R(ob)’s Comments (group member since Jun 21, 2021)

R(ob)’s comments from the The Video Game Forum group.

I didn’t rate it to be honest but perhaps it’s not for me rather than it being a bad game.

Hi all. Not been gaming much in the last week. After finishing The Ascent I tried Art of Rally - not for me so binned it off pretty quick - and then I tried the Back4Blood beta. Back4Blood was ok. Defo has that Left4Dead DNA and it feels like a sequel in all but name. It looks good graphically but I didn’t like the gun mechanics - felt somewhat off to me - and the Team Bot AI is non-existent. I died, the bots are right next to me and they did nothing. It’s a beta so I hope it’ll improve. It defo has potential if they fix a few things. I just love the level design progression in left4dead/Back4Blood.

And then in the last couple of days thought I’d try the Quake Remaster on Game Pass not expecting it to grab me. Absolutely love it. Don’t know why but it’s really grabbed me. Old school with nothing changed from the original but a very well designed game even today. Lots of fun and I like the level design, mild puzzles and the enemy which are more puzzle like than an FPS challenge.

I have 12 Minutes and Recompile downloaded too but I expect I’ll finish Quake first and then go straight onto Psychonauts 2 as it’s out this week on Games Pass.

It's on vanilla xbox one too, and series s.

Error wrote: "I uh...got the Suicidal achievement. There were a lot of reasons, the main being having to restart the game after reaching level 17 initially ; ) I guess we are quite the dedicated gamers, congrats..."

Yea I think I was a bit more dedicated than I would be normally to such a frustrating game. I could have done with The Decapitator already lol. I may return to it at some point to play the side missions - defo after a patch - but for now definitely need a break. I noticed I’ve not got the achievement for visiting all areas so I’d like to see what I haven’t seen yet.

Error wrote: "Glad you pulled through Rob. Sounds like we landed in almost the exact same place with our feelings on the game. What level were you when you finished btw? I ask because I felt completely under-lev..."

I think I was level 26 or 27. And I had one weapon at level 9 - quite early on but could never get it to max level. Yes for the final 2-3 missions I felt completely under levelled. Everything was a real grind and the enemy, even between boss fights, were killing me often. If it wasn’t for Overclocked I wouldn’t have completed the game - absolutely no chance. The mini gun made a massive difference too especially fending off the relentless hoards. I see less than 2% of players have completed the campaign. This game definitely has some big difficulty issues in the final third. Unless Overclocked is in the game by design - the health regeneration part of it and is not a bug - to make it possible.

BTW - I died 55 times. You can find out from the achievement Suicidal. The game took me 16.5 hours to complete. So that’s a death every 18 minutes which is a lot but less than it seemed.

Completed The Ascent. I think that Overclock augmentation is bugged. It’s basically a god mode. Every minute you can replenish full health, as it’s not even listed in the augment’s abilities. And even then I died several times lol. I’m not joking the last two missions were f’ing ridiculous - so many enemies, of different types, all coming at you at once. An overwhelming number and all higher levels. Without the ‘Overclock God Mode’ I think I would have binned the game off. Strange game really in the end. The world is truly amazing. The combat is fun. The graphics amazing. In some senses a 10/10 game. Then it’s dragged down by horrendous difficulty spikes, broken features (no skins even though you pick them up often) and a confusing levelling up system (especially for armour), so in the end 8/10 on the R-score-o-meter.

Finally finally completed The Ascent Recompile mission. Strangely on the attempt I managed it it was easy. Sat in a corner, used spider bots and my turret and didn’t have to move around much and that got most of the timer down. Then I went on a personal mission to take Errors advice and that of a YouTube tips video. Did the side mission to get the Overclock aug. Bought myself a mini gun and a flame thrower. And went into the Board Meeting boss fight and did it first time. You’re right Error the Overclock is a must use - basically replenished my health every so often in the Board Meeting boss fight. Thanks for the tip. And the mini gun is very powerful too. I actually feel like I might finish this game now. Famous last words lol.

I was looking at the PlayStation sale recently hoping to find a deal on Ghosts of Tsushima. I couldn’t even find it listed except for the Director’s Cut at £70. Seems to me they pulled the previously released standard edition to drive up sales of the Director’s Cut. Safe to say it put me off completely.

Glassmoon - The Benny Hill of Plats wrote: "Morning all

I never played any Killzone.I was interested in Shadowfall one time but never hawed it.
I did play one called Resistance in the Ps3 but i never played more then 1 hr. I was coming from..."

It was Hancock that was referring to the PS3 Wolfenstein. I’ve actually got it too but I didn’t like it. I prefer the new games. Each to their own though. Yea Resistance on PS3 was a little clunky and average graphics for the time but I really enjoyed it - I liked the world and back story, and it was a solid shooter. By the time Resistance 3 was released they managed to nail a really good game IMO. They stole a lot of ideas but it was the best of the three. I played killzone 2, 3 and Shadowfall and the campaigns for me were all decent. I loved the multiplayer however with kz2 being by far my favourite. I remember when I bought my PS3 waiting for a decent exclusive to come out on it - early on the PS3 exclusives really didn’t have any decent graphics. Anyone remember Haze - people were so desperate for a graphical showpiece for PS3 in its first couple of years and then they release the most overhyped and under delivered exclusive in Haze. And then KZ2 came out and blew everyone away graphically. Loved it at the time.

Someone unlocked The Ascent camera to show the world in first person. It looks incredible:

https://youtu.be/JCKrMsRh5FA

Equinox80 wrote: "Unfortunately the KZ2 servers were switched off back in 2018. I heard it was good but never played it.

Not sure if the KZ3 ones are still active but probably not. Just Shadowfall I think on the PS4."

Yea I wasn’t expecting the multiplayer would still be live but I do fancy playing some old PS3 games like Killzone and some others.

Ah Killzone 2. I miss Killzone especially the multiplayer. I liked the campaigns too. I keep on meaning to set up my PS3 again.

Thanks Error. I’ll have to check to see if I have it. I tried numerous combinations of augmentations and weapons and only once got close and all other times no where near. If it gets any harder than this I’m defo giving up. I don’t even seem to be levelling up in this fight either - my level hasn’t budged. I’m really enjoying this game but the difficulty is all over the place - even in the same mission leading up to this fight it was relentless and died so many times.

I’m on the verge of giving up on The Ascent. I’m at the end of Recompile rebooting the AGI core with another countdown timer. They come from all directions, really aggressive, can’t stay in cover for long before they flank me. Must have tried a dozen times, got down to 5 seconds once but still can’t do it. I gave up when I was so frustrated I developed a headache. And I just watched an IGN video and their experience is not the same as mine. My enemy are two to four levels above me whereas is in the IGN video they are the same or one level above the players level. I’m starting to wonder now.

Error wrote: "Lol...like I said there is a lot of balancing to do for the game to realize its potential. I have over 200k credits in the bank but haven't been able to upgrade my guns for hours. I have no high le..."

Thanks for the tip. I’m on the mission called Recompile. Think I’ve complete another 5 missions since last posting. Two boss fights were dead easy but I really struggled with beating Celine - Trace Protocol mission. The timer in this boss fight means nothing really so after around my tenth attempt I killed everything including Celine. I beat the timer twice before but died after without killing everyone and was sent back to before the boss fight. I really struggled at first but my final attempt I breezed through it easily lol. I also struggled on the Data Miner boss fight with the giant spider - on my first attempt there were two bosses lol, which I think was a bug. Must have died 7 times on the spider bot boss fight but on my final attempt the boss seemed a lot less aggressive and it was then easy. Very odd. Overall though loving this game a lot - but like you say it needs some work to iron out broken game features albeit for me not blocking progress. No further crashes however - just the one so far after a good 12-13 hours.

Error wrote: "Rob - I think doing side quests triggers a number of problems for the game. Several times now, it appears a side-quest gets bugged (even if it is low level) by trying to complete it early. I have h..."

No I’ve not played the timed missions but I did notice them in a review. I thought to myself they have the potential to be annoying. I hope to play this game all the way through but if it becomes particularly frustrating I have no issue binning it off. I hate not completing games but I hate frustration even more. Fingers crossed I don’t get to the point I find the game annoying.

Yea it’s a shame Error the game is buggy. For me I’ve had one crash so far - which isn’t unheard of nowadays generally - and no other bugs that I noticed. If I’d had 3-4 crashes like you yea I wouldn’t be impressed. Difficulty wise other than boss fights no issues for me although I’ve kept to the main missions and not ventured off piste. I did stray a little but thought better of it. I have done some side missions but I was several levels above the recommended level for the missions. Not noticed any missing skins. I saw a YouTube video of a bug to gain repeated credits from selling items but unfortunately not been able to trigger it myself. Fingers crossed I continue to experience a relatively bug free game. And no sudden ramp-up in difficulty. I do like that the checkpoints are very frequent - I’ve not had to repeat much after dying.

I still have a PS4 pro. Does me for now for the exclusives.

Hi all. Been playing The Ascent. Nearly six hours in. Think I’m on the fourth campaign mission. It is an amazing game. They’ve nailed the cyberpunk theme and artwork. The graphics are very very good, some of the best I’ve seen. Albeit I’m surprised considering how colourful this game is there is no HDR. The world is massive and full of detail and variation. The combat is so rewarding too and fun. I’ve struggled with most of the boss fights but got there after 3-4 attempts but I’m concerned the difficulty may ramp up later in the game but so far so good. Honestly this game should be getting more fanfare - it’s truly amazing. Only criticism is the world map is confusing and the story is passing me by a bit but the cut scenes are pretty good. For a game made by 12 people they’ve pulled off a miracle considering the quality and scale. Enjoying all the RPG elements too messing about with upgrading guns and skills. It’s a defo 9/10 game so far. And it cost me nothing.

Error wrote: "I have The Ascent downloading while I'm at work preparing for the weekend. If it is as good as Ruiner I'll be a happy guy. Gamepass. #nohaws"

Me too Error. Actually already downloaded. I read some reviews a few days ago and they seem mixed - some glowing, one or two very average to bad, I even saw one 3/10 review - but I checked ACG's review last night and he absolutely loves it. So I'm defo gonna give it a go now. I've really enjoyed some twin sticks shooters in the past and this in terms of artwork and graphics looks next level. I think I need to prepare to die a lot but hopefully it's a doable game rather than a throw my controller at the TV type of game.