Last Game You Finished and Your Thoughts MKII

ZeroJones wrote:

Digger Dan DX



So I paid 89p for this game. It reminded me strongly of Boulder Dash, a game in which you cleared away dirt to make a path to the exit, collecting diamonds and avoiding boulders ( ) and enemies along the way. DDDX doesn't have enough challenge or gameplay elements to really sustain itself over its one hundred levels (twenty-five of which are tutorial) unless you want to get gold stars across the board... which I didn't. Despite its cheapness, I can't recommend it wholeheartedly.

11/20

Hmm... that's honestly kind of sad. I really would like there to be a nice new port of Boulderdash or Repton on one of the Nintendo machines (that DS one a few years ago was balls).

Also: Dan walks north and south, but the rocks fall down? What were they thinking?! *snicker* *snort* (In Boulderdash, Rockford or Repton is climbing up/down)

Oxenfree came out at the start of the year for PC & Xbox One, but just this week came to the PS4 and has been updated which I will talk about in another topic which Andy made. From starting this afternoon after lunch and just finishing my 1st go, I can say I enjoyed it, not as much as I was lead to believe how good the game would be as in January this was talked about as a GOTY contender.

That's based on my current playthrough which I did like the story, art style, voice acting, soundtrack is okay not as great as I thought it might have been seeing there's a collectors vinyl for it.

If you don't know what the game is, it's basically a story driven almost point & click adventure but with out the pointing and clicking along with Telltale style dialogue choices as you try to get off a island.

If you liked anything like Life is Strange, Firewatch, Stanley Parable you know the story based indie darlings.

7/10

ZeroJones wrote:

Bravely Second

Whilst absolutely a better game than the original, Bravely Second suffers a little from the same issue as Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. They're pretty similar games, so do you side with the first one, the one where everything was new, or the second one, where everything was improved? As I side with SMG, so will I be siding with Bravely Default ahead of this. A large number of the plot tricks of the first game are repeated here and, although there are some new things, it can feel like a retread at times. Nonetheless, it's an excellent game: even more player friendly than its predecessor in terms of options and non-repetitive plotline (well, almost). RPG fans can't afford to miss!

17/20

Bit late on this, but I've got to disagree with Zero. It's not like the Mario Galaxies, where in some areas 1 was better than 2; with the exception of the music, everything about BS was better than BD. And no horrible horrible second half. And it's not like anything that BD introduced really blew my mind, although some parts gave it a nice massage (careful).

It's all a matter of opinion, natch; but unless you've been living under a Final Fantasy-free rock for three decades, I can't see how BD does enough "new and exciting" to exceed the immense improvements of its sequel.

For me I feel one has to factor in intent with the two game series as well. Galaxy was about being completely new and innovative, taking the norm and completely playing around with it and the players expectations. Bravely on the other hand, even with Default, was a homage to the s/nes final fantasy games, and in general is a series more about improving as it goes along through evolution, rather than revolution

A couple of days ago now, but I didn't have time to GName:

Pokémon Blue
I've said it before, but I'm incapable of talking about this game in any meaningful sense because of the immense amount of nostalgia. All I'll say is I loved it then and I still love it now. I enjoyed the experience, I didn't have to grind so long as I played somewhat sensibly, and I'll probably keeping popping in until I beat the Pokédex.
10/10

Sorry, I'm stacking this on top of the Oxenfree and Pokemon games above, feel free to bypass:


Day of the Tentacle Remastered (in case that image link doesn't work!)

I've basically been waiting 20 years to play this again - it stopped being compatible a long time ago. Yes, point-and-click adventures died out, and most of my enthusiasm is based on nostalgia. But very few games have been nearly as funny as this in those 2 decades. I played it again; I laughed again; I loved it again. I only looked up GameFAQs once, and regretted that even the step I missed was an obvious one. 11/10 (biased rating nostalgia coefficient)

I really enjoyed Day of the Tentacle when I played it. As a terrible point and clicksman, I managed to get quite far into things before getting confused. The game has a surprising amount of length to it as well, and the humour is timeless.

As for what I've just finished:

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest

Enjoyed this one a lot. It has been ages since a game really grabbed me by the junk and refused to let go until perilously late at night. It maintained all the silly charm of the prior game's matchmaking system, while seriously amping up the difficulty. There were numerous battles I had to take on several times because my guys got decimated due to my mistakes, and the latter levels forced me to think about each turn.

There were a few levels that were brutally difficult to keep the squad alive through, but part of that difficulty was my fault for not realising Conquest, unlike Awakening, has a finite amount of XP to go around. As such you're much better off sticking with a set team, whereas I liked to spread the love around in the early-mid game.

I also only like to make couples out of those whose supports I enjoy reading, which might explain why I found the offspring in this game a bit, meh, because by the time I'd settled on my S-ranked matches, it was really deep into the game. As a result I didn't bother with many of the offspring, but that's something to do in a second playthrough.

The cutscenes remain phenomenal, and I'm really looking forward to playing through Birthright and Revelations in the future after a wee palate cleanser in some more mindless games.

9/10

Starfox Zero

Starfox zero is a game that requires a good bit of patience to learn but once you do oh man the dogfights are a thing of beauty & the best the series has ever had, hitting the breaks or pulling a loop to have enemies end up in front of you never get's old. The only things I didn't like were the out of place gyrowing levels (thankfully I only seen 2 in the game) which slowed the game down way too much & the life system became frustrating especially in the final stage where if you died in phase three it'd bump you all the way back to phase one.

Maybe if Nintendo had only focused on the Arwing & walker it'd be an even better game but regardless I still had a tonne of fun playing this.

8/10

(Side note: Since those dog fights are so damn good I wish it had some sort of co-op or multiplayer mode.)

It does have co-op, doesn't it? But rubbish co-op where you're both controlling the same Arwing.

The dream remains co-op StarFoxWing Wars Zero for four players (bagsy Peppy ). Given Nintendo's fondness for turning their franchises into four player fun, it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Also, 8/10? Fair af.

Balladeer wrote:

It does have co-op, doesn't it?  But rubbish co-op where you're both controlling the same Arwing.

Yeah forgot about that & I was meaning co-op in the way Zero mentions with everyone having their own Arwing. (bagsy not being Slippy)

ZeroJones wrote:

The dream remains co-op StarFoxWing Wars Zero for four players (bagsy Peppy ). Given Nintendo's fondness for turning their franchises into four player fun, it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Also, 8/10? Fair af.

Aye, I'm likely going to return to take stabs at either beating my scores or find the other routes I didn't do.

ZeroJones wrote:

The dream remains co-op StarFoxWing Wars Zero for four players (bagsy Peppy ). Given Nintendo's fondness for turning their franchises into four player fun, it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Why?
Do.
They.
Not!
Do.
That?!

I don't care if it's not exactly balanced etc. - I'd love to fly around in Arwings with 3 other doods - not like the 64 multiplayer either. Actually achieving something.

YES. Preferably online so I can play with youse blokes!

Of course that'll never happen now, the next good StarFox will come out in 2036 and will be controlled using your nostrils.

Balladeer wrote:

the next good StarFox will come out in 2036 and will be controlled using your nostrils.

Do a barrel roll! (Hold one nostril closed and do a double snort through the open nostril!)

StarNose Zero

That minigame hardly seems fair, since the nunchuk had all the motion control delicacy of a rottweiler that's swallowed a gyrometer.

Bayonetta 2



Despite a lot of similar mechanics, this is a much more concentrated and refined experience than its predecessor. The addition of the Umbran Climax is utterly brilliant and carries 2 beyond 1 on my scoring scale on its own; the option to, once your magic meter is filled, bring in a heavy-hitting friend and recharge some energy saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Heck, I made it as far as Chapter VIII before wussing out and putting it on Easy this time!

However, despite its refinement, there's something... lesser, maybe, about Bayonetta 2. I didn't feel as intrigued about what was going on, and really missed the stuff between levels (the Bayonetta figure being moved around the map and, more importantly, Angel Attack). Nonetheless, a beautifully accomplished action game that demands to be played.

16/20

Gears of War 2

There's a section near the start of this game, just after getting the sniper rifle for the first time. Our heroes are in a cavern, taking the high path, when they see some enemies marching along below them. Marcus Feenix suggests this might be an opportunity to practise sniping, so I shoot an alien in the head. "One!" He shouts. I reload and shoot another Locust. "That's two!" He counts like this as I get hit after hit, his excitement building as mine does. I know if I slip up on one shot or one reload, the enemy will slip out of range. I hit the fifth and Marcus shouts "THAT'S FIVE, MOTHERFUCKER!"

This game knows exactly what it is- damn good shooting. It doesn't have realism. It doesn't have an open world. The levels are linear, though individual firefights allow for a nice amount of creativity and experimentation. This is a game about big dumb meatheads shooting monsters at the end of the world, and it does that perfectly. The characters can be dumb and jokey and they can show real emotion. Good stuff across the board.

I feel a little bad talking about how much fun it was shooting lads today. I think there's a conversation to have but I'm not in the mindset to have it right now. Might write something later.

Kirby: Planet Robobot



(So that's what it feels like to type that out properly) The Story Mode is dismissed. It's been the usual slice of Kirby fun, except for the mech moments. They shake up the gameplay nicely, though do slow things down a tad. That aside, everything you expect from Kirby is present and correct - though there have been efforts made to stop you just floating through the levels. I'm going to do a review on Gintendo, so expect more in-depth verbiage in the next two to four months.

17/20

Kirby's Dream Course



As foretold in the Retro forum. True success at the game involves treating it as more of a puzzle game than a crazy golf game - there are some amazing combinations of tricks that you need to pull off to get those all-important holes in one. Very clever and very cute game. It is clunky, mind you, and some 'solutions' are impossibly tricky to figure out, let alone achieve. The game to talk about if people tell you "Kirby games are always easy".

13/20

Okay it's not really a game but this demo isn't meant to be in the main game coming in January.

Anyway I've just finished two play throughs of this taster of Resident Evil VII Biohazard.

I didn't really find the game scary but I did enjoy the overall atmosphere and experience, the game does feel like it's been made for VR from the ground up, coming from the Kitchen tech demo.

But that's not a bad thing to be honest as the Kitchen team clearly want to take the series back in the right direction as this is already better than the past few Residents Evils.

I'm not sure if I had played in VR if it had been more scary also I was thinking if I had been playing in VR someone could have tapped me on the shoulder and it may have given me a heart attack.

I finished my 20+ hours playthrough just a minute ago. I like the game but I founded it not to be nowhere as good as Awakening which I really liked the characters and story, where in Fates even though it's good the none of the characters really grab me and I never felt like I had to romance them ore anything. I don't know because the game has been split in to three stories it's lost something that made Awakening so special.

At the end of the day I enjoyed it and it's likely going to be in the top 3 at the end of year in the 3DS vote but I'm in no rush to go play Conquest which I might just skip and go right to Revelations which I'm not chomping at the bit to play.

8/10

REVII Beginning Hour gets a VIII out of X as well

Tom Clancy's The Division (main story)

I've had great fun with this whether I was playing solo or in co-op, good wee mesh of an RPG and third person shooter & now that I've hit the main level cap I can get tore into all the post game content like the incursions & the upcoming underground dlc.

The only thing that truly bugged me in the game is how you have to run everywhere, though there are safe houses to unlock which allows fast travel.

shootybangloot/10

Finished my first PS4 game - Ratchet & Clank.

Technically, structurally, aesthetically and auidibly, this is superb. It's really good fun right the way through, and I'd recommend it to anybody...

...but it lacks the magic of Nintendo's best platformers. Simply put, to me, the likes of Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World just look better, feel better, sound better and have just much more fun a world to to play around in. There's just something intangible about Nintendo platforming. I'll not remember Ratchet & Clank in the same way that I will those two, and that's where any sense of disappointment I have stems from. Seems harsh, but my rating is 8/10.

F-Zero



Well, I beat all the classes (in Beginner ), so I'm calling it. It's normally hard for me to look at something with so much Mode 7 without the Nostalgia Glasses obscuring my vision but F-Zero has been the exception: it looks old, man. Having said that, the gameplay has stood the test of time: the breakneck pace coupled with those moments where you're bashing around the track like a pinball are hair-raising and blood-pumpy in equal measure. In short, fun but dated.

14/20