Your 2017 Gaming Diary

[drahkon]

Started Volume on my PSVita today. Finished it and got the Platinum just now.

 

It was ok. Got a little repetetive 2/3 through the game and it was way too easy. If it wasn't for some horrible framerate issues I would've died/got caught much less.

 

Still, a nice little game to play on a Saturday while watching football

 

Time to choose my GotM for April.

 

 

Wonderful throwback to a glorious time. An absolute joy to play and I loved every minute of it.

My next singleplayer experience will be the first Nioh DLC which will be out on Tuesday. Can't wait. I've held off on NG+ and trophy hunting for this. Not sure if I'll go for the Platinum then, or wait until all the DLC is out. We'll see.

 

Currently Playing

____________________________________

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Multiplayer (PS4)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - Multiplayer (PS4)

Stardew Valley (PS4) long-term playthrough

Ghost Recon: Wildlands (PS4) co-op playthrough

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (PS4) co-op playthrough

The Witness (PS4) The Challenge

 

 

Completed

____________________________________

 

January

________________________________________________

Titanfall 2 (PS4) - GotM

Color Guardians (PS4)

Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PSVita)

Super Mario World (SNES)

Super Mario Land (GameBoy)

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GameBoy)

Shovel Knight (PSVita)

Actual Sunlight (PSVita)

 

February

________________________________________________

Dishonored 2 (PS4)

Nioh (PS4) - GotM

 

March

________________________________________________

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (WiiU)

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) - GotM

God of War III Remastered (PS4)

The Witness (PS4)

Shadow of Mordor (PS4)

Shadow Complex Remastered (PS4)

 

April

________________________________________________

Mega Man X (SNES)

Final Fantasy VII (PS4)

Yooka Laylee (PS4) - GotM

Steins;Gate (PSVita)

Volume (PSVita)

 

Platinum Trophies I might get sometime

____________________________________

Shovel Knight (PSVita)

Nioh (PS4)

Dishonored 2 (PS4)

God of War III Remastered (PS4)

 

Put on hold

____________________________________

Seraph (PS4)

 

Edited April 29, 2017 by drahkon

[lostmario]

Finished Horizon: Zero Dawn yesterday

 

What a game, the combat system, the graphics, the story, all great. This game on the PS4 Pro... oh my.

 

I didn't know what to expect with the story before I started playing but it blew me away. I ended up doing all the side quests as I was enjoying it so much.

 

Didn't get the platinum but once I've cleared some of my backlog I'll go back and have a go at it.

 

I liked Aloy and her interactions with all the side characters. I also liked how all the characters you meet during the side quests actually have a part to play in the main story.

 

The open world is probably the best I've played in and explored. None of the collectables felt like a chore to collect as they revealed more of the world you are playing in.

 

For me, this is better than Zelda: Breath of the Wild in every way. It was just a joy to play without any frustrations.

 

I was watching the end credits hoping that there would be a hint of a sequel and there it was! Sylens capturing Hades and then that massive machine. Hyped already

 

[Fierce_LiNk]

None of the collectables felt like a chore to collect as they revealed more of the world you are playing in.

 

Yeah, I particularly liked the vantage points in this game. The metal flowers were a bit more abstract, but still cool to collect. The world building is great with all of the audio logs and artefacts that you can find.

 

I'm glad to see that the game has been received very well and that it's actually sold. Should mean that we'll definitely get a sequel.

[Glen-i]

 

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a remake of the Sega Master System game "Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap" that came out in 1989.

 

At least, I think it is, hang on, let me look up Wiki.

 

Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, known in Japan as Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap is a platforming and action-adventure video game developed by Westone as part of Sega's Wonder Boy series. It was published by Sega and released for the Sega Master System in 1989 and for the Game Gear in 1992 as Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap. It was ported by Hudson Soft in 1991(1990 in North America) and was released for the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine under the name Dragon's Curse (Adventure Island in Japan). It was also ported in 1993 by Brazilian company Tec Toy under the title Turma da Mônica em o Resgate, with the game retooled to include characters from Brazilian comic book series Monica's Gang

 

Oh lord...

 

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is a side-scrolling adventure much like the Metroid games, it's non-linear and focuses on gaining abilities and figuring out where to utilise them.

This remake of Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap came out for the PS4, XBone and the Switch almost 2 weeks ago. A PC one will follow in June.

I played the Switch version. From what I've heard, they are all basically identical.

 

The game follows a wonderful lad called... Wonder Boy. Or brand new character Wonder Girl, if that's more your thing. Who names these guys? He's right about to finish a quest to defeat the Mecha Dragon. Which happens to be right at the end of the previous game, "Wonder Boy in Monster Land" (Nope, that's the title, I am not looking through those alternative names!)

Amazingly enough, he's successful! Alright! Good going! Way to go! That was a proper speedrunner performance there! Time to go home...

 

Well, that can't be good...

 

Unfortunately, our hero is hit with a curse after his gallant victory. A most dreadful curse that has transformed him into a fire breathing Lizard Man.

 

Wait, is this meant to be a curse?

 

Score! What kid doesn't want to be a fire-breathing reptile? Well, not Wonder Boy. For some reason, he isn't delighted about this and must find the Salamander Cross in order to turn back into his normal human self.

No, don't ask why... 8 year old me would have killed to be in his situation.

The story takes a step back in this game, sets up the problem (Read: Awesome stroke of luck), and plonks you in the game's world to sort it out (Read: Ruin everything).

 

It's very 80's, games couldn't waste storage space on sweeping epics back then and this remake stays very faithful to the original. (More on that later) There's certainly nothing wrong with playing a game that focuses on the gameplay, and the story serves it's purpose well.

 

Speaking of gameplay, it's time I talked about that. First things first, I've never played the original. So keep that in mind.

Like I mentioned earlier, Adventure Island is a lot like a 2D Metroid game, shortly after you get "cursed", you'll find yourself in a Village which serves as a kind of hub and it's up to you to figure out where to go. At first, you'll find many obstacles that you simply can't get past, but throughout the game, you'll get various abilities and upgrades that will allow you to reach new areas and further your exploration.

 

The main way of getting abilities is to defeat various Dragons throughout the land, when defeated, each one hits Wonder Boy with another curse that transforms him into another animal. Lizard, Mouse, Piranha, Lion, Hawk. All of them have their own abilities, form Lizard's projectile based attacks to Lion's sheer strength and wide attack range, each one has their own skills, and you have to figure out which one can help you in each area.

 

All in all, this game is an utter joy to play, it takes a bit of practice to accustom yourself to the slightly loose controls (momentum plays a small role when it comes to movement), but it didn't take me long to master the controls.

The game has a bit of challenge to it, I did die a few times, but there's plenty of secret things to find to help you on your journey. Not to mention, the numerous shops that sell you weapons and armour to help you survive out there, courtesy of a smoking pig.

 

I'd complain about the health problems, but he does look pretty cool.

 

Now, I'm not gonna lie, there are a few secrets in here that are just a little bit unfair. There's a few invisible doors that only appear once you stand in front of it and press up. But thankfully, you don't need to find these kind of doors to finish the game.

Mind you, there are other doors that appear once you find a ? Panel hidden in a nearby breakable block, but these just require you to pay a bit of attention to your surroundings.

 

The game is also pretty short, it took me about 5 and a half hours total (including deaths that sent me back to a checkpoint). But I loved every bit of it. The game manages to throw new mechanics at you throughout, and it never feels stale or outlives it's welcome.

 

Now, if you've read my other write-up's, you'd know that I'm not really one to gush about the visuals of a game. I generally find them the least important aspect. But...

 

Floating cubes? Is this a JRPG final Dungeon or something?

 

HOLY NARDS! This game is drop-dead gorgeous! Everything is hand drawn and pretty masterfully done to boot. If this game had Miiverse support I would have spammed that activity feed with so many gorgeous screenshots.

Dragon's Curse does a bang-up job of taking a 1989 game and giving it one hell of a makeover.

 

 

And if for some reason, you have no taste and don't like the visuals, well first of all, you're a monster. Secondly, don't worry. With just a tap of ZR, a cool swipe transition will happen and transform the game into it's original visuals, blocky sprites and everything, it's really cool seeing the differences between modern and retro at the touch of a button with no loading or menus. It's really swish.

You can even add scanlines and a retro monitor effect, for a truly retro experience!

 

I couldn't find a GIF, so an actual screenshot will have to do.

 

There's even an art gallery you can unlock as you progress showing off all sorts of artwork, concept art, comparisons between retro and hand-drawn sprites, and even some neat WIP animations.

 

Like this.

 

And then we move on to the music. Yep, even that got redone. And it got redone well. No, "well" is too much of an undertstatement. The soundtrack of Turma da Mônica em o Resgate rocks! You can put it partly down to the original composition, sure. But let's face it, the remixes in this game do most of the job. Here are two of my favourites.

 

 

 

Suffice to say, the soundtrack went straight on to my phone! It's a true masterpiece.

And even cooler, just like the visuals, you can swap the soundtrack between the modern and retro soundtracks with just one click of the right stick. You can even make the audio sound like it's coming from some low quality speakers, if you're so inclined to transport back in time.

 

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap is an exquisite remake, it takes the solid foundation of the original game and lavishes it with love and care to make something truly special.

To me, it has set a new benchmark for remakes of retro games.

If you enjoy retro gaming, Metroid style games or even just want to try some 2D action, play this game. You owe it to yourself as a gamer.

 

 

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - DS

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 3DS

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - 3DS

Shining Force - The Sword of Hajya - Game Gear

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - DS

Final Fantasy IX - PC

Super Mario Land - GB

Chrono Trigger - SNES

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap/Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap/Dragon's Curse/Adventure Island/Turma da Mônica em o Resgate - Switch

 

Edited April 30, 2017 by Glen-i

[Grazza]

All in all, this game is an utter joy to play, it takes a bit of practice to accustom yourself to the slightly loose controls (momentum plays a small role when it comes to movement), but it didn't take me long to master the controls.

 

Good review, Glen-i. This point in particular is something I should have pointed out. Not from a critical point of view, just in a descriptive way. Wonder Boy has always been very momentum-based, with the need to plan a certain distance ahead of any action. It's one of the things I love about it, actually, as it distinguishes the series from others. Like how trajectory adjustment is integral to Mario, and completely absent from Ghouls 'n Ghosts.

 

But yes, good point.

[Cube]

Just replayed Alan Wake followed by playing Alan Wake's American Nightmare for the first time.

 

While I admit the combat isn't amazing, Alan Wake is still a great game. I love the characters and story along with the whole manuscript thing. There's lots of twists and turns and awesome story moment. The game is just a joy to go through.

 

American Nightmare is suitably different from the first - the Night Springs pulp vibe works well. The game is only three levels which you need to replay three times, but the objectives in them are different and it's interesting to see those differences.

 

One thing I wasn't keen on in American Nightmare was the increase in live action segments. In the first, it worked well because it was only stuff you watch in TV screens - here you can see where they started going wrong which led to the awful overuse in Quantum Break.

 

The music in both games is great. Poets of the Fall do some great songs and the other included songs are pretty good, too.

 

I really hope we see Alan Wake's Return someday.

[Jimbob]

Just finished Tale from the Borderlands. One of the better Telltale Games series, i enjoyed it. It was one of them games where the story was great, characters were decent and the music just made it complete.

[Ganepark32]

Finished up a trio of indie games over the last week and a bit to close off April and start May off. Managed to just squeeze the completion of Snake Pass into April and have to say that I enjoyed it a lot. While I may not have been taken with Yooka Laylee (as perhaps the most obvious title to compare it to given that they are both ostensibly games epitomising the same era of gaming, that PS1/N64 era), I took to this more and really liked the different angle on traditional puzzle platformers with having to weave as Noodle the Snake, wrap yourself around obstacles and wind your way to grabbing the gems needed to pass through levels or even some of the trickily placed optional ones.

 

It's not a long game (15 levels to be exact, split over 4 themes of grass, water, fire and wind) but I think that bitesize helped the game get its point across effectively. It definitely didn't outstay its welcome; I'd perhaps go so far as to say I'd have liked a little more but that really falls to some poor implementation of a gimmick in the last 3 levels that feel undercooked and came off as cheap and frustrating at times. That put a bit of a dampener on the run of things and stretched out the latter part of the game unnecessarily to the point I just stopped going after the optional collectibles because of how frustrating it was having to battle with the wind mechanics.

 

But that's the only frustration to come from the game as mistakes made elsewhere while playing feel like your own thanks to simple but effective mechanics for controlling the snake and traversing the levels. Watching Noodle fall to his death, you realise your mistakes and amend for them for the next attempt and bar the examples mentioned above, you clear everything with relative easy on a second go (or first if you're slow and thoughtful about what you're doing).

 

It definitely gave that vibe of a game from that PS1/N64 era with its colourful visuals and characters. And that soundtrack, which I do believe even included some David Wise tracks if I'm not mistaken, cemented that effect.

 

I'd definitely love to see more and see then extrapolate some of the ideas into a more fleshed out experience. Well worth a look if you're either not too taken with April's other classically inspired platformer or if you're looking for more after finishing that.

 

Next up, I played through and finished GNOG, a puzzle game from Ko-op Games that centred around completing puzzles to unlock giant heads and activate them. It's a bizarre experience, once that's exemplified by the bright and colourful visuals and soundtrack both of which are fantastic, but one that's easy to grasp and enjoyable for the very short run time. There's only 9 head to solve, most of them only taking a couple of minutes and never really proving that difficult as things are relatively signposted for completing. Even when things aren't as straight forward, the answers are almost always invariably in plain sight and so you're only ever a couple of seconds away from figuring things out, especially as things tend to have set mechanics for what you can do to items in and around the heads.

 

I'd personally have liked a bit more difficulty in things as I blitzed through the game in just over an hour (and then again with another hour after they had to patch the game as trophies didn't unlock on release). Likewise, I'd have liked more substance as there's not much here for the price. Ko-op for their part have said that they'd be interested in making more if the game does well which would be a good thing but the lack of content and replayability here means many will be put off. I enjoyed it but as I say, more would have been better.

 

And finally, I finished up Little Nightmares. This has been getting a lot of good press in reviews but while I came away having enjoyed the experience, I was left with a few frustrations about the platforming and lack of explanation for things. The most apt comparison I've seen has been to Abe's Odyssey, with some Unravel thrown in, with how the game controls and plays and I'd say that's pretty accurate as there's definitely a slightly old hat platforming feel to the game for those mechanics.

 

You play a young girl known only as Six who wakes up on a ship called the Maw. How you got there and what unfolds is never really explained; there's no exposition and not a single word uttered and so when all is said and done, you're left scratching your head a bit as to what has happened and exactly why it's all happened that way. I've said it before for some indie games that while less can be more in some cases, here I really think the game misses out on an opportunity to present a stronger connection to Six and to what's happening by not having any form of narration or exposition.

 

That in itself is a shame because the setting and atmosphere that Tarsier has created is beautifully horrifying. It's paradoxically creepy yet inviting at times, unsettling you as you crawl through vents, rooms and areas in between the rooms but inviting in the level of detail of the rooms you'll scurry through. There's very much a feel of Grimm's fairytales about the look and feel of the game and its soundtrack giving a child's perspective to the bigger world and adults. Themes of hidden identity, "the mask that we wear" and cannibalism are apparent throughout and echo through some of the atrocities you'll see as you venture through the Maw and come face to face with twisted versions of humans that really do a great job of unsettling you. The noises they make as they chase after you, their expressions and their actions really hit the nail on the head for making them feel alien yet familiar.

 

It's a shame, then, that the gameplay doesn't quite hold up, falling to some sloppy platforming with a couple of light puzzle elements to things. A depth of field effect, given environments some explorability, is to the games detriment here and makes some of the platforming awkward to nail as it's hard to judge where you are in the locations. It's a jarring experience to be fleeing a foe and think you've got the jump lined up or have a turn lined up only for the depth of field to mess with you and make you miss that vital jump or bump into an object and have you get caught.

 

Much in the same way that last year's Unravel fell at a couple of hurdles for its platforming and puzzles, Little Nightmares also make some of the same mistakes. But like that game, there's a solid game here, one that's eerily enchanting and worms its fingers into you the more you play. It's shortcomings might not be completely forgivable but even with them, it's a unique twist on the horror experience and one that should be experienced by everyone.

 

January

Bastion

Hitman - Intro Pack

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Day of the Tentacle Remastered (Platinum)

Color Guardians

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter (Platinum)

Velocity 2X

Titanfall 2 (Master Difficulty playthrough, Platinum)

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (Platinum)

 

February

Steep (Platinum)

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops (PS4)

The Turing Test

Coffin Dodgers (Platinum)

Dishonored 2

Shu

Not A Hero

Thomas Was Alone (Replay)

The Little Acre

The Last Guardian

 

March

For Honor

Batman: The Telltale Series (Platinum)

Hue

Eekeemoo: Splinters of the Dark Shard (Platinum)

 

April

Rez Infinite

Mass Effect Andromeda

What Remains of Edith Finch

Everything (Platinum)

Nier Automata (Endings A and G)

Snake Pass

 

May

GNOG

Little Nightmares

 

 

I now move on to start both Dreamfall Chapters and Prey while I continue to slowly take my time with Horizon Zero Dawn, the latter of which has become one of my favourite games ever. It's making me feel the same way I felt playing The Witcher 3 in terms of how remarkable that world is and everything about it. I just wish that the release of great games would slow as I'm struggling to keep up.

[Ganepark32]

Finally saw the credits roll on Horizon Zero Dawn yesterday morning after spending a lot of the week playing it and I have to say, I'm sad to be finished it because it really was a truly fantastic game. Definitely the best I've played this year and an experience that sits right up there with The Witcher 3 as one of the best of this generation and of all time for me.

 

As I've said before, the game gave me that same feeling I got when playing TW3, in that I felt completely captivated by this world and finding out what happened in the past, what's happened now and everything else going on. I know some people have made comments about the story not being that engaging elsewhere but I thought it was fantastic and the slow reveal of things is handled beautifully. There's an attention to detail in the writing that really turns the game into a "Just an hour more" experience as you seek to gleam that extra little bit of what's happening, especially as you move into the latter part of the game and things begin to come into focus.

 

That's a level of detail that, like TW3, drew me in and made me keep playing, engaging with all of the side missions (themselves well written and really enjoyable), reading all the datapoints and listening to all of the audio logs you find along the way. At the end of the game, I was a little annoyed I'd missed a couple of the audio logs along the way as it left me wondering what I'd missed in those and that rarely happens to me with a game. It's a testament to the work Guerrilla Games have put in to this side of things. The only draw back on the story is that we saw very little of the aftermath at the end of the game and the events which unfolded. I'd have liked a little glimpse of what the world became.

 

The combat is some of the most engaging and well designed I've experienced in a game ever. I loved the weight to the bow and the attention in having to counter for drop over distance and how shots could shoot off wildly when you hadn't drawn back fully gave it an authenticity that is definitely missing in some games. I especially loved that though the weapons were kept simple, every single one of them served a purpose right through to the end and the mixing and matching of the different types of weapons, as well as the elemental options for some, gave a huge amount of dexterity to even the most simple of encounters. Being able to detach weapons from the robots themselves or turn them against their counterparts by overriding them was again simple but absolutely genius. The level of control with the combat is definitely going to ruin many a game after this as I don't see anything coming close to how beautifully designed this game is.

 

On top of this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played with a fantastic art direction and an incredible attention to detail in even the small things. My partner remarked multiple times while watching me play about how incredible it looked and I just kept wondering what it would look like if I'd been playing it on the PS4 Pro. Just insanely good visuals and the lighting work was unreal. I don't think I've ever stopped so often to take pictures and experiment with the photo mode as much as I have in a game before this. And then matching this with that beautiful soundtrack, which for the most part sits quietly in the background allowing for a more ambient experience but then cropping up to accentuate key moment, it's just a work of art. Mention has to also go to the voice work, with Ashly Burch doing a fantastic job but also to Lance Reddick who once again nailed the character he played.

 

Just a superb game that I cannot recommend enough. I've platinumed the game but the draw is still there to delve back into that world they've created so I'm happy that they're looking at doing story expansions with it. Whatever they do with that, staying with Aloy or going elsewhere in the world, I'll be there day and date to experience it all again as I can't wait.

 

January

Bastion

Hitman - Intro Pack

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Day of the Tentacle Remastered (Platinum)

Color Guardians

Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter (Platinum)

Velocity 2X

Titanfall 2 (Master Difficulty playthrough, Platinum)

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (Platinum)

 

February

Steep (Platinum)

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops (PS4)

The Turing Test

Coffin Dodgers (Platinum)

Dishonored 2

Shu

Not A Hero

Thomas Was Alone (Replay)

The Little Acre

The Last Guardian

 

March

For Honor

Batman: The Telltale Series (Platinum)

Hue

Eekeemoo: Splinters of the Dark Shard (Platinum)

 

April

Rez Infinite

Mass Effect Andromeda

What Remains of Edith Finch

Everything (Platinum)

Nier Automata (Endings A and G)

Snake Pass

 

May

GNOG

Little Nightmares

Horizon Zero Dawn (Platinum)

 

 

I'm kind of at a loss for what to play now, jumped back on to Prey after finishing Horizon but I'm in the mood for something a bit more fast paced and story rich again and while that has the latter part, it's just feeling a bit slow and lumbering by comparison. So not sure what'll be played next as I don't want to ruin what is clearly a solid game in Prey by playing it at the wrong time.

[Aperson]

Been a while...

 

Got to admit I haven't been gaming ever so much over the past month but here's what I have done.

 

Finished The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch). Definitely a fantastic game though maybe because of circumstances it hasn't really sunk in as much as it should do. Had a blast playing it though and enjoyed my time very much.

 

Played some more Fast RMX (Switch) but without being able to commit to it a lot my gaming time ended up going towards finishing Pokemon Soul Silver (DS). I beat Red then took a look at my gaming collection to see what I'd yet to finish, and Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS) was one such game.

 

After being Mission 12 which I'd been stuck on for ages I've made some solid progress and reached Mission 19. Taking a break from the game for ARMS (Switch) while the Global Testpunch is going on.

 

So, games I've beaten this year so far are:

 

Final Fantasy X

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Kingdom Hearts II

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Pokemon SoulSilver

 

Games I still have to finish with immediate interest

Fast RMX

Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Mass Effect 3

Golden Sun

 

And other games I'm looking to finish at some point are:

 

LEGO Star Wars II

Burnout 2

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Donkey Kong (Game Boy)

Edited May 30, 2017 by GenericAperson

[Ike]

5 months into the year and I've only finished 2 games, both in the same month, Dragon Quest VIII earlier this month and Breath of the Wild today...

[drahkon]

I won't finish a game in May. My time spent on gaming this month has been all over the place.

 

Games that I started:

 

Nioh DLC - It's great. But somehow I wasn't in the mood for the game after I finished the first mission.

Flinthook - Awesome. I really want to play it again but I'll wait for a patch that enables right-stick-aiming. It's available on PC. Hopefully it'll be downloadable soon for the PS4.

Darksiders Warmastered Edition - Started it mid-May but social life got in the way. Hopefully I'll get back to it some more.

 

A little annoying that I didn't finish a single game but to be honest, I don't mind that much. Spent a lot of time with my girlfriend and some mates, so gaming was mostly limited to the occasional round of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - Multiplayer.

 

Currently Playing

____________________________________

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Multiplayer (PS4)

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - Multiplayer (PS4)

Stardew Valley (PS4) long-term playthrough

Ghost Recon: Wildlands (PS4) co-op playthrough

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (PS4) co-op playthrough

The Witness (PS4) The Challenge

 

 

Completed

____________________________________

 

January

________________________________________________

Titanfall 2 (PS4) - GotM

Color Guardians (PS4)

Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PSVita)

Super Mario World (SNES)

Super Mario Land (GameBoy)

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GameBoy)

Shovel Knight (PSVita)

Actual Sunlight (PSVita)

 

February

________________________________________________

Dishonored 2 (PS4)

Nioh (PS4) - GotM

 

March

________________________________________________

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (WiiU)

Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4) - GotM

God of War III Remastered (PS4)

The Witness (PS4)

Shadow of Mordor (PS4)

Shadow Complex Remastered (PS4)

 

April

________________________________________________

Mega Man X (SNES)

Final Fantasy VII (PS4)

Yooka Laylee (PS4) - GotM

Steins;Gate (PSVita)

Volume (PSVita)

 

May

________________________________________________

none

 

June

________________________________________________

 

Platinum Trophies I might get sometime

____________________________________

Shovel Knight (PSVita)

Nioh (PS4)

Dishonored 2 (PS4)

God of War III Remastered (PS4)

 

Put on hold

____________________________________

Seraph (PS4)

 

[lostmario]

Finished the last game (Bioshock Infinite) of Bioshock: The Collection last night and it was easily the best of the 3.

 

Didn't enjoy Bioshock at all, ended up playing it on and off for about a month as it was just a chore to play, didn't like the story and any reveals in the story didn't interest me one bit, I just wanted it to end.

 

Bioshock 2 was completely different, I enjoyed the story and characters and was a bit gutted that I had to finish it. It was a nice surprise how much I enjoyed it after playing through the first game.

 

Bioshock Infinite was incredible, I'm glad they moved away from the dark rooms and corridors and went for a bright busy world. The game looks stunning and I loved exploring it's world. I liked the characters and the twists were well done even if the last one started to become clear about an hour from the end.

 

I may have to play Bioshock again, maybe it took finishing it to get used to how it played, probably explains why I enjoyed its sequels so much.

 

@Blade if you still have this, skip Bioshock 1 & 2, jump straight to Bioshock Infinite, you won't be disappointed. I remember you saying you weren't enjoying Bioshock.

Edited May 31, 2017 by lostmario

[Blade]

@lostmario

 

You're right, I stopped playing part way through it. I was struggling to get it to be honest. Its too weird and dark. Is it a horror games? Action/adventure game? Anyway, I disliked it that much I abandoned playing it. It is very rare I do that with a game.

 

After reading your post I may have a go at Bioshock 3

[Fierce_LiNk]

You'll probably enjoy Infinite, @Blade.

 

It has a much brighter colour palette than 1 and 2 and it's a bit more "welcoming", too.

 

Also, the main characters are easier to engage with. It also has one of my favourite ever soundtracks in gaming, too.

 

@lostmario, that opening and closing for Infinite! : peace:

[Aperson]

Recently completed Metroid Prime: Federation Force. I have to say, the final boss in this game doesn't do it any favours from the mass criticism this game receives. I will let my Miiverse posts do the talking.

 

 

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

 

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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

 

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Still, a boss fight against a giant Samus could be interesting if well done... shame they kept her in Morph Ball form the entire time, made her move very slowly except for occasions when using the Boost Ball and in the second and third phases making her move on Spider Ball tracks... add to the fact that why would Samus get captured by the Space Pirates in the first place?

 

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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

 

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[Glen-i]

WARNING: The following write-up is canon.

 

 

Tales of Game's presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa is a freeware turn-based RPG. It is an unofficial sequel to the SNES/Genesis sports game "Barkley Shut Up and Jam" and the family movie "Space Jam" (Yes, you read that right)

It was created with RPG Maker 2003, but later bought to Game Maker 6.1 and released in 2008.

 

Strap yourself in guys, this one is special.

 

The game is set in the year 2053, in a post-apocalyptic New York, known now as Neo New York. You play as Charles Barkley, former NBA superstar, now living in the ruined city with his son, Hoopz.

This apocalypse occurred 12 years ago, when Barkley attempted an all powerful maneuver known as the Chaos Dunk, with cataclysmic results, as it inadvertently killed most of the people in attendance.

This led to Basketball being outlawed and most of it's athletes being hunted down and killed for practicing the illegal sport.

But despite giving up his passion and living in solitude, Barkley's past catches up to him when another Chaos Dunk happens in Manhattan, catapulting Barkley into suspicion and having to flee from the B-Ball Removal Department, led by Michael Jordan.

 

Can Barkley evade capture and clear his name? Will he be able to overcome his guilt and put right what has gone so horribly wrong? Can he show the world that his true passion is not something to be feared, but something to be enjoyed?

It's an epic tale of love, danger, heroism and Basketball and is... NOPE! I can't do it! This story is utterly ridiculous. No-one's taking this seriously! How is anyone supposed to type the words "Chaos Dunk" and pretend that it's not completely hilarious? It's impossible, you ask too much! Look at the bloomin' title screen artwork!

 

It's about BASKETBALL!

 

Yes, this plot is insane, I have not exaggerated a damn thing about the plot. And it's not even close to how crazy the whole thing gets.

You know how Reggie kept going on about the Switch being a "journey" in the recent E3 spotlight? That ain't no journey. This is a journey. And I loved every damn moment of it.

The game plays the story absolutely straight, but you know full well, the creators are giggling to themselves the entire time.

And the most remarkable thing? I actually grew invested in the characters toward the end. The character development is astonishing, considering that it's a freaking story about the apocalypse that was caused by bloody Basketball!

 

 

The gameplay plays like a traditional SNES era RPG. You progress through the game, fighting enemies along the way in a Turn-based battle system.

Attacks utilise action commands, not unlike the first two Paper Mario games.

And it's great fun, I was going into this expecting something not that hot, gameplay wise, but it's utterly solid.

Now don't get me wrong, it's a freeware RPG made by an amateur development team. So naturally, there are a few flaws, the controls can be a bit clunky and it's a pretty short game. It took me 4-5 hours to slam through. But there's sidequests, all sorts of secrets to find and I was legitmately startled by a photo of sugar.

It's a great parody of RPG's and didn't even get close to outstaying it's welcome.

 

Oh, and it has one of the best Game Over screens.

 

 

Which brings me nicely to music.

The soundtrack is surprisingly epic, it absolutely does not fit the game. Then again, that's the entire point. Some of these jams would not be out of a place in an actual retail RPG. Massive kudos all around.

 

And then there's the visuals, which are, well, almost entirely stolen from other games. The sheer brazenness of it all adds to the comedy value. You just have to look at some of the screenshots to notice that. I'm pretty sure that kid is from Streets of Rage.

 

Ball Spider...

 

Every asset of this game collides together and doesn't end up being a complete mess like it really should. Instead, you get something that is far more than the sum of it's parts. The creators have managed to throw utter nonsense together and come up with one of the most memorable experiences I've seen.

Worth every penny. A shame that the "part 1" in the title was clearly a joke, I wouldn't mind playing a sequel...

 

Oh

 

And with that...

 

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - DS

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 3DS

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - 3DS

Shining Force - The Sword of Hajya - Game Gear

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - DS

Final Fantasy IX - PC

Super Mario Land - GB

Chrono Trigger - SNES

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap/Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap/Dragon's Curse/Adventure Island/Turma da Mônica em o Resgate - Switch

Tales of Game's presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa - PC

 

[Dcubed]

And with that, it's time for me to start my playthrough.

 

Needless to say, I'm certain that my thoughts will echo Glen-i's (I watched him slam and jam and it is every bit the insane masterpiece he states it to be).

 

Let's dribble! :awesome:

[Glen-i]

Let's dribble! :awesome:

 

Don't, you'll get your keyboard sticky...

[Jimbob]

Decided to finish Knack. I mean, this title has been sitting on my shelf for sometime so i thought i'd plow through it. Not much to say really, it looks pretty and all that. Controls were a little off at times, and sometimes the difficulty spike did strike me once or twice. But overall, not a bad game.

 

Edit (saves a double post)

 

Did also complete Little Nightmares just now. I enjoyed it, it's one of them games that doesn't require much thought and is simply a joy to play. Few times i slipped up, but knew what i did wrong so did it right next time and didn't slip up.

Edited June 15, 2017 by Jimbob

[Glen-i]

I suppose I've put this off for too long...

 

 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is...

You know what? You're on a Nintendo based forum, you clearly follow Ninty news to some degree. You know what this game is. So let's get on with it.

I played the Switch version and this write-up is going to have...

 

You were warned...

 

Righto, the story begins with a bloke named Link. He woke up in his bath, clearly after a crazy night. He gets out, puts on his clothes, picks up his iPad and sets off for his work meeting.

He meets an old hobo along the way who is clearly not important in any way and heads to a nearby Tower Block.

After arriving at the destination, he connects his iPad to the Wi-Fi connection and downloads a map.

Anyway, after some assignments, turns out the old hobo is his boss, who informs Link that he has been on unpaid vacation for the past 100 years and his assistant manager, Zelda, is currently trying to stop a corporate takeover by Calamity Ganon, Ltd.

 

So Link sets off to gather support from other companies in order to stop the takeover and fix all the damage this evil corporation has inflicted upon Hyrule.

OK, so the business stuff doesn't happen, but you get the idea.

 

 

There's so much to say about this game, so I'm gonna split this write-up into three sections. The Good, The Bad and The Verdict. I want it to be clear what I like and dislike about this game and feel if I focus on what I like without deviating, it'll be easier to get my views across.

 

The Good

 

There are two things I feel the story does well, the first is Zelda herself.

 

Unhelpful picture not showing Zelda's face

 

Zelda over the years has mostly been the same kind of character, typical fantasy Princess. Not as useless as Princess Peach, mind.

The biggest deviation would be Zelda from Skyward Sword, who I think is the best Zelda in the series.

This Zelda, however, definitely has a neat concept. Yes, she is a princess. But she actually has doubts about the powers her lineage supposedly gives her, choosing to put her faith in the ancient technology her kingdom has recently dug up.

She also seems to not really like Link that much, probably because he represents the exact power she has no faith in.

 

It's definitely an interesting take, and she was by far the most compelling character.

 

The second thing I liked were the memories.

You see, throughout the massive world of Hyrule, there are 12 places that are connected to what happened to Link 100 years ago, if you find one of these places, you're rewarded with a cutscene filling in some of the backstory of the game.

 

It's a great incentive and definitely does encourage you to look around a bit.

So, good marks there.

 

 

The gameplay consists of exploring the absolutely ginormous world of Hyrule. After the initial Great Plateau, you're absolutely free to go anywhere you like, (provided you don't get killed along the way) with only the final goal of reaching Hyrule Castle and defeating Ganon being the thing you absolutely must do.

There are many things you can do to help make this final goal easier, whether it be tackling the 120 shrines to increase your health and stamina, finding armour to bolster your defenses, or finding the Master Sword and conquering the Divine Beasts to make the final battle a lot more manageable.

 

But all in all, what did I actually like about playing the game? Well, the combat is definitely better than the average 3D Zelda, but it doesn't reach the lofty heights of Skyward Sword. Then again, with the combat returning to button controls, it was never gonna top SS.

 

And it goes without saying that the room for experimentation is absolutely vast. There's a veritable smorgasbord of neat little touches that help make the game more interesting to mess around with.

 

Although, most of the time you just end up killing yourself in stupid ways

 

And that's about it for what I liked about the gameplay. So I'll go ahead and comment on the visuals. It certainly is a pretty game, the art style helps the fact that this is a WiiU game after all. The character design is cool and there are some nice views to be found throughout.

As far as the music goes, this game does have some nice tracks in there, there's about three tracks I really like.

 

A lot of love and care clearly went into this game, there's no denying that. You'd have to be completely nuts to think this was a slack job.

 

And that's as far as my praises go. No doubt, some of you think that's not a lot considering how highly praised this game has been. And unfortunately, I'm gonna have to talk about...

 

The Bad

 

Not gonna lie, I'm really nervous about how this section will be recieved.

 

Perfect visual metaphor

 

Hoo boy, where do I begin? I suppose I'll start with the story.

 

Well, um, yeah. What story? Outside of the memories, there's almost no story, it's approaching Mario series levels of bareness. And when it comes to Zelda, I kind of expect something more. And dear god, that ending. What the hell? Want me to sum it up?

 

 

I get that the story is meant to be minimalist, like Zelda 1, but it was so incredibly unsatisfying.

Even when I went to get the rest of the memories and get the "Best" ending. It still amounted to nothing of interest.

 

Oh, and about those memories. After getting all 12 of them, you're informed about one more final memory.

"Alright, there's gonna be some cool little twist here" I thought to myself.

Poor, stupid, optimistic, me... It's nothing that wasn't obvious at that point anyway.

 

Oh, but we're only getting started... Now we move on to gameplay.

 

 

The open world is the biggest draw of this game, at least, I think it is. It seems to be for most people. But geez! It's so bloody massive and so bloody empty! Yes, there's loads of shrines to find and 900(!?) Korok Seeds, but there's an awful lot of nothing in between that.

 

Speaking of the Shrines, that may be my biggest issue with the game. I can overlook the Korok Seeds, I got about 160 of them and I felt that was more than enough, but the shrines, however optional they may be, pretty much need to be done. Definitely more than half of them at least. Because you'll need those Heart Containers in the end. Don't try and deny it. It's kinda like how you need to get 70 of the 120 stars in Mario 64.

 

You basically find a shrine in one of two ways...

1. You find it.

2. You complete a quest

That's all well and good, but my beef here is what's in the shrines.

So first of all, there's the combat shrines. God, these got old. Basically consists of the same fight with the same old enemy 21 bloody times!

Yep, more than a sixth of the shrines with the same old thing. Sure, some rooms have water to manipulate, etc. But it still sucks.

 

There are some shrines that I liked though, mainly the ones that require you to do something before even getting into the shrines. These were by far the best shrines, even though the majority of them are technically empty. But the "Puzzle" was getting there in the first place. These make up about 30 in total.

 

The rest though... The first 4 tutorial shrines which introduce the Sheikah runes you can use are what I consider to be a good puzzle progression. You're given a concept, and it steadily becomes more complex as you go along, and it gave me hope that the shrines would be consistently this good.

 

I'd say there were about 10 more that I'd say were this good. Which is pathetic. For example, there was this one shrine where I had to use a bomb to catapult another bomb into the ceiling so I could blast a hole in it.

It was a pretty cool concept, so I went through said hole, only to find that it was the end. Massive bummer.

And that's before going into the fact they all have the same interior design.

 

Quality over quantity is the best way of describing it really...

 

Right, time for combat. You see, about half way through my playthrough, I noticed something about the flurry rush.

 

You know, this?

 

Well, to be quite frank,

(it took ages for me to find an example online of that)

Seriously,

 

Don't get me wrong, there are things I like, but there's so much weirdness, it feels kinda cheap.

 

I could go on about them, how easy it is to make any damage you take completely meaningless through armour, the inconsistent attacks enemies use, (Sick to death of those instant spear stabs) and how incredibly lame the final boss was. (A total joke of a fight, Thunderblight Ganon was way harder, only because it's completely unfair.)

 

But this is already getting long, so let's just skip ahead to my other big gripe.

 

Is this map meant to be helpful!?

 

The Divine Beasts. There's 4 of them in the world, and it's safe to say that they serve as the Zelda dungeons in this game.

The number of dungeons I can deal with, one of my favourite Zelda's, Majora's Mask, has 4 dungeons, and they're great.

So why do these all last about 15 minutes each and have such pathetic puzzles? There was only one puzzle I actually had to stop and think about in the whole set.

It's awful. There's just enough to fill one traditional dungeon in there, and not a particularly complex one at that.

Sure, it has some neat mechanics involving manipulating the dungeons themselves to open new areas, but that's not enough.

 

 

In the good portion of this write-up, I mentioned there were 3 songs in this game I thought were good.

Yeah. That's about it. The soundtrack is, like the dungeons, lacking. It doesn't really jump out at me. Which is unfortunate, considering the series this game is in.

 

The Verdict

 

Breath of the Wild is a game that I can't say is bad, it's too well made to be called that. But to be blunt, it utterly fails to be a good Zelda game on almost every account.

It strips away what makes Zelda what it is in order to go for the open-world approach.

I get the impression that the size of the world was established first and everything else came after. And my enjoyment suffered as a result. This is the first Zelda I'll probably never play through again.

 

It's such a shame, I wanted to like this game, but if even Zelda can't sell me on the open-world concept, I don't think anything can.

 

Oh, and the Master Sword blows.

 

 

And with that...

 

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - DS

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - 3DS

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - 3DS

Shining Force - The Sword of Hajya - Game Gear

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - DS

Final Fantasy IX - PC

Super Mario Land - GB

Chrono Trigger - SNES

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap/Monster World II: The Dragon's Trap/Dragon's Curse/Adventure Island/Turma da Mônica em o Resgate - Switch

Tales of Game's presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa - PC

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Switch

 

[nekunando]

Did you expect your revelations to go unchallenged for more than 24 hours, @Glen\-i?

 

To be honest, I'd find it difficult to argue with any of the points you made and also came away from Breath of the Wild feeling like I wanted to like everything more than I ultimately did. I enjoyed the 65 hours I put into it but couldn't help but be disappointed by many of the aspects you criticised.

 

..but if even Zelda can't sell me on the open-world concept, I don't think anything can.

 

I think I might be in a similar boat here. While it felt somewhat liberating to step out of my comfort zone into a huge world of exploration and discovery, and one that was welcome at the beginning of the Switch's life, I generally prefer a more structured experience as I feel it helps the direction and flow of a game and cuts out unnecessary fluff inbetween.

 

In Breath of the Wild, I basically walked everywhere as I didn't really like how the horses felt to control but also thought riding around was restricting my ability to search areas thoroughly. While that might be on me, it definitely meant getting around was often slow and, on ocassions, a little tedious.

 

I haven't played Skyward Sword since I beat it shortly after release but I remember loving that game from start to finish and couldn't put it down. In fact, I remember wondering if it may in fact be my favourite Zelda game upon completion

 

Wind Waker HD may have taken that crown but I think both of them are preferable to Breath of the Wild!

 

I mentioned before that I think the next Legend of Zelda title needs to find a better blend of the classic formula and this new 'open air' approach and better dungeons would be one of the main things to address. Like you, @Glen\-i, I often found the Shrines to be a bit of a disappointment and disliked how sterile they felt. They all looked the same! Even the introduction of a few different themes could have alleviated the problem a little

 

I've also stated that the open world nature of Super Mario Odyssey has me a little nervous but I honestly think it is likely to be my game of the year as it looks so much fun and Mario games rarely fail to strike a chord with me!

[Glen-i]

Did you expect your revelations to go unchallenged for more than 24 hours, @Glen\-i?

 

Yeah, I'm almost disappointed. Well, almost.

 

In Breath of the Wild, I basically walked everywhere as I didn't really like how the horses felt to control but also thought riding around was restricting my ability to search areas thoroughly. While that might be on me, it definitely meant getting around was often slow and, on ocassions, a little tedious.

 

The horses felt more of a handicap than any of the three 3D Zeldas that feature them. In older games, the horse felt like a genuine upgrade. BotW's focuses so much on verticality that the effort of getting one just isn't worth it.

It goes to show that once I picked up the Bow of Light, I immediately jumped off of Zelda's horse's Grandchild and matrix shot arrows into Ganon's face, and then spent the rest of the fight on foot (and in the Switch Shirt)

 

 

I mentioned before that I think the next Legend of Zelda title needs to find a better blend of the classic formula and this new 'open air' approach and better dungeons would be one of the main things to address.

 

I absolutely agree, BotW's engine has potential, there's some really great mechanics at work. It'd be a waste to not utilise it at least one more time.

Narrow the focus, bring back some actual dungeons, fine-tune the combat and have a story that isn't just sitting backstage for the sake of staying out of the way and there's the possibility for a really great "Zelda" experience.

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

 

 

 

I've also stated that the open world nature of Super Mario Odyssey has me a little nervous but I honestly think it is likely to be my game of the year as it looks so much fun and Mario games rarely fail to strike a chord with me!

 

I definitely think that Mario will be better suited to an open world, as the story is inconsequential!

 

I agree with @Glen\-i about the narrative issues in Zelda, I loved the game and actually find it did open my gaming mind to an open world adventure, yet as a consequence the story suffered massively.

 

So I'm sure Mario will get the balance just right and be the better game for it

[killthenet]

It's been a couple of months since I posted in here, but my gaming hasn't taken a back seat during that time so I've got 12 games to talk about. Firstly I finished Dark Souls II on PS4, it definitely didn't feel as awe inspiring as Demon's Souls or the first Dark Souls in terms of enemy design and environments but I still had a lot of fun with it. I didn't realise that some enemies stop respawning after a while and so I lost a lot of my souls early on and as I wasn't able to recoup them and was only on the second or third area I decided to restart the game. Early frustrations weren't as long as they were with the first game due to my experience and I managed to finish the game in just over 60 hours, but the highs weren't as high or as many as they were with the other two games so I would have to rank it as the least brilliant Souls game I've played so far.

 

After a lot of time spent on one game I wanted to play some smaller titles next, starting with Kamiko on the Switch e-shop. It was a fun retro-styled hack and slash game, it only took me just over an hour to complete with the first character. A solid game, nothing remarkable, but I do intend to go back and play through it with the other 2 characters at some point. Next I played Snake Pass also on Switch and had similar feelings about it. It does a lot really well, the Snake is really expressive and after early frustrations with the control scheme it quickly feels great to slither around. Some of the later levels had some pretty cheap platforming sections and I had a few issues with the camera, but overall I enjoyed it and it feels like a great fit for the Switch.

 

I had wanted to play Chibi-Robo on GC for a while, but was always put off by the high price it demanded on eBay so felt okay enough playing a ROM of the game on my soft-modded Wii. I was instantly endeared to the world of the Sanderson’s house, with a lot of little eccentricities in the character and audio design. I liked it’s kooky, offbeat narrative and the idea of being a little robot solving people’s problems but the gameplay is quite repetitive and movement is quite slow. There are a lot of great concepts though and I want to check out the DS sequel ‘Park Patrol’ but I think it’s a concept that deserves to be revisited on modern hardware.

 

Completely different vibes with the next game I played, What Remains Of Edith Finch on PS4. I had avoided reading anything about the game but was aware that the game had a great reception, so was looking forward to playing it and it didn’t disappoint. As others have stated the game does a wonderful job of immersing you in the atmosphere or each vignette and has some truly transcendent moments (the scene on the swing had a particularly Terrence Malick feel to it) so I was in love with every minute of the 2 and a bit hours I spent with the game. Mario Kart 8 DX arrived a couple of days after I finished Edith Finch and I spent a solid couple of weeks completing every aspect of the game. It’s a great package, even for someone who spent tonnes of hours playing it on Wii U, the addition of 200cc Time Trials adds a significant challenge to the single player, I spent much of my time wrestling with that mode.

 

A series I had been keen to try out after getting my PS4 was Uncharted, so I bought the remastered trilogy when it was on sale on the Playstation Store and got started playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, but it was unfortunately the worst game I’ve played so far this year. I had expected it to be a bit janky but that it would have a lot of good points about it considering how acclaimed the series is, but there was a lot wrong with the game, the most glaring of which is how unlikeable Nathan Drake is. He is far too smarmy and full of himself (much like David Tennant’s Doctor) meaning you never feel any empathy for him, and his quips during combat only serve to make him more irritating, all vulnerability is severely lacking. It also doesn’t help that Drake controls like a tank (especially in the water) and the game tries to inject pace by adding very poorly designed vehicle sections, the jet ski portions of the game where you are required to drive a jet ski up a raging river whilst also shooting henchmen is clunky and over complicated, easily the weakest part of the game. I had felt that the story was the strongest aspect of the game, until it reached the third act and the writers - clearly running out of ideas - introduced a supernatural element that had not even been hinted at throughout the rest of the game. I had quite a negative reaction to the game but as I had heard that Uncharted 2 was the best entry in the series (and that I had already bought the trilogy) I decided that I would give it a go after playing through Star Fox Adventures.

 

Star Fox is another game that I had been intending to play since it’s release but just never got round to it. I think it was partly because of the bitterness I felt at Rare’s sale to Microsoft, and with this being their last home console release for Nintendo it represented the end of an era. A benefit of playing a game 15-years after its release is that you can separate yourself from the pre-release hype and review scores that can sometimes taint your experience of a game, positively or negatively, and allow you to assess the mechanics of a game more fairly. Star Fox Adventures appears to have been quite well received when it launched, with a 9/10 from IGN and a Metascore of 82% but playing it now it is a thoroughly tedious game. Everything about the game is so slow paced and laborious, it’s a sign of a bad game when you have to employ a pen trick to beat a button mashing challenge - twice. You are forced to watch the same 5 - 10 second animation every time you pick up a Key Item, Fox’s movement is similarly slow. The controls themselves are actually pretty good and responsive, combat is pretty simple and repetitive but it feels weighty enough, and the range of movement with Fox feels quite varied despite his slow pace. The most interesting mechanic in the game is the Buddy system, allowing you to command the Triceratops Tricky to do various tasks, and it would definitely have a more positive impact if the character of Tricky wasn’t so obnoxious, I found myself so irritated by his dialogue and attitude that I would repeatedly hit him with Fox’s staff, which was at least in itself entertaining.

 

There doesn’t feel like a consistent through line to the game mechanics, the game feels like a loosely connected series of minigames and challenges rather than teaching you different mechanics that you master as you progress through the game. The final boss is indicative of this main problem, forcing an unfamiliar mechanic on you that you hardly use throughout the rest of the game. There is a clear dichotomy between the Dinosaur Planet sections and the classic ‘Star Fox’ space battles that feel tacked on not only to accommodate the Star Fox characters and licence but also to pad out the experience. The games N64 roots are pretty obvious throughout but I feel like the environments and voice acting would have have been considered sub par even on the N64. Overall there just seems like a complete lack of passion during the games development, and despite my bad reaction to Uncharted, SFA came close to beating it out for the worst game I’ve played so far this year.

 

I followed it up with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and was instantly aware of why this game is highly regarded. In terms of sound and level design (and also adding some much needed vulnerability to Nathan Drake) the game is leagues ahead of the first entry and has an intriguing atmosphere right from the get go. The constant gun battles and over use of cover-shooter mechanics are still annoying but the whole package is just a lot more interesting and enjoyable. My favourite section of the game was when you wake up in a rural Tibetan settlement, it was the first time in an Uncharted game that I really wanted to explore the environment and not just rush through to the next plot point.

 

Next up were two titles that have been on my list for a long time and are conveniently available in a two-pack on the PS Store Limbo & Inside. I played through Limbo first as it was the first game chronologically and was worried that the silhouette style would tire quickly, but the style is so striking and consistent that it always feels fresh. There were so many great design choices and shifts in mechanics as the game progressed, it was such a fun but brutal experience. I feel like I did Inside a disservice by playing it straight after Limbo, as they are ostensibly the same game but Inside has a much more menacing atmosphere. I maybe would have been able to separate them a bit more if I had played something else in between them but they were both excellent platformers with a really polished presentation and I look forward to playing whatever Playdead do next.

 

The final game that I’ve completed is Shovel Knight on Switch. Again another game I had intended to play for a long time so I’m glad to have finally done so. It was a lot tougher than I expected it to be, but was a joy to play and feels like a cross between early Castlevania’s and Super Mario Bros. 3. Look forward to checking out the follow ups and playing as Plague Knight and Specter Knight. Currently I am playing through Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception but plan on playing through Metroid: Zero Mission next in preparation for the upcoming Metroid II remake.