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Started by Keef Monkey, 11 June, 2011, 09:35:35 AM

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GrudgeJohnDeed

Also, Code Veronica X just went backwards compatible so it really is just a RE3 shaped hole now! Although I will say it'd be nice to have a way to play the original versions 1 - 3 on Xbox rather than just the remakes, I'd buy 'em.

shaolin_monkey

Quote from: Theblazeuk on 14 February, 2019, 01:12:34 PM
No one wins Roy monkey, but you *burp* lost if anyone ever did.

:lol:

Now THAT was funnier than anything in the game! 

:lol:

Keef Monkey

Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 21 February, 2019, 07:07:42 PM
Also, Code Veronica X just went backwards compatible so it really is just a RE3 shaped hole now! Although I will say it'd be nice to have a way to play the original versions 1 - 3 on Xbox rather than just the remakes, I'd buy 'em.

Yeah I'm really happy with Code Veronica going BC, I got a chunk through that back when it came out but never finished it for some reason so feel like I can now sort out some unfinished business!

I finally beat The 4th Survivor too, it was some really satisfying and sweaty palmed gaming right there. Limited myself to a couple of attempts per sitting to avoid frustration and eventually figuring out the right weapons for each part and the best route paid off. Haven't tried the other survivor levels but if it's a similar set-up I might bow out, things could get tough!

Played through one of the Far Cry 5 DLC's at the weekend, Hours of Darkness. It's a couple of hours long and set in Vietnam, nothing amazing but I did enjoy it. FC5 didn't leave me with a great hunger for more so was surprised how much the refreshed setting and objectives did to grab my interest again. Will need to play through the others!

Link Prime

Quote from: Keef Monkey on 25 February, 2019, 11:25:52 AM
Quote from: GrudgeJohnDeed on 21 February, 2019, 07:07:42 PM
Also, Code Veronica X just went backwards compatible so it really is just a RE3 shaped hole now! Although I will say it'd be nice to have a way to play the original versions 1 - 3 on Xbox rather than just the remakes, I'd buy 'em.

Yeah I'm really happy with Code Veronica going BC, I got a chunk through that back when it came out but never finished it for some reason so feel like I can now sort out some unfinished business!


You certainly do Keef- the true sequel to RE2.

I only played through Code Veronica once on the Dreamcast back in the day, and I remember being absolutely blown away by the advancement of the graphics.

RE2 Remake is on my hit list, and I'm enjoying reading the comments about it on this thread.
I'll go bargain hunting for it sometime in the summer.
Must actually upgrade all of my RE games to the newest / HD versions (on PS4).
It really is a brilliant series.

I've been flat out playing some top tier titles since just before Christmas- Horizon Zero Dawn (10/10, Platinum trophy), Rise of the Tomb Raider (8/10), Spider-Man (9/10, Platinum trophy) and Super Smash Brother Ultimate (9/10).

Kicking back with a new-ish Harvest Moon on the Switch at the moment.
Not as good as Stardew Valley, but it's scratching that itch.



GrudgeJohnDeed

Quote from: Link Prime on 25 February, 2019, 12:13:52 PM

You certainly do Keef- the true sequel to RE2.

I only played through Code Veronica once on the Dreamcast back in the day, and I remember being absolutely blown away by the advancement of the graphics.


I hear that, a lot of DC games stunned me back then! That generation (with DC as the vanguard) was the tipping point where consoles had practically caught up with arcades, fantastic ports like Soul Calibur and House of the Dead 2 made me go cross-eyed. To the detriment of arcades, unfortunately!

CV is also just a really good Resi game, a tricky one too especially if you go for the highest rank - I think you get one save (the one where the disc change was, that save remains in this version) and all sorts of other limitations..

Well done on beating the 4th survivor Keef! I'm the same I left it at that, the game has already given me mild PTSD :D . I'm not much of a high score guy either, so without the carrot of an achievement or unlock I've not got much interest in whittling down my time.

Currently on the last level of Body Harvest on N64, a childhood favourite. I don't know if it's because I'm playing the NTSC version but it's been a lot harder than last time I played through (a couple of years ago on PAL). Still very impressive, super ambitious for 1998 and really original.

It had a rather troubled development though, DMA (now Rockstar North) were at loggerheads with Nintendo over the direction of the game, with Nintendo eventually cancelling the contract and DMA finding other partners, and then upon release it didn't set reviews on fire or sell great. A lot of aspects that Nintendo pushed stayed in though, things like RPG elements and a more serious tone, and they really make it in my opinion. It would've been a silly tongue in cheek arcade shooter otherwise and I think what we got is more interesting. The soundtrack for example is fantastic, it's pretty much a horror soundtrack which does most of the heavy lifting in setting the tone befitting such a grim premise, overpowering the colourful early 3d graphics' attempts to make you feel comfortable.

I'd love a sequel in this day of copious, formulaic open-world games, all the trouble behind the scenes might explain why it's not been revisited by Rockstar though. I have a friend who worked there and the first thing I asked him when he started his job was 'Where are the Body Harvest posters? Do you walk past a statue of Adam Drake in the lobby??' - absolutely not, he laughed (he liked to rib me about my fandom before he even got the job, although he has since played it himself and has more respect for it :D ).

Tiplodocus

I really liked Body Harvest. Still got my N64 but think I sold the cartridge.

Blast Corps (though I think that was fledgling Rare rather than fledgling DMA) was also a left-field cracker.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

GrudgeJohnDeed

Yes! Blast Corps is a classic, still well worth a playthrough today and it's on Rare Replay if anyone has an XBONE. Man, Rare rocked the N64 didn't they.

Interestingly I heard that in their attempts to get DMA to make what Nintendo wanted, Nintendo showed them Rare's Blast Corps as a kind of benchmark of what's possible on N64. So it strikes me as entirely possible that Blast Corps may be responsible for some of the vehicle system and destruction DNA in Body Harvest, considering the similarities.

Keef Monkey

Just finished the Lost On Mars DLC for Far Cry 5, and quite enjoyed it. It's nothing too exciting and is a fairly repetitive checklist of things to collect, but I do like a DLC that takes you to a different setting to the main game and uses some different assets. As far as that sort of thing goes you can't get much further away than Mars really, so it's admirable how much of an overhaul they've given things! I've enjoyed this and the Vietnam DLC more than I enjoyed the actual main campaign at this point to be honest.

JamesC

Quote from: Professor Bear on 21 January, 2019, 07:24:49 PM

Assassins Creed: Odyssey - latest version of the never-ending franchise that always finds a way to fuck up something that works.  In this case, the mercenary rebalancing of the combat/exploration/XP systems since the previous game to herd you towards microtransactions if you want to continue the storyline: enemies are never more than 1 level below you, which means you can't grind or farm in the usual way to level up, but you have to be certain levels to undertake certain quests, and this means doing literally dozens of side missions before you can continue the main story, but you soon run out of side missions because the ones in neighboring territories are usually ten or twenty levels above the level you can achieve in your current area - or alternatively you can - naturally - buy an XP multiplier from the in-game store with real money, so it's a full price game you can't actually enjoy until you've forked over more cash.  Oh, and when new DLC is released?  Every time you try to go to the map screen that is essential to the game, you don't get the map screen, you get a fullscreen advertisement for the paid DLC.  Every single time you try to access the map screen.
And we haven't even got to the DLC yet, in which all non-hetero choices are rendered non-canon for your character.  Been playing 80+ hours as a gay man or woman?*  Tough shit, you're a parent now.  It's a good thing people choose to be gay or someone might be a little annoyed at this.
It's still a good game, and the world is fantastic - the first time I saw a whale break the surface of the ocean I just about shit - but unless you're willing to pay extra, best settle in for a few months of grinding if you want to get the most out of it.


* And only got to level 7.

I've been playing AC: Odyssey casually since Xmas (by casually - 3-4 hours per week at the most) and have suffered similar frustrations to those listed above.
I've played all the AC games and this is the first time I've decided to stop playing one due to frustration. I feel like this game is not accessible to me as a casual player. There's a huge emphasis on leveling up your character. I just don't enjoy this mechanic (never been much of an RPG fan) and it annoys me when I can't assassinate someone because I'm Level 17 and they're level 20. Despite the fact I've just stuck a spear in their ear form behind, while they were completely unguarded, they manage to turn around and eradicate me in a couple of hits. I then have to run around doing tedious side quests to level up (where you can't just go to an objective, you have to hunt things out. 'Destroy 2 bandit ships'. Okay fine - oh hang on, all the bandit ships I can find are 5 levels above me so I can't do that one).
I'm sure it's all very immersive and impressive if you've got days at a time to spend on it but it's no good for me.

I have the PS4 Spider-Man game waiting to be installed so I'm going to forget AC for a bit and concentrate on something which (I hope) will be more fun.

Keef Monkey

Quote from: JamesC on 07 March, 2019, 02:35:02 PM
I have the PS4 Spider-Man game waiting to be installed so I'm going to forget AC for a bit and concentrate on something which (I hope) will be more fun.


I'm playing Spider-Man at the moment and don't think you'll have the same frustrations! There is a leveling system and skills and gadgets to unlock and upgrade, but I've not felt like they're a barrier to story progression. There are some arcadey challenges that unlock at one point and I had a lot of trouble with until I'd gone away and gotten better at some things but those were totally optional. It's great!

I didn't play Odyssey but I've heard a lot of complaints about it perhaps being so hard on the leveling and grinding to encourage people to buy into the micro-transactions to skip a lot of the grind. I don't hate micro-transactions depending on how they're used but making your game less fun unless you pay extra is a pretty seedy way to implement them.

Keef Monkey

Accidentally posted this in the Switch thread so will stick it here instead! Apologies to anyone who may have gotten excited about Spider-Man on Switch.

I've been playing a really interesting puzzle game on the Vita called The Bridge, where the levels look like Escher pieces and you rotate the screen to change gravity and perspective. It's brilliant, and after finishing the main levels I was almost at the end of the harder 'mirrored' versions, but with two levels to go I've hit a bug that's stopped progression sadly. There are keys on chains around some of the levels, and they have physics and swing around as gravity shifts, something has happened to my save file where now the physics of all keys on all levels is busted - they're just placed locked in position instead of moving on the chains.

Took me a while of being massively stuck on a level before I gave in and checked a walkthrough and realized mine were busted! It's pretty annoying, I was really close to properly finishing the thing, and I can't find any workarounds or fixes online (I've tried all my ex-QA tactics to try and reset things to no avail). It was made by a single developer I think so I've messaged him to see if he knows a workaround, if anyone will it'll be him!

A game I did manage to finish finally though is Spider-Man, which was bloody brilliant. Essentially does for Spider-Man what the Arkham games did for Batman, and a lot of its structure and systems are lifted directly from that franchise, and it feels fantastic to swing around and fight baddies as Spidey. Plus the story is surprisingly great, the writing is excellent and the performances are great, I was fully invested! Some aspects become a bit of a chore before the end, a late-game event makes the city a lot less fun to get around, and the controls are so fluid and well designed that when they occasionally go a bit wrong (after tens of hours with the game I still don't know how to quickly and gracefully get off a wall I've accidentally attached to) it's a bit jarring, but all minor quibbles in a fantastic package.

Also hit the odd bug with this one, mainly with enemies ragdolling through collision holes and getting stuck in walls or props. A couple of times during fight challenges/outpost battles I thought I wasn't going to be able to beat the last enemy because they were stuck inside a crate somewhere, but turned out the suit powers with splash damage could kill them through walls so that was lucky (the guitar ability did the trick usually).

Also you can unlock an animated comic-book style outfit which looks absolutely incredible swinging around the photo-realistic city, there's a real Roger Rabbit disconnect with it but it looked so wild that I stuck with it throughout.

NapalmKev

I'm currently re-playing Bro Force on the PS4. Hard mode doesn't actually seem very hard at all.

Cheers
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

Keef Monkey

I take back my previous comments about my playthrough of The Bridge being scuppered by a bug, I messaged the developer to see about a workaround (I was polite about it, not Gamer On The Internet Sending Death Threats about it) and the response was that the Vita version has reduced physics on some levels due to lower processing power, so the walkthroughs I'd been looking at with the keys swinging on chains will be from the PC version. On Vita the keys on some levels are locked in place, but it's still apparently possible to pass the puzzles.

I haven't gone back and tried again yet, but wanted to backpedal my 'it's broken!' post, I just need to get better apparently!

Keef Monkey

Haven't gone back and cracked The Bridge yet but just finished another indie puzzle game, Human Fall Flat. It was okay, but the endearingly wonky controls and physics became less endearing as it went on. It's not great at letting you know where in a level the actual objective it, some of them are quite sprawling and it's easy to come up with a tactic that circumvents a lot of the level without realizing it, so then you wind up heading in the wrong direction.

Plus there's a really poor level on the end that I just straight up checked a guide for because I wanted it to be over, from what I gather it's a bonus level that was added later, so while I'm not proud of cheating I'm not too upset about it either.

Keef Monkey

I finished another game! Anthem this time. I hadn't planned to finish it yet but I was bouncing off Sekiro so hard at the weekend that I wanted to play something less stressful and this fit the bill.

It's getting a load of bad press but I've been enjoying it. Story wasn't as fleshed out as I'd normally expect from a Bioware game and some of the quests were very fetchy-grindy but the combat and flight mechanics felt brilliant and didn't really get old for me. Was playing it occasionally with friends but mostly with randos but even then it always felt pretty good to team up for the fights. Will probably dip back into it if more story content releases.