Your 2021 Gaming Diary

[Hero-of-Time]

42 minutes ago, Aneres11 said:

Wait why?! 

People seem to think that because Peach uses powers such as crying it sends a negative image about women....or some garbage like that. The whole thing is ludicrous, IMO.

[Aneres11]

13 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

People seem to think that because Peach uses powers such as crying it sends a negative image about women....or some garbage like that. The whole thing is ludicrous, IMO.

Wow haha. Deep for a video game! 
Won’t affect my enjoyment, that’s for sure!!

[Ronnie]

Yeah there'd be an insane backlash against that game if it were released today. ResetEra would have a field day. People really read too much into things sometimes all the time.

[Nicktendo]

I managed to finish a couple of games from last year off in the past couple of days. I'll be talking about both on the N-E Cafe this week in a little more detail.

Firstly Part-time UFO on Switch, which is a great little game developed by HAL.
Please read @Hero-of-Time's review here https://www.n-europe.com/reviews/part-time-ufo
It's a fantastic little game with a deceptively large amount of content. The final boss is wonderful and introduces new mechanics, which work really well for a "boss battle". There are heaps of costumes, extras and achievements to unlock, some of which are brutally difficult. I finished the main game in just under 3 hours, but I can see it stretching out well beyond 5 for anyone who wants to hit 100%. Highly, highly recommended considering the price. 

Also did the final room and boss(es) in Luigi's Mansion 3. Not really much else to add here. My favourite Switch game release after the start of 2018. So pleased that NLG have been brought into the fold full-time. The final, final boss was extremely tough, but I managed to finally do it on the third or fourth attempt. Credits and ending cut-scene were wonderful. They've really managed to capture the Nintendo magic in this title and I can't wait to see what they do next. I have a few jewels to go back and get for 100%, but I can easily see myself replaying the entire thing in a year or two. Definitely a 10/10 game! #DCubedWasRIght

[Glen-i]

8 hours ago, Aneres11 said:

Wait why?! 

Yeah, HoT pretty much nailed it, add to that the sudden mood shifts Peach goes through to use those powers and that's the kind of PR no-one wants to go through today, especially Nintendo.

Of course, all the inevitable detractors would conveniently ignore the fact that pretty much every character and enemy in the game has mood powers. Not just Peach.

That's not to say that another Super Princess Peach can't happen. They'd just have to give it a mechanic with a context that doesn't invite problems. Weirdly enough, the same issues that  the DS game would face today could also be used to make a new Super Princess Peach game be a PR home run.

[Dcubed]

6 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

I managed to finish a couple of games from last year off in the past couple of days. I'll be talking about both on the N-E Cafe this week in a little more detail.

Firstly Part-time UFO on Switch, which is a great little game developed by HAL.
Please read @Hero-of-Time's review here https://www.n-europe.com/reviews/part-time-ufo
It's a fantastic little game with a deceptively large amount of content. The final boss is wonderful and introduces new mechanics, which work really well for a "boss battle". There are heaps of costumes, extras and achievements to unlock, some of which are brutally difficult. I finished the main game in just under 3 hours, but I can see it stretching out well beyond 5 for anyone who wants to hit 100%. Highly, highly recommended considering the price. 

Also did the final room and boss(es) in Luigi's Mansion 3. Not really much else to add here. My favourite Switch game release after the start of 2018. So pleased that NLG have been brought into the fold full-time. The final, final boss was extremely tough, but I managed to finally do it on the third or fourth attempt. Credits and ending cut-scene were wonderful. They've really managed to capture the Nintendo magic in this title and I can't wait to see what they do next. I have a few jewels to go back and get for 100%, but I can easily see myself replaying the entire thing in a year or two. Definitely a 10/10 game! #DCubedWasRIght

See this guy? This guy has good taste, you should listen to him.

[Aneres11]

Yeesh. LM 3 was nowhere near a 10/10 game for me. 
Found it all very forgettable and have little desire to return to it. 

[Hero-of-Time]

10 hours ago, Dcubed said:

See this guy? This guy has good taste, you should listen to him.

Review

Naaaaah.  

[Dcubed]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Review

Naaaaah.  

That game is solid gold and I stick by that review.

Not my fault that you’re just weird  

Edited January 18, 2021 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

16 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

That game is solid gold and I stick by that review.

Not my fault that you’re just weird  

One of these days I'll replay that game, fall in love with it and owe you an apology.  

[Ike]

On 11/01/2021 at 11:33 PM, Jonnas said:

Ready to make my first 2021 post! It's been a long time coming, but it's finally done. After 165 hours of recorded game time (but surely 200+ hours in practice), I finally finished:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

 

 

Shamir, why do you keep hurting me with truth?

I think we know who your favourite character is. 

Now you've heard God Shattering Star, have you heard this version yet, featuring Claude himself?

 

[Aperson]

Continuing my efforts to finish Crash Bandicoot 4 and I am ALMOST done with the game.

Will spoiler box my progress because the events deserve it really.. I wound up streaming the final level on Twitch so that's why the level clips there are from Twitch Clips instead of Twitter video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I failed this bonus section at least 40 times alone, took me forever!

 

And then after all that...

 

[Goron_3]

Dark Souls 3.

I'm going to leave a more detailed breakdown in here later on, but posting this now as a reminder to myself.

(It's a solid 9/10 imo, but Bloodborne and DS1 are slightly better).

Edit. Right here we go.

First and foremost, my experience of the Souls games actually starts with Bloodborne, which after initially hating soon became one of my favourite games of all time. Towards the tail end of last year I picked up Dark Souls and absolutely loved it (a much harder game than BB, imo) and it made sense to try and play another game in the series. I deliberately opted against Dark Souls 2 because I've watched a lot of critiques of the games and they've all put me off it. I therefore decided to jump into DS3.

First things first, this games looks absolutely gorgeous. After a bit of research, it looks as though this game came out after Bloodborne and launched on PS4 / XBO, and it certainly benefitted from that 'next gen' upgrade. The environments in the game massively benefit from this, and there were a couple of areas late on in the game that made my jaw drop, both in terms of their scale and also the visuals. Whilst I wish the game had more varied areas, overall it's probably the best looking game the team have made.

The combat was as tough as ever but generally I think if you've played BB or Dark Souls before then it's not actually as difficult you might think. I guess the big change in this game compared to the previous Souls games is that the combat is much faster. In terms of enemy attack patterns and boss fights having second phases, it felt like I was playing Bloodborne again. I originally enjoyed this however a few areas into the game, I began to realise that the game almost seemed to lack a solid identity. It either felt too much like Dark Souls in certain areas, or too much like Bloodborne. I wasn't able to get rid of those feelings by the end of the game, unfortunately.

That said, here I am 80 hours later having completed the game and honestly, it's just bloody terrific. The gameplay loop of all the games in this franchise was just so finely tuned by the time DS3 came out that it was destined to be a winner, and it's certainly one I'd recommend. The game ran at a flawless 60 FPS too.

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Goron_3

[Jonnas]

8 hours ago, Ike said:

I think we know who your favourite character is. 

Well, yeah, just look at my avatar

Shamir has some of the funniest lines in the game (and the best snark in the series), and in any other entry, she'd be top tier. But Three Houses has such a rich cast, she's behind several others, including actual best girl Dorothea (but it's the same voice actor, so two for the price of one? )

I probably should post in the main 3H thread, make these finer opinions more clear. Like, why isn't Claude gay? I'd go for him.

8 hours ago, Ike said:

Now you've heard God Shattering Star, have you heard this version yet, featuring Claude himself?

 

Oh yes. This video has been on my recommended pages for months, tempting me to spoil myself, but I preservered. First thing I did after beating the game was listen to it, though, and yeah, some powerful voice on that yellow-shirted voice actor. Joe Zieja is very impressive, Claude should join the Mittelfrank Opera with that voice.

[drahkon]

My best friend wanted to play a co-op game with me so he gifted me Castle Crashers Remastered.

We started 4 hours ago and finished it just now

So much fun. Brought me back to the good old times when I spent most of my gaming time with my Xbox 360 (the only Microsoft console I ever owned). That's now more than 10 years ago...

Think we'll go for the Platinum, which shouldn't be too difficult as you don't have to finish the game in Insane Mode in this remaster. We'll still going to play it

[Glen-i]

I have never wanted a Heracross to succeed as much as I have right now.

So yeah, in the middle of Purity Forest with a run that hasn't ended before floor 20 like most of them do. Got real lucky with finding Joy Seeds early on and now have 4 multi-hitting moves.

Basically, I'm trying to one-shot everything before they can retaliate.

That said, my equipped item isn't great. Immunity to confusion is nice and all, but I'd sacrifice all 7 of those temporary recruits for an X-Ray Specs!

An Empowerment Seed for Mega Evolving would also be very much appreciated.

[Hero-of-Time]

8 hours ago, drahkon said:

My best friend wanted to play a co-op game with me so he gifted me Castle Crashers Remastered.

We started 4 hours ago and finished it just now

So much fun. Brought me back to the good old times when I spent most of my gaming time with my Xbox 360 (the only Microsoft console I ever owned). That's now more than 10 years ago...

Think we'll go for the Platinum, which shouldn't be too difficult as you don't have to finish the game in Insane Mode in this remaster. We'll still going to play it

Castle Crashers was on of the best games of that generation. Happy to see that it still holds up. I can't say I'm too surprised though, I mean it has an artstyle that doesn't really age and the gameplay is nice and simple, just like the brawlers from the arcades in the 80s and 90s. 

Is it on sale? I wouldn't mind picking it up myself at some point.

[drahkon]

11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Is it on sale?

It is not and it has never been on sale on PSN in the EU.
My mate and I waited on a sale for 6 months...yesterday he got impatient and bought us each a copy

So now that we have the game it'll be on sale pretty soon. That's how it works

[Aperson]

Three things.

 

First of all I finally got round to doing the bonus episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 3

 

 

Secondly I went back to Soulcalibur VI to redo a few of my Custom characters. The Crash one still looked pretty bad and someone in a Youtube comment told me that the Ornstein needed a "lot of work". So using Youtube videos I redid both of them:

 

 

 

Thirdly I beat Crash 4 last night. Will spoiler box things from the final boss fight and ending.

 

 

 

 

 

For anyone wondering, this is what he says:

 

Quote

This game has been a work of fiction. Any similarities to any marsupials, talking masks, dingo-alligator hybrids or evil science guys with weirdly-shaped heads, living or dead, is purely coincidental. You should not have played this game if you suffer from: - Wumpa allergy - “Crash Rash” - Fear of alternate dimensions - Fear of moving platforms - Fear of still platforms - Fear of sequels - Fear of squishy noises - Fear of bouncy noises - Fear of super science - Fear of collecting things - Fear of 90’s nostalgia - Inability to comprehend time paradoxes - Inability to forgive those who have wronged you - Inability to pick a restaurant when someone asks you what your’re hungry for - Inability to remember where you parked - Or a delicate tummy For more information on bandicoots and their diet, habitat, mating habits, birthday wishlists and shoe sizes, visit your local library or ask your grandma. I don’t know if she has any prior experience with bandicoots, but she’s very wise and i’m sure she’d love to hear from you. The makers of this game do not in any way indorse eating at Dingodile’s Diner, which has been known to cause transdimensional discharge, intestinal rifts, Wumpa-whooping cough, parasitic slime boils, random teleportation into darker timelines and uncontrollable mewing like a little kitty cat during important business meetings. Any unauthorized exhibition, distribution or duplication of this game will result in very hurt feelings. And why would you want to hurt our feelings? We’ve always said really nice things about you. We even said your new haircut looked great even though it was kind of a weird length for you. Guests of Crash Bandicoot stay at N. Sane Beach Suite, which is just a log with some moss on it. The moss is really soft, though, so you should be able to get a good night’s sleep. What, are you too good to sleep on a log? Sorry, your majesty, I suppose you want a continental breakfast instead of a handful of ants that make their nests under the tree! JEEZ, LOUISE! THERE’S NO PLEASING SOME PEOPLE...! Can you give me a minute...? Okay, i’m ready to go again! The events of this game are absolutely 100% canonical, unless you didn’t like them which, in that case, it was all a dream.

 

 

 

[Jonnas]

For the past few weeks, I've been playing in short bursts a game I got for 0,99€, on an eShop sale:

Perfect Angle

 

It's a cute 2015 puzzle game from Spanish Indie developer Ivanovitch Games. The basis behind each puzzle is that you have an abstract sculpture of sorts, but by shifting&rotating the camera just right into the correct perspective, you'll be able to see a concrete picture. There are variants, like in the picture above, where you rotate the sculpture itself until you see the right shadow.

Nice idea, and I'm sure it works great in mobile devices (where it was originally released), but having to rotate the camera on a joystick is painful. Not just because it takes its sweet time, but also because the HD rumble reacts to this, and you can't turn it off. In stages with intensive backgrounds (there's a recurring one, with red neon lights), the rotation is extra slow, too. The kicker? This game is not compatible with the Switch's touch screen. I cannot understand the decision, as even the menu feels like it was designed for touch controls.

My patience reached its limit when puzzles started presenting trick solutions (there's at least one where the solution required me to ignore the abstract figure and focus on the background). The game has a hint system, so that wouldn't be too bad... But somehow, there are only 5 hints for the whole game. In a game with 70+ puzzles! So, at the 40 puzzle mark, I decided to drop the game.

There's a story to this game, but it's entirely unnecessary. A narrator remembers moments of his life as you're solving puzzles, but the narrative is too vague to hold my attention. There's also one continuous song throughout the entire game, and it's too relaxing, sleep-inducing even (makes this a great game to play before bed, though).

tl;dr

Decent idea, but due to bad implementation on Switch hardware, I was compelled to drop it.

  My 2021 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) Completed (January 9th)

-Perfect Angle (2015) Dropped (January 20th)

 

Currently Playing:

-Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990)

-Harmo Knight (2012)

My next update will be substantial, but I wanted to get this one out of the way first.

[nekunando]

 

[Nicktendo]

Finally finished Doom 2016. I'll talk about it this week on the podcast as Greg and Lee have also beat if I remember right.

For everything I feel it does right, it also does a lot wrong. Struggling to come up with an overall assessment in my head.

[Aperson]

Went back to Crash 4 to at least attempt at trying to get that 100% ending. Mopped up a few gems I missed on the backtrack and what is very noticeable is how level knowledge makes these levels significantly easier to complete. Apart from Jetboard Jetty because the boss and certain aspects of that level is making the 3 death gem extremely hard for me to get :/ I did manage to get an N. Sanely Perfect Relic when going through an N.Verted level though:

 

 

I also uploaded something I haven't done in a long time, a Soulcalibur VI Custom Character fight:

 

 

[Londragon]

Been working my way through The Hong Kong Massacre, and trying to finish it off after reviewing it.

[Lee Plays] The Hong Kong Massacre (Part 1)

Old Nintendo Gamer seeks revenge in the most brutal way possible, John Wick beware. The first 2 levels.

 

 

[Glen-i]

I've been busy.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is 100% complete! You'd think that the Tunic of the Wild would be your reward, but nope! You get the Hyrule Warriors outfit instead. Which is a million times better. Badass scarfs are better than awkward shorts!

Even more impressive is that I've uncovered every ? Panel in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. That previous picture ended up being the run and I've got a newfound respect for Heracross.

I might go for every shiny Pokémon at this point. Might as well after coming this far.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Glen-i