Lurker > RyoCaliente

39. Finish a game that took you at least twenty-five hours to beat

Pokemon Pearl

Pokemon Pearl (NDS)

The consensus on Pokemon generations evolve over time. Growing up, Gen I and Gen II definitively ruled the roost. Afterwards came Gen III, which was well loved, but didn't create the same energy or immediate adoration that Gen I and Gen II carried on release. When Gen IV came out, Pokemon fatigue had started to set in for me, and for a lot of people who grew up with the older Pokemon games.

Throughout the years, Gen III and Gen IV have gotten a redemptive reading. Children who grew up with these games, as I did with Gen I and Gen II (I was a child with Gen III as well but we'll leave that out for now), were now on the Internet, talking about their memories playing these games and having their first video game experience, let alone Pokemon.

Gen III deserves its redemptive reading. Gen IV does not. This generation is held up by the Gen II remakes and Platinum to a lesser extent. These games aren't bad, but for me they're easily the worst mainline Pokemon experience (although I will admit Gen I and Gen II have a nostalgia bias for me).
Let's start with things Pokmon never really does particularly well: story. The story of DPPt is your basic Pokemon story; you're a ten-year-old child on an adventure to become the best, while stopping an evil team along your tracks. The evil team is Team Galactic, and they're easily the worst of the evil teams. They look dumb, and the vast majority of the Grunts have some really bad Pokemon. This makes sense in the grand scheme of their leader, Cyrus's, plans, but it makes a lot of the encounters boring and non-threatening. There is an attempt to make the story slightly more dark, with the capturing and abuse of the Lake Trio, but that is so short and ineffective, it doesn't really stick with you.

But worse than the evil team plot however, is the Road to the Pokemon League. There is one big reason for this: Sinnoh. Sinnoh is the least interesting region to go through in the Pokemon generations. There are many reasons for this: for one, it is visually uninteresting. You have to understand that Gen II had a lot more interesting designs as compared to Gen I; there were more rustic/feudal buildings, the Radio Tower, Burned Tower, Olivine Lighthouse,... all had unique sprites. Obviously the entire game was in colour as well. There were railroad tracks, different grass sprites in the National Park, different kinds of trees,... The jump to Gen III was even more insane; there were beaches, no longer implied but actual visible sand that left behind footprints! There were bustling market port towns and resort port towns, towns near volcanoes, towns in treetops, and Rustboro with its own unique architecture. Sinnoh has essentially none of that. Oreburgh has a coal mine which you barely do anything in, Canalave has a bridge that goes up to let boats through, and then there's the snow routes and the Great Marsh. While these are new dynamics to Pokemon, they're the perfect example of the downside to realism in video games. There are deep patches of snow or mud for you to get stuck in and have to wiggle out of. This accomplishes nothing other than to annoy you and probably get you stuck in another random encounter if you're not using Repels. I could also give a shoutout to Sunyshore, which has a pathway consisting entirely of solar panels, but Sunyshore is a city that has nothing to offer the player, except for the final Gym.

This is what Sinnoh lacks; reasons for exploration. So many of these towns have little going on and don't even have interesting visuals that make you want to check the houses or talk to NPCs. From a navigational perspective, Sinnoh is also woeful. Hoenn has a beautiful traversal loop, but Sinnoh wants you to jump all over the place in the main quest alone. This design is especially egregious once you're hunting roaming Pokemon, as you can very easily find yourself on the wrong side of a mountain or a water route with no easy way to get to where you're going on foot. These problems are also exacerbated by Gen IV's poor Pokemon spread; you'll be seeing a lot of the same Pokemon in every single patch of grass, no matter how far you progress.

Tied in to these traversal problems are also Gen IV's main gameplay flaw: the HMs. I've always liked the concept of HMs; I think they're a great way to gate content and to push the player in the right direction. I think the execution however has always been flawed. HMs should be items you use (and it is optional to teach them to a Pokemon as a move). But Gen IV expects you to keep Rock Smash, Cut, Defog, Surf, Waterfall, Fly, Rock Climb, and Strength on your Pokemon at all times. It is baffling that Game Freak had the idea to get rid of Flash, but then bring in Defog anyway. Traveling through Sinnoh just isn't a fun time.

Gen IV did make battling a lot of fun though. Most Gens have one big gameplay change they're associated with, and Gen IV's might be the biggest of them all: the physical/special split. Moves are now physical or special depending on the move, and not on their typing. This completely changed the usability of a lot of Pokemon and created a pretty big dynamic. But even here there are some flaws; Gen IV is notoriously slow when it comes to depleting health bars (and Surfing). These make battles drag on much longer than they should. Speaking of Pokemon, the Gen IV dex is not immensely impressive; there's much more fun stuff to be found than in Hoenn for instance, but there's also a bunch of weaker designs and a lot of evolutions to previous-gen Pokemon, none of which look particularly good.

I never got too invested in the bigger mini-games on offer here; the Super Contests seemed an even bigger time investment than the Contests in Gen III did, and the game part of the Underground was meant as a multiplayer with your friends, but the benefits seemed small.
Technically, as mentioned before, I found DPPt to be disappointing. There's very little to set it apart from its predecessors, and it doesn't feel like it takes advantage of the DS hardware at all. Contrariwise, the soundtrack might well be the best of all the games. There's tracks for different times of day, and I love the general jazzy undertones that are present in a lot of the tracks. I could say that the battle tracks (aside from the Champion) are a bit underwhelming, but said Champion track makes up for a lot of shortcomings.

So, all in all, Gen IV are not bad games. They're Pokemon games, so they meet a basic standard of fun that is inherent to the series; I felt satisfied when I finished it. It's just that every other Pokemon game I've played has scratched the Pokemon itch much better.
Final team:
Luxray (Cat Viper) Lvl. 62
Infernape (Azula) Lvl. 63
Floatzel (Weasel) Lvl. 63
Chatot (Octavius) Lvl. 60
Dugtrio (The Mole) Lvl. 60
Tauros (Ram) Lvl. 59

13. Beat a game made by an indie developer

Race the Sun

Race the Sun (XBO)

Race the Sun was a blast. To me, it's a great example of a 'pure' video game; it's just down to the gameplay to entertain.

I see other reviews talk about how it resembles a mobile game or is too expensive; I can't really judge it on that because I don't play mobile games and I didn't have to pay for it as I got via Games with Gold. But I found Race the Sun to be an enjoyable experience. The levels get randomized each day, so there's variance (even though the patterns of each region stays the same), but this also allows you to strategize and memorize routes to complete your objectives. The controls are simple, and there's a few useful tricks that the game doesn't tell you that you need to figure out on your own, but nothing too brutal to prevent progression. The objectives can be similar, but I generally got lucky enough that it felt varied to me, so I always had different options of what I needed to be doing. And while the game is challenging, I never felt incredibly frustrated or unfairly treated, which made the gameplay more addictive and engaging.

Technically, the game isn't anything special, but the graphics and the sound do what they're supposed to, especially in the emergency portals sections.

Honestly, Race the Sun was an engaging, but also generally relaxing experience for me. A great game that I'd recommend everyone try at least once.

40. Beat a game with a Metascore below 70

Lost Planet 3

SpoinkRulezz posted...

Yeah, overall, fun experience. I always notice I enjoy the first half of a pokemon game more than the second, as long as I have Pokemon from my team to evolve it feels like I have something to work towards.

I've noticed this for myself as well. I generally find that once my Pokmon are fully evolved, I'm ready to take on the E4 and be done with the game.

Lost Planet 3 (Steam)

Lost Planet 3 is a video game. It's okay.

If that sounds like an underwhelming intro...then I agree with you. It's just that Lost Planet 3 is one of those games that doesn't really sit with you. It's not a bad time; there were some frustrating moments, but every time I was done I felt fine. I also never had the feeling of desperately wanting to play more though. It's one of the most middle-grounded gaming experiences I've had.

The game stars Jim Peyton who is headed for E.D.N. III, a frosty planet, to mine for T-Energy to solve the energy crisis back on Earth. While the premise is simple, the story is one of the better parts of the game; there's a few nice surprises along the way, Jim Peyton himself is written quite well, and the plot keeps you engaged with what's happening all throughout. Tonally, the game does feel somewhat odd. The setting and situation at hand would seemingly lead to more serious and desperate situations, but most of the crew that man the home base are kind of goofy and weird. There's Gale, a young guy who's in charge of your machine and is pretty hyper, a crewman constantly on the lookout for the warmest spot in the base, a kooky scientist, a pair of engineers where one only ever mumbles,... The actual plot never turns goofy, but all the writing around it definitely takes a less serious tone.

Gameplay-wise, Lost Planet 3 is a bog-standard third-person shooter. There's a cover system, but it's only relevant in specific encounters; the majority of the enemies you'll face without any cover, and it doesn't feel like a huge loss in those scenarios either. What is not bog-standard in games however, is the Rig.

See, Jim Peyton doesn't mine with a pickaxe. He uses...well, he uses little posts that absorb energy, but to get there, he uses his Rig. The Rig is basically a big, lumbering machine. Think a Gundam if our current engineers had to seriously build one. Yes, the Rig unfortunately is as lame as it sounds. It's clear that the designers wanted the Rig to be a core aspect of the game, but it just doesn't really work. It's very slow; I wouldn't say that you as a person are faster than the Rig, but it certainly feels that way, so every time you're traversing areas it just feels like it takes forever.
This is exacerbated by fights in the Rig. Whenever you encounter normal enemies (the alien Akrid, endemic to the planet), you can try to kill them with your Rig or get out to shoot them. Shooting them is much quicker and easier; it's not that the Rig doesn't do damage, it's just that hitting them when you're so slow is just a major pain in the behind. Once you encounter bigger Akrid however, you'll generally be locked in your Rig, leading to a fight. These fights generally turn into QTE-events; you block a few attacks, then a scene happens where the Rig grabs the pincer/stinger/arm that was attacking it, you hold it up, and then you use your drill or welder to deal damage. You repeat this a few times, and the enemy Akrid dies. None of these encounters are thrilling; they just feel like a chore. These Rig fights also have problems throughout the game; you can pick up parts to improve your Rig, but at the start, you are not very tough, and the chance of the Rig going down are pretty high. Later on, you'll have gotten a few upgrades like a welder or a shock-claw, but these are tied to story progression, so it's very easy to forget you have them, can use them for combat,...or what button they're tied to. I don't have a perfect memory, but it hasn't happened to me before that I've had to check my keyboard config in the penultimate boss fight.

Technically, the game is okay. I enjoyed the snow planet setting; while snow areas generally get boring after a while, I feel the design of E.D.N. III had enough variety to not have me bored throughout. There's also some great sound design when you're navigating Akrid nests, as it sounds very gross, and icky, and intense. The game does a really good job of tensing you up in areas, potential dread around every corner. It's not a horror game, but it takes inspiration from them for some parts, and the sound is a big part of it. I did have to turn off the Rig radio though; country rock only? No thanks.

All in all, if you just want an enjoyable third-person shooter, you could do quite a lot worse than Lost Planet 3! You could, however, also do better.

Enjoyed it more than the previous two filler episodes but man, this show just has no clue what it wants to do/be. It really feels like this was just a quick way to shove She-Hulk into the MCU without devoting a movie to her.

31. Beat a game with a child lead
LIMBO

LIMBO (XBLA)

LIMBO is a well-loved game. It's got a 90 on Metacritic and won a whole bunch of awards. Playing it now, I think that has to be put in the context of 2010. Maybe it would still work now, but I feel like LIMBO lives mostly off off the idea of video games as an art form. Aside from the auteur nature, it doesn't have that much going for it.

LIMBO plays like pretty much any puzzle-platformer. It doesn't have a particular mechanic it can call its own; there's box moving, timers, magnetic/gravity play,... One mechanic that is maybe more unique is how some levels rotate and you constantly have to adapt to the wall becoming the floor becoming the ceiling, but its not like LIMBO takes ownership of this mechanic and presents it as its thing. Neither does it do this with the brain bug mechanic where you're forced into a specific direction until you hit sunlight or a ceiling...thing eats the brain bug off your head. These mechanics are tied to a set of levels and don't really appear afterwards.

It doesn't help that the brain bug mechanic is pretty annoying too. Beyond the gameplay aspect of it, it slows down your nameless main character, who is already kind of slow. This is where more of that auteur nature of LIMBO comes into play; for the dark and dreary setting, the slowness of the child adds to the feeling of dread, but there's sometimes when you're trying to figure stuff out or have to redo a segment because you died a couple of times where it's just grating and a chore.

It hits the right notes for a puzzle platformer; solving a puzzle gives a good feeling! However, there's other puzzles where the solution just didn't feel right. I couldn't rightfully say whether I didn't like them because they frustrated me or if they were designed poorly (relative to the rest of the game), but some did not give me a feeling of "I should've figured that out", but more along the lines of "They expected me to figure that out?".

On a technical level is where the game attains its identity. There is only black and white, and no sound except maybe for an oppressive drone or the sound of insects and machinery. Every death is displayed pretty gruesomely; given the name of the game, it seems like a very specific choice, beyond just being gruesome for the fun of it.

That art direction ties into the art-nature of this game. It is very distinctive, with the eyes of the main character also being the only eyes you see in the game. Every other human figure that appears is merely a silhouette. The bugs don't have eyes either. The game doesn't have a story, beyond what you make of it as you play. There's no codex, no cutscenes, just small implications for people to figure out themselves.

I figured that this game was going to blow me away. It didn't. It's not a bad game by any means, but this kind of artsy is not really my thing. Kentucky Route Zero is a game where the art-nature hit me a lot more, and I was a lot more invested in that world. This was a nice distraction, but I'm thankful it was a short experience, because I don't know how positive I would've felt if it had dragged on.

Led Zeppelin - That's The Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kif1gDxG3o

Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gK2fOq4MY

The Smiths - I Know It's Over
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6o1SEj02t0

Easily my least favourite episode. Kinda baffling you need a filler episode in a 9-episode season. None of the jokes really landed with me either.

The amount of boob jiggle is hilarious.

Wedge_Antilles posted...

though Tywin would probably have made the best king.

Ew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC0hV3dea9g

3m views get out of here Shine.

Armarouge and Ceruledge aren't Pokemon. Someone on here I think said it best; when you think of the Gen I fully evolved starters, they're just monsters, beasts that have grown and evolved through a journey. Recently, the starters (Cinderace especially has this) and other Pokemon like these two have just resembled cartoons too much, like mascots for some kids show that's about saving the world or something. Don't like them at all.

DragonGargoyle posted...

This might be my favorite of the FFX reviews that I've seen

(Which is saying a lot, because I usually deep dive into fandom opinions a out games, and X was one of the biggest dives iirc)

Yeah the three of them don't really get to do much outside of gameplay. And even then, it seems like most people struggle to find a place for Kimahri

X probably has my favorite RPG party tho. Kimahri is one of my favorite characters ever, despite having a small role and not having much gameplay content that was made specifically with him in mind.
I horribly misread this acronym

Thanks! (?) I quite like Kimahri too, just wish he got some more cool scenes. He turned out rather well for me too; I completed his Sphere Grid, got him Steal and Use, snaked to Yuna's path to nab Reflect and Dispel, then sent him to a mix of Tidus and Auron's path to get him some solid Str and other useful abilities. Later random encounters go a lot quicker when you have two people who can cast Provoke or Dispel, and getting items is also easier when you have two (or three) people who can Steal!

42. Beat another user's favorite game
Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X (PS2)

This has always been one of my absolute favourite games. As a kid however, I never did manage to beat Braska's Final Aeon. Older and wiser, however, I finally managed to end this part of my story.

Story is a good thing to start with on Final Fantasy X, as I think it's absolutely one of its strongest points. All of the characters are believable and well written; Tidus gets a lot of crap but given the situation and where he comes from, makes perfect sense. The voice acting gets critiqued as well, but I think that's mostly down to some poor directing, rather than actually bad performances. It says plenty that a lot of the themes that are central to the story are actually still relevant, as some parts of the world are still ruled by religious doctrine that suffers no opposition. While Final Fantasy X doesn't look like the standard JRPGS of that time (or rather, before that time), certain mechanics still live through. As I did more traveling around the map and talking to people than I did before, I was pleasantly surprised at how much backstory and lore could be gained from talking to people in Luca and Guadosalam among others.

The strength of the storytelling does not just lie in the actual writing but also in the visual storytelling. There's the Sending at Kilika (which is in my opinion, the most beautiful and my favourite cutscene of any video game), which starts with Yuna's look of hesitation transforming to determination as she commences with the act. You also have Yuna's pained expression at the end of the game when the aeons need to be ended, as they have been true allies to Yuna for the entire duration of the game. This visual storytelling also lives in the locations; Besaid and Kilika, being very near the sea, are more rustic towns, as they need to fear an attack by Sin at any moment. Landlocked Bevelle however, is huge and filled with the machina the Yevon religion so despises (further adding to the hypocrisy of the religion). Guadosalam is part of the Yevon church, but the Guado are still not fully accepted by the rest of the world, so their home is essentially in a cave.

There are a few flaws to the story in my opinion. There's a stretch somewhere around the middle where it feels like the story slows down a lot. From the start of the game up to and including Operation Mi'ihen, the gameplay and the story felt very intertwined. The entire stretch from Djose to Via Purifico however, feels like separated segments of gameplay|story|gameplay|story, without really feeling like a concise whole. Secondly, some characters definitely get the short end of the stick. Lulu lives in bits and pieces of information scattered in some optional scenes, Wakka's turnaround happens rather abruptly where it feels like there should have been some scenes, and Kimahri also never really gets a chance to shine.

But what certainly deserves praise is the eye to detail. In the final fight, every enemy has a specific line when Sensor is active or Scan is used. Early in the game, Tidus teaches Yuna a way to signal him if she needs help. This trick is never mentioned again in the game...until the ending, when it is painfully sweet. Final Fantasy X has plenty of moments like this, truly showcasing that none of the decisions made in this game were half-assed or just it'll work itself out. There was a plan and an intent that was completely carried out.

Gameplay-wise, Final Fantasy X is excellent too. CTB (condition turn-based) is a great combat system. You lose the tension of ATB, but you gain a strategic element as you check the turn order with every move you make for maximum effectiveness. It's very simple, but it's great fun and it honestly surprises me they never went back to it (or that other games didn't pick it up). At the start of the game, most party members also have a specific enemy type assigned to them so it's easier to come to grips with the combat and to guarantee all your party members get some AP. Later on these types get less prevalent and you're expected to utilize more of your party members with each fight. Here as well, some characters come out better than others. I highly doubt first-time players will get a lot out of Kimahri, Rikku, and Lulu. While Lulu at the very least has a clear niche for about half of the game, Kimahri definitely requires some knowledge of how the game works, as does Rikku. And while Rikku at the very least also has her own skills with Steal and Use, if you don't know the intricacies of the game, it's very likely you won't use these abilities, as they might just seem like a waste.

When you think about it, Blitzball is a coding wonder. There's a real developed system of a sports game added to this jRPG, with actual RPG elements to boot! That makes it all the more of a shame that Blitzball kinda sucks. There's a cumbersome nature to actually playing a game of Blitzball that always gives it a goofy feeling, and it doesn't help that you can very easily glitch out the AI by keeping the ball in a corner while the AI swims circles around the middle of the field. But the worst grievance with Blitzball is that it is presented to the player in the most unappealing way.

Once your party arrives in Luca, the Blitzball tournament starts. You get the option to go through a tutorial to learn the basics. As your prepare to face the Al Bhed Psyches, Yuna has gotten kidnapped! While you take control of Tidus, Kimahri, and Lulu to go save her, Wakka stays back to play in the tournament. You manage to save Yuna and Wakka wins. You're in the finals against the Luca Goers! Welcome to your first game of Blitzball.

It's truly a horrible start. While the story gives you an underdog tale anyway, the chances of the Luca Goers absolutely brutalizing you is very big. They really have only one bad player, which luckily is their goalkeeper, but that's counterbalanced by the Besaid Aurochs really only having Tidus as a competent player, and he gets subbed out at half-time for story reasons. After the story events in Luca, Blitzball opens up as a mini-game and you get the option to recruit other players, and it's very easy to find out that it is not as hard or as brutal as that first game indicates, but I doubt many players find that out. Most of the other mini-games are just as harsh too. Chocobo Racing, Lightning Dodging, Butterfly Catching,...these are all notorious for how hard they are, but Blitzball is also the only one that's required to be played in the story.

Another aspect that I liked is that the temples you visit throughout the story have puzzles to solve. I've always been a fan of jRPGs incorporating puzzle elements in the game like the Golden Sun franchise also did; I think these genres work really well together, and the puzzles can serve as a welcome reprieve from trekking through areas filled with random encounters.

On a technical level, there's very little to be said. Final Fantasy X looked beautiful at the time, and the FMVs honestly still hold up. The OST is pretty much flawless; there's so many classics, with To Zanarkand obviously being the most notable one. Props also have to be given to the world design; Spira is filled with tropical locales, so there's plenty of colour to the world. There's plenty of variety as well, with deserts, icy lakes, cave-towns and deserted lands to be explored too.

Final Fantasy X to me is a clear indication of what games should (aspire to) be. It's a clear example of the strength of a well-developed and thought-out single-player experience. It has a story and a vision to tell and it follows through on it. It has an attention to detail in the story, the combat, and the technical elements that I unfortunately find lacking in many modern titles. It truly is a must-play title in my opinion.

1. Bullet In the Head
2. Take the Power Back
3. Know Your Enemy
4. Killing In the Name
5. Settle for Nothing
6. Bombtrack
7. Wake Up
8. Township Rebellion
9. Freedom
10. Fistful of Steel

plasmabeam posted...

Unsure:
Fire Emblem Fates Revelations (Is this DLC? Couldn't find it on the store. I do own Conquest already but it is currently sitting unopened on my shelf)

I believe you have to buy Revelations through Conquest rather than through the eShop. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As someone who is also VC'ing while he can, I'd love a clarification on this. There's Conquest, Birthright and Revelations? Conquest and Birthright are physical games? Fates is the digital version, but then you play through chapter 6 where you get the option to choose either storyline as DLC? What would be the best/most cost-effective way to get these titles? (sorry for the hijack).

Summoned Skull, Vampire Lord, and Black Luster Soldier Envoy have a soft spot as I used them a lot in my deck.

Outside of that, I've always liked Don Zaloog and the Dark Scorpions.

KingButz posted...

I didn't bother to 100% the game because some of the challenge missions were more frustrating than fun, but I thought it was fine. It's not great by 2022 standards, though. I thought Infamous did the superhero thing well and holds up a bit better.

I enjoyed the challenge of dealing with all the military stuff, and disagree that Alex should be able to tank rocket shots while also moving so quickly. That would have made the game much too easy. I was constantly dodging and striking when given the opportunity, and that seemed to work.

Dodging felt useless to me unless you were in a one-on-one, which rarely happened. Combat was just a lot of fighting and suddenly getting hit by rockets from every angle for me.

I just would've preferred to be able to take a bit more damage, especially near the end. Or at the very least have the hijacking go a bit faster. I'm supposed to believe Alex effortlessly picks up cars, yet we go through an entire scene to climb up the tank and then a button/mousemash just to be able to open the tank cover?

3. Beat a game released between 2002-2011

Prototype

Prototype (Steam)

It's somewhat hard for me write a review for this game as I'm pretty biased; I absolutely despise this game.

I'll start with one of the more positive aspects: the story. While the story isn't some groundbreaking, fascinating adventure, it is more interesting than games of this nature generally warrant. There are some twists that I did not anticipate which again, aren't mind-boggling but do more than I think most people would have expected. These twists aren't fully explored unfortunately, but at the very least they are there. There are some inconsistencies, as Alex Mercer (the main character) has a lot of anger at how the military can play with people's lives, but the gameplay loop generally requires you to slurp up people (enemies and civilians) to regain health, so that doesn't entirely make sense. There is/could be a story reason for this (going back to the story being more interesting than needed) but it never really feels justified, especially because that story reason would then also somewhat clash with the rest of the happenings in-game. Be ready for some late 00's edge too; Alex Mercer's voice actor leans into it and the story kinda demands it as well.

Having started with something positive, we can move on to the negative: the gameplay. I never had fun playing this game, at all. The traversal is okay; once you get your powers upgraded you can get around NY pretty easily, but Alex is very cumbersome in turning and when you reach a big building, going up it will take some time regardless, whether you're running or jumping up.

But while the traversal is okay, the combat is where this game truly falters. See, Prototype is a superhero game. Alex Mercer is not actually a superhero, but his powers basically enable him to be one. However, you are only more powerful than basic civilians, basic mutants and the most basic of army personnel. Even the soldiers who have RPGS will instill fear in you; the damage they do will have you getting out of whatever combat situation you're in to guzzle up some poor civvies for health. And then we haven't even talked about tanks, helicopters, hunters, supreme hunters, and super soldiers, who will happily tear you to shreds in seconds.

I understand; it's hard to balance a game like this. But there maybe should have been some RPG elements involved in this game, where the further you get, the stronger you become. At the start of the game guys with RPGS and tanks can be a problem; later on however, these should be nothing to fear. You get stronger by unlocking upgrades, but these are mostly additional powers or a different move, rather than just hitting harder or being able to take more damage. Alex' power definitely goes up later in the game, but he will perpetually feel like cardboard on the taking damage front. One of the final powers you obtain is an armor one, which helps, but is also hamstrung by limiting your movability, and the quickest way to die in Prototype is by being surrounded on all sides by enemies. The most annoying aspect for me was definitely the fact that the game never started me anywhere with full health, which meant I had to run around consuming people first, but that probably got the military on my back who I then had to evade or take care of, losing health again in the process.

The variety in gameplay missions also leaves something to be desired. There's a lot of traveling around the map to destroy some radars or helicopters, or to blow up a base or a nest, or to have a fight with some specific enemy. It especially becomes egregious later on in the story, when some missions really feel like they were designed to pad the game out a bit, rather than having an organic story purpose.

One other positive to mention is the Web of Intrigue mechanic. This will mark some people on the map when you get near them, and when you consume them, you'll get some backstory on what's going on. It's unfortunate there's no easy way to hunt for them, but it's a neat way to explore the story.

On a technical note, the game is mostly unimpressive. It's not exactly pretty to look at, and it was very clearly designed in the era of video games when developers all suffered from a colour phobia. The music isn't bad, but nothing that will really stick in your head either.

I would not recommend this game to anyone, but I've also seen a lot of people love it, so I can accept being in the minority on this. I would probably recommend playing it on a console, or at least on a controller. The keyboard was not a great experience for this game.

You need a save in both PW games to get the DLC, but you don't need to beat the case or game or anything like that.

Bambi has some great utility in some fights and is also great if you wanna synthesize, but he and Tink are really the only genuinely useful summons. Dumbo and Mushu each have like one situation where they're good for, but I barely remember which it was.

How about Smurfs?

Reg posted...

You can get Fly without the Poke Flute, so it seems more likely to me that you're just intended to fly back and forth.

Sure, but then you're essentially skipping over either Cycling Road or the Seaside Road. Unless the idea is to take either to Fuschia, fly back to clear Saffron, then use the other route to get back to Fuschia to head over to Cinnabar from there.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Problem is you can't actually get to Fuschia without beating the Pokemon Tower first.

I forgot you need the Poke Flute to get past Snorlax. I guess that means that in the badge order they do expect you to cycle up Cycling Road...

The intended order can still kinda work. You arrive in Celadon, whoop Erika and the Rockets, pick up Fly, go down Cycling Road, do Fuschia, head back up to Lavender, do the Pokemon Tower and head back to Saffron. After that, you already have Fly so you can Fly back to Fuschia to go via Seafoam or to Pallet to head down.

I used to always head down Pallet, but it meant I always missed out on the EXP from the Seafoam routes, so in recent runs I've always headed through there.

1. The White Raven

2. Fear of the Dawn

3. Eosophobia

4. Morning, Noon and Night

5. That Was Then, This Is Now

6. Shedding My Velvet

7. Taking Me Back

8. What's The Trick?

9. Eosophobia - Reprise

10. Hi-De-Ho

11. Into the Twilight

12. Dusk

2

There's literally a character called Mai Hem. I mean...

Skypiea is great, it maybe goes on a bit too long and it's probably the early OP arc where Oda's flaws are most prevalent, but it's still great.

Hawkeye > Falcon > WandaVision > Moon Knight > Ms. Marvel > What If > Loki

Toneh!

The irony is that you get sparkling water as an American because you're American, and we Europeans assume you're all fatasses who need carbonation and sugar in everything you consume.

I have a friend who hates all kinds of carbonation and doesn't drink alcohol, so whenever we go to a restaurant he 9/10 will order water, and if he doesn't specify still water he'll always be asked.

That being said, my irony is that I hate all kinds of sparkling water, except for the one company whose still water I despise, because I can actually enjoy their sparkling water for some reason.

I really liked Solo and hated Rogue One. Rogue One was just filled with dumb, bland characters that didn't have anything going for them and was telling a story Rebels told only a million times better. Can't believe they're actually giving that one guy his own series too.

1. Ball and Biscuit
2. There's No Home for You Here
3. Hypnotize
4. Seven Nation Army
5. I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself
6. Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
7. Well It's True That We Love One Another
8. Black Math
9. In the Cold, Cold Night
10. The Hardest Button to Button
11. Little Acorns
12. The Air Near My Fingers
13. I Want to Be the Boy to Warm Your Mother's Heart
14. You've Got Her in Your Pocket

Maybe I do like Icky Thump better...

Zigzagoon posted...

Okay I just got here but why was Sonic SatAM Opening first eliminated? It's the only fucking good sonic song.

Ok maybe I like Live and Learn too, but still, how do you guys mess this up literally every time?

Can You Feel the Sunshine didn't even make the list like smh.

Mulan filmed in the region of the Uyghur treatment camps (among other locations) and the actress for Mulan was seemingly supporting police in Hong Kong among others.

There was also the cutting of Li Shang and the lack of Asian people in the production team.

Haunter

guffguy89 posted...

So a lightsaber to the gut is not a death strike apparently, yet everyone in the star wars universe seems to believe it is and walks away from the body content that they will die. Hasnt anyone heard of beheading? People don't come back from that.

You're talking about the franchise where every Storm Trooper has a helmet but can be knocked unconscious by hitting them on the head, or dazed from just pushing them in the helmet.

Bulbasaur
Decidueye

Grass starters for the win!

Wouldn't be surprised if the Bara-Bara no Mi has a similar real name and ability to the Gomu Gomu no Mi and Blackbeard stole the Yami Yami no Mi thinking that was it.

Bulbasaur
Pancham

Pikachu

Dreadfully boring, nothing that even remotely piqued my interest. Shame.

1. We Carry On
2. Machine Gun
3. The Rip
4. Threads
5. Hunter
6. Magic Doors
7. Small
8. Plastic
9. Deep Water
10. Silence
11. Nylon Smile

The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siO6dkqidc4

The outcasts album. Nothing really compares, as far as I'm concerned.

The White Stripes - Elephant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY

Great fun rock album. Seven Nation Army is one of those songs.

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC5zHACynR4

Cool post-punk album that's pretty great all the way through.

Will actually rank Third tomorrow.

I assume she was part of the beebs escaping the temple and Obi-Wan didn't/couldn't properly help them or something and so she blames him or something.