Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Cassylvania]

On 8/28/2019 at 3:52 PM, RuneEyesDragon said:

Has anyone tried Evoland Legendary Edition? It has Evoland and Evoland 2 and while Evoland 2 crashed a few times, it was still a fun game despite the card collecting quest and some of the gameplay changes you had to deal with. It was an RPG with a ton of genres implemented into it. Cassy, have you ever tried it? They have a guide for the puzzles if you want to try it. Might download it for the Switch to take pics for a guide to the stars and cards if anyone needs it. Yes, the Steam Community site has guides for those but now that Epic Game Store is stealing Steam's profits by making games exclusive to them, it won't be long before Steam goes out of business so someone has to put a guide to collectibles up here.

 

The real losers are anybody who had to watch that abomination of a game. Honestly, though, this week went just about how I hoped for the NFC North... The Bears lost, Rodgers looked rusty, the Lions self-destructed after being up big, and the Vikings coasted to an easy victory. Here's to hoping we do the same to the cheese next week.

 

Speaking of cheese...

 

Platinum #183 - Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland DX

 

This had the potential to be the hardest Atelier game yet (and probably still is), but Gio's endless loop utterly breaks the end game. Somehow, if you alternate between a regular attack and a Slash, the enemy never gets a turn. I'm not sure that counts as the game beating itself, but it's pretty funny to watch. (Unfortunately, there is a small chance that the loop can break, so you still gotta synthesis good equipment.)

 

After thinking it over, I'm going to say THIS is probably the best Atelier game to start with. It probably took me twice as long as Totori (thanks to NG+ and end game preparation), but it's the most polished. I like the map screen and being able to develop areas for your kingdom, which I imagine is pretty similar to Ni no Kuni 2. Could've done without the time constraint, though. Even using a guide for most of NG+, I only had a few months to spare when I killed the final META boss...and that was without making any of the recommended accessories, which also eats up time.

 

Either way, I avoided NG++ and that's all that matters. I don't think I could've gone through that a third time.

 

[Cassylvania]

Well, in order to get my last game in for GBN2, I was forced to dive deep into my backlog for Broforce. It's always kinda been on the cusp of games that I've considered deleting from my library (like the usual PS+ trash), but something has held me back. Maybe it's the humor or the retro graphics or the over-the-top machismo, but this seemed like the kind of game that would be fun for a few hours and offer a decent challenge. And to that extent, I think it did its job.

 

The trophy for beating the game on Iron Bro is currently at 0.47%, putting it in the top 5 of my rarest trophies, and I would argue it probably deserves the #1 spot. If you couldn't quit out of the game to prevent your deaths from "saving", I think it'd be nearly impossible. That's because you die in one hit and there are more explosions than a Michael Bay movie.

 

I think there are something like 30 Bros you can play as, but each of them only has one life in Iron Bro. The first thing you're going to do when you start playing the game is trying to switch your Bro, but you'll quickly learn that you can't. Whatever Bro you're given at the start of the level is yours. When you save another Bro, that's the one you play as. If you die, you're given another Bro at random. It seems like a bizarre design choice, but I actually kinda like it, because every Bro is unique and it forces you to stay on your toes and adapt to the situation. For example, Rambro has a machine gun and is good at taking on enemies directly, but MacBrover can only throw dynamite (which is good for killing enemies below you or opening up new paths). Indiana Brones has a whip that can allow you to reach high places, and Ellen Ripbro (my favorite in the game) can blast through tunnels easily. This makes the game fun because you're always trying out new strategies to beat each level. Sometimes you'll think guns blazing is the best approach, but then you'll get a melee fighter with great speed and you'll find it easier just to rush to the next checkpoint.

 

If it wasn't for Iron Bro, I think I'd recommend this game, but you really gotta be patient or hard-headed (or masochistic) to get through that campaign. But if you got it for free and you don't care about finishing every game...yeah, I guess it's worth a play.

 

Anyway, that wraps up GBN2. I guess there are no fall events, so we're pretty much on our own from here. It's too early for Halloween games, and I'm too sober to jump into Atelier Lulua, so maybe we can start thinking about that milestone that I'm barreling towards. I didn't really expect to hit 8k this quickly. If I had more time, I probably could've saved an easy trophy for this moment, but let's be honest: I haven't planned out a milestone since 2000. Whatever it's going to be, it has to be something early on in a game.

 

And no, Lara, it's not going to be one of your games.

[Rally-Vincent---]

9 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

 Rambro [...] MacBrover [...] Indiana Brones [...] Ellen Ripbro

 

Oh My God.

[RuneEyesDragon]

23 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I've considered deleting from my library

You can delete games from your library? HOW?!?!!? Teach me the secret!

[Cassylvania]

17 hours ago, RuneEyesDragon said:

You can delete games from your library? HOW?!?!!? Teach me the secret!

 

It's easy. You go to Library, scroll down to Purchased, select a game you regret spending actual money for, press the Options button on the controller, and hide it.

 

 

Poof! It's gone forever. (Well, or until you select "Check Hidden Content Items"...)

 

Anyway, yesterday was Friday the 13th, there was a full moon, and Alice was calling my name. I can't think of a more fitting game to have as my 8k milestone. I will say, though, that I forgot how dreadfully long the levels in Madness Returns are. It's a good thing I'm not in any rush to platinum, because this may be one of those games I beat piecemeal.

 

The PS sales that are going on are kinda interesting. (I mean Big in Japan and Totally Digital, not the mainstream crap.) I wouldn't mind having the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, or any of the ten thousand Mega Man games. Zero Time Dilemma is a possibility too, I suppose.

 

I know Rainbow Skies is something you think I'd like, but I played the original before and thought it was tedious.

Is Life is Strange 2 actually done? (And shouldn't it be LiS3?)

 

RE2 and RE7 are nearing the price I'd actually pay for them.

 

Sword Art Online any good? I keep meaning to look into that, but they got Kingdom Heart-style numbering going on.

 

The Banner Saga trilogy for $20? Well, that's worth it, if you're even remotely interested.

 

Might as well grab the two Deponia games I haven't played.

 

What's Impact Winter? The Long Dark lite?

 

Lara Croft and the Temple of Yeah Fuckin' Right.

 

I don't know what The Adventure Pals is, but that giraffe's face sold me.

 

I'm not actually going to play Impact Winter, guys.

 

My boys ToeJam & Earl? How could I not? (Why is the plat so rare?)

 

YouTubers Life, you gotta be shi...hey, what's Reverie? Looks like Ness.

 

Pinstripe looks kinda cool. I mean, I don't know what it's about, but it looks artsy and wait that's barely even a sale. Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining, Pinstripe.

 

I don't know why I'm scrolling up. I've already looked at all these games.

 

Octahedron is for people who like seizures.

 

Out of the Box has a Trump trophy. Do I smell my 9k milestone?

 

Mark of the Ninja, huh? Well, it's not The Messenger (which never seems to go on sale), but it looks promising.

 

We meet again Impact Winter. I'm sorry, but I've had enough of winter survival games.

 

Eternity: The Last Unicorn. I can't even say that title without blowing snot.

 

If I had more time, I'd actually research some of these games. The Flame in the Flood looks good. So does Haimrik. Chasm? Smoke and Sacrifice? Tembo the Badass Elephant? I can't buy all of these.

 

I wonder if Through the Woods is spooky. Five dollars, five dollars... That's a whole Fill-Up at KFC. Not that KFC is any good. We play a game at our house where the loser has to have KFC for dinner.

 

I'm just saying, there are worse ways to spend five bucks.

 

Or $100, as I just did.

 

I hope you're happy with yourself, me.

[RuneEyesDragon]

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Poof! It's gone forever. (Well, or until you select "Check Hidden Content Items"...)

Oh. I thought it was something else when you said "delete." Sorry, I knew about that. What I did to find games I wanted to replay after hiding them was use the search function.

 

Anyways, I thought about getting Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon: Every Buddy, but I'm worried I might not be able to platinum it. I might try it on a blank account first just to try it out. I played and beat most of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeons as a kid, and I was wondering about this. I'll check the sale some more.

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

hey, what's Reverie? Looks like Ness.

A really easy game to platinum and really really fun. I've got the platinum for it on Vita and it's pretty fun but has some challenges. The bonus dungeon is no joke and you have to be careful to clear it.

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

That's a whole Fill-Up at KFC. Not that KFC is any good. We play a game at our house where the loser has to have KFC for dinner.

Don't tell that to the people who made the KFC Dating Game!

 

[Cassylvania]

On 9/14/2019 at 4:13 PM, RuneEyesDragon said:

Don't tell that to the people who made the KFC Dating Game!

 

 

I hope that's a joke. (It's not. I just looked it up.)

 

It's only a matter of time before Wendy's gets the same idea...

 

But before that happens, we seem to be at a crossroads (which is grammatically correct, so don't correct me). I'm limited in what I can do in Batman. I'm basically done with everything in Lara, except the annoying Deadly Obsession trophy...and one score/time attack. I could finish Alice, but the length of these levels has worn me down. I also missed a Radula room. I don't even know what a "radula" is. According to the internet, it's what mollusks use to eat. It's also disgusting. Don't Google it. But hopefully I can collect it in chapter select, because Chapter 4 is longer than a football game. I know because I turned my PS3 off right around the time Matt Ryan threw the eighth interception of the game.

 

In any case, I guess we can start something new. I mean, only having Alice, Batman, and Lara makes me feel like I've been transported back to 2013. Those Atelier games were familiar territory too. I think we need to dive into something fresh. I suppose we could try one of those games I bought yesterday, or we could finally tackle one of the bigger games (e.g. KH2, KCD, or The Witcher 3). I don't know how many more major titles we'll get in before the end of the year.

 

Looking ahead, I think a good goal would be 200 platinums by 2020. That's roughly one plat a week, which I think is doable (especially considering we're very close to three of them). If there's no official Halloween event, I might just pick out one or two longer horror games to fill our October, and I've had The Evil Within sitting on my shelf for a while. I've heard there's a pretty hard trophy associated with that. RE2/RE7 are also possibilities, if I see a sale I like.

 

I'm also kinda interested in a few games being released soon, including Tropico 6, Stranded Sails (I fully expect this to let me down), Baldur's Gate, Yooka-Laylee 2, and the Aladdin/Lion King port. I like the look of Ghost Parade and Bee Simulator too.

 

But I guess most of you are interested in that Star Wars game.

 

[Arcesius]

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

In any case, I guess we can start something new.

 

Well, you shouldn't have posted that screenshot above about hiding games... Because now that I know you own it, I won't stop bugging you about playing Furi ? Do it! Why haven't you played that already? he?

 

In any case, if you decide to start The Witcher 3, lemme give you a tip: Do one single playthrough on Death March. It's what I did, and you'll get used to the game mechanics in no time. Like in any other RPG, if you do sidequests left and right you'll be anyways overleveled for the main campaign. Plus, it makes the game more engaging ?

Edited September 16, 2019 by Arcesius

[RuneEyesDragon]

On 9/15/2019 at 11:36 PM, Cassylvania said:

I hope that's a joke. (It's not. I just looked it up.)

 

Sorry, I had to warn you when you told me you hated KFC. You can just avoid it. I will.

 

On 9/15/2019 at 11:36 PM, Cassylvania said:

It's only a matter of time before Wendy's gets the same idea...

 

Oh yeah, it'll be SO much worse since Wendy's mascot is a girl, and dating Sims are usually targeted towards boys where the main character is a high school boy who gets to know a harem of cute girls...

 

 

 ?

 

To cleanse our brains of the idea of Wendy making out with the player character over a hamburger date, I might go back to Kingdom Hearts 3 and beat the crap out of pirate Heartless in the Caribbean. I completed the stories in Monstropolis and Arandelle and just gotten the Shield Shredder trophy after only one retry (because I hit an icicle and negated my no damage bonus) so I might just have a shot at the platinum for #75! I just wish that I had more than 28% right now. Once I start the Caribbean I should be getting more trophies.  

Edited October 2, 2019 by RuneEyesDragon

[Briste]

On 9/14/2019 at 1:48 PM, Cassylvania said:

Or $100, as I just did.

 

I hope you're happy with yourself, me

I can't believe you spent all that money with Goat Simulator sitting there in your backlog...

[Cassylvania]

On 9/16/2019 at 3:13 AM, Arcesius said:

Well, you shouldn't have posted that screenshot above about hiding games... Because now that I know you own it, I won't stop bugging you about playing Furi  Do it! Why haven't you played that already? he?

 

In any case, if you decide to start The Witcher 3, lemme give you a tip: Do one single playthrough on Death March. It's what I did, and you'll get used to the game mechanics in no time. Like in any other RPG, if you do sidequests left and right you'll be anyways overleveled for the main campaign. Plus, it makes the game more engaging 

 

I'll get to Furi eventually. I hear it's tough, which...has kinda been the theme this year, hasn't it?

 

And yeah, I'd be doing a single playthrough of The Witcher 3.

 

On 9/16/2019 at 1:30 PM, RuneEyesDragon said:

To cleanse our brains of the idea of Wendy making out with the player character over a hamburger date, [...]

 

The internet has already tainted the image of Wendy to me, thank you very much.

 

But hey, if you want a new game to try out, take a look at The Adventure Pals. I think it's something you'd like. I bought it because giraffes are my favorite animal (and there's one on the front cover), but it turned out to be a really good action platformer. The devs were obviously...let's say, "inspired" by Adventure Time, but they somehow put together a better AT game than either of the official ones I've played so far. The animations are beautiful, the story is quirky, and it looks like a very chill and fun platinum. I'm only two worlds in.

 

I'm thinking of maybe doing the ABC challenge, but I don't like that it doesn't begin until January. It's making the next three months very difficult to plan out!

[Briste]

On 9/18/2019 at 1:16 AM, Cassylvania said:

I'm thinking of maybe doing the ABC challenge, but I don't like that it doesn't begin until January. It's making the next three months very difficult to plan out!

I was thinking of doing it too...but that's a pretty big commitment so I haven't decided if I will yet. I came up with a preliminary list just in case...but I may play several of them before we even get there. I'm kind of hoping there is some sort of Halloween event, but I also wouldn't mind some flexibility for a bit. Sometimes I find creating the list for these events ends up being more fun than playing the games  

 

 

[Cassylvania]

2 hours ago, Briste said:

I was thinking of doing it too...but that's a pretty big commitment so I haven't decided if I will yet. I came up with a preliminary list just in case...but I may play several of them before we even get there. I'm kind of hoping there is some sort of Halloween event, but I also wouldn't mind some flexibility for a bit. Sometimes I find creating the list for these events ends up being more fun than playing the games

 

I have a list, but...yeah, it's hard to say if I'll want to play some of those games before then, or if I'll want to change those games sometime next year. This is what I have so far, though.

 

A - Another World OR Aegis of Earth OR some Atelier game
B - Bastion OR Beholder
C - Child of Light OR Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon
D - Deponia Doomsday OR Dragon Sinker OR Downwell
E -
F - Furi OR Flinthook OR Frost
G - God of War (PS3) OR Gaunlet OR Goat Sim OR Guacamelee 2 OR Gunhouse
H - Heavy Rain OR Hitman GO OR Hollow Knight OR Horizon Chase Turbo
I - Impact Winter
J -
K - some Kingdom Hearts game
L - Lords of the Fallen???
M - Mark of the Ninja OR Mirror's Edge Catalyst OR Momodora 4
N - Nine Parchments OR Nom Nom Galaxy
O - Overcooked OR Oxenfree
P - Portal Knights OR Persona 5
Q -
R - Ratchet & Clank OR Regalia OR Rocketbirds
S - Sundered OR Stardew Valley
T - ToeJam & Earl OR Tokyo Xanadu eX+ OR Toren OR Transistor OR Trine 2 OR Typoman
U - Uncanny Valley???
V - Valthirian Arc OR Valkyria Revolution
W - Wizard of Legend
X - Xenon Valkyrie+ OR XCOM 3 (fat chance)
Y - Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair OR a Yakuza game
Z - Zero Time Dilemma

 

I pretty much own every game on this list already, except for Persona 5 (the Royal edition) and Yooka-Laylee 2, which I'm obviously going to get when they come out. The question marks are for games I own, but don't really want to play. And I really don't have anything I like for E, J, or Q. But I just wanted to see how close I could get to completion, without having to buy a lot of new games, or committing myself to several long/hard platinums...

 

I also have to do a C game for the 2018 Bingo event, which is the only category I'm still missing. I figured I'd stumble into that by dumb luck, but it hasn't happened yet, so we might have to get an early start on CoL or Chocobo's.

 

All set for football tonight. I got some fall scented candles, a new armchair coming in the mail, and I think I might redo my bedroom in Vikings colors. I've always been partial to a black and white theme, but this place could use a splash of color, and purple is kinda my jam. Actually, did you know purple doesn't really exist? It's like an illusion that our eyes make up. We have receptors that can identify red, green, and blue, and they're usually good at identifying colors that are a mix of red and green (e.g. yellow) or green and blue (e.g. cyan), but our eyes get confused when there are photons vibrating at a frequency between red and blue because it should be green, but the green receptor isn't active, so they just make up the color purple. That's right -- your eyes are big fat liars.

 

It's still my favorite color.

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #184 - Alice: Madness Returns

 

I really want to give this game a glowing review. It's a cult classic and we've had a lot of history together. This was one of the first games I owned on the PS3, it helped get me into trophy hunting, and I started playing it at a time in my life where my OCD was at its worst...meaning I've probably played through the opening intro a hundred times. That's not an exaggeration. I absolutely love the visuals here. This is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games of last gen, and honestly one of the most overlooked games on the system. The things I'm about to say are not to discredit what the developers have created, but rather to give my insight into something I've chosen to revisit after being physically and mentally removed from the state I was in was when I first played it.

 

Because I've gone through this story several times, I decided to completely ignore all the dialogue and cut scenes, and judge the game solely on its gameplay. And when you do that, you really see how shallow this game is outside of its visuals. The controls are awful. I've seen worse (we'll get to that in a second), but I struggle to think of another game of this quality that has completely missed the mark in both combat and platforming. You remember that Egoraptor video where he pointed out how much of the combat in Zelda OoT is waiting (and how that's a bad thing)? That's present here too. Several enemies require twiddling your thumbs until their heads pop out or they decide to throw a projectile at you, and at least two of your weapons take time to recharge. In fact, all of your attacks are a little awkward, you don't know how much damage you're doing, and there's really no point in playing on the higher difficulties unless you want the combat sequences to last EVEN LONGER, which you don't, because these levels are absolutely grueling. Even with me skipping all of the dialogue (and having a relatively good idea of what to do in each section), most of these levels take two or three hours. That may not sound like much, but it's generally doing the same thing over and over, fighting the same enemies, jumping over the same platforms, and searching every nook and cranny for trophy-related collectibles (some of which are invisible). It really makes you question your own sanity, which may have been what the devs were going for. I don't know.

 

Fortunately, there are only five levels. I like Queensland the most. It doesn't just look like the best, but it has a very satisfying ending. If they had maybe made the levels half as long (and twice as many), I think this game would have been a lot more enjoyable. It just starts to wear on you after a while, because the combat and platforming aren't all that interesting.

 

And then I played the DLC. Which is the first game in the series. (Yeah, I guess it's a series. They've been pushing Alice 3 for a while now, so we might be looking at a trilogy.) This was my first time playing it and I have to say: for a game made in the year 2000...yeah, it's bad. But it's not just "bad" in the way that almost all 3D platformers were bad at the start of the new millennium. It's bad in the exact same ways as Madness Returns. Shoddy platforming, stiff combat, and collision detection that does whatever it wants. You basically just tank every hit or run past every enemy until you get the Ice Wand/Jacks, and then the rest of the game is a breeze. But at the same time, you still have the beautiful visuals (I'm saying this with my N64-era goggles on), and you can see the devs took what worked to make Madness Returns, so I'm really conflicted in what kind of score I would give this game, if I was an actual reviewer.

 

But since I'm not, I'll say that Spicy Horse (from what I've seen and heard) is one of the better game developers out there when it comes to community interaction and feedback. Alice 3 is supposedly going to be a community-driven game, which is such a breath of fresh air, and I really, really hope that they keep all the aesthetics the same...and completely revamp the gameplay. Make it 2D. Or a point-and-click. Or an RPG. Or a hack-and-slash. Just please, please, please don't make it an adventure platformer with levels that take half a day to beat. I'm begging you, Spicy. You have everything in front of you to make a great game. Look at what From Software did with Dark Souls. They took the best ideas from Demon's Souls and made an international sensation. I don't know why I'm posting this here. This is not a Spicy Horse forum. Nobody from Spicy Horse is ever going to read this. But dammit, you have one of the best source materials available to you (before Tim Burton fucked it all up), and I just want to see it done right. Give us the Alice in Wonderland we deserve.

 

Or go deeper down the rabbit hole. We all know it's what you want.

 

 

Damn. This game inspired a lot of artwork. I could probably spend hours looking through everything, but this piece by aiyayo on DeviantArt (http://fav.me/d4kgbkz) is one of my favorites. Just try not to think too hard about what the snail is doing.

 

And hey, for what it's worth, I definitely think this game is worth a play.

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #185 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider

 

Probably the worst AAA title I've played this year. Lara Croft has somehow devolved from a strong independent woman into a whiny, deluded, self-righteous twat who, next to Tucker Carlson and Black Jack Randall from Outlander, has the most punchable face I've ever seen. The best thing I can say about this game is that, for the first three or four hours, you'll be so engrossed by the story and the set pieces that you won't notice how utterly shallow the gameplay is. The problem is that this is not a three or four hour game. Once the honeymoon period is over, you'll realize that the writing isn't very good, the platforming is awful, the puzzles are pathetically easy, and there are only about six combat situations in the entire game (several of which you're practically forced to stealth). There are a ton of skills and upgrades and weapons, but the problem is you rarely get a chance to use them. And there's this really, REALLY stupid plot-related "feature" that requires you to wear a specific outfit for about half of the game, or you can't access certain areas or talk to certain NPCs. It wouldn't be so bad if outfits were cosmetic only, but there are about 20 of these in the game (if you have all the DLC), and each one has its own advantages. Why bother having them if you're not going to let us use them?

 

The load screens are also a problem. This really becomes noticeable when you're fast traveling for collectibles, which is just as tedious as you'd expect from what is an otherwise linear game. You'll have to backtrack through the same platforming sections multiple times, because you undoubtedly missed some ancient artifact buried two feet away from the other forty-seven you've already collected.

 

And then there's the usual hand-holding that comes with games like this, with white paint to let you know where you can go, see-through-walls vision to give bad guys the middle finger, "hints" from Lara if you spend more than four seconds trying to solve a puzzle, and text that appears right on the screen to let you know what button or sequence of buttons to press to reach the next section. But the game does do one thing right, by giving you the OPTION to toggle these features on or off. This is actually really nice because it means the game can be as hard or easy as you want, and I hope it's something we see in more AAA games in the future. For this game, though, you pretty much have to play with all these features off if you want the platinum because of the Deadly Obsession difficulty. This WOULD be amazing, but...they dropped the ball. Spectacularly.

 

You see, they decided that Tomb Raider should be Dark Souls, but they forgot that Dark Souls is a well-designed game with careful enemy placement and a reasonable checkpoint system. If you die on Deadly Obsession, they send you back to the last bonfire campfire. These are NOT well thought-out. Some of them are two minutes apart. Others are forty. And in between that time, you can expect a lot of tedious climbing and unskippable cutscenes. And if you thought Lara was bad at listening to you before (because you were smart and played on a lower difficulty first, right?), just wait until you need her to make a specific jump after a very long and stressful combat situation. My favorite is the mudslide 30 minutes into the game that sends you back to the start if you screw even one thing up. Hope you like watching that intro!

 

Will I miss Lara Croft? This version -- probably not. I have fond memories of TR 2013, I've completely forgotten Rise of the Tomb Raider, and this one may always be akin to Spider-Man 3 to me. Like Star Wars, I'm sure they'll try to reboot the series again at some point, but I hope they let someone outside of Crystal Dynamics have a shot. Because as far as I'm concerned...

 

[Jens]

[...]

Edited October 2, 2019 by Jens

[Briste]

Congrats on getting that monkey off your back! Speaking of games with a ridiculous amount of DLC...how excited are you to play Cities: Skylines again  

 

I'm a little sad to see your review of Alice, but I'll be playing that after my next game. I noticed a trophy I'd like to try and make #4500.

[Cassylvania]

On 9/24/2019 at 6:43 PM, Jens said:

Just imagine Ubisoft grabbing that license... they would amplify the collectibles and side-quests through the roof. And you would get one game every 10 months, wouldn't that be lovely?  

 

And tacked on multiplayer modes. Yuck.

 

12 hours ago, Briste said:

Congrats on getting that monkey off your back! Speaking of games with a ridiculous amount of DLC...how excited are you to play Cities: Skylines again  

 

I'm a little sad to see your review of Alice, but I'll be playing that after my next game. I noticed a trophy I'd like to try and make #4500.

 

As long as there's no stupid 300+ hour RNG trophy, I don't mind going back to Cities. I wish these were free updates, though. Minecraft set a nice precedent that I wish others would follow.

 

You'll be fine with Alice, since it's your first experience. It's just not a game that lends itself well to multiple playthroughs. Definitely use a guide for the collectibles, though... And if you do happen to miss one (sometimes you're blocked from going back, due to a door shutting or something), just make a note and go back at the end using chapter select. I missed about three or four collectibles, even using a guide and being fairly knowledgeable about the game.

 

The trophies are good ones for milestones. I got Snicker-snack! because I actually own Alice's vorpal blade. It's one of the few video game collectibles I just had to have. ?

 

Anyway, I completely ignored Cities and tried out The Flame in the Flood, which I bought during my most recent splurge. It's actually a pretty decent game, but I'm not sure there's enough gameplay variety to warrant the time it takes to get the platinum. It's a bit like The Long Dark, with a lot less to do. Basically, the game is split into two parts: sailing down river on a raft, which is fun, and collecting supplies while avoiding predators, which is less fun. Like TLD, you have to monitor your food, thirst, warmth, and fatigue, and I have the same issue I have with every survival game. *sigh* Your meters drop too fast. Usually it's the food meter that bothers me, because the average person can go longer than a couple days without food, but it's the water meter that's hardest to manage in this game. I guess that's more realistic at least. The problem with water is that you generally have to filter it, which means making a filter, which eats up precious supplies, which means you spend most of the game in your inventory screen. Unlike most survival games, you actually have three inventory screens (yours, your dog's, and your raft's), so there's a lot of shifting items around. Fortunately, it's very user-friendly.

 

Water is also an issue because it rains ALL THE TIME. This is a problem I've had in games since, oh I dunno, the original Everquest on PC. Do developers think we're impressed with rain graphics? I mean, sure, it looks nice and sounds great, but it's killing me, man. (Literally, rain kills you in this.) I'd just like to play a game where it's not dark and gloomy all the time. Just because you're one of the last survivors in a desolate world filled with creatures that want you dead doesn't make you can't enjoy yourself.

 

I always wonder if I should save my reviews until I have the platinum, but I like to give my early impressions from time to time. I finished my first campaign and...well, I wish the guide had pointed out that I need to die BEFORE I reach the last region, if I want to transfer items over to the next playthrough. (Yeah, see, when you die, you restart from the beginning of the game, but you keep all the inventory on your dog.) The problem is that the game creates a checkpoint each time you enter a new region, and you can't die in the last region, so I don't get all the cool stuff I saved up to make my second playthrough easier. Granted, the game does seem to give you the option to reload an earlier checkpoint after the credits, but it kept sending me back to the end of the game. Wonder if it's a bug or something...

 

I might start Atelier Lulua soon. I haven't really found a guide for it, but it looks like it's a one playthrough/no missable trophy kind of thing, which is how I like my platinums.

 

And then we'll start thinking about what spooky games we'll play for Halloween this year.

[Arcesius]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

Anyway, I completely ignored Cities and tried out The Flame in the Flood, which I bought during my most recent splurge. It's actually a pretty decent game, but I'm not sure there's enough gameplay variety to warrant the time it takes to get the platinum. It's a bit like The Long Dark, with a lot less to do.

 

I saw that one on your profile and checked out some gameplay footage. It looks gorgeous, but I soon noticed it might be another survival game and lost interest ? If I ever were to play a survival game (that is a big IF...), which one would you recommend? 

 

 

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

And then we'll start thinking about what spooky games we'll play for Halloween this year.

 

While not necessarily the spookiest game, and without me knowing whether you already own it or not, let me suggest one game that I think you would like a lot and would be suitable for Halloween: Little Nightmares. 

 

Oh man, what a great, relaxing (most of the time) game.. Nothing challenging there, just a very atmospheric, horror-themed puzzle platformer that I really wanted to mention

[Cassylvania]

8 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I saw that one on your profile and checked out some gameplay footage. It looks gorgeous, but I soon noticed it might be another survival game and lost interest  If I ever were to play a survival game (that is a big IF...), which one would you recommend? 

 

Mm... Hard to say. Aesthetically and gameplay-wise, I really like Don't Starve, The Long Dark, Terraria, Minecraft, and TFitF, but they all have terrible trophy lists if you're a completionist. This War of Mine has the most reasonable trophy list, but it's such a depressing game that I can't recommend it. There are others I haven't tried yet, like Oxygen Not Included and Subnautica, that look good. Multiplayer survival games don't interest me.

 

If I was going to recommend one of those, I guess I'd pick Terraria, even though it's probably the least like a traditional survival game. I think the graphics are much better than Minecraft, the music is relaxing, and it's fun to build a castle or a fort or whatever you want to stop the zombie invasions. You're looking at a 100+ hour platinum, but I never got bored.

 

9 hours ago, Arcesius said:

While not necessarily the spookiest game, and without me knowing whether you already own it or not, let me suggest one game that I think you would like a lot and would be suitable for Halloween: Little Nightmares.

 

Yeah, I've looked at that before. It's somehow evaded me for the last couple of years (like The Evil Within), but maybe this is the Halloween we finally get around to it. It'd have to be a rental, though, because I can't really see myself paying $30+ for a 6 hour game.

 

Eagles/Packers tonight. (We really need that vomit emoji.)

[Rally-Vincent---]

On 20.9.2019 at 1:57 AM, Cassylvania said:

L - Lords of the Fallen???

 

May I suggest L.A. Noire instead since you don't seem convinced by Lords of the Fallen?

[Briste]

12 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

You'll be fine with Alice, since it's your first experience. It's just not a game that lends itself well to multiple playthroughs. Definitely use a guide for the collectibles, though... And if you do happen to miss one (sometimes you're blocked from going back, due to a door shutting or something), just make a note and go back at the end using chapter select. I missed about three or four collectibles, even using a guide and being fairly knowledgeable about the game.

 

The trophies are good ones for milestones. I got Snicker-snack! because I actually own Alice's vorpal blade. It's one of the few video game collectibles I just had to have.

Well, here's hoping lol I get pretty frustrated by poor platforming as well, if it's at the level of Forgotton Anne, I'll survive but I'm hoping for better than that. I've got my eyes on the Nothing Smells Like Bacon trophy because...bacon. Hopefully the stars will align so I don't have to go out of my way too much to make it happen. If the levels are as expansive as you say, I'll probably try and follow a collectibles guide so I don't have to retrek all over again.

 

I finished up all the challenge battles and NG+ for Arkham City the past few days. I forgot you have to redo the side missions in NG+ for the Perfect Knight trophy. I will try to finish up most of those tonight during the football game, then it will just be the Calendar Man dates to the platinum and 100%. Do you plan on the Calendar Man trophy to be your last as well or are you going to finish up NG+ in that week after Christmas?

 

 

[Cassylvania]

On 9/26/2019 at 0:44 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

May I suggest L.A. Noire instead since you don't seem convinced by Lords of the Fallen?

 

A worthy suggestion. I love the look of that game. It's from my favorite period in American history, and it probably won't disappoint me as much as LotF.

 

With a lot of the games on that list, I just picked titles I already own because I didn't want to commit myself to new purchases (even if there are plenty of games I plan to buy/play over the next year), but I could probably make an exception for L. Lumo is also a possibility, but I haven't done much research into that game yet. It looks like a tricky but fun -- and super ultra rare -- platinum.

 

We certainly won't be touching Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

 

On 9/26/2019 at 1:31 PM, Briste said:

Well, here's hoping lol I get pretty frustrated by poor platforming as well, if it's at the level of Forgotton Anne, I'll survive but I'm hoping for better than that. I've got my eyes on the Nothing Smells Like Bacon trophy because...bacon. Hopefully the stars will align so I don't have to go out of my way too much to make it happen. If the levels are as expansive as you say, I'll probably try and follow a collectibles guide so I don't have to retrek all over again.

 

That's an easy milestone to set up. The last snout is near the end of the game, so you don't have to worry about triggering it early. Alternatively, you could just skip one on purpose and grab it in chapter select...but be aware that all collectibles "respawn", so you'll have to remember which one you missed.

 

On 9/26/2019 at 1:31 PM, Briste said:

I finished up all the challenge battles and NG+ for Arkham City the past few days. I forgot you have to redo the side missions in NG+ for the Perfect Knight trophy. I will try to finish up most of those tonight during the football game, then it will just be the Calendar Man dates to the platinum and 100%. Do you plan on the Calendar Man trophy to be your last as well or are you going to finish up NG+ in that week after Christmas?

 

It's stupid that you have to redo all the side missions in NG+. Yeah, it's nice you don't have to collect the riddles again (actually, VERY nice), but I don't see why I need to rescue all the political prisoners or track down Deadshot a second time.

 

My plan is...to see how motivated I am around Halloween to play that game. I've done a good job all year only playing it on the holidays (plus or minus a couple of days). My goal will probably be Nightwing DLC + complete NG+ in October. I'm actually pretty close to finishing both. I'll save the side missions and Catwoman DLC for Thanksgiving. That's a long weekend, so I'll probably be able to knock it all out. For Christmas, I just want to log in the game shortly after midnight, say hi to C-Man, and grab my platinum/100%. I don't want to feel rushed to finish anything up at the end of the year. Of course, I'd still like to stick to my goal of 200 platinums by 2020, but I think I can manage five per month.

 

I started Atelier Lulua last night, and it's actually a really gorgeous game. They did a lot of work to improve the UI and graphics. I don't know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to alchemy, but the game seems to have gotten rid of the time limits that made the other Arland games so stressful. I never liked time limits in video games. Even in the original Super Mario Bros, I thought it was stupid, because why should I have to rush through a game that I paid good money for, you know? It's like when you're a kid and you go play laser tag with your friends, but the round only lasts 20 minutes. What kind of horseshit is that? Or when you're on a roller coaster and they expect you to get back in line when the ride is over. Um, hello? I'm not done. Start it back up, Steve. I'll let you know when I've had my fill.

 

But in all seriousness, if you purchase a product and take it home to enjoy, a time limit has always seemed an unnecessary restriction, like you're telling someone that their satisfaction has an expiration date. And yeah, I get it, that some games have challenges that center around being able to accomplish some feat quickly, but why would I ever want to feel rushed? It works in an arcade and in public places because you're trying to squeeze as much money as you can from people in the shortest amount of time, but I never understood it in console games. Especially Mario, where the points don't matter. That just completely ruined games like Quest 64 to me.

 

But I'm getting off-topic. Lulua is cool. Having only played for a few hours, I'm going to say it's probably the best game in the series to begin with. (I know I said that about Totori and probably Meruru, but I'm serious here.) The fact that time still passes but you don't have to worry about getting a game over if you take too long with a task is such a load off my chest, because it means I don't need a hundred pages of notes in front of me at all times, with little scribbles in the margins about events I'm still waiting to trigger or items I still haven't found. More importantly, that means I can just relax and enjoy the game, which is what gaming should be about.

 

We'll see if my opinion changes as I near the 10 hour mark.

 

Anyone excited for any upcoming games? I try to make it a habit to look at new releases at least once a month (even though I rarely buy games until they've been out for at least a year). I'm excited for Civ IV on console. It's a series I've loved for years on PC, but it'll be great to see one with an official trophy list. I'm hoping for one that emphasizes difficulty over grind, but that doesn't seem to be the standard for RTS games.

 

MediEvil looks fun. I figured it'd be released around Halloween, so maybe we'll grab that one as a pre-order.

 

How about major AAA titles? I don't know what Death Stranding is, or what the gameplay in Star Wars Jedi is like, or why people still buy games that have "Madden" or "NBA" in the title, but are there any you got your eyes on? All I know is while all the cool kids are shooting their friends in Call of Doots 18, I'll be playing Mountain Rescue Simulator. That's just how I roll.

[AJ_Radio]

I personally felt LA Noire started falling apart towards the end, but overall I thought it was a good game. My major gripe is they didn't bother to add trophies for The Consol's Car DLC, missed opportunity. Instead they added two pointless collectibles that are required for 100 percent.

 

Just checked in today and saw Cities: Skylines getting more DLC. That basically confirms that I will NOT be buying this game anytime soon, I hate developers who add in DLC long after the initial game is released. I'm still waiting for King Knight in Shovel Knight, only reason I haven't done the feats yet.

[Rally-Vincent---]

4 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Anyone excited for any upcoming games? I try to make it a habit to look at new releases at least once a month (even though I rarely buy games until they've been out for at least a year). I'm excited for Civ IV on console. It's a series I've loved for years on PC, but it'll be great to see one with an official trophy list. I'm hoping for one that emphasizes difficulty over grind, but that doesn't seem to be the standard for RTS games.

 

MediEvil looks fun. I figured it'd be released around Halloween, so maybe we'll grab that one as a pre-order.

 

How about major AAA titles? I don't know what Death Stranding is, or what the gameplay in Star Wars Jedi is like, or why people still buy games that have "Madden" or "NBA" in the title, but are there any you got your eyes on? All I know is while all the cool kids are shooting their friends in Call of Doots 18, I'll be playing Mountain Rescue Simulator. That's just how I roll.

 

 

I am very excited for The Last Of US 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 in the Triple A range. So excited in fact I won't read any more articles in order not to get spoiled too much. The next Dark Pictures game Little Hope is releasing 2020, I like the Until Dawn game type, even if Man of Medan got multiplayer trophies and I won't get the Plat. And there is Phoenix Point (on PC, unfortunaterly no PS4), to ease the XCOM itch. The enemy mutation system sounds promising.Those four games are set.

 

I'll probably get Planescape: Torment Enhanced Edition.

 

I have about 20 games in my watchlist, I put everything in there that sounds remotely interesting. I make bookmarks so that I don't forget about them, and once in a while I see if something eliminates them from the list. Everything that survives until their release day is something I'll read reviews on. I prefer to buy close to the release.

 

With Death Stranding, I couldn't be less impressed by all the uh-secrecy. Unless I know what the game is all about, why bother with it?

Edited September 28, 2019 by Rally-Vincent---