Finished Any Games Lately?

Budo wrote:

After playing two games (Cyberpunk and Hades) that were massive time sinks, I was ready for something short, cute, and complete. And I got just that with Old Man's Journey.

Never did go back to finish Cyberpunk, but I played this right after finishing the main story of AC Odyssey, and it was such a wonderful break from long games. Definitely recommended as a reset, or if you need something quick to tide you over.

Vrikk wrote:

(And yes, Disco Elysium is a truly wonderful and great game. I feel like you and me have the same tastes, dejanzie. Let's be friends.)

I finished Brukel yesterday. It's a super short (one hour) walking simulator by a Belgian emigree who now teaches Applied Game Design in Miami University (which weirdly is in Oxford, Ohio). He lead the project, and his students made the game.

The game takes place in his families' farm called Brukel, in Geel Belgium. At first you take photo's of let's say a butter churner, and then an audio clip of his grandmother's explanation on the olden days starts. But then the topic becomes World War II and how his grandmother experienced the Battle of Geel.

It's a neat little game meant to keep the memory of the maker's family alive, but for me it was an interesting perspective you rarely see in videogames: that of a teenage girl trying to not die during the hardest fought battle of the Belgian liberation.

It's only 4EUR on Steam, so if you're not bothered by the low production values and maybe when it's even cheaper on a sale: go for it!

Budo wrote:

I was ready for something short, cute, and complete. And I got just that with Old Man's Journey. I liked it so much!

It really is a great little experience! A few years ago I intended to play it for my 41st birthday, but missed by two weeks =/

Finished Nier: Automata. Well, got all 5 main endings. I was debating going back in and finishing up some side quests, but most likely I'll be pretty content to call it complete.

Story-wise it's easily one of the more unique games I've played. And I loved the fun combat/action that could be as much or as little as you wanted it to be. For me though, I do think it initially failed to live up to some unrealistic hype expectations. But, after finishing it last night, I'm still thinking about the story and ending, and what it all means. I think it just took a while to process and sort of 'get' what the game was all about.

I'd love to have the time to play through the story again with the knowledge I have now. I think that would really show a whole lot of nuance and foreshadowing to the characters and story. But just due to lack of time, that's pretty unlikely for me.

Overall, loved it. And definitely glad I got back to it after some initial PC problems last year. And, looking forward to Nier Replicant sometime.

vlox_km wrote:

Finished Nier: Automata. Well, got all 5 main endings. I was debating going back in and finishing up some side quests, but most likely I'll be pretty content to call it complete.

Story-wise it's easily one of the more unique games I've played. And I loved the fun combat/action that could be as much or as little as you wanted it to be. For me though, I do think it initially failed to live up to some unrealistic hype expectations. But, after finishing it last night, I'm still thinking about the story and ending, and what it all means. I think it just took a while to process and sort of 'get' what the game was all about.

I'd love to have the time to play through the story again with the knowledge I have now. I think that would really show a whole lot of nuance and foreshadowing to the characters and story. But just due to lack of time, that's pretty unlikely for me.

Overall, loved it. And definitely glad I got back to it after some initial PC problems last year. And, looking forward to Nier Replicant sometime.

Nice!

The NieR Replicant remaster will be out soon!

Completed my first run through of Until Dawn last night. I will try different game decision options in my next future play through. Need to play something different right now though.

Finished the main story of Cyberpunk 2077. Fun game but man does it have it's share of bugs. One of the buggiest games I have played in awhile. Enjoyed the city, combat, and quests but also taking a break from it now and waiting for them to patch it before I dive back in to further experience the world, people and stuff.

Spoiler:

Oh and screw Johnny...

whispa wrote:
Spoiler:

Oh and screw Johnny...

Wait, did I miss a side-quest?

merphle wrote:
whispa wrote:
Spoiler:

Oh and screw Johnny...

Wait, did I miss a side-quest?

Spoiler:

I don't think so, I just chose the ending where I worked with Arasoka instead of him and Rogue, He is an arrogant ass who I didn't want him taking my body over again lol. He had his time.. ;)

Goonch wrote:

Completed my first run through of Until Dawn last night. I will try different game decision options in my next future play through. Need to play something different right now though.

That was a ton of fun. Early on I thought I had lost someone so I started checking a guide. Luckily they popped back up later still alive. I was able to finish a run saving everyone possible.

Always many to go back and do a get everyone killed run, as there are achievements for both.

re: Until Dawn, Stele wrote:

I was able to finish a run saving everyone possible.

I saved everyone except one; anyone who's played the game will almost certainly know who that was based on the fact that, while I wanted to save everyone, I wasn't all that upset when they died*.

Another member actually also died, but I instantly quit the game before it could save the death, so when I restarted it was before the choice that I knew - the instant I made it - was incredibly bone-headed, and I got a re-do.

After I finished, rather than replaying, I went on a YouTube binge of watching multiple people do playthroughs. In addition to seeing branches that I never had any idea existed, I got to watch people's reactions to the game and the events, and it was incredibly entertaining. Definitely the sleeper hit of the generation. Unfortunately, based on the next two games (I've played Man of Medan, but not yet Little Hope), I get the impression the same magic isn't still there at the studio.

*"It's a prank, Han!"

Oh youtube that game is probably fun. Good idea.

I successfully launched my rocket on Factorio. My final factory was a cobbled together mess. I can see how I might keep playing, scratch designing a factory with plenty of room, memorizing optimum resource ratios, figuring out some of the advanced tech like circuits that I never bothered with. I don't think I have the patience for that kind of thing nowadays though. I'm done. The expansion could conceivably bring me back though.

Overall I enjoyed my time. The best part was figuring out the engineering challenge of cramming new stuff in when I needed to ramp things up for a new tech. That was always satisfying.

Fighting off the indigenous lifeforms wasn't quite as fun, but for me, the game needed the tension they brought to keep me on my toes.

The worst part was towards the end, when I was waiting for resources to trickle in, running around repeatedly moving things around to different storage crates and repairing my walls and turrets. It was pretty boring. I know the correct answer was to keep expanding and optimizing my factory until the very end, but I had gotten lazy and just wanted to finish. It's the same feeling I get in a 4x when it's clear I'm going to win, but it's still a good bit of gameplay until I actually do. Really makes me appreciate again how short the scenarios were in Frostpunk.

Also I finished Tyranny a few weeks ago as part of the CRPG club.

gewy wrote:

Also I finished Tyranny a few weeks ago as part of the CRPG club.

How was Tyranny?

So I finally wrapped up Dragonquest 1 on the Switch. I played (and beat, as I recall) the OG Dragonquest (or Dragon Warrior as it was back then) back in 1991, so it was a lot of fun to return to that very simple game and see where so many mechanics for later games came from. It was much more epic when I was younger, but still great to see all the old locations.

On the back of that, I decided to give the Switch remake of Dragonquest 2 a shot, and I'm having a blast. You can really see the jump in complexity (multiple enemies per encounter, multiple party members) in the second game, while much of the original design remains unchanged. At this rate, I may slowly work my way through the entire series if it's available on Switch.

Natus wrote:
gewy wrote:

Also I finished Tyranny a few weeks ago as part of the CRPG club.

How was Tyranny?

I thought the world-building was great. The characters and plot were good. The minute to minute gameplay was... adequate.

Replayability is very high with different, mutually exclusive factions you can support or oppose. As it stands though, I don't foresee going back to it. The ending is OK- it's not a painful cliffhanger. But there's definitely a sense that the main story is left unresolved. I don't anticipate a sequel. If the series were to continue, I'd expect the story to branch even further and I'd be much more likely to replay the first with different choices.

Amongst similar games, I liked it much more than Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2 and maybe a little bit more than the Original Sin games and Shadowrun Returns. Less than Dragon Age and Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Hong Kong. I'm leaving out my older favorites like BG2, PST and Fallout 1 and 2, since I don't think I can fairly compare them. That was a different era for me.

gewy wrote:
Natus wrote:
gewy wrote:

Also I finished Tyranny a few weeks ago as part of the CRPG club.

How was Tyranny?

Amongst similar games, I liked it much more than Pillars of Eternity and maybe a little bit more than the Original Sin games and Shadowrun Returns. Less than Dragon Age and Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Hong Kong. I'm leaving out my older favorites like BG2, PST and Fallout 1 and 2, since I don't think I can fairly compare them. That was a different era for me.

Actually, I'm curious which RPGs you like best. I really want to like them, but I'm intimidated by them, and playing the older, un-upgraded ones seems like a recipe for confusion. I so wish I'd played them back in the day.

Natus wrote:

Actually, I'm curious which RPGs you like best. I really want to like them, but I'm intimidated by them, and playing the older, un-upgraded ones seems like a recipe for confusion. I so wish I'd played them back in the day.

Of the ‘newer’ crop of lengthy cRPGs in the tradition of the old isometric ones, you got the Pillars of Eternity Series, or the Original Sin series. Pillars is much more like the old Black Isle / BioWare stuff - lengthy, slightly po-faced plots and ‘real time with pause’ combat systems. The divinity series is lighter in tone and packs in considerably more humour (which is not to everyone’s taste) and uses a turn based tactical combat system, and throws in environmental interactivity for good measure. Both series deal - ultimately - with similar themes. It’s all gods and humanity’s relationships with them.

While both have extremely detailed combat systems (damage types, character builds, magic etc) if you play either game in ‘not hard’ mode it doesn’t really matter. If you make your characters do what they are supposed to according to class type you won’t go too far wrong in your efforts to get through the game.

Of the two I prefer the Divinty series, but it’s perfectly possible to like both despite what some people will tell you!

However

If you want a ‘modern’ RPG to get in to I would actually recommend either Dragon Age: Origins or Wasteland 2 and 3. The combat models of both games are much more simplistic than either Pillars or Divinity, and much easier to get in to. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING! The storyline of both games are perfectly serviceable (Wasteland adding considerably more humour - Wasteland 3 is particularly good at satirical commentary on recent political history) and enjoyable to play through. Wasteland 3 is considerably more polished that Wasteland 2 and also considerably shorter. I completed it in less than 50 hours. It is, however a bit on the nose in places. The future irradiated post-apocalyptic landscape of the United States is a harsh place with some very disturbed people in it. I wouldn’t play it if your kids are about.

Sorbicol wrote:
Natus wrote:

Actually, I'm curious which RPGs you like best. I really want to like them, but I'm intimidated by them, and playing the older, un-upgraded ones seems like a recipe for confusion. I so wish I'd played them back in the day.

Of the ‘newer’ crop of lengthy cRPGs in the tradition of the old isometric ones, you got the Pillars of Eternity Series, or the Original Sin series. Pillars is much more like the old Black Isle / BioWare stuff - lengthy, slightly po-faced plots and ‘real time with pause’ combat systems. The divinity series is lighter in tone and packs in considerably more humour (which is not to everyone’s taste) and uses a turn based tactical combat system, and throws in environmental interactivity for good measure. Both series deal - ultimately - with similar themes. It’s all gods and humanity’s relationships with them.

While both have extremely detailed combat systems (damage types, character builds, magic etc) if you play either game in ‘not hard’ mode it doesn’t really matter. If you make your characters do what they are supposed to according to class type you won’t go too far wrong in your efforts to get through the game.

Of the two I prefer the Divinty series, but it’s perfectly possible to like both despite what some people will tell you!

However

If you want a ‘modern’ RPG to get in to I would actually recommend either Dragon Age: Origins or Wasteland 2 and 3. The combat models of both games are much more simplistic than either Pillars or Divinity, and much easier to get in to. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING! The storyline of both games are perfectly serviceable (Wasteland adding considerably more humour - Wasteland 3 is particularly good at satirical commentary on recent political history) and enjoyable to play through. Wasteland 3 is considerably more polished that Wasteland 2 and also considerably shorter. I completed it in less than 50 hours. It is, however a bit on the nose in places.

I really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!

Sorbicol wrote:

The future irradiated post-apocalyptic landscape of the United States is a harsh place with some very disturbed people in it. I wouldn’t play it if your kids are about.

They're here in pre-apocalyptic times, too!

Even though I was part of the Kickstarter back in 2011, I only just finished Kentucky Route Zero. I had been playing each chapter as soon as they were released, but for some reason bounced off chapter 3 when it came out and never played the rest.

Cut to last month, after a night of drinking beer and playing online board games with friends, I decided to re-install it. Slightly drunk and in a dark room was kinda the perfect way to play it. It made an already surreal game even more surreal. For the next few weeks that was my Thursday routine: board games with friends, drinking beer, and then KR0.

I absolutely loved it. The art style and sound design were SO up my alley, and so was the surreal (nonsensical?) story. Really hoping Cardboard Computer makes more games in the future.

I finished Mutant Year Zero. I never finish anything. Maybe one game a year or something. Consider this an endorsement.

100 Hidden Eternals the last one was BS.

Sure, but focus testing found that calling it 99 Hidden Eternals And One BS One really wasn't connecting with consumers.

Natus wrote:

Actually, I'm curious which RPGs you like best. I really want to like them, but I'm intimidated by them, and playing the older, un-upgraded ones seems like a recipe for confusion. I so wish I'd played them back in the day.

This would be an interesting topic for its own thread I think. Which ones have you tried, if any?

I was thinking about it and it occurred that it's a bit of a foreign concept to me- RPG's being completely novel and intimidating. I've been playing them since Wizardry I, which was released in (looks it up, damn I'm old) 1981. If I could somehow erase my memory of all RPG's, which one game would I recommend my new, amnestic self to play?

As much as it pains me, I'd probably rule out most of the older ones for the reason you mentioned- too many quality of life improvements have been made since then, and most of the newer games have generous difficulty settings.

If you made me pick one right now, I'd probably go with Dragon Age: Origins albeit with several reservations. Witcher 3 would probably beat it out, but it'd bother me too much that I was starting at the end of the series.

Halo 2

I am playing through the MCC with my 8-year-old. A bit of context: although I'm 40, I barely gamed at all for two decades, from my late teens to late 30s. I did own the original Xbox and original Halo game, but only played it for about 30 minutes, so this series is as new to me as it is to my kid. We're blasting through on easy mode, and it's all very pleasant.

Anyway, I liked 2 more than CE. The quality was more consistent - especially in the level design. We seemed to spend half of our time in CE wandering around and trying to figure out which way to go in levels full of copy-paste rooms and corridors, and tons of confusing backtracking. The second was more focused in that regard.

On the negative side, I enjoyed being the Master Chief more than the pincer-faced "Adjudicator", which the game forces you into, and the more-complicated storyline in this one (some guff about prophets and warring species or something) made my eyes glaze. That might just be me, though; I know some people adore Halo story and lore.

Well, onto the next thing. For a change of pace, I think I'll see if I can get my son to play Drake Hollow now before we move to Halo 3.

I just finished the campaign for Star Wars: Battlefront 2 which I got for free on Epic Games.

The starfighter combat was fairly fun. I didn't particularly care for the shooter gameplay. I'll have forgotten most everything about the plot within a couple of weeks, but it did seem undermined by the inclusion of levels focusing on old favorites (Luke, Leia, Han, etc) and also Kylo Ren. Should have stayed focused on Iden and her squad.

This really solidified that I shouldn't spend significant money just to play the single player campaigns in multiplayer-focused shooters. I'm setting my limit at $5.

I recently finished two older games that have been remastered, and now I have some thoughts I want to put out there.

First, I recently finished Majora’s Mask on the 3DS. This was only second time I’ve played it and it’s been like 15 years, so while I remembered the broad strokes, plenty of it was still new again. And the new quality of life features, like saving and dungeons and the Bombers Notebook to help track people and quests, were greatly appreciated.

So the obvious thing about this game is how dark and weird it is, especially compared to everything else in the series. I loved the tone of the world, but it feels like something Nintendo wouldn’t necessarily try again now that there’s like 20 more years of the Zelda series growth and polish since this came out. Like, even if BOTW2 is darker than the first one, I don’t expect it to be grim or weird in the way this one was.

I found that the dungeons were surprisingly tedious; having to fly and hit moving targets as the Deku Scrub, having to work up and down the tower as the Goron, or dealing with water flows as the Zora were nowhere near as fun or interesting as the dungeons OOT had, which it came out right after. Maybe this was a testament to the quick development time, and the dungeons just needed more time in the oven. I found myself going ‘ugh, I guess I’ll have to get through this one’ for most of the dungeons in the game, when those are usually the meat and potatoes of a Zelda game. (For reference, I think OOT’s dungeon design are a big part of why it’s still worth playing today, even though many of the mechanics and the world design have been left far in the dust since it originally launched) And the fact that you have to use all of the mask transformation abilities for the different boss trials in the final dungeon, and that all of them are kind of a pain (especially the Zora one, with tightly times jumps out of the water) continued to be a drag. The best dungeon was the Stone Temple Tower, but that ironically that one felt a bit lacking since it didn’t go far enough with it’s unique dungeon flipping mechanic.

Fortunately there was a lot to do and a lot of stories to tell outside of the dungeons with a milieu of sidequests. The world was smaller than OOT, but was also much denser with more interesting things to do. And I can’t even begin to list off all the interesting stories or anecdotes from this game, other than that I think they are the best part of the game. Overall, I think Majora’s Mask is still a good game, but on replay I don’t think it can be in that top tier in the series anymore because the dungeons being sort of lacking is hard to overlook.

Second, I also finished Super Mario 64 on Super Mario 3D All Stars!

So I haven’t played this since it came out, but also it’s the first time I’ve beaten it, since I failed to do so as a child. The thing that really struck me was how varied many of the levels objectives were, especially for its time – pound a stake to free a chain chomp, bait an eel out of a cave and chase it, win foot races against koopas and sliding races against penguins, step on 4 towers in a dangerous sandy area to blow the top off a pyramid and unlock a boss battle, ground pound the loch ness monster to climb onto it’s head and then face a specific direction to guide it to a platform, having a penguin block wind from blowing you off a giant snowman, and so on. Actually some really good stuff, and had to have been incredibly groundbreaking for the it’s time. And the music is still really good, and tracks like Slider are still etched into my memory.

But there’s a really big downside: The controls can be very finicky, and the camera fighting you at every turn. If they could have just updated it to a more controllable camera as part of the remake, it would have done a world of good. But instead, I nearly smashed my controller several times, and nearly dropped the game for good several more. Too many pointless deaths or falls that just didn’t need to happen, or wouldn’t have happened in later Mario games. Now, I’ve seen my fair share of SM64 speedruns, and I know what can be done in this game in the right hands, but in a casual playthorugh for someone who’s not the best at 2D or 3D platformers, it was infuriating more than a few times. The first few levels were enjoyable to run around and reminisce, but after the first Bowser fight things started turning towards the frustrating. And I just don’t think I was having much fun at all in the back third of the game; I was just grinding it out to try to get the minimum 70 stars needed to to finish the game, and even then it was a lucky final Bowser throw on my second to last life that squeaked me over the finish line.

I’m glad I replayed it, and was finally able to put a part of my childhood to bed, and I have a new respect what this game accomplished for it’s time, but honestly, if I don’t play it again, I think I’d be just fine with that. Still love that soundtrack, though.

I don't know if you can really beat World of Warcraft, but I got my Horde character to Level 60, did all the main story content, and have done all the post-release content (up to this point). I'm sure once they release new raids and dungeons I'll jump back in, but for now I'm good. Once it gets to grinding for a small chance of a new piece of gear, I start looking at my backlog as a better use of my free time.

I polished off a golden oldie last night - Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. I’m a huge fan of stealth (in any game, honestly, but especially in stealth games), and the original Deus Ex was a revelation for me, in that it was the first game I ever played where it felt like anything was possible. I’ve never played the problematic sequel, Invisible War, but I enjoyed the reboot, Human Revolution, enough that I bought Mankind Divided either at launch or shortly afterward. But I was put off by what seemed like clunky gameplay compared to my now-fave stealth series, Dishonored, and only got about a half hour in before I got distracted by something new and shiny coming out. And then shiny things kept coming out for…apparently it’s now been over four years.

And those four years are immediately apparent; going back into it, I was struck by how big and clunky everything looked, like this was a lower-poly previous-gen game (and, since I played it on the PS5, it technically was a previous-gen game). In reality, though, I think that reduced complexity is there to balance out how absolutely stuffed this game is with things you can interact with; once I settled into Mankind Divided, I was in love with the wealth of opportunities in the environments, how if you’re diligent about exploring you’ll easily find a multitude of ways to accomplish any goal, be it mountain-goatesque climbing, computer hacking, judicious sniping, spontaneous door construction (i.e. punching through walls), or simply adroit conversation - there’s a dialog mini-game that will resolve many issues non-violently, if you choose to upgrade the pheromone-sensing body-temp-reading eyeball-dilation monitoring software in your head.

And explore I did - after I managed to sneak through, ghost-like, one particularly impressive multi-story area, a high-tech junkyard favela patrolled by guards who had instructions to shoot me on sight, I reached the exit door and then manually saved before heading back and - for the next three nights - methodically putting to sleep every single guard, in the process exploiting a Habitrail warren of air vents and cable ducts, and rifling through every guard’s pockets, every desk and cabinet drawer, and cracking every safe hidden behind a sliding wall painting. I wrung the hell out of that area and the entire game, enjoying every minute of ninja-like joy I could.

Did I abuse the hell out of the save system, regularly resorting to a previous save when I accidentally triggered an alarm? Damn right I did, because that’s how I enjoy playing a stealth game, the same way someone playing a racing game enjoys perfecting a line. Did I use the saves to explore every branch of the storyline when mutually-exclusive branches came up? Damned straight.

So when, after playing all of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and its three DLCs - one of which, where you’re undercover in a prison, is extraordinary, and is almost a full game in itself - my PS5’s tracker says I put 109 hours into the game, you can reliably assume the total playtime, including backtracking-via-saves, is pretty close to twice that. Is it a little clunky visually? Yep. Is some of the writing clumsy, with a slam-you-on-the-head unsubtle racism allegory that sadly is more relevant four years later when racists aren’t hiding in the shadows? Yes. Do the character animations during conversations look laughably like marionette figures that are…well, they’re trying to convey something with jerky spastic body language, but god knows what it is? Oh, yeah.

But did I find the game to be a supremely satisfying experience, putting a tense smile (sometimes more of a grimace) of joy on my face for over a hundred hours? Hell yes! Aging though the graphics were, there’s some fantastic art direction that more than makes up for it, and navigating the rich levels was like some nesting-doll gift, constantly surprising me with new things every twist and turn. The writing and the conversational animations (gameplay animations are great, though) are literally maybe 1% of the game that I experienced, and honestly I’m probably overselling their awkwardness and underselling their clunky amusement. 99% of my experience of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was the delight of creatively and non-lethally solving stealthy puzzles, discovering the multitude of tools and situations Eidos Montreal handed to me. Big thumbs up.

Oh, also, at one point I snuck into the basement storage room of an antiques shop, and discovered this Easter Egg:

IMAGE(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51043872573_9c8efc8375_k.jpg)

Cheeky monkeys.

Sounds like you and I have the same tastes. Sneaking around a large, detailed level knocking out enemies one by one is my favorite and I also especially liked the ghetto level in Mankind Divided.