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Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

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JohnnyShoulder

@Th3solution I think this has been a problem long before TLOU 2, its just the latest excuse some are using to troll.

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

RogerRoger

@Th3solution You've told me more about Death Stranding in a single post than all the other previews and reviews I've ever read, and yet you've done it without giving anything away. Very nicely done. I was convinced I'd remain on the fence about the game forever but now, whenever I see it at the right price, I reckon I could make an informed purchase. Thank you!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Th3solution

@RogerRoger Thanks, buddy. I wasn’t sure if it would be interesting or meaningful to write a post like that since it’s more just my own impressions of what was unique or prominent or impressive in the game. Glad it could be of some use, if nothing else than to further an understanding of what is a really tough game to describe to someone who hasn’t played it.

For those who liked MGS, specifically 4&5, I think there is something for you in Death Stranding. The game is nothing like MGS from a narrative standpoint, but the MGS DNA can be detected ever so slightly in things like gunplay and stealth, as well as in things such as the post-delivery grading screens. Some of it feels familiar. Perhaps that’s another reason I loved it is because there were echoes of MGS 5 in there that scratched a certain itch that I know I won’t get scratched any other way.

Fair warning on the mild horror aspects. The game could be considered a type of horror game, but really that genre assignment is slightly misleading. It’s not filled with gore, jump scares, or savagery. The interactions with BT’s can be creepy, but probably not much worse than Dathomir in Fallen Order. Some imagery is disturbing but not in the gratuitous sense. No severed limbs, disemboweling, decapitations, witches, or zombies. There are no spiders or creepy-crawly things. Yet, somehow it can be pretty tense and disquieting in a way. The bosses can be scary but stylistically look so awesome to me that it was hard to get scared of them. Anyway, I know horror isn’t your favorite, so I wanted to make sure you knew about that before attempting it.

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

HallowMoonshadow

LieutenantFatman wrote:

Also read your review of Iconoclasts the other day, Foxy. Definitely going to make this the next Vita game I play now, sounds great!

You're welcome @LieutenantFatman! I hope you enjoy Iconoclasts whenever you get round to it & I'll be very intetested to hear what you make of it!


I can't quite say it's really helped me on whether or not I'll play it @Th3Solution (I'm still very much teetering on the fence and honestly part of me thinks I always will be) but I did nonetheless enjoy the very different approach you took regarding your Death Stranding impressions/review by talking about the various themes that it has!

Good stuff Sol! 👍

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Ralizah

@Th3solution Great piece! It was an interesting approach to segment your thoughts in the way you did. I enjoyed reading it.

It sounds like you're a recent player of this game, so I'm curious how the online aspects hold up months after launch. Is everything just built in an area by other players after you unlock that feature? I recall that constructing bridges and whatnot across the landscape will carry over to other players and help them out, so my fear is that people have already built everything you'd really need to build in this game this far out from launch.

Currently Playing: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (SD)

PSN: Ralizah

Th3solution

@Ralizah Thanks! And yes, I did just recently finish it this past weekend, and most of my game time has been over the last few weeks, which is, of course, a good 9 months after launch.

It’s a great question you pose, and one that I think a lot of us who came late to the party have had. Does coming to the game later affect the presence of structures in the shared world?

And the answer is — yes, and no.

So when you enter a region of the map it’s always void of any online structures on your first pass through the area. So you have to navigate and place your own structures on the initial trek to a station, then once you arrive at the destination, you connect the station to the chiral network, which then enables you to see online structures thereafter. (Sometimes there are a few tasks to complete before the station will come online, but after a little effort it’s usually online shortly after you get there)
Initially the online structures that populate your map appear to just be random. The game shows you the PSN ID of who erected it and what date they built it, and it seemed like some of the structures I had on my map would be old, like placed by players in December say, and then some would be clearly from people who were playing along side me and had just put the structure up that day or within the last few days.
When you actually use a structure it automatically gives it and the other player “likes” which boost its popularity. And your own structures get “likes” as people use them (and you receive notifications when someone uses and “likes” the things you’ve built). So, best I can tell, I think the game code tries to populate your map with some of the popular structures with a lot of “likes” and also throws in a lot of random ones from players currently playing the game. It forms a nice combination of really useful bridges, ropes, ladders, and such but also will have plenty of items placed that you’ll never use.

Also, there is still plenty of opportunities to place your own stuff, as I think the programming puts a cap on how many things will port over to your map from the online community.

The map is quite huge and although there are paths that are clear to be the easiest way from point A to point B, in general there are actually dozens of paths you can approach to get to the desired destination. Sometimes you may take a bridge across a river, but then have to deal with enemies there, so you may rather climb a mountain to avoid the enemies so you’ll have to lay down your own ropes and ladders instead of using the online bridge, for example. Over time you come up with your own favorites routes, based on structures available and your own preferences, abilities, and available equipment, but that is likely very different from someone else’s chosen paths. No two players games are going to be exactly the same.

In fact, the way the structures populate your map and then you add to them, I venture to say no two players game experience is exactly the same. It’s quite remarkable.

Another note on this question though — at a point fairly early on, you develop the ability to create strand contracts with other players. What this does is make it more likely that your contracted players’ structures appear in your game. So I tended to just make strand contracts with players whose structures were built within the previous few weeks, and so clearly they were actively playing the game as I was. It made me feel that not only was it more likely I was “playing alongside” a group of other players at roughly the same part of the game as me, but also it made so that the map wasn’t just made up of a bunch of the most popular items. But these strand contracts give it a little bit of customization with regard to what is prone to show up on your map.

Furthermore, through the process of “timefall” (which is the rain in the game they corrodes and accelerates the aging of anything the rain touches) structures gradually degrade and go away. So things will theoretically eventually disappear from the online “library” of structures I think. So there is always a rolling bunch of structures out there that are relatively recently placed.

—The short explanation: The game programming accounts for things and filters into your map at a set rate so you’ve always got plenty of challenge as you transverse and opportunity to build your own structures.

Edit: sorry for the long-windedness. 😄

Edited on by Th3solution

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

Ralizah

@Th3solution Oh wow. You didn't just answer my question, you schooled me on it! Great post. I really appreciate the incredibly detailed response.

That definitely eases my biggest concern about the game. I'll have to pick this up sometime. I'm glad they seem to have put a lot of thought into the multiplayer aspect of it.

Currently Playing: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (SD)

PSN: Ralizah

Th3solution

@Ralizah You're welcome. I might be slightly obsessed with this game 😅 so it’s my pleasure.
I’ll be interested or see if the game does well on PC.

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

andreoni79

@Th3solution DS is surely one of my favourite this gen since while playing it, I constantly felt I was involved in something bigger and more important than what was happening on the screen. In the recent years it happened only with The Last Guardian.

Praise the Sun, and Mario too.

PSN: andreoni79

RogerRoger

@Th3solution Further thanks for that personalised preview there! Having played and enjoyed the Metal Gear games (which are also often "tense and disquieting" without becoming out-and-out horror) I think I have a fair handle on Mr. Kojima's preferred style, but I'm very grateful for the confirmation. Particularly since, as you say, Death Stranding doesn't fit within any conventional genres.

Your tendency to favour unique, well-articulated approaches to this topic is always interesting. I also love how you've followed up other questions in impressive detail; the impact it's had on you is clear, which makes me all the more curious to play it someday.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

HallowMoonshadow

At the start of the year I made the somewhat ridiculous resolution that I'd review all the games I played this year.

I'm not going to achieve that.

Even if I gave reviews to the titles that I don't feel I can really say that much about and had all the time in the world to do them there's one I can't review in good faith.

NieR Automata

I can't write about this game without it skewing off the rails and spewing what seems to be a lovecraftian descent into madness, laughing and wailing from the cosmic horrors swimming in the darkest recesses of my mind.

It's not pretty in the slightest. 😥

Untitled ... With how I feel about that game compared to everyone else.

I've said a number of times before that I do think it's soundtrack is phenomenal.

Not to mention the boss fight in the amusement park was definitely the highlight of the game for me personally.

But that's it.

I really don't like it otherwise.

That's all you're getting regarding me and this game ever again. 😆

I'm also not writing a review for two other games that I've played.

Resident Evil Revlations 2

Truth be told I didn't end up writing anything for it in the first place.

There wasn't a whole lot I feel I can really say about it as it's mainly more Resident Evil in the Resi 4/modern style.

▪ The episodic format doesn't really add anything to it mind.

▪ The AI partner (if playing solo) isn't braindead (from my time with it at least).

▪ I found it fairly enjoyable as a Resi game (Nothing like Resi 0 which I loathed. I haven't played 6 admittedly (5 was a bit ho-hum though))

▪ It's nice Barry actually got his moment in the sun.

But that's kinda it really.

I know it sounds bad I can't seem to say much about it... But I guess the Resi series doesn't have to do too much for me to like it honestly?

Is it nostalgia? Do the memories of me finally connecting with gaming through the original title and it being a series that me and my late father enjoyed immensely somewhat blind me to any faults?

Quite possibly.

The first chapter/episode is available for free on PSN so you can always judge it for yourself!

& The Last Of Us

I REALLY don't have anything to say about it that I didn't already.

I don't think it's a masterpiece.

I don't think it's great.

It's a good title to me & nothing more can be said about it that hasn't been discussed already I'm sure.

Anyway actual impressions/review pieces

Saint's Row IV: Re-Elected & Shining Resonance Refrain are covered below.

(I have took my Sonic CD section out as I don't feel it really adds anything but if people want to read it I'll slip it back in. In short I didn't like it.)


Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
🎵The Saints are back in town agaaaaain!

Untitled
Say hi to Paul!

The Saints Row series started it's life exclusively on the Xbox back in 2006.

So naturally I've never played that one.

It's the one that's mostly a tit for tat GTA clone from my understanding?

I started the series with Saint's Row The Third technically but I'd only played it for about an hour or so. It was something my son borrowed from a friend and well... he ended it giving it back the next day after my little go.

So for a good while that was my only experience with the Saints Row series til a few years down the line when I ended up getting the second saints row along with the third (with all the DLC) before getting the vanilla version fourth game the following year all on PS3 (before getting the PS4 version of the fourth last December)

The second was ok. I don't remember any particular standout moments though unlike the 3rd and 4th's memorable set pieces to be perfectly honest.

In fact the only thing I distinctly remember about it was the thought that I found The Boss (The protagonist and leader of the 3rd Street Saints) to be a bit of a spiteful and vengeful pyschopath in the second game at times that made me raise my brow from the more likeable, quirky & goofballish persona I distinctly remember they had in the third (That they retain in the 4th)

Untitled
And can break the 4th wall apparently in the steeets of rage parody!

The second was still a mostly serious GTA clone with one or two weird side activities. The control scheme (for cars maybe?) was also awkward from what I remember.

The third meanwhile was quite a different beast, having seemingly went into my Auntie Vi's liqour cabinet and drank all the goofy juice... (That's a discussion for another day though!)

Originally Saints Row IV (SR4 from here on in) was supposed to be a DLC pack, presumably a bit of a meatier expansion compared to the previous dlc packs the third game had from my understanding (but I could be wrong)

Unfortunately ThQ was bleeding money and the expansion was reworked and retooled to be a fully fledged game instead.

It didn't get a chance to help the company out though as ThQ went bust in early 2013 way before it could be released.

Untitled
And for a while the series was as lost as where I was to put this picture in this review

Volition were saved however and bought by Koch Media with it's subsidiary Deep Silver being the new publishers for the series (With them now all being part of ThQ Nordic... Fancy that huh?)

SR4 is a more leaner adventure then the third.

Back when I played it over christmas I admittedly went through it's story in three days (Mainly over two days really) offering a good 12-14 hours of runtime (The additional missions and activities I glossed over probably adding an extra six or so hours)

It's a bit more mature and a little less absurd then the third title I feel?

Ok so the opening mission involves a Call Of Duty parody in the middle east that features Aerosmith's "I don't wanna miss a thing" whilst climbing a nuclear missile...

... Then of course there's the following mission that involves an alien invasion.

(Not exactly proving my point I know but stay with me 😅)

Nearly all the ludicrous moments from here on in take place in virtual reality/a simulated prison which rather naturally allows there to be ridiculous moments, different gameplay styles & segments without being completely detached from reality that I personally found a bit jarring concerning the third game.

Untitled
There's even a text adventure section

Whether male, female or Nolan North (He's the "joke" voice track) the Boss is more of a charismatic "Puckish Rogue" in the third and especially the fourth entry even if the morals they have are very dubious at times.

They're still a gang leader who was more then willing to murder thier way to the top to control Steelport and Stillwater's criminal underworld after all before becoming president.

Framed with an alien overlord to overthrow however most of the gang related stuff is really only mentioned via dialogue so you're a bit out of luck if you were hoping for turf wars and the likes.

But on the flip side this does also mean that it's way less morally grey then the previous games with a very clear and distinguished bad guy to pit you against.

And then there's the gameplay which further dettaches itself from the GTA clone roots of the series (And apparently a lot like the crackdown series)

SR4 gives you super powers very early on in the simulation. Super speed and super jumps (And also gliding a bit later on) make for a very fun traversal system.

So much so you'll probably never use cars unless you're forced into one! (Which is only a handful of times)

Untitled
It's a neat looking car though that you're forced into

The shooting mechanics meanwhile are still fairly basic, probably not that far off from the first saints row back in 2006 & definitely not much different from the previous entry barring there being health pickups instead of regenerating health.

Not only is there the traversal super powers but there's also offensive abilties with elemental projectiles, ground pounds, teleknesis and various gun buffs, all with unique effects that you'll unlock over the game's runtime.

Unlike the traversal super powers I do feel these are a bit hampered by the basic gunplay and combat. However they're still very fun to use and quite refreshing still.

Untitled
Super jumping never gets old

The DLC bundled in with the Re-Elected Edition of the game mainly consists of the two mission packs that are Enter The Dominatrix & How The Saints Saved Christmas.

They're... Not that great at all. Definitely not worth it if you've played SR4 and only want to experience the dlc as they barely last an hour each. (The christmas one is better. Only just mind.)

The added dlc super power elements and costumes are alright as well but nothing terribly special.

One last thing I will say about the game is that I do feel like the characters are actually friends?

Maybe it's just thanks the really absurd and stupid script that puts the voice actors in a good mood... But I do get an actual sense of commeraderie between them?

Saints Row IV Re-Elected is frequently on sale and if you get it for around £4 like I did then that's really good value for money I think! Especially if you're in the mood for a big dumb game that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Though I guess you could consider the wacky tone (even if dialed back a bit) a bit obnoxious at times and the plot kind've writes itself into a bit of a hole on where to go next (Probably a reboot.)

SRIV:RE gets a Low 7/10 from me.

Though I pretty much agree with Rob's/ShogunRok's recent assessment of the third to be a six and you could arguably slip the 4th there too as it's not that much different mechanically and it's had MUCH less work put into it's port (The saint's row 3 port was done five years later then this one mind)

So a High 6 I guess objectively?

Untitled
See you soon!


Shining Resonance Refrain
The Shining Dragon doesn't shine quite so brightly

Untitled
Gae Bolg, The Frozen Halberd. One of the bosses in the game.

Shining Resonance was made towards the very end of the PS3's life cycle, only being released in Japan in December 2014 in fact!

Four years later it eventually got ported to the PS4 (Along with Switch, PC and Xbox) worldwide in 2018. And for a PS3 game done in the typical anime art style... It looks pretty decent.

It was definitely made on a lower budget even for a PS3 game and Shining Resonance Refrain (SRR from here on in) is bundled with all it's dlc (Mainly costumes and a large number of them swimwear), given a slight resolution bump, a complete english voiceover and an added "Refrain mode" (which is the same as the normal game mode but with two extra characters from the get go and new relationship/date events for said extra characters)

Untitled
One of the many character's you'll meet

Despite it being ported to newer and more powerful hardware I did unfortunately notice some slowdown in fights on a somewhat regular occasion. Particularly when I was in the midst of an ally's spell effect (Perhaps something to do with the hit detection?)

Only for a second or two every time before it instantly went back up to what I believe was 60fps?.

It's the only thing I noticed about the game as otherwise it seems pretty solidly done with no bugs at all beside those frame rates. Switching the offending forces/spells/abilities out or staying away from the spell's effect seemed to fix this up mostly.

Untitled
There's a LOT of Goblins you'll be fighting throughout

The battle system is fairly easy to pick up with you mainly using a standard attack combo and a heavy hitting piercing attack along with a dash and a block to deal damage.

But each character does feel unique to play as with the different weapons they wield, not mention each one having a multitude of unique abilities/spells/attacks called forces.

Despite it being fairly simple in combat on the surface level there's a lot of other systems in SRR like you can take advantage of like;

  • Altering your weapon's properties to deal elemental damage, healing forces recover even more health or have more attacks in a standard combo (Among various other properties)
  • Equipping each character with various stat buffs, effects or altered abilties.
  • You can shift into a dragon with one character.
  • You can alter the party's relationships with one another and focus on certain quirks for them to do helpful buffs, debuffs, extra attacks in battle...

There's a nice depth that you can delve into if you'd like.

SRR for me benefitted greatly from it's cast of characters that whilst totally cliché and unoriginal end up being rather enjoyable and likeable.

Untitled
Unoriginal... But still enjoyable.

There's some dating/social events you can have with the main cast of characters that flesh them out a little more (Though it's not as engaging or fleshed out as say Persona) and there's plenty of little events or skits you can see with secondary characters and the main party that can raise a few smiles or just fill you in on how SRR's world works.

The english voice acting is also surprisingly quite decent throughout.

The main story is also quite cliché with your characters, perhaps rather unsurprisingly for the genre, saving the world by the end of it's runtime and maybe there might be a bit of the power of friendship involved in the proceedings... but that's fine.

SRR is a very light hearted JRPG for the most part and it's exactly what it's going for. I mean nearly all the main characters weapons are also instruments! It's a bit cheesy and cliché by design.

There's not a whole lot more I can say about it.

SRR is about 40-50 hours long (Though I'm sure you could make it last much longer in it if you liked) and it has a certain charm to it even if it's not the most technically advanced or original title out there.

The music was fairly decent throughout but it's a bit disappointing there was only a few tracks that I'd say were standout in a plot with many musical related terms and ideas?

I'd give it a High six myself. Worth the 15 quid I paid for it and I could see myself playing it again someday.

Untitled

But objectively I'd lower it down to a low 6.

The level/world layout design isn't great (It's mainly just walking from point A to point B) with a fair bit of backtracking (And a bit of padding too) and the side quests are either fetching so many items or kill X amount of monsters that are so terribly uninspired. Plus there is that frame rate hiccup that's a bit diappointing for a port of a PS3 game.

But a likeable cast pushes it just above mediocrity?


And that's it... Sorry it's so long

Reviews for Danganronpa and Divinity Original Sin 2 are coming (I may have to dip back into Divinity though to refresh myself and look up a few things however)

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Edited on by HallowMoonshadow

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

DonJorginho

Platinum achieved on The Last Of Us Part II, now time to start writing up the review!

DonJorginho

JohnnyShoulder

@DonJorginho Well done! How many playthroughs did it take, and were they mainly for the collectable trophies?

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

RogerRoger

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy "...and then some words happened!" What an epic post!

Your reviews and impressions are always so easy to read, they flow and you inject your natural sense of humour throughout, which made me smile a lot (particularly when conveying the insanity of the Saints Row franchise). Also, the definition of a review is subjective, so I reckon by mentioning your opinion of the other games before Saints Row and Shining Resonance Refrain, I'd argue you're still on track for your New Year's Resolution. I really enjoyed the above, thanks for posting it!

Oh, and don't feel bad being brief about Sonic CD. I think it's overrated mediocrity at best, so to hear that you didn't like it either is enough for me. He's had far, far better 2D adventures, before and since!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

HallowMoonshadow

RogerRoger wrote:

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy "...and then some words happened!" What an epic post!

... Was that a cheeky little Mr Benn reference @RogerRoger or is my mind making a very strenuous and very loose connection there?

As I revealed to Ralizah on the previous page this monster post was originally going to include Iconoclasts as well and with Sonic CD it would've pushed 4,000 words instead of only a meagre 2,500.

And the original plan would've meant Days Gone, Nier Automata, Resi Revelations 2 & The Last Of Us all would've been in there too.

It may've just pipped Ralizah's gigantic Fire Emblem: Three Houses 10 page bumper spread special!

RogerRoger wrote:

Your reviews and impressions are always so easy to read, they flow and you inject your natural sense of humour throughout, which made me smile a lot (particularly when conveying the insanity of the Saints Row franchise).

I'm glad you enjoyed reading it.

I did completely rewrite the Saints Row 4 review in fact after I'd put out my Days Gone piece (Which I think shows a little compared to Shining Resonance) and found it fairly enjoyable to write in this much more loosey goosey and more personal style compared to the more informal and technical style I had previously last year (Though that style did give a little more weight to my objective score I feel)

It's nice to be writing again after those five/six months of writer's block!

RogerRoger wrote:

Also, the definition of a review is subjective, so I reckon by mentioning your opinion of the other games before Saints Row and Shining Resonance Refrain, I'd argue you're still on track for your New Year's Resolution. I really enjoyed the above, thanks for posting it!

I have nothing really to say to your counterpoint other then that was a well made point and I'm certainly not gonna argue with you to stay on track with my resolution!

... Though my joke review of Divinity Original Sin II I made ages ago definitely doesn't count!

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Ralizah

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Making up for lost time, I see.

That's a whole lot of "meh" and "eh" reactions in one compilation, though. I actually really like writing scathing reviews, but I rarely get the chance because, typically, if I dislike a game that much I stop playing it, so my critical energy gets expended on games that probably don't deserve to be picked apart, like The Witcher 3.

RE - NieR: Automata
Kudos on playing, replaying, and then replaying again a game you clearly couldn't stand. I wouldn't have it in me to do that with a game I disliked as much as you clearly dislike this one.

RE - Resident Evil Revelations 2
I think it's easy to grow tolerant to the faults of series we otherwise have a soft spot for. Have you ever played Revelations 1? While I think it's an amazing technical showpiece for the 3DS and probably the best RE game released after 4 up until that point (2013? something like that), I didn't think the chapter-based format did much for that game either (I won't say episodic, since that game released as a complete package from day one).

RE - Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
Interesting review. I'll confess I'm a fan of Saints Row 2. It was defo a GTA clone, but it filled an important function at that time: it was a GTA-style game that remembered these games are supposed to be fun. GTA games have long had a goofy, tongue-in-cheek aspect to them, but that side of the series was almost completely abandoned with the dour GTA IV, which features a depressing story and irritating social sim elements. But SR2 kept itself reigned in enough that the goofiness didn't overwhelm the experience.

SR3 "drank the goofy juice," as you so aptly put it, and turned into a parody of itself, so I COMPLETELY lost interest in the series from there (it reminded me of 'bad movies' that deliberately try to be stupid and just end up being obnoxious, like Sharknado; a genuinely fun bad game, like a bad movie, must be made with love and passion). It sounds like SR4 dials it down a bit, so I might actually try playing the series again (although, based on how you describe it, it sounds more like an InFamous clone than a GTA one at this point?).

Also

Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy wrote:

I started the series with Saint's Row The Third technically but I'd only played it for about an hour or so. It was something my son borrowed from a friend and well... he ended it giving it back the next day after my little go.

😂😂😂
The upside to having a gamer mom: Being able to bond over a shared hobby
The downside to having a gamer mom: You ain't fooling anybody.

RE - The Last of Us
So, at the time, I had a really poor reaction to this game. I still don't really like it. Looking back, though, I can sort of see its strengths. But I think people talked me up on it too much. It was this amazing, cinematic, emotional post-apocalyptic father/daughter epic, and I end up with... well, what I thought was a decent but somewhat tropey zombie movie. Well, it would have been decent if it didn't feel like half the game was moving ladders/boxes/planks and sneaking around tediously dispatching post-apocalyptic raiders/mooks. And, like almost all of ND's pre-Uncharted 4 games, the entire game feels like you're being funneled through a tunnel of sorts.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wasn't really wowed by it.

RE - Shining Resonance Refrain
Yeah, I've not heard great things about this game all-around. I guess I can sort of see why it wasn't originally localized. Granted, in the JRPG desert that was last gen (on home consoles, at least; the NDS was still getting great JRPG support), it would have been welcome. But in the modern landscape with Persona 5, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Octopath Traveler, Ys VIII, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, etc.? Nothing special.

I think it could be fun, though, once I've played all of the hype JRPGs I'm actually excited for. The demo was reasonably fun, if nothing else.

-

Fun read overall, Foxy! Especially the SRR section, which was conversational, but still discussed game mechanics and whatnot. Glad you're back on the review horse.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Yakuza Kiwami 2 (SD)

PSN: Ralizah

Thrillho

Right, time for a bit of catching up here..

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I liked the brief write up of Iconoclasts but still had plenty of thought in it. I like the look of it and I'm sure this is one I've hovered over purchasing without knowing much about it. What is the "tweaks made" part from the ending results there?

@Th3solution I liked the different layout for the thoughts on Death Stranding and it's a game I flip flop between wanting to get and thinking I should just give a miss. Your thoughts on the ending being one that stuck with you is probably the thing that would make me pick it up though as there aren't many games that manage to do that.

Your subsequent thoughts (and other peoples' comments) have piqued my interest a little more too. The explanation of how player made structures work was really insightful too.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Imagine throwing Nier and TLOU under the bus like that and still be able to show your face on this forum!

I have literally no idea I just read with regards to SR4 though Each sentence sounded completely detached from the one before and the game sounds bonkers. I hope it makes more sense than it sounds! I liked your backstory to the series as well.

SRR sounds interesting and the screenshots look nice, even if you weren't overly taken with the game as a whole.

Thrillho

DonJorginho

@JohnnyShoulder Thank you! I've played through the game three times almost at the time of writing.

One for the experience, one for the analysis and testing out things for a review, and now am doing a collectable run and upgrade run to upgrade everything I couldn't before.

DonJorginho

jdv95

wow you lot are finishing the game fast!
i am still on my first playtrough 5 days later! (almost at the end) and yes i play atleast 4/5 hours per day.

granted i do a LOT of exploring though.

jdv95

JohnnyShoulder

@DonJorginho I'm considering doing another run for collectables, but I know you can do a chapter select, but don't know if that works for the trophies.

@jdv95 Same here! Think I'm almost at the 18 hour mark now.

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

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