Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Ralizah The word "Blood" is in the title, so don't expect it to be too jolly. In Skellige there was a lack of burning mages, less monsters attacking everyone than in Velen, and the locals seemed more willing to help than in Novigrad. Think of the locale in Blood and Wine as being similar in tone to Skellige, but more so. Of course there's still plenty of horrific things happening though.

And I got to the end of the main story in Danganronpa 2 a few weeks back. Excellent game that, somehow it's even better than the first game. I'd like to return to it and collect the remaining Hope Fragments at some point, but I'll probably not worry about the remaining trophies after that.

@Ralizah Great write up! I love hearing people talk about TW3, especially seeing as it has been so long since I played the game (I think I got it almost on release).

With regards to XP, I seem to remember feeling the same way as you but I think that was because so many side quests were linked to levels and you could easily be way above the level of the quest leading to paltry XP rewards, whereas the main quests seemed to be on a par with where you are.

Agreed that crafting and potions felt a little pointless. I think they might have been more important on harder difficulties but certainly not enough to be worth investing your time in.

From a money point of view, it's something almost every game seems to struggle with, especially big do-what-you-want open worlds. Fallout was always a good example; you start off picking up every cigarette butt you can find to earn a single cap but end the game with about 50% of the wealth of the entire country.

And you HAVE to play Blood and Wine at some point as it is just a perfect ending to the game and a real antithesis to the bleakness of most of the game. It spoofs medieval tropes perfectly and the fairytale sequence is one of my favourite in the whole game. The new area is absolutely huge too so I look forward to reading your thoughts on it at some point!

@RogerRoger It's worth a punt at some point for sure as it is great fun. The economy thing is frustrating though and the game doesn't really help you figure out where things are going wrong. Some missions I just had to rely on constant trade routes to get extra cash and improve relations with superpowers, and then ask for financial aid. This works fairly well but is hard to do in the modern era when you have more than two superpowers to appease.

Rebels are frustrating and by the time you realise they're a problem, it's probably too late. I did realise late in the game that you can use a raid building to invoke a rebellion yourself so you can start it on your terms, and if you win things reset back to zero rebels, but you still need the military backing to win.

@Thrillho Thanks! Oh yeah, the game actually came out a while back, didn't it? 2015. It's a gorgeous game. Really impressed with how good it looked so early in the gen.

I'll definitely test your hypothesis about side-quest levels and XP distribution when I go back to the game for Blood and Wine, although I got a ton of XP even from main quests that I was overleveled for.

Returning to HZD's DLC months after initially beating the game worked out really well, IMO, so I think I'll do the same here. It's great to know that I'll have this giant expansion to sate my inevitable hunger for more Witcher 3 content in the future.

Between Blood and Wine and Cyberpunk 2077, I have a LOT of CDProjektRed content on the horizon.

“Between Blood and Wine and Cyberpunk 2077, I have a LOT of CDProjektRed content on the horizon.”

I can’t wait for Cyberpunk 2077, it maybe my last PS4 game, which means that my PS4 will go out with style.

It’s amazing how many great games like The Last of Us Part 2 the PS4 is getting this year.

@PSVR_lover I was debating whether to upgrade my rig before Cyberpunk releases, but I think I'll just leave it as is. If it can run reasonably well on a PS4, it should be able to run well enough (60fps at medium/low settings) on my PC.

But yes, I'm also looking forward to it, considering CDPR are apparently working on revolutionizing the design of the game so that there's less icon chaos on the map, and there's a greater density of content. They also talked about changing quests so that fail states don't trigger unless you die, which means side-quest outcome differing radically depending on the player's actions.

@Ralizah I didn't get round to the DLC for quite a while as the two main parts were released after I finished the game and they were very easy to get back into so don't worry about time away. I never finished the HZD DLC as I struggled to get back into the combat; I think I barely made it ten minutes in to be honest!

And I forgot to say how could you not get into Gwent?? I didn't get it to start with either but ending up loving it. Sadly, I only got the hang of it after the Bloody Baron quest line so I missed his unique card (and the ability to get the trophy)..

I didn't get into Gwent either. I much prefer the Red Dead Redemption style mini games, such as poker, dominos, etc. With those, it's easy to jump in and have a quick game without putting much thought into it.

Gwent on the other hand needs a lot more strategy. Firstly there's planning out which cards to put in your deck. Then the actual game requires plenty of strategy as well. I've just never cared too much for strategy games in general.

@Thrillho I also missed that unique card from the Bloody Baron storyline. That was the point in the game where I stopped being interested in becoming interested in Gwent.

@Thrillho Not a collectible card game fan, personally, as it's really easy for people to trounce you with better card set-ups. The gameplay is simple, but with a gameplay loop I didn't enjoy.

If I ever replay the game, though, I'll probably make a concerted effort to improve enough at the game that I have an incentive to complete all of the Gwent-related sidequests I skipped on my first playthrough.

@crimsontadpoles It probably also helps that the region is very colorful. Even without the pogroms against non-humans and widespread corruption, Skellige was still very gloomy.

Glad you enjoyed DR2! While I think V3 is better overall, DR2 was the game that really made me fall in love with the series (DR1, to this day, is my least favorite entry in the series, even including Ultra Despair Girls). I really liked the expanded world-building, and the cast is, imo, the best in the series.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy There's a demo for the Mega Man X collection? Wasn't aware of that!

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the MMX games, either. I bought X4 for my Vita out of pure nostalgia, because it was one of my first three games for the PS1 when I was a little kid (alongside Mega Man 8 and Spyro the Dragon), but I was never a fan of their mix of supremely stupid boss names (honestly, add a "the" between names like Chill Penguin or Frost Walrus and you end up with Sonic the Hedgehog character names, lol), edgier tone, or level design/mechanics.

When it comes to Mega Man, though, I feel the original games are the best (and some of the later sequels, which I'll get to when I cover the second Legacy Collection).

I was definitely very mixed on Gunvolt myself, but it at least tried to do interesting things with a vaguely Mega Man-ish formula. I started the second game, but... I think I'm kind of burnt out right now.

I also want to get around to the Zero/ZX games someday as well. It's time I properly explored this series.

Except for the Mega Man X games.

RE: Witcher 3

Thanks! I was afraid my review came off as too nitpicky, but I felt like issues I had with it were ones I never hear being discussed by other people, and I wanted to properly convey my feelings about them.

It is a really solid experience, though, and I'm very excited to see how their game design improves with Cyberpunk 2077 (as CDPR has indicated it'll be a large-ish evolution from what came before in TW3, which, as you state, was already on that cusp of being great).

@Rudy_Manchego Bit late to the party (in my defense, I was away at the time), but I just wanted to chime in and congratulate you on achieving the platinum trophy for Bloodborne. You say it's not worth bragging about, but I think mastering a game that you even admit you're not particularly skilled at is more impressive than someone with better reflexes doing the same thing, since it speaks to your willpower and willingness to throw yourself at something utterly challenging for you.

I wasn't a fan when I first played it in 2015 or so, but it's one of those games I've always wanted to go back to and give another chance. I just didn't see this amazing story within the game itself, and I'm a bit jealous that everyone is having this great experience that didn't somehow translate for me. Maybe now that I'm a tad bit more versed in the design language of From Software's Souls games (I'd never tried one before playing BB), I'll have an easier time with it.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your thoughts!

@Thrillho Interesting! re: Tropico 6. I actually have Tropico 3 in my Steam library, but I never knew what it was and, frankly, was a bit too lazy to research it.

I'm not typically a big simulation game person, but I'll admit that the idea of running a sort of banana republic in the tropics sounds more appealing to me than it probably should.

@Ralizah Thanks and welcome back! Hope all is well with you.

I understand what you mean - I am jealous that I couldn't get on with Sekiro because I don't doubt that the game is great and I know a lot of people on here really liked it and I trust their judgement. I do need to give the Souls games a good go but I keep putting it off (or returning to Bloodborne). I do find getting into it a bit overwhelming. I know some Souls fans think the weapons and upgrading to Bloodborne is too simple but for me it was perfect as the weapons and their strengths/weaknesses was pretty clear.

@Ralizah Even in a game designed to be played kind of like a dictator, I still try to appease rather than oppress my people.

Well, apart from rebels who get sent to the asylum and return to society as some of my biggest fans!

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah I thought the weapons were just about right too. There is much more to choose from in the Dark Souls games, but much of the different types of weapons all feel the same within there different categories really. And not everyone likes having so much choice as they could find it overwhelming. One of the reasons I disliked Nioh, injustice threw too much useless that at you continuously.

Congrats on the play btw, can't remember if said so or not. I am totes wely jely.

@KratosMD Alucard has to be one of the most appalling names for a character ever! Ohllirht doesn’t work quite as well..

It’s funny how a game that has helped spawn what is now such a fundamental mechanic can hold up so badly though. Backtracking for the sake of length of a game is one of the worst gaming mechanics though so I’m not surprised to hear you struggled with it.

It made for a nice write up though!

Going to go completely off the beaten path in terms of what I played, but I'm going to comment on a wonderful little game I played via Apple Arcade called 'Little Orpheus'. I'm a huge fan of the Chinese Room, a small British indie studio that created 'Dear Esther', 'Amnesia: A Maching for Pigs' and 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture' - one of my all time favourites of this generation.

The studio went through some hard times and basically closed after Rapture because funding fell through for their next game but the studio was effectively reopened under Sumo Digital and this is their first release. Obviously it is currently an Apple Arcade exclusive, produced by Apple I believe. I think it will get released on other platforms as they don't tend to force exclusivity deals but the only way to play will be with an Apple subscription and of course, with an Apple device. I played on my iPad with controller (and Apple TV).

So the plot of the game is you play as a 1960's Russian cosmonaut who has been missing for 3 years after he took a bomb to the centre of the earth for an experiement. The narrative is told via flashback as he recounts his tale to a disbelieving Russian General who is threatening him with a firing squad if they can't find the bomb. The game takes the form of a 2.5 platformer with light puzzle and platformer elements but like their previous stories, gameplay takes a bit of a backseat to story. This is not Braid or Super Meat Boy type game - it is really a comedy adventure story set within a platformer.

From a gameplay perspective, nothing to write home about. I played with controller and had a few instances of lag on the controls BUT I do think this was my controller rather than the game. You can play via touch pad and it works fine but I prefer controllers and I have an MSI compatible controller - though both the XB1 and DS4 works on Apple products now with no adapters needed. Some minor graphical glitches but that's it. Basically, if you don't like story games and want the gameplay to speak for itself, prob not for you - though I would say the game is never boring because of the story and asthetic.

Graphically, the game is stunning for what is a mobile game. It is a hefty 3.3 gb but the design is very 1960's, emulating Russian animation from the Soviet period in cutscenes and titles and the worlds are bright and creative. Tying it together is just a hilarious story of a hard to believe and quite cowardly cosmonaut trying to explain an incredible tale to a giant and dour Soviet General. The dialogue, timing and cut scenes are just so funny, and the voice acting is superb. It also helps if you know or are interested in Soviet history because it ties into the paranoia and space race era of the Soviet Age. If you are a fan of music, Jessica Curry returns with a collab with another composer for a great orchestral and very retro flavoured theme - a bit like old tv shows of the 1960s. It had a great end which I won't spoil and genuinely made me laugh out loud a few times.

The only real downside is that this is only available on Apple Arcade at the moment and handheld is the perfect place for this adventure but the audience will be limited. The Apple Arcade service is amazing, btw, for the money and the amount of good indie games but ultimately, you have to have access to those devices capable of running them. Still, if you can, a months trial is free and this is a great little narrative adventure comedy.

I'm what I assume is near the end of Days Gone and I say it's a totally underrated game. Not amazing, not breaking all the rules, not redefining gaming, but what does? It's a totally good open world zombie I'M NOT SAYING FREAKER game and I like the characters and the hordes and stuff.

That said, I do have quibbles.

But it's still much better than I was led to believe.

@JohnnyShoulder Thank you wise Hooonter

@Rudy_Manchego Sounds fun and comedy is such a hard thing to get right in games.

Jessica Curry did a series on Radio 3 (there’s a radio 3?) at the end of last year on the sound of gaming which I’ve been meaning to check out. I didn’t realise there was an episode of 65daysofstatic either (great band; did the No Man’s Sky soundtrack).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009rfn

@Thrillho Yeah I listened to the series and the 65daysofstatic one was a great interview and a great soundtrack. I am a huge soundtrack fan. I tweeted how much I liked the game and got retweets and likes from Jessica Curry and her husband who is creative director of Chinese Room an because I am loser I geeked out this morning. My wife wasn’t as impressed though.