VideoGame_Discussion

Kommie wrote:
There is Coop but it is optional from what I remember and unlocks further into the game.

Well done with Forspoken. I was going to beat it but the gameplay just got to me. I remember Infamous and the fun I had with that versus this makes me question it. I even played First Light, Second Son, 1 and 2 and Festival of Blood three times minus Festival of Blood which I beat twice. I feel it needed more polish. I found the dialogue in Chapter 2 to be somewhat questionable as well as the choices. It does get better just not much better but I didn't get past Chapter 4 so keep that in mind.

Getting Dead Space on Monday or Tuesday. Unsure why my copies are shipping on release day instead of earlier. Then my preorder of Hogwarts should arrive.

Vader Immortal: A Star Wars Tale

To begin with a quick rant, why, when a compilation or multiple episode game is released on disc, can't publisher combine said parts? I bought 'Vader Immortal' on disc, and it lists all three episodes separate. To answer my own question, it's laziness (or likely time/money), since you can't play all three episodes from the same menu. They appear as they were released digitally. It's cumbersome and annoying, and something I want to avoid when buying a complete game on disc.

Anyway, 'Vader Immortal' isn't categorized as a game since EA held the exclusive publishing rights at the time of its release, and as such many see it as more of an experience. Sure, ok, but it's still a game, just a very short one. You play a scrapper who gets caught in Vader's tractor beam because you're the key to the old world of Mustafar. Only you can activate the device to unlock the doors to find the thing that can bring Padme back. Sounds boring, but it's actually a well told story that expands the lore of Mustafar. You meet its people, train with Vader and feel like a Jedi, however brief the time is. And it is a short game. I think it took me around two hours. It went so quick that I had to wait after episode two for episode three to finishing copying off the disc (good time for 'Star Wars Pinball VR'!). The story is written by David S. Goyer, and it's well told. It's also well voiced and looks good on the aging PSVR1 hardware. Force powers work well and the few fight sequences there are are intense! Swinging a lightsaber is responsive and fun! Most characters still feel too small if you were actually in the room with them (a constant problem with VR), but Vader is imposing and stands over you.

It's not all great, though, and it mainly comes down to technical problems. For starters, unlike the Oculus version, there's no full locomotion; click turning and teleportation only, and that is a real bummer. Your droid companion, voiced by Maya Rudolph, is more annoying than funny. I had audio glitches throughout all three episodes too. Because this isn't a "game" you're on a strict linear path. There's no collectibles and barely anything is interactable outside of your ship's interior. In fact, the only trophies are for completing each episode and surviving in the dojo. At least there is a dojo, and it's slightly different in each episode. But while lightsaber fights can be intense and using force powers engaging, without true locomotion, it feels more like a ride than game. Which is how it was marketed.

That said, I really enjoyed it, and I think any Star Wars fan will also enjoy it. It's short, and the physical extras aren't anything to write home about, but it's fun!


Ryse: Son of Rome

As I still make my way through my backlog of missed Xbox One games, 'Ryse' was one that always intrigued me because Ancient Rome has always intrigued me (almost getting runover while walking on a sidewalk in Rome, not so much). Luckily it was a Games with Gold title at some point. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it.

You play fictional general Marius of Rome at the end of Nero's rule, mostly recanting your previous exploits while barbarians sack the city. But despite some real life figures, this game is very much in the fictional fantasy side. Gods play with humans, resurrection is common and real life figures are not reflective of their real life counterparts. That said, it's an engaging tale that is well written and well voiced. At times, you really feel like you're playing a Hollywood movie too.

But for all the pomp, the game is rather shallow. With few exceptions of short dead-ends, the path forward is very linear. Combat, while having it's positive spins, is barebones. Mostly slash away or break a defense, then use an execution which can regain health, focus, give extra XP etc. while fighting the same couple of CPU models, rinse repeat. The same goes for bosses. They each have one combo to block, strike when you gain an opening, rinse repeat. What's more, nowadays, the microtransactions for gold have been made free. So it's easy to download 100,000 coin and almost immediate level Marius all the way up. Then spam focus to stun enemies, slash, execute for more focus, repeat. Combat is flashy, and gruesome, but not difficult (though I heard legendary difficulty is a major step up).

Once the short campaign is over, unless hunting the rest of the collectibles sounds fun, there is multiplayer, but I couldn't get a match going. Also, there are glitched achievements. The final couple of achievements for beating the game still haven't unlocked for me, and the achievements that were unlocking as I was going had a delay to them.

For as cheap as a copy of the game is now, or if received via Games with Gold, it's a fun game to run through. A second playthrough? Probably not, but worth a first.

Signalis - 10/10

Play Signalis. It's great. So fudging good. Like a Mashup of Resident Evil and Silent Hill with a weird as fudge story.

It's like if A24 made a video game.

I'm gonna probably play it again.

So fudging good.

Kommie wrote:

Whoa! I played it for maybe 20 mins and it didn’t really grab my attention so I put it back on the shelf. I guess I’ll have to give it another shot.

It's more Silent Hill 2 and way less Resident Evil after thinking about it. Read all the documents. They're not long and most of the story telling is through documents.

The endings are determined in a very Silent Hill 2 like manner.

Definitely not for me then.... as I usually hate A24.

But I just checked a video and it looks pretty sick tbh

At no point during the ending does the game info dump you as to what actually happened. That's what I mean with the A24 reference.

Beat Dead Space Remake and it is enjoyable. Still haven't played Impossible mode or gotten the alternative ending and am missing some text and audio files. You no longer need to carry one power node with you but backtracking for security clearance doors and lockers is now a thing. The game is less linear and enemies can pop up while backtracking. Lights can flicker and other issues can occur. I personally don't care for some of the changes made. The weapons are similar or down right the same and you find them instead of purchase them. I find the dialogue to be worse. Hammond doesn't sound quite right and characters look different for better or worse. Traversal has changed as well with the addition of a Dead Space 2 added system of flight which is good. Probably going to play a new game for the alternative ending. Play impossible mode and use PS+ save scumming if it proves difficult. I also found enemy placement to be odd. As I played the OG again in December I find they spawn close to you and sometimes pincer attack you from both sides or move faster. Enemies take like 6-12 shots depending on your difficulty. Don't play beginner as it is way to easy. Try easy normal or hard. You should be able to fully upgrade your suit, stasis and 4 weapons by the end of your first playthrough on normal. Unsure if hard might change that as I still had 5 extra nodes from purchases.

Honestly, I think I prefer the original in some aspects. Playing it on the 360 I struggled with the asteroid portion but playing it on PC it was a breeze. I prefer more linear games with less pointless backtracking. Yes, I know I don't have to backtrack for everything but my survival horror playstyle doesn't let me without feeling some anxiety.

Alright so my current plan is replay this two more times or maybe once. Then play Spongebob Cosmic Shake. Then wait for Hogwart's Legacy.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm on
I should have finished this a week ago, but the game kinda struggled to hold my interest as I felt the story wasn't as good as the original game (I mean, that was a tough act to follow) and I felt even the voice acting for some characters was no good.
The story did improve by the third and final episode, but I felt like it was too little, too late. There is a bonus episode, but I'm going to have to watch a playthrough of it on YouTube because the only way to play it myself is if I buy it for $10, which I won't do because I played the rest of the game for free via PS+ Extra/Premium's Game Catalog.

Beat Spongebob Cosmic Shake about six hours long but fun. It is more linear with a ton of collectibles in the world. I.prefer this over battle. Tons of costumes to unlock and repititive.but fun gameplay. It is worth a playthrough but not much more.

Hi-Fi Rush

What a fun surprise this was! Others have said it, but this is just what Xbox needed. Others have also said it, but 'Hi-Fi Rush' feels like a Dreamcast/early Xbox game, and that's a good thing! The game is very colorful with good level design. The controls are tight (though I'm never a fan of jumping where you fall like a rock after hitting the jump apex). The game is a good length and has a reasonable amount of collectibles, but there's also some post-game activities. The writing is clever and the voice acting great. I liked having a constant beat as you play instead of music going in and out or a larger score always in the background. There's plenty of moves for both Chai and his companions, though I stop short of saying it's all great once the parry was introduced.

I'm not alone on this. The parry has been a sticking point for many. The timing is ridiculous, but also because of the flashiness of the combat (think Bayonetta). So much so that I never bothered to parry in combat, never unlocked/upgrading any parry related moves or chips and the only time I died was during forced enemy parry sections, including the tutorial! You can avoid these during combat by dodging when enemies are in their parry initiating state, and using your regular combos. But that's saying something, because the game on its default difficulty, which is what I played on, is pretty easy. But hitting the general beat in the first place was something I never really got the hang of.

The tutorials say to hit "on the beat," but don't specify down-beat or up-beat. I had a hard time syncing with the beat based on the visual cues in the levels but also the audio, and I couldn't find the beat assist option in the menus. I know there's a slight controller delay even with my TV in Game mode, but it's something I easily adapted to and anyone else never notices, so I don't think it's that. When getting graded at the end of combat sequences, I'd regularly get A's and S's for combos and time to complete, but C's and D's for the timing. So my overall scores for Tracks (levels) were always A's and mostly B's. It's frustrating because no matter how I thought I was hitting the beat, changing when I pressed a button, it was never totally correct. This was made more frustrating because when I initiate the beat with an attack and following that pattern, I'd nail the beat constantly, hence my high grades for combos. I don't know. Eventually I stopped paying attention.

But overall, this is a fantastic game to unwind with, hear some great tunes, thrash out some cool combos and just plain have fun with. I hope Xbox does more of these types of games. Smaller games that are really polished, that can be beaten in less than a week for more casual players. I'm sure Bethesda will keep doing what they do, but I like that Microsoft has encouraged their studios to do these smaller, more Game Pass "friendly" games. Otherwise, we'd never get games like 'Pentiment' or 'Hi-Fi Rush'. Check this game out!

Horizon Forbidden West Game got better as it went along, improved on the 1st game, enjoyed the story and the gameplay seemed more refined. 9/10

Kirby and the Forgotten Land Wasn’t sure at first about the Mario 3D World Style for Kirby but it won me over. As simplistic as Kirby seems, I am a Fan as I seem to want not only play them but beat them. Best Looking one yet. This one was Extra Special, it took months of playing Stages here and there with my little one and Today we beat the game together. It was wonderful to see her get better and not only tag along but aid me in defeating Boss, especially when she got in the final hit. Proud Dad Moments

She is not a gamer but likes spending time together, usually my football buddy on Sundays. 8/10 but if you have a little you want to be able to game with and enjoy the time together 10/10. Look forward to playing Kirby Star Allies next with her.

Kirby Star Allies is a ton of fun. I think your little co-pilot will really enjoy it.

Well Dead Space remake has 12 marker collectibles for the "ending". It was enjoyable playing a new game+ and playing impossible. Impossible is easier then I expected due to having as many saves as you want unlike Dead Space 2 and apparently weapons have changed slightly after playing my new game+ run. Second platinum on PS5 the other being ratchet. If you are unsure on impossible just try it. The difficulty is pretty much hard from what I can tell and if you die you die. Hoping Hogwarts is good else wise I will be in a gaming lull till Wanted Dead comes out and I have doubts on it. Atomic Heart, Kirby, Octopath, Scars Above and that Monster Hunter like game to. Well seven games to judge and possibly buy then Resident Evil 4 and System Shock in March.

Bayonetta

Game is insane. Story was non-sensical. Gameplay was decent. QTEs we’re not good. Looks dated obviously.

2nd one is much better I hear.

Bayonetta 2 is more instanity only with better timed over the top gameplay WTF moments IMO.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

I didn't really care for the action gameplay as much and really just wanted to power through for the story. I dropped the difficulty down from Normal to Easy and it made the game way too easy, but I kept dying on Normal past Chapter 3.

Blood & Truth

I beat this in one go, and it took almost exactly five hours. What's essentially a game expanded from a demo in the VR Worlds collection, the story is typically London gangster fare. Think Guy Richie. You play an army bloke who comes home to find a rival gangster is trying to take over your family's operation after your father dies (he dies off screen during the opening credits via a line of dialogue). There's a shady organization behind the bad guy, and the CIA gets involved, but it's pretty straightforward, standard stuff. That said, it's written really well and the acting is excellent! The game, too, looks great, but the characters have that all-to-common look of being too small. Like 85% normal size with shorter shins. It's plagued VR since the beginning and I don't understand it. I always feel like a giant when next to other characters in VR.

I said in my review of 'Ryse: Son of Rome' that it feels like playing through a big Hollywood movie, and that goes double for 'Blood & Truth.' Airplanes fly over your head, explosions all around and slow-mo breaches. Running through apartment buildings while dodging fire from a helicopter before buildings fall. Chase sequences from multiple vehicles. The game can be really intense, in a good way. But I have to say, I was disappointed in the movement options. There's no full locomotion, ok, but even teleportation is neutered. You look at a spot and click to move there, maybe you can move to a spot side-to-side, but there no click turning (just head turn). Basically, the game feels like a light-gun game where you control when you move forward as very rarely you can move backwards. Miss something? Oh well, no stepping back. It feels extremely limiting at times, but I kind of get it. This game is extremely narrative driven, and the game wants you to continue moving forward.

You can carry two handguns (one on each hip) and two larger weapons (one over each shoulder) at the same time. For the most part, grabbing and holstering weapons works well. Ammo is kept on your chest, which you grab and make a real life reload action to reload. Reloading also works well, though under heavy fire, rushing to reload will cause problems. And yes, you can still reload if dual-wielding. For the most part the weapons feel good and are fun to use. I forgot to mention in my 'Vader' review that you could only see your hands, and it's off-putting. Same here. Just hands and floating holsters for the guns and ammo. It's still off-putting. I'm sure it's to save resources, but it's always odd to look down and see no body/feet. Back to the guns, they can be customized in your safehouse with better accessories and paints, and there's decent variety.

For the most part, shooting feels good. However, I had a hard time aiming down the sights, even with the crosshair, lining up a shot typically went above where I thought I was aiming. The green crosshair turns red when you're hitting your target, but some enemies just take way too much. Chase sequences are awful, with motorcyclists taking multiple clips to take down even if you're getting head shots. It makes no sense, and they were by far the hardest parts of the game because of it. I quickly resorted to shooting from the hip and did much better. I also came up against some glitches that still haven't been fixed.

After beating the game there are a slew of challenges and missions can be replayed for the massive amount of collectibles. It's a great game, not just a great VR game, that has its faults but even the glitches weren't enough to sour the overall fun. During sales like Black Friday, 'Blood & Truth' goes on sale for about $10, and that is well, well worth it. Anyone looking for an original, AAA VR game, this is as close to it as you can get from a non-port point of view. The ending leaves the story open for a sequel, and I really hope we get one on PSVR2.

Sun wrote:

This was me with Bayonetta 3. The story gets incredibly obscure in the 3rd game although the end of B3 makes me wonder where they’ll go next and if I even want to be a part of it anymore.

Gotham Knights

5.5/10

This is not the Batman game you're looking for. It's so broken in a lot of areas. If you're curious about playing it def play it with a buddy to ease the woes of all of its shortcomings. The game runs in a laggy 30fps mode with no 60fps option, the side missions minus the rogues gallery ones feel like busy work and are tedious to a fault and the traversal feels much to be desired even after unlocking fast travel. The story about the Court of Owls is it’s only saving grace as I feel bad because it has potential. The acting is solid and take its trying to tell is an interesting one yet it’s hindered and held back by its plethora of issues as stated above not to mention sluggish controls and lack of lock on function without fluid counter options like the Arkham series has makes this game a hard pass for most and I can see why now. I did rather enjoy some non-combat gameplay elements though such as solving crimes and the puzzles were creative at least. But yeah overall just play or replay the Arkham games for your Batman fix. Or wait for the Suicide Squad game developed by Rocksteady the OG’s of the Arkham games.

I just finished the story mode of Eagle Flight on . No regrets playing through the story at least, it was short and can be a pretty chill game to just fly around in and some of the objectives are fun, but there isn't enough to make me wanna come back to it. Also, I noticed cheaters on some of the leaderboards with times of 00:00.00 but I guess the game is old enough that Ubisoft just doesn't care.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

Ill get it when its super cheap maybe

Shining Force Resurrection of the dark dragon - 8/10 via analogue pocket.

This old school tactical turn based RPG has eluded me for years. On many occasion I’ve fired it up only to get maybe 1-2 hours into it. This is the first time I’ve played the gba version of shining force and for some reason or another stuck with it. Maybe simply due to accessibility. I love these grid based rpgs and SF is no slouch. I found it to be a fairly easy game up until the later 2/3 of the game. Once you begin the final leg of the adventure the difficulty seems to crank up exponentially. There’s no way to grind in SF other than to loose a battle. When you die you are sent back to the church of the nearest town with full health and you retain any stat gains from the previous battle. The penalty tho, you have to pay to revive fallen team members; which can get expensive. Perseverance is key. All in all was a great game with a bunch of weapon upgrades. Several team members are added to your party throughout the adventure giving you a wide variety of team configurations. Leveling up your main and support characters is frequent, giving a sense of accomplishment as you push through battles. Glad I finally got to see the credits roll on this one.

Cuphead 7/10

Game is difficult, more so to nail the jumps & dodges and recognizing the incoming attacks although a few bosses are just brutal. Beat it for Frank's GotM selection as otherwise I seriously doubt I would've put myself through that much anguish, especially across the last 8-9 days. I was tempted to give it a higher score b/c outside of the infuriating difficulty the mechanics were solid and the music was good. I guess some bosses were BS so that's a reason to lower the score and the story and justification for really any of the enemies wasn't there. I'm sure some folks can destroy this game with little effort, but I'm not one and I think I'm in the majority vs minority.

I loved Cuphead. Having said that the ideas of replaying it isn't an interest of mine. Might though for the dlc....

Kirby and the Forgotten Land: A game built around the "mouthful" gimmick of transforming Kirby into cars, traffic cones, and other items that I won't spoil while still retaining the core Kirby copy abilities. Starts a little slow but the level design gets more interesting as you go. You have to rescue Waddle Dees to fight the boss of a region. You find them hidden in stages and are awarded more by completing hidden stage goals. I strongly recommend only playing each stage once rather than replaying them to 100% the goals. This keeps the game fresh and constantly moving forward. There's a significant post-game world that is ultimately just a reskin of the main game. I dabbled in it a bit, but honestly am satisfied tapping out after the initial credit roll. Very fun game if you aren't a completionist, but might get a bit tedious if you are incapable of playing a game without a 100% clear.

Transference on . As someone always looking for VR horror games, I don't know how this one slipped through my radar undetected. While Resident Evil 7 is still the goat of VR horror games I've played, this just might be a runner-up, though technically it's more of a "thriller" I guess. There are a few jump scares but they're done well and not cheap like most VR games. I wish it was longer, I finished this in one sitting at about 2 hours I think, but now that I know the puzzle solutions I could probably rush through this in a little under one hour. Glad I got to play this, I found it buried in the Ubisoft+ Collection while browsing through the stuff offered in PS+ Extra/Premium section.

Beat Untitled Goose Game nice and short. Some of the challenges required me to check Youtube but most of them are easy enough to figure out should be a decent 3-4 hour game if you want to try it. Basically you play as a goose and mess with people the entire game. Will be skipping Wanted Dead and disliked Hogwart's Legacy after 2 or 3 hours in. So waiting for Atomic Heart on Gamepass and Wild Hearts PS5 then Kirby and Scars Above.

Im really hoping Wanted Dead ends up being a good game. It definitely has style so I could end up buying it later if its decent. Goose game looks very fun but rather expensive for what it is. Ill wait for a sale or PS Extra.

kevolones wrote:

It's got a 59 on Metacritic.....

Kommie wrote:

Its a dud then

kevolones wrote:
Sometimes I consider trying out games that have moderate to lower ratings, just to see how they are. I typically play games I'm interested in, without bothering with the score. But I'd hate to discard a potentially decent game solely based on non solid reviews.

nonamesleft wrote:

Maybe for cheap at some point. not at MSRP.

Kommie wrote:
I hear that. Definitely a fair point.

nonamesleft wrote:
You could rent Wanted Dead on steam like I did just to try it. Just refund the game within an hour. I am having it shipped to me for me to return it. Probably will arrive Thursday-Saturday. I think the issue was the dialogue, story and gameplay. The first cutscene can easily be skipped where they go over history but the guns do little damage forcing you to go up close. You die quickly at least on normal mode which is one of the two only options besides a more harder mode. Maybe the game gets better but from reviews it gets worse.

Lego: The Lord of the Rings

Crysis Remastered

Haven’t played this one since the 360 days. They remastered this well. The graphical and performance boosts really enhance the experience for a 15+ yr old title. It looked great in performance +RT 60fps mode too. I loved how it blended games like Far Cry and COD into a nice little package to do its own thing here. I also enjoyed the little military tale now with more aliens. I bought the trilogy so I’ll do 2 and 3 next.

Cysis 2 Remastered
7.5/10
The sequel , while more COD than Far Cry from the previous installment, it was pretty and polished enough and sounds pretty robust on a surround system. It's a little more linear than the previous game and that may be an issue for some, but I think it's just fine. And with all the flooded open world games nowadays, sometimes all that's needed is a straight path to victory in a focused shooter, even one that's dated as this with it's almost fresh coat of paint. Some technical issues I've encountered though such as action prompts appearing out of context as well as some frame drops here and there and inconsistencies within the audio mixing, sometimes the sound effect are too loud, while the dialogue and music is too soft. I'm also not a fan of a return to a silent protagonist here after having the main character Nomad speak in the previous game, but I think in Crysis 3 they have the main protagonist speak again, which I'm looking forward to.

Finished Bayonetta 2 .

Better than the original, but gameplay is still a bit boring. I’ll be curious to see if anything changes in #3 but doubt it.

Pinkman+ on
Since I stopped playing Animal Crossing a couple months ago I feel like I've been ignoring my Switch in favor of PS5, so I browsed my game library and there are so many games in there that I don't remember buying, and this was one of them.

What I thought I was getting out of this: one of those types of ridiculously hard 2D platformers like VVVVV with graphics that look like it belongs on Atari. The game's eShop description says "A minimalist platformer with maximum challenge."
What I got out of it: A 2D platformer with graphics that look like it belongs on Atari, with barely any of the challenge I was expecting and hoping for. Within the first 15 minutes I had played through the first 30 levels. I thought to myself "Alright, maybe these are the warmup levels", but the remaining 70 levels weren't too much harder.

I don't think I spent more than two or three minutes on any one level (and a lot were under one minute). This reminded me of when an average-skilled player tries making a level in Super Mario Maker and names it "99% impossible" just because it pushed their abilities to the limit when they had to beat it in order to upload it, when a more skilled player can beat it without breaking a sweat.

Fun fact: One thing that made the game a little too easy is how many checkpoints there are, and apparently they were added just for the console versions. I guess if you want the big boy challenge you have to buy it on Steam. That's ridiculous, just give the option to toggle them off in the console version. Also added for the console version is your character's jetpack that allows him to hover for a short distance, while in the PC version your character would fart to hover.