[wskl]

Doom & Destiny 7.5/10
 
Pretty good turn-based JRPG, I just beat the game and it was quite enjoyable, the pacing of the game was good from start to finish, not too much grinding involved and it did not really get too repetitive.  Post-game there are some additional side-quests which have a potential 20hrs extra gameplay, I guess I will attempt that another time.

 

[GreenBow]

I can't work out what turn based means. I was looking at X-Com 2, and googled about it but no way could I work it out.
 
I tried a demo of a turn based game which had hexagons and you had to sort of conquer them. Plus I tried to play Rome - Total War 3 times, (but every time it played along  then suddenly annihilated me). Turn based in that respect I understand. Not in something like X-Com 2 where you are playing an FPS. 
 
----------------------
 
Anyway I am still playing Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. It has gone down in my estimation but not maybe in the way you'd expect. I am a little stumped by all the collectibles, but I think they are designed to make you explore. Since getting them is pretty much always OK.
 
However it has a side mission called World War 1. It's set in a different time. I found it in bad taste. Basically you do jobs for Churchill. However the security forces you have to get past, appear to be WW1 Tommys, (as it's London). WW1 soldiers, and if they see you they attack. It means you are fighting our finest and greatest heroes, and I don't like it. Why would they make you work for Churchill but not give you freedom of movement. 
 
It might not seem much but it puts a real bad taste on the whole party. The rest of AC:S was better than I expected. Old London is an almost emotional experience.

 

[Rhamnetin]

  I can't work out what turn based means. I was looking at X-Com 2, and googled about it but no way could I work it out.
 
I tried a demo of a turn based game which had hexagons and you had to sort of conquer them. Plus I tried to play Rome - Total War 3 times, (but every time it played along  then suddenly annihilated me). Turn based in that respect I understand. Not in something like X-Com 2 where you are playing an FPS. 

 
FPS = First-person shooter.  How do you perceive XCOM, an isometric game, an FPS?
 
Turn-based = only one side takes action at a time, like a board game.  While one side uses up their action points, the other can't do anything.  Taking turns performing actions.
 
Turn-based games can be smaller scale, like XCOM where each squad takes turns (same for turn-based RPGs such as the classic Fallout games, Wasteland 2, Divinity: Original Sin), or larger scale like the Civilization games or Total War's campaign map.
 
Speaking of Total War, Total War: Warhammer is what I'm playing now.  It is the first RTS I've truly gotten into, others never sustaining my attention (I have liked Total War's concept in the past, just never found interest in historic settings).  It will definitely be one of my "go-to games" from now on, I'm loving it.  Playing as Dwarf faction in my first campaign, currently at turn 18 and I have the last Greenskin settlement (a capital) under siege, with the rest being destroyed or conquered.
 
Performance is superb (about 80 FPS at all times in battles with less than 6,000 total soldiers) and the presentation/UI are perfectly streamlined.  Very friendly to people new to the franchise.

 

[Change is Good]

Well, I was able to clear out most of my backlog this summer.

Outlast (7/10): Creepy atmosphere with some scares here and there. Short game but still pretty good, I must say. It's unique gameplay style was definitely refreshing.

Wolf Among Us (8/10): Another Telltale game worth checking out. I played with good intentions throughout but am interested in seeing how things play out as a bad wolf haha.

Batman Arkham Origins (7.5/10): Not the beat Arkham game from last gen, but definitely enjoyable. Not sure why it got so much flak when it released.

Tomb Raider (8/10): Finally was able to play this masterpiece tale of modern Lara Croft. I liked it so much I'm picking up the next one soon.

Assassin's Creed Unity (7/10): Definitely better than some of the reviews suggest. I'm a history nut so that makes me a sucker for this series. Traversing through Paris during the French Revolution was an experience I doubt you'll get from other games involving reality-like history.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate (7.5/10): I score this one a little higher because the combat was more fluid and those horse carriages were hella fun. It felt like GTA in Victorian Era haha. The grappling hook was a nice addition, also. As usual, loved the historical depiction of industrial London.

Dark Souls 3 (8.5/10): Nothing too different from other Souls games except the much welcomed Bloodborne-like combat pace. Not as fast, but quicker than older installments.

The Witcher 3 (9.5/10): I loved playing this game so much that I found myself doing EVERYTHING the world had to offer. I played plenty (maybe too much haha) Gwent, joined some fight clubs, won some horse races, and played more Gwent. As for the main game, itself, other than a few glitches here and there I absolutely loved it. I did every side mission and Witcher contract that was offered. Side missions had their own stories behind them, not the usual fetch quests most modern rps offer. Great variety of creatures, too!

Fallout 4 (8/10): Not the best Fallout, but still great. Some side missions did become tedious and the minutemen were becoming a nuisance with all the settlement missions and such. I grew so tired of those damn settlements that I started to ignore them. Poor people were starving haha. Interesting story depending which faction you chose towards the end.

 

[robm321]

Agreed, Witcher 3 is one of the greatest games of all time. 

 

[GreenBow]

I am really surprised how good Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is, considering the mild reviews it gets. ...I do have a couple of issues with it though.

1. It took quite a while to get into its stride. However so did BL2 for me; I needed about two hours, although I loved BL2 from the moment it loaded it.

2. The Oxygen mechanic. They really pulled a dud with this. Considering TPS is set in the future on a moon you'd think they'd have O2 supplies sorted. Nope in TPS you get about three minutes supply. OK re-filling is easy but it causes problems. Like if you're trying to work out a jump up something and keep failing. You have to break off to get O2. Same if you're looking for something.

That's it though and TPS is right there in the BL universe, and I love it. I was a huge fan of BL2 and this is very close, but for the O2 thing.

(BL1 was a different story. It was OK, and was full of fab stuff, but getting around was not easy. Every part of the maps had a barrier where you had to jump out of your vehicle. Pass through the barrier, pick up another vehicle, then maybe another barrier. All repeated on the return journey, when you go to 'turn-in' you mission. Often to get another mission in exactly the same place, so you'd have to do all that work again.)

 

[GreenBow]

I finished Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Good game apart from a side mission area called Word War One. Basically the security forces you are evading detection from, are WW1 soldiers. If you get confronted you either have to run or fight and sometimes kill them. Distinctly bad taste in my opinion. (However it was not needs to complete that mission area, to progress in the main game.)
 
Killing WW1 Tommies just doesn't sit right with me. To make it even more bizarre, you are working for Churchill on missions. Why then not be able to move freely? Dumb and beyond extreme poor taste.
 
Otherwise the game a pure blast. 8/10. Marks knocked off mainly for the WW1 side missions area.)
 
Binary Domain. Hmm, a good game with so many frustrations. Like many cutscenes, one after another sometimes. Going in extremely slow movement when a colleague is talking to you. A stupid set up issue that prevents the game even launching unless you work around it. 6/10, and such a waste of shooting bad robots. 

 

[Rhamnetin]

Currently playing the newly released Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  As with every other AAA game, it's really in a beta stage and was released anyway.  It's also a bad console port on PC despite the excellent amount of UI options.  It is full of memory leaks, poor optimization, graphics glitches, and general instability and crashes.
 
Other than this, it's more of the excellence from Human Revolution and the original.  So with patches it should hopefully become a great game all around.

 

[GreenBow]

  Currently playing the newly released Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.  As with every other AAA game, it's really in a beta stage and was released anyway.  It's also a bad console port on PC despite the excellent amount of UI options.  It is full of memory leaks, poor optimization, graphics glitches, and general instability and crashes.
 
Other than this, it's more of the excellence from Human Revolution and the original.  So with patches it should hopefully become a great game all around.

That has astonishing graphics. Shame I didn't like Human Revolution.

 

[Alypius]

I'm probably about halfway through DXMD and I'm a little underwhelmed. Might be because every game from now on will be compared to Witcher 3, but I find myself wishing there was more global conspiracy (it teases with cameos of characters from the original DX) and less police work. I admit I haven't finished it, so maybe that'll come. I also dislike how shallow the characters are. Any attempt to get to know them better gets a response along the lines of "We've got a job to do, let's focus on that," or "a girl's gotta have some secrets," or some other rebuff. Character development is important in the DX world, especially with the setup in the opening scene at the train station. Unfortunately, at this point, if an NPC gets whacked, my first reaction is "does that affect my ghost/smooth operator achievement?"
 
The graphics are fantastic on my PS4 and it IS fun to play. It also sets itself up nicely for future playthroughs based on your decisions and difficulty levels (e.g. do a ghost run on permadeath (if you die, you start from the beginning of the game) mode). I also like that it's the exact opposite of a GTA or other Rockstar game. In GTA, you're morally obligated to carjack a pickup and start driving on the sidewalk until the police blow you up with a RPG. In DX, you feel bad if you pass an air duct without sneaking through it.
 
I'll update once I finish, but don't let my complaints stop you from getting it! It is a great game and a worthy addition to the DX universe. 8/10.

 

[Rhamnetin]

  I'm probably about halfway through DXMD and I'm a little underwhelmed. Might be because every game from now on will be compared to Witcher 3, but I find myself wishing there was more global conspiracy (it teases with cameos of characters from the original DX) and less police work. I admit I haven't finished it, so maybe that'll come. I also dislike how shallow the characters are. Any attempt to get to know them better gets a response along the lines of "We've got a job to do, let's focus on that," or "a girl's gotta have some secrets," or some other rebuff. Character development is important in the DX world, especially with the setup in the opening scene at the train station. Unfortunately, at this point, if an NPC gets whacked, my first reaction is "does that affect my ghost/smooth operator achievement?"
 
The graphics are fantastic on my PS4 and it IS fun to play. It also sets itself up nicely for future playthroughs based on your decisions and difficulty levels (e.g. do a ghost run on permadeath (if you die, you start from the beginning of the game) mode). I also like that it's the exact opposite of a GTA or other Rockstar game. In GTA, you're morally obligated to carjack a pickup and start driving on the sidewalk until the police blow you up with a RPG. In DX, you feel bad if you pass an air duct without sneaking through it.
 
I'll update once I finish, but don't let my complaints stop you from getting it! It is a great game and a worthy addition to the DX universe. 8/10.

 
Hah, if I were to compare every game to The Witcher 3 then I'd look at many other games more favorably than I currently do.
 
It sounds like you were expecting too much character development too early.  You're early in the game, it wouldn't make sense for Alex or anyone else to start telling you their life stories.  This game, like its predecessors, does a very good job with character development.  Better than most games for sure.  The characters you interact with are actually that—actual characters, opposed to quest-giving robots which most games have.  They all have distinct personalities and behavior, and none are one dimensional.  The dialogue in this game is every bit as good as Human Revolution, all fulfilling its purpose as thought provoking thematic material.  Nothing is clear cut.
 
But it's true that in the same amount of hours I have invested in the game, there was a bit more character depth in Human Revolution.  Like you said, there may be more later on (and I'm sure there is), but it's worth considering that this game is likely shorter than the predecessors.

 

[Change is Good]

Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain (8/10): Great game play, but pretty shallow. Most of the missions have us going back to the same outposts while the story still leaves way too much to be desired. I understand the controversy behind it, but that is no excuse for its flaws. Compared to other core MGSs it feels like an unfinished game.
 
I started Mankind Divided (loving it so far) but had to put it aside. A friend let me borrow Until Dawn, yesterday, so that will be my main focus for the next few days.

 

[wskl]

Last Dream 7.5/10
 
If you like the older Final Fantasy JRPGs then this will be right up your alley.  The game was built using RPGMaker, this is a pretty ambitious project, the game is big (lots to do and over 200 steam achievements) and open-ended (non-linear), I completed it in 40hrs and I probably missed quite a few things during my 1st playthrough.  There are 8 classes and you play with a party of 4 so that sets me up nicely for a 2nd playthrough with the remaining classes.  Prepare to have a pen and paper handy because the game will not log your quests.  My main criticism is that many of the dungeons have a maze-like design which I find quite infuriating, aside from that, it is a very solid JRPG.

 

[GreenBow]

I finished Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
 
I think I understand why people don't like it as much as BL2. Why they say it's boring.
 
TPS is OK. There is a lot to be positive about it, like the guns, loot, shooting etc, are all very much the Borderlands universe. No complaints there.
 
The negatives are:
I found it too chatty in the first few hours. I wanted Jack to shut up.
The last few hours got annoying in one area of the map. There is an unfinished space station: (this is not really a spoiler, as it bears no relevance to the story). It means you have to use jump pads to get about, but it's very hard to work out where you are going. It's easy to get it wrong, and die costing in-game-money. Or get into a situation where you have to get back to the beginning of it. It was necessary to go through this area in the main quests. Then there were side missions to do there, so I had to return to that area. I did a couple, not happy, swearing at it, and hating the struggle. After getting back and turning in those missions, it had the audacity to send me back for two more. I left those missions un-done.
 
The character you play is a bit a ******-bag. As you might know, you don't play the regulars like Mordecai, Brick, Lilith, etc. Also as most us know TPS is about why Jack is nasty in BL2. I was thinking it would show why he turned bad, but he already was bad. In other words basically it's a BL focusing on Jack, rather than explaining Jack.
 
Rating: difficult to say. Based on price that I paid of £7.50, probably rate at 77%. 
Whereas I would rate BL2 GOTY Edition at 94%, for the £6.50 I paid for it. I would happily rate BL2 GOTY at 94% for double what I paid. 

 

[Alypius]

I only picked up BL2 GOTY about a year before TPS came out. Mr. Torgue's DLC was worth the entire cost of the game by itself! (I need to find a ring tone of him...or at least a clock alarm to annoy the wife)
 
I agree, TPS was a bit of a let-down and really haven't played it since finishing. BL2 still gets an hour or two every once in a while, though.