Your 2016 Gaming Diary

[Hero-of-Time]

Finished Severed just now and got the Platinum. Wonderful game. Slight shortcomings but they can be neglected. It's a must-have for every Vita owner.

 

Currently Playing

____________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) long-term playthrough

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) long-term playthrough

Enter the Gungeon (PS4) long-term playthrough

Alienation (PS4) long-term playthrough

 

Persona 4 Golden (PSVita)

Table Top Racing: World Tour (PS4)

Super Exploding Zoo (PS4/PSVita)

 

 

Completed

____________________________________

 

January

________________________________________________

Bastion (PS4/PSVita)

Tearaway (PSVita)

Transistor (PS4)

Life is Strange (PS4)

Ether One (PS4)

Tales from the Borderlands (PS4)

Defense Grid 2 (PS4)

Grimd Fandango Remastered (PS4)

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PS4)

Rogue Legacy (PSVita) "last-trophy-run"

Dust: An Elysian Tale (PS4)

 

February

________________________________________________

The Wolf Among Us (PS4)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 2

Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)

Peggle 2 (PS4)

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Cadence+Melody Zones 1-4; Cadence All-Zones-Mode

 

March

________________________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Melody+Bard All-Zones-Mode

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 4 and 5

The Unfinished Swan (PS4)

Limbo (PS4)

Assault Android Cactus (PS4)

Salt and Sanctuary (PS4)

 

April

________________________________________________

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Master Prestige

 

May

________________________________________________

Alienation (PS4)

Nioh - Alpha Demo (PS4)

Dark Souls III (PS4)

Hitman GO (PSVita)

Severed (PSVita)

 

Put on hold

____________________________________

GTA: Vice City (PS4)t

Divinity: Original Sin (PS4)

This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4)

Flame Over (PSVita) long-term playthrough

Dark Cloud (PS4)

Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4)

 

 

Congrats! It really is a cracking game.

[bob]

Spent some more time playing Diablo 3 at the weekend, and Assassins Creed Syndicate. Both are fun, but I'm really enjoying the latter. I just love AC games - the freedom to explore cities from the past, it's so much fun. It really is a stunning game too. I keep just randomly stopping and looking at streets and scenes in the game when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

 

Finished the main quests in Whitechapel and got ma train, then spent a while wandering around Southwark. Used up all my money upgrading the 'pubs' aspect of the gangs page - I seem to remember from AC2 that this is the best way to go, get a steady income and you'll have mo money, less problems, in no time.

[Hero-of-Time]

Spent some more time playing Diablo 3 at the weekend, and Assassins Creed Syndicate. Both are fun, but I'm really enjoying the latter. I just love AC games - the freedom to explore cities from the past, it's so much fun. It really is a stunning game too. I keep just randomly stopping and looking at streets and scenes in the game when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

 

Finished the main quests in Whitechapel and got ma train, then spent a while wandering around Southwark. Used up all my money upgrading the 'pubs' aspect of the gangs page - I seem to remember from AC2 that this is the best way to go, get a steady income and you'll have mo money, less problems, in no time.

 

Glad to see you're enjoy AC: Syndicate. It was a real return to form ( although I had no issues with AC 4, Rogue or Unity ) and it's just a shame that they are taking a year off from the series.

[bob]

Glad to see you're enjoy AC: Syndicate. It was a real return to form ( although I had no issues with AC 4, Rogue or Unity ) and it's just a shame that they are taking a year off from the series.

Yeah but it does give me time to catch up! I really liked the look of Unity, but skipped it due to all the problems. I might go back and play it since I'm enjoying this one so much, and really like the Paris setting.

[Hero-of-Time]

Yeah but it does give me time to catch up! I really liked the look of Unity, but skipped it due to all the problems. I might go back and play it since I'm enjoying this one so much, and really like the Paris setting.

 

I played Unity a fair few months after launch and it was flawless. The patches they implemented must have done the trick because I certainly didn't see any issues. I would recommend you give it a go at some point, especially if you like the series.

[Tales]

I played it from day one and didn't have any problems. Think it might been mostly a pc issue.

[Ganepark32]

Managed to finish up a couple of games over the last week to kick start May off.

 

First up, I started up and finished Shadow Complex Remastered. I remember playing the demo for this on the 360 back when it was originally released but never bought it despite liking what I played. Thought it was time to remedy that and with it being re-released on the PS4, it meant I finally got a chance to sit down and play the full thing.

 

I’m a fan of the Metroidvania style games but usually what happens is that as I get nearer to the end, I find that they start to lose their steam and things start to drag. And sadly, this was the case here.

 

Maybe it’s my dwindled apathy towards the game after finishing it or maybe I didn’t pay attention but for the life of me I can’t remember anything story wise or the names of the characters but that speaks volumes, I feel, for the attempt at story writing here. Essentially, you’re out hill walking with some woman and go down into some caves only for the woman (I think her name’s Claire) gets captured by some secretive operation thing and you take it upon yourself to rescue her and, subsequently, save San Francisco from being wiped off of the face of the map. It’s a very loose narrative and one that just dissipates into nothingness which is fine as it means that you’re never really bogged down with exposition and the like and instead, can simply get on with the game.

 

The game is Metroidvania down to the core presenting you with an interconnected world and allowing you incremental access to parts of it after you unlock new items, but also giving you the opportunity to go hunting out collectibles and upgrades to further your arsenal and beef up your armour or weapons. The main different between the games it bases its template on and what’s on offer here is that the environments you’ll be running and shooting your way through offer a depth of field to give each room/cavern a sense of actually being 3d and not just simply having everything working on a 2 dimensional plain. It works well for the most part, having enemies come from doors and such in the background and the game suitably switches aim to the background when you’re aiming your gun in the general direction of the enemy soldiers. However, sometimes this corridor for aiming at enemies in the background is so narrow that it can be more of a frustration than anything else. One boss battle in particular (against a spidertank which was just before you get the foam upgrade) makes use of this technique for most of the fight and I found it to be more annoying and more trial and error than anything else (thank god for grenades).

 

The instances for the use of this gameplay element aren’t ladled on thickly so you’ll only come across them now and again but it’s still something which could have done with a little tweaking.

 

Where the Metroid games present a variety of environments for you to play through, here you’re more or less confined to caverns, military barracks/rooms and factory style environments. Not exactly the greatest amount of variety and it all melds together making it a little hard to keep track of where you are and giving you a strong sense of déjà vu.

 

In the end, think I finished the game with 50-something % of items collected. Might go back in to nab the last lot but thinking a break is necessary. It was a decent game but I think I could’ve maybe waited for a sale on it.

 

Next up, I picked up Koi (PS4). Was wanting something a little more relaxed to play and this certainly fit the bill. There’s not much to the game, it can easily be finished in a sitting of an hour or 2, but I enjoyed the experience. You essentially just swim about, shepherding other koi to flowers of the same colour to make them bloom. Pretty simple but the game throws in a couple of small obstacles to slow the progress, such as black koi which attack you, sparking wires and having to swim upstream against a current.

 

It plays reasonably well and there’s a couple of little hidden collectibles throughout the levels to go back and collect if you don’t grab them first time round, particularly jigsaw pieces which help to flesh out the story.

 

All in all, a pretty decent first effort for the first game from a Chinese dev studio on a home console. Sure, there could’ve been more to it but for something to relax to, it hit the spot. The music especially helped on that front as the game has a beautiful soundtrack of Chinese music.

 

Finally, picked up The Park, but in this instant I really wished I hadn’t bothered. You play a mother who has taken her son out on a day out to the amusement park only for him to go running back in at closing time and you end up having to track him down. As you enter, though, things start to go strange and the once nice park becomes run down and abandoned. What follows over the next hour or so is the story of a mother who is slowly descending into madness leading you to question the whole story and what’s actually going on.

 

On the surface, it really nails that tense and creepy atmosphere with the park. Everything is suitably dilapidated and when you go on to the ride, the creepiness factor definitely shoots up. By the end, though, the devs have resorted to using cheap scares and it dilutes what could have been a powerful and intense narrative.

 

There’s not much to this game, you’ll walk around the park, go on the rides and as you do so, you’ll start to experience tremors as creepy goings-on happen and you’ll hallucinate things. But other than reading some newspapers, letter or reports strewn around the place, there’s very little to the game. The suspense of something big happening is never realised and thus the setting and story don’t really come to an appropriate conclusion. It’s a shame because those two aforementioned things are strong in design and scope, just a shame that there’s little to go on once you get down to it and nothing if you go back for a second go.

 

Wishing I had waited for this to be half price or something because even at the discounted price of £8.99, I felt ripped. At least they didn’t go the whole Gone Home price tag line but even still, I’d have liked something a bit more cohesive for my buck.

 

Completed

January

Axiom Verge (Started Dec. 2015)

Three Fourths Home: Extended Edition

Resogun* (Rookie complete, 3 difficulty settings to go)

Super Exploding Zoo

Among The Sleep

Amplitude

Just Cause 3 (Started Dec. 2015)

Fallout 4 (Started Nov. 2015)

Flower

 

February

The Witness (Platinum get)

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Submerged

Rainbow Six Siege (Situations Completed)

Firewatch

Unravel

 

March

Hotline Miami

SOMA

The Fall

Murdered: Soul Suspect (Platinumed)

Uncharted 2 Remastered

 

April

Uncharted 3 Remastered

Republique (PS4)

Shutshimi

Teslagrad

Volume (Platinumed)

Mirror's Edge (PS3)

Blues and Bullets - Episode 1 & 2 (of 5)

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

 

May

Shadow Complex Remastered

Koi (PS4)

The Park (PS4)

 

 

And with that, I've surpassed the number of games I completed last year already (Only managed 30 last year). Should probably get back to playing Far Cry Primal at some point, just haven't been in the mood for doing so. Stuck on The Division the other day and just found it dull so that may well become the first game I desert this year. Probably just stick with trying to have a successful campaign on Invisible Inc., although I screwed up again yesterday and all my agents were KIA. I will persevere though I finish it at some point.

[killthenet]

Finished Affordable Space Adventures last night. I had so much fun playing it, was really disappointed when it ended! Love how alone you feel and how desolate the environment can be and it was a real challenge at times too. I'd been wanting to play it for ages, and it was totally worth the wait.

 

Next up is the Ico HD remaster on the PS3.

[Tales]

Should update before I start forgetting what I've played lately.

 

Bought Nights of Azure along with the Republique. Didn't know what else to do before Uncharted 4 so I stepped into Gamestop and paid their blood prices for two games I was semi interested it. A bit buyers remorse for Nights of Azure because of the price, but after 40 hours of play I feel pretty good about it. It's been a while since played one of these weird JRPGs with the mandatory minimum clothing and Bouncing Boob Technology. The story was ok once I ignored the fact that the game takes place in an unsunk Atlantis like island in the middle of the North Sea with no further explaination as of why the island is there. And the entire game's dialogue is in Japanese, although I usually read the text and click away anyway in other games so that wasn't that much a problem. Combat is pretty basic with some hack'n' slash/button mashing and monster management but it was fun for what it was. I don't know if it's one the better once in this genre, but I had fun with it. Platinum #62

 

Also tried to finish Republique. I liked the game a lot in the beginning. Good sneaking game, the world is a lot different though, but it is a bit similar to Watch Dogs, where you use cameras to observe the surroundings for Hope as well as using the cameras to hack and such. The entire game is from the point of view from the cameras, even when controlling the main girl, Hope, but it works very well. Unfortunately the lag when changing camera is too long in some section. Three-four seconds might not sound like much, but it is when half the game consist of changing cameras. And every time the game autosaves, it brings up the menu, which I have to exit to contiue. Mights just be a bug in my game though, but with the frequency and random intervall of the autosaving it got frustrating fast. Anyway, I didn't get the finish the game in time. Near the end of chapter 2, of 5, I had to make a choice, and there's a trophy for each choice. I was told in order to get the other one, you just exit and return, then make the other choice. But when bring up the load menu, I get an error and am sent back to the XMB. When I return, my last save is from mid chapter 1. So either the error deleted the autosave, or it saved for no reason at all.

I want to finish it, but it has to wait. It is a good, fun game though.

 

Also played ps plus game Table Top Racing. It's not bad, but I don't see myself continuing on it or plat it unless I really don't have anything else to play.

 

But I played a bit on Tropico 5 and I will probably play more of it in the future.

 

Haven't done more than the first two mission, but I've completed one sandbox game I had a lot of fun with.

 

 

 

It looks worse than it shows. Almost a quarter is homeless(I guess building skryscrapers for poor, homeless people is bad city management :P), almost 200 are unemployed with 200 jobs available. But it's fun though and I wil try again later or see if I can solve the issues with the current city.

 

By the way, I won't list ps plus games I didn't play for more than five minutes.

 

Lego the Hobbit - platinum, started last year

Star Wars Battlefront - lv 60

Grim Fandango - platinum

Rogue Galaxy - platinum

Gravity Rush - platinum

 

Firewatch - 100%

Flower - finished

Final Fantasy Type 0 - platinum, started last year

Far Cry Primal - platinum

Heavy Rain - platinum

 

Beyond Two Souls - platinum

Bastion - unfinished

Banner Saga - unfinished

Pokemon Yellow - unfinished

Rune Factory 4 - winter, year 2

 

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered - platinum

Uncharted 2 Remastered - platinum

Uncharted 3 Remastered - chapter 14

Mousecraft - 100%

Watch Dogs/Bad Blood - platinum(started last year)/100%

 

Witcher 3: Hearts and Stone - started last year, finished

Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yeti - 100%

AC: Syndicate/Mahajara pack - 100%(started last year)/100%

Nights of Azure - platinum

Republique - mid chapter 1

 

Table Top Racing - 2 of 6 championships

Tropico 5 - start of campaign, a few sandbox games

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2016 by Tales

[Hero-of-Time]

Over the past couple of days i've been picking away at various stages on Runbow. I finished it last week but I figured I would try and 100% all the stages. Last night I finished doing this.

 

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You must have JavaScript enabled on your device to view Miiverse posts that have been embedded in a website. View post in Miiverse

 

Next up is a game that i've been wanting to play for a while. It's called Actual Sunlight (Vita) and it's a very dark visual novel type game. It deals with the subjects of depression and suicide, so certainly not a game to play if you want to be in a happy mood. The game even warns about the subjects it will tackle before you start the game and asks if you are sure you want to play it.

 

The game is pretty short. You can play through it within a couple of hours or so, nabbing all the trophies as you go. The game can be very intense at times, so I think the play time is about perfect for what it sets out to achieve.

 

I think the game gives a great insight as to what people who suffer from depression actually think about and go through on a daily basis. A real unique experience but certainly not for everyone.

 

Didn't know what else to do before Uncharted 4

 

Haha. I love it how some of us are just playing a few smaller games while we all wait for Uncharted to drop. The wait will soon be over.

Edited May 10, 2016 by Hero-of-Time
Automerged Doublepost

[Jimbob]

Started and finished Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception in preparation for Uncharted 4. Overall, not a bad game. Thought the final battle was easier than previous battles, however

 

Wasn't a fan of the supernatural stuff, nor the spider chases. Bit buggy in places, got caught in a well

 

 

Overall, not too bad.

[killthenet]

Completed Ico last night, had so much fun playing it. There were one or two issues with imprecise controls from time to time, but the level design, art style and sound design more than made up for those slight gripes. I loved how minimalist it was, forgoing any kind of UI and having very little dialogue. It's funny to see how it is both influenced by Zelda and a huge influence on later Zelda games, like 'Twilight Princess' - especially in the design of Midna and the Twili people. I don't know why it took me so long to play it, as I was definitely aware of it and interested in it when it came out and my brother owned a copy for the PS2, so I've had the opportunity to play it before but it's taken getting a PS3 to make me take the plunge.

 

Next up from the backlog is 'Metroid Prime'. I seem to be inadvertently be working my way through the best games of 2001/02.

Edited May 11, 2016 by killthenet

[bob]

Progressed to the part where you get the grapple in Ass Creed: Syndicate.

 

It feels a bit....underwhelming if you've just come off playing Just Cause. Very limited. But i suppose they get marks for trying to mix things up a bit. It also feels a bit cheaty, since AC is a game all about climbing, and this cuts out a load of that. Still, never mind. I don't have to use it i suppose.

[Blade]

I completed Twilight Princess HD yesterday. I felt very meh about it, see my thoughts in the thread. It was good to get some usage out of the Wii U though!

[drahkon]

I took a break from Uncharted 4 and played Call of Duty: Black Ops III Multiplayer to finish up the final challenges for a certain weapon camouflage.

Short explanation: Get 100 headshots/100 one-shot-one-kills with every weapon and after that complete 5 more challenges for each (with the knife you have to get 200 kills and then 5 more challenges), then you acquire the Dark Matter Camouflage.

 

 

I did it

 

As I mentioned in the dedicated thread: I've already spent more than 200 hours with the multiplayer and I won't stop in the near future. : peace:

 

Currently Playing

____________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) long-term playthrough

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) long-term playthrough

Enter the Gungeon (PS4) long-term playthrough

Alienation (PS4) long-term playthrough

 

Persona 4 Golden (PSVita)

Table Top Racing: World Tour (PS4)

Super Exploding Zoo (PS4/PSVita)

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)

 

 

Completed

____________________________________

 

January

________________________________________________

Bastion (PS4/PSVita)

Tearaway (PSVita)

Transistor (PS4)

Life is Strange (PS4)

Ether One (PS4)

Tales from the Borderlands (PS4)

Defense Grid 2 (PS4)

Grimd Fandango Remastered (PS4)

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PS4)

Rogue Legacy (PSVita) "last-trophy-run"

Dust: An Elysian Tale (PS4)

 

February

________________________________________________

The Wolf Among Us (PS4)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 2

Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)

Peggle 2 (PS4)

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Cadence+Melody Zones 1-4; Cadence All-Zones-Mode

 

March

________________________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Melody+Bard All-Zones-Mode

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 4 and 5

The Unfinished Swan (PS4)

Limbo (PS4)

Assault Android Cactus (PS4)

Salt and Sanctuary (PS4)

 

April

________________________________________________

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Master Prestige

 

May

________________________________________________

Alienation (PS4)

Nioh - Alpha Demo (PS4)

Dark Souls III (PS4)

Hitman GO (PSVita)

Severed (PSVita)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) acquired the Dark Matter Camouflage

 

Put on hold

____________________________________

GTA: Vice City (PS4)

Divinity: Original Sin (PS4)

This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4)

Flame Over (PSVita) long-term playthrough

Dark Cloud (PS4)

Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4)

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

From the Uncharted 4 (PS4) thread...

 

The adventure is over. What a game! What a freaking game! Absolutely amazing experience. The animations, story, voice acting, music, set pieces....Naughty Gods indeed!

 

The gameplay took an interesting turn with this instalment and I think we have finally come full circle with the Tomb Raider franchise. Originally, Tomb Raider was about exploration. Uncharted then copied bits of this and added a bit of Hollywood flair to it. Fast forward and Tomb Raider reboots and takes what Uncharted was doing and dials it up a notch. Finally, Uncharted 4 arrives and scales back the combat in favour of exploration.

 

I'm absolutely gobsmacked by the quality of the facial animations. This really drew me into the story of the game and feel for each of the characters. Case in point...

 

When Elena and Drake find the Pirates all dead off drinking the poison in the cups, Drake gets really excited and Elena looks really sad. From her facial reactions I took that she realised that this was the spark that Drake was missing in his life and maybe she was holding him back as she hadn't seen him this excited in a long time.

 

All of that was taken away by me simply by a look that she gave to Nate

 

 

As for the ending...

 

The last boss fight was amazing. Certainly one of the best ( if not the best ) in the Uncharted series.

 

I love it how Sam survived. I'm happy they didn't go the cliche route of a sacrifice for the greater good.

 

No word of a lie, I was welling up at the end of the game. Seeing them all happy, with a kid, and living a peaceful was beautiful to watch. The faint jingle of the Uncharted theme playing as Nate told his daughter his tales was enough to nearly bring this grown man to tears.

 

 

Naughty Gods, I salute you!

 

Now, let the trophy hunt commence.

 

Multiplayer done. Misc. trophies unlocked. Platinum obtained.

 

 

I put a bit more time into Pocket Card Jockey (3DS) over the weekend but I think i'm done with the game. The random elements and awful dialogue have pushed me away.

 

I was looking into the things like the random elements and the increase in prices on the shop and found out that the game used to be on mobiles over in Japan. I wonder if there were microtransactions for the mobile version? This would explain the random nature and increase in the shop prices. I imagine you could buy the shop goods with real money and the random nature of the game is there to keep you playing. If they weren't in the mobile game then I have no idea why they have designed the game like this.

 

I was really looking forward to the game when it first was shown and was very excited to see it arrive to these shores. Sadly, the game just doesn't do it for me and it's hands down my biggest disappointment of the year so far.

 

After Uncharted was done, I was looking for something a little more meatier. Valkyria Chronicles Remastered turned up Saturday but I wasn't in the mood for a SRPG. However, I was in the mood to play a RPG and nearly started The Witcher 3 but decided to go with a more Japanese flavour and went with Rogue Galaxy (PS4). Sorry, @Blade.

 

I played this back in the day on the PS2 ( actually imported the US version ) but I never did finish it. To be honest I don't think I got very far into the game. I think it may have been due to the action battle system, rather than a turn based one.

 

The game looks lovely in HD but then, it is a Level 5 game after all. The voice acting is also top notch and in true Level 5 tradition they have some great accents kicking about. Listening to Zegram has been a bit of a pain though. I've heard his voice before but just can't place in what game it was!

 

I spent ages in the first area/chapter of the game. I was trying to do a bunch of sidequests/bounties but the random battles were a bit too few and far between. It was taking ages. I didn't end up finishing 2 of the bounties but I did gain a cracking amount of exp while trying to finish them. It made the start of chapter 2 a bit easy. I do love a bit of grinding in my JPRGs.

 

I'm only on the second chapter but have certainly enjoyed what i've played so far. I'm looking forward to putting more time into this one!

 

Playing this got me wondering if we will see Dragon Quest VIII show up as a PS2/PS4 game? Seeing how great Rogue Galaxy looks in HD has me excited at the prospect of playing Dragon Quest in HD. This got me thinking about other S-E games that could make the jump and The Bouncer and FFXII popped into my head. The PS2 collection on the PS4 has so many possibilities...

[Tales]

If FFXII got HD release/PSN it would be the happiest day of my life. Want this so much!

 

Have fun with Rogue Galaxy. Btw, it isn't worth doing the bounties for the trophy, you get enough points from the special enemies at end of the game/post game. But I did as you for the first few dungeons, and got ridiculous overleveled for quite a while.

[nekunando]

I'm definitely not feeling particularly focused regarding games right now but I concluded Life is Strange on PS3 last week

 

I enjoyed it, mostly, and I liked that my decisions had consequences that were reflected throughout the duration of the game. My wife has expressed an interest in playing through it herself as she's likely to make different choices and I may enjoy experiencing those different outcomes with her

 

I'm also still in the process of hunting down the remaining medals in Starfox Zero and having a blast doing so, even if several of them seem quite obscure!

[Jonnas]

So, I'm finally done with this beast:

 

Deponia: The Complete Collection

 

Audio

 

Los geht's!

Also known as the "Deponia Trilogy", this is actually a collection of three games by German developer Daedalic. It was originally supposed to be one game, but it was so big, they split it into three (launched between 2012-2013). They eventually launched the collection at full price, with some extras included.

 

I originally played the first game (just "Deponia", but retroactively renamed Welcome to Deponia) a couple of years ago. I liked it enough to buy the entire collection late last year, and have been playing through the other two games (Chaos on Deponia and Goodbye Deponia, respectively) since January or so.

CoD was actually the first game I completed this year (the third game was pretty long and difficult).

The setting is Deponia, a planet filled with the trash of a once-thriving civilization. A space station called Elysium is a paradise of sorts where the high-class folk live, isolated from the rest. The protagonist is Rufus, a mechanical whiz from Deponia who dreams of going to Elysium. The plot starts when Rufus' latest attempt at escaping actually causes a girl from Elysium to fall into Deponia.

This, basically.

 

This is a point&click, as is usual with Daedalic. They tend to have a traditional approach to genre, inspired by classics such as Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle. Much like those two examples, Deponia is pretty cartoony and comedic in nature, though the writers also take comedic cues from stuff like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

 

The art style is colourful, and the animations are pretty well done. They're fairly basic in the first game, but they improve immensely in the sequels.

 

The gameplay is usual fare: take random stuff from the ground, steal random stuff from people's houses, combine items randomly until you find something, all with the goal of tricking someone, or getting items into the hands of people who want them. They also include Layton-style minigames peppered throughout the plot, which are a nice change of pace. They range from genuinely challenging to "easy-but-funny".

 

They play with the formula from time to time (especially in the later games), but that's the main gist of it. Puzzles follow cartoony logic, main character makes a joke when describing items, etc. The catch in the middle of all this is...

This is actually the second JFK reference in the game

...Rufus is an arsehole. A wanker. A downright plonker. Essentially, he actually is written like someone who tricks and steals stuff from other people for selfish goals. And this is not a case of "Jerk with a Heart of Gold", he really doesn't give a shit. He's barely better than the villains.

 

Much of humour comes from this, the sheer audacity of some of the things Rufus pulls (and says). The beginning "merely" has him cause mayhem in his home town by destroying some buildings, but as the plot progressed, they kept finding new lines for him to cross, ranging from animal cruelty to invasive surgery to...worse.

 

It's black humour, essentially, and it doesn't pull any punches. Most of it works (in fact, I found myself laughing out loud a few times), but when it doesn't, it can leave a really bad taste in your mouth.

 

Audio

 

Platypusses! Or Platypi? Platypeople? Yeah, I think the last one applies here.

There're also some neat extras here. For starters, The Complete Journey provides something I absolutely love: Developer's Commentary. This one gets especially silly, as the director may provide genuine insight into the writing/animation/design process on one screen, and then on the next one just pick up his guitar and play a full-length song instead.

 

The achievements are pretty cool, I've dedicated some time to getting them all. They're usually some joke hidden in the game (for example, if you use the sunglasses on a pile of garbage for no reason, you get a bizarre Terminator reference), but there are a few that require you to scour the backgrounds for well-hidden collectibles.

 

Another cool thing (for me, at least) is that the game was originally made in the German language, meaning I can put the audio in German and text in English. This was pretty important in helping me improve my German while here in Frankfurt.

 

Unfortunately, it means that some jokes and puns may not have translated as well. Usually stuff related to how certain words and accents sound (there are a bunch of jokes involving a character's accent that may not sound as funny in English, for example). That said, I think the English voice actors sound fine, from what little I heard of them.

 

The English version of this line is actually a full paragraph. Seriously.

A big flaw in the series is the abundance of bugs (once again, this is usual for Daedalic). It's easy to see from the community at large that every game had a few annoying bugs that impeded progress, screwed up the layout, or something along those lines. Most of them were cleaned up in The Complete Journey, but some remain (I myself found a handful of minor ones, and one where I had to reset the game and reload).

 

Overall, I found the Deponia trilogy to be a great series, and an example of the Point&Click genre done right. No disrespect to Telltale games, or stuff like Life is Strange, but my favourite brand of P&C is the one that actually presents a big town to explore and lots of items at your disposal, and then demands some out-of-the-box reasoning to beat.

(Or a walkthrough, whatever. I don't know your life)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Freedom Planet Beaten (Last played: 15th March)

-Rayman Forever Completed (3rd May)

-Deponia: The Complete Journey Completed (14th May)

 

Currently Playing:

-Binding of Isaac + Wrath of the Lamb

-Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

 

Edited May 16, 2016 by Jonnas

[Glen-i]

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I played through Super Metroid on the New 3DS VC recently.

It originally came out on the SNES in 1994. It tends to show up quite often whenever someone does a "Best game ever" list, and I'm willing to bet Monopoly money that the majority of Metroid fans would say that Super is their favourite.

 

I am not one of those people.

 

I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a Metroid fan, (I mean, I have already played through 4 of them this year, 5 now with this) and I am in no way implying that Super Metroid is bad. Far from it, Super Metroid is a brilliant game, but it's not my favourite Metroid game. To be honest, I'd say it ties 2nd place with Other M. (I don't care what you have to say, that's for another time.)

 

The game takes place after Metroid 2, Samus has delivered the infant Metroid she just found to the Galactic Federation after managing to not explode a planet for once. (Good for you, Samus. Way to show self-control!) and is off on her next thing to do.

However, the moment she leaves, the space colony she just left gets itself under attack. Typical...

So back Samus goes to find all the researchers dead. But good news! The infant Metroid is completely unscathed! Good thing too. If the Metroid Prime games taught us anything, it's don't let bad things get their hands on Metroids!

 

Oh... Never mind!

 

Somehow, Ridley is still alive, and not robotized for some unexplained reason. (Gee, it's almost like this game came out before the Prime games...)

He jacks the infant Metroid and flies to Planet Zebes, where Metroid 1/Zero Mission happened. I gonna assume he's got his own spaceship, he had one in Zero Mission, so he clearly can't breathe in space.

Samus then proceeds to blow up the Space Colony because Ridley's been there, which means it stinks of Space Dragon and is unsalvageable for that reason alone.

 

So Samus has to go back to Zebes, find Ridley, teach him that stealing is wrong and bad by firing Super Missiles down his throat, and just for kicks, blow up Zebes again. Because some planets suck so much, they just need to explode twice!

 

The one thing I will say is that this game has the best atmosphere in Metroid history. You truly do feel alone with absolutely no idea where to go. Well, OK, I've played this so many times, I actually do know where to go, but that's just me and my creepy Metroid Memory. My point still stands.

 

The music is great too! From the eerie, yet somber Maridia theme to the strangely funky Brinstar theme, this game has a wide variety of tunes to accompany your aimless wandering.

 

The world design is top notch too! Zebes is a truly massive place with all sorts of hidden goodies to find, from the series staple Energy Tanks and Missile Expansions to completely optional suit upgrades. (I really hope you find the Spazer Beam, it's so useful!)

And like so many good Metroid games, there's more than a few opportunities to sequence break the game and get stuff before you're supposed to.

My particular favourite is getting the Super Missiles before the second boss, making a normally long-winded, boring fight go by about 5 times quicker!

 

You normally need the Speed Booster for this.

 

So with all that, what stops this from being my fave Metroid game?

Well it's two things, and they are pretty small complaints.

 

First up is controlling Samus, she doesn't feel as responsive as she does in the later Metroid games. It's not that big a deal... well, until I get Space Jump, which, to this day, I still can't consistently pull off.

Sometimes the game will just decide that I didn't do it right and that Samus should go down instead. It's very annoying when I need to be precise with the jumps and I fail for the 15th thime.

 

Another problem is getting 100%, which you either need an insane amount of time or a guide to do.

The map is not helpful for this at all, and some of the hidden stuff is in the most obscure places. And there's only so much scanning everything with the X-Ray Visor can do...

 

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They are very small niggles, but it's those things that stop this marvelous game from claiming the title of "My Favourite Metroid"

It's still a brilliant game and I can't recommend it enough!

 

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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

 

[Hero-of-Time]

@drahkon I see that you've also started Rogue Galaxy ( copycat :p ). How are you finding it?

 

I put a few more hours into it yesterday and got myself up to chapter 4. I'm currently running around some prison at the moment.

 

I dunno if it's the pirates theme or just how colorful the world is but the game really reminds me of Skies of Arcadia. It plays nothing like it but the two things I mentioned really take me back to when I played that on the Dreamcast/Gamecube.

 

One of the things the game does that I love is that when you change your weapon or equipment this is shown on the character model. A bunch of other JRPGs also do this but many others don't. It's just a small little thing but it's something I do enjoy seeing.

[Happenstance]

I need to get back to Rogue Galaxy at some point. I hadnt played much (just left the starting planet) but it seemed like it would be good. Just way too many games to play at the moment!

[nekunando]

In an attempt to suppress my anxiety in the lead up to Liverpool v Sevilla in the Europa League final tonight, I've just reach the end of Rayman 2 on Dreamcast.

 

 

I originally cleared the N64 version many years ago and probably considered it to be the only Rayman game I actually really like I recently traded that version in favour of the supposedly superior Dreamcast game and while I may not have found it to be quite as great as I did all those years ago, it's still a good game and I'm glad I played through it again

[drahkon]

( copycat :p )

 

 

How are you finding it?

 

Well, the first chapter was a nice intro. Took me a while to get used to the battle system. I hope the game won't add much more to the fights.

 

It's not bad, so far. Think I'll enjoy this.

 

One of the things the game does that I love is that when you change your weapon or equipment this is shown on the character model.

 

Ohh, I love this. In every game. Jumping in RPGs, too.

 

By the way: Remote play is awesome with this I think that many PS2 games didn't use the R2/L2 buttons, so them being mapped to the touchscreen isn't a big problem.

 

Will watch Liverpool vs Sevilla tonight and play this some more

 

 

Need to get about 50% of the collectibles and several misc trophies in Uncharted 4. I hope I'll find the motivation to do that in the next two days.

[drahkon]

Finished Chapter 2 of Rogue Galaxy just now. The game has given me the ability to combine weapons which means I like it even more

 

Spend a couple of minutes with Table Top Racing: World Tour this morning. Got all stars in the first 4 cups and managed to win a couple of events in the 5th one. It's a game that I'll play occasionally.

 

Revisited Chapter 10 on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End to pick up collectibles. 12 more to go. Not sure if I'll try to get this in one or two sessions, because it's a bit tedious...Will probably space it out over the next two weeks.

 

Currently Playing

____________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) long-term playthrough

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) long-term playthrough

Enter the Gungeon (PS4) long-term playthrough

Alienation (PS4) long-term playthrough

 

Table Top Racing: World Tour (PS4)

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4)

Rogue Galaxy (PS4)

 

 

Completed

____________________________________

 

January

________________________________________________

Bastion (PS4/PSVita)

Tearaway (PSVita)

Transistor (PS4)

Life is Strange (PS4)

Ether One (PS4)

Tales from the Borderlands (PS4)

Defense Grid 2 (PS4)

Grimd Fandango Remastered (PS4)

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PS4)

Rogue Legacy (PSVita) "last-trophy-run"

Dust: An Elysian Tale (PS4)

 

February

________________________________________________

The Wolf Among Us (PS4)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 2

Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)

Peggle 2 (PS4)

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Cadence+Melody Zones 1-4; Cadence All-Zones-Mode

 

March

________________________________________________

Crypt of the Necrodancer (PS4/PSVita) Melody+Bard All-Zones-Mode

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Prestige 4 and 5

The Unfinished Swan (PS4)

Limbo (PS4)

Assault Android Cactus (PS4)

Salt and Sanctuary (PS4)

 

April

________________________________________________

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) reached Master Prestige

 

May

________________________________________________

Alienation (PS4)

Nioh - Alpha Demo (PS4)

Dark Souls III (PS4)

Hitman GO (PSVita)

Severed (PSVita)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Multiplayer (PS4) acquired the Dark Matter Camouflage

 

Put on hold

____________________________________

GTA: Vice City (PS4)

Divinity: Original Sin (PS4)

This War of Mine: The Little Ones (PS4)

Flame Over (PSVita) long-term playthrough

Dark Cloud (PS4)

Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4)

Persona 4 Golden (PSVita)

Super Exploding Zoo (PS4/PSVita)