All right Back in action! Been away attending to life issues, sorry for being gone for so long! Finals in school, and now I'm back and trying out for The Tester season 3! I have received an unmentionable amount of support that it blows my mind! I've been working real hard to make connections with other people, videos, and making sure I'm on top of my supporting votes. I have been able to game a bit in between the time, and felt it was best to save the 2 games for 1 blog entry. This month I have another 2 games I have beat and platinumed for ya! I went back to finish the sly series, and I have to say thank the lord! Not because the game was bad it's just because I needed something new to refresh the pallet. 2 month straight on Sly was rather brain frying you would say! For my next game to be cleared off the backlog if you were wondering is Batman: Arkham Asylum. With the second one around the corner I need to beat this, and I already feel bad for waiting this long to do it. Enough of that lets get onto the reviews!
Sly 2 Band of Thieves Review:
Sly 2 was Sucker Punches sequel to Sly Cooper & the Thievieus Raccoonus, and I will say right off the bat what an improvement! Wow... I was amazed it was the same IP like no joke. It went from very narrow and forced you down a certain way to a very open game. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was a platformer with a thief story to it... without the thievery. Sly 2 changed that completely by allowing you to sneak up to guards and pick pocket. There are so many more upgrades that Sucker Punch made to this wonderful game that you really have to just find out for yourself by playing it.
Sound: Not much better than the first one. A lot of the same music sounds seem to have made a return, and with a small addition of some other music. The voice acting took a giant leap forward. I was amazed with how much of a drastic change was given to the sound! Carmelita Fox accent was atrocious though hard to listen to and killed the vibe of her background story of where she originated
Gameplay: A Huge jump in gameplay compared to the first one. The first Sly was very linear in a forced way. In Sly 2 they made it so all missions were done in the open roam of the original location. That's right no more hopping through worm holes to get to your next level everything is done in one zone which give the gameplay and feel so much more realism (other than animals being the main characters), but I'm sure you know what I mean by realism. On your new adventure your riding with your pals Bentley and Murray, but this time they don't take the backseat to the game! Each character is playable, and Sly shares the screen time with his faithful sidekicks! A bunch more gadgets/moves to learn and this time it's all currency based and not based off of collecting all the bottles. With an arsenal of moves that each character can specialize your wondering how can they be easy to use. Last game you had to cycle through with triangle? Remember how I said they should have had some more use with the D-Pad or shoulder button? Well they allowed you to map the moves to the shoulder button making moves easy to equip and use on the fly! With an all around improvement in the game the flow of gameplay has to be the biggest part! I take my hat off to Sucker Punch for such an amazing feat! They have come an extremely long way.
Story: Story similar to last game a bunch of bad guys got a hold of some stuff they shouldn't have and now you have to take it away from them. Okay there is a little more to it then that, but you get the general idea :P No?!?!? Okay, so you killed Clockwork and now bad guys are using clockwork parts to do make bad things with them, printing money with his feathers, using lungs to make illegal tea/drug, and etc. Then you have Arpeggio who really has nothing to do with these people, but an arms dealer gets a hold of the clockwork parts and sells them to Arpeggio who is a mean old bitter small parrot because he's well... small. He basically wants these parts to make himself invincible. Decently well thought up story for it's time, basic idea but the best part about the story is the dialogue you had with your friends and foe. other than JRPG's this game seemed to be a head of it's time when it came to dialogue, but I have now found out that Dialogue might be Sucker Punches best aspect of their company. In other words dialogue in this game a lone makes the story worth running through!
Replayability: Again like the first sly something they need to work on. No other difficulties, no challenge mode or nothing. Just straight up story, but you can always go back and repeat the levels you just played. Gain more coins and work on getting 100% by buying all the moves and such. Unfortunately the games trophies lack a 100% so for trophy hunters it lacks the sense of a full completion.
Graphics: Not a drastic step up from the first Sly game, but there was some improvement definitely, but again not something you can expect a game that has been out for that long to withstand the test of time in that category.
Controls: Very basic layout made it easy to navigate and to accomplish attacks, pick pocketing, and sneakery. Like I said earlier I'm glad they found more of a use for the shoulder buttons, it seemed to be pointless for a game to use half the amount of buttons on a controller. Some issue with responsiveness, but not overly bad, mainly the circle button which is your thief moves (spire jump, swinging, balance, etc). a lot of times it wouldn't react when I pushed the circle button around the task. Swinging on hooks he would completely ignore the hook in front of him and either fall to the ground or attach back to the one I launched off of.
Overall it was a great game! I'm glad I took my time playing it, and I was excited to see how many changes the game really went through. The story was nice, the dialogue was amazing, and the new free roam topped the cake. Definitely a must try series I'll play it again down the road no doubt!
Sly 2 Band of Thieves Trophy Guide
Just like the first one not really much to say here. The trophies are very linear complete all the missions, loot as much as you can, find every clue bottle, and purchase all the required moves. one trophy worth noting is Loot where you after to collect 1,500 coins. Best thing to do is not purchase until this trophy is achieved. After beating each level make sure you take advantage of stealing all the big ticket items around the map as well this can help with the Loot trophy as well as buying new and needed moves!
Alright moving onto the next game of choice...
Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves Review
Just when you thought Sucker Punch out did themselves, there next game shows another huge success in a game. They changed voice actors for Carmelita, and although it's still not that great of an accent it beats the other voice actor by a mile. This one is at least bearable, but that's not all the changes!
Sound: The sound was less noticeable in this game, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I think it just had more variety to it so it didn't sound like it was on a 3-minute loop, and allowing you to get more into the game. Again they brought back all the cartoon sounds, the bonk, bam, tiptoe, and anything else you can think of that you would find in an episode of the Looney Toons. Voice acting again when up a huge notch, not only was Carmelita better, but the dialogue flowed from character to character way better. They didn't sound like robots or someone who was talking to a wall. This gives me high hopes for Sucker Punches Sly 4 when it hits, because they've had plenty of time to work out all the kinks and seeing their dialogue grow and become what Infamous is today I have no doubt that Sly 4 will have a great cast of characters and dialogue for their story! I'm so pumped!
Gameplay: Not much difference here from the second Sly game, and needless to say that wasn't broken so there was no need to fix it. The pickpocket and currency system came back for another round. You also got to play as Bentley and Murray again, except this time around you recruited even more people to your team (some of these characters you might remember from the past games :P) and you got to play them as well! They brought new moves and play styles to the game to give it an needed uplift (again not in a bad way, if you have the same game over and over again it gets boring *Cough* Call Of Duty *Cough* Guitar Hero *Cough*). They had new mini-games and ideas that were put into this game to make it lot more interesting! The pirate level you got to commander a ship and have battles on the open seas, and got to go to land and treasure hunt! One thing that was very disappointing was that they removed the clue bottles from this game! I know! how can you play Sly without clue bottles?!?!? it was nice in the sense that I didn't have to go searching for them, but hindsight is 50/50 and now I felt that the game didn't fill that empty void of clue bottle hunting :(
Story: Does the story stand out in this one as much as the second one... It all depends on the person I guess. I enjoyed it and it was different then the other first games. You weren't chasing thieves who stole something from you or preventing thieves from re-building your family’s life long enemy. This was a story about Coopers family vault that was in danger of being looted by his father's former team member, who happened to be the brains of the outfit like Bentley is to Sly. Sadly enough Sly dad wasn't about friendship as much as Sly was, and Dr. M (the partner of Sly's father) was upset about it and wanted their loot because of it. Kind of a lackluster storyline, but it brought freshness in and somewhat made it more intriguing to play in a sense. Basically your team tries to stop him by breaking into the cooper vault and to do that you have to recruit an lovely cast of teammates (again that you will remember some from the past games). The dialogue in this story brings out the greatness again in this game. Not only do Bentley, Murray, and Sly all have great dialogue that they bring to the table, their whole supporting cast does an excellent job making each character very memorable. You don't get this a lot in games anymore, and it's good to see Sucker Punch has kept it as a strong suit and have made it better over the years.
Replayability: One thing Sucker Punch needed to work on and they brought it to the table in this game! Not something I would say will add a lot more to the game, but it gives people a little extra if they feel that they need more Cooper Gang action! Challenges take missions throughout the game and pin you up against a clock or other hard tasks such as giving you half-life to beat a boss that can kill you in 2 hits. Brings an extra difficulty to the game. Not only that they have challenges that will a lot you to set high scores for your friends or yourself to beat. Adds a nice set of competition to the table! That's not it either Sucker Punch added a 2 player mode as well, giving it another sense of replayability with your friends! I think Sucker Punch has done a great job with this IP in touching all looked at corners of the gaming world!
Graphics: I wish I could say a lot about graphics, but like I've said over and over again, You can't compare this to today’s graphics it wouldn't do the game justice. I'm sure back in the day this was top notch, but I'm not going to bash this game because sly does have enough curvature to his limbs (they look to square) I will say that can see improvement through the games, so you know they pushed their limits in these games as much as they could.
Controls: Again if it's not broken don't fix it! I was really happy with their improvement in controls in Sly 2, and I'm glad they didn't ruin that. Sticking with Sly 2 controls were very simple. Unfortunately I had more problems with the spire jump, and the cane swing, rope walks, in this game than I did in Sly 2, Which made it a little more disappointing in my eyes, but again not something that happened so much it broke the game it was still very much playable and enjoyable!
Overall I'm glad I got this collection making all these games great memories of our past, and getting me super excited for Sly 4! Great series to pick up, even just to show you how much Sucker Punch was able to grow as a game developer was a beautiful site. Unforgettable characters, great gameplay, decent story, and classic fill bring it all together to make 1 great IP. Get this! laugh, cry, play, and enjoy your way through the ends of each game!
Sly 3 Honor Among Thieves Trophy Guide
I wish I could say something different then the other 2 games, but they are almost exactly alike. 90% of them are story related easy to pick up just by beating the game. Another one like in the last game you need to watch out for is loot, make sure before you buy any moves that you save up 2,500 coins. This will be harder than the last game due to Sucker Punch removing the expensive loot items from around the map, so this will mean you'll be doing a lot more pick pocketing. Another thing is you have to get 100% in this game unlike the last ones. To do that you must complete all the challenges as well as the story. They are a little bit harder than the game, but easily doable with a little time and patience.
Alright so If you've been following me you know that I have been waiting for my next chance at becoming a cast member of Sony's The Tester. That opportunity is finally here, and only the top 100 will make it to round 2. I'm currently in an awesome position, but a slip up for a couple of days will completely ruin your chance. For the people who are just starting out, or nowhere close to the top 100! It isn't over for you yet. A lot of things can happen in 11 1/2 days! My advice is to don't give up and promote yourself in whatever way you can! any social networks (facebook, twitter) and around locally (I have a store that is completely behind me and helping me spread the word to their customers). That's how I have accomplished my vote count.
Another thing is I don't care for the people who are tying to call other people cheaters or starting unnecessary banter between each other trying to get each other kicked off. I think your all hurting yourselves more than your helping, yes you might still be high in the vote count, but I'm guessing (especially after what happen to Fazzek last year) that Sony doesn't want to deal with people who point fingers at each other and showing their lack of people skills. I know everyone cant get along with everyone some people mix like oil and water, but you can still be pleasant and tolerable around each other.
I have a new video coming up soon I have to finish it, and I'm hoping it gets posted soon enough to use as my new audition video. This video is going to be my ticket into Sony I believe. I hope they see where I'm going with this video. It will have everything that I believe is needed as a Sony Tester, and I hope they believe so to. It displays my talents and experience that I have gained throughout my life. If you feel like I should be you next Playstation tester please go to this page and vote for me everyday! I really appreciate your guys’ time to read my blog on what I have been playing for the past month. I'm inching closer and closer to the goal! Not sure if I'll make it, but I do know that I need to crackdown on this a lot harder than I have been.
I would to sound out all my thanks to the people who have been voting for me and spreading the word. Some names off the top of my head get a huge shout, @Sengeki, @nocandefense, @KOtv_Delusion (you can vote for him here too!), @Speedbrkr, @va1weezie, @dvntsvnt, @NicholleSoft, @TheShaunSays, @Dark_Sakura, @Grayfox814, @ Doc_Gamer, my local comic store "I Like Comics", My dad (Michael Jay Voght, not the same as mine. Mine is Michael Joseph Voght), My bother (Erich Voght), My fiancée and the friends who have been reposting my link on their facebook (Jordan Timmons), and My good friend weasil13 All these people have been Retweeting my posts, and reposting my link on facebook! A huge thanks goes out to these people for showing support to me. I still appreciate all the people who have voted for me there is just to many, and impossible to tell who has. All those people with @ by there name you should follow on twitter now! They're very cool down to earth people. Also for my good friends I want to shout out there everything nerdy pod cast that they have started up it is called The Talky Show (@TheTalkyShow) it is hosted by my 2 very good friends @Sengeki and @Nocandefense also has a Tester season one host fame girl or @Nichollesoft. Follow them listen, laugh, and cry! Thank you all again for your time and I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!
