Finished Any Games Lately?

kuddles wrote:

Might wait a while before getting to Miles Morales.

FYI the combat in Miles is much better. The electric powers add a dimension at the start and then partway through you get his invisibility and it gets even deeper.

I actually planned to play Spidey again on PS5 but after Miles had to take a break. I knew it would be a step backwards.

Also the side missions are better in Miles and there's a system to trigger them if you need specific ones for trophies or whatever.

I'm about six years too late, but I beat Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.

It's definitely a re-telling of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but whatever. It was a fun romp. I like killing Nazis, and I don't care in what situation I do it.

I mentioned it over in the relevant catch-all thread last night, but I finished 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. WOW, what a delightfully complex story to unravel via visual novel point-and-click adventure style sections, interspersed with a pseudo-realtime tactical combat game. Basically, a bunch of Japanese high school kids (because, of course they are) have to defend the world by piloting giant robot Sentinels and destroying the incoming Kaiju (giant monsters) in 1985. I way undersold the story, intentionally, to avoid giving anything away. If any of this sounds appealing to you, or if you enjoyed The Nonary Games trilogy, do yourself a favor and check this out.

I finished Mario Galaxy, as part of the Mario 3D All Stars package. And by finished, I mean did enough to beat Bowser and roll credits; there’s plenty of game to go, but I’ve had the fun I wanted. I’ve skipped Sunshine for now, may get to it later.

Overall, I liked more than 64 in almost every way. The controls were tighter and more responsive, the camera was improved (although most of the time you couldn’t fall off the level you were on so the camera was less of a worry anyway, and I like the level design better. I like the music too, although it wasn’t as iconic as M64. And rather than having a ton of missions in one level like 64, this one has a bunch of smaller levels so none of the ideas outstay their welcome, either.

The only weird thing to me is I don’t remember any of this game. I played (and beat!) this game when it came out for the Wii, but I don’t remember any of the levels from back then. I could still remember the first half of the levels from 64 in my childhood, I can still remember a handful of levels from Sunshine, and I can still remember some from Galaxy 2. This one, however, apparently left no impression on me. Which is a bit weird, since the ending is absolutely wild.

Anyway, it’s a good game.

And the final credits roll on Outer Worlds, as the brave captain saves the colony and begins the rebuilding process.

I loved the aesthetic (50's B-movie SF), the supporting cast, the variety of things to do and the weapons and armour updating system. I also enjoyed the 2 DLCs, which had a similar vibe and worked well as standalone plots. There's also plenty of hooks for a sequel.

I wasn't so keen on the constant loading/transition screens, some of the animations were a bit odd-looking, but that's about it.

About 30-odd hours including the DLCs. Well worth a playthrough.

Finished Neo Cab last week. Not sure why, but I'd added it to my Switch wish list and it was on sale, so I picked it up.

It was... alright I suppose? It was my first visual novel, and I knew that going in, but I just ended up finding it kinda meh. The story never really grabbed me and I felt like they could have gone deeper into some of the sub-plots. Though maybe that was on me for not exploring them more?

The art style of Neo Cab was pretty great and felt nice and Cyberpunk-y to me, but man oh man did I find the character animations to be distracting. They all seemed to have major googly eye syndrome.

I haven't decided if I want to go back in and try some other story branches to see if it gets better. I might do that and just ignore the main story line and see what happens.

Finished Persona 5 Strikers last night! I wrote more about it in the P5 thread.

I just rolled credits on Demon's Souls (2020 remake).

I played through the original on PS3 a long freaking time ago, and it ignited a great fondness for Souls games in me. I still remember walking into my local Best Buy late one night about 10 years ago and asking the young woman who was staffing the video game section to get me a copy of (PS3) Demon's Souls. She sized me up and said, "That's a pretty hard game. Are you sure you want it?" I smiled politely and replied, "Yes, I think I'll be ok," while scowling inwardly. I brought it home, fired it up, and died many, many times. Still worth it.

Bluepoint's attention to detail on this remake is absolutely perfect. Graphical fidelity, audio effects and nuances, even some subtle (and not-so-subtle) gameplay enhancements all make the game seem fresh, new, and absolutely "next-gen", yet the game still feels very familiar and comfortable to those who have played the original.

That stirred my nostalgia and my intrigue better than anything so far. I've great memories of the original. Glad to see the remake deliver in that regard!

I forgot. I finished Breathedge a couple of weeks ago. It was OK.

The main reason I got it is because of how much I loved Subnautica's survival mechanics in a handcrafted world with a discrete plot and endpoint. Breathedge seems very much inspired by this and even added a clever visual joke about it at the end. However, the biggest advantage Subnautica has over Breathedge is the array of different biomes and lifeforms to discover, which keeps it fresh. Breathedge is just outer space- asteroids, debris, a nice view of the distant planet. Space is always cool, but once you've seen it, you've seen it.

Upgrading your gear and finding new oxygen sources so you can venture further and further out was sufficiently rewarding especially in the early stages. The addition of base-building seemed superfluous and too grindy. Overall the game is a bit more linear and directed than Subnautica, and toward the end, the game takes a turn and becomes even more linear and plot-focused, but I can't say the plot really interested me too much.

The game has a relentless, crude humor that I think exceeds even Borderland's. Some might like it, but I suspect many will find it a turn off since the majority of the jokes are more cringey than funny. That doesn't really bother me though as long as the tone is consistent, which it certainly is here.

So yeah, overall an OK game. I'd only recommend it if you're really in the mood for something like this.

On a whim I bought gris this weekend in the psn sale and played it right through. What could have been a relatively rote platformer is really elevated by beautiful artwork and sound design to become an emotional experience about grief. Very much recommended.

Beat the final boss in Loop Hero. I forget what I did to win.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Beat the final boss in Loop Hero. I forget what I did to win.

You had to reduce his HP to zero, I believe.

I finally finished the magical girl JRPG Blue Reflection. It was pretty good. Looked great, although a few animations were wonky (there were a few times their hair seemed possessed). Even on hard it wasn't very challenging, aside from boss fights and a few late game mixed resistance mobs most fights were over in one or two moves. The boss fights were interesting, but not that difficult once you unlocked and leveled up your skills.

Of course, being a JRPG, it was pretty grind heavy, but I felt the events in the later chapters of had some good emotional weight to them, so the slow road to them did help get you invested in the characters. The obvious twist wasn't very surprising, but thankfully it wasn't the only one.

Glad I finally got around to playing it, even if wanting to finish it before the anime spin off began (I was a couple weeks behind that goal).

Death Mark on the switch is done. It is a VN of sorts. Kind of got bored near the end. Missed some items that had me running in circles Interestingly they don't explain how the main bad guy came to be except in a book you only get in the collector's edition. Kind of odd considering all the other supernatural things are explained. Maybe the big bad shows up in another game but then why spoil it in the special edition book.

Just finished Disco Elysium this evening. Man, that was a heck of a ride - I will probably take another crack at it.

There were a number of things I could have done better, but all in all, a really solid experience. Glad I finally made the time.

Also finished Loop Hero last weekend - beat the act IV boss the six times you need to get all the content out of the game. A very worthwhile experience in its own right, if a little maltheistic for my taste.

Timespike wrote:

Also finished Loop Hero last weekend - beat the act IV boss the six times you need to get all the content out of the game. A very worthwhile experience in its own right, if a little maltheistic for my taste.

Did you fight the hidden bosses?

Timespike wrote:

Just finished Disco Elysium this evening. Man, that was a heck of a ride - I will probably take another crack at it.

I also just finished Disco Elysium. Loved all the things that everyone talks about- great writing, memorable characters, interesting world-building, an innovative skill system. Without traditional combat, it almost feels like an adventure game/RPG hybrid.

It was also relatively short, so I'm left wanting more. I've noticed that many of my favorite games in recent years are relatively concentrated experiences compared to others in their genre. As much as I love a great epic RPG like Witcher 3 or Dragon Age, I'm always relieved and ready to move on when they're finally over. Also, all the endless side quests seem to dilute the main narrative.

I'll play it again with a different archetype, but probably in a year or so when I've forgotten a lot of the little details.

Mantid wrote:
Timespike wrote:

Also finished Loop Hero last weekend - beat the act IV boss the six times you need to get all the content out of the game. A very worthwhile experience in its own right, if a little maltheistic for my taste.

Did you fight the hidden bosses?

Apparently not. Back down the rabbit hole I go!

EDIT: Got both secret bosses done - the one that shows up alone and the multiples. Now I think I'm done.

Timespike wrote:
Mantid wrote:
Timespike wrote:

Also finished Loop Hero last weekend - beat the act IV boss the six times you need to get all the content out of the game. A very worthwhile experience in its own right, if a little maltheistic for my taste.

Did you fight the hidden bosses?

Apparently not. Back down the rabbit hole I go!

EDIT: Got both secret bosses done - the one that shows up alone and the multiples. Now I think I'm done.

What about the secret secret bosses?

Coldstream wrote:
Timespike wrote:
Mantid wrote:
Timespike wrote:

Also finished Loop Hero last weekend - beat the act IV boss the six times you need to get all the content out of the game. A very worthwhile experience in its own right, if a little maltheistic for my taste.

Did you fight the hidden bosses?

Apparently not. Back down the rabbit hole I go!

EDIT: Got both secret bosses done - the one that shows up alone and the multiples. Now I think I'm done.

What about the secret secret bosses?

Do you mean %:1(?

gewy wrote:
Timespike wrote:

Just finished Disco Elysium this evening. Man, that was a heck of a ride - I will probably take another crack at it.

I also just finished Disco Elysium. Loved all the things that everyone talks about- great writing, memorable characters, interesting world-building, an innovative skill system. Without traditional combat, it almost feels like an adventure game/RPG hybrid.

It was also relatively short, so I'm left wanting more. I've noticed that many of my favorite games in recent years are relatively concentrated experiences compared to others in their genre. As much as I love a great epic RPG like Witcher 3 or Dragon Age, I'm always relieved and ready to move on when they're finally over. Also, all the endless side quests seem to dilute the main narrative.

I'll play it again with a different archetype, but probably in a year or so when I've forgotten a lot of the little details.

Funny enough, I beat it in 2019 (and loved every minute of it), so with The Final Cut out now it's time for me to replay it with different voices! I've forgotten some of the smaller vignettes.

I just finished up Tangle Tower. Overall I really enjoyed it. Essentially it's a puzzle adventure sort of thing, wrapped up in a murder mystery. Great voice-acting, art, dialog and a pretty intriguing story made it real easy to get hooked. It's fairly short, which made for a very nice way to spend this long weekend!

Only point of criticism is that I'm not so sure the ending paid off on a lot the build-up. Like, it wasn't a bad ending, but it sure didn't stand up to the rest of the game. I imagine nailing that pay-off would be a super hard thing to do though.

Second playthrough of Ass Creed Origins, this time with DLC. Very enjoyable, Bayeks story with his wife and kid are pretty good and the high politics added good flavour. Curse of the Pharaohs was very good of the DLC, not too difficult but some neat new settings.

Just finished up Wide Ocean Big Jacket. I was in the mood for something short and relaxing, and this was definitely it. It's basically a little story of a married couple who go camping for a night with their niece and her boyfriend. And they just kind of hang out camping. But it really captures something I like about camping - the bonding that builds when there's nothing but you, your company and a campfire.

It was part of the Itch Racial Equality Bundle, which I've started going through again, so if you purchased that last year, definitely recommend having a look at this.

Halo: Combat Evolved (Remaster)

Filling a big void here with one of the pillars of console shooters. I'd been exposed to Halo on-and-off when I was in early high school, but I've never played through the single-player.

Halo 1 is weird, it's both aged well and aged horribly. The gunplay feels great, it's snappy and everything has a satisfying kickback. It's amazing how well enemies react to your shooting and movement. It makes the world feel so much more dynamic! Small enemies get scared when you through a grenade near them and cause havoc, while elite enemies might run you down instead.

While the core gameplay is outstanding, the level design is hit and miss. Half of the levels are fun, the other half present you with repetitive missions through the same copy/pasted environment over and over and over. Maps like "The Silent Cartographer" almost make up for it, but I ultimately ended up putting the difficulty to 'easy' and powering through the later portions. It's a damn shame because those open-ended levels with vehicles are AMAZING. It's just so shortly after that you must repeat the same few rooms so much that you want to just put your brain on fast-forward and skip it all.

What stands out to me more than anything is how well this is designed around a controller, not a mouse and keyboard. While it works perfectly fine with your standard PC controls, it's just a goddamn dream to play with a PS4 or Xbox controller. Every single one of the weapons seems designed around the limited aiming capabilities - with large crosshairs, satisfying (but not easy) hitboxes, subtle tracking and a perfect level of aim assist. This is even accounted for with moving! I never quite liked the "floaty" jumping of Master Chief, but I now understand that the slower movement allows for precise aiming no matter how you are moving around the world. This is the ONLY shooter I've actually preferred to play with a controller. I have never. EVER felt that way before. Amazing.

The story was alright. A bit of silly space drama. A nice little spin but not much more.

Back in the day, I might have said it was a 10/10. I can see why it was so popular. It really is just the level design near the second half of the game that brings it down. It's genuinely so poor in that regard that I'd place my silly little score around 7/10.

Keen to push into Halo 2!

A_Unicycle wrote:

Halo: Combat Evolved (Remaster)

Filling a big void here with one of the pillars of console shooters. I'd been exposed to Halo on-and-off when I was in early high school, but I've never played through the single-player.

Halo 1 is weird, it's both aged well and aged horribly. The gunplay feels great, it's snappy and everything has a satisfying kickback. It's amazing how well enemies react to your shooting and movement. It makes the world feel so much more dynamic! Small enemies get scared when you through a grenade near them and cause havoc, while elite enemies might run you down instead.

While the core gameplay is outstanding, the level design is hit and miss. Half of the levels are fun, the other half present you with repetitive missions through the same copy/pasted environment over and over and over. Maps like "The Silent Cartographer" almost make up for it, but I ultimately ended up putting the difficulty to 'easy' and powering through the later portions. It's a damn shame because those open-ended levels with vehicles are AMAZING. It's just so shortly after that you must repeat the same few rooms so much that you want to just put your brain on fast-forward and skip it all.

What stands out to me more than anything is how well this is designed around a controller, not a mouse and keyboard. While it works perfectly fine with your standard PC controls, it's just a goddamn dream to play with a PS4 or Xbox controller. Every single one of the weapons seems designed around the limited aiming capabilities - with large crosshairs, satisfying (but not easy) hitboxes, subtle tracking and a perfect level of aim assist. This is even accounted for with moving! I never quite liked the "floaty" jumping of Master Chief, but I now understand that the slower movement allows for precise aiming no matter how you are moving around the world. This is the ONLY shooter I've actually preferred to play with a controller. I have never. EVER felt that way before. Amazing.

The story was alright. A bit of silly space drama. A nice little spin but not much more.

Back in the day, I might have said it was a 10/10. I can see why it was so popular. It really is just the level design near the second half of the game that brings it down. It's genuinely so poor in that regard that I'd place my silly little score around 7/10.

Keen to push into Halo 2!

Silent Cartographer is one of the best levels in the Halo series. From that game I also enjoy Halo and Assault on the Control Room. AotCR just felt so big back in the day. Of course later in the series they made some levels that are bigger than the full game of Halo, but for it's time AotCR felt gigantic.

Last night I wrapped up Portal 2; technically I finished it 10 years ago when it released, but as it turns out I'd basically forgotten every puzzle over the course of a decade, so it was pretty much like playing it for the first time.

It was an interesting study in how a game can be both dated and perennially fresh. Age-wise, the thing that really stood out was the level loading - I'd forgotten that after every test chamber there's an elevator ride that fades to black while the next level loads, something that was just how video games worked at the time but seems crazily antiquated now. During an escape sequence there's even a moment where, halfway across a catwalk, the game fades to black and pauses while it loads up the next half of the catwalk.

It's also looking a little long in the tooth graphics-wise; as I played it, I couldn't help but think how great it would look with up-rezzed textures and improved lighting. The baked lighting really makes it look flat, whereas dynamic lighting - imagine if the portals themselves lit up their surroundings - would substantially enhance the feeling of really being in those spaces. And I was surprised by how little I could interact with things; basically the only things you can have an impact on are the things you need to use to progress the game. You run across and through any number of abandoned office areas, but everything's bolted down, one solid piece of set dressing.

On the perennially delightful side, though - I can't think of any other game as well-written. The characters you run across - Wheatley, GladOS, Cave Johnson - are both hilarious and brilliantly written, and delivered with absolutely perfect performances by Stephen Merchant, JK Simmons, and Ellen McLain. We've had tremendous strides in video game storytelling in the last decade, but Portal 2 is really a sui generis perfect game in that regard. It's a little creaky in terms of the format - basically the formula goes: threatening quip from GLADOS as you exit the elevator and head to the puzzle, an insult as you take in the puzzle, and then a sarcastic congratulations once you open the exit - but the quality of the writing really holds up.

There's also a nice variety of environments and puzzle elements as you progress through the game, from shiny still-functional test chambers to test chambers ravaged by time, to the long-abandoned areas from the early days of Aperture Labs. The original Portal was essentially bifurcate between the testing chambers and the latter half where you're a rat sneaking through the backstage area, and it's clear that was something they really tried to expand with the sequel.

And...oh my god, the portals are just fun! Flinging yourself off a cliff into a portal on the floor to emerge out of a portal halfway across the room on a slant to go flying through the air up to a high platform simply never gets old. There's a tactile delight in solving a puzzle in Portal that other puzzle games - and from The Witness to The Talos Project to various Cyan clones I loves me some puzzle games - simply can't deliver. And I'll simply repeat what many have said before - the designers of Portals 1 & 2 are absolutely brilliant at making you feel like you're a creative genius when really you're just doing the one thing that they want you to do. Even though I'd solved every one of these puzzles before, some still took me a half-hour or more to suss out again, and each time I finally worked out the Rube Goldbergian steps necessary to get to the next stage I felt a level of triumph that trumped the frustration that may have come before.

As is true of almost every game I've ever played, I hated the boss fight at the end, though. I've long been on record that every game can be improved by removing all boss fights (with the exception of Shadow of the Colossus, of course, since there'd be nothing left), and Portal 2 does nothing to convince me otherwise. It's the traditional three-stage structure, but with the added frustration of a countdown timer. I died over and over and over on each stage because I couldn't figure out what I needed to do, and then even when I did get an idea of what was necessary I kept failing the actual mechanics until the timer killed me, so I'd decide I was trying the wrong thing and waste more time trying something that it turned out didn't progress the fight along at all. Thank god there are checkpoints for each stage of the boss fight, or I might never have finished, rather than spending 90 minutes on something that could take three if you know what you're supposed to do and don't repeatedly smash your head on the wall right next to a portal rather than passing through it.

But in the end that can't take away from how great Portal 2 still is. Immediately after I finished it I fired up the original, but while Portal 2 ran beautifully on my TV using a dust-covered Steam Link and a DualShock 4 controller, Portal itself does not at all - any attempt to move or look resulted in twirling in place like a top. Sure, I could forego the TV & controller and simply play it on my MacBook, but...big TV, comfy chair, and I'm a controller guy (I originally played both Portal games on a PS3); not a fan of giving those up.

Coincidentally, a brand-new community-made mod for Portal 2, Portal Reloaded, launched on the 10th anniversary of the release of Portal 2, and I'd love to play it. But it's Windows-only, and I've only got Macs (thus my preference for console games). It looks fantastic, though - they've added a time-jumping portal that gives off the same vibe as the brilliant A Crack In The Slab level from Dishonored 2 - so I hope there's a Mac port some day.

If you can, play the co-op. It just as well written and has some clever puzzles. It’s one of my favourite gaming memories.

Yes, I've done it before with a good friend. Since I can't play the original Portal via Steam Link and Portal Reloaded won't run on my Macs, right now I'm playing Portal Stories: Mel, a free mod for Portal 2.

It's very impressive in terms of the amount of work it must have taken, but it lacks the polish of the originals. The graphics are more detailed than Portal 2, but it's harder to spot the locations that you can stick a portal. And they try for the same style of writing, but it's a little cringey; it's not as well-written, and the voice acting isn't as good both when they try to imitate Cave Johnson and when they're doing their own character. I feel a little churlish saying that, though, given that it's a free community-made project.