VideoGame_Discussion

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.

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island via the pocket. 7/10

Part of me wants to score this game a bit lower. It’s not a bad game by any means but by world 5, I was just feeling burnt out in the Yoshi formula. If I never have to hear baby Mario crying again it will be too soon.

Beat River City Girls 2. My god the backtracking and respawning enemies are a minor hassle. Was going to 100% the game but after fighting the same enemies so many times I am done. There is a new game+ but not dealing with that. The amount of money needed to buy all the accessories is a drag to get. It isn't the longest game spent around 11 hours.

Going to wait for my Calisto Protocol copy to come in and beat Resident Evil Village Additional Orders or 100% Star Ocean in the meantime. Dead Space is coming out on the 20th. Got 27 days.

ued222 wrote:

I want it but I still havent bought the 1rst one anyway. Hopefully it goes on sale now that there is a sequel.

kevolones wrote:
Both games are enjoyable. I prefer the first due to map size being a bit smaller and the glitches being lacking. I say I had to hard reset the game twice or thrice.

Finished Resident Evil Village Mercenaries Additional Orders. Okay my tier list has to be Chris, Burg, Lady, Ethan is dead last. Chris has better ranged weapons then the entire cast. Lady and Burg are fun to play due to melee but Lady is painfully slow but has healing aplenty. Burg has a similar issue but has more varied ranged options. Ethan on the other hand has decent powerful weapons like the Rifle, Shotgun and Magnum but limited ammo and slow fire rate make him one of the worst. Getting S with Burg and Lady are extremely easy. For Chris getting your S rank first run is possible. Having played as Ethan through the entire game I have so many regrets thinking he was better. Chris is so much better. I remember back in 2021 playing as Ethan through stages 10-15 times to get S rank.

Alright onto Protocol once it arrives in the mail then Star Ocean. Going to get Dead Space next.

I've been slowly going through Callisto Protocol in the early AM on my days off as it's rather not play it around my kid. I'm liking it a lot, once you get used to how the dodge mechanic works it's great. Also wearing headphones, Arctic 7x or something, they work on XsX, PS5. If you liked Dead Space a lot its great. I imagine a lot of the middling reviews it got were from people who don't like this genre in the first place.

Kommie wrote:

I got this for Christmas, and I'm enjoying it alright. Not my absolute favorite or anything but it's fun and when the combat flows together it's a good time. I'm at the start of the fourth chapter.

Haven't played Dead Space (definitely gonna try the remake).

Callisto Protocol is a fairly short game 9 hourish. I know I missed a bunch of collectibles based on trophiees. Two major issues is the lack of horror minus the opening scenes and some others. I believe having melee being a big focus cutdown on the horror aspect. The other major issue is stealth. Being stealthy is fine but given the ease of it in Chapter 6 it should have been done differently. It should have been a more tense moment versus it being a chore. Having to stomp enemies for items is also a chore. I know Dead Space did this but I at least could shoot them to make sure with my ammo count. Sure you see some enemies climbing into vents and other moments but the fact in Chapter 1 the prisoners say nothing or do very little seeing you strutting around is questionable. The blind enemies dying and not attracting more is odd. His stealth kills aren't stealthy at all. Weapons are bland and lacking sure you get the generic pistol, shotgun and assault rifle but I was hoping for something more. You do have the GRP or TK like in Dead Space and that thing is superior in some aspects such as being able to use it on functioning enemies but it is otherwise lacking. The button mashing is also bad. Triangle Triangle Triangle.

Going to try another playthrough possibly or move onto Star Ocean but that grind is getting to me. Plus I might buy Marvel Midnight Suns I guess.

ued222 wrote:

I just completed chapter 6, my guess is it doesn't alarm them because if it did, you'd be swarmed in no time.

Kommie wrote:
Ya, I get it from the gameplay perspective but maybe the kills should have been more silent in nature. Sorry, just a little bit iffy on this game. OSHA would fail this place so hard. They needed better gameplay. I think going from Resident Evil Village and Dead Space didn't help due to them being way better games.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

The first game surprised me, and I really liked it, so I was looking forward to 'Requiem.' I have to say though, I came away a disappointed.

'Requiem' looks great. It's very linear, but the environments and little world details are excellent. Facial animations could use work, but overall it's very pleasant. Motion blur is on by default, and is aggressive. I'm not personally a fan of motion blur, but when turned off, screen tearing is prevalent and camera movement is jerky. I opted to keep it on. The writing is very good, and the acting is great if a bit melodramatic, but that was true of the first game. One thing that still bothers me too much is that this game, like the first, takes place in France and everyone is French, but everyone has English accents and uses British vernacular. This drives me nuts. The score has gone up a notch, but there isn't much to listen to during gameplay. It makes sense with the stealth sections, but a more consistent design to tie scenes together would've been appreciated. The story, too, was good, if straightforward. Even the twist was advertised quite early, unfortunately.

That said, the game feels too long. One reason for this is much of the game is walking and talking. Movement speed is purposefully prohibited, and the further the game went on, the more it felt like an adventure game or walking sim. The rate of stealth and action sections seems much lower in 'Requiem' than the first game. The less frequency is not altogether terrible though, since both stealth and combat are very clunky. There's a handful of tools to use, but most just pause human enemies in their tracks for a little while. Ammo is very scarce even after upgrading pockets, but aiming is also slow. Most of the time, noting enemy paths and sneaking by worked best in stealth segments since they're pretty dumb anyway. You can't really fight back in combat either. I think there's a stealth knockout, I did the tutorial, but the prompt to initiate the action never came up for me throughout the whole game. If combat is engaged, it's possible to distract and fend off an enemy, but the process is too long because you're required to hold buttons rather then press them. As much as I would get bored during the walk 'n talks, I never really looked forward to the actual gameplay either.

So, here were are. A solid story with high production value that mostly improves on the first, but ultimately isn't as fun to play and which spends too much time doling out exposition during walking segments. I know this was up for Game of the Year, and I'm glad it was, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would going in. 'Requiem' is still on Game Pass, so for anyone with interest and a sub, I do recommend playing it there.

Sold my Oculus Quest 2 after beating Bonelab, Superhot and Re4. The experience with VR at least for me is subpar. Bonelab isn't great to me. Took forever trying to climb near the start and I somehow lost my pistol. Nearly had to restart the entire game but wasn't that far in. You can stash weapons on your body which I wish was explained better. I feel the lack of information nearly screwed me. I didn't know I could open the orbs at first but learned I could open them later. A lot of tutorials are a little bit to late to me. If you want a good VR experience with guns try Robo Recall or another game. I also sold my PSVR and won't be getting a PSVR 2. Bonelab is more for experienced players in my opinion.

Back to Star Ocean or High on Life forgot I got that free with Gamepass and might as well give it a shot. So High on Life 100% Star Ocean then Midnight Suns then Dead Space. Might try Fire Emblem Engage.

Giving up on High on Life, I dislike shooters sadly.

Back to Star Ocean then Midnight Suns.

The last of us via remote play -7/10

The story, voice acting, Joel, Ellie… all top notch. For me the game didn’t really start getting interesting until the university chapters. A lot of rinse and repeat going on in this game. I thought that David made a good antagonist reminiscent of the governor from the walking dead imo. The end was surprising, not like I thought it would end. Not sure if I really care enough about II to want to play it or not.

With all the hype it received back in the day I really expected to be blown away. Don’t get me wrong the presentation is the winner here hands down, but game play aspect’s we’re just meh.

100% Star Ocean max level is 255. Best gear mostly involves crafting which is random chance gatcha levels of fun or not fun at all. The post games bosses are fairly difficult and Angelic like with End of Time and might be from Valkyrie Profile but I never played it. Missing Freya though but I only paid 3 Star Ocean games 3 5 which I hated and six this one. Unsure where they came from without any proper back story. The big issues 100% this game is getting the best gear. Leveling is a breeze after you stack the right EXP boosts. I also learned that your allies do a lot more damage if you select the right combos. Apparently they won't do a random selection and do the presets you set. Make sure the entire string costs 5 or the first is 5 and your allies will do 80% more damage in battle. I have recently learned Devil May Cry 5 had DLC and my friend is coming in a week so I can play that.

So games to beat Devil May Cry 5 DLC then Midnight Suns or I will buy that before I play the DLC then Dead Space and a lull gaming wise.

Bayonetta 3

This game took a long time to come out, and in a recent episode of What Happend? by Matt McMuscles it's explained how development change. At one point the game was supposed to be open world, or at least much more open, before Nintendo had Platinum scale things down. I can see this, as much of the game is spent in larger areas. My guess is the scale back came from a lack of stuff to do in those areas...and that's still true.

It was a problem I had with 'Bayonetta 2' and it's still present here, but worse. These large areas are more like circles with collectibles, and not much else. I feel like I spent much of my 8-ish hour playtime (almost double that because the clock keeps ticking when you're in the menus or paused) not quite running fast enough around looking for collectibles and getting to the next open section. There are still corridors like the first two games too. My chief complaint among those was the game felt empty. The world is ending, again, but there's, like seven total characters. Sure, in '3' you get to see a few NPCs in a couple of areas, but they don't move and can't be interacted with. The whole game ends up feeling like these open areas, and it can be boring. Minor characters also take a big back seat. Rodin is in the opening cutscenes, but then only in his bar/shop and doesn't say anything. He plays no other role in the game, not even in cutscenes until the very, very end.

Blandness carries over to the cosmetics too. Sure, you can unlock any outfit the other Bayonettas wear, but none of them are great in my opinion. Each has a good amount of palette swaps, but there are no special outfits or Nintendo outfits this time around. There isn't even amiibo support! Maybe that should have been expected since 'Bayonetta 3' didn't get an amiibo like the first two, but it's still really disappointing.

The story is ridiculous and borderline nonsensical more so than the first two games. It "comes together" in the end, but who really cares. I always feel like the devs have all this plot and lore they make these games around, but don't bother sharing them anywhere in the game for some reason. One odd thing to note is that the sound mixing isn't great. I never use subtitles unless it's in a language I can't read/understand, but here, especially the main antagonist, their speech is almost impossible to understand. It's in English. Words can be made out. But it's softer and mumbled. I had to turn on subtitles. Jennifer Hale does a good job stepping in to voice Bayonetta. I barely noticed the difference, though there is a slight one.

Combat is mostly the same from past games, which is good, but infernal demons play a much larger role. You can "equip" three and when their meter is full, they battle as small kaiju. Throughout the game they also act as vehicle sections or to solve environmental puzzles. It's interesting, but they're all clumsy. The couple actual kaiju battles are slow as molasses. Either way, you end up leaning on the demons in battle because they can do more damage. However, without the aid of an item late in the game, Bayonetta must stand still while controlling them. Viola, the new playable character, can move around, but her demon uses her sword, so she's less powerful during this time. Viola in general is an okay addition, but you activate her Witch Time by blocking. Or maybe more like countering? Either way, it's hard to pull off the timing once again because of my other chief complaint of the series: how flashy it is. Yes, it is really, really easy to lose track of what's going on depending on the amount of enemies and what kind of enemies. Taller enemies force the camera higher, pushing Bayonetta or Viola to the bottom of the frame. Sparks and flash run amok, and trying to keep track of enemy attacks or signaled attacks can be difficult. But the bigger problem is that using the demons really slows down the flow of gameplay. It's the same, but it's different. To circle back around to enemies, overall design is excellent as usual, but the variety is lacking.

Then there's Jeanne's 'Elevator Action' inspired "stealth" missions, which aren't great. Round it out with suspect platforming, the previous irritations I had with the series and the lack of flow introduced by a greater implementation of the demons, and 'Bayonetta 3' is disappointing. It was already a series I wish I liked more than I did, but I'm really bummed.

Super Bomberman R

And now for something completely different. The story can be completed in one sitting, and while the cutscenes, art style and voice acting (yeah, in a Bomberman game) are way better than they have any right to be here, the campaign is lackluster. The maps are ok, but not great, and the odd isometric angle makes it tough to tell what lane you're in or where you are in general, especially in boss fights. The camera doesn't move up enough on larger maps and the HUD can block your view.

The amount of characters is impressive. Xbox's exclusive character is Master Chief (along with the Arbiter and a grunt), and he's voiced by the actor with many lines. There's Goeman, Castlevania, Metal Gear and various shooter franchise characters too. Plenty to keep those that play multiplayer busy. I got this free for Games with Gold years ago, but at $10-15 it's a fun time, particularly multiplayer.

A friend and I beat TMNT Shredder's Revenge on PS4 last night. I had bought it for her for Christmas so we could co-op it remotely with Share Play. I had beaten it on PC via GamePass over the Summer and this time it was even shorter than I remembered it being. As much as I like the beat-em-up genre, I really get bored of these games sometimes. It felt like I had just turned my brain off for 3 hours and just mashed the square button repeatedly until the credits rolled.

I've been slowly working towards beating Shredder's Revenge with all 7 characters and agree with @PizzaTheHutt that even though it's pretty good it starts to get tired after a while. I've only got Mike and Raph left and already started with Mike, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Tormented Souls - This was a really good survival horror game. I don't finish a lot of games in the genre. Prior to that, I beat Cuphead plus the Delicious Last Course DLC. Loved this game and one of my favorite indies now.

Slickriven wrote:

I got tired of it on my first playthru. Its cool but its just too easy. I also dont love these beat them up games as much as I used to for some reason

Well Devil May Cry 5 Verigl DLC doesn't change the story as you just play the main game as him. Unsure if he is just that much more overpowered or if my previous playthrough accelerated my completion time but it seemed super short. My previous playthroughs and without spoiling the story to much is difficult. I find Devil May Cry to be an enjoyable series and the introduction of three characters was interesting. Nero was brought into the series in 3 and new comer V has unique gameplay as he has familiars. Honestly unlike Bayonetta 3 where I hated Viola I found the three to be superior gameplay wise overall. It is a cheap game right now and well worth the price. I bought Chorus as I love Ace Combat like games and will be buying Midnight Suns after.

God of War Ragnarok

What a journey. What a harrowing tale. What an ending. I’m in a glass case of emotion!!! Seriously the writers of this game knew their stuff. Along with a fun sense of wanderlust and exciting adrenaline inducing combat, the story took unexpected turns and I respect the writing team for not just simply making a cookie cutter revenge/vengeance story. The only gripe I have is I really miss 15- 20 hour games. Even as chock full of awesome things to do God of War Rag offers, it breaches 50+ hours if you want to accomplish it all. That’s double the last title and about 4-5 times older GOW games. I guess if my backlog wasn’t so immense I wouldn’t complain, but alas, it’s a minor pet peeve at best. This game is a 9.8 to me regardless. Now onto the post game stuff before I go to Evil West and Bayonetta 3.

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