Gretchen27 Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 @Kevvik Your scathing review for Omega Quintet had me laughing. The story was so bland & easily forgettable. I found the combat strong enough to keep playing. But yeah, by the time you start clearing the end game dungeons while working on 1 billion approval rating you'll be numb to it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted March 19, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 19, 2019 ^You can add his opinion to the list of many, that make me think deleting it from my hard drive was a good choice. Final Review, Persona 5: So, this is a good game. But as I figured, it's probably not going to be as enjoyable as Persona 4 Golden was.. That game was simply amazing, and one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. That's not to say this installment is bad... but it had a high bar to measure up to. And so far, it hasn't done so. Anyways, let's get into it. Most of the time in this game, you're going to either be spending your time going through the various dungeons, or doing things that build your relationships with confidants/raise your social stats. The latter really just consists of talking to people, and occasionally choosing dialogue options. Correct choices will improve their opinion of you. And as they rank up, they'll gain new skills that can help you in battle, and Persona of that type will get an XP boost when fusing them (any 2 Persona can be fused together to make a stronger one). Raising stats is also useful as some confidants will be blocked off if some of them are too low. Dungeons take quite a bit of time to complete, and may take multiple trips. The idea is to get to the next save room, and then you can instantly warp to it next time you enter. But the more days you spend in dungeons, the less time you have to raise relationships and social stats. So the less trips, the better. An SP recovery accessory helps with that, since you'll run out and be unable to heal eventually otherwise. These save rooms really don't seem to be frequent enough for my taste, though. Especially, with some of the cheap shit I've encountered. I quit last night after getting a Game Over, because some status effect I was getting hit with appeared to just be siphoning a bit of my SP every turn/rendering the party member(s) hit with it unable to act. What I didn't know, was after a few turns they would die. And by the time I realized, it was too late.. I've also fought enemies with attacks that have a chance to instantly kill party members. And this is on Easy. It's just cheap and annoying. Then there is a dungeon that is super long, and more floors become available as you progress through the story. The floors also appear to be randomly generated. This is also where you go to complete various sidequests, usually fighting a miniboss. And you can apparently run into a powerful enemy if you hang around on a floor too long. Haven't seen it, but was warned through a tutorial message. Not much else to it. There is a baseball minigame, where you press at the right moment to hit a baseball. Managed to hit the homerun target my first time playing it, so that trophy is out of the way. Graphics aren't anything to write home about. But other than Final Fantasy, JRPGs aren't really known for having great graphics. The anime cutscenes sprinkled throughout look really good, though. And the soundtrack/voice acting are top notch. ? So yeah, this is probably between a and a rating. If the dungeons didn't feel so tedious, I'd probably be enjoying it a bit more. I don't really remember P4G's feeling this way. Each one plus social stuff in between is taking me 10+ hours. I don't know if people are fast forwarding through those parts, or skipping them entirely, but seeing nearly half of the people on here who have started this beast made it to the end is a bit crazy. :/ I'm ~40 hours in, and probably not even halfway.. Time played: 40 hours. Trophy progress: 22/49 for 32% and a C rank. Completion Percentage Drop: -0.11% (-0.30% overall) Next up is Bulletstorm, which is the game I know the least about. Free Plus game, so not a lot of research was done. It's a shooter of some kind, I'm pretty sure. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post ImBossy83 Posted March 19, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 19, 2019 Initial thoughts #4 Game Tokyo Jungle Another PS Plus Game from my List. Humankind has vanished and the animals take back the city of Tokyo and struggle for survival in this strange little Game published by Sony in 2012. The game has a story mode and a survival mode but the survival mode is the main attraction of this Game. The story mode so far has been more of a tutorial. At the beginning of your survival run you can choose the animal you want to use during the run. Then you have to find food, fight for survival and procreate to start the next generation. At the start you have two animals you can choose but you can unlock more through in-game challenges. The gameplay itself feels pretty dated but somehow that also is part of the Charm. The game sort of feels like a PS2 Game. There are things like a Highscore and the strange electro music and soundeffects that never let something like immersion be a thing for this Game. But as i said it's a fun experience so far, it's pretty straightforward in it's challenges and so i look forward to play some more. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Metal Slime King Posted March 20, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 20, 2019 (edited) Game #3 - Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms () So what is this game? Idle Champions is a F2P "Idle" game set in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons universe and available on PS4. After you start a quest your party will automatically fend off wave after wave of different enemies while the short stories are told in dialogs between waves. You manage your party, as enemies drop gold you can spend it to level up your characters and recruit new ones from the available roster. The game is laid out simply with 2d cartoonish graphics, you move your characters around a formation grid on the left and enemies come out from the right, over a simple background that changes between waves to follow the story. Formation grids can change depending on the quest you are running. You can tweak your DPS out by positioning your party and focusing on which character to level. Waves of enemies get progressively tougher and give more gold so it's a matter of seeing how many waves you can progress and level up your characters before you hit a wall. You can complete a quest if you've gone far enough which will end the current quest and convert the total amount of gold you've earned into "Favour" with a deity which will act as a gold multiplier in the next quest, allowing you to level up faster and get further in the waves and collect even more gold. Ridiculous amounts of gold. In my initial thoughts I said this game was a trap, lol, a money trap. It struck me almost immediately as the lowest effort game to make to include some established IP characters and plenty of micro-transaction possibilities. There are 4 currency types; in game cash to recruit and level up characters in a specific quest, deity favour which increases the cash multiplier in new quests (and can also be spent on permanent buffs), emeralds which are earned by beating a boss character every 5 waves and real dollars. There are new characters that can be bought with real dollars or unlocked in events. There are equipment for each character that raises their stats, which can be found in chests which can be bought with emeralds or real dollars. There are familiars which are companions that can be set to spam certain inputs to automate the game further. 4 of the familiars can be bought with emeralds and the rest can be bought with real dollars. I know it's a F2P game and they're going to try to make some money but the micro-transactions aren't very micro. Familiars range in price from $7 - $26. Characters are $13 each but they are $80 each to buy the character stacked with a good armour set. Listed prices are Canadian so would be slightly lower on US market, I'd imagine. That's a lot of money imo to watch your favourite D&D characters whack some wolves and orcs in a glorified mobile / Flash game / screensaver. I've had technical issues with the game as well. Twice I've had the game crash on me during a quest. Fortunately I was able to restart the game and it jumped back into the quest I was in and I didn't lose any progress. That only worked because I was actively observing and was around to restart but if I'd set it up to grind afk I would've been out of luck. I've had a consistent issue just starting the game, sometimes it'll time out trying to connect to the game server repeatedly. I thought I resolved this twice by resetting the router which then let me back in the game but I got the same issue today and resetting the router didn't help, so I don't know. All of the support information I've found online seems directed towards the Steam version like the developers themselves weren't even aware this game got ported to PS4. I've had some decent fun with F2P games in the past but I would certainly NOT recommend this game to anyone. It's a glitchy, greedy, grindey game that will take a lot of time to platinum if you can even get it to work. Edited March 20, 2019 by Metal Slime King 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted March 21, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Game #8: Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Initial Impressions Time played: 3 hrs? Rocketbirds is a 2d action/shooter where you play Hardboiled, a special ops chicken who is a one-bird crew rebelling against an army of albatrosses who maintain power for a corrupt penguin ('cause that's how fowl roll, you know). A generally straight-forward genre game at first look. You (as per formula) have a history with the military leader of the enemy and are trying to help some cardinals who are operating as a resistance group. You start out with a pistol and pick up a few other weapons, Uzi, shotgun, the usual. The game is broken into short chapters with three flags as collectibles for each level. These must be found in order and often require backtracking to find. Some are easily accessed, others more difficult and must be activated by juggling an enemy with weapons fire. These can be tricky at times. Finishing the level without all three will necessitate another run through getting early ones again so I've been working hard to get them first time as chapter select just restarts you in the chapter from what I can see so far and I think they all need to be found in one run. One addition is brain bugs. These are bugs you throw which essentially mind control an enemy. You can then run around as the enemy and kill other enemies to save you some trouble or open doors which you can't otherwise pass. When you are done with your puppet, you get them to commit suicide and return control to the main character. A little grim, hmm? The gameplay isn't bad though I found myself auto crouching at times from not moving perfectly left or right with the stick. Once crouched, movement L/R is done in a roll. Hasn't been a death sentence for me yet but can be inconvenient when it's not what you wanted to do. Juggling enemies can get in the way of trying to shoot opponents behind them, messing with your actions at times. So far, it's not too bad and I'm enjoying this game but it's nothing special so far. Trophies earned: 9/30, 15% for D rank Score so far: 6/10 Edited March 21, 2019 by Kevvik 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted March 21, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Game #7 - Blue Reflection - Final Impressions Time played: 4-ish hours Trophies earned: 7/47 Kind of having mixed feelings about this one. It's a JRPG with only female characters that are still in school.. I see where the Persona reference comes from, but quality-wise it's miles off. You alternate between real life (school and your house) and an alternate universe. You can speak with other characters in the school and have events with them that increase yyour level. The story is bland and feels uninspired. Premise is that zou were a ballet ancer that got injured and is in an emotinal slump because of it.The alternate reality gets triggered whenever one of the girls is under some kind of emotinal stress. So while the story isn't going a cringy direction, I'm already not invested in it regardless. During the real life segments ui can explore the shool and do quests to increase your levels, which is the only way to get stronger. Fighting gives no XP and the only thing worth fighting is geting materials to craft things. I'm not really a fan of that kind of leveling system. I've yet to craft anything, to even see if it's worth it or if it's just a thing you'll do for a trophy. The other universe, where you sailor moon your way through combat with the power of a ring, is also very bland so far. The areas all look the same, feel unispired are are condensed to fairly small areas. The combat however is what's kind of salvagable. It's at least more interesting than anything else in the game. In typical turn-based fashion you get unto combat by running into an enemy (no random spawns though). You play as three heroines (not sure if there will be more at some point that could potentially swapped out) and have a chance to summon a support character that can provide any kind of assistance from dealing damage to healing. You skills can also be upgraded with fragments, making them deal more damage or giving you healing skill an additonal attack or defense buff. The turn-based system is simialr to the one in Chil of Light. Only that the both parties are moving twoards the center and whichever character gets there first has a turn. This makes skills with knockback effects very important. Furhtermore you automatically refill all your HP and MP at the end of each battle, which is great. The positive thing is that nothing is bad.Half of the game feeling kind of bland is a bit unfortunate and I'm having a hard time recommending this when only the combat is actually fun. I'll need to put more hours into this after the event to see, if it evolves into something better overall. As of now it's a decent game and as such deserves a . Edited March 22, 2019 by voodoo_eyes 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gretchen27 Posted March 22, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 Game 4: First ImpressionsMegadimension Neptunia VII Play time: just under 2 hoursPercent change: -1.69% The Neptunia series is nothing new to me, I've played most of the main & spin-offs available on the Vita. But I haven't tried any of the console versions (though I also own a copy of mk2 on the PS3). The series follows the adventures of CPUs, goddesses that protect their respective nations. They're 4 main nations that represent gaming consoles: Planeptune = unreleased Sega console, Lastation = PlayStation, Lowee = Wii, & Leanbox = Xbox. All of this is probably nothing new to most of you since the series is pretty popular. Just thought I’d cover the basics for the minority before getting into the story. Neptune stumbles upon a strange gaming console, & being the responsible CPU she is decides to hold onto it for safe keeping. Cautionary tale there to take things to a Lost & Found area. Later on when she’s back at home with her sister Nepgear & Histoire the console activates, Jumanji’ing the sisters into another dimension. Weirdly, this doesn’t include Histoire, the floating character. This new dimension is an apocalyptic world with no living humans. Humans are an integral part of a CPU’s power, their belief provides the share power for the goddesses to achieve an ultimate HDD form. Of course this wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the skyscraper sized monstrosity that caused all this mayhem. There’s a work around though, share crystals can be used to temporarily achieve HDD form. At least for the dimension native, Orange Heart/Uzume. The sisters agree to stick around & help their fellow CPU fight off the plague of monsters while they work out a way back home. They don’t realize yet they’re in another dimension, merely thinking they’ve been teleported across the world. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. The big baddie has made her appearance, tutorials are still incoming, & I’m just following along with the main story events. Gameplay is the series regular turn-based system. There are some changes to the combo system, but it seems to make battles quicker. Simple challenges you unlock through normal play fairly frequently provide permanent stat increases. I’m still in the midst of tutorials having only seen two areas but the dungeon areas aren’t anything special for a console version. I was expecting for a Neptunia game with a sole console (& later VR) release to be at least up on something other than a few bigger enemies. It’s early yet so maybe it’ll improve. Not saying there’s anything wrong with the game. I’m enjoying it like the others, still smiling at some of those jokes. Also, I’ll be switching my last game Exist Archive for Collar X Malice. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted March 22, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 Game #7: Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken Day 3 Impressions Time played: 4 hrs Ok, went through a little more and I now have grenades in my arsenal. Heading into another jet pack area (forgot to talk about this earlier). You fly about with your jet pack looking to take out enemies coming out of a Zeppelin (because totalitarian regimes always have Zeppelins) before boarding it. Some of the enemies shoot at you, others use homing missiles which you can either avoid until they self-destruct or fly around and get the missiles to destroy their owners (there's trophies for this so guess what I'm doing). The controls work well here and it's fun. Other than that, no change. This game isn't anything special but I am having fun with it so it will be on the radar early after the event since I'll be on the road with my Vita. Another reason Mary Skelter isn't being left to my last game for the event. Trophies earned: 12/30, 21% for C rank Score so far: 6/10 Completion Rate: 82.64% (-0.72% for the event) Next up: Game #8: Cat Quest 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post MidnightDragon Posted March 22, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 (edited) Marvel's Spider-Man Trophies earned: 7/74 Time played: Roughly 6-7 hours Current completion: 77.76% (-0.37 , -2.58 total) Right out of the gate, I will admit I didn't start this game until pretty much the last minute because of real life issues. So I didn't get to spend quite as much time with it as I'd hoped. Which is a shame because I'm really enjoying the game. Haven't done much as far as the story goes yet, but still having fun web slinging, getting collectibles, and seeing the sights. Love the detail of the city. That being said, some of the controls take a little getting used to. I know Peter/Spidey being sarcastic is part of his character, but sometimes I found it a little annoying. Looking forward to playing more of this once this event has been completed. I also have the DLC, so will dive into that as well. Next (and final) game: Assassin's Creed II Edited March 29, 2019 by MidnightDragon 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted March 22, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 (edited) Game #8 - White Night - Preview I might not actually start this today, as I want to finish the story for Ni No Kuni 2 first. I'm already halfway through the boss segment though, so if I can wrap it up quickly I might end up jumping into this one tonight as well. Anyway... White Night is a horror/puzzle game, that like all things published by Activision eventually got pulled from the stores. This game relies on using a match in order to light up the environment. I'm assuming it actually manipulates the surroundings that way somehow, for hte puzze solving to come into play. Not sure how well that will work though. The only thing that I can think of is maybe Contrast, but I might be completely off with that assumption. Edited March 22, 2019 by voodoo_eyes 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted March 22, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 Game #4, Day 1 2? 3, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Really haven't had much success motivating myself to play anything the past few days.. But it's finally started, so... progress? Right off the bat, you can probably assume you're in for a raunchy ride. The game offers you a choice when starting a new game to tone down the violence and/or crudeness. Main character is voiced by Steve Blum, who I heard earlier in this event in .hack. Lol. But to sum up the early events, your team finds out they were not killing criminals, but innocent people. One of the guys gets shot afterwards, and after getting him back to the ship it appears he won't make it.. Unless the doctor puts a power cell from the ship in him. Now he is something of a cyborg, and not quite human anymore. Only joining forces with you to find a way off the planet, thanks to your ship being destroyed by enemies. Gameplay is that of an FPS. But it's kind of unique. You have a hook that pulls enemies towards you. After that, you can shoot or kick them. Time slows down when you kick an enemy, and you can then light them up with gunfire. Killing enemies in certain ways will earn you more skillpoints, which let you buy upgrades and ammo from kiosks. Stuff like pulling an enemy into a cactus, headshots, ballshots, buttshots, etc. Not a lot more to say. Running with is weird, though.. Might have to check if I can change that. And early on, Very Hard doesn't seem too difficult. Time played: 1 hour. Trophy progress: 2/61 for 2% and an E rank. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dizzyshadow Posted March 22, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2019 Game 6: Chroma Squad Chroma Squad is a tactical RPG similar to the fire emblem series or apparently Final fantasy tactics (although i've never really played that myself), i'm a big fan of fire emblem so had high hopes for this. You are a group of stunt actors who are filming a TV show, who then decide to form your own studio and make your own show "Chroma Squad", its heavily influenced by Powers Rangers (even the graphic above indicates this), the game is broken down into making seasons of the TV shows and even into individual episodes (essentially levels), initially you are focused on making good episodes and gaining fans which enable you to upgrade your studios and get better equipment, which makes your characters stronger, however as you do this some strange things happen and start going off script, as you progress it becomes apparent something more sinister is going on. Gameplay actually works very well, it plays like any tactical RPG, its turn based and you plan where your characters move and who they will attack, they can also team up to form stronger attacks, including a mega attack if all you characters combine which is particularly useful for taking down bosses, there are bonus objectives in the form of directors instructions which force you to complete the levels in different fashions. It all ties in nicely with the story about making a TV show, given this is my favourite genre i was thinking this would be heading for a rating. BUT and it really is a BIG but - glitched trophies - apparently the EU version is pretty much completely glitched, looks like the NA version work though, but that's no help to me, so for this reason i've knocked the rating down to a , i probably shouldn't let it get to me so much, particularly as i wouldn't have likely goone for the plat anyway but it did wind me up and therefore has spoilt my enjoyment of the game. So message from me if you want to check this out buy the NA version. Playtime: 5 hours Rating: Trophies 4/44 (Grrrrrr) Completion: 56.53% Next Up: Batman - The Enemy Within 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted March 23, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 23, 2019 Game #8: Cat Quest Initial Impressions Time played: 4.5 hrs Cat Quest is a top-down 2.5D action/RPG. You play the hero...a cat. You were out on a boat when suddenly a wizard (quite cat-like) kidnaps your sister and then wrecks your boat. You are washed ashore with a strange marking on the back of your head, indicating that you are a Dragonblood, a mysterious type of cat with the ability to learn magic and fight dragons. From here you get given a main quest, find the wizard, kill dragons and rescue your sister. It's simple and straightforward and that's generally the feel of the game. In true RPG fashion you do quests for others you encounter by taking quests from message boards. Combat is simple, attack melee, cast spells with a mana bar and dodge roll to evade. Monsters have different attack patterns, resistance/weakness to magic or melee damage. Objectives are well labeled, you follow the main quest or one side quest. Finish the side quest and your objective automatically returns to the main quest. You collect weapons and armor, equipping appropriately to support your style of play. Everything is simple about this game but what it does, it does well. As with The Bard's Tale earlier in this event, a big strength is the charm of the game. You have a silent protaganist (as the best ones usually are) but are accompanied by a cat-Sprite sort who acts as guide. Cat puns, sounds and altered terminology abound but aren't tiresome. The NPCs are just as amusing when doing quests. The enemies aren't Dragon Quest level in their appearance but close. Dungeons are straightforward, clear them by killing all enemies but some chests require special keys to open for extra quality gear. I'm enjoying this more than I expected. Personality carries the day again but the developers have made a point of doing a good job of a relatively generic gameplay style. There's no getting lost trying to figure out what to do next and there's always something to do. The completion rate for this game is quite high. I estimate there's about 12-15 hrs of gameplay comparing the trophy list to where I'm at now. One might think that it's a joke title but I think the high completion rate is because the game is straightforward in its requirements for trophies and even more importantly, it's just plain fun to play. Trophies earned: 11/23, 21% for E rank Score so far: 8/10 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted March 25, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 Game #8 - White Night - Final Impressions Time played: around 5 hours Trophies earned: 15/34 Well, it's pretty much as expected. A horror game with puzzles, in which black and white is dominant. The only actual colour comes from the organe/yellow light sources. This gives it a noir feel, which works well for the most part. The premise is that you have a car accident and go to the closest house to look for help and to tend to your injuries. Tough luck, the house is haunted and locks you inside. So begins your exploration of a mostly dark house with plenty of rooms, most of the electrical lighting not working and apparitions hunting you every once in a while. To help you get through the various rooms and corridors you can find a bunch of matches that are spread out throughout the house. There are puzzles and all of them require some sort interaction with a light source. Unfortunately there are far too many interactable opject, that won't go away after interacting with them. This makes it so that more often than not, you interact with the same things several times over. A lot of things are tucked in corners or on the floor and can easily get missed, which leads to constant hugging of the walls and furniture in the search for that one item that lets you progress. There are a lot of booksm diaris, letters and newspaper articles scattered around that will fill you in on the story. On the one hand it's great, on the other it's problematic as missing them will leave a lot of things unanswered. The ghosts one hit kill you and are triggered, if you get too close to them. For the most part they're avoidable, except for the few occasions where they happen to be right behind a door you open and other areas where they just swarm every room. A bit frustrating in that regard and it messes with the pacing a bit. The same goes for the limited amount of matches you can carry and not being able to carry candles and the likes. It happened more than once that I had to end up dying on purpose, because I was running out of matches while searching for the item I needed to progress. That lead to eventually going for the approach of explore a few areas and getting killed on purpose to know where to go or what to do the next time around. I feel like there needed to be a better balancing between light and dark as well as some camera fine-tuning. The latter also will get you killed a few times as you try to run away from something and suddenly the camera switches perspective and you end up running into the ghost. Still, I'll give it a , as it's a game that tried something new, has an interesting story and solid gameplay for the most part. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted March 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Game #8: Cat Quest Day 3/Final Impressions Time played: 12-13 hrs So, I finished the game. Overall, it held on to my attention and remained fun throughout. Considering the main story, it wasn't bad, was nothing special and fairly predictable. A small twist at the end which was cool only to have the ending drop totally flat. Very "Ok, game's over now, that's it. Oh, you can run around in the world if you want." Kind of disappointing. The difficulty wasn't much, especially with grinding to Lv 99, though you can go higher. You don't need to though as if you clear the dungeons, and only one is actually challenging, you should have some legendary gear and the final boss will be easy, especially if you level up the spells you use. Trap is massively OP once levelled up. On the whole, a fun experience, just the right length and almost a clean close out. Definitely worth playing. Trophies earned: 23/23, 100% for S rank Final score: 7.5/10 Completion Rate: 82.64% (-0.72% for the event) Note - CR was influenced by being halfway through an Artifex Mundi game that I started with my kid to keep him out of my wife's hair tonight. It worked and we had fun looking for Hidden Objects together. Next up: Game #9: Song of the Deep Edited March 25, 2019 by Kevvik 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GraniteSnake Posted March 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 Damn, must catch up with three quick reviews! I really am killing my completion with the lack of hours I'm putting into these games ? I have been more focused on Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer this month, and even managed to pop the infamous AWP today! Re-watching Breaking Bad hasn't helped either... super addicting even a second time around. Game 2 Review: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Game rating: 8/10 Time played: ~15 hours Trophies earned: 23/51 An enjoyable entry in this long running series. Right off the bat I was impressed with the games visuals, especially it's lighting in particular. Even the characters animations and facial expressions were pretty solid for a game released over five years ago. Edward ended up being a very likeable protagonist, and may be my favourite of the entire series. The story was pretty decent, with Edward's motivations and intentions being a lot different to that of the other assassin's. The option to fast travel was much appreciated, and made it so that I could progress through the main campaign without needing to traverse the seas excessively. I ended up skipping the majority of the side content though, as I had done it all before in AC: Rogue. The games focus on pirates and ship combat felt a little too familiar for me, as I had already played and got the platinum for AC: Rogue back on the PS3. I did enjoy this entry a lot more due to it's story, but none of it ended up feeling innovative unfortunately. Combat in particular felt quite repetitive and a little too easy, seeing as I managed to breeze through the campaign without upgrading Edward once. The optional mission tasks this time round were all pretty manageable, and I only missed out on only a few due to not having the right equipment. The present day story-line wasn't great, and I honestly don't quite remember what even happened. Overall it was an enjoyable game, mainly due to it's story and the way Edward is portrayed within the game. I will go back and clean up the single player at some stage, and will also grind out the multiplayer eventually! Game 3 Review: Horizon Zero Dawn Game rating: 7/10 Time played: ~5 hours Trophies earned: 5/79 Finally decided to give this game a go after putting it off for so long. It hasn't been overly impressive as of yet, but maybe that'll change as I progress further into the game. The game and it's world looks phenomenal, and it's lighting is really something else. Combat has felt pretty fluid so far, and it's satisfying taking down the machines by hitting their weak spots. The trip-caster is fun to use, and the option to override enemies seems like an interesting way to approach fights. The ability to track enemy movements using the focus incorporates an element of stealth which appears to work well. Looting and gathering plants and other materials is easy and doesn't take up too much of your time. Aloy isn't a bad lead character as well, although she does appear to lack emotion. The games story has got off to an interesting start and I look forward to seeing what happens. I'm not a fan of there being no mini-map on the games HUD. Having to press the touch pad to check if I'm going in the right direction is annoying and feels unnecessary. I'm not fond of the one on one conversations you can have with NPC's throughout the game either. The conversations have felt boring, and not helped by my need to exhaust every option available. The characters expressions are also pretty dull, and a lot of the time it's difficult to distinguish what emotion it is that their trying to express. The voice acting has been okay, but nothing special by any means. Aside from a few initial annoyances I feel like this is a game I'll end enjoying a lot. I haven't got to experiment with the combat too much, and the story is only just beginning. Hopefully my thoughts on the game will become more positive when I eventually return to it! Game 4 Review/Initial Thoughts: Shadow of the Colossus Game rating: 9/10 Time played: ~1 hour Trophies earned: 4/38 My only issue so far with this game is my lack of play time on it! I only loaded up this game a few short hours ago and played it for just under an hour before deciding I had enough gaming done for the day. This is my first time trying out this game, so I'm going in completely blind. Again the visuals are absolutely stunning, and the world looks like it'll be fun to explore. So far I have bested the first three colossi, and had a great time while doing so. It seems that each Colossus is a puzzle in itself, and I expect to have a difficult time getting through them all! Navigation has been relatively straightforward, with the game featuring an interesting way of showing the user where to go next. The game doesn't hold your hand too much, even on Easy difficulty, and I found myself scratching my head trying to figure out how to scale the third colossus. It took me a good 30 minutes before I finally managed to take him down. Scaling these giants is pretty exciting, and the grip meter only adds to the intensity of the situation. I have a feeling this could be up there with some of my favourite ever games, only time will tell I guess. Definitely excited to take on more of these beasts! Final Game: Mafia III 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gretchen27 Posted March 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Game 4: Final Impressions Megadimension Neptunia VIIEnjoyment: 8/10Play time: 4 hoursTrophies earned: 3/35Percent change: -1.47% Well, didn't end up spending a lot more time with this one. Really hard to put down the Sims But I did reach a new area & fought the big baddie, so little bit of progress. The new dungeon area was a bit more detailed than the ones before it, so there's hope yet on that front. It's a nice forest type with cherry blossoms & plenty of foes (some new even). I've hit a difficulty spike, couldn't clear the dungeon of the regular enemies in one go. Even received a handful of Game Overs. I completely forgot the Neptunia series kicks you back to the title screen when you die. Had to re-watch a few event scenes, but I have a habit of saving often so not too much progress lost. After some level grinding in the new dungeon I got to fight the Dark Purple boss (aka the giant skyscraper monstrosity). I'll say these giant battles are pretty cool. Your party members start the fight in HDD form in this neutral field generated by their powers. Think of it like just taking the battle to space. The field is a dark devoid with floating platforms made from chunks of rock. You can use the platforms to surround the giant with the party & use a special chain skill. It uses an exe drive bar but does a fair bit of damage. Better yet, it doesn't use up the other party members turn. I was worried the giant fights were going to be the boring 'attack this part of the monster ' until it falls apart. Especially after a previous lower level fight did just that with a Pegasus monster. The wings first had to be broken before it would take heavy damage. But you can attack the giants normal, so I think that's a plus. Story wise: I've met the fish... just that don't know what more I can say. I should have known in a world with no humans the character was going to be a monster. Just didn't see him being a stoic fish.On deck: Collar X Malice Got it out & ready to go for tomorrow. I should be able to read some of it for at least an hour or so during the day. I'm looking forward to it. Edited March 25, 2019 by Gretchen27 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted March 25, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Game #9 - GTA San Andreas - Preview I played the first one on PS1 and didn't like it. Didn't know what to do and where to go and the squishy sound when you drive over people eventually became boring. I played a few hours of Vice City on PC until I got stuck on some mission with a boat and never went back. GTA IV was similar, I played it shortly after release, but also got stuck on some racing mission. The fifth one I liked, though, so there's that I guess. As for sandbox games like these, I think it's one of the worst series overall. They aren't necessarily bad games, but they were kind of meh. I pretty much liked any other game in the genre better.. Mafia series, Sleeping Dogs, The Saboteur, Godfather 2 are all superior to the GTA franchise. So not much to hope for really, except for it's vehicles not to control like absolute arse. Edited March 25, 2019 by voodoo_eyes 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbuk Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 On 3/16/2019 at 3:29 AM, voodoo_eyes said: Game #6 - Tomb Raider: Legend - Preview Contrary to most of my previous choices for this KYC, this game has stellar reviews. Although it needs to be said, that they were stellar back in 2006. I'm not the biggest Tomb Raider fan, regarding anything pre-reboot (and the top-down twin stick shooter ones). I played the original a few years after release and thought it was crap, with it's bad camera angles, muddy look and clunky controls. It needs to be said I used to play mostly on PC back then and my go-to genres tended to be CRPGs, FPS, and RTS. I enjoyed Tomb Raider II a bit more, but still wouldn't consider it more than just OK. Pretty much skipped every game since then, until I tried TR Underworld a few years ago. Again, it was fairly mediocre and still had the somewhat clunky gameplay and awful camera angles. Taking the above into consideration, I'm kind of expecting a similar feel to Underworld. I'm sure the things that bothered me there will still bother me in this one. But hey, it'll probably be better than the last 4 games, so there's that . ? Tomb Raider 1 has some of the best controls I've experienced in a platformer tbh. It's predictable, completely precise and every failure is user error. Tomb Raider 1-5 are designed on a grid-based system. You press forward, Lara moves forward by one square. To do a jump, you need a full square (two steps while running) before she'll jump, so you walk to an edge, back up (pressing back moves you back one square), and you're 100% guaranteed to perform the jump. It is finely crafted in a way I've never seen any other platformer achieve. Sure, lets take Jak for instance, you can accurately judge the length of a pit and range of the long jump without it being in a grid based system, but the grid based system just ensures that the platforming is smooth and flawless. And hell, it even accomidates for some freedom outside the grid, too. Also, the camera is designed in a way that it will sometimes, but rarely, pan to important parts of an area, like the way forward at the very start of level 1, but it never does this at a time where you're in danger, so I don't see what's wrong with the camera either? Underworld felt pretty rushed and unpolished unfortunately, shame since it's such an important game, rounding off a trilogy. On 3/16/2019 at 0:34 PM, PerryToxteth said: Thank You! That's a perfect summarization of my TR feelings as well. In the original, Lara was frustrating as all hell when she'd run off cliffs, but the puzzle-solving, platforming and exploration were great. I couldn't completely pin point why I didn't care much for the reboot, but you answered for me. And the MP was absolutely atrocious. One of the worst I ever played. Everybody was hopping around to avoid getting shot. It was like playing with a bunch of gun-toting bunnies. She'd only run off cliffs if you held forward too long or didn't do a full run-up for a jump though. Going to the edge, then backing up, then doing a running jump always works She also never goes off an edge if you're holding walk. Personally, my biggest issue with the reboot, ignoring the horrible 'puzzles' and brain dead white ledge platforming, was the amount of gunfighting in it. It's also why I prefer TR1 to TR2, they added way too much combat in the second game. TR is at it's best when nature is Lara's enemy and enemy encounters are scarce. That's why Shadow is a return to form for me - there's so little combat in that game, and deadly obsession difficulty feels like a great homage to TR1, which arguably is one of my favourite games of all time (and its not from nostalgia, either. Played it for the first time in 2014 or 15 on Vita.) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted March 25, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Game #4, Final Review, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Managed to play this some more, finally. And it just gets crazier and crazier. Lol. Ended the evening by fighting a giant maneating plant. About halfway through it now, and still finding Very Hard to not be all that difficult. Expected it to be fairly frustrating for me, since I really don't play a lot of FPS games. But it seems more than manageable, even if you're not that good at first person shooters. The weapon assortment is pretty good, though I've mainly just stuck to the assault and sniper rifles. I've upgraded the former about as much as I can, and it has served me well for nearly everything. Big guys that normally eat a ton of bullets, can be taken to their downed state with just one charged shot. Of which, you can carry up to nine of them, and I've only used 1 or 2 before reaching another upgrade terminal. The sniper is mainly to deal with other snipers, or enemies not close enough to shoot/grab with the whip. And I love this thing. If it had unlimited ammo, I'd use it all the time. Lol. Once you shoot with it, you take control of the bullet. Steering it to try and hit an enemy, while they scramble to avoid it in slow motion. The other weapons, I really haven't used much. There's a shotgun, a pistol grenade launcher, and a few others. The big guys drop gatling guns that you can pick up, and mow down enemies with. At the end of the first chapter, you used that the whole time while riding a vehicle across the desert. Meanwhile, waves of enemies had to be taken out, and a giant wheel came after you. Then there was a part where you controlled a giant robot, and had it shoot all the enemies. There have been some different enemy types, which will cause you to change your strategy. Some are immune to the whip, so you have to go old school and simply shoot them. And there are enemies in flying machines, who can be pulled out with the whip or shot down. And then there are some collectibles scattered about, which will give you more points to spend in the shop. Swarms of small blue bugs and newsbots. One of the newsbots was saying something about a family friendly naked parade. That, umm, is not something I have ever heard referred to as "family friendly" before. And did I mention you can pick up and drink bottles of beer, and then try to kill enemies with a blurred screen? This game has been a lot of fun, so far. And it could just be me, but I'm pretty impressed with the graphics with this being a PS3 remaster. Some of the backgrounds are beautiful and very detailed. Probably another to score. Time played: 4-5 hours? Trophy progress: 10/61 for 14% and a C rank. Bonus game #1, Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds So, this was another game I played over the past six days. Something of a mistake, because it took away from my playing Bulletstorm when I inevitably got hooked on it. :/ But I wanted something to do while I was out of town the day I started it, so I ended up doing so. The story begins with Chizuru (the girl you play as) going to Kyoto to look for her father. But when walking alone at night, she has a group of guys try to steal her sword. But they are killed before they are able to take it by another group of swordsmen. But they aren't there to save the damsel in distress, and seem to just enjoy killing. Chizuru hides from them and is about to be found, when a few samurai come to her rescue, killing the crazy dudes. Only they don't seem to be good guys, either.. After discovering her and realizing she witnessed the murders, they can't let her go knowing what she knows. So, they take her back to their headquarters and force her to stay with them, until they decide what to do. Killing her would be the easiest option to make sure she never talks.. But when they find out she's a she (assuming otherwise by the way she is dressed) and who her father is, her life seems to be safe for the time being. There's a lot more mysteries that unravel in the story, including why Chizuru's wounds heal like she's Wolverine or something. But I won't spoil anymore. As it's a visual novel, there isn't much to say about the gameplay. You can advance the text with or by tapping the touchscreen. Occasionally, will have to select a dialogue choice. But I found this to be very engrossing for my first run through it. Stories about samurai have always interested me, though. Samurai Champloo, Samurai 7, Rurouni Kenshin, etc. I failed horribly in making one of the guys fall for me, and got the normal ending though. Glad I picked them up from the current sale, and will give this one a score. Time played: 9-10 hours? Trophy progress: 6/36 for 10% and an E rank. Completion Percentage Drop: -0.32% (-0.62% overall) Edited March 25, 2019 by DamagingRob 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DamagingRob Posted March 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2019 Game #5, Day 1, Dragon Ball Fighter Z Well, this is a fighting game. Lol. I don't know how to make those sound more interesting to people who aren't interested in those, but it's fun. After playing 3 other games (BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, and P4AU) from the developers of this one, I kinda knew what to expect. I also played all 3 of those games during KYC events, I believe.. And gave them all great scores. So no real reason I shouldn't enjoy a similar game with a Dragon Ball skin. I started with Practice Mode to kind of learn the ropes. In there, you'll learn how to play the game, and can also do combo challenges. Those weren't too bad, especially compared to some of the other fighting games I've played. I even completed all 10 with some of the characters. And I still would have had plenty of wiggle room, because I have two more characters that can be unlocked. I then tried Arcade Mode, and completed the shortest course. Then did it again and got an S rank. It's only 3 fights, so doesn't take very long. There are 2 other courses with 5 and 7 fights to get through. After getting a couple more easy trophies, I decided to try observing an Arena Match. ...And what a mistake that was. I sat there for hours, tried different lobbies, different regions, and still could not get the game to put me in one. It is an absolutely broken mechanic, and has a trophy attached to it. I was going to leave it on overnight, and see if that would work. But after awhile of not doing anything, you will get kicked for idling too long.. So, I shut it off, and tried it again this morning. Wasn't long before I got in one today... At least that dumb task is over with. Anyways, I will be getting back to it, and seeing what else this game has to offer. Time played: 3-4 hours. Trophy progress: 11/36 for 32% and a C rank. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Edunstar84 Posted March 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2019 Game 3 - Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - Final Impressions Playtime: 3 hours 15 minutes Trophies: 0/53 Right at the start I would love to give props to the anime feeling you get when playing the game. The vibrancy and the color does justice to the game, and I really enjoy the voice acting. Add to that the weapon and equipment system is very diverse. You can customize whatever you want on your character and look good at the same time. Loved it when I bought my first armor when it immediately appeared on my character. I looked GOOD! The disadvantage of playing this game in a short amount of time is that there was a lot of information to take in. I had to explore the menu myself, and try to mess around with the battle system. There are still a lot of questions I have regarding it, and if this was the only game I was playing I would've taken more time to research how to do things properly, especially how to influence the waifus during battle. I discussed this before, and it's super weird to have Kirito's voice on my female character. I wish the voice customization went 1 step further. I'm guessing it would've been more expensive to hire more actors. Well, if that's the guess I'd rather have a silent protagonist, or at least have the option to do it. Speaking of waifus, you can have your pick with any NPC in the game. I think you can woo any of them (I could be mistaken though). I know for sure with the main female characters you can woo them enough to get some intimate CG pics of them. It might be worth the several hours of grind to get them, but from the comments I read, the grind is too long. Not looking forward to doing them myself. I wouldn't recommend this to non-SAO fans, unless you wanted to get into the series. I would try to watch the first arc, then maybe play Lost Song before this game. However, if you really wanted to play, it really allows you to explore a lot of the mechanics before earning a trophy. I played over 3 hours with completing multiple quests without one. I haven't looked at the trophy list, so I'm not sure what the first one was. ill definitely end up playing this game, possibly in the near future. Seems like a lot of fun, but I would most likely have to start at the beginning. And I'm so sorry I'm late with my reviews. Should have the next game up today or tomorrow. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSmash5U Posted March 26, 2019 Share Posted March 26, 2019 10 hours ago, Edunstar84 said: Speaking of waifus, you can have your pick with any NPC in the game. I think you can woo any of them (I could be mistaken though). I know for sure with the main female characters you can woo them enough to get some intimate CG pics of them. It might be worth the several hours of grind to get them, but from the comments I read, the grind is too long. Not looking forward to doing them myself. Looking for a game for my second BINGO card that has romantic options, might look into this one for the slot. I know I'm not familiar with Sword Art Online, other than "a kid gets trapped in an MMO", but after seeing gameplay on a Youtube video, it looks pretty sweet... after I get all the usual suspects completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post voodoo_eyes Posted March 27, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 27, 2019 Game #9 - GTA: San Andreas - Final Impressions TIme played: around 5 hours Trophies earned: 6/33 So I played about 3 hours of the story in this potty mouth simulator and spent about an hour to get arrested and another hour being a taxi driver. Once again, nothing surprised me in this game, except for maybe Samual L. Jackson voicing a character. The story is utter nonsense and I actually forgot that there was one until the antagonist showed up again in the story. This being a sandbox game it essentially let's you do and interact with whatever you want. You can drive vehicles ranging from bikes to ambulances and probably military vehicles, if other GTA games are to go buy. As predicted, driving feels like shit whenever you need to take a turn. Motorbikes are the worst though, and I'm not looking forward to any flying machines that most likely will also pop up at some point. The Ai is incredibly dumb. I can be shooting an enemz, whilst the rest of the group standing next to him won't care. You can force the Ai that's pursuing you in a car chase to crash against a wall or anything solid really, which while being hilarious is still dumb as hell. When I went for the getting arrested trophy, one cop killed another cop while trying to beat me. It's like they just said fuck it when it came to programming any AI in this game. Graphically the game looks like crap. I'm not sure if it's because the game is a port of a mobile version or if it's just the game. Either way, I've seen games from the 90s that look a lot better than this one. Low quality textures and a really fucked up sunshine glare are just terrible to look at. The gameplay itself is fine I guess. I mean missions aren't very original, but if you try to make you own fiun, it'll be a better experience. Then there are the side activities like races, some wird lowrider hydraulic rhythm game garbage, doing cab fares, ambulance rides and all those things. You can get buff at the gym and have to eat fast food on a regular basi, seens a bit counter-productive, but I guess it just owrks. that way. Anyway, game is medocire and I can't see reason for the high praises it got even back in 2004. I rememebr playing way better games back then. SO yeah, it's another 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kevvik Posted March 28, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted March 28, 2019 (edited) Game #9: Song of the Deep Day 3/Initial Impressions Time played: 1.5-2 hrs Song of the Deep is a Metroidvania/exploration title by Insomniac. You play Merryn, a young girl whose father goes missing at sea. As they only have each other, Merryn decides to build her own homemade submarine and go find her father. As you proceed, you find treasure (coins and rare objects). You also find upgrades for your hull (increase health) and a particularly friendly hermit crab who carries around upgrades for your sub that he is willing to exchange for treasure you have found. Who knew undersea exploration carried such conveniences? All kidding/connections to reality aside, this is a fun little exploration game. Upgrades include a claw you can use for self defence, boosters so you can get moments of faster speed/travel against currents and special mods to allow you to collect more treasure from hard to reach locations. Apparently I will also be able to leave my sub and swim on my own but I haven't managed that yet. The game looks good and the mechanics, thus far, work well. Fought my first boss, an undersea spider who I defeated by distracting and then stripping webs from the structure above it, eventually bringing down the house on it. This is not a fast paced game and even the combat, so far, is done at a moderate pace. The storyline is simple and the exploration seems geared at advancing through areas and collecting treasure to buy upgrades from your friendly black market crab. Upgrades will allow access to previous places which were unreachable without them. I'm liking this game but it's nothing exceptional. The story is a bit of a MacGuffin to justify the exploration. Still, I wish I had had more time to get into this. Trophies earned: 2/10, 10% for E rank Score so far: 6.5/10 Completion Rate: 82.74% (-0.62% for the event) Note: I finished Enigmatis: The Gosts of Maple Creek, an Artifex Mundi hidden object puzzle game. Kept my kid out of my wife's hair for a few nights. Happy wife is happy life, right? These are short and serviceable games, there biggest flaw being the price point on PSN when I've gotten most of these games free on my iPad. If they were half the price, I might consider getting a few. This one came with PSNow so it didn't cost me any extra. This also affected my overall CR bringing it up a bit. Next up: Game #10: Mary Skelter: Nightmares Edited March 28, 2019 by Kevvik 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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