Last game you finished and your thoughts

masofdas wrote:

2hr's seemed a bit slow   , and a 10/10 really as you gave MGS2 a 9/10. So where would you place MGSV:GZ in the grand schemes of the MG Series.

Or is the score based it's 2hr's it's the best 2hr's you'll ever get so it's a 10/10.

82 minutes was my time, but I didn't rush and I'm including cutscenes/ tapes.
Those two hours were essentially perfect whereas 2, as much as I love it, has some super fiddly control issues and lots of the cutscenes and codecs go on too long.

But MG is known for it's long cut-scenes though, you never answered my question where would you place it on in the MG series.

I guess Snake Eater still number 1, and did you find playing peace walker before this helpful.

I guess most of this should be talked about in the Metal Gear Series thread.

Infamous Second Son


So just finished on good karma story-wise. This was the first infamous I've played properly, so glad it was more of offshoot then a direct sequel to 1&2, it took me a while to get into it but when I've had time like today. I've just kept playing in till it's done to see out the story which fairly decent but what makes it great is Troy Baker and the rest of the cast's voice work.


Graphically it's very nice especially the particle type effect when you drain a power , but that's all it does next gen wise it's just a better looking game then what came before. Which isn't a bad thing but still looking fro some really innovation from a game on either black box.

It does use the touch pad in actually a useful way on the dual shock 4 which I've not really seen anything part from killzone which it felt a bit muh.

If you haven't got a PS4 yet, and this being the first sort of big title on it. Would it be worth getting a PS4 for this, well not really on it's own but might sway your decision if your looking at this a few others out and coming this year.

I will be replaying this with evil karma to see how it changes, which is rare for me to do.

A Solid 8.5

I got two to review, so let's get the worst one out of the way first!

Paper Mario: Sticker Star

Although the aesthetic of the game was great, and the boss battles were excellent, as well as two outstanding areas, I found this game to be lacking. VERY lacking.  Maybe it is to do with playing The Thousand Year Door before this, but I'll run it down:

Pros:
+ Great graphics
+ Some standout boss fights
+ Interesting use of stickers
+ A certain Forest and Ice area being the big standouts

Cons:
- Bland battles
- Kamek. **** that guy
- Atrocious music at places (save the Ice area one being a huge standout)
- Meh plot
- Just nothing memorable apart from the above mentions

Overall, it's not as bad as people have said it is, HOWEVER, I will admit the flaws might have prevented it from being sequel-worthy. It's probably best to rent the game instead of jumping in like I did then make your mind up.

6/10

masofdas wrote:

A Solid 8.5

You can't say "a solid" then give it a fraction! That's either a solid 8 or an uncomfortable 9.

Drunkalilly wrote:

masofdas wrote:

A Solid 8.5

You can't say "a solid" then give it a fraction! That's either a solid 8 or an uncomfortable 9.

"Slightly watery 9"

I agree with most of your points, Xelviar, apart from the music (Kamek's tune is bad, yes, but Boo Night Fever? The squid boss fight? The aforementioned ice levels? Come on!) and the score. I'd have probably given it a 6 or 7 when I first finished it - time has given me a harsher perspective, especially in comparison to the sublime TTYD, and it'd be lucky to scrape a five in my eyes.

Yeah, Paper Mario: Sticker Star was a further dilution of the series, in my eyes. In other news:

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Last night it became done. Since then, all I've thought about (apart from the cat's birthday and my girlfriend (stop it), natch) has been comparing it to Returns. Damned if I don't feel it falls slightly short of its predecessor. Returns was lengthy and meaty (stop it); TF, whilst of course playing better, looking finer and arguably having more ideas, feels less substantial. Having said that, I never looked for secret exits - they may be the same size once I find all the levels.

In short, a top platformer without being a top top platformer.

8.5/10

Even with those secret levels, it still seems a tad slight. Like Retro ran out of time, despite all the extensions they were given. Makes me wonder if they're a bit like Valve, in the way they approach the quality-timeliness balance - only obviously they've got Nintendo behind the, pushing them to actually get the thing done. And what's even sadder is that all the concept art shows that they had lots and lots of other ideas that never made it into the game, including a level on the moon!  

Still a top game, though. DAT SOUNDTRACK.

Pokémon Link Battle

As mentioned in Admintendo, it's a simple match-three puzzler with a Pokémon-themed twist. It works as a game, but it's hard to get a match-three puzzler wrong unless you overburden it with microtransactions or summat. It's very pleasant: pleasing enough on the eye, the one-player mode is pretty substantial (and tough in places - Shaymin-Sky  ), the music would be pleasant if the "you've made ten or more matches" theme didn't keep interrupting it, and you can fill up a Pokédex, which is nice. That said, I got naff-all reward for doing so - not even a little message.  

Can't remember how much it costs, but it kept me going for longer than most eShop games, so it's worth a punt at whatever price it is. 7/10.

Balladeer wrote:

And what's even sadder is that all the concept art shows that they had lots and lots of other ideas that never made it into the game, including a level on the moon! 

The whole reason that Retro did Tropical Freeze was that they felt they had "unfinished business" with the Donkey Kong franchise; do they still have unfinished business now? Or were they really trying to recapture DuckTales? 

And you've finished Pokémon Link: Battle!? Kudos to you, sir - I'm finding the challenge off-putting. Currently stuck on 7-2, a week after beating 7-1 (which took me three weeks or so). 

Yep!  I didn't experience the same difficulty leap that you and Rum were talking about in world 7 - maybe I was just too good by that point?  Only Shaymin-Sky, with its OHKO attack, really made me swear.

Going back about a month now, but I finished Infamous: Second Son on PS4. S'alright. I keep throwing out a line which I think sums up the game pretty well: it does a good impression of a better game. 7/10.

Dusty Knackers wrote:

it does a good impression of a better game.

What game? The only exposure I've had to Infamous: Second Son was a few gameplay videos on YouTube.

JayMoyles wrote:

Dusty Knackers wrote:

it does a good impression of a better game.

What game? The only exposure I've had to Infamous: Second Son was a few gameplay videos on YouTube.

If it's an impression of Hogs of War, Bishi Bashi Special or Theme Park World, count me right in.

Legend Of The Mystical Ninja

The years have not been as kind to LotMN as I would have liked. Still enjoyable, still quirky, still fun, still recommended? If you've not played it before, you should; otherwise, leave it in rose-tinted memory.

7/10

Just finished The Last of Us. Excellent game, though not what I was expecting. Too tired to say more. Proper write - up in the morning. Should probably go to sleep, considering the time.

Blimey, hope you slept well!

Mega Man X

After doing a Wii system transfer, I've got back into my Wii VC. Normally not a fan of the Blue Bomber but X is a bit of a turnaround. It's slightly easier and thus more approachable. The final few levels are a boss rush, which I tend to think of as lazy design, but overall it's a colourful and fun game - though it thinks of itself as very dark indeed. 

7.5/10

Drunkalilly wrote:

Just finished The Last of Us. Excellent game, though not what I was expecting. Too tired to say more. Proper write - up in the morning. Should probably go to sleep, considering the time.

Interested what you think of it, as I think it's excellent as well but not so much as some whom think it's the best thing since sliced bread or worthy of 200+ awards according to the box of the PS4 version coming.

Bravely Default

Finally finished this today, having clocked in 69 hours in total (waaay).

Good: The way it gets around the boring JRPG tropes of grinding and tutorials, and the freedom it gives you with job classes. I've never played a Final Fantasy game so I don't have that as a frame of reference - all I know is that BD does a good job of letting you customise your characters in interesting ways to try out different tactics, if that's what you're into. The story was actually surprisingly well told - you're not shunted from place to place in the way that you are in many RPGs of its ilk. Or, well, you kind of are, but it's used in an interesting way. Interesting for a little while.

Bad: I got bored in the latter half of the game - the pacing goes tits up and it feels like there's a lot of padding. Additionally, once I found a job setup that I enjoyed, I didn't really want to change it (and yes, I tried out other stuff and just went back to what I had before*). I said it already in the BD thread, but the approach to the latter half was executed pretty badly - there was the freedom to do sidequests rather than pursue the main story but the sidequests let you level up your jobs and gave you no actual experience, meaning you couldn't level up your character. Having maxed out my jobs before doing a lot of sidequests it meant that I wasn't really getting anything from the fights save for a few items, and also that my characters weren't actually strong enough to advance through the story because I wasn't levelling up. So I had to grind anyway. Good old JRPG.

I found BD compelling enough to sink 70 hours of my time into it, and I did want to see how it all panned out. The battle system was pacy (because you could set it to 4x the normal speed) and the risk/reward mechanic is fun once you've worked it out. Oddly, one thing I think I didn't like about it was how sparse it felt - it focused on relatively few people and places and focused on the same stuff so often, and never really rewarded you for sticking with it through that. And yet, having watched the post credits, I'm curious for the next game. So...

7/10

*If you're interested, the setup was Pirate/Swordmaster (Free Lunch and Amped Strike: carnage), Spiritmaster/White Mage, Thief/Performer and Valkyrie/Time Mage (Hasten World was the support ability of my dreams).

TL;DR: First half good, second half bad.  Which I pretty much agree with.  Hope they shear it down for the sequel.

(Grinding tips:
1. Use "auto" in battles;
2. Use the egg item from Norende;
3. Level a conjurer up enough and they learn an insta-kill attack.)

Balladeer wrote:

(Grinding tips:
1. Use "auto" in battles;
2. Use the egg item from Norende;
3. Level a conjurer up enough and they learn an insta-kill attack.)

1. Used it.
2. Used it.
3. By the time I got the conjurer asterisk my team was already in the 80s. (Level, not decade.)

Like I said: the way it gets around the tropes of traditional grinding was good. But it's still excessive grinding.

Yes, but... well... that's JRPGs for you.

I never found that to be the case in the Tales series, but at risk of getting you started on Tales of the Abyss, let's leave it here and remember that we both gave Bravely Default a 7/10 and are, somewhat in spite of ourselves, curious about the sequel... Peas in a pod, right?

Most JRPGs, then; and yup, exactly.  (Apart from the fact that I've since felt that was 1/10 too low.  )

Nope, sorry. Long ass day at work so no review.