PS2 Backlog Committee

Finished: Nothing

Now Playing: Red Dead Redemption II (51.4%, no idea on hours, in chapter 4)

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 34 games

Just got into chapter 4, spent some time earlier this week hunting legendary animals and just exploring some more. They must've spent years on just building the map alone with all of the different areas, textures, weather, lighting, and terrain.

Man, last week just got away from me.

Games added: Mercenary Kings (Switch), Monster Boy, Toki

Last (2) weeks: Finished Yoku's Island Adventure, played mostly Assassin's Creed Odyssey & a little Monster Hunter World

This week: more AC:O, and I'll start up something new on the Switch

Fallout 76 finally broke Tam & I. The game has a lot of promise, and there's a lot to like about it, but it's also very clearly unfinished and should not have been released this year. The world just feels empty, and the further you play into it the worse that feeling gets. The constant crashes didn't help either, but it was mainly the core design flaws that killed it for us.

Yoku's Island Adventure is one of my biggest surprises this year and will definitely be making my year-end list. I looked up the dev to see what else they have made only to find out this is their first game - needless to say, I'll be keeping a close eye on whatever they make next. They're a Swedish dev, and I don't know what they have in the water over there to make someone come up with this seemingly impossible combination of game genres (Metroidvania platformer meets pinball game) - but whatever it is, they need to start selling it to some other devs. This kind of creativity is what it's all about. This one gets my absolute highest recommendation.

AC:O is just plain fun. There's a crap-ton of quests to do and a massive world to explore. My fellow AC players here really need to stop sleeping on the newest games in the series, because they have REALLY kicked things up a few notches with the past 2 games.

jfissel wrote: ↑Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:10 pmThey must've spent years on just building the map alone with all of the different areas, textures, weather, lighting, and terrain.

It's definitely impressive by how big and realistic that the game world is with such attention to detail to everything. That's part of the reason why I didn't mind physically traversing it so much, because it was gorgeous to look at.

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amFallout 76 finally broke Tam & I. The game has a lot of promise, and there's a lot to like about it, but it's also very clearly unfinished and should not have been released this year. The world just feels empty, and the further you play into it the worse that feeling gets. The constant crashes didn't help either, but it was mainly the core design flaws that killed it for us.

I guess that the honeymoon is over.

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amYoku's Island Adventure is one of my biggest surprises this year and will definitely be making my year-end list.

This is another example as to why I look forward to your top 10 lists each year, because there's usually games like this on them that I never heard of and wouldn't have discovered otherwise.

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amAC:O is just plain fun. There's a crap-ton of quests to do and a massive world to explore.

How does it compare to Origins? Better, worse, or about the same?

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amMy fellow AC players here really need to stop sleeping on the newest games in the series, because they have REALLY kicked things up a few notches with the past 2 games.

I have Origins, and I'll pick up Odyssey when it's cheap. I still want to play Rogue, Unity and Syndicate first since I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much if I played them after.

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 am AC:O is just plain fun. There's a crap-ton of quests to do and a massive world to explore. My fellow AC players here really need to stop sleeping on the newest games in the series, because they have REALLY kicked things up a few notches with the past 2 games.

Yeah, the problem for me is that I don't buy the new consoles right away so by the time I get to the AC games I'm already 1 or 2 behind. I picked up Origins over Black Friday weekend, and I may play that early 2019...which may give me a chance to catch up. The other chance would be for them to skip a year and release the next one in 2020.

Phaseknox wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:08 pm

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amFallout 76 finally broke Tam & I. The game has a lot of promise, and there's a lot to like about it, but it's also very clearly unfinished and should not have been released this year. The world just feels empty, and the further you play into it the worse that feeling gets. The constant crashes didn't help either, but it was mainly the core design flaws that killed it for us.

I guess that the honeymoon is over.

The biggest draw for us was being able to play a Fallout game together, and that probably helped us to overlook the game's flaws for as long as we did. I know I wouldn't have played for as long as I did if she hadn't been playing with me, but the further we went the more glaring the issues became. It's a real shame, and it's definitely my biggest disappointment of the year.

Phaseknox wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:08 pm

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amAC:O is just plain fun. There's a crap-ton of quests to do and a massive world to explore.

How does it compare to Origins? Better, worse, or about the same?

It's better than Origins, but the difference is much more subtle than the jump from previous games to Origins was.

Phaseknox wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:08 pm

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amMy fellow AC players here really need to stop sleeping on the newest games in the series, because they have REALLY kicked things up a few notches with the past 2 games.

I have Origins, and I'll pick up Odyssey when it's cheap. I still want to play Rogue, Unity and Syndicate first since I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much if I played them after.

I understand the sentiment, but I really feel that the games get SO much better with Origins that it's worth it to just skip ahead. I haven't played Rogue or Syndicate yet myself - I do want to play Syndicate still at some point. But the changes are so drastic that it almost feels like a new series altogether. Unity, IMO, is trash and doesn't deserve your time.

I am very curious to hear what both you & J have to say about the 2 newest games in the series. I do hope they skip putting out a new game this year because I'd rather the next one feel like a significant upgrade, and I don't want them to fall back into the rut of making marginal changes each year until the games become stale. This doesn't need to be an annual franchise - but then, IMO *nothing* should be an annual franchise.

I picked up Darksiders 3 yesterday on the recommendation of a friend of mine, and because it was on sale for $40 at GS. I almost instantly regretted the decision, the game is not good at all. It looks like a very bad PS3 game and plays like a PS2 game. It's gone from an open world Zelda-style game to a linear action game, but it doesn't hold a candle to any recent games in that genre (DMC, Bayonetta, etc.). Environments are sparse & empty, enemies blink around & tend to hit you from off screen. I've heard ppl say the game takes after Dark Souls, but I'd strongly disagree - the game IS difficult, but it's a very cheap-feeling difficulty. I could turn down the difficulty if that was the only issue, but the game just feels bad & doesn't have any redeeming qualities to make me want to give it more of a chance. Also, Fury is a very one-note boring character - her name is her only character trait. It's like playing a poor man's Kratos from the GoW games before this year's. It's a real shame that the original dev was broken up when THQ fell apart, because I would have loved to have played their third game in the series. This game is NOT Darksiders, it's a very poor imitation of it.
If it wasn't for '76 this would have definitely been my disappointment of the year, and that's because I expected more from '76 - this is still the worse game. Gonna see if my GS manager friend will let me swap it for something else today.

I'm really loving the Ratchet and Clank remake. I never get tired of Insomniac's formula with this series. They've made some refinements, but it's still the same thing that series fans have grown to love. Man is it a good looking game too!

argyle wrote: ↑Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:37 am

Phaseknox wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:08 pm

argyle wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:43 amMy fellow AC players here really need to stop sleeping on the newest games in the series, because they have REALLY kicked things up a few notches with the past 2 games.

I have Origins, and I'll pick up Odyssey when it's cheap. I still want to play Rogue, Unity and Syndicate first since I probably wouldn't enjoy them as much if I played them after.

I understand the sentiment, but I really feel that the games get SO much better with Origins that it's worth it to just skip ahead. I haven't played Rogue or Syndicate yet myself - I do want to play Syndicate still at some point. But the changes are so drastic that it almost feels like a new series altogether. Unity, IMO, is trash and doesn't deserve your time.

I am very curious to hear what both you & J have to say about the 2 newest games in the series. I do hope they skip putting out a new game this year because I'd rather the next one feel like a significant upgrade, and I don't want them to fall back into the rut of making marginal changes each year until the games become stale. This doesn't need to be an annual franchise - but then, IMO *nothing* should be an annual franchise.

It's been a while since I played Rogue, but I remember it being similar to Black Flag with a big mix of sea and land stuff (just set farther North and not in the Caribbean). Interesting plotline because you don't play as an Assassin, and the present day stuff is very meta. Unity has a pretty cool map of Paris and some neat missions, and the ending of Rogue ties directly into the beginning of Unity. Syndicate is different with the twin characters, not to mention London during that time is so dirty and gritty.

Can't wait to check out Origins early next year.

argyle wrote: ↑Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:37 amIt's better than Origins, but the difference is much more subtle than the jump from previous games to Origins was.

I know that you really liked Origins, so if Odyssey is even better in your opinion then it must be REALLY good.

argyle wrote: ↑Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:37 amI do hope they skip putting out a new game this year because I'd rather the next one feel like a significant upgrade, and I don't want them to fall back into the rut of making marginal changes each year until the games become stale. This doesn't need to be an annual franchise - but then, IMO *nothing* should be an annual franchise.

Considering that Odyssey came out this year (and that there's less than two weeks left in the year), I don't think that they'll be releasing another Assassin's Creed game this year. But yeah, I hope that they don't make it an annual franchise again either. I agree that no games should be annual franchises.

argyle wrote: ↑Thu Dec 20, 2018 2:37 amI picked up Darksiders 3 yesterday on the recommendation of a friend of mine, and because it was on sale for $40 at GS. I almost instantly regretted the decision, the game is not good at all. It looks like a very bad PS3 game and plays like a PS2 game. It's gone from an open world Zelda-style game to a linear action game, but it doesn't hold a candle to any recent games in that genre (DMC, Bayonetta, etc.). Environments are sparse & empty, enemies blink around & tend to hit you from off screen. I've heard ppl say the game takes after Dark Souls, but I'd strongly disagree - the game IS difficult, but it's a very cheap-feeling difficulty. I could turn down the difficulty if that was the only issue, but the game just feels bad & doesn't have any redeeming qualities to make me want to give it more of a chance. Also, Fury is a very one-note boring character - her name is her only character trait. It's like playing a poor man's Kratos from the GoW games before this year's. It's a real shame that the original dev was broken up when THQ fell apart, because I would have loved to have played their third game in the series. This game is NOT Darksiders, it's a very poor imitation of it. If it wasn't for '76 this would have definitely been my disappointment of the year, and that's because I expected more from '76 - this is still the worse game.

Ouch! I knew that it wasn't as good as I was hoping that it was going to be based on reviews, but I had no idea that it was as bad as you're saying that it is. I still plan on checking it out when I can get it for dirt cheap just out of curiosity since I'm a fan of the series, but my expectations are really low at this point.