Finished Any Games Lately?

Finished Civilization III, to the extent you can finish a game like that. It reminds me very much of Civ 1 on harder settings, for better or worse. I feel like they had 'proper' ways to play it, and like the harder settings of the earlier games, you have to assume there's going to be fighting. It also has the problem of the older games where you basically know you've won, then there's another 15 hours to play. For all its flaws, it had a high nostalgia factor for me, as it's so much like the first two games that I played so much. Considering I paid $1.50 for it, and played for something like 50 hours, it certainly was great on cost per hour.

Spec Ops: The Line.

They just keep popping up, bundles or giveaways, I don’t know. Anyway, run, shoot the men, run some more. It’s ok, they’re Americans...

What

It’s actually not ok. They’re soldiers on our “side” and innocent civilians and oh gosh what have I done.

This one actually has something to say, and does it well. Great story and which builds to a great ending, even if it was more than a little

Spoiler:

Fight Club.

It’s just unfortunate that the shooting parts that made up 90% of the game were so tedious. Hide behind the thing to heal, pop up and shoot someone, hide behind the thing. Pick up some ammo and repeat. Run to the next area when everything stops shooting. Make a mistake and reload from the last checkpoint and do half of it again. That sounds like every other cover shooter but it was somehow worse than most. Still worth it for the story.

I achieved a quartet of 100% completions across Marvel's Spider-Man as well as it's three part DLC The City that Never Sleeps and I had a fantastic time in doing so.

The traversal and the combat come with an abundance of fluidity and thoughtful adjustments. I kept both fresh through varying the approach. This gadget. That gadget. Suit modifications. Suit powers. When I grew tired of one approach, another would freshen it up. I made liberal use of the drone, electric web, impact web, web shooters, and dodge under, air launch, air juggle, air yank, web strike. Damn, that makes me want to return for more.

I tackled crime notifications where and when I felt like doing so. There's no tether to rush at their beck and call.

Memorable turns from many a character. I loved Aunt May. The storytelling was so good. The relationship between Peter and Otto. The boundary foundation between Peter and MJ. The main arc held my interest throughout. Kingpin, to Mr. Negative, and everything else.

Whilst the honeymoon period did wear through I never grew tired of this one. I may have had a few more hours in me before fatigue set in. Nevertheless, better it did not overstay its welcome. A little downtime before Miles Morales is probably for the best as well.

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine.

This was loads of fun. Walk around the ruins a of a war-ravaged planet. Hit lots of space Orks with a space hammer, or shoot them. Charge up the “fury” meter every so often then just smash everything all at once.

Fights are interspersed with super serious dialogue about something or other. Everyone looks like they just stepped out of Starcraft or Warcraft. Maybe I’ve got that backwards.

Some really weird bugs. One time I had to restart a level because I got trapped in a room with no exit. Once I got stuck on my side in the floor and was sort of sideways swimming around in the ground. And a couple of times I got booted outside the level boundaries and couldn’t get back.

Still. Space hammer. They should make a Marvel Thor game like this.

Whelp, today after years of play I decided to declare I am "finished" with Crusader Kings 2.

I have a bit of a complex relationship with this game. I was one of those folks who always kept it installed but played it sporadically at best, but would always get the DLC on sale. Like most Paradox games I liked it but there's too often these long stretches of watching the game play itself and waiting for something to happen. When it clicked though, like the time I was hunting my ruler's uncle all across Europe to assassinate him since he tried to murder me first, or the time my Catholic ruler married a beautiful Muslim wife and was then offed, those were great times. But they were too few and far between. Most of the time it was me just peering at buttons and wondering if I clicked button A would it make a difference vs hitting button B. Eventually, after all of the DLC, the game was just too bloated for me to get a fresh start and I respectfully uninstalled it and was grateful for the time I shared with it.

With that said, of course I picked up CK3 and eagerly await its release. Mostly because I hear the game is extremely streamlined and friendly to the new CK player and those like me who left the game behind. Also it just looks great, and I have a chance to "restart" my experience with the CK gameplay and dive into it at the maniac levels that many of its fans hit.

Finished The Witcher 3, including all expansions. What a journey...I’m so used to firing it up (been playing it solidly and almost exclusively for 3 months) that I automatically went to do just that the day after I finished.

charlemagne wrote:

Finished The Witcher 3, including all expansions. What a journey...I’m so used to firing it up (been playing it solidly and almost exclusively for 3 months) that I automatically went to do just that the day after I finished.

*High Five*

If you haven't done so already, dive into the DLC, which is even better than the main game in a lot of ways.

Budo wrote:

If you haven't done so already, dive into the DLC, which is even better than the main game in a lot of ways.

He said in his post that he played the expansions??

Vrikk wrote:
Budo wrote:

If you haven't done so already, dive into the DLC, which is even better than the main game in a lot of ways.

He said in his post that he played the expansions??

Clearly my glaucoma is acting up 30 years in advance

I'm finished with John Wick: Hex.

Got it on discount. It's an interesting take on the Wickiverse (is that a thing?). There's a lot to like in the game and I find the combat timing gameplay very interesting - it kind of aligns with how Wick plots his moves in real time during the movies, but ultimately the game was just really repetitive and I realized I'd prefer just watching a full playthrough on YouTube. The best feature of the game is how it creates mini-movies of your John Wick runthrough of a level. It's quite cool but ultimately it felt...robotic.

I recommend it if you're a fan of the movies and would like to try a different combat mechanic, but overall I just found the experience kind of like going through the motions the longer I played. Try it out if it goes on sale!

In a rather random break from what I'd previously been playing, I just played through and finished (the main route of) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 1 (PSP version). I've never actually played any Persona games before (or any SMT games in general), despite being interested in them—mainly due to not owning any Playstation consoles of my own except for my increasingly elderly PSP. Persona 3 Portable had always been on my radar, but I never got round to it (too busy repeatedly restarting Tactics Ogre every six months or so). Persona 4 on Steam caught my interest recently, but with so many games on my backlog...

...so why did I end up making time for the first (and popularly considered the worst) Persona game? I dunno, I guess I wanted a straightforward JRPG dungeon crawl. Sometimes I don't have the mental energy to devote to a 'better' game (I get in a trap of obsessively trying to experience the game 'in the best possible way', which usually ends up with me burning myself out on restarts). Retro gaming lets me shut down some of my more neurotic gaming habits. In this case, I got some satisfaction from 'grinding' demons through negotiation, working out how to get them to give me their spell cards and then levelling towards better Personas. Given the reputation of the SMT series, I actually expected the game to be much harder, though it is very battle intensive—and you constantly have to remind yourself of different demons' resistances so that you don't inadvertently reflect a Megidola back into your own face.

Superhot.

It’s the most ... well you know. And if you don’t know, go play it. You got it free or cheap in a bundle or epic store or something didn’t you? So go play it.

That is all.

Redherring wrote:

Superhot.

It’s the most ... well you know. And if you don’t know, go play it. You got it free or cheap in a bundle or epic store or something didn’t you? So go play it.

That is all.

I'm close to finishing SuperHOT MIND CONTROL DELETE. It is also incredible. Felt a bit easy at first but it soon ramps up and has rogue like elements. Lots of nifty new powers and clever enemy designs.

Finished Steamworld Dig 2. Definitely an improvement over the first one. It was still very short, but I felt like it ended at the right point.

Managed to finish Baldur's Gate II (both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal) finally. I loved the first as a kid, and it took me forever to finally sit down with the sequels, but I'm glad I did? It helped bridge a gap I knew existed between the first game and where BioWare would eventually end up. Even some of the story beats are things they would more fully flesh out in Dragon Age in particular.

I've also come to realize that despite second edition D&D being my first intro due to my parents, I never want to deal with that system more than I have to ever again.

Also finished The Mummy: Demastered as my little bit of gaming on my Switch before bed game, and that one was a nice refreshingly short Metroidvania.

I just finished MO: Astray. I think I saw this game mentioned here recently. It's an awesome action/puzzle platformer where you control a little blob that jumps and sticks to walls. It was interesting to play this game after Carrion (which I did not like) because they share the "play as a supernatural blob and escape from a facility that is falling apart after a failed science experiment" theme. This is a much more linear and better paced game, and IMO a lot more interesting. I enjoyed the story and how you slowly uncover things. The game was also the right level of challenge for me on normal difficulty, and the right length for me at about 7-8 hours of campaign.

Aeazel wrote:

Managed to finish Baldur's Gate II (both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal) finally. I loved the first as a kid, and it took me forever to finally sit down with the sequels, but I'm glad I did? It helped bridge a gap I knew existed between the first game and where BioWare would eventually end up. Even some of the story beats are things they would more fully flesh out in Dragon Age in particular.

I've also come to realize that despite second edition D&D being my first intro due to my parents, I never want to deal with that system more than I have to ever again.

Also finished The Mummy: Demastered as my little bit of gaming on my Switch before bed game, and that one was a nice refreshingly short Metroidvania.

Great job! If you don't have it yet, make sure you play Siege of Dragonspear, the interim game between BG1 and 2. It's relatively fast at 20 years. I just finished two simultaneous campaigns of BG1, BG: SOD, and BG2, and I'm glad I added that game in the middle. It fits seamlessly in between both stories while adding its own unique story.

I guess I just finished Frostpunk. Again. The final DLC was just released so I played the two new scenarios. They're essentially a prequel and a sequel to the main game. Both took the familiar gameplay and mixed in enough new mechanics and complications to keep them interesting.

I also went on and replayed the main scenario and the 3 original side scenarios. I've come to the conclusion that Frostpunk has been one of my favorite gaming experiences in recent years. That's somewhat unexpected, so I was trying to figure out why I liked it so much. Here's what I came up with:

1. It's extremely atmospheric. You can feel the cold desperation of your little workers as you watch them push through snowbanks and the welcome warmth as your generator melts snow off the roofs. The static artwork is also great. Not a big revelation that I like atmospheric games though.

2. I appreciated the little snippets of text you get when your scouts arrive somewhere new or when ethical dilemmas occur. I seem to be a fan of games that leave a lot to your imagination and mete out tantalizing hints of deeper lore (eg Sunless Sea), instead of a huge info-dump codex or just plain superficial worldbuilding.

3. The length is perfect. Each scenario is long enough to feel substantial, but you're clearly working toward a final ending. I concluded earlier this is also a major reason I loved Subnautica as well. Too many games feel like they drag on. City builders and survival games in particular seem likely to be never-ending sandboxes that rely on the player to set their own goals. I might enjoy that for a while but my interest inevitably peters off and I'm left with a vague sense of dissatisfaction when I finally stop playing. This is also why I've resolved to never play another MMO. I prefer the sense of accomplishment that comes with a definitive finale.

4. And here's the big revelation to me. Through much of my playtime I actually felt tense and vaguely anxious, constantly adjusting things to ensure adequate supplies of the various resources and the health and warmth of my people. It felt like a juggling act and things could fall apart at any time. My brain was actively engaged and time melted away. But then when I went to bed, I couldn't shut my mind off and it was even a bit unpleasant. Looking back, many of my other absolute favorite gameplay experiences in recent years elicited a similar response: Darkest Dungeon, XCOM, Prey. Do I prefer games that stress me out? Is this somewhat akin to the reasons people enjoy horror movies and rollercoasters?

Alright, lemme tell you about the best game you've never heard of:

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension

Actually, I can't go into too much detail without giving it all away, so I'll have to resort to a few vague references. But first, let me pivot and ask an unusual question: Have you ever read The Monster at the End of This Book? When I was a very tiny tot, this was my go-to book to have read to me, because it broke the fourth wall and engaged me, the reader, directly into the narrative. As so many years have passed since then, I had actually forgotten about this book right up until I started playing this game. I say this, because There Is No Game starts off immediately (and entirely throughout) by dragging me, the user, directly into the narrative. In retrospect, Monster may be responsible for my love of these broken-fourth-wall narratives, which seem to occur almost entirely in the video game medium.

Anyway. Spoiler alert: There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is, in fact, a 100% pure 2d point-and-click adventure game, with a few tricks up its sleeve. I guess it's not really that much of a spoiler; it says so right on the store page. Almost all of the characters are fully voiced, including a great Russian accent throughout. The story that brings this whole crazy thing together, including loads of cultural references and parodies, is what makes it such a delight, and what I'll be so fondly remembering.

I finished it in a bit over 5 hours, which felt like just the right amount of time to spend on a game of this scope. As it's a point-and-click adventure game, there is indeed an incremental hint system available, which I had to use twice (once early on because I was dense, and once towards the end because I knew what I needed to do, but was trying to implement it the wrong way); otherwise the game felt like the perfect difficulty for me.

If any of this sounds the least bit interesting, and you're not morally opposed to point-and-click adventure games, I'll give this a hearty recommendation and suggest that you not do too much research so you don't spoil yourself more than I've already done here; just jump right in. It's only $13 on Steam, released a few weeks ago by a tiny dev team.

Budo wrote:

Great job! If you don't have it yet, make sure you play Siege of Dragonspear, the interim game between BG1 and 2. It's relatively fast at 20 years. I just finished two simultaneous campaigns of BG1, BG: SOD, and BG2, and I'm glad I added that game in the middle. It fits seamlessly in between both stories while adding its own unique story.

20 years?!? Man I know we've been steadily creeping towards longer and longer RPGs in the RPG club, but that's going some!

Sorbicol wrote:
Budo wrote:

Great job! If you don't have it yet, make sure you play Siege of Dragonspear, the interim game between BG1 and 2. It's relatively fast at 20 years. I just finished two simultaneous campaigns of BG1, BG: SOD, and BG2, and I'm glad I added that game in the middle. It fits seamlessly in between both stories while adding its own unique story.

20 years?!? Man I know we've been steadily creeping towards longer and longer RPGs in the RPG club, but that's going some!

OMG that's hilarious! Hours obviously, but thinking about it, I just finished the sequel since I first starting playing it in 2000 and now adding Dragonspear, so it's....kinda accurate?

I finished A Case of Distrust, a film-noir themed point and click adventure game. Your 'inventory' consists of information you gathered as a private detective from clicking the environment or talking to the characters. You then use that info to confront the characters to eke more information out of them.

It's a great little game (about 3 hours), and while it doesn't completely avoid the genre's pitfalls (a piece of info that should work but doesn't, or being stuck and cycling through all possible 'inventory' pieces), the moments where you feel like a smarty-pants for connecting the dots far outweigh these minor nuisances.

Plus, it's a neat little story that doesn't shy away from tackling issues of sexism (you play an ex-cop female P.I.) or racism.

Highly recommended!

I just finished off the Links Awakening remake. It's been a very long time since I played the original, so I didn't quite remember everything. I really like the old-school design with just enough modern conveniences.

Spoiler:

I like the way they reveal the big twist about halfway through. Like they just want you to sit with it and think on what the consequences of your quest will be.

If I were to rank the Zelda games, this would be somewhere near the middle, I think. Given the company it's in, that's not bad!

I just wrapped up the campaign for Battletech as part of the GWJ Strategy Game Club. This ended up being one of very few strategy games that I can play and enjoy - it's usually not my cup of tea, but hey, giant death robots? Battletech also happens to be one of a few classic tabletop games that I thoroughly loved reading about, but never got a chance to actually play with (along with Shadowrun, so Harebrained Schemes is apparently operating right on my wavelength).

I loved the art style and visual representation of combat. The combat UI did almost exactly what I needed it to do, though I wish I could pull the camera back a bit further. The combat arenas were usually a bit too confined; it would've been better if there were more variety in the non-story missions. The one thing that's just absolutely perfect, though, is the implementation of the tabletop rules (which, of course that's the one thing they'd have to nail, right?). The balance when refitting a mech is so intriguing to me - balancing types of hardpoints, slots, weight, projected heat buildup, as well as how much armor you're willing to give up to fit it all in. And then letting it all rip with an alpha strike at just the right range to melt an opponent's Center Torso in one shot? So satisfying!

I think I'll probably try out one of the complete-overhaul mods just for giggles, though without the "pressure" of the GWJ Strategy Game Club, I probably won't stick with it for all that long. We'll see. There's definitely something appealing about stomping around a battlefield in a giant death robot.

I finished Contradiction - Spot the Liar! It is a very well done FMV game, especially considering it is a small project. You play as a detective investigating a suspicious death in a small British village, and you make progress by finding contradictions in the answers that people give you.

Interestingly, the store page for the game suggests playing it in front of the TV with other people so I tried the second-best that I could afford in these pandemic times and I played it with a friend over Discord, streaming the game over a video call and it was really awesome.

One thing the game cannot avoid is the pitfall of knowing what a contradiction or a clue is but being unable to "tell" that to a character because of the limited input options, but that's a problem I had playing Phoenix Wright so I can't blame this game for it.

I also thought the story was a bit too far-fetched at times, even knowing that it is meant to be fiction. Perhaps it has to do with the game being FMV making me expect more plausible or realistic events. It was also a bit underwhelming that a lot of the clues just randomly drop on your feet instead of you finding them. Still, I'd recommend this game to people who enjoy murder mystery stories. It's also just ten bucks.

I finished Ghost of Tsushima this weekend.

I was pleasantly surprised at how short and focused Act III was, Looking back, it clear that the developers used the Three Act structure to 'taper' the game really well. It was a welcome contracts to the Ubisoft/Rockstar approach of making the map ever bigger as the game progresses (Ghost Recon: Wildlands, for example).

I like the visual presentation too. Strong colours. Leaves. Blowing wind. It reminded me a lot of the arthouse end of the martial arts cinema, like 'House of Flying Daggers'.

But for the most part, I was left unsatisfied by the game. It was too 'one note' - combat to the exclusion of pretty much anything else.

Budo wrote:

Great job! If you don't have it yet, make sure you play Siege of Dragonspear, the interim game between BG1 and 2. It's relatively fast at 20 years. I just finished two simultaneous campaigns of BG1, BG: SOD, and BG2, and I'm glad I added that game in the middle. It fits seamlessly in between both stories while adding its own unique story.

Oh, thankfully I'd finished that two years ago when I did a rerun of BG1:EE. It is odd to think that I used to play these games fairly regularly, but these days playing the older engines (even with a refresh) just makes me need a break between them. Also coming to realize I prefer turn-based over RTWP. It did do a fairly good job of getting me where I ended up when I imported (which thankfully made the sequel a bit easier to start).

I think I'm finally done done done with AssCreed: Origins. I loved it overall, but the DLCs overstayed their welcome.

I played the Hidden Ones first after a long break and thought it was good - but more of the same.

I was really looking forward to Curse of the Pharaohs because I thought it would bring something different. Nope. It was pretty disappointing. Quests were either run to a marker and scan around to "investigate" or go find this thing or person in the middle of a camp of thirty or so bad guys. The dialog was also tiresome as it was always about "the gods, the gods!"

I still loved the main game though. One of my faves. Gonna take a looong break though before playing Odyssey.

PaladinTom wrote:

I played the Hidden Ones first after a long break and thought it was good - but more of the same.

I was really looking forward to Curse of the Pharaohs because I thought it would bring something different. Nope. It was pretty disappointing. Quests were either run to a marker and scan around to "investigate" or go find this thing or person in the middle of a camp of thirty or so bad guys. The dialog was also tiresome as it was always about "the gods, the gods!"

I still loved the main game though. One of my faves. Gonna take a looong break though before playing Odyssey.

This was my general impression of those DLC as well. I did jump into Odyssey right away afterward, but found that I need a fair amount of break now between sections.