G3ntl3m3n's Chall3ng3 3pisod3 Thr33! (See, it gots 3's where the E's should ought to be.)

[Booyakasha]

...wow, you're ambitious. Want another?

[I am nobody]

Sure, why not?

[Booyakasha]

How about 'Uncharted'? Those are supposed to be whimsical.

[I am nobody]

Sounds good. Just picked up the remastered set for cheap, conveniently.

[Booyakasha]

Haven't played any of them myself.

...kind of wish Naughty Dog would have carried on with Jak & Daxter, but I suppose they had their reasons for putting it to bed when they did.

[capcommaster1881]

So I tried out Thief: The Dark Project out on my stream just now and I dont think I am going to continue playing it. Normally I give older games a chance cause I have grown to like alot of newer games. PC classics can sometimes be a huge toss up between "Great game" or "Controls are weird" for me. Thief has cool concepts for a stealth game that came out in 1999 but i discovered after a couple hours that the combat that is in the game basically isnt meant to be used at all. Guards take like 10 hits to kill if they see you while you take 2-3 hits. You have a bow but sometimes a headshot isnt considered a kill.....in a stealth game where killing or incapacitating a guard is important. Idk if its just the first and the second game in the series but I have heard good things from the 3rd and the remake that was made. I am going to look at reviews to see if I missed something when i put it in my backlog but I had hopes for it after the first level.

Anyway I am going to take Thief and Thief II off the list. I will gladly play something else and hopefully enjoy it enough to finish it.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

I really want to get into Thief but I see very mixed reviews. I think I still want to try it though.

I also want to try South Park: The Fractured But Hole, I read it's good but that it was censored because there's too much dark humor, which is the appeal of the franchise. I don't want to condone censorship by playing it if it's true.

[capcommaster1881]

Was it the newer Thief you saw the reviews for? The newer one was a reboot for the series but yeah it has mixed reviews on it.

I can say after watching gameplay and some story stuff for South Park: The Fracture But Whole game that if it was censored it must have been really really bad for it to be in the game cause there is some dark humor in it turned up to 11. Like its typical South Park so it doesnt look like anything was censored.

[New! Tazy Ten]

Really? Okay. The game is more about going about non-lethally if that means anything and the point is to avoid combat at all costs. If you don't like that then there's nothing to be done about it.

In order to lower the chance of something like that happening again, how about you give Castlevania: Circle of the Moon a try? At the very least you can get cards and stuff.

[capcommaster1881]

Yeah I will play that one.

As for Thief I understand that part and did non-lethal for the whole first mission but when i got to the second one there was parts where non-lethal basically became "Run until the guards get tired of following" cause there was some points where i couldnt get close enough to blackjack them and you could only knock them out if you were not caught yet. I stopped playing on the 3rd mission where the enemies were all zombies and a couple weird monster things and that level i pretty much jumped around cause it was faster to move with that. I actually thought the first level introduced the game really well and enjoyed that but the next two were frustrating for me. Either the game is too difficult (usually a turn off for me if its stealth) or its just not my kind of stealth game.

[New! Tazy Ten]

Well, I've never played Thief nor do I know of the general opinion on the first game, so I don't know. Honestly, I always confuse the first game with the third (ha ha). I'm fairly certain that you can do nonlethal without getting spotted, but it's an old game on incompatible hardware no matter how you slice it so maybe something is broken. I have to remember to look the game up and see for myself before I can say for sure.

[I am nobody]

Thief 2014 is a remarkably uninspired stealth game. It's mostly not bad, but it's also never anything new nor particularly fun. I haven't played much of the earlier ones, but it's not hard to believe that twenty year old first person stealth games would struggle to hold up.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Was it the newer Thief you saw the reviews for? The newer one was a reboot for the series but yeah it has mixed reviews on it.

I can say after watching gameplay and some story stuff for South Park: The Fracture But Whole game that if it was censored it must have been really really bad for it to be in the game cause there is some dark humor in it turned up to 11. Like its typical South Park so it doesnt look like anything was censored.

It was the reboot, for PS3. Also, that's good to hear about South Park. I just know the first one faced issues and heard the new one may have, but I wasn't clear on that.

^ Metal Gear Solid 2 is nearly 20 years old and it is the best stealth game I've ever played (don't have many under my belt though), and still holds up wonderfully.

[I am nobody]

^MGS2 is third person, no? I still haven't played much of that series, but I get the impression there are significant mechanical differences between it and what first person stealth games tend to do. I don't think those were really figured out until the last decade or so, much as I'm sure some people will fight me over the original Deus Ex and whatnot. Doesn't help that first person stealth games just about inherently involve sticking your face right up against the environment. 90's texture work doesn't hold up so well when you do that.


Anyway, I just finished Uncharted. I expected it to have aged pretty badly, but I think I like it more now than I did playing it for the first time in 2011. Some of that may be down to the mechanical improvements made in the remaster and having a better setup now, though.

[Hotel Security]

In order to lower the chance of something like that happening again, how about you give Castlevania: Circle of the Moon a try? At the very least you can get cards and stuff.

It's probably the most challenging of the "Metroidvania" titles too. Kinda liked having both a forward and backward dash as well. The card system's pretty cool but it helps to look up a guide to see the large amount of effects you can have with the various combinations.

I can say after watching gameplay and some story stuff for South Park: The Fracture But Whole game that if it was censored it must have been really really bad for it to be in the game cause there is some dark humor in it turned up to 11. Like its typical South Park so it doesnt look like anything was censored.

I played the first South Park and that one was vulger as hell...drug references, toilet humor and dildos all over the place. It didn't feel like they held back on the vulgarity at all...which was refreshing. I'd hope that's the same for the sequel.

^ Metal Gear Solid 2 is nearly 20 years old and it is the best stealth game I've ever played (don't have many under my belt though), and still holds up wonderfully.

I'd rank MGS2 as my least favorite of any of the MGS games. The Big Shell just isn't that big or extensive with a lack of exploration, the bosses are meh and it feels like the ratio of gameplay to cutscenes/CODEC is very unproportional. Plus the plot twist at the end was too ridiculous to take seriously. I preferred MGS3 and MGS1 a lot more. (Not that MGS2 is terrible, mind you...just lackluster compared to the others). I did like collecting dog tags, though...

^MGS2 is third person, no? I still haven't played much of that series, but I get the impression there are significant mechanical differences between it and what first person stealth games tend to do.

I can't even fathom playing a first-person stealth game. That sounds like it sucks ass. I don't know if first-person works with any game outside of shooters for me.

[ScottyMcGee]

I'd rank MGS2 as my least favorite of any of the MGS games. The Big Shell just isn't that big or extensive with a lack of exploration, the bosses are meh and it feels like the ratio of gameplay to cutscenes/CODEC is very unproportional. Plus the plot twist at the end was too ridiculous to take seriously. I preferred MGS3 and MGS1 a lot more. (Not that MGS2 is terrible, mind you...just lackluster compared to the others). I did like collecting dog tags, though...

Really? I honestly thought MGS4 was the worst. I think THAT game has a disproportionate ratio of cutscenes to gameplay. Not only that but I feel they butchered the story and ruined Solid Snake.

MGS2 though does have plenty of codec calls. The ending codec call is notorious for dragging on right before the final boss. Kojima had fascinating ideas and was ahead of his time with censoring the Internet but he could not help but throw it all at once in expository dialogue.

I really loved the concept but the execution was pretty ridiculous.

[Hotel Security]

Really? I honestly thought MGS4 was the worst. I think THAT game has a disproportionate ratio of cutscenes to gameplay. Not only that but I feel they butchered the story and ruined Solid Snake.

It wasn't great and the bosses were kind of weak but the areas were just larger and with more to check out and it felt like there was more to do. With MGS2, it felt like after one run through of the Big Shell, you'd basically seen a majority of the areas in the game. I just needed more to check out.

MGS2 though does have plenty of codec calls.

And the endless calls by Rose to argue with you about their relationship. Holy crap, I see the need for character development but it was just too much.

Though my bigger gripe was how unbelievable the twists were. I simply could not buy the idea that

Spoiler.

it was all just our pre-planned simulation

and the part where

Spoiler.

Liquid seriously takes over an entire body via a hand

was insanely dumb...especially since I

Spoiler.

found Liquid really annoying in MGS1

Not to mention that Vamp was pretty bland and Fortune couldn't have been more annoying if she tried. Fatman was maybe the most interesting but it was short-lived.

[smol Kat]

What little free time I've had has been largely dedicated to LttP rando, but I'd like to keep at it. Guess I'm sitting out until I finish!

[I am nobody]

How's this round going? It ends on the 11th, so here's the poll for the April round.


I'm in, but I need to filter my list to short and/or handheld games since I'll but out of the country for a good part of the month. I just put strikes through anything that won't work so I can reuse it next month.

Spoiler.

PC:
Anodyne
Analogue: A Hate Story and Hate Plus (these are like 5 hours combined, so I may as well do them at once)
BioShock
BioShock Infinite
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dishonored (I know this can be short, but it probably won't be given how I play stealth games)
Half-Life 2
Metro 2033
Pajama Sam 1+2
Portal 2
Spec Ops: The Line
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (to be followed by 2)
Transistor

Nintendo Handheld:
F-14 Tomcat
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Four Swords
Pokemon Gold
Pokemon Emerald

Nintendo Console
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Rampage World Tour (despite it being pretty obvious that this one was never good)
Skies of Arcadia (Definitely reserving the right to cut this one early if it doesn't hold up. It's 60+ hours)

Sony:
Muramasa Rebirth
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Uncharted 2/3 (probably not all at once, but we'll see)
Remember Me

[smol Kat]

Per above, I'm out