Finished Any Games Lately?

Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I'm halfway through that game but dropped it, mostly because the older I get, the easier I lose my patience with having to redo stealth sequences. Maybe now that I've steamed down a bit, I'll jump back into it.

The Forgotten City (Xbox Series S and PC, via Game Pass)

This is the game that began as a Skyrim mod before spinning off into its own thing, and the origins are pretty clear. In terms of gameplay, structure and pacing, this reminded me a great deal of the Fallout: New Vegas standalone DLCs (other RPGs probably have similar DLCs, but New Vegas is the one with which I'm most familiar).

The set-up is that the player character is transported 2,000 years into the past, to a mystical and mysterious Roman settlement that operates under a strange curse: if even one person sins (and there is considerable rumination over what is considered a "sin"), every single person is put to death. You are told that a sin is imminent, and it's up to you to stop it from happening and, ultimately, get to the bottom of what is happening. This is done - in true RPG-lite style - through talking to the varied array of interesting characters, solving puzzles and doing little "quests".

Another thing to mention is that this is a time-loop game; the adventure resets every time a sin is committed. I'm wary of time-loop stuff, because the danger is that it can quickly get boring and repetitive to carry out the same tasks over and over again. The Forgotten City sidesteps this neatly by giving you an NPC to whom you can delegate tasks that you've already completed. It also allows you to retain your inventory between "runs". Both of these are most welcome and cuts down on the time-wasting.

Speaking of time, it took me a little less than 10 hours to get all four endings. Never very difficult (there are some very easy optional combat sections, and it's always fairly clear what you need to do during the non-combat stuff), and the story is compelling, with sympathetic characters and some satisfying twists.

I expect to see this one on a lot of GOTY longlists. A few occasional graphical glitches aside, this is a highly polished product from a very small team.

I finished Guardians of the Galaxy. What a good video game. What a flarking good video game! It's so well written, so lush and imaginative. It's like 20 hours long, but I was left wanting more.

I kind of want to do a Farscape rewatch now, to get satiate that hunger for more fun adventures with f*ck-ups on spaceships.

I (and mostly my 6 year old son) Finished Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
Very very good game.

Btw... I am starting to become a gaming coach in a ways heheheh.... Especially on those games where he still cant read much. It is an interesting experience

I've just finished Aviary Attorney—short (even more than I expected), but good fun. The trial segments were quite easy (especially for any veteran of the Ace Attorney series), but it quickly became clear that wasn't really the point. The characters and the interactions between them I found snappy and consistently amusing, and I was able to quite quickly access all three endings for some quite different outcomes.

So that was good. That now 'frees' me to start playing The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (bought for me on my birthday a few months ago), or I can have another go at Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Or something else!

I finished the campaign for Star Wars: Squadrons. For what it is, which is a 10 hours Star Wars game with all the lasers and pew pew sounds that you want, it is totally fine and enjoyable. The campaign is varied enough with nice space(?) boxes and mission objectives. It's even better since I got it for free from a kind GWJer. I uninstalled after beating it, though. No real interest in touching the multiplayer. But I'm perfectly satisfied with what I got out of it.

Sundown wrote:

I finished the campaign for Star Wars: Squadrons. For what it is, which is a 10 hours Star Wars game with all the lasers and pew pew sounds that you want, it is totally fine and enjoyable. The campaign is varied enough with nice space(?) boxes and mission objectives. It's even better since I got it for free from a kind GWJer. I uninstalled after beating it, though. No real interest in touching the multiplayer. But I'm perfectly satisfied with what I got out of it.

That's pretty much the consensus around here. Fun single player thing. Enjoy a dozen hours or whatever and that's it.

Except Veloxi. He hates it with a fiery passion.

White hot passion of 1,000 Alderaans.

Bought and finished Alba: A Wildlife Adventure today. It was short (~3 hours) and cute, but not exactly memorable.

Veloxi wrote:

White hot passion of 1,000 Alderaans.

Oh, so it doesn't exist anymore?

...Too soon?

On another note, I finished Horizon Zero Dawn last night. I really thought I was going to have another mission or so. I really enjoyed the combat, the variation of machines and weapons, attack methods. I enjoyed the story, mostly once it started delving into the past. The one thing I felt held the game back was the open world. It was a great linear game stuck in a large expanse that existed just because. There were so many nooks and crannies I just looked at on the map and said 'not worth my time' especially after running down one canyon to nothing more than the robotic quadrupeds at the end. The open world was such a detractor that by the time I hit the first story mission that really sucked me in, I was wondering if I wanted to continue since the world had opened up so much I spent a ton of time roaming aimlessly doing side quests, even though I enjoyed the new enemy variety and scenery when the game opened up to the desert lands, as that was a huge breath of fresh air to change up what I was experiencing in almost every way. Once I hit the good stuff, I was in for it, and didn't wander much from the prescribed path and had a great time doing it.

I saw that the devs put out the first in a huge spoilerrific 'podcast' just a couple days ago, so now I'm gonna go check that out. I feel like they left the perfect amount of just enough hanging questions and resolved the story being told to have a satisfying conclusion. I'll be waiting for Forbidden West when it hits PC in a year or so.

Good call on HZD. I got distracted and never finished it years ago. Going to give it another try soon before the sequel. That sounds like a good way to play and stay focused.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

The one thing I felt held the game back was the open world. It was a great linear game stuck in a large expanse that existed just because. There were so many nooks and crannies I just looked at on the map and said 'not worth my time' especially after running down one canyon to nothing more than the robotic quadrupeds at the end. The open world was such a detractor that by the time I hit the first story mission that really sucked me in, I was wondering if I wanted to continue since the world had opened up so much I spent a ton of time roaming aimlessly doing side quests, even though I enjoyed the new enemy variety and scenery when the game opened up to the desert lands, as that was a huge breath of fresh air to change up what I was experiencing in almost every way. Once I hit the good stuff, I was in for it, and didn't wander much from the prescribed path and had a great time doing it.

I agree with this, and also find this an issue in a lot of these types of games. That said, the fact that you can focus on the main story is at least a partial plus in my book. Nothing kills my interest in an open world game faster than when my progress is either blocked or severely punished if I don't do filler missions that disinterest me.

Luckily a lot of titles nowadays are better about this. I'm super grateful when I can just go "I'm sick of doing these two things" and then stop doing it and it just means I don't unlock a skill I don't really need or something.

Felt like I needed something different yesterday, and decided to try Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Wow. Just… wow. Such 80’s goodness distilled into a fantastic game. I decided to ignore most of the “liberate these outposts” and focus on the story, and it paid off handsomely, as I was able to wrap it up in a single evening. I loved the bonkers story, the 80’s music, the gameplay, and the required training montage. By the time the credits rolled, I was just smiling and shaking my head… what a game. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/apple/285/smiling-face-with-hearts_1f970.png)

Oh, and this was playing the 360 version on my Series X. It held up wonderfully, and scratched the Far Cry itch I was having.

Blood Dragon is the best Far Cry game and no one can change my mind.

It's also like the last one that even tried to be slightly different or inventive. This series is bland white bread with no effort now.

kuddles wrote:

I agree with this, and also find this an issue in a lot of these types of games. That said, the fact that you can focus on the main story is at least a partial plus in my book. Nothing kills my interest in an open world game faster than when my progress is either blocked or severely punished if I don't do filler missions that disinterest me.

Luckily a lot of titles nowadays are better about this. I'm super grateful when I can just go "I'm sick of doing these two things" and then stop doing it and it just means I don't unlock a skill I don't really need or something.

Yeah, I definitely remember games like Borderlands feeding me missions and I wasn't always clear on which was a main story one, even though I assume there was something that told me if it was or not, but I never did figure it out.

Stele wrote:

Good call on HZD. I got distracted and never finished it years ago. Going to give it another try soon before the sequel. That sounds like a good way to play and stay focused.

Hope you find a better game when you return to it and enjoy it. I was level 60 (max) for the last 3-4 story missions, so I was able to steamroll a lot of things. Didn't die in the last mission at all.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

White hot passion of 1,000 Alderaans.

On another note, I finished Horizon Zero Dawn last night... The one thing I felt held the game back was the open world...

On the other hand, I loved the open world. Even after I got the ability to fast travel anywhere with zero cost, I ran everywhere, because you'd never know what you were likely to stumble across. I found the world to be really beautiful and comprised of a really rewarding (if improbable) variety of environments.

I'm very much in the "pre-ordering is for suckers" camp; you should always wait to see how a game is received, even from proven developers (pace Cyberpunk 2077), and if it's a single-player game it's even smarter to wait until it's on sale. But I've had my pre-order for Horizon: Forbidden West in for a good while; I'm a weak man, and I just can't wait.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

White hot passion of 1,000 Alderaans.

On another note, I finished Horizon Zero Dawn last night... The one thing I felt held the game back was the open world...

These game existed in two different states: before BotW and after BotW. I played it before, actually picked it up launch week due to Jeff Gerstman’s praise, and I adored the open world. I’m not usually up for using mounts to explore such a rich and lush environment, so I got some great time in it.

trueheart78 wrote:

These game existed in two different states: before BotW and after BotW. I played it before, actually picked it up launch week due to Jeff Gerstman’s praise, and I adored the open world. I’m not usually up for using mounts to explore such a rich and lush environment, so I got some great time in it.

Yeah, and I played BotW at launch and this one just now. The comparisons between BotW's revolutionary open world and HZD's more traditional open world were always staring me right in the face. In contrast, BotW's open world (and the way you were a part of it) felt like it made the game to me.

I love open world games, but haven't played BoTW, might I ask what makes its open world so revolutionary?

Veloxi wrote:

I love open world games, but haven't played BoTW, might I ask what makes its open world so revolutionary?

It revolutionized the “find a colored ledge to climb” in open worlds to the more sane “climb everything”. Then it added a glider feature where you can jump off anything and go where you like without instant death or fast travel being required.

Oh neat. Is it worth checking out if one has never played a Zelda game before?

In a way it probably works better if you haven’t played a Zelda before. You don’t have any preconceived notions of what a Zelda game can be, so you can judge it on its own merits. It’s very player-driven, explore at your own pace, kinda light on story.

beanman101283 wrote:

In a way it probably works better if you haven’t played a Zelda before. You don’t have any preconceived notions of what a Zelda game can be, so you can judge it on its own merits. It’s very player-driven, explore at your own pace, kinda light on story.

I shall get it on sale at some point then. Thank you!

Veloxi wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

In a way it probably works better if you haven’t played a Zelda before. You don’t have any preconceived notions of what a Zelda game can be, so you can judge it on its own merits. It’s very player-driven, explore at your own pace, kinda light on story.

I shall get it on sale at some point then. Thank you!

It's barely ever on decent sale, so right now it's nearly 50% off if you check the deals for this time of year.

trueheart78 wrote:
Veloxi wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

In a way it probably works better if you haven’t played a Zelda before. You don’t have any preconceived notions of what a Zelda game can be, so you can judge it on its own merits. It’s very player-driven, explore at your own pace, kinda light on story.

I shall get it on sale at some point then. Thank you!

It's barely ever on decent sale, so right now it's nearly 50% off if you check the deals for this time of year.

I'm in no rush, I just got Golf Story and Xenoblade Chronicles so I'm good for a while.

Wrapped up Pathfinder: Kingmaker + DLC today after 151 hours, which was probably a few too many; I turned the difficulty way down for the last two acts because the combat grind was wearing out its welcome. Also at that level PF combat becomes very rock-paper-scissors about having the right buffs and debuffs and I definitely wasn't interested enough to spend time optimizing that. I managed to get the 'secret' ending and all the other good ending components but one (Kanerah/Kalikke). Still a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the sequel but not right away. Time to play something else before jumping into a RPG behemoth.

I also played through Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion from one of the recent Humble Bundles. Finished it in under 3 hours with little interest in playing the high-score mode. It was a cute story and a fun diversion for a couple of evenings, but not a style I'm a huge fan of.

trueheart78 wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

I love open world games, but haven't played BoTW, might I ask what makes its open world so revolutionary?

It revolutionized the “find a colored ledge to climb” in open worlds to the more sane “climb everything”. Then it added a glider feature where you can jump off anything and go where you like without instant death or fast travel being required.

It also has very few things / areas that are hard-locked behind a specific ability, item, or quest. You can brute-force your way to almost anything if you're so inclined.

One of those games where you can walk straight from the opening cutscene to the final boss if you think you are already a bad enough dude to save the president.

Has anyone heard of Epistory? It is free on EA Play, which is "free" if you have Game Pass. Anyway, it is isometric, you are a girl on a fox, the levels are papercraft, and the game mechanic is typing. Yeah, you read that right. But this is no Mavis Beacon game-ified teaching tool. There is a narrator and a story, although it feels more like avante-gard poetry than a typical tale. And it is not easy either - I died many times despite being a 50wpm-ist - but it is NOT the Dark Souls of typing games. It is short, around 8 hours for me. Overall I liked it - the art is beautiful, the puzzles were challenging without being maddening, and what little I comprehended of the story was charming.

I finished Inscryption last night. What an experience!

Completed Call of the Sea yesterday. It’s leaving Game Pass tomorrow. Overall, it was good, not great.

The game is beautiful (but had surprisingly crappy/stuttering frame rate on Series X). The story telling was very good (but still was essentially a basic walking simulator). The puzzles were decent (but I frequently found them annoying, and easier to brute force than solve correctly). The world was detailed and felt like a real place (but then the puzzles were very obviously not realistic and felt super gamey and therefore out of place).

My biggest gripe is you just move so damn slow. I was using the sprint the entire game, and felt like that should have been the default move speed, with an even faster sprint available. You frequently had to walk back and forth between objectives to pad out length. And ladder climbing speed! Gah! Swimming was annoying and tediously slow.

There’s a lot to like, so I don’t want to bash it too hard. The journal and log system were brilliantly implemented. The story was told with care and detail (I especially loved certain details in the late endgame that were subtle but significant). There are a lot of fun Easter eggs and achievements to complete post-game without too much tedious replaying.

It really is a gorgeous and well-made game. But I ended up not loving it, and I’d give a much stronger recommendation for other walking sims first (Firewatch, Gone Home, Edith Finch).