Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

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2004, a year I actually remember! Worryingly, this was also the year that Millie Bobby Brown was born. Now that makes me feel old. At least Strictly Come Dancing first aired in 2004, the cultural highlight of the year. Oh, and Shrek 2, I guess. Most of my memories of that year involved the GameCube to be fair, with my love of JRPGs ignited by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Mega Man X: Command Mission. One game that I missed out on was FIFA 2005, as the concept of yearly iterative sequels was lost on my tiny, unformed mind. I was still playing FIFA 2004 after all; it was a great game and still plays well. So what did I miss out on with this game?

FIFA 2005 unfortunately lacks the bombast of the last couple of titles’ live-action openings, with just a little minute-long intro that’s been made in-engine. The menu is also less interesting, with a bog-standard grassy JPG design across menus. Graphics in general are mostly similar to the last game, although with a slight increase in detail to the players’ faces, including elements such as Cristiano Ronaldo wearing earrings. At least the soundtrack is a highlight, with diverse artists such as The Streets, Scissor Sisters, and Franz Ferdinand included. There are other little touches throughout the game as well, like crowd chants unique to each team, newspaper headlines throughout the season incorporating real papers, and an in-game store in which you can spend points earned through achievements on rewards such as night variants of stadia, classic songs for the soundtrack, balls, alternate kits, and Pierluigi Collina as a referee.

With FIFA 2004 providing such a great base in terms of mechanics, you might not think there was much for this game to improve on. This is mostly proven true, but there are still some welcome gameplay tweaks such as the new first touch system, which allows you to throw off defenders with incisive touches of the ball as it comes to your feet. Holding down Circle also makes you chase down opposing players, functioning fairly similarly to Pro Evolution Soccer’s defending mechanics. All in all, gameplay is very fun and relatively easy to pick up, while allowing for creativity through passing, dribbling, and skill moves.

Career mode has been overhauled again in this game, with it transformed into a multi-season dynasty involving a created manager (mine by the name of Reginald Sausage) which encourages you to move between teams and upgrade your backroom staff. For this reason, you can only accept job offers from fairly rubbish teams for starters, aiming to build your reputation before you’re offered the bigger jobs. This did throw off my plan of playing a single season with Celtic as I did with the other games however. Instead, I had to play a single season with Hibs before I was offered the Celtic job after finishing a respectable third place. Unfortunately, this meant I played the 2005/2006 season with Celtic, and Chris Sutton had been sold by the AI in the meantime. Let’s just pretend that I played the correct season with Celtic!

In the real 2004/2005 season, Celtic played their final season under Martin O’Neill. This was a bit of a frustrating season, with yet another title decided on the final match which went Rangers’ way. Celtic also exited the Champions League in the group stage, finishing bottom of a group which featured AC Milan, Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk. At least they won the Scottish Cup. Transfers during the summer included the loss of Henrik Larsson and Johan Mjallby, two key players that Celtic missed dearly. They weren’t even replaced with quality players, with Juninho arriving from Middlesborough on what resembled an extended holiday, and Henri Camara talking a big game as Larsson’s supposed successor but ultimately disappointing everyone. So history really did have to be righted this year.

Upon taking over the Celtic team, I immediately invested my upgrade points into the financial team in order to generate enough money to elevate a slightly depleted squad. With the purchase of veteran Luis Figo and a rather young Cristiano Ronaldo, the squad certainly looked like an improved side. The results came thick and fast too, with a draw against Hearts in October being the only points dropped by Celtic in the first half of the season. To be honest, the league was a bit of a cakewalk, with Shaun Maloney finding the net with silky dribbling moves on many occasions, and John Hartson nodding the ball home over and over, while basically resembling a head on a stick. Stiliyan Petrov also held his own amongst the big-money talents of Ronaldo and Figo. Signing Clarence Seedorf in January was the final nail in the coffin and meant that no team could really touch my squad. I did actually attempt to sign players such as Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry, but apparently the quality of football in Scotland was not up to their standard. Their loss.

The real challenge this season was the Champions League. After qualifying with a win against Club Brugge, we were placed in a group with Newcastle, PSV, and Liebherr GAK, an Austrian team which went bankrupt a decade ago. While the trip to Austria was a fairly easy one, we did run into some issues against Newcastle and only managed to scrape a 1-1 draw against them in the first leg. It was nice to play in a real recreated stadium though, with St James’ Park being one of the stadia recreated in this game. PSV were also a bit more difficult, with future Celtic player Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink showing his quality. We did manage to finish top of our group however, ensuring a second-round matchup against Borussia Dortmund. They also had a recreated stadium, with Westfalenstadion looking rather impressive in-game. The knockout rounds consisting of two legs does take some of the tension out of these matches however, as there isn’t the same desperate struggle that you see in the final of the Champions League. While Dortmund were much more difficult opposition than any Scottish team, Celtic proved themselves the better team and moved into the quarter finals.

Honestly, the quarter final against Athletic Bilbao and semi final against Parma were fairly uneventful wins for our machine-like squad. It was the final against Arsenal that was the best match of the season by a mile. The last three matches of the season were all played within a week of each other and consisted of a final Old Firm in the league, the match against Arsenal and then the Scottish Cup final against Dundee United. Rangers were firstly swept aside to ensure that we remained unbeaten the entire season, which was a pretty solid accomplishment. Then, the match against Arsenal at Highbury finally arrived. While my squad was a talented bunch, Arsenal had one of the best teams in the world that season and proved to be a much sterner opponent than I had faced all season. Two goals from Thierry Henry in the first half meant that I had a mountain to climb in the second half. We were even missing John Hartson through injury so the outcome seemed inevitable. Thankfully, Maloney found the net twice in quick succession to keep the two teams level going into extra time. In the 114th minute, Ronaldo darted forwards and slotted it past Jens Lehmann to give Celtic a slim lead. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually shouted out loud with joy while sitting in front of a CRT TV holding a DualShock 2, just like I was a child again.

The Scottish Cup final against Dundee United was but a formality, with Celtic riding high after their historical win of the Champions League. This was now a treble-winning squad, which was more than I ever could have hoped for! The season drew to a close, and with it, my playthrough of FIFA 2005. It’s yet another brilliant entry in the series actually, even with the slightly irritating career mode not allowing you to just choose a team. It plays smoothly and even has some basic progression systems through the upgrade mechanics. It definitely lives up to FIFA 2004 anyway. I'll leave you with a triumphant Reginald Sausage talking to the press!

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Been a long while since I was in the mood to do a big write up for a game I've completed, but the mood struck today.

Samurai Maiden (Steam) - 3rd person action title that sees ordinary high school girl Tsumugi transported to the Sengoku era where she's told she's the descendant of "the Priestess of Harmony" & is tasked with stopping the revival of the Demon Lord. She is joined by a trio of Shinobi consisting of Iyo, Hagane, & Komimi.

Gameplay:

• Surprisingly it's not as much of a Warriors clone as first glance would seem to suggest. Half of the main levels are linear affairs consisting of battle arenas separated by light platforming segments (each level usually has 3-5 chests tucked away as well, which either contain permanent inventory upgrades or concept art). The battle segments usually feature 1 (or more) mid-boss enemies who must be defeated before you can move on (they're usually joined by waves of mooks who'll constantly respawn until you defeat the mid-bosses)
  
• The other half of the main story levels are straight up just boss fights (these MAY have one treasure chest to collect right outside the boss arena). The first few are just slightly harder mid-boss style encounters that you'd be used to seeing elsewhere, but most are one on one fights against ever stronger versions of the same two unique characters.
• Tsumugi is the only playable character, with the other 3 girls effectively being items/special attacks you can (and are encouraged to) swap on the fly. Iyo can throw a wave of shuriken at enemies in front of you & can use items (she has to be active for you to use healing items, for example), Hagane has a straight line piercing attack & has a grappling hook like arm that can be used to swing across large gaps & pull objects/enemies closer to you, while Komimi has a hammer attack that acts as crowd control if you're surrounded & can pick up bombs in the environment to be thrown at enemies/switches (these come up surprisingly little though, especially as the game goes on).
• You'll want to make sure you're using all the girls though, as increasing your affinity with them unlocks heart to heart conversations which usually grant you new abilities (Iyo's enhance basic attacks/combos, Hagane's strong attacks/combos, & Komimi's defensive abilities like parrying/arial recovery) or increase their special attack guage. Side missions (known as "Bubble Pockets") that can only be taken on with a specific girl equipped are also unlocked this way. At some point you unlock the ability to link spirits with the other girls for a limited time power up. The higher your affinity with a specific girl the more powerful this state becomes (and the more intimate the power up sequence becomes, with the girls kissing at max affinity).
• Speaking of "Bubble Pockets", these are side missions that are heavily platform/puzzle heavy (usually centered around the abilities of the girl they focus on) and must be completed before obtaining any further affinity perks. If you get a girl's affinity to level 40, you can't get that heart to heart's perk if you haven't yet completed their "Bubble Pocket" that unlocked when you got them to level 30, for example.
  
• The game has 27 main story missions & 15 side missions (5 for each partner), and once complete you can replay them on Hard & then Demonic difficulties. I could be wrong, but it seems like the only unlockables are even more weapons (which when leveled up will undoubtedly be more useful in the higher difficulties) & extra concept art (the harder versions of a level have their own chests to find). There very well could be an alternate ending or something for all I know, but I doubt I'm going to go through all the trouble to find out.
• The in game currency dropped by enemies is called Inga and is primarily used to level up your weapons. In addition to increasing basic attack power, increasing your weapon's level also unlocks passive buffs at certain thresholds (such as increased damage to stunned foes, etc.), and also increases your HP pool (your HP amount is tied to the level of the weapon you currently have equipped, so keep that in mind). You can also level up the weapons of the other girls (which increases the effectiveness of their special attack, & unlocks other passive buffs, such as increased Inga drop rates). You can also buy new outfits for the girls, but so far this seems limited to pallet swaps of their regular outfits so I haven't indulged (the swimsuits you see in some screenshots are DLC).

Story:

• Probably lacking the budget for much in the way of traditional cutscenes, much of the story is relayed in the form of a visual novel like format at the start, sometimes in the middle, and at the end of levels (plus the heart to heart events). These can go on & on (especially the ones attached to "Bubble Pocket" missions) and while dialogue attached to the main story can be interesting enough, the girls will often talk fluff elsewhere though (ghost stories, food, etc.). I believe these can be skipped though, and you're not subjected to them during replays or when retrying a boss.
• Just to note in case it's of interest, when the game launched all mentions of "High School" in the dialogue were localized to "Gen Z" in the English text, however (at least on Steam) this has been fixed in a patch. It was never a big deal, but sometimes it was clear that she was talking about "Gen Z" like it was a place (one conversation discussing the transition from Elementary, Middle, High School, to University was localized to discussing the differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, & Boomers), so ultimately the dialogue does flow a bit better with it fixed.
  

Graphics:

• While boss levels & "Bubble Pockets" are constructed of reused assets aplenty, the longer main story levels are actually pretty uniquely bespoke. It can actually be a pretty nice looking game at times too when it wants to be, with lots of colorful particle effects both when defeating enemies & naturally occurring in the environment (like sakura petals falling or embers rising from magma). There is even some fine detail like Tsumugi's uniform becoming slightly transparent when wet (such as a rainy level or when you run in water), or the characters becoming visibly scuffed up/dirty upon taking so many hits.
  
  
• Of course given the nature of the game there are some ecchi elements as well (such as the aforementioned transparent uniform effect) which of course are of a very niche interest & thus are worth bringing up as a warning. The most blatant of these elements is the fact that the game flagrantly flashes Tsumugi's panties with almost every action (particularly during jumps or dodge rolls), though there's also the standard "jiggle physics" you can expect from such fare as well (this surprisingly applies to the character's behinds as well, though only becomes noticeable in the swimsuit DLC AFAIK). That said the game blacks out the underside of skirts during photo mode, so it does prevent players from being too juvenile with the feature.

Overall:

• It's obviously not on the level of a Ninja Gaiden or DMC in terms of quality in the genre, but as far as ecchi games go it's a stronger contender than I'm used to from such fare. While the combat isn't as slick as in the better Senran Kagura games, I think the platforming/puzzle elements sprinkled in here & there make up for it enough to be a worthy competitor.
  

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Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Review) - A snow spangled spectacle.

I absolutely love 2018’s Spider-Man on PS4. The Insomniac developed title is my favourite first-party game from the last generation, beating out the likes of God of War and The Last of Us. To this day it remains the only game for which I have earned the Platinum trophy.

So when Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was announced in the summer of 2020, I was overjoyed. A spin-off adventure where you get to play as Miles with his own signature flair to the combat? Hell yeah!

I finally got my chance to play Miles Morales back in June and from moment number one I was sucked right back into things. Insomniac has hit a pretty high bar once again with gorgeous visuals, an intriguing narrative, and some of the best combat in a third-person video game.

But it’s not all praise and applause for this game because at times Miles Morales stumbles, and to an extent much greater than Peter Parker’s 2018 adventure.

Miles Morales is set in the same Manhattan from the first game. But considering that this game is a spin-off - essentially a Spider-Man 1.5 - I will let it pass. Insomniac however does add something new to the cityscape in this game: snow.

Miles Morales takes place during wintertime and Manhattan looks absolutely gorgeous in white. The almost greyscale ground floor of the city provides the perfect contrast to Miles’ striking fluorescent bioelectric powers.

Insomniac keep up the visual splendour during the more intense parts of the game too. Fight scenes explode with colour as each individual animation from the falling snow to exploding lights brings even more bonanza to battle. The cinematics are exceptional too, both in their cinematography and graphical prowess.

However all these marvellous animations during combat lead to a steady stream of frame drops during intense fist fights. Usually these hitches only bring a momentary pause to gameplay, but at times can lead to halts of multiple seconds as my jet-engine of a PS4 struggles to keep pace.

Frame rate drops are also constant while web swinging in camouflage mode. Luckily the player is never required to do such a manoeuvre but the game’s overall optimisation still leaves a lot to be desired.

The UI in this game is a tale of two halves. The HUD during gameplay looks stylish and sleek. Everything looks a lot more modern and futuristic in comparison to Peter’s HUD from the 2018 game which fits the tone considering Miles is a younger main character.

Where the UI falters is in the menus. For some incomprehensible reason, Insomniac decided that, since Miles Morales is first and foremost a console game, it would be a good idea to make the players navigate the menus using a cursor. While the cursor itself wasn’t too small and never caused that much frustration, why couldn’t it just be a normal menu navigable with the D-pad?

Now for the best part of the game: the combat. Just like Spider-Man 2018, the combat in Miles Morales is goddamn amazing. There is clear and noticeable impact between Miles’ fists and the enemies you are attacking, ensuring the combat never feels floaty.

Instead of the wide variety of gadgets Peter used in the first-game, Miles’ arsenal is more focused on his powers of bioelectricity (called Venom) and invisibility. There is a small but rewarding skill tree to invest skill points into, giving you cool new moves and abilities the more you play.

With three branches of Combat, Venom, and Invisibility skills, you can choose where to invest based on your personal play-style. However since skill points are quick to come by, it is likely you would be able to max out the entire tree by the end of a playthrough.

If you were a fan of the gadgets from the first game, you can rest easy because they are not all gone. Miles has 4 basic but useful ones to play with: the classic Web Shooter, Holo-Drone, Remote Mine, and Gravity Well. This strikes a good balance where Miles has his own unique and brand-new abilities for the player to use, while also retaining the tactical side of the first-game with these 4 gadgets.

Miles’ combat (and web swinging) animations are also quite different to Peter’s. They take up a more expressive and wild nature, slotting nicely into the theme of Miles being inexperienced to the ways of a superhero. Some of the finisher animations are especially cool to witness for the first time and never got old during my time with the game.

What is odd though is how Miles already knows a lot of the moves Peter had to learn during the course of the first-game. A short training montage at the start of the game would’ve helped nicely tie up this loose end but alas it is just a minor nitpick.

Furthermore, enemy variety is excellent in this game. By the end of the Spider-Man 2018, the enemies you faced got a bit samey. In this game however they always felt fresh, large part due to the effort Insomniac put into crafting new and interesting foes for you to face and small part due to this games considerably short runtime.

Two minor nitpicks to end this section. The quick time events in this game (and there are a lot, just like Spider-Man 2018) have all the splendour they need but lack much interactivity. Button prompts are too safe and don’t adequately punish the player for being too slow.

Moreover, I just found Miles Morales to be really easy and not at all challenging. From all the time I spent with Spider-Man 2018 - from my first playthrough, platinum run, and DLC time - I knew I had a pretty good grasp of the combat. So before I started Miles Morales, I bumped the difficulty up to Spectacular - which is essentially the equivalent of Hard.

And I died a grand total of three tiles in the game: once because I ran up the side of a building and couldn’t see a brute with an energy sword at the top, and twice during the final boss fight. The game does throw a lot of enemies at you quite often, but once you get the hang of dodging when your Spidey sense goes blue, it becomes quite a cakewalk.

When it comes to the open-world activities and side content, I think Miles Morales does some things better than the first game and some things worse. First of all, it approaches this side of things differently to the first game.

The side quests are something Miles Morales does well, and noticeably better than the first game. There seem to be more of them, and the stories are more fleshed out than ever before. In Spider-Man 2018, I was innately interested in only a couple of side missions, while the others were done solely when I needed more XP or in my platinum hunt.

But in Miles Morales, I actually wanted to do these side missions because their plots were just so much more interesting. They revolved around characters you meet throughout the game, which gives you a personal motive for actually helping them out.

Out in the open-world though, Miles Morales follows the same blueprint laid out by 2018’s Spider-Man game. There are collectibles to find, enemy camps to clear out, and challenges to complete (in the first game they were laid out by the Taskmaster; this time they are Peter’s doing).

There are also crimes and world events to complete, which are provided to you through an app on Miles’ phone called FNSM (Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man). The world events are triggered by performing various actions around Manhattan, and reward you with small amounts of XP and some activity tokens.

Alongside these events see the return of crimes. Except this time there are only 11 across the city. You get a single token from these crimes. Crimes were the most plentiful open-world feature from the first game and I actually quite liked them.

They gave you an incentive to stop swinging and engage in some combat every now and then, while also providing you with tokens. And you had to do a serious amount of them before you finally stopped receiving tokens. I think many people will prefer this new system for open-world stuff but I have a soft side for the old one.

At the start of the game, after an initial fight with Rhino, Peter informs Miles that he is heading to Symkaria to help MJ in her journalistic work. Miles is now, temporarily, the only Spider-Man New York has. The base sets up a story of Miles’ coming of age, and how he matures into the hero the city needs.

It’s a solid narrative, one that pits a large energy corporation called Roxxon against a pro-environment rebel group called the Underground. Insomniac weaves in characters from Miles’ personal life into the larger plot, such as his old friend Phin as the leader of the Underground, his Uncle Aaron as the Prowler, and his mother Rio as runner for city council - whose electoral campaign serves as a backdrop for the entire game.

What is lacking is a large cast of villains for Miles to come up against but given the smaller scope of this title, the shortcomings in this aspect are a little more understandable.

Insomniac also pulls of an MCU-esque move of having a duo of superhero and best friend, with Miles and Ganke a striking portrait of Peter and Ned from the latest movies. Overall the plot is good, but kinda funny facial animations and some questionable dialogue writing really damper the emotional impact of more serious scenes.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a solid standalone entry to this wonderful series that Insomniac is building. The changes made to the open-world structure don’t quite hit the mark every time, but Manhattan is once again a joy to swing through and quite a marvellous sight to take in.

The story doesn’t quite hit the heights of the first-game, let down by some questionable facial animations and writing, but just like it’s predecessor, the entire package is held together by some absolutely stupendous combat that the player can go bananas with.

In my eyes at least, the 2018 original is the superior game, but 2020’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is great in its own right and cements Miles as a Spider-Man to fondly look back on.

4/5