GRcade

Doom (2016)

I don't think it was that brilliant to be honest. Being forced to do finishing moves to get health got really boring. It didn't really feel like the original games to me TBH. I hated all of the boss fights as they felt really un-doom. I did enjoy the plot and I quite enjoyed the combat. It feels like a 7/10 game to me, fun and all that but certainly not one of the top ten games of the year.

Jordan UK wrote:Forza Horizon 3 - Blizzard Mountain [7]

+More of the same sublime arcade racing action that made FH3 so great.
+Looks great - and fab in HDR.

-

the lack of final a showcase race was a bit of a let down - one loop around the new environment as a final race wasn't on a par with the showcase events from the main game - especially frustrating when there was some serious rubber-banding going on - I was pipped to the post five times on the last event having lead in all instances pretty much all of the way

-Too many buggy (vehicle) races.
-Pricing of these expansions seem steep and misleading. I bought the Ultimate Edition (which was nearly double the standard edition) assuming it would have the Season Pass included. Having to pay an additional £16/17 for the expansion on top of a £60 'Ultimate Edition' seems money-grabbing in the extreme. Poor form Turn 10.

I completely agree about their pricing/description mess; i can only navigate it because i've bought every forza game since FM4 so am familiar with all their bullshit and marketing nonsense. As for the buggy races you can customise every race and championship outside the one-off showcase events however you want so you need never set foot in or see one if you don't want to.

The Last Guardian - 5/10

There's a nice game somewhere in there but it's so fundamentally broken that it's buried under a thick, sticky blanket of frustration. I also can't think a game released in modern times that had so many bugs, one of which occurred in the very first area (a barrel ended up too close to the animal for it be eaten, but I couldn't retrieve it because it would knock me out of the way). I've seen many people gloss-over the games failings but the clunky controls, woeful framerate, and appalling camera consistently ruined the experience for me. I've also seen it suggested that this game has achieved the greatest AI in any game to date - the only objectively correct explanation for this would be if the developer actually intended to perfectly replicate a dumb, clumsy animal that hinders more often than it helps. All these technical failings only serve to drag out a 5-hour game to a 15-hour runtime, at which point it has definitely outstayed its welcome.

Yep, and he did for the first two and the subsequent four, following me having to restart the game.

After about 7 hours with it, I'm of the 5/10 opinion too. It's like playing a PS2 game.

Final Fantasy XV - 7/10

Starts off very well but the story is non existent and after chapter 8 things go downhill. Uber boss is also dull and boring and the final boss was too easy

Battlefield 1 - 8.5/10
While very short I really enjoyed my time playing it. Challenges were just that at times but the hard setting was too easy to play really. I remember how frustrating COD2 was on the hardest setting!

Taz-Mania on Sega Master System. I played this when I was a kid but couldn't get past the world 3 boss so I thought I'd revisit it. It's a pretty decent platfomer but the spin attack can lead to some cheap deaths. 6/10

EDIT: Master of Darkness on Sega Master System. Another game from my childhood that I could never finish. This is a really good Castlevania clone. I actually enjoyed this more than the NES Castlevanias.

It looks good, controls pretty well, has some good level design and simple but effective bosses. One thing of note is that the end credits are spelled out on a ouija board which I thought was a nice touch. It gets a solid 8/10.

Inside 7/10

I spent the first two hours or so of this wondering what all the hype was about. Then the ending happened.

There definitely need to be more games where you can play the all consuming mound of flesh from the end of Akira.

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:Taz-Mania on Sega Master System. I played this when I was a kid but couldn't get past the world 3 boss so I thought I'd revisit it. It's a pretty decent platfomer but the spin attack can lead to some cheap deaths. 6/10

EDIT: Master of Darkness on Sega Master System. Another game from my childhood that I could never finish. This is a really good Castlevania clone. I actually enjoyed this more than the NES Castlevanias.

It looks good, controls pretty well, has some good level design and simple but effective bosses. One thing of note is that the end credits are spelled out on a ouija board which I thought was a nice touch. It gets a solid 8/10.

I really loved the Mega Drive version of Taz it was hard as nails though.

lex-man wrote:

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:Taz-Mania on Sega Master System. I played this when I was a kid but couldn't get past the world 3 boss so I thought I'd revisit it. It's a pretty decent platfomer but the spin attack can lead to some cheap deaths. 6/10

EDIT: Master of Darkness on Sega Master System. Another game from my childhood that I could never finish. This is a really good Castlevania clone. I actually enjoyed this more than the NES Castlevanias.

It looks good, controls pretty well, has some good level design and simple but effective bosses. One thing of note is that the end credits are spelled out on a ouija board which I thought was a nice touch. It gets a solid 8/10.

I really loved the Mega Drive version of Taz it was hard as nails though.

I was never a huge fan of the Mega Drive game but I remember the Master System one quite fondly.

Also finished another game today, Zero Wing on Mega Drive. While this is mostly known now for the "All your base are belong to us" memes it's a shame as it's a pretty good shooter. It controls well, looks good and has some cool looking enemies/bosses. It's not the hardest game in the world but I'm not sure I'd have the patience for it without save states. 7/10

Mass Effect 2 - Pc

Its always weird going through a series which had years of development inbetween; seeing game mechanics change around a world you're familiar with. I appreciated the removal of granular squad-wide gear management but was surprised to find the much better-handling ground vehicle was limited to a few throwaway side missions. On the other hand having to constantly scan planets for resources was quite annoying.

The series is an excellent example of lovecraftian themes in a science fiction setting; ancient godlike beings who dwell beyond the stars and whose motives and timescales are beyond our brief mortal comprehension and the like. However a lot of this is lost in playing agony aunt/relationship counsellor to at least 10 people. Their side missions added a lot of texture to the setting but solving all their problems seemed to detract from the overall objective.

I've started the third game now so am tentatively looking forward to wrapping up Shepherd's story in time for Andromeda.

Sonic the Hedgehog on Master System. This is possibly the game I have beaten the most times, it holds such nostalgia for me more so than almost any other game, it just reminds me of simpler, happier times.

Anyway, I haven't played the game in years now but it holds up pretty well. Instead of being a downgraded port of the Mega Drive game this is completely different and a really good platformer in its own right. There are a couple of mechanics I always liked firstly that the Chaos Emeralds are hidden in the regular stages and secondly that in every level there is one hidden extra life and if you find them all and reach the last level without dying an extra life unlocks in that level too.

Overall this is a great little game if a little short 10/10

Brerlappin wrote:REmake 10/10

There is literally nothing wrong with this game. Perfect survival horror.

Dumb room with one-way doorknob brings it down a mark for me. Pointless bullshit just there to make you go the long way around.

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:

lex-man wrote:

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:Taz-Mania on Sega Master System. I played this when I was a kid but couldn't get past the world 3 boss so I thought I'd revisit it. It's a pretty decent platfomer but the spin attack can lead to some cheap deaths. 6/10

EDIT: Master of Darkness on Sega Master System. Another game from my childhood that I could never finish. This is a really good Castlevania clone. I actually enjoyed this more than the NES Castlevanias.

It looks good, controls pretty well, has some good level design and simple but effective bosses. One thing of note is that the end credits are spelled out on a ouija board which I thought was a nice touch. It gets a solid 8/10.

I really loved the Mega Drive version of Taz it was hard as nails though.

I was never a huge fan of the Mega Drive game but I remember the Master System one quite fondly.

Also finished another game today, Zero Wing on Mega Drive. While this is mostly known now for the "All your base are belong to us" memes it's a shame as it's a pretty good shooter. It controls well, looks good and has some cool looking enemies/bosses. It's not the hardest game in the world but I'm not sure I'd have the patience for it without save states. 7/10

I sank hours into taz I remember thinking it looked as good as the cartoon at the time.

Brerlappin wrote:

chalkitdown wrote:

Brerlappin wrote:REmake 10/10

There is literally nothing wrong with this game. Perfect survival horror.

Dumb room with one-way doorknob brings it down a mark for me. Pointless bullshit just there to make you go the long way around.

I made it the entire game without breaking the handle. Had no problems planning routes and Barry fixes it by the time you get to the outside area. Not a problem at all really.

It's a problem if you're playing as Chris.

Completed Brothers: A tale of two sons

Really enjoyed the game although not really for the game play. It was quite annoying controlling two characters at once and I would confuse which stick controlled which character at times. But, even then the game was super easy. I didn't struggle with any of the puzzles or every have to think about what I needed to do next. I did die a few times and did find some of the climbing sections tense.

Where the game really excels is graphics and story telling. Each level (chapter) looks unique and very pretty. Just walking through the game is quite an enjoyable experience.

Nobody says anything in English but the ways the characters emote is really engaging. You get a feeling for what the characters are going through and actually feel for them. There were a couple of plot bits I couldn't really get behind though they weren't a big deal TBH.

It was pretty short, it took me three hours all told, which is a good length any longer and it would have got quite tiring.

8/10

Stories: The Path of Destinies.

This was one of the PS+ games from December. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from it - I thought it was a crappy Diablo clone or something. As it turns out, it's a weird little game which has basically got Batman combat and an upgrade tree.

Each run through the game takes about an hour and you're faced with various choices which mean things go one way or another. Basically you go down 4 different routes the first four times and figure out something from each of those paths which lets you complete the game and get the true ending. I started it last night and finished it today. Probably took me 4-5 hours all told.

It's really good fun and I enjoyed the writing. The plot is basically a massive Star Wars rip off (very blatant parody) but there's loads of pop-culture references in there, some of which are pretty funny.


With a few upgrades the combat gets quite hectic:



7/10.

Until Dawn - what a fantastic game this is, probably one of my favourite horror games from the past two generations. 9/10

Wonder Boy on Master System. I'd finished the Adventure Island version of this on NES before but never played this version outside the arcade. It's a fun if basic platformer. The whole keep running and hope for the best gameplay isnt ideal but it's a good looking game for the time.

6/10

As a side note having now played the two versions of this game it really hits home how much better Wonder Boy is than Adventure Island. I know Master System was popular in Europe, Australia and Brazil but it tanked in the US and Japan despite from what I understand it being a technically superior system to NES. It would be interesting to see how the system would have fared if not hampered by Nintendo having all the 3rd party support locked down making NES exclusives.

Abzu was fun. Bought it last night in the PS4 sale for under a tenner and completed it this morning. I think it was intended to be some kind of cautionary tale - but it's not preachy and it's very simply and concisely told. Beautiful graphics, a dream-like quality and as well as being easy to play all the way through it's also a strangely relaxing experience. Strikes me as a game that would suit the VR treatment (perhaps it already exists?).

I wish there had been slightly more of an educational edge to the game - more information about the various species of marine life, etc. I guess that wasn't the path the developers chose, but still. I would have done a few things differently (I'd have kept the gentle eco-message, but made it more of a boy-and-his-dolphin tale), but whatever. Gorgeous-looking game, well worth picking up at its current discount if you haven't already done so.

8/10