Last game you finished, tell us about it

Do you know if the Ground Zeroes compaign is included in Phantom Pain? Or are they separate? I seem to remember hearing that Zeroes was supposed to be a demo-prologue-early tast of what Phantom Pain will be. But I'm not sure if they both contain unique content on their own.

1. GZ and PP are separate games. If you preorder PP on Steam, you get GZ for free. Otherwise, you don't.

2. Konami went pachinko and phone scamware, joined EA/Ubi religion, all possible greed and skinning people models are present in PP including microtransactions in AAA title which is a travesty that needs to stop.

3. To assure more sales of GZ, they took EA's ME3 pay-older-games2win model so you can load the GZ savegame for some benefits in PP.

4. You don't have to buy GZ for those benefits really as people are already sharing their savegame all over internet. Unless ofc… You bought PP on consoles. So you bought the game on PC. I hope.
 
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I downloaded ground zero on ps4 for free. I will probably preorder and get both on PC.
 
I'm intrigued by the new Metal Gear Solid, but I've never played much of the previous games, despite owning copies of all of them. Did Ground Zero feel like a standalone game story-wise?

*Edit* To clarify.. I mean did it seem connected to the previous games much?
 
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Done with Diablo 3. The whole getting locked out of my account for the last time and how retarded their retrival process is just made my mind up for me.Done with all Blizzard games and I feel so free:biggrin:
 
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I'm intrigued by the new Metal Gear Solid, but I've never played much of the previous games, despite owning copies of all of them. Did Ground Zero feel like a standalone game story-wise?

*Edit* To clarify.. I mean did it seem connected to the previous games much?

Since I've never really played the past games much, it's hard to be sure how much it's connected - but it seems VERY connected to past events.

Essentially, I had no idea what was going on - and a lot of obviously important characters from past games were part of the game.
 
Done with Diablo 3. The whole getting locked out of my account for the last time and how retarded their retrival process is just made my mind up for me.Done with all Blizzard games and I feel so free:biggrin:

I agree it's really painful, but if you put things into perspective, it's not that hard to understand why this happens.

Their games are extremely popular, and they have a massive problem with gold farmers and account stealers.

If you want to blame their process, that's cool - but I think it's a much harder thing to solve than many seem to think.
 
You are exactly right Dart however the funny thing is the process to unlock the game is harder then the game:biggrin:

Still done. Too many other games and lately life is a lot more fun than the computer.
Au revoir
 
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The Last Story
The Last Story is one out of the three "Operation Rainfall" games released on the Wii. Operation rainfall was an attempt to get 3 Japanese games released in the US, and it was ultimately a success (even though us Europeans actually got them first). The other two were Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora's Tower.

Story & characters
The story in "The Last Story" starts relatively simple, you're playing as a member of a mercenary band, who has aspirations to become a knight. Early on you're granted a mysterious power that later turn out to be a central part of the plot. It's a simple setup, but that does not mean that it has to be bad. What sets it apart from other games with a similar setup is the fact that it puts a larger focus on your rise to become a knight than what would be expected. Sadly, the plot is about as predictable as it gets, the ones you expect to be evil turn out to be evil, the plot twists are exactly what you would expect, the betrayal happens exactly where you would expect it to, the snarky guy who you expect to actually have a heart of gold turns out to have a heart of gold. At no point did the story come even remotely close to surprising me, and for a game as story heavy as this, that's a major issue.

The characters do fare a bit better than the story. While they are simple, they are at least easy to tell apart, and have their own distinct personalities. The localization team were also smart enough to give them voice actors that fit their personalities, and while the voice actors are not stellar, they do the job well enough. Sadly, apart from the main character, and one of the side characters, there is very little in the way of character development going on. The game actually sets some time aside for what would seem like character development, but most of this development is just told to you, rather than shown. One character tells you that he feels more confident, but it's not reflected in his personality later on, for an example. Two of the side characters do show a bit of character growth right at the end, but that's really about it

Gameplay
While the last story is classified as a "JRPG", it does not really play like one. Combat is in real time, and you're free to move across the battlefield. You're only controlling one character, though you're able to give simple orders to the other party members. While there are some good ideas to be found here, combat is far too easy to be fun, and you have far too few choices.

Leveling up works like in most other JRPGs. Once you get a certain amount of experience, you get a new level, and your stats are increased. There are no choices here, you just get better. The level design is about as linear as the character progression, there is one linear path through the game, and at only two points does it deviate a bit from it (with some side objectives).

Graphics & sound
The game sometimes showcases a rather strong artistic design, but sadly the people responsible for the graphics did not take into account the Wii's very limited hardware, and a lot of the beauty disappears in a sea of muddy textures and poor lighting. I suspect that the developers actually expected that the Wii would be able to handle a more advanced lighting engine, because many scenes have needlessly dark areas that would have benefited from light behaving more "naturally".

Sound effects are nothing special. They get the job done, and are not distracting, but they don't really stand out. As for the soundtrack, it does not fare much better, and that's surprising, as Nobuo Uematsu composed it.

Technical issues
Gamespot claimed that the game has minor framerate issues. If you consider the framerate often dropping down into the single digits during large fights and most of the later boss fights as minor, I guess that's a correct statement. Had the combat not been so easy, the game would have been nigh unplayable due to the massive framerate issues. Once the team members starts learning skills that leave persistent effects on the battlefield, the weak hardware is really making itself known.
Apart from that, I did not experience many technical issues. I once got stuck in the level geometry, but that's it. Still, the framerate issues are so big that it alone would be enough for me to not recommend the game.

Final verdict
The last story is really not a particularly good game. Predictable story, simplistic combat, and massive framerate issues make this game mediocre at best. It's mercifully short though (16h is short for this genre). Luckily it looks like I'll make about 40€ from this one (bought it for 10€, and now it sells for 50€+ on my local ebay counterpart), that's always something. Had I not considered selling it, I would probably not have bothered beating it.
 
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I finally managed to finish Mass Effect 3 last night after a -sort of- back-to-back playthrough of the trilogy. Well, I played ME1 and ME2 in rapid succession back in May and finished ME2 on May 26th, but looking at today's date, part 3 took me a while I guess...

It was partially my own fault as I always get lazier in gaming during the summer and like to spend a lot more time outside doing sports but it was also partially the game's fault as it did by far not grab me as much as part 2.

I played the digital deluxe version of ME3 with the Citadel and Leviathan DLC installed and of course with the free DLC like the improved ending. I chose to not get Omega since the location and characters didn't really do much for me in the previous game.

According to Origin it took me 58 hours until the credits rolled by for my level 59 Infiltrator class male Shepard.
It was a non-completionist playthrough (39/50 achievements main game and 50/68 total).
While I did most of the side missions that you can obtain either directly from NPCs at the Citadel or from listening in on their conversations, I only did a very half-assed job of scanning the systems for loot and assets because the scanning was just as boring as in the previous games but with the added annoyance of Reapers coming after you. Thanks but no thanks.

I thought that the game actually started out pretty good but deteriorated quickly. They somehow managed to botch the pacing. It was strange how you could not access all systems from the start but only after certain main story mission events. It was even stranger that you could pick up side missions for those "invisible" locations so at times I was wondering WTF I was missing.
I also wasn't a big fan of the "ping-pong" setup of the story. What I mean by that is that the game always had you return to the Citadel after (almost) every single mission.
That got real repetitive real fast, especially because it usually made sense to scour the whole Citadel for new quests or dialogues so there was a lot of "downtime" between missions just running around the Citadel and checking whether someone has new dialogue or if the shops have new inventory and so on and so on... yawn.

As for the main story it was definitely way too melodramatic with lots of cheesy and cringeworthy moments like a very poor B movie. Ouch.
Especially the ending with the 1000x "OMG THIS IS IT". No it really is IT. This time, for REALS!!!
Sheesh. Maybe next time hire someone to supervise the interns, BioWare? kthx.
It is also getting waaaaaay too weird towards the end. Without spoiling anything but that really did not make any freaking sense anymore. The whole motivation behind the Reaper harvest cycles is simply completely retarded and dumb. Everything completely falls apart at that point.
I played the ending twice to see the different outcomes of the green and the blue choice (not very nice that there isn't a save closer to the ending and that there are no skippable cutscenes after finishing for the first time is very lame, too, BioWare!).

Oh well... so that was really it then eh? At least some of the side missions were genuinely fun including the Citadel and Leviathan DLCs. The shooter gameplay was mostly decent and the AI did a relatively good job, too (damn those Banshees to hell!).
I really liked many of the locations. Contrary to the writers, the world builders did a great job. They captured the sometimes desperate atmosphere pretty well (e.g. at the Citadel).
The game was mostly bug-free for me. As with ME1 and ME2 I had to spend quite some time "curing" (most of) the consolitis like e.g. FoV adjustments and many other settings that required a separate tool to edit the game files. I also encountered one side quest bug that could only be fixed via save game editing.

All in all it's really too bad... this could have been a great conclusion of the trilogy with (much) better writing, better pacing and a better overall structure.
As it stands it's still a decent game and anyone who has played through part 1 and 2 should definitely have played and finished no. 3 to see it to the end but it could have been so much more...
Regarding my personal ranking of the series, I would have to go with the PC Gamer majority opinion. ME2 >>> ME3 > ME1. Part 2 was by far the best entry in the series (IMHO).

As for the future of Mass Effect, I can't say that I'm really looking forward to ME Andromeda. I have also had the opportunity to play the Dragon Age Inquisition trial in the meantime and BioWare really seem to have serious issues with their storytelling department. The intro to DAI was one of the worst I have seen in a AAA game in a long time and their "digital acting" is simply very poor and -at best- B movie worthy in ME3 and what I've seen of DAI.
CD Projekt (and I'm referring to The Witcher 2 since I have not played 3 yet) and some of Ubi's studios (the one who did Black Flag) are leaving BioWare choking on dust in that regard with much more lifelike and refined characters.

EA/BioWare also need to change their business practices. I originally bought Mass Effect 1 and 2 on Steam and only made an exception when I bought DLC for part 3 from Origin. I will not do that again. EA/BioWare can either join every single other publisher in the business who does bundles, GOTY editions etc. including the DLC at discounts or they can go and f.... yeah, that :biggrin: .
Seriously, I won't even consider ME Andromeda if they keep up their strategy of keeping the base game and the DLCs separate and never discount the DLCs (in fact if you buy a game on Origin you can only see the DLC after the purchase and won't even know beforehand how much you will have to spend for the "complete" experience).
 

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Their games are extremely popular, and they have a massive problem with gold farmers and account stealers. If you want to blame their process, that's cool - but I think it's a much harder thing to solve than many seem to think.
Quite a few games solved this issue a long time ago..at least as far as account stealing. If it detects you're on a different computer than previous log in, it mails your setup email with a key to punch in before you can log in. Simple, quick, and efficient.

As for gold spammers, it takes about ten minutes to add a script-able filter system into a chat log. I get pretty tired of the cost, time, etc excuses for stupidly simple things to fix.
 
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I never understood why exactly Cerberus tried to erase those plans back on Mars. Say they succeded and Freddie Prince Junior didn't manage to ram that shuttle ...how exactly would this thing be built? By Cerberus alone?
That first line that Shepard says to Anderson killed the game for me, right at the start. For all the improvements they've made to game play, they ruined everything I loved about the series.
 
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I just finished Alien Isolation.

Great game for about the first 80%, but I felt it dragged on in the final 20%. It also had a huge gaping plot hole that was never explained. Still, I think it's a must-play for any fan of survival-horror and most fans of the franchise.
 
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I just finished Alien Isolation.

Great game for about the first 80%, but I felt it dragged on in the final 20%. It also had a huge gaping plot hole that was never explained. Still, I think it's a must-play for any fan of survival-horror and most fans of the franchise.

What did you think of the story? I think the biggest disappointment to me - upon reflection - was the utter lack of a compelling narrative.

I kept hoping for one of the terminals to have some revelation or interesting bit of lore, akin to System Shock - but I never really found anything.

Heck, even the atrocious Colonial Marines had more unique material than Isolation.

I'm not sure there was anything in the game that was interesting that wasn't already revealed in the Alien movie.
 
What did you think of the story? I think the biggest disappointment to me - upon reflection - was the utter lack of a compelling narrative.

I kept hoping for one of the terminals to have some revelation or interesting bit of lore, akin to System Shock - but I never really found anything.

Heck, even the atrocious Colonial Marines had more unique material than Isolation.

I'm not sure there was anything in the game that was interesting that wasn't already revealed in the Alien movie.

I didn't have a problem with the story. It wasn't great, but it was enough, along with the gameplay, to keep me going until the end.

Of course it might have just seemed better than it was because I'm used to games from this franchise being terrible. It was 100 times better than Colonial Marines though, at least for me.

The endgame was definitely weak though.
 
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I didn't have a problem with the story. It wasn't great, but it was enough, along with the gameplay, to keep me going until the end.

Of course it might have just seemed better than it was because I'm used to games from this franchise being terrible. It was 100 times better than Colonial Marines though, at least for me.

The endgame was definitely weak though.

The game itself was superb for a while, but I consider the formula too limited to support such a long game. I guess I just don't enjoy repetitive tasks for so long without the means to at least defend myself.

The crafting was really underwhelming and I didn't use half the stuff - as I didn't see the point.

The immersion factor was beyond almost any other game I've played before - and that certainly counts for something.

A:CM is just terrible, but I was talking about the writing and the logs and stuff. A:CM had a few neat tidbits in that way, IIRC, but the actual game was just pure crap.
 
The game itself was superb for a while, but I consider the formula too limited to support such a long game. I guess I just don't enjoy repetitive tasks for so long without the means to at least defend myself.

The crafting was really underwhelming and I didn't use half the stuff - as I didn't see the point.

The immersion factor was beyond almost any other game I've played before - and that certainly counts for something.

A:CM is just terrible, but I was talking about the writing and the logs and stuff. A:CM had a few neat tidbits in that way, IIRC, but the actual game was just pure crap.

12-15 hours is the ideal length for most survival-horror games imo. I expressed concern about the length of AI back when they announced it was going to be 20+ hours long, and it ended up overstaying its welcome by quite a bit for me.

I agree about the immersion factor, at least until I was about 3/4 through and that aforementioned plot hole appeared. Until that point, it was great. It lost steam after that, but I still enjoyed it overall.

That engine is something else though, and I'd like to see more games developed with it.
 
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12-15 hours is the ideal length for most survival-horror games imo. I expressed concern about the length of AI back when they announced it was going to be 20+ hours long, and it ended up overstaying its welcome by quite a bit for me.

I think it comes down to the individual game. For me, this game would have been much better served as an 8-10 hour game, using all the tricks in a more condensed fashion.

But with a game like System Shock 2 - which is arguably similar, there's enough meat to support twice that amount of time.

However, I've come to the conclusion that these "hide in the closet" games just aren't quite my cup of tea. I love the concept, but I just don't find it interesting as a gameplay drive for extended periods of time.

So, I'm probably not the right person to evaluate this game.

Also, as much as I love Alien for its atmosphere - I've always preferred the sequel as an experience.

That engine is something else though, and I'd like to see more games developed with it.

Agreed, and I really hope they won't stop with this one.
 
Devil May Cry...picked it up a few weeks ago, curiosity more than anything else.
The most interesting boss fight with mother&son combo, that's for damn sure. Excellent level design. Combat is a blast, perhaps the best hack&slash I've played...simple enough to use it, but a ton of combos, variations to go...addictive, really flows very well.
 
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Devil May Cry…picked it up a few weeks ago, curiosity more than anything else.
The most interesting boss fight with mother&son combo, that's for damn sure. Excellent level design. Combat is a blast, perhaps the best hack&slash I've played…simple enough to use it, but a ton of combos, variations to go…addictive, really flows very well.

Which one? I was looking at that series recently, and I saw at least 4 different titles on Steam. Are you talking about the remake of the original DMC?
 
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