I did the same thing with Lost Legacy. Was just going to play it for a little while, and then suddenly 9 hours have passed and and the credits starts to roll. Such an amazing game! Really enjoyed the last chapter 😁
Huber, your reviews lately have been god-tier. You kicked your writing game up a gear and I appreciate the hell out of that. The other EZA reviewers are of course top-shelf and just everyone's contributions as a whole are fantastic. Proud to be a patron and watch 100% of your content
The reason why you can't see the problems with Uncharteds combat, is because you're mistaking adequate for excellent. Uncharted is a cover-based shooter. This is the first thing we need to establish, and I think we can all agree with that. This comes with a number of issues. First off, cover-based shooters are inherently lacking in depth because they're tailor-made to limited control schemes, and that comes with further issues. When playing on anything above Easy, Nate takes too much damage, which limits your mobility options. Run and gun is not a viable strategy for most of the game. You honker down, hide your head, pop up when the enemy gets tired of waiting, and return to cover when your screen loses all of it's colors because health bars aren't part of the cinematic vision. You can't bring special weapons with you because you're limited to a two-weapon limit, so you're always limited to the tools the developers wants you to have. This limits depth and strategy, because you're always given a sniper and a riffle when the opposition demands it. This is different from Gears of War, which has universal ammo-cashes spread throughout the game. When played in co-op, I would always bring the Gnasher while my friend would use the Longshot, and we've basically kept those for the entire game, safe for special occasions when stuff like the Hammer of Dawn was required. Uncharteds design DOES demand experimentation, but none of the weapons in Uncharted goes above or beyond "aim at guy, pull trigger" Some weapons may do more damage and have less ammo, but that is hardly a trade-off when compared to Gears' crossbow, Retro-Lancer and the Hammerburst, which all have more varied functionality from the standard Lancer, compared to Uncharteds range of weaponry. Uncharted is also a game that has you sitting behind cover, but never using said cover in an interesting manner. Enemies are idiots and the only tool they have to flush you out is grenades, bullet-sponge enemies or, in the case of Uncharted 3, randomly spawning guys with riffles behind you. Compared to Halo with intelligent enemy AI that uses flankroutes, snipers and grenades to hunt you down, or Splatoon (yes, seriously) where your mobility/safe options are tied to the games main mechanic, Uncharted is shockingly lackluster. You only need to look at the Gears of War 2 section where your cover, is an actual, living, highly armored worm that moves around to see how Uncharteds rocks lacks interesting mechanics tied to it. To be fair, Uncharted 4 has gone to some length to fix this via the stealth and grappling hook. First off, the hook. It's great. It gives you a fast mobility option and a fun attack-from-above maneuver. The hook, by itself, improve Uncharted immensely. The stealth is a joke though. Enemies lose complete sight of you if you run behind a rock and dive into grass. You're also lacking any options outside of "break neck." Unlike actual stealth games, you don't have interesting tools to fool around with enemy AI. You either kill them, or get spotted and THEN kill them, but loudly. And I know what you're thinking. "Uncharted isn't a stealth game, so why should the stealth be AS good as Metal Gear or Splinter Cell?" And that's my point with the original paragraph. You're mistaking adequacy for excellency. Because Uncharteds combat, much like its Simon Says "platforming" and its puzzles that forces a strategy-guide up your face, is adequate. Its simple, its easy, its laid back, its chill. Its not a demanding experience, but a very, very relaxed one. And this is a game series where our good-lookin' white boy bathes in the blood of the innocent for treasure, so it was never supposed to be deep, engaging stuff. All of the elements of Uncharted forms together to make a fun, relaxing game as a whole, mostly carried by a likable and well-voiced set of characters. And I think adequate combat as part of a greater whole is perfectly acceptable. I just don't agree that it is 10/10, GOTY, sets the standard. Because that standard is pretty low compared to other shooters on the market.
really great comment, summarizes a lot of the complaints. Totally forgot about the health vs. aggressive gameplay. I think some of the enemies do take flanking routes but maybe I'm confusing it for the behind the player enemy spawns..man uncharted 3 had a lot of issues.
I hate tag teaming Huber, I think he should celebrate his game, but I've never been a fan of Uncharted or the New Tomb Raiders (I'm a fan of the classic Tomb Raiders), when you said "Simon Says Platforming" I lost it a little and you made me smile :) That being said, I AM a huge fan of The Last Of Us in spite of the very Uncharted nature of the problems in it.
Damn, you hit the nail on the head. I agree. The only bit I disagree with is on Crushing when you hide behind cover or run into grass after being seen the enemy definitely does not lost sight of you completely. If you manage to stay hidden for a while then yeah they'll say "where did they go?" and lose the tracking. I think this is true for any difficulty mode.
Dear Ben, keep dem long Frame Trap episodes coming, you and Blood and Huber made 3&1/2 hours of my life very enjoyable this week and they flew by like no time at all :)
My brother and i also worked out the runes from the hobbit so that we could read the map. Then for the last 25 years we have also been writing to each other in Runic. So i felt the same as Blood when i played Hellblade
1:14:59 Dude, Huber, I love Ninja Gaiden, I can beat it on Master Ninja ---- I find the Souls series to be waaaaaay harder than 2004 Ninja Gaiden (vanilla). I love the combat in Ninja Gaiden and I don't love the Souls combat, that's key. Ninja Gaiden is Unlabored Flawlessness, and Ninja Gaiden 2 is even better. However, I will say that Ninja Gaiden Black is much harder than vanilla Gaiden, it could be that you played Black.
Regarding Agents of Mayhem and the cores/crystals. You need upgrade cores after level 20 on a character to progress to level 40. You'll need 23 cores a character to max them out.
Dock the points for bad microtransactions. Do it. You reviewers are one of the few bastions protecting consumers against these terrible trends. They are important to the gamers. Don't just pretend they're not there like so many past game reviews on the web.
That's why someone with a mind such as Kyle's having a little "eye on the industry"-show was such a precious thing. His opinions and those of the others are still there of course but you really have to dig through multiple-hour podcasts or be lucky about an up-to-date issue coming up on a random stream which is kind of a bummer And please let Kyle finally do reviews if he wants to. This way we could have some reviews of games many people might not be aware of. It might even work as a supplement to the "don't skips" (or as a polar opposite ^^). Just let him write a personal disclaimer or something and make it happen - the corporate shackles are long gone my friends
Ok then it's just a Kyle thing? My bad. I mean he's critically looking at every aspect of the games he plays 100% of the time. But yeah, I can see how he wouldn't like to adhere to review conventions which he could imo easily ignore but wouldn't because he is who he is and also it's more or less deadline work and I can see how he would be turned off by that.
Also I wrote "if he wants to" - I have no idea why you think I think he'd want to :P Not trying to ruffle your feathers here Blood ;) Thanks for the response anyway
It was a comment I posted because it seems people feel quite strongly about micro transaction systems, yet I was of the impression that they were regularly ignored in reviews. I now took the time to read several reviews of games like Evolve, and have actually been positively surprised by the number of critics who don't just describe, but also criticize the DLC and micro transaction practices. Personally I hope that their resolve will stay strong, because I would much rather pay slightly more for a full game than have them introduce all these systems that are not only less fun, but lead me to second guess their designs and my enjoyment.
Maybe I think this way because I am not enough to be a "gamer", but I honestly think that we can talking about bad microtransactions after up the price of video games. This opinion will changing if I saw some hard arguments, but at least this one is my take right now.
I do respect Blood's opinion on Agents Of Mayhem but I personally love it. It is repetitive but I found the combat and character swapping so addicting that I couldn't stop playing. While I can agree that collecting the shards are not required, I think that exploring the city was so satisfying because I didn't find the controls "clunky" at all. The city (while dull in the way of NPCs) was also interesting to traverse with the agents. Its one of those games where if you like the combat you can overlook the some of the bigger issues but if you find the combat boring you will not like this game at all.
You guys should do the howlongtobeat game again except have each person guess an amount and see who is closest. I think the choices make it too easy :P
Man on that second question all I could think in response to the patron's brother was "there isn't a universe where the review score would be my deciding factor between a Hellblade or a Crash Bandicoot." Like, I can understand comparing games with a similar objective, but when the complaint comes out of a pair up that is so tonally and mechanically different, it's hard to even take seriously.
Really glad to hear some positivity surrounding Ys VIII... though it's a little depressing to hear that Ben wasn't too enthralled with the story. I thought it was great in the Japanese release, but everything I've heard/seen/played from NISA's Ys VIII release seems to point to the translation actively harming how folks are perceiving the story and characters.
That's fair, and it's not like the characters are super deep even in the Japanese release - just that it feels like the translation might not've done them much justice. :/ On another note, Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta are both similar to Ys VIII's gameplay. Neither of them have the neat castaway thing going on, but they're definitely still worth going back to! Might be hard without a jump button, though.
To be fair, Ys games have pretty throw-away characters that are just there for the sake of being there. Unless they have something integral to the story. Otherwise, Ys is a story about Adol Christin getting shipwrecked onto new regions and thwarting whatever evil forces is threatening the place.
I wouldn't say they are throw aways since most have a stake in the events of the story but they're don't take the attention away from Adol, i'm curious which characters did you find "throw away" in the Ys games, Elena(OiF), Tia(Y7), Gies(Y6&7) to name a few definitely are not throw aways.
Barnes priest is a ton of fun. I think Huber would have a lot better success with HS if he read Icy Veins' decklists. They explain most of them well with budget lists and different options. And yes, Blizzard is still doing the minimum amount of upkeep to their games for the maximum price tag. They announced changes will come to druid, but they still haven't announced what those changes are. And when they do come they'll probably kill a deck without addressing the root (jade) of the problem (just like patron warrior and all of the Naxx deathrattle aggro decks).
The problem with Nadene's character is that they made her an unstoppable badass in Uncharted 4 that when I was playing Lost Legacy I don't understand how she didn't take everyone down without my (Chloe's) help. I think Lost Legacy is a better game than 4 but that really bugged me in 4 and hurts Lost Legacy because of it.
If this was a consistent and realstic videogame then I would agree with you, but it's not. Nathan and Sully killed countless of hardass trained military men in the series and neither of them died, or even got seriously injured. Then Nadine ross shows up kicking his ass even though Nathan went hand to hand (without a gun) with guys much bigger and stronger than her, sometimes with body armor too. I'm not looking this up but there was an interview with naughty dog somewhere saying that they took a year to make this game and was thinking about using their daughter as a main, charater, chloe/cuttter, or even have Nathan as a support character. They eventually settled on Nadine for some reason.
I'm always interested by the grounded and fleshed out perspective that Bloodworth has to offer, but he does say 'like' so much that it can get a little bit distracting. In saying that, keep up the awesome analysis, L&R!
I loved Lost Legacy, I just wish it was longer and had more of the chapter 4 type areas. It took one Sunday to finish. On the first play through I found almost all the treasures and when I have so many other untouched games I don't see any replay value, even with all the unlocks. However, I understand it's a DLC that grew into a full game. Just have to be patient for the next Naughty Dog game.
Ys veterans will probably start on Nightmare, from what i played of the demo it's just the right kind of hard. While Inferno is the true challange, oh boy.
But seriously, Huber thinks everything is the best ever. Every year is the best year, every character is the best ever, 10's out of 10's all over the place lol Love ye Hubes.
I have the exact opposite feeling of the combat encounters in Uncharted. I actually love the constant barrage of enemies in encounters, and that's why I like 1-3 far more than I do 4 and Lost Legacy. Most of the latter games' encounters are based around the possibility of stealthing them, and I just don't find those encounters nearly as fun because of it. Lost Legacy had even less fights than 4, so that's a big reason it's probably my least favourite so far (besides Golden Abyss)
I like how before the storm makes the relationship with Chloe and Rachel more obvious than just subtext in season 1, they are doubling down on the gay, and it can't be hand waved away.
I would like the whole Frame Trap idea a lot more if Ben wrote the trigger word on a piece of paper in an envelope before the show and pulled it out when it was said. If it's just a bit where Ben is choosing random words that just got said as the trigger, maybe reframe the bit to be a touch more honest by making the frame trap about you getting hung up on a phrase that was just said, rather than pretending it was a phrase you had predetermined.
I think Huber has difficulty grasping people's complaints of Uncharted's combat, and complaints of most games in general, because he's so forgiving. He likes everything, and sometimes that can get in the way of critical thinking.
Also he (along with a few of the allies) prioritise story above gameplay, so if they like a games story, the gameplay gets an easier ride in criticism.
ThisAlbino agree to disagree on that one. I've been following these guys a looonnggg time....he likes to be enthusiastic and positive, sure especially. That does NOT mean he can't throw in some objective critiques Huber doesn't even like every single highly rated, game, let alone every game.....he didn't even like easy allies game of the year last year. Don't act like he is throwing 5's at everything when he isn't, just getting fooled by a positive tone
I feel like I'm in the minority here but I actually really missed drake and sully and the normal cast. It didnt feel quite right without drake specifically. I still loved it and love Chloe and Nadine for different reasons but I still felt it. loved that open section though.
@Huber I don't think it's fair how you attacked the marvel movies. I do agree that big action blockbusters with guns will always be first for the public because of their nature (not for me personally, but yes in the public's eyes). Marvel, however took charge of their own movies and niche and really exploded it out by pumping in quality. They are huge now because of that I think, not just the guns.
I wish Blood was right about GT Sport and Forza being comparable this year. It's a shame GT doesn't really have a career mode, has a small selection of cars, and doesn't even feature car buying/upgrading.
ad hottake: I'd just generally like to see more tragic characters and more abrasive games. I always come back to the example of Silent Hill 2, which is a fundamentally sad and fucked up game, with the abrasive music and twisted visuals tying up the gut-wrenching experience. I haven't played Hellblade yet and I'd like to, but it sounds like it is kind of in that vein, where you are actually experiencing despair. I'd like more games to take a subtle approach of psychosis and have a negative emotional effect on the player. I want more games to leave me emotionally exhausted and hollow after the credits. Kind of reminds me of Laidlaw's Epistle 3, it ends on a note of hopelessness and cosmic horror, something I hope more developers will try to evoke. Which reminds me, the next Hottake absolutely has to be about Valve, the biggest fall from grace in video game history.
I would like to formally challenge Mr. Huber to a Duel in Absolver. Come... Do you think your Khalt style can defeat me? *On Guard!* I'll let you sample my Windfall/Stagger style. ✌ L&R
Don't worry Huber, saying this year is the best year of gaming is not that crazy. You would have to be incredibly jaded or like very few things to say this year has done nothing for you gaming wise.
RANT INCOMING If you want your audience to recognize that your review is personal and subjective, don’t add a rating. If you want your audience to think about games in a comprehensive, nuanced way, don’t add a rating. If you want your audience to stray away from reductive arguments about X game being better than a completely different Y game, don’t add a rating. Arbitrary numbers or stars don’t encourage meaningful discussions about video games, not to mention it being a confusing system. Blood answered that he leaned toward the questioner’s stance as opposed his brother’s (Ben and Huber didn’t really answer the question). If you can’t say that one game is better than another based on the rating, what even is the point of having a rating? For example, the only game Blood has given 5 stars to is the Last Guardian. Is it not reasonable then for the audience to assume that Blood thinks the Last Guardian is better than every other game he has reviewed up to this point? If the audience can’t assume that, what is the purpose of having ratings? I don’t think scoring video games is beneficial in any way (why are we scoring art as if it’s some math test), but if you must do it, at least give it some meaning. I don’t understand why so much of games media (EZA included) holds on to this archaic rating system. Putting a number/star at the end adds absolutely nothing to a review. More outlets should follow Kotaku’s lead and get rid of ratings altogether. If not, at least follow stuff like ACG’s rating system that has a clear purpose.
I'm with Huber, the combat in Uncharted is top tier! I've been playing Gears and Uncharted since the first entry and I think both games are the two best third person shooters in the industry. Both series have their strengths and weakness but the gameplay of both is fun and engaging, never get bored of playing either.
Can I make a request for a 4 man podcast, please? You guys talked about Agents of Mayhem a 3* game for almost 30 minutes. Don't understand why fewer people mean more talk time for mediocre games. Also when someone else comes on the podcast that wasn't on before they talk about a previous game and having a fourth person could combat that. L & R.
so i've got a gripe with the last uncharted games (3 & 4) - they became boring. You get into a first enemy encounter on your own terms like 4hrs into Uncharted 4 and there's only like 25 of those encounters total in a 20hr game (all available from the main menu). And they're not even evenly spread out - like i said 4hrs nothing, and then the final level it's like 8 encounters one after another. The storytelling and acting is great, but going through slow story-driven levels, that Drake usually can't even run in, is a pain in the ass (especially when you know the story and are replaying the game). Climbing and running around alone is not enough to carry the whole game - it became a walking simulator, or an interactive movie if you will. It all started in uncharted 3, and it was a problem there on subsequent campaign playthroughs, but in unchated 4 i was really frustrated with the game's pacing even on the first one. This is why U2 is considered to be the best one - the brisk pacing, character interactions, and lots of memorable set pieces. U3 & U4 only tick some of those boxes. And when it comes to combat - these games kinda fall apart on crushing (i've just beaten the ps4 collection, too). They just don't feel as tight as they should - wether it's the ai, or the arenas. It's a shame that, with Drake's vertical set of moves, most of the encounters boil down to hiding behind cover, avoiding sniper's lasers, trying to get the snipers before the guys on the ground flank you, and changing cover when a grenade is thrown at you. U4 did away with that, but it was too little too late. The aiming was kinda floaty in the first game and the combat was kinda simplistic (esecially melee combat). I remember that ak47 sounded like a miningun in the ps3 version, too. U2 was a big improvememnt - we got an overhaul of melee combat, new weapons, a more stellar stealth system was introduced, drake could pull guys from ledges, over obstacles, around the corners, you could throw gas tanks and shoot them in the air, new enemies were introduced (guys with shields, brutes with miniguns, etc.). U2 was great. U3 further tightened the aiming, but the melee combat got gimped - once you initiated combat you got locked on to one enemy, and you had to punch him several times and counter his moves until he was dead, which left you completely open to enemy fire for a few seconds. This was enough to get you killed every time you initiated melee combat out in the open on higher difficulties, essentailly rendering it useless. Then there was the new ability to grab guys and throw them with "O", which was unfortunately mapped to the the same button that was used for rolling. Now when you pressed "O", instead of rolling away from danger, Drake would jump straigth at the enemies standing in the open to grab them, if they were too close. The result was, of course, an instant death on crushing difficulty from 3 snipers and 2 grenade explosions at the same time. So, yeah, combat in PS3 uncharted games is far from perfect, though u2 comes close. The combat in u4 was good from what i remember, stealth aproach became a viable option now, but i don't think i'll ever replay that game since it was so damn boring.
Ys vet usually play on nightmare. Nightmare relies more on the guards and parry instead of items. So it's the basis to play the actual game mechanic. The stat balance favours it. Also it's recent trend in games where normal was like yester years easy mode. Doom 2016, Fire emblem and Platnium games normal mode is the hard mode usually, why do you thing they have silly names for the actual challenging difficulties. Ben being vet in JRPG or ARPG you really should have started hard which is more like normal back in the day.
On their point of paid dlc needing to be unlocked, it reminded me of some dlc from FF13-2. You paid i think $6-10 for arena matches against characters which you could in turn unlock to use if you got lucky (5% chance?) that bugged me but I still did it anyway... I'm a sheep.
Old Gametrailers employee Shane Satterfield has started a patreon to keep his company SIFTD afloat. Please consider helping him out because SIFTD is a pretty good site and he's old friend of the allies. www.patreon.com/SIFTD
Nadine is OK Huber, but I really think you're overrating her character, which is essentially "badass Merc woman with an attitude". And that has been done to death.
I have to agree. I super didn't care about her as a character in 4, and while she's better in LL, she's still nothing special, and certainly not one of the best modern characters.
I would definitely agree, especially when you contrast her with Chloe who is very interesting and fun to interact with and listen to. By the end of Lost Legacy I felt like I had a better grasp of what's up with Chloe in general, but Nadine was pretty unchanged in comparison for me.
Huber the reason Uncharted's combat feels like it fell out of a dog's ass is because there is no weight behind it, and the sound design for the weapons is sub par. It's not satisfying to get into a combat scenario because the combat doesn't sound or feel good.
About the HoTaKe, to me a product for enjoyment is different from a product for investment - a high demand on a product for enjoyment does not necessarily mean that the product is your cup of tea. For instance, a market population with more females than males, the product of choice will be skewed towards female preference - the same applies to a population with kids and adults etc. Let's say it another way, if swines are satisfied with slops why bother to feed them with something better than slops. If there is a trend of high demand on Marvel heroes, why invest on something new other than the heroes. Paying to make money is not necessarily the same as paying to make yourself happy. As stated in the following article, Konami now makes more money by paying less: www.technobuffalo.com/2017/02/14/konami-profits-2016/ In other words, for investment, one will definitely want this non-stop demand and supply of Marvel heroes, FPS, remakes or mobile games. The reality is that in a democratic society, the majority wins - I don't like Mario but I am just a minority. Fortunately, I don't invest in game industry.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](/img/1.gif)
I know that you don't do to many goofy categories in you're Game Of The Year Awards, but "Best fishing 2017" would be glamorous!
What's with the short episode?
I did the same thing with Lost Legacy. Was just going to play it for a little while, and then suddenly 9 hours have passed and and the credits starts to roll. Such an amazing game! Really enjoyed the last chapter 😁
Huber, your reviews lately have been god-tier. You kicked your writing game up a gear and I appreciate the hell out of that. The other EZA reviewers are of course top-shelf and just everyone's contributions as a whole are fantastic. Proud to be a patron and watch 100% of your content
Love the Blood/Huber combo in Frametrap. Thanks for the episode, guys.
Me too dude. People who aren't morons get it
Thanks for the sponsor text on the screen, I always thought Ben was saying "Argos of War"
The reason why you can't see the problems with Uncharteds combat, is because you're mistaking adequate for excellent.
Uncharted is a cover-based shooter. This is the first thing we need to establish, and I think we can all agree with that.
This comes with a number of issues. First off, cover-based shooters are inherently lacking in depth because they're tailor-made to limited control schemes, and that comes with further issues.
When playing on anything above Easy, Nate takes too much damage, which limits your mobility options. Run and gun is not a viable strategy for most of the game. You honker down, hide your head, pop up when the enemy gets tired of waiting, and return to cover when your screen loses all of it's colors because health bars aren't part of the cinematic vision.
You can't bring special weapons with you because you're limited to a two-weapon limit, so you're always limited to the tools the developers wants you to have. This limits depth and strategy, because you're always given a sniper and a riffle when the opposition demands it. This is different from Gears of War, which has universal ammo-cashes spread throughout the game. When played in co-op, I would always bring the Gnasher while my friend would use the Longshot, and we've basically kept those for the entire game, safe for special occasions when stuff like the Hammer of Dawn was required. Uncharteds design DOES demand experimentation, but none of the weapons in Uncharted goes above or beyond "aim at guy, pull trigger" Some weapons may do more damage and have less ammo, but that is hardly a trade-off when compared to Gears' crossbow, Retro-Lancer and the Hammerburst, which all have more varied functionality from the standard Lancer, compared to Uncharteds range of weaponry.
Uncharted is also a game that has you sitting behind cover, but never using said cover in an interesting manner. Enemies are idiots and the only tool they have to flush you out is grenades, bullet-sponge enemies or, in the case of Uncharted 3, randomly spawning guys with riffles behind you. Compared to Halo with intelligent enemy AI that uses flankroutes, snipers and grenades to hunt you down, or Splatoon (yes, seriously) where your mobility/safe options are tied to the games main mechanic, Uncharted is shockingly lackluster. You only need to look at the Gears of War 2 section where your cover, is an actual, living, highly armored worm that moves around to see how Uncharteds rocks lacks interesting mechanics tied to it.
To be fair, Uncharted 4 has gone to some length to fix this via the stealth and grappling hook. First off, the hook. It's great. It gives you a fast mobility option and a fun attack-from-above maneuver. The hook, by itself, improve Uncharted immensely. The stealth is a joke though. Enemies lose complete sight of you if you run behind a rock and dive into grass. You're also lacking any options outside of "break neck." Unlike actual stealth games, you don't have interesting tools to fool around with enemy AI. You either kill them, or get spotted and THEN kill them, but loudly. And I know what you're thinking. "Uncharted isn't a stealth game, so why should the stealth be AS good as Metal Gear or Splinter Cell?" And that's my point with the original paragraph. You're mistaking adequacy for excellency.
Because Uncharteds combat, much like its Simon Says "platforming" and its puzzles that forces a strategy-guide up your face, is adequate. Its simple, its easy, its laid back, its chill. Its not a demanding experience, but a very, very relaxed one. And this is a game series where our good-lookin' white boy bathes in the blood of the innocent for treasure, so it was never supposed to be deep, engaging stuff. All of the elements of Uncharted forms together to make a fun, relaxing game as a whole, mostly carried by a likable and well-voiced set of characters. And I think adequate combat as part of a greater whole is perfectly acceptable. I just don't agree that it is 10/10, GOTY, sets the standard. Because that standard is pretty low compared to other shooters on the market.
really great comment, summarizes a lot of the complaints. Totally forgot about the health vs. aggressive gameplay. I think some of the enemies do take flanking routes but maybe I'm confusing it for the behind the player enemy spawns..man uncharted 3 had a lot of issues.
Shajita I hope Huber sees this. This is perfect and I agree 100%.
I hate tag teaming Huber, I think he should celebrate his game, but I've never been a fan of Uncharted or the New Tomb Raiders (I'm a fan of the classic Tomb Raiders), when you said "Simon Says Platforming" I lost it a little and you made me smile :) That being said, I AM a huge fan of The Last Of Us in spite of the very Uncharted nature of the problems in it.
This is a very well written comment
Damn, you hit the nail on the head. I agree. The only bit I disagree with is on Crushing when you hide behind cover or run into grass after being seen the enemy definitely does not lost sight of you completely. If you manage to stay hidden for a while then yeah they'll say "where did they go?" and lose the tracking. I think this is true for any difficulty mode.
My favorite podcast ever! L&R
Dear Ben, keep dem long Frame Trap episodes coming, you and Blood and Huber made 3&1/2 hours of my life very enjoyable this week and they flew by like no time at all :)
My brother and i also worked out the runes from the hobbit so that we could read the map. Then for the last 25 years we have also been writing to each other in Runic. So i felt the same as Blood when i played Hellblade
Wow their routines are so unbelievable. I mean, stuff like waking up mid morning, having coffee, working out and such? Totally did not expect that.
Excellent FT panel. Good luck staying cool / not getting heat stroke!
I love Huber's little side admission to Ben about his love for Uncharted.
1:14:59 Dude, Huber, I love Ninja Gaiden, I can beat it on Master Ninja ---- I find the Souls series to be waaaaaay harder than 2004 Ninja Gaiden (vanilla). I love the combat in Ninja Gaiden and I don't love the Souls combat, that's key. Ninja Gaiden is Unlabored Flawlessness, and Ninja Gaiden 2 is even better. However, I will say that Ninja Gaiden Black is much harder than vanilla Gaiden, it could be that you played Black.
I'm with you Blood, I used to know so much about Nordic Runes. I was so fascinated with them when I was a kid.
Regarding Agents of Mayhem and the cores/crystals. You need upgrade cores after level 20 on a character to progress to level 40. You'll need 23 cores a character to max them out.
Blood pretty nailed how I felt after playing Before the Storm ep 1. Interested in seeing what Huber thinks when he plays it.
Dock the points for bad microtransactions. Do it. You reviewers are one of the few bastions protecting consumers against these terrible trends. They are important to the gamers. Don't just pretend they're not there like so many past game reviews on the web.
That's why someone with a mind such as Kyle's having a little "eye on the industry"-show was such a precious thing. His opinions and those of the others are still there of course but you really have to dig through multiple-hour podcasts or be lucky about an up-to-date issue coming up on a random stream which is kind of a bummer
And please let Kyle finally do reviews if he wants to. This way we could have some reviews of games many people might not be aware of. It might even work as a supplement to the "don't skips" (or as a polar opposite ^^). Just let him write a personal disclaimer or something and make it happen - the corporate shackles are long gone my friends
Ok then it's just a Kyle thing? My bad. I mean he's critically looking at every aspect of the games he plays 100% of the time. But yeah, I can see how he wouldn't like to adhere to review conventions which he could imo easily ignore but wouldn't because he is who he is and also it's more or less deadline work and I can see how he would be turned off by that.
Also I wrote "if he wants to" - I have no idea why you think I think he'd want to :P Not trying to ruffle your feathers here Blood ;) Thanks for the response anyway
It was a comment I posted because it seems people feel quite strongly about micro transaction systems, yet I was of the impression that they were regularly ignored in reviews. I now took the time to read several reviews of games like Evolve, and have actually been positively surprised by the number of critics who don't just describe, but also criticize the DLC and micro transaction practices.
Personally I hope that their resolve will stay strong, because I would much rather pay slightly more for a full game than have them introduce all these systems that are not only less fun, but lead me to second guess their designs and my enjoyment.
Maybe I think this way because I am not enough to be a "gamer", but I honestly think that we can talking about bad microtransactions after up the price of video games. This opinion will changing if I saw some hard arguments, but at least this one is my take right now.
The whole runes thing is fucking amazing. Well done, Blood! Hahaha.
Donkey Kong + Shovel Knight, let's go!
I do respect Blood's opinion on Agents Of Mayhem but I personally love it. It is repetitive but I found the combat and character swapping so addicting that I couldn't stop playing. While I can agree that collecting the shards are not required, I think that exploring the city was so satisfying because I didn't find the controls "clunky" at all. The city (while dull in the way of NPCs) was also interesting to traverse with the agents.
Its one of those games where if you like the combat you can overlook the some of the bigger issues but if you find the combat boring you will not like this game at all.
You guys should do the howlongtobeat game again except have each person guess an amount and see who is closest. I think the choices make it too easy :P
I love Frame Trap, it's one of my Most favorite EASY Allies podcasts. :D
Watch out for those "Y'knows" Huber
CS:GO is basically Counter Strike: Source 2, or CS3 if you want to look at it that way instead.
Man on that second question all I could think in response to the patron's brother was "there isn't a universe where the review score would be my deciding factor between a Hellblade or a Crash Bandicoot."
Like, I can understand comparing games with a similar objective, but when the complaint comes out of a pair up that is so tonally and mechanically different, it's hard to even take seriously.
Can you imagine if Valve just shadow dropped a title just called 3 on steam and it was all of the sequels in one.
most people play through hellblade and don't realize there's a bunch of untold mechanics: charge attacks, running attacks, tackles
Really glad to hear some positivity surrounding Ys VIII... though it's a little depressing to hear that Ben wasn't too enthralled with the story. I thought it was great in the Japanese release, but everything I've heard/seen/played from NISA's Ys VIII release seems to point to the translation actively harming how folks are perceiving the story and characters.
That's fair, and it's not like the characters are super deep even in the Japanese release - just that it feels like the translation might not've done them much justice. :/
On another note, Ys Seven and Memories of Celceta are both similar to Ys VIII's gameplay. Neither of them have the neat castaway thing going on, but they're definitely still worth going back to! Might be hard without a jump button, though.
I advise you to play Ys I&II, The Oath in Felghana and The Ark of Napishtim before playing Ys7 or Memories of Celceta so you won't get burned out.
To be fair, Ys games have pretty throw-away characters that are just there for the sake of being there. Unless they have something integral to the story. Otherwise, Ys is a story about Adol Christin getting shipwrecked onto new regions and thwarting whatever evil forces is threatening the place.
I wouldn't say they are throw aways since most have a stake in the events of the story but they're don't take the attention away from Adol, i'm curious which characters did you find "throw away" in the Ys games, Elena(OiF), Tia(Y7), Gies(Y6&7) to name a few definitely are not throw aways.
I felt like the party in Celceta was pretty likable too
3:03:43 Alright Huber!! The people's hero! :) Woot
I'm sure it's been brought up but Blood at lvl 20 you use upgrade cores to further level up "max" level characters from 20-> 40
Barnes priest is a ton of fun. I think Huber would have a lot better success with HS if he read Icy Veins' decklists. They explain most of them well with budget lists and different options.
And yes, Blizzard is still doing the minimum amount of upkeep to their games for the maximum price tag. They announced changes will come to druid, but they still haven't announced what those changes are. And when they do come they'll probably kill a deck without addressing the root (jade) of the problem (just like patron warrior and all of the Naxx deathrattle aggro decks).
Finally... been waiting all night
Sunday morning hunts
Seriously, I could listen you to talk about just about anything, and I would listen happily. Music, Movies, Anime, TV, Whatever.
"I want to know what the first thing you do in the morning is" - Jeffrey Dahmer
You start with saying that was real hot day and recorded over three hours podcast. Work too hard or love games too much? :D
I want that Lightning
The problem with Nadene's character is that they made her an unstoppable badass in Uncharted 4 that when I was playing Lost Legacy I don't understand how she didn't take everyone down without my (Chloe's) help. I think Lost Legacy is a better game than 4 but that really bugged me in 4 and hurts Lost Legacy because of it.
If this was a consistent and realstic videogame then I would agree with you, but it's not. Nathan and Sully killed countless of hardass trained military men in the series and neither of them died, or even got seriously injured. Then Nadine ross shows up kicking his ass even though Nathan went hand to hand (without a gun) with guys much bigger and stronger than her, sometimes with body armor too. I'm not looking this up but there was an interview with naughty dog somewhere saying that they took a year to make this game and was thinking about using their daughter as a main, charater, chloe/cuttter, or even have Nathan as a support character. They eventually settled on Nadine for some reason.
I'm always interested by the grounded and fleshed out perspective that Bloodworth has to offer, but he does say 'like' so much that it can get a little bit distracting. In saying that, keep up the awesome analysis, L&R!
Huber im 100% behind you with Lost Legacy. I love Uncharted gameplay. Make a Spoilercast about Lost Legacy!
>Ex-Aid got a mention.
I dunno who you are fellow KR fan, but thank you
I loved Lost Legacy, I just wish it was longer and had more of the chapter 4 type areas. It took one Sunday to finish. On the first play through I found almost all the treasures and when I have so many other untouched games I don't see any replay value, even with all the unlocks. However, I understand it's a DLC that grew into a full game. Just have to be patient for the next Naughty Dog game.
Huber was baked for this podcast Kappa
Arale from Dr Slump should be the crossover character in DB Fighterz
Is frame trap the let's play part of the channel?
man it's a hot one
Ys veterans will probably start on Nightmare, from what i played of the demo it's just the right kind of hard. While Inferno is the true challange, oh boy.
Hey Ben, im playing Ys games aswell. Play Oath in velgana next, great game.
But seriously, Huber thinks everything is the best ever. Every year is the best year, every character is the best ever, 10's out of 10's all over the place lol Love ye Hubes.
I have the exact opposite feeling of the combat encounters in Uncharted. I actually love the constant barrage of enemies in encounters, and that's why I like 1-3 far more than I do 4 and Lost Legacy. Most of the latter games' encounters are based around the possibility of stealthing them, and I just don't find those encounters nearly as fun because of it. Lost Legacy had even less fights than 4, so that's a big reason it's probably my least favourite so far (besides Golden Abyss)
I knew it was only a matter of time before Kamen Rider got mentioned in this podcast.
1:51:13 probably a templar running away from a assasin
Sunday Morning Huuuunts! :D
Alan Wake is off steam because licenses for music expired. That's a game still worth playing today. That's sad.
nitai g I never understood the love for Alan Wake. I'm glad you think it still holds up, though. That sucks it got taken down for music copyrights.
I actually discovered my favorite band because of Alan Wake. Poets of The Fall rocks
I like how before the storm makes the relationship with Chloe and Rachel more obvious than just subtext in season 1, they are doubling down on the gay, and it can't be hand waved away.
I would like the whole Frame Trap idea a lot more if Ben wrote the trigger word on a piece of paper in an envelope before the show and pulled it out when it was said. If it's just a bit where Ben is choosing random words that just got said as the trigger, maybe reframe the bit to be a touch more honest by making the frame trap about you getting hung up on a phrase that was just said, rather than pretending it was a phrase you had predetermined.
It wasn't Dota 2 that changed Valve, it was TF2.
can someone link me that jones rant?
thedarkchocolate4 I'd love to see it too.
Didn't mention the Ys VIII music!
I think Huber has difficulty grasping people's complaints of Uncharted's combat, and complaints of most games in general, because he's so forgiving. He likes everything, and sometimes that can get in the way of critical thinking.
Also he (along with a few of the allies) prioritise story above gameplay, so if they like a games story, the gameplay gets an easier ride in criticism.
ThisAlbino agree to disagree on that one. I've been following these guys a looonnggg time....he likes to be enthusiastic and positive, sure especially. That does NOT mean he can't throw in some objective critiques
Huber doesn't even like every single highly rated, game, let alone every game.....he didn't even like easy allies game of the year last year. Don't act like he is throwing 5's at everything when he isn't, just getting fooled by a positive tone
ThisAlbino I don't like the tall grass stealth in uncharted 4, lost legacy. But I loved the combat in the first 3 games.
i think is because is actually not bad at all
Funny how ben gave him a non answer, i guess he didn t want to hurt his feelings
I feel like I'm in the minority here but I actually really missed drake and sully and the normal cast. It didnt feel quite right without drake specifically. I still loved it and love Chloe and Nadine for different reasons but I still felt it. loved that open section though.
I wish uncharted 4 had more shooting sequences. Oh well, at least there's the underrated multiplayer
It is most certainly time for a Left 4 Dead stream. The first one though!
@Huber I don't think it's fair how you attacked the marvel movies. I do agree that big action blockbusters with guns will always be first for the public because of their nature (not for me personally, but yes in the public's eyes). Marvel, however took charge of their own movies and niche and really exploded it out by pumping in quality. They are huge now because of that I think, not just the guns.
U4/LL combat is great; I think most of the combat complaints come from earlier uncharted games when it was a lot worse
Did Huber just make a subtle comment on leg day at the beginning?
I wish Blood was right about GT Sport and Forza being comparable this year. It's a shame GT doesn't really have a career mode, has a small selection of cars, and doesn't even feature car buying/upgrading.
Omg you guys are based in LA, I always thought that you were based in Texas. Nice.
ad hottake: I'd just generally like to see more tragic characters and more abrasive games. I always come back to the example of Silent Hill 2, which is a fundamentally sad and fucked up game, with the abrasive music and twisted visuals tying up the gut-wrenching experience. I haven't played Hellblade yet and I'd like to, but it sounds like it is kind of in that vein, where you are actually experiencing despair. I'd like more games to take a subtle approach of psychosis and have a negative emotional effect on the player. I want more games to leave me emotionally exhausted and hollow after the credits. Kind of reminds me of Laidlaw's Epistle 3, it ends on a note of hopelessness and cosmic horror, something I hope more developers will try to evoke. Which reminds me, the next Hottake absolutely has to be about Valve, the biggest fall from grace in video game history.
I just thought about the YS series is basically playable One Piece
Man it's a hot one. Like seven inches from the midday sun.
I was refreshing my subs for a while looking for this one.
You can click on the notification bell on the Easy Allies youtube page to get notified when something new pops up.
I would like to formally challenge Mr. Huber to a Duel in Absolver.
Come... Do you think your Khalt style can defeat me?
*On Guard!*
I'll let you sample my Windfall/Stagger style.
✌ L&R
Don't worry Huber, saying this year is the best year of gaming is not that crazy. You would have to be incredibly jaded or like very few things to say this year has done nothing for you gaming wise.
Any idea if the PAX Panel will still be uploaded on RUclips?
Yup, just saw, thanks! Hopefully next time you can get it on stream and potentiality also get new viewers through that!
1:51:30 Most Bloodworthy moment ever
RANT INCOMING
If you want your audience to recognize that your review is personal and subjective, don’t add a rating. If you want your audience to think about games in a comprehensive, nuanced way, don’t add a rating. If you want your audience to stray away from reductive arguments about X game being better than a completely different Y game, don’t add a rating. Arbitrary numbers or stars don’t encourage meaningful discussions about video games, not to mention it being a confusing system. Blood answered that he leaned toward the questioner’s stance as opposed his brother’s (Ben and Huber didn’t really answer the question). If you can’t say that one game is better than another based on the rating, what even is the point of having a rating? For example, the only game Blood has given 5 stars to is the Last Guardian. Is it not reasonable then for the audience to assume that Blood thinks the Last Guardian is better than every other game he has reviewed up to this point? If the audience can’t assume that, what is the purpose of having ratings? I don’t think scoring video games is beneficial in any way (why are we scoring art as if it’s some math test), but if you must do it, at least give it some meaning. I don’t understand why so much of games media (EZA included) holds on to this archaic rating system. Putting a number/star at the end adds absolutely nothing to a review. More outlets should follow Kotaku’s lead and get rid of ratings altogether. If not, at least follow stuff like ACG’s rating system that has a clear purpose.
I'm with Huber, the combat in Uncharted is top tier! I've been playing Gears and Uncharted since the first entry and I think both games are the two best third person shooters in the industry. Both series have their strengths and weakness but the gameplay of both is fun and engaging, never get bored of playing either.
Playing Ys on Inferno. Only way.
Can I make a request for a 4 man podcast, please? You guys talked about Agents of Mayhem a 3* game for almost 30 minutes. Don't understand why fewer people mean more talk time for mediocre games. Also when someone else comes on the podcast that wasn't on before they talk about a previous game and having a fourth person could combat that. L & R.
so i've got a gripe with the last uncharted games (3 & 4) - they became boring. You get into a first enemy encounter on your own terms like 4hrs into Uncharted 4 and there's only like 25 of those encounters total in a 20hr game (all available from the main menu). And they're not even evenly spread out - like i said 4hrs nothing, and then the final level it's like 8 encounters one after another. The storytelling and acting is great, but going through slow story-driven levels, that Drake usually can't even run in, is a pain in the ass (especially when you know the story and are replaying the game). Climbing and running around alone is not enough to carry the whole game - it became a walking simulator, or an interactive movie if you will. It all started in uncharted 3, and it was a problem there on subsequent campaign playthroughs, but in unchated 4 i was really frustrated with the game's pacing even on the first one.
This is why U2 is considered to be the best one - the brisk pacing, character interactions, and lots of memorable set pieces. U3 & U4 only tick some of those boxes.
And when it comes to combat - these games kinda fall apart on crushing (i've just beaten the ps4 collection, too). They just don't feel as tight as they should - wether it's the ai, or the arenas. It's a shame that, with Drake's vertical set of moves, most of the encounters boil down to hiding behind cover, avoiding sniper's lasers, trying to get the snipers before the guys on the ground flank you, and changing cover when a grenade is thrown at you. U4 did away with that, but it was too little too late.
The aiming was kinda floaty in the first game and the combat was kinda simplistic (esecially melee combat). I remember that ak47 sounded like a miningun in the ps3 version, too.
U2 was a big improvememnt - we got an overhaul of melee combat, new weapons, a more stellar stealth system was introduced, drake could pull guys from ledges, over obstacles, around the corners, you could throw gas tanks and shoot them in the air, new enemies were introduced (guys with shields, brutes with miniguns, etc.). U2 was great.
U3 further tightened the aiming, but the melee combat got gimped - once you initiated combat you got locked on to one enemy, and you had to punch him several times and counter his moves until he was dead, which left you completely open to enemy fire for a few seconds. This was enough to get you killed every time you initiated melee combat out in the open on higher difficulties, essentailly rendering it useless. Then there was the new ability to grab guys and throw them with "O", which was unfortunately mapped to the the same button that was used for rolling. Now when you pressed "O", instead of rolling away from danger, Drake would jump straigth at the enemies standing in the open to grab them, if they were too close. The result was, of course, an instant death on crushing difficulty from 3 snipers and 2 grenade explosions at the same time.
So, yeah, combat in PS3 uncharted games is far from perfect, though u2 comes close.
The combat in u4 was good from what i remember, stealth aproach became a viable option now, but i don't think i'll ever replay that game since it was so damn boring.
Ys vet usually play on nightmare. Nightmare relies more on the guards and parry instead of items. So it's the basis to play the actual game mechanic. The stat balance favours it. Also it's recent trend in games where normal was like yester years easy mode. Doom 2016, Fire emblem and Platnium games normal mode is the hard mode usually, why do you thing they have silly names for the actual challenging difficulties. Ben being vet in JRPG or ARPG you really should have started hard which is more like normal back in the day.
Greed will imprison us all
3:03:43
I'll bet tonight's Dodgers game wasn't so soothing... :P
Huber getting bullied by big priest. Hearthstone is so bad right now.
On their point of paid dlc needing to be unlocked, it reminded me of some dlc from FF13-2. You paid i think $6-10 for arena matches against characters which you could in turn unlock to use if you got lucky (5% chance?) that bugged me but I still did it anyway... I'm a sheep.
Sweet
Delsin Rowe in DBFZ
jack eger no memes
If anyone should be in Smash from Ubisoft it should be Rayman! Rabbids could be an assist trophy!
Old Gametrailers employee Shane Satterfield has started a patreon to keep his company SIFTD afloat. Please consider helping him out because SIFTD is a pretty good site and he's old friend of the allies.
www.patreon.com/SIFTD
#bringback4personframetrap
It was a little easy
More like it was a little YS-y
Nadine is OK Huber, but I really think you're overrating her character, which is essentially "badass Merc woman with an attitude". And that has been done to death.
Adam Calcaterrious how many badass merc guys with an attitude are there compared to women
vietimports What difference does it makes? It doesn't matter if she's a man or woman, she's a bad ass mercenary guy.
I have to agree. I super didn't care about her as a character in 4, and while she's better in LL, she's still nothing special, and certainly not one of the best modern characters.
I would definitely agree, especially when you contrast her with Chloe who is very interesting and fun to interact with and listen to. By the end of Lost Legacy I felt like I had a better grasp of what's up with Chloe in general, but Nadine was pretty unchanged in comparison for me.
I wish I could feel the way that he does about her. I just find her incredibly dry and dull.
Huber the reason Uncharted's combat feels like it fell out of a dog's ass is because there is no weight behind it, and the sound design for the weapons is sub par. It's not satisfying to get into a combat scenario because the combat doesn't sound or feel good.
Is FrameTrap a permanent podcast on EZA? Just curious.
Yes, bi-weekly.
About the HoTaKe, to me a product for enjoyment is different from a product for investment - a high demand on a product for enjoyment does not necessarily mean that the product is your cup of tea. For instance, a market population with more females than males, the product of choice will be skewed towards female preference - the same applies to a population with kids and adults etc.
Let's say it another way, if swines are satisfied with slops why bother to feed them with something better than slops. If there is a trend of high demand on Marvel heroes, why invest on something new other than the heroes. Paying to make money is not necessarily the same as paying to make yourself happy.
As stated in the following article, Konami now makes more money by paying less:
www.technobuffalo.com/2017/02/14/konami-profits-2016/
In other words, for investment, one will definitely want this non-stop demand and supply of Marvel heroes, FPS, remakes or mobile games.
The reality is that in a democratic society, the majority wins - I don't like Mario but I am just a minority. Fortunately, I don't invest in game industry.
I would like a Persona 5 Spoiler mode please!
the warp tokkens make no difference . it's so minimal plus the mode give no real rewards.
if there will ever be any character crossover in dbz fighterz, it will be shonen jump manga characters. luffy from one piece, toriko, etc.