I'm changing the rules this year
This year I'm going to include games that I've played, but for whatever reason I fell off them. This will probably swell the list considerably, but I've learnt that it's hard to keep track of what I've played during the year and why I didn't enjoy XYZ when considering lists at the end.
Spoilers..obviously
What can I say, I like lists.
Consoles this year (at start) - 3ds (with DS/GBA/SNES capability), ps3 (ps2/psx), Xbone, Vita, Saturn, Dreamcast, Megadrive.
(October): Switch
PC - 750ti card. On it's very last legs, but I could play Nioh at 720p at 60fps. That's good enough for me.
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PS3 2 hours before dropping off. I know loads of people love this game, and the series. I'm a massive fan of 2, quite like 3 and enjoyed 4 enough to finish it. However, with Persona 5 I hit my limit. I recognise this is a personal thing, I'm not saying the game is bad..but it's sure as hell not for me. The 'stylish' presentation is far far far too busy to my eyes. I don't need cut ins every 30 seconds, I don't need the world to look like Sears had a sharpie pen give-away and most of all I don't need the trite story. I'm just not the demographic - the 'all adults are evil' thing is just..urgh. Within the first half an hour I was rolling my eyes at the reasons for why the MC was in Tokyo in the first place - that shit doesn't make sense. None of the starting characters were sympathetic and the constant 'you're scum' approach by the NPCs was just tiring and tired. Combat system seemed fine, though - again - less sharpy and more information. A heart is not a number. Again, this is a highly subjective take - I can understand how many people would love this game - but like Nier Automata before it - there were many reasons why it just didn't click with me and there were enough reasons for me to move on. no score.
Xbone First two cases then dropped. So close, so very close. Ignoring the control issues (pivot style controls, lots of pathing issues) there is a lot of heart in this game. I really respect what they're tried to do here. I'm not sure it was necessary to make Holmes so young (though it's understandable for marketing purposes - gotta get all those kids that know Cumberbatch or Miller or Downey Jr, Downey being the main one I feel. Jeremy Brett is my Sherlock Holmes, and the best of them - but few would know those 80s/90s ITV adaptations I hazard) and there seems to be some sort of continuity to earlier games - Katelyn being the main one. I haven't played the earlier games but..it's certainly an interesting tack to take. I should also say that I enjoyed the stories/cases. They were very much in the vein of a television episode...and they were generally well written. The dialogue is passable, but the plot is solid. My problem comes from the added 'mini - games' that constantly pop up. The first was an extended stealth sequence that has a street urchin tail a suspect through Whitechapel..and that was annoying but passable. Then there was the bowls game, the random QTEs that pop up out of nowhere and give you little warning, and then the worst of them all - Holmes imagines a 'raiders of the lost ark' situation in his head - including traps that can kill you..in his imagination. That was when I went 'nope' - finished the case and gave up. To be fair to the developer, they give you the option to skip these segments, probably fully aware that a lot of people are just there for the detective work, not the Tomb Raiding/Assassin's Creeding. However, by the end of the second case..I just didn't look forward to the next one. I was burnt out. Which is a shame, as there's a lot to like her - and a lot of hope for their Cthulhu game..but everyone has a limit, and I hit mine. no score
3ds 5 hours - Copen True End I liked the first GV game well enough - could have done without the light novel elements and those bloody pits. Does the sequel improve the game? Well..they got rid of those pits and one hit kill bosses but doubled down on that light novel crap. Why a 14/15 year old boy needs a harem is beyond me. Add 10 years to everyone and it becomes less disturbing. So yes, Gunvolt. Let's start with what I didn't really like... Gunvolt himself. He's bland, his bullet types are terrible, his flash field is cool and there's some cool puzzle elements that use it later in the game. I'm also not a fan of Zonda's male cockpit design..it looks ridiculous. So what did I like? Everything else - Copen especially. Copen is awesome. Why GV runs slowly through every level and occasionally hovers slowly to the ground in his flash field, Copen straight up jets about the place like the nephew of Rocket Knight/Sparkster. He's got a jet pack and is not afraid to use it - the more 'bullits' or jet pack energy you have, the more times you can air dash before refilling. By the end I could bounce about the place like a pinball. Copen tags enemies by dashing into them, you can only tag a single enemy at once and then you shoot them. As long as that enemy is tagged, you fire will track. It's a far better (and easier) mechanic than GVs tag and flash system. BUT THATS NOT ALL! Oh no, Copen copies the abilities of enemy bosses that he kills, Megaman style, and bosses are weak to specific attacks. I was stumped by the true final boss until I realised the elemental weakness and then it was a walk over (which after an hour of getting to the last bit of health each time, for the boss to spam supers at me..felt great) There's far more variety in Copen's arsenal as well - despite keeping the same gun type. He's just more fun to play...and doesn't have a harem. Sure, he's edgy and in the Sasuke/Shadow archetype - but at least he has a character. All the waifu nonsense of GVs storyline is replaced by a kid wanting to save his little sister. That's far more palatable for me. 4.5 'Akira? Who..wait you mean Copen? What is going on with this translation? 5
Xbone 15 hours I'll make this brief - it suffers from the same platforming issues as Dishonored, in that you are not always sure where you're going to land. This is exacerbated by the grappling hook - many times have I died from jumps that didn't lead to a grab, or a grappling hook that didn't work as it should. Combat is terrible until the bow becomes available. This is made worse by the fact that zombies spawn in, there aren't a fixed amount like in Dead Rising. I've had zombies spawn in behind me when there's no place for them or just in thin air, dropping down. Finally there's the terrible story and possibly the worst final boss I've played in quite some time. I liked using the bow, and the environments are fun when the parkour goes your way. Oh and the ridiculous things that you need to do to contact the GRE - constantly climbing higher and higher for no good narrative reason. Urgh 2 'Why don't you shut the fuck up?'/5
PC 56 hours or so Trial only Is this the best demo ever made? Ehh possibly? I've played for 50 something hours and have yet to actually sign up. I've levelled a pugalist up to a monk (you get your 'job' at lvl 30) An arcanist up to a scholar (cause screw summoners) A rogue up to a ninja. And I levelled everything else apart from the lancer and gladiator up to between 15-20. I even spent time with fishing (great), alchemy and weaving. I played entirely with a controller on my pc and didn't have too many issues at low level - though raiding, I can imagine, would take vast amounts of dexterity and button combinations for healers. I think my favourite class is probably Scholar. I enjoy support roles and I like pets and the quasi tank aspect of healing through almost anything. I also enjoyed the thaumaturge and rogue...but there's not really much in the early game to keep you interested in the story. The battle system is typcial MMO stuff with a global cooldown, but the addition of job specific gauges (such as greased lightning for the pugalist that works with your rotation, or astral fire/ice that works for damage/mana regen for thaumaturges) keep things fresh. It's just not enough really without a decent storyline - and at the low end of things, Realm Reborn doesn't have that. FF games have always been about telling fairy stories with an added dash of tactical battle systems. XIV suffers from the lack of a party (supposed to be supplied by other people, but I played entirely alone..as is my wont) and the character stories within the job quests were pretty bland. Arcanist being the only exception for me - though they really do overplay the waifuness of the catgirls. Every single female story character who is supposed to evoke sympathy is a catgirl. It's...their market I guess. There's much that can be said about FFXIV but...I can't be arsed. That probably says more about how I feel about the game at the moment than any long winded dissection of the gameplay loop. I will admit that I bought a key to all the expansions when it was on sale, but I have yet to use it - seeking to make the most of the trial...and I burned out on the trial. At least it was on sale... no score - but an enjoyable time waster.
Xbone 22:30 at the end of part IV I finished this game..I say finished, given that the end game is just a slog and the only 'end' is a 2 minute cutscene...over a week ago and really didn't have the desire to write this 'review' of my time with it - which should say a lot about the game really. So Shadow of Lootboxes - first up, I couldn't care less about Tolkien canon as I find the books tiresome and the movies more so. I have, however, enjoyed the original 'Shadow of' game and intend to sit down with that GC RPG at some point in the future (The Third Age?). In short - I don't really have a problem with the storyline. Shelob being female and attractive made sense from the game perspective due to the fact that she's a spider and that she's enticing him into a trap. Whether that fits with previous Shelob stuff..probably not. Also who wants to see a giant spider all the time? Urgh. The ending made sense - followed the main concepts of the plot and revealed the 'true' villain..as set up very early on by a throw away line. It wasn't fantastic, but it kept me entertained. The gameplay was standard Arkham combat with a mild refinement in movement and environment interaction. Double jumps and slow motion shooting while in the air were great - as was the littered explosive grog, spider eggs etc etc. It's good, dynamic gameplay that became a bit too boring by the end. Nemesis system is still a great idea, it just needs room to breathe and move away from..sigh..orcs. I really hate orcs. Credit where credit's due - Monolith did a pretty good job in giving these guys personalities and making them individual..but the illusion wears thin when random dudes pop up saying 'ahh I have returned to seek vengeance...' when you've never met them before or set modifiers on the orcs (only speaks in rhyme being popular in my playthrough..odd given my P.h.D topic) starting to wear thin. This is compounded by the 'lootbox' system in order to get more orcs to take over the castles and 'win' the game. To be fair it just requires grinding for either coins (which are in fair abundance) or turning as many orc captains as possible before invading the keeps. It's just artificial grind that was most likely placed there by WB rather than Monolith themselves. It's a shame, as by the end of the IV act the game was wearing out it's welcome. Stopping there would have been perfect. Not a bad game by any stretch, just one full of disappointing choices. 3 'Dark lord, bright lord, what's the difference'/5
Xbone I....didn't actually check. 15 hours to credits? Maybe more. Level 24 A game that was destined to be hated before anyone even played it - Metal Gear Survive is a game that nobody asked for, and yet some found fun. I'm one of those people who enjoyed it enough to finish..but I got it pretty cheap (£20 on release day) First up - I don't hold much weight with the hatred this game gets for being made sans Kojima. It's certainly written as poorly as most of his stuff post MGS3. Most of the hatred towards the game appears to be very much of a 'reactionary' sort - i.e. uninformed people on the internet that read something on the internet - think that it's true and then form biased opinions based upon that information. If that's you, then don't play this game. It's not worth it - but also don't decide that it's shit just because some youtuber says so. Also ffs don't ascribe Western concepts of work to Japanese companies...makes you look stupid. Anyway..the game itself, you know, that thing that people hate. It's built upon the fox engine, so most of what MGSV does well (open ended stealth) this game does well. Most of the problem with the reviews is that people are trying to play it like Dead Rising but with survival mechanics - and given the zombies around it's kinda understandable. That's not this game - it's a stealth game with the odd base defence mission thrown in. That's it. So going around attacking zombies all the time is both detrimental to your health (which is very fragile) your equipment (you need to craft ammo, spears are generally the best early game weapon) and your gauges (oxygen when in the dust, food and drink all the time). I would agree that this is not an easy game to enjoy - in fact the game goes out of it's way to piss you off. Metres dropping in the base or when you're in menus? Check. No auto save on mission completion, meaning if you die before reaching base you lose everything? Check. Water and food not respawning for ages? Check. That game takes place in a hostile environment and the game reflects that. As to the enemies - you may have seen Sterling's complaints about how dumb they are and that sitting on the high ground means they can't get you...making the game shit. Last time I checked, zombies were brain dead..so that's not really a surprise is it? Given how fragile you are it's a necessity to use the environment to your advantage. Once you get beyond the first area though...good luck not dying to the other variations using that method. Storyline is in line with the stupidity of the recent games, without the technical skill of the translators of 1/2/3 helping ease the game into a different language. Kojima is a great idea and systems guy, but god..he can't write dialogue or narrative to save his life. I didn't bother with online, nor did I even look at the microtransactions. Yes, charging for a second character is scummy - but most people won't even consider having a second character as that would mean starting the game from the beginning again..and that's not this type of game's thing really. Are there issues? Tons. It's a half baked game - like the original Assassin's Creed. There's a kernal of fantastic game in there - most likely due to the engine rather than anything else - but it's not terrible. I could do with better melee, better crafting, slower gauges, better enemies, more thought put into the loadout system, more base and gadget things to use...it needs more thought put into it. As a proof of concept, it has something interesting. As a game by itself, ehh it's not terrible but it's also not worth making any sort of fuss about. 3 'the worst lipsyncing ever'/5 Yes I preferred it to Dying Light..which went on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and was just boring.
GBA Gave up around 10 hours - when you go to the other world for the first time. After the bridge section. I really enjoyed what I played of the game - especially the job system and the characters. Though I saw little development, Faris is just a great concept for a character and it's great that Square felt it was safe enough to introduce her the way they did. I guess sprites help in that fashion. Even so, it was cool. The problem for me, at least, was the lack of direct path finding - I got lost more often than not and walking into an area with monsters at lvl 60 when you're in your 30s is not a good time. Back when there were less games and more time this would have been a no brainer - but I have less patience now when it comes to redoing the last hour because I went some place that I wasn't supposed to go. I don't have time for that, nor is it enjoyable. As such, the problem isn't with the game - it's a product of it's time. The problem is that I just don't have the time or patience any more for this type of game, or at least the system built into it. GBA version is awesome by the way. No score
PC 3:30 hours Firewatch is a game that subverts expectations...or at least attempts to. Those expecting Blizzard's newest expansion pack for Overwatch will be sadly let down ('now with even more FIREEEEEE') as this is an adventure game in the style of a 'walking simulator' as the cool kids call them these days. Personally, as one who likes these types of games I think it's more than a bit unfair a name. To me, these games are the equivalent of a short story, or a novella. Yes, you mainly walkaround and interact with the environment, but the focus is mostly on the narrative, rather than the plot (or action if you prefer). This, of course, will put many people off who have been weened on COD and its like. Action has its place, as does narrative. So what about the game itself? It's a well told, short story. I think Virgina does a far better job of doing a similar sort of story - but what Firewatch does well, it does very well. The main thrust of the game is the relationship built between Henry, the player character, and Dia..sorry Delilah. Delilah's voice is only ever heard over the radio and there are many questions as to what's actually happening in the game. The writers play with tropes drawn from the afore referenced Twin Peaks and Bioshock but manage to subvert expectations in an unusual manner..or perhaps not. I never really bought into the relationship and was expecting the other shoe to drop throughout...so credit where credit is due. The VO and general design is great - even if it is a Unity engine game..at least I think it is.. My only complaint would be that I was hoping for more given the introduction...the first 5 mins or so are some of the most heartbreaking I've seen/read - mostly due to the fact that it's a problem that effects people in my family. I just wish more had been done there, and with the inevitable question that is raised in the middle to end of the game..I didn't follow that 'path' as it were, though the ending suggested I did? It was odd. A good game, but could have been more. Hats off to Jake and Chris, as well as the rest of the team, for crafting a great story though..just let down by the need for it to end. 3.5 'I got the fire, that boom boom boom' /5
WiiU 11 hours Sigh. Play the first game - don't play this one. The only reason that I ended up playing this is how dire DW9 ended up being, married to the release of Hokuto Ga Gotaku on the ps4. Personally, I'd stop any FOTNS game with Raoh's death - once Bat and Rin grow up...it goes very very down hill. Just...unless you love the series and can't get hold of the first game - give this a miss. 1 'You are already bored'/5