Skill Issue

[rjkclarke]

On 15/03/2022 at 1:01 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

 Low-key incredible compliment. Thank you.

 

You're welcome Mr-NOTGONZOANYMORE....... We'll figure something out with the name haha!

 

On 15/03/2022 at 1:01 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Yeah it's bit meh, but I need to find someone who has given it to their kids and see what the verdict is "on the streets."

 

Let's go do some vox populi interviews and see what "the common man" says.

 

Ultimately this is really the same criticism that I had for Ratchet and Clank 2016.

 

I think that's actually a good point - because to kids playing it they likely wouldn't have the OG Spyro to compare it to, so that simplistic magic of bounding around collecting Gems, Orbs and Eggs might very much still be a mesmerising experience for them. Especially when they don't have some of the baggage attached to it that older players might have.

 

You can go wild with the Vox Pop's if you like.... I've actually had to do a few of those myself (asking the questions,not answering them) they feel as awkward as they sound by the way. But hey, I mean people get cornered in the street by someone with a MIc in their hand for weirder questions than "Hey, do you prefer the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy, or Reignited?"

 

I get what you mean about Ratchet and Clank 2016, but for some reason it doesn't bother me as much with that one. I think maybe because I never expected it to be a remake that's particularly true to the original, as it's a little more handcuffed to the fact it's also sort of a film adaptation at the same time.

 

On 15/03/2022 at 1:01 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

You know, I'd still buy a Spyro 4 from Toys for Bob... there's just no hint of what they're working on at the moment. Fingers crossed.

 

As would I mate! I'll be honest I was more excited for a potential Spyro 4 than a Crash 4, just because Spyro doesn't seem as easy to screw up as Crash does. Both have had their off days, but Crash has had some real catastrophic ones.

 

On 15/03/2022 at 1:01 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Look, Sheila's redesign was pretty bad, but I have to come to the defence of boobs. 

 

Boobs are *pretty good* - 10/10.

 

I don't know man - when Sheila goes from looking like a fairly innocent Sesame Street reject in the original trilogy, to what she does in Reignited, I kind of just try not to see the Boobs ?. I can appreciate breats (you referenced Caddicarus before, so I figure you'll get that) but Sheila's just feel horrific.

 

On 15/03/2022 at 1:01 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

I honestly don't mind. It's just an online username. I'm a little different to current social trends in issue by saying: "I don't care what you refer to me by, I care that you know I exist." 

 

It's very difficult to avoid saying "just call me [my real name]," especially when I deduced Rjkclarke's first name when I began reading your checklist. It's like when Tom Holland's Spider-Man met The Avengers and said, "Hi, I'm Peter," and then, "oh, we're using our made-up names. In that case, I'm Spider-Man!"

 

Gonzo genuinely doesn't have any connection to anything for me with the exception that it's what this Checklist group calls me. I don't know, call me Gonzo, call me Vice, call me Arsehole, whatever, just call me.

 

You mean when you clock in for work people don't point and go " AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY it's Gonzo!!!" I thought it was the name you were given by birth ?

 

Yeah, haha. That's a great analogy about The Avengers thing.   I've never really cared all that much whether people know my real name or not, ?..... so eventually I just left a few not very subtle clues here and there, before doing that post about Goran where I had no choice but to actually reveal my name, otherwise half of one of the anecdotes about him wouldn't have worked.

 

I guess I'll figure something out, I'm kind of between keeping Gonzo and Vice, but we'll see man. If you end up preferring one or the other just let me know!

Edited March 17, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Platinum_Vice]

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You can go wild with the Vox Pop's if you like.... I've actually had to do a few of those myself (asking the questions,not answering them) they feel as awkward as they sound by the way.

 

I'm interested in hearing the story if you're willing to tell it (as well as your progress in learning to drive).

 

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

As would I mate! I'll be honest I was more excited for a potential Spyro 4 than a Crash 4, just because Spyro doesn't seem as easy to screw up as Crash does. Both have had their off days, but Crash has had some real catastrophic ones.

 

It's concerning when a series continues to go on and on with consistently diminishing returns that severely outnumber the amount of successes, right? 

 

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You mean when you clock in for work people don't point and go " AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY it's Gonzo!!!" I thought it was the name you were given by birth

 

Lol no but some people have at least some meaning with their PSNIDs (such as our resident Doctor... I think that even though it looks to be a Hitman reference, it's actually a reference to one of his favourite books...?)

 

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

so eventually I just left a few not very subtle clues here and there, before doing that post about Goran where I had no choice but to actually reveal my name, otherwise half of one of the anecdotes about him wouldn't have worked.

 

Oh for sure but I had it before that... your PSNID is obviously your first three initials and last name, and very early in your checklist you mentioned having multiple phases for your first name over your life, and it reminded me of this Cyanide and Happiness comic: 

 

 

... by the way, what's your social security number and credit card details?

 

13 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I guess I'll figure something out, I'm kind of between keeping Gonzo and Vice, but we'll see man. If you end up preferring one or the other just let me know!

 

Ummm let's commit to Vice unless you have a clear preference?

Not really a big deal either way

[Paleblood]

I like this thread, but you should seriously consider re-evaluating your Score System. You just cut off 3.5 - 0 because you couldn't fill it anymore.

Maybye drop the .5 rating and instead overhaul the whole thing, so you don't always have to give the highest possible score.

[Platinum_Vice]

4 minutes ago, Paleblood said:

I like this thread, but you should seriously consider re-evaluating your Score System. You just cut off 3.5 - 0 because you couldn't fill it anymore.

Maybye drop the .5 rating and instead overhaul the whole thing, so you don't always have to give the highest possible score.

 

Thanks Paleblood, I appreciate the constructive criticism. 

 

The reason why I have lumped anything below a 4 together into one group is the same reason that I hope, over time, the amount of games rated between 8 and 10 will equate to more than 50% of the games on the list in total. This is because I have put in an increasing amount of research into the games that I play since I started trophy hunting and therefore invest my time and money into games that I expect to meet a high standard. Time is short, after all, and I generally want to spend it playing better games... in short, I expect to be ranking very few games below a 4/10. Does that make sense?

 

As far as the .5 increments go, the general grounds for that decision are as such: 

Not all 10/10s are 100% perfect. For example, I believe that Grand Theft Auto V is a 10/10 game even though it has blatant imperfections. 

 

Some people will accommodate for that in simply never rating any game as a 10/10.

 

What I propose instead is that the ranking represents the maximum value that the game should reach. 

 

So where The Last of Us may be (for example), a 9.8, and GTA V may be a 9.9, I'd forcibly round them up to a 10/10, just like I would for a 9.51...

 

All in all, an overcomplicated system for sure, but I don't know of a better alternative other than giving 9.9/10s out, which I think is too overprecise and inflexible. Being inflexible with a ranking is something I would desperately like to avoid.

 

I have been struggling to think of a better way to go about rankings for the last 6 months. If you have a better suggestion as to how I could overhaul it, I am definitely open to considering it.

 

Thank you as well for the compliment, I'm glad you like the thread and that you're obviously interested in having it become better.

[Platinum_Vice]

On 07/03/2022 at 9:41 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

2007's The Stewart Copeland Anthology by Stewart Copeland

[What an absolutely terrible Photoshop effort. The longer I look at it the more my brain hurts.]

 

On 15/03/2022 at 3:42 AM, rjkclarke said:

WHY DID SHE NEED TO HAVE BOOBS AND A CLEAVAGE.

 

On 15/03/2022 at 4:45 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Because gamers like BEEWWWWBBBZZZ!!

 

Have you seen the leaked album art for the The Stewart Copeland Anthology 2022 Reignited Re-release?

 

 

[YaManSmevz]

Oh, the arousal... I'm like a teenager holding a notebook in front of his junk over here?

 

Well done, sir! I'm still debating whether I like the tornado's breasts or the little breast clouds better?

 

...or the fact that this is all happening on an even larger set of breasts.

 

I'm reminded of this Naked Gun bit:

 

 

[rjkclarke]

On 18/03/2022 at 5:52 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Ummm let's commit to Vice unless you have a clear preference

 

You fell into my trap! Well done, you made the decision for me.... Gonzo, Vice it is then.

 

On 20/03/2022 at 3:04 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Have you seen the leaked album art for the The Stewart Copeland Anthology 2022 Reignited Re-release?

 

 

 

Haha! This cracked me up, and every time I look at it I can't help but smile.... 11/10 for effort Man!

 

On 18/03/2022 at 5:52 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Oh for sure but I had it before that... your PSNID is obviously your first three initials and last name, and very early in your checklist you mentioned having multiple phases for your first name over your life, and it reminded me of this Cyanide and Happiness comic: 

 

 

... by the way, what's your social security number and credit card details?

 

You have no idea how accurate that is, haha!

 

I suspect you probably figured it out sooner than most people did by the looks of it.

 

I have been referred to as all of those things at some point during my life. Bob was one that stuck for a while, but I never liked. I'll stick at Rob for now, even when I've transitioned from having the hair of the Rob in that image, to Bob ?.... can't hold onto my hair forever, that horseshoe/hair doughnut  is coming for most of us eventually, it is what it is. Nothing wrong with it. 

 

On 18/03/2022 at 5:52 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

It's concerning when a series continues to go on and on with consistently diminishing returns that severely outnumber the amount of successes, right? 

 

Absolutely - it's never good when it happens to a series you love either, like it did for Crash and Spyro for those dark mid 2000's onwards times. I kin d of liked what they were trying with that weird reboot trilogy where Elijah Wood was Spyro, but I struggled to get on with those in the end. I didn't like the fact that the gems weren't finite, almost gave me n reason to want to bother even picking them up. 

 

I did worry for a while that the Yakuza series would go down that route, where the bigger it got the quality would just drop off a cliff, but thankfully it only has a few duds, and those are mainly just "less good" compared to others.

 

I'm sure you can too, but I can think of plenty of times where a game series has suffered that fate. Shame really.

 

[Platinum_Vice]

22 minutes ago, rjkclarke said:

the gems weren't finite

 

 

Excuse me?

 

 

19 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

I'm reminded of this Naked Gun bit:

 

100% ?

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Platinum_Vice

[Platinum_Vice]

08

Series: Far Cry

 

 #23 (PS3) Far Cry: Classic, 3/10 

 #8 (PS3) Far Cry 3, 6.5/10 

✅ [no platinum trophy] (PS3) Far Cry: Blood Dragon, 7.5/10 

 #30 (PS4) Far Cry 4, 5/10 

 #54 (PS4) Far Cry: Primal, 3.5/10 

 #72 (PS4) Far Cry 5, 7/10 

 #94 (PS4) Far Cry: New Dawn, 4/10 

 

Why Far Cry? / Trophy Thoughts:

I’m starting this series review with my trophy thoughts because I have recently realised that my acquisition of platinums for this series of games is inherently tied to why I continue to purchase them. 

 

In 2015 I was not yet into trophy hunting and hadn’t discovered this site yet. I had only just put away my Xbox which I had only really purchased for Halo (I was a PlayStation loyalist at heart). I was finally getting some disposable income and was ready to start buying some new games to play on my PS3. Clearly a basic bitch, I Googled something along the lines of “good PS3 games" or “must play video games” and Far Cry 3 came up among many others. I recalled a colleague having previously told me that they liked “the new Far Cry,” so when I went into a store to buy some games and Far Cry: The Wild Expedition caught my eye, I did some further Googling in the aisle to find that apparently Far Cry: Classic and Far Cry 3 were examples of a developing industry and that Far Cry 2 and Blood Dragon were fun romps in their own rights... So I bought it.

 

 

Far Cry: Classic does not hold up. Far Cry 2 was uninstalled within half an hour. Far Cry 3 was maybe the second open world game that I’d played; it was beautiful and a little fun, but it does not hold up anymore. Blood Dragon is the best game in the series. 

 

With the knowledge that Far Cry 4, Primal, 5 and New Dawn are essentially the same game as Far Cry 3, I bought them only because I figured I’d have fun playing games that I knew were “easy platinum trophies.” In reality the only thing that I really enjoyed was taking the Outposts, checking out some nice scenery in the exotic locations for five minutes and the small hits of dopamine as I pinged trophies for formulaic tasks. 

 

...and in every progressing game in this series, my awareness of other, more interesting games available to me has grown, and my patience for the lack of innovation in this series has diminished. 

 

 

What is Far Cry?

If you aren’t familiar with the Far Cry series, they are open world FPS action games in exotic locations. The open world levelling is well-known now in the industry as being formulaic since they struck gold with Far Cry 3. It is synonymous with the Assassin's Creed games in that aspect as the developer of both series (Ubisoft) relies on the guarantee of those series to sell year after year. 

 

Main characters in this series are never specifically relatable and have become increasingly bland (the intention is that the main character will act as a blank canvass so that the player will project themselves onto them), but the series is known instead for featuring villains that ‘steal the show.’ 

 

Far Cry: Classic

 

Far Cry: Classic:  

The original Far Cry utilised the CryTek engine (notably used over the next few years for the Crysis series, but not used for almost anything else notable) which was apparently critical in that game’s promotion of the players’ ability to seek cover and concealment in the jungles of a South Pacific archipelago. Flanking manoeuvres and other advanced AI designs were intended to be core features of this game. 

 

Instead, I was met with some of the most bizarre behaviour from enemy AI in any game that I’ve played. 

 

Enemies detect the player inconsistently including through walls or very far away. During moments of complete silence (with no soundtrack or ambience at all) I’d suddenly hear an enemy shout out that they’d heard something, or loud combat music would burst through the silence and I’d start taking headshots through things that should at least have visual cover. For example, I could be inside a small building with thin walls making no noise, and then suddenly I’d be shot from an enemy on the other side of the wall without warning, and magically those bullets would find their target instantly. With the intense increase in combat music, the injection of illogical combat dialogue by the enemy, and overly-exaggerated foley mixing (footsteps are wildly over-pronounced) the stealth-vs-combat experience could not have been more jarring if it tried. 

 

Strange gameplay antics were only ever eclipsed on the ‘jank spectrum’ by the story and voice acting. The island-bound player is tasked by phone by a shadowy figure to dismantle a rogue organisation whose secret facility is breeding mutant monkeys. Those monkeys (“Trigens”) escape their enclosure about half-way through the game. I think this was supposed to be aping [thanks DrBloodmoney] the mid-game Flood twist from Halo: Combat Evolved (especially as the development of Far Cry was probably commenced within a year of Halo CE’s release), but it seems so poorly executed that it managed to sidle its way into the industry without anyone making this connection and crying “foul.” The trigens themselves are inherently scary but only because of their poorly designed modelling. It's like how Hagrid looks like he's had a stroke in The Sorcerer's Stone: weird because it's just such a horrifically-executed part of the game experience.

 

Left: a trigen, Right: PS1 Hagrid

 

Far Cry Classic is just an unbelievably janky mess and I struggle to see why it was so popular in its time. It is definitely not worth playing at this point. Instead, go watch Dunkey’s five minute video on the game – I strongly believe that his Far Cry: Classic and Far Cry 5 videos are some of his best-ever works – and then go play something else instead.

 

At least the world still looks pretty

 

Far Cry 3:

This entry was the starting point for the series’ formulaic template. The open world was a large, beautiful pair of tropical islands filled with jungle life, a few different types of vehicles/guns and a large amount of enemies. It was fun for a little while, but it pales in comparison to anything that open world mastercraftsmen Rockstar or Bethesda had or would come to present.  

 

 

 

 

SPOILERS: You play as Jason Brody, a yuppie douchebag who parachutes his way onto the tropical island with his girlfriend, his brother (a soldier on leave), and a bunch of other tools that Jason calls ‘his friends.’ When they land they are captured by an island tribe that has a significant amount of military weapons and armour because the island is the base of operations for a drug cartel. Jason’s brother is shot and killed but Jason escapes, and he spend the rest of the game searching for his captured friends, exacting revenge on the cartel and befriending a native tribe who are also conflict with the cartel.  

 

Jason Brody

 

There is a major choice in the endgame where  you have to decide between two women and two ways of life. You can either side with a nutcase woman who is leading the native tribe, have sex with her and kill your girlfriend Liza, or you can kill the nutcase and return to Liza. You might be saying “hmmm, that’s not really that hard of a choice,” however, Liza has been a humongous nag for the entire game and has actively been criticising all of your actions and decisions, and as a player, you have absolutely NO inclination to stay with her. Meanwhile, the native tribe revere you. Doesn’t sound like much of a choice when I say it like that either, does it? Unfortunately, the choice is framed like it is supposed to make you conflicted, so it falls very short in that regard. 

 

Left: your girlfriend Liza, Right: Citra, the postergirl for “Never stick your dick in crazy”

 

Below: an alternate ending for Far Cry 3

 

END OF SPOILERS

 

The playable character, just like everyone else in this game, is completely unrelatable. Despite being spoilt and spoonfed for his life up until parachuting onto the islands, he somehow is a complete natural with a wide variety of weapons, brewing potions out of plants, hunting, killing and gutting various animals, and digging bullets out of his body. If you run out of healthkits you can still recover health by performing longer animations such as: un-dislocating your forearm and fingers (“reducting”) and, yes, digging bullets out of your forearm with a scalpel, or a stick, or just by sucking it out and spitting it away. Did I mention that the healthkits themselves are just reused homemade syringes? 

 

Some standard healing animations in Far Cry 3

 

One of the biggest praises that Far Cry 3 received was Vaas, a villain that is little bit crazy. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have that prominent of a role in the actual story so his screentime is limited. Ubisoft clearly heard the praise because a screen-stealing villain was a necessary ingredient in every major Far Cry game onwards. You may have realised that the villain is on the box art of every mainline title after this which is a direct contract to 99% of other AAA box art in the seventh generation of video games.

 

Vaas, the iconic Far Cry 3 villain

 

The best parts of Far Cry 3 all involve things that I hadn’t done yet in gaming. I enjoyed climbing the radio towers as it was the first time I'd done that. I enjoyed taking down the Outposts (first with stealth, then guns a-blazin when that went to shit). I enjoyed wingsuiting off high vantage points, setting people on fire with a flamethrower and hunting wild animals to make bigger ammo bags out of their scrotums. And in fairness, the use of a bow and arrow in every game on the PS3 seems to have started in Far Cry 3 because it is a really crisp and satisfying way to kill your enemies. 

 

Hey, I can see my house from here. Hey mom, get off the dang roof! 

 

Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5 & Far Cry: New Dawn:

…aaaaand Ubisoft have been pumping out clones of Far Cry 3 ever since. The release schedule looks like this: 

 

 

Far Cry 4 is set in Nepal. Oooh, chilly.

The villain is Pagan Min (played by “so-hot-right-now" [in 2014] Troy Baker) who is a bit less ‘crazy’ than the other Far Cry villains but I personally don’t see what all the fuss is about for him.

Big changes to the gameplay that Ubisoft spent a lot of time working on to justify a full-price purchase include: a mini-helicopter. 

 

Household name Troy Baker is well-known for voicing Pagan Min in Far Cry 4

 

Far Cry 5 is set in Montana. Oooh, political.

The villain is Joseph Seed who is probably the most crazy baddie of the series. There are some other minor villains (relatives of Joseph) as well but they’re not as interesting.

Big changes to the gameplay that Ubisoft spent a lot of time working on to justify a full-price purchase include: fishing. Wooooooo...

 

Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5

 

Far Cry: New Dawn is set in Montana one generation after Far Cry 5. Oooh, post-apocalyptic.

The villains are a pair of twins that are really obnoxious. Every time these ladies are on screen I gave less of a shit for this franchise. The dialogue and voice acting are just cringeworthy.

Big changes to the gameplay that Ubisoft spent a lot of time working on to justify a full-price purchase include: a weapon that shoots sawblades (don’t get excited, there’s no gore).

 

The Twins - Far Cry: New Dawn's villains

 

Everything you have enjoyed (and not enjoyed) about the Far Cry series returns in subsequent entries after the third game including the climbing of towers to reveal parts of your map, taking Outposts (still the best part of the game), shooting wild animals, an overabundance of collectibles, and constant gratuitous drup-trip sequences that slow down the game, decrease immersion and appeal to absolutely no one. Who wants to play drug-based hallucinations? They’re not artistic or meaningful, just gratuitous and completely un-fun. 

 

The playable characters in each subsequent game after Far Cry 3 become even less interesting or relatable. The other characters’ quests and struggles don’t have weight. The stories don’t have any tension. How many secondary characters do you remember?  

 

These games are for players that just want to shoot stuff. If you want to steamroll an outpost by plugging 20 guys while a bear called 'Cheeseburger' fights with you by tearing apart a couple of enemies, then just play Far Cry 5. If being creeped out by a very well-portrayed nutcase is in your wheelhouse, play Far Cry 5. If you’re actually going to buy any DLC, then go with Far Cry 5 because the DLC is at least something different. Far Cry 5 also has the best soundtrack in the mainline games – this one is beautiful. If Hurk appeals to your sense of humour, then play Far Cry 5. 

 

You pretty much have to take Hurk with you because his rocket launcher is so effective against enemies, so he got a little grating on me after a while because he was always there, but there was one situation where I spat out my coffee. We were rushing down a hill to escape a bunch of baddies. He hopped onto a zipline, opened his legs as he went down and said, “Woohoo! Feel the wind on muh taint!” And it was... it was a little funny, ok? I admit it.

 

So where does that leave us with this series review? With just the best game in the series and the worst left to talk about. Do you want the good news first or the bad news? 

 

 

Far Cry: Primal:

This game sucks. It retains all of the biggest problems of the series (unrelatable characters and disinteresting narrative, vapid gameplay, lack of tension, repetition, over-reliance on collectibles to flesh out play-time) and removes two of the series’ strengths (guns for all occasions and lots of explosions). 

 

The best part of the game is that it’s genuinely gorgeous as it successfully attempted to transport the player into a verdant and earthy-coloured nature untouched by large-scale agriculture or society. Thankfully Ubisoft managed to successfully make me feel like I was 10,000 years BC. The forestry is stunning. 

 

 

 

 

The worst thing about Far Cry: Primal is the biggest glaring fault from any of the games in the series: everyone speaks Ooga-Booga. The time/effort/resources at Ubisoft’s disposal did not equal that of the likes of entertainment experts that make animated characters relatable. I will argue with anyone that there are many faults with Big Mouse Incorporated, but Disney do have one trump card up their sleeve: they have a long history of making characters relatable and anthropomorphic using well-researched animation choices. Primal fails to utilise what are now age-old, tried-and-true animation techniques to make me give even the smallest iota of a shit about the Wenja people and their struggles with neighbouring cannibals.

 

Ubisoft apparently enlisted the assistance of experts in linguistics to ensure that the gibberish sounded realistic, but instead of reaching the heights of the likes of Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy’s efforts to verbalise a fictional language, Wenjanese fails to reach even the mediocre standards that Game of Thrones’ Dothraki have set in more contemporary times. The language spoken by all characters in Primal just sounds ridiculous and I switched off and disengaged with the game every time a cutscene started. For someone who really appreciates being in-sync with the character that I’m playing and really wants to be invested in the story, this game was a low point for me. 

 

 

 

 

Far Cry: Blood Dragon:

But this one is the best one! Everything about this game is RAD: 

 

You play as Rex “Power” Colt, a cyber-commando voiced by Michael Biehn (well-known as Kyle Reese/John Connor’s father in The Terminator and as Corporal Hicks in Aliens) in the aftermath of a nuclear war. You lead an assault against the forces of Dr Sloan, a evil genius who is turning people into the Running Dead using the blood from Blood Dragons. 

 

"It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!”

 

Blood Dragons are neon dinosaurs that shoot laser beams. Yes. 1 million times, yes. 

 

Oof I'm getting tired. Jurassic Park was from the 90s but I made a connection about dinosaurs somewhere up there in my old noodle.

 

The soundtrack is composed by Australia duo Power Glove. If you listen to nothing else that I suggest, get your ears around this Terminator-inspired theme! 

 

The sky is red. The ground is dark. Everything comes in neon. 

 

 

Your arsenal consists of a neon bow, rocket launchers, shurikens, C4 (which you plant and detonate remotely to smug comments of “now that’s what I call a blowjob”- there’s a lot of one liners, by the way), and a two-handed minigun that shoots lasers while Michael Biehn yells out: “DIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!” 

 

A zoomed-in Kobracon - Blood Dragon's sniper rifle

 

The reload animations are CRAZY. You reload your shotgun by flicking shells into the chamber and rotating around the lever-action Terminator 2-style. Magazines for other weapons are twisted between your cyborg-fingers like a grifter toying with a poker chip. 

 

The characters are purposefully one-dimensional with ridiculously cheesy dialogue, nonsensical sarcasm and the script looks like it was for a B-grade action movie out of the 80s... except that’s exactly what was intended, and when it’s made with so much love and hits dead-on, it easily finds its mark. It’s not “so bad it’s good,” it’s “so perfect at caricaturing bad, and that’s why it’s good.” 

 

Doom [2016] received a lot of praise for its opening: Doomguy wakes up on a table, rips off his restraints and you kill an enemy in the first 10 seconds. He puts the suit on and a computer screen starts to give the player instructions before it gets pushed to the other side of the room. You then pull out a pistol and you’re off and shooting bad guys within 90 more seconds.... 

 

…but Blood Dragon did it first... kinda. Your tutorial consists of being told what a button does, then when you dismiss that tip, you are given another tip straight away about what another button does, and you dismiss it and get given another tip again without getting the chance to actually do anything. This continues many, many times in a row and the tips get more and more snarky as it continues. It is clearly self-aware:

- "To look around, look around."

- "Moving allows you to go in many exciting directions." Rex (exasperated): “whyyyyy?” 

- "Running is like moving... only faster. "

- "Jumping allows you to move along the Z-Axis without touching the ground in-between." Rex: “just let me kill people, dammit!” 

 

The loading screens also give you helpful “hints” whenever you die.   

 

 

There’s only really one very minor gripe for the modern gamer: the levels can feel a little sparse because the developers had to remove a lot of assets to allow the blood dragons to roam around -- dinosaurs look cooler when they’re not stuck in a corner trying to remember their pathing. 

 

 

This is easily my favourite in the series. It’s a little bit longer than Far Cry: Classic if you’re going to 100% it, but it’s about 25% as long as every other Far Cry game – and that’s absolutely perfect. It is enjoyable right up until the end and doesn’t overstay its welcome.  

 

This game is self-aware and overflowing with personality. 

 

Unlike Trials of the Blood Dragon, which should be avoided at all costs in favour of any other Trials game, Far Cry: Blood Dragon is THE Far Cry game to play if you’re only going to commit to one. Otherwise, maybe try Far Cry 5 (or 3). 

 

__________________

 

So... I completed 7 Far Cry games in 6 years. Not only do I not have the desire to re-play them after obtaining all of the trophies, I think I’m done with the series. Shooting stuff has been fun with the Far Cry gunplay mechanics, but the series has long been lacking some creative passion and innovation. I’m tired of paying the same price when less effort goes into the product. 

 

How many Far Cry games did it take you to reach this type of fatigue? Have you reached it?

Are you one of those mythical few with a completed Far Cry 2 trophy list?

Which Far Cry game is your favourite? 

 

As always: fire when ready. 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Platinum_Vice

[Copanele]

Wow, it's the very first time I read a Far Cry series dedicated post  well done, you really went hard on them games.

I haven't played all the Far Cry games, I was more of an Assassin's Creed kind of guy (played them all), but from what I played, it was Far Cry (on the PC), Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4 and Far Cry Primal. I do remember being amazed by Far Cry due to the amazing graphics, just to be sniped from across the map. After 3 more of those instances I just deleted the game and returned to Unreal Tournament.

 

But this has been a long time ago. To address the true question:

58 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

How many Far Cry games did it take you to reach this type of fatigue? Have you reached it?

 

Yes, only one was necessary: Far Cry 3. Truth be told I did play this one AFTER I already got plastered by AC's Tower synchronization and collectathons, but when I got into Far Cry 3 I was amazed by the game for like 2-3 hours and just got bored for the rest of the game. Especially after Vaas was kinda booted out and was replaced with Hoyt, the coco jumbo version of Tony Montana. I didn't think poorly of the game, but for some reason I liked Far Cry 4 more than 3. At least Ajay Ghale was more pleasant than that hell yeah fellow cocaine brothers Jason Brody.

I also liked Pagan Min more because of his pink suit.

 

But probably my favorite....was Far Cry Primal ? why? Because it was the most memorable one. If you show me an out of context screenshot from a Far Cry game with your character holding a gun, chances are I won't know if it's from 3,4,5 or 6. BUT with Far Cry Primal? I could finally be 

 

Story? Characters? Wenjanese? Who cares about that? Just go Neanderthallica on the neighboring crazy fire people and bonk them in the head.

 

Also why is it my favorite? It prevented me from ever buying another Far Cry game. It deserves the glorious mention. Series can't get better than that.

[DrBloodmoney]

That's a great Far Cry retrospective man - really enjoyed that one!

 

Genuine question for ya:

 

On 25/03/2022 at 6:20 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

There is a major choice in the endgame where  you have to decide between two women and two ways of life. You can either side with a nutcase woman who is leading the native tribe, have sex with her and kill your girlfriend Liza, or you can kill the nutcase and return to Liza. You might be saying “hmmm, that’s not really that hard of a choice,” however, Liza has been a humongous nag for the entire game and has actively been criticising all of your actions and decisions, and as a player, you have absolutely NO inclination to stay with her. Meanwhile, the native tribe revere you. Doesn’t sound like much of a choice when I say it like that either, does it? Unfortunately, the choice is framed like it is supposed to make you conflicted, so it falls very short in that regard. 

 

I'm convinced, based on having played that game twice now, that the original intent, and the way the game's story plays out, that there was never meant to be a choice there.

 

There seems like absolutely no reason to include the "save your 'girlfriend' ending, as it completely undercuts the whole 'anti-white-savior' ironic tone of the game - it felt to me like they needed the player to get his comeuppance at the end, to make their whole narrative point about what ludicrous, privileged, entitled assholes him and his friends are land properly.

 

I'm convinced they were forced to add that 'hollywood' option, to appease the producers / publishers, rather than actually wanting to do it... because they put absolutely no effort into making any of the white characters look remotely redeemable throughout the rest of the narrative ?

 

...is that just me?

Did you feel the same?

 

[Platinum_Vice]

18 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I'm convinced, based on having played that game twice now, that the original intent, and the way the game's story plays out, that there was never meant to be a choice there.

 

There seems like absolutely no reason to include the "save your 'girlfriend' ending, as it completely undercuts the whole 'anti-white-savior' ironic tone of the game - it felt to me like they needed the player to get his comeuppance at the end, to make their whole narrative point about what ludicrous, privileged, entitled assholes him and his friends are land properly.

 

I'm convinced they were forced to add that 'hollywood' option, to appease the producers / publishers, rather than actually wanting to do it... because they put absolutely no effort into making any of the white characters look remotely redeemable throughout the rest of the narrative 

 

...is that just me?

Did you feel the same?

 

Interesting! 

 

Let me see... the writing was pretty sub-par, so I defaulted to thinking it was just a failed attempt to give the player agency, but I can see exactly where you're coming from.

 

I'd have to look at the trends around the period of release... they're less likely to have shoehorned something like that in unless it was an industry norm...

 

Far Cry 3 was released in Nov 2012. In that year, Mass Effect 3 and Dishonored came out with separate degrees of player choice being integrated into them. The Walking Dead was well-received for narrative-based player choices (or the illusion of it). Spec Ops: The Line was well-received critically for implementing moral choices as well.

 

So this is definitely fertile ground for this theory. 

 

I'll back you on this one, Doc, I like it.

[DrunkenEngineer]

Oh my, another high quality checklist that will inspire my never-ending backlog to grow and grow.

 

I just read your review of The Witness and just had to throw it on my wishlist.  Missed out when it was a PS+ title almost a year ago, as it's a game I would typically buy on PC.  But here we are!

 

Time to dive in and get caught up on your write ups.

[Platinum_Vice]

6 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

Oh my, another high quality checklist that will inspire my never-ending backlog to grow and grow.

 

I just read your review of The Witness and just had to throw it on my wishlist.  Missed out when it was a PS+ title almost a year ago, as it's a game I would typically buy on PC.  But here we are!

 

Time to dive in and get caught up on your write ups.

 

Welcome! 

 

I enjoy your checklist too, and we have a similar taste in games, so I'll be taking recommendations from you as well. ?

 

The Witness definitely comes highly recommended - if you like puzzle games, then I believe it is a staple!

[YaManSmevz]

9 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

I just read your review of The Witness and just had to throw it on my wishlist.  Missed out when it was a PS+ title almost a year ago, as it's a game I would typically buy on PC.  But here we are!

 

[DrunkenEngineer]

18 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

 

Welcome! 

 

I enjoy your checklist too, and we have a similar taste in games, so I'll be taking recommendations from you as well. 

 

The Witness definitely comes highly recommended - if you like puzzle games, then I believe it is a staple!

 

I peeped your profile and saw you just completed Hyper Light Drifter.  I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

 

I played it on PC on release, loved it, and rebought it on Playstation for the trophies but haven't gotten to it yet.  The one shot and dash eternal trophies look super intimidating, and the collectibles seemed very tedious to track.  How'd you like it?

 

14 hours ago, YaManSmevz said:

 

 

Done.

[Platinum_Vice]

7 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

I peeped your profile and saw you just completed Hyper Light Drifter.  I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

 

It is true! It has been a big journey. I can't stop thinking about it so I will definitely be reviewing it over the next month. I've got two other review posts that I'm juggling but HLD will be right after those. It will score highly.

 

7 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

one shot

 

Yes, but it can be save scummed. The video in the trophy guide on PSNP does simplify this run.

 

7 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

the collectibles seemed very tedious to track.

 

100%.

And worse, they don't track into NG+

 

7 hours ago, DrunkenEngineer said:

dash eternal trophies

 

Hardest trophy I've ever gone for. Just not my wheelhouse. 

 

Stick with the PC version ?

[Destructor-8]

On 24/02/2022 at 4:05 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled: 

If the N. Sane Trilogy is a silver standard for remastering a classic, then Nitro Fueled is the gold standard. 

 

I was perfectly happy to walk away with beating Oxide’s time trials for the platinum, but I thoroughly commend @KindaSabbath, @Destructor-8, @Shrooba, @LancashireLad87 and @Venilusionist-25 for their persistence in their pursuit of the devilish developer time trials. That damn William-P is a beast. Curse you, Willie!

 

I didn't respond to this from awhile ago but thought I'd say that all the write ups you do are really cool. I've had a good laugh reading some of the random shit I see here haha. I'm not the best but I still appreciate the shout out regardless. I look forward to more of these anyway as these can be pretty funny when reading through.

[Platinum_Vice]

1 hour ago, Destructor-8 said:

 

I didn't respond to this from awhile ago but thought I'd say that all the write ups you do are really cool. I've had a good laugh reading some of the random shit I see here haha. I'm not the best but I still appreciate the shout out regardless. I look forward to more of these anyway as these can be pretty funny when reading through.

 

You're making me blush! ?

 

Thanks Des!!

[DrunkenEngineer]

13 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

Stick with the PC version 

 

PC version does have achievements so I can at least give Dash Eternal a go there as a test run.  It's a gorgeous game but goddamn is it hard.

 

The follow-up Solar Ash was pretty damn tough for this old man, but still easier than HLD.

[rjkclarke]

On 25/03/2022 at 6:20 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Series: Far Cry

 

I'm so late to the party on this one you've probably already moved out of your Mother in laws house. HAHAHAHA OTHER THREAD REFERENCES. (Okay I'll go hang my head in shame somewhere ?)

 

But first, before I hang my head in shame, I ought to say what a cracking job you did with this series overview. Really enjoyed reading these. Little side note, but on the last page you mentioned going through your games chronologically now, review wise. Mad props for that, because I just didn't have the motivation to do that, that's why I stuck to just random order aside from the games and the series that necessitate an order.

 

Anywaaaaaay...... back to it! You also hit upon a little bit of the problem I've had in the past when thinking about reviewing some of the Far Cry games I've played for my own thread - and that's  that I keep worrying that the reviews wouldn't read remotely interesting, because of how similar they all are, you've definitely proved it can be done though, as have others. So I guess I ought to bite the bullet and take a crack at one at some point.

 

You really hit the nail on the head with how much the games sort of just blend together after a certain point. It isn't something I particularly mind, as Far Cry is a series I'd only ever play, every now and then, when the mood takes me for some mindless Ubisoft Open World-ness.

 

We're also pretty much in agreement about Far Cry: Blood Dragon pretty much being the best one. It's mad that it still is after all this time as well. There's so many things about the game that just shouldn't work, but it just does. It's also practically the perfect length I'd say, as almost nothing in it really outstays its welcome all that much. At least didn't for me.

 

On 25/03/2022 at 6:20 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Far Cry: Primal:

This game sucks. It retains all of the biggest problems of the series (unrelatable characters and disinteresting narrative, vapid gameplay, lack of tension, repetition, over-reliance on collectibles to flesh out play-time) and removes two of the series’ strengths (guns for all occasions and lots of explosions). 

 

This game is such a weird one. I actually quite enjoyed it for what it was. But I can definitely see why you and plenty of other people I know didn't get on with it, the story or the characters are in almost no way engaging whatsoever.

 

For me though, I'd even go as far as to say it's one of the games I definitely prefer out of the 4 Far Cry games I've played with trophies (I did play the original on the Xbox, or the remake of the original, whatever it was that was called Far Cry: Instincts I think).  

 

At least it was something different, or different enough that it didn't feel quite as much like playing the same game in a slightly different place, with slightly more exotic (or less depending on location) set of animals you can disrupt battles with.

 

I didn't mind the lack of guns too much either. Especially when the Bows in the game actually feel fairly realistic. One of my other hobbies is Archery, and I shoot a Longbow too, so the fact that in Far Cry: Primal they're very imprecise and will often just whiff the odd shot even if you think you've loosed the bow correctly, and aimed for a particular place sometimes it'll just fall short or falter. I thought was a cool touch.  

 

I'd also say the one upside of everyone speaking UGGGG is that Hurk doesn't actually speak quite as much ?

 

Either way, awesome job with this man! Also big congrats on Hyper Light Drifter, I'm looking forward to that review in the pipeline, I'm planning to play that game myself at some point.

 

On 02/04/2022 at 6:12 PM, DrunkenEngineer said:

I just read your review of The Witness and just had to throw it on my wishlist.  Missed out when it was a PS+ title almost a year ago, as it's a game I would typically buy on PC.  But here we are!

 

Time to dive in and get caught up on your write ups.

 

I can certainly see why that might happen!

 

I've had The Witness on my backlog for like the longest time too.  This thread, Smevz' and Doc's have all bumped it quite high up the queue, then other games end up leap frogging it, but I definitely need to get around to it. One of these days I will though.

 

I did hear a rumour too (one that I might have started, ??) that the person who wrote the guide on this site for The Witness is also pretty damn awesome, so you'll also be in pretty safe hands when/if you need to consult a guide during your playthrough.

Edited April 5, 2022 by rjkclarke

[Platinum_Vice]

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'm so late to the party on this one you've probably already moved out of your Mother in laws house. HAHAHAHA OTHER THREAD REFERENCES. (Okay I'll go hang my head in shame somewhere )

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA WE ARE LAUGHING

 

?

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

Mad props for that, because I just didn't have the motivation to do that, that's why I stuck to just random order aside from the games and the series that necessitate an order.

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

You also hit upon a little bit of the problem I've had in the past when thinking about reviewing some of the Far Cry games I've played for my own thread - and that's  that I keep worrying that the reviews wouldn't read remotely interesting, because of how similar they all are

 

You clearly put pen to paper when you're inspired to do so which surely equates to better writing. 

 

I wouldn't worry. We follow and enjoy your thread because of your writing style and opinions. ?

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

We're also pretty much in agreement about Far Cry: Blood Dragon pretty much being the best one. It's mad that it still is after all this time as well. There's so many things about the game that just shouldn't work, but it just does.

 

Yes. This is surely due to a positive work environment and passion for the project! 

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

the Bows in the game actually feel fairly realistic. One of my other hobbies is Archery, and I shoot a Longbow too, so the fact that in Far Cry: Primal they're very imprecise and will often just whiff the odd shot even if you think you've loosed the bow correctly, and aimed for a particular place sometimes it'll just fall short or falter. I thought was a cool touch.  

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

For me though, I'd even go as far as to say it's one of the games I definitely prefer out of the 4 Far Cry games I've played with trophies

 

Interesting, I can't say that I noticed this detail.

An archery fan? Wow. Aussies don't get to do much of that at the moment... it hasn't evolved from being a gimmicky afternoon for group bookings costing a lot of money, akin to go-karting, paintballing and axe-throwing in the land Down Under. Do you get much of an opportunity?

 

4 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

I'd also say the one upside of everyone speaking UGGGG is that Hurk doesn't actually speak quite as much

 

That's pure facts right there.

 

 

 

I can't believe that you've not played The Witness or Hyper Light Drifter. I will nag you about this!

 

[Platinum_Vice]

09

Puzzle Post II:

An Indie Omnibus

 

 

100% ✅ [PS3] Braid, 9/10, Trailer.

100% ✅ [PS4] Inside, 7/10, Trailer.

 #44 [PS4] Rime, 6/10, Trailer.

 

Braid

Puzzle games are not known for having much in the way of a story or character development. The most well-reviewed puzzle games in the industry feature either a particular gameplay hook (Portal; The Witness) or they are emotionally resonant due to some greater artistic depth and meaning (like the lofty goals of the other two puzzle games in this post). Braid achieves both. 

 

One of the first thing's you'll notice about Braid is its strong visual identity

 

What is Braid?

Braid is a puzzle game that was released onto the PS3 in 2009. It received multiple critical accolades due to its artstyle, soundtrack, thought-provoking narrative and a well-developed and smooth gameplay mechanic at its core: the ability to rewind time at various speeds at the push of a button. That mechanic itself is incredibly smooth; it reminds me of being able to fast-forward and rewind a VCR tape with how smooth it is (completely unlike the stuttering and buffering of DVDs or streamed video data).  

 

 

The fundamental mechanic of Braid is that ability to rewind time. If you die to an enemy, you’d just rewind to a recent point, let go of that rewind button, and then (presumably) jump over that enemy.   

 

If you were to be presented with a level consisting of multiple puzzle pieces locked away behind multiple doors with only a single key to unlock them all, you would unlock one door, collect the first puzzle piece, and then rewind time to before you used that singular key, and then use it on another door to obtain an additional puzzle piece. 

 

The story presents a link between that gameplay mechanic and the playable character Tim. He has discovered that he has a newfound time-turning power and he is on a quest to undo a “mistake.” Tim feels strong remorse about the mistake but the player does not know what it is at the outset. The player erases their failings in the early stages and takes advantage of the ability to explore multiple crossroad opportunities at once, and at the same time, Tim is also attempting to erase his own failings and choose a different path for his life. 

 

Tim and his quest

 

Now, levels deliberately evoke the most popular platformer of all time: Super Mario Bros. The camera trucks horizontally as Tim moves mostly left and right, but also up with a basic jump move. The end of each world features a flag at a castle where you are told “sorry, the princess is in another castle.” 

 

Everybody's played Jumpy Red Man before

 

 

Enemies in Braid include a boss that looks like Bowser, Piranha Plants in pipes, and Goombas that die when you jump on them. I even found Donkey Kong!

 

From the very first time that I saw the goombas I immediately thought: this is Tim as a goomba. The boots are the same and the hair is similar. As the goomba walks there is flashes of red in the fridge that look like Tim’s tie. The first thing I suspected was that I was stomping out past versions of myself or the twisted forms that I would become (like Gollum) after years of abusing the time-turning powers:

 

 

Now: SPOILERS from here on in. Unlike spoilers for Rime, spoilers for Braid will drastically reduce the payoff that you'll have playing the game yourself. However, if you don’t read on, you’ll not know why Braid’s tribute to Super Mario Bros is so fantastic. There is an “end of spoilers” marker below after quite a few images. I am about to lovingly deconstruct the elements of this game to explain what happens, why it is so good, and why I like it so much. I just can’t go there without spoilers. Away we go! 

 

As you guide Tim throughout the game you will find multiple jigsaw pieces that make five different images (one for each major world/collection of levels). To me, the five completed tableaus clearly establish that Tim’s “mistake" was a descent into alcoholism and/or prioritising alcohol over the princess:

 

 

1: A man and a woman (presumably, Tim and the princess, but potentially Tim’s parents, Adam and Eve, or others) lay together in a bright and green world evoking new love and passion. It could be Spring like the blossoming of a new relationship. Flowers and wine call to mind the Garden of Eden and/or representing temptation. The woman is enjoying a glass of wine while the man reaches up for his own; she is focused on Tim while he is focused on the glass. The falling bottle (looking just like objects rewinding in time in Braid) and the blossoming setting may represent that this moment is where Tim’s mistake, or series of mistakes, truly began. 

 

 

2: At a set table where a meal is yet to be served, a man is already heavily intoxicated.

 

 

3: A scared Tim huddles beneath his blankets while his drunk and presumably abusive (why else would Tim be afraid?) father returns home unsteady on his feet.

It was only recently that I noticed a person in the window. Is it actually a monster coming in through the window (just like what Tim tries to do at the end of the game to the princess)? Maybe if that is the case, this isn't a drunkard father but a protective one.

 

 

4: At an airport, a depressed young man hides his drink in a soda cup while another, dressed identically, walks happily among passengers without any drink at all. Are these two men the same person at a crossroads, one about to embark on an adventure while the other remains stagnant?  

 

 

5: A burnt-out man in a gloomy city watches a bin fire. The people around him are blurry, anonymous and faceless. The only clear images are the embers of something destroyed which maintains Tim's attention, billboards, and either a police station or hospice. This shell of a man is lost and tired. The burning object looks like a mushroom cloud.

 

To me, these pictures represent Tim’s life at various stages. They are able to be viewed in the order presented or they can be considered to be out of order and therefore requiring re-arranging (just like the puzzle pieces that you collect) and they are also cyclical like the cycle of alcoholism that passes from parent to child. The way that we can interpret, complete and order these tableaus are just as open-ended and reliant on the context that time provides as Braid’s gameplay is. As you know, I LOVE it when gameplay and story come together like this. 

 

As if one SPOILER warning wasn’t enough, here are bigger spoilers for the entire endgame: 

 

The final level of Braid states to the player that they are entering the moment that is the root of the issues between Tim and the princess - the catalyst for their separation. It goes like this:

• Tim and the princess are separated by a stone floor. Tim is in the depths of a cavern and the princess is being held by a knight in a suit of armour. The knight is the Bowser-boss that Tim has been fighting throughout the game:
  
   

• “I’ve got you” he says as he holds the princess. She breaks free and says, “Help!” 
  
   

• Tim is unable to reach her, but he and the princess run to the right of the screen in tandem, and as Tim reaches many obstacles, the princess has to activate switches to allow him to continue forwards. Tim and the princess repeat this mechanic multiple times as you continue to the right into a cavern that features buried fossils, traps and goombas:
  
   

• As the princess reaches the door to her castle, you enter the extensive wine cellar that is as wide as the castle itself:
  
   

• You both continue onwards and Tim enters a flowerbed consisting of the same orange flowers that are featured in the first puzzle tableau. The princess reaches her bed and you climb a lattice to unite with her. As you approach the window beside her bed, you cannot break it, enter the room, speak with her or use any other gameplay mechanic except for rewinding time. You can do nothing else until you rewind back to the beginning of this level:
  
   

• As you go backwards in time, everything becomes clear as the true chronology of events is shown to the player. Tim descends from the princess and the castle, through the flowerbed of temptation and into the expansive cellar. The princess, stuck in a dead-end relationship with a drunk, makes her escape through the castle:
  

• Tim continues to descend into the cavern filled with the monsters that look like stunted versions of himself as he pursues the fleeing princess. As she runs away, she activates switches in attempts to impede the pursuing Tim; she wants to be free of him but he will not let her go:
  
   

• When they reach the beginning of the level, a knight in shining armour is there to greet the princess. "Help!" she cries:
  
   

• “I’ve got you,” he says, and he takes her away to a better life, and there’s nothing Tim can do about it from the depths of the cavern in which he has chosen to dwell:
  

 

This was a revelatory moment for me as I played it. While I had struggled to figure out how to get to some of the puzzle pieces during my playthrough, I was perfectly able to interpret what is considered to be a ‘vague’ story by many players. I found the ending to have great emotional weight and it resonated with me at the time that I finished it and then for days afterwards.  
 

The clarity of the twist in the final level is presented to the player exactly like a final piece that fits into the heart of a puzzle that offers … no: demands a completely alternate meaning to that puzzle.  
 

Regarding the emulation of the many elements of Super Mario Bros, I can’t help but recall an old alternative perspective that I (and many others) joked about Mario’s constant quest for Princess Peach: is it possible that Mario is actually the villain in the story? He continues across multiple games to find Peach who never stays at home despite being so frequently ‘kidnapped;’ Peach is clearly in love with Bowser. Mario, on the other hand, steals public money and kills hundreds of goombas and koopas who are minding their own business. This subversion of the Super Mario games is a perspective that is represented in the twisted way that Tim views his quest for his princess as seen in Braid’s final level. 

 

I only have two negative criticisms for Braid. The first is that as incredible as the story is, it comes off a little like a break-up song. Self-pity and regret seem to be the central themes and I feel like I’m getting an intimate view into someone’s life for the wrong reasons. Tim compares his “mistake" to the Manhattan Project, and I think that’s a bit self-indulgent. 

 

END OF SPOILERS

 

The second and final criticism that I had for Braid was that beating this game was hard. The mental gymnastics required to figure out how to get many of the puzzle pieces is definitely too-intense for the average player. I found myself having to look up some solutions to find some puzzle pieces. You can’t get to the endgame without finding all of them, so the best part of the game (the ending) is inaccessible to >95% of players unless they seek help from external sources. Some form of hinting would have been greatly appreciated. 

 

I felt like a total galaxybrain when I figured out how to get the jigsaw pieces in the left image, but like such a smoothbrain when trying to get the jigsaw piece in the right image.

 

Regarding the soundtrack, the violin-based pieces in the opening few levels are especially beautiful. Here is “Downstream” which becomes melancholic at different moments throughout the game as it is re-used successfully to create a contemplative emotional effect.

 

Trophy talk: 

Braid’s trophies are simple in nature: beat the game to the standard ending. Like The Witness, there is an alternate ending upon obtaining more collectibles (in Braid, these are stars in a constellation – I didn’t find any of these without a guide), but those stars are not required for trophies. 

 

A speedrun of Braid is required, however, and it is a tough time to meet: 45 minutes. This is tight. It took me many attempts to achieve this goal and the result was an intimate understanding of how to complete the game with minimal failures. While minor failure in two or three levels is allowable in 45 minutes, perfection in the other 30 or so levels is required. I got a 40 minute time in the end and the game ranked me on its leaderboard at exactly position #400 in the world. There is definitely room for improvement on that time (I think I could achieve something in the realm of 34 minutes with a perfect run based on my current understanding of the game), but that leads me into whether I have a desire to continue playing Braid now that I have obtained all of the trophies: 
 

No, thank you. This is due to two factors: firstly, I don’t know how much more meaning I could wring out of the game on another playthrough as the ending’s incredible reveal re-contextualised the narrative in a very well-crafted manner, and secondly, the speedrun trophy required me to have such an intimate knowledge of the workings of the puzzles that there wouldn’t be any challenge in me attempting it again as I know exactly how to do everything. Other puzzle games are worth a replay after years if you forget a lot of the solutions, but this one is now burned into my brain for eternity. 
 

 

I do recommend that you play Braid if I haven’t spoiled the best parts of it for you, and if you like puzzle games and/or Super Mario Bros, and if you like an artsy story that gives you the pieces and allows you to put it together however you like, and if you don’t mind looking up solutions to some of the puzzles if (when) some of the solutions evade you. 

 

Can Jonathon Blow do no wrong? Between Braid and The Witness, his contributions to the industry are formidable and I thoroughly look forward to his next outing. 

 

[Editor’s note: I literally realised ONLY NOW upon proofreading this review that Tim’s name is one letter away from ‘Time’........ how did I miss that one?!] 

 

 

INSIDE

 

What is Inside? 

It's a puzzle game in the same vein as the developer’s prior effort Limbo. Inside features slightly more colour and less film grain, and again features the adventures of a boy struggling to escape mortal peril. 

 

The boy is seeking to get inside a facility which is well defended by a variety of traps in addition to a few guards, moats and creatures. Puzzles utilising the X and Y axes must be overcome to reach... something... that is in the core of the facility and seeking to get out. 

 

 

Atmosphere:

Inside is thick with an oppressive atmosphere that elicits a sense of dystopian claustrophobia. The soundtrack is subdued to allow for tension as you sneak into the facility escaping guards, hounds and the girl from The Ring:

 

 

You therefore turn up the volume and become more attentive to the sound design (which is really good). Every wooden slat that you rip apart and every misstep that alerts something to your presence reverberates in your ears as you begin to fear whatever it is that you’ve just alerted... 

 

… at least, until you realise that there’s no penalty for death. Tension is drastically undermined by a lack of a penalty for dying. 

 

This is a shame because there’s so much work that’s gone into the aforementioned sound design and the oppressive art design.

 

Animations are absolutely gruesome at times. The screen refuses to fade to black until you see the boy get killed and then go limp for a few seconds. You watch reluctantly as guards hold the boy by the neck to drown him in water or as dogs tackle him to the ground, break his neck and then, as a pack, enjoy him as breakfast.

 

The game wanted me to try to prevent the boy from dying but so often I had to trial-and-error my way through some chase sequences where I had to figure out when to stop and when to go. It was never intuitive. Right from the beginning of the game the boy gets spotted by a guard off to the left who chases you to the right. A guard on the right spots you while the first guard continues to chase you. What is required is stopping for two seconds in a three second window so that you can keep going to the right again afterwards, but you have to die a few times to figure that out. It’s a shame that there’s such a disconnect there in the fundamental desires for what the game wants you to experience versus what you must experience. 

 

 

Puzzles 

Inside’s gameplay essentially consists of simple puzzles back-to-back. They always require moving both left and right, occasionally up and down, and flicking a switch once or twice. For example: you might come across a lever that you push to make a crane holding some wooden slats descend. You get onto the slats and flick another switch. You get off the slats, move them sideways to create a bridge, and then flick the first switch again to elevate them back up. Then you flick the second switch and walk across your wooden bridge. Boom. Puzzle solved. 

 

The simplistic nature of these puzzles again undermined such an incredible atmosphere. 

 

 

Story 

The actual narrative of Inside is purposefully ambiguous (here be SPOILERS). The facility is both gratuitously over-defended and yet featuring very unnatural chambers:

• There’s the girl from The Ring that swims underwater without the need to surface for oxygen.  

• There’s the chamber where water sticks to the roof and gravity works in a mysterious way:
   

 

• There’s the overly-debated existence and purpose of the Huddle; a creature that the player controls in the endgame after the boy detaches it from the core of the facility. 

 

There is a rumour that the sound designers stacked multiple people on top of each other and then got another person to jump on top to create the distinctive groaning chorus for the Huddle. 

 

Inside and The Last of Us: Part II take place in the same universe: confirmed.
 

• Some adults help you on your journey but most of them are trying to kill you. 

• Drones activate when you wear mind-control helmets. They shuffle to and fro in the background in a way that conjures deep memories from the recesses of my mind of Abe’s Oddysee. The drones don’t have any blood, by the way, and they fold and crumple when you’re finished with them. Totally bonkers. 
  
  

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (1997)

 

The story and some of the features inside the facility are somewhat like playing through the Death Stranding announcement trailer.  

 

Some theories are compelling...

From the obvious: The facility is researching mind control and has become so lost in their view of humanity that they’ve created a grotesque and amorphous creature that symbolises that perception. 

 

To the interesting: the Huddle experiment is using mind control on the playable boy to lure him into the facility to free it (the Huddle is held in place by four mind control helmets). 

 

 

To the more obscure and less likely: the world is flooding so the facility is experimenting with ways with which to make people breathe underwater. 

 

... but personally, I think that there is more and less to it than all that. There is a diorama in the facility complete with a light source by a lake that matches the final shot of the game:

 

 

This suggests to me that the Huddle’s escape was orchestrated. The secret ending upon finding all collectibles (shutting down the facility’s power sources) ends with the playable character shutting down and folding over in the same animation as the other drones once you disconnected from their mind control devices. This asks the question: who is controlling who? The boy controls the drones, the player controls the boy, the game controls the player (reminiscent of BioShock’s “would you kindly?” twist), and the developer controls the game. 

 

The facility itself represents the development of a video game. The amorphous and faceless Huddle at the end represents the majority of players that move together in a blunt and powerful fashion that performs as expected and manoeuvres their way to the predetermined ending. The secret ending represents unplugging from the oppressive predetermined world by branching off, applying your own free will and playing the game however the hell you want to play it. 

 

Just like how Inception is Christopher Nolan’s allegory for making a movie, Inside is allegorical of video game development. 

 

At least, that’s my take. 

 

END OF SPOILERS

 

A low-key humourous moment where you flash the scientists in the facility with your nakedness.

 

Trophy Talk 

Trophies are pretty simple in Inside. All you have to do is beat the game and find a dozen-ish collectibles. I recommend a blind playthrough before going through a second time with a guide. You’re looking at about 4 to 5 hours playtime in total with two playthroughs. 

 

 

RIME

What is Rime? 

Like Braid and Inside, Rime is also a short puzzle game whose narrative is brought towards the forefront, except that Rime is three-dimensional. You play as a boy on a small island that is accompanied by a small orange fox.  

 

 

The boy wears a strip of red cloth from his father’s cloak. The opening cutscene depicts them on a boat in a storm where the father was swept overboard and the boy only managed to retain that strip of red cloth as he was taken by the sea. 

 

 

Story 

SPOILERS abound for most of this review; the game is pretty boring for the most part and I believe that knowing the big twist at the end of the game beforehand would actually assist in making the game more interesting, so consider reading on anyway.

 

There are five chapters in Rime: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. These are well known to be the five stages of grief (personally, I have always seen them as “the five stages of dealing with anything that isn't going well,” but I’m not a psychologist). To state the obvious: the boy’s physical journey on the island is a metaphor for his emotional journey with his grief. 

 

The boy and the fox progress by solving environmental puzzles where the goal is for the boy to look through a large keyhole-shaped doorway to be able to see the next level.

 

 

The final cutscene features a twist; the opening cutscene featuring the father being swept overboard was not true; the boy was the one swept overboard. The father is the grieving character and playing as the boy has been a metaphor for the father’s emotional journey instead. The game opens on the boy having washed ashore of a beautiful island where he is safe and free. That opening level, Denial, is the beginning of the father's grieving process.  

 

 

The final cutscene in Acceptance continues with the father inserting a key into the keyhole of the boy's bedroom door, opening it, and entering his empty room. A toy in the shape of a small orange fox sits upon the boy's bed. The father lets go of a piece of red cloth that was ripped from the boy’s coat in the storm and it drifts away towards the beach. 

 

 

Very heavy stuff.  

 

The twist cuts me deeply as a father.

 

I cannot imagine a phase of Acceptance and letting that pain go if something like this was to happen to me.

 

Anyway, with a heavy heart I posit the following: that final cutscene carries this game, and even then, the aforementioned emotional journey falls short as I will discuss in the topic of:

 

Gameplay 

Denial features the boy's exploration of an island where you are free to meander and experiment a little. There seems to be multiple places that you can go and routes to take. This is a manifestation of Denial in gameplay and that is mint. The environment (a sunny and picturesque location) contributes to that manifestation as well. 

 

 

 

The Witness ruined me for other puzzle games. Rime's trailer got me very excited for something similar but the two games are not really comparable.

 

My problem arises in Anger, Bargaining and Depression: those other levels don’t actually have any manifestations of those emotions in their gameplay. As far as the environmental design goes, only Depression features a matching environment (a dark, cold and rainswept setting). 

 

Anger

 

Bargaining

 

Depression

 

This is such a shame. Rime does not take advantage of the chosen artistic medium if the gameplay doesn’t synchronise with the narrative. The result is that Rime is summarised as a simple sentence: an experience that has a gutwrenching emotional twist after you just solve a bunch of puzzles.

 

I wanted more for this game for the sake of its own success but it doesn’t earn it. 

 

END OF SPOILERS 

 

The actual puzzle gameplay is adequate. Examples include moving some objects so that light can shine through them to illuminate a specific location, but where you might have to use another device in the environment to change the position of the sun in the sky to facilitate that beam of light. 

 

 

Rime is actually pretty boring. A single playthrough takes somewhere in the realm of 7-10 hours which was more than three times longer than I wanted it to be. The game as a whole really would have been better suited to a 20 minute short film with some workshopping to improve the symbolic design of the Anger and Bargaining settings. A playable game may not have been the most appropriate artistic medium for this story.

 

Journey (clearly an influence here) is a far superior experience, being tighter, shorter and more to the point, and yet more able to be applied to additional emotional interpretations. 

 

Presentation

Let’s end on a positive note:  

The aesthetic of the first setting (the Denial island that the boys wakes up on) is really pretty. It is featured in the trailer for the game and that visual opening is a key selling point. I see inspiration from Disney Pixar movies and Wind Waker. As you've seen by the screenshots, Rime is undeniably beautiful.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

 

Trophy Talk 

I’ll just leave this gorgeous platinum trophy tile here. It’s one of my favourite trophy tiles and it leaves me with a nice taste in my mouth at the end of a mediocre meal.

 

 

 

I hope this was a nice change of pace from a full series review. As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts! ?

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Platinum_Vice

[DrBloodmoney]

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

09

Puzzle Post II:

An Indie Omnibus

 

 

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

I hope this was a nice change of pace from a full series review. As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts! 

 

What an awesome collection of write ups! ?

 

This is a great idea for this checklist - loved all three of these, and theme-ing them together is perfect in this format!

 

 

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Braid

 

This isn't just a great write up of Braid BTW - it's also got probably the best, most concise and well laid out explainer for the story in Braid I've seen, dude!

 

Definitely spoiler'y, but having played the whole game twice, you're still pointing out stuff I never saw - I've never seen that monster in the window until now, and I've also never really thought about the whole "Mario is the villain" thing before - but that's blowing my mind!

 

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

INSIDE

 

I played that one is a total fever - start to finish in one sitting, and so this one was cool to revisit the game, as I think I forgot a lot of it!

 

The whole thing was creepy as hell - like seeing factory farming from the point of view of the cow, I suppose - but that's just the initial impression. I never really thought about any of this:

 

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

This suggests to me that the huddle’s escape was orchestrated. The secret ending upon finding all collectibles (shutting down the facility’s power sources) ends with the playable character shutting down and folding over in the same animation of the other drones once you disconnected from their mind control devices. This asks the question: who is controlling who? The boy controls the drones, the player controls the boy, the game controls the player (BioShock’s “would you kindly?” twist, anyone?), and the developer controls the game. 

 

The facility itself represents the development of a video game. The amorphous and faceless Huddle at the end represents the majority of players that move together in a blunt and powerful fashion that performs as expected and manoeuvres their way to the predetermined ending. The secret ending represents unplugging from the oppressive predetermined world by branching off, applying your own free will and playing however the hell you want to play it. 

 

Just like how Inception is Christopher Nolan’s allegory for making a movie, Inside is allegorical of video game development. 

 

At least, that’s my take. 

 

and that's super cool to think about!

 

 

 

On 08/04/2022 at 6:31 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

RIME

 

You know - I dug Rime, but I don't disagree on the comparisons here - I think it's a good puzzle game, but stacking against Inside and Braid, and it starts to look pale by comparison! That ending is crushing though, totally agree.

 

 

I think the lack of metaphorical gameplay I think is a pretty fair criticism, though I'd argue that (at least, in my playthrough, the "depression" stage did manage some of that - might just be me, but I found that level way confusing to navigate, and so I quite often ended up realising that I was in the wrong place, or going the wrong way, because everything looks the same, and it's all in a big circle, so I thought it kind of managed to be a metaphor for stagnating, and just circling the drain in that part.

 

Totally agree on the other two though - the devs seem to get more into just crafting cool parts to look at, rather than having metaphorical one-to-one selements to the specific stage of grief they are aiming for.

 

Also, ps:

 

Rime and the Witness take place in the same universe: Confirmed!

?

 

 

Awesome work as always man!

 

 

[Copanele]

Quote

Braid

Wow what an amazing write-up  Braid was always a fun "this is how you make an indie" game and reading your conclusions was truly entertaining and, dare I say, eye opening. I never saw the story from that perspective.

There's one thing about this game that the trophy guide doesn't mention: every level has a super hidden wont-figure-out-unless-you-check-online star, which are a pain to get.

Also, will tag it in the spoilers just for good measure:

Spoiler

You can actually catch the princess at the end of the game if you do a series of odd jumps and time manipulations. It kinda sours the story though, because I like your take on the story way more