Kill Your Completion - CYOA

[Spider5786]

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Time Played: 6 hours

Trophies Earned: 14 of 125 (10%)

 

Really enjoying this so far, hard to find a flaw with the game, graphics and gameplay are excellent not much more I can say other than that I highly recommend this game.

[DamagingRob]

Final Review: Crysis 2

 

So, I guess I'm done with this one. I could try and beat the game on the hardest difficulty, I suppose. But Recruit was kind of a pain in the ass, so I'm not real keen on doing that.. Especially since I won't get a Plat for it, unless I complete the ridiculously long multiplayer grind. :/

 

Not a whole lot has changed from my Day 1 review. A few new enemy types, and the Microwave cannon. But that's about it. Basically, there are about 4 different alien enemy types. With a 5th unique kind for the finale. The two regular ones, I just started meleeing to death, 'cause the damn things are bullet sponges.. Then there's a bigger one, which you really don't want to try that with. ? Grenades, Rocket launchers, or that amazing Microwave cannon are much better options. The Microwave cannon basically explodes their heads after so much ammo is used on them. Fun. Lol. There there's these really big things, that you almost want to use nothing but the Rocket launcher on. The batch at the end use stealth to turn invisible like you, and take quite a bit of ammo to kill. 

 

Overall, it wasn't a bad game. But it fell way short of my expectations, after all the positive things I'd heard about it. It's possible I find it inferior to the first game, too. Probably somewhere between a  and a  for me. This is where Billy's 13 point scale would probably come in handy.  But I'm not gonna try to make sense of that. :/ 

 

Time played: Going to guess around 8 hours, with the time from yesterday. 

Trophy progress: 29/51 for 44% and an A rank.

Did it lower my completion? Yes. But dropped only 0.13% this time. The first 2 games having a ton of DLC trophies, is likely why. 

[Mesopithecus]

(Replacement) Game #2. Day 2 - Magicka 2

 

 

 

Magicka 2 is a co-op adventure game that is both charming and hilarious.  I got to experience this with friends in 4 player coop which I think is the best way for it to be played for maximum enjoyment and player kills (thanks friendly fire!)  The game gives you the option of 3 difficulties - normal, hard and bananas and of course we opted for bananas which is well...exactly as it says.

 

I feel like I want to break out Diablo 2 on the PC and give it a play again after Magicka 2.  

 

The music in the game is fantastic, especially during a couple of the boss battles.  The spell system can be a bit complex to learn and it's definitely designed with more of a keyboard in mind, but it's easy to get all the basics down and the game does give you some hints for useful spells during the loading screens.

 

The game was free on PS+ quite some time ago and I'm glad I picked it up, as it's very enjoyable (whilst also dropping a myriad of ultra rare trophies)

 

Time Played: Around 4 hours

Trophy Progress: 7/47 (10%)

Completion Percentage: 91.06%

[Jaguargenie]

16 hours ago, FFHannibal said:

Game #4 - Until Dawn

Trophies: 0 of 19 (0%)
Completion: 47% -> 46.80% (Went down because I played another game as well)
Playtime: 3 hours 28 minutes

So far so good, I'm back at a minimum of 3 hours. I don't think I could've done Until Dawn justice if I didn't. When I made the list I unthinkingly put Until Dawn on the 4th, not realising the ps+ games don't become available until somewhere around 1 or 2 PM. I also couldn't really change it to today, because I'm not going to be around my ps3 or 4 much. That said I'm not sure how much time I can manage for Titan Attacks! today.

I'm pretty sure almost all of us know what kind of game Until Dawn is, and I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before when I played Resident Evil last KYC, but just in case I didn't: I. Don't. Like. Horror. Then why did I put Until Dawn on my list? Good question. I think I put it there because I feel like I'm missing out on a few gems because I can't really handle the genre. I want to get better at it (though I'm not sure how well that's going to go), and I think I managed to do quite good already. I thought Until Dawn would be a safe game to dabble in the genre, because you don't constantly have to do stuff. The hardest parts of the controls are making sure you don't move your controller and QTEs which, excuse me bragging, I'm very good at.
I did require some moral support, so I moved my PS4 and made a sort of family event out of it. My little sister had already seen all of the game and wanted to see me play it. I did ask for no spoilers, but she couldn't help herself at some parts. My mom wandered in a few times and didn't really seem that interested, but when I took a break she asked me how everyone in the game was faring (luckily I could tell her nobody had died... yet).

I wasn't planning to play again after I took a break, but I stopped right at the end of chapter 3. I consulted my sister and SPOILER, she told me nobody could've died yet, and I felt like I had to at least flirt with the chance of losing someone or I hadn't really experienced Until Dawn. So I played some more around midnight (and technically played longer than the allowed day), but I got to the beginning of chapter 5. The real shit has started right now, so I'm not sure how quickly I'll get back to it, but I do want to know how the rest of the story goes.

Out of all the characters I like Mike, Chris and Sam the most. Emily isn't too bad, but I haven't seen that much of her yet. Jess was pretty funny so far. Ashley is really not that smart, but her hysterics are good to make you laugh and relax a bit. Matt is an ass and Joss is just a straight up creep.

Some fun facts:

• My sister was kind enough to tell me whatever scares you the most will show up more often. She was kind enough to tell me after I honestly answered the psychologist.
• The dramatic music when Chris is searching the lodge with a lighter was a bit too over the top, so I spent most of the time laughing at the violin music and the whispers (so many whispering going on) than actually being scared. I also went through the house 3 or 4 times because I couldn't find the bathroom. (Also how does that lighter not run out?)
• My sister, despite having seen all of it before and knowing when the jumpscares are, screamed/yelled louder than I did at some of the most ridiculous things (like an Owl flying at you)
• Apparently I can't see ghosts ?.

Anyway, I like the game a lot. There's no way I'm going to play it alone however, so I'll have to do it in sessions when my family is around. For now I still stand by my reasoning that it's a great game to get into the horror genre. I really can't do jumpscares, but the ones I've encountered so far got the adrenaline coursing, but not at dangerous levels.

 

Likelihood of me going back and getting the platinum: 70%

 

So a few things. If you were a teen in the 90s like some of us old folks (ahem) this game was designed to mimic the cheesy 90s jump scares. It pulls it off perfectly. Watch the original Scream (1990 I think) to see what I mean. You will eventually get jaded and appreciate the cheese. 

 

By mid way through you will HATE emily. I wanted her to die so bad on multiple occasions. Spoiler, she can... ?

 

@DamagingRob did you play Crysis 3? It's been on my backlog from ps+ forever ago and I never jumped in. 

Edited July 6, 2017 by Jaguargenie

[SyIaris]

July 1st-5th

Life is Strange

~5 hours

33/61 (50%)

-0.14%

-first post-

 

Well, got 3/5 episodes done. Intentionally picked a short one for this week because of the holiday and some prep, but I did think I'd beat it. Oh well, I'll probably try to sneak the last two in sometime this month.

 

The writing seems to have gotten much better, even if it still has very strange dialogue choices. I've lived in the general area for ages and never heard anyone talk like they do. 

There are two minor characters I'm fond of now, which probably means they're going to die a horrible death later on. The story hasn't really grown on me, though it's not badly done - just not my taste. Still loving the music and general aesthetic; they definitely put a lot of effort into those.

 

Don't feel like I can add a lot more without spoiling things, but for the second episode in particular... this game has some very dark and heavy moments that could make it a poor/distressing choice for some. I'd advise getting a rough idea of things covered before playing if such things may bother you.

 

Personal opinion: not really a fan.

 

 

 

Arkham City, Kingdoms of Amalur, Ratchet & Clank 2, or Castlestorm gets its turn tomorrow...

[ItsMeMartyy]

Game #3 - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered

Day 3,4 & 5/ 31

Time Played: 15 Hours 

Initial Thoughts ( At about 1-2 hours in) : All the uncharted games thus far for me have felt so story driven, this one however feels the most story driven out of all. Twists and turns flashbacks are common even within the first few hours. The atmosphere seems more dark than the other games, excited to see how to turns out.

 

Graphics: Being the latest of the remasters it has made great improvements, the animations are more smooth, the textures are noticeably better and the level of detail is higher in all of the areas you see. The diversity in the levels is astounding, I said in uncharted 2 that the diversity really helped the game but this game really feels like is a trip across the world and sometimes to new worlds, with deep rich forests housing abandoned villas, underground caverns, massive deserts, and hidden temples this game takes you on a journey with landscapes with graphics and textures that make it truly believable. The character animations are again astounding just think of the opposite of release Mass Effect Andromeda, silky smooth facial movements that make you believe the emotions the characters are trying to convey, or lack thereof. The best thing about this uncharted is that the chapters take you to more places than ever and the contrast between the dark and super bright settings highlight the graphical quality that Naughty Dog can produce.   

 

Sound: The voice lines are clever and actually funny which can't be said about a lot of games. The usual characters are back and their voice actors obviously did a fantastic job yet again, they always bring justice to your favorite characters. I was pleasantly surprised that the gun sounds have improved so much. The guns now sound as devastating as they should: shotguns,sniper rifles, and more powerful pistols have that signature crack that makes you believe you are going to annihilate any enemy it hits. The assault rifles and rockets also sound as they should, but the other weapons stood out more. The environmental sounds are top notch yet again as to be expected: you hear the wind hitting the trees in forest areas, the water creeping by, the sound of the sand in the wind, and the deafening silence of the unknown in caves and temples. The music is fantastic and will keep the mood right with the location you are adventuring. Lastly, the vehicles sound much better this time; more subtle but better overall. 

 

Gameplay:  The first thing I notice was how much more story oriented this game was, much more puzzles, more exploration, more climbing, and definitely more verticality. This game makes you feel much smaller in the world and at times I felt like Nathan vs. The World to be honest. This gives you that underdog feel the game is more dark because its always like whatever can possibly go wrong will and your traversal through the world is often a metaphor for that; trying to climb up when the world is pushing you down. The gunplay is improved this time around, the new crosshairs definitely helped my aim a lot although sometimes invasive, it was more positive than negative. There are new guns and they do exactly what you'd expect depending on the type, however, if you have played the other games everything will feel natural and nothing is out of place. This games pacing is kind of all over the place to be honest you start the game off left with major cliffhangers and then have to go back many years and play chapters you wouldn't expect. That being said that type of impulsive storytelling makes sense in the games progression, you soon realize that even Drake doesn't exactly have a plan at all he just knows he needs to do something. 

 

Fun Factor:  The most fun out of any of the Uncharted games I've played thus far, everything is smoother and even though the pacing is a little slower and more story driven that in itself will keep you on your toes, and like a good tv series each episode or chapter keeps you wanting to see what the next uncovers. This game made me want puzzles because the puzzles themselves were challenging and fun and always had me feeling like I was uncovering a mystery that would lead to something rather than solving a puzzle to get to the next room.  

 

Closing Thoughts ( After Getting ) :  A masterpiece for sure. These Naughty Dog games are very impressive. Which leads me to The Last Of Us; is it to late to add it to my list @Hemiak?

 

Rating: 9.0/10

 

Game Completion: 87% ( 1  , 3 , 5 , 45 )

 

Next up: not sure Maybe the Last Of Us if I can add it to my list as #21.

Edited July 6, 2017 by ItsMeMartyy
typo

[MidnightCJ]

Game #1: Day 4

 

King Mardan gives little kids nightmares...

 

So uhm... after that nightmare fuel of a pic, it's time to progress in this wonderful RPG. I just got off but that was because I FINALLY put LEGO The Hobbit six feet under. Gawh, sometimes you wonder... I digress.

 

The first thing I did was go back to Palm Brinks and take a whole lot of new photos, then whip up a bunch of new inventions with those photos. I was able to craft enough Improved Bombs to finally get the last miscellaneous challenge medal(Item Wipeout in the second level) but I was down to one Improved Bomb - those bleeding bats could be hit by the Improved Bomb but they move around like spastic crack addicts and I ended up wasting a couple of bombs on them. ?

 

After that, I cleared the first half of the Rainbow Butterfly Wood... and totally forgot about the Seals. Like in the prequel, some zones have nasty restrictions. Luckily, thirst was axed and the ABS restriction was also axed, but there are STILL character limited zones - for instance, in the third level of the Wood, Monica was forced to be your only playable character, you can't switch. I prepped by giving her a ton of bombs because I also was reminded that this level has TURTLES WITH UBER DEFENSE, UBER ATTACK AND ARE IMMUNE TO MONICA'S RANGED ATTACK. But I had to defeat all the enemies because when you do so in a Restricted Zone(other than being forced to use Max or Monica, there is only one more zone that prevents you from healing so if you get hit with a status condition, sucks to be you!) the Seal breaks and you can go back into that level without a Seal, meaning it's a normal level now. Yep, the Seals can be broken by clearing the level. (You can also buy seal-removing scrolls but they force you to donate all of your blood for payment and you can't buy them for many chapters.)

 

Once I cleared the first three levels, I entered the Poison Marsh, got the scoops for Master Utan(who was a boss in the original Dark Cloud but gladly non-hostile here and only shows up in this area) and that nightmare fuel fish, than fished up a fish for that nightmare fuel fish to make him undo a love curse to save the dwarves of Moria-- I mean, goddamn it I still have LEGO The Hobbit on the brain, I mean the Furbits and now I can use Georama. However, the way you use Georama here is different than the other game. I cleaned up Sindain and stored the Furbit house and some grass, breaking up the logs and rocks as I don't need them. I also opened up the Time Gate and visited Future Sindain and grabbed another Potato Pie and Fruit of Eden to make Max as strong as Monica(who started with 48 HP).

 

Aaaand that it's tonight. Tomorrow is the last day on this game before I switch and it will mostly be working on restoring Sindain. I won't be fighting Boss #2 until I am strong enough.

 

Time Played: 2 hours

Trophies Earned: Just one, again

Percentage increase: +3%

[DamagingRob]

2 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

 

@DamagingRobdid you play Crysis 3? It's been on my backlog from ps+ forever ago and I never jumped in. 

No. Have had both in my backlog for years. Lol. The first was good, and also had no multiplayer insanity. 

[Metal Slime King]

Period 1 Wrap Up.

Starting Completion - 87.03%. Current Completion - 86.91%

Life is Strange vs. Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate

 

The winner (in the sense that both games are competing for my attention) this period was undeniably Life is Strange. After finishing the 3rd episode I played the last two episodes right away. I was hooked. There isn't much of a game, you walk around and interact with things and there are limited stealth sections with no penalty for failure so it's all story driven but I thought the story was very well done. I did give Blackgate another go and I did get over the initial awkwardness I had with the constant perspective switching and started to get into it.

 

Life is Strange - 100% (61 of 61 trophies) - My personal rating:

 

A bold game for Square who show an honest commitment to pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling. A engrossing story with some twists that I genuinely did not see coming and a mature handling of some pretty heavy themes. It's the first time I've seen a disclaimer like "If you are affected by any of the content in Life is Strange visit our website for details of support groups in your area" and it's probably warranted. People have commented on the authenticity of the writing relative to their own experiences in reality which obviously I can't really debate but I think a fairer comparison would be between the game and other fictional mediums such as movies and television and in that comparison the writing and voice acting in this game perform quite well. It's certainly superior to any of the Netflix originals I've watched with my sister recently. The only movie I can think of with a similar main theme would be The Butterfly Effect and to me the story and the characters in Life is Strange were much more compelling. Anyways, I can't recommend this game enough and I'll probably give it another playthrough shortly to try out other choices.

 

Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate - 14% (9 of 31 trophies) - My personal rating:

 

Blackgate is a good looking game that captures the aesthetic of the other Arkham games. It's a little disorienting as you often switch perspectives in order to navigate irregular 3D spaces in multiple 2D slices and it can be hard to navigate using the strictly 2D map but if you can get past that then it's a fun metroidvania style game. I like that enemies only seem to respawn in areas after story progression points so you can backtrack through areas quickly and there is no reason to grind encounters because there is no XP system. The story is told through voiced, still comic sequences that trigger once you reach an objective, some might find the transition jarring and it certainly is a departure from the other games in the series. One of the best parts of the Arkham games was the fluid combat system and how Batman could easily deal with a large group of enemies attacking from all directions. The combat in this game is similar but simplified. There are only two enemies that are relevant at any one time. The one immediately in front of you and the one immediately behind you, everyone else just waits their turn. There are no special attacks besides Beatdown (Stun -> Attack) and gadgets aren't incorporated into combat as smoothly. Mostly it's Attack, Counter and Evade. The combat works but it's just not as satisfying. A nice addition is an upgrade where if you attack enemies without taking damage and fill up an additional bar then your attacks do more damage. The predator sections with armed goons have been trivial so far. The detective cases are kind of weird. In the other Arkham games something happens (like a murder or explosion) that prompts you to start an investigation and search the local area for clues and piece together what happened. In Blackgate you can randomly find clues anywhere by scanning each new area and when you find all the clues in a "set" Batman infers a piece of backstory. It feels more like another tier of collectibles than an actual part of the game story. I'd say it is a decent game that suffers mostly from comparison to the superior games in the series but I still see myself coming back for the platinum.

 

Up next for me are The Order: 1886 and Neon Chrome.

[crimsonidol38]

8 hours ago, Hemiak said:

I added this to my list as well, but I'll probably play something between Titan Sound and this since they're at least partially similar. I'd only heard of it in passing and then saw it on sale and it looked pretty interesting. 

 

One thing I find amusing is that the EU version plat is over 2.5% rarity while the US version is .71% I think this is the first time I haven't ended up playing the most common version of a game.

 

I also read that Jotun is somehow similar to Titan Souls, otherwise I only knew that I had to get the game as I liked the artstyle and found some video-excerpts of it quite interesting.

 

Speaking of rarity:
I'm suprised that there's nearly double the players on the US-stack but only half the amount of plat achievers. But overall I'm quite surprised that the amount of players is so low.

 

And another thing I realized.
All the six games I choose either fall into the category of ultra rare plats or uncommon. And all are quite near when it comes to the rarity.

Zero Escape: Nonary Games: 31.03%

Rime: 30.98%

Watch_Dogs 2: 27.85% (quite surprising considering the fact that it seems to have online co-op and pvp)

Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkuni: 4.59% (seems to be a real grind later on)

Hyper Light Drifter: 3.04% (surprisingly the US-stack is again rarer with 2.45%)

Jotun: 2.39%

 

Oh wait, This makes me just realize that the EU-stack may be the wrong one for me, as I wanted to use my physical version of the game instead of the download I got as backer reward. That should give me the rarer stac. Although the likeliness of me platting this are rather low, I guess.

[Edunstar84]

GAME #1 FINAL REVIEW

 

Playtime: 24 hours

Trophies: 17/50 (24%)

Review: 6/10; Initial Review: 8/10

Percentage drop: -0.71%

 

Hmm...don't think I like this game as much as I did when I first played it. The jokes, especially the boob jokes, get old, and there's still a lot of text. The battle system is very complicated no matter how cute it all seems. I feel like I'm missing out on some great bonuses since I still don't really understand it yet. No wonder the plat is an ultra rare! It's not the grind that gets you (the DLC helps), it's the complex battle system. For now, I'm going to take a bit of a break from the game, and maybe come back a bit fresh after I play the second game: Muramasa Rebirth.

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 1

Wheels of Aurelia

 

 

  I will preface this review by stating that I am doing five games in 25 days.  I am also going into all games blind (no walkthroughs, no trophy guides, no trophy list consulting). 

 

Overview: I have been a fan of driving games ever since I walked into an arcade as a lad and saw Pole Position.  The big, unwieldy steering wheel attached to an upright arcade game drew me in, and I wasted endless quarters colliding into billboards.  Since then, I have played them all from F1 on Gameboy to Aryton Senna's game on Sega, to Driver on PS1.  Put "Wheels" in the title and I'm aroused. Hence, Wheels of Aurelia ended up in my cart a few sales ago without much scouting. Simplistic driving game? Sign me up. And then I played it, (sigh).

  Best way to describe it is Super Sprint meets Telltales. Remember Super Sprint? Another arcade race game, but with multiple (!) steering wheels to race friends on. The quarter was eagerly entered, quickly followed by disappointment and frustration with what might be the worst driving mechanics ever. If you've never played it, think driving on ice with tires made out of butter. 

 Okay, so the driving isn't THAT bad in WoA, but it's definitely not a fun driving game because, well, the driving isn't the focal point of the game.  Instead, it's a conversation game as you cruise through 1970s Italy. Like Telltales, you choose the answers and can steer the conversation to random topics. It tries to capture a classic road trip, with the road and destination being secondary and the company of the riders being what's remembered. And you start out with classic road trip conversations too - stopping for cigarettes, picking up hitchhikers, having abortions, getting kidnapped, etc. Okay, so maybe some of this topics haven't come up in your real life's road trips...yet.

  After my first play through, this was destined for Billy's dreaded  ranking. My first thought was WTF? That's it. A couple more playthroughs though and the game has gotten more interesting. There are tons of references to Italy geography, 70s news, etc. and the game gives you a reference section to dig into on the topics you may not have heard of. Example, I'm familiar with Pier Paolo Pasolini but not the Red Brigades. 

  Trophies: After putting in 1 1/2 hours, I have 8 trophies but have figured out this is an easy game to platinum with a guide. You need to uncover 16 different endings based on choices you make in the game, and the destinations you drive to. I will keep playing this a few more times without a guide as with each ending, you get a bit more information into some of the game's main topics. With a platinum 'rarity' of 57%, this is a Trophy Whore's Delight, though not to the despicable degree as My Name is Mayo. There is an inkling of depth here, though the gameplay itself is pedantic and pallid.

Final Ranking: 

 

  

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by PerryToxteth

[DamagingRob]

On 7/3/2017 at 7:38 PM, DamagingRob said:

-And finally Extraction, which seemed pretty similar to Supremacy. Only played it once, so I'm not really sure what the difference is. 

So, correction, that was Turning Point. :/ Extraction was a mode I didn't play during the first 3 days, 'cause it's only available in one of the DLC add ons. I've played it now, and it's a lot like Push the Payload/Siege in Paladins. You either try to keep the cargo moving towards the goal, or try to stop it from making it in time. And yes, you're going to have a hard time pulling me away from this game, when I have any down time.  

[MidnightCJ]

Game #1: Final Day

 

I do apologize for the wall of text completely spoiling plot points in the second chapter. I will try to keep future analyses as spoiler-free as possible for those who want to play the games themselves.

 

The final day was bitter but sweet; I wanted to play some more and even played an extra hours(to make up for the hour I sacked on July 4) to at least get Monica her Monster Transformations and revive Jurak(lot of original Dark Cloud references here, one stage is also referencing the Killer Snake you fought in a duel - I lost that duel three times before I realized I needed to revive the treant to get a sword that was the only thing to kill that snake - here, they are wusses. ). Unfortunately, Monica's monsters are all crap except for the Gemrons and you don't get their badge until the next chapter. There is a trophy for getting all of the monster badges, and THIS time I won't make the mistake I made in my last attempt. I accidentally synthed the Diamond you get from Donny and you need three of those beauties to seduce a Card monster(which you find in Chapter 7) and you only get two more Diamonds during the story(one is a Spheda prize - sadly, Spheda is in Chapter 3 so none today!) so you are S.O.L. until you beat the final boss and unlock the secret Chapter 8 when Morton sells Diamonds.

 

Not happening today! I am going to put all the Diamonds I get into a Gift Capsule ASAP so I will have one ready. (I'll need to save scum when I get to Chapter 7, though, as Gift Capsules work like bombs and the Cards love to prance about like sugar-high kids and you only get this one chance to seduce them - if you miss the gift capsule is wasted.)

 

For now, I just needed the Himara power to get a Sun Drop and I ended the play session growing the Lafrescia bloom which you need to fight the second boss... but I am holding off on that; you get a one-shot scoop from that boss and it's easy to miss that scoop forcing you to trigger it again and again and it can hit like a TRUCK. I cleared out the remaining levels, grabbed all of the Gestones and used them, and then I restored several parts of Sindain and recruited all of the necessary characters for Sindain, and actually got Max's butler, Stewart, as a bonus.

 

Final Thoughts: This is a wonderful game and I enjoyed playing it even before trophies existed, when it was on the PS2. I highly recommend you check this out if you love following plans, and there is a lot more to unlock. Fishing is one side-quest, but there is also air-golf(aka Spheda), more photos and inventions as you advance the story, and building weapons! If at least one person who reads this and has never picked up this game does so because of this, I will be a happy person. ?

 

Plans after the Event: I am definitely going to come back to this game in the future. I have yet to fight the final boss and there are several more chapters after this. Platinum? Oh definitely, but not for a long time - one trophy requires you to complete EVERY challenge in the dungeon, and Spheda challenges are pretty RNG-up-your-anus hard. The item wipe-outs get worse and worse, and the weapon-related medal challenges get harder and harder. There is also the Finny Frenzy Master Class, and I have to win a Finny Frenzy to recruit a girl who will give me the rod I need to catch another Baron Garayan later on. But I will attempt the platinum.

 

Time Spent: 3 hours and 3 minutes

Trophies Earned: 2 (one for recruiting your first townsfolk and another for using Monster Transformation the first time)

Percentage: 13%

 

Completion Killed: ~0.66%

 

Tomorrow, a new game... think Dynasty Warriors.

Edited July 6, 2017 by MidnightCJ

[Jaguargenie]

 

Game 3

Final Review

Volume

 

Well my gaming has ground to a screeching halt so I might as well post final thoughts on Volume before game 4 on Friday. 

I still stand by my initial assessment: this game is boring. I like the idea and the story and the very mild character evolution (the AI anyways) but the puzzles are so easy. I had to youtube one puzzle because there was a solution I never knew about because I never tripped an alarm before and that is a mechanic was was unfamiliar with. So apparently I was supposed to have failed before, and learned what alarms did. That is a flaw in design. 

Now I've seen plenty of people who want to support this because of Thomas Was Alone. I loved that game. But it was completely different. This is billed as a stealth game. It doesn't do it well, so I can't recommend it. 

 

Trophies: 13/25 ; D ; 28%

Completion: 74.29% (-.99)

Personal grade: C

 

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #2 - Day #3

 

 

Spent my time gaming today getting some more gold medals in the elite events 2 and 3. Unfortunately I didn't have enough fame to unlock more of them yet. Tried out a few time trials as well, end up getting only a silver medal though. I'm convinced those times ca't be beaten unless I upgrade my bike, which is something I didn't feel like doing for now. Other than that I bought a ton of new bikes to be able to race various events in the future.

 

 

Visuals

 

It's not a gorgeous looking game. I think MotoGP 14 had better graphics (at least when it comes to bike models), but I might be mistaken about that. The tracks seem to have more detailed scenery though As previously mentioned the racers have fairly ugly face models, but that's what helmets are for.

 

There really isn't much to say about this aspect of the game. It's decent overall.

 

Sound

 

I'm going to get the thing I disliked about it out of the way. The music, which is audible in the menus as well as during the races. After a couple of races I had to turn the music off, as it was becoming increasingly annoying.

 

The bike sounds on the other hand were good and varied from the type of the bike you use.

 

Then there are also the faint cheering noises of the crowd, that occasionally creep up, which I thought was a neat touch.

 

Gameplay

 

Now to the main focus of this type of game. If it's bad, it can cripple any game's performance really, but in racers that's pretty much all you've got. There is no story or humour that can still make it tolerable.

 

Luckily the gameplay is good for the most part. The bikes in each category feel differently from one another. Just by driving I could tell, if I was using a heavier bike or one of the lighter ones. The speed, acceleration, and handling seemed to reflect the values given to each bike.

 

Another positive thing is the variety of events. There are still several I haven't been able to try out yet, like endurance races or championships. Variety in these types of games is a must, otherwise it can become boring quickly. The bike variety is also a huge plus.

 

Nevertheless there's one problem, which are the load times. They were bad in the previous motorcycle racing games as well, which is really annoying. From the tie you select a race you want to start to the point when you actually start it you got about a minute of loading times. Same goes for when you finish a race.

 

But then again, at least the AI seems to avoid bumping into you , if they can help it. So that makes up for some of the minor gripes that still persist in this game.

 

 

Overall I had fun though and I intend to get back to it sometime in the near future.

 

Time played: 6h

Trophies earned: 22/51

[Hemiak]

17 hours ago, ItsMeMartyy said:

Next up: not sure Maybe the Last Of Us if I can add it to my list as #21.

You can add an extra game if you want, or switch one out I guess. 

 

14 hours ago, Edunstar84 said:

GAME #1 FINAL REVIEW

 

Playtime: 24 hours

You spent 24 hours with one game? I'm not sure you're doing this event correctly. 

 

52 minutes ago, MidnightCJ said:

Game #1: Final Day. 

 

Time Spent: 3 hours and 3 minutes

WTH? With the multiple walls of text you posted I assumed you'd played for much longer than this. 

 

 

Game 2, 2+ hrs played. 

9/20 trophies for ~40%

 

I fired this up last night and started making some progress. Apparently I lied the other day because I haven't actually gotten to play as Karl yet. I did however get a new character, a woman medic named.... Something. Also the American isn't named Josef like I thought, his name is actually Frank.... Or Fred, probably.

 

Anyway, I completed Chapter 1, and got a good chunk into the 2nd chapter. I've gotten much better at figuring out where collectibles are likely to be found and I finished the last 3 or 4 mini chapters with all the collectibles. This earned me the trophy for finding 50 of the things. 

 

The story is still interesting, but the gameplay.... Uninspired is a good word for it. I get that this is hardly the focus but I damn near dozes off half a dozen times during the actual play parts, not the story parts.

 

Going to give it a rating today as Mim isn't really feeling it either so there's a good chance I won't end up playing it more. 

Game: 6/10

Difficulty: 1/10

 

I'll almost certainly clean this up at some point but definitely not a priority. 

 

 

[MarkusT1992]

Game #2: Tiny Troopers Joint Ops (Day 3)

 

 

I already said everything about this game in my first review. So this one is going to be short.

Unfortunately I hadn't that much time to play this game. I only managed to complete two out of three Operations from the Soldier Campaign.

It's still the same, kill all enemies, destroy all buldings and tanks, rescue some poeple and escort some journalists, which think it's a good idea to walk across a battlefield.

I lost a few brave soldiers but I was also able to save a few. I think I had to revive a total of seven or eight soldiers but was only able to save five.

 

There's also one DLC for this game, adding a zombie campaign. I don't know how this campaign will be but I probably will buy the DLC. It's only 2€

 

I would rate this game with . It's fun for a short time and the maps have different layouts each time but the missions are repetetive. I guess I will finish the game eventually because it shouldn't be to hard to finish.

 

Time played: About 2h

Trophies: 5/15

 

The devs of Horizon decided to ad new trophies to the game. Why now?

Edited July 6, 2017 by MarkusT1992

[Lars]

Game 2: Shadwen

I didn't play this game for long enough to give a full and decent review, i played until chapter 3 which is roughly 1,5 hours. 

The reason for this is that it just wasn't fun at all for me. A big reason for this is that stealth games aren't really up my alley. I'm not good at them, and i prefer action games more.

The concept is very interesting with time only moving when you move. And the first 2 chapters were fun although it would have been nice to have some waypoints. Because you receive a grapling hook to help you through the chapters. But it isn't explained how this thing works and the range is very limited. So i tried to make a jump that i had to make. But i couldn't do it because of the limited range, which lead me too believe i was going the wrong way.

But apart from that it was decent. But then came the big part why i didn't like this game is that you have to guide a girl through the levels. Every chapter i had to help her and her AI is awful. She runs into places where she shouldn't go. She doesn't follow me when i want her too so this makes the game very annoying. I tried it for a while but i got fed up with it rather quickly. I maybe go back to this later but it is a very big maybe. Also the graphics didn't help because it looks like a ps2 game. And walking is like in the elder scrolls games. Hardly any contact with the floor and no feel for the structure of the ground. Walking feels really strange in this game.

But tomorrow i'll start with Shadow Warrior. A game that should fit me really well

[MidnightCJ]

3 hours ago, Hemiak said:

WTH? With the multiple walls of text you posted I assumed you'd played for much longer than this. 

 

Sorry. I will try to cut the summaries in the future games down to two paragraphs. I just liked this game.

[Mesopithecus]

(Replacement) Game #2. Day 2 - Magicka 3

 

 

 

Managed to get through a few more chapters today leaving 2 left to finish up.  Starting to notice much more of a difficulty spike especially with the bosses - thankfully now unlocked a magic called guardian, where you cast a little statue down and it heals you continuously.  The game has a lot of popular culture references which are amusing - like a character called John Frost who talks about being part of the evenings watch (humorous GoT reference)

 

Not touched the challenges or trials yet, but some of them look very daunting.  

 

This will be another game I come back to and finish up as it's a lot of fun, will be working on this still at times during KYC (for those UR gains)

 

Time Played: Around 3 hours (7 hours total playtime)

Trophy Progress: 15/47 (21%)

Completion Percentage: 91.28%

 

Tomorrow it's on to Dragon Quest Heroes

[Kevvik]

Game #2: 2064: Read Only Memories

 

Day 3 Impressions

 

So I managed to finish one run through of the main story. I really enjoyed this. A fairly deep story for a point and click, I really liked how it played out. The puzzles overall are fairly minimal and instinctive. This is more about the journey through the story and your interactions on the way there.  There are several more endings to get and I assume they are based on how I interact with other characters as there are definitely trophies based on this (so and so likes or resents you).

 

The main ROM who works with you, Turing, is a very well developed character whose thought processes are as doubt filled as yours on whether the"right thing" you are doing really is the right thing to do as you try to assess how the consequences or your actions are going to play out.  Everyone has a past they are trying to deal with and this really helps to flesh the characters out.

 

As I said before, the graphic style works for this, the old school music doesn't get on your nerves and I just really had a good time heading for the end of the story. I'd love to see a sequel dealing with the fallout from your actions.

 

Will I go for the platinum on this? Definitely. I really want to see how the other endings play out.

 

Time played: ~10 hrs

Overall score - 8/10

 

A great story with a smooth flow.

 

Trophies earned: 39/65, 57% for A rank

Completion rate: 79.84% (-0.37%)

 

Next up: Minecraft Story Mode

 

Not sure how much playing I will get in over the next 5 days. Tied up with assessing final exams for the program I work with so its going to be a busy stretch. Hoping I can get 3 hrs over the next few days for game 3.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Kevvik

[Edunstar84]

7 hours ago, Hemiak said:

 

You spent 24 hours with one game? I'm not sure you're doing this event correctly. 

 

For my special UR games, playing them for 8 hours wouldn't have done them justice.

[dmland12]

Game #2: Forced

Game Progress: 16/20 Trophies (73%)

Completion: 93.28% (-0.29%, -1.58% from start)

 

 

This game was pretty fun (and difficult).  It didn't hurt my completion percentage much either... just -0.29%.  But, getting that platinum is going to be tough.

 

Forced can be played single player or co-op and the difficulty is supposed to scale depending on how many people are playing.  I've only played single player, so things may be slightly different in co-op.  There's not much story.  You're some sort of slave that's being put through some trials to see if you're worthy of being a gladiator.  If you fail, you die (and if you succeed and become a gladiator you'll probably die from that too before long!).  But, of course you actually end up fighting for your freedom.  With your talking blue orb friend who helps you...

 

The game consists of 25 trials and they're each pretty short so I managed to get through all of them.  You can get crystals from beating these trials and you will unlock more skills this way.  Beating trials isn't generally too terrible (except for the ones that are boss fights), since you can actually die and still beat them.  Dying will cause you to respawn, but if you die again too quickly you fail the level.  But there's also challenges (complete some task) and time challenges (complete in x:xx or less) which can be a real pain since you must not die at all to complete these.  Overall, you can get 3 crystals from each trial.  One for beating it and one for beating each of the challenges.  There's pretty good balance here as you'll want to go after the optional challenges to get better skills, which will make the later challenges more manageable, but you don't need to complete all of the optional stuff to beat the story.  However, if you want to do none of the optional stuff, you're going to have a much tougher time beating the game.

 

You've got 4 weapons to choose from and each has a set of skills that go with it, so you do have plenty of options (although I found that I was much better with one particular one in most cases, so perhaps there's some balancing issues here).  There's also some puzzling in the trials (your blue orb friend will be important here), but mostly the difficulty will come from having to fight off lots of enemies and some rather tough bosses.  Here's the final trial/boss fight, which should give you an idea of how difficult it can get:

The challenge crystal for this trial is to not heal at all.

 

Closing thoughts:

I'm having a hard time coming up with anything I hated about the game, although it was clearly frustrating and difficult at times (and will be more so in getting the plat).  I also don't think there's anything too special about this game.  It has a simple story and concept, but delivers it well.  Overall, I thought it was fun and challenging.

My Rating: B+

[crimsonidol38]

Game 2, Day 1: Jotun (PS4)

 

Jotun is a so-called action-explloration game (according to their Kickstarter) which takes place in the Norse mythology and makes heavy use of it's mythological beings. What's an action-exploration game you may ask? It's mainly an action-adventure light, which focuses on exploring the surroundings, finding given items, and fighting an area's boss and less about fighting your way through hundreds of henchman.

 

In Jotun you take control of Thora, a viking woman who deceased recently cause the sea jotun Ran (jotun = giant/elementals) sank the boat she was on during a storm. Shortly after that Thora finds herself in Jotunheim, which is, like you might guess, more or less the home of jotun. That's it with the direct story-telling. The main goal of the game is to find the rune which is placed in each and every area so you can summon that area's jotun and fight it. 

 

The first area I had to explore is the barrow mound. In here I had to find the rune jera, which also summons the same-named jotun. The area is more or less a tutorial which introduces you with the game's basic mechanics. The controls are really simple as their are only four actions: You dodge roll with , do a light attack with , a heavy attack which needs to be charged with  and you can activate a so-called gods power with  once you obtain them. Those powers can be obtained via shrines which are placed in the different realms like the barrow mound. Besides the runes and these shrines there also seems to be at least a third type of collectible, Ithunn's Apples. Those apples grant you some additional health, which perfectly suits the name as Ithunn seems to be the goddess of youth and rejuvenation.

While traversing the different locations you will find several obstacles. The barrow mound features three types of those: Big twines you have to make disappear temporarily with your heavy attack, vine that come out of the earth and try to crush you and some poison mushrooms which spread their spores. After activating three switches which opened up the path to the rune and after obtaining the gods power Friggs Healing I had to fight my first foe which got bigger as I hit him. Overall his movement was rather predictable and he everything but difficult. After that I was able to grab the rune and the game now gave me the option to either fight this area's jotun or go back to Ginnungagap, which connects all the different areas. I decided to fight Jera and it's my guess based on this first fight but it seems like the jotuns will make use of their area's obstacle during the fight as Jera is able to summon vines, uses twines to block your path or can summon some poisonous spores.

 

After defeating Jera I was warped to Ginnungagap and was given the choice of freedom as it's up to yourself which area you tackle next. As a little help you can see a rough map with places of collectibles of each area before entering it (the map is really rough though and it can give a false impression about the area's size). I personally opted for one of the lower areas which is called Brokkr's Forge. In here I found the gods power of Loki's decoy (and all so: Yeah, finally a name I know  ) which is quite handy in this area as there were a few places where you are literally swarmed with dwarves (and some giants) who tried to attack you. Biggest problem for me in this area was to find a way to access the apple, though. It was on a platform I couldn't reach directly but instead I had to find four switches to activate a small passageway which became more troubling than expected.as I didn't find a way to access the fourth switch. As it turned out a small red painting on a wall was meant to be an arrow which hinted at destroyable wall.  

 

Trophy-wise the game seems to be a tough nut as there's trophies for beating bosses without taking damage, beating them in a given time limit, and one for beating them with some given restriction. The good thing is that it seems like you can retry the bosses as often as you want during one playthrough. But the biggest challenge will be the trophies for beating the so-called Valhalla-mode (I guess a typical New Game+ with higher diffculty) without using any of the gods powers or taking damage.   

So far I only got the trophy for beating Jera and beating her without damaging any vine (which I only achieved as I looked it up before ).

 

First overall impression is good so far, but I have to say that this game is probably above my non-existent skill level. 

 

On a sidenote:

It's really disturbing to read all those "game 2, final day"-reviews and here you sit and write the first impression for your second game. It's somehow mind-boggling...

Edited July 7, 2017 by Crimson Idol