KYC 777

[voodoo_eyes]

I went back and finished the story for Awakened Fate Ultimatum, from the 3rd KYC. I think my opinion didn't change much from back then. I still dislike the movement system (enemies move when you move= and enemy variety is a bit lacking. Navigating the labyrinth is so much easier once you find a specific ring as it shows you where the exit to the next floor is. It's an OK game overall.

I still have to do the post game dungeons and a 2nd playthrough as well as finding a bunch of items I'm still missing. I might still wrap up the post game dungeons and then take a break from this.

[xFalionx]

This is as far as I'll get with my games before the next KYC starts, so here's an update on my progress:

 

I haven't gotten back to Catherine despite liking it so much, mostly due to being distracted by Vita games for a certain anniversary event. I will definitely finish the story and see how far into the trophies I can get without losing too much of my hair but I'll likely wait until February or a little while later.

 

Just finished this a few moments ago and I still have the exact same opinion about it: It sure isn't the best racing game out there but it's fun, looks good, feels good and has a shitty camera. Also, make sure to ring your own music as the what feels like four electronic OSTs of the game all feel the same and are pretty mediocre overall.

 

I spent a couple hours last evening getting my combined time of all races down from 41:20 to 40:30 and got the last 30 seconds off today for a final time of 39:58. I was a bit surprised since I still had a lot of leeway even though racing games sure aren't my forte but I did end up having to go out of my comfort zone from time to time. Since it's a game that has two plats for the price of one, I'll get to enjoy the other one later.  Sadly, due to DLC trophies, this game now sits at an unsatisfactory 75% completion even after achieving the platinum trophy. Oh, how I loathe DLCs...

 

Haven't touched this since the start of the event and I honestly don't want to. I will probably end up forcing myself to at least play through the story to fix my completion a little but that can (and will) wait.

 

Oh, where should I even start with this one... I finished it but man was it a laggy glitchy, frustrating mess. Jak 2 is a game that is already really hard and has unforgiving checkpoints. Now couple this with a framerate somewhere between 10 and 20 FPS, game breaking glitches (emphasis on the S, I wish I encountered only one glitch) and important abilities that take ages to recharge and are instantly activated as soon as they are ready by incomprehensible back-touchscreen button mapping, alarming the whole city of your presence. 

 

Thankfully most glitches are resolved by restarting the game (thereby losing all progress you made during that mission which can definitely hurt) besides an annoying glitch that causes you to randomly slide off curved grind rails using your hoverboard (which, by the way, is activated by back-touchscreen button mapping and therefore doesn't trigger half the time you're trying to use it) in a very long level with three separate grind sections and no checkpoints at all. 

 

This was not a joy to play. The game was already a bit rough around the edges back on the PS2 because of its unforgiving checkpoints but this Vita port is just a disgrace. If you want to play this game, do not do it on the Vita unless you've got some huge balls of steel. Even then, you would probably be better off playing it on a different version because most of the glitches that I encountered and the terrible FPS seem to be exclusive features of the Vita version of the game.

 

I ended up finishing this as well. I still think this is a great RPG. It's got an amazing story but I think there are some pacing issues as the game felt like a drag towards the end of the story because they bombard you with exposition two thirds of the way in and then you've still got another ~15 hours to go without really anything new. I did end up liking pretty much every character towards the end as each of them really grow during the 50 hours of story. 

 

Another thing that surprised my was how little there was to grind. It took a couple hours to rack up Grade before the second playthrough, another couple hours to get the characters to max level and yet another couple hours to finish the arena twice for some OP accessories but I felt like the two story playthroughs felt a lot more like a grind than the actual grind itself. I also didn't really like the arena as the developers thought having no EXP/Grade in those fights was a good idea. In the end they felt like 2 hours of wait time that's necessary to get a good accessory because the fights aren't challenging and the rewards aren't rewarding.

 

If you're gonna play this I'd recommend using some Holy/Sacrosanct bottles during the first playthrough and setting the difficulty to easy should you feel underleveled because that should cut down a lot unnecessary fighting time and make story progression more fluid.  

 

 

 

Looking forward to November.  

[voodoo_eyes]

I ended up pushing through and got the plat in Awakened Fate Ultimatum. The game was alright until the item grind started, which took me over 20 hours to get all the items needed. Gotta love RNG nonsense...

 

That leaves me with 14 games out of 66 to go back to. Namely:

• One Piece: Unlimited World Red
• Transistor
• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
• Battle Princess of Arcadias
• Trine Enchanted Edition
• Slain: Back from Hell
• Assassin's Creed Unity
• Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1
• WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
• Okami HD
• Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart
• Tales of Berseria
• One Piece Pirate Warriors 3
• Ghost Recon Wildlands

Edited October 30, 2018 by voodoo_eyes

[AJ_Radio]

On 9/24/2018 at 5:49 AM, Hemiak said:

I know another guy who dropped out after a while too. I know it's going to be a ton of work but it's for my family so hopefully I can stick it out. 

 

I'm studying Digital Forensics. I have an undergraduate CSCI degree, but I've been out of the field for 15 years. It was a ton of work the first two weeks to get caught up and derust some of the old skills. It also took a bit to get used to the whole online program routine. 

 

Hope you don't mind the very late response.

 

I used to love the Forensic Files television show that was on semi-regularly. Always found it interesting how those scientists were able to track down those very delicate details that would lead to the criminal.

 

Most of the crime cases covered on the show dated back to the 1990s and early - mid 2000s. This was before the smartphone starting taking over. Cases would often take several months if not years to figure out, today with thanks to our powerful computers and smartphones I would think such crimes and investigations take a lot less time because technology is much more advanced now than it was 20 - 30 years ago.

 

I personally think criminals simply can't get away with as much as they used to. A criminal doing what Jeffrey Dahmer did back in the 1990s would be next to impossible now because of our heightened awareness to security, and our smartphones being able to record any sort of crime footage that can be used as evidence to put a sentence on a murderer or criminal in court.

 

It's interesting to me that the crime world is starting to shift more towards digital hacking instead of just standard crimes. Obviously that is a study that is probably outside the world of Forensics, but I haven't seen the Forensic Files show in a long time or have studying how people work in Forensics now. Technology has certainly helped tremendously.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Spaz