Popular Post snakebit10 Posted November 21, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2021 #372 I had been interested in Pumpkin Jack for a while and bought the PS4 version only to find out it was coming to PS5 also. I really enjoyed my time with it. It reminded a lot of games like SLy, Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter. The platforming and combat was so smooth. Throw in a bit of humor and some interesting characters to go along and it was well worth playing. It is a little on the short side. Only difficult parts I had was a maze in the woods and the last boss took me quite a few tries. It caught be by surprise because none of the other bosses were difficult to beat. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequal at some time. 2/10 difficulty 9/10 fun 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post demonoutcast Posted November 21, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2021 (edited) #108 - F.E.A.R. 3 Talk about a blast from the past. Had alot of fun with this one back in the day with a high school buddy of mine; Dying repeatedly on the bridge level while listening to Alma's scream was the funniest shit ever. I distinctly remember his uncle cracking jokes everytime we heard it It was cool rekindling with them this year. When I rang up the same friend this month, he agreed to help me with the platinum. At his house, while we were working on Contractions, my objective was to get the 30 crates out of the way. We butchered the beginning games on the first few maps, but after awhile when none of our strategies were working; And by working I mean running around mindlessly trying to cover one another haha. We ended up tackling it on Mechanized Invasion (And whoever put the Portable Mech in there, God Bless you! ) My friend jump in the Mech, obliterated everything in site, covering me up until wave 10 (At this point I lost count of numbered crates), He went to go answer the phone for 30 mins, came back, finished off the wave and Boom I got the crates trophy! For the next hour, I was still a little shaken up to get that out of the way with his help, no way in hell was I doing that by myself lol. We ended up ordering pizza out of celebration, and kicked it the rest of the evening. The next morning, I went after the 20 waves by myself. Failed it repeatedly for a few hours dying over again to Alma ? until I got to the final wave where it all of sudden glitched on me. Turns out one of the phase commanders glitched into a building where he wasn't able to be killed. I tried artillery barraging the wall with the mech (No luck), Lobbing grenades through the window (No go), and Slide kicking the wall in panic hopping he hits back. At this point, I pretty much thought if guns can't hurt him, maybe energy weapons will! I retreated back to the nearest armory, grabbed a laser rifle and started spraying sides of the building. On the right side of the building, turns out there was a hitbox and I was able to hurt him through the window! I finished him off with the remaining ammo, but the wave wasn't over. The game spawned more phase commanders and flying monkeys. I retreated back away with the mech, came back and finished them off. Boom, Contractions complete! For the rest of the journey. I tackled the remaining co-op challenges (thanks to zgz93), cleaned up some miscellaneous trophies, and began my INSANE difficulty speedrun to platinum. INSANE wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be since point man's slo mo ability is OP as hell. Just a few annoying tough sections that gave me a hard time (Interval 5 mech boss fight, and Interval 7 shutter switch segment). Overall aside, everything else is pretty much a cake walk! (More easier with co-op). Was fun revisiting this one again. Since I missed out on FEAR 2's platinum, I'm proud to have this one shining in my cabinet Fingers crossed they reboot this franchise back ? Difficulty: 7/10 Time: 3 years (30+ hours estimate) Enjoyment: 8/10 Edited November 22, 2021 by demonoutcast 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post StraightVege Posted November 21, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2021 (edited) A Foregone Conclusion #280 - Foregone Not half bad for developer Big Blue Bubble's first project. Like Sundered, Foregone is one of those games which made a tepid first impression on me, but was ultimately a decent action-platformer, when afforded some time to get off the ground. Its reputation generally seems to be that of a mediocre Dead Cells clone, a sentiment I initially concurred with, which was unfair, because the game actually has a number of good things going for it. Fighting is fluid, swift, and precise, featuring a nice variety of melee weapons, firearms, and abilities—they all perform differently enough to be interesting and worth trying. The RPG elements offer plenty of options to customize a character ideal for your playstyle, whether you're offense-minded like myself, or desire to be an unkillable tank. Vibrantly colorful environments, accompanied by a driving dynamic soundtrack, which grows more intense during battles (I particularly enjoyed the Woods themes [1] [2]), make exploration very appealing. However, I'd say advertising the game as "pixel art" isn't accurate, considering these are clearly 3D models with a pixelated filter over them. Hopefully, it wasn't deliberate dishonesty. Become Rowan, a lethal supersoldier enhanced via biotechnology by the advanced, militaristic state of Calagan, as part of the Arbiter Project. It was their last ditch effort to win a destructive war against a rival power, but at what cost? While they may have defeated their opposition, it simultaneously created a steadily creeping corruption or plague in the process (called The Harrow), which mutates bodies and resurrects the dead, leading to Calagan's ruination. Who'd have thunk that performing questionable experimentation on people against their will could have drawbacks? Rowan is both the first and last remaining Arbiter, so it falls to her to hunt down and eliminate Calagan's failed experiments, cutting off The Harrow's source. Foregone has strong opinions about overmilitarization, mindless patriotism, and the ethics of biotech, but the narrative never really coalesces into anything terribly compelling; it kinda just exists to provide you with justification for marching forward and slaying those bosses. Rowan's pithy quips during gameplay aren't quite congruent with the otherwise serious tone of the game, either. There are several darkly interesting, albeit somewhat predictable twists along the way, at least, although the ending was rather abrupt and unsatisfying. Areas are mostly linear, focused on finding switches to open the path onward, all the while cleaving through groups of enemies, and maneuvering past traps. Teleportation gates strewn throughout the world function both as checkpoints, and a means of returning to the hub, where NPCs allow you to upgrade or sell gear, use experience orbs to improve Rowan, and access optional challenge missions you've unlocked. These missions let you visit a special blacksmith, who can alter the modifiers on your weapons and armor, so they're worth doing. I always dreaded revisiting town a bit, unfortunately, due to the excruciatingly slow load times. Although repetitive, Foregone's gameplay loop never entirely ceases to be fun, thanks largely to the satisfying combat. Jumping towards an enemy with a midair shotgun blast, sliding under their attack, and finishing them off with a blade combo to the back makes you feel like a badass whirlwind of death. It helps that the First Arbiter's arsenal is fairly expansive, too. Melee weapons, such as spears, falchions, and "gunchucks" feature unique movesets, with their own pros and cons. Similarly, guns from pistols to burst rifles are better suited to some situations than others. An auto-targeting system does its best to aim them, but fails more often than I would have liked. Ammo is limited, and must be refilled by successfully striking enemies in melee, thus one can't simply sit back and snipe everything from safety. Two rechargeable active abilities are equipable as well, like the healing Restoration, which can be specced to poison nearby creatures, and the offensive Surge dash that extends jump distance, while damaging anything standing in Rowan's way. She also has a passive skill tree, with multiple branches that offer contrasting bonuses. Decisions have to be made, since you can only maximize one branch of each path. Thankfully, this isn't punishing at all, because gold can be spent to refund skill nodes at any time. You're never locked into one build for long, and can experiment freely, which I happily did. Eventually, the setup I settled on had high critical chance/damage, the Barrier ability (specced for the Aftershock AoE) to nullify hits, and a scythe/shotgun combo as my weapons of choice. Pretty effective! As the genre goes, Foregone was on the easier side. I rarely required more than 1-2 attempts at a boss, and never had to employ the services of the grim reaper-looking fellow to recover lost resources. Yes, like so many titles now with Soulslike elements, you drop your EXP and gold upon dying, but it was never a concern, and may as well not be in the game. It's honestly hard NOT to become overpowered, regardless of build selection. Sadly, there isn't enough content in the game to justify upgrading every ability fully, which is necessary for a trophy. By the end of NG+, I wasn't even close to finishing them. This necessitates a dreary grind that results in Foregone slightly overstaying its welcome for completionists. I found repeating mission 8 to be the most efficient method of farming, but it was nevertheless a monotonous conclusion to a mostly enjoyable experience. Dumping EXP into stuff I'll never use felt utterly pointless. Perhaps nothing here will set the 2D action world on fire, but Foregone is still a solid pickup for enthusiasts of jumping 'n' slashing, a group to which I am an obsessive member. It was a competent diversion to pass some time until Wounds of Eventide releases for Blasphemous. Don't hesitate to give it a try, especially at a discount. Edited November 21, 2021 by ScarecrowsFate 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted November 21, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2021 #571 - Evil Inside If this was an original idea, it would've been pretty good. Since it's basically a worse version of the PT demo though, and way overpriced for a 30 minute experience, it's only decent. Enjoyment: 6 Difficulty:1.5 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post breakdance1989 Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 PLATINUM #110 - Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Odd-Shokupan Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Luckman Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 #450 - Call of Duty: Vanguard (PS4) Difficulty: 5/10 Enjoyment 6.5/10 The best thing about this game is the campaign. I play on Veteran difficulty on my first playthrough while doing all the trophies at the same time and it was hell. I manage to get all of them except for "Behind You" and "Duck and Dive" Trophies. Those trophies are impossible on Veterans so I decided to save them for Recruit Mode. When I was going for the Behind You trophy when I Takedown one of the troops my characters could not move and at the same time a checkpoint has reached. Therefore, Every time I restart to checkpoint my character doesn't move and I have no choice to restart the mission and I didn't back up my save and I should have. Other than that the Cinematic was amazing. For Multiplayer, I was getting 80-90 kills on Shipment and over 100 kills on one of the games while activating the double XP tokens and the gun I was using was MP-40. It bumped up my level so fast. For Zombies, I was very disappointed, I was playing zombies for a long time and this gotta be worse. I hope this gets fixed in the future. Overall If I rated these modes as of now, I give Campaign the best one and Zombies the worst. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Parker Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 Art of Rally #18 Platinum Get Every Trophy What a fantastic game. It has an incredible art style, very enjoyable physics, and a great selection of cars and stages. You can tell the developer has a passion for the history of Rally, I'd love to see him tackle a Formula One game in this style. Parker 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post snakebit10 Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 #373 November 22, 2021 I originally played it on PS3 in 2012. I remember not thinking it was as good as many said it was. Why did I play it again? Two reasons, one was to give it another chance. Second is to refresh my memory because I have the whole trilogy now. I did enjoy it a little more this time as I must of payed more attention to the story and tried to understand what is going on. Maybe it is because I will be playing the other 2 games now. I wish I could say I didn't have any issues playing it. So, I played on performance mode on my PS5. Every checkpoint had stuttering/frame rate drops. Towards the end of the game it seemed to get worse with frame drops and had 4 total crashes and 3 of them were doing the final boss fight. 4/10 difficulty 7/10 fun 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lightsp33d1987 Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post rjkclarke Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 (edited) Platinum #338 Afterparty (PS4) Thanks For Not Reading A Book Instead Get all trophies. In much the same way it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to define Oxenfree – that could also be said of Afterparty – so with that in mind, I don’t think I’m even going to try. Much like with Oxenfree, describing this game as an experience seems to be the most appropriate approach – so let us go with that. Something I think is important to disclose before really diving into this review is how much I do actually like the game. I’m going to be quite critical of a few points going forward however, but I don’t want anyone to lose sight of the fact I very much enjoyed this; it just has a fair few pitfalls that I can’t quite ignore. Pitfalls which at times might metaphorically at least make this game look like a hallway from an early PS1 Tomb Raider title. Despite those shortcomings I still think this game is very much worth people’s time, but it might require a specific approach to really get the most enjoyment from it, but I’ll go into that further in. Released in 2019 and created by the developers that brought you Oxenfree, Night School Studio – Afterparty takes a lot of elements found within Oxenfree but uses them to tell a wholly different, yet similarly interesting story. The basic premise is this. You take control of two characters, Milo and Lola as you traverse hell with the intention of beating Satan in a drinking contest to win your freedom. That’s a basic description I know – but the story and themes on offer here are excellent, and contain some really introspective and thought provoking content that is rarely covered in video game form. I don’t want to get too much into the specifics and spoil any elements for anyone, so I’ll leave it at that, the most I’ll do is cover some character details later on. On a visual level Afterparty is spectacular – it’s a truly impressive sight to see how interesting the art-design elements actually are. Afterparty contains one of the most interesting depictions of Hell that I’ve ever seen across a lot of different forms of media. Every location is unique and interesting for different reasons; the striking neon colours and crimson everywhere are such an interesting aesthetic. Almost every character design feels satisfyingly unique too – Milo and Lola don’t exactly have too many discernable features – but they look distinctive and memorable, because of how they were designed –it’s also an element that feels true to their characters. Whilst practically all of the dialogue across the board is excellent in Afterparty – the actual sound itself isn’t. The sound effects and things of that nature are fine, don’t get me wrong. I fully expect this to just be an issue for me – but the sound mixing in parts of this game are pretty abysmal – some of the sections where you’re riding with Sam for example contain background music so loud that anything the characters are saying ends up being drowned out completely, to the point where you almost have to play with subtitles on. This doesn’t happen too much but I found it very jarring on occasion, alongside that – there’s just a lack of ambient sound very often. There were a few noticeable sections where there’s just no discernable ambient music or anything – you just run from place to place in pure silence. This was a huge contrast to Oxenfree – where at least one character was always puncturing the silence with some speech. Both games deal with death, yet deal with them in entirely different ways. Much like with Oxenfree there is a pretty limited amount on offer as far as gameplay is concerned. So I’ll mention it now – there’s at least a few added areas of note with Afterparty, even if those new additions do come in the form of mini-games. Which take the form of drinking games, that I’m sure many of us are fairly familiar with. Whilst these are quite short, and few and far between, you do end up feeling more in control than perhaps you did in Oxenfree – where at least in my case here I’d argue you felt like a passenger along for the ride, instead of the person piloting the ship/car. As alcohol consumption is one of the driving forces of the narrative – the drinks on offer themselves end up giving the player extra dialogue options depending on what they’re drinking – conceptually this is brilliant, as is its execution to be perfectly honest. These are for the most part entirely optional aspects of the game – but some of the drinks range from hilarious to just downright unusual. There’s plenty of great examples – but one or two that particularly made me chuckle was the drink that gave you the ability to respond to everything with Vaudevillian style humour, or another that meant you delivered all your lines like a pirate. Something which honestly reminded me of some of Elaines dialogue from Tales of Monkey Island where she’s got the Pox of LeChuck and she’s just wandering around, and every drink she sees proclaims “ARRRRGH LIBATIONS.” The unfortunate side effect is that they take away one extra potential dialogue choice. Which leads me onto this. The dialogue choices from Oxenfree return here – and with the drinks available those take up a third option of dialogue. As funny as they can be – they actually unfortunately highlight one of the games issues, which is the lack of meaningful choice that comes along with that dialogue. I really don’t feel as if they quite wrote enough material for this game to really cover everything – at least not in the same organic way that it was done in Oxenfree. In Oxenfree you could say three different things, or say nothing at all and pretty much get a different response each time. For me this added a huge element of replayability to the experience – as it essentially means any number of different replies and responses could lead to learning something you hadn’t learnt yet about the story. Whereas in Afterparty choosing either response will net you the same response regardless, this is a shame really. As you have to do at least two playthroughs for the platinum I decided to pretty much make all the opposite decisions when I played through it the second time – and unfortunately every response was pretty much the same apart from a few exceptions. So in essence my choices and my responses felt a little less meaningful as a result of this – it might not be an issue for some, but I thought it was an unfortunate side effect of there being a very specific story that Night School Studios wanted to tell – and I don’t think they wanted to compromise by giving you as much freedom of choice, as they perhaps should have done. The dialogue itself is excellently written – arguably even better than in Oxenfree to be fair. Both Milo and Lola the two main characters very much feel like believably real people. This is unusual because most of the time – be it in film, television, video games or any other type of storytelling media, a lot of dialogue has the tendency to slip into being very thinly veiled exposition dumps. This is not the case here; there exists a palpable, real chemistry between the two characters. If you’ve played Oxenfree but not this – it’s a similar dynamic to that of Alex and Ren, just in much more detail. In Afterparty there’s a real believability to the fact the two characters have been friends for years – most long time friends do tend to talk like that, with just vague references and in-jokes to things that only the two of them understand – it was a really well done element of the game, that I think really added an extra layer of depth to the two characters. I personally preferred Lola as a character – by a whole lot too, I think she’s better developed and she’s far more interesting. It isn’t to say that Milo is boring, because he isn’t; I just think Lola’s personality ends up drowning him out a bit in a few sections. Both are voiced very well, with only a few areas where I had to pause for a moment and think “Really that’s the take they went with?” Many of the characters that you meet during your time with Afterparty end up being some of the aspects that really elevate it – especially on a subtextual level. Characters like Sam (voiced by Ashley Burch of Life is Strange and Horizon fame,) Apollyon and Satan himself end up driving the narrative forward and I ended up becoming just as interested in them as I did any of the main characters themselves. I also thought the fact that Sam was a psychopomp (a soul guide) that they reconceptualised into being a cab driver, instead of the usual ferryman that you’d usually come to expect from representations of Hell was an inspired idea. Herein lies part of the problem – its story. The easy thing is to say that the story is excellent, because it is. It’s intelligent, it’s funny, it’s thought provoking, and it does make you invested in the outcome. Where’s the problem I hear you ask? It honestly doesn’t have much replay value – unlike Oxenfree for the most part this is very much a one and done kind of experience – and I think that was the intention all along from Night School Studios, that’s how it felt at least. It does have multiple endings, and the one you probably think is the true ending, the one you get pushed towards isn’t actually the most satisfying one. There are options on how to complete your tasks and make your way through the game – but as I alluded to earlier the dialogue practically doesn’t change regardless of what you do, so the small branching paths that are open to you end up only offering you about an hour and half of fresh gameplay on a second playthrough. I think I can just about accept that though – the story Night School Studio wanted to tell was an important one – and one that doesn’t get told often if at all in video game form. Which is accountability – I guess this is a mild spoiler, but Satan has some – I’ll just say addiction issues, which are handled in a pretty sensitive way by Night School Studio to be perfectly honest. I found that in some aspects Satan in this game reminded me of modern day Bam Margera of Jackass fame. In so far as he always surrounds himself with enablers, with a select few around him who seem to want to get him the help he needs. There was a time when he would literally pay people thousands of dollars for people to come and party with him. In much the same way Satan in this game wants to appear to be the life and soul of the party. The clever thing Night School Studios does is it plays with your own personal sense of morality and guilt – in much the same way This War of Mine does (player control) – you directly become one of Satans enablers in essence, so it becomes an element of player choice on how that really makes you feel, and how you’d personally react to the situation. There’s plenty more I could go into – but I won’t just to keep this as low on spoilers as possible, but I think the overarching narrative of Afterparty is its strongest feature. The route to the platinum in Afterparty is a fairly straightforward one – you need to play through the game a minimum of two times, making different choices each time, see all the endings, as well as perform a few mini-game related, and repetitive tasks. I think I probably struggled the most with playing a perfect round of beer pong. The aiming mechanics are fairly imprecise, so that one took quite a few attempts, other than that, everything is fairly simple. My main piece of advice is to leave a bit of a gap between your first and second playthrough – I know I keep using the Oxenfree comparison, but Oxenfree remained fresh throughout all three of my playthroughs of it. Whereas on my second time through in Afterparty I was finding myself pretty disengaged from certain sections because I’d just come to accept they were going to play out exactly the same way – so I think letting a little bit of time lapse between playthroughs would really help keep the game fresh in that department. If you enjoy narrative focused video games then this would absolutely be up your street. It’s also worth looking into if you’re a fan of Oxenfree – I understand that I was probably overcritical of a few areas of the game. However, I do think this is an experience worth having and an excellent story to boot – I just feel as if they didn’t quite find the right balance between telling a good story, and also making you feel like you are in control of it, it just doesn’t quite feel as interactive as Oxenfree did. That might not be an issue for some people though, so it’s definitely something to be aware of – that just because I felt like that, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will. I have no idea how this plays on a PS4Pro or a PS5, but those might better choices for this game – as I had quite a few stuttering and framerate issues with this game on my regular PS4 so I don’t know if those are alleviated a bit by superior hardware, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Edited November 23, 2021 by rjkclarke 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post InsomniWrench Posted November 22, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2021 (edited) Detroit: Become Human "Detroit Master" When this game fist came out I was really tempted to get it but never did, got it with PS plus last year and I really loved it. Beyond: Two Souls is from the same developer and that's one of my favourite games so I shouldn't be too surprised I liked it so much. Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One "4 Play" My favourite game franchise and a funny trophy name but a trek of a platinum and my least favourite game in the series. I appreciate Insomniac experimenting with the franchise but this one didn't work for me. It's not a very difficult platinum, just not very enjoyable. Probably way more fun if you play it with others like it was intended. #66 - Everspace "Among the Stars" Got this game on a sale and it's such a gem. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. Reminded me a bit of the space battles from some of the Ratchet & Clank games except that's the whole game. It has a story and side quests but it's the gameplay that makes it. I'd definitely recommend checking it out, I was delighted to hear it's getting a sequel. Edited November 22, 2021 by InsomniWrench 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deluziion90 Posted November 22, 2021 Share Posted November 22, 2021 #459 - Aragami 2 LegendUnlock all achievements Difficulty: 3/10 Fun: 4/10 Total time: ~18hrs #2 Fastest platinum leaderboards 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valzentia Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 (edited) #40 - Saints Row IV (PS3) Difficulty: 3/10 Fun: 9/10 Having platinumed Re-Elected, going back and doing the PS3 stack of Saints Row IV ended up being a hell of a lot easier. It's not my favorite of the Saints Row franchise (that honor will forever be held by Saints Row 2) but it's a great game in its own right. The superpower mechanics especially are fun as hell. Edited November 23, 2021 by Valzentia 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rias Gremory Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 (edited) Platinum #600 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Vanilla) Milestone 600th Rare: 11.19% Difficulty: 3/10. Enjoyment: 10/10. Challenge: 9/10. Music: 9/10. Story Mode: 10/10. Favorite Radio Station: V Rock, Flash FM and Wildstyle. Genre: Action, Adventure, Shooter, Racing, Arcade, Comedy, Open World and Death. Grind Difficulty: 9/10. Platinum Time: 2 months and 3 weeks. It's been a very interesting experience going back to the old classic 80's modern Open World game here in Vice City (Vanilla). There was quite the amass large handful I've dealt with in Vice City. It always brings the old richness, nostalgic memories and alot to go on for. The story was very good and I've enjoyed every single battling out the game completely. I've cause over more than $100 Billion dollars in property damages and the whole thing was quite fruitless really. Godfather Trophy/100% Completion/Collectibles: The Godfather Trophy was really painful and I had to go 12,000 times to get the Godfather Trophy. I was pounding pounding pounding and pounding down on the cheat code blowing shit up until I got my Godfather criminal rank at 1,000,000 and I got it! The collectibles did indeed took a huge amount of time and manage to got all 100 hidden packages easily lol. Got my 100% completion trophy done and fucking done and I am extremely happy for this moment. I chose to do the Hyman Condo Method and it was the most painful way and I did it anyway nonetheless I was out of action again for 8 weeks give or take to that margin line. My PS4 Pro's HDD went defective badly that I had to upgrade to a Samsung 1TB QVO SSD and it prove to be very useful on fast loading times and highly recommended to that. Got this Zebra Cab and Trophy Included! Spoiler Platinum Trophy at Hyman Condo! Spoiler Overall I am very satisfied with all the hard work I've done and now I can do my next 650th platinum milestone. Highly recommend for this game. Next Platinum: ??? Edited November 23, 2021 by Yuzuru Yamai 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Jermster_91 Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 #79 Bugsnax #80 Call of Duty: Vanguard 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 (edited) 479 ? 613 Afterparty After the success of their freshman effort - supernatural coming-of-age indie Oxenfree - Night School Studio followed it up with a new game - supernatural coming-of-age indie Afterparty. Same thing again then? Well... yes and no. Partly yes. Mostly no. Where Oxenfree certainly cemented Night School Studio's strengths - strong writing, sharp dialogue, inter-party dynamics and choice-based dialogue as focus with overarching narrative as texture, and a strong visual style - and those strengths are all certainly still on show in Afterparty, Afterparty is very much its own beast. While Oxenfree aimed often for witty and sardonic notes in its interpersonal dialogue, that tone was very much an additive element to a generally straight-laced and 'serious' sci-fi narrative. Afterparty, on the other hand, while also doing witty and sardonic, is broad comedy. Long-term friends and recent graduates, the unsure, misanthropic, self-deprecating Milo and the dead-pan, dyspeptic, self-effacing Lola, find themselves in Hell. How they died, they aren't quite sure, but as they wander around, looking for where they are meant to go, and get quickly swept up in the bureaucracy of personal demon assignment and torture selection, their sarcastic, cynical view on the world remain unchanged from life. Finding that Hell is not quite the place they imagined - people are tortured by demons by day, but free to drink and party with them by night, they discover they arrived at the perfect time - clocking out. Left without a torture assignment due to it being the end of the working day, they meet up with Sam - a Psychopomp cabbie - who gives them the lay of the land, and quickly lets them in on the rules of escape. Out-drink and out-party Satan himself, and you win your ticket back to life. Thus begins the story, as Milo and Lola navigate the different areas (and bars) of Hell, looking to find a way to get into Satan's big-ticket party in his personal residence, with a view to outdrinking him. The tone of Afterparty is what really sets it apart from Oxenfree. While a lot of elements are similar - the gameplay is generally of the walk-and-talk dialogue choosing variety, interspersed this time with various drinking games, (beer-pong and glass-stacking,) and with a new choice-based element, whereby different responses are available depending on what drink is being consumed from the many cocktail bars, the background setting couldn't be further from Oxenfree. Gone is the moody, painterly backgrounds and the sombre tone, replaced with a psychedelic, heavy-metal and gothic-neon inspired rendition of Hell. Imagine, if you will, Oxenfree, but printed on laminate, and placed on top of an amalgam of Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle... basically, Afterparty feels like, to some extent, 'Tim Schaffer's Oxenfree'. It's a tone that, I think, works well. While there is something lost in terms of originality - Oxenfree felt like a game that was difficult to convey the tone of via other games, while Afterparty's raucous, silly, fun version of Hell is something that feels akin to Grim Fandango, as well as Supergiant's recent Hades,) - however, that's not to say that Afterparty feels like a rip-off. Far from it. While the building blocks of the setting have clear roots, there is a distinct flavour to Afterparty's rendition of them, and a lot of that is down to the one element of the game that is very much still 'Night School Studio' wheelhouse - Milo and Lola themselves. Where Oxenfree had five principle characters, Afterparty is much more of a two-hander. There are, of course, far more characters overall - Oxenfree dealt with a deserted island, while Hell is teaming with other people to talk to - the two principles here are where most of the dynamic conversation happens. Both characters are distinct, yet similar, in a way that makes sense for their backstories. It is both believable that they have been lifelong friends, and that that friendship is not necessarily great for them. Lola, clearly wished to brach out, and do more with her life, Milo did not, and was content to make do with what he had and where he was from, but the pull of their long-term friendship was both a crutch and an anchor - buoying them above their own insecurities, and allowing them to wallow in them, in a state of arrested development. The game treats that friendship well, and there is a subtlety to the narrative that pays of very well later in the game. While both characters can be controlled at different times, the player will naturally favour the decisions and ideas of one more than the others, and there is a well written, dynamic change in the narrative near the end, where these decisions are shown to have been taken into account. The side characters - Lola and Milo's persona demon Wormhorn, Sam, Satan himself and most of the supporting cast - are uniformly well crafted, have distinct personalities and the voice work of the game remains impeccable. This is, of course, doubly important in Afterparty, as humour is much easier to fluff than straight dialogue - but here, a lot of the game is genuinely funny. On the comedy aspects, it should be noted, I think they work far, far more often than they don't. Humour is a much more taste-based endeavour than straight sci-fi, of course, and so there is more room in Afterparty for the game to simply not be someone's cup of tea, but it was mine, and I found the jokes and concepts to work very well. There is also an aspect of bait-and-switch to the narrative humour that I think really works well - there is so much in the way of comedy going on, that the sneakily serious message of the game, solidifying in the final denouement can really catch you off guard - which is exactly what it is supposed to do, and works a treat. There is replay value to the game - not baked into the narrative as it was in Oxenfree, though that would be a little rote to do a second time - and what it lacks in narrative justification, it makes up for in variability. Unlike Oxenfree, the choices available in the game are not simply dialogue or party-member based - there are entire sections of the game where the path can diverge, resulting in entire areas and scenes being different, and meeting different characters, so a second playthrough (at a minimum) is really a must. Visually, I am a little torn on Afterparty, as it relates to Oxenfree. The whole environment is much more 3D - there aren't the same painterly backgrounds or still images, here everything is polygonal - and while there is a lot more variety, and more design work gone into the areas including a lot of good visual jokes, particularly in the outside areas) I don't think the overall effect is nearly as striking as Oxenfree's was. The larger character models, and greater level of articulation is necessary, as it allows for physical humour, but the character models - outside of the main characters -can be a little similar. Audio remains great - voice work of course, but also music, audio stings (I really like the signature sting when Wormhorn is about to appear!) and foley work is all good. Overall, Afterparty is a great sophomore effort after Oxenfree, and a solid game in its own right. I don't think it quite has the impact of Oxenfree - despite the humour working well for me, comedy is a little less compelling as a narrative than sci-fi - but I do think both Milo and Lola, and Sam, Satan, and some of the Archdemons are very well drawn, and memorable, and the overall narrative is one that I found consistently funny and wanted to explore every choice within. It's unlikely to be remembered as being better than Oxenfree - that game would take a lot of beating - however, it's admirable that Night School Studio was willing to try something as different as a broad comedy as a followup, and even more impressive that it worked as well as it did. (Review originally published HERE) (For game comparison and Scientific ? placement, see THE CURRENT RANKING) Edited November 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 480 614 Sackboy's Big Adventure Sumo Digital had a difficult task in assuming the helm of the Little Big Planet franchise with Little Big Planet 3. They were inheriting a franchise borne primarily out of creation tool design - a highly specialised area of videogame design - from one of, (if not the,) premier studio's in that rarified space. While Little Big Planet 3 was never bad, there was a definite sense that Sumo were having difficulty 'riding the mechanical bull' of the franchise - they had to create their work on the back of a continually in-motion and ever expanding mechanism of user-generated content, which they could not mess with, had not instigated, and are not necessarily wholly equipped to master. Where Sumo's skillset lies is in level design, and in the re-appropriation of existing assets into new facets design, not in the curation of a toolkit - the changes they made to the 'adventure mode' within Little Big Planet 3 were actually quite good ideas, but they were hindered by the need to cater to the existing requirements of the franchise at large. What Sumo really needed, in order to excel, hand-in-burlap-hand, with little Sackboy, was a streamlining of the environment. Eschew the user-creation, toolkit side of the franchise (and along with it, the Little Big Planet name, and the baggage that branding entails,) and instead, concentrate on making a game that feels like a Sumo game, rather than a Sumo impression of a Media Molecule game. So we get - Sackboy's Big Adventure! The extent to which Sackboy's Big Adventure feels directly in the lineage of Little Big Planet is, really, in the eyes of the Beholder. For the players who were deep in the rabbit-hole of content creation in the main franchise, Sackboy's Big Adventure, I'm sure, feels a rather frivolous, thin experience. There is a solo campaign, and co-op / party play, of course, but the extent to which the creativity side of the game has been deduced would feel severe. Not only is there no toolkit with which to craft levels, even some of the less impactful areas of customisation have been removed. Stickers are now simply an award for level completion - placed automatically in a specific place in a sticker-book, rather than 35 times on the wall of a home-pod (or your Sack-friend's face.) Costumes remain, and are editable, but previously gained pieces are not importable, and so the pool of available costumes is more limited. However, for those players (like myself,) who's relationship to the user-creation toolkit was always primarily as consumer - playing created levels, rather than crafting them - and who therefore valued the narrative 'Adventure Modes' of the three Little Big Planet games on par with the creation elements, Sackboy's Big Adventure does not feel as jarring. In fact, it feels like simply the next game in the franchise, breathing new life into the games in a way not seen since Little Big Planet 2. Mechanically, Sackboy's Big Adventure is, to Little Big Planet, as Super Mario 3D World is to Super Mario World. Rather than operating as a 2.5D platformer with a side-on camera, Sackboy's Big Adventure operates as a full 3D plane, with levels tending far more towards an open-plane, expansive playfield, with the camera positioned isometrically above. It's a move that works well - surprisingly so, given that the controls of Sackboy feel very familiar, and if not identical to those of Little Big Planet, I'd be hard pressed to identify specific areas that are different. The traditional problem of 3D platformers, as opposed to 2D ones, are present - namely the difficulty in properly gauging distance in the 'Z-axis', however, Sumo do a fair few smart thing to alleviate them. Sackboy's shadow works well as an indicator of position, and he has been given an increased level of 'floaty hovering' available via holding the jump button, the window on which allows correction of errors in jumping very well. The narrative of the game retains all the charm and family-friendly aesthetic of Sackboy's previous adventures - this time, Sackboy must defeat Vex, a chaos-flavoured Harlequin intent on enslaving the Sack-people of the town of Loom, to create his invention - the Topsy-Turvy Machine, with which he can take over all of Craftworld. With the help of the last of the 'Knitted Knights' - Scarlet - Sackboy must once again save Craftworld - with a spring in his step, an a goofy smile on his adorable little face. Vex is played to a tee by Richard E Grant, and Scarlet nicely by by Dawn French (after Stephen Fry and Hugh Lawrie, these seem among the most appropriate of choices - presumably Emma Thompson was busy!) and the game never once drops the variable aesthetic, creative design or seam-bursting charm of the franchise it sprang from. The game is fairly long - certainly Sackboy's Big Adventure has the longest campaign of any Sackboy game to date - but never feels like it drags. There are 6 themed worlds, each with a plethora of unique mechanics and a smattering of non-critical levels (including a fair number of 'multi-player only' levels, impossible to play without a friend. Most of these are relatively easy - indeed, individual levels are, on average, easier to 'ace' than levels in the previous games, however, a set of 16 challenges unlockable by finding secrets - the Knitted Knight Challenges - do provide so genuinely tricky goals to meet - in particular the final one, the 'Ripsnorter', which requires all previous challenges to be completed back-to-back, without error, and under a time-limit. (I don't mind admitting, completing the Ripsnorter took me about 6-7 hours of practise!) The game looks absolutely gorgeous on PS5 - as said, the aesthetic style is inherited almost completely from the Little Big Planet games, however, that patchwork look has never felt so tactile or so good. Textures - whether wood, cardboard, cloth, burlap or wool - look perfect, and that texture verisimilitude really adds to the look of the game enormously. Sackboy's animations are upgraded, and in cutscenes, he is able to convey a breadth of emotions that is surprising, given his muteness. The audioscape of the game follows that of the Little Big Planet games too - a whimsical, high quality original score is buoyed by occasional, smart use of licensed tracks, (this time from Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, The Chemical Brothers and Kool and the Gang among others,) and this time the game really leans into some of these - taking a cue from the musically themed levels of Rayman Legends, certain levels are actually metered - with the level designed to be played 'to the beat' as it were. Overall, Sackboy's Big Adventure is a great 3D platformer. It has charm, wit, visuals that cannot be denied, a soundtrack that is catchy and fun, and carries the narrative, aesthetic and tonal legacy of Little Big Planet onto the new console admirably. While the removal of the creation side of the game does make Sackboy's Big Adventure a much more fleeting prospect than any of the Little Big Planet games - once it's done, it's done - and does cut off the portion of the user-base who yearn to get their creative juices flowing, this game, far more than Little Big Planet 3, plays to Sumo Digital's strengths, and there is a confidence and level of design nuance on show that was never visible in that previous game. (Review originally published HERE) (For game comparison and Scientific placement, see THE CURRENT RANKING) 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 (edited) 481 615 Lost Ember Lost Ember, a Kickstarted project from Mooneye Studios in 2019, is an odd game, falling somewhere between the conceptual aspects of Tokyo Jungle and Seasons After Fall, but with the narrative and explorational aspects of a Walking Sim, and the gameplay elements of Everything. (Everything the game, that is, not everything the... everything.) The player takes control of a wolf (initially) whom they come to realise is the reincarnated spirit of a member of an ancient tribal people - long gone now - and a spirit walker, able to hop from one animal to another at will. At the outset, a disembodied ball of light - another spirit - asks the wolf for help, and becomes the games sole voice and guide. It explains that it is also the spirit of one of the same tribal people, but is unable to proceed to its final end - entry to the 'City of Light' - for reasons it cannot fathom. There are barriers in its way, and it wants the Wolf spirit to help it achieve it's final passage. The game follows a fairy simple premise - as the Wolf spirit, the player explores the lush, returned-to-nature environment of the once great empire, traversing to, and through, the ruins of its once great city - Machu Kila - while unlocking memories of the past. Essentially, the pace of the game is set by these memories, which act as both primary plot (following the tale of the downfall of the civilisation and the principle players in its revolution / destruction, of whom both spirits were a part,) and as the driving force of the narrative reveals. The player learns, and deciphers, which characters each spirit once belonged to, and which one is, in fact, the 'Lost Ember' - the one denied entry to the City of Light - and why. The narrative works pretty well. The memories of the past are shown in interesting ways - a statuesque, still, 3D image art-style is used for these, conveying an interesting tale with a nice, if never overly impressive aesthetic. There is genuine poignancy to the story on a few different levels - both in following the straight, historical tale of how the civilisation crumbled, and in the interplay of the Wolf and the Ember as they discover their own past-life relationship to one another - and the whole thing is paced nicely. The dynamic relationship ebbs and flows based on new information, and I found myself genuinely interested in finding out which had committed so cardinal a sin that their fate was sealed, why they did it, and how the game would end. Without going into spoilers, I think that final reveal and ending is done very well. Visually, the game looks nice, if never incredible. The environments are lush and varied, and in some spots - particularly the ancient, ruined architecture, quite fascinating to explore, though the aesthetic is somewhat marred by the technical side. There is a fair bit of pop-in on show, and the game has some feeling of an indie that bit off a little more than it could chew. While areas look good, the environments are highly prone to some of the standard mechanical irritations that can plague natural-looking environments - invisible walls, awkward corners and ledges that can cause 'geometry sticking' and clipping issues. These are generally par for the course in larger environment indie games, however, because Lost Ember relies on its core mechanic - switching on the fly from one animal to another - it really exacerbates the issue at times. Switching from a small animal to a large one can often result in the geometry being clipped in the wrong way, trapping the player inside a rock, or outside the playable area. Also, certain areas -small enclosed caves, for example - can easily cause the player to trap them self if they switch animals. The wolf is the 'standard' animal, always possible to return to at any time, however, all other animals must be approached to swap to. If the player switches to the wolf after traversing a small tunnel, and the small animal scurries away, the player is left stranded, necessitating a 'restart to checkpoint'. The audio in the game is really excellent in terms of music. The ambient, in-level music is soothing, pleasant, and exactly what is needed for such a game - and when the narrative requires tension, it is helped enormously by the score. Where the audio failed to work for me, however, was in the voice work. The vocal performance of Ember is not poorly done - it's fine - however, it feels jarringly mis-cast. The voice provided is a regional English accent, and it feels totally antithetical to the South-American tribal tone and setting. Personally, I could imagine feeling significantly more invested in the game if the voice were in an era and setting appropriate language, and subtitled - this would have immeasurably added to the flavour the game aims for. In terms of gameplay, Lost Ember gets tricky. On the one hand, the basic traversal / narrative of the game - exploring the lush environments, learning the story, and travelling to the game's climax are all pretty good, end enjoyable - even despite the issues with clipping and some awkward controls. Playing as different animals is fun, and finding a new one to try out was always a pleasure, (even if only 4 or 5 of the 15-odd animal varieties have any real gameplay benefit.) However, that good portion, despite being the real focus of the game, only accounts for around a third of the gameplay, if the S-Rank is desired. It's been a long time since I brought up the trophies in one of these reviews, (I think I'd be going all the way back to RAD to find the last instance,) however, they need to be discussed here. I think Lost Ember is a game that is immeasurably harmed by its trophy list - and it's a shame, because the problem could have been so easily avoided! Lost Ember has hundreds of collectibles. There are around 50 memories, (good, and worth getting all of,) around 80 Relics, (interesting, and provide some insight into the lost culture, and often have some good lore attached,).... and around 160 mushrooms. These are not a good addition. Not only are the mushrooms of no narrative value, and often difficult to identify in the foliage-filled environments, but they are also overtly burdensome as a collectible, as they are not trackable, and do not disappear from the environment once found. They change visual slightly, but not enough to identify from a distance. While there is a per-chapter 'collectible tracking' screen, indicating how many of each collectible has been found, there is no real way to tell what variant the player is looking for, and finding the last few can be very tiresome. It is a shame, as a simple change in the trophy requirements could easily have fixed this. After my first playthrough, I had around 60% of the collectibles. I replayed the game specifically for collectibles, and ended up with nearly 90%... but then was forced to concede that finding every one would be impossible without help, and resorted to using a guide. That suddenly made the game drop from a fun, peaceful, very enjoyable experience to a laborious exercise in guide following, as it was impossible to tell which ones had been missed the first two times, and required essentially following a full collectible guide, whole-cloth. This is a bug-bear of mine, and Lost Ember feels like the perfect game to illustrate why. Collectibles are not inherently a negative in games. They provide a good reason to explore, to see more of the game, and an incentive to enjoy and experience the game's traversal mechanics and artistic flourishes in their pursuit. Trophy lists should, absolutely, encourage the finding of collectibles where they exist - however - the difference between requiring, say, 90% of collectibles to be found, and requiring 100% is massive in terms of the impact on the game experience. Asking for most of the collectibles to be found encourages exploration. Asking that all collectibles be found just encourages guide use - and actually discourages the player from exploring themselves, as they end up following guides to the letter. Had Lost Ember asked me to find most of the collectibles I'd be coming away from the game remembering, primarily, the good narrative, fun premise and nice environments. Because it asked for all of them though, I am coming away remembering most a painful guide-following exercise. Overall, Lost Ember is a game that takes an interesting, relatively original premise, and does it pretty well. It has some jank issues, though nothing outrageous, and these can be dealt with fairly happily in pursuit of seeing a good narrative through. The collectibles aspect of the game, however, is really hurt by the S-Rank requirements, and as such, it is a game I have difficulty heartily recommending to the trophy-hungry or the completionists out there without caveat. There is genuine fun, and a soothing, interesting, unique experience to be had with the game - just know that if you want that platinum, you're going to have a lot of busy-work to do at the back end, and that part isn't likely to be much fun. (Review originally published HERE) (For game comparison and Scientific placement, see THE CURRENT RANKING) Edited November 23, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanzoadam Posted November 23, 2021 Share Posted November 23, 2021 Nothing really cool or special mainly the new indie sale 680 The Pig D (PS4) The Big D Fill up whole D - Unlock all achievements 679 The Pig D (PS5) The Big D Fill up whole D - Unlock all achievements Id argue the easiest Plat there is Hold R1 for a minute or so 678 Bowling: Story Two (Mark version) - Project: Summer Ice Great job! You got all the trophies! Congratulations! Awarded after earning all other trophies 677 Takorita Meets Fries (PS4) All Trophies Unlocked! You've unlocked all of the trophies! 676 Bouncing Bullets 2 (PS4) Bouncy PlatinumGet all other trophies. 675 Memory Lane 2 Cosmic Memory One brain cell to survive among the quadrillion of others… 674 Takorita Meets Fries (PS5) All Trophies Unlocked! You've unlocked all of the trophies! 673 Bouncing Bullets 2 (PS5) Bouncy PlatinumGet all other trophies. Actually really enjoyed it wise it was a little longer for the plat 672 Finger Fitness Finger Master Get all other trophies. Actually really enjoyed this one, was a cool idea for a clicker game, putting the pressure on the Triggers 671 Bowling: Story One (Mark version) - Project: Summer Ice Great job! You got all the trophies! Congratulations! Awarded after earning all other trophies 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post KMan34 Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 (edited) #73 - GTA V Los Santos Legend Congratulations! You're Vinewood's biggest star! This is the PS3 version, got the PS4 version two years back. Still debating whether this grind is worth a third go or not on the PS5. Time will tell. The game’s not hard, it’s just really time-consuming. Was cool to hear new dialogue from the Downtown Cab missions that I’d never done before. Edited November 23, 2021 by KMan34 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Odd-Shokupan Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Remastered 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Yoey_666 Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 #510 - Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ShinigamiSensei- Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 #195: CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 CAMPAIGN REMASTERED Is That All You Got? Earn all available trophies for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Campaign Remastered. Enjoyment: 9/10 Difficulty: The student surpasses the master 6/10 (personal rating), the rest of the trophies for this platinum 3/10 Luckily i didn't had any problem with the Immortal trophy. Great game! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post madbuk Posted November 23, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted November 23, 2021 #439 - AI: The Somnium Files After playing through the Zero Escape trilogy, I was... skeptical of this. The third game in the ZE trilogy was just an absolute trainwreck, albeit an entertaining one, and I just had no faith in this as a result. Now that I've decided to try it out, it's... okay. I don't like the Somnium gameplay at all, and I have some gripes with the gameplay in the VN portion too, but overall it was an interesting, well-presented story. I kinda miss the absurdity of Zero Time Dilemma's animations/presentation, but this was absolutely better in an "it's actually good" kinda way, instead of being "so bad it's good", so it's a different kind of enjoyment. The main character is good, as are the supporting cast, and the flavour text for examining various objects can be a fun little side detail, but by the time you revisit areas (often regularly), that fun flavour text becomes something generic and I stopped examining everything towards the end because I was just getting so many repeats/generic lines - I wish the game recognized you'd already seen a line of dialogue even when you revisit the area later. Instead everything just refreshes. I'm definitely interested to see what they do with the sequel, but it's not going to be something I'll be rushing out to buy tbh. I'll pick it up in a sale at some point. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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