Finished Any Games Lately?

Agathos wrote:

Sekiro. You finally did it, From Software, you hooked me. Now I too am one of those insufferable internet people going on about how it's tough-but-fair and how in control I feel after finally mastering each boss's moveset and so on.

Sekiro is one of - if not THE - most rewarding game I've played in ages. Peeps say a lot of stuff against it and I cannot in any logical sense argue against them, but I can nevertheless state that I would not have enjoyed the game as much as I did if it hadn't been so difficult.

Finished my first campaign of Old World over the weekend.

I had to dial down the difficulty as I explored the game and learned it systems - oh boy, there are a lot of systems - but overall as it started to click together it made a lot more sense.

Calling it a mash up of Civilisation and Crusader Kings is both doing a great disservice while also being very accurate. It’s got all the 4x components with a layer of courtly goings on and you maintain your family and courtiers accordingly.

Unfortunately that gets just a little under developed to me, despite the amount of complexity it brings. Ultimately I found so long as I had an heir and they weren’t monumentally insane, it didn’t really matter all that much. The same with all the government positions - in the end there didn’t feel like there was enough for them to do which had any meaningful impact.

That said it’s certainly something very different in the genre that feels like a genuine breath of fresh air. I’m going to look forward to more playthroughs of this in the coming months

Finally finished Days Gone. 66hrs which floored me.

The start of the game is the best as you're under powered and zombies are a real threat. Had some amazing organic gaming moments during the first 15 or so hours of that game that I hadn't experienced in any other game in awhile. This included being surrounded by zombies that hadn't spotted me yet and trying to sneak my way back to my bike without being detected. Or being detected and trying to run like hell through a gauntlet of zombies.

My favorite organic gaming moment though was when I went to attack a raider camp. While exchanging fire with the raiders I hear some zombie noises. I turn around to find like 10-15 zombies right behind me. I dash in to the raider camp while their still shooting at me and the zombies are on my tail. Then the raiders realize the zombie threat and turn their attention to them. I run deep in to the camp and hide. I'm able to see the zombies overwhelm and kill all the raiders. They had forgotten about me so end up leaving the camp and it's all mine to loot. Intense organic moment with a nice payoff.

I loved the map of the world and riding around on the bike in it. Some nice scenic areas and nice varied terrain. Once you get better weapons, bike parts, and more skills the zombie threat becomes less of an issue and doing missions and riding around was almost a zen experience for me. After a full day of work doing a mission or two in the game was pretty relaxing.

The story to the game wasn't too bad but wasn't great. It kinda meanders around for the first 15 hours or so before a coherent story emerges. Then when you think the game is over a whole new area of the map opens up and you basically have a whole new storyline that crops up, which turned out to be pretty satisfying. The only knock I have against the story is the first half of the game talks a lot of the zombie threat and the second half you really don't deal with it at all. It's more the human threat that's the focus.

So hopefully they'll make a sequel. I think the devs said even if the game is successful on the PC it's unlikely. But doesn't mean some other studio can pick it up in a few years.

Crawley wrote:

Finally finished Days Gone. 66hrs which floored me...

Did you play it on PS5? I never picked it up on PS4, given its initial lackluster reception, but I gather the devs put a lot of work into patches and improvements, and when I got a PS5 the free PS+ Collection included Days Gone, so I wound up playing it after all that fixing and in a smooth 60fps. Given the mediocre-at-best things I'd heard about it, and my hatred of interminable Assassin's Creed-style open world games*, I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it (and I put in 122 hours, due to my OCD collectathon tendency and my preference for stealth whenever possible).

I had similar organic moments, and in fact with at least two raider camps I intentionally exploited nearby zombies to clear the camps out. I also found the story to be much better-written and delivered than I expected. To be fair, I think the bar for game writing is already set pretty low, but I didn't really have any tooth-gnashingly artless moments and I thought the acting, motion capture, and animation was very much above the norm.

Sequel-wise, about a month ago there were articles about how Bend Studios, the developers, pitched a sequel to Sony, but Sony nixed it; the assumption is Sony was expecting more from the game and felt making a sequel was too likely to be throwing money into tainted IP. I expect the story would have been different it it had launched in the state that the game eventually reached.

*I was excited for AC1, and wound up hating it, so I only picked up AC2 after it got such formidable praise, and it wound up being one of my favorite games of all time. Since then, though, Ubisoft has taught me to hate Assassin's Creed games all over again. There's just too much in them, and the vast majority of it I find pretty much completely unenjoyable. When they introduced a "feedback" mechanic in Black Flag, I at least got some enjoyment out of rating most missions a 1 out of 5 stars.

You might try Fenyx Rising. It's like an AC: lite. More 30 hours instead of 60+

Just finished Transformers: Devastation, and I had A BLAST! An exhilarating, thrilling (and quite short) ride that had me smiling from beginning to end. The action is frantic, the combat is fast and button-mashy, and you get to play as Wheeljack! And Grimlock! And Sideswipe! (I'm such a fanboy.) And the Decepticons you get to fight against surprised me very pleasantly because I only knew about the Constructicons. Soooooo fun!

Just rolled the credits on the Days Gone main story.

I finished off The Evil Within 2! I loved this game, probably my favourite I've played this year so far. Great mix of horror and action. Full of surprises, right up to the end - in terms of gameplay at least - the story was often pretty predictable and Sebastian was only mildly more interesting than the generic game hero version of him in the first game. Some really memorable, even stunning, art and set-pieces too.

The open-world aspect is downplayed a bit. From what I'd read prior to playing, I had the impression it was a true open world. It's kind of not. Like, most parts are interconnected, but it's fairly linear for the most part. The first half of the game has two sections that are open for exploration. Only there's not a whole lot to actually explore that isn't locked off until the plot demands it. So if you're after an open-world game, this isn't it. Having said that though, it does provide more flexibility in how to take out enemies than the first did.

halfwaywrong wrote:

I finished off The Evil Within 2! I loved this game, probably my favourite I've played this year so far. Great mix of horror and action. Full of surprises, right up to the end - in terms of gameplay at least - the story was often pretty predictable and Sebastian was only mildly more interesting than the generic game hero version of him in the first game. Some really memorable, even stunning, art and set-pieces too.

The open-world aspect is downplayed a bit. From what I'd read prior to playing, I had the impression it was a true open world. It's kind of not. Like, most parts are interconnected, but it's fairly linear for the most part. The first half of the game has two sections that are open for exploration. Only there's not a whole lot to actually explore that isn't locked off until the plot demands it. So if you're after an open-world game, this isn't it. Having said that though, it does provide more flexibility in how to take out enemies than the first did.

The Evil Within 2 is so much better than the first one, which is a shame since I feel like not many people gave the sequel a chance after the dud that the original landed with (after some pretty big hype.)

Finished two games in the past two days.

Resident Evil VIIIage the night before last. I played it in about 4 or 5 sessions of a few hours at a time. Basically dividing it by each major section of the game save for the last session, where I went for the last two sections at once well into the endgame. I must say, this felt like what RE 6 could have been; a great showcase of the different styles of horror RE has used in previous games, with each section of the game feeling very distinct and unique, with different kinds of creepiness, while still having some degree of cohesion in the overall theme. My favorite part was the second section (before the second "boss"), as it creeped the hell out of me. It was really all a very fun romp.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots just last night. Well, that was... A game... I guess. I'd heard so much about the game and how good it was... And maybe I came at it too late, but it really felt like a slog to me. I need to replay the other MGS games in the HD collection (all of which I played when they originally released back in the day) and see if what I recall about them is seen through rose-tinted glasses. MGS 4 felt like 20% gameplay, 80% cinematics, 100% meh.

halfwaywrong wrote:

I finished off The Evil Within 2! I loved this game, probably my favourite I've played this year so far. Great mix of horror and action. Full of surprises, right up to the end - in terms of gameplay at least - the story was often pretty predictable and Sebastian was only mildly more interesting than the generic game hero version of him in the first game. Some really memorable, even stunning, art and set-pieces too.

The open-world aspect is downplayed a bit. From what I'd read prior to playing, I had the impression it was a true open world. It's kind of not. Like, most parts are interconnected, but it's fairly linear for the most part. The first half of the game has two sections that are open for exploration. Only there's not a whole lot to actually explore that isn't locked off until the plot demands it. So if you're after an open-world game, this isn't it. Having said that though, it does provide more flexibility in how to take out enemies than the first did.

Like Vrikk said, I think this game is underrated and under appreciated, so I'm glad you loved it!

Yes, The Evil Within 2 rules. Criminally underappreciated game.

Finished a couple of games this week!

Yoku's Island Express I was initially turned off as I have no affinity or aptitude for pinball. But it was super cheap on PS4, and I needed some good cheer, so I decided to give it a shot. For the first hour or two, I was kind of frustrated by having to use pinball to get around, but then something clicked, and I absolutely devoured the rest of the game. Uncovering little secrets and exploring the island were the main draws for me, but even the boss battles were fun, and it was great to be able to do it all in an unthreatening environment. A real little gem, if like me you dismissed it as a pinball game, don't be shy, get on!

Steamworld Quest on the other hand was a little disappointing. To be fair I went in with super high expectations, since I love deck building games and RPGs, and the other Steamworld games (Heist being my favourite). So this should have been a slam dunk for me, but it was just OK, beautifully made but never really got its hooks in. I played on Normal difficulty and was never really challenged, except in tedious ways such as enemies with particular immunities etc. I kept changing out cards and party members for my own amusement, but never felt that I had to, and finished the last few chapters with the same party and setup. I think I'm supposed to replay chapters or play through again, since there are plenty of cards and items left to buy, but I'm not really feeling the urge.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is just going through the credits as I write this. I went back after PS5 upgrade after initially getting to Don Corneo's mansion on the PS4. I got just shy of 40 hours on the clock.

I absolutely adore the original FF7, it's one of my favourite games of all time & the impact it had on what games could be back when I played it in 1997 can't be understated. It blew me away in every regard.

The remake looks & plays amazing. Having the 2 ATB bars build up from normal attacks on each character to be able to use magic, items etc is a superb touch & a way to keep the feeling of the original even though fights are in real time. There was a good level of depth with blocking, dodging, drawing agro to the character your controlling etc

Summons looked fantastic, Ifrit & Shiva being the standouts, they were integrated really well into battles too. I'm not sure if they charged on time in a battle or damage taken but when the summon was ready you could pick between Cloud, Barrett & Tifa's equipped summon materia. The cool thing was they come onto the battlefield for a limited period of time, you can use your ATB charges to pick between two of their attacks. Once the time is up they leave with a bang, unleashing their most powerful ability.

The music is just extraordinary, that opening train sequence just had the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The church, the battle theme, Aeriths theme all updated masterfully. This is simply one of the best soundtracks of all time, no doubt about it.

I really enjoyed seeing all the locations in all their updated visual glory. They mostly got the atmosphere right in the majority of these.

My big criticisms with the game are weak writing, there never ever seemed much depth to conversations & they were rarely interesting. The voice acting was good but not great, some characters were verging a bit on one dimensional, Barrett being one of them. Tifa & Aerith were extremely similar in their interactions with Cloud that if you read the conversations on a page without having the names you'd be very hard pressed to tell who was who.

The padding of the game - mainly materialising in some of the weakest side quests in recent memory - was so unnecessary. This stretched to areas of the game like the one were you control the Robot Arms, Hojo's Lab & a good few more.

The changes in the story didn't sit well with me. Those floating spirits were far too prevelant, Sephiroth showed up way too much & the ending was just way too out there. The remake done good to stay fairly grounded for the world it's set in but went ape sh*t at the end.

A very good game but too much padding & weak dialogue really dragged this down from the heights of fantastic. The changes to the story, especially the end section just came off as completely stupid.

It'll be interesting to see where part 2 goes from here.

I finished Dragon's Crown Pro today. I started it last year but it didn't click, and for some reason I felt like giving it a second chance last week with a different character, which made all the difference in the world. A fun button masher that apparently continues after the story ends with some kind of "let's repeat everything again, but harder" which I will skip. I bet it's even more fun to play with friends!

I finished Outer Worlds with the CRPG club. People say it’s Fallout in space, and it is! And it was good! I think the scope was definitely smaller than the Bethesda games, but the game was denser and had better and snappier writing. And it was good to play one of these types of games again. It feels like one of those comfort food types of games, where there’s lots to do and you can just get lost in doing video game things.

Played through Subsurface Circular today. Well, that was certainly a game, wasn’t it? I know the studio head, Mike Bithell, has gone on record to say that this was something made between bigger projects, and it definitely feels like it. It’s not a bad game, to be clear; I just didn’t find myself smiling much while playing it. I could definitely see them taking lessons from this project into other games.

P.S. Play Thomas Was Alone first and you’ll get some interesting lore. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.amazonaws.com/source/skype/289/robot_1f916.png)

The follow-up, Quarantine Circular, felt a little meatier in terms of choices and outcomes.

Today I finished Super Metroid on the Switch, after having previously played it on the SNES and the Wii VC. With the announcement of Metroid Dread, I wanted to play a Metroid game. I eventually made liberal use of walkthroughs, save states, and rewind, because the game can be quite punishing and cause you to do significant backtracking. In fact, early on I had accidentally skipped picking up the Charge Beam, which made some things more difficult than they should be. I don't see myself playing it again - game design has moved on.

Oh, and I saved the animals.

Aristophan wrote:

Oh, and I saved the animals.

That's all that matters, buddy. You're a hero.

I'm on a roll here! After abandoning the game a couple of years ago, I came back to and finished Arkham City this week. This is the third unfinished game I've gone back to in the past couple of weeks and finished, so I am feeling very accomplished. Go me!

As for the game itself, it was fine.

I've been streaming Metro 2033 Redux the last few weeks and wrapped it up last night. It's still one of the most atmospheric shooters I've ever played. I had played the original years ago so this was my first time playing the Redux version. Apparently the voice actor for the main character has changed, and they've added some scenes. They also really smoothed out some of the difficulty spikes that I specifically remember. Some of the other changes are things hardcore fans of the original don't like, but overall I had a great time. I'm looking forward to trying the sequels soon.

I've finished the early access area of Across the Obelisk. Now I'm power-leveling the lower-tier heroes with my crazy-powerful default party and enjoying that.

I finished Fire Emblem 6 recently, only to discover that I was missing an item and thus didn't get the "true" ending. I'm not sure when I'll double back to that. It's a very difficult game.

Finished Gears Tactics. Well, got to the last boss and after a few hours, just gave up and uninstalled it. It was a fun game that did get repetitious after awhile but I stuck through with it until the last battle. So frustrating and sapped the fun out of it for me. I normally want to finish a game when I am so close to completion but I spent enough time on it and that I just stopped in frustration.

Edit: Oh no no no... as Mikayla would say, "I ain't going out like that"! Well, I reinstalled it, tried it again for 2 hours and finally beat the final mission! I hate being a semi completionist but I was so close before! Well, beat and overall, enjoyed the game. It got tedious after awhile but the graphics are great, the interaction between squad is humorous and the guns have a good hard smack to it. Good stuff!

Last night I rolled the credits on the main story in Marvel Spider-Man on the PS4.

After about 25 hours WH40K Battlesector is done and my GotY.
Its just incredibly solid all the way through. I could have cut some hours off as it took me about 20 missions to realize that there is a FF switch for enemy turns. Now I was definitely enjoying each and every minute of normal speed mayhem and guts, but when the enemy has 30+ units to go through in a turn, missions with take a hour and a half.

-Mission design was terrific.
-Unit design was terrific. I love most of the units so much, I want a sequel to the shooter Space Marine where I can play as the Aggressor, Interceptor, Librarian Dreadnought, Seraphim, Sister Verity, Hellblaster, Death Company, Tech Marine, Speeder Typhoon, Librarian or Sanguine Priest
-Mechanics were streamlined such that I could have a good grasp on a vast battlefield but still have nuance and sophistication in unit collaboration.
-The story got me from point A to point B and nothing more but that is WH40K no?

I can't wait for DLC with new campaigns, missions and units. I think I'd rather have more shorter campaigns that another single 20 mission campaign.

I’ve watched a couple of reviews of WH 40K Battlesector and it does look rather good. Seems there isn’t base building, you just start a mission with an army? That really suits me if it’s the case. Hopefully it’ll come to Mac or it’ll be very good on PS4.

I’ve been playing and finished something similar but on a much smaller scale. The turn-based tactics game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. It had all the hallmarks of a game with an appealing concept but that was a bit of a grind to play. Many reviewers seemed to feel that way about it. Certainly the fights are tough and you have to do your best to stealthily pick off outlying units (not always easy until you can upgrade your silenced weapons and have reliable crit bonuses) but I was into the characters and found the combat extremely engaging in that way turn based combat weirdly is.

It’s clearly a game that didn’t have a lot of budget, with restricted map areas and a lack of polish but it’s core is tremendous fun.

I’ve watched a couple of reviews of WH 40K Battlesector and it does look rather good. Seems there isn’t base building, you just start a mission with an army? That really suits me if it’s the case. Hopefully it’ll come to Mac or it’ll be very good on PS4.

Yup. You have a skill tree that unlocks skills and passives for units and heroes. (also unlocks alternate weapons for units but I never used them)
You also have army management where you decide how many of which unit you want that also increases over time.
Missions have a point cap so you usually have to leave 2-3 units of your army at home each mission. (I have not tested whether you can deploy over the cap and it just gives you less bonuses)

My last tip is Interceptors FTW and enjoy!

I beat Monster Hunter Stories with the JRPG club. It was a fun twist on the monster collection genre, and the rock paper scissors battle style actually turned out to be really cool, as did the way they turned the attack pattern learning from the mainline MH games into something turn based. Collecting the monsters and leveling them up and tweaking their genes to impact their stats and moves was compelling enough to drive the game forward.

Unfortunately, it had some issues. The story was a textbook ‘excuse plot’ with some annoying villains, and the game itself was held back a bit by the platform it was on (in my case, the 3DS), with many annoying loading times, frame rate drops, and frequent and noticeable texture pop-in.

But in all, it was cool. And it’s made me interested in getting the sequel at some point to see a higher budget version of the game.