Popular Post Kalmaneos Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 Platinum #25 (2024-06-21) Jet Moto (Ps5) Difficulty: 3/10. Time required: 10 hours according to guide. Play Time: 1 hours, 13 minutes. Enjoyement: 6.5/10 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post LukeTheGooner Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 plat for FM 2024 I platted last years version as well, this one was free and it's an easy plat so why not nowhere near as fun as the old pc versions (I used to love them) but you can just pretty much sim seasons on this and get trophies kind of easy 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 620 💯 771 Animal Well A 2024 released, 8-bit-style Metroidvania from Billy Basso and Shard Memory, Animal Well sees the player take on the role of an odd, undefined little blob, who finds himself trapped in an underground labyrinth, filled to bursting with various flora, fauna, puzzles and secrets. Exploring their way around the maze of biomes and individual puzzle rooms, they collects various objects and items to help traverse the byzantine pathways within the depths, collecting eggs, escaping close encounters with animal predators, and seeks to uncover the mysteries of the well. Animal Well is, first and foremost, a puzzle platformer... ...at least on the surface. Certainly, when initially loading the game up, that is the gameplay as presented, and the abilities and move-set available are very much limited to a basic version of that style of game. The protagonist blob can move and jump, and that is pretty much it - there is no combat in Animal Well, (at least, no conventional combat,) and when presented with antagonistic or dangerous animals, all the play has at their disposal is to avoid them - either via pathing, evasion or puzzle solving of the various environmental elements. That aspect doesn't actually change throughout the game - there is never any active "attack" functionality introduced - there are some areas, specifically boss fights, wherein the player will be passively "attacking" dangerous creatures via puzzle elements, but the many metroidvania items collected are generally ones to affect the environment and allow manipulation of environmental hazards or pathways and shortcuts, rather than affecting the dangerous creatures themselves. The reason the game isn't necessarily categorised with other puzzle platformers primarily, however, is not due to the moment-to-moment gameplay, but rather the overall structure of the game. Animal Well is less akin to something like Teslagrad or Guacamelee or Dandara, and better categorised alongside games like Tunic, Fez, Braid and even Dark Souls - and for good reason. its because the game belongs in that more rarified category of games, where mystery and depth are the most notable thing about it. Animal Well is a game which offers very little in the way of guidance - at any point. The player is dropped into the well, without explanation or direction, and their ability to traverse the different pathways and puzzle rooms is as often contingent on their own ability to solve riddled hints and experiment with different objects collected than it is by actually finding keys or navigating enemies. It is also a game which disguises - very successfully and cleverly - a level of depth and of compounding "levels" of gameplay loop that is far more elaborate and intricate than the initial gameplay would betray. While initially the player will likely poke around different directions, discover some paths, miss others, and eventually come to the realisation that they must defeat 4 bosses in 4 biomes to light up four statues at their starting point, they would be forgiven for assuming that doing so would result in the ending of the game. It DOES, in a sense - doing so will show them credits... ...however, upon doing so (no mean feat already, and already requiring far more elaborate and clever thinking than they might initially have expected,) they will likely have done so finding only a select few of the games collectibles - fancy eggs. These eggs can feel extremely well hidden at times, and within the initial "first level" game, seem only a nice, non-compulsory easter egg... ...but come the completion of that loop, they begin to form part of the next one - where finding the eggs becomes the second "level" to the overall game, and are the key on the path to the second "ending" of the game - the second set of credits, and the beginning of the next phase. That compounding loop is particularly difficult to pull off in a game, and as a result, is pretty rare. It requires a significant amount of "hiding mysteries in plain sight", where a player must be able to see whole portions of a future mystery multiple times, before even realising they are part of a future puzzle, and without them confusing them for part of the puzzle they are currently solving. Compounding that kind of "hidden depth" is not simple, and when it works, it can be very rewarding. In Animal Well, that element is both very well done, and extremely impressive. In some ways, Animal Well sort of amalgamates the Dark Souls model with the Tunic model - like Dark Souls, the player simply begins - underpowered, without clear direction, and with multiple paths available to them gated only by their ability, and the level of difficulty they encounter... ...but the lack of even the modest clues a Souls game offers (in the form of lore items, for example), and the more Metroidvania aspects of tying progress to the finding of specific items and the disguised level of depth give even games like Tunic or Braid or Fez a run for their money. Those are lofty games in whose company any game would be proud to have their name mentioned, and in many of the tertiary and secondary ways, Animal Well stands proudly alongside them. Where it breaks down a little, however, is in the specific game that that smart, mysterious depth is transposed onto. While Animal Well can easily hold up against the best of "hidden, compounding mystery games" - the Tunics and the Fez's and the The Witnesses and the Dark Soulses - in terms of those mystery mechanics... ...it suffers in terms of pure fun and enjoyment, because the fundamentals core gameplay is so much weaker. While the mystery is impressive and extremely fun to decipher, the actual core game - the movement of the little creature, the control of the special items, the UI and interface and the navigation around the well once it is opened up and more of the map uncovered are all... ...well... ...bad. The game is throwing back to an 8-bit style, and it does it faithfully. A little too faithfully, in fact. Games of that era were - with a few specific exceptions - cumbersome and finicky to control. So is Animal Well. Games of that era had input method that were overly fiddly and awkward, primarily due to the limited input of two-button controllers. Animal Well, for some reason, chooses to import that awkwardness, despite having a full, modern controller at its disposal. While it would have been very simply for the controller to make use of more buttons, the game sticks rigidly to a "select the active item, and use the same button to "use" them all, meaning that any time the player is required to use multiple items to solve a puzzle, they need to individually select the item (either via menu-hopping, or a long "scroll-wheel") every time - and in the later game, when the player has 10-12 items, that becomes burdensome in the extreme. In a few situations, where timing is critical, or the player is being chased by enemies, it is downright frustrating - particularly since there is limited fast travel, and failure regularly requires lengthly treks to get back and try again. One method of traversal - "bubble jumping" - is a good example to illustrate the level to which this is an issue. "Bubble jumping" is something that is available to the player very early on - if they figure it out. One of the earliest special items they discover is a "bubble wand", allowing them to blow a bubble. Bubbles exist in other locations, generated by the environment, so the player is already aware of how they function in Animal Well - as single-use platforms, which float gently upwards if undisturbed, and if the player jumps on them they drift slowly downwards, but pop once the player jumps off them. Bubbles blown from the bubble-wand also pop if a second one is blown - so the player is not immediately aware that they could use the wand to effectively reach unreachable positions, as blowing a second bubble while perched on the first results in falling. They can though. It is possible, as they will likely discover, eventually, after some experimentation, to blow one while jumping, and therefore, to "pop-hop" from one bubble to the next, in a zig-zag, and reach high, otherwise unreachable areas with enough persistence and practice. The problem with this, however, is that it is incredibly awkward and unintuitive to actually do. So much so that the player will, most likely, initially assume it isn't an intended mechanic. When they manage to get to grips with it, it is still so awkward and cumbersome that they will, in all likelihood, think they have discovered some clever, glitchy, game-breaking traversal method. They have not. It is an intended mechanic... ...it is just woefully poorly implemented. A generous interpretation on the implementation would be to assume that - in order to maintain the mystery, and to make it feel like a "player-driven" discovery, it has been deliberately made awkward, so they feel like they are "getting one over on the game"... ...but the result is a hollow victory if that is the case, because, once they do realise - as they eventually will - that using this method is a required mechanic to complete the game, it simply leaves a major method of traversal as a wholly frustrating and incredibly tiresome annoyance, that has to be engaged with... ....over and over and over. The game also - in what is a truly baffling and counter-intuitive move - has a limited "fast-travel" functionality... ...but chooses to hide this behind a fairly esoteric and easily missed riddle. This is a really silly decision, as navigating the game, even with the limited fast travel, is fairly cumbersome, and really deflates the fun out of what is already a relatively frustrating game to actually interface with. It means that in the late game, where the player is solving some much more "area-crossing" puzzles or riddles, the game really begins to feel like a chore to play. The player will likely be fully invested in solving the mysteries, and enjoying the "macro" of the game... ...but the "micro" is an irksome process, even with the fast travel... and a frustrating pain-in-the-butt without it. its these elements that make Animal Well suffer in comparison - both to other metroidvania puzzle-platformers, and to the other games that deal in mystery elements and compounding curiosity like Tunic or Braid. As a pure platformer - comparing the actual, moment-to-moment gameplay to other, simpler, less mysterious puzzle platformers, the game suffers feels stilted and awkward and frustrating. The mere notion of comparing something as smooth and user-friendly and fun to play as Guacamelee or Dandara is ludicrous, as Animal Well feels stiff and irksome to the point of absurdity... ...but more importantly, even as compared to games like Tunic and Braid, it suffers. Now, to be clear - neither Tunic nor The Witness, nor Braid, nor Fez, nor even something like Outer Wilds, or - truth be told, most of that rarified category of games - trades particularly on the smoothness or excellence of their core gameplay. Even something like Outer Wilds is at best "decent" when it comes to the core movement mechanics... ...however, almost none of those games feel burdened by their core mechanics. They aren't the draw, but they also aren't a drawback. In Animal Well's case though, they are a drawback - and a pretty big one. At no point during my time with Outer Wilds was I ever blown away by how good the gameplay mechanics were - but they were adequate to the game, and didn't hold me back, or distract me from solving the mysteries. Multiple time while playing Animal Well, however, I found myself seeing the large distance I had to travel to solve a puzzle, and simply electing to turn the game off and wait until tomorrow, because while I was eager to see the resolution, or find out if I was right, I simply didn't feel like dealing with the awkward controls or the traversal to find out. In fairness, the puzzles were good enough that I always did come back to do it the next day... ...but saying "the riddling was fun enough to put up with the gameplay" is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the whole product. It speaks to how good the mystery elements are... ..but also speaks to just how poorly the core mechanics hold up their end of the deal. Visually, Animal Well is very nice. It sticks primarily to the 8-bit style, with occasional 16-bit-era flourishes, but manages to inject quite a bit of atmospheric tension and creepy, woodland-style aesthetics into its environments - working to serve both the simple ambience, and in a lot of cases, to hide the deeper mysteries and riddles in the backgrounds. The different biomes within the well are distinct enough to feel both themed to their particular pathway (and final boss,) but still blend effectively into one another as they criss-cross and bleed together near the central hub. The game doesn't stick rigidly to the nostalgic era it apes - it uses some more modern overlay effects that could never have been replicated on the NES or SNES era consoles - but does these in smart moderation, so the effects feel appropriate, and impressive when they happen. It never feels like the 8-Bit aesthetic has been abandoned, but simply feels like something that might have been done in that era, if only the technology had allowed. Audio is sparse, but well done too - the musical stings are few and far between, and what score there is sombre and low key, but the atmospheric ambient sounds are very effective and at times quite haunting. The game makes use of some input audio stings to further ape the 8-Bit era - the "bloop" when the player jumps, for example, feels very NES-style, but it works in contrast to the creepy ambient soundscape, feeling like the player is playing a simple game that has bled out from its usual shackles, into something more dark and mysterious and sinister... ...which is, of course, exactly what Animal Well is aiming for. Overall, Animal Well is something of an anomaly, as it is feels like a game with lots of great elements, but that is let down immensely by itd core fundamentals. It's a game with surprising, intricate, elaborate depths in terms of puzzles, engaging riddles and consuming, compulsive mystery elements, but it's all mapped onto a game that is, fundamentally, not very much fun to actually play. It's a game that one cannot help but feel they want to solve, but would prefer someone else was actually holding the controller while they do - a game more fun to riddle out the answers to, than to actively tinker with. It's not a terrible game - it's one whose mysteries and clever elements are enough to make a player want to push through the poor gameplay to see, and to discover... ...but one wonders what a game might be like if the puzzles and the mystery elements contained within Animal Well were mapped onto a more competent base game. I can't help, after having finished Animal Well, thinking that I sincerely hope Billy Basso continues to create puzzles and mysteries... ...but hires someone else to make the game they are included in. (For original review and Scientific 😉 Ranking see HERE) 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 621 💯 772 Harold Halibut A 2024 released narrative Adventure game from small German developer Slow Bros, Harold Halibut blends traditional stop-motion animation with videogame technology, to tell the unique and visually arresting tale of Harold - a downtrodden maintenance worker in a curious society formed within the derelict remains of a spacecraft, crashed, lost and submerged in the depths of an alien ocean. Launched in the 70's in response to the escalating cold war, and on the assumption that the human race's time on Earth was coming to an end, the Fedora 1, a colonisation vessel controlled by the All Water Corporation, set out with a colonising population to find humans a new home. After a solar flare cause it to crash on an oceanic planet and sink, the population continued to exist and adapt to their new situation, while seeking ways to both exist, and to find a way to relaunch. Set 100 years after the crash, the player takes the role of the eponymous Harold, assistant to top scientific researcher Jeanna Mareaux. Harold is a pleasant but put-upon chap, downbeat, and while not necessarily depressed, is clearly a disconnected and lonely soul, who spends his days doing menial tasks and odd jobs for Jeanna and the other various inhabitants of the Fedora 1 - none of whom appreciate him much. In fact, many barely bother to veil their own contempt or dismissiveness towards him. These menial tasks form the early part of the game, allowing the player to get to know the lore and structure of the society, and the makeup of the Fedora 1, (which is surprisingly rich and well thought out,)... ... however, when two incredible things at the same time, they change the dynamic of Harold's life irrevocably: the possibility of a window for potential escape back to orbit is discovered by Jeanna... ...and an alien Fish-being is discovered unconscious in the Fedora 1's filters, by Harold himself. These events sets off a domino effect that sweeps Harold up in a magical tale of discovery - both of the world around him, and of himself - and form the catalyst to a chain of event that sees the mild-mannered handyman become the key to unlocking the whole societies future! I rarely get into the visuals as the starting point for any of these write-ups, but when I do, it's generally because the visuals are remarkable - either remarkably good, or remarkably bad. In this case, I have to - and it's absolutely for the positive reason. Harold Halibut is - and I say this without hyperbole - possibly the single best looking game I have ever seen. The visuals are unique, and absolutely astounding. There are games that have done stop-motion effect, (Armikrog, for example, used real stop-motion photography, or games like The Puppeteer or Stacking, which did a graphical interpretation of that effect,) and there are games that have used real-life photography of objects to create unique looking visuals (The Swapper, for example, did that to very winning effect,)... ...however, no game I have ever seen has come even close to the level to which Harold Halibut is doing the technique... both in terms of fidelity and quality, and in sheer length of game or expanse of environments. Harold Halibut doesn't simply look like "a game aping stop-motion animation", it looks like stop-motion animation. Or rather, it is stop-motion animation - every element has been painstakingly crafter in real life, photographed and animated in real-life, and scanned into the game, with all the "real-world" blemishes and nuances fully intact. Looking at the game, both in still screenshots, and in motion, it is virtually indistinguishable from not just stop-motion films, but the highest quality stop-motion films. In fact, the feeling when playing Harold Halibut is that of watching a 12 hour television show by Wes Anderson. That style lends the visuals of the game a double level of impressiveness, because each element is both impressive in how well realised within the clearly hand-crafted models, and then impressive once more in how this is translated into game graphics, and made to work in an interactive game. The design of the Fedora 1 areas, the alien landscapes, the underwater areas and each new scene is both interesting and meticulous, but also very obviously "real". The high quality scans of real models means the way everything looks and moves is tactile and physical in a way that game graphics simply can't, and don't. It makes Harold Halibut feel unusual and artisanal to a degree that virtually no other game can compete with - the player feels they can almost reach out and touch it, and the painstaking effort and care that has gone into crafting it is obvious in every scene, character and object. The Wes Anderson comparison is apt, not simply in visual style, but in story-telling too. Harold Halibut feels, tonally, very close to Anderson's Isle of Dogs, in that it takes a lofty and high-concept premise, with a surprising about of lore and backstory to the world, but tells a low-key, often humorous, and sometimes disarmingly emotionally-engaging story about smaller, more human characters within that high-concept world... ... and does it with a visual, audio and narrative slant that is both charming and unusual. The story in Harold Halibut is fairly slow and gently told - the stakes, while high, are dealt with through very human, very "British", very friendly-and-polite terms, and with a light, almost child-friendly touch. In truth, while the narrative is genuinely interesting and well plotted, in a more traditional looking game, one would likely bemoan the languid pace of the tale - particularly in the early chapters, where every conversation and interaction seems to take quite a long time... ...but in this particular case, the game essentially bypasses any of these issues, because it such an unusual and fascinating style, and such a treat to see - even in the more staid moments - that the player is likely too mesmerised by what they are looking at to really care. The fact that - certainly in the early game, but even throughout - the gameplay, which is relatively puzzle-free, essentially boils down to going from one place to another and talking to different characters, is largely immaterial... ...because the player is too distracted by the visuals to notice. Seeing the game is the game, so the gameplay simply serves as the simplest way to move them through the curious tale, and to explore the fascinating, ingeniously crafted underwater environments. It's also worth noting that while the game can initially feel somewhat slow, this is somewhat helpful to the overall narrative - as it allows the game to get across the surprising amount of dense lore explaining the Fedora 1's current situation, and to introduce a surprising amount of individual characters with individual and distinct personalities and motivations, all of which allows the game to really connect with the player later on. Harold Halibut is a game which certainly isn't "plot-light", however, the real meat of the game, and what makes it engaging across its surprisingly robust length, is the investment with the characters around Harold, and Harold himself. That comes from the time spent speaking with them, and the early portions of the game, where Harold is simply engaging in his hum-drum existence, doing the same things he always does, and feeling disconnected and unappreciated as he does them, allows for the game to really make its point when Harold becomes integral to the whole future. We feel almost as downtrodden and disconnected as he does after a while - so when things really kick off, we are as excited and engaged by those events, and as eager to be involved as Harold is. Gameplay-wise, Harold Halibut falls somewhere between a more traditional, old-school style Adventure Game, and the more modern post-Walking Dead Telltale style, though leans closer to the latter than the former. The actual input and moment-to-moment gameplay has a certain throwback feel to it... ... though a lot of that is down to the tone and pacing of the narrative than the gameplay mechanics. Because the story is slower paced, it tends to feel a little more antiquated, however, in terms of mechanics, Harold Halibut does fall in the more modern Adventure Game style, in that the focus is much more on talking to characters and making dialogue choices, than it is interacting with puzzle elements, or using items on other items. In reality, most of the gameplay of Harold Halibut is simply going from one place to another, and speaking to different characters, seeing plot unfold, and completing various small, interactive mini-games... though these are generally purely pace-breakers, and not challenging or heavily gamified. There is a slight sense, when encountering some of these mini-games, that there may have at some point been a plan to have more of that kind of gameplay, or to have a stronger focus on puzzles or more challenging elements, as the bones exist for more gamified elements, but that these were sidelined in favour of concentrating the game on its stronger element - the narrative. While I would have preferred to see perhaps a little more in the way of these mini-games, and a little more challenge to them, the marginalisation of these element does make some sense - the fact is, Harold Halibut is a game that is absolutely astounding in terms of visuals, and the plot-heavy elements are the best area in which to show off those visual elements... ..and to be frank, while I am personally a fan of older-style Adventure Games, they aren't a genre much in vogue anymore, and the more modern, narrative driven Adventure game is clearly more appealing to a broader audience. Given that Harold Halibut is already very unusual in a lot of senses, I cannot blame the developer for steering closer to a more populist style of gameplay. Audio is excellent in the game - in pretty much every aspect. The voice work is very well done - with even the stop-motion lip-synching working as well as it would in a feature-length stop-motion animated film, and the vocal performances do a great job of giving life to the various characters, injecting them with personality, and letting the player feel like they really get to know the population within the Fedora. Foley work is on point, with the soundscape really working to bring extra life to the astonishing visual designs. The score is generally fairly minimal, but there are a number of times throughout the game where full songs are used - either to punctuate montages, or to make specific points or set specific tones, and virtually every one of these is surprising, interesting, unusual and perfectly chosen. One later game moment, where some characters are exploring the underwater depths in a small submarine has Im 80.Stockwerk by Hildegard Knef playing, in a moment that should be both bizarre and incongruous, yet completely works, and is sure to bring a smile to any player's face! Overall, Harold Halibut is a real gem. It's a narrative adventure game that has surprising length and surprising depth in its narrative, an unusual, whimsical, pleasant tone, that is able to get a out-there and esoteric with its premise and style while maintaining a solidly emotionally engaging story... ...and does it in one of the most unusual and incredible visual palates I've seen in a game in a very, very long time. It is a game that takes its time to tell its story, and can feel a little slower paced than many other games, but it uses that time to fill a genuinely intriguing world with an interesting and original plot, a butt-load of memorably and lovable (or lovably annoying!) characters, and more craftsmanship and visual flair in each scene than many games manage in their entirety! (For original review and Scientific 😉 Ranking see HERE) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 623 💯 775 Patrick's Parabox A fiendishly clever "pure puzzle" game from indie developer Patrick Traynor, Patrick's Parabox sees the player presented with a huge swathe of individual, mechanically-themed "box puzzles, in which they must control a curious little square with eyes, who can move around and push other inanimate blocks, with a view to completing each puzzle, by covering specific, identified squared with inanimate ones, and stepping on the exit block. That gameplay might seem simple on the surface - and initially it is - however, the ingenious trick to Patrick's Parabox is that the boxes themselves are non-Newtonian. Different boxes can be pushed inside other boxes, and shift their reality accordingly... ...so a box might contain a box, which contains a box, which contains the first box, in a mind-bending loop of infinite paradox through which the player must puzzle out the - often devilishly tricky - solutions! As a "pure" puzzler, gameplay is the obvious draw here, of course. Puzzle games all exist somewhere on a spectrum in terms of where the focus is placed - with Narrative at one end, and Puzzles on the other, and Patrick's Parabox is firmly rooted at the extreme "puzzle" end. There is not even a hint of context or narrative to the game - it is 364 discrete, specific and "pure" puzzles, loosely grouped together by focus on specific mechanics... ...but the though-line is purely one of mechanical diversity and difficulty. There is no narrative at all to the game, and therefore nothing for the game to fall back on if the gameplay was not compelling on its own... ...but luckily, it really is! The puzzles in Patrick's Parabox are simple in terms of mechanics - at least in terms of input and control, and the difficulty curve and gradient comes purely from the increased complexity of solution, and the steady introduction of new elements to the puzzles. Where in the early stages, the player will need to consider simply the order of block pushes and collisions to set up the correct solution, taking care not to box themself in, or push a block into a spot from which it cannot be recovered, the introduction of special blocks that change the playfield and the considerations comes steadily, carefully and cleverly. This build up in difficulty does, fairly quickly, become extremely clever, and devilishly tricky at times. All puzzles in Patrick's Parabox tend to operate on three underlying principles: 1. The player block, and all other blocks, scale to the size relative to the box in which they occupy. 2. Every box contained within a box is retains its own internal rules for boxes it contains, but is subject to the rules of the box it occupies. 3. The "plain-space" the boxes all exist in is infinite, but creating infinite loops within the same box causes an unrecoverable paradox. These principles never change throughout the game, but their application does - and the way the player must consider them in seeking the solution magnifies as the applications do. For example, in the first 5 or 6 areas, (so, the first 100-120 odd puzzles) the player will, almost assuredly, accidentally create infinite paradoxes while experimenting and seeking the solutions. This is where a loop is formed where a box leads into itself infinitely, and tends to be a dead-end in that puzzle - shifting the player character into this infinite paradox simply results in being lost in an inescapable "void box". They will likely, as a result of accidentally creating these paradoxes, slowly come to be familiar with the rules of the paradoxes, and learn how to avoid them. In some later, more complicated puzzles though, new elements are introduced than not only makes paradoxes not quite the "dead end" they originally seemed... ....and make forming these paradoxes a necessary step in solving the puzzle. The rules have not changed, and the learning the player has done has not changed, but the application of that learning is recontextualised. Now, what was initially a situation learned to be avoided, has become an element of the correct solution, and so that learning continues well past the level they initially did - as now they must learn how to deliberately do what they had been trying to avoid... ... and not only create paradoxes, but begin to learn how to create them within specific parameters, or in specific ways... or even create discrete and variable levels of infinite paradox that are contingent upon one another - create a "paradox squared", then a "paradox cubed", then a "paradox quadrupled" etc etc etc. It is a tricky thing to articulate in text form - (in truth, it's a difficult thing to conceptualise, even while playing!) - but if the above makes no sense, and you are wondering "okay, so what is my take-away from all that?"... ...the answer is Patrick's Parabox is a game that takes very conceptually-confusing elements, and simplifies them to a degree that doesn't make their application simple, but does allow the player to learn the rules of them on a defined and simple curve - and enable them to build their knowledge of the rules to eventually master how to use them in a way that is complex, but remains fun throughout. To be clear - Patrick's Parabox is hard. The puzzle solutions are often fiendish and extremely clever - and it is certainly a game where coming up with the solution gives the dopamine rush of "holy, crap, I actually did it!"... ...but it is worth pointing out that while the solutions are often elusive and very tough, the game benefits from a lot of good gameplay mechanics designed to help the player reach these solutions without having to resort to outside guidance. Firstly, there is the user-friendly element of the infinite "undo" and "restart" functions. Patrick's Parabox is a game where the player will, quite often, run into a "dead end" from which they cannot continue. That can be poison in a puzzle game, however, the game allows for every single input to be immediately "undone" at the touch of a button - and this function works for an infinite number of moves, as far as I could tell. No matter how much of a muddle I made of any puzzle, (and boy-oh-boy, did I make some muddles!), the game records every move in sequence, and can be "stepped-back" in increments, until the player reaches the point they want to roll back to - meaning they can feel free to experiment with any solution they can think of, at any point, free of punishment. The game also has "restart puzzle" on another button, instantly resetting the puzzle - which most puzzle games do - but actually goes beyond that... ...in that "restarting" the puzzle is also considered a "move", and can also be rolled back from. If the player, for example, gets in a mess, then resets the puzzle, then gets in another mess, and realises they'd like to roll back to somewhere in the first mess, they can roll back past the initial "reset", and keep going, to find the point they want to continue from. That is a tremendously beneficial, massively user-friendly addition, which I'm not sure I can recall another puzzle having. To be clear - I doubt Patrick's Parabox is actually the first game to do it - I'm sure it has featured in some game before... ...but having played it, I really think it's something every "turn-based" or "move-based" puzzle game should try to implement, because the effective "fun-ification" that such a non-punitive and robust rollback feature has on tricky puzzles is difficult to over-state! Secondly - and this is more down to the puzzle design than the game design - while the solutions are tricky - and sometimes downright fiendish - the actual puzzle areas are relatively contained. Patrick's Parabox benefits from the fact that as difficult and convoluted and devilish as a solution might be, there is generally a finite, limited breadth of possible moves a player could make at any one time. Because of that - combined with the aforementioned ability to experiment and roll back at leisure - there is an extent to which the player can, if presented with a puzzle they simply cannot get their head around initially, simply play around with, and will eventually begin to work out what they need to do... ...and that experimentation will almost always lead, eventually, to establishing the parameters and working out what needs done, letting them get closer to a solution - all the while learning the more nuanced elements of the rules for future puzzles. Over the course of the game, I became stuck numerous times, on too many puzzles to count initially - but it was only in a few specific cases that I really felt the need to seek some outside guidance. In these cases, it was almost always the case that I simply didn't realise a specific mechanic could be used in a specific way, rather than the solution simply being too convoluted to work out... ...and it meant that in the few puzzles I had to admit defeat on, and search for a solution, I almost always saw the beginning of the solution, went "OOOOOHHHHHH.....", and stopped watching the solution, in favour of now going back and solving the rest on my own, armed with my new knowledge of the mechanical rule I had overlooked. Once that mechanical rule was clarified, the actual solution could be toyed with and found naturally. All of those good elements apply to virtually all the puzzles in the game... ...with the exception of one specific type of "bonus" puzzle - the ASCII puzzles. There are the one misfire in the game, as they feel like the one area where the game not only doesn't explain itself properly when presenting them... ...but truth be told, I don't think I could explain the mechanics of now, even after brute forcing my way through them! These ASCII puzzles are special strain of (non-required) puzzles, peppered (in a mercifully limited number) throughout the various worlds, where the standard visual style is abandoned, and the puzzles are all simply coloured ASCII code letters and numerals against flat black, and where different rules from different puzzles are mashed together, without the visual overlay to explain them. I believe the idea with these puzzles is to make discerning what the characters represent part of the puzzle itself, along with working out, through trial and error, which mechanical elements are being used, and then find the solution... ...but - at least for me - the fun of the game is rather lost when so many elements of the puzzle are in flux. Without the defined parameters offered by the common visual palate, they felt like a Sudoku puzzle with too few starting letters - everything was a mystery, so nothing could act as a "starting point." In virtually every ASCII puzzle, I felt like I was pushing through via trial-and-error and with liberal use of the "roll-back" function, and even upon completing them, I rarely had any real understanding of what I had done, or why it had worked... ...and would likely be unable to repeat it, as I didn't feel I had actually worked anything out. Now - these puzzle, I think, are, in contrast to all the others - straight up not good. That's disappointing. They are, however, pretty much the only puzzles in all of Patrick's Parabox that aren't good... and there are around 10-12 of them across the game, out of a total of 364. So... less disappointing. They are, in the grand scheme, not a massive problem... ...however, I do think they represent an annoying fly in the otherwise unblemished bowl of delicious puzzling soup! They never really feel contingent on either the gaining of knowledge, or relevant application of previously gained knowledge - and to be quite honest, even after finishing the game, and looking for some explanation as to the make up of these ASCII puzzles via online sources, I still don't really feel any less in the dark about their design. It feels like very few players understand, or can explain the design of these puzzles, across the board! While there are certainly some puzzles in Patrick's Parabox that I ended up solving - at least partially - through block-headed attrition and trial-and-error, at the end of them, I could still understand what the solution was, and how it made sense. I would be able to replicate that solution quickly. Not so, the ASCII puzzles though. The visuals of Patrick's Parabox are, of course, very basic, but there is a real smoothness to the animations and the movements - things like pushing a box into a smaller box, "squeezing" it has a tactile, very pleasing animation fluidity to it, and it's worth nothing just how rare it is that the player is ever in doubt about the parameters of a puzzle, considering how many different box types there are, considering how simple and clean the design is. There's an iOS style "sheen" to the style - a cleanliness and simplicity to the aesthetic, but it is a really nice one, and exactly what the game needs. In fact, the game almost forces the player to see just how deceptively smart and well implemented the visual style is, in the end-game - by changing it! After finishing the main game, the player is given the opportunity to play a few levels - in the "appendix" section - using other, discarded "working" visual styles that were considered prior to settling on the one used in the main game. These alternatives could be described also as clean, neat, effective... ...but they don't work nearly as well, or as pleasingly as the final version does. That really highlight how crucial a really good visual design aesthetic is to a simple geometric puzzle game like Patrick's Parabox! Audio is pleasant too. There are two elements to that: the ambient music, which is all by Priscilla Snow, and provides a background soundscape that never feels overbearing or too heavily mixed, but befits the puzzle-solving gameplay; and the audio-stings when moving the box character around, or interacting with the different blocks. Both are well implemented - part of the reason the game feels so good to play is the way the animations and the movements look and feel, and the audio-stings feed right into that, accompanying, for example, "squishing" a box with a satisfying "squish" sound, or giving a little "bloop" as the player moves from one box's spacial geometry to the next... ...and the background music, which changes slightly with each new area encountered, and provided an overall tone to the game works super well. Ambient music in a puzzle game is a tricky thing to get right - it needs to be pleasant and unobtrusive, so as not to distract the player too much, yet also not feel too repetitive or grating when repeated over and over in particularly tricky puzzles, and the music here hits all those beats. Overall, Patrick's Parabox is a hell of a puzzle game. It's not a "narrative puzzler" - there is no story of any kind, and so it has the feel less of a game one consumes rabidly, and more as a game one can solve a few puzzles in a day, or complete a single area or set of puzzles... ...but that said, the bite-sized nature and the very well implemented escalation of mechanics and smooth difficulty gradient, combined with the great feeling controls, cool, simple visuals and pleasant audioscape makes it compulsive in a "just one more puzzle" sort of way. It's a game that uses its simple but extremely malleable and clever basic mechanics really well, and teaches the player with each new variable cleverly, to the point that it ends up arming them to effectively solve complex, infinite-paradox type puzzles that might seem daunting, mind-bending and incredibly confusing at first, but become more and more manageable as they go. It's smart, well made, good looking, nice sounding, and it has got more discrete puzzles in it than most puzzle games do... ... and as a pure-puzzler, it's tricky for me to recall a better one I've played in a long while! (For original review and Scientific 😉 Ranking see HERE) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DrBloodmoney Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 624 💯 776 Punch Club 2: Fast Forward The 2023 follow up to Lazy Bear Games' 2017 pixel art Sports/Life Management Sim Punch Club, Punch Club 2: Fast Forward shifts the narrative forwards a generation, with the player controlling the son of the first games protagonist, in a neon-future dystopian version of the city they recognise from the original game. The plate-spinning, time-management gameplay returns (somewhat) but this time, with a much longer and more involved narrative pulling more focus, some of the more difficult elements of the training softened, a more elaborate fight-style skill tree on show... and a whole new set of filmic and TV references to draw from. Let's just state this right up front, as it's going to become clear when reading this review anyways... ...Punch Club 2: Fast Forward is not a terrible game, but it is a game that is demonstrably and unequivocally worse than its predecessor, in all but a few key ways. There are a few areas in which is is significantly better though... ...so to be positive, let's consider those first! Firstly, the game looks nicer. The pixel-art, "16-bit beat-em-up", Streets of Rage / Double Dragon aesthetic of the game is retained from the first outing, but here, there are more locations, slightly increased fidelity, and a much broader, more varied colour palate, which takes an already nice looking game, and really makes it look great. Obviously, it's not a technical powerhouse - these games are smaller releases, and are aiming for a specific retro feel, but they do it with style, and Punch Club 2: Fast Forwardtakes that style and runs with it really well. Secondly, the audio is markedly improved. In the first game, there were some catchy and pretty awesome 80's flavoured chip-tune tracks, and those are not to be sniffed at, however, there was a fairly limited variety of them, and as a result, they got a little over-repetitive. In Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, there are not only more tracks, but they are - almost without exception - better tracks. There are some legitimate chip-tune bangers in here, and those really elevate the game in the audio stakes dramatically! Unfortunately though... ...that's about the end of the praise, because virtually every other element of the game is at least slightly - and in some cases, substantially - less engaging or successful as they were in the previous outing. The primary reason for this is the narrative - and its prominence - and the problems are numerous. The narrative is much, much longer, more involved and more convoluted. The narrative elements of Punch Club were abjectly, deliberately silly, and they worked a charm - primarily because they felt surprising. There wasn't so much narrative that it felt like it overpowered the game - Punch Club felt primarily like a management sim, with some unusually involved and curiously malleable narrative elements mixed in, adding flavour. Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, has the unfortunate feel of a sequel where the developer has heard the well deserved praise for a specific element of their first game, and has tried to double down on that element in the sequel... but has massively over-egging the pudding by over-focussing on that area at the expense of others, and forgetting that the reason that element worked was because it was one part of a well-balanced whole. It's a trap that many sequels have fallen into. Recall, as an example, Hotline Miami 2. That game was still decent, but was markedly less good than its predecessor, and a lot of that came down to the developer over-focussing on one of the things players praised the first game for: its difficulty. The original Hotline Miami was a blisteringly cool game, and a part of what made it cool was the high difficulty... ...but in trying to "up the ante" with the second outing, the developer massively over-shot the difficulty, to the extent that the sequel became markedly less fun - the shifted from "tough but fair" to "trial-and-error bullshit" in quite a few cases, and difficulty became, not just an element, but the primary focus. It was no longer a distinctive part - it was the only part that mattered. It distracted and pulled focus from everything else the game was doing. The same thing happens here, but with narrative focus. Punch Club had an unusually fun and surprising story element that few players expected to run as deep as it did, and that was well praised. In hearing this praise, the developer has clearly made the narrative the focus this time around, but in doing so, the game shifts dynamics - it no longer feels particularly a "management" game, and becomes more of a "Narrative Adventure Game with some management around the edges." That puts too much on the shoulders of that narrative, as it can no longer be a fun, frivolous thing in the way it originally was - it has to carry a game that is - this time - around 15-20 hours, as opposed to 5-6... ...but because the tone is still goofy and silly and nonsensical like the first one was, without the driving engine of the management elements it begins to lose the players interest much faster. This time around, the games more substantial focus on narrative also changes the dynamic of the actual gameplay quite a bit. In the original, management of time, training, money, food and relationships was the main focus, and narrative elements were around the edges. The game was short, and the management elements difficult, and so many parts of the story - side content and different paths were choices - the player could likely see some of these, but would almost certainly not be able to see all aspects in a single playthrough. That was part of what made the game feel deeper than it maybe really was - because the player had to generally focus on what specific parts of the story they wanted to follow i each run. In Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, however, the decision appears to have been made that because the game is markedly longer, the player should be able to see all aspects of the story in one go. That means no significant branching elements to the main story path, and in order to allow them the freedom to complete every side quest, the difficulty of the main game has been substantially reduced... ...but also, the desire to force the player into visiting more locations to discover all those side-stories in a single playthrough, means some additional routine-breaking annoyances have been added. As an example, in the first game, the player could work in one of the jobs to get money at any time of day or night. It may have been anachronistic - yes, in real life, a person cannot work at a construction yard whenever they feel like it - but Punch Club and their sequel are not games striving for realism. They are games with talking malevolent pet cats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Crocodiles, Mystic, psychotropic pizza, and laser-beam theft. The important thing was the balanced gameplay, not the verisimilitude, and so the player would manage their schedule, not based on realistic timing, but to ensure at least some trining time per day, as their three primary fighting stats were in a case of constant entropy. Each one was slowly creeping downwards, and training had to be done to offset that entropy. In Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, the stats no longer diminish though - they only go up - and so the player can very quickly shift these up to a huge level, making their character virtually invincible in bouts. To offset this, there is a new mechanics - whereby specific moves use an additional "meter" of specific stats, which must be replenished with training... but even this doesn't force the player to train on a strict schedule, and so a lot of the original game's difficulty and formula are no longer required. In order to stop this being too easy, many elements of the game now operate on scheduled "opening times" - some jobs can only be done at night, some only during the day, etc, which is presumably to force the player to mix it up a bit more... ...but the reality is that this just frustrates. If it's evening, the player can work in one location, but that will only last a small amount of time, then they have to switch to another job in a different location, adding a bunch of annoying busy-work into the schedule, while simultaneously making the core reasons for doing so less engaging. There is also the introduction of jobs that have "quality" elements - ones with their own mini-management sims built in, where the player is paid based on how well they manage their time in the job, but these can also be an annoyance, as they are also scheduled - shifts come at set times, and must be adhered to - which can often conflict with story elements being done. All these elements do work to a point - the game still has some management elements to it, but it does feel much less freeform - there are so many elements all operating on set schedules, that the player can go days and days of in-game time, feeling like they are simply doing what they have to do, without much actual thought or freedom... ...and crucially, very little of this is actually training or fighting - which is ostensibly supposed to be the whole point of the game. In Punch Club, all elements of the game felt like they revolved around the fighting. Here, the fighting feels relegated to just one of a number of side-activities... ...and rarely even the most important one. By around the half way point, in fact, it becomes the least important one, as most players will, by that point, be so over-levelled, that they couldn't lose a fight even if they tried to. Another part of the narrative that doesn't work as well as it did in Punch Club is the numerous references and easter eggs from TV and Film and pop culture - because while they are as abundant and frequent as they were in the original game, they feels much less focussed this time around. While the original game did pull in a few odd or out-of-place references that fell outside of the core focus of 80's and early 90's action movies (Jay and Silent Bob, for example... or The Godfather,) the vast majority were "of a piece". They felt like they were all drawn from the same approximate well. In Punch Club 2: Fast Forward, however, it feels like the developer had already run that well dry, so starts referencing all sorts of different pop culture touchstones, but this time, they are thick and fast from EVERY decade and genre... and so feel much more tacked on. What do Bladerunner, Braveheart, the Yakuza games, Snatch, Half Life, Total Recall, The Matrix, The Lion King and Futurama have in common? Well... nothing really. Except that they are all referenced in Punch Club 2: Fast Forward. There's nothing wrong with having little easter eggs in a game - and they can be to anything - but without the overriding theme tying them together, they feel more of a mishmash this time around, and as a result they begin to feel overdone, or forced in a way they didn't in the first game. Ironically, the one "pop culture" reference the game makes that is the most consistent - and is well done usually - is to itself: The many references to the original game. Punch Club 2: Fast Forward makes a lot of callback references to Punch Club, and these are often funny, though it's hard to give special credit to a sequel referencing its own predecessor! Gameplay-wise, as said, Punch Club 2: Fast Forward does make quite a lot of changes, but it feels like even the areas where it addresses legitimate issues from the first game, the improvement, while welcome, is lost due to the change in focus outside of them. The skill-tree for fighting has been completely overhauled - this time, rather than having only 3 possible areas of focus, there are a bunch of "sub-specialties" within each primary stat focus, where the player can drill down and make specific builds. This time they can have multiple "load-outs" - and may need these to manage the finite in-fight resource stats that can become depleted during longer fights, and need replenished via training, and actually, the visual elements of fights have been improved somewhat, with more animations for the fight moves, and more to look at and manage. That is generally all positive - its good changes to a simple system, working in new ways to make the mid-round management more useful and interesting... ...but fundamentally, it is all in vein, because of the changes to the out-of-fight gameplay. It is so easy, in this game, to become virtually unstoppable, that the player barely ever needs to engage with that side of the game, as they will likely be winning every fight with a single, unchanging load-out after the first few hours, regardless of their engagement with this newly overhauled element. Overall Punch Club 2: Fast Forward is, sadly, a bit of a whiff. It takes a surprisingly fun, clever, not-too-serious but deceptively addictive run-based game, and expands it out in all the wrong ways - gets lost in its own references, focusses on a convoluted and flimsy narrative at the expense of gameplay, softens the difficulty, then adds frustrating busy-work to compensate... and becomes a duller game, who's best narrative elements all come from referencing its vastly superior predecessor. It looks and sounds better than the original game, and that is laudable... ...but that original game looked and sounded decent enough. Crucially, that first game also had a wildly addictive, repeatable and fun gameplay loop, with a succinct, silly, fun, changeable and varying story... ...whereas Punch Club 2: Fast Forward just has annoyances, player-throttling frustrations and an overlong, flabby, rigidly unchanging story, with gameplay that gets marginalised more and more the deeper the player goes. (For original review and Scientific 😉 Ranking see HERE) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kalmaneos Posted Friday at 08:36 PM Popular Post Share Posted Friday at 08:36 PM Platinum #26 (2024-06-21) Jet Moto 2 (Ps5) Difficulty: 4/10. Time required: 10 hours according to guide. Play Time: 1 hours, 50 minutes. Enjoyement: 8.5/10 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post saiyanbloodstyle Posted Friday at 09:12 PM Popular Post Share Posted Friday at 09:12 PM Platinum #311: God of War II All 35 Trophies • 3/10 1x 12h 21st June 2024 • Platinum in 1 week, 2 days PS3 S RANK 51118 100% 23.54% That's the 2nd game done, those challenges were quite annoying so glad to have them done, but a lot of quality of life improvements over the first game so was much more enjoyable. 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Viper Posted Friday at 10:07 PM Popular Post Share Posted Friday at 10:07 PM #357 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection (PS5) Splinter's Favorite Man, this one brought back memories! Definitely grew up playing a few of these, mostly the Genesis version of games or the Arcade ones. Not a lot to break down here, I'll admit I used the exploits outlined in the guides to get most of the trophies...and then the SNES Tournament Fighters, you obviously have to play it pretty legit to get the S Tournament Champion trophy...and I made a mistake originally of not changing the time from 60 to 30 seconds...and Kirai obliterated me, so much so that I had to take a break. When I decided to go back to it today, she was just destroying me again...so I decided to start over with a 30-second timer...that way I could focus more on her having more damage than me and keeping my distance and the time running out and giving me the win...even then though, I got the luck of the draw here, she was FAR easier to deal with at 30 seconds than she was at 60 for some reason. Fun game though. Turtles in Time is one of the games I never got to play back in the day but is one I've heard get mountains of praise over the years. So I went back and played that legit now that I don't have trophies to focus on, haven't finished it yet but it's a lot of fun so far. The less said about the Gameboy versions of these games, the better. Awesome collection, need to get my hands on Shredder's Revenge now. 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post JungleCat20 Posted Friday at 11:22 PM Popular Post Share Posted Friday at 11:22 PM Milestone Platinum 4,750 Dedicated These Spider-Man games are just so much fun! 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kalmaneos Posted Saturday at 12:28 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 12:28 AM Platinum #27 (2024-06-21) Medievil (Ps5) Difficulty: 3/10. Time required: 10 hours according to guide. Play Time: 3 hours, 31 minutes. Enjoyement: 7.5/10 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BlinkWinkel Posted Saturday at 12:31 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 12:31 AM #273 - Arc of Alchemist (JP) (PS4) I didn't have a physical copy for this game since the NA version was digital only, so when I saw a really good deal for the Japanese physical version, I thought I might as well add it to my PS4 game collection and double platinum! Even though the character design is nowhere near as amazing as in most other Compile Heart games, and the game is rather short, it's still a really fun action RPG. I also enjoyed rewatching the story events, since they are fully voiced with a great voice cast. Even Takaya Kuroda (Kiryu, from the Yakuza games) voices a character in this game! Enjoyment: 8/10 Difficulty: 3/10 Not sure yet what game I'll platinum next, but for now, time to enjoy watching anime all weekend! 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Melofest Posted Saturday at 12:56 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 12:56 AM (edited) Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PS5) #83 Never played the game originally on the PS2, and honestly didn't think much of it at first when trying it out on PS5, but after a few missions I really started to enjoy it! Edited Saturday at 04:20 PM by Melofest 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post mr2k_pdh Posted Saturday at 02:16 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 02:16 AM #87 - Final Fantasy VII --- Gaia's Guardian Obtain all trophies 23.87% | Uncommon 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr_Fluffy_Pants_ Posted Saturday at 03:34 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 03:34 AM 374 - Streets of Rage 4 Use to play the original trilogy on Sega Genesis a lot as a kid so they have a lot of nostalgia for me, and so I’m happy to have this platinum on my list. It was difficult, but managed to pull it off in the end with help from @WyndigoSpirit for the harder trophies such as S ranking the last level, and beating arcade mode on hard with a single credit. 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Clocker045 Posted Saturday at 05:03 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 05:03 AM Hauntii Platinum name:The Universe Time to Plat: 21 hours Enjoyment:9 Difficulty:4 A fun take on the afterlife, purgatory to be precise. You start off following a biblical angel and from there things get Hieronymus. Soon your collecting stars, leaves, rings and more and it's relaxing not racing after a speed run. There is some challenge with the obstacle courses, minigames for shooting and one of the boss fights but not too bad. Story was nice and simple. Nothing is really said but the cutscenes and music make for some heartwarming and melancholy feelings. The ending was satisfying and while there are a few questions for what happens in the game. Nothing game breaking or anything that ruins the experience is part of the question. It was a fun journey from beginning to end and I look forward to the next project from this game company in the future. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Valzentia Posted Saturday at 05:19 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 05:19 AM #229 - Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PS3) Difficulty: 3/10 Fun: 6/10 I wanted to like this game. I really did. But to me, it REALLY shows its age, and not in a good way. It follows the adventures of three anthropomorphic vigilante thieves calling themselves the Cooper Gang as they work to recover the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus, which is a book that Sly's parents intended for him to read to help him become a master thief in his adulthood that would steal from criminals. I love the premise, but damn, I don't know what it was, but I just could not get into it. I just felt the need to do this one ASAP should they take the PS3 Sly collection off of PlayStation Plus. Maybe if I do Sly 2 and 3 down the line i'll like those two games more. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post randotrophy Posted Saturday at 05:48 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 05:48 AM Smurf! Plat #53 Difficulty 3/10 Enjoyment 5/10 Average mini game collection although it took way to long to figure out how to get all the costumes but finally done with this one 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MoonSteel1943 Posted Saturday at 05:52 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 05:52 AM Well, another 4 platinum trophies ... wanting to go back to earning platinums for fun soon, but that's not where I'm at right now... #597: Good Guys (PS4) #598: Plumber Puzzles (PS4) #599: Pipes Master (PS4) #600: Plumber Hero (PS4) ...Excited I just hit 600 though. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sailar91 Posted Saturday at 11:06 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 11:06 AM # 352 - Raji an Ancient Epic Great art and an intriguing story set a strong premise for Raji: An Ancient Epic. It's backed by some impressive experimental gameplay and combat that has a few flaws, but it is far from broken. Playing as Raji is a joy and many Prince of Persia fans may see some things they liked from that series reflected here. Exploring the mythology and beliefs presented is an experience that only this has provided - a unique premise, if you will. It's in need of some polish but it feels like the developer realised its dream and with this commendable effort it's a shining start for the team. Raji comes recommended to all players looking for a new mythological action title! 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Warrior_of_Doom Posted Saturday at 11:12 AM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 11:12 AM #181 Daxter - Bug Boy Extraordinaire 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Evrenosi Posted Saturday at 12:54 PM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 12:54 PM #99 - AMNESIA: THE BUNKER Honestly one of the coolest and most immersive horror games I've played in a while. It reminds me a lot of Alien Isolation, just with the mechanics of Amnesia, and immersive sim elements on top of it. The main issue with this game is the bugs. My first playthrough save just sort of broke and it would refuse to load. I gave up on it, started a new playthrough, then my game crashed towards the end and I lost another save. At that point, I started a new game on the easiest difficulty just so I could run through it all again. It really sucked, as it kind of butchered the experience. It's honestly a really good game otherwise. If you were ever interested in buying this game, please note that game-ruining bugs are very possible. Randomly losing a save file due to no fault of your own really sucks!! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post thorryhartmann Posted Saturday at 03:52 PM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 03:52 PM Platium 39 ac odyssey. Time : 290 hours (100%) I started the game with alexios.. After about 3 hours of playing I just didn't like his voice but I liked the story and the game was incredibly beautiful.. Then I decided to start a new game with Kassandra. Something I didn't regret.. Liked pretty much everything about the game.. Don't need to do everything in the game get platinum but I didn't have a question mark or not a single mission left when I finished.. Loved everything with side missions and dls. Or alatis dls I think was a bit of a letdown.. A bit unsure if it was because I had spent around 250 hours in the game then.. or if the story in it wasn't that good. Gives it an 8/10 definitely recommend 🖖 Platinum 40. A plage tale innocenc. Time spent 27 hours I love games with a good story.. And was a bit unsure what to play after odyssey. Tried some games but nothing that I really liked.. . My beautiful wife recommended this. she had both games 1 and 2 on xbox and loved them.. I was hooked after the first half hour into the game.. The excitement, my curiosity everything.. And sat for about 16 hours in a row without almost a single break I couldn't put it down.. Died quite a bit because my sneaky knowledge wasn't very good.. But it wasn't like I gave up. Gives it a 9/10 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Melofest Posted Saturday at 04:19 PM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 04:19 PM Defense Grid 2 #84 The grind for the 100 gold medals was real.... 🫠 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post OmriStyle27 Posted Saturday at 05:03 PM Popular Post Share Posted Saturday at 05:03 PM (edited) #87 - SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake (PS5) - One Sponge to Rule Them All Collect all Trophies --------------------------------- Man , what a great sequel to an already great first game. I just love SpongeBob SquarePants , it's one of my favorite cartoons of all time. so i just had to play this game and let me tell you , it was awesome!. This game is just a love letter to the early seasons of the SpongeBob TV show the amount of references to the show in this game is just crazy haha , i had an insane nostalgia trip while playing it. and the game itself is a lot fun , with stunning graphics that were a bit better than the first game , amazing and unique level design , cute and fun story , and awesome gameplay. i'm a big fun of Collect-a-Thon Platformers (it's my favorite gaming genre) so this game was just right up my alley , really enjoyed it from start to finish. about the platinum - surprisingly not that easy , the first game was easier for sure. there are a few parts of challenging platforming and the there are a few trophies that related to some of the boss fights that can be a bit of a pain. it's not super hard and you will probably get it after 5-10 tries but still it can provide a challenge for some people especially if you're not good at platformers , but other than that the platinum journey was quite fun. highly recommend this game for anyone who loves SpongeBob or platformers. Game - 8/10 Platinum Difficulty - 4/10 Edited Saturday at 05:10 PM by OmriStyle27 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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