toxicitizen

So, I've been playing an awful lot of Metal Gear Rising over the past week. First, I cleared normal, which was significantly easier than when I did it on PS3 6 months ago. Even accounting for me being already familiar with the game, the difference was so jarring that I actually started wondering if I'd accidentally played on hard back then. I guess I was just fucking terrible at it? I redid it on hard and with new game plus progression it was no challenge at all. Then I moved on to very hard. Very hard lived up to its name. The tutorial level, which usually takes no more than 10mins when you know what you're doing, took me an entire hour to beat. You don't have access to any of your upgrades so you die pretty fucking fast. I'm talking like 3 hits. After that, it got a bit easier. Once I had access to my maxed out meters and OP gear, it was kind of hilarious how easily I breezed through the levels by comparison. The first main boss was no trouble at all. But then I got to Monsoon and shit got real. Holy fuck, that was challenging. Took me almost 10 tries before I managed to beat him. Sundowner wasn't too bad but then I got to Sam. That motherfucker was so intense. I don't think I've ever had this much fun failing outside of the Souls series. Then came the final boss. My first attempt, I ended up at the final phase of the fight with no health packs left and the damage not fully upgraded on the specific sword you have to use. It was basically impossible. So I went to farm BPs a bit, upgraded the sword, filled up on health packs and replayed the entire last level. Not using any health packs throughout the fight was no easy feat because that fucker has a couple of phases that are downright bullshit. If it wasn't for the possibility to abuse checkpoints to get a full health refill, I don't think I'd have made it. But I did it and now I'm back at the final phase with full damage on the sword and 5 health packs. And still it's so fucking difficult! I intend to keep trying but I'm actually not sure I have the skills to beat him. If I do manage to clear it, I'm seriously worried about tackling Revengeance mode. I'm not sure my sanity would be able to withstand the challenge. Yet I love the game so goddamned much I just want to keep playing it! If I end up losing my mind in the near future, you guys will know why.

What issues? I haven't played the game yet but the only big one that I'm aware of was the save system. Wasn't that patched into the original without needing the DLC? What other issues are there?

And with that, I believe I should be done. I've wanted the rest of the Bit.Trip games for a while now but I also really wanted to get the soundtracks along with them. I had just been waiting for a good deal on the pack because the regular price is like 50 bucks, which seemed kind of fucking insane. 20$ was a bit more reasonable and I was able to knock an extra 11 bucks off the price by saving up all my card money during the sale. The Ironclad Tactics upgrade was a surprisingly good value. It's half bonus stuff (soundtrack and the likes) and half season pass, so it also includes both DLC campaigns. Also a gift copy of SpaceChem and its DLC, the latter of which I don't think I owned. It's been on my backlog since our last Secret Santa so now I'll probably get around to playing it soon.

Does Revengeance PC version count since it came out this year? If so, definitely that. I just can't stop playing it. I'm somehow loving it even more than when I first played it on PS3. I mean, it's a 6 hours game yet I just hit 30 hours of playtime according to Steam. Otherwise, Dark Souls II wins by default, I suppose. Although, Transistor was pretty damn amazing too. I'm actually not sure which one I liked the most.

Feels kinda wrong to buy a full price, non-discounted game during the summer sale but all the praise I keep hearing about Shovel Knight got me really curious so I said fuck it and went for it. Besides, there's so little that I want this time around that I was actually starting to consider dropping 30 bucks on Wolfenstein... This feels a bit more reasonable.

Am I the only one who thinks Unbreakable was alright? Also, Signs is a guilty pleasure of mine.

July line-up has been revealed. PS4: Towerfall Ascension, Strider PS3: Dead Space 3, Vessel Vita: Muramasa Rebirth, Doki-Doki Universe Kind of a shit month for me. Oh well, they can't all be winners, I suppose.

Yeah, I was just pointing out that having at least one or two of those exceptions isn't all that rare but that Avatar still lacks it. That being said, looking into it a bit more it seems there hasn't been as many unique Avatar games as I thought. Turns out most of the big ones were all part of the same trilogy, so it makes sense they'd all be of similar quality, I guess. Oh God, there's also been one based on the M. Night Shyamalan live-action movie. Just... whyyyyy?

Really? Batman had some decent beat-em-ups back in the day. Matrix had at least one game that was alright (can't remember which one, it's been a while). There's been some amazing Star Wars and TMNT games. Some solid Dragon Ball games as well. Do I really need to go on? It's really not that hard to find decent licensed games. Not necessarily great or even good games, but fun and serviceable enough to be enjoyed. Basically, anything that's not rushed because it's a movie tie-in has potential.

Sure but usually a license will get at least one or two half decent games at some point. But, from what I can tell, every single Avatar game so far has been absolute garbage. And considering Activision still seems to have no problem whatsoever shitting out rushed licensed crap (see Amazing Spider-Man 2), this wouldn't even be on my radar if it wasn't for Platinum. I'm actually kinda shocked that they even bothered to hire them.

Platinum is the only thing I'm excited about here. The Avatar license doesn't exactly have a great history when it comes to videogames.

Yay! A Platinum game that's not exclusive to a platform I don't want! I guess I should get around to watching Book 2 before this comes out.

Yeah, I know. It made me hesitate to buy it but I've heard so much praise that I just went for it anyway. I just hope it won't take them another year to release the next act...

You're making my head hurt, Cowboy... edit: oh and And to think I went into this one thinking I wouldn't buy much. I should know better by now... Oh well, I was gonna spend that money on some Vita games anyway. This is good, too.

Yaaay! Only big game I was on the lookout for. Completely forgot that this had come out. It was pretty cheap and I love me some Joe Danger. Purely nostalgia-driven impulse purchases, though it certainly helps that they were both dirt cheap. I'm not sure if I'll ever actually replay them but I loved the hell out of those games a decade or so ago so they deserve a spot in my collection. I mean, Anachronox is a scifi/cyberpunk-ish JRPG from the studio that made the original Deus Ex, what's not to love?! I could never really figure out Omikron, though. Which is fitting for Quantic Dream/David Cage's first game, I suppose. It's fucking weird but also kind of interesting. Very ambitious for the time. When you die, the game doesn't end. You just end up reincarnating as another character already in the world. There's a bunch of them and they all have different jobs and abilities, which gives them access to different areas and such. Combined with a fairly large (from what I remember) game world, it provides you with a surprising amount of freedom of exploration compared to his most recent outings. Also David Bowie's in it, for some reason.

Strider. Meh. Not bad but definitely not great. I am so fucking glad I didn't play real money for it. I've never wanted to hate a non-bad game so much. It just has so many annoyances... The one thing it does right is movement. Running and jumping around like a badass ninja feels super good. Problem is, for a long time the game never really does anything interesting. You're just running from one place to the next, slashing away at the same enemies again and again. By the time it starts mixing things up a bit, it just feels like too little too late. You're already well past caring. For most of my playthrough, I could never play it for more than 2 hours or so at a time. And even then it felt like much longer. It's also pretty retarded with its checkpoints. Say you spent a few long mins exploring a very large room, slowly climbing your way across the ceiling to find a bunch of hidden collectibles or whatever. Then you end up dying 2-3 rooms later, and there's wasn't a health regen station? Have fun redoing all that shit, loser! Then there's the boss fights. They're not particularly difficult, just kinda boring. Most of them end up feeling like a chore. And there's a SHIT TON of them. Seriously, it's a 5 hours game and there's like 12 of them. So, yeah. Not bad but definitely not great. If you're curious, pay no more than 5$.

Nah, just had a look on the Vita store and FEZ clearly says it's PS3/PS4/Vita cross-buy.

That was the dev's decision, though. I know because when I bought my Vita I shot them an email, told them I'd owned Limbo on PS3 for a while and asked for a Vita code since I'd only just gotten a Vita and had missed out on the cross-buy window. They kindly gave me one and explained it was just a way for them to thank early adopters, not a permanent deal. They removed cross-buy and instead dropped the price of both versions.

Lone Survivor: Director's Cut. Well, this one was long overdue. I've owned this game on Steam for years (from one of the early HIB, I believe) and, although I'd been meaning to play it, I somehow never got around to it. Ended up double-dipping and playing it on Vita instead. Anyway, really neat, short little horror game. End screen said I clocked in a little under three hours but it was probably closer to 5 with all the dying and reloading. Plays a lot like a 2D version of the old Resident Evil trilogy but with a more Silent Hill-esque approach to the horror. Not really scary but the creepy atmosphere is well done. I thought I had the story figured out pretty early on but after that ending I'm not quite sure what the fuck was going on anymore. Definitely going to give this one a few more runs to see if the other endings shed a bit more light onto things. I wouldn't be surprised if they were all deliberately vague and up to interpretation, though.

Is FEZ on sale? I'm seeing it full price. I would totally double dip.

I guess it took some getting used to but I found the control scheme translated to a controller pretty naturally. Controls almost like a twin-stick shooter at times. It gets easier once you're able to use to lock-on reliably in the middle of the action, though. I enjoyed the experience so much I'm actually considering getting Hotline 2 on Vita first.

Lol. Like I said, say what you will about its quality. I don't really feel the need to defend it in that regard. But it is more substantial than what's in GZ. Saying that GZ has a better story is kind of insane because it doesn't have one. Those are the big payoffs but it does more than just lead up to them. And at least there is a build up to those events, they don't just kind of happen. There's a substantial amount of dialogue between Snake and Otacon that establishes a lot of the backstory and exposition. Which is a hell of a lot better than having to track down cassettes all over the map. If it's an optional collectible, then it doesn't count as the main story. There's also the introduction of a few elements that aren't immediately important, such as Olga and Gurlukovich's army. Basically, it's a real prologue. It introduces and sets into motion a lot of characters and events that play a key part later on. As for the spoilered stuff, sure but like I said, there's no build-up whatsoever. These things just kind of happen and feel so rushed that there was very little impact to them. You get a short intro cutscene, an hour-ish (on a first run, mind you) of gameplay, and then a slightly longer cutscene. That's it. I mean, I wouldn't have as much of an issue with it if it had just been the first hour of Phantom Pain. But as a standalone release, and one that they had the gall of charging 30 bucks for, it's fucking nothing.

What the fuck are you smoking, man? Say what you will about the quality of Tomb Raider's plot but at least it has a complete story. Ground Zeroes is nothing more than a prologue for Phantom Pain. It literally has no plot whatsoever. Not only is there less that happens in it than there was in MGS2's Tanker mission, there's also less story overall (i.e. dialogue, characters introduced, events set in motion, etc..). The Tanker at least acted as a proper prologue to the Big Shell chapter. GZ is nowhere near as meaty, it feels more like a cold open... @RobDaCool: Unless you're an hardcore MGS fanboy, try to get it as cheap as you can get. I'd describe myself as just that and even I borderline regretted the 20 bucks I spent on it. If it wasn't for what little added playtime the collectibles and side ops provide, it would literally be a 30$ demo.

Both for "free". I had accumulated almost 30 bucks in GMG credit from the Playfire Rewards beta. Grabbed Dragonfall yesterday and today there's finally a new voucher that can be combined with credit again so I was able to bring the price of Strider down just enough to grab it with what I had left. I kinda had to search for a bit before I could find anything, though. Strider wasn't exactly my first pick. I feel like the selection on GMG has gone a bit to shit. I was initially planning on using my credit for Killer is Dead and Transistor but the latter never showed up and apparently all the Deep Silver games are gone from GMG. That includes KiD, Saints Row, Dead Island and Red Faction... And after searching around a bit, I feel like they might not be the only ones. Not sure what happened there... GMG in general isn't what it used to be, to be honest. Vouchers now tend to be very restricted and usually can't be combined with store credit. And the credit rewards from pre-orders are borderline insulting at times. I mean, what the fuck am I supposed to do with 10 fucking cents? At that point, you might as well not even bother. It's a shame, really. For a while there they were the best Steam competitor in terms of prices, especially on pre-orders.