Last game you finished and your thoughts

Little Big Planet
SackBoy may be spongy... but so's the platforming! ARF ARF ARF ARF

Brief yappering:
This game certainly has charm; SackBoy of course is adorable; the fact that everything's made out of actual real-world "stuff" is great for the atmosphere; Stephen Fry's witty narration makes you feel like you're in something classy; and of course, as anyone my age will know, it's hard to get angry with anything that uses Left Bank Two by The Noveltones as a theme tune.
However, when it comes down to it, the actual moving about isn't quite as much fun as would be hoped. SackBoy doesn't jump with the same unrealistic-yet-understandable physics as Mario; in fact the realistic physics are a hindrance - the slightest movement in the platform below can result in you getting no height at all. As someone who's played countless platformers for 25 years, I'd hope I wouldn't fail on jumping between two pillars, especially in a game that I'd had 10 hours' practise on.
But - having said that, there's a degree of satisfaction in the level creation, knowing that all the game's levels are re-creatable, with no wool pulled over the eyes in terms of possibilities. However, it has to be said that there are no shortcuts to creating a great new level design, as games developers will agree.
In fact, games developers are some of the people who will appreciate this most.... Jimbob's Pretentious Piece Imminent: If a developer was writing a new platform game, and required a moving lift, they could just create an "object" and command it to move up and down every few seconds; it's their world, who cares that the lift would need a) some method of propulsion, and b) some way to stop it dropping out of the sky? Whereas, in LittleBigPlanet, the lift would need to be on a pulley, with a timer, and the connecting bolts set up to stop it swinging about... the point I'm making is, there's something undenyably satisfying in constructing a working mechanical system.

Well, that rambled, sorry
7/10 - but I've just got LBP2, which apparently has more variety. We'll see.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc



The latest game down the hatch is the awesome visual novel murder mystery Danganronpa.  If my use of the word awesome not a line earlier doesn't indicate my opinion of the game then let me outright say it more blatantly, the game was awesome.  The presentation was slick as all heck and everything was smooth and fun to play.

As the game was at least seventy percent visual novel the story and how it was presented takes paramount attention, and it did not disappoint.  Main character Makoto Naegi recieves a invitation to the elite Hope's Peak Academy, where the ultimate students are drafted and set fro life when they graduate.  As the "Ultimate Lucky Student" makoto recieves an invitation in the mail despite being a self-proclaimed average of the average.  Not long after falling unconcious and awakening in a bizzare classroom he meets his fellow classmates, and then not long after they learn they are now in a death game, cut off from the outside world with the only means of escape being the murder of a fellow classmate and the subsequent getting away with it.  All while under the watchful eye of sinister "teddy bear" Monokuma.




When the story isn't progressing the gameplay is divided in to three sections, free time, investigation, and of course the class trials.  The first two are point and click affairs, with free time involving checking out various parts of the school and getting to know the rest of the class, all of whom have very... eccentric personalities.




Investigation takes place after a murder, this involves exploring the school to find clues for the class trial.  And last but not least there are the aforementioned class trials.  After a murder is committed and discovered by at least three people, and subsequent investigation has concluded a class trial to find out the guilty party begins.  During the class trial which are fully voiced affairs there are four types of minigames you will experience and use the evidence you gathered.  First is the Non-stop Debate, where you are tasked with finding a contradiction in what the others are saying and shooting it with a piece of evidence or "Truth Bullet".  Next are the Hangman's Gambit sections, where you shoot various letters to fill in missing letters to form a word.  Third are the Bullet Time Battles, a rhythm game where you press various buttons in time to the rhythm to lock on to and destroy opposing statements reducing the enemy's hp as well as reloading your bullets.  Finally there are the closing statements, where you are given small icons which you use to fill in the missing gaps of a story being told in comic format.



Like any good mystery it gets the balance right between tantalizing clues and shocking revaluations, had plenty of "oh snap" moments, and did a great job building up a cast I couldn't help but care about despite the situation.  It also did an excellent job with tension building and ominous atmosphere.  The music was also both extremely fitting with the tone of the game and very good.

Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10

Overall I loved the game, and cannot wait to play the sequel (alas that doesn't fit in with my plans for the future so it'll be a while before I play goodbye despair.)

Now for some spoiler thoughts and opinions, be warned the following tag contains spoilers including ending spoilers so don't open unless you've played the game.  

I'm not joking about not opening this you know.:

And lastly, Byakuya and Kyoko are awesome. That is all.

Togami's good. I can take or leave Kirigiri.

The second game's cast is probably better than the first's, even if the overriding premise isn't quite as good.

I really liked Kyoko Kirigiri  I've got her as my selves for my magic cards.

Vanquish


Completed this just now, having neglected it due to games which I will probably mention in the LGIDF thread, like FIFA and smash. Brilliant little shooter. Technically phenomenal graphics, albeit with somewhat uninspired designs. Amusing characters in a story which I was surprisingly into by the end. The best end credits sequence ever. And, most importantly, some incredibly fun roboviolence. I will have more to say at some point, but after I've played Binary Domain and a bit more Titanfall I'm planning to write a thing on my favourite roboshoots both videogame and cinematic.

Will we get the 10/10 then

BD is really good also really surprised it's from the Yakuza team.

Super Smash Bros. For 3DS


I'll skip the intros and boring explaining about the game because lets face it, everyone here has played this game, and if they haven't they've played a previous one and know most of whats in this one.  Instead I'll jump to what I liked and didn't like, also please note I will consider all publicly announced characters before release to be non-spoilers, so...

So, what I liked.  A good smattering of newcomers, most of whom were actually properly viable for once.  Little Mac, Wii Fit Trainer, Robin, Rosalina, they all brought something not yet done in any other character to the table.  Meanwhile a couple of returning characters found themselves completely reworked to be viable (perhaps a little too viable, looking at Bowser).  Afew of the newcomers were disappointing a little either due to not being very workable (Palutina, Villigar), and some didn't explore the character well enough (Shulk, you seriously expect me to buy that a guy whose set of abilities including things like creating tornadoes could only buff himself and use sword attacks?  Seriously?  And I get his whole gig is seeing the future which leads to the obvious counter, but surely someone as creative as sakurai could have done something else with that as well, perhaps like pokemon's move future sight), but overall the newcomers were good.  

What I didn't like, ah where to start, it's a long list.  Classic mode being as short as it is for one, its new size is a godsend for characters I detest playing as, but on the flip side it's over FAR too quickly for the characters I actually like.  Still on classic mode, I'm getting extremely angry at the constant dumbing down they do with this mode, each game it gets dumbed down in its scoring criteria.  In 64 and melee classic had a robust scoring system that encouraged more than just wailing on the opponent, it encouraged playing around with items and skillful use of both them and the actual areana.  We've gone from that to a scoring system based solely on how quickly and how much damage you inflict on a kill, down to solely how much damage you inflict.  As someone who likes score attacking because of its ability to bring up new and fun experiences I absolutely despise this dumbing down of classic and all star mode.  Before you could tell they were labors of love, and to a certain extent there are things about them that still point to that, but now it just feels like they're stuffed in because of their obligatory nature.  

Next is a big one: CLONES.  I'm not going in to the newcomers besides Lucina for obvious spoiler reasons, but the clones really annoy me.  Now don't get me wrong, this isn't under some sort of they stole better characters slots idealogy, I'm aware that they did no such thing.  But the copy-paste nature of them just makes them feel extremely cheap and unecessary additions, and with the cast at an all time high for being unique they come off especially poorly.  And don't even get me started about how Ganondorf is still a damn clone of captain falcon despite having nothing in common with him and having extremely obvious things they could base a moveset around.  I could accept him being a Falcon clone back in melee when he didn't really have much to him as far as personal fighting styles go, but ever since then every time he's fought he's developed his own style of dual swords.  Ganondorf is one of gamings most iconic villains next to Bowser and above Sephiroth, yet in the game they reworked bowser to make him more viable even when he wasn't a clone they did nothing for gamings second biggest villain the King of Evil.  Sorry, not good enough.  It's bad enough we have clones, but to make such an important character a clone is just aggrivating at this point.  

Finally we have Smash Run, a mode that has a hint of potential but was carried out in an extremely poor fashion.  Rather than rant about it a second time I'll simply say the mode spends too much time on one aspect and not enough on the other to make either parts of Smash Run worth bothering with.  Frankly I'm getting very sick of these new modes they cram in every Smash, it reminds me of the Zelda syndrome where they add in some sort of new "feature" that has potential but is initially nothing more than a gimmick, but rather than actually spend time making it better with each game they decide to dump it every single game to make a worse version of it.  Stop making these inferior wannabe adventure modes and just give us another adventure mode.  

Actually there is one other thing, and that is that as good as the game is I just am not feeling it compared to its console versions.  The portable nature of portable systems results in a screen that leaves me not getting even half as involved in the game as I do on the console versions, mostly because most of it isn't large enough for me to to take notice of.  


I know all I've mostly done is complain, but the simple fact of the matter is it's Smash Bros.  There isn't frankly much to say besides comment on the little things new to this game and this games interpretation of the various long running aspects of the series.  It's the latest smash bros, it's portable, and outside of everything above the positives seen in the previous games present themselves in this game as well.  


Overall Rating: 7.5 out of 10

As good as the game is this very much feels like the entree before the main course that is the wii u version.  The game leaves me with no doubt the wii u version will be a 10 out of 10, but overall the limits that come with being portable such as the dumbed down modes and the presentation lacking the polish that would be seen on/is actually visible on the home console version bring the game down a fair bit.  While it's clear Sakurai worked to make this game special in its own right and prevent it from being nothing more than a less graphical wii u version those don't prevent the problems of it being portable from bringing it down.  There's just something about smash on a tv that no matter how much effort goes in to the portable cannot be replicated or replaced.  And if I'm being honest, the game could have been better anyway even without those issues.

While I'll agree with you on a lot of the points up there (reckon you're being harsh on Villager though), I will state again that Classic and All-Star are perfectly sized for a portable game.  Of course, that could file under your general complains about it being portable, which I generally feel are expecting it to be something that it never could be.

While I understand that it's portable I think that length could and perhaps should have been adjustable along with difficulty.  The idea of wagering money on how good you are/how high a difficulty you can handle is a step I both liked and appreciated, but the length could have easily had some sort of slider as well, with the lowest being the six stages it currently is for people that just want a quick blast and the maximum perhaps being slightly longer than the old classic mode average for people that want an extended challenge.  

In a game like smash which makes it a point to put as much customization as possible in the players hands I don't see why we couldn't have both a short and long classic mode. Something as simple as classic mode shouldn't be affected negatively just because it's portable.

That would be completely new to the series. I wouldn't mark them down for not doing it, but fair enough if it irks you. Reviews opinions etc. etc.

Okay this isn't a game but we have reviewed DLC here before.

DLC reviews are a strange one, I wouldn't review maps for COD for example even if they do add a lot to those game but I might do it it for MK8 even if it's just tracks which you could say are just the same as map but it feels more substantial in MK8 for instance which brings me to my fav type of DLC story based which adds to the story and isn't something that you would miss if you didn't have the DLC (Looking at mars DLC for ME3).


Cia's Tale, Hyrule Warriors

So yesterday I went for the £13.49 season pass which works out to be great value for the amount of content you get, you would see others charge that just for what you get in the first pack which is £6.29 on it's own. If you go for the season pass you also get dark link costume for umm link.

What you get in the first pack is Epona Weapon for Link, Master Quest Adventure Mode map which has some new costumes to unlock like Hilda for Zelda but I'm yet to really touch normal adventure mode before even look at this, Guardian of Time costumes for Cia and Lana.



Cia is the main bit as part of the update 1.3 (something like that) adds her and volga, wizzro as playable characters for free but where you want to use them is the main part of the first pack and that's Cia's Tale which sits alongside the story in legend mode. It's 5 parts and explains how she recruited the other villains. It was a nice little story driven DLC that was interesting to play from the villain prospective which you don't see often.

It was fun, made me go back to the game after not playing for a while. Only thing I found wrong was it felt harder then the rest of legend mode, I did all that in normal and was rather a breeze. I've had a go doing some levels on hard &/or hero seems a challenge but this on normal seemed just as hard as hard.

But anyway if you've linked hyrule warriors, so far and want more of it at a decent price there's loads more to come as well. Then go download this for a start 8/10 for this DLC content.

I've been tempted to go for the season pass for this as I've enjoyed what I've played of it and it seems like something I can keep coming back to, especially with new stories like this, think your review has made my decision for me. How many more packs are due? At least 2 more right?

There is the following to come

Nov: Twilight Princess Pack:
A new playable character
An additional weapon
An additional Adventure Map
2 new costumes

Jan: Majora's Mask Pack:
2 new playable characters
Additional Adventure Map
3 additional costumes

Feb: Boss Pack:
2 additional game modes

Those first two packs there will be £6.29 on there own, the last one there I think is £2.99. So at £13.49 it's a big saving.

A big saving of about £1.50?

Three packs at £6.29 each = £18.87 + the 4th boss pack at £2.99 (I'm not 100% sure on price) = £21.86 - £13.49 season pass = £8.37 saving.

Ah didn't know there was one already, I thought by the first 2 you meant they were the first 2.

Well if you look up you'll see my review of the first one and then Smurf asks about the others with my posting them with the first of those coming in November.

The Wonderful 101 was the last new game I finished.

My word, was it good. An hour and a half (almost) of pure, brilliant, ridiculous, colourful video game nonsense. That's what the last mission was.

Don't expect everyone on here to share that view, Mando. I couldn't hack the intractable camera or over-long missions, and the dismal storytelling and stereotype characters didn't help either. Still, some people clearly loved it.

The ending was epic if I remember, good game on the U.

Balladeer wrote:

Don't expect everyone on here to share that view, Mando.  I couldn't hack the intractable camera or over-long missions, and the dismal storytelling and stereotype characters didn't help either.  Still, some people clearly loved it.

I know not everyone will share that view. Having fought with the stubbornly crap cameras of 3D games of yore I found TW101's to be manageable, and I turned a blind eye to the story and stereotypical characters. I'm simple really :bom:

My problems were the ridiculous mission length (to the point they felt more like a slog than fun) and the fact the combat just didn't click with me. The block and dodge mechanics weren't good enough for me, plus any fight with the evil 100 was painful.

You know what was great about it, though?

The theme song.

Balladeer wrote:

You know what was great about it, though?

The theme song.

The music throughout pretty much all of it was great, Tables Turn is one of my faves, if only for the intro part

I think I should give TW101 a second go, don't know why I stopped especially when I was getting to grips with the combat.