General Games Discussion

Harmonica wrote:Kotor with RTwP would be a dream.

I got the ultimate version of dragon age: origins. Which class would you recommend for a total beginner?

Babun wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Kotor with RTwP would be a dream.

I got the ultimate version of dragon age: origins. Which class would you recommend for a total beginner?

Warrior. Human Noble is the best origin story.

Man the different origin stories were so well done. Came out 10 years before Cyberpunk but it did it better than the half assed shit CDPR put out. I really hope for a remake which can add some of the scrapped ones like Elf Mage and Human Commoner.

M99 wrote:

Babun wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Kotor with RTwP would be a dream.

I got the ultimate version of dragon age: origins. Which class would you recommend for a total beginner?

Warrior. Human Noble is the best origin story.

Man the different origin stories were so well done. Came out 10 years before Cyberpunk but it did it better than the half assed shit CDPR put out. I really hope for a remake which can add some of the scrapped ones like Elf Mage and Human Commoner.

I'll start playing on Friday evening I guess. I opened the game, besides the origin there is a class choice ( mage,warrior, roque). Warrior sounds boring melee for a first playthrough in a fantasy world. I think the other onesare more fun(is my assumption right?)
Are ranged roque and area damage casters viable in this game?(had them in Titan Questand Diablo).

#64(S)

Game: Fear Effect
Year: 2000.
Genre: Action Adventure.
Publisher: Eidos Interactive.
Developer: Kronos Digital Entertainment.



While the name and tank-style controls may suggest a Resident Evil-like Survival Horror game, Fear Effect in fact has more in common with the cinematic action games Naughty Dog likes to produce today.

This is a relatively short game that spans a massive four discs, and that's because of the vast amount of cutscenes and the fully voiced dialogue.

Normally, for a PS1 game, that would mean a game that aged terribly, with ugly polygonal graphics and cheesy voice acting. However, Fear Effect is preserved in its original cinematic vision, which was highly competent at the time, and still great to see today.

"That means we find her first... find her fast... and drop anyone who tries to stop us"

The central hook of Fear Effect is its cinematic experience, and that hugely depends on its story, characters, dialogue, and delivery. While it may have a basic action movie story with some supernatural elements baked in, the game nails the rest.

Set in a fictional futuristic Chinese protectorate, the game stars a trio of mercenaries that are attempting to find the daughter of a big Triad boss in hope of a big payday. Hana is the femme fatale of the three, and she is a strong-willed female lead with a gift for dual-wielding Uzi's and possibly a mysterious past. Glas and Deke are more straightforward cynical mercs with a penchant for one-liners.

These characters, in both their design and dialogue, sell the setting of the game. This is really some well-done writing, which works really well when coupled with the expert scene directions for most CGI scenes. It may look normal now, but games in the year 2000 rarely looked as close to movies as this one did.

You can see the influence of movies, or more specifically, the influence of B-Movies with sexy leads in the almost juvenile way the game focuses on Hana's sex appeal. An entire chapter of the game starts with an impromptu shower scene and continues with Hana fighting zombies in nothing but a towel (a fact the game then smartly uses for a gag).

So, while the narrative and main plot may not be anything special, the characters, setting, and dialogue all combine to tell a really good cinematic story. Admittedly, that may not be much of a hook to today's gamers (who are pretty used to it), but it is a historical milestone nonetheless.

"Tick... tock... tick... Talk or you will start to tick, John"

Compared to its milestone storytelling techniques, the gameplay is a more basic remix of the tried and true fixed-camera tank-style shooters that flooded the PS1. Imagine playing the original Resident Evil but with significantly more ammo and some significant dodging capability.

Shooting is a simple matter of facing the general direction of the enemy and hitting the action button. If the enemy can be hit, a green cursor will appear in the status bar. Since most enemies can shoot back, movement becomes a key element in avoiding gunfire, but that throws off your aim.

As such, the game allows you to dodge roll in fixed directions while maintaining the direction you face, and also has a quick 180 turn button. In general, I rarely ever needed to master the movement to be comfortable with the game at normal, but they are a must to master in hard mode.

In that case, the game's stiff tank controls would be more of an issue. In some ways, the game doesn't move as smoothly as Resident Evil or Metal Gear Solid, but that's not an issue until you raise the difficulty.

With three characters to control, the game missed an opportunity to make playing as each a little bit more varied. If not in movement, then at least with weapon selection. Unfortunately, there is no such variety here, and all characters play the same.

It is worth noting here however that sometimes the scenes switch at highly sensitive times giving you barely any time to react, so save often to avoid some of these cheap deaths.

"You must wash off the blood. It is the blood that drove them mad. The blood that makes them demons"

Other than the basic gun combat, the game also has some puzzles as well. These puzzles are divided into two parts: "Movement Puzzles", and "Clue Puzzles", with these categories sometimes combining.

Movement puzzles are based on observing the condition of the level and moving away from the danger. For instance, an electrified path has a pattern where some panels are safe to pass through. In this case, you can cross the path if you figure out the pattern and are able to navigate safely (which is a challenge in itself sometimes).

Clue puzzles are similar to the puzzles found in Survival Horror games or Adventure games. You find clues in the level, and then some puzzle requires your to figure out a number, a bomb deactivation sequence, or a key item usage location and order.

In general, these puzzles aren't too hard or unfair, nor are they particularly groundbreaking.

The same can be said about the game's bosses, who are fun to face most of the time despite not being especially brilliant. Hell, even the worst boss I fought was fun because of the ludicrous situation you fight him in.

"Head for the hotel... we will need to war Deke, there's a shitstorm coming"

With its cinematic focus, the star of the game and its most important aspect is its visual and graphical department, which delivers in spades.

Forgoing an attempt at "photorealism", the game wisely tries to recreate a more comic-book style with its cell-shaded graphics. These end up aging much better than the polygonal nightmares of similarly aged games, with the added benefit of highly expressive faces.

Of course, this is mostly seen in the game's many scenes, with the actual in-game graphics still showing their age. The cell-shaded character models still look good, but the animation is a bit stiff. Also, with fixed camera angles and 2D backgrounds, areas widely differ in visual perspective (with some really cool camera angles in some areas as well).

Back to the scenes, these not only look good but are animated really well, with some solid scene and dialogue direction thanks to some mostly good voice acting. Sure, there is some typically cheesy oriental VAs, but the end product is mostly good.

The sea cannot be said about the game's soundtrack, which is almost forgettable in its focus on ambient and atmospheric music. Actually, it is indeed forgettable and I don't recall any single track.

In Conclusion:

Two elements ensured that Fear Effect didn't age too badly. First, its cell-shaded graphics in the game's many scenes still look good. Second, the characters and voice acting still makes for a compelling, if basic, cinematic experience.

As such, Fear Effect is still fun to play today even beyond a historical playthrough, and that's something that not every cinematic PS1 game can claim to be.

Final: 8/10

Pros:

• Very Good characters and dialogue
  
• Excellent scene direction
  
• cell-shaded graphics aged very well
  
• Expertly delivered voice acting for the most part
  
• Basic gameplay loop isn't bad
  

Cons:

• Awkward tank-style controls are detrimental to some puzzles and hard difficulty
  
• Outside of cut-scene graphics are a little washed up
  
• Weak music
  

"Tips"
1-Have a pen and paper handy to record solutions to puzzles.
2-Lear to duck and roll to avoid enemy fire and attack.
3-You must scroll to the blue (key) items to actually use them at the intended location.
4-Whenever the "use" command flashes, make a mental note of it. Sometimes, you need to hug a door to find it.
5-Ammo is plentiful, but don't waste too much of it.
6-You can use stealth attacks to instantly kill enemies from behind with melee weapons (if they didn't notice you).
7-Save whenever the option to save comes up.
8-Health recovers every time you clear a room from enemies, switch characters or solve a puzzle.
9-The true ending is hidden behind beating the game in Hard mode.



"Next Game"

Originally, I was supposed to play Future Cop: L.A.P.D, but it didn't seem to be my cup of tea despite being a mechanically solid game. Fear Effect was expectedly a better experience.

Now, I am looking forward to playing the sequel, which is actually the game that sits at #64 in the Retro Sanctuary top 100 PS1 games list.

Stay Tuned

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is free download on the PS4 till May 14th. You don't need PS+, its fee for everyone. Anyone who does not have it in their library, adding it for free is a no brainer.

Is the DLC worth playing?

RealGunner wrote:Is the DLC worth playing?

Yes. Has the most challenging enemies in the game and the story is pretty good too.

Yes the DLC is good

M99 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is free download on the PS4 till May 14th. You don't need PS+, its fee for everyone. Anyone who does not have it in their library, adding it for free is a no brainer.

Thx for the heads up

https://wccftech.com/stalker-2-is-a-3-month-console-exclusive-microsoft-will-increase-revenue-share-for-xbox-games-too/

RealGunner wrote:Is the DLC worth playing?

No spoiler recommendation:
There's one motherfucker at the end you won't forget. Him alone makes the DLC worth it.

M99 wrote:Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition is free download on the PS4 till May 14th. You don't need PS+, its fee for everyone. Anyone who does not have it in their library, adding it for free is a no brainer.

Bought it earlier this year when it was $10 on PS5. Amazing game. Only dislike was the enemies being bullet sponge.

Had to decrease difficulity as it just pissed me off spending so much time on every enemy.

Horizon (+ DLC) is one of top games for the PS4.

Played Bravely Default 2 on the switch for like 70 hours. Strong recommendation for anyone who wants to play a traditional JRPG but with key evolutions to classical system to make it fresh. ATB based combat, 4 party members, job system, basically Final Fantasy V made in 2021 with a cartoonish art style.

Now I started Hellblade on PS4, only played 30 minutes and I was already terrified for all of it looking forward to getting depression from this game, seems amazing.

I'm at the start of the last playthrough of Nier Replicant (to see the true ending) which I hear is another 5 hrs of recycled content to get to 1 hr of new content

I thought playthrough B of Automata was bad...

this will be my fourth playthrough (granted that playthrough 2 and 3 start you in the second half of the game, and can be finished in like 3 hours each, so its roughly the same time spent playing recycled content as the second playthrough of Automata, but with that you at least got to play as a new character)

ffs

good story here though, I like the main characters (besides the MC) more than the Automata cast

gameplay in the original must have been atrocious for it to have been panned the way it was by reviewers, because it's insane seeing the overlap with Automata in most aspects

sidequests are mostly atrocious and should be skipped though, still need to see the true ending but I'll give it an 8/10, 10/10 story

Is the story as good as automata? i mean similar atmosphere etc?

Been playing Dark Souls 3 now that I have time again. As you can see I end up playing stuff really late. I love it so far. Games need to be challenging as that (false) sense of reward is beautiful. Next will be Bloodborne.

RealGunner wrote:Is the story as good as automata? i mean similar atmosphere etc?

yeah

its crazy how much overlap there is thematically, atmosphere etc, visuals are good too, the first couple of hours are very slow though if you start it, don't be put off by that, story opens up after a while

the story is great and the cast are good too, there's just far too much backtracking through the towns/hubs

Arquitecto wrote:Been playing Dark Souls 3 now that I have time again. As you can see I end up playing stuff really late. I love it so far. Games need to be challenging as that (false) sense of reward is beautiful. Next will be Bloodborne.

I left DS II in the middle and never touched the console since then, seems like forever now . Nothing to do with the game, didn't fell like gaming in general. Today I resumed it and Inshallah I will beat it in few days. I also have DSIII and BB in line. I hope the motivation doesn't die this time.

Firenze wrote:

RealGunner wrote:Is the story as good as automata? i mean similar atmosphere etc?

yeah

its crazy how much overlap there is thematically, atmosphere etc, visuals are good too, the first couple of hours are very slow though if you start it, don't be put off by that, story opens up after a while

the story is great and the cast are good too, there's just far too much backtracking through the towns/hubs

hopefully there is fast travel though?

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:

RealGunner wrote:Is the story as good as automata? i mean similar atmosphere etc?

yeah

its crazy how much overlap there is thematically, atmosphere etc, visuals are good too, the first couple of hours are very slow though if you start it, don't be put off by that, story opens up after a while

the story is great and the cast are good too, there's just far too much backtracking through the towns/hubs

hopefully there is fast travel though?

you dont unlock it until the second half of the game and it doesnt really help much for 2 locations in the game

also, something I skipped in Automata was riding the mounts, its essential here, early on in the game make sure you do a side quest to kill a boar, it lets u ride them between towns/hubs

Running was the worst part of automata. Going into the desert gave me conniptions. This sounds even worse.

RealGunner wrote:Running was the worst part of automata. Going into the desert gave me conniptions. This sounds even worse.

It's 100x worse mate

there are like 5-6 hubs and you're going back between them several times. Stay away from the side quests, besides a couple. Literally some will send you from point a to point b 6 times in a quest.

story is worth though

Lucifer wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:Been playing Dark Souls 3 now that I have time again. As you can see I end up playing stuff really late. I love it so far. Games need to be challenging as that (false) sense of reward is beautiful. Next will be Bloodborne.

I left DS II in the middle and never touched the console since then, seems like forever now . Nothing to do with the game, didn't fell like gaming in general. Today I resumed it and Inshallah I will beat it in few days. I also have DSIII and BB in line. I hope the motivation doesn't die this time.

My desire for it isn't the same for gaming either. Thus basically 1 game per year on average. Play DS3 first as I heard Bloodborne is considerably better. That'll be by next!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKocYiRHYlI

https://opencritic.com/game/10995/resident-evil-village

Is anyone getting biomutant?

Re-discovered it this week with the previews coming in and it looks great.

That game seems interesting, but I’m not getting any new games anytime soon. My PS4 Pro’s fan goes crazy every time the console runs a game. It really sounds like a jet plane that’s flying straight through my living room. It looks like I won’t be able to get my hands on a PS5 in the near future either, so I’ll just have to manage without games for a while.