Board 8 > August Game of the Month Club ft. A Short Hike, Yooka-Laylee, and CTR

(+) Yeah! (+)

Having played Yooka-Laylee about a month ago, I have to say that that game is hot garbage. I say that as someone with a great love of 3D platformers who maintains that BK > Mario 64.

Now maybe some of my feeling come down to playing it in handheld mode on Switch. I don't know. I just know I hated the camera, hated the controls, found the overworld and levels to either be a chore to navigate, boring, or both, thought the "humor" was bad, and most of the power ups to be awful.

I think I got maybe 50 Pagies or so (not enough to unlock the final area) before I just could not take anymore. And I am NOT someone who gives up on games easily. I've fought through mediocrity and boredom more times than I can count just so I could get to an ending and say I "finished" a game. But that simply was not going to happen here. Y-L is not only disappointing, it's also terrible.

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Ok, just did the world 5 minecart and arcade pages so I pretty much just have a couple hub things to pick up and the final boss.

Although I think I'm going to have to replay the entire game to get the platinum trophy because of a glitch. >_> We'll see I guess.
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ok I don't think it glitched then (what happened was I happened collect a pirate treasure at the same time as falling on the world entrance, so the trophy didn't pop. Though the treasure trophies popped normally when I collected the second, third, and fifth one).

Collected the last few things and now just have to beat the final boss for platinum.
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I cant remember if i can vote on my own tales thing but if so vote Xillia 2

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No because I don't want people to be influenced by the birthday person. Should the voting end in a tie, then you would choose which game to do.
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I will abstain from the birthday vote, as I'm not looking to play an RPG next month.
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Oh, we are getting closer to the end of the month than I realized. I should replay A Short Hike soon then.
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Monthly Progress
Hike - Ark, Abacus, Metal, MMX, Cody
Yooka - KCF, MZero
CTR - Paul, KCF

Nominations
Abacus - Duke Nukem 3D
Ark - GRIS, Enter the Gungeon
Cody - Her Story, Hades
KCF - Peggle 2, Poi, Yooka-Laylee Lair
Metalmind - Stanley Parable
MMX - Hypnospace Outlaw, Mega Man X3
Paul - Wario World, Hyrule Warriors
Wickle - Assassin's Creed II

MMX Birthday Voting
Tales of Symphonia 2 - Abacus
Tales of Xillia 2 - Crispy

Drawing likely on, you guessed it, Tuesday the 25th
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Nominate The Stillness of the Wind.

I'll also abstain from the Tales vote, since I don't have either game and lack any desire to play either regardless.

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I won three races in CTR today. One was my first time playing the course (Drive-Thru Danger), so winning was unexpected. The second was another one where I felt like I had no business winning (Electron Avenue). I think the person who led for most of the race just completely choked. The final was a rarity where I actually crushed the competition (Clockwork Wumpa).

Feeling confident enough in my skills against human players, I felt like I was more than qualified to try the adventure mode on hard now. My very first race I was pounded with item after item, and I finished in last by a mile. I have lost all confidence in beating it on hard, so I'm going to continue playing online until I buy the last two characters and then take a hiatus.
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The same thing happened to me when I first tried playing on hard. The trick is to learn the shortcuts, since the CPUs never use them. Crash Cove is one of the hardest tracks because the shortcut doesnt save much time and its just generally easier to get hit by items on that stage.

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For my second nomination I think I'll nominate Pyre.

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I beat A Short Hike.

Thanks for nominating it, that was short sweet and cute. A lot of the random dialogue was funny.

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My 2 nominations:

Stick it to the man (PS4, vita?)
Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions (Switch,?)

one of these days my noms will get chosen randomly again..

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Yooka Laylee platinum get

whoo.

Nominate Hylics and Donkey Kong Country 3
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It looks like I won't get around to replaying A Short Hike until after the drawing.
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De-nom Hyrule Warriors

Nominate Yakuza 0

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Nominate Splatoon 2.
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Last call for noms and changes
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Okay, additions/changes are closed, and I will draw soon-ish.
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And your September Games of the Month are...

Yakuza 0 (PC/XB1/PS4/PS3)
Stick It to The Man! (PC/PS4/PS3/Vita)

Congrats to Paul and Fake for having their games selected!

In addition, the voting for MMX's birthday poll was a tie, but he had mentioned that he wanted Tales of Xilla 2 (PS3) to be the winner, so that will be our third game.
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1. Yakuza 0
2. Stick It to The Man!
3. Splatoon 2
4. Assassin's Creed II
5. Stillness of the Wind, The
6. Peggle 2
7. Hylics
8. Hypnospace Outlaw
9. Mercenaries Saga: Will of the White Lions
10. Enter the Gungeon
11. GRIS
12. Poi
13. Mega Man X3
14. Her Story
15. Duke Nukem 3D
16. Hades
17. Stanley Parable, The
18. Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
19. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
20. Wario World
21. Pyre
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Yakuza 0 is on Game Pass for XB1 and PC
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As for sales for this current month...

Yooka-Laylee is on sale for $8 USD ($6.40 if you subscribe to Humble Choice) for PC via Steam through Humble
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/yooka-laylee

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is on sale for $24 USD for Switch
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/crash-team-racing-nitro-fueled-switch/
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Yakuza 0's great, but I played it too recently, and I should really be finishing 4-6 before I play it again.

I hadn't heard of Stick it to the Man, but I don't think I'd like it judging by the trailer.

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Do I need to play any other games first or could I start with Yakuza 0?

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I may play Yakuza 0. Not realizing how long Okami was all those years ago despite having previously gone through it, I forced myself to play it every day, and it still took me the full month to beat it. While Yakuza 0 is on my list of Game Pass games I want to try (I've had it downloaded for awhile too), it is supposed to be 30+ hours without touching much of the side content, and I don't want to rush myself and not be able to fully enjoy myself (with the assumption that it is an enjoyable game that I would want to play to its end).
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Suprak the Stud posted...

Do I need to play any other games first or could I start with Yakuza 0?

Y0 is a great starting point.

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That's great. I started Yakuza 0 not too long ago and didn't get very far before I got distracted by some other things, so good inspiration to get back to it!

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I'll try out Yakuza, though have a terrible completion rate with games that are 40+ hours. Hear they're really good games though.

Not sure on the other one, though.

Debating on trying Tales. Only thing holding me back is I've not played Xilla 1

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I beat yakuza 0 in january so pass

Stick it to the man is a maybe

I'll likely just be playing xillia 2

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BTW my Yakuza 0 time to beat it? 95:13:45 (that time is with no idling counted)

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MegamanX posted...

BTW my Yakuza 0 time to beat it? 95:13:45 (that time is with no idling counted)

Well, I can definitely say I will beat this.

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Yeah, definitely play Xillia before Xillia 2.
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Yakuza 0 is on sale for $5 USD for PC via Steam through Chrono (if you haven't heard of them, they are legit, but their shtick is that they offer a different game each day, so you would have to be quick about this).
https://www.chrono.gg

You need to be mindful that there are options for an EU or ROW (rest of the world) key, and they further tell you what countries the key cannot be redeemed in. Unless my eyes deceived me, then there were countries in both lists, like the UK, so pay close attention.
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I actually have Yakuza 0 because I got it for five bucks when a local video rental place was going out of business (it shocked me it still existed too, kind of sad.) but Ive never played another one before.

Do I need to play another Yakuza game first or can I start with 0?

edit; never mind I see my question was already answered lol

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Yakuza 0 is on sale for $5 USD ($4 if you are a Choice subscriber) for PC via Steam through Humble
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/yakuza-0
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Alright, have Yakuza installed on PC and Xbox (I'll decide which to play it on when the first rolls around), and is ready to roll for when the month starts.

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FakeAccount3000 posted...

I actually have Yakuza 0 because I got it for five bucks when a local video rental place was going out of business (it shocked me it still existed too, kind of sad.) but Ive never played another one before.

Do I need to play another Yakuza game first or can I start with 0?

edit; never mind I see my question was already answered lol

(well, I've only played Kiwami 1, but) from what I understand you'd probably be fine and I guess the Kiwami version of 1 has some new stuff referencing 0 so they took playing it after 0 into account.

the only problem that I generally hear coming up is that as a more recent entry in the series in a more advanced engine 0 is more mechanically refined and polished than the older games so going back to even the Kiwami versions of 1/2 would be kind of rough.
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Apparently Stick It to The Man is on Switch, and it is on sale for $2.40 USD
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/stick-it-to-the-man-switch/
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KCF0107 posted...

Apparently Stick It to The Man is on Switch, and it is on sale for $2.40 USD
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/stick-it-to-the-man-switch/

Hmm.. At 2.40 I may grab it.

Also, there's that Switch Tax - 4$ more expensive on the Switch (not counting sales).

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I ended up buying it.
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KCF has beaten A Short Hike

This time, I got all the feathers. I might try and complete the fishing log and treasure maps, but even when I first beat this last year, I was never into the parkour races.
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Started up Yakuza 0 on XGP. May actually buy it on Steam, I've been enjoying it so far and have this weirdness where I hate not owning all my games in one spot when possible.

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