52 Games in a year challenge: 2018 - The Bear and Badger

Diluted Dante

I may have been lied to then.

Webbins

wonderbanana wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

It does need a payment method on file, but you can delete it straight after. You can no longer stack it though.

You sure? I literally just tried it to test and it still works for me.

Is it still coming up cheap for you, even after stacking about two year's worth?

wonderbanana

Webbins wrote:

wonderbanana wrote:

Diluted Dante wrote:

It does need a payment method on file, but you can delete it straight after. You can no longer stack it though.

You sure? I literally just tried it to test and it still works for me.

Is it still coming up cheap for you, even after stacking about two year's worth?

Yes.

wonderbanana

Still working too.

Moot_Geeza

Diluted Dante wrote:

It does need a payment method on file, but you can delete it straight after. You can no longer stack it though.

Cheers, a free 14 day trial for Netflix gaming seems pretty generous to me, I should probably say thanks by taking them up on it at some point.

Stopharage

8 down with the exceedingly lovely Florence. Interactive graphic novel with real minor gaming elements but huge heart. Made by some of the folks behind Monument Valley. £2.99 on the App Store, came out today. Only an hour or so but packs a fair bit in, in that short time.

Stopharage

10 down. Finished off Rime after being left cold by it last year. It's a gentle puzzler with an ounce of charm. Puzzles not particularly tasking but an enjoyable game nonetheless.
Then played through Batman: The Telltale game. Wouldn't have purchased as these Telltale games get pretty same (it was a PS+ offering), but I thought that the story in this was fairly good and I got to play through it with my youngest. Think I'll leave it a while before I play another Telltale game though, as the weak points are grating, ie. over-reliance on bloody QTE bobbins.

acemuzzy

That's me up to 11, and I'm very near 12 & quite near 13.

Moot_Geeza

14 with Uncharted: The Golden Abyss.

acemuzzy

Oh god poor you

Moot_Geeza

I just assumed I was being unreasonable with how much it annoyed me. Is it not a popular one?

Diluted Dante

No, it's very much seen as the weakest one.

Moot_Geeza

Ah good, I rounded my 5 up to a 6 at the last minute, but it was a bit crap.

acemuzzy

The final boss. Nnnggggg.

[Deleted User]

It should be in my list at some point this year.

acemuzzy

A sudden flurry takes me to 14. Another couple of shorties in my sights, but some proper disc games too. On track though, on track...

Diluted Dante

6. Gears of War Judgement (X360) - it was tradition for me to play Gears of War every January, but for whatever reason, I never bought Judgement. Armed with the codes from 4 though, I started this on the last day of January, and finished it last night. In a way, that's a reasonable review of the game. I enjoyed it, but it took nearly a month to finish, something the other got nowhere near. I liked the Crimson Omen modifiers, which changed things up a fair bit, and the Horde sections livened things up too, but overall it wasn't as good as 1-3. Not even playing as the Cole Train could quite edge it up there. Still, chainsawing locust in half is as satisfying as ever, and the ping of a Torque Bow followed by the explosion from behind cover is one of the best sounds you can hear.

Rave_Winchester

Four Games down and I finally got chance to sit down and write something on them.

1. Hidden Agenda (PS4) - 3 hours [6]
A Telltale like adventure game that you play in a group each using your phone as a controller with a sort of traitor mechanic. I quite enjoyed this, in the game you play as several characters investigating a serial killer. The phone app works well and has lots of extra information about the case, people, locations and is updated as you discover new things. The only problem control wise was QTE’s and searching for clues where you have to push a cursor around the screen, this could be a little fiddly and difficulty to control.
What drew me to this was the traitor like mechanic, one person is given a hidden agenda to get over the next scene. They can they to persuade the group over the next few conversation options but it mainly comes down to one choice at the end of the scene which just before the game makes you vote on who you think has the hidden agenda. There are also take over cards which can be played so you can make any decision and multiple cards can be played on any choice as you wrestle for control with the other players. This works ok but I would love to see something make more of this I’ve had a lot of fun playing board games where you have hidden objectives or aligences like Battlestar Galactica or Dead of Winter and I want to see video games trying to emulate this.
Definitely worth getting if you’ve got 3-5 friends you can get over for an evening with a few drinks and you can pick it up for about £7-8.

2. Saban's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle (PS4) - 4 hours [4]
So I played this for the nostalgia and the 4 player local co-op.The game looks great going for a comic style and is very bright and colourful. It hits the nostalgia beats well as this is based off the original season of power rangers, uses short voice lines from the show when characters are speaking and re-recorded music from the show. This is great at the start but quickly starts to go down hill. This voice lines is uses are short (why would you not use all Rita’s lines) and get repeated a lot also it feels like they stopped bothering later on as other characters are introduced. Combat is shallow and has the annoying not quite on the same level as the enemy so attack just miss that you can get in these type of games. This is annoying as it also doesn’t give much feedback if your hitting your target or not so if someone else is also attacking you can be hitting air and not notice. There’s also a progression system unlocking combos, abilities and making each ranger more powerful. The pacing on this is awful where at first you get one or two things and towards the end it feels like it's throwing stuff at you because it ran out of levels for you to unlock this over.
I wouldn’t get this unless your a power rangers fan and even then get it in a sale.

3. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (PS4 PSVR) - 15 hours [8]
This is a lot of fun and can be a nice way to show off VR with a group of people even though its not strictly a VR game as it can be played on PC without VR. The person wearing the VR headset has a bomb they need to diffuse by solving puzzles, cutting wires and inputting codes. Everyone else works as the support team telling your bomb disposal how to defuse the bomb. The support team have a manual explaining what to do and can see this on the tv screen and it can be found on the website and printed out.
So you’re frantically trying to understand what someone is telling you what they can see an sort through information for what is relevant then explain in a simple, concise manner. Once you start to learn each module it gets easier but you still need to work together to solve the modules and the information in the manual is purposefully in a nonsensical order meaning your always frantically searching for the solution.
Some puzzles can be irritating (fuck you Morse code) but on the whole this is a lot of fun and give a real sense of accomplishment when you complete some of the more difficult bombs.

4. Gears of War: Judgement (X360) - 10 hours [7]
Developed mainly by People Can Fly this was the first Gears game not by Epic and the last while they still had the rights to the franchise. Moment to moment gameplay it plays like the previous games and doesn’t really do anything new. The structure of the game is quite different to the previous games being centered around short missions\encounters with a scoring system and the ability to add a modifier which give a nice extra challenge.
The story is quite lacking and forgettable. You’re introduced to two new characters as part of your team, along with Baird and Cole from the main series. The new characters don’t get much development which is disappointing since they could of given a different insite to The COG and it politics.
As with every other Gears game I’ve played I did this in Co-Op with Dante, I’ve never enjoyed these games solo but the Co-Op as always was a lot of fun. Definitely a game worth playing if you like the series but you won't miss much if you skip over this one.

Webbins

Updated with State of Decay, The Swapper, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter and The Bug Butcher.

7. State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition
12th February - 18th February
I thought I'd give this a whirl ahead of the sequel, courtesy of Game Pass. This game, a zombie survival sim of sorts, is a grand concept with some flaws that hold it back. Firstly; given its 360 XBLA origins, it has some rough edges graphically, which I can look past. Other glitches do mar the experience somewhat, thin air spawning zombies being one that kills the immersion. It's second and perhaps biggest issue is, it isn't very hard. I was able to maintain my main character, Marcus and the few others I used when he tired, quite easily. There were a couple of dicey moments involving some of the special infected but it never came to anything critical. Not enough was made of the base building either, so despite researching and building facilities, they were not fully explored. In terms of resources, everything was plentiful, so by the end I had amassed quite an arsenal of weapons, and plenty of everything else. However; those first few hours were very good, when you have nothing, trying to loot quietly whilst zeds roam outside, great tension builder. It promises well for the sequel though, so long as they can get the balancing right. Despite this being the definitive edition of the game, I would liked to have tried the DLC modes, Breakdown and Lifeline, but they weren't included with Game Pass, which is disappointing. 7

8. The Swapper
20th February - 24th FebruaryA nifty little Sci-Fi indie puzzler with a cloning as its central mechanic. Tasked with escaping an abandoned research station, the game adopts a very Metroidvania style of exploration as you collect orbs to unlock areas and your path through the game. The puzzles themselves make use of your cloning tool and you have a limited number of copies of yourself that can be made to solve these puzzles. The puzzles start off simple enough before becoming tricky later on. However, I found the puzzles didn't really hold my interest enough in their conception to make solving them a pleasure so referred to a guide on a few just to progress. Decent enough little game however, if a little lacking in depth. 6

9. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter
24th February - 26th February
I don't mind me a Sherlock sleuth 'em up, quite enjoyed the last outing, Crimes and Punishments, when it was on GwG. They've attempted to sex this one up a bit, whilst retaining the core investigative mechanics to varied success. Sherlock is now a tall dark brooding forty something where before he was the middle aged dry detective you'd expect, Watson has now gone full on Shoreditch hipster. There has been an attempt to up the action with some QTE sequences and other such sections, but these sometimes fall into trial and error and suffer as a consequence. A chase sequence through a forest and a poison gas maze being the lowest points. The characterisation throughout is good though and the script well written, although a couple of cases do deliberately confuscate before revealing the truth after you've already committed your conviction. There is an overarching storyline that flows over each episodic case and the reveal towards the end is well executed. 7.5

10. The Bug Butcher
27th February - 28th February
A simple little schmup this. You are an exterminator tasked with ridding an infested multi-storey building of its bug inhabitants. Each floor gets progressively tougher, bugs busy themselves around the screen in waves and you have the means to destroy them, but can only shoot upwards. Power ups can be activated and upgrades earned, the challenge comes in trying to three star each level and also beat the combo target, although you can finish the game without doing either. It scratches an itch, I'm not a massive schmup fan so it probably pales next to many others, but I enjoyed the challenge, despite a couple of niggles. Finished all the arcade mode levels, the main game, three starred most (on easy!) with a couple of the harder ones left to do. 6.5

wonderbanana

Bug Butcher on Games Pass Webbs?

Webbins

Aye, it's not bad for a blast. Was going to give Sky Force a go too.

Webbins

Getting good value from GP, and Super Lucky's Tail and Tomb Raider have dropped. Good job it's snowing!

wonderbanana

Ah Super Luckys Tail - want to try that.

Loved ROTTR.

digi

Modern warfare remaster done.

Bought it for the co op missions, it dosent have co op missions!

I thought rottr were a bit shit after a strong start, ho hum.
(its in my list)

Stopharage

Up to 12 with The Evil Within polished off. Was planning to go straight into TEW2 but think it will grate so soon after.

Next up then, Last Days of June.

Olimite

Webbins wrote:

Aye, it's not bad for a blast. Was going to give Sky Force a go too.

Sky Force is ace. Very moreish if not a bit repetitive. I liked Bug Butcher too.

hylian_elf

Annoyingly I have 3 games close to completion (sort of) but need to sit down and Just Fucking Do It.

Birdorf

I’m still on one. I’m 70 hours into Tactics Ogre on the Vita, so I’m hoping to have that done soon. I’m (re)starting Xenoblade today, so that will probably (hopefully) be a massive time sink.

Moot_Geeza

15 with Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 on 3DS.

Webbins

Olimite wrote:

Webbins wrote:

Aye, it's not bad for a blast. Was going to give Sky Force a go too.

Sky Force is ace. Very moreish if not a bit repetitive. I liked Bug Butcher too.

Aye but they all tend to be don't they? All about learning the patterns I guess.

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