Your 2018 Gaming Diary

[drahkon]

Here's what I'm playing right now:

Styx: Master of Shadows - a stealth game. I don't care much about the plot and setting (it's set in the Of Orcs and Men universe) but the gameplay is pretty great. It's quite difficult which is always a plus.

Wolfenstein: The New Order - with Styx: Master of Shadows being a very slow-pace game I needed something more hectic so Wolfenstein: The New Order seems like a good fit. So far it's a great old-school shooter.

Sniper Elite 3 - needed another coop game to play with my mate after we've Platinumed Ghost Recon: Wildlands. As we both like stealth games Sniper Elite 3 was the perfect choice. The controls are a little clunky at times but the gameplay mechanics are incredibly fun. Not sure if we'll go for the Platinum for this game.

[nekunando]

 

[Dcubed]

Yeah, it's been that way ever since Banana Blitz sadly, where all of a sudden, they decided that people didn't want challenge in Monkey Ball and decided to put barriers everywhere and get rid of all of the interesting level designs and gimmicks that defined the original 2 games  

[S.C.G]

2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Yeah, it's been that way ever since Banana Blitz sadly, where all of a sudden, they decided that people didn't want challenge in Monkey Ball and decided to put barriers everywhere and get rid of all of the interesting level designs and gimmicks that defined the original 2 games  

Super Monkey Ball 1, 2 & DX forever!

[Ganepark32]

I've gone between a load of games trying to settle on something over the last week and a few have fallen by the wayside. I tried The Evil Within 2 but just couldn't get into it as the gameplay just didn't click with me; it felt too fiddly to get the critical headshot needed to down them when you've got zombies bearing down on you. I've also ended up shelving Burnout Paradise Remastered as I've seen and done it all before but it started to grate doing the same events over and over again. It's a shame as I feel it's slightly tarnished my memories of that game. Just the way things roll with playing remasters of what you've already played through.

Did manage to stick with and finish a few things though. Finished Kamiko on the Switch, well I finished a run with one character and have no desire to play through the others as I feel I've seen it all. It was ok, decent enough for the price it was but I kind of wanted a bit more depth to the game as it never really grabbed me.

Also on Switch, I played through Old Man's Journey. This was a nice little experience, very simple but with a good narrative running through it, about a husband obsessed with his hobby who ends up walking out on his family. It could perhaps have done with some more elaboration there but the simple puzzle mechanic of moving the scenery to get the old man from point A to point B was nicely done, especially with the train section. Could've done with being in line with the mobile version price wise (£4.99 on Android, £8.99 on Switch).

Next up, two FPS titles that struck very different notes. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus was something I was interested in trying with review raving about it but after finishing it I feel like The New Order was a better game as there was just a better path of progression and less stop and start. There also wasn't that stand out moment unlike the first game with the Moon base despite them running wild with the alternate reality history here. It was still good fun running and gunning but this kinda fell the same way Deus Ex Mankind Divided did and feels like a lead up to what's coming next. Will be interesting to see where they go next.

However, after that I decided to finally sit down and play through Metro 2033 Redux and I'm so glad I did as I absolutely loved it. It was just fantastic from start to finish. I loved the world of the game and the gameplay was tight. I played it without the Last Light improvements and didn't feel like that detracted from the game; having to find filters for your breather added to the game and made the world and things that have happened there feel more realistic. It's got me itching the start the second game which I'll do shortly and knowing the third and final game is coming hopefully this year has me stoked that I'll be able to immerse myself in this world and story for a bit longer.

Finally, I bought Kirby Star Allies on Monday afternoon, brought it home and played a couple of hours on Monday night and resumed again on Tuesday and saw the credits after maybe 5 or 6 hours of play and I have to say I'm appalled at how short the game was, especially with Nintendo charging full price for it. I know it's typically an IP to fill a gap in a release schedule so it's never going to be a top tier game but this was just mediocre at best. There really weren't any stand out moments, very few power ups and very little in the way of content in that story mode. I enjoyed Epic Yarn on the Wii despite it being easy as that was offset with some of the nice gameplay ideas and I loved Canvas Curse/Power Paintbrush on the DS (probably my favourite Kirby game) but this was especially poor. At a time when I'm struggling to find a solid game to play on the Switch (yes there are indies but I've got many elsewhere and the general standard of them in the console seems to be dropping) I had hoped for more from this and so I'm left massively disappointed.

I've started up Shadow of the Colossus on PS4 and have made my way through 3 colossi so far. This is my first real time playing it as although I tried it on the PS2, I only ever defeated the first colossi. But enjoying it so far. Also trying to get into Mulaka on Switch but finding it so difficult which is a real shame.

[Hero-of-Time]

@Ganepark32 I know how you feel about looking for a solid title to play on the Switch. Like you, I was disappointed with Kirby, even more so as I was hoping that it would offer a good amount of ganeplay and get me playing on the console again. Sadly, it didn't work out that way.

I feel that once again I'm left twiddling my thumbs waiting for something decent to release on a Nintendo console. Despite the merging of their hardware I'm still finding their software schedule to be really lacking.

[lostmario]

Just finished The Last Guardian and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not.

Probably one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. The camera and controls were a nightmare at times.

Commanding Trico was also a pain, at times not only was my character shouting at him, I was as well.

 

[Hero-of-Time]

41 minutes ago, lostmario said:

Just finished The Last Guardian and I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not.

Probably one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. The camera and controls were a nightmare at times.

Commanding Trico was also a pain, at times not only was my character shouting at him, I was as well.

 

Haha. One of my mates sent me a text just the other day complaining about the controls in Shadow of the Colossus and how he was constantly at odds with the game.

Team Ico games are certainly in their own their league when it comes to fiddle control schemes.  

[Hero-of-Time]

I had an absolute nightmare of a weekend in terms of gaming. I just couldn't settle on anything. I played a bit of Virtua Tennis on the Dreamcast, started Kingdom Hearts on the PS4, played a bit of Monster Hunter World ( got the Mega Man gear ), fired up Pokemon Silver on the 3DS, went back to Kingdom Hearts and eventually went up the attic and grabbed my PSP and games and started playing Final Fantasy: Crisis Core. Apart from Monster Hunter World I made no real progress in anything. I hate being in gaming slumps like that. I feel like my weekend was a total waste.  

EDIT: I forgt to add that I also played Fire Emblem Warriors on the Switch and unpacked the Wii U and played a bit of Star Fox Zero. Yeah, I really was all over the place.  

Edited April 16, 2018 by Hero-of-Time

[Ganepark32]

On 14/04/2018 at 10:53 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

@Ganepark32 I know how you feel about looking for a solid title to play on the Switch. Like you, I was disappointed with Kirby, even more so as I was hoping that it would offer a good amount of ganeplay and get me playing on the console again. Sadly, it didn't work out that way.

I feel that once again I'm left twiddling my thumbs waiting for something decent to release on a Nintendo console. Despite the merging of their hardware I'm still finding their software schedule to be really lacking.

It's such a shame because the Kirby games, at least I felt, had a lot of heart and soul out into their ideas and such. As I say, Power Paintbrush is may favourite of the series but even Epic Yarn had some really good ideas. Having not played one since then, it's a massive disappointment to see the IP being used as a gap filled for Nintendo as there just seems to be a "That'll do" mentality and very little imagination for the games any more. It's a franchise they really either need to put on ice for some time or actually give some real development time to if they want to recapture what made the earlier games fun to play.

Yeah, I seem to be grasping at straws with regards to Switch games trying to find something to play. Sure, there's plenty of indie output and I'm heavily invested in that area anyway on multiple platforms but the quality seems to be slipping (despite Nintendo's slightly bizarre attitude towards how they'll let developers bring games over to the platform, which means certain high profile indie devs can't release unless they've got an approved published, if I've remembered that Kotaku article) and third party support beyond that is minimal.

It's the same old Nintendo with a few extra releases time around and while I can understand developers being hesitant after both the Wii and Wii U releases, there's still a lot they need to be doing to keep me engaged. It's a shame as I like the hardware and I've enjoyed quite a few games but there's not the consistency to have me jumping on every day unlike with other platforms. E3 will be a make or break for me for the console as the thought of moving on from it is circling my head more and more at the moment. And I think that may be why I keep jumping between games at the moment; the disappointment of Kirby and such and not finding a strong title to make me want to play the Switch since Mario Odyssey.

Ended up trading Kirby in and picking up Far Cry 5 even though I wasn't sure how I'd take to it but enjoying it a lot so far. There's always a lot of fun to be had with the bows in these games, although I have had to drop it for a rifle now that my resistance level in John Seed's region has increased.

Funny the controls for Team Ico games came up as I've been playing Shadow of the Colossus myself and on the third colossi I said the controls were shockingly bad, pretty much as bad as on the PS2. While I found it easy enough to over look that with The Last Guardian because of Trico, I'm struggling a bit more with this one. I'm enjoying it but the controls really are terrible.

[nekunando]

 

[lostmario]

On 4/15/2018 at 5:10 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

Haha. One of my mates sent me a text just the other day complaining about the controls in Shadow of the Colossus and how he was constantly at odds with the game.

Team Ico games are certainly in their own their league when it comes to fiddle control schemes.  

Playing The Last Guardian has put me off buying Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 due to how bad the controls were.

Was going to trade Monster Hunter World in for it on Saturday. Ended up trading it in for Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy instead.

Only played it for a couple of hours so far but I made the right choice.

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, lostmario said:

Playing The Last Guardian has put me off buying Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 due to how bad the controls were.

Was going to trade Monster Hunter World in for it on Saturday. Ended up trading it in for Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy instead.

Only played it for a couple of hours so far but I made the right choice.

 

 

You traded Monster Hunter in. No right choice was made. 

[nekunando]

1 hour ago, lostmario said:

Playing The Last Guardian has put me off buying Shadow of the Colossus on the PS4 due to how bad the controls were.

Was going to trade Monster Hunter World in for it on Saturday. Ended up trading it in for Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy instead.

Only played it for a couple of hours so far but I made the right choice.

 

 

I've been thinking about maybe picking up Crash Bandicoot if it's still £20 in store at Tesco when I'm doing the shopping this week. I've got a coupon for £7 off a £70 spend but don't think I need that many groceries this week before it expires so I might throw the game in my trolley too!

[drahkon]

Wolfenstein: The New Order is one hell of a ride. Ridiculously over the top but fun. This is what it's all about.

Not sure if I'll go for the Platinum. There are a shit ton of collectibles and I already missed some. Don't really like playing a game for the first time and using a guide.
Anyway, I hope I'll finish this before God of War is released on Friday, but it'll be a close call.

[lostmario]

On 4/16/2018 at 7:15 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

You traded Monster Hunter in. No right choice was made. 

Was bored of it with no intention of playing it again. I made the right choice getting rid while it still had some value.

[Ronnie]

Just finished Rise of the Tomb Raider, what a ton of fun that game was! Loved every second of it. Visuals, combat, traversal, puzzles, story all masterfully put together. Probably even preferred it to the first game. Load of content too and though it does the whole checklist of things to do in the (semi) openworld, it never feels too much. Looking forward to Shadow now. 9/10, fantastic.

[Blade]

6 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Just finished Rise of the Tomb Raider, what a ton of fun that game was! Loved every second of it. Visuals, combat, traversal, puzzles, story all masterfully put together. Probably even preferred it to the first game. Load of content too and though it does the whole checklist of things to do in the (semi) openworld, it never feels too much. Looking forward to Shadow now. 9/10, fantastic.

I loved that game when I played it. Really enjoyable and also the story was pretty decent too. I enjoyed the gameplay so much that I ended up obtaining the platinum. 

[Julius]

It's been far too long since I've posted an update here, but I think I have quite a bit to say about the games I played in February and March, and have had to put it off writing this up  for quite a long while because of how long I thought it might take. After this update, I might not be around in this thread for a while so that I can focus on my exams, but afterwards I plan to return with more detailed and frequent write-ups of the games that I've been playing. Anyway, let's get to it:

February

3. Pokémon SoulSilver Version (2009)

Pokémon SoulSilver is the 2009 Nintendo DS remake of Pokémon Silver, which was originally released in 1999 for the Game Boy Color. You know the drill for Pokémon games at that point in time: standard coming-of-age affair, with gym leaders to beat and an evil team to take down while catching and raising your own Pokémon. The remake features a great number of enhancements (such as the popular walking Pokémon feature, as well as the introduction of a Pokémon sports mini-game tournament in Pokéathlon) over the original versions, a number of which make a return from Pokémon Crystal (2000). Somewhat infamously, SoulSilver and HeartGold came bundled with a Poké Ball inspired pedometer - aptly dubbed the PokéWalker - which would allow players to earn experience for a Pokémon transferred from the game to the device, and also gave them the opportunity to find items and catch Pokémon on the go. Who said gaming couldn't be healthy?

Growing up with the special anime episode The Legend of Thunder, I became especially intrigued by the Johto region and its inhabiting Pokémon, but, due to circumstances at that time (and with the Game Boy line being phased out entirely in favour of the DS), I was unable to take my first pixelated step in the Johto for the longest time. However, in my final year of primary school, this was put right by the release of the DS remakes, which hold a very special place in my heart.

Returning to this game for the first time since launch (after making sure that all of my Pokémon had been transported to a different game!) was something that I was eager to do, but also worried about: how would one of my favourite games hold up nearly eight years after my original playthrough, with that rugged layer of nostalgia having peeled away with my own maturity?

As I would go on to find out: quite well, but by no means perfectly.

These games have a lot of issues, many of which arise from Game Freak's seemingly stubbornly intent on keeping almost everything the exact same as they were in the original games when it comes to remakes. Level scaling in particular could be very frustrating, going from being overpowered in one battle to severely underdeveloped in the next, and this was especially noticeable in milestone battles such as those with gym leaders and Team Rocket higher-ups. Though these could be easily worked around through some smart battling or a little bit of grinding, it doesn't make sense to be feel so tamely powered, considering that I battle every trainer I can. Likewise, there is an almost condescending over-dependence on HMs, as was the case with many of the early main series Pokémon games, which at times brought my journey to a standstill, requiring me to do some backtracking and, occasionally, to swap out a now core member of my team late on into the game. How was I to know that Slowpoke can learn Surf and Whirlpool, but not Waterfall? The game's writing also seems somewhat generic and bland when compared to Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, which accurately portrayed the conversational tone of NPCs (Cyrus' unrelenting anger, frustration and eventual madness comes to mind), and having a cover legendary have virtually nothing to do with the main story (and have no worthwhile backstory, either) seems something of a waste. The allure of visiting a second region in the post-game in Kanto has also lost a lot of its appeal, with the above problems becoming substantially more noticeable here, meaning that you're likely to be underlevelled by the time that you reach what is presented as the game's true final battle.

Those things being said, this game does have a lot of good things going on, too. The most noticeable, for me, is that seeing Kanto and Johto in Generation IV's 3D engine with new sprites/models and hearing new takes on classic Pokémon music means that this game - as much as any other Pokémon game - is filled with heaps of visual and musical charm, meaning that you'll likely find your character just standing around in a park or in a building being taken over by the evil team just to take in the positive atmosphere. Your rival, Silver, has an excellent arc in the game, from Pokémon user-and-abuser to someone who has found his own peace and purpose by realising the wrongs in his own actions by the end of the game. The optional side/post-game is also very extensive, ranging from learning about ancient ruins to competing with others in an Olympics-inspired group of events in the aforementioned Pokéathlon, where it's surprisingly easy to lose track of time.

Overall, while by no means a perfect game, Pokémon SoulSilver manages to capture some of the charm of the original games, whilst adding a slew of new features for its audience to make the game feel like something a bit more than a bog-standard remake.

Rating: 7.7/10

 

4. Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia (2008)

The other game that I played in February was Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, which was originally released on the Nintendo DS in 2008. As with the first game, players make use of the stylus to draw rings around Pokémon in an attempt to calm/temporarily capture them, in the role of a Pokémon Ranger, this time set in the region of Almia, though this time around, the player begins their journey at a school for budding Pokémon Rangers. The game introduces the majority of the 107 Pokémon first seen in the Sinnoh region in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl to this spin-off series, as well as having Pokémon available in the previous game make a return.

I believe this was my third playthrough of the game, and it is a relatively short game (clocking in at around 13 hours, almost double the time that I spent playing its predecessor back in January). However, with some evolution evident in all of the major mechanics when compared to the first game, and with the addition of optional side quests to increase your advantages during a capture, the game certainly felt much longer than that, and I think that goes to show that this game is very tight mechanically, and has a great feedback loop. The game also has a main story which, in my experience, is far superior in writing and plot points when compared to the original game, with a number of well-written characters and sequences springing to mind, though some parts of the story might be very predictable. It also features a number of callbacks to the previous game, which is always a nice touch in Pokémon games, as it offers a great sense of continuity.

There isn't much that this game actually does wrong, besides having a soundtrack which seems great while playing the game but is easily forgettable otherwise.

Rating: 8.0/10

 

March

5. Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010)

2010 saw the release of Retro Studios' first attempt at a Donkey Kong Country game - fittingly titled Donkey Kong Country Returns after a series hiatus of 14 years - on the Nintendo Wii.

This is a game that I played with the Wiimote - which is what I would argue the game was designed to be played on - with my little brother, and we had fun playing it. Levels are challenging; there are tons of things to collect outside of bananas, and a fair share of subsidiary challenges besides the goal of just completing the level; the music, at all times, adds another layer to levels; and, for the most part, it's got some very well designed platforming areas.

However, there are quite a few issues that I have with this game, first and foremost being the controls - in particular, shaking the Wiimote to roll. I lost count of the number of times that a relatively simple platforming area meant that we would die simply because the Wiimote mistook a very, very slight motion for a shake, and we would perilously roll to our dooms. Some levels require navigation of a vehicle, which is perfectly fine in a mine kart - feeling deservedly and fairly challenging - but extremely annoying in a rocket cart. Perhaps it's the fact that this is my first Donkey Kong Country game, but it is difficult enough to fly in a straight line in one of those things - let alone successfully arch up and down through a sequence of looping flames - almost to the point where it feels unnecessarily frustrating to navigate, and play becomes tedious more than it does rewarding.

Perhaps it's the fact that I played with a Wiimote - or on the Wii at all - so I'll be aiming to return to this game again one day with a different control setup to see if the problems I have with the game persist. I'm excited to play through Tropical Freeze at some point, so I was gutted that I didn't have a better experience with this game.

Rating: 6.5/10

 

6. Pokémon White Version (2010)

The dark and foreboding grunts of an organ are loudly shrugged off, before a golden castle - brightly lit in the surrounding darkness, with a pinkish-red halo - emerges into your view. The vocal chords of a choir continue to rise and fall as we hear three notes from a piano repeated again and again, each time closing with a brief pause to allow a bell to ring. A large man draped in regal robes in a light gold hue, with long green hair and a crown between his hands, slowly steps - purposefully - across a rich blue cloth as he approaches an elevated throne. His peers, with their long headpieces, kneel before him, each in a different colour of robe to one another but all appearing just as noble. His noble peers are old, each with some combination of snow white hair, moustache and beard. Sharply edged and with five points, the golden crown works its way closer to the throne, the large man carrying it having one eye red, and the other eye hidden behind an angular monocle with a red viewing glass. The throne is empty, and the man turns, preaching to his six peers, who rise to carry the cloth of the golden robe gathering behind their Chosen One as he stoically proceeds to the throne. With similar green hair to that of the large man carrying the crown, the blue-eyed man closes his eyes for a brief moment, memories of playing with his friends in his childhood vividly appearing in his mind. The large man now lifts the crown high above the Chosen One's head, the choir getting louder now, as his pink- and yellow-haired carers watch from afar as the crown is carefully placed atop his head. Rising, the young king raises his hand, silencing those around him, as a drum is beat and the strings of a violin eerily screech to a drawn out halt. 

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd described the opening to a JRPG with a medieval setting. What I am actually describing is the prologue sequence players first saw when opening Pokémon Black & White for the first time back in 2010, which set up the darker and more mature tone - relative to previous and consequent main series entries - of the game perfectly. 

That should have been the first sign for Pokémon fans that this was - simply put - a different type of Pokémon game to what had come before. Yes, gym leaders are present as always, and remain the milestone battles of your journey, but they're integral to the story more than they have ever been before, which pays off in spadefuls at the end of the game. The typical coming-of-age Pokémon story is present, but this time around - as a sixteen year old as opposed to a ten year old - there are some heavy handed questions for the player about the morality of Pokémon: is it right to use Pokémon to battle? Do Pokémon even want to battle? Or Pokémon be freed from the shackles that are their Poké Balls? This is the goal of Team Plasma, who wish to liberate Pokémon from their trainers, and we learn about their goals - and of N, who I'll get onto in a moment - very early on in the game, and encounter them on such a frequent basis that it doesn't feel like our journey as a trainer is entirely separate to our duel with Team Plasma. It doesn't feel like a total change in direction for the story when they turn up, and, as a result, we get what I think to be the most cohesive Pokémon experience (as a trainer) to date.

The newly crowned king you see in the above video is N, a mysterious man around twenty years old, and he serves as something of an anti-hero in the game, and to great aplomb. He makes the player and other characters in a stellar cast question their own motivations - and can even supposedly talk to Pokémon - but, ultimately - even though he is the king of a seemingly evil team - he simply wants what is best for Pokémon, and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure their happiness. You have two rivals in this game: Cheren and Bianca. Cheren starts out as your typical Pokémon rival akin to Blue and Silver, wanting to become the Champion and to be the strongest Pokémon trainer there is, whereas Bianca sets out on her journey unsure of what she wants. Both of these characters develop and find what they're really after, even if they were (or weren't) certain of what that was at the outset of your journey. What this game does so well is that its focus is purely on storytelling and developing these characters, giving them an arc that is difficult to not find some part of yourself in, and it guides you through this story in an almost entirely linear manner to allow for these stories to be told. I think this is where some most main series Pokémon games stumble: the entire game is a toss-up between story and adventure, as opposed to a focus on just one. It's difficult to invest in monotone, one-beat characters, and I applaud Game Freak's decision to risk creating multifaceted and complex characters with these games (and, as I hear, their sequels, which I've yet to play). 

This game is paced superbly. As soon as the game starts, you're in your bedroom choosing your starter Pokémon, and within minutes you'll have battled your rivals and started on your journey, and the game pretty much steamrolls to the end, but it isn't a constant thing: it's a slow build which pays off in dividends at the end of the game. Battles - of any variety - are fast. The experience your Pokémon gains is tied toe the difference in level between your Pokémon and the opposing Pokémon, with a Pokémon of a higher level than your foe's receiving less than a Pokémon that is a lower level than the foe would, meaning that grinding is kept to a minimum. The user interface throughout the game is incredibly intuitive. Whilst HMs are still present in the game, at no point did they feel like a hindrance to the journey that I was on: I taught Beartic Surf because I wanted to, not out of necessity. Perhaps most importantly for the pacing - and for the sake of the story - something of consequence happens on almost every route, landmark, or settlement, whether it be an encounter with your rival, Team Plasma, or a gym leader - in fact, more often than not, you're running into all of them in the same area!

Music is something that's very important to me, especially when it comes to films and video games. Sadly, the music in this game isn't that strong in the first third or so of the game, but the score, like the story, slowly builds, and it crescendos - just like the story - in the most epic of ways at the end of the game, thanks to the compositions of Shota Kageyama, Junichi Masuda, Hitomi Satō, Gō Ichinose, Morikazu Aoki, Minako Adachi, and Satoshi Nohara, and the arrangements of Shota Kageyama, Hitomi Satō, Gō Ichinose, and Minako Adachi. The final third of the main story in particular is where I would argue the strength of the score really comes to the fore, and it accents the events playing out to near perfection. 

The game also has excellent art direction, with fluid animations, wonderfully animated sprites and models, with drawings sometimes being preferred to character models throughout the story (such as in using the Xtransceiver, or during an important story moment), which only serves to realise Ken Sugimori's art style more than ever before. All of this means that the game has aged incredibly well.

This game has some minor issues at times - I ran into a Pokémon every 2 - 4 steps in Chargestone Cave for a while, which seemed a much higher encounter rate than was evident elsewhere in the game, or even in other Pokémon games, and was somewhat annoying - but, beyond that, I have no reason to not implore you to pick up either Black or White if you haven't yet. I hope to play White 2 later this year, and will return to the Unova region with extraordinarily high hopes for what comes next.

Rating: 9.5/10

 

Spoiler

January

1. Final Fantasy VII (1997) - 9.3/10

2. Pokémon Ranger (2006) - 7.5/10

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Julius

[Aperson]

So, since my last update I've made a fair amount of progress in Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition. I have reached Ornstein and Smough... but after dying to them repeatedly and noticing it was now April and I had only finished one game this year (Xenoblade 2) which wasn't even a part of my gaming backlog I decided to change course and play something different.

 

I am now playing Burnout 2: Point of Impact. This is a game that's remained unbeaten in my backloggery for 9 years. Attempting what I thought was the last Grand Prix in this game. No, it turns out there's another Championship mode in this game called the Custom Series Championship to which I have just unlocked the qualifier for after beating the Street Storm Grand Prix.

 

I also beat the Crystal Freeway track and unlocked Pursuit 3, eventually beating that too. There was a pretty weird glitch that happened when doing that where my car crashed and then proceeded to repeatedly fall through the track over and over again before respawning. It was kind of bizarre.

 

I think I will stick to Burnout 2 for now and try and beat that. After that, maybe go back to Dark Souls or revisit Donkey Kong 64 or Golden Sun.

[nekunando]

 

[drahkon]

On 4/10/2018 at 7:33 PM, drahkon said:

Here's what I'm playing right now:

Styx: Master of Shadows - a stealth game. I don't care much about the plot and setting (it's set in the Of Orcs and Men universe) but the gameplay is pretty great. It's quite difficult which is always a plus.

Wolfenstein: The New Order - with Styx: Master of Shadows being a very slow-pace game I needed something more hectic so Wolfenstein: The New Order seems like a good fit. So far it's a great old-school shooter.

Sniper Elite 3 - needed another coop game to play with my mate after we've Platinumed Ghost Recon: Wildlands. As we both like stealth games Sniper Elite 3 was the perfect choice. The controls are a little clunky at times but the gameplay mechanics are incredibly fun. Not sure if we'll go for the Platinum for this game.

All of these have been put on hold since I got God of War. And I'm taking my sweet time with it. of my on volition...not because the game is hard as shit

Bought Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc for my Vita. Was in the mood for a visual novel kinda game and this is currently on sale (7€). Played a little this morning and it got me intrigued immediately. Something to play when I'll visit my hometown next weekend

[bob]

LA Noire was a bit slow for me. I'm still intending to finish it, but while I had a gaming opportunity the other day, I decided to try out Titanfall 2, which I got for Christmas.

It's really good so far - I'm probably only on the second level, but the weapons are all really satisfying to use, and charging around in the Titan is pretty good fun.

[Aperson]

Got to the end of Burnout 2: Point of Impact, but struggling to win the final Custom Series Championship. I have to beat the fastest car in the game across 7 tracks which I keep averaging 2nd to 4th place in throughout and therefore getting no closer to winning any of the races.

So, I decided to take a break from that game too (that's both Burnout 2 AND Dark Souls on the backburner now...) and played through Golden Sun after getting past the bit I was previously stuck on, Moghall Forest. It was a bit silly of me to be stuck there in hindsight, since then I went all the way from there to the final dungeon.

After reaching the final boss I realised that I was severely underlevelled and lacking many key skills such as the Revive Syngergy as I only had four Djinn for each character and just fought them all in any order without trying to map them to their correct characters. After getting stuck on the final boss and many failed attempts I did what I always seem to end up doing in every RPG I play except for Pokemon, going back to previous areas and doing some side quests in order to gain levels and get stronger equipment, or in this case track down the Djinn I missed out on. It's surprising how much of them I missed when I first played this game back in 2016.

Anyway, just beaten the game. Was still backtracking when I started writing this but then got involved in the game itself and now finished.

 

EDIT: Went back to Donkey Kong 64 after beating Golden Sun and thanks to the bank holiday weekend and being in Crystal Caves when I stopped, I have now beaten this game and completed the final boss this evening. Now to either plough on with Burnout 2 and get that done or go onto something like Super Mario Land 2, another game which I'm almost finished with.

Edited May 7, 2018 by GenericAperson
Major game progress made, no other posts made.

[Hero-of-Time]

Following on from Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, I decided to continue my Sega kick, dig into my backlog and finally get around to playing Valkyria Chronicles. It's been sat on my shelf for 2 years! I've been playing it most evenings this week and the credits have just rolled.

I loved the game to bits. The setting is vey unique and the story had some very interesting beats. The treatment of the dark hairs was pretty rough and that thread of the story held some shocking moments.

I did find some of the missions a little cheap at times. Some required a bit of trial and error, with a mix of save scumming.  

Alicia was my MVP of the game. She's so OP when you give her certain orders. She can just charge the battlefield on her own.

In order to get the platinum I need to to go through the game again. It's about 14 hours long and I did enjoy playing it so I may attempt to nab it at some point. It has New Game + so everything should go much quicker this time around.