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Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain (PS5): COMPLETED!

Posted on 12/04/2024 Written by deKay

Although I’d had access to this via PS++++++++ for some time, I’d never downloaded it as I, erroneously, thought it was that vertically scrolling shooter EDF spin-off rather than a “normal” third-person co-op giant insect/robot apocalypse game. Then I noticed the screenshots and realised I was thinking of Earth Defense Force: Wing Diver The Shooter and Iron Rain is, in fact, more of the game I wanted.

It is, broadly, the same game that most of the other games have been. You’re one of a few remaining soldiers, defending the world from giant ants, spiders and wasps, various alien robots and attack ships, as well as NotGodzilla and a huge sea lizard thing. It differs from others in the series by being – mostly – more serious and realistic. At least, as realistic as such a plot can be, anyway.

There have been tweaks to how you get better weapons and armour, as you now collect credits and spend them rather than just pick up new guns and rocket launchers and so on, which I don’t like as much. Really, though, it doesn’t make enough of a difference to worry about.

Like recent EDFs, I played through in co-op with my daughter. It’s always way better playing EDF as a pair, and it is, perhaps bizarrely, one of her favourite game series. We found it quite a lot easier than earlier titles, although the final level was really difficult.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, earth defense force, ps+, ps5, psn

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers (PS5): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/11/2022 Written by deKay

I’m a fan of the EDF games, with their Massive Ants and Massive Wasps and Massive Robots and Massive Space Ships. I was intrigued by this, Minecraft-y looking entry into the series, but the problem with EDF games is they cost money and don’t often drop to Super Cheap, so I never got round to buying it. And I still haven’t, because it appeared on PS+!

I thought the only real difference between this and the others in the series was the graphics, but actually, there’s a bigger change. You see, you don’t control just one person, you control a squad of four, swapping between them with the d-pad. Instead of collecting billions of weapons, of which you used to be able to wield two, each of your team has just one weapon. But! Because you have four of them, you essentially have four weapons, albeit they’re a bit trickier to swap between and some of them may get “killed”.

As you play through the game, you find and rescue more “brothers” and “sisters”, each of whom is a terrible stereotype of the country they supposedly represent. You can then use these in your squad, and each type has different attributes (like speed and armour) and a special skill (like being able to fly for a bit, having a dash-dodge move, or grenades) so choosing a good combination of both characters and weapons for your team is essential. Well, actually it doesn’t make a lot of difference most of the time and I tended to stick with a couple with long range and a couple with short range weapons.

The rest of the game is, broadly, same as it ever was only in Super Bright Colour Vision and with stupid hyperactive chat instead of the usual morose “we’re all gonna die”/weirdly upbeat “we are the valiant infantry” of the grey-brown entries in the series. You still have ants and spiders, you still have Hectors and Erginus, you still have tanks and a huge cargo robot you can ride, it’s just a bit more jolly and blocky. Also, it was really smooth with no slowdown, which is unusual for EDF but probably because this was the “simpler” game, and on a PS5.

As before, I played through the game with my daughter in co-op, which actually meant we had two squads of four! It’s a lot of fun, but we found it a bit short compared to the “proper” games, and I also missed the “collect all the green weapons crates and red armour crates” which don’t exist here. Well, the red ones just heal your team now. Still, can’t complain when we enjoyed it so much anyway, and it didn’t cost us anything to play.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, earth defense force, ps+, PS4, ps5, psn

Earth Defense Force 5 (PS5): COMPLETED!

Posted on 20/08/2021 Written by deKay

I realised for the first time while playing EDF 5, having played all (I think) of the previous titles in the series, that I think the reason I enjoy them so much is that they’re basically musou games only with guns and aliens. Sure, there’s less base defence and area capture, but the gameplay is surprisingly similar.

After I’d played a few levels, my daughter noticed it was two player and so asked to join in, which made it even more like musou games like Pirate Warriors and Hyrule Warriors that we’d played together.

If you’ve played an EDF game you’ll know exactly what to expect from Earth Defense Force 5. Millions of giant insects, cities that get levelled, hundreds of weapons and the best worst voice acting ever. Only this time round, it’s all with a rock solid framerate rather than sometimes dropping to seconds-per-frame, even in split screen. I suspect running this PS4 game on my PS5 counts for some of that though.

The game also adds new enemies to the series. The “Hector” robots are gone, replaced with giant frog soldiers (that your teammates refer to as ”just like us” – are they blind?”) and armoured giant alien soldiers. There are also a few more varieties of ants and spiders and stuff. Otherwise, it’s basically more of the same. Which is no bad thing of course, and exactly why I bought it!

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, earth defense force, PS4, ps5, psn

Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (PS4): COMPLETED!

Posted on 09/02/2017 Written by deKay

Shooting a billion giant insects whilst simultaneously avoiding the purple chaos spewing forth from massive robots, all the time contending with framerate issues not seen since the days of playing NES emulators on P100 CPUs, never gets old.

earth defense force

Certainly, for the most part, little has changed from previous EDF games. A few new enemy types, slightly different level layouts, and probably some new weapons. Oh, and some new – but currently unused – character classes. That doesn’t matter.

No, there’s something just so good about these games. Low budget, terrible slowdown, mostly unimpressive graphics, and the worst voice acting in living memory, but none of it matters. In fact, it could be argued that some of these outcomes were entirely planned. Whatever, I’ve completed it now and it was a lot of fun.

earth defense force

The post Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair (PS4): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, earth defense force, Post, PS4

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95: Bother Me Anatomically
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Unforeseen circumstances, and definitely not Podcast Apathy, resulted in just deKay and Kendrick bringing you this episode, but don’t worry! As a bonus to make up for the cast shortfall, Episode 95 is slightly shorter, so you’ve less to endure! Rejoice.

This time around, your heroes discuss the general meh-ness of recent gaming news, the Switch 2 having no games, a new Lego Batman (and Batman in general), and Ys X Proud Nordics. With, naturally, many deviations and diversions.

95: Bother Me Anatomically
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95: Bother Me Anatomically
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94: Secrete Yellow Ooze From Their Knees
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93: A Playdate In The Back Room of Ann Summers
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