Cassylvania's Miserable Little Pile of Platinums

[Rune_Crys]

Since everyone is in Disappointment City, let me share a drink with you!

 

The recent Pokemon announcement was for a Pokemon-based MOBA. Not new games, a MOBA. Kill me now.

 

I don't hate MOBAs, but I don't care about them. Pokemon Unite is a MOBA and I am not interested in it. Which shows that there are Pokemon games I don't like and will never ever play. Pokken Tournament is another. Sorry, Game Freak, you can pour Pokemon sugar over it all you want, but a gross-tasting MOBA or fighting game is still gross-tasting.

 

Not that I hate fighting games, I enjoyed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and now that Min-Min from ARMS is going to be added, a lot of people will have fun with it.

 

Got a platinum for a weird anime-Mega Man game called Taimauri(can't spell it, but that's the gist). It has a God Mode cheat and you can use that in the main game to beat the game without slitting your wrists.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Rune_Crys

[Cassylvania]

On 6/23/2020 at 11:00 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I think the story is more intense if you experience it by playing it yourself someday rather that just watching a Let's Play - or better: not the story itself so much, but what you take from it. I can't tell if you are going to like it or not; it'll be different for the next guy. This one is all down to personal preference to storytelling, especially the ending. I wanted to write something about the ending, but even if vague, it'd be a spoiler, so I won't. I'll just say that I think it's different being in the driver's seat rather than sitting shotgun.

 

Plus, if I'm watching it with commentary, I guess some of the player's personal bias might impact my thoughts on the game. I don't see a way to judge the game's story fairly unless I play it for myself. Guess we'll have to wait until I get the game for free from PS+ in 2027.

 

On 6/24/2020 at 11:48 AM, Rune_Crys said:

The recent Pokemon announcement was for a Pokemon-based MOBA. Not new games, a MOBA. Kill me now.

 

Yuck. Well, we'll see how it goes. It wouldn't be the first game to try a MOBA on mobile. At least you can entertain yourself with New Pokemon Snap?

 

Remember how I jokingly taunted a bunch of indie games to add more DLC a couple of days ago? Well, Minecraft apparently took that as a challenge. Four more unearned trophies to add to the collection. Have a seat with TPH and Shovel Knight and Ajna. Y'all can wait. Well, Ajna might be waiting forever because I'm not sure those trophies are ever going to get patched.

 

I started FF7 (the original) and I've been debating whether I want to play it through to completion first OR alternate between that and FF7R. I thought it'd be kinda cool to play them side by side so I can spot the differences (Briste assures me that they're chronologically similar), but I think due to the sheer amount of concurrent games I have now, it's probably better to wait. I don't have any thoughts on it yet. I'm mostly using the boosts so I can get through the story quickly. I just thought I'd appreciate the remake more if I had at least some experience with the original first.

 

These polygon graphics are hilarious.

[Rally-Vincent---]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

 

Plus, if I'm watching it with commentary, I guess some of the player's personal bias might impact my thoughts on the game. I don't see a way to judge the game's story fairly unless I play it for myself. Guess we'll have to wait until I get the game for free from PS+ in 2027.

 

Well, you could watch a no-commentary let's play, but I don't find something like that to be fun at alI. I really dig the game, and I am glad I avoided the leaks and the - let's call them "discussions".

[Rune_Crys]

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I started FF7 (the original) and I've been debating whether I want to play it through to completion first OR alternate between that and FF7R. I thought it'd be kinda cool to play them side by side so I can spot the differences (Briste assures me that they're chronologically similar), but I think due to the sheer amount of concurrent games I have now, it's probably better to wait. I don't have any thoughts on it yet. I'm mostly using the boosts so I can get through the story quickly. I just thought I'd appreciate the remake more if I had at least some experience with the original first.

Yeah, I used the boosts too. I do remember completing those games without the boosts on the original PSX, but it took forever. FFXII has speed boosts and that means I shouldn't have much problem with it, it's just... eh... Trial Mode is eh. Glad you are getting into FF7. The original is pretty nice.

 

Also, you don't need experience with the original to do the remake - while there are plot points both share, the remake quickly derails from the original big time because of the Dementors trying to mess with ya and Chadley.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Rune_Crys

[Cassylvania]

15 hours ago, Rune_Crys said:

Also, you don't need experience with the original to do the remake - while there are plot points both share, the remake quickly derails from the original big time because of the Dementors trying to mess with ya and Chadley.

 

I'm interested to see how they do the cross-dressing section and the date with Barrett. (Both of which were hilarious, mind you.) For now, though, I think I have my next seven platinums planned out.

 

I'm not sure on the order of the next three, but I was thinking FF7, TWD: Season 3 (whatever it's called), and Gris. Gris looks like a good enough platformer, and I need an entry for #SOLVE. Then I can do P5D for #DANCE. Then P5R for the milestone. Then Zero Time Dilemma and RE2, in whichever order. I might actually start RE2 sooner than that, but I figure it'll take me a while to plat. That'll complete the current event...and I think count for at least four entries in GBN3. Should get me off to a good start. FF7R will count for another, and the final season of TWD for another...as long as I play the digital version, apparently.

 

Unfortunately, Portia and Castlevania don't count for anything, but that should get me close to 10k.

 

Then we finish up GBN3, take on the indie games, and finally breathe a sigh of relief...just in time for Spooktober and definitely-happening-this-year The Evil Within and/or some other RE game. Yeah. That's the plan for the rest of this summer!

 

I see they cancelled the Hall of Fame game. Cowboys and Steelers is always such a fun game around these parts. (Yes, I know nobody cares about preseason.) I doubt we're going to have football at all this year. Hate to say it, but maybe it's for the best. Wouldn't it be awesome if they just replaced every game with a Madden simulation? They could film it, have Joe Buck provide commentary (I know I hate on the guy a lot, but he was actually pretty funny on Twitter during the lockdown), and broadcast it to the whole country. That would...not entirely be the worst thing to come out of this year.

 

I think the most surprising thing for me was that, throughout the entire lockdown, I really didn't watch anything. Maybe three movies and a couple episodes of Gotham. I only point that out now because I was talking to some friends and they were telling me about all these new shows they started watching. Usually I'm the one doing the talking. But nobody listens anyway because they know I like to watch garbage.

 

I'll never understand how people get more enjoyment out of perfectly mediocre movies than painfully bad ones!

[Rune_Crys]

On 6/26/2020 at 9:16 AM, Cassylvania said:

I'm interested to see how they do the cross-dressing section and the date with Barrett.

I've seen parts of the cross-dressing sequence and it's still as hilarious as ever. You actually get three types of dresses with both girls and Cloud depending on how you do things and one trophy requires you to get all of the dresses. Also, if I decided to platinum the third part of FF7 Remake, which will probably include the outing in Gold Saucer after you get the Keystone from Dio, I'll try to go with Yuffie again because I loved her date sequence in the original.

[Cassylvania]

On 6/28/2020 at 3:26 AM, Rune_Crys said:

I've seen parts of the cross-dressing sequence and it's still as hilarious as ever. You actually get three types of dresses with both girls and Cloud depending on how you do things and one trophy requires you to get all of the dresses. Also, if I decided to platinum the third part of FF7 Remake, which will probably include the outing in Gold Saucer after you get the Keystone from Dio, I'll try to go with Yuffie again because I loved her date sequence in the original.

 

Well, I look forward to it. Not sure when it'll happen. It's not a top priority right now, but I guess I could always sit on the Hard difficulty trophy for a while if I just want to play through it once and save the platinum for later.

 

Speaking of FFVII platinums...

 

Platinum #221 - Final Fantasy VII

 

I think I'll save the review for this one until the remake. Can't give this one a fair shake since (a) it's a really old game, and (b) I used boosts almost exclusively after the 10-hour mark. The graphics are hilarious, though. Everybody looks like a deformed Popeye.

 

I guess that marks the halfway point for 2020. What a shitty year this has been. I was hoping to get my completion percentage close to 100%, but this is turning out just as bad as 2019. At least I could blame my lack of progress last year on Calendar Man. I don't really have any excuses this year other than indie games and an inability to focus. I might try to knock out those three DLC trophies in TPH, since that's at least a game relevant to the event I'm currently working on. But our goal in July is going to be six platinums. That should put us within sniffing distance of 10k by August. I have a vacation coming up in September (unless that gets cancelled too), so I want to get that out of the way before then.

 

Also, I should probably stop eating ice cream every night.

[Rune_Crys]

17 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

The graphics are hilarious, though. Everybody looks like a deformed Popeye.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZHRLaoXkAE3laB?format=jpg&name=large

 

Yeah, I had a feeling that what everyone looked like.

 

You must understand, this was PSX old school graphics, 3D was in its infancy so Square-Enix was struggling to make something work with their limited resources. And don't be ashamed of the boosts, I used them too as no way in f'k was I gonna grind out levels like I did back in 1997 when I was in college and had fewer choices for entertainment. Pokemon was barely getting out of the womb and video games were all struggling to make 3D work.

 

Still, yeah, it didn't age very well.

17 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

What a shitty year this has been.

A pandemic virus that kills the old and young alike kinda makes that sort of thing and now with rumors of the COVID-19 cases tripling and panic setting in again, it's not going to be any better in 2021.

 

Also, I'm in the same boat. I promised myself that this summer I would try to start up Ni No Kuni Remastered and I ended up just playing The Isle of Armor instead and that doesn't have any achievements. (Other than getting a replica gold crown for your character for getting all 210 Pokemon in the new Pokedex. ) Summer is a really bad time of year to be setting goals as the hot weather sucks. What sucks even worse for me is that I have to have all my teeth removed on August and replaced with false teeth. Yeah, 25 years of throwing tantrums to eat what I wanted kinda came back to haunt me.

17 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Also, I should probably stop eating ice cream every night.

I should stop drinking Mountain Dew and anything with carbonation. Just because I'm losing all my teeth for invincible ones doesn't mean I can just do what I want. Zirconium teeth may be immune to acid damage but not my gums. *sigh* Ugh, ugh, this is so not good for my blood pressure. *cry* *grabs Casslyvania and goes down to the ice cream bar to drown sorrows in milkshakes with her*

Edited July 1, 2020 by Rune_Crys

[Cassylvania]

Platinum #222 - Zero Time Dilemma

 

I'm proud to say I platinumed this game without using a guide. The puzzles aren't particularly difficult, but there are times where the urge will hit you to look something up.

 

So, what is it? Zero Time Dilemma is the third game in the Zero Escape trilogy. It's what you get when you combine a visual novel with an escape room simulator. If you've played the other two, it's more of the same, with some familiar faces.

 

I don't think I've ever talked about this series before. I played the other two, but only a couple months before I created this thread. They're...good, I guess. A little hard to follow. I have to give props to any medium that tries to tackle quantum mechanics, though. Some of the best movies (Back to the Future, Total Recall, even Ashton Kutcher's The Butterfly Effect) and books have done this. My biggest issue with this game is the characters. They don't act natural. They have what I'm now going to refer to as the Scooby Doo Syndrome, which is when every character suddenly becomes as knowledgeable or stupid as the situation requires. Akane is probably the worst culprit of this, as she'll randomly start spouting off random quantum theories or calculating probabilities in her head, while the surrounding characters will either act really confused (understandable) or finish her thoughts for her (this happens a lot in the final "reveal" of mystery shows, where the writers don't want a single character to hog the spotlight). I'd be okay if it was ONLY Akane doing this, but I have a hard time believing Carlos knows anything more advanced than how to crush a beer can with his forehead. It just kinda breaks the immersion when I have to buy that every character is a genius, while ALSO having to accept that their brains turn to mush when somebody brings up a new concept -- even a basic one. There are so many times in the game where a character will go like, "Huh? What do you mean?" when what was just explained to them is a hell of a lot easier to understand than what they were just talking about. I don't want to give any examples because anything I could say would be a spoiler to at least one of the storylines, but it's sorta like in Scooby Doo where every character who is NOT explaining how Old Man Jenkins pulled it off needs to ask basic questions so that the viewer doesn't feel stupid.

 

Similarly, I have a hard time buying that characters will act a certain way, even if they're in a very tense situation. Have you guys ever seen the movie The Exam? I'm going to try to explain the plot. A group of people are interviewing for a high-profile government job. They are taken to a room, given a sheet of paper, and told they must answer one question. The paper, however, is blank. Within thirty minutes, they're torturing, sabotaging, and trying to kill each other to figure out the question. It's not a comedy, but I was laughing my head off the whole time because nothing they do could be considered rational. (It's even funnier the second time when you already know the "twist" because the movie is not nearly as clever or profound as it thinks it is.)

 

Unfortunately, this game suffers the same problem, but I'm willing to give it a pass because the characters are, for the most part, likable. At least the ones in C-team and D-team. I could do without Mira and Eric. But it is cool to see how the story unravels and I personally love anything that deals with brain teasers or mathematical problems. Vsauce is actually a really good YouTuber if you're interested in learning more about that stuff.

 

This game seems to target some of the more well-known probability puzzles, like the Monty Hall problem. You know that one. You are given a choice between three doors. Behind one of those doors is something you want. Say, a sequel to Bloodborne. Behind the other two are something you don't want. Say, Kanye West as president. You make your selection and the host opens one of the remaining doors that does not contain Bloodborne 2. He then offers you a chance to change your selection. Should you do it? Statistically, yes. Your odds go up substantially. The solution becomes even more obvious if you consider more doors, but it's a tricky thing to do a video game. This game does is with 10 doors, which I think is a fair number to trick at least some people into sticking with their original guess (humans are stubborn, after all), but it still comes down to a 50/50 chance when you consider that you can just reload the save if you lose. In fact, that's how I solved the wire-cutting problem. You have a choice between a blue and a red wire. I'm sure there's a logical reason to pick one over the other, but I guessed (incorrectly, mind you) and only lost about 20 seconds. There just isn't really a good way to do that in a video game, I think.

 

There are plot holes. One thing I never understood is the Russian roulette problem. If you put a bullet in the chamber of a gun and spin it, you have a 1/6 chance of dying if you put the gun to your head and pull the trigger. I understand that. The issue I have is: if the bullet is in the first slot, your chance of dying has already been determined. It's not 1/6. It's either 0% or 100%. In every universe, you either die EVERY time or NONE of the time with the first shot. UNLESS you're saying the multi-world theory applies at the time the chamber is spun, which is...not how it's presented in the game. I don't know. There are probably a lot of things here that don't make sense if you think too hard about them. I particularly hate Akane for being able to do anagrams in her head so quickly.

 

Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't say anything about the graphics. The facial animations are HILARIOUS. I actually put this game for the longest time because I thought the art style looked like something you'd see in a bootleg Disney movie, but it turns out the developers just really wanted to make memes. That's the only reason these decisions could have been made.

 

Would I recommend this series? Absolutely. There's nothing I've played like it. It's dark, it's funny (sometimes unintentionally), it's complex, and it has puzzles that make you feel smart without getting overly frustrated. You're going to want to start with The Nonary Games, but it's on sale all the time. Then you too can join me in making fun of the characters. What do you think, Akane?

 

 

Fantastic.

[AJ_Radio]

If you decide to get back to Shovel Knight soon, I may need some help and tips on doing some of those challenges for Plague Knight and Specter Knight.

 

I don't think this game is anything excruciatingly difficult, the Banquet Fight on New Game Plus with Plague Knight is about the worst you're going to see. I got completely burnt out on the challenges and the fact it's only one silver trophy for each character instead of a handful of them was just a stupid decision on the trophy designers part.

 

Still haven't gotten all the collectibles for Plague Knight, I have to look up a guide on them because I completely gave up trying to find the ones I'm missing. They're pretty well hidden.

[kingofbattle8174]

Dilemma is in my near future. Most people say I need to play Nonary first as I see you do as well. I do have them both but I want to get through my PS Plus vita backlog so I am trying to justify skipping it to play this one first when I get to it. 

[Grotz99]

1 hour ago, kingofbattle8174 said:

Dilemma is in my near future. Most people say I need to play Nonary first as I see you do as well. I do have them both but I want to get through my PS Plus vita backlog so I am trying to justify skipping it to play this one first when I get to it. 

 I played Dilemma before Nonary and I don't think it mattered too much on the order. Chronologically Nonary comes sooner in the timeline and if you play Dilemma before, you get some dialogue and characters referencing back to the other game a little, but that's it.

 

I'm hoping their new game "AI: The Somnium Files" drops to those prices at some point so I could play that one too.

Edited July 8, 2020 by Grotz99

[Cassylvania]

13 hours ago, Spaz said:

If you decide to get back to Shovel Knight soon, I may need some help and tips on doing some of those challenges for Plague Knight and Specter Knight.

 

Hm... I don't remember having any significant problems with those. I think I had to do the tower challenger as Specter Knight a few times, but the speedruns and no checkpoints just took practice (and backup saves).

 

What specifically is giving you trouble? I don't think I'll get to Shovel Knight until September.

 

4 hours ago, kingofbattle8174 said:

Dilemma is in my near future. Most people say I need to play Nonary first as I see you do as well. I do have them both but I want to get through my PS Plus vita backlog so I am trying to justify skipping it to play this one first when I get to it. 

 

Like @Grotz99 said, you can play the games in any order. They're literally about branching story paths and alternate timelines, so it's not like it'll be any more confusing to play Dilemma or even VLR first. They're all self-contained stories.

 

Personally, I like how the number 2 looks like a Z, so I'm glad I made that platinum #222. That's one of the better accidental milestones I have.

 

Didn't I say I was going to play ZTD after I finish Persona 5 Royal? Eh, whatever. Progress is progress. I'd like to finish the Jill campaign in RE2 this week so I can begin my S-rank run. I'm not sure why one of the guides says the platinum requires 6 playthroughs when 8 are listed.

 

Not sure what I'll begin next. I'm kinda looking at the Danganronpa series. I hear they're a bit like Zero Escape. I don't think I'll get to it any time soon (the physical copies are ridiculously expensive, for one thing), but maybe after these events are over. Any thoughts on that series?

[Rally-Vincent---]

20 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Not sure what I'll begin next. I'm kinda looking at the Danganronpa series. I hear they're a bit like Zero Escape. I don't think I'll get to it any time soon (the physical copies are ridiculously expensive, for one thing), but maybe after these events are over. Any thoughts on that series?

 

I have got Danganronpa 1/2 reload. Danganronpa is more like Ace Attorney, I think? Never played that, but heard the comparision.

 

I only played 1 yet. It is good for one playthrough, but cleaning up trophies is a bit of a grind. Haven't played 2 yet, the first part didn't interest me enough, so I backlogged it. Funny enough, I dipped into Nonary, and I din't know about that either. I'd go with Danganronpa > Nonary for now, so if you liked the one, you'll be good with the other?

[Cassylvania]

Oh, man, guys. I am sweating bullets. I just combined RE2's Hardcore difficulty with a speedrun trophy (which not only makes the game harder, but gives you less time). Finished with 7 minutes to spare. I still have to do a sixth playthrough for Minimalist, but at least I can take my time with that. I need to beat Claire's B story anyway.

 

On 7/8/2020 at 5:29 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I have got Danganronpa 1/2 reload. Danganronpa is more like Ace Attorney, I think? Never played that, but heard the comparision.

 

I only played 1 yet. It is good for one playthrough, but cleaning up trophies is a bit of a grind. Haven't played 2 yet, the first part didn't interest me enough, so I backlogged it. Funny enough, I dipped into Nonary, and I din't know about that either. I'd go with Danganronpa > Nonary for now, so if you liked the one, you'll be good with the other?

 

Ah, okay. Well, I bought Ace Attorney on sale the other day, so I'll play that first. Dang-a-rope-a-dope or whatever can wait.

 

We seem to be making solid progress this month. I don't think I'll finish P5R (I'd rather take my time with that), but I think we can start getting some other games ready to platinum. I also started watching Community again, which is a show I liked but never really watched consistently or in order. I find it pairs well with repeat RE2 runs.

 

I haven't given any updates on my exercise routine, but I've been holding pretty steady at my target weight for a while now, which is impressive considering how many nights a week I treat myself to ice cream.

 

That's...really about it for now. It was a stormy weekend. There's a tree in my backyard that might fall and kill me in my sleep, so that's what happened if I suddenly disappear.

[AJ_Radio]

I'd go back to Minecraft. Never liked the game really... far too much busywork for me at this point to bother with that many trophies. For you, it should be straightforward and easy.

[Cassylvania]

On 7/14/2020 at 1:44 AM, Spaz said:

I'd go back to Minecraft. Never liked the game really... far too much busywork for me at this point to bother with that many trophies. For you, it should be straightforward and easy.

 

Yeah, looks like one of the easier DLC updates. It'll be interesting to see what they do with the PS5 trophy list...

 

Platinum #223 - Resident Evil 2

 

I'm probably not in the best frame of mind to review this game. I didn't mind playing through the game once or twice, but six times was a bit much (and that was WITH me combining the speedrun and Hardcore difficulty). I also saved two of the most annoying trophies for last: Grim Reaper and the DLC's Hell of a Sheriff, which gave me anxiety. Getting grabbed by zombies really started to piss me off. You have such a narrow space to navigate and they're all around you. This makes the sixth (I think?) RE game I've played, and they all have at least one really stupid trophy that soured the experience. I still think RE4 is my favorite.

 

But yeah, it's good. I'm not someone who grew up with the RE series, as you know, and I can't say I've ever played the original RE2, so I don't know how this compares... but it seems people were generally happy with how it turned out.

 

And...yeah, that's my whole review. Thanks for tuning in. I'm going to go soak my head in ice water now.

[AJ_Radio]

20 minutes ago, Cassylvania said:

Yeah, looks like one of the easier DLC updates. It'll be interesting to see what they do with the PS5 trophy list...

Not going to bother with the PS5 for a long time. I got enough crap and games on my PS4. 
 

Good job on the Resident Evil 2 platinum though.

[KN_Kirai]

On 8/7/2020 at 6:02 AM, Cassylvania said:

There are plot holes. One thing I never understood is the Russian roulette problem. If you put a bullet in the chamber of a gun and spin it, you have a 1/6 chance of dying if you put the gun to your head and pull the trigger. I understand that. The issue I have is: if the bullet is in the first slot, your chance of dying has already been determined. It's not 1/6. It's either 0% or 100%. In every universe, you either die EVERY time or NONE of the time with the first shot. UNLESS you're saying the multi-world theory applies at the time the chamber is spun, which is...not how it's presented in the game. I don't know. There are probably a lot of things here that don't make sense if you think too hard about them. I particularly hate Akane for being able to do anagrams in her head so quickly.

 

A bit late on this, but I'll comment either way even though I don't remember much about the game.

 

If you think about it, what you're saying is the same thing from different perspectives: the probability is only there because you don't know where the bullet is, but if you knew it wouldn't be 1/6 for certain. It all depends on your point of view, because if you were a time traveller who has already seen the outcome, of course you wouldn't say the probability is 1/6. I don't remember how the concept is played in the game, but the same logic should apply, it's just not an absolute matter, it's relative.

I hope that's what you were intending and didn't state the obvious.

 

Good job completing this game without a guide by the way, I don't think I would've managed.

[Cassylvania]

On 7/16/2020 at 2:54 AM, KN_Kirai said:

If you think about it, what you're saying is the same thing from different perspectives: the probability is only there because you don't know where the bullet is, but if you knew it wouldn't be 1/6 for certain. It all depends on your point of view, because if you were a time traveller who has already seen the outcome, of course you wouldn't say the probability is 1/6. I don't remember how the concept is played in the game, but the same logic should apply, it's just not an absolute matter, it's relative.

 

Well, in the game (I don't think this is a spoiler), the gun has already been loaded. There's one outcome for a bullet being fired and another for a blank (and another for not firing the gun at all). I think it would make more sense if the player was asked to spin the chamber first and then pull the trigger. Most of the other choices in the game (maybe all of them, I'm not sure) are determined by the player/the characters in the room. That seems to be the odd one out because the determination of whether or not the first chamber holds a bullet is made before they enter the room.

 

But yeah, I get what you're saying. We don't know the outcome until the gun is fired for the first time. There's also probably a chance, however small, of a misfiring. That would mean that even if the first chamber has a bullet, there's still some universe out there where you'd survive.

 

Anyway, I haven't been posting because I haven't been playing much. I started Phoenix Wright, but I'm taking my time. Just finished the fourth case in the first game, which sure seemed like it was wrapping everything up...but there's one more case to go. Maybe bonus content? I don't know.

 

My goal this month was to finish six games and save Zero Time Dilemma and RE2 for next month. Instead, I didn't finish any of those games...and played Zero Time Dilemma and RE2. Go figure. But it's summertime, so who cares? Gotta enjoy all that nice weather before fall creeps in.

 

Anything going on in gaming news? I saw Ghosts of Tsushima is selling really well, but I don't know anything about it. Ryza is getting a well-deserved sequel. We'll get back into that series whenever Firis decides to become more reasonably priced. I don't see anything on the Summer Sale that interests me. Unless I want to subject myself to Punch Line or Rabi-Rabi, which...I wouldn't put past me. Yeah. It's been a pretty lazy summer.

[Rally-Vincent---]

5 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Anything going on in gaming news? I saw Ghosts of Tsushima is selling really well, but I don't know anything about it.

 

I seem to be one of two peole who isn't keen on playing it - the other one of course being @Spaz, obviously. I guess our reasons are different, though, because I like open world games (and hate platformers, so I am his opposite). I downgraded from might want to play to watch Let's Play, and even then, the story doesn't grip me. I'm watching it because there is no other Let's play that interests me right now. Oh, and it is Ghost of T., not Ghosts. I learned that when I wondered my strg + f would not find the game.

 

[AJ_Radio]

I feel some people on this website get this misconception that I am mostly into old school platformers and generally hate open world games in general because of the checklists.

 

Truthfully no. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is probably my favorite open world game of all time and definitely my favorite game of this generation as far as bigger games are concerned. There is lots of content, but the vast majority of it was all implemented well. The game was very well designed and the story was a blast to play through. Blood and Wine DLC must be the best story DLC I've seen out of any game, which is saying something because I've played my share of story DLC. It was fantastic, and if I didn't have a big backlog I would stack The Witcher 3 two more times.

 

Honestly I think I'm just getting older and getting out of touch with gaming. I'm not the gaming geek like I used to be. I was a kid and teenager who would skim through game magazine advertisements looking for the latest and greatest game that was good, same with browsing IGN and Gamespot for stuff that was on the previews. I could play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for hours and hours.... and not get bored. I can't do that anymore.

 

I made a point that a lot of open world games are getting repetitive. AAA gaming seems to be done with stuff like The Order 1886, Until Dawn and Knack where they aren't trying to be these photorealistic looking games and instead try to branch out a bit. Whenever someone tries to do something different and presents a risk it gets shit on, yet the stuff that has been the same formula over and over gets the praise. Case in point, Marvel's Spider Man and now Ghosts of Tsushima. I was glad to hear some criticism regarding Days Gone.

 

I'm perfectly fine with linear games, but if it's not something that has the visual quality of The Last of Us Part 2 or has some theme that is popular, then people toss them aside. Half of my profile is games that most people who play Call of Duty and the latest PS4 exclusive automatically toss aside because they're too niche and indie. Screw the mainstream crowd. They're just green lighting all the malicious practices that come with today's gaming.

 

And believe me when the PlayStation 5 comes and all these big budget games start showing file sizes of 150 - 300 GBs, there's going to be a lot of heads rolling.

 

Ghosts should be fun when I finally get around to it, which is when the masses have moved on to another game. But *sigh*, wish Sucker Punch did something a bit more than make it open world. Regardless I will buy it at a reduced price. Paying the full $60 is too much for me right now, especially when I still got games like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain collecting dust on my gaming shelf.

[Cassylvania]

On 7/25/2020 at 6:15 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I seem to be one of two peole who isn't keen on playing it - the other one of course being @Spaz, obviously. I guess our reasons are different, though, because I like open world games (and hate platformers, so I am his opposite). I downgraded from might want to play to watch Let's Play, and even then, the story doesn't grip me. I'm watching it because there is no other Let's play that interests me right now. Oh, and it is Ghost of T., not Ghosts. I learned that when I wondered my strg + f would not find the game.

 

I had to look up how to spell Tsushima and couldn't be arsed to see if Ghost was pluralized or not. ?

 

On 7/25/2020 at 6:33 AM, Spaz said:

I made a point that a lot of open world games are getting repetitive.

 

That's my biggest complaint too. The formula for a lot of games these days seems to be to create a sandbox environment, plop down a bunch of junk to collect and menial tasks to complete, and then center it around an 8-10 hour story. That's a $10 game in my book. One of the reasons I praise the Souls series so much is because much of your time spent is learning the game, which seems to be a foreign concept for other developers. I think you'd like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It does something similar, where it's an open world environment, but it isn't trying to throw things in your face every twenty seconds to try to impress you. I can appreciate a game that strokes you gently.

 

I'll probably play Ghost of Sushi at some point. It looks a lot more appealing to me than Days Gone or TLOU2.

 

Phoenix Wright is pretty entertaining. I just wish I could speed up the text. I read faster than it appears, so sometimes I end up missing dialogue because I'm double tapping X. Probably a way to change that in the Options menu...

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

That's my biggest complaint too. The formula for a lot of games these days seems to be to create a sandbox environment, plop down a bunch of junk to collect and menial tasks to complete, and then center it around an 8-10 hour story. That's a $10 game in my book. One of the reasons I praise the Souls series so much is because much of your time spent is learning the game, which seems to be a foreign concept for other developers. I think you'd like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. It does something similar, where it's an open world environment, but it isn't trying to throw things in your face every twenty seconds to try to impress you. I can appreciate a game that strokes you gently.

Exactly. Although I’m making Assassin’s Creed Odyssey my 250th platinum. Hopefully it will keep me occupied. 
 

The Soulsborne titles keep their freshness. Demon’s Souls still was amazing even though it’s now an old game. I will be doing the remaster of Dark Souls. Not sure when. 
 

Sandbox games are like Hollywood now. While I liked Marvel’s Spider-Man, the entire game was Hollywood from start to finish. Peter Parker is your shy and timid college aged kid, his boss is an aging Baby Boomer, and his former girlfriend is like your typical 18 year old kid who still hasn’t fully matured. I liked the game, but I will never play it again. Everything was too cliche. 
 

I thought about Kingdom Come Deliverance, but I’ve heard a number of issues regarding performance on the PS4 on top of having glitches. I’m definitely going to finish off some long games on my backlog before I delve into Kingdom. It may run fine on a PS4 Pro, I might ask to ask people around. 
 

1 hour ago, Cassylvania said:

Phoenix Wright is pretty entertaining. I just wish I could speed up the text. I read faster than it appears, so sometimes I end up missing dialogue because I'm double tapping X. Probably a way to change that in the Options menu...

 

Phoenix was good back in the day. Haven’t touched that in forever. 
 

In general, Japanese visual novels just aren’t my thing. I can see why the ones I got were on Plus. They’re all incredibly boring, so I’m basically skipping text on them for the most part.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Spaz

[Grotz99]

On 7/25/2020 at 3:33 AM, Spaz said:

I feel some people on this website get this misconception that I am mostly into old school platformers and generally hate open world games in general because of the checklists.

I don't understand that, as you were (are still?) into the Assassins Creed series which is about as open world as it gets and when I saw Ghost of whatever, it looked like the same formula. For me, it's one of those games I'll wait for it to go under $20 or roll the dice that it'll be on PS+. 

 

15 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

Phoenix Wright is pretty entertaining. I just wish I could speed up the text. I read faster than it appears, so sometimes I end up missing dialogue because I'm double tapping X. Probably a way to change that in the Options menu...

Been playing through this a couple hours at a time before going to bed. I actually really like the game, in another life I actually wanted to be a lawyer.

 

16 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

I'll probably play Ghost of Sushi at some point. It looks a lot more appealing to me than Days Gone or TLOU2..

I am glad that I stayed pretty much spoiler free of TLOU2 and am probably in the 17% group that really enjoys it. I won't go into it much here, but I should be getting the platinum this week after I finish my survivor NG+ run. The amount of hatred between people that like it and don't like it remind me of our 2 party system here in the states...