The last game you completed, and rating.

Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition

Pros

  • Atmosphere. A game that you can really get immersed in!...sometimes it can get quite scary as well. Exploring slowly with your shield up, in an area that you are not familiar with, wanting desperately to protect your souls and Humanity is a unique experience! Some enemies are really intimidating as wwell.
  • Length. Took me 88 hours on a first run, and there was plenty to do!
  • Combat. Second to none! Really is the best combat I have experience in a game. The weakest enemy in the game can easily kill you if you are not on guard, but pay attention, and combat is incredible, and every encounter with an enemy is both challenging and fun.
  • Challenging, but very rewarding. Some of the game is hard, but it is always fair. Beating a boss, or an area you previously struggled with is great.
  • Freedom. The freedom to explore and do what you want is excellently handled. Most areas are available from the start, but venture in to some of them and you will be annihilated. There are loads of secrets, and plenty to find if you are up for exploring.
  • Some great areas to explore. Darkroot Basin, Ash Lake, New Londo Ruins, the Additional Content areas are all a joy to explore.
  • Great implementation of multiplayer. The invasion and covenant system is great, but as mentioned later, not perfect.
  • Boss fights. Most of them are truly awesome, and very satisfying, with only a few exceptions.


CONS

  • Accessibility. This game tells you nothing!...there is a tutorial, but important things like covenants, invasions etc are not explained well/at all. This can lead to many people becoming frustrated with the game and giving up. A journal wouldn't be the worst addition.
  • Poor Story/Lore implementation. The story, such as it is, is barely told to you at all. This is an area where some praise the game, but I think it is it's biggest failing myself. The game would be improved massively if there were just a few more NPCs or lines for existing ones that expand on the background of the characters/world. The game can feel slightly aimless as you spend ages in an area and suddenly realise you don't actually know why you are there, or what you are supposed to be doing. Also, telling story/expanding lore through item descriptions!....not cool.
  • Multiplayer. Being invaded when you just want to get on with the game is very annoying. Should be an option(other than remaining hollow) for this.
  • Game mechanics are sometimes not up to scratch. Sometimes the gameplay can become very tedious when you are struggling because of poor controls/camera/clipping etc as opposed to the actual challenge of the game.
  • Some areas are a bit of a letdown. Tomb of the Giants for example can just be frustrating to explore, and personally I couldn't wait to leave!
  • Some parts of teh game where, tbh, you are not gonna know what to do, where to go without either using a guide, or dying trying to find out. This is part of the game, but a game with bits that you literally can't do first time is not good in my book.
  • The game tails off towards the end imo.
  • Poor port. Without the dsfix mod, this game is a travesty quite frankly, and even with it there are areas with poor fps(Chasm of the abyss for me...which is pitch black:confused:). It does looks quite good though.

Score- 9.5/10

An incredible experience. I can't remember the last game that immersed me as much as this. It has it's issues, but look past them and enjoy the game as a whole, and you will be very richly rewarded! It is one of the very best games I have ever played, but I can't give it a 10, as much as I would like to, for reasons mainly to do with the accessibility of the game, and the poor story/lore implementation.
You might wonder how I can give a game 9.5/10 and mention so many negatives. It is because the overall experience of the game is so incredible, that honestly everything else can be overlooked if you are willing. I have never played a game like it, and it will stick with me for a long time....I might go so far as to say that it has changed the way I think about, and play games!
 
Earth Defence Force 2017

I've completed it many times, but I just can't get enough of it, it's the one game that makes sure my XBOX still gets some love.

9/10
 
I almost agree with the Dark Souls review, but like you say some people might, I disagree with the story telling. I find it great that it's a game that doesn't feed the story to you in your face, if you want the story you can go and find it by talking to the NPCs and building your own tale; but if you dont want the story, you can ignore them! :D
 
Tibbz2 said:
I almost agree with the Dark Souls review, but like you say some people might, I disagree with the story telling. I find it great that it's a game that doesn't feed the story to you in your face, if you want the story you can go and find it by talking to the NPCs and building your own tale; but if you dont want the story, you can ignore them! :D
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The thing about the story-side of things, is that it really wouldn't need much to not be a problem for me....it wouldn't even need you to talk to NPCs to be improved really, just some ambient dialogue that detalis some of the lore of the world, or the quest you are on,that you can listen to if you want, or just walk off. You know how in Skyrim for example, NPCs start talking as you approach them, and have conversations etc....A bit more of that kind of thing was greatly needed imo. It is a massive missed opportunity for me. A bit more care taken over the story aspect of the game, and it would have been improved ten-fold!
 
Mass effect- completed it a few times but it is still an incredible universe to get stuck in to. The characters and planets you encounter all have their own story to tell and the galaxy actually feels big and like a galaxy. I like the openness of ME compared to the later games. However the combat is a bit meh and the backtracking at jog speed, especially around Noveria, is a pain in the donkey. This is somewhat relieved by the fact that I can hold shift and steer my jogging with the a and d keys, instead of strafing. This frees up my mouse hand meaning I can pick my nose whilst saving the galaxy. 6/10. Now to ME2!
 
Tomb Raider. Story and voice acting is awful but the gameplay was good fun and occasionally challenging. And where was the mansion?! 7/10
 
Tomb Raider (1996) - nothing come close to the atmosphere. Completed it last night for about the 5th time, this time using the PS1 music patch + glide wrapper + Xbox pad. Better than the 2013 "reboot" imho

9/10 (would be a 10 but the tacked on story has always been daft as a brush)
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I hear you on that one d_brennen. Love the original tomb raider series. I will be playing TR 2,3,4 and Chronicles + Custom levels in the next few weeks.

It's a shame the series has lost it roots since being taken over by Crystal Dynamics but they are pretty good never the less.

Tomb Raider series is the most replayed games I have ever played. The second is Return To Castle Wofenstein.;)
 
Havent completed it yet but its a great great game :D


Elemental: Fallen Enchantress 9/10


basically a mix of Civilization, Master of Magic and Age of Wonders.

Great graphic style, awesome playability and very addictive.

You can create and design your own Sovereign and army units as well. (ived only created 2 so far...the Riders of Rohan and the Immortals(harking back to an army unit from a Drenai/David Gemmell novel)

Spell effects and combat is all good, turn based.

One example of a spell is from the death magic school - you open up a portal into the demon realm and demon armies (deadly) come out and ravage the land and your enemies armies. The idea is to cast it on your enemies lands miles and miles away from you.

I will add some pics in a minute
 
Far Cry 3 - 8/10

It was incredibly fun roaming the islands and figuring out ways to liberate outposts without being detected and even when you get detected it's fun trying to survive and RPGing reinforcement trucks was always enjoyable :p. Vaas was obviously great and a couple of the other characters you meet were great too like Buck. For the most part though the story missions with rather 'meh' (barring one which I loved :D) and forced stealth missions never really appealed to me which this game had quite a few of.
 
Bioshock Infinite - 10/10

One of the best games I have played in a long time, and I think it even surpasses Bioshock 1. One of those games that I didn't want to end. Oh and Elizabeth has to be one of the best NPC's ever :D
 
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