Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Vela

I played 3 hours of demon souls and didn't like it.

Moot_Geeza

I played 25 minutes of Demon's Souls and didn't like it.

Minnesänger

Demon’s Souls just called me and let me know it doesn’t rate either of you too either.

Moot_Geeza

I'm just keeping my powder dry for Otogi 3.

hylian_elf

Demon’s Souls isn’t a shit game so of course Moot doesn’t like it.

Dark Soldier

If it was side scrolling with 8 colours and d pad control he'd be lauding it as a 10/10

Moot_Geeza

Just because I happen to be playing a game that fits that description right now doesn't mean that's all I play!

hylian_elf

Did it cost 59p and can be completed in 5 minutes?

Moot_Geeza

20% off £15. It's another epic afaik - 10-12hrs apparently. Shaping up as a GotY contender.

Moot_Geeza

(Garlic fwiw)

hylian_elf

Ah, I'll let you off, that does look good.

Syph79

I finished Redfall last night. I bet I’m in a league of my own for that one!

It was passable and likely only made just that by the inclusion of co-op, which is how I played.

The seed of something is in there, but it’s buried very very deep. A shame.

Scout

Syph79 wrote:

I finished Redfall last night. I bet I’m in a league of my own for that one! It was passable and likely only made just that by the inclusion of co-op, which is how I played. The seed of something is in there, but it’s buried very very deep. A shame.

You and me Syph. I finished it too. Solo no less which I guess makes me an even bigger maniac.

stonechalice

Of all the games to play in the world you pick Redfall.

Scout

I genuinely liked it. Barely came across any of the game-breaking bugs it was supposedly littered with. It was no masterpiece. But a solid 7/10 for me.

Moot_Geeza

Garlic. Had a day off yesterday and must admit that I smashed it an unhealthy amount. Finished it off today, including the postgame. So fucking difficult.

Got the good ending though. Rubbing shoulders with the l33t again at last.

acemuzzy

- not in the 52 Games thread
- no score
- no GIF

shocking stuff

Moot_Geeza

I was looking for a gif this morning. Couldn't find one and it put me off writing a review. It'll be an [8], I think. It's up there with the very best at times but there are couple of properly shit bits in there and the bosses aren't much fun. It's the most fully addicted I've been to anything since maybe Tunic though.

Syph79

Tears of the Kingdom

There was some discussion on here the other day about 10/10's and perfect games. I'd say arguably this is as close as anyone has got in the adventure/RPG genre.

When the game was first released, I played it non-stop. I got to a point where it wanted me to go to the castle (like BoTW before it) and I stopped for fear that it would be ending soon. Daft, I know, but I was having such a good time I didn't want the game to end, so I started playing something else instead.

Having picked up Diablo 4 on here a few days back, I thought I'd wrap up ToTK before I get too deep into that and it didn't disappoint (or indeed end anywhere near I thought it would). It is, in my view, as good as it gets.

Stock up on your Sundelion at the end. You'll need it.

EvilRedEye

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) - This was the difficult second album for the Zelda series, replacing the previous open-world action adventure with action RPG gameplay. Playing it in 2023… You can look at it and see bits of what would later become the Souls games in here. But I think however much you try to reassess it in a modern lens, it’s just objectively worse than the original.

It isn’t great action RPG. I think there’s a section in the middle where it’s a solid action RPG. But it’s bookended by an opening that is pretty dull until you start unlocking the more powerful magic and then the content towards the end starts to feel cheap and frustrating.

I think the EXP economy is busted. It’s OK for the first few levels. Then you have to stop and grind for levels because the game becomes too hard to unlock them organically before you game over. Then at the endgame it’s best to just use the automatic level up upon completing a boss to fill out your levels. It never feels like it works properly - I think the Souls ability to pick up your EXP where you died would have actually had a huge positive impact on this.

It doesn’t look particularly great. The overworld map doesn’t look anything amazing (they removed the animation from the sea tiles from the original Famicom Disc System version because they wanted to use a cheap mapper chip apparently). The environment graphics in the side-on sections are pretty dull. It doesn’t feel like the NES being worked to the full unlike, say, SMB3. You would think they would push the boat given the success of the original Zelda but apparently not.

I do think there is a certain level of competence here. I genuinely enjoyed the middle of the game a fair bit. Once you unlock healing magic then there’s an interesting interplay between magic (which can be restored via items in dungeons) and health (which can only be restored via magic in dungeons) - it adds an interesting resource management element. The nonlinear nature of the game is also interesting - while getting to Palace 6 starts to feel a bit backtracky, it’s interesting how the world map is designed to make it relatively easy to get to the various locations from the starting point.

I think what it all comes down to really is that they made a game that no-one had really asked for and, to be honest, wasn’t especially fun. And in a modern context has dated much more badly than the original Zelda. [5]

LivDiv

LivDiv wrote:

Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2.
Back to back to back.

Edit: Sonic 3 to back

& Knuckles

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

I think what it all comes down to really is that they made a game that no-one had really asked for and, to be honest, wasn’t especially fun. And in a modern context has dated much more badly than the original Zelda. [5]

Excellent write up. “Difficult second album” feels apt - maybe they spent too much time trying to be different to the first, rather than making something fun (if familiar).

LivDiv

LivDiv wrote:

LivDiv wrote:

Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2.
Back to back to back.

Edit: Sonic 3 to back

& Knuckles

Sonic 3 & Knuckles Knuckles run all Chaos Knuckles all Super Knuckles Hyper Knuckles Knuckles.

Blue Swirl

Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch)

Still an absolute master class of game design. It did feel a bit cheaty, being able to strafe, mind.

[10]

yourfavouriteuncle

It’s the first and only remaster I’ve played where it’s still actually good in the contemporary day.

Bob

Will have to have another go at it post Zelda as I got a bit bored early doors

EvilRedEye

A couple of initial games I can be said to have completed from Atari 50:

Sprint 8 (Arcade) - This is a single-screen top-down racer. I don’t tend to like these but this one is actually weirdly mesmerising in how your car flies around the track. It feels really great once you get the hang of it. However, the gameplay is extremely rudimentary so while navigating the tracks is fun, racing the other cars doesn’t add much too it. [6]

Lunar Lander (Arcade) - I’ve played Lunar Lander style games before, I think this might be the first time I’ve played the original though. It works really well, it’s challenging, atmospheric and feels like a convincing simulation of landing a lunar module (not that I would know what landing a lunar module is like). The hardest level with the rotational rotation was a right old shit to complete. Biggest flaw is that it’s a capitalistic arcade game - while the messages for a failed landing are funny, it can be quite irritating to land quite gently only to be told you ruined the spacecraft by landing too hard and are going to die on the moon. I’m kinda left curious as to whether there are any decent single-player campaign versions of this. [7]

EvilRedEye

Watched this video and I kinda wanna play the Game Boy version now:

davyK

EvilRedEye wrote:

Lunar Lander (Arcade)

I remember playing the original cabinet. It had a big thruster control that really added to the fun - but ultimately it was a coin eating sim needing work to turn it into a game.

I've always liked the gravity/thrust style of game. Asteroids is an obvious one but I really liked Gravitar and Thrust on the 8bit micros. Solar Jetman on NES moved the genre on quite a bit with large underground complexes to explore and stuff to collect.

AndCallMeCharlie

Zelda tears of the kingdom
Didn't think I had the patience for a 100+ hour game but it never felt like a slog. On a par with playing ocarina back in the day.
[10]

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