It's an even higher density when you consider that most of those consoles are in western and northern europe.
It's probably about 1 in every 7 house in the UK.
They enjoyed their time with Yooka-Laylee and were particularly happy to play what is a quintessentially British game however, they were rather disheartened with the technical side of things (like 'falling out' of the world or having to endure a wildly inconsistent frame rate on certain levels) as well as saying that it is a game that is firmly stuck in the past and hasn't taken on board some of the ideas from other 3D platformers - however slim the pickings have been - since Banjo-Kazooie was released on the N64 almost twenty years ago.
Technical issues are one thing, but that complaint about it being "stuck in the past" strikes me as incredibly disingenuous. The game was billed as a return to the era of the N64 3D platformer. It was INTENDED to be a return to the past in terms of its game design, because it was kickstarted to satisfy a niche crowd in the market that thinks the genre was at its peak with the N64. It makes no sense to penalize it for not having modern game design if it was never intended to feature modern game design in the first place.
Andromeda, on the other hand, was just a disaster.
I don't really the two are on the same level, imo.
Currently Playing: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (NS2); Corpse Factory (PC)
It was INTENDED to be a return to the past in terms of its game design, because it was kickstarted to satisfy a niche crowd in the market that thinks the genre was at its peak with the N64. It makes no sense to penalize it for not having modern game design if it was never intended to feature modern game design in the first place.
You can't necessarily assume that. People probably thought it'd by LIKE the N64 games but with more modern ideas.
I love 3D platformers but I don't agree they were at their best on the N64. They were just at the most numerous on the N64, so became associated with that era.
I'd take the Galaxy games over anything on the N64 any day.
@Dezzy I'm not saying 3D platformers were at their best back then. I'm saying this game was designed to pander to people who thought that way.
My point is that it's fundamentally unfair to score a game lower for accomplishing what it set out to do when you're not a fan of what it's setting out to do in the first place. Complaining that Y-L is stuck in the past is like complaining that Senran Kagura has too much female nudity or that Animal Crossing should be less mellow and relaxed. If you review a game poorly because you're not a fan of what it's trying to do, then all you're accomplishing is reviewing your own personal reaction to the game, and if I wanted that, I wouldn't be reading a review.
Currently Playing: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (NS2); Corpse Factory (PC)
@Ralizah I don't know. If seen those fixed camera angles and the sudden change between the angles (RE1 style)... That's just bad game design in a 3D platformer.
If someone made a spiritual successor to Super Man 64 and delivered an awful game, should it be complimented for that? Just because it stuck to the formula, or should it be penalised because the game just isn't good?
@Octane The camera problems are overstated (at least, with regard to the first ten hours or so of the game). I've had few issues, and this is coming some someone who finds Super Mario 64 practically unplayable due to the horrendous camera angles and controls.
Either way, I never said problems with the game design shouldn't be addressed and criticized. I said criticizing it for having dated game design was disingenuous, since it was designed to play like games from the past. Dated =/= Bad.
We must distinguish bad game design from game design choices we simply don't like, and I think a lot of reviewers are struggling with that distinction.
Currently Playing: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (NS2); Corpse Factory (PC)
@Ralizah I agree. But some "dated" game elements can also be bad. I'll stop here though, since I can't really comment on the in-depth mechanics. I have yet to play the game, and I would like to, one day, just so I can voice my opinion. Anyway, none of the trailers have really peaked me interest so far. I've read reviews and I've seen gameplay, and I'm not willing to take the plunge just yet, not for €40 at least.
My point is that it's fundamentally unfair to score a game lower for accomplishing what it set out to do when you're not a fan of what it's setting out to do in the first place. Complaining that Y-L is stuck in the past is like complaining that Senran Kagura has too much female nudity or that Animal Crossing should be less mellow and relaxed. If you review a game poorly because you're not a fan of what it's trying to do, then all you're accomplishing is reviewing your own personal reaction to the game, and if I wanted that, I wouldn't be reading a review.
I agree with this general principle, but I don't think you can iterate that idea too far.
"We were trying to make a boring game. If you wanted to play a fun game, you should've known to look elsewhere." Nothing can exempt itself from the fact that there are good and bad ways to achieve each outcome. Obviously "stuck in the past" just needs more elaborating though. That by itself can't necessarily be a criticism (as some genres were obviously at their best in the past, like 2D platformers and JRPGs)
@Ralizah I gave you a brief snippet about why Edge were both happy and underwhelmed with Yooka-Laylee.
I have only played the game for an hour or so, and I feel like it is a little bit clunky and unfinished in places. The latter of which is one of the reasons why I have not returned to the game since, because I 'fell' through the floor in Tribalstack Topics and lost a fair bit of progress, which is never fun to see.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a drastically different game in a totally different genre. The latter game and Yooka-Laylee couldn't be any further away from one another if they tried.
The reviewer for Andromeda pointed out the technical shortcomings and the surprisingly poor animations however, he enjoyed playing the game and felt that it has improved upon certain aspects of the original Mass Effect trilogy that had previously bothered him. Says the (new) story is worthwhile too.
I don't think it is anything to get in a bit of a tiff about to be honest!
Moving on; I finished Little Nightmares this afternoon, which makes it two (short but sweet) games that I have seen through to the end in a space of one week for the first time in probably a decade!
Such a creepy little game with a foreboding atmosphere that you cannot help but slink further into the murk to find out why you are who you are in a place that features nightmarish and grotesque human-looking creatures with all the wrong proportional features.
My favourite chapter was the second one, if only for the creature design.
It's that uncanny valley/body horror creepiness. Human bodies just aren't supposed to look like that.
And it is not just the long arms, but the oversized head with the excess/loose skin practically sloughing off, the clacking off-set jaw, the way it gropes blindly around with those spider-like fingers, the way the movement seems more puppet-like than living, the grunts and groans and cracking of its joints.
I thought the eerieness would diminish when it was in the light, but it's just as creepy in the light as when it is lurking in the shadows.
I don't wish to go on about Little Nightmares too much, given that the later chapters have elements of spoilers that could unravel the story if you think about it for any length of time. I will just conclude by saying that this game is unlike anything else you can play today, along with a dark but curious tale to tell.
"We wanted to make an MMO and MMOs don't have hit boxes or player collision so we didn't do those."
"Our turn-based RPG is governed by the RNG of unavoidable damage because RPGs are about luck."
These kind of 'because it's like that' reasons are how games increasingly specialize until no one on the outside can enjoy them, or otherwise die. Games should take hints from things other genres do better.
I'm not going to say anything about Yooka Laylee — or care for that matter — but outsiders coming into Animal Crossing and complaining that it's largely a time sink is not only fair, but necessary to promote growth of the art. The same goes for the gender politics of Senran Kagura and Dead or Alive — no one gets a free pass.
The one thing I think reviewers and gamers who don't get paid for their opinions let themselves get away with is expecting games to do things that no game has done, or creating a fanfiction for the game instead of evaluating what is on the page.
Stuff like criticizing games for not creating entire separate games behind dialogue options is worthless because no game has really ever done that, and even the examples you would think to provide take their own half measures.
And the fanfiction point goes to things like complaining that you can't jump over any given fence in The Last of Us, hop in a car, and start playing the zombie DLC to Red Dead Redemption.
but outsiders coming into Animal Crossing and complaining that it's largely a time sink is not only fair, but necessary to promote growth of the art.
That only really makes sense if the current audience for something is too small. Definitely not true with Animal Crossing.
Far more likely to lead to regression to the mean than it is to lead to growth. Unless it's the GTA series, which seems to have no upper limit.
It is the first of May today; four months of this year has already flown by.
So, what is there to look forward to in the next four months before the inevitably crazy build up to Christmas?
May
LocoRoco Remastered and Farpoint for the PS VR
June
Tekken 7, WipEout Omega Collection and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
July
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
August
Everybody's Golf, Yakuza Kiwami and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
And that's before the likes of Destiny 2 and possibly Gran Turismo Sport being released in September; two of the most well known and mega-selling franchises in the gaming community.
Compared to the lulls of the previous years, this is a pretty good line up in all honesty!
:EDIT: Out of curiosity, what has everyone bought - and played - on their PlayStation 4 so far this year?
January; Gravity Rush 2. February; Night in the Woods and Resident Evil VII. March; Horizon Zero Dawn. April; Yooka-Laylee (Kickstarter reward), What Remains of Edith Finch and Little Nightmares. May; GNOG.
Three full priced retail games and five digitally downloadable games. About £180 (€210/$240) spent in all!
@Peek-a-boo Gravity Rush 2 (played, not finished), Yakuza 0 (have yet to play), and Persona 5 (playing, not finished). I also plan to get Nier: Automata and Resident Evil 7 at some point. This is the most invested I've been in the Playstation brand in years.
Picked up Yooka Laylee, but I have a decent PC that can run it at 60 fps, so I got it on that platform instead of the weaker PS4 version.
Outside of Yakuza Kiwami and Danganronpa V3 (which I'm getting on the Vita anyway), though, the rest of the year looks boring. Which works perfectly for me, as I can focus on getting games for my Switch!
@Peek-a-boo It took a little longer than expected; between finishing some reports, helping my parents move and an unexpected arrival of a couple of young kittens, I had little time to sit down and put my thoughts on (digital?) paper. So yeah, Horizon, maybe my favourite game of the year so far? It definitely exceeded my expectations more than any other game this year. I figure I'm going to ramble about all sorts of things, in no particular order, so if it's all over the place, my apologies!
One of the first things I appreciate is its difficulty. It's always challenging, your first fight, but also the twentieth time you're taking on a Thunderjaw. It doesn't matter how high your level is, or how good your gear, a fight is always going to be a struggle if you come unprepared. Not many games do this, and it often becomes easier as you level up. Another thing that ties into this are the Watchers. The first encounter, the Goombas of any game so to speak, always end up as cannon fodder later on, but the way Watchers are more aware of their surroundings and can alert other machines means they become another Goomba.
Don’t know how I feel about the experience system. I liked TW3’s system where you would gain less experience the higher your level relative to the quest level was, but I also appreciated getting some points after each quest. Reaching level 50 is almost unavoidable if you want to complete the game. I think I’m fine with either way!
Going back to combat, my favourite thing. Taking down enemies has never been this satisfying. I would often get out of my way and try to take down a group of machines (no Glinthawks though!), because I could, and I didn’t even care about the rewards. Combat gets very creative once you obtain all the weapons – though I do wish there was a little more weapon variety. I even found a way to take down a Stormbird in a single hit, it involves a lot of trip wires and a bit of luck! Loved that tripcaster though. Tripcaster, tear arrows and the regular old bow were my weapons of choice throughout the game.
The story was good. I had no idea what I was in for up until the very end, so that’s a positive. Though I wish the voice recordings weren’t as lengthy as they were. The game is best when you’re moving around and doing combat stuff. Sitting a room, listening to the voice recordings halted the pace of the game in certain locations, especially if there were a handful of recordings to be found in a single room. The ending was okay I think. It wasn't bad, but I expected an epic fight with one of those metal squid machines, I'm a bit bummed that never happened! Although, by the looks of it, that will happen in HZD2. I definitely raised an eyebrow when HADIS – essentially a software program – materialised into some weird energy ball and flew through the air. That's fantasy stuff! Why they decided to include that, in a game that managed to remain within the borders of science-fiction for this long, is beyond my understanding. Why not have him explode at the end, followed by an after credits scene where Sylens finds the eye/'brain'-part and takes that with him? Minor nitpicks aside, I did enjoy discovering what the meaning of ''Zero Dawn'' was, how the world of the old ones came to an end and how the machines came to be.
Other highlights were the Redmaw quest. I think it was the only machine with an actual history. I actually felt sorry for killing it in the end.
Right! Before I forget. This has to be one of the best looking open world games to date. I decided to ride back from Sunfall all the way to The Embrace during that one quest. The best fifteen minutes of the entire playthrough. Taking in all the different environments and seeing all the different machines in a single go was phenomenal. On top of that, the weather was perfectly clear, no rain, and I witnessed a sunset and sunrise along the way. Couldn't get any better than that!
I'm going to cut this short. I planned to post this yesterday, but it was late, so I saved the draft and continued today. Looking forward to your thoughts!
@Peek-a-boo Bought: Gravity Rush 2, Horizon, P5. Skipped ME:A (never thought I'd skip a Bioware game, but there it is), and R&C (didn't mean to skip it, it just happened that I missed it being released).
Played: None of the above. All neatly shrinkwrapped.
That's just what happens once you make the Switch....(click)
@Octane Given that I have played three or four totally different games since I finished Horizon Zero Dawn at the very end of March, forgive me if I am misremembering certain aspects of the story, as well as the game itself.
The difficulty (level) was brilliant.
I died more times at the beginning than the second half of the game due to being 'greedy' when there were two more Watchers and/or Striders wandering about; when they hit you, they hit you. On the subject of enemies, I thought that the AI of the robosaurs were absolutely fantastic, whereas the nonexistence AI of the humans at those Bandit Camps let things down somewhat.
I sneaked around at each and every single one of those Bandit Camps to dismantle the alarm, before going all Rambo. Apart from the one time when I faced two of those big chaps who slowly plod towards you with a firespitter in hand, I don't believe (my) Aloy was ever troubled against human baddies.
I also felt that the XP system was just kind of there really.
As soon as I levelled up, I would choose a new ability and not give the XP system any further thought until I levelled up again. I didn't like nor dislike it. I was definitely 'over levelled' by the time I got back to the main story missions after seeking to find - and finish - all the side missions first. Those cauldrons (and the 'boss' at the end of them) were a joy to stumble upon and make your way through.
The combat is the main draw of the game. Just like yourself, the tripcaster was my favourite weapon. I alternated between the sling shot (those bombs did just enough damage to take out multiple parts off the robosaurs) and the standard bow. I especially enjoyed using the precision arrow to knock off the disc launcher off the shoulders of the Thunderjaw, then using said disc launcher against it!
The hardest enemy in the game wasn't those old world machines, or the Stormbird or even the Redmaw.
It was those two corrupted Rockbreakers that nearly did me in. It wasn't until I experimented with the freeze bombs to see that they could be gradually broken down bit-by-bit; first the arms (to stop them going underground), then the legs (to stop them sliding along the ground) then the rest of them. I left the hardest corrupted area until last, typically so!
The story.
The last boss being another (supercharged) old world machine was a little bit underwhelming and like yourself, I thought that the 'metal devil' that settles upon the snow capped mountain was going to be the - literally epic - finale.
As you say so yourself, that's hopefully a story to show and tell in the sequel.
I was always dubious about Sylens and his mysterious ways for some inexplicable reason, and I was right to feel this way. That closing scene doesn't necessary portray him as a baddie as such, but that he is simply a man full of questions and curiosity, and to find out whom HADES answers to.
Perhaps he is using HADES to seek those answers he so craves?
I loved seeing Aloy's mother on that sofa in her armoured suit. One part of me felt quite emotional about their first (and last) meeting, whilst the other part of me pondered about how the sofa she is resting upon remained relatively intact after a thousand years!
A shame that that scene isn't part of the world though. It would have been a special moment to stumble upon the house, the sofa and her mother without knowing. In fact, I'd argue that it would have been the best way of going about it.
I'm not a fan of open world games these days, due to the enormous amount of time you are often expected to pour into them however, Horizon Zero Dawn filled its world with something you rarely see in video games, and a main character that you care about and her story that doesn't let up until the very end.
My only negative are those audio diaries in just the one mission towards the end, mostly because I clicked on a few of them, only for Sylens to talk over the top of it. Perhaps they could have been dealt with more carefully, but at least it only happened once or twice in one particular mission.
And in that very same mission, I realised that Ted Faro was the bad guy all along...
And the human AI need to be drastically improved in the sequel, given the superb intelligence of the robosaurs in comparison.
I had a lot of fun ending up in places that you technically shouldn't be at yet. For example, I bumped into the Stormbird before the mission up ahead that happens much later in the game.
I also found a hole in the mountain where you meet Sylens before you are told to make your way there. Moments like these make me like the game even more - other games would choose to place an 'invisible wall', or have a 'warning; please turn back' message flashing at you, which Far Cry 4 unfortunately resorted to.
Actually, the more I think about the game, the more fond of it I become.
Let's hope Horizon First Dawn (I am just making this up!) builds upon its already strong foundations and continue to tell us a story that is hinted at during the closing scene.
p.s. I need to remind myself to stop writing these essays that only one person shall read...
@NEStalgia I have to ask, what were you playing for the first three months of this year (before the Nintendo Switch came along) if all of those brilliant games you purchased are still in their shrinkwrap?!
@BLP_Software I believe we have already spoken about our time with Far Cry 4 half a dozen pages or so ago however, I cannot help but think that it is such a shame that you didn't wait a month later for Horizon Zero Dawn. I'd find it difficult to go back to the clunky-nature of the former game after playing the latter.
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