Finished Any Games Lately?

Wow, I didn't think it was that obscure! I haven't found a legitimate way to stream the show yet, or a dvd - much less Bluray - offering, but I may resort to less savory means tomorrow.

The show wasn't really all that similar to the game. In fact, it was pretty dissimilar. Nevertheless, Lucas Arts was involved at some point.

I finished Maneater! It's great! Took me just under 12 hours to 100% everything which was the absolute perfect length. It was just dumb, stupid fun.

Played Unavowed recently, the first adventure game I've played since Broken Age part 1 when it came out (which I didn't finish and will try again someday...). It felt like how I remember adventure games to be, but I'm guessing my rose colored glasses are overlooking adventure game logic puzzles. While Unavowed felt easy, I'm not sure I have it in me anymore for frustrating puzzles so I'm not complaining. Thank you PC Game Pass for the opportunity!

From the conversation around here when Unavowed was released, I have the feeling nothing else in the genre is going to live up to it except hopefully Nighthawks! This is my first Wadjet Eye game; I look forward to checking out the back catalog someday too.

I rolled the credits on Death Stranding and I can say it is one of the most distinct journeys I have had the pleasure to experience. The mystery. The reveals. The interpretations. Quite unlike anything else. Fantastic.

The use of sound and imagery. The songs. The characterizations. The off the beaten path pop culture references. The sociopolitical commentary. The meshing of gaming genres. The breadth for varying approaches. The little rewards and the incremental growth for putting in the time. It all came together to make a great game, both for story and for gameplay.

It more than delivered on the roll of the dice intrigue that drew my interest. I even slept on making a start for a while. Then I blazed 132 hours (to completion) in five weeks. That's unheard of, for me. I'm not sure how or to whom I'd recommend it, though. It's one to give a few hours to, and then a few more later on. It may or may not land. It's wholly unique.

deceivious1 wrote:

While Unavowed felt easy, I'm not sure I have it in me anymore for frustrating puzzles so I'm not complaining. Thank you PC Game Pass for the opportunity!

From the conversation around here when Unavowed was released, I have the feeling nothing else in the genre is going to live up to it except hopefully Nighthawks! This is my first Wadjet Eye game; I look forward to checking out the back catalog someday too.

That's pretty much how I felt about Unavowed as well. I'm totally OK with puzzles being a bit easier in these games. The way I see it, it's worth it just avoid those 2 or 3 really obtuse puzzles you always end up finding in the older point-and-click adventure games. If you're interested in other recent games like that, Whispers of a Machine may be a good one to try.

Just rolled credits on Last of Us. Was my first replay since it came out and I think the first time I've ever replayed a game. This might sound odd but I'm really glad LoU2 is out this week cos I just want more but I'm kinda scared to play it cos I'm worried what might happen to these character I've come to care about.

Tempted to fire up Left Behind before Friday so I can go in having just played everything.

Oh, you definitely want to play Left Behind. It's Ellie's backstory prior to Last Of Us, and while I can only expect it will inform how you relate to her in LoU2, I know it will make you care even more about her right now.

Somehow I finished Saints Row The Third Remastered. I was just playing it between Judgment session just to have something fun to mess around with and all of a sudden the credits rolled. The game is wacky as hell and a pretty good way to just disconnect yourself from all the serious stuff. I would start playing with the intention of a quick session, then I'd be 3-4 hours in and not even complete a main story mission. It's a good time and has some stuff in it that even GTA5(which is now about to span 3 console generations) doesn't even do, like freaking cruise control and coop.

KozmoOchez wrote:

Somehow I finished Saints Row The Third Remastered. I was just playing it between Judgment session just to have something fun to mess around with and all of a sudden the credits rolled.

Unspoilered spoiler:
I could be wrong but I think the game continues after the credits finish. Deadpool doesn’t make an appearance, but he might as well have.

RawkGWJ wrote:
KozmoOchez wrote:

Somehow I finished Saints Row The Third Remastered. I was just playing it between Judgment session just to have something fun to mess around with and all of a sudden the credits rolled.

Unspoilered spoiler:
I could be wrong but I think the game continues after the credits finish. Deadpool doesn’t make an appearance, but he might as well have.

Yes, it's one of those: "We put the final mission back (because there's two endings) and now you can do all the other things that are on the map that you skipped"

KozmoOchez wrote:
RawkGWJ wrote:
KozmoOchez wrote:

Somehow I finished Saints Row The Third Remastered. I was just playing it between Judgment session just to have something fun to mess around with and all of a sudden the credits rolled.

Unspoilered spoiler:
I could be wrong but I think the game continues after the credits finish. Deadpool doesn’t make an appearance, but he might as well have.

Yes, it's one of those: "We put the final mission back (because there's two endings) and now you can do all the other things that are on the map that you skipped"

I must be thinking of Saint’s Row 4, which I actually liked more than 3rd. After the credits there is all manner of goofiness. There might even be playable bits while the credits are rolling. I can’t remember.

My son and I finished Super Smash Bros Ultimate on the Switch! Fun game and now he is onto collecting more stuff. Gotta keep him entertained!

malking wrote:

Tempted to fire up Left Behind before Friday so I can go in having just played everything.

Definitely play through Left Behind before you play the sequel!

Finished a couple of good games this week.

Murder by Numbers is essentially a Phoenix Wright game where the puzzles are not linking pieces of evidence but rather solving nonograms, a.k.a. picross puzzles. I've played a fair amount of those puzzles before so the game was fairly easy until the last 25% or so. It would have been nicer to have a harder mode with grids larger than 15x15. Still, the puzzles were not bad at all. The story is super campy, but it's enough of a hook to keep you solving the puzzles. I did like that the cast of characters is super diverse and the intro sequence is excellent.

Evan's Remains is a puzzle platformer largely made by a single dev from Argentina. The game is short (2.5 - 3hs) and very story-heavy (I probably spent half of that time reading dialogue). The story revolves around a boy and a girl who go to a deserted island for different reasons but looking for the same thing. I don't want to spoil anything but it was a very good story. The art style is really nice, kinda reminded me of Fez. The puzzles consist of single screens with a tall wall on the left and a bunch of platforms that usually shift or retract after you jump on them. You usually solve them by figuring out the right sequence of jumps that will allow to get over the tall wall on the right. If anything, I ended up wanting more, but it's only a $7 game. It also has an easter egg that is a reference to my favorite soccer team from Argentina so that's a 10/10 in my book. Wonderful game.

Finished the base campaign of Dying Light yesterday. Holy hell what a ride. Such an amazing game. Now we've begun The Following.

Dying Light is a game that people really unjustly overlook from this era. I gather the multiplayer had quite a following, but I thought the parkour system was by a long shot the best I'd ever used - it really made me feel like I was vaulting over obstacles and rolling out of drops in a way that would destroy what little cartilage is left in my meatspace knees. It made me feel the way I wanted Mirror's Edge to make me feel (and was so sorely disappointed).

Yeah, I both hate zombie games, typically, AND got motion sickness the first time I tried to play it. I'm so glad I overcame both of those things (though I'll tell ya it twinges my fear of heights like a mofo).

Dawn of War 1 (PC)

I was surprised by how well this holds up! It was ahead of its time in many ways. I particularly enjoyed the modular upgrade system. I could equip every squad of marines with different weapons, or go all-in on a certain style. The cover system was simple, and while I didn't always engage with it, there were times where it made a difference. We also see the beginning of the morale system used in Company of Heroes and later DOW titles. All cool stuff.

The campaign was fairly straight forward and action-packed. While it tried to engage the player with different objectives, it ultimately felt like I had to just make a powerful force and blob upon the enemy. This meant the campaign started to feel very repetitive after about 6 (of 12 total) hours. Despite facing Orks, Eldar, and Chaos, I didn't change up my tactics other than when more advanced units were unlocked. Each faction certainly has their strengths and weaknesses, but the Space Marines who you play as seemed like fairly simple all-rounders.

The story was fine, a bit long-winded but inoffensive. It leaned into the Warhammer style of grimdark pretty well, and I can't really complain. If anything, it was a little bit light on lore and depth.

I know that's a few negative points, but I really did enjoy my time with the game. It's satisfying to play and it put a big grin on my face each night I settled down with it! I have all of the games, and all of the expansions so I'm preparing myself to move onto the next title: Winter Assault.

Highly recommended!

Just finished Greedfall, a game I had been enjoying for the first 40 hours or so. When I felt as though I was at the end game sequence the game took a turn and started throwing quest after quest at me and I thought I would never get to the end, it really was tedious. I'm guessing that I spent around 15 hours simply going from A to B and back again loads of times to compelte a quest through dialogue, and in many cases had to run some distance on the map as well. Little combat or skill use, but it just felt that the last third of the game was all story and far too contrived and could have been much shorter.

A real shame as the gameplay, story and island setting were very enjoyable for those early hours. I played on normal and rarely died, and rarely used many of the skills and potions. But the end has put me off a replay anytime soon.

In an interesting turn of events, we finished Kingdom hearts 3 (my son and I) What a confusing, weird and over-saturated game this franchise became. I just finished it because my son wanted to see the story and the cutscenes, which yes are nice. The animation was decent and the game presentation was enjoyable. My son was happy and poor 5 year old had a dad who had no idea who the all the 13 guys where. I mean, there a gazzilion black robed guys.. so damn many!!!

But, i feel that this ONCE AN SIMPLE, entertaining and fun franchise became this weird forced out of nowhere game with a bunch of elements just glued together. I did not play most of the spin offs, and that indeed hindered my enjoyment of the game, since I had no idea how half of the characters were. In fact. not even half. Aside form Zora, Roxas, Riku, Kairi, and the Disney guys the rest were completely unknown to me. Why did they made this game so damn weird and confusing?

The last couple of battles, I just mashed buttons and had no idea what was going on. Some of the bosses attack where IMO unavoidable and tedious. The ending left me with more questions that answers. It was "nice" to finally see a closure, gut then again, after the credits i was just left bonkers....

I will hold dear in my heart Kingdom Hearst 1 and 2 and that is it.
Speaking of which, whatever happened to all the FINAL FANTASY characters? When and why did they stop from appearing on the game?

Also...

Spoiler:

Did i miss something with Maleficent and pete? There were looking for a black box and that was it, then they appear again at the end. This is obviously a hit for KH4, which i am no longer interested

In a nutshell, I feel that in a way, they ruined a game that was once what it song was about "Simple and Clean" and turned into a tangled mess

Back to DQXI and FFVII remake, before my son has more ideas (hint, pokemon sword)

I have to agree with you Darkhaund in how KH was simple and beautiful at the start, but I'd pretty much limit that to the original and no other installment in the franchise. I got Chain of Memories on the GBA - and was admittedly amazed at the cutscene graphical quality on a GBA cart - and thought, well, what the hell am I playing narratively? Then played KH II and, though I beat it, I thought it was needlessly overcomplicated crap - style over substance in the most Nomura style once could find. Mind you, I still bough KH III... for about 12 bucks, so I'll start and finish that someday hahaha

But yeah, I wish we could go back to the simplicity of the original

I still have mixed feelings and have a feeling of "betrayal" of me towards the game. I feel, that in a way, I am being unfair with the KH franchise because I did not play a single of the spin-offs. I recall, back in the day, trying to play that annoying game that used CARDS for battle. I simply couldn't sand it. I was gven as a gift some of the other games like 357/8 (or whatever that one is called) Birth by sleep etc... and never touched those. As a SIDE note, i am a HUGE Disney Fan, huge, AS WELL as FF fan and this game back then was pure gold and the mix of both worlds that i loved.

KH3, seemed -to me- that the Disney elements were just an excuse, with all they came pu with, they could have easily just erased them. Anyway. I doubt I will ever play another kH game. The ending hinted at more twisted and crazy stuff, that I simply am not interested

I played through Donut County for the first time over the weekend, as ever I am of course only on the new hotness... Really enjoyed it and will probably play again at some point.

I finally finished Divinity: Original Sin 2, and since I wrote a long post about it over on the CRPG Club thread for the game, I thought I would shamelessly copy it and paste it here for everyone to endure, so here you have it:

Overall, I really liked the game. I think the world is beautiful, and it is packed with intricate detail and a profusion of everything --objects, characters, buildings, gorgeous landscapes... I love the fact that, unless your party dies, you can keep playing and the quest won't be over just because you botched something --it simply adapts to the situation and you can go from there. The characters are interesting, and I really like their design and their voices --all production values are outstanding, really.

I had been interested in the game since it first came out, even though I have never played the first one. I was hesitant to get it because of the turn-based combat, a style of combat I thought I didn't like. However, after getting Battle Chasers and adoring it, I thought I would take my chances with D:OS2. Before I started the game, I thought I might not be too hot on the combat but the story would pull me in and make me want to finish the game despite the combat style. Shockingly, the opposite ended up happening: at some point I checked out of the story, but I was still enjoying the combat, and that is what made me stick with the game all the way to the end. Don't get me wrong, I liked the story, but there is so much, what with the main character's tale, your companions' subplots, and the dozens upon dozens of quests you come across. Yes, they are interesting, well written, and very well voice-acted and implemented, but there is just so much of everything that it ended up overwhelming me, especially because it was nearly impossible for me to stick to one quest until I finished it without running into and triggering at least three or four more, which made everything a little chaotic and hard to follow, and it made it hard to feel like I was making progress.

This "there is so much" phenomenon that overwhelmed me also applies to the detailed world I loved so much, because in any given location there was always so much stuff that I usually missed many items when I explored a room, a house or a cave, and then I had to resort to a guide to find out where the thing I needed to progress on my quest was located. Maybe I'm just dumb and not as detail-oriented as I like to think I am, but the plethora of objects, the overabundance of items, and the fact that you can only zoom in so much made it a bit frustrating to feel satisfied after rummaging through a room, because I had the nagging suspicion I had probably missed something important. The solution, of course, was to click R3 (I played on the PS4) to bring up the labels of everything in the environment, but since there is always so much everywhere, the screen became impossibly cluttered, sometimes making it even worse than before.

That is one of my two complaints about a game I otherwise really liked and thoroughly enjoyed. The second one is the way I felt the game wasted my time with menial tasks and inventory management. I could very well spend half an hour at a time just sorting through my inventory or trying to determine which weapon/helmet/gloves/boots/pants/armor/belt/amulet/ring 1/ring 2 was the best one to equip... times four! And then think about what I am selling and what I am keeping. And then, when it came time to buy something, I could spend an hour just looking at the different weapons/helmets/gloves/boots/pants/suits of armor/belts/amulets/rings, have their stats pop up, and then compare them to whatever weapon/armor/etc I had equipped... times four. I honestly ended up using the same equipment for relatively big stretches at a time so that I wouldn't have to waste my time doing that. I mean, if I only have an hour to play, I don't want to spend it that way --I'd rather fight and explore and make progress in the story.

The other aspect of what I'm calling "menial tasks" is the way you have to do many things in the game. For instance, let's say Lohse (my main character) comes across a Source Fountain, and her three source slots are empty. Why can't I press X and have all three slots fill up? Why do I need to press X, walk to the puddle that forms on the floor, absorb it, go back to the faucet, press X, walk back to the puddle, absorb it, go back to the faucet, press freaking X again, walk back to the puddle and absorb it for the third time while hoping I don't lose my mind? Or why do I need to actually open the skill book I just grabbed to actually get the skill, then go to skills and memorize it? I know, I know --because I might be buying a skill book for someone else, but why can't all that be streamlined? And there are a dozen other examples of this, but I don't want to belabor the point.

Despite most of what I just wrote, I really liked the game, but I know I would have enjoyed it a lot more had it been shorter and more streamlined. Except for the first one, I think every act in the game could be its own independent, stand-alone game, and each one would take hours upon hours to complete and would leave the player satisfied and thinking they definitely got their money's worth. I do like long games and complex stories that pull me in, but I guess 15 to 20 hours is long enough for me. More than that, and I get restless, which is ironic because I really want to get Persona 5 Royal. What am I thinking?

In any case, I am very glad I got this game and played it through. I had a great time, and would certainly recommend it to people, with the caveat that they are in for a long, long experience, made longer by the way certain systems work. But if you like RPGs, then you should definitely check it out, because it is a lot of fun.

Thanks for your valuable input on DOS2..... I SO WANT TO PLAY this game

Finished Mass Effect 3 this morning. What a weird ending.

Darkhaund wrote:

Thanks for your valuable input on DOS2..... I SO WANT TO PLAY this game

Thank you for reading it! And since you like long games, this one is definitely for you.

Mario_Alba wrote:
Darkhaund wrote:

Thanks for your valuable input on DOS2..... I SO WANT TO PLAY this game

Thank you for reading it! And since you like long games, this one is definitely for you.

I do.. and everything your explained and all thats lore and detail in the world makes wanna play like now... for one reason or another... i havent been able to start it. i OWN IT ON PC... ...

Darkhaund wrote:
Mario_Alba wrote:
Darkhaund wrote:

Thanks for your valuable input on DOS2..... I SO WANT TO PLAY this game

Thank you for reading it! And since you like long games, this one is definitely for you.

I do.. and everything your explained and all thats lore and detail in the world makes wanna play like now... for one reason or another... i havent been able to start it. i OWN IT ON PC... ...

It is DEFINITELY for you, then, hahaha!

I will TRY to start it up this week