What are you playing?

[TEKTORO]

I can't help but think of Vanquish too, that looks like some speed in Transformers. I can dig a game like this, hopefully there are some varied environments so the play through doesn't get too stale.

[TSTR]

I'm working right now, but I wish I was playing...

RIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER

[Stark]

I'm working right now, but I wish I was playing...

RIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACER

This is some flojo-type posting habits you got going here d00d.

[TSTR]

I srsly had to make myself walk away before I started bumping too many old threads.

[Fragems]

About half way through Tears to Tiara II and I'm starting to feel the urge to move on, but I'm going to stick with it as long as I can . The game isn't bad it's just that the story while good could have used a shit load of editing there is so much pointless banter at times that it's driving me crazy. It's also got one of those plots where they have to be super vague about everything so that they can pull a twist off down the road.

[Gamerforlife]

That game looks rad, and it is receiving decent reviews. Do you have any thoughts on it? (Also, is it kid friendly? There is no way my son - who is way into Transformers right now - would let me play this without him.)

From what I've played of it so far, the story and cut scenes are pretty much on par with any episode of the original 80s cartoon. I doubt there's any reason a kid couldn't play it.

It plays like what you might expect from Platinum. You have your basic combos and you dodge incoming attacks. Like Bayonetta, a last minute dodge will put you in bullet time...though it doesn't last very long so you find yourself dodging a lot as I found it hard to finish a combo before the bullet time effect (or witch time) runs out. And someone will usually attack as soon as it does so you'll probably have to go into witch time a few times before you can finish someone off or pull off a successful combo.

The transforming is handled pretty well. You transform by holding R1 (on the PS4). Once transformed you can pretty much drive around in vehicle form which helps you get around the environment quicker. If you build up enough speed, you can smash through objects (required to access certain parts of a stage). You can also launch into an attack by driving towards someone and hitting an attack button, which will basically make you transform back into robot mode and do a powerful attack. When performing melee combos, your final hit will usually trigger a blue flash and an accompanying sound effect. Time will freeze for just a second and if you hit RI you immediately transform and finish the combo with a vehicle attack that will typical knock the enemy backwards and you can sometimes follow that up for additional attacks (sometimes they'll bounce off a wall allowing you to easily follow up with additional offense as they bounce towards you).

The cons of this system are that the dodge button is mapped to RI as well. So you have to make sure you TAP the R1 button to dodge and HOLD it to transform. This takes some getting used to, and I often find myself transforming when I just want to dodge. Also, it seems all the playable characters (from what I've played so far) transform into on road vehicles. I'm a little jealous when I see decepticons transforming into jets and attacking me from the sky.

Fortunately, you have fire arms (with limited ammo though). So when dealing with aerial enemies you have to resort to ranged combat. You also need to do this when people on buildings try and snipe you. So at times the game becomes a bit of a third person shooter. There are even objects set up in some spots to take cover behind. One cool note, when you are transformed it's possible to aim and shoot while you're driving around.

Other abilities include a super attack when your meter is filled (pushing in the two analog sticks), a special ability that's unique to each character (limited use as you have to wait for a meter to recharge if you overuse it) and additional moves you can purchase (like parry attacks, a stun move and a powerful counter you can do when activating witch time)

This is basically a light version of Bayonetta for the most part, which may be viewed as a con as anyone who isn't into that style of game won't like this and would perhaps rather play something like War for Cybertron, which I think is a more accessible game. Gameplaywise, Devastation will not be for everybody.

The AI is decent, enemies will dodge your attacks or try and hit you when you're attacking someone else. The very first boss was kicking my ass until I learned to effectively dodge his attacks. On normal difficulty, the game puts up a decent fight and bosses hit HARD.

There's a leveling system and you can also use acquired XP to increase your stats, though the game makes no effort to explain what each stat actually does. You can also collect different types of weapons and use a synthesis system to make them stronger. You can also create equippable items with stat buffs, though there's an annoying mini game involved in the creation process. All of this stuff feels a little annoying to me, as I just want to get in there and kick ass without fussing over all this RPG stuff. It feels like a lot of this stuff is more complicated than it needs to be, like the weapons for instance all have different rankings, stats and levels and do different things, all of which you will probably have to take into account when synthesizing them or deciding which ones to take into battle, and like I said earlier the character stat system is very vague.

As you play through a stage, there's collectibles to find and challenges to discover. Basically, they're just like Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, etc. Step into a circle and complete whatever challenge the game throws at you. And of course, you get ranked after every combat encounter. I believe SS is the highest one, or so I've heard.

The environment is very bland and ugly, and what I've played so far basically consists of running back and forth between different areas of a city that all kind of look the same. Already I desperately want a change of scenary. The transformers look amazing, the stages look like shit. Here's one area where a game like War for Cybertron completely kicks this game's ass. That game had a world for you to play in, with epic events and battles taking place in it. Devastation is just a bunch of bland looking combat arenas stitched together with some light platforming elements and a few objects you'll have to destroy to make progress. The city (which is the only environment I've been in so far) never feels like a REAL city.

And the story (from what I've played so far) just feels like a typical episode of the G1 show. War for Cybertron just felt way more big and epic than this game with big, huge stakes, but I guess that's to be expected. Even at 50 dollars, Devastation still seems like a budget title while War for Cybertron felt like a triple A title. War for Cybertron is like a big transformers movie. Devastation is just a Saturday morning episode.

The soundtrack is very guitar driven, kind of metal stuff. If you enjoy the kind of music you might here in games like Dynasty Warriors, Mega Man X games or Contra Shattered Soldier you'll feel right at home. I definitely feel a metal sounding soundtrack works for big giant robots beating the shit out of each other.

From what I've seen and heard, there are parts of the game where they try to mix things up. I encountered a weird challenge where I had to fight enemies from an overheard camera angle, which I found pretty disorienting and confusing. I've heard there are also some 2d, side scrolling sections. And there was an interesting boss fight where I had to literally chase down Megatron while my autobot was in vehicle mode while dodging or smashing through obstacles and dodging incoming fire from Megatron and attacks from a giant robot tentacle while trying to get close enough to him to attack

Overall, I think the game is good, not great, but good. It's certainly better than that Legend of Korra game they did, which felt like a half assed, 15 dollar budget game done by Platinum's B team. Devastation still has a budget feel to it (with those ugly environments), but it feels like a lot more effort went into this game. The combat feels a little deeper than Korra, the bosses are much better, the stages are bigger and non linear versus the small, linear Korra levels and the game makes better use of the license. Examples being:

a)You can play as multiple autobots, who all play slightly different and they'll even fight with you in some parts.
b)There's more customization with all the equipment options and upgrade system.
c)There's a lot of voice acting including Peter Cullen as Prime and other voice actors who are either from the original show or sound like close facsimiles.
d)And there's just a lot of little details the game gets right like the fact that your enemies actually fight like transformers should fight. Vehicle based decepticons will show up and drive circles around you forcing you to chase them down and attack them to force them to transform. Aerial decepticons will fire at you while hovering in the air or transform into jets and fly around raining fire on you. Contructicons will use construction vehicle based attacks on you and yes you WILL fight Devastator once they get tired of taking it easy on you(more than once in fact). Soundwave will send his little cassette tape minions after you, etc, etc, etc.

If you like Transformers and LOVE games like Bayonetta (That second point is probably the most important one), this is an easy recommendation. I was a huge fan of the original cartoon so I needed to try this out of curousity. I'm not as high on Bayonetta style combat as other people though, so I don't know if I'll play the game to completion but we'll see. Bottom line though, this is a good Transformers game. Is it 50 dollars good? Hard to say. It's not as good as a full on, no bullshit Platinum Games title like Bayonetta 2, but it's a solid game that they clearly put some real time and effort into (unlike Korra), but you can still tell they had a limited budget to work with.

[Fragems]

About half way through Tears to Tiara II and I'm starting to feel the urge to move on, but I'm going to stick with it as long as I can . The game isn't bad it's just that the story while good could have used a shit load of editing there is so much pointless banter at times that it's driving me crazy. It's also got one of those plots where they have to be super vague about everything so that they can pull a twist off down the road.

I was mistaken I'm about 1/4th of the way through and that's after sinking another 3-4 hours into it today. Just looked it up fastest recorded time is 44 hours might be able to get close to that things have been going smoothly so far. Nothing really going on outside of the main story and grinding isn't really to bad I just run through the highest lvl previous area to boost my characters a bit before moving on to the next main battle.

[Sload Soap]

Still trundling along with the Metal Gear games. Up to MGS now. Very much enjoying it but it's also strange how so compact a game became such a cultral touchstone. Eurogamer recently proclaimed it the first modern video game and while I can certainly see the argument for that, I've always thought this series is too idiosyncratic to be truly influential.

Anyway, it's still a fantastic game. Got as far as downing the Hind D before work beckoned. Can't wait tio finish it at the weekend.

[prfsnl_gmr]

From what I've played of it so far, the story and cut scenes are pretty much on par with any episode of the original 80s cartoon. I doubt there's any reason a kid couldn't play it.

Thanks! This sounds right up my alley, and I will probably pick up the PS3 version pretty soon (and start playing it as soon as I finish up Costume Quest).

[BoneSnapDeez]

prfsnl_gmr asked a question and by golly did he get an answer.