Last Game You Finished and Your Thoughts MKII

Same I started Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen on PSNOW's BETA but that had that issue that, I never went back to play it.

It seemed decent and the online version looks cool, shame we will unlikely to ever see it.

I found it to be practically unplayable, the awful navigation and lack of indication of when you'll suddenly wander into an area 8+ levels about you and the fact it looks pretty ugly really put me off.

Not to sound like an ass but the game does kind of warn you not to recklessly leave the beaten path for a reason.  

Can't say I found navigation hard either, just switch the quest to the main one and consult the map to see where your destination is.  Never once lost my way unless I was trying to.

The Legend Of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes



Gaah. When Tri Force Heroes works properly, it's utterly brilliant: the joy of happening on a solution in a co-operative Zelda game is one of the many reasons I keep asking for a new Four Swords game. In fact, I'd say the best of Tri Force Heroes is amongst the best there is on 3DS. However, you will struggle to get to that moment of joy through many different difficulties (some of which could have been remedied with a bit of Nintendo's mortal enemy, voice chat). The highs and the lows.

14/20

Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC

This is how dlc should be done, perfectly woven into the base game expanding the existing world and lore - now I've always loved this game but felt it fell a little short of the greatness of Mr Miyazaki's other work Dark souls but for me they are now on an even footing.

Also shortly after finishing the final boss of the DLC I really wanted to start a fresh character and play through the base game again (which I've already done twice) & I've never been a fan of replaying a game over and over but with this I feel like I've not had my fill yet.

It's just an absolute classic.

Now that I finish games slightly less frequently, I'm going to try and use this thread again. I'll kick off with:

Transormers Devastation

Solid Platinum combat in a slightly more accessible form. I'm looking forward to going back through it on a higher difficulty/with the other characters. Well worth checking out regardless of you love (or in my case lack of) for Transformers.

Not really a game but a expansion for Destiny with The Taken King which adds a bit of story, everything else is much of the same but for someone that played Year 1 before the first two expansions then went back to Destiny when people started talking about how good it had gotten with the Taken King, to play those first two expansions and now on to Year 2.

I can notice how it has changed and improved & why there is a dedicated community that play it like a MMO, myself won't be doing that but just mopping up some of the sidequests before I put it down for a while again.

I was well worth the sort of £10 it cost me and would recommend getting it if you like FPS's.

Chibi-Robo!: Zip Lash



These days to be an even slightly impressive 2D platformer you've got to be amazing, as it's one of the most well-trodden genres there is. Zip Lash has flickers of good level design here and there, and there are some nice bosses. It's cute enough, if mostly sparse or functional. The music has a slightly retro feel to it, as if it was rejected from a Wario Land game. Ultimately, whilst messing about with the titular zip lash is fun for a while, there's not enough here. I can't help but feel there's a better concept for Chibi-Robo than this... perhaps some sort of 3D adventure...

11/20

More like Chibi Nobo.

Very much so. It was the only game I got for Christmas, too. Speaking of games I got for Christmas...

Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity



This was part of my first GNamer Secret Santa present. I put it on for about an hour that same week and decided that the Wiimote controls were dire. The manual mentioned that you could use the GameCube controller but I'd put my Wii in storage by that stage. The recent GNSS put me in mind of it, so I hatched a plan to dig out the Wii and beat the game, as HLTB reckoned it would only take 3 hours.

So I did. Truth be told, it wasn't that much easier to control with the GC controller, but it certainly puts a different spin on the racing genre. It quickly demands that you pretty much master the controls, too. Still, it's pretty fun, if totally cheesy and somewhat outdated.

13/20

Zero wrote:

totally cheesy and somewhat outdated.

Just like every Sonic game then.

Ever since they gave Sonic a voice...

Xenoblade Chronicles X





You may think this "review" is going to be all rabid praise and glowing acolades based on my posts, well, before I begin let me say right now that if you'd bet money on that you're about to lose said money.  

Xenoblade Chronicles X, the newest blockbuster on the block.  Nintendo's biggest game in eons and spiritual sucessor to cult hit Xenoblade Chronicles.  The observant will notice I said spiritual sucessor rather than sequel, as X has nothing to do with the original title.  Different settings, cast, hell different universe entirely.  X follows the tradition set down by Final Fantasy, a few key themes and mascot critters are shared but besides that each title is a standalone game.  


I could wax poetic about the game, but odds are if you've been paying the slightest bit of attention you already know it's a massive role playing game with a hard sci-fi backdrop.  That it has a absolutely MASSIVE intricately designed world.  That the story revolves around a avatar brought out of a stasis pod on a strange world who promptly find Earth was destroyed and humanity has fled to this planet to try and build a new home and joins the local law enforcement/military agency.  


Instead, since I've said my praise in multiple posts in the games own thread, I'll save myself the time of repeating myself and instead simply say the game is amazing, immersive, and as a experiment (which it is) it was amazing and one of the most ambitious titles in years.  

It is not, however, free of flaws.  While I'm perfectly fine with the gameplay and exploration taking precedent over the story, it could have been a bit larger than it was.  Maybe an extra arc or two, rather than a 12 episode series it could have done with being a 24 episode series.  The sound mixing was also poorly done, and subtitles ended up being absolutely essential as the background music was frequently the same volume as speaking characters, thus drowning them out when busy tracks were playing.

And... those are pretty much my only real issues with the game, without going in to spoilers nobody can actually read because it delves in to some seriously massive and insane plot twists (and no, the plot twists were awesome, so perish that implication right now!)  


I will instead say one positive thing I haven't really mentioned much.  I love the way the game handles aliens.  There's the obvious evil (?) faction who play the role of baddies, but the game has almost a dozen different species and most of them are in fact fairly peaceful.  It's a dimension I don't feel is done enough with aliens, like how Dragons are typically portrayed as evil villains.  

Special shout out to the adorable Nopon!  A race of cute merchants that are utterly hilarious in how shrewd, miserly, and cunning they are.  Who would've expected these things to deal with adultery!!  




Final Verdict: Essential playing for any Wii U owner, but be warned, it's a very slow burn with a short (but extremely good) story.  Newcomers will be thrilled to hear playing the first game has no impact on this game whatsoever, newcomers can jump right in, so don't feel the need to hold off if you've missed the first Xenoblade!



Bonus round: Lin best girl, Lao best guy, L best alien.

Oh when has anything you've ever said been purely rabid praise, Athrun.

I really agree, though, that it is a game that, on the whole, deals very well with xenophobia. Strictly, directed towards the aliens. There's one mission in chapter 5, I think, where a shopkeeper won't let an alien race shop in her boutique, until you tell her that (a) the government's saying that's illegal and (b) that others are finding the aliens not only pleasant but useful. If only all racists could be so easily convinced...

Let's go for a quick fire round as I've failed my promise to post 3 times already...

Mad Max
Good fun vehicular combat with a nice twist on Batman melee formula. Had this not come out in the same year as Batman itself I think it'd be looked on a lot more positively. A little light on story but very fun for a quick actiony blast.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Remastered
Probably going to be the game with the most work put into it of the 3 and it does feel better for it. It's still definitely the weakest entry still but it was worth it to play through them and see the progress. Looking forward to playing 2 soon!

Tearaway: Unfolded
A return to Tearaway was always going to be a wonderful occaision and this didn't disappoint. The levels follow the same themes as the vita version, but they've been well rebuilt and designed for the different controls and abilities in the PS4 version. Recommended to newcomers and existing players alike.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

A much better crafted experience than DTB, though the difficulty curve was a little off towards the end game, had to drop to easy battles for the last 3 fights. Good stuff though!

Edit (as you lot are so slow at finishing games ):
Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Not great, got very bored of the story, so I skipped most of it. Gameplay was alright, not as good as Project Diva f, play that instead.

Wave Race 64



Well, I'm calling it, at least - I've beaten Expert (or the one with eight races) and 'Reverse' can buzz off. It's a brilliant thrill, crashing amongst the waves - well, executing lovely sharp turns and not hitting the wall at speeds that would turn your jet ski into an explosion and your character into Two-Face (at best) is a brilliant thrill. It makes me wonder why Nintendo have chosen not to revisit the series with more powerful hardware. Then I remember that the studio responsible is now on Mario Vs. Donkey Kong duty until hell freezes over (at which point a 1080 Snowboarding sequel is more likely) and I get sad.

14/20

Couple of recent finishes for me:

Gears of War Ultimate edition
A very fun shooter with satisfying combat. Good, honest fun.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Finally got around to finishing Diablo 3 and I still can't work out why I like this game but it's just mindless fun. Recommended for a braindead evening with some mates.

Hoping to finish Gears tonight, myself.

Axiom Verge



If you are a fan of Metroid-likes then this is a must play, clever level design, ace abilities & weapons to collect.

The story is actually delivered really well through standard text dialogue and a few cutscenes here and there, it's rare that you will get lost (only happened to me twice in my play through) thanks to a point of interest marker system which has a little drawback of only allowing 2 markers per zone of the map.

The boss battles are fun apart from the one repeat which luckily can be avoided, the music brings each area to life & makes you to drive forward on your adventure.

Quite amazing that one guy made all of it by himslef.  

That's me sold on Axiom Verge, I'll keep an eye on the sales.

It looks a lot like metroid. I know it's the same genre, but the enemies and environments too.

That could be a while since it was on sale not that long ago.

EDIT:

drunka wrote:

It looks a lot like metroid. I know it's the same genre, but the enemies and environments too.

Aye I'd agree with that too but some of the enemies have some interesting twists to them & they are definitely more dangerous compared to ones in Metroid also for the environments they do get quite different later on in the game.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition



Yeah, this was good! Every gun felt like it packed a real punch, and each one felt different. Despite all being a grim, dilapidated world, every environment was different and they all looked gorgeous. The characters were dumb, sure, and kind of assholes but they were big muscley meatheads and they fit the theme perfectly.

You can feel the Resident Evil 4 influence in more than just the over-the-shoulder shooting. The game uses quiet spells and horror tropes to really build tension and make the enemies threatening. The few bosses, despite some occasional frustrations, feel like dangerous monsters and when each one finally falls the setpieces are well designed and the victory is punch-the-air stuff.

The other natural game to compare Gears to is Microsoft stablemate Halo. Armoured soldiers fighting an alien threat that has all but pushed humanity to extinction? Man of few words, tough guy protagonist? Slightly flirty female voice-in-the-ear giving directions? Halo was a clear influence. At least in terms of this first game, I still prefer that series. Halo: Combat Evolved had real freedom in the maps and the progression. Gears is far more linear, though individual firefights do have a more tactile feel. Gears has a real grim feeling to it, with characters frowning their way through grey environments. Halo, on the other hand, took the hopelessness of the situation and told a story about hope, about soldiers with a never-say-die attitude in brightly coloured worlds.

Overall, though, I liked shooting the men. I liked the characters and their gallows humour. I look forward to shooting more men in Gears 2 and 3, which I downloaded with this game.

If you liked that wait till you play Gears 2 which has to be one of the 360's best games, it does get rid of uses of quiet spells and horror tropes to really build tension and make the enemies threatening for more action packed shooting but ads a excellent emotional story on top.

Gears 4 from the one trailer we've seen does look like it's going back more to Gears 1 with the quiet spells and horror tropes to really build tension and make the enemies threatening as you put it about Gears 1.

Gears 2 is phenomenal - you're in for a treat, Drunka.