Baker’s Final March

[Baker]

5 minutes ago, HusKy said:

 

But this is what you are planning to do if I understood you correctly? I'm confused.

 

 

You played on alts regularly?

 

Don't take this personally, just trying to understand what you are saying.

Well yeah that’s what I’m going to do. Even though I think it’s stupid to do, I’m going to do it. Does that make any sense? ?

 

I only play on my alt account to try out games that are free for me through Ps Plus. If it was fun, I played it on my main account. Regardless of difficulty or trophies. So that’s going to change.

[Arcesius]

14 minutes ago, Baker said:

Well yeah that’s what I’m going to do. Even though I think it’s stupid to do, I’m going to do it. Does that make any sense?

 

I only play on my alt account to try out games that are free for me through Ps Plus. If it was fun, I played it on my main account. Regardless of difficulty or trophies. So that’s going to change.

 

It makes sense, but it doesn't sound like you will be happy with this. Instead of forgetting about trophies, letting them dictate what you play ?‍?

 

Why not keep playing on this acc but try to not force yourself to complete everything? You have been able to step away from games and not return to them for a long time (for example DmC5)... You can do that with more games moving forward.. and them just not come back to them

 

Just make sure you have fun with whatever you decide to do!

[Baker]

18 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

It makes sense, but it doesn't sound like you will be happy with this. Instead of forgetting about trophies, letting them dictate what you play ‍

 

Why not keep playing on this acc but try to not force yourself to complete everything? You have been able to step away from games and not return to them for a long time (for example DmC5)... You can do that with more games moving forward.. and them just not come back to them

 

Just make sure you have fun with whatever you decide to do!

I can’t step away from those incomplete games. I need to finish them at one point. ?

 

Really, all that I’m going to do is skip some games that I would have played if trophies didn’t exist. But it doesn’t really matter because there are dozens of great games I can still play..

 

..and will have a lot of fun with. 

[Platinum_Vice]

2 hours ago, Baker said:

I can’t step away from those incomplete games. I need to finish them at one point.

 

Literally throwing two cents in here - and don't want to be a negative influence - but the more incomplete games that you build on your profile, the easier it will be to leave that mindset of worrying about the incomplete games behind. Extrapolate it out... 3 incomplete games, then 10, then 20, 50, 100... by the time that the incomplete games list becomes "too big of a monster to come back from," you'll already be in a new habit of playing different. 

 

Could be liberating. *shrug*

[Arcesius]

2 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

 

Literally throwing two cents in here - and don't want to be a negative influence - but the more incomplete games that you build on your profile, the easier it will be to leave that mindset of worrying about the incomplete games behind. Extrapolate it out... 3 incomplete games, then 10, then 20, 50, 100... by the time that the incomplete games list becomes "too big of a monster to come back from," you'll already be in a new habit of playing different. 

 

Could be liberating. *shrug*

 

This is definitely what I plan on doing IF I ever get really tired of hunting ? I think it could help for sure. 

[Grotz99]

3 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

 

Literally throwing two cents in here - and don't want to be a negative influence - but the more incomplete games that you build on your profile, the easier it will be to leave that mindset of worrying about the incomplete games behind. Extrapolate it out... 3 incomplete games, then 10, then 20, 50, 100... by the time that the incomplete games list becomes "too big of a monster to come back from," you'll already be in a new habit of playing different. 

 

Could be liberating. *shrug*

I agree with this, I didn't really care for trophies when I first started my account and by the time I did start to care, my account was to full of incomplete games. I stuck with it though and now my mantra is to set a goal when I start new games, i'll try to plat/100% them, but if there are grindy trophies or some that make the game unfun, I'll just ignore them and be happy with an A rank for the game.

[Joe Dubz]

On 5/15/2023 at 10:28 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

 

Literally throwing two cents in here - and don't want to be a negative influence - but the more incomplete games that you build on your profile, the easier it will be to leave that mindset of worrying about the incomplete games behind. Extrapolate it out... 3 incomplete games, then 10, then 20, 50, 100... by the time that the incomplete games list becomes "too big of a monster to come back from," you'll already be in a new habit of playing different. 

 

Could be liberating. *shrug*

 

On 5/15/2023 at 1:11 PM, Arcesius said:

 

This is definitely what I plan on doing IF I ever get really tired of hunting ? I think it could help for sure. 

This my friends, is the way I do things!! IDGAF about my comp%, never have. I just play what I want, if I really enjoy it I'll plat it, and if not... SEE YA!! On to the next adventure.

 

I just don't have enough free time to be bashing my head against a wall with certain stuff if I'm not having fun. I've always been impressed by alot of you guys' and gals' determination keeping those pristine-looking comp%s but... That's just not for me lol. Plus by the time I started coming here regularly and could see the % calculated out, I was already below 50% and CBA to care at that point. To each their own of course!

 

Either way Baker, I hope you find a happy middle ground!! I'm happy to hear you're sticking around for another hundred, as I've always enjoyed following along with your progress. In the end, as long as you're having fun that's what should count!

[Baker]

 #352

 

 

The Quarry

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 30 hours

 

This. This game is a prime example why I hate trophy hunting at the moment. And for a long time.

 

The Quarry is basically a interactive movie and it was okay. I played through it blind for the experience and had a good time with it. 
 

But then it’s cleaning up the trophies and it’s just a pain. Going through the same story 3 more times where there is barely anything different. Your character moves at a snails pace. No skippable dialogues or cutscenes. No skipping anything.

 

Making this 8 hour game turn into a 30 hour game. Fuck, I hated it.

 

Update:

 

And that’s why my final game where I will play through something I don’t want to anymore is Horizon Forbidden West.

 

I like the game, really enjoyed HZD, but why is there a NG+ trophy. Apparently you even need almost 3 playthroughs. Why!?

 

And now for some good news:

 

I managed to borrow an extra controller again so I can go for the final no death run in SMBF. I will probably start practicing Tuesday. I only have it for 2 weeks so hopefully I can finish the game in that time period. It’s been months since I played it though so I probably need to practice a lot first..

 

And I started Trackmania.

 

First impressions is that it’s much easier than Trackmania Turbo. And I think I already have the hardest trophy done: Blackbelt Champion. The rest is just time consuming and will take me a few weeks/months as the author medals so far have been pretty easy. It’s around the same difficulty as gold medals in TT only the maps are easier imo. But.. you need a total of 290 author medals, which is just a lot..

Edited May 27, 2023 by Baker

[Grotz99]

On 5/27/2023 at 11:48 AM, Baker said:

But then it’s cleaning up the trophies and it’s just a pain. Going through the same story 3 more times where there is barely anything different. Your character moves at a snails pace. No skippable dialogues or cutscenes. No skipping anything.

 

Making this 8 hour game turn into a 30 hour game. Fuck, I hated it.

 

This is why this game sits at like 90% in my profile. I really did like the game, more than Until Dawn, but going for the platinum is sooooo boring. I figured I might go back to it around Halloween or if there is a gaming by numbers event that I can finish it for.

[Baker]

 #353+100%
 

 

Horizon Forbidden West

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 70 hours

 

I played this game through PS Plus Extra and therefore decided to go for the PS4 version of the game. I didn’t really want to spend another €20 for some DLC and possibly more DLC in the future, although I think there won’t be..

 

And just like HZD I really enjoyed the game. 
 

The story was good, not as good as HZD, and it ends with a big cliffhanger. So I assume a part 3 is coming. I played through the entire game on Normal difficulty for a fun experience.

 

The combat, exploration and puzzles were fun to do. Although the climbing in this game is terrible as you often mis jump for some reason.

 

I did absolutely everything there is to do in NG, maxing out all skills, upgrading all weapons and armor I used and even defogging the entire map.

 

And then.. This game became a pain because it’s a trend these days to add on some terrible NG+ trophies. 
 

Not only do you need to beat the game on Ultra Hard you also need to buy all new weapons, facepaints and colors for your armor, which costs 125 champion tokens. You get these tokens by finishing quests, sidequests and all sort of other stuff. Making you play way too much again on NG+.

 

So I did a speedrun on NG+ on Story difficulty first, making sure to get 89 tokens which took quite a bit of side stuff again and then on to Ultra Hard to get the remaining 36 tokens by just doing the main missions plus three easy tallnecks. 
 

Ultra Hard was surprisingly easy. I never died against a boss fight and that’s basically all you’re doing. Running and climbing and skipping all cutscenes until the next boss fight. Although I was stuck for a little while in one mission where I needed to fight 7 smaller enemies in a small room. I hated that part. It was in the mission Gemini for anyone wondering.

 

So once again a fun game got ruined by terrible NG+ trophies for me. This was the last time I will ever do something like this again.

[Guest]

Are you going to quit trophy hunting after 400 completed games?

[Baker]

19 hours ago, kevao97 said:

Are you going to quit trophy hunting after 400 completed games?

 

(I quoted you but started to type way more than a simple answer to your question) ?

 

Well that was the plan originally but I changed my mind. I kind of explained it already one page ago in this checklist.

 

But from now on I will not play games where the trophy list doesn’t seem fun to me. The Quarry and Horizon Forbidden West are good examples of this. Fun games, terrible trophy lists. 
 

In the end that would probably mean I will not play some good games anymore (on this account at least) but there are still dozens of good games to play through. 
 

To further explain a bit this is what I consider terrible trophy lists:

 

- Speedrunning.

 

I loath this so much. I never want to do a full game speed run ever again.

 

- Multiple playthroughs.

 

Just give access to the hardest difficulty from the start. I don’t want to play through your game a gazillion times. 

 

- Collectibles.

 

I don’t want to wander around in a game following a guide watching my phone all the time. Why are there so many collectible trophies nowadays? And not just a few, sometimes you need to find hundreds..

 

My top 3 things I hate the most and I’m not going to do anymore. These are mostly found in AAA games (apart from maybe speedrunning) so I think I will delve more into (difficult) indie games. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #354

 

 

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 20 hours

 

Great game. R&C never disappoints. I don’t even know what to say about it apart from that I wished the trophy list was a bit more difficult. 
 

 #355

 

 

I Am Setsuna

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 30 hours

 

The first of 3 JRPG’s from Tokyo RPG Factory I intend to play. This developer tries to bring back the old nostalgic JRPG games and it wasn’t bad at all. But this game doesn’t come close to something like Octopath Traveler II.

 

The story has you saving the world again (ofcourse) and the combat system is turn based. It has a system comparable to the materia system of FF VII and even some of the music has been ripped off of FF VII. 
 

But I can’t complain. I had fun with it. So next will be Lost Sphear which presumably is better than this game.

 

Update:

 

The first hurdle in Trackmania has been taken as I got the 90 author medals on tracks of the day. So from now on I will slowly be chipping away at the campaign author medals.

 

What surprises me the most is that reading some posts of people who completed this, or the entire game, say it’s harder than Trackmania Turbo. I still strongly disagree with that. The hardest author medal I’ve done, which is actually the very first track of the day, U-Turn took me 2 hours. Now compared to the ridiculous amount of hours some of the tracks in Turbo took me that is nothing.

 

Maybe it has something to do with the 2 facts that stadium was/is my favorite terrain in Trackmania but even more so that I’m now playing with the analog stick instead of the D pad. I think that makes a really big difference as I feel I have much more control of the car. But that could also just be the game.. Who knows..

 

What’s next?

 

I’m anxiously awaiting FF XVI which I will buy on release but before that I don’t really know.

 

I bought a game called Weird West that can be described as a twin stick shooter RPG, set in the Wild West with an occult story. Now that sounds like a lot of fun to me but I think I’ll save it for later. 

 

 

[Destructor-8]

1 hour ago, Baker said:

The first hurdle in Trackmania has been taken as I got the 90 author medals on tracks of the day. So from now on I will slowly be chipping away at the campaign author medals.

 

What surprises me the most is that reading some posts of people who completed this, or the entire game, say it’s harder than Trackmania Turbo. I still strongly disagree with that. The hardest author medal I’ve done, which is actually the very first track of the day, U-Turn took me 2 hours. Now compared to the ridiculous amount of hours some of the tracks in Turbo took me that is nothing.

 

Maybe it has something to do with the 2 facts that stadium was/is my favorite terrain in Trackmania but even more so that I’m now playing with the analog stick instead of the D pad. I think that makes a really big difference as I feel I have much more control of the car. But that could also just be the game.. Who knows..

 

Congrats, also just to let you know but there are a few that agree with you in the discords that I'm in. It does seem a lot more of a mix than I originally thought. I think the difference is that this game feels generally less annoying so every attempt doesn't feel like as much of a chore whilst possibly just more enjoyable going for better times. I personally still think this game requires more mastery especially with the amount that is required however I completely agree with the amount of time spent on particular tracks as the most I've spent on here has been similar. The only tracks so far where I've spent much more time has been stuff that is going to be a skip for most people. I actually got the royal stuff done a few days ago & have been able to do it a few times since so was good to get that out the way. That's definitely the replacement for where most of the time will be spent on a single thing. It will probably be a completion that is going to be down to preference although I still feel like I'm pushing more on it however it's less annoying this time. oh the D-Pad might have had some kind of effect so that's quite impressive you did it that way, can't remember if we talked about that before. Nice progress so far, something to chip away at now at least.

[Baker]

Update:

 

Back again with some SMBF. Unfortunately not the good news. It’s been 3 months since I played the game and decided now is the time to tackle the final no death run.

 

So I started practicing yesterday evening and it took a while to get used to the game again. But luckily I still remembered how to beat each level so it’s just a case of rebuilding muscle memory.

 

Happy with the progress I made in the few hours I played but look at this. ? I could make this jump with my eyes closed. Well actually no because that’s what happened, my eyes twitched and for a split second I couldn’t see the screen anymore. It was the final easy CP. Why do I always choke so bad.. ? 

 

 

Alright. Let’s get this done. Before FF XVI releases please.

[Baker]

 #356

 

 

Super Meat Boy Forever

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 9/10

Playtime: 150+ hours

 

It is done. One of the hardest games I’ve completed. 
 

I’ve started this game over 3 months ago and it kind of hooked me from the start.
 

For anyone that doesn’t know it’s an autorunner with randomly generated levels generated by seeds. So when I started this game I went to @Arcesius to ask for his seed. Just so I had some visual reference and to ask for help and tips when I needed it.

And man, I bombarded him with a lot of questions. And just stalked him with rage posts, just to vent some frustration. Because this game is tough. Even when the seed is apparently not one of the hardest. Thanks for putting up with it.

 

This is also my main issue with the game. I think it would be better without the seed system, so no randomly generated levels. 

 

My final no death runs. My heart was pounding like crazy when I miss timed a jump close to the end. Thankfully I didn’t die. I started this final no death run 2 days ago and yesterday I did a 12-14 hour marathon full of frustration to get it done. I felt I was so close all the time and refused to stop, but like I said this game is tough. But once I start something, it will be done!

 

 

 

Once again thanks to @Arcesius and also to @Joe Dubz for his great guide.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Baker

[Joe Dubz]

Yay, congrats @Baker!! Very happy for you my dude. Def one of the hardest games out there to complete, ecstatic you didn't give up and let a busted controller hold you back!!

 

I'm glad you found the guide useful. I was kinda surprised to see it drop to 4/5 stars somehow? Just like WTF?? With of course no feedback to tell me what I could adjust to make it better ? Ah well, trolls gon' troll after all I guess. 

 

At any rate huge congrats and looking forward to see what you tackle next my friend ?

[Baker]

Update:

 

So I started going through the Trackmania campaigns and this is why I think it’s much easier than Trackmania Turbo.

 

https://i.imgur.com/R6fUM8B.jpg

 

I guess Imgur isn’t working properly at the moment but basically I have all author medals on the first campaign, summer 2020, apart from track 10 which is just near impossible due to the new ice physics.

 

And this also took almost no effort at all. You have a gold medal within 5 minutes and the most time I spend on an author medal is less than an hour. Compared to Turbo where some tracks took me 10+ hours just to get a gold medal this is just easy. It’s still time consuming, but easy. Not even 6/10 difficulty. Onto the next campaign..

 

Update 2:

 

For the first time ever I pre ordered a game. No surprise here, it’s Final Fantasy XVI and I’m very hyped about it. It comes in tomorrow and can’t wait to play it.

 

On 19-6-2023 at 9:45 PM, Joe Dubz said:

Yay, congrats @Baker!! Very happy for you my dude. Def one of the hardest games out there to complete, ecstatic you didn't give up and let a busted controller hold you back!!

 

I'm glad you found the guide useful. I was kinda surprised to see it drop to 4/5 stars somehow? Just like WTF?? With of course no feedback to tell me what I could adjust to make it better  Ah well, trolls gon' troll after all I guess. 

 

At any rate huge congrats and looking forward to see what you tackle next my friend 

Thanks man. I never voted on a guide before but I gave you 5 stars in the hope to crank it up again. There is nothing to improve.

 

I’m thinking about starting a thread for sharing the seed you completed the no death runs on with video’s. This way it’s pretty easy to see which seed is easier for each no death run. If a lot of people will share it, the game will become ‘easier’ for everyone..

Edited June 23, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #357

 

 

Final Fantasy XVI

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 50-60 hours

 

My favorite series in gaming is back and so I had to buy this on release. I even preordered it, which was something I had never done before. And it was great!

 

And because it was great I feel a bit disappointed. Because after the opening 10 hours of the game I thought it was epic. But the more I played, the game became less and less enticing.

 

Let’s just start with the good things: Story, characters and music are amazing. That’s for me also the most important thing in a JRPG but a good battle system is also a necessity.
 

And you probably already read somewhere this game plays like Devil May Cry and that’s pretty accurate. To me it feels like a DMC meets GoW in a FF universe game. And that can be a good thing. This game has some of the most epic boss battles ever. In particular I thought 2 boss fights were amazing, but I can’t spoil them here ofcourse.

 

But hack & slash combat is not really something for me and as the game dragged on I found myself using the same abilities over and over again. Every battle the same routine of breaking the enemies shield, put out max damage, rinse and repeat. And it became a bit boring. Especially on my second playthrough. I mean these boss battles were epic but some also take 45-60 minutes. Where you are just mashing square and occasionally have to dodge.

 

Some more things that annoyed me:

 

Clive (the main protagonist) can run. But not in towns, and not past enemies and not while talking and.. He can do it but he never does. He moves pretty slow. Luckily you get a chocobo later in the game to move faster across the fields.

 

The side quests are terrible. Just go fetch this item and slay this monster quests. It has some lore but it was so boring that I skipped every cutscene related to side quests. And there must be at least a 100 of them..

 

Exploring is pointless. You have these massive fields where there is nothing to do. Apart from some enemies wandering around which you don’t need to fight at all as you’re always at the correct level to beat the main story. There are very few treasure chests that actually have something good in them but you will soon get some better gear anyway so no need to go searching for them.

 

In the end this game is still awesome though. And I highly recommend it just for the story and the amazing boss fights. But it doesn’t really feel like a JRPG to me anymore. That shouldn’t be a bad thing, but in the case of FF, it is. 

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #358+100%
 

 

Dead Cells

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 30 hours

 

I tried this game again when the PS5 version went free on PS Plus Extra. I tried and played this game a few years ago too but it wasn’t really for me because it’s a Roguelike game, and I don’t really like them.

 

But the combat was pretty good so it was time to try it again. And I noticed there was now an Assist Mode. With unlimited continues, low enemy health and many more options this game became quite fun, and ofcourse much easier, to me so I decided to just play it. And yes, I played with Assist Mode the entire time.

 

It was fun but after running through the same dungeons a million times I’m glad this game is done.

 

 #359

 

 

Soul Hackers 2

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 40 hours

 

Soul Hackers 2 is a JRPG that’s comparable to Shin Megami Tensei or Persona. And it was alright, but nowhere near as good as SMT games.

 

If you are familiar with these games it has the same turn based battle system, trying to attack your enemies weaknesses and exploiting it for maximal damage. It also has the same demon system again where you can fuse demons into more and more powerful ones to fight along side you.

The story wasn’t the best and you see the plot twists coming from a mile away.

 

But.. I really love this battle system and the demon system. 

 

Bring SMT V to Playstation!

 

Update:

 

A quick Trackmania update then. Last week I spend 2 days grinding out author medals and went from 60 to 120 without effort. But that’s because I did all the white tracks in all campaigns, although one white track was damn hard and took me 2-3 hours, and I played through the current campaign.

 

So currently at 120/200 author medals and I think I will grind out the remaining tracks this week. Next up: The green tracks.

[Baker]

Well. This has been quite the month. In my 13 years of trophy hunting I’ve never earned this many trophies in a month: 327. Mostly thanks to Dead Cells. I got a few new completions so let’s get on with it.

 

 #360

 

 

Final Fantasy IV

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 25 hours

 

The first FF of the pixel remasters I had never played before. I didn’t really know which one to choose but this is considered a good entry so I started with this game. And it was good! It’s just another FF game though, so let’s continue.

 

 #361

 

 

Lost Sphear

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 25 hours

 

The second JRPG of Tokyo RPG factory I played through PS Plus Extra. This was a step up from I Am Setsuna. I really liked it. I will play the final one, Oninaki, pretty soon I think. It’s just another turn based JRPG though so let’s continue..

 

 #362

 

 

Trackmania

 

Enjoyment: 9/10

Difficulty: 7/10

Playtime: 150 hours

 

What a great racing game.

 

I started this as soon as the game released and since Trackmania Turbo was a very difficult game for me and people were saying this was going to be harder I expected quite the challenge. Only it wasn’t..

 

It’s definitely much easier and here are a few reasons I think why. 
 

- The tracks themselves are much easier and I have the feeling shorter too.

- I had much better control of the car, even on terrains like dirt, gras, plastic. Except ice. Ice sucks. This could also be due to I played it with the analog stick instead of the D-Pad, which is how I played Turbo.

- Author Medals are much easier than Trackmaster medals, hell even gold medals, in Turbo.

- There are so many tracks that you could skip any track that you are struggling on.

 

First I wanted to give this a 6/10 difficulty but I forgot about the Blackbelt Champion trophy that took me quite a while to do. Although it’s also a bit RNG based. But 7/10 it is.

 

My guessed playtime is around 150 hours although my PS5 tracker is at 202 at the moment. But I have also been playing a lot of ranked online with a good friend of mine. Still, this game, with the 290 author medals, took me less time than Turbo with the 200 gold medals. I think that says enough.

 

Awesome game. Go play it!

 #363

 

 

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 25 hours

 

What a great Metroidvania game. It looks gorgeous and it’s oozing with atmosphere so a comparison with Hollow Knight is at its place.

 

I played mostly without a guide which added a few hours of playtime as knowing where to go can be confusing at time.

 

This game was also quite a bit harder than expected judging by the trophy rarity. The enemies hit like a truck and you die within 2-3 hits. But there is just no penalty in dying. You go back to your last save room keeping everything you collected and all exp. Therefore, in the end, the game was quite easy.

 

Still a must play if you like Metroid style games.

 

Until next time!

Edited July 31, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #364

 

 

NeverAwake

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 15 hours

 

At one point this game caught my eye. I think I saw a video on YouTube about it. And after getting more info on this game, all the reviews were extremely positive, I decided to play it. So when it was on sale I bought it..

 

NeverAwake is a twin stick shooter that plays in a little girls dreams. And because of this you have the most crazy boss fights in this game. From an eggplant to a wasabi to a cellphone and your mom and dad, and I could go on.. It was fun!

The goal in every level is to collect 100% of the souls that are dropped by the enemies / bosses.

If you can’t get them all you will go into loop 2, where it becomes tougher. You can go on for a long time but the highest I went is loop 10 for a trophy.

 

You have your main weapon that always stays the same which you shoot with R3 and a large variety of special weapons that are limited to use. Also you will unlock many accessories that boost defence, more souls, more uses of your special weapon, etc..

 

You need to play every stage at least 2 times. There is an A side and a B side. B side is the more difficult one. On A side you can use auto aim as well, where you just have to move and dodge. Tip if you decide to play this: don’t touch R3 at all for auto aim. It took me while to realise that.

 

There is just one thing. This game was too short and too easy. They could have made the trophy list a lot harder. Especially since when you get the second bad ending you unlock a new mode which looked to be pretty tough. But there are no trophies for it.

 

And there is a ranked online score for every level. I mostly got B & C ranks, with a couple of A and S ranks. My highest was S+ so I think that’s the highest rank. A trophy for let’s say, get all A ranks, would make this game so much more challenging.

 

It says enough when my final trophy was for 100 deaths, which I had to grind.
 

It was a fun, surrealistic game with some great boss fights. So when it’s around the €5-10 euro range and you like shmups this is something to consider.

 

 #365

 

 

Rainbow Six Extraction

 

Enjoyment: -

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 70 hours

 

It has been a while since I played a coop game so some weeks ago I asked @Mori if he had anything planned. He came up with this game and I happily accepted. I never played a R6 game before but I knew it’s a tactical 1st person coop shooter. Sounded like fun. Only it wasn’t..

 

So after a few hours of playing together (me, Mori and Exhuman) we came to the conclusion that almost everything you need to do for trophies is much easier and faster to do solo. And so we did that..

 

And I hated this game solo. It’s the same boring objectives over and over again because the game is a grindfest. It also has collectibles that can only be found in solo. What a pain. I hate collectibles and never wanted to something like that again. That’s more my own fault though because I didn’t check out the trophy list before starting the tutorial and accidentally unlocked a trophy. No turning back. If I knew then what I know now I would have never started it.

 

But it wasn’t all terrible though. In the end you have a big grind to do to get 18 operators to level 10 and we actually played some more in coop. This is the fastest way to get xp and I thought playing in coop was actually quite fun. Unfortunately Mori and Ex were way ahead of me and so, when they were done, I had to resort back to solo play. You could choose to play with randoms online but I didn’t really want to do that either.

 

Yeah. Not a great experience..

Edited August 10, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #366

 

 

Death’s Door

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 12 hours

 

A fun little Zelda clone. Where you explore dungeons, and get new gear by beating bosses so you can get to the next dungeon. Good artstyle, good music, fun battle system, very short though.

 

Ofcourse it had to have one terrible trophy for beating the game with the Umbrella which does half damage but I just made a magic build so it didn’t really matter.

Perfectly doable without using any guide. Recommend.

 

 #367

 

 

Fury Unleashed

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: 7/10

Playtime: 30 hours

 

A very fun roguelite game where you play through 4 comic books where you fight Aztec’s, Nazi’s, Aliens and Demons. If you beat an enemy it will increase your combo meter which increases your power and are able to get hit up to 3 times without breaking it. Although you would need some abilities first and you get the shield after every 5th enemy killed without getting hit.

 

Every comic book has 3 pages to traverse through and has 3 mini boss fights and 1 main boss fight. You collect weapons, armor and power ups along the way.
 

For me this game was all about how much damage can I put out. So every run I was looking for a good gun. Now there are a lot and often you are stuck with slow shooting, small distance, low damage guns. This makes the game quite challenging. But if I got one my favorite guns, either the ‘madness’ or ‘infinity’ SMG or a powerful shotgun this game was fun.
 

I started on easy difficulty and within not much time I was already leveled up far enough to go after the difficult trophies. Which are beating the entire game in one combo, getting a combo of 500 and beating the game on the hardest difficulty.

 

Unfortunately my controller now has a big drift to the left and so I played this with the D-Pad. (Bought a new controller today). So doing the full combo run would be too frustrating as I sometimes ran to the left for no reason resulting in deaths. 
 

Luckily it’s very easy to quit the game and upload your save. And I just had to do that. I made a save before every main boss fight. Not counting deaths that were out of my control due to the controller I actually only needed to redownload my save once, on Legendary difficulty. 
 

It’s a fun challenge, for me mostly dependent on what gun you have, but you can make this as easy as you want with save scumming.

 

 #368

 

 

Persona 4 Golden

 

Enjoyment: 7/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 80 hours

 

I was just looking for a lengthy JRPG to play.

 

I still love the artstyle, music, demon fusing and the battle system. 
 

I still hate the free time bonding mechanic.

Edited August 25, 2023 by Baker

[Baker]

 #369

 

 

Sea Of Stars

 

Enjoyment: 8/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 40 hours

 

A good JRPG. Good story, good music, good characters. Nice pixel art that gives a nostalgia feeling.
 

But the battle system, even though it’s turn based, became very boring for me after a while which is a shame. Still recommend it though.

 

I’ve read this game is set in the same universe as The Messenger and so ofcourse I wanted to play that too. But damn it, that music, my ears were bleeding. I can’t play it.

 

 #370+100%

 

 

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

 

Enjoyment: 6/10

Difficulty: -

Playtime: 45 hours

 

I love me some Borderlands. Definitely my favorite looter shooter franchise. Of the Borderlands games Borderlands 2 is my favorite. What was my favorite thing in Borderlands 2? The DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault On Dragonskeep.

 

Needless to say I had high hopes for this game. But it was quite a disappointment. This is the worst game in the series so far. The humor is almost entirely gone. The first 10 hours bored me to death. It became better later on but overall a very mediocre game.

 

Luckily there was some DLC. For the small price of only €30. And it was amazing!! Every DLC has a portal. Whoohoo! Then you need to beat 5 waves of enemies or do some puzzles followed by a boss fight for which you are way overleveled. But hold on! There is more! After you beat it once, you have to beat it again 3 more times and it’s exactly the same! And you need to do that times 4 for the 4 DLC packs. Simply astonishing!!! 
 

I’m happy I could get the disc version for €10 and the DLC on sale for €10. This game is not worth a penny more.

 

I’ll be gone from gaming for a few weeks, haven’t been playing much lately anyway, because it’s time to go on a holiday. Until next month. 

[Joe Dubz]

I'm 20ish hours into SoS myself, and I can kinda see what you mean about the combat getting a little stale 😅 Love the game other than that!

 

I was kinda surprised to hear you didn't like the music! There were 1 or 2 tunes I've heard so far that I really enjoyed.

 

Not sure how old you are (I'm 39 myself), but I grew up gaming on the chiptunish styled stuff from back in the day... so it's always held a special place in my heart!

 

With that being said, it's understandable you feel that way because it's def not something for everyone and prob more of an acquired taste.

 

As for Tiny Tina, bummer to hear you didn't enjoy it that much, but glad you at least got it all discounted to stave off some of the disappointment!!

 

Anyway, cheers bud and enjoy that holiday 😎