VideoGame_Discussion

TMNT The Hyperstone Heist via Cowabunga Collection

7/10

My last game in the collection takes me to what is probably considered the poor man’s Turtles in Time coming out on the Sega Genesis back in 1992 and felt like a rushed port of Turtles in Time consisting of only 5 stages as opposed to Turtles in Time’s 8 stages. But for what it was worth I enjoyed it. I definitely prefer the SNES version and especially the Arcade version as the penultimate version of Turtles in Time though. The Genesis version did feel a bit stiffer though gameplay wise. Attacking felt sluggish and even stuttered a bit at times. The bosses also felt a lot easier than the other versions, all having 1or 2 main moves that are easily telegraphed and they all felt like they were moving in slow motion, but I guess that can be chocked up to this game likely being rushed out to coincide with the SNES counterpart. Overall, it’s more of the same beat em up TMNT action but not my choice delicacy in the selection of turtle titles from back in the day.

Ven VR Adventure on PSVR2.
It was a decent game, however there are many areas they can improve on in a potential sequel. I would've liked it a lot less if it was a non-VR 3D platformer.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

The fact that this is download only here sucks, because it's a meaty game. That said, I imported the English-Asian version (not just the English cover places like VGP and Play Asia have, but the actual full English release), and I'm glad I did. There's even a decent sized, English color manual inside!

Anyway, I just love these games. Yes, reused assets. Yes, this was originally DLC, so there's only a couple of locations and most of the time is spent in Osaka, but I don't care. Kiryu is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction. The story is robust yet focused, and there's still a ton of activities to do outside the story (new arcade games!). There are only two fighting styles this time: Agent, more crowd control and gadget usage, and Yakuza, which is more traditional for the series. Agent is fun, and the gadgets do a good job to mix up the fighting. Side-stories are framed differently this time, but taking tasks from one of the new characters, Akame, and there's a story element to frame it all. The story is well done and fits right in to the events of 'Yakuza: Like a Dragon.' Just an FYI: the second to last scene is a major tear-jerker.

The game runs very well, but I did come up against one glitch where a couple was suppose to be sitting in a carriage, yet they were always sitting outside the carriage in the air. It's also nice to have the series back using the Dragon engine after experimenting with the Unreal engine in 'Ishin!'. Though, during one of the final scenes, it looked like the game was switching between the two somehow.

I honestly don't have much to complain about. This is a must for fans of the series. One oddity is that there is no stat screen after beating the game. Going off of my last save, this took me roughly 15 hours, but because of the shorter story length and amount of side-stories, I completed all but one side-story, and only because I tired a little before completing all but the final challenges in the Coliseum. There's quite a spike in difficulty at the end of the Coliseum fights, and the weaker enemies are more damage sponges than anything else.

I did check out the demo 'Infinite Wealth' after being 'LaDG,' and it took me a second to reacquaint myself to the turn-based gameplay, but this type of turn-based gameplay is so engaging. I won't get/play 'Infinite Wealth' right away (because I'm getting married on Saturday and am going on our honeymoon next week!), but I'm looking forward to it.

For anyone remotely interested in the 'Yakuza/Like a Dragon Series,' play 'Gaiden!'

Prodeus - 9/10 - I've known about this game for a while but didn't bother with it, but boy is it great. It's more or less an indie Doom-style boomer shooter, level-based, kinda like Mario where you move your guy around to the next level. After the disappointing Boltgun this was great.

Congrats on getting married!

DCGX wrote:

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:

Thank you!

Silent Hope - why yes, I did enjoy the silence; thanks for asking/10

This is basically Diablo meets Rune Factory with none of the baggage. A band of seven heroes sets up a campsite in a fallen kingdom to explore an underground dungeon, solve its mysteries, and help the grief-stricken princess who locked herself inside of a crystal. She wants to be reunited with her father, the king. He disappeared along with the ability of the people (with the exception of the princess) to speak. She can't go after dad herself, so she asks the heroes to go into the dungeon in her stead.

You know the typical dungeon-crawling rigmarole - enter dungeon, slay monsters, gather loot. Lather, rinse, repeat. I didn't find this boring though. I think I can thank the characters for that. Each hero has their own special abilities that you can spend skill points to boost.

Some classes are better than others: my least favorite so far is the Fighter. She delivers some fierce blows, but her defense also kind of sucks. "Well, don't get hit" - benstylus, playing the role of Captain Obvious
The class I enjoyed playing the most is the Caster. Fully powered up, he is a force to be reckoned with. I completed the main story with him at level 41 thanks to the boons of his first class change. The others are all around level 33.

Also, everything in this game is cute, from the princess to the heroes, and yes, even the monsters. The Day One edition comes with an artbook and soundtrack (I'm a sucker for that stuff!), and I love the character designs. Some of the heroes' designs turn the RPG archetypes on their heads. The Rogue is not a shady black-clad thief but a maid who serves up a beating as well as she serves up tea and cookies. She's in charge of the woodworking when not in play.

It's not particularly difficult unless you decide to punch above your own weight too often. Then you will get your butt handed to you.

If you like dungeon crawlers and want a break from roguelikes, give this one a go.

sailorneorune wrote:

I was really hoping this would come to psn or physical ps4. I loved Trinity Trigger and 100% it on 2 versions. I guess I need to get a switch.

Travel The Words on 2

I like word search games. I like VR games. Put them together and what do you get? The realization that not everything needs to be VR.

Nah, but for real my biggest issue was just how little content there is. I think this normally costs $10 but I might've gotten it on sale. I like these types of games, so the game gave me what I wanted. The problem is it didn't give me nearly enough of what I wanted. There are only 12 levels/word searches and each one barely lasts 10 minutes, in fact a couple I managed to complete in 6 or 7 minutes and would have been even shorter if I had skipped the narrator giving fun facts about each word I found.

Told myself I'd actually beat the JRPGs I start this year. Starting off well with Star Ocean: Second Story R. The QOL stuff knocks out a lot of the slog, this is definitely a 10/10. I didn't do every single little thing, but I never do, and I couldn't put it down.

theyrhere wrote:

I’ve been working on this. It’s pretty great. I just hate that it makes me choose between party members / I miss out on others in a playthrough. The grinding is even addictive.

Feeb wrote:

I usually get anxious about party members, but having basically 3 physical attackers and one healer/spellcaster is all you need for battles to go well. I put my normal big cast JRPG fomo aside and just enjoyed playing it. I'll probably play again starting with Rena eventually.

Just finished Bug Fables. I really had mixed feelings on this one. I liked the paper Mario feel. However there were times when this game was extremely frustrating. The last chapter really lowered the final rating for me. First off I hate forced sneaking, I wanted to play a RPG not Splinter Cell. I also hate block type puzzles. Final score 7/10. I’d recommend it but it was frustrating and not fun at the end.

sa330206 wrote:

I agree, but I didn't like it as much as you. I know there's a trick to the combat system, which had to be researched, but I could never get it to fully execute. I had to brute force my way through half the game, and it wasn't fun.

Pixel Ripped 1995 on PSVR2.

I actually posted about this in the review thread a couple hours ago and mentioned some of my favorite parts from the first half of the game. Actually I think my favorite part overall just came in the second half of the game.

Ion Fury a modern made game on the 3D Realms Build Engine. Really good too.

Horizon Forbidden West

8/10

This one has been in my backlog for almost 2 years, since it launched back in 2022 so I figured it was time to bring the ol’ girl home and beat it. First off this is a gorgeous, breathtaking game. It superseded the visual fidelity of the first game tenfold thanks in part to its performance mode which makes it run at a fluid 60fps. The lighting is also breathtaking as is the character models. The Decima engine it’s running on is pretty astounding minus some hiccups here and there I’ve noticed such as some glitches with some enemies falling thru the environment and such but it’s such a minor inconvenience in comparison to the amount of eye candy present at mostly all times. Secondly as much as I enjoyed my 30 hours or so with the game it’s honestly just more of the same from the first installment with some minor tweaks here and there such as new mounts to override and weapons to craft but it’s basically an enhanced experience from the first game and that’s mostly fine to me. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it I typically say. But with that being said I just wish the game wasn’t so packed to the brim with tedious side quests and errands. It really is just mostly samey missions just to pad your skill points and experience and level up to hit the max level cap of 50 quicker. While I did most side missions and a few errands towards the latter half of the game I decided to focus on the story and finish it and I’m glad I did because it was starting to lose it’s focus for me doing every side quest and errand that I came across I mean. The only side quest that I really thought was fully fleshed out was overriding those Tallneck beasts like in the first game. Each of the 5 you get to override were unique in their own way and each Tallneck you override is done so in a different way which I truly appreciated. The acting was pretty solid as usual and the story was a bit more expansive this time around but of course it leaves an open ending which hints at a third and possibly final game in this would be trilogy. I just hope we see more diversity in mission variety in a 3rd game and perhaps they can flesh out the flying mounts a bit more. I’d love to have flying mounts with the ability to use my weapons while airborne. That would be wicked cool. Overall if you’re a fan of the series I say give this one a go, just try your best to stay focused and not get too overwhelmed by the expansive map and dense list of side missions they throw at you.

Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood on

This was a puzzle/platformer that reminded me a bit of Little Nightmares at times, but without the dark aesthetic and silent protagonist. Fun game, definitely recommend it on sale or GamePass.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

A few of the side stories may have trumped the core story imo. HFW didn’t feel nearly as bloated as most open world games- and the base story is really pretty short. The DLC is pretty good too- an epic boss fight.

Yeah I was impressed that I was able to do like 90% of the side missions and top off the story at a little over 30 hours. No way that would happen in other open world games like AC Valhalla for example. But it’s just mostly more of the same side stuff minus like one or two that stood out. Especially those errands which I gave up on halfway thru.

Valdis Story: Abyssal City 6/10

Pros: Art style was solid, music was good, story was interesting enough though not amazing

Cons: Will elaborate on most of these below - Controls were floaty; button choices, while customizable, weren't great; near complete lack of direction/info; too easy for multiple foes to stun-lock you and/or knock you off the platform and down into a prior room where foes respawn and you'll almost always get hit immediately; some sort of BS boss mechanics; bad UI/UX.

* Controls - you could way too easily jump over platforms when not even in icy or windy areas. Had to hold down RT to cast a spell, but you also wanted to hold LT a good bit in hectic fights to block, well when you hit both triggers at once you got a context like menu to change your spells, so instead of hitting RT+down on the dPad, if you hit RT+LT+down you'd open that menu and instantly change the down spell from what you wanted to the next option. Also my LT kept either flaking out or was somehow also triggering an escape from the main menu and that context menu at times - it was a mess.
* Custom buttons - there was no default or reset to in the menu, so if you started to change things you couldn't easily go back to what the game intended.
* No direction - I'm less complaining about a game of this type and more about what things you do collect and what they're for, like I got 4 pieces of armor, ok now what. Had to look that up, or I wanted the double-jump that I presumed was in the game, had to look that up too and you had to visit this optional area, talk to an NPC, then he'd show up at your base and offer some upgrades (including the jump) but you needed to provide things for him, and so I had to look up where those things might be - it was just lacking in really any meaningful flow of organically progressing, even the main tasks gave you almost nothing on where to potentially go next. With the double jump, it was basically optional, and therefore you could attempt to beat the game without it, but good luck there as the final part would've been VERY difficult without it and you really have no way of knowing that.
* Stun lock and statuses like getting frozen in ice or grabbed and held by a big foe all stunk, many couldn't be blocked and if you were in the air and hit you fell and couldn't recover which sucked when trying to climb a tall vertical room only to get knocked a long ways back down.
* Boss mechanics - Most bosses had a red health and blue 'shield' bar but you often didn't have a clue on what to do to take out the shield. - 1 boss had elements in the room you needed to attack, others used this shield bar as a countdown like mechanic until they unleashed a flurry of attacks, it was just crap I didn't care for, I guess the variety was good, I'm just grumpy about this game overall.
* UI/UX - already mentioned the lack of a default button assignment, but in the game you would visit shops and they would say 2 In Stock - leaving me to figure that's how many I owned, since my inventory screen wouldn't open for these screens - nope it was their inventory. I also mentioned the dumb spell context menu, that had a dedicated pause menu, but navigating that was a mess with the dpad b/c down from the 3rd assignment slot often took you to the left where the spells were just laid out instead of the 4th assignment slot. The map had no legend, no overall map, no markers you could put on and it gave a percentage value that was completely tied to visiting all room, not collecting stuff or whatnot. Item assignment was also bad since you didn't get a screen to compare how a new armor piece would alter your stats.

Overall I wanted to like this game, but almost hated it as it annoyed me a lot, but it did keep me coming back even after cursing it frequently. With some better explaining, better UI/UX in a few areas and improved controls it could've been a gem - sort of a shame that it missed the mark. It was challenging and I know my playstyle didn't help, but it felt more like the missteps of the game and design hurt more than my overall view. I mean the UI/UX stuff is things that this genre almost 100% have had since the near beginning and this game is only 10 years old, not 20+

Chop Goblins and Kill it With Fire

The Pony Factory

Shakedown: Hawaii on

By the end I started feeling like it was going on a little too long. I still enjoyed it overall but I'm not interested in any of the post-game stuff.

Astalon Tears of the Earth
EASY 10/10
The best metrodvania I've played in a while and it only makes Valdis that I beat and reviewed a little over a week ago (see 4 posts prior) look even worse.

Excellent 8-bit styling and music. Solid dialog with a splash of humor thrown in. Fantastic controls, good UI, great map and unlockable stuff.
I got 100% on the map, items and bestiary and put in 18+ hours.
Highly recommend this.

If I had to nit-pick I'd say that you respawning at the start of the dungeon stunk a little if you made good progress and hadn't found a good shortcut back to your death. This was worse a few times if you went to areas that you were maybe a little too weak for and/or you didn't focus on avoiding damage before upgrading your characters. However, there were a good number of short cuts and fast travel like things that once accessed and remembered the best ways to reach them, were very useful.

Finished the Tekken 8 story mode. What the fudge/10. Gameplay is great but I have much, much more to do. I’ll formally rate more when I finish the arcade mode with everyone.

Star Wars: Squadrons on

I will probably crown it as the most fun Star Wars game I've played.

Shantae and The Seven Sirens

7.5/10

This was the second Shantae game I experienced and the last one I played, Half Genie Hero, was nothing like this. That one was more platformer whereas Seven Sirens was straight up Metroidvania and it suited it well for the most part. While the combat is more on the simplistic side by just doing that hair toss, there was progression unlockable upgrades such as a quake, sparking and restorative abilities to unlock new areas and such. You also received character upgrades such as double and triple jumping alongside changing forms to better traverse the dungeons and interconnected map. And the story and characters were quite whimsical as always. This series typically reminds me of a morning cartoon show and it has some hits and misses in the dialogue but overall it’s a fun action adventure of the metroidvania genre.

Hogwarts legacy - 9/10

Wonderfully engaging, beautifully executed. Is what comes to mind. I think I was close to 30 hours when I defeated the final boss. The game is just a pleasure from start to finish. Environments, battle mechanics, exploration… all top notch. There’s a ton to do post game too if you wanted to continue the adventure. It definitely one I think I’ll come back to. Super fun game.

I’m playing Hogwarts now too and will likely score it the same as you. I am about 75% done and 20ish hours in and loving it! They did a fantastic job capturing that Harry Potter look and feel.

Disco elysium

Back to my backlog on , I knocked out a few 'Call of Duty' titles:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Remastered
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Remastered
Call of Duty: Block Ops: Cold War

I haven't played either of the first two 'Modern Warfare' titles since their first releases on 360. They both look good, though MW2 got more attention with HDR support and better textures. The campaigns for both hold up well, but the understated action of the first actually hits harder the bombastic nature of most, more recent entries, in my opinion. There were some weird bugs, like watching and subsequently getting hit by fire through objects. And the old COD staple of infinite spawning enemies until you physically move passed an invisible line is still annoying as ever. I only played these on the standard difficulty, but I did finished both on the hardest difficulty back on 360. Another bad bug that cropped up in MW2 was a crash that forced my PS4 to rebuild its database. It only happened once, but...

It happened three times during 'Cold War.' In fact, many times the game would seize up, automatically pause, then decide whether it would let me continue or not after a period of unresponsiveness. It kind of ruined the game for me, because I was actually enjoying the campaign quite a bit. Yes, it's still very linear, to the point where if you stray the smallest bit, the game will punish you with death. But it's obvious the devs were trying to do something different. There are dialog branches, though, to test the outcome, I would reload the checkpoint just before them, and the vast majority of the choices made zero difference. A couple do, but again, for the story as a whole, it didn't matter. I guess it can encourage replays. It's a very short game, so why not, but it's clear more time was needed to fully flesh the added concepts out. Like stealth. There's been stealth in COD games before this, like WWII, but here it's a good third of the game, but the gameplay still isn't designed for it. Unless someone really wants an achievement/trophy or is playing on the highest difficulty and wants to make things a little easier, it just wastes time. I played on Veteran difficulty, and still walked through the game. There's a couple side missions, which are tougher, but the series, at least up until this point, has gotten too hand-holding. Back to the bug, it's been a known issue since launch, and nothing has been done to fix it. It's a shame. I've exhausted the PS+ CODs now, and if I play any more, it might be on Xbox since they don't seem to have a database rebuild type glitch.


Amplitude

I chipped away at the "campaign" for a few years, but only just finished it. That's sad, because it's only 15 songs, but this game just didn't jive with me. I don't know. Maybe there's too many instruments/vocal paths to bounce between, maybe it's the music, but I just didn't care for it.


I've been playing the Mandalorian crossover in 'Rocket League' right now, but my goal is to play a few PS+ PSVR games this weekend.

Horizon Forbidden West - 9/10

Great game! I'm looking at my completion time here and I clocked in at 90 hours, but I never once felt the fatigue I almost always feel with open world games. I got a little worried once I hit the 40 hour mark and realized the game was much bigger than I expected, but that fatigue never hit and I'm about to jump straight into the DLC. That said, I do miss the tight 40 hour adventure that Zero Dawn was. It was the perfect length for me, but this is a sequel so you have to go bigger and I understand that. I didn't mind the length really because Aloy is easily one of my favorite modern protagonists and the gameplay is fantastic and right in my wheelhouse (makes me want to play a new Tomb Raider game now, actually). I played it on Very Hard (100% ranged) so you really have to use every tool at your disposal to get the job done. Combat can be pretty intense, but it's so satisfying! Taking down some of the late game enemies always felt so damn good and I ended up spending a few play sessions just hunting for machine parts to upgrade weapons/armor and not even bothering with the main quest. So many options in combat and I love that about this game.

The side quests here are also great (side content and characters are more fleshed out this time around) and there's great biodiversity so things never feel too samey (grasslands, deserts, tropical jungle, snowy mountains, the awesome westernmost part of the map etc). The main story is also really good and Ashly Burch is fantastic as Aloy. The game definitely has its issues: climbing can be annoying, Talanah is the only NPC I really felt much of a connection to, every settlement except Plainsong feels identical/is forgettable etc. But these things don't detract too much from what is a really awesome sequel! I would like to see Guerrilla Games maybe take a little break and work on something else so we don't get Horizon fatigue. Let the anticipation build for a third game because I think the stage is set for what could be a really great finale.

90 hours?! Well done, sir! I finished at around 40ish hours but only stuck to doing main story quests and about 85% of side quests and 50% of errands until I got my fill to finish the story.

Heavyd814life wrote:

I couldn't disagree more. My biggest issue with that game was the voice acting and lack of personality by the main character. The voice-work lacked emotion in nearly every conversation, with just a few moments that felt like the actor knew what was happening onscreen.

And I agree about the climbing being garbage. Even with the highlighting turned on to see what might be feasible to climb it was clumsy as hell. I liked most of the gameplay loop in this but I had to start skipping the cutscenes due to the monotone voice work.

Anxiouz wrote:

I get that. My brother feels the same way lol. What did you think of Beta? Because Ashly voices that character as well. I think it's more a reflection of the character and not really the quality of the voice acting. Aloy grew up isolated and is very closed off and very pragmatic and I think Ashly's performance is intentionally understated. There are moments where she shows a lot of emotion and those moments land more because she's so restrained most of the time.

I remember when people had the same complaints about Ali Hillis as Lightning in Final Fantasy 13. A lot of people said Lightning was boring and had no personality and said the voice acting was too one-note and lacked emotion. But that's just the character. At least that's the way I see it. And I see it similarly with Aloy.

And I love Lightning as well. So maybe I just have a thing for boring characters lol.

I thought Aloy HFW was a good character. She was often emotional- an absolute dog for most of the game- maybe not the attitude / emotion you’d expect but there is emotion. She did figure out she exists for one reason and took on an almost sociopathic role to achieve it. The story is about her growing up to accept help and learn to appreciate people. The DLC takes that further. She’s a female version of almost every male action hero out there.

I havent played thru the whole 2nd game as Im really burnt out on open world games, but overall I like the character Alloy. She does talk and look like she is bored of her life. I guess In my mind I just decided that was just part of her character (I do know people that are like that). I really like how she looks though, her character design is awesome. I bet without armor she is skinny asf, but her costumes are amazing.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC - 8.5/10

Really enjoyed this. Great to see Aloy open up a little as well. Only real negative is that there isn't much incentive to explore the mini islands so I just focused on the story. I did do the story side quests and I also upgraded a couple of the legendary weapons. Final boss fight was seriously epic and Seyka is a pretty cool character. Kinda bummed that I'm done with this now, tbh.

I had a DCDigital put in my Dreamcast earlier this year, and finally got around to paying a couple of games:

Disney's Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers

I played part of the PS1 version more than 20 years ago at a third cousin's house in Germany off a poorly burned disc, but enjoyed it. Fast forward and I finally played through the whole game on Dreamcast. It doesn't take long; it took my less than 3 hours to 100%. Think of it as kid's first 'Crash Bandicoot,' because that's how it plays. The levels are well designed, the animation and music are excellent, and it plays really well. This is also one of the few Dreamcast games to natively support 16:9 widescreen. There are four zones with four levels each (two 2.5D and two linear 3D) with a single chase level to unlock a time attack for the four main levels and a boss level. Completing each time attack will get Donald a new outfit. It's all very easy, but fun. I wish there was more to do though.


4x4 Jam

A JoshProd port of a mobile game (that is also on PSP/Vita), you control an off-road vehicle through events like race, coin collection and gate passes. For the most part, the game is really easy because the AI is horrendous and it's quick to grind money to unlock the best truck. Not that there are stats to know the difference. There's 30+ single player events to complete. Along the way, areas, modes and vehicles are unlocked for Quick Play. There is, however, NO multiplayer. Despite how easy the campaign is, it can be frustrating, particularly for the gate pass event. It's easy to get caught in no-man's land between the next gate and the AI to where it's impossible to get to a gate before said AI. Also, the faster the vehicle, the worse it controls because there's hardly any flat terrain, so the vehicle is constantly bouncing. I don't get motion sick easily, but even I was getting a headache from the truck bounding about. The areas themselves can feel diverse, but it's like playing on a very tiny globe, or a 3D approximation of an old 2D game where exiting one side of the screen has the player reemerge on the opposite side. That means, in gate pass events, it's almost always better to keep driving forward if you're far from the next gate, because you'll end up being closer to it that way.

As is typically of (most) of JoshProd's Dreamcast releases, they ported the game without improvements. The graphics are ok, but the seems in the environment are constantly showing. There's also a short horizon and constant pop-in at close range. Even if they couldn't extend this for the DC release, some N64 style fog with objects fading in would've worked just fine. They just didn't do it. As stated, the AI saw zero improvements. There's no map, which is ok, but a mini-map with AI near the player would've been so helpful. The D-Pad goes completely unused, and I wish they had implemented a rear view. My setup simulates surround sound with stereo media, so I was able to tell where vehicles were in relation to myself when they were off-screen, but without it, there's no telling where they are.

And it's worth stating that adding multiplayer would've been huge! Games like this are made for it!

This was an early JoshProd release, so a little slack can be given, but they haven't really learned outside of release like 'Flashback' which actually saw positive and specific feature changes to the Dreamcast. As it is, for the $30-40 price of '4x4 Jam,' it is definitely not worth it. For the roughly $15 I paid for it, I had some fun. Sadly, the only other real off-road options there are on Dreamcast is '4 Wheel Thunder' (needlessly difficult),' '4x4' Evo (not a great port and a little sloppy in controls), and 'TNN Hardcore Heat' (a decent early racer). So that actually makes '4x4 Jam' appealing by comparison, but the lack of multiplayer means there's not much reason to return.

Hogwarts Legacy

9/10

Well this was a game I didn’t think I was going to enjoy as much as I did due to the fact I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan but man this was such a delightfully refreshing experience through and through. From the immense attention to detail in all of the little nuances and caveats within the wizarding world and plethora of spells you can obtain to the sheer sense of wanderlust and exploration within Hogwarts castle itself, this game is truly immersive from start to finish. The combat takes cues from that of the Batman Arkham series and Spider-Man games and you can counter most spells and enemy attacks by pressing one of a couple of counter buttons and feels really fluid to execute. The graphics too powered by the Unreal 4 engine I think, were pretty darn good as well with minimal hiccups here and there in the framerate I noticed which did stutter and dip during explosive action segments. Upgrading and pumping out your fashionable character was fun as heck too. You could even breed and nurture animals to obtain upgrade materials from them to upgrade your gear and such. The story itself was of course a touch of the theatrics, having you take a deep dive into the underground seedy world of goblins and how the main goblin antagonist wants to end wizardkind. The side quests too are pretty detailed. I enjoyed some of the side quests more so than some story missions. And exploring the castle and neighboring villages and hamlets was a breeze one you unlock a series of mounts from a broomstick to a hippogriff and even a land mount which makes you travel quicker on the ground vs being airborne. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my 38ish hour journey within the world of witchcraft and wizardry and will stick around a bit more for some post game goodies.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

I went through it on steam and loved it. I just got the ps5 version and I’m ready to jump back in already lol, it’s that good imo.

Yeah it just sucked it didn’t get more notoriety partially and probably due to the JK Rowling controversy.

TalonJedi87 wrote:

It's sold over 24 million copies, and was the number one selling game of 2023, beating Call of Duty, Madden 24, Spiderman 2, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

I don't know what more you could want from it.

It was a massive success. People who don't normally play video games played it cause it's Harry Potter.

Kommie wrote:

Clearly being the best selling game of the year must not be enough anymore, that's how bad the industry has gotten with the ballooning costs of development.

Anything less that 2 copies sold per person on earth (living and dead) is a massive failure.

Well I didn't play it. It must not have been good.

Kommie wrote:

And yet you have played games made by Quantic Dream.

So I don't think I can rely on "has Kommie played it?" as an indicator of quality.

I was tricked into playing that garbage, it was advertised and reviewed well so I played it. They're bad games. Harry Potter? Wizards? It's Satan worshipping at the core. Not gonna bother.

I like Satan so I tried Hogwarts legacy. It’s kiddie crap and wannabe devil worship at best.

A friend and I just finished up Aliens: Fireteam Elite, me on and her on
We had fun with this one. I don't get why it got so many mediocre reviews, but I'm glad we ignored them and played it anyway. I think there were 12 levels, each lasting around 30 minutes. We both had a lot more fun with this than we did when we played Back 4 Blood, which somehow reviewed better than this but we eventually gave up on because it just felt so repetitive and after a few hours just stopped being fun. Since this is a 3 player co-op game and there were only two of us, it stuck us with a CPU partner to fill the third spot. I am happy to say that he actually holds his own and is not as worthless as I expected

Ollie Ollie World

Back to getting through my backlog, 'Ollie Ollie World' oozes laid back charm and calm, but can be quite a challenge. I was cruising; beating each stage in a single go with no checkpoints, beating all three locals and getting most of the challenges until about halfway through. Then the game really steps it up. You have access to all the moves from the start, but the tutorials take place throughout the campaign, and the scores needed to beat the locals increases with them. Challenges also become multi-part, and because of branching paths (sometimes multiple paths by the end), it takes multiple runs to beat all the challenges. The game remains laid back though, since you don't need to complete any challenges nor beat the locals to progress through the story. Those only unlock cosmetics, and the game shows off other players' characters on loading screens, and additional stages. The great soundtrack is also playing at all times (like 'Tony Hawk 1+2'). But I went from cruising through the game to simply beating levels, for two major reasons:

First, this game demands dedication. The only way to compete with the locals' scores and finish challenges is by memorizing the stages. Fine, if one has the time and patience, but I was running out of patience. There are so many layers of moves by the end, and the game throws so many path variations at you, the only way to get through is to progress in a stage a little, learn what's next from dying, progress a little further, repeat. So later stages are a constant restart affair. It didn't help that I never quite got comfortable with the controls. Most actions are performed with the analog sticks, pressing "X" in tandem for manuals with a shoulder button thrown in for good measure. But 25+ years of paying 'Tony Hawk' is engrained in my muscle memory, and I would instinctively press "X" to jump, another face button to grab, etc. and I'd screw myself up. That's on me, mostly, and with time, stages can be learned. But that's not all.

Second, through my entire time playing, the game would pause/hitch for a second, then resume. This mostly happened when songs would change, but otherwise as well, not on all stages and seemingly randomly. Of course, this completely throws off what buttons are being pressed and placement of the sticks, and causes instant failure. Grinding, manuals, etc. all require holding something, so if you're transitioning to your next move, and the game just stops for a second, there's really no recovery. I even had the game pause as I plunged to my death where no buttons were responding, until I pressed Option and the game had paused without bringing up the pause screen. It doesn't help that, if you have a combo going, pass a checkpoint, then fail, the game rightfully registers a score of "0" at any passed checkpoint because the combo wasn't technically landed at those points. I was finishing levels with scores of only tens of thousands rather than the million plus needed for beating the top local. Between this, the exponential difficulty, and of course the random game stuttering, I was about done.

That said, after finishing single player, I oddly wanted to go back and play more. I didn't, I have to move on, but for anyone with the time and desire to master 'Ollie Ollie World,' there is a lot to do and I imagine it's highly rewarding.

Nirvana Pilot Yume on

I don't know why the heck I even bought this, I'm not a fan of VNs at all, and the racing game portion isn't fun either. The music, graphical aesthetic and art style are all going for an 80s sci-fi anime vibe but it just didn't do anything for me. It was deleted the minute it ended.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I guess you really were forced to wipe.

Been a while I beat Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League. Wasn't going to kill all the brainiacs and found the story terrible along with the gameplay.

Beat Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Great Metroidvania but would have had preferred a level system. Took me a while to learn the importance of parrying versus dodging by jumping or dashing out of the way like I usually do in Castlevania..

Beat Mario vs Donkey Kong. It was actually pretty fun but I kept misjudging my jumps on enemies and dying for some reason. I felt I landed on top and failed. I feel the timing might have been off. It took around 5 hours. 8 Worlds to play and then replay their harder version after. This actually isn't a bad game. The puzzles ramp up in difficulty overtime and is fun to play.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage

8/10

It was quite refreshing to play a recently released Assassin’s Creed title that wasn’t overwhelming in scope as the past several games in the series has been. The map is much smaller. The story is concise and focused. The combat is crisp and precise. The tactical stealth is in super abundance. I enjoyed my 15 hours with this entry and would happily return a second time around if it wasn’t for the performance issues I experienced throughout. The game suffers from a lot of screen tearing from what I noticed in crowded areas where it gives the GPU a workout. The framerate stutters as well during heavy trafficking areas. And the graphics are just not that well polished. I get it though. It’s a smaller game on presumably a tighter budget so it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as a larger scale game. What it lacks in performance and graphical fidelity it sure as heck makes up for in gameplay though. The tools you get within your arsenal to carry out your stealthy like objectives are simple, yet effective and range from noisemakers to blow darts to the game breaking daggers. Yes daggers have an upgrade that allows you not only to recollect your dagger and essentially never run out of ammo but also allows you to completely dissolve your enemy it lands on by means of a corrosive like acidic application. Quite gnarly yet quite game breaking as once I unlocked those upgrades it was all I was using until the end of the game but man was it useful! You can also upgrade your attire and weapons too by finding upgrade materials and upgrade diagrams by completing missions. And lastly the story is quite interesting and even has a twist ending I didn’t really see coming. Overall it’s a return to form for the AC franchise and I only hope it can keep up the momentum of having that familiar yet fresh reinvigorating spirit with future installments.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink - 8.75/10

Loved this! An easy way to describe it is a cross between Monster Hunter and a Tales of game. But you don't have to bother with the Monster Hunter-style stuff if you don't care for it. You can focus solely on the story like you would in any JRPG and still get your money's worth. The story took me just over 17 hours which I know is short but I have zero complaints. It's all killer no filler with epic and I mean EPIC boss battles and a battle system that feels like a cross between Nier Automata and Tales of Arise. Once you get a hang of it and once you've leveled up and unlocked more skills, everything just flows. I honestly can't say enough about how good it feels. You have to really pay attention during boss fights to dodge enemy attacks while chaining together attacks and performing skills that function like artes do in the Tales of games. You can perform link attacks with party members once you've filled up an enemy's stun gauge and then pull off really stylish Skybound Arts where the whole party comes together to unleash a really powerful attack. And each character plays so differently. The combat is easily the highlight of the experience, imo.

On the story...it's not going to win any awards for its storytelling, but it's solid. It's standard fantasy anime fare, but the world, the overall presentation, the likeable characters and the great soundtrack made it enjoyable. The game is essentially a spinoff of the mobile game with tons of lore so you are kinda dropped right into things and you don't get to see the relationships between the characters develop. Not sure how others will feel about that, but I think the devs do a good job of making this feel like a standalone experience where you don't need much of the backstory to enjoy it. The end of the main story transitions really seamlessly into the endgame stuff where you go out on quests solo or in online co-op. I've played the endgame stuff for about an hour and I've had my fill for now, but I can see myself revisiting it in the future.

I can see people being split on this, but I may be wrong since user reviews on Steam, Amazon etc are very positive. I really enjoyed it, but I can see someone expecting a more traditional JRPG being a little disappointed. It's not often that a game that has been in development hell comes out and reviews and sells as well as this game has. It's far from perfect, but it's a game I'd wholeheartedly recommend. There's a PS5 demo that will give you a really good idea of what the main game has to offer.

GB Relink feels like a cross between FF XIV and monster hunter very light to me. I’m grinding the last few weapons that drop from final quest now. It becomes very much like boss fights in FF XIV but more arcade. The monster hunter elements are grinding for items to get gear / upgrade sigils -and launching the quests. It’s a very short game if you don’t enjoy the grind and work to kill the final quest bosses. There are some frustrating grinds- like having to launch an SBA / special move 30 times to open an early weapon upgrade and then requiring multiple end game boss kills for the next. If you like the anime everything from the music to the weirdness is here.

I just wrapped up Resident Evil 4 on 2

This was simply incredible. I take back what I said in the review thread, about wishing the graphics were better. The more I played the more I realized they're actually fine and by far the best looking VR game I've played. I might not have mentioned it in the review thread but the 3D audio is not just good throughout the game, but also was helpful for finding those collectible bobblehead things (I still missed a few though). Like you can tell not just what direction the sound is coming from, but I swear it made it easier to tell if it was going to be high up on a shelf somewhere or down on the ground.

Cruelty Squad - this game is weird. Level based, kill targets and if you did you start over. It's hard to explain but I doubt I'll go back to this.

Resident Evil 2 - 10/10

Can't believe it has been 5 years already.Time flies. I didn't even realize there was a free PS5 upgrade, but I figured I'd download it and maybe run around the RPD for a bit, but I ended up playing through all of Claire A...twice! The game holds up soooo well and with ray tracing it looks fantastic. I've played this game a ton but Mr. X still scares the crap out of me and overall it's still such an intense experience. I still think REmake is the best remake of a game I've ever played, but this is a very close second. It's definitely peak survival horror. I don't really have any other games I'm dying to play atm so I may just run through Leon's scenario as well.

RE2R is a gosh darn masterpiece and I will fight to the death and anyone who disagrees with me ha ha. I have beaten the remake like four times, and would gladly go back for a fifth. And yes Mr X always makes my pants in need for a desperate, washing, and scrubbing.

I thought Heavyd814life made a mistake I never realized they made an actual PS5 version until now. Came out 3 1/2 years after the PS4 version wow.

Yeah, I didn’t realize too that it had a current GEN upgrade. Perfect excuse for me to beat it a fifth time ha ha

Heavyd814life wrote:

RE4 (either of them) then REmake for me.

I just beat Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on

This was so good. I've missed about 5 trophies, but since I enjoyed the game so much and it doesn't look like they'll be difficult to get at all, I see no reason not to go for the platinum.

Arc the Lad 2 (PS1): 84 hours. On to Arc the Lad 3!

Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth (PS5): 9/10 (78 hours)

This is everything you want in a sequel. But it's not just a sequel to Yakuza: Like a Dragon, but the entire Yakuza series. If you ever played any of the Yakuza games you have to play this. And if you never have played the Yakuza series, you should.

Rocketbirds 2: Evolution

My backlog extends to the Vita for a few games. I took a look at my spreadsheet, and despite playing my Vita quite a bit the last few years, I haven't beaten a Vita game since 2021.

'Rocketbirds 2: Evolution' is a direct sequel to a game that was never on and I haven't played it. It's a side-scrolling shooter, slower than something like 'Contra,' but desperately trying to be a parody of its ilk. The game is well voice acted, and the early moments elicit a chuckle, but it never evolves to full parody beyond the bird motif and, as such, becomes cringe. This game might be too small for the Vita's screen. Sprites aren't very big, and bullets can be hard to see. That, and there can be significant slowdown when too much is on the screen.

It's an 8-way shooter, so expect to miss your target a lot. Levels are laid out ok, but it's often not clear which direction to continue, and the map is horrendous. There's a handful of standard weapons, but none have any impact and the enemies are bullet sponges allowing themselves to be juggled in the air for multiple seconds. One of the player character's special abilities is to take control of enemies through their cell phones (har har, our phones control us), but the process takes way too long. Hold Left or Right on the D-Pad, line up to the enemy with a wall bouncing line, wait for the bar to fill, the enemy phone buzzes, watch them take it out, they talk gibberish into it, then finally take control of them. This is the process every time. Thankfully the game is short, but a second campaign opens once the single player campaign is completed, the former of which can also be played in co-op. Great, except...

The final sequence of the game involves you running to an exit under a 90 second timer. I managed to do this on my first try. I was in the clear, the first cutscene played, then the screen went black for a minute. I looked up a video online, and it turns out there's a second cutscene that is supposed to play. Instead, the game sent me back to the beginning of the final chapter (there are six chapters), with none of my acquired weapons and no ammo for the starting weapon. I quit via the menu to the main screen, loaded my save, and it placed me halfway through the fourth chapter. Closing the game, restarting my Vita, nothing worked, it always puts me back at the middle of the fourth chapter, and I know my game had been saving along the way because the green check mark would come up in the bottom right corner. I also did not get the trophy for beating the game.

With this game being mediocre at best, needless to say I do not have the want to play through the remainder of the game again. No matter how short it is. Both this and the first game received physical copies for the Vita through LRG. That was the first time I heard of either game, and it piqued my interest, but I'm glad I didn't buy them. Uninstall.

Burly Men at Sea via

An interesting little "game." Quotation because this is more an interactive story than a game. Outside of moving left or right, and sometimes selecting something in the environment, there isn't much game here. That said, it's worth going through.

While simultaneously controlling three bearded men off to seek an answer to a mystery, there are very specific points in the story where the decision can completely change what happens. All told, there's 12 endings, and the game shouldn't be considered complete until then. Though, the game can be cryptic. The first playthrough should take about 30 mins, but subsequent playthroughs automatically skip some traversal sections after the first time to cut down on wandering. Because of this, even with 12 endings, the game can be platinumed in an afternoon. Writing is good, and the simplistic graphics are effective, but it's the music that takes center stage. Folksy yet punctuating, it drives the story almost as well as the story itself. Sadly, once all 12 endings have been seen, there's nothing to do. Still, it's a great little adventure while it lasts.

@DCGX I enjoyed Burly Men At Sea, too.

The one part I didn't find intuitive was how to succeed against the squid monster-island-thing.

Alaisiagae wrote:

Yeah the men move on their own. It's just a matter of dealing with the tentacles when they stop. I had issue with the seals in the bubble, because there was no indicator that you're doing anything right, wrong, or anything at all for some time.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze

8.5/10

Haven’t played this since the Wii U days and it looks so much better cleaned up on the Switch. I forgot how much fun it was too. And oh so damn challenging at times even with all the handicaps it gives you. Great tunes too. Only complaint really would be the length some of these bosses take to beat. Man they can feel like a slog. Overall I’d say it was my favorite DK game since the DK Country games. I liked DK Returns but don’t have too many fond memories of the 3DS game as it didn’t feel as smooth as Tropical Freeze did in regards to its performance and execution. Plus I enjoyed unlocking all the levels and bonus stages.

Super Mario Bros. via Online

As I just acquired Super Mario Bros. Wonder I’m going on an every Super Mario Bros 2D side scrolling game ever kick starting with the OG here. Beat this one in under 2 hours thanks to the infamous hidden warp pipes. Next stop, The Lost Levels game!

More than 25 years since its release, I've finally beaten Keith Courage in Alpha Zones for the TurboGrafx-16, thanks to a bug in the game that makes the final boss a cakewalk if you jump down from above and land close enough to it. It just sits there and let's you whale away on it without ever moving or attacking.

If you DO land on the wrong side of the trigger point and awaken it, well good luck.

image

I will most definitely be looking for the next Keith Courage adventure.

benstylus wrote:

The pack in game for original TG16 release in NA. Those TRU demo kiosks meant everyone who wanted to got to play it- and it was awesome. My best friends dad was a GM at TRU in Chattanooga back then- they had an all night lock-in party at the store and we played TG 16 all night. Good times.

Man, Keith Courage...that name is pinging nostalgia all over my brain but I don't remember much about it. I certainly never beat it...going to go youtube now but congrats!

I just finished up Farpoint on . I gave it an 8/10 in the review thread, but it's closer to a 9 if I wasn't dealing with some tracking issues.

The story, while not Oscar worthy or anything, was pretty good and made me realize that there seem to be so few VR games where I give a crap about the story. Well, this story drew me in, and the plot twist towards the end left me wanting answers that I'll probably never get. Maybe by ending the game the way they did, the developers thought for sure it'd leave people wanting a sequel and Sony would fund it, but here we are just about 7 years later and still not a peep.

Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels via Online

7/10

As my sidescrolling Mario-a-thon continues, I wrap up the The Lost Levels with a fair amount of relief because even with save states and rewind this one felt more of a chore and challenge than the first game. Some of the jumps needed to be timed so precisely that if you were even off by a hair, you’d fall to your demise. I played as Luigi and utilized his higher jumping ability to cover large gaps which helped a bit. Overall, I thought it was pretty solid, but prefer the original Mario Bros game over it any day. Some of these levels should have kinda stayed lost due to some of their more abstract designs.