@colonelkilgore haha yeah, there doesn't seem to be a single character that hasn't been expanded on in another game beyond their initial appearance.
I'm sort of OK at tracking things, sometimes it can take me a while and I'll be watching a show and everybody will be acting all chummy and familiar around a "new" character only for me to realise right at the end of the episode that this character took out the bins in a 5 second sequence back in season 1 or something as equally inane.
I already mentioned the MoF from phantom pain (not the MUF 😂) but another thing I must have glossed over was the brief appearance of The Boss AI in that game. I was so obsessed with Strangelove when I replayed Peace Walker that I really wanted to find out her fate so I payed extra attention in that bit of phantom pain and scoured the area for clues. Thankfully (but very sadly) her fate was suitably grim in line with the general feeling that eclipsed a lot of the story of The Phantom Pain and MGS as a whole.
So many sad characters in this series, The Boss AI, Chico & Paz (their ordeal leading up to Ground Zeroes was absolutely grim), Strangelove, the medic, Raiden, Grayfox. Always gets me in the feels
@ralphdibny so I haven’t played (or even mentioned Ground Zeroes) but I am kinda keeping it back to play ‘sometime in the future’ once I’ve played through the series and fancy a brief sojourn back through the world. I assume that it also plays identically to MGSV in terms of mechanics, which I appreciated greatly. So even though I plan on having complete the series (well the ones that are playable on either PS3, or PS4 that is) by the end of this year, I will have something tucked away in case of emergency 😎
@colonelkilgore 😂 your order makes no sense whatsoever, it's sort of coming together into a chronological order though. GZ is just like one really long Phantom Pain mission in a unique environment I think. It's literally like an hour or 2 long if you don't go in for the side ops/collectibles. It's fairly important story wise in terms of it being the bridge between Peace Walker and the Phantom Pain. It is a little bit different from TPP because it's self contained, there's a few mechanics that work differently and they focus on certain things that I barely used in Phantom Pain if they were even there at all (that slow motion aiming when spotted comes to mind).
But yeah fair enough, I'm pretty sure all the back story is in the tapes anyway. They weren't something I listened to fully when I first played but I made a point to listen to them all last year which is how I understood the links to Peace Walker/Phantom Pain a lot better.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy thanks Foxy, it was awesome all things considered... and although I'm taking a wee break (not long though, I'll be starting MGS2 in June) I can't wait to play the next one.
Also, I'm loving the little post credit dialogues (can't remember if there were any after V and PW but they were cool in 3 and 1) the last one sets up 2 pretty well from the bits I know.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I quickly understood where you were coming from about the back-tracking, it wasn't too bad though... due your vagury of your statement (of which I was appreciative) I kinda envisioned having to backtrack all the way back to the beginning sections... the actual backtrack destinations were far nearer to the end location.
Yeah 4 in particular seems to really divide the audience... I have a feeling that I'll be one of the ones who like it though as from what I gather it's the most 'out there'... and generally I quite like things which are like that.
I am a little wary of the amount of playthroughs required to Plat 2 and 4... but I've scheduled in 60 hours for 2 and 100 hours for 4 so I'll have the time at least, if not the inclination (we'll see though). I have a feeling they're both gonna be stern tests of my patented will-power.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy yeah fingers crossed that I'll come in under the 100 hour mark... and if so the excess will simply be gobbled up by what's next on the agenda (the original Infamous on PS3).
The reason I've accounted the way I have though is the minimum amount of playthroughs to achieve the Platinum is 8... and the difficulty rating for the Platinum is around a 9 out of 10. The hardest part of which involves a speed run on the hardest difficulty (Big Boss I believe) where you kill no one and raise no alerts... I already know through speaking to people who have tried (some failed and some not) that a lot of time will be gobbled up attempting that.
As I said though, if I get lucky and Plat it within 50 hours or something, it'll just bring the whole schedule forward and onto the next one.
@colonelkilgore Just to quickly chime in on the MGS talk, I feel motivated to replay the series after reading all the discussion. Perhaps some day.
MGS4 is an interesting beast. There is always a lot of focus on the crazy storyline and the long cutscenes, and although rightfully so, the gameplay is actually really ... ahem, solid. I always try to play my MGS games full stealth with minimal kills, but there are some fun mechanics buried in the game which can be utilized. This goes for all the MGS games, I guess, but in MGS4 it easy to forget the gameplay part of the equation because the story and passive cutscene watching is so pervasive.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution good to know. I'm glad I'm aware about the amount of cut-scenes etc going in... if I wasn't and all of a sudden I was 'hijacked' by like 4 45 min cutscenes during a 6 hour session I'd be frustrated but the fact I'm aware of it means I won't be too annoyed. Also, if I'm gonna playthrough the sucker atleast 8 times, I can happily skip them all from the second playththrough onwards.
I have to be honest, ever since I finished MGSV and it sunk its hooks in to the extent that I just had to buy the rest of the series... its 4 that I've been low-key the most excited for. First, it's obviously a far newer game that 1, 2, 3 & PW... but also I knew that by the time I get to 4 I'll have a pretty good idea of what the hell was going on (I mean... I loved V but I didn't have a frikkin scooby what was going on)... and then once I'd earned the 'big-picture', I'd then be ready to see how Kojima wanted to conclude it. Big Boss run aside, I'm super excited to play it.
@colonelkilgore I'm so sad I missed all the MGS discussion! Insanely good series, I've had my first experiences with 2-4 this year and it was rolling credits on 3 and the first hour of MGS4 that managed to crack my top 3 of all time almost 20 years later. Currently my MGS4 playthrough is on pause because FFXIV has consumed me, so there's a chance we might end up playing it the same time.
@TraCuz- it's all good Tra, I'm always up for chatting MGS. Yeah, I've obviously still got two massive titles to play in the series but even though I'm only just past the mid-way stage, it's definitely one of my favourite series of games.
Things can always change but right now I'd probably go Dark Souls, MGS and God of War as my top three. A few years ago GTA, Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect would've been up there but I don't get the same enjoyment out of those anymore... basically Dark Souls ruined/saved gaming for me depending on your perspective.
When I replayed MGS 4, I found it astonishing how little actual game is in there. Not that it's a bad thing by any stretch, the best bits of it are the movies and the few interactive gamey-film moments.
Now that I have some free time again, I decided to try out a few more PS3 Ps Plus games.
Truck Racer - OK, worth trying but I couldn't be bothered to continue after I failed to unlock the next championship. Better frame rate than WRC Rally at least. Also weirdly the physical version is still available to pre order from Amazon as of 20th May 2021 😂. I guess nobody pre-ordered it and they forgot to remove the listing!
Handball 16 - Well it's Handball, I mean what else is there to say. Might be good if you like handball but I don't like any (or at least many) sports so yeah. Might also be good if you know what Handball is... The retro style chopped up commentary makes me laugh, a bit, not much. "Oh that's a brilliant ball from.... Johnson ....what a save!....That's the end of the game and the score is..... 3 ..... 2. Rating = HS for hand shandy
Arkedo Series 03 Pixel - meh, it's ok. It's a platformer with very very light puzzle elements. You play as a cat going through 6 fairly long levels, longer than those in Arkedo 01 Jump anyway. It's pretty easy until you get to level 6 where the difficulty spikes hard. At least there's unlimited continues this time as well as checkpoints. Still though, I couldn't be bothered to persevere with it. Rating = O for onwards, in that I'm moving on from it and never looking back. Or am I? Maybe I'll look back if I fancy a painful death by boredom.
In other news, I purchased Zombie Driver for Switch as it was on sale for a couple of quid. I must update my spreadsheet!!
I am a bit tired of PS3 plus games so I decided to charge up my Vita to play some of them. However, while it charged I did try out 3 more PS3 games (that also happen to be on Vita) and thankfully found a gem!
Hustle Kings - I played this briefly. I think I'm a bit tired but I was quite excited to play this one as I love video game versions of angle based sports like pool and crazy golf. I really loved the pool mini game in Yakuza 0 and the mini golf in Rugrats Search for Reptar for example. Hustle Kings has a few twists and quirks and I feel like I could learn a bit of skill for real life pool (which I am shockingly bad at) but honestly I just felt the game lacked a bit of character. Or maybe I just didn't gel with the character it does have. Either way, it was OK but I wasn't blown away enough to give more of my time to it. Rating = WAS for what a shame.
Atomic Ninjas - hmmm, this one is interesting. Another smash Bros-alike with a few different gimmicks. One thing that stood out was the grappling hook which really reminded me of Worms! A quick 5 minute tutorial serves as it's "campaign", it even has a cut scene for it! Unfortunately the servers are dead, not that I'd want to spend more time with it anyway. Rating = I for interesting...
Divekick - game of the day! I wasn't expecting much for some reason but it's instantly recognisable parodies of legitimate fighting game characters struck a chord with me! I chose Kung Pao, a female equivalent of Mortal Kombat's Kung Lao. The game plays with only two buttons, one for diving and one for kicking. One hit wins the match and it's first to 5 wins. There is a story mode (arcade ladder) with the classic opening and closing cutscenes. One character (or a pair of characters) stories are suspiciously similar to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air 😂. There's actually a really interesting story behind this game if you care to look it up on Wikipedia. Rating = MB for must buy! Well for me at least, will probably pick up a steam copy from CDkeys or something!
@Bentleyma- I thought they are wicked, I particularly loved the music in Full Throttle, I've been singing/humming the tunes all day today 😂
@RogerRoger haha thanks for reading again, I just posted a few more. I told my brother about that game and he said I should order it. I am tempted but I don't think I want to, just in case, y'know, I receive a copy 😂. So weird though!
Actually I just checked eBay and sealed copies of this game actually go for like 50-60 quid, what the hell... Maybe I will order it and see what happens!
Ok three more PS plus games to write about, one on PS3 and two on Vita...
Amplitude (PS3) - it's ok, I played the campaign and whatever other songs I unlocked. This game is by Harmonix who used to make Guitar Hero. I love guitar hero but I think the soundtrack is what makes it good. This is very similar except you only have 3 buttons to hit (L1, R1 and the dreaded R2 - really? A spongy button for a rhythm game?). You also move along tracks. I dont think I really "got" the game and understood how it worked, I am sure there is more to it than just pressing 3 buttons and moving a long different instrument tracks but I couldn't really work it out. It's OK, nothing special. The songs are ok, a bit unremarkable. I hate to bag on people's creativity but I am reviewing the game so yeah, the soundtrack wasn't really my thing. I'll probably put this down as a "completed" game on my list because I did the campaign but I don't feel good about it because there were a bunch of songs I didn't unlock. Rating = F for forgettable
Super Mutant Alien Assault (PS Vita) - umm yeah, not really my thing. I guess it reminded me a bit of Extreme Exorcism (edited from CursesNChaos because I got the two games mixed up 😅) which was another PS Plus game. I played Extreme Exorcism until I nearly finished it though (I stopped due to difficulty and disinterest). This game is kind of like single screen murder rooms. Just kill everything in site and maybe do a few objectives. It's ok, bit hard for a boring game though. I only played a couple levels. I sort of liked the enemy designs. They kind of reminded me of 90s cartoons and games, somewhere between Ninja (Hero 😅)Turtles and The Real Ghostbusters. Rating = S for standard
VVVVVV (PS Vita) - holy shiznits, what a game! I really wasn't expecting much at all. I really am not big on indie games, especially ones that use retro graphics - I've explained before that they are aping old games but they are never even close to being as good. But yeah, this game. Cripes on a cream cracker it's amazing! This has got to be one of the best 2D platformers I have ever played and that genre is my jam. I am normally harsh on the genre because I love it so much so I only ever really get into the "best" games like DKC and the Mario games up to Mario World. It's hard for me to get into indie platformers because I can never love the gimmick they introduce, something like 10 second Ninja sticks out as a game I really didn't rate at all. But honestly, this is the best 2D platformer I've played since Ori and the Blind Forest and Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) before that!
It's tough but not unfair. The gimmick in this game is that when you jump, you fall to the ceiling. So you can't jump exactly, you flick between the ceiling and the ground which makes for some buttery smooth platforming action. The controls are really really tight. It just works so well. The characters ooze charm from every orifice (uhh what did I just say? 😅). And the soundtrack, the soundtrack is just amazing. I loved basically every tune that played. The main theme that kinda gets mixed up in a few different songs sounds a lot like the street fighter 2 theme so I'm not surprised that I loved it.
There's probably a metroidvania-lite aspect to it in that there is a big map to explore but you don't get the items that open new areas that's common to that genre though - everything is explorable from the get go. Ori was very similar except it did have the items. Ori was the first metroidvania I ever played all the way through and it softened me to the perceivably impenetrable genre. Plus both Ori and VVVVVV (that's 6 Vs!) are platformers at their hearts.
Also for some reason there is a sad elephant that takes up four screens and flashes different colours in an a seizure fit of psychedelic WTF-ness. I didn't screen shot all 4 screens but I tried to screen shot the different colours on the head. The colours are almost imperceptible during play though because it flashes by so quick.
So I should clarify that it's a platformer where you go from screen to screen rather than the screen scrolling with you. So some bits are very tricky as you have to remember exactly where to hit the edge of the screen to come out safely on the other side. Here is a particularly tricky part that reminded me of one of the later levels in Battletoads (NES). I've ordered it from top to bottom, so scroll to the bottom pic and you will see the trinket you have to collect being blocked by a tiny nub taunting you with the fact that you just can't jump over it. You have to jump and guide your fall all the way to the top screen without hitting any spikes on the way, hit the platform at the very top and jump quickly off it because it dissolves on touch and fall all the way back down to the bottom!
But, I managed to do it!!! Took me about 3 hours to learn the path but I bloody well did it! And it was so very very satisfying...
Ok, so now I come to the hard part. Should I buy this game? I've said it's one of the best games that I've never played before but the thing is with tricky platformers, you are never keen to go back and put yourself through that again. It's fun, frustrating and rewarding while it lasts but that emotional rollercoaster is often a one time deal, for people like me at least. Can I put myself through its roughly 5-6 hour run time again?
I think I will buy it, maybe on a different platform, not sure. But for now my Rating for it is = WBR for will be remembered! Fondly, I might add!
@RogerRoger 😂 I've ordered it. I highly doubt it will ever arrive but could be quite funny if it did.
Haha maybe they have used Must Buy, I'll have to step up my game! It's becoming unmanageable because I'm forgetting which ratings I've already used and I want them to all be unique.
I've done another game that stuck the landing and then some (review above). It's easily the best game I've played so far on this mission of mine and one of the best platformers I've ever played. Short sweet and difficult, but not unfairly so. It was a blast!
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