Kill Your Completion V

[PerryToxteth]

12 hours ago, Kevvik said:

 

Canadian drinking age and real beer, best of both worlds for you (though I prefer Molson to Labatts).

 

For me growing up in that neck of the woods, vacation was heading down to Duluth/Superior with the odd run down to the Twin a Cities for North Stars games. That and an eternal appreciation of classic movies from watching the Matinee Money Movie on Duluth TV (all the Abbott & Costello, Japanese monster movies plus endless just awesome old black and whites).  Between that and UMD hockey games, I miss those channels.

 

Don't get me started on the North Stars. One of my cherished possessions is a game puck my Dad caught at a game when I was 5 or 6.  My favorite player was Willie Plett bc he was easy to identify on ice with his blonde hair (helmets were optional back then). And Norm Green STILL sucks! 

  And a fellow Dogs' fan! I spent many a college night in the dump they called the DECC. I had a job working at the games and when the crowd got loud, (which didnt happen too often bc they weren't that great), the press box floor would rattle and I was sure the floor would give way. 

  Duluth was different when I lived there. Much more blue collar than the outdoorsy vibe it has today. But it was (and is) a great town. For everyone else on this thread who could care less, here's why you should remember Duluth. It's the birthplace of Bob Dylan. And the history of music changed forever bc of that city too. As a teen, Dylan went to a rock and roll show in the Duluth Armory that he attributes as his spark to become a musician. The show featured Buddy Holly, Richie Valens (only 17 years old!) and the Big Bopper, who all perished in a plane crash just days later.

 

[Arctic Cress]

I was going to play more of it today, but I didn't feel like it, so here's my mini-review of Game #2, Blue Reflection:

 

You play as Hinako Shirai, a high school student who enrolls at Hoshinomiya Girls' High School. Prior to the game's events, Hinako was an accomplished ballet dancer whose career came to an end after she injured her knee and was told that she could not perform anymore. After a few events, she becomes a Reflector, a magical girl tasked with not only helping others balance their emotions, but also protect the world from a greater threat that is coming.

 

I've only made it through chapter 3, but I've faced the first real boss, experienced a few missions, and did a few bond events. My first thought: the game is very easy. I am playing on Hard mode, and I haven't felt threatened at all in any battle, including the one boss fight. Mainly, I think having moves that delay enemy turns on all three playable characters is a bizarre move, and it expands to having AoE effect skills that delay enemies. Guess what move I used a lot against the boss and his body parts. And just to make the game even easier to break in two, you can take multiple turns in battle by using an overdrive gauge. This probably is why I didn't feel like playing it today - I'm not getting much enjoyment out of a game when it's this easy.

 

In other parts, though, the game looks great; the areas of the Common (the parts that correspond to people's emotions) are amazing to look at, and the character models are all great as well. It truly makes use of the PS4's graphic abilities, more than most games I've played on the system. I'm also a big fan of the battle theme. The missions are hit and miss so far - they let you go to some areas again but there's little to do and the rewards are pretty minimal. Since enemies only drop items and there's no exp (you level up by going through the main storyline and strengthening bonds), it seems like additional easy battles that don't really add much. Speaking of those bonds, there's no limit on how much you can get after finishing a certain chapter, so you can just hang out with them a few in-game days and bam, instant Social Link 10... wait, wrong game. Each side character has a bond episode that needs to be unlocked for the platinum when they hit maximum.

 

Anyway, I feel the game has a lot of nice ideas, but poor execution makes it a very flawed game. I'll probably see it through to see the rest of the areas and character interaction, at the very least. Next game will be Yakuza Kiwami.

 

Completion stats:

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers - 7/44 - 11%

Blue Reflection: 5/47 - 7%

Completion % at beginning of event : 71.13%

Current completion % : 70.53%

Difference: -0.60%

 

I threw Amnesia Collection on my trophy list as well due to another event, so even with the Everybody's Golf platinum I got my completion rate is heading downwards still.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

 

Game #6: Lumo

Final Review

Total playtime: about one hour and fifteen minutes

Trophies: 4/43 for a B rank

 

ADHD dev

tries too much, gets nothing done

at least it is short

 

Spoiler

... And another game where I can't put in "enough" time, unfortunately. Real life getting in the way. I'm a day behind already and I won't have much gaming time until Friday, so it's better to wrap this one up now than to try getting more time for it.

 

Lumo tries to be too much, and in the end it is too little. It tries to be a platformer, but it has 90% of its platforming be too easy and the remaining 10% is either weird or suddenly very precise. It tries to be an exploration game but its paths are pretty linear and involve lots of backtracking. It tries to add lots of stuff - story, mine cart level, secrets - yet it all feels forced and not entertaining.

 

The game desperately tries to evoke an indie feel, for example with the cassette tape collectables. You'd think they'd unlock some track or soundbite but they don't actually 'do' anything, making it a useless case of "ha, remember these?".

 

There's too much backtracking, linearity and empty rooms to make the platforming and exploring seem fun. And either give me a relaxing game or a tough game, but don't have the platforming and puzzle segments be insanely easy while randomly having one in twenty rooms be extremely precise platforming. If you're building up to something harder, you need to up the ante on the other rooms as well and drop the empty ones that are just there to cheaply lengthen the experience without providing anything except more walking.

 

Lumo could have been more, but as it is I'm dismissing it as a subpar game, which you could give a shot if you have it through PS+ and have a few hours to kill.

 

Lumo final score:

Next up: Friday is Star Wars Battlefront II, don't know if I'll have time to play something else before then.

 

Also,if @Hemiak doesn't mind, I would like to switch out Darksiders 2 for something else. I really want to finish D1 before starting the sequel and I don't see a way to do that during this event.

[vin_rob]

15 hours ago, Ditto said:

Yeah, I really liked the game, but most of the endings didn't do it for me. The ending you're talking about was great, though. 

 

Glad I'm not alone on this =), and yeah I had a good night rest after the ending lol .. =) 

 

11 hours ago, Myu said:

@vin_rob If you're not afraid to die repeatedly against a stupid boss, be my guest.  

 

hmm, grind till you drop?  But yeah I'll just see what I can do =) 

[Metal Slime King]

So I was having a problem with this run of the event . I was liking all my games too much! It was platinum and golds all over the place. Time for some random game that I normally wouldn't touch but I don't want to pay for? Sounds like a job for PS+! So I decided to swap out Guacamelee for this months free Vita title, Broken Sword 5 The Serpent's Curse: Episodes 1 and 2. I'm playing from the perspective of what I imagine the majority of readers on this site would possess (especially those who haven't bought this game) which is namely following a guide for free trophies . Originally I assume a series of point and click puzzle games on PC, this Vita version is more of a tap the screen puzzle game. My only mild annoyance with this interface is if I'm trying to tap something small on the screen then my finger is obstructing my vision. I went through Episode 1 today, playing on and off and I'll probably go through Episode 2 tomorrow. Obviously it won't do much to negatively alter my completion rate but cut me some slack, some of the games I picked are real completion rate killers .

 

The main reason I didn't want to play blind was because I didn't want to bother with a second playthrough after I noticed there were missable trophies (and I certainly would have missed the talk to the hidden robot on 6 occasions one). That would have really killed whatever enjoyment I got out of this game. Having gone through the first episode none of the puzzle solutions really struck me as stupidly obtuse but I'm sure at a couple of points I would have been futzing around for longer than I'd like. After awhile ze outrageous Pepe le Pew calibre French accents (hon hon hon) got irritating but I found the perfect solution to that puzzle, keep the written dialogue English, change the spoken dialogue to German.

[vin_rob]

Game #4: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor - GOTY

Day 10-12

 

 

After the Hobbit and Lord of the rings and playing lego the hobbit, I’ve finally taken it upon myself to start playing the Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor game of the year edition.

 

So when the game starts you are a ranger, training your son and sneaking towards your wife.

This happy feeling soon ends, when you are under attack and you are sneaking around killing enemy’s.

 

After some story mile point is reached, you can walk around in the area doing missions. Main missions side missions etc. and of course during your walking around killing enemy’s and captains thus trying to weak Sauron’s army’s strength. I’ve been killing a lot of captains with an instant stealth kill, or at least getting a lot of damage in before the real fight starts.

 

You have 3 weapons, a dagger, sword and a bow. Which you can upgrade with skills or with runes. You can get the runes by killing captains.

 

You can fast travel and fast forward time, then new enemies appear and herbs respawn for healing purposes.

 

Final trophies 18 / 75

Percentage 52.92%

 

I’ve also been playing “some” Destiny 2, I’ve got it plat now. That was most of my gaming weekend.. Raiding with friends etc. 

[jasondm300]

Infamous: Second Son

8/48 trophies 11%

Rating E

4 Hours

 

Being the third in the Infamous series, and the first on the PS4, this game had a lot to live up to.  Delsin Rowe is a regular mischief maker turned conduit with the power of smoke, which is a little out there, but it works.  After escaping (or surrendering) to D.U.P., you make your way to Seattle.  There is quite a bit of activities to do.  I personally didn't get very far in the story as I was clearing districts, which you do by tagging locations, destroying drones, and then doing a final showdown to rid the area of D.U.P.  I pretty much knew what the gameplay was going to be like, due to finishing First Light.  I liked that game a little more as Fetch was a better character than Delsin, at least so far.

 

Here are my rankings for games I played, from my my favorite to my least favorite

1. Root Letter

2. Wild Arms 3

3. Deadlight

4. Infamous: Second Son

 

4 hours ago, vin_rob said:

 

Glad I'm not alone on this =), and yeah I had a good night rest after the ending lol .. =) 

 

It seems like this is a common idea among this thread.  Most of the endings where stupid or WTF.  The final ending I got, which is the same one you did, is defiantly what I would consider the true ending

[Jaguargenie]

Game 4 Initial Impressions

What Remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator. I've played good and bad ones, and it's really the story that makes or breaks this genre. Thus far, this one had been a mindf#&k. Let me explain. 

The only thing I knew about this going in was it was about a woman going back to the house that she grew up in. Everyone in her family died in that house. Period, stop. The previews I have read all talk about a scene involving a swing set. That's all I knew going in. 

This game is gorgeous. The environments are so well crafted and the detail is amazing. Each room that was occupied by a different family member has it's own flair and personality. There are bulletin boards with drawings and notes, newspaper clippings, etc. It's stunning. So you walk around this house, slowly gaining access to bedrooms. Each bedroom is locked and preserved just as the inhabitants had left it when they died. A little creepy yes.

The first one you enter has a calendar on the walk turned to 1947! So this story spans years and generations. I had to put the game down after the 3rd family member story (of which there are 11) because it was the swing set scene. I actually got motion sick. I don't get car sick or anything, but I was super nauseous, that is how convincing and well done this scene was. 

I'm really enjoying it thus far. It's going to be a short one, but I'm excited to learn about the rest of the family. 

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 4

Truck Racer

Final Review

 

 

Trophies Earned: 24/51 37% D ranking

Playing Time: 2 hours and change

 

Overview: Well, what to say about this game? How about this - ?. No, it's not an elephant-size pile of steaming dung but it definitely has an malodorous rank to it.

     Like most people, I picked it up on PS+ a month ago because I've always had an affinity for driving/racing games. Not hardcore sims but something more in the vein of RC Pro-Am from the NES days. Just turn it on, pick up the controller and drive/ race away. And this definitely fits that criteria. The only problem is, it's pretty boring. 

     Like most games of this genre, you drive in lots of races, accrue points in some kind of season-long championship, and unlock more races and tracks as you finish races on the podium.  This game has a 13-event championship that increases in difficulty as you progress. I managed to get through Event No. 5 which qualifies as "medium" difficulty and had no problem in the races, often times racing way in front of the AI competitors and finishing 3-5 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Considering the "Expert" level Championship trophy is earned by 42% of PSNP gamers, I'm not expecting this to get much more difficult.

     The problem with the game is just isn't that much fun. The tracks are too similar, the events are redundant, and there's no discernable difference with the vehicles and their handling. Essentially, this game is on the PS3 but it feels much more like a PS1-era game.  To compare with another recent PS+ title, Monster Jam Battlegrounds, a game that pales in the depth, mechanics and sophistication of Truck Racer, Monster Jam was a bit more entertaining. It's true that both games are clunky, both games have a tendency to freeze, and are more a trophy-grab than anything else, but I'll keep MJ: Battlegrounds on my PS3 for my son to be entertained by and will drop Truck Racer the second the platinum is earned.

Trophies: Here's the one good thing about Truck Racer - it makes your PS3 sound like a slot machine!  Just a few races in, and the trophies were popping one after another, and this was without consulting a Trophy Guide. I've played for more than two hours and have half the trophies already, and probably could have earned another 5-10 if I had studied the trophy requirements. The platinum has a 37% rarity, which is probably the game's biggest selling point - easy trophies. There are 5-6 online trophies you need to earn, though most are just completing X number of races. The only one that could possibly be a chore is to win 5 races in a row, but it looks like it can be boosted.

Final Thoughts: It's a PS+ title, so my expectations weren't all that high. But boredom has crept in after just a few hours and I'm not sure I ever felt an entertainment tingle in a single minute with this game. .

 

- A few notes on other games as well:

    - I boosted the MP trophies on Grand Ages: Medieval last weekend. This was the first game I played in this event and earning all the MP took over three hours but if we had better executed it, we could've gotten it down to less than two. It was actually fun to play in a world with someone else, but would have been more fun if you could co-op with your player as allies, instead of competing.

   - My son is on board with killing my completion. He has begged for months to play LEGO Movie: The Videogame, but I made him read 50 chapter books before we booted it up. Yeah, that's probably a bit draconian for parenting, but I wanted him to discover a love for reading before finding a love for video games. Anyways, we started the Story Mode yesterday so my completion % dropped even further.

 

Next Up: Battlefield 1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hemiak]

8 hours ago, Cubone said:

 

Game #6: Lumo

 

 

  Hide contents

 

 

Also,if @Hemiak doesn't mind, I would like to switch out Darksiders 2 for something else. I really want to finish D1 before starting the sequel and I don't see a way to do that during this event.

That's fine man. I wouldn't have recommended putting two games from the same series on your list anyway. 

 

Shame you didn't like Lumo. I thought it was a fun little game. Yeah the tapes are a pointless addition, but I felt like it had a lot of cool parts. I think they were just trying to throw as many Retro video game and pop culture references in as possible, and they succeeded on that.

 

I do agree that the difficulty spiked a lot towards the end. It was a bit annoying on my Old School runs to fly through the first half hour of the game (there are two major skips added to old school to speed this up), then things get a little trickier during the ice section, and then really ramp up in the cauldron area. 

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

1 hour ago, Hemiak said:

That's fine man. I wouldn't have recommended putting two games from the same series on your list anyway. 

 

I mostly did this because I heard the two are pretty different in terms of gameplay and because I thought I could get enough gaming time in the first weekend to finish the first installment. Shame. Anyway, thanks.

 

Quote

Shame you didn't like Lumo. I thought it was a fun little game. Yeah the tapes are a pointless addition, but I felt like it had a lot of cool parts. I think they were just trying to throw as many Retro video game and pop culture references in as possible, and they succeeded on that.

 

I like references as much as the next man taking an arrow to the knee, as long as the reference is justified. Octodad having "Mintcraft" on display in the supermarket? Funny. Lumo having an SD card as a random story item that's never used? Uhm, okay I guess.

 

Quote

 

I do agree that the difficulty spiked a lot towards the end. It was a bit annoying on my Old School runs to fly through the first half hour of the game (there are two major skips added to old school to speed this up), then things get a little trickier during the ice section, and then really ramp up in the cauldron area. 

 

Don't think I'm even close to the actual difficult stuff yet. I'm past the mine cart and I got my glowing staff to repel spiders with. I know there's probably a ramp coming but it could have had a much smoother (and quicker) build-up, in my opinion.

 

I think I didn't mention this in the review but I'm going to try to go back and finish Lumo, so it wasn't all bad. Just bland, I guess.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Cubone

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #5 - Final Impressions

 

 

Well, there isn't much more to add to what I've already said before.

 

The game area is split up in different regions, in all of which you find NPCs that give you quests and have materials and collectibles scattered throughout each zone. You can also tame animals by building a farm and luring the animal to it. You can also learn professions to be able to craft new items, an. Then there's also fishing, and as in every game that has fishing it's frustrating and dull. Not because it's difficult or anything ,but rather because you can hardly differentiate between the different fishes. All you see is small, medium and large size and not the species which would actually matter as it's a collectible... The camera angle also tends to be incredibly bad when fishing as it's locked and zoomed in and if the fish moves out of sight you're done for.

 

All that is basically the gameplay. You get a quest, farm items like a madman to build stuff with and do it all over again in the next region.

 

This game cycles through the four seasons and locks some collectibles behind them. Needless to say, it's a pain in the ass. There as one collectible I wanted to get that is only reachable during Summer, as it's in a pond that dries out during that time. Since I had to wait as I was in Winter already, I decided to tests something out. So after doing other random crap until nearing the end of Spring, I waited in front of the pond to check if the pond would dry up gradually while I was there. It did no such thing, actually it didn't dry up at all as long as I was looking at it and this was already during the Summer. I had to move away a bit and look to a different direction for it to already be dried up once I turned back around.

 

Overall it was a fairly dull experience, just as I had already expected.

 

 

Time played: over 8h

Trophies earned: 24/39

 

 

As a side note, I got the plat for Volume. So that's something at least.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

13 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

Game 4 Initial Impressions

What Remains of Edith Finch is a walking simulator. I've played good and bad ones, and it's really the story that makes or breaks this genre. Thus far, this one had been a mindf#&k. Let me explain. 

The only thing I knew about this going in was it was about a woman going back to the house that she grew up in. Everyone in her family died in that house. Period, stop. The previews I have read all talk about a scene involving a swing set. That's all I knew going in. 

This game is gorgeous. The environments are so well crafted and the detail is amazing. Each room that was occupied by a different family member has it's own flair and personality. There are bulletin boards with drawings and notes, newspaper clippings, etc. It's stunning. So you walk around this house, slowly gaining access to bedrooms. Each bedroom is locked and preserved just as the inhabitants had left it when they died. A little creepy yes.

The first one you enter has a calendar on the walk turned to 1947! So this story spans years and generations. I had to put the game down after the 3rd family member story (of which there are 11) because it was the swing set scene. I actually got motion sick. I don't get car sick or anything, but I was super nauseous, that is how convincing and well done this scene was. 

I'm really enjoying it thus far. It's going to be a short one, but I'm excited to learn about the rest of the family. 

 

Seems like I'm going to have to buy this at some point.

[Metal Slime King]

14 hours ago, Jaguargenie said:

What Remains of Edith Finch

 

Has it been on PS+ yet? it seems like a prime candidate. It does sound interesting.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 hours ago, mking_63 said:

 

Has it been on PS+ yet? it seems like a prime candidate. It does sound interesting.

 

It hasn't been on PS+ yet.

[dizzyshadow]

Game 2 : Aegis of Earth : Protonovus Assault

 

 

 

 

Aegis of Earth is set fifty years after a deadly event known as the "Silent Apocalypse". This catastrophic event brought forth various creatures hellbent on destroying humanity. Accompanying the arrival of the creatures was a new element called the altenite, which stands as earth's last hope at survival. The only places that can now sustain life are so called hot spots for mining altenite, so the surviving humans have built there cities around these hotspots, but the cities suffer constant attacks from creatures known as Protonovus. You play as the role of a commander who is in charge of defence of one of these cities.

 

The cities are circular with 4 rings of increasing size, the first 3 are used for building weapons and also buildings to house residents, the 4^th (outer) is used for housing temporary units, mostly shields of other short term units. Your job is to plan the defence of these cities, by building defences and then by managing the defence which essentially involves rotating the different rings to align the guns with attacking enemies. Defending successfully increased he happiness of your city and makes more people want to move there which levels up the city & allows you to research better weapons. You are assisted by 6 operators who are in charge of various different functions and as you progress through the game you get more join you, giving you a choice of which 6 to use, however I’ve not noticed much if any difference between them. Which really is part of the problem with this game, it feels like their only function is in the story, which seems to based around how incompetent they all are. 

 

Initially the game mechanic felt really interesting it, its clearly a tower defence type but seemed quite new and fresh, and with the additional element of city management thrown in it felt quite interesting, however as you play for a while you realise the this is pretty much all the game offers, and what did feel fresh soon becomes tired and boring. I’m currently on chapter 7 and I must have done approx. 30 battles, and to be honest not much has changed from the first couple, yes I’ve got a few new weapons and occasionally a boss comes along but it doesn’t really change up the game play, I’m not sure how many chapters there are in the game 20 something I believe but it feels like it would be an awful long slog to finish the game.

 

Feels like this could have been really good, but it needs more variety or at least something extra to keep you interested.

 

Playtime: approx 6 hours

Trophies: 8/32

completion: 51.7% (-0.14%)

Future plans: May go back to this but to be honest there is always likely to be something better.

 

Next up; World of Final Fantasy

 

 

 

[dizzyshadow]

Bonus Game: Middle Earth: Shadow of War

 

While its not officially part of this event as i started it in October, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this particularly as the original has been well received in these threads before. Personally the original was my favourite PS4 game, and is still right up there as one my favourites of all time. 

 

Talion & Celebrimbor return, it set after the the events of the first game, and is based around Celebrimbor forging a new ring which he hopes will help defeat Sauron. The game plays very similarly to the first, you still have the option of stealth, sword or bow for combat, the nemesis system is back which personally is what made the first game for me and to be honest it feels like you have more option is this games, in the first game it felt like the game forced you to play a certain way for lots of missions, in this game you can approach them pretty much however you want, if you don't want to do stealth you don't have to. I'm not going to give any more specifics of the story to avoid spoilers but i didn't find it as engaging as the first one, however that changed at the end of the act 3 and overall i did find my self really enjoying  it in the end. 

 

There are 2 new mechanics which make up this game, the first is dominating other orcs, i think was possible in the DLC from the first game but not in the base game (someone will correct me if i'm wrong here), this allows you to build an orc army. this adds some nice mechanics to the nemesis system as sometimes your own orcs will step in and save you from death, or will appear and betray you. The variety of orcs available in this game seems much greater the the first game and they have had some fun with this i regularly chuckled as the orcs introduced themselves in a  variety of different ways, you will find yourself developing favourites which is dangerous as they invariably don't last long.  

 

The second new mechanic is fortresses, and to be honest this makes up most of the gameplay, the story requires you to capture and defend the fortresses, which is essentially a big battle where you have to defeat captains/warchiefs and capture certain points. The feels good the first few time you do, the battles feel large scale and epic, and can quickly feel like they are out of control. However it feels like they overdid it, to complete the game you'll have to do these fights at least 25 times (probably more as you are unlikely to succeed first time) and by the end it just feels repetitive (particularly as 20 of these fights make up the all of act IV). This was the main downer for me and why i won't remember this game as fondly as the first.

 

If you enjoyed the first game then i'm sure you will still enjoy this as well, but it unfortunately it didn't meet my (very high) expectations.

 

There if also an asynchronous online mode but this felt like an after thought and hasn't really engaged me, it just involves trying to take over other players forts as quickly as possible and is really just more of the same fort battles which i had already had enough of.

 

Finally just a point about micro transactions, this game has received a lot of stick for including microtransactions, the transactions allow you to buy gear/skills for your army or even brand new orcs, however to be honest I didn't find this a problems at all, if you don't want to is no need to go anywhere near this functionality, and if you want to and i did find it helpful to speed up certain situations you can get plenty with the currency you will earn an abundance of in game, to be honest the thought of spending real money never crossed my mind, and to be honest i wasn't sure it would have helped even if I did.

 

I'm hoping to finish this tonight and then the PS4 section of my list starts tomorrow with Unbox - Newbie's Adventure

[voodoo_eyes]

1 hour ago, dizzyshadow said:

Game 2 : Aegis of Earth : Protonovus Assault

 

 

 

 

Initially the game mechanic felt really interesting it, its clearly a tower defence type but seemed quite new and fresh, and with the additional element of city management thrown in it felt quite interesting, however as you play for a while you realise the this is pretty much all the game offers, and what did feel fresh soon becomes tired and boring. I’m currently on chapter 7 and I must have done approx. 30 battles, and to be honest not much has changed from the first couple, yes I’ve got a few new weapons and occasionally a boss comes along but it doesn’t really change up the game play, I’m not sure how many chapters there are in the game 20 something I believe but it feels like it would be an awful long slog to finish the game.

 

Those are pretty much my thoughts on that game. I got about to chapter 14 or so until I couldn't stand it anymore. It had an interesting concept that just gets dull after a while, because it just feels samey.

Edited November 15, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #6 - First Impressions

 

 

 

Once again I put in the game disc, boot up the game and am informed on the screen that only 10% of the game were installed... 40 minutes later I actually get to play it...

 

The game is literally set up like a TV show. It's episodic, each episode is about 30-45 minutes long and even gives you the "next time on..." line. The character models resemble reasonably well their voice actors, who also starred on TV shows/movies (Most notably Benito Martinez who starred in "The Shield" - fantastic show btw). It's unconventional for a concept, but so far it kind of works.

 

What doesn't seem to work well seems to be the AI of your partner. During the first mission you're supposed to search a neighbourhood for some guy. Anyway, you and your partner step out of the car walk for a bit and exchange dialogues. One of those dialogues is the character you're controlling saying something along the lines of "You take the lead", to your partner. There must have been some miscommunication, as my partner didn't care and just stopped moving, starring into the distance. So I move through the area on my own and eventually find the guy I was looking for and then had to wait for a few minutes for my partner to decide to catch up.

 

You can choose how you want to approach the game to some extent, as you can use stealth and just take down enemies, shoot your way through. You can also use the power of the almighty badge, flashing it up in front of (up to 3) distracted enemies, who drop their weapons, lunch money and trousers in fear of the tiny metal object.

 

Speaking of distracting... you throw a shell casing to do so. I'm not sure how many cops run around with shell casings in their pocket these days. I'm guessing none, because the protagonist in this game seems to have all of them.

 

You can change loadout, mostly near the end of each mission, which seems kind of an odd choice. Especially as you get to pick your loadout once you start a new episode as well.

 

There are also a few driving sections, in which your actions are very limited and the car handling feels off quite a bit. At least there are some fun little scripted events throughout those.

 

Doing arrests (the badge flashy thing), kilss, takedowns all get you experience, as do the collectibles. The experience eventually leads to unlocking new weapons for the singleplayer loadout.

 

I've yet to touch multiplayer properly. I only went in and opened the 30 or so loot bags I got. I even had the pre-order bonus bags. Guess what... I didn't pre-order the game, nor did I buy it at launch, instead I bought it for about 20 bucks half a year later . Now that's what I call pre-order bonus!

 

 

Edited November 15, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[Metal Slime King]

Just a heads up to @Jaguargenie who was going to start that Marvel Omega online game, an article about server closure just popped up in the server closure thread. There is no specific date given in the article so I don't know if there's enough time to complete it but you might be killing your completion rate more thoroughly than you anticipated.

 

Edit: Weird, that link is dead now. I'll try to find more information, I was interested in starting that game at some point too.

Edit: That link is back and here's another.

Edited November 15, 2017 by mking_63

[voodoo_eyes]

48 minutes ago, mking_63 said:

Just a heads up to @Jaguargenie who was going to start that Marvel Omega online game, an article about server closure just popped up in the server closure thread. There is no specific date given in the article so I don't know if there's enough time to complete it but you might be killing your completion rate more thoroughly than you anticipated.

 

Edit: Weird, that link is dead now. I'll try to find more information, I was interested in starting that game at some point too.

Edit: That link is back and here's another.

 

Wow, that actually sucks. Shame really, as it was a pretty good game.

[Jaguargenie]

2 hours ago, mking_63 said:

Just a heads up to @Jaguargenie who was going to start that Marvel Omega online game, an article about server closure just popped up in the server closure thread. There is no specific date given in the article so I don't know if there's enough time to complete it but you might be killing your completion rate more thoroughly than you anticipated.

 

Edit: Weird, that link is dead now. I'll try to find more information, I was interested in starting that game at some point too.

Edit: That link is back and here's another.

 

I just saw that as a top thread in the forums. Thanks for the heads up, but unfortunately, I already started it. The worst part? I'm totally addicted! I loved it. 

I'm really hoping I can at least grind out a bit more. I've got 2 characters to 60 already. Just hoping they give us a bit more time to trophy hunt before taking this away. 

[Kevvik]

Game #5: Dark Cloud 2

 

Day 3 Impressions

 

Time played: 3 hrs

 

Wow, like no time to play the past few days and ended up sitting in a dentist office tonight with my son and his toothache.  Started Game #6 while waiting (yea, vita being portable) but I'll touch that later on.

 

Dark Cloud 2 is an action RPG of sorts. You play Max, a kid who prefers to hang out with a fixit kind of guy in town rather than with his rich dad. He gets dragged into a plot of an evil clown (aren't they all) who wants a red stone which conveniently is hanging around Max's neck. He gets chased, escaping into the sewers where a friend gives him a gun to go with the wrench he has been defending himself with to this point. Cue beating up monsters and collecting treasure and stuff. Orbs can be used to upgrade the stats on your weapons to better beat up monsters. After a few floors, the clown finds you with his elephant who you can't damage. You get saved by fixit guy and his robot/mini rocket but it malfunctions so you and fixit guy bail in it back to the surface to fix it.

 

Here you get the camera. By taking pictures of things in town, you can make ideas which can be combined into inventions (the recipes anyway). With the proper supplies, you can make the invention starting with the energy cell you need to fix Steve (previously described as robot/rocket).  Now you can return to the dungeon in the sewers to fight the elephant. Which is where I am now.

 

I like the idea behind hidden stuff to make inventions (so far) and we'll see how that plays out as we go along. Each dungeon floor also has goals for you to earn medals (speed runs, kill all monsters without healing, etc) plus hidden ones I haven't got access to yet (??? Designated).

 

There's also a cut scene about a girl (princess?) who fights monsters in her castle while looking for her dad, only to find him taken out by some mysterious guy who disappears into a warp gate of sorts. This is my only exposure to her so far.

 

Combat runs fairly smoothly and you can reload at tutorials on upgrading, etc if you forget how to do it in the first place. Graphics are high end PS2 with HD upgrade for PS4. Voice acting and music are well done also.  So far, so good, enjoying what I've done a lot.

 

Still, time to move on though I will definitely be coming back to it. It feels like there will be a lot to do and explore. Fun stuff.

 

Trophies earned: 3/31, 4% for E rank

Score so far: 8/10

Completion Rate: 80.19% (-1.29%)

 

Next Game: For a change, I know what it is. Needing to kill time waiting for my son, I started Ys Origin on the Vita. More to follow tomorrow though I don't know how much gameplay I'll get. 7 hours of teaching and my god daughter coming over in the evening. Just finished the first big boss and enjoying it a lot. Think this already was done by someone earlier (too lazy to look back right now) so we'll see how we compare but I'm liking it. Similar feel to other Ys games but no Adol (usual series main character). 

[Metal Slime King]

@Kevvik I just did Ys Origins, overall I liked it and I particularly liked the bosses. I've been linking all my reviews to my post on the first page as we've been going if you want to find it easily.

[MarkusT1992]

Game #5: Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness (Day 1-3)

 

 

First of I hadn't much time to play this game so my review will not be final. I decided to play more during the rest of the months and might give another opinion later on.

 

Psycho-Pass is a visual novel game set in the (far) future. It's the year 2112 and society is watched by a system called Sibyl. With this system it is possible to see the mental state of everyone.

Through a color scheme you can see if a person is going to be a criminal. The darker the color the more criminal potential has a person. This value is given back as a number with under 100 being no or low  criminal energy. Peaople with a value over 100 are seperated from society and either held in custom or eliminated.

 

You play as one of two characters which you can choose at the beginning. There's Inspector Nadeshiko Kugatachi or Enforcer Takuma Tsurugi to choose.

Both are new recruites at the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division. This division is some kind of police force consisting of Inspectors and Enforcers.

Enforcers are people with a high Crime Coefficent (the number I mentioned earlier) who are watched by the Inspectors. There are also Analysts who help with data of all kind.

 

I started with Inspector Nadeshiko Kugatachi who apparently lost her memory. After arivin at my new job the first case came in and we were already in action.

I won't spoil to much but it was about an abduction from a 16 year old girl. During the investigations you have to make a few choices which change the outcome of the case and eventually of the whole game I guess.

 

Beneath the story you can play a minigame to gain points you need to unlock gallery pictures or voice samples and such stuff.

The minigame is like the smartphone game 2048. You move tiles with numbers and try to match same numbers. When they hit each other the value is doubled.

 

I only finished chapter one of the game but want to know what happens next. Unfortunately I had no time to play more which is a shame. I feel the game needs more attention.

It's only my third visual novel I play (after Higurashi when they cry an Root Letter if you don't count Ace Attorney) but I have many more especially on Steam and I will play more. All I played so far were interesting for me so is this one. It's like reading a chose your own adventure book without the combat and luck you need.

 

Unfortunately I didn't unlock a single trophy as most are related to seeing endings or reaching a specific route. But I started AC Origins this months which adds to my  completion decrease instead. And it's only my second game of now 45 in all KYC events I didn't get a trophy.

 

Time played: Way to less. Maybe 1 - 1.5 hours

Trophies: 0/36

Rating: so far.