I want opinions on these games

[The Blackangel]

I know these are a lot of games, but if anyone would be willing to give a review and opinion of the games they have played, I would really love to hear it.

 

Assassins Creed 1,2,3
Bound By Flame
Castlevania Lords Of Shadows 1,2
Dantes Inferno
Dark Kingdom
Dark Souls 1,2
Darksiders 1,2
Defiance
Demons Souls
Devil May Cry 1,2,3,4
Dishonored
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age Inquisition Deluxe Edition
Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition (DA Origins, DA Origins Awakening)
Dragons Dogma
Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion
Fallen Angel Sacred II
FFX/X2
God Of War 1,2,3, Chains Of Olympus, Ghost Of Sparta, Ascension
Heavenly Sword
Hunted: The Demons Forge
Infamous Collection (Infamous, Infamous2, Infamous: Festival Of Blood)
Lair
Last Of Us, The
Ninja Gaiden 3 Razors Edge
Reckoning Kingdom Of Amalur
Remember Me
Rise Of The Argonauts
Risen 2 Dark Waters
Risen 3 Titan Lords
Thief
Two Worlds

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

PS4 - - -

Bloodborne
CodeVein
Dark Pictures Anthology: House Of Ashes
Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan
Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me
Detroit: Become Human
Dishonored Definitive Edition
Dragon Age Inquisition
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
For Honor Gold Edition
God Of War
God Of War III remastered
Kingdom Come Deliverance
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Re-Reconing
Lords Of The Fallen
Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Shell
Pillars Of Eternity Complete Edition
Re-Reckoning Kingdom Of Amalur
Red Dead Redemption II
Shovel Knight
Styx: Shards Of Darkness
Tormented Souls
Uncharted The Nathan Drake Collection (Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, Drake's Deception)
Vampyr

[Rain Dew]

Detroit Become Human is a very fun game. I loved playing it and will probably do a recorded playthrough on it sometime. 

[Shagger]

I'll go down the list and pick some of the more interesting ones.

 

Demon Souls

You probably know already, but I despise that game. It's a soulsborne, enough said, moving on

 

Darksiders

A decent, if maybe slightly dated open world action adventure. It controls well and has and interesting story concept. Worth a play.

 

Devil May Cry

The original started development as a Resident Evil game for the PS2, but Capcom soon realized that whilst the loved how the game was progressing, it was moving a bit far from Resident Evil to be a part of that series, so decided to finish the game and release it as a new IP. And what we ended up with is the best hack n' slash franchise ever. The games are all about slaying demons and making look good. Avoid Devil May cry 2 at all costs, it's awful, and Ninja Theory's reboot DMC rom 2013 is... controversial, but it's a great series and a must play.

 

Dishonoured

I feel this game is more fun in concept than it is to actually play. It's a dark, mysterious game whare your choices affect the environment and the lives of those living there... in theory. When I played it, I tried to avoid killing as much as possible, but still ended up with the city in a state like I had hacked everybody to death. Worth a go if you find it cheap, I'd say.

 

Dragon Age Inquisition Deluxe Edition

Think Game of Thrones as a video game and you're not far off. A mature and expansive RPG with team based combat and strategy elements with a story big on politics, social commentary and personal relationships. A very good game that's that doesn't really need the player to know anything about the other Dragon Age games to enjoy, but it's complex and and heavy it's delivery in both story and gameplay and needs serious commitment from the player to best out of it.

 

Dragons Dogma

The first thing I need to say is DO NOT play the original, make sure you pick up the Dark Arisen version. Dark arisen includes more content and fixed some of the original's major flaws. 

Now that's out the way, let's get into the game. The servers have long since gone down, but the game did have a unique online component. There are characters in this universe called pawns that live in service to the players own character, the Arisen. You party is made up of yourself and up to three pawns. In game, you actually create your own main pawn, much like a main character and your friends would be able to add that pawn to thier own battle parties. You can still play the game offline and use pawns the game provides, and that's really the only way to play it now.

The character creator is superb. You can adjust the gender, body type, hight, weight, just about anything and it would affect the gameplay. For example, larger charters were tougher and could carry more stuff, but smaller characters were far nimbler, use less stamina and keep thier grip whilst climbing enemies for longer.

Speaking of enemies, and this is a brave thing to say, Dragons Dogma has the best combat of any western style RPG. Think Skyrim meets Shadow of the Colossus, and you get the idea. The controls was fluent and weighty, the enemy verity is huge and was very tactical. Like I mentioned, you could climb onto larger enemies to hit waekspots and your pawns would do thing like empower you weapons with elemental spells and hold enemies down so you could strike them. It was fantastic.

But man, does this game have problems. The pawns, whilst helpful in combat, never shut up and can get really annoying. The auto-save is unreliable, a problem confounded by the fact you're only allowed one save to begin with. I understand whey that was necessary given how the game's online component worked, but now it's irritating. Fast travel also has a cost in that you need a certain item to fast travel each time and another item to place a points at your choosing to mark a fast travel point. That's fine, but the problem was those things you needed were so rare that fast travel was precious ever use. No kidding, on my first 50+ hour playthrough, I gained the resources to travel to just three location and only actually fast travel twice Also, the story starts off strong, but in the end isn't that interesting. Travelling itself was also pretty tedious because the same ermines at the same level in the same numbers and even identical character models always spanned in exactly the same locations. Yes, the best combat in any western style RPG, and they made it tedious and repetitive. That also makes the game punishingly hard at the start to then become ridiculously easy towards the end because the enemies don't level up and the placements of enemies at a verity of levels seems quite random at times.

 

Like I said, some of these issues, like the fast travel and some of the difficulty balance issues, get fixed in the Dark Arisen version. I can't understate how good the combat is in this game, I really can't, and the character creator is fantastic, but you'll have to decide if you are willing to put up with it's frustrations to enjoy what it has to offer. Dragons Dogma 2 has also been announced, so it might be a better ide to wait for that game instead, but look into Dragons Dogma and decide if it's for you.

 

FFX/X2

You are not permitted to read on until you've bought this game.

 

Heavenly Sword

Have you bought FFX/X2 yet? You better have...

 

Anyway, Heavenly Sword is a criminally underrated PS3 exclusive from our old friends Ninja Theory. Very similar is gameplay to Devil May cry with a cracking story and great looks for it's time.

 

Kingdom Of Amalur: Reckoning/ Re Reckoning

I said Dragons Dogma had the best combat of any western Style RPG, and I stand buy that, but this isn't far off. A massive, and I do mean massive game with a unique setting and style. I actually reviewed the "remaster" right here o VGR and go into more detail the gameplay there if you want to check it out, but it's a very system that allows the player to use any weapon in the game regardless of class and actually change you class build complexly whenever you want.

 

It's a pity that Kingdom Of Amalur: Re Reckoning released in such a poor state on PC and the console version I played about a year later had problems as well. Again, check the review thread for more details on that. What really sucks is that you can't by the original on any digital platform now because the game changed publisher between Reckoning and Re-Reckoning (The original was published by EA, but the remaster was THQ Nordic). Hopefully, the remaster had had more patching since I last tried it because it's exclusive DLC, Fatesworn, is actually really good (when it works...cough).

 

Remember Me

An interesting game from French developer Dontnod. Yes, that's right, Dontnod, as in...

 

 

And this Remember Me is is exactly the same, expect for just about every single detail about it. Remember Me is a 3rd person action/adventure game set in a future version of Paris with mele combat and platforming puzzles. The story is cool, a kind of anti-establishment government-control-the-population sort of thing, but the game is a little hard to play because the controls demand some insanely long and hard to pull off button combos. A quirky and memorable game, but it takes some getting used to.

 

Two Worlds

One of those RPGs that tried to beat Oblivion and failed. It was so bad, the developers apologised for it. Not because of a bad launch or for bugs or any the common things we see now, just because it was bad. The sequel is a lot better, but it's still not great.

 

Bloodborne

Another soulsborne, moving on...

 

Code Vain

ANOTHER soulsborne, expect this one has anime vampires... moving on...

 

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

I had a love-hate relationship with the original FFXII. This game has the best story of any Final Fantasy I have played. Yes, its better than Final Fantasy VII;

 

Sorry, not sorry, it just is!

It's more mature with more complex, yet relatable characters and a better plot. The setting of FFVII I'll admit is cool and works brilliantly as a social/political mirror and that helped give it impact, but that game's story needed that to lean on whilst FFXII's story stands on it's own in a more fantastical world, so nuh.

I also loved the combat. A drastic change from the formula, yes, with its open world real time mechanic, but was still very much a Final Fantasy game with the strategic elements. I also love the gambit system, it was fun and made you feel like you were programmer working the the party's AI and was more involved than any system we've seen from Final Fantasy before or since in my opinion.

However, the game was almost ruined by the levelling system. People have complained endlessly about how FFXIII's levelling system was too restrictive, and they're right, it was, but I believe they were overcompensating for the FFXII's system, which I think is even worse. It so open and poorly tutorialed that it's that messing it up was a near certainty for a new player. Experienced players would find, like I did, that the fully open licence boards and the endless choice it offered meant absolutely nothing as the only way to level your party efficiently was to make all the characters pretty much exactly the same as each other, it was boring. The game was also insanely cryptic when it came to earning the best weapons. For example, to obtain the Zodiac Spear you had to NOT chests in one of the earliest parts of the game. I mean, that's not fair!

Thankfully, The Zodiac age fixes this. Each character choose two licence boards representing 12 different classes each with thier own weapons, armour, abilities, buffs and perks to obtain, so you can plan out what characters get what boards in a strategic manner and pair the right classes with each other. For example, you might decide to make a character a warrior and a black mage so that character gets buffs for both disciplines and attack at range as well as close up. The top weapons are still a little cryptic, but not nearly to the same level. Persistence will often allow you to obtain them rather than having to absolutely know exactly what to do beforehand.

So with The Zodiac Age version, FFXII is near flawless. A must play.

 

And I think that's enough for now. I'll maybe come back to talk about some more of these games later. Hope that was helpful.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Shagger

[The Blackangel]

On 6/22/2023 at 4:08 PM, Shagger said:

FFX/X2

 

You are not permitted to read on until you've bought this game.

 

Heavenly Sword

Have you bought FFX/X2 yet? You better have...

Every one of these games are from my current gaming library. I own them all. I was looking for opinions because I'm trying to find something different to play. You forget that I have an enormous game library (just ask @Rain Dew) with well over 2000 games. Many of which I either haven't played in years, of have just never gotten around to playing. I can post my library of the systems I play again if you want me to. I keep a file saved and print it out every so often so that when I'm at GameStop or some other place that sells games, I know what I have so I don't pull another Reckoning and end up with 5 copies of the same game because I kept forgetting that I already owned it.

One game I was really hoping to hear about from you is Dante's Inferno. I've loved that game since I first played it. It's somewhat in the same vein as God Of War, but still unique in its own right.

Edited June 23, 2023 by The Blackangel

[Reality vs Adventure]

Assassins Creed 1,2,3- I wouldn't start playing AC1, just wait till they remake it. AC2 has a three part trilogy and AC3 actually is the 4th part that ends it. It's a matter of if you want to play in Venice and Florence (AC2) or in Rome (Brotherhood-sequel to AC2) or in Constantinople (Revelations- sequel to Brotherhood). AC3 is a really good one taking place in the revolutionary war. You could play AC3 w/o playing the others first. I enjoyed the combat and the story. 

Mortal Kombat 11- I just started playing and I'm enjoying it. There is a storyline that so far looks bad ass. Then you get to bust out in a fight and test your skills. I've forgotten a lot of the lore and characters over the years, but definitely something I wouldn't mind looking back on previous games and learn more. 

RDR2 ???- Whua??? Cmon, you love that game!!! 😆

God of War 2018- I thought the game was pretty good and the fighting and lore was good too. It definitely lives up to its name. There is new gear customization which the previous games didn't have. There are different realms to visit offering different sites. 

FFX- Excellent game!!! The story is great, the turn based fighting is excellent!!! I really enjoyed the challenges using everything you had and what your allies have to strategize and defeat enemies. It's pretty awesome. It was my very first turn based game and it is something I'll never forget, unless I get dementia. 🤣

Bloodborne- It's difficult, but the dark Victorian lore is amazing. It gets addicting because it brings out the determination to progress. And you get so far only to die and have to go through that area all over again. That's what sucks, and you lose all your coin every time you die. So the strategy is to go fight, earn some coin, then go and spend it before you die. But then you still have to do it all over again because you have to leave the area to spend your coin. I haven't beat it. It's on my list of, I'll finish one day games. 

 

[The Blackangel]

14 hours ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

RDR2 ???- Whua??? Cmon, you love that game!!! 😆

Yes I do. But like I said in my initial post, I’m wanting to hear opinions about the games.

[Lamarr the strelok]

I've played a few of them. I also think Dishonored sounds great in theory but I didn't really like it. There are a TON of people that love it so maybe I'm missing something. I get about a third of the way into it and just get bored and quit.I tried bloodborne but it's too difficult for me. It has a really good environment/vibe though. I've played all the uncharted games and they are awesome.TLOU 1 and 2 are among 2 of the best games I've played in 40 years.I played a DMC demo and it was fun.Sword action if I remember correctly.I've played all the main infamous games and they're great fun.

[Reality vs Adventure]

On 6/24/2023 at 10:48 AM, The Blackangel said:

Yes I do. But like I said in my initial post, I’m wanting to hear opinions about the games.

My opinion is lost because I've tried many times playing it. I see the perfections. I see the brilliance. The rampant hunting me is a breaker. Fuckin hunt me when I try to do good. Fuck that. I get enough of that in life. I can't get over the hill in the game. It's not my time. It is not my time to play it. 

[Anders]

I'm gonna go with Defiance, just because I doubt anybody else is going to. I played this game a lot when it first came out on the 360, and I loved it. Back then I thought the idea of an MMO on console was awesome, I hadn't really played anything like it before. The gameplay was not much to write home about, it was basically your standard third person shooter, but I remember it feeling pretty solid. 

I was a member of a different video game forum at the time, which has since sadly gone defunct, and I remeber us recording a podcast episode all about Defiance. When I say podcast, I mean a youtube video with a static image and an audio track of four dudes with bad microphones that maybe 5-10 people listened to. Good times. 

Defiance was also supposed to be this cross media sensation, with a TV show releasing at the same time as the game. There wasn't really any way to watch the show in my country, but I think I pirated the first episode. I don't recall it being very good. 

[The Blackangel]

On 7/11/2023 at 7:27 AM, Anders said:

an MMO on console

Is it strictly an MMO, or it there a single player mode? I have to ask because I absolutely DESPISE online gaming. If it's your thing, have at it. I've tried many times with just as many different games, and wanted to puke every time. I'm not sure exactly why, but I hate it with a passion.