Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Briste]

On 8/3/2019 at 0:51 PM, Cassylvania said:

Yeah, you should really give Goodfellas another chance. I can understand not liking Scarface, but Goodfellas is up there with the best in terms of acting, pacing, and cinematography.

 

I'm glad you mentioned The Untouchables too. I borrowed that movie from a friend a while ago and haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Or returning it. Moral of the story: don't let me borrow movies.

I'm about an hour into Goodfellas and I will say that it is much better than I remember so far. They are doing an awesome job with character development and the characters are compelling so this movie may end up being swapped over to The Untouchables side of things. I've been able to watch about a half an hour each night while my wife is showering and getting her PJ's on. She isn't too interested in watching and I want to pay close attention so I'm trying not to watch when I'm playing a game.

 

I loved The Untouchables and Sean Connery is awesome in it. I think you would really enjoy it if you're into the genre. It's got some great lines in it..."He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!"

 

I'm pretty bad with movies too. My uncle let me borrow The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo about a year ago and I still haven't watched it. I tend to forget I have it since almost everything I watch is streaming so I forget that I have the physical Blu-Ray.

[Cassylvania]

On 8/5/2019 at 9:48 AM, Briste said:

I loved The Untouchables and Sean Connery is awesome in it. I think you would really enjoy it if you're into the genre. It's got some great lines in it..."He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue! That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!"

 

Yeah, I've seen it before. I just wanted to watch it again. There are some movies I watch regularly, like Rocky, Forrest Gump (still my favorite movie of all-time), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (which I watched twice this week). ?

 

What else have I watch lately? I Am Mother. That was a...weird one. I'm not usually into sci-fi, but it was decent, even if the "twist" was predictable. I saw Flash of Genius last night. Never thought I'd watch a courtroom drama about the invention of windshield wipers, but here we are. Can't wait for Hollywood's next blockbuster: the real life story of Joseph Gayetty. (Joking aside, it was good. Reminded me of Joy, which is definitely, definitely worth a watch.)

 

As for gaming... Yeah, I had a little discussion with Jens last night about this, but I'm really hating Shadow of the Tomb Raider. It's a very, very dull game. I'm not even sure why. I love Camilla Luddington. The graphics are nice. Lara has a nice pair of...guns. (OK, she's still not dual-wielding.) But the plot is awful, Lara is annoying, and the combat is non-existent most of the time and cookie-cutter when it is there. Like, seriously. Every battle scene plays out the same way. The bad guys and items you can use are arranged in such a way that you're just basically going through the motions. Stealth kill the first guy, grab a bottle from the crate next to you, toss a Molotov cocktail at the group of enemies standing conveniently close together, cover yourself in mud, and wait for everybody else to come to you. I had an entire conversation with Jens while SEVEN bad guys walked over to me, one at a time, and I stealth killed them all. There was an ENTIRE PILE OF DEAD BODIES, but they just kept wandering over. Normally, I love to exploit the AI in games like this, but it just feels wrong when the combat is so infrequent (and honestly the only thing that keeps me from sleeping asleep).

 

The platforming is bad. It's visually impressive, sure, but I'm calling bullshit on half of the stunts Lara is able to pull off. Is she a human or Spider-Man? Well, she's certainly not human, because her personality jumps between neurotic twat and deranged killer constantly. There's one scene where Lara goes on a psychotic killing spree, blows up a helicopter with an assault rifle (yeah, I don't know), and then breaks down into tears while the corpses of her enemies burn around her. "I just make everything worse," she says, and she's not wrong.

 

It doesn't help that the ENTIRE PLOT is her fault. I enjoy her death scenes more than any sane person should, because she's an aggravating protagonist. At least there was some growth in her character in the 2013 reboot. What happened to that? I loved that game. It was my first game on this account. Yeah, she went from, "OMG, I killed a guy," to "I'M COMING FOR YOU ALL!" a little too quickly, but at least the progression made sense. The Lara in this game will walk into your ancient temple and immediately start whacking the walls with a pickaxe. Oh, and a word of advice: don't get into a plane with Lara. You know that shit's going down, because of something she does or orders someone to do.

 

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

 

Invisible, Inc. is fine. I've now beat the game five times. Daemon Code may be the weirdest ultra rare trophy out there. It took me 32 minutes to get that trophy. 32 minutes, guys, from the beginning of the game to the end.  It wasn't even hard because you can customize your settings, so you can make the game as easy and short as you want. Just a very weird trophy... The others are tough. I'm up to Day 3 (out of 7) in Expert Plus, Day 5 (out of 6) in Endless Plus, and Day 12 (out of 21) in Endless. Haven't started my zero rewind playthrough yet, but I'm getting kinda bored with the game. It might be time to start something new.

 

Oh, and the NFL preseason begins this week! I haven't heard much news out of Minnesota this offseason, but I just read that Gary Kubiak's offensive has been picking apart Mike Zimmer's defense in practice, which...yeah, I guess that could either be good or bad. If I can find an easy way to watch the game, maybe I'll watch them play the Saints on Friday. (Early NFC Championship match-up? We can hope.)

[Rally-Vincent---]

On 6.8.2019 at 6:21 PM, Cassylvania said:

Invisible, Inc. is fine. I've now beat the game five times. Daemon Code may be the weirdest ultra rare trophy out there. It took me 32 minutes to get that trophy. 32 minutes, guys, from the beginning of the game to the end.  It wasn't even hard because you can customize your settings, so you can make the game as easy and short as you want. Just a very weird trophy... The others are tough. I'm up to Day 3 (out of 7) in Expert Plus, Day 5 (out of 6) in Endless Plus, and Day 12 (out of 21) in Endless. Haven't started my zero rewind playthrough yet, but I'm getting kinda bored with the game. It might be time to start something new.

 

You play runs parallel instead of after another?

Edited August 8, 2019 by Rally-Vincent---

[Briste]

On 8/6/2019 at 0:21 PM, Cassylvania said:

Oh, and the NFL preseason begins this week!

Did you see the recent Antonio Brown controversy? That dude has gone completely off the deep end. Between his frost bite and threat to retire if he can't wear his old helmet...I'd say the Raiders should just cut him at this point. They definitely can't/won't...but what a diva. Pats trounced the Lions...but who cares so far. I'm starting to get the Sunday itch though...sadly I'll miss opening weekend  I have to go into work on that Sunday. Thankfully the Pats are on at 8:30pm, so hopefully I'll be back in time to at least catch that game.

 

On 8/6/2019 at 0:21 PM, Cassylvania said:

Yeah, I've seen it before. I just wanted to watch it again. There are some movies I watch regularly, like Rocky, Forrest Gump (still my favorite movie of all-time), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (which I watched twice this week). 

 

I've never seen Paul Blart lol. I like Kevin James just fine, I've just never seen him in anything other than King of Queens. Rocky and Forrest Gump are all-time greats (Forrest Gump is a top 5er for me). I'd say the movie I watch most frequently is Snatch. There are so many great lines in that movie. I also watch Thor: Ragnarok a lot recently. That one is my favorite in the MCU and it's easy to put on and ignore if I'm doing something else.

 

I finished up GoodFellas the other night. It's better than I remember, but it doesn't crack my top list. The acting was great, they do a great job developing all of the characters and the story is decent enough...but once again I just didn't care enough about what happened to the characters. They mostly got what they deserved. For me, the movie was really good up until when he becomes a coke head. It started to derail a bit for me there.

 

It's funny...I feel I come across as a goody two-shoes with my attitude towards these movies...like the mob is bad so the movies are bad...but it's not that. I just don't care about any of them. I liked Dexter, Breaking Bad and other shows where the central character is deplorable...but for some reason these mob style movies don't generally move the needle for me. They live a lifestyle I would never want so I just don't get into it.

 

It was pretty cool though. It had been so long since I'd seen it that it was like watching a new movie. For some reason I thought the whole "what do you mean I'm funny" scene was from Casino lol 

[Cassylvania]

On 8/8/2019 at 1:54 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

You play runs parallel instead of after another?

 

Not normally, but I chose to here because Endless Mode is extremely boring once you get to Day 10 or so. I now have two copies of Cloaking Rig III on every agent, which basically means I can sprint through every map and stay invisible the entire time. I'm not even bothering to loot items anymore because I have no need for money or loot (but unfortunately you still have to find the Exit Card in each map).

 

I should be able to platinum this game by the end of the month. If I'm going to finish a full list for GBN2, though, I gotta make some headway on some other games. At work the other day, I made a spreadsheet of all the games in my backlog (i.e. games I own but haven't played), along with their difficulty, time to platinum, and the last digit in their ID. That should help with my decisions...

 

1 hour ago, Briste said:

It was pretty cool though. It had been so long since I'd seen it that it was like watching a new movie. For some reason I thought the whole "what do you mean I'm funny" scene was from Casino lol 

 

Still a great scene. ?

 

I'll need to watch Casino sometime. I'm sure I've seen it at some point, but I just looked it up and it doesn't sound familiar. All of these movies are beginning to run together for me...

 

Anyway, yeah. Hilarious stuff about Antonio Brown. And I thought OBJ was bad... ?

 

I couldn't watch any games last night. My cable provider decided not to show the Bills (I guess they figured I've suffered enough), and the Snoopy Bowl was delayed for like an hour because of weather. I'm not sure if the Vikings will be on tonight, but I'll at least be able to watch the Steelers. I'll typically just tune in for a quarter or two to see how the new players look. My fantasy draft is in nine days, so I gotta be prepared. Hopefully nobody's caught onto my ultra secret strategy of grabbing Matt Ryan in the fifth. Best value QB out there.

 

We'll also need a funny name for my team...

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #179 - The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince

 

If you've been here a while, you probably expected me to get to this one eventually.

So, yeah. Really good game. A few of the mechanics are kinda clunky (e.g. randomly dying when falling a short distance or not being able to tell the prince how far to move in one direction), but the story, music, and art style more than make up for it. I think this is one of the best-looking games I've played this year. You're probably looking at a 6-8 hour platinum, but I took over 10 because I put myself through the torture of trying to solve that number puzzle on my own. (As usual, I was overthinking things WAY too much.) If you can find this on sale in the $10-12 range, I'd say it's worth a buy, and it's certainly worth showing off some artwork.

 

I found this particular image on Pinterest, so I don't really know who to credit, but I will award Pinterest the top prize for Most Horribly Designed Website Ever. Congratulations.

 

 

Also, Nintendo Life can shove it for giving this game a 5/10.

[RuneEyesDragon]

Nice. Go check out my thread. I shamelessly copied your platinum statement for your Dragon Quest XI platinum. Well, it's not copied but it has the same sort of humor about it. (It's because I wanted to note how horrible Rare Breeder is to get if you don't do it immediately. Also, thought about speedrunning the game, but thanks to the stupid "Hargonese" text scenes that last two minutes with each text block - you know, those texts that don't have a text box! - I might have a pass. After dying to M-boy, I had to go through the whole final boss cutscene AGAIN, and hoo boy did it take forever since M-Boy loves to gloat! ?)

 

By the way, you mentioned that the Luminary fought Baymax from Big Hero 6... nah, he fought a cheap imitator. If you really want to fight the REAL Baymax(yeah, it's the first Baymax), play Kingdom Hearts III.

 

In other words, tell me that Kingdom Hearts III is in your future.

Edited August 11, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[Cassylvania]

On 8/11/2019 at 0:59 AM, RuneEyesDragon said:

In other words, tell me that Kingdom Hearts III is in your future.

 

Well, I'd have to play KH2 and the eight hundred spin-offs first. But soon. KH2 won't escape my clutches forever.

 

Speaking of games that had no chance...

 

Platinum #180 - Invisible, Inc.

 

Fun game, but utterly broken. I didn't even bother using Cloaking Rig III in Expert Plus OR zero rewinds. (Hell, I couldn't even find a Cloaking Rig I.) In fact, my ego was SO big by this point in the game that I didn't even recruit more agents. It was Internationale/Derek/Nika on Expert Plus (eh, Nika was on my way to the exit) and Internationale/Prism on zero rewinds. Why Prism? I wanted a challenge. I got no such thing.

 

I'd certainly recommend this game to anybody who enjoys tactical RPGs, but you're likely going to get sick of it by the time the platinum rolls around. Nine playthroughs is a lot. I think you could do it in as little as five, but you really need to master the mechanics before you're ready to play with daddy's toys. There are so many ways you can abuse the AI. Sprint, Flash Grenade, Ping, opening/closing doors, dragging a KO'd guard on top of another KO'd guard to pin them both at once, Derek's ridiculously OP Transport Beacon... Oh, and my personal favorite: getting two guards to face each other at a choke point, allowing the guard on the right to notice something to the left while simultaneously allowing the guard on the left to notice something to the right, and then laughing at how the AI is too stupid to get out of its own way, forcing them into a Mexican standoff. ?

 

Anyway, this game just utterly dominates my Rarest Trophies cabinet now, with thirteen trophies that are rarer than getting to the center of the universe in No Man's Sky (on Permadeath). That's crazy.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Cassylvania

[RuneEyesDragon]

Great hilarious comic strip to celebrate your new platinum, and I have to celebrate too, my Vita LIVES!

 

Turns out I needed a cord socket which works, so I jury-rigged the controller cord from my PS4 with the plug box from my controller charging station. I can't charge my PS4 controllers anymore but sacrifices must be made to sweep out the huge backlog of Vita cross-buys I have.

 

On 8/12/2019 at 2:47 PM, Cassylvania said:

Well, I'd have to play KH2 and the eight hundred spin-offs first. But soon. KH2 won't escape my clutches forever.

 

Yeah, I have to complete all those games too because I played them for KYCX. But it'll give me a goal in life.

[Briste]

Here is your St. Roch's Day reminder for this Friday! I have a real challenge with this one. My wife and I are taking the kids and going to Florida for a few days to visit my brother.  It falls over St. Roch's day ?  Fortunately, he has a PS4, so I will log into my account down there and download Arkham City, just to see my good friend the Calendar Man  I almost forgot about this one since what is St. Roch's day?

 

What's on tap for you next? 

[Cassylvania]

57 minutes ago, Briste said:

Here is your St. Roch's Day reminder for this Friday! I have a real challenge with this one. My wife and I are taking the kids and going to Florida for a few days to visit my brother.  It falls over St. Roch's day   Fortunately, he has a PS4, so I will log into my account down there and download Arkham City, just to see my good friend the Calendar Man  I almost forgot about this one since what is St. Roch's day?

 

I think it's...um...yeah, I'm not sure anybody really knows without looking it up first.

 

Calendar Man should just go into hibernation in August.

 

58 minutes ago, Briste said:

What's on tap for you next? 

 

Well, if I'm going to have any chance of finishing ten games for GBN2, I'll have to start tackling some shorter titles. I still need a 2, 5, and 6, and that's IF I finish Lara in time (unlikely, since I can only stand to play the game for about an hour at a time).

 

We do have some options here, so I'll open the door for a vote.

 

For 2, our choices are Hue, Beholder, Nine Parchments, and Nom Nom Galaxy.

 

For 5, our choices are Bastion, forma.8, Goat Simulator (why did I buy this?), and What Remains of Edith Finch.

 

For 6, our choices are Dragon Sinker, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, The Disney Afternoon Collection, and Wizard of Legend.

 

There are obviously other options too, but those are all games I already own, and they look...relatively short. We'll probably knock one of them out, play a little Lara, play a little Bats, and repeat for the next month. Hopefully by then we'll see another community event spring up, or I guess we're on our own for the best season of the year.

[Briste]

22 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

We do have some options here, so I'll open the door for a vote.

 

For 2, our choices are Hue, Beholder, Nine Parchments, and Nom Nom Galaxy.

 

For 5, our choices are Bastion, forma.8, Goat Simulator (why did I buy this?), and What Remains of Edith Finch.

 

For 6, our choices are Dragon Sinker, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, The Disney Afternoon Collection, and Wizard of Legend.

I don't know any of your 2 options but Beholder looks like an interesting game. Nine Parchments and Nom Nom Galaxy looks like there is MP involved? Hue also seems like a game that would be in your wheelhouse, but I vote for Beholder.

 

I vote What Remains of Edith Finch for you with 5. I've heard nothing but good things and that is a game I'll be playing as well shortly after I finish KH3.

 

My heart says The Disney Afternoon Collection for 6...but there seems to be a lot of speed run trophies there which can be a bit of a slog...Dragon Sinker looks like a nice retro-style RPG. Wizard of Legend also looks cool but I'll cast my vote for Dragon Sinker...reminds me of SNES Final Fantasy games.

 

28 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

There are obviously other options too, but those are all games I already own, and they look...relatively short. We'll probably knock one of them out, play a little Lara, play a little Bats, and repeat for the next month. Hopefully by then we'll see another community event spring up, or I guess we're on our own for the best season of the year.

It's not a fun-themed event like the Halloween or Spelling Bee, but I signed up for the Fall/Winter Backlog event. I 100% games anyways and seemed like a good way to clean up some of my mess of a backlog. It may be something low stress that you could participate in to help you hit more of your backlog. It's going from Sept 1st through the end of February.

 

KH3 has been ok so far. There are a lot of cut scenes which kind of kill the pacing a little bit...but it's fun enough. I'm looking forward to playing a few games without mini-games littered throughout though  I'm going to bum rush a ton of shorter titles in my backlog after this.

 

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[ZoutjeNL]

Congrats on your latest plat friend! I can only comment on games that I played and I absolutely hated Goat Simulator. Its just a gimmicky game which is fun at first but for me the fun didn't last long at all. Bastion is a fantastic game and so is what remains (what I heard, haven't played) so depends if you want more a laid back walking simulator experience or a light action based game. Beholder, Hue, Nine Parchments all look like great games. I haven't played any but I own a few of them on Steam. I liked the Trine series from Frozenbyte, altough I read that nine parchments is a bit of a mixed bag. 

[Cassylvania]

Well, you all name-dropped Edith Finch (despite none of you having played it ?), so I decided to investigate her remains tonight. It turns out her remains are pretty fucked up. I'd put it ahead of Gone Home and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, not only because of the story and the presentation, but because I think it's the right length for a game like this. (Gone Home was too short and EGttR is a slog if you're going for all the the trophies.) Speaking of trophies... I didn't earn a single one until the end credits. Clean-up looks easy, but I'm a little too bothered by the events of the game to get them right now. It's Blackwood Crossing all over again.

 

I do have a few issues with the characters and the pacing, but this is one of those games where I'd be doing you a disservice by explaining my grievances, so I'll just say check it out sometime if you want to feel wonderfully miserable.

 

Kinda glad Edith won the first round, because a ~2 hour game was just what I needed to get back on track. We'll wait for a couple more votes to come in before deciding on entry 2 and 6.

 

In the meantime, I'm done with five of the seven DLCs in Twat Raider. I still haven't beaten the game. Unfortunately, I gotta play through that garbage a second time on the hardest difficulty. But after this, I think I'm done with these open-world, AAA collectathons. I started feeling the fatigue when I was playing the new God of War, but now it's really hitting me. They're just not fun. The stories are bland, the combat is repetitive, and the whole environment is comprised of set pieces. I feel like I'm playing them just for something to do, and that's not what gaming should be about. Playing a 2 hour game that is more engaging than a 20+ hour AAA title puts it all into perspective. So, thank you, Edith Finch, for that. You're the real tomb raider.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Cassylvania

[Arcesius]

3 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Well, you all name-dropped Edith Finch (despite none of you having played it ), so I decided to investigate her remains tonight. It turns out her remains are pretty fucked up. I'd put it ahead of Gone Home and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, not only because of the story and the presentation, but because I think it's the right length for a game like this. (Gone Home was too short and EGttR is a slog if you're going for all the the trophies.) Speaking of trophies... I didn't earn a single one until the end credits. Clean-up looks easy, but I'm a little too bothered by the events of the game to get them right now. It's Blackwood Crossing all over again.

 

I was just a bit late, but I would have recommended that game as well I'm not really into walking sims myself, but I had a go at this one a while back and really enjoyed it, despite it being short and kinda slow-paced. I'm glad you liked it too. Especially Lewis and his story stood out for me, not only because it's fucking tragic, but because they really managed to make you suffer with that bit of gameplay. 

 

I haven't played any of the other games you mentioned (?) but I've heard of Momodora and it looks like something that could be really fun. Otherwise, even though you didn't list it, Limbo is a very short and easy game for nr. 2  Just in case you already own it on the PS4 for some reason. 

[Rally-Vincent---]

Open world games rely mostly on their story, since most of their mechanics are similar. If the story is interesting enough, I still like open world games (especially if you find stuff through exploring), but then again, I usually don't play DLC. But maybe it's just because I like open world games in general?

[Cassylvania]

On 8/15/2019 at 2:27 AM, Arcesius said:

I was just a bit late, but I would have recommended that game as well I'm not really into walking sims myself, but I had a go at this one a while back and really enjoyed it, despite it being short and kinda slow-paced. I'm glad you liked it too. Especially Lewis and his story stood out for me, not only because it's fucking tragic, but because they really managed to make you suffer with that bit of gameplay. 

 

I haven't played any of the other games you mentioned () but I've heard of Momodora and it looks like something that could be really fun. Otherwise, even though you didn't list it, Limbo is a very short and easy game for nr. 2  Just in case you already own it on the PS4 for some reason. 

 

Yeah, Lewis' story was probably the most depressing. I'm glad I didn't have to play through it twice. (Barbara's was my favorite, for obvious reasons.)

 

I'm waiting for a price drop on the Inside/Limbo physical disc pack. I figure if I can snag them both for around $10, I'll make up for how much I've wasted on Lara's DLC.

 

On 8/15/2019 at 5:33 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Open world games rely mostly on their story, since most of their mechanics are similar. If the story is interesting enough, I still like open world games (especially if you find stuff through exploring), but then again, I usually don't play DLC. But maybe it's just because I like open world games in general?

 

I like open world games too. I just don't like what they've become. (You know, too linear and staged.) It's actually making me long for something like Skyrim again, which is a game I've routinely criticized for being deceptively shallow. At least in that, I felt like I was on a unique and wonderful adventure. I don't get that from Lara.

 

But if people enjoy the story, who am I to argue?

 

At any rate, I finished both of Robin's trophies tonight and I'm actually covered in sweat. I am NOT looking forward to doing the rest of those on Batman, Catwoman, or Nightwing.

[Rally-Vincent---]

On 17.8.2019 at 6:46 AM, Cassylvania said:

I like open world games too. I just don't like what they've become. (You know, too linear and staged.) It's actually making me long for something like Skyrim again, which is a game I've routinely criticized for being deceptively shallow. At least in that, I felt like I was on a unique and wonderful adventure. I don't get that from Lara.

 

But if people enjoy the story, who am I to argue?

 

It is not that I particularly enjoyed the story - as a standalone game, the story is rather dull. It is in comparision to the second game I think the third entry is better, as there is more exploration and less combat ( it is Tomb Raider, not Doom Raider), and as far as the story goes, as part of the trilogy is is okay-ish and gives some closure to the Trinity Arc.

[det_gittes]

Hey, I just came back from holidays and saw the poll for which games to choose: I don't know many of the games but I've recently played Dragon Sinker and it was definitely a pleasant experience, although 1) you'll probably find it very easy, 2) it's not exactly a quick game, the guide says 25 hours and from what I remember it took me at least that, if not slightly more. I guess it can be finished more quickly, but still a reasonable time commitment is required - while it was worth it for me, I wonder if a seasoned turn-based RPG player like yourself will enjoy it enough to warrant the time investment. Bastion is a good game but I finished one playthrough on the Vita and I was a bit worried about the life expectancy of the console given how hard I had to smash the buttons so I left it, forma.8 I only played for a few minutes and forgot about it, Nom Nom Galaxy I wanted to get into but failed, and I got the platinum for Goat Simulator but I didn't care for the DLC trophies because, in all fairness, I thought the game was very poor.

[Cassylvania]

On 8/18/2019 at 3:19 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

It is not that I particularly enjoyed the story - as a standalone game, the story is rather dull. It is in comparision to the second game I think the third entry is better, as there is more exploration and less combat ( it is Tomb Raider, not Doom Raider), and as far as the story goes, as part of the trilogy is is okay-ish and gives some closure to the Trinity Arc.

 

I'd be okay with exploration, if that exploration was less linear. It always feels like you're being funneled through games like this. At the very least, I'm done with all but one DLC and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

In other news, I didn't have a lot of time for gaming this weekend, so I knocked out a few more Batman trophies, including some predator/combat challenges and Perfect Freeflow 2.0. Labor Day is up next. It's also the last non-holiday holiday, so I'd like to finish up both Nightwing and Catwoman, if possible. I really don't want to waste Halloween night playing Arkham City, and we know I'll be too drunk busy on Thanksgiving and Christmas to do anything productive. Except maybe watch football.

 

Speaking of football... Had my fantasy draft last night. Got the ninth pick in a 10-man league, which is less than ideal, but I'm happy with my Julio Jones pick. I tried to follow it up with Matt Ryan in the fifth, but that fell through, so I got Drew Brees in the sixth. Grabbed Tom Brady way later on, just in case. Probably putting too much stock into older players, but these are the teams that will still be vying for seeding in December. (Got Diggs too, so we're repping some purple.)

 

4 minutes ago, det_gittes said:

Hey, I just came back from holidays and saw the poll for which games to choose: I don't know many of the games but I've recently played Dragon Sinker and it was definitely a pleasant experience, although 1) you'll probably find it very easy, 2) it's not exactly a quick game, the guide says 25 hours and from what I remember it took me at least that, if not slightly more. I guess it can be finished more quickly, but still a reasonable time commitment is required - while it was worth it for me, I wonder if a seasoned turn-based RPG player like yourself will enjoy it enough to warrant the time investment. Bastion is a good game but I finished one playthrough on the Vita and I was a bit worried about the life expectancy of the console given how hard I had to smash the buttons so I left it, forma.8 I only played for a few minutes and forgot about it, Nom Nom Galaxy I wanted to get into but failed, and I got the platinum for Goat Simulator but I didn't care for the DLC trophies because, in all fairness, I thought the game was very poor.

 

That's my main concern with a lot of games today. If the gameplay doesn't challenge me, I get bored and start watching movies while I play. That's not necessarily a bad thing (in fact, I like having one or two games that I can actively chip away at while binging on Netflix or YouTube), but there's a big difference between a 10 hour platformer and a 25+ hour RPG. I'll have to think about whether it's worth my time.

 

Goat Sim looks very stupid. I think I was high when I bought that. (Probably need to be high to play it too.)

 

Unfortunately, you were too late for Round 2 of GBN2, where game 2 was decided, with 2 votes, to be Hue! Hopefully this game won't be a #2.

 

Actually, I've already played it for a couple hours and it's OK. I wouldn't pay money for it, but it's simple enough, and the music is nice. The collectibles are really unnecessary, though. The idea of returning to previous areas once you have access to more advanced skills works in Metroidvania games because you don't know how to reach those sections when you come across them for the first time (or even if there's a skill that would allow you to do that). Instead, you find the skill later on and are supposed to be like, "Oh, shit! I bet I can use that back at that place I saw before." It doesn't work in Hue because all the areas you can't reach...are simply accessible once you have the corresponding color. So, it's literally there for no other reason than to waste your time. That's a bit of a shame in a game that otherwise has solid map/puzzle design.

 

I'm not sure what we'll end up doing for game 6. That's the one you guys have struggled with voting on the most, and I'm not really feeling any of those choices right now.

[Briste]

14 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Speaking of football... Had my fantasy draft last night. Got the ninth pick in a 10-man league, which is less than ideal, but I'm happy with my Julio Jones pick. I tried to follow it up with Matt Ryan in the fifth, but that fell through, so I got Drew Brees in the sixth. Grabbed Tom Brady way later on, just in case. Probably putting too much stock into older players, but these are the teams that will still be vying for seeding in December. (Got Diggs too, so we're repping some purple.)

My first draft is tomorrow night and I am pick 12 of 12...next Tuesday is my second draft and I'm pick 14 of 14 lol My final draft is Labor Day weekend and that is live and in person so I don't know where I'll be picking yet for that one. I don't mind the last pick though since you get two in a row and I feel like if your first pick gets injured, it's not as devastating.

 

What platform are you using? One of my leagues is an ESPN league and the other two are in Yahoo. ESPN is prettier to look at, but I think Yahoo offers more interesting peripheral stuff. Julio Jones says he's going to go for 3000 yards this year so that would be good lol I haven't done any mocks yet to get an idea of who is going where...there seems to be a lot of turmoil among the usual top picks so I'm kind of happy to be at the tail end. I could see Zeke turning into a Le'Veon Bell situation...I could see Bell blowing a hammy...AB retiring from frost bite...Tyreek Hill in jail and so on and so forth. I would kind of like to get Baker Mayfield on one of my teams this year...but I feel like someone is going to reach for him. Either way I'm pretty amped! Only a few more weeks until kickoff!

 

[Cassylvania]

7 hours ago, Briste said:

What platform are you using? One of my leagues is an ESPN league and the other two are in Yahoo. ESPN is prettier to look at, but I think Yahoo offers more interesting peripheral stuff. Julio Jones says he's going to go for 3000 yards this year so that would be good lol I haven't done any mocks yet to get an idea of who is going where...there seems to be a lot of turmoil among the usual top picks so I'm kind of happy to be at the tail end. I could see Zeke turning into a Le'Veon Bell situation...I could see Bell blowing a hammy...AB retiring from frost bite...Tyreek Hill in jail and so on and so forth. I would kind of like to get Baker Mayfield on one of my teams this year...but I feel like someone is going to reach for him. Either way I'm pretty amped! Only a few more weeks until kickoff!

 

We used to have an ESPN league where you'd draft for EVERY position (including defensive players), so you'd end up with 50+ roster spots. That was insanity. I spent more time setting my line-up each week than I did watching the games.

 

This year, I'm only doing Yahoo. This is a league I've been in for about seven years now. I told them I wasn't doing it last year, but they decided to keep me active for some reason. That team finished 1-12 (mostly because I auto-drafted Le'Veon Bell), but I won all three playoff games to get the top spot in the consolation bracket. ?

 

Some guy REALLY reached for Mayfield in my draft this year. We're talking third or fourth round. I nearly choked on my non-alcoholic beverage. I had the option to grab OBJ around that time, but I'm a casually optimistic Browns fan on my best day. I wouldn't even grab Rodgers in the third. Like I said, Matt Ryan in the fifth is one of the best value picks you can have for a QB. Brady in the tenth wasn't ideal (because why would I play him over Drew Brees?), but I like to have an insurance policy for older players. Or reckless ones. I've gotten burned by Cam in the past.

 

Anyway, it's time for me to meme, like I'm the president of the United States.

 

Nobody:

Literally nobody:

Me: LET'S PLATINUM ALL OF THE ATELIER GAMES!

 

That's right. Despite my insistence that I would NOT play another Atelier game, I just bought the Alchemist of Arland trilogy and have already started Rorona DX. And before you think it's not too late for me to turn back... There's the first trophy now. We've reached the point of no return.

 

I'm going to need more non-alcoholic beverages...

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[Rally-Vincent---]

The last atelier games I played were on the PS2. Atelier Iris Games... if I remember correctly, I stopped playing them because they became repetitive. How are Atelier games nowadays?