DrBloodmoney's Super Scientific Ranking of Games!

[YaManSmevz]

Well, looks like I'm gonna have to roll up my sleeves and get to some city planning..

 

Thank you, that was most helpful! I now have the encouragement needed to pursue that sweet, sweet S. In case it wasn't already apparent, i am very much enjoying the fruits of your scientific labors and will continue to be a faithful reader.

 

Also, it was very considerate of you to give a glowing analysis of Hotline Miami while it's on sale for a stupidly cheap price. COINCIDENCE??!! I think not. Methinks science prevails yet again.

[DrBloodmoney]

3 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

Well, looks like I'm gonna have to roll up my sleeves and get to some city planning..

 

Thank you, that was most helpful! I now have the encouragement needed to pursue that sweet, sweet S. In case it wasn't already apparent, i am very much enjoying the fruits of your scientific labors and will continue to be a faithful reader.

 

Also, it was very considerate of you to give a glowing analysis of Hotline Miami while it's on sale for a stupidly cheap price. COINCIDENCE??!! I think not. Methinks science prevails yet again.

 

Haha, I didn't even realise it was on sale, but even at full RRP, that game would be cheap at twice the price!

A hell of a game ???

Edited May 5, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[pinkrobot_pb]

1 hour ago, EcoShifter said:

No-one stepped up. Someone's gotta do it.

Keep fighting the good fight man. ? We're all behind you (running away).

Edited May 5, 2021 by pinkrobot_pb

[DrBloodmoney]

 

⚛️!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!⚛️

 

 

The next 10 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Arcade Archives: A-Jax
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Dark Arcana: The Carnival
Dead Nation
Dishonored
Late Shift
Pic-a-Pix Classic
SOMA 
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Void Bastards 

 

 

Subjects in RED marked for ❎PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT❎

[Care of @GraniteSnake , @The_Kopite & @elpoko ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Dark Souls, fend off yet another round of challengers?

 

Is newly crowned 'Least Awesome Game' Watchmen: The End is Nigh going to have any competition for its questionable title?

 

Let's find out!

[The_Kopite]

It's the only Sonic game on your list to review, but I had a lot of fun with Sonic and SEGA all star racing, and hopeing it'll be reasonably high up. Certainly a good addition to the kart racing scene in general. Also ?at the prospect of FFVIIR getting into the top 10.

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

It's the only Sonic game on your list to review, but I had a lot of fun with Sonic and SEGA all star racing, and hopeing it'll be reasonably high up. Certainly a good addition to the kart racing scene in general. Also ?at the prospect of FFVIIR getting into the top 10.

 

You know, I actually realised after the fact, it's not actually the only Sonic game I have - The Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection has at least a couple of Sonic games in it!

 

I had totally forgotten about that, but I guess it wouldn't really be in the spirit of the request, since it has to be considered along with like 30 other games ?

 

 

...actually, now that I think about it... how the hell am I gonna approach ranking that one? ?

 

reckon it will have to wait until I figure out what to do with it ?

[EcoShifter]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Okay mate, listen...

 

I don't like ruining the fun, and so this will be the only post in which I do this...

 

I can't believe I actually have to spell this out to you...as it is so plainly, clearly and obviously apparent from the very beginning on my thread - and has been completely understood by everyone else, including people from all over the world whose first language is not even English -

 

  Reveal hidden contents

THIS BEING 'SCIENCE' IS A JOKE.

 

It is tongue in cheek!

Of course these are opinions!

Jesus Christ - a fucking child could understand that.

 

I mean seriously, get a grip on yourself - did you actually even read the intro to my little project here?

Did you actually think I, or any of the people following along are under the impression that i am conducting real 'science' here or am under any obligation to be 'objective' - whatever that could even be, where criticism of entertainment is concerned?

 

These are my opinions, obviously - I am ranking MY GAMES, on MY PROFILE, and doing it on MY CHECKLIST.

 

I am having some fun ranking my games, and some other people are following along.

 

I'm happy to engage in spirited debate about my analyses, and I love passionate debate about games - but to complain about the whole endeavour conceptually, just because you are the one person in the entire site who didn't get the joke, and then to fill up massive posts like yours whinging about it,  to the extent that I have to drop the fun of it for a moment, take you by your angry little hand and explain that to you, is so sad to me.

 

You are only embarrassing yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now you're deflecting the counterpoints, and projecting your actual anger. Calm down. Walls of text =/= doesn't correlate with how angry I am or could be. It's purely a person problem why I type so much. So, what you say is so obvious isn't all too obvious, considering some context outside this topic, like here. Now I'm not going to sit here and reference all of your (many) posts like this, even ones much worse, but there's clearly more about you/to you than what's lead to be believed. You're a highly opinionated person and often pretentious - not all the time but often - around the forum from what I've seen. You constantly do a lot of grandstanding too, far too much of that. Your status titles also adds to the story.

 

Jokes are understood differently online, you should have communicated it better on this topic. Other people getting it, especially friends of yours, doesn't automatically mean you communicated it well, let alone as well as you think. Don't get mad at me and make these ridiculous unsupported claims just because I have the balls to say how I feel of the topic/its presentation. Most people actually choose to ignore this kind of thing than give their thoughts purely to avoid any heat. Perhaps if a more chill person made this topic, I've have perceived this as you said it is. But with you, there's usually some underlying condescension and pretentious in your opinions of games/people (especially John Garvin).

 

You take your opinions on games seriously, so I then accordingly take your opinions on games you rate seriously. You've blown things out of proportion. Chill.

 

On 4/29/2021 at 2:54 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

 

The Order: 1886

 

Summary: 

A gorgeous game on a technical, graphical level, though a little hampered by a slightly bland take on 'steampunk-lite', the game hold up to a single playthrough of it's extremely short campaign, but even clocking in at a meagre few hours, it still doesn't really leave you wanting much more.

Decent gun combat, when you manage to find some (there isn't much), but pretty poor in terms of the overall offering, and very light on actual gameplay particularly for a game lacking meaningful story or interesting characters.

 

 

 

Until Dawn

 

Summary:

Supermassive did a great job capturing the inherent ridiculousness and fun of Teen Horror-lite romps, and the cast do a lot to help sell this a an A-Game of a B-Movie, rather than the other way around!

Quite a lot of variety to the branching story paths, some fun, gory kills, a cast of satisfyingly douchy characters, and a silly and fun plot overall.

Extra awesome-points for the line "YOU JUST GOT MONKED!" 

 

These are some good ones. I thought I saw Limbo too at some point. I suppose not. The Order 1886 I just can't really defend, unlike say Vampyr and Days Gone, similar-ish type games in their own way. However, Until Dawn; some people still aren't aware that this game is considered a success and turned out to be a sleeper hit. It's not a very wordy description by any means, but it at least gets the point across.

Edited May 5, 2021 by EcoShifter

[DrBloodmoney]

36 minutes ago, EcoShifter said:

{snip}

 

Spoiler

Look mate, I'm chill.

I try always to be on this site.

I dealt with your first few posts with good humour and deflection, but there's a point where enough is enough.

 

This thread is supposed to be fun, and you come in swinging around words like "abysmal, repugnant, disingenuous" at me, and questioning the merit of the anything i write on my own, self-titled checklist, just because you don't get the joke. 

 

I do take my opinions on games seriously, and, I treat them seriously in a task like the one I've set myself here, because it's at it's most fun when I do that. 

 

I'm more than happy for you to add your two-cents about a game, but if you start off going nuclear at the entire endeavour, just because you don't like one of my reviews, don't expect me to just endlessly smile and take it.

I did that. Twice.

It didn't work. You still didn't get it.

 

The joke is obvious. I'm sorry you didn't get it, but it's made perfectly clear, and the reason I know that, is that everyone else got it.

 

I don't really understand what point your making with the specific post you linked to? - that isn't me being mean or nasty here, I genuinely don't know what point it is you are proving - that post seemed to be well understood and wasn't me being angry or anything, so...

 

Also, I literally just had to google who 'John Garvin' was - that's how little stake I have in him - he was the guy whining that people didn't buy games at launch and making a spectacle of himself in interviews, right?

If so, I probably made some joke about him being an idiot, which, frankly, he was being.

So?

 

Anyway, it doesn't matter - all water under the bridge now, as now you understand what this thread is.

 

Feel free to follow along and argue / disagree on the actual games, and I'll happily engage ☺️ 

But if all you're going to do is complain about the writing, the format, the length or the existence of the reviews, rather than the opinions therein, or just want to complain about the validity of the whole endeavour, then there is only one real answer - go make your own and leave me to mine 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

You know, I actually realised after the fact, it's not actually the only Sonic game I have - The Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection has at least a couple of Sonic games in it!

 

I had totally forgotten about that, but I guess it wouldn't really be in the spirit of the request, since it has to be considered along with like 30 other games 

 

 

...actually, now that I think about it... how the hell am I gonna approach ranking that one? 

 

reckon it will have to wait until I figure out what to do with it 

Being someone who was and is a SEGA fan and therefore had the Megadrive then Saturn, suffice to say I'll be keeping a close eye on that one, as there are so many classics on there that deserve to at least get it a reasonable place on the list. Your scientific formula will really be put to the test! haha

[Cleggworth]

1 hour ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

!!SCIENCE UPDATE!!

 

 

The next 10 (somewhat) randomly selected games to be submitted for scientific analysis shall be:

 

 

Arcade Archives: A-Jax
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Dark Arcana: The Carnival
Dead Nation
Dishonored
Late Shift
Pic-a-Pix Classic
SOMA 
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Void Bastards 

 

 

Subjects in RED marked for PRIORITY ASSIGNEMENT

[Care of @GraniteSnake , @The_Kopite & @elpoko ]

 

 

 

Can 'Current Most Awesome' game, Dark Souls, fend off yet another round of challengers?

 

Is newly crowned 'Least Awesome Game' Watchmen: The End is Nigh going to have any competition for its questionable title?

 

Let's find out!

 

Ah Dead Nation, love to hear your thoughts on that as its a special game for me personally. Dishonored too, as I know you are a pretty vocal fan of Prey so I'm expecting a high ranking there. Speaking of Prey....priority assignment please. Surely it could knock Dark Souls of its perch and stick around... maybe til the list is complete?

[DrBloodmoney]

11 minutes ago, The_Kopite said:

Being someone who was and is a SEGA fan and therefore had the Megadrive then Saturn, suffice to say I'll be keeping a close eye on that one, as there are so many classics on there that deserve to at least get it a reasonable place on the list. Your scientific formula will really be put to the test! haha

Yeah... it’s gonna be a weird one - averaging scores doesn’t feel right, since a couple of amazing games makes the whole thing worthwhile, even if you never touch all the others...

 

I really need to try and figure out a plan for that - I suspect whatever my review and ranking turns out to be, it will have a bunch of footnotes, asterisks and caveats ?

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

 

Ah Dead Nation, love to hear your thoughts on that as its a special game for me personally. Dishonored too, as I know you are a pretty vocal fan of Prey so I'm expecting a high ranking there. Speaking of Prey....priority assignment please. Surely it could knock Dark Souls of its perch and stick around... maybe til the list is complete?

 

haha, yeah, I guess if there's any game on the list that I have already pretty much given the game away on it's Prey, right? ?

 

It's already on the priority list actually - @FilmFanatic beat you to it!

 

That's the primary reason Dishonoured is on there now - I feel like I need to do a Dishonoured first, just to have some context for Prey, but suffice to say, I have already been doing some serious work in my mind to try and gauge who wins in the very possible event of a Dark Souls / Prey stand-off...

 

Sophie's choice had nothing on that one

 ?

 

As far as staying on the top of the list indefinitely though - one thing I'm learning in doing this is that the science does actually surprise me from time to time - it's one thing waxing lyrical about how great a game is or declaring it one of the best of all time, but it's only when I come to actually compare games 1-to-1 that the cards really get put on the table, and I have to wrestle with which is truly greater.

Edited May 5, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Cleggworth]

5 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I have already been doing some serious work in my mind to try and gauge who wins in the very possible event of a Dark Souls / Prey stand-off... 

 

I'll save you the trouble... its Prey ?

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

 

I'll save you the trouble... its Prey ?

 

Haha, the real trouble is going to come when

 

Spoiler

Dark Souls II places... because I'm one of those much maligned and vilified folks who thinks it's the best of the trilogy...

 

Based on prevailing opinion, I expect to catch hell for that (if the science agrees, of course ?)  ?

 

 

[Cleggworth]

6 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Haha, the real trouble is going to come when

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Dark Souls II places... because I'm one of those much maligned and vilified folks who thinks it's the best of the trilogy...

 

Based on prevailing opinion, I expect to catch hell for that (if the science agrees, of course )  

 

 

 

boooooo I can't seem to open any spoiler tags for some reason. I can't read your half of the fight you are having either ?

[DrBloodmoney]

1 minute ago, Cleggworth said:

 

boooooo I can't seem to open any spoiler tags for some reason. I can't read your half of the fight you are having either

 

it's not just you - I can't open them either!

Think it's the site software causing some issue just now.

Edited May 5, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[FilmFanatic]

11 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Haha, the real trouble is going to come when

 

  Hide contents

Dark Souls II places... because I'm one of those much maligned and vilified folks who thinks it's the best of the trilogy...

 

Based on prevailing opinion, I expect to catch hell for that (if the science agrees, of course ?)  ?

 

 

I’ll be interested to see you what you say about Dark Souls 2. The Souls series is my all time favourite series and Dark Souls (best of the Souls games) is my 4th favourite game of all time. Dark Souls 2 is my least favourite Souls game however that’s not really saying much as I absolutely love the game, I took a week off work to play the SotFS version and I’ve spent around 350 hours playing it (more than any other game in the series) across the PS3/4 version.

 

7 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

it's not just you - I can't open them either!

Think it's the site software causing some issue just now.

Spoiler tags have been broken for a long time now. Most of the time they work but occasionally some don’t and clicking on it a second time takes me back to the top of the page. A post on the previous page where you were only going to explain something only once doesn’t work for me which is annoying because I really wanna know what you said lol.

[Copanele]

25 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Haha, the real trouble is going to come when

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Dark Souls II places... because I'm one of those much maligned and vilified folks who thinks it's the best of the trilogy...

 

Based on prevailing opinion, I expect to catch hell for that (if the science agrees, of course ?)  ?

 

 

And you call yourself a scientist?? You added some extra Sins there!

 

 

(I so wait for that hellish day ?)

 

Also in agreement with @FilmFanatic here on one point: DS1 is my favorite, but I played DS2 THE MOST out of all of them! HOW? WHY? NOBODY KNOWS!

Maybe Science(and dumb builds) will explain that!

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Copanele

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Also in agreement with @FilmFanatic here on one point: DS1 is my favorite, but I played DS2 THE MOST out of all of them! HOW? WHY? NOBODY KNOWS!

Maybe Science(and dumb builds) will explain that!

 

Maybe...

 

...or maybe...

 

...beacuse it's the secret best one... 

[The_Kopite]

45 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Yeah... it’s gonna be a weird one - averaging scores doesn’t feel right, since a couple of amazing games makes the whole thing worthwhile, even if you never touch all the others...

 

I really need to try and figure out a plan for that - I suspect whatever my review and ranking turns out to be, it will have a bunch of footnotes, asterisks and caveats 

 

I expect a bunch of each lol

[Copanele]

7 minutes ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Maybe...

 

...or maybe...

 

...beacuse it's the secret best one... 

That's exactly what someone with a high ADP stat would tell. Sneaky, got me there. 

 

Well, although it's pretty obvious and you definitely planned this, my request is to review ds2 last, after ds3 and demon souls of course. 

 

[DrBloodmoney]

Just now, Copanele said:

That's exactly what someone with a high ADP stat would tell. Sneaky, got me there. 

 

Well, although it's pretty obvious and you definitely planned this, my request is to review ds2 last, after ds3 and demon souls of course. 

 

 

It shall be done, my friend!

[DrBloodmoney]

 

 ?? NEW SCIENTIFIC RESULTS ARE IN! ??

 

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

 

 

 

Arcade Archives: A-Jax

 

Summary: 

Another Hamster port of an arcade classic, A-Jax (Typhoon as we knew it in the Western world back in 1987) splits its time between vertically scrolling helicopter gunship sections, which are very good fun, and some fighter-jet Starfox / Afterburner-style sections that are a little less so.

The game has a nice look to it for the era - much more notably on the helicopter sections which, while technically simpler, and, I'm sure, easier to nail, outdo the more dynamic but therefore more compromised visuals in the fighter-jet sections.

 

There is a variety of weapons that are fun to use, and the levels are pretty well laid out and feature a good variety of enemy types to contend with (blast to smithereens!) though the game is lent a level of difficulty that was likely not quite intentional by some pretty ropey bullet detection - you can never quite rely on hitting the thing you are aiming at, even if your aim seems good - and the speed with which enemy bullets come at you can be tough to deal with given the low frame-rate, particularly in the fighter-jet sections.

 

Unlike with Renegade, this version includes both the original Japanese version and the Western version, which is a bonus for a release like this where preservationism is the marketed intent, and Hamster, as always, present the game in a package that is simple and clean, and does exactly what it should and nothing more.

 

 

The Ranking:

Full disclosure - we are getting more towards my personal retro-arcade game preference here, genre-wise, and this one, being from '87 is a little more modern than some of the other arcade classics on the list.

 

We're not in Pac-Man or Dig Dug territory here in terms of lasting value and general awesomeness, but there is significantly more to A-Jax than Moon Cresta to keep you going despite sometimes wild difficulty spikes, so working up from there, it beats out a few of the well-meaning-but-flawed entries like The LEGO Movie: The Videogame.
It even vaults Need for Speed: Rivals, given the fun factor weighed against the considerable age-difference there, but can't outdo Until Dawn's brand of graphically great, hokey-as-hell-and-deliberately-so B-Movie storytelling for a good time, and so finds it's spot.

 

 

 

 

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

 

Summary: 

Taking all the things that Assassin's Creed II did well - a well told, fun story, satisfying climbing mechanics, a very impressive and well realised (for the time) historical setting, and an admirably dynamic and animated world filled with life - Brotherhood did exactly what a sequel should do, and more. 

 

On top of iterative improvements it made to most of the technical aspects - draw distance increased, animations smoothed, climbing mechanics further refined etc. - Brotherhood also added a fair few brand new mechanics into the mix, such as recruiting, training and dispatching new assassin's for Ezio to command, expanding the 'building renovations' mechanic from Ezio's home, to all of Rome and a significant fleshing out of both the variety in the main story quests, and the level of detail and polish in the side missions.

 

The combat remains fairly rudimentary - AC games have never trafficked in exciting combat really, at best it is serviceable, and Brotherhood's improvements in other areas don't do much for that - though here it became significantly easier, and as a result, rather less engaging even than its predecessor. I find it hard to hold that too hard against it though, as combat is not the big draw in these games, and never has been.

 

All of this would be enough to more than justify Ubisoft's (controversial at the time) decision to stick with the same protagonist and location as their previous entry and flag Brotherhood as the superior game, but that wasn't all it had up it's sleeve: Brotherhood also added a multiplayer mode.

Adding a tacked-on, half-baked multiplayer was commonplace at the time, and for a few years, few AAA games were immune to the creep of it, so there was, as I recall, considerable (and justifiable) scepticism around what AC would do with it, but there was no need to be.

 

AC: Brotherhood's multiplayer turned out to be one of the best multiplayer modes of the year, and a perennial favourite of mine, each outing, until it was cruelly removed from the series with Unity, 4 years later.

The multiplayer, in which each player is a target of someone, and has a different target themselves, in a level filled with identical copies of everyone, ensuring smart impersonation of the NPCs could result in perfect stealth, was a breath of fresh air in an overcrowded market, and proved that while tacked-on multiplayers were the negative side-effect of it, there was at least some positives to come out of the cross-industry push to stave off the second-hand market by their inclusion.

Eschewing twitch controls in favour of thoughtful, smart kills, it is an online game that encourages patience and thinking over speed or reflexes, and has a kill-points system that ensures a single, perfect, stealthy assassination is worth more than half-a-dozen messy, visible stabbings - much to the infuriation of a certain contingent of Call of Duty-type players, who could often be seen joining games, running around like chickens on crack, racking up kills, then losing on points and howling about it on mic!

 

The Ranking:

The single player improvements alone are enough to ensure Brotherhood a place higher on the list than its predecessor, and the inclusion of what I still consider one of the best competitive multiplayers in console, only propels it further.

 

Next big open world game on the list is Horizon Zero Dawn, and I don't think Brotherhood quite reaches those heights, particularly comparing the easy and lacklustre combat it features, against Horizon's dynamic, varied and exciting bow-and-trap-vs-mechanical-monster scenarios.

 

In the end, Brotherhood's size, quality and variety can vault some of the smaller games, but I have trouble placing it higher than the Resident Evil 2 Remake, due to that games more focused, but incredibly detailed and cohesive world and gameplay, and more satisfying feel.

 

 

 

 

 

Dark Arcana: The Carnival

 

Summary: 

☢️Special Note☢️
I like Artifex Mundi's brand of relaxation puzzling - I began on iPad (where I still think the games are best suited, owing to the touch-input) but switched over to PS4 for some entries, because... well... if I'm going to enjoy the games anyway, might as well get some platinums while I'm at it!)
However, I freely admit, they are absolutely the Mexican Food of games. 
They are essentially all using the same ingredients, but in slightly varying quantities, folding the tortilla in a slightly different shape, and maybe adding a little more or less spice every time.
If you like one, you likely like them all to some degree, and if you distinctly dislike one, it's unlikely any of them are going to change your mind.

Personally I like them, but my reviews of these games are going to get significantly shorter over time, beginning now, as they are really in competition with each-other more than anything else, and the differences are in respect of puzzle variety and art and theme, more than any technical or gameplay-specific deviations.

A decent setting and an okay variety of art in this one, a fun setting with better than average music, but some of the weaker hidden object scenes, and no particularly stand out parts as Artifex Mundi joints go.

 

Has a bonus chapter, but not a long or particularly stand-out one.

 

The Ranking:

Better than Eventide: Slavic Fable, but not as good as Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne, and falls in between, above misguided movie tie-in SAW, but below well-meaning but bland Gem Smashers.

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Nation

 

Summary: 

Housemarque's top-down isometric twin-stick shooter is interested in 5 things. Blood, Guts, Combos, Splatter, and more Blood. Every second of the game is action, as the player (and a friend, if playing in Co-Op - which is absolutely the best way to play) navigate a zombie infested city killing everything in their wake with a variety of different weapons. That might sound like the most generic description of a videogame ever - and on paper perhaps, Dead Nation is generic - but it does nothing to adequately convey how good this game actually is.

Granted, it's hard to come up with any single aspect of Dead Nation that hasn't been done many, many times before, but rarely do all those things come together so well. Originality is one thing, but sometimes, just doing tried-and-true stuff better is all you need!

Housemarque have a near-perfect record on quality - and on fun - and Dead Nation, while a slight outlier in terms of visual style for them, delivers completely on virtually every area that matters. 

It controls well, moves well, has a simple but effective and very well balanced upgrade system, and a good variety of weaponry that are all fun to use, and varyingly effective in different scenarios.

It's tricky at times, but always well checkpointed and the difficulty ramps up at just the right pace to keep it always feeling interesting and requiring both thought and a lightning quick 'rush' button reflex, but never feeling truly insurmountable.

 

Co-op is balanced very well - there is exactly enough additional enemies in co-op to keep both players having fun, without overcompensating and making the game too difficult or unapproachable for a less game savvy second player, a-la, say, Cuphead. 
(For reference, this is, hands-down and without any hesitation or caveating, the good lady Ms. Bloodmoney's favourite game of all time! Co-op play with her is a large part of the reason I have the double platinum!)

 

The game looks excellent, with a level of detail in the city environments that goes far beyond what is necessary or expected for an arcade-esque twin-stick game, and the game is all the better for it. Lighting in particular is used really effectively, in particular the torches each player carries, alleviating the big problem that some lesser twin-stick games can have - here you never lose track of where you are, or where your co-op partner is, on the (often extremely crowded) screen!

 

Story-wise, the game is pretty light, but what it lacks in specific narrative, it makes up for in consistent and effective tone - set from the outset by the almost (or possibly actual?) FMV news-report style footage at the intro, and continuing through its ten long, well paced levels. 

 

The DLC (included with the Apocalypse version on PS4) called 'Road of Devastation' is essentially more of the same, but adds a very light element of choice to the progress through a shorter, but slightly harder campaign - not quite entering rogue-like territory, but at least doing an impression of it, and adds some good additional enemy types to contend with.

 

The Ranking:

The fluid controls, instant action and incredibly good co-op functionality propel this one far up the list.
It might lack the length of some of the bigger, longer single player titles, but it is by no means a short game, and its incredibly repeatability, and stonking good-fun, means I'm still not bored with it, despite being coaxed into full playthroughs at least once a year by the good lady Ms. Bloodmoney!

 

Reaching as high as similarly single-player-or-co-op Cuphead, that match-up gave me a lot of grief! 
I've gone back and forth on which deserves to be higher...

Cuphead wins on visuals and tone, and is doing things with the art to capture the peculiar frame-rate of the old cartoons it is aping that are incredible. It also takes the round on originality for sure...
...but they are an even split on good controls, weapon variety and length...
...and Dead Nation definitely wins on replayability, and - genre-wise, standing out in the pack of Twin-Stick Shooters is arguably more difficult a task than Cuphead standing out is...

 

In the end, it to comes down to the Co-op, and Cuphead shoots itself in the foot with its finger-gun. 
By ramping the difficulty up so far in 2 player that only two veterans of the single player have a hope of beating it as a team, it drives away the 'partner-joining-in' crowd, Ms. Bloodmoney included, and on that front Dead Nation has it down cold.

 

The difficulty of the decision stops Dead Nation moving further up, but it takes its well earned place just above its valiant rival on the list!

 

 

 

 

Dishonoured

 

Summary: 

Dishonoured (yes, no matter how many times I write the title, I'm still going to spell it correctly!) is a damned marvel of a game.
The first-person stealth genre, while never super-popular, had all but disappeared from the mainstream at the time it was released, and stealth mechanics were on the wain in general. 
What had once been a pretty ripe genre for mainstream success with the Thief, Splinter Cell, and Tenchu series' had slowly disappeared, as patience for "Fuck, I got seen. Reload checkpoint" style gameplay had dwindled.

Arkane clearly understood this, and in creating Dishonoured, they pretty much went point-by-point through every reason why that was the case, and addressed ever single one of the problems those games had - not only alleviating each one, but often turning the solutions into some of Dishonoured's biggest, best and most memorable aspects, and did so with style, flair and in ways that are as smart and stylish as they are original and fun.

 

The protagonist, Corvo, is given a tech tree of powers so interesting, varied, conceptually original and stonkingly fun to use (and, crucially, to combine,) that they can support dozens of playthroughs of the games nine fabulously well realised - and incredibly intricate - levels, and allow for a new, interesting approach each time.

 

Trying to get into that building you say?

Try 'blinking' up to the open window with your short-range teleport?
No?
Okay, how about pickpocketing the guard for the key?
No?
Okay, choke out the guard and hide him in the rafters, and walk in?
No?
Okay, How about possessing a rat and running up the drainpipe?
No?
What about possessing the guard himself, and just wandering in?...

 

Every moment of Dishonoured is like that, and it lends a nine level game the kind of longevity that even massive open world games often fail to realise. The versatility extends to the point of it being possible to complete the entire game without ever being seen, or killing anyone at all - including the main targets. Each level, if fully explored, will reveal at least one method of dispatching the principal target in a non-lethal (though often far more horrifying!) fashion. A stand out is the level in which two mine owners are the targets. Killing them might be cold blooded, but it's nothing compared to kidnapping them, cutting out their tongues, dressing them as slaves, and putting them in the mine, unable to ever tell anyone who they are, and subjecting them to live out lives as slaves in their own mines!

 

The variety of powers on show is perfectly complimented by a level of intricate detail and multi-approach aspects to the design of the highly stylised levels. Each is unique and full of character, and the world-building done through the art-design is incredible. Arkane are the undisputed kings of Immersive Sim world-building, and the implementation here is one of only a handful of examples that potentially rival Bioshock in that regard. The city of Dunwall, with its fabulous architecture, whale oil-based economy and hierarchical caste-system is never spelled out much in text or dialogue in any kind of expositional way, but by the time you are done with the game, you understand more of the nuance of the city and the wider world it sits in than most game that do rely on such exposition manage.

The story is good overall, not incredible, but more than adequate, and the characters you meet along the way are interesting and nuanced. They are lent voice-work by some pretty heavy-hitters from the acting world - Susan Sarandon, Lena Headey, Carrie Fisher, John Slattery, Brad Dourif, Michael Madsen and Chloe Grace Moretz all feature, and while some games have proven that big-name actors aren't always the best fit for videogame voice-work (hello to you,  GTA: Vice City), this one proves that isn't a hard-and-fast rule.

 

The artistic design is excellent - a heavily stylised look akin to Bioshock, but replacing Underwater Art-Deco with Victorian Steam-Punk - and graphically, the game looks great. 
Levels are filled with interesting and beautiful architecture, and that is not just aesthetic here. Corvo's agility and powers mean that every level needs, and has, a level of verticality that is really impressive, and it necessitates that every nook and cranny be of uniform high quality. There can be no cutting corners on parts of the level that won't be seen up close, since Corvo is able to get basically everywhere. Arkane meet that considerable challenge with room to spare.

 

Gameplay is where Dishonoured truly shines. Versatility and variability aside, the game controls incredibly well. Stealth mechanics in first-person are hard to nail, but Dishonoured does it well. Borrowing the 'slight colour-palate change when hidden' mechanic from the under-appreciated Riddick games, and implementing a 3-stage detection indicator on enemies means you always feel in control of your stealth runs, and generally know when you are about to mess up, and have time to either quickly correct, or at least, prepare for combat if you can't. 

Actual open combat is a weaker aspect of the game, but is not poor - it just isn't quite on the level that the other mechanics are.

 

There is also minor issue with the 'full stealth, no kills' runs, in that there is no indication that you have failed prior to finishing a level. It's very easy to make it through a whole level, believing you have perfectly slipped through with clean, unnoticed hands, only to see on the final score screen that a guard died inexplicably - often as a result of you having hidden a sleeping guard somewhere where the city's plague rats could get to him, and they have been chomping on him as you proceeded on your stealthy way. 
This can be pretty irritating, as the levels are long and difficult to full-stealth. (Spoiler Alert - Arkane clearly agree that it was an issue, as they corrected this with the sequel, adding a welcome indicator that you are still on a 'perfect run' visible in game.)

 

Worth also noting - the game was complimented by some excellent DLC.

The Dunwall Trials DLC is non-story based, and simply a set of challenges, and while fun, are in some instances monstrously difficult, and require a very high level of endurance to conquer. Without story, they can feel a bit stale by comparison to the main game.

The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, however, comprise a two part side story where the player controls main-game antagonist Daud through some levels that are on-par with the excellent main game levels, and Daud's different skill tree proves that the design of the game holds up to more than just Corvo's power set, and gives even more variety of gameplay.

 

 

The Ranking:

No messing about here - the already extremely highly placed Bioshock is the perfect comparison.

Dishonoured does things with versatility that put Bioshock's admirable combat variability, but limited traversal mechanics to shame, and in world-building and artistic design, the two games are genuinely neck-and-neck. 
On story, Bioshock does take the edge though, and for all Dishonoured's formidable voice-work and pacing, there is no moment in the story to 'Wow' players - certainly nothing coming close to "Would you Kindly?" 

 

In the end, Dishonoured finds its deservedly very-high spot just below Bioshock, but I think it's safe to say, this won't be the end of the rivalry between the two franchises, given that the first entry of Bioshock is arguably it's strongest card, and with Dishonoured, the already brilliant first entry is not...

 

 

 

 

 

Late Shift

 

Summary: 

Late Shift, developed by CtrlMovie and released by Wales Interactive is one of those rare FMV titles that makes a hard push for legitimacy. 
It appeared on everything from consoles to iPads to AppleTV and SmartTV Apps, and markets itself as an 'interactive movie' as opposed to an 'FMV Game' and in comparison to other Wales interactive titles such as The Bunker, I think that is accurate.

There is no game here beyond decision making and exploring how the story can evolve or change, but that's not to say that can't be fun. Realistically, how much of a Telltale, or a DotNod, or even a Quantic Dream games memorable moments come from direct control of the characters? Little, I'd argue. The real meat of those games is in the choice based story, and so Late Shift can be considered a game by that rationale. 

 

The acting in Late Shift is... not awful. 
Certainly in comparison to even lower grade television, it would fall down, but in comparison to other FMV games, it is actually pretty high-grade. A low bar? Absolutely, but it doesn't change the fact that Late Shift benefits from the "Big Fish in a Small Pond" effect here.

Most of the actors are at least doing an impression of serviceable emoting, and are at their most fun to watch when hamming it up a bit.

These are not local high-school theatre players, most of the cast have at least some credentials on their IMDB pages, and one - Richard Durden - is a legit career-movie actor with a sizeable career under his belt, and it's unsurprising that he is a standout in the cast.

 

As far as the plot goes, it's fast paced and silly, all revolving around a parking attendant who is pulled into an auction-house heist gone wrong. Its dumb, but in a fun way, though it wasn't the best idea to make the macguffin that everyone is chasing an (apparently) very valuable small bowl - which look like it was found on in someone on the cast's grannies' mantlepiece.

 

The game is pretty fun for a single blind playthrough, and the minimal number of choices to be made do at least result in pretty wildly different scenes (though mostly following the same basic structure and set of locations,) but getting the full platinum does require more playthroughs than the limited nature of the game can sustain, and the player is likely to find themselves zoning out a bit by the third and fourth playthroughs.

 

A curiosity, but more interactive gameplay would benefit it immensely, as would some intentional moments of humour, to accompany the sizeable chunk of unintentional ones

 

The Ranking:

An interesting curiosity, and on the fun of a couple of playthroughs - each of which last around the length of a movie - it can beat out something like Zero Zero Zero Zero, which, while fun, won't last much longer than that overall, but for so minimally interactive an experience, even the lower end of Artifex Mundi's better fare, such as Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne, has it beat.

 

 

 

Pic-A-Pix Classic

 

Summary: 

Well... it's picross. 
In much the same fashion as sudoku or crossword puzzles, picross works fine as a paper game, and can be enhanced via electronic versions, and available in many forms, many variations, themes, styles and flavours, and, crucially, on many different devices.

Is picross a fun, satisfying flavour of puzzle?
Absolutely.

Is picross particularly well suited to the PS4...
not really.

 

It's not that the Pic-A-Pix brand of puzzlers are bad - in fact, as these games go, they are pretty good. There's a good swathe of these available on the store (I myself have 3 of them,) and all comprise a pretty meaty collection of puzzles with a good range of difficulty, wrapped up in a competent, if bland, package. The music that plays endlessly while you puzzle through these is absolutely insufferable, but I can't imagine anyone actually keeps the sound on as they play - these are perfect 'podcast games', and good to keep your hands busy as you listen to something else.
They also feature a reasonably good (if a bit easy to cheese) hint system for those who get stuck, and run perfectly well.

 

The problem is, most folks who want to play some picross, don't necessarily want to sit down at their big-boy console, hooked up to their expensive 50-inch flatscreen and play them there. Picross is ideally suited to the quick 5 minutes you have when waiting for a bus, or sitting on a train, or, of course - the old favourite - sitting on the bog!

 

The plethora of low cost alternative picross games available on android or iOS - often with more personality, (and much less inane, insufferable music) attached to them do make the Pic-a-Pix games a little bit of a hard one to recommend on PS4, where using a controller will never be as good as the gestural controls of a touchscreen. 
(It's worth noting that these do exist on Vita, where I assume touch control is present, but are, curiously, not cross-buy, and those version are much more rarely on sale, hence my PS4 versions.

 

I like picross a lot, and of the three I've played, Pic-a-Pix Classic is the most minimalistic (and best) rule set, (I tend to think multi-colour picross puzzles are inherently less fun,) but its hard to get too excited about picross using a controller, when cheaper, better and more user-friendly (if trophy-free) versions already exist in my pocket. 

 

The Ranking:

As I said, the best of the three I've tried, and picross is conceptually a really enjoyable, light-exercise workout for the mind.
Despite issues with controller input and console suitability, I'd still rather play some picross on the big TV than less fun puzzler Gem Smashers. 

If it were the touch input of vita, perhaps it could outdo a flawed arcade classic like Moon Cresta, but not this version, so Pic-a-Pix Classic it finds a home beneath it! 

 

 

 

 

 

SOMA

 

Summary: 

Cards on the table time - SOMA scared the shit out of me.

 

I dig a good horror game well enough. I don't play a massive number of them - while I'm a big fan of horror cinema, I wouldn't call myself an aficionado of Horror games - but I've played a fair few - most often at the request/insistence of the good lady Ms. Bloodmoney, who is a horror-gal through and through.

I very much enjoy the thrill of them, but most don't really scare me too much.

SOMA did.

 

For the most part, Frictional Games' sci-fi slice of existential horror 'sneak-and-peek' is trafficking in the 'long, drawn out unease' brand of horror, that I much prefer over the 'jump scare' tropes of some lesser games, but the sections where you are hiding from the menacing robotic drones of the rogue AI that has infected the (spoiler) underwater facility you inhabit in SOMA are scary, sometimes to the point of nausea, and when they manage a well placed jump-scare on top of that, which they did a few times, i just about had a coronary event - emitting a distinctly girlish yelp, much to the hilarity and continuing ridicule of Ms. Bloodmoney!

 

The game is very good - short, smart and based in the kind of existential sci-fi that a massive Philip K Dick fan like me can sink his teeth into. (The name 'Dr.Bloodmoney' is, for those not in the know, not actually a reference to Hitman, but to the Philip K Dick novel 'Dr.Bloodmoney, Or How We All Got On After The Bomb'.)

 

For the most part, I'm not going out of my way to avoid spoilers in these reviews, as they are all for older games, and SOMA is no exception in that regard, but I'm going to avoid too many story specifics here, simply because SOMA, while somewhat popular, is one people should experience if they haven't and is less widely played than it should be. 

Suffice to say, the story is one of SOMA's strongest suits, and it is told very well, and complimented by great voice-work and writing.
What doesn't help it though, is the way the game is paced, unfortunately. The puzzles are smart and good for the most part, but can fall on the esoteric side, and without much in the way of hints or guidance during them, getting stuck or lost can be an issue. Not a cardinal sin in gaming, but in horror, pace matters, and getting bogged down on a puzzle for a long time takes the wind out of the story in a way that doesn't benefit it.

 

This game, like Outlast, or Frictional Games' previous work Amnesia, relies heavily on the frightening nature of the player not having any way to counter the enemies aside from hiding and running. That works for the horror, but occasionally, if you fail the same section more than a few times, it does begin to lessen the fun a little, and it loses it's impact over time. However, SOMA's short length means there aren't too many moments like that. 

 

The horror works really well - there is no single moment quite on the level of Amnesia's 'Water Hallway', but the overall tone is consistent, and pound-for-pound, I found SOMA's story and setting more engaging than that game.

 

The ending, while broadcast a country-mile ahead of time, and obvious to the player long before the character they are playing as seems to grasp its significance, is handled well, and leaves a lasting impression and a memorable wake.

 

 

The Ranking:

Not much out-and-out horror on the list yet, but on rough comparison points Dead Space Extraction and The Walking Dead, SOMA comes out on top. moves up the list primarily on story and tone.
The next horror-adjacent game is Limbo, and I think, for all that games slightly more approachable and fun puzzles, and excellent art style, SOMA wins on pure dread and complex thematic and philosophical ideas to sink your teeth into, but it's a very close call, and so SOMA finds a spot just above it.

 

 

 

 

 

Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing

 

Summary: 

Guys, I want y'all to prepare yourselves, remember that I love you, and hear me out before you begin yelling. 
We good?
Everyone sitting down?
Everyone taken a steadying breath?
Okay... here goes...

 

I like Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing more than Mario Kart.

 

There. 
I said it.
I'm 100% aware of how minority that opinion is based on virtually everyone I've ever uttered it aloud to twisting their face into a fleshy pretzel of distain, or grimacing like they just watched me kick their dog...
 

Mario has the more iconic characters. It also did it first. Plus, I was a SNES kid! I liked the Megadrive (Genesis, for our colonial brothers) just fine -  my best friend had one growing up, so I played both in abundance, but in the Great Playground Console Wars of the '90s, I fought valiantly for team Nintendo all the way. 
Push come to shove, I would still pick most Nintendo franchises over SEGA ones. 

 

All that being said though, in terms of fun factor, party gaming with friends, 2-player with the good lady Ms. Bloodmoney, and even in single player, pound-for-pound, I cannot deny that I have had more fun with this game than any individual Mario Kart. 

 

Luckily, this list being PSNProfiles based, I won't ever actually need to prove that in list form, (and provoke the ire it probably would!) You'd be forgiven for asking "Well, Dr, why are you spending time discussing a Mario Kart at all?" but in approaching Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, one absolutely has to.

 

This game has cribbed virtually its entire design doc directly from Mario Kart - not until Playstation All Stars Battle Royale came along would a game more shamelessly copy another - but, the point I'm making with the comparison is, I think here, they did it exceptionally well. 

 

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing feels better in motion than any of the Mario Kart's I've played - and Mario Kart is ace.
Drifting feels more natural. The sense of speed is more... well... speedy. The weapons are obviously different aesthetically, though mostly the same in principle, but the addition of character specific power-ups means there is a reason beyond personal preference to select one character over the other - something I never found to have been meaningfuly the case in Mario Kart.
The tracks are colourful, interesting, distinct and do a grand job of hitting the aesthetics of the games they are based on - (and include a breadth and variety of games to reference that Mario Kart never had to deal with) - and most are very fun to drive. There is also a significant chunk of non-race or race-adjacent missions to complete, which are for the most part, a welcome addition, adding a different type of (sometimes very tricky) challenge and variety.

 

Yes, this game did steal most of what it did, but (like Playstation All Stars Battle Royale) for folks without a Nintendo console, the source of its theft is not available to them anyway, and (unlike Playstation All Stars Battle Royale) it stole it with a level of style and flair, and in implementing the stolen concepts, actually improved a couple of them along the way.

 

 

The Ranking:

Not much in the way of Kart Racing on the list (and there won't really be, as I have pretty few on Sony consoles,) but Split/Second is the most obvious comparison. 

While Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is great fun, and wins on the party-game front, Split/Second still has it beat on the visual flair, and its racer-vs-racer attack method is more original, and what it lacks in overall variety it more than makes up for in spectacle.

Lower down, in terms of colourful, accessible fun, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing beats out similarly kid-friendly Mini Ninjas and even fun platformer Jak and Daxter, mostly owing to repeatability, longevity and multiplayer, but doesn't quite pip Quantic Dream's high-point in Detroit: Become Human.

 

 

 

 

 

Void Bastards

 

Summary: 

The most recent game to enter the 'Eligible to Rank' list, finally I hit a game that I platinumed recently enough that I already have a write-up about in on my status updates, and can crib a little from my own work!

 

 ☢️SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC NOTE☢️ 

 I have no interest in getting into the minutia of what constitutes a 'Rogue-Like' vs. a 'Rogue-Lite' in this particular thread. I know there are differences, but it's a blurry line, subject to debate, and a pretty semantic argument overall, as the Venn Diagram of fans of the two genres are basically a single circle. Here, and throughout this list, I will just be using 'Rogue-Like' to cover all games that would fall in either camp!)

 

Void Bastards is a tongue-in-cheek, cell-shaded FPS Rogue-like, with a metric ton of personality, some slick, if a little simple, shooter mechanics, and a very satisfying gameplay loop - with a few small but notable problems in it's design.

 

The game looks brilliant. I don't know that I have ever seen Cell-Shading done this well before - pause at any point, and the screen looks like a perfect, crisp, clean comic book page - which is impressive already - but even in motion, the game looks great, and moves with a smoothness that should make other games doing similar styles blush.

 

The game's style and humour are well done, and very polished - the cutscenes are done super well, are very well drawn and are genuinely funny, as is the cheerfully homicidal voice over of your helper AI and the AI's on the ships. It gains points for the amount of Scottish-centric humour (actually, even more specific than that, it seems to be Glasgow-centric, which, as a Glasgow boy through-and-through, I love!). The Pirates all talk in broad Glasgow accents, One of the craftable items is a can of Irn Bru (for those unfamiliar, that is pretty much Scotland's national soda, and the trophy for catching a Garbage Collector on the Map is even called 'Mingin'

 

There are some issues though.

It feels like the game has been designed with a much higher focus on stealth than the gameplay actually allows for.
There will often be times when you have no available weapons that can deal with particular enemy types, but are forced to board a vessel featuring them. that would be cool if there were ways to sneak around effectively, but the random layouts of the ships and the enemies means that often, you will have no way of even leaving the first room without engaging with 10 of that enemy immediately, virtually guaranteeing a quick death.

even spec-ing full stealth, still only gives you about an extra 2 seconds before all hell breaks loose, and is not a viable way to play. The only way to deal with these situations is to run like fuck, and hope and prey - which is sometimes great fun, but often just feels hopeless, and like you are flinging characters to their death like fodder, hoping the next one will have better luck.
 
Speaking of random layouts, they are a little too random for my liking.
In some other rogue-like games, the 'randomness' is massaged and finessed in order to ensure that you are never presented with a level that is impossible, or so hard it is unreasonable.
Void Bastards does not do that.
I quite often was transported to ships where there were 10 or 15 super hard enemies in the very first room, making it virtually impossible to progress there.
However, quitting to menu and reloading, would redistribute the enemies, and make the very same level a cake-walk. This suggests the difficulty is not deliberate, but rather an accident, and means the player feels more that they are bashing against an RNG, rather than playing against a crafted game.

All in all though, Void Bastards is an enjoyable, tough-but-not-too-tough Rogue-Like FPS, (a genre of which there aren't many good offerings).
Tons of personality, tons of style, tons of humour, and tons of fun.

 

The Ranking:

Rogue-Like as a is a genre that has its finger on the scales a little on this list, as I have a real fondness for run-based games.

Void Bastards is not my favourite example of them, and as much as I am down for a Rogue-Like FPS, and think it works well here, I do prefer some other genres when given the Rogue-Like treatment, but still, I enjoyed this game quite a bit.

 

The fun, outlandish and comical tone moves up the list past similarly comedic and action heavy games like Lollipop Chainsaw, and Headlander above it, and overall replayability, aesthetic polish and well implemented art-style keep it moving a few places further than even that great game, but Void Bastards finally reaches a ship it doesn't have the weapons to deal with in PS3 sleeper-classic Darksiders, and has to stop due to lack of fuel and food!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there we have it folks - some seriously long ones here! ?

 

Thanks to @GraniteSnake, @The_Kopite & @elpoko for putting in requests - hope my reviews are acceptable, or at least sufficiently explanatory if not!

 

Dark Souls retains its crown as 'Current Most Awesome Game', though Dishonoured making a good showing...

 

 Watchmen: The End is Nigh remains the current 'Least Awesome Game', without ever seeing any competition for that crown this round!

 

 

 

 

What games will be coming along next time to challenge for the platinum... or the lump of coal?

 

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

 

Remember:

 

 

 

 

SPECIAL NOTE

 

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

 

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

 and aren't already on the Rankings! 

 

 

 

 

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

Edited May 7, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[The_Kopite]

6 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

 

Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing

 

Summary: 

Guys, I want y'all to prepare yourselves, remember that I love you, and hear me out before you begin yelling. 
We good?
Everyone sitting down?
Everyone taken a steadying breath?
Okay... here goes...

 

I like Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing more than Mario Kart.

 

There. 
I said it.
I'm 100% aware of how minority that opinion is based on virtually everyone I've ever uttered it aloud to twisting their face into a fleshy pretzel of distain, or grimacing like they just watched me kick their dog...
 

Mario has the more iconic characters. It also did it first. Plus, I was a SNES kid! I liked the Megadrive (Genesis, for our colonial brothers) just fine -  my best friend had one growing up, so I played both in abundance, but in the Great Playground Console Wars of the '90s, I fought valiantly for team Nintendo all the way. 
Push come to shove, I would still pick most Nintendo franchises over SEGA ones. 

 

All that being said though, in terms of fun factor, party gaming with friends, 2-player with the good lady Ms. Bloodmoney, and even in single player, pound-for-pound, I cannot deny that I have had more fun with this game than any individual Mario Kart. 

 

Luckily, this list being PSNProfiles based, I won't ever actually need to prove that in list form, (and provoke the ire it probably would!) You'd be forgiven for asking "Well, Dr, why are you spending time discussing a Mario Kart at all?" but in approaching Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, one absolutely has to.

 

This game has cribbed virtually its entire design doc directly from Mario Kart - not until Playstation All Stars Battle Royale came along would a game more shamelessly copy another - but, the point I'm making with the comparison is, I think here, they did it exceptionally well. 

 

Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing feels better in motion than any of the Mario Kart's I've played - and Mario Kart is ace.
Drifting feels more natural. The sense of speed is more... well... speedy. The weapons are obviously different aesthetically, though mostly the same in principle, but the addition of character specific power-ups means there is a reason beyond personal preference to select one character over the other - something I never found to have been meaningfuly the case in Mario Kart.
The tracks are colourful, interesting, distinct and do a grand job of hitting the aesthetics of the games they are based on - (and include a breadth and variety of games to reference that Mario Kart never had to deal with) - and most are very fun to drive. There is also a significant chunk of non-race or race-adjacent missions to complete, which are for the most part, a welcome addition, adding a different type of (sometimes very tricky) challenge and variety.

 

Yes, this game did steal most of what it did, but (like Playstation All Stars Battle Royale) for folks without a Nintendo console, the source of its theft is not available to them anyway, and (unlike Playstation All Stars Battle Royale) it stole it with a level of style and flair, and in implementing the stolen concepts, actually improved a couple of them along the way.

 

 

The Ranking:

Not much in the way of Kart Racing on the list (and there won't really be, as I have pretty few on Sony consoles,) but Split/Second is the most obvious comparison. 

While Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is great fun, and wins on the party-game front, Split/Second still has it beat on the visual flair, and its racer-vs-racer attack method is more original, and what it lacks in overall variety it more than makes up for in spectacle.

Lower down, in terms of colourful, accessible fun, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing beats out similarly kid-friendly Mini Ninjas and even fun platformer Jak and Daxter, mostly owing to repeatability, longevity and multiplayer, but doesn't quite pip Quantic Dream's high-point in Detroit: Become Human.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liking it more than Mario Kart gets a thumbs up from me ? lol definitely in the minority like me though (I like Mario Kart as well of course, who doesn't?)

[Cleggworth]

Nice write up on SOMA, I agree 100%. Seeing the ending coming a mile off is what makes it so good. The first time it comes up, with the suit, its kinda horrifying but then you know exactly what is going to happen and then my reaction was the same as Catherine's tbh!

 

Dead Nation, again our thoughts are pretty identical. The game isn't original in the slightest, wow a fat zombie that explodes when it gets close!, but it is done so, so well. The co-op factor is what propels it up my own personal ranking though. This was the first game I played co-op with my wife and she loves it too. That damned DLC trophy, survive til round 10 was my bogey trophy for bloody years. I'd try again occasionally and one day I just did it, popping the plat on the PS4 version before knocking it out on the other versions the next day. Alienation had that same satisfying twin stick action but never quite hit that same high for me.

 

Dishonored you said it all, fabulous series. I love Fallout and the Elder Scrolls but it'll be Arkanes output I'll miss the most with Microsofts dastardly take over ?

[DrBloodmoney]

8 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

Nice write up on SOMA, I agree 100%. Seeing the ending coming a mile off is what makes it so good. The first time it comes up, with the suit, its kinda horrifying but then you know exactly what is going to happen and then my reaction was the same as Catherine's tbh!

 

Oh yeah, see it coming or not, it still works a treat.

It's funny, I actually had an inkling of what the plot was going to shape up to be almost immediately - right after the chair and 'waking up' (perils of having read too much Philip K Dick and watched too many Twilight Zone episodes I guess) ? - but it was done with such style, (and scares) that it didn't matter!

 

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Dead Nation, again our thoughts are pretty identical. The game isn't original in the slightest, wow a fat zombie that explodes when it gets close!, but it is done so, so well. The co-op factor is what propels it up my own personal ranking though. This was the first game I played co-op with my wife and she loves it too. That damned DLC trophy, survive til round 10 was my bogey trophy for bloody years. I'd try again occasionally and one day I just did it, popping the plat on the PS4 version before knocking it out on the other versions the next day. Alienation had that same satisfying twin stick action but never quite hit that same high for me.

 

What is it with the wives and Dead Nation? You wouldn't think that would be the game to keep a marriage fresh, but it just seems to work ?

 

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Dishonored you said it all, fabulous series. I love Fallout and the Elder Scrolls but it'll be Arkanes output I'll miss the most with Microsofts dastardly take over

 

God, don't remind me. Literally the only part of that announcement I got legit worried about - and remain so. They are basically the only studio left still carrying the Immersive Sim torch with any real fervour... I so hope they don't disappear entirely from Playstation ?

Edited May 7, 2021 by DrBloodmoney