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Post by Chopper on Oct 27, 2022 8:26:18 GMT
Five Dates, another excellent interactive video-type game from Wales Interactive. I really enjoy their stuff/this type of game, and they've done a very good job here. You play Vinny, who joins a dating app during Covid lockdown, and you have video dates with three (you can choose from five) girls who can be a weeee bit archetype-y. But the humour is good and it's a fun time - I had a big smile on my face for a lot of it. Only 90 minutes run time, so I'll go back at some point and play through with the two women I didn't pick initially.
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Post by Chopper on Oct 27, 2022 10:14:57 GMT
Finished the 4 scenarios (there are usually 8-10 but this is a half price module) in Lock'n'Load Digital's Days of Villainy module, where you swap the bocage and Jagdpanthers of Normandy for the deserts and Technicals of the Libyan Civil War.
It still took about ten hours to complete (basically win each scenario as each side), primarily because the rebels are quite hard to win with.
The man himself puts in an appearance in the final mission:
And the next half hour is going to be very unpleasant for him:
Overall, an excellent module. A bit buggy, often some of Gaddafi's armour would turn invisible, but keep shooting. But the challenge of the rebel scenarios was really good. I'm still futzing my way through this (the rulebook is 200 pages so who has time for that?) but having fun at a reasonably dumb level.
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JonFE
Junior Member
Uncomfortably numb...
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Post by JonFE on Oct 27, 2022 10:31:34 GMT
Was it up to Rockstar? I thought it was TakeTwo who would have given the go ahead? It certainly deserved more care and attention than it got. I'd argue that R* should be in the position to emboss their stand on TakeTwo (given the money their games bring in) and object to it if they felt the trilogy was subpar, but of course you can be entirely right there.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Oct 29, 2022 20:33:59 GMT
Stray - 6.5/10
Took me months to play through this, which is saying something given it's a short game. There is a lot to like, but the robots are pretty uninspiring and the gameplay lacks variation. Awe inspiring for the first hour, then it becomes kinda dull for the rest of it. Particularly hated interacting with everything - had to really find the sweet spot with the camera position to even talk to the robots etc. Got on my nerves a lot...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2022 20:39:44 GMT
Yeah, I wish it were more of a true platformer and not a "wait till the X prompt activates to climb AC unit."
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Oct 29, 2022 23:48:36 GMT
I hope they made a load of cash though and it gives them the opportunity to do a more ambitious sequel. It's got the makings of a classic.
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Post by Phattso on Oct 30, 2022 11:41:44 GMT
I think I liked the idea of Stray more than I liked playing it. But, as said, it hardly outstayed its welcome. I think I might've been less forgiving if I'd dropped the £30 RRP on it rather than getting it through PS+.
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Post by Phattso on Oct 30, 2022 11:45:40 GMT
After a couple of days reflection:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) - 8/10
The 2019 and 2020 games were really solid I thought, and this one belongs in their company. I'd happily play through the three campaigns again. In fact, I'm replaying the new one again now on Veteran just to see if I've still got it* or not.
Graphics were decent, set pieces were decent, story wasn't quite as chuffing ridiculous or overblown as some of the earlier entries in the series, the script is just as bollocks as always, and it has all the usual eye rolling CoD controversy courting bullshit ("de-escalate" ffs) that you'd expect.
But I had fun. Would de-escalate civilians again.
* "it" being the patience to force my way through teeth grindingly frustrating encounters where you have to memorise spawn points to avoid getting clipped every two steps.
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Duffman5
Junior Member
big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
Posts: 1,332
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Post by Duffman5 on Oct 31, 2022 10:14:36 GMT
Stray - 6.5/10 Took me months to play through this, which is saying something given it's a short game. There is a lot to like, but the robots are pretty uninspiring and the gameplay lacks variation. Awe inspiring for the first hour, then it becomes kinda dull for the rest of it. Particularly hated interacting with everything - had to really find the sweet spot with the camera position to even talk to the robots etc. Got on my nerves a lot... I started this last week, have just got through the sewers to the new area, can't say I am champing at the bit to return, but I may.
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Post by dfunked on Oct 31, 2022 10:41:59 GMT
Yeah, I got to the new area and just couldn't be arsed with it any more. Once the novelty of being a cat and knocking vases over wears off, it's just not a very good game...
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Post by harrypalmer on Oct 31, 2022 10:48:58 GMT
The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition - 6/10
I know this is sacrilege, and I do love the game, it was a seminal gaming experience back in the day. Everything on Melee Island is brilliant, but as soon as you get to Monkey Island the game becomes hugely frustrating: the puzzles are the worst kind of point and click nonsense, and the endless backtracking around the map gets old extremely fast.
But it is was it is, I had a great time flicking back to the original art style and listening to the music, which is more than enough reason to revisit it.
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Post by simple on Nov 1, 2022 0:52:49 GMT
Jedi Fallen Order
Had a bit of a frustrating time with this. On the one hand its the kind of single player SW game that’s been missing since probably Jedi Academy about 20 years ago but on the other its really undercooked and at times feels like its only half a game.
The plot is pretty generic which is fine but its told super unevenly with big stakes at the beginning and end and then the majority of the game being the sort of quest you’d expect from the first act of a bigger game. The supporting characters feel really under-utilitised too, both in gameplay and narrative. There’s a subplot that barely seemed to exist that could’ve been the start of something interesting but goes nowhere. The planets you visit are either single short levels or sprawling content-lite and heavily padded. The game is not afraid of multiple rug pulls.
Technically, playing on PS4 Pro there was frequent texture and object pop-in and some of the mid-level loading transitions could freeze the game for several seconds and even crashed out to the Home Screen once. A few really janky cutscenes too.
But for all the half-finished ideas and bits where it looked like they’d cut corners and the main plot feeling like it was too small to carry a whole game … it was still a lightsaber power fantasy and the closest thing we’ve had to Knight, Outcast and Academy in all these years. The combat being a casual Souls-lite was a nice fit, the traversal worked well, some of the sections and level design was pretty neat.
Ultimately, I had fun with it, even if it did feel like a first draft.
7/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2022 21:34:44 GMT
Tomb Raider Anniversary on series x
Still holds up very well, needed a break from 60 hours in 6 days of P5 so picked this up from CEX as wanted a quick fun game. Finished it in 2 sittings (it's a cold rainy sofa weekend) and mostly loved it.
Graphics- good enough. It didn't feel like a retro game, it is a close enough generation that I didn't notice the age, unlike when I tried to play the OG tomb raider on my vita recently.
Gameplay- fucking loved it. Hard, frustrating but rewarding. I haven't been this annoyed at a game in ages, shouting at the TV like that spaced episode "you fucking idiot big titted clumsy bitch!!!" But always just this side of being truly obnoxious. Perfectly balanced puzzles that were always frustrating but so rewarding when done.
Lara- she is a fucking monster. Not as much as Legend which I played a few weeks ago where she was a stone cold psychopath with no issues with brutal murder, but still not a loveable character with quips and such.
Length- perfect at 10 hours on the dot. And that is 10 hours of play, I feel any modern game would pad it out to 40 hours, keeping 10 hours of gameplay, then 15 hours of cutscenes, 10 hours of open world moving and 5 hours of collectibles on secret paths.
Combat- fucking tosh. I don't remember this much fighting and so many boss fights. All tedious and dull. Less said about the QTEs the better.
Anyway, tldr, loved it, I wish they still made these types of single player games with zero padding and no story tosh to distract. Also refreshing to have puzzles and challenge that aren't reflex based.
8/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2022 19:18:59 GMT
Return to Monkey Island
Well that was a bit shit. Possibly the most disappointed I have been in a game in 20 years.
The good: most of the game is fairly enjoyable, I like the puzzles and the characters, and it would have been a decent 7 or 8/10 game if they hadn't shit the bee so hard in some areas.
The bad: I think this is the worst looking game I have ever played. Fuck me it is bad. The backgrounds and areas look passable, but characters are just weird, especially guybrush. He looks just fucking insane and it took me 2 hours to actually realise what his face was supposed to be. I play a lot of retro and indie stuff and always after 30 minutes you forget the art and just get drawn in, but this is so astoundingly awful I hated every single second.
No sword fighting. NO SWORD FIGHTING!!!! In a fucking monkey island game. Apart from one tedious non interactive bit that plays out every... single... time... you speak to one character.
The ending. Just... worse than Mass Effect 3.
So: 8/10 Less 3 points for no sword fighting. Less 3 for the ending. Less 7 for being so fucking ugly.
So negative points.
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Vortex
Full Member
Harvey Weinstein's Tattered Penis
is apparently a mangina.
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Post by Vortex on Nov 12, 2022 12:08:55 GMT
A plague tale requiem.
Decent game, with an interesting enough story. Ending was much improved on the first games shitfest. Sadly, there were still a few nearly controller breaking annoying battles.
Most of that was due to the clunkiness of changing ammotypes during combat. There were occasional checkpoints which did mean some progress was sometimes made regardless.
Worth playing if you enjoyed the first & thankfully, you don't have to go full stealth most of the time either.
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wunty
Full Member
Pastry Forward
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Post by wunty on Nov 12, 2022 12:17:50 GMT
Signalis
Well. That was a bit fucking special. Totally came out of nowhere for me as hadn't heard about it until the reviews appeared and piqued my interest. Cannot believe it was made by two people. Fucking astounding. The puzzles were not only actually logical, but took a fair bit of thought to figure out. Whilst some were more difficult than others, I never felt frustrated. One gripe was - as many who've played it have said - the inventory is a bit TOO limiting, but I got used to it. Yes, it meant there was more backtracking than perhaps there should have been, but I never grudged it. Some unique ideas to the genre here, like the radio frequency shifts, and the rest adhered closely to the survival horror template set out by the likes of Silent Hill and Resident Evil (it strongly reminded me of both, the former more than the latter). The audio is amazing and the soundtrack is god-like. I ended up buying it on bandcamp and have it on in the background when writing.
It's really really fucking good, and one of the best survival horror games I've played, hands down.
10/10
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lukasz
New Member
Meat popsicle
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Post by lukasz on Nov 12, 2022 12:54:01 GMT
Return to Monkey Island Well that was a bit shit. Possibly the most disappointed I have been in a game in 20 years. The good: most of the game is fairly enjoyable, I like the puzzles and the characters, and it would have been a decent 7 or 8/10 game if they hadn't shit the bee so hard in some areas. The bad: I think this is the worst looking game I have ever played. Fuck me it is bad. The backgrounds and areas look passable, but characters are just weird, especially guybrush. He looks just fucking insane and it took me 2 hours to actually realise what his face was supposed to be. I play a lot of retro and indie stuff and always after 30 minutes you forget the art and just get drawn in, but this is so astoundingly awful I hated every single second. No sword fighting. NO SWORD FIGHTING!!!! In a fucking monkey island game. Apart from one tedious non interactive bit that plays out every... single... time... you speak to one character. The ending. Just... worse than Mass Effect 3. So: 8/10 Less 3 points for no sword fighting. Less 3 for the ending. Less 7 for being so fucking ugly. So negative points. Bejesus. So many dreams crushed. Is the art style that bad or the execution. The remastered were gorgeous.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Nov 12, 2022 15:11:28 GMT
Finished with yet another replay of Dawn of Magic (Blood Magic). As said, it's an old ARPG.
I played with a Poison/Choker-build this time around. Basically just lots and lots of damage over time which I was mostly spreading through Plague (which simply applies Poison in an area-of-effect regularly over a short time). Quite fun I have to say, especially in the last Act. It's a bit annoying for how limited the movement is and how easy it is to get stuck, but at the same time it's easy to "Dark Path" (i.e. teleport) to inaccessible spots and wait for the dots to do their work. And movement in that Act is generally more down to the question how much you can abuse the teleport to get to the objectives with as little hassle as possible.
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Post by harrypalmer on Nov 12, 2022 19:05:48 GMT
Not heard of Signalis, will check it out.
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Post by Samildanach on Nov 12, 2022 20:05:17 GMT
Alien Isolation (for the 2nd time, this time in hard mode with no human deaths for da trophiez!)
Was worried at first as this game scared the bejesus out of me when I played it first a couple of years back; however, after the initial jitters I really got into it any enjoyed every moment. The alien is far better avoided by hiding under tables as opposed to inside cupboards and lockers, and this made the game far easier. Absolutely stunning atmosphere and rivals Bloodborne as my favourite PS4 game. Only one trophy yet to get, but that one is the dreaded no death one. Hmm, might leave it for another Halloween run in a few years time!
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Post by Nanocrystal on Nov 12, 2022 22:23:13 GMT
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition It was really good, I'm just not convinced that it justified 80 hours of my life. Very grindy and with way too many under-written fetch quests. Feels like the main story could have been told effectively in about 20 hours. Still, the music and the massive, beautiful world were a joy to experience. And I ended up really liking the main cast of characters. Onto the DLC, and the sequels.
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Post by rhaegyr on Nov 15, 2022 10:25:52 GMT
Signalis
Well, that was excellent and anxiety-inducing all at once!
Fantastic homage to early Resident Evil/Silent Hill games, but set in space with its own unique atmosphere, mood and storytelling.
Only downsides were the story being slightly obtuse and ammo being fairly scarce, even for a survival horror.
One of the surprises of the year, great stuff. Can't wait to give it another go.
9/10
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wunty
Full Member
Pastry Forward
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Post by wunty on Nov 15, 2022 10:51:27 GMT
rhaegyr One thing I particularly liked - The carpets in some of the offices being lifted straight from The Overlook Hotel .
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Post by rhaegyr on Nov 15, 2022 11:24:53 GMT
rhaegyr One thing I particularly liked - The carpets in some of the offices being lifted straight from The Overlook Hotel . Didn't notice this at all, probably too terrified to clock it. I did pick up on the HR Giger one though.
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Post by Samildanach on Nov 15, 2022 17:55:44 GMT
My shmup journey continues with the games released in May-Jul 1991. Let's gooooo!
Three Wonders (CAS 2) May '91 3 games in one, the first being a run and gun of typical high Capcom quality. The second is a shmup where the budget clearly started to get stretched. The bosses are still impressive and unique, but the levels consist of only two alternating backgrounds, night sky or castle. The gameplay in that one was decent but nothing too remarkable. The third game is a puzzle game that I didn't bother with. All in all, the art style is unique and remarkable. Definitely worth a look if you like Metal Slug and it's ilk, but less of a strong recommendation if you are here for a shmup blast. 3/5
Rayxanber II (PC Engine) Jun '91 One of the weaker shmups on the system, mainly because of its merciless difficulty. If your ship had more meaty firepower then it would have been a pretty decent game, but with the peashooter you have the fun factor is not there. What is good however, is the soundtrack which is utterly sublime and dreamy. Worth playing for that alone in fact! 2/5
Spriggan (PC Engine mini) Jul '91 Made by Compile so it is an absolute banger. Zero slowdown, fast adrenaline-fueled gameplay, fantastic visuals and lots of cool weapon options. Difficulty is about right with no bullshit but isn't a walk in the park either. Yeah this one is pretty top tier with it dropping a mark only for the music which, while never poor, is rather average. 4.5/5
Alpha Mission II (Arcade Archives) Jul '91 The second shmup that appeared on the Neo Geo system after the terrible Ghost Pilots and while this game is a massive step up, it still has something about it that doesn't feel right. Hard to put my finger on, but I think it is down the unfair positions many enemies appear from (suddenly from the lower sides or behind with no warning), the fact that turrets can point blank you and especially the overly kamikaze enemies that appear far to often. The power up system is also too finicky, especially the armour that you have to collect in threes while avoiding accidentally collecting a piece from a different set. These factors make what is a very pretty looking game feel rather like a tedious chore to play, couple that with a dull soundtrack and I was happy to ditch it after the credits rolled. 2/5
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Nov 15, 2022 18:38:16 GMT
Nier Automata.
Good fun. Only done my first play through, but for the most part I enjoyed it a lot. Surprised by its Inventiveness, mixing between several genres within moments of each other, backed up by a very engaging set up, game world and a typically robust Platinum Games game. I was surprised how quickly it was over - I didn't do many side quests so clocked in around 9 hours and felt that, for all the set up and questions I had though out the game, it didn't fully deliver, but maybe some of that will be answered in future playthroughs. It kind of felt like you are scraping the service of what this game/story/setting could be.
4.5/5
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Post by Samildanach on Nov 15, 2022 19:16:58 GMT
Nier Automata. Good fun. Only done my first play through, but for the most part I enjoyed it a lot. Surprised by its Inventiveness, mixing between several genres within moments of each other, backed up by a very engaging set up, game world and a typically robust Platinum Games game. I was surprised how quickly it was over - I didn't do many side quests so clocked in around 9 hours and felt that, for all the set up and questions I had though out the game, it didn't fully deliver, but maybe some of that will be answered in future playthroughs. It kind of felt like you are scraping the service of what this game/story/setting could be. 4.5/5 If it is anything like the original Nier, the (first) ending is just the beginning and there is a LOT more to come. Keep going!
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Post by Nanocrystal on Nov 15, 2022 19:53:25 GMT
Erm... yeah Ook, you are not done.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Nov 16, 2022 8:56:46 GMT
I ended up looking up the big reveal after all the fuss people make about it and it's not that interesting. if you got rid of the second playthrough, the third is just a continuation making the first playthrough an overly long prologue. Not really seeing the storytelling genius
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Post by dfunked on Nov 16, 2022 9:01:25 GMT
Haha, oh dear. You've got a lot more game to play!
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