Hi and welcome to the forums. These forums service C117 Games, Another Dungeon and the A&B Review websites.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.

Registration is free with no stupid credit card authentication or complex obscure character recognition requirements :).


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Quote Post
Add Reply
What have you finished and what did you think (WHYFAWDYT) thread
Topic Started: Dec 13 2013, 12:06 PM (33,527 Views)
jamesh
Member Avatar
Level 42
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
This is an interesting review of Hardline:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/03/battlefield-hardline-reviewcop-out.html

It also has some fun reader comments from people telling him he reviewed it wrong.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
NMANOZ
No Avatar
Level 6
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Started and finished Child Of Light, thought the game was good. It has borrowed a number of things from another game on XBLA called Faery.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

Finished The Fall on Wii U and loved it. Really looking forward to playing part two when that comes out.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Doomguy
Member Avatar
Level 7
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Ended up uninstalling Dark Souls II after 34 hours, I really just cannot be arsed to finish it. Definitely cemented myself into agreement with Moo of the clear superiority of Dark Souls 1.

Sure, Dark Souls II looks nicer and has marginal improvements in the combat fluidity, but I really think the pacing of Dark Souls II is just worse. The late game of DS was so satisfying how your gradual improvements of strength paid off to allow you to get through the dangerous areas to the Great Souls boss battles. It felt like a culmination of all your hard work, it was A grade game progression imho. By comparison, Dark Souls 2; "Yeah, go back to these previously conquered areas and get these giant souls lol". I really couldn't stand it, it felt so tedious. It reminds me another game that I absolutely hated in it's late game owing to a boring, tedious task: Metroid Prime 2.

I also thought the difficulty of DS2 was kinda the opposite of DS. DS I recall struggling with boss fights the most with the actual environments being more approachable. DS2 felt like the bosses were considerably easier (I defeated way, way more bosses first try in DS2) but the environments were noticeably more deadly. I guess that would kind of make it harder overall, I think I found the game more frustrating, but it left the boss fights feeling a bit like hollow victories from time to time.

I also maintain that the way you're given warp powers from the start, and the way that the areas don't link up as they did in DS is outright inferior. It was probably easier to craft a game world in this way, though. The world was more visually interesting, I'll give them that. I loved the view when approaching Drangleic Castle, that was pretty stunning.

In short: The climax of my enjoyment of DS2 happened well before late game, leaving me with no interest in pressing on. This is in stark contrast the DS which was at it's best in it's late game, imho.
Edited by Doomguy, Apr 10 2015, 12:50 PM.
Fuck_Giver.exe has stopped working!
Does it matter how I write the truth?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moo
Member Avatar
Level 8
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I think a major thing DS2 lacks in comparison to DS1 and Bloodborne is their ability to teach you things by rewarding observation and experimentation. Killing bosses in those games feels like you've been shot with some wonderful drug, and it feels earned. It's like you've just solved a difficult puzzle while being chased around by a Zelda boss that's harder than most Zelda bosses.

It's not that DS2 doesn't do this, but it doesn't do it half as well, and it frequently substitutes it for pure laziness. For example the Rat King fight -- which is just the Sif fight deprived of its aesthetic brilliance -- has poisonous rats constantly harass you, forcing you into a situation more annoying than it is tense where you have to avoid the Rat King while you kill them all. Bloodborne has a similar fight where a boss is protected by an army of smaller enemies, and while they're a pain in the ass, you aren't forced to kill them (even attempting to kill them all is harder than killing the boss) but have to be deft in avoiding them and watching for openings. Based on comments online people seem to think this is the most cathartic fight in the game, whereas I imagine the feeling after beating the Rat King is mild relief from being done with a poorly designed fight.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Doomguy
Member Avatar
Level 7
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
The other huge thing I forgot to mention was I found myself so much more regularly lost as to where I was supposed to go in DS2. I don't know if that was other people's experience but I think that not being as familiar with the game world (due to warping everywhere) contributed greatly to this. By the end of DS you know the world like the back of your hand, I certainly can't say the same about DSII.
Fuck_Giver.exe has stopped working!
Does it matter how I write the truth?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Red Panda
Member Avatar
Jerbs and Groathe
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I finished Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It was okay. It's a glorified pixel hunt that has some of the most photorealistic visuals I've seen in a game. I just dont think the structure of the game let alone its 'puzzles' really holds up, granted I just came off playing the Talos Principle but the interactions just doesnt develop past the House puzzle or the Train murder (which communicates its still shots best) in the first 2 hours of the game. It promises no handholding despite shining text all over the place, but opts to side-track and backtrack you at a snails pace as you traverse across the illusion of open space that's lined with invisible walls and empty wilderness.

I did really enjoy its story and atmosphere. But I felt it could have delivered it better as you're still just completing a fixed objective to play a cutscene; instead of actually exploring the world and piecing things yourself.
Edited by Red Panda, Apr 20 2015, 12:00 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moo
Member Avatar
Level 8
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Storywise TVOEC absolutely kills it in the first hour. The appearance of that utterly unexpected thing stunned me, and I liked the explanation for it. But it was just so obvious that
Spoiler: click to toggle
The puzzles are bad and I accuse the game of artwank, the sin of our times.
Edited by Moo, Apr 20 2015, 02:53 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
nuttz
No Avatar
Level 6
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Spoiler: click to toggle
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Red Panda
Member Avatar
Jerbs and Groathe
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I only had that problem with the Church scene. The still images were so vague. Would have been better if you could preview it or if the scene itself was more eventful than it was.

From that point though, the scenes following from that were just so linear with their placement with uninteresting scenes where the chonological sequence would just go from point A (the place where you entered from) leading into Point B (The murder scene). Which is why I liked the Train scene: it started then looped back with still images that looked really distinctive from one another.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

Finished Aaru's Awakening over the weekend... man... not a fan of that at all. Desperately in need of playing a great game next. Might give that Zelda Wall Painting game a shot.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Deleted User
Deleted User

Finished Broken Age - a really great story, wonderful to play and pure joy all round.
Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moo
Member Avatar
Level 8
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Finished watching Indigo Prophecy, capping off the David Cage trilogy of crap.

I think one of the Let's Players said it best when he pointed out that the only reason people liked IP was because it was the first cinematic game, but then The Walking Dead came along with a slightly tweaked formula and much better writing and blew it out of the water.

It's easily the worst of Cage's games, which is saying something because Heavy Rain and BTS are both awful. The supernatural element doesn't make a lick of sense: it chucks Christianity, Indians, AI and magic ghost bugs into the mix purely for plot convenience, with no connection between any of them. Lucas' Matrix abilities emerge out of thin air. Everything just emerges out of thin air, really. You don't learn until there are minutes left in the game that the world's about to be frozen to death because of artificial intelligence and/or ghost Indians. None of the universe's rules are explained. The whole story is so tedious. EDIT: I just remembered that Indian caricatures also emerge arbitrarily in BTS.

By the way DAVID CAGE IS 3 FOR 3 WHEN IT COMES TO FEMALE LEADS IN SHOWER SCENES. He's also 3 for 3 for female leads falling in love with the lead male protagonist for no reason. Lucas and Carla have literally only discussed plot details to each other -- THEY HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR A FEW HOURS AND HAVE ONLY CONVERSED IN EXPOSITION -- before Carla says "I love you Lucas" and they have sex and get married. At least Cage didn't derive artificial drama from an attempted rape this time around!

Is Cage a trust fund baby? How does he keep getting the money for these things?
Edited by Moo, May 11 2015, 04:03 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
nuttz
No Avatar
Level 6
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
The thing with Cage's games is that the team that surround him is so damn good. The music and environmental design of his games is always superb.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moo
Member Avatar
Level 8
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
I know! But the games are still failures and it's entirely because of his writing and direction.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Video Games · Next Topic »
Add Reply

Theme released at ZNR