Kill Your Completion - CYOA

[Jaguargenie]

On 7/17/2017 at 6:54 AM, mking_63 said:

Initial Impressions

Axiom Verge

Now this is my kind of retro! It's like someone ripped an awesome, unreleased NES game from a wormhole and amped it up to 13! Of course the graphics are simplistic but they absolutely nail the effect they were going for. The music is fitting and atmospheric, very well done. I almost got the feeling that if 200+ Mb carts existed back in the day then this could've actually been on a NES even though it uses all of the PS4's buttons but after the game pulls a few tricks it becomes apparent that a NES would explode just thinking about running it. So far the controls have been perfect and I don't throw that out lightly. This game manages to evoke Metroid without being derivative or blatantly ripping it off.

Damn I loved Axiom Verge! Just watch out for the time trial run if you want the plat. It's a bear. 

 

On 7/16/2017 at 0:05 PM, Crimson Idol said:

 

Wow, that's a quite harsh review overall. But I guess the main problem with PnCs that rely so much on humor is the fact that you either like them or hate them. I had a really good time with it, but on the other hand I didn't enjoy Grim Fandango or Full Throttle (and didn't even bother to finish Broken Age, which is a pile of turd for me). I still had some minor struggles with some puzzles but overall it was easy.

Hit the nail right on the head. I loved DoDT when it first came out like 20+ years ago and I loved it again when I just played it. Hated Grim Fandango though. The weird logic they used in tentacle I was able to wrap my head around. The puzzles in Grim Fandango made NO sense. 

[MarkusT1992]

After a very busy weekend due to our open-door day at the fire department I had no time to play my games. But now I'm back and even played a bit.

Let's start with Metal Gear and my final review.

 

Game #5: Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Day3)

 

 

I said that I wanted to play the side missions at least once. That didn't work out. I only managed to play one of the side missions and failed it after about 20-30 minutes.

In the mission you have to take out two people. The mission is set on the same map as the main mission, which probably means all missions are on the same map.

You have little information about your targets and need to scout the area for them. One of them is stationary, the other is moving around the map. If you trigger the alarm both try to escape. This means you either have to be quiet and stay hidden or you need to be fast after the alarm is triggered.

In my attempt I triggered the alarm and managed to kill one of the two targets but the other one escaped.

That's all I managed to play of this game after my first session.

 

From me this game gets a rating. You need to be patient to stay hidden. I enjoyed Metal Gear Solid 2 more than this game. That's maybe because you don't need to be that cautious about your movement.

 

Time played: About 1h 45min

Trophies: 2/15

 

Next is my review for me current game, which is:

 

Game #6: Action Henk (Day 1)

 

 

Action Henk is like Ubisoft's Trials series. The gameplay is pretty much the same.

There's even a story to this game. You are Henk, an old toy. Henk got fat with the years and is looking at his toy of the year trophy. Suddenly his trophy gets stolen by some guy in a chopper and Henk goes after him.

 

Now you run through linear levels like in Trials and jump and slide your way to the finish line.

The game consist of different levels in which you can earn medals. After you collected enought medal you unlock the next set of levels. In each level you can get a bronze, silver or gold medal and according to the trophy list a rainbow medal. In each set of levels is a boss level, which you unlock after earning at least a bronze medal in every level of the set.

The boss levels are exactly like the normal ones except that ynother toy runds with you you have to beat. After beating the level you unlock the character you just have beaten.

I don't know if the character have different stats or if they are all equal.

There's also a bonus level in each set but I don't know how you unlock it. I got it in the first set but that's the only one I comoleted. I gues you have to get a gold medal in each level and beat the boss to unlock them.

In the bonus level I unlocked you have to collect coins scattered around a little map, which I couldn't do in time yet.

 

The trophy list seems to be difficult. You need to be better than 99% of the other player in at least one level and need to collect a rainbow medal in each level. I'm nowhere near a rainbow medal. In some levels I have problems to get the gold medal. And that's only in beginner level.

 

Time played: Maybe 30 min

Trophies: 2/15

 

[AJ_Radio]

I decided I'm going to wait until the next KYC event to participate. Got too much going on right now to really focus on playing five games at a time. I should have my goals finished by then, looking forward to what you guys have to say about this KYC in the coming days.

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #7 - Day #1

 

 

Well, here´s another game I pretty much know almost nothing about. What I know so far is that it´s supposed to be a metroidvania-style game in an ancient Greece setting.

 

Here`s to hoping the level design isn't a mess, so one doesn't get lost all the time. A decent variation in enemies would be welcome as I don`t expect there to be many different sceneries.

 

 

I might not get any playtime today as I still have things to do after work, so I`m not sure when I arrive home. Hopefully it won`'t drag on too long though.

[crimsonidol38]

51 minutes ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Game #7 - Day #1

 

Just try to save before opening any of the treasure chests. Those tend to crash the game for no particular reason. Overall I found the game and it's atmosphere quite enjoyable, but the crashes and other bugs like objects getting stuck behind the walls were annoying.

[dmland12]

Game #6: Quest of Dungeons

Game Progress: 23/26 Trophies (88%)

Completion: 90.39% (-0.03%, -4.46% from start)

 

Quest of Dungeons is a roguelike dungeon crawler RPG.  I enjoyed it initially, and was planning to right a fairly positive review, but after a few days it started to really wear thin, mainly because of balancing issues.  I was able to pick up most of the trophies, so my completion percentage was just barely scratched by this one.

 

First, let's go over the good things.   There's 5 classes that each play very differently.  For my first runs, I went with the Warrior class and found that it played pretty well.  There was pretty good balance between easy enemies wearing my HP down and boss battles that were tougher, but not bad unless you take them on with low HP.  That's good since if you die it's game over and time to restart (unless you've backed up a save...)  There's also plenty of items dropping in this game, equipment upgrades, and skillbooks.  Another interesting thing is that the monsters only move when you do, so it pays to be a little cautious when moving into a new area.  There's also some mini-quests that involve you finding an item in the dungeon, or killing a tough monster.  Overall, it gave a good first impression.

 

But then, I started playing with the other classes...  Next up: Assassin.  This class feels pretty broken.  It's overpowered compared to the Warrior since it has a ranged attack.  If you're careful, it doesn't matter how many HP you have most of the time.  Except for boss fights (and quest monster fights) deeper in the dungeon, they can one shot kill you (so I guess it still doesn't matter how many HP you have then either).  I discovered this unfortunate fact on floor 9 of my Custom 10-floor Hell difficulty run.  And I wasn't backing up my saves at this point, since the game had seemed rather easy, even on the hardest difficulty.

 

So, maybe it's a problem with Hell difficulty, right?  Well, no.  I later had it happen on my Easy difficulty speedrun attempts.  In fact, after playing the game on Easy, Normal, and Hell, I can't really tell much of a difference between them.  Oh, and all of that neat gear that I had fun finding and upgrading...  I'm not actually sure it makes much of a difference either after looking at it some more.  The main factor in determining your damage seems to be your lvl and this dwarfs any effects your gear can give as far as I can tell.  This is especially true at higher levels 10+.  Armor might be slightly noticable in comparison...  but there still doesn't seem to be enough of a difference there to me.

 

Here's some video of floor 10 of my successful Custom Hell 10-floor run.  This should be the toughest the game can throw at you, but I'm one-shotting nearly everything as the Assassin (except when they dodge).  I did run into one random boss that could have killed me (I had my save backed up before the final floor but didn't need it), but other than that it was not very hellish.

 

Closing Thoughts:

Most of the people posting about this game here seem to be interested in getting it because it starts with the letter Q and has a platinum (they are apparently trying to collect at least one game's platinum that starts with each letter in the alphabet).  It will do that well enough.  But, other than that it feels pretty middling to me.  I mean, I don't hate it, even though it did one-shot me out of nowhere after seeming easy...  But, it just seems like this game could have been much better with some more balancing.

My Rating: C

Edited July 19, 2017 by dmland12

[DamagingRob]

Maybe now I can get back to focusing on this a bit better. Finally wrapped up Battlefront this morning. 

 

Final Review- Dark Cloud 2

 

Put another hour in, to meet the minimum time. Fought a couple more bosses, made it out of the town, and the girl, Monica, joined up with Max. With one of the bosses, you had to pick up and throw bombs back at him. Easy enough, but I also had to take a picture of him, as he was launching a missile from his eye for an an invention. 

 

Now, this is something that may make me give up the Platinum. Some of these pictures you have to take in the heat of battle, can be a major pain in the ass. And I'm not even that far into the game, yet.. Combat is hard enough for me, without trying to stop and take a photo of an enemy's attack. Which makes you a sitting duck, so you can expect to get hit by said attack. Some of them are missable, too, meaning you'd have to do another playthrough if you miss certain ones. I gave up on the ones that aren't missable for the time being, so I could continue on with the game a bit. 

 

So far, I am enjoying it, though. Mostly due to the story. The gameplay leaves a bit to be desired, as of now. And I'm not sure if it will make me not want to play it later on. Somewhere between a  and a , at the moment. 

 

Trophy progress:  4/31 for 7% and a D rank.

Time played: ~3 hours. 

Did it lower my completion? Yes. 

[PerryToxteth]

18 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Game #6 - Day #3

 

 

Time to wrap up my impressions on République.

 

 

Visuals

 

The game looks good so far, both the environment and the character models. There's a decent variation in scenery so far even though essentially it all happens inside the same facility.

 

There's also a static that shortly shows up whenever you switch from camera to camera, which gives a fitting touch to that particular process.

 

 

Sound

 

The "tutorial" voice is fantastic and the voices in general are great. To the point where you can tell the emotion the emotional state the characters are in,

 

I don't really remember much about the music to be honest, except when everyone goes into alert atatus it seems to make itself heard. I guess it's supposed to provide tension...

 

 

Gameplay

 

The mechanics work reasonably well, although there are a few exceptions. The main issue pops up when there's a room transition about to happen. Some of those should evidently have been loading screen, but what happens instead is that the game lags out fora few seconds. When that happens it often reads the movement inputs as if you're leaving the room  you area actually about to enter. In other words It moves you back to the previous room. It's a tad confusing in that way.

 

The other problem I have with the game is the save system. There's only autosave, which supposedly occurs after a certain amount of time has passed in the game. There's also the containment areas, which force an autosave. The issue here is that the game doesn't always seem to remember what collectibles have been picked up so far. So when loading up the game you risk, having to collect them again.

 

Other than that I'm having a blast with it. The game is interesting an fun. I really like the short audio information you get about the collectibles, in particular the books and the games. That makes this the first game in which I actually enjoy looking for and picking up collectibles.

 

The exposition has also been great and the lack of combat (you can use pepper spray and tasers to incapacitate enemies, that's about it though), doesn't bother me at all. It's a stealth game in the end, that feels a lot like Metal Gear in that regard. I really hope the remaining episodes keep the momentum going.

 

 

This game might not be for everyone, but to those that find the dystopian concept interesting this is a hidden gem.

 

 

Time played: 8h18m

Trophies earned: 11/30

 

Thanks for the endorsements for Republique and Sexy Brutale. They are now on the "BUY" list! 

[Jaguargenie]

On 7/18/2017 at 8:40 AM, MosesRockefeller said:

I got to the first boss (well, first not counting the initial boss you're "supposed to" lose to), and tried to beat him about a dozen times. I can get him to fairly low health, but he always wins at the end after I've run out of healing potions. I never found a vendor to sell potions before the fight, which would probably get me through it. But even if I did, this gives me a bad feeling that I'm in way over my head with this game. The Souls series is known for its difficulty (and I'm sure some fan of the series will say they're all so easy a 5-year-old could beat them and that I'm just rubbish... which isn't necessarily false), but I don't think the sense of reward in persevering through a game like this would be worth the stress for me. I have too many games in my backlog for that.

It's not a case of you being rubbish. The souls series is ALL about timing and pattern recognition. You cant go in guns blazing and expect to win. From everything I've seen about salt and sanctuary (so excited it's on sale,  gonna pick it up!!!) It plays just like souls should in 2D. Pick you spots, block a lot and learn attack patterns. If you are running out of healing potions you are doing it wrong and being to aggressive.

Edited July 19, 2017 by Jaguargenie

[Hemiak]

Until Dawn

Game 6 I think. 

2 hrs played, no trophies. 

 

So I've wanted to play this since I heard a it it. I enjoy horror and liked Heavy Rain and B2S. Mim enjoyed both those games but isn't the biggest horror fan, so this could really go either way. First off, I won't be using spoilers, or even really talking specifics about the plot. 

 

For starters what do I know about this game. It's a horror story, that follows 8 teens in a cabin somewhere, that have to make it through the night. I've avoided pretty much all real spoilers, and the only things I've really heard is that most of the characters are unlikeable. This seems to stem from the fact that they're all based on the usual horror movie tropes. 

 

We fire the game up and watch the short intro about the butterfly effect and how your choices influence the world, refolutionary stuff. This must be super important since they make you read it, and then give a little visual demonstration while saying it out loud 20 seconds later.  I became less amused when one of the characters actually said Butterfly Effect 10 minutes later.  

 

I'm going to come right out and say that we played the prologue, didn't like our outcome, and replayed it immediately. We made almost all different choices the 2nd time, saw just slightly different scenes, and got the exact same result. Butterfly Effect my ass.

 

Anyway the game starts and we get a bit of a tutorial. I get to walk around, pick stuff up, and learn how to find intractable items. We get to watch a little scene, and have to make our first decision. Basically the game pauses and you have two options, later these become timed, and doing nothing is an option as well. Another little scene, and then I'm back in control. 

 

I'm told that L1 will help me walk faster, and that I can use my right stick to point my light in different directions while walking. I'm given a few more choices along the way. One option I got that I thought was interesting was to take the safe or quick way down from a ledge. The first time we chose safe, and she just ran down the stairs. The second I went with quick, and after hitting a button prompt jumped down safely. I could see this playing into chase scenes later. Play it too safe and get caught, fail going fast and get hurt and caught. I've had to hit a few button prompts so far and none of them have been hard, MLG status confirned.

 

I find my first collectible, which take the form of totems. There are different colored ones and they give you a sneak peak at what might happen in the future. Problem is they're very short and kind of hard to see what's happening. It's interesting, but the first one slightly influenced my decision at the end of the prologue, which was against my original inclination. So far I've found 3 or 4, and they haven't been particularly helpful. 

I've also found several "clues" which range from posters or flyers, pictures, to a case with a missing axe. 

 

After the prologue we meet The Analyst. He's an obviously identifiable actor, all though some of the facial animations are a little wierd at times. He asks us to look at a picture and tell us how we feel. Then he makes small changes and continues asking about our perceptions. At the end he makes an observation and tells us he'll see us soon. He pops up again after the first chapter and gives us a series of either/or pictures to determine what frightens us the most. At one point he tells us to hurry up because apparently they want you to go with you gut. I can't help thinking this will be used to customize the game to scare/creep us out the most. It's interesting, but I kind of wish they'd just front loaded this, instead of pulling us out of the story every 20-30 minutes. 

 

After this we play a bit more and are I introduced to most of the characters. So far we have Jock, Nerd, Mr. Popular, Smart Bitch, Slutty Bitch, Shy Girl, Nice Girl, and, well it's really hard to define the last guy actually. So far I don't mind 4 of them which is good, three rub me the wrong way and the last guy is kind of creeping us both out a bit. His whole shtick just seems a bit off. 

 

I'll talk about character traits and interactions next time as I've already gone on a bit long. So far it's interesting. The "puzzles" don't seem too bad and the QTE sections are pretty easy and short. We've only had 2 or 3 jump scares, but the game seems to be setting the stage and slowly building up tension which is nice. Mim is doing OK so far, but did ask me to turn on another light and sit by her on the couch.

 

I switched over to FFX after a while so she could watch something else while falling asleep and about 1.5 hrs later finally popped the platinum. Thought about starting something new but then decided to fire up Jotun. 1.5 hrs later had both of the challenges for Fe completed. Just need Hagalaz and Odin to be done. 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hemiak

[DamagingRob]

11 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Here`s to hoping the level design isn't a mess, so one doesn't get lost all the time. A decent variation in enemies would be welcome as I don`t expect there to be many different sceneries.

I really liked the map, and thought quite highly of the game. In direct contrast to Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate and Strider, I always knew exactly where I was going. You just have to be careful fighting around chests, as they can get stuck in the walls/floor, and then never be opened.. Happened with one of mine, but luckily there's one chest too many in the game. So, if it's only one, you can still get the trophy. 

 

10 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

Just try to save before opening any of the treasure chests. Those tend to crash the game for no particular reason. Overall I found the game and it's atmosphere quite enjoyable, but the crashes and other bugs like objects getting stuck behind the walls were annoying.

I don't remember it crashing all that much. Might have been patched? The chests getting stuck behind walls/in the ground was still an issue, though..

[MosesRockefeller]

4 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

It's not a case of you being rubbish. The souls series is ALL about timing and pattern recognition. You cant go in guns blazing and expect to win. From everything I've seen about salt and sanctuary (so excited it's on sale,  gonna pick it up!!!) It plays just like souls should in 2D. Pick you spots, block a lot and learn attack patterns. If you are running out of healing potions you are doing it wrong and being to aggressive.

Well I think I AM rubbish, but thanks for the encouragement I guess. As I said I did beat the first boss. I made a little progress today, and found a decent grinding spot to collect salt and gold. I still don't understand a lot of things in the game. Also, the lack of an in-game map is making it tough... I either need to use a walkthrough or trophy guide, or just dick around not making real progress. I like a lot of things about the game, but it seems like it's more Souls-ish than Metroidvania, and that's not what I thought I was getting.

 

Also, it doesn't have cross-save, and my Vita is acting funky today. This morning it was fine when I was playing, but it glitched during a download and is acting up now. Hopefully I can get it back in working shape tonight.

[crimsonidol38]

2 minutes ago, DamagingRob said:

I don't remember it crashing all that much. Might have been patched? 

 

I played the game during KYC 3 so way after you. Maybe there was a patch in the meantime which fixed some bugs but introduced new ones? Who knows.  

But I already found the 10+ crashes I experienced way too much for that game's playtime of 12 or so hours.

[dmland12]

11 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

Just try to save before opening any of the treasure chests. Those tend to crash the game for no particular reason. Overall I found the game and it's atmosphere quite enjoyable, but the crashes and other bugs like objects getting stuck behind the walls were annoying.

 

52 minutes ago, DamagingRob said:

I don't remember it crashing all that much. Might have been patched? The chests getting stuck behind walls/in the ground was still an issue, though..

 

11 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

I played the game during KYC 3 so way after you. Maybe there was a patch in the meantime which fixed some bugs but introduced new ones? Who knows.  

But I already found the 10+ crashes I experienced way too much for that game's playtime of 12 or so hours.

 

I played Apotheon near it's release (Feb 2015) and I had a couple crashes upon opening a chest, so this has been a longstanding problem with the game.  In my case, it was one of the chests in that room that spins around, if I'm remembering it correctly.  I only had problems at that one chest: it crashed twice upon opening it but worked on the third time.  So, I can see someone getting through the game without these crashes depending on luck.

 

I do also remember some other random crashes that didn't seem to be connected to opening the chests.  I basically agree with @Crimson Idol.  It's a fun game when it's not crashing on you.

[Jaguargenie]

Going to roll several entries into one post for various reasons. I completed my requisite 3 hours of Tearaway last night and then transitioned to Horizon: Zero Dawn. 5 hours later and it was 230 in the morning and I could barely keep my head up, but I wanted desperately to play more. So technically, I am going to give a final of Tearaway, and a final for Horizon, since I never did an initial and I have already passed the 3 hour commitment I set for myself for this event.

 

Final Thoughts

Game 5

Tearaway Unfolded

 

To be perfectly honest, I don't feel any different than what I felt during my initial impressions. This thing is just ok. It's not bad, but it isn't in any way interesting or keeps my attention. It is beautiful and quirky, but that only goes so far when the game isn't entertaining. To be perfectly honest, every time I can see a collectible, but know I don't have the power to reach it and I'm going to be forced to come back and replay the level, it just makes me more angry at the game. I love metroidvanias, but this is essentially forcing a NG+, not backtracking. I don't like it.

 

Trophies: 11/35; 17%

Completion %: I will post after Horizon review since PS4 now synchs trophies in the background now (which is so awesome) and didn't get the number before I started Horizon!

Personal Grade: C

Will I plat?: Highly doubt it. It is honestly going to be a struggle just to come back and finish.

 

And now...

 

Final Thoughts/Initial Impressions

Game 6

Horizon:Zero Dawn

 

Oh. My. God.

 

I have not been so addicted to a game in a very, very long time. I feel down this rabbit hole hard and I don't wanna come out. Last night, the thought actually crossed my mind of dropping out of the event altogether and play nothing but Horizon until I complete it. 100%, not plat. I want to squeeze every last bit out of this game.

 

I refuse to believe that anyone doesn't know what Horizon is unless you have been living under a rock, but I'll try to do a little bit less gushing and a bit more info. That being said, I am going to jump in assuming you know at least a little bit about this game. That and I think @MarkusT1992 already did a pretty substantial review for this.

 

To start off there are a few issues. The character models are beautiful, but they lead to the only technical problems I have seen yet. Textures are slow to load when there are a lot of NPCs on screen, which happens quite a bit when in a town, especially during a cut scene. There is also texture clipping that is pretty pronounced during dialogue: Necklaces run through fur coats, etc. Aside from those two above, there is NOTHING bad I have to say.

 

This game gives me Far Cry Syndrome. 'Oh, a new icon just appeared on my HUD compass. Let's go see what that is.' Suddenly two hours have gone by and I haven't touched the main quest line. Killing robosaurs is just so much fun even when you are super weak and puny. I have only encountered 4 types so far and I am ok just killing them over and over again. Aloy moves so smoothly and incredibly responsive. The voice acting is great and the writing is very well done. The NPCs have actual valuable things to say that adds to the lore and they are all voiced very well thus far.

 

Without spoilers, the story seems really pretty obvious and seems to be leaning heavy into Sci-fi tropes, but I have read in other reviews that this is a total red herring so I'm super excited to see what happens. I can't stop gushing about this game and as I write this, I want to go back and play. I haven't enjoyed a game this much in quite some time. This is a must!

 

Trophies: 7/58; 9%

Completion %: 73.41 (-1.87%)

Personal Grade: A+

Will I plat?: Hell yes. I will continue playing until I have hit the 100% mark, well beyond the plat!

Edited July 19, 2017 by Jaguargenie

[voodoo_eyes]

12 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

Just try to save before opening any of the treasure chests. Those tend to crash the game for no particular reason. Overall I found the game and it's atmosphere quite enjoyable, but the crashes and other bugs like objects getting stuck behind the walls were annoying.

 

Thanks for the heads-up. I'M looking forward to trying out the game, I should still manage to get an hour or so in today.

 

7 hours ago, PerryToxteth said:

 

Thanks for the endorsements for Republique and Sexy Brutale. They are now on the "BUY" list! 

 

You're welcome. Sex Brutale was fun from start to finish (although quite short 5-10h maybe) Using a guide knocks it down to about 3h though. République has not let me down yet either, although there's a chance that the remaining episodes don't live up to my expectations.

 

1 hour ago, DamagingRob said:

I really liked the map, and thought quite highly of the game. In direct contrast to Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate and Strider, I always knew exactly where I was going. You just have to be careful fighting around chests, as they can get stuck in the walls/floor, and then never be opened.. Happened with one of mine, but luckily there's one chest too many in the game. So, if it's only one, you can still get the trophy.

 

Blackgate was a headache to navigate. Hopefully I won't run into any irritating problems like the crashes and such. Well, it's time to fire it up I guess.

[dizzyshadow]

Game 6: This is The Police

 

In this is the police you play as the chief of police in a town called Freeburg, as you join the game you are nearing (possibly forced) retirement, you have 180 days until you retire and your aim is to earn a 500K retirement fund, how you do this is up to you.

 

That is pretty much all I knew about the game when i bought it but it thought it was an interesting premise so i would give it a go, wasn't sure entirely what to expect but i was thinking something very story driven possibly like a text adventure. Starting out there is a lot of story and lots going on, but the gameplay isn't story driven, each day you take on your role of chief of police and your job is to send officers to respond to the calls that come in, its as simple as selecting who you want to send, essentially it boils down to a resource management game, all cops have a core Professionalism value, their response is also limited by the energy value, but that's about it, occasionally when they arrive at the crime scene they ask for your advice on how to deal with the situation but most of the time it is handled automatically, and this is one of the major problems to me, as far as i can determine the outcome are random, so this means that all to often the offender escapes or cops or civilians are killed (which marks you down and causes you issues), this really spoils the fun as it feels like there is nothing you can actually do to control things, and boy you wouldn't want to be a police officer in this town their live expectancy must be about a week, 

 

The other problem the game has is that every day is the same, I'm approaching day 30 and i'm bored stupid with it, and i have to play 180 days to finish the game - no thanks. So whilst it sounded like an interesting premise it really doesn't work in practice for me.

 

The trophies for this game seem very straight forward but they do require at least 2 playthroughs, and i really don't think i can face that, to be honest its unlikely i will play this again.

 

 

Playtime 4-5 hours

Trophies 1/10

Rating 

completion 48.84%

 

next up: Elite Dangerous

On 7/18/2017 at 7:29 PM, Myu said:

 

Code:Realize is my favourite on Vita so I definitely recommend it. Great story, great characters, great everything!

Steins;Gate is also an amazing VN. It has a very slow start, but give it a few hours and the story will blow your mind  

 

23 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

If you enjoyed that light part of finding clues and combining them, you should either give the DanganRonpa-games (1 and 2, avoid Ultra Despair Girls as it's a below-average Third Person Shooter) or the Zero Escape-games a try. The settings are quite dark and they are more of the murder mystery type but they have a good balance between novel parts and gameplay. If you want to give one of them a try, I would recommend Zero Escape.

Besides that the amount of good quality VNs that got localized is rather low. You might have some enjoyment in the ones mentioned by Myu, though. Code: Realize has some well-written story, and characters based on fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes, or Van Helsing. in a steampunk-like setting. But it's primary focused at a female audience. And Steins;Gate is probably the grandmaster when it comes to localized VNs on Vita. You should give it a try if you have an slight interest in stories spun around time travels and have a slight interest in the nerd/otaku-culture.

 

Including novels that are available on Steam you might give the ones by Visual Arts / Key a try, but only if you are in sentimental stories:

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=VisualArts%2FKey

 

If you want to read some kind of educational VN, give Go! Go! Nippon! a try. It has some romance-scenes but overall it just tries to tell people a bit about japanese culture:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/251870

 

I have way more VNs in my steam library but most are still unread. I just give some random links:

Aviara Attorney (seems to have similar gameplay to Root Letter, but has an animal setting):

http://store.steampowered.com/app/384630/Aviary_Attorney/

 

Lucy: The Eternity She Wished For (novel about the interaction between humans and robots):

http://store.steampowered.com/app/430960/

 

fault (kinetic = no story choices, set in a fantasy world with some nice lore):

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?developer=ALICE IN DISSONANCE

 

You might also want to check the demos or some free to play VNs on Steam and give them a try:

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=3799&category1=10 (demos with Visual Novel-tag)

 

 

Sorry if this post might be a bit confusing.

 

 

Thanks for the recommendations.

 

Looks like a own Code:Realize & virtue's last reward (i guess they were on PS+ at some point) i also have stein's gate for PS3 so i'll give these  a go first. Also looking through my steam library i have a fair few there as well (although i don't think i have any that you mentioned), before i try any of the others.

 

[DamagingRob]

6 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

I played the game during KYC 3 so way after you. Maybe there was a patch in the meantime which fixed some bugs but introduced new ones? Who knows.  

But I already found the 10+ crashes I experienced way too much for that game's playtime of 12 or so hours.

Wow, that many? Pretty sure, if anything, mine only crashed 2-3 times. I'd have taken notice if it was 10+. 

 

6 hours ago, dmland12 said:

I played Apotheon near it's release (Feb 2015) and I had a couple crashes upon opening a chest, so this has been a longstanding problem with the game.  In my case, it was one of the chests in that room that spins around, if I'm remembering it correctly.  I only had problems at that one chest: it crashed twice upon opening it but worked on the third time.  So, I can see someone getting through the game without these crashes depending on luck.

 

I do also remember some other random crashes that didn't seem to be connected to opening the chests.  I basically agree with @Crimson Idol.  It's a fun game when it's not crashing on you.

Guess my luck played a factor, then. Shame it wasn't a bit more polished, 'cause it's a really fun game. 

[crimsonidol38]

Finally played a bit of Rime yesterday and had a good time, even though I had quite some problems finding the correct interactive objects for puzzles. As I only play the game on two days I will only give one review which will follow tomorrow.

 

Besides that I also decided to replay Virtue's Last Reward as part from the Nonary Games-collection. I'm about 7 hours in and overall I wonder why I liked the game so much back in 2013. It's still a good VN/adventure but there's a few things I already dislike compared to 999:

• The idea to include some additional collectibles which contain background information, into the puzzle rooms is a good idea at first. But having you to solve the rooms on hard difficulty to get all background information is stupid. Only difference between hard and easy is the fact that hard gives you less dialogue lines which may hint at a puzzle's solution. But some of them are crucial so you at least know what you have to do. Not to forget that the passwords you need to unlock the room stay the same between hard and easy so you could replay only that part and still get those additional information. BTW: Those additional information are needed or you won't see the true ending.
• The pacing. Similar to 999 the characters may walk from one room to another. The problem is: In 999 you may only have seen some short screen transitions and they were at the destination. Here you get to see how they take the elevator, open some specific doors and then there are parts where you only see how a point moves across a map. Every. fucking. time. This whole procedure can last from 10 to 30 seconds.
• The look and presentation. I'm no person that cares for graphics or the appearance most of the time. But here I have to say that it's a huge letdown that they went from 2D-sprites with fixed 2D-backgrounds for the puzzle rooms to 3D-models in a more or less free 3D-environment. The camera can only be moved in a fixed path and it's annoying that you have to find the correct angle for some parts of the puzzles or you are screwed. Not to forget that

Fun fact:: So far I solved 5 or 6 puzzle rooms and everytime I had to look up what I had to either get the additional information or the key to unlock the escape door in a room. It was only one small clue that was missing for me, otherwise it was always pretty straight forward. :\

 

I wonder how I will feel about Zero Time Dilemma, which I haven't played yet. From what I heard it seems to be rather disappointing.

 

@dizzyshadow

Don't let the things I mentioned now spoil your expectations of VLR, should you decide to give it a try. It's still a good game with a nice story but after having a good time with 999 I just realized that I like that much more than VLR.

[Edunstar84]

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice

KNEE JERK REACTION

Playtime: 10 minutes

Trophies: 0/51

Review: ?

 

Hey, doods! Had a slight problem understanding the gamplay in the game. The tutorial wasn't so helpful because it was so much to take in. I've never played a Disgaea game before. Just wondering if Disgaea 4 does it better. Maybe I'll switch out this game for the newer one. But since I didn't want twiddle my thumbs and wait for a response, I switched it with....

 

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

 

 

Playtime: 3.5 hours

Trophies: 3/41

Review: 7/10

 

Can't tell you so much about the story unfortunately, since I spent most of my time doing some of the battle trophies. If anyone has ever played a Star Ocean game, they'd understand why. Anywho, you start off as a teenage boy who has recently taken over the swordsmanship school/academy from his dad, and along the way you meet your female childhood friend. Would tell you what their names are, but I don't think it matters because I swear it follows the same formula as Star Ocean: The Last Hope International: male protagonist, female best friend.

 

Battle System: Free movement, fast-paced action gameplay with choices of short and long attack ranges. Very simple so far. I don't have many skills to make it varied but am sure it will happen in the future. You have a choice to play several characters. I've only played 4 so far and got some of their battle trophies out of the way. Also, the battle plays out in real time, which means you're not transported to a separate battle arena. I mean, it's okay some of the time, but I'm having to check the map because I'm turned the wrong way. The camera angles are a bit weird, too.

Graphics: Crisp, sharp and vibrant colors. The environment is great to look at, and the water physics - although not real-ish - does look nice.

Trophy difficulty: It's a long game, but I don't think it's the worse out there, especially for this genre and for the Star Ocean series. For beginners, I believe it's a good intro to the series.

 

Hope to play more to see how the story unfolds. I haven't seen any spaceships yet.

 

 

 

[DamagingRob]

Red Faction Guerilla- Day 1

 

Didn't play much yesterday, after falling asleep for most of the afternoon, and waking up around 8. Wish I could get these hours straightened out.. 

 

You play as Alec Mason, a mining engineer, who arrives on Mars to meet up with his brother, and begin a new life on the planet. Dan, his brother, mentions how bad the Earth Defense Force treat the people on Mars, and wants Alec to join the Red Faction: a resistance group, dedicated to chasing the EDF off the planet. 

 

Dan is soon murdered by the EDF. And simply because Alec was related to him, is about to have the same happen to him, when a shootout begins. Members of the Red Faction came to his rescue! With his brother dead, he has now joined the Red Faction's cause. Bad guys always shooting themselves in the foot.  Time for revenge! 

 

Gameplay is that of an open-world 3rd person shooter. The map is large, and there are plenty of side activities scattered across it. Completing side missions, and destroying EDF property will raise Red Faction morale. The higher it is, the more likely they are to fight alongside you. If you or they die, or you murder them..., it will go down. 

 

You can destroy just about anything to collect extra scrap, which can be spent on upgrades. For this, you can use your C4, or just go to town with your mighty hammer! Smashing things with a hammer is fun.

 

There are various vehicles you can get in and drive. Or you can run everywhere, but it would probably take a lot longer. Running is done with L2, which is taking some getting used to.. Keep wanting to click L3. And zooming when shooting is done with R3. Very different control scheme compared to what I'm used to. 

 

For such an old game, it still looks pretty good. I should enjoy it, since there's not much to complain about yet. Only played an hour, though.

 

Time played: 1 hour.

Trophy progress: 2/61 for 2% and an E rank. Back under 88%. :/ 

Edited July 20, 2017 by DamagingRob

[MosesRockefeller]

3 hours ago, Crimson Idol said:

I wonder how I will feel about Zero Time Dilemma, which I haven't played yet. From what I heard it seems to be rather disappointing.

 

@dizzyshadow

Don't let the things I mentioned now spoil your expectations of VLR, should you decide to give it a try. It's still a good game with a nice story but after having a good time with 999 I just realized that I like that much more than VLR.

I didn't notice the things you mentioned about VLR until reading your assessment just now, but you're right. For me the main difference was the story, which I preferred in 999. It's weird, because I am a sci-fi fan, and VLR is much heavier on the sci-fi elements than 999. I think maybe it was the scope of the story more than the setting. It's hard to put my finger on, but I felt like 999 was a smaller-scale, more personal story and it was easier to identify and care about the characters. In VLR I remember disliking some of the plot developments.

 

But I'd give the same disclaimer to @dizzyshadow. The game is great, it's just that I liked 999 better. Like @Crimson Idol, I haven't played ZTD yet but I will soon.

 

As far as my games for this event are concerned, unfortunately I lost my save for Salt and Sanctuary. As I posted in another thread, I had Vita issues that forced me to reformat my memory card, and I was unable to back up my saves beforehand. I think S&S was the only one affected, but unfortunately for me, I had forgotten to enable PS+ uploads for it (why do we have to do that for games individually, anyway?). I had played it for a little over an hour, so I'll start again. I'm starting to get the hang of the game now.

 

@Hemiak, did you see my previous post where I mentioned that Sonic Generations is not eligible for this event (I had forgotten that I earned a couple of trophies in it, years ago)? I wanted to substitute Orcs Must Die Unchained. I'll probably play that next, or move on to Bloodborne and play OMD later.

[Hemiak]

2 hours ago, MosesRockefeller said:

 

 

@Hemiak, did you see my previous post where I mentioned that Sonic Generations is not eligible for this event (I had forgotten that I earned a couple of trophies in it, years ago)? I wanted to substitute Orcs Must Die Unchained. I'll probably play that next, or move on to Bloodborne and play OMD later.

Yeah I saw it, sorry I forgot to respond. Sure just substitute something and don't worry about it. We're playing it pretty fast and loose this edition. 

 

 

Mim was pretty tired last night and didn't want to get into Until Dawn, and she specifically requested. DotT so.... 

 

Game 5, final review 

3? Hrs played. 13/58, 20%

 

So I wasn't really looking forward to playing more of this, but can't say no to a beautiful woman. I was however, pretty much over wandering aimlessly, so I pulled up a guide. I start following about where I am, but it's hard because I've apparently skipped a few things and I'm way ahead in other parts. 

 

I'm able to make solid progress for a bit, then I come to a room I already visited and did some stuff. Turns out I've already negated one trophy because of one action, which will require a full 2nd run. Not. Happy.

 

I'm still really early so what I did was wander around and knock out some of the random trophy stuff which isn't actually required for the game, and then I'm going to just start over. 

 

Overall my opinion of the game hasn't changed much. This type of game is just not my thing apparently. It's mildly amusing at times but the puzzles and gameplay range from pointless to ridiculous. I'll still finish it because it's quick and Mim seems to enjoy it, at least more than other stuff I'm currently playing. 

 

 

I was able to find a steam collectible guide for Hunter's Legacy, so I decided to check that out. Turned out pretty good, and about 20 min later had all the ores collected. Went to town, was able to buy 2 of the 3 health upgrades but was a little short on cash for the last one. Money is kind of an issue in this game if you play it the way the trophies want you to. Rarely enemies will drop a coin, which is worth 1. Exceedingly rarely an enemy will drop a ruby worth 5 or 10, I never bothered to check. Breaking blocks or cutting grass gives about the same rate. Special blocks have a bit higher chance to drop coins and gems I've found, and there are brown chests which drop about 50 gold when opened... One time. If I was smart I would have left several of these in early areas to clean up later... But I'm not. With the 1k cap on money you simply don't have enough at the end of the game to buy everything to max out. The best way I found to get money was to warp between two of the teleporters, which resets the areas. The two I found both had 10-12 heavy blocks I could run over to, downward Slam, collect my loot, and warp to the other. It took me 5-10 minutes to get the 150 money I was short when I started.

 

Not terrible, but then again I had bought the wallet upgrades along the way so I had 1k available when I started. If you reached end game with the starting wallet (300 I believe?) and still had to buy all 7 upgrades, both wallets, and both quivers, you would be in for a world of hurt without the chests. 

 

After I got my loot,I purchased the last hp upgrade, and had one ore left over. Not sure if this is a developer oversight or more like when Ikea throws an extra screw or two in the bag just in case. Either way I killed the boss, which took 3 tries and got the 100% save file trophy. Now I just need to replay the whole game without buying anything for the last trophy and I could be the 2nd achiever. 

 

After this I went on to Jotun and did Hagalaz without God powers. This should have taken about 20 minutes as I had her super close on my third attempt. Ended up taking a bit over an hour because I kept getting greedy.

 

Tonight more Until Dawn, and I'll definitely start another hard game. 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hemiak

[JoaoQuique]

Bonus Game [99Vidas] - First Day Report

 

 

Like I've said in my expectations, this game makes references to older games, mainly beat'em up - this fact is showed on its introduction: it is about a history wich don't make much sense... (like some of 90's beat'em ups, where their stories are only runarounds to starting kicking some pixeled asses sometimes...). However, what really matters in this kind of game is its gameplay, and I can say that is a well-worked game - you do not need to be an expert to play this game, but you should not be too reckless on this, otherwise you will be in a pinch...

 

To not be "just another beat'em up" game, this game have some curious features, like how you buy power-ups (and extra lives) - after completing a stage, you can use your achieved points (points are gathered by hitting/knocking out enemies and collecting foods and video-game consoles) to buy some power-ups for your attacks/combos and/or buy extra lives. But maybe the best of this game is about bosses - I've actually fought against only five of them, and all them are a lot different from each other. Against bosses, you must find a specific behavior pattern for each one of them - for instance, while on first one it was quite simple (because it is an "obvious one"), the fifth one did make me spent about 2~3 lives just to find when I should beat him...

 

Actually I reached the sixth boss (the final one), but my lives runned out before I've found any pattern (damn that minion...). If you "Game Over" this game, from main menu you have the option to "continue", where I could re-start 6th stage from my status after finishing 5th stage. (actually I have not tried again 6th stage due to lack of time). Probably that "Game Over" received proves that I'm not good on beat'em up games at all, since I was playing on "Izzy" mode (I still don't know what the main difference between difficulties) - but probably I would have finished this game if I was using "supers" (there is a trophy about "completing the game without using specials", and I was also trying it...).

 

Following plans: Finishing story for first time, and then try out harder difficulties and/or try Survival and Versus modes.

 

Playtime: about 1 hour and half

 

Trophies obtained: 10 from 39 (Completion at 17% - Rank A)

 

Personal Completion: from 71,27% to 71,19%

[Melanogaster1987]

Game #4 of 8: Mafia II

 

My rating: Gold/Silver/Silver
 
---
 
Trophies earned in this game: 12 (2, 10) for 210 points
Total trophies earned in this event: 37 (2, 35) for 585 points
 
Current completion rate: 60.01% [Down 2.82% since start of event; Down 0.79% as a result of this game]