VideoGame_Discussion

I finished up BioShock 2 last night. I always call this the weakest in the trilogy, but it's still very much worth playing.
I'll check out the Minerva's Den DLC before I hop back into Horizon: Forbidden West.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I put so many hours on the Bioshock 2 multiplayer. It was disappointing that it was so short-lived. The community left in a hurry. I absolutely loved it. It came at a time in my life where everyone around me just wanted to play military shooters, and this was such a breath of fresh air. I could never get enough of freezing another player to shatter them with a shotgun blast.

incubus421 wrote:


I had forgotten about the multiplayer. It's not even included in the remaster.

I was skeptical about multiplayer in 'Bioshock' until playing it, and it really is great; so much fun.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Minerva’s Den is fantastic! One of my favorite pieces of story-driven DLC. Enjoy!

Super Metroid

Fun game. Holds up well. I felt like I was playing a GBA game.

Maybe it's just something about how I play, but this isn't the only Metroidvania game where I've gotten really lost at times, and had to wander the map looking for where to go.

Worth playing at least once.

Part of the ending was unexpected:

Pokémon alpha sapphire - 8/10

It’s Pokémon what more is there to say. I marked it down cause I thought it lacked variety regarding Pokémon. I thought it flowed really well and I didn’t feel like much grinding was needed. I pretty much powered through with my starter, Blazekin; lvl 69 when I finished. Total time from start to finish was approximately 16 Hours. I love the 3D in the 3ds versions but I’m a sucker for the 3D in general.

God of War Ragnarok: 7.5/10

I'm going to post everything behind a spoiler. Major spoilers here

I beat it at 21.5 Hours with no side content on story mode.

On all technical levels, it's a great game. Just the bad/not-so-great story drags it down so much.

The story feels a bit rushed just to get it out for Q4

Certainly nowhere near GotY for me.

nonamesleft wrote:

Getting lost is classic Metroid stuff. Its worse for me because I normally take breaks between my sessions so I often forget where I was supposed to go. I remember when I first played thru Super Metroid I was able to get in to the final area without the charge blast unlocked and I couldnt beat the last boss due to not having enough rockets. I think I had to restart the whole playthrough cause I couldnt figure out how to go back (if possible).

Got Gamepass for a $1 and beat Dead Space 2 and tried 3. Gave up on 3 due to the human enemies making it like a shooter. It seemed terrible after 30 minutes. Dead Space 2 on the other hand had new enemies which I didn't entirely care for. For example, the swarming kids made me require a new weapon other then the plasma cutter. I also didn't care for the bio bombers the kids and the stationary ones. The horror elements seemed entirely missing for me. The idea of going slowly insane and the plot seemed questionable. Not trying to spoil but the female character trusting and protecting the crazy person despite what occurred with her earlier makes seems unlikely since when you meet she doesn't seem to trusting. Also how did the he survive without help. Also disliked the amount of button mashing needed to get through the story. What I did enjoy was the new weapons but disliked the new suit systems.

Playing Star Ocean right now, I find the game more enjoyable after learning the systems. Still hate finding chests and finding Duma Points. I really should of upgraded scan earlier to make that easier. The combat is okay but I'm not finding the attacks that enjoyable but I believe based on the skill tree it will get better.

Halo 4 - 9/10

Glad I finally got around to playing H4. My son and I were huge halo fans when he was younger. I’ve also dived into some of the halo companion books… so I’m partial to the halo universe I guess. H4 story was amazing and 343 did a great job with their first release of the series. The final show down was weak sauce but that’s really my biggest gripe. Over all it was typical halo run and gun action and I loved every min of it.

Halo 4 had such a great story. Shame 5 had to dumb it down a bit and make things a little weird.

Just beat Star Ocean First Departure finally. Not a bad game but definitely rough and shows how much more polished and refined Star Ocean 2 was.

Beat Daymare 1998. Thought it was going to be a great Resident Evil like game but it wasn't. The magazine and ammo system is questionable. You basically have a quick reload and slow one. You load bullets into magazines which is tedious. Enemies aren't fun to battle due to the lack of variety. No upgrades for weapons. Only 4 weapons the standard handgun, shotgun, revolver or magnum if your a RE fan and machine gun. Pretty much only the shotgun and revolver are worth a damn but you need to use the handgun due to lack of ammo and choices. No melee weapons like a knife. Basically buy Resident Evil 2 or 3. It is 5 hours and gets worse overtime.

Might just see if Dead Space 3 is worth playing through. Hoping it gets better then back to Star Ocean.

Current plan
Beat Star Ocean
Buy and beat Valkyrie DLC, Resident Evil Village DLC. Crisis Core and Calisto Protocol.

I just finished up the Minerva's Den DLC for BioShock 2 Remastered. This lived up to the hype. Although a bit on the short side it was still really good. I've about had my fill of BioShock 2 for now though, so I'm not going to attempt the other DLC, which I don't even know what it is but nobody seems to talk about that one the way they do with Minerva's Den so there's probably nothing important in there.

Kommie wrote:

I feel like you maybe missed a bunch of the story somewhere along the way

(DEFINITELY NOBODY READ IF YOU HAVEN'T BEAT THE GAME)

Star Ocean the Divine Force is 28 hours long. I believe it is around 25-60. I have done no post game items and avoided synthesis somewhat due to the gatcha system. The combat improves as you unlock skills and new party members have 1000s of skill points to unlock said skills. There are a ton of quality of life issues. Equipment gets removed from party members leaving the party. I didn't care for some characters somewhat. The story is okay but has some issues here and there. Most NPCs aren't talkable to which isn't a negative but a bit odd. I didn't care for Duma and the open world is a bit empty until you reach the end where things aren't as open. The positives have to be the combat requiring actual thought and dodging. Some bosses hit like a brick and need actually strategy. The story is enjoyable and the games early hours are not the best at showing their better aspects.

There are some split decisions that may change the story heavily similar to Star Ocean 3 I believe. It may be worth playing twice to see what happens. The inn mechanic and food bonuses was a choice. I also liked the removal of the trophy system. Screw beating bosses at lvl 1 or without getting hit.

BJB wrote:

Ok so,

ued222 wrote:

FYI the equipment issue with it being removed is being addressed in its upcoming patch

Beat Dead Space 3. The objective markers aren't designed well for example finding parts just has it show where you drop off the parts. The upgrade system is a lot more complex in a bad way gate keeping you with specific resources. The combat is okay but I prefer Dead Space 1 then 2 then 3. I feel that each game while increasing the weapon count also toned down any horror. It also had an increase in button mashing and I felt the story made less sense as it went on. Going to finish off Valkyrie DLC. Then consider buying Calistio Protocol, Resident Evil Village Gold Edition or replaying or 100% Star Ocean. Hopefully Crisis Core and River City Girls 2 releases by the time I finish.

Valkyrie Elysium DLC adds no story but interesting combat segments. If you like the combat like I did and like using different setups you will enjoy the DLC, You don't need to amass items in order to play them but your unable to select difficulty. Seraphic Gate at least gives you one main story reward but by then you probably already 100% the main game minus the additional difficulties and the SSS all weapons. Going to 100% Star Ocean then await Crisis Core. I might get RE Village Gold or Calistio Protocol to tide me over.

Klonoa empire of dreams via Analogue pocket - 7/10

I’ve been playing this off and on for several months. Glad to finally see the credits roll. Klonoa has an interesting take on puzzle platforming. It’s a fairly easy game in general like Kirby games. There were a few levels that were head scratchers and I had to look up sections where I apparently was missing something obvious to proceed. Bosses were mega easy and really lack any sort of challenge. I do wish they would have used the entire screen for cut scenes, rather than shrinking it down even smaller using only the upper portion of the screen. It’s a fun, colorful game using a fair amount of different methods to solve puzzles. I enjoyed it.

loztdogs wrote:
There is another championship cup or something as well. The story is obvious though but the gameplay is good. Be prepared to be timed in the races.

Beat Apeture Science super short and a special someone returns near the end. 30 minutes long. Decent experience but nothing ground breaking.

My backlog just exploded to seven games. Decided to preorder Dead Space.

Going to beat Star Ocean again and then play the Forespoken demo. After that Resident Evil Village DLC and then Capilso Protocol possibly if I buy it. Crisis Core and Dragon Quest Treasures are going to be long games. River City Girls 2 is coming out as well.

ued222 wrote:

I’ll have to check this out. I did the platinum and I also enjoyed the flow of combat and trying to keep that combo meter going. It’s a good game.

@ued222 i have dream champ tournament as well. From the back of the box it looks to be a bit more exciting.

Beat Resident Evil Village Shadows of Rose. 3 hours long and she has some extra abilities you may or may not enjoy. Spent $39.99 buying it on sale which is now a major regret. It is puzzle heavy and the added character of Chris to Mercenaries is enjoyable but more spray and pray to my liking. I prefer Ethan's more shotgun or sniper rifle approach as it usually one or two shots enemies. After playing the Dead Space series I find it hard to come back to Village. The new characters are different and assuming it goes on sale $19.99 is way to steep for 5 hours of content in my opinion unless you didn't play the base game.

Forespoken demo was interesting. Not my cup of tea though. It has a lot of shooting aspects and is open world and those side quests are fetch quests.

Back to Star Ocean or maybe buy Calisto Protocol not sure. I don't feel like diving into Crisis Core quite yet. Plus River City Girls 2 is coming out.

Getting all these Ultimate weapons, armors and accessories without save scumming will take a while. Star Ocean really needed to change the crafting system doing this one by one and having Gatcha mechanics was an odd choice.

Sonic Frontiers - I haven't played any of the recent Sonic games but thought I would give this one a try. It seemed like it was going to be very repetitive at first but spaced out a bit it was an enjoyable game.

Just finished God of War Ragnarok. Kind of ho-hum. Pretty melodramatic and not too much fun to actually play. Hard to put it into words since it's very well done, but I get the sense that I was just along for the ride. NPCs were telling me how to solve puzzles before I even got a chance to spin the camera around. I get that Kratos the reformed pacifist is the new normal, but man do I miss brutally killing bosses. It is pretty funny to see him refuse to kill named bosses only to gruesomely slaughter everything else (decapitating, cutting in half from shoulder to hip, ripping a jaw off an enemy, etc). Kind of makes me sad that the series really has nowhere to go, but it was a good run.

Beat Crisis Core. 14 hours long if you avoid most missions. I don't feel like doing all the missions and having to talk to people three times in Chapter 6 to get all the missions was a pain. I used a missable guide so I wouldn't miss anything was a chore. The big issue with this game is the fact only certain materia are good. For example, hijump is probably the better attack materia besides costly punch, gill toss and mug which are late game which I am not willing to get. Tri materia are also the better materia until you get gravity. Combat is fine, I just hate grinding to max my stats for post game content. DMV random chance to level materia is also a pain. My slot 6 materia has never leveled in 14 hours. I repeat my slot 6 materia has never leveled up once in 14 hours. That is crazy bad luck.

I question some points in the plot as well. It repeats some points in FF7 such as the church and train somewhat. How does their training rooms work? There is a cutscene in two chapters making me question things. I feel the two added 1st classes have odd character quirks. Dreams and honor and quoting a book. Not to mention it contradicts Final Fantasy 7 several times with Hojo and Aerith. Either Aerith is lying which doesn't make much sense but for Hojo I guess it does.

Is it a bad game. No, is it a great game no. The post game content seems bad. The lottery materia leveling system is terrible to me. Yet another tedious method of 100% your materia and your character. I get you unlock a shop making it easier but leveling materia is a chore. Why couldn't it be linked to SP gain so you can just do that to level. No exp is shown but mentioned it exists. There are so many questionable design choices and the story copies some beats from FF7.

Maybe since I am trying to 100% Star Ocean I will avoid 100% Crisis Core for now. I am going to 100% Resident Evil Village Mercs then 100% Star Ocean then Crisis Core assuming I don't give up. I do have River City Girls 2 but considering my next game is Dead Space Remake I have time.

I loved crisis core on the psp. Such a great game.

loztdogs wrote:
I played it on PSP and loved it but trying to 100% the game and after playing Final Fantasy 7 PS1 and understanding a bit more about Hojo and Aerith they made some changes for example, Aerith claimed she meet Zack while she was selling flowers but in this they recreate the church scene and Zack gets Aerith into selling flowers. I am sure there are more as well as those two. Not the biggest deal to me.

The issue with 100% it is you need to combine HP+s and potions at most 600 times. The grind is long and boring and all it is for is to beat Minerva and do some more difficult missions.

The issue is my backlog is five games and I don't see me buying anything until Dead Space Remake. Two of those games are a grind to 100%.

loztdogs wrote:

I think I'm gonna finally grit my way through FF7 once I'm done with Illusion of Gaia.

Gypsy wrote:

Good luck! Remake is head shoulders better than the original imo (much more engaging). But remake is only like a quarter of the original so there’s that.

My friend and I just beat Renegade Ops on Steam. A fairly short game at barely 4 or 5 hours, but it is a fun, fast paced, arcade twin-stick shooter. I recall winning this on Xbox Live Arcade from GamePro back in 2011 but I can't recall ever actually playing it before now.

Though it didn't bother me much since I'm not an achievement hunter anyway, I did find it weird that all of the achievements in the game are tied to the single player mode. I think I've had this in my Steam library for years (probably got it in a Humble Bundle) but wouldn't play it until I had the chance to do it in co-op.

Plague Tale Requiem - Great Story, game play was not as enjoyable as the first but that may have been because I had higher expectations.

mattyg00013 wrote:

I'm going through this right now. Game play does feel a bit clunky, especially in "combat."

100% Crisis Core. It takes 32 hours at least for me. If I skipped chests due to only needing the content in a few of them. It would have been faster.

Early game Jump, Heal, Fire and Thunder are the better skills. Jump spam costs 10 AP and generally lets you avoid most damage getting you the no damage bonus at the end.
Mid Game Death Jump, Mug, Gil Toss(used a few times costs you like 9-11% of you gil but does high damage depending) and whatever else you want
End Game Genji Set, Aerial Drain 100 Att Mug 100 Vit Curaga 100 Spr Giltoss 100 Mag Sp Master 999% HP and Costly Punch 999% HP.

Basically the only real hurdle after getting Costly Punch through Materia Fusion is Minerva. You can generally just tank using whatever SP gets drained with SP Master. Then Phoniex Down for raise while spamming Aerial Drain or Costly Punch. Assuming your willing to grind SP Master and spamming Gil Toss would be the easiest path and fastest path to victory.

I am planning on doing River City Girls 2 or Resident Evil Village Orders now. Star Ocean 100% is on the backburner due to the grind. Then buy Calisto Protcol and then my backlog is finally empty again.

DCGX wrote:
I couldn't stand the combat and gave up. It does get better as in you don't die in one hit but the "puzzles" generally have only one soluton.

I'm enjoying it for the story. I'm about halfway through.

I'll have to get Crisis Core at some point on sale. It's one of only two Final Fantasy games I've played/beaten.

Beat Superhot VR on my Quest 2. I needed to play something different. It is super short and given my limited space very difficult to complete. Issue was I had a difficult time dodging attacks and my movement was limited. Let me just say now I died a lot of times. Fast respawn times helped. May try Bonelab later.

I decided to buy Calisto Protocol and am now playing River City Girls 2. I find the combat to be good but getting enough money is proving tedious. Fighting respawning enemies for cash is annoying. I am thinking I should breeze through the story and hope the game rewards me with enough cash to afford most things for my first character. Switching afterwords. Mariana grapple play style sounds interesting.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

8/10

Great game. Reminded me a lot of Super Mario 3D World/Land in an isotopic style 2.5D platformer. Some pretty cool boss fights and a neat little soundtrack. I think Kirby games should stick to this format moving forward. 2D Kirby platforming is good. 2.5D Kirby platforming is great.

Horizon: Forbidden West on
I've already crowned it as my personal GotY for 2022 but now that I've seen the credits roll I'm making it official. As with the previous Horizon game, I've put nearly 70-ish hours into this and not once did I ever think to myself "when is this going to end?" like I would with any other game of this length. And I ain't even done, because again like the first game I plan to return and wrap up all side missions after taking a break to play something else.

The graphics are incredible and so is the audio. I'm glad I upgraded to a proper headset because the cheap old headphones I was using didn't do this game justice.