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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 17:41
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan
2. The Birdcage
3. Lego Lord of the Rings
4. Faraway 4
5. Legacy 3 - The Hidden Relic
6. Assassin's Creed Origins: Holy shit this is a long game. Like '70 hours to finish it to a point, but with still loads of side quests and shit littering the map' sort of long. 'The longest time I've ever spent on a single game' levels of long. So value for money certainly, but is it fun? Short answer: yes, loads!
The combat will never trouble Dark Souls of course, but it's a step above the button bashing you'd expect from these games. And it's arguably secondary because most of the time you're stealthy ninja creep murdering which is never not a whole load of fun. It looks fucking incredible, the music is surprisingly awesome (to the point that I'd find myself humming the title tune along with the PS4 every time the game started up) and main character is a decent sort. Though more time spent playing as his bad-ass secret agent wife would've been appreciated.
It's definitely over-stuffed mind you and a shortening of the main plotline would be appreciated; every time you think it's finished it pulls more stuff out of the bag to the point it over-stays it's welcome. Also: fuck the ship combat. Thankfully there's not much of it but I audibly groaned every time it forced me into it.
The levelling system is a bit flawed in that you're consistently over-levelled for ages, then there's a tipping point where suddenly camps are full of double-hard bastards that you actually can't kill (and that's with me doing loads of side stuff all the time). It settles back down to a more consistent approach after that weird point but it was still galling to be sent on a 'daily quest' by the shopkeeper dude that you couldn't hope to complete.
Overall it's very much 'Ubisoft open world game' and if you're not into those then your mind won't be changed here but as someone who's into that genre (when played sparingly) I had a whale of a time. Bonus amusement: every time someone says the main character's name you can imagine it said in a Yorkshire accent. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 13:13
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Lonewolves wrote: Bamba wrote: That Captain Toad game is one of the very few Nintendo exclusives from the last few years that has appealed to me (from what I've seen of it anyway). The levels look like increasingly intricate puzzle boxes and I love that idea. If only you were visiting soon and could have a go
What a world that would be... |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:58
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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| That Captain Toad game is one of the very few Nintendo exclusives from the last few years that has appealed to me (from what I've seen of it anyway). The levels look like increasingly intricate puzzle boxes and I love that idea. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 14:14
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan
2. The Birdcage
3. Lego Lord of the Rings
4. Faraway 4
5. Legacy 3 - The Hidden Relic: Myst-like point-and-clicker for Android. There's obviously a lot of effort gone into the game which I appreciate and, while the graphics are mostly just functional, the developer clearly has a gift for designing the sort of alien structures that are initially incomprehensible but come clear as you fiddle with them; which is a big part of these kind of games. On the downside the puzzles themselves are all over the map. You'll have great stretches of the game with satisfying stuff that makes you feel smart for figuring out followed by equal stretches of shit that you'd almost certainly never have figured out in a million years so the overall experience is wildly inconsistent. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:14
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan
2. The Birdcage
3. Lego Lord of the Rings
4. Faraway 4: another Faraway game; another slice of mobile gaming awesomeness. I'll just copy my own comments about the previous game as I feel the same about this one: "the fourth instalment in a puzzley escape type game for Android with a lovely tactile control scheme and nice low-poly art style. It's not the hardest game in the world, but each level uses a new type of puzzle so the variety keeps it interesting. Also, the 'key' to the final door for each level is in itself a clue for an optional, and much harder, puzzle and that aspect is what really grabbed me this time around. I've really, really enjoyed this series so far and this recent one is no exception; proper brilliant commute fodder and just what I want out of a mobile game." The only thing I'll add is that I think they did slightly ramp up the puzzle difficulty this time in the later levels, and certainly some of the optional harder puzzles were definitely more difficult, which was welcome. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 17:39
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 17:31
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:18
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan
2. The Birdcage
3. Lego Lord of the Rings: only the second Lego game I've ever played and now I'm comfortable with their schtick I was able to get through it with much less hassle than previously. There's very good use of the license made here with the entire film trilogy adapted with the usual Lego charm and the original voice lines from the films. All the characters are present and correct and the various abilities and whatnot make sense in context. It gets repetitive of course but it's still good fun to blast through the campaign.
The structure of the game's interesting with an overworld you can wander around in plus the actual instanced levels that you go through the advance the plot. Both are stuffed full of collectibles and puzzles and whatnot, some of which require abilities you won't have in your first playthrough.
Which is probably my biggest issue here: it's unavoidable that you'll need to do everything twice in order to get everything. I realise this is a staple of the Lego games but I don't feel any of it's interesting enough to make that much fun and I couldn't be fucked with it. I did go back through some of the open world sections mopping stuff up because fast travel makes that painless, but there's no way I was going through a load of levels I'd already played just to smash open a load of artificial barriers (which is all these things really are).
The other off-putting thing is just the sheer hilarious plethora of stuff you're expected to collect. Characters (almost all pointless), silver bricks, red bricks, blacksmith plans, Mithrill objects (also almost all pointless), silver chest things (not even sure what these are for) and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. You'd need to be some kind of self-hating masochist to even attempt all of it which makes me want to do none of it. And none of it's helped by the fact that the 'platforming' involved in getting some of the silver bricks is frustrating as shit. Indeed I'd go as far as calling it bugged in places, especially stuff involving Legolas on rope lines and thin platforms, as a couple of them I wrote of as genuinely impossible due to character falling through platforms or just refusing entirely to engage with them.
So, a fun thing to blast through but you need to be pretty disciplined at ignoring all the bullshit they've stuffed in there. I've got Lego The Hobbit to play at some point as well so I'll be interested to see how they compare. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 17:33
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Grim... wrote: May I quickly congratulate Bamba for linking his mobile games so I don't have to search for them?
I adopted it as policy sometime during last years thread in case anyone was ever interested in the shite I play, and because Google Play's search function is utter fucking cancer. Which is pretty shocking considering who's platform it is. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 16:25
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan
2. The Birdcage: The Room if, instead of a room, you had a series of birdcages that needed unlocking. The sense of kinetics is just as joyous as it's inspiration but it's stupidly easy and each level barely takes a minute to bang through which is disappointing. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 15:15
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Grim... wrote: The combat is what I was talking about, yeah. It did more than "bear a resemblance", though 
It's been years since I played it and all I really remember in that regard is not getting on with the combat at all. All the platforming stuff was joyous, but every time a combat section happened I felt I was just bashing buttons until it finished. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 13:25
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Grim... wrote: It also barely got mentioned that Batman: AA was "quite heavily influenced" by the modern Prince of Persia games.
I'd disagree, at least to the extent of the influence. The Sands of Time et al were entirely linear platforming games with combat sections, with only the combat sections bearing any real resemblance to Arkham Asylum's gameplay. Pretty much every aspect of Spider-Man is cribbed from Arkham City though so I don't really get the comparison. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:28
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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1. SpiderHyphenMan: or Spider-Man: Arkham City as it would be more accurately called because that's exactly what it is. I'm actually a bit surprised it didn't get more shit for that in reviews now that I've experienced how utterly shameful it is in ripping of RockSteady's schtick. Still, as always, if you're going to steal; make sure and steal from the best so fair play to them in that choice. And regardless of the source this is absolutely A Really Fucking Good Fun Videogame. It's a bit repetitive as all modern open world games are and the combat's a shade too easy* but it's a fucking joy to romp through and it looks the fucking business. Also, to be slightly fair to them, they do make the most of Spider-Man being a more lithe and fast character to play than the lumbering tank Batman is in his games so that's a nice adaptation of the form. The plot's also generally good and believable with surprisingly well drawn characters, though ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! the extent of Doc Ock's heel turn ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! SpiderHyphenMiles ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! Harry-as-Venom ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! Norman made it through without ever becoming the Green Goblin
I notice that all three of the DLC packs are on sale for a tenner (i.e. £10 for all of them as a single package) which I toyed with, but in the end I don't think I'll bother as more of the same will get very repetitive. Indeed that's one of the few real criticisms I'd aim at the game: it could do with more and better non-combat stuff. And by that I mean more puzzle solving sort of gameplay because the variation we are given--the MJ/Miles stealth stuff--isn't much fun.
*Initially I was actually really struggling with the combat and feared another Arkham Knight situation. I kept getting slapped around and was always thinking, "Man, I'd expect Spider-Man to have a nice way of bouncing around the battlefield from enemy to enemy." It turns out he does. You just look at someone and tap Triangle. It's one of the starting moves that I somehow completely missed and spent hours struggling for no reason. I'm a fucking idiot. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:17
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Satsuma wrote: Riverdale > The Room.
I mean, I’ve never even watched Riverdale but I’ve played The Room and GIIIIDDAMN it was boring. And I’ve played some shit in my life.
And, come on, even I know Riverdale has some fitties in it. I’d rather look at them than spin a box around or some shit.
I suppose it's good that you're properly leaning into your new reputation as King of Wrongness, everyone needs a place in the world. Personally I think agreeing with Malia is a step too far, but that hesitancy is why I'm not The King. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 23:26
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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MaliA wrote: Bamba wrote: Satsuma wrote: Yeah, tell us what you think you joyless robot!  I apologise for giving Dave shit in the past because I know that's what you're referencing here. But! More thoughts would be better. Not least because I adore The Room series and no one ever seems to talk about them. This is how I feel about Riverdale.
The crucial difference is that other people actually like The Room. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge (2019) |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2019 23:08
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Replies: 351
Views: 38604
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Satsuma wrote: Yeah, tell us what you think you joyless robot!
I apologise for giving Dave shit in the past because I know that's what you're referencing here. But! More thoughts would be better. Not least because I adore The Room series and no one ever seems to talk about them. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Dec 31, 2018 12:38
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Grim... wrote: <old woman voice>
Were you drinking last night, Bamba?
</old woman voice>
Yeah, I had been drinking a power. My apologies to all. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 13:30
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Grim... wrote: Bamba wrote: Why am I getting shit on because Sat said a thing? Fuck you both. What? You said a thing.
Oh. So I did. Oops. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 1:02
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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| Why am I getting shit on because Sat said a thing? Fuck you both. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2018 0:09
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Mr Dave wrote: If you liked Limbo, you'll probably like this.
Really? That's all you've got to say about Inside? I mean, I like to make a joke out of how soul crushingly negative you are about most stuff, but that's incredible. Inside is a brilliant experience from start to finish and the most you've got for it is, "It's a bit like Limbo"? I'm not even sure you're actually human Dave. Have you made sure you've got a pulse? |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 19:31
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape
82. God of War 3 Remastered
83. 2-bit Cowboy
84. A Normal Lost Phone
85. Another Lost Phone
86. Nier: Automata
87. Iconoclasts
88. Orwell season 1: you're a government operative of sorts investigating ongoing acts of terrorism in a fictional country only ever referred to as The Nation. This takes the form of mining people's websites, phone calls, text messages, etc looking for connections between various people of interests trying to build a case against the guilty and rule out the innocent.
The actual gameplay boils down to reading through the various sources presented to you and pulling out highlighted text for presentation to the system so there's not a lot to it mechanically, but the story's well drawn and then characters are generally believable so you get drawn in pretty quickly. The subtleties generally come when you're presented with conflicting evidence and you need to decide what to mark as ignored and what to upload, as that will directly impact exactly how the people involved will get treated.
I assumed it would go in hard on the 'surveillance is bad' angle but it as your character potentially instrumental in stopping people get murdered its position isn't as cut and dried as that. Ultimately you're playing a story with a few chances to influence it so if that's not your bag you won't enjoy it. If you're into that kind of thing though it's certainly a unique and interesting way of presenting a narrative (though it's entirely reading and clicking shit so your level of tolerance may vary). |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2018 19:22
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape
82. God of War 3 Remastered
83. 2-bit Cowboy
84. A Normal Lost Phone
85. Another Lost Phone
86. Nier: Automata
87. Iconoclasts : It's generally pretty good but I'm not sure it's accurate to call it a Metroidvania as the only time you revisit earlier areas tends to be fleetingly and for story related pointless fetch quest reasons. Other negative thoughts: the craftable extra powers seemed to be completely pointless (and a load of the blueprints I collected were never even made available for me to craft, no idea what was going on there); it went on far too long at ten hours and even right at the end I was still constantly fucking around during combat trying to make sure I had the right gun on at any given time.
Those things aside, if you're after a generally well made 2d platformer with decent puzzles and decent boss fights then you won't go far wrong with it. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2018 13:29
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape
82. God of War 3 Remastered
83. 2-bit Cowboy
84. A Normal Lost Phone
85. Another Lost Phone: pretty much the same deal as A Normal Lost Phone. An engaging story and very nice 'phone simulator' UI but some of the puzzles were just annoyingly obscure and required a stupid level of data mining of the owner's data to work out a particular passcode or whatever.
86. Nier: Automata: sad robot simulator
I'm actually still playing this technically, but only to mop up any interesting side quests I missed because I've already knocked of all four of the proper endings.
It's a bit of a mixed bag. There's certainly a load of imagination gone into it but the combat is serviceable at best. They've built a relatively engaging melee combat engine but it's so rare that you can actually use it because as soon as you're fighting more than one enemy at a time it just makes so much more sense to shoot at them (or sidestep the combat entirely and easily hack your way through everything the game throws at you). So the minute to minute enemy engagements become a bit rote and lacking to my mind, though never actually boring enough to put you off. The dialogue and weird shit the game throws at you are definitely the highlights either way.
The environment design is decent but it's hella fucking ugly in places and could easily be a PS3 port if the character models and animations weren't so well done (leaving out the juvenile bullshit baked into A2 and 2Bs design of course). There's actually a recently released fan-made texture pack that attempts to pretty it up a little bit but even doing that wouldn't negate the fact that everything's constructed out of grey boxes. Again it doesn't massively detract from the overall experience, but it does nothing to add to it. There's basically a feel of 'budget' about the entire implementation.
All of which sounds a bit negative but I've spent over 30 hours on this which is a lot for me on a single game and I've definitely enjoyed my time with it. I'd argue that the second playthrough is a mostly unnecessary because it only deviates from the first one in a couple of places; but having the hacking ability prevented me getting utterly honked off at having to repeat a couple of the bullshit boss encounters. Side-bar: whomever designed the Hegel boss fight needs a massive kick in the genitals. Also, the third playthrough isn't really that; it's actually just the rest of the game but gated off behind the credits for no real reason. As long as you go in knowing that you're not going to miss out though.
So, yeah, definitely fun and different from other stuff doing the rounds in terms of it's structure, but not actually the brain-fucking essential experience that people make out. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 16:51
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape
82. God of War 3 Remastered
83. 2-bit Cowboy: Gameboy style retro platformer. The controls are generally decent but it's only got 10 levels and they're all such similar rearrangements of the same parts that you could be forgiven for thinking the entire thing is procedurally generated. Also, you can actually finish each one in about a minute of you don't explore a bit to do the optional 'collect/kill X of each Y' quests. Which might be fair enough if all you got from the quests wasn't cash that can be spent on utterly pointless visual changes to your character. It's all incredibly half-baked.
84. A Normal Lost Phone: you 'find' the phone of someone that seems to have gone missing--judging by the most recent text messages--and you snoop around in their stuff in order to piece the story together. A nice concept and the fake phone OS is very well put together but some of the puzzles are stupid and it's a very short thing once you get past those. On the upside it's quite a good story told in a unique way and I'm hoping the sequel (which I also picked up as both are cheap right now) will have some more depth to it. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 17:36
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Lonewolves wrote: Bamba wrote: 81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape82. God of War 3 Remastered: it's an old style GoW game innit? A permanently angry man shouts at other angry people while ripping body parts off monsters by the hundred in increasingly inventive ways. It's ludicrously over-blown but somehow that's part of the charm and as long as you don't take it even slightly seriously it's some damn good dumb fun. You finished that quickly!
On the default level it's not actually that difficult a game and you can smash through it relatively quickly. Although a big factor is probably that I worked from home a few days recently due to flat selling reasons and wasn't very busy so spent an extra chunk of time playing it when I'd usually be in the office working. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 19:06
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape
82. God of War 3 Remastered: it's an old style GoW game innit? A permanently angry man shouts at other angry people while ripping body parts off monsters by the hundred in increasingly inventive ways. It's ludicrously over-blown but somehow that's part of the charm and as long as you don't take it even slightly seriously it's some damn good dumb fun. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 14:32
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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81. Stranger Cases: A Mystery Escape: escape room affair that strings together a load of bite sized rooms with logical puzzles and a decent graphical style. Good fun stuff, though nothing ground breaking. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:19
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox
74. Mimpi Dreams
75. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
76. Black
77. Statik
78: AER Memories of Old
79. Homesick: short indie exploration/puzzle thing that I played through over the weekend as a bit of a palette cleanser. The puzzles boiled down largely to noticing the things you could interact with in the environment because they were rarely obvious, but once you'd found those in each section things tended to go pretty smoothly. The entire game is purposely vague and sort of dreamlike sort of gets away with the sometimes odd logic it deploys but I did have to look a couple of things up and I'm not convinced I'd have arrived at the solutions for those aspects off my own back. The presentation starts off relatively ugly with dark rooms and over-bloomed windows, but there are some later sections that are genuinely gorgeous and it's odd how it manages to do both those things within the same game. I'm on the fence about it overall, I definitely don't think it deserves the praise it's getting in user reviews but, at the same time, I did enjoy parts of it. Overall, I give it a meh out of ten.
80. ASTRO BOT: Rescue Mission: PSVR 3D mascot platformer sort of a thing that you'll likely have heard of because everyone's currently gushing about it. And every single part of that gushing is entirely deserved because holy fucking shit this is one of the most polished, creative and flat out fun things I've ever come across. Let's be clear: this isn't just a platform game with an interesting camera, this game flat-out would not work outside VR and every level throws new interesting uses of the technology right into your grinning face. It even manages to improve on 3D platformers as a whole--a genre I struggle with--because their implementation of the floating mechanic allows you to visualise exactly where your character is in relation to platforms at any given time. It's an inspired move and a yardstick of just how much thought has gone into every aspect of the game. I'm not going to even attempt to go into any more detail because trying to describe what's so joyous about it would suck the fun right out of it. Oh, and it's fucking beautiful. As with Wipeout VR there's some digital fucking voodoo going on that allows them to wring, for example, such incredible water effects out of the hardware given how poor some other VR games can look.
If you've got a PSVR headset it's utterly essential. That's really all there is to it. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 15:46
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Grim... wrote: we got it for free in October's PSN drop
Did we? |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 13:59
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox
74. Mimpi Dreams
75. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
76. Black
77. Statik
78: AER Memories of Old: flight simulator.
Very pretty low-poly explore 'em up that plonks you in a world made entire of floating islands then sends you off to nose around them. This is made a much more attractive proposition by the fact that your character can transform instantly back and forth from a bird form at the press of a button, which makes a chunk of the playtime a glorious soar through pretty cloud infused landscapes. It all seems a bit aimless at first but the world isn't as big as it initially seems and the actual quest line asserts itself quickly enough. At that point the areas you need to hit are signposted fairly clearly and you're just working your way round the map finding and exploring various cave systems.
There's no real challenge to the game--by design I suspect--and it's only a few hours long so really it's effectiveness is as a relaxing pallette cleanser between more heavy duty gaming experiences. And at that it doesn't do a bad job, especially once you get into the swing of things and are joyously gliding around the place.
My only real criticism is how empty the world is. For the size of the world and the number of islands making it up there's precious few that have anything on them. Outside the main quest locations there's a few achievements for finding statues and artefacts littered around the place but this still leaves so much dead space that looking through the environments in detail, which was my first instinct, isn't a great use of your time. Overall it's a thoroughly enjoyable distraction as long as you don't go in expecting too much depth. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 17:01
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox
74. Mimpi Dreams
75. Shadow of the Tomb Raider
76. Black: latest game from the developer of Yellow and Red. All three are a series of single-screen puzzles where you need to turn the entire screen the colour of the app (Black, Yellow or Red) by working out the gimmick for that screen. It's ideal mobile game fodder with logical puzzles that are well implemented and I highly recommend all three games.
77. Statik: PSVR puzzler which presents you with a series of puzzles boxes you need to solve, all linked together with a laboratory experiment aesthetic.
The atmosphere of the thing is purposely off-kilter and amusingly odd, with an ever present scientist either mutttering odd shit at you or adminstering a bizarre Q&A session between levels. In-universe your hands are stuck inside each puzzle box and you need to use all the functions on the DS4 to get to the end of each. This is a really effective way of marrying your real world hands holding the pad with the VR rendering, and it feels entirely natural to be twisting the 'box' around in each level to look at the different parts and work out what the hell you need to do.
Most levels also use the environment around you to give clues so you're not always just staring at you hands, this requirement to pay attention to all of your surroundings really ties it all together in an effective way.
All of this would be for naught if the puzzles were shit but they're absolutely not. In my opinion they're pitched perfectly such that you feel clever for having worked them out but it never gets so hard that it veers into frustration. There's also a kinetic joy in just futzing around with each part of the control pad and observing what happens in turn in the level itself. Even though you're using the same sticks and buttons every time in the real world it's easy to forget that and feel like you're really manipulating the unique parts of each box. Neither does it outstay it's welcome and you can blast through it in a few happy hours--depending on your puzzle-solving skillz--which I'm holding up as a positive.
Basically it's a totally fucking brilliant time and I'd recommend it to any PSVR owners. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 14:21
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox
74. Mimpi Dreams
75. Shadow of the Tomb Raider: meh.
I should probably explain that. So the absolute core of the game is the same as the previous two, which is A Good Thing because I loved them. However this time round they've fucked around with the formula to the point that the (previously enjoyable but now kind of sucky) incidental aspects now over-shadow the core mechanics.
So, for instance, they had sort-of hub parts before, but now the hubs--or the main one really--are fucking huge and full of boring shit. All the NPCs witter away uninterestingly; the Challenges are now boring and rote; the exploration is largely uninteresting; buying some of your gear rather than getting it as a progression awards makes no sense; etc.
What else? After people complaining that there was too much combat before they've gone completely the other way. There's now only a handful of combat sections in the game and the game basically expects you to stealth them all. To the point that if you get discovered--and you will because the stealth is quite shit--you'll often just get ruined by the massive pile of guys that converge on you. Unless you heal a lot and just shotgun everything that moved, at which point it becomes relatively trivial. You end up buying all these combat technique upgrades and then never using them. Indeed that's another problem in itself: the upgrade tree has all sorts of stuff that's only useful in combat but then not only don't you need it, but you barely get a chance to use it anyway. The entire balance of the thing's just...off somehow.
Things get healthier when you look at the actual tomb raiding aspect; there feels like there's more of that than ever before in terms of the optional, but not difficult to find, challenge tombs. And the actual story progression missions are the same mix of puzzling, climbing and swimming they always were. They've beefed up the swimming so that more of the game happens under water but it doesn't get in the way, despite being really stupid whenever piranhas are involved.
I realise I'm rambling here but that's emblematic of my very mixed feelings about the game. It's still enjoyable if you liked the previous games but my advice would be to ignore all the side missions, collectibles, etc and just focus on the actual story (and don't buy it until it's cheap of course). Which is a shame because I genuinely enjoyed scouring the evironments for hidden nooks and crannies in the other two games, but this time around the hub stuff just saps your will too much to care. This is the only one of the three where I finished it without 100% all the location. Although that's partially because I collected literally everything that was on the maps and was left with no idea where the remaining things were, which isn't something that happened before I don't think. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 15:42
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox
74. Mimpi Dreams: lovely puzzle-platformer for Android which has you controlling a dog through various dream-like levels. It's pretty straighforward stuff but there are elements of exploration and some head scratching moments to tie the whole thing together. It's got simple controls and numerous checkpoints so it's the ideal commuter fare to play in bite sized chunks. Technically I've played through it before but they added a new massive level to it (as paid DLC) so I played through it all again plus the new levels; which is just as good as what came before. Basically it's everything I want in a mobile game and I loved it. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2018 13:44
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice
73. Cube Escape: Paradox: the latest in the Rusty Lake series of batshit sinister room escape games. They've upped the production values somewhat this time because the two chapters of the game are separated by a proper live action film that can be seen here:
The film is set in the same room as the game and both cross over with each other so it's a really nice setup and the game itself continues they're generally very high quality puzzles throughout. Highly recommended, as with everything they do. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 11:19
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina
72. Icycle: On Thin Ice: imaginatively surreal platformer for Android. The game looks properly lovely and there's some real creativity gone into the various impressively bonkers levels. Replayability isn't a problem either due to the various secrets in some of the levels and the array of different conditions you can finish each level in to gain extra stuff. Sadly though the 'physics' of the thing were clearly implemented by someone that thought the problem with the LittleBigPlanet games is that they were just too easy to control. The 'floaty' unpredictability of your character plus the really heavy inertia turns a lot of the level into exercises in patience rather than ability and I was ultimately playing it so I could see what the next level brought rather than because I was enjoying the core gameplay. There is a lot to enjoy here but, overall, it's a missed opportunity. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2018 12:01
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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71. Homo Machina: puzzle game that has you controlling a human body represented as various 'departments' in a vaguely steampunk looking machine. Think The Numskulls from the Beano but with much better art and bags of charm. It's not a long game and neither is it particularly challenging; although no real hints are given for each puzzle so any difficulty comes from figuring out what you're trying do rather than struggling to actually implement a solution. It looks and sounds very nice and it'll make you smile for the amount of time it lasts. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 13:27
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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TheVision wrote: You're right. It is.
It's a great game.
Quality and nostalgia aren't the same thing. I mean, they are for you I realise, but they're not supposed to be. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:17
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Grim... wrote: Another World is shit. It's a endless memory test with non-logical puzzles and annoying random deaths.
 Aside from the graphics I've never understood why anyone liked it back in the day. And I'm utterly fucking mystified why anyone gives it the time of day in the modern world. It's been re-released for practically every platform under the sun in the last few years as if it was actually a decent game or something. It's incredible. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:08
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3
64. The Fidelio Incident
65. Stories Untold
66. The American Dream
67. Subsurface Circular
68. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
69. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
70. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice: Celtic revenge story and mental illness simulator.
As Senua you're not only out to get revenge on the Norse god of death Hela, but also looking to pry your dead husband from her clutches. This is made more difficult than you'd usually expect by the fact that Senua suffers from psychosis, causing auditory and visual hallucinations. Aside from the usual tropes of not knowing whether what you're seeing is real or not, this is mostly represented through some sterling audio work. Throughout the entire game, the voices in Senua's head continually whisper and shout at her; sometimes helpfully--telling you when you're about to be attacked from behind in combat--but mostly telling her how useless she is and how she's weak and bound to fail. This initially seems pretty gimmicky, and it is in terms of moment-to-moment chatter, but it has a strong overall impact when you've been playing the game for a few hours. You become weirdly used to the constant voices coming at you from every direction (the game makes a very strong case for surround sound!) and you reach a state where you hear what they're saying but they also become background noise. It's an odd effect and, I suspect, exactly what the developers were shooting for.
The other very strong aspect of the game are the visuals. It's fucking beautiful. Like properly lovely to look at; well, most of the time anyway. There's a great chunk of it spent in gloomy dungeon-y levels, which is a waste of the art direction, but enough of it in outdoor locations or hellish otherworldly environments that you never forget how good it looks. There's no HUD elements in the game at any point either and this genuinely immerses you in the world. You forget how much difference the modern game design tendency to chuck indicators in your face makes until it's all stripped away.
Also worth noting is the combat which is suitably meaty and responsive, while never letting you forget that you're a lone woman up against a load of berserkers and viking demons. You've got a limited moveset (evade, block, melee, light slash, heavy slash and a rechargeable time slowing 'focus' ability) and there's no upgrade tree or skill points or any of that jazz. It's not difficult per se, but you'll catch a brutal beating if you just go in button mashing so you're always warily circling enemies and baiting them into malking the first move, while trying not to get flanked.
That's all good stuff right? So it's a good game then? Weeeellll, not entirely. It has some nice ideas and is well designed in terms of audio visual stuff, but the actual meat of the game is repetitive and not neccesarily all that interesting. The vast, vast majority of your eight hours will be spent wandering an area solving puzzles to progress. The majority of these are odd 'find the symbol' sort of deals where you need to look around the environment for a feature which visually resembles the glyph you're hunting for in order to unlock a door. So, maybe the arrangement of planks in a broken house wall will look like a 'Z' shape. Or you'll light a couple of torches so that nearby fences throw a usefully M shaped shadow on the wall. 'Focus' on these found characters, door unlocks, off you trot to the next area. I don't mind this as an idea but it's leant on far too heavily throughout the runtime and it's never challenging (especially as the right area to find each character in is very heavily signposted). It basically feels like busy work, and even when these puzzles are varied up a bit (e.g. the Valravn section where going through certain portals subtly alters the environment so you can progress) they never really feel like more than barriers thrown up to slow you down. The game will generally chuck a combat section in between these areas but these are few and far between. It's bonkers that they built a genuinely engaging combat engine and then barely remembered to use it.
So, yeah. A technically well put together experience that's sadly lacking in core gameplay ideas. It's not a long game as my eight hours with it attest and the overall experience (the graphics, sound design, story, voice acting) almost make it worthwhile; but given that I was massively looking forward to this one I have come away disappointed. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 10:46
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3
64. The Fidelio Incident
65. Stories Untold
66. The American Dream
67. Subsurface Circular
68. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
69. The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit: Dontnod's free primer game for the upcoming Life is Strange sequel. It only takes an hour or so to bang though and the juxtaposition of childish fantasy with grim 'abusive alcoholic father' reality was pretty engaging for it's entire runtime. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:29
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3
64. The Fidelio Incident
66. Stories Untold
67. The American Dream
68. Subsurface Circular
67. Dishonored: Death of the Outsider: more Dishonored goodness so is obviously brilliant fun; arguably even more than the main games because this stand-alone chapter is basically 'Dishonored with the brakes off'. Your void energy auto-replenishes so you don't need to fuck around worrying about elixirs; there's no real penalty for murdering instead of knocking out so if you do get into a fight it doesn't mean a sighing reload and the 'scouting and tagging' power is incredibly useful so the game moves at a higher pace.
All these changes suit my playstyle so this DLC totally grabbed me for the 15 or so hours it took to go through and I enjoyed every second of it. There's only five levels but picking them clean of stuff and learning your routes around is as much of a joy as it always was, especially once you get to grips with the advanced stuff that the combination of the scouting power + Billy's more tactical delayed teleport lets you do.
The side mission 'contracts' that you get are rarely more than busy work but they're an amusing diversion and give you a genuine reason to explore the levels fully. The level design is the usual masterclass in multiple routes and even quite far in I was still discovering new paths I hadn't noticed before. On the downside there, the first level gets revisited later on which sucks out the novelty a bit and one of the later levels is a trip back to something from Dishonored 2 but even at that things are changed up enough to stay interesting.
If I had any complaint it would be that the game is maybe a bit too easy. Not worrying about killing people plus the regenerating void powers tips things into your favour and there are no advanced enemy types like the teleporting witches or clockwork soldiers so taking people out doesn't get any harder than the very beginning. That's a small thing though and just blasting through was a fucking delight from start to finish.
Bonus amusing thing: at one point in the final level I got a bit confused about where I was going and fell off a great big fucking cliff. I survived the fall by the skin of my health bar only to realise that I'd then managed to accidentally skip like 90% of the intended trek back through the level (which is now filled with harder enemies) and was inches from the end! Lol. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 11:36
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3
64. The Fidelio Incident
66. Stories Untold
67. The American Dream
68. Subsurface Circular: robot detective visual novel.
This is a 'narrative short' by Mike Bithell, the guy behind Thomas Was Alone and Volume. It's set in a future where robots, colloquially called 'teks', perform many functions in society and all commute around the place via the titular Subsurface Circular subway. Your character is a detective tasked to investigate crimes by talking to the other teks that pass through the transit system and right at the beginning you're asked to begin investigating the disappearance of another robot.
The subsequent two hours are spent talking to the other teks that get on and off your carriage while trying to get to the bottom of the mystery. There's some light puzzle solving but the entire games plays out solely within the conversations you have with the other robots and, while you do have conversation options, it's essentially a linear story. The look of the thing and the rare character animations are very nice, which is appreciated given that that they're utterly unnecessary as your focus is always the textual conversation playing out in front of you.
The dialogue flows naturally and there's an impressive amount of world-building done between the lines of your conversation; it's also very dryly funny in a lot of places. The way it tied into Thomas Was Alone made me smile as well. The ending was a little bit disappointing in my opinion but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the story and for a few quid it was well worth it. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 11:16
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3
64. The Fidelio Incident
66. Stories Untold
67. The American Dream: heavy-handed VR gun-culture satire.
The American Dream presents you with a 'white picket fence and apple pie' version of the US using a cardboard cutout art style and asks you to shoot at all of it. Indeed, everything in the game is accomplished by shooting at it with your dual Move controllers. Want to attract your mother's attention when you're in your crib? Shoot at the door of your room until she comes to see to you. Want to eat dinner on your first proper teenage date? Shoot the food into your mouth using a selection of different size 'eating guns'. Want to open the beer you've just picked up? Shoot a hole in the can and guzzle it down; then shoot it out of your hand into the nearby bin when you're done.
You can see where this is going by now, the version of America it presents is so in love with it's gun culture that literally every action requires you to shoot a gun, and revel in the fact that you did because you're not some awful commie sonofabitch. From a gameplay perspective it's the usual VR setup of you being strapped into a roller coaster car sort of thing that moves you from one scene to the next, shooting as you go; though generally the action takes place when you're stationary as opposed to the Rush of Blood model. And also unlike Rush of Blood there's no real fail conditions or scoring, it's a story told through the medium of shooting at shit.
And it's all fine for what it is; for a while at least. It's a strong concept well presented and there's a lot of fun to be had in the earlier levels. But by God do they run the fucking thing into the ground. It stops introducing any really new ideas, or weapons, before even the halfway point but keep on going regardless. And on. And on. And fucking on. I was so ready for it to be done by the end that it had almost burned through all the goodwill it had earned in the my initial session. Something that's not helped by the fact that (a) the general amount of sitting around just listening to the 'host' Buddy Washington talk at you is fucking unbelievable and (b) the last few levels are just a total mess (mechanically and conceptually) of random bullshit chucked at the wall, none of which really sticks.
It's a weird thing to be complaining about a game having too much content but that's really where we're at here. Had it stopped halfway through I could've genuinely recommended it as something interesting, amusing and slightly different (for a VR game especially). As it stands though I can't imagine people really enjoying it; unless you can get it for super-cheap and are genuinely happy to stop playing it at the halfway mark. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2018 10:36
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2
63. Hidden my game by mom 3: see above.
64. The Fidelio Incident: Walking simulator sort of a thing which begins with the plane your and your wife are flying crashing into an island and separating the two of you. The meat of the game then is your character traversing the frozen island, and caverns underneath it, trying to find your wife while not freezing to death and performing light puzzle solving. The backstory is told through your internal dialogue and--of course--diary pages that you find lying around which unfold a tale, surprisingly, about the impact of terrorism during The Troubles. The game looks relatively nice, possibly because the key figure behind it was the art director of God of War 3 apparently, but there's very little variety so that dulls into the background after a while. There's nothing particularly wrong with it but it doesn't do much to stand out from the glut of such games that Steam is drowning in.
66. Stories Untold: horror anthology with an 80s aesthetic. It's difficult to dive into this without spoiling anything. The first of the four chapters has you sitting at a desk in front of an 80s Amstrad/C64 type of computer playing one of those old text based adventure games. This all starts off pretty normal then gets meta and weird as fuck and just generally all kinds of sinister; all without you seeing anything more more than the desk, TV and text on the screen. The later chapters expand the interactivity to certain degrees but the meat of the stories are communicated without a great deal in terms of traditional gameplay. The look and feel of the game is just lovely and almost worth the price of entry alone but it's the overall atmosphere that's the real star of the show. It's a short game so not a massive time sink and is just a lovely thing to experience; I highly recommend people just go into it completely blind. If I had a criticism it would be that the first episode is still the strongest by far--and the 'microfiche' level is perhaps a bit tedious in places--but it's all good stuff. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 14:51
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO
62. Hidden my game by mom 2: a very Japanese escape room style game wherein you need to find your DS after your mum confiscates it. You need to do this while also avoiding your mum, snakes, your grandfather (who you turn into a hockey-masked serial killer early in the game) and other level specific hazards. As that description probably implies, it's weird and silly and oftimes genuinely funny; all while being very logical and fun to play. There's not a massive amount of stuff going on in each level and once you get into the swing of it's house style it's pretty easy to bang through, but you're pulled along by the desire to see what kind of batshittery each level will throw at you. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2018 14:46
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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61. Part Time UFO: incredibly good fun and well presented Android game which sees you as a small UFO with a claw attachment attempting various 'jobs' which generally involve picking stuff up and stacking it around the place; though that description doesn't come close to doing it justice. Each level is various flavours of weird (e.g. stack a load of sumo wrestling students, fix the 'artwork' someone broke in a museum, etc) and each one has different completion criteria that can be attempted in order to earn medals, which unlock later levels. You also get paid for your labours and that cash buys different outfits, most of which come with a buff of some sort. It's developed by HAL Laboratory who also make stuff like the Kirby and Smash Bros games so it's all polished to a ridiculously high sheen and is really fucking good fun. Except the Tetris levels which can get fucked. I still completed it with all the medals though so don't step to me if you can't manage that. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2018 10:44
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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51. Murdered: Soul Suspect
52. Faraway 3
53. Rayman Legends
54. Short Life
55. Beyond: Two Souls
56. Gorogoa
57. Unpuzzle
58. Samsara Room
59. Dishonored 2
60. Alone With You: a sci-fi 'visual novel' that sees your protagonist as the last surviving member of an attempt to colonise an alien planet. A barely explained incident fucks everyone's shit up and you--plus the obligatory AI--are left attempting to fix up the single escape ship that's left. It bills itself as a 'romance' but that aspect's massively underplayed and the overall story that plays out ends up not really being all that interesting. The gameplay loop of exploring a different location each day for items/clues/puzzles is sometimes compelling but very often just boring, and the characters never say anything overly interesting. The graphics are purposely low-fi 8-bit styled but not in a way that particularly appealed to me (I think I read somewhere they were designed to ape the C64?); indeed they shaded over into ugly I'd say. There's certainly potential here, but the actual execution is unfortunately weak. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 14:28
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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51. Murdered: Soul Suspect
52. Faraway 3
53. Rayman Legends
54. Short Life
55. Beyond: Two Souls
56. Gorogoa
57. Unpuzzle
58. Samsara Room
59. Dishonored 2: Macabre steampunk ninja strangles his way around two cities.
I'm not going to say much about this because I feel like everyone knows it's deal by now. Suffice to say it's more Dishonored--especially if you play as Korvo again as I did--and does everything you'd expect from a sequel to the first game.
I don't think I really take advantage of everything it offers because I get caught up in just pure Blink-stealthing my way around. For example, I got the slow-time and possess powers and, now I think about it, literally never used either of them even once. On the other hand, I enjoy the pureness of doing stuff that way so whatevs.
As well as the incredible fun that the basic game design comes with there are a couple of wildcard levels in the new game in the shape of 'The Clockwork Mansion' and 'A Crack in the Slab'. For all the ingenuity of the Clockwork Mansion I didn't enjoy it that much as a level because (a) each reconfiguration could really fuck with my stealth planning and potentially upend everything and (b) the clockwork soldiers are just fucking awful to take out. I say the latter mostly because I never learned how to actually deal with them in an effective manner so they just became massive, and massively perceptive, roadblocks for me. Which is fine when there's maybe only a couple of them as in later levels but given that the mansion is hoaching with the twats it was a nightmare and I was really fucking glad when it was done. A Crack in the Slab though was just fucking joyous from start to finished and definitely the highlight of the game for me. If anything it was a bit too easy because being able to skip between timelines meant an easy escape from any real trouble.
The only other thing worth mentioning is to maybe stick to the console versions if you're considering the game because I had a load of technical annoyances with it as mentioned in the dedicated thread. Of course, I've gone and bought Death of the Outsider for the PC so I'm obviously just a cheapskate glutton for punishment.
I might go back and do a high chaos Emily playthrough at some point, though my record of playing games through twice would predict that I never will. Either way, it's fucking glorious fun and just what I expected.
P.S. I did enjoy my experience of the final encounter. ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view! While dicking around on a ledge trying to work out how to get an angle on the Delilah sat on the throne, I happened to look back/up and see the real Delilah standing doing nothing on another ledge high above the entry point. I dropped back to the floor and climbed up the side of where the level starts and boom, I'm standing right behind the completely unaware Delilah. A quick strangle later and the entire thing's done, with literally zero combat. I was both amused and impressed that their dedication to letting you play the game however you want extended right to even the final boss 'fight'. This was especially good given how shite I am at the combat and how little I was relishing a flat-out battle with multiple Delilahs.
P.P.S. After spending about an hour at work decoding the Jindosh riddle I was annoyed to find I'd fucked it up somehow. I tried my version of it again a few times after the game gave me the answer and was able to get the right heirloom to the right person but not get them in the correct position. Stupid bloody thing. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2018 10:09
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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| Glad to hear the engine is improved because that's something that's always annoyed me when done badly with these kind of games. Telltale are obviously the totally worst fucking offenders here; the performance of their games has always been a total shitshow which is baffling given how little is expected of them in terms of 'action'. I mean they're raking in the cash so they could've stopped at any point and just taken time to improve the tech. But no, let's crank out a story based game about fucking Minecraft because that's something the world really needs. |
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Forum: General Discussion Topic: Finish 52 Challenge 2018 |
| Bamba |
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Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 22:28
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Replies: 328
Views: 39461
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Mr Dave wrote: I didn't get very far into that before I got very bored with it or something.
With a 5/10, Don'tfeelany need to return
It seems to be a relatively polarising game. I don't disagree that the gameplay mechanics are lacking, but it's an interactive story so it's never going to be Dark Souls or whatever. Personally I enjoyed it enough to justify its existence, while being annoyed enough by some aspects that I wasn't mental about it. However, I know honestly loads of people who adored it's story and characters so I think it's worth giving a proper shake to. |
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