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PS+ September: Grow Home (PS4); Teslagrad (PS3/PS4); Twisted Metal (PS3); Xeodrifter, Super Time Force (Vita/PS4); La-Mulana EX (Vita)

toythatkills

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toythatkills

toythatkills

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You're just using your arrogance and superiority complex to make things up now - I likely wouldn't play Twisted Metal for more than five minutes even if I did have a PS3. I have no issue with 2D (Pixeljunk Shooter is one of my favourite Plus games that I have fully completed twice) but I do have an issue with the same retro style and constant platformers being the majority of PS+ releases. It's not like every game in the 8/16 bit days was a platformer, where's the variety?

There's plenty of variety, though, even within the "2D platformer" genre if we're pretending that every 2D game on PSN has been a platformer.

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Stanley

Stanley

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You're just using your arrogance and superiority complex to make things up now - I likely wouldn't play Twisted Metal for more than five minutes even if I did have a PS3. I have no issue with 2D (Pixeljunk Shooter is one of my favourite Plus games that I have fully completed twice) but I do have an issue with the same retro style and constant platformers being the majority of PS+ releases. It's not like every game in the 8/16 bit days was a platformer, where's the variety?

And you're just using your ignorance to lump a load of games together based on their graphical style. There's a huge amount of variety between this months offerings.
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Qazimod

Qazimod

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And you're just using your ignorance to lump a load of games together based on their graphical style. There's a huge amount of variety between this months offerings.

"I don't know why they release all these games where you move around a 3D world looking down a gun; they're all the same!"

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Alex W.

Alex W.

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Time Force is pretty great, although you have to be much more slow and deliberate than you'd expect. I wouldn't have shelled out the asking price for it but it's worth a fiver which is my usual metric for PS Plus games.

This old Windows adventure intrigues me though.

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Wiper

Wiper

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If anything, that's an even narrower range of games, considering that 'platformers' appears to encompass even run 'n' guns and metroidvanias. Get rid of the 'looking down a gun' part of your statement and you're probably closer!

Edit: at Qazi

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Stanley

Stanley

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Each to tbeir own of course. Sometimes people can't get past the retro/2D style whereas done well I find it just as impressive as The Last of Us or whatever. Limbo for example is gorgeous looking and really atmospheric.

Ultimately it's how it plays of course. Binding of Isaac is pretty ugly but plays like a dream. And because of that I kind of like it's ugliness, if that makes sense.

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mogawoods

mogawoods

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La-Mulana Ex. :lol:

I played it briefly on PC a while ago and didn't get very far. Now I remember why. It's brutally hard. I mean, one of the toughest games I've played. Yet utterly addictive. Today I made dozens of attempts getting through a particular section ending with a boss whose weak points were inexplicable, only to finally, ecstatically figure it out, defeat him, reach the next area, then immediately get one-hit killed five seconds into the new level, not even by an enemy, but electrocuted by the very level itself. Before I even reached a save point. Meaning I now have to navigate through the previous level and kill the crazy boss again, just to get another attempt at the terrifying new area.

Oh, and so far, at least, there is no way of refilling your minuscule health bar as you proceed through the game, other than by either returning on foot all the way back to the start of the game or by collecting occasional orbs which don't refill your health bar until they've filled their own separate bar (after twenty minutes of collecting health orbs: ping! now you can have a bit of health back). It doesn't even restore your health when you reach a rare save point, meaning if you scrape your way there with 1hp you're like, Yes! Yes! Finally, I made it! Then you're like, Wait, if I save it here, I'm stuck here with 1hp and will probably never manage to get out. Fuck!

It's exhilarating, quite honestly.

So. Who's up for trying to platinum this beastly thing? Only 1.3% of players have managed to reach the end of the game, never mind plat the fucking thing (currently 0.3%). :lol: The game actually gives you a trophy for managing to complete it within 40 hours. :lol:

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mogawoods

mogawoods

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Just from 1:30 to 2:00 it flickers every single time the scene fades to and from black. And then throughout the rest of the video (I skipped through) it tears frequently when you turn the camera quickly, as though the bottom half of the screen can't quite keep up with the top. For example, from 29:55 to 30:02 you can see the tearing clearly if you look at the cactii - lines splitting the top section of the picture from the bottom when you move the camera. If you can't see it, it's your brain, I think. You only need to pause the video intermittently to demonstrate how awful it is:

post-6566-0-67049600-1441216845_thumb.pn

You can see that, right?

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Rsdio

Rsdio

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I just tried Grow Home and came in to see if anyone else had mentioned the tearing. Even the Ubisoft splash screen at the start was at it :lol:. It's all pretty juddery as well. Think I'm going to leave it for the time being in the hope they sort it out. You'd hope it'd be a reasonably quick fix, Google suggests the PC version doesn't have an in-built vsync option so I suppose if they were rushing to get the port done you can see how it might happen.

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mogawoods

mogawoods

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La Mulana continues to amaze. Any fan of the anxious, intrepid platforming exploration of Spelunky, the masochistic thrill of Demon's Souls' relentless tricks, riddles and cruelties, and the isolation, secret paths and open structure of Metroid will find all of these delights here. If you give it more than half an hour, get to grips with the initially awkward jumping and look past the dodgy 4:3 presentation, you'll find lots to like.

A few examples of its evil brilliance:

- I defeated my first boss in an early area. On triumphing, I waited for my reward. Nothing appeared. No weapon. No item. No upgrade. No clue. No new path unlocked. Nothing. Then I got a message from an NPC right back at the very beginning of the game: 'Quick! Emergency! Come back and see me!' Aha, I've triggered something after all! I picked my way all the way back to the start, borderline dead at this point (did defeating the boss restore my health? Did it fuck) and rushed up to the NPC to receive my reward, only for him to say something to the effect of, 'I was only joking. I have nothing to give you. I just missed you. Bye.'

- I spent a long time searching all available sections of the map for a particular item I needed to unlock another area. OMG it's up there! I noticed, with an out-loud yelp of relief. I made my way carefully up to it, enemies perilously numerous, health perilously low, only for the item in question (a forgery!) to turn into a flock of fucking bats when I grabbed it, which proceeded to chase me across the room. My search continued.

- I bought a pistol for 100 gold. That is a lot of money in La Mulana, at this early stage, at least. The pistol had six bullets. Six. After using them, I returned to the shop to buy more ammo. How much is the ammo? 400 gold. Four times the price of the fucking gun. It'll take me hours to collect enough gold just to reload it.

- I found some caltrops which I can use to scatter on the floor to maim any enemies that walk upon them. How many enemies have I managed to kill using them? None. How many times have I killed myself by walking accidentally on them myself? Many.

- (as described previously) After defeating another of the game's fiendish bosses, I found myself transported immediately to a room full of poison gas and given 30 seconds to figure out what to do - literally 30 seconds, as proclaimed by the gleeful timer that popped up. Frantic, I lashed out at the enemies closing in on my position, only for my whip to collide with what I must presume was an electrified edge of the screen, accidentally electrocuting myself before the poison gas even had a chance to get me. I've since defeated that boss another four times (taking more attempts than I care to admit) just to get another few chances at that poisonous room, but I swear to god it's a dead end. I don't trust this game one bit. I do love it though, very much.

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Istanbul

Istanbul

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Anyone played STFU? I'm really enjoying it although most of the time it's pure chaos.

Think it is brilliant.

Took me a little while to get my head around d how exactly you were meant to use the time lapse to defeat bosses, collect items, not run out of time etc, but once that was figured out...it all clicks nicely.

The characters are funny and varied, as are the levels. The story is bonkers in a good way. It's genuinely hilarious in places too.

It's a game that doesn't take itself seriously at all, which is a good thing.

The hell-a-deck levels look interesting as well. A complete change up from the chaos of the main game into a thinking man's puzzle game. Only done 5 so far, buy can't wait to try the rest.

Going to go all the way with this one, do everything it offers and collect every trophy. It's amazing fun. A perfect Vita title.

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toythatkills

toythatkills

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Haven't played La-Mulana EX yet, but Xeodrifter doesn't fuck around does it? Got to the first boss and was convinced I'd gone the wrong way so explored all the other planets, before realising that I really hadn't gone the wrong way. Beat it in the end without getting hit, which felt pretty good. Then I went to the second planet, and was convinced I'd gone the wrong way...

So yeah, if this is hard I fully expect L-MEX to ruin me.

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toythatkills

toythatkills

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Ha, I'll stick with it.

It's more fun than I just had with Grow Home. Those controls are not fun at all, the camera is shit and combined with how erratic BUD is I constantly fell down and when you fall down really far and have to climb back up again oh my God just kill me. It's so slow. Then I grabbed onto one of the red fruits and the game just threw me off it for no reason (what the fuck is grab meant to be doing if not grabbing?!) and sent me to the bottom again and I really can't be bothered to climb up there again. I'm sure it's a fine game really but I have such a low tolerance for annoying shit and this game is immediately really annoying.

I like games where failure feels like my fault, but in this the constant falling down never feels like my fault. It was the camera, or BUD being dumb, or the controls, or some stupid bug that stopped me grabbing on, or whatever else happens. It feels like a game where if I got to the end it'd be because I had to brute force my way there, rather than through any skill of my own. Don't like it.

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