Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

GTA V - 9.5/10

Beat the story missions with 75% completion and around 40 hours on the clock. Superbly crafted experience with great set pieces and impressive variety. Will be going back to mop up a few more bits. Has aged very well. Almost no bugs at all.

Loses half a point for shitty flying mechanics + the annoying drive-here-then-there missions.

Hitman (2016) - 9/10

Hitman is a series I've always wanted to love, I played bits of the first two many years ago and loved the idea but always found them clunky and frustrating to play. I then played Absolution a few years back but didn't really get along with it. I gather Blood Money is generally considered one of the best in the series but for some reason it seems to have totally passed me by.

Anyway, I'd been wanting to play this for a little while and absolutely loved it. It felt to me like the technology had finally caught up with the concepts from the first two games, the disguise system works perfectly and there seemed to be a consistent logic to what would cause somebody to recognise me. I also loved the amount of approaches to a level and how accessible these were, I'm not a completionist at all and would normally stop playing after completing a level once but in this game I actually wanted to go back and find alternative solutions. Each level offered a good level of challenge but it never became frustrating because if something went wrong it was always down to my own approaches to the game. A really enjoyable title and a pleasant surprise as I certainly didn't expect to like it this much!

Conker Live & Reloaded - 6/10

I played the N64 version back at the time of release but never really got that far with the single player and mostly played multiplayer, picked up this remake many years ago and did the exact same with that. Given the Xbox One X enhancements I thought it was worth finally giving it another go so I've been plugging away at it over the last month or so. Finally finished it this morning and have very mixed feelings about it.

The story and writing are both still excellent, very funny and the movie spoofs are brilliant, especially the ones based on The Matrix and Saving Private Ryan. This was probably the main thing that kept me going through to the end. It also looks fantastic thanks to the Xbox One enhancements and it's hard to believe that this was an original Xbox game at times. Occasionally it still has big framerate dips but it's based on an N64 game by Rare so that's hardly a surprise.

The gameplay has so much variety to it and this is both a strength and a weakness. It's a strength in the sense that it keeps the game fresh and you never know what to expect but a weakness in the sense that mechanically it is all over the place. Some sections work really well with tight, accurate controls whilst others border on being broken - such as the lava race which I must have attempted around 50 times and which nearly caused me to give up on the game. It also has some serious issues with input lag and collision detection, with the latter frustratingly only applying to the player. There are often very small sweet spots to collect an item or damage an enemy whilst they can often hurt you despite the animation not even showing any contact. These aspects lead to the game being incredibly frustrating at times. This is then paired with other parts which are just extremely unfair, such as enemies who can kill you in one hit (which can be completely at random and not follow a pattern) or areas where one minor mistake can cost you all your life (for example - falling into the lava will see Conker jump repeatedly up and down until all his life is gone). This is compounded by hit and miss checkpointing, which sometimes requires you to backtrack and sit through long cut scenes over and over again.

Overall, a mixed bag with some outstanding elements and some that were just awful. With some quality of life tweaks, such as better checkpointing and tighter controls this would easily be a much better game and I'd definitely play a proper remake if we were to ever get one.

Is there a reason you played Live and Reloaded over the N64 version that's onRare Replay?

I was torn between the two but went with Live and Reloaded largely because I'd read that it offered some gameplay tweaks and improvements and also had better visuals. The only thing I could find that seemed to be counted against Live and Reloaded was that it was more heavily censored but that wasn't something that bothered me.

Jamo3103 wrote:I was torn between the two but went with Live and Reloaded largely because I'd read that it offered some gameplay tweaks and improvements and also had better visuals. The only thing I could find that seemed to be counted against Live and Reloaded was that it was more heavily censored but that wasn't something that bothered me.

It's also missing stuff. Like an entire chapter.

Which chapter is that? From looking at various content about the differences between the two I could only see one small part that had been removed altogether. That was the electric eel sequence from the start of the war chapter but maybe I've missed something else!

I thought they removed the entire vampire stuff? Maybe I'm wrong?

Vampire stuff was definitely all there, in fact probably one of the sequences I had the most fun with! It had quite a lot of visual tweaks I believe but all the sections of it remained the same.

Odd, I thought it was removed. No idea what I'm talking about then :lol:

It was lot different in Ñ64 version and Xbox versions, in Ñ64 you have shotgun and Conker didn't change his look, when in Xbox version it was something else and he looked like old vampire hunter of some sorts.

I don't remember exactly, but I do remember being surprised how different that section was.

I'm not done with it yet, but Dragon Quest XI, my first DQ, has been great fun. Unfortunately, the story boss had a annoying JRPG trait, and the post-game is tailored for people who love to grind / want to make use of their already over-powered characters. But despite that, what came before was easily one of the most entertaining games I've played this year. For those unprepared: it will hit you right in the feels. Brace yourselves.

Saint of Killers wrote:I'm not done with it yet, but Dragon Quest XI, my first DQ, has been great fun. Unfortunately, the story boss had a annoying JRPG trait, and the post-game is tailored for people who love to grind / want to make use of their already over-powered characters. But despite that, what came before was easily one of the most entertaining games I've played this year. For those unprepared: it will hit you right in the feels. Brace yourselves.

I'm eagerly awaiting how the Switch version runs. I'd love to play this.

God of War - 10/10

Will surely be up there with Breath of the Wild as the best game of the generation. Draws influence from every other triple A game and manages to fuse them near flawlessly. Superb graphics and a gripping narrative, with meaningful sidequests, satisfying and nuanced combat, and near faultless performance on a base PS4.

A real achievement in what semi-linear videogames are capable of. Almost certain in my top ten games ever.

Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment - 7.5/10

Nearly as good as the original. A little more fiddly, but innovates on the original formula rather well.

Clarkman wrote:God of War - 10/10

Will surely be up there with Breath of the Wild as the best game of the generation. Draws influence from every other triple A game and manages to fuse them near flawlessly. Superb graphics and a gripping narrative, with meaningful sidequests, satisfying and nuanced combat, and near faultless performance on a base PS4.

A real achievement in what semi-linear videogames are capable of. Almost certain in my top ten games ever.

This is interesting. I went back to it a few months back and gave up before the end of the first section as the framerate was so atrocious, base PS4 too.

I think I'd give the game (or gave, can't remember) an 8; a superb adventure with excellent combat and story that falters in pacing after the first dozen or so hours.

Voodoo Vince on XBOX. This was a pretty fun platformer with a neat hurt yourself to hurt enemies mechanic. The last few levels were pretty frustrating but I still rate it 7/10

Namco Museum Essentails.

Not bad. The worst games are Dragon spirit & Xevious. I’m pretty sure Namco would of had something more essentail than them two.. The rest where fun & weren’t too taxing.

3/5

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing - 7/10

+ Looks nice and runs smoothly
+ Plenty of cups in GP mode
+ Missions are enjoyable and there's a good number of them
+ A good amount of characters/items to unlock

- Lots of repetition of tracks
- Cheating AI
- Some odd character choices
- Big The Cat

Bloodborne - 9/10

A fantastic experience from beginning to end! :toot:

Brilliant combat that tweaks the already excellent template from Souls to encourage and reward a more proactive and aggressive play style whilst still demanding that the player learn when and how best to attack any enemy.

Stunning setting and visuals that just oozes atmosphere at every turn.

Some of the best boss designs, both visually and mechanically, I've seen in any game.

And all of this tied up in a complex and intriguing world and lore that rewards the player for paying attention and joining the dots!

Sad it's all over now! :cry:

Last Game You Finished and Your Rating

Who is online

Affiliates