Finished Any Games Lately?

I finished up Celeste before it was dropped from GamePass (I think today). I enjoyed the game and I liked the story but I don't know how I really feel about this style of game. I obviously liked it enough to complete it but I kind of gave up on the puzzle aspect due to the difficulty by the end. I no longer looked for strawberries. I just ran to the end. Some of that was due to an actual deadline. The other was due to the nature of the puzzles, where several deaths we often required to figure them out.

Perform a slick set of moves -> die, possibly learning the next one -> fail several more times -> perform a slick set of moves to get back to the original point -> make a mistake and die -> fail several more times -> perform a slick set of moves past the original point -> die

Again, I liked it but, ugh, sometimes just not in the mood. I suspect that's why it sat on level 6 for a year.

fuzzyslug wrote:

I finished up Celeste before it was dropped from GamePass (I think today). I enjoyed the game and I liked the story but I don't know how I really feel about this style of game. I obviously liked it enough to complete it but I kind of gave up on the puzzle aspect due to the difficulty by the end. I no longer looked for strawberries. I just ran to the end. Some of that was due to an actual deadline. The other was due to the nature of the puzzles, where several deaths we often required to figure them out.

Perform a slick set of moves -> die, possibly learning the next one -> fail several more times -> perform a slick set of moves to get back to the original point -> make a mistake and die -> fail several more times -> perform a slick set of moves past the original point -> die

Again, I liked it but, ugh, sometimes just not in the mood. I suspect that's why it sat on level 6 for a year.

The punishment/reward ratio for that game was crazy. I'd hit a spree of doing amazing that gave me just the right amount of dopamine to not give up (despite dying well into the thousands)

I finished off Unpacking. It has a very basic premise - make items fit in logical places. So no toasters on the bed or ukulele's in the bath. Generally the game is fairly flexible about where you can put things though, so there's quite a bit of freedom.

But the real interest is in seeing the story unfold. It's a story told entirely through the possessions. Seeing what items the main character takes with them with each move, or what they don't take. Or how particular items change with each move. And for most of the game it's genuinely interesting. There's one particular moment halfway through that hit quite an emotional note. I just kind of wish there was more of that, but it's only limited to a couple of spots.

I guess I just wanted more of it? Which isn't a bad thing. Anyway, I'm glad I played it and encourage others to play it too, but I'm also glad it's on Game Pass so I didn't actually buy it.

Just beat three relatively short games in quick succession this past couple of days.

Pony Island

This little thing had been sitting in my Steam backlog for a while and I finally took the time to give it a shot. This was super fun, tricky at time, and rather enjoyed the little mystery and jabs at gaming, gamers, and the industry.

The Hex

From the same developer of Pony Island, I had long put off playing this because of the art style, of all things. The whole aesthetic recalled my New Grounds days and games that rarely stuck the landing... This was decidedly not the case, thankfully. Enjoyed the whole twisty bits and references. Loved the "true" ending and the continuation that I was supposed to go fish in another game - but didn't, opting instead to watch that on youtube -, and found the fact that there appears to be no plan to continue the story personally satisfying. I think the whole thing was pretty succinct and needs no expansion, save maybe some perspective on the character Carla, whose side of things I would like to get some insight into.

The Darkside Detective

This is one of the best point and click adventure games I've played in a very long time. Most of the puzzles were fairly logical, with none being obtuse, and the little bits of humor were actually pretty clever. I chuckled and even laughed at times. I have yet to play the three post-game cases, but will likely hit those tomorrow.

I had played the first of six main story cases a few weeks ago, and just felt like trying another case today... And before I knew it I was finishing up the main game. Looking forward to playing the sequel, which I fortunately bought a couple of weeks back or so.

Stasis has been on my Steam wish list for a while and it was on sale for like $2 last week so I picked it up. It was... fine? It definitely went down the "old skool point and click" route with a few rooms requiring some pixel hunting. And it definitely went into body horror and psychological horror realm. The writing and voice acting are, again, just fine. Nothing spectacular. Some plot twists were super obvious, others weren't, and one in particular was pretty upsetting.

I wrapped up (or should I say unwrapped…?) Unpacking last night. I absolutely adored this little indie experience. It’s a very simple premise: unpack boxes of a person as they move from home to home through their life. You slowly piece together parts of their story and major life turning points based on where they’re moving and what stuff you’re moving. It is very satisfying, placing stuff just so, and figuring out how and where to organize everything. But the part that cinched it for me was the very clever touches you discover as you go. Like what is important to the person because it always travels with them (or how they get worn with time). Or how certain items can nest in realistic ways. Or discovering minor details of each environment (I lol’d when I realized one place had soft-close drawers and they spent the time to code it). It even packs emotional baggage for you to discover through clever mechanics. It’s a perfect game. My only wish is they add DLC for you to do the same thing for more people, with other stories to tell.

It’s on Game Pass. Try it. It’s adorable, heart warming, and short. I love it.

EDIT: It’s also on Switch and PC. I played with a controller on Xbox, but it might play even better with mouse or touch screen.

I just beat Inscryption.

It's very, very, very good.

I don't even like card games, but it's really ingenious to call it one. The cards are just half of what this game is doing.

(And yes, I used "ingenious" for a reason. The game is sneaky.)

Finally saw Wandersong through after years in my Switch library. What started with a just a silly bard ended with some of the most heartfelt game design I've ever experienced. The music was so good. Like, so, SO good! Watching the bard (who I named Baub) and Miriam’s friendship grow hit home in ways I haven’t seen in many other games.

Highly recommended if you’re looking for something with heart, silliness, great music, and no combat.

Finished my second MW4:Mercs play through and started a new one. This time with the backing of everyone's favorite: the Kell Hounds. I am already kitted out with an awesome, some black nights and 5 marauders.

My first play through was with the Wolf Dragoons backing. They definitely win the equipment fight with early access to heavy lasers and a plentiful supply of them.

So I finished another campaign of Phoenix Point the other night with all the current DLC enabled - there’s one final one to come.

While the game is very good now, the last two DLCs are really left like the game adding content for the sake of adding content. The air combat of Festering Skies is only half baked, while the new enemies, clones (effectively) and corruption mechanic of the Corrupted Horizons DLC cross the line into ‘actively annoying’ for much of the game play. It’s a bit of shame really, but it’s easy to disable them on launch and it at least sounds like Snapshot are working to address some of the problems.

Still more than worth it if you’re looking for a solid, in depth Tactical Turn Bass Combat system game, but it needs a solid balance pass now & better accommodation of all the DLC content.

Completed The Forgotten City last night with 100% achievements. I am super impressed with that game.

The basic premise is you need to figure out who in a tiny cursed city is about to sin, because if anybody sins then everybody is going to get killed. You solve this by talking to everybody, figuring out a ton of secrets and hidden motivations, helping lots of people, exploring the environment, and some optional action segments.

The game was originally a mod for Skyrim, and it clearly shows. It’s got a mild jank to it that I personally love. The way you sorta floaty clamber your way over everything. Or the way you talk to people and can accidentally engage a conversation with a person who is in the middle of a door closing on them. And they just keep standing there talking to you, as the door hits them over and over. They updated the mod for its solo game release and the polish is excellent (the game is very pretty), but its origins are clear.

The most engaging part is definitely the central mystery and learning about all the characters and how they skirt the no-sin rule. The dialogue is clever and funny. You can be a complete ass in action and word to everybody you meet. The amount of reactive voiced dialogue based on the choices you’ve made was very impressive. My wife actually got very engaged in watching me play the game, and that made the game even better, with us discussing how to follow leads and what dialogue choices to make.

My criticisms for the game are very mild. There’s one or two leads that needed to be resolved in very specific ways that took a while to figure out. A couple sections wore on slightly longer than ideal. A few achievements that were very specific in how to do them (one requiring a certain class I had not chosen so I had to replay to get it).

A couple heavy spoiler thoughts:

Spoiler:

It has one of the most satisfying epilogues I’ve ever seen for the best ending. I thought there was going to be a mechanic about secretly performing sin where the statues couldn’t see you and I was a little disappointed that didn’t really happen. Finally, I’m surprised there’s not a story ending where you get to ascend to Elysium somehow. It seems like an obvious route for the game to go.

Overall, this was one of my favorite experiences of the year. It’s not very long, maybe 10-15 hours? Definitely recommend giving it a try. It’s on Game Pass and basically all platforms.

I, too, recently finished Unpacking, and found it a delightful and chill experience. I played via Game Pass, and would have a hard time coming up with a dollar value I'd be willing to pay for the experience, but it was worth my time for sure. It's funny, I was a little torn about its length. On the one hand, when I finished unpacking that final house I was getting exhausted...that was a ton of crap to put away! On the other hand, I was a little disappointed and surprised to discover that was the end. I wonder if just setting out for the player ahead of time how many levels there were would help? I feel like I would've been less frustrated doing the last level had I known it was the last one, while also less disappointed to realize it was the end? If nothing else, the date of the last level being not quite the present made me assume there was still another level to come. Pretty minor complaints, anyway, I really liked it.

I beat The Dark Chronicles: Mask of Medan.

It's very underwhelming. Great idea, great concept, poor execution and shallow characterizations. I already have the next one in the anthology installed and ready to go, but if Supermassive wants to get all eight of their games out, they really need to increase how these games are executed.

mrlogical wrote:

I wonder if just setting out for the player ahead of time how many levels there were would help? I feel like I would've been less frustrated doing the last level had I known it was the last one, while also less disappointed to realize it was the end? If nothing else, the date of the last level being not quite the present made me assume there was still another level to come.

It was hinted at that this was pretty much the end. The photo album that you're playing through has a set number of pages from the beginning. And you can see there's just one more page after that move. I, too, was surprised it was the last move, because it turns out the last page isn't an actual level. Still, I knew it was near the end, and like you said, that last move was a beast and I was mentally exhausted after it.

My biggest hope is they make more stories. There are so many neat and emotional stories you could tell through these mechanics. However, it took the team 4 years to make this one, and the recent AMA the developers did said that they have no current plans for DLC/sequels. Hopefully it does super well and they can make more stories for much less effort than the base game!

Vrikk wrote:

I beat The Dark Chronicles: Mask of Medan.

It's very underwhelming. Great idea, great concept, poor execution and shallow characterizations. I already have the next one in the anthology installed and ready to go, but if Supermassive wants to get all eight of their games out, they really need to increase how these games are executed.

I found Little Hope better than Man of Medan, but I think they got lucky with Until Dawn. They switched to a new engine with Man of Medan, and it introduced technical issues (stuttering, pop-in, etc.) that were largely polished out with the next installment. The writing's also improved in Little Hope, but I just watched someone's playthrough of Until Dawn on YouTube and I think the writing in that game is still their strongest, even aside from the fact that the teen slasher-movie setting helps gloss over any cheesiness or character inconsistency.

They're still remarkably good-looking games - the fact that the devs are in control of your viewpoint, and that they take place in very limited environments, really allows them to go whole-hog on the details; I was surprised how good the YouTube video of Until Dawn looked, especially given that it was originally intended to be a PS3 game.

I also finished Inscryption this week. Maybe the 2nd game I've actually completed this year.

Finished Sable! Lovely game and better than I had hoped it might be. Didn't get the last 20 chums because I didn't want to go to a guide. I looked up a secrets thing and it looks like I found pretty much everything. Last thing I did with the climbing power had was the Oasis. I was kinda surprised there wasn't really anything up there.

Just rolled the credits on Cyberpunk 2077, started the game on 12/10/2020, just shy of one year.

I've finally, finally finished The Witcher 3 including DLCs. It's taken me four years (with gaps) and a few restarts (mainly due to the gaps), adding up to a ridiculous number of hours of play. An excellent game, even with its many (mostly minor) flaws, right up to the end of Blood and Wine, but at the same time I'm glad I can finally put it aside and clear some disk space for other games!

After 51 hours, I finished Outriders. The story is one of the best I have experienced in gaming. So many interesting moments and characters and environments. It feels like Mass Effect without the overwhelming dialog options, or Destiny with a better story but not the depth of endgame content. I can't wait for more content in this universe...

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a big dump of games I've beaten:

Iconoclasts - Gorgeous style, uneven delivery
Metroid Dread - A mastahpiece
Subnautica - Most obsessive game I've played in a while
Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Satisfying collectathon, but too long
Kingdom Hearts 3 - Still trying to figure out why I didn't like this game
Resident Evil 7 - Turns out RE is great in first person
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Delightful twists and turns

jamos5 wrote:

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a big dump of games I've beaten:

...Resident Evil 7 - Turns out RE is great in first person...

First person, hell, try it in VR - if you've been meaning to throw out those pants anyways.

FIST - Forged In Shadow Torch is one of the many Metriodvania's I've finished this year. Crunchy hand to hand combat, great art, stunning graphics, rock solid boss battles & weapons that tie beautifully into traversal throughout the game.

The areas are distinctive from the jazz fused style of Joffe Street with its industrial buildings, new age technology, neon lit shops & bars. The Power Station with its elevator shafts, huge ventilation fans, electric currents running through tunnels, giant pipes hugging the walls. The subway is another stunner with minute detail that goes way into the background, they've really put in a crazy amount of detail. It's easily got the best environments of any game in the genre this year.

It's a great game to explore with plenty of secrets hidden away, underwater sections that feel good to move through & wholly different from the other sections of the game. There are other upgrades that make areas like the mines a ton of fun to go through but I won't spoil them here. It's just a great world to uncover.

The game hits a lot of highs with its tight gameplay, both in combat & platforming. The weapons feel truly unique even to the point of how they unlock doors or get past obstacles. You can switch between them on the fly. The music stands out extremely well in some areas & overall compliments the mood of the games different areas.

The big downer is that the story is so middle of the road with rubbish dialogue that you don't care about it's characters or what happens to them. There is potential for intricacy & detail within the story that see's an army of robots called the Iron Dogs take control & overrun Torch City but its sadly not to be. It's bland & uninteresting.

If you want a good story to your games this is not for you, if you want cool environments, satisfying punchy combat, neat upgrades to your character Rayton, a lavish world to explore then I'd easily recommend FIST any day of the week.

Evan E wrote:
jamos5 wrote:

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a big dump of games I've beaten:

...Resident Evil 7 - Turns out RE is great in first person...

First person, hell, try it in VR - if you've been meaning to throw out those pants anyways.

Games were not meant to be that intense. I loved it and definitely up there with my best gaming experiences, but VR had me jumping through the ceiling.

Garth wrote:
Evan E wrote:
jamos5 wrote:

Haven't posted in a while. Here's a big dump of games I've beaten:

...Resident Evil 7 - Turns out RE is great in first person...

First person, hell, try it in VR - if you've been meaning to throw out those pants anyways.

Games were not meant to be that intense. I loved it and definitely up there with my best gaming experiences, but VR had me jumping through the ceiling.

For extra fun you can play it the way I did: in VR and completely missing that there was a run button. I walked my way through the entire in game in VR until the run button was required at the very end. I was pretty confused as how I was supposed to get past that point till I looked up a tutorial...

I don't own enough pairs of pants to get through RE7 in VR, so I'm gunna have to politely decline. There were several times I had to turn on the lights to keep my heart rate from ripping my chest open.

On the plus side, playing the game in VR made me realize I have high blood pressure and get on meds, so that was helpful.

I just finished DEATHLOOP. I love immersive sims and I love Arkane, so of course I loved this. The loop mechanic gives it more of a puzzle feel, which was interesting and unique (also in Prey Mooncrash, which was good as well). It's great for a change of pace, but overall, I probably do prefer the more traditional structure of missions that sequentially take you to unique environments that we see in Dishonored, Hitman, or Thief.

Also found my last little guy on Hidden Folks which I've been playing off and on on my phone for over a year. I did cheat and look up the answers for several of them due to my lack of patience.

I beat Guardians of the Galaxy (XSX), which was a surprisingly good game with some excellent writing. It was pretty long too (~18 hours).

There's a little too much banter between the group, but I didn't hate it too much since the script was pretty good.

Sleeper hit this year, for sure.

Cross-posting from Playstation thread...

Plague Tale: Innocence is down! Really great game. Not sure I'll go back to trophy hunt. Only got 51% and some of what I'm missing is the collectibles. And a couple of those optional story things. Storm the front gate and such. I got several of those but not all. And I only found 2 or 3 alchemy carts, which is why I also didn't get everything fully upgraded. I did get slingshot maxed.

Story was great. Gameplay was solid. AI was pretty good. Didn't have my protect target running off and doing stupid things like so many games. And the up/down directions for them were effective in fights and puzzles.

Once you get control of the rats the game was very forgiving on you or your escorts running into them. Like you didn't have to be in proximity to Hugo to keep everyone alive, so that was a good design choice.

And the PS5 upgrades were really nice. The rumble was well done, graphics looked fantastic. Losing screens were so quick I couldn't read the tips or story summary on chapter loads haha. Would recommend everyone who got it from PS+ to play it. Or if you missed that pick it up on sale for $11.99 (usually $40) for the next 2 days on PSN