List items
-
-- Date Completed: 3/17/15 ;; Version: XONE --
Yes, it's a beautiful game. Yes, it has a great soundtrack. Yes, the story is touching. But like most beautiful things, there is an ugly side too; this game is no different. I found that most of my time with the game was spent either in disbelief or controller throwing rage. The disbelief part would be during the "boss" fights and the escape scenes - where you are running away from some sort of natural disaster, be it rising water levels or rushing waves of lava. I was in disbelief because there were no checkpoints whatsoever during these events - which could sometimes be quite lengthy. If you screwed up even once, you start over from the beginning. I am flabbergasted that a system so archaic could exist in a game released in 2015. Come on guys, this is NES level stuff. These sections also attributed to controller throwing rage, but there are more examples of that to be had in the regular game.
For instance, sometimes when trying to climb on top of a platform from the side, Ori would more often then not jump much higher then necessary - often into some sort of environmental hazard. Sometimes she would jump off the the side as well. It's difficult to explain, but it happens a fair bit during the game.
There are also parts where you are given a new mechanic to learn, but given no instruction as to it's ruleset. In one specific area, you are given an Orb that you must carry with you. While holding the Orb, platforms which were once lethally hot, and now cool and can be traversed. Seems obvious enough, but you'll also soon learn that while holding the Orb and walking on certain walls, you will stick to them - allowing you to walk sideways and upside down. Then out of the blue, the rules change. Suddenly you're now flying off of platform you once stuck to as if drawn in by some magnet in the distance. Once again, not cool guys.Is it so hard to put in a little tooltip telling us what those things do?
The final straw for me came after beating the game. During my 10 hour play-though, I had collected all but two of the last health and energy upgrades. I knew exactly where they were and figured I'd come back to them after beating the last boss - which I was thrust into somewhat unexpectedly. After the credits roll, I go to load my save and get those collectables. Foolish me, for thinking this game would have some sort of new game plus, or at least a checkpoint before the final boss. Nope. Once you beat the game, that's it. You can't reload a completed save. So there's a tip right there: Don't activate the final boss scene until you're absolutely done, or better yet, quit the game just before you trigger the boss and copy your save to a new slot.
In all fairness, I don't like platformers. I never have and never will. However, I make exceptions for games that have have at least one extraordinary quality; be it graphics, music or a clever gameplay mechanic. This game checked two of those boxes, but I'm still not sure how much fun I actually had playing the game. Looking back, yes it was beautiful both aurally and visually - but I feel like most of my time was spent in anger or disbelief - or a combination of the two. I don't play games to feel that way. As we learned with The Order: 1886 earlier this year, graphics aren't everything. So I'm sorry Ori, but I can only give you a passing grade: 6/10
-
-- Date Completed: 4/6/15 ;; Version: PC --
Technically I didn't "complete" it. But since I'm not completing many games this year, I'm going to go ahead and add it to this list since I did spend a large amount of time playing it. It's great, BTW. 8.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 5/7/15 ;; Version: PS2 --
So my sister moved earlier this year, and while going through some stuff she left behind I found our original copies of both this game and We Love Katamari. We used to play these games endlessly when they came out, and the soundtrack to both is permanently ingrained in my mind. During the days leading up to my birthday (the 7th) I got sick and had a lot of time to sit around doing nothing. I decided to pop this in one day and I'm so glad I did. From the very beginning this game is just pure silliness. That intro movie had me smiling like a huge dork the entire time.
It took me a bit to get reacquainted with the controls but I was rolling like a pro in short order. The game holds up very well, both graphically and mechanically. However, that camera hasn't aged as well. I was definitely wrestling with it a lot, and it did hamper my ability to play properly more then a few times. As I recall the camera was one of the many things that received attention in the sequel. The game was much shorter then I remember it being - There's about 10 main stages and I think 4 or 5 themed stages, where you have to roll up certain things to make a constellation. Such as cows for Taurus (my constellation)- although technically you just need one cow.
Anyway, it's a great game and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't ever played a game in the series - although I would probably recommend starting with We Love Katamari due to the camera. Even if you have played all the Katamari games, but it's been a while, I'd recommend going back and playing this gem. It'll only take you about 4 or 5 hours to complete it, but it's such great fun and that soundtrack...God that soundtrack is so good. Sooooo good! Final score: 9/10
-
-- Date Completed: 6/16/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
This is the first Witcher game I've completed. I've played a small amount of both 1 and 2, but nothing significant. I'm sure most people know that this game received a 10/10 from Gamespot's senior editor Kevin Van Ord - a man I respect and who's opinion I usually tend to agree with. In this case however, I certainly do not. While this game was great, it is filled with problems. Now, I played on PS4 - which I assumed to be an adequate platform to experience this game - if not as great as PC. I was wrong. The game is a buggy mess on PS4 - crashes, broken quests, broken vendors, texture pop in, atrocious load times, and most annoying of all: a completely fucked XP curve.
Seriously, the XP curve in this game is so messed up it's sad. The early game is slow going and you'll probably get your ass kicked a lot, not to mention being under-leveled for just about every quest you find, especially story quests. This isn't so bad - some might even like it - but no one could enjoy being over-leveled for every single story quest in the mid to late game to the point of them all being no challenge at all; even on "Death March" difficulty. This is unacceptable for an RPG, especially an RPG of this caliber. I mean, is it really so hard to have enemies adjust to you level? This isn't an MMO, there are no zones for specific levels and therefore no purpose in having enemies that don't adjust to yours. This issue really makes me mad, and it seems to be a design decision - a really stupid one. It's as if no one played through the whole story during testing.
My second biggest complaint is the loading times. It's really, really bad. I actually timed them at one point. In Novigrad (the largest city in the game) it took over 2 and a half minutes to load each time I selected a save. This is the same load you'll experience if you happen to die, which would probably happen a lot more if the XP curve wasn't as fucked up as it is. (It's already starting to get messed up by the time you reach Novigrad) Regardless, a load time of over 2 minutes on any game is completely unacceptable. And this isn't a problem of hardware. I have a CPU less powerful then the PS4 and it took me less then 30 seconds to load in the same area. This is an optimization issue. Unacceptable.
Lastly, I have to mention some really poorly designed systems. Namely, the crafting systems. Pre-patch 1.4, there were severally alchemy recipes which were uncraftable. Why? Because the resources to create it don't exist in the required quantities. Prime example: Ekimarra hides. There are five recipes that require it, but there are only three Ekimarra in the entire game; and they only have a CHANCE to drop their hides. Luckily they fixed this in patch 1.4 by removing the hide requirement from all recipes - so good on them for listening to their fans. Unfortunately there are more examples of bugged crafting, namely recipes which wouldn't show up after purchasing or finding them. Some of these got fixed, but some are still bugged to this day.
I know I said lastly, but I have to make one more mention to something that isn't really a bug but is no less annoying. Its perhaps tied for the third most annoying part of the game. (tied with crashes, of which I experienced 9) This annoying thing is not a thing, but a creature - and that creature's name is Roach. ROACH IS THE WORST GODDAMN HORSE I'VE EVER RIDDEN IN ANY GAME EVER!!! This horse is so fucking stupid, it's almost as if it's actually TRYING to piss you off. Techinically it's not just Roach, it's every horse in the game - but since Roach is "yours" she is going to take all the blame here. (Yes, Roach is a girl. If you don't believe me you haven't played far enough yet, or you weren't paying attention) When you summon her, she somehow picks the absolute worst place to spawn - oftentimes spawning inside bushes or awkwardly between building and getting stuck. When you finally manage to mount the stupid thing, it will follow the road if you don't gave any directional input. The problem? It almost ALWAYS picks the wrong path. It's as if the horse were programmed to troll you by doing exactly the opposite of what you want. In the latter parts of the game I just started sprinting everywhere and ignored Roach entirely. You know what? It was faster and a hell of a lot less frustrating. As I said, this is the worst horse system in any video game ever. Here's a list of the best:
1. Red Dead Redemption - Any horse, but namely the Horses of the Apocalypse
2. Shadow of the Colossus - Aggro
3. Any horse that isn't Roach.
I realize I've only mentioned negative things so far, but I've done so because they are so disappointing. Why? Because the rest of the game is superb. It's one of the best RPG's I've played in a long time (probably since 11/11/11) and these negatives really hit it hard. This is an excellent game that looks great and has a great combat system. Unfortunately it's so good that it makes the other two Witcher games damn near obsolete and unplayable. Witcher 2 is especially hard to play after playing 3, the first is a little less affected since it's such a different game. Anyway, I've said enough. Final score: 9/10. If I was feeling really catty I'd say 8 or 8.5/10, but it's been long enough that I'm not as pissed about roach or the loading times so I'll stand by my score of 9. So far the best game of 2015, but that isn't saying much.
-
-- Date Completed: 7/2/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
After finishing this the first time, I went back and replayed all the other games in the series. After doing that, I came back and finished new game plus. Having played them all in back to back, I feel confident in presenting my personal rating of the games (from best to worst) as such:
1. Arkham City
2. Arkham Asylum
3. Arkham Knight
4. Arkham Origins
Blackgate doesn't count because it's so different. Arkham Knight is by far the best looking and handling game of them all - although the changes to the control scheme pissed me off at first - the one major flaw this game has is ironically, its main selling point: the Batmobile. 8.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 7/8/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
The game that started it all. It's remarkable how much they got right their first time. The combat is the main attraction, and not much has changed moving forward in the series, other then simply adding more to it. The graphics aren't great and the lip synching animation is pretty bad, but they work well enough to get the point across. Some people don't like the enclosed setting of the asylum, but I disagree. I think it makes for a great focused experience. The game flows from area to area with minimal backtracking and the progression feels natural - the story clearly explains why you're going where you are.
The main thing I don't like about this game, which carried on to all the others, is the goddamn combat and predator challenges. I can get gold medals on most of them, but I'm never going to platinum this game or Arkham City because of them. In fact, they only get worse in City.
Anyway, this is the second best Arkham game IMO. 8.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 7/13/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
By far the worst Arkham game, and the only one not developed by Rocksteady. (Once again, Blackgate doesn't count) The story is pretty lackluster and the graphics are terrible. The city looks like ass and they had to put a huge building in the middle of the map so the game only had to load half the map at a time. Yes, Arkham City does something similar but they managed to make it less noticeable AND their city doesn't look like complete horse ass. Seriously, some of the textures I. origins are really, REALLY bad. I thought I was experiencing a major case of the unreal engine's infamous texture popping, but no, those textures are loaded just fine, they really do look that bad.
Thankfully the combat is mostly unchanged, but there are some really dumb gadgets being thrown in. Things like the glue grenade, the completely useless concussion detonator and the overpowered shock gloves.
If I had to say something good about this game, I guess it would be...the fight with Deathstroke was pretty cool. Certainly much better the then the cut and paste job in Arkham Knight. 7/10
-
-- Date Completed: 7/19/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
The second Arkham game by Rocksteady, and by far the best. It was going to be tough to improve upon Arkham Asylum, seeing as how it was already pretty damn good. But they did everything bigger and better in City. The game looks excellent, even after playing Knight. It has a certain comic book style to it, so I expect it will age quite well. The story is good and I especially like Catwoman's sections. All of the gadgets are great, the combat has been pretty much perfected, (purrfected?) and best of all: NO BATMOBILE!
Anyone who hasn't played an Arkham game should start here, because it's the absolute best, hands down. 9.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/1/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
After replaying all the Arkham games, I decided to go back and do the same with the Metal Gear franchise since 5 would be coming out shortly. I played this when I was a kid and I remember loving it quite a bit. It was even on my favorite games of all time list. But going back to play the HD remake, I now see it for what it really is: only okay. Sure the stealth is great, but the story is incomprehensible and Raiden. That's all I need to say about him. Actually, I found Rose to be far more annoying then blondie boy. I skipped through so many codec calls with her because they were absolutely insufferable.
I don't feel like writing a huge thing about this game, but I think the tanker section is far superior to the plant section and not just because you control Snake instead of boy wonder. I'm still glad I played it, because it showed me how dumb I was as a kid. It also taught me that Metal Gear storylines are not meant to be enjoyed or understood, so I pretty much ignore them from here on out. I will say however, that Snake Eater was always my favorite in the series and its story was somewhat easier to follow. I didn't have time to go back and play it though. 7/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/14/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
I had never played Peace Walker despite buying it when it came out on PSP, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm really glad I played this one right before 5, as the two games are really, really similar - both in story and game structure. The controls on the HD remake are prett bad, like having to aim with the left stick AND having the camera rotate at a snails pace when holding a weapon. The graphics are decent and the levels are clearly structured for pick up and play style gaming, since this was a PSP game. I also really like the art by Ashley Wood. This is also the last game with David Hayter voicing Snake/Boss. It's also the introduction of my most hated MGS character of all time: Miller.
This guy is so annoying and for some reason, it sounds like he's also the enemy commander on the radio?? It's really confusing. Unfortunately, he only gets more annoying in Ground Zeroes and to a lesser extent, 5.
This game is alright. I enjoyed the meta game of managing Mother Base and researching weapons and whatnot. The story is crap, as usual, but at least it has some cool artwork during the cutscenes and our last game with the original voiced Boss, so that's something. If I had to rate the MGS games from best to worst, it would probably look like this:
1. Tie MGS5/MGS3
2. Ground Zeroes
3. MGS1
4. MGS2
5. Peace Walker
I haven't played any of the NES or MSX Metal Gears. 6.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/17/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
8.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/21/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
8/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/27/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
8.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 8/31/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
7/10
-
-- Date Completed: 9/29/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
9.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 10/14/15 ;; Version: XONE --
9/10
-
-- Date Completed: 10/25/15 ;; Version: iOS --
I really enjoyed Hitman Go a few years ago, so naturally I was going to play this. Unfortunately I don't think this one is as good. I think it's smaller and somehow less exciting. They seemed to be getting further away from the board game aesthetic, whereas they embraced it in Hitman.
It's still a fun little game and I hope they make more Go games using other Square Enix franchises. Deus Ex and Final Fantasy are the first few that come to mind.
7.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 11/10/15 ;; Version: PS3 --
Holy crap, this came out of nowhere and hooked me hard. I put almost 300 hours into this game over the course of about a month. I knew about DD when it came out in 2013, but I thought it looked stupid and didn't care for it whatsoever after playing the demo. But while searching for a game to play while waiting for Fallout 4, I decided to give the demo another shot. For whatever reason, I was totally into it this time and promptly ordered a copy with next day shipping from Amazon.
Nearly 300 hours later, this game is now one of my favorite western style RPGs I've played. The story is crap, but the combat is great. It's a shame Capcom has decided to ruin this franchise by making it a f2p MMO. But what do you expect from a Japanese developer?
9/10
-
-- Date Completed: 12/24/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
Pretty damn good, but I feel like Fallout 3 was bigger... Am I just imagining that?
My main gripe with the game is that it's too easy. I played the entire time on Survival, but it's just too easy to outlevel everything - especially if you do EVERYTHING and explore EVERYWHERE, which is kind of the point of Fallout games, at least to me. I can only imagine how much easier the game would have been using Power Armor, which they obviously wanted you to do. (It's on the damn cover) I didn't use it except when I was forced to at the beginning because I think it looks stupid and I hate the HUD when you're in a suit. I also have an issue with companions. They are incredibly stupid and get in your way CONSTANTLY. Thank god they put it the "Lone Wanderer" perk so I can kick all those sorry dumbasses to the curb.
I did experience a few bugs, most notably two that prevented any further progress in two major quests ("Rockets Red Glare" and "Tactical Thinking.") However, I was able to revert to a previous save and work around them. I only experienced one instance of the game freezing and never had any issues with lag or slowdown that Jeff mentioned in his console review. I think a lot of that was due to different playsyles. As a reviewer, I'm sure Jeff was trying to get through the game as quickly as possible - and the quickest way to do most things in this game is to charge forward guns blazing. I favored a more stealthy approach in my play through - taking my time, eliminating one enemy at a time with a silenced sniper rifle. It should go without saying that the less enemies actively engaged in combat, the less processing power is being used for things like particle effects and AI behavioral algorithms. That's my theory at least.
So yeah, aside from those few issues I think this is the best Fallout yet. Looking forward to the next one, but I think we'll be seeing a new Elder Scrolls game in 2019 before we see another Fallout. Bethesda seems to be on a pattern of alternating releases from these franchises every four years. Either way, I'll happily play either. (Though I kind of hope they build a new engine. The current one is pretty dated.)
9.5/10
-
-- Date Completed: 12/28/15 ;; Version: PS4 --
Let me be clear: I never watched much Transformers as a kid, have never seen any of the terrible movies and generally don't give much of a hoot about the franchise. I do, however, give many, many hoots about Platinum Games. In fact, they are probably my favorite Japanese developer. So I try to play every game they make, if I can. (Some day Bayonetta 2, some day...)
I knew going in the action was going to solid, because it's a Platinum game. What I didn't expect was to come out of it a full fledged Transformers fan. This game showed me just how interesting the Transformers world really is. I mean, obviously it's a toy line and any form of external media - be it cartoons, movies and even games - exists solely to facilitate sales of said toys. Be that as it may, clearly some thought and care has gone in to shaping this world.
Although I don't recall watching much of the cartoon growing up, I instantly recognized Optimus Prime's voice when I first heard it in this game. They got the same actor working on this game, and he has such an iconic voice that someone like me, who only vaguely recalls the show, can recognize it. Another thing I've really learned to love about the Transformers universe is the names! Almost everything and everyone has such a cool name. My personal favorites are Ferrotaxis, Nova Prime, Teletron Alpha and the classic Constructicon.
Anyway, I've rambled enough. This game is really good, if a bit short. All hail king Grimlock!
8.5/10
Load Comments