Finished Any Games Lately?

Finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While I really loved the game, it sure made it difficult at first. The mechanics are convoluted, the interface is cluttered and confusing, and the tutorials are brief, misleading, sometimes just plain wrong, and they can't be re-watched.

But the world is amazing, the characters and their stories were engaging the whole way through, and once the mechanics actually click it becomes something pretty special.

Now that I'm done with this, I guess it's time to jump back into Elden Ring?

halfwaywrong wrote:

Finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While I really loved the game, it sure made it difficult at first. The mechanics are convoluted, the interface is cluttered and confusing, and the tutorials are brief, misleading, sometimes just plain wrong, and they can't be re-watched.

But the world is amazing, the characters and their stories were engaging the whole way through, and once the mechanics actually click it becomes something pretty special.

Now that I'm done with this, I guess it's time to jump back into Elden Ring?

Good news! XC3 tutorials are good, rewatchable, and there are VR simulators for the combat. I've heard the XC2 Torna tutorials are much improved, too.

I finally polished off Fallout 4 after many, many, failures to get fully invested in it. I pushed through this time and wrapped it up. I was hoping to like it as much as New Vegas, especially since I spent much of my 20s and 30s living in Boston. But there was just something missing. Way too much focus on the settlement building didn't help.

The Quarry. It's good to see Supermassive Games make another full length game. The Dark Pictures series tend to feel underbaked and underbudgeted. The Quarry in contrast has much better production values and the story gets enough space for you to feel invested.

My wife and I play these games together in couch co-op, so it's a bit annoying that some characters get a lot more play time than others. Meaning that unless you luck into the right balance when assigning characters at the beginning, one person might end up playing a lot more than the other. The solution is to have a tub of ice cream on hand so that the person who plays less gets most of the ice cream.

The developers also did a good job of streamlining the QTE and action aspects of the game. You can actually play with one hand now, which means it's tempting to play with a glass of wine in the other hand, but I don't recommend this unless you're willing to risk making rash decisions after your third glass and get all your wife's characters killed.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
halfwaywrong wrote:

Finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. While I really loved the game, it sure made it difficult at first. The mechanics are convoluted, the interface is cluttered and confusing, and the tutorials are brief, misleading, sometimes just plain wrong, and they can't be re-watched.

But the world is amazing, the characters and their stories were engaging the whole way through, and once the mechanics actually click it becomes something pretty special.

Now that I'm done with this, I guess it's time to jump back into Elden Ring?

Good news! XC3 tutorials are good, rewatchable, and there are VR simulators for the combat. I've heard the XC2 Torna tutorials are much improved, too.

Haha that is good news! I'm torn between wanting to jump straight into 3 while I'm still super enthusiastic about Xenoblade, or give it a break for a while considering how huge these games are.

If there's any doubt, I say give it some time. Just make sure to remember the ending beats of 1 and 2 before going into 3.

Welp, last night I finished a marathon run of all the Bioshock games, including all the story content. They’ve all kind of blended together in my head at this point, especially since the final segments literally come full circle, but here’s the (long-winded) capsule summaries.

Bioshock: The big kahuna. This was the remastered version, but the even then the visuals are getting a little long in the tooth; I’m sure if I’d played the original version that would have been even more so. The main thing I knew going into this was it had a critique of objectivism threaded throughout it, but honestly it’s such a cartoonish take (on a philosophy whose advocates were themselves cartoonishly hypocritical) that in short order I was just glossing over that in favor of the world building. The writing, largely conveyed through audio logs, is really quite good, and the voice acting was much better than I expected.

What I didn’t enjoy so much was exactly how much of an FPS it was. I normally avoid FPSes like the plague, and this game really expected me to run-and-gun like I was playing Halo, even down to the only-two-guns-at-a-time mechanic. Eventually I leveled up enough to use possession and hacking to get enemies and machines to do my fighting for me, and I started enjoying what I like in games, exploring, lore collection, and approaching areas as puzzles to be solved as I sit unnoticed in the dark until I set things in motion. The plasmid that makes you invisible when you’re not moving was greatly appreciated.

This probably speaks more than a little about how games have evolved, but I really felt the story was in direct conflict with the gameplay. This is a game that wants you to be active all the time, and is clearly encouraging you to play the audiologs while carrying on with gameplay; I really prefer the more modern Uncharted style of doling out dialog and story during quiet moments as you’re traveling from point A to point B, which gives you a chance to reflect on the world, the characters, and the plot, before breaking things up with action.

As for the twist - playing Bioshock 15 years after it came out, there was no way the big surprise was going to come as a surprise to me. It did seem like it was well-done, though.

Bioshock 2: I gather this was initially received as a letdown, but has increased in estimation over the years. Technology-wise, this was noticeably more modern - textures seemed to be a little more detailed, and while I don’t have numbers it certainly seemed to run more smoothly than its predecessor in the Remastered collection. Story-wise, though - if Bioshock 1’s critique of objectivism is undone by cartoonishness, the sequel’s critique of - what is it critiquing? collectivism? psychology? mind control? (that’s taking a bold stand: “mind control is bad!”) - is really confused and muddled. Plus it couldn’t really do the world building that the original did, since we’ve already seen Rapture, and AFAICT it didn’t really try.

Gameplay-wise, having finally managed to level up to a certain level of stealth in Bioshock, what could have been more annoying to me than to suddenly be playing as…a Big Daddy? Sigh. I’m sure lots of people really thought that was great, but it’s the opposite of what I want in a game.

Bioshock 2 DLC: Minerva’s Den: I have to admit this and the main game have kind of run together in my memory. I’d heard that people who thought Bioshock 2 was a letdown found the DLC a redeeming factor, but I found the story shorter and less interesting, and I was really annoyed by how they stepped up the respawning enemies. There were multiple areas that were basically wave shooters; no matter how many enemy corpses you started piling up (most of which magically became “lockboxes” while you weren’t looking, to make for more efficient piling), more would come to take their place, and pretty soon I had to buy ammo at a rate I never had to do in any of the rest of this marathon. I think in retrospect it made me appreciate the variety of environments in the main game and the more complicated (or convoluted) story.

Bioshock Infinite: i.e., the one I’d already played! Yes, even though I was playing Bioshocks 1 & 2 for the first time, I actually played Bioshock Infinite at release, and remembered having my mind spun in circles with its multiverse-trekking plot. I also remembered there being considerable acclaim for it in the first two or so weeks, and then opinion taking a marked turn and decreeing that it was a terrible betrayal of the good Bioshock name, because if there’s one thing you can count on from the internet it’s sober and measured opinions. /s

The technological jumps from Bioshocks 1 to 2 to Infinite is, surprisingly, three years each. Surprisingly, because Infinite seems like a much bigger jump in visual complexity than from 1 to 2. Environments are much larger, less confined to narrow corridors, and the lighting is fantastic for the time - the opening sequence uses it masterfully, bathing its Disneyesque Streets Of Yesteryear theme park of a world in a literal glow of nostalgia. Of all of these games, that opening is easily the standout set piece - it does an incredibly effective job of setting the scene.

It’s even more of a run-and-gun FPS, though - there’s essentially no hacking of machines, and they drastically nerfed the possession ability so possessed enemies very quickly become unpossessed (and are usually mowed down in a hail of enemy gunfire even before that comes to pass). So by and large I enjoyed the gameplay even less than I did in the previous games. On the other hand, though, it was really fun to see the evolution of storytelling mechanics, and to have a better idea of how the game fit in with the previous games.

The thematic tentpole of this one is racism and American Exceptionalism, and…hoo boy. Even at the time it came out, its “I’m going to get in your face and startle you with the idea that racism is bad!” approach seemed a little juvenile and angsty, and that hasn’t aged well. And then when that gets tangled up in the narrative’s convoluted multi-world turns, it really seems to trip over its own feet. Sadly, the message it’s trying to get across is markedly more timely now, so it’s even more disappointing to see it flailing around spastically. I’m not even sure there is a solution to that problem other than make the game be about one thing or the other; there’s just too much thrown into this stew for it to all come together.

Bioshock Infinite DLC: Burial At Sea (parts 1 & 2): This was really what I was aiming for - I’d heard this DLC tied everything together in ways that made the whole package better than the individual parts. Storywise, I’d say it really makes a case for that, and up until the very endiest end of Part 2 I thought that was true. In hindsight…it actually walks a remarkable walk of literally taking place in both Rapture and Columbia, during some of the events previously depicted, while actually being self-contained. Which in the final analysis isn’t a bad thing - I enjoyed the story it told, although the curve here is that story is a very, very dark one, in a way that you’re not prepared for. Unlike the twist in Bioshock 1, somehow the last act and the ending of this DLC did not seep into my consciousness osmotically from the internet. Whoof.

Gameplay-wise, it’s fascinating - the game takes a radical shift in abilities halfway through and…the second half is a stealth game! You’re very vulnerable, and you’re given an actual tranq dart gun and tons of secret passageways to sneak through. I expect lots of people hated that, but it was my favorite gameplay of the series!

Reading this over, it seems like I enjoyed the series less than I did. I think I’d forgotten how much of an FPS Infinite, the only one I’d played previously, was, and I expect back then I hadn’t really realized how much more I enjoy stealth puzzle games than shoot-people-in-the-head games. It was fascinating to see how all three games fit together, and to see the ideas Ken Levine and company feel compelled to play with. I find I’m really looking forward to Judas, a.k.a. Bioshock 4, which was announced just as I was wrapping up Burial At Sea. (Although I sure hope there’s a viable stealth build.)

Great reviews, that's me installing the series now for a full run through. Thanks bud

Relicta is a first person puzzle game clearly inspired by Portal, but rather than portals you manipulate gravity and magnetism. And cubes. Lots and lots of cubes. It lacks the wittiness of Portal though there is still a nefarious AI that is mostly there to shuffle you between puzzle gauntlets. The puzzles themselves are the main attraction and by the end of the game they get longer and more elaborate than anything in Portal, for better and worse. Personally I found it to be a satisfying difficulty ramp, and I was pretty pleased with myself for muddling through without a guide.

No doubt it could have used some tighter editing. There is some repetition across puzzles, but it didn’t bother me particularly since that’s what I was there for anyway. More annoying were a couple of sections that are easily broken by slightly misplacing a cube, in not obvious ways. I had to reset a few times to get through, which can be punishing in longer puzzles. But they’re the exception not the rule. Overall I had a good time with this one, and did I mention I completed it without a guide?

IMAGE(https://steamah.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Chop-Goblins.webp)

CHOP GOBLINS

I unleashed goblins, the goblins unleashed hell. Oops.

Lovely little 30-60 minute FPS romp from the creator of Dusk. It's silly and barebones, but for $5 it provides an extremely solid throwback shooter experience in a single sitting. This dev knows how to make this style of game feel goooood and I appreciated playing something more lighthearted. Bonus points for cheese-hungry goblins and goofy time-travel.

I think the Steam summary is pretty accurate:

Chop Goblins is a "microshooter": An FPS designed to be completed in a single sitting, without sacrificing depth, variety, or creativity in its gameplay and level design. It's a game you can play for less than an hour, or replay for many hours. Need something to distract you from work, boredom, or grinding in other games? Take a Chop Goblins Break, with a fun and satisfying FPS campaign that only takes one sitting to fully experience.

Two thumbs up from me!

I played through and finished TMN: Shredder's Revenge earlier this week. I played online with a couple of friends, and had a lot of fun. It brought back memories of my beloved Turtles in Time, which was exactly the point of this game, but I wish the graphics were more Streets of Rage 4 and less Turtles in Time. Still, a fun time, and for the dollar it cost me to subscribe to PC Game Pass for a month, absolutely worth the money.

God of War & Boy, the first one. Had to give myself a day to mull over it after beating it. Here's my thoughts. Non-spoilery.

Story: Best part of the game. Boy and god are a fun duo to watch. As you wait for the moment of Kratos to actually explains himself and express emotions properly and for them to be family. The rest of the plot is solid too although I could guess what was going to happen. Had a few contrivances and a few unneeded scenes. Boy pouting section was oddly out of character. Also a good chunk of the problems could be resolved if Kratos carried a 12 foot ladder around.

Gameplay: I found the combat to be okay. Nothing really that special and by the end of the game I was pretty done with it. It was pretty limiting but it worked. The real problem was...

Gear and Leveling: I hated this. The whole gear and level system was just annoying. It was all meaningless except to keep up with the higher level of spongyness the enemies had. It only exists to be a reward for the open world.

Semi Openworld: This was pretty mediocre. It never felt like a real open world but just shards of one. And the only rewards you'd get are stuff for crafting or leveling which basically would become useless after time. While anything important was instantly found in the dwarf lost and found. I think I'd preferred a more railroad style for this sort of epic. Would make more sense too.

master0 wrote:

...Boy pouting section was oddly out of character...

Oh, man, that was terrible. Suddenly he's become a jackass, angry teen, without sufficient buildup at all. 20 minutes later it just...goes away. I mean, if you're not going to commit to a bad choice, why make it at all?

When I replayed it on New Game+ (which completely gets rid of the meaningless upgrade grind, because you start with everything you picked up during the first playthrough), I really appreciated Brok and Sindri far more. The writing for them is really hilarious.

Yeah I got what they were going for but that plot or arc is big enough for a whole other game. Maybe they'll reuse it in the sequel. It was more of an excuse to move the plot a bit. Still is passes quickly at least.

I played and finished in a few hours Super Kiki 64, an homage to the Banjo-Kazooie games of the N64 era. It was only $3 on Switch (and on Steam) and if you liked those games, I encourage you to give it a try.

I just beat The Last of Us: Part II for the first time about six days ago. I cannot stop thinking about this game.

It was brutal, it was violent, and it was raw. And I was crying at the end of it -- the first game that has ever made me cry. I'm 35 years old.

My heart was aching for a digital person that is not alive, never will be alive, and is simply just a set of computer code made into different colored lights that come out of my TV. But all I wanted to do is jump through my screen and huge this teenage girl, knowing what was about to happen to her.

I don't know if I can recommend it to everyone. I cannot even say it's a great game because it has some issues that stop it from being a must play no matter who you are.

But to me. To me, it is going to stick with me for a long, long time. I'm still in a haze.

I played Part I right before Part II, and playing the PS5 remake of the original made me remember why it's such a good game. I thought there was no way Part II would top it. And it did.

Just. Wow.

Ghost of Tsushima!

I watched credits roll on Spider-Man: Miles Morales. I need to do some clean-up and knock out New Game + to Platinum it. Great game, absolutely gorgeous and top notch at every level, as well as my first full game on the PS5. Just a perfect length of a game, as well. Which is nice when some games outstay their welcome.

Yeah, one point that has only gotten stronger over the last decade for me is that I'll always enjoy a game that's shorter and more focused than one that tries to give you your money's worth with grindy padding. I thought the first Insomniac Spider-Man game was great, but Miles Morales was made even better by being shorter, with a higher entertainment/time ratio.

Just finished Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

So 23 years ago, back in the Ancient Times (1999), Homeworld came out. It was beautiful. An RTS game, but the pace wasn't just slow it was...melodic. The music was meditative. Spiritual. Haunting. The mothership looked so alien and yet it felt like home. The story was simple, yet profound in scope. Basically, your job was to be Space Moses and lead your people to the promised land by piloting a vertical Battlestar Galactica while being chased by your Taiidan captors.

And damn it, it was hard.

Don't get me wrong, I loved it. I hit my head against the difficulty so many times, but failed repeatedly to get my people back to Hiigara. I've always been subpar at RTS games, but I truly wanted to finish this one. Problem is, with Homeworld, you carry your fleet and resources (or lack thereof) with you onto the next mission. If your fleet was depleted, whelp, enjoy the next mission failure. Over time, I got a little bit better at the game, but I could never grasp the 3D battlefield and continual resource deficit. And then I hit this one mission near the end where you approach something called the "Ball of Death", which was just this MASSIVE fleet in a sphere formation that I just could never overcome. There was a way to capture individual ships and turn them to your fleet, but I could never get the hang of it. My running consolation going forward was, "whelp, I guess the Kushan never returned to Hiigara and they became space nomads instead", and I moved on to other titles.

Then Homeworld 3 was announced, and I decided, "OK, I'm getting these wayward bastards home". So in 2023, one of my gaming goals will be to get this space albatross off of my neck. Hey Earth Moses wandered the desert with the Jews for 40 years, so 23 years with Space Moses will seem like a vacation.

But before I start that quest, we need to address the prequel. The origins of how the Khushans united, found the crash site, read the star map, and built the mothership (basically everything summarized in Homeworld's intro). If we're going to complete this journey, we're going to COMPLETE this journey, and that starts with the first steps.

Enter Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

Story-wise, the plot is simple - hey the planet is dying, resources are running out, we're all fighting more (wait, we're talking about Kharak, right?), but salvation may lay in a mysterious crash site behind enemy lines located in - wait for it - the Deserts of Kharak. So, you lead a team of plucky soldiers, salvagers and scientists on a mother carrier, build ships and planes of various sizes, salvage for resources, meet friends who want to kill you, while scientist Rachel S'Jet uncovers more about the Kushan origin story. Basically, Homeworld in a desert. And that's TOTALLY FINE.

The graphics are sparse, but serviceable. It's an updune battle to turn a desert wasteland into a stunning visual display, but developer Blackbird Studios and publisher Gearbox were up to the challenge, creating a barren landscape with variety balanced by isolation. The music and sounds align with the signature audio of the Homeworld series, a sort of new age meets Middle Eastern motif that creates a sense of mystery and wonder simultaneously. The gameplay is basically Homeworld, but very much 2D. One of the blessings and curses of Homeworld is that it's fought in the 3D setting of space. I always found this challenging, but Deserts of Kharak simplified matters and found new ways to shine. The unit variety added personality to battles, but eventually it just became easier at the end to just throw a mass of units at the enemy until they were defeated. One aspect I thought was handled very well was artillery, flying units, and support units that set up turrets and mines. It combined offensive and defensive strategies in an excellent balance.

Overall, Deserts of Kharak is a solid game. Nothing truly groundbreaking, but still a worthy edition to the Homeworld franchise. It enhances the setting, lore, gameplay and storyline while cutting a unique voice of its own. I'm glad I played it and had a suitable beginning to the journey planned for my Kushan people next year.

One minor note: I played the game on Easy mode. I just wanted to enjoy the story and the flow of the missions, and even then I found it challenging at times. If I wanted tough, I'd play Warhammer 3 or Darktide, two games I stink at but make me smile every time I'm playing them.

Up next: MORE DARKTIDE. And WoW: Dragonflight. Perhaps Gothic Armada. Eventually I need to start Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but that is for another time. In the meantime, my Khushans have a large space vessel to build.

I don't know how you define finishing a game like Warhammer 40,000: Darktide but I hit max level with my first character a couple weeks ago. I feel somewhat...complete? My motivation to continue gear hunting has been supplanted by an urge to level up a different character class which will probably take me another 20 hours of play.

More recently I watched the end credits roll for The Callisto Protocol on the Xbox Series X. I think I was in a short phase of retail therapy when the game first launched. Work was seriously stressing me out and I had been quite disappointed with the mixed reception Callisto had received from both the mainstream media outlets and the influencer community. Thankfully, I teased out a lot of the good aspects of the game from the largely negative reviews and wanted something new & shiny to play, so I decided to take the leap.

The Callisto Protocol is a good but flawed game. It is one of those classic definitions of a great "7/10" game. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, with my first playthrough on "normal" clocking in just under 16 hours. Yes, there were some difficulty spikes that were annoying and yes, the combat system took some getting used to. It is not unlike playing a Soulslike for the very first time and getting to grips with the feel of combat in that genre of gaming. The game levels were not nearly as linear as I been lead to believe, with plenty of side path exploration and sections of the game that forced me to slow down, avoid or take out enemies methodically and scavenge for resources.

The shadow of Dead Space looms large over this one and that's a bit unfortunate because while it doesn't stack up to Dead Space 1 & 2, Callisto still shares enough of the same DNA and executes on enough of its own core design pillars enough to create its own identity. It's also absolutely gorgeous to look at, runs relatively smoothly and is really one of those rare showcases for what current-gen console hardware can do.

Alan Wake is done. Why did I play this one? Mainly because I wanted to play Control and I'm a terrible completionist.

I found the setting, atmosphere and general plot to be solid. Some of the secondary antagonists had me rolling my eyes with how one dimensionally tropey they were... the manipulative, narcissistic psychiatrist... the alcoholic, trigger-happy FBI man. But turns out there was a satisfactory explanation for this.

The gameplay though. Ugh. Basically just a linear shooter where your character is weak and there's this flashlight mechanic. Flashlights don't work like this though! I've never seen one that requires you to slam a new battery in every 15 seconds or so to keep it shining brightly.

There really wasn't enough variety to justify the length, especially if you do the two bonus scenarios as well. So repetitive. I'd have preferred this to be an immersive sim, with a lot more exploration and problem-solving. Or a Telltale type adventure game. Or a walking simulator. Anything but this.

Will I play American Nightmare? Yes, I will. Terrible completionist.

I've had a lot of fun with Control and never touched Alan Wake. I don't think he was actually mentioned in dialogue until the DLC post game.

Yeah, I never understood the love for Alan Wake. Passable story, excruciatingly boring gameplay.

gewy wrote:

Alan Wake is done. Why did I play this one? Mainly because I wanted to play Control and I'm a terrible completionist.

I found the setting, atmosphere and general plot to be solid. Some of the secondary antagonists had me rolling my eyes with how one dimensionally tropey they were... the manipulative, narcissistic psychiatrist... the alcoholic, trigger-happy FBI man. But turns out there was a satisfactory explanation for this.

The gameplay though. Ugh.

I finished AW Remastered a few weeks ago (for the Control DLC) and this mostly mirrors my thoughts. I thought the gameplay was okay, just extremely one-note. The story and atmosphere kept me going strong most of the way, and it was good for a few scares and other memorable moments.

gewy wrote:

Will I play American Nightmare? Yes, I will. Terrible completionist.

Same. It's on my list, but not "high priority" - I need a bit of a break from the gameplay.

Stele wrote:

I've had a lot of fun with Control and never touched Alan Wake. I don't think he was actually mentioned in dialogue until the DLC post game.

Fairly sure there was a line or two in passing, but mostly in relation to the files you picked up.

Let me shock everyone by saying I played the original Alan Wake on the 360 back in the day, and I absolutely loved it.

Mario_Alba wrote:

Let me shock everyone by saying I played the original Alan Wake on the 360 back in the day, and I absolutely loved it. :)

IMAGE(https://i.gifer.com/FnP8.gif)

I finished Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, since it was a 3 hour game and served as a nice palate cleanser for an afternoon. It's basically a zelda-like where you play as a turnip doing missions and committing a variety of crimes to get out from under a tax bill. It's mostly just a silly little game, but somehow the TEAR button, which you use on a variety of different papers like taxes, love letters, real estate documents, and more never stopped cracking me up. And the story gets......wild.

A short Hike

Played this over a few nights, tucked into bed before going to sleep. It was a perfectly cozy little experience and I loved it so much. <3

Finished Bioshock, Bioshock 2 and also Minerva's Den (DLC for 2) for the third or fourth time (the first for the DLC). Really enjoyed the setting, gameplay and themes running throughout these games and they are worth another run through every few years. Just over 20 hours for 1 and 2 each, a good length for a story driven shooter.

Also got started on Infinite which I haven't played since release, but had 45 hours for the first run through. Really wasn't enjoying the first hour or so, battling through waves of police with little option but to kill/loot/die/repeat. Might struggle to finish that one off but IIRC the story is a great trip.