Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 21st - 27th JUNE //

Here there be reviews.


THIRD - Fallout 4: Far Harbor [PC] Brian

The obvious issue with this review is mainly subject matter related. It’s an add on rather than a full game, so you’re going to have to assume some level of existing knowledge because it’s not like you can tack on a Fallout 4 base game review as the introduction and keep things at a manageable size. Still I think this is sidestepped very well because you take the focus away from that early on and talk about how it’s a genuine attempt to be an in depth role play of a character, and how it never quite works. It’s likely I’ll never play F4 (I gave up halfway through F3, after all) so this little pocket of oddness would have been forever undiscovered if not for this, so it’s an appreciated effort for something most people wouldn;t feel the need to cover


SECOND - Summer Paws [SWH] Jason

Cats > Dogs. Disqualified.

If you love cats, says Jason Venter, play this game where you go around terrorising them for the heinous crime of trying to go to sleep. That will teach them to exist! I think it was a clever call to tie this in with your alleged summer heat wave (endless rain here - welcome to England) and to set your stall out early about how this is a casual time killer rather than an epic adventure. I think the middle section is a bit listy, but the points are communicated well.

FIRST - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel [PS3] Overdrive

“This game keeps giving me too much awesome stuff to do!” complains Rob and, for a while, I thought we were going to get a repeat of his laughable Nier review and I settled down for some mean spirited RotWing. But, alas, this time he’s not spewing bizarre nonsense about a world class game that allows you to recreate Tokyo Drift on a giant boar, but instead referencing the soul crushing amount of pre-existing baggage that comes with the Legend of Heroes franchise.

I think the early point against Mass Effect is initially well made; those games could get away with being played as stand alone titles, but these games less so, you advise. It takes a while for you to come back to this, though, by giving what could be considered endgame spoilers but not really addressing if the game relies on any of the previous games that much.

Where I think this review shines is in talking about player fatigue because it’s talked about in such a way that the reader still has the option to disagree and decide that it all sounds like a good time regardless of the review talking about how it got progressively harder to plough through. I’m in this headspace now where this game sounds like a little too much, but, 15 years or so ago when I devoured JRPGs as my main staple, this would have sounded like a blast. Now I only play them when Venter tricks me into them and/or I find a topic Zig from 2018 telling me I should try Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ already.

For us. For them. For you.

Thank you for the comments on my review, which I hadn't planned to write and cranked out while feeling miserable in the heat. Today is every bit as hot. It's presently 104 degrees and not yet noon, so the hottest part of the day is yet to come. Luckily, starting tonight, we'll go back down to weather that can be described with more pleasant terms such as "unseasonably hot" instead of "furnace to your face."

Congrats to overdrive on placing ahead of me and congrats to Brian for doing a good job of covering something a bit less glamorous but still very much in need of said coverage.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Thanks for the win!

Funny thing is that 10-15 years ago when I was all about devouring JRPGs, I'd have likely felt more love for this one, as well. But things have changed a bit and it almost feels like I have this mental timer where I'm gauging all the factors in my head and when I'm thinking this game should be over now, it should be about over at that point. With this game, there are seven chapters and I started feeling that way in about the fifth or sixth and by the end, the main thing carrying me to the credits was simply that I'd put way too much time into it to give up now.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle