Defeated the Mother Brain and escaped Zebes. Thought it was over and rejoiced over my amazing accomplishment, only to realize I forgot about the most boring and annoying part of the game. Samus in Zero Suit, getting chased around by Space Pirate assholes. Game went from a solid 8+ out of 10 to a middling 5 in the span of one second. What an anticlimax.
Pretty damn niche game but if you can get on its wavelength, it's REALLY good.
SoP is one of my favorite action games ever. I do agree that the story is absolute trash, it was so bad that I skipped about 90% of the cutscenes so I could get to the combat faster. Once you beat the base game, I would highly suggest getting the DLC. It gives a proper end game and also some amazing weapons that really expand the combat (I won't spoil it but there are some fun surprises).Went back to Strangers of Paradise which I had just played for an hour or so.
The combat and all the job variety is great, I'd argue the combat mechanics in general are way better than those in FFXVI.
The story is hilariously bad, it legit feels like it could have been written by Tommy Wiseau, I'm half expecting a "Oh Hi Mark" reference in every other scene. I'm actually looking forward to the cutscenes lol.
The only downside so far is that the presentation is horrible, coming from Hogwarts Legacy this thing literally looks like 2 console gens behind. If at least the Ps3 visual were paired with great IQ, high resolution and rock solid 60fps but it looks like 1080p with anti aliasing completely disabled and it doesn't even hold a consistent framerate.
SoP is one of my favorite action games ever. I do agree that the story is absolute trash, it was so bad that I skipped about 90% of the cutscenes so I could get to the combat faster. Once you beat the base game, I would highly suggest getting the DLC. It gives a proper end game and also some amazing weapons that really expand the combat (I won't spoil it but there are some fun surprises).
Yup. You won't need to make a build until you get to the end game, which is where the DLC comes in. I also auto-equipped my gear for my first play through.Yeah the gameplay is really good so far.
In terms of gameplay my only issue is that just like Nioh it bombards you with loot. In these early parts I've just been using the auto equip feature though I guess later on in the game it will become necessary to spend some time in the menus actually making a build
Nearing the end of Gears 1 Ultimate. I gotta say, it really holds up more than I expected. Haven't played it since 2006 and I never played any of the sequels.
Every gun feels good. Active reload really feels unique when you're getting rushed by enemies. You feel the weight of the impact of your body hitting cover when you run up to it while under fire. Everything has weight, even your heavy footsteps. I am surprised by how many times I died. A cover shooter with sprints in between safety makes more sense when shots kill you very quickly. I do remember the art design being solid, and it is. Roman style architecture and detailed interiors, interesting lighting and yellow emulsion lava.
I do feel like I've mostly had my fill though, so I'm not sure if it will hold my attention through the rest. I'm going to try and play all of them this year to catch up. It's also easy to forget how many things Epic and Blezinski invented on this game. It has the slow walk and talk shit. It has the cover shooting. I don't know if mainstream game design has really moved past this much at all besides open world. This is the first cinematic shooter, but it's still very, very gamey with non-stop action.
Finished it a few days ago as well. It really is a generic open world game, but the game mechanics are so tight, presentation is excellent, music is great, and VA/mocap is really good at moments. I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the game for the 50+ hours I've played it.Finished Hogwarts Legacy the other day.
Overall I really enjoy it. It's a fairly generic open world game but it gets elevated by the IP it's based on. Exploring Hogwarts was a blast and you can really tell a lot of care went into recreating the world of HP with some impressive attention to detail all around, the music was fantastic too and the combat was simple but enjoyable all the way through (making an enemy float then blasting them with magic somehow doesn't get old).
It gets even more absurd at the very end. And yes, I loved it enough to complete the thing.Been on a Powerwash Simulator kick of late. I know it's kind of a weird complaint but some of the later levels start to feel video gamey starting with cleaning the Mayor's Mansion where you aren't allowed to open the gate and must clean the front of the mansion long distance. I figured I was missing something and Googled how to open the gate and it turns out you can't. That threw me for such a loop that I didn't realize that you could turn off the carrousel in one of the following missions until an achievement popped saying "finish the level without turning it off" which only made me more frustrated. lol