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[IKSTUGA]

2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -- 9/10
Okay I was wrong about this game, it's damn good. Once I got past breakable weapons, it was pretty much smooth sailing. There were a few minor sources of frustration like the temperature mechanics and combat jank, but they didn't bother me enough to hinder the overall experience. Must play for every Switch owner and a top 3 Zelda game for me.

3. Persona 5 Royal -- 10/10
Took me around 80 hours to beat. It's Persona 5, but bigger and better. GOAT material for sure and worth it even if you've already played the original version. Here's a sick new song, because why not:



Edit: I played DQXI, BotW and P5R in a row, probably going to do smaller games for a bit, lol.

 

[jshackles]

Game 7 - Diablo II: Lords of Destruction - PC / Battle.net - Completed Jan 29th, 2021
It's been forever since I've played through Diablo II, and after finishing the first game earlier this month I decided to give this one a good go. While it's certainly an improvement on the first, I found it to be not quite as good as I remembered. Even though I was able to play in ultrawidescreen (which was awesome!) there are still a lot of aspects of this game that did not age well. I found that I had to cheese my skills a lot more often than should be required of a game like this, although I know some people think that's what makes it "hardcore". Overall though, I had fun with it and was sure to listen in on all the story bits and follow along - something I don't think I've done since the game first released! I think I actually prefer modern Diablo III to all of them so far.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I think I actually prefer modern Diablo III to all of them so far.

Same. The combat reminds me of Gauntlet/Gauntlet Legends dialed up to an absurd degree.

 

[IKSTUGA]

3. Persona 5 Royal -- 10/10
Took me around 80 hours to beat. It's Persona 5, but bigger and better. GOAT material for sure and worth it even if you've already played the original version. Here's a sick new song, because why not:



Edit: I played DQXI, BotW and P5R in a row, probably going to do smaller games for a bit, lol.

4. Resident Evil: Revelations -- 8/10
It's no masterpiece, but still, I enjoyed going back to RE:R. By far the biggest problem the game has is the fact that RE2 and 3 Remakes are a thing. They're just way better, if you're looking for some over the should horror action.

5. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze -- 9.5/10
With each replay, the game just becomes better and better. The level design is just insane, who cares if there are crocodiles or not.

6. Gravity Rush: Remastered -- 8.5/10
What an interesting concept. Really enjoyed it for the gameplay and soundtrack, story didn't quite catch my interest.

7. Gravity Rush 2 -- 7.5/10
They really dropped the ball with the level design here. Too much cinematic BS and too many unfun stealth sections. I still enjoyed the core gravity based gameplay though.

 

[BadBurger]

Spoiler: All completions!

1. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PlayStation 5) | Jan 4th - 11 hours | 4/5
   A charming platformer that rivals the greats from Nintendo. Amazing use of the PS5's features, great use of the DualSense controller, innovative cohesion with what is terrific music. My only knocks are that it relies too much on its gated advancement, and some levels were a bit tedious
   
   
2. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PlayStation 5) | Jan 7th - 11 hours | 4/5
   Better than the game it spun out of (no pun intended). It refines any rough edges while implementing the best features of the PS5 and improving upon character models. The story has heart, the combat is great, the music bumpin'
   
   
3. Days Gone (PlayStation 5) | Jan 14th - 57 hours | 2.5/5
   A game that doesn't really get anything gameplay wise wrong, but it doesn't achieve anything I'd consider innovative either. The story telling is very poor IMO, something Bend Studio needs to learn to execute more organically and with more compassion. I think "mediocre" might be the best word to describe it
   
   
4. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PlayStation 5) | Jan 27th - 10 hours | 3/5
   Good, not great as a kind of addendum to Uncharted 4. It gets the core gameplay right, the story is light, and it relied perhaps a bit too much on merely peddling around a kind of lackluster tiny open world
   
   
5. Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PC) | Feb 1st - 5 hours | 2/5
   If you've played Destiny 1 or 2 you know what to expect. Bungie is still failing to offer a compelling or even coherent story. I found myself tuning out. Some of the newly introduced mechanics enriched the game, however. PvP remains oddly limited and boring. Some of the added content that is available following the short story campaign is all grind for few rewards
   
   
6. Genshin Impact (PlayStation 5) | Feb 9th - 12 hours | 3.5/5
   Logging this now even though it's one of those games that are ongoing like a MMO. I wrapped up the introductory content and am working on the business of furthering the story and acquiring heroes, etc. It is a surprisingly well fleshed out game for something that's free - quality characters with full voice acting, great presentation value, deep and well designed systems, simple yet enjoyable combat, a large open world, etc. One spends a lot of time walking, even given fast travel options, and that thin veneer of design that nudges people toward the store is of course there. With just a tiny bit of QoL improvements this would be a 4/5, easy
   
   
7. Samorost 3 (PC) | Feb 14th - 5 hours | 2/5
   Another vibrant chapter in the series. Great art and music. Some easy puzzles, some on the tricky side. Amanita Design fixed some of the rough edges from 1 and 2. Unfortunately too many of the puzzles can be essentially failed, forcing one to go back and redo entire areas / puzzles to reacquire items if they don't methodically save at every single juncture. This made it occasionally frustrating and a struggle to get through at times, which was the exact opposite of the experience I had with the first two installments of the franchise
   
   
8. Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (PC) | Feb 15th - 5 hours (first complete match) | 4/5
   This second expansion adds a plethora of helpful and fun systems, fixes problems related to resources and diplomacy in the core game, and adds some rather effective leaders. In fact, it fixes so many problems that I think it's kind of shitty for Firaxis not to release at least a few of these system changes in an optional patch for all owners of Civ VI. But business is business I guess. It's very good, I think essential as it repairs so many issues with the core game.
   
   
9. The Banner Saga (PC) | Feb 22nd - 9 hours | 4/5
   Phenomenal tactical strat game

9/52

 

[jshackles]

Game 8 - The Medium - Xbox Series X - Complete Feb 7th, 2021
I really enjoyed this game, even though I wasn't sure if I would or not when I first started playing it. I've played a few other Bloober Team games, Layers of Fear which I really liked and Blair Witch that I enjoyed but didn't care for it enough to finish. Thankfully, this game was a lot better put together than Blair Witch and even threw in a few elements of Layers of Fear that I really liked. First off, the music was incredibly well done. The absolutely haunting melody and tunes carried the spooky uneasy vibe of this game throughout - top marks. The story was interesting and original. Lots of Silent Hill vibes, which I appreciated greatly. Voice acting - top notch. Kelly Burke did an amazing job, and I was surprised to see Troy Baker in the credits as well! Thank god for Game Pass, if it weren't for getting this game for free I likely would have skipped it - but knowing how much I liked it I definitely would have paid full price. Only downside is that it was a bit on the short side (for a full price game) at 8 hours, and not much replay value if you know how the story goes. But otherwise, it's a hell of a ride!

 

[bender]

I just hate finished Control. The game is so boring to look at and play. Modern Remedy is such a bummer.

 

[dapplefur]

Place holder. Will update soon.

 

[Psychotic_Mantis]

Main Post

1. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (PSVR) - 9/10 - my only complaint is I wish I could backtrack and move freely. Outside of that this game is a complete joy! Excellent boss encounters!

2. Sonic Lost World (Wii U) - 5/10 - Started out fine and I grew annoyed by the end. Uninspired bosses and designs. The controls aren't explained well and I had to legit open the manual to figure out what I was doing wrong. Yet another Meh Sonic game as I work through the series.

3. Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) - 6/10 - I think I just liked the idea of playing as a raptor in this as a kid. This game is hard and super confusing. I had no idea how to finish the game until I looked it up on youtube. It definitely has moments and is different but I am not so sure it was fun.

4. Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure (Neo Geo Pocket Color) - 7/10 - Decent enough Sonic game. I think it's impressive for what it did on the hardware. Nothing really new here just a fairly solid old school Sonic game.

5. Adventure Island(NES) - 3/10 - TRASH!!! I hated my time with this game. I must have only rented 2/3 as a kid. When I finally made it to 8-3 i had to save state at some ridiculous jump. It probably took me over 100 tries to finally do what I needed to do...and I think I just got lucky. I didn't realize how hard (impossible) this damn game it. It's barely fun, every level is almost the same and the bosses are the same the whole time. Trash game.

6. Mirror's Edge (PS3) - 7/10 - I loved running and jumping and I hated the combat. I wish the majority of the game was just puzzles of jumping and getting somewhere instead of running from guys and occasionally fighting them. How does Catalyst compare to this? I heard open world (which sounds meh) but hoping the combat is either refined or removed.

 

[Jack Videogames]

58:53h, Normal difficulty. Saw all 5 endings, with "The Star" as the one I got first. Finished all non-blue quests. I'm not going to say any major spoilers but I'm not going to tag them either, so be careful, samurai.

What a pity. What a waste. I'm so mad.

Cyberpunk 2077 could have been an easy GOTY for me. An engaging main story, a breathtakingly (get it hyuck hyuck) designed world, engaging, distinct and memorable characters,... even with its faults, it would be an easy 95/100 game for me.

The reason I think so highly about Cyberpunk 2077 can be summed by paraphrasing dunkey; in other open world games I've played recently, even if I enjoyed them thorougly, I barely remember what they were about or who the hell were the NPCs. Hell, I'm playing AC Valhalla right now and I have to struggle to remember what's it about and why should I care about the woodfaced people I encounter on my travels. But in CP2077 I came to care about Johhny, Jackie, Panam, Takemura (they did my boy dirty), Judy (poor, poor Jude) and the others. An RPG lives and dies by its characters and CPR knows that. The stories unfolding around them were so engaging, the quests so (mostly) well designed and supported by some of the best use of ray traced graphics to date, that I had to stop myself from fistpumping from time to time.

But now let's talk about bugs shall we. I played the GOG version, 1.06. The first 10h or so everything went swimmingly, though I broke my brain trying to understand why the performance deteriorated so fast while I was playing (more on that later). But then the bugs started, at firsts lowly. V t-posing on his motorcycle every now and then, quests that required me to reload to be able to finish them, weapon info not disappearing from the game screen, V perma-crouching even in cutscenes, my car appearing clipping through the road and then exploding. Annoying, sometimes hilarious, nothing too big.

At first. Those annoying bugs started appearing more and more and some more serious issues appeared. Clipping through the ground in the badlands and falling through the geometry, quests that never popped up (The Milltech base in the southeast corner, for example), NPCs that were supposed to call and never called, the interface not being disabled during cutscenes so I ended calling my car when navigating a conversation tree and getting trampled over... and I discovered the game has a very serious memory leak that prevented me from playing more than a couple hours before the fps went from a smooth 60 to a wobbly 40. Then finally, I encountered not one, but three different gamebreaking issues during a single playthrough (an infinite loading screen during "Queen of the Highway", Takemura not calling during his questline, Kerry's quest not popping up) that had my progress stalled for days while I contacted CPR (never heard back) and looked for workarounds online. I soldiered on and passed all those hurdles, only because the game is THAT good. I wouldn't have bothered with a minor game.

While completing "Don't fear the reaper", I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw Johnny t-posing while waxing lyrical next to Arasaka's tower elevator. Also, in the quiet driving scene in the Temperance ending, the main character reminiscing nostalgically about Night City while the car was trampling parked cars and civilians alike. Those scenes were the perfect summary of this game; fantastic gaming moments ruined by the absence of QA.

But then I recognize the quality of CP2077 and I would feel dirty giving it less than 4 stars because it's a 6 star game for me. However, in its current state, I cannot fully recommend it, even on PC. I'm sure future patches will get it ironed out even more and it will eventually become the killer app it's supposed to be, like The Witcher 3.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[marcincz]

February, so far, is a Capcom month for me. Next title must be something different than these:

Game 10 - Devil May Cry V (PS4) - 10h 48m
Beat 03/02/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 11 - Resident Evil Zero (PS4) - 16h 11m
Beat 06/02/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

Game 12 - Resident Evil (PS4) - 17h 49m
Beat 11/02/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 13 - Resident Evil 2 (PS4) - 09h 11m
Beat 13/02/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆ (Leon)

Game 14 - Resident Evil 2 (PS4) - 05h 40m
Beat 15/02/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆ (Claire)

 

[tav7623]

Main Post

3. Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) - 6/10 - I think I just liked the idea of playing as a raptor in this as a kid. This game is hard and super confusing. I had no idea how to finish the game until I looked it up on youtube. It definitely has moments and is different but I am not so sure it was fun.

Congrats on finally beating this game! I have fond memories playing that game (and the semi-sequel/remake Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition) as a kid especially since it was (outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog pack-in game) the first Sega Genesis game I ever owned. In fact I still have it though the case & manual (which has several old passwords I had written down in the notes section as a kid) are in rough shape. I played this game so much as a kid I actually managed to beat it with both Grant & the Raptor.I distinctly remember hating the raft sections with Grant as well as the sections with the Brachiosaurus and the Sewer/Power Plant stages with the Raptor.

 

[IKSTUGA]

4. Resident Evil: Revelations -- 8/10
It's no masterpiece, but still, I enjoyed going back to RE:R. By far the biggest problem the game has is the fact that RE2 and 3 Remakes are a thing. They're just way better, if you're looking for some over the should horror action.

5. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze -- 9.5/10
With each replay, the game just becomes better and better. The level design is just insane, who cares if there are crocodiles or not.

6. Gravity Rush: Remastered -- 8.5/10
What an interesting concept. Really enjoyed it for the gameplay and soundtrack, story didn't quite catch my interest.

7. Gravity Rush 2 -- 7.5/10
They really dropped the ball with the level design here. Too much cinematic BS and too many unfun stealth sections. I still enjoyed the core gravity based gameplay though.

8. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition -- 7.5/10
Don't have much to say about this one. It's good, but it feels very old.

9. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic -- 9/10
It's like Mass Effect, but in the Star Wars universe, love it. Some gameplay elements haven't aged that well, but it doesn't matter, because of the excellent writing.

10. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim --8/10
Did a quick playthrough. It's Skyrim, janky as fuck with unbeliavably dull characters and lore. It is fun though.

 

[Psychotic_Mantis]

Congrats on finally beating this game! I have fond memories playing that game (and the semi-sequel/remake Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition) as a kid especially since it was (outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog pack-in game) the first Sega Genesis game I ever owned. In fact I still have it though the case & manual (which has several old passwords I had written down in the notes section as a kid) are in rough shape. I played this game so much as a kid I actually managed to beat it with both Grant & the Raptor.I distinctly remember hating the raft sections with Grant as well as the sections with the Brachiosaurus and the Sewer/Power Plant stages with the Raptor.

Haha, the raft portion was so frustrating. I have my old copy as well and found some of the stage codes that I wrote down as a kid. Was pretty cool to come back around and finally finish this one. How did you figure out how to finish the last levels? I had to resort to youtube after a bit.

 

[tav7623]

Haha, the raft portion was so frustrating. I have my old copy as well and found some of the stage codes that I wrote down as a kid. Was pretty cool to come back around and finally finish this one. How did you figure out how to finish the last levels? I had to resort to youtube after a bit.

Yeah, it was, I can't tell you how many times I died trying to go down to the next part of the level or getting through it only for the T-Rex or a Brachiasaurus to get me and have do it all over again. Nice! yeah totally agree, a few years back as part of the 52 game challenge I went back and played through/beat a bunch of NES games (mostly the Castlevania & Mega Man games) that I'd never managed to beat as a child. Honestly I remember it taking a lot of trial & error (and patience/perseverance, which I apparently had in abundence at the time) with both characters as well as a little bit of dumb luck in the case of the final boss fight against Grant as the Raptor cause at the time I couldn't find a single strategy guide for the game in any of the gaming magazines I could get my hands on and it would be a few months before the first cheat codes/level select codes would start popping up in said magazines.

 

[bender]

Finally got around to starting and finishing Miles Morales the last few days. I really like how focused it was compared to Peter Parker's campaign. Way less padding and most of the side missions and content felt more meaningful and integrated into the story. Clocking in at under 10 hours was also great considering the city is reused (duh). I've also now completed every PS5 game I've purchased (3 for 3 or 4 for 4 if you included Astrobot).

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

3. Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) - 6/10 - I think I just liked the idea of playing as a raptor in this as a kid. This game is hard and super confusing. I had no idea how to finish the game until I looked it up on youtube. It definitely has moments and is different but I am not so sure it was fun.

Yeah this game fucking slapped but was hard af. I'd love to play it again someday on an emulator or whatever because I never beat it as a kid.

 

[GametimeUK]

GAME 19: Banjo Kazooie (in progress)

Mate, I'm just about to wrap up Banjo Kazooie. I played it briefly as a kid, but I never had my own N64 so I have always felt like I've missed out on a great game. I've been enjoying the game so much, but then I hit this part. It's beyond infuriating and quite possibly my worst segment in any game I have ever played period. It sucks so bad that I have dropped my score from 4 stars to 2 stars. This isn't a heat of the moment thing either. If I wasn't so stubborn and wanted this game for my list I would have just given up. What a disaster. I may play the 2nd game if it doesn't include any BS like this. Can someone tell me if Banjo Tooie has an awful segment like this in it?

 

[Jack Videogames]

10h-ish, Hurt me plenty difficulty, full game and the Lost Levels.

This game was pretty swell, actually. Most of the levels were very well designed... except for the last one, which is basically impossibru if you haven't found the three MacGuffins (whose existence isn't even alluded to during the course of the game. Apart from that, A+ gameplay as always.

The absence of music (or, mostly, how quiet and unobtrusive the music was) was a bit jarring compared to the kickass metal music the Doom saga is known for. Maybe replaying this game on PC with mods would improve the experience.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[Jack Videogames]

18h-ish, Easy difficulty. Completed everything except for Season Pass stuff. Some metaspoilers in the text.

City builders tend to be relaxing. When you complete the campaign mode of a city builder you are usually content and satisfied. You feel like you did a moderate effort and achieved a moderate victory. But Frostpunk is not one of these games. Even on Easy (which is sort of a misnomer, really - even Easy mode is nerve-wrackingly hard) Frostpunk is a game that makes you clench your teeth and square your shoulders and when you are finished with an scenario, you realize you've been tense for the most part of it. A misstep and your carefully constructed city goes to shit. In the masochism scale, I'd say it's somewhere below Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress and a step above your average Soulsborne.

But that's part of what makes this game special. In order to win, you have to carefully manage your resources, including people, and you have to take some really drastic measures -child labor, using corpses as fertilizer, legalizing prostitution, establishing a dictatorship or a theocracy- and then, even if you win, the game calls you a bastard. It plays with your feelings, and that is good. I think this is one game that everyone should play.

Also the OST is full of absolute bangers.

My Score: ★★★★★

Original post

 

[IKSTUGA]

8. Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition -- 7.5/10
Don't have much to say about this one. It's good, but it feels very old.

9. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic -- 9/10
It's like Mass Effect, but in the Star Wars universe, love it. Some gameplay elements haven't aged that well, but it doesn't matter, because of the excellent writing.

10. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim --8/10
Did a quick playthrough. It's Skyrim, janky as fuck with unbeliavably dull characters and lore. It is fun though.

11. Super Mario 3D World -- 10/10
Super strong level design and tight controls.

12. Bowser's Fury -- 10/10
A fantastic new experiment in the Mario universe.

13. Persona 5 Strikers -- 9.5/10
Almost as good as actual P5.

 

[KungFucius]

These threads give me a chuckle. I tried to give it a go in 2014 after the PS4 / Xbone launches. I thought maybe there would be enough cool games to get 10 big titles and a bunch of small indy ones. But really 52 games is ridiculous. I beat AC: Valhalla this year that took nearly 2.5 weeks worth of full time job and most of it was last year. I then spent a work week on Immortals, a half work week on Miles Morales and another work week on TLOU2. I am not sure how much time I spent on Mario 3D world plus the expansion but it was a significant time suck. I am waiting for big patch 2 to spend a work week on Cyberpunk on PC and I am currently deciding what the next time suck is since that patch is a few weeks away. Technically I did beat 7 games counting MM, Astrobot and Bowser as games so far which isn't too shabby, but with the weather improving and the pandemic looking to be less of a factor that will be a peak for the year. I also technically received my PS5 this year which I consider beating the mobile twitch game of respond to fucking notifications and keep pasting links to force it through the bogged down online ordering system. That's kind of beating a game even though most was done in 2020 and the dev team was fucking incompetent.

I see an outside chance of hitting 13 proper games this year which is 1/4 of this absurd goal. I wonder if any more of them will actually be PS5 games. I am surprised I cleared 21 and could have done 23. I also could have rushed through a couple old 2D games and hit 26.

List so far:

1. AC: Valhalla (PC) - January 8/10 ( first 40 hours, shoot me in the head last 50 hours)
2. Immortals (PC) - January - 9/10
3. Spider-Man Miles Morales (PS5) January 8.5/10
4. Astrobot Playground (PS4 on PS5) January - 7.5/ 10
5. Mario 3D World (NSW) - February 9.5/10
6. Mario Bowser's Fury (NSW) - February 10/10 - I really liked this little game and want more like it.
7. TLOU2(PS5) - March - 9/10 - Liked the game/story except for the overly scripted parts where you die unless you do A then B then C then D exactly as intended shit.
8. Detroit Become Human (PC) - March 7th 8/10 - Entertaining. Probably the best Quantic Dream game.
9. Medium (PC) - March 19th - OK. 7/10
10. Ratchet and Clank (Ps4 on PS5) - Still good but wouldn't be worth 70 bucks not sure about the PS5 one coming out this summer. 9/10
11. Cyperpunk PC - I enjoyed this game 8/10
12. Super Paper Mario - Dolphin - My kid loves Mario so I play a lot of older games with him.
13. Ratchet and Clank Rift apart PS5 - 9/10 Finished on 6/26- Smooth, great looking game. Looking forward to the next one. I guess it was worth 70 but I will likely resell it because I am cheap. Did resell it.
14. Scarlet Nexus. It was OK, but started to drag.
15. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Dolphin. I get why this wasn't ported. There was much more Wii specific stuff in here that was hard to play with an emulated wiimote. I just go through the main game and dropped it because some stars felt impossible outside of the Wii.
16. Psychonauts 2. Really enjoyed this one.
17. Kena, decent game, a little harder than expected.
18. Metroid Dread. I liked and hated this game. The difficulty was annoying and requiring QTEs to beat challenging bosses was utter bullshit. Though it kind of felt good. Unlocking hard mode is a fucking joke.
19. Far Cry 6. Free Copy with my Ryzen CPU I got in December 2020. I liked it more than the FC's after blood dragon. Crashed alot.
20. Yakuza Like a Dragon PC. This game really got on my nerves after starting out feeling fresh. Glitchy on PC, would sometimes lose focus and pause randomly. The game was also way too fucking grindy. None of the good gear is attainable without wasting hours of your life grinding for crafting items and for money. I don't play games as a fucking job. The pacing was also poor. Get to a boss battle and you can't save but need to go through 3 long cut scenes.
21. Minecraft Dungeons - Beat this in a couple of days with my kid.

Spoiler: All completions!

1. AC: Valhalla (PC) - January 8/10 ( first 40 hours, shoot me in the head last 50 hours)
2. Immortals (PC) - January - 9/10
3. Spider-Man Miles Morales (PS5) January 8.5/10
4. Astrobot Playground (PS4 on PS5) January - 7.5/ 10
5. Mario 3D World (NSW) - February 9.5/10
6. Mario Bowser's Fury (NSW) - February 10/10 - I really liked this little game and want more like it.
7. TLOU2(PS5) - March - 9/10 - Liked the game/story except for the overly scripted parts where you die unless you do A then B then C then D exactly as intended shit.
8. Detroit Become Human (PC) - March 7th 8/10 - Entertaining. Probably the best Quantic Dream game.
9. Medium (PC) - March 19th - OK. 7/10
10. Ratchet and Clank (Ps4 on PS5) - Still good but wouldn't be worth 70 bucks not sure about the PS5 one coming out this summer. 9/10
11. Cyperpunk PC - I enjoyed this game 8/10
12. Super Paper Mario - Dolphin - My kid loves Mario so I play a lot of older games with him.
13. Ratchet and Clank Rift apart PS5 - 9/10 - Smooth, great looking game. Looking forward to the next one. I guess it was worth 70 but I will likely resell it. Resolt it
14. Scarlet Nexus. It was OK, but started to drag.
15. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Dolphin. I get why this wasn't ported. There was much more Wii specific stuff in here that was hard to play with an emulated wiimote. I just go through the main game and dropped it because some stars felt impossible outside of the Wii.
16. Psychonauts 2. Really enjoyed this one.
17. Kena, decent game, a little harder than expected.
18. Metroid Dread. I liked and hated this game. The difficulty was annoying and requiring QTEs to beat challenging bosses was utter bullshit. Though it kind of felt good. Unlocking hard mode is a fucking joke.
19. Far Cry 6. Free Copy with my Ryzen CPU I got in December 2020. I liked it more than the FC's after blood dragon. Crashed alot.
20. Yakuza Like a Dragon PC.
21. Minecraft Dungeons

Failed to complete:

• Skyward Sword HD - Still sucks ass. Got to the end again and could not get the fucking controls to work right. Why the fuck do they make you land exact moves in sequence and have to repeat many more times than a typical Zelda when the controller can't remember where it is pointing.
• Tales of Arise - Got bored with the story.

Playing Halo now.

 

[Jack Videogames]

15h-ish, Normal difficulty, did all sidequests at first but I eventually lost interest.

Control was one of the most-talked about games in 2019 and I never got around purchasing it, but now that it was on GamePass I decided to give it a try. And yes, it was a nice game, but... I don't think it was all that. The plot was pretentious and convoluted for the sake of convolutedness; it wanted too bad to be mysterious a la David Lynch, but it only managed to be confusing - all while being a very simple rescue plot at its core.

Gameplay-wise though, the game is faultless; the gameplay loop is fantastic, the action is fantastic and the powers are both flashy and useful, even though at the end the throwing things power is basically the only thing you really need. Graphics and sound are both the cream of the crop (The song that sounds while you're traversing the Ashtray Maze is great, and the Dynamite cover at the end... well, you go watch it, it's something else.)

All in all, a very good game, though I wouldn't call it a GOTY candidate. Still, a great addition to GamePass and a fantastic RTX showcase.

PS: After some consideration I think I was a bit too harsh on this game back in March. The strongest moments of the game (The previously mentioned Ashtray Maze, for example) are awesome enough to offset the weakest. So I'm upgrading this to a 5 star.

My Score: ★★★★★

Original post

 

[Perrott]

I'm gonna join this challenge too (I'm currently doing the "no new games, only backlog" one as well).

All completions!

1. (PS3) Jan. 10th | Catherine | ★★★★★
2. (PS3) Jan. 13th | Demon's Souls | ★★★★★
3. (PS3) Jan. 14th | Max Payne 3 | ★★★★★
4. (PS4) Jan. 18th | Wreckfest | ★★★★☆
5. (PS3) Jan. 19th | Silent Hill | ★★★★★
6. (PC) Jan. 22nd | Tangram Deluxe | ★★★☆☆
7. (PC) Jan. 23rd | Into The Bridge | ★★★★★
8. (PC) Feb. 9th | A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build | ★★★★☆
9. (PC) Feb. 11th | Diablo 2 | ★★★☆☆
10. (PS3) Mar. 3rd | Batman: Arkham Origins | ★★★★★
11. (PS4) Mar. 3rd | SUPERHOT | ★★★★★
12. (PS4) Mar. 12th | Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown | ★★★★★
13. (PS3) Mar. 14th | LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues | ★★★★★
14. (PS3) Mar. 20th | God of War: Ascension | ★★☆☆☆
15. (PS4) Mar. 22nd | Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons | ★★★★☆
16. (PC) Apr. 6th | Watch_Dogs | ★★★☆☆
17. (PC) Apr. 8th | Highway Blossoms | ★★★★★
18. (PS4) Apr. 24th | Fat Princess Adventures | ★★☆☆☆
19. (PC) May 6th | Portal | ★★★★★
20. (PS4) May 9th | Concrete Genie | ★★★★☆
21. (PC) May 16th | Donut County | ★★★★★
22. (PC) May 17th | Detention | ★★★★☆
23. (PS3) May 19th | Syberia | ★★★☆☆
24. (PS3) May 25th | Eat Them! | ★★★★★

Spoiler: @OP

1. Catherine (PS3) | 10th Jan - 13hrs | 5/5
2. Demon's Souls (PS3) | 13th Jan - 43hrs | 5/5
3. Max Payne 3 (PS3) | 14th Jan - 8hrs | 5/5
4. Wreckfest (PS4) | 18th Jan - 20hrs | 4/5
5. Silent Hill (PS3) | 19th Jan - 11hrs | 5/5
6. Tangram Deluxe (PC) | 22nd Jan - 4hrs | 3/5
7. Into The Bridge (PC) | 23rd Jan - 5hrs | 5/5
8. A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build (PC) | 9th Feb - 2hrs | 4/5
9. Diablo 2 (PC) | 11th Feb - 30hrs | 3/5
10. Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3) | 3rd Mar - 15hrs | 5/5
11. SUPERHOT (PS4) | 3rd Mar - 3hrs | 5/5
12. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4) | 12th Mar - 13hrs | 5/5
13. LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (PS3) | 14th Mar - 41hrs | 5/5
14. God of War: Ascension (PS3) | 20th Mar - 10hrs | 2/5
15. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PS4) | 22nd Mar - 4hrs | 4/5
16. Watch_Dogs (PC) | 6th Apr - 20hrs | 3/5
17. Highway Blossoms (PC) | 8th Apr - 32hrs | 5/5
18. Far Princess Adventures (PS4) | 24th Apr - 12hrs | 2/5
19. Portal (PC) | 6th May - 6hrs | 5/5
20. Concrete Genie (PS4) | 9th May - 7hrs | 4/5
21. Donut County (PC) | 16th May - 3hrs | 5/5
22. Detention (PC) | 17th May - 4hrs | 4/5
23. Syberia (PS3) | 19th May - 26hrs | 3/5
24. Eat Them! (PS3) | 25th May - 5hrs | 5/5

 

[Jack Videogames]

20h-ish.

The Switch store is full of visual novels. Like, full. Most of them are fanservicey trash. Some of them are classics, like Steins; Gate. And, hidden among those, there are a few hidden gems. Gnosia has been pretty well received by reviewers, so even though the price is a bit steep for this kind of game I decided to give it a go. Meta-spoilers incoming:

You will have seen this game described as "single player Among Us" quite a bit. It's fundamentally true, though not entirely so; it's indeed a space whodunnit where the human crew of a spaceship try to find one or more disguised aliens and vote them out before they kill everyone. As there are other roles, like Engineers who investigate one crewmate each night warp, the social deduction game is closer to Town of Salem, Werewolf or Mafia than to Among Us. "Loops" (games) last about 5-10 minutes and you will have to do around a couple hundred of them to finish the game if you go in blind.

This is because you have to setup the loops in a certain way so the right crewmates can give you a snippet of plot, and once you have completed all plot events you move on to the ending. The idea works, because the characters and plot are interesting to keep the interest going - but the social deduction parts are just so BORING and repetitive. As the roles are (mostly) randomized, the crewmates communicate via a series of set sentences. Danganronpa this ain't. It's a pity that to get the whole picture you have to wade through such dense gameplay.

I've said several times that a 5 star rating method has its flaws. A 4 star rating can go anywhere from 60 to 80 in a 100 point scale. Control was closer to 80, but Gnosia is closer to a 60. A good read wrapped in a flawed game, but good enough to keep you engaged til the end.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[jshackles]

Game 12 - Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy - Nintendo Switch - Completed Mar 22nd, 2021
I've been playing this game for a couple of weeks now, stealing time between my busy work schedule lately. An hour here, an hour there... all culminated in me playing this game for nearly 40 hours. I know I probably could have done it a bit quicker than that, but I was trying to be thorough and do all the side quests and create all the alchemy items to 100% the game. I think I came pretty close to doing just about everything! It was great seeing the characters return (I loved the first game, my first Atelier game) and it was sad to see this one end. While not an epic tale by any means, a true "slice of life" RPG that tugs at the heartstrings. The music is top-tier, and the game played great on the Switch in handheld mode. If you played, and enjoyed, the first game you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.

 

[Phase]

Game 12 - Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy - Nintendo Switch - Completed Mar 22nd, 2021
I've been playing this game for a couple of weeks now, stealing time between my busy work schedule lately. An hour here, an hour there... all culminated in me playing this game for nearly 40 hours. I know I probably could have done it a bit quicker than that, but I was trying to be thorough and do all the side quests and create all the alchemy items to 100% the game. I think I came pretty close to doing just about everything! It was great seeing the characters return (I loved the first game, my first Atelier game) and it was sad to see this one end. While not an epic tale by any means, a true "slice of life" RPG that tugs at the heartstrings. The music is top-tier, and the game played great on the Switch in handheld mode. If you played, and enjoyed, the first game you owe it to yourself to give this one a try.

These types of games are the reason I want to get a Switch. It seems perfect for some casual relax time here and there. I've been holding off because of the joystick quality control. Have they made any improvements to them?

 

[jshackles]

These types of games are the reason I want to get a Switch. It seems perfect for some casual relax time here and there. I've been holding off because of the joystick quality control. Have they made any improvements to them?

The newer joy-cons seem to get less drift than the older ones, but it definitely still happens. If you're planning on picking up a Switch, better be safe than sorry and get the full version (not the Lite). That way, if it happens to you then you can pick up an extra pair and use those while the first pair is going through the warranty process. I've had to do that twice now. On the flipside, my wife got a Switch Lite (against my better judgement) and she's played over 1,000 hours of Animal Crossing and has had zero issues.

 

[marcincz]

The end of 1st Q 2021:

Game 15 - Kingdom Come: Deliverance (XBO) - 68h 48m
Beat 07/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★★

Game 16 - KCD - DLC The Amorous Adventures of Bold Sir Hans Capon (XBO) - 04h 01m
Beat 07/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 17 - KCD - DLC A Woman's Lot (XBO) - 02h 48m
Beat 10/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 18 - KCD - DLC Band of Bastards (XBO) - 02h 37m
Beat 13/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 19 - Frostpunk (XBO) - 11h 28m
Beat 14/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 20 - Forza Motorsport 7 (XBO) - 26h 07m
Beat 27/03/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 21 - Genesis Noir (XBO) - 06h 30m
Beat 30/03/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

 

[Jack Videogames]

52h-ish.

I'm usually not a fan of roguelites, deckbuilding games or pixel-art fakeretro indie stuff, so I wonder why I liked Loop Hero which is all of that stuff I kind of hate. But what it does, it does extremely well. Loop Hero feels like an idle game that does not play itself, if that makes any sense to you, and the way it's designed around short games makes it fall squarely on the "one more turn" effect.

The difficulty curve is out of wack though - the jump from chapter 3 to chapter 4 is insane and forces you to grind if you haven't done so before (And believe me, if you want the upper-tier cards, which you do if you want to stand a chance, you will grind). Most of my playtime was grinding in chapters 1 and 3 for materials. Still a really fun game, and usually pretty cheap to boot.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[Jack Videogames]

22h-ish.

I didn't pick up The Somnium Files at launch because of the woke controversy, but I finally decided to cave in because I like Uchikoshi's games way too much. Now I'm a bit sad I didn't give this a chance before, as I did enjoy it immensely.

The game is a pure 100% military grade Chunsoft puzzle/VN that hangs on the strength of its characters to lend credibility to the convoluted plot and pseudosciencey babble (A bit like Gnosia, really). If done badly, this would be an awful thing to play through. If done right, it becomes incredibly engaging and fun. TSF is done right. It made me chuckle constantly due to the goofiness of it all, but in an endearing, tongue-in-cheek way. And when the story took a turn for the gorey or the dramatic (which given the developer it was quite a lot) it became stomach-churning. A good thriller VN makes you care about the characters that are going to die horribly, after all.

As per the woke content it was luckily just a single, optional dialog choice. It's still somewhat on-the-nose, but it makes sense given that character's general preachyness and the subject of the conversation that was taking place. The game still has the usual peepoo-boob jokes ("It's her! With the tits!") though the amount of fanservice is markedly down compared to other games from the same developer. I personally do not enjoy fanservice in games, but I feel it was a bit jarring, like Uchikoshi was somehow "restraining" himself. But that did not detract from my enjoyement of the game.

All this said, I think TSF doesn't quite reach the same levels of excellence than 999 or Danganronpa. I'd put it somewhere below Virtue's Last Reward, somewhere above Zero Time Dilemma. The puzzles are far and between and they range from the incredibly easy to the punishingly difficult (I was unable to finish PSYNCIN' IN THE REFRaiN without a guide) and the fact that the conversation choices are of no consequence at all (what decides the route you're in are the actions you take during the puzzle stages) takes out from the VN aspect. Sometimes playing TSF is like watching PsychoPass and trying to solve a jigsaw or a Rubik's Cube between episodes...

PS: The finale dance party ending was... something else. Even if you're not interested on the game you might want to look it up on YouTube.

My Score: ★★★★★

Original post

 

[Psychotic_Mantis]

Main Post

Have not kept up to date on my posting so here is where I am at

7. The Ultimate Doom (PC) - 9/10 - Holds up incredibly well. Thy Flesh Consumed is no joke though. I never actually played through the entire campaign and it was quite a trip to take. Eventually I plan to get to Doom II.

8. Mr. Success (iPad) - 7/10 - Free, quick and fairly easy. Only a few of the levels stumped me but not for longer than a minute or two. It does have a similar charm to the Mom Hid My Game, games.

9. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Danger of the Ooze (Xbox 360) - 4/10 - Yikes. My 4 yr old picked this up at the library and asked me to play it. I was momentarily excited since I loved TMNT in the 90s and it was a metroidvania. Nope, game is pretty bad. The fighting never feels accurate and the final boss required me to watch on youtube to figure out what the heck you are supposed to do. A game best forgotten.

10. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (DS) - 9/10 - Loved this game! Some of the boss fights went on a little too long, especially the final one, but overall this game was just charming. I kind of understand the criticism of overexplaining at the beginning but it didn't really bother me. I enjoyed this more than Superstar Saga.

11. Ys Origin (PS4) - 8/10 - Fun little dungeon crawler and my first Ys game. I am counting it currently but I do plan to play through the other 2 characters at some point this year.

12. Bendy and the Ink Machine (Switch) - 6/10 - Fairly interesting First Person Adventure. They should have stuck to puzzles without any combat though. It never really fit or felt good to attach anyone. The late game stealth was kinda awful too. Overall the aesthetic and strange dark story help sell it all.

13. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) - 8/10 - Another enjoyable "New" mario game. I still enjoyed it like I did on the Wii U. I do hope they try a new version for 2D mario in the future, I think this look has run its course.

14. Exile's End (PSTV) - 7/10 - Decided to knock a game out on my PSTV and this seemed like an interesting choice. The beginning is quite hard until you start to get power ups. It's a metroidvania type game but never have too much trouble figuring out where to go. I hated the combat until you were powered up and then I had a really good time with it.

15. Super Mario All-Stars: Super Mario Bros. (SNES) - 7/10 - Still doesn't feel right after all these years. Base game is still great but the graphics and sound just don't work. I'll hit up 2/3/LL eventually but the NES versions are still the king.

16. Unmechanical (PS4) - 8/10 - Fun little puzzle game. It's not very long or difficult. There are only so many places you can go and things to do, so you figure out what to do quite quickly. Worth a quick play. I think I got this on PS plus back in the day.

17. Wreck-It Ralph (Wii) - 4/10 - Another trash library pickup. This game had potential since the movie is actually based on games. I was kind of happy to see it was a platformer but I was quickly deflated when I realized it was just a brain dead game. It took maybe 2 hours to beat the whole thing and there is hardly any challenge.

18. Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (SNES) - 8/10 - Loved this game and still love the music. Challenging as hell but I feel it is way more forgiving than the trash NES version. I played through both campaigns and beat it with the bracelet. Maybe I'll give Demons Crest a go.

19. Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES) - 7/10 - The opening level is a blast but it gets ridiculous the longer it goes on. I barely managed to beat this one and then learn you have to play on hard to see the real ending? Game is brutal.

20. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS4) - 8/10 - I have started and stopped playing this game probably 10 times over the years. A few of my buddies swear by it and claim it's great. It finally clicked as I powered through this last time. I get the charm and enjoyed finding all of the power cells and flies. The jumping in this game is pretty awful though. I know Jak II / III swing in a different direction but do they still control the same? I plan to play them eventually...just not sure when.

 

[Jack Videogames]

30h-ish. Completed all furniture requests, unlocked the Edge of Solemn, didn't finish the museum because I got bored with flower breeding.

Littlewood is a very relaxing game, possibly even more than other similar games like Story of Seasons or Stardew Valley, but not as much as Animal Crossing. The main difference is, in Littlewood there is nothing you need to do. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things to do, but there's no urgency at all - there's no Tom Nook to remind you of your mortage or crops that wilt if you don't gather them before winter. You can do everything at your own pace - crops don't wilt, fruit doesn't have seasons, time doesn't pass unless you actually do things (which is a great system, btw, which I would love to see in more games of this sort). This relaxedness makes Littlewood a great pick-up-and-play game, more of an interactive toy than a game itself.

The endgame gets boring, though. After all the requests are complete and all books are found, the in-game day becomes waking up, going to the Port and fishing, going to the Library and bug hunting, and then either training hobbies or going to sleep. So if you're like me and like the credits to signal the end of the game experience - do what you want to do with the game and then marry your favourite bachelor(ette). That's your ending.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[Jack Videogames]

9h-ish. Normal difficulty.

Mafia is a fucking great story shaped like a taxi-driving simulation with shoot'em-up parts. I loved everything about the plot, but really, during the game you simply drive from point A to point B for like half an hour and then you shoot some bad guys for 5 minutes. The shooting is not particularly good or bad either - it's your standard fare cover shooting. The chapters that stood out positively where those where you had to spice it up a bit, like "Election campaign" or "Happy birthday".

If it wasn't because the plot was so good, I would have given this game 3 stars. But I will be getting Mafia II because I want more of that pie.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[IKSTUGA]

11. Super Mario 3D World -- 10/10
Super strong level design and tight controls.

12. Bowser's Fury -- 10/10
A fantastic new experiment in the Mario universe.

13. Persona 5 Strikers -- 9.5/10
Almost as good as actual P5.

Lately I've been very picky with games (dropped like a bazillion ones), so my pace in the race has really slowed down Here are some games I've actually managed to beat since P5 Strikers:

14. Monster Hunter World -- 8.5/10
My first Monster Hunter game. Enjoyed the fights, hated the tracking.

15. Tetris Effect: Connected -- 10/10
This game is amazing, trippy as hell. I don't think I'll ever need another Tetris game with this one and Tetris 99 being a thing. Also, would be pretty interesting to try Tetris Effect under the influence of certain substances

16. Monster Hunter Rise -- 10/10
My GOTY so far. It's like Monster Hunter World minus the fat. Fast paced awesome combat from start to finish.

17. Splatoon 2 -- 9/10
I gotta be honest, I was very sceptical about Splatoon before I tried it. Glad I did. Found another Nintendo gem!

18. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -- 6.5/10
This game was my teenage years. Still like the Sonic and Shadow sections, but everything else is just so bad... Fuck Knuckles and Rogue in particular.

19.Dark Souls Remastered -- 10/10
What a beautiful game. I don't understand why it took me so long to play the first one (loved BB, DS3 and Demon's Souls Remake). I especially love how the world feels so connected in DS1, really strong metroidvania vibes.

 

[marcincz]

Adventure/indie weeks for me.
For the first time in my life, I beat two Lucasarts classics. Full Throttle is probably the easiest adventure p&c game from 90's.

Game 22 - Call of the Sea (XBO) - 09h 43m
Beat 04/04/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 23 - Tell My Why (XBO) - 10h 02m
Beat 09/04/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

Game 24 - Day of the Tentacle (XBO) - 05h 23m
Beat 11/04/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

Game 25 - Unto The End (XBO) - 03h 32m
Beat 13/04/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

Game 26 - Full Throttle (XBO) - 06h 04m
Beat 17/04/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

 

[Jack Videogames]

25h-ish. Quite a bit of exploration, but not 100% (If I were to guess I'd say around 90%?)

I have a bit of a rocky relationship with Paper Mario. I loved the original. I absolutely adored The Thousand Year Door. I found Sticker Star and Super Paper Mario soulless and gimicky. I bought Color Splash and gave it away without even playing it.

The Origami King, on the other side, had me hooked. It doesn't quite get to TTYD's excellence, but it's a definite step on the right direction. It's no longer a JRPG, but an adventure with combat here and there, and while I didn't super-like the ring-based combat system, it didn't bother me either - and it really shined on the boss fights, where it went from "ok" to "actually fairly interesting". Also, it was fresh to have a bad guy that wasn't Bowser for once. And story-wise, this game actually has some cool twists (I had never seen a good guy die onscreen before in a Mario game... and it was actually quite powerful)

I hope Nintendo allows the Paper Mario devs to actually design differentiated characters next time. This game had strong characters, like Bobby, Professor Toad or Captain T.Ode, which lost some of their charm because of the generic designs for NPCs.

PS: The best Paper Mario game is still Bug Fables.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[jshackles]

Game 15 - Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition - PlayStation 5 - Competed Apr 25th, 2021
Now this game was incredible - full stop. My son and I have been playing through this in co-op for the past couple of weeks and have about 70 hours on the clock. There were bad times: like getting wiped out once and losing several hours on our save file (because we're idiots and rushed into a new area without saving) and there were great times: defeating incredibly hard bosses and generally being goofy in-game. The fact that this game has so many rigid systems yet allows you to be goofy and cheese things is an incredible accomplishment. For example, we basically used the same two merchants in the opening town throughout the entire game. Towards the end of the campaign, one night before turning in (and after saving!) he decided to just slaughter the merchant to see what would happen - and my PlayStation 5 froze for a good 10 seconds or so before massive amounts of loot (like, literally everything we had ever sold this merchant over the course of 70 hours) spewed out everywhere - good times and a good belly laugh from me! The characters were amazing, and I felt like even our generic humans had a good amount of personality by the end of it. Although it took a while to get a hang of the systems, this game was an absolute masterpiece. Play it.

 

[Jack Videogames]

30h-ish. Normal difficulty, dipped to Easy at some points. Did around 50% of the requests.

I generally don't play spinoffs, but Atlus pretty much forced me by making the plot a direct sequel to Persona 5, one of my favorite games ever. And while in the plot department it didn't disappoint, the gameplay was... not my cup of tea. I was expecting a musou, but it was actually an action-RPG with a fairly elegant way of implementing the classic Persona gameplay features. But it felt overall derivative - like a filler saga on an anime, or a DLC campaign. The extra semester from Royal felt less DLC-ish than this. Also I missed Kasumi

Still a nice game with bangin' music, and a must if you want more Phantom Thieves in your life.

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[Jack Videogames]

20h-ish. Wanton Carnage difficulty, around 60% kills 30% secrets.

I might get flak for this but... I'm not sure I liked this game much. I've played most of the retro FPS gems released lately (AMID EVIL, DUSK, Wrath, Ultrakill...) and I think this might be the weakest of them.

I know it's been very warmly received by critics, but I feel Ion Fury has boring, samey yet unfair enemies (Love having common enemies that can headshot you for a OHKO) and a confusing level layout that makes finding your way forward a chore. In a way, Ion Fury doesn't reward exploration; it FORCES it. And "forces" is one of the worst words you can say in a videogame context. The idea of making the game a long, single "continuous" level is good on paper - but the difficulty finding you way and worse, the boring level design (Seriously - the first half of the game is good, like "almost Duke Nukem" good - then after the Helicopter boss it becomes a disjointed mess of vents, labs, tubes and water hazards. Imagine the Lab from Goldeneye repeating for 10h) makes it fail.

Also, Shelley, or whatever her name is, is just non-likable. Her one-liners get old, really, REALLY fast. I mean Rogue Warrior fast. If I hear "OH MY GAWD" one more time I swear I'm going to throw the Switch against the wall.

On the plus side, the gunplay is good, the first half of the game world is nicely designed, and the weapons are fun to use. Because all of this it gets a pass, but it shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath than the other retro FPS released recently.

My Score: ★★★☆☆

Original post

 

[BadBurger]

BadBurger - End of April Update

Spoiler: All completions!

1. Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PlayStation 5) | Jan 4th - 11 hours | 4/5
   A charming platformer that rivals the greats from Nintendo. Amazing use of the PS5's features, great use of the DualSense controller, innovative cohesion with what is terrific music. My only knocks are that it relies too much on its gated advancement, and some levels were a bit tedious
   
   
2. Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PlayStation 5) | Jan 7th - 11 hours | 4/5
   Better than the game it spun out of (no pun intended). It refines any rough edges while implementing the best features of the PS5 and improving upon character models. The story has heart, the combat is great, the music bumpin'
   
   
3. Days Gone (PlayStation 5) | Jan 14th - 57 hours | 2.5/5
   A game that doesn't really get anything gameplay wise wrong, but it doesn't achieve anything I'd consider innovative either. The story telling is very poor IMO, something Bend Studio needs to learn to execute more organically and with more compassion. I think "mediocre" might be the best word to describe it
   
   
4. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PlayStation 5) | Jan 27th - 10 hours | 3/5
   Good, not great as a kind of addendum to Uncharted 4. It gets the core gameplay right, the story is light, and it relied perhaps a bit too much on merely peddling around a kind of lackluster tiny open world
   
   
5. Destiny 2: Beyond Light (PC) | Feb 1st - 5 hours | 2/5
   If you've played Destiny 1 or 2 you know what to expect. Bungie is still failing to offer a compelling or even coherent story. I found myself tuning out. Some of the newly introduced mechanics enriched the game, however. PvP remains oddly limited and boring. Some of the added content that is available following the short story campaign is all grind for few rewards
   
   
6. Genshin Impact (PlayStation 5) | Feb 9th - 12 hours | 3.5/5
   Logging this now even though it's one of those games that are ongoing like a MMO. I wrapped up the introductory content and am working on the business of furthering the story and acquiring heroes, etc. It is a surprisingly well fleshed out game for something that's free - quality characters with full voice acting, great presentation value, deep and well designed systems, simple yet enjoyable combat, a large open world, etc. One spends a lot of time walking, even given fast travel options, and that thin veneer of design that nudges people toward the store is of course there. With just a tiny bit of QoL improvements this would be a 4/5, easy
   
   
7. Samorost 3 (PC) | Feb 14th - 5 hours | 2.5/5
   Another vibrant chapter in the series. Great art and music. Some easy puzzles, some on the tricky side. Amanita Design fixed some of the rough edges from 1 and 2. Unfortunately too many of the puzzles can be essentially failed, forcing one to go back and redo entire areas / puzzles to reacquire items if they don't methodically save at every single juncture. This made it occasionally frustrating and a struggle to get through at times, which was the exact opposite of the experience I had with the first two installments of the franchise
   
   
8. Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (PC) | Feb 15th - 5 hours (first complete match) | 3.5/5
   This second expansion adds a plethora of helpful and fun systems, fixes problems related to resources and diplomacy in the core game, and adds some rather effective leaders. In fact, it fixes so many problems that I think it's kind of shitty for Firaxis not to release at least a few of these system changes in an optional patch for all owners of Civ VI. But business is business I guess. It's very good, I think essential as it repairs so many issues with the core game.
   
   
9. The Banner Saga (PC) | Feb 22nd - 9 hours | 4/5
   Phenomenal tactical strat game
   
   
10. GTA Online: The Cayo Perico Heist (PC) | Apr 22nd - 12 hours | 4/5
    The most solo-friendly content drop for GTAO thus far. It has an amusing story with some funny characters and cameos by several real life celebrities. There is plenty of new content between the submarine, setup missions, and heist itself - which can be tackled in a wide variety of ways giving this update more replayability than the others. It's extremely lucrative, and through a partnership with Prime Gaming and GTAO promotions Rockstar pretty much tees this up for new players.
    
    
11. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch) | April 28th - 11 hours | 4/5
    I never played the original so I don't have a point of comparison. However this was very well done. The mechanics are at time dated, but in a good Zelda way. The art direction is pretty and charming. The story just the right amount of old-school Nintendo. A few dungeons could have really used some more modern sensibilities in design while they were bothering to remake this, but perhaps that would be considered heresy to purists - I don't know.

11/52

 

[Pantz]

Update post #2:

20 completions so far. Again, since I don't really rate or review the games I rearranged the games in order of my favorite to least favorite, (not necessarily relevant to quality).
Favorite = Top Left --- Least Favorite = Bottom Right

Original post

 

[Phase]

Update post #2:

20 completions so far. Again, since I don't really rate or review the games I rearranged the games in order of my favorite to least favorite, (not necessarily relevant to quality).
Favorite = Top Left --- Least Favorite = Bottom Right

Original post

Woah tell me about this "Summer Sweetheart"

 

[Pantz]

Woah tell me about this "Summer Sweetheart"

Well it's on Switch and used to be on Steam until they took it down. The point of the game for most would probably be to unlock the gravure photos and videos. In order to do so it's a bit too real where you have to like and reply to their facebook posts and respond the right way to their text messages in order to raise their affection. Build up your own stats by exercising and such, earn money by doing jobs, take them on dates, buy them stuff. They keep you in the friend zone for most of the game while teasing you in sexy outfits. If you want to do all the tiresome stuff of dating in real life, it has it for you.

 

[marcincz]

Update.
My score for DA is probably too high. The worst game from BioWare I'v ever played.

Game 27 - Tetris Effect: Connected (XBO) - 04h 37m
Beat 18/04/2021 - my score: ★★★★★

Game 28 - Rez Infinite (PS4) - 03h 07m
Beat 24/04/2021 - my score: ★★★★☆

Game 29 - Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4) - 35h 34m
Beat 03/05/2021 - my score: ★★★☆☆

 

[Jack Videogames]

7h-ish. "Reject" ending

Universal Paperclips is an idle clicker game that, suprisingly for the genre, has an end. At the beggining you make paperclips.

That's all I can say about it without heavy spoilers. Why not give it a go https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index2.html ?

My Score: ★★★★☆

Original post

 

[IKSTUGA]

Lately I've been very picky with games (dropped like a bazillion ones), so my pace in the race has really slowed down Here are some games I've actually managed to beat since P5 Strikers:

14. Monster Hunter World -- 8.5/10
My first Monster Hunter game. Enjoyed the fights, hated the tracking.

15. Tetris Effect: Connected -- 10/10
This game is amazing, trippy as hell. I don't think I'll ever need another Tetris game with this one and Tetris 99 being a thing. Also, would be pretty interesting to try Tetris Effect under the influence of certain substances

16. Monster Hunter Rise -- 10/10
My GOTY so far. It's like Monster Hunter World minus the fat. Fast paced awesome combat from start to finish.

17. Splatoon 2 -- 9/10
I gotta be honest, I was very sceptical about Splatoon before I tried it. Glad I did. Found another Nintendo gem!

18. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle -- 6.5/10
This game was my teenage years. Still like the Sonic and Shadow sections, but everything else is just so bad... Fuck Knuckles and Rogue in particular.

19.Dark Souls Remastered -- 10/10
What a beautiful game. I don't understand why it took me so long to play the first one (loved BB, DS3 and Demon's Souls Remake). I especially love how the world feels so connected in DS1, really strong metroidvania vibes.

20. Resident Evil VII -- 9.5/10
Played this again in preparation for Village, felt even better than when I first beat it last year. Both hilarious and creepy at the same time.

21. Resident Evil VII DLC -- 8.5/10
Fun additions to the base game.

22. Cuphead -- 9/10
Finally beat this bitch after giving up a couple of years ago. Tough as nails, but oh-so charming.

23. NieR Replicant ver. 1.22474487139... -- 10/10
l can't put it into words how much I love this game and I didn't even play the original.

24. New Pokemon Snap -- 9.5/10
I'm not kidding with the score, this game is legit. Pokemon Snap on the N64 is one of my favorites from that era and New Pokemon Snaps is almost a perfect follow-up.

25. Resident Evil Village -- 9.5/10
What a wild ride! Game goes into very unexpected directions, but I dig it. Certainly not for the RE purists.

 

[Jack Videogames]

77:44h, Normal difficulty, B+ Bracer rank.

[YMMV] This might be the finest JRPG of them all. Maybe even the perfect JRPG. I'm scared everything after this might be a letdown. [/YMMV]

This out of the way... I really think the Kiseki series has something special that makes it the big name in the classic JRPG biz. It's likely the worldbuilding: Falcom are experts at this craft. I can't say I ever played a game world as packed with charm as the Kisekiverse, besides maybe Yakuza's Kamurocho (and this one has a basis in reality, so it doesn't really count). It's really nice to play different games and see how the pieces fall and affect everywhere in the world in different ways. I feel that with Kiseki Falcom has a goldmine that might produce excellent games for years to come.

Also, there's something that makes TiTS better than ToCS in my opinion, and it's Estelle. Rean is a perfectly serviceable MC, but he's too... stereotypical. The perfect nice guy, also a noble, and a Chosen One to boot, with an harem of gorgeous girls fawning over him and no real motivations other than "save the world" and "angst against my father". He's usually either kind or brooding, and his interactions with others are, sadly, usually bland or dry. Estelle on the other side is a perfectly ordinary girl, with the only weird trait of being the daughter of one of the world's strongest warriors. She grew in a loving home and has a bunch of different motivations, and displays a range of emotions much more varied; from bashful to happy to sad and angry. You know, like a real person. Also, she has a dry wit that was very much sorely missed in ToCS; it's not common that dialogues in a game make me chuckle, but it was pretty much constant with TiTS2. Playing TiTS2 after playing most of the Erebonia games made me realize there was some wasted potential in the ToCS games; they're fantastic games by their own right, but the characters aren't nearly as strong as the ones you can find in TiTS.

Cons? Well, the game IS a bit excessively long (Though it doesn't drag) and the difficulty curve is a bit all over the place. Also, some characters are a bit wasted or unexplored (Like Josette or Kevin, though I read TiTS3 kind of solves this). But when you play a 78h game and think "yeah they could have added more content", that's sort of a first-world problem.

My Score:

Original post

PS: Bring back the chest jokes
PS2: Hehe TiTS

 

[jshackles]

Game 16 - Outriders - Xbox Series X - Completed May 15th, 2021
I started playing Outriders at launch, and have been kinda playing it off and on for the last few weeks. The game is fun, sure, but it's pretty monotonous and at times a bit boring. The loot combos are great, until you get to be higher level which means you're leveling up and changing out gear less often. I played the tank class, because I'm basically terrible at these types of games so I figured getting up in people's faces and shooting them would be the way to go. It worked out okay, but honestly this game felt like a B- at best. The story had a lot of promise, but immediately went to shit after the first hour or so. Game took me around 40 hours to complete. I'd probably only recommend this if you're a fan of Bulletstorm and are looking for something new, or just want to try a new TPS looter. Glad I got this on Game Pass.

 

[GametimeUK]

Just finished Bioshock Infinite and thought it was a great game. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and glad to have got it off my backlog considering it's been on there since launch day.