A Big Honking Backlog

[Spacey_Dweeb]

NOTICE: There will not be a vote this week. Orcs Must Die! Unchained goes offline on April 8th and I really need to get whatever trophies I can next week because that is my last chance to do so.

 

Current Game

 

 

Choices for Next Week:

Games with an emanate server shutdown  

 

 

Hello again! I am the BigHonkingOne. Welcome to my trophy checklist/backlog thing. I've edited this paragraph quite a bit because I am aiming to make this bit of text something that I don't need to change every week. The short version about my checklist is this. I have a lot of games and came up with this idea to tackle things in my backlog and make progress on stuff I started and didn't finish. I've divided my games up into groups. The main distinctions are release year and budget level. I'm not doing any research on budgets so I'm just guessing if a game is a smaller or larger budget title. Each week, I'm posting the new category and putting what I play up to a vote. I'll include up to three games I'm already working on in that category, plus one game that I am interested in starting.Then the following week, I will work to platinum/100% whichever game won the vote. I am not promising to play it exclusively, but will give it the majority of my gaming time. Afterwards, I will post a review of any game that I am able to finish. If I don't finish it, I will at least post my thoughts about what I played for you guys to check out. There is also a small kick back for people that are voting or commenting. I'm putting everyone's name into a spreadsheet and then at the end of each month I'll randomly select one person and give them a $10 PSN gift card. Feel free to chat about games or ask me stuff in the comments. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[gruffiiti]

You should finish up Fallout 4 buddy. (but if its Sniper 3 that gets picked I guess Im down for that as well)

[ResoluteRock]

I’m going to throw my hat in for The Last of Us Remastered. Especially since the 2nd game might be launching in 2019, I’d say it’s definitely worth playing soon. I had a lot of fun with the game. I personally thought it was a bit overhyped, but still a good game nonetheless.

[Lordguwa]

50 minutes ago, gruffiiti said:

You should finish up Fallout 4 buddy. (but if its Sniper 3 that gets picked I guess Im down for that as well)

 

it's a great game. i would suggest to take a look at the talent tree (wish i did that) since i didn't use some of those ability's and those points wasted ><. still an enjoyable game with the DLC.

[HM02_as_H3LL]

This is a really cool idea, I put my vote into last of us remastered. It's an amazing game and like mentioned before we should be getting a sequel in the next year or 2. 

[Spacey_Dweeb]

I'm hoping for that sequel this year, maybe around October. However, they probably would have announced it by now if it was that soon. 

[damage_6-9]

Good to see someone with a plan of attack for their backlog ?..... (mine is utterly beyond repair, lol)

[Spacey_Dweeb]

On 3/8/2019 at 2:53 AM, damage_6-9 said:

Good to see someone with a plan of attack for their backlog ..... (mine is utterly beyond repair, lol)

 

Lol. More of an experiment than a plan. It sounded pretty fun to tackle it like this. 

 

Right now it is tied between The Last of Us and Fallout 4. Hopefully the tie is broken before I check it on Monday. 

[Spacey_Dweeb]

It looks like the winner is Fallout 4! I'll be able to put a good amount of effort into it this upcoming week. I think I may be able to finish the platinum on it. Time will tell. I did manage to finish the platinum for Spider-man like I had hoped. That one is going back into the backlog until I decide to purchase the DLC, but for now I am satisfied with its main campaign. The only thing I didn't like going for the platinum was stopping all the random crimes. That went on for hours and hours after everything else was done. Anyway, I will update the poll question soon. I just need to take note of who voted first. 

[Jens]

Are you looking forward to the 100 happiness settlement?  I remember watching the counter go up and down for an hour just praying that it would reach 100, and it did. For a minute or so  

Are you doing the whole shebang with the season pass? I looked at it more than once, but so many DLCs look so boring to me though.

[Inuty]

32 minutes ago, Jens said:

Are you looking forward to the 100 happiness settlement?  I remember watching the counter go up and down for an hour just praying that it would reach 100, and it did. For a minute or so  

Are you doing the whole shebang with the season pass? I looked at it more than once, but so many DLCs look so boring to me though.

You will not miss anything without the DLCs. I Can hardly remember the plot of the DLCs if I´m honest and I played all of them.

[Spacey_Dweeb]

7 hours ago, Jens said:

Are you looking forward to the 100 happiness settlement?  I remember watching the counter go up and down for an hour just praying that it would reach 100, and it did. For a minute or so  

Are you doing the whole shebang with the season pass? I looked at it more than once, but so many DLCs look so boring to me though.

 

I am dreading the whole 100 happiness thing. I hope it goes smoothly. I've completely ignored settlements so far. I do have the season pass, so I have access to the whole shebang. I'll be working to platinum the game this week. I don't know if I can 100% it. But if I have enough time, then maybe. I do need to complete a DLC for this game by the end of the month for the 10 Things I Hate About Gaming event, so I'll try to knock out one of the easier ones this week. 

[Kristycism]

Voted on your new poll but don’t enter me into a giveaway!

 

Having played Transistor recently, I can fully recommend it (along with any other game by Supergiant, these guys are amazing, looking forward to Hades coming out). The combat is different from any other game I’ve played, but it’s enjoyable and easy enough to learn. Plat is also easy enough and fairly short (took me about 12 hours), and was enjoyable the whole way through despite needing two full playthroughs (second is more like a speedrun, but the game is short anyway). Story was pretty good as well, though a little short and simple. And I liked the art style too, though that’s more personal taste.

 

Only Kristycism I have is some of the voice acting. It lacks personality in my opinion, though a lot of people like the Transistor’s voice. But that’s a really minor complaint of an otherwise amazing game from one of the best indie developers.

 

 

I haven’t played the other three games though, so can’t comment on how they stack up.

Edited March 11, 2019 by Kristycism

[Kent10201]

@BigHonkingOne I think you just changed the names of the poll options rather than making a new poll. I'm unable to vote and it says I voted for Transistor on Thursday when the previous poll was still going. 

[Spacey_Dweeb]

14 minutes ago, Kristycism said:

Voted on your new poll but don’t enter me into a giveaway!

 

Having played Transistor recently, I can fully recommend it (along with any other game by Supergiant, these guys are amazing, looking forward to Hades coming out). The combat is different from any other game I’ve played, but it’s enjoyable and easy enough to learn. Plat is also easy enough and fairly short (took me about 12 hours), and was enjoyable the whole way through despite needing two full playthroughs (second is more like a speedrun, but the game is short anyway). Story was pretty good as well, though a little short and simple. And I liked the art style too, though that’s more personal taste.

 

Only criticism I have is some of the voice acting. It lacks personality in my opinion, though a lot of people like the Transistor’s voice. But that’s a really minor complaint of an otherwise amazing game from one of the best indie developers.

 

 

I haven’t played the other three games though, so can’t comment on how they stack up.

 

I really like Supergiant Games and have at least dabbled in everything they've put out. Transistor is one of my favorites, which is why I got tempted and started it up several days ago. Also, I demand you edit your post and replace criticism with Kristycism! ? 

 

3 minutes ago, Kent10201 said:

@BigHonkingOne I think you just changed the names of the poll options rather than making a new poll. I'm unable to vote and it says I voted for Transistor on Thursday when the previous poll was still going. 

 

Oh I didn't notice. I'll try again. I clicked the remove question button and then added it again. I thought that would reset the vote. Thanks for the head's up. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[gruffiiti]

1 hour ago, BigHonkingOne said:

 

I am dreading the whole 100 happiness thing. I hope it goes smoothly. I've completely ignored settlements so far. I do have the season pass, so I have access to the whole shebang. I'll be working to platinum the game this week. I don't know if I can 100% it. But if I have enough time, then maybe. I do need to complete a DLC for this game by the end of the month for the 10 Things I Hate About Gaming event, so I'll try to knock out one of the easier ones this week. 

 

[Kristycism]

53 minutes ago, BigHonkingOne said:

Also, I demand you edit your post and replace criticism with Kristycism!  

 

Done!

 

I actually was going to, but wasn’t sure how many times I’m allowed to make that terrible pun. Once as a username might have been (more than) enough

[Mesopithecus]

Dropped a vote in for Transistor, I really enjoyed my time with it and can only echo @Kristycism comments about the game

[Spacey_Dweeb]

As promised, I've been working on Fallout 4 a bit. I'm nearing the end of the story for two of the factions. I plan to do the railroad first, and then go back and work on the institute, I need to level up about a few more times to get the required stat points to dump into the charisma perks to work on the 100% happiness settlement.So I've been doing a bunch of side quests for XP. I mostly think Fallout 4 is just OK. I'll post a review when I finish the platinum, as previously promised. I'm already looking forward to Transistor next week. It looks like it is probably going to win easily. Today at work, I am listening to it's moody music. You should check out some of the soundtrack if you haven't before.  In Circles and Paper Boats are my personal favorites. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[Spacey_Dweeb]

Alright! It looks like Transistor was a clear winner for my game of the week. I've played through this game before in the past and really like it. I'm confident I will be able to platinum this one during the week. Can't wait to go boot it up later. Work is literally draining me today. So freaking much to do... 

 

Next week's choices are VR titles. I have yet to earn a platinum in any VR game. I have been playing Beat Saber and Creed for some mild exercise a few times each week. I'm not sure how much it's helping but I get sweaty and tired. Creed gets me very winded. I have to sit down and take breaks after a few bouts. For both of these games, I'm not sure if I have the skill to platinum them. I've gotten way better at Beat Saber, but with Creed, I've literally hit a wall and I can't beat Rhino on Champion difficulty. I've lost to him maybe 15 times. For Until Dawn, I just haven't picked it up for a while. I thought it was pretty good but I think the platinum will be challenging. I've also been holding out for Resident Evil 7 in VR. I've heard it is exceptionally scary, so I haven't tried it out just to satisfy my curiosity. My wife wants to see me play this one. I think she's hoping I squeal. 

Last week's game was Fallout 4 and I worked on it quite a bit. In the end, I still have a long ways to go for the platinum. It is taking me way longer than I anticipated. I did make quite a bit of progress though. I was able to level up enough to get some of the Charisma perks needed to go for the benevolent leader trophy. I finally managed to earn that late last night. That trophy is the rarest one besides the platinum. It is usually the one holding people back from the platinum. I did a ton of exploring and poked my head into a couple of the DLC areas. I think the main reason I failed to get the platinum was that I had really underestimated the effort required to pick up the bobble head collectibles. A couple were easy affairs where you just had to go to a location and figure out where it was at. Most others are deep into areas with a lot of enemies or there are quest lines to get through in order to get specific doors to open or things like that. I thought it would take an hour or two to fast travel around and grab them all and found that it was taking almost that long to grab just one sometimes. For the record, I am playing on hard mode and sometimes have to stop and farm ammo or healing items so I can progress further. I am still glad that I put more time into this game since I'm enjoying it better now that it has it's hooks into me and I'm finding it more fun than I did while focusing on the main story quests. I forgot to grab my thumb drive this morning but I have a few screenshots to share that people might find interesting.

 

I think the fact I am enjoying it more right now, speaks well of the trophy design. There is so much to this game I never would have engaged in without trophies to motivate me to do so. Those bobble heads have led me into a bunch of areas that you don't need to go to normally. So I am seeing the best that the exploration of this game has to offer. Morbid art galleries, fun house mazes full of booby traps, weird ghost stories, etc. Previously, I prided myself on finishing the story of every game instead of doing all the trophies. However, that would have done this game a disservice. I know for sure that I would have rushed through the story of this one, said "I don't get it. Why do people love this game so much?" and moved on from it. I think this game has trophies done pretty well, but with one huge glaring flaw. You have to play through multiple times for different factions. I really don't like games that use trophies to artificially inflate playtime like that. I'm guessing that the differences will not be rewarding enough to merit the time invested to finish with each faction. Just a guess though. 

Edited March 18, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[Spacey_Dweeb]

I need someone to break the tie! Please vote before tomorrow. Also, I got the platinum for Transistor this morning. I will write up a review of the game soon.

 

EDIT: Thanks for voting. There were a couple of new votes for Resident Evil 7 so that game came out ahead and I will be working on it this week!

Edited March 25, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[Spacey_Dweeb]

Transistor Review

 

 

Overall Rank

 

Wow! What a game. Transistor is a beautifully crafted action RPG. It blends many things together both in it's art and it's gameplay. It's a joy to be lost within this stylish world and I had a great time earning this platinum. The trophies are perfectly aligned with the pacing of the game and everything is comes together seamlessly. Do not skip this game! If you hvaen't played it yet, you should bump it up your backlog list and hop in now!

 

Story Rank

 

Transistor's story starts as a bit of an enigma. You start off the game and it's immediately obvious that something has gone terribly wrong. You play as Red. She is a famous singer but she obviously is having a terrible night. Her gown is torn and cast off to the side. She's standing next to a dead man and an unusual sword, the Transistor. When you pull the sword from the body you find the soul of the dead man is trapped inside. From there the game asks for some trust and you just move forward with no clue what's going on and what you're going to be doing about it. Slowly, you begin to uncover that a secret group called the Camerata made some plans to take over the city through something called "the process." This is both generic but haunting, as it speaks to the cold disregard to humanity their plan to rise to the top involves. You also learn about the man in the sword and his love for Red when he was living. The end of the game involves you confronting the Camerata in the destroyed city of Cloudbank that has nearly been completely destroyed through the process, which is now outside the control of the individuals that began it. As the credits roll, you will be shocked at the  fate of Red and her stupid, stupid, sword.. I'm not crying! You're crying!!!! This is just dust. I am not attached to a sword. Shut up!

 

 Art Rank

 

Have you seen this game?! How could you not be amazed at the stylish blend of art deco and sci fi. The use of color and shape are nothing short of breath-taking. I can and do often look at the art from Super Giant Games often. They are amazing and every game they have just looks so amazing. I can't believe this comes out of such a small studio. They nail it. 

 

 

Sound Rank

 

The sound track for this game is really good and it sets the tone of this dark, moody city so well. You really can feel the bitter-sweetness to everything that happens. This is a game where no one ever achieves true victory and you're left wondering if there really can be a happily ever after. There are some small stumbles in the voice work. The voice acting overall is done pretty well. However, there are some post-processing effects that can sometimes make it hard to understand. There are story contextual reasons for this, but it still detracts a bit none the less. 

 

 Fun/Gameplay Rank

 

As a trophy hunter, the trophies in the game play a tremendous role in my enjoyment of a game. I can truly appreciate how uncommon it is to play a game that has a thoughtful trophy list that encourages exploration and doesn't cause a game to overstay it's welcome at all. There is no bloat here. You do go through the story twice, but it doesn't feel like an onerous task that is put into the game just for the sake of padding the play-time. The game has a balanced progression system and at the end of the first play-through is when it is just getting really good and you are more than willing and excited to dive into the new game + mode where you retain your level and abilities and get to keep going. This is also when you start having enough points to put together some of the more interesting combinations of your abilities and can have your faithful ability combo and experiment heavily with other ones.

 

The abilities is where I will go next. This is where the game truly shines. Along the way you unlock abilities. Each ability can be used three different ways. One is a primary function, the other is to upgrade another ability that is being used as a primary, the last is putting it in a slot as a passive ability. You can only use each ability once so you have to choose how it best suits your playstyle and the challenges the game is throwing at you. Bounce() for example when used as a primary ability fires a projectile that bounces between multiple enemies and does damage to all of them. If used as an upgrade, it adds some bounce to another ability. There is one that switches an enemy to your side temporarily, with bounce() you might switch a few over. If used as a passive, it gives you a nice shield that will absorb the impact of any hit and make it so you don't take any damage. After you're hit, it will have a cool down and you have no shield for a little while. This saved me so many times! This is such an awesome paper, rock, scissors type of balance and it rewards the players intelligence and allows them to shape Red to suit their playstyle. 

 

The game also blends real-time action and turn based combat. You can initiate a planning mode called Turn() and you have some time in here to plan out your next course of action. You can dodge out of an explosion blast then close with an enemy, hit them with an ability to make them vulnerable and finish it up with a devastating strike that finishes them off. Then after you finish the planning, you press the button and your character flies through your plan super fast and you feel like a bad ass. I once had so many chain reaction, bouncing abilities going off that 90% of my screen was solid light and from all the flashes and I was left giggling at the devastation I had wrought. The downside is after a turn(), everything is on cool down and you are left scrambling for several seconds with no abilities at all to work with. Unless you attached abilities in a certain way and then you may have one ability that can be used during the recovery period. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[AJ_Radio]

My recommendations after you do Orcs Must Die: Unchained.

 

If you enjoy indies I strongly recommend Axiom Verge. It's the closest thing to Super Metroid, the SNES classic that started the entire Metroidvania genre. Not too difficult either, but you're going to need to look at a guide to find all the weapons and health pickups.

 

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is fairly easy and enjoyable so you should finish that.

 

Unravel will require some practice because some of the levels are tricky and you have to beat them all without dying.

 

I didn't find Far Cry Primal to be all that great and it's basically a collectathon. Still pretty easy.

 

Mafia 3 unfortunately is overly repetitive because of the two forced playthroughs you have to do. One of the better stories to come out of a AAA game in my opinion.

 

LA Noire isn't too difficult, but consort a guide for those film reels and cars. You may need to watch a few YouTube videos to 5-star all the cases, because a couple can be tricky.

 

Never saw the appeal of Fallout 4.

[Spacey_Dweeb]

@ZombHunter13 is the winner of my little giveaway. I will contact you tomorrow!

 

I didn't finish the platinum for Resident Evil 7 but had a lot of fun and did two full playthroughs. I managed to go all this time without spoilers so the story was a surprise for me. I did expect a helicopter at the end though haha.

 

I never really got used to the VR in the game. Smooth turning made me dizzy, but the 30 degree turn was kind of jarring. I gave up on it about halfway through. I never made me feel more afraid though. The place is creepy and stuff, but it kind of seemed to make weak points in the graphics stand out instead of immersing me further. Mainly you could see things like gnarly withered boards were perfectly flat with a texture painted on them. So the whole house looked like cheap particle board and veneer furniture from Ikea, if Ikea was gross.  

 

I was hoping to do the platinum in three playthroughs, but I messed up with the item box. By the time I realized it, it was way too late. So I decided to just finish the speed run and did what also ended up being a no heals run. I could have used three but I was being stingy and saving them for the final two bosses and didn't need to heal for either. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by BigHonkingOne

[ZombHunter13]

Thank you for your kindness with the giveaway.? I would like to say that this thread is a really cool way to tackle games in your backlog and I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughts on the games you’ve played so far and look forward to seeing it continue.