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Post by docrob on Sept 19, 2021 16:36:58 GMT
XCOM - Chimera Squad (PC)
After finally finishing Octopath, I'm trying to mop up a few things I have left sitting for too long.
Finished this one off today. I have mixed feelings about it (as I think a lot of people did).
It was released at a budget price point and clearly wasn't intended as a 'full' entry in the series. Given that, I can forgive the fact that it's a dumbed-down version of XCOM. Someone on the old forum described it as 'the Saturday morning cartoon version' and I think that's absolutely correct. It's brighter, more superficial, far lighter in tone (played for laughs at times) and has pre-formed characters who banter with each other (with none of the grim permadeath we associate with the series).
There's quite a lot to like about it. I enjoyed the skirmish aspect to the game - much easier to have a quick blast on at the end of the day. I also liked the aspect of putting everyone's actions on a timeline rather than taking turns. It added a different tactical dimension (trying to take out the more immediate threats first). The story was decent and the final missions were satisfying.
On the other hand, the game is too easy. Or at least, it's too easy if you always take along Terminal (the medic) which I pretty much always did. It might actually be too hard if you don't take her along on the 3-stage missions, as she is essential to keeping everyone upright, but with her I think I only had to use an Android replacement twice in the entire game (this was on normal) which doesn't really feel like XCOM. I never felt much in danger apart from the occasional moment, whereas the 'big' games always had you balanced on a knife-edge of tension where things could go bad very fast indeed. Then there's the cast of characters. You don't get them all in one playthrough, which is annoying as I'm unlikely to do a second, so I feel I missed out on three (Shelter, Patchwork and Claymore). And some of them are way more powerful than others. I've mentioned Terminal, but Blueblood was godly for me in late game, once he could shoot twice in a turn (and I got him a gun that gave him Lightning Hands so he could often shoot three times). Zephyr, on the other hand, lacks any ranged attack, and although she was good early on, her damage output was too crap to be useful from half way through. Verge's abilities are underpowered (being stunned for one action? Really?) Godmother's Alpha Strike grants her an extra action, but as I never managed to get her the ability to shoot without ending her turn, she can't do anything useful with it. Run and Gun is pointless in this game as the maps are too small. And there are too many 'one use per mission' abilities which I never dared use until the third encounter. Even then popping them was a bit risky as you might have strong reinforcements thrown at you.
I'm aware that after all that complaining, giving it a 7/10 might seem odd, but I love XCOM and the other games are perfect 10s.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on Sept 19, 2021 16:42:32 GMT
Ratchet and Clank: a rift apart
Took a huge break from this when I had about 5 hours left to go for no real reason. Finally gone pack and polished it off and remembered what a joy it is to play. It's an absolute stunner graphically as well. A few strange desgign decisions with weapons being introduced so late that you don't really get much use out of them as they aren't as good as your favourites due to being underlevelled.
As close to a Pixar movie we have had in a game/10
Insomniac have gone from being a very good studio in recent years to one of the best.
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Post by uiruki on Sept 19, 2021 16:44:01 GMT
47. Tales of Arise - PC - 3/5
It's a Tales game, so expect the usual pluses and minuses. The move to the Unreal Engine is at fault for some, the usual 'oh shit we ran out of time and money' combined with corona is at fault for others.
The characters are mostly good but there are long periods of no character progress at all as it's too busy going introducing new groups of characters in each area who are then promptly dumped. This kind of comes to a head near the end where you basically have this massive plot dump followed by an extremely extended final dungeon filled with the game's worst enemies - big boss-type ones with insanely huge life bars and almost no reaction to your attacks. I ended up putting it in story difficulty in the end, not because I was dying but because everything was taking so damn long to kill.
The graphics are fine once you turn off the chromatic aberration in the INI file but it comes back with a vengeance in cutscenes, and when combined with the oversharpened textures it looks quite ugly. Sound is frankly poor: not so much the quality of the compositions and arrangements but the way it's been mastered. The music sounds tinny with no bass and it really suffers for it.
In the end, it's good but just not as good as Berseria. Three areas in the main part of the game and more time spent in the back end (particularly spacing out the exposition dumps at the end) would have helped a lot, I think. The final dungeon was better than the two corridors you got in Xillia 1, I guess?
Also, the intro track is so incredibly terrible. I suspect I missed some stuff in the credits skipping it when that came on but fuck it. I didn't like nu metal twenty years ago and some fucking throwback with horrible english lyrics sprayed in randomly isn't going to fix that.
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Post by steifybobbins on Sept 19, 2021 20:08:52 GMT
I don't know where people get this stuff from. I saw all of DQ11 In 70 hours and all of OCTOPATH in 85
Don't want to contradict, but I honestly can't see how you could see all of Octopath in 85 hours. I clocked up over 120. Some of that might have from leaving it running during a battle in order to eat or something similar, but probably not more than 5-10 hours. A lot of the quest lines take a long time to unfold, and there isn't a lot you can do to speed up battles. I did very little grinding (as I did every side quest) - just a few hours before the final battle to get everyone up to level 70 - and there was very little time in all of that that I wasn't busy. Then the fights leading up to the final boss take a while in themselves.
I could maybe believe it was *possible* to do everything in 85 hours, if you knew exactly where to go and what to do at all times, but the game simply isn't 'very doable' in 80 hours.
I find it odd that you think I would lie? What would I get out of that? It is possible and relatively easy. It must be as I'm not great at games. I grinded a lot and spent ages trying to unlock one of the secret jobs the boss was a bugger and I still did it |
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Vortex
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Post by Vortex on Sept 19, 2021 22:02:04 GMT
Hellblade senua's sacrifice
Enjoyed this a lot. Wish i had played it much sooner tbh.
Interesting story and not too puzzling puzzles which was welcome for some chilled, but creepy gaming!
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Post by docrob on Sept 19, 2021 22:42:21 GMT
Don't want to contradict, but I honestly can't see how you could see all of Octopath in 85 hours. I clocked up over 120. Some of that might have from leaving it running during a battle in order to eat or something similar, but probably not more than 5-10 hours. A lot of the quest lines take a long time to unfold, and there isn't a lot you can do to speed up battles. I did very little grinding (as I did every side quest) - just a few hours before the final battle to get everyone up to level 70 - and there was very little time in all of that that I wasn't busy. Then the fights leading up to the final boss take a while in themselves.
I could maybe believe it was *possible* to do everything in 85 hours, if you knew exactly where to go and what to do at all times, but the game simply isn't 'very doable' in 80 hours.
I find it odd that you think I would lie? What would I get out of that? It is possible and relatively easy. It must be as I'm not great at games. I grinded a lot and spent ages trying to unlock one of the secret jobs the boss was a bugger and I still did it
I'm not saying you would lie. I just thought your time might be an underestimate. I don't understand how you could possibly finish the entire game and see all the content in less than 2/3 of the time it took me! I'm no leet gamer either, but I'm not that slow!
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 20, 2021 0:17:29 GMT
Fwiw, How Long To Beat has it at 80-100 hours, depending on what it means by "completionist". So if you believe that, 85 isn't out of the question howlongtobeat.com/game?id=53592 |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Sept 20, 2021 0:18:26 GMT
But really, who gives a shit how long it took people?
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Post by steifybobbins on Sept 20, 2021 7:06:59 GMT
But really, who gives a shit how long it took people? I don't. I raised the original point I made because I've seen people talk of hundreds of hours to beat various games and it almost put me off trying them. DQ 11 was the biggest surprise. I got to the final final boss well short of 100 hours (around 70-75) I'd almost given up at 60 hours assuming I had 40-50 hours to go based on what I read and that would have been a shame. That was all I was getting at |
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malek86
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Post by malek86 on Sept 20, 2021 7:52:41 GMT
It seems that a lot of big JRPGs lately (DQ11, Yakuza 7, Octopath, Persona 5, etc.) are much longer than average. It's actually putting me off trying some of them.
Don't think I'd have the courage to play for 100+ hours nowadays, I'm not in my university years anymore. But even back in the days, a JRPG longer than 80 hours was a rarity. The last one I've completed was FF13 and that took me a bit less than 50 hours. Before that, Grandia took me around 60 hours. My old saves for FF7/8/9 were all basically 100% complete and still less than 70 hours each. I think only FFX reached 120 hours, and most of that was spent grinding the monsters arena (man, I played some seriously boring stuff back in my days).
So yeah, it's kind of daunting.
*says as he just reached the 2000 hours mark in Destiny 2*
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Post by dfunked on Sept 20, 2021 8:08:30 GMT
I think I finished the second part of every character's story line in Octopath, then looked at some of the level requirements for the next step and just noped out of it. It's a great game but it definitely didn't need to be 80+ hours and I just couldn't face the thought of all that grinding.
At least with Persona 5 a relatively small part of its mammoth playtime was grinding (and if you maxed out Ryuji's confidant in Royal you barely even had to battle)
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Post by Red_Bool on Sept 20, 2021 8:17:33 GMT
But really, who gives a shit how long it took people? I don't. I raised the original point I made because I've seen people talk of hundreds of hours to beat various games and it almost put me off trying them. DQ 11 was the biggest surprise. I got to the final final boss well short of 100 hours (around 70-75) I'd almost given up at 60 hours assuming I had 40-50 hours to go based on what I read and that would have been a shame. That was all I was getting at I got to the bestest ending of DQ11 in ~75 hours (according to my Switch savefile). That includes ~3 hours of post-game metal slime farming to get sufficiently levelled up. That almost put me off the post-game, because until the first ending I didn't need to really grind at all. I was actually (pleasantly) surprised because I also read the howlongtobeat time of 100+. Note that I didn't do all the side quests (and only a couple of the Tickleton quests). Magnificent game by the way. Like I said, the only thing I did not like was the post-game grind. |
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Post by Frog on Sept 20, 2021 8:49:48 GMT
Judgment
I honestly don't know what to say, I dont think I've ever played a game that I like and hate so much in equal measures.
The story, plot and city and characters are just brilliant.
The combat against bosses is just utter shit.
The mortal wounds mechanic is truly dreadful.
Play passes for side activities is a terrible idea
Getting randomly attacked every time you walk anywhere grates a bit but at least it's easy to end it fast.
The gang invasions are annoying
The finding things in detective mode and with the drone is awful
The tailing is shit
The chasing through the streets is shit
And yet somehow it's still an easy 8/10
I've recently watched skillups review for the sequel and it's hard to argue with most of his points when applied to this one but they could definitely change some stuff and make me very happy.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2021 9:05:47 GMT
Deathloop
This was just pure fun from start to finish. Still digesting it so will post more thoughts later but for now it's an easy 10/10 from me.
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Post by uiruki on Sept 20, 2021 9:33:06 GMT
Judgment I honestly don't know what to say, I dont think I've ever played a game that I like and hate so much in equal measures. The story, plot and city and characters are just brilliant. The combat against bosses is just utter shit. The mortal wounds mechanic is truly dreadful. Play passes for side activities is a terrible idea Getting randomly attacked every time you walk anywhere grates a bit but at least it's easy to end it fast. The gang invasions are annoying The finding things in detective mode and with the drone is awful The tailing is shit The chasing through the streets is shit And yet somehow it's still an easy 8/10 I've recently watched skillups review for the sequel and it's hard to argue with most of his points when applied to this one but they could definitely change some stuff and make me very happy. That’s basically most of my problems with that game too - it looks like the sequel is going to alleviate a lot of that stuff though, especially the mortal damage. |
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Sept 20, 2021 11:08:38 GMT
Superliminal (Xbox GamePass) - 8/10
It's an enjoyable puzzle game that you can "finish" in a couple of sittings (by "finish" I mean go through all campaign puzzles and watch the end credits). The premise of the puzzles is that by picking an object, change the perspective of how you look at it and dropping it, you may change its size. Imagine a dollhouse that you can pick up and when you drop it, it's large enough for you to enter it.
The whole presentation of the game owns a lot to Portal, its graphics are serviceable but lack extra polish, the puzzles are logical as long as you get your head around the manipulation of perspective, while later levels become wackier as you descent to the heart of what you are supposed to be doing there.
Once you finish it, you can try the challenge mode, where you must solve the puzzles with certain limitations on how many moves you are allowed to make, play it with developer's commentary or speedrun it. All in all, any fan of the genre wouldn't regret playing it...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2021 15:43:41 GMT
It seems that a lot of big JRPGs lately (DQ11, Yakuza 7, Octopath, Persona 5, etc.) are much longer than average. It's actually putting me off trying some of them. Don't think I'd have the courage to play for 100+ hours nowadays, I'm not in my university years anymore. But even back in the days, a JRPG longer than 80 hours was a rarity. The last one I've completed was FF13 and that took me a bit less than 50 hours. Before that, Grandia took me around 60 hours. My old saves for FF7/8/9 were all basically 100% complete and still less than 70 hours each. I think only FFX reached 120 hours, and most of that was spent grinding the monsters arena (man, I played some seriously boring stuff back in my days). So yeah, it's kind of daunting. same here, even 60 or 70 hours on another RPG seems too much time especially when you need to grind levels. I would like to play Octopath and Persona 5 but now a days it would take up all my time. Add in the amount of games available given away for "free" or gamepass |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2021 20:35:54 GMT
Bioshock 2 6/10
Became more and more dreary and soul destroying as it went on. Was a bit sick of the gore and a bit sick of the grey, wet levels filled with various insane enemies. The dispensing machines and their "welcome to the circus of values" annoyed the shit out of me after a while.
I didn't enjoy the little sisters and protecting them and I found a lot of the plasmids underwhelming. Took me bloody ages to go through and in the end I sprinted through the last two levels as I was just sick of it.
I enjoyed it early on and there were some good ideas there, but not for me. I really didn't enjoy playing as some lurching freak with a drill.
I've got Bioshock Infinite to play, but think I'll take a month or so off before I play that as I think playing 1 then 2 has sickened me off a bit.
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Post by Danno on Sept 20, 2021 20:51:11 GMT
Bioshock never clicked for me, so I'm glad that someone else felt similarly
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 20, 2021 20:57:28 GMT
Didn't care for it either. Audio logs are such a lazy way to tell a story. How often do people make a random-arse 30 second diary entry and then leave the recorder lying around? Everyone must be issued with about 10 of them as well
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A46Matt
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Post by A46Matt on Sept 20, 2021 21:34:45 GMT
Infinite is leagues above Bioshock 2. Don’t let 2 leave a bad taste and miss out on it
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2021 21:38:18 GMT
Typically I think 2 is the best one.
Hmm. Urge to replay it now.
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Post by steifybobbins on Sept 20, 2021 22:09:34 GMT
I don't. I raised the original point I made because I've seen people talk of hundreds of hours to beat various games and it almost put me off trying them. DQ 11 was the biggest surprise. I got to the final final boss well short of 100 hours (around 70-75) I'd almost given up at 60 hours assuming I had 40-50 hours to go based on what I read and that would have been a shame. That was all I was getting at I got to the bestest ending of DQ11 in ~75 hours (according to my Switch savefile). That includes ~3 hours of post-game metal slime farming to get sufficiently levelled up. That almost put me off the post-game, because until the first ending I didn't need to really grind at all. I was actually (pleasantly) surprised because I also read the howlongtobeat time of 100+. Note that I didn't do all the side quests (and only a couple of the Tickleton quests). Magnificent game by the way. Like I said, the only thing I did not like was the post-game grind. This is literally exactly what I did |
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Post by steifybobbins on Sept 20, 2021 22:13:53 GMT
I really loved Bioshock until the fetch quest after the room is gassed. At that point it just ran out of steam for me. Always fancied trying infinite though...
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Post by dfunked on Sept 20, 2021 22:25:49 GMT
Superliminal - 7/10 Similar to JonFE above, but probably loses a point for dragging on a bit at the end, even if it id a relatively short game. Oh yay, looks like it's time to fall into yet another pit as you walk along yet another pitch black platform. It gets nice and trippy, and I quite liked the message at the end even if the delivery fell a bit flat. It's well worth a look anyway if you're in the mood for a short puzzler as a palette cleanser. One puzzle's solution in particular felt a bit cheap and didn't really gel with the rest of the game, unless I did it totally wrong of course... The bit where you first get the clone ability and there's a giant apple and a fan that can't switch off. I just cloned a line of the fire alarm handles (that look like they're made of paper, not anything heavy) until they reached the button. It just didn't feel like something that should be able to weigh down a switch like that. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2021 6:11:28 GMT
Typically I think 2 is the best one. Hmm. Urge to replay it now. Resist it...trust me... I will play Infinite (got the complete pack on Switch). Just need some downtime. I might play Spyro or something multicoloured for a change as B2 just drained everything out of me. |
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Sept 21, 2021 9:56:54 GMT
Typically I think 2 is the best one. Hmm. Urge to replay it now.
Well, it certainly suits you to prefer a sequel to the original  |
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JonFE
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Post by JonFE on Sept 21, 2021 10:05:06 GMT
dfunked That specifically puzzle you mentioned had me head-scratching long enough that I looked it up in Youtube. Turns out that you can move up to the switch, line up your sight and back away so you can just see the apple, grab it and place it on the switch . Edit: Good shout on the message at the end, I should have mentioned that  Edit 2: Screwed up the spoiler part 
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Post by drhickman1983 on Sept 21, 2021 10:07:53 GMT
I didn't enjoy Infinite that much, but still managed to drag myself through it. It was just more overtly a series of combat arenas, which is how the games operate but I found it a bit too twitchy for my personal tastes.
Bioshock 2 I just kind of lost interest in half way through.
I love the first one though, mainly because there's some hilariously broken builds (stick everything into upgrading melee and wrench, just zap and one shot most things, it's great).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2021 10:30:04 GMT
I actually fired up Bioshock 2 and... yeah. I replayed 1 & Infinite when the remasters came out for PS4 and always meant to go back to 2 but you know what... The combat is shite. At the time I thought it was shite but I could forgive it with everything else being so good, but now I just can't be arsed. Maybe. I do love pissing about in Rapture mind you.
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