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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
(see my Lego Star Wars II comment few posts above)
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (PC) 7/10
LSW3 was a bit different than other Lego games I've played because it wasn't based on movies like most (except Lego Batman for DS wasn't directly based on anything). I never even saw most of Clone Wars series.
It's also different than other Lego games for having a large part (maybe around third?) of it being somewhat separate style and genre than rest of the game. OK, most Lego games have had some kind of racing levels - that kind of oddly are missing here - but LSW3 has sort of strategy-action stuff that makes a cool 2-player bonus mode which would be okay as bit of change, but gets real tiresome when you have to grind it 10-20 hours.
LSW3 has better controls than LPotC or LSW2, but shooting/aiming is still not practical. Another major fault is same as all Lego games: the further you get the more you open stuff up and the easier it gets (except the nice bounty hunter missions, that's how you put extra content to a game). So the first 10 hours is the hardest and most tiresome part - except for the "strategy" levels.
On the positive, this game hardly had any grinding for money (unlike others of the series), you'd get enough while playing the stuff you must. (Though one level seems to have some kind of bug that threw on me over hundred times the money I assume I should've been getting...)
LSW3 I another proof of the power of franchises: you want to play the movies you know by heart. Perhaps the levels are more based on Clone Wars episodes than I realize and someone who knows them better would enjoy this more, but for me this was least interesting of the Lego games I've played.
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Jun/30/2017, 21:47
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Kaunisto
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Location: Finland
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Gran Turismo (PS1) 9/10
In driving games it's easier to point out what's bad about them than what's good. A driving game is great when you can't find faults in it, even if you can't really explain why it is great.
This is why I'll mostly comment on the faults in GT, while rating it exceptionally high.
I never like rubberband AI and when starting/learning GT, it's just ridiculous. You lose 5 seconds to winner; drive the same race again 10 seconds faster... and you'll lose 2 seconds to the winner. Or maybe 10 seconds slower than the first, but if you screwed up in beginning and drove the end awesomely, you'll win.
Controls are among better ones of driving games - depending on car/settings/track - but there's one major fault. When your speed falls low (below 25 mph or so) in slow corner or due collision or spin, the track changes to ice. The car starts doing donuts on spot like on ice. This means that if you make mistake and spin, you'll be there turning on spot in worst case 10 seconds or more before you get going. By then, race is lost.
It's not realistic, it doesn't make sense as game design, it's simply a bug/design fault that apparently for one or other reason couldn't be removed without messing rest of controls.
The game structure, divided to two separate game modes, arcade and simulation, is excellent. You can play either or both, as you wish. Arcade is just driving, in simulation you buy and tune your cars. Though there's not much replay value once you've won everything.
However there is one gigantic design mistake in the simulation side and that's the license trials. They are like a compulsory tutorial that doesn't actually teach you anything and is the hardest part of the game. (They would have bonus goals with even much harder times than required to play other parts of the game and those bonuses - which would only give couple additional cars - are the only part of GT I have not achieved.)
Difficulty is at some points hard and often unfair, but if I can win every race in this game then so can... well, I guess it depends if you've played half as many driving games as I have.
All in all GT is a very good car game, among best I've played. It doesn't quite have thrill of driving of Ridge Racer Type 4 (closest competitor on PS1 that I've played), but the amount of content (instead of grinding) puts GT ahead.
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Jul/23/2017, 19:58
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Kaunisto
The Big Boss
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Clock Tower (PS1) 7/10
Clock Tower is a horror-adventure game that is sequel to original Japan-only Clock Tower SNes game. It's a point'n click adventure than could be compared to ca. 1990 computer games like Laura Bow 1, Loom or King's Quest 5.
I've played the SNes original on emulator as fan translation and that was awesome. The Playstation game is a direct sequel, so I strongly recommend you first play either the SNes game (also available for WonderSwan in Japan - though that's black and white) or the PS1 remake Clock Tower: First Fear (I haven't played that, but I'm sure that gives you the same story).
CT is a short and easy game - sort of. It branches to 10 endings and while you can pretty leisurely play it through couple times to get few of them, getting all - particularly the best - endings made me go get walkthrough. And besides the 10 endings there's an extra goal to get the best ending while saving every possible person (to unlock cool bonus content); that was the real tough part of the game.
CT isn't quite as scary or good as the first SNes game, but decent fun. Main annoyance is that once you reach one of endings, it's impossible to tell about your latest save whether it can be used to get other endings; you don't know if there's still something you haven't done/found that can be done or if your save is already locked to this one ending.
The system of 10 hints hidden around game (some of those helping about getting all ends) helps some, but it'd be a tough job to gather all endings without walkthrough - even if it is short game to play through once.
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Aug/14/2017, 14:46
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Unreal 2: the Awakening (PC) 8/10
U2 is what you get by combining original Unreal (a Quake clone with strong story) with Halo. In many ways it does resemble Halo 1, but you can also see the PC origin of series.
All round U2 is enjoyable basic scifi shooter with generic but not bad story and characters. however there are some complaints. Jumping/climbing on environment doesn't obey physics: sometimes you can't jump on a lower object if it's not meant to be jumped on while you can on higher next to it. Not to mention tilted surfaces, it's anybody's guess which are meant to be walked on and which ones act as invisible walls.
Weapons are nice selection, but the way they are arranged is confusing: there's up to three weapons on buttons 1-5 and they aren't divided by clear logic like most games have weapons of a type grouped together and order from weak to strong. Many weapons are some kind of gimmicks (or have such as alt-fire), but in the battle you don't have time to find or learn to use them.
There are some special missions. Most common of these is defense - keep enemies from getting to door/person/whatever - and these are actually pretty interesting, works as some change like intended. But other special cases, couple platformer moments and a sniper job, are the worst part of game.
The game is something like 10-15 hours (experienced shooter player can likely make it much faster).
U2 is basically single player; multiplayer was added as an expansion I haven't gotten yet.
Unreal 2 is recommended for PC players who enjoyed Halo.
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Jan/15/2018, 20:49
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
(As usual, I'm judging the game as single player - which is somewhat unfair to such multi-player oriented game.)
Battlefield 1942 (WWII Anthology) (PC) 8/10
In the 15 years Battlefield series has existed, I have embarrassingly not known what kind of games they are. I always assumed them as just another FPS.
I did some years back (search this topic) play Star Wars: Battlefront 1&2 (the old ones), so I was familiar how this kind of game works. I like to call these "strategic shooters" (because "tactical shooter" is taken).
BF1942 must've at it's time been novel and interesting game, a pioneer. But since then the same thing has been done too many times and probable lot better - at least by the other 15 BF games. This very first game of the still continuing series doesn't have really huge faults, but you meet constantly little annoyances that hopefully later games fixed.
Of two biggest problems one is lack of content, even with the two expansions Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WWII and few bonus levels included in the package. However map editor kind of solves that.
The worse is stupid AI. It has decided to fight the battle on certain simple strategy and it sticks to it. No matter what heroics player does to give our side huge advantage, AI just lets that go to waste. Nor does enemy ever try any trick, they all just head straight at each other.
I'm sure multiplayer is whole lot different...
Like SW:BF games, BF1942 (as single player) lacks a meaningful larger game mode. It's more of a game for just a random 15 minute match now and then. Which is as close to casual gaming as you can ever drag a proper gamer like myself.
(I usually grade expansions separately, but here they aren't enough "game of their own" for that.)
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Jul/17/2018, 21:48
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Giants: Citizen Kabuto (PC) 5/10
Many, if not most, action games have some kind of special levels: driving, swimming, QTE/rhythm games, sniper and escort missions... More often than not, those are the worst parts of the games.
Giants: Citizen Kabuto is a game that seems to be mostly made of those levels. Along the game you have to all the time learn new game mechanics. Sure, in all games you'll have to learn new weapons, vehicles etc. and new levels in general. But Kabuto takes that on a whole nother level.
Partially this is because the idea of the game is that there are three completely different playable characters and each covers third of the game (plus you can play any in multiplayer).
First you'll play Halo style shooter, then there's magical hack'n'slash part and finally... the titular Kabuto, a giant ape creature. First two include some RTS-ish base-building missions and couple jetski races. And there are whole lot of little gimmicks and special missions.
Despite of all that, the game becomes boring now and then in the more normal moments.
Another weakness of G:CK is difficulty. Despite all my years of gaming, I find shooters, platformers and all kinds of action games often difficult (except driving) and Kabuto, which gives no choice of difficulty, is certainly one of them. Worse yet, the difficulty is all over the place - partly due various parts of the game being so different.
About 20% of levels I could play fairly, 60% were nice cheating health and ammo and 20% I barely made through with all the cheating I could do. (You try to type "pleasehealme" when you're about to die in 2-3 seconds!)
The most redeaming quality of the game are the humorous cutscenes telling the story. Dark humor keeps your mood from sinking among the gameplay. But sadly there are cutscenes only in the first two parts of the game (plus end) and the tiresome monster missions you'll just have to play without fun bits between them.
I can't really recommend Giants: Citizen Kabuto. It was one of least enjoyable games I've played.
I've only given about sixth of games on this topic this low score.
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Sep/18/2018, 16:48
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Kaunisto
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Location: Finland
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Lego Indiana Jones 2 (PC) 8/10
While there's still much in common with all the Lego games I've played (SW 1&2 on GBA, Batman on DS, SW 2&3 and PotC on PC), IJ2 changes the structure slightly. There's more levels that are shorter - something I've been saying would be improvement to the other games.
Movement and camera aren't as bad and annoying as in other PC games.
Unfortunately vehicles still have the bad control system from all Lego games and aside riding animals - elephant, camel and the best game horse ever - driving parts are the worst levels.
There may be many levels, but most of them are just Lego puzzles and less than 1/3 of levels are based on the movies. As this is second game, it emphasizes Crystal Skull (which came after first game). That being theme of half of game, the classic trilogy thus features in less than 1/6 of the game.
And worse yet, the game doesn't really follow the story. I loved how PotC Lego-fied the movies in cutscenes. In IJ2 movies only offer the characters and the general background, in a way that reminds me of 8/16-bit days when "license game" was a dirty word.
I can't get over the thought that the game doesn't respect the source material.
Biggest difference is that there's nothing to search in levels forcing you to replay them in traditional Lego game pattern. Instead all secrets are hidden in "level select levels" of which there are 6 big ones instead of one pretty simple like in most Lego games. That may be a matter of taste, but I find it good idea - or least to say welcome change after other Lego games.
IJ2 is difficult to grade. Most of it is clearly more enjoyable to play than other Lego games, but cars and such are still horrible. And the weak connections to films bothers me. I've rarely been so close to break my rule of not using half points, 8 is too much but 7 wouldn't be enough.
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Oct/25/2018, 21:48
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
Nocturne (PC) 7/10
Nocturne is a horror TPS not unlike early Resident Evil games. You play an agent of secret government monster hunting organization (created by Teddy Roosevelt after he met a werewolf) in 1920's and 30's.
The game consists of four parts (plus tiny epilogue) that you could play in any order, but as the difficulty goes up, I have to recommend 1,2,3,4.
First you face vampires (and various other things) in a German castle.
In second part there are walking dead in Texas countryside (after a train ride with werewolves).
Part three has you fighting reanimated gangsters in 1933 - Capone had some mad scientist help.
Finally, you go to help a former agent whose French mansion is full of all kinds of evil.
While I wouldn't say it got me scared (aside usual fear of game over), the game has good atmosphere. But the gameplay is clumsy, clearly aimed for consoles and hardly makes any use of mouse.
Nocturne is in some ways quite difficult. While there's quick save/free saving and auto aiming, I was just barely able to finish the game with a walkthrough without cheating. If you're a more casual gamer, you might just want to go ahead and cheat. In fact, if you cheat health and weapons, you could play it without walkthrough and it might be more enjoyable that way.
Mostly there's plenty of health available (and you can have game automatically use your healing items), but there are also lots of instant death falls and traps. You also get fall damage sometimes from what looks like a meter high jump.
Greatest annoyance is that you have to stand in very exact places for take/use button to work. You now and then have to step around for 10-20 seconds to figure out how to get your man to climb a ladder.
If you don't use a walkthrough, you'd probably often be stuck finding some required item or hidden door.
There aren't that many weapons, but the selection works well enough.
All in all Nocturne is a good game in style and story but mediocre in gameplay.
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Nov/16/2018, 18:13
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
(Tom Clancy's) H.A.W.X (PC) 8/10
HAWX is a flight sim set in same universe as some of Ghost Recon games. It's what I call a "light flight sim" - not realistic simulator but neither entirely arcade shooter. Of everything I've played, I'd say closest similar are the old X-Wing/TIE Fighter games.
HAWX is one of the few "modern" games I've played - less than 10 years old! (barely) - and it has some common features of newer games. By finishing the missions and gathering all kinds of statistics and doing special tricks, you gather achievements that give you experience, further gaining levels and unlocking content. (At writing this I just finished last of missions on easiest/normal difficulty and am at level 24 of 40, with about 75% of game's planes unlocked - there's 50 btw, based on existing 3rd, 4th and 5th generation fighters and bombers.)
If you're a gamer, you know (and loathe) the term "escort mission". Most of HAWX is basically that.
But it's not quite as bad as you'd think. It's more of destroying enemies within time limits... well, yes, that's pretty bad. The game is often unfair and frustrating and rarely actually fun. But this is a game for gamers, not for people who want fun.
Difficulty goes few times bit too high (on the easiest) and made me rage now and then, but afterwards knowing how it is, it's not impossible, I could do each mission on one sitting. I did play it without any FAQ or cheating.
Missions have automatic checkpoint save - which has certain problems. If you or whatever you're protecting has taken lots of damage, you may lose the mission moment from the save point, forcing you to restart whole mission. And in the hardest missions, once you've made it past one hard part but are stuck with another, you can't quit playing or you'll have to do that beginning again.
Overall you've got about 50/50 air and ground(/sea) targets, which isn't quite ideal; I would've rather seen more air combat. There are usually dozens of enemies for you to kill in each mission, no proper air combat of 1 on 2 or 2 on 5 like in some games.
Your wingmen (when you have one or two) do help with enemies attacking player, but don't seem very efficient to send after any target.
Camera options - cockpit/HUD/3rd person - each have their problems but biggest comes in "flight assistance OFF mode". OFF mode itself is good idea: you can break/turn harder, but risk stalling the plane. For reason I can understand, changing to OFF mode forces you to have a different, from side camera angle which also has slightly different controls (that are kind of better than the regular).
While there's 50 planes in total (and in most missions you can use any you've unlocked), there aren't that many different weapons - which is fine, keeping the game reasonably simple.
There's 19 missions in the single player campaign that once completed can be played individually. You can also play those 2-4 player co-op.
Game being so old that services were closed ages ago, I haven't been able to play the multiplayer (team deathmatch).
HAWX is one of the games that are difficult for me to rate. It's of one of my favorite genres and it's been years since I had a new game like this. It was infuriating, sometimes also boring grinding, there were so many annoying things... yet in the end I don't hate it. (Maybe because last missions were much nicer than some.) There aren't that many games like this and it does have some redeeming qualities.
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Dec/16/2018, 22:02
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Kaunisto
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Re: My (old) game reviews
The Book of Unwritten Tales (PC) 9/10
I have often listed my three favorite genres: "light" flight sims, JRPGs and "classic" adventures (by which I mean 90's/Lucas style point'n'click games).
First may be rare, but of those I'm happy to replay the few. Second is most numerous, there are more than you can play in one lifetime. But the last is a problem for me, as I did so many of them after getting internet (purely coincident...); they're hard to find.
So getting BoUT in my hands was a great stroke of luck. As the game rather openly shows, it tries to follow the footsteps of Monkey Islands, Indys and other 90's Lucas games - with great success. Those who remember fondly first two Monkey Islands will love this game.
Personally I was particularly lucky to get the physical copy (for 3€ - still sold for 20€ digital!) that has as extras art book, poster and soundtrack CD.
BoUT is an adventure game set in generic RPG world, often making fun of that. Along the game you have four playable characters: a young gnome, elven princess, human rogue and... Critter. Critter is an unknown, mysterious, Muppet-inspired creature (who get sadly little screen time).
My biggest complaint about the game is that it is too easy. I was hardly ever stuck and in adventure game that means you're kind of just going through the motions. It did take me over 20 hours, so fair enough, but it still had too many "I see where this is going" moments (even though the game itself makes fun of that).
Also the end was sort of hurried, as if they were running out of time/money and just had to wrap it up.
But I have rated several pretty damn good games at 8 and BoUT is a 9 in my book.
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Jan/21/2019, 22:59
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