High Times are when cig slides into PW like a thief in the night.

Missed ya mate!

Thanks man, glad to see this place is still kicking!! Missed all of you too.

Def Jam Vendetta (2003; AKI)

I remember when this came out and just having mixed feelings. On one hand, it was an AKI Wrestling game for a next generation console. It should have been one of my most anticipated releases and yet I never got around to playing it. Without the WWE license it just didn't have the same appeal and there were some other details that put me off as well. Since it was appealing to a broader audience, they tried to make it more into a fighter with HP bars and KOs which I didn't like. I also believe CAW mode was missing and that had been one of my favourite features since I used to dress all the WCW/nWo guys up.

Still, it was one of those games I wanted to check out, I just didn't think it would take 17 years.

Going back to it with a more open mind, it's a shame I didn't at least give this a rental. This is the perfect weekend play-through game. There's a few multi-player modes, but it's bread and butter is it's story mode where you take one guy and unlock each wrestler one after another. The cool thing to me is just seeing the AKI engine in an updated environment. A lot of the animations that have been ingrained in my mind are all there, but they're being performed by these models that look more realistic than the action figure like N64 counter parts. Through out my playthrough, I couldn't help but picture this as WWF Backlash as a GameCube launch title with similar graphics.

In some ways I could see Backlash disappointing fans because they would have to cut features to handle the graphical demands but it would have been way better than Wrestlemania X-8.

Since they could only afford so many hip hop artists on the roster, the majority of the guys are made up guys. I'm not sure if it's a Virtual Wrestling 2 situation where you know who they're alluding to or not but on first glance I think they're just original characters who suit the vibe. I go with this big jacked up Latino dude called Spider who is a submission powerhouse and proceed to get my ass kicked. Once I figure out the L1 and R1 buttons are my reveral buttons that I can spam, I'm off to the races.

One thing with this game is that the AKI rubber band system is in full effect and if you don't finish your opponent quickly they will end you. No point having a good match, one bad move can be the difference and this big Rikishi dude just smothered me to death. I make it through and capture the attention of this beautiful polyganal softcore model. Apparently you can either spend your hard earned cash boosting up your guys stats or spending it on bikini shots of the actual models they were based off of. Unfortunately this is no where near as rewarding as Yakuza 0 and I have to have a match where the winner can date my guy. After hitting my finisher which was three consecutive curb stomps, my guy meekly surrenders himself to the relationship. Whatever, I feel like the first girl was like Pumkin off Flavor of Love.

Still, I can't get over what a proper next gen AKI game would have looked like. I believe after THQ dropped AKI for Yukes, plans for Backlash were dashed before they were picked up for WCW Mayhem 2. I presume that would have released just in time for the GameCube launch. I could see it being a very similar game, not as great graphically but a similar campaign mode where you just have to continue winning matches. My only real complaint with the next gen engine is the lack of camera. I didn't really notice it, but I liked how in the N64 version the camera would spin to emphasize holds and signature moves. Now the only time the camera changes is when you go into special and hit your finisher.

Did any of you guys ever get a chance to play it? I feel like this always gets skipped. I do recall Zoinks McJinkies recommending Ultimate Muscle based on it being like a WWE All-Stars take on the system. I always wanted to play that but for whatever reason it never came out in PAL regions.

I absolutely adored the first 2 Def Jam games, they ruined it with Icon, but Vendetta and Fight for New York are classics.

Def Jam series was fun but almost skipped the first one as well. The second one the best one with most customization more MMA like. The third one I didnt originally like but it wasnt bad. But it wasnt a wrestling game anymore.

Went and picked up my copy of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, while I was at EB Games doing that, I also picked up a copy of Little Dragons Cafe, so I'll pretty much be playing those over the weekend and really the next two weeks, waiting for ANimal Crossing to come out on March 20th.

Been playing a number of games here and there while waiting for Ori and Doom. A bit of EWR and Tetris Effect, along with the FF7R demo, which was super promising, but mainly...

The Political Process - It's pretty much a political career sim, a very detailed one. It's still in early access and has some things it can adjust and add, but the developer is really going for it and trying to make it as in-depth as possible. I started off as a young progressive who won a spot on city council and then was elected to the State House, where I was able to help write and pass many bills to improve the great state of Ohio. I was then elected to the House for two terms and met mixed success in passing legislation due to the GOP controlled House, followed by a GOP controlled Senate. I then won my race for Senate, riding a blue wave which won both chambers and elected a very liberal president. Afterwards, I chose not to run for reelection in order to run for the democratic nomination and win the presidency. If any of that sounds fun to you, give it a try, it's only $15 on Steam.

Currently playing Shadow of Colossus for the first time. It is pretty interesting figuring out how to tackle each Colossus only taken 5 down so far.

Shadow of the Colossus is one of the GOAT games. Enjoy it!

Definitely, it was in my top 10 before they made it even better in the remake. Even all these years later nothing has replicated the experience.

Gone through both Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Zero 2 as apart of that 6 game Mega Man Zero collection......this series looks very promising. The lone drawback I would say is the inability to skip cutscenes which for certain bosses(Final boss of 2) would have been appreciated massively. Besides that and the inability to adjust your screen to see stuff off screen(Cheap deaths, enemies) everything else has been pretty good with these games. Wasn't feeling the mission by mission segment of the first and was happy they went back to the traditional 8 enemy selection choices(If it isn't broken don't fix it WTF?) especially since if you failed the mission you don't get a 2nd chance at it and miss out on valuable cyber elves/buffs that are useful. Stories are pretty run of the mill but the gameplay is very very good, especially for Game Boy Advance games. The second one is pretty good with the different styles/modes for instance which gives you a different choice towards the type of Zero you'd want to play and getting to adjust to it on the fly is great!

Each game ran me about 4 hours each on a first playthrough and man the checkpoint mode is BIG TIME. I went about 95% through the first game until the boss rush mode where if you don't beat the mission you have to re-do all 8 bosses again so I gave in and put it on and never looked back. Can't imagine playing the 2nd one without it with how many cheap deaths are littered throughout the game. I didn't use a cyberelf in the 2nd game until the final boss at least so I didn't fully cheese through the game!

Bioshock has been pretty compelling so far... But mostly for its aesthetic and story theme. Otherwise, it feels like Destiny, which is to say every other FPS that isn't just COD.

Just realised that you can get stuck in Super Metroid with no hope of beating the game. If you save at the very last save station, you cannot return to the rest of the game, you cannot spawn anymore ammo and you can miss the charge shot which is your reserve ammunition. I thought it was taking too long to get the charge shot, but didn't realise it was possibly missable altogether - I never saw the demo screen where they actually show you where it is. As such, my playthrough is dead and I'll have to start another one which I was going to do anyways with a walkthrough just to see how it plays without getting lost all the time.

I find Symphony of the Night to be an inbalanced game. The combat is ridiculously easy, to the point where you hardly get to see any of the bosses animations and for the most part you don't have to worry about them because they virtually just do chip damage. On the other hand, I find myself hopelessly lost all the time and since it's a non-linear game, I have to explore every inch of the castle until I find out I either missed the ability or I happened to be in the room which hadn't altered yet. Specifically the clock tower room where a statue will move every real game minute that will allow you to double jump. I think the last time I had to be in that room was several hours beforehand, which for me was six years ago so I took no mental note of it whatsoever.

Anyways, I have the ability to fly now, I skipped ahead four bosses and defeated Richter to get the bad ending and now I'm trying to figure out who I missed. I beat the Nightmare playing Alucard's mother and the Piano Playing Guy, I unlocked the ability to swim, but I'm at a loss on where to go next. To me, that's the appeal of the game and it's so satisfying to look at the map, find an incomplete area, trek there and it just so happens to trigger all the other dominos to fall. I've had sessions where I was only going to play 30 minutes worth, extend to 2-3 hours just because of that thrill.

The OST is also brilliant. One of my favourite tracks from my recent playthrough.

Another tricky thing about Symphony is all the hidden rooms, some I stumbled on by accident, but some there's no way you'll ever know if someone doesn't tell you, like in the merman area where you break the rocks at the top, go through the left with the wolf, fly back over with the bat, then go back through with the wolf again to open a small alcove at the top of the room. But these are always just bonus items, nothing required to beat the game. To get the upside down castle and the good ending, you need to get the two rings you wear in the clocktower, which opens the bottom and gives you access to the special glasses to see while fighting Richter.

Either way, finished Darksiders: Gensis THANK FUCK for couch co-op, this game would have been a nightmare grind solo (I know I could also play with people only,but you don't get the same synergy. The final 3 bosses especially take a holy fuck ton of damage and can kill you in seconds, it took a whole lot of team work to get through those bastards. Overall enjoyable game though, I stuck with Strife, which I quite enjoyed because I could remain at a distance and do damage with his guns while my brother took the most risk, having to go in and melee enemies. Bosses in general aren't actually that hard, they just take so much damage and by the last 4th of their life bar go into screen filling, life decimating move mode. You'd just about beat them and then just get caught and die in an instant.

Is my least favorite of the 4 games, but for a budget priced game, I'd give it an 8.

I will say if anyone with ps plus hasnt played shadow of colossus they should get it while it is free. Took out 9th one last night. This isnt about the 9th one but I normally hate aerial enemies but it felt epic here.

Mar 10, 2020 6:36:30 GMT RagnarokMike said:

Either way, finished Darksiders: Gensis THANK FUCK for couch co-op, this game would have been a nightmare grind solo (I know I could also play with people only,but you don't get the same synergy. The final 3 bosses especially take a holy fuck ton of damage and can kill you in seconds, it took a whole lot of team work to get through those bastards. Overall enjoyable game though, I stuck with Strife, which I quite enjoyed because I could remain at a distance and do damage with his guns while my brother took the most risk, having to go in and melee enemies. Bosses in general aren't actually that hard, they just take so much damage and by the last 4th of their life bar go into screen filling, life decimating move mode. You'd just about beat them and then just get caught and die in an instant.

Is my least favorite of the 4 games, but for a budget priced game, I'd give it an 8.

How would you rank the games? I like 1 which people say is like Zelda which I dont play. Didnt get into 2 or 3 which is like a dungeon crawler and souls games which i do like.

I personally liked 2 the most, 2>1>3>Genesis, but it is close enough for me to go either way on the first two. 2 was a bit overly massive for it's own good at times.

I do think it's great how each game skews the formula.

Jump Force was a huge disappointment. Other anime fighters it pulls character from does the fighting better like DBZ, Naruto, and One Piece. And speaking of those three too many characters from those 3 which have dedicated fighting games and not enough from lesser series. Couldn't give the 4 main characters from Yu Yu Hakusho. Couldn't give two main characters from Black Clover. Repetitive boring missions inbetween the load times. And yeah the fights are less time then the load time to get into the fights.

Finished Shadow of Colossus and the final boss felt like a final boss should. And the final weak spot on the 15th one was overly annoying to reach because I was trying to do way more then I needed to do. If that is all they wanted they could have just left it out.

Mar 11, 2020 22:15:27 GMT RagnarokMike said:

I personally liked 2 the most, 2>1>3>Genesis, but it is close enough for me to go either way on the first two. 2 was a bit overly massive for it's own good at times.

I do think it's great how each game skews the formula.

Surprising didn't think two would be that high.

Ori and The Will of the Wisps - Let me say this first, I really liked the original, thought it was very good with a few great things going for it and some flaws here and there; around an 8. This however, may well be up there neck and neck with SOTN for my favorite Metroidvania ever. The platforming is as precise as any game I've ever played and the combat, which was a weaker point of the first, now feels not just fleshed out and responsive, but genuinely fun. The story is whimisical, the artstyle is beautiful, and the backgrounds are some of the most lush with detail you will ever see, and that OST...oh man.

It's on Game Pass, so you can get it super cheap on PC and Xbox. Go do so.

I ran the game on my original XBOX for 5 minutes and the FPS was brutal, have to wait for a patch because I liked the first one so much and don't want my experience ruined in any capacity. It was actually unplayable and I am not a stickler on the frames per second argument. Felt like slow mo.

What are some good clean fun collaborative games on PS4 for two couples to play together?

Mar 20, 2020 14:40:51 GMT 🤯 said:

What are some good clean fun collaborative games on PS4 for two couples to play together?

I don't know why I said "clean". Don't care about cleanliness of game.

Two couples? Are you and wife swingers now?

Also just started Knack 2.

Mar 20, 2020 16:10:22 GMT @ness said:

Two couples? Are you and wife swingers now?

Also just started Knack 2.

Virtual swingers.

Overcooked 1 and 2 - In teams of two you help run a kitchen making sure that everything is put together the right way and served on time. Incredibly charming but also pretty intense, only the best couples can reign supreme.

Rocket League - It's soccer but in crazy vehicles with Tron like visuals. Ridiculously addictive.

Crash Team Racing - For some good ol' fashion Mario Kart goodness.

Rayman Legends - Co-op 2D platforming with plenty of charm and some decent multiplayer modes.

Overcooked 2. Don't know if it's PC exclusive, but if it's PS4, grab it. Best co-op game ever.

Mar 20, 2020 14:42:56 GMT 🤯 said:

Mar 20, 2020 14:40:51 GMT 🤯 said:

What are some good clean fun collaborative games on PS4 for two couples to play together?

I don't know why I said "clean". Don't care about cleanliness of game.

Magicka 2 or Little Big Planet 3 are some good ones.

Edit: I was assuming you all were in the same house.

If you both are at your own home/using 2 PS4 then Divinity 2.

Mar 20, 2020 17:00:44 GMT Emperor said:

Overcooked 2. Don't know if it's PC exclusive, but if it's PS4, grab it. Best co-op game ever.

It on the Ps4 as well. Pretty sure it was free one month and I didn't grab the license when I had the chance. Dio, Dakota, and Shayna were also playing on UUDD before.

Trying to confirm with the other couple on Overcooked 2. Thanks guys!

Meanwhile, giving this Shadow of a Colossus thing ba go - FYI to whoever said to do so.

I just finished Death Stranding. Wasn't sure what to expect when I went in as I went in blind (as I like to do knowing little to nothing about a game). And you know, I loved it. I know it's not perfect, it is extremely grindy in parts and there is a lot of running back and forward, but turns out that's my bag. Making deliveries and increasing my level doing so I found to be strangely addictive. Don't ask me what the hell the story was about though because I think the only person who does know is Hideo Kojima.

Now I've gone back to do a run of Final Fantasy XV before I get the FF VII remake.

I've never played an Animal Crossing but my goodness I just did two hours of New Horizons and I can already see how much of a addiction this is going to be. So much to do, so much freedom. I don't play many games of this genre to be honest so maybe I haven't felt this fatigued but it's such a refreshing game. Different animals populating during different times, different things to build, makes you really need to put in the work to benefit.