The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

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canedaddy
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by canedaddy »

Phaseknox wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:28 am School Girl Zombie Hunter is a guilty pleasure.

One thing that you can do when the zombies become overwhelming is take off your school uniform, and throw it. They're attracted to it, and all run over to it for a limited time. If you keep it on, it gets ripped up when you get attacked.
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Man, I'm loving Digital Devil Saga. I wish I'd known how much these SMT games click with me before waiting so long to try Nocturne a couple years ago.

Right now I've got 3 games on my plate that are totally absorbing me. EDF 2025, DDS, and OOTP. Each of them could monopolize all of my free time, and they're all on my plate at once!

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First world problems. :P
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

canedaddy wrote: Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:47 pmImage
Sure it's a goofy nonsensical gameplay mechanic, but it adds some strategy since your clothes act as armor and you take more damage without them. It's in no way just an excuse to strip your characters down to their underwear. :P
isthatallyougot wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:46 amRight now I've got 3 games on my plate that are totally absorbing me. EDF 2025, DDS, and OOTP. Each of them could monopolize all of my free time, and they're all on my plate at once!
And then you'll be adding God of War to your plate on Friday, I don't know how you're going to find the time to play them all. :P
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isthatallyougot
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:01 pm And then you'll be adding God of War to your plate on Friday, I don't know how you're going to find the time to play them all. :P
Ha, well I'll play it, but I won't be buying it at launch. If it was another GOW in the same style as the previous 6 titles, then I'd be day one, and who knows, maybe I end up liking this new one even more, but I feel content to wait, especially with too much other gaming I'm into right now.
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argyle
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by argyle »

Games added: Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Last week: Finished Far Cry 5

This week: I've been playing some Elder Scrolls Online w/ Tam & DG, and waiting for GoW on Friday.

So Far Cry 5 was really good overall, but I did have some issues with it...and not the ones I thought I might have going on. The mechanic that keeps you on track with the main story works well - you complete so many missions, rescues, etc. in a region, your "resistance meter" for that area builds up so far, and you trigger the next story mission for that area. You can do what you want in whatever order, but whatever you do will have you working towards the next story beat. A cool idea that I expect to see others copy, and like I said, it works well. The problem for me was what those story missions actually were. The best area in the game IMO is the Southwestern region. It had what I considered to be the most interesting scenery and probably overall the most interesting side missions (not that the other areas didn't have some great ones as well). But it was mainly my favorite area because the story missions were varied and interesting.

The same could not be said for the other 2 areas. The Northern area's story missions were nothing more than timed shooting galleries that you run through. Or should I say, shooting GALLERY, because it's the exact same one that you go through every time, just with more strict time limits every time. And every time you fail it (run out of time, die, whatever) you start over at the beginning. So by the time you're done with that area, I guarantee you'll be sick of it. And I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the story mission in the Eastern area, where you do...basically nothing. You get drugged, watch a trippy scene (in which you may or may not be required to press forward on the controller a little) and then you wake up. Wow. And sadly, these "minibosses" as they were have very bland, one-dimensional personalities. Not the fun bad guys of other Far Cry games, just very predictable and one-note.

The main bad guy is the only one that has any real personality or development (they hint at some development with the girl in her final mission, but it's way too little too late). But that brings me to my last issue with the game...the ending. I'm not going to spoil anything here, obviously. But I was shocked that the game doesn't have a single "good" ending. And I mean, the endings you get to choose from go from dark to DARK. :? After I beat it I looked up the others on YouTube and...yeah, not a single one of them approaches satisfying.

None of these issues kill the game, mind you - it's still a lot of fun overall with some great minute-to-minute gameplay. But they do hurt it, and it definitely doesn't hit the highs of the other open-world games I mentioned last week as a result.
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Phaseknox
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

I'm on the last chapter of School Girl Zombie Hunter, so I'll have it finished today. It had the potential to be much more than what it actually is, I was expecting it to be similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Lollipop Chainsaw. But instead it's a series of timed missions within the same few enclosed areas with basically the same objectives over and over again. After you complete the first chapter, you've basically seen all that the game has to offer. Where you go and what you do doesn't really change, the missions just get harder. The fact that every mission needs to be completed in ten minutes or less shows that the missions are just quick arcade action type stages without any real substance. And I gave up doing the sub missions after chapter two because they're all exactly the same as well, just harder.

The core gameplay is somewhat fun with decent shooting mechanics, utilizing your few inventory items, melee attacking and dodge rolling. You switch between different weapons that work better against certain types of zombies, and the stages can be challenging. It's a pure action game so it's never boring, but it also lacks depth and is repetitive. My biggest complaints are that it all takes place within the same few areas with the same mission types, having more varied areas and missions would have made the experience a lot better.

With that said, there's some charm to the game if you're an anime fan. The story is dumb fun, the main characters are likable and everything is silly. And of course there's fan service too such as the characters clothes getting ripped in battle, taking off and throwing your clothes as a distraction and PG rated shower scenes. It's all tame, and there's nothing about the game that warrants its M rating.
argyle wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 3:43 amThe best area in the game IMO is the Southwestern region. It had what I considered to be the most interesting scenery and probably overall the most interesting side missions (not that the other areas didn't have some great ones as well). But it was mainly my favorite area because the story missions were varied and interesting.

The same could not be said for the other 2 areas. The Northern area's story missions were nothing more than timed shooting galleries that you run through. Or should I say, shooting GALLERY, because it's the exact same one that you go through every time, just with more strict time limits every time. And every time you fail it (run out of time, die, whatever) you start over at the beginning. So by the time you're done with that area, I guarantee you'll be sick of it. And I'm not sure if this is better or worse than the story mission in the Eastern area, where you do...basically nothing. You get drugged, watch a trippy scene (in which you may or may not be required to press forward on the controller a little) and then you wake up. Wow. And sadly, these "minibosses" as they were have very bland, one-dimensional personalities. Not the fun bad guys of other Far Cry games, just very predictable and one-note.

The main bad guy is the only one that has any real personality or development (they hint at some development with the girl in her final mission, but it's way too little too late). But that brings me to my last issue with the game...the ending. I'm not going to spoil anything here, obviously. But I was shocked that the game doesn't have a single "good" ending. And I mean, the endings you get to choose from go from dark to DARK. :? After I beat it I looked up the others on YouTube and...yeah, not a single one of them approaches satisfying.
Unfortunately, I've been hearing other people saying the same exact things on other forums. Basically that John Seed's region (the one that I played) and its missions are really good, while the other two not so much. It would seem that people who have finished it (such as yourself) don't feel that it's consistently strong throughout, and that the endings are disappointing. Considering how much I've been enjoying the game, it's a shame to discover that it goes downhill after John Seed's region and that the endings aren't satisfying
Last edited by Phaseknox on Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:22 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by sonuckles »

I know it's the end of the week, but I'm still here, and contributing!

That said, I didn't do much gaming this week. I set up my old surround sound system in the living room while the wife was away, and I had a whole defense planned for why we should keep it when she came home. Sure enough she walks in, goes "Hey, it sounds good in here." I was like, "Yeah, I moved the surround sound upstairs." She was like "We should keep it up here." And that's why I married that lady.

Otherwise I picked up Shovel Knight on Switch, and am planning to pick up some VR games off Steam soon. Raw Data was pretty cool, the little bit I got to play, so I'm definitely grabbing that tonight.
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by Phaseknox »

I finished School Girl Zombie Hunter. The game is pretty much nonsense from beginning to end. The developers didn't attempt to make anything more than a basic game with the same areas and missions repeated over and over again. The graphics are basically PS2 quality, but in HD widescreen. The core gameplay mechanics are decent, but the game would have benefitted from actual levels to go through instead of just small timed mission stages.

Strictly as an arcade action game it works, but the concept and mechanics were already in place to make it more than that. It's the right challenge on normal throughout including the final boss, and I never encountered any bugs or glitches. It's also the right length considering its repetitive nature, I was ready for it to be over when it was. The ending could have been better, but it's decent for what the game offers overall. The game was mildly entertaining for the few days that I played it, but I realistically could have passed on it.
Last edited by Phaseknox on Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by isthatallyougot »

Phaseknox wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:28 pm The game is pretty much nonsense from beginning to end.
If done right, that can be incredibly fun. I think Platinum. They do so many "nonsensical" games that are utterly brilliant. From what you said, this doesn't sound to be in that league, though.
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Re: The Backlog Check-in Vol. 15: 4/14/18: God of War Edition

Post by canedaddy »

sonuckles wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:48 pm That said, I didn't do much gaming this week. I set up my old surround sound system in the living room while the wife was away, and I had a whole defense planned for why we should keep it when she came home. Sure enough she walks in, goes "Hey, it sounds good in here." I was like, "Yeah, I moved the surround sound upstairs." She was like "We should keep it up here." And that's why I married that lady.
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sonuckles wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:48 pm Otherwise I picked up Shovel Knight on Switch...
Such a great game. I still need to play the free DLC.
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