Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

There isn't, which seems like an oversight now that you mention it. But I didn't really mind, as I quite often used button controls even on the DS because I was less likely to accidentally fill in the wrong squares! You can have it all in Japanese though, if you want?

Good stuff Rum! I wondered about KC, but didn't think it was my place to judge - and my baseline for gay characters in visual novels is Jean Armstrong.

Yeah, KC seemed your stereotypical gay character but seemed fine enough from what I've played of MBN. It's not my place to judge like Balla says as take The Last of Us Part II, I've read and heard different things on that around LGBT+ community, that I don't really know if good or bad.

With CotM2 coming out very soon, decided to go back and play this gain this time on Xbox One just in case any save file stuff with CotM2. Still excellent and like last time makes me want to go play a bunch of Castlevania games or start RotN as it's a damn good modern retro game, which Balla will hate but a Cappa will love.

Superliminal I've had my eye on since it was released on PC where it was well-received, just at the time don't think my laptop would have run it and by the time I got this laptop a console version had been announced.

It came out on Tuesday and I finished it that evening as it took me around 3hrs but from playing on Xbox they're achievements for doing it under 1hr and 30mins. The length shouldn't put you off it's just that sort of game, where it's about right.

It starts off well and even ends well even though it tells you what it was trying to achieve than it being up for interpretation, just a few chapters do drag a bit and just aren't fun (not the bit Balla will likely mention, as I liked that bit).

That really let it down especially compared to something like Stanley Parable or Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist which do what Superliminal does so much better and if you're more in it for the puzzles but still want a story then Portal is available along with a few others or even something like Gone Home if more about the story and less about the puzzles.

Overall I feel it's maybe 2 chapters to long, and better games out there but for myself the games I've mentioned are better I've played and I've played worse as well that this sits right in the middle and wait for a sale where it's under a tenner.

That's a shame. I hadn't heard of this, but I do like these sorts of games.

Dr Langeslov, The Tiger, and the Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist is such a good game, but a lot of that does come down to its pacing.

Not having a dig at Stanley Parable, which is very good in its own right, but when I introduced both games to my girlfriend, it was the doctor which came away the clear winner for her and that was really down to its pacing.

Pacing is the issue here as well, like I say instead of 9 chapters make it 6 and a tighter experience then might be better than just average.

As Mas hints at, he's not the only one to have finished Superliminal recently.

You know how everyone lauds Mario's recent 3D platformers for using an idea for only a couple of stars/Shines/moons before moving onto something else? Turns out it doesn't work so well for puzzle games. There's a bunch of decent mechanics in here, but before long Superliminal is more interested with disorientating you using sudden scene changes and demonstrating a range of perspective interactions for any one of them to be sufficiently developed. (There's a bit with some optical illusion-y things early doors that is possibly the best bit in the game and never reappears.) Sudden scene changes, incidentally, are one step up from 'jump scares' in my list of 'unforgivable cheap tricks to unsettle your player'. I found the ending heavy-handed too, and what with the lack of graphical style (and unforgivable frame rate chugging in even the emptier segments) and occasional sound design there's not much to compliment on the aesthetics either.

Superliminal sounds at the start like it wants to be Portal, but Portal knew the mechanic it wanted to use and how it wanted to use it. It's a lesson Superliminal really could've done with learning. 4/10

I played on a One X and I also had framerate issue but only when you seemed to have shrunk that it might be on purpose.

Ori and the Blind Forest

I whinged about this a bit in its own thread in the Switch forum, but I've finished it and feel marginally more positive about it.

You play as an orphaned guardian spirit called Ori (who looks like a little glowy rabbit thing). You're aiming to restore the Forest of Nibel, which was destroyed by some kind of cataclysmic event. To do this you're guided by Sein, who is... a little floating ball...? And occasionally you run into a big scary bird called Kuro who DOES NOT LIKE YOU.

In many ways, it's not an especially inspired Metroidvania. Restore the light to the darkness; collect little glowy things to advance; don't get killed. One of the key elements to its gameplay that makes it a little different though is the use of "Soul Links" - in other words, quick save spots you can plop down almost anywhere (just not if you're too close to an enemy, or not on solid ground). There are still a handful of save points though.

From its critical reception, I thought it would be amazing. It's not. It's fine. It's very pretty - though I found that sometimes it was so glowy that it was hard to discern where Ori was on the screen. The story is alright, but I think it gets more interesting in the last third or so of the game (my run was ~8 hours). The controls are... OK, though I found them quite slippery, leading to several (hundred) moments that were a colossal pain in the arse (e.g. trying to get Ori to stand on a small platform was difficult; trying to use the shoulder buttons AND control stick AND face buttons simultaneously to navigate a small but deadly corridor was even more so). The Soul Link system also seems to have encouraged the developers to be a bit footloose and fancy free with the insta-death in some sections - "it's fine, you saved right there, you can retry!".

A not-so-special mention to the three escape sequences, where you have to run away from something (a flood, the environment collapsing, etc), none of which felt especially satisfying. Instead of a feeling of "yes, I did it!" after each one, I just felt a feeling of "thank f**k that's over and done with". Plus, the first sequence is by far the most difficult, as it has no checkpoints and a lot of trial-and-error. The difficulty spike comes out of nowhere and is jarring. The other sequences have a couple of checkpoints each (albeit quite a lot of trial-and-error too). They all just got on my tits a bit.

Ori is polished, and it doesn't do anything dramatically wrong, and it looks and sounds nice and a lot of the exploration and puzzles are well done. It's just... I can't think of why I would choose this over another Metroidvania on the Switch. Its ambience isn't as good as Hollow Knight's. Its precision platforming isn't as satisfying as Guacamelee's. It isn't as immediately charming as Yoku's Island Express or as arresting as Shantae. It's just quite good, and if you're a patient person looking for a quite-good Metroidvania, it's worth a punt.

Rum Rapture wrote:

...if you're a patient person...

Oh this is not me. This, and your general view consoling me that not getting on with the game doesn't make me a madperson, are making me much less inclined to carry on. I haven't even got to the first escape sequence yet! (Even people who love the game seem to hate that bit.

Rum Rapture wrote:

It's very pretty...

Also: I don't get this. The game just seems like taking Twilight Princess and its BLOOM EVERYWHERE approach to its natural conclusion, and TP was ugly. Ori isn't ugly, but I really think that Hollow Knight, Monster Boy, and Guacamelee are all better looking in their own ways.

Balladeer wrote:

Rum Rapture wrote:

It's very pretty...

Also: I don't get this.  The game just seems like taking Twilight Princess and its BLOOM EVERYWHERE approach to its natural conclusion, and TP was ugly.  Ori isn't ugly, but I really think that Hollow Knight, Monster Boy, and Guacamelee are all better looking in their own ways.

It's sort of functional-pretty as opposed to stylish-pretty? In that it's good and reasonably well done, but it's not especially inspired or inspiring. Hollow Knight and Guacamelee have much better concepts and artistic direction. (I've never played Monster Boy!)

That description makes sense.  It actually ties into what you said in the game's thread about, 'it's a game that the bright sparks in class made that, on paper, does everything right': somebody said to those bright sparks, 'Make this game pretty!'  So they did just that and nothing more. As a result it doesn't have much artistic direction or interesting colourwork (from what I've seen).

I still haven't finished it, but from what I've experienced and from what you've said I'd say MB's a damn sight better than Ori (and unfortunately a damn sight more expensive too).  I probably prefer it to Guac as well.

Did you tao play a completely different game to me, it's absolutely beautiful and the platforming is nigh on perfect.

masofdas wrote:

Did you tao play a completely different game to me, it's absolutely beautiful and the platforming is nigh on perfect.

I think it's becoming clearer that our tastes definitely diverge... Although it's a lot better than GRIS or The Gardens Between!

I do not agree with either of your points here I didn't find Nibel an especially exciting world to explore and when I did find a new bit and had to do a bit of insta-death precision platforming I can't say I was overly thrilled!

I think this is a rare case where I agree with Mas, though I’d also say popular opinion says Ori is a dream to control. 10/10 banger right there.

I can understand why people thought it was great but 10/10?! You're mad, boy.

I'm going to almost agree with Andy's score but like a 9/10, one of the best of this gen.

Yakuza Kiwami 2.

I was going to give this one a miss (as well as Kiwami 1 for that matter), but I found I can't resist Yakuza so here I am.

As with Kiwami 1 I have sort of mixed feelings about this one - even more so with this one, in fact, but I think I like this one more overall. I think it's because while overall the added content and improvements in Kiwami 1 were better, I did like Yakuza 2 more than the first game and had fonder memories of it.

Another big reason is also kind of shallow - the game looks a lot better, taking more advantage of the current gen's grapical oompth whereas at its core Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 1 were PS3 games remastered for the West as PS4 games. The general lack of loading zones around town is nice too, as well as completely transitionless battles - though it's kind of immersion breaking when you can unload enemy mobs by interacting with vending machines.

Something that stuck out to me with this remake is the amount of cut content, whereas Kiwami 1 didn't cut anything as far as I know (they cut some hostesses I think but nothing else comes to mind). They removed a whole area and transitioned an abridged version of the plot that takes place in it to one of the main areas. Granted, it wasn't a big area but still, it was disappointing. Especially considering the considerable extra content they added:

Clan battles which were in Yakuza 6 and were okay, and Yakuza 0-styled Caberet Club management which is mercifully less grindy if you want to get all the stories out of it. It's fun but simple - the pages of intructions that precede it really make it seem more complicated than it turns out to be. However it does come at the cost of Yakuza 2's own caberet club management sidegame, which admittedly wasn't that fun, and the Kiryu-as-a-host substory which was more disappointing to see gone.

I don't like how Majima's character is used in these side missions in a similar way I didn't like how he was used for the Majima Everywhere system in Kiwami. I thought Majima Everywhere was fun in a vacuum with some great ideas in it but I don't like how it detracts from the character in the main story. It's the same deal here where they drop him into some over the top animesque side story. Just don't mess around with plot-important characters. Majima is a big goofball in Yakuza 2 but it's jarring all the same.

As for the music I'm glad they did a better job of remixing the flagship battle theme this time around but I notice they cut a few other common battle themes which I liked, whereas the main battle theme in Kamurocho is a bit bland. Most of what they brought back sounds good, though.

I have to acknowledge that because they pretty much churn out Yakuza games, and because of their relativiley low budget, compromises and shortcuts had to be made. As with Kiwami 1 this game uses another Yakuza game as its base. In this case, Kiwami 2 cribs most of its assets and structures from Yakuza 6 but to its credit they recreated an area even if they ended up cutting another.

I just wish they played it a bit more straight if they weren't going to bother reimagining the whole game - because it's largely the same with even the cutscenes being almost 1:1 - since it's turned out to be a mostly solid and faithful remake, but with some awkward additions and omissions they could have avoided had they shifted their priorities a bit. I wouldn't have minded because, as much as I liked Yakuza 2 on the PS2, it's awkward going back to it because of its platform and clunkier design.

I have never played a Yakuza game, sorry Kriken (and Andy).

Rum Rapture wrote:

I can understand why people thought it was great but 10/10?! You're mad, boy.

Agreed with this. It seems far too flawed and by-the-numbers to challenge those heights in anyone's book. What's brilliant about it? I can see maybe the graphics, but I can't see how any other aspect could qualify in anyone's view.

Burnout Revenge (2006)

Well, well, well. Firstly, I had finished this back in 2006 and considered it to be the best Burnout game at the time. Fourteen years later and I've beaten it again. I say "beaten", because the amount of content is ridiculous, so what I have actually done is attain the highest Rank (which is Elite) and unlocked the EA-branded racing car that is genuinely too fast to control on most circuits. There are still cars, trophies, events and your Xbox achievements to unlock, but I really can't be arsed with much of that.

Burnout Revenge is a prettier version of the PS2/Xbox release, taking advantage of that there HD television you ponied up for. While it isn't as easy on the eye in 2020, there is enough colour, broken shrapnel and excellent sound design to compensate for what it may lack in detail. There is a lot more traffic in this game than in Burnout 3, because you are encouraged to smash into the back of innocent drivers (in what the game calls "Traffic Checking"). This does make the game much easier in the first half, as you are rewarded with Boost for driving recklessly; however the further you delve into the World Tour mode you find the need for strategy that hasn't been seen in the previous games. With aggressive AI who can slam traffic into you too, and the added "Traffic Attack" levels that require you to chain smashes together, it's an added layer of depth that I feel gets ignored because it generally makes the game even more chaotic. Which I love. It's a shame the servers are offline as online races were incredible, just from a technical standpoint.

The World Tour is where you'll sink a good 50+ hours. There are 89 cars to unlock, across 167 events. And some of them events are "Burning Lap" (beat a timer - so no crashing), "Eliminator" (every 30 seconds, the racer in last place explodes until 1 remains) and then 3 or 4 race "Grand Prix" modes. And Criterion mixed up many of these events, so you may have an Eliminator Grand Prix, or a Crashbreaker Road Rage (Crashbreakers let you explode yourself when you crash). There's plenty of variety. And of course the excellent Crash mode events are in there too.

The lack of online does hurt the game now, as the whole "Revenge" angle was built around the online modes. If you were "taken out" online, you could take that person out at a later point and cite it as a "Revenge Takedown" and start a rivalry. The game would then log historical takedowns. I feel Burnout Paradise lost some of that silliness, shoehorning an open world into a title that doesn't need one. Test Drive Unlimited did the whole open-world driving game and it was largely forgettable for it. If there's no actual humans driving the cars, it's little more than an anarchic spin on the Cars franchise. Plus, driving to an event is a disgusting use of bloat to pad out your game.

Personally, I prefer Revenge to Burnout 3: Takedown, as it is a better package overall, looks better, had superior online modes and has a lot more going on in the races. It's available on Xbox One to download and I highly recommend it.

9.5/10

Loved what I played of Revenge on PS2 and 360. There's money sitting on the table with Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge.

Hollow Knight

Almost 2 years ago, I bought this on the eShop and played the game for about 7 hours or so. I found it quite frustrating, but I enjoyed enough of it to try and persist - until it got to a point where it felt like life was too short to just bloody die all the time. Since my video gaming time is limited to a few evenings a week for a few hours after work, I did not have the will or the want to spend that on games that were going to kick my arse and expect me to be grateful.

Fast forward to now, where I've been off work for an eternity and possibly at risk of losing my job (thanks Obama), and I have all the time in the world. I went back to the game and decided to focus on exploration rather than combat (although I stayed away from Deepnest as I'd already accidentally ended up there quite early on when I was not at all ready for it). And everything started to click. I still died reasonably often, but traversing back to find my Shade and my cash didn't seem to be as much of a chore (and I unlocked the character who can retrieve it all for you, which I used two or three times). I unlocked more charms and notches to put them in, and experimented a little bit with different ways to play, and worked out what was best for my own personal survival. That made the game a lot more fun.

I also mentioned Hollow Knight when speaking about Ori, namely in how it was much more successful at creating a sense of ambience and building a world. Having dug deeper into it, I can say that even more emphatically. Each area feels distinct and it feels like it has its own story; piecing together the lore from other warriors and residents of Hallownest was fascinating; the progression of The Infection felt visceral, somehow, as it became more and more of a danger the more you started to understand about it. I really enjoyed exploring different nooks and crannies and uncovering more and more of the world.

I did have a few bugbears (ha) about it. One minor one was that having to equip a charm to see your location on the map seemed unnecessary. Is adding challenge, or is it just a bit inconvenient and annoying? I'd say the latter, and I wish it wasn't considered a buff since other charms offered actual skills and power-ups. And it ties in to why I gave up on it in the first place: the game is really hard on you, particularly at the start, and it takes a long time to unlock enough abilities and upgrades to make the world feel traversable. To start with, I didn't really WANT to explore because a lot of the time I'd find a new place and get killed by a new enemy in a couple of hits. It was demotivating because there wasn't really any variety in how you could approach the situations - you still just had a small amount of health and a rubbish weapon. Once I got to the point where it was challenging but I could play with upgrades and ways to approach new enemies and areas, I had a LOT more fun. I just wish that hadn't been 8 hours in.

I finished with 75% completion after about 26 hours of play, and got the first ending. Am I going to go back to it and get "proper" endings? ...probably not. I just read about them and will probably watch them on YouTube instead. I'm pretty happy with what I got out of the game, and am excited to hear more about Silksong.

I think that, once more, I'm agreeing with most of what Rum says. I persevered for a bit longer than he/you did (chuffing Soul Master), but the game does like to kick you about a bit early doors! YMMV if that's a good thing or not.

Sorry Jay, still nobody else insane enough to do the Path of Pain with you.

Hollow Knight is a belter. I actually just finished a game which I downloaded the very same day, back in E3 2018.

Fortnite



I don't think any of you need me to tell you that this game is an absolute phenomenon. Not just the biggest game in the world, but the biggest pop culture thing of any kind. Toy shops are full of it, all the kids I teach are playing it, even the ones who aren't know the (stolen) dances, football players are referencing it during the World Cup Final. It's a big deal.

I downloaded it way back when Nintendo did the classic "available after this show" reveal. I played it a little for the month I lived in Osaka, even hopping online for some duo games with our very own Shanks. I wasn't particularly good at it; I was decent at the shooting, but I couldn't build like the Minecraft generation can. When I moved to Nagano (two years ago yesterday!) and didn't have internet, this was promptly deleted - not even worth sticking on during those occassional moments at hostels and friends' places when I had internet and a chance for a quick Spla2n round.

When I got back online a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it another go. For the most part, I just wanted to be able to talk to students about it. I didn't play much; one or two games of a morning before work. After the first week, I got a bit better. I finished like top three for four games on the bounce. I thought oh, maybe I can do this.

Then, last week, I finally did it. There were a few of us left, I had some decent weapons, it was an open field without much scope for messing around and I had the high ground. I sniped one enemy, let them die fighting the other, then finished off the other one. In fact, in the game I won, that final kill was my only kill of the game.

I punched the air. I roared. I took some screenshots.

I then immediately deleted the game.

I don't like Fortnite's aesthetic. I don't like the controls. I don't enjoy the shooting. I don't like the crafting and building mechanics.

That all being said, the Battle Royale schtick (which it stole) is compelling. This shit is popular for a reason. It replicates the loop of starting a big single-player campaign in every match. It reminds me of how good the opening hours of Breath of the Wild were, of how exciting it was to discover Dark Souls for the first time and how I've watched and listened to so much stuff in an attempt to recreate that feeling.

Exploring, sneaking around, slowly becoming more powerful and subsequently more confident is really exciting. The tension of meeting other players, the thrill of death being a real risk - I like all of this. Fortnite just isn't the game for me to get it from.

Still - Apex Legends soon. Psyched for that!

Then you find out you were playing against bots to get that first win high