182 replies to this topic

[Axe99]

Finished off the campaign of Skulls of the Shogun last night - not a bad little game, although clearly a strategy game made by non-strategy developers.  AI was pretty basic, but level design was interesting enough and story, while limited and delivered through speech bubbles, was entertaining in a lighthearted silly way.  A bit on the easy side - suspect turn-based aficionados like Graph may find it a bit on the simple side as well, but worth a look if pops up on PS+/Steam for next-to-nix, or if you're looking for an easy strategy game that's gentle and fun .

[GasClown]

Haven't played anything for the past 2 weeks.

[GraphicX]

finished xcom 2.

it's a solid 7/10, final mission reminded me too much of the final mission from enemy unknown, no surprises or anything.

as mentioned elsewhere quite a buggy game that got worse with the only patch released for it.  also quite unbalanced.

taking it REALLY easy took 40 hours, i suspect a good 2-5 of those would've been load times & another 6 hours of game running but me not actually playing it.  it astounds me that games like wasteland 2 & divinity original sin, which are more than twice as long & everything scripted have actually scored poorer.

toward the end the game became extremely repetitive & the main campaign only really has half a dozen missions & probably a dozen tasks, with everything else being random events & procedurally generated rubbish (could think of these as ad breaks). pretty weak.

[Axe99]

Sounds like it was lucky to score 7 on the Graph scale .  Sorry to hear it wasn't all that, although it makes waiting for a console port easier (as do the bugs).  Here's hoping it gets a quality expansion that brings it up a bit and justifies another crack at it.

[GraphicX]

yeah but console port will also set you back close to a $100, whereas i think i paid about $45 & it wasn't worth that much lol.

[GasClown]

Looks like I'll be holding off on XCOM2 then. Lucky though - it's usually the type of game I'd buy at launch.

[GraphicX]

my next launch game will be dark souls 3 xD

[Axe99]

GraphicX, on 23 February 2016 - 12:13 AM, said:

yeah but console port will also set you back close to a $100, whereas i think i paid about $45 & it wasn't worth that much lol.

Doubt I'll get it at launch, it's not good enough to rate as a 'buy as soon as possible', and prices drop pretty quick on console these days as well.  I'll probably wait until it's $50 or cheaper on PS4.  Agree it sounds like it's not worth $100.

[GasClown]

Short review - The Talos Principle, finished it... easy game to pick up and drop whenever it suited me... puzzles aren't that difficult, a couple of the star ones were pretty tough. Not quite on the same level as Portal 2, regardless I'm still giving it a 9/10.

Totally recommend if you're into Portal/puzzle type games.

Spoiler

I found all the puzzle pieces and stars - I had level 6 access but I went to the top at 5 and didn't have to use them in a puzzle like all the other levels... unsure if I missed an alternate finish or whatever... might have to look into it online. Was an epic ending though.

[Axe99]

Nice one Clowny, and big props for finishing a game as well .  Just in time for some Sherlock Holmes? .

[GasClown]

Axe99, on 14 May 2016 - 10:35 PM, said:

Nice one Clowny, and big props for finishing a game as well .  Just in time for some Sherlock Holmes? .

Indeed. I tried to pick up Rise of the Tomb Raider this morning - so terrible on the controls... been so long I've forgotten them. I know I am near the end as well but it just takes too much time to get good at it again. Ended up rage quitting it. haha.

[GraphicX]

is the new tomb raider a lot more difficult than the old one ?

[GasClown]

GraphicX, on 16 May 2016 - 01:09 AM, said:

is the new tomb raider a lot more difficult than the old one ?

Nah - not at all... I just hadn't played it for months so completely forgot the controls, where I was up to etc. So ended up getting annoyed with it and didn't want to spend the time learning it again.

Was a platforming stage - kept pressing the wrong buttons and falling to my death.

The game is great - better than the one before, just my skills are lacking with the amount of gaming I do these days and not remembering the controls.

Felt a bit like this bloke...

[GraphicX]

that happened to me with dark souls 2.  my character was a 1 hit death character with high damage & high stamina etc.  i was on NG, didn't play it for 2 weeks as got distracted with some other game & went back to it & couldn't do a thing so had to abandon it.

[Aromaci]

It's almost like game journalists don't play games.

[GasClown]

Aromaci, on 16 May 2016 - 03:56 AM, said:

It's almost like game journalists don't play games.

That's exactly what it is. If I played games for a living (or regularly) I'd be good at them. Likewise I'd imagine for everyone. I suck at playing them now because I hardly do.... probably not as bad as that bloke though.

[Aromaci]

I wouldn't take book recommendations from an illiterate person so why would I take game recommendations from someone who can't play them?

[GraphicX]

take a seat ashen ones, it's dark souls 3 review time =)

so as with a lot of games at late dark souls just became a trilogy, well that's if you don't really count demons souls i guess.  also as with a lot of games this is meant to be the final installment (but here's hoping it makes a come back in future, just like john farnham or whatever that guy's name was).

going to get my qualms out of the way first, in my usual style;

for me the game as nowhere near as difficult as DS2, also i didn't find the graphics/detail (particularly on the armor) to be as good.  another thing was it didn't seem anywhere near as long as the predecessor even though i doodled around quite a bit, it was still about 12 hours shorter for me.

another thing was the game was brutally taxing on the hardware.  i played DS2 on a considerably lower spec graphics card to that i used on DS3 & i also played DS3 from an SSD.  even with that, coupled with the fact i don't think the details were as great, it ran slightly jittery in sections later in the game which did get better with patches being released.  but i also ran DS2 on max settings whereas for DS3 i could only run the game on high.

in each DS game there always seems to be an area that's just dreadful to play, in DS3 it's the swamp.  why they still include levels like this i don't know, it's just daunting & unenjoyable for the most part.

now with all of the above i'm giving it 9/10 !!!  yes i loved it.

as far as the game goes it was totally true to how DS works.  you can literally play as you want to play & still be successful, so long as you're good.  i found in lords of the fallen, which was an attempted copy that this wasn't the case.  one of the bosses pretty much required you to play as a tank or you couldn't pass.  in DS you can literally run around stark naked so long as you know what you're doing & still defeat everything in the game.

the bosses i found provided tons of variety & replay-ability, although some have been criticised as being recycled i only found these as being little mini-bosses later on & didn't have any issue with that at all (loved the challenge).

as always the kinda 'community' it has is great, where the summoned phantoms go hard out to assist you & invaders go hard out to slay you.  also the AI of the summoned sprite (?) phantoms, both ally & enemy is second to none.

i'm on my second play through now, probs being me won't see it through to the end but loving it all the same, definitely recommend it.

[Axe99]

Great stuff Graph, good luck with the second go-round .

[GraphicX]

metro: last light, pc version

another 9/10 game for me (in the fps genre).

i really love anything post apocalyptic, maybe i want to see everyone dead or suffering for some reason ??  dunno, but i loved 2033 & loved last light.

it's all the same same as far as fps stuff goes, but tons of stealth use, great looking environment & the characters (although not as good as 2033) were really interesting.

aside from the campaign (which wasn't as great as 2033), there's extra missions hidden away under chapters, that use levels from 2033 or where you play as different characters from the main campaign for a behind the scenes glimpse.  some of these extra levels are fantastic, from full blown stealth to providing sniper cover.

pretty short review (as usual), but i think that covers it, oh & the guns & mods for them were good & fairly diverse too, suited the game well.