Re: Video Games General

[bomaye]

I platinum'ed Ratchet and Clank 1 HD for the PS3. Really fun game. Smooth for a platformer that was only a console generation after the clunky N64 platformers I grew up on. I loved destroying things and then having a the bolts (in-game money) fly at you to collect them. Looking forward to playing more of them

[bomaye]

Just beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch after 192ish hours

Nothing matched the first 1/3rd or 1/2 of Xenoblade 1 or however long a certain character lasted in the story, but it built towards a proper climax rather than climaxing too early in XB1 and then rolling downhill from there. I think there was too much goofy comedy, especially the first few villains, that stuff should've been left on the side and keep the main story as serious as they could.

I thought the battle system of Xenoblade 1 eventually collapsed in on itself, Xenoblade 2 held up the entire time. I think it still could've been dumbed down more or a few systems collapsed downwards, there were way too much juggling of tiny percentages of each statistic in different menus. They do introduce it to you in a slow enough fashion that it's easy to learn, though.

WAIFUS, GUYS

Also Square-Enix (Xenogears) and Bamco (Xenosaga) were mentioned in the end-credits. The Kingdom Hearts guy designed the villains (which is obvious now that I look at it). They also made reference to a certain something from both games that more or less connects all of them together.

Probably the biggest flaw of the game was that there were way too many obvious quality-of-life mechanics and menus that were left out at the start. There's still some missing (there's no auto-save).

Game was pretty cool overall. I'm def gonna play the New Game + for some of the extra features. I also want to replay Xenoblade 1, Xenogears, want to play Xenosaga for the first time just to see if there's any more reference to them fitting together.

[KMR]

Has anyone here played Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, who has also played the previous DKC games? I'm wondering how it compares, because I'm a big fan of the original SNES games (DKC2 in particular) but I wasn't very impressed with Donkey Kong Country Returns (which I played on the 3DS). I thought the level design in Returns got too repetitive and when it was difficult, it felt like a frustrating "this is stupid design" sort of difficult rather than the engaging "this is a fun challenge I want to overcome" sort of difficult. I think people have been saying that Tropical Freeze is better than Returns, but does it improve on those aspects? And more importantly, will it live up to my nostalgia-based expectations?!

Just trying to size this game up a bit before dropping 60 bucks on the thing.

[bomaye]

It's like Donkey Kong Country Returns, but harder in some ways, a little more refined in other ways. If it's the Switch Version, there's a Funky Kong easy-mode that makes it more playable if you find things difficult (the last bass is definitely hard as fuck).

As for comparisons to old school DKC, I dunno, I 100%ed all the old ones and did everything in the new ones besides Time Trials. Also I never played the 3DS version of Returns so I'm not sure if the smaller screen made things more difficult than it should've be

(Swimming controls are better in Tropical Freeze than the OG games tho)

[KMR]

So would you say you liked it about the same as Returns or more so?

I dunno, maybe I'm in the minority for not liking Returns all that much. I never even finished the game, either. It could be that the 3DS version lost some of the appeal, but I never had a Wii, so it was the only way I was going to play the game. I remember something with the controls felt really unintuitive compared to my muscle memory from the SNES games, but I think I eventually got used to it.

And yeah, I'd be getting the Switch version of Tropical Freeze. I just got a Switch for my birthday, so I'm trying to decide on which game to buy first. Since they're all pretty expensive, I'm trying to space out the purchases. At this rate, I may well just end up getting Breath of the Wild first and hold off on anything else until sometime down the road. I was just excited about the idea of playing a new DKC game, if it was promising enough.

[bomaye]

I liked it more than Returns, but I went hardcore on the Hard Mode so I have more intense feelings of conquering the game (Hard Mode = 1 Hit and you're dead, no items, no checkpoints, no back-up character but you can choose to play as the back-up characters). Without those it's sorta the same as Returns but with a few cool extras (water levels, Scrooge McDuck-like Pogo Stick Jumping with Cranky Kong, Dixie Kong in general). This is the Wii U version I'm talking about though, I haven't touched the Switch one yet (and may not since Funky Kong Easy Mode seems to be the only addition) but have no reason to believe it's not otherwise the same game.

Also I have the feeling Tropical Freeze will probably drop in price over the next few years or be among the first budget titles whenever they release those whereas the price on Breath of the Wild is probably gonna stay steady. Also BOTW will probably give you more overall hours of gameplay (I'm at 125 hours and don't think I'm close to 100%ing) to start off with.

[KMR]

That makes sense, and yeah, I've heard BotW has a TON of content. I'm a little intimidated by it, to be honest, but looking forward to giving it a shot. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[bomaye]

Beat Infamous on PS3. It's kind of a sandbox grimdark superhero game where you play a character who has powers similar to Electro from Spider-Man. Kind of Assassin's Creed-like in the layout and set-up (which I'm a fan of that kind of set-up of a game) with extra powers and some morality choices, I think the hook and the name sort of let you know that the real draw of the game is playing as a supervillain.

The story was kind of generic for the genre and era it was made in (actual superhero comics were either embroiled in or just emerging from their own grimdark era), but the ending caught me off guard

Spoiler:

It was pretty aight, will play the sequels

[bomaye]

100%ed Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm on PS3 over the last week (shoulda gotten it on Xbox 360, the PS3 version has no achievements ) .

Game was surprisingly true to the source material in the fighting game aspect of it. Simple to control to the point where I was actually thinking up strategies on the fly (I'm usually just not fast enough to do more than button-mash for fighting games). Also liked the collectibles and mission structure of the game.

The worst part was the hub world map of Konoha was repetitive. After every mission, including replays, secret scrolls would spawn on the map and if you want to do stuff with collectibles you had to go get them, which meant running and jumping and climbing rooftops in the same hub world over and over again. I kind of forgave it for how old it was (it came out one year after Assassin's Creed 1 started to set the standard for mid-sized sandbox worlds, which meant it was probably in development before AC1 released), but that part of it still suuucked. Definitely want to play the others.

Also I sat down and Platinum'ed (popped every trophy/achievement) and beat Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus on PS3 in one sitting. It's a cartoony PS2-era 3D platformer with light stealth elements. The platforming and stealth and collecting was fun (I got crossed up a bit on the controls because of playing Infamous recently, made by the same game studio), the required mini-games and the boss fights were awful, really punishing with no checkpoints, so if you died in a three-stage boss fight, you had to start from the beginning, and you either die in one hit or if you have a lucky charm, two hits (the worst boss fight was pressing buttons like simon says in rhythm, which sounds okay, but there's like 15-20 sets of them and if you fuck up once or sometimes twice, back to the start).

[bomaye]

I just found out that almost every Assassin's Creed game from the previous gaming generation have received remasters and re-releases on Playstation 4, removing multiplayer support meaning Platinum Trophies are now attainable in just single player (whereas before I think only AC1 on Xbox 360 and AC2 on both consoles, that was do-able).

SHIT

[bomaye]

So I've ragequit, proclaimed my eternal hatred of, and picked Yakuza Kiwami back up like I did Dark Souls before. Not the regular game itself (that was not too difficult) but all the extras. Just finished off the Climax Battles, little challenges like "beat this room of enemies without getting hit" or "beat all of these bosses in a row without dying" (if you've played the Batman Arkham games, they're similar to that). Was never expecting to be able to beat them all but youtube videos made things look just do-able that I managed to pull it finishing them all and popping the trophy for it, an Ultra Rare that only 1.3% have popped who've played the game according to PSN (on PSNProfiles where I have it collate my trophy card, it says a very-rare trophy at 5.54% among the hardcore gamers).

Now back to grinding out a long-ass but do-able trophy on it and then maybe trying for the last two and the Platinum. Apparently the hardest parts left are scoring 950 in Karaoke with the little girl (True, best I've only managed is 910 and that was a lucky run) during the post-game "make her happy" sidequest, and the car-chase in legend mode because you have to full parts of the level before even trying it again (I barely beat it on easy mode).

Though a weird side-effect is that I'm not so jacked up and used to playing big-time fights that it's weird to drop back down to easy mode and fight in the Coliseum. I'm actually doing worse than normal at it

[bomaye]

I 100%ed Yakuza Kiwami, complete with Platinum Trophy, 0.7% Ultra Rare according to PSN (3.94% on PSN Profiles). Kiwami accounts for 6 of my 7 Ultra Rare/Very Rare trophies on PSNProfiles
 
Serious story (though it does get too cartoony at times), good villains, kooky/funny side-stuff, GORO. It's that mid-to-small level Japanese sandbox game I never knew I always wanted. Def my first prideful platinum/100% achievements. I usually only do it for games where it's relatively easy, this game had some long grinds/completion lists, and some skill-based challenges (Karaoke in the end-game and a chase scene in the hardest difficulty mode are regularly listed, I'd also include the Climax Battles/challenge mode in general and the second end-game Billiards),  that put a stop to people going for the Platty, definitely got a sense of accomplishment to go along with it. Also I learned how to play like 7 or 8 different gambling/card games, including being able to read Mahjong tiles and a game that uses Hanafuda cards (the thing that Nintendo originally produced before they got into video games)
 
Definitely gonna try out more Yakuza games in the future and definitely not going to attempt to Platinum them unless the requirements are a lot lot lot easier

[KMR]

I found 114 out of 120 shrines in Breath of the Wild before losing patience and looking up where to find the rest. Not too shabby.

[Enail]

I think that's about how many I did without help too!

[bomaye]

I'm not sure I ever got over 100 shrines, I was getting tired of not-beating-the-game, went and did that, and then just never got around to searching for more (or doing the DLC )

[KMR]

I'm definitely getting to the point where I want to just beat the game and be done with it. But I was already alternating between exploring/shrine-hunting and doing actual plot content (because it felt like there was so little actual plot stuff to do that I didn't want to rush through it all), so by the time I finished the last divine beast, I was already at ~100 shrines and figured I might as well get the rest.

I don't plan on getting the DLC though. I don't want to pay for more shit to do when the game already has so much shit to do.

[bomaye]

Just beat (for the first of "24" or really like 10 possible endings) Beyond Two Souls (PS3)

Strangest video game I've ever played by far. It goes from video-game silly to poignant to emotional to kinda dumb, often within the span of half an hour of each other. It's sort of a video-game and sort of a chose-your-own-adventure movie, and it stars motion-capture Ellen Page and the Green Goblin. You can go from Act 1 of Metal Gear Solid 4 to panickingly trying to get your shit together because a boy is stopping by for an apartment date to attending a lame teenage birthday party.

It definitely succeeds at "video game are art" though.

[berrybear]

Does anybody like Minecraft? I don't play video games anymore since I have Minecraft Pocket Edition on my Android. This app is a real treasure for Minecraft fans. 32 types of blocks and the mechanics like in the original game. Moreover, there is a big amount of mods for it. Here is the article about them. Making such a game for the mobile phone was a great idea.

[bomaye]

Me Trying To Play The Last of Us Months Ago: "I fucking hate this game. Intro's great but everything else about it I fucking hate."

Me A Week Or So Ago: "Eh, I did buy it and I'm trying to finish off the western games so might as well."

Me After Beating It On Hard Mode: "Some of the character relationships stuff is ;_; but I fucking hate elements of the gameplay."

Me After Beating It On Hard Mode New Game Plus: "Fuck I hate parts of this game."

Naughty Dog: "Eyyyy we've got a sequel in the works."

Me: "Not interested."

Naughty Dog: "The Last Of Us Part 2 is a revenge story about hate."

Me:

[Hielario]

Oh, it seems some people here played Dreamfall Chapters. ¿Was it worth it?

[bomaye]

Unexpectedly got my shit wrecked during "dream" sequences in Lost Odyssey, an XBox 360 JRPG.

I'm only about an hour or so in, the game's about an amnesia immortal and you can run into little scenes that jog his memories of his long life. The sequences are actually just written short stories, and at first it was like "Really? Reading in an HD era game?" and then by the end of the first one, my feels had been fucked up and I was wondering where writing like this had gone in video games.

[KMR]

All right, DKC: Tropical Freeze, I applaud you for cleverly using your three-dimensional medium to create a mine cart level where you have to jump across parallel side tracks, rather than sticking to the two-dimensional side scrolling formula all the time. But the over-the-shoulder, diagonal camera angle you're using is really messing with my head and screwing up all my reflexes. Because even though I know that I'm supposed to be tilting the control stick to the right or left to jump tracks, my brain keeps interpreting it as a diagonal jump and tilting accordingly, which then doesn't correspond to the correct input. Like, you couldn't just go for a full 90-degree tilt and have the camera behind me with the tracks directly to the left and right? I get that it looks cooler this way, but it's getting really frustrating.

Needless to say, I'm going to be here a while.

[bomaye]

Ganbatte!

My sister ended up buying Tropical Freeze again for the Switch. I assume I'll get to playing it eventually whenever I finish my 360 and Wii U backlogs

[KMR]

Tropical Freeze Bonus Level: "Ah, so you've mastered this game and come seeking a challenge, eh?"
Me: "Actually, I just thought I'd take a break from progression to go back to the first world and try to find all the hidden stuff."
Bonus Level: "Oh... well, I hope you like dying."
Me: "Eh, I'm sure I can tough it out for a bit until I get to the checkpoints."
Bonus Level: "The what now?"
Me: "Uh....."

[bomaye]

Good times. Stressful, but good.

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