion does do enough with story and with emotion (owing a big debt to Darren Korb and vocalist Ashley Barrett on that front,) That made me go "Oooooooooh, Ashley Barrett is involved in this one too" GIMMMMME NOW. Her voice practically broke my heart with some of the music in Transistor, and ever since playing it, that is probably the video game soundtrack Ilisten to most frequently outside of the original NieR I've always been interested in Pyre purely for how unique it all sounds, and I absolutely love games like that, where they kind of break the mould of what you'd expect and do something all of its own. I'll also have to remember to just try and do a blind playthrough first, without even really thinking about the trophies. I loved the Comparison to Punch Drunk Love as well, more people need to watch that film. If only to hear the line " I'm lookin' at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna f***in' smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze it. You're so pretty." First time I watched that - I remember thinking, wow I did not realise Adam Sandler was capable of that! On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Persian Nights: Sands of Wonder This might be one of those Artifex Mundi titles, that I end up kind of just leaving until I've run out of the other ones to play - it doesn't really sound all that enthralling to be fair. You aren't alone in not being a fan of those "boss fights." They just seem so out of place in a game like the Artifex Mundi titles, I genuinely can't think of a time when they've actually been implemented in a really positive way. On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Gods Will Fall I quite like the sound of this - jankiness and all. I'm literally playing a game at the moment - where the little four legged martian poo lookalike Moles seem to have extendable arms, that can hit you half way across a room even if you perfectly dodged out the way. So some of the hitbox problems in Gods Will Fall would practically feel like a holiday to the Caribbean in comparison! I guess this one does go on the backlog/wishlist, because you definitely made it sound like overall it's a fairly enjoyable experience. On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: It Takes Two This doesn't though - this can honestly get in the sea, not just in the sea, it can get pushed off a gangplank wearing some concrete shoes. I was getting frustrated just reading you describe it - so Christ knows what it must have been like to actually have the misfortune of actually playing it. There was one bit during that, that I knew you were going to say before you'd even said it, because from everything you'd described up to that point, I was starting feel the same way, judging by what you'd written, which was this...... On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: It feels like an approximation of a Little Big Planet-style game, made by someone who not only doesn't believe in magic, but never even did as a child. It's 'charm' feels borne out of committee and focus-testing, rather than imagination. A sort of "Brett Ratner's Little Big Planet", if you will. I hate this! Like seriously, when any game, or film or anything does that, I find it infuriating - and it shows so little individual thought, that it almost makes my blood boil to think about it. As you've probably gathered, by this point, I'm a fairly relaxed and chilled out person most of the time, but I think I had I come to that realisation whilst playing the game I feel like I might have just stopped, because even reading about that made me frustrated. It is so soulless, and just eurgh. Shame basically. I know you can't conjure creativity out of thin air, but still, if you're making a game you expect some level of it, outside of base familiarity. I'm glad you gave away the ending too, because that is a dangerous message to send out to kids - whilst I didn't particularly blame myself for my parents divorce, that doesn't mean that I didn't at least consider if it had something to do with me. You can't help not to wonder things like that as a child. Yeah, if you couldn't tell I'm swerving this one, however, the review was fantastic - and I can't stress that part enough, I think you've actually done people a real service here in probably steering people away from it. On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: Lost in Random I'm totally onboard for this though - I saw a trailer for this a couple of months ago and much I got some real American McGee's Alice vibes from it....... In my book that can only be a good thing. On 08/12/2021 at 0:51 PM, Copanele said: Lost in Random is another interesting game, might decide on that later as well. I loved "American McGee's Alice" , the original game, it's one of the best executed ideas. Aesthetics are awesome as well, quite the fun part. That was pretty much my reaction too yeah - I can always go for more American McGee-esque shenanigans! It definitely has an interesting charm and aesthetic too, one I think I'd definitely enjoy especially as I'm a big fan of the two Henry Selick films you mentioned in Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach (everyone always forgets Tim Burton didn't direct them )......... Sorry Doc, don't mean to be a pedantic fanny on that one ?. Funnily enough from what you described of the gameplay it actually sounds a lot like one of my favourite Kingdom Hearts games. Chain of Memories... Which also has a card and deck system that sounds very VERY similar to what you described in Lost in Random. I'm going to have give this one a look at some point too. So erm wishlist too? For when I have a PS5 like. Killer reviews as ever man! Sorry it took a little while drop by. Edited December 9, 2021 by rjkclarke 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 10, 2021 Author Share Posted December 10, 2021 (edited) 10 hours ago, rjkclarke said: That made me go "Oooooooooh, Ashley Barrett is involved in this one too" GIMMMMME NOW. Her voice practically broke my heart with some of the music in Transistor, and ever since playing it, that is probably the video game soundtrack Ilisten to most frequently outside of the original NieR Oh, she's the vocalist on a track in Bastion called "Build That Wall", which (despite the rather unfortunate political parallels that title conjures now ?) is really something! Quote I've always been interested in Pyre purely for how unique it all sounds, and I absolutely love games like that, where they kind of break the mould of what you'd expect and do something all of its own. I'll also have to remember to just try and do a blind playthrough first, without even really thinking about the trophies. I loved the Comparison to Punch Drunk Love as well, more people need to watch that film. If only to hear the line " I'm lookin' at your face and I just wanna smash it. I just wanna f***in' smash it with a sledgehammer and squeeze it. You're so pretty." First time I watched that - I remember thinking, wow I did not realise Adam Sandler was capable of that! Man, I love that movie - it's a tough one, but it might be my favourite PTA flick (aside from maybe There Will be Blood). Quote This might be one of those Artifex Mundi titles, that I end up kind of just leaving until I've run out of the other ones to play - it doesn't really sound all that enthralling to be fair. You aren't alone in not being a fan of those "boss fights." They just seem so out of place in a game like the Artifex Mundi titles, I genuinely can't think of a time when they've actually been implemented in a really positive way. Yeah, bit of a dud that one all told - though I think I do have the second Persian Nights one in my purchased list from some sale at some point, so if I get around to that, might see if its a series problem, or just that specific entry... Quote I quite like the sound of this - jankiness and all. I'm literally playing a game at the moment - where the little four legged martian poo lookalike Moles seem to have extendable arms, that can hit you half way across a room even if you perfectly dodged out the way. So some of the hitbox problems in Gods Will Fall would practically feel like a holiday to the Caribbean in comparison! I guess this one does go on the backlog/wishlist, because you definitely made it sound like overall it's a fairly enjoyable experience. Sure, it's pretty good! Certainly one where you can feel the smaller budget, but there's certainly ambition and ideas in there worth seeing, and the overall experience goes down very smooth, jank notwithstanding! Quote This doesn't though - this can honestly get in the sea, not just in the sea, it can get pushed off a gangplank wearing some concrete shoes. I was getting frustrated just reading you describe it - so Christ knows what it must have been like to actually have the misfortune of actually playing it. There was one bit during that, that I knew you were going to say before you'd even said it, because from everything you'd described up to that point, I was starting feel the same way, judging by what you'd written, which was this...... I hate this! Like seriously, when any game, or film or anything does that, I find it infuriating - and it shows so little individual thought, that it almost makes my blood boil to think about it. As you've probably gathered, by this point, I'm a fairly relaxed and chilled out person most of the time, but I think I had I come to that realisation whilst playing the game I feel like I might have just stopped, because even reading about that made me frustrated. It is so soulless, and just eurgh. Shame basically. I know you can't conjure creativity out of thin air, but still, if you're making a game you expect some level of it, outside of base familiarity. I'm glad you gave away the ending too, because that is a dangerous message to send out to kids - whilst I didn't particularly blame myself for my parents divorce, that doesn't mean that I didn't at least consider if it had something to do with me. You can't help not to wonder things like that as a child. Yeah, if you couldn't tell I'm swerving this one, however, the review was fantastic - and I can't stress that part enough, I think you've actually done people a real service here in probably steering people away from it. Well, seems like I'm fighting a losing battle there, given that I awake this morning to discover that it (inexplicably) took the "Game of the Year" award at The Game Awards - thus proving that there is no justice in the gaming industry! I knew something was rotten in the state of Denmark when Hitman 3 wasn't even nominated, but to see It Takes Two win over things like Deathloop and Returnal just makes me feel old ? I always suspected I was out of touch with the general consensus, but if anything proves it, it's this! Quote I'm totally onboard for this though - I saw a trailer for this a couple of months ago and much I got some real American McGee's Alice vibes from it....... In my book that can only be a good thing. That was pretty much my reaction too yeah - I can always go for more American McGee-esque shenanigans! It definitely has an interesting charm and aesthetic too, one I think I'd definitely enjoy especially as I'm a big fan of the two Henry Selick films you mentioned in Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach (everyone always forgets Tim Burton didn't direct them )......... Sorry Doc, don't mean to be a pedantic fanny on that one . I'm one of them... to my shame, I actually didn't know that! I guess Burton is the filmic equivalent of the likes of American McGee or Kojima, or Suda - his influence is so strong, and the cult of personality around him so pointed (and bankable) that his involvement in any level overshadows the less well known names that are doing the grinding work of actually getting the thing out the door! Glad to be corrected on it though - I should know that stuff! Now I feel like one of those FOOLS who think George Lucas directed Empire! ? Quote Funnily enough from what you described of the gameplay it actually sounds a lot like one of my favourite Kingdom Hearts games. Chain of Memories... Which also has a card and deck system that sounds very VERY similar to what you described in Lost in Random. I'm going to have give this one a look at some point too. So erm wishlist too? For when I have a PS5 like. Funny you should mention Kingdom Hearts - I had no idea that was a thing in a KH game, but recently, I have been slowly coming around to the idea of finally checking out the main KH trilogy... and have been quietly hoping someone would talk me out of it, as I don't want to become one of those weirdos ??... but seriously - what do you reckon - can KH be experienced by just doing the main trilogy, or do I need a map, a compass and a bag of trail mix to start navigating the wilds of all the side stuff too? Quote Killer reviews as ever man! Sorry it took a little while drop by. Thanks! Edited December 10, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjkclarke Posted December 10, 2021 Share Posted December 10, 2021 Was it your birthday yesterday or the day before? I woke up at silly O'Clock in the morning, and couldn't get back to sleep (at least I finished Mars: War Logs,) so I thought I'd have a little stroll through the status updates and saw your post, sorry I missed that if it was your birthday... ..... Happy belated birthday if it was! 59 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said: Oh, she's the vocalist on a track in Bastion called "Build That Wall", which (despite the rather unfortunate political parallels that title conjures now ) is really something! Nothing political about it dude! Just a song about bricklaying is all........ Don't know what political parallels you might be thinking of .... Oh you must be thinking of that ludicrous Orange fella? 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Man, I love that movie - it's a tough one, but it might be my favourite PTA flick (aside from maybe There Will be Blood). If someone had a gun to my head - and made me choose one favourite PTA film, but I also had a time limit to choose one, I think it'd have to be Punch Drunk Love...... Or Magnolia, I absolutely love that one..... There Will be Blood is a good shout too, it'd be easier to pick one if he didn't seem to just have an abundance of amazing films right? 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Yeah, bit of a dud that one all told - though I think I do have the second Persian Nights one in my purchased list from some sale at some point, so if I get around to that, might see if its a series problem, or just that specific entry... I think I'll wait for the science on that one ...... Leave that one to the experts, I have about at least six other AM titles.I could think of playing, before I decided on that one,so hopefully by then the science has worked its magic, then we'll know for sure. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Well, seems like I'm fighting a losing battle there, given that I awake this morning to discover that it (inexplicably) took the "Game of the Year" award at The Game Awards - thus proving that there is no justice in the gaming industry! I knew something was rotten in the state of Denmark when Hitman 3 wasn't even nominated, but to see It Takes Two win over things like Deathloop and Returnal just makes me feel old I always suspected I was out of touch with the general consensus, but if anything proves it, it's this! I had a little chuckle reading the bit of text of mine you quoted, reading that got me so irate - I forgot how to use English properly for a moment.? Also...... I should have mentioned this yesterday, but one bit in the It takes Two review had me in hysterics for the strangest of reasons..... On 07/12/2021 at 6:39 PM, DrBloodmoney said: you would have to go deep into the unexplored, tribal jungles of Papua New Guinea For some reason this brought a really old memory from one of the early Ricky Gervais Podcasts flooding back, where Karl Pilkington says something like... " The fellas who spin their knobs around and wave them at helicopters to scare them away and that, the Papa people I think they're called" reading that in conjunction with everything else just made me absolutely crease up. Back to It Takes Two though... That is pretty frustrating, although it's probably better not to think too hard on it. It isn't a reflection on you, or your critical skills. Although you know that I'm sure. After all, think of all of the films and or actors that should have won acting awards over the years that were robbed by something else, that really didn't deserve it. Look at 1996 for example in the Academy awards for Best Actor - Geoffrey Rush won it, but I don't necessarily think he deserved it for that role, not when Billy Bob Thornton was up for Sling Blade or Woody Harrelson was up for The People vs Larry Flynt. Annoying, but it is what it is....... Hitman 3 not even getting a nomination is pretty obscene though. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: I'm one of them... to my shame, I actually didn't know that! I guess Burton is the filmic equivalent of the likes of American McGee or Kojima, or Suda - his influence is so strong, and the cult of personality around him so pointed (and bankable) that his involvement in any level overshadows the less well known names that are doing the grinding work of actually getting the thing out the door! Glad to be corrected on it though - I should know that stuff! Now I feel like one of those FOOLS who think George Lucas directed Empire! It was pretty pedantic of me to be fair - they are Tim Burton films in essence after all. He did write and produce them - and as is the law in the Film and Television world, the Producer is actually the true King or Queen, they have all the real power - they can just tell the Director to do one if they wished. Those are pretty damn accurate gaming analogies though - I really don't want to use the word auteur, because I can't stand it - it gets thrown around so flippantly nowadays. Although out of that bunch Kojima I think is the only one that would actually term himself that way. ? I would have thought a lot of people think that about Return of the Jedi more than anything surely? I can't even think of another film Richard Marquand made without googling it, but I know he made that one ?..... That or they just assume George Lucas did all of the original trilogy, I do know someone who thought that all of the Star Wars prequels were made by an intern at Lucasfilm, which the guy was deadly serious about, that one was a head scratcher for sure. He was a big Star Wars guy too, but he was absolutely convinced that was the case. 1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said: Funny you should mention Kingdom Heart - I had no idea that was a thing in a KH game, but recently, I have been slowly coming around to the idea of finally checking out the main KH trilogy... and have been quietly hoping someone would talk me out of it, as I don't want to become one of those weirdos ... but seriously - what do you reckon - can KH be experienced by just doing the main trilogy, or do I need a map, a compass and a bag of trail mix to start navigating the wilds of all the side stuff too? I certainly don't think I'm the person to try and talk you into playing them, that's for sure - although we both know of at least one person that would probably give it a damn good go. That's a tough one you know. The Kingdom Hearts fanbase seem about as rabid as the Metal Gear Solid ones at times - so it's tough to really try and steer you one way or the other. What I can fairly comfortably say I think - is that many of the things that I'm not too fond of in the series, and there's quite a lot actually. I think you'd probably share some of those criticisms yourself. There is a huge tonal shift in those games fairly early into the series. Some people love it, I'm personally less keen - I'm very much in the minority of people that like Kingdom Hearts best when it's simplest, when it's just an enjoyable Action-RPG, and a crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney properties, all whilst still being able to stand on its own. So the first Kingdom Hearts basically. That's still there in all three entries in the trilogy, but by the end some of those aspects of it - to me at least, felt like the writers and designers felt burdened by, more than something to expand upon. It depends on what exactly you're looking for - if it's a coherent story, you still wouldn't find that across the trilogy I don't think..... I remember at the end of KHIII I thought "really,this is your ending?You kept us on the hook for thirteen years, and this is what you thought was the best approach." They really want you to have played every single mobile title, flash game - Kinder Egg, whatever you can think of that has KH attached to it to understand the story. At times it makes the plot of Lost look like one of those children's books that just contain singular pictures, and a word like sheep or cow. Just playing the trilogy you'd miss out on one of the best entries (in my opinion at least,) in Birth by Sleep - which is both a decent entry in the series, expands the canon in a positive way, and it's an incredibly fun game to boot. If I hadn't already played a lot of them I'd have absolutely no real idea where to start. If you seriously want someone to talk you out of it though - I'm sure I probably could. do I need a map, a compass and a bag of trail mix to start navigating the wilds of all the side stuff too? Haha! You would almost certainly need a Sherpa too - and one of those water divining sticks for good measure - and if you can manage to fit it all in a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle wouldn't go amiss, y'know for emergencies like. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty_Otter Posted December 11, 2021 Share Posted December 11, 2021 (edited) I didn't realize Hitman 3 was so good, to be at #1 in your list! I've never played any of the Hitman games before. Maybe I'll have to give Hitman 2 a try soon. I've had it for a while. Loved #16-17 on your list, Bioshock in particular. I just finished it about a week ago. Edited December 11, 2021 by RoadRunner_005 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 11, 2021 Author Share Posted December 11, 2021 3 hours ago, RoadRunner_005 said: I didn't realize Hitman 3 was so good, to be at #1 in your list! I've never played any of the Hitman games before. Maybe I'll have to give Hitman 2 a try soon. I've had it for a while. oh, it’s magic! H3 benefits a lot, in the sense that it gets all the work of Hitman and Hitman 2 - they are all playable within Hitman 3, so it ends up being one of the biggest games ever, of course ?… but the games are just sublime. Absolutely worth playing - if you crack into H2 (from PS+ I assume?) try to make sure you get the Hitman 1 DLC installed too - the overall story is quite good, and those levels in H1 are absolutely excellent too! 3 hours ago, RoadRunner_005 said: Loved #16-17 on your list, Bioshock in particular. I just finished it about a week ago. Ah yeah - well, me too (obviously!) Bioshock was a hell of a game - great gameplay, amazing setting… and ‘would you kindly’ reveal is just ?? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 AWARDS SEASON UPDATE Due to my lack of consideration for my own availability over the holiday period, (yes, contrary to general opinion, I do, on occasion, leave the house!) I'm calling an audible, and making a slight change to the inaugural Super Scientific Awards. Rather than running to the Gregorian calendar, I am going to consider 2021 to run from December 21st of 2020, to December 20th of 2021. That allows me to post the awards before I am potentially away from my computer, let's me relax when playing over the holidays without having to have my Science Labcoat on during holiday play-time, and - most importantly, of course... ...lets us all have our Tuxedo's / ball gowns / Kilts and Sherrifmuir jackets dry-cleaned prior to the New Year festivities! ? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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