Briste's Diary of a Madman

[Inuty]

i am Curious what you think about KH3. Will read it in i guess 2 weeks

[Rally-Vincent---]

2 hours ago, Briste said:

Thanks! I wouldn't say I'm a fan necessarily...I had just never played them before and I'm the type of person that likes to play games in order and play series together whenever possible. I actually should have waited a little longer to start this run. Apparently there will be some DLC released this winter for KH3 which will mess up the nice order I'll have on my profile when I finish the series. It's not the end of the world...but it would have been cool to have them all listed consecutively.

 

 

Winter isn't that far away... if the order is important, you could always leave one trophy open with the following games and finish them after the DLC to push them upwards.

[Briste]

14 minutes ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Winter isn't that far away... if the order is important, you could always leave one trophy open with the following games and finish them after the DLC to push them upwards.

If they had an actual release date, I might have...but who knows if there will be delays or anything. Plus I'm in the Gaming By Numbers event that ends in September so I wouldn't be able to finish that event if I waited. It's not that big a deal. They'll probably make more in the series at some point anyways and that will throw off everything anyway. I did think about that though  

 

You seem to be working on a challenging game. I've never heard anything about it...is it any good?

[Rally-Vincent---]

18 hours ago, Briste said:

You seem to be working on a challenging game. I've never heard anything about it...is it any good?

 

I assume you mean Nuclear Throne? Better question would be: Am I any good (that would be answered with no). I have 430+ hours in it, and I suck at it. It is only the second game after Ghost 'n Goblins (on Amiga) in my gaming career that I probably won't finish (here: get the Plat). Better ask @Mori if the game is good, he has the Plat.

 

So, what is it ? It is a top-down twin-stick game where all levels are randomly generated. Whatever you earn during a run is lost when you die (with a few exceptions), and when you start a new game, you start from sketch each run (with said exceptions). There different characters you can do runs with that all have a different special ability, but you have to do stuff with all of them.

 

You can pick up a variety of weapons (the farther you go, the better weapons, at least in theory) and mutations that give boni. The goal is to defeat the Nuclear Nhrone, but instead you can also loop past it which makes you play on, but it's getting more diffcult, and the bosses get worse as well.

 

A sample?

 

 

I'll be honest, while it still is kind of fun, at the moment I play it because I don't want to admit the game beat me. But I'll probably have to put it on hold for a month or two and continue then, because it is inducing gamer's rage in me. I believe the game is programmed to punish the average reaction of gamers that tested it, and I am the most average of them all because I die so often in a bad way, it is emberassing.

 

Oh, and: There is a weekly challenge, which isn't random (great to unlock post-loop crowns, another sort of modifier for gameplay), and even there I am not good, so it's not the randomisation. I'm just not good at that game.

 

Edited August 2, 2019 by Rally-Vincent---

[Jens]

[...]

Edited September 30, 2019 by Jens

[Mori]

14 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

-snip-

 

You actually gave a good summary about the game. The only thing I could possibly add is: Yes it is good, or I enjoyed it really much.  

If you like Twin-Stick-Top-Down Shooter, its the perfect game for you. Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac are similiar (good) games, which I havent played yet.

[Briste]

18 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I assume you mean Nuclear Throne? Better question would be: Am I any good (that would be answered with no). I have 430+ hours in it, and I suck at it. It is only the second game after Ghost 'n Goblins (on Amiga) in my gaming career that I probably won't finish (here: get the Plat). Better ask @Mori if the game is good, he has the Plat.

Yeah, that was the game. I saw the completion % and was wondering if it was a Super Meat Boy type hard or just long so people gave up...seems like both...430 hours?!? It kind of reminds me of Gauntlet from the NES when I was a kid...I don't know if I've ever played a game like that since. I give you a ton of credit though for sticking with it. I'm probably around 200 hours with Space Hulk and the only reason I can stick with that game so long is because I can watch TV while I'm doing it. I hope you can get it someday...what are your trouble spots?

 

4 hours ago, Mori said:

You actually gave a good summary about the game. The only thing I could possibly add is: Yes it is good, or I enjoyed it really much.  

If you like Twin-Stick-Top-Down Shooter, its the perfect game for you. Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Isaac are similiar (good) games, which I havent played yet.

Well if Enter the Gungeon is like Nuclear Throne...I just bought that so we'll see if it's a genre I like and then maybe I'll give it a try  How long did you spend on it?

[Mori]

29 minutes ago, Briste said:

Well if Enter the Gungeon is like Nuclear Throne...I just bought that so we'll see if it's a genre I like and then maybe I'll give it a try  How long did you spend on it?

 

It took me around 160 hours for the plat. I've seen someone else with 130 hours, others with 250+ hours.

 

GL & HF with EtG.  

[Rally-Vincent---]

39 minutes ago, Briste said:

Yeah, that was the game. I saw the completion % and was wondering if it was a Super Meat Boy type hard or just long so people gave up...seems like both...430 hours?! It kind of reminds me of Gauntlet from the NES when I was a kid...I don't know if I've ever played a game like that since. I give you a ton of credit though for sticking with it. I'm probably around 200 hours with Space Hulk and the only reason I can stick with that game so long is because I can watch TV while I'm doing it. I hope you can get it someday...what are your trouble spots?

 

I can't tell you if the difficulty is comparable to SMB. I don't like Platformers, I never thought to play SMB. Don't take the 430 hours too seriously, this is just me. People who actually can play the game well will be much, much quicker done with this.

 

My trouble spots? How much time do you have? Well, there are my faults, and there are the game's faults.

• Some enemies shoot predictive not at where you are, but where you are heading. Instead of dodging, I walk into those shots
• I dodge shots and doge other shots, only to run back into the shot I dodged first
• I misjudge the exlosion radius of exploding enemies when I attack them with melee weapons
• I misjudge melee range, not killing enemies that throw exploding cars at me
• I am too impatient, running imnto enemy groups
• I am too hesitant, not finishing enemy groups while I have the chance
• I can't judge which situation of the former two is which
• I fire explosive weapons too close to enemies, blowing myself up in the explosion
• I have a mutation that prevents myself blowing up when I intend to that for a specific trophy that requires you to die under specific circumstances
• I forget "The Captain" can jump and do one-shot damage to you
• If enemies that usually make distance, but oocasionally jump towards you (giving tocuhing damage), I get caught up in that jump
• I take too many unnecessary risks getting rad (which you need to gain mutations)
• I don't get useful weapons
• I get the wrong type of ammo
• I don't get useful mutations
• I get useful mutations for a weapon I dropped because I didn't get the useful mutation
• If I have great weapons and useful mutations, I spawn in a place surrounded by dozens of enemies without a place to hide
• If I don't spawn like before, I get too careless because I have that great stuff which should make it easier
• Little Hunter, one of the most annoying bosses ever, kills me with his explosion-type-damage-on landing-his jump,
• Little Hunter laughs when he kills oyu, making you boil with rage
• If you have a mutation that has a chance to restore HP, it'll do so more often when I am at full health, biut not when I need it
• When switching characters, I press L2 for the special ability, even though the special ability is something different (like eating the great weapon you only get once verey twenty runs)
• One character has only 2 HP, so he is basically the risk-reward character that get one shotted by all but one type of damage (110 hours of playtime alone for him, 29060 runs of 5988 run total)
• Enemies can shoot from outside of the screen, especially snipers that are behind a boss enemy
• You can shoot a shotgun down a narrow alley way without it hitting a charging snow tank (that kills you)
• Ravens suck
• I suck
• Ravens know that I suck and do the effing triple shots
• I get too hectic
• my reaction times are bad
• I could go on and on... how much time do you have?

Edited August 2, 2019 by Rally-Vincent---

[Briste]

3 hours ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

snip

so you're telling me there's a chance...I read ya  Seriously though...ouch lol Your frustration is palpable...I hope that was a little therapeutic for you to get all that out. It looks like a game I would suck at so I may just pass on that one. Is Kingdom Come a nice break or is that frustrating too?

[Rally-Vincent---]

Don't ditch NT based on me. I wouldn't have stuck for all the hours if I didn't also have fun with it, I'd stop playing if I had no fun. I'll play something else soon and get back to it.

 

Kingdom Come is not frustrating. At first, when your character has no experience in lockpicking, fighting and other skills, it can be a bit difficult, but with the evolvement of the main character, it gets much easier while occasionally still being challenging. For example, if you fight two guys in the beginning, there is a good chance you'll die. Later, you can take on two guys, but three are still going to be fatal, especially when they are fully armored. I liked the main quest, the side quests vary. They tend to be a bit drawn out, but they are doable. I'll get the Plat some time, but at the moment, I might work on my Anime series backlog, which has grown because the Playstation runs all the time.

[Briste]

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage

 

This game was a pretty big surprise to me on many levels. First, the graphics are much more realistic and a little unsettling at first considering not much changed in the model in the entire series until now. It was much more beautiful to play, however I did suffer from frame rate drops pretty regularly. My other surprise was how challenging this game ended up being. It is quite short, you could probably beat it in less than an hour skipping cut scenes, however the objective list was legit challenging. I didn't quite understand how only about 10% of gamers had finished this game going into it...but by the time I was done it made a lot of sense.

 

I'll start by saying that I enjoyed this game a lot. Some of the objectives were extremely frustrating, but I liked that they got rid of the command menu and went back to the shortcut menu. It made battles much more fluid. I enjoyed playing as Aqua again and I thought the story was interesting enough...it is clearly an extended prologue into KH3. Critical was ten times harder in this game than in any of the previous. Not only do you have less HP and MP and the enemies have more, it disables Second Chance. I had thought for a while that it disabled Once More as well, however there were times it seemed to work so I'm not sure. I guess the times I died from a combo were because I tried to dodge or act and it broke the combo or the combo was slower and didn't recognize, but I died several times when I thought it should kick in. I died a lot during my Critical run and ended up spending a lot of time running back to save points to refill my focus bar and MP, because you could die in a hurry, even with more than half of your health. 

 

Other things that were hard were the objectives that required you to beat certain bosses without getting touched or using a specific attack that may not even be available when it is time to kill the boss. During one of the boss fights, meteors fall from the sky and turn in to sea urchin things when they land...there were several times I was hit by a stray meteorite that I couldn't see that caused me to take damage and restart the fight. The only really grind-y objective was getting to level 80. You start at 50 so it doesn't seem like much, but the game is so short that I was level 56 on my first run when I beat it and level 60 on my Critical run when I beat it. I did my cleanup run on Beginner and spent a solid hour and a half to two hours cycling through the same area to get to 80. After doing these objectives, the completion ratio made sense.

 

This game could easily have gotten a Platinum trophy based on its challenge, however I get that it is a prologue style entry and didn't. I enjoyed it quite a bit despite a few challenging moments where I needed to use some breathing techniques  I don't feel like this is a 'must play' as a stand alone title, but as an entry in the entire series...it was quite enjoyable.

[Briste]

I've been playing KH3 for a couple of weeks and I have mixed feelings about it so far. It is visually really pretty and the novelty of playing with Disney characters in Disney realms still has not worn off and I really enjoy how they are incorporated into the game. I don't really like the 'Amusement Ride' attacks since I think it's bizarre to have them show up during a fight and they seem to be extremely overpowered. I am also finding that Sora is getting cheesier and cheesier the longer I play...I mean I guess that's the point that he keeps his innocence and naivety, but sometimes I find myself cringing at his dialogue. I'm a big fan of getting rid of the Command Menu and was happy to see they carried over the battle mechanics from 0.2 BBS. I'm getting a little nervous that I'm going to be disappointed at the end...My only real complaint so far is that the cut scenes are generally quite long and they happen pretty regularly.

 

The good news is that I've been trying to finish each world completely as I travel to them to minimize how much I have to go back and redo things when I finish the story. I'm getting all the collectibles I can and doing the mini-games as they appear. I'm hoping to finish this up by next week. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered was given a release date of September 3rd and I really want to play that on day 1. If I can finish this by early next week...it will let me play a few shorter titles before I start another potential grind. I haven't played FFVIII in about 15-20 years and I only played through it completely once. I remember loving this game so I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint!

 

On a side note, while I was on vacation last week in Tampa, I brought my Vita and a book. Well I only found a couple of hours where it was socially acceptable to play my Vita so Space Hulk didn't get much progress...but I am burning through the book! It's called Circe and takes place in the world of Greek Mythology. Those of you that have read the Odyssey may recognize the name. I love Greek mythology (which is originally why I started the God of War series) and this book is really interesting. I love to see new perspectives on old classics and how they intertwine with things. The book is told through Circe's perspective and it has been a really fun ride so far. I have about one hundred pages to go, but it has been a quick read and I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys that genre! 

[Rally-Vincent---]

I was a week away as well, visiting my best friend. I didn't miss playing games at all (I don't have handhelds, when I am outside, I read books). How far by estimation are you with Space Hulk?

[Briste]

7 minutes ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

I was a week away as well, visiting my best friend. I didn't miss playing games at all (I don't have handhelds, when I am outside, I read books). How far by estimation are you with Space Hulk?

Nice! Did you get good weather and do anything fun? It was raining almost non-stop for the four days we were in Florida. We got about four hours of no rain and just clouds where we snuck in a trip to the Zoo for my kids. We were there mostly to visit family so the weather wasn't a big deal.

 

I don't use handhelds outside (or in public for that matter) either. I generally only play it on my living room couch when my wife is watching something on TV that I'm not interested in. I brought it with me because we were going to be staying in hotel rooms and my two kids go to bed around 8:30 pm. They're too little to leave alone in a room, so I brought it to play while the lights were out while they were sleeping...but I ended up being tired too so I just listened to music for a bit and went to sleep According to my phone calculator, I'm at just over 21,000 kills since I started trying without resetting the game. The lag makes it extremely slow going. I can maybe get two attack rounds in per minute and it gets maybe 400-500 in an hour? I have no idea how many have been kills counted from my earlier attempts, but I'm expecting I need to get to 39,000 or so.

[Rally-Vincent---]

Yes, we had great luck with the weather. It was in both our comfort ranges temperature-wise, and we had the right kind of weather for our activities every day. The most memorable thing was a rope climbing park (platforms in trees with various types of connections between them). That was fun despite my fear of heights.

[Inuty]

On ‎20‎.‎08‎.‎2019 at 3:34 PM, Briste said:

The good news is that I've been trying to finish each world completely as I travel to them to minimize how much I have to go back and redo things when I finish the story. I'm getting all the collectibles I can and doing the mini-games as they appear. I'm hoping to finish this up by next week. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered was given a release date of September 3rd and I really want to play that on day 1. If I can finish this by early next week...it will let me play a few shorter titles before I start another potential grind. I haven't played FFVIII in about 15-20 years and I only played through it completely once. I remember loving this game so I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint!

Sorry to give you the bad news but guess you can take your time with the KH3. FF7 will release March 2020.

[Briste]

4 hours ago, Inuty said:

Sorry to give you the bad news but guess you can take your time with the KH3. FF7 will release March 2020.

I think you misread how many III were after the V  Final Fantasy 8 Remastered is coming out a week from tomorrow. That is the one I was talking about  I do have the VII Remake preordered though. I pre-ordered it like four or five years ago when they announced it and have been patiently waiting. I'm excited and very nervous about how it turns out. I'm not thrilled about it being episodic, but if they do it right I won't care. I just don't want them to make this feel rushed. FFXV and KH3 have been disappointing based on their hype (I just finished the main story of KH3 so will post my thoughts on that completely in a couple days when I wrap up the rest of the trophies.) If they screw up the VII remake, I probably won't be an SE day one purchaser anymore. 

 

 

[Arcesius]

25 minutes ago, Briste said:

I think you misread how many III were after the V  Final Fantasy 8 Remastered is coming out a week from tomorrow. That is the one I was talking about  I do have the VII Remake preordered though. I pre-ordered it like four or five years ago when they announced it and have been patiently waiting. I'm excited and very nervous about how it turns out. I'm not thrilled about it being episodic, but if they do it right I won't care. I just don't want them to make this feel rushed. FFXV and KH3 have been disappointing based on their hype (I just finished the main story of KH3 so will post my thoughts on that completely in a couple days when I wrap up the rest of the trophies.) If they screw up the VII remake, I probably won't be an SE day one purchaser anymore. 

 

We're on the same boat. I was so excited when they announced the FFVII Remake a couple of years back, and I was actually quite impressed by the gameplay footage that has been released so far. But I'm not happy about the first game only taking place in Midgard, even though it's supposed to be full of content. 

 

I get that they don't want to just recreate the old game but instead expand upon what it established, but I'm just hoping they do it right... If there is a game that generated a lot of hype, it's this one... ? 

 

 

As for FFVIII, I'll play it as well. Dunno if I'll be jumping straight into it on release, I certainly didn't pre-order it because I don't care about the theme you get for doing so, but I'm looking forward to giving it a go soon  This is not necessarily my favorite FF and I think I've only completed 2 playthroughs of it, so it'll be interesting to see how I like it now

 

The trophy list though... ☹️ disappointing to say the least. 

[Inuty]

My bad then

[Briste]

37 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

We're on the same boat. I was so excited when they announced the FFVII Remake a couple of years back, and I was actually quite impressed by the gameplay footage that has been released so far. But I'm not happy about the first game only taking place in Midgard, even though it's supposed to be full of content. 

 

I get that they don't want to just recreate the old game but instead expand upon what it established, but I'm just hoping they do it right... If there is a game that generated a lot of hype, it's this one...  

Yeah, I was pretty impressed by the footage as well. I mean they could be cherry picking, but it was extremely impressive. I'm not terribly happy about it just being Midgard either since that is such a small portion of the game...but I remember being floored by Midgard in VII when it first came out. I was shocked when you left Midgard and saw how big the world was.

 

I get why they don't either since it has already been done...but they are taking a huge risk in my opinion if they change too much. I'll be curious what happens with Don Corneo. I'm going to miss the ATB battle system, but I understand that a lot of people do not like that any more. 

 

Very rarely does changing an old classic turn out well. Of the things I've seen recently...I'd say that the 'new' Star Trek movie series is the only one that has done it succesfully...but that was kind of a reboot more than a remake. I haven't seen all of the live-action Disney remakes yet, but Jungle Book was great with just a couple of miscast roles. I didn't love Bill Murray as Baloo or Christopher Walken as King Louie but they were fine. Beauty and the Beast was pretty ok and Dumbo was pretty terrible...haven't seen Aladdin or Lion King yet. Just once, I would love to see someone actually recreate something and just improve on the graphics without succumbing to adding their own creative twist (fingers crossed for FFVI). George Lucas would have been fine with his Star Wars re-releases if he didn't add new scenes and modify existing ones (looking at you Greedo!) If you want to be creative...do something new lol

 

35 minutes ago, Inuty said:

My bad then

no worries! I appreciate you looking out!

[Briste]

 

I started my Kingdom Hearts journey way back on March 14th with the goal of playing the games consecutively in order (an order that made sense for first time players to the series). It was a long trip and it was generally more pleasant than not, however I can safely say I am ready to play something different. I found the overall concept to be the best part of the series with the combat coming in second. I think it was a really cool idea and a lot of fun to integrate Disney characters into a video game setting and I thought it was really fun to enter all of the different worlds. The combat was generally fun and fluid and I had very few instances where it felt frustrating.

 

While the concept was a home run, I feel like they really bogged it down with their choice of the story they wanted to tell. A lot of the language, themes and animation are very child oriented, however the story is so overly convoluted, confusing and a challenge for an adult to follow, that I feel like it missed the target. If Shrek thought Ogres are like onions...Ogres have nothing on the amount of layers in the KH story from beginning to end. They started with a simple concept and at every step of the way turned the plot line into Inception and made another layer or created another plot device to muddy the waters. I'm nearing 40, played all the games back to back so there wasn't a lot of time between episodes, and I still have no idea what the hell is going on. KH3 seemed like it was going to put a nice bow on everything and tie it together, but then didn't...and really didn't.

 

It's really too bad that the story is such a mess, because otherwise it was a good mix of fun things to do. Most of the mini-games were tolerable with some even being fun. While the world maps tended to be relatively small (until KH3 anyways), the games are actually full of challenging battles within those worlds. So if you're in it just for the story, Beginner allows you to enjoy the story and go through the game with ease and Critical really is quite challenging. I think the trophy lists for the games also did a good job of making sure you touched upon everything the games had to offer. Had I played this series as a kid, I may feel differently about it, but playing it as an adult, it's not nearly as good as I had been told. I'd say the only games that I think are great and 'must plays' are KH2 and KH: BBS. KH1, KH: DDD and KH3 are ok to good and Re: CoM was a chore. 

 

I can comfortably say that unless you are a masochist like me, there is no need to play these games back to back since it doesn't make the story any clearer. There is definitely spoiler stuff that make the order a little important, but unless you read fan stuff online, you aren't going to understand what the hell is going on anyway so you can just play the good ones and be fine. I'd give this series a 'B' grade overall. They did a lot of things well, but the things they missed on...they missed on pretty big.

 

Here is my ranking of the games:

1) Kingdom Hearts II 

2) Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 

3) Kingdom Hearts 

4) Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage

5) Kingdom Hearts III

6) Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

7) Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

 

Having said all that...

 

Platinum #88

Kingdom Hearts III

I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this game. Visually, it was beautiful. The different worlds were bigger than ever and the graphics were majorly upgraded from the prior games. The different worlds were also pretty fun to play individually...the problem with this game is that it is not a stand alone game and is a part of something much bigger. While the individual zones were cool to play...they mostly felt like a waste of time since they truly added nothing to the overarching story for the series. That story really doesn't start to progress until you get to the last world and they start putting the pieces together (until they nuke those pieces to bits...) The best comparison I can make is that Kingdom Hearts III reminded me a lot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3...when I was watching Spider-Man 3, I remember thinking...'this movie isn't that bad...why did it get such bad reviews' until you got to the exact moment when you were like 'oh...yeah now I see what people were saying' The whole time I was playing this, I was thinking 'this isn't that bad' and then I got to a part where I went 'whyyyyyyyyyyy??'

 

The other big problem I had with the game was the shear amount and length of the cut-scenes. Each world had like a ten minute intro and each world had like a ten minute ending with several other cut-scenes littered throughout. While it was annoying how long they were...they were at least trying to explain everything that had happened so far, which is a big change from the prior entries. But this decision is the crux of why this game was disappointing. They spent the majority of the regular game explaining/rehashing everything that had happened to that point before moving the story along...this game could have been epic if they let you play someone other than Sora. I would have loved to have them mirror what they did in BBS by having you play through the game with multiple characters. I don't think they should have made you play through this game with each character...but it would have been fun to have an episode or two for each of them to bring it all together.

 

So the game itself...combat was much improved from DDD. I like how they brought the customization part back for spells and items as it made the battles more fluid. The worlds are spacious and very detailed with a lot more to explore. I especially enjoyed being a Captain of my own ship. The game felt a lot easier than prior installments...probably since I played the game on normal instead of Critical since I just wanted to relax and enjoy this entry. If they add a trophy that requires critical...I'll probably be disappointed I went the easy way...but I'm glad I didn't stress myself out over the difficulty.

 

I wish they weren't doing a DLC and just released the game completely when it was done...but that isn't the way things are anymore. Releasing a complete game is just crazy...I'll play anything that comes out in the future to see where the story goes...but it'll be more out of curiosity than excitement. So until the DLC comes out...my profile has all the KH games in order...in the words of George W Bush....Mission Accomplished!

Edited August 28, 2019 by Briste

[Briste]

Platinum #89

Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry

 

I had bought this game out of pure Nostalgia. It was one of the first games I played on a PC back with my father on an orange and black, monochrome screen. I was too little to know what was going on back then, but I used to remember giggling over the dumb stuff you could try and have Larry do. None of it worked, but I had a giggle. Plus I enjoyed playing at the Casino in that game. The phrase 'Ken Sent Me' has been with me for a long time from Larry. The game I spent the most time with was Leisure Suit Larry: Shape up or Slip out. My buddy and I used to play this in Middle School/High School and it was always funny. I never played any of the other games, but I was getting a little worn down with my KH series run and felt I could use something lighthearted and easy to break it up a bit. Plus, I felt like a Larry trophy would make a nice milestone  I was originally going to go with Grab her by the Pixel, but I was too close to the milestone to make this one work...so instead I went with this image of a dildo  (I'll grow up after Middle School...I swear!)

 

This game was just what the doctor ordered. It was really very funny (especially if you have a juvenile sense of humor) and actually had quite a bit of social commentary. The gist of the game is that Larry was placed in stasis in the 80's and wakes up in the current time period. He is out of touch and naive. But armed with his Leisure Suit, PiPhone and rapist wit...he is ready to tackle the modern day dating scene using the Timber dating app. He needs to get enough Timber points on his profile before the girl of his dreams will go on a date with him. Travel by Taxi has been replaced by using the Unter app and Larry gets in several situations where hilarity ensues.

 

The amount of phallic and Fah Gina images in each screen is insane and sometimes clever. The puzzles aren't terribly hard since your inventory never gets that big and there is a pretty good guide on playstationtrophies.org. I used the guide to see what area I should be in, but tried to solve all the puzzles by myself. I only needed to peak a handful of times. Other than the game ending pretty abruptly and Larry's voice being on the annoying side (which is kind of the point but...), I really have no complaints. It took a little getting used to the controls, but it really wasn't so bad. I had to play the EU version since the NA version didn't end up getting released for some reason. It's definitely worth a playthrough, but there is nothing so earth shatteringly new that it can't wait for a good sale.

 

I started Life is Strange yesterday, and boy is there a lot of heavy themes. Every single decision is a challenge and I end up second guessing my choice. I don't have a ton in common with the main character, but I've enjoyed seeing things through a different perspective. Hoping to knock off a few of these shorter titles over the weekend before I start up FFVIII.

 

Have a nice holiday weekend to those who have a Labor Day holiday to celebrate! My oldest started Kindergarten on Wednesday so we're going to do something fun with him to celebrate. So long as there are dinosaurs and hot dogs, he'll be happy  

[Inuty]

Since you are finished with KH games,  are you planning to do Mass Effect Next?

 

If you need a good new series to play,  at least @Jens and me can recommend the Yakuza series Top notch Story but challenging ans long platinum trophies.

[Briste]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:50 PM, Inuty said:

Since you are finished with KH games,  are you planning to do Mass Effect Next?

 

If you need a good new series to play,  at least @Jens and me can recommend the Yakuza series Top notch Story but challenging ans long platinum trophies.

Mass Effect will be the next series on the docket. I'm going to take the month of September to play some shorter titles that aren't necessarily part of a series to mix it up a bit. I was going to play FFVIII right away, however now that I see I'm only 9 Plats away from 100, I'm thinking of making that my milestone game. I loved this game growing up and the trophy artwork is actually pretty decent. The Yakuza is a series I would like to get into eventually, and with the recent remaster announcement, I'll be able to get them all on PS4...but that will be a bigger marathon than KH probably...and I need a break from mini-games

 

I was busy the last few days and finished a few games. Without further ado....

 

Platinum #90

Life is Strange

I seem to be on an SE kick considering the next two games on my list. I picked up Life is Strange on a super sale a while back and have been meaning to play it for a while. I really enjoy the 'choose your own adventure' style of game and I had heard this was a good one. I also had picked this game on my Bingo card AND it gives me a '3' for my Gaming by Numbers badge. After the marathons that were KH...I was ready for something laid back and relaxing...DO YOU HEAR THAT SE...RELAXING!!!!

 

So anyways....this game was not relaxing lol It wasn't hard by any stretch of the imagination, but damn...I don't think any of the decisions you get to make were a layup. It felt like you were constantly choosing between getting kicked in the shins or kicked in the balls. Thankfully there was the rewind option because I made the wrong choice (for me) several times. I thought that was an awesome mechanic too that you could learn something from a conversation, rewind, and then use that newfound information to extract even more information.

 

While I really can't relate much to a couple of 18 year old girls, I really enjoyed the chance to play a game from that perspective. Max is super intense and extremely empathetic (at least how I played her) and I really liked her character throughout. It didn't really fit her character that she would ignore Chloe for 5 years...but I let that slide. Chloe got on my nerves quite a bit. I tend to avoid confrontation if I can and am generally a rule follower...not necessarily because I'm a goodie two-shoes or anything, but because I find there's a lot less drama that way and it's much easier to just do what you're supposed to. I'm not very spontaneous and probably not a ton of fun because of that...but it's easier to blend into the background that way So I had even less in common with Chloe and she was mostly a hella pain in the ass (I ef'n HATE when people say hella...except for Cartman....it was funny when he did it)

 

I played through the game without a walkthrough and explored the shit out of every area before moving on and was able to take all of the pictures without having to replay anything. One of my favorite parts was when I searched the TV in Victoria's room and Max imagines herself watching Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within on the flat screen and says something like "I don't care that nobody liked that movie...it was awesome!" I had to give credit to SE for poking fun at themselves there.

 

I called the big plot twist, but I wouldn't say the game is predictable or anything. The story got a little convoluted towards the end and I don't think they explained why it needed to end the way it did very well...but overall it was a very emotional game that I enjoyed quite a bit. My favorite part of these games is seeing the stats at the end of all the decisions everyone else made. It's always interesting to see how my choices compare to others and which is more common. Over a quarter of a million people registered on this site have already played this, so I'm not breaking any new ground with this game...but if you haven't played it yet...it is definitely worth a playthrough.

 

Platinum #91

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

I played this immediately after LiS and I did not like this one as much. It was a bit shorter and it follows a character I really didn't like much. I ended up playing Chloe as a very aggressive, abrupt and honest person, which (other than the honest part) is not in my nature. It was a little liberating being an asshole to everyone, and based on the percentages at the end of the episodes...most people didn't play her that way so I got to see the game slightly different than most. I ended up softening up with her a bit towards the end because I felt she was impulsive, not evil and I couldn't make all the mean choices.

 

I also didn't like her counterpart Rachel as much as I liked Max and I felt like the character development wasn't as well fleshed out in this one. They go from strangers to soulmates in about 20 minutes and it was a little farfetched. I mean to their credit they kind of acknowledge it...but this could have used a couple more episodes to build that relationship. I will say that by the end, I liked Chloe more than I did when it started. My favorite part of this game was getting to play the tabletop RPG. It was really pretty fun.

 

This story was much more predictable than the first and I don't think it was told as well. It was a much more believable story and still had a lot of tough decisions filled with emotional impact...but it just wasn't as crisp. It isn't a bad game by any stretch, however I much preferred taking pictures with Max as opposed to the graffiti with Chloe. While not as good as LiS, it wasn't a bad prequel and this game is also usually on a super sale and you could definitely do worse. If you like the 'choose your own adventure' style, it's worth a playthrough.

 

 

What Remains of Edith Finch

This is a top 3 most depressing, yet well told and interesting games I have ever played. It's a walking sim, so there's not much to it as far as game play goes, but this story was fantastic. It was a free game a few months ago and I needed a '7' for the Gaming by Numbers event so I figured I'd give it a go now. As it turns out...my version of the game is a '5' and it's the EU version that is a '7'....so no dice there, however I'm really happy I made that mistake and played this game. It is super short (2-3 hours tops), but the imagery was awesome and spooky, the subject matter was really dark and how the story unfolds is pretty brilliant. A few of the stories are truly heart wrenching and hit pretty close to home.

 

I don't generally talk to my wife about the games I play since she really doesn't care about gaming...but I told her all about this one. I really can't say too much without ruining it so I'll try to be extremely vague. The gist of it is it's a story about a young girl whose family is supposedly cursed. You play as her as she walks through her old house, uncovering the details of her family history. I'll just say that the details of her family are often tragic and told in unique ways to keep the story fresh. There is just enough interaction to keep it interesting as well. If you got it for free with PS+, what are you waiting for and take a few hours out to play through it. If you don't have it...I can't say you should spend more than $5 considering how short it is...but they pack a lot of awesome into a few short hours.

 

I feel like I need to play something happy now...Forgotten Anne is up next as I try to finish up Gaming By Numbers...the title has me a little worried about that though lol @Cassylvania this will be all about sunshine and rainbows right?

Edited September 4, 2019 by Briste