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Fallout 4 (PS4): COMPLETED!

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Crawl out through the fallout, baby
When they drop that bomb
Crawl out through the fallout, baby
With the greatest of aplomb

Crawl out through the Fallout back to me! Oh yes. Fallout is BACK and I’ve bloody loved it. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were two of my favourite games from the last generation of consoles, and two of the most played. As soon as Fallout 4 was announced, I bought a PS4 so I’d have something to play it on. I was so excited I posted about it on Twitter every single day from announcement to release. Oh god, Fallout 4.

Fallout_4_20160108224324

 

But first, some bad stuff. And spoilers – definitely read no further if you don’t want spoilers. Stopped reading? Excellent.

I didn’t like the ending. I know there are several endings, and I’ve some earlier saves ready to return to when I decide to try for the others, but I felt that the Railroad ending was looking like the “good” ending. It wasn’t. Not unless you think slaughtering dozens of innocent scientists and destroying 200 years of scientific progress (not to mention re-radiating a large chunk of the Wasteland) in order to save the “lives” of some synthetic humans is a “good” ending. Here’s a video, spoilers abound:

What I wanted, really, was for the Institute to see sense and either hide away completely (they supposedly could with their reactor) or share their advances with everyone for the good of the world. But no, that doesn’t seem to be an option.

That aside, the game itself is excellent. I’ve posted about the bugs, of which there are a lot, but they’re mostly minor. Two major ones happened (the next quest didn’t trigger), but they resolved themselves eventually after doing some sidequests for a while. There’s some annoyance with the dialogue choices, as the options on screen just give you an idea of what you’ll say rather then the exact words and intonation meaning you can end up with a totally different conversation to that you expected. These make up a small part of the game though, and the rest more than makes up for it.

I love the setting. I love the exploration. I love the 40s, 50s and 60s songs on the radio. I love the characters, especially Nick Valentine who, since meeting him about 12 hours in, has become my only companion. He’s awesome:

He has great one-liners, keeps me on the straight and narrow (he’s not a fan of stealing or being nasty to folk) and looks fantastic with his private dick outfit and half his face torn off. One day I’ll actually go and find Eddies tape for him. One day, Nick. One day.

I even love the base building, which is new to Fallout 4. It’s clunky, it’s buggy, and is a completely pointless time-sink, but for some reason I keep getting addicted to it. I’ve built towers and castles in the sky and a warehouse full of beds with a disco ball, and it’s incredible.

Besides that though, and the massively improved graphics (and palette – there are blue skies now!), it’s all still pretty much Fallout 3 again, in a new location with new things to do. In a way, you’d think that’s a little disappointing, but it’s actually exactly what I wanted. There are tweaks to improve things, like being able to tag required parts so junk items show up as needed when looting, and being able to see and take what is in a container without “opening” it, but they just improve the experience rather than vastly change it.

Click to view slideshow.

I just wish there was a better ending. Maybe one of the others will surprise me. Or maybe I missed some dialogue options somewhere. I’m sure I’ll find out, as I’m going to play some more. A lot more. After all, I’ve only put 65 hours into it so far, so I’ve barely scratched the surface.

The post Fallout 4 (PS4): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Fairune (3DS): COMPLETED!

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Fairune
Starting out in Fairune

Although I didn’t expect to, mainly because of the quirky fighting mechanic, I enjoyed the demo of Fairune. The full game was on sale this week and because of this, and that you can transfer your progress from the demo, I picked it up.

Fairune
Classic Zelda puzzle

The fighting mechanic is this: you walk into enemies to fight them. If they’re a lower level than you, they die. If they’re one level higher, they die, give you XP, but also damage you. If they’re two levels higher, they die, give you more XP, but also damage you more. Any higher than that and they’re indestructible. The upshot is, in Fairune you will always lose energy and will need to heal.

Fairune
Om nom nom nom nom

Once your head copes with Fairune’s odd way of doing things, the rest of the game is pretty standard in terms of how to play. You collect items that open new areas and they provide access to harder baddies and further items to open more areas and so on. There are a few Zelda-esque puzzles to solve, the odd hidden area, and a final boss who not only suffers from Irritating and Unnecessary Gaming Cliché #3, but also plays out completely differently to the whole of the rest of the game – it’s a shoot ’em up. There is a secret room with Space Invaders in it though, perhaps that’s a clue.

Fairune
It’s a UNIX system! I know this!

This final boss is actually the only place in the entire game I died, and I died twice there. Still, he’s not too hard when you know his patterns. None of Fairune is hard, come to think of it. Excepting that I forgot to pick up a particular item having used it – it’s the only one in the game you need to do this with, so I didn’t realise you could, let alone had to. This was a pain that sidetracked me for a bit, and I even thought one of the puzzles was bugged as a result, but no.

Fairune
More like Mega Dork, amirite?

Overall, a fun, unusual RPG-lite with some pretty pixel graphics and nice music that cost me under £2 and entertained me for two and a half hours. I’m not going to complain at that.

The post Fairune (3DS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Journey to Kyoto (3DS): COMPLETED!

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CHOO_CHOO___trainsim__t_httpst.coqWWTPISBOVTrains! Yay for trains! Well, one train. Which only does one, relatively short route. But trains!

In Japanese Rail Sim 3D: Journey to Kyoto, it’s your job to drive the electric train to, yep, Kyoto. You control the power and the brakes, and the aim is to arrive both on time, and stop at the correct point at each station. Some sections of track, like points and curves, have speed limits, and you have to take account of hills and stuff to maintain your speed without speeding. It’s actually quite simple to control, but getting an A rank for each station (you have to be pretty exact with stopping and timing!) is pretty difficult.

Click to view slideshow.

I’ve played through and reached the end, hence “completed”, but there are more variant modes to unlock yet if I can do it with enough A ranks – night mode for example. I can’t say that for the normal eShop price of £12.99 this was a great buy, but it’s on offer right this moment for just ONE POUND, and for that it’s a bargain.

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Lego Jurassic World (PS4): COMPLETED!

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LEGO® Jurassic World™_20151223143105My daughter loves Lego games and loves dinosaurs, so it was an obvious choice to get Lego Jurassic World at some point. Even if I do keep calling it Lego Jurassic Park.

LEGO® Jurassic World™_20151223152302She’d not seen the films, but the game did mean she could watch the films without being too scared, and we have watched the first one now. One thing I hadn’t realised until we played this is how the T-Rex, rather than being the frightening terror she appears to be, is actually the hero of all four stories. In Jurassic Park, she provides an escape from the gallimimus stampede and rescues Alan, Ellie and the kids from the velociraptors at the end. In The Lost World, she’s only trying to save her baby and goes at great lengths to do so. In Jurassic Park III she sees off the spinosaurus helping everyone get away, and in Jurassic World she defeats the Indominus Rex. Uh, that might be a spoiler.

Click to view slideshow.

As for the game itself, it’s more of the same sort of thing you get in any Lego game. No surprises there, but you can be actual dinosaurs! Ace. Obviously, we’ve only finished the main game (albeit all four films), but we’re working through the extra gold bricks and so on. It’s more fun than Lego The Hobbit, so we’ll probably stick at Jurassic World a bit longer.

The post Lego Jurassic World (PS4): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.