Popular Post R123Rob Posted April 27, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 27, 2023 Platinum #1491 - Space Defend 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mr2k_pdh Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 #80 - Rune Factory 4 Special --- Legendary Earthmate Obtained every trophy! 7.83% | Very Rare 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr_Fluffy_Pants_ Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) 117 & 118 - Kena Enjoyed this game so much I did it twice Edited April 28, 2023 by Mr_Fluffy_Pants_ Trying to figure out how to put an image in the post 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lordguwa Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) platinum #698 Nexoria: Dungeon Rogue Heroes (ps4) completed in 1 day and 11 hours (plenty of reset for hidden character boss) platinum rarity 61.74% common platinum name: Lord Of Nexoria platinum #699 Autumn's Journey (ps4) completed in 5 minutes and 45 seconds platinum rarity 96.63% common this took some time to get through until i read to use the assassin as a tank instead of the defender. also finished autumn's Journey (ps4). now for the plat milestone i'm going to tackle and it's going to be Super Neptunia RPG (ps4). may start it in the morning and shop the store tonight. Edited April 28, 2023 by Lordguwa 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post percy547389126yv Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 #2,351 PS5 version of Teslagrad Remastered 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 565 704 Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 A 2020 sequel to 2017's (or 2014's, in Japan,) Action Puzzle mash-up battler Puyo Puyo Tetris, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is... ...well.. ...more of the same. Indeed, it is more of the very same. This is going to be a strange review. Puyo Puyo Tetris was a really good game. It was a bright, cheerful, cheery and very smart combination of two absolute titans of the Action Puzzle genre. Arguably, the two titans of the Action Puzzle genre. It combined Tetris and Puyo Puyo in a variety of cool ways, offered a full, robust package as a game, with a good suite of different modes - both single player and multi-player, and was generally a very well put together thing. For information on what made Puyo Puyo Tetris great, please refer to my previous Puyo Puyo Tetris review. The unfortunate thing though... ... is that for information on what makes Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 great... just read it again. All the things that make Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 great - and there are many - are the same ones. That is the problem. The fundamental issue with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is that I'm simply not sure why it exists. There are plenty of sequels in which the core mechanics of the game do not change in many impactful or meaningful ways from their previous iteration. However, in most cases where that can be said, there is still something broad or sweeping than justifies the sequel. One could argue, for example, that the core gameplay of Uncharted 2 is not hugely different to Uncharted. Or that of Rise of the Tomb Raider, as compared to Tomb Raider. Or indeed, of many other narrative-based games... ...however, the one thing that does meaningfully change is that narrative itself. Nathan Drake might be controlling the same way, and jumping, climbing, shooting, quipping and hair-gelling his way around in the same manner, but it's immaterial, because the fact is, the narrative, locations and reason for him doing those things is distinct. The problem with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, is that while it does have a narrative - one that, like Puyo Puyo Tetris before it, is batshit crazy and as silly as a silly thing in a silly hat sitting in a silly-filled bathtub with the word "silly" written on the side... ...the narrative is not a major draw in these games. What is a major draw, is the game modes, and the puzzle elements - the Puyo Puyo, and the Tetris... ...and those are virtually identical in this game as they were in its predecessor. The Adventure mode, despite featuring a new story, and a slightly longer, more involved route to the finish line, with a smattering of additional, optional stages, are, fundamentally the exact same games played previously. Versus, Swap, Big-Bang, Party, Fusion - these modes are the same modes from the original Puyo Puyo Tetris... and because all these modes are fundamentally 2-player battles, (even when played single player, against a CPU,) and because the basic rules of these modes are identical, the game, more than virtually any sequel I have every played, feels simply like playing the same game again, rather than playing a new incarnation of it. Now, granted - one could, reasonably, make the same point, in many ways, about both Puyo Puyo, and Tetris as core games. Both games are, after all, essentially unchanging, yet there have been more versions of each game released - official and unofficial versions - than one can shake a stick at. While there could be an argument made that since the "core game" is the same, that means the differences between those releases is negligible, the reality is far from it. The difference between, say, EA's lacklustre "Tetris" offering on the PS3, and Resonair's ludicrously good Tetris Effect on PS4, is the difference between parking a car and landing on the moon. The package and the feel of the game makes all the difference - as well as the suite of offering, and the presentation. The issue with Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, is that virtually all those elements are - quite literally - exactly the same... and what few minor differences there are, are not really net gains. There are a few specific new elements. The most immediately noticeable is in the tutorial side of things. Where the original Puyo Puyo Tetris offered some basic guidance and some "training" type modes for players to get to grips with its mechanics, these tended to assume a familiarity with the fundamentals of the two base games, and concentrated pretty much exclusively on teaching the rules of the specific mash-up modes Puyo Puyo Tetris itself introduced. In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, however, these tutorial modes are much more robust - actually teaching the fundamentals of both Puyo Puyo and Tetris as discrete entities, as well as the rules of the mash-up modes. This is a good change, and a good idea. After all, the whole concept of the franchise is one that is designed to draw in fans of both games, and there is a good chance that a player might be very familiar with either Tetris, or Puyo Puyo alone, and want a crash course in the fundamentals of the other game. It does rather beg the question, though: "Why include this in the second game, rather than the first?" It feels, in hindsight, morel like an oversight of the original game being corrected here, than a genuine advancement made in the sequel. Is it a good thing to include? Absolutely... but most players playing the second game will likely have already played the first, and so any unfamiliarity with the games will have ben dealt with via "baptism under fire" during the first go-around. The other bigger change, is a new element of Versus (which, to some smaller extent, also bleeds into the Adventure Mode,) - Skill Battle. This actually is a meaningful change in some ways, and is the closest that Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 comes to justifying its existence as a sequel. In this mode, the player chooses not one, but three player characters to form a team, and can "equip" them with various buffs and special moves unlocked throughout the Adventure Mode, which dictate elements like health, special attacks, recovery moves etc, that can be used in battles at the player's discretion. It adds a certain element of light "RPG-ification" to the Puyo Puyo Tetris battling, as each player is able to set up preferred sets of specials, and use these to engage their opponent. I am in two minds as to the value of this. On the one hand, that RPG-style element does have significant perks and hooks to the overall game. It allows the player to have micro-goals in unlocking different characters, and different buffs, and it can be fun to try out different combinations, and see which work to suit different play-styles, different builds, and different opponents. It adds a macro element to the match-ups, involving something they never really had in the original game - a "preparation" element. On the downside, however, it does rather pull focus from the fundamental play. I recall one of the major backlashes that was levelled at the fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken was that it introduced a "gem" system, where different gems could be slotted into characters, giving different buffs. Doing so might seem neat on paper, but in reality, it compromised the sanctity of the competitive element, as it made the fights too much about the preparation work, and too little about the actual competitive play. While Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is not a fighting game, and not subject to the same stringent requirements for balancing and fair-play, (it is, after all, a party game, not to be taken tooseriously,) nevertheless, the core game is still primarily intended to be built around skilful play of the particular game being engaged with. The RPG elements introduced by the Skill Battle mode do rather marginalise that "one-on-one" play, and tend to turn the matchups between two relatively evenly matched competitors into more a question of who has the best assembled team and set of buffs, than who actually plays the best in that particular game. This unbalancing of the core game actually bleeds over into the Adventure Mode too - in some battles, where the assembled team are used, the CPU seems brutally, almost brokenly unbalanced and over-powered... but can then be utterly trivialised by using the "correct" team with the correct buffs. The most skilful player can still be bested easily when using the "wrong" team, but the least skilful player can breeze through when using the "correct" team. That most likely is purposeful - the Adventure Mode is, after all, primarily designed to be "training" for online play, and so these battles may well be deliberately unbalanced, in order to teach the "team assembly" element... ...but it has a rather negative effect on player engagement, as it feels far less beneficial to get good at the game, than it does to simply find the "best build". In something like a Souls game, focus on "best builds" is fine... as actually making that "best build" is an enjoyable exercise in experimentation. In Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, it simply feels like ticking boxes though... and detracts from its core nature as a competitive puzzle game. Overall, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is a very odd beast... in that it is a very good game, chock-full of fun, with a good set of fun modes, a bright, fun cheery, visually popping aesthetic and tone, some fun (if still a little grating,) audio, and a super cool concept... ...that basically already existed. Puyo Puyo Tetris was already an excellent game, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is not really more than it was... it just kind of is what it was... with a very very small smattering of additions, most of which are not particularly beneficial. The additional tutorialising is really the best new element, which could reasonably be argued to make Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 the better game of the two for any new player unfamiliar with both of the core games around which the franchise is built... ...but when the only really meaningful, positive change a sequel makes, is to introduce some better tutorialising of elements that any player who might have originally required them will likely already be familiar with, having played the original game... ...it does beg the question: "Why?" (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) 567 708 Airoheart A kickstarted indie RPG from single-programmer developer Pixelheart Studio, Airoheart is designed and scoped to be a Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past tribute... and it wears its influences very much on its sleeve! In the land of Engard - a land in the midst of brewing conflict between two races with a long history of oppression and strife, Airoheart- a young man raised by his grandfather, who's older brother has already left home on his own quest, is simply trying to live his life in peace, when he is unceremoniously swept up and embroiled in a quest to protect the world from a lurking danger, as an ancient evil threatens to be awoken once more, potentially plummeting the world into darkness and chaos! Let's start with the good stuff: Airoheart is, without a doubt, the most accurate and specific tribute to A Link to the Past I have ever played... and what should be very clear from the outset in this review is - I fucking love A Link to the Past! There are elements in Airoheart that really nail the feeling of that old classic - the curious 3/4 viewpoint, the feel of movement, the swing of the sword, the metroidvania aspects to over world exploration tied to abilities gained in each dungeon - even the design of specific environmental details, such as trees, houses, bushes... they feel almost carbon-copied from A Link to the Past... in the best possible way. These elements all work to hit that nostalgia, and when they work well, they really work well. Visuals are extremely Link to the Past - it's a good look, slightly more cartoonish and bulky than, for example, Square-style RPGs of the time, yet less psychedelic than the Genesis style of 16-bit RPGs. It's a look that really holds up - and importantly, is very, very specific, and very much associated with that one particular game. Nothing at the time looked quite the same as A Link to the Past, and few games have since. That mean that visually evoking it with this level of specificity tells the player everything they need to know about what they should be expecting. The music too - while not quite on the level of ear-worm-like awesomeness A Link to the Past's score was - is very evocative of the era, and is quite good in its own right. The over world theme is catchy as hell, and fun, and most of the dungeon scores follow suit. Sound design on actions and item stings etc feel almost lifted directly from A Link to the Past, and really hit the nostalgia buttons they are aiming at hard. My love of Link to the Past does, however, have a flip-side for Airoheart: I have absolutely no objectivity when it comes to that game! Not only do I consider it to be the best Zelda game.. I also consider it to be one of very few contenders for overall "best game of all time." That is a ridiculously high bar... and a ridiculously dangerous game to evoke, when trying to make a tribute! On the one hand, that pre-existing love of A Link to the Past absolutely primes me for Airoheart. I am exactly the person this game is designed to appeal to... but also, potentially its biggest critic. Not only am I keenly attuned to every area in which Airoheart is aping A Link to the Past, I am also very attuned to where it falls short in that aping. Also - and I had to keep in mind when playing Airoheart... ... having played A Link to the Past at least 20 times over the past 30 years... I have lost virtually all notion of how difficult / frustrating / challenging (delete as appropriate!) I found it the first time. The reason I bring this up is: Airoheart can be - in its later stages in particular - a tough, and often frustrating game. Later dungeons are quite tricky to navigate, and quite frustrating to solve. Bosses can be a bit cheap in their attacks, and enemy placements and combinations can feel a little off-kilter at times. Now... it is possible, I will admit, that Airoheart is, in fact, no more difficult or frustrating than A Link to the Past would be to a brand new player. Because I know A Link to the Past like the back of my hand, I can practically fly through the game. I know where every item is, I have the paths through dungeons engrained in my brain, and I know exactly how to deal with every boss and enemy. With Airoheart, of course, I did not, and so 1-to-1 comparison is difficult when gauging challenge... ...however... ...after really trying to look at the game objectively, I do think that Airoheart does fall prey, sometimes, to the issue that a lot of "tribute" or "fan-made" games can: It over-eggs things, trying to "one-up" the game it is a tribute to. Anyone who has played a lot of (the outrageously excellent) Mario Maker on WiiU, will know that, when players who love a game are given the tools to make their own levels, they can craft some levels that are absolutely brilliant... however, very good players often fall into the trap of creating levels with a pitch of difficulty so punishing, so obtuse or so extreme, due to their own mastery of the game's base mechanics, that they over-shoot the pitch of the "real" game by an order of magnitude, and end up with levels that are very clever... but simply not much fun to actually play. (As another example, please refer to Hitman's Contracts mode. The number of Contracts people make that are possible... but only if you know some very specific, elite-level techniques, and know exactly where people will be at specific times, means there are a litany of crazy-ass contracts created that have been completed only by the person who made it!) Airoheart does not suffer form this to quite the extent that some of these user-creators do (this game is, after all, made by a professional, and not purely a masochist!)... however, often in later dungeons, I felt like I could almost see, on screen, the point where the developers created a great Link to the Past like challenge... then just over-egged it by adding just one or two too many frustrating elements. A dungeon room where the player has to navigate slippery ice-floors holding a bomb, with obstacles in the way, and not fall to their doom is fine... but adding a couple of randomly unpredictable flying obstructions into the mix just pushes the challenge over from "fun" to "frustrating". A dungeon where a boss must be shot with arrows is fine... but having their health set at a level where it is only possible if the player has found the "optional" NPC cave, where they can buy a larger quiver, thus having enough arrows available to actually beat it, pushes the challenge over from "fun" to "frustrating". Having dungeons be mazes, where finding keys and unlocking doors is the main objective is cool... but not having an in-dungeon map pushes the challenge over from "fun" to "frustrating". Its little elements like that, that tend to betray Airoheart's status as a tribute - essentially, a "fan-made" game - and detract from the fun of the original game that they are working to evoke. A Link to the Past is not a beloved game because it is wildly difficult - it is beloved because it is wildly fun. Airoheart never really tips over to overtly difficult... but it does - far too often - veer into "needlessly frustrating". The other slight downside to the "game-as-tribute" angle, is that sometimes the "the same, by different means" mantra seems to work against the game as its own entity a bit. Despite Airoheart being very clearly - and unabashedly - a tribute to A Link to the Past, there has clearly been an effort to "once-remove" as many elements as possible - the devs essentially striving to arrive at the same end-point that A Link to the Past does, but to deliberately get there by slightly different methods, or via slightly different implementation. In some cases, this is a simple change in aesthetic and in-game explanation - Airoheart's health, like Link's, is represented by hearts... but where Link's are red, and granted by finding "pieces of heart", Airoheart's are green, and given by finding "heart melons". Link gets a "hook shot" to cross chasms, Airoheart gets a spell-rope to do the same. Link gets a big glove to lift rocks, Airoheart gets imbued with extra strength by finding pieces of a medallion to accomplish the same thing. That kind of change makes little material difference, and is fine as an in-game fictional deviation. However, in other cases, these changes actually impact the narrative in awkward ways. Link was a lone warrior - and in the fiction of A Link to the Past, that made perfect sense. He was an only-child orphan, whose uncle and only carer died at the outset, and his quest was given to him, and to him alone. Airoheart, on the other hand, ends up on his quest by being swept up in one being undertaken by others... and those other characters persist in the game throughout. The game narrative ends up in a slightly clunky situation, where the narrative wants this task to be done by a team - and that team have interplay, Final Fantasy style, between different people within it... ...but the mechanics are purely solo. Airoheart fights and quests alone, and is responsible for doing everything of consequence. The result, is a narrative that treats the quest as a multi-hander, but because those other characters cannot actually help in any material or gameplay-reliant way, it doesn't really work. The player has no real path into caring about those other characters, because they are only present for small cut-scenes, and while they talk about helping, they actually can'tin game... and so Airoheart ends up feeling like a tool being used by larger forces than himself, sapping player agency from the narrative aspects. Those issues are, of course, somewhat subjective, and difficult to gauge accurately, given my nostalgic connection to A Link to the Past. they are, therefore, forgivable. Unfortunately, Airoheart has some other issues that are less forgivable. A Link to the Past was over 30 years ago... and yet there are some aspects in Airoheart that, in trying to feel retro, are actually demonstrably, objectively less finessed than they were in that older game. These more gameplay-fundamental issues, are threefold: Hit-boxing, lack of "I-Frames", and Over-world Map design. Fundamentally, despite being a game 30 years younger than A Link to the Past, Airoheart is less well tuned. A Link to the Past had little finesse to its combat - sword swings were loose, and positioning of Link relative to the enemy was un-nuanced... but the game compensated by having fairly predictable and well tuned hit-box management. Airoheart doesn't. Often enemies will seem to hit Airoheart from too far away... and because the game has little (if any) invincibility frames after a hit, it is incredibly easy to lose all your health in an instant, by simply being trapped against the scenery, and taking 6-10 hits in quick succession, without being able to attack or block. This issue is compounded by the over-world map design, which also suffers form the "hit-box" issue, in a way. Airoheart is unable to "squeeze" through gaps in the environment that Link absolutely could... and because the game is so heavily evoking A Link to the Past, that feels dissonant. A game having it's own "game-physics" arrangement is, of course, fine... but when a game is very deliberately aping another, well known game in every other aspect, having a different model for collision detection tends to cause issues. I was constantly trying to walk through seemingly traversable gaps, only to be blocked, because they were a single pixel too small. That actually causes a real reduction in the feeling of exploration to the over-world map too. In A Link to the Past, there was a lot of fun in finding little secrets by walking under trees, or through small gaps, or into little hiding places for treasures. Because Airoheart uses a more stringent collision detection model, those areas can't exist... and so exploring the over-world for secrets stops being a thing. Overall, Airoheart is a game that has its heart in the right place. It knows exactly what kind of nostalgia it is going for, and does get there... to some extent. When it works, it really works... ...but it doesn't work all of the time. I am aware that this review possible comes across as a list of complaints and grievances. That is a danger that any game aping a single, virtually unimpeachable classic runs into - because it deliberately summons the spectre of a great game, it inevitably gets compared to it, and those comparisons will often be unfavourable, since... well... that original game is good enough to be getting a tribute in the first place! I do stand by all the grievances listed here, however, I do think it's worth stating: Airoheart is a fun game. It's a game I enjoyed quite a bit (even the second playthrough I did, that was necessitated by a trophy glitch!)... ...but comparison is inevitable, and that comparison is tough. If you are going to take a shot at the king... you better not miss! Airoheart doesn't miss completely... ...but it doesn't come close to landing the kill-shot required to be ushered into the club whose members it so admires. (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) Edited April 28, 2023 by DrBloodmoney 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 568 709 Two Point Campus After Two Point Studio successfully revived the old Bullfrog model of management sims with Two Point Hospital - trading on the nostalgic connection to, (and considerable success of,) Theme Hospital, one might have assumed the natural next step would be "Two Point Park." After all, Theme Park was the even more famous, even more successful older brother of Theme Hospital. Certainly it carries an even broader cult following with it, and could certainly be argued to be the safest, most prudent follow on. However, Theme Park does have a downside to its nostalgia factor... because it is so strong, it has already been revived elsewhere. The Rollercoaster Tycoon games have already picked up the mantle from Bullfrog on the Theme Park simulating front (with great success,) in much the same way Cities Skylines took over from Maxis as the premier City Building simulation games. Were Two Point Studios to dip into Theme Park's well, they would find considerably less water to draw, as so much of the modernisation factor they applied to Two Point Hospital has already been applied by others. Instead, they opted to go a different route and parley their design model into a new simulated business. This time: Education. Now, I should note at this point - I haven't played Two Point Hospital. I opted to buy the two together, and through the highly scientific method of flipping a coin, I opted to play Campus first. I have, however, played more than my fair share (and the fair shares of several other people!) of both Theme Park and Theme Hospital back in the day... not to mention a fair smattering of Rollercoaster Tycoon over the years, for what that's worth! Having said that, the majority of my recent management simulation gaming has been via spending absurd amounts of time playing Cities Skylines, and so, a lot of my comparison points for Two Point Campus will not be the natural ones (Two Point Hospital and the Theme games,) but rather, Cities Skylines. With that in mind, let's just say right now: Two Point Campus is a much, much less "realistic" simulation than something like Cities - though, to its credit, it never strives to be. Like Theme Park and Theme Hospital, Two Point Campus is far more concerned with the fun of watching the interactions the little AI controlled sims have in interfacing with the Campus the player has built, than with actually simulating the experience of managing them. It is, I must note, genuinely fun seeing the different animations and routines that the little sim students and faculty have for engaging with the different activities, machines and elements of the university - and it is very laudable just how many of them there are. Even towards the end of the game, I was still seeing new and different little animations for different things, and each one is done very well. Visually, in fact, Two Point Campus is quite a winner. the cartoony, silly style looks very nice, and the odd, monkey-looking little sims are tonally appropriate, and visually pleasing. The whole game has a bright, cheery, iOS-adjacent style, somewhere between The Sims and Little Big Adventure - and is arguably the most clear, specific nod to the Theme games to which Two Point Studio owes their debt. Audio is also pretty good - there is some jaunty, relatively fun musical tracks that play, but more than that, the whole game is over-scored with Two Point "Campus Radio", which intersperses various radio DJ skits, adverts, announcements and whatnot over the score. These are generally pretty charming - I can't say any of them ever really got a belly laugh from me, but they did draw the occasional mild chuckle, and more often than not, a smile. They are - like the whole tone of the game - silly in that most Bullfrog-y, British-y, Monty-Python-adjacent way that used to be more common in games, and has fallen somewhat out of favour. As such - almost by accident - that element actually puts a button on the nostalgic feel of the game as much - if not more - than the gameplay does. This focus on the visual elements, the fun and the easy-breezy, comedic nature, rather than the minutiae of simulation is not necessarily a negative... however, it is a stylistic difference between Two Point and Cities. It is one that comes down, really, to the personal tastes of the player. I fully admit - I tend to prefer the Cities model. In Two Point Campus, each new educational establishment that the player builds is essentially modelled around two or three new "courses" appropriately themed around the particular location. A musical-themed university runs courses on "Musicality" and "Counter Culture" (essentially, being a cool 50's greaser.) A medieval themed university trains people to be knights. A technological university teaches "scientography" and "robotics"... ....and many of these locations will also have their own little eccentricities associated with them. A Beach-based "party university" removes the funding that comes from graduates, but instead awards funds based on student happiness and entertainment. A Music School that doesn't believe in charging fees, makes money only from selling academic works (songs.) One of the DLC campuses - a haunted school - requires graduates in ghost-busting to exorcise ghosts from new plots of land before they can be built on. These add some little additional wrinkles to concentrate on, and some welcome variety. These elements are certainly good - and I want to make clear: there is actually a fair bit of the zen-like, relaxing, "sit back and watch the thing I made flourish" style dopamine drip that is best associated with management sims to be found in Two Point Campus. Arguable, in fact, there is more - or at least, a different flavour - of that good feeling here than in something like Cities Skylines or Sim City, simply because the sprawl and size of the builds is more contained, and the individual actions of the sims more noticeable and distinct. That element is undeniably well done, and does serve some of the desires a player who likes this genre looks for... ...but there are some real issues with the game loop outside of those factors. Unlike Cities, where a player might spend literally hundreds of hours crafting a single city, and slowly expanding and growing it, working to ensure it remains functional as it gets bigger, in Two Point Campus, each individual build tends to be in the 4-6 hour region. There is only so large that any specific university can get. Now... the same could be argued for Cities Skylines, of course. After all, there is a finite landmass (at least, when playing on console, with trophies enabled,) however, even that most limited maximum space in Cities of 9 area tiles still allows for a city that is enormous and sprawling. In Two Point Campus, not only is it perfectly possible to reach the maximum size of an individual build within only a handful of hours, but in reality, the campus will be "functionally complete" long before it is "complete by limitation". There are two reasons this is the case: Firstly, because each location features certain "star rating" targets that must be hit, in order to gain a level, and to "finish" that build. These might range from having a certain percentage of students happy, or having a certain "pass rate" or a certain number of graduates, or a certain threshold of monthly profit - they vary by situation. Once these are hit, there is little reason to continue finessing, as most require a campus to be relatively well functioning anyways. Once 3 stars are complete, the only real reason to keep finessing is to increase income... ...but there is little to do that requires that income at that point. Secondly, because the relatively simplistic nature of the simulation means that almost all location builds will, after a certain amount of play, reach a natural "inflection point", beyond which they are virtually incapable of failure. The early building of a campus will naturally require the player to be quite strict and quite exacting about which elements of campus needs to focus of satisfying. Should early money go on a new dormitory, which will increase future income, or is a computer lab a better use of cash to improve the pass rate of those students currently in their 3rd or 4th years of their degrees? Do we need a janitor to clean up this mess more than an assistant to run the hot-dog stand? Is making a better, bigger library more important than a second lecture hall? These decisions are either/or ones early on, due to funding restrictions. However, once the player has reached a point where all the most immediate requirements are built, it is actually pretty difficult to ever run into a situation where the campus doesn't run smoothly. Beyond that point, a player needs to pretty much actively sabotage the place, to have it do anything but succeed. Essentially, the simulation model is so loose, that the only real negatives come from not having certain elements. Once they exist - in any capacity - they pretty much serve their purpose - at least enough to start money coming in very quickly. What that tends to mean is that the challenge loses steam quite quickly in the mid-build, because the numbers only go up, and never down. Yes, it is possible to finesse a campus - it is, for example, better to have a shorter route from the dormitory to the lecture hall, to the bathrooms, to the labs... ...but the simulation doesn't really make having an overly long or complex one particularly detrimental. As such, the player is not particularly incentivised to keep iterating and finessing their campus - they are much more encouraged to simply keep adding to it, as the sims are so adept at negotiating the changes, that they never really experience any of the negatives one might think they would. Eventually, when a campus expands to a certain point, and has dealt with the most obvious, basic requirements, it will almost automatically begin generating income at such a ferocious rate, that satisfying the star requirements becomes simply a waiting game - and in 90% of cases, could be satisfied while the player is AFK. Virtually everything added to a campus has only practical up-sides, and very few - if any - practical downsides. In Cities, for example, adding a highway is a huge benefit for transport... but this benefit must be weighed against the increased pollution and noise for residential areas. Adding industry is beneficial for jobs... but reduces land value. Adding an airport increases tourism, but has drawbacks to the local area. Virtually ever addition has upsides and downsides, and the cost/benefit analysis must be factored constantly, across every little change. That IS the game. That's what management sim fans look for, and get their fix from mastering. In Two Point Campus, the positives are the only real impacts for most additions, so simply adding anything to anywhere on campus, is a benefit. That makes the game much less punishing... but also removes much of the real gameplay of the genre. Because of this, the real meat of campus building comes in the early part... ...however, the issue with that is, that while each location has some unique elements, the fundamentals of all universities are the same. They all need dormitories, toilets, lecture halls, showers, medical rooms, private tuition rooms, pastoral offices, janitors, teachers, assistants, libraries, research rooms... etc etc etc... ...and they all tend to need these things to be constructed in roughly the same order, and in roughly the same layout. As such, while there are some minor differences in requirements, some minor differences in layouts, and plenty of differences in how the animations of the sims look... ...the actual nuts and bolts of playing the game is very, very repetitive. The player tends to feel pretty burned out building the same combinations of the same rooms in each of the locations every 4-6 hours... then just sitting back, and watching the numbers go up. The game actually streamlines this early element quite a bit, by allowing the player to create "templates" of common rooms, which can then be created whole-cloth in each new campus (so a player doesn't need to actually lay out where the cubicles are within each toilet over and over, or hang posters individually in dormitories each time.) This alleviates some of the repetition over the 12 builds needed to finish the game (or 16, if the DLC is included), for sure... ...however, this streamlining is a double-edged sword. It tends to speed up the early build so much that the player reaches the "inflection point" much quicker. It also has the rather negative effect of making each university start to look very similar... and since the difference in location and aesthetic is one of the only really distinct elements between builds, having options that negate it is not necesarily the best thing. It's ironic, actually, that a game like Cities Skylines doesn't really require a player to keep starting new cities - most of the game can be done by simply expanding the one they begin with... but because there is enough variety in the build types, city types, terrain types and biome types, they tend to want to anyway. In Two Point Campus, they need to keep starting over, as a function of the game... but there is far less scope for difference in each new build, and far less incentive to do so - beyond the simple star-rating requirements and the trophies. Fundamentally the core issue with Two Point Campus is simply that it is a management sim, that isn't particularly interested in simulating management. It is fun, and silly, and often really quite charming... ...but in its attempts to be approachable to all, it has streamlined and softened the experience so much, that there is not enough meat left on the game to sustain its length, or to really appeal to the core audience of its purported genre. There are a litany of things that could have been added to make the simulation management more challenging - just off the top of my head: transport, disabled access, plumbing, more finite heating management, education board activities, job fares, more comprehensive routing management, more stringent rental factors or campus sharing... ...as well as many, many other factors that go into running a real educational establishment. I suspect that adding these, as well as making the negative impacts of some elements more impactful would likely push Two Point Campus into a slightly different genre and aim at a slightly different audience... ...and, admittedly, might reduce the appeal to more casual players... ...but that hypothetical audience is one I personally belong to. Overall, Two Point Campus is a pretty charming, pretty goofy, fun little management sim, but one that seems to have been a little too successful in streamlining, and has almost "streamlined itself out of existence". It feels like the game has deliberately softened the edges of the old Theme games to which it owes its allegiance, and introduced quality of life elements to address some of the negative elements those games had... ...but has taken that softening and smoothing so far, that it has almost washed its own genre completely from itself. There is plenty of silly fun to be had here, and the basic management simulation does hit some of the genre pleasure-points in the player brain... ...but for the most part, the game will play itself, unless told to do otherwise... and once the novelty wears off, it has a hard time finding reasons to keep the controller in the players hands. (For original review and Scientific Ranking see HERE) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Ala-Arska Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 Oninaki Cycle Everlasting Obtained all trophies Come on baby, don’t fear the reaper. Oninaki is a JRPG about a guy who finds lost souls and helps them move forward. Or just straight up kills living people for…reasons. Yeah, me being me, I kinda lost interest at some point There is a story, for sure, but it just seems to drag on and derail far too often. But, I was in because I wanted to complete my Tokyo RPG Factory trilogy of games ( I am Setsuna., Lost Sphear and this). And it was free. Oninaki has some great visuals, it’s a real eye candy. Don’t put sugar in your eyes, please. Gameplay sounds good on paper and looks good if watched. But actually playing it shows cracks in the diamond. More like butt cracks. It’s over-the-top hack ‘n slash, and theoretically one can make combos of basic attacks, skills and dodge moves. In actuality, combat is somewhat clunky, button inputs don’t register half the time and fluidity is out the window. Overall it was just brute forcing through everything. Smash that !Pausing the game doesn’t work if you’re in the middle of a move, which can be annoying as fuck. After an attack, you have to wait a bit doing nothing, THEN press pause. And most probably get hit once or twice inbetween. Post-game dungeon is FAR too long. 101 floors of boredom (with 5+ minutes in each floor), especially when you’ve gotten max everything way before the end. But, other than those little nitpicks, the game is quite enjoyable and fun to play. I’d rank this between I am Setsuna. (yes, there’s a period there) and Lost Sphear.For fans of the above and JRPGs in general, Oninaki is a soulful 8/10 experience The Wild at Heart All The Trophies, Probably Collect every trophy in the Wild at Heart Sometimes beating around the bush is the point. The Wild at Heart took me by surprise. Like a liver shot from Mike Tyson An indie adventure game with cute/hand drawn characters, sometimes melancholic music and themes of rough childhood. So far like every indie game, EVER.But wait! It’s actually really, really good! There’s exploration set on woods, caves and coast, made in such way that makes you wanna keep searching and discovering every bush and rock there is (not that kind of bush, it’s a kid’s game, for Christ’s sake). It’s made in metroidvania style, so there’s always something new to watch out for, even in old places. Can’t go wrong with Metroid and, um, vania? Besides awesome gameplay, the characters are quirky, odd and, yes, typically melancholic. There’s a day and night cycle, where it’s safer to travel in daylight but riskier at night ( because of monsters called Never, oh no!). Usually this kind of time management makes me wanna hurry and miss a lot, but here it’s nothing to be afraid of. Except for the Never!10+ hours of pure joy and wonder, grab it definitely if you can…or Never will! "Another basement, another elevator. How can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?" 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 #2,352 PS4 Japanese version of Quiz Thiz USA 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Teva_Forlan Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 Dragon Age : Inquisition I’ve finally earned the platinum with dlc’s on Dragon Age : Inquisition. There is so much farm that makes the game pretty long and tiring in the end plus a couple of glitches here and there. However, I really enjoyed the game. The storyline was great, a lot of gameplay possibilities according to your class and being able to switch from action style to turned based style is one of the best idea ever made with the pad. Diversity of environments is just insane, there are so many locations to discover and most of time it rewards you with stuffs that worth it like increasing your build, unlocking new side quests, making xp… Each character has a good design and their feature that makes them interesting, appealing or funny. I really loved to run through the game with Blackwall and Sera (I hope to see them again into the next Dragon Age). And with a great art direction, it makes the game even more enjoyable to play. I was nicely suprised by the amount of content and the game released in 2014… Basically, I was just curious about Dragon Age : Inquisition since I’ve seen the sequel’s teaser; so now I’m ready for Dragon Age : Dreadwolf (less farm please). It was game made with passion, thank you a lot BioWare. ? 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sikutai Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 Platinum #813: Marvel's Spider Man Difficulty: 06/10 Enjoyment: 06/10 Soundtrack: 10/10 Best Part: The Soundtrack, the Humor and the City itself. Worst Part: The repetitive grinding for the Platinum. Be Greater Collect all Trophies 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post IamStarAngel Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 (edited) 134 - Rayman Origins (Vita) (Sweet Dreams!) Difficulty: 5/10 Rarity: 11.12% (Rare) Edited April 28, 2023 by M4gic4lTrevor90 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 #2,353 & #2,354 PS4 & PS5 versions of DoraKone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikutai Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 Platinum #814: Ultra Pixel Survive Difficulty: 08/10 Enjoyment: 06/10 Soundtrack: 02/10 Platinum Survivalist Get all other trophies 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted April 28, 2023 Share Posted April 28, 2023 #2,355 & #2,356 PS4 & PS5 Japanese versions of Loopy Ball Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post PooPooBlast Posted April 28, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2023 #186 Severed Steel A game made by Digerati, a lesser known studio founded in 2013, Severed Steel pits you in the shoes of Steel (lol) in a cyberpunk/futuristic setting where the goal is to traverse through environmental obstacles and enemies blocking your objective ala matrix style. It's essentially a fast-paced first person parkour shooter which I'd compare it as if mirror's edge and Ghostrunner had a baby. And to boot, it has a very solid soundtrack with some ambient ones and EDM/cyberpunk variety. If I had to make a comparison in terms of what it's like, I'd say it's akin to Hotline miami or Payday. Some gameplay gifs There's not much else to talk about this entry other than that it's pure carnage fun! 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post auditoreblue Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 I recently shaved my "to play" list down to only the games that actually interest me plus clean-up from games I played before going for trophies(roughly 65-70 games on the complete list.) I decided to start on one of the quicker games, which is Life is Strange. Kept it because of the great reviews and not just the easy plat. Dang this game. I'm so mixed on it. I can't deny why it got so much praise, it really does ultimately weave a pretty decent tale. I'm a person who prefers to have his most favorite games in physical form and I'm so split on this. It was enjoyable and I can see wanting to relive the tale again someday. However, I don't like certain references to a money scam(not going to get into) plus the game ultimately gets very very depressing and that is the last thing I want out of my gaming experience. Next game on my list in Life is Strange: True Colors. Just arrived at my library and I plan to pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't as down as this entry. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted April 29, 2023 Share Posted April 29, 2023 #2,357 PS5 version of Hyper-5 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Parker Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 #28 Sonic Origins - PS5 Complete Clear! Get all the trophies I'm not sure what took me so long to finally finish this, the Genesis Sonic games, as well as CD, were a huge part of my gaming experience when I was growing up, and it was an absolute blast to revisit these games. I'm really looking forward to Sonic Origins Plus, too. Parker 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Phlegeth Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 (edited) #71 Master of V Earned all trophies. As many times as I've played through this, this is the first time I've 100% everything. The closest I've done before was finishing the bestiary in Advance. But I've never mastered all jobs on all characters. I usually keep the jobs and abilities spread out among the party. And I've never hit 50 before. Usually finish in the low 30s, if that. So that was fun, running around with broken abilities and crazy stats. Easiest fight with Shinryu I've ever had. I had to double back to get the bestiary trophy. First time I killed Magissa too fast and her husband never showed up. I even remember thinking afterwards, shouldn't there have been something. And then I was like, oh well and kept going. Not realizing til the end of Act I that I missed a boss. And I didn't even start boosting yet, I was the intended level for that fight too. Edited April 29, 2023 by Ilzakia 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percy547389126yv Posted April 29, 2023 Share Posted April 29, 2023 #2,358 PS5 Japanese version of Quiz Thiz USA 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JadedDragos Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 (edited) #150 Forgotton Anne Edited April 29, 2023 by JadedDragos 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post UnIvIIIrsum Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 Harvest Moon: Light of Hope Enjoyment: Use your family as fertilizer / 10 I am so disappointed with Harvest Moon! Three platinums and after finishing each one I thought that the next one must be better... it can´t get worse, can it? I like the genre but Harvest Moon is just bad, it is like it´s made of people that never played any games. Every single thing you have some sort of annoyance/bad design. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GUDGER666 Posted April 29, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted April 29, 2023 318. I love F1 and I've plat them all before this, but for me this is my least favourite F1 game. Story is dumb, you're finishing 1st and other drivers acting like you finished last. It has a stupid 50hr track time trophy, but all other trophies only take 15hrs. Handling is also poor in this one, car just randomly spins out even with full traction on. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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