dashKC
2021
Cute and interesting idea. Not too sure how well it translates to an actual thing but it's cute.
Storytelling through the environment is nice but think this could've been many more levels and a straight-up puzzle game instead of capitalising off the short, cozy game market.
Get it on sale, preferably on a platform with a mouse, and play it in short bursts.
Shoutout to the hilarious Naomi Higgins on 'Gamey Gamey Game' for recommending this back in December on that show.
Storytelling through the environment is nice but think this could've been many more levels and a straight-up puzzle game instead of capitalising off the short, cozy game market.
Get it on sale, preferably on a platform with a mouse, and play it in short bursts.
Shoutout to the hilarious Naomi Higgins on 'Gamey Gamey Game' for recommending this back in December on that show.
2012
This game wowed eight-year-old me as it released throughout the year. Ten years later, I didn't think it was total shit so that's nice.
Still feels awful to play with a controller and overall plays like a game far older than it is but you're not playing this game to PLAY it so it's fine.
The facial animation was actually a lot better than I was expecting. However, the voice acting to go with it wasn't always great. There were just some bad lines of dialogue but I thought Clem overall was just too hollow. If I didn't have my pre-existing love the franchise and her, I most prob wouldn't care too greatly about her. I also think Lee's delivery often sounded too stoic and didn't fit with the rest of some scenes.
It may look cheap in areas but I really still love this artstyle. Maintains the comic-book look with cel-shaded graphics but subverts what's typically expected of that style to create something so gruesome that gives of an atmosphere of desperation.
I think this game deserves to be as popular as it is because it is very well written for a 2012 game and continues to hold up (sadly The Last of Us comparisons don't do it any favours) but I think the final episode is the worst. I don't recall ever actually playing it as it's hard to come by money as an eight-year-old and think I just watched it on YouTube instead. And honestly, that'll do. I think they knew how they wanted it to end but didn't know how to get there so they made a whole other episode with a lot of padding, a cringey random antagonist, boring puzzles, and some terrible out-of-place attempts at humour that were delivered very poorly. The ending itself is great but the hour and a bit to get there was a huge decline from the rest of the season.
Anyway, excited to replay all of these. Here's hoping Two isn't total shit too because I've listed that as one of my all-time favourites ever since it finished.
Still feels awful to play with a controller and overall plays like a game far older than it is but you're not playing this game to PLAY it so it's fine.
The facial animation was actually a lot better than I was expecting. However, the voice acting to go with it wasn't always great. There were just some bad lines of dialogue but I thought Clem overall was just too hollow. If I didn't have my pre-existing love the franchise and her, I most prob wouldn't care too greatly about her. I also think Lee's delivery often sounded too stoic and didn't fit with the rest of some scenes.
It may look cheap in areas but I really still love this artstyle. Maintains the comic-book look with cel-shaded graphics but subverts what's typically expected of that style to create something so gruesome that gives of an atmosphere of desperation.
I think this game deserves to be as popular as it is because it is very well written for a 2012 game and continues to hold up (sadly The Last of Us comparisons don't do it any favours) but I think the final episode is the worst. I don't recall ever actually playing it as it's hard to come by money as an eight-year-old and think I just watched it on YouTube instead. And honestly, that'll do. I think they knew how they wanted it to end but didn't know how to get there so they made a whole other episode with a lot of padding, a cringey random antagonist, boring puzzles, and some terrible out-of-place attempts at humour that were delivered very poorly. The ending itself is great but the hour and a bit to get there was a huge decline from the rest of the season.
Anyway, excited to replay all of these. Here's hoping Two isn't total shit too because I've listed that as one of my all-time favourites ever since it finished.
Stephanie looks like the babysitter from 'Monster House' (2006).
Perhaps it's cos I'm ill (the reason I treated myself to the PS5 upgrade and bashed it out in a day) but this was nowhere near as amazing my inital playthrough a little over a year ago.
Maybe I just needed to give it more air before revisiting because the action setpieces in this game are easily the best in the series and therefore very memorable so they're gonna lose that intensity.
The slower character moments still held up, though. I love the Nate & Elena bits so much. I also warmed up to Sam more on this playthrough too.
In addition, I'm not too sure how well The Last of Us-isms fit into this game. Some of them translate excellently but some of them should stay in Last of Us.
Overall, I still love this game. When I first played it I struggled to determine if I preferred 3 or 4 but this one clealy takes the cake for me. The action is better even though this is the most grounded. And the emotional moments hit the hardest.
I think it would've been interesting to see Hennig's original vision but I think Druckmann naturally kept some of it while adding to it gracefully. Uncharted was known for it's small characters but big plots, Last of Us for its big characters but small plot. I think he found an excellent balance for this perfect conclusion for Nathan Drake.
Sidenote: was this buggy for anyone else? The original on PS4 was flawless. Played on Fidelity Mode and experienced some pop-in, character animations not activating at the correct times, wouldn't let me climb at points, etc. which were all pretty harmless but still take you out of it. The most damning one was when I somehow got stuck inside of a wall and had to restart from the last checkpoint.
Maybe I just needed to give it more air before revisiting because the action setpieces in this game are easily the best in the series and therefore very memorable so they're gonna lose that intensity.
The slower character moments still held up, though. I love the Nate & Elena bits so much. I also warmed up to Sam more on this playthrough too.
In addition, I'm not too sure how well The Last of Us-isms fit into this game. Some of them translate excellently but some of them should stay in Last of Us.
Overall, I still love this game. When I first played it I struggled to determine if I preferred 3 or 4 but this one clealy takes the cake for me. The action is better even though this is the most grounded. And the emotional moments hit the hardest.
I think it would've been interesting to see Hennig's original vision but I think Druckmann naturally kept some of it while adding to it gracefully. Uncharted was known for it's small characters but big plots, Last of Us for its big characters but small plot. I think he found an excellent balance for this perfect conclusion for Nathan Drake.
Sidenote: was this buggy for anyone else? The original on PS4 was flawless. Played on Fidelity Mode and experienced some pop-in, character animations not activating at the correct times, wouldn't let me climb at points, etc. which were all pretty harmless but still take you out of it. The most damning one was when I somehow got stuck inside of a wall and had to restart from the last checkpoint.
Held out on buying it for a while but this really exceeded my expectations.
People blasted the game for having terrible endgame content and they're not exactly wrong but, for the past month, I've been doing a chaos chamber run nearly every day.
Very nice to get back into the Borderlands formula. It may feel dated in terms of design at some points but I still love it.
However, there's some stuff in this game that I feel was put in to annoy people and only that. Some of the bosses are incredibly unbalanced that they're just not fun. The primary thing for me though is that one trophy must've been made to tick off trophy hunters (or had DLC plans to make it more achievable but cancelled it).
If you don't know, there's a trophy for buying the final tier of every type of inventory upgrade. With 50 hours played, I only just completed one of them. Hence why I'm logging now and removing from 'playing' because I'm only one trophy away from platinum and I've come to terms with the fact that it's just not happening any time soon.
People blasted the game for having terrible endgame content and they're not exactly wrong but, for the past month, I've been doing a chaos chamber run nearly every day.
Very nice to get back into the Borderlands formula. It may feel dated in terms of design at some points but I still love it.
However, there's some stuff in this game that I feel was put in to annoy people and only that. Some of the bosses are incredibly unbalanced that they're just not fun. The primary thing for me though is that one trophy must've been made to tick off trophy hunters (or had DLC plans to make it more achievable but cancelled it).
If you don't know, there's a trophy for buying the final tier of every type of inventory upgrade. With 50 hours played, I only just completed one of them. Hence why I'm logging now and removing from 'playing' because I'm only one trophy away from platinum and I've come to terms with the fact that it's just not happening any time soon.
2010
I don't understand how they carried over pretty much everything from the first game but forgot to bring its charm.
Got 120 stars, getting the cosmic jewels just seems like repetitive busywork to me.
Got 120 stars, getting the cosmic jewels just seems like repetitive busywork to me.
"Shit my nuts."
Played ep. 1 and 2 when they came out but never got around to the last two after Telltale went under.
After replaying New Frontier and being baffled at how I liked that when it came out due to terrible writing and the gameplay formula being incredibly stale by that point, I was ready for this to also suck. But straight away, it impressed me.
It's still the same basic out-dated design but refreshed to feel more lively and it's great. The graphics are beautiful and they really went out of their way to give this the good ending Season One & Two deserved.
You really feel the weight of all the decisions you make. They're no longer worthless and the parenting angle was a unique spin on it.
Love Clem so much. Glad I finally finished this [mostly] fantastic series.
After replaying New Frontier and being baffled at how I liked that when it came out due to terrible writing and the gameplay formula being incredibly stale by that point, I was ready for this to also suck. But straight away, it impressed me.
It's still the same basic out-dated design but refreshed to feel more lively and it's great. The graphics are beautiful and they really went out of their way to give this the good ending Season One & Two deserved.
You really feel the weight of all the decisions you make. They're no longer worthless and the parenting angle was a unique spin on it.
Love Clem so much. Glad I finally finished this [mostly] fantastic series.
The special features with this collection don't even work. They're prob on YouTube but when I buy something I expect it to work. But it turns out you get games on this disc too?
Hadn't replayed any of these since they originally came out (and never even played Michonne or the last two eps of S4) and while they are quite out-dated, I will forever have a softspot for this series. Season Two remains one of my all-time favourite games and Clementine one of my all-time favourite fictional characters!
Ranking of the series (Best to Worst):
Season Two
The Final Season
Season One
Michonne
A New Frontier
Hadn't replayed any of these since they originally came out (and never even played Michonne or the last two eps of S4) and while they are quite out-dated, I will forever have a softspot for this series. Season Two remains one of my all-time favourite games and Clementine one of my all-time favourite fictional characters!
Ranking of the series (Best to Worst):
Season Two
The Final Season
Season One
Michonne
A New Frontier
2011
Finally gave up. I finished it back in October and the bonus challenges are just too hard for me. Maybe I'll come back one day so I can change this from 'shelved' to 'mastered'.
The base game, though, is amazing for what it is. One of the best puzzle games I've played and exactly what handheld consoles were made for. And its ashame this series is left to die on the soon-to-be disabled 3DS and Wii U eShops.
Pretty inventive game with how they're able to make pixel art puzzles that have multiple solutions to them. Looking forward to finally playing its sequels that add their own unique spin to this great design.
The base game, though, is amazing for what it is. One of the best puzzle games I've played and exactly what handheld consoles were made for. And its ashame this series is left to die on the soon-to-be disabled 3DS and Wii U eShops.
Pretty inventive game with how they're able to make pixel art puzzles that have multiple solutions to them. Looking forward to finally playing its sequels that add their own unique spin to this great design.
2020
This is one of my favourite games. One of three games I've given five stars and for what the game is, I've spent far too many hours swinging around on here and speedrunning on PC over the past two years.
So, I figured I'd buy the recently released PS4 version so I could play it in bed while also supporting the developers but this version lacks a lot of polish.
As a trophy hunter, I thought this would be the easiest Platinum Trophy I would ever get but nope! One trophy is literally impossible to get as either you can't watch other people's replays or no-one has the game to be able to make them so you can watch them.
Although Marathon Mode isn't in this version, you still have the bit where the lil robot says "you unlocked Marathon Mode" and the camera pans over to where the purple crystal would be and it's just not there haha.
But then there's just a lot of screen-tearing and visual glitches too. Platforms not spawning in or randomly placed invisible blocks that kill you that aren't there in the PC version. Plus, some stuttering and very frequent game crashes.
Probably most annoying though is the "aim assist" (?). I turned motion controls off but after that, it would randomly snap to nothing or the camera would just move around without me doing anything. (EDIT: I've since realised this could've been me just holding the controller in my weird way and accidentally touching the touchpad of the DualSense controller which also moves the camera, but you can't disable this future so it's still dumb and not good for people who hold controllers like I do)
As someone who adores this game, I think it sucks that a lot of people's only exposure to this game is kind of broken. On PC, it's perfect. But this PS4 version being played on PS5, while maintaining that addicting fluid movement with great levels, is under this mess which I hope is resolved.
So, I figured I'd buy the recently released PS4 version so I could play it in bed while also supporting the developers but this version lacks a lot of polish.
As a trophy hunter, I thought this would be the easiest Platinum Trophy I would ever get but nope! One trophy is literally impossible to get as either you can't watch other people's replays or no-one has the game to be able to make them so you can watch them.
Although Marathon Mode isn't in this version, you still have the bit where the lil robot says "you unlocked Marathon Mode" and the camera pans over to where the purple crystal would be and it's just not there haha.
But then there's just a lot of screen-tearing and visual glitches too. Platforms not spawning in or randomly placed invisible blocks that kill you that aren't there in the PC version. Plus, some stuttering and very frequent game crashes.
Probably most annoying though is the "aim assist" (?). I turned motion controls off but after that, it would randomly snap to nothing or the camera would just move around without me doing anything. (EDIT: I've since realised this could've been me just holding the controller in my weird way and accidentally touching the touchpad of the DualSense controller which also moves the camera, but you can't disable this future so it's still dumb and not good for people who hold controllers like I do)
As someone who adores this game, I think it sucks that a lot of people's only exposure to this game is kind of broken. On PC, it's perfect. But this PS4 version being played on PS5, while maintaining that addicting fluid movement with great levels, is under this mess which I hope is resolved.
Sure is a Spider-Man game.
I liked the Drew Gooden "road work ahead" Vine reference.
More games need to have the creative vision this one has behind it.
Endlessly intriguing and thoughtfully put together. Gameplay-wise it's just a walking simulator but Lewis' story is a genius weaving of theme into gameplay.
Plus, the music is great too.
(how ironic im revisiting this game after years hahahaha good joke laugh)
Endlessly intriguing and thoughtfully put together. Gameplay-wise it's just a walking simulator but Lewis' story is a genius weaving of theme into gameplay.
Plus, the music is great too.
(how ironic im revisiting this game after years hahahaha good joke laugh)
2019
game is fucking broken.
I renewed PS Plus Extra to try out some games I wanted and didn't really seem to gel with any of them so I ended up just playing a game I've already bought on two other platforms.
Again, I was having a blast. I wasn't really paying attention to the "meh" story this time but the gameplay is probably the best in the series. Until, on the second-to-last mission my game just glitched and I literally can't progress. I've tried EVERYTHING suggested by people who were able to fix this bug WHEN THE GAME FIRST CAME OUT but I got nothing! Homie NPC just doesn't move and now I can't get that sweet platinum trophy. I just gotta restart the fucking game again which like sure isn't that bad cos when we first went into lockdown I bought it again on Steam and got 45hrs played in 3 days but like are you for real?!!!!
I can excuse the stupid cutscenes which just remove your playable characters from canon but a game-breaking bug that has been known to happen since the game first released?!!! what the fuck, guys?
Anyway, I played as Moze this time around and oh, my god, she is amazing. Sucks this otherwise good game has been soured by this bug.
I renewed PS Plus Extra to try out some games I wanted and didn't really seem to gel with any of them so I ended up just playing a game I've already bought on two other platforms.
Again, I was having a blast. I wasn't really paying attention to the "meh" story this time but the gameplay is probably the best in the series. Until, on the second-to-last mission my game just glitched and I literally can't progress. I've tried EVERYTHING suggested by people who were able to fix this bug WHEN THE GAME FIRST CAME OUT but I got nothing! Homie NPC just doesn't move and now I can't get that sweet platinum trophy. I just gotta restart the fucking game again which like sure isn't that bad cos when we first went into lockdown I bought it again on Steam and got 45hrs played in 3 days but like are you for real?!!!!
I can excuse the stupid cutscenes which just remove your playable characters from canon but a game-breaking bug that has been known to happen since the game first released?!!! what the fuck, guys?
Anyway, I played as Moze this time around and oh, my god, she is amazing. Sucks this otherwise good game has been soured by this bug.