AJ_Radio Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Well in Trials you really don't need to do stunts at all. 95% of the game is overcoming obstacles with as few faults as possible, but there are some challenges that indeed want you to do some supermans or flips or wheelies. Just not all that often. You could also just get Trials Rising and put it in the backlog, which if I'm not mistaken is currently being offered for a very good price Was Pumped BMX+ fun to do? Trials is several times harder than Pumped BMX+, a lot more commitment is required for the trophies. You're mostly working towards the 500 challenges in Pumped BMX+. Takes about 8 - 12 hours depending on how skilled you are. Doesn't get too bad until you reach the Pro challenges, some of the levels basically require you to do the higher level stunts to get the required score. All of the trick specific trophies are very easy and take 10 - 15 minutes to do them all. The Catfish Challenge trophy is where the bulk of the difficulty lies and where you're going to spend most of your time on. Personally I recommend the game. Nice little indie title, some good music to go with it. Edited June 2, 2020 by Spaz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vergil Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 On 2020-05-17 at 5:12 PM, KaKrackle said: Y’now Im glad someone else out there puts Trackmania as one of their hardest completions, cuz I swear I felt like I had taken a trip to crazy land for a while whilst playing that shit.... yet the few people I actually speak to on psn seemed to rinse it no problem. Was definitely hard for me mate! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaKrackle Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 10 hours ago, Vergil said: Was definitely hard for me mate! I remember the struggle well haha Track 169..... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baker Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 @Arcesius 2 hours for Pipe Phobia ?. Impressive! Pumped BMX+ is a fun game, so you should add it to the wishlist and get the 15 extremely easy UR trophies ?. As for Trackmania Turbo, man that was bloody hard. I rated it just below Trials Fusion in terms of difficulty although it frustrated me a lot more than TF. Curious to see how you rate it when you’re done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted June 4, 2020 Share Posted June 4, 2020 (edited) On 6/2/2020 at 4:00 PM, BB-BakkerJ said: As for Trackmania Turbo, man that was bloody hard. I rated it just below Trials Fusion in terms of difficulty although it frustrated me a lot more than TF. Curious to see how you rate it when you’re done. Arcesius said Trackmania was his hardest plat, which is saying something considering some of the impressive stuff he’s done on his account. Edited June 4, 2020 by Spaz 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arcesius Posted June 4, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 4, 2020 (edited) Yeah @BB-BakkerJ you pretty much said what I feel as well. Trials MIGHT be a bit harder than Trackmania (won't rate it just yet.. ) but besides Speedcuber absolutely nothing was frustrating thus far. Not only that, but the game has been incredibly fun throughout. With Trackmania though... it took so damn long, and every time I finished a track I just new the next one would probably again cost me 1-2 hours... never ending ? So yeah, towards the end it just turned from a fun racer into a tedious gold-grind. Speaking of which: Trials Fusion Ok my goal with Top Roach is to slowly grind it out, 30-60 minutes a day to not get burned out. And hey, I'm making progress! My very first attempt ended with 299 faults (?), but after 1.5 hours I am in single-digits now... PB: 9 faults! I think it would make sense to practice the three difficult checkpoints over and over, though the one with the stone-arc is stupid to practice... The first difficult checkpoint, the one after the ladder, is what I'm having the most trouble with for some reason... The way I see it there are two valid techniques for that one... Either sitting down to increase speed on the larger ramp, or lean forward. I've been practicing both methods and can't seem to consistently do either ? What would you recommend? I've watched the replays on my friends list and most seem to lean forward ? Crypt of the NecroDancer Man, I almost got a heart attack. I finally got a sub-15 minute All Zones clear with Nocturna! With a lot of time to spare... 2 seconds ? Here is my run, just in case you are interested. While Nocturna herself is pretty OP, there are Zone-5 enemies in all zones, there is a fifth zone which makes the run longer of course, and her special last two bosses are pretty crazy. So this was definitely harder than a sub-15 run with Cadence, at least for me. And with this, I'm done with the DLC for now. I uninstalled it and went back to practicing Aria. I cleared her individual zones to unlock her special boss for practice, and will start doing Aria all-Zone runs once I'm confident with her boss. ? Edited June 4, 2020 by Arcesius 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
det_gittes Posted June 4, 2020 Share Posted June 4, 2020 6 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Trials Fusion Ok my goal with Top Roach is to slowly grind it out, 30-60 minutes a day to not get burned out. And hey, I'm making progress! My very first attempt ended with 299 faults (), but after 1.5 hours I am in single-digits now... PB: 9 faults! I think it would make sense to practice the three difficult checkpoints over and over, though the one with the stone-arc is stupid to practice... The first difficult checkpoint, the one after the ladder, is what I'm having the most trouble with for some reason... The way I see it there are two valid techniques for that one... Either sitting down to increase speed on the larger ramp, or lean forward. I've been practicing both methods and can't seem to consistently do either What would you recommend? I've watched the replays on my friends list and most seem to lean forward I would lean forward, but having said that, I never got to full consistency on that checkpoint, maybe 3-4 out of 10 attempts were successful. Fortunately, it only takes about 20-25 seconds to get there, so it's not too bad. It's even possible to stop on the larger ramp and go from there, but it's much less reliable and harder (but if you ever stop there, it may be worth just giving it a shot). Funny how jumping on the Pit Viper, this checkpoint all of a sudden becomes trivial, even though back when I first played this track, it was a nightmare I generally had more problems two checkpoints later, when you first have to make this awkard jump on the steep block and then (preferably in one go to use the momentum, though it is possible to stop on the next checkpoint) make the big jump onto the hanging platform and then onto the rock ledge. Many a run went dead at that point in the track ? Overall, though, 9 faults means that you've got the hang of the track - and with each next time you play it, you'll be more confident and better, that's the beauty of this game 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ_Radio Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 Honestly man, you've already done more on Crypt of the Necrodancer than I will EVER do. There's only two trophies left that are above a 1 percent, everything else is a sub 1 percent and those will be a real challenge to get. This game still is one of the hardest games on PSN to platinum. Not counting broken online servers, glitched trophies or that sort of thing. Floriiss basically said it took him 900 - 1000+ hours to platinum Crypt of the Necrodancer, and that's counting RNG and sheer luck and skill. Insanity. If getting Crypt done doesn't label you a hardcore gamer, I don't know what does. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus1343 Posted June 5, 2020 Share Posted June 5, 2020 (edited) 18 hours ago, Arcesius said: Yeah @BB-BakkerJ you pretty much said what I feel as well. Trials MIGHT be a bit harder than Trackmania (won't rate it just yet.. ) but besides Speedcuber absolutely nothing was frustrating thus far. Not only that, but the game has been incredibly fun throughout. With Trackmania though... it took so damn long, and every time I finished a track I just new the next one would probably again cost me 1-2 hours... never ending ? So yeah, towards the end it just turned from a fun racer into a tedious gold-grind. Speaking of which: Trials Fusion Ok my goal with Top Roach is to slowly grind it out, 30-60 minutes a day to not get burned out. And hey, I'm making progress! My very first attempt ended with 299 faults (?), but after 1.5 hours I am in single-digits now... PB: 9 faults! I think it would make sense to practice the three difficult checkpoints over and over, though the one with the stone-arc is stupid to practice... The first difficult checkpoint, the one after the ladder, is what I'm having the most trouble with for some reason... The way I see it there are two valid techniques for that one... Either sitting down to increase speed on the larger ramp, or lean forward. I've been practicing both methods and can't seem to consistently do either ? What would you recommend? I've watched the replays on my friends list and most seem to lean forward ? Crypt of the NecroDancer Man, I almost got a heart attack. I finally got a sub-15 minute All Zones clear with Nocturna! With a lot of time to spare... 2 seconds ? Here is my run, just in case you are interested. While Nocturna herself is pretty OP, there are Zone-5 enemies in all zones, there is a fifth zone which makes the run longer of course, and her special last two bosses are pretty crazy. So this was definitely harder than a sub-15 run with Cadence, at least for me. That first checkpoint was by far the hardest part for me to learn as well. I definitely recommend learning to do it sitting down. That's the proper way to do it consistently. It feels luck based leaning forward and I spent days trying to get through a lucky run doing so but it was very annoying faulting later after making it past the first cp because it happened so seldom. After learning the right method I actually got it done in a few hours because that cp wasn't ruining nearly every attempt. Edited June 5, 2020 by Angus1343 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arcesius Posted June 14, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 14, 2020 Platinum #68 – Darkest Dungeon 100% Enjoyment: 8/10 100% Challenge: 5/10 Darkest Dungeon is a game that captured my interest with its gorgeous and unique visual style and aesthetics. This is a RNG-heavy, unforgiving, deep and complex game that doesn’t mess around, and I truly loved it for what it is. Pick your best heroes and send them into the unknown depths of the Darkest Dungeon! But beware, they might return a psychopath, or don’t return at all… 100% Enjoyment Oh man, where do I start… Darkest Dungeon is a game that caught my eye already a while ago, but after watching Joseph Anderson’s review video on the game, where he states that despite the developers having nailed what they wanted to achieve, Darkest Dungeon was “the worst gaming experience he has ever had”, I somehow lost interest ? But it seems like the game didn’t want to leave my head… And so when the entire collection was offered for a ridiculously low price, I couldn’t resist. Let me just say that I am luckily not in the same boat as Joseph, and after three weeks of playing nothing but this game (back in March) I can say that I really enjoy it. First of all, this game looks amazing. The Gothic theme is so gorgeous, the oppressive atmosphere of the game is almost palpable. The different classes are visually unique and interesting, the enemies grotesque and intimidating. Just… wow… I guess it’s not for everyone, but not unlike Hollow Knight, Darkest Dungeon features a very unique and recognizable artstyle, and that makes it stand out. Now, the gameplay… the loop… the GRIND. And man, this sure is a grindy game. The core-loop is actually very easily explained: You put together a group of four characters, pick one of the available explorations in one of the four regions, proceed through the dungeon until you have fulfilled the requirements of the mission, and then return to the main hub. One such cycle equals one “week” in-game, and so you repeat this week after week after week... The "requirements" of the missions are actually not very interesting most of the time, as most explorations have you do all combat rooms, explore 90% of rooms or beat a boss. There is little variation in what you have to do, and you eventually notice that the missions are only there for you to go collect loot and level up your party. Your ultimate goal in this game is to have strong enough characters to tackle the four "Darkest Dungeon" missions required for beating the game. But there is a second aspect to the game. The “economist”, or “manager” aspect. During the explorations, characters will get stressed out. Like literally.. “stress” is probably the most important mechanic in the game. When a character has to endure too much stress (enemies can inflict stress damage), a virtue check is made. If the check is lost, the character will become paranoid or start panicking, and might attack the other team-mates or deny healing, which in turn stresses your other characters as well. If even more stress is inflicted, they might die to a heart attack. When you return to the main hub, the stress level doesn’t automatically decrease. Instead, you have the option to send your characters to the “pub” or “abbey”, where they will be stress-healed for a hefty price, and won’t be available for at least one week. ? There are also diseases that can be contracted by your characters... syphilis, the plague, etc… Those have permanent negative effects, and can be also treated for a price. Since your resources are very limited, you are forced to make heartless choices. Maybe a character is not worth keeping around, and should be dismissed instead of spending your money on healing them. You can always replace them with one of the new heroes that arrive week after week to the main hub. Resources are especially limited since your inventory when going into a dungeon is pretty small, and the consumables you take into the dungeon also take up space. So you need to decide whether you want to pick up gold or heirlooms (needed to upgrade town buildings), take less consumables with you to have more inventory space, etc… It’s a very interesting system, and often leads to interesting dilemmas. And speaking about characters.. including DLC, there are 17 different classes to pick from, and each class has different skills that can be leveled up, but only a handful of attacks can be enabled for each fight. Now, the classes play all very differently, and finding synergies between the different classes was probably the most fun aspect of the game for me. You see in the screenshots above that the characters are standing in a row. That’s not just for aesthetic reasons, that’s how the battlefield is set out. Your characters occupy ordered tiles, the enemies do as well. There are attacks that can only be executed from a certain position, and they usually can only hit enemies in specific positions, too. Given that there are attacks that can shuffle your characters around, having a party capable of hitting enemies in every position and without being too restrictive on your own order is quite important. That’s one additional level of strategic complexity when choosing your party, and I would often find myself trying new party compositions with sometimes pretty bad results, too. ? Anyways, the game is extremely unforgiving and RNG heavy. You can be very well prepared, but still lose a run in a heartbeat. However, the game is most fun if you just accept that bad things happen, suck it up, and continue. It would in theory be possible to just back-up your save in case something goes wrong, but that takes most of the fun away, so I didn’t play this way. Pretty early in the game I actually went into a dungeon and met “The Collector”, a pretty rare but powerful spawn. My entire party was instantly wiped. And I just couldn’t believe that I had lost all of my characters for good! ? It felt horrible, but that was part of the “getting to know the game” process. It will happen again, and you better accept it. The worst part about this game’s enjoyment? The DLC. Both DLC suck. They don’t really offer anything interesting and just add more grind. Just not worth it, unless you really want that 100%. 100% Challenge One small oversight by the developers made what could have been a truly challenging platinum a walk in the park. I did a partial blind playthrough on a lower difficulty setting first, where I just went into the game without looking anything up to learn the mechanics and how the game works. Once I had a feel for the game I started looking up missable and misc trophies, which for the most part just want you to die in different (often stupid) ways. There are also trophies for upgrading all buildings in town, which takes a long time, and one for playing 104 weeks (i.e. doing 104 expeditions, if you will). I actually managed to get my very last trophy for the first playthrough (including doing both DLCs) on week 104, though that wasn’t planned ? The true challenge would, in principle, come from the difficulty-related trophies. The hardest difficulty setting in this game is called “Stygian”. Here, enemies deal more regular and stress damage, have more defense, more HP, your own heroes take longer to level up and will refuse to join expeditions above or below their current level. Furthermore, you need to complete the game within 99 weeks and with less than 12 deaths total. Sounds difficult, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t. While going for Ashes to Ashes, the hardest DLC trophy, I discovered by accident how to break the game. I won’t write here any details since it would ruin a first playthrough (yeah, like anyone wanting to play the game is gonna read this… ?). Suffices to say that I found a way to ignore stress completely, and without the need to back up your save. The result? I didn’t have to heal stress even once, and managed to finish my Stygian playthrough in about 40 weeks with 0 deaths and not even having all characters at rank 6. ? I still give this a 5/10 in challenge, since the game is very deep and complex, and even if you break it you need to understand how it works, how characters synergize, etc. Listen, I can't complain, since after a single playthrough you have already seen most of what the game has to offer and the game is extremely grindy. I can even imagine that having to play the game as intended again on Stygian might have resulted in me getting sick of the game. Soo... I though I would soon have 0 reviews in the queue, but this one didn't come as easily as other reviews, and thus took a while. The game is super complex, and writing about it wasn't easy. It also doesn't help that I finished it a while ago and that I'm super busy at work right now... Nioh 2 is in the pipeline, and meanwhile also Trials Fusion! That's right, I finally 100%'ed that beast ? Top Roach was without a doubt the hardest challenge in the game and took me close to 7 hours to complete. I came close after about 3 hours only to choke at the very end, and it almost happened again in my successful run... Here is the video: Yeah, the ending almost gave me another heart attack, but I somehow managed to save it... I don't know how, since my hands were shaking and my mind was already thinking that I screwed up AGAIN, but that doesn't matter anymore. It's done! ? 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelixNebula_x Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 On 14/06/2020 at 10:03 AM, Arcesius said: While going for Ashes to Ashes, the hardest DLC trophy, I discovered by accident how to break the game. I won’t write here any details since it would ruin a first playthrough (yeah, like anyone wanting to play the game is gonna read this… ). Suffices to say that I found a way to ignore stress completely, and without the need to back up your save. The result? I didn’t have to heal stress even once, and managed to finish my Stygian playthrough in about 40 weeks with 0 deaths and not even having all characters at rank 6. Congrats on the platinum, I really enjoyed what I played of this one, although the trophies did seem more on the difficult side. How is it that you managed to ignore stress entirely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
det_gittes Posted June 16, 2020 Share Posted June 16, 2020 Hey @Arcesius, I've noticed that you've completed the Eye of the Storm [NJ], well done! How did you find that track (ninja level 1 difficulty) as compared to the extreme difficulty? Did you try the Rock of Rages [NJ] as well? If you have, you probably noticed that it was quite a bit more difficult - which is understandable as it is most often classified as a level 2 (though probably on the easy side of level 2s as I passed it and there are quite many level 2s that I can't finish). I have looked around the tracks that I have put in my favorites, replayed some of them and I have made a list of a few tracks that I quite enjoy: Bloodlines [NJ] - if I remember correctly, the first ninja track that I completed, I was quite proud of myself at the time, though once you know what you're doing, the track is really simple (still have 30 faults in it but maybe I will play it some more) Giga-Tower - the track starts with a tricky obstacle that you'd never need in the base game (you need to hook you backwheel on the pillar and gas so as to get the bike up), I suppose it may be quite difficult at first but again, once you get more comfortable with the ninja difficulty, it is quite enjoyable Snow Life [E] - a fantastic track, not very easy, probably a mid-range level 1 TCP - a good track for practicing your throttle, I found it intimidating at the beginning but it shows you quite well what kind of throttle control you need at the beginning of ninja difficulty Cluttered - this one I found very satisfying to finish as it has some steep walls that I was quite afraid of , but you know, with practice.. Crack of Dawn [7] - a rather easy level 1 (but again, getting past the first obstacle may take some figuring out), and there is one obstacle in the middle that I still can't do consistently Beyond the Tree Tops - a harder level 1 which cost me many a time-out, but again, conquering a track after a time-out is even more satisfying You should also know that there are level 2s, which owe their ninja level to length rather than the difficulty of individual obstacles - that's the case with Recovery Point, another fantastic track, which is in the range of level 1s in terms of the difficulty of individual obstacles, but because it's very long, it's considered a level 2. Additionally, there are frontwheel/backwheel tracks, which I personally enjoy very much (unfortunately, with my skills I can only play those at a lower difficulty level). If you ever wanted to try these, there is a good series entitled BW & FW Training #xx (where xx stands for numbers from 1 to 16, if I am not mistaken). For more comprehensive lists of tracks, there is a community-run website listing lots of ninja tracks under https://fusion.ninja-central.com/search.php And on a final note, none of the tracks listed above were easy for me when I first played them and other than the first two, I suppose that I timed-out on most of them - just a heads-up in case you come across an "impossible" obstacle In fact, now that I think about it, probably the thing that I find most fascinating about Trials Fusion (and to some extent Trials Rising, but I haven't played it much outside the base game) is the fact that after you've played it for 50-80 hours (more or less the average amount of time to 100% it) and you think you know it quite well, all of a sudden you discover that there's a whole new dimension to the game, or almost a new game, with completely new techniques and a new required level of finesse, and you take the time to master this "new" game only to realize that there is another game hidden there, and another game, and so on (although it's hard to believe, the difficulty jumps from level to level are progressively bigger, so the difference between a level 1 and a level 2 is lesser than between a level 2 and a level 3, and so on - and best players say that the gap between level 6 and level 7 is just insane). The reason I've included so many tracks in my list before was to give you an idea how many different difficulties are all subsumed under level 1. Sorry for the long post ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted June 24, 2020 Author Share Posted June 24, 2020 (edited) Hey guys, sorry for not updating in a while. I'm currently super busy at work, and when I'm home I'm either spending time with my son (who sleeps less and less during the day ?) or, when I finally get to it, playing games instead of being active in the forums. I'm on vacation next week, will spend the week close to a beautiful lake here in the country, and I'm hoping to find the time to write the two pending reviews for Nioh 2 and Trials Fusion. It's probably gonna be three pending reviews by then though... Anyways. On 6/15/2020 at 2:28 PM, HelixNebula_x said: How is it that you managed to ignore stress entirely? It's less that I managed to get rid of stress, and more that I didn't need to care about stress building up. You know how every sequence of events is determined the moment you enter a room? It turns out, not everything. For some reason, stress damage is not pre-determined. But that's not the important bit... the important observation is that the outcome of a Virtue check is not pre-determined either.. instead, the game will flip a coin when the check is executed, and the game doesn't auto-save agressively enough. It is thus possible to make sure you win the Virtue check, and so I would often end a long expedition with all four heroes virtuous, none afflicted. Shoot me a PM if you want more info On 6/16/2020 at 10:25 PM, det_gittes said: Hey @Arcesius, I've noticed that you've completed the Eye of the Storm [NJ], well done! How did you find that track (ninja level 1 difficulty) as compared to the extreme difficulty? Did you try the Rock of Rages [NJ] as well? Yeah I gave it a go I would however argue that it wasn't necessarily more difficult than Inferno IV, for example.. In fact, I only attempted it once, didn't look up a single obstacle and still made it with "only" 140 faults... I'm sure that I could drastically reduce that number now that I know how the obstacles work. I haven't yet done Rock of Rages [NJ], but will get to it eventually. Actually, I haven't played Trials Fusion since getting all golds in the base game (except Inferno IV... just can't do the last CP consistently for some reason, even though I can get there easily with "only" 20 or so faults) and playing Eye of the Storm [NJ]. Thanks for the list of tracks! I should have a decent challenge trying to beat all of these ? and believe me, I'm not yet done with this game. I might give Trials Rising a go before deciding which one I want to stick with, though. I currently have too many started games... Or, you know, more than I'm used to ? Here's where we're at: Pier Solar and the Great Architects I just can't do this ? Remember how I wanted to finish the last trophy before Christmas 2019? Yeah, I burned myself out trying to force it, and it didn't work. I went back to the minigame 2-3 times in the last two weeks, but I can't keep at it for more than 10 minutes. I can't believe a classic RPG is giving me more trouble than something like Trials Fusion or Super Meat Boy. I won't let this game stay incomplete, that's 100% certain, but it might still take a while for me to have the endurance to finish this. Remnant: From the Ashes The first DLC dropped, I instantly bought it... but our 3-player group didn't find the time yet to get together ? People are bitching that killing 10 bosses in Survival mode (required for a trophy) is asking a bit too much, but I'm not intimidated. Might not get this first try, especially since we haven't played this for months, but the game is fantastic and one of the best coop experiences I've had, so really looking forward to finally starting it! Crypt of the NecroDancer I went back to practicing Aria. It's not going well. At least I found my third during one of the runs, so that trophy is done ? It probably took me ~75-80 hours to kill three of these fuckers, and I know of some people that got their second one after 120+ hours, so I can't complain. In any case, I think playing 20 minutes a day shortly before midnight ain't going to cut it here. If I want to beat Aria, I need to focus on her, which is why I'm taking a small break from this game to clean up other things first. Don't worry, I'm still having a lot of fun with the game and will definitely beat Aria, but I can't fully commit to it right now. Divinity: Original Sin 2 This is the main coop-game I'm playing right now. The blind playthrough with @Mori is going better ?. We had our difficulties in the beginning, trying to figure out how the hell this game works, but I think something clicked, and we're doing much better. However, not all trophies seem to pop for the non-host, which is quite frustrating. I even created a topic on these forums asking for people's experience with this, and the answers are all over the place. From "both me and the host unlocked all trophies no problem" to "I'm surprised you even got a single trophy to pop"... ? So yeah, no idea why some trophies pop and some refuse to do so. What we decided is to continue the blind playthrough, but we will do the Honour playthrough including clean-up on our own to avoid a third playthrough. I actually already started my Honour playthrough, but will make sure to not catch up to our blind playthrough to remain spoiler-free. Action Henk This is a game I bought very recently. I fired it up the other day, thought I'd give it a go... Fell into lava, accidentally popped a trophy ? I wanted to do Trials Rising, but now that one will have to wait. So what is Action Henk? I don't really know yet.. It feels like a mix of Trials Fusion (you are on-rails) and Trackmania Turbo (beat super tight medal times), but you play as an out-of-shape action figure in a child's playroom..? ? It's weird, but it's pretty fun so far. There are four medals - bronze ? silver ? gold ? rainbow, and for the 100% you need to get a rainbow medal in each level. There is way more to this game than it seems at first, with lots of advanced techniques to help maintain momentum, so my approach is to get a gold medal in a level before moving on, and will do the rainbow medals when I've a better feel for the game. I've gotten all gold medals in 5/10 worlds so far (and a couple rainbows), and that has been pretty easy. BioShock Remastered My first playthrough on normal is done. I played blind and explored as much as I could, and once the game told me that I reached the "point of no return", I went back to get all collectibles. There are two areas that you cannot return to, but luckily I was thorough enough to get everything on my first visit ? I've also completed the DLC, so now I'm only missing one playthrough on the hardest difficulty and with vita-chambers disabled to get the plat / 100%. I'm not yet sure if I want to do that legit or use a known exploit... On the one hand I like the challenge, and I'm always advocating against using glitches, so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to use the exploit... On the other hand, the game feels really dated and I didn't like it enough to want to spend much more time with it... Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere, the plot, the twists... But the gameplay just doesn't do it for me. I might give it a go on Survivor and if I hate it just use the exploit. We'll see. Injustice: Gods Among Us I remember asking @Copanele which fighter would be suitable for someone that has no experience with fighting games. I also remember he telling me that Injustice: Gods Among Us is for people that don't value their free time... But it is currently free on the store, so here we are ? I started the game yesterday by boosting some of the online trophies with @Mori, who is going to suffer through this beast as well. He got his 100 online wins, now it's his turn to play the punching bag ? Already the tutorial showed me that I will have a haaaaaard time with this ? So I will take it slowly. Will need a while before I really know what I'm doing... Sorry for the wall of text... Hopefully I will be back with a review for Nioh 2 very soon! I also removed my backlog / whishlist from the initial post, and instead added pictures of currently started games. I'm thinking about a personalized rating system for my games, and will probably remove the "short review" from the first post as well, and replace it with enjoyment and challenge ratings for each game. Edited June 24, 2020 by Arcesius 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 3 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Injustice: Gods Among Us I remember asking @Copanele which fighter would be suitable for someone that has no experience with fighting games. I also remember he telling me that Injustice: Gods Among Us is for people that don't value their free time... But it is currently free on the store, so here we are @Arcesius remember how you always say that you don't agree to using Turbo Controllers or scripts that emulate that because they are unfair? WELL IT'S HIGH TIME YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND you either use a turbo for getting level 100 or...idk wait for our sun to die out while you farm for exp. There's a reason that platinum is at 0.13% rarity BUT ANYWAY best of luck, hope you have fun, the comic books are SUPER GOOD if you are into DC universe (best written evil Superman ever) and...as usual, thoughts and prayers! Waiting for more of those sweet sweet reviews. Nioh 2 ftw! Need a reason to buy it 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KN_Kirai Posted June 24, 2020 Share Posted June 24, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Arcesius said: BioShock Remastered My first playthrough on normal is done. I played blind and explored as much as I could, and once the game told me that I reached the "point of no return", I went back to get all collectibles. There are two areas that you cannot return to, but luckily I was thorough enough to get everything on my first visit I've also completed the DLC, so now I'm only missing one playthrough on the hardest difficulty and with vita-chambers disabled to get the plat / 100%. I'm not yet sure if I want to do that legit or use a known exploit... On the one hand I like the challenge, and I'm always advocating against using glitches, so it would be pretty hypocritical of me to use the exploit... On the other hand, the game feels really dated and I didn't like it enough to want to spend much more time with it... Don't get me wrong, I love the atmosphere, the plot, the twists... But the gameplay just doesn't do it for me. I might give it a go on Survivor and if I hate it just use the exploit. We'll see. Nice going! ? I pretty much had the same thoughts when I played it, since I much prefer the gameplay of BS Infinite than the first two games'. It's fine in my opinion if you want to use the glitch (I used it too), but if you decide to do it legit remember to save frequently and that the game has the tendency of sometimes resetting your difficulty setting to medium whenever you load up your save, which can screw you out of a legit Survivor playthough, and that is not good ? Edited June 24, 2020 by KN_Kirai 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted June 25, 2020 Author Share Posted June 25, 2020 21 hours ago, Copanele said: @Arcesius remember how you always say that you don't agree to using Turbo Controllers or scripts that emulate that because they are unfair? WELL IT'S HIGH TIME YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND you either use a turbo for getting level 100 or...idk wait for our sun to die out while you farm for exp. Don't get me wrong though.. I don't mind if other people use those devices as long as they don't gain any advantage. It's more like a self-imposed rule, it's just not something I like doing myself. That being said, I actually used a physical rubberband to grind kills AFK in Helldivers, because fuck killing 100k enemies... ? And speaking of Helldivers... The level-curve is also exponential there, and leveling up from 24 to 25, max-level needed for one trophy, requires as much XP as going from lv. 1 to 24... Why am I bringing this up? Because it seems deceivingly easy to level up in Injustice... @Mori reached level 55 or so by just killing me 100 times in a row. But I suspect that especially towards the end, leveling up even once will take forever.. ? I'll take your word for it though, I know you had some awful, awful grinds to go through, so if you say a script is needed, then I might resort to using one ? 21 hours ago, Copanele said: Waiting for more of those sweet sweet reviews. Nioh 2 ftw! Need a reason to buy it Wait... The Dung Lover making an appearance isn't enough of a reason for you to buy the game? ? 20 hours ago, KN_Kirai said: Nice going! I pretty much had the same thoughts when I played it, since I much prefer the gameplay of BS Infinite than the first two games'. That's good to hear though! I've been told that Infinite is probably the best of the three, and I'll definitely play the other two games as well, but not just yet. Actually, I think I went into Bioshock with wrong expectations... I didn't watch much gameplay or whatever, but I knew that there is a lady-sidekick somewhere, and I had pictures in my head of a colorful city in the sky... But when the entire first game happened underwater, in the dark and oppresive, almost claustrophobic city of Rapture, the fake pictures in my head might have contributed to me liking the game a tiny bit less than I would have otherwise. So I'm guessing that the footage I had in mind is from a later entry.. ? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 4 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Don't get me wrong though.. I don't mind if other people use those devices as long as they don't gain any advantage. It's more like a self-imposed rule, it's just not something I like doing myself. That being said, I actually used a physical rubberband to grind kills AFK in Helldivers, because fuck killing 100k enemies... And speaking of Helldivers... The level-curve is also exponential there, and leveling up from 24 to 25, max-level needed for one trophy, requires as much XP as going from lv. 1 to 24... Why am I bringing this up? Because it seems deceivingly easy to level up in Injustice... @Mori reached level 55 or so by just killing me 100 times in a row. But I suspect that especially towards the end, leveling up even once will take forever.. I'll take your word for it though, I know you had some awful, awful grinds to go through, so if you say a script is needed, then I might resort to using one That's the thing...up until level 70-80 you will say " this ain't so bad". From 80 onwards you need a fuckton of time, just like you described in Helldivers For that script, here's the post. You'll need it Can't remember how to actually use the exp cards, but you need to mind your resources...something something. Those exp multipliers will save you from absurd amounts of grinding. Basically buy only the required stuff from the store. A guide helps here. 7 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Wait... The Dung Lover making an appearance isn't enough of a reason for you to buy the game? You got me there,not going to lie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KN_Kirai Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 15 minutes ago, Arcesius said: That's good to hear though! I've been told that Infinite is probably the best of the three, and I'll definitely play the other two games as well, but not just yet. Actually, I think I went into Bioshock with wrong expectations... I didn't watch much gameplay or whatever, but I knew that there is a lady-sidekick somewhere, and I had pictures in my head of a colorful city in the sky... But when the entire first game happened underwater, in the dark and oppresive, almost claustrophobic city of Rapture, the fake pictures in my head might have contributed to me liking the game a tiny bit less than I would have otherwise. So I'm guessing that the footage I had in mind is from a later entry.. Yes, I guess when people speak of "BioShock" in general they tend to mention those aspects instead of the first game's environment ? I heard about it too before playing and didn't really know that wasn't the case for the first BioShock. It's best to take your time with the other games, especially if you're planning on doing a legit Survivor run of the first game: it's supposed to be the hardest of the difficulty challenges out of all the three games. I did them pretty much one after the other and used the glitch for the first one, and I was feeling a little burnt off upon playing BS Infinite on 1999 mode, so I can imagine what it's like if you don't use it ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Arcesius Posted July 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 7, 2020 (edited) Alright, update time! And no, I don't mean progress-update.. rather checklist update As you can probably tell, I have been having trouble finding the time to write extensive reviews lately... With my son at home, me being busier than usual at work... it's just not as easy as it was to find the time and motivation to sit down and get my thoughts together. Still, I want to keep writing, but I noticed that my reviews are usually unecessarily long.. I'm not a game journalist, I don't need to describe every aspect of the game, every single mechanic.. It's about my experience with the game! What I liked, what I didn't like... What was particularly challenging.. And it's about the discussion with you guys. That's what is most fun for me. So, I decided to make some changes. First of all, I changed my rating system. You can see it explained in the first page of this checklist. Basically, it feels way too arbitrary to rate games on a 1-10 scale, sometimes even giving half-marks for whatever reason. Does it really matter that Trackmania is a 9/10 and Trials Fusion a 9.25/10? No, it really only matters that they are both super hard. Hence, I've decided to use the following rating system: Enjoyment: (Trials Rising medal system) Challenge: In the OP I also replaced the short summaries for each game with an enjoyment and challenge rating. If I write a longer summary for a game, I don't need to summarize that summary Most importantly, I decided to have a fixed structure for my reviews, so that it doesn't take me as long to write down what I want to say. Instead of just rumbling about for pages and pages, I decided that I will use the following structure: The Pitch One-sentence summary of what the game is about. The Best What aspects of the game did I like the most? What makes the game special? The Worst What was disappointing or outright bad? The Challenge Was achieving 100% particularly challenging and if so, why? I would of course be happy about honest feedback.. I'm still writing these reviews for me personally in the first place, but I know that some of you actually read what I write (poor you.. but thanks! It really means a lot to me). If the new structure / restrictions suck, please tell me However, this should make it easier for me to quickly write down what I want to say about a game without delaying it for weeks. Nioh 2 is the first game to fall into these new guidelines. Let's see how it goes! Platinum #69 – Nioh 2 The Pitch Second installment of the incredibly fun and complex action RPG set in late 1500s Japan, with deep and satisfying combat that has you slay Humans and Yokai alike, and an addicting Diablo-esque loot system that will have you farm to create the perfect build. 100% Enjoyment 100% Challenge The Best: Without a doubt, the king in this game is the gameplay. You could tell the story of a piece of bread looking for cheese (wait... that does sound familiar… ?) and I still would find myself playing Nioh. The combat… Oh man, the combat... It's just so deep, so complex, so satisfying… And extremely varied, too. All weapons feel unique, and Nioh 2 also features two entirely new weapons. One of those, the Switchglaive, gotta be one of the most fun and unique weapons I've ever seen in a game. It could have easily been a weapon found in Bloodborne. A very technical weapon that is based around stance-switching mid-combo, which is both fun to play, and very stylishly looking ? There are a couple of new mechanics in Nioh 2 that were not present before, such as Burst-Counters, as well as a new way of customizing your build: You can now equip your Guardian Spirits with up to three Soul-Cores, which are dropped from enemies. These grant additional passive perks to your character, and add yet another level of diversity to your build. And speaking of which… Character customization is still as flexible as ever, if not more. Nioh 2 introduces several new mechanics that allow for even more personalization than before. And even if you don't care about carefully putting your build together… Heavy Armor and an Axe in high stance will still get you through the game (but it might be an extremely boring way to play). The Worst: There honestly aren't too many things that I could criticize about Nioh 2… But I can think of one: The bosses. It's not like the huge Yokai aren't imposing and threatening the first time you encounter them at the end of a main mission, but most bosses in Nioh 2 can then later be encountered as regular enemies (similar to Ornyoki in the original Nioh). This isn't all too big of an issue during your first playthrough, as the bosses are usually introduced with a nice sequence and you haven't fought them before… but especially on subsequent playthroughs, those boss fights lose everything that makes them stand out. A shame, really. The Challenge: This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the game for me personally. Maybe it has to do with the roughly 190h I spent with Nioh, but the game could have been a bit more difficult. And I certainly wasn't using OP builds or anything like that … I didn't touch Sloth at all, I didn't use Carnage… and sure, the main challenge in the original Nioh was the DLC and the Way of the Demon missions, and maybe that's what I was falsely expecting from Nioh 2… but still, I still think that the base game is easier than Nioh's base game. Anyways, as mentioned above, using an Axe in High Stance, a Spear or an Odachi, the game becomes very, very easy (too easy). Using Omnyo-Magic makes the game even more of a walk in the park. But even with my preferred way of playing, Dual Swords and Saturation, the game really isn't too demanding. That doesn't mean that it isn't fun… it is an absolute blast! ? And I really am looking forward to the DLC! If you enjoyed the first game… give this one a go. It improves upon the original in every way possible. Edited July 7, 2020 by Arcesius 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 Loving the new format! Looks unique , especially the difficulty graphic is super fun AAND you even get to update it on time ! Still, best to add the little enjoyment gremlins under your signature, I bet I will forget which one is which (no shock that Nioh 2 gets the platinum gremlin though, that one didn't even needed a grading ) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 (edited) On 07/07/2020 at 10:29 AM, Arcesius said: Alright, update time! And no, I don't mean progress update.. rather, a checklist update. As you can probably tell, I have been having trouble finding the time to write extensive reviews lately. With my son at home, me being busier than usual at work... it's just not as easy as it was to find the time and motivation to sit down and get my thoughts together. Still, I want to keep writing, but I noticed that my reviews are usually unnecessarily long... I'm not a game journalist. I don't need to describe every aspect of the game, every single mechanic.. it's about my experience with the game! What I liked, what I didn't like, what was particularly challenging... and it's about the discussion with you guys. That's what is the most fun for me. So, I decided to make some changes. First of all, I changed my rating system. You can see it explained in the first page of this checklist. Basically, it feels way too arbitrary to rate games on a 1-10 scale, sometimes even giving half marks for whatever reason. Does it really matter that Trackmania is a 9/10 and Trials: Fusion a 9.25/10? No, it only really matters that they are both super hard. Hence, I've decided to use the following rating system: Enjoyment (which uses the Trials: Rising medal system): Challenge: In the OP, I also replaced the short summaries for each game with an enjoyment and challenge rating. If I write a longer summary for a game, I don't need to summarize that summary. Most importantly, I decided to have a fixed structure for my reviews, so that it doesn't take me as long to write down what I want to say. Instead of just rumbling about for pages and pages, I decided to use the following structure: The Pitch One-sentence summary of what the game is about. The Best What aspects of the game did I like the most? What makes the game special? The Worst What was disappointing or outright bad? The Challenge Was achieving 100% particularly challenging and if so, why? I would, of course, be happy about honest feedback... I'm still writing these reviews for myself in the first place, but I know that some of you actually read what I write. Poor you... but thanks! It really means a lot to me. If the new structure/restrictions suck, please tell me. However, this should make it easier for me to quickly write down what I want to say about a game without delaying it for weeks. Hey, man! Never spoke here before, so I'll be using this opportunity to do so. First off, about the new rating system, it looks cool, although you should probably explain what do those Trials symbols mean, to make it easier for people to understand. I also think you should keep the short write-ups for games that don't already have one in this thread, but that's just my opinion. About your trophy list in general, I just wanted to say: major congrats to you. You have so many games in your profile that I can't even fathom how hard it must be to platinum them, haha. Hope you and your family are doing well. Edited July 4, 2021 by Eagle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcesius Posted July 7, 2020 Author Share Posted July 7, 2020 5 hours ago, Copanele said: Loving the new format! Looks unique , especially the difficulty graphic is super fun AAND you even get to update it on time ! Thanks man! Yeah, I think I'm almost entirely happy with it.. and the Nioh 2 review, normally it would have taken me forever. With that structure, I wrote it in no time. Will try to do Trials Fusion tomorrow! 4 hours ago, BRKs_Eagle said: Hey, man! Never spoke here before, so I'll be using this opportunity to do so. Hello there! Glad to see you around 4 hours ago, BRKs_Eagle said: First off, about the new rating system, it looks cool, although you should probably explain what do those Trials symbols mean, to make it easier for people to understand. 5 hours ago, Copanele said: Still, best to add the little enjoyment gremlins under your signature, I bet I will forget which one is which (no shock that Nioh 2 gets the platinum gremlin though, that one didn't even needed a grading ) Yeah, you guys are right. Most people won't know the medals by heart. I thought about using PS Trophies first, but many do that already and I didn't really like the idea. So, I tried something else instead. I replaced the Diamond (yes, Nioh 2 is Diamond, not even Platinum ) medal in Nioh 2's review with the following picture: To see how this is interpreted, this would be a game that reaches silver: Does this make more sense? I think I'm happy with this, but might need to work on the pictures a bit more if they are final. 4 hours ago, BRKs_Eagle said: I also think you should keep the short write-ups for games that don't already have one in this thread, but that's just my opinion. About your trophy list in general, I just wanted to say major congrats to you. You have so many games in your profile that I can't even fathom how hard it must be to platinum them, haha. Hope you and your family are doing well. Thanks a lot for the feedback, the nice words and the good wishes! We are very well, just spent a week on vacation together, always relaxing I will consider adding the short reviews back (if I can find them... I'm a dummy and didn't write them down, just deleted them from the OP), maybe I can also write new ones ? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 8 minutes ago, Arcesius said: To see how this is interpreted, this would be a game that reaches silver: Does this make more sense? I think I'm happy with this, but might need to work on the pictures a bit more if they are final. That looks even more awesome! you SHOULD keep it like that, and for a game that just blows your mind you can get the orange bar off the charts, something similar to a 12/10, it would be hilarious. Neat ideas you're having, vacation inspirations I take it 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 9 minutes ago, Arcesius said: Yeah, you guys are right. Most people won't know the medals by heart. I thought about using PS Trophies first, but many do that already and I didn't really like the idea. So, I tried something else instead. I replaced the Diamond (yes, Nioh 2 is Diamond, not even Platinum ) medal in Nioh 2's review with the following picture: To see how this is interpreted, this would be a game that reaches silver: Does this make more sense? I think I'm happy with this, but might need to work on the pictures a bit more if they are final. This is the most creative and clear way to show how much someone enjoys a game personally. I also like the little gauge for difficulty. If I ever get around to making a thread, I might steal this idea, but use my own designs ?. Also, you review for Nioh 2 was very clear and not a wall of text, I like it when it's separated into sections of discussion. I have the first Nioh sitting on my shelf in shrink wrap currently and I'm really debating starting it sooner than some others on my list. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S_y_n_e_IR_g_Y Posted July 7, 2020 Share Posted July 7, 2020 When its time to start my own Trophy Checklist Thread, for my Platin Project, i will definitely steal this idea to :'DDD Looks amazing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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