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52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

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bikingjahuty:

--- Quote from: kashell on February 10, 2024, 10:43:42 am ---15. Castlevania: Dracula X

My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.

--- End quote ---


I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.

kashell:

--- Quote from: bikingjahuty on February 10, 2024, 02:24:13 pm ---
--- Quote from: kashell on February 10, 2024, 10:43:42 am ---15. Castlevania: Dracula X

My Castlevania Advance Collection finally arrived. I thought I'd celebrate by finally, and officially, playing Dracula X. I guess I can say I got the worst out of the way. This wasn't fun. The stiff controls might have been too to playing on the Switch, but that's just one issue. Things just seem extra unfair in this iteration. I don't remember Rondo of Blood having so many "eff you" moments. Save states and rewinds were used heavily. Then, there's the lack of extras like playing as Maria and the different levels. It was just an all around unfun game. Luckily, it's short and included as part of the collection; no need to worry about dropping a couple hundred bones on that cart.

--- End quote ---


I played this game years ago and I was going in thinking it would be amazing, but in the end I just found it super frustrating. I somehow managed to beat the game, although Dracula feels damn near impossible. It's a fun novelty on the SNES, but most other 2D Castlevania games blow it out of the water.

--- End quote ---

Yeah, and another perk to it is that it'll make Circle of the Moon (next on my list/in the collection) shine a little brighter.

kashell:
16. .hack//Quarantine

I can see why there are a few fans of this series. The characters and story were really something else. I'm going to miss the antics of Kite and his friends. I especially liked Sanjuro. His avatar is a badass samurai. Behind the avatar is a guy in South Dakota with a fascination for the bushido. It was great getting to know him and the rest of the squad. Oh, saving the world both in and out of the game was a nice perk, too. I watched the four Liminality DVDs after the game ended, just to round things out and see if there were any gaps. There weren't. But, it was a nice little side aspect of the universe. On the flipside, I can see why there are more (a lot more) haters. These four games were messy. One of the developers said that they wanted to make the games harder because they thought that's what Americans wanted. They weren't hard; just frustrating. I was in a menu constantly because the AI was dumber in this iteration. And still not having save points in dungeons added the wrong kind of tension. So, I'm glad I went through these four games. I doubt I'll go through them all again, though.

dhaabi:
12. Silent Hill: The Short Message || PlayStation 5 || 02.07.24



Having properly played through the first four Silent Hill games in 2022, I was anticipating to continue the series at some point by playing its console games in order of release. But, with the release of Silent Hill: The Short Message, I decided to deviate from that plan. Apart from the interactive media project Silent Hill: Ascension debuting in October 2023, The Short Message is the first game proper within the Silent Hill franchise to release since P.T. in 2014. As a fan of the franchise, I was curious how a modernized game from this series would be.

Waking up in an abandoned apartment complex, players act as protagonist Anita, a teenaged girl. While she's physically alone, her smartphone connects her with the outside world, as she frequently receives text messages from two friends, Maya and Amelie, with Anita meaning to meet up with the former. Paired with being in such a derelict environment alongside her mental health issues, Anita has little characterization beyond feeling worthy of her ongoing social ridicule and general trauma while feeling confused. That said, The Short Message focuses more on its themes than characterization, with the latter feeling noticeably underdeveloped. While playing, I felt as if, as Anita, I was walking around aimlessly without any clear goal in mind. Of course, the game's exploration depth is minimal, so there is no moment which the player would become lost or misunderstand how to progress the narrative, but, from Anita's perspective, most of the game's events felt as if they were looping.

Being broad in my descriptions, I found that game's storytelling is too direct with the troubles each character experiences, to the point where the player feels as if they're being patronized. Avoiding subtlety in every way, in-game commentary from both the player and through what's being observed follows obvious visual and written information which either answers or refutes previous ideas, leaving no moment for the player in any way to solve the narrative's questions. While voice acting is fair, dialogue is poor, though that isn't exactly unexpected. As a Silent Hill game, The Short Message struggles to challenge its players in any way, as topics of trauma never go deeper beyond a surface level. Instead, it remains comfortably at the she was sad, but I didn't know type of commentary. While I find nothing wrong with the story itself, its storytelling is a major issue.

Regarding the game's structure, it largely consists of walking through changing environments with a strong narrative focus. In a short section, there is one puzzle, although it's brief and simple. As the game prioritizes narrative over action gameplay, there is a lot of story to experience. Half of the story is divided into in-the-moment instant messaging and FMV flashbacks, whereas the other half relies on more traditional survival horror outlets such as articles and journals which may be inspected. With the former in mind, I found it to be lacking as a substitute for actual in-person conversation.

In certain segments which many would consider the game's actual gameplay, there are chase sequences. During these moments, there is no way to overcome the obstacle aside from running away, while confronting it results in an immediate stage fail. At its core, it is a never-ending chase until the player interacts with certain items, and there is no real strategy involved. At times, these sequences feel too strict and consist of trial-and-error mechanics. They do instill a fair amount of fear for some amount of time, but the player will almost certainly be forced to replay these sequences over and over again which greatly devalues any horror aspect. In many ways, the environment during these sections feels like a maze which is difficult to traverse and only made worse by the little sense of direction while in a panicked state, even when brightness settings are at maximum. While there are survival horror games focused on fleeing, hiding, and avoiding, they simultaneously require some sort of strategy while incorporating stamina, health, and strategy (however effective it may be.) On that note, The Short Message's chase sequences feature none of these elements, resulting in a gameplay loop that is both repetitive and lackluster. With all that said, The Short Message features no combat or resource management as it follows a linear path with some freedom to explore. In terms of The Short Message's genre, I feel firm in classifying is as a horror adventure game like many which have released in recent years and not survival horror.

Generally speaking, The Short Message does a fair job at modernizing the franchise narrative regarding its lore. Canonically, the game takes place in Germany in 2021, and articles specifically mention how psychiatric doctors are noticing a trend being referred to as the Silent Hill Phenomenon that's being experienced more often due to the real-world pandemic. (As an aside, I'll note how this term is quite poor, as it now seems that the town of Silent Hill is now recognized globally as some site of psychological hardship.) With that little we know of upcoming game Silent Hill F, the details presented seem to be lining up for future series entries. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Silent Hill mimicking real-world events, as I prefer games be set with their own conditions and history. Nevertheless, I found plot details concerning COVID-19 and the effects caused by pandemic isolation to be integrated nicely.

In terms of the game's remaining aspects worth mentioning, the sense of atmosphere is presented strongly. This is especially true as the narrative progresses from real world to otherworld. There are also some welcomed references to past Silent Hill titles as well, including 3, 4, and P.T. Although there's only one monster, I found its design to be exceptional, but framerate problems frequently occur at its appearance. With music again done by composer Akira Yamaoka, it's also no surprise that it's deserving of praise. However, my opinion of the game's FMV sequences is opposite. While I have no issue with their inclusion and believe them to add a nice balance to the straightforward gameplay experience, there is a problem with how it's presented. As we know the game is set in Germany, it is troubling that FMV sequences are clearly being spoken in Japanese, which is only made worse that voice language options are only available in English.

There are other elements to consider when debating the game's success such as pricing and length, but, overall, The Short Message hasn't proved to me that the franchise needs a modern revival. With that said, those two other aforementioned factors aren't ones I believe are intrinsic to reviewing a piece of media, meaning that the weaknesses of this game outweigh its strengths. I know that, once the remake for Silent Hill 2 releases, I'll be playing it sooner rather than later. I'm neither skeptical nor energetic for its upcoming release, so I'll remain cautious.

kamikazekeeg:
9 - Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain (PC 2015) - BEAT - Finally done with my second playthrough of the game.  I don't think it holds up as well the second time through compared to what I thought of the experience from back in the day.  I forgot how the game just spoils what shows up in every main mission, that's such a bad idea.  The game being unfinished, missing the final third of its story, you definitely feel by the end of the second part, like I forgot how random and out of place the final mission for the game is and how badly its handled.  I feel like it hurts the big story moment that comes before.

It is interesting re-experiencing this game after having played Death Stranding, how a lot of that game is an extension of what he did with MGSV, the similar execution of an open world you go back and forth through, doing story and side missions.  That being said, where MGSV starts to get very tedious with its side missions, some obnoxious stuff with doing multiple side ops in a row without a convenient fast travel (The game desperately needed the ability to treat the chopper like a fast travel point within the map), I've replayed Death Stranding twice, later this year it'll be three times and I love doing all the side stuff, it's so much more enjoyable.

I still love a lot about the game, it's executed kind of clunky, I feel it would be similar even if the story was completed, but there's still a lot to like with the game and if you wanted to beat the whole game, it's a solid 100+ hours for full completion, so there's still a decent amount of content. 

With the MGS3 remake coming up, and Kojima having a new action espionage game in the works, I've been tempted to check out the MGS Master Collection, re-experience MGS2 and MGS3 and actually beat MGS1, only dabbled with it back in the day, so that might be the plan for this year.

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