Madbuk's List of Unfinished Games

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #252 - Rayman: Legends

15 years later, Ubisoft, and I'm still waiting for the Rayman 4 you promised us... This game is decent, a big step up from Origins but still disappointing considering how incredible Rayman 3 was. Going back to 2D was a mistake, they just aren't as enjoyable or interesting as Rayman 2/3 were. The music levels were fun and definitely the highlight of the experience, although it's a shame that there were so few of them in the game. The regular levels were alright with the exception of the sea world, which was incredibly dull, but the lack of challenge ends up making the game feel repetitive and boring. The final world is identical in terms of difficulty to the first world, there's no difficulty scaling whatsoever. The only real form of difficulty in the game comes from the daily/weekly challenges, which honestly are better than the regular levels. The endless distance ones especially are enjoyable to try and aim for diamonds in because it always feels like there's room for improvement, and unlike the regular levels, the daily/weekly ones display how well designed the platforming elements and controls really are in Rayman Legends - you have to use your full range of abilities and all the obstacles flow really well together. You never really appreciate how well done it is outside the challenges because it feels like it's designed so a toddler can pick it up and finish it, so a lot of your abilities end up being very underused. Running, jumping and punching is almost always enough to beat every stage. Ground pounding? Wall running? Spin jumping? Hovering? They do get used, but very, very rarely. However, you use those constantly in the online challenges.

Also, including the Origins levels in this was so unnecessary. They're so bland in comparison to the Legends levels - which, while heavily flawed, are still somewhat enjoyable - and it felt like a chore to go through and replay most of Origins again (for the 3rd time, since this is a stack of Legends.) It really just feels like filler because you can beat the rest of Legends within a day or two.

 

Please just give us Rayman 4 already, Ubisoft. We've done enough waiting.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Rayman Legends [+4] {+8%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Yakuza 0 [+31] {+44%}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #253 - Detroit: Become Human

This was a good game. I've seen a lot of people say it's QD's best yet, but personally I found it on par with Heavy Rain. All of the characters were interesting although Markus' gameplay segments seemed to be the worst, I can't really put my finger on why since all 3 characters basically play identically. His dragged on a little longer than the others I guess? Kara's sections were my favourite, her plot was the most interesting to me, although Connor was my favourite character and I enjoyed his dynamic with Hank. The flowchart is an interesting mechanic and helps show just how much better QD's games are at actually changing the story based on your choices than Telltale are. There are so many different outcomes this game can end up having, it's very impressive. Much more ending variety than in Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, which was nice. Definitely worth playing if you're into games like Heavy Rain and The Walking Dead and don't despise every fiber of David Cage's being like a lot of people on the internet do for some reason. Speaking of which, if you hate his writing, don't worry. He's still the lead director, but he wasn't the lead writer this time around.

Spoiler

Retail

NEW GAME: Detroit: Become Human [+49] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

One Piece Pirate Warriors [+2] {+11%}

Yakuza 0 [+11] {+18%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Firewatch [10] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Jak 3 [47] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Jak II [41] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Jak X: Combat Racing [30] {Digital}

NEW GAME: Yakuza 3 [45] {Retail}

NEW GAME: Yakuza 4 [49] {PS+}

NEW GAME: Yakuza 5 [57] {PS+}

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #254 - One Piece: Pirate Warriors

This was a fun game. My first musou game and I think it was a good introduction to the genre. It was very easy and beginner-friendly, and it was enjoyable to play despite how easy it was. I didn't care about the story or the characters whatsoever, they introduced them way too quickly and then didn't develop any of them. It felt like it just introduced a character and then they were along for the ride, and didn't really do anything substantial. It also seemed very rushed. I suppose it assumes you've watched the anime and are familiar with the plot and the characters, and I haven't seen the anime. Also there would be dialogue during the missions where the characters are talking, but because the game has so much combat you can't really stop and read the subtitles without endangering yourself, and it's entirely voiced in Japanese so you can't listen either unless you know the language, which I don't. So I ended up ignoring those completely. Maybe that's where the characters get fleshed out? The RNG grind was horrible, brought back bad memories of the treasures from Uncharted 3, except I think there were even more in this game than there were in Uncharted 3. Thankfully, although the coins in this game are entirely random, and like Uncharted 3, you can get duplicates (it's so frustrating getting the same coin over and over when you are trying to get a different coin), you're guaranteed at least a few coins after every level, unlike Uncharted 3 where you had to pray every kill that a treasure dropped. It was also annoying how there's a trophy for killing 100,000 enemies but you can't track how many you've killed so you have no idea how close you are to being done, but at least that grind wasn't RNG like the fucking coins. Overall this was a fun game and I already have OPPW2 ready to play when the horrors of coin grinding have worn off a bit.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

One Piece: Pirate Warriors [+3] {+11%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unpurchased DLC

PURCHASED: Assassin's Creed Origins® - The Curse Of the Pharaohs [Assassin's Creed Origins]

 

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #255 - Yakuza 0

SEGA did a good thing, making a prequel and remaking the first game. This is a franchise I've avoided because, although PS+ gave me 4 and 5, I didn't want to start there because I was worried I wouldn't appreciate the story. With this being a prequel, I figured it would be the perfect jumping on point, and now with the remakes I can easily play every game in the franchise as well. I'm glad I finally got around to giving this franchise a shot because I loved this game. The story was very engaging, and the substories you can do inject some humor into an otherwise very serious game. The juxtaposition of it is amazing and gives the game a lot of charm. Most of the minigames are a lot of fun too, although disco seemed broken and off-rhythm and I never really got the timing consistent for batting. The combat was fun although very abusable once you know which attacks are overpowered, then it becomes trivial. This was a fantastic game and I'm looking forward to playing Kiwami to see how these characters grow and develop, after seeing so much love for this I was worried it'd be disappointing from overhype, but there definitely wasn't any overhype here. Can definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a good story in their games.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Futuridium EP Deluxe [+1] {+5%}

 

Retail

Assassin's Creed Origins [+12] {+16%}

Final Fantasy XIII [+1] {+1%}

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

The Amazing Spider-Man [+3] {+6%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Yakuza 0 [+13] {+38%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #256 - The Amazing Spider-Man

I was looking forward to playing an open-world Spider-Man game after Shattered Dimensions, and while there was nothing overly special about the open world here and none of the side activities were particularly great, it was still a nice change of pace from the linear level-based system in Shattered Dimensions. Swinging around and finding comic book pages was actually surprisingly enjoyable. The levels themselves are quite a step down from Shattered Dimensions, they all feel rather bland and the combat mechanics aren't as enjoyable, there are basically no combos whereas SD had loads, and the stealth doesn't really feel quite as well done as it was in the Noir stages in Shattered Dimensions. The story was better here than it was in Shattered Dimensions, but that's not really saying much because the one in SD wasn't very special to begin with. Despite thinking that this was nothing special, I am still looking forward to redoing it on PS3. The Vita version had some pretty ugly textures and pop-in and I wonder what it'll look like on a PS3. I'll be a bit disappointed if it's just as bad lol. Also had several crashes and occasional frame rate drops. I'll definitely be doing Edge of Time first though, excited to see what that'll be like, seems to have a lot in common with Shattered Dimensions, gameplay wise.

Spoiler

Retail

Assassin's Creed Origins [+10] {+19%}

Kingdom Hearts II [+5] {+7%}

LEGO City Undercover [+2] {+3%}

The Amazing Spider-Man [+25] {+66%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum [48] {Digital}

 

[Charizarzar]

27 minutes ago, madbuk said:

Progress Update: #256 - The Amazing Spider-Man

I was looking forward to playing an open-world Spider-Man game after Shattered Dimensions, and while there was nothing overly special about the open world here and none of the side activities were particularly great, it was still a nice change of pace from the linear level-based system in Shattered Dimensions. Swinging around and finding comic book pages was actually surprisingly enjoyable. The levels themselves are quite a step down from Shattered Dimensions, they all feel rather bland and the combat mechanics aren't as enjoyable, there are basically no combos whereas SD had loads, and the stealth doesn't really feel quite as well done as it was in the Noir stages in Shattered Dimensions. The story was better here than it was in Shattered Dimensions, but that's not really saying much because the one in SD wasn't very special to begin with. Despite thinking that this was nothing special, I am still looking forward to redoing it on PS3. The Vita version had some pretty ugly textures and pop-in and I wonder what it'll look like on a PS3. I'll be a bit disappointed if it's just as bad lol. Also had several crashes and occasional frame rate drops. I'll definitely be doing Edge of Time first though, excited to see what that'll be like, seems to have a lot in common with Shattered Dimensions, gameplay wise.

  Reveal hidden contents

Retail

Assassin's Creed Origins [+10] {+19%}

Kingdom Hearts II [+5] {+7%}

LEGO City Undercover [+2] {+3%}

The Amazing Spider-Man [+25] {+66%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham Asylum [48] {Digital}

 

 

I don’t mind difficulty trophies normally but I remember having a tough time with one of the robot boss fights.

[madbuk]

3 minutes ago, Charizarzar said:

 

I don’t mind difficulty trophies normally but I remember having a tough time with one of the robot boss fights.

There was one part in the open world with 3 of the hunter bots that fly around really quickly, shoot bullets at you and have a wide area of effect attack that took a while to get past. Kept dying when there was only 1 left

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #257 - Jak II

Jak is a great franchise. I already enjoyed this game, having played it on PS2, PS3, and PS Vita before this, but I think I actually enjoyed it even more this time. It has been a few years since I last played it, but I remembered some really annoying missions harming the overall enjoyment a bit, but I didn't feel that at all here. There was only one mission that gave me any kind of trouble and it really just came down to being patient and not pushing my luck. The difficulty - and especially the unfairness - of this game is ridiculously overblown and unwarranted, this game is perfectly fair, just don't go rushing into fights gun blazing. I loved every minute of this and I feel kinda sad for all the people who are now buying these games in droves and skipping straight to the plat with debug mode instead of enjoying a trilogy of outstanding games. If you've never played these games and you were considering getting them just for the easy platinums, do yourself a favour and actually play the games. Where's the fun in skipping it all? The games are really easy anyway so it's not like you're saving yourself from some big ordeal by using debug mode.

Spoiler

Retail

LEGO City Undercover [+7] {+14%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Jak II [+41] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #258 - Yakuza Kiwami

This series has won me over. I loved this just as much as 0, although the story felt like it had more filler and there weren't as many substories. That's fine though, this is a remake of a PS2 game, I can't expect it to match the amount of content of a PS3 game. I'm very glad I played 0 first, some of the characters here didn't really get enough development if you were to play this game alone, but 0 fixes that by developing all the returning characters really well. The minigames in this were basically replicas of what was available in 0, with the addition of new karaoke songs, different Shogi patterns, and a much better catfighting game than the one in 0.That was a little disappointing, I was hoping there'd be more than that, but on the bright side they removed disco dancing which I hated in 0. The substories weren't as entertaining as the ones in 0, but they were still worth playing through. The Majima Everywhere system was just an annoyance though, constantly being interrupted by him got very tiring, I hope the other games don't have anything like that. I'm interested to see where this franchise goes next and I may actually decide to pre-order Kiwami 2, which releases next month, so I won't have long to wait until I can continue from where this left off.

Spoiler

Retail

Assassin's Creed: Origins [+1] {+1%}

Crash Bandicoot: Warped [+2] {+6%} (COMPLETE!)

Kingdom Hearts II [+1] {+2%}

LEGO City Undercover [+2] {+4%}

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 [+11] {+17%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Yakuza Kiwami [+55] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Batman: Arkham Asylum [48] {Retail}

NEW GAME: Batman: Return to Arkham - Arkham City [71] {Digital}

NEW GAME: The Walking Dead Collection [52] {Digital}

 

Edited July 27, 2018 by madbuk

[AJ_Radio]

On 6/23/2018 at 2:40 PM, madbuk said:

Progress Update: #257 - Jak II

The difficulty - and especially the unfairness - of this game is ridiculously overblown and unwarranted, this game is perfectly fair, just don't go rushing into fights gun blazing. I loved every minute of this and I feel kinda sad for all the people who are now buying these games in droves and skipping straight to the plat with debug mode instead of enjoying a trilogy of outstanding games. If you've never played these games and you were considering getting them just for the easy platinums, do yourself a favour and actually play the games. Where's the fun in skipping it all? The games are really easy anyway so it's not like you're saving yourself from some big ordeal by using debug mode.

 

This game is no more than a 4 out of 10 in difficulty. Really the problem was the checkpoints, that's what a lot of people bitched about. Even then they weren't all that bad. The city layout was meh, but the game was easily beaten within 10 to 14 hours and all you had left was the eggs and orbs.

 

There is still the orb glitch, which you still have to play through the game anyway.

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #259 - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Without a doubt, the best Arkham game in my opinion. Later games add so much bloat and the open world robs it of the atmosphere that Asylum had. Arkham Asylum is a very finely tuned and curated experience, the only reason you have to deviate from the main path is to get riddler trophies and solve riddles (which can actually be pretty fun, especially in this game where there were only 240 of them instead of the ridiculous number in City). This helps keep the story moving at a brisk pace and ensures that the quality of the game never wavers, it's great fun from start to finish. Combat isn't as good as later entries, which is to be expected, but it's serviceable and the stealth sections aren't much of a step back from what we get later in the series. Combat challenges were much easier than I remembered them being, whereas the predator challenges ended up being harder than what I remembered (still fairly easy though). I replayed this in the hope that it would re-adjust me to PS3 Arkham so I could appreciate Arkham Origins more. Going straight from Arkham Knight on PS4 to Arkham Origins on PS3 was rough. Unfortunately, this game is so much better than I recall Origins being from what I played of that game, so I still have no desire to go back to it lol. Very big thanks to GiussepeG11 for giving me this game, took 5 months to get here but it was worth the wait, I enjoyed it even more stacking than I was expecting to and I look forward to doing it yet again on PS4 eventually.

Spoiler

Retail

Batman: Arkham Asylum [+48] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #260 - Spider-Man: Edge of Time

The story in this is probably about on par with Amazing Spider-Man, though that isn't saying much. Certainly much better than Shattered Dimensions in that regard but still nothing overly great. I'm not well-versed in Spider-Man lore, the only exposure I've had is via the three games I've played so far, but one of the big twists here felt rather forced. Maybe my opinion would be different if I was more knowledgeable though. As for the gameplay, the game had a very interesting concept of having two separate time zones, and what you do in one affects the other... it's a shame that they never actually did anything too big with it. Both time zones looked identical so you could barely tell the difference when something happens in one and affects the other. There felt like there was only one really distinct area in the game, visually, and the rest just all blended together, across both time zones. Both playable characters play identically too, so the time travel just feels like a gimmick to make the story interesting and nothing more. I liked the web of challenges a lot more in this game than in Shattered Dimensions, because you could replay each individual challenge from the title screen instead of having to replay the entire level to get back to the challenge you need to do like in SD. Also, the golden spiders now have a sensor which makes them much more reasonable to find, although I still missed quite a few lol. The combat was a bit too button mashy, you only really had to ever mash square and L2 and you're pretty much set for the whole game. SD felt like you had more of a reason to use various attacks, and Amazing Spider-Man isn't really comparable because that felt like it didn't even have much combat overall. It served it's purpose though and it's more interesting than having no enemies at all at least.

Overall, this game definitely has some problems but it was an enjoyable experience regardless, although nothing overly special.

Spoiler

Retail

Spider-Man: Edge of Time [+48] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #261 - Deadpool

I don't understand why this game is considered to be so bad by a lot of people. Is it great? Certainly not, but it seems about on par with the Spider-Man games in terms of quality and, other than Edge of Time, those seem fairly well-regarded. The writing was decent, even if the overall plot wasn't anything particularly special. I went straight into ultra-violent mode for this, with no upgrades, since the PS4 version allows that, and for the most part, combat encounters seemed well balanced and manageable. If you spend your upgrade points (DP) wisely, you'll have plenty of weapons and gear to help make late-game fights easier. However, the final chapter, and a couple of fights in the chapter before it, were a little ridiculous. I ended up using up so much of my ammo on the final chapter fighting that I was left with 10 shotgun rounds and a bunch of platforming to do as goons try to shoot me. What you're supposed to do is pick off the goons before you do the platforming, but they're flying around or standing on different islands that are too far away for a shotgun. This resulted in me having to do all the platforming, and run past a large group of enemies afterwards, without having the ability to fight and there's no real way to defend yourself from incoming bullets. The RNG involved in this was incredibly annoying, but thankfully not long after that there were some pretty easy melee fights that replenished my ammo. It's pretty shitty that you can find yourself in such a situation, though - I felt like I was being conservative with my ammo and I still ended up with basically nothing. You do so little damage on ultra violent that you end up using a lot more ammo in fights than the game gives you, and it was especially bad in this chapter. Then you get to the final arena in the chapter and it gets even more frustrating, so many powerful enemies are thrown at you all at once, many of which can one-hit kill you, with barely any checkpoints in between the waves that onslaught you. Outside of that final chapter, this was a fun game and I'm glad I decided to get it before it was delisted, despite the pretty harsh reception it gets.

Spoiler

Retail

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End [+2] {+3%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Deadpool [+51] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[TerraTanium]

i see you're on a superhero kick with batman, spiderman and deadpool. Too bad about those jak games though ?

[madbuk]

16 hours ago, TerraTanium said:

i see you're on a superhero kick with batman, spiderman and deadpool. Too bad about those jak games though 

I don't really have any superhero games left besides stacks anyway  Jak is great.

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #262 - Jak 3

What a great trilogy of games. This one had the best atmosphere, it truly felt like the end of a saga. The stakes are the highest they've ever been and you're constantly reminded of the threat by the giant purple star in the sky. And maybe I'm wrong but it seemed like the star grew brighter as the game progressed, which only added to the feeling of impending doom. Haven City was a very lively warzone. Everywhere you went, you could see guards fighting off metal heads and robots, so what you're doing feels meaningful. You're saving the city from a very real threat which is killing off guards constantly. A lot of people complain about the traveling to and from missions in this game and Jak II, but it only enhanced this game in particular thanks to the constant battle being fought everywhere you go, made everything seem more atmospheric, it's really well done. The platforming is as great as it has always been, and there are more gun options than there were in Jak II which is nice. Kiera seemed a little off in this game. She only has about two pieces of dialogue and then she stands around doing nothing for the rest of the cutscenes she's in, and the two dialogue lines she does speak, it doesn't sound like Kiera. Maybe they got a new voice actress and didn't give her many lines so it wasn't obvious?

I'm looking forward to seeing what Jak X has in store for me, as I never got around to playing that on PS2. While I would love to see a Jak 4 (no, TLF doesn't count), this trilogy ended on a very satisfying note and it would be understandable to leave it here, even if ND did go on to make nothing anywhere near as good afterwards.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Jak 3 [+47] {+100%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #263 - Darksiders II

I'm so glad to finally have this done. I've been trying to get into it for years, but it just never gripped me in the way Darksiders 1 did and I wasn't even sure why. The platforming is an improvement, for a start. I think that the large amount of bloat is what ultimately stopped this game being overly appealing. Darksiders 1 is a very linear, curated experience that doesn't give you much reason to stop unless you're seeking out collectibles as you go (which were actually worth finding unlike the ones in this). This game has side quests, optional dungeons, large, barren hub areas and really just none of it is interesting or worth engaging in outside of the trophies involved with doing them. The optional dungeons were all incredibly short anyway and lacked any interesting puzzles or rewarding loot so why bother? With the announcement of Darksiders 3, I decided it was time to go back to this and push myself to see it through to the end so I'll be ready for the third game, which hopefully will be as enjoyable as Darksiders 1 and not as lukewarm as this. Having now seen the game through to the end, I will say it's better than I was initially giving it credit for. The dungeons do get more complex as you go further - one of my biggest issues was how easy all of the puzzles and platforming were. Some late game puzzles actually stumped me for a while and I loved that. I died over 100 times in combat in this because I started on Deathinitive difficulty, a new difficulty for the PS4 version harder than Apocalypse. Some of the fights are really frustrating and the camera works against you in the smaller areas. It's so easy to dodge into a corner and then be essentially stunlocked to death as a result. Eventually, about halfway into the game, I realized that Mercy, the gun that Death has, is great at restoring Wrath - and then you can use Wrath to use Teleport Slash, which heals you. A lot of the fights ended up being avoiding attacks and just using Mercy and Teleport Slash instead of the actual weapons like scythes, hammers, claws, etc. that they expect you to use to fight things with. While there was a lot of frustration throughout the game, I will admit that it was very satisfying every time you beat a fight. Even the regular mob enemies are a challenge on Deathinitive. The story wasn't very interesting at all, and largely felt unnecessary. Darksiders 1 ends on a cliffhanger and then they release this which essentially feels like filler. I worry Darksiders 3 will also feel like filler as it also takes place during (or before?) Darksiders 1, but maybe they'll surprise us. What I really want from Darksiders 3 is for it to be as well paced and well structured as Darksiders 1 was. Bring back the idea of lifestones, which give you an entire extra health bar but also increase the damage enemies deal as you progress. In Darksiders 2, the health you start with is essentially the health you're stuck with. The Diablo loot system and maybe leveling is the only way to improve it and the Diablo loot is RNG (and it's also really tedious to compare items every time a new one drops, which is a regular occurence). Take away all the uninteresting side quests, take away the Diablo loot system, removing the leveling would be nice as well, and just in general make it as well balanced as the first game. That game didn't need large inventory tabs dedicated to loot, because there was no loot. And that made all fights fair - you know the game gave you the tools you need to succeed, because there wasn't much else you could get in addition to what the game always gives you. In Darksiders 2, if you weren't given any good loot, RIP. Darksiders 3 appears to have a smaller budget and I'm hoping that ends up working in its favour to create a more polished and curated experience than what we got here, because they simply dont have the budget to do otherwise. But who knows, we'll see in a few months. I adored Darksiders 1 so I'm still very excited for the third game, but this was really disappointing.

Spoiler

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Darksiders II [+35] {+79%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #264 - Assassin's Creed Origins

Assassin's Creed is my favourite franchise. I have loved all of the games I've played, and I've played them all besides PSP/DS spin-offs and AC1 (and I experienced AC1 and Bloodlines via the novel instead). With that said... this is one of the most vile games I have ever played, and the most disappointed I have ever been in a game since I began gaming, I'm pretty sure. Nothing about this trash heap is good. It's bug ridden, the story is disjointed and spread all over the place and as a result is very undeveloped and poorly written, this may just be the worst protagonist in the AC franchise, he has no interesting qualities whatsoever. The setting is incredibly bland, there's miles of empty desert that's a chore to run/ride through, and the stealth is the worst of the franchise and may as well have not even been a mechanic. For a start, stealth kills very often don't actually kill - simply lightly damage the guard you try to stealth kill, and then they alert the entire compound and trigger a huge, drawn out fight. They also took out way too many options. Social stealth is gone, you can no longer whistle to attract guards, you can't blend into crowds, you can't throw down money to cause a distraction, all of the stealth mechanics have been stripped away from you in this game. Eagle vision has been nerfed, which doesn't really make sense given the lore. You would think Bayek would have the strongest eagle vision yet, since he is the closest to the Isu generation than anyone else we've played as. Instead, Bayek has an eagle which he sends off into the sky to scout for him. How does Bayek understand what his eagle sees? How does he know where guards are? Eagles can't speak. The new modern day protagonist is perhaps the blandest version of Lara Croft we've ever seen, which is impressive considering how uninteresting the new Tomb Raider version of Lara is. The game added in a new level system, which level gates you from the main quest so you're forced into doing their shitty, poorly written side content that is a chore to sit through. Every side quest feels identical and none of it is interesting. Then there are the locations, which are also just busywork and a chore. I died a little inside every time I saw a fort in the distance. The combat is drawn out, tedious, and boring. The climbing is the worst in the franchise - there's no effort required whatsoever. You can climb literally any surface you see. It's really dumb and a massive step down from what we had before, it may as well not even have been there. The mounts in this game are horrendous, they control horribly, but you're pretty much forced to using them if you want to get anywhere quick because they decided it'd be a smart idea to take away the run button in this game. Bayek moves so fucking slow. The world is far larger than it had any reason to be, most of it was just empty land that made getting from a to b take much longer than necessary. Most of it isn't even used in the main quests at all, I had so many regions undiscovered when I finally pushed through and got to the end of the game. The tombs were the worst in the franchise, they were just long boring hallways with maybe a physics puzzle anyone can solve without any real thought. Even Tomb Raider 2013 had better tombs than this shit. Some of the new mechanics are dumb and shouldn't even be possible, like Bayek controlling an arrow after he fires it. What the fuck? How does he do that? This isn't an arcade game where things don't have to make sense, this is Assassin's Creed. It explains away the gamey elements behind the Animus in previous games, but from what we know, the Animus shouldn't function in a way that allows this. Speaking of which, they removed DNA sequences in this game, which results in you being able to tackle the missions in basically any order you wish (provided you've passed their arbitrary level gate.) Not only does this contradict existing canon - why can Layla's Animus do this when no others can? - it also means the story has to be written in such a way that the quests can't reference each other because they don't know which order you're going to do them in. This causes the story to feel disjointed and there's nothing linking the quests together besides the occasional chat with Aya, your cardboard cutout girlfriend. I really do think this is the most disappointing game I have ever played. Tomb Raider 2013 may have been a disappointment as a Tomb Raider game, but at least it was a good game despite that. This is not a good Assassin's Creed game, nor is it a good game in any kind of respect in general. What Ubisoft were thinking when they decided to make this is beyond me, but I hate that they did this to my favourite franchise and every session I played of this, I came away feeling empty and heartbroken. This game is an atrocity on a level I have rarely seen. And it seems like Odyssey is going to be even worse, somehow. Dialogue choices? In an Asassin's Creed game? That goes against the very fiber and DNA of the franchise, what the fuck? And they're bringing back ship combat, the worst part of AC IV and Rogue. Yay? No. It's disgusting how far this franchise has fallen with just two games... but it's Assassin's Creed. I have to give Odyssey a chance. It doesn't look good at all, but I can't let this monstrosity ruin the whole brand for me alone. It just doesn't inspire any hope for the future. To top all this off, I still have more of this shit to do because there's DLC. Yay....

 

tl;dr I'm a heartbroken man who needs to decide what his new favourite franchise is.

Spoiler

Retail

Assassin's Creed Origins [+19] {+24%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

The Walking Dead Collection [+3] {+4%}

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #265 - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

I played the original version of this over 4 years ago (really doesn't feel like that long ago) and I remember not being overly blown away by it - I liked it, but I didn't understand the level of praise it got, which is why I didn't bother with this stack when it came to PS+. However, with Guacamelee! 2 close to release and the constant undying praise I hear for this game, I figured I'd give it another shot. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to, it's paced very well, it constantly adds new gameplay mechanics to keep things feeling fresh, and the abundance of fast travel points and the small area size makes backtracking for collectibles not feel like a chore at all. The combat wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad. I'm glad I decided to give this game another chance, because I liked it so much more this time through. Hope the second game is good.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

NEW GAME: Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition [+31] {+83%}

 

Retail

Assassin's Creed Origins [+13] {25%} (COMPLETE!)

Kingdom Hearts II [+6] {+9%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Dante's Inferno [+19] {+32%}

The Walking Dead Collection [+21] {+32%}

 

Games With Unfinished Online Trophies

NEW: Dante's Inferno [+10]

 

Unpurchased DLC

NEW DLC: Guacamelee! STCE 'Frenemies' Character Pack [Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition] {£2.99}

 

 

Edited August 3, 2018 by madbuk

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #266 - LEGO Movie: The Videogame

I enjoyed this game on the initial playthrough, but going back for every collectible was very tedious, especially since the game liked to bug out and cause you to quit the game entirely and reload because the touchscreen just randomly decides to stop working mid-level. There are 45 levels, unlike the usual 15 most LEGO games have, and you have to do all of them multiple times - once for story, once for collectibles, once for time trials, once for further clean up afterwards if necessary. This really felt like quantity over quality, there was no need to raise the level count so much and none of the levels were particularly interesting either, I also don't like how you can only use 3 red bricks per level, but that's not a huge deal. I still have two more Vita LEGO games to play (and a few more I haven't bought yet) and I hope they go back to the standard 15 level format because the 45 level format of this is just unnecessary tedium with the mission-based format of the Vita games. The console version of this was definitely much better, it was one of the best ones in general imo, which just makes the fact that this is rather mediocre even more disappointing.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition [+5] {+17%} (COMPLETE!)

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

LEGO Movie: The Videogame [+15] {+68%} (COMPLETE!)

The Walking Dead Collection [+12] {+18%}

 

Unstarted

NEW GAME: Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered [47] {Digital}

 

Unpurchased DLC

PURCHASED: Guacamelee! STCE 'Frenemies' Character Pack [Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition]

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by madbuk

[James_Tonto]

266 platinums and still going strong, mightily impressive feat of gaming right here. I'm happy you enjoyed Guacamelee more the second time through, STCE was a big improvement, over the older one. Nice work on the Lego Movie game, I enjoyed the movie myself, but never played any of the lego games. Any recommendations where I could/should start? Minor nitpick, but when you make long posts about games like AC:Origins & Darksiders 2, can you split the text up a bit. My eyes find it hard to read through it all, when it's a big wall of text like that, and I end up re-reading sentences 2 - 3 times.

 

A little advice for when you go back to do The Binding of Isaac. I've heard it's best not to install Afterbirth+ As it will make the journey to completing the game significantly slower and harder. Finish everything in the main game and the first DLC, before buying it. As you're only going to slow yourself down. Also if you have the game on steam/PC, the Antibirth fan mod is supposed to be, really good. Better than Afterbirth+ anyway.

Edited August 7, 2018 by James_Tonto

[madbuk]

4 hours ago, James_Tonto said:

266 platinums and still going strong, mightily impressive feat of gaming right here. I'm happy you enjoyed Guacamelee more the second time through, STCE was a big improvement, over the older one. Nice work on the Lego Movie game, I enjoyed the movie myself, but never played any of the lego games. Any recommendations where I could/should start? Minor nitpick, but when you make long posts about games like AC:Origins & Darksiders 2, can you split the text up a bit. My eyes find it hard to read through it all, when it's a big wall of text like that, and I end up re-reading sentences 2 - 3 times.

 

A little advice for when you go back to do The Binding of Isaac. I've heard it's best not to install Afterbirth+ As it will make the journey to completing the game significantly slower and harder. Finish everything in the main game and the first DLC, before buying it. As you're only going to slow yourself down. Also if you have the game on steam/PC, the Antibirth fan mod is supposed to be, really good. Better than Afterbirth+ anyway.

Thanks. The LEGO Batman games are all great (though 1 has no trophies), and LEGO Movie is a lot of fun on consoles and a little shorter than usual, so that could be a good starting point. Harry Potter 1-4 is a lot of fun too (5-7 felt lacking in comparison.) I'd definitely recommend starting with a console game rather than a Vita game.

 

I'll try and start splitting up the longer posts, thanks for the suggestion. As for Binding of Isaac, yeah I'm trying to do Afterbirth before doing the DLC. I actually played some more yesterday and made some progress with ???. It's disgusting that I'll need to buy the retail release when I finally get to Afterbirth+ because they still haven't patched the digital release.

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #267 - The Walking Dead Collection

I am very disappointed by this collection. I had already played season 1 and 2 on PS3 (and Michonne on PS4), but because I couldn't carry my choices over from season 1/2 into 3, I skipped 3 entirely. This collection gave me the opportunity to go back and replay season 1 and 2 (which is very boring, by the way, once you know what happens) so I could go into 3 with all my choices. Except... The choices didn't actually save right.

 

Season 2 has multiple endings, for example, and I was excited to see what happened after the ending I got, but season 3 registered me as getting an ending I didn't get, so I got a bunch of irrelevant cutscenes that didn't fit the narrative I had built via the previous two seasons. This wasn't the only case of a major choice being re-written/not saved properly, but it was certainly the most annoying and made me question why I even wasted my time doing 1 and 2 again instead of just buying 3 separately... Oh well. At least I got it free with the season 4 pre-order, which was very cheap. Also this means the choices I import into season 4 are going to end up being totally random too

 

I will say though that I am impressed by the performance of this. Telltale games are no stranger to crashes or extreme slowdown, and this game had none of that, no crashes and I didn't experience any stutter at all. There were several graphical bugs, but nothing too major. None of it was bad enough to ruin the experience. The graphical enhancements they supposedly made to this collection weren't very noticeable, but it has been a while since I did the original so who knows.

 

Overall, I'm very glad to have finally played season 3, because despite the imported choices not being saved right, it was still enjoyable to play and I'm very excited for the next season. I'm just disappointed that I won't have any reliable saves to import to S4 now and will probably have to use their own website's new tool (like Dragon Keep for Dragon Age), which will probably only list the major choices and not the minor ones made via regular dialogue.

Spoiler

Retail

Kingdom Hearts II [+11] {+20%}

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom [+1] {-3%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

NEW GAME: Light Tracer [+9] {+18%}

The Walking Dead Collection [+28] {+64%} (COMPLETE!)

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #268 - Dante's Inferno

This was a much better God of War game than God of War 2018. It had platforming, it had puzzles, it had a fixed camera, it had a lot of the same attack animations, there was no loading, it was all one seamless journey. This is a God of War game in everything but name and setting and I loved every minute of it. The story wasn't anything particularly special or memorable, but it was serviceable. The setting was great and the visuals/environmental design is superb. Every one of the different areas felt unique and different to the ones that came before (and after) it, and they're all suited to the theme of the area. One of the areas specializes in souls of people who have committed suicide, for example, so you can see many corpses hanging by ropes on the trees as you travel down the barren, deserted road. The whole game is great at setting the mood and I'd love to see what they would've been capable of on modern hardware. 

 

I started with the infamous trial DLC, and honestly it wasn't too difficult. Neither me nor my partner had played the game and we breezed through most of the trials anyway. As I was doing the trials, I realized that I was probably going to end up really enjoying this because the combat was so fun, and I'm glad I was right. I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who enjoys God of War, especially if the new game disappointed you. It's just pure enjoyment from start to finish, and it's also an incredibly easy plat if that's your thing.

Spoiler

PS+ Titles

Futuridium EP Deluxe [+3] {+19%}

 

Retail

Kingdom Hearts II [+5] {+8%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Dante's Inferno [+34] {+65%}

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham [+3] {+4%}

Light Tracer [+12] {+24%}

NEW GAME: The Walking Dead: The Final Season [+6] {+10%}

 

Impossible Trophies 

NEW: The Walking Dead: The Final Season [36]

 

[madbuk]

Progress Update: #269 - Light Tracer

This is a good example of a game that actually has a reason to be on VR, unlike Driveclub VR and RIGS. Using the move controllers to rotate the tower and zoom in and out led to some interesting puzzles that wouldn't have been as well done if restricted to standard controllers. The move controllers also seemed much more accurate and reliable in this than the trainwreck that was the LittleBigPlanet 2 Move DLC, which was nice. There were also very few timed sections so it wouldn't really have mattered if the controls struggled a bit anyway.

 

I liked how the tower got progressively more complex as you got higher up it. You go from basic platforming to switching gravity to mixing colours and reflecting beams off mirrors to progress, standard ice sliding puzzles, and several other concepts. For a game that's only 8 chapters long, there's a lot of variety here and every chapter felt different. The story wasn't anything special, and the 'twist' was pretty irrelevant, but oh well.

 

The loading times in this were pretty bad though, and it became especially apparent during the grind to unlock every costume. You load up the game -> load up boss -> beat boss -> load cutscene -> quit game entirely (since there's no pause menu to go back to main menu) -> reopen game and load again -> load up boss -> repeat. There's a lot of loading involved in the grind and load screens felt like they took about 30 seconds each. All that time adds up. It's not a big deal when you're just playing through the game, but it's very grating when you're grinding.

 

Overall I'm glad I decided to give this game a shot. I hadn't used my VR in a long time and this finally gave me a reason to use it again.

Spoiler

Retail

The Amazing Spider-Man [+13] {+25%}

 

Digital {Excluding PS+}

Dante's Inferno [+2] {+3%} (COMPLETE!)

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham [+5] {+7%}

Light Tracer [+13] {+58%} (COMPLETE!)