AJ_Radio's Disappointing Backlog and Wishlist

[AJ_Radio]

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

@Spaz I think you're right. One of the things AVGN brings up is that a single game you owned or rented was often your entire weekend. If a game sucked or was too hard, you were SOL, because there was nothing else to do. Sure, you could play outside -- and we did a lot of that -- but there was no Netflix or smartphones or computers. If you had to be indoors, you either watched whatever was on TV (which, outside of evenings and Saturday mornings, sucked), or you played that game. For me anyway, I think that's where my completionist nature came from. If I started something, I had to see it through. Gaming, in some small way, I guess, helped with that.

 

My childhood was a little different. I think I talked about this before, but most of my early experiences with video games were handhelds. We had an NES/SNES that my brother would play, but it was always in his room, and that was like forbidden territory. I mostly played Gameboy, because we moved around a lot and it was just more accessible. I had the original Gameboy, Advance, SP, DS, and now a 3DS XL. It's still probably my favorite console. I usually give Pokemon credit for getting me into gaming, because it was something I could play for hours on end without getting bored, and it was one of those rare games that kids of all ages could enjoy, you know? That's probably not a big deal for somebody who grew up with a lot of friends who were all around the same age, but my brother and sister were my closest friends as a kid, just because we bounced around so much. Having a game that we could all play and discuss together was great.

 

It also led to a lot of fighting, come to think of it...

 

Did you watch the AVGN episode on Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?

 

It was a terrible NES game. And yes, he rented that game for the entire weekend.

 

I hardly ever played games to their fullest. Usually I wasn't patient enough or I stopped playing when I didn't have fun. I owned Super Mario Bros 3 and that game is probably my #1 childhood memory when it comes to video games. One of the greatest games of all time, but it took me years to finally get to Bowser in World 8. Died so many times on World 7 and World 8.

 

It wasn't until later that I was more concerned about fully completing games. MMOs drove me to completion since I wanted to experience all the new content they had to offer.

 

Pokemon never hit me all that much. I just remember watching the cartoon show back in the 1990s and thought it was horrible, which soured my experience with the games. Though as I understand the games are far better than the cartoon was. Plus, we had to watch it with English Dubs. English Dubs were awful back in the day.

[AJ_Radio]

Wrapped up Demon's Souls. Went back to Assassins Creed Syndicate and finally finished off the DLC.

 

Even with reinstalling the game, I still ran into freezing issues with Syndicate. I generally don't tolerate bugs still present in games even when I have the latest patch installed. Oh well. It was a boring slog to run around for over a hour getting all the collectibles I needed for 100 percent synchronization.

 

Going to be a while before I will play another Assassins Creed game.

 

----

 

Metro Last Light Redux should be pretty interesting. I enjoyed 2033 Redux when I played through it last Fall and Last Light looks to be much of the same. The novel to game conversion went pretty smooth, as I don't really consider games based off of novels or movies to be all that great.

[Briste]

 

On 4/7/2018 at 5:42 AM, det_gittes said:

I've only now discovered this whole section of PSNP and I find it very interesting, especially people sharing thoughts on their experiences with specific games and specific trophies, that definitely makes a good read and makes you want to come to the site more regularly (after about a month visiting this site more actively, I've come to realize that my browsing through the threads has become a bit aimless, just hoping to come across something interesting, very often unsuccessfully.

lol I'm in the same boat. I had randomly stumbled onto Cassy's thread since it popped up on the right hand side of the main page, and I've stuck with that thread since I get the alerts. The only section I check with any regularity is the dispute forum since I'm curious. I also find these threads very interesting and would like to start one of my own at some point, however I run into the problem of how I want to spend my free time. Do I spend it gaming or writing in the forums. In general, I choose to game. I mostly check this forum on my phone for reading and if I post it's usually at work or right before I play at night. I may end up choosing to post more since these are interesting.

 

On 4/8/2018 at 4:37 PM, Spaz said:

I was far too young to play Contra back in the day but it was one of those games The Angry Video Game Nerd mentioned in one of those AVGN episodes, and since I was a big fan of him I decided to try out Contra on an emulator. Turned out to be a very good game.

 

Difficult as all hell without the Konami code. I have no idea how some of those guys beat those NES games.

 

On 4/8/2018 at 5:16 PM, Cassylvania said:

Gaming was very different back then. Games were expensive, most people only owned a single console (usually an NES), and the selection was terrible. All of this meant that most kids only had maybe four or five games. Back then, it wasn't about beating games quickly and moving onto the next one -- it was about mastering the games you had. The games were short because they had to be, so developers made them as hard as possible to keep kids from beating them too quickly. But you know a lot about that from AVGN.

What Cassy said is pretty true. I still tend to play this way since I try to only play one game at a time until completion. I will usually master the controls and different areas of that game, similarly to when I was younger, but with so many options, I don't think most people approach gaming this way. The drawback to my style is that I usually miss a lot of games out there since I just don't have the time. A game like super meat boy is a throwback to that type of challenge, but in general it's not the case for most games. Every game felt like a Super Meat Boy almost back then. There were several games that I was just not good enough to beat and some took me a very long time. For example, I used to be able to beat Contra back in the day without dying at all however I was never able to beat Mike Tyson in Punch Out. I could beat every single guy to get to him, but I never once beat Tyson.

 

I picked up the Arcade Classic version of Contra and it is actually a little different than the original, which I found disappointing. I was also disappointed with how generic and easy the trophy list was as well. While I do have the desire from time to time to do these classics...I have stayed away since I tend to like my memories of the game and don't want to alter that through a bad experience on a lazy port.

 

On 4/8/2018 at 5:30 PM, Spaz said:

We only had a select few games, because like you said, they were expensive. Gaming back then for us was begging our parents for a new game on either our birthday or on Christmas. Keep in mind that at best we could only get two or four games a year. So eventually we ended up renting games at places like Blockbuster, because that was just more convenient.

It was the same for me to except for the renting part. I used to get a couple of games for Christmas and a couple for my Birthday and maybe one or two others throughout the year. I think when I got my SNES in 1992, I had 30 NES games. I got my NES in 1987 I think so that's about 6 games a year. What I used to do was plan with my best friend which games we would get ourselves and trade. I tried renting, but I used to get mad since I would have to return the game before I was ready to stop playing. In theory, I could have just rented them again longer, however we would only go to the video store (what an extinct concept lol) a couple times a month so that wasn't really a possibility.

 

My profile doesn't have a ton of fluff games on it since I tend to pick the harder games (in my mind) that reflect how I've always played. I have no problems with the fluff games since they can be fun still, but I still don't have a ton of disposable income for gaming so I want games that give me a challenge and take some time to beat. 

 

How did you end up liking Demon's Souls? Are you going to power through the rest of them now?

[AJ_Radio]

4 hours ago, Br1ste said:

What Cassy said is pretty true. I still tend to play this way since I try to only play one game at a time until completion. I will usually master the controls and different areas of that game, similarly to when I was younger, but with so many options, I don't think most people approach gaming this way. The drawback to my style is that I usually miss a lot of games out there since I just don't have the time. A game like super meat boy is a throwback to that type of challenge, but in general it's not the case for most games. Every game felt like a Super Meat Boy almost back then. There were several games that I was just not good enough to beat and some took me a very long time. For example, I used to be able to beat Contra back in the day without dying at all however I was never able to beat Mike Tyson in Punch Out. I could beat every single guy to get to him, but I never once beat Tyson.

 

You are practically the same age as my sister. Late 30s. I don't think you're too much younger than the Angry Video Game Nerd himself, since he grew up on the same kind of games. In a way, I consider you one of the lucky ones.

 

I think people like you HAD to grow up with a plethora of hard games. A lot of games felt like a Ninja Gaiden or a Super Meat Boy because they were difficult as hell. I was never exposed to those really difficult NES games until I heard about them on the internet much later. I was more of a SNES/Genesis dude, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Super Mario World were nowhere near as difficult as Mike Tyson's Punch Out. I'm good enough to power through both of those games, but that is mostly because with only five or six games to choose from for both systems I didn't exactly have a lot.

 

4 hours ago, Br1ste said:

It was the same for me to except for the renting part. I used to get a couple of games for Christmas and a couple for my Birthday and maybe one or two others throughout the year. I think when I got my SNES in 1992, I had 30 NES games. I got my NES in 1987 I think so that's about 6 games a year. What I used to do was plan with my best friend which games we would get ourselves and trade. I tried renting, but I used to get mad since I would have to return the game before I was ready to stop playing. In theory, I could have just rented them again longer, however we would only go to the video store (what an extinct concept lol) a couple times a month so that wasn't really a possibility.

 

My profile doesn't have a ton of fluff games on it since I tend to pick the harder games (in my mind) that reflect how I've always played. I have no problems with the fluff games since they can be fun still, but I still don't have a ton of disposable income for gaming so I want games that give me a challenge and take some time to beat. 

 

How did you end up liking Demon's Souls? Are you going to power through the rest of them now?

 

My sister used to do the same thing but she got out of gaming once she got into high school in the 1990s. I picked up my gaming habits from her since she used to be big into Nintendo.

 

These days she is married and has two children, one of which will enter kindergarten next school year. She doesn't have the time anymore like she used to. But then again she stopped gaming over 20 years ago, she is far behind the curve of what constitutes as gaming today.

 

I was suckered into the fluff games because I felt getting fast platinums was good. I was subscribed to a few Youtube channels that listed off 'Easy Platinums', and I thought "Hey I can buy and play these games". Brian at PS4Trophies has already made two or three videos on Easy Platinums. He covered Nubla which looked interesting so I ended up buying it and finished it within two hours.

 

The general opinion is fluff games are shit, but that is simply not true. A couple I played I ended up enjoying a lot.

 

I loved Bloodborne when I played through it so Demon's Souls was more of the same thing since both games were made by From Software. Turns out I missed out on a great experience when I tried Demon's Souls years earlier. Now I'm thinking of starting up Dark Souls since I bought that game back in late 2014, but has since collected dust on my bookshelf.

 

Plus I have enough games to worry about. If you saw all the list of games I posted here in my topic you know how many I have.

Edited April 14, 2018 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Metro Last Light Redux finished.

 

Added God of War to the PS4 backlog.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Sonic Mania complete.

 

Someone already beat my time. ?

[AJ_Radio]

Got a bunch of 100 percent games finished, most of which I bought on the fly (Limbo, Metal Slug 3, Super Star Wars, Race the Sun and Kung Fury: Street Rage) but also did both stacks of Aaru's Awakening.

 

So that's two games crossed off my backlog.

 

I'm going to try my very best to get God of War done this weekend. What I may start doing from now on is start and finish at least two or three games at a time. As much as I enjoy playing some games like God of War, playing one game continuously burns me out a bit so I like to play another game when I am burnt out in one.

 

Heavy Rain I will get back into at some point. Perfect Crime did not unlock for me on the first playthrough. Interactive Drama is generally one of the first trophies you get and I did not get that on the first playthrough either. Maybe this time I will get Perfect Crime?

 

Such a shame the PS4 version did not come with a patch that would fix the way some of these trophies are unlocked. I don't like the fact that Quantic Dream made you play out the entire scene before you unlock most of the trophies.

 

Oh well. Here's hoping I can get Perfect Crime.

[AJ_Radio]

Finished off Apotheon.

 

Platinum #143: Apotheon (May 13th, 2018)

 

 

Neat indie game. Short and simple, but the crashing was a big problem to deal with. Nothing too great, simply a Metroidvania with a unique art style in the form of Greek Pottery.

 

Should be done with Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition. I said I was going to do God of War but I'm finding the initial sections of the game incredibly boring. Really hope it's going to improve later on.

[AJ_Radio]

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is done.

 

Platinum #144: Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (May 20th, 2018)

 

 

Definitely a fun one. Better than Apotheon, but a lot more challenging.

 

This game doesn't kid around with certain platforming sections. Anybody who has gotten the Orb in Tule Tree knows exactly what I'm talking about.

 

A very good Metroidvania game with a Mexican theme throughout.

[AJ_Radio]

Strider is finished.

 

Platinum #145: Strider (May 31st, 2018)

 

 

Not a bad Metroidvania game, but backtracking was a pain due to the layout of the map.

 

A bit more fast paced than Guacamelee. Worth picking up if you enjoy Metroidvanias.

 

----

 

I will be focusing on Heavy Rain, God of War and Transistor this coming week. With those out of the way I'll only have one game left before the #150 milestone. Cannot wait to play through The Witcher 3.

[AJ_Radio]

Transistor has transitioned into completion.

 

Platinum #146: Transistor (June 4th, 2018)

 

Very enjoyable game by Supergiant Games.

 

Awesome soundtrack and good artwork. The game is more strategy and for what it was it did a pretty solid job.

[AJ_Radio]

Bought and finished Lone Survivor within a few days.

 

More importantly two games have been scratched off my backlog. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 and God of War.

 

I already talked about Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, so instead I'll talk about:

 

Platinum #148: God of War (June 19th, 2018)

 

I don't know what to make of this game. I didn't have very good first impressions with this game and I ended up shelving God of War for a few weeks until I decided to come back to it.

 

There's a lot to be had here. The graphics are phenomenal, especially when you climb up the summit on your journey to bury Mother's ashes. God of War is a nice change of scenery and a nice change of pace from the Greek setting that was in all the past God of War games.

 

But I was left feeling this isn't God of War so much as it feels more like a new IP. Most of what made the series iconic is gone, except from Kratos himself and his signature weapon, which you don't get until you're a fair bit into the story. This game lacked the utter thrill and excitement of God of War 3, even Ascension in ways was better to me because it was still the traditional God of War experience, pitting you against various enemies like the minotaurs and wyverns. Here only a few enemies stood out, and sadly there was a lack of big giant bosses to tackle.

 

Collectibles were a complete pain to go after, one reason being I had to go after four types of collectibles in four videos that Brian (PS4Trophies) made, so once I was done collecting one of them I had to go back to the very beginning of the game to get the other types of collectibles. Many, many hours spent getting those collectibles.

 

I spent around 40 - 45 hours to finish this game. It's about as long as Horizon Zero Dawn. My favorite thing about God of War is absolutely no loading screens, which is a feat in itself considering how big the game is.

 

There is more I want to write about but I'll spare that for my status update and quick review of the game in the Most Recent Platinum thread. I enjoyed it, but it just felt far too different for me to relate to this game.

[AJ_Radio]

Been a month since I last posted here.

 

Finished the Crash Bandicoot: Warped DLC trophies, added and finished SEGA Mega Drive & Genesis Classics, and more importantly finished Heavy Rain and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

 

Platinum #150: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (July 12th, 2018)

 

 

Platinum #151: Heavy Rain (July 17th, 2018)

 

 

I have two trophies left in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but since I am near completion anyway I'll just cross it off my list.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Spaz

[J2V89]

Nice job on both plats especially your #150 on The Witcher 3.

[AJ_Radio]

Finished Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition and Ratchet: Deadlocked.

 

Platinum #152: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (July 27th, 2018)

 

 

Platinum #153: Ratchet: Deadlocked (July 31st, 2018)

 

 

Both were enjoyable, neither were difficult.

 

Only have All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault before I have the entire Ratchet and Clank series done. So that should be something to look forward to.

[AJ_Radio]

Added Killzone: Mercenary, Broken Age, Mega Man X Legacy Collection Vol 1 and Vol 2.

 

Went out and finished Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault.

 

Platinum #154: Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault (August 7th, 2018)

 

Difficulty: 3/10

Excitement: 7.5/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 10 - 15 Hours

 

Enjoyable game, though not as good as most of the other Ratchet and Clank titles in my opinion. A couple trophies gave me some grief for a little bit but it's nothing too hard.

 

Full Frontal Assault is designed around co-op but is easily done solo. Hero Academy trophy can be self boosted if you have a Vita console and two accounts to work with.

 

Will start All 4 One soon, but going to take a break from the series and play some other games for the time being.

[James_Tonto]

Making good progress on those Ratchet n Clank games I see =).

 

And nice job on Sleeping Dogs, I should play that someday...

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, James_Tonto said:

Making good progress on those Ratchet n Clank games I see =).

 

And nice job on Sleeping Dogs, I should play that someday...

 

I checked Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One. Nobody was playing online so I'm going to have to boost. Already tried getting it with two accounts with no success.

 

Sleeping Dogs is fairly good. Collectibles are a big chore. Some of the stats you need to rank Gold in can take a good amount of time to get. Otherwise it's an easy platinum, fairly enjoyable since it's style is kung fu set in Hong Kong.

[AJ_Radio]

Added Fallout Shelter to the backlog.

 

Broken Age finished.

 

Platinum #155: Broken Age (August 13th, 2018)

 

Difficulty: 4/10

Excitement: 4/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 6 Hours

 

A point and click adventure that goes between alright to so so to rather medicore.

 

My big gripe with this game is the trophy list doesn't give you the option to explore much on your own due to the amount of missables. 25 missable trophies, some of which you have to start over in a very annoying fashion.

 

The crane minigame was awful and pointless. Why in the fuck does the game disable manual saving from time to time?

 

Avoid this game unless you are a point and click fan. If you are a fan, better get a guide ready, because you're probably going to have to follow step by step to get all the missables.

 

Broken Age simply isn't all that good. Definitely a game I won't be replaying anytime soon.

[AJ_Radio]

17 days have passed, and since then I wrapped up Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Killzone: Mercenary.

 

Added Tearaway to the backlog (PS Vita).

 

Platinum #156: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (August 17th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 5/10

Excitement Rating: 3/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 25 Hours

 

My main piece of advice for anyone willing to go for this platinum is to be patient. Since this game requires three whole playthroughs, there's going to be a lot of backtracking. The entire game is one big slog of backtracking from one area to the next, running into the same enemies, urns, pots, chests, practically everything you've already seen before. And you have three playthroughs, so do the math.

 

Combat was sluggish and awful. Boss fights weren't much better. Ubisoft didn't quite make the platforming as fluid and smooth as they did in the Assassins Creed games. Comparing Assassins Creed Origins platforming that is convenient and not at all annoying to Warrior Within's shitty platforming and questionable controls is like comparing day to night. 

 

Won't ever go for the platinum in this game again. Once was bad enough.

 

Platinum #157: Killzone: Mercenary (August 30th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 4/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time To Platinum: 40 Hours

 

Bit of a grind this one.

 

This is probably the best first person shooter for the Vita. Controls are good, aiming mechanics are okay, story was alright. Not the best shooter by any means but since this is a game for a portable console, Killzone: Mercenary is quite solid.

 

Grinding out the kills (10,000), the money (1 million Vektan dollars) and the multiplayer rounds (100 matches) got rather tiresome. Most of the online trophies can be done in Botzone, which is an offline multiplayer mode that pits you playing against AI opponents. A few online trophies must be done in actual multiplayer, and with the demise of Guerrilla Cambridge I strongly advise everyone interested in this game to get the online trophies out of the way.

 

With games like Wipeout 2048 no longer obtainable, it's only a matter of time before the servers shut for Killzone: Mercenary.

 

After getting the specialty contracts done I had to spend upwards of over 10 hours playing the missions again and again to get the grind based trophies done. Glad to finish this game however, this wouldn't of been achievable for me without some effort put into it.

[AJ_Radio]

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones complete. Finished all the PS2/Xbox Prince of Persia games.

 

Platinum #158: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (August 5th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 4/10

Excitement Rating: 5/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 20 Hours

 

A tad bit frustrating but nowhere near the level The Warrior Within was for me.

 

Overall, not too bad of a game. Platforming is a bit iffy at times, and the combat is still rather medicore. Thankfully Speed Kills help avoid a lot of combat.

 

Playing this three times was the worst part. I hate when games don't allow you to stack difficulty trophies. If I beat your game on Hard then I deserve a trophy for beating it on Easy and Medium difficulty as well. Not have to replay the entire thing over two more times.

 

Only the 2008 reboot is left for me to play, and hopefully that won't be too awful.

[AJ_Radio]

Did two point and clicks. Bought and finished Dead Synchronicity, and took off Deponia from my backlog. Not really going to mention them as they're pretty obvious and point and clicks usually aren't all that intriguing for me. But I played them to take a break from the more stressful stuff.

 

I did however play Trine 2, and since I never played the Trine series before, I felt that Trine 2 was a good starting point. Bought this game as well very recently.

 

 

Platinum #161: Trine 2 (September 14th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 2/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 2 - 3 Hours

 

Felt pretty disappointed that you can practically earn the platinum in this game only halfway through the story. But it's definitely a game worth experiencing.

 

Loved the whimsical appeal and the gorgeous atmosphere. Trine 2 plays as a 2-D style puzzle platformer, the modern day equivalent of the old The Lost Vikings game that was on the Super Nintendo. Like that classic, you play with three characters that each have different strengths and abilities. The wizard can conjure boxes and planks, the thief can grapple and go in stealth to sneak by unnoticed, and the knight can attack with his sword and defend with his shield. Much like The Lost Vikings, not all characters are purely fighters. Players must use all three characters to properly bypass certain obstacles, and therefore beat the levels.

 

Voice acting was good, the setting was charming, definitely a lighthearted adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously. Definitely looking forward to playing Trine 2: Complete Story, whenever that comes out.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

Added Spec Ops: The Line, Resistance 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing to the backlog.

 

Finished off RiME, which was a game I picked up during February's Playstation Plus Offerings.

 

Platinum #162: RiME (September 18th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 2/10

Excitement Rating: 7/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 5 - 6 Hours

 

For what it is, RiME is not a bad game. It's strongest points are it's relatively easygoing style and attention to background detail. RiME is a game that looks gorgeous, it has a certain charm that I grew attached to. That being said, I found the game boring at times, and no more special than a lot of walking simulators.

 

RiME was definitely inspired by Journey and other like minded games such as Abzu. It's an enjoyable platinum overall, but some of the collectibles were annoying to get.

[Lorajet]

You are shaming me!  You're platting a bunch of games I have collecting dust in my backlog.  

[AJ_Radio]

Added Sonic Generations and Sonic Unleashed to the backlog.

 

Spec Ops: The Line is finished. Enjoyable game.

 

Platinum #163: Spec Ops: The Line (September 25th, 2018)

 

 

Difficulty: 5-6/10

Excitement Rating: 8/10

Estimated Time to Platinum: 10 - 15 Hours

 

FUBAR wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Was definitely glad to pick this game up for cheap.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Spaz