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Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Posts 1,381 to 1,400 of 2,398

Jackpaza0508

He/Him

Ralizah

@Jackpaza0508 A lot of people dislike Zelda's english va, and I can kinda see it, but I still liked her interpretation of the role. Then again, as a fellow American, fake foreign accents don't bother me nearly as much as they bother a lot of non-Americans.

As for the story, it's another contentious aspect of the game. I actually really like how it tethered the main narrative to optional exploration missions, as it leans into the game's focus on design freedom. In general, I tend to think that story-telling-heavy open world games, like The Witcher 3, would often be better off as more linear experiences, instead of spacing out the story bits that everyone plays for with a ton of padding.

I agree it was an impressive effort by Nintendo. With that said, it's not a trick they can repeat any time soon. It'll be interesting to see if Nintendo can improve on their game design with subsequent Zelda sequels, or if future entries will be swallowed by BotW's shadow in much the same way past 3D Zeldas were often unfavorably compared to Ocarina of Time.

Definitely your best contribution thus far!

I'm guessing BotW2 is high up on your list of upcoming games?

@themcnoisy A lot of older 3D games continue to shine despite the increasingly archaic nature of their design, but I feel like old fighting games, like old racing games, are more susceptible to just becoming... outdated. Interesting purely from a historical point of view, or for a brief nostalgia trip for increasingly old gamers who probably loved them as children.

Annual sports series like Madden are the worst, though, IMO. They become outdated, unloved trash the moment a new entry comes out.

[Edited by Ralizah]

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

themcnoisy

@RogerRoger it's in preparation for VF5 remake. VF5 is great, well worth a go although it was 2 generations back. The latest Soul Calibur and Tekken games are better for sure so looking forward to seeing what the Yakuza team have added.

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

Jackpaza0508

@RogerRoger @Ralizah Glad you guys enjoyed my review! I was gonna review Mario Odyssey but I finished BOTW very recently and thought I'd give it a review. Yeah, the BOTW sequel is very high on my anticipated games list

He/Him

Th3solution

@themcnoisy @RogerRoger Thanks for reading, guys. It was an enjoyable game and could have been great if it just had a little more meat on the bone. In the end it was a tad shallow. But still completely worth a few hours just to have enjoyed the premise.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Jackpaza0508

So I've just written my best review. The one that has taken me the longest out of every game I've ever reviewed. Where can I go from here? I could go from my 4th favourite to my 3rd favourite game and review Spider-Man 2018. Nah, that'll take too long....

Ah. I've got it.

Game: Peppa Pig: The Game
Played on: Wii

I've spent most of my time reviewing a good game, why don't I review an abysmal one instead! Recently, I was looking through my wii game collection and found this... thing. I had this game when I was very young and remembered liking it. However, my tastes have changed very much. So here's my review of one of the worst games I've ever played. Peppa. Bloody. Pig.

The Gameplay
Peppa Pig: The game is a minigame collection for very young children. It has games such as "Pop bubbles" "Flip pancakes" "Build snowman" "Hide and seek" "Colouring" and "Make a parrot say things". Almost every time you play one of these games, when you press the A button, the game counts the button press but the action on screen doesn't happen until a few seconds later. The only fun game on this... thing is happy mrs chicken. In this game, you spam the A button to make a chicken lay eggs while a fart noise plays every time she lays one. This is the only good one as the controls are never delayed. The worst game has to be the pancake flipper. In the game, you pour pancake mix into a pan, flip the pancake, land it on the pan and put it on the plate. This would be fine but sometimes, you flip the pancake and it goes flying while sometimes, you flip it and it barely goes anywhere! Also, the pancakes burn if you don't flip them and for some children, it might be hard to know when a pancake is ready since toddlers are dumb. In the bubbles game, peppa and George are naked in a bath and it made me very uncomfortable when I first saw it.
Untitled

The Graphics
This game released in 2009 and since it's the late 2000s, you'd think it would be in widescreen, right? WRONG. It's in 4:3. That's probably because this is actually a port of a DS game. The animations are also very rigid and stiff. The show's animation is actually fine so it's a shame they didn't just get the animators from the show to make the cutscenes. Seriously, look up a longplay of the game and look at the animations.
Untitled

The music
All the music in this game is terrible. Every song is just a terrible 10 second midi loop and when you play the games for a while, the songs become annoying to the point where you swear you're going insane.

Conclusion
Did this review go quickly? It should have as there really isn't much I can say about this game. Overall, Peppa Pig: The Game is a terrible DS port and just a terrible game.

Pros
Happy Mrs. Chicken is kinda fun?

Cons
Grating music
Noticable control delay
Terrible, rigid animations
The pancake game. Just, the pancake game.

⭐⭐☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
2/10 Terrible

why did I write this LOL

[Edited by Jackpaza0508]

He/Him

Th3solution

@RogerRoger Wonderful ME2 review and very thought provoking. Reading it made me analyze my memories of the game, which I think now in retrospect after seeing your take, was highly tainted by not having played the first game before it. In fact I’ve never played the first game. And it might have been my first BioWare game ever, not counting first Dragon Age Origins which I jumped off after the first couple hours. So I think my adoration for ME2 may have been the novelty of the game, despite the fact that the ornamentation of narrative choice might have actually been more illusion than I realized at the time. Coming off of a diet of more narratively linear games, I don’t think the extent of funneling through to one basic set of storyline and social relationships was clear to me at the time.

I have fond memories of the game. If I ever get around to it, I’ll definitely be playing ME1 first and I’ll have the experience of narrative choice games like Detroit Become Human, Until Dawn, and Persona 5 to compare branching storyline features (or lack therof). Look forward to hearing how you get along with the ‘piece de resistance’ of ME3. Are you going to roll straight into it or do you have ME burn-out yet?

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Ralizah

@Jackpaza0508 The Nintendo Wii was filled with... unique experiences. Although, honestly, I'd be more surprised if a Peppa Pig game turned out to be competent at all, lol.

@RogerRoger Wonderful takedown. I haven't played it since it first came out, but you hit on almost every element I hated about this title: the dumbed down RPG mechanics, the more shootery game design, the weirdly unsatisfying structure that forces you to play it in a certain way, the lame resource-mining minigame, etc. It's good to hear about the DLC, though! I've never played a single piece of DLC from this series. Your relationship with this title reminds me a bit of my own relationship to Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, where I strongly disliked elements of the base game but felt like the excellent post-launch DLC support at least partially redeemed it, in some respects.

The artificial player choice issue is one that plagues a lot of games from this era, IMO. And, yeah, when only one sets of choices allows you to see broad swaths of the third game, there really only is one set of correct choices to adopt, which makes that element of the game worthless.

It's nice to hear someone else point out the clear issues with this game, because there was a long time where you couldn't do that without being considered a sort of contrarian. Hell, the orthodoxy, even today, is that ME2 is the true classic of the trilogy, surrounded by two lesser experiences.

I'll be sure to keep your recommendation about which DLC to play last in mind when I get around to this collection.

Amazing job with the review, as always. It sounds like you really love ME3. Maybe I missed out by skipping out on that game when this one burned me.

[Edited by Ralizah]

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

Th3solution

@RogerRoger I certainly did play ME3, and enjoyed it just fine. I even spent a little time with the online multiplayer, if I recall correctly.

My ME3 experience was also positive and I never quite understood the backlash about the ending. Perhaps since I hadn’t seen narrative choice and alternative endings done extravagantly before then i wasn’t disappointed. I always meant to go back for the DLC (The Citadel, is it called?) which was BioWare’s own great redemption story in how well they recaptured the good graces of the fandom who were bitter about the ending.

Of course, unfortunately, those good graces were quickly dashed to pieces when Andromeda underwhelmed. They’re still working on their redemption arc part II.

But yes, I liked ME3, though I never quite felt the awe and wonder that I did with ME2. But, as you say, there is a ‘first exposure’ bias that might explain it. I’m sure when I read your ME3 review then I’ll be swayed to reconsider the accuracy of my rose-tinted memories and elevate ME3’s status in my mind.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Jackpaza0508

@RogerRoger Thanks for the feedback man! Glad you enjoyed my review of peppa pig: the... "thing." I definitely enjoyed writing it! Great review of ME2 as well! However, despite my profile picture, I've never played a mass effect game so I can't agree or disagree with any opinions haha.

Btw, I'm working on a Spider-Man review! Stay tuned for that!

He/Him

Jackpaza0508

@RogerRoger I don't have any plans to play ME since it just doesn't really interest me much. Someone posted the gif of the head spin in the comments of the legendary edition reveal and I thought it was really damn funny so I made it my profile picture. Btw, the spidey review won't be coming for a few weeks since I have a lot more to say about it than botw.

[Edited by Jackpaza0508]

He/Him

Ralizah

[Edited by Ralizah]

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

HallowMoonshadow

Probably shouldn't have read that Mass Effect 2 piece of yours @RogerRoger as you know I haven't played any of 'em/know diddly squat about the series beyond it's revered staus (and have yet to read the one you did for the first game too or anythimg else that's been done here for a while (my bad))...

... But I really enjoyed it and how at odds the design seems to be with the freedom of player choice (You in particular) and streamlining the space adventures of Commander Shepard. The DLC sounds good though from what you've described and the shot in the arm the game needed to correct the lack of choice.

I wonder if that has anything to do with Dragon Age Origins only coming out only a couple of months before it (and presumably the second DA already in production by this point too) that forced them to cut things? Maybe having to make ME2 run on PS3 added a spanner into the works too?

As always you have some cracking screenshots to accompany it and I like the banner you have going for both pieces too, really makes them stand out and look even more professional.

Really good stuff Rog

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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Officially left Pushsquare 25/12/2025~

Ralizah

@Th3solution "Bound" is so under-the-radar that I somehow even missed your review of it when it was posted. My bad.

I just looked up the trailer for it, and, yeah, it really does look like Journey with a girl doing ballet through it! Your thoughts on the gameplay kind of echo my issue with Journey in general: it was pretty, but shallow, and felt more like an art piece than a game. I think that's probably an issue I'd have with most of these art-house Playstation indie platformers. Although it's nice to hear that the developer tried to incorporate some replayability into it.

It sounds, at least, like Bound succeeded in engaging you with what narrative there was.

Good contribution, as always! And I really like seeing people talk about some of these less-known games. I'd likely have never heard of this either if I hadn't seen your review.

@RogerRoger Thanks! Yeah, the genius of Tetris is how its gameplay can be recontextualized pretty dramatically without feeling forced, and how its minimalist, and almost abstract, presentation allows for different developers to add their own unique flavor to it. Despite being based on the same game, titles like Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect couldn't possibly feel more different. And while I'm not an amazing player, the basics of the game have always jived with me in a way many other puzzle games haven't (I've never been able to get beyond the first two levels of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine; I did, in fact, muscle my way through the Puyo Puyo stages in Puyo Puyo Tetris after forcing myself to sit down and learn the basics of the game, but something about the gameplay has just never clicked with my brain!)

SMB 35's delisting is indeed, IMO, no great loss for future generations, and it's only interesting insofar as it'll forever be that "one weird battle royale version of NES Mario that Nintendo made disappear forever after six months!" That's kinda reflected in the screenshots. I didn't screenshot the results screen to gloat: it was literally the only snap I bothered taking of the game at all. I'd be a little sad about SMB 35 disappearing if its existence and gameplay wasn't already heavily documented on Youtube. It'll be a MUCH sadder day for me when my PS4 hard drive eventually fails and I'm never able to play P.T. again, IMO.

The Pac-Man game is absolutely bandwagon-y, and it probably shouldn't work as well as it does. Tetris 99 feels like a genuine evolution of the Tetris formula, whereas Pac-Man 99... yeah, even trying to describe it was kinda rough, because a lot of the gameplay mechanics sound very strange and random, with trains of sleeping ghosts and all that. I actually was pretty down on it when it first came out, but the more I learned about how much the new gameplay mechanics alter the flow of the experience, the more I came to accept that, as stupid an idea as it was, they somehow made Pac-Man 99 work out. Now I'm just kinda hoping they keep coming out with these absurd battle royale versions of old NES games. They beat the increasingly pitiful ROM dumps of random NES/SNES games every six months or so when Nintendo remembers they're supposed to be updating the classic console apps.

The games in my next two pieces are also going to be somewhat non-traditional as well.

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond!

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

Thrillho

It’s been a while since I’ve been in this thread as I struggle to keep up with it while flitting on the site on my phone but had to check in after @RogerRoger warned me of his impending ME2 review.

He’s now on the list.

Thrillho

Ralizah

@Thrillho Didn't know you were such a big ME2 fan, Chris Jericho!

@RogerRoger Nah, none of these games are in any danger of disappearing. Tetris is basically video game cancer and will multiply indefinitely until the end of time. Pac-Man less so, but the original is always in some sort of retro collection, and then there's usually a number of weird spinoffs that release every once in a while.

T-spinning is when you fit the T-shape tetrimino into places it shouldn't otherwise be able to go by rotating it in tight spaces. In Tetris games with a focus on scoring, it's usually worth doing because the games like to reward players for pulling it off, but it has always felt like a bit of a worthless flex to me. Although, in the hands of a master, it's just another tool in the box, so to speak, and can be used to clear multiple lines at once.

But yeah, any sort of combo preparation in Puyo Puyo basically breaks my brain. Something about it just deeply confuses me. Although I've gone from being almost totally incompetent at it to being able to set up basic combos after playing Puyo Puyo Tetris. Which, I found, is forgiving, because when I booted up the Game Gear version of Mean Bean Machine afterward, I still got stomped. Oh well!

Yeah, I think PSOne is retro gaming at this point. 80% of what I play is fairly modern, but there are some older games I love returning to from time to time. Tetris, Pac-Man, Galaga, and Arkanoid basically never get old.

Actually, I can't believe I hadn't thought of that! Battle royale Arkanoid/Breakout! I'd play that so much it'd be disgusting.

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

Thrillho

@RogerRoger A lot of what you said about the context of the game was interesting and I am curious to see whether I still feel the same about it now.

I’ve always been slightly reluctant to replay Witcher 3 for fear that it doesn’t play as well as I remember (well, that and the incredibly long play time).

Thrillho

Ralizah

@RogerRoger I'm glad they finally added proper same-sex romance support in this one. Even if it really is just window-dressing, that's also an important aspect of art. And life, really. Take a room, remove all sense of decoration and customization from it, and you have a perfectly functional area of internal space that nevertheless has something of a prison cell quality to it.

You really seem like you love this game to death! It's good to hear about the better balance of RPG aspects, and the way it makes choices more meaningful by restricting them to important story moments. And yeah, if the game must be a cover shooter, it's better to be as good a cover shooter as it can be.

Well-written as always. The enthusiasm is infectious, for sure.

Considering how dependent this experience apparently is on previous games in the series, it really makes it all the weirder (bit of a historical digression here) that EA chose to release ME3 by itself on the Wii U around that console's launch, instead of the entire trilogy.

You really blasted through these games!

[Edited by Ralizah]

Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)

PSN: Ralizah

Jackpaza0508

He/Him

Jackpaza0508

@mookysam I've actually played a lot of the games I missed out on through stuff like the PS Plus collection! Specifically, inFAMOUS, Ratchet and Clank and PaRappa. I still have yet to play Jak and daxter, Sly Cooper and Spyro but I will get to them eventually.

He/Him

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