Last Game You Finished and Your Thoughts MKII

Er, sorry, I've ended up double-posting, and rambling:

Metroid Prime

Honestly, I do like Metroid. Super Metroid is fantastic, and Other M, without the cutscenes, would be also fantastic (get on it Ninty). And I liked a lot of this game... the bosses (I normally hate bosses) were actually good fun. But occasionally it became so frustrating; possibly exacerbated by the Wii Remote controls that counteract the original GameCube aiming, which means that, even though Samus is targetting a baddie, there's no guarantee that you're pointing the remote in the corresponding position. And (and this is also a problem I have with Half Life) in first person, don't make jumping puzzles that don't let you see where your feet are going to be. But there is a lot to love in this game - the atmosphere of the locations still works, and everything in the world feels like it should be there, as opposed to being a game mechanic (Elder Scrolls games take note). Having said that, the effort of keeping the remote in place when trying to grapple a flying "thing" and cross from one mushroom to the other, in almost pitch-black, means I'm not in a rush to fire up the Trilogy for part 2 just yet. Enjoyable but actually tiring. Er... 15/20?

In regards to the aiming/targeting, do you mean that you the pointer still moves once you're locked on? If so that's an option that can be turned off.

I actually finished awhile ago before the Podcast where I do talk about the game a fair bit along with talking about it in the game's thread.

It's a great game and I really did want to see what happens with the story but the actual gameplay as Batman and any of his friends is great as always along with new fear takedowns. What lets' the game down and to me makes it the worst of the rocksteady trilogy is the Batmobile, the game world is larger but feels no larger and lacks the atmosphere of Asylum as most of the time you find yourself driving around in the Batmobile and at one stage taking on about 40 enemy tanks which I found boring and repetitive.

Graphically it's great, I have had some issues with the XBONE version though but nothing that affected the gameplay.

I would recommend it to anyone of fan of the others or batman and some love the batmobile and some don't and that's where I fall.

It's incredibly rare nowadays for me to go back and replay a game, on a mere whim I decided to give that prestigious honour to Fire Emblem Awakening.  

So, how does it stand up to nostalgia ridden previous opinions?  Better in some areas, worse in others.  The story with all its flaws one of two big aspects that didn't hold up to previous impressions, it was for the most part content with staying cliche and tried and true and never really did anything outside that.  

The other, and far more important aspect that failed, was map design.  Outside about four or five maps they were straight up square grids with nothing to force or encourage strategic play or thought process from the player, and the mission victory requirements were all either route the enemy or kill the leader in a few rare occasion.  

There were a few maps that took place in buildings or had more elaborate obstructions to the field that required plans, unsurprisingly they were also the most enjoyable maps in the game.

Strider (PS4)

This is a pretty good reboot for an old franchise and I had fun with it, some of the bosses aren't the greatest though which is a shame as they should be the highlights of a Metroid-like but if you are a fan of the genre I'd still recommend you give it a try.

Just put up not one but two reviews on Gintendo, one is Farm Sim 2015 which can't really finish also it's boring. The other is Hatoful Boyfriend which is rather good and if you want to try something unique, I would say give it a go.

Code Name S.T.E.A.M.



I've been enthusing about this for weeks. It has flaws - the difficulty curve is rubbish, and the penultimate boss is thirty four times harder than the final one - but it's a big, brash, tongue-in-cheek thing. It doesn't feel like a Nintendo game... which is good. Really enjoyed it.

16/20

That's a game I fully intend to pick up once I get myself a N3DS. How was the map design, Zero? I reckon a strategy game lives or dies by its map design.

I've not beaten the game like Zero has but what I have played of it the map design is great, I'm sure I mentioned my favourite map so far in the thread for the game but in general there is very good use of verticality which can be vital for plotting your course through an area or just getting a good look at the enemies.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars (Wii U version)



Although I've earned the credits for this, I feel like I've just finished the tutorial. Two extra worlds have popped up and... yeah. It's a charming enough game, with a couple of proper head-scratching moments, but levels take so long to load for so little graphical reward. The Community is really where it's at, and I've only scratched the surface of it. I've not made a level yet, either... still, of what I've played so far...

13/20

I've never been a big fan of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, despite Donkey Kong on the Gameboy being an all-time favourite. I wish they would just do more of that, rather than the clockwork mini-Marios nonsense.

Plants vs. Zombies

I've been thoroughly addicted to this game for the best part of a month. It was free in early July as part of the Xbox 360 Games for Gold deal you get for having Xbox Live, and I'll be honest, I wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't free. I'd always written it off as one of those Angry Birds style phenomenons, but it turns out that it's one of the best puzzle (tower defence I guess) games I've had the pleasure of playing. One thing that I want to commend it on is the sheer depth of modes. There's the traditional Adventure mode which will last about 10 hours, but then there is Survival, Mini-games, Puzzle, an odd plant-growing mode and the (so far) untouched Co-Op and Multiplayer modes.

If you've not played it before, you take on a limited selection of scientifically implausible plants (a new type is unlocked after each level in Adventure) as you try to defend an endless onslaught of zombies coming through a local family's garden hedge. It's a fairly standard tower defence game in that regard, you have to protect the house from the zombies reaching it, except there are countless neat touches that provide depth to how you tackle the types of zombies you face (they are shown to you before the level). You get a brief visual clue on which area the zombies will be coming from through some rustling of leaves, there's a last resort defence of five lawnmowers left on the patio (I'm assuming they are Flymo collectors) and the star of the show - the brilliant visual design. Zombies quite literally burst with character - there's the standard zombie, zombie with a road cone on his head, zombie with a metal bucket on his head (each type taking progressively more damage). Then there's the zombie with a pole vault (can jump over your defence), zombie in NFL kit (can run and take a lot of damage) and my favourite, zombie on a pogo stick. There's few more joyous sound effects in video games as hearing a zombie on a pogo stick breaching your defences to invade your living room, in order to "eat your brains". He doesn't even get off the pogo stick (in fact you never see any gore as such), but it's these ludicrous touches that make the game so memorable.

Definitely a recommended game, and turns out it was in the Gamesradar Top 100 Games list earlier in the year.

Score - 9/10

Definitely agree with that Plants v Zombies assessment. I'm generally allergic to tower defense games but this is one of those genre defining titles that encompasses the best of the genre within a wonderful aesthetic. The devs packed a lot of variety into it too, all of which works really well. Looking at what has become of the Plants v Zombies name now makes me kind of sad, but the original is a class act through and through.

Picross e6



Whilst searching for the above image, with 'Picross e6' in the Google text box, one of the first five results was the title screen of Picross e5. That's really telling, as e6 and e5 are almost indistinguishable... and as I recall, e5 was quite similar to e4. This is a series that is labouring in the shadow of Picross DS, one of the finest puzzle games I've ever played, and it is found wanting. It's time for a shot in the arm.

12/20

Should the last couple of games have been DLC, do you reckon? If it's more of the same (and I did enjoy Picross e, the original, that's for sure) should they stop marketing them as basically-indistinguishable packages?

Yes, I'd go along with that. It would certainly improve my outlook if it had been Picross e's fifth DLC pack instead of a supposedly totally new experience. I love Picross, me, so I hate feeling like the series is going stale.

To me I don't see any difference between having it as DLC or as a new title. It's like I wasn't suprised when the next Layton game kept to exactly the same formula.

Far be it for me to disagree with a man on his birthday, but... the Layton games had new stories and new minigames as they progressed, which gave them enough (for me) to justify being a new release. The Picross e series has innovated with Mega Picross and Micross puzzles but there hasn't been a new game type like that introduced for a little while. I bought e6 hoping for one of those and was disappointed; in that respect, it may as well have been DLC (for which I would have had lower hopes) for a previous version.

Fair enough, though I do think at this stage it would be impossible to make it dlc without some issues. Certain people will own certain entries and they'd be further fracturing their player base by doing so.

Yeah, very much so - we'd need a TARDIS or a DeLorean to sort this one out to my satisfaction!

I've heard many a good thing of The Stanley Parable, so when I got my new laptop, along with Jay recommending it and when I saw it in the Humble Bundle, thought I would have that for $6.

I've seen quite a few of the nineteen endings, all seem to be rather different and interesting way to look at choices in video games.

I can't really say much more with going into it with spoilers and is more of a game you need to experience yourself.

Did you find it funny Mas? I thought it was hilarious!

Yeah some of it was.

The Stanley Parable is exactly the sort of game I'd want to make; booting convention out of the stadium, Bryan Gunn style.

This is a great example of The Stanley Parable's humour - excellent stuff!

I never got that ending, playing it.

I finished this game last night


As you may or may not know I was a big fan of Journey on PS3 even though I didn't play it in till rather late that I even said my thoughts on this forum about it. I played it once and never really thought about going back to it as it's a game to me about story telling through emotions.

The easiest way to put that if you went to see a piece of art in galley, after you seen it once it's unlikely you would want to go back there to see again.

Anyway as I now have Joureny on PS4 and since playing it on PS3, I've played thatgamecompany's flower and how Andy I think along with a friend at work put it pretentious games.

One of the things brought up about Joureny last time was lack of actual gameplay but this second time around, I was amazed actually how much of game there was, not just going forward with the puzzles, okay they might be simple but this felt more of a game then Flower did for instance.

This time I was joined through out by a companion, and at the end of the game when I thought I lost my companion I did feel sad and did still get a emotions out of the game.

It looks even more fantastic on PS4 and due to the art direction, in 10 years it will still look great, soundtrack is still superb.

If or when Balla gets a PS4 this has to be the first thing he plays as it's just that good.