Kill Your Completion V

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #7 - First Impressions

 

 

I basically finished the introductory segment after a couple of hours, so I might just as well start off with the impressions on this game.

 

The first thing I noticed when starting this were that the (main) anime cutscenes look great as always. The second thing I noticed however, was that the actual visuals in game are way behind the times. This being the most recent entry of the Tales series I expected a more polished art style. Instead I'm presented with a washed-out look that is just ugly by now, especially the enemy design. This isn't exclusive to the Tales of series either SAO does the same thing (that series looks even worse though). These games really need to start going with the times when it comes to graphical fidelity as the core gameplay is generally pretty good. There's even a third visual look, which just seems very unpolished. A shame really, as I had much higher expectations regarding the visuals for this one.

 

Now the gameplay and combat are as fun as ever. You walk around exploring and gather items, buy and sell equipment/items and fight demons. You can also set up 4 attacks per button, which serves as a combo maker. The fighting is real-time, as it should be in an Action-RPG . You usually fight several enemies at once by stringing combos together, blocking attacks and sidestepping (which kind of serves as the "dodge" option).  Elements will seemingly play a role throughout the game, so it may get a bit  more complex further down the line. Then there's the option of "fleeing", which isn't the best implementation of that option I've seen, as you'll have to run against the outlined border of the battle area for a few seconds before you actually get to run away.

 

I haven't played too much of the other Tales of games, but this one seems to be going for a much darker theme than any of the previous ones. That is something I really like to be honest, kind of reminding me of the Witchblade anime.

Edited November 19, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[Metal Slime King]

Game #6 - Marvel Heroes Omega

MHO is an action-RPG MMO that's F2P on PS4 but if you haven't got the plat yet you're SOL. If you're interested in it, then check PSN for yourself, reports on it's availability have been spotty. The servers are shutting down on Dec. 31st, 2017 but since all available boosters are essentially free it should still be possible to complete.  shut down prematurely on November 27th, 2017. As you could likely surmise from the title, the game is set in the Marvel universe and it has a large selection of available Marvel characters to play as. Most importantly you can play as Squirrel Girl and kick enemies in the nuts.

 

The graphics are adequate, pretty mundane actually and the music is practically non-existent, like they knew you were going to spend most of your time listening to something else while you were grinding XP. There's a lot of grind if you want this plat, even with free boosts. You have to get 5 characters up to lv60 (which is the level cap) and then prestige one character twice so that's getting lv60 7 times and fully levelling up a legendary weapon (which rises with the same XP) will be more grinding still. When you start there is a main story with 9 episodes and then after that there are post-game operations you can take on. I've been focusing on levelling up the 5 different guys so I've just got up to story episode 6. When you start a new character they start the main story back at the beginning. Without free boosts apparently you would normally beat the whole story mode before reaching lv60 and then have to grind out some operations as well. The game is simple fun, the episodes are a decent length and there are plenty of boss encounters through out. While low-effort for the devs, the still-image, comic-style, voiced cut-scenes work well with the subject matter. Although there are a lot of different characters to use, all of the characters I've used have felt mostly similar. Other MMO's I've played had classes of characters that focused on three main roles (Tank, Damage and Heal) but in this game every character can be a damage dealing, health stealing self healing tank with the right gear. Each character has their own moves but those moves all serve the same function more or less. Each character has some ranged attacks and some melee attacks.

 

I'm giving this game a solid, middle of the road (). Nothing horribly objectionable but nothing really spectacular either. If it weren't for the free characters and free boosts I would find the required amount of grinding to be far too excessive (which I'm sure was the point). I may have to re-evaluate after I've at least gone through the main story, we'll see. After finishing the game I saw no reason to adjust my rating because of the end game content. The operations were just short, independent story levels, the patrol was just a pointless grind-fest and the legendary quests were just redoing previous content with additional objectives.

Edited December 12, 2017 by mking_63

[DamagingRob]

Battlefield Hardline- Final Review

 

I finished the campaign, and that was about all she wrote. That part of the game was really fun, minus a few annoying sections (like that long driving one I posted about, where failing meant taking it all the way from the top..). The multiplayer... not so much. :/

 

I played more of it than Voodoo did, but made almost no progress towards the trophies. You have to get 2 bronze service stars in the Professional class, just to get started on unlocking the MAC-10, and I only got one.. So any sniper or laser tripmine kills I got were a waste, as you can't start on those until finishing that first step. 

 

It's not quite like Voodoo said, though. I never really had a problem with spawn camping in my matches. I'd just die really quickly, when I got close to enemy players.. The game is kind of unbalanced, though. I'm guessing you get more health when you rank up or something, 'cause these high level players have 150 health as opposed to my 100. And so a single shot with the sniper isn't going to kill them (unless you get a headshot maybe). 

 

I tried 3 of the modes. I'm not even sure why I played Hotwire. Guess I read the guide wrong, or that's where you were supposed to get service stars quickly. But that was kind of fun. You'd hop in a vehicle, or one a teammate was driving, and just try to stay alive in it. Gaining XP like crazy, as time went on. Lol.

 

Heist has you trying to grab loot and take it to a specific spot on the map if you're on the robbers side. The cops try to stop it from happening. Managed to get 5 wins there, and moved onto Blood Money. 

 

Blood Money was a pain in the ass, and I didn't win once.. It's kind of like Capture the Flag. You take money from a giant pile and try to get it to your base. Or you can try to steal it from the opposing team's base. I'm sure I'd get the wins eventually, by ending up on the winning team enough times. But I joined a session for the base game trophies, and hope to just knock this crap out quickly. I didn't even mention how much trying to taser people online sucks..

 

So yeah, online wasn't that fun. But the single player was more than worth the $5 I paid for the game. Because of it, I'd say this was at least a  experience. 

 

Time played: 13-14 hours.

Trophy progress: 35/63 for 45% and an A rank. 

Did it lower my completion? Yes.

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Scyther

[Myu]

I played a little more of Criminal Girls 2 because I didn't want to leave it at that. 

The girls are still arguing all the time, which seems to be the theme of the game and I'm a bit disappointed by that. I'm near the end of the 3rd dungeon, lvl22+ and the atmosphere is a little bit more peaceful (let's see how long it lasts...). 

The animations are truly beautiful, the dungeons' design has really improved since the first game. The only thing I still hate with a passion are the motivational mini-games. I keep switching between joysticks and touchscreen because none of those two solutions seem to work well. So far, I had to do the Brush mini game with the joysticks, the Spanking one with the touchscreen and the Slime one with the touchscreen after failing miserable several times with the joysticks. There was definitely some room for improvement there.

I still enjoy this game tremendously though!

I played a little more of Criminal Girls 2 because I didn't want to leave it at that. 

The girls are still arguing all the time, which seems to be the theme of the game and I'm a bit disappointed by that. I'm near the end of the 3rd dungeon, lvl22+ and the atmosphere is a little bit more peaceful (let's see how long it lasts...). 

The animations are truly beautiful, the dungeons' design has really improved since the first game. The only thing I still hate with a passion are the motivational mini-games. I keep switching between joysticks and touchscreen because none of those two solutions seem to work well. So far, I had to do the Brush mini game with the joysticks, the Spanking one with the touchscreen and the Slime one with the touchscreen after failing miserable several times with the joysticks. There was definitely some room for improvement there.

I still enjoy this game tremendously though!

[MarkusT1992]

Game #6: The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (Day 1-3)

 

 

I'm a day late with my review for this game, so let's start,

 

I once watched a Let's Play of this game when it was new. That means I can remember a few things but not all.

This being the second game of the series there obviously was one game before this, which I played but only for one or two hours.

As far as I know follows the plot of this game the plot of the first game so it could be better when you know the first one.

 

The Book of Unwritten Tales is a point and click advanture game set in a fantasy world. The game starts with you as Nate falling from the sky. Your goal is to not smash on the ground. For that you have to climb up the loose parts falling with you till you reach a magic lamp. The jinn living in the lamp is a bit angry with you for insulting him earlier. Apparently he is responsible for the situation you're in right now. So he don't want to do his magic again because it could end even worse. At the end we find a carpet he is willing to transform in a flying carpet and we can escape.

After that scene we ar put in the tutorial where we play a little robot who needs to repair the credits machine.

We can move with :the left stick and use to interact with object near us. With we can open the inventory to use our items on the surrounding. We can also use to inspect objects in our inventory or the surroundings.

After the tutorial is done we are Ivo, an elf living in Elfburrow, who is talking to her mother in her room. We shall get maried to a prince what we don't want but who asks what the children want anyways? Our mother says that Ivo is getting fat and that she needs to loose some weight before meeting the prince.

When she leaves she locks the door so we can't leave our room.

Ivo wants to know what's up with her because she doesn't feel that good. so we sneek out of our room (over the balcony) and find a book in the library. After doing some things typical for adventures we know what's wrong with us. Ivo is pregnant! Obviously it has to be a curse. So we want to leave Elfburroe to seek out the Grand Mage Seastone.

That's all so far because that's where I am right now.

 

Beneath Nate and Ivo there'a a third charcter you play called Wilbur. Wilbur is a gnome. The first gnome to be a wizzard to be precise.

You switch between the three characters during the game and each one has his own goals. In the end all three meet and need to save the world together. The three have met already in the first game so they know each other already.

 

In terms of gameplay it's like most point and click adventures. Colect everything you can and try to find out what to do with your items. A good thing all adventure games should have is the function to show each interactable points on the screen. By pressing you can do that. You can also do that while holding an item from your inventory. In this game you can't use each item with everything in the world, only with some objects, which makes finding a solution much easier as you needn'T to try that much.

The puzzles seem all logical so far so nothing to mention on that.

 

What I really like are all the references to other games. So far there was one for Skyrim and I guess WoW. There was a companion cube, famous swords from Cloud Strife and Minecraft plus two I didn't recognize and that's only from one screen.

It's a very funny game not only because of the references. There are many great dialogues to discover. Especially with one character I haven't met in my three days yet.

 

Time played: No clue. I guess I'm under the three hours

Trophies: 4/51 for 6%

Rating:

[Kevvik]

Game #7: The Last Guardian

 

Day 1/Initial Impressions

 

Time played: 3 hrs

 

So, I have been looking forward to playing this for a long time (back to the original teaser trailers like a decade ago) and man, was it worth the wait. This is a gorgeous game! While not photo-realistic the way some games go, the sheer spectacle and scale of the environment makes for an amazing setting, even when inside buildings or caves.

 

Then we have the characters. For the boy you control, his appearance seems slightly at odds with the environment, as if he doesn't belong here which, if I interpret the opening correctly, he doesn't. Then we have the beast, Trico. An opening montage of scientific style diagrams runs through exotic creatures, then fantastic beasts such as unicorns, dragons and phoenix, ending with Trico, implying a historical existence. In person, it's awesome. A living, breathing mythical beast brought to life, moving with smooth and confident animations and looking completely a part of the world the boy finds himself in.

 

The controls for the boy are in line with Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, though there is no grip meter, no real weaponry and no health bar.  I haven't died yet but haven't really tried to test how far I can fall to a surface before splatting. So far, the only real control you have for Trico is the boy calling him to his position which the beast follows somewhat. Given that you have only been around Trico a little while, it makes sense that his movements lack precise control though it might drive some players to distraction a bit who, for some reason, might be expecting instant and exact responses. I have yet to be unable to progress due to half-hearted response but have occasionally had to make several attempts at something when Trico gets distracted or interested in something else and wanders away while I am on his back trying to reach an out of the way ledge.

 

Gameplay is about exploration and trying to find your way home. The path you follow is fairly linear but not always obvious as with the enormous environment, small crawl spaces are not always simple to find. Again, to me, this makes sense.

 

Combat has been sparse so far, only two encounters with what seem to be animated suits of armour. Trico loses his calm and curious demeanour in their presence and stays in a very aggressive mode until you manage to pacify it again by petting it, usually needing to get to its back or head to manage it.

 

That pretty much sums up my progress so far with minimal spoilers. I am loving this game so far and as usual, I just wish I had more time to play.  I'll hopefully have some time tomorrow, though Tuesday is going to be a write-off I think. Once we hit finish this event, I think it will be one of the first games I go back to.

 

Trophies earned: 2/24, 4% for E rank

Score so far: 10/10 (yes, I really am liking it that much)

 

 

Edited November 20, 2017 by Kevvik

[Kevvik]

31 minutes ago, MarkusT1992 said:

Game #6: The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (Day 1-3)

 

 

In terms of gameplay it's like most point and click adventures. Colect everything you can and try to find out what to do with your items. A good thing all adventure games should have is the function to show each interactable points on the screen. By pressing you can do that. You can also do that while holding an item from your inventory. In this game you can't use each item with everything in the world, only with some objects, which makes finding a solution much easier as you needn'T to try that much.

The puzzles seem all logical so far so nothing to mention on that.

 

What I really like are all the references to other games. So far there was one for Skyrim and I guess WoW. There was a companion cube, famous swords from Cloud Strife and Minecraft plus two I didn't recognize and that's only from one screen.

It's a very funny game not only because of the references. There are many great dialogues to discover. Especially with one character I haven't met in my three days yet.

 

Time played: No clue. I guess I'm under the three hours

Trophies: 4/51 for 6%

Rating:

 

I played this during KYC 3.0 and while I didn't mind it, the humor just felt flat to me, like it was trying too hard.  Maybe I was just not in the right mood for it when I went through. It certainly was a lengthy story, especially with a fair bit of dialogue. I'm glad you are enjoying it and maybe I was too harsh on it at the time.

[MarkusT1992]

28 minutes ago, Kevvik said:

 

I played this during KYC 3.0 and while I didn't mind it, the humor just felt flat to me, like it was trying too hard.  Maybe I was just not in the right mood for it when I went through. It certainly was a lengthy story, especially with a fair bit of dialogue. I'm glad you are enjoying it and maybe I was too harsh on it at the time.

To each his own. I always love references to other games so it's great to have so many in one game.

Maybe it has something to do with the game being from a German developer that I like it. Who knows.

[dertswa687o]

 

Game 2 - Batman: Arkham Knight

 

Alright folks, I said life got in my way but I'm going to do my best to catch up anyway.

 

Arkham Knight is the 3rd game in the series I've played after Asylum and City (both on xbox) so I had a pretty good expectation of what the game was going to offer... And then I actually started playing it and it's practically a racing game. I felt like I was playing Batmobile: Arkham Knight. I expected the Batmobile to make its appearance a bit further in the story, but it shows up super quickly and it's clear that the game revolves around it. In my 2 hours of gameplay, I did 1 physical fight, 1 stealth sequence, and the rest of the time was in the Batmobile or cutscenes. The Batmobile is surprisingly difficult to control and I found myself crashing a lot, especially when I used the boost. Maybe it's because the brake is mapped to square rather than the left trigger.

 

It was nice that you start with a few of the upgrades that are important like exploding gel, remote batarang, and the grapple boost. Not that I've really had a chance to use them or anything.

 

This might be more of a criticism for AAA games in general, but the drawback of having super good and detailed graphics is that it's very hard to distinguish what to do. Enemies blend in with the background a lot. Detective mode helps but I don't want to play the whole game in detective mode. Menus use small font and I have trouble reading it from the distance away I normally play.

 

Anyway, the game is still fun so far and I'm sure I'll have fun with it when I can put more time into it.

 

Time Played: 2:00

Trophies Earned: 4/110, 2%

Completion: 99.11% -> 93.52% (down 5.59%)

[Kevvik]

To our gracious host with the most:

 

While I love me some Ratchet and Clank, I've noticed that I just keep avoiding it when deciding what game to play next from the titles I chose for the month. I think this means I'm just not in the mood for Into the Nexus right now (and I played the PS4 reboot during the last KYC) so I'm going to swap it out from my list.

 

In its place, I'd like to put Kona. This has my interest piqued and this way I don't have to wait until December to try it out.

[Arctic Cress]

Pushed through a bit of Touhou Genso Wanderer, so here's my mini-review of that game.

 

Touhou Genso Wanderer is a roguelike taking place in the ever-expanding Touhou universe. I am told that it includes characters up to the 14th mainline Touhou game. At the beginning, Reimu Hakurei is visiting Rinnosuke's shop. Rinnosuke is examining a golden sphere as he talks with Reimu, and it then gets dropped on the floor when Reimu tries to touch it herself. When Rinnosuke retrieves the sphere, he attacks Reimu, who teleports out to avoid being defeated. On her way back to the shrine, she meets a self-proclaimed sage named Futo, who decides to follow her and help with the incident.

 

As a roguelike, it's pretty basic. You have the Hakurei Shrine as a central hub for storage and training dungeons. Reimu and Futo start every dungeon at level one, and try to get through as many levels of the dungeon before either dying, using an escape item, or completing the dungeon. One difference in this game is equipment that levels up, gaining EXP just as the characters do. Since these items can be taken between dungeons, they're a useful way to boost your stats before entering a dungeon. A Touhou game would not be complete without bullets, and Reimu can use danmaku to use various bullet attacks to defeat enemies. These range from just throwing one at the nearest enemy or using a number of them to attack all enemies around her. She can carry up to 30 at a time, while starting at 1 when entering a dungeon and getting more from defeating enemies. They can also be found as a random item.

 

So far, I've made it past the Yokai village found at level 7 of the first dungeon. There was a lot of dialogue there with all the shops available in the area and introducing the characters in the village. While I do think I'll come back to this at some point, I'm still in the middle of my Sorcery Saga platinum run so I think I'll finish that before going too far into another roguelike. Since I said I'd play Yakuza Kiwami and then didn't, I'll try to do it for my next game.

 

Completion stats:

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers - 7/44 - 11%

Blue Reflection: 7/47 - 10%

Touhou Genso Wanderer: 5/43 - 7%

Completion % at beginning of event : 71.13%

Current completion % : 70.36%

Difference: -0.77%

 

I finally got to finishing the story of Danganronpa V3, which was amazing as the previous entries. I also completed Race the Sun using the void glitch. Not too many trophies from that, but it made sure the completion % didn't drop too much. That might change over the next few days, though.

[MarkusT1992]

1 hour ago, dertswa687o said:

 

Game 2 - Batman: Arkham Knight

 

Alright folks, I said life got in my way but I'm going to do my best to catch up anyway.

 

Arkham Knight is the 3rd game in the series I've played after Asylum and City (both on xbox) so I had a pretty good expectation of what the game was going to offer... And then I actually started playing it and it's practically a racing game. I felt like I was playing Batmobile: Arkham Knight. I expected the Batmobile to make its appearance a bit further in the story, but it shows up super quickly and it's clear that the game revolves around it. In my 2 hours of gameplay, I did 1 physical fight, 1 stealth sequence, and the rest of the time was in the Batmobile or cutscenes. The Batmobile is surprisingly difficult to control and I found myself crashing a lot, especially when I used the boost. Maybe it's because the brake is mapped to square rather than the left trigger.

 

It was nice that you start with a few of the upgrades that are important like exploding gel, remote batarang, and the grapple boost. Not that I've really had a chance to use them or anything.

 

This might be more of a criticism for AAA games in general, but the drawback of having super good and detailed graphics is that it's very hard to distinguish what to do. Enemies blend in with the background a lot. Detective mode helps but I don't want to play the whole game in detective mode. Menus use small font and I have trouble reading it from the distance away I normally play.

 

Anyway, the game is still fun so far and I'm sure I'll have fun with it when I can put more time into it.

 

I actually liked the Batmobil a lot. That's why I don't understand that so many people say it's used too much. It makes navigating the city much faster than in Arkham City. I even liked the races and the Batmobile fights.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Well, I didn't find any time to game on PS4 this weekend, but I did find time to game a bit on the Switch. Seeing as most of these games are available on PS4 as well, I figured I'd write a bit about them.

 

I'm not dropping from the event again, by the way. But it does seem likely that I'll have to write final reviews on games after about an hour of gaming if I want to get to 10-15 games played.

 

Bonus Games: non-trophy games

 

 

Game #1 - Octodad

 

I played Octodad on the PS4 a few months after it was released, and I loved it. Such a weird little game... As you can see on my profile I 100%ed the game on PS4 and did a regular playthrough on the Vita a few years later.

 

In the game, you play an octopus posing as a human. He's married and is raising two kids (don't ask how an octopus managed to get two human children; if you want logic then you're better off playing sudokus). An octopus doesn't have bones though, so much of the gameplay comes from how difficult it is to do regular tasks like making coffee.

 

The thing about the gameplay is, you control all limbs separately. This also is how you can play with up to three other players, each player controlling one or more limbs. I rebought it for the Switch in part because I wanted to sponsor the devs but also because I only played it myself and I felt like playing this with three others at some point. I don't have four PS4 controllers because unlike Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft don't really have much of a couch co-op library so I tend to stick to two controllers for their consoles.

 

I haven't played in four player mode yet but I did play up to reaching the Aquarium with my wife, where she controlled the left side limbs and I controlled the right side limbs. Playing together is weird and a lot of fun.

 

I'd advise this game to anyone who feels like playing something funny and different.

 

 

Game #2- Snipperclips Plus

 

I bought Snipperclips back when the Switch released and had a lot of fun playing it with the missus. It's a co-op puzzle game where you can cut pieces off of the other players to solve puzzles. The main game is for two pieces of paper but there are additional levels for four pieces of paper (one player can switch between two pieces of paper so the main mode can be played with 1-2 players and the extra levels can be played with 2-4 players).

 

This month, the game got an updated release, the extra content of which is also available as DLC for the original game, I bought this DLC right away.

 

Not only are the new levels fun, it isn't just more of the same - it shows that the devs really took some time thinking about new stuff that could be done. If you have a Switch and you tend to play together with others, this game really is a must-buy.

 

 

Game #3 - Stardew Valley

 

Stardew Valley is a game that caught me completely off-guard.

 

I'm not usually into management sims - Tropico 5 and Rollercoaster Tycoon being the only two I can think of right now that I spent more than ten hours in before getting bored. I dismissed this game as Minecraft with less options (I got bored of Minecraft before finishing the demo) at first. Eventually, I decided to buy it anyway, figuring I might as well give it a try because so many people said they loved it and because even if I didn't love it, then it's still only €14 for a game made completely by one guy, which I don't mind sponsoring.

 

By now, Stardew Valley is my second most played game on the Switch with somewhere between 35 and 40 hours, only being beat by The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (which has between 65 and 70 hours on it).

 

Stardew Valley is a lot of fun to play, in part because I can just pick it up in handheld and play for one or two days in between doing other stuff. I don't think the game would have gotten as much out of me on PS4, also because I don't really like the graphics - which look good enough on handheld but which would surely annoy me on a big television screen.

 

Now that I also have Skyrim I'll probably be playing Stardew Valley a bit less but I'm still playing it more than Super Mario Odyssey, which I fire up from time to time to get some more moons in. I'm in Spring, Year 2 by now and I have made much progress - coops with chickens and ducks, barns with cows and sheep, lots of mayo and cheese makers and a working greenhouse with lots of trees.

 

It's really a great game to relax in for a bit, the gameplay is wide open with you deciding in which way you want to play.

 

 

Game #4 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

 

This marks the third time I've bought Skyrim. First I bought it on X360, about half a year after release. I knew little about it, but it was an open world with dragons and that was all the info I needed. I started up the game, didn't click on new game right away (probably because I was getting a drink or something) and I was swept away by the theme. I've been in love with the game ever since, even though I never finished it.

 

 

I didn't get far that first time. I played maybe ten-twenty hours but I never even got up the mountain. Eventually, I got distracted by other games. I bought it again some time later, when the collector's edition (with Alduin statuette) was on a big sale. I got much more game time this time around but I still didn't manage to finish it. At some point in the main story you travel on a dragon to a closed off setting, it was there that I spent too much time walking back to the entry point to drop all the dragon bones I was finding, and eventually I got distracted by a different game again.

 

I'm really bad with huge open world games. Things like Assassin's Creed, Zelda and Grand Theft Auto are manageable for me because they focus so hard on showing you where the new missions are but Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher, Dragon Age... All games I liked or loved, and started but never finished.

 

I finally got through the story of The Witcher III earlier this year, after two false starts. I'm trying to focus more on finishing huge games. I decided to rebuy Skyrim for PS4 when it was available for a cheap price. Then, the Switch version started to get more appealing, because I would be able to play it in handheld mode. A combination of disappointment in L.A. Noire (on the Switch - digital is still €50 while on PS4 it's €40, and download size is 30GB) and disappointment in Battlefront II (tacked on and disappointing story mode, with many EA dick moves on this game and on developers they own) made it so that I didn't buy those two games, as I originally planned. I decided to just buy Skyrim at full price since apparently it should run very smoothly on the Switch, and I'm going to try to get through the game for realsies now.

 

And wow, does it run good on the Switch. Graphics are pretty neat - better than the PS3 version, I'm getting a bit of an Ezio Collection PS4 remaster quality vibe, as in it's obviously an old game but it looks pretty cool, especially in handheld mode - and while I've noticed a slow load-in in the beginning, the game has run smoothly ever since.

 

I've played a lot last night, about an hour or five. I got to Whiterun when I stopped playing, optional things that I did were a bandit cave and the quest for the gold claw from the shop owner in Rivendell. Playing the game again feels great, and I'm hoping that I'm strong enough to finish the story and much of the side quests this time around. That's another reason why I decided to buy it for the Switch - no trophies means I am not tempted to check what quests I should and should not do, I can just explore freely now.

 

P.S. Last year, I bought a Star Wars winter sweater. This year, I'm Skyrim-themed.

 

Sorry for the long post, by the way.I tried writing in spoiler parts but the site messed up and made my first spoiler tag run all the way to the end, and then made me unable to edit ti out, resulting in a post I had to have deleted, and this new, spoilertag-free post.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Cubone

[Metal Slime King]

I started my seventh game Strider and played for a bit. Strider is one of those age old classic stories about noble ninjas versus Space Commies. It seems ok, it's one of those games that looks like it was rendered in 3d but then it's nailed down to a 2d control structure. A definite metroidvania type game. The control is decent but they force you to use the analog stick for movement whereas I prefer to use the d-pad in 2d games if given the option. There are a series of minor boss characters called the Pooh sisters that you encounter through the course of the game. Maybe Pooh is a valid Chinese surname, I don't know but certainly they could've found another surname that translated better. ?

 

Regarding the rest of my scheduled line-up of games, I moved from an 80Gb PS3 to a 500Gb PS4 and it seemed like I'd have enough space forever. Turns out not quite and now I'm down to under 50Gb free so I don't think I'll be able to download either Arkham Knight or Injustice until I finish off some of the bigger games I already got on my system. There's always next event. Since I've already got Knack on my system and I've never played it, I'll put that in the 9th slot since I remember someone else had it there. So the rest of my event line-up will look like:

 

8 - Strike Vector EX

9 - Knack

10 - Castlevania: Mirror of Fate HD

[DamagingRob]

Yakuza 4- Day 1

 

Well, thankfully there's a trophy for watching the previous games' recaps, or I wouldn't have earned a single one. And that's with 4 and a half hours of playtime! I'm not sure how necessary it was to watch those, though. This game doesn't seem to be too connected, but maybe that will change. The first 3 followed the events of one guy, and in this one you start as someone new. 

 

You play as a loan shark named Shun Akiyama. When one of the other yakuza gangs is making trouble for the one you loaned money to, you decide to step in and help. And by that, you kick their asses. Afterwards, one of them pulls a gun on you, and your friend, Arai, gets shot. Arai tells his subordinate to chase after him, as he flees immediately after. You go too, and witness Arai shooting him in the head (guess he wasn't as injured as we thought). He then takes off, and you get arrested. Your secretary bails you out, though, by telling the cops it wasn't you (the shooting happened right outside your office, and she had a perfect view of things). 

 

After that, a woman resembling your old girlfriend shows up asking for a hefty loan. 100 million yen, to be exact. You agree to loan her the money, if she can pass a test. The test: get 3 million yen in 3 days, while working as a hostess at one of your businesses. She succeeds with your help, and you loan her the money. And that's the story so far, without spoiling certain things. 

 

The game itself is a kind of open-world beat 'em up. As you run to mission points, you may get attacked by random enemies. And you'll also fight enemies in missions. And that's where things get interesting. You attack with  or , grab enemies with , sidestep with , and block with ... or  (I rarely blocked :/). As you deal damage and avoid being hit, your Heat Gauge will fill. Once full, you can perform some devastating finishing moves by holding . It's even more brutal when you pick up a weapon. Nothing like using a bicycle to smash someone's face in. 

 

Some missions require you to chase or escape enemies. The latter was really weird. You can't turn on a dime, so the AI caught up to me a lot. But a quick mashing of a button, and you're out of their grasp and back on the run. Chasing is a bit easier, and you can pick up weapons and throw them at the guy. 

 

You'll gain XP from fighting, talking to certain NPCs, and completing missions. When you level up, you gain a few points that can be spent on upgrades to your combat skills. 

 

There's some side stuff to do, as well. I played a song in karaoke, and that's about as you can probably imagine. Press the right buttons as they appear, and try to get a good score. And I tried a pachinko machine. I had no idea what the hell I was doing, though. Lol. Then there was the hostess minigame you played to help the woman. In between rounds, you walk around to find out what kind of girl the customers want (little text boxes pop up). Then you try to change her outfit, makeup, and teach her things to try and line up with that. The better you do, the more money you'll earn. 

 

And I think that's about it. But I'm liking it so far. And I have to mention possibly the weirdest guy I've seen in a video game.. This dude was dressed in nothing but his underwear, and I think a cape. He had a pair of panties on his head, which I believe he stole from the woman shouting in the cutscene. It's absolutely ridiculous, and served as your tutorial for picture taking. You'd have to see it. 

 

Time played: 4 and a half hours (possibly 5 and a half to 6 with the time spent watching the recaps). 

Trophy progress: 1/49 for 1% and an E rank. 

[Jaguargenie]

Game 6 Initial Impressions

This is not a survival horror or horror game, but it makes you feel about as powerless and weak as one. There was not a moment I felt comfortable and confident and that seems to be by design.

 

Darkest Dungeon is a 2d turn based strategy dungeon crawler. There is a disclosure at the beginning that says something to the effect of "this is a game about making the best of a bad situation" and goes on to say "your heroes will die. A lot" which kinda sets the tone for what you are in for. 

 

The art style is very unique and I can't think of a corralary so I'll just see to be it. It looks like hand drawn stop motion cartoons with only two or three frames per movement. So more than a handrawn comic, less than full motion. It's super dark and unsettling. 

 

This game is also incredibly deep. So much so that I feel I made a mistake putting this in a KYC event because there are so many features and numbers to understand and manipulate, any amount of time away might cause a forced restart because of forgetting the minutia.  

 

Lastly, it is hard. Very, very hard. I lost a party member and was one turn away from losing the entire team. This game is unforgiving, brutal and definitely stacks the odds against you. That's the point. As an example, the dungeons are dark (hence the title) and if you have torches burning, then the difficulty lowers. As your torches burn out, the difficulty organically ramps up. I was down to my last torch when I opened a chest with t more in it! I was ecstatic. My knight stole the torches and the rest of the loot in the chest and kept it for himself because one of his personality traits was Kleptomaniac! This prompted the next fight to nearly kill me because the difficulty was ramped up. 

 

I'm enjoying it, but I realize I'm going to restart from scratch post event. 

[Melanogaster1987]

Game #6 of 10: Call of Duty: Ghosts

 

I didn't get to see much of this game. It's been a bit hectic for me these last few days, so the first 3 campaign missions were all I played. Also, I've never played a Call of Duty game before, so take this review and rating with a large pinch of salt.

 

The story so far has been that a rogue nation known as "The Confederation" has seized control of a space station housing an ion cannon style weapon, and has used it to wipe out many of the USA's big cities, killing tens of millions. Obviously, this means war, and you take control of soldier Logan Walker, who battles alongside his brother (Hesh), fellow soldiers Merrick and Keegan, and their unit's dog (Riley) in order to defeat The Confederation's forces

.

You begin the campaign playing as an astronaut shooting your way through the space station, and what a mind-blowing start to the game that was. Totally not the environment I expected to be greeted with! Based on those opening minutes, I just know that this game's going to be big on set-pieces, with some impressive visuals, and who doesn't love that?

 

We then fast forward ten years to the ground warfare that is raging between the U.S. and The Confederation - this is where we join Logan, Hesh and their unit. The second and third stages of the story have us battling through what remains of Los Angeles and San Diego.

 

The game plays largely as we've come to expect from a first person shooter - nothing that's going to redefine the genre, but it all seems solid enough so far. The controls work well - that's always the most important thing. Plus, based on the number of collectibles, I'm guessing that there's going to be 18 levels, so the campaign's length should be OK.

 

It's Riley the dog's presence and gameplay that I've liked best so far - more than just a lovable mascot, he actually has a vital role to play. There are parts where you take control of him via mind control through Logan's tablet (kind of far-fetched for a game set only a handful of years in the future, but this was never going to be the most plausible plot ever written). Riley can sometimes be used to scout ahead, and you've got to be stealthy; he can't take a bullet and live, but if you get the drop on the enemy, they can be mauled to death in gruesome fashion. I'm hoping for more sections like this, as I like stealth gameplay anyway, and it does help add some variety to the levels.

 

Decent gameplay overall, but there are two things that have bugged me so far:

 

A -  The lack of weapon variety. There's been one part where I had to use a rocket launcher to shoot down helicopters, one very short section where I've used a sniper rifle, and 2 areas where I've had a shotgun, but 90% of the time it's been nothing but assault rifles, whose only difference seems to be the kind of sights they use.

 

B - The lack of a co-op campaign mode. Given that you're always fighting alongside at least one AI partner, including an option to let you play the campaign in split screen co-op should have been a no-brainer, but alas, it doesn't seem to be there.

 

My rating: Gold A very provisional rating, given that I didn't play much of this game at all (and none of the multiplayer, which is the main draw for most CoD players). It's my first taste of the Call of Duty series, and I what I've seen so far has been pretty good.

---
 
Trophies earned in this game: 6 (6) for 90 points [4% completion]
Total trophies earned in this event: 59 (2, 9, 48) for 1,170 points
 
Current completion rate: 55.56% [Down 4.27% since start of event]
 
Down 0.88% due to Pinball Arcade
Down 0.58% due to Thief
Down 0.09% due to Ratchet & Clank
Down 0.59% due to Broken Age
Down 0.67% due to Sleeping Dogs

Down 1.02% due to Call of Duty: Ghosts
Down 0.44% due to other games not part of this event

Edited November 24, 2017 by Melanogaster1987

[MarkusT1992]

10 hours ago, Cubone said:

 

Game #3 - Stardew Valley

 

One thing that might be interesting for you is that a multiplayer mode is planned for Stardew Valley. I don't know if it will come to consoles though.

As far as I know it will be relesed early next year for PC.

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 6

The Sexy Brutale

Final Review

 

 

Trophies Earned: 14/19 68% C rating

Playing Time: 9 hours

Overview:  I apologize for being a few days late on my review, but I felt I needed to complete the story in The Sexy Brutale before giving it a review. And, there was no way I was going to wait another 10 days to find out what happens in this fun mystery/ puzzler. This game is basically a combination of the classic board game Clue and the 90s movie starring Bill Murray, Groundhog's Day. You are detective Claffido Boone and you are searching a mansion for clues to thwart a few murders from happening. You are given the ability to rewind time so that you can explore rooms, find clues and piece the parts of the story together to save the day. Each murder occurs at a certain hour and you play with a running clock in the corner, but no worries on feeling pressed for time, just rewind the day if the murder happens before you are able to solve that particular crime.  

     This was quite an enjoyable game. I could've conquered the story in less than nine hours but I wasted a good two+ hours the first night as I found out the game has a collectible counter, but NOT a collectible tracker.  Flashbacks of vainly searching for hours in Assassin's Creed II for those damn feathers filtered into my brain so I quit and started anew. Which actually helped me understand the mechanics of the game a bit more. While there is a tutorial, it is brief and there's a bit of a learning curve to finally figure out how to best use your tools to crack a case. As you search room to room, you can open doors or spy through keyholes to see the next room. If there is a another character in the next room, the door flames up to alert you to not go in. But you can use the spy tool to peek in on them, and this is an imperative ability to use so you can piece the story together. Best advice I can give is to do a recon run on the characters and follow them room to room. They will converse with themselves or other characters, and reveal clues to guide you onto the next steps. If you don't spy and watch them, you will essentially miss the majority of the story.    

     After solving each chapter, you are awarded an additional ability to help with the following cases, such as eavesdropping through walls, lockpicking, etc.).  In my playthrough, I found the chapters to be a decent puzzler with some fun and clever aspects to it. There are a few chapters where the running time element comes into play to solve the mystery. The creates a bit more difficulty as something you can engage with at 2 p.m. will do nothing, but use that tool at 8 p.m. and it reveals a major clue to that story section. I only got stuck in one chapter and I wasted a good hour frantically searching the mansion to solve my issue. In fact, I was pretty certain I had encountered a glitch. Each new chapter unlocks a new section of the house so there isn't much backtracking, EXCEPT in one of the later chapters. I missed the clue that would've tipped me off to that and man, did I get stuck. Tried using the walkthrough on PSNP, which is not that helpful, as you can't figure out where the walkthrough begins (i.e. Go Left. Go through Upper Door. Go Right...). There's also a YouTube link on a PSNP thread that ended up saving me. But I would definitely give this a go w/o using a walkthrough. It's not needed for the story playthrough and you will miss the bulk of the story, which for this game, takes all the fun out of it. It's more story driven than I initially thought and it had a well drawn-out, captivating ending.

Trophies: Most are story-related and unmissable. There are a few involving collectibles and I have not made the attempt to pick them all up yet. Once you finish the story, the mansion is completely open for you to grab whatever you missed. The collectibles are playing cards, so there 52 strewn throughout the mansion. If you plan to pick them up along the way, keep track of which card you grabbed as the game won't track it. I just used a deck I had on-hand and took out the specific card as I picked up each game card. 

Final Thoughts: The platinum for this is at 52% so trophy hunters have caught onto this as a quick platinum grab in less than three hours with a walkthrough - BUT WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT???? Enjoy the game! Enjoy the story! This one's worth investing some time into because it has a rewarding ending. I will rate it a . And Voodoo played and recommended this one from an earlier KYC, so he gets a ??!

 

KYCV Statistics 

Pre-KYC numbers are in ().

Games Completed - Played 87/60    (79/60)

Trophies Earned - 2894                      (2809)

Unearned - 520                                  (330)

Trophy Rarity - 44.07.                         (43.51)

Completion % - 82.77.                       (88.68)

Down - 5.91%

 

Next Up - Old Time Hockey 

     

[voodoo_eyes]

@PerryToxteth funny thing is, it wasn't even officially one of the games from my previous KYC. I just happened to play it at the time and ended up fascinated by it. I had the physical version of it (I think it is EU only) which included the soundtrack on a separate disc. I ended up listening just to the soundtrack over and over again, because it's so good.

 

It's one of those underrated indie games, that just don't get as much attention as they deserve. Speaking of underrated indie games I have another suggestion for you, this one being "Dex" (PS4 version, as Vita version doesn't run smoothly and again physical copy includes soundtrack on separate disc), a 2D sci-fi Action-RPG with a great story.

Edited November 20, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

 

 

Game #7: Minecraft Story Mode (Episode 1: The Order Of The Stick Stone)

Final Review

Total playtime: about one hour and thirty minutes

Trophies: 6/51 for an E rank rank

 

another Telltale

as boring as real Minecraft

no Wolf Among Us?

 

Spoiler

Well, I think we can all agree that it's not really unexpected that I did not really take a liking to this game.

 

It's the first game not on my initial list, because I'm skipping Battlefront II and Darksiders 2. If you've been in the previous event, you may have seen it disappearing from my shortlist once I started making a selection out of the 25 or so games I have that are unplayed.

 

Felt like trying it because I liked most preceding Telltale titles, because the first episode was free and because Patton Oswalt did the main voice.

 

I was bored throughout, saw all "twists" coming and was rarely amused. And I don't think having a bigger understanding of Minecraft would have helped much, though obviously fans of the game are more likely to appreciate this game.

 

Seriously, if you enjoy Minecraft and if you've enjoyed a Telltale title or two, give this free first episode a whirl and see if you like it. Unlike The Walking Dead, the Telltale version of which was very good for newcomers, I doubt that anyone not into Minecraft will need to see this game.

 

I may finish the game if it's ever on PS+ but I don't think I'd be willing to pay anything for it. Which is good to know, since I bought all Telltale titles that came before this one and I haven't bought any of the more recent titles. At least now I know I'll skip this one unless it's on PS+.

 

Minecraft Story Mode final score:

Next up: Don't know yet, possibly Sky Force Anniversary

[Jaguargenie]

@PerryToxteth Sexy Brutale sounds amazing. Thanks for the great review. I gotta keep my eyes out for this one!

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

2 hours ago, MarkusT1992 said:

One thing that might be interesting for you is that a multiplayer mode is planned for Stardew Valley. I don't know if it will come to consoles though.

As far as I know it will be relesed early next year for PC.

 

I knew that already, but thanks still. Switch should be getting the multiplayer at the same time.

 

I've bought it for the single player but depending on how multiplayer works, I might just give it a go along with the missus.

 

The dev supposedly has yet to meet a single deadline so I wouldn't hold my breath on anything.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Cubone

[dizzyshadow]

Now we are into the second half of the month i'm onto 2 games at a time so the reviews will be coming thick and fast from me.

 

Unbox: Newbie’s adventure

 

Another game I picked up cheap, and I didn’t really know much about, the premise was boxes that deliver themselves the ultimate postal service seemed interesting enough for me to give it a try.

 

The game is a 3d platformer, which had me hoping for a Mario game, or at least something to match Yooka-Laylee which I enjoyed in the last KYC. And while it share similarities with those games, I haven’t particularly enjoyed this game, its very collectible heavy (must be nearly 1000 parcel themed collectibles to find), it’s very short (I’m approx. 6 hours in and have nearly finished the game), the story is pretty incomprehensible, and the fact that you play as a box and roll to move, means you effectively bounce off along off the corners of the box which makes it hard to control, particularly as you are often not in contact which the ground which means the game won’t let you jump which is pretty unforgiveable for a platform game.

 

It did grow on me  a bit the more I played it, and given how close I am to the end I’ll probably finish the story, but I doubt I’ll bother with the approx. 500 collectibles which are still outstanding. Its certainly not a game I would recommend to anyone.

 

Playtime: 5-6 hours

Trophies 10/15

Next up : The Sexy Brutale

 

The World of Final Fantasy

 

 

 

 

World of final fantasy is an RPG, I said I was expecting a cross between a FF game and Pokemon and that’s pretty much exactly what it is,  personally I’m more familiar with Pokemon of those 2 games and this really has a lot of similarities with Pokemon. However it feels like there may be more depth here than you may find in the Pokemon games.

 

You play as siblings Lann and Reynn who wake up with Amnesia & remember very little, they are guided through the world by Tama a small furry fox like creature, they learn about mirages (other small creatures) which they can batlle & capture using prisms, and these mirages are then used in future battle. The battle system includes an elemental strength/weakness system which feels like it could have come straight from Pokemon. However unlike Pokemon Lann & Reynn also take part in the battles, and rather than monsters fighting on their own they are “stacked” upon Lann & Reynn, and depending upon how they are stacked, the stacks gain different powers/attacks which seems like it could bring a lot of strategy. It feels like there is lots of potential here but to be honest after 6-7 hours I’m finding it pretty overwhelming and to be honest there hasn’t been much need to engage with it  as the game has been pretty straight forward so far no real challenge in any of the battles i'm not sure if that will change later in the game.

 

Overall I’ve quite enjoyed this but I’ve been keen to move onto a new game, so I suspect that I won’t hurry to go back to this and it may sit on my “must finish later list” for a long time.

 

 

Playtime 6-7 hours

Trophies x/x

Completion: 51.64%

 

Next up: Grand Kingdom

13 hours ago, Cubone said:

P.S. Last year, I bought a Star Wars winter sweater. This year, I'm Skyrim-themed.

 

have to say i'm loving all the gaming christmas jumpers that are available now, i've gone retro this year:

 

but so many great ones its difficult to choose.

Edited November 20, 2017 by dizzyshadow

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

8 hours ago, dizzyshadow said:

 

have to say i'm loving all the gaming christmas jumpers that are available now, i've gone retro this year:

 

but so many great ones its difficult to choose.

 

That's a nice one too

 

Yeah too many options, I already skipped on the Zelda and Mario retro ones. Tried to find a picture of my sweater from last year online but I failed who knew that "Darth Vader Merry Sithmas sweater" would yield so many different results?