Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Wariospeedwagon

Altered Beast on 3DS!

I remember playing it on my cousin's Mega Drive back when we were kids. Thought it was such a cool concept - an evil Streets of Rage where you powered up to turn into a Wearwolf or Dragon (or, sadly, in level 3, a fat bear who stands in a karate stance and blows bubbles that turn enemies into stone).

It's of course a lesser game than SOR but I liked the graphics, the digitised speech and the badass cover art. It was the sort of thing I would try to draw in the back of my school notebooks and fail at badly.

Turns out the game can be beaten in around 15 minutes, though it took me an awful lot longer. It required me to memorise the first 4 (of 5) stages to the point I'd only get hit once or twice along the way. This is because I never figured out a sound strategy for dealing with the final boss. I ended up beating him only by wailing on him in a battle of attrition, as he burned through my health and lives. It was a hollow victory but I'll take it.

Hard game to recommend as it's basic and probably a bit tedious but glad to have seen the credits after first playing it a couple of decades ago.

ShabbyMcCrabby

hylian_elf wrote:

The Witness. Finished last night, beautiful and so well designed. Utterly brilliant with only one or two puzzles that I didn't like.

No you haven't. You have to find the other things Elf. The other thiiiiiiiings

ShabbyMcCrabby

I just finished Gone Home. Was good. The right length for this sorry of thing and kept me going the whole time. Worth the free download

Dinostar77

Resident Evil 7

Spoiler free

Where to start? The first chapter is fantastic, it feels fresh and new. You think to yourself, yes this is RE re-invented, this is the future for the series and then its gradually downhill after that. Formulaic and predicable RE gameplay. Too scared to see the ideas and theme of first chapter through the entire game. Towards the end it feels as two different teams worked on the game (trust me when you get to it you'll be like what the fuck? Especially if you've played RE Revelations 1).

Its as if Capcom can't decide if RE is survival horror ala Alien Isolation, Outlast, Amensia, Until Dawn or an Action shooter. Some generic Capcom ideas return, which they could have blown out of the water.

1.The magical item chest should have been dispensed as an idea ages ago. Carry what you can, what you cant maybe hide in a safe place to come back for later would be better. What if the enemy protagonist and his family raided your safe place? That would throw a spanner in the works (especially if the evil bastard gloated about it over the intercom).

2. Or keys for doors, don't have a key? smash it down then (doing so will alert the enemy and there will be no door to close to hide behind). Or after awhile have the enemy weild some doors shut so they cant be re-used? Why? To change things up and get us out of our RE comfort zone.

3. Safe rooms should go as well, i'd love to find a safe room, think to myself, "whew a safe room" and boom the enemy tears the door off or smashes through the wall.

4. Stop over powering the player (Uzi's, Grenade Launchers, Magnums etc etc), decide if its survival horror or an action shooter. If the former then give us a knife, a 9mm with limited ammo and an environment with features which can be used to take down the enemies.

Overall this is a 6 or 7 for me i'm not sure which.

Edit: Kokatu article about how Madhouse setting changes the game for the better:http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/01/24/resident-evil-7-welcome-to-the-madhouse

TheDJR

3 has happened.

fullspectrum

I've only finished 3 games in the last 18 months I'm pretty sure.

Titanfall Campaign - mustard burp, momentarily tangy then forgotten forever

Deus Ex HR - looks, sounds and plays amazing but the story is utter shite and boh remakes have failed to capture the patchwork-quilt conspiracy flavour of the original.

Everybody's gone to the Rapture - liked it a lot more than I thought I would. Heavy handed use of music and obnoxiously slow walk
-speed threatened to ruin it, but I tortoise-walked over the finish line eventually, and had a feel or two while I did it.

acemuzzy

Stacking (PC)

Midway through, i wrote this:

acemuzzy wrote:

So almost everything about stacking is annoying me. The gameplay, the music, the cutscenes, the story, the camera, the shonkiness, the theatre nonsense, the olde filme jitter. It's not charming, it's not fun. Do not understand people liking it

And it really didn't improve. I'm utterly disappointed by it, and struggle to see why anyone would like it. Gameplay was weak, story was weak, execution was week, devoid of any real humour, pastiche was nonsense, even the new-level pans pissed me off as they showed shit models & panned around along some spline that felt like someone had hand-drawn it in Paint. The final boss was abysmal (not even quite sure how i did it), the hobo annoyed me, the music riled. Gaaah.

Struggling to think of a game I enjoyed less. Even as an hobbyist game I'd have been wtf, but as an (albeit indie) actual release it's really unimpressive.

So I'm going low. I think even a [3], which I don't think i've dealt out since the travesty that was Contrast (though I can't remember if I actually scored that - it's similar ballpark for sure).

b0r1s

Why finish it?

acemuzzy

b0r1s wrote:

Why finish it?

http://www.thebearandbadger.co.uk/discussion/comment/1157169#Comment_1157169

Bollockoff

It's definitely a solid place in Double Fine's numerous portion of stinkers.

Moot_Geeza

acemuzzy wrote:

Struggling to think of a game I enjoyed less.

You've bookended my day with 'that's made my day' moments.

acemuzzy

Hah

to both!

Moot_Geeza

Renegade Ops is far more gamey.

JonB

Velocity Ultra - done the last mission, but there seems to be a fair bit of extra content and want to get better scores on some levels. It's very good. Some complex levels later on that require some thought and fast reflexes. Nothing as intense as Ikaruga or the like, mind, which is probably for the best as the controls get a bit fiddly in the busiest moments.

Might take a look at the sequel some time.

Moot_Geeza

I've heard very good things about the sequel. I've got it, but haven't played it properly yet. First one was a nice surprise, enjoyed it,

JonB

Looked at a video and it seems to have additonal bits where you get out the ship and do a platform/puzzle bit mid level. I guess that would work?

Dubs

I really enjoyed it until it did that thing where you have to replay old levels for better scores in order to unlock new ones. I did the speed-based stages again as it's good fun going for perfect runs on them. Less fun looking for the most efficient path through the puzzle stages so that's where I stopped playing, missing out on the last few levels (of around 50).
Would recommend though, it's one of the few PS+ games I've played for more than thirty seconds.

Bob

Rise of The Tomb Raider...

a.k.a How I learned to love the gunship and follow the man who'd painted everything white.. a.k.a Lara Potter and The Chamber of ~~Secrets~~ Souls

Good solid game. Enjoyed my play through.

*adopts Clarkson voice*

There are however one or two drawbacks. It's not really a Tomb Raider game. They might as well just title them Lara Croft now. There's maybe two proper puzzles outside of the optional tombs.. they should have the confidence to fill the game with them..

There's too many collectibles and shite... All those poor animals to skin too.. Worse than Far Cry 4. Wont some one think of the digital animals.

There's too many traversal options introduced.. climbing arrows, swinging arrows, swinging axes etc. etc.. sometimes less is more.

Finally the plot and the acting are all, without exception, terrible. It's mcguffin central followed by obvious reveals and poor swearing. It makes you really appreciate a well told story in a certain other game I'm not going to mention.

Eight attempted rapes out of 10 Pressing Square to hold onto something that's just given way.

[Deleted User]

Regarding the traversal, in this instance I'd say more is more, but they should do more with it. I like that I have to stop and look at what I'm about to climb and pick the right tools for the job. It's just a shame that you rarely need more than two, and never ever more than three. I'd like to have to make a plan and adapt it on the fly.

I also prefer having to do something to retain grip when something has given way, to it just being an animation with no input.

Such is the problem for developers; people want different things.

Bob

Oh yes, you reminded me about all the pointless falling off. If I wanted to reload the game I'd do it myself

Skondo

That certain other game Bob. Is it Knack?

hylian_elf

Course not. He's talking about Tetris.

Bob

Skondo wrote:

That certain other game Bob. Is it Knack?

Driveclub

regmcfly

Fuck it I'll say it - tomb raider is mechanically better than uncharted but Uncharted has Better plot : dialogue

TheDJR

Both are bad

Bob

regmcfly wrote:

Fuck it I'll say it - tomb raider is mechanically better than uncharted but Uncharted has Better plot : dialogue

Your half right.

The lack of a proper crouch is annoying too

Moot_Geeza

One has cut scenes that make a great game good and one has cut scenes that make a good game great.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Look what you've done reg!!!

stonechalice

As games they're both pretty meh. I look at these types of games more as graphical showcases for the consoles they're on.

The gameplay is so shallow and the quick restarts from falling or being shot just removes any kind of peril. Failure should really mean something.

I would like an option where you lose all your gear where you die, so you've got to really take care getting back to it like Dark Souls, or risk having to scavenge and craft it all again. It would make the game a bit more engaging.

As beautiful as these games are, I never really appreciate them because essentially it's all just fancy dressing and the environments have zero depth. It's all so uninteresting.

Bob

Imho, there's a place for that sort of game, or even an option for it might be nice, but you can fuck right off.

I get half an hour or so to game at a time and I like to make some progress.

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