Review The Last Game You Beat

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby redline » Sat Feb 25, 2017 2:26 pm

titanfall 2 on ps4

only really played the main story. couldn't get into multiplayer.

7/10
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Axm » Sun Feb 26, 2017 7:29 pm

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The Last Guardian (PS4 Pro)

Graphics

Aesthetically the game is brilliant. It has a lot of the same Team Ico look and texture. However, it still looks like a game that could easily run on PS3 in most instances. It never really shows off the capabilities other games have achieved on PS4. This isn’t that big of an issue, it’s just a fact. Graphically from a polygon count or anything it doesn’t blow any socks off. From an artistic view it’s fantastic though. The grass, the lighting, the animations. All that is very good.

Playing it on the PS4 Pro, I never found issues with frame-rate. It was rock solid and Digital Foundry points to some upgrade in ambient lighting and overall sharpness to which I would say I did notice how especially brilliant the lighting and sharpness was especially during sun-set in the latter half of the game.

Gameplay

I found like most Team Ico games, the controls are still that very strange frustrating Team Ico Japanese setup and I had a learning curve of about a couple hours. Especially if I played a western 3rd person game and went back to The Last Guardian, I’d be all mixed up again. Never a deal breaker but the game is abit of a chore at times wrestling with the controls.

In terms of actual gameplay, I found it really great early on with the lightning mirror mechanic. Then abit of a bore and tedious in the middle when it’s mostly puzzles. Then towards the latter half the game, it really hits its stride when Trico and the boy have all their abilities. TLG incorporates every mechanic from both Ico and Colossus into one game. While this is great to have, it’s also in the end nothing new.

What is new though is that Trico looks and behaves like a real pet would. He has a mind of his own. At times, unpredictable and unique. Learning to work with him, control him and vice versa is an experience never really before seen in games to this degree. This is one of the rare instances I really felt an emotional attachment to an AI.

Sound

The soundtrack is beautiful just like Ico and Colossus were. However, the game is almost 80% void of music. When action occurs, the music starts up and when it ends, so does the music. I get it though. From a design perspective, they want the silent atmosphere most of the time to then accentuate the encounters. However, I would have appreciated more background calming music during regular gameplay. Ambient sounds were nice though but this is only heard ofcourse when outside in open air environments.

Story

This game is a love letter to anyone who’s ever had a pet. The boy is a catalyst for the plot yet, in the end Trico is a unique beast you learn the most about and really it's more of the main character than the boy.
The relationship they have is also deeper than any other I can remember in games. Some of the scenes had me an inch away from tears. Haven’t seen a relationship this significant since The Last of Us.
While the story overall is good, it doesn’t really hit its stride until half way through after a significantly important cut scene that basically explains everything about the world and why you are where you are. After that scene, the story improves and I had more drive to keep playing because plot setup is so compelling. And in the end, the ending was great. Really beautiful.

Overall the game was an artistic masterpiece. Although, from a controls perspective and gameplay variety Team Ico games never give me much of a fun factor. They are a frustrating test of patience and dexterity with the controls and animations. Still, I don’t disregard all the positives I’ve just said about it. It’ll stand the test of time in game history as a must play experience. Certainly one I’ll eventually go back to.

4/5

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Lan Di-sama » Sun Feb 26, 2017 8:36 pm

Just captured the last of the 700 Teensies in Rayman Legends. That was one hell of a fun game. I remember enjoying Origins a while back, but Legends compelled me to go the extra mile and complete 100% (almost - don't think I want to try for a million lums).

Also just finished Journey, which was a fun little indie game.

Recently purchased a ps4 after having missed out on an entire generation of gaming, so I'm still playing catch up a bit with some of last gen's titles that are also available on the ps4. Going to dive back into the Last of Us soon, which I'm enjoying, but Rayman had my full attention for awhile.

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby OL » Sun Feb 26, 2017 9:08 pm

Axm wrote:Playing it on the PS4 Pro, I never found issues with frame-rate. It was rock solid and Digital Foundry points to some upgrade in ambient lighting and overall sharpness to which I would say I did notice how especially brilliant the lighting and sharpness was especially during sun-set in the latter half of the game.


That must be nice. Vanilla PS4, the game kind of chugs for most of its runtime. It doesn't hurt it much (it's beautiful otherwise, like you said), but it would have been nice to see everything run a little more solidly.

Just beat Ghost Trick on the DS. It's been years since I really felt the compulsion to keep playing a graphic adventure, but this one made me stick with it. Inventive concept/setup, clever puzzles, fun characters, awesome animation (particularly considering the platform), and a surprisingly great story.
The story itself does start to show its seams a bit near the end; once you hit the final chapter, there is a bit of an air about it that feels like Shu Takumi had written himself into a corner of sorts, and consequently had to come up with something a little too convoluted in order to explain it away.
All the same, knowing this guy's work, he probably wrote the story within the span of a year roundabouts, and that's some impressive work regardless. Lots of twists and turns here, and despite the cartoony style, it still manages to make you give a shit about its characters. Really good stuff, endearing as hell.
It also features another one to add to my personal list of the greatest dogs in gaming.
Missile. That lovable little bastard.

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And even though the game was unfortunately never quite as successful as it should have been, the story still ends in such a way that it's completely self-contained. No cliffhangers or loose ends. And if there's almost no chance of a followup, then the lack of loose ends is a blessing all on its own.

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Monkei » Mon Feb 27, 2017 3:09 am

Lan Di-sama wrote: Just captured the last of the 700 Teensies in Rayman Legends. That was one hell of a fun game. I remember enjoying Origins a while back, but Legends compelled me to go the extra mile and complete 100% (almost - don't think I want to try for a million lums).


I loved Rayman Legends to death and really wanted to totally 100% and platinum it, like Origins before, but that crap was ridiculous. To get 1.000.000 lums you'd have to do those daily challenges for a couple of months, there's really no other way after you've collected all lums from the game's stages. Didn't feel like doing that at all.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Calshot » Mon Feb 27, 2017 10:24 pm

OL wrote:It also features another one to add to my personal list of the greatest dogs in gaming.
Missile. That lovable little bastard.

Image

Fun fact: Missile is based off of Takumi's actual Pomeranian, also named Missile. The Missile in Ace Attorney is also named after Takumi's dog, but is a Shiba Inu instead of a Pomeranian. I read that the AA Missile was going to be a Pom too, but was changed to a Shiba so it seemed more Japanese. Don't know if that's true though.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby sand4fish » Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:57 pm

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For Honor (PS4, PC, XBox 1)

I was sure this game would fail miserably, but I was wrong. This is a truly game changing title for the fighting genre, which has not seen a noteworthy evolution in its 3D form since probably Dreamcast's Power Stone. Now utilizing the extra dimension to choose directions to which angles to attack and defend, For Honor abandons the often overly complicated chains of multi-step directional inputs' movesets of the 2D fighting games and bridges the gap between novice (which often were off put by the steep learning curve of those games) and expert players for a more streamlined and addicting melee combat experience.

It might sound like a simplistic concept on the surface, but it's as deep as you want it to be with multitude of mechanics at your disposal such as parries, terrain kills, guard breaks, dodges/deflecting, light and heavy attacks, combo chains, counters, feints, recoveries, unblockable attacks, throws and stuns. There is a surprisingly robust single player story campaign with cutscenes and all, which serves well as a tutorial for every faction and fighter in the game before digging into the multiplayer aspect. Speaking of which, the game presents a variety of multiplayer game modes to choose from as well with up to 8 players in the same arena.

The game is not without flaws though. Aside from dubious micro-transactions, often unstable online play and being unable to play it offline even during the single player campaign, the art direction looks a bit dull to me. Textures and models are highly detailed but the game world IMO is very generic looking with the environment being prevalent of simply hues of blue mist, monochromatic castle walls and wooden structures and dirt. All in all this is just nitpicking on my part because for what this game represents in the fighting genre scene, For Honor is a big deal.

My highest recommendation: 5/5

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Raithos » Thu Mar 02, 2017 1:49 am

^ Nice dude, glad I'm not the only one. I tried the Beta and got hooked then bought it on release day. Beat the campaign coop on realistic and have my Lawbringer and Orochi decked out. Its seriously a great game. Not sure how long the MP will be active. It seems to shrink every time I'm online. Could just be me playing at random times though.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Axm » Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:44 am

I dug the game too. It just seems like a game that will get discounted to hell and back really soon especially since its Ubi-soft. I'm sure after its $20 with numerous patches and add-ons ill give it a go.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Raithos » Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:24 am

Oh yeah, for sure. I bet by mid April it will be around $30 if not sooner. Typical cycle nowadays, especially with Ubisoft games. I got the Division + season pass for $45 not three months after it launched. I liked Ghost Recon (very generic, but fun coop) but I'll be waiting for it to get cheaper once its out too.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby sand4fish » Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:24 pm

I actually also noticed less people playing it now. But I guess it's normal for the genre as only the core niche gamers usually keep it going after the first month or so. With so many awesome games released in this year alone, who really can blame them. But For Honor is a must for people that are into meele weapon combat and medieval setting. It reminds me of Bushido Blade for those who remember that.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby Thief » Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:12 am

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I played a few hours of this game at my friends house, went to sleep, and when I woke up I immediately drove to Target and bought the game. I then played it for four days straight (mainly because Spring Break started at the perfect time).

There are a lot of things to love about the game: decent challenge, non-linearity, interesting world design, TONS to do.

There are a lot of things to dislike: weapon durability, walking simulator, small/easy dungeons, 900 f'n Korok seeds...

Overall the game is pretty great and wildly addicting. After I beat the final boss I wanted to keep playing and do everything, but I packed the game up because I had shit that needed to get done and it wasn't going to happen if I was still playing this game.

My favorite positive about this game: NPCs. All NPC's are unique and feel like they live in the world (not just static and boring). They react to things as they are happening around them (discussing rainfall, etc). Feels comparable to Shenmue's level of NPC detail. No joke.

My least favorite thing about the game: Durability and Item Management. I knew durability was a problem when I got a really cool weapon as a reward for one of the dungeons... and then proceeded to never use it out of fear of it breaking. It's currently hung on the wall of my ingame house, and that's stupid. Oh and the item management system is clunky and annoying, but whatever.

Game is pretty great, solid 8 or 9/10. Play it if you have the means.

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby myshtuff » Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:11 pm

Just beat The Last of Us Remastered. Man what a great game. I loved the story and the gameplay was really engaging. I normally dislike survival games, but this game somehow made it enjoyable. It wasn't too overbearing, but you still had to be mindful of what ammo you did have. It really forced you to use stealth techniques and not run and gun either. Would highly recommend people play this. I also got it for $17 on amazon so I can't complain about the price either.

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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby OL » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:36 am

Just over 100 hours later, and I've finally beaten Nioh. Or, at the very least, I've finished all main and side missions from the normal mode of the game; after beating it, it also presents you with all the old missions under harder difficulties and layouts, and I haven't gone through those (yet). Plus, I've gotten the season pass, so there should be three new DLCs coming out in the coming months that I'll surely be tackling the hell out of.
I've rambled about the game before, so I'll keep it short. At its core, yes, the game is basically Demon's Souls based during the end of the Sengoku period (and I say Demon's Souls rather than Dark Souls because it's set up with separated levels, rather than a connected world). The combat, however, is quite a bit different from the Souls series, as are the methods of weapon/armor progression, and of course the overall tone. It doesn't quite have that ominous, slightly surreal vibe to it that From Software's games always do; rather, the story and atmosphere really do (appropriately) feel more like Ninja Gaiden or Onimusha. So going into it with the strict expectation that it be Dark Souls in Japan might leave some disappointed, because the overall sense of "lore" is quite a bit lighter and less-mysterious. But for anyone who likes the basic setup of the Souls series but wants to experience something a little fresher, Nioh absolutely is the motherfriggin' bees knees.
I made the comparison before, but I think it's pretty apt; if the Souls series is Virtua Fighter, then Nioh is Tekken. Sure, they share the same basic formula, but the gameplay systems, tone, and details are different enough that flat-out calling one a "clone" just feels a little inappropriate. Nioh fully acknowledges its influences (it even features a trophy/achievement called "Keeper of the Flame"), but also knows how to be its own thing.
I won't argue that it's better than any of the Souls games; it lacks a little bit of the wonderment that one feels while exploring a Souls world, partly because the Sengoku era is just so familiar, and partly because it lacks some of the finer secrets and details that From tends to inject into their games. Likewise, with the exception of two of them, the bosses tend to be of a pretty standard variety, while the Souls series gets a little more experimental with theirs.
But all the same, it certainly points in a really great direction, and I can totally see KoeiTecmo making a legitimate, individual series out of this.
But next time they ought to base the game further backward in history. They could easily inject a bit more of that Souls-esque mysteriousness and ominousness if they made a game based around the time of Minamoto no Yorimitsu or something. Plenty of myths and legends to pull from around that era. Sure, From Software already did that with Otogi and Kuon, but it'd be fun to see that in a more Souls-esque style of gameplay, and Nioh would be the perfect IP for that.
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Re: Review The Last Game You Beat

Postby shredingskin » Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:55 am

Zelda: breath of the wild.

The graphics are quite good.
The gameplay is quite good.
The sound is ok.

My veredict: quite good with ok sound.
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