Finished Any Games Lately?

I liked the gameplay of Beyond; it felt like a nice revision of some of the ideas in Heavy Rain, giving you both more and less to do. More interesting ways to explore scenes and stories; less brushing your teeth.

Unfortunately, it has the same creepy preoccupation with sexual violence against women that pops up in Heavy Rain and, reportedly, Detroit. David Cage has an unfortunate interest in lurid scenes of women being mistreated.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I liked the gameplay of Beyond; it felt like a nice revision of some of the ideas in Heavy Rain, giving you both more and less to do. More interesting ways to explore scenes and stories; less brushing your teeth.

Unfortunately, it has the same creepy preoccupation with sexual violence against women that pops up in Heavy Rain and, reportedly, Detroit. David Cage has an unfortunate interest in lurid scenes of women being mistreated.

I could do with less brushing your teeth, that's for sure.

As for your second point, I did not like how they handled the female character, Madison Paige. The situations she found herself in and the ease with which she would lose her clothes were problematic for sure. I really hope there's less of that in Detroit.

I wouldn’t hold my breath. :/

I finished Iconoclasts the other day. I'd call it a solid Metroidvania, so naturally I loved it.

It doesn't match Axiom Verge imo, but that's a very high bar. I'd say it ranks below Steamworld Dig 2 as well, so somewhere around Steamworld Dig and Cave Story +, and above Blaster Master Zero. So yeah, I give it a Steam Story Dig + out of Metroidvania.

Something I liked about the game is that it feels quite light and airy for a Metroidvania. Even your character is bright and colourful, with long blond hair and a nice red jacket. It's a nice change. I'd also say that for the most part I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the boss fights. There were usually specific weaknesses to figure out and exploit.

Probably the biggest negative for me was that it kinda dragged towards the end. I got to a certain point...

Spoiler:

The fight with Mother. (A fight I really enjoyed as it happens.)

...and felt like the story was wrapping up, but found that there was still more to do...and then some more...and then just a little more...

But that brings me to another plus, this game has three difficulty modes, so once I got a bit, eh, bored/impatient, I dropped it down to "Relaxed" and just enjoyed the story and exploration without ever taking damage or dying. I still had to figure out the bosses' weaknesses, but I could do that without dying and having to start over. I think that's pretty cool, and if you weren't into combat you could probably enjoy the whole game in that mode. I like when games have a number of difficulty levels.

So two thumbs up for Iconoclasts. I should look into the dev and see if they've done anything else on Switch.

Finished both The Room: Old Sins and got through Kingdom Hearts I.5 Remix in my bid to finally get through this series (added bonus of being able to look up anything for 3 when I finally get to it). My patience for PS2 era games may have worn out completely, or this one in particular hasn't aged well, as I found the combat mostly frustrating.

Aeazel wrote:

...Kingdom Hearts I.5 Remix in my bid to finally get through this series (added bonus of being able to look up anything for 3 when I finally get to it). My patience for PS2 era games may have worn out completely, or this one in particular hasn't aged well, as I found the combat mostly frustrating.

You are correct in that it has not aged very well at all. The controls and systems didn't feel as bad way back then, but that's certainly not the case now. I recently got through it on PS3 and had a hard time because of the combat's odd implementation.

Sooo, I just finished What Remains of Edith Finch. Bought it a month or so ago - can't recall exactly when - and was told it was a good bit of a walking simulator/adventure game. I definitely enjoyed it and found it well written and designed... it brought tears to my eyes in a couple of sessions... and it made things happen inside my soul which I am not about to disclose at this moment or in this place, but yeah...

In any case, I wanted to remark upon the fact that some people seem to make associations with Lovecraftian horror or fiction and this game, and there is no single match anywhere in there save for the fact that there is an instance of tentacles at some point... there is nothing at all of the Lovecraft persuasion... nada, zilch. Just saying. If people's definition of Lovecraftian has morphed to the point where it encompasses this, well, anything may as well be Lovecraft.

To clarify, the game is awesome. It is wonderfully well-paced and put together. I just don't see the connections to a certain subgenre of horror...

Finished The Room Three, on PC. Maybe not the most challenging game, but good fun. I love the atmosphere and aesthetic of these things. Wish I could make my own house look just like it.

brokenclavicle wrote:

In any case, I wanted to remark upon the fact that some people seem to make associations with Lovecraftian horror or fiction and this game

Literally the first time I ever heard that. Weird connection for people to make.

kuddles wrote:
brokenclavicle wrote:

In any case, I wanted to remark upon the fact that some people seem to make associations with Lovecraftian horror or fiction and this game

Literally the first time I ever heard that. Weird connection for people to make.

I assume it's because of the eccentric family in a big mansion by the ocean. But I don't know that I would ever describe the game as remotely related to Lovecraft.

I finished Ashen last night on Xbox One. If it hadn't have been available through Xbox Game Pass, I'm not sure that I would have bought it. I have a spotty history with the Dark Souls games themselves, and all the different clones I've played have failed to hit. But I'm really glad I got into it, because I really enjoyed it.

And while it borrows heavily from Dark Souls in its underlying combat mechanics, it nonetheless carves out its own identity and creates an experience that is familiar but also wholly individual. Usually games that copy the mechanics of Dark Souls also try to copy the level design, atmosphere, and inscrutability, but Ashen instead opts for a series of open areas, a colorful palette, and clear explanations for both its mechanics and narrative. The introduction of a map, map markers, and clear side-quests is also not unwelcome. It's a remarkable change of pace and shows the flexibility of the stamina-based combat system.

That said, it's clearly an indie effort in scale. There aren't many opportunities for different character builds, and the selection of weapons is fairly narrow. The game also has a curious over-abundance of upgrade materials if you diligently explore each area, meaning you'll never want for the resources to upgrade your weapons, but there's also less variety to your discoveries than you might hope.

Still, I found it completely absorbing. It would take a really spectacular year for Ashen to not show up on my game of the year list. It's only February, of course, but Ashen got my year off to a great start.

Probably tough to say, but how does Ashen's difficulty compare with the Soulsborne games?

beanman101283 wrote:

Probably tough to say, but how does Ashen's difficulty compare with the Soulsborne games?

It varies. One of Ashen's hooks is that you have a companion with you that's controlled by another player or by an AI if no one's available. The game's a bit easier than the Souls series when you have a companion and especially if that companion is another player. Unlike Dark Souls, Ashen doesn't scale bosses to the number of players, so there's not a paradox of a boss getting harder when you get help for it.

That said, you can disable the companion entirely or set it to only be AI-controlled or only ever be player-controlled, the latter of which effectively means you don't have a companion about half the time, and less so in the game's later areas. Without a companion character, you're left to handle groups of enemies on your own, and that can get really tricky.

There's also a hard mode if you want to amp up the challenge more. It reduces your health and stamina as well as your companion's.

I played in the normal mode with the AI-companion toggled off outside of boss fights and a couple challenging areas. It was fun to co-op with other players, though, so I left that on and did some adventuring with other people.

Did a 180 by following up Night In The Woods with the latest God Of War. It's certainly a technical marvel, looking gorgeous and running incredibly smoothly despite the at-times-insane chaos of what's going on. And I admired the commitment to the story of the relationship between father and son, and the attempt to re-evaluate Kratos's character from the vengeful rage machine of the previous installments. But as it went on the actual events of the plot began to feel more and more like an at-times rickety scaffolding for stringing encounters and locations together. Not that that wasn't true of previous installments, but the more mature take on the series made its gimmicks stand out more.

Shout-outs to the cast, though - there's some great performances from everyone, especially the dwarven blacksmiths and the primary antagonist, who reminded me a lot of Peter Stormare at times. And those performances rested on some really good moment-to-moment writing (although I thought Sindri's schtick was overdone as the game wore on).

I played through two horror adventure games with shallow RPG bits and sanity meters - Tokyo Dark and Call of Cthulhu. Neither is particularly good, but neither made me hate it either. They just occupy that b-movie area of kinda likable trash. I'd give Tokyo Dark nod over the two, since it's scrappier and Shinto horror feels slightly more novel than Lovecraft at this point.

Oh , and I guess I also played through Resident Evil 2 like 6 times, but I just noticed two DLC achievements ruined my 100% completion, so I'm not finished with it.

I just finished What Remains of Edith Finch after picking it up via the Epic Store giveaway a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting something like Gone Home, and although it is that, it does some very interesting things with gameplay I wasn't expecting. I found the comic section really interesting, and I thought the daydreaming portion did a really good job of conveying a...feeling, I guess? through gameplay.

I'd definitely recommend this for anyone in the mood for a couple of hours of really good, emotive storytelling that definitely focuses on the narrative, but deploys some interesting gameplay mechanics in service to it really effectively.

Also, as brokenclavicle mentioned, there is essentially zero horror (and certainly nothing Lovecraftian) to be found.

Tower of Time, very enjoyable although the last couple of levels got very repetitive. Liked the game mechanics, story, battles and it was a good length (although I notched the difficulty down towards the end to seed up battles). Recommended, got for £10 in the recent GOG sale.

Just got my 70th gold medal, so 15 more survived bear attacks, and I'll have platinumed Red Dead Redemption 2.

Currently my GOTY by virtue of not having played anything else since its release.

I'm done with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and it was great! Well, most of it...

The ancient Greek world was magnificent. I loved the way it looks, the islands, the cities, the people, the quests. It's all even more alive than Origins, which was, quite frankly, too much sand. I'm still not too hot on the new combat, but I could circumvent most of my gripes by stacking abilities in the hunter and assassin trees. Funnily enough, I ended up playing this game more like an Assassin than many other games in the series, clearing complete forts unseen and without much issue. I had good fun.

Upfront I was a bit weary about the supposed level gating and mandatory side quest grinding, but for me, on normal, it all flowed along nicely. It never felt like a drag, and having finished the main story, all the cultists, and the fate of atlantis, there's still plenty unfinished things left to do.

I won't be going back soon though. 75 hours is enough for now, but more importantly, the story is done.
And that's also where most of my issues are. I really liked this game, up until the last hour or so. I found the resolution to the main quest to be underwhelming and pretty silly. I liked Origins much better in that regard. The payout for eliminating all the cultists was also poor, but where the game really fails is the meta narrative, and the present day tie-in.

Sure, there are plenty of people for whom the present day stuff never made any sense, and who could have done without it completely. For me though, it is the necessary framework for the story, the glue which ties it all together. I've always liked it, even the goofier parts, and thought it was well done for Black Flag, Rogue and Syndicate. For Origins it wasn't half bad either, but for this game... I thought it was incredibly flat, stupid, and disappointing. So much so, that I now wonder what I've been playing the game for.
I know, I know, it's just a video game, not literature. It doesn't need to be. But it should make sense on some level. And this to me, does not. It feels more like a teenagers bad fan fiction than a proper story. Bah.

tl;dr Good game, much enjoyment, bad ending.

Finally finished the last story mission in Alienation! Apparently, I can now play through all the missions again on a higher difficulty to continue leveling up, and complete some special assignments throughout the missions. Since I loved the game, I might do this on occasion in between other games, but I am labeling it "finished". Just like Resogun and Nex Machina, I absolutely adored it, so Housemarque is so far three for three, as far as I'm concerned. Great game!

Finished Tacoma last night. I'm not sure I'm entirely sold on the ending, but it was a great little game regardless.

Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. Pretty good.

Finished Jydge. Well, "finished". I've cleared all medals on all levels on normal and hardcore difficulty. There's still a bunch on Grim and Nightmare to go, but I don't know if I have it in me to go for all of them.

Weirdly for a top-down, twin stick shooter, it reminds me of Warren Spector's orignal Deus Ex pitch - which was originally concieved as a set of 10-30 minute missions with no huge overarching plot. Here's a mission with main and optional objectives. Now configure your definitely-not-Judge Dredd with a bunch of unlockable cybernetics and weapon mods and have at it. Only, since this is a top down shooter spun off Neon Chrome, the scale is more 15 seconds to a couple of minutes.

There's some frustrations - the meelee fighters tip a bit too much into "oh f*ck drop everything this is all you can think about until one of you dies" instead of a threat to be managed, and the rules for how the camoflague works aren't very intuitive.

Byt overall? It's pretty damn fyn and compylsive.

Finished 4 games in 2019 so far.
Number 4 is the Evil Within 2. Really good and breezy game. It is more RE 4 than RE 2. Stealth is really great combined with Stamina. Maybe a little too broken. Finished with 16 hours.
Overall... Mostly Positive on the whole thing.
IMAGE(https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/601430/header.jpg?t=1540565667)

I just wrapped up my 1st full play-through of Divinity Original Sin 2. Probably finished about 75% of the game in the weeks directly after its initial launch last year, but I made some bad decisions with party composition and didn't have the cash to respec and reskill characters so I put it down for a few months.

Just recently, I felt inspired to dive back in, putting more effort into understanding the underlying systems, and created a fairly min-max-y party focused on physical damage and physical-based debilitating effects. It was fun to see that come together both mid-game and late-game. I love the combat system and am a little sad the game is over, but at 180+ hours I can hardly complain.

Now I have to decide what to play next.

This has been the year of the pile thus far. I've held to the "no purchases in 2019" thing so far. I just finished SOMA and Child of Light. SOMA was great, I enjoyed the story. I really love horror games, and I don't really see how it can be considered a horror game. It is atmospheric at best, but not horror. Regardless is was a decent use of gaming hours.

Child of Light was fantastic. It came out in the gap of my gameplay when my kids were smaller. I am happy that I get to go back and experience these gems. I hate to say that my respect level for Ubisoft is off the charts after this and the recent Assassin's Creed games. They sneakily became one of my favorite studios.

prodiginy wrote:

This has been the year of the pile thus far. I've held to the "no purchases in 2019" thing so far. I just finished SOMA and Child of Light. SOMA was great, I enjoyed the story. I really love horror games, and I don't really see how it can be considered a horror game. It is atmospheric at best, but not horror. Regardless is was a decent use of gaming hours.

Child of Light was fantastic. It came out in the gap of my gameplay when my kids were smaller. I am happy that I get to go back and experience these gems. I hate to say that my respect level for Ubisoft is off the charts after this and the recent Assassin's Creed games. They sneakily became one of my favorite studios.

Recently finished SOMA myself, therefore curious as to why it doesn't seem like "horror" in your view. I thought it was pretty much within the genre, just taking a more sci-fi approach. There were even a few bits that mildly recalled System Shock 2. Plenty of philosophically dreadful themes, as well. Interested in your take.

Finished the Titanfall 2 campaign. This one sat on my pile for an embarrassingly long time, but between firing up Origin to play the Anthem demo, and then Respawn and the Titanfall setting being in the news for some reason, I remembered I should start it.

It was a blast, the best single player FPS I've played since... maybe HL2:E2. Surprisingly I was only so-so about the in-Titan moments, but on foot it's amazing. Double-jump, slide, and wall run for days.

Just finished Kingdom Hearts 3 with little side stuff. I think i beat the game at lvl 36 on normal difficulty lol. Probably the lowest of all the games. Up next is Anthem and I MIGHT start Dragon Quest XI. I'd rather finish Starlink, but I want to play that coop.

This weekend I finished Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken. It was part of a Humble Indie Bundle, which I bought primarily for Stardew Valley.

Rocketbirds was set in a dystopian society, probably inspired by the Soviet Union or some regime propped up by the Soviets, where penguins had conquered and oppressed other birds. Hardboiled is a Rambo-esque secret agent / supersoldier bent on taking down the regime. Most of the levels were side scrolling with some light puzzles, although there were a few where you actually strapped on Hardboiled's rocket. The gameplay reminded me of Blackthorne, an old fantasypunk-with-rifles take on the 2D Prince of Persia game (and which I quite liked, back in the day).

The art and music was great, but the controls just were not quite smooth enough , and the levels were not quite interesting enough, for me to recommend it. Still, I was glad I gave it a try.