Dec 4, 2019 14:02:10 GMT Blindy said:

Been playing MediEvil Remaster for PS4 and Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair for XB1.

The former besides the button mashing meh combat is still a cute, clever game that offers fair amount of challenge and has the PS1 esque puzzles in it. The latter is actually really good, it plays like DKC: Tropical Freeze and while the polish isn't as good as Tropical Freeze, the game when trying to 100% it is still very fun. Play a couple levels a night, very enjoyable and a good amount of challenge if you want all the coins. Really enjoying my time with both games.

Have fun with the Impossible Lair itself, aka the steepest damn difficulty spike in video game history. It's not the hardest thing ever, but the entirety of the game does little to actually prepare you for it, aside from learning enemy attacks. It's like if you got to the end of a Lego game and there was just a Dark Souls boss there.

I bought Yooka-Laylee IL after seeing RagnarokMike’s post.

Loving the levels, hating the over world puzzles.

Dec 5, 2019 6:35:28 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Dec 4, 2019 14:02:10 GMT Blindy said:

Been playing MediEvil Remaster for PS4 and Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair for XB1.

The former besides the button mashing meh combat is still a cute, clever game that offers fair amount of challenge and has the PS1 esque puzzles in it. The latter is actually really good, it plays like DKC: Tropical Freeze and while the polish isn't as good as Tropical Freeze, the game when trying to 100% it is still very fun. Play a couple levels a night, very enjoyable and a good amount of challenge if you want all the coins. Really enjoying my time with both games.

Have fun with the Impossible Lair itself, aka the steepest damn difficulty spike in video game history. It's not the hardest thing ever, but the entirety of the game does little to actually prepare you for it, aside from learning enemy attacks. It's like if you got to the end of a Lego game and there was just a Dark Souls boss there.

Oh joy, I am 15 Chapters down with 5 more to go before this. Now, my expectation is the Cloud World of Stage 9 of DKC Returns or the very difficult KONG levels of Tropical Freeze where there are zero checkpoints for each(Especially the final Cloud World which is 10-15 minutes of a nonstop precise platform).

Those were very anger inducing so I expect this to be the same. Going to pick my 4 tonics carefully now. 

Close to the same description, except the IL is more like a 20+ minute checkpointless gauntlet of precision platforming, with an escalating boss fight after each section (and one at the beginning, for 4 total), and a final mad dash at the end (gotta keep moving).

Oh, and heads up...you can't use tonics. Each bee you collect is 1 hit, up to 48 hits, plus 1 more for Laylee, as many times as you can recover her without dying. Sounds pretty forgiving, but those bees disappear quickly until you master each section. Even then, the 2nd section is the real test, 1st and 3rd are tough, but the 2nd is just maddening.

I started playing Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD, earlier today. Anyways, as for Super Monkey Ball, I'll be perfectly honest, I've never played a game in the series prior to this one, so I can't compare it to any of the others. Having said that, from what little I've managed to play so far (the Monkey Island levels), the game seems alright though admittedly, I probably need to play it a bit more before forming a proper opinion. I do however like some of the mini games (party games), most notably Space Monkey Attack, Hovercraft Race, and Monkey Snowboard, so there is that as well.

Took down the Impossible lair. Officially it says 7 tries but really it was four runs since one they counted against me for quitting out to shut down the game and two runs I took a hit or two earlier than I'd like. Final run I lost 40/48 bees...... Honestly it wasn't THAT bad. I think the one gaming series I rock at are 2D platformers because my time with the DKC and Rayman games have harnessed by bullshit to strive vs the hard levels. Rags was right phase two was pretty annoying and Capital B takes too many damn hits throughout the encounters but the key to him is to be aggressive and stay with him enough to capitalize on him getting to the ground. I felt really good on the final run I slacked off the third portion of the lair but the chase to end it all I wasn't being denied. Very fun challenge even if a bit tedious but overall a real quality game. Wish I can show the pics of the lair being taken down.

Have Medevil to finish up and then the sendoff to Shovel Knight so I'm amped. Still think Celeste B Sides triggered me more in 2019, I should go after level 9 DLC but I was so pissed at that game as much as I liked it that this Impossible lair didn't bring it to me.

I fully understand why a person wouldn't like it...but I am enjoying the hell out of Death Stranding. More so than I thought I would off of the description "Fetch Quest: The Game." Once I finish I'll try to put it into words, but that could be a bit, I couldn't sleep last night and ended up playing for about 20 hours...and only hit chapter 3 (of 14).

I finished The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass as this holiday season's Zelda playthrough.

A bit of backstory, despite being a huge fan of the series and a Nintendo DS fan, I didn't buy this game on release. I wasn't interested in stepping back into the Wind Waker aesthetic and didn't like how reliant it was on the DS' hardware. However, I've played through every other mainline Zelda so this and Spirit Tracks were on my to do list.

One idea I liked in the Wind Waker was it's pirate theme. It was an interesting twist for a Zelda adventure and certainly something that they could have got more mileage out of. Unfortunately I found the sea faring component by far the weakest. Before you take off, you draw a route with your stylus and the ship follows that direction. At that point all you have to worry about is random spawning enemies where you either jump or fire cannonballs at oncoming enemies. Some enemies can halt your progress altogether and force you to fight them in your ship. To make matters worse, the ship has it's own HP, only a paltry 4 HP and you can only regain health through enemy drops. If you're unlucky, you can find yourself repeating your entire adventure again. If you do some sidequests you can make your life easier but they're not exactly thrown in your face. I just don't think it beats out traditional exploration and really turned me off playing the game for long bursts.

The common criticism surrounding this game is the Ocean King Dungeon. It's the first dungeon in the game and in order to open the world map up, you have to keep coming back to it after every dungeon or two. That means making two trips on your boat instead of just being able to progress forward. The dungeon preys on a lot of common tropes that players hate in gaming. It's a timed stealth dungeon that expects you to replay the same missions over again to access the new sections. The game does make some concessions after a certain amount of playthroughs you do get a warp that skips half the dungeon and certain short-cuts are opened up once you get more items, but it's just another aspect that drags the game down.

It's also a touch on the easier side. To compensate for the new control scheme, Nintendo made the game far more forgiving and straight forward. There are still some clever puzzles in the game, but the actual action and adventure components feel toned down.

Still, there's enough polish there for it to succeed as a Zelda game. A lot of the weapons have been tweaked to make use of the DS hardware and they're all used really well. The grappling hook in particular is a highlight as it can also be used to build a tight rope which you can slingshot off of.

Otherwise, I'm just not a fan of Zelda as a handheld game. I find it difficult to immerse myself in an adventure when it's being played with primative technology and having to rely on well worn tropes to get by. Even Link's Awakening which did a lot of things right to set itself apart ultimately felt hamstrung because it was designed for the GB. All in all, a good NDS game but certainly an unremarkable Zelda.

MedEvil is a really fun game, got about 83% of the trophies and could go for the platinum in the near future. Not an unreachable plat by any means. Easy reccomendation from me, it's not a perfect game but given you can also play the PS1 version of the game too by resting all the souls in the post game, there's alot of bang for your buck.

Started up Shovel Knight: King of Cards while juggling my revisit to Batman: Arkham Asylum in the prep of the next edition of that awesome series. Can already tell King of Cards is going to be challenging but super fun.

Starting playing Sekiro again after being stuck on Guardian Ape, went back to it after months away and finally beat it.

Judging by the guides I’ve read i missed a decent chunk of the game though, explains the difficulty

Been playing God of War and taking a drink every time he says boy.

Dec 19, 2019 1:00:39 GMT System said:

Starting playing Sekiro again after being stuck on Guardian Ape, went back to it after months away and finally beat it.

Judging by the guides I’ve read i missed a decent chunk of the game though, explains the difficulty

An accurate depiction of what beating the Guardian Ape was like for me.

Did you beat the Guardian Ape before Mibu Village?

Dec 19, 2019 1:00:39 GMT System said:

Starting playing Sekiro again after being stuck on Guardian Ape, went back to it after months away and finally beat it.

Judging by the guides I’ve read i missed a decent chunk of the game though, explains the difficulty

Yeah, I missed the window in Ashina Castle to move the story, so I ended up beating absolutely everybody possible from there to the end of the game before having to look up what to do, and realize how underpowered I was. 

So, after 94 hours I finally finished up Death Stranding, really is a unique thing of beauty. The way the community works is really great, sometimes you'll be desperate for a certain type of apparatus, and holy hell, someone put one right fucking there; other times, you'll get to a place and think it's the perfect spot for a certain construct, later on you're congratulated on how much people benefited from that thing you did. There's nobody else physically there, but the community really makes the world feel more involved. Though this does threaten its longevity, as in 10 years, that community is going to be much smaller, so not sure if it'll stand-up as a more solitary experience. Especially as you only have a certain amount of "bandwidth" in which to make you constructs, I was maxed out despite all the community help, so they'd have to patch you with much more bandwidth sans community to properly unitize all your assets.

My main grievances ended up being my fault, first I thought the vehicles were too slow...then I realized there was a turbo boost. Then, I thought some stars were just stupidly ridiculously grindy, but turns out you have to read the E-Mails to get specific circumstances that charge the star quickly. It does briefly mention the E-Mails at the beginning, but I didn't discover that one until almost the end of the game. Hours of extra play churning up those stubborn stars.

I really love the core system, a one of a kind thing, incredibly intuitive. Easy as pie to sling items to your back, organize them, and then keeps you engaged by focusing on balance. Once you start getting the robo skeletons, you can dead sprint most places stacked as high as possible, completing as much as you can at a time. The balance system could have really been a disaster, but it works basically to perfect, incredibly easy to keep moment and correct to stay balanced. Vehicles aren't the greatest, but once you get the hang of them, get the job done well enough. Everything really opens up when you unlock ziplines and can creat fast paths around the mountain.

One big negative for me, when you get into timefall area, you get a brief slowdown, get close to the BT's, complete stop, into the area where the BT's actually are, another dead stop as your scanner arm comes out to warn you. This is constantly happening, even if you're somewhere like the highway where they can never get, really breaks pacing.

Also, there was one glitch which I encountered a dozen times, when heading down the snowy mountain, it kept forgetting how the ground worked, and you'd just randomly fall to your death. And I don't mean, like, falling off a cliff...just you'd suddenly be falling down the mountain a centimeter away from the ground, and then die when you hit. Happened to me far too many times while setting up my zip line network.

Final negative, ending is too drawn out, wouldn't have been as bad as just a cutscene, but you have to waste your time waiting for the proper cues. Interactivity for no meaningful purpose.

Truth be told, though (like I said) I understand how some wouldn't like it, I absolutely adored the experience; but I'm not sure if it's a game I'd need to play twice as, again, once the community leaves a big charm of the game goes with them. It was absolutely worth the play, a one of a kind masterpiece from Kojima. *8/10*

Haven't even plugged my PS4 back in since getting it back from the service shop.

Has the mood in the room changed?

Dec 20, 2019 14:34:40 GMT 🤯 said:

Haven't even plugged my PS4 back in since getting it back from the service shop.

Has the mood in the room changed?

Holy fuck can't believe they didn't ship it back with the power cord.

Dec 20, 2019 16:55:42 GMT @ness said:

Dec 20, 2019 14:34:40 GMT 🤯 said:

Haven't even plugged my PS4 back in since getting it back from the service shop.

Has the mood in the room changed?

Holy fuck can't believe they didn't ship it back with the power cord.

I laughed harder then I should of at that.

Dec 19, 2019 10:23:57 GMT Big Pete said:

Dec 19, 2019 1:00:39 GMT System said:

Starting playing Sekiro again after being stuck on Guardian Ape, went back to it after months away and finally beat it.

Judging by the guides I’ve read i missed a decent chunk of the game though, explains the difficulty

An accurate depiction of what beating the Guardian Ape was like for me.

Did you beat the Guardian Ape before Mibu Village?

Yes 😂 I’m there now.

I like playing games without walkthroughs but it fucks me over every time with From Software games.

Like in DS2 you hit a dead end at a nest..so logically you would think to wait in the nest for the bird to take you. Nope, you’re meant to backtrack ...or get stuck in high level area that I had to summon people to beat.

Downloading Spooder-Man. Hope it is as good as the hype suggested.

Dragon Quest VIII
I played some of the postgame. I defeated the Lord of Dragovians in dragon form. Got the ring. Saw the ending where Hero marries Princess Medea. I discovered that there were endings possible where Hero marries Jessica, but fuck that.

That is as far as I'll go. I attempted the Dragonvian Trials, but the Vermilion Dragon was wiping the floor with me, and when I read up on the trials I saw that it was the first of seven dragons! That's far too much for me to handle. My Dragon Quest ends here.

People say that this is one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, and I can't help but agree. Even though the combat is hyper outdated meat-and-potatoes fare, the game has infinite levels of story and personality which more than compensate for it. It's definitely a one time only JRPG though. Couldn't go through that slog again, entertaining as it was.

I'm just playing Skyrim for what seems like the 864446 playthrough.

Dec 26, 2019 18:49:25 GMT Emperor said:

Dragon Quest VIII
I played some of the postgame. I defeated the Lord of Dragovians in dragon form. Got the ring. Saw the ending where Hero marries Princess Medea. I discovered that there were endings possible where Hero marries Jessica, but fuck that.

That is as far as I'll go. I attempted the Dragonvian Trials, but the Vermilion Dragon was wiping the floor with me, and when I read up on the trials I saw that it was the first of seven dragons! That's far too much for me to handle. My Dragon Quest ends here.

People say that this is one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, and I can't help but agree. Even though the combat is hyper outdated meat-and-potatoes fare, the game has infinite levels of story and personality which more than compensate for it. It's definitely a one time only JRPG though. Couldn't go through that slog again, entertaining as it was.

I just remembered that in order to beat the final dragon, you had to fight all the other dragons prior. For post-game bosses, I thought they were handled extremely well because they took genuine strategy to defeat and you had to exploit everything in your arsenal to stand a chance. For instance, I didn't realise your monster team could perform special actions if you had the right combinations (full heal to your main party etc.). The rewards are actually worthwhile as well, I believe in the 3DS version you get to open up another post-game dungeon.

At some point it just becomes too much. I already have a lot of great items, but to beat the dragons you require the best, and getting the best items requires a ton of casino grinding and other bullshit. I don't even know how you get one Timbrel of Tension, and I've seen people on YouTube with two or three. Plus my characters are level 40, I have to be level 50 minimum, and it's already at the point where it would take an hour or two to gain a single level. Fuck that.

Still a vast improvement over Dragon Quest I where you reach level 5 and you're already at the point where it takes hours to gain a single level.

Dec 30, 2019 18:01:21 GMT Emperor said:

At some point it just becomes too much. I already have a lot of great items, but to beat the dragons you require the best, and getting the best items requires a ton of casino grinding and other bullshit. I don't even know how you get one Timbrel of Tension, and I've seen people on YouTube with two or three. Plus my characters are level 40, I have to be level 50 minimum, and it's already at the point where it would take an hour or two to gain a single level. Fuck that.

Still a vast improvement over Dragon Quest I where you reach level 5 and you're already at the point where it takes hours to gain a single level.

You mix a Skull Helmet with a Saint's Ashes. You receive a Skull Helmet by using the godbird soulstone and visiting an island south of Empycchu and there's a lot of Saints Ashes available. I believe you get the ingredients during the post-game to make yourself another. The third trimbel is 3DS exclusive, I only needed one, two just made life easy.

It was awhile between drinks before I went back and finished the trials. However, I liked that they were there and executed so well. It just cemented the game for me as one of the best of all-time and I was kicking myself that it took 10 years to play through the initial hours of the game. The only shame with the 3DS is that it doesn't have the orchestral score which enhanced the experience for me.

It was such a good game, it retroactively made me appreciate Final Fantasy XII more since you really couldn't do much more with the traditional turn-based system.

Oh, I could make a Timbrel of Tension right now if I wanted. You can buy Saint's Ashes at the Dragonvian town, but I already have a couple. Also picked up a Skull Helm on the way to that town. Still not gonna play though. Time to move on. My PS2 backlog is huge.

What's next on the agenda?

I'm actually playing a PS2 game myself - Kingdom Hearts Final Mix for the third time. It's actually the fifth if you include the vanilla version of Kingdom Hearts. For this playthrough, I made a point of doing all the Olympic Colosseum, 101 Acre Woods, Trinity, Dalmation, Mini-Games, Synthesis stuff as it became available. Usually I save all that stuff to the end, but I can see now that Square expected the player to do it concurrently since a lot of worthwhile abilities are locked behind the side-stuff.

I'm 40 hours in and I'm currently going through the Gummi missions. I rarely bothered with the Gummi section, I found the process of building the ships to be frustrating and since you're inundated with so many pieces, I never took the time to learn. I'm actually surprised at how in-depth the whole mode is and the missions are by far the hardest segments of the entire game. They're more like challnges where you travel down the one course, but you're set scenarios where you have to score 260 points without picking up any items. Considering most targets spawn an item and the ship has a magnet attatched to it, it can get really tough.

Even if you get through all that, if you put Monstro infront of Atlantica, you've got a 50/50 chance of it spawning and ruining the mission. I got lucky with mine where the first time I hit the score (after a solid hour of attempts) he didn't spawn but there's been some horror stories online.

I have 7 more missions to go before I'm done with that section. Then I'm basically at the end of the game - just a couple more loose ends before I can complete that playthrough. After that it's just a question of whether I want to platnium the game. It will take two more playthroughs, one requires me to beat the game inside 8 hours while never touching the equipment, another requires me to beat it on the hardest difficulty which should be easy enough.

Jan 1, 2020 3:53:49 GMT Big Pete said:

What's next on the agenda?

I haven't figured that out yet. Not another JRPG, that's for sure. Maybe ICO or Sly Raccoon.

🤯

My partner and I fell into the Fortnite hole after the relaunch. The game has been my go to relax and play for a few minutes. It's been a minute this year since I've played a long single player game. Recently, I started Days Gone and am loving much more than the reviews would have me believe. A mix of Sons of Anarchy and the Walking Dead is something I didn't ask for, but am enjoying. Next up will be Sekiro for me.

I started playing Fortnite when the black hole thing was trending, had great fun in the interim before Modern Warfare was released.

On final boss of Sekiro, kill me now.