All posts index
Master List -
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Games 1 - 19 Comments -
here
Games 20 - ? Comments -
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Finished With But Incomplete Games / Beta Tests -
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Game #1: The Deadly Tower of Monsters - ACE Team/Atlus - PS4 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the story and a few "find x thing" side activities (65% trophy completion).
Comments:
Though this isn't going to make any GOTY lists it's a pretty fun little jaunt. I finished it up in around 5 hours and though the hammy b-movie flavour wasn't entirely to my liking they at least do it fairly well and lean into it fully throughout the game. The tower aspect gives a few interesting bits of architecture to traverse here and there but the top down view and average controls didn't really allow me to explore as much as perhaps I would have liked. The "shoot down" mechanic also didn't feel like it really added anything.
Overall, not a great game but not a poor one either. A decent short palette cleanser between other more involved games.
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Game #2: Tricky Towers - Weird Beard - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Played as much of the single player as I can complete (about half of the expert trials, master trial unlocked) and a load of the multi-player (trophy completion 17%).
Comments:
I played most of the is 2016 but have been pretty addicted to the multiplayer (local and online) and am still playing it often. They recently updated the online to include a tournament mode so I have specifically revisited it for that.
Overall, it's a good, fun PS+ game. Pretty challenging single player (that I will alas, never be able to complete!) and really surprisingly good fun online, it's not something you're going to want to put hours and hours into but for a quick "I've got a few spare minutes and fancy some competitive fun" it's fab.
Worth a try if you want a new spin on the classic Tetris formulae.
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Game #3: Apotheon - Alientrap Games - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Competed the story and all of the side quests, played a little of the local competitive MP (91% trophy completion).
Comments:
It's not got the best platforming or the best combat but both are done adequately enough to not feel like I am fighting the control scheme at any point. It's not necessarily deep but you do need to get used to the combat to find out what works best for you.
I really liked the art style and the story - though fairly basic - isn't a chore to get through at all. The bosses vary between fairly rote to quite imaginative and nothing is overly hard or frustrating.
I really did like the exploration above all else, the main quests (objectives) are pretty well signposted but there are plenty of side quests that aren't immediately obvious and require you to find and read the clues as well as having to do a reasonable amount of exploring. All in all - trophies included - there's not much you would need to consult a guide for (I really only checked for the find x "stash" side quest trophies) though I didn't bother with the collectibles one (find all lock boxes).
I also played some local multi with some old friends and that's pretty good fun as well, could do with some more maps but it's good simple button bashing fun for sure.
On the bugs, I put in more than ten hours and have had a total of 5 crashes to desktop/OS. Apart from one, these crashes occurred during fast travelling and have always at least crashed cleanly to the report screen. One crash was during a boss fight but the game auto saves at the start of these so I didn't lose too much progress. Equally none of the rest were much of an issue as the game auto saves fairly often and I have been making sure to manually save (9 slots) if I am about to fast travel after making progress where no auto save may have been triggered.
It's a shame that the number of bugs at launch have kept people from this as now that it's running more reliably it is worth a play through if you dig the art style and are up for a simple but fairly effective "Metroidvania".
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Game #4: CounterSpy - Dynamighty/SCEE - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the story on normal and did some additional levels to unlock weapons and formulae (61% trophy completion).
Comments:
This is a game that frustrates me a lot but not necessarily for what it is but for what it could be. In and of itself it's not a bad game, it's actually a very agreeable one but it NOT a stealth game and procedural generation is a crappy way to make a stealth game however you dress it up.
A stealth game should always allow you to progress without being detected (and ideally without even laying a hand on an enemy) if you are skillful and aware enough but it's not worth trying that in CounterSpy! You may get to the very last screen entirely unspotted, be feeling great and then walk through a door and be presented with x number of enemies staring straight at you rendering all your previous success null and void.
Played as an action game with a sprinkling of stealth mechanics it is a much more fun experience.
Worth noting though that anyone who plays inverted (Y) will have to make comprises playing this as you cannot invert the controls differently dependent on whether you are playing a 2d element or a 3d element. I've ended up leaving it uninverted as I spend more time (broadly speaking) in 2d and then imagine the 3d sections as controlling a pseudo mouse pointer rather than cross hairs.
It's a shame that I have these couple of issues with it as there is a lot to love about this game, not least the excellent visual style and the soundtrack which is fantastically evocative of classic spy fiction.
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Game #5: Maniac Mansion - Lucasfilm Games - Ed Edison's PC - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the story using my favourite kids (Bernard, Razor), microwaved a hamster for the DotT trophy.
Comments:
My young self found this game frustrating as it was not the kind of game I was used to playing on my NES, as Dan Ryckert said recently on a Giant Bomb, I just wanted to go jump on stuff.
My adult self enjoyed it a lot more but you sure can tell it's getting on a bit!
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Game #6: Day of the Tentacle - Double Fine Productions - PS4 - ★★★★☆
Completion State:
Played through twice, once racking my brain to remember the solutions and orders from when I was younger, the second time was to do the few remaining trophy actions and listen to the dev commentary (100% trophy completion)
Comments:
Still a fun game with silly humour and puzzles that though not always immediately logical make a certain degree of sense after the fact and in the context of the mad world of the Edison's and the revamp just makes it better. The art and sounds have been updated perfectly in keeping and you can feel the love that went into redrawing and remastering everything so perfectly. Great job Double Fine.
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Game #7: Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops - Wired Productions - PS4 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Played through both Soldier and Spec Ops campaign as well as getting past wave 25 in the zombie horde mode (86% trophy completion)
Comments:
It's pretty simple but fairly fun. I kind of wish it had local co-op though.
It's pretty easy to blast through and does get a little repetitive towards the end. They try to mix it up a little with some vehicle use in the second Spec-Ops campaign but as these levels are presented as on rails it doesn't add quite as much as perhaps it should.
The story is basic at best and you can tell the voice work was done on a pretty slim budget but I like the comic book style of the story presentation and the drawing is quite nice.
All in all, not a bad way to waste a couple of hours.
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Game #8: Eufloria HD - Rudolf Kremers & Alex May/Omni Systems - PC/Steam - ★★★★☆
Completion State:
Completed story mode and the skirmish arenas (45% achievement completion)
Comments:
Very few games manage to be both intense and relaxing at the same time. This is one.
Beautiful art style, interesting but not complex mechanics, a simple but mildly evocative story, this is all round a good and stylish little game. Some challenging levels but it rarely feels unfair, you really need the right blend of puzzling and strategy in this kind of game and I think Eufloria gets it pretty bang on.
Overall, well worth a play through and despite me barely touching the dark matter mode (story mode missions dialled up on the challenge scale) I got over 25 hours of play time so it's surprisingly fulsome.
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Game #9: Lords of the Fallen - CI Games / Deck13 Interactive - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed the game with all three classes (warrior, cleric, rogue) and saw all three endings (56% trophy completion).
Comments:
I'd never even really heard of it before it was on plus apart from seeing occasional mentions here that it was a garbage rip off of the "Souls" formula.
I've now finished the game with all three classes and whilst the game is far from perfect it isn't a particularly bad game, certainly not a garbage game, outside of the occasionally super annoying crashes.
There is a little bit of bullshit in there in terms of "fairness" but overall not a huge amount more than the only Souls game I have played (Demon's Souls).
I've had the most fun with the rogue class, rocking a staff, with just a little magic on top.
The class system itself seems fairly well balanced though I wish I could pick and choose between each individual spells rather than be locked into a set (whether tied to class or not). Ideally I'd like to run my rogue but with the rogue version of the prayer spell (energy regain) swapped out for the warrior version (health regain) whilst still retaining the stab spell. Might be too over powered though as this would give me the ability to largely ignore checkpoints (hence keeping my multiplier active), keep my health topped between fights if I am patience enough whilst saving my health potions for mid battle.
All in all, it's a little rough around the edges technically, the environments are fairly one note and the combat doesn't quite have a souls-esque depth but beyond the awful acting it's not too bad at all.
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Game #10: This War of Mine: Little Ones - 11 Bit Studios - PS4 - ★★★★☆
Completion State:
Completed the game several times. Initially just with the pre-set options then several times again using the write your own story option (100% trophy completion).
Comments:
Wow. What a fantastic little game. Lovely art style, great ideas, interesting concepts, lot's of worthy stuff in here.
The controls are occasionally a bit of an annoyance but it barely mars the experience. The way it presents the human side of conflict to make this an entirely convincing war time survival sim is fantastic.
It's not the deepest survival game of all time mechanically but what is there works well and though you're basically managing pretty basic tasks to an ever ticking clock, in the context of the setting and the often heart rending compromises you have to make it just works.
Great game, thoughtful experience. Should be a mandatory play through for anyone more used to how war is generally portrayed in games.
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Game #11: Journey - Thatgamecompany - PS4 - ★★★★★
Completion State:
Completed the game through a couple of times. Will re-visit to explore a little more thoroughly now I have looked at the trophy list (4% trophy completion).
Comments:
Somehow I have managed to not play this game until now but luckily I have also avoided spoilers so went into it blind and I'm glad I did.
I played late on a weekend in two sessions and had a "friend" for most of the game. Though the gameplay elements aren't outstanding they are fun and the setting, context and "story" are really good. I presume this is meant as a loose analogy for life and death. If so it is great, though perhaps a little depressing given how little a mark we leave in the game.
I suspect everything I could say about the game has already been said at more length, more intelligence, more thought and more eloquence than I ever could so I'm basically going to leave it at that except to say beyond the analogous nature of the game I also think it serves well as an experiment in player guidance despite an ultra minimalist approach to traditional UI elements.
Good stuff.
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Game #12: Watch_Dogs 2 - Ubisoft - PS4 - ★★★★☆
Completion State:
Story and side activities completed, several co-op online missions completed (83% trophy completion)
Comments:
Deserves more words than I have the time or eloquence to write but I think this is a pretty damn good game. It's much more an open world puzzle game than an open world action game but I really like it as a result. I see a lot of criticism of the characters and story but for what it is it's pretty OK and notably touches on many subjects that are either relevant now or will relevant in the future without either being too preachy or striving for too much depth. Yes it frames some of these subjects in a pretty wacky or exaggerated way but that doesn't entirely dilute the impact.
Also worth noting it has some of the most unforced but relevant inclusion of a wide array of ages, genders, colours and sexualities that I think I have seen in a big AAA game. Young black men seeking careers in white dominated industries, a transexual in a high powered political position, a pretty gender fluid antagonist and an unashamedly powerful yet unsexualised woman. All good stuff.
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Game #13: Mousecraft - Crunching Koalas - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Complete all 80 levels with all mice saved and all shards collected (100% trophy completion)
Comments:
Fun little puzzle game with a fairly basic premise, get your mice from their start point to the exit whilst collecting as many crystal shards to exchange for cash to buy more cheese.
With a few different mechanics like explosive blocks, crumbling blocks and electrically charged blocks it has a little bit of difficulty but nothing that should fox a puzzle game player too much.
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Game #14: Super Star Wars - LucasArts - SNES - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all levels.
Comments:
I pulled out the SNES over the chocolate egg holiday weekend for some local MP and after everyone was gone decided to re-visit some games I never completed as a teen. Super Star Wars was the first by virtue of it being the first to fall out of my shoe box of no longer played SNES carts.
It's an OK game. The platforming is not quite as accurate as it should be and this combined with some of the few leaps of faith you have to make adds too much frustration to an otherwise fun and simple side scrolling shooty/slashy platformer. The occasional vehicle sections would be a fun diversion if they held up better but if I'm honest these days they just don't stand up well. I'm sure graphically though this was a pretty exciting thing back in the day. The trench bit can bugger off though.
All in all an OK but no longer outstanding game.
I think for context it is worth noting that I have nary an interest in the Star Wars franchise (not even sure if I have even watched any of the films all the way through) so these games have very little inherent nostalgia for me and perhaps if I was these would stand the test of time better for me.
Regardless though I am going to attempt to tackle the other two movie tie-ins just to call the SNES series complete.
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Game #15: Super Star Wars: The Empire Strike Back - LucasArts - SNES - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all levels.
Comments:
Like Super Star Wars but harder! Way harder!
The additional inclusion of force mechanics are quite cool and a few other elements have been tweaked or refined. All these serve to improve the game a little, most notably the inclusion of more familiar double jump.
Good enough but frankly glad I'm done!
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Game #16: Driveclub (season pass content) - Evolution Studios/SCE - PS4 - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all tours with all stars included in the season pass (99% trophy completion)
Comments:
Regarding the season pass content specifically I think the first thing worth noting is that there is a lot of it but it is just more of the main game so if you didn't like that, this won't change your mind.
The cars included helped amend the lack of variety in car selection for me and included most of the cars I want in a game like this but the tours themselves added nothing new. I still enjoyed them as I really like the base driving model.
My thoughts on the main game cane found
here for reference.
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Game #17: Letter Quest Remastered - Bacon Bandit Games - PS4 - ★★☆☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all missions and about half with all stars (52% trophy completion)
Comments:
At first this was an amusing change of pace but you quickly realise, assuming you're an adult with a reasonable vocabulary, that even on hard it's too easy particularly after a few upgrades. There's not enough diversity in enemies or environments to make up for the limited gameplay provided by a spelling game. I played through all the levels but can't bring myself to finish them all again three more times to earn each of the additional stars: time trial - times are super generous; special challenge - where the overall stage has an additional condition like use less than n letters or words and; crystal star - all mobs have an additional condition and extra life. They just don't have enough variation or challenge.
Might be great for younger kids in a family environment.
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Game #18: Tom Clancey's The Division - Ubisoft - PS4 - ★★★★☆
Completion State:
Completed all missions, pre-DLC incursions and found all intel (100% trophy completion)
Comments:
I originally played this at launch so this is technically a replay. I'm keen to try the DLC content but had been away from the game for so long I decided to start a new character to level up from the start to re-acquaint myself and to experience the progression system as a new player once again.
The story is structured fairly well and the missions are broadly speaking fun and engaging either for a single player or up to a group of four. They are all pretty similar in idea, go here, kill/get thing, go here, kill/defend thing but the environment around them are great and the shooting and skills mechanics are pretty satisfying.
It's pretty barebones in terms of plot but it touches on a few potentially interesting issues. Als though it doesn't really bother to either expand or directly challenge or justifying these. It's not totally unaware of itself - key characters do highlight the oddity of giving so much power to a covert group with little to no oversight - but there is no real exploration of how this influences either the player character or the narrative (particularly after the fate of the first wave of Division agents sent into the city is mae clear). Some of the side content collectibles add a little emotional depth to the context and story but these require the player to seek them out and engage with them and even then, it's all a just a fairly flimsy premise for the games quarantined city, huge amount of guns, no due process and special powers.
But hey, what a beautifully rendered version of a quarantined city. I think the dereliction is accelerated considerably given the time after infection but this makes for a great place to explore and sight see. I'm not familiar with Manhattan like a local might be but I've spent enough time there to be pretty amazed by how much mildly altered reality Ubisoft/Massive have managed to squeeze in. It's just a shame the map isn't more comprehensively used, beyond collectibles there really isn't a reason to explore great swathes of it and that really is a shame.
Most of the side missions are a little by the book and you do unfortunately have to do some to complete the levelling up process as well as upgrading your homebase to unlock skills, talents and perks. They're not too bad though given the fundamentals of the shooting and movement/cover are pretty satisfying.
The loot variety isn't perhaps as varied as it could be, I suspect mostly due to the semi-grounded nature of the environment, but for me,there was enough to keep me pretty satisfied in terms of the types of builds you can make. I'm not one for endless chasing min/max builds but I do like trying to make the numbers go up and there sure is plenty of numbers to think about.
Overall a really great foundation for what could be a successful franchise going forward for Massive and Ubisoft. Great core gameplay, fantastically realised setting and some fun set-ups, it just needs some polish and a more creative story to really push it above and beyond.
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Game #19: Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - LucasArts - SNES - ★★★☆☆
Completion State:
Completed all levels except the final escape from the death star.
Comments:
First up, technically I didn't complete the final mode 7 escape from the death star level because I am pretty sure it is impossible! I might see if I can find someone locally with an action replay cart just to see the end!
The game mechanically is pretty much a slightly refined SSW:ESB. The graphics are perhaps the biggest improvement, the difference between the previous two SNES games was pretty marginal but this is a huge improvement.
As with many SNES games, sometime the sometime unfair difficulty spoils the fun but overall for it's time not a bad game at all.
