@Exhuminator I love me thesee game books and yes, Lone Wolf Saga is exactly what I am using and it is keeping me honest and enjoying the game to its fullest! I have been eyeballing sorcery for a while and when I have free time will absolutely be adding it to the list.
On the Zelda topic, Popo brings up the best point in unlearn ingredients some typical gaming tactics. I noticed that if you play breath of the wild like a traditional 3d zelda game, you will have more obstacles than a person approaching the game with a clean slate.
I have a friend who is typically bad a video games. He doesn't play much at all and hasn't played a 3d Zelda game ever. Surprisingly, he did a great job getting through the plateau and even made it to a few towers in the couple of hours he played. I was thoroughly surprised, but figured out why. He didn't have the baggage of playing an older Zelda game and that clear slate was to his advantage.
Games Beaten 2017
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BogusMeatFactory
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Re: Games Beaten 2017
Ack wrote:I don't know, chief, the haunting feeling of lust I feel whenever I look at your avatar makes me think it's real.
-I am the idiot that likes to have fun and be happy.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
1. DKC Returns (3DS)
2. √ Letter (PS4)
3. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PC)
4. Spec Ops: The Line (PC)
5. Fire Emblem Heroes (Android)
6. Gears of War Ultimate Edition (Xbox One)
7. Onechanbara Z2 Chaos (PS4)
8. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
Played to approximately 90% completion (per in-game log) over about 50 hours. Far as I could tell I did everything that'd qualify as an actual quest as opposed to collectibles.
The obvious thing that HZD has going for it is that - by current standards - it's a visually stunning game. While not up to high end PC gaming specs, Guerilla's Decima engine manages to crank out solid framerates even on my peasant-tier original PS4, and apparently does a great job with tile-based "4k" on the PS4 Pro as well. Granted, it only shoots for 30fps...but it manages to do it, even with virtual herds of machines running amok and so on. It's little wonder that Kojima is using it for Death Stranding, and won't surprise me to see others adopt as well.
While graphics don't make the game, I think in this case they do inform some of the larger design. More or less, this is a showcase for Sony. If they want to show you retina-searing 4k HDR gaming, this is the game they'll use to do it, at least for now. In line with that, however, it also serves to ensure it's a very easy game to pick up and play.
As other discussion here has pointed out, most of what HZD does is quite derivative, though not really in a bad way. It serves more to make it instantly familiar for folks that play modern games. Additionally, most mechanics are kept simple enough to pick up for newcomers. Upgrades are kept limited, with obvious and effective results. I did feel like a few of them could just as well have been granted automatically, but to be fair, players engaging in "side content" as they come across it will handily outlevel the main quest anyway.
The one caveat that I would bring up is that for all the streamlining, convenience, and hand-holding that the game provides, it still remained very easy to end up with a full inventory. Trying to manage that on top of the grab-resources-as-you-go busywork typical of the genre did get to be a mild annoyance. "Inventory issues" are going to be a common complaint for a lot of this year's games, I wager, but they'd have been so easy to fix.
Probably the one real nod to actual challenge in HZD is how free-form combat can be. There's no lock-on mechanism, though there's bullet time and (by default) generous aim-assist. It's still not particularly difficult, but it's hard enough that it makes good strategy shine and brute-force methods obviously inefficient. Different parts of machine enemies are vulnerable to one or more weapon type, and taking advantage of those is very effective.
There are Hunting Ground trials that serve as more advanced tutorials, but by and large the game will maybe show you the basics and then set you loose with more tools than you need.
Using a Thunderjaws own guns against it was one such lesson.
Against humans - which do comprise quite a lot of the combat - options are a lot more limited, but it's still decent.
I'd say a credit to overall structure is that little in HZD tends to overstay its welcome. For a big open-world game, it'd be very easy to copy/paste content all over to pad out, but it's fairly restrained. I finished each of the side content types before they got stale, mostly because they averaged around five examples of each. As odd as it is to say it's "only" a 30-60 hour game, coming off of stuff like MGSV where 80-90 hours was still not even close to 100%'ing it...it's a pretty decent compromise.
As much as it'd be easy to pick any one element and wish that it was more robust, again, I think the idea was to make a broadly appealing showcase game, and to that end HZD does well.
The setting and story are, as I've seen said elsewhere, better than they need to be. Still not on par with the best out there, but good, and something that can/will easily be the basis of a franchise. It doesn't need to be, as the game is a nice complete package as-is, but post-credits scene and all that suggests that it will be. As a basic overview, you play Aloy, an outcast of her tribe that finds a wearable computer as a child. This gives her insight into the machines roaming around (and a rationale for the HUD), and the buried old world that they come from. I found most of the plot to be fairly predictable as it unfolded, but not bad, and fun to explore.
That said, I think there's a lot there to potentially dissect as the story ends up both showing different tribes, customs, and religions...but also the basis for them. Further separated from that, where I suspect HZD will get some recognition come awards season, is that it seems to do quite well with regard to creating a strong female lead and a very diverse cast (something I've seen some negative feedback about, actually).
It's not perfect there, and has glaring examples of ludonarrative dissonance (as do most games that involve killing literally hundreds of virtual people). Still, I think it gets a lot more right than wrong.
Overall, it's an easy to pick up game that's average at worst, and often better. For me, it was hard not to like, and I had fun with it.
2. √ Letter (PS4)
3. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PC)
4. Spec Ops: The Line (PC)
5. Fire Emblem Heroes (Android)
6. Gears of War Ultimate Edition (Xbox One)
7. Onechanbara Z2 Chaos (PS4)
8. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4)
Played to approximately 90% completion (per in-game log) over about 50 hours. Far as I could tell I did everything that'd qualify as an actual quest as opposed to collectibles.
The obvious thing that HZD has going for it is that - by current standards - it's a visually stunning game. While not up to high end PC gaming specs, Guerilla's Decima engine manages to crank out solid framerates even on my peasant-tier original PS4, and apparently does a great job with tile-based "4k" on the PS4 Pro as well. Granted, it only shoots for 30fps...but it manages to do it, even with virtual herds of machines running amok and so on. It's little wonder that Kojima is using it for Death Stranding, and won't surprise me to see others adopt as well.
While graphics don't make the game, I think in this case they do inform some of the larger design. More or less, this is a showcase for Sony. If they want to show you retina-searing 4k HDR gaming, this is the game they'll use to do it, at least for now. In line with that, however, it also serves to ensure it's a very easy game to pick up and play.
As other discussion here has pointed out, most of what HZD does is quite derivative, though not really in a bad way. It serves more to make it instantly familiar for folks that play modern games. Additionally, most mechanics are kept simple enough to pick up for newcomers. Upgrades are kept limited, with obvious and effective results. I did feel like a few of them could just as well have been granted automatically, but to be fair, players engaging in "side content" as they come across it will handily outlevel the main quest anyway.
The one caveat that I would bring up is that for all the streamlining, convenience, and hand-holding that the game provides, it still remained very easy to end up with a full inventory. Trying to manage that on top of the grab-resources-as-you-go busywork typical of the genre did get to be a mild annoyance. "Inventory issues" are going to be a common complaint for a lot of this year's games, I wager, but they'd have been so easy to fix.
Probably the one real nod to actual challenge in HZD is how free-form combat can be. There's no lock-on mechanism, though there's bullet time and (by default) generous aim-assist. It's still not particularly difficult, but it's hard enough that it makes good strategy shine and brute-force methods obviously inefficient. Different parts of machine enemies are vulnerable to one or more weapon type, and taking advantage of those is very effective.
There are Hunting Ground trials that serve as more advanced tutorials, but by and large the game will maybe show you the basics and then set you loose with more tools than you need.
Using a Thunderjaws own guns against it was one such lesson.
Against humans - which do comprise quite a lot of the combat - options are a lot more limited, but it's still decent.
I'd say a credit to overall structure is that little in HZD tends to overstay its welcome. For a big open-world game, it'd be very easy to copy/paste content all over to pad out, but it's fairly restrained. I finished each of the side content types before they got stale, mostly because they averaged around five examples of each. As odd as it is to say it's "only" a 30-60 hour game, coming off of stuff like MGSV where 80-90 hours was still not even close to 100%'ing it...it's a pretty decent compromise.
As much as it'd be easy to pick any one element and wish that it was more robust, again, I think the idea was to make a broadly appealing showcase game, and to that end HZD does well.
The setting and story are, as I've seen said elsewhere, better than they need to be. Still not on par with the best out there, but good, and something that can/will easily be the basis of a franchise. It doesn't need to be, as the game is a nice complete package as-is, but post-credits scene and all that suggests that it will be. As a basic overview, you play Aloy, an outcast of her tribe that finds a wearable computer as a child. This gives her insight into the machines roaming around (and a rationale for the HUD), and the buried old world that they come from. I found most of the plot to be fairly predictable as it unfolded, but not bad, and fun to explore.
That said, I think there's a lot there to potentially dissect as the story ends up both showing different tribes, customs, and religions...but also the basis for them. Further separated from that, where I suspect HZD will get some recognition come awards season, is that it seems to do quite well with regard to creating a strong female lead and a very diverse cast (something I've seen some negative feedback about, actually).
It's not perfect there, and has glaring examples of ludonarrative dissonance (as do most games that involve killing literally hundreds of virtual people). Still, I think it gets a lot more right than wrong.
Overall, it's an easy to pick up game that's average at worst, and often better. For me, it was hard not to like, and I had fun with it.
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prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12198
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2017
1. Shantae 1/2 Genie Hero (Wii U)
2. Blek (iOS)
3. Bloo Kid 2 (3DS)
4. HarmoKnight (3DS)
5. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
Before embarking on Dragon Quest VII, it is important to ask yourself both how much you like Dragon Quest and how much Dragon Quest you can handle. Dragon Quest VII is the all-you-can-eat buffet of Dragon Quest games. It is all good JRPG comfort food, but there is just way too much of it.
I absolutely murdered Orgodemir last night, and I played through the ending this morning. My completion time for the game was just under 99 hours, and while, admittedly, I did everything you can do during the main quest - and while I was a bit overpowered for the final boss - the game still has a lot of content that I haven't touched. In addition to the bonus dungeons and bosses, I could spend hours tracking down monsters for the monster meadows mini-game, playing in the casinos for better equipment, and excavating monster tablets linked to randomly generated dungeons. I also haven't touched any of the DLC. So - from a sheer value perspective - the game simply can't be beat.
It also plays very well. The battle system is typical Dragon Quest - that is, very fast-paced, turn-based combat - and, with enough grinding, the game's vocation system allows you to customize your character's statistics to your liking. Moreover, the game is broken up into 18 three to six hour episodes, bookended by a few, slightly longer episodes tying them together. The game's episodic nature makes it easy to pick up and put down - I beat 10+ other games while I was working through it - and makes for a great portable RPG. (The 3DS version is great, BTW. It looks good, and the 3D effect is awesome. The music is only OK, however, and the repetitive tracks started to grate on me after the 60-hour mark.) Finally, the game is incredibly well-realized; the world is charming; and the amount of text is staggering. (As the world changes with each episode, almost every one of the game's hundreds of NPCs receives new dialogue.)
Other than its exceptionally detailed, well-realized world, however, the game doesn't really do anything that hadn't been accomplished by its 8- and 16-bit predecessors. Moreover, the game's episodic nature, while beneficial in some respects, keeps the narrative from building much momentum. Finally, the game is ridiculously padded, and I often could not continue the game without backtracking through the same dungeon multiple times. (The Providence episode - which required you to go through the same dungeon five times - was particularly bad.)
In sum, and although I spent nearly 100 hours with it, I find it hard to recommend Dragon Quest VII to anyone except the most dedicated Dragon Quest fans. Like Dragon Quest II, its reputation as one of the series' black sheep is well-earned, and while I ultimately enjoyed it, and while I respect a lot of what it tried to accomplish, I am glad to have it behind me so that I can move onto to other, more-streamlined games in the series.
2. Blek (iOS)
3. Bloo Kid 2 (3DS)
4. HarmoKnight (3DS)
5. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
Before embarking on Dragon Quest VII, it is important to ask yourself both how much you like Dragon Quest and how much Dragon Quest you can handle. Dragon Quest VII is the all-you-can-eat buffet of Dragon Quest games. It is all good JRPG comfort food, but there is just way too much of it.
I absolutely murdered Orgodemir last night, and I played through the ending this morning. My completion time for the game was just under 99 hours, and while, admittedly, I did everything you can do during the main quest - and while I was a bit overpowered for the final boss - the game still has a lot of content that I haven't touched. In addition to the bonus dungeons and bosses, I could spend hours tracking down monsters for the monster meadows mini-game, playing in the casinos for better equipment, and excavating monster tablets linked to randomly generated dungeons. I also haven't touched any of the DLC. So - from a sheer value perspective - the game simply can't be beat.
It also plays very well. The battle system is typical Dragon Quest - that is, very fast-paced, turn-based combat - and, with enough grinding, the game's vocation system allows you to customize your character's statistics to your liking. Moreover, the game is broken up into 18 three to six hour episodes, bookended by a few, slightly longer episodes tying them together. The game's episodic nature makes it easy to pick up and put down - I beat 10+ other games while I was working through it - and makes for a great portable RPG. (The 3DS version is great, BTW. It looks good, and the 3D effect is awesome. The music is only OK, however, and the repetitive tracks started to grate on me after the 60-hour mark.) Finally, the game is incredibly well-realized; the world is charming; and the amount of text is staggering. (As the world changes with each episode, almost every one of the game's hundreds of NPCs receives new dialogue.)
Other than its exceptionally detailed, well-realized world, however, the game doesn't really do anything that hadn't been accomplished by its 8- and 16-bit predecessors. Moreover, the game's episodic nature, while beneficial in some respects, keeps the narrative from building much momentum. Finally, the game is ridiculously padded, and I often could not continue the game without backtracking through the same dungeon multiple times. (The Providence episode - which required you to go through the same dungeon five times - was particularly bad.)
In sum, and although I spent nearly 100 hours with it, I find it hard to recommend Dragon Quest VII to anyone except the most dedicated Dragon Quest fans. Like Dragon Quest II, its reputation as one of the series' black sheep is well-earned, and while I ultimately enjoyed it, and while I respect a lot of what it tried to accomplish, I am glad to have it behind me so that I can move onto to other, more-streamlined games in the series.
Last edited by prfsnl_gmr on Mon Mar 13, 2017 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
dsheinem wrote:MrPopo wrote:
I expect to be able to knock out Horizon Zero Dawn and Tales of Berseria over the week, so I should have a clean dance card in time for Mass Effect Andromeda. What a year so far.
Egads, man. Have you even ever been outside?!
I actually had this exact argument with JT a couple days ago. Although in that case it was more of "you're in the PNW, why aren't you going out and appreciating nature now and again?" But no, in terms of going outside I've done almost none; I went to the grocery store once on both weekends to pick up a few perishables so I'd have SOMETHING to eat and then obviously have been going to and from work. But otherwise I have been hardcore focused on Zelda; I was running the numbers in my head while going to bed and I think I spent around 70 hours on it, starting at 2pm the 4th (due to an Amazon mix-up I didn't get it on the 3rd).
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
isiolia wrote:it seems to do quite well with regard to creating a strong female lead and a very diverse cast (something I've seen some negative feedback about, actually).
out of curiosity, where?
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BoneSnapDeez
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- Posts: 20116
- Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 1:08 pm
- Location: Maine
Re: Games Beaten 2017
prfsnl_gmr wrote:5. Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
Nice work! I was waiting for this.
I've picked up the 3DS port myself but I dunno if I'll ever get to it. Having already played it on the PSX, I feel like this is one of those "once is enough" experiences.
I forget, have you played part VIII yet?
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BogusMeatFactory
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 6770
- Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:16 pm
- Location: Farmington Hills, MI
- Contact:
Re: Games Beaten 2017
MrPopo wrote:dsheinem wrote:MrPopo wrote:
I expect to be able to knock out Horizon Zero Dawn and Tales of Berseria over the week, so I should have a clean dance card in time for Mass Effect Andromeda. What a year so far.
Egads, man. Have you even ever been outside?!
I actually had this exact argument with JT a couple days ago. Although in that case it was more of "you're in the PNW, why aren't you going out and appreciating nature now and again?" But no, in terms of going outside I've done almost none; I went to the grocery store once on both weekends to pick up a few perishables so I'd have SOMETHING to eat and then obviously have been going to and from work. But otherwise I have been hardcore focused on Zelda; I was running the numbers in my head while going to bed and I think I spent around 70 hours on it, starting at 2pm the 4th (due to an Amazon mix-up I didn't get it on the 3rd).
What is crazy is that you spent roughly 70 hours and you haven't 100%-ed the game. This is a beefy 90-100 hour game. Not many games can do that, let alone make those hours feel compelling.
Ack wrote:I don't know, chief, the haunting feeling of lust I feel whenever I look at your avatar makes me think it's real.
-I am the idiot that likes to have fun and be happy.
-
prfsnl_gmr
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 12198
- Joined: Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:26 pm
- Location: Charlotte, North Carolina
Re: Games Beaten 2017
BoneSnapDeez wrote:I forget, have you played part VIII yet?
Not yet. I have beaten DQ, DQII, DQIII, DQIV, DQVII, and DQIX. After a long break, I will probably play through the DQIV remake. (I didn't really appreciate the series when I beat it almost 17 years ago, and I think I will enjoy it much more now.) After that, I will take on either DQV or DQVIII. I have read that those are the best in the series, and I am really looking forward to them, particularly DQVIII.
Also, I agree that DQVII is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That is, the game is too long and life is too short for you to play through it twice!
Re: Games Beaten 2017
dsheinem wrote:out of curiosity, where?
Nothing major, just when I was searching for quest lists and such to try and make sure I tagged everything I did see the occasional thread pop up questioning where the good white guys were or similar (GameFAQs I think). Seemed like a very small minority of people though.
Re: Games Beaten 2017
prfsnl_gmr wrote:Also, I agree that DQVII is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That is, the game is too long and life is too short for you to play through it twice!BoneSnapDeez wrote:I forget, have you played part VIII yet?
I'm not sure what this says about me, given that I've beaten the PSX version, and figure I'll eventually get back to the game... after Zelda, which may suck up 100 hours of my time as well. Oy vey.