Greetings gamers! Welcome back to the Games-Log. It’s been another solid week of gaming on my end. Carving out time has been easy as I have had holidays at work to use up. Since all of those are now gone, I’m facing a lot of late nights ahead. It could be worse though, I could be spending my time doing something shit.
I had to start this week by talking about new PSVR title Moss. It’s absolutely incredible. I had been following the games development and it always sounded interesting, but as is usually the case with VR, seeing the game demoed outside of the headset leaves a lot to be desired. From the moment I started the game though, it was dripping with quality. I have played more PSVR games than most and I think it’s probably the prettiest VR game I have seen to date.
The animation is another high point. Quill’s every moment completely immerses you in the experience and makes you want to just reach out and pick her up. The gameplay mechanics are also a standout. Having to manipulate the game world for Quill to navigate is a great idea and perfectly suited to the medium. I’ll have more to say on this wonderful game upon completion, but for now if you want more on Moss, check out my let’s play of the first hour here.
I’m back with my final thoughts on Past Cure. I finished the game on Saturday, well apart from the final boss fight, which can fuck right off. My opinion hasn’t really changed from last week to be honest. I still maintain that while it’s not a great game, it’s certainly not as bad as some of the reviews on the internet suggest.
This game was made by a small studio with lofty ambitions. Did they knock it out the park? No. But they tried some really interesting stuff and kept me engaged in the story throughout. The game definitely takes inspiration from both Max Payne and Silent Hill on PS One. Ironically it plays very much like a PS One game as well, which at least in my case is not a knock. I appreciated the almost nostalgic clunkiness of the gameplay.
I certainly would have preferred the game to lean more in the direction of Max Payne as I am a complete sucker for all things bullet time, but while the dream sequences (or the Silent Hill sections, as I called them) did drag on a little, they did have their place within the game and the narrative.
I feel bad reviewing and scoring a game without finishing it, but I found the final boss fight a complete joke. I even broke and watched a few YouTube walkthroughs searching for a technique to finish the game, but when getting to the bosses third wave the methods others had used to avoid the one hit kill attack just didn’t work for me at all and the lack of any checkpoint became too much.
Overall I would say Past Cure is worth a look. I think a lot of the bad reactions to this game are from people who got a bit over excited pre-release. Anyone picking up the game now is unlikely to go in with such high expectations and hopefully they can then see the positives that I did. The initial price point of £25 is steep and I would expect it to drop quickly, so if you are on the fence perhaps hang fire for a sale.
Review:
Timothy vs. The Aliens is an interesting new open world platformer/shooter from indie studio Wildsphere. I am only about an hour in at the moment but the basic concept is you run around with a variety of guns killing aliens that pop up in order to save your city from being overrun. The noir style graphics are the highlight of the game so far, it really looks great. The whole world, including your character are in black and white, while the aliens appear in colour.
It’s unlikely to be a game that lives long in the memory, but I am having a blast playing it at the moment and it’s a short and easy platinum which will definitely drive sales. I’ll have more on this when I finish it, but for now I would recommend it to trophy hunters, kids over the age of seven and people looking for something they can just stick on, switch off and chill out with. Our main man over at DayDreamer Gaming Sonny has a let’s play up that you can check out here for more thoughts on the game.
Last week I was pretty positive on Suicide Guy. I was five levels in and while clearly unpolished and with limitations, it was doing something different and interesting. Unfortunately my enjoyment with the game didn’t last. A few of the levels were pretty clever and made sense, but others were just frustrating and about half way through I just found myself using a guide to get it finished.
It’s a good game for trophy hunters clocking in at around two hours for the platinum, but you’d need some patience to endure this in one sitting. While already being short, I think I would genuinely have liked this game twice as much if it was half the length. Overall I do not recommend unless you are looking for an easy platinum.
Review :
Outside of these four main games that I have been focused on I have been chipping away at L.A. Noire, getting through another case. I have also got to October in the second season of my PES 2018 Celtic Master League. My team chemistry is hovering just below 80 now so things are about to click for my team in a big way. After a final day of the season fourth place finish in the first season I am hoping to make a dent in the Champions League and challenge for the title this season.
Looking forward to the next week I will be checking out Bravo Team for PSVR, Fear Effect Sedna and Midnight Deluxe. I have been keeping tabs on VRFC: Virtual Reality Football Club as well and may take a closer look if I get the time. The other potential sleeper release is Frantic, the latest Play Link game that offers a competitive party games. I’m unsure at this point if it’s only local multiplayer or if we could all pile in over the interwebs but I’ll keep my ears to the ground on this one and check out some of the early reviews. That’ll do it for this weeks blog. Get in touch on Twitter @VizualDze and let me know what you have been playing!
VdZe.