Last game you finished and your thoughts

A double whammy!

Picross e5

Have you played Picross e4? This is the same.

14/20

Costume Quest 2

A cute little game that uses the Mario RPG staple of timed hits increasing damage. The problem with that is that the on-screen 'best time' indicator doesn't work. It's also repetitive and has the feel of being an episodic game: the story doesn't satisfy. That said, it's charming, and the joy of seeing your costumed characters turn into massive fighters on the battlefield never really gets old. A good game for anyone under 13 and, for the rest of us, fun but flawed.

13/20

Pokemon Omega Ruby, 3DS


So I beat the Elite 4 and Champ a few days ago but just been clearing up things like the delta mission and redoing the E4 & Champ.

After doing all that and putting in just over 30hrs on this remake that I've thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

It's what a remake should be new engine, extra missions, extra content and fan service that it's been great. Now I didn't play the original on GBA, so my praise might be higher then some because of it.

But seeing this has kept me away from SMASH & Dragon Age that I can't help but give this a 9.

I don't think I need to go that much into it as you all know what a core pokemon game is.

Ohh and this destroys everything

Really hoping to sit down and beat Alpha Sapphire at some point. The overgenerous Exp Share can help make this a grim reality! Yay! Good to see the quality I've experienced so far continues throughout.

Ittle Dew

The subversive Swedish 2D Zelda we didn't know we wanted. There's none of that "get the Pegasus Boots from the Elder so you can go to the town library and bash a book off the shelf to open the next dungeon" malarkey: it's all been cut back in favour of keeping you in block-pushin', puzzle solvin', rootin' tootin' action. The downside to that is that you could beat it in under 3 hours... but then you'd have to go back to collect everything. In short, Ittle Dew has been built for secret sniffers, speedrunners and Zelda fans in need of a quick fix alike.

15/20

That sounds good to me, ZJ! Might download it, when I get sick of Smash. And get through the rest of my backlog.

Okay, maybe not.

Sounds decent enough ZJ but a bit like balla, backlog etc.

Exp Share is a bit generous but that is my only level 100 everything else is about 80 on avg.

Halo: Combat Evolved

Yeah, it's alright.

10/10

Poem

Read the poem, I'm still not sure if you like or not but that's the best Halo apart from maybe reach which isn't in the collection as you don't play as master chief.

The shooting's really, really good and I enjoyed the world and characters. The gameplay made me feel like I was kicking ass and that's what the poem was about.

That's good to hear as it's 13 years old that you might of found the gameplay mechanics dated with things like finding health packs. But seems it's the old saying I've got a good game will always be a good game even if Andy things all the ones on N64 & PS1 have dated that there now awful.

I hope they do a second collection on the ONE with Wars, ODST, Reach and those two smartphone games that are/will be on the ONE. As reach is really good and was Bungies last Halo that they went all out on it and really should be played if you enjoy the collection.

Also please say you love the levels Halo & Silent Cartographer and hate the Library

I could go on about Halo for ever really, that some of these really cheap ONE bundles like today GAME had a ONE with 4 games & bits for £320 that it's great value but I just want like 2 games on the ONE at the moment. If they could do me a bundle minus 3 three of those games for like £250 I'd be all over it just for the collection.

On that subject I'd like to say I miss health packs, I think most shooters feel the same nowadays because they all follow the same template.

Sounds like you need to check out Wolfenstein: The New Order, that is brilliantly retro inspired whilst still actually fun to play.

Wolfenstein is on my list. Halo reminded me how good shooters can be when instead of leading you down a corridor shooting gallery they plonk you in a map and say "kill these guys".

Drunkalilly wrote:

Wolfenstein is on my list. Halo reminded me how good shooters can be when instead of leading you down a corridor shooting gallery they plonk you in a map and say "kill these guys".

Apart from the Library

Be interested what you think of Halo 2 ending and if you feel peoples annoyance of it when it came out.

Treesmurf wrote:

On that subject I'd like to say I miss health packs, I think most shooters feel the same nowadays because they all follow the same template.

There's something in this: staggering carefully to the next health pack after losing most of your energy was always a real moment in an FPS; nowadays you hide somewhere until, what, the bullets drop out of you?

That was when I new the Goldeneye remake was a shitcake; James Bond getting shot and then having a sit down round the corner.
And I won that in NGamer too

I think there's room for not l both kinds of shooter.did it made any more severew to say a box of bandages and TCP cured the sound inflicted by Henry minutes of sustained machine gun for?

Admittedly, you are quite right, Drunka - but there's something more game-like about getting a health pack compared to Jimbob's "having a sit down round the corner".

Might be good news for Drunka but due Halo:MCC not working properly online, 343 are releasing ODST on to ONE as free download now running at 1080p 60fps. That's rather decent.

I know it's news but felt more relevant here as we've been talking about Halo.

Thomas Was Alone

Thomas Was Alone storyline - do not read if you want to play TWA and enjoy all the discovery it has to offer:

It's surprisingly powerful and I can only recommend it.

17/20

andyman949 wrote:

Sounds like you need to check out Wolfenstein: The New Order, that is brilliantly retro inspired whilst still actually fun to play.

This also shows the power of marketing a game properly, I'd have never considered Wolfenstein until now but I've seen it going on the cheap so I'm definitely gonna look in to it now.

Absolutely do, between that and Metro I've had a wonderful year of shooters with a difference.

Pokemon: Alpha Sapphire + Delta Episode




Pros
-Archie is refined in to a villain better than any in recent memory
-Water looks stunning, especially in Sootopolis and Meteor Falls
-DexNav makes getting high IV pokemon a breeze
-May actually fully evolves her team this time
-Its Pokemon


Cons
-Far too easy, and when I say far too easy I mean I would have been insulted when I was ten in how easy it is
-Gym leaders were soemtimes nerfed and had smaller teams than previously
-Tame story outside the Delta Episode


Overall rating: 8/10, I can't stress enough how annoyingly easy this game was.  It goes well beyond experience, the AI was downright stupid at times (what absolute moron even gave Steven's Metagross Giga Impact in the first place?) and several gym leaders have had their teams nerfed.  

I'll put it this way, I should not have won my nuzlocke.  I was down to my last Pokemon, Steven's metagross needed two aqua tails to kill.  Had it used Zen Headbutt twice over two turns I would have lost, hell if it had used any high powered move twice I would have lost.  Yet it used Giga Impact, which as anyone can work out actually is half the power the game says it is when you factor in the turn you can't move (in other words it has a base 75 power, which makes it lower than the damage output of, say, Zen Headbutt).  Had it done the smart thing, hell had it done the non-braindead thing and used Zen Headbutt twice I would have lost like I frankly should have.  Instead I kill it while it recharges.  

That is how easy these games were, that I could be a single turn away from losing and my opponent, the champion no less, proceeds to make a move that was completely idiotic and gives me the match.  

I get that the games are aimed at kids, but there comes a point where something is so easy a player gets absolutely no joy over winning.   The older games had some genuinely tough moments in the past, most people will have memories of Whitney's notorious Miltank, and Cynthia's team was downright competitive in quality, those sorts of fights and the feeling of overcoming them is what made the older games memorable and the player genuinely feel like they've achieved something.  We have gone from that to having the developers give the supposedly strongest trainer in the game a very bad move with an ai script that will select that move for no good reason, and handing the player the single most broken pokemon in the history of the franchise just before a boss fight so they have no choice but to one shot said boss.  

If they're going to make the games so easy that even a child can clear it without a single issue (because remember I was purposefully limiting myself and I still found the game a cakewalk, so a child using everything at their disposal such as mega evolution and primal Kyogre would absolutely destroy the game) then they need to vastly improve other areas and make up for it with post-game facilities like the battle frontier for players who want a challenge.


Outside that however the games are solid.  The usual improvements and refinements are present, and so on. The Delta Episode is where the game shone the most as far as story is concerned, it's possibly the first time the games have had a good story (I suppose there's black and white but those games really shot their story in the chest with the ending plot twist), and the new character, Zinnia, was a genuinely good character. Ultimately the Delta Episode is what gets this game an eight and not a seven, hopefully generation seven when it comes around takes cues from Episode Delta.

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire

The main points I want to make I already have on the forum: it's been made easier, and not just because of the Exp Share. Trainers from RSE went missing in the transition and areas I expected to challenge me were breezy. However, I like the DexNav (a lot - that needs to be a permanent feature from here on out) and the post-game stuff might actually keep me playing for once (well, that and the alternative is ToTA, on which I have hit a sizeable rut). Still, Pokémon is always great and, for veterans of RSE, there's a lot of love and care on show.

16/20

Football Manager 2013

Yes, I am aware of what year it is. However in light of the more recent instalments being bug ridden messes I made a return to this game and boy, doesn't it deliver.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it is both incredibly simple and yet mercilessly hard to construct a winning formula in Football Manager. You may be a tactical genius yet still fall short while your friend get's promoted on fortune, it may not appear accessible yet anyone can do well at this game.

It's a slow burning game, I began at the not so illustrious club of Doncaster Rovers. A mid-league club with mid-table aspirations, over the 3 in-game seasons I have played we are just reaching the cusp of promotion. It is a real sense of achievement as you slowly implement your style of play into the team and bring in players that you value. I always go for cheap players, who have good physical stats and high teamwork and workrate.

Yet, not everything goes your way. Some things such as injuries and bigger clubs swooping in for your young stars are unavoidable. Players develop concerns you have to deal with and the looming axe of the boardroom must be staved off with false promises and minor successes.

I think particular mention has to go to the multiplayer aspect. If you so wished, you could fill an entire league with friends and acquaintances, then let the pre-match mind games build up to both a tense and humorous affair.

For those who love strategy and football, this game will grant you many many hours of fun and headaches. The experience of this game has something that neither Fifa or Pro Evo will ever have. A sense of believability and progress with each decision you make. The Ultimate Football Game.

19/20

ZeroJones wrote:

Thomas Was Alone

Thomas Was Alone storyline - do not read if you want to play TWA and enjoy all the discovery it has to offer:

It's surprisingly powerful and I can only recommend it.

17/20

I was amazed how colourful blocks could be given so much character just through narration. Danny Wallace really did a stellar job with his narration. I wrote a review of the game on my blog a while back.