What Games Are You Playing?
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After spending 3 weeks with 85+ hours of playtime, it's time for me to talk once again about another PS4 game!
Sword Art Online Re:Hollow Fragment is an Action RPG set after the events of Sword Art Online Season 1's Aincrad arc but with a different twist to the end result. The main storyline is essentially Kirito & co. going all the way to the top of the Aincrad tower to beat Sword Art Online, the VRMMORPG that trapped 10,000 people in the game where dying in-game means dying in real life. Re:Hollow Fragment is also a remastered version of the PlayStation Vita game Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment, which in return is also an updated/remaster of the PlayStation Portable game Sword Art Online Infinity Moment. Hollow Fragment's Vita version was the first to be brought over to the west and does hold well on its own however Bandai Namco ended up using the Asian English translation which contains a ton of Engrish like 'Kirito is busy with the Penetration' and such, which has been fixed for the Re:Hollow Fragment version. In addition to the main goal of reaching Floor 100 (which is Infinity Moment's main storyline), there is also another storyline introduced from Hollow Fragment that follows Kirito ending up in a new location called the Hollow area, where he helps a stranded player Philia to get back to Aincrad safe and sound. Hollow area introduces a wide variety of stuff to do in addition to a high difficulty level which will bring more challenges to the player.
Before starting the game you can customise Kirito with different appearances/voices and what not, which is cool. The gameplay for Re:Hollow Fragment is split into certain areas. You have the town area which is where you walk around, talk to people, change items/equipment, and also start a date with various girls including Leafa and Sinon from later arcs of Sword Art Online. Once you teleport out of the town area, you are then given the chance to visit each floor area's surroundings and dungeons once you beat the floor boss each time. The difficulty for each floor boss is relatively easy to handle but beating the Hollow area is recommended to get your levels and equipment up a fair bit to make the game easier. During the floor boss, you have a partner of your choice as well as a bunch of Assault Team members who will help out (and can be permanently killed off if you don't pay attention). Getting the Assault Team points up will increase their chances of survival as well as beating specific requirements like defeating a mini-boss and a certain quest (in other words, the more info the Assault Team is aware of for the boss, the better they'll fight). In the Hollow area, you have a massive world map where you are free to access various parts as long as they are available, as you have to navigate around the place to locate and defeat the boss in one part before moving to the other. In addition to the five Hollow zones, there's also extra areas that are made available later in the Hollow storyline that introduce more spots for you to navigate. Hollow are also includes 'Hollow Missions' which require you to complete specific tasks to earn some rewards, these are optional and won't damage your progress (in fact you can even repeat these if you fail). The Aincrad area also includes a similar mission type called 'Interruption Missions' which do the same thing but are located in the labyrinth dungeon just before you encounter the floor boss.
So how's the PlayStation 4 remaster then? Well for starters I haven't played the PlayStation Vita version so I can't make some comparisons but for first impressions I was impressed with the visuals and presentation. The two look great and I like the graphics for this title. The only major issue that many would have is the frame-rate, as it's very inconsistent. For example the town area will drop in frame-rate due to the amount of things going on-screen while in other areas it ranges to 30-60fps. Most of the game is about 30fps overall so it's not all that bad and to be fair it still plays well, heck I haven't encountered any issues when I'm fighting against other enemies so no worries on those parts. The CG images and voice acting are all clear and look great on the big screen. You can also view these CG images in the Gallery section of the game's main menu once you beat either the Infinity Moment campaign or the Hollow area campaign. The controls are also pretty decent with customisation skills to help your progress so that you can change the way you fight against other enemies. I would argue the biggest issue that this game has is the amount of stuff they shove at you in the beginning of the game as there's a ton of content that you'll want to remember otherwise you can pretty lost in direction. The games does offer tutorials but they handle it in very short time so you could feel overwhelmed by it, especially with the Hollow area due to its very confusing map direction. Thankfully you can display the map on the touchpad's right side while the main objectives are listed in the Events section tab on the touchpad's left side. Without these you would seriously have some problems with directions and what not.
Now that I've talked about the game, how's the story? Well it's pretty interesting to say the least but only if you're invested in the Sword Art Online series. This game is pure fan-service to the fans and while the progression is slow but cool, it will get repetitive over time and the main plot is shown in bits with side stories shoved in most of the time. In fact the dialogue is very cringey but also at times hilarious in the 'so bad it's good' way. There were many occasions where the girls want Kirito and he ends up in the most uncomfortable places by 'accident'. One notable example is Yui asking about private stuff which makes Kirito and Asuna cringe in awkwardness. The dialogue between Kirito and the girls are okay, and their individual romance storylines is solid - especially if you like that character. If you reach a certain level of affinity for a female character, you can hold hands with them and even hold them in bridal carry mode, no joke. There is no sexual content but there are scenes where the girls are in bath-towels for fan service reasons. There's even a unintentional moment for what could be a subtle reference to Chapter 16.5, an infamous chapter cut from the light novel because of lewd-material.
So. Do I recommend Sword Art Online Re:Hollow Fragment? Well that depends on whether you liked the Sword Art Online anime/novels or not. The game does hold on its own as they offer a recap on what happens at the end of the anime's arc but the way it presents its female cast and dialogue plus the repetitive and quite time consuming gameplay may turn folks away. As I got this in a sale for £6-7, I felt I got my money's worth for the ton of content this game offered to the player. As someone who enjoyed the anime I was happy with the idea of getting along with the game's cast of characters including newcomers Philia and Strea. The remaster performs pretty well with some hick-ups with the framerate in certain places and the translation this time around is very good with no noticeable errors whatsoever. There's also a New Game+ mode if you want to start all-over with the same progress plus the option to transfer the progress you made on PlayStation Vita onto the PlayStation 4 version. Even though I don't have PlayStation Plus, online multiplayer is available for the Hollow area which adds to the replayability.
Price:
£14.99
*can go on sale for as much as 60% off
Format:
PlayStation 4
Digital Only
Overall grade:
B (fans of the series)
C (non-fans)
BanzaiJedi
Pokémon Master
Indeed, the endless gunfights get boring fast and the insistence on being 'cinematic' leads to endless frustration. I still have The Last of Us in my backlog and I'm worried it will be the same, which would be a shame after all the praise it received.Jatz said:
My Xbox One arrived yesterday, seems to work fine though I won't have any games to play on it for at least a month since all my remaining money is tied up with anime preorders. I'll just leave it unplugged and sit my PS3 on top of it for the time being. Oh, and I hate the dashboard (is that even what it's called?), it's so clunky and unintuitive and might even be worse than the 360's 'metro' dash. And the idea of updating a control pads firmware makes me feel old (back in my day things just worked, etc, etc).
jonno394
Za Warudo
Binary Domain (PC)
Already mentioned, but I started playing this a few days back after deciding to game more on my PC and attack my backlog. After being a bit underwhelmed during the first chapter, the game has gone on to be one of my top 5 Third Person Shooters. Just started the last chapter, had to quit and take a breather after all the action of Chapter 5, as well as the story revelations!
Combat is fast, furious and fun. At first I as sick of the bullet sponge enemies, but began to appreciate the armour design and the visual feedback you get during combat with armour flying everywhere, and the usefulness of headshots/limb shots, as well as discovering what a great attack Dans energy shot (cant remember what it is called) is, for disrupting big groups of enemies.
I really like the voice acting (took me a chapter to realise that Dan is voiced by Mustang from FMA) and I have learned to like most of the cast of characters.
Hopefully will finish this over the next few days, but man, what a blast this has been!
edit - Oh and Cain is GOAT
(awesome gifs showing visual feedback/destruction behind the button)
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Already mentioned, but I started playing this a few days back after deciding to game more on my PC and attack my backlog. After being a bit underwhelmed during the first chapter, the game has gone on to be one of my top 5 Third Person Shooters. Just started the last chapter, had to quit and take a breather after all the action of Chapter 5, as well as the story revelations!
Combat is fast, furious and fun. At first I as sick of the bullet sponge enemies, but began to appreciate the armour design and the visual feedback you get during combat with armour flying everywhere, and the usefulness of headshots/limb shots, as well as discovering what a great attack Dans energy shot (cant remember what it is called) is, for disrupting big groups of enemies.
I really like the voice acting (took me a chapter to realise that Dan is voiced by Mustang from FMA) and I have learned to like most of the cast of characters.
Hopefully will finish this over the next few days, but man, what a blast this has been!
edit - Oh and Cain is GOAT
(awesome gifs showing visual feedback/destruction behind the button)
[spoilerbutton]
Jatz
Hunter
BanzaiJedi said:
Definitely. The constant gunfights are a blatant way for them to pad an already short game. Unfortunately, Uncharted is a much better game than The Last of Us. The Last of Us fails as an action, adventure, horror and stealth game... all four of the genres it's billed as. It loses any level of suspense, since the auto save will restart the game a few seconds before you die. All the hype for the game is based on the story being emotional and making people cry (apparently). Feels more like a weak episode of The Walking Dead (which is also a far superior game and definitely worth checking out).
Smeelia
Thousand Master
I've been spending a fair bit of my time killing people for fun and profit, plus knocking people out and stealing their clothes. I've also been playing Hitman, which so far seems to be one of the better Hitman games. It's a bit different since there are limited maps (with a few still to be released) but there's quite a lot to do in each map. You basically end up killing the same people over and over again but the variety of approaches keeps things from getting boring. The game is maybe a little heavy handed with clues to approaches but you can adjust the settings for less information and it still feels like there's room for creativity.
The Escalation missions seem like a neat idea, where you play the same mission five times with added objectives/restrictions each time. I haven't done many but it does make you think about how you'll approach things and encourages exploring the map. For example, if you knock someone out for a uniform to complete one level then you might have to find an alternative way if there's a new restriction against knocking people out in the next level.
There are also Elusive Targets, who are only available for a limited time and can only be killed once (or if you die/fail then you can't try again). It's an interesting idea, though it must take a bit of work to set them up and many players won't see them while those that do will only see them once. There's also a reward tied to completing several of them, which maybe isn't the best idea (it's cosmetic, but still). I wouldn't be surprised if they're replayed at some point or there's a token system introduced to unlock extra attempts from time to time.
It's more the kind of game you play around with rather than mostly aiming to complete objectives and such. There's some structure and there are things to unlock but mostly the unlocks are just new things to play around with and the fun comes from playing your own way.
I'm quite enjoying the game, I was originally going to wait for a sale or for all of the maps to be released but there's plenty to do now and it feels worthwhile. It is a bit of a timesink though, you can spend a lot of time hanging around and exploring but not really achieving anything so you really have to be up for enjoying the experience even if you're not making any progress.
The Escalation missions seem like a neat idea, where you play the same mission five times with added objectives/restrictions each time. I haven't done many but it does make you think about how you'll approach things and encourages exploring the map. For example, if you knock someone out for a uniform to complete one level then you might have to find an alternative way if there's a new restriction against knocking people out in the next level.
There are also Elusive Targets, who are only available for a limited time and can only be killed once (or if you die/fail then you can't try again). It's an interesting idea, though it must take a bit of work to set them up and many players won't see them while those that do will only see them once. There's also a reward tied to completing several of them, which maybe isn't the best idea (it's cosmetic, but still). I wouldn't be surprised if they're replayed at some point or there's a token system introduced to unlock extra attempts from time to time.
It's more the kind of game you play around with rather than mostly aiming to complete objectives and such. There's some structure and there are things to unlock but mostly the unlocks are just new things to play around with and the fun comes from playing your own way.
I'm quite enjoying the game, I was originally going to wait for a sale or for all of the maps to be released but there's plenty to do now and it feels worthwhile. It is a bit of a timesink though, you can spend a lot of time hanging around and exploring but not really achieving anything so you really have to be up for enjoying the experience even if you're not making any progress.
I enjoyed Binary Domain, it's not hugely innovative but it's got some solid gameplay and a good sense of fun. The story is crazy (and gradually gets more insane) but that just contributes to the cheesy action film style of the game and it's the good kind of cheesy so it all adds up to a fun time. I think it's a shame that it was so overlooked.britguy said:
ShipTeaser
Dandy Guy, in Space
So, all done with the Platinum on Omega quintet and it was very grindy there at the end. still 71 hours wasn't too bad i don't think
I am also playing Pokemon Go like the known universe but my pokemon currently suck heh
Going to take a game break to finish up some anime i want to watch, then assuming it releases, Gal Gun Double Peace is next on my list. (hoping to god it's less grindy heh)
I am also playing Pokemon Go like the known universe but my pokemon currently suck heh
Going to take a game break to finish up some anime i want to watch, then assuming it releases, Gal Gun Double Peace is next on my list. (hoping to god it's less grindy heh)
Vashdaman
Za Warudo
I went back to Yakuza 4 today after about a year and a half since the last time I played it (I stopped after about 5 hours or so of play). And I'm still struggling dearly to get into the game. It's strange, it's a game I want to get into; it's a game I think I should be into, as I enjoyed 2 and 3, and many people seem to think that 4 is the best of the lot. But right now I feel like I kind of detest this game. Was Yakuza always this sleazy? It just oozes sleaze and so far seems to do nothing but revel in and celebrate it. But in a really strange delusional way. The game practically smells of stale cigarette smoke, hair gel, beer and JAV.
The game isn't gritty though, it's not in the slightest realistic, in fact most of the side missions seem to conclude with some ridiculous cute moral you wouldn't expect a child to accept. And that's fine, these light hearted side missions are sometimes quite entertaining. But the first protagonist of the game, this loan-shark guy, is clearly being built up as a heart of gold type of dude, a moral paragon of Kamurocho, a guy who gives interest free loans to people in need for no benefit of his own, and yet his first act of kindness in the game is to coerce a woman in need of help to work in his sleazeball hostess club in order to prove herself. And not just that, but his condition is that she must do whatever it takes to become the top earning hostess of the club (and you can dress and train her as you see fit for the job). And then he goes one better, and tells a woman with a child who is escaping her abusive husband and in search of a new start that "if you're serious about changing your life, you wouldn't think twice about accepting a job in a massage parlor" after she protests that she doesn't want to work in the sex industry. WTF. This guy is basically indebting vulnerable women in order to indenture them into his sex/sleaze establishments, and the game is trying to present him as some Jesus like figure. I can't get behind that. I'm convinced that the Japanese sex industries must be part funding this game.
It probably wouldn't be so bad if the gameplay wasn't so rubbish, but it is dull beyond belief, it's never anything else but bashing some goons head in, violence is the answer to every problem; and people actually compare this to Shenmue??! This makes me pine for Shenmue like never before. Kamurocho is also painfully dull, a bland concrete jungle whose only remarkable features are unremakrable Neon signs. And it's full of nameless faceless joes, and as little a sense of community as real life Tokyo probably has.
This isn't a world I want to spend anymore time in. Though am I curious if more heart will enter the game once the other protagonists come into play, but I probably should just stop.
The game isn't gritty though, it's not in the slightest realistic, in fact most of the side missions seem to conclude with some ridiculous cute moral you wouldn't expect a child to accept. And that's fine, these light hearted side missions are sometimes quite entertaining. But the first protagonist of the game, this loan-shark guy, is clearly being built up as a heart of gold type of dude, a moral paragon of Kamurocho, a guy who gives interest free loans to people in need for no benefit of his own, and yet his first act of kindness in the game is to coerce a woman in need of help to work in his sleazeball hostess club in order to prove herself. And not just that, but his condition is that she must do whatever it takes to become the top earning hostess of the club (and you can dress and train her as you see fit for the job). And then he goes one better, and tells a woman with a child who is escaping her abusive husband and in search of a new start that "if you're serious about changing your life, you wouldn't think twice about accepting a job in a massage parlor" after she protests that she doesn't want to work in the sex industry. WTF. This guy is basically indebting vulnerable women in order to indenture them into his sex/sleaze establishments, and the game is trying to present him as some Jesus like figure. I can't get behind that. I'm convinced that the Japanese sex industries must be part funding this game.
It probably wouldn't be so bad if the gameplay wasn't so rubbish, but it is dull beyond belief, it's never anything else but bashing some goons head in, violence is the answer to every problem; and people actually compare this to Shenmue??! This makes me pine for Shenmue like never before. Kamurocho is also painfully dull, a bland concrete jungle whose only remarkable features are unremakrable Neon signs. And it's full of nameless faceless joes, and as little a sense of community as real life Tokyo probably has.
This isn't a world I want to spend anymore time in. Though am I curious if more heart will enter the game once the other protagonists come into play, but I probably should just stop.
Vashdaman said:
The funny thing is I enjoyed the first guy but got bored during the second guy, so I'd be interested to see if you can tough it out a bit longer in case you find the opposite (it can't possibly take very long if you don't waste hours grooming women in the club like I did).
I can't deny that it's sleazy though.
R
-Danielle-
Death Scythe
Still playing Battleborn with my Brother.
Played Pokémon X on the train to and from Leeds back on Saturday too.
It's a sh*t game but I think the remotely latest Telltale's Minecraft is out so will get my Brother to download since we have the Season pass.
Played Pokémon X on the train to and from Leeds back on Saturday too.
It's a sh*t game but I think the remotely latest Telltale's Minecraft is out so will get my Brother to download since we have the Season pass.
Buzzkillington
Cardcaptor
If you don't mind me asking, what format are you playing it on? And do you play online at all? Basically I'm curious if the game has an online playerbase or if the online is just-Danielle- said:
dead at this point. Tempted to buy on PS4 but I fear finding a match would just take too long so wouldn't be worth it (although it's like £12).
As for me, I've been playing a lot or Street Fighter V when my PS4 allows it as it's taken to randomly ejecting discs again and I'm not keen on replacing it with the Neo around the corner. I've also been playing Overwatch as I very much have a love/hate thing going with it lol.
Lutga
Mad Scientist
Everything I've read about Battleborn suggests it got absolutely swamped by Overwatch coming out at the same time. Kind of makes me feel a little bad for it, but yeah, I do wonder if the community is just completely dead on it.
As much as I'm loving Overwatch, I do find I can only really go with it in short doses (which helps, seeing as the matches are only 10 mins long) - it's definitely not the kind of thing that can hold my attention for much longer than an hour or two at a time.
As much as I'm loving Overwatch, I do find I can only really go with it in short doses (which helps, seeing as the matches are only 10 mins long) - it's definitely not the kind of thing that can hold my attention for much longer than an hour or two at a time.
Buzzkillington
Cardcaptor
I also think Overwatch launching around the same time hurt it quite a bit, I think another issue is people didn't know what it was either. I've see a lot of people compare it to Overwatch and it's nothing like it, it's closer to Smite or Super MNC. It's a shame as I actually had a lot of fun in the Beta/whatever it was, it's really cheap in the Humble Bundle for the PC right now too but even at peak that's only hitting around 2000 players on Steam which is kinda awful (it was down to like 400 peak before the Humble Bundle).
Yeah I tend to have a couple of matches or so then log off and do something else for a bit, sometimes coming back and having another couple. I'm glad they banned use of 2 or more of the same hero in competitive too, it's made a world of difference imo.
Yeah I tend to have a couple of matches or so then log off and do something else for a bit, sometimes coming back and having another couple. I'm glad they banned use of 2 or more of the same hero in competitive too, it's made a world of difference imo.
-Danielle-
Death Scythe
I was gutted Overwatch was online only as I wanted to get that for my Brother too as something we could do together.
I enjoy Battleborn but yeah neither he nor I play online. Its for the PS4. We're waiting for more DLC that is levels and not just characters as they're going to be shoving Borderlands 4 easter eggs in it which I'm dying to see.
It was never going to live up to Borderlands. It's my fave gaming franchise.
We're bailing on Minecraft as they want another season pass/pay per episode and it was crap. Instead I'm gona buy the Batman game and my Brother's going to buy the TWD Season 3 one when it's out as he plays it then watches me in case I do stuff differently so he sees something new
I enjoy Battleborn but yeah neither he nor I play online. Its for the PS4. We're waiting for more DLC that is levels and not just characters as they're going to be shoving Borderlands 4 easter eggs in it which I'm dying to see.
It was never going to live up to Borderlands. It's my fave gaming franchise.
We're bailing on Minecraft as they want another season pass/pay per episode and it was crap. Instead I'm gona buy the Batman game and my Brother's going to buy the TWD Season 3 one when it's out as he plays it then watches me in case I do stuff differently so he sees something new
Jinjer
Completely Average High School Student
Buzzkillington said:
it felt for me like overwatch played the waifu game awfully well and that, in part, what left battleborn behind
on another note, smite gets you neith as your tutorial champion and there's a hell lot more in the roster, so yeah
For the last two weeks I've been playing Sword Art Online: Lost Song. Knowing that the games have basically built their own universe now, if I want to play the third game in the Autumn then I needed to complete Lost Song and thus with the game on sale anyways I figured I'd bite the bullet.
It plays more like an action game than the previous entry, Hallow Fragment, but also retained some of the stuff I liked from the last game so that's alright. The story was okay, I found it interesting enough but it's definitely not as good as the Hallow Fragment storyline and I was more invested in the gameplay. I need to go back for some side stories and quests, but I figure I can do those slowly over time. The game looks like a pretty easy platinum too, so I'll work at that.
I think I've only played Lost Song for 20-25 hours at most, so it's definitely a shorter game than Hallow Fragment too.
I'm thinking I'll go back to Tales of Xillia next, especially considering Grav is playing it
It plays more like an action game than the previous entry, Hallow Fragment, but also retained some of the stuff I liked from the last game so that's alright. The story was okay, I found it interesting enough but it's definitely not as good as the Hallow Fragment storyline and I was more invested in the gameplay. I need to go back for some side stories and quests, but I figure I can do those slowly over time. The game looks like a pretty easy platinum too, so I'll work at that.
I think I've only played Lost Song for 20-25 hours at most, so it's definitely a shorter game than Hallow Fragment too.
I'm thinking I'll go back to Tales of Xillia next, especially considering Grav is playing it