TGA_backloggd
As usual, my first part of this stream has dropped so here comes the review!
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom was originally kickstarted to the tune of $139,865 which was just over it's goal of $100,000. Quite an achievement and with the game they delivered a very fun game that I enjoyed greatly! It ended up being one of those hidden gems that had been sitting in my library, begging to be found until I finally stumbled across it!
In the game, the magical energy that people use to cast spells and also govern their lives is called Shi. Due to wars and attempts of exploiting Shi for their own good, the planet has become fractured into many pieces, yet still manages to just barely hold on.
There are multiple story threads going on with many interesting characters. Starting with these two Wakis (short furry people, who aren't taken seriously as a race) who are travelling on a roughly made air ship of their own making that crashes and are looking for a mythical land, said not to even exist. That said, one of them has an invisible companion, Terra, who swears it's real and is trying to lead the two there.
A Shelk (tall furry humanoid) is escorting a human under cover of darkness to his people's home in an attempt to request asylum and escape from whatever she was being drawn into.
A ruthless mercenary is also chasing after this young woman to attempt to bring her back home to a family who are willing to pay handsomely for her return. Armed with a rose-whip he's considered extremely dangerous.
The gameplay takes place in the form of an adventure. Running around and unlocking new areas with the use of powers obtained from different members of your party that you unlock, similar to the many open-world lego games! The first two characters have their own abilities with Pooky being able to manipulate energy to link nodes to crystals and Chado (pronounced Shadow) can summon a huge rock that can be used to throw at enemies to stun them, throw into breakable walls to smash them apart and even use them for distractions or puzzles that often involve a pressure plate. Until you get more members of the group, old areas will have areas blocked off from you, making you want to revisit these areas in a metroidvania kind of style.
Combat is played more like a beat-em-up where you need to be aware for attacks if you're attempting to cast some kind of spells and to be on your toes for those casting spells directly at you. There are moves and combos that you get to learn as you travel, buy new techniques and pick others up as you level.
Combat is started when you make contact with a creature (apart from bounties as they often have their own little story attached) where you get thrown into an arena and have to fight them, not leaving until you've defeated them where, in typical RPG style, you obtain money, materials and items! It's a fun change from the usual combat being turn-based, as much as I do love turn-based combat it's fun to try something new like with this game and fight in a tense combat situation where not being aware of the game mechanics can really screw you up. Along with being potentially over-confident with how I was in some cases where an enemy looked just like it's weaker cousins and it'd end up smacking me around like I was nothing!
I had also found the story really engaging and after finishing the game I was hungry for more, however, it appears that the company closed down due to bankrupcy within three months after the games release so I'm afraid to say that a sequel looks like may never happen. It seems we may never actually get a conclusion to this and that's a real shame because there was a lot of potential with this game and the series that could've potentially spun off from this game, but for the moment we'll always have this game as a reminder of what could've been and maybe even inspire others in the future with ideas for their own projects! Until then, this is another case of a game with no sequel and the story will have to remain in limbo.
Gameplay/Stream
Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom was originally kickstarted to the tune of $139,865 which was just over it's goal of $100,000. Quite an achievement and with the game they delivered a very fun game that I enjoyed greatly! It ended up being one of those hidden gems that had been sitting in my library, begging to be found until I finally stumbled across it!
In the game, the magical energy that people use to cast spells and also govern their lives is called Shi. Due to wars and attempts of exploiting Shi for their own good, the planet has become fractured into many pieces, yet still manages to just barely hold on.
There are multiple story threads going on with many interesting characters. Starting with these two Wakis (short furry people, who aren't taken seriously as a race) who are travelling on a roughly made air ship of their own making that crashes and are looking for a mythical land, said not to even exist. That said, one of them has an invisible companion, Terra, who swears it's real and is trying to lead the two there.
A Shelk (tall furry humanoid) is escorting a human under cover of darkness to his people's home in an attempt to request asylum and escape from whatever she was being drawn into.
A ruthless mercenary is also chasing after this young woman to attempt to bring her back home to a family who are willing to pay handsomely for her return. Armed with a rose-whip he's considered extremely dangerous.
The gameplay takes place in the form of an adventure. Running around and unlocking new areas with the use of powers obtained from different members of your party that you unlock, similar to the many open-world lego games! The first two characters have their own abilities with Pooky being able to manipulate energy to link nodes to crystals and Chado (pronounced Shadow) can summon a huge rock that can be used to throw at enemies to stun them, throw into breakable walls to smash them apart and even use them for distractions or puzzles that often involve a pressure plate. Until you get more members of the group, old areas will have areas blocked off from you, making you want to revisit these areas in a metroidvania kind of style.
Combat is played more like a beat-em-up where you need to be aware for attacks if you're attempting to cast some kind of spells and to be on your toes for those casting spells directly at you. There are moves and combos that you get to learn as you travel, buy new techniques and pick others up as you level.
Combat is started when you make contact with a creature (apart from bounties as they often have their own little story attached) where you get thrown into an arena and have to fight them, not leaving until you've defeated them where, in typical RPG style, you obtain money, materials and items! It's a fun change from the usual combat being turn-based, as much as I do love turn-based combat it's fun to try something new like with this game and fight in a tense combat situation where not being aware of the game mechanics can really screw you up. Along with being potentially over-confident with how I was in some cases where an enemy looked just like it's weaker cousins and it'd end up smacking me around like I was nothing!
I had also found the story really engaging and after finishing the game I was hungry for more, however, it appears that the company closed down due to bankrupcy within three months after the games release so I'm afraid to say that a sequel looks like may never happen. It seems we may never actually get a conclusion to this and that's a real shame because there was a lot of potential with this game and the series that could've potentially spun off from this game, but for the moment we'll always have this game as a reminder of what could've been and maybe even inspire others in the future with ideas for their own projects! Until then, this is another case of a game with no sequel and the story will have to remain in limbo.
Gameplay/Stream
1999
This one really takes me back, but I'll do my best to remember it as much as I can!
I remember reading the title on the rectangular box. Due to some naming conventions, sometimes the biggest word is read out so me and others would joke it was either "Super Smash Bros." or "Smash Super Bros." but this was a game that had the great idea, as demonstrated in the opening with the master hand, mixing up combat with multiple franchises from Nintendo's library that they had full rights over!
Again, as illustrated from the beginning, it's like those moments where as a little kids you could play with action figures and have people from totally different genres fighting each other because you didn't give a shit about copyright as a kid and exactly who was going to stop you from enacting the Enterprise encountering the Death Star or Luke Skywalker and He Man having a dual before taking on the staypuft marshmellow man!
The game was a fairly interesting fighting game, allowing movement up and down onto multiple platforms and with no actual health bar to speak of, you have to rack up damage on the other opponent until your hits are able to knock them so far away off the arena that they can't get back. It has many fun levels based on all the different universes that are interracting here with Hyrule, The Starfox, Pokemon centre and many more that I can't quite remember.
All the characters have their own abilities that feel unique to them and are, I feel, balanced in a way that it works really well. Not to mention all the items you can pick up and use to give yourself an edge and to reference the classic games they come from with the hammer from the classic Donkey Kong games, a pokeball holding a random pokemon, a fire flower and many others. Including a large crate that these items can arrive in.
Like any good fighter, there's multiple secret characters that can be unlocked and have later now just appeared in the sequels as starting characters.
The main campaign has you fight all the different fighters, plus a few unique ones like an army of Yoshis, army of polygon people (basic poly versions of in-game characters), a metal mario (Mario, but as he's metal he's much heavier and harder to knock out) and the Master Hand which, as a flying hand, doesn't have a % to be knocked out but instead, hit points.
Playing this game was a massive blast and it's very obvious to see why they made sequels of it years later for the follow up consoles that came after the N64 and I can't say I blame them.
I remember reading the title on the rectangular box. Due to some naming conventions, sometimes the biggest word is read out so me and others would joke it was either "Super Smash Bros." or "Smash Super Bros." but this was a game that had the great idea, as demonstrated in the opening with the master hand, mixing up combat with multiple franchises from Nintendo's library that they had full rights over!
Again, as illustrated from the beginning, it's like those moments where as a little kids you could play with action figures and have people from totally different genres fighting each other because you didn't give a shit about copyright as a kid and exactly who was going to stop you from enacting the Enterprise encountering the Death Star or Luke Skywalker and He Man having a dual before taking on the staypuft marshmellow man!
The game was a fairly interesting fighting game, allowing movement up and down onto multiple platforms and with no actual health bar to speak of, you have to rack up damage on the other opponent until your hits are able to knock them so far away off the arena that they can't get back. It has many fun levels based on all the different universes that are interracting here with Hyrule, The Starfox, Pokemon centre and many more that I can't quite remember.
All the characters have their own abilities that feel unique to them and are, I feel, balanced in a way that it works really well. Not to mention all the items you can pick up and use to give yourself an edge and to reference the classic games they come from with the hammer from the classic Donkey Kong games, a pokeball holding a random pokemon, a fire flower and many others. Including a large crate that these items can arrive in.
Like any good fighter, there's multiple secret characters that can be unlocked and have later now just appeared in the sequels as starting characters.
The main campaign has you fight all the different fighters, plus a few unique ones like an army of Yoshis, army of polygon people (basic poly versions of in-game characters), a metal mario (Mario, but as he's metal he's much heavier and harder to knock out) and the Master Hand which, as a flying hand, doesn't have a % to be knocked out but instead, hit points.
Playing this game was a massive blast and it's very obvious to see why they made sequels of it years later for the follow up consoles that came after the N64 and I can't say I blame them.
2022
So it's come to this...yes I did play this and decided to add it, retroactivly, to the Cringetober 2022 listing for fun to wind up Yuudachi and others who unconditionally love the series for some reason.
Much of this game reminds me of Team Fortress 2 with the colourful characters, variety of classes and the objectives too such as capturing points, escort missions and in regards to classes, having healers, tanks and damage dealers, but they did expand outwards with having the characters function very differently from each other. The characters have their own functions and abilities such as Tracer's ability to reverse time, a character's ability to heal others and another who goes between healing and harming and the same games for pretty much all of them. All having some fun and different ways they play and certainly leading to some fun gameplay engagement.
Now, I never played the first one. I had no interest as my opinion as "I have TF2, why do I need this?" and that only went on in regards to the excessive microtransactions that the pushing of inspired Star Wars Battlefront 2, to go even further and incur the wrath of governments wanting to protect kids and the vulnerable from the abusive practice.
Despite being a sequel, not all the characters are released from the beginning. They locked many behind in-game progression such as x number of kills, matches, wins and so on which makes sense if you have nothing to actually add to the game, however, as a new player this is a pain in the ass because certain characters are more likely to gel with your gameplay style and who knows what your main might be? Hopefully you find out before you get too frustrated and dying all the time.
I don't see myself as too good at the game, buy my friend, Yuudachi says I could get to high Bronze or low Silver, whatever that means, so I don't know. He claims that's good, but feels kinda mediocre to me. Nothing special you know.
I do love that there's a training course so you can try out characters and see what one you have a feel for and don't have to go through what you do in most games, with a trial by fire before you know if you're any good with it or not. It's a similar experience I have in War Thunder with new tanks, aircraft, ammo and so on. It also doesn't help that I'm not too patient either.
I also don't want to support this game because of all the stuff Activision Blizzard has done over the years. Including the thing J. Allen Brack, and his hair, said about that "Tough E-sports moment" as he cowardly tries not to address it immediately or even apologise for essentially bowing and obeying their paymasters in China.
So my review will be covered by this, but also how they've handled micro-tractions certainly doesn't help and I am trying my best not to exposed to these predatory systems designed to torment me and others who are vulnerable to them.
Stream/Gameplay
Much of this game reminds me of Team Fortress 2 with the colourful characters, variety of classes and the objectives too such as capturing points, escort missions and in regards to classes, having healers, tanks and damage dealers, but they did expand outwards with having the characters function very differently from each other. The characters have their own functions and abilities such as Tracer's ability to reverse time, a character's ability to heal others and another who goes between healing and harming and the same games for pretty much all of them. All having some fun and different ways they play and certainly leading to some fun gameplay engagement.
Now, I never played the first one. I had no interest as my opinion as "I have TF2, why do I need this?" and that only went on in regards to the excessive microtransactions that the pushing of inspired Star Wars Battlefront 2, to go even further and incur the wrath of governments wanting to protect kids and the vulnerable from the abusive practice.
Despite being a sequel, not all the characters are released from the beginning. They locked many behind in-game progression such as x number of kills, matches, wins and so on which makes sense if you have nothing to actually add to the game, however, as a new player this is a pain in the ass because certain characters are more likely to gel with your gameplay style and who knows what your main might be? Hopefully you find out before you get too frustrated and dying all the time.
I don't see myself as too good at the game, buy my friend, Yuudachi says I could get to high Bronze or low Silver, whatever that means, so I don't know. He claims that's good, but feels kinda mediocre to me. Nothing special you know.
I do love that there's a training course so you can try out characters and see what one you have a feel for and don't have to go through what you do in most games, with a trial by fire before you know if you're any good with it or not. It's a similar experience I have in War Thunder with new tanks, aircraft, ammo and so on. It also doesn't help that I'm not too patient either.
I also don't want to support this game because of all the stuff Activision Blizzard has done over the years. Including the thing J. Allen Brack, and his hair, said about that "Tough E-sports moment" as he cowardly tries not to address it immediately or even apologise for essentially bowing and obeying their paymasters in China.
So my review will be covered by this, but also how they've handled micro-tractions certainly doesn't help and I am trying my best not to exposed to these predatory systems designed to torment me and others who are vulnerable to them.
Stream/Gameplay
2024
So as I'm writing this, I played this with my friends last night and felt like I can give a review of it as we did play three games and explored many of the mechanics.
First off, the game essentially plays like Mario Party and similar kinds of games with a board and having to roll dice to complete your objective, being to collect coins and earn stars. First one to three stars wins the game and ends it at the same time.
You also have access to cards that you can buy with the same coins to give yourself a boost in combat, which happens when you land on the same space as someone else, but you can opt out of combat if you either want to be nice or you don't have the attack cards that you think you'd win. Whenever you win a combat, as long as you're attacking, the enemy loses hit points equal to your attack - their defence score and as they all have limited health points, you can knock someone out, but they're still in the game. They just lose a turn as their character recovers, but the winner who knocked them out gets half of their coins too so combat can be an advantage.
You also have many different cards that can cause damage via either directly attacking a player or laying a trap for anyone who lands on that certain spot, along with others that manipulate your movement. Including forcing the dice to roll any number in case you want to only take 1 step instead of 6 or any other number.
Now the art style, is clearly aimed to draw the male gaze. Especially with certain character's outfits and is intended to entice people in with the selection of characters being cute girls that you can play as and even unlock an alternative costume that, in most cases, strips them down to a bikini, but not always. You also have the other kinds to fill in other interests. Including some guy named "uncle" who seems to have a smart phone for a face...
You unlock these costumes and additional emotes by, you guessed it, microtransactions. I find that they don't appear to be TOO aggressive here, but I've only just started and for completing the tutorial you get a free character!
They even have a season thing and a achievement system that rewards you with in-game currencies and yes, they have multiple currencies and attempt to exploit, what is known as a "Confusopoloy" by trying to convince you that you are making more progress than you think. Especially as all these awards come in the form of things to buy in the in-game store (which are timed) and also the cassette tapes which are used in a Gatcha system. You get a lot starting out and after those three games and claiming the rewards I had enough that I actually unlocked multiple characters, but you always unlock them at the base level and you need the items to gift them to make them happier and build up your bond. Some even have preferences, which is highlighted by a excited smiley face on the item before you get to select it, so you aren't wasting items upsetting people, as I've seen in games with similar mechanics like Danganronpa and Dragon Age Origins. In fact, I didn't see any items that caused negatives on any of the characters, but maybe I just having found those items yet as they have SOOO many items you can get in the Gatcha style game.
Ultimately it was a lot of fun to have with friends as you can stab each other in the back and beat on each other, but with the focus on microtransactions and such I'm going to personally step away and focus on the games I want to currently finish as I've been on the bad ending of microtransactions and I don't want to end up emptying my account every month like I used to.
For those who want a good look at the gameplay, it's my friend's stream of the game where we're playing together: Gameplay with SillySandyAJ
First off, the game essentially plays like Mario Party and similar kinds of games with a board and having to roll dice to complete your objective, being to collect coins and earn stars. First one to three stars wins the game and ends it at the same time.
You also have access to cards that you can buy with the same coins to give yourself a boost in combat, which happens when you land on the same space as someone else, but you can opt out of combat if you either want to be nice or you don't have the attack cards that you think you'd win. Whenever you win a combat, as long as you're attacking, the enemy loses hit points equal to your attack - their defence score and as they all have limited health points, you can knock someone out, but they're still in the game. They just lose a turn as their character recovers, but the winner who knocked them out gets half of their coins too so combat can be an advantage.
You also have many different cards that can cause damage via either directly attacking a player or laying a trap for anyone who lands on that certain spot, along with others that manipulate your movement. Including forcing the dice to roll any number in case you want to only take 1 step instead of 6 or any other number.
Now the art style, is clearly aimed to draw the male gaze. Especially with certain character's outfits and is intended to entice people in with the selection of characters being cute girls that you can play as and even unlock an alternative costume that, in most cases, strips them down to a bikini, but not always. You also have the other kinds to fill in other interests. Including some guy named "uncle" who seems to have a smart phone for a face...
You unlock these costumes and additional emotes by, you guessed it, microtransactions. I find that they don't appear to be TOO aggressive here, but I've only just started and for completing the tutorial you get a free character!
They even have a season thing and a achievement system that rewards you with in-game currencies and yes, they have multiple currencies and attempt to exploit, what is known as a "Confusopoloy" by trying to convince you that you are making more progress than you think. Especially as all these awards come in the form of things to buy in the in-game store (which are timed) and also the cassette tapes which are used in a Gatcha system. You get a lot starting out and after those three games and claiming the rewards I had enough that I actually unlocked multiple characters, but you always unlock them at the base level and you need the items to gift them to make them happier and build up your bond. Some even have preferences, which is highlighted by a excited smiley face on the item before you get to select it, so you aren't wasting items upsetting people, as I've seen in games with similar mechanics like Danganronpa and Dragon Age Origins. In fact, I didn't see any items that caused negatives on any of the characters, but maybe I just having found those items yet as they have SOOO many items you can get in the Gatcha style game.
Ultimately it was a lot of fun to have with friends as you can stab each other in the back and beat on each other, but with the focus on microtransactions and such I'm going to personally step away and focus on the games I want to currently finish as I've been on the bad ending of microtransactions and I don't want to end up emptying my account every month like I used to.
For those who want a good look at the gameplay, it's my friend's stream of the game where we're playing together: Gameplay with SillySandyAJ
2018
An addition to Cringetober 2022, I added this game as a few friends wanted to play it and I had, admittedly, felt quite comfortable in my new avatar too, that I was able to deal with it more than normal.
Anyway, so I start the game up. create the username and everything with a sad face (because as a fan of the series, this game is SHITE!) and then the story goes over the beginning and how the vault was designed to be the place for people to leave and start up civilisation, though, I do have issues with this far not only doing a hell of a lot of re-writing of the game's lore (because the devs are too braindead to come up with new factions) not to mention why on earth the vault was releasing dwellers one-at-a-time as it makes far more sense to send everyone up to the surface and with GECKs, but instead we get the CAMP. The ability to set up bases anywhere and essentially turn the game into something like Rust, 7 days to die or any other mundane survival game out there that we've all played about a million times.
As the time I was playing this they had released the Wastelanders update, which added NPCs. Something that people clapped about and applauded, despite this simply bringing the game closer to an actual finished state and I could see all the issues mentioned in regards to everything being replaced with audio tapes as quite a few quests were still responding to voice tapes and some were also conflicting because of the Wastelanders update.
I remember vividly looking up information on this person who was a part of the group of emergency services survivors who were working together after the bombs fell and were trying to patch up the rest of the living population.
The problem is that I then saw her walking around! This wasn't a player, this was meant to be the same character, even though I recently found and dug up her grave! Even when they try to fix their own shit, they can't help but mess up their own game lore!
Like any game, it can be fun to play with friends and one of them unironically enjoys it, though personally I couldn't shake the stink off and things were worse in the second stream when I actually took a look at their disgusting microtransaction store! Despite initial promises, you can buy items that affect gameplay in regards to turrets you can't get in the game, repair kits and so much more that how anyone could've believed this wouldn't be the case, I can't wrap my head around.
Due to all of these elements, especially the manipulative microtransaction store that slaps you in the face everytime you load the game up, I cannot recommend this to anyone. It's such a big insult that it reminds me of the PS2 game, Brotherhood of Steel which had plenty of insulting moments in it as it was.
Gameplay/Stream with SandyAJ and Yuudachi
Gameplay/Stream with Lexichu
Anyway, so I start the game up. create the username and everything with a sad face (because as a fan of the series, this game is SHITE!) and then the story goes over the beginning and how the vault was designed to be the place for people to leave and start up civilisation, though, I do have issues with this far not only doing a hell of a lot of re-writing of the game's lore (because the devs are too braindead to come up with new factions) not to mention why on earth the vault was releasing dwellers one-at-a-time as it makes far more sense to send everyone up to the surface and with GECKs, but instead we get the CAMP. The ability to set up bases anywhere and essentially turn the game into something like Rust, 7 days to die or any other mundane survival game out there that we've all played about a million times.
As the time I was playing this they had released the Wastelanders update, which added NPCs. Something that people clapped about and applauded, despite this simply bringing the game closer to an actual finished state and I could see all the issues mentioned in regards to everything being replaced with audio tapes as quite a few quests were still responding to voice tapes and some were also conflicting because of the Wastelanders update.
I remember vividly looking up information on this person who was a part of the group of emergency services survivors who were working together after the bombs fell and were trying to patch up the rest of the living population.
The problem is that I then saw her walking around! This wasn't a player, this was meant to be the same character, even though I recently found and dug up her grave! Even when they try to fix their own shit, they can't help but mess up their own game lore!
Like any game, it can be fun to play with friends and one of them unironically enjoys it, though personally I couldn't shake the stink off and things were worse in the second stream when I actually took a look at their disgusting microtransaction store! Despite initial promises, you can buy items that affect gameplay in regards to turrets you can't get in the game, repair kits and so much more that how anyone could've believed this wouldn't be the case, I can't wrap my head around.
Due to all of these elements, especially the manipulative microtransaction store that slaps you in the face everytime you load the game up, I cannot recommend this to anyone. It's such a big insult that it reminds me of the PS2 game, Brotherhood of Steel which had plenty of insulting moments in it as it was.
Gameplay/Stream with SandyAJ and Yuudachi
Gameplay/Stream with Lexichu
2014
The inital release of this game dissappointed many fans as they reduced the traits from 5 to 3. This I think was rectrified later, however, it's obvious where EA were going with this as items were missing from the previous game and sold back to everyone in packs.
Currently all of the packs together combined cost, currently, £1,099.24. I thought it was bad enough with the previous games with the amount of extra content being offered, but like I said, much of the stuff that was standard was removed from this game and to make up for it, you have to pay.
The backlash clearly caused quite a commotion as the game is now currently free for download, but missing so many functions I'm not certain you could call it a actual game anymore and just a removed portion.
What the game does give you is a lot of fun though, along with the ability to become a mad scientist and take over the world! Of course, it's all in good fun!
Something else I quite liked was not only do you have the stock families, but you have the ability to upload your own fun family to the system for others to enjoy too or just make your neighbourhoods feel a little more like it's filled with real people by having their own made characters! However, if you don't have the DLC on those characters you can't bring them into the game world, which sucks.
The game allows for the addition of mods too which you can use to enhance the game and attempt to make up for the massive gap of content created by having so much of this game gutted, It's still good for what it is, but I just hate the corporate BS that's going on here to try and swindle money out of everyone.
Currently all of the packs together combined cost, currently, £1,099.24. I thought it was bad enough with the previous games with the amount of extra content being offered, but like I said, much of the stuff that was standard was removed from this game and to make up for it, you have to pay.
The backlash clearly caused quite a commotion as the game is now currently free for download, but missing so many functions I'm not certain you could call it a actual game anymore and just a removed portion.
What the game does give you is a lot of fun though, along with the ability to become a mad scientist and take over the world! Of course, it's all in good fun!
Something else I quite liked was not only do you have the stock families, but you have the ability to upload your own fun family to the system for others to enjoy too or just make your neighbourhoods feel a little more like it's filled with real people by having their own made characters! However, if you don't have the DLC on those characters you can't bring them into the game world, which sucks.
The game allows for the addition of mods too which you can use to enhance the game and attempt to make up for the massive gap of content created by having so much of this game gutted, It's still good for what it is, but I just hate the corporate BS that's going on here to try and swindle money out of everyone.
2009
This one I remember blew the mind of my ex as her old PC couldn't play more modern games (for the time) but my laptop could! So they build upon the previous game, however, at this point in history EA were starting to get greedier and the amount of additions were dizzying!
The options for traits to make your character unique were always a major selling point and that was still true with this game, just not the next one coming up. However, the idea that you could fulfil all kinds of aspirations and become your ideal self!
The many hours I spent in this game cannot be measured and I believe this was during the time they were forcing you to use EA's "Origin" platform which, as of typing this review, has simply been called EA because they probably realised too many people took offense of the company wearing the flayed skin of one of their kills (Origin Systems), as a bit too tasteless.
I think I bought this with the special Plum bulb thumb drive, however, no idea where that is today! Could be anywhere. Regardless, lots more memories and customisation that was pushing the boundaries and improving the game greatly.
I did just look over it and remembered the disgusting "Simpoints" where you pay real currency for this "Freemium" kind of cash to purchase all kinds of items to unlock for your game. The existence of this system certainly soured my taste for this game and my experience of it too.
The options for traits to make your character unique were always a major selling point and that was still true with this game, just not the next one coming up. However, the idea that you could fulfil all kinds of aspirations and become your ideal self!
The many hours I spent in this game cannot be measured and I believe this was during the time they were forcing you to use EA's "Origin" platform which, as of typing this review, has simply been called EA because they probably realised too many people took offense of the company wearing the flayed skin of one of their kills (Origin Systems), as a bit too tasteless.
I think I bought this with the special Plum bulb thumb drive, however, no idea where that is today! Could be anywhere. Regardless, lots more memories and customisation that was pushing the boundaries and improving the game greatly.
I did just look over it and remembered the disgusting "Simpoints" where you pay real currency for this "Freemium" kind of cash to purchase all kinds of items to unlock for your game. The existence of this system certainly soured my taste for this game and my experience of it too.
2004
I remember this being quite the improvement over the last game, having much of the packs from the first game intergrated, added with new things, jobs and also a system where it creates a child based on the looks and traits of the patents making the fantasy even more fun with the choices that can be done in the game!
I'm probably remembering wrong, but I don't remember there being as many DLC add-ons as the first since quite a few were built in already. Not to mention the addition of Aliens was pretty hilarious too, keeping the humour of the game intact with what may happen to your sims.
I'm probably remembering wrong, but I don't remember there being as many DLC add-ons as the first since quite a few were built in already. Not to mention the addition of Aliens was pretty hilarious too, keeping the humour of the game intact with what may happen to your sims.
2000
What can I say about The Sims? A game genre that dared to be different and was extremely successful because of that, releasing numerous packs over the years that added more items, pets and so much more!
This series ended up being quite the money magnet for it's creators, though only for a niche audience, let's be honest. Not everyone will love this kind of game and to essentially play your own fantasy life with hilarious consequences like trying to make breakfast and causing a fire that kills everyone!
Being the first, it was pretty limited and the additions were pretty dizzying. Especially for a game of it's kind of this time too. This was long before companies were abusing their games with microtransactions.
My ex actually, showed me how you can kill a sim. One popular way I knew was removing the ladder to the pool when they're in it and they eventually drown, but she took pleasure in tormenting the mini version of her brother by having him sealed in a room to starve to death. Pretty funny how this game could allow you to be as sadistic as possible and I often found the personalities of the Sims would reflect their real life counterparts pretty well. To a scarily accurate degree as the series went on.
This series ended up being quite the money magnet for it's creators, though only for a niche audience, let's be honest. Not everyone will love this kind of game and to essentially play your own fantasy life with hilarious consequences like trying to make breakfast and causing a fire that kills everyone!
Being the first, it was pretty limited and the additions were pretty dizzying. Especially for a game of it's kind of this time too. This was long before companies were abusing their games with microtransactions.
My ex actually, showed me how you can kill a sim. One popular way I knew was removing the ladder to the pool when they're in it and they eventually drown, but she took pleasure in tormenting the mini version of her brother by having him sealed in a room to starve to death. Pretty funny how this game could allow you to be as sadistic as possible and I often found the personalities of the Sims would reflect their real life counterparts pretty well. To a scarily accurate degree as the series went on.
(Note: Bought and played this not long after release so my memory might be a little off)
I initially bought this in a splurge moment and it was fun for as long as I've played it, however, I did often find that I soon ended up with so much money I'm sure I could've run for president!
Anyway, I do love these turn-based games and I was expecting this game to be like the VERY old game, Gangsters, however, it seems that unlike that game, the city map and the combat map are very different. This isn't a bad thing, but just not what I was imaging, but it kinda makes sense anyway.
You can set up your own little businesses, both legitimate and illegitimate, like producing alcohol during times of prohabition, running a lottery (which you can choose to rig or not, I don't because I believe everyone should be able to get the money to spend) and I remember having your own law-firm where I ended up paying them so much that I struggled to have any dirty money to use on anything and only had clean!
The combat is a lot of fun and your melee characters are actually very useful, often delivering some very nasty blows to those you're up against.
There's a lot of new DLC for it now and I am certainly considering revisiting it at a later date when I get that DLC to see what I may or may not have missed.
I initially bought this in a splurge moment and it was fun for as long as I've played it, however, I did often find that I soon ended up with so much money I'm sure I could've run for president!
Anyway, I do love these turn-based games and I was expecting this game to be like the VERY old game, Gangsters, however, it seems that unlike that game, the city map and the combat map are very different. This isn't a bad thing, but just not what I was imaging, but it kinda makes sense anyway.
You can set up your own little businesses, both legitimate and illegitimate, like producing alcohol during times of prohabition, running a lottery (which you can choose to rig or not, I don't because I believe everyone should be able to get the money to spend) and I remember having your own law-firm where I ended up paying them so much that I struggled to have any dirty money to use on anything and only had clean!
The combat is a lot of fun and your melee characters are actually very useful, often delivering some very nasty blows to those you're up against.
There's a lot of new DLC for it now and I am certainly considering revisiting it at a later date when I get that DLC to see what I may or may not have missed.
2012
(note: Not played this since 2015, so apologies for any mistakes.)
A game that launched hundreds of memes with Vaas, who turned out to not be the main villain. He's like the first major villain and is the one who kidnapped you and your white-bread friends to ransom off. That said, his sister is also crazy and crazy for you! Depending on your choices at the end though, she supports you all the way through, seeing you as a kind of chosen one for her people.
The game itself is a very fun FPS with a strong focus on stealth as not only do you stalk animals for skinning and materials, but for upgrades to your equipment and to use these abilities to stalk the bad guys, revealing the maps in, you all know it by now, radio towers!
At first wasn't too bad until you started seeing this in EVERY DAMN GAME that you've come across from this publisher! In here, each tower is a little different, requiring a little parkour here and there to eventually get to the top and then restore communications.
I quite like the idea that, as you're working with these people who have deep tribal traditions, that your upgrades come in the form of ever expanding tattoos all over your body each time to level up, regardless of if it's from passives or not.
The ability to mark targets is extremely useful when you want to take time to take out your opponents or plan on how you are going to approach this camp. Including releasing the tiger cage and letting them take full attention before you start your attack or even let it wipe out everyone, which happened to me and was hilarious.
There's a lot to do and Vaas being your antagonist for quite some time is a very entertaining character. Much like Trevor from GTA V, you'll always remember them the most, even if you don't remember the game all that well many years later.
A game that launched hundreds of memes with Vaas, who turned out to not be the main villain. He's like the first major villain and is the one who kidnapped you and your white-bread friends to ransom off. That said, his sister is also crazy and crazy for you! Depending on your choices at the end though, she supports you all the way through, seeing you as a kind of chosen one for her people.
The game itself is a very fun FPS with a strong focus on stealth as not only do you stalk animals for skinning and materials, but for upgrades to your equipment and to use these abilities to stalk the bad guys, revealing the maps in, you all know it by now, radio towers!
At first wasn't too bad until you started seeing this in EVERY DAMN GAME that you've come across from this publisher! In here, each tower is a little different, requiring a little parkour here and there to eventually get to the top and then restore communications.
I quite like the idea that, as you're working with these people who have deep tribal traditions, that your upgrades come in the form of ever expanding tattoos all over your body each time to level up, regardless of if it's from passives or not.
The ability to mark targets is extremely useful when you want to take time to take out your opponents or plan on how you are going to approach this camp. Including releasing the tiger cage and letting them take full attention before you start your attack or even let it wipe out everyone, which happened to me and was hilarious.
There's a lot to do and Vaas being your antagonist for quite some time is a very entertaining character. Much like Trevor from GTA V, you'll always remember them the most, even if you don't remember the game all that well many years later.
This game takes me back to a time when LucasArts were producing the best games out there! Not to mention, some of the weirdest and most popular like in regards to the Sam & Max universe here!
The story follows Sam & Max who are Freelance Police and their job is to track down an attraction. A bigfoot that was frozen in ice has been taken from the circus and the pair need to track them down and solve the mystery surrounding them and also the tiny country music star who seems to also be trying to track him down for a potentially nefarious purpose!
As usual, the absurdist humour hits right on and there's even fun little mini-games you can play with Max too. It's well worth checking out and a lot of fun! I can't wait to try out some more of these classics on stream and showcase how fun they are to the world!
Gameplay/Stream
The story follows Sam & Max who are Freelance Police and their job is to track down an attraction. A bigfoot that was frozen in ice has been taken from the circus and the pair need to track them down and solve the mystery surrounding them and also the tiny country music star who seems to also be trying to track him down for a potentially nefarious purpose!
As usual, the absurdist humour hits right on and there's even fun little mini-games you can play with Max too. It's well worth checking out and a lot of fun! I can't wait to try out some more of these classics on stream and showcase how fun they are to the world!
Gameplay/Stream
2014
I had avoided the hype and it was a good thing I was because this game was not all that! You play as a guy who, after losing a member of his family and another becoming mute after the experience he starts to take the law into his own hands, despite his own criminal past it seems that the police has a real struggle trying to track him down and arrest him. Despite looking very suspicious and (according to Ubisoft) iconic. Even more unbelievable than Agent 47, a muscular bald-guy just walking by and not being suspected by anyone. He actually chances his outfit whilst Aiden here keeps wearing suspicious clothing.
Using your magical hacking skills (let's be honest, it works more like magic than not) you can steal money from random passer-bys (with no meaningful consequences to those actions. Regardless if you steal from someone who is poor or someone who is rich and works with your enemies) , hack traffic lights for your advantage when escaping the police, entering secret cameras and getting a look in all kinds of people's dirty little secrets (yet not reporting them with said evidence or even using that info) and even getting involved in some vigilante behaviour, though that bit was always a bit annoying as you had to wait for the person to commit the crime first and not attempt to prevent it. It was fun to investigate murders though, making me think of Batman Arkham City where some of the killers were leaving clues you need to track down. That said, there were many moments I felt he had a real chance to end things, but didn't.
I don't know of it was on purpose, but the main character also refuses to see his current living child, who is still traumatised from the entire experience! Maybe they were attempting a deeper narrative as he is focusing on those who are dead and withdrawing from the family member who is still alive as pointed out by his sister who is currently taking care of him. There is a discussion here about the path of revenge and as a quote one said:
"Before going on the path for revenge, dig two graves." often because despite how glamourised it is, you can wreck yourself and fall down into all kinds of dark places and do anything to get your revenge that you are not the same person afterwards. However, the game paints his sister as just an annoying family member that "Doesn't get it" and is suggesting to just forget what happened to him so I could be reading FAR too much into it!
The game courted a lot of controversy with hidden settings on the PC version, in a folder that was literally marked something like "E3 demonstration effects" or something similar where they tried to convince us that the graphics of it were going to be next-gen and pushing your system to it's limits for all the beautiful look, but what we got was something dumbed down to "make equal to the console version" which just spurs on this hatred between console and PC gamers and is a terrible excuse for not wanting to work harder on either versions.
Another event Ubisoft weren't prepared for was, as they decided you must have a Uplay account to play their games from now on, on the first day of sales their servers crashed demonstrating that their anti-piracy measure here actually stopped you from playing your legitimately bought game. Even if you want to play it offline.
It's pretty funny that the villains here are rich groups and organisations who deliberately exploit their public and that's exactly what Ubisoft have been doing! Guess it's true that you should write what you know about and if you're a company that has abused your workers sexually, then you know all about causing abuse to make your workers feel terrible!
I did have fun with it for what I played, however certain things didn't work too well as due to the horrible pop-in I had trouble using the ability to make sewers burst as they'd appear too late for me to have used them when in a chase. Often only appearing when I'm just about to run over it myself! Unlike the trailer which makes it totally possible to do. As a typical Ubisoft game it can be fun, but I'm not interested in supporting this company and there was too much false advertising around this game for me to give it a positive view.
Using your magical hacking skills (let's be honest, it works more like magic than not) you can steal money from random passer-bys (with no meaningful consequences to those actions. Regardless if you steal from someone who is poor or someone who is rich and works with your enemies) , hack traffic lights for your advantage when escaping the police, entering secret cameras and getting a look in all kinds of people's dirty little secrets (yet not reporting them with said evidence or even using that info) and even getting involved in some vigilante behaviour, though that bit was always a bit annoying as you had to wait for the person to commit the crime first and not attempt to prevent it. It was fun to investigate murders though, making me think of Batman Arkham City where some of the killers were leaving clues you need to track down. That said, there were many moments I felt he had a real chance to end things, but didn't.
I don't know of it was on purpose, but the main character also refuses to see his current living child, who is still traumatised from the entire experience! Maybe they were attempting a deeper narrative as he is focusing on those who are dead and withdrawing from the family member who is still alive as pointed out by his sister who is currently taking care of him. There is a discussion here about the path of revenge and as a quote one said:
"Before going on the path for revenge, dig two graves." often because despite how glamourised it is, you can wreck yourself and fall down into all kinds of dark places and do anything to get your revenge that you are not the same person afterwards. However, the game paints his sister as just an annoying family member that "Doesn't get it" and is suggesting to just forget what happened to him so I could be reading FAR too much into it!
The game courted a lot of controversy with hidden settings on the PC version, in a folder that was literally marked something like "E3 demonstration effects" or something similar where they tried to convince us that the graphics of it were going to be next-gen and pushing your system to it's limits for all the beautiful look, but what we got was something dumbed down to "make equal to the console version" which just spurs on this hatred between console and PC gamers and is a terrible excuse for not wanting to work harder on either versions.
Another event Ubisoft weren't prepared for was, as they decided you must have a Uplay account to play their games from now on, on the first day of sales their servers crashed demonstrating that their anti-piracy measure here actually stopped you from playing your legitimately bought game. Even if you want to play it offline.
It's pretty funny that the villains here are rich groups and organisations who deliberately exploit their public and that's exactly what Ubisoft have been doing! Guess it's true that you should write what you know about and if you're a company that has abused your workers sexually, then you know all about causing abuse to make your workers feel terrible!
I did have fun with it for what I played, however certain things didn't work too well as due to the horrible pop-in I had trouble using the ability to make sewers burst as they'd appear too late for me to have used them when in a chase. Often only appearing when I'm just about to run over it myself! Unlike the trailer which makes it totally possible to do. As a typical Ubisoft game it can be fun, but I'm not interested in supporting this company and there was too much false advertising around this game for me to give it a positive view.
2016
I had fallen in love with this game immediately. Especially as similar games have not existed on the PC before, but now many new and fun versions have popped up and I'd like to think this helped start that!
I agree with what one reviewer said about how these kinds of games are a power fantasy for adults since your only worries during the day is to farm a little, throw food into a mass-sale bin that pays off your taxes easily and settle down and meet up with people in the town. The kind of life we're advertised is possible in the real world, but more than not isn't the reality...but that's going to lead off topic.
That said, Jojo Mart. You can choose to become a sell-out to corporation and make your living for this company. It's interesting to have this choice and personally went against them due to how your character did work for them in a dead-end job and now with this farm you have freedom! Not to mention, I'm totally on the side of "Fuck Corporations" as they are overly bloated on their own money and like to step on everyone.
It's a great game to use to escape reality, focus on your farm, exploring the caves and meeting up with all of the many different interesting people about town and even getting married to the man/woman of your choice!
A lot of time has passed since it's release and though similar games exist, this one has still gotten updates and I'm very eager to return to it, see what's new and just have a whole lot of fun with it again!
I agree with what one reviewer said about how these kinds of games are a power fantasy for adults since your only worries during the day is to farm a little, throw food into a mass-sale bin that pays off your taxes easily and settle down and meet up with people in the town. The kind of life we're advertised is possible in the real world, but more than not isn't the reality...but that's going to lead off topic.
That said, Jojo Mart. You can choose to become a sell-out to corporation and make your living for this company. It's interesting to have this choice and personally went against them due to how your character did work for them in a dead-end job and now with this farm you have freedom! Not to mention, I'm totally on the side of "Fuck Corporations" as they are overly bloated on their own money and like to step on everyone.
It's a great game to use to escape reality, focus on your farm, exploring the caves and meeting up with all of the many different interesting people about town and even getting married to the man/woman of your choice!
A lot of time has passed since it's release and though similar games exist, this one has still gotten updates and I'm very eager to return to it, see what's new and just have a whole lot of fun with it again!
2010
My first experience wasn't so good as Fallout 3 had trained me to not look at anything beyond that stupid navigator in the corner and not actually think about what I was doing, but as I dug in I found that the choices in this and how you can have to navigate yourself in this harsh environment, not to mention all the different factions that you can side up with, without them being black and white like Fallout 3.
It brought be back from great memories of Fallout 2 and even had brought back many characters from that game and such like Marcus or the references to the previous games with the vault 13 canteen.
The game is buggy, which is to be expected from the outdated engine Bethesda keep trying to claim isn't falling apart with age and how Obsidian were forced to use it and create a game, based on this engine they knew nothing about, within 18 months (which is an unusually short development cycle) and had their bonuses tied to meta-critic scores, yes they managed to produce this! I'm surprised it works as well as it does and doesn't just fall apart when you try to start it up! I certainly couldn't make anything of this quality in 10x the time!
Caesar's Legion are often viewed as the evil group and whilst they are the most, in my opinion, morally bankrupt of the groups. They are also providing a more stable social system than the much larger NCR who have spread themselves too thin with all of their expansions and attempt to take over everything. They can be viewed as a alternative depending on your morals and if you really hate the idea of the NCR that much.
North Carolina Republic are a group that found their origins in Vault 15 in the first game and had moved to create their own little town. Shady Sands. During the events of Fallout 2, they had become a massive military group who on the surface advertised that they were bringing law to the wastes, but at the same time they allowed slavers to keep slaves outside of their city limits and would create attacks on other successful cities who they wanted to take control of, but can't attack directly as it'd look bad to do so. They have a fairly weak hold here, being so far from home and that's why bandits have been able to rule with little to no issues.
The idea that you even get a choice at the beginning to either side up with Goodsprings who are a small farming community just wanting to survive and the Powder Gangers, being a group of escaped convicts who are after a place to live and they only know of using violence to make their way. There's arguments here on who to support, of course, though I generally side with Goodsprings since they helped you get back on your feet and I'm not certain the Powder Gangers would've been as helpful if they had control of the town, but that's up for debate.
Even today, this game still surpasses Fallout 4 and 76 despite the many years difference, demonstrating that Bethesda don't know how to make good stories anymore and the community at large are getting sick of their antics and refusing to fix fundamental bugs that modders fixed many years ago. It's existence and loved status has been a hindrance to a company who keep attempting to go bigger, but trip over all the smallest hurdles.
It brought be back from great memories of Fallout 2 and even had brought back many characters from that game and such like Marcus or the references to the previous games with the vault 13 canteen.
The game is buggy, which is to be expected from the outdated engine Bethesda keep trying to claim isn't falling apart with age and how Obsidian were forced to use it and create a game, based on this engine they knew nothing about, within 18 months (which is an unusually short development cycle) and had their bonuses tied to meta-critic scores, yes they managed to produce this! I'm surprised it works as well as it does and doesn't just fall apart when you try to start it up! I certainly couldn't make anything of this quality in 10x the time!
Caesar's Legion are often viewed as the evil group and whilst they are the most, in my opinion, morally bankrupt of the groups. They are also providing a more stable social system than the much larger NCR who have spread themselves too thin with all of their expansions and attempt to take over everything. They can be viewed as a alternative depending on your morals and if you really hate the idea of the NCR that much.
North Carolina Republic are a group that found their origins in Vault 15 in the first game and had moved to create their own little town. Shady Sands. During the events of Fallout 2, they had become a massive military group who on the surface advertised that they were bringing law to the wastes, but at the same time they allowed slavers to keep slaves outside of their city limits and would create attacks on other successful cities who they wanted to take control of, but can't attack directly as it'd look bad to do so. They have a fairly weak hold here, being so far from home and that's why bandits have been able to rule with little to no issues.
The idea that you even get a choice at the beginning to either side up with Goodsprings who are a small farming community just wanting to survive and the Powder Gangers, being a group of escaped convicts who are after a place to live and they only know of using violence to make their way. There's arguments here on who to support, of course, though I generally side with Goodsprings since they helped you get back on your feet and I'm not certain the Powder Gangers would've been as helpful if they had control of the town, but that's up for debate.
Even today, this game still surpasses Fallout 4 and 76 despite the many years difference, demonstrating that Bethesda don't know how to make good stories anymore and the community at large are getting sick of their antics and refusing to fix fundamental bugs that modders fixed many years ago. It's existence and loved status has been a hindrance to a company who keep attempting to go bigger, but trip over all the smallest hurdles.