Just completed - The Bear and Badger

acemuzzy

Q.U.B.E

A couple of bits that were a bit dull, but most of the puzzles were kinda interesting, taking some thought but all solvable, and a little bit different to portal/turing so fun enough.

I thought the narrative was somewhat shite, then watched the credits

Narrative By: Rob Yescombe

Aha, mystery solved.

A solid [7], almost a qubic [8].

JonB

To be fair, Yescombe's also credited for narrative on Rime as well, and that was a pretty good one.

Yossarian

The Library. I definitely bought the Anniversary Edition of Halo when it was released, but apparently I didn’t play much of it as I do not recall what a spectacular job they did of updating the graphics on that level. It’s gorgeous.

hylian_elf

I need to get back it MCC. Got halfway through 2 before being distracted by some other game. Need to finish 2 so I can finally get round to 3 again.

Yossarian

I think Muzz was interested in finding a co-op partner, assuming you can stand put aside your differences.

When me and Cos make it to Halo 3, we could even potentially hook up as a foursome.

Although we are playing Legendary, fair warning.

hylian_elf

It’s ok, did legendary 4-player before, seemsd easy. Solo was a pain.

Yossarian

I am soloing and co-opping because I’m 1337.

hylian_elf

Hollow Knight (Switch)

An easy 10.

Oodles of atmosphere and an amazing OST, a pleasure to look at to. The controls are nice and tight and traversing the sprawling map is a joy.

As is the slow unraveling of that sprawling map. This is the best Metroidlike since, well, Super Metroid. The game world is composed of an interconnected series of areas that have multiple shortcuts and connections as well as hidden and walled off areas to discover. Some of these areas can be found or explored in different order and the steady stream of new abilities opens up more areas etc etc you know the drill with a Metroid style game.

But it’s all so well designed and paced, it’s magnificent. All this overlayed with couple of Souls design staples. Die and you can collect your shadow and currency from whereabouts you died, and also the way the game tells it’s story through setting and lore etc. Please go an forward Tenpy’s Article in Kotacy on this, it’s a good read. Something like “Hollow Knight Revitalises The Metroidvania With A Little Soul” something. Google it.

I spent 46 hours and ended on 93%. I’m going back to mop up stuff and explore even further as there is still much to do.

Straight into my Top 15 or so.

[10]

Blue Swirl

46 hours? Nice. I'm looking forward to seeing the speedruns at GDQs in future. I need to get back into this, I got distracted by other things, and the sheer size of the map was starting to get me down, but I just need to play for a few minutes and I'm sure I'll get sucked right back in.

acemuzzy

Well said Elf! Basically my thoughts on it. I still haven't gone back though...

Moot_Geeza

Just booted this up at work, my final stats were 31h 17m, 79%. I may return one day but going by the number of times I've said this in the past about various games and not done so it's unlikely tbh. An absolute [10] though, and also in my top 10 (probably 5).

acemuzzy

Moot, Elf and me all in agreement.

Fog on the streets.

What a time to be alive.

AndCallMeCharlie

HK is a 10 from me too, best audio on a game ever and the charms system is a joy

JonB

Gorogoa - short but very enjoyable and original. More of it would've been nice.

Moot_Geeza

Is it fine with a joypad? I assumed it was a touch thing, didn't realise it was on PS4 until recently.

Cos

I played it on Switch in handheld mode mostly and had no trouble with the controls. Also really enjoyed it, very clever little game.

JonB

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Is it fine with a joypad? I assumed it was a touch thing, didn't realise it was on PS4 until recently.

I thought it was fine. The cursor lets you know when you can interact with something, and there's not a lot of area to scan.

AJ

Virtual Rick-ality

Thank god I got it in a sale, the full £25 seems way, way too much. It wasn't bad, but there were few laughs and the tracking was dodgy.

There are worse games to spend an evening paying, but it's probably better suited to newer VR users rather than people with a lot of experience as a most of it relies too much on the novelty factor of manipulating things in a virtual space.

mrsmr2

Rime

It's not good. Rubbish game engine, rubbish platforming, pedantic placement to activate stuff, annoying (probably meant to be cute) slipping over when stopping by an object (just when you want the character to get on an interact with it), bland art style, no personality or character, linear yet still managing to be confusing in a couple of places, forced camera perspectives (you will see how we want you to see it), auto camera that bugs out in when you are in close confines (meaning you can't see you character anymore).

However, I really enjoyed the final level - that did look beautiful in the rain and there were no convoluted, almost identical looking structures or really dark parts to ruin it.

Ending is upsetting but doesn't really relate to the earlier stuff. Not enough story to be a walking simulator, not enough gameplay to be a game.

I normally search and find things in games. Had no desire to do that in this game.

I did like the rain level though - the one thing I will remember the game by.

[Deleted User]

While I don’t think it’s anywhere near as good as some people say it is, I also don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as that makes it sound.

AJ

mrsmr2 wrote:

forced camera perspectives (you will see how we want you to see it)

What's your problem with this?

Glad you defined an actual issue with the auto camera, that makes sense.

mrsmr2

Few things:
Forced perspective - a few times you run straight and the camera locks to isometric view, so instead of running straight you are now running diagonally. Not a major issue as you don't fall off - just looks stupid.

I hate laggy things so completing a puzzle, having camera control for a second, then losing it as the game decides to change perspective or play animation - irritating. Better to lock the camera control straight away.

Platforming - really annoying part at the end of level 3. I want to move the camera so I can see where I'm going. Nope, game's not having any of that. Uncharted 2 did the same. These aren't a 3rd person camera issue because of the walls getting in the way, they are conscious decisions to force the view.

These things are also immersion breaking (not that I had any in this game)

AJ

Fair enough. Those are all designed issues, rather than problems with dynamically fixing the camera. Thought that'd be the case, but your wording made it sound like it wasn't so I had to check.

Facewon

The camera stuff is interesting. I like the way Rime does it. If it forces camera, it's consistent with how it wants you to jump, and gives you an animation to let you know you can jump with confidence in all ledge situations.

Also, zero punishment for death, so whatevs.

AJ

Yeah, barely had any camera-related issues myself, but the things mrsmr2 describes are the kind of things that could be smoothed out and are part of what would elevate the game from something good that some people like to something great that most people would.

mrsmr2

Yup, things could be smoothed out to improve the gameplay.

I still don’t like cameras that auto rotafe though. If I’m trying to fight the camera while moving, something is wrong.

AJ

EDIT: Just realised I misread. Ignore this post.

Facewon

Rime.

I liked it a lot more than mrsmr2.

Not as much as Bob.

Last level really is quite something.

hylian_elf

But was it competent?

JonB

Platinum trophy on Peggle 2.

I can never get enough of Peggle. I have other games that I've bought or got from plus that I haven't got far into yet, but instead I'm playing through Peggle 2 all over again and loving every minute. They should make more Peggle. Peggle.

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