[SilverEars]

Started on The Outer Worlds, and I like this one. It was developed by Obsidian, the company that usually works on sequels to games developed by BioWare or Fallout 3 onwards.

The founder of this company is Feargus Urquhart, who was the director of original Fallout 1 and 2 games.

So, this one has feel of games like KOTR or Fallout. It doesn't have top graphics like the newer games, but good enough. Best part is, you get good smooth frame rates for the gameplay. It's really nothing evolutionary in terms of gameplay, but feels more like updated KOTR without using the liscense.

Initially, I wasn't all that impressed with the game due to not being anything new, but playing it awhile, it's quite engaging. It feels like it has that original Fallout feel to the game.

 

[MajorTom]

Prey (2017) really nice sound design tbh and a great game in general. I'd recommend it heavily to any System Shock 2 fan, this game could've easily passed for SS3.

 

[SilverEars]

Started on The Outer Worlds, and I like this one. It was developed by Obsidian, the company that usually works on sequels to games developed by BioWare or Fallout 3 onwards.

The founder of this company is Feargus Urquhart, who was the director of original Fallout 1 and 2 games.

So, this one has feel of games like KOTR or Fallout. It doesn't have top graphics like the newer games, but good enough. Best part is, you get good smooth frame rates for the gameplay. It's really nothing evolutionary in terms of gameplay, but feels more like updated KOTR without using the liscense.

Initially, I wasn't all that impressed with the game due to not being anything new, but playing it awhile, it's quite engaging. It feels like it has that original Fallout feel to the game.

After finishing this one, In found this game over-rated than it really deserves. I've seen rating of 9/10 for this game, and it makes no sense.

Deep down, the graphics tech is out-dated, and it's easily noticible with the world this game has built. The best part of the game is the dialog choices you are given depending on state of your character's state upgrade level.

The ending felt unfinished, they didn't even have any sort of visual sequence for then ending, but just some still images with what happens told orally. Lots of graphical elements used in the game is recycled, and it seems overall like a lazy job in development.

So, it's another Obsidian game, nothing new. Just another avg Obsidian game that is like KOTR or Fallout without the licensing so they came up with something, but not anything really original.

Mass Effect has already done what this game is doing, so it's nothing new.

 

[hewlett168]

Death Stranding without a single doubt is the best game ever. The criticism that surrounds it is only spoken by those that did not play or complete the game. It is an ultimate symphony of pain, struggle, emotion and bonding, while you work towards your goal. I would recommend any person to experience this life-changing game.

 

[Kukuk]

I've been contemplating replaying Chrono Trigger for a while now, but wasn't really sure what the best way to play it would be. I was thinking maybe I'd grab the DS version, as it's the most feature-complete, but prices seem to be really high for some reason ($50+ used, forget that). I was also thinking of grabbing the PS1 version, but I remembered that version has horrendously long load times. I settled on emulating the original version, but it's really grown to bother me how unnatural 2D sprite games look on modern displays: they just weren't meant to be shown on the ultra-sharp LCDs of today. Enter CRT shaders, and boys, let me tell you: these are an absolute game changer. I don't have the space to keep a CRT TV just for the rare occasion that I want to play an SNES game, but this is about as close as it gets. Especially displayed on an OLED screen, which has CRT-like black levels, this is a really convincing way to play old school games.

The shader does a great job of hiding the seams between tiles and fudges the image enough to let your brain fill in detail that just isn't actually there. Then, of course, there's all sorts of different CRT shaders that essentially emulate different quality TVs.

With that little hurdle out of the way I've been able to enjoy the game much like I once did as a kid. The game mostly holds up extremely well, although the writing is waaaay too on the nose, it makes me cringe a little bit at times.

It's just so clunky, I can't stand it. Still, despite this it's a great game, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. Growing up I ended up liking Chrono Cross quite a bit more, but this still has a special place in my heart. 8/10.

 

[SilverEars]

^looks so phuckin guut! They should remaster it. DQ has nothing on this game. Characters were just superbly created. No way to make as good of a game without remake or remaster, it was that original of a design. Blue Dragon didn't have the same feel.

Ican't wait for Diablo 2 remaster.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Ican't wait for Diablo 2 remaster.

You and me both!

 

[SilverEars]

You and me both!

Men of classy tastes think alike.

 

[SilverEars]

Such a bad-ass intro!

 

[SilverEars]

Lately, I've been in a lookout for something similar to FF Tactics and was disappointed by Fire Emble: Three Houses. I was hoping for strictly tactics battle game and it turned out to be some sim type jrpg on top of it to waste unnecessary game time. I wish they'd cut out the really pointless character interaction sims. They don't add any value. I don't like dialogs on jrpgs and if they support the gameplay, I would rather skip them. Dialogs are really cheezy. Too bad because battle mechanjcs seems interesting. It would be nice to skip the robotic dialogs and just get to the battles.

One the other hand, Valkeria Chronicles seems to be a very fun tactical battle field game. Battles are really long. I can put up with the jrpg type cheezy dialog and story for the well made gameplay and the nice visuals.

I guess these fall under tactical rpg genre that I'm into. Fire Emblem has too much rpg elements for a tactical game.

 

[Kukuk]

Started playing Chrono Cross again, not really ready to rate it since I'm still early in the game, and I know all to well how slow the start of the game is. Just wanted to highlight how well these CRT shaders work on PS1 games. Wasn't sure it would work as well, since the assets are much higher resolution that the sprites of the 16-bit era, but it really is transformative. A little comparison:

On the game itself: whoever programmed the accuracy ratings of attacks must have been the person who went on to program the calculations on Blitzball in FFX, because these numbers just don't add up. I'll have a 90% chance to hit and miss 5 times in a row. It's kinda getting old. I know it gets better later in the game, but for now it's super frustrating.

 

[SilverEars]

Japanese games have the most cheezy stories and dialogs. Valkyria Chronicles story is just a waste of time to watch.

 

[Kukuk]

Just beat Chrono Cross... Man, I don't know where to start, but this is not the game I remembered it being. I kinda regret replaying it, because for the longest time this was the game I held above every other. No question, my favorite game ever, and upon replaying it just kind of crumbles apart.

On the surface the combat is pretty great: the managing of stamina and elements is kind of a neat mechanic, and gives you some wiggle room for deciding how aggressive you want to be. The problem comes down to accuracy. Your accuracy is so low, even when you buff it up with accessories. It's at its worst in the beginning of the game, where you're more likely to miss than hit. That's a problem, and while it gets better as you progress through the game, I can't help but see why the accuracy is scaled this way: to artificially boost difficulty. I'd bet as they were designing the game they felt the combat was too easy, but they didn't know how to effectively re-balance the whole game without messing some fights up, so they just decided to tweak the accuracy. Problem solved on paper, but in practice it's just really frustrating because it makes it impossible to put any sort of strategy into fights. The combat ends up being merely "okay", when just a few tweaks could have put it among the best JRPGs on the PS1.

I could look past the combat if it weren't for the story. Make no mistake, there's some decent ideas going on here, but they're buried under a mountain of questionable-to-bad ideas. I like the whole concept of time being all screwed up because of the events in Chrono Trigger; it's just ripe for a lot of great character stories, but it all turns into a jumbled mess, and I suspect the developers probably knew that. There's a large number of characters throughout the game that just seem to be all-knowing, just so the developers can give you an exposition dump to try to salvage any sense in the story. It really doesn't work, as it just begs the question of why characters know what they know. In fact, most of the main characters don't really seem to have any sort of personality, and instead just exist to give exposition dumps. And that leads me to the writing: I don't really have an issue with the game dropping information on you, but this sorta follows the issue I had with Chrono Trigger where it was all very on the nose. It often repeats information that the very conversation just gave you, sometimes multiple times. It ends up feeling less like the characters are talking to each other, and more that they're talking to the player (who they think only has half a brain). On top of that, the game is trying to juggle too many themes. Don't mess with time: that's the main theme, fair enough. It works well, no problems from me. Then there's the humans versus nature. Okay, that kind of works; it's kind of playing off of Chrono Trigger, I'm fine with it. Then there's the "regret for the life you didn't live"; not really necessary, but kind of works on a small scale. Should have been limited to just a side character or two, not basically every NPC you run into. Then there's some cringey BS theme of love and hate. At this point it's thoroughly crossed the line and just needs to stop.

On the positive side of the game, it's really interesting how forward looking it was. I really liked the few moments in the game where there's branching paths to finish objectives, opening you up to recruit different characters. I know WRPGs at the time had that, but games like Baldur's Gate and Fallout were a little more free form, whereas this is a more focused game. I also like how the dozens of side characters you can recruit in the game are used to flesh out the lore. Feels a lot more natural than the books and journals WRPGs use. The web of connections between all the characters is super interesting, and pretty well thought-out.

So playing this has been kind of a devastating experience, but I find myself thinking that if ever there was a game the deserved a good remake, it's this. I think I gotta give this like a 6/10.

 

[SilverEars]

One the other hand, Valkeria Chronicles seems to be a very fun tactical battle field game. Battles are really long. I can put up with the jrpg type cheezy dialog and story for the well made gameplay and the nice visuals.

Got through 13 chapters and the novelty is wearing off. I like this game due to being one of a kind with it's battle mechanics (I would recommend due to it's uniqueness), but it gets repetitive after playing enough of the campaigns. The difficulty of campaigns is not really linear as you progress. Some take longer than others.

It's fun and definately worth playing, but the progression at some point gets meaningless and boring.

Will try XCOM 2 and see if it's more fun.

 

[SilverEars]

Shadow Tactics. One of the best tactical strategy game I've ever played! Very well thought out puzzle levels. It's so tough, it takes a long time figure out the holes of the puzzles. This game is in the same genre as the original Commandos games series that came out long ago.