Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

Rum Rapture wrote:

You play as Birb, a chunky baby bird that isn't entirely sure what species he is...

After this intro, that it isn't the greatest game ever saddens me hugely.

I'll keep that in mind, Rum, cheers!

~



I’ve unlocked all thirteen mini-games and got my brain age down to the youngest it can be, so I’m saying that I’ve ‘completed’ Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training For Nintendo Switch. Truthfully, I felt that I was starting to stupefy in lockdown, and I felt that some brain age training could help sharpen my mental focus. I bought it for a reasonable discount, and I’ve played it every day since 23rd April. That's forty-two days straight, six weeks.

I think we all quite liked the Brain Training and Big Brain Academy games on DS – looking back, they were pretty good. For me, lots of that nostalgia comes from the rivalry you’d have between pals and ripping the pish when you find out your eighteen-year old mate is recognised as a pensioner. Yet without that competitiveness – and with the fact that a thousand versions of all of these mini-games are readily available for free on your 2020 smartphone, and not at all exclusive to your 2006 DS Phat anymore – means that the impact is greatly diminished. That’s fully the case with the Switch version here.

On Switch, you’re getting the same fundamental set up as you were on DS, with all the maths, word and memory minigames from before. All the voice recognition games are replaced with games that use the right JoyCon’s often-overlooked IR Camera (which I don’t see how you could use on a Switch Lite). Also, you hold the screen vertically, like some mad Dr. Kawashima’s Ikaruga. While it all looks very clean and professional, not much of it is genuinely fun. Right enough, they’re not selling this as a replacement for the cinema or the football, but there’s several mini-games here that I don’t want to play ever again, because they’re total arse. Once you take those way, you’re left with precious little to keep you engaged. Indeed, my play sessions got shorter and shorter as the days passed.

It’s technical letdowns are a very unpleasant surprise. The IR recognition is ropey in most settings, often failing to accurately pick up on your hand and finger gestures for the Rock, Paper, Scissors, Finger Drill (lol) and Finger Calculation games. Much worse is the handwriting recognition: it’s completely shite. I’m amazed that this technology can’t reliably pick up the number 5, the letter E, the letter L, and many other characters and digits. It trashes your high scores, and so it trashes the purpose of the game.

I have no idea about its actual cognitive effectiveness or it’s long-term benefits, but either way, this is a game that’s awkward to play both on Switch and in the year 2020. For what it is, what it offers and what it costs, I can’t recommend it. That free stylus is nice though, 5/10 (although the game would probably pick that up as a 9/10, or a j/10).

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Cheers for sharing your thoughts on Songbird Symphony, Rum. I played that demo too, and liked it all well enough, but didn't know if it would have the substance or tunes to carry through a whole game. If it goes on sale again, fair to say that I should put it on the maybe pile?

Its currently £10 at Game, not cheaper than I'm sure it'll be on eShop but if you prefer to have it physical then it's not bad, don't see many physical Switch games at that price.

Axiom Verge

I owned this on Wii U as well, but never got super far. I downloaded it again (cheaply!) from the eShop and began it... and then abandoned it again. And then consciously went back to it, because I thought, god damnit, I should love this game!

I don't. It's pretty good, but I found it a bit too annoying to love (just like my exes AM I RIGHT). The main thing is that I didn't quite find it encouraged exploration so much as it forces mindless wandering until you stumble across something new. You can set 'reminders' on the map, markers at points you want to return to, which is useful - but generally I found it a bit too directionless a lot of the time. Now I love Metroid, and Metroidvanias, and I appreciate the joy of getting to explore and stumble across new things as you gain new powers. But I just didn't enjoy it as much in Axiom Verge. Maybe if the areas felt a bit more distinct? Maybe if the music wasn't actively grating in certain areas? Maybe if there was just a little bit more signposting so you could at least remember approximately what was in each area?

There were also loads of weapons to discover, which was cool but it was almost overkill as I only ever used a couple of them and they were pretty much all optional. I also felt like it would have been cool to be able to use the Axiom Disrupter more on the environment. (The Axiom Disrupter is the game's USP, whereby you fire a jiggly laser around and it 'disrupts' enemies and blocks and stuff. It's used in some pretty nifty ways.)

That said, it's still a good game, and similarly to Iconoclasts it boggles my mind that it's the work of one guy. One! I am also conscious that it's 4 or 5 years old now. The story was a little bit convoluted and confusing (again, like Iconoclasts - maybe these guys should have gotten a second person's feedback on their storylines) but I am interested to see where Axiom Verge 2 takes it because it tries to weave an innovative narrative. (Think Inception, where it tries to be insightful and cool but ends up being a bit up its own arse, but ultimately still pretty enjoyable.)

And this is super unfair on the game but it just made me really want another 2D Metroid. Please, Nintendo, give us another 2D Metroid on Switch.

7.5/10

SF was part of this weekends free plays on Xbox One, which is normally multiplayer focused games but this weekend had Sonic Forces a game that can be done in 5hrs. So that's what I did, and I got to say I was surprised how good it was.

I went in thinking this is going to be crap but nope I had a great time maybe if I had paid £40 for it on launch I might feel different but I would recommend picking up as it reminded me of the likes of Heroes, Generations etc


As you know I do like me a horror walking sim which this falls under along with it having live action elements that it certainly was well up my street. Much like Trover that I played recently (I did the DLC of that today) it can be played in VR, I didn't as I played on Xbox One as I picked in a sale, just this unlike Trover is more like with RE7 that can be played either way just the scares might be more scary in VR.

Also, it would explain the low textures in the game.


Here's another walking sim where you play as Will during his last few hours before his death, along with playing as his Ex Girlfriend, his Boyfriend and his Gran (you can guess how she plays out) and how they all come terms with the death.

It's very indie and even though I'm a fan of this type of game, this was so slow the 2hrs it takes felt like an eternity especially after Transference which well paced.

Judgment, with most of the side cases and events done. The handful I have left over I'm not fussed about doing the busywork for since I'd have to use a guide, and from what I've seen some of the requirements are a bit annoying. Already slowly working on 100%ing Yakuza 6 and don't want to burn myself out (far enough into that quest to give up on it).

I thought it was pretty great. Ranking it among Yakuza games, I'd put it somewhere in the middle. I'd say the strength of this one lay in the characters, with a more likeable supporting cast than in Yakuza 6. Yagami also feels a bit more relatable than the normally stoic Kiryu. He is, after all, a more ordinary person albeit with some links to the yakuza. The story also delivered well on its high stakes like most of the games in the series.

Another thing it really has going for it is the sense of community in the game. Other titles had a 'friend' system, but in Judgment many of these characters are connected in some way and will crop up in other side stories. It ties in well with playing as a detective since having a lot of contacts helps. There are a ton of these events and they along with the side cases were mostly pretty fun.

I will say there was a bit of a cheap feeling about this game I can't quite pinpoint, but I think part of the reason has to do with all the mechanics they introduced to fit the new perspective and help differentiate the game from Yakuza. They are fine, but there was something just a bit off with them. Lockpicking makes sense but the two minigames feel like they are lifted from other games. The stealth tailing sections are pretty boring from a gameplay perspective but it makes sense that it's here. There's just barely any penalty for getting seen - aside from slowing things down a bit - and no reward for doing it well. Granted, I was playing on Normal difficulty so it might have been a decent challenge on Hard (if it's any different), but I only failed tailing once from getting caught of guard and not backing off. There was another instance I failed but I had no choice since the NPC I was following glitched and was stuck walking into the wall. Tried pushing him onto the right path which amusingly didn't make him fully suspicious for ages but it just didn't work. That's not the first time the game was really buggy with me either, as I softlocked in one side case and had to reset the game and had a similar issue elsewhere, but I digress.

The one new mechanic I don't have much to complain about are the investigation scenes. Nothing groundbreaking but I enjoyed them, and there was an optional cat to find in nearly every scene.

Then there's how they re-use Kamurocho. Not just from the series but pretty much how it is exactly in Yakuza 6 but with some changes like bringing back one of the districts - which is nice, but Yakuza 6 had another city to make up for that omission. I get that this allowed them to focus on other things which made the game great and I do like it for a bit of worldbuilding, but it still dampens the impact the game had somewhat. A new area alongside Kamurocho would have been nice, but whatever. They seem to churn out these games so they probably have their hands full with creating new areas for mainline titles or other spinoffs.

Also, since I mentioned it the last time I talked about the game, I started off playing with English voice acting for a change of pace but decided to change it to Japanese a few hours in. I normally don't mind dubs but it just felt especially off here what with the game being so explicitly Japanese. They didn't bother dubbing NPC noises and interjections so that was a bit jarring. Also I'd say some of the voices just weren't great or were inconsistent, but I did like some of them.

A sequel would be cool at some point but I also feel like the game wrapped up nicely and left me with a good feeling, so I wouldn't mind them leaving it as a one-off either.

Deadly Premonition


I absolutely loved this game. There are a whole bunch of things wrong with this game; the slow pace, the travelling, the combat which is so easy it borders on the tedious, the slightly dodgy graphics and stuff which show the low budget. Thankfully, none of that mattered at all once the game got its claws into me.

The characters, the story and the personality of this game are just so strong. I loved York (and Zach), Emily, George, the madcap cast of townsfolk and the various odd little stories between them.

I can't recommend this to everyone without caveats, because the game's issues are pretty severe, but I would much rather have a shonky game with some ingenuity and personality than a AAA game with the wrinkles ironed and no soul.

10/10

Bloody hell that screenshot! Hammy to a tea. I approve.

DP is definitely one of the games I'd like to get stuck into - just depends if I can clear some other stuff out first.

That's a 10/10 I could believe


Saw this come to PlayStation+ but had already installed on my Xbox One with EA Access. Why I bring up plus as I thought as it's on it some people might be playing it and chatting about the story etc that I thought why not play but I saw no one actually talking about it.

Now after playing it's just a good 6hr'ish FPS with the lights and sounds of Star Wars that connects to the films, nothing really to shout about it's an "AAA game with the wrinkles ironed and no soul" pretty much.

Did try playing the multiplayer as I thought from a recent Jim Sterling video it would be really busy, yet I tried on 3 occasions and couldn't find a match, that I can't tell you if any good.


After the PS5 event I finally went back to play this as it's one of those games I've had for ages but knew I'd always have that never in no hurry to play, thankfully the announcement of new one was the kick I needed to play this.

Glad I did as it's excellent and looks great that how it's going to be improved on PS5, I don't know.

I can confirm that despite being EA and all the controversy that surrounded it, the multiplayer is pretty great, it definitely helps that it's Star Wars but I've had a lot of fun with it in the past. I'd also like to add that Ratchet and Clank is one of the best PS4 games and the new one alone sold me on the PS5.

I will get round to Deadly Premonition some day, it's always sounded fun, I can forgive shoddiness in a game if it's interesting enough.

GRIS

Bought it on sale (obvs). It was fine.

I was conscious that I might not fall in love with it, because critic reviews seemed to boil down to "if ANYONE questions whether video games can be ART, show them THIS and they shall be IMMEDIATELY CONVERTED", rather than ever saying "this is a fun game!". And I can't deny that it looks great! The art direction and the art itself is really lovely. It's fluid, evocative and pretty. But as a game? It's, more often than not, not especially interesting.

It takes a while to get going. You start off just pushing the thumbstick to the right. Then you get an ability to weigh yourself down in one place... and then push the thumbstick to the right a bit more when you don't need to weigh yourself down. You gain another couple of abilities through the game, but the puzzles you solve are never especially taxing - GRIS really relies on you getting engrossed in its atmosphere, as an 'experience'. Which works to a certain degree. There are really lovely setpieces, it has a well-realised sense of scale and some nice puzzles. And the game never pretended to be challenging; its blurb is very open about the fact that it's essentially examining the process of grief. (Though I would argue that the metaphorical representation of misery as a large black monster is not especially inspired.)

Many critics would say it is gorgeous and meditative. I would say it is pretty and a bit vapid. It's a pleasant enough way to while away a few hours but on multiple occasions I found myself checking my phone with one hand while holding the thumbstick with my left as I slowly ran through what felt like endless scenery, and that is not the sign of an A+ game. It's... nice. But I wouldn't play it again and I'm glad I got it in a sale.

7/10

Edit: One thing I forgot to say is that it made me think of The Gardens Between, another game that I found pleasant but a bit tedious, in that it's an indie game where you pick up sparkly star things because... that's what you do. I enjoyed GRIS marginally more, though.

Huh. 7/10 is still pretty high, and you seemed to come down around the "it was disappointing after so much hype" zone. I guess I am crazy, because I seem to be the only person who genuinely thought GRIS was shit.

Rum Rapture wrote:

I was conscious that I might not fall in love with it, because critic reviews seemed to boil down to "if ANYONE questions whether video games can be ART, show them THIS and they shall be IMMEDIATELY CONVERTED", rather than ever saying "this is a fun game!".

I would use this game if I was trying to convince people that games aren't art, that all they can do is desperately try to imitate some tedious out-of-date idea of what art is. It feels like the devs flipped open a book on classical art, thought "yeah, statues of naked ladies, that's what art is", made the character a bit sad and called it a day. Insulting.

Quote :

Edit: One thing I forgot to say is that it made me think of The Gardens Between, another game that I found pleasant but a bit tedious, in that it's an indie game where you pick up sparkly star things because... that's what you do. I enjoyed GRIS marginally more, though.

Gardens Between had a mechanic and puzzles at least. And it was based on real emotion, not GCSE poetry "Oooh, sadness is grey and then I get colour from you xoxoxo" bollocks.

I dithered about bothering with a rating because they're arguably so meaningless! I went with that because it arguably did what it set out to do pretty well - a pretty, easy, non-frustrating journey through some nice landscapes. Was it deep and meaningful? No. Was it fun to play? Also no. But it was... pleasant.

I dunno, I thought about rating it lower but then compared to something like Songbird Symphony, which I felt was rough around the edges and overstayed its welcome in a way that GRIS wasn't and didn't, I thought it deserved some more plaudits.

But if I were to rank it purely from how fun it is to play as a game, and what you'll get out of it... I would rank it lower. I found it remarkably average, and in terms of gameplay mechanics it introduced nothing new.

Let's not pretend that The Gardens Between had an especially meaningful emotional story either, though. It was cute, and it had a proper USP of a game mechanic, but I also didn't find it very interesting to actually play, and the ending was a bit "oh right, I see".

TL;DR: GRIS is pretty and boring, The Gardens Between is marginally more fun but also quite boring.

I've found the solution is to give everything 8/10.

In theory I should love Gris, but I think I've been put off by that description - I'm happy mostly trotting through a 2D environment (hint look at game i did) but that looks too walk-y even for me.

I loved GRIS, it remains one of my Top Switch games and I've thought about buying again on PS4 along with the vinyl or even the physical Switch version but I feel I would just keep it sealed on Switch and on PS4 if I play again my experience might be tainted.

I also really liked The Gardens Between which I have finished on PS4 and Xbox at least.

Just dawned on me I've sort been celebrating pride month via games as I played Fragments of Him recently, playing The Last of Us Part 2 and just finished


I mainly picked it up as it's published by Annapurna and saw it had reviewed well along with the art-style reminding me of Florence. It even plays a tad like Florence which makes sense as If Found is also on iPhone that using the touchscreen to erase and draw things make total sense.

On a PC, just move the cursor around which will move the narrative along in what is essentially a visual novel tackling a hard subject in any medium not just games.  If Found is well written, the art is beautiful and the so is the music that I may go as far as saying this is currently in my Top 3 games of 2020 with Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy.

It's not going to be for everyone and unlike those two I can't recommend to everyone either but for those looking to check it out then I feel a lot can be gained even about the understanding of what someone might have gone through.

I was put off Gris by the general response here and never picked it up, but I did have a go at The Gardens Between and found it decidedly eh. Wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been so short, but I found it emotionally trite and mechanically fine.

I like scores though.

This weekend, after starting the campaign in August of last year when I bought him a copy for his birthday, Rob and I finished

Resident Evil 6

What a weird game. As a bit of co-op shooting fun, it was all great. As a Resident Evil game, and as a horror in particular, it absolutely falls flat. This game is so confused about what it wants to be. Is it grim and serious or campy and fun? Is it a military shooter or a horror game about zombies and monsters? Is it a simple action romp or a complex, inter-weaving narrative? The game tries to have its cake and eat it on everything, and ends up never excelling at anything.

The Leon campaign was fine, and I can kind of see why it has a reputation as the pick of the bunch, but it didn't really wow at any point. The highlight was the boss, who transformed into some bonkers forms and also, despite being called Simmon by everyone in game is just called Derek in the files.

The Chris campaign was very dumb COD-esque military shooter nonsense. Chris is kind of unlikeable here, and the new character "Piers Nivens" (we called him Pierced Nipple) was a complete non-entity. The comedic highlight of the whole game was in one of these cutscenes though - "To fight bioterrorism , sir" - and as I genuinely can't tell how deliberate that bit of writing and delivery was, this has to get a recommend from me.

The Sherry and Jake campaign was the highlight. Likeable characters, a simple plot and a fun mix of level locations and gameplay types. Plus, this campaign had a proper threatening boss monster who culminated in a decent fight.
Also, when my little brother was born I named him Jake because I thought that sounded like a tough guy action movie character name, and Jake Wesker is exactly that.

The Ada campaign was bolted on, and the co-op option was bolted onto that. Weak.

Overall:

???/10
Very confusing, but a fun co-op game with a pal.

Not following why you’re saying Ada was bolted on, the co-op was, but it was in the game day 1, just unlockable and it made a decent end from my perspective.

We still need to beat RE6 Andy (he says against his better judgment knowing how bloody stupid it is ).

Ada's mission didnt really add much to the story that we hadn't figured out, and she just pops into other characters stories in the middle without having much of its own climax.

I think it would have worked better if they had the Ada on Ada boss fight a bit later.

Are you going to play an actual good Res Evil game, soon Buska?


Few posts up I mentioned that so far my Top 3 games of 2020 are Animal Crossing New Horizons, Final Fantasy VII Remake and If Found with them all vying to be my GOTY for different reasons. Then The Last of Us Part II comes along, which unless Ghost of Tsushima is a banger, will go down much like Part I before it on PS3 as the PS4's swansong for better or worse.

I say for worse and you may have seen the review bombing and even a petition on change.org, I think the game from now on will always be synonymous with this and some of it might be slightly planned from Naughty Dog but that will go in to spoilers but controversy creates cash which we have seen with the sells numbers of the game.

In terms of better that goes for the games technical achievement, acting, score, accessibility options, story which I was intrigued by all the way to nearly the end which does let itself down a tad and gameplay which is so simple even basic but it's how nuanced it is that over time you appreciated how good it really is.

Is it better than Part I in terms of story no, gameplay yes as even though I think Part I is a fantastic game I always did find the gameplay to be a tad muh but the improvements on it made Part II feel like a survival horror game that the recent Res Evil Remakes didn't to me.

I'd still go for Part I overall though.

I will also bring up the recent twitter splat which started which with someone saying Part II is the gaming Schindler's List, now I do think it's wrong to compare a game set in a world with essentially zombie like creatures to a film about the holocaust but I also disagree to what Jim Sterling said about it that they're all "AAA" video games as to me there's clearly a difference between what Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Super Mario Odyssey and The Last of Us Part II are setting out to achieve and if you were to compare them to films than COD will be the big summer blockbuster where everything blows up, Super Mario Odyssey is that family friendly film all can enjoy and guess Part II would try to be something you'd maybe find at Cannes. If films can be that diverse then why can't big budget video games as well?

Games are absolutely diverse but mostly it just isn't for their story telling, you said it yourself TLoU is a zombie game and even though that is a genre I can enjoy very much when done right, it is overused often cliched and the furthest away you can probably get from diverse. I'm sure part 2 is a very well made game but from the several reviews I've read it sounds like it's being overrated big time just like the first one was.

Sure but think of it like 28 Days Later or something then not just a brainless as Zombie film, as you're missing out on a fantastic game which is one of the best of this generation

Numbered scores aside none of the reviews read like that at all.....even yours.

I need engaging gameplay to compliment a good story or the gameplay needs to be so good I can forgive a game for having a naff story otherwise I could just go watch 28 days later instead.

As you said the first was overrated, that if you thought gameplay was muh in that then you'll likely will think the same about Part II even though I thought it was improved, you then have a slightly worse story though then Part I.