Neo Doesn't Play: His Backlog - Fuck Hatoful Boyfriend

Last edited by Neo on Thu Oct 23, 2014 3:07 pm; edited 26 times in total

Currently Playing: FFXIII again, fuck Hatoful Boyfriend

I’ve decided that I’m going to start playing through all my games and you guys are going to help me.

Basically, I’m going to keep track of what I’m currently playing and post a comment when I finish it. You guys can vote on what I play next and discuss the games and/or how correct all of my opinions are, this should give me the motivation to keep playing through everything I’ve bought over the past couple of years. Polls will last until I finish my current game.

To start off with, and to give everyone an idea of what I'm doing, I'll start with what I've completed in the past week.

June 2013 Games

Spoiler:

Game	Comments	Date Completed
	I feel like I understand what SE were going for with this game now, more than I did when I first tried playing it. I still don't necessarily think that they succeeded in making what they wanted to but, despite some glaring flaws, I can appreciate the battle system now. I do feel that the ATB system could have been a bit slower to facilitate actually choosing your attacks instead of using Auto all the time but I liked how bosses were designed around knowing when to use certain Paradigms, it felt a bit more strategic than the typical all out nukefest you see in most JRPGs. I would hesitate to call this "good" on the whole, mostly because of how long it takes to give you any freedom and how linear the game is, but it could definitely serve as a base for a good game, I hope FFXIII-2 turns out to be one.	17/06/2013
	This game is good, though probably the worst in the series. It has arguably better combat mechanics than either of the first two games but the weapons are rather uninspired and the upgrade/alternate ammo system has essentially been removed entirely. Map design has also taken a step backward and, aside from one or two areas, is 100% linear unlike the places in Bioshock 1 and 2 that felt somewhat like actual districts or buildings with some real purpose besides being shooting galleries. I also didn’t feel like the developers managed to capture the feeling of being in a flying city, something they definitely accomplished with the feeling of isolation and hostility in the first two games. On a more positive note I liked the story in this one more than Bioshock 2, Booker and Elizabeth were both fairly well written and, although there were some plot holes that arose later on, I did like the parallel universe/timeline thing that they had going on. I didn’t really care about the 1900’s America setting though and thought that the racism themes seemed shoehorned in to get good reviews from people who like “deep” stories in video games. The philosophical aspects and non central characters were very much downplayed compared to the first two games, a shame as I thought that they were strong points. I don’t regret playing this but I’d probably buy it on sale in retrospect. If more Bioshock games are made in the future I hope that they spend more time making the world compelling than designing shooter mechanics and trying to appeal to the CoD audience.	17/06/2013
	This is a game about punching aliens and mutants in the face, everyone should play it. You probably won’t have a clue what’s going on the entire time as the story makes no sense and the art style is absurd but the gameplay is really fun. Every problem you run into can be solved with your fists, and that’s how it should be. Seriously though, this game does have some issues. Sometimes the ridiculousness of the dialogue leaves you unsure of what you’re supposed to be doing and there were a couple of points where the map system bugged out and neither of us (I played through co-op with Skip) could figure out what we were supposed to do. Honestly I’m trying to think of more things to say about this game but it really is as simple as going around and getting into fistfights with aliens until the game ends. It’s a lot of fun and, at least in my opinion, priced correctly at $20. Try the demo if you’re interested, this game is just straight up fun.	20/06/2013
	This would be a fantastic game at a cheaper price point, the art design and music is absolutely top notch and there are some really cool ideas in the game like the combo system and memory remixes. The game is set in Paris at some point in the future and the game does a great job of actually coming across like that. There’s an equal amount of classic architecture and futuristic technology that really makes it seem like the world you’re in could be possible. It’s a shame that the game dumps you in sewers and underground areas so often because they really detract from the overall feel. The combat is a lot like Arkham Asylum but with some tweaks. You don’t have any gadgets but there are dial-a-combos that you can customise with “Pressens”. Basically each combo has a slot, one per button press, and you can socket special abilities into each that have various effects like extra damage, healing, cooldown reduction (for your multitude of special attacks) and special chain Pressens that duplicate and amplify the previous effect. The depth of combat doesn’t go much further than that but it’s cool to mess around with and create overpowered combos. The coolest part of the game, aside from the design, is definitely the Memory Remix segments. They play a little bit like the puzzles in Ghost Trick, except more often than not you’re trying to cause a death instead of prevent one. You can rewind forwards and backwards through a video of an event and, whenever you see a glitch, modify the situation in some way that will alter how the event plays out. It’s a shame that there are only four of these in the entire game because watching things happen differently because of your changes can be very entertaining. The story isn’t anything special and the game, which is extremely linear, can be finished in 8-10 hours so I’d be inclined to buy this on sale but it’s definitely worth giving a try at some point.	22/06/2013
	People with names like Slake Fistcrunch, Flint Ironstag and Fist Rockbone would fit right in to this game. It's like playing one big self-aware John Carpenter film full of cheese and it's fucking amazing. If you've played Far Cry 3 you'll more or less already know how this game works, however there are some minor changes that won't be apparently until you've played for a little bit. For starters, you start off with a lot of upgrades already, some of which have been upgraded beyond what you'd see in FC3. Fall damage doesn't exist anymore and you can run almost as fast as some of the (slower) vehicles in the original game. When you start to upgrade your weapons and health you'll realise how broken everything in this game is, by the time you're done you'll be wielding quad barrel incendiary shotguns, explosive sniper rifles that can oneshot just about anything if you hit the right spot, laser assault rifles and, above all of that, arm mounted laser cannons. When you put all of this together with the fact that you can get about four times as much health and armor as you could in FC3 it becomes rather apparent how Ubisoft want you to play, and boy is it satisfying to do so. I loved being stealthy with a bow in FC3, and I did a bit of it in this game too, but charging around a glowing neon map with a shotgun that sets everything on fire to a retro synth soundtrack definitely has a certain appeal. The world is fairly small compared to the original game but, to be honest, it feels like the perfect size for a budget priced spinoff title like this. I played through it in 12 hours, got all the upgrades and saw everything the game had to offer and it never felt monotonous or boring. There's plenty of land for you to dick around and fight dragons (oh yeah, dragons) in but it's not so big that you feel forced to use fast travel and not experience what the game has to offer and, while there are only 7 story missions, clearing out all the encampments and exploring to find all the upgrades takes a good chunk of time. Overall this game improves on FC3 in some subtle ways, such as not clearing the map of human enemies even after you clear all the encampments, while offering new playstyles and a fun story to take you along for the ride. For anyone who hasn't played FC3, but is curious, this could be the perfect taster at $15 and for anyone who wants more of what FC3 offered this will definitely deliver. Great game and a worthy, if perhaps a bit lacking on the story mission side, followup to one of the best FPS games of the past few years.	24/06/2013
	I'm going to preface this by stating that I suck at action games. I have a lot of fun with them, but I suck. I averaged a Silver/Bronze trophy on Normal and doubt I'd survive on Hard for very long at all. With that all said, this is probably the best action game I've ever played. Admittedly my only experience aside from this has been DMC3 and God of War but I think that's enough of a background to form some sort of opinion on the matter. The simplest way to put it is that everything in the game flows flawlessly, I was stringing together combos and feeling badass like I never could in DMC, despite my low skill level. That's not to say the combat is dumbed down at all, in fact I think the opposite could be true. The great variety in weapons, particularly how you can equip different ones to your hands and feet, and the way that just about anything can be chained into anything makes Bayonetta a joy to play and allows for some real depth when you're weaving around a group of enemies throwing out giant fists, swords, rockets etc... all at once. Occasionally the game will throw you a curveball and stick you on a motorbike or missile for a level, which is always spectacular and serves to freshen up the experience, although the combat is nowhere near as fun as it is on foot. The bosses are all fantastic and really feel like they're gigantic monsters hundreds of times your size, I particularly liked the one that has you surfing around the ocean on a bit of metal as you avoid a shark-like angel/monster that tries to eat you. Story takes a back seat in this game but it's never a problem and would probably just get in the way of the action anyway, the visual design and is all top notch and, even when you're revisiting slightly different versions of previous areas, nothing ever feels stale. The soundtrack is great too and manages to, somehow, fit perfectly with the crazy shit that happens on the screen for the full duration of the game. If I had to complain about one thing it'd definitely be the QTE's. I don't mind the torture attacks that you trigger yourself but I was caught out more than once by split second prompts that came with seemingly no warning. This isn't as much of a problem when it just damages you and takes you back to before the QTE was triggered but I found it extremely frustrating when I died as a result of a QTE and, as well as being set back, had a big red mark chalked up against me that butchered my final score for the mission. This is a game made for replaying but I still don't feel that it excuses things that just feel cheap, like those QTE's. Overall I had a great time with this game and can't wait for the sequel next year. Baal if there was ever a time to go and fellate Kamiya, it's now.	29/06/2013

July 2013 Games

Spoiler:

Game	Comments	Date Completed
	This game improves on XIII in almost every way, I was very impressed with it. The various systems in the game are essentially the same but the way everything is executed, from the way you're allowed to choose where you go next almost immediately to how the Crystarium has an element of choice to it, feels much more in line with what I'd expect from a RPG. Some aspects, like the party system, have been changed in bigger ways with the ability to fill the third slot in your group with most of the enemies in the game through a Pokemon/SMT-esque system. Once captured, monsters can be leveled up with different materials that modify their stats and infused with other monsters, adding and unlocking extra spells and abilities for them to use. You can get as stuck into this system as much as you like, basic monsters are more than enough to finish the game if you toss some levels on them but if you want to create a deathsquad to farm superbosses you're more than capable of doing so. The story is definitely a low point and, along with reskins and a lot of reused assets, is what gives away that this was a game made on a relatively low budget to try and recoup losses that SE made on FFXIV. From what I could gather the whole game is about Purple Sephiroth, a guy from the future who has actually been alive forever, who is trying to save the life of a preteen seer, who is doomed to die over and over because seeing the future takes a toll on your life, by killing a goddess and destroying time and space. One would think that doing so would result in the girl dying permanently but apparently he thinks otherwise. You have to stop him from accomplishing this by traveling through time and solving all the paradoxes that he creates in various eras, which works out just fine until you finish the game and both the goddess and protagonist die anyway, plunging the world into chaos. Presumably the third game will be about Lightning, the protagonists sister, trying to fix all the problems that were written into the story by XIII-2. The main problem I have with the game is the abundance of shitty minigames and puzzles that interrupt the flow of the story (mediocre as it is) and, in some cases, reduce you to holding a button down and letting the game play itself to unlock things. That said, there are more good additions than bad and the ability to reset areas to the state they were in before you played them and run through the events of the game in different ways is fantastic and should be included in pretty much everything. There's still a way for Final Fantasy to go before it can really match up to some of the older games in the series but considering how much XIII-2 was improved over its predecessor I'm confident that LR: FFXIII will be better in turn. Hell, I might even buy it at launch.	06/07/2013
	I decided to wait 5 hours before writing this as, when I finished the game, the only thing I wanted to do was rant about everything that I thought was bad. In all honesty though that's still what I want to do, so I'm going to try and keep this brief to avoid going off on a tangent. I find it ironic that a Tomb Raider game ended up borrowing more from Uncharted than Uncharted ever borrowed from Tomb Raider, the entire game felt like I was playing a slightly less linear version of U3. There are good things about that of course, like the spectacle of the set piece sections (though I do have issues with them) and the general attention to detail when it comes to the world you're in, but when I finished the game I felt almost exactly the same way as I did with U3; I couldn't think of any reason to ever touch the game again. I feel that this stems directly from the "cinematic experience" that both games so obviously strive for, something that I think cheapens them. It's not that they don't present cool situations for you to play through, they definitely do, but I'd rather just watch an action movie than play through something with so little game that is designed to be so easy that you could complete it blindfolded. When it comes to the bulk of the game there's nothing outright horrible about it, however all the little things like the hand holding, ammo being so abundant (in a game that marketed itself as being based around survival I might add) that it's essentially impossible to go into a fight without a healthy stock of automatic and explosive weapons, the linearity (having open sections for you to collect shit in between linear story missions doesn't count, sorry Crystal Dynamics), the lack of any challenging platforming, the tombs all being single room puzzles that a monkey could solve and the story being cliched and full of stereotypes are more than enough to make me regret buying this at full price. While a lot of people will like it for what it does well, I can't bring myself to think of Tomb Raider as anything more than a barely above average game. If a sequel is made I hope that Crystal Dynamics takes more inspiration from games like Far Cry 3 than the railroaded experiences that Naughty Dog has been producing this generation.	09/07/2013
	Not really sure what to say about this game as I'm in two minds about it. On one hand the writing, visuals, music, voice acting etc... was all fantastic and worthy of praise but on the other I really didn't click with the actual game part. That's not to say that it's bad, it's well crafted and if you're the type to enjoy the kind of puzzles that Catherine offers you'll definitely have fun, but it's not the type of puzzle game that I'd play given a choice. Can't say a whole lot about the parts of the game I liked without spoiling things but the way the themes of growing up, choice and maturity were worked in was very well done for a video game. I was worried going in that Catherine (the character) would be used for fanservice too often but there turned out to be very little and the small amount that did exist was entirely justified by context and served a purpose in the story. The characters are probably the strongest point of the game, they were all deeply flawed but that was the point of the game and it was executed very well. It's also a breath of fresh air to play through a story full of characters that actually have shit going on in their lives, I'm hesitant to use the word realistic in regards to a game that has succubi and demons involved but it's the only one that really describe the situation. I'd like to write about the gameplay but there's really not a whole lot to say. The core mechanics are very basic, as they should be in a puzzle game, and they're used to great effect in some of the harder puzzles, again as they should be. I played most of the game on Easy and had trouble getting Gold rankings on some missions so I imagine the game can get extremely challenging on Hard or in Babel, if you like this kind of puzzle game that'll probably appeal to you. Sorry for the meagre writeup, I'll try to go into more depth about the next game I play. If anyone who has played this wants to prompt me with anything go ahead.	05/08/2013

August 2013 Games

Spoiler:

Game	Comments	Date Completed
	Going in I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to like this game. I had heard a lot of complaints about it being a 'movie' and a lot of people who liked the first two games didn't seem to think that Rockstar had done the series justice. Maybe it's just because I never played MP1 or 2 but after finishing it I really can't see where any of the complaints were coming from. Yes, the game is linear and yes, there are a lot of cutscenes but when you take it as a whole everything just works. The cutscenes are all in engine and flow seamlessly into gameplay and the level design, while straightforward, is expertly done to show off all the mechanics that Rockstar built into the game. Max Payne 3 is a story driven shooter and, while the second half of the game is very predictable, it's probably one of the better ones I've played. Everything is narrated by Max as you play and his commentary is full of dry sarcasm and self deprecating remarks, it's interesting to have him, a self confessed "fat dumb gringo" commenting on the everything that happens around him in Brazil and I think that the devs did a great job of not only showing you a thing, but also showing you how Max percieves that thing. I guess this game just reinforces that you can always expect high production values from Rockstar. The best part of the game though, by a huge margin, is the gunplay. The guns all feel fantastic to use and every bullet, whether shot by you or an enemy, is individually modelled. Combined with the bullet time mechanic this means that you can actually see projectiles flying through the air and even watch the impact when you shoot something. Max Payne 3 is a game that drums in the fact that bullets do very bad things to people - whenever you kill the last enemy in a room you'll go into a bullet cam mode that lets you track the path, and impact, of your shot up until the enemy dies. It's particularly brutal when you're hitting headshots and you have to watch some poor guy take a bullet through the eye or throat. Also impressive is how bullets interact with the environment. Cover is damaged realistically as you work your way through levels and things like paper in offices or pots and pans in a kitchen can, and inevitably will, be tossed around or knocked over when hit by bodies or stray shots. All in all it's just a very well designed and polished game. I didn't touch any of the multiplayer but this would definitely be worth picking up cheaply if you like TPS games.	24/08/2013

Live Free or Don't Posts : 22124 Joined : 2008-08-01

As soon as Remember Me hits £25 I'm buying it.

You should, it felt like a game that the devs actually liked as opposed to a game they were told to make by a publisher.

Shut Up and Jam Posts : 26828 Joined : 2008-07-31 Age : 32

Play my dick.

you can beat multiple times in one day

FC3: Blood Dragon is good so far, it's pretty much just more FC3 and that's not a bad thing. Lots of dumb jokes make it more consistent than FC3 which couldn't seem to decide whether it wanted to be a serious game or have you torching a field of marijuana to a dubstep soundtrack.

Also you guys should vote for what I'll play after Baal's Dick.

You forgot to mention how great the Zeno Clash 2 story was with its themes of morality vs law and kidnapping.

i don't know what any of those games are like

Pick the one with the cutest girls or something, I don't care. I'm seriously doing this because I need help getting through my backlog.

THERE! ARE YOU HAPPY!?

you bully

Thanks, best friend.

I voted for Dark Arisen, just because I've had a blast with it, despite putting 100 hours plus into regular DD. On the subject of your other titles, I'm currently playing through Bioshock Infinite, and agree pretty much with what you've said; I've not finished the game (though I'd guess I'm close, now boarding the Prophet's flagship having freed Elizabeth) and while Booker and Elizabeth are well written and I genuinely do care about their fate the city itself isn't as good a playground as Rapture was, and the powers at time feel like re-skins of existing Bioshock plasmids rather than anything wholly new. That said, Charge does play a lot like Mass Effect 2/3's Vanguard Charge, which is pretty damn awesome. A good game so far, but unlikely to leave that much of a lasting impression. Unless the ending is amazing at least.

Bayonetta, I'm guessing your halfway through and if you wanna get through your backlog its probably a good place o start and unlike most of the other games its got a sequel you are hyped for.

I voted for Final Fantasy XIII-2

because it's genuinely quite a fun game, it's still somewhat linear, but you do have more freedom. like, you have to jump to certain times zones, but after a while, there's quite some time zones you can pick from and run around in just to level up or do some small side quests before you continue with the story.

and I think the battle system is great and enjoyable. especially since you can recruit animals and level those up. was a nice touch imo.

outside of the walking dead that automatically gave you the platinum trophy, Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 are the only 2 games I even bothered to platinum, so I guess that kind of says something about how much I loved it.

I actually enjoyed the story too to be honest.

Psycho really voted FF XIII-2 to make it a tie of two all around just to make life difficult.

nu-uh, cause I can't see the results before I vote, so I didn't know it was going to be a tie Very Happy

I've completed all the outposts and got every upgrade in Blood Dragon, someone should totally vote for something as I've only got 4 missions left before I'll be done with the game.

i hit FF also (currently leading with 33% btw) im with psycho on this, i loved 13 even tho it was linear. I found that breaking up the characters for their respective stories really gave you the chance to experience all of their abilities rather than the usual "level the ones you play with" attitude of other RPG's although 13-2 is a lot different story wise and it only has 2 characters to play with but i like the idea of using enemies on your team. so yeah... go with that Very Happy

Finished FC3: Blood Dragon and starting on Bayonetta now. Should I choose a new set of games for the poll or just replace the one that gets picked each time?

Shut Up and Jam Posts : 26828 Joined : 2008-07-31 Age : 32

Replace them because eventually you will play Catherine.

Okay, added a new poll.

Catherine, easily. That was a really good game, and even if the gameplay wasn't my usual thing, I had tons of fun with it.

Live Free or Don't Posts : 22124 Joined : 2008-08-01

Play Folklore and tell me if it's worth playing. It's been sitting on my shelf for ages.

FFXIII-2 for reasons stated before.

and because I haven't played the others so I don't have an opinion on those.

There's a definite pattern with these vote counts.

» Help Simian clear his backlog: Now Playing Guacamelee (Xbox One)
» Superbuu3 plays his backlog
» Baal Backlog: New Poll
» I have a backlog in my toilet for the first time in ages.
» Going through the Ricky Gervais radio/podcast backlog