Patch Notes v0.04

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Hamz

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Edited By Hamz

Videos Games Played

  • ModNation Racers; the gameplay was dull and the blatant cheating by the AI was frustrating and off-putting. So much so that I couldn't motivate myself to continue playing it to completion. That being said the game had a lot of charm in its visual style and design. The creative opportunities available were also something worth applauding, albeit even if I had zero desire to make much use of them.
  • Mini Ninjas; a charming game with a great art style that helped create a world that felt vibrant and colourful. A world that you're encouraged to explore in order to gather the wealth of collectibles the game has to offer. Combat had a surprising bit of variety too it with the various ninjas to choose from as well as magical spells. All in all I was glad that this was the game I earned my second ever platinum trophy in because it felt worth it.
 

Currently Playing

Split/Second; some of the best action packed sequences and sheer adrenaline rush gameplay I've experienced in a long while, and from a racing game no less! The difficulty is unforgiving and pretty frustrating the further you get through the Season mode due to the AI's habit of rubber-banding at the least inconvenient times. However each episode within the Season mode offers a varied number of events to race in helping break up the repetition and alleviate some of that frustration.  
 
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising;  picked it up in the bargain bin at HMV because back in the day a group of friends and I used to play the original Operation Flashpoint fairly regular and I figured for the cheap price of £10 it'd be worth checking this out. At first glance I was pretty impressed to see the game stick to the more traditional feel similar to the first game . But I soon realised after retrying the first mission a few times that my tastes as a gamer had changed quite a bit compared to what they once were. I appreciate a game like this exists because clearly there is an audience for these sort of 'simulator' shooters, but I'm just a little disappointed that no matter how hard I try I don't think I'll ever really be one of them again.
 
Final Fantasy XIII; its been a long time since I played a Final Fantasy game. If memory serves I think FFIX was the last entry in the franchise that I played. I have to admit a brief wave of nostalgia washed over me during the first hour or so of play as I felt the old familiarity with the franchise kicking in. I'm now around six hours into the game and so far I've really enjoyed what I've experienced. Visually the game is beautiful and so very colourful with the in-engine and rendered cinematics having such a high quality to them that is impressive. Story and character wise I'm a little confused at times but the in-game datalogue keeps me straight. The combat seems intuitive with the Paradigm system offering variety and flexibility in how to approach different battles. So far so good it seems however if anyone can lend some tips on how to win your first encounter against Odin, I'm all ears! ;)  

 
 
Keeping it short this month. As usual feel free to comment and critique with constructive feedback below. Till next month folks!    
  
Love Hamz, XOXO    
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Hamz

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#1  Edited By Hamz

Videos Games Played

  • ModNation Racers; the gameplay was dull and the blatant cheating by the AI was frustrating and off-putting. So much so that I couldn't motivate myself to continue playing it to completion. That being said the game had a lot of charm in its visual style and design. The creative opportunities available were also something worth applauding, albeit even if I had zero desire to make much use of them.
  • Mini Ninjas; a charming game with a great art style that helped create a world that felt vibrant and colourful. A world that you're encouraged to explore in order to gather the wealth of collectibles the game has to offer. Combat had a surprising bit of variety too it with the various ninjas to choose from as well as magical spells. All in all I was glad that this was the game I earned my second ever platinum trophy in because it felt worth it.
 

Currently Playing

Split/Second; some of the best action packed sequences and sheer adrenaline rush gameplay I've experienced in a long while, and from a racing game no less! The difficulty is unforgiving and pretty frustrating the further you get through the Season mode due to the AI's habit of rubber-banding at the least inconvenient times. However each episode within the Season mode offers a varied number of events to race in helping break up the repetition and alleviate some of that frustration.  
 
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising;  picked it up in the bargain bin at HMV because back in the day a group of friends and I used to play the original Operation Flashpoint fairly regular and I figured for the cheap price of £10 it'd be worth checking this out. At first glance I was pretty impressed to see the game stick to the more traditional feel similar to the first game . But I soon realised after retrying the first mission a few times that my tastes as a gamer had changed quite a bit compared to what they once were. I appreciate a game like this exists because clearly there is an audience for these sort of 'simulator' shooters, but I'm just a little disappointed that no matter how hard I try I don't think I'll ever really be one of them again.
 
Final Fantasy XIII; its been a long time since I played a Final Fantasy game. If memory serves I think FFIX was the last entry in the franchise that I played. I have to admit a brief wave of nostalgia washed over me during the first hour or so of play as I felt the old familiarity with the franchise kicking in. I'm now around six hours into the game and so far I've really enjoyed what I've experienced. Visually the game is beautiful and so very colourful with the in-engine and rendered cinematics having such a high quality to them that is impressive. Story and character wise I'm a little confused at times but the in-game datalogue keeps me straight. The combat seems intuitive with the Paradigm system offering variety and flexibility in how to approach different battles. So far so good it seems however if anyone can lend some tips on how to win your first encounter against Odin, I'm all ears! ;)  

 
 
Keeping it short this month. As usual feel free to comment and critique with constructive feedback below. Till next month folks!    
  
Love Hamz, XOXO    
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#2  Edited By Skullo

I'm giving my two thumbs up in this piece.

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Video_Game_King

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#3  Edited By Video_Game_King

I can't even remember how to beat any of the summons. I think you have to perform some type of specific action/role, but he changes that time and time again. It's been a long time since I've touched FF13, so I could be pulling shit out my ass. (That's where I store my shit. I find it to be a good place to store such things.)

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WatanabeKazuma

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#4  Edited By WatanabeKazuma

Odin is definitely a pain, up to that point the tutorials are almost hand-holding to the point of being patronizing so fighting him is definitely a shock. It serves as a good test of the various mechanics that the game has introduced up until that point but it isn't a learning curve in so much that it's a huge spike! 
 
As for the fight it's basically a case of quickly changing paradigms, use Libra so that the AI knows the best routine to take against him. You probably want Hope to buff and heal for the most part, if you can afford to change to double Ravagers to quickly build the stagger meter, you only have to fill it to end the fight so you can afford to push it more than you otherwise would in a normal fight. If you're having trouble getting yourself set in the fight use a shroud beforehand to get the buff's out of the way.  The main thing is to be quick, if he gets you on the backfoot it can quickly get overwhelming.

 I can fully understand why people didn't warm to the game but I feel a few design choices unfortunately mask some of the best parts of FF13. It only gets better as you get further into it .
 
The difficulty spikes never really go away, some of the bosses continue to be completely blind-side you.
 

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_k1_

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#5  Edited By _k1_

I felt the exact same way about ModNation Racers.  The game had/has a ton of potential, but the worse-than-normal-kart-racer rubber band AI and horrible load times killed it for me.

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deactivated-6022efe9ba3cf

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XOXO right back at ya

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#7  Edited By Llama

my god man do you hate fun or something? Split/Second? Dragon Rising? FINAL FANTASY? those must be some VERY potent drugs you are taking.

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Ineedaname

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#8  Edited By Ineedaname

What's your operation flashpoint on?

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#9  Edited By Portis

Did you only play ModNation Racers offline? I personally loved racing online, but hated the frustrating offline mode. Online is where, in my opinion, it really shines. For a kart racing game, you'd be surprised how much skill is involved when you're playing against live people and not the cheap-ass AI who seemingly pull power ups out of their butt (and have the reflexes to activate their shields faster than any human ever could.) The drifting, is obviously the key to the game -- once I got a really good handle on that I could easily lap people online who were somewhat new to the game, which is a problem to be honest. MNR should have been a tad more pick up and play. 
 
But, yeah -- the game is sort of clunky. I had some annoyances with the online multi player in general. Weird UI in race lobbies, people gaming the XP system, random disconnections from the server and it was region locked for a pretty long time (US based players couldn't race against europeans, etc.) They have fixed a some of that shit since launch though, I'll give them that. I put over 85 hours into MNR, about 75-ish was racing online and the other 10 was a mixture of making stuff and the offline mode-- haven't played in a few months but I'll go back at some point. Good game, but I could definitely see why some people wouldn't like it. 
 
Also: you just sold me on Mini Ninjas. Wanted to give it a try for the longest time, just never got around to it. I'm gonna grab it on Steam later tonight. :)

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#10  Edited By Geno

You're lucky that you got to play the PS3 version of Mini Ninjas. PC version is completely bugged and unplayable. 

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#11  Edited By Portis
@Geno said:
" You're lucky that you got to play the PS3 version of Mini Ninjas. PC version is completely bugged and unplayable.  "
 
Shit, is it really? Maybe I'll get one of the console versions instead.
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Hamz

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#12  Edited By Hamz
@Ineedaname said:
" What's your operation flashpoint on? "
PS3 :) 
 
@Llama said:
" my god man do you hate fun or something? Split/Second? Dragon Rising? FINAL FANTASY? those must be some VERY potent drugs you are taking. "
I know, what am I thinking! :P
 
@Portis said:
" Did you only play ModNation Racers offline? "
Mostly yes, although I ventured online a few times but didn't really feel compelled to go back.
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#13  Edited By frankxiv

Now I feel bad for just selling off Mini Ninjas without playing it.

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Bigheart711

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#14  Edited By Bigheart711

Hmmm.. Would you recommend FFXIII to someone new to PlayStation games, or would you consider recommending him/her to an older one. If so, which one?

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Hamz

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#15  Edited By Hamz
@Bigheart711 said:

" Hmmm.. Would you recommend FFXIII to someone new to PlayStation games, or would you consider recommending him/her to an older one. If so, which one? "

I see no reason not to  pick FFXIII up and give it a go if you're interested. Even if you've never played a FF game before you're probably better of starting with 13 since it's the most recently released title.
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#16  Edited By Mrnitropb
@Hamz said:
" @Bigheart711 said:
" Hmmm.. Would you recommend FFXIII to someone new to PlayStation games, or would you consider recommending him/her to an older one. If so, which one? "

I see no reason to pick FFXIII up and give it a go if you're interested.

 
It's official, Hamz hates FF13. 
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#17  Edited By Cincaid

Nice blog, as always!
 
Thinking of picking up a PS3 one of these days. Shame there's no support for trophies on GB (I know, it's Sony's fault), seeing that I'm an achievement-whore. :)

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#18  Edited By Ineedaname
@Hamz: Urgh, I had the PS3 version but it looked horrible, I ended up taking it back for the 360 one which looked fairly better.
I would have given you a game if you had the other, damn you.
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Hamz

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#19  Edited By Hamz
@Ineedaname: Unfortunate. I'll admit there's a few graphical oddities in OP:DR but I wasn't sure if that was simply console specific or not. 
 
@CrazyChris: Sony needs to sort themselves out. Trying to link the ID above into this blog and have it present updated info was a nightmare of cache/cookie cleaning. Thanks for enjoying! 
 
@Mrnitropb: Totally updated my post to better reflect what I really meant! :P
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#20  Edited By crusader8463
@Portis said:
" @Geno said:
" You're lucky that you got to play the PS3 version of Mini Ninjas. PC version is completely bugged and unplayable.  "
 Shit, is it really? Maybe I'll get one of the console versions instead. "
Indeed is it really? I played it from start to finish and never had a single problem.
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#21  Edited By LordAndrew
@Hamz said:
" I see no reason not to  pick FFXIII up and give it a go if you're interested. Even if you've never played a FF game before you're probably better of starting with 13 since it's the most recently released title. "
I approve of your retconning Final Fantasy XIV out of existence.
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#22  Edited By Claude

It's funny how games or genres of old feel different as you change and grow as a gamer. Actually, the dumbing down of games have made me more of a gamer today than in the past. It fits my Hardcore Casual style.

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Hamz

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#23  Edited By Hamz
@LordAndrew said:
" @Hamz said:
" I see no reason not to  pick FFXIII up and give it a go if you're interested. Even if you've never played a FF game before you're probably better of starting with 13 since it's the most recently released title. "
I approve of your retconning Final Fantasy XIV out of existence. "
It needed to be done. Someone has to pull a large rug over it!
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Geno

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#24  Edited By Geno
@crusader8463 said:
" @Portis said:
" @Geno said:
" You're lucky that you got to play the PS3 version of Mini Ninjas. PC version is completely bugged and unplayable.  "
 Shit, is it really? Maybe I'll get one of the console versions instead. "
Indeed is it really? I played it from start to finish and never had a single problem. "
Well for one, it's not official supported for Windows 7. Then, the amount of bugs is disproportionately high (see Eidos, Steam forums). And the issues that are there are extremely severe - low framerate, stuttering, crashes, no sound etc. I had to spend hours finding solutions to bugs before I could play it, and even then I had to do it at lower settings and framerate.  
 
Great game, shite port on PC. 
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crusader8463

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#25  Edited By crusader8463
@Geno said:
" @crusader8463 said:
" @Portis said:
" @Geno said:
" You're lucky that you got to play the PS3 version of Mini Ninjas. PC version is completely bugged and unplayable.  "
 Shit, is it really? Maybe I'll get one of the console versions instead. "
Indeed is it really? I played it from start to finish and never had a single problem. "
Well for one, it's not official supported for Windows 7. Then, the amount of bugs is disproportionately high (see Eidos, Steam forums). And the issues that are there are extremely severe - low framerate, stuttering, crashes, no sound etc. I had to spend hours finding solutions to bugs before I could play it, and even then I had to do it at lower settings and framerate.   Great game, shite port on PC.  "
You can point to any game on the steam forums and make it look like the buggiest POS ever made because that's where everyone goes to when they have problems. You never hear about all the other people who played it and never had a single problem so it looks bad because all you see/hear are the ones with problems. Not saying they don't exist, just that I never had a single one of them myself.
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#26  Edited By Geno
@crusader8463: 99.9% of games work fine on my system, from mainstream releases to alpha-stage indies. I'm also conspicuously careful with my driver management and hardware maintenance. And if you'll notice, the Steam forum is almost completely about bugs and errors rather than the game itself - quite atypical. Chances are, the problem is not on my end. 
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#27  Edited By crusader8463
@Geno: As I said, I can only talk about my experience and I personally never encountered any problems. Must have just been lucky I guess.