| Gaming Forums > General Gaming |
| What is the last game you beat? Thoughts/impressions? |
| << < (195/214) > >> |
| MagicCow64:
--- Quote from: azeke on January 05, 2020, 11:06:15 PM --- --- Quote from: MagicCow64 on December 21, 2019, 07:29:34 PM ---Devil May Cry 5 (PC): In that view, I found Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 perfectly enjoyable, with involving spectacle, well implemented gameplay variety, and tight pacing. DMC 5 by contrast had loading screens between menu options, and loading screens in between asinine cutscenes. --- End quote --- You probably forgot that W101 has just as many loading screens in between chapters. --- End quote --- Did I forget W101 having long loading scenes between basic menu options, or between cutscenes within its (long) chapters? I recall everything being perfectly fluid inside the actual episodes of the game and its UI, but perhaps I have rose-tinted glasses on. Another issue I have with DMC5 that I forgot to bring up is that I find Dante himself kinda unpleasant to play as. He felt sluggish. I much preferred Nero and V, and found it nettling that the more enjoyable playable characters got sidelined in the last third. I hear you on the Dark Moon 3DS ergonomics, though; I made permanent indents in the circle pads with my thumbnails. |
| ejamer:
The Kore Gang (Wii) was pretty uneven. At it's best, the offbeat humor hits and everything feels like a love letter to early 3D platformers where you explore large stages, collect little macguffins to unlock bonus artwork, and chase multi-level goals to reach the next stage. In it's worst moments, you'll be cursing the terrible camera, mediocre controls, bolted on story that never quite manages to commit far enough, and bouts of uninspired level design. When this game released (a long time ago now) some people were pretty excited, because it was a project that was almost a decade coming and seemed likely to be cancelled. A few have called it a hidden gem. Sadly, I think it falls short of that label and is better described as an oddity -- something best suited for people with patience for old-school design foibles and projects that didn't receive quite enough polish before getting released. If that does describe you then dive in; there are redeeming features and some fun to be had along the way. Glad I played it. Glad it's done. Not getting rid of the game, but don't see myself going back for a second play anytime soon. |
| Adrock:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Switch) A worthy successor to Castlevania. The gameplay is on point, exactly what I was expecting and hoping for. I spent over 60 hours with the game just doing everything such as upgrading rank and grade of shards, preparing food, crafting weapons/armor, mastering techniques etc. Performance was mostly fine, a few noticeable hiccups where the frame rate dropped. It was still mostly fine. I can only imagine how bad performance was on Switch last year before the updates. The graphics are a mixed bag. They don’t look horrible per se (mostly weirdly dark to hide some of the visual downgrades), but they’re definitely worse than what Switch is capable of. The game would certainly look better under a more seasoned team developing specifically for the platform instead of scaling. Once I noticed there were no shadows, for example, it was impossible for me to unsee that. The story is typically forgettable so nothing new for a Koji Igarashi game. I’m okay with it though I think the world was rich enough to do more with. There is one decent twist toward the end of the game. Otherwise, the plot is full of tropes and mostly just there to give Miriam a reason to kill monsters. Speaking of, I liked Miriam as a character and hope to see her again in a sequel. ArtPlay could stand to tone down her boobs. Not gratuitous, just unnecessary. Miriam’s voice actress, Erica Lindbeck, did well though her accent was woefully inconsistent. David Hayter as Zangetsu was... not great. He used his Solid Snake voice then added a bad Japanese accent. Hayter was part of the original Kickstarter campaign, originally supposed to voice Gebel. I get it. Gebel is barely in the game so if Hayter was supposed to be a major draw, giving him a bigger role makes sense. Still, I would’ve preferred a Japanese actor to voice Zangetsu if everyone just insisted the character must have a Japanese accent. I was particularly disappointed in the final boss. It neither felt like a final boss nor held a candle to IGA’s other games. For example, Portrait of Ruin was the first game in which Dracula and Death are fought together. Bael was surprisingly tame design-wise. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun. It has been a long time since I played a good Metroidvania. Who better to bring me back to the genre than the master himself. I’ll definitely play it again some day, preferably without the scaled down graphics and lower frame rate. |
| azeke:
Assassin's Creed: Origins (Xbox One X): I bought Origins with my Xbox One more than a year ago now. Have been playing it in spurs and finally finished it (plus expansions) last month. One of the new things in this one is a new Skyrim-like compass-line system showing you directions to the icons on the map. Even beside that fact that i usually disable mini-maps and other UI elements like these, i never understood how to make sense of these compass-lines. Especially now that i have OLED tv that is prone to burn-in, it's even more important for me to remove all static icons. At first i tried to remove all UI altogether but you still need enemy silhouettes and health bars on for combat, so i kept only that. There was still an icon-reminder that i have an ability point and for some reason you can't disable it. This is bad because some of the later abilities require more than one point and you eventually run out of abilities that cost only 1 -- so this icon might stay there for quite a while. Without minimap and all kinds of nagging reminders of what you need to do and where you need to go, game looks less "check-the-box"-y than it really is. Eagle vision in previous Assassin's Creed games was basically just a Batman-vision ripoff with weird limitations, like in Unity you could only keep it up for 2 seconds tops. But someone in Origins team came up with a fantastic idea about "eagle vision". In Origins, when you press eagle vision button, camera is yanked up high and you get a literal EAGLE vision, so you can scout around from bird's eye view perspective. You don't have to bring up map every time you need to check up your immediate surroundings nor does the world turns into magical blue-hue allowing to see through walls and automatically highlighting things of note. New eagle vision is simultaneously more "realistic", more useful AND gives player more agency. It even makes more sense lore-wise! Eagle was a symbol of the series since Assassin's Creed 1 and each game had eagle as visual element symbolizing the main character, and only in Origins eagles actually became useful -- as camera-men, like Lakitu is for Mario 64. It's hilarious how simple this idea is. Eagle feathers also were a part of the mythology of the series, and they were brought them back too and re-connected to the myth of Judgement of Maat. Very smart. Setting-wise i had doubts at first, because despite that the game celebrating the history of Egypt it is set during the times of Caesar and Cleopatra which is thousands years AFTER peak of Egyptian kingdoms when they actually were building pyramids and Sphinx and stuff. Egypt as a Roman province interested me less because we kinda got too much of Roman stuff in movies and shows. Still when i started playing i actually really much enjoyed a mix of cultures represented in the game: Egyptian and Roman but also Greek. It kinda reminded me of the first AC game where cities had different architecture, religion and languages. Diversity of nature: from deserts of Egypt to lush mountainous forests of Lybia to flooded riverbanks of Nile. Culture-wise, it would be all kinds of buildings and artifacts from (already by that time) ancient Egyptian Pyramids to Ptolemaic Lighthouse of Alexandria to glimpses of Roman domination over both Egyptian and Greek legacies -- there are a lot of sights to see and climb around. After i finishing the game, i also fully completed Discovery tour. I especially loved fantastic detailed illustrations and maps made by professional archaeologist Jean Claude Golvin used as reference. Fascinating stuff and i like that several times they specifically note how they go against historical facts to deliver a better game. At first i thought i will only do the parts required for the achievements but ended up doing them all. Previously, Assassin's Creed game had similar missions like these where you were being shown a normal daily life of people of that historical era, i really enjoyed the one at the end of Assasin's Creed 3 because it was a conclusion to you building this village and bringing these people there at different times during campaign and as a reward you got to see them going about their daily life. Kinda like Tarrey Town quest. Discovery mode is like an expansion of this idea and seems like a great re-use of historical material they collected for the game. It is a great mode if you don't actually want to play the game and just want to chill out and gawk at the sights and maybe read some historical factoids. RPG combat and all the pointless loot management is really annoying at first, combat is still pretty bad. Enemy levels are really prohibitive at the start of a game during the first hour of a game where you don't have armour, weapons and abilities. A random soldier one-hitting you is just annoying. Of all things they fixed after Unity fiasco that RPG things was one thing that they unfortunately kept in. Climbing is pretty good, both in the cities and the nature. The way how you can climb any rocks is kinda similar of BOTW. The mission design also took a few notes Breath of the Wild -- Origins is way more exploratory and trusting of the player. In previous games -- when you get a mission -- game would just plop an icon at the exact location on the map but in Origins mission givers would just say: "go to the west, there is cave there and do this and that". It is so much more immersive to navigate the space yourself and just look around without the game just leading you like a sheep towards an icon on a map. Modern segment of the plot is becoming smaller and smaller with each new iteration it seems -- it's just one small cave this time around. However i still really enjoyed sci-fi time-travel segments with weird-ass visions inside pyramids and sphinx. I know i am the minority here but genuinely love that element of the series and i'm sad that they listen to their playerbase and keep reducing it. Egyptian pyramids have always been a magnet for all kinds of "ancient aliens", "secret society", "super advanced precursor civilization" conspiracies so it was fun for AC that is so seeped in all these conspiracies to finally go into the pyramids. Assasin's Creed looks amazing, plays fine, Discovery tour is a nice extra and is fun in by itself. RPG levels-based combat is still annoying at times, but at worst you can lower combat difficulty and enjoy other parts of the game -- exploring and climbing around. A fantastic reinvigoration of the series. Very polished and a great game all around. |
| MagicCow64:
Strongly disagree with respected Azeke, particularly about the climbing in Origns^ Disco Elysium (PC): I bit the bullet on this after it reared its head on the end-of-the-year lists. It makes a strong impression in its opening hours, when its D&D overlay is still intimidating and when you have seemingly urgent benchmarks to hit with hotel fees. Unfortunately, the actual gameplay obstacle gets neutralized after a few in-game days, and you're left with a "story" experience that incorporates an abstruse 20-category stat system to mildly direct your narrative. Add that the game desperately needs a waypoint system, and has a needlessly clunky tool interface. As for the story itself? I guess it's cool to see political consciousness in a video game, but I struggle to recall an actual message. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |
