Last game you DIDN'T finish and your thoughts

Kriken, you've summed up how I felt about Fallout 4; especially the dialogue thing - half the time my character said something completely different from what I was expecting, and often at key times it seemed like there wasn't a "common sense" option. I spent about 150 hours finishing it, and kind of regret it - I don't want to put you off too much, but the "exciting moral choices" at the end of the game really accentuate that same problem.

It doesn't help either that the voice actors weren't told anything about the character they voicing before they were on set.

Here's another fun fact about Bethesda's writing. The dialogue lines in Oblivion were written in alphabetical order for the voice actors because they couldn't think of a better organisational structure.

So if you ever wonder why some of the voice acting is bad in their games, well...

...wow. That is incredible.

You should always play as Aaron A. Aaronson.

Muss wrote:

So if you ever wonder why some of the voice acting is bad in their games, well...

I don't know what you mean... the animations and voice acting are very natural in Oblivion.

Oh ye Gods, Oblivion videos never fail to crack me up. This one is my personal favourite.

I'm putting here as I'm not sure how you really define finishing something like this maybe 100% both THPS and THPS2 or getting the 1000g/Plat but other games you can finish without either of those criterias.

To be on the safe side I'm putting here as I did about 78% of each game basically unlock last level and get a medal on it which is still a good amount of time put into the collection. Now back in the day I don't know if I 00% or not, certainly would have played it more and I remember unlocking likes of Spider-Man in one of the games.

I found it to be fun or I wouldn't played as long as I did and was the sort perfect game before work on a late as I could have few quick sessions without worrying I'd miss something important from a story driven game. Why I think a Switch version would have made sense as a quick session in portable mode would be great.

I've played a few remakes/remasters this year and if we were doing a award for best one of those in 2020 then this would be the front-runner as it's darn good.

Just overall in what a nice nostalgia trip but I would want more than just high scores if we get a new Tony Hawks game.

Played a bunch of FIFA 21 and done everything I would do as won the league in career mode, unlocked some achievements and done what is the story mode this year.

Story was a bit lacklustre and I know Madden's this year is bit rubbish that guessing EA looked at stats & saw no one really played the story mode in sport games.

Just outside those things as someone that doesn't care about FUT, not sure what left really do.

How different is FIFA 21 to last year's game? 

I'm genuinely thinking about getting the Switch version. I know it's a Legacy Edition and it'll basically be the same thing as the FIFA from two years ago, but all I really want is a decent and up-to-date football game with a career mode that I can play on the go. I can get my value for money by playing it for a while and trading it in for most of my cash back later.

I didn't play last year's and only downloaded the 10hr of FIFA 21 because I was in the EA App at the time looking for Star Wars Squadrons.

masofdas wrote:

Story was a bit lacklustre and I know Madden's this year is bit rubbish that guessing EA looked at stats & saw no one really played the story mode in sport games.

I've played two story modes in sports games, one in the 2k game that Spike Lee wrote and directed, and one from the Madden of a couple of years ago.

They were both bollocks. Absolute bollocks.

The writing is absolutely terrible in both, which is one of the bigger issues, but the other problem with them is that they only last 1 season max. And then you're meant to continue it next year? I guess it's ok for people who buy it every year but eish.

Sports narratives should be told over a career, or significant proportion of one. Seeing an underdog come rise to the top, a player come back from an injury, or a career long feud with a manager/player who did you dirty back in the day. But when you hamstring your story by putting it all into one season, yeah it's going to suck. There's the potential to have something akin to the nemesis system to really tell the story of your career in a given game, but I doubt that would ever happen in an officially licensed game because, cynically, I think they want you to buy a new copy each year. Things are a little different in games like UFC, where a rival is forced upon you, but even then the storytelling is so poor that it's all predictably arbitrary. A proper nemesis system though, that I would love to see it.

Is the Fifa story restricted to one season?

This year is like 5 game's of Volta, that's the story mode.

UFC 4 starts strong but ends up just being fight same opponent about 12 times in a row to get GOAT status but is about 8hrs long compared to FIFA'S 2hrs.

I traded FIFA 21 Legacy Edition into GAME today. Here's how it went: 

Me: Can I trade in a game please?

Sales Assistant: Sure...what are you trading in?

Me: The new FIFA.

Sales Assistant: The new FIFA?! Really?! Why?

Me: I'll show you...*pulls out FIFA 21 Legacy Edition on Switch*

Sales Assistant: Ah right, I see. *laughs*

...that's FIFA 21 Legacy Edition in a nutshell. With a reaction like that of the sales assistant, a 0.2 User Score from 417 reviews on Metacritic and two 2/10s from Nintendo Life and IGN respectively, it's already infamous. It looks like it's well on track to become one of the lowest rated games of all time. While I think that "overwhelming dislike" is fair enough, I feel that it's purely because it's basically FIFA 18/19/20 on Switch, which itself was basically FIFA 15/16/17 on 360 and PS3.

If you can look past that it's money for old rope (and I respect that it's extremely hard to do so), then FIFA 21 Legacy Edition honestly isn't a 2/10 kind of game. It's maybe only a 5/10 kind of game though. My issue with it was that the gameplay, which was just bland. Nothing at all about it stands out. Lots of football games - off the top of my head, like Pro Evolution Soccer, Virtua Striker, This Is Football, Actua Soccer, countless others - have their own quirks and identity, but I don't think FIFA 21 does. 

For a handheld FIFA, it's serviceable, but never exciting. There's not much else to say about it. I paid £28, got £23 back, and I'll move on.

I've still got FIFA 18 which I bought on day of release, and that will be my only FIFA until I move onto my next console.

I still can't get over FIFA 21. Feels like an utter joke, especially the £45 RRP. I'm not too impressed at 3D All-Stars repeating the same games without clean-up, and those are older games and classics to boot (no pun intended).

EA have taken a lot of flak this year, Madden has been universally panned too. A bunch of videos came out for the previous edition which showed logos from the Madden prior on some of the advertising hoardings. Same thing this year. There are more important things than that of course, but it's also a perennial poster boy for little more than a roster update.

I'm not sure there's been an EA Sports game that I've really enjoyed since Fight Night. I guess the NHL games are alright if you can stand the complexity.

A complete lack of identity is definitely blighting their work. There's just nothing there.

Blaster Master

This is a cult classic apparently. A c**t classic more like. It's quite interesting a layout, and the music is of course banging, but very very unfair in its difficulty. Not helped by the weird westernisation of the original plot, which probably needed more than 1 person to come up with. And also it turns out the Japanese version didn't limit the number of continues.
I want to at least try all the old NES games, and some will be crap. There's another game I'm playing that has led me to worry about how much time I spend on games that I might not be enjoying (I think I have an article idea for Gintendo), but I need to be making progress in things, and when that apparent last continue went... I was out. I'm a bit disappointed, as there was an implication I'd missed out on a gem.

On FIFA 21, like if I had bought on Xbox One I would have been trading after a few days myself due to not caring about FUT.

Still on the Switch version, EA should, but they won't do like Konami (the end is nigh they've done something good) has this and just have a £25 update.

Jimbob wrote:

This is a cult classic apparently. A c**t classic more like.

Valkyria Chronicles 4

It's incredible how little the gameplay has changed since the first instalment 10 years prior to this one. The mechanics, feel, interface and even the way the AI act are exactly the same. While the graphics have undeniably improved there are so many reused assets.

It's a shame because there are some improvements but I feel like they don't go far enough.

Mission objectives are a bit more varied and it's a little harder to cheese your way through them. There are frequently neat gimmicks sprinkled throughout them. Like in one mission you have to deal with moving armoured trains and have the choice of tackling them directly or redirecting where they go in the next turn. Or having to snipe falling bombs from elevated places to protect your ship.

It's been a long time since I played VC1 and my memory of the story segments are a bit hazy, but I've been more receptive to the characters in VC4 and the leading characters are better acted. Protagonist Claude is clearly moulded after Welkin in VC1 but he's a little less nerdy and has a bit more fire in him, and that's reflected in his character design. Raz is a problematic character but I do enjoy his bromance with Claude. Unfortunately the female characters are represented even worse here than in modern Persona games. Many terrible anime indulgences are here. But Kai does have some kickass moments.

The story is just so boring, and squad stories even more so. If I was going to go back to the game I'd probably just stop playing the latter which is a shame because a lot of effort is put into them in fleshing out side characters. Like a lot of effort. Long fully voiced scenes that make them actual characters beyond some very brief lines of dialogue in the main story. I don't really like this approach - I wish they were just woven properly into the main story.

All that said, even though I may not go back to finish VC4 whereas I beat VC1 and VC2, even doing a ton of side content in the latter, I would say VC4 is better than those other games and is the one to check out if you're interested in the series. At this point I'm kinda just done with it.

Jimbob, have you played Blaster Master ZERO on Switch? I really enjoyed my time with that one.

Ring Fit Adventure

This might look bad but I've got two issues with it, neither of which are the game's fault. 1st problem is having to use the Left Joy Con which is a nightmare because it's dodgy and doesn't work and the 2nd problem is just making time for it, I can't play in the evening like I do with most games jogging on the spot is too noisy and in the day there's other responsibilities and people who won't want to watch me play.

The fact I can still get good money for this though is making think it's time to call it, cash in and accept my doughy physique for what it is.

I would love to have had a go with the Ring Fit but I don't think I could get away with it in our flat. Jogging on the spot would probably drive the people downstairs insane.

That's a part of the issue for me too although I figure 15-20 minutes in the day whilst a toddler is also legging it around the flat doesn't make much difference. It is fun to play as well, moreso than Wii Fit was probably, starting to feel like I wanna stick with it now.

JayMoyles wrote:

Jimbob, have you played Blaster Master ZERO on Switch? I really enjoyed my time with that one.

I haven't. I imagine being a more modern game they've tidied up a lot of unfair stuff, but I am a tad nervous to on account of this one.