VideoGame_Discussion

benstylus wrote:

Either I'm missing those, or they don't appear in the Wii-U version, or I need to specifically find/watch them b/c I'm not aware of such videos. The gems I've earned lets me redeem them for badges that have unlocked as I've beat levels, but I generally haven't used any since I don't know what might be useful in a new level. They've offered me a free one from time to time and I've then guessed and taken one, but that's all I've seen. I do know that unlocking the stamps has caused some blurb about how I've collected X and could check them out somewhere, but I've not bothered.

Slickriven wrote:

They were specifically included for the 3ds release, pretty sure they aren't in the Wii U version

@benstylus Ah, good to know. I did just beat it. I actually switched to the mellow mode for the latter part of level 6-7 but that wasn't all that helpful as it just gave Yoshi wings to change his jump and float type hang-time and I wasn't a big fan. I finished the level that way, but went back to classic mode right after and beat the final level, which really wasn't too challenging.

Had an itch for some antiques so I played some Konami Antiques MSX collection titles:

Athletic Land () - Not Pitfall/10.
I died on the second screen (the first screen all you need to do is walk to the right). Apparently the protagonist is the opposite or athletic because you can die from jumping into a puddle, tripping over a small rock, or even falling instead jumping of a knee high platform. It is awesomely bad.

Antarctic Adventure () - Cute Penguins/10.
Starts off pretty easy but difficulty really ramps up around stage 7. Simple gameplay - Dodge holes, walruses, catch fish, go fast.

Knightmare () - Quality Shmup/10.
kind of reminiscent of Dino Riki or King's Knight. Other than the super slow scrolling this one was actually pretty good. Fun powerups and weapons, and a decent difficulty curve. And now I know what game the Knight character in the original Parodius is from.

Gradius () - Not Nostalgic for this Version/10.
I like seeing how different ports turn out, and while this one is fairly playable, it's not as good as the NES port. So that one will probably still be my go to.

Also played some other games:

Strider 2 () - Backwards Discs/10.
Amazingly fun game with pixel perfect control. And they printed the wrong art on the discs. And that also weirdly affect the digital version because you have to use "Disc 2" to play it. Disc 1 is the bonus game, a port of the original Strider. (You can reset in game to switch discs).

Pandemonium () - Greg Proops/10.
I miss the days of interesting an experimental 2D/3D games back when they were first figuring this whole polygon thing out. This falls into what people now call 2.5D platformers. Game gets pretty difficult after the first 3 or 4 levels. and the bonus stages are insanely hard. But hey it has Greg Proops so I can't complain too much.

428 Shibuya Scramble - story was interesting but this might be the most confusing game I've ever played. I'm only in the 2nd "hour" and you have 5 different people. Each person's story has 2 or 3 questions and you have to get the scenario right with all of them to move forward. There are so many combinations. Story was intriguing but I am cutting my losses on this one. 2/10.

Baldurs Gate 3 10/10 I am completely consumed and I don't even care. The world may fall away under me and I will still play.

I started up "My Time At Portia" last night. It's definitely up my alley. Similiar to Stardew Valley. There is only one major problem right now. Even though I am on the latest patch, there is a really bad bug. Sometimes you cant scroll through the menus. Literally the up/down just doesn't work. I did some googling and I guess the developer never fixed the bug. The only fix I found is that you have to shut down the game and reopen it. Then after a while the problem will come back again. One user said they had heard the source code is a mess and the developers have moved on.

I guess I will see how often this bug hits. I ran into it last night but it was before I was about to quit. I really like the game but if this happens often I am going to quit now before I get too far in. Anyone else play this game? Did you have big issues with this bug?

Cel Damage 7/10
I recall playing this back in college on the with my roommates and it was decently fun in that setting. So when I got a copy for the GC I figured it should be similar. It plays a bit like Twisted Metal but with a more comical and faster paced feel. There are 3 event types, 1 is all about being the first to 500 damage score, 2nd is racing to clear 20 gates first and last is about being first to collect 4 flags and make it to the goal. Playing solo the game has dropped 6 other characters into each event to beat. I can select from 6 and then for each of the 4 themed zones a 7th joins that I've not yet unlocked, if they even can be.

The game is no cake walk as it's generally very chaotic. The races you can easily go from 6th to 1st or the reverse. The characters do feel unique in how they perform, I've largely used the chick in the pink caddy or the duck in the 30's car for races as they're a bit faster, though can get knocked around easier. For the 500 damage events I've gone more with the red devil looking dude with his 6 wheeled ride as his specific weapon can take out foes fast and completely. Each character has a unique weapon as well as can get well over a dozen random ones. They're all placed around the map and running over them gives you the weapon.

It's fun but can also be dang frustrating mostly in the races where you rarely get much of a lead. They only have 2 gates on the map and you have to go through 1 and then the other continually which causes you to pass your opponents often and they will destroy you. The damage events can allow for larger leads as I've won a few by 75 or more points, I've also lost by just 1 or a good bit. I've only tried one of the flag events as you needed to unlock that from beating 4 events in the other 2 styles first. Each themed zone has 3 arenas that all 3 events occur on. To consider this beat I'll need to win 36 total events and I've only done 1 flag, 8 damage and 9 races. I've also lost many events. I'm generally rather good at racing games so the chaos of those events try my patience some, but they are satisfying to finally beat after many attempts.

Slickriven wrote:

I've only played the demo on Xbox way back when, and haven't played the HD version, but the HD version goes on sale for a couple of bucks every now and then (and it's cross-buy on Playstation). The HD version seems to have reviewed worse than the original release, so I never bother getting it.

@DCGX I went looking for a review of the game last night and noticed they released an HD version. I read part of the review and it sounds like they changed some things as well in the newer release. I'm not too surprised that it reviewed worse more recently as standards and norms in the industry change frequently. It can be fun, in short bursts, but the AI and overall chaotic nature throw away much of your feelings of control or skill. Luck and perseverance are more important.

I played it a decent bit yesterday and have now beat a full 5/6ths of the events, including all gate races, all smack events and half of the flag rush. That final mode has been a bit more frustrating, though I lost several gate races as well. But with only 6 remaining I'll keep pushing to complete it. Choosing the right character is key for each event and arena combination.

Slickriven wrote:

Thanks for the update! I like the idea of a bit of strategy in choosing who to use to complete what events.

EQQO {} 5/10
I must have bought this dirt cheap years ago. The game is a puzzle adventure game that I feel had potential, but they botched the execution. This was first released on PC as a VR game and after checking some reviews on YouTube, I think the general opinion is that's where it should be played.

The main character (named EQQO, pronounced Echo) is blind. You don't play as him, instead you control a cursor that can point to where you want him to go, and interact with the environment. The story is being narrated by the boy's mother. I think games like Ico were a big inspiration to the developers of this game.

Like I said, it had potential but they didn't pull it off, at least not on Switch. The controls are so clunky. You can tell the game was designed for VR and the Switch version is the inferior way to play it. I would think it might play better using the touchscreen in handheld mode, but that isn't how I want to play. It's not a long game, I haven't run into any difficult puzzle yet in the hour I've played, but with the controls being the way they are, I am not sure that I want to play all the way through it.

-=-

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Classic Edition {} 6/10
I remember all the buzz around this game when it first released a decade ago. I was interested in playing it, but didn't wanna do it until I had played vanilla Far Cry 3 first (which I finally did earlier this year). Now that I'm playing this, I am not enjoying it as much as I did plain old FC3. This is pushing too hard into 80s sci-fi style (though it takes place in 2007, it just feels like a movie from the 80s), and I'm just not liking it as much as I thought I would. Also the humor just isn't sticking with me. Like in the beginning when you have to do the tutorial, the main character is breaking the 4th wall by complaining about how much he hates tutorials while you're playing through it. I guess it was kind of funny in the beginning, but the joke had played itself out by the time the tutorial was over, and this happens with a lot of the other humor as well, the main character has a one-liner for nearly every enemy you kill and not only do they start to get repetitive, they also are often vulgar for the sake of being vulgar. I know this is a short game since it was originally just meant to be a DLC expansion to FC3, but part of me just wants to skip it and move on to Far Cry 4. I'm going to try and stick it out though, but just do the main missions (from what I can tell there are less than 10 I think) and once the credits roll I'll move on immediately to something else.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I LOVED Blood Dragon when it released. It was still instantly familiar to Far Cry fans, yet different enough to stand on it's own. But...I also have the Classic edition and I was so excited to play it again, but it just didn't have the same magic to it. I don't know if it's because I had already played through it so nothing was a surprise anymore or if it just doesn't hold up after 10ish years. The controls in particular felt pretty clunky compared to modern shooters/Far Cry. I'm glad that I played it back when it came out though, because I still have those great memories even if I can't relive them with the re-release.

Driving Strikers - 7.5/10

For those that don't know, this is a new, 3D online enabled Dreamcast game in the vein of 'Rocket League' with cross-play with Steam. Yes, that's a lot and quite nice. It's available physically and digitally for about $20 (plus shipping for the physical). Check my Dreamcast Forum for links.

That said, I'm a bit disappointed. I wasn't expecting Rocket League levels of fine tuning, but regardless of the play surface, it feels like little tin cars sliding on ice. Acceleration from the analog stick has a ramp up to top speed and can't be controlled. It's hard to gauge depth, which makes trying to do jump shots/blocking nearly impossible. Also, the ally AI is so bad. I played a match to a 4-4 tie, and my ally had all four goals for the opposing team. I wouldn't be surprised if the ally AI scored more against us than seven other teams combined. Because of this, even on the easiest setting, the League Mode is needlessly hard.

It's not all bad news, though the amount of arenas is small, they are all distinct and nice to look at. The music, too, slaps, though the tracks are too short for even a three minute match. I like the different teams and their names, though there isn't enough detail on the cars, and some different skins for the play ball would be cool.

Obviously this game is meant for and will shine in multiplayer. I haven't had the chance, but I imagine getting together with three other humans/friends would be a blast. I'd like more from this game, though it is only $20 with online play, and that's a great deal for a new, 3D Dreamcast game in 2023.

sa330206 wrote:

I'm really enjoying this game. I have only hit the bug once so it must not be too common. I'm about a month in. It's kind of like stardew but with the focus on crafting/building vs gardening. It seems pretty deep. Definitely recommended!

Saints Row (2022) {} 6/10
No more jetpacks and/or aliens! Woo-hoo!

Unfortunately, that is just one of the few things this reboot got right. Overall it failed to bring the series back to where it needed to be, and that is a damn shame. Long time Saints Row fans deserve better than this, the series has become a shell of its former self. The first three games in the series were some of my favorite open-world games of all time, and sure, you could argue that the third entry is where the series went in a totally different direction, and I'd agree, but I still had a blast playing it. But the last three games in the series (SR IV, Gat Out Of Hell and this reboot) have almost forgotten this series' roots. It's almost enough to where if GTA would just add co-op already, it might be enough to get me to completely leave the Saints Row series in the dust and not look back. I admit I like this one more than SR IV and Gat Out Of Hell, but there are certain missions that are too corny (those LARP'ing missions, ugh) and the overall writing isn't as good as those first three games, both in the humor department and in the way I don't feel any attachment to my fellow gang members.

I know this game released with bugs galore, and that was disappointing enough, but they've had a year to iron them out and there are still plenty of them. There is this one annoying glitch where when my friend exits the car, she can't get back in it, so we either have to steal a whole new car, or she will have to sit on the roof of the car while I drive if we're doing a mission that requires us to use a specific vehicle. That glitch happens every damn time we play. The NPC drivers are also among some of the worst I've seen in a game like this, and even the AI police don't seem to give a crap when you go speeding past them or hit a car in their view, they don't seem to care unless you make physical contact with the officer or their car. Multiple times my friend and I have discovered random NPCs floating off the ground stuck in what looks like a swimming animation.

It's cool and all that they are still supporting it with new content and DLC expansions, but they should focus on fixing what they've already given us. Bugs aside, nothing about this game feels like I'm playing a PlayStation 5 game. I mean the graphics don't look that good by PS5 standards, and the load times aren't fast either like I've gotten used to with PS5 games. It does make use of the adaptive triggers but that's about the only thing it does that doesn't make me feel like I'm just playing a PS4 game on my PS5.

The length of the game feels pretty short compared to previous mainline Saints Row games if you just stick to the story missions (I don't count Gat Out Of Hell as mainline, it was originally meant to be more like an expansion to SR IV). And I admit the game isn't totally devoid of fun, and I'm actually considering going for the platinum trophy after my friend and I complete the story. I 100% completed the first three Saints Row games, but just couldn't force myself to do that with SR IV or GOoH, but I don't think I'd feel as miserable doing all the activities in this game as I would in those two. Still though, this isn't the reboot the SR series needed and overall am a little disappointed in it and what the series in general has become over the past 10 years.

That's pretty fair. I didn't think it was a total mess, it just didn't do anything noteworthy. But I personally thought the LARPing stuff was the most memorable part of the game.

Anyone playing Sea of Stars?

I’m about 2 hours in and while it’s been very early, tutorialesque, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest style standard RPG fare, which I assume will get deeper with time, it looks absolutely incredible, the art/style alone is worth playing it. Some great music too

If you like SNES era RPGs, this should feel right at home

I downloaded Sea of Stars this morning after getting my Kickstarter Switch code. Gonna dig into it after I finish up Persona 4 for sure. Heard nothing but good things. I was hoping it would take us back to the FF/Chrono Trigger-esque days of olde.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

It definitely does, Chrono trigger influence especially is strong, at least visually

Not sure if I'm gonna try to beat Blasphemous 2 first or just play it and Sea of Stars at the same time. Been waiting for both for awhile now.

Think I may change it to Blasphemous 2 first myself before starting Sea of Stars only cause B2 is much shorter I read

Blasphemous 2: they got rid of the instant kill spike traps. It's like Hollow Knight where you respawn where you jumped into the pit. Weirded me out honestly as you get a Trophy/Achievement for surviving a spike trap. Guess they took the people crying over it seriously and decided to change it.

Crazy Construction

This one is a fun little block dropper + physics game.

Instead of neatly matching colored blocks or creating unbroken lines to keep your play area as low as possible, you're trying to cram as much random and oddly shaped stuff in to pile it as high as possible, carefully balancing and securing things as best you can so pieces don't fall off the side of the building.

As you progress, through each stage, there begin to be stage hazards such as clouds of electricity that will make your material fall without any control, wind to blow your piece off course and rotate it, etc.

I had initially thought this was an eshop only release but apparently it got a physical release in Germany. So that's the one I bought.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - Dimension Shellshock - The two new characters are cool and Survival mode is fun, especially in multiplayer. These aren't really new stages though, so the price seems a little steep. But maybe I'm just used to getting free DLC from indie developers.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider {} 8/10
I know I've said this before, but man it still surprises me just how good last gen games could look. Just like with the Uncharted and Horizon games, I spend a lot of time slowly walking through the jungles just taking in the scenery and once again going overboard with the game's photo mode. I can't wait to see how good a new Tomb Raider will look built from the ground up with current gen hardware. Though it is a PS4 game, I'm playing it on PlayStation 5 which Digital Foundry says is the best way to play, it has a slight performance boost to the resolution and frame-rate that they rank it slightly above playing it on Xbox Series X. The audio is good as well. I don't believe it supports the 3D audio feature, but there was one instance where I was hiding behind a wall with several enemies on the other side of it. I stealth killed one and I guess they noticed he was gone so they started searching around for him, and there was one enemy I didn't even notice was with the others until I could hear his footsteps approaching from behind me with just enough time to stealth kill him too.

Before I started this game I had heard people call it the weakest entry of the reboot trilogy, so that kind of lowered the expectations I had going into it. I finished the game last night and I don't know that I'd agree with that. Is it more of the same as the previous two games? Yeah, a little more emphasis on stealth in the jungle sections, but for the most part it's a lot of the same. But that is not necessarily a bad thing to me. I might feel differently if they were still milking this series to the same degree they were doing from 1996 through the early 2000s though, but rebooting this series was the best thing to ever happen to this franchise and I wouldn't want them to screw with the formula too much. I expect things to be different enough with the rumored upcoming Tomb Raider game though, so we'll see how that turns out.

They certainly upped their game with the puzzles in this one. I will admit the second puzzle in the game had stumped me and I had to resort to looking up the solution on YouTube (it was easy, I totally should've been able to figure it out myself, but what's done is done), but I refused to do that for any other puzzles.
If there is one area I feel the game could've been improved, it would be to remove some of the underwater sections. I just feel like there are a few too many of them, but at least they don't go on for too long.

I never finished that one. Need to get back to it sometime

Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R {} 4/10
For some stupid reason every once in a while I look through the PS+ Extra game catalog specifically to find something bad to play, and this time I found this.

I've never seen any of the F&F movies, but that doesn't matter, because this appears to be based off of a cartoon or something where you're racing as teenagers. It's not even teenage versions of Vin Diesel or...whoever else is in these movies, these are just made up characters. Maybe that was intentional, because if I was Vin Diesel I wouldn't want my name or likeness attached to this pile of crap.

I don't need to go into too much detail because nobody reading this is going to play this game, but to describe it briefly, it almost feels like it's inspired by the old game Blur. But it's nowhere near as fun and more limited in the items you can use. The game moves pretty slow, no matter what the on-screen speedometer says you're doing, it never feels like you're driving anywhere near that fast. The music is also not good and character voices are annoying because they're so repetitive.
The story mode is just 17 races long and is over in barely 2 hours. The CPU racers offer no challenge unless you put the difficulty to the highest level, but even on the easiest setting no matter how far ahead you are, they will always be able to hit you with their paintball weapon thingy.

edit: I downloaded the PS4 version just to compare the two. It's the exact same game, any upgrade to the graphics the PS5 version has is hardly noticeable.

Life Is Strange: True Colors {} 8/10
I've pretty much enjoyed all of the games in this series, though none have been able to match the story of the first game. I've only played through the first three chapters of this one (will be starting Chapter 4 as soon as I post this), so there's a chance it could change, but so far I'm enjoying this story a lot too.

Graphically the game doesn't look so hot. I mean even though it released in late 2021 it is very much a last gen game, especially the character models and stuff, so when you select to play in high resolution mode and enable ray tracing, the frame-rate should not be dipping below 30fps like it does in some parts (it's not that noticeable most times, but it does happen). Good thing this isn't an action game, so that makes it easier to tolerate, but still disappointing. The audio is better though, both the voice acting and music on the soundtrack is top notch like usual, that's one thing this series gets right.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords on Series X

9/10

Decided to replay some old games I haven’t played in ages. This one aged like fine wine minus the obviously dated graphics. It isn’t better than the first KOTOR game but still is a blast to play. I miss games like this that actually made you pay attention to detail and reading journal entries etc to know where to go and what to do next. It’s a lost art.

Ibought a new PC last year and it came with three months of Xbox GamePass, so I finally redeemed it on Friday and started playing Sea of Stars. I'm about six hours into it and I've been having a blast. It's looking like a 9/10 to me. The battle system is great, animation is beautiful, and, surprisingly, I'm actually into the story and the characters, which is rare for me. I just wish I was playing this on my TV and not on my PC.

Good to hear. I'm interested in playing that eventually. I ended up going with the best of both worlds, and I have my PC hooked up to a 55" OLED.

citizen_zane wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

That sounds pretty sweet!

I got it mostly for work when I was working from home during the pandemic, but it's been great for gaming too. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 on it, and it's a blast.

citizen_zane wrote:

Swagman (PS1)

Finally got a copy, and it doesn't go past the "choose a save slot" screen on my slim PS3. (Just brings up the loading icon and it spins forever) Looking online at least one other person has experienced an identical issue so it might just be an emulation issue with that model of the triple.

Popped it in a PS2 and it ran fine. It's not as well designed as Dr. Lunatic which has a similar graphic style, but it also predates Dr. Lunatic by about 3 years.

Gameplaywise, it definitely feels dated but there's something charming about the "bad pre-rendered cg" look for characters and enemies.

Just finished Final Fantasy 16, did every single mission and monster hunt, just need to finish some challenges to truly count it as 100% done.

I absolutely loved it. I thought mostly everything was amazingly done and the characters, music and overall story are very interesting.

Only had 2 nitpicks that keep it from being perfect in my eyes. First, It should've been optimized to have a mode that locks at 60fps, the frame drops hurt the experience and I couldnt handle the 30fps mode which is the one that everyone suggest is used. The other thing is, while I think the gameplay is awesome, I always felt like they couldve added a way to control or call in your other teammates like you can call in you wolf. (Tales of Arise had a great way of doing this, for example).

9.5/10

In Other Waters (Switch) - Interesting, different, mellow, meditative, exploration game. It's hard to give it a rating, but I like it so far. Controls are a bit odd. I'm finding myself using the touchscreen because I'm not sure which button to press in some situations. The story seems well done. I'm motivated to uncover more of what's going on. Mostly, I'm just going around taking samples and finding paths to new areas. Lots of flavor text to read. I was lost for a while, but I'm starting to know the map better now.

Manic Miner

An enhanced portable version of the 8-bit microcomputer classic.

Very difficult single screen per level platformer but also mostly quite fair.

kevolones wrote:

I hope to start this soon. Need to finish Tears of the Kingdom first.

Hungry Shark World {} 6/10
I bought this a while ago when it was on sale for like $2 or $3 probably during shark week. Since it was on sale for that cheap I didn't bother researching it ahead of time, I had just watched Jaws and saw this in the eShop a few hours later and thought it'd be cool to play as a shark and tear crap up. That's mainly what you do in the game, swim around and eating people, fish, other sharks, etc. There's a bunch of objectives for you to do for each shark you unlock, and I doubt I'll complete all of them, but I do plan to revisit this game now and then to make some progress until I get bored of it, because that seems the best way to play this game is in short bursts. Why the game is best played in short bursts is because for over a decade Ubisoft has an entire Hungry Shark series on iOS and Android, this just happens to be the only one that they ported to consoles and thankfully it is free of microtransactions. The mobile version of this game released in 2015 and is still getting new content updates to this day, but this console port released in 2018 and from what I can tell seems to have just been a quick one-and-done with nothing added post-release. Judging by the long-ish load times and occasional sluggish frame-rate, I suspect this might've just been a low effort port that they hoped would attract more players to the mobile games as that's where they'll make the big bucks from. I really was surprised to look up this game on YouTube and there are barely any reviews or anything specifically of the console version, the mobile version is clearly what gets the views.

Air Conflicts - Secret Wars {} 6/10
I am not sure if I will be playing all the way through this one, I just was in the mood for a game like this and it (barely) managed scratch that itch. I've put around 3 hours into it so far and it's just pretty average. It's an arcade-style flight combat sim game, the story takes place way back in WWI, and you play as this pilot named DeeDee whose voice actor kinda annoys me to the point where I've started skipping the cutscenes (which are just still images anyway), but I still have to hear her during missions. The story is mostly her trying to find out how her father died. I didn't know the guy so I couldn't care less how he died, I just wanna fly around and shoot things and drop bombs on suckas in tanks and I'm at least having a bit of fun doing that, but the minute it stops being fun I will move on to something else.

Graphically I guess it looks alright for a PS3 game. It's not even close to pushing the limits of the hardware, but it's not an ugly game. The game even has the option to play it in 3D if you're one of the few rich and cool people that ever bought a 3DTV when those were still a thing. I am neither rich nor cool, so I couldn't tell you how it looks. There are some frame-rate stutters here and there though, particularly when you're trying to turn the plane.
As for the controls, there are multiple control settings but I just keep mine set to "Arcade" which I think was the default setting, and it handles well, but because of how long ago the game takes place these planes move f'n slow, so don't go into this expecting Ace Combat or something. Also I started out playing on the Rookie difficulty setting and the auto-targeting is a little too helpful, just makes things too easy. You also have the option of setting the controls to simulation, but I'm just keeping mine set to arcade. There even is a setting to play with a PS Move controller but I can't test that out since I'm playing it on PS5 (streaming it via PS+ Premium), so there is no way to be able to use a PS3 camera to recognize the PS Move controller.