|
RE7 choice: I gave the antidote to Zoe first because she was helping me the whole game, and she also saw her family turn into crazy monsters. All because of Mia, who also lied to you and was part of transporting a bio weapon. The fact that that choice leads to the bad end still annoys me. The fact that there's a dumb choice like that at all is annoying.
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2024 11:50
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 10, 2024 12:19 |
|
|
I "beat" Foamstars a few days ago by getting 100% of the trophies. I thought I'd be done with it after that and move on, but the experience is still rattling around in my head. So, I'm typing up some words about it. First, the good. It's fun! Despite all the other issues with the game, the core gameplay is fun. Yes it's "just Splatoon" but the game puts its own spin on the style to make it different enough. In the 4 v 4 modes there's more emphasis on shooting the other team than filling the map with your color. But, you also slide around faster on your color so you still want to be foaming everything up when you can. Finding that balance between attacking and supporting adds a little bit of strategy that I liked. The other change is that only shooting someone doesn't kill them (or "chill" them as the game calls it), you have to slide into them once they're Foamed Up to get the kill. But a teammate can also slide into them to save them. So there's a little bit of teamwork involved as well. The other mode is the Mission mode. Missions are just base defense against 10 waves of enemies. There are single player missions for each character, which is where some of the meme-y stuff comes from. They are oddly written and voiced, and are there mainly as tutorials. And to get you started on upgrading your core for the co-op missions. Co-op missions are where you team up with 3 other players and defend the core against bigger waves of the "bubble beasties." The normal mission isn't too bad once you know what you're doing, but completing the Hard mission requires a decent team with a lot of upgrades. Completing the Hard mission took the longest and was the most frustrating trophy / achievement to get, but it was still pretty fun and felt very satisfying to finally accomplish. And now, the bad. First up, the GaaS elements and mtx. The game is stuffed full of them. You've got the usual battle pass, and daily / weekly challenges. Not the most egregious (the pass is only $6 compared to the usual $10), but for a game with 3 maps and 4 modes it still feels pretty scummy. The shop is also filled with all the dumb things you can customize: skins, back decal, surfboard color, etc, but at least it's not very intrusive. I do want to single out the party poppers though. They're 99 cents each or cheaper in the bulk packs, but no matter the price, they're a ripoff. You get 300 XP at the end of the match if someone on your team uses one. That's about the same bonus as winning the match. But, you can't use more than one, and if the match errors out or doesn't finish (more on that later), you lose it. Considering levels are a flat 3000 XP all the way through, the poppers don't make much sense. The GaaS and mtx stuff is bad, but what will really sink the game are some of the weird / bad / confusing design decisions. Like no instant rematch or way to keep to playing with a team you end up liking. After every match you're thrown back to your lounge and have to start matchmaking again, even if you're doing the mission mode. Totally kills the "just one more" feeling. But the absolute worst UX mistake is that if one person in a match disconnects, the whole match errors out. Just a baffling decision. And bonus points for giving everyone on both teams a loss when it happens, too. So many games ended where one team was about to win and someone on the other team quit to end the match. Even in Ranked. Especially in Ranked. And there's no penalty for doing it either so there's no real downside. And that's Foamstars in a nutshell. Some very fun gameplay wrapped up in a bunch of frustrating and bizarre choices. TrueTrophies says I spent 15 hours playing it, and I probably enjoyed like 14 of those hours. Not bad for a "free" game! It's very easy to write this game off and I don't blame anyone for doing that. However, I'm glad I took the plunge and tried it out. Just like with Deathverse and Rumbleverse, it's a unique experience that probably won't be available for long. I'd rather jump in and experience these weird, ephemeral games while they're around. Maybe you would too? Probably not, but y'know, maybe?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2024 16:22
|
|
|
Alctel posted:Just played Obra Dinn not knowing anything about it and blitzed through it in around 5 play sessions Discendo Vox posted:There's regrettably nothing else quite like Obra Dinn (and no sign of a sequel, augh), but you definitely should give Case of the Golden Idol a spin. I'll throw in Chants of Sennaar as another sorta, kinda, almost-but-not-quite Obra Dinn-like. It's the one where you climb a tower and have to figure out the different languages to progress. There are a couple of stealth sections in one part of the game that basically nobody likes, but they're short and not that punishing when you fail. Otherwise it's a mostly chill game about figuring out "up" and "down" in symbol languages, then translating that to a different language based on a mural painted on the wall, etc. And it only takes 10-15 hours to 100%.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2024 13:13
|
|
|
I just beat Tales of Kenzera: Zau, and I really wish I liked it more. It was fine. It's a perfectly fine and basic metroidvania. Most of the time. But there are a couple of issues that dragged it down. First, while the movement feels good most of the time, there are a few spots where the game suddenly demands some precision and quick use of different skills. This shouldn't be a problem, but the game itself isn't really capable of giving you the precision it's asking for. It struggles to keep up with quick jumps and dashes in a row. Sometimes my inputs felt like they just weren't registering. I had to stop and check my controller on a different game a few times just to make sure it was still working properly. This feels especially bad during the two long chase sequences that barely have any checkpoints. And the camera always feels like it's trying to keep up with you. If you go too fast you'll move off screen, and probably die to some spikes. Second, the combat gets tedious very quickly. You have two forms, and can level them up a bit, but they feel mostly the same from the beginning to the end. The only thing that changes is that the game throws more shielded enemies at you as you get further. You never really get the tools to do much more damage so you just have to do the basics a few more times. And even with a leveled up ranged form, certain flying enemies are always a pain. I ended up skipping a bunch of fighting where I could as I got closer to the end, but most of the time you get trapped in a screen and have to kill everything to move on. After the second boss, about halfway through the game, I was already done with the combat. The action also gets hard to parse when there are more than 2 or 3 enemies close at you as well. Did I dodge that? Dunno, just keep mashing attack and heal! The game also loves to put insta-death floors at the bottom of big fights in the latter half. Lastly, and this is just personal preference, but the game doesn't let you use the Dpad. Only the Left Stick. Boo. But I liked the world design and art style. The boss fights were all decent enough. The story was mostly fine, though I don't think the framing device was really needed. Zau's story worked well enough on its own without the added layer of ANOTHER son coping with the death of his father. Yes, I get what the story was going for (and those aren't spoilers, it's all setup at the beginning) but I think it would have been more effective to stick with one main character. Overall, a decent game that I would probably be way harsher on if it weren't "free" with PS Plus. Took me 8 hours to beat, and now I'm going to go back and get the rest of the collectibles for the platinum. Hopefully that will only take another 2 or 3 hours max. We'll see.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2024 19:35
|
|