Your 2016 Gaming Diary

Is that because of my lack of respect for the battle or because I revealed a spoiler that I felt was already pretty well known..?

The former :p

I finished Uncharted 4: A Thief's End yesterday. Absolutely loved it! See the thread for more details.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary, I finished an incomplete run of the GBC version Dragon Quest I that I've been playing on and off.

The former :p

To be honest, I always felt like the game was walking a fine line between enjoyment and frustration, similar to Shadow of the Colossus in fact. Knowing what I did of that particular battle from my first experience with it, I didn't want to run the risk of being in a position where I didn't feel like carrying on with the game in the knowledge that I had already beaten it before

Was that the Robo-Panther from the game's cover? I honestly can't recall any boss that could take away half of Lilac's health like that.

 

I only experienced that "boss-difficulty-spike" when playing as Milla during Hard Mode (enemies do double the damage, Milla is hard to use and has half the health), and with Brevon's ship (a battle that makes more sense at the final level than when you first see it as a mini-boss). Other than that, I thought the difficulty was fine, but I guess opinions vary.

 

I'm just glad to see someone other than me checking out that game

No, it was the first one-on-one duel with Serpentine, normal difficulty. If you happen to be touching him or above him when he begins that bullet rain attack, you get trapped in that barrage and will very likely lose half of your health. It got very frustrating. Especially seeing as it was during the 3rd or 4th stage.

Actually, every fight against him was infuriating. The last fight against him was probably the hardest one for me.

Another attack that does a ridiculous amount of damage is that Dragon's screen-filling laser. Granted, it's at least a little bit telegraphed.

Not every boss was difficult, just about three quarters of them.

Freedom Planet is a good game. I can see that. It's just the difficulty doesn't progress naturally, which makes it jarring and saps away a bit of the fun.

If a sequel ever happens, I'd be interested for sure. If only to see if they can have a better difficulty curve.

Because the ingredients of an amazing game are in here.

No, it was the first one-on-one duel with Serpentine, normal difficulty. If you happen to be touching him or above him when he begins that bullet rain attack, you get trapped in that barrage and will very likely lose half of your health. It got very frustrating. Especially seeing as it was during the 3rd or 4th stage.

Actually, every fight against him was infuriating. The last fight against him was probably the hardest one for me.

 

Another attack that does a ridiculous amount of damage is that Dragon's screen-filling laser. Granted, it's at least a little bit telegraphed.

Not every boss was difficult, just about three quarters of them.

 

Freedom Planet is a good game. I can see that. It's just the difficulty doesn't progress naturally, which makes it jarring and saps away a bit of the fun.

 

If a sequel ever happens, I'd be interested for sure. If only to see if they can have a better difficulty curve.

Because the ingredients of an amazing game are in here.

There's no "if" involved here...

But yeah, I agree with pretty much everything you said; the only thing I'd add is that I hope the stages are shorter in this upcoming sequel. They drag on for far too long in the first game.

You seen to be playing some really big name games right now, @killthenet, and I'm enjoying reading about your impressions and how they may compare to mine

I looked at my backlog a couple of months ago and decided to make a concerted effort to work through them all, so I'm trying to cross a game a week off the list, just focusing on one at a time. I've done quite well with it in May, completed about 6 of them.

I just started 'Dark Souls' on Sunday and it's making me reconsider my policy of playing one at a time, because it seems like its going to take me an age to get through this. I've played it for 7 hours or so and i'm only on the 3rd or 4th area. I've got 'Super Mario Galaxy 2' on the go too, but I might start playing through another Metroid or Metal Gear game if my progress on 'Dark Souls' is going to be this glacial all the way through.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is a 3DS game that...

Oh wait, that's not what it's called over here.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. (sigh...) is a 3DS game that came out December 2015.

It's the 5th game in the Mario & Luigi series.

Hmm? What's that? Some people thought it was the 5th game in the Paper Mario series? Then they're dopes! And it was a remarkable amount of people who thought this.

Anyway, it's a turn-based RPG with action elements.

So the story starts in Princess Peach's attic where some random Toad and Luigi are trying to find a draught.

NO WAIT, DON'T GO! STUFF HAPPENS!

Luigi gets spooked by a mouse and knocks over a suspiciously detailed book, which then proceeds to let loose a whole bunch of paper scraps all over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Anyway, turns out that these papery scraps are actually from an alternate dimension where everyone is made from paper.

Yeah, all the Paper Mario games take place in an alternate dimension.

Mario Lore truly is the deepest, huh?

Anyway, Paper Peach kinda wants to go back, but all of the Paper Toads are missing, and Mario & Luigi have to go get them back safely.

Let's just hope that the Papery equivalent of Bowser doesn't complicate matters. What's that? He does? Bugger...

The story isn't anything amazing. It's very obviously an excuse to get Paper Mario interacting with real Mario & Luigi.

...Did I really just type "Real" Mario & Luigi? Jeez...

The comedy has always been a large reason for the games and thankfully, this game delivers on that. The interaction between characters and their paper equivalent provides a surprising amount of material.

I particularly enjoyed the two Bowser's constant bickering and infighting.

Strangely enough, Bowser Jr. turns out to be the most interesting character. The game delves into how he's ever so slightly neglected by his dad and how he has no friends.

Still a funny game though. With a whole bunch of references.

The gameplay works like a traditional turn-based RPG, the key difference being that you don't have to just stand there and take hits from enemies like a chump.

You see, when enemies attack, you can completely dodge them with well-timed jumps and hammer swings.

This is the biggest reason why I think the battle system is one of the best in RPG history. Whether it's dodging progressively more complex attacks or pulling off your own elaborate maneuvers, the battles never got dull.

Each brother has their own dedicated button, Mario performs all of his actions with A, while Luigi uses the B button. A series staple, because it works really well.

But this game introduces Paper Mario, who uses the Y button. And he's more than just another version of Mario to use.

You see, Paper Mario has the ability to photocopy 6 of himself.

These copies can help make his attacks more powerful and they even take damage on behalf of the original, should you mess up a dodge.

He can even hover in the air to evade attacks!

Sounds overpowered, but he has his downsides. Being made of Paper, this Mario is much more susceptible to certain status effects. He doesn't like Fire, and is prone to getting all crumpled and creased, making the punishment for not dodging attacks potentially very harsh! Doesn't help that his defenses are... paper thin. Oh, shut up! I'm entitled to a paper joke!

That said, if you've never played a Mario & Luigi game before, I wouldn't start with this one. Because it's pretty damn tough! This higher difficulty thing was in Dream Team as well, but this game is actually even harder. And personally, I welcome it.

The attacks enemies can throw at you get very hard to evade later in the game, and they tend to hit like a truck. The game demands your concentration because every enemy has a tell for everything they do.

Don't know which character they're going to attack? There's a tell for that.

Will they try and trick you into jumping too early? There's a tell for that.

Hope you counted how many times that enemy did something, because that's precisely how many times they'll attack you before deciding to switch to an attack that's aimed ever so slightly above you so you jump straight into it like a dope!

And that's before we get into the chase sequences!

Bosses tend to, now and again, forego the traditional attack in favour of chasing Mario and Luigi, peppering them with attacks.

Again, Dream Team introduced this, but Paper Jam keeps it fresh by implementing Paper Mario, who will fold himself into a handy-dandy Paper Plane, allowing Mario and Luigi to use him to stay airborne for longer.

However, these can get very complex, because PM can only be in one place at once. So you have to figure out which of the two bros needs that extra air time the most. And yes, there's a tell for that.

This game also introduces Papercraft battles, fights where you must manuever around a giant papercraft character in order to break apart another papercraft. Which will no doubt look very silly.

See? Awesomely silly!

These are entirely action-based and provide a nice break from normal battles. I certainly enjoyed these fights, even if they're not quite as good as the giant battles from Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team.

One of the problems with Dream Team was the pretty uninteresting overworld, there wasn't much to do in that game.

Thankfully, Paper Jam seems to have learned from that mistake with an overworld filled to the brim with hidden goodies to find and a healthy supply of minigames and sidequests to tackle.

Of course, you can just go from Point A to point B if you want, and the game will happily let you get on with it if you want. There are almost no forced tutorials, which was genuinely surprising because if there's one thing the Mario & Luigi games are known for, it's their forced tutorials.

At most, you'll get a short pop-up message explaining how to perform a move.

There's even the option to fast-forward cutscenes. Which I don't recommend on the first playthrough, because the comedy is pretty damn good, but it certainly makes the prospect of repeat playthroughs a lot more enticing!

The one thing I am a little disappointed about is that they ditched Hard Mode, an unlockable difficulty in Dream Team you got for finishing it that made the game go from pretty challenging to utterly brutal! Don't get me wrong, Paper Jam is the toughest game to finish, but it would have been nice to have an even harder version to slam my head against.

And while we're on disappointments, the soundtrack is probably the weakest of the series to date. It's not bad, but it's just not very memorable. The best music would probably be the main battle theme. But that's not saying much. And considering the quality of the Mario & Luigi soundtracks, it's a bit of a shame.

The visuals are great though! The Mario & Luigi games always look great, they certainly don't skimp on the animations. Each special attack comes with an utterly well-animated sequence that are bordering on the ridiculous. Some of the last attacks are just outright insane!

I have started to play Overwatch. Great fun, but still frustrating at times.

More importantly: The Talos Principle. My goodness, this game is awesome The puzzles are ingenious. They make me feel like a moron and like I'm the smartest person in existence at the same time.

I'm especially in love with the "story" - or rather the themes of the game which are AI, meaning of life and philosophy in general.

Think I'm about 2/3 done with the main path, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of secret areas to be found. : peace:

Sorry for the doublepost.

I've finished The Talos Principle. Well, finished as in: Completed two story paths/endings. There might be one more.

Now all that's left for me is finding the remaining collectibles and complete the remaining "optional" puzzles - which I assume will be difficult - in order to get that possible third ending.

I have to say that I enjoyed this game much more than Portal and Portal 2. I found both the puzzles and the narrative/story to be better. A lot better.

The themes are right up my alley. I often think about certain theories/ideas/thought experiments that were used in The Talos Principle myself.

And those puzzles...I'll say it again: They sometimes made me feel like a moron and sometimes they made me think of myself as the most intelligent person that has ever existed And I haven't even attempted the most difficult ones...

Highly recommended. : peace:

Edit: Played the first mission of Invisible, Inc. on PS4. For a turn-based strategy game that was intense...I made a couple of mistakes, mainly because I was getting to know the basics of the gameplay, and shit got real Additional guards arrived, enemies patrolled the area...I had to adjust quickly.

It worked out. I managed to complete the mission with the highest enemy security level (trophy! ) but wasn't able to open all safes

Oh, he posted his own art?

Must be a PMD game...

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is the 4th retail game in the Pokemon spin-off series. It came out this year in Feburary.

It's a roguelike game with mechanics from the Pokemon games.

The story follows a human (Who I named Arthur) who, for some reason, finds himself in a world populated with nothing but Pokemon. Also, he's turned into a Chespin. That's kinda important.

So far, so Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

This bloke then gets mobbed by some Beheeyem, and has to do a runner with a Nuzleaf who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Once they get to safety, the Nuzleaf offers Arthur shelter in his house and suggests that he enrolls in the local school while they try to figure out how this mess started.

While in school, another Pokemon (In my case, a Charmander called Jake) insists that they be friends, because he kinda doesn't have any (Mainly because he's more than a bit abrasive)

The story, like every Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game, takes a while to kick into gear, really pushes forward "The power of friendship" and has dialogue that's more than a little corny. But a bit into the game, it really starts to come into it's own. There's some remarkable twists in there that managed to catch me off guard. One in particular was so well pulled off that I never saw it coming, but after some thought, made me realise that it was subtly foreshadowed in a masterful way.

I always enjoyed how the PMD series put the spotlight on the more forgotten Pokemon. This game does a great job of injecting some personality into Pokemon and it helps the game ooze charm. I know that before this game, I would never have thought of Farfetch'd as the teaching type, but now I can totally imagine it.

You tell me in what Pokemon game, anime, etc heavily features a Carracosta as a major supporting character.

It's not quite as brilliant as the story in Explorers of Sky, but I still enjoyed it a lot!

The gameplay follows the same basic formula as the previous PMD games, so I won't go into too much detail on that. I'm just gonna copy paste the basics from last year's write-up I did for Explorers of Sky.

The idea of the game is to explore "Mystery Dungeons" without getting the stuffing kicked out of you. Using moves, items and strategy is integral to success.

Each dungeon is randomly generated each time you enter, so you'll never get quite the same layout twice.

To progress, you must find the stairs to get to the next floor, you keep going until you reach the end which may or may not have a boss to fight.

 

Everything is turn-based, including movement, so whenever you do something, all the enemies do so as well.

While this may seem off-putting to some, I personally relish this, as it requires thought about what to do next. One miscalculation could easily get you pummelled, and kick you right out of the dungeon with your hard earned items and money gone!

 

Yeah, despite it being a Pokemon game, this game is tough as nails! It starts off pretty easy-going, but about a third of the way through the story, it takes off the kiddy gloves and starts really piling on the harshness.

That said, this game adds a couple of new mechanics, the main one being the looplet system, which replaces the previous entries traditional equipment system.

On the surface, it works like most equipment does. You equip it on someone and it has an effect.

But each looplet has a number of empty notches on it. During a dungeon, you can find these things called emeras, which you can put into your looplet's notches. These provide bonus effects on top of the looplet's effect. But if you don't want an emera, you can use it to temporarily boost a Pokemon's stats.

The only issue is that once you leave a dungeon, all of the emeras and their effects disappear.

The closest thing I can think of is Final Fantasy 7's materia system.

With the large variety of emeras, this provides a load of variation on each dungeon you tackle, testing your ability to cope with what you're given.

The other big change is the way you recruit Pokemon. Originally, whenever you beat a Pokemon, you might be able to recruit it. It was largely luck-based and there were no doubt moments when you just couldn't recruit a Pokemon because you're unlucky.

In Super Mystery Dungeon, this method has been completely thrown out of the window in favour of the Connection Orb.

A tiny fraction of the Connection Orb

The Connection Orb, which looks suspiciously like the Affinity Chart from Xenoblade Chronicles, shows every Pokemon you meet. Most of these Pokemon have a problem they'd like sorted. If you complete their request, they'll join you.

So instead of a luck-based recruitment system, you now recruit Pokemon by completing sidequests. And when you complete sidequests, that Pokemon's friends will get registered to the Connection Orb, letting you take more sidequests and get more Pokemon.

This system is great! It's a massive improvement and adds a load of life to the game. There's something satisfying about slowly filling up this orb and getting every Pokemon. And there are a lot of Pokemon.

This has all 720 Pokemon species currently avaialble in the mainline games (Volcanion doesn't show because it wasn't officially revealed).

There's actually a total of 779 Pokemon to recruit though, because this even includes the Pokemon that look different when they're female as separate Pokemon.

Which brings me on to the reason it took so long for me to write about this game... Because I got them all. All 779...

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A feature I particularly liked is the recommended Pokemon feature.

Now and again, you're given three random Pokemon that the game would like you to use, if you go with this team, you'll get triple the amount of experience. It's a great way to encourage you to use other Pokemon, as every Pokemon you've recruited gets EXP, even if you're not using them.

An even cooler nuance to this is that if any of the Pokemon is an Unown (Because you can get all 28 of them), then you get 6 times the EXP instead!

This game manages to make Unown not completely worthless, which is definitely an achievement.

 

There's also a few moments when you can have more than 4 Pokemon in your team as well. Leading to a few ridiculously crowded moments.

 

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And you're going to need that boost, because this is easily the hardest PMD game to date. The game is brutal! You are going to die, a lot. If you clicked that previous spoiler, you would have read how a dungeon actually gave what I called "Overpowered Kecleon" trouble. The game gets VERY hard!

 

Yes, Kecleon is overpowered, that's been a running thing in every PMD game. Kecleon is always the best Pokemon in the game. Yes, that crappy chameleon Pokemon from Gen 3 that no trainer would ever use in a serious team? That's the best Pokemon in the game.

Don't believe me? Here's a comparison...

 

Here's a Level 100 Arceus

 

And here's the same level Kecleon

 

Shame Kecleon is so hard to get, but that's nothing new either. And this game knows it...

 

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The music in this game is, like every other PMD game, brilliant. There are some great tracks in here. Here are just a few of them...

 

	Audio

 

	Audio

 

	Audio

 

Seriously, how many video game tracks feature didgeridoos?

Special mention goes to the music used in the final dungeon, which is unlike anything I've heard in any Pokemon game. The atmosphere in this track is astonishing, and I'm afraid just listening to it will never do the song justice.

 

	Audio

 

The visuals are pretty good too. The models look great and the game manages to run at a nice steady frame rate, even during the crowded moments.

 

I love this game! No, I adore this game! It's the greatest PMD game to date, which also means that it's my new favourite game.

I will be amazed if any other game this year manages to top this game for my Game of the Year 2016.

 

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Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - SNES

Shovel Knight - 3DS (Custom Knight amiibo playthrough)

Game & Watch Gallery 2 - GB

Radiohammer - 3DS

Ace Attorney Investigations: Prosecutor's Path - DS

Shovel Knight - WiiU (Co-op run with Dcubed)

Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition - 3DS (Crazy Diamond Wall 2nd Playthrough Difficulty)

Metroid Prime - Wii

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Wii

Game & Watch Gallery Advance - GBA

Zelda - Game & Watch

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Wii

Metroid Fusion - GBA

Super Mario World - SNES

Star Fox Zero - WiiU

Bravely Second: End Layer - 3DS

Hyrule Warriors Legends - 3DS

Super Metroid - SNES

Freedom Planet - WiiU

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. - 3DS

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon - 3DS

 

Managed to finish up 2 games to close off May. First up, Table Top Racing: World Tour. Really enjoyed this little game and glad that it was made available on PS+. Reminded me of playing the likes of Micro Machines and Speed Racers back in the day but with some additional depth from upgradability to the vehicles on offer. Thought it handled very well, and the different upgrades definitely changed things for the better when you invested in them, and while the weapons weren’t as effective as the ones you’d find in the likes of Mario Kart, they were still decent enough. Although, I think it would’ve been better if they altered the flow of the game a bit more than they did as, other than timing the Frostbite weapon for when someone was going round a corner, they didn’t do that much to alter the pace of the game.

There was a decent amount of content I thought, though I do see that there are some additional tracks available for the PC version. That additional variety to the courses would’ve helped a bit as playing the same style courses over and over but extended did grow thin through the Championship and Special Event modes. The AI was also a bit off, seeming more like a PS1/PS2 era racing game where they stick perfectly to the racing line and bumping into them sends you flying off with little deviation to their trajectory. It was a small thing but it bothered me in some of the latter events where you only had a small number of laps to win the race and no weapons.

All in all, though, a solid little game and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. 3 starred all the Championship and Special events, unlocked and upgraded all cars and found all coins. There’s a couple of trophies left but I’m not too fussed about grabbing them. If the DLC comes as a steady stream, I might dip back in but it doesn’t have the legs that say Rocket League does.

Next up, played and finished Uncharted 4. I’d pretty much stayed away from much of the media on this prior to release so it was all very fresh going in to it. As expected, it played as well as the previous games but with some refinement to the movement and animations that gave what was generally already a fluid game even more flow. There are elements of the gameplay which seem to have come over from The Last of Us and I definitely feel they helped to make it a bit more of a robust experience and not as floaty as it perhaps had been in the previous iterations. Plus, the addition of the grapple hook was brilliant and added some really well tuned platforming sections as well as opportunities to flank and for stealth that were a welcome addition.

Loved the story and the whole pirate angle they went down, really grabbed hold of the kid in me and the idea of finding buried treasure. Think it beautifully juxtaposes the gameplay as though you’re an adult running about shooting and killing armed men, there’s something very childish about the pursuit of a pirate’s treasure and it’s very well shown through the insights to Nate and Sam’s past and what started their pursuit of Henry Avery’s treasure. It’s one of the things that Naughty Dog do extremely well the narrative and what I’ve mentioned there is a prime example of it. It very much feels like an awakening story for Nate, the realisation of his childhood dreams of finding this treasure and to finish what his mother and Evelyn started all those years ago. But also in the way that we see a maturation of the character over the latter half of the game. The acceptance that he needs the thrill of finding these lost artifacts and the way it’s brought out with Elena and the subsequent ending really does capture that progression from childlike pursuit to adulthood endeavours. It’s brilliant storytelling and major props to Naughty Dog once again for it.

I thought the more open and expansive elements to the game were a welcome addition away from walking a very linear path and they worked especially well for showcasing the beauty and artistry of the game. Madagascar looked stunning, both on 4x4 and boat. I found myself stopping and staring quite a lot at just how good the game looked. Coupled with the great soundtrack, as always with these games, it really was a beautiful game to see and hear.

Loved the little more down to earth sections, Chapter 4 and what you get to do there. And that ending, not the one with the “boss fight” which I wasn’t overly keen on, but the actually ending, the epilogue, was a brilliant piece of story telling which helped to close off the games extremely well. It’s a deft touch that other games could do with taking note of I feel.

So yeah, fantastic game and one definitely worth the wait. Probably my favourite game of the year so far.

Also managed to finished up a couple of games over the last day or two to start June off. First up, after trying to get into the new DOOM game and finding it boring, I decided to install Ratchet and Clank on the PS4 and I loved it. I’d only played Quest for Booty (got it free with my PS3 back in the day) so it was nice to play a proper game in the series and I thought it was great. The humour from Captain Qwark was brilliant and I liked the fact it was narrated as it was for the most part, there were some times I wish it would stop interrupting the game. The gameplay was solid and the weapons were ace and all offered up something different. Particular favourites were definitely the Pixelator and the Sheepinator, though it was a shame you got the latter so late into the game.

It was just an all round solid game from start to finish. Sure, there was a slight dip towards the end with the Deplanetiser bit, but I enjoyed it and it looked fantastic even with hundreds of bolts and springs on screen and that’s before you take into account everything else happening. Not a drop in frame rate which I thought was extremely impressive. Looking forward to seeing if we’ll get more of these reboots/reimaginings as would love to play more of them.

Finally managed to finished up the campaign on Invisible Inc. on beginner difficulty. What had taken weeks, I finally managed to progress by taking a more cautious and planned approach and it paid off with managing to see it through to the end. Might not seem much finishing it on beginner but even on that difficulty, if you misuse a turn or aren’t careful, things can go from good to oh s**t! very quickly.

Loved the strategy play to it and the espionage angle that they added to it. The use of hacking was also a very nice touch that can make the difference between success and failure. Hacking cameras, drones, sound detectors and guards’ shields are all vital here and it can get a bit frantic when you’re running out of power and trying to prioritise what to hack and whether it’s worthwhile hacking something which will ultimately leave you with a daemon for a couple of turns, reducing hacking ability or disabling it completely.

It definitely eases you in but quickly ramps things up but it never becomes over the top in the amount of things you have to keep track of. You feel that your failings are because you didn’t set up appropriate ambushes at doorways or didn’t hide characters in cover because you misused your turn. They handily give you Rewinds (on the lower difficulties anyway) to offset some of these mistakes but you quickly get into a pattern of observing guards moves and working your characters as a team to best immobilise enemies and more forward and extract.

Can’t recommend it enough as it’s a brilliant little game and one with a surprising amount of depth, especially considering all maps for levels are randomly generated so multiple playthroughs stay fresh. Know I’ll be trying my hand at some of the higher difficulties at some point.

And finally, started and finished up Child of Eden on the PS3. Had it on the 360 when it was released and loved it and when I saw a copy of it for £2 I thought why not. Not exactly a long game and easy enough to clear the levels on normal in just over an hour or so but it’s still a beautiful game and one that I’ll keep coming back to time and again. There’s just something about it that clicks with me and with being a big fan of Rez as well, it’s up there as one of my favourite games.

Over the past few weeks I've been playing some more Binding of Isaac (got all the challenges), played Milla's Hard Mode in Freedom Planet (an update added missing cutscenes and her final boss, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to try her Hard Mode), replayed Portal (hadn't done so in years), and went through a neat little puzzle game called:

This was a nice surprise. Made by a small French team, it consists of a weird mix between Minecraft and Tetris*: you play as a robot who collects blocks of specific materials, and you have to set them in the form of tetrominos. Doing so will help you navigate levels and solve the puzzles.

 

*The plot goes that the robot was made by Notch (creator of Minecraft) and Alexey Pajitnov (creator of Tetris), and is trying to rescue them both from a rabid fan. It's pretty meta.

 

There are also collectibles hidden throughout the levels (usually references to famous games) and ranks for completing levels efficiently (there's even a ranking for completing levels in a better way than the limit that the developers had set). Both of these end up unlocking harder bonus levels, which I appreciate.

 

An excellent puzzle game overall, very polished.

Heavy Rain (PS4 Version)

I used to live with one of my closest friends and I've witnessed her and her boyfriend play through certain parts of the game. Naturally, not really paying attention at the start of the game and not really talking to them about it, I had no clue what was going on at all.

It did look intriguing though and I'm thankful that both this and Beyond were remastered for PS4. I picked up both games for around £15 recently on PSN and I decided to start off with the one that seemed to interest me more...Heavy Rain.

I had a fantastic time with it. I'm a big fan of this film-noir style and this game achieves that really well, particularly during the Scott Shelby sections. The music during the game is fantastic and the opening segment with Ethan's son is such a brilliant prologue to the game.

I have no real complaints about the game at all. I know that some people aren't fans of QTEs, but I don't mind them at all. I'm a fan of the TellTales games, particularly The Walking Dead series, so I loved how this had branching story-paths. The characters in here were interesting enough to keep me hooked and I felt that the game had a satisfying conclusion...well, the ending that I got anyway!

My ending spoilers:

Making a return to the thread, not actually completed many new games since my last post in February!

Comlpeted the story line in The Division, really liked the game, just haven't got round to doing the last few things required for the Platinum, should be easy enough to get if I can find some friends to help with the dark-zone stuff.

Felt an itch for a wrestling game so picked up WWE 2K16. Whilst nothing will probably ever live up to my childhood favourites of No Mercy and Wrestlemania 2000 it was still pretty enjoyable, and the presentation of the whole thing is amazing.

Working through Stone Cold's career was awesome, I grew up in the Attitude era and it brought back so many memories

Fully completed Lego Jurassic Park. I really like the Lego games, although I must say that getting the platinum on this was a bit of a slog and involved a lot more gonig back and forth than any other Lego game I've played.

Cut-scenes as always were great, the Lego take on certain scenes was pretty amusing (especially since they make it so that no-one dies)

Picked up Murdered: Soul Suspect from Canadian PSN since it was working out at £2.50. I did enjoy the story and didn't see the twist coming. The combat sort of did feel like it was tacked on, but I liked getting the collectables and reading up on the history of Salem as I progressed through the game. Was definitely worth a play at that price.

Currently working my way through Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash on my 3DS, really don't like how it doesn't just let you move to the next level, but I've gotten good at getting the spinner to stop at 1 so I can just get to it.

It's a fairly decent platformer, couple of annoying sections though. Glad I didn't buy it at full price.

So after my last post the other day, I started up and finished up Oxenfree on the PS4. Hadn't heard that much about it before I picked it up but thought that it looked like it could be an interesting experience and I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it was.

You play a character named Alex who, along with a couple of friends and her new step-brother, head out to Edwards Island for a beach party thing with little in tow beyond a portable radio. As soon as you get to the island, things already start to seem weird with phones and your radio not being able to get signal. After you make it to the beach and indulge in a bit of teenage truth or slap, you adventure off into a nearby cave where you tune in your radio at strangely arranged stacks of stones to see lights coming from the cave. From there, things take a weird turn as you repeat certain sequences you've already gone through, experience flashbacks to the past and see your friends become possessed by ghosts on the island. What starts out as a trip for some partying quickly turns dark and it's something I found that grabbed me and made me all the more curious about what was happening and why. Aside from some typically teenage drama, which I don't feel marred the experience in anyway but I know some might feel is cringey, the story is a pretty solid one.

Gameplay revolves walking around the island after certain events have happened, trying to track down your friends and making us of your radio to tune into certain frequencies at certain points to progress. That makes it sound rather dull but without giving away too much, it is rather engaging and tuning in at stacks of stones around the island will let you pick up anomalous broadcasts that flesh out some back story or, after you've progressed the story further, provide some even more dark tones to the proceedings. You'll do a lot of walking around the island, which can get a bit tedious if you're backtracking to pick up the collectibles, but more often than not, you'll get to indulge in some conversations where you make choices which can affect how certain things pan out. These are limited in scope, sure, but the pay off at least in one area is significant.

All in all, I thought it was a very different but very enjoyable experience. The game looked great and the soundtrack was spot on and really well done. Definitely recommend giving it a go. I've seen some people likening it to Life is Strange and while there are some similarities, I would say if you go in expecting a similar style of experience you won't get it but it is still broadly along those lines and worth experiencing.

Also been playing VEV: Viva Ex Vivo on and off and at this point, I think it's fair to say I'm done. More so out of frustration with the game's mechanics more than anything else. The game revolves around controlling a biomechanically engineered organisms through various samples of either water, blood, spinal fluid and soil and seeing how much potential energy can be collected in a single go.

It's very arcade-y in its set up but in execution, having to spend 30 minutes in the samples becomes tedious quickly, that's if you can manage that long on the blood and spinal fluid ones as the introduction of threats to your organism mean that you're constantly on guard of being wiped out in a second. But even the earlier levels, in water and soil, are presented as though to introduce and ease you into things but throw organism after organism after you making it difficult to progress in terms of collecting energy. More often than not, after about 5 to 10 minutes, you'll be bombarded with organisms trying to stop you collecting energy particles or leech onto you and steal your energy and in doing so, you'll end up spiralling off in whatever direction with no way of regaining controls for a couple of seconds. The same thing happens if you hit any of the scenery. It's not clear whether this was a mechanism purposefully put in the game or is an error in the code but it makes what can be a dull experience incredibly frustrating. Couple that with a lack of heading, no idea of which direction you're going in and not explicit objective and you're left with something that while interesting in concept, is painful in execution.

There are 3 locked levels to unlock but for the life of me, I can't figure out how and enough frustration has set in from the feeling that my time investment hasn't been respected by the game has told me to call it there after doing the 4 unlocked samples at the beginning. Even for a developers first title, it is significantly hampered with design choices that go against the gamer (for example, there's no camera control and blurred periphery in the FOV means that finding energy particles is excruciating). It wouldn't be so bad if it was enjoyable but it really isn't after about 5-10 minutes and the developers need to constantly address this in the comments over every review so far shows a sign of desperation at trying to sell an experience which they deem as not fitting into any genre but really is something that should have been worked on a bit longer.

The past couple of weeks i've finished a few games.

First up is Rogue Galaxy (PS4). Great JRPG and one I found myself really enjoying, despite the fact that its an action based fighting system rather than my preferred turn based one.

I think I clocked the game at around the 35 hours mark but getting the platinum was an absolute slog. @Tales you weren't kidding when you said it was a grind. My final play time was just over 70 hours and the best part of those extra 35 hours was just constantly grinding away. The battles were easy and the experience good but the encounter rate is so low that it make it a VERY long process.

Next up was Disney Infinity 2.0 Spider-Man Set (Vita). Hands down on of the WORST ports of a game I have ever played in my life. The frame rate is absolutely shocking, screen tearing is in abundance and the resolution is very low, which I presume was lowered to help the frame rate....that didn't help at all.

I was trying to get a trophy on it the other day which requires you to do a 3 hour level in one run. You have to do 50 stages one after the other. I got to stage 47 and the game froze on me. I just sat there looking at the screen in disbelief. Had I been @Blade I probably would have thrown my Vita at the wall.

Lats game was Persona 4.....Dancing All Night (Vita). Yup, I finally finished and platinumed a Persona game!

I've tried playing Persona 4 a couple of times and could never get into it. I did enjoy the music I heard in what little time I spent playing the game and decided to have a crack at this.

The game is more a visual novel than a dance game. At the start of the game I spent most of the time just sitting reading what was going on ( just like Persona 4 ) and eventually I got bored and just skipped the story and got on to the dancing.

Hands down my favourite song was Snowflakes ( Narasaki remix).

That was May all done and dusted.

May

 

Lego Avengers (Vita)

Severed (Vita)

Runbow (Wii U)

Table Top Racing (PS4)

Super Exploding Zoo (PS4)

Actual Sunlight (Vita)

Uncharted 4 (PS4)

Rogue Galaxy (PS4)

Disney Infinity 2.0 (Vita)

Person 4 Dancing All Night (Vita)

 

 

 

Uncharted 4 was my GOTM, obviously. Severed was a very close second. Fantastic little game.

 

Heavy Rain (PS4 Version)

 

 

I had a fantastic time with it. I'm a big fan of this film-noir style and this game achieves that really well, particularly during the Scott Shelby sections. The music during the game is fantastic and the opening segment with Ethan's son is such a brilliant prologue to the game.

 

 

Glad you enjoyed it!

 

The music is fantastic in this game. One of my favourite pieces is the main theme. There is a certain sadness to it, yet it manages to feel epic, as well.

 

	Audio

Heavy Rain (PS4 Version)

 

I had a fantastic time with it. I'm a big fan of this film-noir style and this game achieves that really well, particularly during the Scott Shelby sections. The music during the game is fantastic and the opening segment with Ethan's son is such a brilliant prologue to the game.

 

I have no real complaints about the game at all. I know that some people aren't fans of QTEs, but I don't mind them at all. I'm a fan of the TellTales games, particularly The Walking Dead series, so I loved how this had branching story-paths. The characters in here were interesting enough to keep me hooked and I felt that the game had a satisfying conclusion...well, the ending that I got anyway!

Heavy Rain is easily my favourite non-Ninty console game of the last generation. It's the only game I ever bothered to platinum, because it was just so much fun to experiment with what could happen.

I particularly loved how even if a main character died, the story would just continue, it really added some weight if you messed up and gave the storyline some real consequences.

I'm tempted to do a playthrough where I just fuck things up on purpose to see how bad they get.

The credits are rolling in Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg for Gamecube

I started the game quite a few years ago but finally got back to it last week in an attempt to finish it off, largely due to the fact that it sits beside the recently finished Beyond Good & Evil on my shelf

To be honest, Super Mario doesn't have anything to worry about While I appreciated the look of the game and the twist it provides on more standard platforming adventures, it was generally frustrating due to a lack of precision with the controls, much like many of the 3D Sonic games, which led to numerous deaths that could have been avoided

I don't imagine I'll be going back to collect the remaining emblems as I don't feel like it's worth it, unfortunately. With Battalion Wars sitting to the other side of Beyond Good & Evil, I may even take care of that next to eath further into the backlog

Heavy Rain is easily my favourite non-Ninty console game of the last generation. It's the only game I ever bothered to platinum, because it was just so much fun to experiment with what could happen.

I particularly loved how even if a main character died, the story would just continue, it really added some weight if you messed up and gave the storyline some real consequences.

Agreed, Heavy Rain was great. People moan about all the plot holes and the hilarious acting at times (JASON!!!!), but really, when you look at it, the game actually really did succeed at what it set out to do. How many games out there have choices that actually do really change the story? I still think it's amazing that you can have key characters in the story die and it just carries on, with the plot changing to compensate. It's really brilliantly done, even if it is ultimately just an absolutely massive, multimillion dollar Choose Your Own Adventure book when you really think about it.

Also...

http://speeddemosarchive.com/HeavyRain.html#BestTime

Yeah... This game makes for some funny speed runs

Got the Uncharted: Nathan Drake Collection, as well as Just Cause 3. Waiting on the Arkham remasters as well as the (once again) delayed No Man's Sky, oh and LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Not to forget that I've yet to complete my VC Pokémon RBY games, Alpha Sapphire, Y, Super Mystery Dungeon or even touch any of the Zelda games. Boy is this going to be a busy one...

Just finished Witcher 3's DLC Blood and Wine. Overall, i'm impressed. Good story, nice new area and lots to see and do. Did give my view on the final battle(s) in the thread, but i'm happy about the content none the less.

I finally finished my first game for June. I completed Kirby Robobot (3DS) last night.

All done!

 

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Cracking bit of software, as expected from a Kirby game. It's nuts how epic they make Kirby games feel towards the end. You know when he gets his angry eyes on that stuff is gonna go down.

 

I still maintain that TD is the better game. As I mentioned to Dazzybee earlier, this doesn't take away anything from this game. It's still well worth picking up. Its another great entry in the Kirby franchise and another great addition to the 3DS library.

 

Next up is Tales From The Borderlands (PS4). I already played through this in January but i'm playing it again due to a nice surprise.

 

I much prefer to have physical games over digital and when this finally arrived at retail I decided to snap it up. I bought it and just stuck it straight on the complete shelf.

 

Just last week I noticed my mate was playing it and decided to check how he was doing with it by looking at his trophies. It wasn't on my list and had to scroll to find that retail trophies are separate from the digital release. Time to nab another platinum.

 

I'm about an hour from finishing the game and have REALLY enjoyed playing through it again. With it being a second run, I tried to make different decisions than I made the last time.

 

I warned Felix about the bomb so that he would be available during the final fight. I was quite surprised to see that he had left the money for Fiona and Sasha, which in turn then allowed me to hire a vault hunter for the final fight.

 

 

I should get this finished when I get in from work.

 

It's been a slow gaming month for me so far, mainly due to the fantastic weather we are having. That should change next week as I have a week off work for E3 and the Euros. I plan on getting a few games crossed of the list during that time.

It's been a good weekend of gaming for me. I managed to clear and nab all the trophies for four games.

First up was Tales from the Borderlands (PS4). As I finished this in January I won't bother going on about it again.

Next was Hitman GO (PS4). I thought this was quite a neat little game, if a little frustrating at times. I really enjoyed the visual style the game used. The board game look serves the game well.

Up next was Gone Home (PS4). This is one of the free games on PS+ this month and thankfully I didn't have to pay for it. I know the game gets a lot of praise but I just didn't get it. I usually love story driven experiences but the way this is presented means that you only only get bits and pieces of what actually is going on. I suppose it encourages you to search every nook and cranny but I just found it rather boring.

Last up is Volume (PS4). Fantastic game! Absolutely loved it to bits. I only snapped it up because it's stupidly cheap at the moment and I ended up throughly enjoying it.

The game is essentially a more fleshed out and fun version of the VR missions from Metal Gear Solid. Yeah, it's a stealth based game but the levels are short ( 100 of them ) and the checkpoints plentiful. The game never feels frustrating.

While what little story is in the game didn't interest me, the gameplay is king here. Mike Bithell you've done it again, you glorious SOB!

I highly recommend PS4/Vita owners pick this up while it's on sale as its only around £3.00.

@drahkon I noticed you have this but never really played it much. You not like it?

@drahkon I noticed you have this but never really played it much. You not like it?

I'm not sure...maybe I need to spend more time with it.