The 'Lets blitz some games from our gaming backlog' thread

[Beefy]

I've got a huge backlog of games on my PS3 and am trying to blitz through a fair few of them before I upgrade to a PS4 and probably in the first few months post-upgade as well. I'm fairly sure that plenty of others have long backlogs as well and as we approach the festive season and money gets a bit tight this is a good time of year to try to get through some of them.

So I thought I'd make a thread out of it to keep me on track, maybe encourage a bit of discussion and hopefully get a few of you to join me.

I downloaded Bioshock and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons last night and so they're my first two targets. Hoping to get Dead Space played this month as well as I've heard a lot of good stuff about it and it is dirt cheap in the current PSN sale. Hopefully I'll start Bioshock tonight.

So come on and join me in trying to tick a few of these off of your gaming list.

[Pete Cash]

Vampire the masquerade.

Had to install like 300mb of patches to make it work. So far its pretty fun. I've put a few hours into it. Its one of those PC cult classics I've not got round to playing.

[The Rogerer]

It has a weird bug where if you had exactly 4GB of RAM all the textures would go horrible.

I have an insane collection from Steam packages and the recent PS3 sales. I try to keep it sensible with what I get on PS3, but I can't be emotionally connected to what's in my Steam list. I've bought a few Humble Bundles and games just literally appear in there over time.

As I said before I have completed Dead Space and Bioshock both a handful of times. I started Dead Space again after I recommended it to Beefy.

[RuneEdge]

My backlog is massive, going all the way back to the PSX. The shit thing is that I have a similar backlog of movies that I'm 'blitzing' through so between that and work, I'm finding it hard to fit games in.

How much time a day/week are you dedicating to this?

[Beefy]

Six or seven hours over midweek I'd say then probably the same again over the weekend. I knocked through Arkham City in the last week in that amount of time and think I can keep that up and still have time for a few episodes of House of Cards, some sport and a night out along the way.

[Bad Collin]

I'm in, I have:

360 games started but not completed:

Far Cry 3
Mass Effect 3
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Lost Oddysey

And I already have a decent backlog building up on PS4:

The Last of Us
Assasins Creed 4: Black Flag
Watch Dogs
Shadow of Mordor

I played three of the PS4 games this weekend, I just couldn't settle on any of them. The Last of Us and Shadow of Mordor are great so i'll definitely complete those but I have a real problem with Ubisoft games, i'll probably just run through the story.

[Beefy]

I find it difficult to play a number of story-driven games at the same time. I always know that if I move on from one game to another then I won't be coming back to it, no matter what I say to myself at the time. I've loads in my backlog where I started and gave up.

I think you need to throw yourself into something like The Last of Us rather than picking at bits at a time between other games.

[Cewsh]

I'm trying to work through every SNES and PSX RPG that I skipped when I was younger and that people have been demanding I finish for years. So it's:

Final Fantasy VI
Secret of Mana
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Earthbound
Suikoden II
Xenogears
Legend of Dragoon

Am I missing any that I should tackle? I've beaten the piss out of every other Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Cross, Star Ocean 2, 3 and 4, Legend of Legaia, Suikoden and a bunch of others.

[Beefy]

What is your strategy to go through those Cewsh? What are you playing right now?

[Cewsh]

What is your strategy to go through those Cewsh? What are you playing right now?

I'm playing Final Fantasy VI right now. I originally played it years ago, but I got to a part where I wasn't leveled up high enough and couldn't go back, so I rage quit and hated the game for years. This time i'm tackling it with a walkthrough here and there so I can enjoy the story. I'm about to where I stopped last time, and I should be finished with it in a few days. After that i'm not sure which one to do next. My copy of Shenmue II is corrupted, which is a shame, because I loved the first one. So I was thinking maybe Lufia?

[Beefy]

I've FF V, VI & VII all on my PS3. I just don't see me playing them though.

[Cewsh]

I will say, VI has a lot of little gameplay quirks that spices it up a lot more than the general Final Fantasy formula. I'd recommend it the most of any of them if you can get past the 16 bit nature of it.

[Bad Collin]

VII is the greatest game of all time

[Cewsh]

It's not even the best Final Fantasy from that console generation. It was a revelation at the time but is has aged worse than any of them.

[RuneEdge]

6 and 9 were brilliant. :yes:

The mere mention of 9 makes me want to go back and play.

[The_Mike]

IX was awesome. Seriously underrated, or at least just not really talked about much. I still love VII the most, no matter how fanboyish and silly it may be.

Anyway, Cewsh, I think the next one to tackle might be Secret of Mana. I think you'd enjoy the change of pace after VI's super seriousness.

[Grimario]

I hate these kinds of threads because they remind me that I have a few hundred completely unplayed games on Steam that I will, in all likelihood, never get around to playing.

Maybe not buying FM2015 will free up time to play something other than a football database :chin:

[Beefy]

Get on it Grim.

[Grimario]

Pick a letter, Beefy.

[Beefy]

D for Donald Fisher

[Donald]

Ahem.

[Grimario]

D for Donald Fisher

http://i.imgur.com/bAHKdTn.jpg

And then?

[Beefy]

Ahhhhh we could have played Dead Space together.

[Bert]

I hate these kinds of threads because they remind me that I have a few hundred completely unplayed games on Steam that I will, in all likelihood, never get around to playing.

That's small time. Get on my level.

http://i.imgur.com/5g5xqlv.png

Binding of Isaac Rebirth tomorrow though and depending on how much time I put into in the Vita version I'll probably put a lot of time into the PC version.

[Bad Collin]

Holy Shit Grim...

I'm adding another one to my list, winning the F1 World Title on F1 2010. I just reloaded a game from about three years ago where I am in a ludicrously good Virgin car. I'm winning the championship after three races but I just spent two hours coming last in China. Great fun though.

[Atty]

I will say, VI has a lot of little gameplay quirks that spices it up a lot more than the general Final Fantasy formula. I'd recommend it the most of any of them if you can get past the 16 bit nature of it.

Get past? Are you talking bad about 16-bit perfection?

[Donald]

I got Red Dead Redemption to complete.

[Beefy]

So I started Bioshock last night. Didn't get my teeth into it too much but really liked the introduction. I literally knew nothing about the game going in to the point that I didn't even know it was a First Person game (I hate FPS games).

I was going to watch last night's NFL match tonight but I just checked my emails and had it spoilt so I'll be able to give this a good couple of hours tonight.

I just topped up my PSN wallet with £20 as well so I've actually increased my backlog. Going to pick up House of the Dead 4 and Overkill as it occurred to me that I've not used my Sharpshooter/Move for three years. Going to get Ghosts & Goblins too for some classic arcade action.

[Bad Collin]

I never got into Bioshock. I played it for 10 hours or so but found it really samey. I don't intend to go back to it.

[Beefy]

Well where were you when I was asking for opinions prior to paying £3 for it??? :irked:

[Bad Collin]

Most people love it. It's worth £3 to be able to form your own opinion on a very popular game.

[Beefy]

Ten hours though? I've loads to be getting on with.

[The Rogerer]

You can tear through Bioshock fairly quickly if you want to. The Big Daddy fights are optional, but they're the best part of the game in a way because you can prepare for the fight as much as you want and then piss it off, and it'll still panic you when it comes rushing after you.

The reason Bioshock is so popular is mostly down to the scene setting, the acting and the memorable set pieces. If you liked the start there's a few parts in the game which are also very distinct and memorable. It does drag a bit at a couple of points, but what can I say.

[Beefy]

0 hours put into this last night. Six games bought. I'm not sure I have got the idea of this right.

[The Rogerer]

Don't beat yourself up. I contributed to my classic film endeavours by watching The Harry Hill Movie last night.

[Grimario]

Maybe not buying FM2015 will free up time to play something other than a football database :chin:

0 hours put into this last night. Six games bought. I'm not sure I have got the idea of this right.

Got paid. Bought FM 2015.

:nono:

[Beefy]

Why would you do that? Those games are so shit nowadays. Absolute waste of time.

And you don't do Rajah United games anymore.

[Grimario]

Why would you do that? Those games are so shit nowadays. Absolute waste of time.

And you don't do Rajah United games anymore.

In celebration of not being made redundant, mostly.

And waste of time? Isn't that the whole point with VG?

And Rajah United? It is POTTY season... :chin:

[Dreyski]

Recently been putting some hours into GTA IV after getting hacked off with one of Gerry Mcreary's missions about six months ago. Forgot I had The Ballad of Gay Tony :$

[Bad Collin]

I enjoyed some Watch Dogs tonight, I should be able to tick that box this week.

[Bad Collin]

Watch Dogs is done:

360 games started but not completed:

Far Cry 3
Mass Effect 3
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Lost Oddysey

And I already have a decent backlog building up on PS4:

The Last of Us
Assasins Creed 4: Black Flag
Watch Dogs - Completed
Shadow of Mordor

I was close to the end of Lost Oddysey so maybe that should be next.

[The Rogerer]

How did it go Beefy?

I think this is why I bought a PS4. I was able to declare bankruptcy on my stupidly large PS3 sale collection and play it another day.

[Beefy]

Didn't get as much chance to play as I'd wanted as wanted to give Civ V a decent go during my one week Onlive trial. I'm really liking it though. It is a different game with the headphones on and the lights off. Very atmospheric.

[Beefy]

Still working through Bioshock. I've about nine hours now so must be towards the end. I'm REALLY enjoying it. I'm not sure I get the plot but I really like the mechanics of the game (despite essentially being an FPS) and I've really bought into the setting. Very good recommendation from Rogerer (I think).

[The Rogerer]

There's something weird about the shooting that works in it's favour. I found I can never quite be sure of my aim and firefights are always a bit hectic and panicked. So on paper it might seems like a weird one, but it works in its own way. The acting and atmosphere is pretty top notch too.

It and Dead Space are a good combo pack in my book. Dead Space is a lot lighter on story, but it makes up for it with atmosphere and the design on the combat and the weapons being some of the best ever. Not really a spoiler, there is a trophy for completing the entire game using only the basic starter weapon, and it's a joy to use that some people got it without trying. The other weapons all have their charms but are very distinct and situational.

[Beefy]

I pretty much just use the shotgun on Bioshock to get around the difficulty targeting someone. Unless it is a Big Daddy then it is all about the armour-piecing rounds from the machine gun.

Looking forward to playing it tonight.

[Beefy]

So the last three nights I've sat down to finish this and yet the game is still going on....! It is a lot longer than I was expecting. I'm pretty sure that I'll finish it tonight based on where I am in the story.

It is really good. Looking forward to the second one although I've a couple of games I want to squeeze in between first.

[The Rogerer]

Where are you at? I should be able to tell you. The one problem with Bioshock is that the last part of the game is quite weak - in a sense they clearly went "Better wrap this up quite quickly now." It's not terrible, but you can tell in the later games they tried to make up for it by having big grand endings.

You shouldn't go straight to Bioshock 2, leave it a while. It's a better game and has a more coherent story, but it suffered backlash for being too similar to the first one. It's really just that you're back in Rapture, but you're not repeating any of the same areas.

[Beefy]

Killed Andrew Ryan and Atlas has been revealed to be Frank Fontaine. I got the antidote to get myself out of his control and now have to construct a Big Daddy suit to trick one of the Sisters into letting me in somewhere or something.

That's where I turned off last night.

Also I'd been saving the Sisters instead of harvesting them so Tenembaum helping me made sense. Had I been harvesting them would that part of the game been the same?

[The Rogerer]

Ah yeah, the thing you have to do is a lot quicker than you think it would be, they just rush through that part to get you to the end.

The harvesting stuff makes only a few small changes and a subtle difference to the ending. The choice aspect didn't really amount to much in the end, they tried to make good on that in 2 as well.

[Beefy]

So not long to go then?

[The Rogerer]

Getting you ready for the final boss, which is a bit silly.

[Atty]

Maybe half an hour if you're where I think you are. And Rog is right on the endings. Just look the other one up on youtube, because everything but the cutscene will be the same. On repeat runs, I've played good with the sisters, but that's more because you get cooler plasmids.

[Beefy]

Cheers. Yeah I've read about the two slightly different endings today (not really arsed about spoilers in the circumstances) and I'll watch the other one.

Atty it was you who recommended Infinite wasn't it?

[Atty]

Infinite is amazing.

[The Rogerer]

Mmmmmmmmmmyeah I guess it is. It has a large number of wonderful parts.

[Atty]

It has an infinite number of wonderful parts...



...I'll show myself out.

[The Rogerer]

See ya.

My reservation just comes from it being a bit troubled. It was too big budget and in development for too long, it was a bit too big for it's own britches.

[Beefy]

Finished!

[The Rogerer]

Ha, I liked consolevania's review where he said he got bored in the middle, but when he tried to describe the ending to someone he started to well up. I'm sure you see what I mean by the "Oop, we'd better finish this game somehow" feeling.

[The Rogerer]

GTA: San Andreas (An apology)

For years I'd considered this game overrated. But having played GTA 3 and Vice City fairly recently, I now appreciate that I was very wrong. I think SA is pretty amazing in comparison to those other two, and although it has hard missions, the other two had stuff just as bad. By the time SA came out I was just burned out on the GTA formula and games in general. I also find the soundtrack a lot more interesting, at the time I just wanted more Vice City big hits. I even find the gang context more interesting, just as a snapshot of a particular time. Reading about the actual police corruption stuff that was going on in LA is something else.

I've still got a long way to go as I'm just getting to San Fierro now, but a dedicated few days will hopefully see me though. I remember the roadblock I hit first time was having to raise $80k, or was it 800k, for an airstrip?

But good grief, aiming a gun is a remarkable skill in itself in these games.

[Beefy]

I'd love to get fully into San Andreas again but I find the graphics a step down from the two earlier games (a compromise in exchange for such a large map I assume) and that coupled with the horrible controls make it a real struggle for me.

Which is a shame because of its time I thought it was sensational. I really got into the gangland setting, I loved the flying stuff and unlike many people I really enjoyed the soundtrack.

I don't know.... I've two weeks at my Parents' place over Christmas where my knackered PS2 is. If I can get San Andreas to run on it then I might give it another go.

I was going to post in this thread today anyway. I started Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons yesterday. Apparently it is only a 3-4 hour game so should finish it this week really. It is a delightful little game with a really good, clever control system. It is no Journey but I'd definitely recommend it if anyone else picked it up for free on PS+ but never got around to playing it.

[The Rogerer]

I wondered if you had a wrap up for Bioshock? The wheels come off at the last part but I wonder how it holds up to new impressions.

Brothers won't take you too long. Very good experience but the first game that made me want those gioteck triggers on the dualshock 3. There was one section, maybe I was just getting clammy, but I was worried about fingers slipping off

[Beefy]

Yeah I've had that in a couple of cases. I'm not the most co-ordinated person to controlling two characters with two sticks at the same time is a challenge for me but I'm not holding it against the game. I think the controls are rather ingenious actually.

Bioshock... I really enjoyed it. I hate FPS games and have probably completed five in total ever without getting bored and switching off but I really got into this one. I loved the atmosphere of the game and really bought into the story over the second half of the game once I realised that the main narrative was being driven by the diaries as opposed to them being purely background. I haven't explained that well but what I mean there is that whilst I'm used to the 'snippets of backstory' which you pick up as the game goes on as being a pretty usual method of telling stories these days, the games I've played which use that (Arkham Asylum, 40k Space Marine) have tended to be set in universes which I've already got an awareness of. I went into Bioshock completely blind to the franchise so I would probably benefit from a repeat play to listen to those early diaries again and pay more attention to them second time around.

The game looks and plays somewhat dated now but I can see why it was such a big hit in the early years of the last generation. I've seen the trailer for the second one and look forward to playing that in a few weeks as by the end I loved the partnership the Big Daddies and the Little Sisters. It's an interesting choice for a second game although I understand that it wasn't the same people behind the two games.

This week I'll finish Brothers and House of the Dead 3 (busted out my Sharpshooter and charged up the Move for the first time in two years at the weekend but keep dying on the last boss so have to replay the entire game to get back to him). Realistically I've only got time for one more big game this year I think so want to make it one which I think has a chance of making my 'best game ever' list before the cut-off for that at Christmas. It'll either be Uncharted 3 as I've got that on PS+ ready to go or it'll be Heavy Rain. I've not got Heavy Rain but it is dirt cheap second hand now and from what I've read about it it sounds like the sort of game that might feature in an all time top games list of mine.

[Dreyski]

So I finished TBOGT and Bioshock 2, currently trophy hunting on Borderlands 2 (getting to level 50, character specific trophies) and seeing if True Vault Hunter mode has the same ending as the normal game.

[Beefy]

Finished Brothers yesterday. What a fantastic litte game. Completely pulled me in at the end. I love little games like this - in three hours they managed to connect with me more without a single word of English being spoken than GTA V did in ten times that length.

It isn't quite Journey but that is the closest comparison that I can make.

Going to start Shadow of the Colossus tonight - unless I can pick up Heavy Rain preowned first.

[JP]

Going to start Shadow of the Colossus tonight - unless I can pick up Heavy Rain preowned first.

Even if you manage to pick up Heavy Rain (which is actually on my list of things I've yet to play) I'd suggest you play Shadow first, it is genuinely a contender for best game ever made.

[The Rogerer]

Heavy Rain is the best of the David Cage games, it has some really great moments.

Shadow of the Colossus is great, a good one to play coming up to Christmas as well. The game is a series of boss fights, but that's better than it sounds.

[JP]

I really enjoyed Fahrenheit but thought it was a bit hamstrung by the technology of the time, looking forward to seeing how they improved on things with Heavy Rain whenever I get round to it.

[Beefy]

Even if you manage to pick up Heavy Rain (which is actually on my list of things I've yet to play) I'd suggest you play Shadow first, it is genuinely a contender for best game ever made.

I think I'll like them both but I've a feeling going in that I might love Heavy Rain. I know that is a weird thing to say about a game which has been out for six years but it really seems my sort of game and I've got one eye on the next poll we have coming up in a few weeks.

I don't see me finishing both games before Christmas as I've only got one weekend to play them in.

[Jay]

I loved Heavy Rain; it's my kind of game. It's why I love the likes of Telltale's The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and The Wolf Among Us, I like games where the decisions you make changes the course of the story.

I'll be giving Brothers a go, as well. A game that has any sort of comparison to Journey has me very intrigued.

I have a bit of a backlog at the moment. After hardly touching my PS4 for about six months, I've bought a fair few games recently due to all of the deals - Far Cry 4, Shadow of Mordor, Wolfenstein: New Order, Metro Redux, GTA V and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

I've started with Wolfenstein and it's been great so far. The characters and story are the highlight, but it plays really well too. It's not just a shooter, there's stealth and some problem solving too. And playing a level of Wolfenstein 3D was a fantastic surprise.

[Beefy]

Brothers is very different to Journey but there are similarities in terms of the length of the game, the innovative controls, and their abilities to tell a story without the use of an understandable language. They also at a high level are about a challenging journey with a number of obstacles in the characters' way.

I picked up Heavy Rain for €5 yesterday in HMV so I'm going to start that tonight. Looking forward to it.

[The Rogerer]

What do you have to say about Brothers? I'll repeat that at times the Dualshock 3 triggers were not up to being held down at critical times when you're trying to get your thumbs to do different things, feeling like they're about to slide adds a bit too much tension.

I also was spoiled on using the older brother's button to be able to swim across the river, one of the times in life I felt slightly robbed by a spoiler, but I could still enjoy it by anticipating it.

[Beefy]

I really liked the bit under your spoiler. Worked it out myself and thought it was a lovely touch.

I struggled with the controls at times - especially when having to climb and jump with both of them at the same time. I think it goes down to how good your coordination is. Some people will find that very easy. I'm clumsy and uncoordinated so it was a challenge but I still loved the controls overall and really like to see developers think of something both so revolutionary and simple as they did with this. With regards specifically to the triggers I had the same issue but mainly because my clip-on triggers have all snapped recently. I think it would have been fine with those on.

Does that spoiler mean that you knew the older brother was going to die? :(

[Pablo Diablo]

Just finished Dust: An Elysian Tail. Found it very enjoyable. Combat got a bit repetitive near the end. But all in all a very enjoyable game. Personally loved the art style.

[Beefy]

I think I might have posted this elsewhere but I finished Dead Space last week. What an awesome game! I found it amazing that it is as old as it is as graphically it is probably in the top three games I've played on the PS3 and I'd say it is the best looking non-PlayStation exclusive title.

I was eating dinner on my sofa the day after I finished it and went to put my plate on the coffee table when I'd finished and it was about six inches further away than it had been from where I kept backing into my seat to get away from the monsters :scared:

I've got to get back to the second half of Heavy Rain next. Then it is a choice between Hotline Miami or Bioshock 2 before I upgrade next week. I've also got a flying sim called Birds of Steel which I've been meaning to play. I upgrade to PS4 next week (at least that is the plan) but hopefully I'll come back to the PS3 a lot.

[The Rogerer]

I haven probably posted this 10 times before, but Dead Space is very replayable because the weapons are so varied that you can plan a run around 1-2 of them.

[Beefy]

Yes I think that must be very true. There were at least two weapons which I didn't use at all and a third which I only used for a few minutes. I imagine they all change your approach to the game.

I've heard the two sequals are more 'actiony'?

Honestly I'm so happy to have forced myself to play through Bioshock & Dead Space over the last few weeks. They're two games that I've enjoyed massively and would easily have missed had I upgraded sooner.

[The Rogerer]

2 was an okay game, I think people liked it more than 1 just because it was more normal. They even made Isaac all handsome and gruff. A lot of the team were poached to form Sledgehammer games and went on to make CoD games, so they had to slap the last few levels together quickly.

Dead Space 3 has you shooting humans and ducking behind cover. I didn't even bother beyond the demo.

[Dreyski]

Then it is a choice between Hotline Miami or Bioshock 2 before I upgrade next week.

Probably mentioned before, but if you're a trophy hunter, best to avoid Bioshock 2 due to the number of multiplayer trophies available. That said, you could probably blast through it in less than a week.

[The Rogerer]

Hotline Miami is cross buy I believe, so you will have it on your PS4

Also fuck trophies

[Beefy]

Fuck trophies.

[Grimario]

I've got to get back to the second half of Heavy Rain next. Then it is a choice between Hotline Miami or Bioshock 2 before I upgrade next week. I've also got a flying sim called Birds of Steel which I've been meaning to play. I upgrade to PS4 next week (at least that is the plan) but hopefully I'll come back to the PS3 a lot.

Hotline Miami is great fun. Mikey suggested I play it and I have put a few hours into it... just fantastic mindless violence. And with the sequel on its way already Refused Classification in Australia, the dev has given Australian's the thumbs up to pirate it :yes:

[The Rogerer]

Since I'm not buying any games this year (supposedly) I'm mapping out the backlog I'm going to get to as well. I don't have a decent PC at the moment so most of my Steam collection is going to sit on the shelf, but looking at games on the PS3 that I never got through or finished, I'm looking at:

Saints Row 2, 4 (I've finished 3)
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker (Played the others countless times)
Sleeping Dogs (Stopped half way, don't remember much)
Hitman Absolution (Stopped half way)
Fez (will I be able to figure it out?)
Demons Souls (Have beaten a few bosses)
Dragon Age 2 (Played a bit years ago)

Outside of that, I've been chipping away at San Andreas, I didn't finish it back in the day.

[Beefy]

I really enjoyed Sleeping Dogs. It is nowhere near as polished as a GTA game and it goes a little gun-crazy towards the end but I loved the setting and the interactive environment. I've never played any of the Saints Row games so Sleeping Dogs filled the Sandbox crime game gap in my life between GTA IV & GTA V.

I struggled to get into Peace Walker, tbh. I don't see me going back to it.

[The Rogerer]

It seems like it explains loads of things. I do know the first think you can do in the game after the tutorial is press the button during the cutscene to make Paz's clothes disappear. The only thing that I remember about Portable Ops is they said at the end "The man with the same codename as Zero" and I was all like NULL DOES NOT ACTUALLY EQUAL ZERO YOU KNOW

Yeah, I liked Sleeping Dogs but just got distracted at the time. I might start it from scratch and give it my full attention.

[Dreyski]

Just remember to drive on the left. Saints Row and GTA spoiled me.

[Grimario]

Just remember to drive on the left. Saints Row and GTA spoiled me.

If you're not driving on the left in SR or GTA, you're doing it wrong. Incoming traffic is where it's at :yes:


And Beefy, if you've never played the Saints Row games, they are awesome. In what other game can you drive around in a municipal waste truck spraying the affluent with effluent?

[mr sabu]

Hotline Miami is great fun. Mikey suggested I play it and I have put a few hours into it... just fantastic mindless violence. And with the sequel on its way already Refused Classification in Australia, the dev has given Australian's the thumbs up to pirate it :yes:

this confuses me

we got gta and mortal kombat which is way more violent then hotline miami but it gets banned

[Pablo Diablo]

I heard there is an implied rape scene that caused it to be not classified. But you Aussies are crazy about this type of thing.

[turdpower]

Saints Row 2 is fantastic, I didn't enjoy 3 it was like a spoof of a spoof. I thought 2 was perfect.

[Beefy]

Blitzed through about 90% of Bioshock 2 this weekend. Got maybe an hour or two left I think which I'll finish off tonight. I love this World. I understand that this wasn't the same people who made the first one which usually means 'cash-in' but it really builds on the first game and they clearly had a huge amount of respect for what came before. I love the way that the levels are put together and they perfectly balance encouraging exploration with having just enough bad guys spawning to keep pushing you forward before your supplies run out.

Looks like Uncharted 3 will be next for me. Should crack on with that in the next couple of days.

[Atty]

Been working on my backlog. Finally got around to Skyrim. Holy shit. Well, at least this will stretch me out to Arkham Knight, so I don't run out for a PS4 right now.

[Beefy]

What are you playing Skyrim on?

I want to play it but think I might hold out until I get a new PC.

[The_Mike]

Skyrim ran fine on my previous 7 year old rig (though the video card was 4 years old). You'll probably be all right unless your PC's ancient.

I used to love god/sim games when I was young and would spend hours tinkering with them, but other than blitzing Theme Park and Theme Hospital I was never much good at them. Lately I've been getting back into them and I never put much time into Sim City 4 but finally started to play around and get an idea of how to build a successful city. So I've been enjoying that. Also raced through episode 2 of GoT in a couple of hours. Solid story and an enjoyable atmosphere, just wish there wasn't so much time between the releases.

[greebull]

I heard there is an implied rape scene that caused it to be not classified. But you Aussies are crazy about this type of thing.

I never understood why it was ok to show someone getting their brains blown out, but somehow rape is that much worse.

[The_Mike]

Anything to do with sex has been seen as worse than violence in western media for an age.

[The Rogerer]

I never understood why it was ok to show someone getting their brains blown out, but somehow rape is that much worse.You can justify violence

[Beefy]

I've been playing Uncharted 3 this morning. It's alright but I just feel like I've played it all before.

[The Rogerer]

I never bothered finishing it, after having platinumed 2. It felt obvious that it was made by a B team while The Last Of Us was in production. There's a bit early on in London where Drake complains something like "Am I seriously going to have to climb up another wall" and I felt exactly the same.

[Beefy]

Yeah I remember you saying that before and that stuck with me this morning when I was playing the London levels. It's just a shame that there's zero innovation from what I can see.

I'll probably stick with it as I've nothing much else to be doing this weekend.

[The Rogerer]

It's a common problem and started the era where the big new 'franchises' just pushed it one too far to fill a gap. Gears Of War, Batman (both B-team sequels), Assassin's Creed and arguably Call of Duty just coasting another one out.

[The Rogerer]

On that subject, I got to play some Assassin's Creed Rogue last weekend, and they have really moved the series on. They stopped with the climbing dumb puzzles of Italy, and the whole naval combat aspect is a hoot. I played it along with Unity, and it's funny how the PS4 game ends up having the best new feature pulled back while the PS3 game continues it on.

[Beefy]

Picked up my PS4 this morning but still plan to try to keep up with this - at least until I build up a PS4 backlog. I'm just over halfway through Uncharted 3 and it is genuinely annoying me now. It's like they have come up with that fist-fighting mechanic and now feel the need to throw at least two confrontations against indentical enemies at you in each chapter as well as more climbing. The puzzles just annoy me.

I do like the settings and graphically it is great but the game feels a lot less polished than Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us. I'll finish it though.

I'm also keen to finish Heavy Rain soon. Got through at least half of that in one weekend before Christmas and really enjoyed it.

[Beefy]

It's a common problem and started the era where the big new 'franchises' just pushed it one too far to fill a gap. Gears Of War, Batman (both B-team sequels), Assassin's Creed and arguably Call of Duty just coasting another one out.

Both Batman B-Team sequels? Origins and...? Did I miss one?!

[The Rogerer]

Sorry, I meant Gears of War and Batman both had a filler sequel made by a b team.

Origins was annoying - it was a City retread, but even then, the title implies some sort of younger Batman but he's clearly fully formed, and then I threw my hands up in the air when The Joker showed up. Batman has the most diverse collection of established villians of any character, but ever since Ledger...

[Reech]

Picked up my PS4 this morning but still plan to try to keep up with this - at least until I build up a PS4 backlog. I'm just over halfway through Uncharted 3 and it is genuinely annoying me now. It's like they have come up with that fist-fighting mechanic and now feel the need to throw at least two confrontations against indentical enemies at you in each chapter as well as more climbing. The puzzles just annoy me.

I do like the settings and graphically it is great but the game feels a lot less polished than Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us. I'll finish it though.

I'm also keen to finish Heavy Rain soon. Got through at least half of that in one weekend before Christmas and really enjoyed it.

You been signed up for PSN+? I got some nice smallish games on there to keep me busy and then got Wolfenstein, Diablo 3 and Mordor for a while. Now playing InFamous: Second Son and it's aces.

[The Rogerer]

I found this letter from 2002 in an old magazine as I was clearing out some stuff. The response mentions a 'FairPlay' campaign that happened at the time, which seemed to try to equate game length to price but didn't go very well. I remember being annoyed with the letter at the time, I was trying to be as hardcore as possible back then I suppose, but I think it's interesting to read now, with the backlog it's so easy to accumulate. PSN now piles something new on every month. Annoyingly the PSN store seems to recommend games on the bases that I have 'bought' these PSN games.


Steven Poole's column (E117) on Super Mario Sunshine marking the end of a gaming genre, had particular resonance for me. I am a gamer in my mid-30s with a family, and consequently a limited amount of time to invest in a game. Super Mario Sunshine is beautiful to play, and brilliant in many places but despite its colourful playschool charm, it's pure hardcore

I now understand why gaming is still not mainstream; it's much too frustrating. I bought Resident Evil for the GameCube, but despite initially enjoying it, have abandoned it only a quarter of the way in. It is a stunning looking game but it is very hard. I want to finish games in a reasonable amount of time. A game packed with 30 hours of gameplay but most of that time consisting of repeating stages or being forced to wander back and forward ad nauseam, is not how a normal person wants to spend their time.

The industry has got it wrong. I am more than willing to spend £40 on a game. If it only lasts ten hours but i enjoy each one of those hours then it's £40 well spent. But there are too many other things in life, including other great games, such that any game that demands 30-40 hours to complete is making an unreasonable demand for most people. And a game that I complete is usually one that I remember fondly, making me amenable to the thought of buying a sequel.

I doubt the industry really knows what percentage of gamers actually complete games. My gut feeling is that more than half the games bought are never completed, abandonded and that point in the game where people make a sane judgement call about all the other interesting things they could do with their life, rather than restart that damn level yet again. I may be in my 30s but I suspect that younger gamers are just as likely to leave games unfinished.

The industry is mistakenly trying to provide longevity when actually most people really don't want it. They want short snappy concentrated experiences, much like a film provides, not all-consuming time sinks. Someday, the hardware will allow genuinely large worlds that will allow people to spend significant amount of time in gaming worlds without constant repititon. However that time is not quite upon us.

Until it is, I applaud Nintendo, for making games such as Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin relatively short and easy. For me, and I suspect a large portion of the population, the length of these games was perfect, allowing me to balance playing games with the rest of life. I just wish they had done the same with Super Mario Sunshine.

[Beefy]

Finished Bioshock Infinte yesterday. I liked it but didn't enjoy Columbia as a setting as much as I did Rapture and whilst I quite liked the twist I thought they 'Matrix Reloaded' the very end a little too much.

I'm going to give Heavy Rain another go soon and I've got Saints Row 2 downloaded and ready to go but I might jump onto Far Cry 3 I think.

I'm already aware that I've got a PS4 backlog so I'm going to blitz through GTA5 now then try Alien: Isolation.

[Psycho666Soldier]

Moments away from entering Kefka Tower and beating Final Fantasy VI for the first time ever. It was a fun ride up to this point. Fuck the Cult of Kefka Tower, though.

[Mark Hammer]

I've played through FFVI sooooo many times but could never bring myself to leave Locke and Sabin behind for the alternate ending.

[Psycho666Soldier]

I didn't even know there was an alternate ending option. If it involves abandoning Locke and Sabin, I can't imagine me doing it.

This is actually the first time I've done significant damage to the game. Before this, the farthest I had gotten was the poisioning of Doma Castle. I don't even think I got to the point where Cyan was actually a part of my team.

I didn't save Shadow, though, which really hurts. I didn't know it was an option. Would have properly balanced my three teams at the end because Cyan has fallen incredibly far behind and I've essentially ignored Gau and Umaro. The only benefit Mog really has is I put some time into him when I recruited him and he came late enough that he started at a decent level. Shadow could replace Gau for me and I'd be gravy.

[Mark Hammer]

The second part of the game (World of Ruin) is better than the first. Far more to do and it's not nearly as linear. But yea, you can advance as Celes without ever going to that town where Sabin is in the burning house and the mission where you look for Locke in the mountain is optional too. And of course you can choose to wait for Shadow or let him die at the end of part 1 of the game.

It makes the game a little more difficult without them, especially Sabin because he's one of the strongest characters.

[Mark Hammer]

And yeah, Gau sucks. There are some tough rages (or whatever they're called, its been a while)he can learn but I hate the autopilot aspect of that character.

Neglecting Cyan is a no no. That guy is gangster when leveled appropriately

[Psycho666Soldier]

The second part of the game (World of Ruin) is better than the first. Far more to do and it's not nearly as linear. But yea, you can advance as Celes without ever going to that town where Sabin is in the burning house and the mission where you look for Locke in the mountain is optional too. And of course you can choose to wait for Shadow or let him die at the end of part 1 of the game.

It makes the game a little more difficult without them, especially Sabin because he's one of the strongest characters.

I'm pretty sure Sabin was the first person I ran into, lol. I thought you meant there was something up ahead where I could leave them behind. But yeah, Locke is a mainstay in my party and Sabin is great power early on that you don't have to beef that much in the WoR, I can't imagine playing through again and ignoring them. The only aspect of the non-linearity I didn't like was that it never told me at any point, "Ok, you can fight Kefka now." I'm not even sure if it hints you towards landing on the tower. Only thing in the whole game that made me look up what all I had left to do, because I was kind of lost after seemingly visiting every location.

And yeah, Gau's auto-pilot nature is what I hate about him. I wish I could use basic attacks on top of the rage ability. It just doesn't seem worth spending time on the Veldt when you don't even get experience while Gau's leaping. And Umaro...eh, I just don't have any desire to use Umaro.

This is actually all a part of a "Play each main Final Fantasy in order" marathon I've been doing on-and-off for like 5 years now. 8 if you count me finishing Final Fantasy I from me dropping it years before after I forgot to save 10+ hours before dying 3/4 the way through the final dungeon. The only one I didn't beat is V. I loved that one a lot, and might be my favorite of the SNES era, but I lost my save file which was probably 75% through the game. I put so much grind time into that game, had so many of the jobs maxed out for all my characters....I just didn't have the heart to pick it back up yet. So I went ahead and skipped to VI.

After this, I'm skipping VII and going straight to VIII. I've played, suffered through, triumphed through, and absolutely obliterated VII. I have no more need to go through that other than a casual cruise down memory lane, or doing one of those "No Magic" challenges or something. VIII, IX, and X all suffer from "game was stolen/memory was deleted before I could finish" syndrome which happened a lot to me as a kid. So I know them fairly well, but still need to actually beat them. I just gave up on XII, but it'll be on the list.

I don't think I'm going to bother with XIII, though.

[Mark Hammer]

Umaro is verrry powerful when you give him the bone club or whatever. Plus the effect when you give him a green cherry... Of course he's another auto pilot character but he's far more useful than Gau.

[Mark Hammer]

I've never finished 7 or 8 despite multiple attempts. Could never get my heart into 7 and 8, well I thought it was one of the most boring games I've ever played, though I've heard it picks up after many hours into the game.

[Psycho666Soldier]

And yeah, Gau sucks. There are some tough rages (or whatever they're called, its been a while)he can learn but I hate the autopilot aspect of that character.

Neglecting Cyan is a no no. That guy is gangster when leveled appropriately

Yeah, neglecting Cyan wasn't intentional. I used him a lot early on, but he fell behind come the World of Ruin. And a lot of focus went into building my magic casters at the end.

[Psycho666Soldier]

I've never finished 7 or 8 despite multiple attempts. Could never get my heart into 7 and 8, well I thought it was one of the most boring games I've ever played, though I've heard it picks up after many hours into the game.

VII is the first one I played, and the first RPG after Super Mario, so there's a lot of nostalgia there for me. Even still, I can't help but love the gameplay and character design in it. I think being so close to VI and getting touted as the best kind of hurts it for those who were raised on VI and don't see it as good. VIII has a special place in my heart, too, though I hate some of the mechanics of it. I wouldn't rate it too high when putting them in order, but I am more fond of it than most. Again, nostalgia probably plays a lot into that since it was my second Final Fantasy.

[Mark Hammer]

VI was my first and the game that made me fall in love with the genre. And I always felt VII was a step down in every department outside of the graphics

[Psycho666Soldier]

See, and I think as far as gameplay goes, the main thing that keeps it from being as good as VI is that the materia system doesn't let you build your stats. The Materia system is essentially the Esper system except the magic is contained within the materia instead of the character, which makes it so much easier to be flexible with your party if someone got left behind for a while or if you are forced to not use them for a while(like happens with Celes and Terra all the time). But it should have included materia that also built up your stats when you leveled up.

Story-wise, I can definitely see an argument for it. But for me, there's just something about the atmosphere of VII that makes it stand out. All the locations look and feel different, and not just because of the 3D graphics. For example, IX had a lot of locations that seemed similar to what locations from V and back would look like in 3D. And that all adds to the story element. I also like the music of VII more, but that could definitely be nostalgic bias.

But as far as core gameplay and character development, VI definitely takes the cake, if I were to try and judge it objectively.

[Beefy]

My backlog gets worse and worse. I'm replaying Red Dead Redemption currently, which I'm enjoying massively but has probably ten hours or so left. At the same time I'm trying to master Madden 17 ahead of the kick off of the new Rajah League (places still available) and have finally got a Football Manager game that I'm getting somewhat into.

Next up I think will be either Alien Isolation on PS4 or Dead Space 2 on PS3. I'm tempted to get Saints Row IV and Ultra Street Fighter IV in the current PSN sale though.

[Donald]

I need to finish Red Dead Redemption. It's been so long since I've played it that I'm tempted to start from the beginning.