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Julius

Your 2020 Gaming Diary

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Not done an awful lot of gaming recently, but I did try and start up God of War again.

i don't know what it is about it, but something doesn't sit right with me about it. Partially, I think it is the controls for combat. Attack controls on the shoulder buttons? That just feels really awkward to me, and I can never remember which is which. I keep doing light attacks when I mean to do heavy, or aim when i want to shield. It ends up making the combat in this really disjointed, lumbering and slow. 

The other thing that I don't like is the faux open world. Technically, yes, you can go anywhere, but you are still rigidly controlled into cramped corridors and any kind of travelling across the overworld feels like a chore.

I'm really enjoying the story and the interactions between the main characters (I've just picked up the talking head), but every time The Boy says that i can explore if I want, i feel a sort of dread in doing so, which shouldn't be the case in an open world game. Maye it's just not for me, but I do want to finish it.

 

I've also been trying to start up TLOZ:BOTW again. I decided i would forge ahead and try to do a bit more of the main story, so i headed for the volcano to try and find the inevitable meeting with the Gorons. I wasn't sure where to go, so i just went straight up the side of the volcano until I got to the 'lava moat'. Then, I skirted around the edge of the moat, using up all my fire relief potions until I got to Eldin's Bridge. I loitered around there for a while, thinking that's where I could trigger the meeting with the Gorons, but that didn't happen. So I eventually came down the mountain until I got to the Goron town, entering it the wrong way and finding that they had fireproof clothing for sale. Maybe I do need more rigid corridors in my life...?

Anyway, defeated the second boss dude, and i've done the Assassins' Creed tower in that area so now I'm up for a bit of a wander around again. I know where the third Divine beast is, because I can see it flying from across the map, but I have no idea where the fourth one even is. I'm assuming it's in the fourth quarter of the map i've yet to even open up. Thinking about exploring it actually fills me with excitement, which is how an open world game is supposed to be.

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@bob That's an interesting way to play the game (BotW, that is). Probably makes for a pretty good experience.

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[Together] Super Mario Bros. 35 (Part 1)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son take a first look and play of Nintendo’s newest addition to the 2D platforming Mario family. 35 Marios, there can only be one! Who will it be?
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Only managed to finish one more game in September, wrapped the month up by playing through Bayonetta 2. I only played the first one earlier in the year so it was pretty fresh in the memory, so I was ready for some more intense and wild action - and that's exactly what I got. I feel like the sequel was easier than the first game though, once I got the hang of the controls again I never really ran into any issues, I had just a handful of continues whereas I seemed to die a lot in the first game. Story wise it didn't hit me quite the same as the first game but it was still thoroughly entertaining (especially liked the return to Vigrid near the end) and Loki's accent was wonderfully awful (what was the actor even going for? Worse cockney accent than Don Cheadle?). Overall it didn't feel quite as satisfying as the first Bayonetta but I'm looking forward to seeing where Platinum take things next. 

First on my list for October is Super Mario Galaxy on Switch, I never got around to finishing the game the first time round and I don't think I've played it since 2007 so I'm looking forward to experiencing it again. After that I should really play through some more PS4 stuff, give the console a good send off before I sell it and put the money towards a PS5.

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[Together] NintendoLand: Metroid Blast (Part 2)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son give some to Ridley as they blast through the next 10 missions of Metroid Blast (missions 11-20).
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Another review, another opportunity for me to contribute to this thread. 

Nexomon: Extinction  

content-2-36353-nexomonextinctionsidebox.jpg

  n-europe review 

Spoiler

If you like 2D Pokémon, you shouldn't overlook this. It's surprisingly good.

Anyway, does that Nexomon pictured above look familiar to you? I can't quite place my finger on it...

 

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Great review @Glen-i

As someone who's fallen out of love with Pokémon and who's missing the good old 2D-Pokémon days, this might actually be worth the money.

Edited by drahkon
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Been playing a large variety of games recently, albeit mostly in short bursts.

 

Why? I'm current in the process of compiling the largest Youtube video I've ever made, to celebrate 20 years since I started playing video games it's going to be a kind of slideshow retrospective on every single video game I've ever played. Yes, I'm insane for trying...

 

It has lead to some interesting things though, like remembering that Donkey Konga has a story...

 

Most of my gaming time has been on a dangerous addiction to Magic Arena. Live services these days I know right? Especially bad in light of the "Walking Dead" Secret Lair that they've announced that the community has deemed problematic to the health of game. The problem is that if these sell then it just means crossovers are going to become a lot more regular. Strong rumours of a Harry Potter crossover next year...

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Tried the demo of Cake Bash that popped up on the eShop, my son is quiet in this video, as he says he was really concentrating, as usual I'm blabbing away far too much.

[Together] Cake Bash Demo (First Look)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son give all the modes and fun mini-games a run through in this first look at what the Cake Bash demo’s got baking in the oven.

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Finished Mario 64 a few weeks ago and decided to go back to Crash 2 since 4 was released recently to try and get the rest of the gold relics for the platinum. 15 relics in and i'm tearing my hair out >_> this is the last trophy I need too. Then i'll probably start Crash 3...maybe.

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Just finished the Norse God of War game. Not going to do a full review, people know all about it by now, and if you don't Mark Brown and Matthewmatosis do a far better job talking about the game then I ever could. Would like to pick out a couple things though.

As anyone who has seen my posts on this forum will know, story pretty much ranks bottom of my list for things I give a shit about in a video game. This is not because I don't like strong narratives - I'm an avid reader and movie fan after all - but most games fail to (or most times don't even bother to) present the narrative in a way that takes advantage of the strengths of the medium. As such I have lost all patience for cut scenes in recent years (ruined Death Stranding for me), and even semi-interactable exposition scenes, the likes of which Half Life made famous, have started to grate on me now.  

And yet weirdly I found GoWs story carrying me through the game. To be clear I love the core combat system, even if I felt I had mastered it a little to too quickly. But the open world didn't work for me, the side quests were uninspiring and the pacing of the game really started to take the piss in the way it just kept coming up with different reasons why you couldn't move forward.

And yet I really wanted to see what happened in the end. Kratos is a brilliant Avatar for my gamer rage, and the fact the whole game works as a single shot really reinforces that bond with him. That stupendous first scene when Baldur turns up was all I needed to get into the game and get my blood pumping. Then suddenly you got giant serpents and turtle houses and I'm sold. 

The kid had a real chance of being annoying but he had both a true gameplay value, and served as a clever exposition point (I especially liked how he would indicate when might be a good point to do sidequests, just like a hyperactive child might do). The dialogue was on the whole well written too - particular shout out to the arc of Kratos's poor story telling culminating in the tale of why he called the kid Atreus. 

Anyway good work all around. I want a sequel.

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Last episode of The Messenger has rolled.  Great game, with hugely frustrating sections, made worse by an imprecise double jump mechanic that often felt random.

[Lee Plays] The Messenger (Part 36)

Old Nintendo Gamer plays the Music Box for its last time, and watches the credits roll. It’s all over!
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Alright so I've gotten all Shines in Super Mario Sunshine EXCEPT:

- The 24 Blue Coin Shines
- The 8 100 Yellow Coin Shines
- The final Shine for beating the game

I've decided to go for the Blue Coins next to get them out of the way so that I'm not accidentally running into them while I'm collecting 100 Yellow Coins. But, I'm keeping the darn things. I can watch the 120 Shine video on YouTube whenever I want, and after collecting them all I don't wanna get rid of them lol. xD Anyway after that I'll get the Yellers and defeat Bowser.

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Started playing Suikoden.

Always wanted to see what the fuss is about Suikoden II, so I figured I'd give the series a proper go by starting with the first game.

So far...it's very slow and the battle system is very bare-bones. The menus (equipment, items) are crap. You have to manually move items between characters. One item at a time...Off to a bad start gameplay-wise, to be honest.
Story and characters are intriguing, though.

Let's see if the game keeps my attention long enough.

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[Together] NintendoLand: Metroid Blast (Part 3)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son blast through the 10 Advanced missions of Metroid Blast (missions 21-30).

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Got through Abzu in a sitting, and was more than a little disappointed, which considering I'm a big scuba diver and lover of animals is quite the condemnation. I get the Journey comparisons (which I loved), but Abzu comes out poorly in that comparison. For one Journey kept that mountain in the background throughout, visually indicating the ultimate goal of the titular journey. Abzu (maybe by fault of its concept) lacks this, and thus the story is a rather directionless progress through a series of rooms. This has a knock on effect for the music as well, which in Journey felt like a grand movement, broken only by planned lulls in the emotional narrative. In Abzu this is instead subject to the need for loading screens, and thus never really takes hold. Nice try though -  bonus points for the whale sharks.

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I have another one for today, seeing as a demo was released in short order.  Quite a lengthy demo, too.

[Lee Plays] Pikmin 3 Deluxe Demo (Part 1)

 
Old Nintendo Gamer throws the Pikmin around to see what the game offers and how the gyro controls hold up.
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Extensively working on this "Every game I've ever played" video for Youtube... and when I checked to see if anyone had done anything like this I couldn't find too much on Youtube though the search results may be skewed...

 

The video is well over an hour long as things stand. Going to have to timestamp for viewer purposes I reckon.

 

Anyway, here's a few tweets I put out during that time.

 

 

 

In case you're wondering this all has lead to something productive on gaming front... I finally have unlocked the green stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2. Yes after 10 years. The stumbling blocks for me Starwise? The no damage run of Bowser Jr.'s Boomsday Machine and the second Fire Flower crate destroying game. I finally managed to do it after countless struggles and even then I don't know how I actually managed to do it in the end... the most annoying kind of level clear!

 

So I proceeded to get the last remaining stars from the Special World levels and beat Bowser again... officially halfway to 100%ing Galaxy 2 now. Might work on trying to 100% all the 3D Mario games from this point on. Got a feel for it with Sunshine and past the stumbling block that saw me bench Galaxy 2.

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On 10/8/2020 at 1:31 PM, drahkon said:

Let's see if the game keeps my attention long enough.

It couldn't.

In other news: My mate and I finished Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
What a mess this game is :DBut we enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun in hour 30 hours of coop play time :)

What now?
I might finally give Mark of the Ninja: Remastered a go.

And I have to decide between Half Minute Hero and Final Fantasy VI. I've already started the former but need to see more.

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9 hours ago, drahkon said:

It couldn't.

In other news: My mate and I finished Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
What a mess this game is :DBut we enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun in hour 30 hours of coop play time :)

What now?
I might finally give Mark of the Ninja: Remastered a go.

And I have to decide between Half Minute Hero and Final Fantasy VI. I've already started the former but need to see more.

Highly, highly recommend the latter. But then I would say that... it's my favourite game of all time.

 

Anyway, made a good start on Green Stars on Super Mario Galaxy 2. Got all of the Sky Station Galaxy ones and got two of the three Yoshi Star Galaxy Green Stars. Working on doing World 1.

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Final Fantasy VI is the epitome of old school Final Fantasy. Well ahead of it's time and holds up remarkably well.

BTW, I've finally decided to continue my "Glen plays each Final Fantasy for the first time" journey with Final Fantasy XII on Switch. (I skipped XI for obvious reasons) I understand there's some fundamental differences from the original, but from what I can tell, the plot is still the same and an added job system can only seem like a benefit, quite frankly.

Weird game. Especially for Final Fantasy. But I'm intrigued so far. Gambit system seems really cool and has potential for some neat strategies. Definitely feels like Xenoblade 0.5, which can't be a bad thing.

Edited by Glen-i
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33 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Final Fantasy VI is the epitome of old school Final Fantasy. Well ahead of it's time and holds up remarkably well.

Went with Final Fantasy VI because Half Minute Hero gets old pretty quickly...in like...30 seconds.

2 hours into FFVI and yeah...it's old school, alright :D
The sprite work is amazing. It looks really good.

Battles are quite slow, but that's what the speed-up function is for.

Looks like I've found my game for the next few weeks.

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I hate myself and I never want to play Crash Bandicoot 2 ever again...

Now to do the exact same thing over again in Crash 3.

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4 minutes ago, martinist said:

Now to do the exact same thing over again in Crash 3.

It's by far the easiest to get the Platinum out of the three.

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