Skill Issue

Platinum_Vice · October 8, 2022

Finally!

"Achieved Enlightenment " today after 7 years of chipping away at N++ (half of which was during the last 6 months).

45 hours of playtime also brings me well under the estimated guide time as well which makes me feel even more proud... to think that this took less time than Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo is insane considering it felt sooo much longer than both.

Review coming soon, I think.

On 04/10/2022 at 4:58 PM, The_Kopite said:

Secondly, geez this is late but thanks Smevz for that!

Thanks for the compliment Kopite and for the recommendation by @YaManSmevz.

You make some fair points, Kopite, we will have to agree to disagree on the best Uncharted. I reckon a replay of A Thief's End is due for 2023 for me, what do you think? Your comment actually made me really want to play the second entry again, so thanks for that!

The_Kopite · October 9, 2022

On 10/8/2022 at 6:17 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Finally!

"Achieved Enlightenment " today after 7 years of chipping away at N++ (half of which was during the last 6 months).

45 hours of playtime also brings me well under the estimated guide time as well which makes me feel even more proud... to think that this took less time than Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo is insane considering it felt sooo much longer than both.

Review coming soon, I think.

Thanks for the compliment Kopite and for the recommendation by @YaManSmevz.

You make some fair points, Kopite, we will have to agree to disagree on the best Uncharted. I reckon a replay of A Thief's End is due for 2023 for me, what do you think? Your comment actually made me really want to play the second entry again, so thanks for that!

Firstly, you're very welcome!

Secondly, I always make fair points, sometimes fun points too! (Never funfair points, that'd be ridiculous haha)

Thirdly, we respect each other and thus each other's opinions and that's how it should be. You have a favourite from the franchise, I have a different favourite. It's nice to be able to converse rather than talking to someone where their opinion is fact and it's final lol

I think you should replay both in 2023! Sounds like fun to me! I just want to find the one person in the world who thinks that Fight for Fortune is the best UC game lol (It was decent for what it was, and also Golden Abyss is vastly underrated by many!)

Shrooba · October 18, 2022

Nicely done with N++! Man, I remember playing regular N+ back on the Xbox 360. It's a fun platformer, albeit with turrets of death at every corner! I assume it's the same variety here??
Great work getting this trophy! As long as you keep chipping away at something, you'll always get the job the done! Games are meant to be beaten, well done mate. ?

On 08/10/2022 at 3:47 PM, Platinum_Vice said:

to think that this took less time than Crash 4 and Trackmania Turbo is insane considering it felt sooo much longer than both.

Ahhh yes, the inexplicable occurrence of slowed time that only appears when doing hard games! ? These buggers only ever happen on the hard stuff, unlike mellow but intricate games that you just wish would last longer! Lookin' at you, God of War... Oh wait, there's a sequel coming out! Wait... N++ IS a sequel... Er, I don't wanna cause a fracture in time here! ?

Platinum_Vice · November 8, 2022

13

Telltale Games

#22 (PS4) Back to the Future: The Game, 5/10

#11 (PS4) The Wolf Among Us, 8/10

#43 (PS4) Tales from the Borderlands, 2.5/10

#26 (PS4) Game of Thrones, 2.5/10

#48 (PS4) Batman: The Telltale Series, 2/10

A studio from modest beginnings, Telltale Games (2004-2018) inherited founder Dan Connors’ experience in developing Adventure games. "Adventure games,” of course, are more commonly referred to as “point-and-click" games to avoid confusion within the industry with “an action game that features adventure,” and the original moniker dates back to the earliest periods of gaming.

Up until 2011, Telltale Games’ efforts were rooted in that historical genre. I argue that Back to the Future: The Game was their last Adventure game before player interaction was progressively diminished to such a degree that future titles fail to meet the minimum threshold of gameplay to be classified as “Adventure games.”

I posit that their post-2011 games are Visual Novels. One might take that as an unnecessary statement or maybe as an affront to Telltale. I make that claim here (whether it is a hot take or not) only due to an intention of critiquing those post-2011 games by a different standard.

I’ve played five games from this developer. Here are my opinions:

Part 1: Back to the Future: The Game:

The Back to the Future trilogy of movies are impeccable. A staple for nerds, time-travellers and nostalgia-bound lovers of the 80s, the movies could be considered as the most-loved film franchise in pop culture if we were to measure films on a scale of love-versus-criticism. Nobody criticises those movies with any malice. There is no ‘divided fanbase.’ The purity of the films are yet to be besmirched with a nostalgia-milking reboot packed with remember-berries and intentions to founder a new spin-off series with diminishing returns. In fact... it may be the last beloved film franchise from that era yet to be rebooted.

Back to the Future: The Game is an attempt at a continuation of the canon. It doesn’t capture the fun and colourful escapades of the films but it doesn’t undermine their character (or, indeed, their characters).

As it is worth playing if you are a fan of the films, I’ll broadly overview the premise to prevent spoilers. I’d really only soft-recommend the game to fans. The thematic depth and the serviceable puzzles/exploration elements that constitutes the gameplay are insufficient to justify purchase by non-fans.

Echoing how Marty befriended and mentored his father in the first film, Marty takes on a similar role to a young Doc Brown in the 1930s. In the beginning of the game you must thwart Biff’s grandfather (Kid Tannen, an Al Capone-inspired 1930s gangster) while learning that a young Doc Brown wants to become a lawyer (not a scientist) to follow in his father’s footsteps. As the episodes unfold, your advice to young Doc Brown about the positives of a good relationship with father figures affects his career path. The combination of his continued pursuit in the field of law and a blossoming relationship with the mother of Marty’s school principal Ed Strickland (Edna Strickland) has grander ramifications to all of Hill Valley, which is consequently pulled under a dictatorial rule by the Doc. If I remember correctly, his base of operations is the inside of the Hill Valley Clocktower which has always been a notable setting in the movies.

Kid Tannen

Marty's attempts to offer the correct password to enter a Speakeasy

A young Doc Brown!

It’s a silly plot but I believe that it retains the spirit of the series. Provided that you don’t expect the world from this game, BTTF fans should get something out of this.

Almost all obstacles and antagonism require puzzle-solving for progression. The puzzles are standard point-and-click fare with slightly less of a reliance on carrying inventory items for extended periods of time. You’re usually given all of the ingredients to solve a puzzle in the general area of the obstacle.

Back to the Future: The Game is a true middle-of-the-pack-type experience. There are no massive detractors in this game except, simply, for the lack of anything truly special.

___________________________

Part 2: The Wolf Among Us

As I have alluded to, Telltale Games (TTG) commenced a dismantling of puzzles and player interaction as they developed Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead: Season One and The Wolf Among Us.

The Wolf Among Us, like every other game from this point by TTG, is a Visual Novel. If I were to concede ground on this position it would be to consider whether The Wolf Among Us might be considered TTG’s last Adventure game purely because of the type of story being told:

Two types of stories are very well suited to the Adventure genre: Puzzle games (such as The Tales of Monkey Island and Back to the Future), and Detective Noir/Mysteries. The Wolf Among Us definitely features enough markers of Noir storytelling to be considered as a modern interpretation.

However... if the type of story being told is the only thing grounding this game to the Adventure genre instead of the Visual Novel genre, rather than the player’s interaction via gameplay, then surely it must follow that this is, in fact, a Visual Novel.

But why is this distinction so important?

Because the very interesting and notable ways that narrative and player involvement interact in The Wolf Among Us are inherently tied to this transitioning of genres that TTG were undergoing.

The developers themselves appear to me to have been on the cusp of discovering that the development ethos of their studio was changing to accommodate a permanent fixation on their discovered business model in the wake of The Walking Dead’s success. The final act of The Wolf Among Us explores the lack of real change that the player has had upon the world or characters. The existentialist realisations that the player’s choices don’t matter is synchronised between the player, the protagonist, the characters around the protagonist and the developers themselves.

To truly speak to this realisation I’ll have to stick a quick pin in it and circle back around to it later.

The opening credit crawl

The atmosphere, setting and characters are the engrossing backbone of The Wolf Among Us.

The visual style of The Wolf Among Us is striking. The characters are pulled from the Fables comic series by Bill Willingham, but despite the 2D cell-shaded, bold-coloured aesthetic employed by the game, it appears to not have been inherited from the comic book progenitor. It appears to be a visual style spawned instead from the talented artists at TTG.

The style heavily leans into a “neon-noir” aesthetic. It’s gorgeous and a clear highlight for me.

The 40 second opening theme overflows with style, flair, neon colour and '80s synth. The inspiration from Noir is clear.

Hmm, is this opening of The Wolf Among Us or Watchmen?

Bigby Wolf, the protagonist and playable character, is the sole detective in Fabletown; a small community living in New York amongst regular, mundane people like you and I (“Mundies.”)

The community of Fables consists of characters from... well... fables. Fairy tales. Bigby Wolf is “the Big Bad Wolf.” He lives with Colin, a talking and chain-smoking pig whose house was huffed and puffed away by Bigby many years ago. Bigby has a non-detective colleague and confidante in Snow White. Toad from The Wind in the Willows has an antagonistic role. The Woodsman (the lumberjack that attempted to kill the Big Bad Wolf to protect Little Red Riding Hood) is a key foil to Bigby. Bluebeard, a fairy tale character known for killing his many wives, is featured in The Wolf Among Us with his Agent 47-looking ass. Enemies abound in the form of Bloody Mary, the Jersey Devil and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Georgie Porgie – the subject of an English nursery rhyme from the late 1800s – runs a strip club called ‘The Pudding and Pie.’

Colin

Bluebeard

Ariel attempts to dance (mermaid style) for Georgie Porgie

The mechanism for the fables’ entry into the Mundy world is immaterial. There’s only two important facts you need to know:

1. All fables must occupy a human form. If they do not have a human form and cannot transform into one naturally (like Bigby), they must purchase a magical Glamour. Glamours are very expensive and this creates class division amongst the community. This is the underlying grounds for conflict in the game. Toad, for example, is quick to cite the cost of keeping his family in Glamour and how that sets them back in the community.

2. All characters remember their prior history. Bigby’s history as the Big Bad Wolf that ate people is still very much on the mind of the other fables despite his current role as Sheriff. Beauty and Beast - originally born into wealth - are struggling to adapt to a less luxurious lifestyle in the Mundy world than the royal castle that they used to call home.

The premise for the plot is that the head of a murdered prostitute is left at the foot of Bigby’s office. It’s the first murder of a fable in recent memory and Bigby’s ability to police the community (and the other government officials’ ability to uplift its citizens from squalor) is thrown into question. Noir motifs ensue during Bigby’s investigation as he chain-smokes his favourite brand of darts (“huff n puffs”), delves into the seedy underworld of Fabletown in New York, squanders in nihilism, meets a variety of femme fatales, and uncovers a larger criminal conspiracy as more strippers are killed.

I have some quick criticisms (there's some spoilers in these dot points):

- There’s a small moment in the first episode where Bigby is arrested by a Mundy detective as a suspect for the initial murder. This interplay between investigators from different worlds trying to piece the larger puzzle together was a gold nugget of an idea and I would have preferred that the story went in that direction.

- The serial killings fell by the wayside too quickly to service the discovery of the larger conspiracy.

- The Boy Who Cried Wolf was an early character that was unfortunately cut from the game. This could have been an interesting dynamic.

- There’s rules to the magic of the Fabletown and histories between multiple characters that aren’t explained to the player. The discovery of Glamours being used as a way for characters to impersonate someone else and the use of the Magic Mirror as a spying tool are great devices for twists but the lack of set-up leaves the player with a sense of deus-ex-machina instead of allowing the player to actively theorise and participate in the whodunnit aspect of the mystery. The lack of of understanding of the 'rules' to the magic and how that affects death, injuries and character relationships frustrated me.

- Bigby is regularly criticised by other characters for not having been a better force for good in the community. For all of the “player choice” offered to the player in dialogue, it’s hard to swallow criticism about Bigby’s actions that predate the player’s time inhabiting his decision making. I didn't enjoy being regularly called out as a shit cop when I didn't have any say in what has happened prior to the game's plot.

- I like the platinum trophy image except that it looks like the laughing Tom Cruise meme...

Player choice is TTG’s trade for removing puzzles from their post-2011 games. The stated aim is that the player is given agency over some of Bigby’s investigative strategies on a macro level as well as the way that he speaks to other characters on the micro level.

How Bigby speaks to characters gives the player the illusion of choice by allowing them to navigate dialogue trees so that they can embody Bigby as an extension of themselves or to roleplay. Over the course of the game this plays out as Bigby teetering between ethical investigative arrests/questioning tecnhiques and faster, unlawful and violent tactics that Bigby believes are justified by the end results.

This is definitely an illusion. Dialogue trees are often forced back towards the pre-determined ends of Bigby’s conversations. True change is never brought about regardless of which character “will remember that.”

Ultimately, a game is not obliged to give the player choice nor is it obliged to have multiple endings that differ based on player choices, but Telltale Games openly advertise that the game is affected by your choices, and players are frequently reminded of this during conversations with characters, and this feels like a dishonest promise.

The Wolf Among Us is not the first game by TTG that fails to meet this promise but it is definitely the last one that should be able to get away with it. The final act summarises the key theme of the game:

Every choice sucks. If you aren’t choosing between two evils then you aren’t making any choices at all.

As the Sheriff, Bigby cannot act to assist anyone without causing someone else to be worse off.

Other characters’ disenfranchised frustration is rooted in an inability to take a step forward without being forced to take two steps back.

There are no solutions, only choices between multiple evils.

All characters in The Wolf Among Us are aware of this and the player is made to feel this way while also discovering that the gameplay hook of TTG’s games is meaningless. Considering that this is on theme, I interpreted it as a subversion of the gameplay hook (and I considered it to have stuck the landing).

At the same time, the developers themselves were likely coming to the same conclusions themselves as their executive management evolved and sought to repeat the success of The Walking Dead: Season One and the then-expected success with pre-existing intellectual properties throughout the 2010s. A subversion of the gameplay hook can only work once before requiring multiple successful implementations of the advertised gameplay hook.

Deadpool was so successful for the subversion of the superhero movie genre. If every movie after that was like Deadpool, they wouldn't work. You need real superhero movies to create the standard from which the subversion will develop.

The Wolf Among Us is the Deadpool of TTG's development formula. I posit that Telltale employees and the gaming industry cottoned on to the developer's managements desire to keep pumping out back-to-back Deadpools.

The Wolf Among Us was actually the first TTG game that I played. The stellar atmosphere, interesting plot, complex protagonist and the introduction to an IP that I was unfamiliar with propelled my desire to play more games from the developer despite consistently diminishing returns on my emotional investments into the company’s efforts. This one game compelled me to play four more.

___________________________

Part 3: Tales from the Borderlands, Game of Thrones and Batman: The Telltale Series:

Regardless of what you, I or critics might say about these games, empirically, TTG engaged in a downward spiral by 2011 which concluded in the company’s bust.

Telltale Games failed because:

1. They went all-in on “The Walking Dead’s winning formula” and were completely unwilling to divert from it.

2. They were generally unwilling to upgrade their engine so they were left behind in the technological race. Each release felt increasingly janky and archaic when compared to other contemporary games.

3. They released new games too quickly after each other, or on top of each other (such as the concurrence of Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones). TTG’s games were already fairly niche because the industry was implementing more emotionally-resonant narratives into AAA games, so a “story-only” formula fell flat amongst other industry competitors that were already adapting to players' desires for complex characters and engaging gameplay. TTG’s release of so many games oversaturated the market of “story-only” experiences. TTG’s games were having to compete against themselves for sales.

4. With every game that players experienced from this developer, I believe it becomes more and more inevitable that players discover for themselves that their choices are not actually affecting the characters and narrative.

5. And finally (and debatably), Telltale Games were failing to capture the essence of the licensed material from which they based their games.

Points 1, 2, 3 are all direct results of poor executive management. Points 4 and 5 are indirect results of poor management. Multiple documentaries and post-bust anecdotes from former TTG employees attribute the company’s collapse to toxic leadership. They also cite a constant atmosphere of excessive crunch.

___________________________

The journey of the main character in Tales from the Borderlands begins with him working for corporate stiffs at the Hyperion weapons conglomerate. The first time I played it I rolled my eyes at what I thought was low-quality commentary of the nature of capitalism. With further inspection and the hindsight knowledge of the toxic environment at TTG, it seems more applicable to view Hyperion as a metaphor for Telltale Games.

Rhys, the central protagonist in Tales from the Bordlerlands

Vasquez, Rhy's rival-come-supervisor in the corporate pyramid of the Hyperion weapons manufacturer

Rhys (the main character) is called into a meeting by his new boss, Vasquez (voiced to perfection by Patrick Warburton), who is a stereotypical ‘douchebag in a suit.’ Vasquez congratulates Rhys on a new promotion to Senior Vice Janitor. The relatability of the exchange elicits a sense that Vasquez is directly inspired by Telltale Games’ CEO Kevin Bruner. The catalyst for the story is Rhys’ desire to backstab his boss and elevate his destiny out from the footnote of a megacorporation.

An example of the real-life douchebaggery that inspired this metaphor is this: by Episode 3 of Tales from the Borderlands, Telltale Games had reduced every department working on this game to one person each so that workers could be diverted to other projects. The resulting skeleton crew were written off as the developing team a failing project. Despite working unreasonable hours in continual crunch, the small team were proud to actually complete the rest of the project with minimal micromanagement. You can see the team cutting away loose ends at the beginning of Episode 3 as they consolidate and formalise a plan for the rest of the game.

Tales from the Borderlands is generally considered to be TTG’s funniest effort and it does have some good jokes (the three droids - Claptrap, Loaderbot and Gortys - were easily my favourite characters in the game).

Claptrap's panicking swearing (complete with *beep* *beep* *beepbabeepbeeeeeeep*) was fantastic.

Unfortunately, the skeletal structure of the narrative, characters and player interactions are also dependent on the subversion of the TTG formula. “____ will remember that” is often the punchline to a joke. A lack of applicable choices in dialogue trees becomes the punchline of a joke. One of the best moments in the game is towards the end where Rhys pretends to be Vasquez and returns to Hyperion. A finger-gun shoot-out takes place a-la the courtyard scene in The Matrix Reloaded, complete with quick-time events and giggle-inducing buffoonery. Vasquez faces off against an entire office of accountants. It’s the best action sequence in the game and ultimately it is a subversion of TTG’s quick time event action sequences.

"He's out of bullets. I've been counting!"

...it’s almost like the developers were actively rebelling against the overused formula...

___________________________

TTG’s aging engine almost kicked the bucket during Game of Thrones. It was developed for a simultaneous release on iPads. The game is almost as bankrupt of technical grace as the company's bankruptcy of actual money. QTEs require less player input than ever. Character movement is extremely stilted. Audio and lip movement are about as synchronised as anime dubbed into English.

The game follows characters from the Forrester family. They’re bannermen to the Boltons, who are in turn bannermen for the Starks. Anyone who has seen/read the show/books will know about the persistent suffering of the Stark family. If you liked that, you’ll love what happens to the Forresters.

The Forresters are almost a 1:1 copy of the Stark family dynamic:

"Mum, can we get Starks?"

"No honey, we have the Starks at home."

As I was familiar with the show and books, I expected that the game would emulate the motif of killing off your favourite characters. Coupled with the lack of interesting actions or of any relatability to the game's characters, I therefore was unable to connect to anyone for fear of their inevitable death. It did not add to a desire to continue playing.

The game does occasionally emulate the dread-building that defines the IP. The game's opening at the Red Wedding is a good example of this. That opening is marred, however, by the game promising that a character “will remember that” and then killing that character two minutes later.

The Red Wedding

The game suffers from the classic symptoms of prequel-itis/outsourced-to-another-studi-osis: the IP's existing characters can be taken out of the toy box for temporary use, but everything must be put back where they came from when you’re finished. New characters are forbidden to have any real impact on the characters and plot of the narrative of the core IP. These classic symptoms are in direct conflict with the self-proclaimed aims of Telltale Games (that the story adapts to the players’ decisions and that the stories themselves are worth being told).

___________________________

Games should always be fun. Movies, TV shows, books and visual novels should always be interesting.

Batman: The Telltale Series commits a cardinal sin: it’s sleep-inducing.

Galloping gargoyles, Batman, you’re boring as fuck!

I don’t think that I have anything positive to say about this game. I completely failed to connect to it.

It’s... um... well, it’s functional. You know... it runs. And I guess it’s kind of interesting that it leaned into a sense of Batman wearing Bruce Wayne as an alter ego to protect his true identity as the caped crusader, similar to how Superman wears Clark Kent as an alter ego (and in opposition to how Peter Parker’s alter ego is Spider-Man).

But I had to look up who the antagonist was for this review. Apparently it was Lady Arkham. I’ll be a penguin’s uncle if I can remember who that was.

Batman may be able to save Catwoman but it's a shame he couldn't save this game from banal insignificance.

The investigation/detective/exploration/interactive segments were mind-numbing. They reminded me of terrible online training courses that I have do at work: 'drag the words into the empty spaces so that the sentences will make sense. Good job!'

Troy Baker plays Batman (and Rhys in Tales from the Borderlands). They sound identical.

It’s also very difficult to cut away any comparisons to Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy considering their plots were more interesting and their gameplay was incomparably better. Drawing a direct comparison is hard to avoid.

Batman: The Telltale Series: Season 2 features Batman's struggles with heroin addiction and ongoing domestic violence with Catwoman. Probably.

___________________________

The Wolf Among Us was a very enjoyable experience. It gave me the confidence to search through TTG’s back catalogue and pick up Back to the Future. That game was okay. I thought that maybe I should try a newer game by TTG to find an experience like The Wolf Among Us so I bought Game of Thrones. I was obviously very disappointed and decided not to buy any more Telltale Games.

Tales from the Borderlands was given away on PS+. ‘Okay,’ I thought, ‘this one has a cult following. I’ll commit.’ I told myself afterwards that I was finished with games from this company. Platinum_Vice will remember that.

...and then Batman was then released on PS+. ‘Surely they can't fuck up one of the most popular IPs in the world when the industry is scrambling to praise the Arkham games.’

It turns out that when you fail to adapt, fail to work with your employee’s strengths, fail to give them enough time to complete their work, and fail to nurture their creative capabilities, you’re doomed to failure. Who knew?

Unlike the characters in Telltale’s games, it turns out that the internet will remember that.

DrBloodmoney · November 8, 2022

A great issue of Vice - hot and spicy edition this time!

I probably do enjoy these games more than you generally, but I don't really disagree with any of the points you make - and I do find it interesting that there seems to be a certain clarity of your view on the Telltale canon retrospective, probably specifically because you didn't play The Walking Dead games.

What I mean by that is, I think there was a certain "glow" that Telltale basked in at first - and coasted on later - that came from the (well deserved) praise that first Walking Dead game got, and they were helped by being able to keep going back to that well...

...but it's fairly clear, I think, that Telltale recognised the enormous success of their Walking Dead games, but didn't necessarily understand what about them was so successful - because a lot of those elements aren't really replicated in their other post-TWD fare.

While the post-TWD dead games follow the same structure as TWD, there are two key elements that make those distinct from the other.

Firstly - TWD as an IP was weak enough, and Telltale's output numerous enough, that they effectively "took it over".

TWD comics are okay, but never great, and the TV show was pretty much unwatchable beyond the first season unless you were an absolute Zombie-Nut. Telltale made so many good games with it, that they sort of did what CD Project Red did with The Witcher - the Telltale games became the "default" thing thought of when people thought of "The Walking Dead" - at least, a good number of people.

To me, for example, "The Walking Dead" is a game series by Telltale first and foremost... and it also has some comic books and some TV shows - not the other way around.

All the other IPs they dipped into were too strong for that to happen (Fables / Game of Thrones / Batman etc.)

The only one they might conceivably have replicated that element in was Borderlands - the Gearbox games were pretty underwritten and not much fun to play, and Telltale's take on the world was so much more interesting than Gearbox's, that they had a chance of usurping it... but they only made the one game, so that never happened.

The other thing TWD has that none of the others have though, is emotion. The thing that kept people hooked on TWD series, was that the stories were actually emotionally engaging, not just cerebrally. I mean, I actually like TWAU more than any of TWD games... but even with my love of Fables (it's one of my favourite comic series ever), Telltale's game isn't playing on emotional resonance - just cerebral interest. There's no "Oh my God, I want to protect this little girl, this is awful, I can't look, no wait, I have to" element to them.

What's weird is - that was the stuff every review outlet cited when lauding the original TWD and giving it all the Game of the Year type awards and discussions - none of them were arguing that the best parts of the game were technical or mechanical. In fact, most people liked those games IN SPITE of those elements, not because of them....

...but those are the parts Telltale seemed to continue, and replicate again and again.

They never really went back to "emotional connection"... which seems misguided, and a little strange.

Anyways, that was a bit of a ramble.... sorry! ?

Great post as always mate! ?

Edited November 8, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

YaManSmevz · November 8, 2022

7 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

13

Telltale Games

#22 (PS4) Back to the Future: The Game, 5/10

#11 (PS4) The Wolf Among Us, 8/10

#43 (PS4) Tales from the Borderlands, 2.5/10

#26 (PS4) Game of Thrones, 2.5/10

#48 (PS4) Batman: The Telltale Series, 2/10

I pretty much saw you make mention of this, went to sleep, woke up and here it is! Thank you for that? I choose to believe you thought about Telltale, figured "well I have a spare hour," wrote this up, and yawned while posting.

Fantastic read (not that this is unusual of course)! I've only played the first two Telltale games in this piece, and I'm now glad that I've never taken the bait of the rest. Sad to see such a meteoric collapse of a company that really had something for a while, but I guess that's what you get when greedy dickbags are in charge.

Great breakdown of said two games, but I especially enjoyed getting schooled on the why of Telltale's downfall, and more importantly, why to not pay any mind to those games! The Batman game makes me particularly sad, because that with the environment of TWAU could've been really bad ass.

Platinum_Vice · November 26, 2022

14

Indie Omnibus II

(a.k.a. that time that I bit the bullet and participated in an Ultra Rare Cleanup Event).

PSNProfiles’ annual Ultra Rare Cleanup was something that I admired from afar until committing to the 2022 edition. The participants support each other in overcoming some of the hardest and longest platinum journeys out there. It’s a credit to the participants (and @Copanele/@Arcesius leadership) that there is minimal bullshit and elitism throughout.

Towards the end of 2021 I decided that I would give it a go in 2022. I decided on 5 games to finish (the previous minimum amount of games required to enter) which were taunting me – incomplete – from the darkest corners of my backlog. It seemed like a hard task. I’d previously only pulled a UR platinum at a ratio of 1:10 for a total of ten in five years of trophy hunting, so to push for five in one year was a big ask.

Imagine my surprise when the minimum amount of games was increased to 10 for 2022. ?

Fast forward to the end of 2022: what an undertaking this was. If I was walking away with just the S-ranks for Hyper Light Drifter, N++ and Dishonored that would have been unreal in and of itself, but to have completed a full ten games feels crazy.

While these games may not stack up to the achievements of others in the event, or even to others who hang out with me here in this checklist (I mean, Jesus, homies be tackling Doom 2 (@DrunkenEngineer), Assetto Corsa (@Destructor-8), Crypt of the Necrodancer (@Joe Dubz)... I can't even comprehend what @Mori has been up to, and what’s @Shroobabeen doing this year? Oh, I dunno, fucking slaying it, maybe?), they’re big for me, and I’m walking away chin-up and with a spring in my step.

Here’s what I completed for the event this year sorted by fun, difficulty and then grind. I made the tables for the event but I guess they fit here, too:

So what a great opportunity to churn out some reviews. Braid and Hyper Light Drifter have already been completed. Dishonored can wait for a series review. Medal of Honor: Frontline should probably wait for comparison to other WWII shooters and Driver: San Francisco was just more grindy and server-based than difficult so it doesn't belong here.

Let's get into it.

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Superhot

Trailer

Superhot is an FPS where time moves when you move. It’s a simple concept. So simple, in fact, that I'm amazed that no one has done this before (not to my knowledge, anyway). Bullet time exists in multiple other games but not to this extent.

There’s about 30 levels that increase in complexity but in general you have to overcome about 5-20 enemies who are all trying to kill you. They’re armed with weapons such as samurai swords, pistols, shotguns and other weapons of a similar ilk. In addition to dropped enemy weapons, you can throw some objects in the environment and punch your way to freedom. Being able to shoot bullets with other bullets or cut bullets in half with a katana are fun little discovery-nuggets.

Due to the overwhelming ratio of armed enemies versus the player and the Tool-Assisted-Speedrun-type gameplay brought about by being able to re-assess your plan of attack at any moment, Superhot plays out more like a Puzzle game than a FPS.

The concept is simple and the levels and art design are equally so. The final product is stylistically minimalist to its benefit. Enemies and the levels themselves are constantly and instantly readable which is highly conducive to tactical play and flow. If Superhot didn’t allow players to enter that ‘flow state’ then the pacing would follow the stop/start nature at the heart of the game and it wouldn’t work.

A highlight of the game is the ‘level-success’ replay of what happened in real-time. When you pass the level you watch yourself shoot like John Wick and dodge bullets like Neo.

No, Superhot, you're breathtaking!

There is a simple narrative underpinning the game: you are a hacker that is inserted into a cracked ‘hot new game’ as the playable character. It’s easily the weakest aspect of the game and undermined itself by pulling me out of the experience instead of enticing me to continue.

The real highlights for me were the post-game challenges. After beating the game once it asks you to do it again with handicaps: do it with just a katana; do it again with just fightin’ fists, do it again without the ability to shoot but instead throw stuff for one-hit-kills, do it again without dying, et cetera. The angles of the levels opened and closed in ways that I hadn’t appreciated before and the throwables/breakables/enemies within them became new opportunities for survival. The restrictions were liberating.

However, there are additional trophies beyond the challenges such as the Endless mode - the freedom of having access to all abilities again indefinitely in this Endless mode was stifling – and a frustrating collectible hunt that requires the player to follow a YouTube playlist.

Ultimately, the game is the gameplay premise. It is to Superhot’s credit that it understands what it is and retains a minimalist design and narrative without feeling like it needs to embellish, yet, Superhot feels bite-size – it’s stocking-filler – without more substantial flesh around the bone.

#118 (PS4) Superhot, 6.5/10

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GRIP: Combat Racing

Trailer

Did you know that a Formula 1 racecar generates enough downforce to allow it to (theoretically) drive upside down?

That is the fundamental premise for Grip. Tracks swirl, twist, flip and corkscrew. Some of them feature massive half-pipes for mile-long sweeping corners where you often find yourself exiting on the roof driving upside-down – a perfectly viable strategy – instead of adhering to rudimentary gravitational routes. Massive jumps, boost pads and weapon pick-ups are separated by long cylindrical tubes that encourage you to perform high-speed corkscrew movements while dodging enemy attacks.

'Racecar' – a palindrome – reads the same from either direction. The logo for Grip is an ambigram – it reads the same upside down.

A rotating logo is used as a 'loading' indicator during this game... is it clear enough? We good? Are we happy that we’ve got the premise down? Or, um... up?

When I bought Grip, I thought that I understood the assignment: Star Wars’ podracing in the vein of PS1’s Rollcage with Wipeout’s combat and aesthetics.

There was just one problem: the extreme speeds that you’re required to maintain to stay competitive (<700km/h) do not mix well with the sharp turns, jutting rocks and other obstacles that consistently stick out and impede your progress. The result is stop-start racing where you do your best to get up to full speed before you involuntarily carom off of a wall or tree root and have to start again.

Disguised as an arcade/combat racer, Grip is secretly a pinball game where you are the pinball.

The best levels embraced the gameplay premise and featured multiple quarter-pipes and corkscrew tubes. The worst levels abandoned the concepts with astounding regularity.

I was forced to drive the default vehicle throughout the entire campaign as I was simply unable to handle anything faster.

There are also anti-gravity vehicles that you can pilot but the lack of much-needed traction (to, you know, attempt to navigate the tracks’ twists and turns) meant that they also weren't viable for use. Although, at least an anti-gravity vehicle would make some sort of logical sense...

Don't ask me how the vehicles with wheels would manage to stop them rotating at 700km/h and then accelerate them to rotate in the other direction at the same speed all within the time span of half a second.

The campaign was unrealistically difficult with severe rubber-banding issues. It took me approximately 40 hours to complete the campaign. At best it felt like a grind and at worst I was doing my best to drive slower than intended to manoeuvre through the tracks.

A shoehorned platforming mode is required to be mastered for trophies as well. The hardest two levels are self-labelled as 'nightmare difficulty' which is apt because this game was not built with platforming in mind.

An endgame grind is also required: 1000 laps completed (I had 250 completed after the campaign) and 250 enemies obliterated (I don’t think that I had 50 by the end of the campaign). These requirements have come after a patch that decreased the requirements from 10,000 laps and 1,500 kills. ?

I can’t avoid addressing how disinteresting the soundtrack was. It’s generic EDM without any personality or flair. Each track is indistinguishable from the rest. Imagine the rave noise that you hear in your mind’s ear when you picture this guy:

@Mori Did you say that you liked this soundtrack? If so, I hope you take this as banter, dude, because I clearly did not like it all. ?

Also, a word to the wise for anyone that might actually play Grip: don’t play this with anyone else in the room. It’s great that you know where you’re intending to drive (until you hit something), but your Significant Other won’t have any idea at all. Spectators will be vomiting by the end of your first lap thanks to the constant screen flips and motion blur.

RIP: my wife’s lunch.

Hardcore racing fans might give this game a chance but I wouldn’t be expecting the map quality of Rollcage, the combat and ‘death race’ plot from Jak X, the smooth and bespoke anti-gravity action of Wipeout or the tension of The Phantom Menace’s podracing.

‘Map flow’ in regards to helping the player maintain extreme speeds instead of coming to standstills could have used some inspiration from the Burnout series/Onrush. If I was standing still on the track, Grip’s environments would be more aesthetically pleasing and realistic by far than the bare and disinteresting environments of those games... but I’m not trying to stand still on the track, am I?

Grip's visual flair is, however, far and away the biggest feather in its cap:

All in all: Grip features a below-average execution of a fun idea which was further undermined by poor trophy awareness.

#119 (PS4) GRIP: Combat Racing, 6.5/10

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Slain: Back from Hell

Trailer

Slain is a side-scrolling action game that combines 'risk vs reward'-based combat with platforming elements. It is fairly contained in its scope, story and combat (which features just three weapons and a mana blast). However, Slain excels by way of its atmospheric offerings.

Slain's unique graphical style and a soundtrack featuring power chording guitars, synths and operatic chants are an ode to Heavy Metal.?

The first track to the opening level is pretty special as an off-the-cuff example and I am fond of the themes for the hub world and the level ‘Old Town.’

The playable character’s appearance is a 1:1 replica of the patronage from a Motörhead gig at a biker bar. The narrative begins when your character – entombed in a crypt – is awoken from his slumber and brought back to life by an otherworldly figure. An ancient sword and a quest to slaughter scores of underworld minions throughout the realms of hell are thrust upon him.

I was repeatedly taken aback by how the developers channelled the spirit of metal into the pixel-art environments as well as various types of enemies. The beauty of the game is in its hellish ugliness. Structures are rarely symmetrical. My favourite levels take place near seas of blood and in a toxic-green sewer.

Unlike the attention to detail given to the visual style, atmosphere and enemy designs, the combat is notably simpler. You have three types of swords and a couple of types of mana blasts, but the dominant strategy is to use a charged attack or – even more reliably – to parry an enemy’s attacks to cause them to stagger. This opens them up to a critical strike for massive damage. Mastering that move early vastly simplifies the already basic combat. A successful playthrough is therefore rhythm-based and I am not sure whether that was intentional (harking back to the foundational heavy-metal motifs) or whether it is actually something that detracts from the game (underlining the lack of combat variety).

The pace of combat is such that enemies exist in a pyramid-structure where everything is a boss of some sort: one final endgame boss with multiple stages at the apex; a handful of big bosses (one each at the end of a level); a variety of mini-bosses; a larger variety of mini-mini-bosses and then swarms of minions that could each overpower an ‘attack-spamming’ and lazy player in their own rights. Slain is a game that is harder than it looks and the first few playthroughs demand the player’s attention.

The aesthetic and level design look like Slain could have once been a Metroidvania except nothing could be further from the truth. Levels are linear and lacking in backtracking.

I like this.

Each level has a platforming/tower climb segment at the end. They are probably the weakest parts of the game because of the simplicity of the controls.

The wolf run segment was out of place yet it was a highlight for me.

The trophy hunt requires multiple playthroughs:

1: Defeating every boss without taking any damage from them at all (checkpoint restarts can be applied),

2: A playthrough without dying (save scumming can be applied),

3: A playthrough without using any mana

...as well as various other feats. That was the order in which I completed three separate playthroughs except that I also committed to a blind playthrough for my first time.

Slain sits in a sweet zone of being a game worth some personal pride for completion without being unreasonably difficult. It’s niche. You will know if it interests you or not.

Looking forward to Valfaris.

#121 (PS4) Slain: Back from Hell, 6.5/10

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Super Time Force Ultra

Trailer

This side-scroller overflows with personality. You choose from a roster of colourful characters with different combat abilities to progress through each stage. When you die (or upon your own volition), you rewind time back to any point in the stage and continue from there as any character of your choice.

You might also just rewind time upon dying throughout the level. If you do this and kill the enemy before it kills your prior character then you can merge with that character’s shadow and stack powers. This way, for example, your rocket launching character could pick up the saved body of a Jedi character, and when you fire the rocket launcher you would simultaneously throw a lightsaber.

The effect can create kind of... a bullet-hell... except you are the bullet hell, not the other way around.

Think of STFU as a lovechild of Contra, Broforce and Braid. Braid's time-scrubbing mechanic is very successfully implemented here.

In addition, the personality in this game’s level ideas, dialogue, narrative and character designs are critical to its success. The leader of the Super Time Force – Commander Repeatski – hires a team to assist him travel through time to undo the chaos brought about by the evil Dr. Infinity. Commander Repeatski and Dr. Infinity each invented time travel and it is obvious to everyone except themselves that they are the same person.

The game’s personality is like a Rick & Morty episode (sans Morty) that is made for a slightly younger audience and minus the alcohol, sex and genuine wit of that show.

Commander Repeatski’s design is genius. Not only does he have a full chest of war medals but he sports two eyepatches ?

If I'm going to hell for finding that gag funny, so be it; it’s great.

Some of my favourite character designs include:

Zachasaurus (a skateboarding T-Rex),

Squirty Harry (a hip-thrusting poo with a revolver),

Jef Leppard (complete with rocket launcher),

The character from Journey,

Shuhei Yoshida (former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment),

and of course, Shieldy Blockerson.

Squirty Harry straddling a warhead-battering ram in the medieval ages.

Shuhei Yoshida and his briefcase are off on an adventure in prehistoric times.

Although, my favourite characters to actually use were:

Dolphin Lundgren,

Da Vinci,

Aimy McKillin,

and Sir Galahad.

Dolphin Lundgren sports a jetpack as he fights off the meteor shower that killed the dinosaurs.

There’s an additional mode (the “Helladeck”) where you have to complete puzzles based on your mastery of the time-rewinding mechanic and each characters’ abilities. This is slightly too long. The 50 levels could have been cut in half to keep the mode special and avoid a grind.

My favourite part was the Super Hardcore mode which functions as a New Game+. You are tasked with re-completing the campaign except that each character is removed from your roster if they die in a stage. The requirement to think more tactically greatly improves the experience. You can save the dead characters if you play your cards right, too, which adds another layer of complexity to the mode, AND there’s “Ultra” (stronger) versions of the characters that can be used for 10 seconds once per level.

The 2.35% rarity is wayyyy too low. This is 15-25% rarity material. It took me a couple of levels for the gameplay mechanic to actually click, and considering that two levels worth of gameplay from my first half hour with the game started me off with a 'B' rank on this site, I’d posit that others had a similar issue. There’s just a tiny disconnect between the quick tutorial and the first level of gameplay that could use a bridging. Well, that and the opening is a bit dialogue heavy – and the dialogue is a little underwhelming. (The visual gags are what makes this game special). What that all boils down to is that I think there’s just a problem with STFU's first impression, that’s all.

I recommend this one and hope that there might even be a sequel one day.

#123 (PS4) Super Time Force Ultra, 8/10

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N++

Trailer

What a game this is.

Made by two people, N++ is a sequel to N+, which in turn is a sequel to a Flash game that I played in high school: N.

It is a 2D platformer.

You control a ninja. He lives on gold. He cannot attack enemies. He can only move left, right and jump, and yet, the degree of control that the ninja has with only three buttons is outstanding and the range of movement is nothing short of mesmerising.

The ninja’s movement is momentum-based, so the longer any direction is held, the faster he will move until he reaches his top speed (I recall platforming guru @Arcesius taking slight issue with this but I liked it). This allows for remarkable freedom and subtlety to the ninja’s capabilities. This is absolutely a game that beginners can approach with confidence and that experienced players will continue to learn as they come to master the range of possibilities as they push beyond even a hundred hours with the game.

Compounding this freedom is the outstandingly surgical collision detection system. Hitboxes are measured in fractions of pixels. What sort of ninja would you be if you couldn’t escape death by the breadth of a hair?

The sharp controls, sharp collision detection, sharp level design (that is always notably legible to the subconscious spacing part of your brain as well as the conscious parts that figure out a general movement plan) AND sharp technical performance lend themselves to the players’ comfortability and confidence as levels become increasingly more difficult.

The functions of the various enemies range from limiting and changing the areas of playable space for you to move through as well as applying other pressures to motivate the player to move.

It takes a combination of all of those very successfully-implemented elements to reach the following conclusion: more than any other difficult game that I’ve played, the difficulty of N++ is NEVER based on flaws in the gameplay, design or technical performance. The difficulty always comes from a lack of player practice and grit. There’s no other difficult game that I’ve played where I can say that the player’s ability to get better is the only obstacle that needs to be overcome.

The developers are extremely self-aware and honest with themselves about every detail of this game and this is thoroughly evident. Levels have incredible variety and come in a full spectrums of shapes, sizes, difficulty, linearity, complexity and completion time. I’m aware that many levels have been brutally cut due to a perfectionist standard for their work.

Each level has a time limit based on how much gold you collect. The amount of time left upon completion is your score on the global leaderboards. The distribution of gold throughout each level allows players to adjust their goals to self-modulate the difficulty on most stages at their own pace and without the need for formal difficulty variation.

N++ may be simple in the larger world of what video games can do, but in the world of 2D platformers, I challenge anyone to find me a game that is this dependable, legible and based on the creation of levels that truly test the player and motivate them to get better while upholding a discipline to variety.

The ‘++’ in the game’s title hints at the massive amount of content available to the player. There are over 2000 levels requiring completion for the platinum. There must be over 3000 levels in the game since the devs provided additional free stages in addition to the easy-to-use level editor for the community to create, upload and download additional challenges. There are also “secret levels” for the benefit of the super-nuts that live and breathe this game’s hardest challenges. The quantity of content is not at a sacrifice of quality.

Couch co-op and couch multiplayer modes are also fully fleshed out (and require sampling as part of the Platinum journey). My wife and I preferred the Race mode over the Co-op mode because her skillset is slightly lacking with this genre. Thanks again to Mrs Vice - my biggest fan - for the support.

Replays are automatically uploaded to a communal server so you can see your own successes as well as those of your rivals, friends and world record holders with minimal fuss. Some of your best fails are retained in replay form by your own console and played back to you in the background of the main menu. I think that there is a missed opportunity here: successful completion of a level would be even more satisfying if you could watch all of your fails overlaid together with your successful run in a megareplay just like Super Time Force Ultra. Maybe I should suggest this to the devs for an inevitable +++...

...That, and changing how the global rank is displayed to the player. Despite being regularly told that I was "Global Rank [within top 10]" after completing episodes, I know that I am not that good at all, and verified it by simply looking at the global replays and seeing that I wasn't even close. One of life's greatest mysteries...

You unlock colour filters over the course of the game and while incredibly simple, my son (he loved watching his dad play “ninja game” if we hit the TV as a treat) and I changed these frequently to keep the visuals fresh.

This is the standard colour scheme for N++.

The soundtrack is fairly slick. My favourite track was undoubtedly Rival Console’s I Left The Party. Every time I heard it I got super-hyped. I don’t know if it was a happy coincidence or a calculated choice by the devs but it was the first track that played during my initial boot-up and it left me with a great first impression.

I walk past this stained glass panel every day at work. I'm pretty sure that this is a level, right?

The platinum journey for N++ was quite long for me. I didn’t think that I was capable of it when I originally played it, but my boosted confidence during the 2022 Ultra Rare Cleanup Event brought it back into my crosshairs and, like completing Trackmania Turbo a few years ago, popping the plat seemed to validate a loyal fanboy inside of me that wanted to express an appreciation for these franchises that date back to my high-school days.

The EU rarity is sitting at 4.22% on PSNP while the NA rarity is somehow 1.77%. The NA percentage is a much more accurate indicator of N++’s difficulty (even though we all know that the correlations between percentage and difficulty are nebulous at best). N++ is easily one of my top 3 hardest plats.

With a completion time clocking in at 7 years and 2 months, this is my 2nd longest completion time for any game (RDR1 coming in first at 7 years 10 months), and more importantly, it makes me the slowest achiever on the PSNP leaderboard.

If waxing lyrical about the game wasn’t enough, I made a video in celebration of my success: the hardest levels in N++. It’s my first YouTube video. You might enjoy scoping out the level designs and variety or even the crisp gameplay. For me, making this video was about pride in success, a tribute to the developers, and, sometimes, for when my son wants to watch a few minutes of “ninja game” as a treat now that I’m off and running with my next challenge.

“doubleplusgood”

- George Orwell, 1984

#125 (PS4) N++, 9/10

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Thanks for those who read through this one. Hopefully there's some variety here. This is probably my last review batch before an End of Year/Game of the Year thing that I'll put up in December. It happens to almost perfectly coincide with this Checklist's first birthday, so I'll put in some effort. ?

Cheers! ?

Edited November 28, 2022 by Platinum_Vice

Shrooba · November 26, 2022

Well done mate!!!

7 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

While these games may not stack up to the achievements of others in the event

Nah man, don't even worry about this. I too am looking at others who I reckon are blowing me outta the water in comparison! ? There's always a good humbleness in knowing that even those you look up to struggle too. Believe me, I've had my fair share of raging at Wipeout! And also, you got your 10 games done faster than me! ?
I always say this, and it's something I find to be a great motivator: but on a physical level, there's nothing that separates you from a person who has done particular games. It all comes down to perseverance, and you've pulled off some great games this year! Hyper Light Drifter is a fantastic game, the game is chock full of great bosses with some pretty intricate attack patterns, and even the regular enemies too.
The UR event next year is bringing it back down to 5 games... I reckon you should give Furi a go brother, you can definitely do it! It's got a somewhat similar fighting philosophy to that of HLD... Not to mention, it's got some kickass music, unlike GRID as you said. I also loved that physics demonstration! ?
And N++ is another classic. Had some memories playing a version of that bad boy on the 360, and I remember it being a huge challenge for sure. Be proud of the games you've done this year man!

Edited November 26, 2022 by Shrooba

YaManSmevz · November 26, 2022

Well shit, looks like I gotta play n++.

First of all, a huge congrats on these beastly completions!!

I have to second Shrooba's remark, it's very easy to let the accomplishments of others dwarf your own (believe me, I feel you on that.. all my friends here, yourself included, are certified bad asses, after all), but it's important to give yourself that pat on the back when it's due. And it is, you've knocked out some serious heavy hitters, props all day?

I've seen enough trusted sources sing Superhot's praises, it's probably time I try it out?

Grip looks absolutely stunning, and frankly the lack of racing games on my profile needs to be corrected. I'll just make sure my wife hasn't eaten when I play it!

Dude the soundtrack for Slain is fuckin liiiit, I fucked with that!! It's been a maybe for me for a long time now, I guess next time it's on sale I gotta jump on that one. I actually own and am looking forward to Valfaris myself!

Really pleased to see you rate STFU so highly, and agreed pretty hard about the rarity and where it likely comes from. I'd fuck with a sequel too, truth be told!

n++ intimidates me a great deal, not gonna lie... but after that glowing write-up, I feel I've got no choice but to check it out. Making me interested in games that would be fun and satisfying, and likely cheap in a sale... you bastard.

Congrats again dude, that's a huge feat and you should be proud, especially since I remember gaming time being pretty difficult for you to come by earlier in the year. Also, in case it wasn't a given, outstanding write-up!

.....um... yeah, I think that's all! I'll see myself out.

DrBloodmoney · November 28, 2022

On 26/11/2022 at 7:55 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Indie Omnibus II

(a.k.a. that time that I bit the bullet and participated in an Ultra Rare Cleanup Event).

Damn son - this one was a beast!

I can't possibly go through in any kind of order, or do it justice, so I'm going for the freeform thought-stream of my takeaways:

Yo, I've never even heard of Grip before! Is that weird? I gotta admit - it looks liked rad!
My brain spent more time than I'd care to admit, trying to figure out why you're wrong about your breakdown of the rotational direction of the wheels.... before reaslising I was too tired, and you're 100% right ?
N++ Seems super weird... and I'm kinda into it?
It is a source of extreme shame that I have owned Slain for over a year now, and failed to play it yet!
Everything about STFU is awesome, and I'm glad you concur!
This:

On 26/11/2022 at 7:55 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

There’s an additional mode (the “Helladeck”)

made me laugh more than it should have!

Superhot IS more of a puzzle game! Also rad!
Dishonoured is in your "Generally Fun" category and not the "Super Fun" category... I await your Dishonoured series omnibus, but...

Also other things!

Okay I love you bye bye!

Platinum_Vice · December 1, 2022

On 26/11/2022 at 11:11 PM, Shrooba said:

The UR event next year is bringing it back down to 5 games... I reckon you should give Furi a go brother, you can definitely do it! It's got a somewhat similar fighting philosophy to that of HLD... Not to mention, it's got some kickass music, unlike GRID as you said. I also loved that physics demonstration

Furi is definitely on the list. I think I've already bought it actually... that soundtrack is incredible, isn't it? I listen to it all the time!!

On 26/11/2022 at 11:11 PM, Shrooba said:

And N++ is another classic. Had some memories playing a version of that bad boy on the 360, and I remember it being a huge challenge for sure.

Oh, N+? I hope you enjoyed it. I didn't have the money for it at the time but I did play N on PC about 15 years ago. They are hard games, absolutely!

On 27/11/2022 at 1:41 AM, YaManSmevz said:

I've seen enough trusted sources sing Superhot's praises, it's probably time I try it out

Grip looks absolutely stunning, and frankly the lack of racing games on my profile needs to be corrected. I'll just make sure my wife hasn't eaten when I play it!

Dude the soundtrack for Slain is fuckin liiiit, I fucked with that!! It's been a maybe for me for a long time now, I guess next time it's on sale I gotta jump on that one. I actually own and am looking forward to Valfaris myself!

n++ intimidates me a great deal, not gonna lie... but after that glowing write-up, I feel I've got no choice but to check it out.

Make sure you really know what you're getting into with Superhot and Grip (and even Slain). They are interesting enough to experience but their Platinum journeys are not particularly fulfilling.

On 27/11/2022 at 1:41 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Really pleased to see you rate STFU so highly, and agreed pretty hard about the rarity and where it likely comes from. I'd fuck with a sequel too, truth be told!

?

On 29/11/2022 at 2:25 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Grip - it looks liked rad!

It definitely does look rad. But I think that 5 hours (at most) of play time is enough, though. After that the negatives start to outweigh the positives.

On 29/11/2022 at 2:25 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

N++ Seems super weird... and I'm kinda into it?

For sure! Not for the faint-hearted but very well put together for its scope.

On 29/11/2022 at 2:25 AM, DrBloodmoney said:

Dishonoured is in your "Generally Fun" category and not the "Super Fun" category... I await your Dishonoured series omnibus

Indeed. I appreciated a lot about it... just didn't vibe. As you know I'm enjoying Prey a lot more.

Joe Dubz · December 1, 2022

Vice is out here killing it!! Get it broooooooo!!

I def want to echo both Shrooba and Smev's comments... You are crushing some absolutely challenging games out here! Regardless of if it's Crypt, N++, or whatever... It really does come down to perseverance with these extremely hard games! You should be extremely proud of yourself for knocking all those out my dude ?

Before I started in the UR challenge last year, I didn't really have a ton of difficult challenges under my belt. But something about that competition lit a fire under me and I've been pleasantly surprised at the games I finished that I thought I never could! Something about that challenge was helping to keep me motivated and accountable for following things through.

At any rate, very enjoyable read here! I am very much looking forward to following along with your future progress, as well as participating in the UR Challenge with you again next year, should you choose to do so again!

Platinum_Vice · December 14, 2022

EOY01

END OF YEAR WRAP-UP

It’s happy hour somewhere (and coffee hour somewhere else). Please feel free to get comfy! ? (This post is a even more self-indulgent then usual.)

We’re talking Thank Yous, we’re talking Resolutions, we’re talking Game of the Year Awards, we’re talking shit.......

2022.

Definitely a challenging time for me with many new ‘real world’ obstacles to overcome as well as some Returning Fan FavouritesTM. All of that aside, though, I had a great time (as per usual) during my escapes to virtual worlds, and I had a tremendously great time interacting with The Checklist Familia. This is not just an ‘end of year’ post – we're calling it an ‘end of the first year of hosting this checklist’ post, too, because we’ve been yelling at clouds for about 14 months.

A massive THANK YOU to these incredible people:

@AbandonedWolf626, @Arcesius, @Billie__227, @Copanele, @Destructor-8, @DrBloodmoney, @DrunkenEngineer, @FrediPy_, @Grotz99, @gruffiiti, @Hoagie324, @Joe Dubz, @KindaSabbath, @Paleblood, @PlutoRico, @rjkclarke, @Sendai-Horatio, @Sgznf, @Shrooba, @The_Kopite, @Together_Comic, @Troz, @visighost, @winter_bird_22, @YaManSmevz.

I have come to speak to some of you daily. Some weekly. Some have visited this thread and left one or two comments (some of those single comments are a year old and some of them were because some of you were summoned, soooo... apologies if being summoned here again for this post is unwanted), some have followed the thread in silence. Sometimes even lurkers reveal themselves on occasion.

You all make me feel warm and fuzzy so often that I regularly want to spend fleeting spare time in preparing those long-winded rambling reviews instead of actually playing a new game. I cannot express how deeply grateful I am for each and every one of you. Thank you.

... so that must mean that it is finally time for:

Vice’s Game of the Year Awards

First, the eligible games (aka the games that I played this year):

Total games played this year: 31

1.

Best trophy-hunting experience of the year

Awarded to the game whose trophies improved, accentuated and complimented the gaming experience. Trophy hunting made these games even better.

Winner: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [2019]

This is exactly how I like a trophy list. It’s a range of miscellaneous achievements to focus on while enjoying the game, such as: killing an injured enemy with the impact from a thrown smoke grenade or completing half of a level using just a sidearm.

Another trophy requires that you clear a house (SWAT-style) with having used only one bullet per enemy.

Another requires that you get kills with eight different weapons during a foot chase. You’re actually juggling different enemy weapons on the fly. The trophy makes the level even more exciting.

My favourite trophy mandated that I carry a cinderblock from the beginning to the end of the level. I guess that’s kind of a play on a soldier’s marriage to his rifle. I said to myself while completing this level: “this is my cinderblock. There are many like it, but this one is mine.”

There was a hard-mode difficulty requirement but the hard mode was a raging good time and it was probably the best way to play that game.

Runner up: Dishonored: Definitive Edition – the Dunwall Trials.

I’m not even joking about this. The universally-hated Dunwall Trials (known for their unreasonable difficulty and RNG-dependency) were my favourite part of the game and trophy hunting was the only reason why I even looked at them. The trials took the stealth, combat and traversal mechanics and separated them into challenges that put them under their own individual microscope. The player has to prove that they are masters of each of those disciplines within their own vacuums.

I thoroughly enjoyed proving my parkour skills when racing a train and when assassinating baddies in the cascading void-waterfall.

Kill rooms provided puzzles that were solved with a wide variety of kill techniques.

Discovering the mystery target at a masquerade party by pickpocketing clues from other potential targets was a major highlight.

When I finally perfected Back Alley Brawl I kept fighting to see how high of a combo I could get – and crashed the game!

They were unreasonable... but they were great.

2.

Best efforts for trophy imaging

Awarded to the developers that put their best efforts into unique trophy tiles. We are grateful that you see us!

Winner: Medal of Honor: Frontline

Runner up: Slain: Back from Hell

3.

Hardest game

Awarded to the most unyielding game of the year.

We need some nominees for this one:

Winner: N++

I was reluctant to put N++ up as the hardest game because it is fully dependant on the player’s ability to improve. But by Jebus... N++ is for the bold.

Runner up: Dishonored: Definitive Edition

Enough said.

Stupid. Stupidstupidstupidstupid.

4.

Longest grind

Awarded to the game that so unapologetically disrespected my time.

The nominees:

Winner: GRIP: Combat Racing

There must have been 40 hours of grind in Grip. The back end of the campaign, followed by the custom matches for vehicle kills and laps completed, in addition to the carkour courses and other trophies that required boosting... it was just egregious.

Runner up: Driver: San Francisco

The PSNP’s guide estimates a 20 hour completion time... and that is pure horseshit. I spent about 50-60 hours playing Driver and half of that was boosting online. The boost isn’t all bad as you can compete with other players in the online events to pass the time but there are still dozens of hours of grinding to be had here.

5.

Best level design

Awarded to the game with standout level design. This may be a complex space that acts as a canvas for various gameplay mechanics (such as the Dishonoured series), it may be a simple space with clarity or another outstanding factor in its design (such as The Witness, Portal's escape sequence, or N++), it may be a grand playground that provides exemplary freedom (such as Grand Theft Auto V’s Los Santos) and it may be a means in which multiple smaller areas are stitched together in three-dimensional space (such as Prey, the original God of War and Bloodborne). It may be an example of a technical breakthrough (such as Jak and Daxter and the first Crash Bandicoot). It may be so versatile that it works wonders regardless of whether you traverse it from A->Z or from Z->A like Halo: Combat Evolved). It may be an instant-classic multiplayer map that provides hundreds of thousands of hours of exciting gameplay across the globe.

This is an aspect of game design so intrinsic to the experience of the medium and yet its so poorly represented by way of critical acclaim.

Winner: Prey

A one-hit-wonder from Arkane Games, Prey imports two of the studio’s critically-acclaimed features from the Dishonored series: extraordinary use of three-dimensional space (when stumped, the secret to any Arkane Games’ product is: take a breath... and look up) and providing the player with opportunities to interact using any playstyle of their choosing. Important areas will also have two or three different ways to gain entry. Semi-important spaces will have two ways. Entries into other small areas using a unique and intelligent method will grant small rewards to players using a particular playstyle but lock out players with different character builds (who in turn receive their own special ability-specific areas to explore). The result is that traversal and physical progress is just as reliant upon disguised puzzles as they are reliant upon gaming skill and combat.

In addition, the “levels” in Prey (departments within a company conducting sci-fi research on a space station) are all interconnected within that space station. It forms a sort of upside-down crucifix shape which can only really be appreciated when you float outside the station and see how all of those departments actually fit together like a giant Voltron. The absence of ‘fast travel’ is welcome; you orient yourself in the game world and navigate accordingly.

Another final feather in Prey’s cap is the frequent use of false walls. Not only do you access overtly blocked-off areas by unlocking doors or dislodging debris, you also gain perspective and come to revelations that some physical things that you knew to be resolute are not as they once seemed (a la The Witness and Bloodborne).

Gaming is the only medium that can provide these types of experiences. Prey presents all of the aforementioned features of level design better than most games present each of them individually. As I re-read all of this I still can't help but feel like I'm underselling the grand genius that is Prey's intricate level design.

Runner up: N++

As described in my review of this game, the outstanding level design in N++ is a result of countless years of development by the two talented minds at Metanet Software. The multiple thousands of levels available to players display a blatant pattern of quality.

The snubbing of the Dishonored series is only attributed to my reverence for Prey and N++. On any other year, Dishonored's Lady Boyle’s Last Party, Dishonored 2’s The Clockwork Mansion, A Crack in the Slab and The Grand Palace, and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider’s The Bank Job would all rival the best levels in any other game for design, varied means to apply gameplay mechanics and use of three-dimensional space. The series loses out to my other choices due to their own overwhelmingly consistent quality.

6.

Best soundtrack

Awarded to the game with the tightest strings, the sweetest melodies, the fattest beats and the dankest drops.

This is a prestigious award. ? Here’s the shortlist of nominees!

Downstream

Main Menu theme

Vignette: Panacea

Rival Consoles - I Left The Party

Therions Rising (The Bloodgrounds) / Black Rose Bleeding (Hub World) / Duel of Fates (Old Town) / Lay Me Down to Die

Winner: Slain: Back from Hell

The quantity of great tracks is what pushed Slain over the line amongst such spectacular competition with equally-superb quality.

Runner up: Hyper Light Drifter

Oof – it was brutally hard to choose among these soundtracks!

7.

Best visual style

Awarded to a game with standout aesthetics.

Another prestigious award. The nominees:

-

Winner: Hyper Light Drifter

HLD’s post-apocalyptic world is not only strikingly realised and detailed but I find the pixel art to be subjectively gorgeous. This is a shining example of style and clarity in visual storytelling. Every frame tells a story.

Runner up: Superhot

There’s a lot of unique aesthetics in the nominees that it’s hard to narrow down a runner-up. The clarity and restraint of N++ was hard to overlook, for example, and the design and art direction of the Dishonored series took full advantage of a professional development studio.

Superhot’s minimalist aesthetic is underrated. It perfectly matches the restrained story and gameplay by presenting exactly the right amount of information to the player at all times in a style unique (and now instantly-recognisable) to the IP.

8.

Most immersive atmosphere

Awarded to the game whose atmosphere was unforgettable. It beckoned for my return from whatever real life responsibility that I was supposed to be tending to and called me to escape into another world. Combining visual style, intimate audio and high-quality writing to create alternate realities that suspend my disbelief and create immersive atmospheres will always leave an impact with me.

The nominees:

-

Winner: Hyper Light Drifter

How have you not played this game yet?

Runner up: Slain: Back from Hell

Slain is overflowing with atmosphere, this is undeniable... the only thing up for debate is whether it suits you to take a journey into the underworld or whether the game’s shortcomings are too much of an obstacle to brave.

9.

Favourite character

Awarded to the most relatable character, the one with the greatest depth, or the one whose cause evoked the most sympathy. The driving engine of any great story.

Nominees, please:

Tim - Braid

Farah Karim - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [2019]

Corvo Attano - Dishonored & Dishonored 2

The Drifter - Hyper Light Drifter

Morgan Yu - Prey

Winner: Tim – Braid

I detail Tim’s character arc in my review of this game. I think that it’s something very special even though it’s pretentious at times and the specifics of who Tim is may not be relatable. The arc of Tim’s denial through to eventually accepting his mistakes is the catalyst for the time-bending gameplay in Braid. It spoke to me.

Runner up: The Drifter – Hyper Light Drifter

The playable character of HLD is on a quest to accept his impending death. This game will not 'spell it all out for you' but it will allow you to share The Drifter’s experience if you’re willing to open your mind to the non-verbal storytelling.

10.

Most fun gameplay moment

Awarded to the game that brought me pure joy – even if it was only for a fleeting moment. It could have been a single sequence or a full gameplay mode; it could be intellectually heady or brainlessly schlocky... what aspect of gameplay brought me the purest sense of fun this year?

Nominees:

- Trophy hunt, campaign tension and mission variety

- Campaign, side content and online competitive modes

- Campaign

- Mission variety

- Opening scene

- Super Hardcore Mode

Winner: Prey

High expectations were met and then reset higher and higher during Prey’s very strong first impression. The immediate opening sequence that began in Morgan Yu’s apartment and ended with my introduction to my first mimic and the lobby of the Talos I has perfectly blended sci-fi thriller elements, mysterious storytelling and gameplay that features a large variety of ways to interact with the world. Fun comes in many shapes and forms here and I’m loving every minute of Prey.

Runner up: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

The gunplay and tension of this game’s campaign is fantastic enough. The platinum journey and a requirement to work together in online co-op bolstered the enjoyment that I had with 2019’s Modern Warfare.

11.

Proudest achievement for the year

Self-awarded for an act that fills me with pride.

[I want a couple of these little platinum trophies, so I'm taking a couple of categories, okay?]

Winner: Hosting my first PSNP Event.

The Case of the Missing Couple took a lot out of me. I spent an unreasonable amount of time on that bad boy but I’m happy with how it turned out. No dummy-spits, arguments or tears, and people seemed to have a good time. Hopefully it made enough sense and hit the right balances for difficulty, effort required and mature themes. Like this Checklist, it’s a creative work that is an extension of my personality that is sticking out – all wet, sticky and vulnerable-like – for everyone to see, and I’m glad that I didn’t get bitten.

Runner up: UR Clean Up completion

I went over this in the last post. Good times were had. Hard games were beaten. The last of my PS3 games were finally completed. Proud feelings ensued.

12.

Proudest review of the year

Self-awarded to a review in this checklist that most-appropriately represented a game that I played.

Winner: Hyper Light Drifter

I think that this is about as close to a perfect example of what I am trying to achieve with my checklist: review the best and worst of a special game, explore the themes, propose some analytical points, import the gorgeous aesthetic with personalised screenshots, describe the journey I took to collect the trophies, convince someone to buy the game, and do it all with as much brevity and personality as I can muster so that readers come back for the next review instead of falling asleep. I think my passion for this game really came through with this one.

Runner up: Series: Crash Bandicoot

I threw all sorts of weird shit into that review. That’s not unlike Crash himself. It was my fifth review and I think I started to come into my own by this one.

13.

Biggest flop

Awarded to the game that worked the hardest to undermine my desire to GET HYPED for the games of the future.

Winner: Call of Duty: Black Ops II

One of the best-selling games of all time.

The 7th most popular games on PSNP with 1.2 million owners.

One of the most highly-acclaimed first person shooters.

One of the most-loved fan favourites within the Call of Duty franchise.

And it sucks ass. Review coming soon.

Runner up: Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Described as an unmissable cult classic that is the most-frequently mentioned game in Hidden Gems threads across the gaming interwebs, Enslaved is really no better than its sales indicated.

14.

Biggest surprise

Awarded to the game that most-exceeded expectations.

Winner: MLB: The Show 22

This was the first sports game that I’ve played since 2006. The first real sports game... you know, that conveyer-belt of yearly-released, microtransaction-riddled, minimally-updated-and-overly-iterated shit that you find overflowing out of the pre-owned bins at your local game stores. Why did I get it? On a fucking whim, I tell you. I like baseball and played it growing up but haven’t had any experience with the sport for over a decade. I don’t even watch it – you can barely see it here in the land down under.

But I did get it.

And I did play it.

… and I loved it.

I spent an hour creating myself in the character-creator. It’s one thing to try to create your face in RPGs, but another where you can actually make your face properly, and then make your exact height and weight dimensions, and then recreate your childhood baseball glove, and choose whether your fingers stick out of it, and then recreate whether you wear your socks high or how your pants fit over your laces, and then find your throwing, batting and running techniques from the extensive list so that the character moves like you do too.

And then the commentator calls your first and last name when you come up to bat for a AA minor league team.

And you play as yourself at every at-bat and at your favourite positions as you dominate in AA ‘ball.

And then you rise from the lowly rookie ranks to get picked up by a AAA team.

And then you get picked up by the Majors...

I get it. I now understand why people buy this shit every year. I am playing as myself. Worth every penny.

I didn’t know that you could do this and if I did, I wouldn’t have thought that it would look so realistic with so many options to choose from, and I wouldn’t have picked that I’d get that invested. A true surprise.

This is what I look like IRL, by the way:

Runner up: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

I’ve written quite a bit about this one game today (especially the reasons why it’s surprisingly good) and I’ll probably be putting up a review in the coming month. To avoid over-beating the egg I’ll just cut this short so we can get to the worst and the best games of the year.

15.

Stinker of the year

Awarded to the smelliest game that I played this year.

Winner: Minefield

This free to play platinum-less title is Minesweeper... but worse. Its less-readable and lacking any real attempt to iterate or improve the game with quality of life changes.

16.

Game of the year

Here it is. Awarded to what I believe was the best game that I played this year (regardless of what year it was released).

Winner: Hyper Light Drifter

This probably surprises absolutely no one based on the praise with other awards as well as what I wrote during my review. It is definitely special. I believe it is more special than the other games that I played this year.

Runner up: [tie] Braid & Prey

&

Likewise, Jonathon Blow’s indie darling blew critics away in 2008 and then finally myself in 2022. It is the most focused of the three standout games for my year.

Prey is the most broad of these three special games (and it presumably benefited from a much larger dev team) and it somehow presents a proportionally greater amount of features and variety without also presenting a proportionally greater amount of failings and peccadillos. I am still discovering fantastic things about Prey as I commence a second playthrough.

Coda:

Most-anticipated game of next year

Awarded in anticipation of something special on the horizon.

Winner: Wreckreation

Goddamn this game looks FUN AS HELL! Bring it on! Get it here faster!

Runner up: God of War: Ragnarök

I am dying to explore the wonders of the newest PlayStation generation. The continued character arcs of Kratos and Atreus excite me the most.

______________________

Congratulations to the winners and thanks again to the Checklist Familia. Apologies again for the bulk tags but... you all made me feel very welcome this year and I wanted to make sure that was communicated.

One last post coming for the year – 2023 goals. I won’t bulk tag anybody in that one – fair deal?

Merry Christmas. ?

DrBloodmoney · December 14, 2022

Awesome man!

A great read - happy to see Prey representing (as I'm sure you anticipated ?!) and great seeing all the game love.

Man, this is really making me think I should dust off my Call of Duty appreciation, and check out that MW remake! ?

Love the formatting too - the images for each award, and the screenshots and everything - I know how much work that all takes, and you knocked it outta the park - it doesn't go unnoticed!

Big congrats on the Missing Couple case too - that was a totally unanticipated thing, and ended up being one of the best events on the site - if you ever do that again, I'm first in line to sign up!

Overall a great read, and a really cool isight into a great gaming year, m'dude!

Outstanding!

The_Kopite · December 14, 2022

1 hour ago, Platinum_Vice said:

First, the eligible games (aka the games that I played this year):

Where's the Final Fantasy games? Where's the Resident Evil games? Where's the Sonic games?

Where is any game that I've made a trophy guide for?!

You should be ashamed!

? lol

That was a magnificantly quality post from a quality member of the site.

Congrats to what you've achieved this year and to more in 2023!

Also, Enslaved was pretty decent but boy o boy did that game glitch on me. Any interest in the platinum went out the window with all those glitchy orbs lol

DrunkenEngineer · December 14, 2022

Congratulations on making it another year!

Agreed with what others have said - outstanding presentation and formatting on your end of year post.

I love how Hyper Light Drifter was the runaway winner this year. And doubly so, I remember us chatting and you lamenting about how miserable the Dash Eternal trophy was and to advise me to play it without trophies in mind because the list is terrible. Still shows how a quality game that is difficulty as hell can be what I call "Type 2 fun" - kind of sucks while doing it, but provides much satisfaction after complete with time to reflect.

Cheers!

realm722 · December 14, 2022

7 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

Runner up: Driver: San Francisco

The PSNP’s guide estimates a 20 hour completion time... and that is pure horseshit. I spent about 50-60 hours playing Driver and half of that was boosting online. The boost isn’t all bad as you can compete with other players in the online events to pass the time but there are still dozens of hours of grinding to be had here.

This made me crack up ???, I can't critique too much since players who even bother to put the effort into making a trophy guide are praiseworthy for that endeavor in and of itself. But it is comical when you start playing a game and going: "gee... the guy said it'd take this long but I dunno how that's feasible" and you fully realize how gross the underestimation was. I believe trophy guides should always put an estimated time that's slightly longer than normal because the only "side effect" would make someone feel better for completing the game slightly faster than anticipated! I really hope one day the game by some miracle gets remastered... I'd love to play it on modern hardware(and was an Xbox boy back in the PS3 days)

7 hours ago, Platinum_Vice said:

I get it. I now understand why people buy this shit every year. I am playing as myself. Worth every penny.

I didn’t know that you could do this and if I did, I wouldn’t have thought that it would look so realistic with so many options to choose from, and I wouldn’t have picked that I’d get that invested. A true surprise.

As a long-time sports fan (and player of sports video games), this was probably my favorite part of the entire recap. For as much bad as sports games can produce (specifically in their Ultimate Team & online cheesing modes), there's a ton of joy to be found in either playing out your career as a baller from low 50's and 60's to league MVP! I personally have always adored the role of assuming a General Manager position and slowly but surely building a paltry squad into a dynasty. Glad to hear you loved it!

Lovely review, I especially like how many visuals you included for games I was a bit more unfamiliar with. You've also given me a few ideas that I'll ~~steal~~ pluck for my own awards!

YaManSmevz · December 15, 2022

Awesome work my dude!! Great read. You kicked off Awards Ceremony season in some serious style man, this is some top notch stuff!

Not that that's anything new for you, of course! Anyway, a few notes...

- Agreed HARD on Modern Warfare's trophy list. Nothing unreasonable but with decent challenges, and more importantly, they were all really fun! I think my favorite was the single bullet per enemy one. Also gotta love a good Full Metal Jacket reference?

- Neverending Nightmares, eh? INTRIGUING. Also looks gotta play Hyper Light Drifter...

- You deserve every pat on the back you get for that missing couple event man, you absolutely killed it. I could only imagine how much work that took.

- Yeah, I'm definitely not as grabbed by Enslaved as I thought I would be. As you say, for as often as it gets referred to as underrated, I can't help thinking it was rated just fine!

- I have to agree with Realm, I am very happy to see you had such a good time with The Show! I feel you on what a blast it is to rise the ranks in those games man, it's so damn fun.

Oh, also:

Quote

17.

Best Award Image

Best looking image in a sea of spectacular looking images.

Winner:

Definitely agreed with this one too?

Edited December 15, 2022 by YaManSmevz

DrBloodmoney · December 15, 2022

Yo, was just reading through again, catching all the little things I missed the first time, and just wanted to drop some stray, rather more specific, less generic "it's all nice! nice, nice nicington! Good nicing!" thoughts!

(I promise I won't just keep monopolising your thread with a continual stream of responses, but there's a lot to catch in just one read in these!)

Best Trophy Hunting Experience

I'm honestly really gratified to see the Dunwall Trials making a showing there!

So, I did those a very long time ago, and rose-tinting might have started to bleed into it - but as much as I remember really finding them brutally difficult - I do remember genuinely thinking they were a lot of fun!

I'm not a huge "challenge for challenge sake" kind of guy, so if they were purely unfair, I reckon I'd have just dropped them and left the list incomplete - but they aren't really. They're brutally unforgiving... but not necessarily unfair. You do actually feel yourself getting better, and while you miss it more often than not, victory does always feel just one more try away at all times... and that makes for great fun in the pursuit - and real satisfaction in victory!

Not one I'd have anticipated seeing on this list, but very happy to!

Longest Grind

Man, I swear - every time you mention Grip, I see the screenshot, go "Oh, that looks so cool"... and then you say something that pushes me back away a bit ?

I don't know what it is, but there's something about the look of that game that just draws me in... I guess it's just the chunky, slightly silly, maybe a bit over-suspension -style racing I remember liking, back when I played some racers (in the days of yore!)

Best Level Design

Man - I had to do a double take, to see if you played Dishonoured 2 this year - and was genuinely fascinated when I saw you did, didn't give it best level design (Clockwork yo)... but did give it to Prey!

Can't be mad - it's a meticulously well made world on Talos 1 - and while I'll always go to bat for Clockwork Mansion as best "discrete" level - actually, the more I think about it, Prey maybe should take it, if it's an award for the whole game!

Its just so cohesive and well proportioned - the way, like you say, you can actually figure out that there are false walls, by looking at the outside proportions vs. inside, and extrapolating, or how you always have multiple ways of getting from one place to another, because you come to know the place and it's weird construction from all angles!

Favourite Character

Yo... is that Victoria Neuman from The Boys? ?

Weird!

Most Fun Gameplay Moment

I know you're really giving Prey the award for the whole thing (you are right to do so!) but it's telling to me that you used a screenshot of the apartment - that moment with the balcony glass is SUCH a special thing - genuinely caught me off guard when I played! That was the first inkling that this game was going to be capable of doing some special stuff - some "Would You Kindly's" if you will - and it pretty much never stopped doing them from that point on!

Biggest Flop

What would an awards post be, if we didn't disagree on something? ?

Man - I really dug Enslaved!

...of course, I was playing back when it released, and so the whole "post-post-post-apocalypse", "society has rebuilt in the ashes, oh look, nature has taken it back, and Ariel doesn't know what a fork is" thing wasn't already as much of a thing (Thanks ~~Obama~~ Horizon). Also, the facial animation tech was certainly an impressive thing, that has probably aged like warm milk.

I do remember the ending being as mad as a bag of hammers, and the collectibles being a pain, but still!

Biggest Surprise

This is my biggest surprise.

That you chose MLB as biggest surprise - no. Well, that's a surprise - and an interesting one - but there's a bigger surprise contained within that surprise.

The lushness and fullness of your epic beard! ?

If this is indeed an accurate facsimile of your face - I am jealous of your hirsute genes!

My beard looks like I moisturised with superglue, then rolled on a rug.?

Game of the Year

Man, I still haven't played Hyper Light Drifter (to be honest, I got a little put off it by Solar Ash) - but seeing the company it keeps here, and the games it beat out, I really do need to get it back elevated in the backlog! These screenshots really do make it seem like something special - as does all the things you have to say!

Anyways - I'll stop now - again, awesome work m'dude!

Edited December 15, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

Copanele · December 16, 2022

Congrats for a bountiful 2022 Vice! And what a great year it was, I see that most of your games were quite bangers (except maybe Enslaved, heard it has some issues)

I am pleasantly surprised to see Braid nominated so many times. A great game, probably the first "true" indie ever made? I liked it too...too bad that speedrun trophy made me tear out my hair

Also major props for Slain Back From Hell, a one of the most metal games out there

Here's to a great 2023!

gruffiiti · December 16, 2022

Looks like you had a pretty good year and as much as I am not familiar with most of these titles, (the only game we have in common from this list is Hitman Go ) there are definitely a few games I will be making sure I get to sometime. Prey looks like a roller coaster of good fun and Ive always kinda been meaning to give The Show a try. Im with doc though as my beard growing skillz are lacking too. I did manage a decent 'stache for Movember this year but the rest of the face rug just comes in looking like the latest ~~soccer~~ football design.

Hope 2023 brings another batch of great memories!

Platinum_Vice · December 18, 2022

On 14/12/2022 at 8:51 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Man, this is really making me think I should dust off my Call of Duty appreciation, and check out that MW remake!

Give it a go mate - one of the better FPS games that I've played for years. The complete product is not perfect but the campaign has enough of a disparity between what the developers wanted to say versus what the player actually experiences... but that just means that there's more room for some thoughtful analysis which I know you'll enjoy doing.

If it helps, I'll review it for either the next series or the one after that, maybe pull the trigger then?

On 14/12/2022 at 8:51 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Love the formatting too - the images for each award, and the screenshots and everything - I know how much work that all takes, and you knocked it outta the park - it doesn't go unnoticed!

Big congrats on the Missing Couple case too - that was a totally unanticipated thing, and ended up being one of the best events on the site - if you ever do that again, I'm first in line to sign up!

I know you like these things, too! Thanks for the compliments Doc. ?

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

the Dunwall Trials ... They're brutally unforgiving... but not necessarily unfair.

?

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Longest Grind

Man, I swear - every time you mention Grip, I see the screenshot, go "Oh, that looks so cool"... and then you say something that pushes me back away a bit

I don't know what it is, but there's something about the look of that game that just draws me in... I guess it's just the chunky, slightly silly, maybe a bit over-suspension -style racing I remember liking, back when I played some racers (in the days of yore!)

It IS pretty... but beauty fades soon enough. The gameplay isn't strong enough to hold it up for the length of time that it takes to finish. I know you don't mind dropping a game instead of S-ranking it... so regarding whether to recommend it to you, I'd say grab it if it's on sale for less than 10 pounds, but don't pay more than that, and don't expect more than four or five hours of fun/the 50+ hours required for a platinum.

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Best Level Design

Man - I had to do a double take, to see if you played Dishonoured 2 this year - and was genuinely fascinated when I saw you did, didn't give it best level design (Clockwork yo)... but did give it to Prey!

Yeah, D2 got snubbed!! I'm pulling the trigger on doing a Call of Duty series review and a Dishonored series review as the next two up to bat. I was going to save Dishonored to go in one mega batch with Prey and Deathloop but they can now wait for an Arkane Games Part 2.

... Prey and I had an instant chemistry but Dishonored and I can't seem to make it work. ?

... You might have to sit down for the Dishonored review, by the way.

And I am genuinely dreading your reaction to a Life is Strange review so I keep pushing it back. If I mentally prepare you now then the pain might not be so bad later.

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Favourite Character

Yo... is that Victoria Neuman from The Boys?

Weird!

Yes! I have to see that show... I'm one of the only people that hasn't seen it yet!

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Prey the award for the whole thing (you are right to do so!) but it's telling to me that you used a screenshot of the apartment - that moment with the balcony glass is SUCH a special thing - genuinely caught me off guard when I played! That was the first inkling that this game was going to be capable of doing some special stuff - some "Would You Kindly's" if you will - and it pretty much never stopped doing them from that point on!

Yes, yes and yes. This game has been the best recommendation that you've given me so far. Thank you!

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Biggest Flop

What would an awards post be, if we didn't disagree on something?

Man - I really dug Enslaved!

...of course, I was playing back when it released, and so the whole "post-post-post-apocalypse", "society has rebuilt in the ashes, oh look, nature has taken it back, and Ariel doesn't know what a fork is" thing wasn't already as much of a thing (Thanks ~~Obama~~ Horizon). Also, the facial animation tech was certainly an impressive thing, that has probably aged like warm milk.

I do remember the ending being as mad as a bag of hammers, and the collectibles being a pain, but still!

Yeah this one's getting absolutely slated when it comes time to review it.

The technical performance was heinous (worst performing PS3 game for me - easily!) and the collectible process was laughably bad.

I remember the first time that I picked up a mask and had a flashback - "is that Andy Serkis?" ... nah, can't be.

Second mask: "nah that's Andy Serkis! ....... ohhhh Monkey actually does look like him, that's why he looks so familiar!"

Then I picked up on the motion capture which is pretty sweet. Monkey and Trip's facial expressions still hold up in 2022, by the way! It's just a shame that Trip has constant 'vulnerable face.'

The ending sucked.

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

The lushness and fullness of your epic beard!

It's beautiful. It's called 'The Tickler.'

On 15/12/2022 at 9:22 PM, DrBloodmoney said:

Game of the Year

Man, I still haven't played Hyper Light Drifter (to be honest, I got a little put off it by Solar Ash) - but seeing the company it keeps here, and the games it beat out, I really do need to get it back elevated in the backlog! These screenshots really do make it seem like something special - as does all the things you have to say!

When I play Solar Ash I might be able to give you a more accurate comparison. I know Arcesius enjoyed Solar Ash but not as much as HLD, maybe that corroborates my opinion?

On 14/12/2022 at 9:14 PM, The_Kopite said:

Where's the Final Fantasy games? Where's the Resident Evil games? Where's the Sonic games?

Where is any game that I've made a trophy guide for?!

You should be ashamed!

lol

That was a magnificantly quality post from a quality member of the site.

Congrats to what you've achieved this year and to more in 2023!

Also, Enslaved was pretty decent but boy o boy did that game glitch on me. Any interest in the platinum went out the window with all those glitchy orbs lol

Hah! What if I told you that I recently bought the remake copy of the first Resident Evil and am looking forward to enjoying it?

Thank you ??

On 15/12/2022 at 2:36 AM, DrunkenEngineer said:

I love how Hyper Light Drifter was the runaway winner this year. And doubly so, I remember us chatting and you lamenting about how miserable the Dash Eternal trophy was and to advise me to play it without trophies in mind because the list is terrible. Still shows how a quality game that is difficulty as hell can be what I call "Type 2 fun" - kind of sucks while doing it, but provides much satisfaction after complete with time to reflect.

Actually, this makes me realise that I didn't give out an award for shittest trophy list. It would undoubtedly go to HLD.

On 15/12/2022 at 2:36 AM, DrunkenEngineer said:

Agreed with what others have said - outstanding presentation and formatting on your end of year post.

❤️❤️

On 15/12/2022 at 3:02 AM, realm722 said:

This made me crack up , I can't critique too much since players who even bother to put the effort into making a trophy guide are praiseworthy for that endeavor in and of itself. But it is comical when you start playing a game and going: "gee... the guy said it'd take this long but I dunno how that's feasible" and you fully realize how gross the underestimation was. I believe trophy guides should always put an estimated time that's slightly longer than normal because the only "side effect" would make someone feel better for completing the game slightly faster than anticipated! I really hope one day the game by some miracle gets remastered... I'd love to play it on modern hardware(and was an Xbox boy back in the PS3 days)

I agree with all of this. Guides should be accurate but if there's variation (and that can't be reflected (like with PSNP's guide software requiring a solid number)) then give the maximum time! No one thinks 'oof the author must have been a beast at this game,' they think 'I've been bamboozled!'

I'd play it again!

On 15/12/2022 at 3:02 AM, realm722 said:

As a long-time sports fan (and player of sports video games), this was probably my favorite part of the entire recap. For as much bad as sports games can produce (specifically in their Ultimate Team & online cheesing modes), there's a ton of joy to be found in either playing out your career as a baller from low 50's and 60's to league MVP! I personally have always adored the role of assuming a General Manager position and slowly but surely building a paltry squad into a dynasty. Glad to hear you loved it!

Lovely review, I especially like how many visuals you included for games I was a bit more unfamiliar with. You've also given me a few ideas that I'll ~~steal~~ pluck for my own awards!

Yeah I know you and Smevz enjoy some ball now and then! I should check out the other modes. To be honest they are quite intimidating as there's very little in the way of genuine tutorials and I know almost nothing about modern baseball (re management and management personalities, how the trades and drafts work etc) to be relying on.

Thanks for stopping by. ❤️

On 15/12/2022 at 9:09 AM, YaManSmevz said:

- Agreed HARD on Modern Warfare's trophy list. Nothing unreasonable but with decent challenges, and more importantly, they were all really fun! I think my favorite was the single bullet per enemy one. Also gotta love a good Full Metal Jacket reference

- You deserve every pat on the back you get for that missing couple event man, you absolutely killed it. I could only imagine how much work that took.

- I have to agree with Realm, I am very happy to see you had such a good time with The Show! I feel you on what a blast it is to rise the ranks in those games man, it's so damn fun.

???

On 15/12/2022 at 9:09 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Neverending Nightmares, eh? INTRIGUING.

Woah! Pump the brakes on that one, turbo!

On 15/12/2022 at 9:09 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Yeah, I'm definitely not as grabbed by Enslaved as I thought I would be. As you say, for as often as it gets referred to as underrated, I can't help thinking it was rated just fine!

??

On 15/12/2022 at 9:09 AM, YaManSmevz said:

Oh, also:

Definitely agreed with this one too

Ahhh, I see what you did there!

Thanks homie ?

On 16/12/2022 at 11:51 PM, Copanele said:

I am pleasantly surprised to see Braid nominated so many times. A great game, probably the first "true" indie ever made? I liked it too...too bad that speedrun trophy made me tear out my hair

Yeah it was great, huh?! That speedrun trophy was nuts. I recognised too late that it's on theme. Tim is rewinding time to chase an unattainable perfection... exactly what the player is doing with that speedrun trophy.

On 16/12/2022 at 11:51 PM, Copanele said:

Also major props for Slain Back From Hell, a one of the most metal games out there

??? Thank you!

On 17/12/2022 at 0:52 AM, gruffiiti said:

Looks like you had a pretty good year and as much as I am not familiar with most of these titles, (the only game we have in common from this list is Hitman Go ) there are definitely a few games I will be making sure I get to sometime. Prey looks like a roller coaster of good fun and Ive always kinda been meaning to give The Show a try. Im with doc though as my beard growing skillz are lacking too. I did manage a decent 'stache for Movember this year but the rest of the face rug just comes in looking like the latest ~~soccer~~ football design.

Hope 2023 brings another batch of great memories!

Woah, you're missing out!! So many good games this year that I heartily recommend! Thanks for the love! ??

Thanks all!! ✌️

DrBloodmoney · December 18, 2022

7 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

You might have to sit down for the Dishonored review, by the way.

7 minutes ago, Platinum_Vice said:

And I am genuinely dreading your reaction to a Life is Strange review so I keep pushing it back. If I mentally prepare you now then the pain might not be so bad later.

hang on…

?

Nah, you’ll get a pass on any Dishonoured blasphemy- after all, whether I agree on not - you’ve got the full weight of Arkane knowledge to draw on… whether you use it for good or evil, it is still well-founded!

Life is Strange I can handle - lord knows, I’ve read some fire thrown that game’s way… and some of it I can even agree with… but it can’t dull my own personal love for that franchise!

Some media just speaks to you on a level that can transcend some objectively ropey elements!

The_Kopite · December 19, 2022

On 12/18/2022 at 8:12 AM, Platinum_Vice said:

Hah! What if I told you that I recently bought the remake copy of the first Resident Evil and am looking forward to enjoying it?

Thank you

I'd say..........

...............

............

Welcome to the RE Family! ???

(You'd better enjoy it though! Otherwise I'll send some Zombie Dogs after you! hahahah I jest, I jest!)

(Promise....)

DrBloodmoney · December 19, 2022

Just now, The_Kopite said:

Welcome to the RE Family!

We're all one happy, itchy, tasty family ?

Skill Issue

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