Raxivace is Losing at Street Fi-TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER UPPERCUT

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Post by Raxivace »

maz89 wrote:I got the shotgun but I want to conserve my ammo, so I'm not using it too much for the Molded (unless there is more than one of them). Thanks, I'll try shooting them in the leg and see if it gives me time to aim for their damn heads. Right now, I'm at the part where I reach for the Red Dog Head and find myself in a morgue with the crazy dad. I exhausted all of my bullets on him before realizing there was a chainsaw in the vicinity. A little more help would be NICE, RE7! [none] You mentioned RE4, I think that's the only other RE game I've played (well, ok, also RE5) but those were definitely less horror and more action.

It's not THAT easy for RE beginners. Or enjoyable. Like, I literally messaged my brothers an hour or two into the game, "how the f-ck do you guys ENJOY this game?" Because it leaves me fucking stressed out and hateful (of the world in general).

All I know is that this is one game I have no interest in Platinum-ing. That Madhouse difficulty sounds lethal.
I dunno man, RE7 plays fairly differently from every other game in the series. Though I was also able to beat the game four whole times the week it came out (Including a speedrun) so you know.

Don't worry too much about conserving ammo- there's always more, you just have to look around. If you're at the part where you get the last dog head Jack will stop chasing around the house for the time being I think.
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Post by Raxivace »

maz89 wrote:
Raxivace wrote: Perhaps TLoU's execution is just bad.
I think it's time for you to play TLoU, a triple A game you have thus far been avoiding. It's time.
Eh at some point. For whatever reason I'm not really feeling the drive to jump into it, and probably won't for a while.
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Post by Raxivace »

maz89 wrote:
Raxivace wrote:Also after you finish RE7, play Evil Within 1.

And then after Evil Within 1, play Evil Within 2 which is the actual best survival horror game of 2017.
Do those also specialize in jump scares like RE7 though? Maybe survival horror just isn't my thing, lol.
I didn't think RE7 had too many tbh, but there are more in Evil Within 1 and its also a way harder and even jankier game.

I really liked it though. Its funny because its basically a bunch of noir or cop show characters falling into a horror plot but still treating everything like a noir or cop show story. Evil Within 2 is easier and I don't think as scary but I thought the open world elements were done really well in it.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

maz89 wrote:I really enjoyed reading this super-detailed review! I can understand where you're coming from, though I'm definitely more lenient in my assessment of the gameplay. I don't think I played this game on Hard. Considering that even the Normal difficulty was a challenge for me back in the day (lol), I'm not surprised you found some of those sections frustrating. Especially if you weren't being patient or studying zombie movement patterns, heh. I have a feeling that you'd have liked the gameplay more if you'd tried it on Normal first.
Yeah, I should've played it the first time on Normal, but on most games these days "Normal" is like the old equivalent of "Easy," and considering they had two levels above Hard (Survivor and Grounded) I figured it made most sense to do Hard. One thing I DID like about Hard was that they never let up with being stingy on ammo and supplies, and because (I'm assuming) you could take less damage this did force you to try to think through the best way to play through sections. I just found executing those plans stealthily really difficult. I will say that my second playthrough was much easier, though a few parts were still a bitch. I need to look up online how someone stealths through the spotlight and bookstore.
maz89 wrote:I think TLOU deals with other themes that are part and parcel of its post-apocalyptic setting. Survivor's guilt is one among many other typical themes, i.e. grief-driven apathy after the loss of a loved one, resilience of the human spirit, how disaster brings out the worst and the best in people, finding purpose in a senseless and tragic world, alteration of one's moral compass in the face of dire or extreme circumstances, etc. Apart from the main storyline with Joel and Ellie (and the people they meet), there are bits and pieces of stories scattered all around the world that keep harkening back to these themes. I loved the ending because it wasn't technically a "happy" one - Joel becomes the villain, after all! But it works so well because it shows the price of survival in this broken world, and questions the morals of the audience it has been expertly "setting up" by giving them control of the duo. Are we really cheering on a man who has selfishly doomed mankind? What about the millions of other children who will die because Ellie didn't? Part of me wishes that Naughty Dog had allowed the player to decide whether or not they'd make Joel save Ellie in the ending - but then sequels and stuff. I guess you could say these themes are "surface level", but then that's how I'd also view the themes in, say, Silent Hill, which also doesn't explicitly dote on its themes (but is content with letting them simmer under the surface/atmosphere). IOW, the emotional storytelling in TLOU just brings its themes to life for me.
Rax and I talked about this a bit a while back in the movie thread, but I think there's a difference in art where themes are clearly either a conscious or unconscious focus of the creators, and art where all the focus is on the story/characters and in which those stories/characters will naturally be about something just by the nature of being mimetic art that people can reflect on. If I think of film, Godard is clearly a filmmaker who made idea-driven films and in which stories and techniques were utilized (in large part) to convey those themes; Hitchcock was clearly a filmmaker who, even if he wasn't consciously aware of all the thematic substance of his films, understood it on an intuitive level and exploited those underlying themes through his stories and techniques; and then there's someone like Tarantino, who just makes movies to be as entertaining as possible. I once cited the distinction as being artists who were filmmakers, filmmakers who were artists, and just filmmakers.

If I transfer that kind of thinking to TLAO, the creators just seem to be gamemakers. Yes, you can say all those themes you mentioned are there because they're an inevitable part of telling this kind of story, but I don't think they're anything that drove the story, or that the game ever focuses on, or really exploits on an unconscious level. One reason I really think this is that there are parts in the game where it does stop to (even if briefly) address some of these themes--I think of the ending where Joel talks to Ellie about feeling guilty about surviving, but that you find something to keep going, or how "everything happens for a reason," is a kind of thematic motif that's brought up by multiple characters at multiple times in the game; but I can't see anywhere where the game is really exploiting these these themes otherwise. They don't really seem to be much of a concern nearly as much as the emotional content that's generated by and between the characters.

And, FWIW, I don't even think this is a huge flaw, per se. It feels almost like trying to criticize a game (or any art) for not being something that it wasn't trying to be. My only reservation is that I know there are many films that have had similar emotional impacts on me, but that have waned in my memory over time precisely because there wasn't much to linger in my mind after the emotional impact wore off. As a perfect example, there was an Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee years ago that moved me to tears, was definitely one of the most powerful films I saw from that year, and, damn, if I can't even remember the name of it now! Now, I certainly don't think TLAO will be forgettable, in part because it's the only GAME I've ever seen be that emotional, and in part because there was a lot that was excellent about it besides that emotional content; but I do wonder if it will stick with me as much as, say, MGS has.
maz89 wrote:Also, what's wrong with the Infected parts happening in the "dark" places? Foreshadowing is meant to be obvious. [wink]
Nothing's wrong with it, but it does seem strange that Infecteds only seem to hang around in dark places!
maz89 wrote:I actually haven't played Left Behind, but plan to play it (along with the main game) at some point, so to avoid spoilers of any kind, I'm going to not read your write-up of it yet. Did you check out the trailers for Last of Us 2 (including the one showing the upgraded gameplay)? Looks pretty awesome (and terrifying)!
You can easily finish Left Behind in an afternoon. It's really, really short, and the only kinda-difficult part is the ending. I don't think my review really spoiled anything, FWIW. If anything, the end of TLAO kinda spoils it!
maz89 wrote:On whether the game's difficulty is due to bad design (which I doubt!), I'll have to hold back from commenting. I played on Normal and don't recall encountering too many problems in using stealth for most of it. But I'll play it on Hard next and get back to you.
I will be interested to see if you struggle on Hard as much as I did, though since you're more familiar with the game it might be easier on Hard than my first time was. I kinda feel like if I had played on Normal the first time, hard wouldn't have seemed nearly as hard as it did on my first playthrough. I don't know, maybe I was a bit impatient, but I don't recall having those kind of problems with stealth games in the past. Splinter Cell was probably the first "pure" stealth game I played and I loved it.

EDIT: I should mention I spent most of yesterday on YouTube watching stuff on TLOU, including two "Making Of" things and an entire 20-part series where teens played through the game. I must admit it's really fun watching other people react to its "big moments." I also laughed like crazy during one part of their Left Behind playthrough that I won't spoil, but when you do finish Left Behind you have to at least see that part!
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Yeah, I'm just going to argue that this shouldn't be a thing. I can see it if the enemy is close enough to grab you--then you have to fight them off and stuff--but there's no way that melee should ever be more effective than a gun. The punishment for using guns should be you run low on ammo and are then forced to melee; and the incentive for going melee is that you conserve ammo. But when you've got 2-3 enemies rushing towards you, it should be easier to put them down with a gun than your fists. I mean, I know some "suspension of disbelief" has to be made for the sake of gameplay (in TLOU, eg, it makes no sense why you have to find these special "cloths" to make Molotovs when there are, like, drapes and stuff scattered everywhere), but this one seems really stupid.
It's been a pretty established convention in these kinds of games for over 15 years. [giveup]

I just don't find conserving ammo that interesting, and more often than not I find it to involve less decision making than these shooting games with good melee systems, where I find there's more risk/reward analysis going on in the moment than simply figuring out how to kill something with 3 bullets instead of 4. RE4 still remains the gold standard of this to me, and I think its largely why I find its combat way better than any of the classic RE games (Even if they have other aspects that make me love them).

Perhaps TLoU's execution is just bad.
Yeah, it's either that or I just suck! I'm pretty sure I've encountered this convention in other games and it never bothered me. It just felt weird to me when I got in a room full of zombies that my first thought was "find a bottle/brick!" rather than "where's ma pistol?!"
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

OK, here's another tangent: anyone here played Ratchet and Clank? I was looking up other Naughty Dog games, stumbled onto Jak and Daxter (haven't played), which also lead me to the new Ratchet and Clank. I remember loving the first two games on PS2. They had that kind of "pure fun" factor that the old NES/SNES shooters/platformers had and I'm super tempted to pick up the PS4 remake of the first game, and maybe the PS3 bundle of the original trilogy. I don't think I ever played the third one, and it seems there's a whole other series of "Future" games after that original trilogy plus a fourth game.
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Post by Raxivace »

Haven't played Ratchet and Clank.

I liked Jak and Daxter back in the day but I have no idea how they hold up now.
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Post by maz89 »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Yeah, I should've played it the first time on Normal, but on most games these days "Normal" is like the old equivalent of "Easy," and considering they had two levels above Hard (Survivor and Grounded) I figured it made most sense to do Hard. One thing I DID like about Hard was that they never let up with being stingy on ammo and supplies, and because (I'm assuming) you could take less damage this did force you to try to think through the best way to play through sections. I just found executing those plans stealthily really difficult. I will say that my second playthrough was much easier, though a few parts were still a bitch. I need to look up online how someone stealths through the spotlight and bookstore.
Well, your thinking there does make sense. My friend played the game on Easy (he's a casual gamer and he played it at my place) and he literally did Rambo his way through the entire game. It was troubling. [sad]
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Rax and I talked about this a bit a while back in the movie thread, but I think there's a difference in art where themes are clearly either a conscious or unconscious focus of the creators, and art where all the focus is on the story/characters and in which those stories/characters will naturally be about something just by the nature of being mimetic art that people can reflect on. If I think of film, Godard is clearly a filmmaker who made idea-driven films and in which stories and techniques were utilized (in large part) to convey those themes; Hitchcock was clearly a filmmaker who, even if he wasn't consciously aware of all the thematic substance of his films, understood it on an intuitive level and exploited those underlying themes through his stories and techniques; and then there's someone like Tarantino, who just makes movies to be as entertaining as possible. I once cited the distinction as being artists who were filmmakers, filmmakers who were artists, and just filmmakers.

If I transfer that kind of thinking to TLAO, the creators just seem to be gamemakers. Yes, you can say all those themes you mentioned are there because they're an inevitable part of telling this kind of story, but I don't think they're anything that drove the story, or that the game ever focuses on, or really exploits on an unconscious level. One reason I really think this is that there are parts in the game where it does stop to (even if briefly) address some of these themes--I think of the ending where Joel talks to Ellie about feeling guilty about surviving, but that you find something to keep going, or how "everything happens for a reason," is a kind of thematic motif that's brought up by multiple characters at multiple times in the game; but I can't see anywhere where the game is really exploiting these these themes otherwise. They don't really seem to be much of a concern nearly as much as the emotional content that's generated by and between the characters.
I think in addition to being gamemakers, they're also storytellers (you'll see a similar cinematic approach in their other very famous and popular series, Uncharted). But I get your wider point about how those themes do not add up beyond the emotional character pay-offs (although not sure I fully agree - I think the ending does double down on the themes I mentioned above, in a way that lingers in the mind beyond just the emotional satisfaction of Joel making a selfish decision. I really liked the semi-poetic way in which you put it, too). I'm just having a little trouble differentiating between the "thematic depth" of TLOU and, to go back to this example again, Silent Hill, which, IIRC, you praised for its depth?
Eva Yojimbo wrote:And, FWIW, I don't even think this is a huge flaw, per se. It feels almost like trying to criticize a game (or any art) for not being something that it wasn't trying to be. My only reservation is that I know there are many films that have had similar emotional impacts on me, but that have waned in my memory over time precisely because there wasn't much to linger in my mind after the emotional impact wore off. As a perfect example, there was an Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee years ago that moved me to tears, was definitely one of the most powerful films I saw from that year, and, damn, if I can't even remember the name of it now! Now, I certainly don't think TLAO will be forgettable, in part because it's the only GAME I've ever seen be that emotional, and in part because there was a lot that was excellent about it besides that emotional content; but I do wonder if it will stick with me as much as, say, MGS has.
I'm just quoting this because I want to know the name of this movie that you brought you to tears years ago. Name, stat.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Nothing's wrong with it, but it does seem strange that Infecteds only seem to hang around in dark places!
Oh, I just assumed they don't like sunlight. [biggrin]
Eva Yojimbo wrote:You can easily finish Left Behind in an afternoon. It's really, really short, and the only kinda-difficult part is the ending. I don't think my review really spoiled anything, FWIW. If anything, the end of TLAO kinda spoils it!
Lol, fair enough, I just like to go into most art completely blank. That being said, thanks to my brother, I am already spoiled on what I'm assuming is a major thing: Ellie is into girls. Well, this was also revealed in the trailer for TLOU2 so I guess I have myself to blame for still not having played it.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:I will be interested to see if you struggle on Hard as much as I did, though since you're more familiar with the game it might be easier on Hard than my first time was. I kinda feel like if I had played on Normal the first time, hard wouldn't have seemed nearly as hard as it did on my first playthrough. I don't know, maybe I was a bit impatient, but I don't recall having those kind of problems with stealth games in the past. Splinter Cell was probably the first "pure" stealth game I played and I loved it.
I played it so long ago that I think I WILL struggle! But all this talk about its design has me all curious, and I want to see how it holds up.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:EDIT: I should mention I spent most of yesterday on YouTube watching stuff on TLOU, including two "Making Of" things and an entire 20-part series where teens played through the game. I must admit it's really fun watching other people react to its "big moments." I also laughed like crazy during one part of their Left Behind playthrough that I won't spoil, but when you do finish Left Behind you have to at least see that part!
Haha, I look forward to it! You missed this in your last post, but I repeat: did you check out the trailer and gameplay videos for Last of Us 2?
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Post by maz89 »

Haven't played Ratchet and Clank. But speaking of other Naughty Dog games, you may want to check out Uncharted. Four games in total, but I still think the second one was the best one just on account of cinematic and gripping it was. Parts 3 and 4 were nice, but they offered more of the same and I can't remember what happened in them outside of a few outstanding, larger than life, James Bond type sequences. In case you don't already know, they're Indiana Jones styled adventures (inspired by Tomb Raider) and feature gameplay very similar to what you saw in Last of Us (shooting, stealth, puzzles).
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Raxivace wrote:I dunno man, RE7 plays fairly differently from every other game in the series. Though I was also able to beat the game four whole times the week it came out (Including a speedrun) so you know.

Don't worry too much about conserving ammo- there's always more, you just have to look around. If you're at the part where you get the last dog head Jack will stop chasing around the house for the time being I think.
I just got rid of the mother in the greenhouse. That was a pretty irritating fight and I lost a couple of times. Stupid bee swarms.
But okay fine, I'm kinda enjoying the game now. I love the exploration aspect of it. How much of it is left, you think? Am I half-way there?
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About halfway, yeah. RE7 is not a very long game.
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maz89 wrote:Haven't played Ratchet and Clank. But speaking of other Naughty Dog games, you may want to check out Uncharted. Four games in total, but I still think the second one was the best one just on account of cinematic and gripping it was. Parts 3 and 4 were nice, but they offered more of the same and I can't remember what happened in them outside of a few outstanding, larger than life, James Bond type sequences. In case you don't already know, they're Indiana Jones styled adventures (inspired by Tomb Raider) and feature gameplay very similar to what you saw in Last of Us (shooting, stealth, puzzles).
I played Uncharted 2 since it came with my PS3 and didn't really care for it. It just felt very generic to me.
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Raxivace wrote:I played Uncharted 2 since it came with my PS3 and didn't really care for it. It just felt very generic to me.
Come on! I might understand if you felt that way about the gameplay (I played it for the location exploration and sense of adventure myself rather than the crouch-behind-box-and-shoot mechanics) but I will never forget the super intense dangling-from-a-train-collapsing-off-a-mountain scenes! It's seriously Indiana Jones meets James Bond stuff.
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Raxivace wrote:About halfway, yeah. RE7 is not a very long game.
That makes me happy and like the game more. I like games that are not repetitive.
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maz89 wrote:
Raxivace wrote:I played Uncharted 2 since it came with my PS3 and didn't really care for it. It just felt very generic to me.
Come on! I might understand if you felt that way about the gameplay (I played it for the location exploration and sense of adventure myself rather than the crouch-behind-box-and-shoot mechanics) but I will never forget the super intense dangling-from-a-train-collapsing-off-a-mountain scenes! It's seriously Indiana Jones meets James Bond stuff.
I only can't forget that sequence because they made you play through the exact same scene twice AND its on the damn boxart of the game. [laugh]
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maz89 wrote:
Raxivace wrote:About halfway, yeah. RE7 is not a very long game.
That makes me happy and like the game more. I like games that are not repetitive.
I should add that after you deal with Lucas (And his segment I quite like to be fair) you're coming up on the worst parts of the game though tbh.

I don't think it ever gets outright terrible but I don't entirely like what the last parts of the game do.
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Raxivace wrote:
maz89 wrote:
Raxivace wrote:About halfway, yeah. RE7 is not a very long game.
That makes me happy and like the game more. I like games that are not repetitive.
I should add that after you deal with Lucas (And his segment I quite like to be fair) you're coming up on the worst parts of the game though tbh.

I don't think it ever gets outright terrible but I don't entirely like what the last parts of the game do.
It's quite curious - I scanned the RE7 wiki page a while ago and it seemed to indicate some kind of consensus about how the last part of the game isn't as good as what came before. A position you also hold, apparently. Well, I hope I don't find it terrible...
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Yeah I liked RE7 a lot but there are things I think it could have improved. I think Capcom learned some lessons from it though and it seems like RE2make is addressing them.

Also even by Resident Evil standards, RE7's story is fucking nonsense that contradicts itself from scene to scene but I'll get into that after you beat it.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

maz89 wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Yeah, I should've played it the first time on Normal, but on most games these days "Normal" is like the old equivalent of "Easy," and considering they had two levels above Hard (Survivor and Grounded) I figured it made most sense to do Hard. One thing I DID like about Hard was that they never let up with being stingy on ammo and supplies, and because (I'm assuming) you could take less damage this did force you to try to think through the best way to play through sections. I just found executing those plans stealthily really difficult. I will say that my second playthrough was much easier, though a few parts were still a bitch. I need to look up online how someone stealths through the spotlight and bookstore.
Well, your thinking there does make sense. My friend played the game on Easy (he's a casual gamer and he played it at my place) and he literally did Rambo his way through the entire game. It was troubling. [sad]
Yeah, I had the same feeling watching the React kids playing it on Normal and watching most of them just Rambo through it.

I actually convinced my dad to watch the game, so I guess I'm going to be playing it through a third time! LOL This time I set it on Easy only because I want him to enjoy the story without having to watch me die over and over again, but I'm going to play it as if it was on Hard (trying to stealth, conserve, etc.). One idea that struck me yesterday is that maybe the game doesn't want you to successfully stealth? Like it's set up so you might can stealth take out a few, but then you have to fight/run for your life to survive the rest? This kinda makes sense since, IRL, there's no way a guy like Joel could stealth kill everyone like an uber-ninja, and it does kinda add to the whole "survivor" feel when things go you shit and you just have to hang on for dear life and hope you get a bit lucky (Joel even says something about getting lucky a few times in the game).
maz89 wrote:I think in addition to being gamemakers, they're also storytellers (you'll see a similar cinematic approach in their other very famous and popular series, Uncharted). But I get your wider point about how those themes do not add up beyond the emotional character pay-offs (although not sure I fully agree - I think the ending does double down on the themes I mentioned above, in a way that lingers in the mind beyond just the emotional satisfaction of Joel making a selfish decision. I really liked the semi-poetic way in which you put it, too). I'm just having a little trouble differentiating between the "thematic depth" of TLOU and, to go back to this example again, Silent Hill, which, IIRC, you praised for its depth?
I was including storytellers in the gamemakers moniker, just like I'd include storytellers in the filmmakers moniker. I will say that I like their choice to make the ending morally ambiguous because it really is such an impossible decision. Either way you're going to be haunted for life.

SH is basically a David Lynch film in that the world is just a psychological representation of its protagonist. I think just that idea, alone, makes it more thematically substantial than anything in TLAO; not so much the themes in isolation, per se, but how they're embedded into the world. I also think the way that it's very oblique in its storytelling, the way it reveals a lot through hints, allusions, suggestions, small details, etc. is also more innately artistic. It's what allows people to write stuff like this and this analyzing all of the details of the game and how they relate to the story, characters, and themes. I can't imagine such things being possible for something like TLAO, at least not to that extent. I'm sure someone could do some analysis from a story/character perspective that relates to those general story/character-driven themes, but not with the kind of under-the-surface level of analysis (which is one thing I mean by "thematic depth") that you see in those guides.
maz89 wrote:I'm just quoting this because I want to know the name of this movie that you brought you to tears years ago. Name, stat.
LOL, I thought you might ask. OK, let me go Wiki digging...

Here we go: The Broken Circle Breakdown
maz89 wrote:Haha, I look forward to it! You missed this in your last post, but I repeat: did you check out the trailer and gameplay videos for Last of Us 2?
The only trailer I've seen is the one those same React kids watched, which didn't include any gameplay. I think you know I'm not big on trailers. :)
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Post by maz89 »

Eva Yojimbo wrote: I actually convinced my dad to watch the game, so I guess I'm going to be playing it through a third time! LOL This time I set it on Easy only because I want him to enjoy the story without having to watch me die over and over again, but I'm going to play it as if it was on Hard (trying to stealth, conserve, etc.). One idea that struck me yesterday is that maybe the game doesn't want you to successfully stealth? Like it's set up so you might can stealth take out a few, but then you have to fight/run for your life to survive the rest? This kinda makes sense since, IRL, there's no way a guy like Joel could stealth kill everyone like an uber-ninja, and it does kinda add to the whole "survivor" feel when things go you shit and you just have to hang on for dear life and hope you get a bit lucky (Joel even says something about getting lucky a few times in the game).
I hope your dad likes it! And I think you're right. That you're not supposed (or even compelled) to kill all of them might be the point. I'll keep that in mind when I play it.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:I was including storytellers in the gamemakers moniker, just like I'd include storytellers in the filmmakers moniker. I will say that I like their choice to make the ending morally ambiguous because it really is such an impossible decision. Either way you're going to be haunted for life.
Oh, LOL. Sorry, that analogy went over my head, but it makes sense with that bit of clarification.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:SH is basically a David Lynch film in that the world is just a psychological representation of its protagonist. I think just that idea, alone, makes it more thematically substantial than anything in TLAO; not so much the themes in isolation, per se, but how they're embedded into the world. I also think the way that it's very oblique in its storytelling, the way it reveals a lot through hints, allusions, suggestions, small details, etc. is also more innately artistic. It's what allows people to write stuff like this and this analyzing all of the details of the game and how they relate to the story, characters, and themes. I can't imagine such things being possible for something like TLAO, at least not to that extent. I'm sure someone could do some analysis from a story/character perspective that relates to those general story/character-driven themes, but not with the kind of under-the-surface level of analysis (which is one thing I mean by "thematic depth") that you see in those guides.
I'd actually be quite curious to see a similar kind of analysis done for TLOU, despite its relatively ostentatious character-driven story. I mean, there are bits and pieces of information strewn all across the world that I would imagine connect to its larger themes that we discussed (don't look at me, I didn't even put in the effort for SH). But TLOU analyses to the same extent as SH? Probably not. At the same time, I wonder if it was a fair comparison on my part to make at all as SH, by virtue of being oblique/mysterious, will naturally draw greater analyses, especially when it's open to being interpreted as a man's psychological nightmare. I agree that that idea alone does not make it thematically rich; rather that depends on how those themes are rendered/thought out, so maybe I should read those super long articles at some point.

I guess my point is that while SH = Lynch, I think that TLOU is closer to Hitchcock than Tarantino.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:LOL, I thought you might ask. OK, let me go Wiki digging...

Here we go: The Broken Circle Breakdown
Oh! I've seen this! We talked about it nearly 4 years ago! Didn't make me cry, but I thought the climax was powerful. Gave it a 7.5.

Has it really been 4 years? Fuck, we're getting old.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:The only trailer I've seen is the one those same React kids watched, which didn't include any gameplay. I think you know I'm not big on trailers. :)
Haha, neither am I, typically.
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Anyways I've just been speeding through the PS4 Kingdom Hearts games over here.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - I think I'm one of the few people who really champion the battle system of this one. I think the combination of deck building a la Gwent or Triple Triad and other such card games with 3D action is really unique and I had a blast running through both routes of this again. That being said I've run Re:CoM so many times over the years (As well as several times through the GBA version) that it feels very easy to me now. Even on the hardest difficulty Sonic Blade is probably just too powerful of an attack, and bosses just cannot handle it. At least you have to really go out of your way to set up a deck that can allow you to reliably spam Sonic Blade though, and even then to set it up as soon as possible might cost you to forgo some early HP bonuses from leveling up.

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix - Still easily the best combat in the series. It really pained me to have to skip most of the bonus content this time around but I know this is a game I'll only continue to come back to in the future. For having not played in a few years I was surprised how well I was doing- I'm probably not as good as I used to be when I was doing Level 1 runthroughs though I ended up doing pretty well for regular Critical Mode.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Final Mix - I'm not quite done with this yet but man the combat in BBS is just so mindless. The combo system is not only nothing compared to KH2, it's not even as good as KH1 and KH1 is kind of a limited game in some ways these days. You have a million Commands you can also use in this game, but you end up just pick whatever the most OP ones you have and just spam them. Thunder Surge happens to be the best attack for 99% of the game, so once you have that your build is basically done.

The evasion options are really trash here too. KH2 gave you a million ways to avoid enemy attacks, but all of them were situational- sometimes you might want to Dodge Roll out of something, but other times you would want to Quick Run or, by golly, even jump out of the way. If you jumped, you could then go into an Aerial Dodge or Glide or try to start a combo. Or you could try remaining stationary and timing a Guard correctly, and perhaps setting up a counterattack. Or if you had the MP, you could start a Limit at the cost of all of your MP, which would temporarily make you invincible during the duration of the Limit attack. Or you could use some of your Drive Gauge to either bring out a Summon or fuse into a Drive Form. Or you could use Reflega, which also could work as an offensive option but costs MP and is technically a combo, meaning you have to time it properly for maximum efficiency in a fight.

All of these had their benefits and drawbacks- it was up to you to decide what was best for you in any given situation. All of this really shines on Level 1 runs of KH2FM where Sora can't tank his way through most of the game, which is what I think makes it so fun.

In BBS, if you're playing as Ventus or Aqua then you use their Dodge Roll and Cartwheel respectively, and lol you're going to do that because they're ridiculously OP in this game. You can spend hours just glazing through all enemies while your Commands recharge and you just go back to spamming your Thunder Surges. Playing as Terra is a little better because his dash thing is way shittier than what Ventus and Aqua have, so like you might even decide to honest to god block an enemy attack using Guard. It's still way more limited than Sora is in KH2 but BBS was a PSP game originally, what can you expect I guess.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

maz89 wrote:I hope your dad likes it! And I think you're right. That you're not supposed (or even compelled) to kill all of them might be the point. I'll keep that in mind when I play it.
We finished the main game yesterday. He really liked it, and we even chatted a bit about it afterwards. My dad's kinda the stoic, "doesn't have strong reactions to anything" type, so for him to even be talking about it afterwards is about as much as I could've hoped for! We played a bit of Left Behind too, which I'm sure we'll finish today.
maz89 wrote:I'd actually be quite curious to see a similar kind of analysis done for TLOU, despite its relatively ostentatious character-driven story. I mean, there are bits and pieces of information strewn all across the world that I would imagine connect to its larger themes that we discussed (don't look at me, I didn't even put in the effort for SH). But TLOU analyses to the same extent as SH? Probably not. At the same time, I wonder if it was a fair comparison on my part to make at all as SH, by virtue of being oblique/mysterious, will naturally draw greater analyses, especially when it's open to being interpreted as a man's psychological nightmare. I agree that that idea alone does not make it thematically rich; rather that depends on how those themes are rendered/thought out, so maybe I should read those super long articles at some point.
I think the only thing in TLOU that could invite similar analysis is the post-apocalyptic world itself. The game doesn't really dwell on the politics and factions of what happened afterwards--most of it's just in the background--but you definitely get hints that the US descended into a kind of totalitarian government, the Fireflies became like the rebel groups, and then Hunters are the tribal, immoral, "every group for themselves" type. Still, I'm not sure how deep you could go with any of this. To me, the most interesting details in the game are still character-driven, like how often Joel looks at/touches his watch, or how at the end of Winter Joel calls Ellie "baby girl," which is what he'd called his daughter in the intro. These kinda feed into the central themes of loss and the whole reluctant adoptive father dynamic, but I'd say they're more nice storytelling/character details than anything really thematically deep.
maz89 wrote:I guess my point is that while SH = Lynch, I think that TLOU is closer to Hitchcock than Tarantino.
I wouldn't say it's Hitchcock, where I do think the themes are much more dominant/present; but you're right that it's not as far as Tarantino either. Maybe something like old-Coppola/old-Scorsese is a nice middle-ground between the Tarantino/Hitchcock divide.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Picked up a few more games with the PS Store Holiday sale:

-Tales of Zestiria/Berseria (actually reminded me that I played a few Tales games back in the day and enjoyed them; and these were only like $15 a piece).
-Castlevania: Requiem (looking forward to playing SOTN, and Rondo as well).
-Ratchet & Clank Remake
-GTA V
-Tomb Raider/Rise of Tomb Raider
-Batman Arkham Collection (heard these inspired Spider-Man, so I was interested)
-Deus Ex: Human Revolution & Mankind Divided

Most of these were "just get it 'cause it's cheap" buys, but I also got this: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Souls-Trilo ... KWPKV?th=1 because I've heard these games are old-school hard and I'm up to the challenge. Also, can I just say that this is the most ridiculous box set I've ever seen for any media-related thing ever:


I haven't even played any of these games and I still want that damn thing!

Sale's got a few days left, so if anyone has any other strong recommendations, let me know.
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Which Tales games have you played?

I loved Berseria (It was probably my favorite game of 2017 even though I think its pretty obviously made on a budget) but while I have Zestiria I have not heard good things about it from my friends that are huge Tales nerds...
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Also Tales of Vesperia is getting a PS4 rerelease in January and while that game is flawed I have a lot of fond memories of playing it.

Tales of Graces F on the PS3 is probably the best combat in the series too though I think it has one of the weakest stories.

I liked Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Legendia on the PS2 a lot too- Legendia probably has my favorite OST though the combat is kind of meh and in the English release the localizers straight up forgot to voice the second half of the game. Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut on the PS2 was also very good though while there was an English fan patch in the works, unfortunately the team that was working on it seems to have disbanded from what I can tell.

I'll also mention the PSX version of Tales of Phantasia because I played a small part in the release of one of that game's English patches.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:Which Tales games have you played?

I loved Berseria (It was probably my favorite game of 2017 even though I think its pretty obviously made on a budget) but while I have Zestiria I have not heard good things about it from my friends that are huge Tales nerds...

Also Tales of Vesperia is getting a PS4 rerelease in January and while that game is flawed I have a lot of fond memories of playing it.

Tales of Graces F on the PS3 is probably the best combat in the series too though I think it has one of the weakest stories.

I liked Tales of the Abyss and Tales of Legendia on the PS2 a lot too- Legendia probably has my favorite OST though the combat is kind of meh and in the English release the localizers straight up forgot to voice the second half of the game. Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut on the PS2 was also very good though while there was an English fan patch in the works, unfortunately the team that was working on it seems to have disbanded from what I can tell.

I'll also mention the PSX version of Tales of Phantasia because I played a small part in the release of one of that game's English patches.
I played Destiny (on PS) and Legendia (on PS2). Destiny I do remember finishing (so add it to the "RPGs I finished" list I wrote earlier), and it may have been the first non-turn-based RPG I ever played, which is one thing I liked about it. I didn't finish Legendia, but I remember enjoying it when I played it.

Yeah, I noticed the Vesperia release. Only reason I didn't pick up any of the others (Xillia, Xillia 2, Graces) is because they weren't on sale. Plus, it's not like I'm hurting for stuff to play. :)
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Tales of Destiny PSX!!!!??? [gonemad] Frankly I'm shocked you wanted to try another Tales game after playing that one, it doesn't hold up well at all. [laugh]

Between the random encounter rate being ridiculously high and the battles pausing every time a spell was cast, its just painful.
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Oh btw Tales of Eternia (Called Tales of Destiny II in America, not to be confused with Tales of Destiny 2 the Japan-only sequel to Tales of Destiny) got a PSP release at one point as well which you could play on your emulator if you somehow ever run out of games. For a game from the PSX era it's pretty good, and because it removes the spell-pause thing from Destiny 1 it still feels pretty good today.
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I may have played too many video games in my life.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:Tales of Destiny PSX!!!!??? [gonemad] Frankly I'm shocked you wanted to try another Tales game after playing that one, it doesn't hold up well at all. [laugh]

Between the random encounter rate being ridiculously high and the battles pausing every time a spell was cast, its just painful.
Haha, I remember even at the time the reviews weren't very good for it. I picked up at the rental store on a whim (didn't know anything about it then) and I just thought it different (in a good way) to other RPGs I'd played, so I guess the high random encounters and spell-pausing didn't bother me--though I honestly don't even remember either of those things! When I rented Legendia I don't even know if I thought about it being related to Destiny. I don't think back then I even knew "Tales" was a series at all.
Oh btw Tales of Eternia (Called Tales of Destiny II in America, not to be confused with Tales of Destiny 2 the Japan-only sequel to Tales of Destiny) got a PSP release at one point as well which you could play on your emulator if you somehow ever run out of games. For a game from the PSX era it's pretty good, and because it removes the spell-pause thing from Destiny 1 it still feels pretty good today.
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I may have played too many video games in my life.
Nah, no such thing as playing too many games, watching too many movies/too much TV, reading too many books, listening to too much music, etc. if that's what you enjoy doing. You just do you, Raxi. :)
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BTW I think the "old-school difficulty" of the Dark Souls games is kind of overstated. What they are is kind of obscure in telling you how things function, or knowing what to do sometimes, but once you DO know these things the games get kind of easy. Like even in Dark Souls 1 you can one-shot a superboss with a Level 1 character if you have the right setup.

Still a hell of a lot of fun though, at least in Dark Souls 1/2, Demon's Souls, and Bloodborne (The latter two being spirtually a part of the franchise even if not legally). I haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet myself but I'm sure its much the same.
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Eva Yojimbo wrote:I don't think back then I even knew "Tales" was a series at all.
Yeah Tales has never been nearly as huge as something like Final Fantasy so I'm not surprised you never made the connection.
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Post by maz89 »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:We finished the main game yesterday. He really liked it, and we even chatted a bit about it afterwards. My dad's kinda the stoic, "doesn't have strong reactions to anything" type, so for him to even be talking about it afterwards is about as much as I could've hoped for! We played a bit of Left Behind too, which I'm sure we'll finish today.
Glad that he did. [smile]
Jimbo wrote:I wouldn't say it's Hitchcock, where I do think the themes are much more dominant/present; but you're right that it's not as far as Tarantino either. Maybe something like old-Coppola/old-Scorsese is a nice middle-ground between the Tarantino/Hitchcock divide.
This I can live with.
Jimbo wrote:Picked up a few more games with the PS Store Holiday sale:

-Tales of Zestiria/Berseria (actually reminded me that I played a few Tales games back in the day and enjoyed them; and these were only like $15 a piece).
-Castlevania: Requiem (looking forward to playing SOTN, and Rondo as well).
-Ratchet & Clank Remake
-GTA V
-Tomb Raider/Rise of Tomb Raider
-Batman Arkham Collection (heard these inspired Spider-Man, so I was interested)
-Deus Ex: Human Revolution & Mankind Divided
As a fan of the Tomb Raider games, I like that you bought some of them. I enjoy them for the fun gameplay alone (basically, I love controlling agile characters who jump on ledges and scale cliffs without breaking a sweat) because they're light on story and are truly thematically superficial. Even Croft's moral quandaries are plain and heavy-handed. But goddammit, the environments Lara Croft traverses through are stunning and beautiful, and I love exploring every nook and cranny of her universe. I intend to check out the latest one (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) at some point too.

GTA V is alright - not a fan of the story or the characters (even though both of those incorporate GTA's usual zaniness), although the gameplay is fun. My favorite GTA is still GTA San Andreas, and I suspect it always will be. I will never forget driving through the desert with CJ and hearing Lynyrd Skynrd's Free Bird on the radio. Even the whole plot it recycles (about betrayal among childhood friends) is done well. And its sense of crazy is awesome - the jet pack mission is one of the most thrilling I've ever played. I've never experienced a magical moment with a GTA game after San Andreas.

I think I've played a couple of Arkham games. They're enjoyable, but I guess I got kinda bored after the first few. Can definitely see the impact they had on Spider-Man gameplay wise.

I played the hell out of Dark Souls 2 and loved it. I know Rax says they become easy once you crack the code, but I think he places too much faith in the average person as implementation of the fix still poses a challenge, lol. Miss a cue or misread your opponent's body language or mash the wrong button, and you're dead meat. Still, a lot of fun. I have no idea what they're about (maybe at some point I did), but I guess that's what makes their haunting mood so terrifying. Also, the fear of losing all your souls (and ability to upgrade) when you die is real.

I haven't played any of the rest.
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Eva Yojimbo wrote:
I may have played too many video games in my life.
Nah, no such thing as playing too many games, watching too many movies/too much TV, reading too many books, listening to too much music, etc. if that's what you enjoy doing. You just do you, Raxi. :)
Seconded!
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Post by maz89 »

Raxivace wrote:Yeah I liked RE7 a lot but there are things I think it could have improved. I think Capcom learned some lessons from it though and it seems like RE2make is addressing them.

Also even by Resident Evil standards, RE7's story is fucking nonsense that contradicts itself from scene to scene but I'll get into that after you beat it.
Finished RE7 a few days ago. I mean, the shift in story in the second half of the game was... troubling. You leave on a boat from the Baker backyard and come across a super-important, huge ship that hadn't been discovered by anyone in the last 3 years?! Suspension of disbelief meter: 1000%. The game became a lot less scarier when they basically walked you through the past in the heavy-handed way that they did.

Gameplay wise, I enjoyed it and thought the ship level design was pretty good. However, although I call myself a completionist, this is one game I don't think I have any intention of Platinum-ing. If it was just playing it again once with Madhouse difficulty, I'd have considered it, but no, it requires you use First Aid only 3 items, access your item box only 3 times (I accessed it 80 times, lol), and finish the game in under 4 hours! Took me 11 at my snail's pace. WHY WOULD THEY MAKE PLATINUM SO DIFFICULT?

Now I want to hear about how you think RE7's story is silly. In your words.

I've started playing AC Odyssey. It's a nice way to detox from the RE mania. I can relax once again. The last AC game I played was Black Flag (which was quite good), and I'm glad I took a break from their annual releases because in Odyssey, I can see the developers have truly mastered that RPG formula and learned how to make the world a much richer, larger, detailed place. More thoughts to come as I progress.
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maz89 wrote:Finished RE7 a few days ago. I mean, the shift in story in the second half of the game was... troubling. You leave on a boat from the Baker backyard and come across a super-important, huge ship that hadn't been discovered by anyone in the last 3 years?! Suspension of disbelief meter: 1000%. The game became a lot less scarier when they basically walked you through the past in the heavy-handed way that they did.
The funniest part about that is that this is like the fifth Resident Evil game to have lol Evil Cruise Ship, and they've previously had at least two games based solely around that premise before. In a game set in like Louisiana they found a way to work that in.
Gameplay wise, I enjoyed it and thought the ship level design was pretty good. However, although I call myself a completionist, this is one game I don't think I have any intention of Platinum-ing. If it was just playing it again once with Madhouse difficulty, I'd have considered it, but no, it requires you use First Aid only 3 items, access your item box only 3 times (I accessed it 80 times, lol), and finish the game in under 4 hours! Took me 11 at my snail's pace. WHY WOULD THEY MAKE PLATINUM SO DIFFICULT?
It's not so bad if you split it up over several playthroughs. Doing the speedrun unlocks the buzzsaw weapon, which makes a Less Than Three Heals/Less Than Three Item box run really easy, and then makes a Madhouse run way more manageable. There are tricks around the other conditions too- you can sneak by not using First Aid Sprays by instead using Steroids to heal, for example.
Now I want to hear about how you think RE7's story is silly. In your words.
Other than goofiness like the spoiler mentioned above, nothing about Ethan's character really makes sense. The marketing tried to sell him as some normal guy, but we never get ANY idea how much he actually knows about what it is exactly that Mia does, and his bizarrely muted reactions to like everything he sees in RE7 is...odd. It gets to the point he starts cracking jokes about things.

We're never even told like, what Ethan's occupation is either, so you can't even infer characterization from that. Like Chris and Jill are by no means deep complicated characters in Resident Evil 1, but just knowing they were more or less SWAT team members gives us some idea of what their life must have been like before fighting zombies. I have no idea what Ethan's life was like before RE7, and literally nothing in the game points toward that. I know more about the news team from the beginning of the game than I do the lead character. I have no idea if even knows about stuff that happened in the other Resident Evil games or not.

Then there's stuff like the Baker family knowing that one cop is investigating them ("Goddamn it, I bet it's the cop again."), but the cop somehow thinking Ethan might be the one who owns the Baker property. That whole dialogue is just bizarre.


Ethan Winters: "Hey, you gotta help me!"
David Anderson: "Hold on, back up. Now, sir, do you live here? I mean, is this your property?"
Ethan: "What? Me? No. No!"
Anderson: "Alright. Now we got several calls about some missing persons lately."
Ethan: "You don't understand. I gotta get outta here!"
Anderson: "Now calm down."
Ethan: "You're not listening to me. There are crazy people in this house trying to fucking kill me!"
Anderson: "Well alright, lemme tell you this. You don't exactly seem like you're playing with a full deck yourself, alright?"
Ethan: "Are you kidding me?"
Anderson: "Look, like I said, we've had several missing persons calls, and I can't rule out that an outsider like yourself may not be involved."
Ethan: "Alright. I'll tell you whatever you want."
Anderson: "Alright. Now that's more like it. Now, meet me in the garage. We'll talk there."
Ethan: "Hey, wait! You gotta give me your gun!"
Anderson: "You must have lost your mind."
Ethan: "Look, officer."
Anderson: "Deputy."
Ethan: "Right, deputy. Now do you wanna see my name in the obituaries? Or do you wanna be a hero and save my life?"
"A fucking pocket knife?"
Anderson: "Here. Take it! That's all you're gonna get. Now go. Garage. Now."
Ethan: "What am I gonna do with a knife?"
Like what the hell is the "You don't exactly seem like you're playing with a full deck yourself" bit even mean? And how does he not know who owns the property by now if he's been investigating it before?

Also, why does Ethan have a stronger reaction to the fuckin' cop dying instead of thinking he murdered his own wife in the first 15 minutes of the game?

The DLC brings up a lot more issues, like contradicting the timeline in the main game: the Bakers getting infected quickly instead of slowly, an entire other Baker family member living nearby and having no idea what's going on with Jack and co., Zoe somehow coming back to life, Jack somehow still being alive despite Evelyn being dead and receiving the vaccine thing etc.

That's off the top of my head anyways.
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Post by Raxivace »

There's also the "True Ending" to the demo...

Image

Which I think is meant to imply the police are in on it (Perhaps they planted the LSD on the demo's protagonist) and are well aware of what the Bakers are doing? But that doesn't explain the cop that meets Ethan, or the rest of this ending.

The demo is kind of weird because Zoe is a completely different character in it, and also there's a ghost for some reason. So who knows.
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Anyways RE7's writing is bad because an American worked on it.
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Post by maz89 »

Raxivace wrote:It's not so bad if you split it up over several playthroughs. Doing the speedrun unlocks the buzzsaw weapon, which makes a Less Than Three Heals/Less Than Three Item box run really easy, and then makes a Madhouse run way more manageable. There are tricks around the other conditions too- you can sneak by not using First Aid Sprays by instead using Steroids to heal, for example.
Have you gotten Platinum? Well, when you put it like that, it does sound possible... maybe...
Raxivace wrote:Other than goofiness like the spoiler mentioned above, nothing about Ethan's character really makes sense. The marketing tried to sell him as some normal guy, but we never get ANY idea how much he actually knows about what it is exactly that Mia does, and his bizarrely muted reactions to like everything he sees in RE7 is...odd. It gets to the point he starts cracking jokes about things.

We're never even told like, what Ethan's occupation is either, so you can't even infer characterization from that. Like Chris and Jill are by no means deep complicated characters in Resident Evil 1, but just knowing they were more or less SWAT team members gives us some idea of what their life must have been like before fighting zombies. I have no idea what Ethan's life was like before RE7, and literally nothing in the game points toward that. I know more about the news team from the beginning of the game than I do the lead character. I have no idea if even knows about stuff that happened in the other Resident Evil games or not.

Also, why does Ethan have a stronger reaction to the fuckin' cop dying instead of thinking he murdered his own wife in the first 15 minutes of the game?
This, I agree with. He's a bit of an empty slate. I thought maybe the developers deliberately gave him those muted reactions to keep the tone mysterious. Too much dialogue and introspection can get in the way of good drama, especially if not done well (hello, the Walking Dead TV show). But, on the other hand, he kills his wife in the first few minutes of the game. And several times afterward. And just keeps chugging along, assuming he'll be able to save his wife?! Like, wtf?! That was weird. Some situations call for hysterical outbursts but Mr Ethan Hunt is the coolest character in a zombie world ever. And also the most oblivious - had no idea his wife was a super agent tasked with protecting a bioweapon in the form of a girl. It was so ridiculous I decided to save Zoe rather than Mia, lol. Little difference it made, though.
Then there's stuff like the Baker family knowing that one cop is investigating them ("Goddamn it, I bet it's the cop again."), but the cop somehow thinking Ethan might be the one who owns the Baker property. That whole dialogue is just bizarre.
For some reason, I assumed the cop the Baker family was referring to was not the same cop who showed up. [laugh] Or maybe the cop was just incompetent af. [laugh] I guess I was forgiving of that confusion because of the drama it generated.
Raxivace wrote:The DLC brings up a lot more issues, like contradicting the timeline in the main game: the Bakers getting infected quickly instead of slowly, an entire other Baker family member living nearby and having no idea what's going on with Jack and co., Zoe somehow coming back to life, Jack somehow still being alive despite Evelyn being dead and receiving the vaccine thing etc.

That's off the top of my head anyways.
Don't know if I'll play the DLC (I generally dislike this stupid DLC concept - just give me the entire game in one go, dammit), but all of that sounds ridiculous, lol. Btw, I did like the bit where they reveal that the grandma character is Evelyn. If I have to assign a numerical rating to it (as has been my tendency to do in this thread), I think I'd give it somewhere between a 7.5 - 8.0.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:BTW I think the "old-school difficulty" of the Dark Souls games is kind of overstated. What they are is kind of obscure in telling you how things function, or knowing what to do sometimes, but once you DO know these things the games get kind of easy. Like even in Dark Souls 1 you can one-shot a superboss with a Level 1 character if you have the right setup.

Still a hell of a lot of fun though, at least in Dark Souls 1/2, Demon's Souls, and Bloodborne (The latter two being spirtually a part of the franchise even if not legally). I haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet myself but I'm sure its much the same.
Now I'm just going to feel really bad if I start playing Dark Souls and dying all the time. Without giving too much away, any general advice on playing the game? It's good that they're fun, at least. I guess I can pick up Demon's Souls and Bloodborne while I'm at it.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

maz89 wrote: As a fan of the Tomb Raider games, I like that you bought some of them. I enjoy them for the fun gameplay alone (basically, I love controlling agile characters who jump on ledges and scale cliffs without breaking a sweat) because they're light on story and are truly thematically superficial. Even Croft's moral quandaries are plain and heavy-handed. But goddammit, the environments Lara Croft traverses through are stunning and beautiful, and I love exploring every nook and cranny of her universe. I intend to check out the latest one (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) at some point too.

GTA V is alright - not a fan of the story or the characters (even though both of those incorporate GTA's usual zaniness), although the gameplay is fun. My favorite GTA is still GTA San Andreas, and I suspect it always will be. I will never forget driving through the desert with CJ and hearing Lynyrd Skynrd's Free Bird on the radio. Even the whole plot it recycles (about betrayal among childhood friends) is done well. And its sense of crazy is awesome - the jet pack mission is one of the most thrilling I've ever played. I've never experienced a magical moment with a GTA game after San Andreas.

I think I've played a couple of Arkham games. They're enjoyable, but I guess I got kinda bored after the first few. Can definitely see the impact they had on Spider-Man gameplay wise.

I played the hell out of Dark Souls 2 and loved it. I know Rax says they become easy once you crack the code, but I think he places too much faith in the average person as implementation of the fix still poses a challenge, lol. Miss a cue or misread your opponent's body language or mash the wrong button, and you're dead meat. Still, a lot of fun. I have no idea what they're about (maybe at some point I did), but I guess that's what makes their haunting mood so terrifying. Also, the fear of losing all your souls (and ability to upgrade) when you die is real.

I haven't played any of the rest.
Glad to hear the new Tomb Raiders are fun. The gamplay and environments were the biggest appeal of the original PS1 games. I really loved the first one back in the day--there was nothing quite like it back then. The sequels weren't quite as good, though.

I played but never finished San Andreas. I kinda got into GTA a bit before it was released and played GTA III and Vice City first, so by the time I got to SA I was a bit GTA'd out. I have similar memories of VC, driving around Miami listening to... well, lots of different 80s songs! Thought it was really cool they even included a track like Slayer's Raining Blood.

What's this "crack the code" and "the fix" stuff with Dark Souls? Is it some kind of gameplay mechanic that just makes everything easier or something? I'm honestly not sure if I want to know or not!
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Post by Raxivace »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Now I'm just going to feel really bad if I start playing Dark Souls and dying all the time. Without giving too much away, any general advice on playing the game? It's good that they're fun, at least. I guess I can pick up Demon's Souls and Bloodborne while I'm at it.
If you're just generally kind of patient and don't rush into things, a lot of the difficulty evaporates with that. The enemies and especially the bosses don't exactly have the most complicated of patterns- if they hit you you'll get hurt pretty hard sure, but most of the time their windup is slow enough to react to.

You'll also either want a character light enough to dodge out of the way consistently or with heavy enough armor to just tank shit. I don't think middle-weight characters are really worth using. Make them either quick and nimble or slow and heavy IMO.

Also the build/class you start the game with really, really does not matter.
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Post by Raxivace »

maz89 wrote:Have you gotten Platinum? Well, when you put it like that, it does sound possible... maybe...
Yeah I got Platinum, did it that first week the game come out. I don't have 100% though because I didn't like the End of Zoe or Not a Hero DLC's very much and haven't gone back to mop up the last few trophies in those. I thought the Banned Footage DLC's were both cool though.
This, I agree with. He's a bit of an empty slate. I thought maybe the developers deliberately gave him those muted reactions to keep the tone mysterious. Too much dialogue and introspection can get in the way of good drama, especially if not done well (hello, the Walking Dead TV show). But, on the other hand, he kills his wife in the first few minutes of the game. And several times afterward. And just keeps chugging along, assuming he'll be able to save his wife?! Like, wtf?! That was weird. Some situations call for hysterical outbursts but Mr Ethan Hunt is the coolest character in a zombie world ever. And also the most oblivious - had no idea his wife was a super agent tasked with protecting a bioweapon in the form of a girl. It was so ridiculous I decided to save Zoe rather than Mia, lol. Little difference it made, though.
Yeah it got to the point his reactions alienated me far, far more than any of the actual zombie stuff did.

BTW if you had helped Mia, you could have skipped the last boss fight against her altogether. Actually, there are no negative consequences at all to picking Mia since the DLC where Zoe comes back to life assumes you picked Mia anyways.
Don't know if I'll play the DLC (I generally dislike this stupid DLC concept - just give me the entire game in one go, dammit), but all of that sounds ridiculous, lol. Btw, I did like the bit where they reveal that the grandma character is Evelyn. If I have to assign a numerical rating to it (as has been my tendency to do in this thread), I think I'd give it somewhere between a 7.5 - 8.0.
My favorite part of the DLC is probably the one that has a cool version of 21.



Like that's some Saw shit right there. I had a lot of fun playing it.
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One last thing I think I'll say about RE7 is that I think the game has a bit of a identity crisis.

Like the first half of the game is emulating classic style RE, but I don't think its nearly as good as something like REmake at doing that. The second half of the game obviously takes a more action heavy approach, but I don't think it does combat nearly as well as RE4/5/6 or Revelations 2 to really support that.

RE7 ends up as this weird kind of "Jack of all trades, master of none" thing that as much as I like it, doesn't quite feel as satisifying to me as it should be. I think that first half works better though.
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Post by maz89 »

Eva Yojimbo wrote:Glad to hear the new Tomb Raiders are fun. The gamplay and environments were the biggest appeal of the original PS1 games. I really loved the first one back in the day--there was nothing quite like it back then. The sequels weren't quite as good, though.
I will say that I miss the old TRs just on account of how challenging and difficult they were. I remember being lost in never-ending, complicated mazes of the earlier games (including the sequels, which I quite liked too!). The newer ones are fun and polished, yes, but they aren't nearly as challenging as they used to be.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:I played but never finished San Andreas. I kinda got into GTA a bit before it was released and played GTA III and Vice City first, so by the time I got to SA I was a bit GTA'd out. I have similar memories of VC, driving around Miami listening to... well, lots of different 80s songs! Thought it was really cool they even included a track like Slayer's Raining Blood.
Aw man, wish you'd played it! RG really does improve upon every element imaginable in SA so much that every new GTA game now barely has anything new to offer - with the exception of better graphics of course.
Eva Yojimbo wrote:What's this "crack the code" and "the fix" stuff with Dark Souls? Is it some kind of gameplay mechanic that just makes everything easier or something? I'm honestly not sure if I want to know or not!
Hahah, Raxi explains it. Each enemy has a certain attack pattern. That's the code you have to crack. The key is patience! If you go for one extra lick, you might not have enough stamina to dodge away from the enemy's next attack. Word of warning: play on Normal first (that's what I did as a Dark Souls noob). [blush]

BTW, one game I didn't see you mention is God of War. I think you (and maybe your dad!) would really love that.
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Post by maz89 »

WTF, that DLC! *shudders*
Raxivace wrote:One last thing I think I'll say about RE7 is that I think the game has a bit of a identity crisis.

Like the first half of the game is emulating classic style RE, but I don't think its nearly as good as something like REmake at doing that. The second half of the game obviously takes a more action heavy approach, but I don't think it does combat nearly as well as RE4/5/6 or Revelations 2 to really support that.

RE7 ends up as this weird kind of "Jack of all trades, master of none" thing that as much as I like it, doesn't quite feel as satisifying to me as it should be. I think that first half works better though.
I think all of this adds up. I also preferred - and dare I say, loved - the first half (as much as - or maybe because - I was terrified by it). Towards the second half, I kinda just wanted to get the conclusion of the Eveline story.

RE2 remake looks exciting. A way for me to play a classic game upgraded for my PS4. Looks scary tho.

Wtf, apparently there'll be an RE3 remake too? For real?
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Raxivace wrote: Also the build/class you start the game with really, really does not matter.
Hmm, not sure about this. For a while at least (until you can level up), a mage always sucks!
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maz89 wrote:Wtf, apparently there'll be an RE3 remake too? For real?
There are rumors but nothing confirmed yet. It would make sense though because the original PSX RE3 reuses several areas from RE2, its story takes place around RE2, and to be quite honest it actually could use a remake more than RE2 does. I don't think it aged nearly as well.

Like I'm not gonna lie, the only thing I liked about RE3 was that Jill had a skimpy outfit in that game.
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maz89 wrote:Hmm, not sure about this. For a while at least (until you can level up), a mage always sucks!
Once you can level it up at all though magic gets pretty frickin' ridiculous.

Like just being able to blast Soul Arrow alone from a distance will destroy a lot of enemies, and that's one of the first spells you'll get.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo »

Raxivace wrote:
Eva Yojimbo wrote:Now I'm just going to feel really bad if I start playing Dark Souls and dying all the time. Without giving too much away, any general advice on playing the game? It's good that they're fun, at least. I guess I can pick up Demon's Souls and Bloodborne while I'm at it.
If you're just generally kind of patient and don't rush into things, a lot of the difficulty evaporates with that. The enemies and especially the bosses don't exactly have the most complicated of patterns- if they hit you you'll get hurt pretty hard sure, but most of the time their windup is slow enough to react to.

You'll also either want a character light enough to dodge out of the way consistently or with heavy enough armor to just tank shit. I don't think middle-weight characters are really worth using. Make them either quick and nimble or slow and heavy IMO.

Also the build/class you start the game with really, really does not matter.
Ah, so it's just a "be patient, watch for/memorize patterns" type of thing. Gotcha. TBH, though, this is mostly what old-school hard games were as well, though they had some other components (like lack of save points) that often added to the difficulty. Like, Mike Tyson in Punch-Out! was impossible until you figured out his pattern "tell" about where he was going to punch. I never did figure it out on my own back in the day.

Gotcha on the light/heavy thing and the character class thing. I generally like magic users, so I'll probably start with that.
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