52 Games in a year challenge: 2018 - The Bear and Badger

acemuzzy

Screw you guys, I'm going home

Moot_Geeza

49. WarioWare Gold
50. The Evil Within 2.

Wariospeedwagon

30. Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2

Well it’s aged a little better than the first game! Looks and sounds quite nice on the whole, and combat is more entertaining, though still not great (swapping between your party is a bit of a pain. Would be much more fun if you just controlled the main character, while the others looked after themselves).

This game copped a fair old backlash when it first came out thanks to it clearly being a bit rushed (I can’t overstate just how many maps are reused), the story going completely off the rails by the end, and the fact it’s an RPG where you almost exclusively play in the one city.

I didn’t and don’t mind that last point especially since the game takes place over several years. It would have been nice to see the place change somewhat over the course of the game though. Plus, there’s nothing really interesting to see. Just a pretty normal looking RPG city, really. It gets old.

It’s not all poor, though. There’s a great cast of characters to hang around with, and it’s pretty high stakes in that many of them can leave your party if you alienate them through your actions or words. The middle chapter of the game has a main story that’s really quite good, especially considering it’s sandwiched between a slow start and a rushed ending.

Anyway, enjoyed it on the whole, with a few reservations. Did plan on playing DA3 soon but not sure I can do that just now, happy to take a break.

Also features Florence and the Machine over the end credits, which I did not remember. Thought it was a bit odd when they had a track on Final Fantasy 15; I guess this is just how they roll.

Moot_Geeza

51. Dead Nation. Yeesh, this was bad.

Moot_Geeza

52. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Which I loved.

acemuzzy

But it's awful. I'm so annoyed/confused.

Diluted Dante

Moot_Geeza wrote:

52. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Which I loved.

Its the worst game ive ever played. Of course Moot liked it.

Moot_Geeza

I liked almost everything about it, other than the moments where finding the next story trigger felt a bit like needle in a haystack stuff. The setting was spot on, most of the dialogue was fine and I thought the way the pertinent and non-essential narrative strands were woven together (from different time periods) to form an overall whole was extremely well handled. The sound design was outstanding too, aside from the trigger points the swelling score must've been coded to build and add layers as you mill about. I don't really understand

Spoiler:

but I can let that go. One of the best walkers for me, I'd rate it ever so slightly higher than Firewatch.

acemuzzy

Diluted Dante wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

52. Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Which I loved.

Its the worst game ive ever played. Of course Moot liked it.

Dante knows

hylian_elf

Such a shit game.

Moot_Geeza

Did anyone here like it? I avoided the chat at the time because I knew I'd play it at some point. I dinna ken what people's beef is, unless "bo-ring!"? But even then I wonder what anyone was expecting when they embarked on an 'adventure art' game set in a fictional abandoned rural village in the 80s.

JonB

Massively boring, aye.

I gave it a try because it was on Plus. Lasted about half an hour.

hylian_elf

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I dinna ken what people's beef is, unless "bo-ring!"?

I know how you feel. I don’t understand what issues people have with games that I like either. JonB doesn’t seem to like GoW, which I loved so much. I don’t get him.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

But even then I wonder what anyone was expecting when they embarked on an 'adventure art' game set in a fictional abandoned rural village in the 80s.

I was expecting something good. I got something shit. (I suppose for me it was mainly the ‘story’ and characters that I disliked. So in a game like that, it made the whole thing shit. I couldn’t care less about the villagers.)

hylian_elf

(Partly) Sarcastic/tongue in cheek response. Obv. In case Moot wants to flounce after my reply.

acemuzzy

@Andy wrote up some solid thoughts on it. I'll see if I can find mine too.

acemuzzy

acemuzzy wrote:

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4)

So Dante's glorious video actually pretty closely matches my thoughts...

Diluted Dante wrote:

... so I can't be bothered to say quite all of it when he does a better job.

The highlights though: I really wanted to enjoy it, and fleetingly did, but the whole thing was a just empty. Or full of hot air. The movement speed was oh-my-god excruciating (no improvements since your vid, dante!), particularly when it slows down from "walk" to "really slow walk" in certain situations.

The ball of light as leader avoided abuse in the vid, but not from me. It's one of the worst video gaming devices I can remember ever experiencing. Unreliable, unclear, inconsistent, stubborn: just what you want to be leading the way. The game also kinda bugged out on me at one point, where I'd skipped a mandatory (?) cutscene, gone on to the next human's life and completed that, before saving and exiting. The game then wanted me to redo the skipped cutscene, so the ball of light had me trapsing half the way back (at a snail's pace). And then after that vanished, cos it had buggered off back to near where I'd saved. Except I could really remember where that was, and it was a further slow trek away, and when I got there the ball of light wasn't there either, and then when I restarted it has saved back at the missed cutscene so I had to re-re-walk yet again, and then it only appeared after I'd circled about repeatedly. I only avoided quitting during that because some walkthrough suggested the next chapter was (and I quote) "immensely satisfying". This was a lie.

On it's side, for all its vapidness, the world was gloriously rendered; some of the music was hauntingly fitting too, and the particle effects after each slice of story finished were excellent. Just a shame about the content within, really. And yeah the story; sci-fi garbage.

I'm glad I played it though, cos now I don't need to play it. [4] should-have-used-a-different-medium's out of 10.

Moot_Geeza

The sci fi story was just about treading water, but I found myself playing for the villagers (and the village). I had an inkling it was more about the journey than the tale reaching any sort of satisfying conclusion, so the radios strewn about the place could've been playing The Archers and it wouldn't have changed much. The whole thing was marinated in gentle nostalgia rather than sledgehammering your face with 'membererefences. You know that feeling when you've watched a film that 'stays with you' for a day or so? I've got that going on at the mo, which is a rarity for a videogame.

Each to their own, nice to know the gist of the grievances though. Was Andy team Moot or team Everyone Else?

acemuzzy

He was captain of Team Everyone Else

Moot_Geeza

53. And now I've finished A Way Out. Turns out we only had 45 minutes left. The most enjoyable [6] I've ever played.

Moot_Geeza

Just realised the Rapture vid was Dante's and watched it. Amusing review, agree with some of it.

hylian_elf

I recall there was someone who liked Rapture. Think it may have been Bollo.

Moot_Geeza

53. Titanfall 2.

Diluted Dante

Now that's a game.

Moot_Geeza

It was indeed. But so was Xeodrifter, 54.

That's me winding down now, I'm a bit fed up with playing Vita/3DS/GBA for every second I'm on public transport, so ermarhgerd I'll be switching to berks from tomorrow. I've borrowed Richard Ayo's Grip of Film, plus I've got a few things I bought for myself before I started this shit last year, so I'm done with train gaming (unless Salt & Sanctuary appears in a Vita sale).

Diluted Dante

11. Destiny 2: Curse of Osiris - Having done most of this months ago, I only recently finished the raid lair, and just finished the last Heroic Adventure in the last week, because I kept getting distracted by other things. Was meaning to update, but now I've just done the Prestige raid lair, it definitely feels done now.

I liked what it brought to the table. The story could have been better, but the environments it brought in were really good, and the raid lair is really really good.

----

I feel like I've finished something else since the last update, but can't think what right now.

Wariospeedwagon

Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill In Slaps n Beans

My initial thoughts on this game went like this

Instant regret purchase last night - Bud Spencer & Terrence Hill's Slaps N Beans for $30AUD.

Think I got it because I couldn't believe it exists. Seems like a so-so side scrolling beat m up. It does look the part and seems amusing. Has a terrible control layout that you can't change, though. Not sure I can be bothered re-training by brain which buttons to press. Might wait and hope for a patch.

Really, wished I waited til it was $10 though! Could have got Poyu Poyu Tetris for that price.

and didn't really change!

Also doesn't run great on the switch. Some shockingly juddering levels/sections, which were unexpected.

Worth a look if it's on special I guess, but one for the fans really.

acemuzzy

I'm up to 35 with Ninja Senki DX. Still slightly ahead of schedule but I seem to be slowing down...

WorKid

Moot_Geeza wrote:

53. And now I've finished A Way Out. Turns out we only had 45 minutes left. The most enjoyable [6] I've ever played.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

53. Titanfall 2.

Come on.

Moot_Geeza

I can't keep up with this shit. Looks like I forgot to put A Way Out on the reviews page, which I look at to get the tally, so Xeodrifter was actually 55.

acemuzzy

Celeste "probably top 5 games of all time" per your words gets the same score as Ninja Senki DX? I mean what the actual fuck you are literally and quantitatively a moran.

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