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Recently completed video games

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I just played through Ironcast, it steampunk game based in England where you prepare for 9 days (ie: do 9 missions) for a big boss fight.

 

The gameplay is about linking 'nodes' together to power elements of your Ironcast (a giant robot) so that you can attack enemies or activate defenses. It is kind of like a match 3 game but you string combos together in a puzzle fashion that I have not seen before. Hard to explain but you can link like coloured nodes together for as long as there is a direct line to them and even link different colours together with specific nodes.

 

It is a roguelike, and the permanent elements are commendations that you earn from XP accumulation and from picking them up in the gameplay sections.

 

It could be really good but I think this is where the roguelike elements actually fail. Essentially, the game cannot be beaten through skill as the final boss is a huge bullet sponge and has crazy defences. The only way is to grind for commendatons and keep increasing your health and ability to generate scrap (used for upgrades) so it just means replaying missions over and over again. You get random passive boosts from leveling up and these are random every time you play the game, again this doesn't feel good because your playthrough can be easily derailed by not having good passive abilities.

 

So, if you see it on sale, definitely give it a go but it will not likely hold your attention.

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Finished ABZU this week.

 

Comparisons to Journey are inevitable, but I felt that ABZU was aimed more at short play sessions, one chapter at a time (each taking 20 minutes or so). It's a great game to relax to (it even has  a "meditate" option) and just casually swim around.

It could have avoided introducing the shark early on - it gave a sense of tension that wasn't really suitable for the tone of the early chapters. You're in no danger, but it was a little jarring. Still, this is a minor criticism, and ABZU was just what I needed after a stressful couple of weeks at work!

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do you know if Abzu has a VR mode (or one planned)? When it first came out I feel like I kept saying "this would make a great VR game... I'll play it when they add VR mode." 

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20 minutes ago, noiseredux said:

do you know if Abzu has a VR mode (or one planned)? When it first came out I feel like I kept saying "this would make a great VR game... I'll play it when they add VR mode." 

It doesn't. If you want a diving game with VR: Subnautica has it although that game is decidedly less chill in deeper areas.

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I had heard of Subnautica, but yeah I kind of want a VR relaxation game. Subnautica sounds like it has crafting and survival, and neither relax me. Haha.

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2 minutes ago, noiseredux said:

I had heard of Subnautica, but yeah I kind of want a VR relaxation game. Subnautica sounds like it has crafting and survival, and neither relax me. Haha.

You could play it in creative mode but its not a great game in that mode

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I played through Anatomy yesterday. It was very creepy and I've never been so pleased to live in a small flat rather than a large house...

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I beat Severed and boy was it a thrill ride!

Drinkbox studios latest game is AMAZING! It's also much darker than their previous games, it's about a girl who loses her family and arm to monsters and goes on a gory quest of revenge. You use the touch screen to slash and literally dismember them for parts... that you consume for upgrades. You also consume heart pieces to increase health, ew!

 

It's hard to describe how intense the combat gets and how they gradually they introduce new elements to it, some enemies' attack will be delayed when you hit them while others cannot, so you'll have to judge the group of enemies you're fighting to stay in one piece.

 

As enemies gain buffs, you gain the ability to steal one of them, so then you have to plan which buffs you need the most, or the buff you don't want the enemies to have.

 

Near the end the enemy introduces a wizard enemy which transforms into a behemoth monster if you attack it too much, complicating things, but I just found it so much fun.

 

If you have a touchscreen system where it's out on (WiiU, 3DS, Vita and mobile?), I must recommend it, it's the best game I've played in ages.

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Among the Sleep :tdown:

It is a short "survival" game. The first part of the game there isn't really any survival element, and later on it's more an annoyance than actual surviving. It's quite well made and interesting to play (if you ignore the tedious survival halfway through the game). The absolute worst part of the game is lack of a proper save mechanic. The chapters are quite long, and when you quit the game a chapter is completely reset even though through those chapters there are various checkpoints. So I had to redo a huge part because it was late and I needed to get some sleep :/

 

Bulb Boy :tmeh:

A short adventure game which is meant to be sort of scary I guess. The last part of the game contains some annoying parts where timing becomes really important. The fact that the boy has a light bulb as head isn't really used a lot, maybe once or twice.

 

One Finger Death Punch :tup:

This took me quite a while to finish the "student" mode. It's not a game I can play for a really long time. It really requires fast reflexes. It says one finger, but I used the mouse and two fingers to play this game. It's really great and worked out quite well for such a simple game.

 

Please, Don't Touch Anything 3D :tup:

The 3D version of Please, Don't Touch Anything. It's basically the same game, except in 3D. They do use the fact that it's 3D quite a few times.

 

Chronology :tmeh:

A short platform game with a few simple mechanics. It was fun to play. It takes about one and a half hour to play through. It is not really remarkable in anyway.

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Is! It's still awesome, because it makes you feel awesome when you clear a level.

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I played a lot of it on X360, it was the last gasp for XBLIG and it was a good final one.

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I've not completed any game recently. The most recent would be Dreamfall: the Longest journey, Guild Wars (at least the quests) and Creeper World (a strategy browser game). Other than that I tend to get bored before finishing it all. 

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Watch Dogs 2

 

I must be in the minority of people that enjoyed the first game. I didn't mind the dark setting - story was pretty meh. But I enjoyed the world, shooting was fun - especially cleaning out those gang hideouts. I also like the soundtrack (score not radio).

 

So I grabbed the sequel when it was cheaper (I got WD1 way after release too). I beat it it on normal in 28.5 hours. I did a bunch of side quests, tried the mini games like races etc. I definitely got my moneys worth.. The first 15 hours or so were great then I kinda stopped paying attention to the story and the open world fatigue started to set in. What is Ubisofts deal with making open world, tons of icons on a map games? I wished they'd make more linear story focused games.

 

Anyway, so quick takes:

 

+Game is pretty. Nice and colourful (again I didn't hate the dark tone of the original). I dig San Fran, its fun to drive around and do stuff

+ Fast travel is a GODSEND. Best thing in the game

+ Score is great again

+ Some cool missions, locations and set pieces

 

- Driving and shooting don't seem much improved over the original

- Drone and RC did little for me

- Story was whatever, I stopped paying attention after a while

- I didn't really like or care for any characters. I obviously didn't mind Marcus so much because thats who you play as. Too much "meme", "cool", "edgy" dialogues. Ubi trying way to hard here...

- The general world NPC chatter is still lame, typical "whatevers cool in the moment" stuff 

- The focus on guns is a mistake - in a game where you can hack and sneak around there should be no place for guns. The whole idea is you working the system and not needing to use violence

- The whole "one enemy spotted you so now every NPC in the area knows your exact location and reinforcements are on the way" is cheap, lame and annoying

 

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8 hours ago, thenexus6 said:

Watch Dogs 2

 

- Drone and RC did little for me

 

 

Interesting. I always scouted the environments thoroughly with the drone, and if sneaking was involved, I preferred to do that with the RC than by myself. The upgrade that lets you drop mines with the drone and RC was really helpful in some of the later missions.

 

I agree that they should not have focused so much on guns, and would have hoped that I could have leaned even more heavily on using the drone and the RC.

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I completed Outline today, and I have the video evidence right here!

 

 

Holy shit those last 10 levels are intense. If you would like to try it out yourself you can download it here. It will only cost you 3 dollars and your sanity.

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I love JRPGs but in my 36 years of being alive I've only finished half dozen or so. Welcome then, into this most elite of folds and home to some true gems like Bravely Default, Persona 4 and, eh, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Mother 3.

 

Absolutely loved it. Because Nintendo didn't give a shit about Europe in the 90s I only got to play Earthbound quite recently and while I enjoyed a lot of it there are some nasty difficulty spikes that took a lot of the fun out of it and I put it aside five or six hours in. This sequel delivers exactly that but is a much smoother and more refined ride, if anything it's a little on the easy side, but I'll take that over hitting an impassable wall after thirty hours of play. It's funny, it's touching, it has a killer soundtrack and it's absurdly pretty. And the community around it is staggering too - not only did they deliver a fan translation that stands alongside Nintendo's best but they made one of the best game guides I've ever seen to help you along too. So good! For my own small part in showing support I now own a Lucas Amiibo. Anyway, play this whatever you do, dubious legality be damned.

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17 minutes ago, Yasawas said:

I love JRPGs but in my 36 years of being alive I've only finished half dozen or so. Welcome then, into this most elite of folds and home to some true gems like Bravely Default, Persona 4 and, eh, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Mother 3..

 

Mother 3 has been on my list of shit to play since the fan translation came out.  Good to hear a first hand account that the translation is good.  I hadn't really looked into it a lot besides knowing it exists.

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It's really something. It probably helps that the project lead was a professional translator and they already had Earthbound to take tonal reference from but even so it's of such consistently high quality with no obvious rough edges that you soon forget you're playing something unofficial. I'm looking forward now to being able to binge on all the developmental videos they put up on their channel as the little snippets I allowed myself while playing were interesting.

 

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I'll second that - Mother 3 is wonderful in all the ways Yasawas says. Well worth getting it running with the translation patch.

 

I found it genuinely funny but with a really consistent tone, which is a level of professionalism one might not expect from an unofficial translation. One of these days I'll buy the hardback version of that handbook to play it again - I referred to the web version when I played it, but it's such a labour of love, like the translation.


Just make sure your emulator isn't skipping frames or anything, as I remember the combat in time to music is fairly crucial.

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Oh yeah! I only found out about the rhythm element to the combat by accident after a few hours and moved from playing it on my phone to on a Revo K101 which was definitely a wise choice in retrospect although it meant I couldn't take screenshots or use save states. Another accidental discovery was DP - the currency of the game - which I kept waiting to unlock as there's a menu entry for it but I never seemed to earn any and I assumed it must unlock at a later point. After about 15 hours I discovered the frogs are banking it in the background as you play and I was a secret millionaire, it was great! Although I felt a bit stupid.

 

I just beat Resident Evil 4 again and that is still a good game. I have bought this nine times now, completed it pretty much as often and the final third is wearing a little thin on me in places but it's a ridiculously entertaining ride all the same. Once you get used to the controls anyway, what were we thinking back then? Ooof. 

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5 hours ago, Yasawas said:

 

 

I just beat Resident Evil 4 again and that is still a good game. I have bought this nine times now, completed it pretty much as often and the final third is wearing a little thin on me in places but it's a ridiculously entertaining ride all the same. Once you get used to the controls anyway, what were we thinking back then? Ooof. 

 

Haha, that's funny since at the time RE4 was considered such an improvement over earlier RE games.  Though yeah, nowadays, ooof for sure.  I've tried playing it a couple of times on PC now, and I just haven't been able to make it more than a couple of hours, mostly due to the controls.

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I completed The Last Guardian on Friday, and damn, that game has an extraordinary ending. The controls and the gameplay are nothing exceptional, but the stuff that game focuses on (like building empathy with a mythical animal via realistic animation) are so effective that I couldn't help forgive whatever shortcomings it had with stuff I would normally treat as very important. It makes me very happy that this game actually came out, I think it was worth the wait because it is something special.

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Mad Max  - PC - 15 Hours - Normal Difficulty

 

One of the games I skipped on when it first came out. Was on CDKeys for something ridiculous like £3 so I had to buy it. I am kinda mixed on the game. 

 

- Game is gorgeous. The graphics, environments and weather effects were awesome.

- I enjoyed the combat, kind of similar to the Arkham games except you're not flying across the room locking onto people.

- Story was fine. Nothing too exciting, but easy to follow.

- For a game that focuses alot on driving.. it wasn't very good. I would spin out constantly, plus I didn't think the vehicle combat was that great.

- Now... its another open world game. So the first few hours I was really digging it. But then the grind kicks in - especially when you HAVE to grind to progress the story. A million side missions, and a million icons on a big map.. I explore and finish some of it but I don't fully jump in anymore like I used too.

 

I did enjoy it, but I wish it was a little more linear and focused instead of another big open world game. But £3 and 15 hours of gameplay I really can't complain!

 

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I liked the opening couple of hours of Mad Max, before it became open world.  Literally as soon as I hit the spot where I had an Assassin's Creed style map with icons all over it, I quit out and uninstalled.  That just felt like anything other than Mad Max to me. 

 

There was real potential there, and then they went and made a video game :)

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