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kieuecaprie · 8 months

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KieueCaprie's List of Games Finished in 2023: Entry #12 - Armored Core 6

So, technically, I could've called it good after finishing the game once but it kind of asked me to do it again another two times. So, I obliged it and I'm kind of glad I did. Hit the read more if you want to hear me ramble about it.

The teal deer of this is that this is one of the best games I've played in 2023 so far despite all the FromSoft Moments™ and the FromSoft PC Port Moments™.

Initially, I was somewhat excited for this game, well, about as excited as I can be (it's a little hard for me to be excited for things these days, don't think I have the energy to spare I guess?). Although, the first hurdle was figuring out what edition I wanted... I picked the digital deluxe one since the other editions, while nice, were expensive and I don't have much room, ESPECIALLY with my plushie pile that slowly increases in size overtime.

The game is GREAT, I loved the visuals, though I had to turn down the effects at one point because it was getting to be too much, the gameplay felt like a significant upgrade from AC4A, which was the last AC game I played before I retreated back to AC1 to do Project Phantasma, and while the combat felt fast, it wasn't ridiculously fast as AC4 and AC4A, despite having Quick Boosts and Overboosts (okay, Assault Boosts) in the game, plus I had the benefit of playing on PC which meant I could bind gyro to the game via Steam, which I did, although it did mess with the hardlock function as I found out incredibly late into my NG1 playthrough.

However, the game was prone to technical issues as I was playing a FromSoft game on PC. I was one of the lucky ones to not have to deal with constant crashes but instead, I was rewarded with a time limit where if I play too long, the game will eventually crash. I don't know if it was connected to the game having a memory leak, the GPU having a fit over shaders, or my undervolting of GPU and CPU both, but I barely had any issues with any other games besides this.

On the topic of difficulty, I thought the game was... okay with its difficulty but I feel like there were too many spikes in the earlygame. The helicopter proved difficult at first until I actually got a handle on the new controls and Balteus was absolutely not very fun until I found a build that could handle him (and then I immediately shitstomp him twice more with the same build, although I swapped to another build on the third go-around and shitstomped him with that to prove I'm not a one-trick).

The story was probably the most involved I've seen it being in an Armored Core game what with the chatter in missions from the gung-ho Redguns to the Vespers who harbors one of the best and one of the worst characters in the game (Redguns also has another terrible character, this isn't to say I think they're bad, they're just hatesinks) and the endings are pretty great, reminds me of all the endings in... AC4A, I think? Although probably without the whole... you know...

Also, I loved the fact that melee is actually viable in this game. In older AC games, melee kind of felt like an afterthought where they were very clunky and slow and didn't track very well. Sure, they HIT LIKE A TRUCK when they hit but you're better off using something else. It was pretty bad to the point where I relished the chance to use MOONLIGHT since that meant I had a melee that shot laser waves, making it not as useless.

Between Laser lances, pulse blades, pile bunkers, and even your own core, I loved trying out all the melee options although I did just go with the blades with the occasional lance on one build, and of course, I still made a build with my precious MOONLIGHT!

All in all, I think this is a very solid game, although the game is prone to the typical FromSoft PC Moments™ supposedly. I enjoyed it. Anyway, here's all of my AC builds I used throughout the three playthroughs:

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#kieuecaprie gaming #kieuecaprie gamer list 2023

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ducktastic · 3 years

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2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

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Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

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Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

#video games #holovista #paradise killer #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #spellbreak #good sudoku #fuser #dropmix #in other waters #marvel's avengers #avengers #clubhouse games #coffee talk #2020

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storm-driver · 4 years

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ok now because i’m a prick sometimes, though i’m a prick with an open mind, i’m gonna go off about what i think about re:mind as a whole. this isn’t be bashing it!!!! it’s honestly me just praising it. but i will be a little critical and i’m open to discuss these things.

So, first of all, the fact that Re:Mind was generated is great. DLCs are hella powerful moneymakers for companies and honestly sometimes good investments for players. They can enhance the experience of a game tenfold with new ways to play, new lore, new characters/story. Lots of goodies that make the game more fun. They’re very common to see these days, like with the new expansions for games like Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, etc. And I’m okay with the Kingdom Hearts team indulging in this new practice. They’re not an ancient franchise per se, but they are a little dated and getting up to date is good.

That being said, I know DLCs are often looked down on heavily in the gaming industry. Mostly due to their “patch it in later” policies, like what happened with Final Fantasy XV. For those that aren’t aware, because FFXV was in development for such a ridiculously long time and got hastily restarted and sped up towards it’s release year, it was very... lacking in certain areas. Most particularly the story. So all the bonus “Episode” DLCs that got released later, they further expanded on the story... Which debatedly should have been in the game in the first place. However, as we should know, most DLCs with more than a few patches and extra weapons/costumes to showcase cost money. And so someone on the business end of Square Enix saw the prime opportunity to make extra money by making people who already bought the game pay for the DLCs on top of it, if they wanted the full experience.

I won’t deny: that’s a shitty business practice. It’s kinda demeaning to the consumer in the sense that they’ll purchase as many times as they can to consume as much as they possibly can.

And I won’t deny it here either: that’s kinda exactly what’s going on with Kingdom Hearts 3. A lot of us probably noticed after our hype died down that the story was... a little off, right? It didn’t feel quite like the story writers told the tale they wanted to. Like they got cut off and were told to shove the story somewhere else in the meantime.

My hypothesis is that, despite how many years Kingdom Hearts spent in development, it was not quite ready to be released in January of 2019. There were still story elements that needed to be hashed out, gameplay mechanics that needed to be properly programmed and modeled and whatever else there is to do. The developers and writers, and quite possibly Nomura-san himself, were forced to cut corners with everything to make the game at least... enjoyable. Maybe not the prime game it could be if it was given the proper amount of time, but something that could be purchased and reasonably priced at 60 US dollars.

And quite obviously for some of us, we weren’t too happy with the product. Anyone that’s followed KH for as long as I have would know that some of the most interesting parts of the story come from the characters and how they bounce off each other. So the fact that there were hardly interactions between any of them aside from the “core trios” doing group hugs or having conversations for all of 5 minutes was really... upsetting.

We wanted to see those “what if this” scenarios that we’ve been coming up with for years actually pan out. All the fics and short bits of Sora and Ventus finally meeting would come to reality in this game. The drabbles that Aqua and Lea might go on about how their best friends look identical to each other. Maybe something with Kairi and Xion, or Riku and Terra! We were thinking and dreaming about those things happening for YEARS!! And we... didn’t really get it. Sure, we got a little bit of Sora and Ventus, but it was hardly given attention. In fact, that’s probably the strangest part to me about KH3: Sora and Ventus, who have been hinted at having an insanely strong and very important bond between them, hardly interacted in Kingdom Hearts 3, nor had the importance of that bond brought up for more than... three-five minutes.

It’s like the writers were forced to shove all the little “gotcha” and “oh no so sad” moments down our throats without actually giving those moments the depth they needed to be emotional. And whether this is on the business side of Square Enix for rushing the release of KH3, or if it’s on the writers because they didn’t want to flesh these things out, it took its toll. In my opinion, KH3 had a very dull and flat ending that I can get into later. But I wasn’t the only one. Lots of us have spoken up about how “yeah, it could’ve been better.” And this is their damage control: release what the fans wanted... and perhaps we can make some money while we’re at it.

Now I’m not mad that they’re doing this. If anything, I’m really excited and happy. Kingdom Hearts 3 was a misfired launch, in my opinion. It wasn’t a tragedy like the launch of FFXIV or No Man’s Sky, but it certainly could’ve been better. And that’s all this post is about: bringing awareness to these kinds of things. Remember, we don’t have to take what’s handed to us if we don’t like it. And as proven by this DLC, if we say we didn’t like, perhaps we can be handed something different.

#kingdom hearts #kh3 remind spoilers #my post #stormy weather #hoo boy a long one #but i just wanted to get this off my chest

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killscreencinema · 4 years

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Death Stranding (PS4)

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The first week of quarantine, I lost my job. It wasn’t COVID related, more like “I hated my job and my employers finally realized it” related. So it was actually really good timing that I began this game while unemployed, as virtually delivering packages to people made me at least feel like I still had a job!

Death Stranding, released by Hideo Kojima’s new independent studio in 2019, is set in a bleak, post-Apocalyptic future where the world of the living and the dead have converged in a catastrophic event called, well, the “death stranding”. Dangerous phantoms, called “BTs”, roam the countryside, dragging anyone unlucky enough to encounter them into their world. The only person who can stand up to them is a porter named Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus), who has a unique condition called DOOMS which allows him to sense a BTs presence (who are otherwise invisible to the naked eye). Paired with a child bred to act as a link between the living and dead, called a Bridge Baby, or BB, Sam can even see a BT, making him the only candidate who can possibly bring the world back together by traveling the wastelands of the former United States, delivering packages and connecting the surviving human cities via something called the “chiral network”.

So it’s basically a fucked up, but better, version of that Kevin Costner movie The Postman.

Also, if it seems like my story summary took longer than usual, welcome to the world of Hideo Kojima! I tried my best to explain the story in a brief synopsis, but I still didn’t even scratch the surface of it. For example, I didn’t even mention how Mads Mikkelson intermittently drags Sam to a battlefield-like purgatory so he can steal his BB; or how Sam’s mysterious connection to the BTs makes his bodily fluids deadly to them, so you will often use weaponry made from his piss, blood, and shit to fight them; or how his primary objective is to rescue an enigmatic woman named Amelie, who may or may not be the daughter of the recently deceased President of the United States, from terrorists who want to use Amelie to bring about the extinction of humanity.

This game is bananas, ya’ll... but in the best way.

I started this game with extremely low expectations, as it had been critically lambasted by most of the major gaming sites and YouTubers. From the previews of the game I watched, it just seemed.... weird. I didn’t understand what the hell I was looking at - Norman Reedus with a pod baby strapped to his chest, and a strange flappy doodad on his shoulder, while walking on a tar beach strewn about with dead whales? What the fuck, Hideo? Visually alone the game was such a stark (and I mean *stark*) departure from the Metal Gear games, so when I found out the gameplay was delivering packages, I became convinced that Hideo Kojima had done lost his goddamn mind.

Turns out... and this should hardly come as a surprise... the man is a goddamn genius.

Truly brilliant art always offends and bewilders the senses at first because your mind doesn’t know how to cope with what its experiencing. Watch any given David Lynch movie and you’ll see what I mean. The human mind has trouble processing totally new information that has no frame of reference in memory or cultural awareness, which is why “weird” art initially repulses before it gains a following (and many great artists die in poverty before they are recognized for their genius). Imagine introducing a peasant from the Middle Ages to a helicopter - they’d think it looks absolutely ridiculous, so when you tell them it can fly, just IMAGINE their incredulity.

Anyway, I think that is why initial impressions of Death Stranding were so negative - it was a lot to take in for a lot of gamers used to being spoon fed repackaged versions of the same games but with different titles. Even things that seem at first “original” have recognizable gaming mechanics that ease the player in. I mean a game set in the apocalypse where the core gameplay is centralized on package delivery??? There’s nothing like this! So your reaction is either going to be “This is brilliant” or, like the medieval peasant, “this is ridiculous”.

Mind you, I’m not saying if you don’t like this game, you’re as stupid as a medieval peasant.

I get why people would hate this game - it’s very different than a lot of games out there. Death Stranding is bold and audacious in its storytelling and its gameplay. It takes a lot of risks that most AAA publishers (like Konami for example) would balk at, which is why Kojima had to create his own company to make it.

The gameplay seems simplistic at first - deliver packages from point A to point B. However, it’s a little more complicated than that. For one, the key element of the game is item management and learning not to bite off more than you can chew. Sam can only carry so many boxes, and the more you stack on top of him, the more difficult the journey will be, especially when crossing BT territory or bandits (called MULES) nipping at your heels. You also have to take into account the rocky terrain, river crossings, and weather (oh, did I mention that rain in this game, referred to as “Time Fall”, can rapidly age items and people?). The game is all about carefully choosing equipment you’ll think you will need, whether it be weapons, ladders (for climbing large cliff faces or crossing deep rivers or chasms), sprays for repairing damage to packages, or even a spare pair of boots in case the shoes you’re wearing wear out. So to say that the game is “just delivering packages” greatly diminishes some of the nuance going on here. Yes, there are lots of long stretches of just walking across a landscape to some of the most melancholy music ever assembled on a soundtrack, but I’d argue that having patience for those moments is part of the gameplay.

The game can be frustrating, such as when Sam refuses to climb a ledge you KNOW is climbable, so he just trips and falls over instead. The vehicles that you eventually unlock are some of the most goddamn frustrating vehicles in video game history. At first, I figured it was because I would eventually unlock better modes of conveyance more adequately adapted to crossing rough terrain, but no - they all drive like shit. Just getting the truck to drive up a hill without spinning out and rolling backwards can fray on one’s nerves. It’s hard to discern how much of it is the vehicle and how much might be poor controls.

The story, as alluded to above, is ambitious at best and pretentiously bloated at worst. However, if you’ve played any of the Metal Gear games, you know what you’re signing up for when it comes to high concept, over-indulgent story. I would say that for the most part, Death Stranding’s story is coherent enough to enjoy, although there are long expository cut scenes that convolute the plot more than clear it up. Fortunately, the characters are well developed enough, and are interesting enough, to keep you invested (a storytelling skill that is perhaps Kojima’s saving grace). Also, the more dramatic beats of the story are impactful enough to still resonate, even if you’re not entirely sure what the fuck is going on. It helps to have talent like Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelson, and Lea Seydoux in the cast, whose performances bring the characters to life. Sam in particular might have been an insufferable loner, were it not for Reedus’ gruff likeability that made him famous from Walking Dead.

If you’ve avoided this game because, like me, you were convinced by bad reviews that it sucks, I would highly suggest that you reconsider. It may not be as fun, or compelling, as a Metal Gear Solid game, but it’s an interesting departure and one worth experiencing.

#death stranding #hideo kojima #norman reedus #mads mikkelsen #guillermo del toro #ps4 #playstation 4 #sony #video game

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wish-to-grow-a-garden · 4 years

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So, I just finished playing Hello Neighbor and I'm here to give it my personal rating because reasons.

First off, I'll admit that the only reason I even was able to beat it was because I used walkthroughs. Without them, I never would have figured out half the shortcuts and mechanics and secrets (more on that later), but I just wanted to see how the game actually turned out in the end because most Youtubers I watched play it kinda gave up after like the 3rd version that got released. That being said...

Overall Game Rating: 6/10

So at its core this game had potential. I WANTED the final version of this game to be better than it was. Would it ever have been the best game ever? I highly doubt it. But it could have been much more noteworthy if it had just *functioned* better. I'm also fully aware that I'm several years late, but man I just need to give my discourse and opinions to someone who isn't 9 or a completely lost parent. Anyways, allow me to explain myself in the good old fashioned Tumblr way of bullets-

The Good

Physical design. Now, this is a completely personal opinion here, but I liked how the game looked. It was colorful, it had its own distinct style. There were very few occasions when I couldn't tell what something was, and most of the time those indistinguishables weren't remotely important. I also like how the writing in the game was scrambled to kinda make it fun and nonsensical, but you could still pretty much tell what it was meant to say.

Story! Guys, the main reason I came back to this game in the first place; the reason I really wanted to see it finished and see what happened in all those chapters that I never saw finished; was because I wanted to get more of the story. I wanted to know what happened, and while I'm still not entirely certain, I have several theories. And all the theories follow the same general track with a few basic deviations, so I'd say that the game did a pretty good job of getting it's focal points across.

The puzzel aspect. I like games that make me (when I'm actually playing seriously and not just playing to get through it) think. And I wasn't using the guide every step of the way, so I had a genuinely good time figuring out what items went to what, and what I could do with certain objects that I couldn't achieve with others. I think the overall idea of "hey, run around this dude's house and work out his overly complicated, Ikea-like home full of coniptions and contraptions" super fun.

Multiple ways to reach endings. Now, mainly this applied to Act 2 in my experience because Act 1 seemed pretty straightforward and Act 3 had me frustrated for so many days to the point where I couldn't really appreciate its options (more on that in a bit), but I'm sure there were deviating paths there as well. Point is, I saw 3 seperate ways of escaping the Neighbor's house in act 2, and I just sorta thought that was cool. And considering I'm playing for myself, and guiding (playing) two children through their own files, I managed to get two of those 3 escapes. The endings were the same, but still, it's cool.

The secrets and optional pathways. There were several rooms that I never actually managed to get into when i was playing through just because I wasn't secret I hunting. But I DID take notice of them, plus there were quite a few that I just happened to find my way into during my run arounds, and I explored because hey! Secrets! And I'm sure there was a ton of extra story material I missed because I neglected a lot of them, but I can appreciate a game that leaves its little hidden details as something you sort of have to work for. If I ever find the patience and the time one day, maybe I'll go back for them.

Audio warnings. Okay okay, so I was a big dummy and played through the first 2 Acts without any sound, and only plugged in headphones for the second half of Act 3. But once I did, having the music pick up in warning when the neighbor spotted me, or being able to hear the mannequins coming was very nice.

The minigames/cut scenes. And I'm not including the Fear rooms in this because I did not take anywhere near as much intrest or enjoyment out of those. I mean the things you were just mean to sorta run through. The bits where you could see the neighbor at his lowest. The bits that showed that maybe, maybe this dude that you've been cussing out the entire game is actually just some dude who had a really tough run, and just ended up snapping. The bits that kinda make you feel bad for barging into his home and shattering all his windows and just being a general dick. The bit at the very end got me especially- when he's trapped in the room by the shadow figure, and he sorta looks out the window at you, and then just stands dejectedly in the corner. I wanted to help him. I REALLY wanted to help him. I felt bad leaving.

The Bad

Limited functionality. Oh my lord, if this game hadn't been so effing glitchy the whole way through, I might have been able to give it a 7 or 8 out of 10. But it just...didn't. There were so many times when things would just vanish from my inventory and I'd have to reload, or the puzzle wouldn't solve the way it was meant to and I'd have to Macgyver my way around it. There were also several times where I would be trying to hide in a locker/closet, and my character would get stuck in the door of said locker/closet. Half the time it would get me caught, and half the time I'd have to button mash for several minutes before I could get free. The worst possible glitch I had during my whole experience was when I was trying to get up to the roof garden in Act 3. My walkthrough told me I had to get in the trolley and stop it just before a ledge to jump up. The problem is THE TROLLEY WOULDN'T STOP. Every time I tried, I'd either glitch through the front and get hit and die, or it would just completely break the train and it would just go into constant motion, not even making its programmed stops at the different stations.

Ridiculous enemy sightline triggers. Listen, Act 2 in particular was absolute HELL to get through the first time (and even unnecessarily difficult after I took the lids through it the 2nd and 3rd times) because the neighbor could be like 3 blocks down and inside his local "Murderous Psycos Anonymous" meeting, and yet the moment I step foot in his yard he's on a dead sprint to my location. And don't even get me STARTED on the mannequins in the Fear rooms. Their sightline triggers were so ridiculously unfair that if I hadn't had the sound triggers telling me they were coming, I never would have gotten past those rooms. But the sensitivity could have even been brushed off, if it were even remotely consistent. There were other times when I would be standing directly in front of the Neighbor, shining a flashlight in his eyes and staring him head on, and yet because I was crouched and slightly out of his sightline (this happened several times in the basement of Act 1.)

Pointless enemy boundaries. By this, I mean that the Neighbor is (apparently) meant to stop at the boundaires of his property when he's chasing you and you run off home. But he doesn't . In fact, quite often I couldn't get him to back off until I was actually physically in my house with the door closed.

Extremely unclear puzzle solutions. The main reason I opted to use the walkthroughs instead of working my way through the game myself? Because without them, it would have been damn near impossible. There were so many times that I was preforming the solution to a problem and I was just like "...really?". Requiring the player to interact with one of hundreds of completely repetative and indistinguishable paintings, having to glitch a shoe through a box to switch a lever, making a specific space match a painting on the wall to open a box that was down the hall and outside...it was just kind of ridiculous. I personally wouldn't have even guessed the the umbrellas could be used as floatation devices until maybe several hours into the game, if ever at all. When you have to many objects that seem unqiue but are actually just more props to toss around, it gets kinda hard to distinguish what is actually useful and what isn't.

The Iffy

The final boss. ...okay, I have to actually admit that I had a fun time being teeny and launching nerf darts and bottle rockets at the Neighbor. Especially after all the pain of getting through Act 2. (He actually didn't bother me much in Act 3.) But like...what was it? His household was weighing on his back or whatever. The reminders of his kids were causing him pain. Okay, okay, cool....but like...there wasn't any better setting for it? There was no better way to pull it off? I was legitimately just running around and doing things just to inconvenience the tall man in front of me. I died so many times just trying to work out the toaster puzzle until I got all...like, 600 umbrellas. I don't know, it was just strange execution.

The Fear Room Powerups. I didn't know the fear rooms were necessary. I didn't know they gave you powerups. Had I not read the walkthroughs, I never would have figured it out. And even AFTER I beat them, I didn't work out that I had power ups until last minute. There was no acknowledgment that I had gained a new power, save for the sneakily worded achievements. However, I did appreciate them while I had them. They let me Macgyver my way around even more.

The seemingly unexplorable. There were doors upon doors that I wanted to get through. And doors upon doors that seemed to have no actual entrances. No secret methods. No special actions. They were just doors. Taunting me. Is it possible I missed something? Absolutely, I'd bet on it. But all I'm saying is I ran around that house a lot in all three levels, and there were some things that I was just never able to work out.

The Conclusion

Hello Neighbor is a game for the patient and the crafty. I enjoyed it. I would have enjoyed it more if it were more functional and made even a lick of sense gameplay wise. But while it isn't anywhere near the best game I've ever played, it isn't the worst either. Its playable enough if you're willing to work around its defects. I'd suggest it for a rainy day, or an especially quarentined week.

#hello neighbor #hello neighbour game #indie games #here i am #judging a game that everyone forgot about #just because I'm a lonely soul with no one to discuss it with #please enjoy #long post

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pixelrender · 4 years

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Top 10 games I played in 2019

In many ways 2019 was a transitional year for me. 2020 will be a completely different year than 2018. Full of work and studying. And that’s why I need to leave my computer behind for a while. I have few games I would like to play on my phone, but mostly, I’ll be silent on the gaming front. I managed to play over 95 games this year. I wrote two or three sentences on every single one of them here. They were mostly short games from Itch.io, most of them under one hour of gameplay. There were many gems and I have an urge to honorably mention at least five of them. So, there might be another post along these lines or check this playlist of mine for some essential games, which might be missing in this selection.

Top 3 was a clear cut, but coming up with the order for the rest of it was difficult. FTL is in my top ten of all times for example and a superior game to both Morphblade and A Short Hike. It is however a game I had played before. The list is quite cohesive this year and I think that every single game on it is either an example of excellent design, great fun or an experience more interesting than films. 2019 was a year, in which I stopped caring about the story being good. I don’t need twists I only want feelings and there are other ways to evoke them. Video games and various kinds of walking sims are way more powerful tool for that. It might be that I’m more sold on games than most movies right now? Dunno, I guess I just managed to dig myself deep enough in my niche. There’s one honorable mention I should make right here. I finally managed to beat, one of my favourite games, FTL this year. Finally! It was the most satisfying moment in gaming of the year. I considered to put it on the list for that reason alone, but being one of my favourite games of all times, I don’t think it needs further spotlight.

10. The Isle is Full of Noises

I played several games from Dreamfeel early 2019 and fell in love with the devs. They’re sensitive, emotional and visually delightful. Curtain probably is the best starting point, but The Isle is Full of Noises is where it’s at. This flatgame is a full emotional outbreak accompanied by some of the best music I’ve heard in video games. It being a flatgame, there’s no collision just your character moving around and discovering things. Despite this simplicity I felt the game and the painful alienation of the character. It’s free and on every platform but phones!

9. Espectro City

This is such a weird combination of influences and simply the best game to come out of CosmoD’s jam. This game’s about a city inhabited by ghosts. The whole world seems to be dead. It’s a detective game and you move around the city, which happens to be a desktop of a computer and individual places icons. The writing is really good, the mood superb and the gameplay itself surprisingly fun. The game’s full of sentimental sadness and rather deep too! I can’t wait to see more pieces like Espectro City from the dev. Again the game’s free and that’s a nice bonus.

8. Renowned Explorers: Inernational Society

I played this back to back with Curious Expeditions and expected to like Expeditions better, because their gorgeous art style suits my taste better. And they were a lot of fun with ridiculous thngs happening all the time, usually because of my exploits. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but not as much as Explorers. This game’s really sweet with its simple addictive tactical battles, which are winnable by being friendly, handcrafted locations, great random events (the structure reminds me of FTL) and board game like elements like cards. Also, individual explorers feel way more personal. This was the most fun I had with the game all year long.

7. The Things We Lost in the Flood

This little free game was exposed on major outlets such as Rock Paper Shotgun and PC gamer for a reason. It’s an impressive experience, a piece of art almost. It makes you think and most likely creative and insightful. I played it only few days ago, but I immediately knew that this needs to go on the list. Besides floating on your ship through the flooded world (in one direction), you come across messages from other players. This subtle multiplayer function makes the game really shine. You feel connected yet distant and there’s no space for hostile interactions. Even after several runs, I feel like there’s more stuff to explore too with screens being thrown at you at random. Play it and get engrossed in its meditative nature, this is the future of poetry.

6. Even The Ocean

For a fairly traditional Megaman inspired platformer in its core gameplay, Even The Ocean brought a lot of extra stuff from JRPGs in. There is a story, which gives you reasons to explore more, an overworld and the esthetic. It’s a nice game, but some of the backgrounds or platforms looked more like sketches than defined illustrations. The gameplay is smooth and good and I enjoyed a good portion of it. It’s all about jumping and overcoming various obstacles, the game doesn’t include battles. Also, the game evolves around corporations, exploitation of power and resources and nature and keeping things in balance and it’s all really actual with climatic changes being number 1 topic of the year. The story is somehow predictable but there is a very enjoyable twist.

5. Even The Stars

This was a simple game about exploring universe, which left a deep impression on me by its finally, which gave your wandering a purpose. Now this is a major SPOILER. This game ends with you dying and revealing your path and discoveries. Even without a purpose, your life had a purpose. It was such a strong message and it crowned the slow exploring, which, tbh, was quite enjoyable on its own. There’s not much to say, just play the game, it’s free. While you’re at it check other games from Pol Clarissou as well, they’re little gems.

4. Heaven Will Be Mine

Ok, I claimed that I moved from story driven media earlier and this is a visual novel. It was the truth only partially. I still enjoy a good story if it manages to get me invested. This is both a hot romance and a tragedy. You choose to play as one of the three Mecha pilots, all of them are female, each of them representing one faction, one vision of the future. It's really complex and you can never fulfil all of your goals. Choices you're making are difficult from the get go and you're usually choosing between goals of your faction and your personal attitude towards one of the other two pilots, because you're, if not in love, in a hot relationship with both of them. Mecha suits get steamy and it Bronté level romantic. Also, it's worth it make multiple runs with various goals as different drivers. In the end the emotional impact this game with a relatively complicated and often post-human motivations had on me was the main reason why it stuck with me and why I enjoyed thinking about it's politics so different and yet same as problems of my own and this world. Despite the strange it was easy to relate thanks to masterful writing and sleek esthetic choices.

3. Morphblade

I hadn't got around anything really strategic or thinky this year before playing Morphblade. Damn, what a bullseye! This game's an almost abstract endless puzzle game with no real fiction attached to it. In the same way as Super Hexagon it makes it more addictive than morphine. Maybe that's why it's called Morphblade. Or it might be because you morph every turn into a new weapon or tool, based on tile you land on. The game's only mode is endless survival, so there's no real reason to keep playing but the addiction and the great combination of upgrading tiles by killing bugs on them and expanding the playing area. Despite being more of a little side project, this might be the best game Tom Francis has created so far. It's definitely the tightest design.

2. A Short Hike

The top 2 games on my list have a lot in common. They're both Humble Originals and they're both games about enjoying simple things. In case of A Short Hike, you're a city dwelling teen thrown on a Wi-Fi free island and you're being learnt to enjoy it. And it is enjoyable and warm and fuzzy. It's for reason this short game appeared on end of the year lists of many respectable outlets. Looking at screenshots and gifs doesn't make this game justice despite them being really pretty. The low poly in this game is superb and it being this good looking certainly gives it an edge, when it comes to presenting all the little nice things you can do to have a brighter day without exploiting anyone. A Short Hike is an extremely friendly game. Everyone on the isle is welcoming and sharing their enthusiasm with you. I cried of joy. Movement in this game is another thing. You walk, run, glide and climb and everything feels right. It's a game you can play on a wet day to make it the best day possible or on a sunny day to inspire yourself. Because enjoying the pleasures of movement on your own is the real deal.

1. Kimmy

This was a wonderful experience. The game's about Dana, a good caring kid, who is babysitting Kimmy. They walk around town, chat and play games. Mechanics of the game are simple but the way Kimmy presents itself, together with its structure and everything weaved in its narrative, it simply is brilliant. At first it might feel that the game's about building relationships with other kids. That part's really cool on its own as you get to know more about them and they're all original characters and positive ones in one way or other. Next, you uncover the second line. Simple game we all used to play and how we all managed to lose something, when embracing playing on computers and even various board games with many rules and components. It's never been the same sensation since. The last thing is the overarching narrative of the relation of Dana and Kimmy. There were more serious tones thrown in and the final plot twist went against my expectations and made me totally happy. The move from simply satisfying player is a bold one and I would say more rewarding in this case. Definitely more rewarding for me. Celeste and her work on Tacoma had put Nina Freeman on my map years ago, but only after playing Kimmy, she became a real star for me and I'm looking forward to playing We Met in May one day. This definitely is on par with Tacoma in terms of using the medium to carry over a message and a depth of the message.

#2019 #best of #top 10 #the isle is full of noises #dreamfeel #espectro city #makhor #renowned explorers #the things we lost in the flood #even the ocean #even the stars #kimmy #morphblade #nina freeman #a short hike #heaven will be mine

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nomilart · 5 years

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Final Thoughts on Kingdom Hearts 3

I’m gonna gush and bash this game in great detail in a sort of rant/ organized essay manner

Spoilers… duh

I’ve been a longtime fan of the Kingdom Hearts series. I’ve played every single damn game. The only two I haven’t finished were CoM (Could never get into the gameplay) and Ux (The story isn’t even finished yet… which I’ll get to). I have lived and breathed KH for most of my life and anticipated the climax to my favorite video game series for so long. Upon finishing Kingdom Hearts 3, I was washed with a tidal wave of emotions. I just finished the game I have been waiting on for 5 years upon confirmation that it even was a thing and anticipating it for even longer. There was so many amazing things about this game. Plot points involving characters I longed to make a return in some form were tied together. Things like the reason for why Xemnas and Ansem have returned were answered or what happened to replica Riku. The triumphant return of Aqua, Terra, and Ven and my personal most favorite the reuniting of Axel, Xion, and my favorite character Roxas! On top of super fun gameplay, graphics that dazzled my eyes even playing on the base ps4, a solid ost as usual thanks to Yoko Shimomura, and Disney worlds that really complemented the flare and grandiose of the rest of the game, this Kingdom Hearts game was shaping up to be my favorite among the entire series. Upon finishing the game, despite trying to overcome my biases of Kingdom Hearts 2, am still unsure of if I think I consider KH3 to be better or worse than KH2.

Story:

Whoooo boy what a STORY. The KH series is (understandably) mocked for its ridiculous and often convoluted approach to writing and storytelling, but I have stuck with every cheesy line and dumb plot point until this very day. I like to think of KH’s story telling as some kind of weird Avant-garde experience that is really just something that the series director, Tetsuya Nomura, comes up with as he goes along. The often awkward yet charming writing definitely comes from this.

KH3 starts off with Sora trying to regain his lost strength from the events of DDD and he is to search for the “power of waking” in order to rescue the hearts tied to his so he can help assemble 7 guardians of light to hopefully overcome Xehanort and his 13 darknesses. All is good until Sora finds out that Xehanort is very close to completing his 13 and just deciding to avoid waiting for the 7 guardians to assemble so he sends his “real organization” to search for the new seven hearts of light instead (these ultimately have little significance to the plot). Towards the end of the game Sora manages to save Aqua because for some reason Riku and Mickey just were too incompetent to go along with their mission even though Sora was allegedly the one who wasn’t strong enough to join them in saving Aqua. After Aqua is singlehandedly saved by Sora they all travel to Castle Oblivion were Aqua reverts it back to the Land of Departure in a really cool cutscene. They find Vanitas and stop him from preventing Ventus from waking up and get ready for the big fight after Sora dives into his heart. Sora and his friends all seem to die but not really after some weird stuff I’ll talk about later goes on. In short the last parts of the game are Sora stopping the remaining organization members and hearing their reasons for joining. Eventually they reach Xehanort and he merks Kairi and screws off to Scala ad Caleum. To be completely honest I’m still lost as to why this place has as much significance as it does besides the fact the Xehanort states it to be the Nexus of all worlds but upon further research, HOPEFULLY it makes more sense (I was caught in the heat of the moment). Xehanort’s motives are revealed and he reconciles after we defeat him and he *seemingly returns to Kingdom Hearts with Eraqus (This is only my theory). Afterwards Sora uses the x-blade in order to *seemingly free Kairi from death. All is well and everyone saved lives in harmony in a really touching scene but we soon learn that Kairi’s return seemingly costed Sora’s life or ability to be enjoy the peace with his friends because he fades away before the credits roll.

Oh boy that was a real basic summary but now I’ll talk about things I liked. I loved Sora so much in this game. He has grown on me more than ever because he displays so many more emotions than just being happy go-lucky most of the time. While that I the core of who he is, I know he has experienced pain (hurt is a silly word in KH) in the past but it was never this serious. He lost one of his best friends because he wasn’t strong enough to save her in time, he kind of understandably beats himself up for losing his strength and having to rely on his friends for strength, dealing with the pressure of being the bearer of a lot of people’s hearts while simultaneously being expected to rescue them, and last but certainly not least, seeming to sacrifice himself in order to save a friend/ potential love interest. I thought I’d hate the way Roxas and every other nobody would return based on the trailers seeming they were going to get all the data versions of them and implant their memories into them. While that is still somewhat how it goes down, it’s handled slightly better. Instead of using the bodies of data Roxas or Namine, they only use a “vessel” which I like to think is basically a human shaped husk that can only be a human when a person’s heart and memories are placed into it. It sounds goofy but I can get behind that. While a part of me wishes Roxas, Xion, and Namine stayed the way they were because I think It’d give the series some seriously needed consequences, I’d be a damn liar if I said I wasn’t glad my favorite character gets to be his own person. While the whole “Vessel” program can be seen as a cop out, I think it could have been handled much worse. I loved the interactions Sora and the gang had with the Disney characters and I 100% feel like this is the best integrated Disney worlds in the entire KH series. My definite favorite moments include Woody roasting Young Xehanort, Sulley yeeting Vanitas out of the world, and Sora going ham on Davy Jones. I also really liked the reveal that Ansem’s guardian was Terra, it was so badass. Although I totally called Xehanort being a villan who had good intentions but went about them in the worst way possible, I still liked the way it was explained how he got to where he was. I loved the ending scene where the wayfinder trio pay their respects to Master Eraqus (REAL DEATH CONFIRMED IN MY KH GAME?!) as well as the sea salt trio hanging out with the twilight town trio and SAIX/ISA. Also the secret reports have some super dark implications and it only makes me wish they were actual cutscenes. I haven’t read all of them but my favorite so far is one where Saix writes about how Lea and him snuck into the chamber of repose and heard screams of children being experimented on. They also mention a girl they were friends with (WHiCh ill GeT INto LaTeR). Pretty content with the story as a whole.

Now I talk about some things I did NOT like very much or at least still don’t understand at the moment. The main thing that REALLY peeved me off was the amount of KHUX stuff that is not only connected to the story of the XEHANORT SAGA but the fact that a lot of it is infuriatingly still not answered like the damn black box or why Maleficent specifically wants it so bad. On top of that there’s a lot of set up for the next entry in the series or what my personal cynical theory is, more backstory for KHUX that will be revealed in future updates. What I’m referring to is characters like Marluxia/ Lauriam , Larxene/ Elrena, Demyx, and Luxord who are intentionally left with super vague backstories. Lauriam and Elrena were revealed to be important to KhUX so I can only assume Demyx and Luxord will follow suit, especially after being revealed to have connections to the keyblade. What’s worse is that Marluxia and Larxene only seem to remember this after Sora defeats them… again… Luxord also gives Sora some assistance with this mystery card and it lowkey pissed me off. Oh yeah speaking of stuff that pissed me off, the “final world” section was super frustrating to me not because it was inherently bad, but because it was blatant setup for KHUX/ next game in the series especially with Sora seemingly* being transported to this limbo like area where the spirits of people who have died roam. One of these supposed spirits seems to be either a friend of Ephmer, Ventus, or Isa and Lea. It is intentionally vague and there only to spark speculation especially after she tells Sora a secret (Or was it the Chirithy? I don’t remember). I’m all for speculation and theorizing, I AM a KH fan afterall, it’s that this is speculation with a character we have no clue who it could be despite our best efforts and they throw her on us like she’s been part of the series this whole time…ESPECIALLY when Saix and Axel bring her up… I have my theories on who this girl might be but it ultimately doesn’t matter or doesn’t feel like good speculation because their might be multiple “mystery girls”. I personally think this mystery girl could be Strelitzia, Skuld, or some new character because Nomura hates us. The problem with it being either Strelitzia or Skuld is if it really IS one of them who is in this world or friends with Lea and Axel, then it leaves us wondering what happened to the other. Ugh. Next this is really a gripe but I’m just lost to be honest. I have no idea what happened to Demyx or Vexen. They both defected and while Vexen/ Even helped out with the “real replica” or “vessel” program, I either missed what happened to Demyx after providing the vessel for Roxas or they actually just forgot to write a conclusion for him. While I liked the interactions between Kairi and Axel I wished they actually showed Axel and Kairi training with their keyblades especially since they don’t do much with them in the final battle anyways… Kairi especially. It’s no secret that Kairi is literally worst girl in the KH series but I had hope that she’d get some much needed character development. My hopes were dashed when I found out she was just as useless and bland as ever and on top of that results in getting our sweet boi Sora sent to the shadow realm or wherever he gets sent to at the end of the game. A lot of annoying ship people really think that Riku and Sora were going to get together at the end of the game, and while I don’t blame them for thinking that way because honestly I would love to see that happen, the setup from KH1 and Com forbids that. I however, DO take issue with Riku taking a back seat in the story and honestly not contributing a whole lot besides motivating Sora do complete his mission. I like that Donald and Goofy were so charming in this game and that they joined us in the fight with Xehanort, but I still really would prefer that Riku also joined us like in KH2. We still have no concrete idea on what Kingdom Hearts itself actually is but as usual, I have my theories. The Kingdom Hearts that Xehanort summons in BBS and KH3 is the heart of all people and I think it’s the KH equivalent of Heaven or the afterlife because that’s where Eraqus and Xehanort go away to. The Kingdom Hearts in KH1 s the heart of all worlds and is apparently “light”. I’m also indifferent to the reveal of Xigbar being Luxu...anything to do with the black box or KHUX honestly bothers me. I know I must sound like I hate the story but I actually think it’s still the best out of all of them, I’m just expressing my concerns because I love the series and take serious issue with some of the choices made.

Gameplay:

The gameplay of KH3 is arguably the best of the series depending on who you ask. The general fan who mostly meanders through the game on the easiest difficulties on each entry might not really appreciate the depth of the combat and just stick to the go-to mash x to swing keyblade or triangle to do cool move. I however normally play on the hardest difficulty not only to seek a greater challenge, but to be forced to see how good or bad the game’s combat really is. I never really liked the argument of floaty combat because neither side really understands the real issue/ consequence of floaty combat. It all really comes down to enemy design, behavior, and placement. When a game has floaty combat and bad enemy design, (Enemies that don’t stagger or randomly stagger, shoot projectiles that do a lot of damage, big and un-telegraphed attacks) it cause the player to play the game in a really uncomfortable way. In BBS spamming dodge, surge moves, and shotlocks was essential in order to stand a chance against some of the bs that the game would throw at you. In DDD, flowmotion was far better than normal attacks because they gave you super armor, did better damage, and could be spammed. Balloonra was also OP AF. In KH1 Sora felt like a rock and while I personally enjoyed how it felt to control him, I can understand why someone wouldn’t like a lot of jumping and attacking over and over. Kh2 however, has the best combat in the series to this day in my opinion because of all the options you have. Your basic keyblade attacks are effective on every enemy in the game but at higher difficulties, the game suggests you branch away from mashing x and experiment with magic and summons. Then you realize how good it is. On top of solid enemy design, KH2 is probably my favorite game to play for action rpg gameplay.

Going into KH3 I set my expectations on the gameplay low based on the 0.2 gameplay and the seemingly super floaty gameplay of the trailers. Although KH3 does have its floaty feeling, I can say that the game is designed to be fun while having the best floaty gameplay in the series. The enemies almost all stagger to your basic keyblade attacks and larger enemies that don’t consistently stagger to finishers and keyblade transformation attacks. Magic feels AMAZING to use and is clearly useful early on. Team attacks, while I feel are still better as limits you can individually choose, are still fun and satisfying to use when provided. Attraction Flow was my least favorite feature not because they are all useless, quite the contrary as the pirate ship and splash run seem pretty good, but because I don’t have the option to turn them off. They fill the situation command slots with too much clutter and I’d like to turn them off since I don’t use them much anyways. As for combo modifiers, it’s pretty subjective what you prefer to run with but personally I only used one air combo plus and no combo pluses for my ground combos, speed slash as my only equipped finisher, and the air launch move to render my enemies useless while I air comboed them Marvel vs Capcom style. Shotlocks while useful, aren’t busted as they were in DDD. I recently found out that the Hero’s origin shotlock, when not fully charged, actually heals you a little which came in handy in the battle gates. Links or Summons, are actually pretty bad except for Simba and Stitch. The reason they are so bad is because they cost a FULL mp bar to use and they all leave you vulnerable to damage, granted you take less damage but doesn’t really matter on harder difficulties or battlegates. Simba and Stitch are good because their damage output makes up for the full mp bar. Links also fully heal you but I think that’s because you don’t have I frames and the devs just hope you wouldn’t notice. All in All pretty solid gameplay. Not better than 2 in my opinion but I wouldn’t laugh at someone for saying KH3 has their favorite combat. Regarding the final bosses they are all designed great but they come in groups which I don’t like and wished there was a way to fight them individually. I know they come in groups because it makes it the endgame drag less but, it result in super short fights that have too much going on in them and abruptly stop when you beat one member one by one. I also wished we fought Ansem and Xemnas in their final forms instead of all 3 in a group (Also they have the best boss theme and it should’ve been the final boss theme but the real final boss theme is still good). Every other boss is SOLID my favorite was definitely the ice wolf and mother gothel’s heartless thing.

Last but not least, Music

It’s Godlike. The end.

#KH3 #kh3 spoilers #kingdom hearts 3 #journal

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msemerj-blog · 5 years

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What IS a game?

What IS a game anyway?

Today I’ll talk a little bit about what games are, how they came to be and WHY they’re probably the best thing since…you guessed it, sliced bread.

Y’know, games aren’t something that modern society has now evolved in to. When I say “modern society” I mean MODERN society, the society where we grab our switch and hold it like a clutch purse and pull it up on the bus so we can catch a Pokemon or something. I’m talking about real games. Games we used to play when we were kids, when our parents were kids, when th- okay you get it.

I’m talking about Hide and Seek, the beginning of our lecture from Mr.Games himself who teaches our Introduction to Game Development class.

Honestly I used to play way too much Hide and Seek when I was a kid, to the point where I’m sure a lot of people have done, quite terrifyingly got lost. That was my last game actually, I haven’t played since. Anyway, did you know that Hide and Seek is actually traced back to Greece from the 2nd century? It’s around the same type of game called “Apodidraskinda” in Greek, but in modern days it’s called kryfto.

The differences between todays games, whether digital or in real life, are generally this; Digital games, can be used to portray the world in a way that you could never be able to in real life. For instance, I can hop on to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and jump from building to house to towers in Rome, leaping through time and space itself. In real life, you are confined to what your own imagination can give you,

We all play games because we’re bored, we find it fun, we want to escape, to bond with people, and a lot of different reasons, hundreds of them under the sun. Take a moment to really think about it, why do YOU play games?

Remember, when you’re looking to become someone who will be designing games, think about the player, think about their experience. You’re responsible for every part of that game, the objectives, the rules and everything else under that. In my opinion, just because I make a game and enjoy it, or make a game that I want, that doesn’t mean everyone else will find joy in it. You are advocating for the player, not for yourself. The gameplay is one of the most important part of making your game. Which brings me to our next topic, playtesting.

Dead By Daylight, PUBG, League of Legends, Overwatch. These are some of the games that involve betas and playtesting. These may be completed games at its core, but the developers still remember that without the players feedback, their games are actual trash to be honest, and while yes, some companies like to ask for feedback and then throw it out the window, only to go back to what their players were complaining about, in the end playtesting is what they needed in order to communicate with their player base and improve their games in all aspects!

Falling in love with your game is important, but being blinded by your love for your game is a HUGE risk. This is why it’s super important to have other people test your game for you. You should have a lot of these qualities, which is so important to being a successful game designer, commication, teamwork, being able to work under pressure because deadlines are a real thing. One of the most horrible thing in my opinion is when game companies reveal a big date for a project or a beta, then fail to meet the deadline. Just remember, in the end, video games are supposed to be fun, interactive and player-sided, remember that and you’ll do great!

We were also told to compare the games Go Fish and Quake, Gold Fish is a card game played by 3-6 people, everyone gets 5 cards, and in the end the person without a card left, wins. On the other hand, Quake is a 3D game, it’s single player on a computer. You have to defeat monsters, you get power ups you shoot and kill there’s levels and so much more.

My point is, both of these are completely opposite in how they’re played, and going back to earlier where I said one is real life, and one is digital, both are STILL games. The most obvious similarity between the two are PLAYERS, as in you literally need players to use these products, to play the game. The only difference at its core is that one is single player, and the other one needs at least 3 people to play. Both games need people to be thinking logically, strategically, and in both cases in the end, the player just wants to WIN.

Games have objectives, the objective in most cases is to get to the end, or to win. Go fish? Match your cards and win. In Quake? Just reach to the end of each level alive. The point brought up in the lecture was that in games, objectives are vital in structuring the experience and motivating players. In movies we don’t have any of that, we just watch the movie and that’s the end.

Procedures, outlining the actions or methods of play allowed by the rules, ie; guiding the players behaviour. Rules are definitely a necessity in any game we play to be honest, without them nobody would know where to go in any single player game. Whether it’s linear, open world or just a team deathmatch in Call of Duty.

Resources are also extremely important, like in Quake, Fallout, Call of Duty, or any other FPS, RPG or Card game. Guns, ammo, points, powers, perks, etc. For instance, in Dead by Daylight I can spawn in to the map, open a chest and get a med-kit so I can heal myself if I need to.

Conflict is when a game throws you the end of a level, there it is! Just reach the end you can see the door! Except now that you walk forward, oh no, there’s 25 enemies. Kill them to go forward. Which brings us to boundaries, let’s say you see that same door, and the 25 enemies, and think okay well I’ll just go around them and get to the door without killing the enemies. Absolutely not. That’s not how the developers wanted you to play, that’s not how it’s supposed to be experienced! So the developers put boundaries so we don’t go outside the intended play area.

Challenges, another form of conflict in games. Challenges create tension in your games, and teach you to resolve a problem, like in Until Dawn, you must choose a ridiculous amount of options in a super short amount of time, and depending on what you choose, it’s literally life or death, so you must choose wisely. You also have to remember that putting too many challenges makes a game boring, so be careful not to include something so frustrating that it’ll make the player want to rage quit out of your game and forget to come back. Make it something either satisfying, or something that will completely alter the way it’s played whether it’s good or bad.

The concept of the word “play” is really tough to describe personally. It’s tough to really define what it is, because in my opinion I think of play as a positive connotation, but then I’ll see someone on twitch playing League of Legends and they die and slam their fists on their keyboards and screaming at the monitor at their teammates. Yes, they’re angry, but they’re still…PLAYING the game.

Play can be serious, happy, fun, sad, it can be everything, but in my personally opinion, play should definitely at the core be FUN. When I’m playing a game I should be having fun, no matter what. It should inspire imagination, it should engage the player.

Characters and stories in games can be both held hand in hand. Being attached to a story, to the lore, and to the character is so common in single player games these days. For example, I remember in the first Portal game, Chell wasn’t even Chell, she wasn’t anything. She was just “player” she had no story she had no background. There were bits and pieces, until fans dug stuff up and berated valve with questions, asking them to define who Chell is, who IS she? Why is she there? What’s her story? So in Portal 2 they went deeper, they gave her a background, we were attached to this once no named character. Now we love her, we love GladOS, and we’re still waiting for Portal 3 by the way…Valve? Are you scared of the number 3?

Anyway, putting Valves fear of the number 3 aside, my conclusion is that games are games, doesn’t matter if you’re playing hide and seek, Mario Party, Smash, or if you’re playing a game in your head that the floor is lava. In the end, when designing your game, remember that the players are what’s important. Remember that their feedback, and their criticism is what’s going to make you a successful game.

#whatamidoing

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sketchiedetails · 6 years

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While I think Binary Domain is a fun action game with a great B-movie tone, I feel like its plot is trying to do way too much at once to make any of its core themes really stick.

Lemme just get this out of the way: Binary Domain is one of the funniest action games, both unintentionally and intentionally. The cutscenes have better comedic timing with their edits and performances than most Western games these days and that’s when the game is trying. There’s some jank in the game that comes across and adds another layer of bizarre humor to the overall package. If you played the game, then you know about Bo’s stare or even trying to rescue Bo at the end of the game.

It took me a while to warm up to the cast, but they’re all very likable with their exchanges and you really feel that they develop a sense of camaraderie by the endgame.

My problem with BD’s writing isn’t with the characters; it’s with the setting. I wanna say the central theme in Binary Domain is “loving someone shouldn’t change after learning they are different from you” but it comes way too late in the game to be properly expressed and the people who should exemplify that theme - Dan and Faye - don’t really have enough time to naturally develop that kind of relationship. They’re supposed to start out butting heads and that tension transitions into sexual tension and eventually love but it really only works if you keep Faye on your team from the very beginning of the game and never swap her out.

Dan and Faye’s love arc is part of my problem with the writing. Binary Domain’s setting very clearly treats robots as second-class citizens. They’re called “scrap heads” as a slur and it gets thrown around very liberally and later on people who sympathize with machines get called “scrap lovers.” It kept reminding me of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided when they tried to make “clank” a slur for augmented people. I find it weird that unanimously people are on board for treating robots so terribly. Everyone across the globe just universally agrees that robots need to be suppressed, and I guess Yoji Amada himself points this out and calls it “The Frankenstein Problem,“ where humans fear the things they create will surpass them. I get it’s a theme, but it feels like it’s half-committed. I don’t buy in a setting that everyone would completely agree on the same thing; there should have been other people in the setting to offer counterpoints to provide different takes at the issue.

On my initial run of BD, I assumed there was gonna be a point that the Hollow Children would prove that they were capable of being sentient and shouldn’t be suppressed, but no it never gets proven and the game actually kneecaps that possibility. Hollow Children are considered terrifying to people because they can pose as regular humans for decades and no one would know, even the Hollow Child wouldn’t know what they are until ... something happens? The game is trying to be like Blade Runner, but there’s no rules established to explain how people can discover if a person is a Hollow Child, and the true purpose for Hollow Children doesn’t get revealed until the very last chapter, and it doesn’t really justify their existence.

At the end of the game, Yoji Amada reveals that he isn’t really Yoji Amada: he’s a sentient AI that the original Amada created to prove to the rest of the world that it was possible and died by his creation out of fear that the IRTA would come - who better to describe The Frankenstein Problem then an actual Frankenstein’s monster? AI-Amada (AI-mada?) then proceeds to create Hollow Children because he needed to procreate like any other lifeform. His plan is to integrate his Hollow Children into the general populace and create hybrids which have both human DNA and ... Hollow Children DNA? (I’m not sure how it works biologically, but it’s interesting how this game cribs from Blade Runner and then somehow unintentionally predicts the main plot of Blade Runner 2049.)

So if Amada’s plan is to cause miscegenation between humans and Hollow Children, what is the point of creating male Hollow Children? It’s stated just before this reveal that female HC’s can conceive, but nothing about male HC’s virility. It’s shown that Amada can remotely hijack any Hollow Child anywhere in Japan, and that really doesn’t help the argument for Hollow Children since they pose a threat as potential sleeper agents.

The most important part of this reveal is that it turns out Faye is a hybrid - her father is human, and her mother is a Hollow Child. Amada captured Faye and by the time the Rust Crew reach them, she’d already been turned. Dan at this point had been stubbornly defending Faye against the rest of the Crew who automatically agree to put her down - it’s their job, y’know how it be - and a boss fight ensues with Faye leading a pack of ninja robots. The fight has moments where the player as Dan can issue voice commands saying they love Faye and don’t want to fight, but again the pacing here has sideswiped so fast and so frequently that none of this really feels earned.

There’s a recurring flashback Dan experiences throughout the game where he’s a child bashing in a robot’s face in his family’s kitchen. It’s implied that his alcoholic father beat Dan and his mother and the robot did nothing, so in a fit of impotent rage Dan retaliates on the defenseless machine. When Dan learns that Faye is a Hollow Child’s ... child, he returns to that flashback but it’s adult Dan kneeling over a battered Faye. It’s supposed to be symbolic of Dan overcoming his bigotry and accepting Faye to be as much of a person as he is; I read it as Dan being an idiot for most of his life and having an epiphany that the rest of the world should have had from the very beginning when they started focusing on robotics as their main source of infrastructure.

During my last run on Metal Gear Rising, I listened to as many of the Codec conversations as I could this time around. They offer some very detailed world building that the rest of the game itself couldn’t support at the cost of the game’s pacing. The conversations cover a wide range of topics concerning a world recovering after the fall of the Patriots. Cyborg soldiers took over as the main source of infantry in PMC’s, and the game dips into concepts about how the rules of engagement would work with cyborg soldiers, the logistics it would take to maintain a cyborg body, and the public perception of cybernetics in both a domestic and military context.

I’m not saying every game needs a codex section in their menus to explain the world and how it works (BD technically does have that via the info logs you can pick up in the game), but the setting should be internally consistent. MGR’s Codecs add flavor text to the world, but they also explain away the more gamey aspects of the setting, like why it’s important to the Doktor that Raiden collect as many left hands as he can or why some returning boss fights aren’t as imposing as their initial encounters.

Most of the time Hollow Children appear as a way to create a plot twist and shake up the story. Shindo’s right hand man was a Hollow Child and the rebel base gets attacked by a huge robot. The general at the beginning of the game who ranted about how the existence of Hollow Children was ridiculous turned out to be a Hollow Child. They exist in order to generate drama, much like how Dan and Faye’s relationship exists in order to challenge the notion that Hollow Children shouldn’t be allowed to live.

Binary Domain’s final boss turns out to be the Rust Crew’s commanding officer. I’m not sure if he states that the President approved it, but the US is going to take the Amada AI for their own purposes and kill the Rust Crew so the rest of the IRTA won’t know what happened. It’s interesting how all three games I’ve played to write these series of posts - Vanquish, Metal Gear Rising, and Binary Domain - all feature either final or penultimate bosses that are involved in some branch of the US government. Lt. Col. Burns and Major Philips are part of the Marines, and Armstrong is a US Senator. I hate to keep dumping on BD, but their plot twist just feels unnecessary and would be but it needs to happen in order for Dan and Faye to run off together and hint at potential sequels where Faye becomes a leader for Hollow Children resistance with Dan by her side.

As a piece of speculative sci-fi, I think Binary Domain has some faulty logic but I still enjoyed this game. The combat is slower and more plodding compared to the other two games I recently wrote about, but that’s the point of the gameplay. It’s a group of humans fighting machines who can be engineered to have an edge in fights where the humans have to rely on their wits and each other in order to win every battle. Also, Vanquish and MGR are Platinum titles, and every action game is gonna feel like a slog compared to a Platinum game.

I’ll have to amend my original thoughts about playing Binary Domain alongside Vanquish: you should definitely play those two back to back, but also add in Metal Gear Rising to that block. They’re all compelling action games with some interesting ideas about how war will look in the future.

#binary domain #metal gear rising #mgr #vanquish #thinking bout games

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bltngames · 6 years

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Game Review: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might just be one of the best games Nintendo has ever made. Ever. Is that too hyperbolic? Should I reign it in a little?

So where does that put us? The Nintendo game I hold in the highest regard is Super Mario 64, which on top of just being a really good game, basically defined 3D character movement for the entire game industry. Everything from Uncharted to Grand Theft Auto and NieR Automata owes something to Super Mario 64 for establishing how to use an analog stick to control the action on screen. It was a revolution.

Breath of the Wild isn’t a revolution. This is a game cut from the same cloth as Skyrim or The Witcher 3 — an open-world fantasy game, with towns full of people and quest logs designed to distract. You’ve technically seen this game before, or at least parts of it, and on the surface it can be easy to brush it off as nothing more than a thinly veiled “me too” clone by way of The Legend of Zelda.

But here’s the deal: you’ve never played Nintendo’s version of this. Those other games I mentioned often prioritize production quality and narrative depth. A quest’s story in my examples is often more important than what you actually have to do in it, with the worst example being multiple quests in Skyrim that send you from one edge of the map miles away to the other edge just to kill a single enemy and then hike the entire distance back for your reward. Even on horseback, a quest like that would take hours of mind-numbing transit. The obvious (and likely intended) solution is to use the game’s fast travel system to teleport to the destination, complete the objective, and then teleport back, turning an all-day gameplay excursion into a something that takes less than 15 minutes. The problem is that this creates a disconnect where everything stops feeling real, because there’s no reaffirmation that these are places that exist. You come to view the world as nothing more than a piece of software that lets you materialize at your destination. There’s no sense of distance, no journey.

That’s simply not true with Breath of the Wild, which goes out of its way to make you feel like a part of the land of Hyrule. Not only does it feel like a real, lived-in space, it feels like one with thousands of years of tangible history. Ruins of what used to be litter the land, some more recent than others, but all purpose-built with a legacy of their own. The environment of Hyrule is as much a character here as anyone else, and its battle-scarred vistas tell a lonely, somber tale.

Zelda is one of Nintendo’s most narrative-rich franchises, which allows it to slip into Skyrim’s skin with ease. Just the same, Breath of the Wild is a game about journeys. It’s a game where you look over your shoulder and think: an hour ago, I was on top of that mountain. I have come so far, done so much, and seen so many things. Yes, it has fast travel and horse riding if you really need to get somewhere quickly. But why would you? Breath of the Wild is a game where there’s always something on the horizon calling out to you. Horses and fast travel might get you in the general vicinity of where you want to go, but never close enough. Eventually you have to take matters into your own hands (often literally) and venture forth by yourself to discover Hyrule’s mysteries, one cliff face at a time. Literally the entire point of this game is to meticulously sift through the world inch by inch, and it manages to feel like magic basically the entire time.

You also connect to this world in other ways. Breath of the Wild features surprisingly robust artificial intelligence and physics systems, and you’re given tools perfect for playing around in this space. Rather than acquire a stable of items from dungeons (as in past Zelda games), Breath of the Wild gives you five core abilities during its tutorial and then turns you loose on the world to use them as you please. Unlike, say, Ocarina of Time’s hookshot, which could only be used on specific hookshot targets, these five abilities are far more utilitarian in their approach. They allow you to interact with the environment in ways most open world games shy away from, like picking up physics objects or generating platforms over tricky terrain. In addition to helping you solve puzzles and navigate the world, many of these abilities have combat applications, leading to fun games of cat and mouse with Ganon’s minions.

In one particular example, I came upon a camp of pig-like Bokoblins that had set up inside the ruins of an old building. I had mostly cleared the place out, but there was still one lone Boko on patrol outside completely unaware of what had happened to the rest of the camp. From the door, he peered inside. Bokoblins don’t have great eyesight, so from the distance he was at, he didn’t really have a chance to identify me before I darted out of sight. He obviously knew he saw something suspicious, so he walked over, grabbed a club from the camp’s weapons pile outside, and then headed inside the ruins to investigate. By this point, I’d climbed on top of the ruins and was watching him from what would be the roof, if this building had one (it did not). He headed to the last place he saw me and sniffed around, hoping to figure out what he’d seen. By now his back was turned to me, so I jumped from my vantage point above him and came down on his head with my spear for a quick kill. This kind of emergent gameplay is a first for The Legend of Zelda, and it makes every combat encounter feel unique.

Perhaps Breath of the Wild’s greatest strength is its willingness to embrace this kind of emergent player expression. Nintendo could have very easily locked a lot of its puzzles and encounters down, discouraging all but the one “true” solution, but they didn’t. It brings to mind the elements that made a game like Minecraft so captivating; the only thing stopping you from getting somewhere or doing something is your own ingenuity. Nothing in the game ever has just one solution, and it fully embraces whatever ways you can find to bend its rules. Previous Zeldas were full of jigsaw puzzles that had to be assembled in the same way every single time. Breath of the Wild is more of an actual test of problem solving skills, and one where my answer might be different from your answer and neither one of us is wrong.

Of course, even the best games have their flaws, and Breath of the Wild is definitely not a perfect game. In particular is the game’s performance — I played on the Wii U, and there, Breath of the Wild suffers occasional choppy framerates and sometimes more significant stuttering. Knocking down a Moblin can sometimes make the whole game freeze for up to two full seconds. Zelda is undoubtedly simulating a lot of stuff behind the scenes, between physics, climate systems, fire propagation, and artificial intelligence, so it’s understandable when the game threatens to buckle under it’s own weight, but it’s still a problem worth talking about. My understanding is that the Switch version is also affected by many of these technical issues, but with less severity. But, even on the Wii U, I found them to be momentary annoyances and not anything to really cast the game in a negative light. For 75% of my time in Hyrule, the game performed just fine (and it’s worth mentioning that during the process of writing this review, Nintendo published a patch for Zelda that optimizes the game just a little bit more to reduce framerate drops).

The other elephant in the room deals the game’s systems, particularly in weapon durability and weather. If you use a given weapon too much, it will eventually shatter. Often, I’d leave a combat encounter with fewer or worse weapons than when I started, but once I learned not to get too attached to any given sword, shield or bow, it ceased to be an issue. Breath of the Wild is a game about making do with what you’ve got and building an ever-changing strategy around that. Enemies also scale in strength over time, providing you with a drip feed of slightly more powerful gear as you play. That being said, the game definitely could have benefited from ways to repair fragile weapons, because just about everything breaks after only a few minutes of use.

Weather, on the other hand, was probably the single biggest point of frustration for me in Breath of the Wild. You’re given an on-screen weather forecast, presumably so you can plan accordingly should something like rain come up, but sometimes it can be unpredictable as you move through the world and suddenly shift into a new biome with different weather patterns. In one particularly ridiculous scenario, I found myself stranded on a rocky alcove because if I climbed up even ten feet it would trigger a biome change and begin raining, making it too slick to continue upwards. The moment I’d drop off the cliff (or more likely slip off), the rain would suddenly vanish. Sometimes, it doesn’t make any logical sense at all, such as the time I had to light fires as part of a quest and it began raining just long enough (about six seconds) to snuff out my flames and make me start over. Nothing in the forecast called for rain, nothing on my HUD changed, it just started pouring rain and then instantly stopped. You very quickly learn to dread rainstorms, because there’s not a lot you can do about them except wait for the weather to clear.

Regardless, these problems barely register as a blip on the game’s radar. I know it can be easy to sometimes get frustrated with Nintendo’s output and design philosophies, specifically with regards to past Zelda games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, but when this company pulls together and fires on all cylinders, the end result is something truly incredible to behold. Breath of the Wild is a tremendous game; even after finishing the game and putting in more than 140 hours, I wasn’t ready to leave Hyrule. I was still finding new discoveries. New places I hadn’t been to yet. No game that I can ever remember playing in the 30+ years since the NES has gotten its hooks into me this deep for this long. It may not be a revolution, but with Breath of the Wild, Nintendo has still run circles around the industry just the same. Under no circumstances should you allow yourself to miss this game.

#writing #review #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #wii u #nintendo

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casualarsonist · 6 years

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Until Dawn review (PS4)

David Cage: Frenchman, Legion of Honour recipient, and a video game visionary, he would consider himself a storyteller first and foremost and ostensibly popularised the ‘interactive drama’ genre with the narrative-heavy ‘Fahrenheit’, ‘Heavy Rain’, and ‘Beyond: Two Souls’. However, as well-known as he is for his artistic vision, his other claim to dubious fame is the fact that his abilities can never quite match his ambition. Make no mistake, Cage is no Peter Molyneux and doesn’t exactly misrepresent his games beyond overstating their importance, but they are as synonymous with their clunky gameplay as they are with powerful drama – an important discord in a genre in which the whole point is to tell a story with depth and resonance that players can immerse themselves in when the technical side of these products works against this very goal. However, a good interactive drama game can, like a good film, stand the test of time as a whole work, even if one of its component parts doesn’t. And this too is important because as players we expect older games to be ungainly and less refined than modern releases, so I suppose that if games like this were to have a flaw, clunky gameplay would be a far better one to have than an unengaging story or poor acting.

And thus we come to 2015’s ‘Until Dawn’ - not a David Cage game (and probably better for it), but one that draws from his work in the genre. A pastiche of teen-horror films, Until Dawn follows eight teenagers – the so-called ‘friends’ of twin sisters Hannah and Beth (Ella Lentini) who vanished into the woods surrounding their father’s isolated cabin after a cruel prank played on them the year before. On the first anniversary of their disappearance, the remaining gang are urged by the twins’ brother Josh (Rami Malek) to return to the cabin, ostensibly to commemorate the lives of the missing sisters with ‘the party of a lifetime’. But not all is what it seems, and on top of the creepy and desolate location, the teens will come face-to-face with everything in the encyclopaedia of horror-tropes but the cursed kitchen sink as they try to make it to dawn the next day.

Until Dawn is, for all intents and purposes, a straight-forward success when it comes to achieving its mission statement, which is to say that it’s a faithful recreation of a tried-and-true horror formula with enough twists and turns to keep you engaged in the unfolding story, characters with enough depth and likability to largely transcend the archetypes within which they are cast, and a conceit that makes the best use of the simplistic gameplay. It is possibly the only game I’ve ever played in which I’ve enjoyed and seen as appropriate the inclusion of QTEs – so long has the mechanic been a refuge for lazy designers that I forgot that testing the players reflexes under threat of permadeath can actually be a tense and thrilling experience. It’s also, despite the shoulders upon which it so clearly stands, a unique enough experience that I find myself thinking about it long after it’s over (which is months ago now). You will find yourself becoming attached to the people you’re playing as along the way, feeling appropriately horrified should they fall prey to the many traps the game has to offer. You may also find yourself despising some of them, at which point the full potential of the genre comes to bear as you coax them into a brutal and cathartic death.

But I suspect that my assessment above will divide an audience that has played this game, for as solid as I feel the core of Until Dawn is it cannot escape the fact that, like the genre of film it tries to emulate, the game is a constant balancing act between engaging the audience and repelling them with silliness. Some may indeed find the characters vapid and hollow and I would understand that, because despite the effort to reinforce the importance of player choice in the unfolding narrative there are plenty of times in which you can feel the game take the reins and steer the characters toward a different path from which you took them simply to manufacture drama and keep the story moving. Likewise, I could understand it if you found the constant sexual innuendo unbearable, or the fact that the characters will simply wander around in their underwear during a Rocky Mountain winter, or that for the entirety of the night not once does anyone seek to turn the fucking lights on.

And while I think it was a wise thing to pair this genre of film with this type of game, it’s simply a fact that a good part of the enjoyment of teen horror comes from laughing at a film’s loose ends and frayed seams. The idea that a group of people should come together to commemorate the presumed death of two of their friends with a fucking party in the exact same location from which they went missing is retarded, as is the idea that anyone would crack a joke mere minutes after seeing a friend get minced in front of them, or that you’d prance around in their undies in an unlit, unheated wooden cabin buried in the deep, dark forest. Teen horror films are ridiculous by nature, the choices their characters make are borderline braindead, and so to attempt to recreate this experience for better and worse whilst simultaneously asking a player to engage and invest in the fate of the people making these dumb-ass decisions is a simply an irreconcilable goal. More than once I found myself groaning in genuine annoyance as characters did and said things that were deeply at odds with the things I had asked them to do and say up until that point, in a transparent effort to artificially extend the playtime. The most infuriating moment came with the only character death I experienced, which occurred not as a direct result of my choices but through an incidental and unpredictable series of events that the game told me related to a decision I had made 10 minutes before – a dialogue choice, to be specific, in which I agreed with another character’s plan of action, a plan that takes place regardless of your response. So the choice that kicked off the series of events that lead to the character’s death wasn’t actually a choice at all, it was simply an inconsequential piece of dialogue that the game decided to make a pivotal moment.

These moments of unfortunate incongruity do occur more than once throughout, although they’re rarely as egregious as this. Other missteps include bizarre, truncated conclusions for a couple of the eight characters, who disappear for almost the entire game with only a small epilogue of sorts in which the end of their stories are sorted out, as well as more than one Big Bad revealing itself to be a red herring. In any case, I wasn’t dissatisfied with the narrative overall, but it’s quite clear just how much the writers struggled to balance the need to provide content with the need to keep the player invested in the story.

That said, Until Dawn is easily the highest quality interactive drama I’ve ever played: the cast, led by Hayden Panettiere, perform superbly and manage to tease far more depth out of the characters than one might otherwise expect. Their performances single-handedly elevate the game as a whole, and form one of the crucial pillars upon which Until Dawn manages to stand above its flaws. The story is, for all my momentary criticisms, quite fun and interesting - the sheer amount of clichés within the horror genre offers a deep well from which Until Dawn can and does draw. From the moment you get your hands on the controls you’re left with a sense of dread and foreboding that doesn’t abate, and although your evolving understanding of the circumstances that haunt the characters does result in diminishing returns for the scares as the game winds on, there are still new and interesting plot elements revealed right up until the very final moments of play. An overabundance of jump-scares is mitigated by the fact that, despite how cheap they are, they do still manage to keep you on edge, and there are plenty of moments of genuine suspense provided equally by unsettlingly quiet moments, as well as the terrifying sequences in which you are chased by an unstoppable threat.

And it’s primarily through this quality and its single-minded dedication to providing a genre experience that Until Dawn comes out on top. Like all games of its ilk, it isn’t perfect, and ultimately one could reasonably accuse the ‘interactive drama’ genre of being one giant, coalescent gimmick, but the truly inspired decision here that separates Until Dawn from the others is that the creators chose a wonderfully gimmicky type of film to marry to this type of game. And while two gimmicks together don’t necessarily cancel each other out, in this case they certainly compliment each other to provide what is, in the end, a rather singular and unforgettable experience.

Good

7/10 P.S.

It has taken me fucking months to write this review. I got a new job and lost a lot of writing time, and thus lost my mojo, so please excuse the gap and any perceived dip in quality. I’ve played a lot of games lately, so I hope to post something for Titanfall 2, the Uncharted series, Far Cry Primal, Horizon: Zero Dawn, as well as a few films. Hopefully it shouldn’t take me quite as long to get around to that as it has this. Love, peace, and chicken grease.

#until dawn #video games #review #ps4 #2015 #teen horror #hayden panettiere #rami malek #david cage #interactive drama

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brokenbase · 7 years

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Horizon: Zero Dawn - BROKEN BASE REVIEWS

That's right - we were lucky enough to score an advanced copy of Horizon: Zero Dawn from Sony! So, what did Steve think about one of the first big console exclusives of the year? Well, go ahead and watch the video! Or, if you wanted to read the review, you’re in luck - the full script is just below the cut!

Horizon: Zero Dawn, the latest game from Killzone developer Guerrilla Games, is already under a lot of pressure. Not only is it one of the first big releases of 2017, but it’s the one of the biggest guns in the PlayStation 4′s exclusive line-up for the year. A new IP, a new heroine, a new engine - even after a fantastic debut and some serious hype, Horizon: Zero Dawn still has a lot left to prove.

There’s a lot to cover when it comes to Horizon. Not only is the game massive in scope, but Guerrilla Games have pulled from a number of other gaming franchises to create one of the most eclectic sandboxes in recent memory. While there’s nothing wrong with pulling inspiration from other, successful franchises, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.

Thankfully, Horizon: Zero Dawn manages to blend its different ideas into a cohesive - and more importantly, fun - open-world action game.

Players take on the role of Aloy, a young woman surviving the harsh wild of a post-apocalyptic Earth. Giant robotic animals roam the planet, leaving humankind to fight for its very survival. As one might expect, it doesn’t take long for Aloy to get swept up in a worldwide conspiracy, forcing her to leave home in search of answers.

To put it bluntly, the first few hours of the story are rough. Aloy is enjoyable enough, but the story of an outcast trying to fit into society is downright generic. It’s far too easy to predict exactly what will happen, and it’s not nearly interesting enough to create any sort of emotional attachment.

Once the intro is out of the way, Horizon’s story does get better. The game’s world and the people in it manage to create a setting that’s both far-flung and believably grounded - given that this is a world where giant robot dinosaurs roam the wilderness, that’s saying something. It definitely helps that many of the player’s actions actually make an impact: Seeing decisions and questlines come full circle as the game progresses is a great touch, and does a lot to make Horizon’s side quests feel like more than inconsequential errands.

But it’s the story of the machines and their origins that’s the true star of the show. Horizon’s A.I.-centric plot may be a new take on an established concept, but a number of genuinely surprising twists and a distinct identity keep it from feeling stale. Sadly, the pacing is extremely lopsided: the story becomes an unrelenting deluge of information during its second half, and it can be overwhelming at times.

What’s worse is that Aloy’s personal story doesn’t hold up nearly as well. Her storyline takes a backseat for far too long, and the main villain doesn’t have enough of a presence throughout the game to feel like a real threat. By the time the credits roll, the whole revenge plot feels like more of a sidenote than anything.

As a whole, characterization is flawed: Aloy herself is enjoyable, and some of the side characters are great, but nearly everyone else is either forgettable or entirely unlikable. For whatever reason, Aloy’s closest ally is an absolute prick throughout the entire game, while the central villains are basically nonexistent. It’s completely backwards, and choices like these derail the story on more than one occasion.

Simply put, the narrative of Horizon: Zero Dawn is all over the place: some parts of the story are fantastic, while others drag the experience down. Personal tastes will be a factor in your enjoyment of the story, but once it gets going, the good usually outweighs the bad.

Anyone who’s played an open-world game from the past ten years will know exactly what to expect from Horizon: Zero Dawn. The entirety of the game’s single-player story takes place in a massive seamless map filled to the brim with NPCs, quests and hidden collectibles. Players complete story missions to advance the plot, and side quests to earn optional rewards. Scaling specific machines will reveal large portions of the map, and fast-travel points open up as players explore the world.

At first glance, it might seem like Horizon’s strict adherence to the standard open-world formula wouldn’t leave much room for new ideas...and while that’s true in some respects, it’s also selling the game short. The overall structure may be familiar, but the gameplay itself is an entirely different beast.

With a focus on stealth, ancient weaponry and RPG mechanics, one would be forgiven for assuming that playing through Horizon: Zero Dawn is a slow, methodical experience. In reality, that’s only half-true.

Players will spend the majority of their time playing Horizon doing one of two things: engaging enemy combatants head-on, or sneaking around them. Combat and movement are fast and loose while simultaneously rewarding those who play with precision. It’s possible to let off a slew of arrows quickly, but it’s far more satisfying to pick off enemies one at a time with carefully-placed shots.

Human enemies, for the most part, don’t provide much resistance. Their sheer numbers can be a threat, and more powerful variants are introduced as the game goes on, but they don’t hold a candle to the robotic enemies that players will face.

Without the ability to take out a target with a single shot, combat against the machines becomes far more tactical. Weapon choice, enemy layouts, terrain, available ammo, healing items - everything has to be taken into consideration before taking the first shot. Actual combat is a chess game of positioning, targeting weakpoints and isolating weaker enemies, and it’s a blast from beginning to end. Fights against multiple machines can be a bit too chaotic for their own good, and certain enemy types are overpowered, but these issues are minor in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, combat is more complicated than just bows and arrows. Aloy’s arsenal does a fine job of both encouraging experimentation and allowing players to find a specific style that works for them. Different ammo types and elemental status effects offer even more variety, though the upgrade system isn’t quite as successful. Purchasing or crafting better gear is definitely helpful, but grinding for the specific parts required to do so relies entirely on random chance. Get ready to hunt a lot of rabbits.

Skills points and leveling up are the final piece of the combat puzzle, and it’s exactly what you would expect. More experience means more skills, such as slowing down time while aiming or more powerful melee attacks. It’s another way that players can customize their play style, but it’s nothing new, either.

The rest of the gameplay is fun, if not entirely noteworthy. Puzzles and platforming are basically automatic, and don’t provide any real sense of challenge. Collectibles are fun to find, but the rewards for finding them aren’t anything special. Dialogue trees are an interesting addition, but there are only a few instances where Aloy’s response actually changes anything.

It’s a shame that the smaller aspects of Horizon’s gameplay aren’t as polished as the core mechanics, but it’s clear that Guerrilla Games focused on what matters. Combat feels great, and sneaking through an enemy encampment is extremely satisfying. It would have been nice if everything were as engaging as the combat, but Horizon nails its core gameplay so well that these small missteps are easy to forgive.

From the moment that players press Start, one thing is obvious: Horizon: Zero Dawn is absolutely gorgeous. Nearly everything about the game’s presentation is phenomenal, from the environments to the character models to the sound design to the insane level of detail.

Watching as Aloy or any one of the massive machines move through the environment is a sight to behold, and the sheer number of different animations is staggering. Lighting is another highlight, with the use of color and shadow standing head-and-shoulders above most other games in the industry. Horizon is a game that revels in creating atmosphere.

What pulls everything together is the game’s unparalleled sense of scale. True, there are plenty of games with massive open worlds, but few truly take advantage of their sandboxes. Horizon, on the other hand, is constantly using the scope of its world to amazing effect. It’s huge, in every sense of the word, and it’ll make your jaw drop more than once.

Granted, the presentation isn’t perfect. Facial animation is noticeably limited, and characters don’t really emote. Some of the voice work (typically whenever children are involved) also falls short, and a few minor technical issues pop up from time to time. That being said, a few infrequent hang-ups aren’t nearly enough to derail one of the best-looking games of this generation. Horizon: Zero Dawn is both an artistic and technical marvel, and proof that there’s still plenty of room to grow in the current generation of consoles.

Horizon: Zero Dawn isn’t a perfect game. The story is unfocused, the intro drags on for far too long, and the pacing is ridiculously unbalanced.

But, when you look at the bigger picture, it’s easy to see just how good Horizon really is. The game may draw its mechanics from a number of different series, but everything comes together so well that it’s hard not to be impressed. It’s also a technical marvel, with an unparalleled attention to detail and infinitely impressive scale. The game may stick to some open-world traditions a bit too strictly, but at the end of the day, Horizon is still one of the most polished games in recent memory.

If Horizon: Zero Dawn is just the first piece of Sony’s exclusive line-up in 2017, then PlayStation 4 owners have a lot to look forward to.

#Broken Base #Horizon: Zero Dawn #Reviews #Writing

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terryblount · 5 years

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Mortal Kombat 11- Review

For every niche game genre, there is a popular, more mass-appeal entry in its genre. Like Pokémon to JRPGs and Destiny to MMOs, so is Mortal Kombat 11 to fighting games.

The Mortal Kombat series is what I like to call a dudebro fighting game. It’s got a low barrier for entry, and it’s easy to cheer during the game’s gory sequences. While that may sound negative, it really isn’t: any game that can get more people to enjoy fighting games should be celebrated.

With Mortal Kombat 11, however, we have the case of a game that’s almost confused as to what it wants to be. It’s a good fighting game, and the addition of fine-tuning characters to your playstyle certainly helps add a personal stake to games.

However, the game’s own insistence that customizing is important while also making it damn-near impossible to customize your character without dropping obscene hours into the game leads to an ultimately confusing experience.

The characters all seem to have unique start dialogue with each other, which is a pretty nice touch

Presentation

Mortal Kombat 11 is very much a Triple-A game. As far as the objective quality of the game’s presentation goes, everything looks great. The models are all intricately detailed, the backdrops interesting and its gore made abundant.

However, in its attempts to also be a Live Service, it takes many bites out of its own enjoyability as a fighting game. Silly “Dragon Challenges” cause constant pop-ups at the bottom of the screen telling you to do things like land five crouching kicks every few seconds, as well as constant score notifications on the left. Points tallies at the end of rounds, even in local splitscreen make hitting rematch take that much longer.

Due to the game’s focus on customizing things, the game loses out on a lot of basic appeal most fighting games have. Some characters’ win screens are flat-out boring, because they have several others to choose from but only if they can unlock it by spending time in other game modes.

While this may seem like a nitpick, remember: Mortal Kombat is a game all about its flash. No one does fatalities because they tell a deep and touching story, they do them because they shock and awe. So for MK11 to be anything less than that right out the box would be a serious blemish on the game’s track record.

When this fighting game is a fighting game, it’s a damn good fighting game.

Gameplay

As a fighting game, Mortal Kombat 11 is great. Combos in this game are generally quite short, and the new feature of a separate offense and defense meter that recharge over time is really interesting. Rather than have supers, the game has certain special moves that you can enhance at the cost of one meter, dealing more damage.

However, a huge gripe I have with this game is its insistence on wasting the player’s time. In the actual fight, many animations are so focused on showing off how bloody and shocking it is that the animations feel pointlessly self-indulgent.

A good comparison to make would be 2016’s Doom, where the gory finishers were designed specifically not to interrupt the flow of combat. This game does that, but in a polar opposite kind of way. Kotal Kahn, for example, has a move that ends with him sawing through the opponent. However, the game bothers to painstakingly show him thrusting the blade in and out of the opponent for what in fighting game time feels like the pre-production phase of Anthem.

There’s also the problem with unlocking materials for your character. Many of them have specific modes you need to beat to unlock them, primarily the “Towers of Time”, which is an arcade ladder with “Konsumables” that add abilities. The problem with this is the game actively punishes you for not using Konsumables, giving you a lower score, and the only way to get more is by opening lootboxes. The opponents, meanwhile, always have the best Konsumables, making some fights nigh unwinnable as they cover half the stage in passively damaging lasers and knock you out of combos with invincible assists. Considering how much the game wants you to customize your fighters, it’s pretty obvious how much they’d want you to play this mode.

If you’re playing this game with local vs, make sure you have a separate profile with its own account for player 2. P2 cannot use any of your gear/loadouts for your character, so without forewarning prepare to feel very scummy if whoever’s playing P2 is stuck with the default loadouts while you have your customized character.

I used to have a problem with the customizable special moves in this game, but given more time I quite like them. The ability to remove certain moves that I wasn’t using with better moves or upgrades for unremovable core moves actually does help personalize the experience, and even AI games feel a little better as a result.

I could recommend this game to people just starting to get into fighting games just for its great tutorials and resources.

Kontent Content:

Mortal Kombat 11 feels like some sort of weird reverse-logic justification for paid content in a sixty-dollar game. The game has plenty of unlockables, as well as features like Skip Challenge tokens for arcade ladders, none of which can be bought with real money.

The problem is that the game is very much designed for you to have these features, despite them all being completely random drops. If anything it feels like the game wanted to make them paid, had them built around that, then yoinked the paid option out of the game just so someone could write an article wishing they could pay to skip some of the utter nonsense this game pulls.

The game has plenty of modes, such as Story, Klassik Towers (Normal Arcade), Towers of Time (We talked about this earlier) and the Krypt. The story and basic Arcade ladders are relatively inoffensive in their offerings, and pretty much what you’d come to expect from a Mortal Kombat.

So mk11 has a "Minigame" That's just opening lootboxes with in-Game gold #PS4sharehttps://t.co/p7YhOFYlO1 pic.twitter.com/Bv4yknhv9X

— Wamirul @ [PULL MY DEVIL TRIGGER] (@Wamirul) April 25, 2019

The Krypt is the most offensive part of Mortal Kombat 11. It’s a pretend-adventure game in which you explore a huge area to spend your gold opening lootboxes.

Remember when I said Mortal Kombat feels like it constantly wastes your time? It’s never more blatant than with The Krypt, where it almost makes you wish for a generic lootbox screen. So much chaff is thrown into the lootboxes that it might actually be impossible to get anything you want. Things like concept art, crafting materials and konsumables are thrown into the pool too, making any attempt at making your character look cool turn into a wasted half-hour of getting an overworked artist’s hard work that they were underpaid for.

One thing from recent entries that I love in MK11 is its move list. All the moves, combos and even fatalities are easily accessible in the menu, with their frame data laid bare for all to see. Aside from letting more advanced players know how to plan their combos, this also opens the door to more casual players learning about the more in-depth aspects of fighting games, and I think that’s great.

Some of these end screens are a lot cooler than others, but most of them are almost blatant in how they’re meant to show off your customizable gear (in this case, Scorpion’s kunai and face mask are painfully in-view)

Personal Enjoyment:

As said before, Mortal Kombat 11, at its core, is fun. The most fun I’ve had with this game has been just having people over and doing some best-of-threes and learning the characters. In a field test, the flashy animations and cool character designs have even won over my non-fighting-game siblings to get them to try it out.

The action-figure-esque design of the characters, the ridiculous gore of the Fatal Blow moves, they’re all fun. It’s a great party game to have, since even non-players can’t help but cheer when something ridiculous happens.

This end screen serves no purpose other than showing off Noob Saibot’s fanny pack.

Konklusion Conclusion

As said before, Mortal Kombat 11 is a great fighting game. It’s fun, relatively accessible and for most people, just flashy enough to get a crowd excited.

Yet the moment I leave local versus mode, I cannot think of anything else I enjoy in this game. Its obsession with being a live service ruins everything else in this game, especially when loading screens are enhanced by the need to connect to servers constantly. Not getting to simply buy the cool outfits for my wraith-ninja using any of the game’s multitude of currencies as I drown in konsumables and concept art really take a hit to this game’s fun, which is a shame because in the heat of a match, it’s great.

While some may argue it is commendable that they didn’t simply lock all the gear behind a paywall, I can’t say this is much better. I used to think that Dead or Alive’s progression system was mean with its costume shards, but at least I was guaranteed costumes for the characters I played. And even then, I unlocked everything in 3 days of casual play.

If I could, I’d give the actual Kombat vs the rest of the game separate scores. It’s a genuinely good fighting game buried under a pile of time-wasting chaff. It’s certainly a good party game, but I wouldn’t advise any kind of serious play with it.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Mortal Kombat 11- Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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pixelrender · 4 years

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Top 10 game I missed in 2019

This year was a weird one. Quite a few big indies came out but none of them was a massive hit. Also, Epic paying devs for exclusive rights on their games put several major releases outside of my sightline. I just can’t be bothered with it. On the other hand I got way more invested in Itch.io and the scene around it. I probably expanded my library there more than my steam Library and I was super pedant while keeping track of new releases there. There were many exciting ones! Choosing only ten releases proved to be a difficult task.

Fortunately I posted about many more over the course of 2019 and I plan to post several honorable mentions in their separate posts.

One other thing worth mentioning is that games I was hyped about at the start of the year mostly got released and mostly fell out of my radar. Some of them got enough attention from more important outlets than my lil blog or they got overshadowed by more exciting unsuspected releases.

In comparison with the 2018 list, this contains somehow less unified and probably less alternative selection of games. In other words, there isn’t a single walking sim on the list and most games are focused on gameplay. Let’s start at the bottom of the list (yes, it is ordered this time):

10. Later Alligator

Originally, this game didn’t make it in top 3 noteworthy releases of September. But opposed to at least two games on that list, It’s been popping up on my mind and I think that spending few hours with it must be a pleasant time. Reasons for that are simple. Heaven Will Be Mine, a previous game by Pillowfight, left a lasting impression on me and Later Alligator itself has a charming trailer and premise. The game not taking itself too seriously is another aspect, which makes me more interested in it right now. The graphics remind me of an old animated short or an alternative zine for kids and I like that very much.

9. Fit for a King

And another September release. This stands strong for a variety of reasons. Unique gameplay inspired by Ultima and combined with Ultima inspired graphics creates such an inspiring product, which is both fresh and nostalgic. But it’s something totally different than millions of games with Nintendo inspired graphics and so much better for that alone. Using the whole keyboard for a wide variety of regal commands is another great feature taking this game on this list.

8. Legionary’s Life

To be frank with you, dear reader, I’m not sure why I got so excited about this the moment I read a very short comment on it and watched the trailer. It’s not particularly pretty or fun. It’s about something else. You’re a regular person. It’s a life sim combined with an RPG and somehow very delightfully presented with many things to care about and to manage and it looks like a more interesting version of Paper’s, Please, actually. Now, I probably am overselling it, but that’s how excited this newest life sim made me. Gotta play it.

7. REDO!

I love metroidvanias and this year’s harvest has been generous. One of the most interesting and different ones releases of 2019 was REDO! Released in early access only to get full release few months later this dark anime (BLAME!) inspired non-linear platformer is dripping with atmosphere and good pixels graphics, which are anime inspired but also decent about it and the result is very charming. It’s not Rain World, but the dev works really well with colours. Environments are detailed and expressive. This will be one of the first games for me to play when I return to computer in 2021. Honorable metroidvania mentions: Outbuddies, Cathedral, Gato Roboto, Sun Wukong VS Robot, Feudal Alloy

6. Wildermyth

This game looks like a treat and from what I read on RPS, it probably is one. It’s a tactics game with some very stylized hand drawn graphics, which make otherwise somehow generic fantasy feel super unique. The story is narrated in a form of a visual novel with individual panels presenting both the continuation and choices. There’s so much good stuff in it and I’m excited to try it out one day. The game’s still in early access, so there’s no need to hurry.

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5. Heaven’s Vault

This probably is the most complicated game on the list. I prefer simple experiences but sometimes something complex and sophisticated manages to capture my heart. The description of this game is one of the cases. You play as a time traveling archeologist, who is trying to figure out a lost civilization by deciphering its language. It sounds more satisfying than some of the drugs I’ve tried! It looks better than many AAA games too.

4. We Met in May

There are very simple reasons I crave this game. It reminds me of life of thing I like experiencing myself. It’s about the most basic of human interactions and yet love and dating is something fading. Like an ancient language, perhaps. Nina Freeman became my favourite dev after playing Kimmy and listening to the Tone Control podcast episode with her, so this shouldn’t be a disappointment. Also, It reminds me that my list includes zero gamer’s games and you can share these with your less violent buds.

3. Tiny Towns

Yes, I put a board game on my list. This whole year I have been following these as well and this is the only game I really wish to play. It’s simple, colorful, chunky and it uses bingo as its core mechanism. I like everything about it from presentation to relatively minimalist gameplay.

The picture is a courtesy of my favourite board gaming blog Daily Worker Placement, originally used in their article.

2. Knights and Bikes

I wrote so many words about this game and I was genuinely excited to play it asap, when it came out, but then more important life choices happened and I haven’t played it yet and I won’t play it in 2019. I regret it a wee bit and I’m still looking forward this adorable adventure spiced up with some sad tones. There’s so much creativity and joy put into it and I believe that it might be one of the best games to play with or without children right now.

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1. Art Sqool

As I mentioned before, this game’s a piece of art, a piece of critical thinking and more than many games aspire to be. It’s not there to tell a story, It present a phenomena and it allows you to use your creativity and shows you how ridiculous art schools can be. I bought this one many months ago hoping that I’d be able to play it soon. Unfortunately, the shaders don’t emulate on Linux and I will have to wait till 2021. I’m really looking forward to this and thinking about it after finishing it. It’s such a good concept and definitely something more related to other medias like art or art theory than traditional video games.

#wishlist #tiny towns #redo!#we met in may #heaven's vault #knights and bikes #art sqool #2019 #legionary's life #wildermyth #Fit For A King #Later Alligator

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Crunchyroll Favorites 2018 Part Two: VIDEO GAMES!

Welcome back for Part Two of Crunchyroll Favorites 2018! Yesterday, we shared our favorite anime and manga of the past year, but this time, it's all about our favorite VIDEO GAMES!

I always like to start these end-of-year lists by saying something like "2018 was no 1998 (or 2005, or 2017)," but y'know what? 2018 was a very good year for video games, and I don't feel right saying otherwise. Games about dads, games about the dead, people still playing Overwatch and Breath of the Wild with plenty of gas left in the tank, we got a new Call of Duty and a new Assassin's Creed as expected, and I told an ungodly amount of people to buy Stardew Valley for their Switches.

The rules were simple: only games that were released (or received a re-release) in 2018, or had a major update or expansion. Now, let's get started!

Nate Ming

Dragon Ball FighterZ- What a world we live in where the purest, meanest fighting game to come out in 2018 is also its most beautiful. FighterZ is exacting and ruthless when it comes to advanced play, but is still accessible enough to let new players have a total blast. And for once, it's a Dragon Ball game that not only plays excellently, but is filled to the brim with callbacks to the manga, TV anime, and movies--what absolute perfection.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life- The end of Kazuma Kiryu's long, violent road took us from the sleepy streets of a Hiroshima neighborhood back to the bustling Kamurocho. The Yakuza games are so perfect, and full of so much to do: recruiting for a gang, managing a baseball team, adopting kittens, lifting weights, babysitting, beating the crap out of people--this was the best way to say goodbye to the Dragon of Dojima, and a surprisingly thoughtful and emotionally smart look at masculinity, fatherhood, and legacy.

God of War- The other Dad Game this year was also a great ride, this time dealing with a regretful father who wants to make sure his child never ends up like him. This game really felt like a long holiday weekend with my own old man, making it equal parts endearing and infuriating.

Return of the Obra Dinn- A rich, multilayered mystery from the creator of the equally-slick Papers Please, there were no games in 2018 that took over my life like The Return of the Obra Dinn. I was taking notes, studying the ship's layout and crew's roles, and basically becoming the investigator character as I worked to find out what killed everyone aboard the H.M.S. Obra Dinn. What a ride.

Into the Breach- I'm kind of a perfectionist, which makes a game like Into the Breach so much more difficult for me to play. This is a game about either making hard turn-based giant mech-vs-kaiju choices and living with them, or constantly resetting the timeline to try and get things perfectly right this time around. Spoiler alert: you very rarely will.

Honorable Mentions: GRIS, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Mega Man 11

Cayla Coats

Hollow Knight (NS)- I’m a big fan of so-called “Metroidvania” action/adventure/platformer games, and Hollow Knight is the best I’ve played in a long time. The game feels wonderful to control, the player character and attacks both having a real sense of weight to them. Wrap it all up in some beautiful 2D sprite and background artwork as well as an ethereal and haunting soundtrack and you’ve got one great game and one happy Cayla.

Soulcalibur VI- I honestly haven’t played a Soul game since Soulcalibur II, and just happened to play this entry after my roommate bought it. And I love it. Every character is a joy to use, and offers the seemingly impossible mixture of accessibility and complexity. Also Voldo is still… Voldo, and that’s worth something, right?

Night in the Woods (NS)- I missed out on this indie gem when it first launched in 2017, but thanks to the surprising indie game oasis that is the Switch, I got to enjoy it early this year! Equal parts Animal Crossing, Gone Home, and Twin Peaks, this cute-but-creepy coming-of-age tale makes the best of its midwestern setting.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- I mean… it’s Smash. It still rules. There are approximately 3 billion really fun modes to try out and 9 billion characters to unlock. It’s just good. Go play it.

Nicole Mejias

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- The amount of hype this game generated was one of an undying level. Was that hype warranted? Oh, hell YES! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is an insanely fun game with unending hours of mayhem for you and your buddies! And most importantly, EVERYONE is there!

Yakuza Kiwami 2- I’ve been playing through every single Yakuza game available, and it’s been one gaming journey that I’m glad I took! The series really has it all: hot-blooded action, romance, heart-wrenching drama, and even comedy, which wasn’t something I was expecting at all. Some of the fights in this game had me on the edge of my seat and made me fall completely in love with the series. If you haven’t checked out the series yet, now’s the perfect time!

Battle Chef Brigade (NS)- Ever since I heard about this game, I’ve been itching to play it. A challenging puzzle game with some beat ‘em up elements? I’m ALL IN! Battle Chef Brigade did not disappoint; it’s such a charming game with a lively cast of characters and intriguing Iron Chef-like story! My only complaint is that it was over way too soon and it left me hungry for more.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee- Pokémon is pretty important to me; playing Pokémon Red as a kid helped me grasp the English language when I was still living in Puerto Rico. Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee is a passionate love letter to Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow, and experiencing all the battles and events from those past games in this brand-new one was a delight! A must for Pokémon fans for sure!

Deltarune- Deltarune is probably one of the biggest surprises in 2018, with Toby Fox giving us the most delightful of treats on Halloween! It didn’t take long for me to be smitten with this new world with some familiar faces we all know and love. This time around, your choices don’t matter, but what will that mean for the next chapter? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Daniel Dockery

Dragon Ball FighterZ- Finally, Dragon Ball gets a fighting game that lives up to the franchise’s immense legacy. Not only is it fun, but it’s a huge “LOOK AT HOW AWESOME THIS IS!” love letter to the series as a whole.

Monster Hunter World- I’ve been playing Monster Hunter since 3, and I must say that while I deeply enjoy the 3DS entries, it was nice to really feel the scale of these gargantuan beasties that I’m tracking down. Switch Axe 4 Lyfe.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee- Didn’t expect to like this game. Ended up loving this game. Tattoo Pikachu on my eyeballs, for I need to see nothing else.

That One Mission From Red Dead Redemption 2 You Know The One I’m Talking About- Walking up to a mansion with your crew to rescue a boy, fighting your way through it, and then burning the whole thing to the ground is a high moment in a game that could go from satisfying to “JUST EQUIP THE RIGHT GUN, ARTHUR, COME ON” in a heartbeat.

Luigi’s Mansion 3DS- My favorite Mario-related game that isn’t Kart or Smash Bros. came out on the 3DS. Clear the mansion of its ghosts for the sixth time in my life? Gladly, Professor E. Gadd.

Peter Fobian

God of War- An awesome reimagining of an old franchise, and one of my greatest hopes for ambitious narrative single player titles in the AAA industry. It absolutely deserved every award it got in the Game Awards. The story, characters, and world were all top-notch. The cinematics were fantastic and brutal. I can’t wait for the sequel.

Monster Hunter World- My first dip into the Monster Hunter franchise, this game probably had the biggest skill curve I’ve ever seen in cooperative gameplay, with mechanics stacked on mechanics that seemed to have no bottom. I got a lot of frustrating and satisfying hours out of this game, and I’m still not sure if I’ve discovered even half the things you can do in it.

Hitman 2- There were a lot of questions about the future of Hitman that were riding on this release, and I’m very happy to report that the newest title in the franchise is extremely good. This one got particularly creative, with some of the mission set-ups and conditions and each new map was excellent, even making American suburbia into an interesting mission area.

GRIS- I’m glad I was able to find time to play this final addition before years end because it definitely deserves a spot. Although I can’t really say GRIS is unique in being a atmospheric platformer focusing on depression/loss, it might be the best. The visuals and soundtrack were amazing, especially together. The environments and use of camera were also excellent. Also go play The Missing.

Dead Cells- I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of indie roguelike platformers and Dead Cells, as above with GRIS, may be one of the best of its genre. It’s got a cool aesthetic, some wicked gallows humor, and an unlocking system of items and powers that can result in the player having to formulate some absolutely ridiculous strategies from life to life.

Joseph Luster

Celeste- Playing Celeste reminded me of all the fun I had when Super Meat Boy first came out, but this time I actually cared about the characters and the journey. The narrative is woven into the action, as it should be in a video game, and it actually has something interesting to say. The way Celeste treats difficulty and accessibility will no doubt prove influential, as well. At its core, though, it’s simply an unbelievably tight platformer that provides ample challenges for players of all skill levels.

Ni no Kuni II- The sequel to Ni no Kuni isn’t actually all that much like Ni no Kuni. The battle system is completely different, the Pokémon-esque monster collecting is gone, and the story has been boiled down to the bare essence of Japanese RPG motivation. It’s almost embarrassingly earnest, but it’s also gorgeous, and combat is a joy for the full 30-hour run. There’s plenty to play around with after the credits roll, too, but I was mostly just proud of myself for actually having fun with and completing an RPG in 2018.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon- The award for “Game I Actually Bothered to Beat Multiple Times in 2018” definitely goes to this unassuming bite-sized prequel to Koji Igarashi’s upcoming Bloodstained. It’s so much more than just a downloadable “extra,” and in many ways it out-Castlevania IIIs the original Castlevania III. Play this game immediately if you haven’t, and take the time to get every ending for maximum satisfaction.

Dragon Ball FighterZ- I don’t really play fighting games anymore. I haven’t in years, despite trying to pick them back up seriously when Street Fighter V first came out. Not living with roommates anymore has a lot to do with it, but that enthusiasm roared back to life when Dragon Ball FighterZ arrived in jaw-dropping style. This is the essential anime fighter, and nothing made me and my friends cheer and shout at the screen more in 2018.

Iconoclasts- Like Dragon Ball FighterZ, Iconoclasts came early in the year and started 2018 out on a really strong note. This is probably the “smallest” a list has ever been for me in terms of the sheer scale of the games themselves, but titles like Iconoclasts just fired up my imagination more than the big AAA beasts. From the lush sprite-based visuals to the soundtrack and the excellent pacing, this one is going to stick in my mind for years to come.

Nick Creamer

Hollow Knight/Dead Cells- Though both of these were technically 2017 releases, their continuing developer support and my own delayed play schedule means I’m celebrating them now anyway. And they’re great! If you enjoy games like Metroid or Castlevania, you absolutely must pick up the richly atmospheric and remarkably vast Hollow Knight. If you want an experience like that in a more arcadey, roguelike package, Dead Cells cannot be missed. It’s nice to live in a golden age of challenging indie action games!

Celeste- Speaking of great indie titles, this year’s Celeste likely needs no introduction. Though it theoretically falls in the same punishing platformer space as something like Super Meat Boy, Celeste’s charming storytelling, neatly partitioned challenges, and robust assist features mean it’s a platforming experience that basically anyone could enjoy. Thoughtfully written and brilliantly designed, Celeste shouldn’t be missed by any platforming enthusiasts.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- I am perfectly comfortable admitting I’m one of those Smash fans who up until now, basically just stuck to Melee. The combat in Brawl and Smash 4 always just felt far too floaty for me, with both my character jumps and the impact of my hits making me feel like I was constantly wearing a big balloon suit. Ultimate counters that complaint with crisp, speedy combat harkening back to Melee’s rapid-fire exchanges, along with the most luxurious suite of characters and secondary modes Smash has ever seen. This truly feels like the definitive Smash experience.

Monster Hunter World- MHW was my first experience with the Monster Hunter franchise, and it was glorious. Well, it was eventually glorious--the first fifteen or so hours were an interminable learning process, while I figured out the game’s inscrutable controls and systems, ponderous movement, and extremely vague directions. But after that, hoo boy! Monster Hunter is essentially “Boss Rush: The Videogame,” complete with dozens of intimidating creatures who all demand their own hunting strategy. As an insatiable gobbler of challenging RPG-adjacent action games, I had great times hunting deadly beasts all through last winter.

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And that's a wrap for Part Two! Be sure to join us at the same time tomorrow for our third and final installment, focusing on the EVERYTHING ELSE of 2018--movies, TV, books, comics, food, life experiences, and more! If you're in the mood for more CR Favorites, here are the links to past years' features:

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2016 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One | Part Two

What were your favorite video games of 2018? Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST-OF list, so there are no wrong answers--sound off in the comments and share your favorites!

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Nate Ming is the Features Editor for Crunchyroll News and creator of the long-running Fanart Friday column. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateMing. His comic, Shaw City Strikers, launches January 15, 2019.

By: [email protected]

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