Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Halo 2 (Nov)

@NintendoByNature this one is the Xbox one so it has to be wired -_-. Not a major issue though.

One thing I find is that the rumble is a bit weak compared to the proper Xbox pad unfortunately. But the D-pad is so much better for D-pad heavy games.

Though I've just started Ori and haven't felt any rumble yet 🤔. I'm assuming this game uses rumble?

Can anyone give me a rundown on who all these characters are (only details from Blind Forest though please) and what happened in Blind Forest (with spoiler tags of course). For the life of me, I can't remember that game at all!

So I in WotW, there is a baby owl who I guess is a new character. A giant weird spider thing that I sort of remember from Blind Forest but thought might be a bad guy for some reason but it's a good guy in this. And a fat masked character which maybe I remember from the previous game? I can't remember lol

I also seem to remember something/one dying at the end of the last game and it was a bit/really emotional. Who was that lol

Quite surprised with that as personally the d-pad on the series controller is easily my favourite ever as I find its shape more comfortable than the traditional snes style one sand it does not have issues with wrong diagonal inputs.

Cannot help you on the story bits as I am not sure I followed much of it in either game lol (I struggle with narratives not told trough dialogue as it appear that I almost completely forget them on a space of weeks)

@ralphdibny

I got into the first game, but not the second. Why?? Because, as a disabled gamer, I LITERALLY have no time!! There are games that have come out AFTER that which I simply MUST play, and those get put on my system before the Ori games; it's one of the reasons why I wish I had enough dough to get a large hard drive, but since I don't, I do what I can!!

@TheComebackKid hello there, maybe this is your chance to give it a go!
Do you want to get in on the club? (I would tag you to vote for each month). You obviously can also be here and share your thoughts without it
Cheers.

If I weren't neck deep in Jedi Survivor, I would!! lol

@TheComebackKid no worries. Enjoy that!

@GamingFan4Lyf Brilliant write up! Enjoyed re-living that.

@GamingFan4Lyf Naru (fat character) as a description made me laugh! To be fair, they definitely have chunky panda energy. Speaking of energy, have folks met kwolok yet? Feels like the "voice" actor was channelling Brian Blessed energy for their performance. It feels like new abilities are being doled out pretty frequently and I'm enjoying that as, just got my hands bash, which along with double jump and dash make movement feel snappy and rewarding . Just did my first spirit gate yesterday and they really show off the movement options the game gives you. The game running at 120 fps certainly helps with that too!

@GamingFan4Lyf thank you for the detailed write up, it's all coming back to me now! Well the key moments at least! I can't say the amount of times I've waited a couple years between a game/movie/TV show and its sequel and I just have no clue what is happening because I can't remember the original 😂

Really appreciate that though mate 👍

@Balta666 I will say that the Series X D-Pad is way better than the Xbox One D-pad which I loathed with a passion. I feel like I bought this controller while I was still playing the Xbox One but didn't play many D-pad heavy games until now and now I have a series X!

Maybe I'll give it a go with the series X disc d pad at some point and see what it's like. At the moment, I have to get some use out of this 8bitdo pad lol

Only controller d pad I know that has issues with diagonal inputs is the Switch Pro controller which is flipping awful for 2d games/button inputs

Oh yeah, I do get rumble in Ori so at least that question is answered. It was either too subtle or it wasn't triggering for some reason when I first started playing

@ralphdibny I did what I could based on memory. There were plenty of emotional moments I left out - but the game is so visual with those moments that they are tough to describe to get the same effect:

Cleared the waterway dungeon/area. I forgot alot about this game since my last playthrough. That chase scene man, woof. What a tough one.

It's been a hot minute since I played the game, but just like with @NintendoByNature, I just finished the waterway area. I actually almost cleared the chase scene on my first try but I messed up the final section. Before wrapping up the dungeon, I went back to the "hub area" and got some upgrades, including triple jump. So I guess that helped a lot in the chase scene. I recommend in general getting triple jump as soon as possible because there are so many hard-to-reach areas that you can reach thanks to the extra jump. It's seriously so helpful to have. But yeah, traversal feels so good at this point in the game. Once you get back the glider, it'll probably feel fantastic to get around. So I think I'll save exploration for later.

@LtSarge I really need to get triple jump. I don't even recall if I had that originally when I played the game. Either way, this game is smooth as silk from a movement and platforming standpoint.

@LtSarge triple jump sounds great, can you chain that with a dash at the end still, as you can with double jump?

@R1spam Yeah, that's still possible. If you combine triple jump and dash as well as the glider later on, you'll be able to get to pretty much any place.

Got through two of the four areas you get access to when the game opens up. I went to the east first, which was both a good and a bad idea. The good part is I got a useful ability that grants me access to more areas in the world. The bad part is that you can't access the end of the area because you need to finish the other three first. I then went to the west to the water area, which was a nice change of scenery. Underwater sections tend to be frowned upon in video games, but Ori 2 handled it very well as long as you get the underwater upgrade which allows you to breathe underwater. Now I'm exploring the area to the south, which has an interesting mechanic where you need to stay out of the darkness or you will die after a while.

This game is just so much fun, I'm really enjoying it. I can definitely see myself trying to go for 100 percent completion, at least in-game (not achievement-wise).

Well that's a wrap on Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Took me about 15 hours to finish the game and get a 100 percent completion rate along with 720/1000 G in achievements.

It was an absolutely fantastic experience from beginning to end! Compared to the first game, there was more story, the combat was better and the environments were more diverse. I also liked that there were more abilities to unlock, which made it feel more like a typical Metroidvania.

I've already mentioned this before but this game is way more forgiving compared the first one. I was constantly struggling in the first game, but this one gave you more health as well as the ability to heal. Definitely some good design choices as some people get drawn in by the beautiful visuals and lovely soundtrack but quickly realise that the games are too difficult. But now the difficulty feels just about right.

All in all, I absolutely enjoyed my time with this game and I find it much better than the first one. It's easily one of my favourite Metroidvanias of all time along with Hollow Knight.

In terms of next month's game, I'm hesitant to vote as I don't know how much free time I'll have from here on out as there are tons of new games coming out as well as titles from my backlog that I want to play. So I think I might not participate again in quite some time. I might come back in December when things have calmed down a bit and I'll have some weeks off from work. It's been fun talking about Perfect Dark and Ori 2 with you guys though! I'm glad we could write off these two games that have been on the voting list for a long time now.

@LtSarge nicely done! I agree with nearly everything in your analysis and comparison with the first entry. Apart from it the trick to have some of those from the backlog in rotation is to vote