No! No! No! If you don't play DQ2, you won't "get" the big, grand twist of DQ3!

robio said:

Proceed then. DQ2 is probably the toughest in the series.  Have a walk through ready. Even the updated versions of the game didn't do a great job of offering direction of what to do next many times.


I was actually playing it last week, but ended up putting it on hold and went back to DQ3.

Will definitely keep a walk through handy. I don't mind thinking a little bit but I really don't have the time to be stuck on something for any long periods of time.

Archangel3371 said:

I was playing through DQ6 back when they released it on the DS and for some reason stopped playing it after only a couple of hours into it.

Finished StarTropics. Man these older games seemed so much longer back in the day. Anyway this was always one of my favourite NES games and I still enjoy it. A solid Zelda-esque type of game with a quirky sense of humour. 8/10

Updated with Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

Just finished the SFC version of Dragon Quest 3. And with that, I have officially knocked out all three versions of the game. Time to see what else I've got in the backlogs to go through now.

28. Beat Destiny: The Taken King - 5/10

I'm also going to take this time to talk about the other 2 "expansions" that came with Taken King

The Dark Below - it's rubbish 4/10


House of Wolves - Outside of that ghetto horde mode it's still pretty rubbish 4/10

They don't really fix anything I disliked about the game, if anything more Destiny 1.0, and I was never of the opinion that Destiny's problem was quantity of content. My issue was that the content that was sub par. So more subpar content is still subpar content.

Taken King I'm a bit more positive in terms of direction. I did like 2 strikes with Will and Phil, and while the general flow of the game is still the same, and bosses are still sponges, they actually bothered to make boss enemies stand out. First of all they looked visually distinct from the rest of the enemies, yeah they still fit a certain species type (as it should), but you know the bosses have more going on then just being bigger and shinnier. The big difference, at least in this fight with 2 brothers, was that one was flying around and all trying to get in your grill, and this other one was launching rockets into the air and creating air strikes. You see them initially, before fighting them together post half way point.

It actually takes into account that a strike should force a level of coordination from the player, instead of just giving them a giant sponge to fight at. Also there was this prison strike that was fought in the darkness, a visual gimmick, but it gives the action something other than ghost scans thing, waves of enemies come in (which was, and I repeat, for like the umpteenth time, every single fucking story mission in Destiny 1 is that shit, all of them, not just one, all of them).

Main missions do a better job of this to, the first mission tries to set a mood, there is an escape mission, a stealth mission, one of the missions has one of those things I liked in previous Halo games where like two factions were fighting each other while you were there. It's weird, because for the first time since 2001, it's like Bungie actually responded to a criticism of their game, and then proceeded fix that criticism a bit. Yes, I'm implying that in a decade they didn't really fix shit about Halo.

So my usual round of displeasures are well fundamental differences with the genre. I have a hard time liking anything where the difficulty is dependent on number crunching shit, and not my own ability, i don't like the loot game structure of the game because repeating a bunch of missions that aren't exactly that replayable for better numbers isn't what I'd call exciting.

I'd still argue that they don't do enough for character customization, the newer subclasses are a bit better than the previous two, but it's a half measure. I get that they can't be Path of Exile or even fucking Diablo 3 in the skill tree department, but it's still too much of like a skill twig.

I still fucking hate the crucible

I don't like you can't trade with peeps still

I thought it was lazy that their biggest expansion still recycles a lot of old areas, especially for the lower production value filler quests. I also think it's lame that the new enemy is basically just the older enemies excepty glowy ghost versions with a multiply technique like they are fucking Kuribo from Yugioh.

While we're at it, I also don't core for the core combat. The basic shooting is mostly fine, There is a nice pop to things, and headshots have a nice punch, but the weapon rotation just feels unsatisfying because there is very little to deviate the primary weapons. I'm not expecting Doom or even Halo in that regard, but this is like military shooter tier territory of making the guns feel too samey. At least between the assault rifle, pulse rifle, and scout rifle, the only real difference feels like burst.

The distance of fights barely matters at times, because a lot of the enemies just run right at you since every faction has ankle biters. I also don't core for how fucking spongy a lot of things get, it's actually kind of why Halo gets so fucking boring after awhile. The enemy just becomes more irritating than this intimidating threat, I FUCKING HATE the reload on hand cannons. In fact all I ever get are hand cannons, so RNJesus, cut it the fuck out, and give me a legendary Assault Rifle better than my hand canon.

As a thing to dick around with my work buddy, or maybe kill some time with Phil n Will. I'm willing to keep it just to see this thing play out. But I'm not invested. I'm not invested the lore, the universe, the multiplayer, I'm not enamored with where they go next. As someone who prefers action games to rpgs, I'd say one of the biggest core issues with this game is that they don't lean on being a RPG enough. And I mean the good qualities of a RPG, especially a triple A one, especially a western one.

All they understood was loot n grind. I appreciate the improvements that have been made, enough that I'd pony up for a proper Destiny 2. That Iron Banner shit? Not so much, and that's still because they didn't improve enough at the things that bug me about the game.

29. Beat Doom II: Hell on Earth - 8/10

Ah Doom 2, I want to love you more than Doom 1, I went on for the longest time thinking the game was better than Doom 1, but I came out thinking Doom 1 is better, with an asterisk. Doom 2's high points are better than Doom 1's high points, barrels of fun is a blast, Mission 29 is an awesome slug fest, the first and third act in general are an absolute blast.

The super shotgun is a perfect addition, and newer enemies range from being really annoying - those things that launch the skull people, to pretty menacing and satisfying to fight: revenants, mancubus, that fire wizard thing, and having the barons of hell, spidermastermind, and cyberdemon as potential regular enemies adds to the already diverse enemy roster in Doom. The guns are still an absolute joy, the BFG is the messiah, the plasma rifle is awesome, the chaingun and rocket launchers are great to let loose.

The best thing about Doom 2, you still have reasons to use regular shotgun, pistol is always going to be the odd one out, but the worst weapon in the game? Still satisfying to shoot. That's how you make a fucking game about shooting things in the face.

So what hurts Doom 2 is more so direction they went with their mazes, Doom 1 made me question for a second why we even began hating FPS mazes, and then I played Doom 2 and went OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, right. Doom 1 is more Metroid, and I say that for a lack of a better term. More or less it's that thing that Metroid or Soul games do where they have these mazes, that then fold in on themselves for ease of navigation. A lot of times I got keys, there were short cuts to the area where I needed to use the key. I still had to explore the level, but it wasn't as messy nor as tedious.

In contrast Doom 2 is more of a proper maze, and that has its own benefits. That feeling being lost, that hunt for secrets for survival, that every bullet counts mentality isn't there in Doom 1 in the same way. There is a sort of a reason the more balls to the walls dumb action games went the Doom 2 route. This type of design adds a lot to the core shoot outs, and as Mooksi said, hey when the traps get you, I'm willing to accept it as a what else did I expect, they are traps? Gotcha moments can feel cheap, but I'm more lenient in how they work in Doom 2.

The thing is this type of design needs tigher level design, and Doom 2 isn't always tight, in fact a lot of times, it's just sloppy. The Chasm was a big one, I didn't really care for a lot of the second act as missions 11-20 had some noteworthy bland mazes, partially because of visuals.

It's also longer, so there were more times where I was getting annoyed the game wasn't ending, which isn't how I felt about Doom 1, until I did E4, which is a shitty add on to a certified classic. Also the music? yeah way better in Doom 1 also.

It's within a whisker of me calling it a certified classic like the original, as it stands it's just a classic like Grim Fandango. Love it. Now....I have to satisfy my inner OCD before Doom 4, and my agreement with William/Philip that I would give Doom 3 another chance.

After spending more than two months on Dark Chronicle I've finally finished it (too many fish-related activities took my time). I can finally move on to Fire Emblem.