Kill Your Completion V

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

 

Game #13: Farpoint

Final Review

Total playtime: about one hour and thirty minutes

Trophies: 5/60 for a D rank

 

cliché sci-fi tale

great VR experience

can't help but love this

 

Spoiler

Managed to play some more Farpoint today finishing the second chapter.

 

I really love this game, and how playing it in VR makes me move, unlike the usual videogames where I just sit still. And I'm not just talking about looking around: in the first chapter, I suddenly noticed I was closing my non-dominant eye when aiming with the rifle because I was using a scope. This time, I realised I had actually moved to a wall in-game and was tilting my body to look and shoot around it.

 

I'm a few information snippets farther and I still feel like my initial thoughts are correct when I was guessing hoe this story would turn out. It doesn't matter that much though, since this is VR and presentation weighs so much more than usual. Much effort has been put into making it an interesting alien planet that's not too farfetched, and into making it a smooth experience, and it shows. If the story would have been more original, I would have upped the final score a bit but it's still a very entertaining game that deserves better ratings than it's been given.

 

P.S. don't play this game if you've got arachnophobia.

 

Farpoint final score:

 

Next up: 

 

Tomorrow is the thirtieth, the final day of the event. However, I'll have to work late and by the time I get home I'm very likely too tired to do anything. So here I end, at thirteen out of a promised fifteen games. Honestly, I'm glad I made it this far as it's weird how much real life got in the way.

 

I'll do a recap later on but it's 1AM for me now so I'm off.

[Melanogaster1987]

OK, so I had to take another 2 day break from this, and now I'm running 5 days behind - don't you just hate it when real life stops you from gaming? After another delay, here is the last part of my schedule now:

 

Played Deus Ex: Human Revolution Nov 27. to Nov.29
Will play Dying Light Nov. 30 to Dec. 2
Will play Knack Dec. 3 to Dec. 5

 

I'm slowly but surely getting to the finish line - time for another review.

 

Game #8 of 10: Deus Ex: Human Revolution

 

It's 2027, and technology has advanced to the point that people can easily modify their bodies to circumvent natural human limitations - as long as they can afford it. This has proven to be a very controversial issue, and society is highly divided between those in favour of "augmentation", and those against it. You play as Adam Jensen, an ex-SWAT officer who now works as the security manager at Sarif Industries, a company that makes some of these body modifications.

 

One day, an anti-augmentation terrorist group storms Sarif Industries' technology labs, gunning down many employees. Adam's girlfriend Megan is killed, and Adam himself barely survives; he ends up having to be fitted with augmentations himself in order to save his life. Six months later, Sarif Industries is attacked once again, and the newly-augmented Adam is pulled out of his recuperation early, his goal being to wipe out the terrorist cell that keeps attacking.

 

That's the main story so far, but there are a lot of side threads to this plot, for example, getting to the bottom of Megan's death (it may not have been what it seemed, as rumours of a cover-up are swirling).

 

As for the gameplay, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is primarily a stealth title, with some open-world sections in hub areas (Downtown Detroit and other cities too, but I've only seen Detroit so far), and some more linear missions. The missions work as you would expect; monitor the enemy patrol routes, pick your moment, and hope not to be seen. The level layouts seem to be well thought out. There are almost always multiple paths to take, some of which bypass a good chunk of the enemy patrol routes, so like any decent stealth game, good observation of your enemies and the surroundings is well rewarded. However, Deus Ex: Human Revolution does allow for varied play styles. There are plenty of guns lying around, and the game has a well developed cover system that lets you hide behind, cling to, switch between and shoot around obstacles. You also have a regenarating health bar, so playing it as a cover-based shooter is probably viable in most situations, especially on lower difficulties.

 

There are a lot of RPG elements in the game too. All of your actions (killing or knocking out enemies, sneaking through areas without being seen, hacking to bypass locked doors, finding secret areas and so on) award experience points which can be used to improve Adam's augmentations. There are many upgrade categories, giving you ample scope to customise Adam to fit your playstyle. For example, if you want to go for 100% stealth, you can upgrade the radar chip in Adam's brain, or give him temporary cloaking ability. If shootouts are more your thing, then you can buy skin upgrades for more protection, or arm upgrades for less shaking when aiming. It's also possible to customise your guns as well - loot money from corpses or the environment, find a shop in the hub area in between missions, and purchase upgrades which include damage boosts and silencers.

 

Also, your actions and dialogue choices in cutscenes seem to have real consequences on the story - after the prologue ended and the meat of the game started, I spent too long exploring my office building rather than flying out to the site of the first mission, resulting in the death of some hostages :(. Another hostage also bit the dust after I made a bad dialogue choice when confronting one of the game's villains, and now most people seem to hate me.

 

In between main missions, talk to characters wandering the nearby streets and you'll soon be bombarded with side quests to do as well. I don't doubt that your actions during these (or even the choice of whether to do these or not) will have an effect on the plot too. It all seems like there is massive replayability potential here.

 

I particularly like some of the little easter eggs scattered about for players who, like me, love to explore everywhere. For example, I've seen a poster for Final Fantasy XXVII (don't think the FF series will quite get that far by 2027...), and heard two detectives discussing Robocop whilst I was sneaking around a police station - very appropriate given that you're now half robot. You can also find e-books lying around, which help to flesh out the story a bit more (well, most of them do - I've found 2 so far that read like first drafts for trashy erotic fiction!). As well as the more practical benefits to exploration, such as finding computer passwords and door codes, there's also a lot of enjoyment to be gained here, and that's always a big plus for me.

 

There are some things that I don't like - moving at certain angles when behind cover can feel very awkward; it's too easy to accidentally use consumables like health power-ups when using the weapon select wheel; and hiding bodies out of sight is a bit more difficult than it ought to be as they tend to get stuck on things and are therefore tough to move into tight spaces. Also, you can crouch but there doesn't appear to be a way to crawl. This feels strange, but doesn't really affect the stealth play - objects you can hide behind all seem to be at least waist high, and even that classic feature of stealth games, air ducts, seem to be oversized to compensate. Having said that, these things are all minor problems, and haven't detracted much from a very good experience so far.

 

My rating: Platinum/Gold/Gold The gameplay is working well and I'm really digging the story. The sheer number of options the game gives you means that you could play this many times and never have the same experience twice. 8 certainly seems to be my lucky number for these KYC events - I loved my 8th game in KYC3 (Dead Space). I loved my 8th game in KYC4 (No Man's Sky). And I'm loving my 8th game here in KYC 5.

 

---
 
Trophies earned in this game: 9 (9) for 135 points [11% completion]
Total trophies earned in this event: 80 (2, 9, 69) for 1,485 points
 
Current completion rate: 54.59% [Down 5.24% 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 0.42% due to Driver: San Francisco
Down 0.55% due to Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Down 0.44% due to other games not part of this event

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Complete overview

 

Games left to do:

Games done:

Games given up on:

 

Spoiler

Starting stats:

Completion percentage: 51,44%

Trophies won: 6.614

Unearned trophies: 4.989

Games played: 330

 

Ending stats:

Completion percentage: 50,33% decrease of 1,11%

Trophies won: 6.691 increase of 77

Unearned trophies: 5.283  increase of 194

Games played: 343 increase of 13

 

Stats per game:

 

#1: Xeodrifter

Playtime: 2.5 hours

Trophies won: 8/16 ( rank A )

 

#2: Darksiders

Playtime: 13+ hours

Trophies won: 21/43 ( rank C )

 

#3: Downwell

Playtime: 5 minutes

Trophies won: 0/23 ( rank F )

 

#4: Leo's Fortune

Playtime: 2 hours

Trophies won: 12/14 ( rank A )

 

#5: Hyper Void

Playtime: 15 minutes

Trophies won: 2/15 ( rank C )

 

#6: Lumo

Playtime: 1.25 hours

Trophies won: 4/43 ( rank B )

 

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

Playtime: 1.5 hours

Trophies won: 6/51 ( rank E )

 

#8: Stealth Inc. 2 - A Game Of Clones

Playtime: 1.5 hours

Trophies won: 3/12 ( rank A )

 

#9: Sky Force Anniversary

Playtime: 1.5 hours

Trophies won: 2/14 ( rank E )

 

#10: The Swindle

Playtime: 30 minutes

Trophies won: 0/15 ( rank F )

 

#11: Alienation

Playtime: 7.5 hours

Trophies won: 11/42 ( rank C )

 

#12: Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood

Playtime: 20 minutes

Trophies won: 3/40 ( rank E )

 

#13: Farpoint

Playtime: 1.5 hours

Trophies won: 5/60 ( rank D )

 

Additional games started:

None, this time around I let everything additional count for the event as I pushed some games out of my entry list.

 

Additional games played:

None with trophies.

 

Verdicts looking back:

 

#1: Xeodrifter

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in September 2015.

A small MetroidVania game that has too many flaws - from graphics that are too ugly for a large television, to the bad kind of 8-bit sounds, to a big leap in difficulty towards the end that (probably) forces you to go back and check if you missed any secret rooms with health and gun upgrades. I might still continue on this game if I ever find myself with a small backlog but for now I say no.

 

#2: Darksiders

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS3 version was PS+ in June 2012.

A game that starts out kind of interesting but spirals down into stealing from other games, and the game becomes a chore to get through. I also find it weird how it's about a battle between Heaven and Hell yet nobody in the game dares to say stuff like "Satan" or "God". I still want to get through Darksiders, if only so I can get to Darksiders 2, which should be a bit better.

 

#3: Downwell

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in August 2017.

I did a rage quit on Downwell because the graphics and sounds already made my eyes and ears bleed, and the simplistic control scheme picture neglected to tell me about a crucial detail (double jumping shoots a gun downwards) that caused me to get stuck in the game before even being able to do anything. I might give this game another chance during a later KYC or once I've exhausted my backlog, but don't count on it.

 

#4: Leo's Fortune

 

Final thoughts on last day.

A cheap, short, sweet platforming game with a predictable story, but with a charm nonetheless. Graphics look really nice, gameplay stays fresh during the two hours it will take you to get through the game, and it's not that hard unless you're doing a no-death run, meaning this is a great little game to play in-between longer and/or harder games.

 

#5: Hyper Void

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in December 2016.

A forgettable shooter with a bland techno soundtrack and a grammar error in the intro text. I just couldn't be bothered. Shame.

 

#6: Lumo

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in March 2017.

Proof that retro references for the sake of being retro isn't either good or entertaining. There's also too much backtracking through empty rooms, the game would have been more enjoyable if the empty corridors had been dropped and you could go right away from puzzle/hazard room to puzzle/hazard room.

 

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

 

Final thoughts on last day. First episode is/was free on PSN.

Telltale quality has been declining in my eyes. I tried this free first episode to see if they could pull me back but at least with Minecraft, this is not the case. Maybe when the first episode of Batman or Guardians goes free I will change my mind.

 

#8: Stealth Inc. 2 - A Game Of Clones

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in August 2015.

Liked it a lot more than the first time I tried it (for a few minutes without getting to the first trophy), probably because there's been more time between playing this and the first game (which was more fun in my opinion), and because I now got to the actual levels instead of just seeing the MetroidVania-ish overworld. Definitely want to get more done in this game.

 

#9: Sky Force Anniversary

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in October 2017.

A game with much potential that gets brought down by the need to grind completed levels to upgrade your ship enough to get through current levels. Come to think of it, this is probably a remnant from the game's origins as a Free To Play title on iOS/Android. I'll probably continue on this game, a few levels at a time.

 

#10: The Swindle

 

Thoughts on fist day. PS+ in January 2017.

Probably just not a game for me. I never gave a final review because I was willing to give it another shot while in the event but I didn't see any gap in my gaming time for it. As stated on my first day review, I'll just delete the game then because there's more than enough other games I want to try/finish.

 

#11: Alienation (with @MarkusT1992 and @vin_rob)

 

Final thoughts on last day. PS+ in May 2017 (EU).

A standard alien invasion story combined with decent visuals, gameplay, and progression, makes for a surprisingly fun game to play together with others. You might enjoy it on your own if you are into twin stick shooters but if you're not a fan of the genre you might want to keep this for when you have some others to play with.

 

#12: Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood (PSVR)

 

Thoughts on fist day. PS+ in November/December 2017.

Did not get to play enough, but I did enjoy what I played. It's a literal on-rails shooter that has a nice curve in difficulty and motion, at least in the first level. Nothing groundbreaking but fun enough if you either have it through PS+ or if you are a fan of the genre.

 

#13: Farpoint (PSVR)

 

Final thoughts on last day.

Great VR FPS SF game, with good level design (mostly walking ahead and enemies coming from in front of you means not as much turning, so this is one of the few VR games with walking that make an effort to prevent motion sickness), gameplay that's easy to get into, a good difficulty curve and great, if barren, scenery. The story is pretty predictable and forgettable, but with the first full FPS on PSVR, I'm willing to forgive this flaw as it's just so much fun to look and play.

 

 

Final thoughts on the event:

 

Unexpected stuff in real life (late nights at work, deciding to look for a new place with the wife and other stuff) ensured that my thoughts were often elsewhere and that I didn't have that much time to just go and sit for a game, with the exception of the first and last weekends. For the next event, I might just decide to go back to 10 games since it means I can spend a bit more time per game and I'm feeling less pressure to move on.

 

I enjoyed myself this event, even if my selection of games is becoming less in quality, with only two games getting as high as one  score (the second one even sneakily being one I bought during the event but didn't want to hold off on playing). It's obvious that in the first one or two KYC events, I still had loads of PS+ games on my backlog that I was interested in but never got a chance to play, but that right now I'm taking more of a risk for the event, choosing games from PS+ that I might want to give a chance but would never have played if I hadn't gotten it through PS+ already. Part of this is because I have less of an unstarted backlog, part is because I feel like the KYC events are a good way to try out some games and get into my own thoughts while playing, because if something like Journey comes on PS+ then I know for sure I want to play it anyway and I might be better off just starting the game instead of waiting for a KYC event, playing it a bit and possibly getting distracted with other games before I manage to get back to it.

 

All in all, I had fun with most of my games (while they lasted at least), I enjoyed reading about other people's games and I'm probably going to start making a list for KYC6. Thanks for hosting again, @Hemiak!

 

Edited November 30, 2017 by Cubone
51,44 to 50,33 is a decrease of 1,11 and not 0,11, you silly goose

[dizzyshadow]

Vita Game 5: Zero Time Dilemma

 

I haven't had much time with this game yet due to the way it worked out, but i won't get any more time any more time with it before the event ends. 

 

From what I have seen it  very similar to virtue's last reward which i played earlier in the year. its a VN that follows a group of 9 people which have been locked in a bunker by a sinister person called Zero II and are forced to play a game which could have deadly consequences for them, but apparently the fate of the world rests on this game. 

 

The game is very story heavy, the only game play coming in the form of quests as they are referred to in this game, which involve you escaping from a room to solve puzzles. To be honest i just find these sections an inconvenience and its actually the story i enjoy these games for more than the gameplay. I think i'd possibly enjoy it more as a movie or novel.  The story itself ties in with Virtue's Last Reward and i'm already guessing at how they are linked together, will be interesting to see if i'm anywhere near correct. 

 

The couple of changes i have noticed, the graphics seem much improved over VLR, the 2nd is the way you view the story, there has always been a lot of jumping around in these games, but here they have broken the story down even further into fragments which you can attempt in almost any order, which means you often aren't viewing the story in the correct order which  may make it hard to follow.

 

One point to make for anyone considering playing this, there is a lot of disagreement about the order to play these games in, but the general consensus is that you should play VLR before attempting this one. They are both worthy of a play in my opinion.

 

Trophies : 3/33

Completion: 51.13%

 

Future plans: given that nearly 74% of people who have played it have the plat, seems silly not to aim for that.

 

 

Will hopefully get to play some more Far Cry Tonight before leaving my final review for that.

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 9

Need For Speed (PS4)

Final Review

 

 

Trophies Earned: 5/46 8% E ranking

Time Played: 3-4 hours

Overview: This is my first foray into the Need for Speed series - in all likelihood, it will be my last. For a series that has spanned multiple consoles and has almost 10 titles to its series, I had high hopes for it. Help me folks, is it this particular game that feels lackluster in the series? Do I need to keep playing to get into it more? Because after playing for 3-4 hours, this game is as flat as a punctured tire.

  For starters, the story is a joke. It is told in a first-person camera point-of-view, so you have D-List actors constantly looking at you, and spilling out corny lines. The premise - some punk named Spike is impressed with your driving skills so he he invites you to hang out with his gearhead cronies. You've never met these people, yet instantaneously, they love you and become your BFFs. In fact, they love you so much in your initial introduction, they just give you a car. For free. 

   Second, the driving. It's not a sim, which is okay by me, but if I'm not excited to drive in a driving game, there's problems. The car's handle fine but the setting is dull. It's a spaghetti junction maze of highways and ramps and I'm assuming a mega volcano like Krakatoa must have erupted and be nearby, because it is a perpetual night setting in this city. The sun has been blocked out the entire time I have been in this game. Do I need to unlock daytime mode - WTF??? And, you have to drive to everything. Maybe I haven't unlocked the fast travel yet, but so far, I have to drive to every event. And they're not remotely close to one another. There are different driving events - speed, build, style, crew. I don't even know what they all mean but they are challenging, even on the easiest setting. In most races, I have garnered a large lead, only to watch my rivals acquire some kind of hyper speed and catch up to me in seconds. There seems to be some kind of yo-yo effect built into the game that will not let you get a certain distance away for the AI. And the game is all online play so you will have randoms flying in and out of your game at all times.

   A big feature in this game which I could give a ? about is stylizing your car. You could spend hours detailing your car with various paint schemes, rims, decals, obnoxious stickers, etc. And if you're inclined, you can even share your car creation with the world. *Yawn* Just give me a car, give me the parts I need so I can compete, and get me out of the damn garage!

Trophies: I didn't get very far into trophy advancement with this one. Some are story progression, some are leveling up your character, and some are performing well in challenges. The platinum rarity is around 20% so it much not be too hard. And let's hope, not too time consuming.

Final Thoughts: Maybe this is the turd of the franchise. I don't know. It just felt lackluster all around. If anyone has suggestions as to make this a more fun game for me, I'm open to suggestions. Because I have a bad feeling this will sit on my profile as a big, fat E for awhile. Three hours of playing this and the only thing it accomplished was make me really miss playing The Crew.

  .

 

Final Game: Mafia II

  

[voodoo_eyes]

Game #10 - Final Impressions

 

 

Alright, it's time for the last one of this round. I'm glad I played some more of it these past few days, as some things only became noticeable a bit further into the game.

 

So my progress concluded in Chapter 2, with Chapter 1 basically only being a series of main missions leading to Ch. 2. Up to that point all I did were hunts and side missions (I still don't understand why hunts aren't considered side missions as technically it's the same, but whatever). So hunts essentially give you the objective of killing specific beasts, while side missions do either the same or make you run errands.

 

The game looks great in pretty much every regard, from cutscenes to enemies. There are however a few issues with clipping and animations, which in all honesty should not be in this game. I've seen to people stand inside a couch, the main protagonist fusing his arm with the front seat of the car, and some atrocious mouth movement during dialogues. The latter issue almost never affects the main characters, but when looking at the mouth movement of other quest givers it reveals the worst lip-sync I#ve ever seen in a game. Should have taken another 6 months to fix that one Square, seriously...

 

Thankfully those are my main issues with the game. The combat still feels really smooth and fun, making it the best combat in any FF game ever by miles. Some weapons can be enhanced to a more powerful version, if you have the materials for it. You can also buy weapons, but it's generally something I never do in RPGs unless there is no other way to get new weapons. One minor gripe I have with something combat-related is the spell system. The spell-crafting feels a bit lackluster and the spells you crafted have limited charges. I spent most of my materials to make a powerful spell and it was gone after two uses. Can't say I'm a fan of that design choice. Another thing that kind of annoys me a it is that your HP often doesn't recover after battle. It used to in the beginning, but by now it stopped doing so.

 

Combat also earns you AP that you can spend to unlock new skills or bonuses. Pretty much everything can give you AP though. Needless to say that I focused on getting the abilities of gaining AP while resting, fishing and driving.

 

What's great though, is that there's no need for a guide and you can fully enjoy the game, just playing normally without having to worry to miss anything.

 

Overall a good game, with minor issues that could easily (but never will) be fixed in a patch.

 

Trophies earned: 19/74

Hours played: 7h 30m

[Kevvik]

Game #10: Deception IV: Blood Ties

 

Day 3 Impressions

 

Time played: 4.5 hrs

 

So I have played through Chapter 3. The story doesn't ramp up much further except that others appear to be aware of the seals and are trying to get them as well, thinking they will provide them power. There also seems to be someone else interested that is hinted at by some of your opposition.  You also are packing up to move to another location in chapter four as the enemy has become aware of your identities after a mini-boss escapes you at the end of chapter two.

 

Killing people with traps is fun! Did I say that last time? Good.  Getting the timing right on combos so you can complete daemon requests for your three advisors can be tricky though. They provide four each for each chapter (got them all for chapter 3 but not the previous ones). Finishing chapter 3 also gives you access to missions. There are 100 of them and you basically have to kill your enemies with certain conditions and against a timer. I completed the first one which is essentially kill 1 guy in 90 seconds. Straightforward and pretty simple as long as you break his armor. That is a 1-star mission and they ultimately go up to 5-stars for difficulty. Completing a mission gives you access to online user created quests but I didn't get to those yet (need to do 10 and upload 10 of your own for trophies).

 

I haven't really played with traps outside of the original set yet (you can access three of each type - floor, wall, ceiling - for each chapter) but I'm sure I'll get to that as the story progresses.  Overall, having fun with this and we'll see how everything else goes in the weeks to come.

 

Trophies earned: 9/41, 12% for C rank

Score so far: 8/10

Completion Rate: 78.36% (-3.12% for the event)

 

I'll provide a summary of the month tomorrow. Another great event but it will be a fair bit of work to recover my CR before the next one.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Kevvik

[DamagingRob]

Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force- Final Review

 

I am really enjoying this game, eh. The characters are funny, the story is entertaining, the gameplay is like Neptunia (which I also love), and there's just not a lot that I don't like, eh. It's really good, eh. You may be wondering why I keep saying "eh," eh? Fang has developed the greatest bromance with a Canadian. And yes, he says "eh" a lot.  There's also a weird cat-like creature, with an afro and a sword stuck straight down into the top of his noggin, who is not the fairy. But rather the normal-looking butler guy is his Fury. And then there's the pretty boy, who all the girls fawn over, making Fang annoyed. 

 

Stuff happens, Fang and Eryn have been transported back in time, and are now repeating the events of the game from the beginning. But things aren't happening the way they (or the viewer) remembers. But the story is pretty entertaining, and I'm really enjoying it. 

 

When we had all 6 of those party members, you actually played with them all, by the way. There was no party choosing, and bystanders not getting XP. I don't think I've ever played a JRPG where you had a 6-man party. Definitely interesting. 

 

Besides normal leveling up with XP after battles, you also gain points that you use to pump up your weapons' stats. Physical and Magic attack/defense, Range, Fairize, and Combos were the things you could spend points on. When you upgrade combos, you can select different attacks to chain together, which will then make normal attacking do more damage. Furies you equip level up, too, maxing out at 10. 

 

From the town, you can take on quests, which involve things like finding so much of an item, or killing so many of an enemy. Then you turn them in once complete for money and items. 

 

Not much else to add. But the game is a lot of fun, and is as entertaining as I could have hoped. Will most likely be another  game for me. 

 

Time played: 12 hours. 

Trophy progress: 6/30 for 8% and an E rank. 

Did it lower my completion? Yes. 

 

And with that, another KYC Event comes to a close. I'd like to thank @Hemiak for hosting this once again. Always a good time. And to everyone that participated. It'd be pretty boring doing it by yourself, after all.  Even though my completion didn't drop that much, I know from raising it to 90% in between this and the previous event, getting it back there is probably going to take awhile.. Tomorrow, it'll be time to get to work repairing the damage.  

[Metal Slime King]

Game #10 - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD

Now that's really a mouthful, for the purpose of this review lets call it CMoF. My bias might be showing on this one, I've always been a Castlevania fan. If they released a Castlevania Legacy Collection with trophies I'd be all over that like stink on a fish. That being said, my bias could work for or against CMoF. Hell hath no fury like a disappointed fan. Overall I did enjoy this entry in the Lords of Shadow reboot series, maybe it'll be the kick I needed to finally go back and grab the plat in Lords of Shadow 2.

 

CMoF takes place between LoS and LoS2 and focuses on the revamped Belmont legacy of guys who fight Dracula. Whereas LoS and LoS2 were both 3D action games (that got panned for being God of War rip-offs, but not by me, I liked them) CMoF is a 2D metroidvania style action game. CMoF keeps the combo heavy combat system from LoS and they squeeze it pretty well into 2D (God of War never tried that ). It's comparable to how Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate tried to squeeze the Arkham combat into 2D but I think CMoF was much more successful. It's a 3D game locked to a 2D plane and I mentioned before that the camera gets a little flaky when jumping around certain platforms and I've never seen one of these types of games control quite as precise as a true 2D game. The graphics are alright but the music is downright bland which is a shame because good game tunes was always a Castlevania hallmark.

 

I liked what the LoS series did for the Castlevania story, it's a fresh reboot. The worse part of the original series was that the canon became an absolute mess of characters and dates and nonsense. I don't think anyone really cared about the narrative in those earlier games though. The lineage in LoS is simple and concise.

 

Spoiler

Gabriel (becomes Dracula) begat Trevor (becomes Alucard) begat Simon.

 

CMoF has 3 acts, each playing with a different character; Simon, Alucard then Trevor. Their main attacks are identical but they each get unique sub-weapons and capabilities. The events of the first 2 acts are interwoven and work pretty well, Trevor's act is set 30 years prior and it's placement at the end of the game is a little awkward. Why does Trevor start with capabilities that Alucard gained 30 years in the future?

 

After some internal debate I'm giving this game a (-). It's a great game and plays well (and it's part of a great series, imo) and I would totally recommend it for a good metroidvania action fix. It doesn't quite live up to my expectations for a new(er) 2D Castlevania title. The controls could've been a little tighter and the music could've been a lot better. Trophy-wise this game has got more bite than say Strider. The 3hr 30min speed run is going to be tight and Hardcore mode might be a fight, some parts of the game were challenging on my normal playthrough. Ultimately I'm pretty sure I'll be able to nail this one down.

 

I completed Castlevania: Mirror of Fate HD. No plat, which is a shame since I thought it was challenging enough to warrant one. It certainly had more bite than Strider. I thought my first speed run attempt was going to be a wash but pushed through anyways and managed to beat the 3hr 30min requirement by 20min. A handy tip I realized but ultimately didn't need was during the first act when you first encounter the purple warp gate, take it to the area where you can now get the flame archer ghost as you will absolutely need him to continue and collecting him then will cut short the backtracking. Getting through Hardcore mode where bosses can kill you in 2-4 hits was good practice for the Boss Rush. Even on Easy the Boss Rush is the hardest trophy in the game as you have to face the 10 bosses from the story with 1 health bar and 1 magic bar. Fortunately in the last fight with Dracula you get infinite magic and you can easily use light magic to regain your health before you trigger him into his full moveset. It's a shame this game wasn't more popular than it was and it's surprising it only has 16,000 players indexed on this site. IMO this would make a great title for PS+ to get it more exposure.

 

And with that another KYC event comes to a close. It didn't quite go as planned but I still had a fun month. Thanks to Hemiak for hosting and the other contributors for participating. There were a lot of interesting games touched on. I started the event with an 83.68% completion rate and finished at 80.12% so that's a drop of 3.56% for me. I'm going to have to focus on some of the games currently installed on my PS4 not just to restore my completion but also to free up some hard drive space before the next event.

Edited December 4, 2017 by mking_63

[Myu]

Day 30 - Game 5

Final Fantasy IX

 

 

Time played : 6 hours

Completion rate : 85.14% (-2.54% since the beginning of the event)

 

FFIX is a RPG from 2000 and released this year on PS4 as a remastered version.

 

You are Djidane (Zidane in the English version?), member of the Tantalus, a thief troupe that has decided to kidnap Princess Grenat from the Kingdom of Alexandria. Shortly after infiltrating the palace, they bump into the Princess hidden under a white mage cape. The thing is, she's trying to escape from the Palace and asks the Tantalus to get her out of here.

Along the way, you'll meet Bibi, a little Black Mage, Steiner, the annoying knight who has decided to protect the Princess at all costs, Qweena, the.... frog lover (how do you describe that thing??) and many more characters.

 

FFIX has a turn-based battle system called Active Time Battle in which you'll have to wait for the gauge to fill in before you can act. Each character has his/her own specificity : Djidane can steal, Bibi can use Black Magic, Grenat can heal...

Most pieces of equipment come with skills you can learn by earning CP at the end of battles. When the skill is mastered, it remains permanently available for your character and you can then switch for another piece of equipment.

 

There are several mini-games like the dreaded jump rope game which will prevent me from getting the plat, the catch-a-frog game needed for Qweena, the Chocobo Hot and Cold where you can ride a Chocobo and dig the ground to find treasures. My favourite remains the Tetra Master card game. There are also a lot of side quests like the Mognet Central where you will act as a mailman for the Moogle community.

 

FFIX is not new to me, I used to spend hours and hours playing it, trying to discover every little thing.

I love everything in this game : the characters, the story, the music, the world, everything ! To me, this is definitely the best games from the PS1 era and you HAVE TO try it !

 

Side note : It took me more than 15 years to realise that Ruby's hair is not blue ! I thought she had blue hair covered by a cream-colored bonnet but it's a scarf tied around her head ! My childhood is a lie!!

 

 

 

[voodoo_eyes]

It's time for the overview as per usual. Thankfully it was yet another event in which I despised none of the games. Well, let'S have a look on how they were from best to worst.

 

 

1. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider - While initially I had described it merely as good, I ended up making a second playthrough back.to-back and ended up having as much fun as I did on the first playthrough. Therefore this one gets a .
2. Final Fantasy XV - A good game, with excellent combat and minor issues in the animations department, which won't interfere too much with the fun. Wished the characters wouldn't moan every 10 minutes for no reason, as if they were in a badly coordinated porn It still gets a .
3. Mafia III - It's Mafia, it's during the 60s, it's plain fun. What else do you want? Getting a as well.
4. Tales of Berseria - Interesting characters in a cliché story, with fun combat. Just please stop sending me back and forth to someone to just say "hi", Still enjoyable enough for a .
5. Portal Knights - I don't tend to like these kind of games, so this one was probably the biggest surprise of how much fun it was. It could've been even better, if they had gotten the class balancing right. Nonetheless a solid .
6. Battlefield Hardline - It was noticeable that they actually tried to make an interesting campaign, and that shall be rewarded even though the multiplayer is arse. Just made the for offering an interesting and different story mode..
7. Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart - This one should be fun enough in small burst. It would have fared better, if it didn't attempt to shove a bunch of different mechanics into one game. It gets a . PS: Please stop with these long ass names that mean bugger all.
8. One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 - A lot of the in-game have been copy-pasted over from the previous games, which is a bit of a shame.The story-telling is interesting, while the story mode is very limiting due to being forced to play as specific characters. I feel like recycling as well and give it the same score I gave the other OP game I played, so there have a . PS: I want me freedom back, so let me switch characters when I want to!
9. Volume - While it may be well-made from a level-design point of view, the gameplay itself just isn't really fun. Gets a .
10. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles - Not necessarily a bad game, but to me it's just plain boring busy-work, hence why it finds itself on the last spot. Have a , but don't worry someone is gonna love you for who you are, it's just not gonna be me.

 

That concludes the games from this event. There are however a bunch of games I've played outside of it, which were these:

 

• Resident Evil 4 (PS4) - Played this one before on PC, although I never bothered to finish it back then. A good game, to which the natural evolution is in fact RE5 (which is actually a better game than 4, there I said it. Come at me!). I honestly don't get why people keep saying 4 is the best RE, when 5 is basically the same, but visually enhanced and polished. Whatever, good game gets a .
• Need for Speed: Rivals (PS4) - Some of you might remember this one, as I played it in a previous KYC, finished one playthrough as cop now, still 4 playthroughs to go...It's still a , because I know what still lays before me. Would have been a , if this game had stopped while it was ahead.
• Okage: Shadow King - Said enough about this one recently that I'll just sum it up to a borderline with a downwards tendency. At least this plat is out of the way by now.
• Vostok Inc. - This was a fun little game that is a mix of a light schmup and management game of the clicker variant. Actually platted this one and it gets a , Fuck those minigames though.
• Silent Hill 3 HD - This one was a ride going for the plat, holy crap. From keeping track manually of how many kills I got and damage I took for the bad ending, to the game not unlocking the UFO ending, because it has a hidden reverse kill counter. Those were the real horror to this game. It was a lot of fun though, although it is full of technical issues. Still gets a .
• Ducati - 90th Anniversary - Oh look, it's Ride but worse. Essentially they took all the assets from Ride and put them in this game. Difference being, that you only get bikes from one manufacturer to choose from. There's also way too many races (over a 100 I think) with the same few bikes on the same tracks, making this game a chore. Thank fuck I'm only 15 races short for he plat by now. Barely gets a .
• The Inner World - Platted this mediocre point-and-click recently. Very short game, with an unappealing art style and lame jokes. Another for this one.

 

 

Started with 73.10% and ended up with 72.48%. Not too bad of a hit there.

 

Out of the games from this event I'll probably try to wrap up Yonder first, just to get it over with as it seems to be the shortest of the bunch. Might put the rest on hold for now. Final Fantasy XV is one of the prime candidates for my 250th plat though.

 

 

Well, that's all folks. Reading those updates was fun as always.

 

A thanks to @Hemiak for having made another one of these.

 

 

Now it's time to repair the damage and sift through the games for the next event.

[Kevvik]

OK, it's round-up time.

 

Quick recap from favorite to least.  Scores may be jaded by low play time, take them as you will.

 

The Last Guardian 

10/10 - 3 hrs (2/24 trophies)

A gorgeous game with a neat concept, interesting mechanics and lots of real exploration.  Really looking forward to getting back to this.

 

Guacamelee!

8.5/10 - 11 hrs (40/61 trophies)

Awesome beat-em-up Metroidvania fun with pretty challenging platforming later on.

 

Dark Cloud 2

8/10 - 3 hrs (3/31 trophies)

A great-looking RPG with smooth combat and a photography/invention system that has me intrigued.

 

Deception IV: Blood Ties  

8/10 - 4.5 hrs (9/41 trophies)

A great time of tormenting and trapping.  Fun all round but have good timing as missions get harder.

 

Ys Origin

8/10 - 6 hrs (4/31 trophies)

Sweet action/RPG- without the usual redheaded protaganist but lots of fun combat and cool bosses.

 

Way of the Samurai 3

7.5/10 - 7.5 hrs (14/51 trophies)

An action adventure game with multiple storylines/endings, lots of different weapons and pretty good (if dated) combat.

 

Kona

7/10 - 3 hrs (7/36 trophies)

Interesting adventure game, more story than puzzle but not quite a walking sim.

 

Quest of Dungeons

7/10 - 13 hrs (22/26 trophies)

2D solo dungeon crawler with OP assassin and poorly balanced magic but a good sense of humor and more fun than I expected.

 

MeiQ

6.5/10 - 8 hrs (5/37 trophies)

Fairly generic dungeon crawler with a few interesting mechanics. Grind time!

 

Yasai Ninja

3/10 - 4.5 hrs (28/35 trophies)

A disappointing beat-em-up with interesting characters, so-so combat, clunky (at times) platforming and a crappy ending.

 

Overall, a lot of good games played and more good times in my future working on (most of) them.

 

Stat tally for the event:

 

Initial Completion Rate: 81.48%

Final Completion Rate: 78.36%

Completion Rate Change: - 3.12%

 

Trophies Earned: 134 of 373 possible trophies (239 remaining unearned ?)

 

Thanks to @Hemiak for hosting another great event ? and to all the other participants for the work they put into their games and posts ??. 

 

Hopefully my CR recovers in time for the next one but having chosen 6 UR platinum games might make that difficult. Lots of grinding in my Christmas future ?

[PerryToxteth]

Game No. 10

Mafia II

Final Review

 

 

Trophies Earned: 14/68 D ranking

Playing Time: 5-6 hours

Overview: A strategy I learned from past KYC events is that you want to try and pick a final game that you can just keep continuing with into the next month. Try to end on a high note, so to speak. And man, did this deliver!  For a game that is more than seven years old, it really holds up well in terms of story, graphics and gameplay.

   I've always enjoyed the gangster genre in movies, stretching back to Good Fellas and the Godfather series. Frankly, when I first heard about this game, I was pretty skeptical in that, I didn't think the developers could churn out a decent story and would be unable to capture the scope of the environment.  But a credit to 2K Czech, they really nailed the look and feel of 1940s-50s New York City!

  First, the story. Your character is a wounded vet that gets sent back home while World War II is still raging (I like the war updates on the radio!). He needs to figure out his next step in life and slowly, you watch his decisions immerse him into the world of the cosa nostra. I'm halfway through the story and I like the fact that each chapter is different. You aren't just repeating the same missions over and over. And the story really develops and gets more complicated as you get deeper into the game. There's also some pretty humorous parts, and some rather graphic parts as well, so not recommended for youngsters.

  Second, the environment. They are definitely PS3 graphics, but they are better than I was expecting. The game takes place in a city called Empire City, and it looks incredible.  It's a much bigger sandbox than I was expecting and after driving around a bit, I really have the feel for the different parts of the city, so it's not a repetitive environment. The genre is captured quite well in the store marquees, vehicles, character costumes, and the music. Man, did they get the music right! Bing Crosby, Andrews Sisters for the 40s, Chuck Berry and Little Richard for the 50s. There's even an unforgettable drunken serenade to Dean Martin's "Return to Me" in one of the chapters.  

   Third, the gameplay. I was also pretty skeptical in this aspect. But it really plays well and the controls work just fine. The gameplay is similar to a GTA game where you will spend equal time driving and running around, with some sporadic shooting sequences here and there. You can jack any car but of course, keep your eye out for cops. If they spot you, it will take some time to turn down the heat. The driving mechanics are more than adequate. Running around is a bit clunky bc the left stick is push-sensitive. The more you push it one direction, the faster he will move. It took me sometime to figure out to walk your character, just barely press the left-stick. Otherwise your guy will move like a headless chicken in the game's tighter quarters. For shooting, it's cover-based, so similar to Uncharted (though not as polished as that series). There's also hand-to-hand fighting in some parts and it works adequately.

Trophies: There's a bunch of story-progression but thankfully, they are not missable. There's also difficulty specific but no troubles on that so far. There are almost 200 collectibles in the game, so a grind in that front but funny enough, one collectible tries to be a bit entertaining as you collect old Playboy magazines. Yep, grab the collectible and you are treated with a gander at an old centerfold of a Playboy Bunny and her vintage bombs.  

  One negative with the trophies is that the two dlc's for the game are de-listed on the PSN store; so you will miss out on 20 trophies, unless you can round up the disc copy with the dlc's on it.

Final Thoughts: This game is great! For the last half of the KYC event, I was anxious to have it end so I could get back to Battlefield 1. After starting this game up, I have lost that urge and will play this one to the end. It's very similar to L.A. Noire, which is one of my favorite games, only this one has more action and definitely, less dialogue prompting. .

 

KYCV Statistics 

Pre-KYC numbers are in ().

Games Completed - Played 90/60    (79/60)

Trophies Earned - 2939                      (2809)

Unearned - 631                                  (330)

Trophy Rarity - 44.15                       (43.51)

Completion % - 80.17                      (88.68)

Down - 8.51%

 

Next Up - Nothing. All done! Hooray!! I will write up a Final KYC synapsis next week. 

[Metal Slime King]

Turned out Strider was my first post-event cleanup. Just got the plat today after a second run through on hard. I was psyched to get the under 4hr speed run at the same time with a final time of 3:40:06. The speed run clock in this game is very player-friendly. It pauses on the map screen so you can compare with a completed map and focus only on useful pickups and if you die the clock resets to where it was at the respawn point. I picked up all of the health and most of the energy boosts because the last area is pretty tough. Last level got easier with practice switching weapons on the fly, those warping soldiers can be frozen with a couple swipes of the ice blade then switch over to explosive for a quick finish. The most useful tip is to remember your special attacks, mainly the phoenix shot but the jaguar is useful too if there are a group of enemies on the ground that need softening up. If you pick up the energy recharge rate boosts then your specials refill quite quickly. It's a fun game that I'd still recommend after getting the plat.

[Myu]

So here we are with some clean up to do! I'll start with MeiQ as it is probably the most time-consuming and I'll work my way through this list. The only one I think I won't be able to plat is FFIX because of the jump rope trophy. I was quite good at it on PS1 but the timing just seems off in the PS4 version. Maybe I just need to try harder. The other four games are very nice to play but I didn't discover a new gem this time. I'll definitely try other Ys games though. Thank again @Hemiak for this great event. I'm looking forward to do next one!  (Do you mind if I still continue to post here about my progress as I recover from my lost completion% ?)

 

[dertswa687o]

Game #5 - Star Ocean: The Last Hope Remastered

 

Sorry for the late post. I actually got caught up playing the game. Now, I've played Star Ocean 4 before on Xbox and completed it. It took me 6 months of real time and 350 hours of game time. So naturally I am crazy enough to do it again. I did it on Xbox 6 years ago so I feel like it's been sufficiently long enough that I won't mind doing it again.

 

I feel like I don't need to talk about the notorious grind in this game as it's been pretty well documented. The actual game is really fun. The gameplay is great and despite what everyone says about the battle trophies, they really incentivize me to want to do random battles because you're usually working towards some battle trophy. The story is average at best and the voice acting is pretty bad, but I'm skipping cutscenes anyway.

 

Since this is based on the international version of the game (the PS3 version), there are some slight differences compared to the Xbox version that I'm used to. Namely, there are a few chests that are new or changed (I can't get Dragon Roar until the end of the 7SD... ?), they removed the factor overflow trick which means grinding Exp and Fol will take a bit longer, and they added the anime-style menu which is soooooooooo much better. On the Remaster side of things, the graphics are pretty great and the game gives you lots of options to change them. I don't have a PS4 Pro but I imagine it would look pretty great in 4K. I have been getting some lag/slowdown in Roak though.

 

Battle Trophy Progress:

Spoiler

Edge: 22

Reimi: 24

Faize: 33

Lymle: 8

Bacchus: 15

Meracle: 11

Sarah: 0

Myuria: 10

 

For whatever reason the North America trophy list was never uploaded to PSN, so I can't tell you how far I've fallen from the start of the event. Well, I could probably calculate it but whatever. 

 

Number of guides I'm following: 7

Time played: 13 hours

Trophies earned: 6/47, 8%

Completion: 99.11% -> something below 90%

Edited December 2, 2017 by dertswa687o

[MarkusT1992]

Game #10: King's Quest (Day 1-3)

 

 

Finally my last review for this event.

There are numerous games in this series. This game is a reboot of the series.

I never played a King's Quest game and only have this one because of PS+. The first episode was free in december 2015. I played the game a bit then, maybe one hour, but stopped playing it because of other games. Now I decided to give the game another try but unfortunately I had little to no time to play in the past few days. That's why I only played for about 30 minutes but at least I got a trophy in the game.

I even bought the season pass after playing the game back in 2015.

 

I continued where I left 2 years ago so I don't know the story anymore. Only that much, that you try to compete in a knights tournament to become a knight. The story is told as a story told by you to your granddaughter. That's kind of nice.

King's Quest is a point and click adventure but instead of using a curser it is done with moving your character to the important points on consoles. It's like many remastered point and click adventures like Grim Fandango.

 

There's really not much more I can tell you about the game due to my little time with it. Maybe the next time I'll try to play this game I have more time and actually play it.

I can't reall form an opinion on this game either. The story is told in a fun way and contrary to other adventure games you can die in this one. All what happens is that you reload the last checkpoint and try again.

 

Time played: 30 minutes in event / 1 hour 30 minutes total

Trophies: 1/53

Rating: ???

 

Next up is a round up of the event I hope to do tomorrow.

[DamagingRob]

Kinda forgot to post my final stats. :/ 

 

KYC 5 Ending Stats: 

 

Games Played: 448 (+11)

Games Completed: 354 (+2)

Completion Percentage: I think it was 88.78% (-1.45; a slightly higher drop than last time)

Unearned Trophies: 1,627 (+240. Pretty sure; should have written these all down before starting a new game..) 

Edited December 3, 2017 by Scyther

[Arctic Cress]

Time for my (somewhat late) review of Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey.

 

Atelier Firis stars Firis Mistlud, a young girl living in an underground city. The city survives with a huge mine, finding ore within the area. Firis is unhappy with this and dreams of going outside just once. She gets her chance when the heroine of the previous game, Sophie, visits the town and teaches her how to use alchemy. After helping out the townspeople with her newfound alchemy skills, she's allowed to leave the village under one condition - she must pass the alchemy certification exam within one year or return back to the town.

 

The alchemy system is very similar to the previous game, Atelier Sophie, where items are placed in a grid representing the cauldron based on the size of each item. New in this game are certain markings on the side that give quality and skill boosts, which allow you to craft more potent items for exploring or for quests. You learn recipes simply by doing things, like the previous game, but many of the recipes actually tell you how to unlock the recipe this time, while Sophie had some recipes where a guide was needed on how to unlock them. And now, since Firis can plop her atelier down in a field, there's no need to return to a central hub to do any crafting, which is a big help and a good way to save time (especially with the time limit!)

 

Battle system is standard turn-based combat, as always. Firis gets a skill to knockback turns like many of her predecessors, and her sister starts out at level 10 so she's perfect to help Firis gain in levels quickly. I took on a night battle vs. two ghosts and a bat, came away with 3 levels for Firis. There's a chain gauge on the right and it triggered during a battle, but it didn't seem to do anything. I'll have to look at the help function later to see what's up with that.

 

While progression was tied to alchemy recipes in Sophie, Firis seems to have its progression triggered by exploration, which is always a plus since Totori was my favorite of the Arland trilogy. Stepping out of the town triggered a whole bunch of quests, some of which I still haven't been able to finish yet. I had fun just wandering around the first area for a while because of the quests I was completing. My only complaint is that Firis' voice seems extremely high-pitched at times and it can get annoying (and she's the main character, so I'll have to hear her a lot). Hopefully I'll get used to it as the game continues, though I'll probably finish other games played in this event beforehand.

 

Completion stats:

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers - 7/44 - 11%

Blue Reflection: 7/47 - 10%

Touhou Genso Wanderer: 5/43 - 7%

Yakuza Kiwami - 10/55 - 14%

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey: 3/45 - 4%

Completion % at beginning of event : 71.13%

Current completion % : 69.79%

Difference: -1.34%

 

I also started Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea to plunge it further down. I don't remember the last time my completion was under 70%. Well, time to get it back up then. Thanks for the event, @Hemiak.

 

Final ratings:

Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers - 7/10

Blue Reflection - 6/10

Touhou Genso Wanderer - 4/10

Yakuza Kiwami - 9/10

Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey - 8/10

 

Tentative ratings based on what I've played (5 is an average).

[voodoo_eyes]

7 hours ago, Arctic Cress said:

I also started Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea to plunge it further down. I don't remember the last time my completion was under 70%. Well, time to get it back up then. Thanks for the event, @Hemiak.

 

I enjoyed Shallie quite a bit, until I got to my 2nd playthrough where the "secret" boss didn't show up. I assumed the game as glitched and got rid of it. Couldn't be arsed to do a 3rd playthrough.

 

Good to hear Firis seems to have left good impressions, as I'm tempted to start it in the near future.

Edited December 3, 2017 by voodoo_eyes

[dizzyshadow]

PS4 Game 5 : Far Cry 4

 

 

Not sure exactly where to start with this, Its my first adventure into this series, so i wasn't really sure what to expect, i knew it was first person perspective which is what has put me off trying it before as i often don't get on with first person games, the only one I have enjoyed was Doom which i played during KYC3 (I think) and still haven't been back to finish.

 

The game is set in the fictional country of Kyrat, you play as Ajay who is returning his mothers ashes to Kyrat, But on arrival you are capture by the countries dictator Pagan and treated as his guest of honour at this mansion, he seems to know your mother, while exploring the  mansion you discover some of the terrible things he is doing and are rescued by the Golden Path, a a resistance organisation started by your father. You decide to help them. Which involves various missions

 

Gameplay itself is very open world, the map seems huge i've only explored a tiny proportion of it. The 1st person perspective is causing me numerous problems though, and i'm unbelievable bad at this game, i'm playing on easy and i'm dying an awful lot, there also seems to be a massive shortage of ammo, pretty much every fight i run out of ammo. But i'm still early in the game so i'm not sure of this is representative of the game as a whole.

 

I think i'll reserve judgement until i've played some more but it hasn't particularly inspired me so far.

 

Trophies: 1/58

Final Completion : 51.08%

 

 

I'll post my final thoughts over the next couple of days when i get a bit more time.

 

 

[Melanogaster1987]

Just a brief snippet of a review for this one, and it'll probably be just that for my 10th game too - too many games, too little time! I just want to get things over and done with - given that I've already slipped 5 days behind, I'd rather be playing more than spending the time I do have writing longer reviews.

 

Game #9 of 10: Dying Light

 

An open-world survival horror game in which you have to use parkour skills to avoid falling prey to a horde of zombies. Think Far Cry crossed with Mirror's Edge crossed with any one of the many zombie games around.

 

My rating: Silver/Silver/Bronze A good concept, but I felt that the parkour gameplay didn't feel very smooth or forgiving, the missions have been mainly repetitive fetch quests so far, and some parts of the city aren't very well designed ( "safe zones" - areas designed to keep zombies out -  also have the side effect of shutting you out unless you can find the exact right pathway to get in, leading to much frustration. Better navigation markers on the map and the HUD would have helped with this). I'm quite liking the story, though, and it's good from a graphical point of view. Night time is also genuinely dark, rather than just like daytime with the brightness turned down a few ticks, which certainly adds to the atmosphere.

 

---
 
Trophies earned in this game: 6 (1, 5) for 105 points [7% completion]
Total trophies earned in this event: 86 (2, 10, 74) for 1,590 points
 
Current completion rate: 54.01% [Down 5.82% 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 0.42% due to Driver: San Francisco
Down 0.55% due to Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Down 0.70% due to Dying Light
Down 0.32% due to other games not part of this event

Edited December 4, 2017 by Melanogaster1987

[voodoo_eyes]

Well, I can give my first update (and probably my last one for a while). Got the plat in Yonder, so that is out of the way now. My opinion on it didn't change and while there isn't anything wrong with it mechanically, it is just plain dull.

 

PS: To whoever keeps putting fishing in games... I hate you!

[Jaguargenie]

I'm gonna apologize to everyone for totally dropping the ball for the end of this event. I haven't earned a trophy in a week and I was only able to get to 6 of the 8 games I committed to for this event. But with hosting my in-laws for Thanksgiving and and then a trip I just returned from, I haven't put in any real gaming time since about the 20th. (The sudden closure of Marvel Heroes f'd everything up good too)

So I'm committing to getting the other two games clocked and reviewed ASAP. Once again, I apologize and now that I'm back, I have 2 games left that I plan to put in the requisite time for and review: Banner Saga and Fallout 4.

[Metal Slime King]

I completed Castlevania: Mirror of Fate HD today. No plat, which is a shame since I thought it was challenging enough to warrant one. It certainly had more bite than Strider. I thought my first speed run attempt was going to be a wash but pushed through anyways and managed to beat the 3hr 30min requirement by 20min. A handy tip I realized but ultimately didn't need was during the first act when you first encounter the purple warp gate, take it to the area where you can now get the flame archer ghost as you will absolutely need him to continue and collecting him then will cut short the backtracking. Getting through Hardcore mode where bosses can kill you in 2-4 hits was good practice for the Boss Rush. Even on Easy the Boss Rush is the hardest trophy in the game as you have to face the 10 bosses from the story with 1 health bar and 1 magic bar. Fortunately in the last fight with Dracula you get infinite magic and you can easily use light magic to regain your health before you trigger him into his full moveset. It's a shame this game wasn't more popular than it was and it's surprising it only has 16,000 players indexed on this site. IMO this would make a great title for PS+ to get it more exposure.