Finished Any Games Lately?

ComfortZone wrote:

Minit clever little game, enjoyed the Zork like adventuring elements. The hard time limit is strangely liberating and well integrated into puzzles; But it was hard to make out some critical items, and I had to look up a guide for a couple of more obscure steps.

I had the same experience and enjoyed my time with it.

If you haven't already, Half Minute Hero is worth a try if you liked the Groundhog Day vibe.

I just finished Necromunda: Hired Gun. My first 40k game. My exposure to that universe so far has been pretty minimal. Figured I'd knock it off before Darktide though, or I'd be unlikely to go back.

It wasn't terrible, but the gameplay didn't exactly leave a good impression. Felt mostly like Doom with some Titanfall and Borderlands grafted on. The plot was forgettable and I suspect it was relying on broader knowledge of some of the characters and setting to pay off. The environments were quite nice though, managing to be both vast and claustrophobic at the same time. I think I'd have liked it more if it were a slower paced shooter, almost an immersive sim, because these levels could have supported it.

Also finished Vampyr with the CRPG game club a while back. Solid RPG and not overly long which I appreciate nowadays.

gewy wrote:

I just finished Necromunda: Hired Gun.

Felt mostly like Doom with some Titanfall and Borderlands grafted on.

In.

OK, well, don't be surprised if the grafts didn't fully take. There was some rejection going on if you know what I mean.

Rimworld + all expansions has a few proper endings and today I won the one from Royalty where you rise a person through the royal ranks and then complete a mission where you must host the Royal Stellarch for about a full season while wave after wave of raids tries to assassinate them.

I didn't make it hard on myself, starting a custom scenario with 1 vampire and 9 babies. We got into content from every expansion but especially this most recent one. Biotech has Vampires, genetics, childbirth/childcare, and commanding robots. I spliced useful genes onto the kids, had a 2nd generation of kids, spread vampirism to several of them. Two became robot commanders and had an army of helper bots and an army of Scythers (deadly bladed bots).

This is the run where I actually got to understand the psychic powers for the first time, after playing for years. At the end my vampire could leap great distances, drive enemies insane with a snap of a finger, tear them apart with his plasma blade, and create a big bulletproof dome.

Am I going to immediately start a new colony? Well there's still 2 weeks till Dwarf Fortress launches on Steam, so I think that's what's happening at least until the big sale next week.

Finished Tomb Raider Legend again. I loved it, but boy oh boy, is that game glitchy! I'm pretty sure it wasn't that bad when I played it in 2020. Possibly because I wasn't streaming it from my PC to my TV? I'm not sure. I should try it on the Steam Deck to see if it's better or worse.

Anyway, that game is great, and I wish Crystal Dynamics would go back and fix it up a little, it deserves it.

Finished with this rough gem. Tengai Makyou Zero is a very interesting game from a certain standpoint. For one, there are some RPG innovations that were nowhere close to being used elsewhere and wouldn't really start making any appearances until the 32-Bit era. And yet, it seems to cling to very oldschool design ideas.

The use of the system clock for in-game events that actually make you want to see them... Until you see them and realize they aren't all that big of a deal, like a wasted opportunity.

The unique idea of a game representing a caricature of a Westerner's perception of ancient Japan, yet not really going anywhere interesting with the characters aside from very simple if sometimes clever jokes.

And the nigh-unbearable encounter rate. The freakin' encounter rate.

Thankfully, the endings (two of them), were worth the trouble, especially the credits scenes which consist of different skits and gags. The sprite work is the most expressive and impressive I have seen in any SNES/Super Famicom RPG and they are a wonder to behold.

If you have great patience - it took me a few months to get through because I could only take so much of the encounter rate at a time -, I recommend this assuming you're into JRPGs of the older persuasion.

Cultic. This is a retro first-person shooter that reminded me a bit of Blood, without all the demons - although there are some creepy creatures. It more reminded me of a bit of Resident Evil 4 where you are mainly getting rid of human type. It was blast though with some pretty creepy set pieces.

Was surprised at the end that it was created mainly by one guy.

Looking forward to the next game given this is "Chapter One".

There's demo of it, I think the first level. And should mention the levels in this game are pretty large. Took about 8hrs to finish. For $10 that's pretty decent.

A few weeks ago, I finished The DioField Chronicle (PS5). It was an interesting game, both really interesting and innovative, and very repetitive. At times it felt like more than the sum of its parts, at times less.

Things I loved:

  • The gameplay was an innovative way to translate real-time strategy to a small, squad-based tactics game. I loved the approach, I loved the experimentation, and it was super easy to control. This is a battle system that could shine with some greater variety of characters and better encounter design.
  • The battles were all short! It was easy to dip into the game and play a battle or two, taking about 15-30 minutes.
    [The game overall was not too long for an RPG, clocking in at around 30 hours. Though honestly, it could have been 20.
  • The music: WOW. It was composed, I think, by the people who scored Game of Thrones. It was understated, but compelling, working with these repeated motifs that just became captivating background music. The music that plays at your home base, in particular, is some of the best "town" music I've heard in a while.
  • The character design was amazing. It's all varying motifs on Renaissance / Industrial era military uniforms, and staring at them, I couldn't help but think that each individual character
  • The writing and dialogue work. While it was not always great writ large -- the way the story was told was awkward, as I explain below -- the small-scale conversations between characters was great. In particular, the game did a great way with communicating tension between characters with different goals, the way the main character (Andrias) was tight with information, and how people communicate things by hints, implications, and things left unsaid. It also really showcased, in an effective way, how people avoid necessary conversations because they're too busy or focused on the next mission.
  • Another dialogue point: every character had a long, grandiose-sounding fantasy name -- but often, they all called each other by nicknames. This was a really authentic touch.
  • The game also did a great job with "show, don't tell" at the increasing stress that the unit was under, and one of the main characters' descent into madness, as the game approached its climax.

Things I didn't like:

  • After figuring out ideal builds and tactics, it was not challenging at all, even after setting the difficulty to hard. It was also very repetitive. Almost every map, and almost every encounter, could be solved with the same skills or combination of skills. Many of the maps were repetitive, too.
  • Speaking of builds and tactics, there were too few types of characters, and too few types of moves. There are about 16 characters, you can field 4 at a time, with four backups. And each character could have about five or six skills, but only 3 or so active at a time, as determined by weapon. But it was obvious that some skills are much better than others, so once you find those, it makes sense to keep the same types of weapons equipped and only use that. And, once you find a team, there's little to encourage experimentation. Plus ...
  • Experience is not shared with back-benchers, which further discourages swapping members of your unit.
  • There were just too many battles. The game didn't need to have any, and by the end, almost all of the optional battles added no value beyond padding the game length.
  • The character "barks" got very, very repetitive. "Long live the Empire!"
  • The plot twist, at the ending, made very little sense.

Finally got a 100% for Galaga Legions DX for the 360. This was a day 1 purchase for me!

Halo (another number)

You know the one. You play as Master John Chief Halo 117, a super space soldier in the future. The future of humanity is at stake, and the only way to prevent genocide (according to ancient and time-honoured traditions) is to visit foreign lands and kill everyone who looks different to you.

So grab your space gun, board your space jeep (or space tank, or space plane) and go kick some alien butt.

With incredibly unique action sequences (the tank ride, the jeep ride, the plane fight, the bit on the beach, and the one where you take the fight to the enemy in their own base), and an epic story I’m sure to remember until about half way through this post, Halo (another number) is hands down the best game I have finished this week.

Persona 5 Royal and Lost Eidelons completed.

P5R I might reply and go for all achievements.

Lost Eidelons was fun but it is not one I feel a need to achievement hunt in.

Wow. Another 100 hours for Royal? Good luck.

I finally picked up Shantae and the Seven Sirens and blazed my way through it over the weekend. Another excellent game in the series. If you've played a Shantae game before, you already know if this is your cup of tea. If you haven't played one before, here's the summary of every Shantae game ever:

It's a Metroidvania with lots of entertaining dialogue and cutscenes (including a few rare fourth-wall breaks and nods to the camera), vivid and colorful artistry, interesting and inventive spells, abilities, and upgrades, and engaging puzzles and boss battles. And yes, the fundamental Metroidvania aspect of it is dialed in nice and tight. Plus you get to play as a half-genie heroine who literally whips her enemies to death with her obscenely long purple ponytail; how cool is that?

I finished The Forgotten City, after it went on sale recently and I had it wishlisted after it got some positive buzz at last year’s GOTY time. It was a twisting mystery as you run through an old Roman city trying to solve the mystery of how to stop everyone in the city from being turned into statues of gold. Lots of interesting twists, like (extremely vague and with no context, but still putting in spoilers to be safe)

Spoiler:

major quests turned out to be minor, minor quests turned out to be major, quality of life features turn out to be plot points, golden statues turn their heads to look at you when you least expect it and creep you out, and a story that went in some totally unexpected directions

. Fun little ride, especially considering it was on sale. And the epilogue was wonderful. I only got two of the endings (one of which was the cannon ending), and didn’t have the heart to go back and do one of the other endings after that to get the achievements. And it was only 6 hours to get two endings, so it was a pretty short experience as well.

Just finished Crackdown 3 as it was recommended as just a fun game to go around and kill everyone. It reminded me a lot of Saint's Row. Great game and didn't overstay its welcome.

RE7. It’s a fairly short and beautiful game.

Redherring wrote:

Halo (another number)

You know the one. You play as Master John Chief Halo 117, a super space soldier in the future. The future of humanity is at stake, and the only way to prevent genocide (according to ancient and time-honoured traditions) is to visit foreign lands and kill everyone who looks different to you.

So grab your space gun, board your space jeep (or space tank, or space plane) and go kick some alien butt.

With incredibly unique action sequences (the tank ride, the jeep ride, the plane fight, the bit on the beach, and the one where you take the fight to the enemy in their own base), and an epic story I’m sure to remember until about half way through this post, Halo (another number) is hands down the best game I have finished this week.

These are hilarious. How many more Halo Numbers to go? You must be enjoying it to keep going, or you're a hardcore completionist.

Wrapped up the Prey remake (reboot?) last night. It was alright? Another game that had just enough interesting things going on to keep me going, but ultimately didn't really blow me away? The story and design kept giving me major "Bioshock in Space" vibes, which is maybe why I played it to completion?

I dunno. I kept playing the game, but I really couldn't tell you why. The story was just OK in my opinion, with some bad continuity errors; why give me the option to play as a woman if your dialogue and notes are always going to refer to me as "he" or "him"? As I stated before, it felt very "Bioshock-y" with it's story; the hubris of man trying to jumpstart the next evolutionary leap. I felt like they were trying to put some interesting twists into the storyline, but I didn't feel like they really worked out?

It was a nice game to get via Playstation Plus but I'm not sure I would have been happy if I paid full price for it when it came out.

polypusher wrote:
Redherring wrote:

Halo (another number)

You know the one. You play as Master John Chief Halo 117, a super space soldier in the future. The future of humanity is at stake, and the only way to prevent genocide (according to ancient and time-honoured traditions) is to visit foreign lands and kill everyone who looks different to you.

So grab your space gun, board your space jeep (or space tank, or space plane) and go kick some alien butt.

With incredibly unique action sequences (the tank ride, the jeep ride, the plane fight, the bit on the beach, and the one where you take the fight to the enemy in their own base), and an epic story I’m sure to remember until about half way through this post, Halo (another number) is hands down the best game I have finished this week.

These are hilarious. How many more Halo Numbers to go? You must be enjoying it to keep going, or you're a hardcore completionist.

I have one left in the MCC. There’s just something about having these in one collection that highlights just how much copying and pasting went on. At least they are short.

Trachalio wrote:

Wrapped up the Prey remake (reboot?) last night.

Just name reuse really. Even the devs have admitted that the name is the only thing tying it to the original game.

Halo (number):Subtitle

You know the one. You play as Master John Chief Halo 117, a super space soldier in the future. The future of humanity is at stake, and the only way to prevent genocide (according to ancient and time-honoured traditions) is to visit foreign lands and kill everyone who looks different to you.

This one is different!

Instead of a super space soldier, you play as a bunch of space soldiers. The future of humanity is still at stake, but this time you are on Earth the whole time. Still with the killing everyone who looks different.

Also - unlike Halo (Number) and Halo (another number) this one doesn’t start with the main character falling from the sky. Instead, it starts with the main characters falling from the sky.

So grab your space gun, board your space jeep (or space tank, or space plane) and go kick some alien butt.

With incredibly unique action sequences (the tank ride, the jeep ride, the plane fight, the bit on the beach, and the one where you take the fight to the enemy in their own base), and an epic story I’m sure to remember until about half way through this post, Halo (number):Subtitle is hands down the best game I have finished this week.

With Halo: Yet another number apparently too embarrassingly awful to release on PC, and Halo: We lost count too new and expensive for me to buy just yet, this concludes my journey with Chief Halo and friends.

For now…

ASTLIBRA_Revision

How the hell this game not more well known. This has been one of the best gaming experiences I had. A slow start at first but the story is crazy good. With a plot that goes all in. I can't talk about any of the cool things that going on without spoilers. And the gameplay is really good too. I did play with some cheats to lower the grind but I don't care. Can't believe how much I liked this. I think the only reason it's not crazy popular is how it looks. I could probable write another few pages on it if I wanted to.

I definitely have complaints about the game still. The inventory UI is poor. The occasional bits of fan service is silly. And while the plot is great from a technical perspective the writing could be better. But probable was translated to English so in that respect I give it a lot of slack.

If it in anyway sounds interesting I recommend it. There's a lot I'd want to say but so much is spoilery that I can't. Suffice to say the plot gets really engaging.

master0 wrote:

ASTLIBRA_Revision

How the hell this game not more well known.

Despite the animation looking really janky/low budget to me, I've heard good things about it. And since there's a demo, I gave it a go and it certainly feels well executed. I would definitely put it on a list of indie games that deserver attention from this year.

I finished Life is Strange: True Colors and loved it. It still suffered from what all narrative games do where they always throw in a high-stakes and unrealistic plot twist to what was mostly a personal story in the last act. But it also handled it much better than any other titles of this ilk. (LIS 1 of course got ridiculous by the end, The Dark Pictures has everyone's emotions dialed at 11 before anything even tense happens, I feel I don't need to even get into Quantic Dream).

The main character in this one is a gem, you do feel like you are hanging out in the centre of a small town, and even the "superpower" in this one is relatively grounded in nature. Lots of great music as well. Hopefully Deck Nine gets to make another one.

Pentiment

Narrative adventure game that is the passion project of Josh Sawyer (Fallout: New Vegas). You play as Andreas Maler, an artist working at a medieval monastery in the town of Tassing, Bavaria. A man is murdered, and you are tasked with helping solve the mystery. But there is more going on than meets the eye...

Gameplay more-or-less exclusively consists of moving around a 2.5d plane and talking to people. There are light RPG elements, as you get to choose Andreas' history and background, and this factors into some of the conversational choices available. What you say to people matters, as a well-placed word might be the difference between a person trusting you with a valuable clue or shutting you out.

The obvious inspiration for this game is The Name of the Rose, but whereas Umberto Eco's book was set in 1327, Pentiment takes place in the early 16th Century, and there is a reason for that. By this point in history, the monastery, as an institution, is in precipitous decline. Most scriptoria have been closed, as professional artists are favored for the work of illustration, and the proliferation of the printing press means that the abbey library is no longer a gatekeeper for books and knowledge. Further, the reformationist teachings of Luther, Hus, et al, is an additional existential threat.

So the monastery does what all institutions do in the face of waning power: it tightens its grip on the things it can control. For the most part, this means squeezing the townsfolk and peasantry for more taxes - and Pentiment does a great job of capturing the subsequent, rising tension between these two factions. It helps that all the characters are so well-drawn - sympathetic, if not always likeable - and you uncover various alliances and animosities, with plenty of people having a plausible motive to commit murder.

As you might tell, I found the game engrossing, the setting fascinating. It's not without its faults: it drags at times (especially if you talk to everyone at every opportunity, as I did), and there were occasions when I wanted the narrative to move at a faster clip.

I also should add three things: Firstly, I love the narrative-adventure genre, particularly when the game world responds realistically to my choices. Secondly, the medieval period is my favorite stage of history. Thirdly, I work for the (Episcopal) Church in real life, and while I don't consider myself religious anymore, I have always been fascinated by Christian history.

In other words, if you extracted my DNA and used it to create a game specifically for me, it might look very much like Pentiment. And, for sure, this is not a game for everyone; it is a niche experience for nerds, frankly. But if anything I've written above sounds appealing, I don't think you'll regret immersing yourself into this wonderful and brilliantly-constructed world.

tl;dr: Pentiment is very good, if you like this sort of thing.

Just rolled the credits on Dying Light.

Tasty Pudding wrote:

Pentiment

The obvious inspiration for this game is The Name of the Rose,

You called?

Finished off Shadows of Rose, which is the Resident Evil: Villages story DLC.

In this one you play as Rose, the main protagonists daughter. She has some powers she wants to give up and finds herself in a bit of a pocket dimension of the main game trying to get rid of them. So you'll be revisiting some of the greatest hits areas with some tweaks.

It's actually not bad. I was initially not too happy with it as it seemed more of the same. But there's some nice story beats to it. There are three main areas to the game. Each with their own villain. While the first and third one focus on combat and light puzzle elements it is the second area that is pretty neat. It involves puzzle solving and stealth with some serious creep factor. In fact it's the only part of the DLC that actually had a moment that startled me. Plus there's a bit of Weeping Angels (Dr Who) elements to that one.

I will say Rose sucks to control. The view is 3rd person but she moves so poorly. Running is a slog and after blazing through with Ethan, Rose can't shoot for crap. It was a bit frustrating to do combat even with some powers she eventually is able to use.

The RE7 DLC was pretty mediocre, and I'd say this DLC is slightly better. I did like the story and again that second main area was pretty awesome, even if I died 15 or so times due to bad stealth mechanics. But I give it a solid point deduction as they reused the main games after credits scene once again. Lame.

Finished all the games in Dread X Collection 5. It has 12 games in it this time, plus the launcher, but I think I preferred The Hunt overall. For one thing, The Hunt's wrapper was a riff on The Thing, while 5's launcher is in the vein of Five Nights at Freddie's, and there's no bona fide banger like The Fruit in 5's collection of games.

Still, there's some good stuff here. The ones that feel like the ones most dialed in to the assignment in terms of length of game meshing with mechanics and subject matter are the awful daylight horror of Finnish midsummer in Hunsvotti*, Karao's playstation horror karaoke night gone wrong, and We Never Left's text adventure shenanigans.

I was also very into Rotten Stigma, but it felt like a speed run version a full-blown survival horror instead of being an appropriately small idea.

The only one I completely ran out of patience with is Ludomalica, which you can see where it's going from minute one, and then it's a slog to the punchline that admittedly has the mildest of zags, but it's not nearly enough. It should've been a quarter of its length - and we're talking ~20 minutes tops to complete here.

*A very rude thing to call your game.