General Games Discussion

It was panned on release by fans yeah, I think they won't attempt open world again. I was talking to someone about DW recently (he's playing the games for the first time) so it refreshed my memory a bit. It was genuinely the series I played the most on the PS2, from DW2 through DW5 (and all of the special editions) I put in hundreds of hours. Loved it back then but played so much to the point I can't stand playing them now. I think the last I played was 7 but I just played through the campaigns once or twice. Oddly never attempted to get into the Samurai Warriors games.

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:Finished Baldurs Gate 3. Clocked in at around 85 hours. Amazing game. Amazing achievement.

Gives me a break before Starfield though I'm really not very hyped at all for it tbh.

Is it a 10/10?

I'd say so yeah, some people have some issues with the third and final act feeling less polished but I thought it was fantastic and had few issues at all.

Don't think it's actually in my top 5 all time but definitely top 10

fantastic characters

Firenze wrote:It was panned on release by fans yeah, I think they won't attempt open world again. I was talking to someone about DW recently (he's playing the games for the first time) so it refreshed my memory a bit. It was genuinely the series I played the most on the PS2, from DW2 through DW5 (and all of the special editions) I put in hundreds of hours. Loved it back then but played so much to the point I can't stand playing them now. I think the last I played was 7 but I just played through the campaigns once or twice. Oddly never attempted to get into the Samurai Warriors games.

Warriors Orochi is probably my favorite "Musou" title. I spent a lot of time playing Warriors Orochi 3, and I was looking forward to playing Orochi 4, but it was a substantial drop down in quality, in my opinion.

I think the Samurai Warriors series is better than Dynasty Warriors, but not quite as good as Orochi. That said, Orochi, Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors all seem to have regressed in quality over the past decade or so.

I'm not sure exactly what's causing Koei Techmo to make their games worse in recent times, but I get the impression that they've had to scale down on several things in order to improve the games graphically/technically. I did play through DW9 recently, and I agree with everything Warrior said about it. It was nice to be able to play DW again, but that game has so many shortcomings, even after several post launch patches

I've come to believe Koei is trolling the video game industry


This is a review for DW6 Empires almost 15 years ago

Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot said that "The combat is still dreadfully repetitive," "The visuals are still ugly," and "The sound effects and voice acting are still awful." VanOrd went on to say of Empires, "Environments are bland and lifeless; water looks awful; and character models, while clearly upgraded from Dynasty Warriors 5 Empires, still look primitive by today's standards," and gave it 5.5/10


Somehow they are still rolling with the same issues, same stories, same graphics the only criticism ever taken into account is the fanbase reviews on combat system

Open world makes no sense whatsoever for this story. You capture a base and lose it right away because the next objective is a battle set 2 years later. I don't know how someone who never played DW before can understand what's going on in this mess.

DW2-5 was also my era. I think the last one I played was 6 and dropped out

Samurai Warriors was great, iirc played 2 and 3.

Just by chance yesterday Nerflix recommended me the DW movie (didn't know there was a movie). So I put it on... you guys should see what they made. It's hilariously bad and somehow perfect for an adaptation of DW. The story would be incomprehensible for someone who didn't play the games (or read the books), it's done in the style of Chinese theater with exaggerated acting, it starts with the yellow turban rebellion, it's perfect, and in modern DW style I turned it off after half an hour

Sony being greedy twats and raising the price of PS+ for all tiers 33% apparently

Is there anything that does not cost +33% these days

Fuck off Sony

Firenze wrote:Sony being greedy twats and raising the price of PS+ for all tiers 33% apparently

Is there a date for elden ring DLC yet? I need to buy ps+ before that

RealGunner wrote:

Firenze wrote:Sony being greedy twats and raising the price of PS+ for all tiers 33% apparently

Is there a date for elden ring DLC yet? I need to buy ps+ before that

No, probably we find out at tokyo game show or more likely the game awards, I think it releases March 2024 for the 2yr anni

Starfield reviews looking MID

Xbox exclusive? No time for that

#A30

Game: In Cold Blood:-
Year: 2000, 2001.
Genre: Adventure.
Publisher: Sony, DreamCatcher Games.
Developer: Revolution Software.




Following the surprise success of the Broken Sword Adventure games on the PS1, a success that was surprising because the genre usually thrived on PCs but struggled on consoles, Sony reportedly requested that Revolution Software make a new game with the PS1 on mind.

The result was In Cold Blood, a new type of Adventure game that was unrelated to their past work, but maybe could offer something new to fans of the genre. Unfortunately, it is exactly the advances that the game made that make it so much inferior to the charming games that preceded it.

"Now, John Cord. You are going to tell me everything about your mission. You'll start at the beginning with Alpha"

If you played the two Broken Sword games on the PS1, then you are right to expect a solid story told through very good voice acting and scene direction, which is thankfully what we get hear. Although it does lose the charm and humor of those games thanks to its overly serious espionage angle, In Cold Blood offers enough of a good story that you may not have a boring time watching it all unfold on YouTube.

Starring MI6 agent John Cord, it follows him as he investigates a coup in the fictional ex-Soviet country of Volgia. Soon he is embroiled in a web of mystery, intrigue, and supernatural resources that could change the world as much as it can bend the laws of physics. In fact, you first meet him while being literally caught in the web, being interrogated by the obviously evil Vladimir Putin, I mean Dmitri Nagarov.

The majority of the game is set in flashbacks that Cord remembers while being interrogated, which puts us in his own shoes as he tries to figure out and remember how he was betrayed and captured, and then plan on what to do about it.

While the story and premise won't win any awards for originality, Revolution Software knows how to smartly manage its storytelling, resulting in an engaging tale from a narrative and performance point of view.

"What is so special about it? Everythin, it does not only bend the laws of physics, it snaps them in two""

Unfortunately, the narrative is where engagement begins and ends with this game since it's an annoying chore to actually play it. Normally, playing an Adventure game is a highly meditative experience. You take a look at the nice backgrounds, click around to hear the smart/funny commentary on the environment while you look for clues, and then solve things logically.

That meditative experience is greatly changed in this game in favor of a more active and action-oriented style. You no longer point and click, and instead, you can directly control Cord in the environment. Additionally, you also have some limited stealth and gun combat options. While this approach could work in theory, the reality is that Cord lumbers on awkwardly to such a degree that moving about becomes a slog.

It is simply not fun controlling Cord, and it certainly becomes less fun when you get fail states thanks to the awkward combat and steel sections. Yet, what makes this truly the worst is that it discourages the player from interacting with the environment because it's so damn slow.

As such, one of the main joys of playing an Adventure game, where the protagonist provides wry commentary on the environment, which provides context and personality to the game, is something you want to actively avoid here.

Other games in the genre, such as Grim Fandango, moved away from point-and-click gameplay successfully. But those usually had better art direction to highlight interaction points, and they never had the awkwardly slow screen transitions that this game has.

"The place is swarming wit guards, so don't think you could shoot your way in. Use your brain"

Although no level of art direction would have saved the game from the experience of actually playing it, it may have at least saved my poor screenshots. In another move to "update" their take on the genre, the developers opted to abandon their previous artistry and proficiency in 2D graphics and go into the realm of early 3D polygonal monstrosities.

Sure, there were enough advances in 3D technology by then that the game doesn't look too bad, especially with some nice looking converted 2D backgrounds in some areas, but the push to 3D polygons made the game much darker than it needed to be. This resulted in a difficulty in knowing which objects you could interact with, which is especially annoying when you hate the thought of moving your character around.

While their work on the Broken Sword series had timeless beauty and charm, nothing in the art direction of In Cold Blood or graphical production, including the generic design of characters such as John Cord, ever rises to that potential.

I think that smarter push to modern graphics would have been to retaint their experience with 2D graphics, but utilize more of the rather solid CGI scenes that showcase key moments in the game. They still won't look good and it would be an awful juxtaposition of styles, but it would at least save the base look of the game.

As it is, the solid voice acting is the only part of the production that gets passing grade.

In Conclusion:

As a fan of the PS1 Broken Sword games, I am a bit sad that Revolution Software basically scored a bunch of own goals in making this game. Through a sluggish "update" of the gameplay to introduce more action as well as its clumsy jump into 3D graphics, they managed to eliminate the best qualities of their previous games.

In Cold Blood is a game that will leave you cold and unintrested in completing it, as not intrigue or mystery in the world will have you strain your eyes looking at muddy screens while your boring character lumbers about like a treadless tank.

Final: 4/10

Pros:

• Solid story, cast, and direction
  
• The typical professional voice acting of Revolution Software games
  
• The REMORA tool was smart and promising gameplay system
  

Cons:

• Slow, lumbering gameplay
  
• Awkward action/combat controls
  
• Gameplay actively discourages interaction with the world
  
• Slow and laggy screen transitions
  
• Muddy and dark graphics
  
• Polygonal models don't hold up well compared to the brilliant 2D art of the past
  

"Tips"
1- Courch to help you sneak behind guards.
2- Utilize your map radar function (by pausing thegame) to scout for guards ahead.
3- Some NPCs will only help you if you take to them with your gun drawn.
4- Don't run while using stairs, as it may glitch the game.


"Next Game"

I am disappointed but not surprised by my reaction to In Cold Blood. Based on my experience, many promising Adventure games failed miserably thanks to a mindless attempt at innovating the genre, lumbering it with unnecessary mechanics and systems.

Next game in the addendum list, which is frankly less reliable than the main list at this point, is going to be Jade Cocoon, which is a polarizing JRPG with pedigree from Studio Ghibli behind it. I hope its more a misunderstood gem than an undeserving cult-classic.

Stay Tuned

Lord Spencer

anyone getting lords of the fallen this fri? looks good

Firenze wrote:anyone getting lords of the fallen this fri? looks good

Early reviews seem to suggest that it's an above average game, some even claim it's very good, but it's held back by technical issues.

#A24

Game: Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu:-
Year: 1998, 1999.
Genre: JRPG.
Publisher: Genki, Crave Entertainment.
Developer: Genki.




The most striking thing about Jade Cocoon: The Story of the Tamamayu is its relation to the excellent work of Studio Ghibli thanks to the involvement of Ghibli's Katsuya Kondo in the design of the world and characters. It is immediately apparent when you watch the opening anime movie and becomes even more apparent when you consider the environmental themes within. Another inspiration was the fledgling Monster Collection genre, spearheaded by Pokemon, which inspires the Minion collection mechanics of the game and its core gameplay loop.

With such pedigree, you may be surprised by how little you know of the game since it never reached the wide audience it deserved at the time. Yet, it did have a dedicated cult following, and that's a testament to the inherent quality of the game. A quality that is just close to standing the test of time if not for a few niggling issues.

"Destruction is often what comes of the Beasts of Knowledge... This could be an act of man..."

By the end of Jade Cocoon, I was pleasantly surprised by how good its story and narrative were. Initially, with an opening that tells the world's creation myth with some poor narration, I thought the game would just try to throw as many crazy terms at us instead of telling an actual story: "Beast of Knowledge", "Minions of the Forest", etc.

Later, as the narration got worse, the myths and the world started making more sense, and the environmentalist influence of Studio Ghibli became obvious. The aforementioned "Beast of Knowledge" were the first humans, who as they developed nearly destroyed the "Forest" which protected the world. As punishment, the God of the Forest unleashes Minions that keep the humans in check and protect the forest.

In that state, a few humans who can control the Minions, known as Cocoon Masters, emerge. Your silent protagonist is such a Cocoon Master, and he gains this ability just as the latest calamity hits his village.

From there, a basic story in which the village hero journeys to save it becomes better than it had a right to be. Thanks to the small population of the village, each with their own portrait, the NPCs actually acquire a lot of depth. This comes into play whenever you come back to the town from your latest dungeon crawl and see how the tension of the catastrophe changes the village people.

Another solid narrative thread is the relationship between the hero and the wife he must take as a Cocoon Master, a girl named Mahbu from a race called the Na'gi who can purify the Cocoons (Pokeballs) for the Master to use as minions at the expense of taking the curse into her own body. It's an obvious allegory of the cost of abusing the environment, and along with the other allegories of how the "Beast of Knowledge" behaves, sells the story of the world in its simple ways.

"Without the power to summon a magic beast, you are no threat to me. Just the son of a coward. Hahahahahahaha..."

The gameplay loop is as straightforward as the story initially appears, but in contrast, doesn't gain any complexity as you progress. You go dungeon crawling in simply designed dungeons, where you could thankfully see the enemies in the field which you could try to avoid or choose to fight. There isn't much in the way of puzzles or alternate paths in these dungeons either.

Once you are in a fight, you are in a one vs. one situation with the enemy most of the time, but there are one vs. two and extremely rare one vs. three situations in the wild. Here, you can control the main character or summon one of three Minions you can equip; easily changing between them during the fight.

Mechanically, it's a basic turn-based system with little to no complications. Each enemy Minion has one of four elemental affiliations that work based on a circle of weaknesses. The key to victory is using creatures of the stronger element and attacking them with elemental attacks, which are separated into physical and magical categories. Once you weaken the monsters, you can attempt to capture them.

Each and every dungeon goes through the same loop. Enter the dungeon, capture a bunch of Minions, go back to base to recover and upgrade your equipped Minions (more on that later), and then go back into the dungeon. It would be a simple and fun loop if the battles were snappier, but there is a level of lethargy to the game that makes it quickly boring if you play it without a fast-forward feature.

This becomes more apparent near the end of the game, where what I could imagine was a lack of budget caused the team to reuse the same exact four dungeons with a different color hue. At that point, the novelty of the game's unique Monster Collection mechanics started wearing off, and I only continued the game thanks to its story and short length.

"O son of the Lion of Parel. You shall become a Cocoon Master worthy of your father's name!"

With any Monster Collection game, the loop of collecting new monsters and fighting with them is integral to the experience. In Pokemon, you collect new monsters and evolve them as you fight with them, with each monster type being unique along with its evolution path. In Shin Megami Tensei, you collect demons and then fuse them to create stronger demons and so on, with each demon type being unique but being lost when used as fusion fodder. Jade Cocoon has elements of both franchises.

You capture monsters, called Minions, and you can use them in battle to level them up. However, you can only speedily increase their power by merging them with other Minions. At first glance, this may appear to be exactly the same as SMT. However, there is the key difference that the Minions used have a direct influence on how the resulting Minion looks. In fact, the resulting Minion has a small lineage tree that traces their evolution to its grandparent Minions, giving each monster of your team a more personal touch that is closer to Pokemon than to SMT.

Merging works by grafting some of the physical characteristics of the parent Minions, along with the influence of their stats and skills, into a new creature that you can use. Later, as you continue using the resulting monster in merging experiments, you can see how nearly limitless the system seems to be, with over a thousand unique configurations you could create without counting the different color tones and textures.

Unfortunately, while this system can be incredibly fun, it has a few glaring weaknesses. First, the extremely high number of variations reduces the thrill of collecting new Minions. Second, the basic parts that most Minions are built from lead to a uniform design across the board that never raises to the level of care other Monster Collection games offer. Lastly, the limited number of Minions you could equip reduces your appetite for experimentation, since you don't have as much of a chance to use the results of it.

Still, it is a unique system that isn't widely imitated, and even if I didn't care for how my four main Minions looked, I did care about them thanks to their lineage and how they are all based on the first four Minions I ever captured from each element.

"The knowledge of man opposes the power of God, and thus the power of nature"

With some of Studio Ghibli's pedigree behind it, Jade Cocoon should have been an art piece that is only limited by the technology of the time, and that indeed turned out to be the case. While the game doesn't look as good as the animated opening movie, it does have some of the best 3D Polygonal character models in RPGs in its era. Every NPC in the village and human character looks close to their Ghibli-esque portrait, with polygonal work that rivals that of Square at the time.

These characters are also brought to life with nearly fully-voiced dialogue. As expected, the voice acting is of mixed quality. While the majority of actors give a solid enough job, a couple of notable roles are badly cast, chief among them is the old man narrator of the story's main myths.

A similar level of care to the character models went into the game's environments, which are handpainted backgrounds made in similar ways to Final Fantasy VII and the Resident Evil games. While this does create some issues because of the use of a static camera, it showcases the lush nature of the Forest nicely.

Unfortunately, as I alluded to above, the Minion designs leave much to be desired thanks to the core merging mechanics. Basically, the creatures in the game have some incredibly simple designs that can be extrapolated and interposed into hundreds of variations, such that no single monster has a level of care in its design.

Similar to the feel of the game's graphics, the soundtrack by Kimitaka Matsumae aims to evoke a naturalistic image. With plenty of flutes, tribal percussion, and an airy feel, it does build a forest or jungle-like atmosphere. Some might say it does it too well, as the various songs blend into each other; creating a cohesive sound that doesn't have any standout tracks.


In Conclusion:

There are many things that Jade Cocoon excels at, from a surprisingly gripping story and monster-merging mechanics to some of the best visual work in JRPGs outside of the masters at Square. That, along with the unquantifiable Studio Ghibli effect, explains why the game resonated so much with its cult fanbase.

However, the game is not free of shortcomings, and those do drag it down. From a rather pedestrian turn-based battle system to a lack of charm personality to the Minions you recruit and are supposed to care about.

Consequently, this is a flawed hidden gem of the PS1 era, but its flaws cannot completely hide its emerald brilliance.

Final: 7/10

Pros:

• A surprisingly good story with an environmentalist spin
  
• It showcases complex relationships thanks to the density of its setting
  
• You can see the actual enemies in the field
  
• Incredibly unique monster merging mechanics
  
• A huge number of unique creature variations
  
• Some excellent polygonal work on the main characters
  
• Lush 2D painted backgrounds
  
  
  
  

Cons:

• The voice acting is mixed and doesn't always give enough justice to the written dialogue
  
• Battle mechanics are incredibly basic
  
• Everything around the game is slow and the gameplay becomes boring after a while
  
• Only three equipped Minion slots stunt your creativity
  
• The huge number of variations leads to poor creature designs across the board
  
• Minion (monsters) designs leave much to be desired
  
  
  

"Tips"
1- You can use the Earrings of the Hunter key item to teleport back to the village at any time.
2- The elemental circle goes like this: Earth> Water> Fire> Air> Earth.
3- The elemental circle is key to victory, and you can have your Minions be proficient in two elements.
4- It is key that you have one dedicated magic Minion, and another dedicated physical one.
5- You can press "X" to interact with the environment.
6- Guarding recovers some mana.
7- Heal yourself with Great Acors to increase your health.
8- Only try to capture enemies when their health is red.
9- Capturing enemies is the best way to upgrade your level, and merging them is the best way to upgrade your Minion's levels.
10- Stick with a few Minions so that you don't grind to level a huge group.


"Next Game"

I am glad I ended up liking Jade Cocoon despite a slow start. Not everyone will keep up with its silly phrases and stick around until the story shows its promise, and some will be bored by its simplistic combat. However, I persevered until I noticed the complexity hidden beneath the surface, and I did enjoy merging Minions and upgrading my starting crew into the ugly but powerful abominations they became.

Next game on the list is one I am positive I will enjoy, and that's Wild Arms. I played the remake on the PS2, but the original is different enough (and shorter) that I would like to experience it.

Stay Tuned

GOTY is beyond stacked at this point, one of the best years ever for gaming

Two GOTY games from here in the same week.

More than 10 years of waiting, kinda crazy if you think about it. I guess we had RDR in between but still

GTA Online is so complete it made it less necessary for Rockstar to create GTA VI, last i played was like a year ago and still tons of players, with so many activities. You can buy a bunker in the woods and use it to produce chemical weapons, stack thousands of assault rifles and what not

Except the change of scenery from LA to Miami (?) i don't see what more they can do.

You played Lies of P yet @RealGunner ? Based on what I've heard and read about it, it should be right up your alley.

Thimmy wrote:You played Lies of P yet @RealGunner ? Based on what I've heard and read about it, it should be right up your alley.

Nah done with gaming. Not even fromsoft games excite me anymore. Don't have the time either sadly