Kill Your Completion v3. 0

[dmland12]

Game #9: Saturday Morning RPG

Progress: 53/58 Trophies (80%)

Completion: 86.95% (-0.12%, -8.72% from start)

 

This one's a lighthearted RPG with tons of thinly veiled 80's TV/movie/toy/music references -- G. I. Joe, Back to the Future, Transformers, Care Bears, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and on and on and on. On the face of it, that sounds like it could be good...  but, they really really overdid the references IMO to the point where much of the humor was groan-inducing. Perhaps someone with a different sense of humor would have loved all of this to death, I dunno.  In any case, it is pretty easy to rack up a lot of trophies fairly quickly in this game and so it only slightly lowered by completion percentage.

 

Gameplay

I'm afraid the gameplay wasn't that great either.  There is a great deal of button mashing and timed attacks/blocks for a turn-based RPG.  It's possible to use different weapons or charges that don't feature this (or to set all the enemies to level one... but if you're trying to play the game as it's designed your best options seem to involve either button mashing or timing.  Anyway, I guess for me the most annoying part of this game is that it seems like it could have easily been more enjoyable with some small tweaks.  For example, you have a magic trapper keeper with some magic scratch-and-stiff stickers on it that give you a bonus in each battle.  That sounds pretty neat and very 80's!  You can also find more stickers and customize your bonuses: awesome!  So this all sounds pretty cool so far, but how are we going to ruin it?  Oh yes, we must require the player to scratch each sticker before each battle to get the effect!  You can either scratch like a maniac on the PS4 touchpad, or wiggle the left stick around like a crazy person and yes it's timed...  if you want the bonus, you need to go nuts!  Before... every... single... battle.  Yes, that got old pretty quickly.  I don't know....  I liked the idea of using the touchpad to scratch, but did I really have to have you do it before every battle?  Maybe just once every time you change your set of stickers?  The game's really not all that difficult and it's possible to go through almost everything without any bonuses at all... but, it's still a pretty annoying system.  Much more annoying than it has to be!

 

Weapons...  you can find a good variety of weapons, but as far as I can tell there's only a few really good ones.  There actually are some neat ones too, but unfortunately they're underpowered compared to the timed ones. Here's a video of the Simon memory game weapon...  it's pretty neat and I wish there were more minigame based weapons in this game that didn't involve timing/mashing.

 

 

I'm not sure I set out to write a negative review when I started... but I guess that's what happened.    Anyway, if you'd like to see tons of 80's references while button mashing, check this out.

 

Up Next (and last):  Tropico 5 (I'm pretty sure it doesn't have button mashing... which will be good since my button mashing thumb needs a little rest!)

I saw that @wtru9 has already played Tropico 5 in this competition and enjoyed it, while @PerryToxteth  has compared it to Civilization.  Sounds good!

Edited March 28, 2017 by dmland12
figuring out how to use @ correctly

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

10 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

Yes I'm playing on ps4. I wouldn't mind doing it with sone people cuz it's prolly gonna be super boring/grindy.

 

Add me on PSN in case I forget to add you when I get home. These past few days I've been playing a regular amount of Black Flag, and I'm sending out invites to @Crimson Idol and @Ratchet2425 whenever I see them online.

 

Personally, I'm really liking the wolfpack mode, it's kinda cool. I'll PM you with some tips to level up faster.

 

10 hours ago, MarkusT1992 said:

That's why this AC game is the worst for me. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad games but Ubisoft should haved released it as a new IP and not as part of the AC games.

I want to fight Templars and search for Pieces of Eden, not doing pirate stuff.

 

10 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

Amen brother! 

 

8 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

But, pirate stuff!!

And in all seriousness, if they did the whole new IP thing, the sales would have been halved. If they slap the AC name on it, they have a guaranteed user base already. 

And again, pirate stuff!

 

7 hours ago, MarkusT1992 said:

Sure the sale are higher this way but it's also possible that many fans won't by the next game if the previous has only little to do with the overall plot of the series.

As I said it's not a bad game. I even completed it on the 360. I only need a blue chest but I never found one.

You said it yourselfe: Pirate stuff. I think It would have sold quite good as a new IP. Many people like to play pirate stuff.

 

Black Flag might have not been much of an AC game but it was a logical step after they tried out ships in III and people liked it... It would be cool to get a non-AC sequel of sorts to this as I still say that Black Flag is the best damn Pirates Of The Caribbean game I've ever played.

 

I'd also say that Black Flag is kind of where they lost it with the "overall plot", Unity and Syndicate didn't do much better on the long term story. Though personally, I never enjoyed the current day storyline anyway, I would be perfectly fine with AC becoming series with solely history sequences, I was fine with Unity and Syndicate showing so little of the present.

 

 

5 minutes ago, dmland12 said:

Up Next (and last):  Tropico 5 (I'm pretty sure it doesn't have button mashing... which will be good since my button mashing thumb needs a little rest!)

I saw that @wtru9 has already played Tropico 5 in this competition and enjoyed it, while @PerryToxteth has compared it to Civilization.  Sounds good!

 

Only downside I saw to it was the small text. Loved the game during KYC1, still want to get back to it.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

 

Game #9: This War Of Mine: The Little Ones

Final Review

Total playtime: about four and a half hours

Trophies: 12/29 for a B rank

 

The war changes us

I am not a good person

Can I live with this?

 

  Hide contents

I can't add much to what I've said already about the game. By the way, yeah that old couple in the picture is the couple whose brains I bashed in with my shovel.

 

It's basically The Sims In Wartime, but it has been executed very well. There's no tutorial so you keep finding out new stuff - yesterday, I noticed that I can actually climb up on balconies...

 

So I played for an hour and a half on day three, going from day 10 to day 14 and gaining one trophy, apparently for talking to my 'broken' guy until he was just 'sad'. Yeah, I've made my scavenger do some horrible stuff. To make matters worse, he got shot pretty bad on my last venture to a dangerous zone and he was 'lethally wounded' afterwards. But hey, I got a sweet rifle out of it and a bulletproof vest! He's only 'wounded' now by the way, but I've skipped two scavenger nights now because another one of my guys is ill and I need enough people to guard since there's a crime wave going on.

 

I don't know why the game is called "The Little Ones", by the way. This game is supposed to be an expansion on the original (which I've never played) with children added but I've had 14 days now and I've only seen children once. Those were two children coming to my door by the way, asking for meds for their mother. I refused because I needed what little meds I had myself, so they might just have to hole up with us in the future...

 

Ah, fuck it. I'm in a generous mood, it can get a score. It might 'just' be a Sims version during a war but what it does, it does well. The game has set its mood very effectively, it's tough without being unfair and I like that they're not holding your hand and making you find out everything on your own. I really want to continue on this game. Perhaps after KYC3, I should do a level of Tearaway Unfolded and two days of This War Of Mine, before continuing on the Black Flag multiplayer and/or Witcher III... Damn, #FirstWorldProblems.

 

This War Of Mine: The Little Ones final score:

- BillyHorrible and Pickle2907

? - @PerryToxteth and @wtru9 (will edit when I find out their scores)

 

Next up: 

Õkami HD with @blxckenigma, @Kevvik and @voodoo_eyes

Edited March 28, 2017 by BillyHorrible

[crimsonidol38]

22 minutes ago, dmland12 said:

Game #9: Saturday Morning RPG

Progress: 53/58 Trophies (80%)

Completion: 86.95% (-0.12%, -8.72% from start)

 

SMRPG was the reason why I had to buy some grips for the analog sticks of the DualShock 4 to make them convex. Normally I don't mind whether the analog sticks are concave or convex but while rotating the sticks for the umpteenth time it really started to hurt. It was one of the games where I had to force myself to push through it as only a few things were missing but they were the most deious ones (reaching level 50 and finding all stickers). Still we can be happy that it only has this rather easy trophy list as the Xbox One-achievements force you to do all the ingame things. like doing 121 points of damage with an energy-based weapon.

[voodoo_eyes]

8 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

 

You're correct in the assumption, that "The Little Ones" was DLC for the PC version of it, which was added to this version as well. It let's you add a child to your survivors, that can't defend him/herself and at first can't do any tasks in the shelter either. You also have to constantly give attention to the child so it doesn't get depressed. Essentially it males the game more challenging.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 minutes ago, voodoo_eyes said:

 

You're correct in the assumption, that "The Little Ones" was DLC for the PC version of it, which was added to this version as well. It let's you add a child to your survivors, that can't defend him/herself and at first can't do any tasks in the shelter either. You also have to constantly give attention to the child so it doesn't get depressed. Essentially it males the game more challenging.

 

okay sorry, easy joke.

 

 

Yeah I figured that kids in the game would work like that, I would have expected a kid to be an addition of the main story though. A lot of trophies are based on having a kid as well, so clearly they want you experiencing this addition or they wouldn't give it so much attention. Why advertise the addition of kids so much if they're not part of the main game? The could have called it a "Complete Edition" or whatever instead of "The Little Ones", because expectations are that children are a big part of the story - not a potentially big part of whatever parameters you want on your alternate playthroughs.

[Myu]

10 hours ago, NebbyLunala said:

What did you expect? It's a port of the first PS1 Final Fantasy, they didn't bother with graphics back then. Though a lot of Fantasy Fans will claim that this game is the Best Game Ever.

 

FFVII was considered to be one the games with the best graphics at the time! 

Square Enix has always been a leader in that domain (and that was also the case story-wise, music-wise, etc, but that seems to have faded with time). 

[dmland12]

11 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

SMRPG was the reason why I had to buy some grips for the analog sticks of the DualShock 4 to make them convex. Normally I don't mind whether the analog sticks are concave or convex but while rotating the sticks for the umpteenth time it really started to hurt. It was one of the games where I had to force myself to push through it as only a few things were missing but they were the most deious ones (reaching level 50 and finding all stickers). Still we can be happy that it only has this rather easy trophy list as the Xbox One-achievements force you to do all the ingame things. like doing 121 points of damage with an energy-based weapon.

 

So far my best scratching method has been to grab the left stick with my thumb and index finger and wiggle it as fast as I can.

 

I still have the two grindy trophies to go.  I do think this will be the first game I pick back up after this event.  I'd like to be finished with this one.

[Mendant909]

Game #9

Days 1-3

 

Watch Dogs is a sandbox game like any other sandbox game, just with weaker elements from its peers. Let's start with the story of Aiden Pierce who wants revenge for the death of his niece. As of the end of Act 1 the villain behind the attack hasn't appeared, so there hasn't been much use of the girl's death aside from Aiden just being mopey aside from his gruffness. In contrast to Sleeping Dogs, Wei Shen lost his sister to the debauchery of gang life and Dogeyes, the sister's former boyfriend, mocked Wei for the sexual acts. Of course it riles up the player and makes you want to kick Dogeyes's ass and he manages to piss you off more when he does something heinous to your gang.  Which leads me to the side-characters as Aiden's entourage isn't great since his supporting cast consist of some shady dude who simply aids Aiden, his sister that wants him to stop being a criminal, a punk who's initial conversation was about her username being misleading (idiots), and a former partner that bungled the job that led to the niece's death. Both Aiden and Wei have similar arcs concerning the meaning of family/friends and how far can violence be justified, but unfortunately Aiden hasn't had a contrasting force to show how low he can go if he doesn't stop, or if he'd be willing to stoop to that level. 

 

Speaking of side-quests, the game is chuck full of stuff to do. You have to reach towers to gain access to the map details that provide you the location of various side-quests like missing people, misplaced phones, home invasions, hot spots (landmarks) and more. Since the game is placed in Chicago there are quite a few landmarks to visit, akin to LA Noire, but I can't really tell which are genuine and which are part of the story since the descriptions for the landmarks are mixed in terms of tone. Some will be dry and simply give some details about the location, others will provide a joke story, and a few don't give me any historical details and are simply rants from sarcastic smartasses. My goodness is there quite a lot of comma splicing in those descriptions and I'm quite guilty of that so I could see that clearly. In one instance I saw Wednesday without capitalization and it makes me wonder why this company didn't have someone do a proper grammar check. The main reason I went on that tangent is that if you do a side-quest get ready to do it over and over again. There's no backstory to saving people or finding weapon crates and you just collect them to clear them from the checklist. Some of them should lead to a mission with some actual stake, but it's pretty pathetic that there are only handful of side-quests behind busy work while a sandbox game from Rockstar would actually have plenty of side-quests with colorful characters.

 

The main gimmick of the game, hacking, is useful but it's just a twig in the sandbox. Hacking is pretty cool for stealth sections as you can try taking out enemies without even touching the premises, but aside from that hacking just aids in running away or to do side-quests. Shooting feels weird since there's not much impact from gun shots. Aiden can be improved but like the rest of the game there's too much of it, with various skill trees and branches and some are hidden behind doing several of the side-quests as well. The game is so padded but there's little substance as it's mainly a time sink. It's definitely the most generic sandbox game I've played in years and I wish it had a sense of personality or actually made an allegorical story about the dangers of relying, but still needing social media and technology as Psycho Pass or other future set dystopias have told.

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

Games 8 and 9: Life is Strange and This War of Mine

Time played: Unsure....should be enough for review...

Completion Percentage: Will update after game 10...Lack of internet has thrown me a little.

 

I've enjoyed my time with both of these games. Life is Strange was cut short though....only managed 1 episode as I didn't realize that downloading the season pass wouldn't download all of them and then the loss of internet stalled my progress. Loved the game and story so far although I spent too much time going back and changing my mind after the words "This action will have consequences" appeared. That made me second guess my choice, then I still wanted to go with my gut so changed it back...damn those bloody internal struggles. It feels though that I haven't had chance yet to experience the aforementioned consequences so I'm excited to see how the story will pan out.

 

This War of Mine....I am really enjoying this game so far. Only got to roughly Day 11 or so, and having a super scavenger as my night character means I've only been to 2 night locations as there has been so much stuff to scavenge. Trying to get a balance between grabbing food, meds, morale boosting items and parts to enhance your base is a nightmare. You always feel like there was a better choice you could have made.

 

I would give both these games a platinum rating.

 

@BillyHorrible ultratron 12/12 in 2 hrs? I must suck absolute balls at this game. Played roughly that and haven't even got as far as boss 3.....upgrade tips please....lmao

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 minutes ago, Pickle2907 said:

@BillyHorrible ultratron 12/12 in 2 hrs? I must suck absolute balls at this game. Played roughly that and haven't even got as far as boss 3.....upgrade tips please....lmao

 

Just like the previous game of the devs... quit if you get hit too much. I updated my own weapon for a bit and then went for the pets, first getting one and upgrading the range to the max before I went for other pets. I never bought bombs except for one or two bosses. I kept shields at three, if I got hit once or twice I'd want to restart anyway.

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

7 minutes ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

Just like the previous game of the devs... quit if you get hit too much. I updated my own weapon for a bit and then went for the pets, first getting one and upgrading the range to the max before I went for other pets. I never bought bombs except for one or two bosses. I kept shields at three, if I got hit once or twice I'd want to restart anyway.

 

Haven't played the previous game from the devs, lol....by quit...just options menu then exit or a close application jobby?

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

1 minute ago, Pickle2907 said:

 

Haven't played the previous game from the devs, lol....by quit...just options menu then exit or a close application jobby?

 

Nah, just exit, take the shame the game throws at you, and restart. a Game Over starts you at the first level after a boss but the game only saves at the start of each level so quit and restart has you starting the same level over.

 

I had 100% not in two hours by the way but in just over four hours. But truth be told, I restarted from scratch once after I had gone past boss two or three already because I wanted to redo what I'd upgrade.

[Pickle_Riiiick_X]

Pre Game 10 Stats update

Completion Percentage: 37.06%

Trophies: Life is Strange 12/61

                  This War of Mine 11/27

 

Final game will be Just Cause 3.....then an attempt to repair the minor damage I have done and complete a load of games for the spring backlog challenge. Whew!

[zettlock]

I will be skipping my 8th game because I didn't make any progress in Demon's Souls whatsoever. Instead, I'll make this rhetorical question – is that game really that hard? I mean, 10% of completion rate? Every tenth person did it? For example, my Enemy Front's plat has 7,10%, Sniper Elite 3 has 4,89%, Army Corps of Hell has 5,71%, Rebel Galaxy has 4,24%. Neither of this games are hard or time consuming. Sometimes tricky (SE3), but all doable. On the other hand, genuinely hard Vanquish, Max Payne 3 or La-Mulana EX have respectively 2,59%, 0,77% and 0,97%. I'm not intending to start a flame war, but can we, for a second, think that this game is not... well... hard? Challenging, maybe, but not hard? And I know about duping and item sharing stuff, but mentioned before SE3 has coop for Authentic difficulty. And so forth. This game has this renown to be hard, but when you're a seasoned RPG gamer, it's just fair challenge. Maybe it's difficulty is just an urban myth?

And don't even make me start on Bloodborne. 24%?!? That's Lego games' level of plat rarity!

 

 

Anyhows, since I got your attention, let's proceed to this gem. Did you ever fell in love with something so hard, that you didn't bother about it's flaws? Paulo Coelho would say that this is true love. Yeah, and he would be god damn right.

This game is fucking ugly. It's so ugly, that it makes Morrowind giggle and Magus point fingers at it. But this is this case, a prime example to be specific, that proves that games are more than graphics. Oh, and did I mention wacky and wonky battle controls? No? That makes Oblivion and Skyrim jump and high-five because they've lost it's first place in this competition.

So, as we established – this game is ugly as Danny DeVito's ass and steers like russian space shuttle. So why do I love it? The content and gameplay, my friend. Did you ever felt that you are made for larger business than just killing dragons in Skyrim? That being a boss of a faction is something more than talking to dudes and dudettes in HQ? This game has it. Imagine a whole world, just like Tamriel, that you can ride throughout and adventure. Fighting bandits, rescuing peasants (or fighting peasants and rescuing bandits, for that matter). And lead this warband of yours into glory of mercenary life. Or swear oath to some lord and fly your banner into enemy. Or just capture some city or castle and start your own faction. It's all there! Imagine riding those Stormcloaks (appropriately named here... Nords. Really) into Imperial City and establishing their rule over empire. Whoa...

It's a cRPG mixed with RTS. You have your character that you control in battles (real time), a band of merry (or not so, if you mix their ranks too much) companions and your little army. I went with a female character since guide here suggests so and found out that I'm an underdog. Lovely sexist! Then discovered that when you free women peasants and make them join your group, they can be upgraded into Sword Sister, one of the most powerful units. So I made this valkyrie team of diehard ladies and I sweep slavers all around the place.

This game is something special. It's like this female friend of yours that was your pal for ages. You never looked at her with this „I will devour you” look. She was average at best, more like, well, kinda ugly. But you understood each other, she knew what you like and what you dream about. World conquest. So she stood by your side, helping. One day you said „fuck it, I'm so lonely and unsatisfied”. She knew you were talking about your exgirlfriends – Skyrim and Oblivion. They were good, but for a while. After that felt plain and shallow. And there she was, your supposedly ugly friend, Warband. She whispers to your ear that she could fill that hole. And you look at her thinking at first - „No fucking way”, but then it grows in you. Something changes. It's the look you give her, some filter starts to enhance you view of her. She stops being ugly, you notice to prickles, this lovely curved nose, this little mole she has on her neck. She... starts to look good to you. And you enjoy her company. Then it happens – one drunk night you walk together some street laughing about, she makes this remark that you should have you're own banner with swords and your national colors, and you kiss her like there is no tomorrow, just like that, without a warning. And you fuck each other after that. It's the best sex you had. She stopped being medicore, she became a source of so much pleasure, that you get addicted to it. You start falling in love.

But your friends still see her as „one step from troll” kind of girl. They whisper to you that you can play with better girls. „Have you seen tits of that Witcher girl?”. „I've heard that this Andromeda girl can do wonders with her lips...”. But you can't be bothered. You bring your Warband to parties and after some time you friends start to like her, overlooking her flaws.

And you start to realize - this is love, actually.

 

Rating: 9 Sword Sisters out of 10 Ciri's tits

Trophy progress: 14 of 57 (rank B )

Completion drop : 85,74% → 84,60% (influenced by Disc Jam and C&C Red Alert 3)

Edited March 28, 2017 by zettlock
grammar :(

[Jaguargenie]

7 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

 

I'd also say that Black Flag is kind of where they lost it with the "overall plot", Unity and Syndicate didn't do much better on the long term story. Though personally, I never enjoyed the current day storyline anyway, I would be perfectly fine with AC becoming series with solely history sequences, I was fine with Unity and Syndicate showing so little of the present.

That is one of my favorite things about the plot. Desmond was terrible and I hated the present day stuff. 

Now from the little of the present I have seen in this game, you can tell that Abstergo is still a super evil corporation (read the employee handbook), but they are an 'interactive entertainment' company now. If they continue down that path so that the next games put you in the shoes of a regular Joe just living this interactive history movie, I'm totally OK with that. I know, personal preferences and some people will hate that, but I feel like the series needs to take itself less serious and have more fun. 

[FFHannibal]

My Transformers Devastation review might come later today otherwise tomorrow. The review for Yakuza 5 is the one that got eaten, so I'll try to recreate its epicness. The thread stays open anyway and I still need to do one for Resident Evil. 

 

At least I can finally play Alpha Protocol now, I've been looking forward to it all month. 

[Hemiak]

I got back into town last night, and after taking care of everything and spending some time with the wife I played a little From Dust, because I didn't really want to get into something new. I finished the main story, earning the trophy for finishing while losing less than 5 villages. Then I replayed 2 levels to get the memory stones I missed. Cool thing is the game saves your level state when you left it, so it was really easy to just send a guy up to get the stones in the two levels.

 

Then I started the challenges, which are interesting. They're much shorter than regular levels, but much more frantic. In each one there is a danger approaching, and you have a short window to avert disaster. This can be a spreading wildfire, an approaching tsunami, sinkholes, erupting volcanoes, etc. Most can be completed in 1-2 minutes, others give you up to a generous 5 minute window. The fun part is they only give you one or two of your abilities and totems each level. Sometimes you can only pick up water, or earth, or trees. Sometimes you only have a power or two, and you always need to rush. 

 

Ive now done 24 of the 30 levels. I've done them all in order except I skipped over challenge 11 I think. It's called Sacrifice and after looking it up it might be the hardest one. You start on a small island that is the only source of dirt around. You have to steal a bunch of the dirt (without showing the village) to make a path to the nearby rock island. Once there your people create a new village, which covers that rock island with dirt. While they're busy you take back all the sand to make another path from the new village to the repel water totem out on this reef. Once village 2 is done you can completely steal all of village 1's dirt, condemning them to a watery grave (hence "sacrifice"). You do this because there just isn't enough spare dirt to finish the path to the 'repel water' totem otherwise. You have about 3 minutes total to get all this done before a tsunami appears, and another 30 seconds before it wipes out your village(s). This means you need to be very precise in your dirt placement. 

 

The challenges are a fun take on the game, though the fast nature of the levels means that often times shit hits the fan before you really know what to do on your initial run of a new level. It's usually pretty easy to tell what you're supposed to do, though it isn't always easy to pull it off. 

 

Anyway, tonight I'll start games 9 and 10. I'll play Tales of Xillia 2 while Mim is up, and switch when she goes to sleep. 

 

On 3/26/2017 at 0:45 PM, NebbyLunala said:

Anyway, I did a unoffical Kill Your Completion on my own account with these games, if anyone is interested:

1. Bastion (22%)
2. Buff Knight Advanced (45%)
3. Dark Cloud 2 (11%)
4. Disgaea 5 (12%)
5. Ginger: Beyond the Crystal (17%)
6. Rogue Galaxy (8%)
7. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (84%) - my most complete game
8. The Deadly Tower of Monsters (4%)
9. Unravel (1%)

The funny thing is that you posted several times before the start, and I thought you were going to join. I actually added you to the OP before realizing you didn't actually submit a list or want to join. I removes you the day before we started when I went back through to confirm everyone's lists. 

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 9

This War of Mine: The Little Ones

 

 

Trophies Earned: 14/29 (36%)

Playing Time: 4-5 hours

 

  Well, based on Billy and Pickle's reviews, I think this game suffers from KYC Slot Selectionitis for me.  Meaning, had I put this game in a different slot for the event, I would've liked it much better.  It would have been tough for any game to follow Life is Strange, but after playing LiS's laid-back story narration style, I wasn't ready for a micromanager.  And that's pretty much what this is.  Instead of watering your crops, you need to tend to your war refugees.

Gameplay: This has been covered by others, but basically you are micromanaging a small colony of refugees in a modern-day war (the Balkan conflict of the 1990s). Your people need to be fed, rested and nurtured in their time of trouble. In order to do this, you will need to scavenge for necessities like food, water, medicine; and crafting items like wood, components, electrical parts. You can make things for defense (weapons, shelter protection), improved living (stove, rainwater collector) and luxuries (bed, chair, toys for kids). The arena is a war zone so your people will gradually decline as the days go on.  You have decide who eats today, who can rest today, etc.

   The game rubbed me wrong from the get-go with no tutorial.  I understand that it's a war zone and civilians don't get a tutorial on how to survive in real-life conflict situations, but simple pop-up bubbles informing the gamer on the mechanics of the game would've been helpful. There's only information on what your controller buttons do in the settings menu, but most don't make sense until you counter the situation. Want an example?  is labelled as "combat mode." No other information is given. So one night, my dude is traipsing along and suddenly gets attacked. I had no idea what to do, which button to push, and before I knew it, he gets shot and killed.  Thanks! A simple pause in the game informing me of how to get into combat mode, or how to run away, would've been much more gamer-friendly than just killing my character off. And if you lose one character, your game is pretty much done because you won't be able to perform the remaining tasks AND give them the necessities of survival with just two characters.  So my first two hours in the game went down in 10 seconds because there's no manual save (the game only autosaves as it transitions from day to night).

   On my second try, I did much better as I picked up the learning curve from my first go-around.  But after playing for two hours, things went awry when my shelter got raided and I lost all my food.  I thought I was safe leaving two guards with knives but evidently not. Things went downhill quickly (impossible to feed four people from scratch) so I made the most of it and instead of restarting, I went after some harder trophies. Everyone else suffered, but I saved Bruno from being terminally ill and broken (severely depressed). 

Trophies: I really like the trophy list.  Most are task-based and take some work, but most look achievable. Doubtful you could ever get all these in 1-2 playthroughs but if you start a custom game aiming for a certain trophy objective, you are likely to achieve it.  

Final Thoughts: Let's face it, after 25+ days of pushing through title after title, fatigue is starting to set in and earlier KYC games are starting to beckon.  Had this been a non-KYC game, I probably would've enjoyed it more.  My feeling on it now is a , but I'm betting if I return to this in 6-12 months when I'm in the mood, it'll probably raise up to a gold level.  It really is a brilliant concept for a game, where the objective is to simply survive for characters who are extremely vulnerable to their surroundings.  Hopefully, it opened the eyes to the reality of war for the PS+ers who spend day and night playing Call of Duty.  Doubtful, but's it's a thought.

 

  

Stats Update After Game 9: (Pre-KYC3 Stats)

Games Completed/ Played:  68/42  (60/42)

Trophies Earned: 2230                       (2135)

Unearned: 517                                    (309)

Completion %:  78.75                        (85.93)

Rarity: 43.65%.                                   (43.14%)

 

- Technically, I have only played 8 games. Game 6 will be played on March 31.

 

On Deck: South Park: The Stick of Truth

In the Hole: Tour de France 2016.  

- So I'm calling an audible. I had in my Game 6 slot Anna:Extended but after last week's sale, I am inserting in TDF because I've been wanting to try one of these games for years.  

[dmland12]

7 hours ago, Pickle2907 said:

ultratron 12/12 in 2 hrs? I must suck absolute balls at this game. Played roughly that and haven't even got as far as boss 3.....upgrade tips please....lmao

 

I did it in just under 2 hours.  It's one of the few games I'm on the leaderboards for. #44 and slipping so I guess I need to brag about it before I fall off.   

 

Anyway, it's mostly like @BillyHorrible said.  Upgrade your damage and your pets -- I didn't bother with the rest much except as needed for the trophies (quantum shift).  I didn't quit after a tough level, but instead just bought more shields to get them back to lvl 2-3.  They're pretty cheap to purchase at lower levels.

 

Always stay on the move...  as with most shooters like this circle strafe is going to be your main tactic.

 

EDIT:  Actually since the first trophy is for beating the first boss, I'm sure it took more than 2 hours to 100% the game, but not a whole lot more.

Edited March 28, 2017 by dmland12

[Jaguargenie]

3 hours ago, zettlock said:

I will be skipping my 8th game because I didn't make any progress in Demon's Souls whatsoever. Instead, I'll make this rhetorical question – is that game really that hard? I mean, 10% of completion rate? Every tenth person did it? For example, my Enemy Front's plat has 7,10%, Sniper Elite 3 has 4,89%, Army Corps of Hell has 5,71%, Rebel Galaxy has 4,24%. Neither of this games are hard or time consuming. Sometimes tricky (SE3), but all doable. On the other hand, genuinely hard Vanquish, Max Payne 3 or La-Mulana EX have respectively 2,59%, 0,77% and 0,97%. I'm not intending to start a flame war, but can we, for a second, think that this game is not... well... hard? Challenging, maybe, but not hard? And I know about duping and item sharing stuff, but mentioned before SE3 has coop for Authentic difficulty. And so forth. This game has this renown to be hard, but when you're a seasoned RPG gamer, it's just fair challenge. Maybe it's difficulty is just an urban myth?

And don't even make me start on Bloodborne. 24%?!? That's Lego games' level of plat rarity!

 

Personally, it's the grind. Demon's souls is the hardest of the souls games, but it's attainable. Getting the plat requires a minimum of 2 playthroughs and a substantial amount of grind for the upgrade materials. Some of the materials are so rare that hours of grinding will net you nothing (hence the boosting). That's the whole reason for the rarity.  

[Hemiak]

5 hours ago, zettlock said:

I will be skipping my 8th game because I didn't make any progress in Demon's Souls whatsoever. Instead, I'll make this rhetorical question – is that game really that hard? 

As Jaguar said. It's really not that bad. Don't get me wrong, the game itself is challenging, especially if you go through blind, play solo, and focus on a melee build. It has a strong learning curve and you really need to learn to be patient, and be willing to learn from your mistakes. 

 

The Plat itself isn't hard at all. It's more a matter of time and task management. It's not like there's a hard mode (other than ng+) or any trophies for killing something without dying. If you can beat this game you can get the Plat. Also, with so many ways to cheese the game (duping, dropping gear, coop in general), much of the difficulty is extremely subjective. 

 

The game gets its reputation because it doesn't pull punches, and doesn't hold your hand. There's one difficulty, until you start a + playthroigh, and you have to figure out many of the mechanics on your own. That being said, the Souls games are awesome, and most people who end up loving them easily follow through for the platinum. 

Edited March 28, 2017 by Hemiak

[MarkusT1992]

12 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

Black Flag might have not been much of an AC game but it was a logical step after they tried out ships in III and people liked it... It would be cool to get a non-AC sequel of sorts to this as I still say that Black Flag is the best damn Pirates Of The Caribbean game I've ever played.

 

I'd also say that Black Flag is kind of where they lost it with the "overall plot", Unity and Syndicate didn't do much better on the long term story. Though personally, I never enjoyed the current day storyline anyway, I would be perfectly fine with AC becoming series with solely history sequences, I was fine with Unity and Syndicate showing so little of the present.

 

They did it again with Rogue, so there is a second game in this direction. I liked Rogue more than Black Flag despite not finishing it. It bought my PS4 arond the time I played Rogue and anly started my 360 once since then.

 

I'm glad that the want to do a new present day story in the upcoming AC game. I don't know if the want to make a reboot kind of thing or a new story around a new protagonist.

I liked all the notes you could find in Black Flag. They help to build the world of AC.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #10

 

Day #1

Total Time Played: about 1h 41m

Trophies earned: 6/51

 

 

What is Okami?

 

Essentially it's an action-adventure, in which you play as a white wolf who also happens to be a god. You bash pots for loot and kill fight enemies while exploring a world painted in brushstrokes. A brush also comes into play gameplay-wise. You'll get to restore areas by roughly painting them and it can also be used as finisher on enemies. There are also a bunch of sidequests that give you fame, which can then be used to improve your character.

There are no voices in the game, just some odd mumbling whenever the story gets told or you talk to NPCs.

So far I've completed the tutorial and done a bunch of sidequests in the first village. There's also a night and day cycle, which seems to influence to some extent the things you can do. I'll try to get some more hours in tomorrow, if I find the time.

[Melanogaster1987]

Game #9: Prototype

 

Just like my previous game in this event (Dead Space), this was a game that I bought mainly because I liked the look of its sequel when it came to Playstation Plus, and wanted to start the series from the beginning. I had a great time with Dead Space a few days ago, so could this be just as good?

 

You play as Alex Mercer, who one day escapes from the lab of a genetics modification company in New York to find that he has superpowers (namely, superhuman strength, the ability to run up walls and at ultra-high speed, and the ability to consume other people's bodies to gain health and shapeshift to take on their appearance). Unfortunately, Alex also awakens with no memory, and the game revolves around his quest to rediscover his previous life. Not only that, but a virus that mutates people is also on the loose, and the military has been deployed for the purposes of both containing said virus and hunting down genetics experiment turned superhuman Alex - we're fighting a battle on two fronts here.

 

Prototype is an open-world game, and the landmarks of Manhattan are all there - so far I've been able to pick out the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park, Times Square and more. Your ability to scale walls is so cool - it almost makes you feel like King Kong as you charge up and down the skyscrapers of New York. Unfortunately, NYC could have looked better - the draw distance isn't great, you see the same models for vehicles and pedestrians over and over, and seeing so many store signs rendered in the bog-standard Verdana font just looks amateurish and spoils the immersion a bit. Also, there are some collision detection problems with certain buildings - all in all, it's a step below other open world PS3 games. On the plus side, the frame rate remains stable throughout even when there's lots going on.

 

There are a few kinds of missions, the goal of each being either trying to find out more about your past, slowing down the spread of infected mutants or throwing a wrench into the works of the military. Your shapeshifting ability allows for some stealth sections when attempting to sneak into army bases, but most of the missions will boil down to massive fights between you and one or both of the enemy factions.

 

Combat is the meat of most of Prototype's missions - and sadly, it just doesn't work for me; you may have superpowers, but you can still be shredded in seconds by your foes, especially the larger mutants. It's a strange feeling; being so strong and yet so weak - I've poured hundreds of thousands of experience points into health and shield upgrades, but it still feels like you just don't have enough health. Maybe I'm simply bad at the game, but so far most battles have devolved into tearing into the enemies for maybe 15 seconds, then having to high tail it in order to recover your health, then back to beating up enemies, then holing up again and so on... it doesn't necessarily make the game too difficult for me (there are plenty of innocent bystanders to feast on to regain health after all) but it breaks the flow of the fighting sequences and it feels just plain wrong for a superhuman character to be so vulnerable - surely if Alex has all these powers, he should be able to shake off the injuries he sustains as if they were mere insect bites.

 

You can also spend experience points on special attacks, and these may look cool, but they're not all that much more powerful than basic punches, unless you charge them fully. The problem is that these attacks require so much time to charge that they become useless when you are constantly being peppered by enemy attacks - often, just mindlessly mashing the square button serves you better than trying to use your range of abilities in a more skillful way. There are also guns to use, and there is a lock-on targeting system, but it doesn't work too well if you're looking to concentrate fire on one particular enemy because you will have switch between several others before you can zero in on the foe you wish to aim at. Some kind of intelligent targeting that defaults to either the most dangerous enemy, or the thing you have to blow up to complete your objective would have helped here. Also, there is the issue of the controls. I find some button combinations are just downright awkward to pull off properly and this can lead to you performing moves that you didn't intend to - in fact, it got to the point where, when deciding what new attacks to spend experience points on, my main consideration was less "do I want this attack as part of my repertoire?" and more "will I be able to execute this consistently, given the controls?".

 

However, it's not all bad - the game has its share of awesome moments that you get nowhere else, such as leaping from a building and kicking a helicopter clean out of the sky, or bowling over a large crowd by throwing an air conditioning unit at them! There are also side missions to do if you want a change of pace, and these can be both entertaining and challenging. I especially like the ones where you have to consume a given number of marked people within the time limit - by this time, you will have unlocked the ability to glide, and it'll make you feel like a falcon as you swoop in to nab its prey. Flying around the city just for the sake of exploring can be a lot of fun too, especially if you like collectibles (there are 200 landmarks to find).

 

Finally, I like the way that the story is revealed. There are over 100 important people walking the streets, and you can consume them to play a short video clip concerning some detail of the plot - makes it feel like you are slowly but surely slotting the pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle into place in order to find out just how both Alex and the city ended up this way.

 

My rating: Bronze

 

---

 

Trophies earned in this game: 5 (5) for 75 points
Total trophies earned in this event: 110 (2, 17, 91) for 2,055 points

 

Current completion rate: 60.56% [Down 6.11% since start of event; Down 0.78% as a result of this game]