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Post by dfunked on Jan 31, 2022 0:29:57 GMT
I enjoyed it at the time, but I've got a bit of a soft spot for FMV titles like Erika and Late Shift even if you know they'd be a 5/10 show.
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Post by RadicalRex on Jan 31, 2022 1:02:52 GMT
Super Dangerous Dungeons (Steam) - 6.5/10
Short 2D platformer where you jump over/dodge hazards in very small stages to reach the exit. Escape sequences serve as "boss fights". It's pretty simple and easy, I guess it's fine for what it is, but not very engaging tbh. Kinda reminds me of early 90s platformers I played on DOS like Magic Boy. Playthrough time (including bonus content): 90 minutes.
Kero Blaster (Steam) - 8.5/10
Retro action platformer by the creator of Cave Story in the style of the Atari/Commodore era (gotta love those slow jumps with heavy momentum). If there's beauty in simplicity, this is one of the best examples. There are tighter platformers, but it makes up for it with incredible charm. It's so adorable and joyful, it just puts a smile on my face. That's not to say gameplay is bad, not at all--it's really well-designed, and it makes much better use of your arsenal than most Mega Man games. Graphics, soundtrack, sound effects, everything is lovely. Playthrough time: 2:30, but I'll be damned it's got a hard mode which is more frantic. Gotta play that now.
It also got me thinking again about different styles of retro games, with this and Mega Man 9 on one side, and say Shovel Knight and The Messenger on the other. The latter feel like celebrations of the games of past eras--which is fine--but they tend to be caffeinated modern takes on them rather than recreations.
For my liking, they tend to try too hard to be crazy and hilarious, where every dialogue has to be full of self-aware jokes and the soundtrack has to be hyperactive. It's difficult to find words for what I mean, but they have a "so retro amirite lol" feel to them imo.
Contrast Kero Blaster and Mega Man 9, which instead are those games--just better. I like these games much more.
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Post by snackplissken on Feb 2, 2022 8:51:58 GMT
Beyond A Steel Sky
I came pretty late to Beneath A Steel Sky. Must have been about 10 years ago when I completed it and loved every minute. The sequel had me pretty hyped. They kept all the humour I loved from the original, some parts I chuckled at. The environments were a bit of a let down, alongside the technical problems.. it's pretty low quality and janky at times. I'd say if you loved the original you have to play it, because underneath all the jank it is still made out of pure love of the source material.
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Feb 2, 2022 12:17:46 GMT
A Monster's Expedition Time 12 hours (403 islands)
Nice little puzzler. Pretty amazing they can get 12 hours out of you (maybe less because I'm stupid) just pushing trees over but here we are. Lots of neat ideas, presented in a charming manner. Only one island really stumped me enough to look it up (And it was fucking easy, just didn't see the bastard unfolding the way it did), but a few will leave you scratching your head, but will do first time when you come back to it. As a nice ebb and flow, normally after those tough ones, you make rapid progress. Feels good.
4/5
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askew
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Post by askew on Feb 3, 2022 8:49:07 GMT
Four years after picking it up on a GamePass whim, I finally finished Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. In reality, it was about 10 hours of total gameplay. I really enjoyed it, but hope the forthcoming sequel does offer a little more variety in its puzzles and combat. And those damned rune stones: missed three, but enjoyed their relay of Norse mythology. Who knew Loki was such a prick?
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Feb 3, 2022 14:34:12 GMT
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
Gameplay- and graphics-wise, easily the best of the four main games (to be expected, really, given how much newer it is than its predecessors).
From a narrative standpoint, I'd say it's on par with the others - which is no mean feat in the absence of Amy Hennig - while the voice acting is as great as ever.
9/10.
Now onto The Lost Legacy. (It almost certainly won't keep me going until Elden Ring, which was my original plan, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.)
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Feb 4, 2022 5:19:55 GMT
I tried a few small games off of itch.io.
Bleakshore is just a small exploration game that tells a very short story in a few text snippets. The exploration is limited to finding these few snippets around the environment, which is a pixellated shore that is explored in first person. Nice ambience. Lasted about quarter of an hour.
Nightline is basically just a screen saver, except the "player" is a passenger in a tram or some such (also first person), watching as one of three choosable cityscapes passes by. I'm not a big fan of the ambience, but it certainly looks nice. It just feels too limited to really profit from it.
Becalm is similar except the player is sitting in a boat as the skybox is slowly changing around him/her.
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Duffman5
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Post by Duffman5 on Feb 6, 2022 12:28:10 GMT
Watch Dogs Legion (xbox) 6/10Overall just about good but with lots of caveats, the voice cast are awful, probably the worst I have ever had the misfortune to listen to. It really is that bad across the board. it also seems to be a big downgrade interactive wise from 1 and especially 2. The driving is awful, I love arcade driving and had no issues with it in the first games, but this is so twitchy. Probably worst collection of music across the games as well. "keepy-uppy" was shite. What I did enjoy: some of the side missions and main missions were fun. Some of the recruits had some good and fun perks. Darts was fun. The world and being able to use a Drone to fly around on. I think 4 of the points I have awarded are due to the fact I recreated the Animals (Battersea power station) album cover...it's on my Xbox feed For anyone interested in Achievements, it is known to have major issues with them. At time of typing 4 have not unlocked and it looks unlikely they ever will
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Feb 6, 2022 13:16:18 GMT
Uncharted 4
Problem with having a week off you just blast through a game in no time. Really enjoyed my time with this one. Havn’t played it since it originally came out and it ..well a bit of a marvel. If the game came out today brand new I’d be impressed. Naughty dog are wizards (albeit at the aid of crunch). It’s pretty much immaculate. It still looks absolutely stunning. Story is engaging, characters great, especially the dialogue and interactions between them. It’s on another level compared to pretty much every other AAA game bar TLOU2. Gunplay is fun (don’t know it 60fps makes a difference here?). It is probably a chapter or two too long - pacing issues i had with it first time round are mostly dissolved, just at its very end you just kinda feel It’s reached it’s limit. Which is something I think the developers and writers feel through out. Drake makes quips about it all the way throughout. I guess there’s only so much breaking ledges and oh crap moments they can do. To be fair to ND they gave it a bloody good shot with this. Looking around the internet the game is getting a good second view/second appraisal. It’s great. It’s definetly gone up in my estimation and I think will be talked about alongside 2 as the best and up there in Greatest of all time talk.
5/5
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harrypalmer
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Post by harrypalmer on Feb 6, 2022 15:17:43 GMT
Guardians of the Galaxy - 8/10
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It's a great story, very well written and acted, and it looks absolutely stunning. Gameplay-wise, it's extremely shallow, puzzles have zero challenge and combat is very basic. I turned the difficulty all the way down and just blasted through it, enjoying the story. It seems like they wanted to implement more branching decision trees, which would have been nice, but as an experience it's great. I enjoyed it more than the films.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - 10/10
Just brilliant. Great atmosphere, looks lovely, music is hella rad. I love how the castle keeps opening up more secrets and locations. I just got hold of the PS3 Hideo Kojima Castlevania game as I needed more, quite excited to try it.
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Feb 6, 2022 15:22:06 GMT
I don't think Kojima had any real involvement in the game though. Also, it's a very different style of gameplay form SOTN, basically a God of War clone with some puzzles.
Mind, the sequel is bonkers. Not necessarily in a good way, but still. One of the weirdest games I've played.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2022 15:25:07 GMT
Yeah, he was executive producer rather than hands-on. He's based in Tokyo, MercurySteam, who actually produced it is based in Madrid I believe? Definitely a Spanish studio. But it's great! They do good work. Nintendo's seen fit to contract them for their last two Metroids, as am example. But it is very much PS3-era God of War as malek said, but with better writing and casting. Patrick Stewart and Robert Carlysle!
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harrypalmer
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Post by harrypalmer on Feb 6, 2022 15:31:04 GMT
Oh yeah, I'm aware it's completely different, I was just intrigued by it. Will 100% be going through all the 2D ones over the course of my life too! No idea why I never bothered before.
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Post by uiruki on Feb 6, 2022 16:57:02 GMT
7. Phantasy Star IV - Mega Drive - 5/5
Finally played through the game in Japanese and I really liked it a lot. The writing, especially in the earlier parts, is full of personality, and the plot really moves along extremely quickly.
I still really like the battle system; again, fast and generally easy to operate, with the only really clunky bit (using equipment as items - which turns out to be key to making the game much easier) being largely alleviated by intelligent use of the macro system.
Overall if there's a weakness, it's that in general it's quite short and easy, especially if you know what you're doing. When I first played it in the 90s it was very much my first JRPG and, combined with not having the manual to hand, I ended up mostly grinding my way through any problems. This time around, knowing what does what, it's actually a pretty standard fight and heal type system. Dungeons I remember being massive slogs actually go by extremely smoothly, buffs make boss encounters much more manageable, and good use of some of the equipment as items massively reduces the amount of magic and skills you need to deploy in the field.
In the end though the whole package comes together so well, in spite of the fact it's nearly 30 years old at this point. It's not super long but there's loads of variety. The script's lively, the story is constantly moving forward and the cut-in graphics do such a good job of raising the presentation you could add an intro animation and some CD music and you'd have a damn good Mega CD game. Essential.
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Post by simple on Feb 6, 2022 19:42:10 GMT
Four years after picking it up on a GamePass whim, I finally finished Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. In reality, it was about 10 hours of total gameplay. I really enjoyed it, but hope the forthcoming sequel does offer a little more variety in its puzzles and combat. And those damned rune stones: missed three, but enjoyed their relay of Norse mythology. Who knew Loki was such a prick? I’m not the completist I used to be but I only missed one when I played it the first time so its been on my replay list since so I can pick up the Platinum. Plus I thought it was an excellent game too.
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Post by RadicalRex on Feb 7, 2022 9:02:13 GMT
Will 100% be going through all the 2D ones over the course of my life too! No idea why I never bothered before. Don't forget Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which in a way you could call Iga's unofficial new SotN (just in case you're unaware). In the Castlevania Advance Collection, Aria of Sorrow is pretty similar to SotN and arguably the best game in the collection, if not quite as good as SotN.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2022 15:23:49 GMT
Will 100% be going through all the 2D ones over the course of my life too! No idea why I never bothered before. Don't forget Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which in a way you could call Iga's unofficial new SotN (just in case you're unaware). In the Castlevania Advance Collection, Aria of Sorrow is pretty similar to SotN and arguably the best game in the collection, if not quite as good as SotN. How does the Advance Collection hold up on a big screen? Both that and the MegaMan Zero/ZX Collection are constantly on sale on Xbox, but I think I want them for Switch? As I can't imagine the extremely low-res GBA sprites look good on a 55" or larger screen. But then I run into the JoyCon d-pad being trash.
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Post by steifybobbins on Feb 7, 2022 22:28:20 GMT
Don't forget Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which in a way you could call Iga's unofficial new SotN (just in case you're unaware). In the Castlevania Advance Collection, Aria of Sorrow is pretty similar to SotN and arguably the best game in the collection, if not quite as good as SotN. How does the Advance Collection hold up on a big screen? Both that and the MegaMan Zero/ZX Collection are constantly on sale on Xbox, but I think I want them for Switch? As I can't imagine the extremely low-res GBA sprites look good on a 55" or larger screen. But then I run into the JoyCon d-pad being trash. I'm never one for graphics etc but I was shocked how bad they looked on my TV plays and looks lovely on the switch (oled or otherwise) though
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Post by RadicalRex on Feb 8, 2022 0:42:40 GMT
@spookyxelectric
Really depends on your mileage I guess. I don't mind it at all (42" here), but I'm used to it and over time have grown fond of oldschool chunky pixel graphics. In fact, I prefer the clarity of the GBA games to the 2.5D of Bloodstained. Except for Harmony of Dissonance, but that's because of that game's garish colours and VFX (and weird player animation), not because of its resolution.
I do imagine though that the bigger the screen, the more distracting it gets. Maybe try watching some Youtube gameplay footage on your TV?
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Post by Aunt Alison on Feb 8, 2022 0:45:36 GMT
I think pixel graphics always look good. They look so much better without filters on as well
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Post by RadicalRex on Feb 8, 2022 0:53:15 GMT
Oh yes, definitely, I hate those filters. Just give me pure, unembellished pixels. But I can see why not everyone likes them, and why they don't enjoy huge GBA pixels on a big TV.
One thing worth noting regarding the Advance Collection: Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow have a somewhat bright/washed-out look to them, which is because the original GBA was not backlit. That is a little unfortunate, but it was in response to criticism of Circle of the Moon which apparently was very dark on original hardware--but so it's the one that looks most natural in terms of brightness/contrast on a TV screen imo.
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Post by Chopper on Feb 8, 2022 10:22:38 GMT
Battle Academy (PC) I comfortably outdistanced How Long To Beat's estimate of 21 hours, weighing in at a whopping 59 hours, but I had a great time with this 2011 WW2 tactics game. Some of the later maps got a bit puzzley, and I had to save scum my way through a couple because they were rock hard. I was still learning tactics lessons late on (which I possibly should have absorbed earlier), and there were several maps where my units were all wiped out but I held the Victory Points by the skin of my teeth. It was a fantastic all round experience, highly recommended if you can spare a buck in the sales.
There is also a mountain of DLC - due to the increasingly puzzle-like nature of the maps though, I'd be a bit afraid that the DLC will go more in that direction, so I'll hold off on it for now (and also wait for a sale where they go for dirt cheap).
Outstanding game.
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nazo
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Post by nazo on Feb 8, 2022 14:42:46 GMT
Uncharted 1 + 2
I remember 2 being a much better game than 1, but I actually preferred the first game on this play through. Certainly 2 has some memorable set pieces and beautiful locations but fuck me I got bored of dying all the time. So many frustrating bullet sponge enemies / insta-death events. I remember liking 3 the least of the original games so not sure if I can be arsed to see if it will go up or down in my estimation on another play-through.
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Post by dominalien on Feb 8, 2022 15:50:37 GMT
Play TR anniversary via BC? Legend and Underworld should be available too. Yeah, these three are the best Tomb Raiders.
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Post by dangerousdave on Feb 8, 2022 18:59:03 GMT
Uncharted 1 + 2 I remember 2 being a much better game than 1, but I actually preferred the first game on this play through. Certainly 2 has some memorable set pieces and beautiful locations but fuck me I got bored of dying all the time. So many frustrating bullet sponge enemies / insta-death events. I remember liking 3 the least of the original games so not sure if I can be arsed to see if it will go up or down in my estimation on another play-through. Uncharted 3 is the most bullet-spongey of the lot. I remember completing it, but it felt like a waste of my time.
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Post by Chopper on Feb 9, 2022 11:02:53 GMT
Astrologaster (PC)
This is a visual novel set in Elizabethan England....and was an absolute blast from beginning to end.
You play a Blackadder-esque doctor who mixes astrology with medicine to diagnose his patients, the eventual aim being to get eight letters of recommendation as the Medical Council is plotting against you as a charlatan. The astrology stuff is very clever, as it recruits you, the gamer, with your modern knowledge of medicine and political events (Walter Raleigh, the gunpowder plot, strange effects of vegetables from the New World, Elizabeth I's succession etc), to 'predict' the future. There's a fine line to tread between telling your patients what they want to hear (so you get points towards your letter) and what is likely to be honest and true.
But enough of that - I didn't realise it was a comedy, and supremely well done. I played the game with a huge grin on my face for the whole six hours. The dialogue is very funny, and it's amazing that it manages to carry the whole game, which is presented in a fairly basic, popup book format.
Also, each character is introduced by a full choir singing about them each time they appear, which never got old (they get more scurrilous as the game goes on): Highly recommended. It was in that big Itch.io bundle a few years ago, so you might already have it.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Feb 9, 2022 11:13:39 GMT
EQI: Free first-person-platformer off of steam.
It was fairly hard, mostly because of the difficulty of executing what I was expected to do, but at times also because it wasn't always easy to tell how exactly the game wanted me to progress. And in generally just because I'm awful at most timing-based games. Even so it only took a bit less than two hours. The checkpoints are quite humane, which did help. It has nice, abstract visuals and a fitting soundtrack. Definitely worth taking a look at considering that this is pretty good for being free.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2022 13:01:40 GMT
Astrologaster (PC)
This is a visual novel set in Elizabethan England....and was an absolute blast from beginning to end.
You play a Blackadder-esque doctor who mixes astrology with medicine to diagnose his patients, the eventual aim being to get eight letters of recommendation as the Medical Council is plotting against you as a charlatan. The astrology stuff is very clever, as it recruits you, the gamer, with your modern knowledge of medicine and political events (Walter Raleigh, the gunpowder plot, strange effects of vegetables from the New World, Elizabeth I's succession etc), to 'predict' the future. There's a fine line to tread between telling your patients what they want to hear (so you get points towards your letter) and what is likely to be honest and true.
But enough of that - I didn't realise it was a comedy, and supremely well done. I played the game with a huge grin on my face for the whole six hours. The dialogue is very funny, and it's amazing that it manages to carry the whole game, which is presented in a fairly basic, popup book format.
Also, each character is introduced by a full choir singing about them each time they appear, which never got old (they get more scurrilous as the game goes on): Highly recommended. It was in that big Itch.io bundle a few years ago, so you might already have it.
Worth the 4.50 spent on iPad?
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Post by Chopper on Feb 9, 2022 13:27:35 GMT
Worth the 4.50 spent on iPad? Yes, 100%. The voice acting is great, and the choir work funny, so I would recommend having the sound on, or at least one earphone, in case you were playing while watching TV or whatever. I took dozens of screenshots but want to avoid spoilers, but it's a bawdy, funny romp.
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Post by gibroon on Feb 9, 2022 13:44:43 GMT
Platinumed God of War on nearly God of War mode Originally played it on ps4 but never bothered too much with the valkyries. A great game, not much else to say really. The combat is very meaty and the main difficulty was the start and obviously the queen that took about 8 hours to do. As far as platinums go, this is very doable. I'm starting uncharted 4 and some of the trophies on there are ridiculous.
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