PSNOT 2.0 - I kind of want to subscribe to IndieBox.

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Reviews for AC: Syndicate (Destructoid didn't get a review copy for some reason, so theirs isn't up yet):

Gamespot (9/10)

Syndicate's story is a riveting tale of compassion and greed, but the mechanics of its climax don't carry enough urgency and drama. A final boss fight usually tests the skills you've learned throughout the game, but Syndicate's is a memorable for the wrong reasons. It's an anticlimactic scramble through moving environmental obstacles to reach the boss and trigger a quick time event. This sequence of events happens several times in order for you to beat the encounter. It's a frustrating setup that tosses all narrative tension out the window.

But a disappointing final fight and some control hitches can't diminish the charms of Assassin's Creed Syndicate. The game is a triumphant return to form for a franchise, and presents a beautifully structured tale with heart and soul to spare. Ziplining through London is thrilling, and the game allows you to organically discover missions and leaves you open-ended solutions lets you to create a meaningful, personal experience within its world. Coupled with strong, loveable leads and a seemingly endless procession of ways to leave your (fictional) mark on London's history, Assassin's Creed Syndicate is a shining example of gameplay and storytelling.
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IGN (8.2/10)

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the most fun I’ve had with an Assassin’s game since Black Flag. In fact, I liked it more. Apart from its ill-fitting conclusion, it never takes itself too seriously and delights in the rich possibilities of its Victorian setting and great new grapple gun. As you explore its contrasting boroughs, you glean some sense of what powered this great city in the 19th century. The story missions capitalise on this by exploring different spheres of influence, which when combined with elements like mass transit, heavy industry, and law enforcement, make this feel like a different type of city than has been featured in the series to date. Best of all, Syndicate asks you to take London back in a way [that] puts the last few games to shame
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Why do developers think QTE "fights" make for good final bosses? #smh

 
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That was my only problem with Resident Evil 4, one of my favorite games. The boss fights had alot of qte's, and i just can't stand them.

 That's why i love that lots of games will have 2 'final battles'. The final battle using the game mechanics vs the hardest enemies in the game where they just throw all they have at you in like an arena survival challenge and then a puzzly final boss. Evil Within for example.

 
Vigilante said:
Why do developers think QTE "fights" make for good final bosses? #smh
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Because they're so epic OMG!

Space Marine and Uncharted: Golden Abyss are probably the most obnoxious example of this I can think of. Those because the boss battle was QTE but the games themselves didn't really have that element otherwise.

 
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Pancakes, I'm curious to know your thoughts on Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations, especially after seeing this 1-star review on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Time-Finn-Jake-Investigations-Wii/dp/B00XPM3RBE/ref=sr_1_1_twi_gam_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1445517589&sr=1-1&keywords=finn+and+jake+investigations#customerReviews

Not good at all. The graphics are just as good as a Xbox game from 2002, the gameplay is just AWFUL. It's full of technical issues and bugs, somebody needs to fix this broken game NOW! Oh, and this game is a blatant rip-off of both The Witcher and the Telltale games.
0/10 most awful buggy game ever
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my wife and kids hate qte's. at least they get to watch what is happening. in god of war he would do crazy epic stuff and my girl was like oh thats awesome but i was busy looking for button prompts.

also my girl says the crazy hectic music in super meatboy probly causes it to be harder than it is, lol. She suggests i play on mute. I then showed her the dark level music which was even more stress inducing.

 
Velo214 said:
my wife and kids hate qte's. at least they get to watch what is happening. in god of war he would do crazy epic stuff and my girl was like oh thats awesome but i was busy looking for button prompts.

also my girl says the crazy hectic music in super meatboy probly causes it to be harder than it is, lol. She suggests i play on mute. I then showed her the dark level music which was even more stress inducing.
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Play her some of the older versions' soundtrack. Quite a bit of that music was worse in terms of causing stress, especially the Hell tracks.

 
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The rope launcher sounds like a great addition to Just Cause Ass Creed.

Also sounds like they dont have anything really in present day.  Awesome!

HHHHYYYYYY....nevermind

 
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Vigilante said:
Pancakes, I'm curious to know your thoughts on Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations, especially after seeing this 1-star review on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Adventure-Time-Finn-Jake-Investigations-Wii/dp/B00XPM3RBE/ref=sr_1_1_twi_gam_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1445517589&sr=1-1&keywords=finn+and+jake+investigations#customerReviews
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Lol that is one dumb review. As for bugs I can't say as I never encountered one but then again he never bothers to even mention the bugs. Game worked fine for me and is smoother than a teltale game has ever been. Also I'm assuming he is a kid if he thinks that Telltales created point and click. I also don't know where he got the Witcher aspect from.

Game is pretty much a decent point and click (for fans)with very below average gameplay. Like really pointless gameplay.

Overall I would not actually recommend this to anyone but fans of the show and Gator. The story is kind of lame, gameplay is just raelly unnecessary and meaningless, puzzles were so-so (piss easy) but voice acting was great, looks pretty, and easy trophies. BMO is awesome.

EDIT: He isn't wrong about the gameplay.

 
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PancakesAreLove said:
Lol that is one dumb review. As for bugs I can't say as I never encountered one but then again he never bothers to even mention the bugs. Game worked fine for me and is smoother than a teltale gameh as ever been.

Also I'm assuming he is a kid if he thinks that Telltales created point and click. I also don't know where he got the Witcher aspect from.

Game is pretty much a decent point and click (for fans)with very below average gameplay. Like really pointless gameplay.

Overall I would not actually recommend this to anyone but fans of the show and Gator. The story is kind of lame, gameplay is just raelly unnecessary and meaningless, puzzles were so-so (piss easy) but voice acting was great, looks pretty, and easy trophies. BMO is awesome.
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Great, thanks. Hopefully my library actually carries this, unlike the Nameless Kingdom game (which is still listed as On Order despite its listing being nearly a year old).

 
From the Gamespot review:

I can recall only using Syndicate's fast travel points three times during my entire playthrough, because with the rope launcher in your toolbox, why would you take any other route through London? The setting is so lovely, and zipping across the city like a Victorian Spider-Man makes you truly feel like the city's protector, dropping to the streets every so often to air assassinate someone. In addition to setting up aerial kills, using the rope launcher instead of fast travel allows you to organically stumble upon one of London's many sidequests and make a pit stop for extra cash. Many times, on my way to a story mission, I would zipline over a side mission and think, "Why the hell not, I'm here!" One tool helps you traverse, discover, escape, and assassinate. The rope launcher is the thing this franchise so desperately needed, and now that it's here I don't ever want to be without it.

fuck yeah!

 
pharmacrest said:
From the Gamespot review:

I can recall only using Syndicate's fast travel points three times during my entire playthrough, because with the rope launcher in your toolbox, why would you take any other route through London? The setting is so lovely, and zipping across the city like a Victorian Spider-Man makes you truly feel like the city's protector, dropping to the streets every so often to air assassinate someone. In addition to setting up aerial kills, using the rope launcher instead of fast travel allows you to organically stumble upon one of London's many sidequests and make a pit stop for extra cash. Many times, on my way to a story mission, I would zipline over a side mission and think, "Why the hell not, I'm here!" One tool helps you traverse, discover, escape, and assassinate. The rope launcher is the thing this franchise so desperately needed, and now that it's here I don't ever want to be without it.

fuck yeah!
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That sounds amazing. I really need to finish Brotherhood and start-then-finish both Black Flag and Unity; hopefully by then Syndicate will be $20-$25 at Best Buy.

 
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Well after reading that I'm definitely not going to skip ahead; if I play Syndicate I know I won't be able to go back to the previous series titles. As long as Syndicate isn't a buggy mess than looking forward to playing it will help me push through the rest of the series.

 
Also sounds like the carriage driving isnt as bad as we thought it may be.  It actually sounds fun!

Spoilered just cause there is some side mission detail.  Nothing major, no story is spoiled but what the hey.

Another new mechanic is the ability to drive carriages. I found Syndicate's vehicles relatively easy to handle. You can also do any number of things with these carriages, including hijacking them for your own purposes and hiding bodies in them. One string of side missions involved collecting wanted criminals for a policeman; I would knock them out, steal a carriage from an unwitting bystander, put the body in the car, and then drive away. In some instances the rival gang has carts on the road as well, which can devolve into some hilariously fun Grand Theft Auto-style chases. You can ram carriages as they ride up next to yours or climb up onto your own carriage’s roof to engage in fisticuffs with enemies. Hijacking moving carts is thrilling, and destruction is encouraged. There's an experience perk you can earn for destroying street lamps and other public property, so don't be shy about running people over.

 
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Just got this email from a support vendor:

This is a non technical follow up on behalf of Jesus, it looks like we did not receive your log bundle.
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it took me a few minutes to realize that there was a guy previously working on some support case named Jesús and I just hadn't been reading the emails.

 
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MildObstruction said:
Just got this email from a support vendor:

it took me a few minutes to realize that there was a guy previously working on some support case named Jesús and I just hadn't been reading the emails.
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74aadae5fde7.jpg


 
I am kind of pissed now that my boss is here this week so I cant take tomorrow off.  But I guess it doesnt matter much since I wouldnt be able to get the game until mid day at Best Buy and by then the kid would be home from school.  So I will take solace in the fact that I wouldnt play much tomorrow until she goes to bed anyway.

Mild, are you ready to piss everyone here off with all our Syndicate chatter?

 
damn, syndicate sounds like it's going to be terrific.  goodbye all other games for a few weeks.

edit - yes.  I am prepared to piss everyone off.

 
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From IGN review, first paragraph:

Every year, the Assassin’s Creed series struggles with the idea of inheritance. Like its Templars and Assassins, who are locked in a never-ending struggle for relics, each game picks a side in the question of how strongly should it lean into its now-convoluted ancient lore and incorporate the still-underdeveloped present-day elements. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate chooses wisely, leaves out multiplayer entirely, and pushes a lot of that baggage into the background, largely freeing itself up to make the most of Victorian London and have fun with sneaking, climbing, and stabbing.

Perfect.  Hate the lore now anyway.   Just give me a cool historical story that I can run amok in!

 
short postmortems on disgaea 5 and transformers before they head back to the library:

disgaea 5 is (after three measly chapters) my favorite disgaea I've played.  granted the only one I ever finished the story on was the first one and I didn't max anything so I'm not exactly the target audience.  but it's successfully scratching the srpg itch for me in a way that (for example) disgaea 3 never did.  I'll be looking to actually buy this instead of borrowing it in one week increments.

transformers is dope.  awesome fun game.  I definitely had a couple transformers as a kid and watched the cartoon but I'm not married to the source material.  that said, this game is a pretty reasonable facsimile of playing that cartoon which is really cool.  somehow the combat doesn't get stale and you have a lot of freedom to mix it up and still be successful (I liked doing a four hit combo -> car attack -> car follow up -> slow mo rocket in the face -> car follow up).  there were complaints in reviews about the shooting being janky, but I thought it was actually handled fairly well and even over remote play using the rear touch pad I found it manageable.   but I'm kind of a vita mastah so you know.  the only thing I'll agree on is that the overhead parts are dumb and unnecessary (which actually lent to it feeling like an NES game - creating variety with unnecessary gameplay shifts).  if it shows up cheap over the holidays I'll probably pick it up to play around with some more because I am weak, but one more week from the library and I'd probably be done with it.

 
Mark me down as disappointed that they're moving away from modern-day stuff and the Assassin/Templar history. That was probably the main thing I didn't like about Unity. It had some of the lore, but very little. 

I'm not saying I want more modern missions like they did in the last couple games before they moved away from Desmond, but I like it when they advance the overall plot. Black Flag didn't have a ton of it, but the way the present tied in with the search for the
Observatory
was done very well, IMO.

 
I know we've been over this already, but holy shit there's a ton of content in Rayman Legends. 

Also the touch screen and vita tilting levels are annoying. 

 
pitfallharry219 said:
Mark me down as disappointed that they're moving away from modern-day stuff and the Assassin/Templar history. That was probably the main thing I didn't like about Unity. It had some of the lore, but very little.

I'm not saying I want more modern missions like they did in the last couple games before they moved away from Desmond, but I like it when they advance the overall plot. Black Flag didn't have a ton of it, but the way the present tied in with the search for the
Observatory
was done very well, IMO.
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Yeah your right, the Assassins/Templar history is cool but they always threw in modern day missions and shit that was just boring and filler. The history can be told and an overall plot can move forward but not with that shit.

 
Sagemoon said:
I know we've been over this already, but holy shit there's a ton of content in Rayman Legends.

Also the touch screen and vita tilting levels are annoying.
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Agreed. The Murfy (Murphy?) levels especially suck on Vita because it's exclusively touch-based and you can't control the character actually running through each level.

 
pitfallharry219 said:
Mark me down as disappointed that they're moving away from modern-day stuff and the Assassin/Templar history. That was probably the main thing I didn't like about Unity. It had some of the lore, but very little.

I'm not saying I want more modern missions like they did in the last couple games before they moved away from Desmond, but I like it when they advance the overall plot. Black Flag didn't have a ton of it, but the way the present tied in with the search for the
Observatory
was done very well, IMO.
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here's the thing - I don't think they have a plan at all. I don't think they anticipated having to continue the series madden style for so long and I suspect you're probably in the minority vs people that just like running around in history stabbing shit so they don't put any effort in to it anymore.

I actually like the absurd present day story and I was hoping that they did have a plan - one that would eventually culminate in some futuristic city based assassin's creed like the subject 16 video in AC2. but since I also like running around in history stabbing shit I'm pretty happy anyways.

 
Sagemoon said:
I know we've been over this already, but holy shit there's a ton of content in Rayman Legends.

Also the touch screen and vita tilting levels are annoying.
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I'm so goddamn sick of the daily challenges but I know if I stop again they'll quietly announce that they're shutting down the servers.

 
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/10/22/super-rude-bear-resurrection-coming-to-ps4/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IEJ4ywjtk4

Anyone can beat Super Rude Bear Resurrection, it just takes a little determination, and it’s not tedious. You don’t find yourself annoyed at dying, because you know you’re just one step closer to victory.

Super Rude Bear ResurrectionSuper Rude Bear Resurrection

But for hardcore players who want the ultimate challenge, it means they have an insanely difficult one. If you want to collect all the Trophies, you’re going to have to complete every level without dying. And that is an extremely tall order, one of the hardest gaming challenges you’ll ever attempt.

Most games have to be designed in a way where at least most people will be able to complete it without dying. Not Rude Bear. Rude Bear is designed in a way where you never have to die, but 99% of people probably will.

To beat Rude Bear without dying is insanity. There are plenty of levels that I, as an extremely competent platformer player who has 100 percent’ed just about every hard platformer out there, and someone who’s been playing this game for 2 years straight, am still trying to complete.
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This sucker better have a plat.

 
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MildObstruction said:
I'm so goddamn sick of the daily challenges but I know if I stop again they'll quietly announce that they're shutting down the servers.
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I already know theres no way I get a diamond cup for any of them so I'm trying not to think about them too much. Gonna keep playing them while I'm going through the main game though. I think I've gotten out of bronze maybe once?

 
Sagemoon said:
I already know theres no way I get a diamond cup for any of them so I'm trying not to think about them too much. Gonna keep playing them while I'm going through the main game though. I think I've gotten out of bronze maybe once?
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I still think the dailies are crazy fun, but yeah I'd say it's just about impossible to pull a diamond cup off at this point. the daily population hovers around 400 or less which means you need top 3 or 4 and the usual folks occupying those slots are the people that've been playing this every day since release (and one maybe leaderboard hacker who always posts impossible scores). anymore I usually just put in one or two tries and hope that it's good enough unless it's a 'get there fast' challenge since I can usually get a gold there without too many retries.

 
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