Lurker > plasmabeam

Nominate The Last of Us Part II

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

7/10

Intro sequence was fantastic. The rest was enjoyable but forgettable.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8.8/10

I remember loving the story in this game from start to finish, though my mind is fuzzy on most of the plot details. The band of characters was a ton of fun to be around and the setting/atmosphere drew me in despite the Wii's limitations at the time.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Like everyone else said, this was fun and thanks for running it, TC.

Awesome that the finale was tight

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Falcons

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

6/10

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

+1 Samus
-1 Aerith

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

7/10

The characters, humor, and classic movie references are great but this one never wowed me when I first played it in 2015 (probably because this board hyped it up so much through the years).

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Adventure
Visual Novel
Sports
Puzzle

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Snake5555555555 posted...

5.5/10

I really love the new setting and villains. The Bakers are easily some of the most charismatically scary villains in gaming and their transformation from normal, kind-hearted family to monstrous murderers is touching and emotional in a way Resident Evil never really is. I'm not so much a fan of the new lore, or the mold, or anything to do with Mia's flashbacks & Eveline. To me, Eveline strays too far from what RE is meant to be about and is quite frankly also tired and boring, chasing a pseudo-supernatural trend with the typical scary little girl you can see in 95% of the films in the horror section on Amazon Prime. Mia's motivations are murky at best and annoying assholish at worst, making the whole driving force of the initial game feel pointless. The arrival of Chris and Blue Umbrella is just an excuse to have a recognizable face in the game. It's telling when the speculation on the ending was more interesting than what it ended up being. Also the game judging you for choosing your wife for the cure when the alternative leads to nothing anyway is laughably bad. I usually love RE stories, but this one did not hit the mark for me. If it were just about the Bakers, it would be higher, but alas.

Though I disagree with your score, I agree with everything you said aside from Mia's motivations. IIRC her motives were clear: She emailed Ethan from the laptop because she expected to die and wanted to bid her boyfriend farewell. She didn't want him to come after her and endanger himself, so she told him to stay away. Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't see anything wrong with that.

For me the story's biggest misstep was the "choice" between Mia and Zoe. There was no proper buildup to make Zoe a compelling selection, and even if you choose Zoe, the story barely changes. It was very Telltale in the sense that the choise had no stakes whatsoever. Was disappointed by that.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8/10

Surprisingly good for a RE story.

Loved the scenario, the Baker family, and the big twist with Mia toward the end. Never saw it coming.

The atmosphere was intense, and the tonal shifts helped keep things from getting overbearing or stale.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Nominate FFX-2

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Never played BI. Still have the PS3 version in the wrapper

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

All right, here's my track ranking:



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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Oh, yeah--Trident is awesome! You can even "jump" from one path to the other if you're feeling wild.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Lopen posted...

Dexter Season 2

Probably won't get any love because of how badly it bungled the late seasons but I'm a big fan of seasons 1-4, with 2 being the best front to back by a considerable margin to me

Agreed. Dexter Season 2 is unbelievably gripping.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

wg64Z posted...

I recently played through this and had the exact reaction you did. I used to really like it, but playing it now I LOVE IT. It's easily one of my top 5 games ever.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEM8tY7SIrzf2-RqfXRJ44oh6vq7GeZ4p

It's so much more than a racing game. It honestly fells like an action game due to the steep challenge, the ability to crush your enemies, and the atmosphere/design of the tracks.

So intense. I get nervous just watching other people play.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

+10 Edgeworth ADVANCES
+9 Samus ADVANCES
+8 Count Bleck ELIMINATED
+7 Aerith ELIMINATED
+6 Bowser ADVANCES
+5 Bowser ELIMINATED
+4 Aerith ADVANCES
+3 Edgeworth ELIMINATED
+2 Samus ELIMINATED
+1 Count Bleck ADVANCES

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

pyresword posted...

This specific one is a moment where the game is really hurt by the decision to have Crono be a silent protagonist. This is probably the closest thing to an emotional climax in the game but it just doesn't have anywhere near the impact on me that it should.

You nailed it. Crono's death fails emotionally for two reasons:

1) It's a temporary death (unless you choose not to resurrect him, obviously), which negates the impact. If you're not going to permanently kill off a character, don't kill him to begin with. This is a gripe I have with a certain Wii RPG and with a lot of superhero stories. Pulling emotional punches is weak writing.

2) He's a silent avatar. Hard to define his personal values other than saying he'll "do the right thing" or "do whatever it takes." When he "dies," what do we really lose? Not someone complex and/or real; we just lose the red-haired katana guy.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Summer > Fall > Spring >>> Winter

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Emeraldegg posted...

Slim Line Slits can go to hell

Yes.

Big Blue Ordeal GOAT but I really like a lot of the lightning tracks. Also the space elevator is so intense with the constant boosting. But really there aren't many tracks I don't like in that game, they're just so great. I am going to guess that a casino palace course takes last place.

Ordeal is amazing, as are all 3 Lightning tracks. Which one is the "space elevator"? Do you mean Aeropolis Dragon Slope?

And both Casino Palace tracks are great, especially the second one.

Who do you guys like to use? I used James McCloud until I unlocked the Groovy Taxi

Octoman until I unlocked Rainbow Phoenix

Radix posted...

anyway big fan of Trident. also most of the Aeropolis and Green Planet tracks

Agreed on all of these, although the AX Cup Aeropolis track is meh.

least fan of HalfPipe and Serial Gaps. i actually dont remember Slim Line Slits but if ive forgotten it it cant be good

Lightning Halfpipe is top-tier. It has a steep learning curve and it's easy to fall off, but once you memorize the track it's godly.

Serial Gaps is solid, not mind-blowing.

Slime Line Slits is the last track in the Diamond Cup. Like the other poster said, it's F-Zero's Rainbow Road and it's brutal. When I beat the Diamond Cup on Master (to unlock the AX Cup), I placed 22nd and only won the cup because I KO'd my rival on Slime Line.


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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8.5/10

Magus and Frog are fantastic characters, the plot is fun, and the locations are still burned into my mind even though I haven't touched this game since 2004.

Shame that Crono's mute and the rest of the playable cast is pretty meh.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LeonhartFour posted...

VLR > 999, very good

More importantly, VLR/999 > Danganronpa

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

2.5/10

Oh boy, this should be a fun one.

I don't hate FFTA's story the way a lot of people do. I just find it completely meh and forgettable (just like the gameplay).

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Pretty much every track ranges from Above Average to "Best Track Ever"

My generic top 3:

Aeropolis Multiplex
Lightning Thunder Road
Big Blue Ordeal

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

10/10

The G.O.A.T. of game stories IMO.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

9/10

Solid supporting cast, cool settings (especially the Sith planet), and awesome lore.

Should've seen the twist coming, but didn't.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

I'll nominate Sonic Adventure 2 as well.

Not sure where to even begin with that one haha

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

6.5/10

The narrative is subtle yet compelling, as Samus is basically a detective investigating the space pirates, what they want with Phazon, etc.

Atmosphere is top-notch. The lore is interesting in theory, though I'm not a fan of how it's delivered through scanning stuff.

And let's be honest, the real draw of this game is the gameplay, level design, and boss battles.


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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

2.5/10

Traverse Town is amazing and I generally like the Disney settings and sidekicks, but the main KH cast is absolutely horrendous. Sora, Kairi, Riku, Ansem... I can't stand any of them.

And the plot... well, let's not go there.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Lightning Strikes posted...

Konami are absolutely terrible at letting you play their old library. Aside from MGS1+2 and Silent Hill 4s PC versions being on gog (Silent Hill 2 and 3 nowhere to be seen even though they gave PC versions), MGS HD collection on Xbox and PSNow (no PC version and lacking Peace Walker HD), the bad Silent Hill 2&3 HD ports on Xbox, and like two Castlevanias, the vast majority of their library from earlier than the last decade cannot be played on new devices. I dont like MGS4, but it is laughable that a game that big from a franchise that big is literally unplayable now. They are even worse than Square and that is saying a fair amount.

MGS4 rotting on PS3 is indeed hilarious. It's been 13 years, man.

The GBA/DS Castlevanias being unavailable digitally is a horrendous business move considering how Vania's popularity exploded with the Netflix show.

Other bad news: Silent Hill 1 and Suikoden 1/2 will soon be lost when the Vita/PS3 stores disappear.

EDIT: Now that I think of it, the GBA Vanias might be available on the Wii U eShop.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Yes

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

pjbasis posted...

Now I really want to play this game again. How did Konami just leave it off the HD collection like that man...

Considering the quality of the HD collection, they probably did everyone a favor.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

Silent Hill 4 had one of the most underrated horror stories. The moments in the apartment was one of the most terrifying experiences in a video game. It is such a shame that the game had this huge emphasis on combat which made gameplay tedious and revisiting areas in the 2nd half which made the game have major pacing issues.

SH4's apartment might be one of my favorite settings in a videogame.

I actually liked the heavier focus on combat. The obtuse puzzles in SH1-3 always killed the pacing IMO. With SH4 I didn't have to check a guide for the first half, and that worked wonders for the pacing and atmosphere.

Where SH4 fell short (in terms of gameplay) was the 2nd half's retread-fest, like you mentioned.

In my opinion The Room had a better story than Silent Hill 3 but wasn't nearly as good as a whole package.

100% agree. SH3's story is IMO the weakest of the original four, but SH4's 2nd half is so awful/lazy that it drags down the game overall.

andylt posted...

Well now I want to play this game!

Go for it! They re-released it on PC last year, I believe. The story is unique and well worth it.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Paid $20 physical back in 2017. Worth every penny and thensome.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Snake5555555555 posted...

I usually consider the main character of Silent Hill games to be the one behind the creation of the manifestations and Otherworld seen throughout your explorations. In SH2 & 3, the monsters are a reflection of the player character, but in 1 & 4, things are arguably made even stranger because you are seeing another character's psyche reflected through monsters you don't and possibly couldn't ever truly understand. All of Sullivan's monsters and Otherworlds reflect his tragic upbringing, with one of the darkest aspects being his torture at the hands of the Order while at the Wish House Orphanage, connected to a Water Prison where children were routinely beaten, killed and disposed of, and also possibly used for meat by the cooks there. It's the type of place where you can understand why Walter ended up being how he was, brainwashed and left unwanted and unforgotten by, to him at least, the whole of humanity. There's a bit of Se7en here influence with Walter's slayings, and there's always a sense you never quite get the whole picture, with some parts of Walter's murders being purposefully muddy, like his questionable suicide. I will admit here it gets TOO convoluted in supernatural bullshit for its own good I think, but it paints the complete picture of Walter's entire character and that's the most important quality of it, at least to me.

The water prison was such an arresting location. I also loved the "downward spiral" theme that kept popping up in the level design, and the idea of dumping children down garbage chutes (and possibly eating them) is downright harrowing.

Now, I like the Walter plot, but Henry's side of the story ends up being the most interesting to me. One thing Team Silent always did well was craft compelling, realistic characters. You might consider Henry "boring" or "plain", and that's because it's true, he's designed that way to reflect the average, ordinary person, from his demeanor to his fashion sense. There's nothing to call attention to him, and this can be traced to the chained room representing Henry's intense agoraphobia and social anxiety. This was used to some effect with James in SH2, but Henry is really the poster child for this type of character angle. There's more to it though; the holes that continually open up in Henry's apartment calls to mind voyeuristic tendencies, peep holes into others lives that seem far more interesting than yours. Perhaps, even representing sexual repression in the case of Eileen, your next door neighbor. As the game continues, your apartment even becomes victim to "haunting", destroying even your own notion of safety and comfort as your inner anxieties become reflected in your very surroundings. He's also the perfect foil to Walter as despite all his insecurities, Henry remains a kind and generous, helpful person throughout the entire ordeal of the game.

Your assessment of Henry is awesome. Made me appreciate him and the story even more. As someone who struggles with social anxiety, I now understand why the setting and Henry's first-person POV) clicked with me so much.

Ever watch Max Derrat's YouTube videos? He analyzes Silent Hill 1-4 and a number of other story-heavy games. Your insights are sharp like his. Thanks for the writeup.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Lightning Strikes posted...

Whoever nominated this get in here.

Present!!

Nominate Batman Arkham Asylum

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

9/10

Just finished this game two weeks ago, so there may be some recency bias here.

The plot is engaging and mysterious, and I love the concept of Henry being trapped in his apartment and having to escape via the dream world. The setting is strong here, which is ironic because it abandons the foggy town that defined the first three games.

The first half of the game is an absolute masterpiece, but it's a shame that one you finish the hospital, everything is all backtracking. Oddly enough, the story remained interesting despite the gameplay being a slog, so I won't dock points here. I will forever wonder how amazing this game could've been with a larger budget (or maybe just some extra time to design an additional 3 or 4 areas).

I wasn't crazy about the cult in Silent Hill 1 and 3, but the cult's influence on Walter made it chilling in SH4. Walter in general is chilling, whether he's a boy slaughtering his victims or a man who is born again after killing himself and becoming his own 11th victim (probably the most terrifying piece of lore in the game).

Would've given this a 10 if the characters had a little more meat to them. While I'm fine with Henry as an everyman hero, I wish he factored more into the story than simply being the 21st victim. I also think they whiffed on a potentially awesome ending: had Henry and Eileen been Walter Sullivan's parents, and SH4 was punishing them for abandoning them, I would've given this story an automatic 10. Then again, maybe that ending would've been too much of a thematic of SH2's guilt theme.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

9/10

Awesome story. Arguably better than Book 1 of the comics (which shares a number of structural similarities)

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

I can't imagine the TV show being anywhere as good as the comics. They were near-perfection.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8.5/10

Based on however long I played before my PS3 corrupted my data

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

LeonhartFour posted...

The first...quarter or so of the game is kinda slow and has too many lame dirty jokes and fanservice moments. However, once it hits the first big moment, it never lets up until the end.

How many chapters in (or hours in) is that first big moment?

Maybe one of these days I'll watch a recap of the chapters I played and give it another chance.


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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

5.5/10

Could not get through the PS3 version back when I played it years ago. I hear it gets great, but based on the early chapters I played, I found it to be a slog.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

8/10

Solid mix of military fiction and psychological horror.


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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

7.5/10

Great lore and worldbuilding, and the storyline has its moments. Aloy and Rost are solid characters, but I couldn't care less about the rest of the cast.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

BlueCrystalTear posted...

And yeah, Breath of the Wild has beautiful visuals, but the world itself doesn't have half the life that Majora's did.

Spot on. BotW feels like a videogame. Majora's Mask feels like a nightmare (in the best possible way).

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

9.5/10

This is my third 9.5 in a row. Great choices this week, Lightning!

Anyway, Majora's Mask is unique, dark, and ****ed up in all the right ways. It's almost as if Zelda and Silent Hill had a child together. There are plenty of YouTube videos out there that explore how Link is going through the five stages of grief, and it's mind-blowing to think a Nintendo game from 2000 bore that kind of subtext.

Aside from that, the daily lives of the people of Termina, the surprisingly emotional backgrounds of the Deku/Goron/Zora masks, and the worldbuilding/lore push this one up high IMO.

Only glaring flaw is that Link is a silent protag.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

+10 Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney)
+9 Samus Aran (Metroid)
+8 Phoenix Wright (Ace Attorney)
+7 Bowser (Super Mario Bros.)
+6 The Boss (Metal Gear Solid 3)
+5 Kyle Hyde (Hotel Dusk: Room 215)
+4 Aerith Gainsborough (Final Fantasy VII)
+3 Missile (Ghost Trick)
+2 Count Bleck (Super Paper Mario)
+1 GLaDOS (Portal)

+5 Golden Parcel to Samus

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

Lightning Strikes posted...

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.62 (29 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.46 (28 votes)

Well done, Board 8.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~

9.5/10

Better than the TV show; at times even better than the comics.

Loses momentum in Episode 4, but otherwise it's masterful.

Great emotion, memorable characters, and some legit shocking moments.

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~Jacksonville Jaguars~