Kill Your Completion v3. 0

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

I had no time today to game because first I had a work thing all evening and thwn I raced home to be in time for dog training; I'll be happy if I'm awake enough to do some Shovel Knight when I go to bed in half an hour.

 

So, no day one of Ultratron for me...

[PerryToxteth]

34 minutes ago, NebbyLunala said:

 

I know that it's usually a tired cliche that virgin girls who go to prom lose their virginity in romantic passion at some hotel but I know for a fact that I went to something like a prom and that never happened to me. Then again, I was a complete geek and rarely attended school dances and I don't think I ever went to prom. Ah, the high school days.

 

Then again, I should have expected this.

 

After playing and platinuming Clockwork Tales, I might look into Cursed Heart. I do love me a good pirate ghost story.

 

Somehow, I got credited for those literary gems about virgins and Godzilla. Those are all Zettlock.  I just want to make sure credit goes to the appropriate author.  

 

As for Nightmares, I'm not sure I can claim it's a 'good' pirate ghost story. But it does involve ghosts and pirates...and a cheap, easy platinum. 

[Alpsmile05]

Game 8, Day 1: Super Toy Cars

 

 

Time played: about 6 hours

 

After not being able to play The Crew, I replaced it with 'Super Toy Cars' for the event, why super toy cars? Simply because I wanted to keep the same atmosphere (racing game) but couldn't wait for a big game to download. It took only 20 minutes to download this and so the game was on.

 

Now what is it? A racing game, a bit in the style of Mario Kart (you pick up cases with powerups to attack your opponents) with toy cars. The game you can best compare it with is Table Top Racing: World Tour (a game that was free on ps+ not so long ago). Well it's exactly like TTR:WT, but smaller, easier and it doesn't have a platinum trophy.

 

In Super Toy Cars you have basically the carreer mode which consists of 48 races divided in 8 different episodes. There are a couple different modes too: Race (the first one to reach the finish wins), Time attack (you need to finish a lap in a certain time), Checkpoint rush (you have x seconds to reach each checkpoint), Elimination (each 15 seconds the last is eliminated) and Evade (pretty much the same as Elimination but there are mines everywhere).

 

And that's basically the whole game. Once I had finished the carreer (winning all races) I only had 2 more trophies left to do. One to drift 500 meters in one drift (I had to go for this one but got it on the 1st try) and one for racing a total of 500 miles (this was a bit of a grind and took me a while after finishing all the rest).

 

So I guess I can already include the final update on game 8 in this post:

 

The game is fun but feels like an extention of TTR. The only new thing here was the evade missions which were pretty fun, for the rest the game lacks difficulty, it really is too easy once you've got the good cars unlocked. I'd give this game a high  trophy but that could have been higher if I hadn't played TTR yet. Ah well, another game off my backlog and rebuilding completion percentage

 

Stats after game 8:

 

Total trophies earned: 3832 +14

Platinum trophies earned: 53

Games played: 145 +1

Games finished: 66 +1

Completion: 66.52 +0.08

Unearned trophies: 1578 

 

Next game: Manual Samuel but seeing I have 2 days left for game 8 I'll go back to some games I've played earlier this event during these days. I feel like playing some more Bully  

[MarkusT1992]

Game #8: RebelGalaxy (Day 1)

 

 

I normaly don't play space games. And that's what this game is.

You get a letter from your aunt to come visit her. Included in this letter is a spaceship, which belonged to your aunt. It seems that this ship isn't the newest one around. In fact it's a very old, not even being produced anymore. But who cares.

You arive at where you should meet your aunt but she isn't there, so you talk to some alien guy who knows your aunt. He immedietly sends you on a quest I can't remember anymore.

Through these quests you learn that your aunt is some kind of smuggler and that's all of the story so far.

 

You have your main quests to advance the story plus side quest to earn some additional money. Each quest has a danger ratingattached to it ranging from very low over average to very high.

So far I only took very low or low danger ratings because of my bad ship. These quests were mostly just delivery missions where you just travel throug space to a space station.

That's the main gameplay so far. Traveling through space, doing either the main quest or side quests. From time to time you get in a fight with other ships from different faction. For most fights I get a warning that I'm to weak currently and that I should get away.

The fights are similar to the ship battles in Black Flag. My current ship only has two towers and broadside cannons. You can use both manually but the towers shoot at nearby enemies by themselves, so I normaly just use the broadside cannons.

At space stations you can get information from the barkeeper, upgrade and repair your ship or even buy o new one, trade your goods in the market or take new jobs a.k.a quest. I read that the ships available depend on the faction controlling the station.

 

What's interesting on this game is that it seems to be alive. With that I mean theh prices for goods vary depending on the station you are, the prices even rise and sink. There's also some illegal goods. I had one and got contacted by a station I was approching and had to hand it over. That's actually nice.

 

Trophies: 0/38

Completion: 0%

Time played: About 1h 30min

Edited March 23, 2017 by MarkusT1992

[DamagingRob]

Day 1

 

I didn't get very far. Only completed the first level, before a severe headache kicked in.. Popped some pills, and it finally went away awhile ago. But you get to play as Jango Fett. You start out having to defeat a Borhek. It charges at you, and you just have to leap aside when it does, and it will crash into the wall. All the while, shooting it with your blaster pistols with unlimited ammo. Pretty easy stuff. 

 

Then you proceed and fight other enemies, some armed with guns, and others not. But some of these enemies have bounties on their heads. If you scan them with your ID scanner, you can find out which ones do or don't. Though, they're not just going to sit still there and leave you be while you're doing this, so it's tricky. Bringing out the ID scanner, also unequips your pistols. In fact, every item you use seems to be a one-at-a-time deal. 

 

Once you find an enemy with a bounty, you can try to take him dead or alive. A trophy, rarer than all the others, requires you to capture every single one alive. To capture them alive, you have to shoot them with your ropegun(or whatever it's called). This ties them up for a few seconds, and lets you run up to them and capture them by pressing . 

 

I managed to take all five of them alive in that first level, but it will likely get a lot more difficult. The AI is pretty dumb, supposedly, and enemies will kill each other or commit suicide often. If a bounty dies, the only way to have him respawn is by restarting the level. So, you have to get them all in one go. Sounds like a real pain in the ass, but I'll try. 

 

So, yeah. Not much else to say so far. But it seems like a decent 3rd person action game. 

 

Time played: Less than an hour probably. 

Trophy progress: 1/13 for 4%. Bad thing about these games without Plats, that's only dropped my percentage by .08%. :/ 

Edited March 23, 2017 by DamagingRob

[Jaguargenie]

Game #8

Initial Impressions

Rochard

Trophies: 6/14 (28%)

Completion: 73.61% (-1.52%)

 

So Rochard. Where to start. This was available for Playstation plus a looooong time ago. It is a puzzle platformer, though I use the word puzzle VERY loosely. The puzzles mostly consist of stacking boxes of various sizes to reach a ledge that is out of reach... yeah. 

 

You play as John Rochard. A fat southern space miner whose team is tasked with finding minerals on an asteroid when trouble strikes. The game takes place on the asteroid and I would assume moves into the mines that caused the trouble. It is a platformer with a twist. You tote around a gravity gun (think half-life 2) that can be upgraded with things like a machine gun attachment and anti gravity. Pretty novel concept. 

 

I had fun for about the first half hour. Then the formula started to go stale. The puzzles involve stacking boxes or pulling fuses. All of them. Add to that the fact that once you have the machine gun that is the only combat weapon you will use. 

 

There are upgrades and attachment? Collectibles too? A platformer? Sounds like a metroidvania right??? Wrong. It's purely linear. You miss something you are S.O.L. since there is no backtracking. And the game has collectibles whose only purpose is being linked to 3 trophies... 

 

So after an hour I'm bored. I can only hope it gets better. 

[Hemiak]

Game 8, Initial Thoughts

2 hrs played. 2/12 trophies. 

 

So I actually got a couple hours with my new game on the first day. Miracles really do happen. Anyway, going to get my thoughts in now because looking at the trophy page xFalionx is way ahead of me and I'd like to at least do tribute to the discussion. 

 

From Dust is an interesting game. The closest thing I've played was Populous in the old SNES. However, you don't actually have to build anything. I'll back up a minute to talk about story.

 

There are a bunch of native islander guys (and gals) who have lost their guiding force "the breath", and consequently their past. They are down to just one small group of about 10 people. They enact a ritual that summons the breath back to save them. You play as the breath, and have to help the villagers reclaim their lost heritage. 

 

As the breath you can fly around in one of three views, none of which are super amazing, but all of which have their uses. You can absorb water, sand, or lava and then place it somewhere else. You also develop powers which I'll talk about later. The main goal of each level is to populate 3 or more new villages, and then reach the exit to the level with at least 5 of your minions. There are also memories in each level you can send a minion to collect, and repel totems that can be grabbed by a villager. Once gained, that totem will automatically spread to each new village you settle. 

 

Controls are simple, fly with left stick, look around with right. Up or down on the look stick changed from a too close overhead view to a too close ground level view. Triangle gives you a really far away overhead view which lets your cursor move faster, and is generally my favorite of the three. L2 picks shit up, R2 puts it down. X tells your peeps where to go, and the d-pad directions activate your powers. 

 

You start each level by climbing out of S hole in the ground and getting S loom St your surroundings. In the first level you basically have to use some dirt to fill in some channels do your dudes can cross some shallow water. In the 2nd level you start with a timer and have to reach a water repell totem and return it to your starting village in order to avert the disaster of a tsunami that occurs every 7.5 minutes. I failed my first attempt and my entire village was wiped out,  Screw that, restart level. I make it with time to spare the 2nd time and start planning my next move. After the tsunami sashes ineffectively around my island I make a break for the next village location, and for the nearby memory stone. I make both in time and this binge is far enough back that it's safe from washing away. The rest of the level was pretty easy. 

 

I'm the next one there's a ton of water, a recurring tidal wave, and a volcano. There's a huge sea wall that your ancient ancestors built that used to stop the waves, but it's a bit run down. You have to use the lava to build it back up so your 2nd village won't be wiped out with every new wave. That done I settle in and start pushing towards the 3rd totem. I get my first ability which is Jellify Water. Thus basically turns all the water in the level to jelly, meaning when you scoop it out it leaves a channel. You use this to cross a channel much too wide to bridge with dumped sand. After reaching the 3rd village and having the end in sight, lava set fire to my trees, and burned my 2nd village to the ground. >:F Screw that shit, I'm starting over again. Take two, I get through with no issues at all. 

 

The next level introduced fire trees, which periodically ignite and set fire to any surrounding vegetation... Fun stuff. There are also water trees which will suck up any close water until they explode. They'll also dump their water if a heat source or fire gets too close. You can actually pick up and move the water trees at will to protect your villagers. I'm also introduced to a new mechanic where I can uproot a settled village and move it to a safer location. I get a new ability which allows me to instantly and temporarily put out every fire on the map. I use this no less than three times to barely save one of my villages from annihilation, and clear the level first try. 

 

The next levels introduce exploding trees, which can be used to create craters and blow holes in walls when placed near fire. I'm also learn the evaporate skill, which can significantly reduce the amount of water be ing produced on the entire map. I find some spiky plants that my guys can't traverse safely. I need to remove the dirt so that they disappear, bury them in dirt, or set them on fire to clear them out. I haven't lost a village in the last three areas, but I've been playing a lot more cautiously since the great wildfire of 11:08pm. 

 

Is the game fun? Kinda I guess. It is pretty addicting to figure out the puzzle each level represents. I'm kind of looking forward to what the game has in store next. 

[Mendant909]

Game #6

 

Sorry for the tardiness, but I might as well give this game a write-up despite doing only a chapter, just like Thief. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a remake of God of War with the Greek mythology replaced with European mythology and angry Kratos replaced with mopey Gabriel Belmont; that and it poorly rips-off Shadow of the Colossus. Combat is just hacking and slashing away at enemies with boring boss fights just being a mook twice the size of regular mooks, and it goes down just like the rest with little strategy or excitement. The game sure does love tutorials as even into Ch. 2 there were still tutorials about using light magic, and maybe Ch. 3 will have tutorials about dark magic. The end of the first chapter introduced a colossus from a frozen lake and boy did they screw it up. These behemoths can only be taken down by stabbing into specific spots, but hardly anything that made SotC satisfying is here. The environment isn't used to solve the method of reaching the boss, the boss shakes every two seconds and will sometimes just swat you off with its hands, and you need to wait for the boss to perform specific actions to reach the next stabbing section. As far as story goes it's not until near the end of Ch. 1 that we learn that Gabriel lost his lover, probably from him killing her in a drunk stupor while playing Nekopara. Of course Gabriel would have killed her since it wouldn't be a proper God of War rip-off if it didn't steal that plot point as well. Why is this even called Castlevania?! Oh well, moving on!

 

Game #7

Days #1-3

 

JEEZUS, the annoying perverted "friend" said "tig ol' bitties" and I haven't heard that phrase in years. Conception II is a shallow version of Persona 4 Golden that retains certain elements from the master without fully understanding what made the elements works well together. Conception II is a dungeon-crawling JRPG with dating simulation elements but none of the highschool life simulation aside from a festival at the end of the year; please let this game not have an embarrassing concert as in Trails of Cold Steel.

 

I'll start with the premise since it irritates me as much as the premise to the anime Asterisk War. Similar to the anime not much is explained as to how this world works but the most egregious sin both properties commit is having an age limit for the characters to perform their duties. In AW the dipshits there decided to have young people do gladiatorial combat up until they graduate and then they're done with that blood sport. In Conception II the stupid idiot that is their divinity decided to bless humanity with divine powers, only while the hosts are between the age of 15-18. Why? WHY??!! Why couldn't the hosts be born with those marks that way they could be trained from childhood? Why take away this blessing after reaching full maturity, where the hosts would be prime not only physically but also mentally? Can you imagine, sport athletics is cut off after high school and the likes of Eddie Guerrero, Michael Jordan, or Tom Brady were unable to perform in their respective sports at the peak of their prime. Most of the Power Rangers series have the characters retain their powers until the big baddie is defeated, and even Zordon allowed characters to drop the powers as he knew that ranger duty was never supposed to overshadow personal life. Ugh, I freaking doubt there are going to be explanations for this logic since the game only gives enough lore to fill in the gaps, when the game isn't busy with mentions about breasts.

 

Surprisingly this game likes talking about breasts so much that it might even rival Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus in that department. I'm just thankful that Conception II hasn't wasted pages of dialogue on bullcrap like a girl typing her terrible fan-fiction at Best Buy or horridly contradicting itself. In this game the breast talk comes up if commenting on how one girl has the largest of them all, or how of the girls is flat and was accidentally groped by the main character. So far the main cast seems to be pretty flat in terms of personality as they have one or two traits that are reinforced through conversations with the main character, but fortunately the girls aren't selfish pricks like in Shinovi Versus.

 

However, the same can't be said for the main character who is referred to as God's Gift, or as I let the random name generator call him Durant, the same as a Pokemon. In the first boss fight Durant was ordered to not fight the boss since it would simply regenerate upon being defeated. Durant ignored the warning and in a rage attacked the best, and rightfully getting reprimanded for not only ignoring an order but also for putting his partner in danger. It seems that his village was attacked by some monsters and now he wants to wipe them out, and he didn't learn about how precious life can be since his sister sacrificed herself for him and he cares more about killing some endless baddies than making life better.

 

The first thing that truly irritated me about the main character was his voice actor, Sam Riegel. Aside from his work as Donnel in Fire Emblem: Awakening and Teddie in most of the Persona 4 media, his voice sounds fit for generic dudes like those he played in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star, not leading characters like Phoenix Wright. My goodness the way he says "Torri" in this game just sounds weird and maybe a second take should have been taken. Torri herself sounds off as she's supposed to sound robotic like Tales of Grace's Sophie or Chobits's Chi, but it sounds more like she's pausing oddly in between her words. As for the one who's truly reading from the script, that would be whoever voiced Enzea Marker and I just know he's the main baddie and he's going to give a long-winded speech that's going to be delivered like shit. Fortunately Wendee Lee voices a character and she sounds gung-ho about it, which is definitely an improvement over her performance as Blanc.

 

As far as gameplay is concerned, it's a dungeon crawler that front-loads its unique mechanics without giving a proper explanation in the tutorial. The fighting team is composed of four units with three members to each, maybe if a second heroine eventually joins. Three of those units are composed of star children, which show up when the heroine and hero MegaDigivolve Tamers-style and join hands; how scandalous. Those children can be of job classes that range from gunslingers, medics, thieves, but as long as the heroes have enough stats for that job class and/or a proper item to unlock that class. This ceremony consists of 100 bonding points, which can be earned either by talking to the girls or chaining enemies. Chaining is actually more of a hassle then necessary since the chain meter builds up faster if you ignore an enemy's weak point, dragging out fights longer than they should. Bonding points can also be used to turn a unit of kids into a MegaZord, but despite the incredible firepower  each transformation takes 200 out of a maximum 300 points so it costs more than it's worth. Kids themselves can become anchors as the first batch has a limit of 10 levels so you'll need to breed new batches as your couple gets stronger. It will be a couple since you can only take one heroine into dungeons and it doesn't make sense to grind out seven heroines to even levels. Nearly every idea that gives the game its identity is hindered by some idiotic design decision and it's quite a shame. I don't see this being in the top five and since my prediction on the horrific event already happened in the first half of the game, I'm kind of nervous as to whether the story will actually progress or do donuts while going on a straight line.

[zettlock]

18 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

I might not know The Wizard Of Oz by heart but I'm pretty sure you'll realise you had a brain all along

 

Will I? Holy crap, my only excuse for sucking at life will cease to exist

 

15 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

- Quite simply, the most hilarious review I've read in the two KYC events I have partaken in.  I'm not even into Godzilla but you might have motivated me to start. 

 

I bow before thee in gratitude! However, for a non-Godzilla gamer this game might - and will - be average at best. For majority it will be crap, I guess. Especially for those that expect americanized (blow-shit-up) version of Mr. G. It's very, very campy.

 

12 hours ago, NebbyLunala said:

I know that it's usually a tired cliche that virgin girls who go to prom lose their virginity in romantic passion at some hotel but I know for a fact that I went to something like a prom and that never happened to me. Then again, I was a complete geek and rarely attended school dances and I don't think I ever went to prom. Ah, the high school days.

 

Well, in Poland we don't have a prom night per se, there is this "Hundred Day Party" that is held exactly one hundred days before final exam in high school. And I remember going there thinking about scoring like crazy (though not a virgin anymore by then). And getting wasted - central Europe FTW . Anyhow, nothing happened that night. But I remember being asked by that girl that was younger and deep into me to go with her for her party, and turning that down because I was playing EVE Online and Ultima Online at that time without breaks. This is, boys and girls, how you fail at life and win at games .

 

12 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

Somehow, I got credited for those literary gems about virgins and Godzilla. Those are all Zettlock.  I just want to make sure credit goes to the appropriate author.  

 

Appreciated! Virgins and Godzilla - modern day version of damsels in distress - © zettlock 2017

 

19 hours ago, xFalionx said:

Game #7: Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (on PSVita)

Final Review

Total playtime: about 21 hours and 30 minutes

Trophies: 37/37 for an S rank

 

I had that game in my backlog for a long time. Knew it was good, but you, sir, made me want to start it. And I will!

Edited March 23, 2017 by zettlock
typos

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

My posts and reviews may be a little sparse for a few days.....my 'net has gone down 

 

Worst possible time it could happen too. Swapped Life is Strange to game 8 so I can play This War of Mine when @BillyHorrible does.

 

Played episode 1, love it so far....rewound the game so many times as my internal dialogue convinced me my choices were wrong....then maybe I was right with gut instinct, then maybe I was right to think it over, then actually....go with your gut, lol.

 

Finished the episode, nice....can't wait to continue.....but alas....I didn't preload all episodes, assumed (incorrectly) the season pass would download all episodes. Now stuck in the dark ages wanting to play and can't! 

 

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

15 minutes ago, zettlock said:

Will I? Holy crap, my only excuse for sucking at life will cease to exist

 

Yeah, I think that's where the comparison with Scarecrow ends because he actually liked having a brain.

 

1 minute ago, Pickle2907 said:

My posts and reviews may be a little sparse for a few days.....my 'net has gone down 

 

Worst possible time it could happen too. Swapped Life is Strange to game 8 so I can play This War of Mine when @BillyHorrible does.

 

Played episode 1, love it so far....rewound the game so many times as my internal dialogue convinced me my choices were wrong....then maybe I was right with gut instinct, then maybe I was right to think it over, then actually....go with your gut, lol.

 

Finished the episode, nice....can't wait to continue.....but alas....I didn't preload all episodes, assumed (incorrectly) the season pass would download all episodes. Now stuck in the dark ages wanting to play and can't! 

 

 

You didn't swap anything, you just forgot the order of your own list

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

8 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

Yeah, I think that's where the comparison with Scarecrow ends because he actually liked having a brain.

 

 

You didn't swap anything, you just forgot the order of your own list

 

Lol....I'm sure I checked the first post to see what I'd chosen as @Hemiak is nice enough to put it there for us, but I must have got confused.

 

Just checked again and I definitely just screwed up, lol.....I'm getting old, haha.

Edited March 23, 2017 by Pickle2907

[Myu]

54 minutes ago, Mendant909 said:

 

Game #7

Days #1-3

 

JEEZUS, the annoying perverted "friend" said "tig ol' bitties" and I haven't heard that phrase in years. Conception II is a shallow version of Persona 4 Golden that retains certain elements from the master without fully understanding what made the elements works well together. Conception II is a dungeon-crawling JRPG with dating simulation elements but none of the highschool life simulation aside from a festival at the end of the year; please let this game not have an embarrassing concert as in Trails of Cold Steel.

 

 

It's interesting to read your review as Conception II is one of my favourites among the dungeon-crawler category.

I don't see how this game can be compared to P4G (except for the fact that they are of the same genre? But then it's like comparing FFXIII to Tales of Xillia). It's been a while but from what I can recall, the gameplay is really not the same. I think Mind=0 was closer to P4G or Shin Megami Tensei than Conception II is.

While the story is not that great (few dungeon crawlers have a good story, unfortunately) I grew very fond of my last generation of children and it was kinda funny to see Mommy, Daddy and their new batch go kick some random monster's ass. I loved the chara-design too. 

I'm still hoping for a sequel  

 

 

[xFalionx]

Since @Hemiak has already posted his first review on the game, I'll keep the parts he touched upon short and leave some of them out.

 

Game #8: From Dust (on PS3)

First day
Total playtime: about 6 hours

 

The game is about a tribe trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic version of the world which is pretty damn messed up. The world is basically made up of sand, rock, water, and lava, and since they can't survive in this environment on their own, they create a being called "the breath" in a ritual. Now it's your job to control "the breath" and guide the tribe's people while altering the terrain enough to make it hospitable for them.

 

Being a god in this world is not an easy task. While tsunamis and volcano eruptions on our planet earth happen in the same place over the course of decades, in this game you'll have to deal with them every 1 or 2 minutes, threatening to wash away your villages and the bridges you built out of dirt, or setting the plants on fire and burning down your villages.

 

By now I've finished the story earning me all but 3 trophies in the progress and I'd say this is a puzzle game at heart. Most levels are designed with one solution in mind but you can often get around in other ways using creative thinking. A good example is a fun later level that has volcanoes on one side and floods on the other. The totems to create towns are placed in four locations, one on the lava side, one on the water side, 2 in the middle. The problem is that the stone that allows you to repel water is on the lava side, and the stone that allows you to repel lava is on the water side. Both aren't easy to get because they're constantly surrounded by streams of lava and water, so you'll have to pick the location of your first village carefully as each of the spots is dangerous in a different way and proceed to gather the stones and populate the other villages without losing your first one in the meantime.

 

I won't retell my adventures about the levels I've been through, mostly because the game is rather short and figuring out the solutions to the puzzles on your own is the most fun. I'd have loved the story to be longer, a lot longer actually, probably four times as long as it currently is. I've really enjoyed this game so far, I'd even go as far as to say that while Oddworld had the best story and Severed had a nice mix of both, I feel like this game was the most fun to play. There's still a bunch of challenges I didn't look into yet which I'll be sure to do, but first I'll try to get the trophy for finishing the game and loosing less than 5 villages in the process. The fire plants as well as a few later levels really fucked me over on that one. 

 

3 hours ago, Mendant909 said:

Sorry for the tardiness, but I might as well give this game a write-up despite doing only a chapter, just like Thief. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a remake of God of War with the Greek mythology replaced with European mythology and angry Kratos replaced with mopey Gabriel Belmont; that and it poorly rips-off Shadow of the Colossus. Combat is just hacking and slashing away at enemies with boring boss fights just being a mook twice the size of regular mooks, and it goes down just like the rest with little strategy or excitement. The game sure does love tutorials as even into Ch. 2 there were still tutorials about using light magic, and maybe Ch. 3 will have tutorials about dark magic. The end of the first chapter introduced a colossus from a frozen lake and boy did they screw it up. These behemoths can only be taken down by stabbing into specific spots, but hardly anything that made SotC satisfying is here. The environment isn't used to solve the method of reaching the boss, the boss shakes every two seconds and will sometimes just swat you off with its hands, and you need to wait for the boss to perform specific actions to reach the next stabbing section. As far as story goes it's not until near the end of Ch. 1 that we learn that Gabriel lost his lover, probably from him killing her in a drunk stupor while playing Nekopara. Of course Gabriel would have killed her since it wouldn't be a proper God of War rip-off if it didn't steal that plot point as well. Why is this even called Castlevania?! Oh well, moving on!

Well, now I know what game I won't be playing. I guess I'll stick to the old Castlevania games...

 

3 hours ago, zettlock said:

I had that game in my backlog for a long time. Knew it was good, but you, sir, made me want to start it. And I will!

Have fun with it, it's a game worth checking out for sure.

Edited March 23, 2017 by xFalionx

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 hours ago, Mendant909 said:

Game #6

 

Sorry for the tardiness, but I might as well give this game a write-up despite doing only a chapter, just like Thief. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a remake of God of War with the Greek mythology replaced with European mythology and angry Kratos replaced with mopey Gabriel Belmont; that and it poorly rips-off Shadow of the Colossus. Combat is just hacking and slashing away at enemies with boring boss fights just being a mook twice the size of regular mooks, and it goes down just like the rest with little strategy or excitement. The game sure does love tutorials as even into Ch. 2 there were still tutorials about using light magic, and maybe Ch. 3 will have tutorials about dark magic. The end of the first chapter introduced a colossus from a frozen lake and boy did they screw it up. These behemoths can only be taken down by stabbing into specific spots, but hardly anything that made SotC satisfying is here. The environment isn't used to solve the method of reaching the boss, the boss shakes every two seconds and will sometimes just swat you off with its hands, and you need to wait for the boss to perform specific actions to reach the next stabbing section. As far as story goes it's not until near the end of Ch. 1 that we learn that Gabriel lost his lover, probably from him killing her in a drunk stupor while playing Nekopara. Of course Gabriel would have killed her since it wouldn't be a proper God of War rip-off if it didn't steal that plot point as well. Why is this even called Castlevania?! Oh well, moving on!

 

39 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Well, now I know what game I won't be playing. I guess I'll stick to the old Castlevania games...

 

Want me to spoil it for you so you don't have to play the game any more?

 

Spoiler

There are eventually a couple of chapters in a castle, but it's not Dracula's castle.

 

In fact, Dracula isn't even in the story at all, unless you think it counts that THE PLAYER CHARACTER WILL BECOME DRACULA, BUT ONLY A LONG TIME AFTER THE STORY OF THIS GAME HAS ALREADY CONCLUDED. A last second plot twist (seriously, it only becomes obvious in the cutscene after the final bit of gameplay has already concluded) that was completely spoiled (if you think about it for a moment) by making Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2 where you "play as Dracula!"

 

By the way, I feel like Mendant wasn't correct in stating that all this game did was steal stuff from God Of War and Shadow Of The Colossus. It also stole from Dante's Inferno.

 

 

39 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Game #8: From Dust (on PS3)

First day
Total playtime: about 6 hours

 

The game is about a tribe trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic version of the world (...)

 

Wait, what? For real? I played a bunch of From Dust back on the X360 (really want to play through it some time on PS3) and I can't remember it being post-apocalyptic... is that actually in the game? I thought it was just a side history, like Populous: The Beginning or Black & White...

 

[xFalionx]

18 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

Want me to spoil it for you so you don't have to play the game any more?

  Reveal hidden contents

There are eventually a couple of chapters in a castle, but it's not Dracula's castle.

 

In fact, Dracula isn't even in the story at all, unless you think it counts that THE PLAYER CHARACTER WILL BECOME DRACULA, BUT ONLY A LONG TIME AFTER THE STORY OF THIS GAME HAS ALREADY CONCLUDED. A last second plot twist (seriously, it only becomes obvious in the cutscene after the final bit of gameplay has already concluded) that was completely spoiled (if you think about it for a moment) by making Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2 where you "play as Dracula!"

 

By the way, I feel like Mendant wasn't correct in stating that all this game did was steal stuff from God Of War and Shadow Of The Colossus. It also stole from Dante's Inferno.

 

Wait, what? For real? I played a bunch of From Dust back on the X360 (really want to play through it some time on PS3) and I can't remember it being post-apocalyptic... is that actually in the game? I thought it was just a side history, like Populous: The Beginning or Black & White...

Well, thanks for that, now my wallet is safe.  

 

Yeah, it's post-apocalyptic.

Spoiler

I don't know if you ever finished the story, but at the end of it you get to a level where your task is to complete a new island and place totems yourself. After that's done you make your tribe do another ritual to gain the powers for themselves, so they can survive without your help. (At least that's how I understood it.) And while you are performing that ritual the world starts falling apart, your tribe enters a final one of these passageway things and the ending scene has your tribe arriving in the remains of the first level with a single line of text along the lines of "And now we're back to square one". So you basically are in a constant cycle of following your own tracks after they've been destroyed.

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by xFalionx

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

4 minutes ago, xFalionx said:

Yeah, it's post-apocalyptic.

  Hide contents

I don't know if you ever finished the story, but at the end of it you get to a level where your task is to complete a new island and place totems yourself. After that's done you make your tribe do another ritual to gain the powers for themselves, so they can survive without your help. (At least that's how I understood it.) And while you are performing that ritual the world starts falling apart, your tribe enters a final one of these passageway things and the ending scene has your tribe arriving in the remains of the first level with a single line of text along the lines of "And now we're back to square one". So you basically are in a constant cycle of following your own tracks after they've been destroyed.

 

 

Spoiler

Nah I never finished the game. That doesn't seem to be post-apocalyptic in the usual sense though, as in "our world but after the end". I thought there were hints of our own civilisation, long gone, in the game but that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

[xFalionx]

2 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

  Hide contents

Nah I never finished the game. That doesn't seem to be post-apocalyptic in the usual sense though, as in "our world but after the end". I thought there were hints of our own civilisation, long gone, in the game but that doesn't seem to be the case.

 

 

Spoiler

No, but I personally see post-apocalyptic as "the game's world but after the end". After all post-apocalyptic just means after an apocalypse has happened.

 

[DamagingRob]

5 hours ago, Myu said:

It's interesting to read your review as Conception II is one of my favourites among the dungeon-crawler category.

I don't see how this game can be compared to P4G (except for the fact that they are of the same genre? But then it's like comparing FFXIII to Tales of Xillia). It's been a while but from what I can recall, the gameplay is really not the same. I think Mind=0 was closer to P4G or Shin Megami Tensei than Conception II is.

I liked it a lot, myself. But to me, the dungeons seemed a lot more similar to P4G's than Mind=0's did. Mind=0 didn't feel like Persona 4 to me at all, actually. I figured it was more similar to older Persona games, after playing both. 

[Timmberelli]

Man, after looking into this so late, I wish I had stumbled across this in time to join. This type of thing is exactly what I want to do with my list... So many games not yet started...

 

Do these happen often? I'm quite interested.

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 7

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Trilogy Pack (PS4)

 

 

 

PSA Announcement:  This is the disc version of the Chronicles Trilogy Pack.  According to PSNP forums, the digital version of this game does NOT come with a platinum trophy.  The digital version is just a bundle of the three mini-games so beware when you see the sales on the PSN store for this title.

 

  After pumping out Assassin Creed AAA titles for a decade, Ubisoft decided to scale down the popular franchise as it decides which direction to move the series next (rumors are ancient Egypt).  In the interim, Ubi produced three stand-alone mini-games taking place in China, India and Russia.  After all three were released within a few months of each other, Ubisoft packaged them together to sell the Trilogy Pack (which you should buy on disc, see above!).

  With 8 platinums, Assassin's Creed is easily my favorite series of any video game (Civilization and Total War on PC are close).  The combination of stealth play with a deep immersion into a historical sandbox with recognizable characters of the past, have entertained me for hundreds(!) of hours. Hell, I'm going to replay ACII in a few months so I can explore virtual Florence and Venice before I visit those cities in real life in July.       

  As I have thoroughly enjoyed every AC title, I had high hopes these mini-games would be AC versions of Prince of Persia.  Sadly, they don't quite achieve that lofty goal.

Gameplay: This is a 2.5 side-scroller/ platformer. When you boot up the Trilogy version, you have a choice of what region you want to play (China, India, Russia).  If you feel like switching after a few levels, the game will make a separate save.  I chose China because that was the first one released.  Story-wise, it follows the same AC script revolving around the eternal feud between the Creed and the Templars (although so far, there is no modern-day story aspect to it).  You are Shao Yun, a young female ninja who jumps, hides, climbs and kills.  The levels last anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes and the game auto-saves frequently (remember those F'ing save crystals in Tomb Raider? Thank God gaming has advanced over the years).

  Like any AC game, you are climbing and jumping your way across the screen but at times, it will turn 2.5D and have options to move to the foreground and background of the game screen.  This feature was cool at first but I have found it to be annoying because the path to the finish isn't obvious and on two levels, I have come to the end, only to realize I didn't meet all the objectives and had to backtrack to find them.  There is a map, which is helpful in locating collectibles, but not for figuring out the proper path.  

  As you complete each section of a level, you are graded on how you performed.  You can earn Gold, Silver or Bronze awards based on your performance, and you can earn them in different styles of play.  A Gold Shadow means you made it through without being spotted, A Gold Assassin means you stealth fully killed all the guards and a Gold Brawler means you advanced through with guns, err, swords ablazing. As it's an AC title, it's best to be stealthy and sneaky.  And frankly, brawling isn't a good option in this game as you have little health (two hits will do you in) and the fighting mechanics aren't great. It's easy to take on one guard but once more than one get involved, you are toast.

  There is not as much platforming in this as Prince of Persia and the platforming there is, is nowhere near as fun as PoP.  What I have experienced so far are levels are essentially 15-20 mini-puzzles.  You advance until you find baddies, figure out the best way to get around them, and then move on to the next one.  The guards have a cone of vision so you have to time your moves when they are not looking your direction.  There are also hiding spots and you can choose to assassinate them or just sneak on by.  The levels increase in hardness but you also acquire tools to help divert the guards' attention elsewhere (fireworks, daggers, noise makers).

  Trophies: Hard.  55 of them and each mini-game will require two playthroughs.  You first play on normal and then you will unlock Plus or Plus Hard modes.  I'm not far along enough to know the difference.  But I'm guessing it'll take 6-10 hours to get through the story the first time, and even longer to do the second play through because trophies require perfect stealth in the hard modes.  Each mini-game has a similar set of trophies so it will be grindy.

  Final Thoughts:  So far, this game is a little bit of a let-down for me.  I was hoping for Prince of Persia and I got Apotheon.  It's the worst AC title I have played but that doesn't mean its terrible. It just doesn't equate with the AAA games of the franchise.  Based on its reception, highly doubt there will be another Chronicles series.  I'll rank it a .

 

Now playing: Life is Strange (and loving it!)

On Deck: This War of Mine

 

 

        

 

 

 

[Hemiak]

1 hour ago, bosssnake said:

Man, after looking into this so late, I wish I had stumbled across this in time to join. This type of thing is exactly what I want to do with my list... So many games not yet started...

 

Do these happen often? I'm quite interested.

I've been running one every 4 months or so, which puts the next one in July. Was thinking about bumping it to every 3 months after that, but haven't decided fully yet. 

 

 

[Timmberelli]

15 minutes ago, Hemiak said:

I've been running one every 4 months or so, which puts the next one in July. Was thinking about bumping it to every 3 months after that, but haven't decided fully yet. 

 

 

Wonderful! I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled and my games neglected, though I don't need help with the latter, considering my backlog...

[Hemiak]

1 hour ago, bosssnake said:

Wonderful! I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled and my games neglected, though I don't need help with the latter, considering my backlog...

This thread will remain open and in use right up until the next event. People will continue posting updates about games they've returned to and Other random discussions will continue if the past is any indicator. I'll also announce here when the new link is active as well. As long as you check back here periodically you shouldn't miss the next one. 

[voodoo_eyes]

3 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

Game No. 7

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Trilogy Pack (PS4)

 

 

 

PSA Announcement:  This is the disc version of the Chronicles Trilogy Pack.  According to PSNP forums, the digital version of this game does NOT come with a platinum trophy.  The digital version is just a bundle of the three mini-games so beware when you see the sales on the PSN store for this title.

 

That's what I also heard, which is why I bough the disc version. Well that and because I always prefer getting physical copies over digital when possible.