effdeegee's Game A Day! (event finished)

[effdeegee]

Sunday, January 10th, 2016.

 

 

Resident Evil 5 is next on the program. It's the first time I've played a Resident Evil game since Resident Evil 2, on the PlayStation; a game which almost literally scared me to death so, I was approaching with caution, to say the least.

 

This game isn't too bad, honestly. Believable setting, decent graphics, sexy partner, passable, same ol' repeated story, meh voice acting, horrific controls...

 

Okay, this train doesn't seem to be headed anywhere near Pleasantville so, I think I should probably focus.

 

Oh. My. God. Tedious controls. There's no reload button? In order to reload, I have to open my inventory, scroll down and click on the box of bullets, scroll down and click "combine with" and then scroll down and click on my pistol? Every single time I want to manually reload?!

 

You would think that this is nothing new to me, because it was the same in RE2 but, in that game, it would also pause the game. In this game, you have to do it while the game is Live! In the middle of being swarmed by dozens of these ashy Ethiopians, who are clearly starving to dine on my nibbly bits, I have to stand still and frantically cycle through tiny menus in order to ask my less-than-helpful sexual interest to please pass the bullets at the dinner table.

 

And whose idea was it to map the run and camera control to the same thumb because I would greatly desire to have 20 minutes alone in a room with that person. You have to choose between walking at a snail's pace, with full camera control, or sprinting and only knowing what's immediately in front of you AND TO TOP OFF THIS SHIT SUNDAE you can't move and shoot at the same time!!! So every time you're swarmed, you have to sit perfectly still to just to attack the constantly advancing enemies!

 

This game is absolutely loaded to the gills with moments that make your asshole pucker in fear, but it's not because the game is scary; it's because the clunky, sluggish, unintuitive control scheme constantly handcuffs you to nerve wracking, fight or flight situations.

 

It could have been a near perfect game if it weren't for the controls.

 

On a lighter note; it's now the 10th of January so, that means I'm 33% done with this nerve-whittling trifle of an experience.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[Hemiak]

I played RE1-3 So many times. I loved those games. I somehow missed playing #4 and then was really excited when I purchased #5. I had almost the exact same complaints you did. Sheva is a moron and the controls are abysmal. Hopefully some of the games you have coming up will be more enjoyable. 

[Couch]

I seriously think, I'm the only person alive who enjoyed RE5. RE4 was way better and you guys should check it out one day. As far as manual reload, if you're aiming down the sight and press square I believe, it will reload or maybe I'm remembering a different game.

[effdeegee]

Monday, January 11th, 2016.

 

 

Well, I'm writing this review at 11:30pm because, simply put, I've been playing Max Payne 3 all day long. To be totally honest, I'm kind of resenting the fact that I had to write this damn review, because there's only 30 minutes left in Max Payne 3's day, and I'd prefer that time be spent playing the game, instead of talking about it.

 

This game is pretty sweet. As far as 3rd person shooters go, it's easily one of the better ones that I've experienced. It also has good graphics, lighting, level design, gameplay and voice acting.

 

My only two gripes with the game are:

 

1. the all too frequent, gravel-chewing, whiskey-throated, narration throughout the entire game and

 

2. the constant eyeball raping from the onslaught of lens flares, screen swipes and other mind numbing visual effects on the screen.

 

I seriously felt nauseous from watching this seizure-inducing episode of Max Headroom, hosted by Oscar the Grouch. Fuuuuuuuck.

 

And can we move the story along, please? I'm getting pretty sick of hearing the same stupid story in between set piece shooting galleries; "I was drunk and took some pills, went to find the girl, but I was too late. So, I got drunk and took some pills, then found out where they moved the hostage, but I was too late. So, I got sauced and stoned and went to take a shit, but I was too late."

 

Ad nauseum for 15-20 hours.

 

Even though there are random, serious spikes in difficulty (even on easy), based on the single player campaign alone, it still ends up being a pretty good game. I'd definitely recommend it if you've enjoyed any of the other 3rd person Rockstar games.

Edited September 3, 2019 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Tuesday, January 12th, 2016.

 

 

I can tell you all right now; it's not going to win any awards for its cutscene graphics and lip animations, but it's definitely not the nightmare that random people make it out to be.

 

Beneath the mountain of critical halfwit judgements lies a deceptively deep RPG, with lots of loot, potions, weapons, armour, side quests and dialogue to accompany this fairly decent story.

 

I was really busy today, so I was only limited to a few hours of playtime, but I rather enjoyed my time getting a grasp on the surprisingly intricate combat system and reading about all of my collected items.

 

Yet another flash sale win pour moi.

 

Interesting side note: it's the first time in 4 years that my completion percentage has been below 95%. That was quite the odd feeling to see the stat change.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[SolarCat02]

I can tell you all right now; it's not going to win any awards for it's cutscene graphics and lip animations, but it's definitely not the nightmare that random people make it out to be.

I am so glad you enjoyed this one! I don't understand the hate it gets, either...

It's not open world, but it's fun, and the story is strong. It's also true to the Game of Thrones world, especially the ending.

(Make sure you save before choosing whose story to complete, so your can try the other. I forget which chapter, 7 maybe, but it had a cut scene of one character, then the other, going through their motivations before heading to the capital. You pick one, and the game has a check to see if you are ready to proceed. Make sure you have a save point!)

[Raitandrul]

I seriously think, I'm the only person alive who enjoyed RE5. RE4 was way better and you guys should check it out one day. As far as manual reload, if you're aiming down the sight and press square I believe, it will reload or maybe I'm remembering a different game.

 

It's one of the best games I've played coop (with a friend). 

 

@effdeegee, just aim and press X to reload     , no need to go the inventory combining stuff. I never had to do that but I can only imagine the game being worse if i had to go to the inventory to reload 

[effdeegee]

Wednesday, January 13th, 2016.

 

 

Wow. This game is pretty badass. I was not prepared for this at all.

 

This game manages to simultaneously be one of the better stealth games, as well as a top quality, first person platformer.

 

There's something pretty satisfying about climbing up a stack of boxes beside a building, jumping onto the ventilation system that wraps around the building, running around the corner, then jumping off the ledge and soaring down 30 feet onto an unsuspecting goon and plunging your knife into his collarbone. The absolute icing on the cake is that the camera and controls are rock solid. Holy friggin' crap it's so refreshing to have such quality and dependability for any platformer; first person or not.

 

This game is yet another Bethesda champ, with several of the major positives from their other rpg giants, like Skyrim and Fallout, making an appearance here as well; level, sound and art design, voice acting and the loot; my goodness, the loot.

 

I can't tell you how much of my time was spent scrounging around the basements, looking for coins on top of barrels, or opening every cupboard and looking under beds for extremely interesting books and letters to read.

 

This is a good game that pays attention to details and forces the player to pay the same amount of attention because, the moment you think you can just head for the objective, you're gonna miss a guard dropping a key on the ground, or stepping through a trip wire and getting shot in the head with a flaming arrow. You really have to walk slowly and survey the area; Sneaky McStealtherton style.

 

The melee combat leaves a little bit to be desired but, this game still manages to easily be one of the best games I've played during this event and I'd have no problems recommending it to anyone.

Edited July 27, 2019 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Thursday, January 14th, 2016.

 

 

Well, this week just keeps getting better. Yet another first person stealth game is next on the menu, this time with a heavy dose of cover based shooting and improvements on most of the qualities mentioned previously in the Dishonored review.

 

Improvements in story, graphics and stealth mechanics. Par with level design, voice acting (except the main protagonist's ridiculous voice) and loot. Sub par in dialogue animations and controls.

 

The story about mankind having mechanical parts to improve the quality of life is very interesting and believable. On one side is the military trying to make super soldiers, while the other side has protesters declaring it's unnatural, immoral and could be exploited.

 

The graphics are crisp and detailed but, seeing as how all of the levels are office buildings and city streets, it's not exactly revolutionary and pretty hard to screw up.

 

The stealth is some of the best I've ever played. Even on easy, these guards will see you poke your head out from across the room and their investigating habits feel real. There are no questions with regards to line of sight and realism.

 

The majority of the NPC voice acting is delivered beyond superbly, but it's always immediately met with the most cringe worthy responses ever, made by your character doing his best Clint Eastwood-esque, super gristly, Bale Batman Jr., sore throat, nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, achy head, in need of a labotomy, cough medicine, impression. It also doesn't help that conversations always look like they're happening between two marionette dolls being controlled by someone with the shakes.

 

The game falters the hardest when it offers its controls for the meat and potatoes of the experience, cover based shooting.

 

How is that, after a bazillion years of playing first person shooters, we still manage to get these developers that want to be an annoying little snowflake and brainstorm their own convoluted controls for shooting a gun. When did L1 to aim, R1 to fire become such an abomination?

 

Now L1 is enter cover, push a direction on L3 to lean out of cover, with a further option to continue to hold the direction and completely dangle your body all the way out of your cover (and FYI, there's no way to tell if you're in a "regular" cover, or a "hang your whole body out" cover, so you'll be surprised a lot when you just wanna take a peek and instead, flamboyantly sprawl right out in glittery pink hot shorts, going "Hey there, Sailors!"), click down on R3 to aim and Seriously?

 

Anyways. Serenity now. It's not really that bad. Just very odd to get used to the first time.

 

The game is still a win for sure.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[Hemiak]

Loves Dishonored, own Deus Ex but haven't played it yet. This review makes me happy.

[effdeegee]

Friday, January 15th, 2016.

 

 

Okay, bear with me here while I gather my thoughts.

 

First, I'll say that I am a total sucker for war and the older, the better. Anything pre-Vietnam or Korean Wars (both awesome, btw) and you're making me randy. Romans/Troy/Alexander the Great (although also awesome) and you're getting back a bit too far. Desert Storm/Iraq/Afghanistan are lame and way too recent. I dig Revolutionary/Civil and WWI/WWII. Those are the two sweet spots.

 

Second, I'll say that I haven't played a war game since MoH Underground on the PS1 and I've never played a Call of Duty game before in my entire life.

Needless to say, this game was one of the half dozen in this event that had my hype meter at full blast.

 

Simply put, go buy this game. Like, tomorrow.

 

This game is exactly what I dreamed it would be, exactly what I wanted and exactly what I needed. This is a PS3 champion right here. If you dig war games, go buy it right meow.

 

The graphics; the glistening sweat on the foreheads, smearing the black face paint, the sand exploding when a grenade goes off, the moonlight. I expected it all to look decent, but not this incredible. When the Navy Seal rescued me from being executed, the first thing I said was, "Holy shit, that dude looks real!"

 

The sound; the bullets whizzing through and clipping the jungle leaves, the splashing of the boots while crossing a puddle, the screams of the kamikaze enemies charging your position while on fire, people crying out from bullet wounds, the cartridge pin popping when your M1 Garand is out of bullets. Top quality sound.

 

The black and white intro sequences, with genuine wartime footage and audio, are perfect. Real dates, names and locations. This must be what a historian's wet dream is.

 

I imagine it's like being in the actual war. Storming the beaches, snipers in the crumbling towers in the city, running through the jungle, flamethrowers, tanks. It's beyond intense and you'll end up using the word "chaos" more than once the next time you take 5 minutes for a bathroom break and you're there talking to yourself, wondering how or why those kids ever lied about their ages on their admission forms to sneak into the service.

 

I can't really say much more about this game without mah head dun esploding.

 

It's like playing Saving Private Ryan with a controller. Fucking 10/10.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Saturday, January 16th, 2016.

 

 

Here we are, at the halfway point of this event, my completion is under 90%, my unearned are quickly approaching 1,000 and I think it's time I take a break and just relax.

 

From inside my bleek city apartment, I stare at a potted plant so long, that I start to hallucinate that I'm a single flower petal and I need to go rescue my multicoloured family from the grey, rolling hills, like some botanical Benetton commercial.

 

The game isn't the totally relaxing opiate that most reviews seem to push, but I can see how it would be, relative to society's obsession with bullets and blood.

 

The atmosphere is nice, the music and sounds are soothing and the gameplay is simple. As long as you're not trying to be Mario Andretti, you'll probably have a decent time. Hell, there were a few times where I would put the 'petal' to the metal (see what I did there?) and try to zip through a winding row of flowers. I'd always miss something but, it was a thrilling change of pace and also gave me the opportunity to do the whole "rise to the sky's ceiling and survey the area below to see what you missed" routine, before spotting the lone bulb and immediately divebombing down for the kill, like I was some leafy hawk.

 

It's a PSN title with 14 easy trophies, cost me like $2 and it only uses one button to play; not exactly brimming with content to discuss so, I'll just finish this short review by saying I'm happy I finally got to experience this one and "you'll probably have a decent time."

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Sunday, January 17th, 2016.

 

 

Not too long ago, I played a PlayStation exclusive JRPG, called Ni No Kuni, that was focused on a group of prepubescent, glossy marble-eyed children in capes, following a little girl around through a little town, a forrest, then a desert, looking to restore power to a giant tree of life...

 

Fast forward (or rewind, whatever) and we have Tales of Symphonia; a PlayStation exclusive JRPG, with a story that focusses on a group of... oh ffs.

 

Ahem.

 

The game isn't too bad, to be honest. Even though the graphics are terribly dated; very blocky and FF7-ish, it still comes off as surprisingly palatable because the voice acting, story and combat are juuust decent enough that you don't really care what most everything else looks like.

 

The cities do look fine and so do the story characters, NPC's and enemies (during combat). The overworld map and enemies look absolutely horrendous and there's almost 0 background design during combat encounters but, meh. No biggie.

 

There appears to be a pretty deep alchemy system but, I never really played long enough to get very far with it. I'll just have to assume from the sandwiches being the first recipe, that NNK copied that too.

 

The combat is a sweet little bonus. Very simplified controls gives it a sort of hack n' slash, live action element, with different combos depending on which direction you push on the stick when you swing your sword. Except for the time when I was exiled from my village to the desert, to fight overpowered scorpions and snakes with nothing but a tiny kid at my side and two wooden sticks, I enjoyed it, for sure.

 

I still can't get over just how similar the two games are, though. The kicker is, you kids eat this stuff up and don't even question the integrity of the companies. They just lazily plagiarize and nobody chooses to hold on to their money and wag their finger instead.

 

As a game, Tales of Symphonia gets a pass and will be one of the titles I return to when this event ends, but now it just makes me want to punch Bandai-Namco and Ni No Kuni in the face for being another copy and paste ripoff game that made it past my defenses so easily.

 

Jerks.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Monday, January 18th, 2016.

 

 

Well, it wasn't a huge new revelatory gaming experience, considering I just played Rayman Legends for a month, back in Aug/Sept, as it was the game chosen for me during the second installment of a popular social event I run called The Lottery.

 

Ubisoft is one of my favourite companies and Rayman is yet another winning product that can be added to the laundry list of hits that they've been banging out every year.

 

This is a platformer that can be played in two ways; like a Mario game, where you check every spot for goodies and enemies, or, how I believe it was meant to be played, like a Mario game after you took a bunch of methamphetamines, where you peel rubber through the levels at 1,000mph and try to beat the clock.

 

It was kind of weird playing the latest game and then going back to the previous title. I found the game's controls were lacking a bit of nuance and fluidity. A teeny tiny smidgen more clunky and sluggish.

 

It also didn't help having played Rayman Legends first because it had a special section in it where you could play all of the Rayman Origins levels (again). So, technically, I've already played most of this game before.

 

The art design is absolutely wonderful and it's fairly generous with the trophies but, it has some frustrating moments and the points requirements for each level can be a bit tight (playing a perfect run and ending up being 35 points short for a medal happens like every single friggin' level).

 

Pick up Origins. Hell, pick up Legends, too. Either one, or both; I don't really care. They're both easily worth the price of admission.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[DetectiveCJ]

I actually played this game on my Vita and it was pretty good. The only thing keeping me from platting it was the Land of the Livid Dead and the time trials because I suck at speed running.

[effdeegee]

Tuesday, January 19th, 2016.

 

 

This was the game that I was the most hyped to see make the list because I earned the 100% in UC1 and UC2 and I really liked both of them.

 

This game had been sitting on my shelf, still in the plastic, for the last 2 or 3 years. There was a nice little sale not too long ago, where 2 of the dlc packs were free and the other 2 packs were $1.50 each so, I had the 4 dlc trophy packs already purchased, downloaded and installed, for when I chose to start it.

 

Well, today was the day where I peeled off that wrap and took a nice, big whiff of the epic freshness. Then, I opened up the case and took a little bonus sniffy poo of the manual.

 

It was 11:45pm and I was super eager to play it, so I put the disc in early to account for any patches and code redeeming I had to do. When midnight hit, I was ready to rock.

 

Simply put, if you enjoyed UC1 and/or UC2, you'll enjoy this game because it's just more of the same. Normally, that kind of laziness would be something to frown upon but, considering Uncharted games are always extremely cinematic, have a great, engaging story and are technically sound, it's cause for celebration in this case.

 

No real upgrades to speak of, since UC2. The lighting and colour look a shade better (Ahem ) and the motion capture seems a bit more refined and sharper, like they used better cameras, or had more mocap balls on the actors. The lip animations are also spot on.

 

I'm not really sure what I can say about the gameplay, really.

 

If you've played either of the first two, this one is also awesome; same amazing graphics, level design, sound and voice acting.

 

If you've never played any Uncharted games before, know that it's one of the best franchises of the previous generation, PlayStation exclusive or not, for a reason and you should buy them all.

 

At this point, it's the game I'm going back to immediately after the clock expires on this event.

 

P.S. Unfortunately, I also now fully understand this meme.

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Wednesday, January 20th, 2016.

 

 

Yet another game that was high on my hype meter, but more so because of the sheer amount of positive reviews and my own curiosity. The trophy tiles were some of the best looking ones I'd seen since Assassin's Creed II so, I guess I started to associate well detailed trophy tiles with good games. If they put that much effort into the tiny images, they must care about every aspect of their game equally.

 

I'm happy to say that this game is in fact something special.

 

From the second the game begins, the story grabs a hold of you and never looks back. Two humans, in a world full of robots, escaping a flying slave prison, while the ship is on fire and about to crash into a long since abandoned New York City.

 

The city has crumbling buildings that are all overgrown with foliage and the grounds are split wide open, down thousands of feet below the surface, like getting an 8.2 on the Richter scale has been an everyday thing for the last 100 years.

 

The two characters are a bit of a weird combo; one is a tech saavy, very attractive female and the male is some knuckle-dragging gorilla, that sounds like he's fresh out of the Bronx and gets his style from whatever DragonballZ cartoon he watches while he eats 6-8 steaks for breakfast. Both aptly named Trip and Monkey, respectively.

 

The gameplay is mostly co-op stealth (you distract while I run, then I distract while you follow), platforming (jump to everything that glows on the wall in a neat row) and melee combat (square, square, triangle; feels exactly like Captain America). All three of which are done better than average. Sprinkle in some bits of 3rd person shooter, turret sections and that hoverboard stuff from Jak & Daxter and you've got a fairly decent game.

 

The two major problems I have with the game are the camera and the linearity of the levels.

 

The camera constantly switches from free roaming, 3rd person action cam, to fixed positions that allow for minor peeks to each side, to randomly switching to a reverse angle for a few seconds. Constantly. It almost feels like God of War, only the camera guy on the Enslaved team was working as hard as he could so he would get noticed and get a raise. Camera is Herky McJerkyton. Actually, it's exactly like Castlevania Lords of Shadow, only with a worse Spazzy McGee at the controls.

 

The levels are so linear, it's to a fault. The worst part of the forced direction, is the jump button has several different functions and the execution is very inconsistent. You have to press X at every single uneven portion of the level, but you'll never know if you'll roll, simply step off the edge, do a long jump and hang, do a long jump and overshoot it, climb up onto, vault like you're doing parkour or just flat out do nothing but get a trip and stumble animation, which is the game's way of saying "Nope. Can't do that here."

 

Regardless of those two gripes, this game is still wonderful. It's one of the games in this event that I played for the most amount of hours and it's also got the title of most trophies earned on its day of play (at 18; beating Uncharted 3's 15, Rayman Origins' 14 and F1 Race Stars' 13).

 

I'll end this long winded review (can you tell I liked the game?) by saying it's a winner and you should experience it, if for nothing more than the story and cinematics.

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[Hemiak]

Trip is best girl. That climbing animation. O.o

[effdeegee]

Thursday, January 21st, 2016.

 

 

Sheesh, cuttin' 'er close with the review, eh?

 

I'd have had it up earlier but, as anyone that has played Boredomlands before can attest, even the smallest mission takes a bazillion years because of all the back and forth between waypoints. Go get this, bring it there, oops need three more things, each one's in a different spot, 8,000 bullets later, bring them all back here, good job, meet me halfway across the world, here's $40 and a shitty shield that even a first time player wouldn't touch with a 10ft pole. Every. Single. Mission.

 

I had the Borderlands 1 GOTY before and earned the 100% in it (even had to play the entire highway snoozefest Knoxx dlc twice because of the mp locked armoury door glitch) and after getting 10 minutes into this game, I was struck by how quickly it felt like I had already played this game for a million hours.

 

I swear to friggin' God, it's almost the exact same game; same guns, same cars, same levels and the main 4 characters that even a half retarded monkey could see are the same; big, roid goon that goes GRRR!, little, anorexic guy, average military guy that throws a gun out and the obligatory sexy pair of boobs with an attitude. But wait! The average guy is white, not black! Stamp a #2 on the box and ship it.

 

The most interesting things that happened on today's venture was:

 

1. it was the second time in three days that I got to sniff a brand new sealed game  and

 

2. that I ran out of hard drive space while installing the massive 2 disc, GOTY contents and

 

3. it's the fourth game in a row where I scored double digits in trophies.

 

I'm not really gonna do an in depth review. If you liked BL1, you'll... um... enjoy? play? put up with BL2. Just beware that I call it Boredomlands for a reason.

 

Oh, by the way, the guns suck. I played this damn game for like 10 hours and still have yet to find a decent assault rifle or SMG. The roads and walls are pretty much constructed of epic pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles, while rocket launchers are non existent (literally, never saw a single one) and the assualt rifles and SMGs are all poop. You had one job, Borderlands! One job!

Edited March 6, 2019 by effdeegee

[DetectiveCJ]

Good thing I lost that free download code for Borderlands 2 for my Vita!

 

Great job going so far. I also read the thread of the plat race between you and Cassio, I wish you luck.

[Raitandrul]

I had fun playing Borderlands 2 with my buddy, and when I played solo I totally understand the frustration and boredom you've been through. Also the guns do minimum damage like you said, and that truly sucks!

[Hemiak]

I did the same thing Eff. Played the hell out of BL 1 and then started 2 waaaaaaay too soon. I feel like you really have to use the right gun for the job (fire for flesh, acid for armor/shell , shock for shields, etc.)and head shots are a must.

Maybe co-op would make it more interesting. I keep being tempted by the $5 psn sales since I sold back the hard copy a long time ago, but have yet to bite on it.

[effdeegee]

Friday, January 22nd, 2016.

 

 

Um, yeah. It's was 11 minutes after Skyrim's day was over and I literally had to say to myself, "Dude, you have to stop playing now. You haven't even done the review yet."

 

Man, all of those "just one more book" and "just one more end table" really add up, don't they?

 

My day starts off, as usual, with the loading of the disc at 11:45pm, so I can install the data and patches etc. My "out of hard drive" situation continues when I have 3.5GB left, after deleting everything to make room for Borderlands 2, and the save file for Skyrim still needs 2000 more KB. So, I delete the bonus copy of Bioshock, that comes on the Bioshock Infinite disc and that I pre-installed for this very event, and I free up 12GB. Still not sure what I'm gonna do when Bioshock's date comes at the end of the month.

 

So, I make my character, haul ass away from Smaug, meet the nice Uncle Smithy, go to Rohan and meet King Olaf von Douchenhauser and his snotty sideshow mage, do several side quests and think, "Okay, 2 hours is a decent start; time to save and snooze." and then immediately notice that the "Save" is greyed out and I can't access any of the menus.

 

It must be auto saving or something retarded, like those games that don't allow access to the menu until you finish some prologue and get the title introduction. Sheesh, pretty long prologue. I'll play for a couple more minutes and check again. Nope. Still greyed out.

 

I check online and it appears to be a common Skyrim thing they call a "glitched start" and the only way to fix it is to quit the game and load the last auto save. In my case, the last time the game auto saved was when I stepped off the prisoner cart, before I even got to customize my character. So now I have to make him again and play the first 2+ hours again. Mother. Fucker.

 

I didn't even wanna play it anymore. I was thinking of just writing that it was a stupid piece of garbage and my first impression would leave a sour taste in my mouth for some time. Bugthesda etc.

 

I can't do that, right? How am I gonna give one of the longest games, the shortest amount of attention?

 

I wake up today and decide to get right to it. I took an hour or so break for visiting family and getting some grub but, for the most part, I've been playing this thing for like 10 of the last 12 hours. I was so hooked, I even spilled over into Jak 3's day and was contemplating just playing Skyrim for 2 days straight and telling Jak 3 to Jak Off.

 

This game is the frickin' Grand Master of RPGs.

 

How can I possibly describe this game without using another 1,000 words?

 

The game is loaded with crap. Not being a smart ass; the game is filled with poor everything. The voice acting, the dialogue animations, the animals, the collision detection; they're all laughable poop but, it's like being in a massive dollar store; all of the products are cheap but, as a massive collection all in one organized spot, they're all kinda neat little things and it's fun to just walk around and look at everything.

 

The game wins hands down with the mountain of loot, books, smithing, alchemy, magic and sheer size of the extremely well detailed map and its individual locations. The dragons are pretty badass, too.

 

I can safely say that this game is worth whatever you need to pay for it and worth however many hours you can play it for.

 

Yet another game I'll be getting back to immediately after this event ends.

 

P.S. How cool is it that you can choose to play the game in first person or third person?

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Saturday, January 23rd, 2016.

 

 

Remember Jak II? I sure as hell do. I played it back in August 2013 and if it weren't for the culmination of single votes in this little event, I would probably still be holding off on playing Jak 3. That's how much of a stench Jak II left in my brain.

 

Nonetheless, rules are rules.

 

I turn on the game and see the same ol' faces, weapons, controls, npcs, areas, animations and the first thing I feel isn't "Oh my God, I hate my decision to make this event." but rather, "Heh, I guess 29 months is the answer to the question, 'How long does it take for a Jak II poop stain to come clean?' "

 

Yeah, yeah, it's just another copy/paste PS exclusive but, after 3 years of detox, it's not so bad.

 

I'll be honest though; I didn't exactly bunker down and go for 20-30+ trophies in a single day (which is totally doable with this game). Instead, I took solace in knowing that I was free to love (and most likely hate) the franchise again and that I would be happy to come back to this game later, finish off the third and final installment of the trilogy and then hastily sell that damn thing without prejudice.

 

I did the training level, the first mission and then spent the next 1:52:00 doing the 600 golden orbs exploit. In the process of doing so, it scored me the first gold trophy of this event.

 

So, that's that, I guess. Same crap, different box on the calendar.

Edited January 20, 2020 by effdeegee

[effdeegee]

Sunday, January 24th, 2016.

 

 

My stars, I think I'm drowning in good RPGs. Let's hope there's not too many left because I'm getting tired of saying "I'm gonna get right back to this game when the event is over."

 

Dragon Age: Origins immediately struck me as cheap. The gameplay graphics, controls and animations were all pretty "meh" and the amount of menus and sub menus was slightly overwhelming but, all of that was irrelevant as soon as the story started going. It was this crazy thing where I had an instant emotional connection to the characters.

 

After the fairly generous character customization portion, where you not only mould your body and combat preferences, but also create a backstory that effects how the NPCs will treat you, you find that you're the child of a King and the Kingdom is constantly being watched by monsters. Every 10 minutes after that, there's new faces to meet (like ladies ), decisions to make (like with the ladies ), story progression, learning the family history, plot twists, betrayal and death, all within the first hour. Can you say hooked, much?

 

Insert a minuscule text tutorial on the combat, followed by an extensive crash course on the rather bland system and hold on to your loot sack, we're off and truckin'.

 

I managed to pick up the physical copy of the Ultimate Edition for around $4 so, at that price, I'm getting an incredible amount of content for my money.

 

Again, it does come off as a tad cheap (fairly close to the Game of Thrones RPG in both graphics and combat) but, for some weird reason, I'm super hooked on it (like I was with Skyrim).

Edited January 27, 2018 by effdeegee