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Post by dsparil on Sept 1, 2022 5:58:32 GMT -5
dsparil This entry was wrong, I only played the PS4 version of Lara Croft GO. Thanks for catching that!
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Post by dsparil on Sept 2, 2022 8:07:45 GMT -5
BioShock Remastered (Switch, First Time)
I played this a tiny bit when it originally came out and dropped it pretty quickly. It did and still does come across as way too derivative of System Shock 2 in very specific ways; dumbed down if you're feeling harsh. The little museum section showing concept art and unused models makes it seem like it was even closer to SS2 during development. Plotwise, the whole Andrew Ryan element is kinda dumb. He's way too much of mustache twirling Randian caricature although certain real figures aren't too far off. Ayn Rand was clearly influenced by her family's experiences in Russia before and after the revolution, and an investigation of that would have given his character significantly more dimension.
As an FPS, it fairs better. There aren't enough weapons or enemy types, but the environment is fairly unique. Reducing the RPG elements down to equippable Tonics makes sense for a game much more fast paced than SS2, but it throws any replayability out the window since Tonics can be changed.
What was interesting to me was seeing how much the dungeon crawler Vaporum was very specifically influenced by Bioshock. There's similarities in the enemies and environment although given that it takes place in a Soviet-esque research facility it's much less garish. It also correctly identifies ADAM as the interesting part of the plot and builds it around an analogue without going overboard. In a way, it's the reverse of Bioshock. It shows restraint in the plot, but throws a lot of different enemies and weapons (both ranged and melee) at you while also being a methodical grid-based RPG with a lot of puzzles.
Bioshock did win me over in the end, but it took a long time to get there. I got the whole trilogy since it was on a heavy sale so I do wonder if the sequels do better plot-wise.
Rating: 7
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Post by excelsior on Sept 3, 2022 22:55:59 GMT -5
I really had a great time with Bioshock when it came out - actually took me by surprise. The story has been much maligned over the years as anything to do with the antagonist is pretty silly - the twist was praised but didn't do much for me personally either. Where I think the game is very strong is in the setting and atmosphere. Also I enjoyed the focus on gaining new abilities which reminded me at the time of a linear Metroid Prime. Their inclusion was a big plus for me since it massively reduces the need for actual shooting, resulting in a rare FPS that I could actually play, which is always a bonus.
I do think that Bioshock may have been a bit of a product of it's time given that it's been borrowed from to such a great extent. Of course it derived from System Shock but I would say it successfully delivered that kind of experience to the mainstream. As far as sequels 2 is pretty much by the numbers, without much interesting going on. I haven't played Infinite, but that one is similarly maligned to 1.
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Post by dsparil on Sept 4, 2022 4:00:07 GMT -5
It just irks me that everything in BioShock is lifted from System Shock 2 even the plot to a degree, but Irrational still gutted the RPG elements in the process. I'm actually enjoying 2 a bit more because it tweaks things enough on the gameplay side for me to not constantly getting SS2 flashbacks.
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Post by dsparil on Sept 4, 2022 6:10:46 GMT -5
Nonogram Minimal (Switch, First Time)
A basic collection of 200 puzzles divided into 150 black and white puzzles and 50 color puzzles. It's okay, but there isn't anywhere near enough polish. It's fairly buggy and the puzzles construction has issues with nebulous placement. For the black and white puzzles, the picture you get when finishing doesn't always match up with the puzzle or the puzzle might have random junk squares in it too which I really didn't like. What boosts this a tiny bit is the editor and uploaded puzzles. Those hypothetically could give this some more longevity. There's about 250 right now five months after release so this didn't exactly take the world by storm. There's some decent ones, but so few people use this that the ratings don't help a whole lot to separate out the good ones.
I finished in about 27.5h.
Rating: 6
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Post by JoeQ on Sept 4, 2022 6:48:07 GMT -5
Bioshock 2 is the best one easily, while Infinite is the worst. --- Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition (PS4) - Replay, Time: not much, Rating: 4/5A remake of Daedalic's first adventure. I don't actually like the new graphics that much, they lack the charm of the original. Thankfully you do also have the option to play using those if you want. Other than that, it's still a solid old school point'n'click adventure game with mostly good puzzles and a few complete nonsense moonlogic ones. Enjoyed replaying it and got the platinum trophy too. Alphabet Challenge: ABCDEFGH-JKLM-OPQRST------ Number Challenge: --234--7--
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Post by excelsior on Sept 4, 2022 15:26:27 GMT -5
X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (SNES, Replay, 2 Hours Appx)A rare replay for me since I'm all about the backlog, but I was craving some nostalgia. Growing up a fan of the X-Men comic book and animated show this was a big deal release for me back in 1995. It stands as one of my most played through games on the SNES. Like the cartoon series Mutant Apocalypse's aesthetic is based on the artwork of Jim Lee, who rose to fame after working on the X-Men comic books from 1989, pushing the merry mutants to the peak of their popularity by the early 90's with bold new designs still iconic today. Capcom successfully captured his style, using large sprites with a vibrant colour pallet, whilst somehow also evoking their own style of artwork. The game goes to some length to include a variety of familiar foes, whose presence always pop on the screen, perfectly imitating their characteristics through detailed animated sprites. From the hero side there are five to choose from - Psylocke, Gambit, Beast, Wolverine and Cyclops. This team is based on the X-Men Blue Team established within Lee's run, which ran parallel to a Gold Team whose separation was used to establish two ongoing X-Men books for the first time in the market. From the Blue Team we are missing Rogue, perhaps seen as difficult to represent due to her status as the airborne team tank. All look fantastic of course, and are brought to life with a combination of Street Fighter style specials. In fact, Street Fighter II's influence is abundantly clear throughout, especially when animation frames can be seen as directly copied. These abilities are nicely put to use as each character has their own specific stages designed around them. There are a number of shared stages also and these will highlight each characters advantages further, going so far as to allow differing routes should you have the right character to access them. Wolverine can climb, Beast can cling to the ceiling, Psylocke bounce high into the air, and Cyclops blast obstacles away. Gambit is Gambit of course though at least he is better able to quickly use projectiles than Cyclops. The stages themselves are short, focused on action and some light platforming, generally used to find hidden items and rarely to test player skill. You'll mostly be punching, kicking and blasting enemies in a one plane beat-em-up style. The combat itself can be divisive as it certainly doesn't opt for the most breakneck pace. Instead the pacing is deliberate with actions needing to be more carefully considered. Perhaps this choice of speed lead to the games reputation as being particularly difficult, but each stage can be cleared without taking a hit with practice. The games audio design compliments the pacing also, with generally slower based and more atmospheric themes, but also heavy feedback when hits are landed, which also evoke the feeling of a hard hitting super hero battle. The game also has some nice ideas going on such as each X-Man having their individual lives, the loss of one character causing a game over in the opening stages, but simply eliminating that character from play in later ones, until you find a life for that character laying around of course. There's some nice things going on with bosses, one being a false finish, thankfully as otherwise this would have been a disappointingly short adventure. I liked the idea of Exodus showing up in the final set of individual stages, depleting half his energy bar in two separate fights meaning he won't show again. These stages will also lead the progressing X-Man straight into a battle with the true final boss, whose energy is chipped away across attempts. The more heroes that reach him and the more lives each has the greater your chance at defeating the game. I was able to learn to defeat him in one go with any character when younger, something I certainly didn't replicate today. What I did achieve was seeing the hidden ending, given when the game is beaten without using passwords. What's great about X-Men Mutant Apocalypse is how good of a representation of it's license it is. Without being a fan of the source material this could come across as a slow and unexciting action platformer, but certainly by my expectations it reflects everything I wanted from an X-Men game. The story and characters all come to life on the screen and the simple combat design cleverly highlights the unique aspects of each hero's abilities. Returning to the game after many years I was able to rediscover that same excitement that I had nearly 30 years ago. Score - 9/10
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Sept 5, 2022 6:58:15 GMT -5
F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon (Xbox 360; First Time; 5 hours 59 minutes)
About a year and a bit ago, I asked my brother to buy me a couple of console ports of Monolith shooters, which were this and the PS2 port of No One Lives Forever. For whatever reason, I never got round to playing them properly; I didn't even touch this until a couple weeks ago when I decided out of the blue to give it a shot. I remember enjoying a demo I'd played for the F.E.A.R. Files expansion pack collection, and I was curious to finally try it out.
It's a very cool game, with a strong use of atmosphere and tension to make for something legitimately spooky. You get the briefest glances of something that doesn't seem right before it vanishes, making you wonder if there was anything there at all. There's unexplained disturbances and the remains of horrific scenes all over the place, but nobody ever comments on it. Even when you're just fighting soldiers in corridors and offices, little tricks like the lights going off and only being able to hear the soldiers' chatter does a lot to make even the most basic encounters feel impactful. There's a good few scenes I remember solely for minor details, such walking down a hallway when the slide doors covering an entire wall open up to reveal a room of soldiers now gunning for you. In these individual moments, it's a superbly paced game and the rhythms of combat never failed to get me excited and cautious.
That said, I think the overall game suffers in its pacing. Levels mostly alternate between a series of gunfights and wandering down hallways where odd noises and sights seem to be lurking around every corner, and it never changes up from that. Fair dues to the game knowing what it does well and sticking to that, but it did feel like it was spinning its wheels after a while. Heck, it even made me appreciate something like Half-Life 2, which changes its mechanical focus every half hour - that could result in a couple of clunkers you had to trudge through, but at least they were unique experiments that served to make the other portions more distinct. By the end, I was happy that things had wrapped up, I'd gotten my fill. Maybe I'll play the expansion packs some day, since I heard the first one was quite good.
(This playthrough also includes a bonus mission exclusive to the Xbox 360 port, where you play as another character escorting a hostage out of an earlier stage. While it's interesting to play the game without the slo-mo option, it's a nothing of a mission that recycles a stage and only lasts a matter of minutes without anything new to it. Honestly haven't the faintest idea what the point of it is.)
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Post by spanky on Sept 5, 2022 19:07:12 GMT -5
excelsiorI have a quite a bit of nostalgia for that game as well, though I was never a huge fan of the X-Men. I remember renting that game the first day of Christmas break and spending the long, cold, anxious days leading up to the holiday playing it. I thought it was a pretty solid beat em up/platformer and 5 unique characters added a lot of variety. It reviewed well at the time but it's not super well regarded nowadays for whatever reason.
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Post by excelsior on Sept 6, 2022 0:47:40 GMT -5
spanky - People must not share our refined taste of course . I must admit I didn't care for the follow up though (War of the Gems). That one seemed very phoned in. Perhaps one of my biggest video game disappointments after it took me years to be able to play it. Not only did the game not release in the UK (there was a small German PAL release which I only found out about a decade later) but the carts had some sort of import protection on them so it wouldn't run on my converter. I managed to play it eventually on one of those fake multi region SNES consoles. If I remember correctly it's notable as the first video game interpretation of the Infinity War story, but there's not much else I can say about it.
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Post by personman on Sept 6, 2022 1:24:41 GMT -5
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB/3DS VC, 4 hours; replay) First saw this game in an old GamePro magazine I somehow got my hands on and was pretty interested. The whole concept with animal buddies reminded me of Donkey Kong Country which I loved so of course I grabbed it many years later at a place called Game Crazy. I liked it well enough then and now a days, well a little less. Its pretty good still but it just doesn't feel like it really comes together despite having a lot of good ideas. For one I like the idea of having a smaller pool of powers that get modified by all the characters mostly because it means more goofy animations lol. But unfortunately most of them are rather bad in general and really weak. Both Rick and Kine's powers are not terribly useful and just end up removing your ability to fly, and Kine has little mobility on land as you'd expect from a fish, more on that later. Coo the owl is the only one worth a damn really with very effective powers and he always flies. Go figure he's really rare. Powers in general are really weak over all too and unlike the usual where you have a couple hits before you lose them this time around a single hit will knock it out of you guaranteed. It's enough of a hassle that I often just resigned myself to not bothering with them unless I needed it for a secret. So the hope is that these guys would at least be useful in solving some puzzles or something then. And yeah they do. Actually scratch that, you mostly just need Kine for everything, the dumb fish that cant move on land well and you'll need to take him out of water a ton. It's pretty obnoxious, I think only two of the specials plot McGuffins needed to fight the true last boss involve the other two at all and boy is it an arcane process to get one of them. It was more annoying to get than anything. This also has to be one of the hardest Kirby games I've touched recently too. Like it just starts to get mean towards the end with enemies spawning on top of you just at you enter a room, lots of mini bosses that can be pretty aggressive and mess you up if you're careless and a wealth of auto scrolling parts that call for tighter precision than this series usually ever cares to demand. It makes the 'super hard' remix of Spring Breeze from Super Star Ultra look like a joke. King DeDeDe himself is a monster this time around, he even has feints and follow ups that are tough to keep up with. Its nuts. Heck the bosses in general are pretty well done mostly and do creative things. Unfortunately the last true boss (which I never faced back in the day) is a bit of a crap shoot. It demands you get in melee to hit them but then they move around so erratically you'll take a ton of damage just trying to get close. Has two phases too, didn't care for it at all. That all being said its still a really solid game. Controls are much better this time around and it looks and sounds wonderful for the system with the stage design itself I found pretty good. I just wish I had a better way of engaging them or didn't have to force myself to take the worst options if I wanted to get to the true ending. It's still a step above the first game but the ideas it has just aren't executed too well. I don't hear people talk about this one too often and the few times it does people seem to begrudge it as just okay. And really I think I can agree even if I find interesting. I say its a little above average, couldn't hurt to take a look if you can get a hold of it easily. Rating: 6 Gradius III (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 1 hour; replay) This is one of my favorite Gradius games. I'm completely biased because I grew up with this one and played the hell out of it. It takes the rushed mess of a game the arcade release was and fixes it by removing much of the junk that had no place being there or just wasn't notable and tweaks much of it to be just a much tighter package. I love just about everything about it from the designs, the arrangements, the options open to you through the edit mode, its just wonderful. Yeah I can't be trusted with critiquing this game. I have too much fond memories with it to be trusted lol. So I'm just gonna try and pick it apart to try and be objective lol. Things I can think of of the top of my head that one can levy against it: First, the elephant in the room: the slowdown, its often slows to a crawl, especially if you use the E. Charge laser. And it's clear that some of it is artificial too to counter how some of the bosses did bullshit things. I for one don't mind the slow down at all since after all it just gives you more time to react to things. But I understand why it would bother people, and if you have to slow your game down to make some unfair crap more fair maybe you should have just, I dunno make the bosses or whatever not do that? Second, there is a stage that demands you pump up your speed or else you're going to crash into the geometry. That's not terrible but it often scares people into putting their speed so high that doing the precise adjustments to avoid fire becomes basically impossible. It's a dumb tradition this series has had and its still dumb here. Really you don't have to go higher than 3 speed ups but that's if you have the stage layout memorized, you can also give yourself the option to have your "!" slot equipped with a speed down but that still feels clucky and bad. There is a reason most shmup series just adopted gear shifting later. It exposes a flaw in Gradius's power up system. Third, this one isn't without its dread 'Gradius syndrome' moment. For one there is a difficulty spike that is just absurd in the first half of the 9th stage. Sure these things happen but its just annoying when the second half of it and the 10th stage is easy as heck in comparison. And if you manage to beat the Gun Wall with no or little power then you may as well use the Konami code to cheat or just give up. The little segment where the walls fly at you is pretty much impossible. Okay there, thats the most I can criticize it lol. I still think its fantastic but as much as I would like to recommend it to everyone I do recognize there are a lot of hard pills to swallow and it may turn a lot of folks off. If I were to put them side by side I'd say R-Type III is the better put together game. However if you're a shmup fan and haven't tried this one yet give it a go, its fault wont be so great that I think it'd stand in your way. Dunno, guess I just have that many fond memories of it lol, hell I even love its box art: I wish I could find that art without the title on it. Rating- 7 objectively. Personally 9. *EDIT*Axelay (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 2 hours; replay) Had to run through this before bed once I saw the SNES game of the week thread. I love this game to pieces and already gushed about it over there lol. Had to actually start over since I ran out of continues on the last stage because I got held up by the fifth one due to some readability issues. But honestly I didn't mind I just find this one that much fun. One of my favorite Konami games. Rating- 8
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Post by dsparil on Sept 6, 2022 6:38:17 GMT -5
Gradius III (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 1 hour; replay)Axelay (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 2 hours; replay) I'm sorry, but these are both looping games. I went through them both, and I wish Konami didn't make so many of their shooter looping.
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Post by spanky on Sept 6, 2022 6:56:45 GMT -5
excelsiorYeah the MSH game for the SNES is...not good. It looks promising, with large sprites that are scaled down versions of the ones from the arcade game, gems that you can equip to increase your power, a great playable cast etc. It's just so SLOW, the entire game plays like it's underwater. Kinda boring too. It's inexcusable for such a late release!
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Sept 6, 2022 7:03:49 GMT -5
Gradius III (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 1 hour; replay)Axelay (SNES, emulated on 3DS; 2 hours; replay) I'm sorry, but these are both looping games. I went through them both, and I wish Konami didn't make so many of their shooter looping. I think they should count. If Super Mario Bros. 1 counts, so should these.
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Post by dsparil on Sept 6, 2022 7:12:40 GMT -5
BioShock 2 (Switch, First Time) BioShock 2 — Minerva's Den
Sort of split on 2. The idea of playing as a Big Daddy is interesting, but I don't feel like it was really used effectively. You somehow feel weaker than in the first game, and the drill does less damage than the wrench. I think the goal was to make it harder, but it came off as more tedious to me. It doesn't help that there's only two new enemies types, and you mostly see the same types of splicers as the first game. There aren't enough new weapons either just the drill replacing the wrench, rivet gun replacing the pistol and spear gun replacing the cross bow. Ditching the Navy/Marine/OSI mimicking tonic divisions of the first game was a good move though although I would have preferred a new upgrade system that went along with being a Big Daddy. You play as an earlier prototype of the ones normally seen, the Alpha series, and part of the backstory is that they aren't fused to the suit. I saw that Infinite uses an equipment system instead of Tonics, and that would have made a lot of sense to implement here too.
Story-wise, it still falls flat for me. Sofia Lamb is a better villain at first, but I don't think the character (or the game really) holds up in the long run. Augustus Sinclair on the other hand could have been a slimier but less maniacal foil to Ryan as a replacement for Fontaine. The entire "morality" thing with killing or sparing some of the "villains" is also a little dumb since they're completely defenseless. If you only save Little Sisters, you only need to spare one of them to still get the best ending.
Overall, for this one I was excited for more at the beginning, but just wanted it to be over by the end. I can see why it's had a bit of a reevaluation if Infinite is as much of a misfire as it seems, but it also does feel like more of the same.
What really shined for me is Minerva's Den. The new Ion Laser is great, and the new drone types makes keeping them around actually worth it. This would have been a much more interesting concept for a sequel especially if it leaned off all the enemies being splicers and maybe went more technological. It's a shame that it's so short at only two main levels and a small final boss level. The villain is a bit generic, but CM Porter is a good new character as your "navigator". The central presence of an ultra advanced AI with a cutesy acronym, RODIN, but that ended up feeling more like a wink at System Shock since the game uses one of Rodin works, The Thinker, as the name everyone uses. Another part of the story is that Tenenbaum wants to use The Thinker to find a cure for the ADAM addiction that plagues Rapture, and that could have been potential set up for a third game that actually ties things up with Rapture.
Rating: 6, 8
Edit: I forgot to mention that 2 is buggier than 1 on Switch. I had a few crashes versus zero in 1, and there's also bugs related to subtitles. The main one is that they don't always progress, but I also had a weird issue where the subtitles wouldn't leave the screen sometimes and would keep any audio from playing until I reloaded. There's also a few places where audio triggers are placed too close together cutting off the first one before it finishes.
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