General Games Discussion

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Firenze wrote:few days until Far Cry 5



the open world actually looks nice, probably helps I haven't played a Far Cry properly since 3 which was like 2012

Tempting

After finishing Assassins Creed DLC I'm desperate for something new to play, to the point if it was out I'd spend the 50 quid on the PSN store lmao.

Got the feeling I'm going to do something stupid today.

Finish up Nier ffs

I did

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I did

You actually did?

As in three "playthroughs"

Finished half way through 2nd playthrough so it counts imo.

It doesnt ffs

Its not like other games where you just see extra cutscenes, third playthrough takes place after the first and second ones and completely turns the story and game upside down. Its what elevated it from a good to a great game for me.

Yeah 3rd playthrough turns game from 7/10 to 9.9/10.

You get hints about the 3rd playthrough in the second playthrough.

You find out why it always ends like this.

horrific hipsterish game design

imagine telling someone you have to do 3 playthroughs (and I hear the second is basically entirely the same as the first) OUT.

Can't blame him for not finishing the second playthrough, I nearly gave up on it myself. The repetitiveness is tedious. It's frustrating how much the overall impression of the game improves once you get past that threshold, because the average person isn't going to have the patience to get there. Fantastic game in it's entirety, hipster game design that prevents people from enjoying the full experience.

Firenze wrote:horrific hipsterish game design

imagine telling someone you have to do 3 playthroughs (and I hear the second is basically entirely the same as the first) OUT.

Caught me to the punch.

3rd playthrough of a game would put me away from gaming for 10 years

also good to see you back bella

RealGunner wrote:3rd playthrough of a game would put me away from gaming for 10 years

In fairness it's like 10 hours long and mostly a good game, I'm still probably going to do it.

I just need it to be less fresh in my mind tbh. Obviously agree with Thimmy and Firenze though.

Would rather finish a good 10 hour game with a lot of depth like Nier 3-5 times than spend 50 hours playing dross like most Bethesda open worlds.

Except the third playthrough is not a repeat of the game at all. The story takes place after the events of the first and second playthroughs, is considerably short, and there's way more which I'm not talking about because they are massive spoilers.

@Mole try to power through until flooded city, after that you get different gameplay segments to the first playthrough.

I really did not mind it as much because I was breezing through it because of my level, hardly ever died and there were very few sidequests.

I plan to tbh, I just took a break because I wanted to try other things while the original playthrough is so fresh in my mind.

I'll probably end up pushing through the 2nd playthrough before GOW.

I expected I would enjoy it once I got past the Flooded City anyway as that's the point where I started to enjoy the first play through a lot anyway.

Before that I felt some very high moments but also quite a few meh ones.

Honestly more so than the repetitive nature of it I think 9S gameplay wise is pretty meh tbh is what prevented from running through it immediately.

I've barely been able to play Ni No Kuni 2 due to time restrictions, but if you liked the first one, you'll definitely like the sequel, Lord Spencer. I can already tell that they seem to have improved on just about everything, and I've yet to experience many of the new features. Also, the dialogues seem to have taken a step up from the intellectual level of a children's show, which I personally appreciate

Ordered a PS4 pro

Sea Of Thieves is No Man's Sky: Pirates. Sad, it was Xbox One's big hyped exclusive for the year. Feel bad for Xbox gamers, at least they're getting Hellblade soon.

M99 wrote:Sea Of Thieves is No Man's Sky: Pirates. Sad, it was Xbox One's big hyped exclusive for the year. Feel bad for Xbox gamers, at least they're getting Hellblade soon.

Is it that bad? i heard it was good but had little content atm. Could see it being a Rainbow Six story if it gets the support and enough of the playerbase sticks.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ordered a PS4 pro

Nice, and congrats. Do you have a 4k TV? You won't notice any substantial differences if you don't.


- I never had any issues with Rainbow Six's amount of content. I genuinely enjoyed playing that game, but Ubisoft's servers made the game unplayable with constant disconnects and no fix until 2-3 months later. Ain't no one etc.

Thimmy wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Ordered a PS4 pro

Nice, and congrats. Do you have a 4k TV? You won't notice any substantial differences if you don't.

That's not true tbh There's a super sampling mode for 1080p screens now.



I did my research Although the main reason i did it was because i was sick of my PS4 sounding like a aeroplane taking off tbh My brother told me his Pro doesn't do the same so good enough for me.

That's a neat feature, I suppose. Seems like a hassle to switch it on or off depending on the game, though. I upgraded my original PS4 for the same reason. That damn, noisy fan

Thimmy wrote:That's a neat feature, I suppose. Seems like a hassle to switch it on or off depending on the game, though. I upgraded my original PS4 for the same reason. That damn, noisy fan

I'll probably just keep it on tbh unless it absolutely breaks a game anyway.

#97

Game: Gex.
Year: 1996.
Genre: Platformer.
Publisher: Crystal Dynamics.
Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Beam Software.



First things first, I am changing my rating system to a simpler 10 point system. Games that get above a 7 I fully recommend, and those that get below that are mostly a waste of time. That leaves the score of 7 to depend on your taste

With the impending start of the fifth generation of videogame consoles, The 3DO Company wanted to revolutionize the console market with their new 3DO console. Of course, the 3DO Company realized they needed a mascot character to compete with Mario and Sonic, and Crystal Dynamics obliged that need with Gex. A green gecko mascot to rival Sega's blue and Nintendo's red.

It can be surmised that the failure of the 3DO, is then in part, a failure of Gex. Yet, that would be a very unfair conclusion. Even though Gex is as dead a mascot as he can be, his debut was not bad at all.

In fact, it puts him square in the running for best failed mascot of the 90s.

"That's what I call getting some tail"

Gex is an obnoxious mascot character in an obnoxious game with an obnoxious premise.

I could have easily started my review of this game the same way I started my review of Bug!. After all, two of the statements above are entirely correct. However, the difference is that Gex was designed from the ground up to be somehow obnoxious, and that's infinitely better than accidentally becoming so.

Gex is a designed in a quintessentially 90s way, with an attempt at being cool obvious n ever facet of his design. From his sly eyes to the sarcastic one-liners, Gex oozes a specific kind of personality. Unlike other mascots of the time, this gecko is not content on being a silent protagonist.

No, instead, he is going to continue making snarky comments, punchlines, and references. Honestly, a lot of his lines are genuinely funny. Even hearing them for the tenth time, the voice actor does such a good job that it is never grating. And when there is a one-liners author credit at the end, you know some real effort went into writing them.

That is true especially because the rest of the game compliments Gex's character. The game start with the evil "thing" Rez zapping our hero into the TV world. Gex then must travel through TV and pop-culture inspired levels to save himself. Here is where good character design is built, by changing Gex's library of lines depending on the level, the developers actively build-up the character.

It could have been very easy seeing Gex fail as a character. Instead, he manages to succeed, in perhaps the most endurable yet obnoxious way.

"Let's get back to the mystery van"

Unlike the travesty that was most of the early 5th generation 3D platformers, Crystal Dynamics decided to stick to the true and tested 2D platformer to show their mascot. This decisions means that they can take much inspiration from an already proven genre. Yet, it also means that Gex would be compared to excellent platformers like Sonic, Mario and Donkey Kong Country.

Knowing that, Gex offers a new way to traverse his levels; utilizing his unique lizard traits to clib up the walls. He can attach himself to nearly ever surface in the game, and in some cases the background itself. This added a different layer to a typical 2D game, with an ability to navigate the 2D realm in different ways.

Other than his climbing abilities, Gex can use his tail to bash enemies as well as get a variety of useful power ups. Other than the customary invisibility power up, there are also three offensive power ups that add some serious "fire" power to Gex's breath.

However, there is something lacking in the characters movement. Everything feels a little bit clunkier and slower that it should be. One thing the game doesn't take from other platformers is the ability to jump on enemies; Gex must always wack them instead. That robs him from a serious momentum boost.

Otherwise, the game is rarely challenging, with only the final set of levels providing any modicum of difficulty. In some way, I understand the lack of challenge. The game is not fast and precise enough, so adding in some platforming difficulties would probably only serve to make it more frustrating than fun.

"I wanna be... the Rocket Man"

To showcase his abilities, Gex goes to some 18 or so levels and some bosses. Generally, the levels follow the Sonic formula of labyrinthine levels rather the more focused Nintendo style. Except, where Sonic's mechanics invite the player to try and master them in a variety of paths, Gex is never that kind of game.

As such, the longer levels do not feel like adding in value as much as stretching out content. They are not boring in any way, but they are dangerously close to being so.

It is only when the levels really are built around an idea that they shine. One example is maze-like level with doors changing the time from day to night. Another good example is a level that utilizes Gex's abilities well by having a conveyor belt both in the roof and the floor.

In the other hand, the bosses are in no way repetitive, with each having a unique and satisfying fight. Not easy fights, but fights that are fair and take just the right amount of time. That is excepting the final boss though, which deserves is a frustrating test of patience.

"Gecko Fry. Never Closes"

I already mentioned that Crystal Dynamics were very smart to stick with 2D gameplay with their Mascot introduction. Experience in the 3D realm and with polygon graphics have yet to be properly built, and consumers would be turned off by an ugly polygonal mess.

Instead, Gex opts to be one damn fine looking 2D platformer.

Let's get Gex himself out of the way though. While he doesn't look in any way bad, there is some clashing against the rest of the environment, almost as if he is juxtaposed against it. It is jarring at first, but you quickly get used to it.

Other than that, the environments look good, and the character design is uniformly great. In each of the game's five worlds, it offers different characters that fit really well with the theme. Especially in the Chinatown world, which looks like an excellent place for Joe Musashi to be in. A special mention should be made for the level's backgrounds, which are simply great to look at.

2D art have aged really well. The same cannot be said of the FMV scenes though, which may have been impressive at the time but only serve to remind you of how old you are today.

As for the music, it is somewhat limited in the number of its tracks, but is generally of really good quality. Of course, in saying it is of generally really good quality, I am emphatically excluding the terrible credit song. One of the best songs is the Kungfu Ville stage song, which uses the Asian influence quite well while also having some energetic beats to it.

Finally, the voice acting for Gex is quite good. With the amount of lines he says, my impression of the game may have been very different if that wasn't the case.

In Conclusion:

Gex is an obnoxious character, and that's why he works.

He is the quintessential forgotten 90s mascot, full with quips and cool, so much that he has no other decade to go to. The 2000s wouldn't accept him, nor would he work out today.

The 3DO failed, and while Gex survived its failure for sometime, he eventually disappeared. At least no one can take his debut away from him, nor the distinction of being the best sold game on the 3DO.

Final: 7/10

Pros:

• Gex works as a character.
  
• Very Good 2D Graphics and good music.
  
• Doesn't overstay its welcome.
  

Cons:

• Slow and easy gameplay.
  

"Tips"
1- If you get hit you lose the powerup.
2- You can attack while you are attached to the walls.
3- The remotes you need to get are never hidden out of your way.
4- Extra paths don't have anything more useful than extra lives or powerups.


"Next Game"

So, it is great the next game in the list is not as terrible as freaking Bug!, even it its not exactly a great game. If anything, it is a solid 2D platformer that successfully launched the career of on gecko character.

Next game in the list is another Crystal Dynamic game; The Horde which sit at #95. It's a unique strategy action hybrid that was originally made for the 3DO and then ported to the Saturn and the PC.

Stay Tuned

Sea of thieves looked garbage even in the trailers. Not really surprised it is getting mediocre reviews.

Loved Gex.