Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Facewon

hylian_elf wrote:

But was it competent?

Define competent?

Moot_Geeza

A C&VG 3/5.

Bob

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Over a 100 hours. Campaign finished, all the map unlocked.. a few other bits and piece. Haven't completed a AC game since Black Flag. This one is a proper make over. RPG influences and a choice of character help if feel more of a personal adventure and there's very little present day bobbins.

There's an awful lot to do and it seems churlish to critise it for being over generous.. I have to say I enjoyed nearly all of the questing, tomb raiding, sailing, battlefields, solving riddles, romacing and mythical creatureing that it had to offer.

Easily the best game in the series and probably one of my GotY.

Mikemsp

Gears of war 4

Missed out on this when it first came out as i’d already got rid of my OG Xbox one.

I don’t really do multiplayer games so I only touched the single player

I thought it was brilliant as a technical showcase for the one X, it looks stunning, a real showcase for the Samsung Q9FN too, the HDR is brilliant.

Just as I was finishing up a received my Sonos Beam, and wow does it sound incredible. The speakers on the tv were very good, but this is next level stuff for me.

Anyway back to the game; the gameplay is pretty much how I remember it from previous games (Have played 1 & 2 but not 3) but with a few quality of life improvements and more intelligent squad mates. I’m not a massive fan of the robot enemies but they do the job well enough. The sequence at the end controlling the giant robot was awesome though.

The story was good and drove the action well, just as well as in the previous games, and it isn’t all macho bravado and sound bites every 2 minutes. I love the age old appeal of the ‘new guys’ teaming up with a veteran, classic cheesy shite, and it’s done well here. Though the fake out with Marcus seeming to be dead but then actually not was a bit predictable and obvious. The revelation at the end was lost on me until I googled it, seems like a good set up for Gears 5

Summary: A great shooting game with great graphics and a more modern take on muscle headed men and women.

I haven’t ever read any reviews or opinions on this game when compared with the others so I’m unaware of any consensus, but I thought it was a worthy continuation of the series, bearing in mind that I haven’t touched the multiplayer.

Blue Swirl

Gears 4 is the only one where the multiplayer clicked for me. Story-wise it's as much tosh as the others, but good fun.

Bob

Gris

I actually enjoyed this one. I'm guessing there's supposed to be some commentary on mental health or something as there's possibly some kind of rebuilding going on but taken from a purely video game perspective it's very very pretty plays very nicely, if a bit sticky, and has plenty of fresh ideas as you progress. Went on just about long enough (in fact probably half an hour to long for me but still...) Just the right amount of challenge.

Facewon

Slay the spire with all three classes. Ascension now.

AJ

Bob wrote:

Gris

I actually enjoyed this one. I'm guessing there's supposed to be some commentary on mental health or something as there's possibly some kind of rebuilding going on

Spoiler:

Bob

Oh. I totally didn't get that. Plus I thought there was four levels.

Spoiler:

AJ

I'm not sure how the levels are defined thematically, but it doesn't seem to be strictly one stage per level.

Bob

Yeah i still didn't get that. Still enjoyed it though.. I think it was more obvious in

Spoiler:

JonB

Never mind.

AJ

Not really, no. It was mentioned in several reviews and previews I read.

I wonder if I might have enjoyed

Spoiler:

more had I known in advance; I found the reveal in that quite underwhelming.

Edit: added the tags, just in case

Bob

Edited for safety.

hylian_elf

JonB wrote:

In XXXX it would've been quite the fucking spoiler to know in advance. And I'm assuming it's similar in Gris?

It more or less announces its subject matter in the opening bit!

hylian_elf

Anyway

Looks and sounds wonderful. Beautiful even. It even plays competently. I enjoyed the playforming and progression for the most part. Some parts can be slightly slow and long with plodding. But overall absolutely fine.

Issue I have is that it seems to try too hard to be arty and serious and thematically deep etc. My opinion, of course. In handling its subject matter, that other game mentioned above did it better. Far better.

Still, I think I’ll be generous based on audiovisual beauty and decent play.

[8]

[Deleted User]

Jon, do you want to spoiler your comment, too, please? Actually, best delete it, please, because there’s no way you’re not now spoiling one or the other for those of us who’ve only played one.

JonB

Yeah, fair point.

And if it's more of an overt theme in Gris that's fine. Just wasn't sure from what had been said.

Bob

Steam World Dig 2

A very good sequel that improves on the original in every way.

Thoroughly enjoyed it apart from a couple of annoying boss battles that don't really fit with the game.

And one of them requires you to get back to it from the check point and sit through the whole conversation before you can have another go.. uber annoying.

8 out of 10 dug up jewels.

Mikemsp

Gears of war 1,2,3
Thought I’d go back and revisit the campaigns of the original trilogy, having never played 3. They all hold up very well with 2 probably being the sweet spot of perfecting the gameplay and pacing. The pacing is a little off in 3 but it has its awesome moments too. I did dabble in Judgement tonight but very quickly bounced off it as it just didn’t feel right, the flashback set up is not what I was after and the gameplay feels like it’s imitating gears. Glad they got it back on the right track with 4.

Mikemsp

Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice
Really enjoyed this assault on the senses, this is truly a story well told with an incredible atmosphere and just the right length. The audio is amazingly well done it was terrifyingly effective with all the voices dancing around you. The only negative is that the combat got a bit frustrating towards the end in terms of slogging through enemies to get through a door and having to start from scratch if you died, which forced me to turn the combat to easy mode, but I’m ok with that. There were a couple of insta-fail situations were I died over and over trying to outrun a persuer, with one involving fire being extremely infuriating and resulting in a rotten black right arm, which was annoying.

But it was a journey well worth going in and probably my favourite game I’ve played this year as it’s so different from nearly every other game I’ve played, well done ninja theory.

Silke

And here I am, having just completed the same game, feeling the exact opposite. I'm almost disgusted by it, and everything it tried so hard to say but miserably failed to do.

You gotta love opinions.

Mikemsp

I’m not sure it was trying to say that much, just give an experience of what it could be like to have some of the symptoms of psychosis, wrapped up in a world of mythology that could be partially real or all imagined. The making of video included in the game sort of explains their approach and the research they did in conjunction with professionals and mental health service users, they all seemed to think they did a pretty good job of representation. If you didn’t like it though you didn’t like it! But I think they achieved what they set out to do.

Moot_Geeza

Did either of you play with headphones? No that it would change your opinions much either way, but the audio really suited being pumped directly into the ears at an almost-too-loud volume.

mrsmr2

Portal. Thoroughly excellent.

Blue Swirl

Mikemsp wrote:

Gears of war 1,2,3 Thought I’d go back and revisit the campaigns of the original trilogy, having never played 3. They all hold up very well with 2 probably being the sweet spot of perfecting the gameplay and pacing. The pacing is a little off in 3 but it has its awesome moments too. I did dabble in Judgement tonight but very quickly bounced off it as it just didn’t feel right, the flashback set up is not what I was after and the gameplay feels like it’s imitating gears. Glad they got it back on the right track with 4.

I just downloaded GoW Ultimate, and played through GoW3 and GoWJ a while ago. I'd rate Judgment over 3, but only just. I would wager more people gave up on 4 than Judgment, I quite liked the flashback gimmick, but I know some people bailed early on in 4 because fighting the robot enemies was, well, a bit robotic.

Mikemsp

I didn’t mind the robot enemies was good to have something different to fight, was happy when the slimies turned up but the robots did the job.

I don’t know what it was about judgement, it just didn’t feel right, the characters didn’t seem to have weight to them and swapping grenades to left bumper is just unforgivable!

Tempy

I had the most fun playing Judgment by a long shot.

Tempy

edit: double post

LivDiv

I loved 1-3.
By the time I got around to 4 I felt like I was done with the series.
I played on through for a fair old bit until a glitch meant I had to start a chapter over. Without the forward momentum I never went back to it.
It's not a bad game by any stretch, it is actually quite good. Just felt a bit last gen.

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