VideoGame_Discussion

Herald of Havoc

Snakebird...Primer. I may be too dumb for Snakebird proper. It's a little too fiddly for my taste. It's kind of like Stephen's Sausage Roll or Baba is You where you have to move very particularly for a solution.

Drift Circuit on the G.G. Collection

The last race on Hard difficulty is super aggravating. You basically have to drive perfectly and hope no one else hits you to catch up to the lead car before the end of the race.

Other than that one race, a lot of fun.

Signalis - 9/10

A near-perfect love letter to classic survival horror games like the early Silent Hill and Resident Evil games. If you love those games then I can't recommend this game enough! It's also got a really unique pixel art anime aesthetic that I really dig and the story is trippy as all hell. Like seriously! It's a little scifi, a little Lovecraft, a little psychological horror. It's just such a unique experience and I loved the 14 odd hours I spent with it.

There are couple of things that keep it from getting an even higher score from me. The first is that inventory management is a huge part of the experience. You only have 6 inventory slots and they fill up fast. It's by no means a dealbreaker and I played Resident Evil games obsessively when I was younger so I didn't mind it at all, but it's a little annoying having to backtrack and I think others may find it more annoying than I did. I ended up just going with a flashlight and one weapon for a huge chunk of the game just so I'd have enough space for whatever I came across. I think 8 inventory slots would have been the sweet spot, but again, it's really not a huge negative. The second thing is that I didn't love the ending I got. I got the "Leave" ending. I wouldn't say it's a bad ending, but it definitely feels a little anticlimactic...and unfulfilling. I want to avoid spoilers so I won't get into details about how you reach the endings (the game has 4 endings, I believe), but there wasn't enough closure - at least for me. And more than anything I don't love the way the game determines which ending you get, but others may feel differently.

All that said, it's such a great game and I don't want to dwell too much on the way I feel about the ending because others may play it and feel completely differently. I will say that as a survival horror fan, I spent large chunks of the game just blown away by how well the game captures the feeling of those classic survival horror games while still feeling like it's own thing. I honestly can't wait to see what the devs do next. This is definitely one for my collection!

@Heavyd814life there is a update on pc that ups the inventory that will eventually be on console.

I think I got the Promise ending. I loved the game but can't bring myself to replay it yet, there is also a secret ending too.

I think I got the Memory ending. But like Kommie says...well, you can read the spoiler.

Mafia II - Definitive Edition

I have the original release thanks to GwG, but never played it, and after playing the first a few months ago and having just finished The Sopranos, this felt like the next game to play.

I know people complained about the remaster and the technical state of this release when it came out, and a few years removed I figured it had improved, but no it has not. The audio mixing isn't consistent, there are graphical glitches on the buildings, the frame rate, especially when driving around the city is all over the place, hit boxes are inconsistent and enemies are frickin' sharpshooters with every weapon, character mouths don't move during cutscenes and characters talk over each other, and cutscenes in general have weird character movement/frame rate. It's just so poorly done/rushed. It doesn't help that the story is cliché, feels like it was written by an uneducated teenage boy and doesn't get interesting until the last couple of chapters. The world is fine, but there's nothing to do in it, and while 'Mafia I' felt like a decent fictional version of Chicago, Empire Bay in 'Mafia II' does not feel like New York City much at all. The missions are standard, yet most are busy work. The two times the story gets interesting with actual mafia operations the game uses a cutscene montage instead.

There are three DLC packs that are included with the definitive version, but after looking them up the consensus is that they are some of the worst DLC around. Apparently the pack around the character of Joe was actually stripped from the game originally. I'm glad to be done with this game. I might, out of curiosity, play the original release on 360 one day, but as far as the remasters, I much prefer 'Mafia I.'

TMNT: The Manhattan Project via

6/10

The next game in my Cowabunga Collection trek thru finds me at the hands of I want to say a poor man’s TMNT Turtles in Time or The Arcade TMNT because the quality was definitely lacking even though it was playable for the most part. The enhancements were nice though to remove sprite flicker and grant infinite continues. It also came out in 1992 I see right after the Secret of the Ooze movie came out so it was piggybacking off of that having Tokka, Razar and Super Shredder in it alongside some comic book characters such as Krang. Overall while a bit bland I still found some enjoyment with it. Its not my go-to TMNT beat em up entry that’s for sure but it’s worth a peek for a playthrough and may be more fun in coop as most TMNT games are.

The Dark Pictures - Switchback VR on PSVR2

This game was so good. Its predecessor was already one of my favorite VR horror games of all time, and this one managed to improve on it in pretty much every way you can think of. For now I'm crowning this as the scariest VR game I've played, but I have Resident Evil 8 and Resident Evil 4 Remake that I'll get to eventually, we'll see if either of them can dethrone this. I will play the free DLC horde mode tomorrow and see how good that is.

Project Warlock

TMNT: Fall of The Foot Clan via *switch Cowabunga Collection

6.5/10

It doesn't get much more simple than this. 5 stages of simple side scrolling coupled with lite platforming that felt very stiff at times but granted this game came out over 30 years ago when the Game Boy was first created, with hack and slashing, one punching enemies to death with a boss at the end of each stage. The game literally took me a little over 1 hour to finish all 5 stages. It was also a treat to have a TMNT game that wasn't too difficult for a change. I guess after the NES TMNT game, everything feels easy though!

Dead Island 2

9/10

Man I adored this game way more than I thought I was going to. It’s easily the best zombie FPS/brawler I’ve played in years. Probably since the first Dead Island over a decade ago. If completely blows the likes of Dying Light out of the water too in regards to quality within not only the fluidity in gameplay mechanics but the visuals as well. I’m not sure what graphics engine Dead Island 2 uses, but it’s very pretty looking. And I almost experienced no frame dips at all as it ran in 60fps overall. The story was pretty entertaining to boot as was the dialogue and acting commentary from not only other characters but the character you choose too. I picked the Irish goth chick Dani and she was a pip and as sarcastic as they come which was gnarly. The weapon customization was very accessible and addictive to undertake as well. As you level up your character you’re constantly finding new weapons of various qualities from common to superior and you’re able to add elemental mods from Lightning to Fire to even corrosive damage. Some zombies have weaknesses and immunities to certain elemental types like firefighter zombies are immune to fire but weak to water, etc. I also loved messing around with environmental hazards too. Pour or toss a can of water on a live wire cable and watch a pack of zombies get fried and so on and so forth. And in regards to boss fights, while there was some stronger enemies they paraded as bosses that’s really the only area I felt that could have been improved upon. Even the final boss fight was a little bit weak. And if anyone is wondering if this is a sandbox like game, rest assured because it is not. There are open zones you can explore and fast travel maps to connect and transport you around between each zones but no objective was further than a couple of hundred meters within each mapped zone. And there’s no new game plus mode which I felt it could have benefited from too. Overall I loved my time with this one and I may go back to mop up any remaining side quests and such and I can highly recommend this zombie title over the Dying Light series without hesitation by far

The Last Case of Benedict Fox 7.5/10
I gave this an 8/10 when I left a score in the 'recent titles played' column last night, but I just finished it and dropped the score just a touch. Dropped it because a few things annoyed me due mainly to a complete lack of explanation and the ending felt a little abrupt and confusing, also the final fight was meh.

7.5/10 is still a great score and if you like more puzzle focused and lower fighting in your Metroidvania titles and can deal with some minor bugs and a lack of solid explaining of most mechanics, then it could be worth your 10-12+ hours. Solid GP title, though I would've paid $10-15 for it and been fine with that, maybe even $20 but I'm cheap.

TMNT II: Radical Rescue via

6.5/10

This Game Boy Ninja Turtles sequel had a slight graphical sprite remodel than the first game that made it look less stiff. It also played a little more fluently too but was still limited by the hardware of its time and relied on the same simplistic punch kick and jump punch and kick offensive style. The bosses were pretty much recycling the last game’s bosses with an inclusion of some weird army looking dude that shot some type of bullets at you that you had to fight a couple of times. It also felt a bit longer than the last Game Boy entry, adding an extra stage but I still managed to finish it within under 2 hours. Next stop, Radical Rescue, the last installment of the Ninja Turtle games on Game Boy.

Sonic Superstars

I had a bunch to say about this, but the TLDR is that it's a solid 2D Sonic game that feels like the first two games, but is not as good as '3 & Knuckles.' I enjoyed it, especially at its $30 sale price, but it could and should be better. It controls well, but Sonic takes too long to get going from a dead stop. Some hit boxes are iffy, and the later levels trail off in quality from the first half of levels (just like 'Sonic 1' and '2'). I didn't try multiplayer nor the mini-game...things, but it's fun to play the game with Sonic in a Santa costume. This is worth it for Sonic fans, but nowhere near as good as 'Super Mario Bros. Wonder.'

TMNT The Arcade Game via Cowabunga Collection

7.5/10

Now this one takes me back to when I was 5 years old at my birthday party in an arcade and spent a good $20 in my mother's quarters to plow thru this game in a few hours. Ah, those were the days. It hasn't aged too bad also. Animations were fluid. The tunes were still catchy. Those one liners were as cheesy as ever. And the last set of boss fights, Krang and those duo Shredders were such a pain in the butt. You can tell now all grown up those fights were clearly made to drain your funds too as every time you knocked off Shredder's helmet on one of the Shredder's and he turned red, a couple of seconds later he respawned with his helmet back on. Only after about 5 rounds of this did the 2 Shredder's finally fuse into one and then he could be toppled. Overall though, this was a nice trip down memory lane and shall continue next with possibly my all time favorite TMNT game, Turtles in Time.

LEGO 2K Drive on

Kinda just glad for this to be over with tbh. I did the bare minimum to reach the end credits. There's really a lot to do in single player if you enjoy kart racers and collect-a-thons, but I just wasn't interested in more than completing the story.

I will say a lot of races were pretty intense and ended with me in 1st or 2nd place in just fractions of a second either ahead or behind the closest CPU. I don't know if that's to do with rubber band AI or the fact I never bothered to upgrade my vehicle that they started me with, but I just never had a big lead over the other racers.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade Version) via Cowabunga collection

9.5/10

This is my penultimate Ninja Turtles experience to date. Even the very good Shredder’s Revenge still can’t top this one for me. It just holds such a dear piece of history for me and not only that but it aged like fine wine to boot. It’s still as simple and effective as it was when it came out over 30 years ago. A short, sweet and to the point beat ‘em up that doesn’t waste your time. It gets you in, off and out in under 2 hours and leaves you coming back for more and then some. I adore it right down to its cheesy one liners and oddly placed sound effects that make still me giggle. And this emulated version comes with a turbo mode so you can play it like you were if you took an ample amount of amphetamines prior to pressing start. Good times indeed!

Wilmot's Warehouse: A game of making the most out of the limited space of a warehouse. People come in with orders, and you have to fulfill them as quickly as possible. The goal is to hit 200 different items in your warehouse. A decent enough veg out game, but it gets pretty tedious toward the end. I can't say I'd recommend it.

Warhammer 40k: Boltgun - really didn't like this. Too many bullet sponge enemies. If it weren't for in game cheats I'd of dropped it. However, cheats don't disable any Achievements so you can easily get them all.

TMNT Turtles in Time version via Cowabunga Collection

9/10

While I felt the arcade version was a bit superior with more audio tracks and a lot faster framerate (especially turbo mode on emulation), the SNES version was still fun as heck complete with cool bonus stages not found in the arcade version. Also the final boss was Super Shredder instead of just Shredder and they mixed it up a lot with bosses that weren’t a complete 1 for 1 from the arcade version. But the SNES version took me right back to me being 8-10 yrs old and visiting my cousin’s house on weekends and having us tear thru it in coop mode. Good times indeed!

Songs For A Hero - Definitive Edition on

It's a funny game. As a 2D platformer it's only a little above average I'd say, but the humor makes up for it. There's a bit of post-game content with a metal soundtrack, but honestly I've had my fill of the game and going to move on to something else. I'd recommend it but to wait for a sale.

TMNT Tournament Fighters via Cowabunga Collection

6/10

I had no idea this one even had a story mode and it was basically an intro to the VS mode like most fighting games but very, very short. I was finished in about 7 fights. It was just like Street Fighter II Turbo. Heavy emphasis on the turbo too with its turbo mode feeling like I was moving in super fast motion. I almost had to lower it to normal speed. It was pretty ok while it lasted though but nothing to really write home about other than pretty much mimicking the Street Fighter series in the way you block and perform special moves. I recall having more fun with the VS mode with this one as a kid but again it didn’t last more than a couple of weekends before moving on to the next game. Fighting games within most generations to me are a good rental at best or a deep, deep sale unless you’re a major league gamer and compete.

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