Popular Post realm722 Posted February 12 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 12 Game: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Action (Complex), Open World Big Boy) Analysis: I bought the physical copy edition of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - Playstation Hits Edition for $19.99 well over 2 years ago! Why Uncharted: Lost Legacy? Up until this past month, I had never played a video game developed by Naughty Dog. I know, I know, revoke my PlayStation membership. It's sacrilege. For someone who enjoys video games as much as I do, I have a surprising amount of blindspots in my repertoire. I've never played a Soulslike or Bioware game either. My justifications for never playing a Naughty Dog game aren't very good. I never jumped on the Jak train during the PS2 and her an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3 when the early Uncharted games starring Nathan Drake burst onto the scene in the late 2000s. I was familiar with The Last of Us meteoric rise as a gaming darling for all audiences and vividly remember watching Chris Smoove's Let's Play of the games ago. But even as Uncharted 4 and TLOU2 came and went... I never bothered to hop on the train myself. That is... until I bought Uncharted 4 as part of 4 games for $20 deal a few years ago (I also managed to snag Arkham: Knight, Dragon Quest Heroes, & Final Fantasy XV). I loaned the game to my mom (pandemic time she decided to get into gaming) and she absolutely loved Uncharted 4. So much so, that she wanted more of it. Hence, I recommended here Lost Legacy. She also loved it. She then loaned the game to me and since this didn't have asinine 70+ hour DLC trophies like U4... I figured what the heck, why not pop my Naughty Dog cherry and give it a whirl? Holy Crap Those Graphics - My immediate impression upon booting up the game and seeing Chloe Frazier in all her wonderful digital glory was... damn... this is one of the big boy games. I don't play these games SUPER often. I'm an indie game preferrer by and large and while I've dabbled with my FF7 Remake and Batman Arkham games, you don't have to be a video game aficionado to realize a lot of the games I play aren't known by your typical everyday player. I say all this to say that not for a moment while playing did the game's drop-dead gorgeous graphics ever lose their luster for me. Holy crap man. I know that graphics aren't everything but good golly when they are incredible you can't help but pause every now and then to appreciate the unbelievable amount of effort it must have taken to make a game LOOK this good. Even while never having played a Naughty Dog video game, I am well aware of the criticisms of its "Uncharted climbing" having contaminated the gaming industry and plugging itself into other games at the sighing and bemoaning of many players. I'm sorry. I have no doubt that after 15+ years of seeing this sort of climbing, it must get old for some of you. As a person who has never really played many games with it aside from the Horizon franchise, I'm not bored by it whatsoever. It just gives you some time to appreciate what on earth these women are doing and the precarious ancient civilization ruins they're treating like a kindergarten playground right now. Naughty Dog Hits Different - Even while having played none of their games, if you asked me to describe a Naughty Dog Uncharted game, the collection of words that would spew out of me would probably be some combination of the following. #1. Third-person shooting. #2. Amazing setpieces. #3. Witty banter with your companions. #4. Awesome graphics. Without fail, I can comfortably say that Lost Legacy fulfills every single one of these expectations I had before playing and then some. How is the voice acting this elite? It didn't take long for me to love Chloe and her banter with Nadine while wandering about the jungle in our jeep in Chapter 4. THE HAIR PHYSICS, MAN. I love how the game has such a wide variety of animations for functions such as basic as getting in and out of your jeep or while climbing or while shooting out while undercover. So many games have dialogue or cutscenes between characters where you're just sort of zoning out because it's stilted or unengaging and yet Chloe/Nadine felt like two characters actually... yanno... on an adventure together. I know that this must come across as unusual gushing praise because everybody and their mother has played these games already (quite literally, my mother had and I hadn't) but even something as simple as hiding out in stealth in the bushes and seeing Nadine take the initiative and subdue the enemy before I could even react boggled my mind. AAA games are an easy piñata for gamers when they don't live up to expectations but I hope my untainted enthusiasm for this game shows how much you can love these experiences when you dodge the discourse and appreciate them for what they are, even if you do so well over 5 years since their initial release! Oh, A Blind Man’s Crushing Experience (Pt. 1) - There's a reason I've waited this long to talk about the actual gameplay. You see, before deciding to officially play the game, I did a brief perusal of the trophy checklist and saw that a playthrough on the hardest difficulty possible (Crushing) was necessary for a gold trophy. The trophy guide informed me that even while this option was greyed out, I could select it and experience this difficulty on my 1st playthrough. For whatever reason, likely out of hubris, I thought to myself "how hard could this game even possibly be?" and dove head-first into the game without a second thought. The early portion of the game was remarkably pleasant. The prologue is brief and introduces you to the setting in India and some brief interactions with a young merchant girl. Chapter 1 sees you navigating the dangerous streets as the military is out and about being narcs. I very much felt the tension in the lockpicking sequence and Chloe's sigh of relief once inside. Of course, once you get up to the roof, you'll be greeted by a few armed guards who will try and escort you out. Chloe resists. Fighting ensues. This was my "Welcome to the NBA" moment for crushing difficulty because GUYS I WAS STUCK THERE FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES AS CHLOE GOT HER ASS KICKED OVER AND OVER AGAIN. 2-3 punches to the face and she was out like a night light. Eventually, I jammed my way through, Nadine and I kicked ass, and we proceeded onward. After taking a few ziplines down and fleeing Asav's men's gunfire, I was already in Chapter 3 and thinking to myself: "Damn I'm flying through this game" unaware of how many chapters there actually were. In Chapter 3, I experienced my "oh... so this is what the gunplay's like" and uhh guys... I'm sorry, I couldn't do it. I had to turn on the accessibility setting for "lock-on aim". Because if I didn't, I'm convinced I'd still be stuck on getting through Chapter 4 as of the time I write this rather than elaborating this review. Of course, turning on lock-on aim doesn't make the game a cakewalk either. You no longer have to worry about aim but there's still a LOT of other problems to deal with. Don't get cornered by heavy artillery. Guns are scarce with bullets. Enemies actually act like humans rather than droneless mobs who can't see a shadowy human figure moving in front of them. While this fight wasn't so bad with lock-on, my struggles would become much weightier as I progressed. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I died on this helicopter fight. It must have taken me well over 2 hours to finally beat it and the relief I felt knowing the checkpoint after hooking onto it was pure bliss. Oh, A Blind Man’s Crushing Experience (Pt. 2) - I want to take a moment to talk about Chapter 4 in Lost Legacy. This is such a bloody cool chapter. Up until now, the game has essentially been on rails with shockingly little combat and largely passing through wonderful vistas. I didn't mind this whatsoever. Yet Chapter 4 all of a sudden expands the scope and gives you this super intimidating open world map with a variety of main and side objectives to engage with in any order you please. Of course, once I got familiar with the game, the map was much smaller than it appeared to be but that initial: "holy crap" sensation still resonates with me. I was honestly making steady great progress here on my own. I went to two of the fortresses and got into a few random battles but managed to get through unscarred well enough aside from dying a handful of times. I scooped up the 11 Hoysala tokens scattered about the map. I was really just enjoying the game at this moment and Chloe/Nadine's banter as I soaked in all of the lovely landscapes. aaaaaaand then I went to the Trident Fortress. Good LORD man. This bloody fight. I was stuck here for well over an hour. I have "Waiting for Cobra 8" tattooed on my brain. Look at this scared and terrified footage of my play style as I tried to go stealth but didn't know how to escape after the reinforcements came in. Whoever put the bloody checkpoint BEFORE opening that door with triangle deserves punishment. I finally managed to scrape my way through with a sniper gun barely holding 3 bullets and some clutch grenades to take out the heavy's. After blazing through the first handful of chapters, I felt like an entire lifetime had passed in Chapter 4 before I moved onto Chapter 5. Oh, A Blind Man’s Crushing Experience (Pt. 3) - Chapter 5 was a joy to play just because it felt like I had stepped into a totally different world after the open-world unendingness of Chapter 4. The entire start of the chapter is super chill and just climbing insane landscapes with Nadine while navigating those old ruins and escaping a flooded fortress. I was stuck for a good minute on the outskirts of Halebidu with all those guards due to confusion and a lack of firepower. It wasn't THAT bad though. Where things did get rough for me was the Chapter 6 introductory APC fight after Nadine punched the shit outta Chloe. I died there a lot. 45+ minutes worth of attempts. It felt like the guards were infinite. I eventually got through by plucking off all the enemies and hiding like a coward until the APC was left. When the reinforcements came in I nearly crapped my pants but survived and the relief that came over me when Chloe let out her: "I think we're all clear" was indescribable. Chapter 7 had elephants and I love elephants. The sniper fight was a tad annoying but I finally started getting comfortableble on Crushing at this moment and figured the key was use cover to my advantage, maximize the guns made available by enemies, and with enough persistence I'll eventually breakthrough the barrier. Of course, we get the tusk, we lose the tusk, Asav goes Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain, we run into (SPOILERS) Sam Drake which I imagine is a huge deal for Uncharted 4 fans but as somebody who never played that game I was like oh hey it's Troy Baker! Chapter 8 has that annoying fight in the cave where Nadine exposes you both and I died there for a solid 30 minutes but nothing.... absolutely nothing... can compare with that Helicopter fight. I've literally documented my final successful attempt after multiple hours of failure. I refused to lower the difficulty. I refused to lock up any tricks/tips/playthroughs on how to get the job done. I died so much. I tried stealth. Too slow and too risky for how many attempts I'd need. I tried taking out all of the enemies and planting C4. My C4 aim never let me reach the helicopter and blow it up all at once. With the RPG, I had to get to a safe distance, fire, make sure it got damaged enough where I could get zipped up, and finally, mercifully, the magical run came together and I survived. Hardest fight in the game bar none. Chapter 9 on the jeep and train was a breeze by comparison and I loved the finale with this gang of characters and all the insane things they've been put through. The Game is Better On Crushing Difficulty - Having documented my harrowing experience, I've come to the conclusion that Uncharted is best played on Crushing. What the hell Realm, are you drunk? While I undoubtedly got frustrated at times when stuck on certain sections, having then breezed through a variety of the chapters and encounters on a lesser difficulty, I can't help but feel like the stakes for the oddly sparsed fights are what make the game MEMORABLE. Do you know how you can increase your appreciation for Uncharted climbing sequences? By knowing that whenever you're doing those, you're AVOIDING AN AGONIZING FIGHT TO THE DEATH GUNFIGHT INSTEAD. Every advance in a fight felt earned and the quieter sections in between whether it be puzzles or simple straightforward walking narrative-focused elements were enhanced by my appreciation of being there rather than fighting for my life. This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the combat. I honestly did. The gunplay is fun. Juggling guns on limited ammo is a meta-game in and of itself and figuring out when to use your heaviest damage for the strongest enemies is all part of the equation. I do feel like the rope could have been used even more in some arenas but rarely if ever would have taken advantage of it knowing Chloe's fragility and limited health when under fire in the open field. All I know is I will have several lasting memories of specific encounters in this game that rare few other games have left me with long after I've booted it up for the last time. AIM FOR THE BUSHES CHLOE!!!!!!!!!!!! A Light-Hearted, Life-and-Death Adventure - I wanted to touch on this aspect of the game because I've seen a few criticisms regarding Uncharted by other players and I think it goes to show how your mentality going into an experience can have a huge influence on how you engage with it. Chloe Frazier and Nadine Ross are superheroes. The stuff they do in this game is absurd. They parkour through dusted ruins like it's just another Tuesday and slay hundreds of men without grappling with any remorse over their actions. And even after slaying the 500th guard of Asav's army, they still have time for witty banter amongst one another. It's a light-hearted, life-and-death adventure. You're out here with your gal pal off to do the impossible and obscene. Asav also knows his role in this story. He is hilarious. This man will straight-up box you in Chapter 5 and his guards decide to stand to the side jerking off instead of helping the boss out. At the end of Chapter 7 when he has you guys dead to rights, rather than just shooting Sam and Nadine in the head (which he does if you just bump into him 4 times in a row) he leaves y'all to drown knowing the epic last-second escape is a -10000000 favorite? If you try to treat this plot or narrative super critically, you're going to have a bad time. There's a hundred holes to poke. But, if you're like me, and you just wanna see some cool ladies ball tf out in stunning environments, there's not a game on the market that does it better. Collectibles, Miscellaneous, & Combat Trophies - Here are the stats at the end of my 1st blind crushing playthrough. After 10 full hours, I had defeated nearly 700 men and needed to restart a checkpoint after dying 150 times during the course of my run. Relieved to finally be able to play on a difficulty aside from Crushing, I quickly went through and gathered many of the combat-specific achievements such as performing 10 combo partner takedowns. I then went through chapter select and scooped up a number of the treasures, optional conversations, and photos I had missed. This video helped a ton with that. While this part didn't take too long, I honestly think a game such as this could do without collectibles in the way they're currently implemented. After that, I focused on the chapter-specific missable trophies and those didn't take too long whatsoever either. All I had left was "The Way of the Warrior" which means firing no guns or using any explosives through the first 4 chapters. On Explorer difficulty, this is hilariously easy. Asav's guards make stormtroopers look like snipers by comparison with their aim and Chloe's ability to blitz melee them to death like she's prime Lawrence Taylor. I had done it! I earned the 20.02% rarity platinum in 2 weeks and 3 days. I Get Why These Games Are Popular - While I sympathize with those who tire of a specific AAA-game formula, having never played one of these, I GET how these games became THE ones that got so much love and made Uncharted the brand it is today. It's the elite voice acting from the likes of Claudia Black & Laura Bailey. It's the bombastic all-you-can-eat buffet-style setpieces that leave an imprint on you. It's the remarkable amount of detail found in the animations that view other studios can replicate. While I'm not making any promises, the old remastered Uncharted games starring Nathan Drake have gone from a "probably never" to "maybe one day" bump in my backlog category. Would I recommend Uncharted: The Lost Legacy? Absolutely. Even if you've played the mainline franchise plenty, enough time has elapsed since Uncharted 4 that I think you could reminisce all over again with this formula in case you skipped over it when it released in 2017. If you're like myself and never give these games much thought, I urge you to reconsider. This is a fantastic entry point given it's small-scope and once you know what you're doing, you could honestly speedrun this game in less than 3 hours in all likelihood. I'd highly recommend you play the game on Crushing for your 1st playthrough as well as simply going through it after having experienced it once won't do the game justice when you can just summon an RPG or Silenced Pistol into your inventory whenever things start to get a bit hazy. Hope y'all have had a solid day post-Super Bowl hangover and we'll have 1-2 more reviews before I disappear to my FF7 Rebirth bunker and emerge a full month later in late March. Panda Score: 8.35 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 6.21 / 10 (played on Crushing 1st time completely blind) Spoiler Uncharted Lost Legacy 4-Jan-2024 * My 1st ever Uncharted game on Crushing difficulty LETS GO BABY!!!!! * talking to young Indian girl who got left by father who joined the army * bro playing on crushing first meele fight died 5 times hahaha really crushing * I quite like Chloe * lmao Chloe opening the door cuz I took too long with the lockpick * died a bunch at the jungle fight, thankfully turned on lock-on aim and finally got past CRUSHING * I’m enjoying exploring this open-ended world in chapter 4, pure jungle wilderness, collecting hoysala tokens, occasional combat * Voice acting between Chloe and Frazier is sensational * Okay i died A LOT on the Trident Fort level like a stupid amount * nice subversion with the lever breaking there * Chloe saying “no one does love” to Nadine saying she doesn’t like to fail >>> * Okay i am REALLY impressed Nadine took out a guard silently on her own post-fort * OKAY I DIED SO MUCH JUST GETTING OUT OF THAT DAMN FORT GOOD LORD * Nadine talking like Chloe’s dad wasn’t dead * expensive as heck decoy city gilgamesh * loool i died twice escaping the temple chapter 5 “LINE” nakeyjakey * loool fighting asav chapter 5 other guards just decided to chill * getting throufh THAT CHAPTER 6 FIGHT APC ON CRUSHING WAS INSANE * i love elephants * mirror puzzle in chapter 7 and more damn fights k * final fight in chapter 7 annoying as heck man crushing is crushing my soul * I love Asav’s refusal to kill us instantly what a good guy * LOOOOL him doming Sam after I faffed about too much * Asav watching dumbass Chloe taking foreve to figure out this puzzle * choosing to drown us instead looool aight asav * NADINE FIGHT IN THE CAVE CHAPER 8 WOOF FINALLY DONE! * Beating that Helicopter fight on Crushing without any help or reveiws was one of the hardest things I’ve done * just crashed a truck into a train awesome * oh hey there’s asav! * I just died cracking up at Asav 1-2 punchinh us to death over and over again * wow very pretty final train crash into the river * What a lovely light-hearted life-or-death adventure! Genuinley! I love the campiness * Write about knowing this going in, having the correct mentality, enjoying the insanity * “We just did a thing.” Hell yea Chloe. AND we did it on CRUSHING! 1st try! * Cool to say I finaly played a Naughty Dog game man, that was quite enjoyable * I love the skip cinematic feature playing thru chapter select for treasures 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Platinum_Vice Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Can't believe you haven't played a Naughty Dog before this... that's crazy! While there are some games that I think are best played on higher difficulties, I think that Uncharted games were made for the experience of the lower difficulties. The enemy AI and dialogue is built for brief stop-and-cover moments in between run-and-gun mechanics, not to mention the tone of the games, but I also did enjoy Crushing mode too. I think that Uncharted 4 is the best of the series... you could spend $10 to upgrade your U4 game to the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection. Then you get the PS5 upgrade with no DLC trophies. It comes with Lost Legacy as a strange DLC trophy list but they can be autopopped. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Ha! Finished this one recently too and yup it was a blast! I do think too that the Uncharted games are juuust a bit better on a lower difficulty, especially the old ones. Hard difficulty feels like the sweet spot, the AI doesn't have that insane aim but you can't tank every single bullet either There was another difficulty level above Crushing in the first 3 Uncharted games though, called Brutal, thank the Dogs they didn't add it here! That one is straight out unfair. And yeah...this game was beautiful...utterly gorgeous. I never use photo mode in games, well this one made me search for the Photo Mode button combinations 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassylvania Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 On 2/12/2024 at 4:46 PM, realm722 said: While I'm not making any promises, the old remastered Uncharted games starring Nathan Drake have gone from a "probably never" to "maybe one day" bump in my backlog category. And when you do -- and inevitably go for the 100%, because we know you will -- I expect you to do Brutal difficulty (one step above Crushing) on all three games legitimately. To this day, my greatest gaming achievement. So, so many deaths... That said, I agree on Crushing being the ideal difficulty for these games. At least it adds a sense of realism in an otherwise ridiculous game. You actually played my least favorite in the series, despite Chloe being arguably the best character. I hear they might be remaking the first game...? If so, you could play that and then jump to UC2, which is universally considered the best game in the series, I think. UC4 is good too, but you already know that. TLOU when? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 On 2/13/2024 at 1:34 AM, Platinum_Vice said: I think that Uncharted 4 is the best of the series... you could spend $10 to upgrade your U4 game to the Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection. Then you get the PS5 upgrade with no DLC trophies. It comes with Lost Legacy as a strange DLC trophy list but they can be autopopped. Mate... you're a legend for this. I can't believe I didn't even make that connection. You can't even buy Lost Legacy as its own game anymore unless you buy it physical but I didn't realize this would be a great way to get to experience Uncharted 4 while avoiding that eternally painful DLC. Thanks a million! On 2/13/2024 at 2:18 AM, Copanele said: I do think too that the Uncharted games are juuust a bit better on a lower difficulty, especially the old ones. Hard difficulty feels like the sweet spot, the AI doesn't have that insane aim but you can't tank every single bullet either There was another difficulty level above Crushing in the first 3 Uncharted games though, called Brutal, thank the Dogs they didn't add it here! That one is straight out unfair. And yeah...this game was beautiful...utterly gorgeous. I never use photo mode in games, well this one made me search for the Photo Mode button combinations I didn't even know it could get more difficult than Crushing. That's hilarious. You die sooooo quickly in this game if you're slightly exposed. There was one hilarious bit that I didn't mention when you're fighting Asav on the train during the climactic finale of Chapter 9. Asav straight-up wombo combos Chloe in 2 hits and she goes collapsing to the floor and the checkpoint is RIGHT before it and I just kept dying over and over again while laughing my ass off. 17 hours ago, Cassylvania said: That said, I agree on Crushing being the ideal difficulty for these games. At least it adds a sense of realism in an otherwise ridiculous game. You actually played my least favorite in the series, despite Chloe being arguably the best character. I hear they might be remaking the first game...? If so, you could play that and then jump to UC2, which is universally considered the best game in the series, I think. UC4 is good too, but you already know that. TLOU when? Wow. I've read that a fair bit here on the forums and have seen the game frequently mentioned as the worst. Again, maybe this is the benefit of it being my personal first and not having experience with the ebbs and flows of the Uncharted formula yet. Chloe's incredible. I'm very tempted to wait for that remake... I've heard from people here and there that Uncharted 1 isn't just old/out-of-date it's just outright bad and the 2nd game is really where it made its leap to superstardom. I will play the Last of Us when they remaster it for the PlayStation 6. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Game: Speed Limit (Arcade / Action (Simple)) Analysis: I bought Speed Limit when it was on sale for $1.49 back in early September 2023 and I'm happy to say it was a fairly decent time! Why Speed Limit? It's funny, before writing this post, I got @'d on another member's status update because somebody was trying to track down a post they vaguely remembered regarding some freak deciding to track where all the video games he's played have been developed. This is of course relevant as back when I made the original map post (now 1 1/2 years old), I had never played a game from a developer out of Croatia. Back then, I wishlisted a bunch of games available from a variety of countries I hadn't tapped into yet, and as time went on, those games mixed with one another and my memory of why I added them to the wishlist in the first place faded. Still, when you see a game on sale for less than $2, I don't exactly need much convincing to pull the trigger on it. All I truthfully knew going in was the intro that said "Play. Die. Repeat" and boy, they sure as hell weren't lying. Learning to Die A Lot - Speed Limit is a game intended for the player to die a lot. Checkpoints are relatively close to one another and almost all enemies die in one hit. The catch is, so do you. This means a lot of practice in learning how to get past specific obstacles will be necessary. Speed Limit's neat trick is that every 2 levels, it switches modes of transportation. In the first 2 levels, you'll be on foot and blasting through an onslaught of enemy fire. Then you'll jump into a car. After navigating mayhem for 2 levels, you'll switch gears to a motorcycle. This was one of my favorite sections. After the motorcycle, you'll somehow end up in a helicopter, and after the helicopter, a fighter jet. Each of these pose their own challenges. As you're just learning the mechanics of the game and the various routes, I found the first two with one-'n-gun-firing enemies to be quite challenging. Especially since you're being shot at from the left, right, and up above. The car section can be tricky before you know the patterns but once you do and slow down when driving into on-coming traffic, you'll be fine. The motorcycle is fun as hell and you can blaze through the levels in 3 minutes max once you know what the hell you're doing. Helicopter feels like the slowest of the lot and is kind of the most laborious to get through but it's probably one of the easiest sections. Finally, the fighter jet has a remarkably confusing initial level because.. even after having beat the game a few times... I still don't know what the heck I'm doing? If I'm accelerating all the time, the other jets never catch up and just shoot? So I need to purposefully slow down hard enough for them to pass me, and then shoot them? Aight I guess. The final boss can be tricky at first but there's a trick I'll explain later on how to beat him with ease every time. Miscellaneous Trophies - As always, I would be remiss if I didn't shout out some of the helpful aides for getting the side trophies in the game. @greenzsaber made a fantastic concise full walkthrough for the platinum and I also enjoyed BasementGamerBro's direct individual trophy videos. After beating the game and each level on Easy, I focused on a few of unique playstyle ones such as the Blue Steel trophy which asks you to beat the final boss only moving left. I then focused on the Normal mode trophy which will likey lead to A LOT of deaths. I tried to do this on my 1st attempt aiming for the speedrun and uhh... nah. I hadn't even killed the final boss yet, I was at 45 minutes, game crashed, so I'm at least thankful that it didn't screw me out of a great run. Some trophies that could be annoying include "Wicked Shot" which asks you to kill an enemy with every bullet fired in Level 1. Thankfully the level is super short, but the part where you reach all the knife guys in trenchcoats at the end kept tripping me up a bunch until I just went much slower and made sure I took out the gun guys in the rear before getting all those dudes on me. Clearing out the two levels with the helicopter without dying will take a few attempts. The most annoying part for me was this one straightaway with a carrier with like 3 guns. The key to killing it is holding down R2 until all the guns are blown up. I kept letting go and firing, letting go and firing, and that simply wasn't quick enough to take them out. With all the small trophies outta the way, I only had the two big boys left. The 30 Minute Speedrun Trophy - A 30-minute speedrun of a game to completion sounds awful but due to the nature of the game, many levels can be completed in just 1-2 minutes. The initial difficulty in Speed Limit is found in not knowing what's coming next. Once you've gotten familiar with the levels, it becomes much easier to muscle memorize what motions are needed to get through a particular phase. For example, Level 2, which involves run-and-gunning above the subway, had me DYING A LOT on my 1st attempt due to not knowing the order of how to duck/jump over the sign boards. But this time around, I had died enough to remember the pattern and breeze through it. When you die is also relevant. Some checkpoints are so close that dying a handful amount early on doesn't cost you much. Going 1-2 minutes and then dying and getting reset though? That can do some damage to your total. I was honestly making phenomenal time this run finishing Level 9 at just over 17 minutes & 30 seconds... and then I began to choke. Quite frankly, I didn't know the proper strategy to evade the circular honing missiles that come out during the latter stage of the final boss fight. I had lucked my way through on prior playthroughs. Here's the winning strategy: hold the stick RIGHT if the missiles come from the LEFT cannon. Hold the stick LEFT if the missiles come from the RIGHT cannon. That's it. It's a bit embarrassing it took me that long to figure out. Anyways, I was so pissed at myself you literally see me pause at (26:15) and debate restarting the run ALREADY thinking I had screwed myself... but I continued. I won, died on Terminal Velocity, got through it, and then still holding the stick left for the most agonizing last few seconds finished the run with literal SECONDS to spare. What a rush! Thankfully, the trophy popped and was in the bag. Infinite Mode & Lack of Polish - All that I had left for the platinum was completing two runs of the game on Infinite Mode. I hadn't originally intended to save this for last. What happened was I tried to go for this BEFORE attempting the speedrun, in order to better memorize the levels, but literally 1 1/2 runs into the trophy, the game crashed on me during the Level 6 motorcycle rush. That section can be a bit buggy as your motorcyclist can just fly all over the map with the lightest touch of the stick. The game crashed on me 3 other times which is quite obnoxious since you can never quit out and save your run, they need to be completed in one setting. Mercifully, I was spared on my 2nd attempt here but it was 40min down the drain. I also very unfortunately began experiencing the dreaded.. awful.... worst thing ever for a gamer... stick drift, on one of my controllers. I honestly had started to feel it a bit while playing Uncharted: Lost Legacy but this game made it extra painful due to the shooting mechanics on the early levels. I will have an extremely detailed post on this latter on in the month because I have a lot to say on the subject and seek to help others afflicted. I mention it here because it'll be a lasting memory in my time with the game. I earned the 7.69% rarity platinum in 2 weeks, 7 hours. A Small Team Based out of Croatia - I've gotta say, while this game isn't exactly revolutionary, I was quite happy to see a small-time indie studio from a small European country put out such a sound product minus a few polishing issues. Their website for the game is remarkably detailed and worthy of praise. While I'd argue a game such as Super Time Ultra Force provides a more holistic experience of proper full levels and side content with unique mechanics, Speed Limit is the streamlined, speedrunified, version of that. While you'd be surprised by some of the games developed out of the country (such as Doodle Jump), the list isn't super extensive. I've owned Zotrix for years. never played it. I considered "I Hate Running Backwards". I debated Serious Sam. Ultimately, I'm happy with what I settled on. Would I recommend Speed Limit? Perhaps. I enjoy these sorts of games. I enjoy a repetitive task that you need to refine and get better at. This game is that formula to a tee. Tricky, difficult to get right, but once you do, you can quite literally blaze through the game in 20 minutes. That's not for everybody. But if you want to try a game from a former state of Yugoslavia, you can't do much worse than this. I hope everyone is doing well. NFL Season is over and the Chiefs hoisted another Super Bowl which I'm happy with. If the Dolphins can't win it, I just hope the team that wins it all the time keeps winning so I don't get jealous. Heat are 30-25 and enjoying the All-Star Break. I'm looking forward to the Marlins season even if my expectations aren't that high. I've been watching some banger Cinema lately in the form of Boyhood and Memories of Murder trying to complete Bong Joon-ho's filmgraphy. I also have some other obsessions I've been getting into with one I'm particularly going to hone in on this very thread down the line. I hope it'll be as interesting for y'all as it's been for me. Oh, and to top it off, Rebirth at the end of the month. Life's pretty great at the moment. Panda Score: 6.62 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 3.11 / 10 Spoiler Speed Limit 2-Feb-2024 * Oh this is one of those arcade games… uh oh * Failed the speed run with a crash but was already like 15min over oh well * Game has crashed on me 3 times and mid-infinite mode run ugh… * BEAT 30MIN TIME BY 6 SECONDS BABY * Alright next attempt didn’t crash and * Write up entry and YouTube speed run attempt stick drift 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 Game: Emerald Shores (2D Platformer) Analysis: I bought this game when it was on sale for $1.24 back in late May 2022. They never did accuse me of rushing to get through my backlog. Why Emerald Shores? Listen, there's not a very complicated reason why Realm back in relatively early 2022 decided to pull the trigger on this. It was less than $2 and had a fairly reasonable platinum rate at <40%. That's about all I needed to buy games on sale back in the day. Why I waited until NOW to play it is a different story. Sitting at 248 platinums, without any purposeful design or machination on my end, I've stumbled into landing a pretty important milestone (250th platinum) for a pretty massive release around the corner in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I have pre-ordered the physical copy of the game. I know, you shouldn't preorder anything in 2024. Especially when you don't know what the quality is for so many modern releases. Guess what? I'm not worried. This is FF7. Square Enix's baby. They're not going to botch this. Maybe older fans hate some of the alterations that may come with the story. I'm not worried about that. I'm not an older fan. I'm a new fan. Somebody who literally played the remake back in 2021 and fell so brutally in love with it that my gigantic review and essay permanently altered the way this thread would be run by myself going forward. In order to make that game be within striking distance of that milestone, I needed a filler game to bridge me over to 249 to be on its doorstep. Emerald Shores was that bridge. Before All Else, An Impressive Solo Project - I'm going to be perfectly honest with you all and say that I had written a completely different paragraph here before realizing a few things regarding this game. 1) Who made it? 2) Oh, they're not as far off as they appear. I mention these things because at first glance, this is a game that most people aren't going to write a very lengthy review on. I don't say that to be mean, I'm just being honest. The game has 4 user reviews on Steam. That made me curious. I did some digging, and realized this wasn't so much a small indie studio making it but.. the developer has an itch.io profile where you can check out his latest work. Then I actually went digging through the forums and discovered oh hey... the developer has an account on here. Hi @Josh1billion. Oh. Geez. Maybe that not-so-nice-stuff I said kind of comes off as REALLY dickish if you know the person who spent time on creating something may stumble upon reading it? Not that this guy would read this. We're in the real deep crevices on the internet here. But it made me realize hey... there are probably developers out there who read awful things written about their creations and it's not... cool. Listen, REGARDLESS of the quality of a game, the fact an individual can create anything that can get published on Steam & PlayStation 4 & Vita is pretty damn impressive. I could never imagine being asked to make a video game. Let alone making it, and then putting it out there in the world for people to enjoy and critique. So with that newfound realization, I figured I'd talk about some stuff I observed while playing the game, and maybe if the dev is bored, he can read what an odd fella thinks about it? Let's do that. A Curious 2D Platformer - Emerald Shores keeps things light on the story and thrusts most players into the meat and potatoes of the game, moving left to right. You choose levels like you're on an open-world map in a retro Mario game and have no attacks. You kill enemies by goomba-stomping them. This feels pretty decent. Most enemies won't pose too much of a threat unless you're playing very haphazardly. There are multiple special items and some secrets you can unlock throughout the levels such as different endpoles to unlock other side paths with different trophies and side quests. None of these are too long. The most exasperating thing I found was... the very odd way the double jump works in the game. You can pick up a green double-jump power-up that lasts as long as you don't die. Yet, it's a bit odd? If you hit a roof/ceiling, you can't double jump anymore. Before I realized this, it felt like the double jump was broken or working inconsistently. Once I accounted for it, it wasn't too tricky to adjust. The levels are appreciatively short so you can fly through them once you know what the hell you're doing. I found the boss fights to be fairly decent for the limited moveset given to the player character. Bounce on their heads 'til they die and stay out of the line of fire when they're angry. The game also has a bit of a meta-game element where you recover all of your health when you level-up. This gives you some incentive to decide when to hold off killing certain enemies / killing coins if you're low on health so you can finish it rather than being reset to the beginning in case you die. All in all, it's a decent little time that while I hit a few roadblocks here and there, I never actively disliked my time with it and figured with enough attempts, I'd get good enough to move onwards. How I Got the Platinum - As always, the legend @greenzsaber has a full platinum guide to earn it in just a hash over an hour. Of course, I was not good enough to earn it in that narrow timeframe. It took me quadruple that based on how I kept dying in certain parts and not being nearly as familiar with the game. Not to mention I missed the collectible helmet on the snow-sled portion in level 2-2. I've gotta say, this was pretty good trophy selection by the developer. There are no missables as you can replay levels. When you're going for your low-level 8 run, you can blast through many of them and have it done in less than 20 minutes. There are a few decent miscellaneous trophies in some levels such as collecting all the coins or avoiding ever being touched by lava. Oddly enough, I kinda liked that Farmtreprenaur mini-game dev. It was very simplistic but... you could build off that. It's a bit cookie-clicker lite but with a few more bells and whistles you could turn things strategic. I earned the 31.25% rarity platinum in 4 hours and 51 minutes. Would I recommend Emerald Shores? Perhaps. It depends on your tastes. There are worse 2D platformers out on the market. I liked the movement and how fast you can glide through levels once you know what you're doing. If you know the odd rules for double jump, you shouldn't have too much frustration figuring out to navigate things. Not to mention, the game kindly only saves after you complete a level so I loved that if I died with the power-up, all I had to do was close the application, open it back up, and I could try again with the green double-jump power still active. I don't know if the dev is still reading this, but if they are, lemme know if there are any more games are on the horizon. I see Super Blackout but it appears to be a Vita-only game. I enjoy supporting small creators and if you have any plans to bring more games to PlayStation main consoles, I'd love to check them out as long as the platinum isn't too difficult or long-lasting. Panda Score: 6.02 / 10 Panda Difficulty: 3.47 / 10 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted February 23 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 23 I Got My Ph.D. In PS5 Controller Stick Drift So You Don't Have To (How To Fix It) WARNING: This post is going to be exhaustive. I didn't want it to be that way. It needed to be that way. You or a loved one could become stricken with stick drift in the future. If that unfortunate day were to arrive, I want you to come here. I have all the answers and can guide you on the path to enlightenment that I had to create by my own hand. I didn't choose this path. It chose me. Enjoy. MY HISTORY WITH STICK DRIFT - I truthfully can't quite remember when the term "stick drift" entered my subconscious. I was too young, too naive, or blissfully unaware of it during my days of playing on Xbox 360. During the PlayStation 4 era, I never had an issue with either controller despite further research informing me controllers began having this issue during the PS4 era. More than anything, I was VERY familiar with the Nintendo Switch and its Joy-Cons have stick drift up the wahzoo. It's so awful that they got sued for it. Then the lawsuit was dropped. Then they didn't do anything about the issue. While some countries may offer free repairs, inevitably in the future, they will end these services when they introduce their new console and the Switch fades to the ancient relics of the past. That sucks for Switch owners. Sadly, other console players who thought they would be immune to the side effects of big corporate Nintendo experienced in real-time the first-world modern-day equivalent of "First they came for...." (this is facetious, y'all) STICK DRIFTS HITS HOME - Early on in the PlayStation 5 life cycle, I heard some murmurings about some players having issues with stick drift remarkably early on after first getting the console. I was skeptical. This issue had never affected me personally. It seems odd for a new controller to go defective so quickly. I dismissed such claims as one-offs and unfortunate defects as part of a new console generation. I bought my PS5 in late September / early October 2021 and gleefully enjoyed virtually no issue with either of my controllers for the first year and a half. I'd rotate each of them down to little battery and then swap them out while charging the other. This system worked very well. Sadly, at some point I can't totally remember, I recall sidelining one of the controllers due to finding it to be a bit defective? I can't quite say it was drift but... it was not responsive as it should have been. Rather than try to resolve this immediately, I just played with one controller and would hook it up to the console and play wired if I was having an extra long game session. I don't ever sit too far from the television so this was no hassle for me. Sadly, my other controller succumbed to the effects of stick drift in July 2023. I remember having issues as far back as May 2023 because I vividly remember the console botching a few moves on the grid while playing Invisible, Inc. and being so pissed off when it happened. I played through the pain for a month. Then I got fed up. Both controllers were no longer under the 1-year warranty. I hate disassembling things. By this time, Sony had released the DualSense Edge which was a 1st party equivalent of a pro controller. I decided to bite the bullet on the $200 price tag for the sole reason that the controller had easily replaceable "stick modules" and while I'd hate to bite the bullet on $20 every year and a half, it sure as hell beats having to keep buying brand new controllers. I bought my controller via Amazon and it arrived within 2 days as I pushed this issue to the back of my mind figuring it wouldn't come up again within the meaningful future. STICK DRIFT HITS THE DUALSENSE EDGE - tylerthecreator.jpg Yea believe it or not, after less than 8 months of usage, while playing Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, I started to notice the faintest bits of Chloe Frazier moving ever so slightly forward even when I wasn't so much as brushing up against the left stick. I already knew what it was. It was stick drift. My old nemesis ready to rain on my parade yet again. I powered on through it for Lost Legacy but Speed Limit was damn near insufferable with my player character refusing to sprint and instead pointing his gun at the sky without any input on my end. It's amazing how much of a powerful irritant such a seemingly small issue can become. You can't game properly if your equipment is jacked up. Pissed off, I decided to go in search of solutions and boy oh boy fellas... am I ready to share with y'all what I discovered. THE SONY CONSPIRACY - Begrudgingly, I began to look online for those damn little stick modules so that at the very least I could get my controller back up to speed by the end of the month so I can enjoy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth unperturbed. Do you want to know what I discovered? These modules may as well be a myth. PlayStation Store? Currently unavailable. Gamestop? Sold out. Best Buy? Sold out. Walmart? Out of stock. Target? Out of stock. Amazon? Currently unavailable. Your only viable path to obtain a stick module at this current time is either purchasing one at eBay for a hiked up price (which I will never do, for when I was but a boy, I will never forget my aunt telling me that "only pedophiles sell stuff on eBay"), AliExpress, of which you can actually buy them $10 but inevitably end up disappointed after waiting 3-4 months for it to arrive, OR other potentially sketchy 3rd party websites. But the spiral into madness doesn't stop here folks. Over a week ago, this thread on r/PS5 got mighty popular calling out the lack of stick modules on the open market. They've been out of stock for months. Some of the people in that thread are rightfully pissed off. I get it. Imagine buying a premium controller looking to avoid a common issue with the base controller and not even being able to resolve the issue due to a lack of production on Sony's end. Of course, stuff like this fuels conspiracy. "Sony does it ON PURPOSE to sell more controllers" "This is planned obsolence 101!" And... well... while I'd HATE to give the benefit of the doubt to a corporation... I just don't think it's the case y'all. Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo all use the same potentiometers that cause the issue within the controller. "IT'S A CONSPIRACY AMONGST ALL 3 OF THEM!!!!!" Yea I'm sorry. I don't imagine Reggie, Phil Spencer, and John Sony all sitting in a room together maliciously rubbing their hands together saying: "well boys... we have one last thing to consider... the sticks for the controllers. Should we make them long-lasting and durable OR PURPOSEFULLY SABOTAGE OUR USERS?". Then they all burst out cackling while drinking orphan blood. Maybe it does happen. I don't see it. I think it's an example of a big company just using the most common potentiometer on the market and it unfortunately bears more issues on the PS5 controller than the PS4 controller for whatever modular design. In fact... let's talk a little bit more about WHO stick drift affects before diving into problem-solving mode. This is my beautiful girl Maya. She's a bit younger in this picture as this photo is a few years old at this moment but she's just as precious as ever. MY THEORY ON STICK DRIFT - I visited various forums I frequent to see if there was any common thread amongst users experiencing this issue. The most common explanation I found was over time, dust accumulates, some nasty particles can enter the controller, wear-and-tear on the analog stick inside can give your stick some jittery, and all these factors combined lead to stick drift. Don't tell the Sony fanbros that though. These people are insufferable. Caping up for their corporation like you just insulted their own mother. Like this jackass who subscribes to the "it hasn't happened to me so it must not exist" mentality. These two threads I found on here also weren't helpful with the issue. Whenever I see the comment "just buy another" I can't help but get the feeling that they're imitating Rick James insultingly yelling at Dave Chappelle: "BUY ANOTHER ONE YA RICH MUTHAFUCKA". I am not rich, thankfully. But that unfortunately does mean I can't solve all my issues with money. Before finding alternative solutions, I'll leave my theories here. 1) Most stick drift does not begin because of a lack of care on the owner's behalf. I have no doubt in SOME cases it does. It's certainly not mine. You're reading this post from a man who has LIFETIME WARRANTY SOCKS and has not bought a new pair in over 5 years because I take care of the things I own. 2) I imagine having animals around your gaming set-up exacerbates an issue. I love my animals. I also recognize I've cleaned a house that DOESN'T have animals and good grief the amount of hair shed is inconceivable. 3) I almost always have an overhead fan running. I imagine this tosses some of the ever so tiny microscopic dust particles in the air and they decide to boogie their way down into the crevices of my controller. Again, these are just crackpot theories of mine. Don't take them as gospel. It's time we started whining about our situation and actually do something to fix it. So let's do that. SENDING IN DUALSENSE EDGE FOR REPAIR - While going through many threads on Reddit, I found this helpful one by a stranger who recommended sending in the device for repair. There was also this fabulously detailed response by somebody who documented their full repair sequence timeline. I realized at this point that my controller was still under warranty as it hadn't even been a year since I purchased it. So I decided to jump through the hoops necessary to get a repair. First, you've gotta put in the Serial Number/Barcode along with the Model Number to see if you're eligible. If you are, you select the issue pertinent to your situation, PlayStation offers some fake ass solutions, and then, as though with a sigh, they say fine, I guess you have to ship it in for a repair. You will then get an email with the Sony repair process. You need a few things. 1) Valid proof of purchase. (I printed out the invoice history from Amazon). 2) Pack your peripheral. I put my controller in some bubble wrap with the proof of purchase inside, packed it even more bubble wrap, and then used an old Amazon box from a previous purchase. 3) On the outside of the box, include the directions of the Sony Repair Center (my closest ended up being in Laredo, Texas as well as your own address so people don't think you're the Unabomber) 4) Sony wants to make sure you also include the return reference #, your name, phone, address, and model number because they're narcs. I included all of these also in a slip of paper within the bubble wrap. All packed, I had to wait until Tuesday to ship it out since Monday was Presidents Day and the shipping cost me $15.91. You're killing me smalls! Sony promises a refurbished/repaired controller in 15 days. Maybe it takes less. I'll update this post in the future as the controller is due to arrive tomorrow on Friday. The timeline is conceivably over my February 29th deadline of when FF7 Rebirth arrives... so... what about exploring other options? ARE THERE 3RD PARTY STICK MODULES? - No. I found this to be super odd. Given how much of a huge fish the PlayStation is, there are always remora fish on the fringes feeding off daddy Sony's wealth and offering accessories and alternative solutions with varying levels of success for common issues found in the hardware. Inevitably, over my time reading many threads from those suffering from stick drift, I kept finding the term "Hall Effect sticks" brought up over and over again. Allegedly, these sticks use "magnets" and thus are not susceptible to the drift that occurs from dust and wear-and-tear from tension and friction. Then I kept seeing the same company name come up over and over again... let's talk about that company. The Gulikit Myth - If you've done any research on "Hall Effect sticks" for PlayStation 5 controllers, you've undoubtedly found this company mentioned by users from posts well over a year old at this point. What the hell are they talking about? GuliKit is a company based out of Shenzen, China. They sell Hall Effect joystick controllers for Nintendo Switch users. This has made them a bit of a Messiah in the niche gaming community. FINALLY! A COMPANY WHO THOUGHT ABOUT THE LITTLE PEOPLE. As such, when Sony announced the DualSense Edge, they let out this tweet back in mid-January 2023 that they'd first design sticks for the DualSense Edge. They reiterated they'd give future updates about the project in March 2023. As of the time I write this post, no update has been given. You can see poor victimized stick drift users in their recent Twitter replies on the first tweet begging for an update like we're peasants in Mad Max: Fury Road asking for but a crumb of water. While I'd love to see GuliKit come through on their promise... I don't think this is going to be the happy forever solution some hope it will be. 1) The demand will be insane. This is a small company out of China. I have a feeling that if they ever do drop in the future, they'll be sold out damn near instantly, and you're talking about waiting months on end for them to get new stock as again, CLEARLY stick drift is a BIT of an issue if all the major websites are out of the base stick modules. 2) I'm not saying GuliKit are frauds, but they may be a teensy bit overrated. They've sold controllers with a big lie. This user called out the concept of Hall Effect as a magic solution in general. It's one of the rare few times you'll see anybody question Hall Effect. In all reality, the REAL reason they're not more widely used is because... they're just not as common as potentiometers at this point and aren't nearly as accurate as them. This YouTube video does a great job of pointing out how Hall Effects aren't perfect in their current incarnation. So, where the hell does that leave us? Are there any 3rd party controllers out there to save us? ARE THE 3RD PARTY CONTROLLERS w/ HALL EFFECT STICKS? Yes, but it's far from ideal. Disillusioned with GuliKit, I set off trying to find if there were at the very least any highly touted 3rd party gaming pro controllers that once and for all rectified this issue. There are. But they aren't Messiahs either. I went through all the "best 3rd party controllers" recommendations from top websites. IGN. GamesRadar. GameRant. The only controller which marketed Hall Effect was the Nacon Revolution 5 Pro. Sadly, users have complained about their design being half-assed. Even while exhaustively going through YouTube and discovering this diehard gamepad fanatic "Gamer Heaven", even modern iterations of Hall Effect controllers such as the "HYPR Custom Controller" left me underwhelmed. It's not that these controllers are bad. In fact, the reviewer speaks relatively highly about them though he does acknowledge some of the growing pains of iteration. But the monetization of the most basic features feels gross as hell. Maybe, if you're reading this post, it's worth investigating to see if one of them may suit your needs. They weren't going to suit mine. I already spent $200 on the DualSense Edge. Buying another $200+ Pro Controller with varying levels of success isn't in my wheelhouse. I don't have a Yankees/Dodgers spending ceiling. We're more of a middle-of-the-pack Colorado Rockies. So, out of luck with 3rd party options. I guess I had no other choice than... repair my two base controllers manually. Oh, brother. Alternatively, there's also this repair video. The one posted above is much cleaner and more delicate. The one I linked here is much nastier and bro's hands are jacked up with blood. Choose the flavor you prefer. THE EQUIPMENT YOU'LL NEED - Boot up this website on Google Chrome and connect your controllers to a laptop/PC. (I say use Chrome because my default browser is Firefox and the circularity test did not pop up while testing) I got my PS5 controller charging cable, an adapter I use for connecting the USB-A to my Mac Laptop. Fidget with the controller and you'll be able to see if there's jitter or drift and how extreme it is. One of mine was TERRIBLE with the left stick virtually pressing itself all the way up even when I wasn't touching it. The other controller had a slight drift to the left-hand side on BOTH sticks. So, the issues are in fact real. How do we fix it? Go on Amazon (or your preferred marketplace, don't give Jeff money if you don't want to). You'll need a few items. 1) A Nylon guitar pick ($5.50). 2) A plastic spudger ($7.50). (I also bought these black ones, they were useless). 3) Precision tweezers ($6). 4) Synthetic grease ($10). 5) Isopropyl/rubbing alcohol ($9.40). 6) Phillips Head Screwdriver that can remove PH00 Screws ($4.75). 7) Lint-free cleaning swabs ($8). You don't have to buy these exact items. I'm merely informing you of which ones I used for my operation. Optionally, I also bought this soldering iron which ended up being unnecessary but it may not be long-term. More on that later. Now that you have all your scruples in order, let's follow the video guide above. I will document in extreme detail how my first experience went. My 1st PS5 Controller Stick Drift Repair Experience #1. (7 minutes, 26 seconds) - This is how long it took me to do the diagnosis test and remove the initial black part of the controller on the front face. (Easy) #2. (9 minutes, 14 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the R1 and L1 triggers. I'm a moron. I was not paying attention to the video and did not notice the orientation of the controller when he was prying them loose. Thus, I, like a moron, kept trying to pry loose the R2 and L2 buttons. Once I realized this, they came off quite easily. Warning: My triggers went flying across the room as I used the spudger and did not anticipate their velocity. Be careful you don't lose them. (I'm a moron, but Easy) #3. (3 minutes, 49 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the 4 Phillips screws found in the controller. A monkey could do this. (Easy) #4. (25 minutes, 30 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the clips and disengage the backside of the controller from all the inner hardware and circuity. I'm sorry, this part SUCKS. Both videos I linked made this process look super easy. IT IS NOT. Maybe I'm a moron, maybe my spudger is stupid and doesn't have the little lip like the one in the main video that makes the process way easier, but I fought and battled with this thing for far longer than I'd like to admit. Well, I made clear it took me damn near half an hour so I guess I am admitting it. I don't even remember what finally made the back half of the controller snap off in the end. Enough prying and the thing eventually got fed up. This was hilariously, the longest most agonizing part of the entire disassembly. (Hard and agonizing as hell) #5. (11 minutes, 19 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the battery. This thing is scary as hell. The guy makes it look easy with those precision pliers. I didn't remember to do that. So between some mix of gently pulling up the little white plastic piece by the wires as well as well as lifting them up with the precision tweezers, I eventually managed to loosen it up and take it out without damaging it. (Medium) #6. (8 minutes, 23 seconds) - This is how long it took me to take off all the ribbons. Be gentle with these. I know, they're quite stubbornly set and require sufficient force to unlatch without accidentally ripping them out. I managed to do this without damaging anything somehow. (Medium) #7. (15 minutes, 59 seconds) - This is how long it took me to pry open the potentiometer and actually get the little damn thing out to clean. It is a very meticulous process. My biggest fear hands down was somehow snapping the little grid thing too far back to the point where it needed to be soldered back on and I REALLY didn't want to go through all that. I didn't think I had that skill in me after how long it took me to remove the back part of the controller. My technique was slowly but surely prying the little guitar pick in there until I finally created a little wedge. Then I'd use the orange spudger to ever so slightly make an opening until I could use my finger to slowly bend the piece backward with ease and remove the little thing. It worked. (Hard and scary) #8. (23 minutes, 30 seconds) - This is how long it took me to clean one of the potentiometers, put it back, plug everything back into place, and then repeat the process of removal, cleaning, and reinserting for the other potentiometer on the same left stick. Again, I went very slowly and carefully due to fear of removing the piece accidentally or snapping it off. I then ever so gently cleaned the little piece with my cleaning tips and used dabs of rubbing alcohol to clean the interior of the device itself where the thing rests. I put just a speck of grease on the device and reinserted it. Eventually, with enough force, it'll click back into place with the cube. (Hard) #9. (23 minutes, 16 seconds) - This is how long it took me to reassemble the entire controller. This part isn't so bad. You've already done all the difficult aspects of disassembly and this is one of the rare cases where putting the whole thing back together isn't nearly as difficult as taking it apart. Don't forget the speaker or the screws. Relatch those ribbons. Place the battery back into its socket. Eventually, it was time for the moment of truth... after latching back on the batter, I hooked up the adapter to my Mac and ran Gamepad Tester... the controller lit up... I twiddled the thumbsticks... NO MORE DRIFT! NO MORE DRIFT! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? IT ACTUALLY WORKED! Total Time for Repair: 2 hours, 8 minutes Concluding Thoughts: I can't believe that fixed the bloody thing. Genuinely. I know it sounds stupid, but I felt like such an idiot the entire process of the repair convinced "this thing probably still isn't even going to work in the end" and then when the left icon of the left stick magically always resets itself to the center... it's amazing. The pride and sense of accomplishment I felt knowing I had fixed something I owned would make an EA executive blush. Elated at my success, I decided to do it all over again 2 days later with my other controller. My 2nd PS5 Controller Stick Drift Repair Experience #1. (6 minutes, 6 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the front-facing black cover, remove the triggers, and take out all 4 Phillips screwdrivers. Yes, something that took me a combined damn near 20 minutes on my 1st attempt I completed in damn near 1/4 the time on my second attempt. I'M A SPEEDRUNNER. (Easy) #2. (16 minutes, 43 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove those damn clips and disengage the backside of the controller. Yea, faster, but not that much faster even this 2nd crack at it. It's just... stupid. I looked up multiple YouTube videos and none were helpful. Those top clips close to the R2/L2 triggers at the top of the frame are just a total pain in the ass. The only thing I will say is observing the way this guy managed to snap it off worked instantaneously for me after attempting it so... maybe that's the trick (Hard) #3. (4 minutes, 21 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove the battery. Accomplished in 1/4 the time. Be gentle as always since this is the first real step of the repair process you risk doing damage to the inner delicacies of the controller but as long as you're not a neanderthal, you should be fine. (Medium) #4. (6 minutes, 59 seconds) - This is how long it took me to take off all the ribbons. Unfortunately, here, I hit a snafu. Remember how I said in the 1st repair it's important to be gentle? Yea, I accidentally ripped one of them off. I'm sorry. The thing wasn't budging. It was one of the side blue ribbons. I freaked out initially. Then decided to simply place it to the side and worry about it during the reassembly portion of the process. (Medium) #5. (11 minutes, 6 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove, clean, and replace the 1st of the potentiometers. As this was the controller where BOTH sticks were getting a bit of drift, I'd need to clean all 4 as opposed to my first repair where I only cleaned the potentiometers on the left stick. (Medium) #6. (7 minutes, 39 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove, clean, and replace the 2nd of the potentiometers. #7. (6 minutes, 30 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove, clean, and replace the 3rd of the potentiometers. #8. (6 minutes 52 seconds) - This is how long it took me to remove, clean, and replace the 4th of the potentiometers. Honestly, now that I had gotten enough practice with loosening up the piece with the guitar pick and then slightly wedging it open with the orange spudger, I got quite comfortable with the process. I didn't fear snapping off the piece or anything at this point. Cleaning is easy and the hardest part of the whole thing is snapping the little piece back into place so it connects with the analog cube. (Medium) #9. (26 minutes, 43 seconds) - This is how long it took me to reassemble the entire controller. Sadly, this was one of the rare parts where I was actually SLOWER than my 1st attempt. There's a reason for this. Those ribbons gave me a headache on this one. One of the tiny bottom ribbons got wrapped under the circuit so mid-repair I had to un-do the ribbons all over again to get that last latch on. I ripped off another ribbon in the process. I then did my best to put both pieces back into place. It was a bit of a mess and remarkably finicky. I wasted a lot of time on that. Otherwise, this would have been a hell of a lot faster. Just like the first time, after reconnecting the battery, I ran it through the gamepad tester, and YUP! It's mostly gone! It's not as precise as the 1st controller repair and there's ever so slightly some jitter on the right stick but with deadzones I should be fine. Total Time for Repair: 1 hour, 33 minutes Concluding Thoughts: If it hadn't been for the fact I cleaned two additional potentiometers and had some fuss with the ribbons, I'm convinced I could have halved my time completely and gotten this process done in under an hour. Hell, I think I at the very least know how to remove the back portion of the controller in a much more expedient fashion now. I then tested out the controllers by playing some Emerald Shores and after earning the platinum, I believe I can say I noticed no discernible input from the controller that did not come from my own hand. Thrilled with my success, I put my little toolset away in a neatly organized box in case I ever need it in the future. This is necessary because while I've staved off stick drift at the moment... this is not a permanent solution. One of the greatest lines in cinema history. "No, you're not wrong. You're not wrong Walter, you're just an asshole." NOT A LONG-TERM, PERMANENT FIX - For as happy as am with the fact I managed to stave off stick drift after afflicting me for so long, I acknowledge that in reality what I've done is push the proverbial can down the road. My controller with inevitably probably accumulate dust and nasty grime over the years ahead. In an effort to stave that time off indefinitely, I've placed my controllers in air-tight containers and will charge them only when covered and tucked away in a drawer like they're some sort of holy item too pure for this world. We'll see if these drastic measures have any long-term benefit. But the issue remains. Is anybody out there doing ANYTHING to fix this issue long-term? Well... maybe.... POTENTIAL LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS - There's a popular YouTube video that I discovered during this ordeal by a man named Marius Heier. The video released in May 2023 and in less than a year, it has achieved over 2 million views. That's pretty noteworthy for a channel with less than 30k subscribers and their 2nd most popular video has less than 50k views. My YouTube channel even has at least 2 videos with 50k views. The Norwegian guy talks a big game. Apparently, he's making good progress on it. I hope that's the case. There's also a far lesser-known channel run by a man named Jun Zeng. He uses a Persona 5 waifu as his channel icon so you know he's legit. This guy actually already sells Hall Effect stick and there's a YouTube video produced by a guy named VK who showed the installation process. If you decided to actually spend time watching the video, you'll quickly realize this is not practical for 99% of consumers. The creator himself, who kind of does this soldering thing as his job, said it's "an extremely difficult installation, super hard, one of the hardest I've ever done on this channel, and I don't recommend trying this for yourself unless you have the right tools and a lot of experience with soldering." Alternatively, a much simpler solution is offered in the form of these little chips that require minimal soldering experience to install. An example of these can be found in this video. I'm intrigued by this option as even though they're not hall effects, it seems like a fairly decent temporary solution until other technology catches up. Perhaps one of y'all could try this option and report back to me on the results. My Multi-Million Dollar Business Idea - Having poured a huge amount of effort into this process... I'm left with one conclusion. Wow, there sure seems to be an awful lot of money to be made in the business. How difficult is it to honestly make one of these Hall Effect sticks? Do you realize I could sell these like women's feet pics on Reddit? The fervor and demand I could create for such a product could move mountains. I imagine the process MUST be super difficult. OR else somebody else would have done it by now. But literally just making a hall effect version of the stick modules found in the DualSense Edge seems like at minimum a hundreds of thousands dollars worth business. Allegedly, GuliKit is gonna do this. But even if GuliKit does, the demand they'll have likely won't be able to kept up with in production. I legitimately did some browsing on AliExpress for Hall Effect sticks. My brain then short-circuited because if I thought soldering was too advanced for me, how the hell am I gonna create something of this ilk and even begin to put together a prototype? But yea, in case any future entrepreneurial engineers are reading this, if you can make a prototype, DM me. If you could get something working, I'd like to try it firsthand. If it works, I'd love to work hand-in-hand with you to sell this product to the masses. I could do it, dammit. I can make a website. I can sell things. I CAN HANDLE THINGS. I'M SMAAAHT. Welcome To The End - Wow... did I just spend 3 hours in the wee early morning hours of a Friday typing all of that up? I guess I did. I've become a bit passionate about this subject after all I've researched. The years-old reddit threads, the never-ending YouTube video tutorials, the unhelpful dead ends. I hope this post, at some point in the future, helps somebody. I know it's long. You don't need to read it all if you don't need it. I'm sure large parts of it are completely incoherent unless you've ventured into some of these waters in the past of your own volition. I'm going to go ahead and take a solid week's long break from gaming and reboot my love of the medium when I get my FF7 Rebirth copy. I hope you all have a marvelous end to the month of February and see y'all in mid-March by the time I've devoured FF7RR! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelagia14 Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 Wow. I unintentionally hibernate for a month and you add a new "omg I want to drop everything to play this" game to my backlog with Interaction Isn't Explicit (and thanks for the shout-out on the price!), write a review on my most favoritest Uncharted game ever, and then do the lord's work sharing the knowledge you gained in your PhD on stick drift for the benefit of humanity! I am so unbelievably hyped for Rebirth to come out in just a few days(!!!!!!). The extended preview earlier this month indicated to me that Rebirth is going to continue to be faithful in modernizing so many beloved-and-or-iconic aspects and mechanics of the original game, while also adapting to many conventions of the modern 3D gaming landscape. I'm still a little uncertain about the meta-narrative that they are playing with everyone who has played OG FFVII, but with all the love and attention put into the game, I'm hoping that the meta-narrative will make more sense in this installment (and confirm a popular fan theory that makes sense to me). Anyways, I'm especially excited for your Rebirth post, since you're the only person I know who will be playing it and hasn't played the original! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted February 26 Share Posted February 26 On 2/23/2024 at 3:25 PM, realm722 said: I Got My Ph.D. In PS5 Controller Stick Drift So You Don't Have To (How To Fix It) So, I read all of this(took me a while, it's technically an engineering article) and my very first reaction was: I tried soldering around with a previous PS4 controller and while it worked...temporarily...that kinda convinced me that the damn plastic is programmed to break. Might be a tin foil conspiracy theory but I swear it's not really coincidence when the Ultra Dualsense 5 Premium Big Dick Edition breaks at exactly 1 year after purchase. Clockwork precision right there! Your article timing couldn't have been more fateful, since my controller started drifting like it was in Tokyo mere days before you posted this! I found a stupid-but-actually-works? alternative solution on Reddit. Faced with this same problem, a redditor suggested that I should press down the stick that is drifting (in my case the L3) and gently do clockwise motions for 1 minute, then counterclockwise motions for another minute. Somehow, by some sorcery this fixed the issue. Whether it's temporary or not, I don't know, my bet is that I lucked out. But for some reason this worked like a charm. Waiting for the next Dualsense mega update to get my Stick Drift back 😂 Still I wish to congratulate you for your work and study on the case, even if the stupid thing will break again, at least now you can clean up a controller in no time and have one extra skill in electronics. On 2/23/2024 at 3:25 PM, realm722 said: THE EQUIPMENT YOU'LL NEED - Boot up this website on Google Chrome and connect your controllers to a laptop/PC I whisper those words in the microphone of my Dualsense every time it has the idea of acting up and somehow it gets back in line. That might also be a solution. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 On 2/26/2024 at 2:52 AM, Copanele said: I tried soldering around with a previous PS4 controller and while it worked...temporarily...that kinda convinced me that the damn plastic is programmed to break. Might be a tin foil conspiracy theory but I swear it's not really coincidence when the Ultra Dualsense 5 Premium Big Dick Edition breaks at exactly 1 year after purchase. Clockwork precision right there! Your article timing couldn't have been more fateful, since my controller started drifting like it was in Tokyo mere days before you posted this! I'm telling you man... there's something going on here. I'm not going to go full conspiracy theorist, I genuinely think this is just Sony doing a classic "get the most well-known stick and keep using it" since all the other companies are also doing it but the radical increase I saw around the phenomenon is either an indication of after certain amount of X hours of use, that thing is just meant to go bust. I'm not joking when I saw the term "planned obsolescence" mentioned north of 50 times across all those threads. Sorry to hear that soldering on the PS4 controller didn't go well. I've heard that one's more complicated than the PS5 to take apart sadly. On 2/26/2024 at 2:52 AM, Copanele said: I found a stupid-but-actually-works? alternative solution on Reddit. Faced with this same problem, a redditor suggested that I should press down the stick that is drifting (in my case the L3) and gently do clockwise motions for 1 minute, then counterclockwise motions for another minute. Somehow, by some sorcery this fixed the issue. Whether it's temporary or not, I don't know, my bet is that I lucked out. But for some reason this worked like a charm. Waiting for the next Dualsense mega update to get my Stick Drift back 😂 Yup, I've seen those tricks as well. Tried them with my base controllers ages ago when they first went bust and neither of them helped. Happy it worked for you though! I'll be curious to see if it just extends yourself drift-free short-term or if you can get another year+ of usage out of it with that simple trick! On 2/25/2024 at 7:26 PM, pelagia14 said: Anyways, I'm especially excited for your Rebirth post, since you're the only person I know who will be playing it and hasn't played the original! Not only have I not played the original, I have avoided all talk about Rebirth for the last 6 months. Genuinely. I have all the key names filtered on social media. I have blocked it whenever so much of a thumbnail has popped up on YouTube. I am going to get a genuinely completely blind experience and I cannot wait. My expectations are high (I'd be sad if I didn't find the game to AT LEAST be 8/10 worthy) but I mean... this is Square Enix's BABY. They can't mess this up. I trust them to lead me to a good time and if all else fails, I loved the combat in the 1st game and that alone can float an entire experience for me. As an aside, update everybody - I got my DualSense Edge back from the Repair center! Here is the timeline. Packed Controller w/ Shipping Info: February 17th (Saturday) Shipped Controller: February 20th (Tuesday) Arrived at Repair Center: February 23rd (Friday) Left Repair Center & Shipped Back: February 26th (Monday) Package Arrives w/ Fixed Controller: February 29th (Thursday) Honestly, can't complain. When I shipped it out, they said they'd try to get it back within 15 days. I got it within 9. That's pretty good. Especially given I get to enjoy FF7 Rebirth with it. Due to my location, the repair center in Laredo, Texas ended up being the closest so good on them. I checked the serial number and it's different so they actually replaced it instead of just swapping out the busted stick module which I thought was interesting. That's all from me. I'm off to hibernate and don't know when I'll reemerge. Until then! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post realm722 Posted April 7 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 7 My Experience Playing In A Competitive FIFA Tournament in Colombia *shoos the cobwebs off this thread* Holy crap man... has it really been since February that I haven't commented on here? That HAS to be the longest gap in time between posts on this thread since I started it back in 2016. That's mental. Anyways, much to my biggest hater's disappointment, I am, in fact, not dead. Rather, I've been loving life and got back a little over a week ago from a life-changing trip to Colombia. "Life-changing" sounds drastic but there will be times in your life where you feel like you get a totally different perspective on things and this trip absolutely qualifies for that category. I've had a bit of a love affair with the country in general after making some friendships over there during the pandemic and it is wild how emotional you can get when people you've spoken with hundreds of hours over ZOOM and grown intimate friendships with finally became reality for you.... in-person. As this isn't a personal blog, I won't dive into much further details but as an unambitious person who almost didn't go on this trip, I would have regretted it so much if I hadn't. So... I guess the moral of the story is, travel if given the opportunity? That sounds about right. ANYWAYS, one of the highlights of my trip was meeting and getting to know a friend of a family friend. This guy was pretty cool. I'm going to use aliases for everybody as I feel that makes them more memorable than their basic names. We'll call him OnePiece because bro is big on anime. Anyway, he's a graphic designer and has an absolutely sick work set-up at his home and was showing me some of his getdown and such. I noticed on his desktop that he had some FIFA 19. While I haven't touched FIFA since FIFA 22, I feel like when you've spent thousands of hours of your life playing it as I have, you never quite lose the skill and competitiveness that comes with playing a peer in-person. He actually said he wasn't big on it (he prefers other games like Rocket League) but his older brother is BIG on it and MAD competitive. In the words of Michael Jordan, that was all I needed. His brother, BocaGrande (this means big mouth in Spanish) soon pulled up and I immediately started trash-talking him. He loved it. Here I am, the foreigner, asking these Colombians whether or not they wanna lose by 3 goals or less. We wasted no time firing the system up. I haven't touched FIFA in well over a year and a half but it's like riding a bike. Unfortunately, I made a critical error in my selection. I went with Real Madrid because, duh. He went with Juventus. This is FIFA 19. aka the FIFA right after CR7 left Madrid and went to a stacked Juventus squad, at least in FIFA. Real Madrid meanwhile was in a weakened state post-CR7, Benzema hadn't risen to Ballon d'Or yet, it was pre-Vinicius learning how to finish, etc... aka... you can already see me making my excuses. I went up 1-0, he tied it at 1-1, he then got one of the most bullshit penalties I've ever seen in my life on a player I wasn't even controlling and went up 2-1. I'm not gonna lie. He was A LOT better than I thought he'd be. I say this because whenever I meet a friend in person who plays FIFA and wants to play, I typically whoop that ass 6-1. I'm just being honest. On this occasion, I would be the one getting my ass whooped. I had a golden opportunity with Vinicius open running towards goal in the 83rd minute and he sailed the shot far right of the goal. I then pressed, went ultra attacking, and he took advantage getting 2 goals late with my defense all out of my position to win 4-1. Ouch. He was a good sport about it, especially after all that trash I talked. I excused the penalty. He said no worries, I'll beat you again. PLAY THE MICHAEL JORDAN TRASH TALKING ONLY AFTER WINNING CLIP. I know had to, as the kids say, lock tf in. We went for Match #2. I wasn't messing around. I choose PSG. Neymar, Cavani, & Mbappe. That was all I needed. He went up 1-0, I stayed the course, Cavani knotted it up before halftime to make it 1-1, and then in the 70th minute, Cavani muscles off Chiellini to put me up 2-1 in the 71st minute with a laser across goal. I killed time. I win 2-1. It was a proper great match. Especially considering I missed 2 penalties because bro's gave me a busted up Xbox 360 controller with the stick sensitivity cranked all the way up so it's damn near impossible to aim properly. We then paused for now to go get lunch with the family amongst other things but oooooh boy did word get out about a loud-mouth American who loved playing FIFA competitively. Around 3 hours later, both bro's had their friends pull up to have ourselves a little FIFA Tournament. 6 players in total. We'd play this out like a proper league. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss. You play the other 5 opponents, player with the most points in the end wins. The players? Myself, BocaGrande, UnOjo(one eye cuz he wore a patch), ElNiño(a hilarious 12-year old kid who joined the crew with the adults), ElComico(brother of eye patch bro, funny dude), and SeñorSerio(brother-in-law of BocaGrande). I rolled with PSG. BocGrande with Juventus. UnOjo with Bayern Munich. ElNiño with Barcelona. ElComico with Liverpool. SeñorSerio with Bayern Munich. My first opponent was ElComico. I hadn't seen him play against any of the prior opponents as this was his 1st game. I gotta be honest, I was playing horribly early on and conceded 2 early goals in the first 30 minutes. It was a bit embarrassing. Here I was, talking all this trash, I got trumped 4-1, won 2-1, and am now down 0-2 to this guy? Nuh uh. I got a goal before halftime. Kept the faith. Tied it up off a corner to make it 2-2 and in the 78th minute completed the full remontada (comeback) with Mbappe breaking free to salvage the victory and claim my 3 points. ElComico is a solid player, very patient, I thought he was honestly better than BocaGrande but his issue in later matchups was that he just settled for far too many longshot attempts than getting closer and giving himself a better opportunity to score. My next opponent was SeñorSerio. This translates to "Mr. Serious" which is incredibly appropriate because lemme tell you, as someone who had never played in front of a bunch of people who were INVESTED in a FIFA game result, the atmosphere is HILARIOUS. There's pressure with so many eyes on you and critiquing your every move but also so much laughter whenever somebody goofs up or the peanut gallery wants to chime in. That is of course, until Mr. Serious enters the fray. No smiles, no jokes, this ain't a game to him. He was a decent opponent but... I handled my business. I went up 2-0 by playing patient, he made it 2-1, I went ahead and got two more goals to make it 4-1 and he got a consolation prize for his goal difference in stoppage time to lose 2-4. My third opponent was BocaGrande. This was the rubber match. I had proven myself against two solid opponents and gotten my confidence back up realizing I had won 3 of my last 4 matches. I wasn't rusty anymore. I wasn't playing with old slow ass Madrid in 2019 who had zero fast attacking options. I felt good. But I gotta hand it to BocaGrande man, bro talks trash but he is LEGIT. He knew that the captain and king of his team was Ronaldo and he force-fed him the ball to perfection. He went up 2-0 early. I got a goal before the half. I got another one to tie things up in the 60th minute and got the title "Hombre de los Remontadas" which I thought was pretty great. He went ahead in the 70th on a ridiculous finesse shot by Ronaldo. I responded after a defensive passing error by him to tie it up at 3-3 in the 78th. This was the best match of the entire tournament and the whole crew recognized it. Unfortunately, I had Mbappe free late in the 88th minute and fired a shot on goal that hit the far right post. He got possession back and went down the patch. He found who else other than Cristiano Ronaldo in the 92nd minute for an absurd 4TH goal of the match in game-winning fashion after he fired it across my keeper who was utterly helpless. I still have the screaming reactions from the onlookers seared into my memory. Props to him. It was one hell of a match. He was the better man and beat me 2 out of 3 times fair and square. Damn you Ronaldo. Carried his bloody ass. My fourth opponent was UnOjo. He was a fairly conservative player who had earned a few draws with Liverpool. I literally scored in the 3rd minute of the match and that's how things ended just 1-0 without too much intense action in either direction. I'll take my 3 points. My final opponent was ElNiño. The incredible thing that I need to share with you all is this kid, playing amongst adults, despite having shockingly little FIFA experience, had managed a DRAW against BocaGrande 2-2 with Barcelona following a late Ousmane Dembele screamer from outside the box in the 81st minute. In hindsight, it's baffling. He was by far the worst opponent of the 5 I faced and I dusted him 4-0 and should honestly have won 6-0 or 7-0 as he just doesn't know defensive discipline and frequently pulls his players out of possession. It's baffling to me in hindsight that BocaGrande slipped up and cost himself 2 points by either not taking him seriously or trusting too much in himself. All in all, finishing with 12/15 points isn't so bad. Beating 4/5 Colombians as the American feels pretty good. If only they had Junior FC in the game or else I would have played with them and tried to beat them with their own pride and joy. Sadly for me, nobody helped me out in my path to the title. ElNiño managed to cost BocaGrande 2 points but as he played, he beat everybody else. He stomped ElComico 4-1. He beat UnOjo 2-1 after getting a late penalty to salvage a victory. Against SeñorSerio in the final match of the night, he was LOSING 0-1 in the 1st half and thus needed 2 goals to rally and steal the title and he got all 3 before the 80th minute to ultimately win 3-2 and take the title. Colombia FIFA Tournament #1. BocaGrande: 13 points #2. Me: 12 points #3. SeñorSerio: 7 points #4. ElNiño: 5 points #5. UnOjo: 3 points #6. ElComico: 1 point I've never had so much fun in my life playing FIFA. An atmosphere like that where everybody cares while also having a fun time and ribbing each other is unmatched. I'll happily take 2nd place. On my second to last night before I came back to the US, I was back over at their house and was beating BocaGrande 1-0 in the 34minute before we got called to head out for a late-night beach excursion with everybody on the trip. We'll have to continue it online. But that's enough about Colombia. I've become that person who traveled out of the country and now every conversation I have with my family and friends relates back to my experience over there. Let's not have it drip over to my online persona as well. I am currently back into the throw of things with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I wrote 51k words about my trip in Colombia when I got back home. I'm not saying the Rebirth review is gonna rival that, but I AM saying it may yanno... be 1/4 that? Maybe? We'll see. Until then! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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