hogso

2 hours ago, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Are there any famous films where the "baddies" score a total win?

The Great Escape sees most of the escapees murdered.  A few get away.  That's not a total win.  

There is probably a factual film that meets that criteria.  

Is there a fictional one?   

The Silence Of The Lambs sees Lecter escape.  But Starling solves a murder, rescues a hostage and kills Buffalo Bill.   That's not a total win.  

Any ideas? 

 

Funny Games is a great example 

9 hours ago, villan-scott said:

Are the new episodes on Disney+?

That's where we watched them, yeah - although there are means and ways of watching them earlier. The most recently aired episodes in Aus probably won't on Disney+ here for months yet

Who has seen the latest episodes available in the UK of Bluey? 

Drop everything and watch Granny Mobile. Chef's kiss. 

FF6 Plat'd. 

The story goes that during development the team was way ahead of schedule, so much so that by the time the game was 'finished' at the point the party confront Kefka and Gestahl atop the floating continent, they thought, ya know what, we've got time to keep working on this game and do a whole other world! And thus the world of ruin was born, along with all those side quests wrapping up characters story arcs, various secrets, many new magicite, new songs, you name it...and of course the result was an unreal crunch at the end of development to get the game finished. 

And thank goodness they did it. For me, it's this portion of the game that permits FF6s place amongst the very best RPGs of all time, carrying perhaps the best examples of pixel art anywhere. Before the world of ruin it's a great game, the opera scene is unlike anything else really, the empires apparent betrayal after the peace talks is well executed, and the fact that there's no single main protagonist works really well for me. 

But...I still prefer the job system in FF5, and although it's kinda cool having your monk class character, for example, use button inputs like a proper fighting game, some characters abilities are so bad you'd be mad to use them, and some are so good you'd be mad not to. In addition in the late game, once you get the best magic from magicite, say Ultima plus the Soul of Thamasa relic for dual cast, and then recruit Gogo (mime class character) you're pretty much unbeatable against anything. 

Despite that, I've still never experienced anything like the world of ruin once the Warring Triad are unleashed by Kefka. It's underselling it a bit to say 'the bad guy wins', cos he kind of doesn't. That's the brilliance of Kefka's evil and why he's such an enduring villian. He doesn't want anything. In fact he wants exactly nothing, and will destroy everything - including himself - to achieve that. 

To rank this anything other than number one from games 1-6 would be obscene, I think. It has some of the best art (the Matsuda re-designed mechs right at the start of the game!), best story moments (the reveal of Kefka's madness, Celes' anguish in the world of ruin, Maduin's decision, the murder of Cyan's family...the list goes on), the best music (Terra's theme, Forever Love, Dancing **** Mad!), the best locations (has there ever been a more unique town than Zozo?)... 

As this is a platinum trophy run, it would be remiss of me not to mention the pixel remaster trophies here. They're fine on the most part, although the Joker's Death trophy, achieved by rolling all 7s on Setzer's slots, is potential nightmare fuel as the game is rigged to not allow you to hit it every time (odds of 1 in 32 apparently) even if your timing is frame perfect. I got real lucky with this, and used the pause method to get it. Otherwise, the trophies push you to some of those really well integrated extras in the world of ruin, such as the arena which is quite a unique addition (auto battle only with your selected char using whatever they want). 

Clear time was 26:52 which demonstrates some of the really good RNG I got with slots, battle formations on the Veldt for Gau's rage, spawn rates of rare mobs and so on. It's not a precise time as I did try and get joker's death via auto battle, meaning I wasn't probably...2 hours? Due to hitting 7-7-BAR which kills your party rather than the enemy. 

Total play time up to 98:33, really pleased with getting the six pixel remaster plats in under 100 hours.

Also really pleased I did it this way. It might sound odd, but as an unashamed fan boy of the series, to have something tangible as an achievement is really satisfying. 

Rolling ranking

6

5

4

3

1

2

I am presented with a bit of an issue now though. I enjoyed 6 so much I've put barely anytime in to 16. And now 6 is done, I just want to continue in chronological order and do 7...I think I might try and play them concurrently, and then go back to 16 and do the Final Fantasy mode run after I've done 15.

5 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Didn’t have you down as an anti semite Wainy but I guess they hide among us in plain sight.

 

Congrats on the Sixer. 

They're building the new engine in Unity I believe, which will be a complete game changer, it could like more like FIF- sorry, EA Sports FC than FM as we know it. 

What is interesting is that should invite some crazy opportunities for the mod community. Stadium edits, player model edits, shirt edits... 

FM23 has been the most played FM by some distance, so you have to wonder how much 25 will cater more to the casual player. They've been pretty accommodating over the years to old school fans though, so perhaps there will be functionality to more or less ignore the graphical changes. 

44 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

So are they discounting the report that a person in a nearby house heard a scream? 

Well, yes. Two witnesses reported hearing screams at different times. The times given for hearing those screams aren't compatible with the digital evidence (her phone), so were dismissed as given the time line established, she was already dead by then.

It sure was daaaannnngerous! 

Up there with the Phoenix plex, which Kevin Steen used back in the day on the rare occasion someone wanted to take it, and Dragon Lee infamously used in his long running fued with Hiromu...and broke his neck. Don't look it up. Thank goodness he came back from it, there was a period of time where it looked like he might not. 

FFXVI release day! Very short early impressions - it's good, but it's not great.

8 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

It's startling to me how similar tragedies pop up like this through history. They often involve someone daring who gets themselves stuck just beyond the reach of the current era's tech.  With Floyd Collins, there was the same slow, sad realisation that time left alive was outpacing the rescuers' ability to bring him up from the cave.

 

Err...let's hope any similarities don't continue with Floyd's story for much longer. That is one wild story. 

Loved Star Ocean 2. What I'd give for Xenogears to be given the same treatment... 

Tom is great. I think his how not to travel Europe series has been his best thus far.

On 15/06/2023 at 02:59, Keyblade said:

I wish I had your dedication. I'm plodding along through 6 right now and have been for months.

You could call it a passion project, or a labour of love...but I am sincere when I say I really would love to play them all through sequentially, even to the point that I've considered putting off starting 16 until I've completed the other numbered games. Spoilers, I won't, mostly thanks to the demo. Shall we talk about it?

It's kinda great. The main portion of the demo allows you to play the very start of the game, and lasts for about 2 hours. It's exposition heavy as a result, but it does at least allow the player to get a proper feel for the world and characters rather than just being dropped in to a scenario and showing off some gameplay and how pretty it is (which is my enduring memory of the FF8 demo). What is fantastic, and simply must be a main stay of the series from here on out, is the Active Time Lore system, which allows you to pause the game at more or less any time - during exploration, most battles, most cut scenes - and being situation specific will give you lore on your location, the characters who are present at the time, terms they've used, allowing the player to get an immediate fix on 'wait, who is that? what does that mean? where am i?', and it's absolutely seamlessly implemented. 

 A great example is the character of Jill. The writing is good enough to avoid 'as you know' dialogue so there's no unnatural explanation as to who she is between the character, but at the same time we're shown that Clive and Joshua are clearly close to her, they trust and care for her, but actually the player has no idea who she is. Well, the ACL will tell you exactly who she is, where she came from, and why she knows Clive and Joshua so well. 

The graphics and soundtrack are just incredible. I've played it on graphics mode so far and the performance has been really good, to the point that I'm not sure I'd bother with performance mode in the full game. There are vistas presented to the player which you just want to stare in to, and although it may be a gripe of some that this is a not so clever way of making it look open world when it isn't, I don't mind it at all. If the story remains focused as a result, and I hope it does, I'd take that over a fully open world anytime. 

Once you get your hand in with combat it feels really responsive and satisfying. I think that's all I can say about it, it's not the most amazing combat for those who have played lots of action RPGs, or adjacent genres, but man is it infinitely better than FF 15. 

I also need to hold my hands up and eat a bit of humble pie, I think. I felt some disdain towards the comments I'd heard and read when people played the demo versions of the game early as there was a lot of talk about Game of Thrones, when I felt that the identity of FF as it's own thing was so strong it seemed a bit lazy to make that comparison. But, you know what...it's kind of hard not to draw those comparisons now I've played it. There's the political intrigue, there's the betrayal, there's the fore, the swearing, heck even the sex (just a light amount in the demo!)...the tone it sets does indeed draw your mind back to those earlier series/books in the GoT story if you are or were a fan. 

And I think it's that tone that has me so excited for the game now. It's such a departure for the series, which has oft felt very anime esque. OK, I wouldn't say this is a million miles away from that, but it is very, very far removed from the bro's of 15, the destiny fighting of 13, the often light heartedness of 9 and 10...you'll notice that I've skipped 12 there, as for all intents and purposes this is an Ivalice game, and tonally has far more in common with 12, Tactics, 14 and Type-0 to the point that it almost doesn't feel like an FF game. But it is an FF game! For me as a total fan boy, this is the best possible outcome, I love to see the series evolve over the years. I know there is a desire from some to go back to turn based - and maybe they will one day - but when I play the new Dragon Quest games I always find myself thinking 'well it's good...but it's just too similar to the old stuff'.

So if you haven't played the demo, please try and make time! It might surprise you if you don't know anything about 16 yet. And if you have played the initial demo, DO NOT sleep on the Eikonic Challenge section of the demo which unlocks. This isn't simply a little battle, it's a fully formed section of the game from later on, with story, a bit of exploration, bosses, and the chance to use more abilities and experiment more than you can in that section from the start of the game.  

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

So you've completed the first 5 games in less time than it will take you to dodge the lightning strikes

Hoping you throw vagrant story in as a side as I love that game but probably have very wrong memories of it

And I can't wait to tell you you're wrong when you rank 13...terrible game that pretty much killed the series for me especially with them wasting so many years on it

Yeah it's a bit bad when you think about that FF 10 playtime I had versus what my playtime with the pixel remaster is! 

I wouldn't include Vagrant Story, but I am very fond of that game and did a playthrough of it not too long ago on original hardware. In a list of JRPGs in general, it wouldn't be up there with the likes of FF7, FF 10, FFT, Xenogears, DQ5, Chrono Trigger...but it isn't far off. It makes a fascinating double bill with MGS by the way, there are a lot of parallels to draw between the games, and not least because of the 'Phantom Pain' connection. 

I kind of can't wait to replay 13. Not because I think it's amazing - I don't think it's terrible either - but out of all the of the numbered games I have no idea where I will place it. Lower mid table I guess...?

FF5 Plat'd. 

Now this is Final Fantasy. Everything Square learned in the 6 years since the first game comes together absolutely beautifully here. For me, this game contains the best song (Battle on the Big Bridge), possibly the best story scene (Galuf v Ex Death), and the best job system in any of the numbered games. 

I did get a bit frustrated with the Blue Magic requirements, it's very similar to 7 in so far as some them require control/manipulation of enemies and there's an rng element too with getting the spawns in the first place, but it's not a bad Plat at all. 

I enjoyed this playthrough so much that I actually did a bunch of stuff not necessary for the plat, like all summons, all songs, and some of the 'secrets' like the Bonobo Gourd accessory, or whatever it's called. 

I love that they settled on 4 (OK, 5) main playable characters as it allows their stories to breathe and build with each plot twist and story development. I know a lot of fans of the series don't rate 5 due it's tone, there are some proper belly laughs to be had and the juxtaposition against some very heavy moments was fine for me. 

It's true that if shows it's age in the way it deals with, let's say some delecate issues as we look back on it from space year 2023...but there's nothing obscene here, certainly not on a par with say Shera in 7.

I also love Bartz as the main character, he's almost like a proto Tidus - laid back, passionate, drawn in to this story through no fault of his own, but along for the ride come what may. 

My play time here was 24:44 taking my total playtime to 71:41

Rolling ranking 

5

4

3

1

2

On to 6, and I suppose the question is, do I dare rank 5 above it? Hmm. 

The demo is out for XVI on PSN now. It covers the first couple of hours of the game - apparently, currently downloading it myself. 

I've now played it, and well, it's good, you should try it. 

I think the golem rock type boss fight was in the Mythril Mines. The appeared to be those locations from post Midgar we all recognise - Chocobo Ranch, Kalm (well, the Inn), Mythril Mines, Junon, the boat to Costa Del Sol with the Jenova fight. No Fort Condor but that's not too much of a surprise given that it was repurposed for the Yuffie DLC, and no Zolom which again isn't too much of a surprise for story reasons I won't spoil if @HKP90 is currently playing Remake!

With the same in mind I'll post where I think Rebirth will end - probably not for anyone who hasn't finished Remake!

Persona 3 Reload does indeed look like the promised P5 style remake of P3, which version of P3 though? Well, it's not P3P, and if it isn't FES I wouldn't complain. 

P5T was indeed a P5 Tactical RPG, not sure I'm totally enamoured with it on the basis of this trailer, it looks very Persona Q. 

Summer Games Fest off to a good start 

Decent little trailer, I guess the release will be around March 24.

Lots of familiar locations for those who know the OG story after Midgar. 

The part that isn't familiar is the most interesting part to me - that being the very start of that trailer, which all but confirms that there are at least two time lines, or alternate realities, or dimensions or whatever...one with Cloud and Co loosely following the OG plot following the events of Remake having broken free of fate, one where Zack is alive, and one where...Cloud and Co didn't even leave Midgar at the end of Remake? Huh. 

FF gonna FF. 

Coincidentally good timing for my FF9 Remake post yesterday - seeing as a gameplay video for the Memoria Project (a fan made FF9 remake in UE5) was released yesterday.

This really is unreal, and if the actual FF9 remake is real I suspect it won't quite look like this. 

For fans of FF9, I strongly suggest freeing up 25 minutes to watch this, and just imagine what could be!

I tried 'Aunt Bessies' Roast Potato and Black Pepper crisps so you don't have to. 

They taste like butter. 

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

Can they finish remaking FF7 first, please. I don't think we need the first 3rd of another game if i'm honest.

Well, I take your point, but

FF7 Remake is a Creative Business Unit 1 game within Square Enix, and as Crisis Core was co-developed with a third party, I'd assume the same would be true of 9, and therefore wouldn't have an impact on the development of 7 Remake (for the same reason XVI being developed by CBU 4 hasn't impacted the 7 Remake project). 

I could well be wrong, and 9 remake might not even exist - but if it does, that wouldn't be a concern for me, given the job that was done with CC 'remake'. 

Getting there with my FF5 playthrough, it's simply a much bigger game than the other 4. Spoilers for my final post on it though - it's even better than I remember (helped by some QoL features I guess, and the really good arranged score).

FF9 Remake rumours are gained pace AGAIN. This time the speculation is that this is a remake/remaster much more in line with Crisis Core than FF7, thereby retaining it's original turn based gameplay. That would be just...a dream come true for a lot of fans, I think. As long as they **** off the platinum trophy requirements. 

What playing through the pixel remasters has demonstrated to me is just how much FF9 is effectively the definitive Final Fantasy...or should I say, it's Sakaguchi's definitive Final Fantasy. There's so much overlap between 1-6, especially 3, 4 and 5, that it's almost like the events, setting, and characters of 9 are canon to those games. I physically stopped mid game during 5 and had to catch myself - "hang on, isn't this song from FF9?" well no it isn't, but it's almost a remix in 9. I almost feel like it would make a lot more sense to go from 6 to 9 and then go back to 7, such is the link between it and the older games. Not that I'll have time to before FF16 now!

All eyes on the Xbox showcase as part of Summer Games Fest on Sunday ay 6pm (BST) - P3 Remake almost certainly going to be revealed formally, and with a recent domain name for 'P5T.jp' there's also speculation there will be another Persona 5 spin off, in addition to Phantom X which is a Chinese made, gacha mobile app thing. 

I really, really enjoyed Strikers, so something akin to that in the spin off states would be cool. The T could be...Tactics...a P5 tactical RPG...Tour...a P5 racing game...or perhaps Tournament, another Persona beat em up?

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

Newcastle is further west than Southampton.

(Thanks Reddit)

Isn't this very well known amongst atlas enthusiasts?