Kill Your Completion - CYOA

[DamagingRob]

3 hours ago, Edunstar84 said:

I can imagine. I think I managed about 10 levels a day, when I went back to it.

Unfortunately, I don't have an off switch. Lol. I'll probably get through a good chunk of it, over the next 2 days. 60 levels completed, now. Although, how many I'll have to replay for better times, remains to be seen..

 

2 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

At least it can be turned off, I have it enabled just to potentially make progress towards the online trophies. Which reminds me of another thing that pissed me off, someone with a bounty was in my game (you hunt them down along with the police), I was close to getting him and the fucker just left the game. Why would it allow them to leave when they started the damn bounty? FFS

If I recall correctly, I couldn't quit a hack in the first game. I'd have to close the ap, or turn off the console. So, they may try to prevent it, but there's no real stopping that..

 

2 hours ago, MidnightCJ said:

I have this game. Some of the levels are Nintendo Hard(I have to dodge flame jets and keep the princess from walking into them) but overall this is a cute game. I got to Level 8 for the Alphabet Challenge on (URL not allowed). I will probably restart this game on my bigger memory card so I can be consistent. The mechanics of the three types of chalk and changing between the skeleton kid who can double jump and the hero who can pick up the princess and keep her from having brain farts and walking into her death is fun.

If they were Nintendo Hard, I probably wouldn't be able to do them. Lol. I was terrible at games on the original NES. :/ But it does require watching videos for solutions quite a bit. Only going to get more and more challenging, I reckon.. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by DamagingRob

[Kevvik]

9 hours ago, DamagingRob said:

Day 1- Dokuro

 

 

But so far, it's pretty fun. I'm not really sure why I put it off for so long. Hopefully, I can make better progress today. 

 

 

This is one of my favorite Vita games but I'm a sucker for a good puzzler.  Glad to see others enjoying it.

[Edward_FOX_86]

Game # 4 --> Bonus Game Dying Light (Instead of Life is Strange)

 

Trophies --> 8 of 69  --> 11% completion

 

Ok So I know life is strange is good and I did not change the game because its bad. Its just because I got Dying Light and I reeeeealllyy wanted to play it.

 

SO Dying light yeah I guess you can say its an improved version of Dead Island (And dead Island 2 might come out on 2018 yeah )

 

But in my opinion is much more than that. All the details are there. The Night and day concept (Dragon's Dogma had that and It was a plus on my opinion). On this game though you get bonuses from "hunting" zombies at night. Also the fact that noises alert zombie hordes and I guess that's a fair way to balance the fact that Explosives are the best thing in this game. Also the fact that firearms are still kinda rare is a plus also, because it gives you a purpose, a motivation for looting and searching. Guns of course are the next best thing. I finally got a rifle and I was thrilled

 

I spent surely more than 3 hours into this because I'm loving it. 

 

Big open world game with crafting, killing, zombies and explosion and of course Parkour , YEP! Sign me up!

 

Its been the best game I played so far and by far. And I've played Tomb Raider, Doom and Metal Gear which are really good games. 

 

This one I just couldn't stop playing it. I'm looking forward for another game that I'll be getting probably this week, I got the GOTY version of Shadow of Mordor on Amazon. 

 

Besides this I did not record anything yet because this will be a game that I'll probably will always paly off camera.

 

Also I might Change Neon Chrome and perhaps replace it with transístor which I also Bought on the PS Store Sales. 

 

Besides Transístor I got Trine 2, and the escapists collection. I've tried the first and I think I like it.

 

I will begin my final game shortly and I hope I like it.

 

Cheers Everyone and I Hope this made up for my absent posts as I said before the days should last 30 hours

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2017 by Edward_FOX_86

[voodoo_eyes]

2 hours ago, MosesRockefeller said:

The first game had the same thing, which was fun in a way, but frustrating when you're trying to do missions. I THINK it only interrupted side missions (not main missions), but I could be mistaken. Anyway, if the second game is like the first, you don't HAVE to find the hacker... just ignore him and he'll succeed and the game will go back to what you were doing before. IIRC though, in the first game it would reload when the hacker invaded and left, so you couldn't just resume where you left off. I left the Online invasions setting on until I got those trophies, then kept if off the rest of the time I played.

 

Once I get the online trophies out of the way, I'm going to turn that off as well. Only need a few more dead sec events, complete 1 co-op mission and catch 5 bounties.

[DamagingRob]

33 minutes ago, Kevvik said:

This is one of my favorite Vita games but I'm a sucker for a good puzzler.  Glad to see others enjoying it.

And it only costs a whopping $3. This last level was a major pain for me, though.. 7-7. Kept flipping the switch instead of picking up the princess, crushing us both with a block. ._. Really should have made those inputs 2 different buttons. 

[Melanogaster1987]

Game #6 of 8: Remember Me
 
My rating: Platinum/Gold/Gold - A beat 'em up / platformer set in a dystopian Paris in 2084, where technology allowing people's memories to be wiped, stolen, hacked and so on has spiralled out of control. I like the simple combat system and how you can add another dimension to the fighting by customising the effects of your attack combos on the fly (using power-ups called "pressens" to multiply damage, heal yourself or charge your special moves faster), but actually getting the combos to land can feel too tricky when surrounded by multiple enemies. I tend to keep switching targets unintentionally -  but maybe that's my fault; I'm just not a very good player of this genre. Also, dodging enemy moves can feel a bit too easy at times due to the large red indicators that pop up when an attack is incoming. I'm not entirely sold on the fighting mechanics, but I'm loving everything else.

 

Platforming is done well, and there are some stealth sections that force you to memorise a sequence of moves to sneak past enemies or avoid hidden mines, as well as some in-game holo-screens that show the location of upcoming collectibles. These parts that rely on you having to remember how to get through or where to find goodies fit right in with the main theme of this game - memory - big props to the developers for providing a way to immerse the player into the game's theme like this.

 

The highlight of the game so far has been a part where you need to watch a cutscene of a character's memory, then hijack it and mess around with objects in the scene in order to change their recollection of how a key event panned out (if you've ever played the Murphy's Law series of browser games, you'll be somewhat familiar with how this works). This was tremendous fun - there are so many possible permutations (although only one correct way to get it done) and it feels like there is scope to make an entire game out of just these scenes. I just wish there were a couple more of them - I'm nearly halfway through Remember Me and there has only been one of these sections so far.
 
---
 
Trophies earned in this game: 7 (7) for 105 points
Total trophies earned in this event: 48 (2, 46) for 750 points
 
Current completion rate: 58.67% [Down 4.16% since start of event; Down 0.63% as a result of this game]

[MarkusT1992]

20 hours ago, vin_rob said:

Blame Canada! (jk) but yeah evolving symptoms to soon will make them find you sooner.. When / if I play the game in the start I usually just focus on the transfer path like, boats airplane etc etc.  Good luck =) 

 

Thanks for the tip. I evolved more symptomes than tansfer paths. Maybe that was the cause for my defeat.

 

I'm still playing Gat out of Hell instead of my KYC game. I'll play a bit more of Plague Inc tomorrow for sure.

[Edunstar84]

TALES OF SYMPHONIA

First Impressions

 

Playtime: 7 hours

Trophies: 3/40

Review: 8/10

 

Tales of Symphonia is an action JRPG released way back in 2003 for the GameCube, and released a year later in Europe and the US. It's the 5th core game in the Tales series. The game follows Lloyd Irving and Colette Brunel as they make a journey to save the world. The plot's not that good. Boy hero, girl childhood friend... Anyway, completed the first dungeon, and I thought it was very well done. To access all the chests and to move forward, I had to complete a little puzzle and place blocks over gaps. To do that though, I had to fight ogres, which kind of morphed into stone blocks. 

 

Gameplay: Multi-line Linear Motion Battle System, Tales-light, where it's lays the groundwork for future Tales games. You walk/run around the battle arena and can choose which enemy to pursue/fight. It's fast but not really responsive. You can really only get a few hits in at a time before the enemy hits you. The guarding isn't as responsive as future titles, but that's okay. I got used to it. 

 

Graphics: For those that didn't grow up with the amazing graphics we have now, they might think this game looks "old". Well, I think it looks great and am glad they remastered it. It's also available on Steam.

 

Skits: These are little cutscenes that take place occasionally in the game. It allows for more interactions with the characters, provides back-story and great conversations. Still funny, but not as good as Tales of Hearts R or Tales of Graces f. I'm only disappointed that it's not voiced, and I can't skip the texts to read them faster either.

 

What's the plat like: You basically have to complete the game 100%, and it needs 4 playthroughs to do it. If you miss something, then that's an additional playthrough. It's one of those plats, where you have to be very organized, read and plan ahead, and have multiple lists open at the same time. To give you a little snippet of what it's like, have a little read of the guide here. In preparation for the day I do decide to commit to completing the game, I have spent half of my playtime fighting enemies on the Hard difficulty to get the Berserker title for Lloyd. I also have to make sure not to die in battle because that screws me out of getting a title.

[crimsonidol38]

14 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

Whenever you feel like trying to get the online stuff out of the way, let me know. The guide on here seems to be out of date, as some of the methods don´t work anymore ever since the game got patched.

 

I will have probably enough free time to give the online portion a try on Sunday. But now I'm curious.
Which methods for which part of the online modes don't work anymore?

[voodoo_eyes]

32 minutes ago, Crimson Idol said:

 

I will have probably enough free time to give the online portion a try on Sunday. But now I'm curious.
Which methods for which part of the online modes don't work anymore?

 

It's nothing major really. The guide just fails to mention that bounties can't be triggered anymore while being at the HQ, which was the easiest way to get the "Natural Born Killer" trophy. It's still easy regardless, as it doesn't matter if you get caught as long as you get the kill on the bounty hunter.

[crimsonidol38]

Game 5, Final Review: Hyper Light Drifter (PS4)

Previous posts:

Day 1

 

Yesterday I decided to restart the game to get the easy trophy for dying in the tutorial area. On top of that I decided to first explore the starting sections of the other areas so I could get some of those gear bits to buy at least one upgrade. After that, I decided to give the eastern area a second try as I read that this is the easiest section. While making my way through the temple ruins I found some pedestals which I could activate. I was also able to find the drifter who saved Dave at the end of the tutorial area and it seemed like they both talked about those pedestals (he at least marked them on the map for me). Now the only question is: What's the meaning of those pedestals? Nothing happened when I activated all four of them and it seems to be some kind of optional stuff.

 

On my way to this area's boss I was also introduced to various new types of enemies. There were plants that exploded shortly after hitting them, giant carnivorous plants that charged towards you, ninja frogs (?) that threw with shuriken and some strange monster that threw some kind of fragmentation grenade. Dealing with one or two of those enemies is quite easy but there were several arenas where I had to deal with at least 5+ of those enemies at the same time. I don't have to mention that I died some unnecessary deaths, or? At least this showed me that the checkpoints are placed fair as most of the time you will find yourself right before those arenas.

After traversing a bit more I was able to find enough currency to buy my first upgrade. As the developer recommends and several other guides also state I decided to buy the first upgrade of the chain dash, which gives you the possibility to traverse a slighlty larger distance by dashing around and it also seems to be the case that you can do more than two or three if you get the timing for pressing the buttons right. Unfortunately, I didn't get used to it for now. But there seems to be some costume which will make the timing more lenient.

 

At least I had one small success as I decided to give the boss of the eastern area a try. He was some kind of giant frog that tried to crush you by either throwing objects at you or by jumping on you. The only other move he had was to summon those exploding plants. I have to admit that the fight was easy but I still managed to screw up as I only had one health point left when I finished the boss off. After defeating him, I was able to grab a second distance weapon, the shotgun. According to many guides this is the most useful gun that you can obtain. Why couldn't they place it right before the boss?

 

I also decided to give Remote Play a try and I have to say that the overview is much better when you play it on the Vita. The only problem is that you can not really use the guns as they require you to use the and button.   is for manual aiming and   is for firing. The aiming itself is done via the left analog stick, though. And touching the lower left corner to activate aiming, moving the left analog stick and touching the lower right corner to shoot is a bit, ehm, impractical. Therefor playing the game on the Vita isn't an option for me.

 

So far, this game is a mixed bag for me. I'm glad that I finally gave it a try and I'm sure I would have some fun with it, but I don't feell like having any motivation for it right now.. The biggest annoyance is the way how the communication is done. Interpreting the pictures ain't really helpful most of the time and some things like those pedestals seem rather unclear. It would be nice to know what the meaning of those things is, without having to look up a guide. Another example for this are some terminals I was able to find while exploring the eastern ruins. I activated two of them but I honestly don't know if they changed anything as there was no indication for it. No visuals, no audio. Nothing...

 

Therefor I can't really give the game a rating for now. Most probably it would be placed in the middleground, so something like a would be appropriate, I guess.

 

Stats:

Rating: ?!?
Total playing time: ~2.5 hours
Trophies earned: 2 / 23
Completion rate: 2%

Rank: E
Did the game lower my completion? Yes

 

My ratings:

 AWESOME!!!
 Fun to play, sure will continue playing these
 Good while it lasted, but let us just stay friends, kay?
 Be glad if you weren't deleted already
  Wait, who are you? I don't know you...oh shit, you are in my trophy list aka

Spoiler

 

[dizzyshadow]

I've fallen a bit behind on my reviews, so expect quite a few posts from me over the next couple of days as i try to catch up. I've also has a change to my list. I tried both Elite Dangerous & Lock's quest and had issues with both of them (i'll explain more later) so i replace them with different games:

 

Game 7 (replacement game 1) - 88 heroes

 

 

 

It's 8:08am on 8th August 1988, and the evil Dr. H8 has brought the world to the brink of total annihilation! His demands are simple: pay $88 octillion within 88 minutes, or Dr. H8's 88 thermo-nuclear warheads will wipe out the Earth! But who will save us in our time of need? The bravest? The boldest? No... the 88 Heroes!

 

88 Heroes is a relatively simple platforming game with a twist, you have 88 minutes to complete 88 levels each with a time limit of 88 seconds, the twist is that you also have 88 heroes to help, this means only 88 lives, but also you can't choose which hero to use for a particular level, you have to use who you are given, either you complete the level or you fail that hero dies and can't be used again and you try again with the next hero. Each of the 88 heroes is unique and they all play different, they have different weapons, different abilities (some are helpful some not so), it also means there are often different ways to approach the level depending on which character you get. I can also mean you get a character who its very hard to complete the level with but this is part of the fun.

 

But possibly my favourite was just seeing all the heroes and what they can do, i don't want to spoil it too much but here are a few of my favourites so you get the idea.

 

Wang Wei - Unicycling Panda whose controls are reversed (you might need to say the same out loud to get it)

Anthony Gravity - alien who can reverse gravity for himself and walk on the ceiling

Lord Fistycuffs - clockwork gentleman robot  who has to be wound up after every attack.

Miss Fortune - who can flip a coin and either complete the level or die depending on the outcome (this leads to some exploits for a couple of the game modes)

 

Overall I've really enjoyed this probably my favourite KYC game so far so i'm very glad i swapped this in, i'll definitely go back and get the plat for this, also for anyone looking for a Platinum that starts with a number this could be good optio.

 

Playtime: 5-6 hours

Rating: 

Trophies: 31/37

 

Next Up: yonder the cloud catcher chronicles

 

 

[voodoo_eyes]

Final game - Watch Dogs 2 - Day #3

 

 

Going to wrap up Watch Dogs 2 even though I’ll play some more tonight.

 

So I went back to complete a story mission, to get the skill point I needed to finish the side mission I was on. So I did that, went back to where I had left off the side mission, and guess what… I got hacked again, same damn mission as last time. The end result was the same, hacker turned into swiss cheese and I was able to resume the mission. Anyway I finally finished up that quest-line.

 

 

Decided to try out one of those online mission, in this case the one where I’m being hunted by other players and the police. Bounty Hunter tried to be smug by hanging back and let the police do the job for him. At that point I thought fuck it, stepped out oft he car I was driving, shot every cop that was chasing me, got back in the car drove up to the bounty hunter and shot the cheeky  bastard as well. That was one more online trophy out oft he way.

 

 

 

 

Visuals

 

 

The game looks fairly good, althoguh some animations are a tad off. Like in the atm mission, where the user never ends up hitting one oft he keys on the keypad. Instead the hand was always above it.

 

 

The facial animations were good though, the city is detailed and the weather effects are well done.

 

 

Sound

 

 

There’s a decent variety of music you can listen too, this is actually implmented verywell, as you can get new songs when walking past someone (a notification pops up, that you have to react to in ordert o get the song).

 

 

Sound effets, are solid, the driving, shooting, barking, voices, breaking and crashing all sounds good.

 

 

Gameplay

 

 

It is mostly enjoyable, but unfortunately also has a lot of little annoyances.

 

 

So far the side missions are more fun than the main missions, maybe that’ll change once I progress further.

 

 

The possibility of hacking anyone‘s phone and remote control vehicles (provided that you upgraded that skill) is neat. This is somewhat a problem though, as essentially your enjoyment is limited to what you can do, which initially is fuck all.

 

 

The police generally doesn't seem to care if you take a lamp post with you or drive into other cars. Once you punch a civilian though, all hell breaks loose. On that note, the police is quite persistent in this game and have choppers pestering you way too early.

 

 

The online portion being optional is great, as the getting hacked gets annoying when doing missions.  The online modes are fun in small doses, as long as you can choose when to initiate them.

 

 

There are still a bunch of side activities that I haven’t tried out yet (mostly a variety of races)

 

 

One oft he things I most dislike so far are the hacking puzzles, some oft hem involving side missions.

 

 

Other than that I find the mission layout a bit impractical and still don’t think the control layout feels right. I’ll actually have to remember to have a look, if I can change them, although I don’t believe it’s possible to do so.

 

 

Well, that’s it for now. Tomorrow I’ll post an overview oft he games and my thoughts on them.

 

EDIT:

 

Played a bit more of it, just multiplayer though. The MP is worse than I thought, often not initiating the event you want, and giving you a "special" event instead. Furthermore people are abusing the AI and the inability to shoot while driving, by taking off to sea when they're the bounty target where they essentially can't get killed. So yeah, fun times...

 

Time played: 4-5h

Trophies earned: 8/56

Edited July 27, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[Lars]

Game 8: Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

I was a bit hesitant towards this game because i suck at mp shooters. I think i'm one of the few who once pulled it off in a COD match to have 2 kills and 36 deaths in one game. 

Therefore i started with the Garden Ops which was a mistake. That was much more difficult then i thought it would be. I died already in wave 2 so i wasn't very good. But the mp part went much better. I tried it and i had a positive KD ratio in every match i played.

 

Gameplay is fun with the different types of plants and zombies. It makes the game varied although most people the same types. You and the characters level up by doing challenges which makes the game loads of fun. You can't level up by playing with the same style everytime. Because one character has a max level of 20 i believe. So that is your max if you play with one character. So you have to swap characters.

 

One strange feature that this game has is that when you die you also switch sides mid game. So if your team is losing you can switch sides, which makes the game even more unfair then because the losing side loses a player and the winning side gets an extra player. So that is a bit strange but it makes the trophies for winning matches a lot easier.

 

This is a game that i liked, not loved because imo there is a lack of content. Just the mp and garden ops mode which is a co-op wave mode. This is a type of game that i will go back to once in a while when i'm a bit bored. But this is not a type of game that i can play for hours and hours.

[crimsonidol38]

21 minutes ago, Lars said:

Game 8: Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

I was a bit hesitant towards this game because i suck at mp shooters. I think i'm one of the few who once pulled it off in a COD match to have 2 kills and 36 deaths in one game. 

Therefore i started with the Garden Ops which was a mistake. That was much more difficult then i thought it would be. I died already in wave 2 so i wasn't very good. But the mp part went much better. I tried it and i had a positive KD ratio in every match i played.

 

 

I'm in a similar position. I never was the type of person that played shooters, whether it's first or third person. The only ones I played, if you want to count them are Uncharted and Deadpool. Therefor I'm a real scrub when it comes to games that heavily rely on shooter-mechanics. But I still had quite a lot of fun in the few hours I played the game. Nonetheless it's no game I'm eager to play for a longer period.

[MosesRockefeller]

Game 9 - Bloodborne - second impressions

 

I put about an hour into the game last night, and I noticed a few things. I got better at fighting and dodging enemy attacks, by trying repeatedly to make progress. Before I went to bed, it got to the point that I was consistently able to clear out the enemies from the Central Yarnham lamp area, up until I got myself killed fighting a mini-boss type character. I got greedy, he had a sliver of health left and I went for the kill instead of waiting for an opening. He just barely won that time.

 

I'm enjoying the game, but it's hard to track my progress even with a walkthrough. This game really, really needs an in-game map. I haven't yet unlocked the ability to level up, but I did open up the room in the Hunter's Dream where you can upgrade weapons and such. I think what I'll do tonight is fight enemies near the Central lamp, and save enough currency to buy the one set of armor that is available to buy. Hopefully that will help me last longer.

 

One problem with the game for me, is the inability to pause. This is a very big issue for a parent who needs the flexibility to pause at a moment's notice and then come back to resume later. I guess I understand that it's done to fit the theme of the game, but when you're playing in Offline mode, it should be pause-able. I'm sure other parents can back me up here. This issue will probably prevent me from getting very far in the game.

 

@Hemiak, since this is my first rodeo with KYC, are we allowed to keep posting past the 31st with our bonus games? I think I can squeeze in my 10th game by July 31st, but I am enjoying the event and would like to post my impressions of the 5 bonus games which will bump me well into August. It also helps me tackle my backlog, so it's win-win for me.

Edited July 27, 2017 by MosesRockefeller

[Hemiak]

4 hours ago, MosesRockefeller said:

. I'm sure other parents can back me up here. This issue will probably prevent me from getting very far in the game.

 

@Hemiak, since this is my first rodeo with KYC, are we allowed to keep posting past the 31st with our bonus games? I think I can squeeze in my 10th game by July 31st, but I am enjoying the event and would like to post my impressions of the 5 bonus games which will bump me well into August. It also helps me tackle my backlog, so it's win-win for me.

Haven't played BB yet, but I've done Demon's Souls and Dark 1 & 2. The no pause seems horrible, but it's not as bad as it first seems. Enemies stay dead until you side again, so if you can quickly clear an area, or run back to a previously cleared one, you can usually just let it sit there idle while you handle the kids. If all that fails, dying really isn't that big of a deal in these games, just give you another chance to practice the enemies. 

 

I will give you one piece of probably unwanted advice. Consider any Souls you have on you when a boss fight starts to be forfeit. If you're worried about losing souls, or trying to recover ones you dropped on a previous attempt, you won't be focused on surviving and killing. 

 

Also, the thread will remain open. Lots of people continue posting game progress and updates, or just random chatter, between the events. If the past is an indicator it will remain relatively active right up until the next event goes. Live. 

 

-----------

I actually played half an hour of Color Guardians yesterday with my daughter. She really likes the game and is trying to 3 star each level by collecting all the orbs. I was able to finish about 5 more levels with 2 or 3 stars each, and earned a few more trophies along the way. Opinion hasn't really changed, it's decent, but nothing compelling. The platinum is considerably easier than fully 100%ING the game. It looks great, and it's easy to pick up and play a couple levels and out down. 

 

All in all I'd recommend playing this if you want something between major games, if you have kids, or if you just like easy trophies. 

 

Fun: 6/10

Diff:

to beat levels - 2/10

Plat - 4/10

100% - 5/10

 

 

Day 3, 8-9 hours played. 35/43, 73%

 

I got several more hours with this last night and was able to make considerable progress. I finished the game a 2nd time, got all the map pages, all the cassettes, and all the ducks. I did however screw up the 2nd trophy linked to the ducks, so I'll have to do that one again, meaning a third of another play through.

 

Basically you jump on a duck to pick it up, but don't collect it until you leave the room. The trophy requires you to get all 32 without dying while holding a duck. This means if you just plain miss and die you're fine, but if you bounce off it and then die before the door you're hosed. Good news is that with the constant auto saves you just have to quit the entire game, fire it back up, and reload your save back in the same room. Most of the ducks are pretty easy to get safely at this point, but a few are still rough due to the camera. 

 

Most of the trophies are either collectible based, require you to beat a time on a mini game, or finish a screen while collecting everything without dying. The only issue with this is that the game auto saves constantly. When going for many of these you need to back up your save before you attempt it, or you'll be forced to start the game over.

 

Doing each of the 6 warp zone areas rewards you with a letter, and once you spell 'extend' you get an extra scene during the credits. Basically your kid is riding home on a scooter, and you can hit X to throw newspapers at houses you pass, for a trophy. I was able to get all the misc trophies for the warp zones but one, as I got a little overconfident. No biggie, I'll be able to get it during my partial duck run. I also missed one for looking at a painting most of the way through the game, but I can do that on my Old School run. 

 

Old School is a mode where you have a finite number of lives. The rooms that previously held map pages now hold extra lives. There's no saving, though each room checkpoints just like normal.

 

A lot of the annoying and time consuming stuff can be skipped, but seeing as how most of the actual difficult sections come right at the end, I'm looking at around 2 hours or so per attempt, at least until I improve. The trick will be to do the early game as safely as possible, and keep stupid deaths to a minimum.

 

I'll Def keep working on this, though I think it's time for something new. 

 

 

 

[MosesRockefeller]

1 hour ago, Hemiak said:

Haven't played BB yet, but I've done Demon's Souls and Dark 1 & 2. The no pause seems horrible, but it's not as bad as it first seems. Enemies stay dead until you side again, so if you can quickly clear an area, or run back to a previously cleared one, you can usually just let it sit there idle while you handle the kids. If all that fails, dying really isn't that big of a deal in these games, just give you another chance to practice the enemies. 

 

I will give you one piece of probably unwanted advice. Consider any Souls you have on you when a boss fight starts to be forfeit. If you're worried about losing souls, or trying to recover ones you dropped on a previous attempt, you won't be focused on surviving and killing. 

 

Also, the thread will remain open. Lots of people continue posting game progress and updates, or just random chatter, between the events. If the past is an indicator it will remain relatively active right up until the next event goes. Live.

Thanks for the update and tips. And you're right, the no pause in BB isn't as bad as say, the cutscenes in MGS2 and 3 (as I played through 2-4 and Peace Walker for the first time on my PS3, I was so happy that MGS4 let you pause cutscenes!). Last night I found a couple of spots where I could just hang out; thankfully any enemies that haven't spotted you will just wander around without seeing you for the most part.

 

Also, according to something I read online today, exiting to the menu saves your place in the game world, so that should be helpful. Thankfully the load times are pretty short, at least for the areas I've been to so far. A PS4 Pro would probably make it even faster, but I'm still running my launch PS4.

 

Dying is a learning experience, as you say, but in BB the game world looks very same-y and it's hard to tell where I should go next most of the time, even with a walkthrough.

 

The lack of pausing wouldn't be as big of a deal for me with older kids, but I have a toddler and infant, so when I need to pull myself away from gaming it needs to be pretty quick.

[Jaguargenie]

On 7/26/2017 at 9:45 AM, voodoo_eyes said:

 

I have to agree with Bloodborne being tricky to navigate through. There are far more branching paths and areas that have several levels to them, than in any of the previous Souls games. A map would have been useful in this particular game. I'll probablz have to start off from scratch once I decide to go back to it, as I'd have no clue where to go by now.

I feel like that is exactly why there SHOULDN'T be a mini map in souls games. The levels are huge and multi layered. They are designed to learn by trial and error. They are also supposed to be replayed often enough (read: die so often you see it lots) that you memorize them. Everything is connected and there are shortcuts all over. A minimal would look like a mutant pretzel. 

It's been months since I plat'ed Bloodborne, but I can still see all the areas in my head. It's a part of the game and it's allure. Having a mini map would break the whole design. 

[voodoo_eyes]

25 minutes ago, Jaguargenie said:

I feel like that is exactly why there SHOULDN'T be a mini map in souls games. The levels are huge and multi layered. They are designed to learn by trial and error. They are also supposed to be replayed often enough (read: die so often you see it lots) that you memorize them. Everything is connected and there are shortcuts all over. A minimal would look like a mutant pretzel. 

It's been months since I plat'ed Bloodborne, but I can still see all the areas in my head. It's a part of the game and it's allure. Having a mini map would break the whole design. 

 

I get your point, and I'd agree that the souls games in general don't need a map, mostly because they aren't remotely as convoluted as Bloodborne is. In the souls games the environment differs a lot from area to area, making navigation relatively simple as the various sections, albeit linked to one another are their own separate location.

From what I played of Bloodborne and seeing as I haven't played a lot of it (compared to the games that inspired it), I might not have a full impression of it yet, nevertheless it feels more like one massive area to me. The environment in that game feels much more complex, hence why I don't think a map would've been a bad idea. I don't believe a map hinders exploration either, when I speak of map I don't mean one that gives away enemies position, or chest locations or even hidden areas, but rather one that simply shows the basic layout as a border.

[Kevvik]

Not going to have any gaming time tonight so I might as well get this up now...

 

Game #9: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

 

Initial/Day 3 Impressions

 

Time played: ~2.5 hrs

 

Sort of a game 1.5 in the series, this episode of Danganronpa is not the usual murder/investigate/trial adventure game but a 3rd person shooter set in the Danganronpa universe.  Set after the events of the first game but before the second, you play Komaru Naegi, sister of the protaganist of the first game, who has been imprisoned for the last year and a half. Locked in a two room apartment and fed through a slot in the wall, she is forced to flee when her door is ripped open by a mechanical Monokuma (a black and white bear demon).  Rescued temporarily by members of the Freedom Foundation, she flees carrying a gun which shoots hacking signals at enemies and some environmental obstacles as her only means of defence.  After a time, she is captured again only to be confronted by a group of insane children who have decided to create a paradise for children by killing all the adults with the mechanical Monokumas. 

 

After a servant powers down your gun "for game balance" (but let's you keep it hidden from the kids), you get ejected back into the city for the kids to hunt you down. Shortly after, you are joined by Toko (from the first game, with her split personality Genocide Jack) and start working on trying to escape the city.

 

I don't want to run too many spoilers but fans of the series will see several characters with connection to games one and two as this story does a bit of filling in the plot gaps of what has happened between the events of the two games.

 

The play style follows a more traditional 3rd person style with solving puzzles and challenges while advancing through and killing the Monokumas trying to take you down. Your gun has different types of ammunition to accomplish different tasks. There is a fair bit of story to go with it, placing a new chunk of lore into the universe. Generally you use Komaru though you can switch into Toko (as she resists Jack coming to the fore) for some bursts of violence as she takes down Monokumas with her scissors.  Different forms of Monokumas also arise to present different challenges in battle.

 

Combat runs fairly smoothly but I had the occasional issue with heading my character in one direction only to face a different direction on going into aiming mode. It didn't happen often but was annoying when it did. The focus of aiming seemed to be more in the direction the game wanted me to go rather than where I wanted to aim.  Other than that, shooting Monokumas was fun as was the occasional time I let Toko slice bears up.  The puzzles are straight forward so far, figuring out how to meet an objective in a room filled with enemies (sneak by, kill them all in one shot). You need to manage ammo a bit but it hasn't been an issue in the first chapter which I have yet to complete.

 

Returning to the world and enjoying the story is a big part of the game and doesn't disappoint. I'm waiting to see what other characters return and in what capacity. I'll definitely be returning to this later on.

 

Rating so far: 8/10

Trophies earned: 7/36, 10% for E rank

Completion rate: 77.77% (kinda cool how that worked out, -2.44% overall)

 

Next up: Dust: An Elysian Tail to close out the month.

[Jaguargenie]

2 hours ago, voodoo_eyes said:

 

I get your point, and I'd agree that the souls games in general don't need a map, mostly because they aren't remotely as convoluted as Bloodborne is. In the souls games the environment differs a lot from area to area, making navigation relatively simple as the various sections, albeit linked to one another are their own separate location.

From what I played of Bloodborne and seeing as I haven't played a lot of it (compared to the games that inspired it), I might not have a full impression of it yet, nevertheless it feels more like one massive area to me. The environment in that game feels much more complex, hence why I don't think a map would've been a bad idea. I don't believe a map hinders exploration either, when I speak of map I don't mean one that gives away enemies position, or chest locations or even hidden areas, but rather one that simply shows the basic layout as a border.

Fair enough. Though the further you progress the more the environments change. 

All this talk makes me want to go back and play more bloodborne...?

[SyIaris]

I fell behind, but I'll try to catch up. Need to play Kingdoms of Amalur and two group B games for yesterday+today. Worst case, I'll get at least an hour in everything. Been too tired to think. 

We had a rather unexpected addition to the house that's been taking up time, mostly with prep work - she just just came home today.

 

Game 3 replacement

Assassin's Creed Unity

Time played: ~30 hours?

44/58 trophies (75%)

 

Beat the story, cleared all the co-op, and somehow managed not to have any glitchy trophies actually glitch on me. Theoretically, this will be the first game I return to - I don't want to risk losing track of the controls.

Honestly, I can see why this game was poorly received. The characters are shallow, the plot is pretty dull, the climbing mechanics are a mess, the combat's a little too finicky, there are a million collectibles to pick up, some of which can't (reasonably) be obtained until lategame... not to mention the many glitches - fortunately, we only hit one that broke things.

Despite all that, the multiplayer is really fun with a laid-back friend. It's a shame this one's considered a bit of a stain on the series, because I'd love to see the feature come back with some improvements.

 

Game 4

CastleStorm

Time played: 1.5 hours

3/30 trophies (6%)

 

Didn't get terribly far; beat the first six stages or so.

CastleStorm isn't quite what I was expecting - it's a little less tower defense and a little more Angry Birds. Console seems to be the worst platform to play it on, as aiming shots with the joystick is quite picky. I'm sure a touchpad or mouse would be more playable.

That said, it seems to be a goofy, reasonably enjoyable game with its nonsense mini medieval storyline. I imagine you get used to the controls after a while, but I didn't want to juggle two awkward games at the same time. When I get back to this, I'll probably focus entirely on it until it's done.

 

Bonus

Resident Evil 5

Time played: ~2 hours?

1/71 trophies (1%)

 

Thanks again to @Psy-Tychist for helping me try out co-op!

We played through the first two areas after having a heck of a time figuring out the weird invite system. Unfortunately, the connection kept kicking me out, so that was the end of it.

The first achievement apparently glitched or does weird things in multiplayer, since I couldn't join in from the absolute beginning. Bit annoying...

Seemed pretty fun so far, though I'm not sure how doable single-player will be with how tanky those zombies are. Headshots do interesting things sometimes...

Probably be a while before I get back to it. I'll either hold out for co-op or see if the mood strikes me in October.

 

 

 

Also, the Minecraft trophies finally showed up, something like a month late. Someone messaged me about wanting to beat Far Cry 3's co-op, so I think I roughly traded missing trophy scores.

 

-1.38% overall

[MarkusT1992]

Game #9: Plague Inc. Evolved (Day 3)

 

 

I suck at this game! I don't know why but maybe because I always play the good route when possible.

That being said, I tried again to destroy the world with my bacteria. This time with another name and another starting country. I chose Saudi Arabia because it has a port and an airport, which is good to infect more counties.

In this run I got a trophy for infecting the Olympic Games in London. After doing that I saved, which I learned you can do anytime you want.

I focused mostly on the transfer method and could infect quite a bit of the world before research bagan. Unfortunately my diseas wan't deadly enought and most of the population got cured after some time.

I then reloaded my save and tried to mix tansfer method and symtoms for a good mix of infecting new countries and killing people. This time I got discovered much faster but it went better overall.

Many countries died completely but again, like in my first game, Canada wasn't really infected. Besides that Greenland got not a single infection before they closed their port. I let the game play and had a random event saying that a pathogen broke out during research, infecting a few people in Greenland. Unfortunately they died too fast. Thats the reason I failed this time. There were no infected people left.

It seems you need a bit of luck to infect Greenland and youe need a good mix of tranfer and lethality. In addidtion you need to develop the resistance of your bacteria to prolong the cure of it.

I don't know the right mix yet and I might need a few more round to learn how to win but thats pretty normal in rogue like games.

 

After that a tried a challenge. In this challenge your goal is to restore joy in the world. The government has banish everything fun and Santa works together with a Torax Worm to change that.

At the beginning all borders, ports and airports are closed. You have completly new upgrades, probably only made for this one challeneg. For example you can unlock a tranfer method for which infected poeple charter a plain to send gift to other countries. One of the symptoms is that infected people post selfies only showing their joy. This helps non infected countries to open borders, ports and airports. That's pretty interesting and there are quite a few challenges. You can even make your own but it might only be possible in the PC version to create them. But you can play them on PS4.

 

All in all I would give this game a . It's an interesting idea and no round is like the other because of the random events that can occure. The challeneges add a special them to the game and you have several pathogens to play with. Unfortunately I didn't unlock one because you need to beat a game on normal. I even was asked to activate beginner mode, which will unlock new pathogens on easy.

 

Time played: About 2h

Trophies: 5/55

[Jaguargenie]

I'm working on game #8 & 9 at the same time right now, so I'm going to give some initial impressions on both. I probably won't have much play time for the rest of the month except maybe Sunday so I might as well do this now. 

Game #8

Broken Age

Impressions

Playtime: 1.25 hours... ish

 

I love point and click adventures and just about anything made by Double Fine. That being said, I was a bit dubious about a title with a speedrun of under an hour. There are two main characters (I have only played 1 thus far) and the game is divided into two acts. Each of he main characters shares half of each act. I would say I'm almost done with Act 1a, and should move on to Act 1b shortly. The first playthrough, if I continue at this pace, should take me about 5 or 6 hours. It's a fair length for an adventure game. 

So you play as either Shay (far flung future) or Vella (long ago past). It is your standard point and click with Double Fine hilarity. For example, Shay is being held captive in a space ship with an AI that calls him 'sweetie' and herself his 'mom.' The puzzles aren't challenging at all and the majority of the trophies seem to be awarded for merely progressing the story. 

I'll post more the next time I get to play, but right now, I'm enjoying it and it's making me laugh!