Madbuk's List of Unfinished Games

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #270 - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

This might be my favourite Uncharted game. Definitely my favourite of the console ones. The balance between gameplay elements here was much more to my taste than the original trilogy. There's plenty of climbing (still brain dead simple, but oh well), puzzles (also brain dead, but oh well), exploring, and the story here was the best of them. Also has the best trophy art of the franchise, though that's not really a high standard at all.

 

Unlike the other games which were generic treasure hunts for the magical mcguffin, this story felt a lot more character-driven, which works to its favor. The relationship between Elena and Nate and the tests that the relationship is put through are interesting, I liked seeing what everyday life is like for Drake outside of mass murdering entire military groups, and it delves into his urge to slaughter people by showing him playing with toy guns and targets and treating it like a real combat scenario. I do think the story could've been better in certain aspects, but it's much better than the generic stuff that came before it.

 

The combat scenarios in this felt a little off balance. Crushing in this was a complete chore because the game has a larger emphasis on stealth, but doesn't give you enough tools to stealth reliably. You can't get back into hiding on crushing, enemies notice you incredibly fast, and if you get spotted you get thrown into a long, drawn out shootout with shooting mechanics that feel a bit odd compared to the other games. I made it to chapter 13 on crushing before dropping the difficulty and then using tweaks for chapter 13 onwards later. Combat certainly isn't the highlight here, but that was always the least interesting part of Uncharted's gameplay to me anyway so it getting worse doesn't really disappoint me much. They improved the gameplay elements I actually care about - climbing, puzzles, exploring - and that more than makes up for it.

 

The multiplayer in this was horrific though. It's entirely built around a pay to win formula and Naughty Dog continue to patch and nerf strategies to further push their pay to win mechanics on people. It's incredibly shitty and I don't understand why they keep getting a free pass to do shit like this. Battlefront 2 fell apart due to their microtransactions so why didn't this game? Big thanks to RealLadyCroft's PSN community for helping with the co-op and I can easily recommend it for anyone looking to finish up the online.

Spoiler

Retail

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End [+37] {+61%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 [40] {Digital}

 

Edited August 23, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #271 - Yakuza Kiwami 2

Just like Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami 1, this was a lot of fun. A lot of the returning minigames got an overhaul, some being beneficial (like batting), others making the minigame worse (like UFO Catcher.) This helped them feel fresher than they were in Kiwami 1 after playing 0. The combat in this, however, wasn't as good as it was in 0/Kiwami. Until very late game, it felt like Kiryu lacked a lot of basic abilities, which made dodging attacks/blocking attacks more annoying than before, and even with a maxed out Kiryu it still felt a little awkward controlling him during battle. There are barely any heat moves, and it puts a lot of emphasis on using weapons - but weapons have durability, a mechanic in games I hate, so you can't really use them freely. I missed the style system of the previous two games a lot. I'd also say this was probably the most difficult of the three Yakuza games I've done, because of the final 9 bouncer missions. They're garbage, the bosses in them aren't very well-designed and then you have to fight all 3 of them in a single mission and it becomes a bit of a mess with the new combat mechanics.

 

The substories were better than Kiwami 1's, but 0 is still the best when it comes to that. There were still quite a few generic "beat bad guys, end mission" substories here with no real narrative payoff, which was a big problem in the first Kiwami. There are still plenty of interesting ones to balance it out though. The main story itself isn't flawless, but I enjoyed it a lot. The new characters are great, and it was good to see some characters from Kiwami 1 come back that I wasn't really expecting to see again. Majima's story was good too although I think it should've been a bit longer to flesh out the characters more. His combat also wasn't very interesting, but there was barely any combat with him so it's fine. I was disappointed he only had one karaoke song lol.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes with Yakuza 3-6, and I already own 3-5, but it'll probably be a while before I get to 3. It's nice to have the opportunity to jump in whenever and not have to wait for a release date though.

 

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Futuridium EP Deluxe [+1] {+29%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Retail

NEW GAME: Yakuza Kiwami 2 [+59] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Firewatch [+13] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham [+2] {+3%}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #272 - Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

This was okay. It has the best puzzles in the franchise, which isn't saying much but it's still a huge plus in the games favour. I'd love to see future games continue to add more puzzles and make them more complex. I really wasn't a fan of the large open chapter in this though, it was annoying to navigate and there wasn't really anything interesting to explore. It felt like they took the "Uncharted is too linear" complaint to heart and created an intentionally bland open area to shut people up. Thankfully it was only one chapter though and then it went back to being linear, which suits Uncharted best. The final chapter was also a boring retread of an already boring section from Uncharted 2, and the fights involving vehicles were more annoying than they were fun.

 

Story was nothing special, but that's to be expected from an Uncharted game. Chloe was the best here she's ever been, in 2/3 she was very bland and one dimensional, seemingly only there for fanservice ("You're going to miss this ass") but delving into her backstory in this helped flesh her out and actually make her a character. Nadine also got some backstory and development, but it was nothing remarkable and didn't really add to her character much.

 

Also with this I'm finally done with all 10 Uncharted games. I wonder if we'll see any more of these smaller adventures with side characters or whether the franchise really is over like they implied it was. The franchise as a whole has its ups and downs, sometimes leaning too far into the combat and not the puzzle/platforming side (2 was especially guilty of this), but other times getting the balance just right (like in 4 and Golden Abyss). Final ranking in terms of enjoyment would be 4 = Golden Abyss > Fight for Fortune > 1 > 3 > Lost Legacy > 2. I hated 2 the first time, hated it a little less the second time but it was still easily the worst. Also Elena > Chloe, fite me.

 

 

Spoiler

Retail

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy [+50] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[Crispy_Oglop]

This is great @madbuk, are the Uncharted games on Vita on par with the console releases in your opinion?

Edited September 7, 2018 by Crispy_Oglop

[madbuk]

9 minutes ago, Crispy_Oglop said:

This is great @madbuk, are the Uncharted games on Vita on par with the console releases in your opinion?

Yeah, I'd honestly say Golden Abyss is better than most of the console releases. They could port it to PS4 and you probably wouldn't even realize it was a Vita game unless you already knew. Fight for Fortune is very different, it's a card game, but it's well balanced and very strategic, it was something different to what I usually play and I really enjoyed it. It's very cheap too.

[panikooooos]

"4 = Golden Abyss > Fight for Fortune > 1 > 3 > Lost Legacy > 2" That has to be the weirdest taste in Uncharted I've ever seen ?. Keep it up I enjoy reading your progress ??

[AJ_Radio]

13 hours ago, madbuk said:

Yeah, I'd honestly say Golden Abyss is better than most of the console releases. They could port it to PS4 and you probably wouldn't even realize it was a Vita game unless you already knew. Fight for Fortune is very different, it's a card game, but it's well balanced and very strategic, it was something different to what I usually play and I really enjoyed it. It's very cheap too.

 

Dante is one of my favorite villains in the franchise. Everyone remembers Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn but not Dante.

[madbuk]

3 hours ago, Spaz said:

 

Dante is one of my favorite villains in the franchise. Everyone remembers Eddy Raja and Harry Flynn but not Dante.

To be honest I don't remember any of the story for Golden Abyss, I just remember loving the gameplay  Story has never been particularly strong in Uncharted though imo so it's not really a surprise I can't remember it.

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #273 - Jak X: Combat Racing

This is a lot better than I expected it to be. Everyone seems to hate this game, even Naughty Dog themselves have made fun of it in their more recent games. I really enjoyed it though, I liked that there was a story attached to it and the pace at which the story advances. You get a cutscene after every couple of races - some are unsubstantial and dont progress the plot, but it's still a nice reminder that there's actually a purpose behind this game existing. The races are also well balanced, the game gives you plenty of opportunity to catch up if you lag behind by giving you more powerful weapons to attack with, and AI seemed to slow down as well. None of the events felt unfair in this, even though some gave me a bit of trouble and I had to retry them quite a few times.

 

I do have to question the upgrading system in this though. Why do I get 10,000 precursor orbs for winning a race? They're supposed to be incredibly rare and valuable artifacts - Jak II only had a couple hundred total, so the amount at which they hand them out in this is a little absurd. Also, why are my allies racing against me? Jak needs to win, for everyone's sake, yet they're all trying to sabotage him? Maybe I missed something in the story but I think they should've made more original characters to race against instead and relegated the rest to the storyless exhibition game mode.

 

And with this, all 10 Jak games are complete. I'll miss this franchise, I've loved all of the games with trophies, and Daxter on PSP was great too... The less said about Lost Frontier however, the better. I hope we get a Sly 4 situation where the IP is tackled by another studio and we get a new game soon. It didn't work out with LF, but that's no reason to write off the whole concept of a new game. I definitely don't want Naughty Dog to handle it though, the way they treat this franchise like it's beneath them is rather annoying since it's superior to anything they've made since. Final franchise ratings would be 1 = 3 > 2 > X > Daxter > LF.

Spoiler

Retail

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 [+4] {+6%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Jak X: Combat Racing [+30] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[AJ_Radio]

I own Jak X: Combat Racing but was a bit turned off by it looking like it was ripped straight from the Playstation 2. Even has the resolution and Playstation 2 logo when you start up the game just like you remember it.

 

Did a couple races but felt it was merely meh.

[malachi1987]

Hey do you reccomend the yakuza series? I been debating in starting them up but not sure. I love sleeping dogs and I heard it's that but silly. What's your thoughts?

[madbuk]

9 hours ago, Spaz said:

I own Jak X: Combat Racing but was a bit turned off by it looking like it was ripped straight from the Playstation 2. Even has the resolution and Playstation 2 logo when you start up the game just like you remember it.

 

Did a couple races but felt it was merely meh.

Graphically it's definitely a bit dated since it's not an actual remaster. Control wise it took me a couple races to adjust to the drifting but once I did I enjoyed it a lot.

 

8 hours ago, malachi1987 said:

Hey do you reccomend the yakuza series? I been debating in starting them up but not sure. I love sleeping dogs and I heard it's that but silly. What's your thoughts?

I love the three Yakuza games I've played so far, and now is the perfect time to get into them with 0 which is a prequel and Kiwami 1, which is a remake of the original.

I wouldn't say it's like Sleeping Dogs really, it's a much smaller open world and there's no driving involved. Combat is similar but more over the top thanks to some ridiculous heat actions like pouring a bowl of hot soup on an enemies face and then frisbee-ing the lid into them as they recoil. Despite being small though it's packed with lots to do. You can go discoing, you can sing karaoke, you can play darts, go to a SEGA arcade and play some real classics like Space Harrier and Virtua Fighter, you can go batting, and plenty of other stuff. The silliness comes from these side activities and the substories, which are essentially side quests. Unlike most games, the side quests are actually worth doing purely from a narrative standpoint because they're so unique and interesting (especially in 0.)

The main story is for the most part serious though instead of the silliness from side activities, and it's very gripping. It gripped me in a way that not even Sleeping Dog's great story managed to, Kiryu is a fantastic main character and the other characters are great as well.

 

I'd definitely recommend at least buying 0 to see if it's your thing, I paid £20 for it and felt that was a steal for the 100+ hours of pure enjoyment I got out of it.

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #274 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider

This is without a doubt the best game of the rebooted trilogy. It combines the improved combat from 2013 with the classic TR puzzles and exploration that Rise tried to bring back. Eidos did a great job with the challenge tombs in this, and even the main story puzzles were interesting and took a while to solve as well. The new difficulty mode, deadly obssesion, is amazing. It added so much to the atmosphere of the tombs and crypts - they truly felt deadly. In lower difficulties you're robbed of that tension because death doesn't get punished, but in deadly obsession death can be a substantial setback so you actually have to take your time and think about what you're doing. It gave me strong PS1 TR vibes and I loved it so much.

 

I also have to thank Eidos for finally, after 12 years, getting rid of (or at least giving you the option to get rid of) the awful white ledges that take any challenge out of the platforming. The game is so much better with those turned off, I'm surprised Crystal Dynamics never even tried it with the 12 years they had with the franchise. I hope Uncharted takes notes if it ever comes back, because Uncharted is plagued by the white ledges as well. On top of this, you can turn off Lara's annoying hints while you're solving puzzles - finally the puzzles are a challenge and Lara doesn't just spell everything out for you like she did in the previous two games. Also, because I started on deadly obssession - the way the game felt like it should be played imo - survival instincts was entirely disabled. This further added to the complexity of the puzzles, actually experimenting to see what I could interact with instead of the game just pointing everything out via SI.

 

As far as combat is concerned, the actual gunfighting felt like a step down, there didn't feel like there was any feedback for the guns and something felt a bit off. The stealth was heavily improved though. The encounters were very fair and the new grass wall and mud mechanics are great. There's something so satisfying about hiding in a muddy wall and pickaxing someone as they walk by. There was also a genuine reason to craft with bottles/cans/etc. to use as weapons. Whereas I never did that in the previous games, I crafted a molotov more than a few times here because they are great stealth tools. Also, because I was on deadly obsession - I can't get over how great that mode is - the stealth encounters had genuine tension to them. You also couldn't use survival instincts to tell who you can kill without alerting nearby guards, which added more to the experience as well. Being spotted could be a disaster, and in some of the later stealth missions it's almost certainly a death. I usually don't enjoy stealth in games, but here I had a lot of fun.

 

Despite being a big fan of the stealth encounters here, I also have to mention that the game has barely any of them and is more focused on exploration, puzzle solving and platforming - which is absolutely amazing, because that's exactly what I want out of a Tomb Raider game. Survival caches are still a dumb collectible because they're the hardest to spot and offer no benefit, but oh well. I feel like Eidos oversold the town element a little in the marketing, they made it sound like town hubs would be a big feature but there weren't that many. That's okay though, they were a little annoying to explore because some areas of the towns force you to walk slowly, so I can't say I'm too devastated that there weren't more of them.

 

The story... was pretty laughable. I was very invested in it up until you reach the jungle and then it just drops off a cliff and for some reason I stopped caring. The early section is great, you get a slight remix of the main theme of 2013, Lara is far more confident than she was previously, and you could really tell that she has come a long way since 2013... but then nothing really happens until you get to an awful conclusion that I won't spoil but it didn't feel like the climax of a trilogy at all. The side quests also weren't very interesting, in regards to narrative, although some of them did lead you to a fun tomb or crypt that made slogging through the uninteresting side story worthwhile. Bad story and Tomb Raider just goes hand in hand though really imo, the only ones I actually ever cared about were Legend, Anniversary, Underworld, and 2013. Angel of Darkness could've been interesting but it had the flaw of starting a trilogy and then the other 2 games getting cancelled.

 

I'm interested to see where they take the franchise from here. I really hope they don't shelve it entirely like they did for Deus Ex. Spider-Man's sales have painted the sales of this in a negative light and even with Rise, the sales ended up being less than they were for 2013 - and Square were disappointed by 2013 sale's so I dread to think what their opinion of Rise/Shadow's is. If they do shelve it, I'm happy we at least saw a conclusion to the trilogy, despite it being a bad one. The opportunity to finish its story was something Angel of Darkness never got.

 

Earlier on in my trophy checklist, you can see my thoughts of Rise and I open with "I truly hope that Eidos do this franchise some justice with the next entry." I can safely say that they have, and I cannot thank them enough for finally listening to fan feedback that Crystal Dynamics ignored for so many years. I highly recommend anyone getting this to start on deadly obsession, to get full appreciation of just how good this game is. It's a shame that both Eidos and Crystal are stuck on Marvel projects now and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

Spoiler

Retail

NEW GAME: Shadow of the Tomb Raider [+64] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Life is Strange: Before the Storm [35] {Digital}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #275 - Life is Strange: Before the Storm

Apart from a rather disappointing final episode, this was great. The first two episodes felt like they really captured the Life is Strange tone and spirit, and I was impressed by Chloe's new actress because I really couldn't tell the difference (keeping in mind I played the original 2 years ago.) The plot was interesting and I was surprised because I was expecting this to be completely unnecessary and hindered by knowing how everything plays out in the original. Thankfully that wasn't the case and this remained interesting by introducing plot threads not touched upon in the original.

 

I liked Chloe more in this than the original, but I wish it gave you some more diverging paths. I felt really bad for Joyce but there wasn't anything I could do to remedy it, because the game never gave me an option to until a very specific point. Some more freedom would be appreciated. The final episode is just terrible in that regard, so many choices I didn't want to make but the game forces you to for the sake of plot progression. The whole pay off was very underwhelming as well but I won't get into that too much because spoilers. I liked the backtalk mechanic a lot more than the time travel in the original, since time travel in a choice-based game feels like it robs it of the impact of your choices since you can just rewind and redo. Whereas the backtalking here felt like a genuine risk.

 

Despite a very disappointing third episode, I'm glad I played this and I look forward to delving into the Farewell episode. Shame it doesn't have trophies, but apparently it's the best and I'm excited to see what it has in store.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Life is Strange: Before the Storm [+35] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #276 - LEGO City Undercover

A prime example of a game filled with unnecessary bloat. I've never been particularly fond of the fact that LEGO games went open world, I much prefer the approach of the earlier PS2 games, or the approach of Batman 3 which splits the game into several smaller hubs. The difference between this and the other open world LEGO games (that I've played at least) however is that you cannot fly, so getting from place to place takes a lot longer and getting collectibles on rooftops isn't quite as easy, and collectibles no longer appear on the map.

 

Considering the fact that this has probably the most collectibles in a LEGO game open world I've played, having 450 gold bricks and about 300 character/vehicles tokens, the fact that they don't appear on the map is very frustrating. You have absolutely no idea where to begin searching for them and unlike other LEGO games, red bricks don't point you towards them. You can use a special scanner thing to look for tokens and some of the other collectibles too but that is very tedious. I honestly just resorted to following a guide for every area and it felt like a bit of a chore. And because there were so many of the things, it felt endless.

 

Open world gripe aside, the story levels themselves were interesting and I like the idea of having one main character who gets different abilities (like the suits in Batman) instead of it being a co-op 2 player game that you switch between characters in, because I never play them in co-op anyway. It ultimately didn't end up changing much of the core gameplay loop but it was nice to see them try and change it up a bit. The story was nothing overly special, it's like a very basic Sleeping Dogs, but for an original LEGO story it was above average.

 

Overall I can't help but feel a little disappointed, people hyped it up as one of the best LEGO games back when it was a Wii U exclusive so I was excited to give it a go but honestly there are lots of other LEGO games better than it, like Batman 1-3, Indiana Jones 1, Movie, Harry Potter... Definitely don't understand the hype, but at least it wasn't bad like LEGO Hobbit Vita. I hope future LEGO games lessen the bloat a bit or go back to being split up hubs like Batman 3 was.

Spoiler

Retail

LEGO City Undercover [+23] {+57%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered [+9] {+14%}

Legend of Kay Anniversary [+5] {+28%}

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham [+7] {+11%}

The Walking Dead: The Final Season [+10] {+21%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut [60] {Digital}

 

Impossible Trophies

The Walking Dead: The Final Season [-13]

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #277 - Legend of Kay Anniversary

I remember, back on PS2, wanting to play this game but never getting around to actually doing so. This remaster has finally given me the chance to realize that I honestly wasn't missing much at all. Maybe I could appreciate it more if we were still in the PS2 era, but this game has so many flaws that keep it from being enjoyable. It crashes a lot - there's a late game fight where it crashed on me 4 times in a row, when I was almost done, so I had to redo the entire fight again. Very frustrating. It also consistently crashed at various points before that one, but that was the most annoying. The camera angle is horrible for combat, enemies can attack you off screen or certain bosses, like the final one, get much harder because you can't move the camera enough to effectively deal with it.

 

The combat in this is really bad. It gives you a good variety of options, with three main weapons, all of which having their own purpose, and various drinks that modify your damage or distract enemies you can use. The problem, however, is that the enemies take forever to kill and deal way too much damage to you that you cannot effectively dodge because the rolling is pretty terrible. There's also no way to distinguish between a blockable attack and an unblockable attack, so trial and error will inevitably lead to losing a lot of health as you try and see what you can block and what you can't. Another really big annoyance is that if you go into a fight with a bunch of health/beserk/magic/etc. potions and armor, and then die in the fight after using the items, you respawn before the fight with all your items gone and your armor gone, and you won't be at full health either. You're essentially fucked and potentially put into unwinnable situations via this. Death being punishing is nice but this was a bit too punishing considering how wonky the combat is in the first place.

 

The level design is a bit of a mess, with a lot of branching pathways and backtracking involved and the game never really guides you so it just ends up being mindless exploring until something good happens. Honestly I gave up pretty quick and just started using a guide to make completely sure I wasn't missing any collectibles along the way. The platforming is a bit unreliable because the camera likes to change mid-jump and throw your jump angle off so you end up falling. Swinging on poles is also rather unreliable as it doesn't always work like it should.

 

This game does have a lot of charm though, you visit very distinct locations throughout the game, keeping every new area feeling fresh, and all of the locations are colourful and varied. You have a nice, bright grassy village (which reminded me of MiNi NiNJAS), a swamp (which reminded me of Rayman 2), a volcano, a beach, and several others, and each level seamlessly transitions into the next, which I loved. The progression of the levels in this reminded me very heavily of Rayman 3, which also felt like one continuous great journey. It doesn't really feel like "levels".

 

The story was pretty generic and outside of the main character and his love interest the main cast was largely forgettable, the villains didn't feel very well fleshed out, and the side characters weren't very special either. But that's ok, I don't go into a 3D platformer expecting a gripping story, although it would've been nice to have one lol. I like the comic book presentation of the cutscenes though.

 

Overall I want to say I liked this game, and there are certainly things to like about it, but the regular crashing, bad combat, and wonky platforming ultimately leave a bitter taste. Can't say I'm too devastated I never played it on PS2, but I'm glad I finally got a chance to check out the game at least.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Legend of Kay Anniversary [+13] {+57%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #278 - LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues

I was a big fan of LEGO Indiana Jones 1 on PS2, and as such have been interested in this game for quite a while, but for some reason I just never got around to buying it until a few days ago (I do own the DS version though which is pretty good.) The structure of this game is quite unique - none of the levels have collectibles. The only reason you have to replay them is to get true adventurer status if you missed it the first time, and there's no freeplay when replaying either so you have to use the same characters as the first time. Instead, the collectibles are scattered around 6 different hub areas. Each hub area is cut off from the others - you can't bring a character from Temple of Doom into Crystal Skull, for instance.

 

Overall I liked the change of pace this offered as a one-time thing, but I'm glad that they didn't stick to it for every LEGO game afterwards. Having to find characters with the right abilities in every new hub instead of just getting them in one hub and bringing them wherever was a little annoying, and it felt like there was very little reason to fully explore levels after you've gotten true believer since there was nothing else substantial to find. Also I had forgotten that these early games had no voice acting because I'm so used to it in LEGO games by now lol - I had no idea what was going on because I've never seen an Indiana Jones movie (aside from Crystal Skull when it released, and I remember nothing about it.) The first game was better but I'm still happy that I finally got around to playing this after so many years.

Spoiler

Retail

NEW GAME: LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues [+39] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars [49] {Retail}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #279 - Bully

I'm not a huge fan of Rockstar, so I wasn't really sure going into this whether or not I'd like it. I'd seen it described as having the spirit of Harry Potter without the magic (obviously). From that, and knowing about the day/night cycle mechanic, I went in expecting a game where you do classes and interact with peers during the day, and progress the main story sneaking around at night after curfew. That's not what I got, unsurprisingly, but I'm okay with that.

 

What I got instead is a game where you have to balance your missions around your class times - if you start a lesson at 8:45, for example, you may not finish it in time to attend your 9-11:30 class. This was a pretty interesting mechanic and I enjoyed it a lot more than something like Persona, where you have to choose between options like bonding with classmates or eating or studying, etc. In this, you can do it all if you manage your time correctly. Unfortunately the mechanic becomes obsolete pretty quick, because there's no reason to attend lessons after finishing them 5 times and getting every ability from them.

 

I liked how small and compact the game was, it may just be because of hardware limitations, but it meant that traveling from place to place didn't take forever, and it wasn't filled with pointless bloat. A lot of the side activities were genuinely enjoyable which was pretty shocking after playing L.A Noire, which was literally void of anything to do outside of main missions and finding useless golden reels, and GTAV where none of the side content is interesting or fun at all. Games are too large these days tbh.

 

Story was nothing particularly special but it's a step above what I was expecting from Rockstar. I hate all the characters in GTAV and L.A Noire was pretty forgettable overall, but the characters here all felt distinct and unique without being shitty over the top tropes like Trevor and Franklin, which made them far more likable. It also seemed surprisingly short but I suppose I shouldn't expect a PS2 game to be super lengthy. I would've liked some more side missions to flesh out some of the students that we never even really interact with (speaking of which, it's pretty neat that every student in the game is unique instead of being copy/paste nameless models. The differences are barely distinguishable for some students, but they're definitely uniquely named - the yearbook requires you to photo every student, so clearly some work went into making sure the same person wasn't running around in two different places like in other open world games.)

 

I'm surprised by how much I liked this game and I'm glad I gave it a chance despite my lukewarm reception to L.A Noire and my extreme disappointment with GTAV. I was going to skip it, because Rockstar, but the HP comparisons I kept seeing and the fairly unique premise caught my attention. I'm not sure I trust modern Rockstar with a sequel, but if it does happen it'd at least be interesting to see where they go with it.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}
Bully [+38] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Edited October 9, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #280 - Thumper

I believe that this is the first rhythm game I've ever played outside of minigames (like Yakuza karaoke or dancing in Sly 2.) I'd been wanting to try one out for a while, and with Thumper being on sale for as little as £3.99 I figured it was a good chance to jump in and see what I had been missing. The end result? I think maybe rhythm games aren't my thing.

 

Maybe I was missing some pivotal audio clues that most rhythm game players would pick up on, but overall this just felt like a bunch of death traps thrown haphazardly together with no indication as to when they're coming up. Sometimes you get ample time to react to what's on the screen, most of the time everything is just whizzing by and you have to die to an obstacle to learn that it's there, so you can retry and avoid it with your new knowledge. It felt like a memorization game more than what I expected a rhythm game to be tbh. Sometimes there were some definite musical beats that you could use, but most of the time it just felt like random noise that you couldn't anticipate.

 

It's definitely satisfying to play when you're doing well, and everything falls into place, but the frustration required to memorize an entire sublevel to then play it perfectly just wasn't fun. Unless someone tells me otherwise, or PS+ gives me a freebie, I may just assume most rhythm games are like this and not play another anytime soon lol. I will say though that this is an impressive game for a team of two developers. I can forgive its shortcomings quite a bit considering how abnormally small the dev team was. It was also very stylish, although you don't really get to appreciate the sights when you're doing your best to avoid dying.

Spoiler

Retail

Yakuza 3 [+8] {+12%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Thumper [+19] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #281 - Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F

So after my last plat, Thumper, I thought I wouldn't be playing a rhythm game again any time soon, because I didn't really enjoy Thumper at all. And then immediately after, this goes on sale for its cheapest price yet so I jump right back into another rhythm game lol. This is a rhythm game that has interested me ever since it released, but it has always been expensive to justify just trying out without knowing if I'd like it or not. It seemed like a good introduction for beginners and I liked the songs, although there was a bit too much Miku. Kaito has 2 songs, total, and only one of them is him alone. Luka has... 2 solo and 2 collab? Len/Rin had a few, but nowhere near as many as Miku.

 

I'm happy to say that, although this proved much, much harder than I had anticipated - honestly I found it harder than Thumper and that's listed as double the difficulty rating on here - I enjoyed this much more than Thumper. The fact that there is actually music here, instead of just a mess of random sound, helps make the notes be somewhat predictable, although some songs were a bit silly with note placement like Negaposi. Negaposi was not a fun song to play, it took me over 150 attempts to pass it on hard - with a help item. I'm very glad they didn't make me play it on expert.

 

I was disappointed in the Diva stuff though. I was expecting some kind of light visual novel-esque gameplay, where each Diva had their own events and you got to bond with them, and they would each have their own personality, etc. Nope. They never even speak a single word. All it basically comes down to is a few events of them watering plants or having a birthday cake or looking at a figurine of themselves, etc. And also feeding them 99 bottles of orange juice until they love you. Wasn't fun at all and I don't understand the appeal of it, I would hope later games improve that aspect but I doubt it.

 

Overall, although this was a very challenging plat for me and there were times I thought I was never going to be able to do it, I did enjoy it and I could still see myself coming back for more with F 2ND sometime in the future. I've heard it's harder, but not by too much. X and Future Tone look utterly absurd, but who knows, maybe one day I'll end up playing those too. The big problem is that these games never really go on sale, especially with F 2ND being a PS3 game, and when they do they're still a bit expensive, so it'll likely be a while before I get to F 2ND, if I do end up playing it in the first place.

Spoiler

Retail

Grand Theft Auto V [+6] {+8%}

Kingdom Hearts II [+1] {+1%}

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars [+6] {+9%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F [+29] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Mahjong Royal Towers [+13] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Castle of Illusion Starting Mickey Mouse [12] {Digital}

NEW GAME: LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues [39] {Retail}

Edited November 5, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #281 - Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd

It turns out that the PS Webstore has completely stopped advertising PS3 sales and Vita sales that aren't cross-buy. After finishing DIVA F, I manually searched for this game and it turns out it's on sale, despite being completely absent from the price drop section in the store. It was still a bit expensive for an old PS3 game, but I was actually craving some more DIVA after finishing F and who knows when it'll go on sale again since it's a PS3 game, so I decided to jump right into it despite expecting not to play it for a while.

 

I liked this one more than the first game. There were more songs, the notes were in logical places in all the songs (Negaposi in particular in F just felt like a mess), and there were some new mechanics thrown in like double stars and star chains which were neat. You can't just spam the sticks whenever stars appear now, you actually have to time them. Despite that, this game felt much, much, much easier than the original. Maybe I'm just getting better, but the timing for good/cool felt more lenient and only one of the songs was absurdly fast (Kagerou Daze.) Negaposi in F took me 150+ attempts, I don't think any song in this took more than about 10 at most (outside of Kagerou which was probably more like 20.) It was more of a grind though, as you need to play every song multiple times for the unlock list. But I didn't mind that too much, since the game is fun to play.

 

This game also had the same issue as F in regards to the song choices though - way too much Miku, barely any Kaito/Meiko. Len and Rin still got a fair amount of screentime (though nowhere near as much as Miku) but Meiko only had 2 songs I think, and there were 40 in this game (F had 32, and also only had 2 Meiko songs.) It felt like Luka got more time to shine though which was nice. Hopefully future games have a better balance between characters.

 

They somehow managed to make Diva rooms even worse this time around, which is unfortunate. Unlike in F, you have a limit to how much you can interact with the divas in this game, so you have to wait for your interactions to recharge. This means it takes forever to complete and you have to remember to check up on them mid-game to minimize the grind later. And there was also a new minigame to play - Patty Cake. It felt unhealthy to my controller playing that, because it gets to a point where you're practically spamming L3 + R3 and the controller doesn't feel like it was built to do that. I'm glad I'm done with it just so I know my controller is safe lol.

 

I think my next DIVA game will be Future Tone. Seems much easier than X, and it has 200+ songs. I'm hoping that by the time I finish it, I'll be ready to tackle X which is supposedly the hardest plat in the franchise. I'm actually pretty surprised at how much I've enjoyed these two games.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse [+12] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

NEW GAME: Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd [+28] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition [+14] {+16%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Mass Effect: Andromeda [56] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Yooka-Laylee [36] {Digital}

 

[fastflowdaman]

On 7.9.2018 at 8:30 PM, madbuk said:

Chloe was the best here she's ever been, in 2/3 she was very bland and one dimensional, seemingly only there for fanservice ("You're going to miss this ass") but delving into her back helped

 

ftfy

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #283 - Yooka-Laylee

I feel like the hate for this is a bit overblown. It's not the best collectathon 3D platformer I've played, far from it really, but it's perfectly serviceable and enjoyable. Story was bad but does anyone go into a 3D collectathon expecting a good story? I just couldn't wait for Spyro to get my collectathon fix, so I played this and it just made me anticipate Spyro more because I already know they're much better lol.

 

I'm not a huge fan of having fewer, larger worlds. I prefer more smaller worlds like in Spyro. Bigger worlds can work, but it just gets tedious looking for the last collectible you need (especially in level as large as the ones here when you're only missing 1 quill) compared to Spyro where it's fun to explore the levels to find one stray gem because it's smaller and not as tedious. There's also much more variety in a game like Spyro due to having more levels. The casino one was my favourite in this game because it was split up into smaller areas and because of the way the level is structured (you have to do multiple tasks for coins to trade for pagies, unlike in other worlds where you get pagies for each task) there's a lot to see and do as well despite being generally a smaller level.

 

I'm also not a big fan of the Trowzer upgrades either really. Remembering exactly where you need to backtrack to is annoying with larger areas whereas in Spyro, even if you forget it doesn't take you long to find what was previously blocked off to you. The late game flying upgrade completely broke the game too (speaking of which, the platforming felt a bit abusable. I kept feeling like I was going out of bounds because so much of the wall is climbable when it feels like it shouldn't be.) You can fly anywhere with this ability and it completely removes the need for platforming. Even in the final world, where you will definitely have the flying ability, you're still doing tasks to unlock new platforms to get to places when you could just fly there from the very start. If there's a sequel I don't think that should return.

 

Overall I liked this, as much as I would've liked more levels, what was there was nice and varied and the gameplay was fun, with plenty of unique ideas to get pagies and some well hidden quills (which are satisfying to find even if it is a bit annoying with such large levels.) I miss this kind of game a lot and this temporarily scratched that itch. I hope we see an even better sequel, and I hope Spyro succeeds enough to bring some life back into this genre.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Yooka-Laylee [+36] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Edited November 7, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #284 - Spyro the Dragon

This was an amazing remaster. Pretty much every level I had to stop for a moment and take it all it, it's breathtakingly beautiful. The new soundtrack is good too although to be honest it's not much different to the original. I tried switching between music in Cliff Town out of interest (this lets you switch to the original soundtrack unlike Crash) and barely noticed the difference. There are some new collectibles in a few stages for skill points and trophies (not every level though) and they were a lot of fun to try and find, something new for someone like me who has already gotten 120% countless times on this game.

 

The trophy list for this was fantastic. No missables, and all of them are interesting and fun to collect. It's not just a bare-bones "100% the game" trophy list - there's actually only one or two trophies related to doing that. There's a lot of unique requirements like doing a loop around an arch or shooting a mooning Gnorc with a cannon. I wish there was a trophy for getting every skill point, but oh well. I got them all anyway and enjoyed doing so. The trophy list for 2 looks a bit more generic which is a bit sad, haven't really looked too closely at 3's list yet.

 

Honestly there's only one thing that annoyed me in this and I hope they patch it out - L3 is used to bring up your gem/dragon/life count, but it also makes Sparx point towards any gems you're missing. So you have to pause the game to look at your totals unless you want to completely ruin the joy of actually exploring the level for the gems you missed. It's a minor detail but a patch for it would just make the game even better. There was also one bug where a red gem was completely absent in a level until I died, and then it spawned. Probably ran around the level 5 or 6 times looking for it lol, I hope 2 and 3 don't suffer from a glitch like that. I also think this game is begging for a photo mode considering how stunning the environments are. I could see many people losing a few hours moving around the levels with a free camera and just having fun taking photos.

 

I'm not done with this game yet. I plan on doing it again at least twice to fill up the other save slots, after I finish 2 and 3, and I don't doubt that it will be just as amazing a second and third time through. I wish it wasn't so short, but that isn't Toys For Bob's fault. That's just staying true to the original. I hope, if they make a new game, it'll be longer. I also hope they add some DLC realms to this like VV did with Crash.

 

Reviews for this aren't out yet, so some people may still be waiting on their pre-order, but rest assured this is incredibly faithful and you have nothing to worry about. I hope that 2 and 3 are just as fantastic as this was.

Spoiler

Retail

NEW GAME: Spyro the Dragon [+37] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! [30] {Retail}

NEW GAME: Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon [41] {Retail}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #285 - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Once again, an absolutely joy to play and platinum. I do think that, as far as the remastering goes, this was a little blander than the redesigns of Spyro 1, and I'm disappointed they didn't throw in any new secrets for skill points like they did for Spyro 1. I loved them there. They also seem to have completely removed the epilogue for getting every skill point, replacing it with an art gallery instead. This is the first time I have ever gotten every skill point on this game - I never managed the speedway ones on the PS1 version - so it was a bit disappointing to see I hadn't unlocked the epilogue that I've never actually earned before. And once again it's a shame there's no trophy for getting every skill point.

 

Speaking of which, the trophy list for this in general just seems a lot blander than the effort that was put into Spyro 1's. It was essentially all just tied to completing orb challenges and finishing levels, with some exceptions here and there like killing all the bees in Robotica Farms by spitting. No new hidden secrets like the cogs or mushrooms from Spyro 1. It was still loads of fun, don't get me wrong, but it definitely wasn't as interesting as 1's list. I hope 3's is better.

 

This was the game I was least excited about replaying, being my least favourite of the trilogy. The remaster helped breathe some life into the blander levels like Crystal Glacier, but I don't think my opinion of it is going to change once I play 3. It's a great game, but 1 and 3 are just so much better (especially 1, and especially Reignited 1.) Just like the first game, I plan on returning to this again at least twice to fill out the other two save files, and I don't see myself going back to the PS1 version very often because this is definitely much better.

Spoiler

Retail

Shadow of the Tomb Raider [+5] {+14%} (COMPLETE!)

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! [+30] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Mass Effect: Andromeda [+9] {+21%}

 

Games With Unfinished Online Trophies

Mass Effect: Andromeda [-9]

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by madbuk