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Pokémon: Super Mystery Dungeon (3DS)

Warning this will be a massive rant, this doesn't mean this is a bad game, it's a good game, a lot of things ruined it for me however.

The Mystery Dungeon franchise for pokemon is probably the best ongoing side series for pokemon (Though if they make a Snap 2 I might reconsider), it takes the battle mechanics from the main series and mixes it with a dungeon crawler/ Roguetype. I had Pokémon Red Mystery Dungeon on GBA, I loved it but wasn't any good, I then got Explorers of Time and it was even better and Explorers of Sky topped that (Even though it was essentially the same game). Explorers of Sky is my favourite game ever released on the DS and according to my 3DS I've amassed over 300 hours playing it, though I've had it on my regular DS for longer but that doesn't track Gameplay length. I didn't play any of the sequels because of either Never hearing about them (I think the next one was on the Wii and was essentially a demo) or because they didn't include every pokemon like the first ones and I assumed that must mean it was also really short. I saw Super Mystery Dungeon on the online store last month and saw that it had every pokemon and I brought it instantly. I'm very slightly regretting it now.

This game is nowhere near as good as the earlier ones, they added some new mechanics that were pretty good (Emera's, Gold Bar's,Wands) but they took a lot of good mechanics out. I don't know whose idea it was but why would you remove a quicksave function from a game that has dungeons 99 floors long, the alternative is to pay for a device that you can use to save your progress (Unusable in dungeons that prevent bringing in items) if your busy it is incredibly frustrating, or if your low on battery when half way through a dungeon, it's stupid. Other mechanics include letting you power up your moves with repeated use, which is a good idea, if accuracy wasn't one of the things that got boosted, it basically means your character will repeatedly miss attacks as you have incredibly low accuracy when you start, especially in harder dungeons as higher lvl enemies can dodge attacks more easily, when you miss 8 attacks in a row it starts to get annoying. Also in previous games when there were infinite missions available, this is reduced to a finite number just under 200, I think this was to make each mission personal but the 'personality' is 2 or 3 lines of dialogue. The mission system also meant one of my first missions involved having my 2 lvl 9's having to fight a lvl 50 with boosted stats and hp.

If your still reading, I'm sorry but there's gonna be more complaining. The story has become more... I can't think of the word... childish. To illustrate my point where as you had your own house or lived in a guild in previous game, the first half of this game you go to a school, and then when you finally complete it, you beat the final boss by 'learning to accept them for who they are'. Characters don't have the charm they did in previous games, particularly your partner, who is so infuriating and is almost constantly happy and shows other emotions rarely. Though not technically a bad thing another annoying thing is that the main enemy in this game isn't even a pokemon, the final boss has some good mechanics, but they never used those mechanics with any other boss fight, which could've been a really good feature.

Still complaining... I've never played a game where the protagonist feels so useless. You and your partner are some of the worst pokemon in the game. The developers obviously realised this so most of the story is spent doing escort missions, yet your escort is usually 3 x stronger than you. This ends up with any non escort mission being really difficult, and it gets even more difficult later as you have to beat some dungeons with just the protagonist. It takes about 10 hours of crawling through dungeons before your a decent lvl and that's only if your stubborn enough not to replace your weak protagonist with one of the many stronger pokemon you recruited earlier in the game.

Almost done... I don't know how they did it but the AI is worse than previous games. Enemies are unable to comprehend dead ends and simply get stuck for ages if they walk into one, you can also see them walking in circles in rooms not being able to get out, I feel like this is a result of trying to get enemies to 'head' towards the players general area but it just screws up their navigation. Your teammates AI is also incompetent which I believe to be a result of removing the IQ system from previous games which allowed you to better customize your teammates AI. You basically have 2 settings for their AI: Break away from following you to pick up random items you didn't want, or never break away but won't attack enemies that put you to sleep as they won't attack an enemy you didn't attack first. Also the code that decides what attack they'll use favours STAB over potential damage, so they'll continually use a weak move instead of a strong one if it's the same type as them.

Right that's the majority of the complaining done. When your favourite game gets a sequel you hope for something like the previous game but better, and when this doesn't prove to be the case it can lessen the experience you might have had had you not previously played the game (This also happened to me with Oblivion, I was hoping for something closer to Morrowind). Here's the good points, this is a good time waster game, it can pass a few hours away. If your a fan of pokemon you'll like this game. Parts were fun, and the graphics are much improved since the previous games in the series, and there are some good scenes and action sequences. Music is alright. I would only recommend this game if it was discounted, anyone asking for a good dungeon crawler on the DS I'd recommend Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, it has much better story, your character can actually fight and not miss opponents and it's got a greater range of difficulty. I feel like there's a DLC coming to the game, mainly because the hardest dungeon in the game isn't that difficult compared to previous games. Also I'd like to apologize to anyone who actually decided to read through that whole rant. In better news now that I've completed this I can get started on Earthbound.
Ratchet and Clank (PS4)
By far the best one since the PS2 trilogy. The controls are back to feeling like the originals, the guns are great, and the balancing is fixed from the PS3's. I'm on my second playthrough and it's probably not my last either :P
Saint’s Row IV: Gat out of Hell (PS4)

This game is very similar to SR4: Re-Elected, but it’s smaller and you can’t customise your character and the game is set in Hell… so there are zombie-demons walking around instead of human pedestrians, and everything is dark, run-down, and/or half destroyed. Plus I was playing as Kinzie but all the cutscenes featured Gat, which was a little jarring.

None of these points appealed to me, so I didn’t find it as fun as Re-Elected. I would not recommend this game unless you’re a big SR fan and are dying for something a bit different and the above aspects appeal to you.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still got the same style of silly fun as the base game and I finished all of the main missions, but I was not motivated enough to complete all the extra activities etc. For me if I’ve got the itch for this game I’d rather just replay Re-Elected again.
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01kipper: Saint’s Row IV: Gat out of Hell (PS4)
I love the Saints Row games, but I agree with you- Gat was a bit of a letdown. Having to play a Saints game with one of two preset characters instead of making your own unique character? No music radio stations (unless I really missed something). Just a budget game for a few hours of quick fun- it still had some funny bits.
Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One)

I finally found something as crazy and over the top as Saints Row :D Pretty much non-stop action throughout the story. Great fun, good humor, colorful, lots of open-world activities, good soundtrack, and the traversal works very well. Getting from A to B is one of the best parts of the game. You can grind/bounce/wall-run/pole-swing on most surfaces/objects in the game world. The combat also has a lot of variety, with many weapons that you can level up and equip with amps. You can also "amp" your character, with overdrives!

There is no game quite like it, though it borrows elements from many other games. There was a lot of Saints Row in there, and some Borderlands. Even a bit of skating-games with the traversal :P
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Random_Coffee: Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One)
You didn't mention all the unique animated death re-spawn scenes that even made dying fun. Seriously one of the most fun games ever made, really no other game quite like it- though it borrows a bit from the Infamous series, but the Infamous games are not as fun. And how many other games have a Punk Rock soundtrack?

I wish the devs would make a sequel, but looks like they've gone back to making Ratchet and Clank games for Sony again.
Post edited April 20, 2016 by CMOT70
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Random_Coffee: Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One)
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CMOT70: You didn't mention all the unique animated death re-spawn scenes that even made dying fun. Seriously one of the most fun games ever made, really no other game quite like it- though it borrows a bit from the Infamous series, but the Infamous games are not as fun. And how many other games have a Punk Rock soundtrack?

I wish the devs would make a sequel, but looks like they've gone back to making Ratchet and Clank games for Sony again.
Ah, yes. The respawn-animations were amazing :) Forgot to mention that. They really nailed "never a boring moment". Unfortunately, there probably won't be a sequel. As far as I know, the game didn't sell very well.

How are the DLCs?
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CMOT70: You didn't mention all the unique animated death re-spawn scenes that even made dying fun. Seriously one of the most fun games ever made, really no other game quite like it- though it borrows a bit from the Infamous series, but the Infamous games are not as fun. And how many other games have a Punk Rock soundtrack?

I wish the devs would make a sequel, but looks like they've gone back to making Ratchet and Clank games for Sony again.
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Random_Coffee: Ah, yes. The respawn-animations were amazing :) Forgot to mention that. They really nailed "never a boring moment". Unfortunately, there probably won't be a sequel. As far as I know, the game didn't sell very well.

How are the DLCs?
Not sure about the DLC. I have the disc version that came bundled with the Xbox, with the game being one of this months GwG games I was really hoping for a 50% off sale for the DLC as well, but no go it seems. Yeah it didn't sell well, so it will go down as one of those "greatest games that no one played" things unfortunately.
Post edited April 20, 2016 by CMOT70
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CMOT70: Not sure about the DLC. I have the disc version that came bundled with the Xbox, with the game being one of this months GwG games I was really hoping for a 50% off sale for the DLC as well, but no go it seems. Yeah it didn't sell well, so it will go down as one of those "greatest games that no one played" things unfortunately.
It sounds fun! If they released it on PS4 I'd buy it, but that's not going to happen.
WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Game$! - I haven't played much of this series, but I was hooked on these micro games! It's one of those games that seems like I'll never get past the current level, but after a few tries, I finally get the hang of the games and I'm able to progress.

Street Fighter III: New Generation - I had never played any of the Street Fighter III games and I'm not entirely sure why. I looooved the Street Fighter II and Alpha games and this one feels very similar to those. I have the double pack on Dreamcast, so now I need to try out 2nd Impact!

Metal Slug 3 - I'll eventually play through all of these :P This one was really neat with the zombie enemies / mechanics and felt different than the others I've played. Luckily, the Steam version has unlimited continues, otherwise, there's no way I could've finished this one :P

Full list + completion times
<span class="bold">Tales from the Borderlands</span>

Enjoyed this from start to finish. A great story, with an interesting cast, set in the Borderlands universe.
I usually hate QTEs in a game, with the exception of two: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Tales from the Borderlands. Just like any recent Telltale Games title, this one has the QTEs, but this time they were even more enjoyable, with some intense action sequences.
Also, the game has a great , and some awesome [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2YT2w9Pvyc&amp;list=PL110ZNeRtN-tkmb6cqcTmpcc4IVNMi9FO&amp;index=1]opening and credits songs.


Complete list of games finished in 2016.
Sunless Sea

I did enjoy the game but not as much as I had initially hoped. First of all the game is hard to get into. But after spending some time you may realize how great atmosphere and writing it has. I truly love it! I also like how they managed to make it clear that sailing those waters is extremely dangerous. You will always keep your eye on your resources, worry if you can get back from a long journey and you will have to manage your echos (money) very carefully. Even if you have a bigger sum be careful on spending it on a better ship. It may use drastically more fuel and it will be the end of your brave captain. So what is my problem with game? Well, I think that exploring and fighting are both tedious and - after some time - boring. And obviously they are pretty important part of the game (especially exploring). I’m afraid the devs didn’t manage to make those things interesting enough. So while, yes, I did enjoy it I doubt I’ll ever play it again.



Full list
I just completed the original Quake (GOG version). I am planning on going through the expansions soon.
Gothic 2. Had a lot of fun with this one and spent close to 90 hours on it. I can see why the fan base really got into these games. Controls are really wonky compared to many other games, but once you get used to them, it's not so bad, I guess. Having played Risen, which is supposedly the true sequel to the Gothic series, I can now understand a bit better why die-hard fans were disappointed with the Risen series. But I guess that's the way the turkey tumbles. Moving on to Gothic 3 now.

Full List.
Gladiatrix Trilogy (Neverwinter Nights module)

SEX.......is a word that, in capitals and bold underlined text like that, immediately drew you to this review. Now that you're here I can tell you what the Neverwinter Nights fan module is really about. Well, okay...mostly it is in fact about sex. Here's the final devs blog page for more details http://fallynrayne3.blogspot.com.au/ and you can find the actual files needed from a number of the usual NWN module sites.

The great thing about fan made NWN mods is that the left wing lesbians with arts degrees that run the Australian censorship board don't get to ban it.

The Gladiatrix trilogy is a mostly tongue in cheek VERY adult adventure telling the adventures and misadventures and rise to fame and glory of a young female gladiator, who has an amazing knack for losing her clothing very often. You can create your own character but it's heavily scripted to a female fighter class, and really you may as well just use the pre-made devs character. As mentioned the story is mostly tongue in cheek and makes fun of the usual fantasy tropes in a way- like the skimpier the female magical armor the better protection it gives. The story is surprisingly engaging considering what it is, and though mostly just fun it does have a few darker moments. It felt maybe just a bit rushed towards the ending, but overall it was pretty decent.

If you're a sensitive new age type of person that's easily offended, don't play Gladiatrix- if you do anyway and get offended then you're pretty dumb. Otherwise, at least give the first part a try and you just may play through the entire series.
Post edited April 22, 2016 by CMOT70