Video Games – The Next Level

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What are you playing?

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[Ben]

….   …..  …. Yeah, I’m done – Jedi: Fallen Order – go fuck yourself.

Its use of the SW aesthetic and some of the design is pretty but this is not a SW game.  It is not a SW game because though you have something that looks and sounds like a lightsaber, it isn’t one.  And nigh-on every single enemy is lightsaber resistant! It gets to a point where I can see Cal’s Jedi Master going from the Force: Cal, use a fucking blaster!  Of course, if he did, everything in the game would be blaster resistant.  This becomes particularly apparent once the game amps up the stamina / block meter on enemies and combat is just this wild, unsatisfying mess of bashing a stormtrooper, to bash their block meter down, to then magically, bloodlessly slice them – no limbs go flying, it’s all very safe.  It becomes impossible to block the thought: These guys shouldn’t be able to block a lightsaber.

Oh and I made damn sure to avoid Oggdo Boggdo after the first fight with a normal Oggdo.

Now, I’m willing to grant that rendering a saber, as a saber, presents significant gameplay challenges, but I can’t buy that those same challenges would be insurmountable.  Getting web-swinging right is the condition for a Spider-Man game; for a Jedi game, it’s lightsabers and this shit in this game isn’t it.

Still, I can manage it on easy, right?  Well, no, because in one fight Respawn thought it clearly be great to have instant death cliff around it, a pair of enemies on a rock, one with a bazooka – and here bazookas are not only precision weapons, the bazooka trooper knows where you will be before you go there.  And no, you can’t throw them back.  So you try to take them out by moving fast, cue bazooka to the face, fall to death.  As far as I can tell? After Cal fell, those two troopers jumped after him because they didn’t respawn.

Ultimately, though given time the combat would have killed it – if this is an accurate impression of it, I don’t really see the appeal of Souls-style combat then it looks like cheap shit.  The blocking? Never feels right, especially when compared to Ghost of Tsuschima – it was the platforming that did it in.  The whole slow-force platforming bits? Fucking awful – impaired vision, impaired directions, even when I worked it out, satisfying it was not.  The whole sliding while using the saber? Kind of cool.  And then there’s this bit where you have to swing from rope to rope.  Where any other game would have opted for guided direction to enable you to actually pull it off, this goes total freeform, with poor distance / depth indication.  After about five pointless, irritating deaths I was done.  Fuck this game.

If the game didn’t give a shit about being a videogame, about difficulty; if it focused on being a brilliantly fun SW experience, where playing a Jedi actually feels like one and not a nerfed, limited videogame creation, it could be great, but it wants to be a game too much.  It also wants to be a difficult one too much, with its difficulty being utter artifice and so blatant that you can see all the tricks.

Oh and that “map”? Get da fuck out of here.  This is why 3d, large levels developed direction indicators – because no one likes having to look at some weird representation that bears no resemblance to where they are.

I don’t know, maybe I’ll go back to it in a day.  Maybe I’ll get lucky on those ropes – and it will be complete luck, there’s no fucking skill in that section.

There’s also …something off about Cal’s movement.  He just doesn’t move in a way that feels right, it’s this weird, swaying, off-kilter walk.  Some of the faces are really weird.  Somewhere Mass Effect:Andromeda is screaming: Hey, why does that get a pass?

It’s been years since there was a decent SW game but this? It ain’t it.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.

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Dave

I can’t really argue on any of that.

I do think it’s a nice-looking game, and some of those mechanics are okay once you get more used to them, but it’s still blunt and imprecise and often you feel like you achieve things more through luck than skill.

Ultimately though, I found its biggest sin was that it’s just quite boring. I got well enough into the story that I’d built up a lot of skills and learned (if not mastered) most of the mechanics but I just didn’t feel that compelled to continue. The story could definitely have done with more work to make it more immediately engaging.

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Ben

[Ben]

Found this review – and the site itself is damn cool:

Accessibility Game Review – Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

It picks up my experience today neatly.

I’m stubborn enough that I probably will go back to it.  I probably will get past that section.  It’ll just take a lot of deaths.

EDIT: So, had an idea, if I jump for that rope, running while holding up on the stick and then just jump maybe Cal won’t change his arc and I might grab the second rope.  It worked first time.

However, there is one very clear, inescapable conclusion from a later bit – under certain conditions, my depth perception on games is fucked.  Why? The goddamn Force Push tutorial.  Nigh-on every time the R2 button wouldn’t register or do so too late.  ‘Hit when blue. – no, that’s actually too late.  But, because R2 is not a precision button, I remapped it to X.  Still took ages to hit that damn ball.  I’m amazed the section got signed off as acceptable to play because its messaging, its indicators as to what to do was awful.

Still, between these two points – did enjoy it more, duffed up some Stormies, some Tomb Guardians, some animals, done a couple of puzzles.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.

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Dave

There’s a free trial version of Street Fighter V available on PS4 and PC at the moment that’s live for the next two weeks or so. Supposedly it gives access to all 40 characters available in the Championship edition, but I’ve not managed to find a way to access any beyond the core set.

Anyway, spent a bit of time with it and… it’s ok, I guess. Plays well enough (doesn’t seem much different from what I remember of SF4), but some of the presentation is underwhelming. No lip sync on character dialogue, the art on the story scenes is pretty crap, the story (at least the bit of it I went through) is perfunctory – Laura wants to promote her martial arts, so fights four people. The end – and it’s really hard to read a lot of the screen text, especially the arrows on the command lists. Oh and there are ads on the pre-fight loading screen, every time (which might not be in the full game, admittedly). The Championship edition unlocks everything, mostly, but ignoring that it seems a very money grubbing game. Technically, you can unlock the DLC with in-game money. In the couple of hours I spent playing the game, I earned enough to almost buy one costume colour option.

Martin Smith wrote:

it seems a very money grubbing game. Technically, you can unlock the DLC with in-game money. In the couple of hours I spent playing the game, I earned enough to almost buy one costume colour option.

I bought it soon after it came out, and this is my enduring feeling about it. Making it cheap to buy as an initial bare-bones release and then layering in all the decent content as DLC is a pretty shit model for me – I don’t play enough to earn huge amounts of the in-game currency, and as such a lot of the add-ons (including most of the extra characters) are still locked for me.

Get your wallet out Dave, but it’s really optional.

Capcom are weird. They do stupidly high value games like Monster Hunter World, but on games like Street Fighter they match EA and Activision for hoovering up cash.

I wouldn’t mind so much if they followed the Mortal Kombat model and later put out a complete/GOTY edition for a decent price, but it seems like that isn’t on the cards.

Dave wrote:

I wouldn’t mind so much if they followed the Mortal Kombat model and later put out a complete/GOTY edition for a decent price, but it seems like that isn’t on the cards.

From what I can see, the Championship edition is that – it has the four “seasons” of DLC characters – but it doesn’t have some of the Pro Tour bits and pieces, which is what makes it so confusing. And then it doesn’t have the newly announced season of characters, which rather makes it redundant now.

Ben is exactly right and its probably a good example of the free market at play.

There is a massive gap in the payable new release content of Street Fighter to something like Monster Hunter or evdn Resident Evil and Devil May Cry.

Basically the fighter game model is fucked, but Street Fighter is probably the worst offender because its fans are so loyal.

Btw, I played and finished Catherine: Full Body (1 ending of 13)

We are talking of the company that saw SF2, SF2-CE, SF2-CE Turbo, SSF2, SSF2 Turbo as just the start – they ain’t stopping now.

Yeah I have a friend who is a huge Street Fighter fan and Ive tried to explain to him that its a rip off. He refuses to accept reality and states “everyone pays for their hobby “.

Ironically hes a tax specialist.

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Ben

Changing tack, saw a trailer for a new PS5 game, The Pathless, looks intriguing, then found out it’s from the team that did Abzu!

Anonymous wrote:

Btw, I played and finished Catherine: Full Body (1 ending of 13)

What did you think of it?

Ben wrote:

Changing tack, saw a trailer for a new PS5 game, The Pathless, looks intriguing, then found out it’s from the team that did Abzu!

It looks lovely.

Those guys are led by the art director of Flower and Journey.

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Ben

Yeah and it’s so obvious once you know it – had no idea they were doing a PS5 game

Martin Smith wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Btw, I played and finished Catherine: Full Body (1 ending of 13)

What did you think of it?

I thought it was okay.  I was shit at the block puzzles and the day stuff in the bar felt like an extremely paired back version of Persona 5’s time management system (which makes sense because it’s the same studio and based on a much earlier game).

The real selling point is the themes and as you said it touches on things I’ve never seen before in games.  I’m not sure it resolves them in the best way, as I looked at a brief summary of the other endings and they’re much less nuanced then I expected.

Fwiw my ending was Getting together with Katherine and planning the wedding, but the ant crawls out the window indicating there is still a seed of “doubt”. It’s the “good Katherine” ending and not the “true Katherine” ending .

The new character of “Rin” in the full body version really seems to be added for plans that were very familiar with the original.  I didn’t really pursue her plotline at all, and that was only because it wasn’t clear what the game wanted you to do to pursue that plotline.

Anyway, it was okay.  I’d love to see a deeper, different plot-based game playing with the same themes.  Maybe not a puzzle game too.

Anyway, criticisms aside, it’s clearly a great game.

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Martin Smith

[Martin Smith]

When I played it I really didn’t like Katherine, so pursued Catherine and got the ending where the main guy ends up deposing Catherine’s father and becoming king of hell, which is certainly something.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Martin Smith.

Ben wrote:

Yeah and it’s so obvious once you know it – had no idea they were doing a PS5 game

Aye but now what isn’t obvious is the art director’s name. That’s going to annoy me until I remember.

Also, I could do with a bow and arrow.

And an eagle to pet. Why don’t I have a pet eagle? It’s so unfair.

I predict eagle pats upon will be the new fox pets.

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Ben

Anonymous wrote:

I predict eagle pats upon will be the new fox pats.

I predict cow pats will be the… no, wait.

Dave, games where you throw crap around have been done – South Park, Kingdom Come

So, after a painful “physics” puzzle and a detour to the ice caves, I finally made it off Zeffo and hopped to Kashyyyk.

The tomb puzzle was arse.  And physics? Please, that’s a blatant red herring.  Am I to expect that a blast of air can send huge, heavy metal balls many feet into the air? In physics terms, no.  Looked up the solution, did it, but the chances of me working out those counter-intuitive answers from the info the game supplies? Zero.

Then ended up stuck in the ice caves. Again, had to go online to find that there’s a different route.  The backtracking is tedious too, it doesn’t really add anything to the game.  And that water wheel jump was bloody awful, I really don’t like those sections, relies too much on perception of moving objects – plus Cal’s crap at platforming.

Still, taking out an At-ST was…. OK.  To be honest, Force pushing missiles at Bazooka Boy stormies was more satisfying.  Purge Troopers? Urgh.  The instant stamina refill makes a mockery of the game’s own game combat system – and it was instant, I’d got him all the way down – then instant refill.  Tonight’s session suggests that, like with AC Syndicate and Black Flag I will get to a point where I consider I’ve seen enough of the game and call it a day.

Still, Kashyyyk – Jumping onto, climbing around and hijacking an AT-AT – that cannot be anything other than pretty cool.  Though after this, the tech issues made their first appearance, with a weird, freezing for a half second cutscene. It was obvious enough for me to notice so, yes, to has to be bad.  It’s also a good job I knew what was coming with a new enemy turning up, one of the ‘fucking die you eight-legged motherfucker!’ variety…. I can kill those bastards.

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Dave

I’ve started playing Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and I’ve decided I’m going to try and do it without referring to a guide or walkthrough. You know, the authentic 80s experience (if you ignore that magazines would do pretty thorough walkthroughs in the 80s, but still, authentic!). I am using the Anniversary Collection’s save state system though, because I’m not a complete masochist (and it’s not like it’s as generous as the Mini NES or Switch Online’s ones, where you get three or four files you can freely switch between and a rewind function. This just lets you save on one file, so you can potentially dead end yourself).

So far, I have broken my aim once – I got to the end of a mansion/dungeon thing, found the glowing orb thing that is clearly the end goal and couldn’t work out what the hell I supposed to do with it. Looking online, it turns out there’s a merchant in the mansion I missed that sells stakes you have to use to break the orb. Obvs.

Beyond that though, authentically 80s! Muddling through, trying to get an idea of what to do and where to go (which the game is a bit obtuse about) and what half the items do (which the game is even more obtuse about) and it feels pretty good. Learning for myself that you can find hidden rooms in the seemingly empty houses in the towns was great. Keen to find out what the hell a graveyard duck is!

Martin Smith wrote:

Keen to find out what the hell a graveyard duck is!

Ha!

So, Ghost of Tsuschima, Act 2 finale….

The Fate of Tsuschima

This is your standard, chaotic, intended-to-be-epic, big battle.  One of the things it demonstrates is why games like Assassin’s Creed have clear enemy indicators – so you know who is on your side and who isn’t.  As often enemies blur into the background or look similar enough to your character.  This entire level shows up the benefit of this by the absence of it.  Also, this is a game where a clear enough view of your enemies in order to assess them, so as to what stance you use, is pretty important.  There was a bit where you get to fire a Hawcha, except it seems far less powerful than before, far smaller area of effect and it ends up a case of you firing at grey blobs. Lots of people will love this level, I didn’t.

From the Darkness

Clearly, after an intended-to-be-epic set piece, Sucker Punch decided that what the game needed was a super-stealth level.  Even with the assist turned on, it was awful.  The problem is the game hasn’t set any rules for its stealth, so there’s no clear indicator of what enemies can or can’t do, in terms of hearing or line of sight and few to zero cover spots.  The duel with Ryuzo was, OK, bar the blatant video game power-up applied because he’s now Act 2 Boss instead of Act I boss.  Overall, very awful.  The plot revelations, though the game tried its hardest, didn’t really work for me.  Turns out Samurai only really care about the lives of other Samurai, everyone else? Be grateful to die for the cause of their betters.

Honour and Ash

This is the seemingly obligatory, but ought to be consigned to the dustbin of gaming history, ‘you need to regain your gear’ mission, combined with super stealth.  Yep, you called it – it’s shit.  After regaining your gear, it gets better as you take a fishing village back from the Mongols then a temple.  The game did be underhanded by adding in hostages without warning – so you end up with the irritating ‘protect the hostage’ bits. The plot revelation that the Mongols are using the same poison as Jin is odd, as there were no survivors from that battle so how did they know?

Wolves at the Gate

This was the best quest of the lot by far.  It allows you to see more of the new area and there are sections that are stunning.  There was a farce with a climb section where, instead of just going up the cliff, you run to the building to grapple to the cliff.  This was on par with the grapple points at the start of From the Darkness, could not spot them at all.  Where it went off is with the Hawcha again being far too weakened to be of practical use, just slash everyone up, it’ll be quicker.  Even so, while this was another big battle quest, it felt less irritatingly chaotic than the first one.

With this set done Jin regained access to the earlier areas, not that there’s anything left to do in them, but it is still better to have than not.  I also love the title for Act III – Kill the Khan.  That’s not a spoiler, it’s what the game has been about from the start.

So now? Now I get to do the best bit – exploration, sidequests, shrines, haikus.

Yeah I was wondering how uou would react to those missions.

The enemies in Act 3 are a bit tougher so you might be dancing around in combat a bit. I recommend doing tthe one about the mongol armour set if youre having trouble as its the strongest armour set in the game. Also the reward from the mythic tale us quite fun.

IIrc, the next main quest has the toughest stealth bit in the entire game but made slightly rasier because you are familiar with that particular area. You do get a new horse at the end, if you were wondering

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Ben

Forgot to say the intro sequence to Act III was hugely effective.  And have noticed the enemy upgrade – they’re still losing though.

Ive been playing Hollow Knight.

Look, I’m enjoying, and I know punishing 2D platformers are in vogue  (Cuphead, Super meatboy, Inside, Blasphemous) but there are times with this when I think what it asks is absurd.

People clearly love this game, and it regularly tops best of lists (best platformer, best dark souls clone) but it is very hard, and it’s very hard mostly because of the platforming challenges which require a level of precision I have never seen asked of a player before.  The boss fights too, require twitch perfect accuracy and reflexes.

I really like challenging games.  Sekiro and Bloodborne are probably my favourite gaming experiences in memory – I love the feeling of overcoming a challenge.  But this is different.  I’m not really enjoying those long platforming runs which require precision use of all the mechanics and then failure happens because you pressed L2 a split second too eary/late, or you tried to nail jump with your weapon at a slight diagonal instead of a full vertical press.  Most of the time I’m left shaking my head because I was sure I inputed the sequences as best I could, reading the graphics, with the utmost focus.  And still I didn’t execute the proper dash-jump off a wall or something.

It would be okay if the checkpoints were more forgiving – but they’re not.

I am really enjoying it, but it’s an incredibly frustrating game in a way that presents a challenge that’s not always enoyable to take on.  At a guess, I’m halfway through, and I’m intending to see this through to the end as best I can (excepting maybe the extreme challenges) but I really wish the platforming was even a smidgen more forgiving.

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Ben

Anonymous wrote:

Ben wrote:

Yeah and it’s so obvious once you know it – had no idea they were doing a PS5 game

Aye but now what isn’t obvious is the art director’s name. That’s going to annoy me until I remember.

Also, I could do with a bow and arrow.

And an eagle to pet. Why don’t I have a pet eagle? It’s so unfair.

I predict eagle pats upon will be the new fox pets.

Matt Nava!

I now have the Mongol armour but found a better solution – the Gosaku armour.  One that favours players with a highly offensive attack style – hmm, now who does that sound like? Ah yes, me.

OK, about that final Mythic Tale…. Spoilers? Spoilers are for honourable and worthy content deserving of the protection granted, this is dishonourable content undeserving of naught but scorn.

Anonymous wrote:

Also the reward from the mythic tale us quite fun.

Too bad the quest itself is an abomination of outdated gaming concepts.  Worst of all is it fucks with the checkpoints, even if I save at each fire, if anything goes wrong, it defaults to the bottom, which is fucking awful.

The L3 button is not reliable enough for me to have Jin sprinting all the time and this is a time test.  Visibility is awful and only gets worse as the time reduces, which in turn stops you dead, which then kills you more.

Plus, you’re looking for white-grey specks on grey walls, in a fucking blizzard.

The entire experience was highly depressing and the “quest” a disgrace of game design.  Outmoded, obsolete, old design that should not be in the game at all.  Everyone involved in it should hang their head in shame.

As it happens, I’ve barely used any of the heavenly techniques, save for the Explosive Arrows, but it would have been nice to complete this.  As it is, it assembles all the worst elements of the game into a single, compact package and then makes them even worse.

Ben wrote:

Spoilers are for honourable and worthy

Wrong forum, mate…

Its not that bad. Maybe watch a video walkthrough?

Castlevania II

I trudged to the end of this last night. It is not a good game.

It’s ambitious, which should be lauded. One of the advantages of the 8 bit era was that you had the flexibility of cost and production time (to say nothing of the lack of fan expectation/pressure) to do a sequel that’s wildly different from its predecessor, as Castlevania II does (and as Zelda 2 did also). And while you can see glimmers of the later entries in the series – Symphony of the Night and its followers – in this game, none of it works here.

The biggest problem is that it’s wilfully obtuse. That are many things contributing to this. Part of it is due to a pretty bad translation, with hints and messages from townspeople that make some sense in the Japanese version getting garbled into useless nonsense in the English version. But even in the Japanese one, a lot of the townspeople lie and intentionally give misleading information. That’s not a terrible idea, but when even the (supposedly) useful information is next to impossible to understand, it adds up to great confusion. On top of this, the game just isn’t interested (or perhaps isn’t capable) of telling you basic things, like, say, where you are. Lots of the hints name towns and mansions specifically, but there’s nothing in any of those to tell you which they are. There’s only signs in the towns (which have a bizarrely narrow activation area to read) telling you what’s either side. I suspect a lot of this extra information was left to the manual, which is where the short comings of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection come in. It doesn’t include the manuals. The art book thing has brief two page descriptions of each game, but beyond a basic lay-out of the controls, it doesn’t include stuff like explanations of basic weapons or maps the original manual had.

That means playing this now, you’re pretty much forced to use a guide. I avoided that as much as possible, but I wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere without resorting to one at a couple of points – and I don’t even mean for the games’s infamously opaque puzzles like kneeling in front of a cliff with a crystal equipped so a whirlwind will take you away to a new area – I managed to miss a huge section of the game and move onto a later area (where I couldn’t continue) because there was nothing to make it clear I’d missed anything before.

The other big issue with the game is its day-night cycle. It’s a revolutionary idea, but it’s shit. The game switches between the two every three minutes. During the day, you can use towns freely, but at night, enemies in the field are tougher and you can’t enter buildings, as towns become overrun with ghouls. This doesn’t add anything to the game. It means if you’re low on health and have made it back to a town to use its church to heal (the only way to heal the game – you can’t use anything in the field) and night falls at any point before you get in there, you’re fucked and have to just hang around waiting for the dawn again. That doesn’t add anything to the game beyond inconvenience and it’s a bit more annoying given the game’s three endings are doled out based on how many in-game days you took to complete it. Enemies being more powerful at night doesn’t really add much either, just makes the trudging back and forth a bit more of a pain, and would have been better if they’d just come up with a proper difficulty curve of enemies.

The day-night cycle also plays into the game’s weird experience system. Yes, there are RPG elements. When you kill an enemy and collect a heart (which still aren’t health points, but are here used as currency, as well as the meter for the more powerful sub-weapons, like other ‘Vanias) you get Xp points equal to 3/4 of the heart value. Except during the day, when you get less. And at various points when the game decides you can’t get XP from the area you’re in any more and so you can’t level up (which increases health and/or decreases damage) until you move to a new area. None of this is explained in the game.

If you survive all that, you might finally make it to Dracula’s Castle, to throw his scavenged bits together and break Simon’s curse. You’d expect this to be a big finale, but not only is Dracula’s Castle completely empty, but the final boss fight is trivially easy. Well, sort of. I beat it in 20 seconds flat because I used some laurels, which are an in-game invincibility item, and so was able to stand still and rapidly use the whip to kill Dracula’s spirit no problem. I suspect if you don’t use laurels it’s trickier, but it’s not like I cheated or anything. And it’s not like Castlevania 1’s Dracula was a push-over – that had narrow hit boxes, tough attack patterns and two stages/forms. This one just floats around in a circle for a bit.

And that’s it. A real damp squib of an ending for a bizarre, failed experiment of a game.

Decent music though.

Anonymous wrote:

Its not that bad. Maybe watch a video walkthrough?

For me it is that bad.

I looked at walkthroughs, various images but it makes no difference because when playing I still couldn’t see what I needed to.  If it wasn’t that it was the L3 sprint not working because the stick isn’t at the right angle.  Add in some severe time limits and no, I don’t have the ability to pull it off in the time set.

I might have been able to, if the manual saves I did at each fire had been respected but they weren’t.  That’s what killed it more than anything.

I don’t know what you mean by the manual saves.  The checkpoints go back to the last fire.  I know that because I died a few times myself, especially before I realised some fires needed you to actually light them.

Think of it like a race with checkpoints.

But only if you freeze to death instead of say jumping off a cliff?  Ended up getting frustrated, so jumped, but then it placed Jin at the Pillar of Honour.  If I loaded a manual save it was always at the first fire, not the one saved at.

I don’t think it’s an example of poor game design but there is no shame in admitting defeat, Ghost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the things I’ve hit would be easy fixes.

[Ben]

Been cleaning up on Ghost:

First, managed to do that dumb Undying Flame quest.  Maybe I was just better at seeing the right white grey specks I needed to, or I’m better at just platforming rather than sprinting and combat, which the earlier sections were.  Still not a fan of it, still don’t think it should in the game, it doesn’t anything good for it.

Companion quests:

Masako:

“Lady” Hana – talk about a vicious psychopath.  With less monstrous acts, maybe it would have worked but this one didn’t.

Norio:

This worked OK, but still think it should have been a joint assault, with Sakai taking the burden of the kill.

Ishikawa:

This also worked, although the penultimate quest was pretty clunky on its subtlety. Given how many people and archers Jin has taken out at this point, I couldn’t buy that he couldn’t take out Tomoe, nor was it that clear as to why some of the earlier quests played out as they did.

And then there was the main quest duo – Gathering Storm / Heart of the Jito, both stealth quests.  There’s not much point saying more, you’ll know the outcome already – didn’t like either of them.

Overall, I found the companions far better than the main plot in terms of story.

For all that there is a love-hate perception of the game for me, now that I’m at the endgame that I didn’t really expect to get to, I am reluctant to finish this – the gameworld is stunning, no matter what else I may object to.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.

Ben wrote:

First, managed to do that dumb Undying Flame quest.

Hooray for Samurai Ben!

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Ben

[Ben]

Ben wrote:

Been cleaning up on Ghost:

First, managed to do that dumb Undying Flame quest.  Maybe I was just better at seeing the right white grey specks I needed to, or I’m better at just platforming rather than sprinting and combat, which the earlier sections were.  Still not a fan of it, still don’t think it should in the game, it doesn’t anything good for it.

Companion quests:

Masako:

“Lady” Hana – talk about a vicious psychopath.  With less monstrous acts, maybe it would have worked but this one didn’t.

Norio:

This worked OK, but still think it should have been a joint assault, with Sakai taking the burden of the kill.

Ishikawa:

This also worked, although the penultimate quest was pretty clunky on its subtlety. Given how many people and archers Jin has taken out at this point, I couldn’t buy that he couldn’t take out Tomoe, nor was it that clear as to why some of the earlier quests played out as they did.

And then there was the main quest duo – Gathering Storm / Heart of the Jito, both stealth quests.  There’s not much point saying more, you’ll know the outcome already – didn’t like either of them.

Overall, I found the companions far better than the main plot in terms of story.

For all that there is a love-hate perception of the game for me, now that I’m at the endgame that I didn’t really expect to get to, I am reluctant to finish this – the gameworld is stunning, no matter what else I may object to.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by Ben.

Yeah, I felt similarly – I played it for a good few hours even after getting the Platinum trophy.  The good news is that the last quests are basically all combat and if you’ve already done all the side-quests you may consider chasing the Platinum.  It’s not that hard to obtain, and there’s only really one trophy (kicking someone to their death) which is trick and context depedant.

I see that the new Xbox has announced a November launch but has seen a delay until next year for the new flagship Halo title. It feels unusual for a new console to launch without at least one big first-party game, but it looks like that’s what’s going to happen.

(I expect the Spider-Man game to play a big part in attracting people to the PS5 for example.)

Yeah, that and Ratchet & Clank will be the early PS5 attractors, though I’m getting interested in Godfall and Outriders.

If only both companies would stop playing chicken and confirm release date and price.

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Dave

Dave wrote:

(I expect the Spider-Man game to play a big part in attracting people to the PS5 for example.)

Recently found out there are, not one, but two video games based on Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

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njerry, Todd

Clocking in at a minimum of 53 hours, I am, for now, done with Ghost of Tsuschima.

First, let’s talk the endgame:

The Not-Quite-Yet Finale

Where the previous Act finales mixed overt combat with stealth, with a bit too much chaos in the former for my liking, this one decided not to faff around and goes for all-out combat, but with the right amount of chaos.  It felt big, it felt epic but I could also see what was going on, know what I had to do and it all just clicked.

The final battle with Khotan Khan worked particularly well.  The duel section was OK but it was what followed that really raised it up, he legs it, you pursue, slaughtering everyone between you and him.  You get to the ship, battle resumes, but this time with minions, but you can control that battle surprisingly well.  The only flaw is it sticking archers in places where you have to use the bow but it just ain’t that good in this kind of fight, but you can also screw them over by fighting beneath them so denying them line of sight to shoot – which I did.  Where it got superb was how this final section plays out – injure Khotun, he throws away his lance and goes for sword and shield, you batter him some more, then you disarm him, destroy his shield and impale him to a mast before beheading him! It was a hugely satisfying sequence to pull off.

Where Act I and Act II finales faltered, this one really delivered.

The Real Finale

There’s no way to talk about this without spoilers, except to say if you thought you had seen the zenith of graphical excellence from this game – think again.  Similarly the soundtrack hits new heights in this last section.

Shogunate Japan was a brutal system and the game doesn’t pull its punches on it.  A system built on fear and brutality to compel unquestioning obediance, with all those in it conditioned to think the same way lest they be executed – this section did a far, far better job of rendering Lord Shimura’s perspective than the preceding chapters did.  I did kill him, seeing it as either Jin kills him or the Shogun does, for failure. Jin’s final statement that he will ensure Shimura is remembered is, in a way, an act of defiance that maybe Shimura would approve of, for his clan too will likely be erased by a vengeful Shogun.  Similarly, the post-game statement that Jin will not let his clan disappear from history feels fitting – and the final quest makes it very clear that the Ghost is already immortal in the public perception.

The final duel is very similar to all the preceding ones – pay attention and its straight-forward enough, fail to do so and you’ll probably lose.  It is also a very strongest contender for most graphically stunning final boss fight ever, while the build-up includes a final, far more emotionally devastating haiku that does exactly what it was intended to.  And, after the fight? One incredibly well executed cut scene.  It’s amazing stuff.  It works even if you haven’t been able to avoid spoilers because there’s all the difference in the world between knowing X happens and how X is told.

The way it ends also opens the door for DLC expansions, which they really ought to be working on right now.  Some might say having another Mongul commander turn up would be cheap, but I think not.  I think there would be a large audience for further adventures of the Ghost.  If they just so happen to only work with the PS5-upgraded version, well so be it.

Combat

For the great majority of the time, the combat system is superb – it was only blighted from time to time when it refused to change despite me knowing I had hit the buttons.  Best guess? You have to change inbetween moves, but on balance? I pulled it off far more often than I did not and, if you have the right charms equipped, it’s easier to recover in those sections where it isn’t quite working.

Where I didn’t see as much of it is in the various moves because much of them are of the tap and hold variety and I find it very difficult knowing what constitutes those.  How quick is a tap? How long is hold? Given how fast combat is, it was better for me to stick with strategy of stance-stagger-kill.  The only real weakness in combat is first, the camera – your true eternal enemy.  Second, there is the auto-targeting, which often isn’t smart enough and third, Jin moves that bit too slow, especially when taking out archers and bomb guys.  But all of these are not unique to the game, they turn up in other 3D games.

While I had some success with them for about half the game, I stopped bothering with the stand-offs when the animations became harder to read – it was better to just go for open combat every time.

Stealth

Where the stealth is truly optional, with follow-through to overt combat if it all goes wrong, it’s OK.  Where the section is insta-fail if spotted, it is horrible and near-killed the game at the start for me.  The assist they added is superb and it’s no exaggeration to say I wouldn’t have completed the game without it.  Where the stealth insta-fail missions have major negative impact is on replay.  Like with Spider-Man, the incentive is hugely reduced due to the thought of having to redo those sections.

It is also stealth with a very limited array of stealth tools, very limited hiding spots and very variable enemy ability – all of that made it far harder for me to know how to do a section.  Nor do I think they realised the full potential of the grapple.

Sign-Posting

This is the game’s biggest failing for me, but it wouldn’t take much to fix it.  The distance indicator fading was not helpful to me, I would have preferred an option to keep that on because it really helps on working out the direction – the wind effect is wonderful in graphic terms, but it isn’t that precise for direction and the game seems to assume you will stay in a perfect line which just doesn’t happen.

Similarly, a lot of missions – and I do mean a lot – rely on manual searching with little in the way of visual cues of where to go or what you can interact with.  The tracks were particularly bad, with a weird jump between sections, as if whatever you were tracking suddenly did a long jump, which broke the immersion.  Spread out hostage missions, with indicators only coming up after much aimless wandering around are another example.  A lot of online guides were used because I wouldn’t have progressed without them.  I’m pretty certain there’s a sidequet still to trigger but can’t find the trigger for it, which is a shame.

Gear & Upgrades

This is mostly successful save for one flaw – I don’t think there is any way to actually compare the benefits of armour sets, instead it is just descriptions, but you can’t see how much better one might be against another.

Still, the sheer array of tools you have is amazing and I’ll likely boot it up from time to time to try stuff I just didn’t get to, like bombs, because killing enemies with a katana is too much fun.

Sidequests

While many of these had the signposting flaws, to their credit none were fetch quests.  The final Mythic Tale my thoughts are known on, but even that could be fixed easily with but 10-15 extra seconds on the time limit and a cue as to where to go.

While I didn’t get on well with the first one, after that I did just fine on the duels and each felt suitably epic.  Some were hilarious, in that I go round a base, loot it, kill every Mongol, blow up their bomb supply and only after that does the head honcho saunter out for a duel.  Like where the fuck was this guy when I was fucking up his base?  The biggest challenge on the duels? Not being distracted by the graphics, they are seriously amazing.

Exploration

More than most games, this one really rewards exploration.  The final Inari charm is a huge booster which feels a fitting reward for all the work – that and the foxes are incredibly cute.  The only flaw there was when the fox went through tall flowers – good luck following it through those but that only happened a couple of times.

Some of the major shrines could be less than great in terms of where you were to go and there were times on the platforming where, though you were certain you had it right, Jin will not grab that fucking ledge.

Bamboo Strikes, with infinite time enabled, worked OK.  Haikus? Are the big surprise, along with the foxes.  Very clever, very well executed.

Accessibility

Very, very good – not perfect but very good.  Infinite time for the bamboo slicing, stealth assist, sub colours – just a few more is all it needs and they could be added – sticky direction / distance indicator, change wind colour.  The one failure at times was the aim assist, sometimes it went where I didn’t want it to go.

The one pair of controls I wish developers would not use are L3 and R3, especially for sprinting.  L2 and R2? Not that much better but better than those.

Final Scoring / Ratings

No single score can really do this justice so:

• In terms of a first party swan song for the PS4 – Superb, it really can’t be beat.
• For those without any impairments of any kind – Excellent, despite the stealth.
• Story – has its ups and downs but concludes very strongly.
• Game world aesthetics? The reason to buy the game above all else, nothing else looks like this.  Many will likely try to imitate it and fail.  It more than deserves the praise here.
• Combat – Despite some minor flaws, it isn’t reliant on being a parry game – you can, but you don’t have to so have to rate it as excellent due to that.
• The dyspraxic rating according to me – the dyspraxic hit really does vary from person to person, so this can only be my one – Very, very good.  What it stops it from being excellent re those factors already covered.

So, should you play this? Absolutely.  It is far more effective synthesis, with little but hugely effective revolutionary touches, than innovative, but to me, that isn’t a negative.  Far from it.

It is also likely those with far better fine dexterity will get considerably more out of it as they’ll be able to bomb an enemy, parry kill another, bow shoot another. dodge and kill someone else.  And use the full range of techniques.

I guess the final comment is this: I was intending to leave this until the weekend because that’s the best time to play big gameplay chunks.  But instead? I just couldn’t wait – I had to finish it.  That has to mean something good.

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So, went back to Jedi Fallen Order.  A frustrating run overall.

The good? I’m better at combat, took out some Purge Troopers.  The big irritant here was flametroopers because the game treats fire like it’s a forcefield.

The bad? Pretty much everything else.

When exploration gives you something good, it’s great but it happens by luck as the map is an abomination.  The other problem is a lack of visual visual landmarks within the levels to tip you off as to where you have and haven’t been, it’s all very similar.

Despite starting the level swimming, when jumping over pools of industrial sludge, Cal drowns instantly.  Also, standing on a big screw that spins fast? Instant death.

But the biggest one on this run was the sheer technical flaws – I’m not a gamer who talks about frame drops because it has to be spectacularly bad for me to notice.  Loading screens in mid-level? As in the load symbol turning up and the screen freezing while it loads? Several times.  I have never seen this happen on a PS4 game, never. Just bizarre.

Good review on Fox Pats of Tsushima, Ben.

I really enjoyed it and it’s part of only a handful of open world game that are truly a joy to just move around in – alongside Red Dead Redemption 2 and HZD. For me, the final mission dueling lord shimura was quite challenging but i played it through twice because it was really powerfully done and well acted, and also to see the different decisions. In the end, I think killing him is actually the “good” ending that makes the most sense, but both endings are quite nuanced and true in their own ways. Neither is a “Good” or a “bad” ending as you might have in other games .

Some of the best moments for me were the mob duels. Chaining attacks alongside stand-offs, ghost stance moves, smoke bombs and the special techniques really is amazing. The game is well balanced for fun and feeling empowered and fairly forgiving in terms of damage to health and allowing resolve to generate.

As for Jedi Fallen Order – the biggest sin for me was the ice slide mechanics. Traversal becomes much easier once youve unlocked all the force powers but thats quite late in the game, and although you can and will revisit the planets, I never found the traversal and exploration very fun. It’s an okay game and there’s some things in it which have been done well, but I think it could have been a lot better. It’s reasonably short though, so bear that in mind if you’re trying to decide whether to play it through or not.

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Ben

The thing I keep coming back to on Jedi: Fallen Order is I should be a really easy sell for it, instead its really working at not being that!

Well, I think historically you sometimes have initial issues with a game that are overcome after you get further into it and become more familiar with it. You should know though that I had problems with Jedi: Fallen Order right through and to this day I am surprised by its high scores across the board. It’s a 7 or an 8 game at absolute best.

Dave, too has commented on it’s story being fairly lacklustre. I think Cal is a fine protagonist, and some of the crew are fun, but there’s not much else to say story-wise. I think for a lot of fans, just being able to see a certain character appear at the end was enough fan-service to pave over some obvious flaws.

Will have a longer post in a bit, but have now hit Dathomir.  It’s a beautiful shithole.

I continue to play around on Hollow Knight. I’ve lodged about 50 hours over the last 3 or so months. It’s a pretty amazing game, made even more so that the developer, Team Cherry, is pretty much just three people.

With that said, fuck some of the platforming bits. I was also forced to cheese some of the end-game bosses because I just could not be bothered learning the boss patterns. I’ve now got the hardest parts in the game left to do, and to be honest, I’m doubtful I’ll see it through because it’s an absurd level of hardness to conquer. I’ve made it through to the bear minimum requirements to get the first game ending and maybe that’s enough.

I don’t know if I’ve got it in me to do this:

Or this

Or this

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Ben

That’s ridiculously ludicrous (the game NOT you).

why is the videogame being so mean to me

It’s a game that by reputation considers the entirety of the infamously hard NES Battletoads to be training levels.

Anonymous wrote:

why is the videogame being so mean to me

You could try telling it you’re Australian too.

An amateur coder has done a test port of Sonic the Hedgehog to the SNES.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-retro-sonic-the-hedghog-ported-to-super-nes

Only one level and not with everything set up, but it’s an interesting experiment.

So, Jedi: Fallen Order….

Went back to Zeffo and, well it was mixed.  Opened up some paths with Force Push, got some shortcuts unlocked, a lot of aimless wandering then made it to the crashed Venator.  This was pretty smart.  Ended up in a Legendary Creature fight but won and then spent ages stuck on how to get out of the room, plus the puzzles after were also no fun.  The culprit was the same in all of this – the game just doesn’t indicate what I can and can’t interact with and it’s so random and inconsistent that I have no basis to assess the likelihood of a thing being open for use by Cal.

The boss fight? It was OK I suppose.  I don’t like the idea of displaying a full health bar but you only have to take out part of it.  At the same time, yes it went down, but I couldn’t tell you how it went down or why it went down in response to something I did, because it was that unclear to me.  For a game that is placing blocking and parrying at the centre of its combat – and especially its boss fights – it just doesn’t feel right.  The feedback I get from a block tends to be a sort of dull thud that doesn’t tell me anything, whereas in something like Ghost of Tsuschima, the feedback there communicates information far more effectively.  The result is combat varies wildly from Cal taking out six stormtroopers, of mixed variety, in less than 30 seconds, to a single enemy who gets stamina refill after refill instantly and clearly thinks they are:

The next of tomb puzzles were…. Not good.  What is amazing to me is every – and I do mean every – game screws up telekinesis.  They always do a weird camera angle for use of it, this means I have no reliable means of knowing where stuff will go so use it as little as possible. This one is particularly bad as Cal just always seems to hold stuff at a high angle.  Also, on that spire puzzle I finished it by pure luck as the idea that walking into the bottom of it would cause it to rise? No indications of any kind, how I was supposed to know to do that I don’t know.  The first post-Force Pull tuition / unlock? Died about 5-6 times because I didn’t realise if I kept holding L2 the rope would keep coming because, until this point, the game had never been helpful and I didn’t expect it to start.

Back to Kashyyk and a shit-ton of aimless wandering and getting lost with a useless map.  When I finally got to where I was supposed to be and started on the new stuff? It was pretty good.  I don’t care for immortal stinger vines and as for the other lightsaber-resistant wildlife, the Empire might have a point on annihilating the entire species – all of them.  Got double jump, cool – 7-part wall run with crap camera and no checkpoints? Not cool.  After that, it did reward me with a double lightsaber.  No, Respawn are not forgiven for that 7-part wall run.

The bits after this were quite smart.  The escape sequence is probably the best no bullshit slide sequence so far and was suitably epic in its execution.  The flight with the giant bird and the trip to it was an excellent graphical showcase, but the camera changes didn’t work for me in that.  The next boss fight? Went the same as the previous one.  I won but I couldn’t tell you how I won.  Also, no way is she dead – no corpse = not dead.

Other stuff – as part of the aimless wandering around Kashyyyk, I took out all the bounty hunters.  Those fights were fun – one guy got Force pushed to oblivion.

Went back to Bogano, found a few secrets, including a shitty ball puzzle that my response to was “fuck. you.”  Killed Oggdo Boggdo, adding to Cal’s tally of localised fauna genocide.  This was the first time where I found the map started to be useful – in terms of finding new areas.

Then went to Dathomir – it’s a beautiful looking shithole, but it’s a shithole – that said, Cal is doing OK at doing what he does wherever he goes – killing everything.  It doesn’t feel very Jedi, but screw it.

I’ve gotten a whole lot farther than I ever expected to.  Is there a good game buried here, trying to get out? Yeah, I think there is, but it is very well buried.

Ben wrote:

It’s a game that by reputation considers the entirety of the infamously hard NES Battletoads to be training levels.

eh… it still looks like easy mode compared to stuff like super meat boy… but then again smb is a rage inducing experience first, and then a game… =/

I don’t like these sorts of games… I can take some difficult platforming sections, but there are some games which are just too much.

Has anyone else been playing Fall Guys?

It’s the free game with PS Plus this month and I’d seen a fair few people talking about it on Twitter but almost instinctively tuned it out. I think I went so long without a current gen console that I still just assume I can’t get in the latest fad game and it took me a while to realise that I’m perfectly able to subscribe to PS Plus for a month and join in.

So I have. It’s essentially an MMO of Takeshi’s Castle with Fortnite’s business model. You compete against 59 other players in rounds of ridiculous physical games – obstacle course races, survival games, chase games – until one player is crowned “episode” champion. Even if you don’t win, you get kudos coins and xp. XP levels you up, giving you a fixed reward while Kudos and the crowns from winning an ep can be spent in a storefront that refreshes daily. The rewards and purchasables are cosmetic items: new patterns, palettes, costumes and emotes for your character. Nothing that affects gameplay but things that I can see being desirable the same way Fortnite ones are.

The game also has a season model, like Fortnite, which will presumably swap new rounds into the rotation when season 1 ends in September.

It’s a really fun game. The controls are simple but the physics and timings are just off enough (and your character prone to falling over) to give it a ridiculous slapstick feel without also feeling unfair. Well, most of the time.

I’d definitely recommend giving it a go while it’s free. I’m not sure it’s worth its £16 price tag on PC (though I suppose that’s cheaper than Ps Plus subscription in the long run), especially given it does have free-to-play microtransactions like Fortnite, (with kudos coin packs and some traditional DLC costume packs available, so keep an eye on your kids if you let them play, which they will want to) but it doesn’t feel money grubbing or pushy. It’s perfectly possible to enjoy it for the entry price and not spending extra.

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Dave

Martin Smith wrote:

Has anyone else been playing Fall Guys?

Yes, since launch. My daughter likes it a lot and plays it with friends. I’ve had a few goes and it’s quite good fun, once you get past the fact that the controls are supposed to be a bit wonky.

It’s basically like a videogame version of It’s A Knockout.

Dave wrote:

It’s basically like a videogame version of It’s A Knockout.

I’m too young to know what that is. ;)

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Dave

It’s a bit before my time, but I’ve seen some clips over the years (particularly the infamous episode with the royals) and there were a couple of more recent revivals.

Imagine Fall Guys, but with people.

Ah, Takeshi’s Castle then.

But with the royals

The big silly costumes in It’s A Knockout are what particularly reminded me of Fall Guys.

That could almost be a live-action version of the Fall Guys football game.

I don’t remember if silly costumes was an element of Takeshi’s Castle too, but yeah it’s all in the same area either way.

So, Battle Royale at Takeshi’s Castle then

Dave wrote:

The big silly costumes in It’s A Knockout are what particularly reminded me of Fall Guys.

That could almost be a live-action version of the Fall Guys football game.

I don’t remember if silly costumes was an element of Takeshi’s Castle too, but yeah it’s all in the same area either way.

I’m being a little disingenuous, I am vaguely aware of It’s A Knockout, but only from clips on nostalgia shows of people essentially saying “what the hell was all that about?” (and usually the Royal one – an odd choice for Edward there, in his drive to make the Royals more relatable. Why not go on the Generation Game or something tame and relatively dignified?)

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Dave

Martin Smith wrote:

an odd choice for Edward there, in his drive to make the Royals more relatable. Why not go on the Generation Game or something tame and relatively dignified?

I bet the royal family wishes they could go back to It’s A Knockout being their major embarrassment.

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Martin Smith

If capitalizing the R in royals is a thing then I should probably transfer that habit to my referencing Serial Child Rapist Prince Andrew.

Yeah, that looks dignified.

My turn to update:

Last night, I finished the White Palace in Hollow Knight. It was totally fucked and my hands still hurt. Honestly, fuck Team cherry they can go get fucked the stupid fucks. I can’t believe I did that. I even used the charm combination which meant your health could regenerate so I did infinite attempts (which I assume is the way most people do it). It still took me 3+ hours over two days to do what amounts to 20 minutes of platforming.

Fuck you, Team Cherry, I hate you and we are not friends anymore.

Anyway, it means I can complete the final charm called the Kingsoul which opens me up to going for the “True Ending”. This involves fighting the Radiance boss which by all reports is also super-fucked. I will take it on because I like a challenge but I’m blase about whether or not I’ll see it through. I’ve taken on and beaten similarly reviled bosses like Orphan of Kos (Bloodborne) and Sword Saint Isshin (Sekiro) but those took me a good couple of days and probably 150 tries each, and I am WAY better at 3D action RPGs then I am at 2D action platformers.

Anyway, Hollow Knight is a great game and I applaud the developers but it has never been more clear to me that some games ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE. The craziest thing is that these aren’t even the absolute hardest parts of the game. There’s an even more extreme version of the White Palace called “The Path of Pain” and a whole other boss-rush DLC which includes super souped-up versions of the games worst bosses back to back. I will very likely just leave it at my lowly 105% completion out of a possible 119%. Some people are clearly suckers for torture.

Moving on, in the vein of souls-like games I picked up the newly released Mortal Shell, and am looking at getting Ashen, which is a well-reviewed souls-like finally ported from PC to consoles late last year. I’ve also got the DLC for Control and Nioh to look forward to, as well as Days Gone (which I finally purchased for the deep discount of $25 aussie buckaroos). There’s the usual offerings from Ps Plus which occasionally spit out something good.

Finally, I have my eye on the Avengers game due for release early September, but it’s a wandering eye of late given the very mixed feelings that reviewers have offered about the Beta (which I haven’t played). I love the idea of the game but this is feeling much less like a day one purchase then it did a few months back.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson on how Mortal Kombat broke the video-game movie curse

Huh, my entire Jedi Fallen Order post went up in smoke.

Also available here

https://boards.theforce.net/threads/what-was-the-last-videogame-you-beat.18864661/page-124#post-56852570

 

Yeah your post was here Ben.

My guess is you must have editted it and somehow convinced the forum it was banned words by doing so.

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Ben

JRCarter wrote:

Director Paul W.S. Anderson on how Mortal Kombat broke the video-game movie curse

Ehhh… nice try Anderson, but nah, it didn’t…

I’d consider Prince of Persia the one movie that “broke the curse”, but no one would agree because it flopped… however, it was an actual movie, with a plot, and it was actually pretty good… I never understood the hate.

Jon wrote:

I never understood the hate.

Probably something to do with the fact that it’s called the “Prince of Persia” yet starred Jake Gyllenhaal.

The best videogame movie is Casablanca.

Martin Smith wrote:

Dave wrote:

It’s basically like a videogame version of It’s A Knockout.

I’m too young to know what that is. ;)

I’m not. 😂

It was very popular in the early 80s in a lot of places. They called it ‘Telematch’ here and ‘Jeu Sans Frontiers’ in France and actually Fall Guys is probably a mix of both, the big wobbly costumes plus the Takeshi’s Castle idea of whittling the numbers down to a final winner.

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Dave

Martin Smith wrote:

Jon wrote:

I never understood the hate.

Probably something to do with the fact that it’s called the “Prince of Persia” yet starred Jake Gyllenhaal.

Huh… he looks persian?? Wow, if that was the issue, then people are dumb.

There is the Avengers game coming out Sept. 4…

I heard some mixed reviews on the “beta” version that was released early to try out.
Like most people, I will wait for a time and get it if the word of mouth is good.

It is said to take up 45GB on the PC.

Fascinating review of the new Battletoads game, which sounds an absolute mess.

Battletoads review – reboot of the century or epic level troll?

(Metro has some pretty aggressive ads now and an adblock detector, so use the reader mode function of your browser).

“All difficult questions with no right answers. The questions for Battletoads are equally irresolvable: who wanted it and is being so inane and vacuous a feature or a bug?”

Color me unsurprised… it looks like a bad flash game. Shame… specially since how good SoR4 came out… But I ain’t touching this Battletoads game with a ten foot pole.

Oh, also, PSA: All DC games are on discount for this weekend because of the fandome event. I’m assuming it’s the same throughout all consoles.

Another novel that’s been adapted into a video game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1398100/Orwells_Animal_Farm/

JRCarter wrote:

Another novel that’s been adapted into a video game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1398100/Orwells_Animal_Farm/

I can’t imagine that being fun regardless of which character you play as.

I mean, unless you’re a total asshole and playing Napoleon.  that would probably be enjoyable.  If you’re an asshole.

I played a couple of hours of the Avengers beta. It was okay I guess. A bit button mashy.

Its clear to me though that this is in not representative of the final product and im not sure why review sites are takimg it that way. I mean, there are basic gameplay mechanics which are locked?

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Al-x

I just saw the preview of Gotham Knights at DCFandome. Looks more rpg and less platformy. Features 4 main Characters and offers Co-op action between Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood. Beautiful graphics and fight choreography. May be 1st Gotham game I purchase.

I enjoyed all the Arkham games, but not sure about this. Feels like a step down with the focus on the sidekicks.

After a few weeks of triple AAAAAAAAA gaming, have varied my gaming diet and returned to Pillars of Eternity.

Before that, returned to Monster Hunter World, did some hunts and, in an expedition, got revenge on Pink Rathian.

Back in PoE, finished a couple of quests, one involving a massive fight with a dragon and 8-9 other enemies. Added some more pieces to Caed Rua, executed a bad visitor, dealt with an attack, got access to bounties and did two of t

As to Gotham Knight….

As to what they showed, I’m not the best at spotting it but wasn’t seeing anything that said why this would be PS5, looked within the ability of PS4.

Looks to be more effective synthesis than innovative – 4-players online with optional team-up, Arkham’s combat system, levelling of abilities, overt and covert options – all standard stuff. The one point I’m not convinced of is enemy scaling as that can render level systems pointless, better to go with Ghost of Tsuschima’s system instead.

Looks fun enough, could be good.

It’s the team that did Arkham Origins rather than the main team that did Asylum, City and Knight, right?

I imagine that, like Origins, they’ve just taken the basic model of the last game and added some new characters and cosmetic differences. So on that basis you’d think a PS4 release likely alongside PS5.

“Gotham Knights is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X next year, and will be playable solo or in co-op, Warner Bros. said in a news release.”

From here:

https://www.polygon.com/2020/8/22/21395684/gotham-knights-batman-court-of-owls-game-release-date-wb-montreal-dc-fandome

 

 

I mean, it’s been a while, so I’m good with them taking the Knight model and running with it. It looks pretty good, but I need to see more because honestly it’s gonna depend a lot on what they do with the story in terms of gameplay, as in will it be a campaign with chapters where you play certain characters? or will it be a campaign that you can play (and replay) with different characters… that kind of thing.

This looks like a lot of fun.

Huh… so we’re getting two Arkham-likes at more or less the same time… I gottta say the SQ one looks better than the Gotham Knights one… but sure, why not…

I’m a bit bummed out because I was hoping for an Injustice 3 announcement, but we got the Gotham Knights instead… oh well… hopefully IJ3 is in the works.

It is odd to release trailers for both so close to each other, but presumably the actual releases will be more staggered.

On previous form, the Suicide Squad game will probably offer something fresh and more innovative compared to Gotham Knights, which looks like little more than a reskin of Arkham Knight.

Wouldn’t be surprised if the SQ game was next-gen only as a result.

Just checked and it looks like Gotham Knights is 2021 and the Suicide Squad game is 2022 (and is indeed next-gen only).

ah yeah, that makes more sense… ah well… maybe next year we’ll get an IJ3 announcement… I reckon MK11’s dev cycle is nearing its end. I just hope they ARE planning on doing one more… =/

Dave wrote:

Wouldn’t be surprised if the SQ game was next-gen only as a result.

He did it, Jon got people using SQ.  😂

[Jon]

I think it might be time for a new thread… =P

Oh nevermind… the thread is acting wonky…

Also:

garjones wrote:

Dave wrote:

Wouldn’t be surprised if the SQ game was next-gen only as a result.

He did it, Jon got people using SQ.  😂

fuck yeah!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Jon.

Ive bern playing Mortal Shell.

Its okay. I havent mastered the mechanics or experimented with the other builds/shells yet.

So far its not too hard as lomg as youre patient, which is the core of soulslikes, but i havent found too many surprises.

It does scratch the datk souls itch, and its only $30 so not too taxing on the wallet