#im having fun but also making NO progress whatsoever with the main story

[maareyas]

hhhrrrhhrhrg. octopath traveler 2

[02kt]

so heres the breakdown after a week and some change... i now have 12 characters; 9 excluding freebies, and almost all of them are ascended

kokomi: i dont really use water characters unless im in the abyss trying to freeze enemies. shes cute but kind of slow and i already hate catalyst users by default but shes alright. also i wanted her from the event but reflecting i shouldve wished for xingqiu because hes a sword style. anyways, goldfish girl

sayu: i got her the other day... another anemo/wind character, which im fine with. shes fun enough to play with and i like her personality. her attacks are fast and i like her special move too. didnt expect to like her but i do.

rosaria: my would-be main if jean wasn't so all around fucking great. she is my everything!!!! i love her attack style, weapon, elemental bursts, characterization, storyline... i could go on for fucking hours, pls stop me. i will commit sins for this woman. this pixel woman. so blessed to have rolled her

jean: oh look my main. my first main at that! also my first five star i rolled with no effort whatsoever. what do i have to say, acting grand master just fucks ok? shes my go-to for climbing, running, and fanning out my elemental attacks. shes extremely fun and a staple character imo!

sucrose: i hate you. i hate you so fucking much. being a catalyst was enough but this bitch is so fucking useless... ive actually watched genshin players before say that shes a venti equivalent or better than him... i have no fucking comment. she does nothing, she dies everytime i pull her out, maybe i just dont know how to play with catalyst characters but she just sucks all of the fun out of fighting enemies for me. i hate you, please delete yourself <3

noelle: i would have created a similar rant for noelle before having played with her some more today. shes extremely helpful in the liyue region at least. everything geo, i go to this girl for. i feel guilty when i dont use her there since she breaks everything so easily and fights decently. i have a big four and it shows. anyways shes been very helpful so i wont say anything too bad about her. she is a little slow though whereas i enjoy more fast paced attacks and overall speedy characters

beidou: ah, my eyepatched queen. at first i didnt like her playstyle when i tried her out for the event but she grew to be a favorite go to. i have rolled 3 beidous by now in my career. highly unrecommended but at least i get to make progress on her constellation. (no xingqiu, i cry) nevertheless, i totally enjoy eletro characters so i feel very blessed to have her on board and paired with my beautiful one and only rosaria

xiangling: i have a very soft spot for her character wise. her story was entirely endearing and i think of her everytime i go to liyue to buy from her father. i was extremely excited to get my hands on a new pyro character as amber with her bow can be pretty limited as fighting goes. her attacks are swift and beautiful. i also enjoy goubas addition to the team. throughly a nice character, part of my big 4

barbara: youre entitled to love barbara if you love jean/rosaria. which i do love both entirely. so, yes. i REALLLYYYYY love her despite her catalyst weapon. her healing abilities make up for a majority of my hatred for catalyst characters. also i just believe that her hydro quality is very helpful when necessary. i would easily put her above kokomi.

lisa: love/hate relationship. i love her in the story with jean and her librarian whimsy but character-playability wise... i dont use her very often no, but when i do shes pretty fun. still i have my grief with catalystic characters. she dies too quickly but ive recently learned how to combine elements (i dont read the fucking instructions im sorry) anyways shes fine i guess but i can quickly say i hate her instead

kaeya: oh my pretty boy. pretty icy boy. if you knew how many times i have killed him during commissions, quest missions, the abyss... you would never let me main him ever again. i DO keep him out of my 4 BECAUSE of this. unless hes paired with rosaria, im fucking hopeless playing with him in hopes of doing cryo damage. its not like i dont like him!!! I FUCJING LOVE KAYEA ANSHHSJDJFJFJ ... but um yea i dont exactly know how to play with him so hes just my baby boy i keep stored away

amber: you are the one to hate! but i do not entirely hate you. i love your characterization, your design, BOBA????? pls, ok im sorry i dont hate her. shes my girl. i get excited everytime she pops up in the story. her bow attacks suck but at least shes useful for killing animals. i kill lots of birds with her. fowls are hard to come by ok??? anyways i love her even if i dont totally use her in battles

also the last character i got was sayu/xiangling 3 days ago so thats fun... (im stuck and i cant get another character, girl help)

[superemeralds]

sonic forces review

EDIT: added day after thoughts under read more

Hey nyall! Time to review forces!

First, a broad, spoiler free, review. Under the cut will be a more in depth review containing spoilers for both, the main game AND episode shadow.

Please note that this is from the perspective of someone with adhd. I can’t tell how some of the things that peeved me would affect neurotypicals.

General info:

There is an easy and a hard mode. (hard mode is just normal mode “for ppl who played sonic before”) It took me 7 hours and 44 minutes to complete the entire game including episode shadow. Granted, I took quite a few breaks for breathers and shitpostingly liveblogging me playing the game on a discord server + I think I’m just bad at the game.

There are over 30 levels to play, of which a few did repeat and you just play with a different character, but it was still fun!

The hub map got increasingly confusing and hard to navigate and i really hate it now that i completed it because there’s too much happening at once on the screen.

Game play:

There was a Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic and Custom Character type game play.

I personally do not enjoy Classic Sonic game play but it was very well playable once I remembered I could use the arrow key pad instead of the left joystick.

Modern Sonic was often too fast in platforming sections and the absence of drift made sharp curves in 3D areas hard to handle, mainly when you activated boost (as the game intends you to). But it was very fun and refreshing to be able to boost again.

The Custom Character could use different wispons to do progress in the game. This is probably what has the most replay factor, as you can go back to levels using different wispons to clear new paths that you were previously unable to go through. The wispon use can be kinda sloppy at times, but once you get used to it it can be very fun.

The tag team game play was sloppy. It was never clear which character you are playing as right now (until later I realized you are playing both at the very same time ? I think? i am still confused).

Visuals:

The lighting in the cutscenes and levels often comes short and can even ruin the atmosphere at times. A lack of detail in some scenes undermines this. 

The characters are not as expressive as they could be, but there are some iconic expressions to spot throughout the game.

Sometimes camera angles shift weirdly or zoom out too much (some times the character even blends in with the stage and you don’t see it at all anymore when you are in movement) and you lose track of your character and most probably fall off the stage or get hurt. Sometimes there is also a little too much going on in the background.

On the contrary, the game had also tried to pull quite a few visually stunning shots and lighting in both levels and cutscenes.

It is overall still better than previous games because it has more heart and life in it and I hold it dear.

Overall feelings about the game:

The game had mostly been very fun! There was a lot of variety between stages and the wispons gave the gameplay a very fresh kick.

Some stages were frustrating because the character was too fast/very hardly visible for the platforming and I ended up dying a lot in the same spot. 

Not to say too much about the story, but Classic Sonic was pure fanservice and was not important to the plot whatsoever and the game would’ve done very well without him.

Character development was pretty absent.

The pacing of the game in general was very sloppy and almost even uncomfortably fast (rushed) and bland.

Most of the levels were very short to a point where you’d expect there to be multiple acts of it because you refuse to accept that this was already the end of it.

The story had some strong points, though, and the music was absolutely phenomenal, like always, BUT the music was not as recognizable as it was in previous games. I played the final boss only a very few hours ago and i cannot remember the tune to it at all.

The game had a lot of potential but it was executed rather sloppily than exceptionally.

All in all this game gets a 7/10 for effort from me.

because im very generous and i still had fun and was hyped and enjoyed it despite all the annoying parts. I mean i am also 06fucker69

Longer and more in depth review including spoilers under the cut

!!!! WARNING SPOILERS START HERE !!!!

I will try to stay in chronological order, but that is the first thing that is kinda peeving me in this game. 

(warning i quickly grew tired and couldn't write anymore but i forced myself to finish)

The time skips and flashbacks are inconsistent and have a harsh transition. For example the 6 months between Sonic’s defeat and the recruitment of the Rookie is just white text on a black screen that isn’t even narrated. Sometimes the time between perspectives is very disorted and you forget about Classic and Tails while you are busy with another mission that is forced upon you thanks to the linear 1 perspective story.

I would’ve had a 3 perspective story, with 3 story modes. Each story mode would explore the same story from the different perspectives like in SADX, SA2, heroes and Sonic the hedgehog 2006. (mostly 06 though)

The stages were perfectly arranged and build to be incorporated into a 3 perspective story. Classic might have had more time for character development and relevance. Also more, mostly consistent, time with him would make us more attached and feel actual emotions about his parting in the very end.

The idea of having Mania connect with forces like that and have a “reason” for Classic to appear is good, but Classic just arrives and is there. For not reason at all besides the sake of being there in order to please 2d/classic enthusiast fans. Great concept in theory, sloppily executed though.

Modern Sonic

The game play was very sloppy as Sonic just could fall off the stage and you just had a very huge lack of control of his speed. Mostly when you were in boost in a place that intended you to boost. The absence of drift was very unnerving.

The thing about Sonic being imprisonment was just. so..... unrealistically done. Sonic just came out of the cage and he’s been doing just fine. But he’s gotta be down, because couldn’t run. He absolutely hates being stuck in a place and it’s been SIX FUCKING MONTHS. The bars are also so far apart he can just slip out. Also Sonic can easily break out of prison.

This was not the first time he was imprisoned. In SA2 he had a far greater emotional response, and he broke out the moment he knew what he had to do to make things right. (He volunteered to be imprisoned in SA2, in forces he was forced in prison.)

This is not just out of character for him, but also very lazy writing. The time skip between was badly done, in a black screen with text. No context as to why Silver is suddenly here (if you didn’t read the comic you have no idea whats going on) or how the resistance formed.

Everyone thinks Sonic died, Knuckles is very upset and admits he cant get used to him being gone; and suddenly he gets the news that Sonic is fine and it doesn't trigger any emotional response in him. Or anyone really much besides Amy; who had refused to believe he died in the first place.

He just immediately goes on a mission and fights Infinite.

Tag Team

It was a very good idea to incorporate this mechanic and was mainly well done and fun; the double and triple boost was a nice lil kick off to regular gameplay.

As mentioned was it never clear who you are playing right now and it didn’t warn you about swiches. It could’ve been done better with the heroes mechanics of swicharound. There were more than enough characters to have multiple teams that could be playable.

Avatar

The custimization options aren’t spectacular, but that was not to be expected. I was positively surprised to have the option to chose between 3 voices. 

Villains

Chaos is. Just there. He wasn't even a boss. He was just there for the shock value/fan service.

The Metal Sonic fight was okay.

Zavok was annoying but okay and reasonable.

Shadow wasn’t even a bossfight he was also just shock-factor. He joined the team but was of very little value. (Except for DLC, will talk abt later.)

Infinite has 4 boss fights. And in the end he just vanishes. He’s basically still existent? I think? what happened? Are we just going to accept this?

The final boss was lame and not memorable at all. At least nega wisp phase 2 was iconic.

Infinite

Infinite is a very interesting character with much potential, which they sadly didn't really use much at all except for him being extra. He didn't show off much of his personality and we couldn't learn to appreciate/hate him. 

The game doesn't mention much about his origin, so you will have to read the online comic in the social medias to understand. This might be good marketing to get consumers to consume media on different platforms, but it does not make much sense for newcomers who know nothing about Sonic and don’t follow the social medias to begin with.

Someone who just picked up the game and it’s their first Sonic game.... They won't understand shit.

I want to see more of him. He got so much potential to grow and ultimately redeem himself. Maybe in a future game? Or in the comics at least.

Episode Shadow

The 3 levels were well. One time it was a sonic level but with shadow and some lil things changed. The other was a custom character level but with shadow. The other was just generic 2d platforming with cubes. None of these were long or new. It was fun, sure, but it wasn't exciting.

I was kinda peeved that even though infinite was revealed, we still didnt get to see his face.

Visuals

Lighting harsh, sometimes interesting, but not completely fleshed out/good/atmospheric. 

There are scenes/levels that have stunning visuals (the sonic level in space and the scene with the sun.) even when its not perfect.

Just. The characters sometimes float above the ground and the lighting is very white and harsh and not atmospheric. (The colors are meessed up and too bright. The characters look like they have a completely different light source from the environment)

EDIT: A DAY AFTER ADDITIONS

okay so a day after, replaying some stages, I still think the game is very fun.

There are quite a few things that are peeving me still. I just remembered the whole null space thing, which is totally wasted potential. You could’ve had a few levels in that space with fucky gravity and weird cube shit going, but you just had to double boost out and that was it.

Many tricks the villain packs out are treated as something they can oercome easily and they just. Win “because they always do”.

I want to see the heroes doubt themselves and have character development. The only character that does have character development at all is the custom character. Infinite arguably does undergo some development too; in episode shadow.

There is a lot of potentials for DLCs and I hope they release them and have more characters playable.

[artsjournalblog-blog]

The Turing Test Review

We all awaken in a futuristic room with a talking robot looking down at us. He (or it) promotes us to pick up our EMT, a science fiction gun which often we quickly realise can pick up huge square bins and has a couple of modes regarding firing. Just about all is not even as we later learn as it appears. The whole thing feels strangely familiar. For those of you who else know Website, you can be excused for pondering Im reviewing the wrong online game, and that this is actually about Valves third instalment of the collection. Im not really, though. With any luck ,. Instead this can be the Turing Check, an independent online game developed by Bulkhead Interactive, and to call it a simple re-hash of these Portal can be doing it, and its creators, a online games for free without downloading good injustice. Playing as Ava Turing, a worldwide Space Agency engineer, players are brought to Jupiters largest moon Continente europeo with the objective of unearthing the secret behind the crews disappearance. Guided because of your robot friend T. U. M an individual navigate through 7 chapters, each and every containing 12 areas, looking for clues as to whats happened on this relatively deserted Europa base. To pass through each region you need to fix the puzzle inside, and once each part is completed youll be paid with a few extra hints as to whats going on.

As your character Ava may speak, the dialogue in addition to questions among her and T. U. M give the majority of the narrative: why do the crew seem to be covering? Why was Ava selected for this quest? What are Capital t. O. Ms intentions, if robots can even have those in the first place? Those of you who recognise the online games title will be some way to understanding the larger questions the game asks. The Turing Test had been devised by Alan Turing to see whether or not a computer could convince somebody who it is actually a human itself. Their main analyze was to have a computer and also a person sort on a individual screen, with someone guessing which seemed more human. Another way to perform it is by designing vague ideas which simply humans may solve thinking browser games outside the box common sense. You can see in which the rest is going. The Turing Test, such as the Portal collection before it, explains the appeal with regard to first person sci-fi puzzlers. The original 10 minutes will certainly seem primary, but that is the point. The sport teaches you the basic principles at first until you get to grabs with its mechanics, and then the real puzzles commence. As the problems increases with each part another gameplay mechanic will be introduced together with new objects, ensuring gamers stay amused whilst slowly and gradually increasing the problem. Therein lies the fun with this game as well as others like it; participants are made to sense more and more clever as the online game goes on. This produces in players a private pride not many other types can do. Why study to get a postdoctorate when you might play clever video games rather? Puzzles amongst people centre on different coloured electrical currents, all of which energy the objects around the rooms, like entry doors, cameras in addition to magnets. 1 colour runs constantly, others turn off and on regularly, although another keeps the current streaming for just a few seconds. Using your firearm you can take in these as orbs. Doing exercises how, when and where to shoot them in order to make your way to the next area is the main test. Its an interesting principle, and as an individual progress the overall game requires you to have speed, speed and good old fashioned brain power to find the right things working on the right time. But theres practically nothing ground-breaking inside the level, simply no reality changing physics. As good as the questions are, their impossible never to compare that to the gravity defying, mind-bending sibling Portal.

Players can anticipate to complete the main story in around six hours which is short, as well as the low price displays this. Yet there are accessories scattered amongst people that warrant a second playthrough. Throughout the primary story there are items to become picked up and data wood logs to be searched and read, enriching the particular narrative. Dotted around may also be secret areas, inaccessible till the game has been finished. I also wouldnt be surprised to see speedrunners breaking records about Europa, and fact its a pity that the programmers havent included final moment after completion. Seeing just how much faster you are able to go next time round guarantees re-playability. Aesthetically the PS4 version great looking, along with crisp plus detailed features. The designers have taken the time to apply this across the entire map, so it will be graphically fulfilling. One thing that is frustrating though is fill screen occasions. Not an issue in the beginning, half way through the sport there are cases of waiting thirty seconds to a minute when traversing areas. Contemplating there are 75 areas to maneuver between, that will adds up to plenty of waiting time. Yet this is a minor issue, and the fact that its among few exhibits how properly designed and enjoyable a game Typically the Turing Check is. Many people will look at a segment regarding gameplay or trailers for that Turing Test and consider it a Portal rip-off. Granted it is extremely similar plus Bulkhead Galleries inspiration will be telling, but there are very much worse online games to be compared to. This is a sport that will you should fans of genres, and it deserves to become recognised being a very good game in its personal right. Now thats that certain wrapped up. Did I actually pass test?

REVIEW CODE: Only at Brash Games we have the strict Overview Code policy, Paul Thomas owner / editor is the only associate ofstaffat Foolhardy Games authorized to obtain review code and distribute that within the Brash Games evaluation team. No other person will be permitted in order to request review code as well as send reviewlinksor contact typically the publishers at all whatsoever. If you want to send all of us review code please e-mail paulryan@brashgames. company. uk. Subscribe to our email list Get the newest game testimonials, news, characteristics, and more straight to your email Thank you for signing up for Brash Online games. Something went wrong. We respect your privacy in addition to take guarding it significantly, We do not spread or offer your information. 28 year-old Insurance Investigator Kevin Jaimes from Vancouver, loves to spend time reading, Best Word Puzzle Games On Android And IOS … and russian dolls collecting. Has recently finished a journey to Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu.