Briste's Diary of a Madman

[Inuty]

5 hours ago, Briste said:

How's everyone handling quarantine? My wife is going bananas....I, however, am living the dream...if it weren't for the whole 12 Monkeys/Outbreak life we're living right now...

Same for me. My wife going bananas and i‘m doing pretty Fine. Since my company shut down for the time i have plenty time to play games (and my wife need to work).

 

btw shame on you for not starting Mass Effect. I think you Talk over a year about starting the Series  Last time i remember you wanted to Start it After finishing Final Fantasy 8.

[Rally-Vincent---]

13 hours ago, Briste said:

How's everyone handling quarantine? My wife is going bananas....I, however, am living the dream...if it weren't for the whole 12 Monkeys/Outbreak life we're living right now...

 

I am still going to work as usual, so for me my day-to-day-routine is mostly the same. I added more chocolate to my diet, though, than I would have liked to.

 

10 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Did you pre-order FF VII? I'm still a bit hesitant... When the announcement was made I thought it would be a day-1 purchase for me. But now that we know it's episodic, plus the guys that played the Demo and loved the original really weren't all too impressed with the new combat system, among other things...

 

The episodic thing turned me off, too - I didn't kj't know why a remake would need to be split. Now that we know that they made it into whole new games, I probably won't be buying it. Ever since FF 12, I did not enjoy Final Fantasy games as I did before that. FF XIII was a low for me, FF 15 was rather "meh". I don't think stretching FF VII will make it better, and I am not a fan of the changed battle system. I am going to watch a let's play instead, Christopher Odd is probably going to play it. He is my go-to-guy for let's plays, I even watched him playing Doom, a game I would never play.

[Briste]

On 4/1/2020 at 2:36 AM, Spaz said:

It's stupid that Beyond Two Souls requires two controllers for the platinum.

Yeah, that one seems like it's going to be a little annoying...but so long as you don't have to quickly go back and forth too often, I'm sure it'll be fine. There has been something a little quirky with the controls in the two previous games from Quantic Dream, so we'll just have to see how this one goes.

 

On 4/1/2020 at 2:56 AM, Arcesius said:

Did you pre-order FF VII? I'm still a bit hesitant... When the announcement was made I thought it would be a day-1 purchase for me. But now that we know it's episodic, plus the guys that played the Demo and loved the original really weren't all too impressed with the new combat system, among other things... 

 

You could put me on a deserted island with the three games I'm playing right now (Crypt, Trials and Nioh 2) and I would never get bored ever again, so I think I might wait a bit before I decide to purchase the remake, since I have plenty to play right now...

I did pre-order it. I actually pre-ordered it when it was announced in like 2016 or something, but ended up canceling that pre-order to get the special edition release. I loved all of the characters in this game and I still use the FF7 theme for my PS4 so I didn't mind spending the extra for it. I'm not in love with the episodic nature of the game, however I'm hoping that each release has its own trophy list so that if the series doesn't end up getting completed, I don't have a broken trophy list on my profile. I did not play the demo since I wanted to be able to play it straight through...but I'm really looking forward to this. Sadly, expectations are through the roof and it'll really have a hard time living up to them, especially with nostalgia thrown in...but from what I've seen, it looks great.

 

I also have plenty to play, but every once in a while, there is a game that comes out that trumps anything else I'm doing. For example, if they were to announce an XCOM 3 being released next month, I would put whatever I'm playing on hold for that. I'm currently trying to pare down my active game list. I'm going to get as far as I can into Driveclub VR until FF7R comes out, and then go full bore into that. I'm really intrigued by Crypt, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to that one. I'll probably pass on Trials since I don't love racing games and I'm playing Driveclub right now which will give me any kind of racing fix I had. I'll definitely get to Nioh 2 though...I have the first one in my backlog...

 

On 4/1/2020 at 4:37 AM, Inuty said:

Same for me. My wife going bananas and i‘m doing pretty Fine. Since my company shut down for the time i have plenty time to play games (and my wife need to work).

 

btw shame on you for not starting Mass Effect. I think you Talk over a year about starting the Series  Last time i remember you wanted to Start it After finishing Final Fantasy 8.

Glad to hear you are coping well! And I agree shame on me lol I'll tell you that PoE really threw my schedule for a loop. It was an unexpected addition to my profile and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did....so everything kind of got put off for a while. With the events going on, I needed to finish something which is how the Quantic Dream games got pushed to the front of the line...I swear though...after FF7R and the last two Quantic games...ME is going to appear on my profile like the KH series did.

 

On 4/1/2020 at 1:09 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

 

I am still going to work as usual, so for me my day-to-day-routine is mostly the same. I added more chocolate to my diet, though, than I would have liked to.

 

 

The episodic thing turned me off, too - I didn't kj't know why a remake would need to be split. Now that we know that they made it into whole new games, I probably won't be buying it. Ever since FF 12, I did not enjoy Final Fantasy games as I did before that. FF XIII was a low for me, FF 15 was rather "meh". I don't think stretching FF VII will make it better, and I am not a fan of the changed battle system. I am going to watch a let's play instead, Christopher Odd is probably going to play it. He is my go-to-guy for let's plays, I even watched him playing Doom, a game I would never play.

lol there are worse vices than chocolate I've been drinking way more soda than I'd like. At work, I would bring one small bottle in with me for the day and that would limit my intake...at home I have my fridge right there and I can just grab one if I'm thirsty. I don't have a ton of self-discipline when it is readily available. Lots of sugar for us both!

 

I'm not in love with the episodic thing either...I found it kind of annoying in FFXV and it won't be all at once...but the subject matter is something I really care about so I will digest it anyway they want to feed it to me. I actually like XIII better than XII. I really enjoyed the paradigm system and felt like it was an improvement on the gambit system. XII was fun and reminded me a bit of my experience with XI...however I felt like the story really lacked depth and that has always been one of my favorite parts of the Final Fantasy games...a good story.

 

Speaking of a good story...

 

Platinum #110

Spec Ops: The Line

 

This was a game I had heard tons of things about and I had picked up on sale a while ago. It was never a high priority, but when @Cassylvania was playing it, I actually took a look at the trophy list and there were a lot of trophies that I really liked as potential milestones and decided I would play it around one of those. I wasn't sure exactly which milestone it would be, but I knew I wanted A Man of Action to be one. When it looked like PoE would take me until May to finish...I was thinking about a FF7R trophy to be a milestone...which was a bit of a risk since I don't even know what the images will be, but I figured it'd be decent at least. When I unexpectedly finished PoE early in March, I realized that I would reach 5k long before FF7R was released and now seemed like a good time to play Spec Ops until FF7R was released.

 

I actually had to do something I'd never done before for this milestone trophy. I got it lined up and saved at the checkpoint before it pops...ready to go and then played Jurassic World to get me to the tipping point. During the firefight for that checkpoint...I ended up popping the trophy for Handgun Kills...which I did not want for 5k. Since I was on PS3, I did the whole delete your profile thing to void the trophy and then downloaded my save from the cloud to try again. I knew not to use my handgun when I tried this time. My only other weapon was the Sniper Rifle...and would you fucking believe that the trophy for those kills popped too on my next attempt? I had to delete the profile again to remove the trophy...only this time when I went to download my save...I had to wait 24 god damned hours to download my save from the cloud. Apparently, this game only allows you to download your cloud save once every 24 hours. I was super pissed, but figured what the hell, I could wait. That section proved to be extremely hard considering the hoops I had to jump through to get my milestone. I had about 5 kills available for each weapon, so had to let my teammates do most of the heavy lifting. In hindsight...I probably could have played through to chapter 7 on easy during that 24 hours to get it...but I didn't think of that until typing this just now lol. In the end, I was able to get my milestone...even if I feel a little dirty about how I got it. I'm hoping I don't have to do that again anytime soon...

 

I'll try to keep this relatively spoiler free, but I'll say I was pleasantly surprised by the story. It was pretty dark and they did a good job of making you feel a connection with your team. This game truly proves that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'll talk mostly about my FUBAR run. I had trouble in many areas that most people did not and got through some areas pretty smoothly where others did not. A lot of it is luck since a couple of hits and you're dead really quickly. I doubt I discovered this method for the beginning of Chapter 6 since the game has been out a long time...but I found a relatively stress free way to get through that level. The chapter starts with you alone, without ammunition, and surrounded by bad guys. Most people seem to consider this the hardest part in the game and it was for me too, until I figured out my method.

 

The zone is a rectangle and your starting cover is behind a car in the bottom left corner. There is a damaged wall to your right that would run along the bottom of the rectangle and has 2 grenades and a shotgun with about 15 rounds of ammunition. My first 15 attempts or so, I grabbed the supplies and hustled back to the car to make my stand. The problem with this spot is that you're still pretty exposed and the enemy will often place you in a pincer. I never got very far attempting the checkpoint from here. The other obvious option is to use the mini wall where you get the supplies for cover...similarly you can get caught in a pincer and I also found that the guys rappelling down could sometimes snipe you as well. What I found, was that if you get the supplies and go to the end of that wall near the bottom right corner, there are about four guys huddled around a car, using it as cover. A well placed grenade kills a couple of them AND makes a huge dust cloud. I used this dust cloud to run to the top right corner of our rectangle to use a big van as cover. While you are technically open to a pincer attack here as well...I think the AI is a little glitched because I never had an enemy attempt to get me from behind. What they would do is run around the front of the van and along the side to try to get me. I would let them get real close to the back and blast them with the shotgun. This allowed me to pick up their weapon to use as well to pick off the guys that didn't run at me. It wasn't fool proof and still took me about 10 tries to get through the checkpoint...but it was really nice to not have to have my head on a swivel checking my back. Patience is the key here.

 

A lot of the FUBAR playthrough is exactly that....patience. You really need to make sure everyone is down before you move, because if you get caught out in the open, odds are you will die. My other big trouble spot was Chapter 11 with the turret. My squad mates just kept putting themselves in bad positions and it took me a lot of tries to get through there. The other main trouble point for a lot of people is Chapter 14, however I got through there only dying about three times. They give you an RPG there for a reason, and it is to buy you time to run from cover to cover. Thankfully there is a checkpoint half way through this chaotic area so once you get there, you're basically home free.

 

The only downside I found was the controls. They used the button for too many important things. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to run, but ducked behind cover or vice versa. I also didn't like that if you backed out of cover, you automatically stood up and had to quickly tap to crouch or you could die. Trying to avoid grenades sucked too. The controls always seemed most clunky when trying to get out of the blast radius. Most of the rest of the controls were fine...but that button thing was a huge source of frustration. Odds are, if you wanted to play this game, you already have...however if you haven't...it really is a lot of fun and extremely challenging at points...but that challenge just adds to the reward

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Briste

[Briste]

Well, I just wanted to check in with my FF7R thoughts so far. My copy didn't arrive until Tuesday...so I was several days behind everyone and I've done a good job about staying in the dark. I didn't play the demo because I just wanted to be able to play it...I waited several years for this so what was a few more days. I'm playing the game on Normal difficulty with the new battle mode and I just finished chapter 5. I love it...not much more to say than that. I don't mind it not being turn based as they've kept the ATB bar...I actually find the battle very intuitive and I do like that the game goes to slow mo when you are selecting an ability/spell/item/summon to use so that it has that turn based feel in a very fluid and fun battle system.

 

The thing I have to give the game credit for the most (so far) is hitting all of the nostalgia notes while having enough new to make it interesting. I love the amount of depth they've added to the ancillary characters. I'll be honest with you guys...I thought Jessie was a guy in the original...gotta love the Polygon graphics! They've got personalities and they are doing an awesome job making me care about the characters. I don't love the voice acting for Wedge...but the rest are pretty good and I really like the main characters so it's an overall win. I've been playing this game with a big smile on my face and for that I have to thank SE....imo they swung and missed on FFXV and to a lesser extent XIII and XII (although I liked both of those better than XV). They took the cool parts of XV and made everything better. Changing characters is easy and kind of fun. I have a long way to go, but I can't imagine anyone who loved the original not liking this. It had enormously unrealistic expectations and so far it is living up to them for me. I love that it is a full trophy list and I don't mind if they come out with 10 episodes of this game if it is made as well as this one is. Knowing generally what happens...I'm really curious to see how it shakes out since I'm way more invested in the non-main characters now.

 

I'm already in a bind since I want to make this game a milestone somehow yet so far away from being able to earn one....I'm leaning toward saving the trophy for beating Hard Mode for #6000 since that will allow me to play the game completely through and finish everything but the final battle a second time. I'm not setting any records with this game so I might as well save the things I want so my profile looks the way I want it to. If you're on the fence about playing this game....play it. I think there is a ton of value in playing the original first to give you a frame of reference and it is honestly a really fast and easy platinum if you turn up the speed. If you just want the story you could put perma-limit break mode and just blow through the whole thing. Hope everyone that is playing it is enjoying it as much as I am!

[Arcesius]

Thanks for keeping your post spoiler-free ? But yes, I think that many feel the same way you do, and I think I made up my mind as well... I put this on my wishlist and will definitely purchase soon. It seems to be a great game that doesn't disappoint old fans either, which is not something easy to pull off. 

 

Glad to read that you are enjoying this game so much! ?

Edited April 18, 2020 by Arcesius

[Rally-Vincent---]

Good to hear it worked out for you. I am watching a let's play of this - half-way through the game, I estimate -, and so far, it didn't make me think I'd want to play it, at least not for hundreds of Euros over a couple of discs. The soundtrack is pretty good, though.

[Briste]

On 4/18/2020 at 2:37 AM, Arcesius said:

Thanks for keeping your post spoiler-free ? But yes, I think that many feel the same way you do, and I think I made up my mind as well... I put this on my wishlist and will definitely purchase soon. It seems to be a great game that doesn't disappoint old fans either, which is not something easy to pull off. 

I will do my best! I'm actually shocked that I've been able to stay relatively in the dark with this game considering how much I've read about it leading up to release. I just finished chapter 8 and so far am very happy with the game. There are only a few things that I think they could improve upon...mainly I find targeting things you can interact with can be annoying at times...mostly buttons to open doors and there does seem to be quite a few slow walking scenes where the game forces you to move slowly for no apparent reason...sometimes it makes sense and sometimes not. Those are minor gripes though and it has been pretty incredible. I'm really trying to take my time with this game and not do anymore than a chapter a night. I waited several years for this...don't want the fun to be over in a few days lol

 

On 4/18/2020 at 4:39 AM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Good to hear it worked out for you. I am watching a let's play of this - half-way through the game, I estimate -, and so far, it didn't make me think I'd want to play it, at least not for hundreds of Euros over a couple of discs. The soundtrack is pretty good, though.

I can't say I blame you. I'm paying for nostalgia...not many games can recapture the magic of what gaming was like when I was a kid...this game does that for me and was worth the extra bucks. I have to agree as well that the soundtrack is great. I like how they kept the overall roots of the songs, but made them fit the modern game.

 

In trying to drag out this game...I was able to finish a game I wasn't anticipating beating this soon....

 

Platinum #111

Jurassic World Evolution

This game was on sale a few months ago and my son loves dinosaurs. He wasn't really into the Transformers game so wanted to get something he'd be excited about. Turns out he loves this game and he has had a lot of fun helping me build the different parks. Other than Civilization 2 on the Vita, I don't have a Sims style game on my profile and I forgot how addicting and easy it is to lose track of time with these games. I have to say, they did a great job making this game challenging and very immersive. Between storms, company sabotage and anxious dino's....there is no shortage of calamities to keep you scrambling. While there is a bit of a challenge...mostly with the challenge mode where you need to get a 5 star island in under a certain amount of time...the formula is pretty much the same on every island and once you figure out all of the mechanics...isn't hard to achieve.

 

I'll say that it took me a while to get the hang of things. I wasn't using a lot of the tools they provide to help you early on, which made things confusing. I was kind of building things like restaurants in areas I thought they should go, instead of looking at my 'Management View' and seeing where there was an actual demand for something. I'd build a Toy Shop or Bar and have 0 people in it and wonder why...once I learned that there are basic categories of Transportation, Restrooms, Food, Fun, Drink and Shopping and it didn't necessarily mean I needed a variety of stores...just something to satisfy those metrics...it became a lot easier and made more sense. Once you learn this system...getting a 5 star facility rating is easy to get and maintain. It is very easy to mess this up though if you don't leave yourself room to build these things next to your viewing areas.

 

There are a shit ton of different dinosaurs too. Most of them aren't useful for getting a 5 star rating and if you are in it just for the trophies, probably won't build many of them except once. My son on the other hand made sure that I made a variety...and he made sure I didn't mix carnivores with herbivores because he didn't want them fighting lol I did have to show him some fights though due to trophy requirements...plus it's just fun. Getting a 5 star dino rating isn't hard either...you just need to keep making dinosaurs. It gets more challenging during challenge mode when you have a time limit for the trophies...basically you just need to get to Sauropods and then spam them as they give you the most points for your dollar. My biggest recommendation for challenge mode is to only build dinosaurs with a decent comfort rating. Nothing wastes your time more than carnivores who's comfort level drops into a red zone and they break through your fence. Then you have to send your rangers/ACU helicopter after them to tranquilize and then airlift them back into their pen. If you pick dinosaurs that don't get uncomfortable easy...you can basically ignore the storms and just repair the damage they cause.

 

I really enjoyed this game a lot and would recommend it if you are into Sims style games. There is a lot of DLC and it's not necessarily cheap...so that is a draw back...but the game is definitely fun and if you find it on sale...it's worth at least $10-15. I got over 60 hours of playtime from it so can't say I felt cheated

 

Posted my list for the Quarantine event...it's a bit aggressive, but with no time limit, I can afford to take my time and play some stuff I've been meaning to....looking at you Mass Effect

[Briste]

Been a while since I've updated here, but I'm currently running through all the endings of Beyond: Two Souls and have some time to kill. It's funny, my job never tracked my internet usage when I was in the office, however now that I'm working remotely, they have notified us that they are tracking our internet usage to make sure we are working. Thankfully they told us right when we went home and I've never had to answer for my time on this website Of course they could be lying....but it's not worth it lol I really want this working remotely thing to work out so it can be an option for me once all of this craziness has subsided. I had all the time in the world to post here when I was in the office, but now that I generally am using my work PC at home...I can't as easily lol

 

Anyway, I have basically got the platinum for Final Fantasy 7 Remake and wanted to put my thoughts down now since I've decided to save the last trophy or platinum for a milestone. I only have chapter 2 left on Hard Mode (wasn't sure how tough hard mode would be and wanted an easier chapter to be able to finish for the plat/milestone since that could be a few months), I will keep this relatively spoiler free...no mention of things that happen, but I will talk about some of the technical things.

 

Overall, the game is extremely well done. I'll start with the things I loved. I've mentioned it before, but it hits all the right nostalgia notes while also adding enough fresh things to keep it engaging. They have really expanded on some of the early peripheral characters, adding depth, which made a lot of what happens early in the game more impactful. For example, I played the OG so many hours and never realized Jessie was a girl. She just didn't have a huge roll in the OG. Not only do you find out she's a girl, but she has a personality and a backstory that really makes you invested into her story line and character arc. The same goes for all the members of Avalanche and I really appreciated the extra time they took to make those characters more meaningful. I really enjoyed the direction they have gone with the story...it is mostly faithful to the OG but I can also understand why some of the purists have some issues with it. There are some things I don't quite understand...but that's just making me look forward to part 2.

 

I also really enjoyed the battle system. They made combat feel very fluid while adding a turn-based element that felt pretty innovative to me. At first I mostly played with Cloud because I love Cloud...however by the end I found myself enjoying playing as the other characters just as much and had fun bouncing around between them. Aerith was the only character I had a hard time playing as a main character and felt she was much more suited to side duty. Of course there are times you need to play as her to build the ATB bar faster, however I played her more out of necessity than it being as fun as the other characters. Switching characters is actually an important strategy in Hard Mode as the character you are playing as garners most of the attention and the ones you aren't playing as tend to block better. To stay alive in Hard Mode, it is pretty important to bounce around to keep the attention moving around instead of focused on only one person. Apparently there is a Classic Mode difficulty which gives you a way to play Turn Based, however I never tried it. I wanted to play using the Normal Battle system since I knew I'd have to when going through Hard Mode....I figured it'd be even harder without the practice. As it turns out...I didn't find Hard mode very hard at all due to how comfortable I got with the system by the end of my first playthrough. Once you learn the mechanics and figure out a materia build that works for you...Hard Mode is really not bad at all. There are a few tricky fights and annoying enemies....but overall it wasn't too bad.

 

The music was also fantastic. I think Aerith's theme song may be my favorite video game song of all time. I loved Celes' theme song in Final Fantasy 6 as well...but I have the OG FF7 theme for my PS4 dashboard and I hear that song every time I turn on my system and it never gets old. The music in this game just hits you right in the feels and is probably the nostalgic thing they hit on most. It's not unusual for a Final Fantasy game to have a great soundtrack...but I wanted to mention it anyways. Graphics are generally amazing, however there is some syncing issues with the voices and the mouths at times and some areas of attention to detail seem oddly lacking...however those instances are not very common. I thought the voice acting was great and the characters sounded almost exactly as I imagined them. The trophy list is also not too bad and makes you do pretty much everything there is to do in the game. I wouldn't have minded seeing one for completing the game log 100%...but the only real annoying trophy for me was the pull ups one...but even that wasn't that bad once you get a rhythm down. I also felt the controls for the game were easy to learn and pretty intuitive. There didn't feel like any wasted motion for me.

 

Some of my slight issues that don't make this game a perfect score for me are...the camera can be quite frustrating in battle. If you don't lock onto your target, you can easily lose sight of them and not know where the attack is coming from. This is especially evident when fighting ranged enemies. While I love 95% of what they did with the characters...there were a few characters that I don't think were done as well. A few were flat out annoying for me...but the ones that bothered me were only bit characters so this inconvenience was minimal. I thought that a lot of the side quests were throw away fillers that really didn't add anything to the story. Some of them did...but searching for cats felt like a waste of my time. I don't think they put a ton of effort into the side quests...which is a little disappointing since it would have been another chance to add some depth. You do need to suspend some disbelief in this game when it comes to physics because there are some awesome scenes where some amazing things happen and then a ten foot gap becomes a challenge you need to work out. Again, we're talking a fantasy game and you'll enjoy it more if you let things like that slide. My last small gripe was how the game forces you to slow down at some points. There are a lot scenes where you are sliding through tight spaces or balancing over something slowly or even just walking through areas where you just walk really slowly that are a little annoying. Thankfully, none of them are terribly long...but sometimes you just want to get where you need to go and don't want it to take 30 seconds when it could take 5 if your walking speed was your normal walking speed.

 

I'd probably give this game about a 9/10. I really enjoyed it and will most definitely pre-buy part 2 when it goes on sale. I feel like SE has had a lot of swings and misses lately with the games they've put out and I've almost stopped automatically buying anything that says Final Fantasy...but if the next installments are anywhere close to how well this game turned out...I'll be back on team SE full bore.

 

I'll try not to let a month go by before I update again as I have several games going on right now that I'm enjoying...maybe even a platinum in the next day or so to write about. Hope everyone is doing well!

[SpacebarPlays]

Glad someone else enjoyed Jurassic World: Evolution!

Need to go back and Platinum it again on my new account, I've heard the DLC they added is insanely difficult though (Well, 2 of the trophies in it).

 

Only wish that the game wasn't so formulaic. Like you said, once you found the 'best way' of building your parks, its basically a copy cutter of XYZ go in this area and repeat until 5*.

 

How are the Beyond games?

I have them downloaded but have yet to even get close to giving them a shot.

[Briste]

On 5/21/2020 at 4:22 PM, SpacebarPIays said:

Glad someone else enjoyed Jurassic World: Evolution!

Need to go back and Platinum it again on my new account, I've heard the DLC they added is insanely difficult though (Well, 2 of the trophies in it).

It was a lot more fun than I was expecting. I didn't think anything was especially hard in the DLC outside of the beating in less than 4 hours on hard difficulty or higher. For that one I made a save at about three and a half hours in and was in striking distance of making it. I had to restart from that save about 4 times before I got it. What I learned is Dilophosaurus and any of the Sauropods are decent for boosting your dinosaur rating. I ended up doing it in three hours and fifty-nine minutes. I used the last Dr. Wu map (since it is small and manageable) but I guess the dinosaur score requirement is slightly higher, so I made it a little harder on myself. But you can put like 15 Dilophosaurus in one paddock together, so when you are pushing for those last points on the dinosaur score...they are good to use. The other thing you need to do is use dinosaurs that have a high comfort threshold. The only carnivore that I really found (that you get early enough anyways) that works is Ceratosaurus. They will make it through a storm without breaking a fence...most of the other carnivores will. The biggest thing for success though, is getting the Dig Yield upgrade as soon as possible. The Hammond Foundation fee is insanely high and you'll never make enough money to get 5 stars in four hours without selling ores from the digs. Once you get dig yield upgraded...slap it on as many times as you can and then get the extra expedition helicopter and you should develop a good source of income to finish in time. That was really the only hard one...the rest just took patience.

 

On 5/21/2020 at 4:22 PM, SpacebarPIays said:

How are the Beyond games?

I have them downloaded but have yet to even get close to giving them a shot.

I have enjoyed them so far. They aren't really fun to 'play' but the stories have all been solid. Indigo Prophecy was without a doubt the hardest. The QTE's on hard are near impossible without writing them down or following along with a video guide. The Simon Says style of QTE with the joysticks and how quick/finicky they can be makes it frustrating...plus they are incredibly long. Heavy Rain was vastly improved as far as controls and QTE's, however that had some frustrating segments as well. Beyond: Two Souls is a cake walk with the QTE's compared to the prior two and my biggest frustration has been the camera and that moving the camera and interacting with items is the same button. A lot of times I've accidentally touched something I didn't mean to just trying to change the camera angle...but the story is top notch again. I may even finish that game up today, if not definitely tomorrow. Since they were all free, they are definitely worth playing! I think the rarity is more due to the amount of chapters you have to repeat to get all the trophies than being hard.

[AJ_Radio]

Lucky you got Driveclub VR. Can't afford a PlayStation VR so going for that online before the server shutdown was literally impossible for me anyway.

 

I see you recently finished Beyond Two Souls. I watched a video playthrough years ago on YouTube and there are several things that turn me off about the game. Even in Heavy Rain there were a couple things that rubbed me off the wrong way, although David Cage himself is no stranger to criticism as he intended his games to be 'interactive movies', which he has done to great success.

 

Indigo Prophecy was a rare sort of game and probably was awesome back in the PS2 generation. Never got to play it unfortunately, I only just knew about it last year. Hasn't aged all that great from what I've seen in gameplay footage.

 

Making some pretty good progress for yourself. I need to get back to Grand Theft Auto III. The collectibles are absolutely atrocious. I remember back 15 years ago I just beelined through the story, didn't bother to get the collectibles or even the side content (ambulance missions).

[Briste]

18 hours ago, Spaz said:

Lucky you got Driveclub VR. Can't afford a PlayStation VR so going for that online before the server shutdown was literally impossible for me anyway.

Yeah, I bought the VR last year as a kind of impulse buy. It's not bad, but I prefer playing normal games. Driveclub VR is pretty good as far as the graphics go. It can get a little blurry, but for the most part it's clear. My kids got me this game last year for my birthday after I bought the VR. I don't generally play driving/racing games, but since I saw the server was shutting down, I wanted to make sure I got those out of the way so I could take my time with it. Getting to level 60 will be a bit of a grind, but if I do it slowly at my own pace, I'll enjoy it a lot more.

 

18 hours ago, Spaz said:

I see you recently finished Beyond Two Souls. I watched a video playthrough years ago on YouTube and there are several things that turn me off about the game. Even in Heavy Rain there were a couple things that rubbed me off the wrong way, although David Cage himself is no stranger to criticism as he intended his games to be 'interactive movies', which he has done to great success.

Since you mentioned it...

 

Platinum #112

Beyond: Two Souls

 

I started this game right around the time I started Jurassic World Evolution and having just finished Heavy Rain and really enjoying Jurassic World, I kind of put it on the back burner after playing the first chapter. It then got pushed further back once FF7R arrived in the mail. When I started it back up, I just started from the beginning since I was only about 15 minutes in. True to form, I got another good story with lazy Trophy art and somewhat frustrating controls...the acting in the game was top notch...I mean Willem Dafoe is a legend and Ellen Page is pretty decent herself. The story is more similar to Indigo Prophecy than Heavy Rain since there is an element of the supernatural.

 

The QTE's in this game were the easiest yet. There were no five minute long QTE scenes like in Indigo and nothing like the driving scene in Heavy. It seemed like this game focused much more on the story being the focus and I liked it a lot better because of it. People don't generally play these games because QTE games are awesome...they generally play to get a good story and when the QTE's get to be too much, you spend too much time focusing on dumb control movements and less what is happening story-wise on the screen.I was really able to follow along much more closely. While I did like the story...I did think it was the weakest of the three I've played so far. There seemed to be several different times where they got lazy with the details to infuse drama when there probably shouldn't be. In some scenes, Jodie is godlike and in others she gets taken out with ease. If she's going to have an entity linked to her that can shield her from bullets and be her third eye....it should be able to protect her from a punch in the head. Her powers were just too inconsistent as far as when they seemed to want to work and when they couldn't. I thought the premise was really cool though and there were times where the story did hit on all cylinders.

 

My biggest issues with the game, was having a trophy tied to using a second controller to control Aiden...that just seemed unnecessary and was a little annoying. It also made me do an extra playthrough of the last like six or seven chapters. I knew going into the game, I should try to save all of the characters I could when it appeared. Trying to stay mostly spoiler free, I didn't look much beyond the trophies. Well in one of the longest chapters...I talked to someone too early and it prevented me from saving one of the characters....I knew I had to save him, but go locked past a checkpoint. Because you can't chapter select for the two controller trophy, I couldn't just replay the chapter via chapter select and fix my mistake or I would have had to do a whole other playthrough. Instead, I finished my first run without saving everyone or killing everyone and I had to replay those last chapters an extra time to get all of the endings.

 

That was my other huge issue...you had to watch the goddamn credits on every single ending. They were like six or seven minutes long so with something like eight different endings...I spent 45 minutes to an hour just watching credits roll. I get them wanting you to watch them all once....but after you've seen them...it should let you skip. That felt like a huuuuge waste of time. To play the last chapter, watch an ending and watch the credits takes about an hour exactly. Some of the endings you can just replay the epilogue chapter to watch...but about five of them you have to replay the last chapter....so that's five hours of just replaying the last chapter. Again, it would have been nice to have the option to skip any cut scene you've already witnessed.

 

Considering how easy the game is compared to the other two....I was surprised to see how rare the platinum is. However, after having played it....unless you are a completionist....it is 100% not worth all the replays. Also if you don't have a second controller...that is a bullshit trophy as well. Since I am a completionist, I did the whole song and dance. I would rank this #3 of the series so far with HR as #1 and IP as #2. Having said all that, it was free and is interesting enough to play if you don't care about the Platinum.

 

I'm doing something now I've never really done before. I'm on purpose balancing five games at once. It'll be three soon enough since Energy Balance is really short and surprisingly easy. I know there is a program out there to give you the answers....but I actually enjoy puzzle games and this one is math based...which I enjoy even more. I think I got really lucky on a few of the puzzles since I solved them pretty quickly. I started Hardcore mode today and that may take a little longer. I also started Steins; Gate and Everybody's Golf for the #StayHome event. EG will take a while so I figured I'd start chipping away at that and even though I've heard SG is really good....I feel like I'll want to actually play something over the 30 hours it takes to platinum. I'm playing it completely blind and I was very surprised that it is in Japanese with English Subtitles and no dubbing. Due to that, I'll have to pay closer attention and won't be able to multitask by listening. I've got all the hard stuff done in Castlevania: Harmony of Despair with just the grindy stuff left...however that game is really fun so don't mind the grind at all. I'm also about 2/3's of the way through the gold star races in Driveclub VR.

 

I also have downloaded Mass Effect onto my PS3 in preparation to start. I know they are remastering it, but I paid for the PS3 version and might as well play it. Since I want that series to be consecutive on my trophy log...I'm going to try and knock out these quicker games for the event before I start the series. I'm hoping to start that in about two weeks. I'll probably do Steins; Gate while I'm working since it's all reading stuff, so should get through that pretty quickly.

 

 

/edit ps...did this site stop allowing you to copy and paste the game thumbnails into posts? I know the bigger images you need to post a direct link to via imgur or something, however I built my whole first post from copying and pasting the thumbnails....I can't do that anymore and my backlog list is missing some games since I'm too lazy to save all the thumbnails, upload them to imgur and then post the link here...

Edited May 26, 2020 by Briste

[Arcesius]

1 hour ago, Briste said:

Yeah, I bought the VR last year as a kind of impulse buy. It's not bad, but I prefer playing normal games. Driveclub VR is pretty good as far as the graphics go. It can get a little blurry, but for the most part it's clear. My kids got me this game last year for my birthday after I bought the VR. I don't generally play driving/racing games, but since I saw the server was shutting down, I wanted to make sure I got those out of the way so I could take my time with it. Getting to level 60 will be a bit of a grind, but if I do it slowly at my own pace, I'll enjoy it a lot more.

 

Same here... I prefer playing regular games, but I don't regret having bought a VR... Alone for Beat Saber and Thumper it was worth every cent And with Audica in the backlog... Those games just aren't the same without VR! 

 

 

Quote

/edit ps...did this site stop allowing you to copy and paste the game thumbnails into posts? I know the bigger images you need to post a direct link to via imgur or something, however I built my whole first post from copying and pasting the thumbnails....I can't do that anymore and my backlog list is missing some games since I'm too lazy to save all the thumbnails, upload them to imgur and then post the link here...

 

Hmm I just tried with my own checklist and it worked just fine... Maybe the first post is maxed out? I guess there must be some limitation on the size of the post, but if you can still embed pictures from imgur, that doesn't make much sense... What if you delete a couple of thumbnails... are you able to copy-paste new ones? 

 

But I indeed had some trouble with SOME thumbnails... For example, trying to copy-paste the Limbo thumbnail didn't work it resulted in an empty picture..., but it reads like you are having problems with all thumbnails now? ?

Edited May 26, 2020 by Arcesius

[Cassylvania]

11 hours ago, Briste said:

/edit ps...did this site stop allowing you to copy and paste the game thumbnails into posts? I know the bigger images you need to post a direct link to via imgur or something, however I built my whole first post from copying and pasting the thumbnails....I can't do that anymore and my backlog list is missing some games since I'm too lazy to save all the thumbnails, upload them to imgur and then post the link here...

 

What browser do you use? I have to use both Firefox and Chrome to get thumbnails to work. I can't post images on Firefox and dragging images into a post doesn't work with Chrome. What I do is get Firefox up on one screen and Chrome on the other. I make the post on Chrome, but I click and drag images from Firefox (directly from my profile page) into the post. For some reason, that works.

 

If you do it that way, the thumbnails also become active links, which is a nice touch. You actually have that for most of your platinums after Life is Strange. (Although yours direct to blank trophy pages. Mine go directly to my trophy list for each game.)

 

I just assumed it had something to do with my browser extensions, but I guess I'm not alone.

[Briste]

20 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Hmm I just tried with my own checklist and it worked just fine... Maybe the first post is maxed out? I guess there must be some limitation on the size of the post, but if you can still embed pictures from imgur, that doesn't make much sense... What if you delete a couple of thumbnails... are you able to copy-paste new ones? 

 

But I indeed had some trouble with SOME thumbnails... For example, trying to copy-paste the Limbo thumbnail didn't work it resulted in an empty picture..., but it reads like you are having problems with all thumbnails now? 

Yeah I was trying to just cut and move them from my backlog area up to my 'Currently Playing' area and they didn't appear. It has happened before and I never noticed, but I think this is the answer:

 

10 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

What browser do you use? I have to use both Firefox and Chrome to get thumbnails to work. I can't post images on Firefox and dragging images into a post doesn't work with Chrome. What I do is get Firefox up on one screen and Chrome on the other. I make the post on Chrome, but I click and drag images from Firefox (directly from my profile page) into the post. For some reason, that works.

 

I use Chrome at work, which is where I set up most of my first page and I use Firefox at home so this makes perfect sense. Thank you! I'll have to spend some time cleaning up my OP  

[Briste]

Well that was quick....

 

Platinum #113

Energy Balance

 

I bought this game about a year and a half ago for the Spelling Bee event. I needed an 'E' for my word and I didn't have any games in my stable to choose from. I ended up getting four 'E' games altogether and ended up going with probably one of the worst games I've played in Eekeemoo: Splinters of Dark Shard for that event. This game seemed to be your usual quick plat game that people will stack to pad their platinum count. I wasn't in a rush to add a game like that to my profile so figured I'd sit on it until I could use it for an event. As it turns out, there is a Puzzle category in the Stay at Home and #PlatinumWithMe event. I wasn't looking forward to this really and figured I'd get it out of the way since I was on the fence about what to play next. Turns out....it's actually a fun puzzle game. I enjoyed it way more than Pic-A-Pix Color. This was actually interesting and somewhat challenging (at least some of the puzzles).

 

The premise of the game is really stupid...you're like a cat spaceship or something that needs to get home and you need to 'Balance' the energy in your ship or something in order to get your ship to fly. I only read a few of the intro text parts because I didn't really care about the story...just wanted some puzzles. The puzzles are pretty interesting...it's kind of like a math Crossword Puzzle/Sudoku. The first set of puzzels are numbered from like -10 through 10 (it may have been -8 to 8 but I don't remember exactly) and you have a crossword puzzle style grid. You have to rearrange the numbers to add up to the total going from right to left or up and down. Some of the numbers are shared between two directions, and once you get a line to = the end number, an energy beam shoots through and you have 'Energy Balance'. Getting all of the lines to balance solves the puzzle. The first several are pretty basic and they get larger and more complex the further you go. It's a really short game as there are only 20 puzzles in the whole thing, however there is some replay value since the puzzles are randomized. The grid is the same, but the numbers change. If you get stuck you can shuffle it up and start again.

 

My strategy was to try and fine a line where it was more obvious what numbers were needed and then work from there. Often times it was starting from one corner and getting all that I could. Once you have most of the grid 'balanced' you can start to move some stuff around to see where you need to focus. There are a lot of solutions for each line and maybe only a few for the whole grid. Hardcore mode was much harder as I want to say the numbers ranged from -40 to 40. I mean some of the lines were easy as you needed like -82 to get it to balance...so obviously it'll take a lot of big negative numbers to reach it. That took a little longer. I was also either pretty good at solving these, or got pretty lucky with my grids because no puzzle took me more than 45 minutes.

 

If you just want an easy plat...I did see on the game page someone created a small algorithm program that will solve the puzzles for you...but honestly they aren't that hard to solve and I found them quite fun. In the end, I don't feel like this game is quite the blemish on my profile as I initially thought it would be considering it was actually pretty fun. If you like puzzle games, it is worth the couple of bucks I spent on it.

 

 

[AJ_Radio]

I’m pretty much done with overly easy plats. 

 

I did them for a while back in 2016 - 2017 but I found them incredibly boring. Point and clicks at least have a story or theme behind them so they can keep my interest a bit longer. May pick up The Bunker and Late Shift, both games starring real actors in live action. 

[Briste]

Platinum #114

Steins; Gate

 

Let me start by saying I've never played a Visual Novel before and I've only ever seen one Anime (Ninja Scroll) so I really don't know the lingo too well and I only have a very base idea of what Anime's look like. I did not realize that this game was entirely in Japanese without English dubbing and after the first four hours or so, I was regretting my choice. I was very confused by their names as well. I understand the -chan, -kun, etc in Japanese culture...however one guys name was sometimes Okabe, sometimes Okarin but they seemed to be the same...another's name was Mayuri but she kept calling herself Mayushii...I thought it was at first due to gender...but then I thought that was what the -kun etc was...so I was confused. I was heavily debating just skipping the dialogue and just following a trophy guide to get it over with...I am SO happy I did not.

 

What started out as a bizarre (to me) and slightly funny if not completely un-PC (cause he's a guy!) VN...turned into a really deep, dark, intelligent, well thought out story that had me hooked. It felt just like reading a book that you couldn't put down. I am so glad I got through the awkward beginning where I was wondering what in the hell was actually going on. I mean the premise of three high school aged, awkward nerds (name subject to change) who discovered a 'time machine' that was their microwave, where one is role playing a mad scientist, one is a 'Supa Hacka' pervert and one is an extremely naive and ditzy character, just didn't seem like it was going to hold my attention...but the way they developed the characters and brought them together. You could really empathize with how challenging the choices for the Protagonist really was.

 

I like science and enjoy things like time travel and really obscure theories. This was honestly the only thing that kept me going in the beginning. Well that and the evil scientist MUAHAHAHA laugh...while I didn't understand a word of what was being said...if I saw the MUAHAHAHA in the text I listened for the laugh...he had an excellent mad scientist laugh lol. The conversation between some of the characters was extremely interesting. I was truly shocked at the content and felt the authors did an amazing job of dotting all their i's and crossing all their t's. There were rarely any scenario's that didn't seem completely thought out and I didn't notice any continuity issues or anything throughout. It was extremely thoughtful and probably one of the better stories I've read in a long time...

 

As far as gameplay goes...there is none. You are truly just reading a book and selecting very few responses to email and whether or not to answer your phone. It was really easy to get through and if you want to skip the whole game, they make it really easy for you just to get trophies...however that would be a huge mistake. It took me about 28 hours to get through the whole game and I am so happy I did. I'm not sure how soon I'll be looking to play another VN because I did kind of miss playing something...but I'm really glad I took the time to enjoy the story. I would also say, don't worry about looking at the trophy guide here as you play through as there a virtually no spoilers at all. While the guide isn't the easiest to read...it's done that way on purpose so as not to spoil anything. It literally just gives you the title of the thing you have to respond to and the word you have to select to respond...and whether you need to answer your phone or not....on the flip side....you can blow through this game skipping after playing through it to clean up if you want. I got it for free with PS+ and I would definitely pay $5-$10 for it...I would for a good book and that is basically what this was. El Psy Kongroo!

 

For my other games...I'm plugging away at Everybody's Golf and DriveClub VR. Neither game are in a genre I enjoy that much. I think DC VR is a great VR experience...I just don't love racing games so am playing that one about once a week....will probably take me quite a while to get to level 60 in that game...I'm about half way there and the xp gain will start to slow up I'm sure. I have about 1/3 of the gold stars left to get and the rest of the trophies should be fairly straightforward.

 

EG is a bit of a letdown for me. I really don't like how they setup the 'end game' custom clubs to need gems or tickets to upgrade...it was a sneaky way to slide micro transactions into it and I'd much rather the clubs improve as you use them. The fact that the growth for the clubs is random and that they can deteriorate and need to be fixed after a certain amount of time makes it much more apparent that the micro transactions are BS. It also feels like one of those games that 'cheats'. I remember games growing up that would put a bullshit obstacle in your way or the NPC would get super lucky. I felt Street Fighter games were like that back in the day...the computer would like block in a situation that was impossible or do a move while in mid air or something....this is no different. I did a VS match the other day where the NPC chipped in from like 30+ yards FIVE TIMES in one 9 hole match. The only reason I was able to win was because I was out driving her by a ton...it's also surprisingly grindy. I'll post more when I plat the game, but it's been disappointing so far.

 

I started Ash of Gods: Redemption tonight and am the 97th or 98th person on this site to play the game lol It seems like a Banner Saga clone, which means I'll probably enjoy it. First impressions are that the artistic graphics are really well done again, however the controls are much more clunky. It is a bit of a challenge to maneuver...but if I get the platinum it will knock it out of UR territory. I'll be curious how the trophy cleanup goes since there probably isn't much information out there...we'll have to see when I finish my first playthrough.

 

Also, just wanted to note that today was the first time I let my son actually use a working controller lol I played Castlevania: Harmony of Despair for a bit (he loves Alucard and the Puppet Master) and I was shocked at how well he did. He's only 6 and his experience so far is playing the Wild Kratts game on my iPad. He mastered the double jump and figured out how to attack. I was mostly clearing the path and letting him open the treasure boxes...but I got really excited that he did as well as he did....there will probably be a Lego game popping up on my trophy list in the near future   Still got a ways to go in Castlevania...but I can chip away at that as well.

 

One more week left of 'school' and then my days will start to get easier. I can't tell you how much it sucks trying to work from home while also making sure your Kindergartner does his school work...gym class and art are especially hard lol

[Rally-Vincent---]

13 hours ago, Briste said:

Let me start by saying I've never played a Visual Novel before and I've only ever seen one Anime (Ninja Scroll) so I really don't know the lingo too well and I only have a very base idea of what Anime's look like. I did not realize that this game was entirely in Japanese without English dubbing and after the first four hours or so, I was regretting my choice. I was very confused by their names as well. I understand the -chan, -kun, etc in Japanese culture...however one guys name was sometimes Okabe, sometimes Okarin but they seemed to be the same...another's name was Mayuri but she kept calling herself Mayushii...I thought it was at first due to gender...but then I thought that was what the -kun etc was...so I was confused. I was heavily debating just skipping the dialogue and just following a trophy guide to get it over with...I am SO happy I did not.

 

Okabe is his last name. Okarin is a, like Cassy for @Cassylvania. Using a name without honorifics also means that you are close enough not to stick to the formalities of addressing someone else. Mayushii also is a nickname. Think of it as The Toddster, only more cutesy and less dude-ish.

[Briste]

On 6/11/2020 at 1:15 PM, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Okabe is his last name. Okarin is a, like Cassy for @Cassylvania. Using a name without honorifics also means that you are close enough not to stick to the formalities of addressing someone else. Mayushii also is a nickname. Think of it as The Toddster, only more cutesy and less dude-ish.

I thought his last name was Rintaro, but I don't know lol. It makes sense that it could be a nickname, I'm just used to nicknames being shorter and Mayushii is longer than Mayuri and Okarin is longer than Okabe so just throws me off.

 

Just had a major frustrating situation with EG...I got my first Condor last night (hole in one on a par 5). You need 3 in total to get all the trophies and I spent about an hour and a half on one hole, repeating drives and got lucky. I ended up unlocking two Special VS characters because I got 5 Albatross's (hole in two on a par 5 or hole in one on a par 4) as well. After the Condor, I quit out of the game. When I logged in today, I noticed neither of the VS characters were available to face off. I figured I'd try for a Condor again for a bit and got an Albatross again while trying....and noticed that my aggregate total said it was only the second Albatross I had made....I checked and I no longer had the Condor either. Apparently if you do not exit to the main menu first, it won't save your shots in online play ? What made it even more frustrating, was the course reflected my Condor as my score for the online, but did not reflect on my character's stat sheet....so I now have no Condor's under my belt and a total of 4 hours wasted so far trying....going to take a break from this one for a bit now....

[Rally-Vincent---]

5 minutes ago, Briste said:

 Apparently if you do not exit to the main menu first, it won't save your shots in online play

Sounds awfully familiar. Good thing you don't need 40,000 Condors...

[Briste]

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

Sounds awfully familiar. Good thing you don't need 40,000 Condors...

lol ?

[Briste]

Platinum #115

Everybody's Golf

 

This was a game I had been looking forward to and was really excited to start. The last golf game I played was Tiger Woods 2003 (not the fighting game one featured in South Park). My roommates and I played the shit out of it in college and it was one of my favorite games. I had heard good things about this game and was really hoping to recapture that golf game love from my college days....very sadly it did not....at all.

 

After thinking about my platinum journey, I can't really think of one positive thing to say about this game. The graphics were kind of neat at first because it reminded me of making a Wii character back in the day and there is a million ways to customize your character. Unfortunately, character creation was the best part of the game. There are not a lot of courses (6) and most of those courses suck and are not fun to play. You need to play 120 matches to get one of the VS characters to appear and you need to unlock 720 gallery members for another trophy (I got that one with about 10 matches left). The game just gets to be super tedious due to a lack of variation.

 

I could live with that if the controls didn't absolutely suck as well. There is no guidance in the beginning about what is on screen or even how to read the power guage or the slope of the greens. You'll notice on the power bar whether it is sloping up or down or flat...but they don't tell you that the grid has arrows going each direction to tell you the speed. You pick it up eventually....but it'd be cool if they told you that. They tell you about the trick shots...but that's about it. The power bar is terrible also. It's just lazy with the three clicks..once to start, once to set power and once to set accuracy. It's not terribly innovative, but I could have lived with it if the fucking bar moved at a smooth pace. Most of the time it seemed like it would skip a frame or drag for just a second and totally mess up the timing. I can't tell you how many times that screwed me up. The margin for error is pretty slim and if you slightly miss...it can cause havoc for your shot. The later courses are hard enough with narrow fairways, abundant bunkers and close OB areas, but to fight against the power bar was just a terribly frustrating experience.

 

The biggest reason this game sucked to platinum is the trophy list. Fishing was useless and an absolute waste of time. Press to cast, wait until your bobber moves and press to hook, then mash to real in fish...but you can't blindly mash because sometimes the 1.2 inch fish might break your line (seriously, most of the fish you catch are less than 12 inches long and can break your line....) The 120 matches and 720 gallery members were grindy...but I could live with grindy...the fact that you need to get three Condors (hole in one on a par 5) flat out sucked. The fact that I had to get four Condors sucked even harder. I mentioned in a prior post that my first Condor didn't save because I didn't exit to the main menu before quitting online play. It took me seven fucking hours of just hitting drives at one hole before I got three. There are supposedly three holes where it is possible to get a Condor, however I found two of them impossible based on my Custom club rolls (more on this bullshit system next...) Alpine Forest, hole 12 was the only place I could get one. But, it had to be during an 'official round' and it was only available from regular tees....so it might only be possible to try for these once every week or so...what added insult to injury was the fucking house in the way right before the green. It was fine as an obstacle....but the camera seemed to insist upon shooting the house instead of the green. The only way you could tell how close you were to the hole, whether you had to adjust your shot to  the left or the right, was to watch a replay...possible several replays...before you got a shot that would show the hole. It was a huge waste of time and I wish the game would just let you pick a camera angle preference. I would have loved to just have the camera follow the ball the whole time instead of the several other useless angles that seemed to be used most of the time.

 

So I've touched upon why it wasn't fun and why the trophy list sucked, but here is what made me hate this game...the end game is largely based on RNG and micro transactions. After you beat the 'story' in the game, you unlock custom clubs, which can be a significant upgrade to the clubs you start with. What sucks is that how good your custom clubs are is completely random. You can upgrade it 11 times. Each attempt is 10 gems (which you can get from playing) or one S Ticket (which you can buy). Each attempt upgrades either your Power, Control, Backspin or Backdoor ability between 1-3 levels. The upgrades aren't random, but your clubs upgrades are decided when you get the clubs and you don't know what the upgrades will be until you upgrade them. So you can take the time to upload your save to the cloud, do 11 upgrades to one of the categories to see what your roll for that stat will be, then download you cloud save and do the next category....then figure out the combination for the best rolls for that club set. Problem one is that in order to even have a chance for a Condor, your Power level needs to be at least 20 or 21 (max is 25 for power). Each level gives you 4 more yards to your drive. I spent four days collecting gems (you need 110 to max a club) only to find out my set of Custom Clubs maxed out at 16 power....great, so now I had to 'recycle' my clubs using 10 gems, which resets your club rolls. Thankfully, on my recycled clubs, the power level got to 21. To add insult to injury...your custom clubs can deteriorate over time and you need to spend 10 gems to have them repaired. Apparently, the more they are repaired, the faster they deteriorate (I don't know this for sure, but it's what I read). The good news, however, is you can speed this process up if just want to spend some real money to by S Tickets! One S Ticket is the same as 10 gems! You can get 10 S tickets for about $10! Only to find out your Custom Clubs are a piece of shit...but the greatest news is that you can keep buying the tickets until you get the set you want...of course until they deteriorate and you're back to square one. This last bit was the final straw for me....on my entire list of games played, I can't really say that I 'hated' any of them. Some sucked, but I knew that they probably sucked going in. This I had high hopes for and it just sucked all around. Kudos to anyone that enjoyed this game, but I can't say a single good thing about it other than it is an UR platinum and that I get to use it in 3 different events. If I wasn't a completionist, I probably would have walked away from this game...but I'm not a quitter when I'm not having fun with something (hello Space Hulk) and I am very glad to be finished with this title.

 

On another note, I've learned something about myself over the last month. Playing many games at once stresses me out. Historically, I play only one or two games at a time to focus on the game at hand and get it done. Call it a midlife crisis , but I felt the urge to change it up and started like five games at once. I have not had much fun with any of the games as a result. It has been feeling like a chore to get to each game instead of being fun to look forward to one. So, I'm going back to my old ways. I have stopped playing The Last of Us 2 until I finish Ash of Gods, which is one game I am really enjoying. I have about one and a half playthroughs to go before I get the platinum. I'm heavily debating making a guide for this game as it is criminally under owned. As of this moment, only 124 people being tracked on this site have the game. It is not perfect and has some annoying 'indie game' flaws...but by and large it has been a great experience. So...my future plans are to finish AoG, then TLOU2, then I think Goat Simulator because I'm curious. The only game I'll drag out a bit and not focus 100% on is Driveclub VR since I can only play that game so long before I need to take a break. That will be my slow side project to mix things up while I play my main game.

 

I've still stayed spoiler free so far with TLOU2 and will continue to do so until I finish my first playthrough. I know it's getting a lot of hate and I can't wait to read why lol. I'm about 3 hours in and it seems fine to me so far so I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

[Rally-Vincent---]

5 hours ago, Briste said:

I have stopped playing The Last of Us 2 until I finish Ash of Gods, which is one game I am really enjoying. I have about one and a half playthroughs to go before I get the platinum. I'm heavily debating making a guide for this game as it is criminally under owned. As of this moment, only 124 people being tracked on this site have the game. It is not perfect and has some annoying 'indie game' flaws...but by and large it has been a great experience.

 

I have held off because it looks like a rip off on Banner Saga. I'm not sure if I want to buy a game that looks like it's more than "inspired" by...

[Briste]

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

I have held off because it looks like a rip off on Banner Saga. I'm not sure if I want to buy a game that looks like it's more than "inspired" by...

It is very heavily influenced from the artwork, to the Oregon Trail style travel to the Isometric view battles. There are plenty of differences however that make it a unique story. I would compare this to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series to Terry Brooks Shannara series (if you've read it). The Shannara series was clearly very influenced by LotR, however the Shannara series was great in its own right. That's what this is like.

 

Ash of Gods has a similar 'end of the world' format, but told very differently and doesn't seem to be as influenced by Nordic Mythology. You follow three different protaganists, and how you play each of them strongly influences your story experience. I'll go into more detail later this week when I write my full review, but I wouldn't say it is a complete ripoff of the Banner Saga.