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metalgearkong · 5 years ago

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Jedi: Fallen Order - Review (PS4)

11/24/19

Developed by Respawn Entertainment

Up until now, Electronic Arts has taken the wrong direction with their exclusive Star Wars license. So far they created not one, but two awful Star Wars: Battlefront games, both overstuffed with microtransactions and unethical loot boxes. Sure the graphics, sights, and sounds of Star Wars were present, but when the entry fee was $60 and the base game had so little to it, I wasn’t a fan. Jedi: Fallen Order is an answer to all the rightful criticism EA has taken, and they have finally funded developer Respawn Entertainment to make a dedicated single-player, offline, action/adventure game that Star Wars fans have wanted for years. Jedi: Fallen Order is an enormous step in the right direction with the Star Wars license, and shows the potential on what a lot of money and talented people can create when backed by passion.

This is yet another game taking place place between episodes III and IV, a few years after Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi Order. I don’t know if the Force Unleashed games are still considered canon, but I certainly hope not. We play as Cal Kestis, a young Jedi Padawan who survived the purge, and has been hiding out for years as a scrapper taking apart old ships from the war. The Empire has established itself firmly as the dominant superpower of the galaxy, equipped with all the classic Star Wars stuff I love, such as AT-ATs, AT-STs, Stormtroopers, and TIE fighters. A few additions include the Inquisitors, apparently Dark Jedi not following the "rule of two,” who seek out and kill the remaining Jedi in hiding. I guess they come from a TV show or something, but I’ve never watched any of those. Accompanying them are Purge Troopers, who use electro-magnetic melee weapons and can be a struggle to take down. I think the Purge Troopers should have just taken the role of the Inquisitors because I think it would be way cooler to know that the only experienced Force-users left alive now are Obi-Wan, Yoda, the Emperor, and Vader.

The gameplay could be described as a combination of Uncharted exploring, and Dark Souls combat (although it more so reminds me of 2018′s God of War, also inspired by Dark Souls). I didn’t give this game enough credit in the beginning. I decided to play the game on the hard difficulty option, but a few a few hours, I bumped it back down to normal mode. I underestimated the combat and how tough even simple enemies could be. Encounters involve locking on to one enemy at a time, and timing attacks, parries, and dodges. Even low level bad guys can take down your health, especially because they usually appear in small groups. I quite enjoyed fighting members of the Empire, especially basic Stormtroopers, but fighting creatures was much more annoying. Space bugs, space rats, and space crabs feel like a chore to kill as they leap backwards and avoid your lightsaber strikes, and its often harder to read their telegraphs.

Coming across a squad of Stormtroopers is always where I had the most devilish fun. I appreciate how the game gave the troops a lot of personality. You can hear them chatting to each other before a fight, and they make sarcastic comments as you slowly dwindle their numbers. Laser bolts can be reflected back at the shooter, making ranged combat pretty easy. It’s when the game mixes melee enemies and ranged enemies where it gets a little more tricky and engaging. Every melee trooper is a Scout Trooper and I found that a little hilarious and inconsistent compared to a Scout’s role and ability levels from the films. I didn’t realize they can stand toe-to-toe with a Jedi using their electric sticks and block plenty of lightsaber strikes before being killed. I also liked the detail that when an AT-ST is defeated, you then get to brutally execute the pilot as he scrambles out and fires his pistol as a last ditch effort before his merciless death.

Bosses range from the aforementioned AT-STs, as well as large indigenous creatures found on different planets. Each world, from what I could tell, also has an optional, semi-hidden boss. These didn’t draw my attention much because they’re basically clones of other tougher creatures, only with a greater damage output, higher speed, and more health. You do get experience points for defeating enemies, but I lived happily without taking down these frustrating side-bosses. The most blatant rip-off of the Souls-like formula is the fact that when you rest at meditation spots (save points), it resets all the enemies in the level. This makes more sense in a game with tighter gameplay, such as Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, but there’s not as much of a need for experience points, and the gameplay isn’t reliable enough to warrant farming XP from regular enemies over and over again. I nearly gagged when the game warned me that meditating resets the enemies around you. I’m sick of seeing this mechanic, especially if it isn’t necessary.

I wish the gameplay was a little tighter and snappier. Enemies telegraphy their attacks well enough most of the time, but if an enemy is about to do an unblockable attack, the game doesn’t let you react quick enough to go from blocking to dodging. Many times I’d be blocking or trying to parry, and when an unblockable attack was coming, I couldn’t quick-step to the side fast enough. This means your reflexes not only have to be good enough, but you have to give the game a head start because it takes some time to go from one thing to another. This would happen often enough to get me frustrated. Another annoyance was Cal falling to the ground when the block meter isn’t depleted, and getting hit repeatedly as he’s trying to get up. I get that you can’t block forever, but you shouldn’t be “stunned” when the block meter isn’t empty yet. I don’t know if some of the clumsiness was intentional, but I would get pissed off during tougher fights because I felt like I was fighting an enemy as well as the mechanics.

This all has to do with combat, but I found the traversing to be more reliable. Respawn Entertainment definitely borrows heavily from the Uncharted and rebooted Tomb Raider series. Cal can’t do a lot at first, but as he remembers powers over time, you unlock more abilities such as Force push, Force pull, wall running, double jumping, and more. Sliding down icy or muddy slopes is always fun, especially when combined with other traversal obstacles such as gaps and the need to wall run at the beginning or end. If you die in combat, your brought back to a meditation point, but if you die while adventuring, the game resets you quickly and with a small loss of health. The animations were great as well. I really did feel like a character in the Star Wars universe climbing rocky terrain, jumping over ledges, climbing, and all sorts of stuff like that. It gave the game a cinematic feel even during gameplay. Same goes for combat which can be a little imprecise, but at least looks great. It’s funny, however, that a lot of what prevents Cal from going to new places is the game, is him simply not “remembering” how to do something, especially when he will recall one of his skills out of the blue.

One of the greatest strengths of the game is also it’s greatest weakness: the level design. Each planet you visit has its own interconnecting environments, of which short cuts can be unlocked so you can loop back around easier in the future. The map is also extremely helpful as it gives you a 3D view of the environments, shows where you haven’t explored, shows where places are locked, and shows things like meditation spots. But there isn’t one bit of fast-travel in the game, so when you find yourself deep in a tomb or canyon, you have to hike your way all the way back to your ship. Granted, the developers have tried their best to make the way back interesting with new enemies or new ways to get back to the start, but when some of the environments are as large and twisting as they are, it can be a grind to get from A to B sometimes. Regardless, I’m impressed with how big and detailed each location is (my favorite being the lush jungles of Kashyyyk). It also gives you reminders of places you can re-explore once new abilities are unlocked.

The story itself is one of the worst aspects of the game. While the settings and storytelling itself can be quite good on regular occasions, the overall plot is extremely basic. When Cal is forced to use his powers to save his friend during an industrial accident, he draws the attention of the Empire and the Inquisitors. The game becomes a race between you and the Empire to find a hidden list of Force-sensitive children left in the galaxy. This list (Holocron) has been hidden by a former Jedi who simply has put it in a difficult place to get to simply as a test, so that anyone who finds it would be “worthy” or something. We don’t necessarily see the Empire taking steps to find this list, but they pop in and our during cinematics when it’s convenient for the game. It’s basically an excuse to hop between a handful of planets and get slightly further and further as we unlock new abilities (a la Metroidvania). We spend a vast amount of time in deep tombs, putting Lara’s recent adventures to shame. It got old after a bit, even if the graphics and designs were gorgeous. I also think the game had one or two many giant ball puzzles.

The acting can be hit or miss as well. The most annoying character was Cere (Debra Wilson), one of the members of your small crew, who is a former Jedi Master, but has cut herself off from the Force. I think on a technical level, Wilson plays this character like a seasoned actor, but I found Cere’s character to be like one of those teachers or supervisors who is more dramatic than she needs to be. Cere comes off as condescending and a bit self-important, making excuses for herself while holding Cal to a very noble and high standard. She just comes off as endlessly melodramatic, and I don’t see a lot of need for her to have been a former Jedi, especially because she’s nothing but a co-pilot, quest-giver, and expositioner.. Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) is a very vanilla hero who isn’t too bright, but is very altruistic. He has to have everything explained to him, even though I think he could have easily been telling other characters information, rather than being so clueless as a Jedi Padawan. Monaghan does a pretty good job playing him, I just thought the character itself was a little bland and typical.

Instead of the main Inquisitor chasing you around (called the “Second Sister”) I think being pursued by Darth Vader would have been way more fun. How much cooler would it have been to be hunted by THE Darth Vader, him doing exactly what his job was during this time period? Another inconsistency that irked me was that Cal is a Padawan, yet he’s proficient in single blade, staff, and double lightsaber combat. I know this makes the game more “fun” but it doesn’t make sense to me that a teenage Padawan is an expert in three forms of lightsaber combat, each of them needing nearly a lifetime to master. I was annoyed I could switch to a lightsaber staff at any time with no background or explanation for it. I would have liked it much more if the story and game stuck to single blade combat, and not felt like it would have been too basic or boring for most players. But I think the larger thing to blame is the Star Wars canon and Force-using, lightsaber-using people don’t get much of a technical explanation on how much the Force aids you or how much training you need to do on your own.

It may not seem like it, but overall I am actually pretty happy with Jedi: Fallen Order. Not only does it eschew the practices EA has become notorious for, but it’s a game in a genre I really enjoy. Aside from some combat imperfections, flat story, and average characters, I had a lot of fun exploring this game at every turn. Finding chests with cosmetic collectibles and playing with the Force powers kept me going from one corner to the next. I also enjoyed the music which was done by composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, instead of relying too much on the famous John William tracks (although they are heard far and few between). They evoked a Star Warsy tone and atmosphere without outright copying existing works. I loved moments like my first AT-ST fight, or climbing and piloting an AT-AT. Most of the set-piece moments were exciting and unique for a Star Wars video game. It certainly has its blemishes, but definitely not things that couldn’t be ironed out in a future sequel. I really hope Respawn Entertainment and EA continue on this path of coming up with semi-original stories with their Star Wars license and make single player driven experiences.

7.5/10

#jedi fallen order #star wars #lucasarts #respawn entertainment #cal kestis #debra wilso #inquisitors #darth vader #stormtroopers #star wars game #review #ps4

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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15 Hardest PlayStation 2 Games of All-Time

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Over 155 million PlayStation 2s have been sold to date, but few of those 150+ million PS2 owners have ever come close to beating the beloved console’s hardest games.

Sure, the PS2 may have helped make 3D games significantly more “playable,” and yes, it did slowly pull us away from the era of absurdly difficult arcade-style games, but it was also the console that seemingly inspired a new generation of developers to ask “What does the future of incredibly difficult games look like?”

Their answers include a driving game where mistakes are not an option, a rhythm game harder than actually learning an instrument, a beat-em-up that beats you up, and more of the absolute hardest PS2 games ever made.

15. Stuntman

Stuntman rides that line between “broken” and “designed to be difficult,” but I feel like this unique driving game is still playable enough to be rightfully recognized as one of the PS2’s most difficult experiences.

Stuntman is defined by the kind of razor-thin margin of error you typically don’t see outside of the toughest bullet hell shooters. This is an already mechanically challenging driving game made worse by the fact you only have a couple of seconds to react to frustratingly vague on-set stunt requests. It forces you to embrace that brand of trial and error gameplay that would be impossible to endorse if the novelty of playing as a movie stuntman wasn’t so appealing.

14. Manhunt

Manhunt is a grindhouse classic that deserves more love than it typically receives, but like so many stealth titles of this era, it’s also a maddeningly frustrating game that may have chased off more than a few potential fans with its unforgiving gameplay.

While you’re technically allowed to make a mistake in Manhunt, most players will find that the odds of recovering from those mistakes are so low that you might as well hit reset the moment that you’re caught. Oh, and this game’s “Hardcore” difficulty mode is even more brutal than the fictional snuff movie you’re supposedly participating in.

13. Pac-Man World 2

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who see Pac-Man World 2 on a list of hard games and think “What?” and those who hear the name Pac-Man World 2 and immediately unlock a treasure trove of painful memories.

Some of Pac-Man World 2’s levels are pretty challenging in their own right, but only those who have tried to 100% this game know how hard it really is. While I’ve since seen people beat this game’s toughest time trials, there was a point in my life when I was ready to believe they were actually impossible. If this was a Crash Bandicoot game, it’d arguably be the hardest Crash Bandicoot game ever.

12. God of War

While not the most difficult 3D action game of the PS2 era (we’ll talk about those games in a second), it’s sometimes easy to forget just how hard the original God of War really was.

God of War’s combat is more than enough to keep you on your toes, but what puts this one over the top is the section where you have to climb a rotating tower of spikes and blades in order to escape the afterlife. This section belongs in the Hall of Fame of frustratingly difficult platforming challenges in non-platforming games.

11. Airblade

Airblade was unfairly dismissed as a Tony Hawk knockoff at the time of its release, but this game actually had quite a few things going for it that helped it stand apart. Having said that, Airblade could have been a significantly less difficult game if developer Criterion Software had only borrowed some of THPS’ better ideas.

The biggest offenders here are Airblade’s time limits and the structure of its challenges. Like classic THPS games, Airblade tasks you with completing a number of objectives in every level within a certain time limit. Unlike THPS, Airblade makes you complete all of those objectives in one perfect run before the time limit expires. Even “good” gamers will have a hard time overcoming the mental exhaustion of repeating the same challenges over and over.

10. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter

The Breath of Fire games tend to be pretty challenging, but even this series’ biggest fans will usually concede that Dragon Quarter abuses whatever privileges the franchise may otherwise enjoy in that department.

Dragon Quarter’s early challenges are tough enough for those who go into this game with some understanding of how it all works, but the fact that most people are expected to overcome them while learning this game’s unique (and complicated) mechanics is just too much. Some of the game’s later boss fights even have a way of making you feel like you still don’t understand what you’re doing even when you’re a lowly level one character all over again.

9. Gitaroo Man

While Guitar Hero 3 deserves a little love for the absurd difficulty of its final song tier (not to mention the infamous “Through the Fire and Flames”), the PS2’s hardest rhythm game will always be Gitaroo Man.

Most of Gitaroo Man offers relatively reasonable challenges for dedicated rhythm gamers, but this game’s Master Mode challenges are just shy of physically impossible. Actually, “physical” is a great way to describe this game’s difficulty, as anyone who isn’t able to endure quite a bit of hand pain will probably never be able to 100% this one.

8. Jak 2

While Jak 2 is a fairly difficult game all the way through, I’d say about 80% of this Naughty Dog classic is actually fairly well-balanced and should be accessible to action-adventure/platformer fans of various skill levels.

As you probably figured out, it’s the other 20% of the game that earns Jak 2 its reputation as well as a spot on this list. There’s a handful of difficulty spikes in this game that will leave you wondering whether you’ve done something wrong or somehow accidentally changed a setting. It certainly doesn’t help that this game’s checkpoint system often forces you to replay some of those sections over and over again.

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7. Black

Black is another one of those games that’s hard to rank in terms of difficulty due to the extreme differences between its various difficulty settings. If you’re a somewhat seasoned FPS gamer playing Black on “Easy” or “Normal,” you’ll probably find that this game doesn’t offer many challenges that you aren’t able to overcome through the usual amount of persistence.

Black is an entirely different beast on “Hard” and “Black Ops” settings, though. It’s bad enough that you can be killed by a gentle breeze in those modes, but the fact you’re asked to complete additional objectives while navigating a buffet of bullets is downright cruel.

6. Godhand

There’s never really been another action game quite like Godhand. This bizarre beat-em-up combines elements of 3D action games like Devil May Cry with classic arcade brawlers, but emphasizes learning the patterns of individual enemies rather than mowing down waves of foes. To make things worse, the game features a twist on the old “tank control” system that forces you to adapt to a much slower pace than you’re typically used to seeing in these kinds of games.

Put it all together, and you’ve got a game that is constantly forcing you to learn new tricks just to survive. If you’re not the kind of gamer than can pull off complicated fighting game combos in the heat of battle, you might not be able to survive this truly unique action game.

5. Armored Core: Last Raven

“Difficult” is obviously the first word that comes to mind when I think of FromSoftware games, but the second would have to be “balanced.” For a studio that is obviously pretty well known for making hard games, most FromSoftware titles are actually surprisingly well-balanced.

Then there’s Armored Core: Last Raven. While I have to give FromSoftware credit for making an Armored Core game that challenged even the series’ most dedicated fans, the way this game essentially forces you to master even the most seemingly minor mechanics all but ensures that only those with the right combination of patience and skills will be able to even make progress in it much less dream of beating it.

4. Contra: Shattered Soldier

Saying that a Contra game is hard is just about the hottest take this side of “water is wet,” so the more interesting conversation regarding this series has instead always been “What is the hardest Contra game ever?”

Well, I’d still have to give that honor to Contra: Hard Corps, but Shattered Soldier absolutely belongs in that conversation. This is a pure arcade-style shooter that throws in just enough modern (or somewhat modern) gameplay twists to ensure that even those who consider themselves skilled at retro Contra games will struggle to see the end of one of the PS2’s best action titles.

3. Devil May Cry 3

After establishing the franchise formula in the first Devil May Cry and suffering through a significant sophomore slump in Devil May Cry 2, Capcom decided to get crazy with it and make Devil May Cry 3 arguably the most difficult 3D action game ever.

While it’s true that the original North American release of this game is technically the hardest version (due to the fact that Capcom raised the difficulty of every optional setting before reverting that decision in subsequent re-releases), it really doesn’t matter which version of this game you play. This is an absolute masterpiece in difficult game design, and I love the Devil May Cry team for everything that it is just as I kind of hate them for the same reason.

2. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory

The developers of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory were seemingly determined to see whether or not it was possible to translate the kind of absurd 2D-style difficulty the Ghosts and Goblins games were known for into a 3D environment. In the process, they created something that may be even more difficult than those legendarily challenging 2D classics.

Ghosts to Glory’s combat is as difficult as you’d expect it to be given this game’s pedigree, but this time around, you’ve got to also deal with a surprising amount of frustrating platforming sections that will have you falling down endless pits time and time again. This game may look “slower” than the original Ghost and Goblins adventures, but in its own way, it doesn’t let you breathe for a second.

1. Shinobi

I’ll stand by anyone who argues that Shinobi is one of the most creative, underrated, and overall best 3D action games ever made. Having said that, I can not in good conscience talk about this game without mentioning that it’s the kind of difficult that will make 90% of people rightfully give up on it after only a few hours (or even minutes).

What makes Shinobi so difficult? Let me count the ways:

A sword that slowly drains your life if you’re not killing enemies

Fairly common enemies that can block nearly all of your attacks

Platforming sections that demand nothing short of perfection

An infuriating lack of mid-level checkpoints

Boss battles that often combine the game’s hardest combat and platforming mechanics

A lock-on system that is necessary for success but often leads to your accidental death

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

People who live for hard games will often admit that Shinobi is sometimes too difficult for its own good, which is honestly kind of an achievement in and of itself.

The post 15 Hardest PlayStation 2 Games of All-Time appeared first on Den of Geek.

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spinji · 5 years ago

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50 Games in Quarantine (Part 1: Katamari and Rhythm)

So one of the things that I have decided to do during quarantine was to play one video game per day for 50 days. I had ended up purchasing quite a few games around the same time just before the lock down and I also came to have my childhood PlayStation 2 in my possession again which gave me quite a few games I wanted to revisit. I figured I would turn this into something productive and give my thoughts on all the games later. I’ve put the games through a randomizer every day for the last month and sorted them into groups of five and I’ll be writing these reviews with every group I finish.

Disclaimer

I am not a huge gamer or a game critic. I do enjoy video games but most of the consoles I own are past generations and most of the games I own are not part of gaming’s most well-known franchises. Also, I am rating these games largely on my own enjoyment so if a junky licensed game gets a high rating than a ten outta ten gaming icon, that is why.

Katamari Damacy (2004/2018)

While I did technically play the switch rerelease of the game, Katamari: Reroll, I did also own an original copy of the game and am quite familiar with it. Katamari was one of my gateway games as a child and it was nice to return to it. While I do think the original is serviceable as a relaxing and fun game, it feels a bit bare bones compared to the others in the series. I played this game AFTER Katamari Forever in my quarantine so at that point the amount of levels felt very minuscule and I beat the entire thing in one night. Still, it’s fun and the fresh coat of paint on the graphics for Reroll is very satisfying to see. My favorite levels were by far the constellation levels (Cancer especially) since they all revolve around collecting specific items instead of getting to a certain size. It’s very fairly priced and I do recommend it if you never experienced the series before. 7/10

We Love Katamari (2006)

Where is the rerelease Nintendo? Are going to announce a rerelease for this one too Nintendo? It’s the best game in the series, Nintendo. Nintendo???? Okay in all seriousness, this may be my favorite childhood game on the PlayStation and it has held up wonderfully. Because of how young I was, playing games was usually a collaborative effort with the adult who owned it. Because of that I have never 100% completed this game by myself. It’s a tough feat but I really want to because the bonus cousins’ level and rose quest is by far my favorite. The levels are a lot more unique in setting and concepts in this game, the cousins are all playable, and the over-world is a joy to just mess around in. And while on the surface there seems to be a similar amount of levels, there are multiple versions for most of the levels. You can get to the credits pretty fast but that is the tip of the iceberg for what is in this game. Get your hands on a copy and keep the pressure on Nintendo to revamp this game as well because it really does deserve it. 10/10

Katamari Forever (2009)

As much as this game is still fantastic, I don’t think it reaches past the second one’s quality, despite the upped graphics. A lot of the aspects I liked were more style choices and smaller details. The monochrome style of the King levels was nice. A few of the new cousins were cute but none of them really pass up my favorites. The new levels were interesting but not a lot of them stood out. I did have fun but there’s not a lot to talk about. If you like Katamari this will scratch any extra itches if you never caught wind of this game before now, but it just doesn’t raise the bar like the last one. The only thing I could really say if that it’s way easier to unlock endless modes this time! I never even knew there were endless modes for levels until I played this game and I have been playing these games for 14 years! I’ll likely be going back for secrets but it’s just not my first choice for Katamari content. 8/10

Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party!! (2019)

Since I hadn’t been a position to own a rhythm game with Vocaloid music in it until very recently my attention was drawn to this game while I was anxiously squirming around for the news of Project Diva’s next western release. I’m happy to say that this game is unique enough that I’m not going to stop playing it now that Mega Mix is out. A lot of it’s songs aren’t present in the Project Diva series and it also includes things outside of Vocaloid like original tracks that absolutely slap, Touhou music, including Bad Apple and Night of Nights, and even a few anime themes. The ad-lib mechanic and mission system has been very fun to go through to unlock the rest of the songs. The two player mode wasn’t good at all, especially compared to the arcade cabinets but it’s not that essential to the game, so whatever. Creating your own challenges was a nice way to kind of play your favorite levels back to back. There’s even an Undertale DLC which I would totally get if the e-shop page wasn’t just shaped like one big middle finger. This game is a solid $60 with additional DLC packs for $16 each. For comparison, Project Diva Mega Mix is $40 without the DLC, every song pack is $7, and if you know that you want the DLC you can pay $60 for the entire game right off the bat on the e-shop. Unless you are a huge rhythm game person, or you adore Vocaloid AND Touhou despite it now being 2020, the price is a bit too much for what you get. Also, epilepsy warning for this one because there are a LOT of flashing lights and colors. 7/10

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva Mega Mix (2020)

SPEAKING OF MEGA MIX! Or Mega 39s because Japan likes to be cute with titles that do not translate well internationally. This was my first Project Diva game outside of playing the arcade cabinet at conventions. It was great to finally experience it all for myself and I picked up the gameplay really easily despite it being more complicated than Groove Coaster. The Mix mode was interesting but my left joycon was a bit too clunky to play effectively. For whatever reason it always broke about halfway through The Snow White Princess is and I could never finish. I had heard people making a big stink about the graphics before the game released but I did enjoy them just fine. They’re on the same level as Project Diva X for me. Not hyper detailed and gorgeous like Future Tone but the simplicity keeps them slick and satisfying to watch. Considering that this game has to allow for handheld play and a lagging rhythm game would be the WORST, I am totally cool with that decision. I haven’t taken in the full track list but from what I’ve seen they kept all the gems from Future Tone, added a few fan favorites, and most of the cut songs were the more obscure ones with the older and jankier videos which I am totally fine with. The difficulty feels very fair. It’s easy to pass a level just fine but mastering a level and especially challenge segments takes practice but it’s not so picky for perfection that it isn’t accessible for people who aren’t rhythm veterans. I passed every level I played on normal regardless of its labeled difficulty but I have yet to earn a gold metal score. If you’re miraculously still into Vocaloid after this many years, I do recommend checking this one out. 9/10

#50 game quarantine #game reviews #long post #yall can block any of these tags if you don't want to hurt your fingers scrolling past these #katamari damacy #we love katamari #katamari forever #groove coaster #hatsune miku #project diva #mega mix #mega 39s #vocaloid #gaming

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illusivegore · 6 years ago

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Gore’s Games of 2018

I’m sure you all know the drill at this point. Everyone and their mother seems to post a list about all of their favorites from the year, so I’ll spare you the build up and just get into some of the games I enjoyed in 2018.

Games Crossed Off the Backlog

This year I’m going to kick things off with some of the great games I finally got around to playing from my backlog. A good amount of these games are ones that I mentioned last year as ones I wasn’t able get to. All of these games were great and a couple would have easily made my Game of the Year list under normal circumstances.

2018 Games I Missed Out On

Next up, I’m going to highlight the games from 2018 that ended up on my backlog or that I still haven’t purchased yet. These are all games that I’d love to play at some point, and this is the reason why you won’t see them on my main list.

Honorable Mentions

This final section (before I get to my actual picks) highlights some of the games I played and enjoyed but not enough to feel comfortable writing about them or including them on my GOTY list. I look forward to digging into all of these more in the coming months.

Celeste | Dead Cells | Into the Breach | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | Yoku’s Island Express

Top 5 Games of 2018

NBA 2K Playgrounds 2

I’m going to kick this off with a game that I can’t imagine will be anywhere near most people’s game of the year lists. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 continues to be a divisive game due to its microtransactions and player unlock system, but at its core, it really is a fun arcade-style basketball game.

The gameplay harkens back to the NBA JAM games and it’s over the top and kind of absurd at times. With every game played, you’ll be leveling up players and earning currency that will allow you to unlock new players. So while the game does offer microtransactions, they aren’t necessary if you’re okay with a bit of a grind. It’s not exactly ideal, but that kind of gameplay is right up my alley. I feel like I’m making progress each time I play and it ensures I will keep coming back for more. If you’re an NBA fan and know what you’re getting into, there is a lot of fun to be had here.

Magic: The Gathering Arena

Arena was actually first available to play in 2017, but only entered into its open beta phase in 2018, so for that reason, it makes my list. Hell, when it officially releases it will probably make a future GOTY list again.

I was very skeptical about Arena because it looked like Wizards of the Coast was just trying to ripoff Hearthstone‘s aesthetic (and they kind of are), but this is actually a good game and once I played my first match I was hooked. It’s a great place for both newcomers and veterans of Magic to play. Arena is much more user-friendly and intuitive than Magic Online while also offering a far more authentic Magic experience than previous Duels games have.

The game is free-to-play, and I know that term gets a bad wrap nowadays, but Arena does it right. You can buy booster packs with real money or you can earn gold (and even single cards or packs on occasion) naturally through playing. I was able to build one of the most competitive decks in the format in a few weeks time and that was just by playing a few matches each day. Even in the early stages you’ll quickly earn a number of “starter decks” which will supply you with a decent selection of cards. So you’ll never be short on new things to try while you work towards building your card collection.

Arena is fantastic, and if you’ve ever even been curious about Magic: the Gathering, you should give it a shot.

Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!

Over that past few years I’ve played a lot of Pokémon. Between revisiting Blue, Silver, SoulSilver, Pearl, White, White 2, X, Y, Alpha Sapphire, Omega Ruby and playing through the new releases of Sun, Moon, and Ultra Moon, as well as shiny hunting in a few of those games, I’ve spent nearly 1,000 hours with the series in the last three years. Needless to say, I was starting to feel a bit of Pokémon fatigue (which is why I still haven’t played Ultra Sun). If that wasn’t enough, I was also never a big fan of Pokémon Go!. So when the Pokémon: Let’s Go! games were announced I had zero interest and pushed them completely off of my radar. Then the games finally released and my love for Pokémon got the best of me. I started reading reviews, watching videos, and talking to friends about them. Eventually I looked past my skepticism and decided to give it a try and I’m so glad I did.

Pokémon Let’s Go! was a breath of fresh air for me. It was a laid back experience that I didn’t even know I needed. It’s far more streamlined than other games in the series as you can choose when to encounter wild Pokémon and you no longer need to battle in order to catch them (in most cases). This aspect was one of the biggest reasons I was skeptical of the game. While catching Pokémon is probably my favorite part, I do enjoy the battles as well. I was afraid I wouldn’t get the battle itch scratched, but that wasn’t the case at all. There are more than enough trainers to battle throughout, so it was almost the perfect blend of catching and battling for me.

I went with the Eevee version and oh boy, Eevee is a little badass. That little dude is completely overpowered in Let’s Go! and makes it a breeze if you choose to play that way. It’s definitely the easiest Pokémon game I’ve ever played, which is saying a lot because they’ve never been known for their difficulty, but that didn’t stop it from being the most enjoyable time I had playing a game in 2018.

Octopath Traveler

Another game that surprised me in 2018 was Octopath Traveler. I’ve never been the biggest fan of JRPGs, but I was immediately drawn in by Octopath Traveler‘s charming art. When I finally got my Nintendo Switch last year it was the first game I really dug into. As it turns out, by the end of my 80 hours with it, the characters and combat system became something I loved even more than the art style that initially caught my attention.

Octopath Traveler‘s combat is turned-based and revolves around a “break” system. Each enemy has certain weaknesses to specific weapon types or elemental attacks. If you hit them with one of those attacks enough times their defenses will break and they will be stunned the following turn, allowing you to deal increased damage. There is also a boost system that allows you to hit with multiple attacks each turn. Without delving too deep into the mechanics, I’ll just say all of this offers a ton of strategic options and makes combat a joy.

If the title wasn’t telling enough, Octopath Traveler‘s story focuses on eight different characters. Each character has their own set of chapters you can complete, a variety of traits and combat options, and a unique personality and story to tell. You don’t have to finish every character’s storyline, but I exhausted all story options because I found myself wanting to know more about each one of them. I’d even go so far as to say that there hasn’t been a collective group of characters I liked this much since the original Mass Effect trilogy.

I feel like Octopath Traveler got overlooked by a lot of people, so if you’re a fan JRPGs or just looking for a quality experience you should seek this one out.

God of War

Continuing with the trend of games that surprised me last year, next up is God of War. I’ve dabbled a bit in the God of War franchise, but the 2018 release was the first game in the series I’ve ever seen through to completion. It is nothing like its predecessors as it trades in the linear gameplay and shallow, over-the-top brutality for an engaging and robust world, as well as a far more rewarding combat system.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of God of War is that it made Kratos into a character with depth and one that I was able to invest in. It also introduced his son, Atreus, and their relationship was something I loved watching evolve over the course of the game. Kratos is still a no nonsense badass, but his humanity is allowed to shine through in his interactions with Atreus.

As I mentioned, the combat in God of War is so much more rewarding than it was in previous entries. While you might still be able to mindlessly hack-and-slash your way through on easier difficulties, if you truly want to master combat you’ll need to develop more in-depth strategies. Kratos wields the Leviathan axe this time around, which you can use for melee attacks or as a projectile. The most ingenious part is that you can recall the axe with the press of a button which not only adds to your strategic options, but also creates a very satisfying ebb and flow to combat. You’ll also have to incorporate blocking and parrying, as well as guiding Atreus to use his bow. Once I was able to start stringing together all of these moves and tactics, God of War‘s combat system quickly became one of my all-time favorites.

God of War also offers up tons of side content to keep you busy for hours. With the recent release of a New Game+ mode, I’m looking forward to running through it again. It was quite the experience and one I’m happy to call my favorite of 2018.

Most Anticipated Games

It’s always fun to look to the future, so I’m going to wrap things up with my most anticipated games. Some of these games have 2019 release dates and others I’m keeping my fingers crossed for.

#games #video games #best of

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swipestream · 6 years ago

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Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

This is part 4 of my review of the Pathfinder Playtest from Paizo. You can see part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. In this part of the review, I’ll finish up my comments in this series with Game Mastering through Appendices.

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

The section starts off with six bullet points to give overall guidance to the GM. I think the guidance misses the mark a bit, but it’s a good start. Unfortunately, the advice given out in that brief segment makes it appear as if the bulk of the work for the world, characters, events, and storytelling land firmly on the GM’s shoulders. This is, to some extent, true. However, I feel that this was a grand opportunity to let the GM know that they are not the driver in the storytelling effort, but a participant with the players in the storytelling. The advice given is solid, but the tone here sets the stage for making new GMs think they are in charge. Any veteran GM will certainly tell you that this is not the case once the players start rolling with their own ideas.

Starting a Session

The segment that covers how to start a session is fantastic! I hope to see this expanded a bit in the final book, but this is a wonderful set of advice. I even learned a few new tips and tricks in this area. Well done, Paizo!

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

This section is given in a brief sidebar. I have a problem with this because quite a few readers of RPGs will skim those areas thinking they are not important. This is a perception thing because if it were important, it would be in the main text, right? I think the six bullet points I mentioned above could be combined with this sidebar to create a new approach to collaborative gaming that excels at great fun and excellent storytelling. Merging these two concepts, I think, would lead to a more powerful statement.

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

The encounter section is too brief. This is the most technical part of the game, and this can lead to it being the hardest to adjudicate properly because of the number of rules, feats, spells, skills, powers, items, monsters, and characters involved. I know. I know. Many books (and articles!) have been dedicated to this very topic, and I don’t expect Paizo to replicate what’s already been covered. However, I think a deeper dive into encounters would be best.

The exploration and downtime modes are covered very well. These two sections are lengthy and solidly give the GM the right information to execute what is a new concept for Pathfinder. The guidance and tips found within these two sections will make running them go very smoothly for an experienced or fresh GM.

Now that I’ve read the entire “Modes of Play” section, I think I figured out what is bothering me with the encounter section beyond its brevity. The encounter section was written for experienced GMs. The exploration and downtime sections were written in a manner that targets new GMs. I feel that Paizo needs to take a fresh look at the encounter section and rewrite it (and expand it) as if they were attempting to teach a brand new GM (as in, brand new to RPGs, not just Pathfinder) how to run an encounter. If they revisit and expand the encounter section with this in mind, I feel it would be a much stronger contribution to the GM section of the book.

Difficulty Classes

I’m going to be brief here. These three pages are well thought out, clear, and give some great examples on how to come up with target numbers on the fly or apply adjustments where necessary. Paizo’s team did an excellent job on this section.

Rewards

I’ve been looking forward to hitting this section ever since I learned that each level requires an even 1,000 XP to obtain instead of an upward-climbing slope of more experience points for the next level than the current one.

Unfortunately for me, the “kill a monster” XP is listed in the supplemental bestiary, which I haven’t taken the time to flip through the PDF yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list of reading (but not reviewing). On the flip side, the XP awards for minor, moderate, and major accomplishments are laid out as 10, 30, and 80, respectively. Even though they call it “group XP” it’s not divided between all the characters. If the group accomplishes a moderate goal, then all the PCs involved gain 30 XP.

There’s a sidebar for “Story-Based Leveling” that is in this section that calls for the GM to decide if and when the characters level up. This puts a sour taste in my mouth. It’s a personal opinion here, but I really don’t like these approaches at all. The players should see the steady gain of XP for their characters (even if they don’t level yet), so there is a sense of accomplishment in that area. Having the GM suddenly decree, “You go up a level.” feels too much like the GM is controlling things. Of course, this could just be me and my experiences with GMs wanting to have too much control. Your mileage may vary in this area.

Environment

There are several pages dedicated to terrain, climate, and hazards. While the lists aren’t complete (I’m assuming they will be more comprehensive in the final, larger book), what is listed there and how the various environmental conditions impact the game are well stated. I like what I see as a set of building blocks toward more content.

The hazards section is very well done. A hazard is the generic term for traps, pits, dangers, and magical effects that can harm or impede the PCs. There are ways to find, trigger, disable, destroy, and/or dispel various hazards depending on their nature. The playtest book came with a sample of three hazards. I had kind of hoped for a few more, but I’m assuming they didn’t want the playtest book to bloat up too much. I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product (and the various expansion books and adventures) have along these lines.

Treasure

The loot! We’re finally at the gold and shiny and magic and wonderful stuff portion of the book. Yeah, I’m a little excited here because I’m interested in seeing how things change up in this section, if at all.

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

After this comes all sorts of tables outlining (almost proscribing) what treasure different level parties should (must?) receive for a fair and equitable game to be run. The fact that the treasure allotment is so heavily proscribed makes me extraordinarily sad.

No more random treasure.

Yeah. You read that right. There are no more dice rolls involved in generating treasure with Pathfinder. This breaks my heart, to be honest. As a GM, I always loved rolling up treasure because it would spark new ideas, thoughts, plot arcs, and cool stuff in my brain. Yeah, if I happened to roll up a majorly disruptive magic item for a low-level group, I’d probably shift things around a bit (or re-roll). However, randomly creating magic items for folks to find is gone. I’ll be over here in the corner shedding a tear for days gone by.

Okay. I’ve had my cry. I’m mostly better now. Looking at the new approach at handing out treasure is fair and balanced. It will assist new GMs from overloading their group with disruptive items while keeping the party well-equipped for future challenges. This is super helpful for new GMs, and I can appreciate this approach at handing out goods. I just wish they’d kept gems, jewelry, and/or artwork as a form of gaining wealth because those can, once again, inspire stories and side plots, not just a gain of wealth. Now, the party will just gain some gold from the hoard and move on.

If I ever run this version of Pathfinder, I’ll most likely break out my 2nd edition AD&D treasure generators (or the first Pathfinder versions) and run with those. They’re more fun than hand-picking treasure, to be honest.

After the list o’ treasure tables ends, the book delves into materials, which is one of the best write-ups of “non-normal” materials I’ve ever seen. Excellent job here. Obviously, the list isn’t complete, but I expect it to expand in the final version.

While flipping through the treasure section, I hit the sections for snares (crafting, detecting, triggering, etc.) and I was baffled here. I’m not sure why these were listed here under treasure, instead of above with the hazards. Did the wrong pages get dropped into the layout in the wrong place?

After snares, comes the alchemical items. This is a cool section. I highly encourage everyone to check this part out. There are oodles of examples, tons of ideas, and great information about how they play in the game. Loud applause for you here, Paizo.

Runes come next, and this is the part of enhancing weapons and armor with special powers. I love how weapons and armor must now be etched with cool-looking runes to become super special. This adds flavor to the world and storytelling options (as well as some neat intimidate/perception uses when someone wearing a well-etched suit of armor walks in the door) to the whole feel of the game.

Last come the details of the various magic items that don’t fall into “weapons and armor.” This comprises the bulk of the treasure section, and I’m not going to detail each item or neat thing. I do want to say that I really want to play an archer (preferably with the elven ancestry) with an Oathbow.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

The traits are all of the capitalized keywords (such as Strike) used within the book. The glossary is a good collection of phrases, terms, and things found within the book that may not be readily known to every player.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

This is a good foundational book for what promises to be a pretty cool system. There are some rough edges (as there are with any playtest document), but I figure Paizo is wise enough to listen to the feedback sent to them (and hopefully this series of articles) to improve the game.

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

The first is that I’m already heavily invested with knowledge, money, habits, and familiarity in the first version of Pathfinder. I have too much “edition inertia” going on to abandon Pathfinder 1.0 for Pathfinder 2.0. If the shift were more subtle between the two, I could see picking it up. However, everything will require major conversions to get from 1.0 to 2.0.

The second is that I’m extremely concerned with the lack of random treasure. Yeah. It’s that big of a deal. I feel it’s a departure too far from the “source material” that was created way back in the 1970s. I don’t like that one bit.

The third is that I don’t see anything drastically improving the game that much. There are tons of incremental improvements and quite a few major changes in the playtest document, but none of them really blew my socks off. There are some new concepts and ideas in here that I think I could shift back into a Pathfinder 1.0 game, but that now leaves me with Pathfinder 1.0 and some house rules (which I already have).

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I’d probably go with the playtest version, to be honest. It’s a better game, and my prejudices built up from playing RPGs for decades (and my Pathfinder edition inertia) would not be a factor in choosing which game to go with.

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Paizo put out a solid effort here. I’m impressed with the amount of thought, care, effort, and experience that went into developing this game. They’ve certainly evolved the game. There are some high points in the evolution and some low points as well. I think the high drastically outweighs the low.

I’m very much looking forward to the final version of the game. I’ll take a look at it then and reevaluate things at that time to determine if my stance on moving forward to the new version will change.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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kayawagner · 6 years ago

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Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4

If you’re interested in reading along with me during the review, you can pick up the free PDF of the playtest rulebook at Paizo’s site:

Game Mastering

Starting a Session

Adjudicating the Rules

This area gives great advice about not looking up specific rules and gives guidance on how to “wing it” when necessary. This is something every “core” rulebook for every RPG should have.

Sharing Responsibilities

Modes of Play

Just as a refresher, modes are split up into encounter, exploration, and downtime.

Difficulty Classes

Rewards

Environment

Treasure

This section opens up with the usual text explaining what they’re going to be talking about, teaching some keywords, and generally laying out the approach to treasure.

No more random treasure.

Appendices

This is probably going to be my shortest write-up of any of the sections in the book. The appendices simply are: traits and glossary.

Final Thoughts

I think the most telling part of “is this a promising product” would be to answer the question, “Would J.T. play this game?”

The answer is, “Yes.”

There is another question looming, however. That question is, “Would J.T. play this version instead of the original Pathfinder?”

The answer is, “No.”

There are a few reasons for this.

Final question is, “If J.T. were completely new to RPGs and presented with both versions, which one would he pick?”

I know. I know. I’m giving a mixed message here, but there are different angles to look at things.

Thanks to the Gnome Stew readers out there that stuck with me through these very long articles!

Pathfinder Playtest Review, Part 4 published first on https://supergalaxyrom.tumblr.com

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ftwrthtx · 6 years ago

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Developer Ivory Tower has unleashed the highly anticipated sequel to their 2014 release The Crew. Does The Crew 2 live up to the standards of its predecessor, or was the series a victim of the sophomore slump?

Read our review to find out

Ubisoft and Ivory Tower teamed up for The Crew and published it almost 4 years ago. The continued support with DLC and updates took an already great game ( we gave it an 8 upon release), and continued to make it better. New vehicles, and new vehicle classes, took the game to another level from launch and added a depth that we didn’t even realize was missing. Fast forward to now and The Crew 2 is fully released to the world, bringing with it even more vehicles and classes, adding even more depth to this fun racing title.Upon launching the game for the first time, you are introduced to the Extreme Racing series, and three of the racing classes that will be available to you. The opening sequence starts you out in a street car, racing at high speeds through a big city, then you’ll be tossed into a boat for some serious power boat racing, followed by some air time with some airplane racing, and then tossed back onto the street to finish out the course. No need to worry about how you finish because the introductory race is just for show and has no real bearing on the game. It is an awesome introductory experience, and should get you hyped about the fun that is to come.

So Many Racing Classes

Once you’ve finished the intro, you are given a choice of one four classes to begin with. You can head to LA for some Street racing, New York for some Pro Boat racing, the Midwest from some Off Road racing, or Salt Lake City from some Freestyle events. Whichever you choose, you’ll be given a vehicle to start out with and it can already hold its own with the beginner races. We went with the boat racing, because we wanted to try out something new with the series. Boat racing within the game isn’t just racing across flat water in an empty lake, it also includes open water racing in the ocean, where you’ll have to fight the waves of nature, as well as the waves from the boats in front of you, if you’re not leading of course.

As you finish races and meet the criteria of the event (usually that means finishing in the top 3), you’ll earn new parts for that class of vehicle. Quite often in games, these parts are locked to the specific vehicle or make that earned them, and you’ll have to grind out new parts for any future vehicle purchases within that class. Not so with The Crew 2. Unlock a new motorcore for your first boat, and you’ll also be able to install it into a future, possibly faster base boat. One of our favorite classes in the game is the drag racing class, and being able to swap out parts came in handy there. While we are huge Ford fans, and started out with an awesome drag class Mustang, we found out that the Chevy Corvette, and it pains us to say this, was the better drag racing car. Being able to swap out all of the previously earned parts took the Vette to a level above what the Mustang was, even though the Performance Level was the same.

Performance Level and You

Every vehicle in the game has a current performance level, and a max available performance level. Earning new parts will slowly raise the performance level for that vehicle. Each events has a recommended performance level, and each event can also have its difficulty raised, which in turn raises the recommend performance level of your vehicle. The difference between a normal difficulty event and a hard difficulty event is pretty big, and we advise you to take heed of that recommended number. It’s not some random number but is a solid recommendation of what you need to compete. If it says you need a level 380 vehicle, trust us when we say you better have something pretty darn close to that, or higher, if you want to complete the challenge.

As you finish races and tasks around the country, you’ll be earning followers. The number of followers you have determines your current status. You’ll start out as a Rookie, slowly working your way up to Famous, then on to Star, and finally to Icon. Once you hit Icon status, leveling up adds a number to your icon name and also earns you icon points, which in turn are used to unlock extra perks found within the Pilot Profile menu. This isn’t something that was pointed out very well within the game, but once we found it, was easy to use and the extra perks do come in handy. Leveling up your Icon status can also earn you new vehicles, so climbing up the Icon ladder should keep you busy for some time to come.

How’s the actual racing?

The game has a lot of bells and whistles, with tons of eye candy and awesome graphics, but the bottom line with any racing game has to be how the game actually plays when it comes to driving and racing. There are generally two different types of racing game: the arcade racer and the simulation racer. The Crew 2 is clearly an arcade racer, with unrealistic drifting, cornering abilities, and super high speeds. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just an arcade thing. If you want realism, play some Assetta Corsa or Project Cars 2, but when it comes to pure fun and adrenaline with no need for serious driving skills, a good arcade racer like The Crew 2 can’t be beat.

Full Size Monster Trucks in a Half Pipe.

The game does have its flaws, and Street Racing highlights one of them, as it can be a frustrating experience. There’s a term called rubberbanding that comes into play and what that means is, no matter how well you do, the AI will stay right there with you, or be able to catch up even if you build a huge lead. Case in point is the Papa John Race, where you are in the Papa John Camaro and the AI is in several other older cars. It’s a race of decent length, and we had as much as a full 7 second lead at one point, but then out of nowhere, near the finish line, the AI closed that gap in a flash and we were having to fight them off. The AI had to have skipped several checkpoints in order to close that gap. We only saw this in the Street Races, so at least it wasn’t in the other classes as well.

Meant to be Played with Friends

The Crew 2 is a lot of fun to play solo, but it is even more fun to play with friends. Ubisoft knew this and was nice enough to send us four review codes so we could all play together online. Flying or driving in formation will net you bonus followers, as will doing events together. When racing in a crew and competing in events, it doesn’t really matter if you do well as long as someone in your crew meets the challenge of that event. This can allow a crew to be made up of folks that enjoy different classes and excel in those classes, while maybe not doing so well in others. Team up with someone that’s good at street races, while you are better at air racing, and you’ll both benefit when playing these events.

Some of these events can be time consuming, and the Hyper Car races can be extremely long. While the world record times may say 35 minutes, you may end up spending 45 minutes or more, so be prepared and be sure to set aside enough time to complete them. Hyper cars won’t become available until you reach Icon status, but once they do, they are long races. Every event also becomes available once you reach Icon status, so climbing up the Icon ranks will happen faster than you may think.

So Much to See and Do

The game starts out with only four items on the map of America, but as you climb the popularity board, the map fills up nicely. Areas like Miami, New York, and LA are jam packed with events for you once you hit Icon status.

The Beginning

Icon Status Unlocked

For completionists out there that are always looking for extra stuff to do, there are speed traps to be found and photo opportunities to be had. Speed traps can be found using the menu, but the photos will require you to drive around and find them. Some photos will also require you be in a crew, as we came across one that required a Ferrari to be jumped over by a monster truck. Photo mode is easy to use and all of the photos you take are saved as if you used the share button. This was smart thinking by the developer as it makes sharing these photos a breeze. You can see some of them in the photo gallery below this review.

Developer Ivory Tower took the successes of the original game and built a solid sophomore title with The Crew 2. This is arcade racing at its finest. Now go and get you AND your friend a copy.

The Crew 2: Gold Edition review codes provided by publisher and reviewed on a PS4 Pro. For more information on scoring, please read: What our review scores really mean.

The beginning

The Crew 2 Review - Top Notch Racing with Friends Developer Ivory Tower has unleashed the highly anticipated sequel to their 2014 release The Crew. Does…

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thelongestdamnreviews · 7 years ago

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Another Metroid II Remake

This review covers v1.2.10, and I didn't know 1.3.1 was already out by the time I finished. I used an Xbox 360 controller and according to the final stats screen, it took me 4h47m44s to finish the game, with 84% item completion. I got locked out of the extra features because I suck, but more on those later.

I own the original Metroid II and I only beat it once many years ago, with a clear time of 10h07m. I don't really remember much about it, other than I got lost about constantly. No, I didn't make maps. It was okay but I didn't really get into it. I haven't gone back because I'm honestly spoiled by things like the automap. I haven't beaten the original Metroid because of that, actually. But yeah, my poor memory of the original will lead to poor comparisons, so forgive me for that ahead of time.

Another Metroid 2 Remake looks to try to give this game the Zero Mission treatment. A bigger view area, actual colors, better spritework, more items, new items that weren't in the original Metroid 2, new bosses... It sucks that this was DCMA'd by Nintendo, though who would've thought they were remaking this game too after the poor reception of Other M and Federation Force?

The story's still the same as in original Metroid II. The Galactic Federation, realizing the threat that the Metroids serve to the galaxy's peace, orders Samus Aran to go exterminate them on their homeworld of SR388. You land and leave your ship and prepare to start kicking ass all over the planet. Things are a little bit different now and that extends to more than just the graphics.

Parts of the original game were changed around to account for new content such as Power Bombs and the Speed Booster. You still have the hidden tank upgrades that require different powerups to access, but that's typical Metroid for you. You get items in a different order and because beams actually stack in this game, you don't need to remember where the Ice Beam was before you tackle the final area. You actually get the Ice Beam near the end of the game, but you get Space Jump relatively early so you're still free to explore without your floating platforms. I might not've been paying attention in other games, but this was the first time I noticed that destructible blocks could actually regenerate themselves after a moment. Not all of them do that but it's one of those things that got me to do a double-take.

Pretty neat puzzle involving you steering an Autoad to drop Super Missiles onto platforms to make a path for Samus.

Fighting Metroids in this game is between annoying and dangerous. I remember in the original M2, you just plugged them with missiles as fast as you could when they appeared. That still largely applies here but this time you need to hit them in their soft undersides or your missiles will just bounce off. All of the Metroids have new attacks, like the Alphas having a charge attack or a quick move to avoid your shots, and the Zeta and Omega Metroids no longer fly and they're a lot bigger too. You still have the warning signs of the discarded shells before you encounter one, though be prepared for a sudden SKREE and fight. The short cutscenes introducing the next evolutionary step were a nice bonus too.

There are new bosses as well, some of which come from come from other Metroid games. You encounter Serris for example near the end of the game, serving as a nice bonus callback to Fusion since Serris is from SR388 too. Some of the new bosses are mechanical in nature, owing to the Chozo being a technologically-advanced race, so expect to get shot at with beams and missiles at some points. There's a Logbook feature somewhat like the Prime series that automatically scans new environments and bosses, and that can give you hints about what you're fighting.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” “I didn’t take nuffin’, honest!”

I don't remember the music in Metroid II at all, apart from the main cave theme, the final area theme, and the repetitive Metroid fight theme. Everything else was ambient. The music in AM2R takes some cues from the Prime series with the instrumentation, but nothing about it was bad. The composers deserve credit for making the Metroid fight themes actually high-tempo without sounding like a fast copy of the intro to the Jaws theme. The sound effects worked fine and there's no voice work except for the very end of the game for a well-known pair of lines.

Controls were fine and there were several options, such as having the Spider Ball be a hold button or toggle, if aiming was Super Metroid styled with L and R aiming down and up, or like Zero Mission where you stayed diagonal and pressed up or down to switch, and so on. I think I used the dedicated Morph Ball button more than the usual way of doing it too. Speed Booster works like in Fusion/ZM with just running until it activates instead of there being a run button like in Super. There's an option to use the analog stick to have Samus walk, but I never used this and I don't think there's any place it actually is useful, but it's nice to see a rarely-used animation.

Guess who’s coming to dinner.

I thought the graphics work was great. They went for sprites and 2D as opposed to Metroid Samus Returns' 3D on a 2D plane, so it has more in line with the GBA games. The way sprites are rotated in Gamemaker Studio was kinda off but you don't really see it too much (for example, Samus' gunship coming in to land at an angle before leveling off is where it was most obvious for me). I kinda wish I had a comparison spritesheet but everything in general is just more detailed. Having an actual background that isn't stark black is a big improvement in any case. A nice touch was how a couple of areas had entirely different door designs even though they worked the same as normal.

Speaking of doors...

Difficulty felt about right for Normal, but I hear Hard Mode lives up to its name. Enemies do a lot more damage and they have some new tactics, but I'm not brave enough to dive into that. I died to a couple of bosses on Normal just by virtue of taking too much damage without being able to respond in turn. Omega Metroids had their damage output nerfed in 1.1 but I think the recent fanmade updates put their numbers back where they were, so prepare to lose a few Energy Tanks to each one you fight. A few bosses at least give you things to shoot to spawn recovery items, so that's some relief.

Every single one of those dots ignores mercy invincibility. Every single one of those dots can activate the other bombs. This is how Metroid can become a bullet hell.

If you clear the game in under four hours, you unlock New Game+ and Random Game+. Both set the lava level down low so you're given a lot more freedom to explore and get items in a different order than the linear nature of the game originally allowed, but Random Game+ completely changes the order of items so you might end up getting the Screw Attack very early or Power Bombs instead of regular Bombs, for example. New Game+ doesn't start you with any previous equipment you had so it's a little bit of a misnomer, but you can always use a save editor to give you some extras before you head out.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, short as it was. It's a hell of a lot better than the original Metroid II, not like that's particularly hard to pull off. I dunno if I want to go back through the game to finish in under four to unlock the extra features, but at least that's something that'll get me to come back, as will future updates. Part of the DMCA clause said that the original creator of this fangame couldn't work on any more updates, so fans have reverse-engineered what they can and are continuing to bugfix and add small content to the game, like giving the Queen Metroid a new attack and there's plans for a post-credits stinger revealing the X Parasites coming out of dormancy now their predator is long gone...

Record of Samus

#pc #fangame #recommended

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

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Nearly all games need some amount of artificial intelligence — most commonly to give the player non-human opponents. But conversations about good AI in games are still dominated by Façade, Black & White, The Sims, Versu, and F.E.A.R. — all of which came out years ago.

Those games are hardly the only examples we can draw from in envisioning artificial intelligence systems. We reached out to several developers for their input on more recent games making innovative and instructive uses of AI.

The following list of games are all notable for the interesting, clever, and/or novel ways in which they use AI, and all are well worth a closer look if you're eager to let a little algorithmic thinking improve your game design. The underlying ideas they explore point toward the exciting and diverse future artificial intelligence could have.

(For more along these lines, be sure to check out Gamasutra's lists on instructive uses of procedural generation and crafting systems.)

The Division's enemy AI has had a mixed reception — at one moment they'll stand out in the open, completely unprotected, then the next they'll sneak around the back and give you a surprise bonk on the head. Its attempts to step up from the highs set by F.E.A.R. a decade ago are well worth closer examination, but the real star of The Division's AI routines is its path finding for changing cover.

Like in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, players can scan for cover, but here they can also hold down the cover button and their character will automatically run to the new spot. Essentially, this means that movement between covers is automated so that the player can concentrate on tactics. And since the path is shown on-screen ahead of time (it's drawn in a thin white line), the player can see exactly how they'll get there — which further helps in sorting out tactics because they can guess how long it'll take to make the automated dash.

TAKEAWAY: AI can drive mechanics that help the player get around faster and more effectively, which leaves them with extra mental bandwidth to process the important stuff, like who to shoot and how.

Since its inception in 2005, the Forza series has favored a learning neural network to traditional AI design for controlling non-human drivers. This Drivatar system watches you play and imitates your driving style �� kind of like an amalgam of dozens of time trial ghosts.

In the most recent iterations the Drivatar system is hooked in to Microsoft's cloud services, where it can pull in AI racers based on other human players as well as crunch greater amounts of data from each player. Now your AI opponents mimic other players from around the globe — their silly mistakes, quirks, strengths, and weaknesses — which makes for a more unpredictable experience.

The good side of this is that AI drivers learn to do all sorts of complex maneuvers and each exhibit a distinct racing style, which makes them seem more human. Unfortunately it also means that even with the difficulty maxed out, racing sim purists have a tougher time finding non-human opponents to practice against — because few drivatars actually drive anything like a professional race car driver.

TAKEAWAY: Learning AI that mimics real people can make enemies and opponents seem more human, but you still need to keep in mind that most people who aren't professionals in the game's closest real-life equivalent will behave nothing at all like the real professionals.

First-person shooters normally showcase enemy AI that's just smart enough to challenge the player as they go around shooting everything that moves. The player is a predator, and the hordes of lookalike bad guys scurrying around the screen are the prey. But Alien: Isolation's Xenomorph reverses that convention. The free-roaming alien is the one in a position of strength, and the player — stripped of her power — gets to feel what it's like to be hunted. You carry a gun, but to use it is to draw the all-powerful, unkillable Xenomorph to you. (A flamethrower eventually complicates the situation and gives the player some power back, but even then the alien remains the hunter.)

The alien may just be following the behavior trees and routines coded into its digital being (which becomes all-too obvious if you try to outsmart the Xenomorph or otherwise test its limits), but it's hard to predict where and when it might appear nearby. That unpredictability combines with the alien's sensing capabilities — it has keen hearing — and some sort of director system that drives the alien to always be somewhere in the player's general vicinity. The result is a tense, terrifying experience that pushes players to hide in lockers for minutes at a time and to constantly look around for the hunter lurking in the corridors and vents.

TAKEAWAY: An enemy AI designed to relentlessly hunt the player as they roam about the game world can offer an unpredictable and tension-building element to the level design.

The Ice-Bound Concordance may seem at first glance to be an elaborate choose-your-own-adventure game, but its story of KRIS, an AI simulacrum of an author, is not built of branching paths. Rather, the player and AI combine pre-written (barring some variables) fragments of story text to piece together a novel. This is done through interactions both in the game — dialogue trees, player interventions in KRIS's creative process, symbol and event choices for the plot — and outside of it, through the pages the player shows KRIS from an actual, physical companion book that the AI's not supposed to see. The developers call their AI-heavy take on CYOA a combinatorial narrative system.

Where many older attempts to put algorithms in charge of a game's story — such as Façade and Versu — have focused on social interactions, Ice-Bound looks inward to tell a more literary tale — or rather many tales. It can handle tens of thousands or more permutations of a literary framework that consists of many narrative fragments and a complex set of rules for how these might be activated and deactivated. The AI and player (and the designers who crafted the narrative fragments) thereby become collaborators in the storytelling process, with the AI's goal being to ensure the player gets a dramatically-satisfying story.

TAKEAWAY: You can use AI to tell a dramatically-satisfying story — even if it's literary in nature — that's dynamically shaped by and molded to player choices in a more organic way than traditional branching paths.

Tower defense (and offense) game City Conquest is unusual in that its biggest use of artificial intelligence came in the design process itself. Here AI became a tool not for expanding or refining the player's moment-to-moment experience but for evolving the actual design — to improve game balance and to (hopefully) engineer a more enjoyable overall experience by measuring how well the design at each iteration met its goals.

The AI wasn't handling the design modifications, mind you. Designer Paul Tozour wrote a genetic algorithm that acted as a kind of automated, virtual playtesting team that could evolve into expert players and in the process identify dominant strategies and minor elements that needed tuning. By looking at how both these machine players and human players approached the game, Tozour found flaws big and small and gained lots of data to help him tune the game's parameters.

TAKEAWAY: AI can help you make your game better before it's even out by playtesting to find dominant strategies.

Jonathan Blow wanted walking in The Witness to be as smooth and unobtrusive an experience as possible. If players got caught on edges or tapped in walls, or if they could traverse terrain in one direction but not the other, it would pull them out of the world. It'd break the immersion, and immersion was paramount to the game's vision. To ensure this didn't happen, he asked programmer Casey Muratori to improve the player movement code. Muratori responded by writing an algorithm that tests for collisions.

His algorithm hopped in to replace the player and explored the entire island. As it walked it created nodes and displayed lines atop the ground that connected these. White lines meant walkable, red not walkable. (It could explore areas close to boundaries at higher density, too.) If the state changed — say, a door opened — it could go back and pick up from that point and continue to the area beyond. And from seeing the results the dev team could find problems with the movement code or with level geometry that needed refinement.

TAKEAWAY: AI can do the grunt work for you in finding all the nasty problems that could frustrate players simply trying to explore your game's world.

Several years on, the AI Director used in the two Left 4 Dead games remains a fascinating system for controlling the flow of a cooperative multiplayer game. The Director handles typical AI tasks such as enemy movement and human player proxies in a satisfying, believable manner. But what really makes it interesting is the higher-level impact it has on every session.

The Director's main job is to manage the pacing. It builds up the intensity to a peak, then eases off, then builds up again, and repeats this throughout the session as players edge closer to the exit. It does this by modeling stress levels in players (affected by things like close versus long-range combat, ammo and health levels, zombies in proximity), then adjusting how the zombies attack — where they come from, how many of them attack, which types attack, and who they focus their attack on.

AI Directors have since been used to great effect in many other games, such as the post-Left 4 Dead Far Cry games, Evolve, and Rocksmith 2014 — which used its director to handle musical accompaniment to your live guitar play in the game's session mode. But Left 4 Dead remains the best example to study.

TAKEAWAY: Every player is different, and by having an that AI alters the flow and intensity of gameplay to fit their moment-to-moment needs you can ensure that everybody gets a satisfying, challenging experience.

As these examples show, artificial intelligence can be used in games in myriad ways. It could be a testing tool to make your code or design more robust and to make the final game more fun, or it could make non-player characters seem smart even as they continue to be dumb — just by exhibiting some rudimentary learning strategies or adaptability.

AI can be the unseen hand directing the whole show or the bullet sponges and companion characters right there with the player. AI can guide players or mislead them, help them or hinder them. It can make the bad guys act like they're genuinely cooperating to kill or maim the player, or it can turn a single enemy into a terrifying hunter. AI can mimic, imitate, learn, forget, teach, and collaborate.

It's just algorithms, so it'll do whatever you want it to. You only need to think of creative ways to leverage its powers to entice, bewilder, muddle, aid, hinder, process, and share. Don't think so much about AI in terms of enemies that are just barely smart enough to slow the player down. Rather, imagine how it could elevate the experience in some small or big way.

Thanks to Jonathan Tremblay, David Churchill, and Anne Sullivan for their help with putting this article together, and to Tommy Thompson for his AI and Games YouTube channel — which provided further guidance.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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symbianosgames · 8 years ago

Link

(For more along these lines, be sure to check out Gamasutra's lists on instructive uses of procedural generation and crafting systems.)

TAKEAWAY: AI can drive mechanics that help the player get around faster and more effectively, which leaves them with extra mental bandwidth to process the important stuff, like who to shoot and how.

Since its inception in 2005, the Forza series has favored a learning neural network to traditional AI design for controlling non-human drivers. This Drivatar system watches you play and imitates your driving style — kind of like an amalgam of dozens of time trial ghosts.

TAKEAWAY: An enemy AI designed to relentlessly hunt the player as they roam about the game world can offer an unpredictable and tension-building element to the level design.

TAKEAWAY: AI can help you make your game better before it's even out by playtesting to find dominant strategies.

TAKEAWAY: AI can do the grunt work for you in finding all the nasty problems that could frustrate players simply trying to explore your game's world.

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes