gdf

Recently completed video games

Recommended Posts

Well I guess I completed Shelter. I mean, two of my guys got eagled, two must have been owled, and one got far too moist. Then the Great White Eagle transmogrified me into morsels for her own brood.

Mission success?

As someone who hasn't played the game, that was an incredibly interesting bizarre post.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah man, I'd never heard of Shelter but it looks absolutely delightful — such a wonderfully simple but potentially powerful concept. Wish it was on consoles.

 

 

Makes me wonder why more games haven't explored survival in nature, there's endless potential for heartbreaking and exciting stories. It'd be so amazing to be able to play out the things you see in the BBC's Planet Earth, Life, and Africa; if it were handled gracefully it could induce more genuine emotion than any game has ever managed (like the baby elephant scene from Africa oh my god).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finally beat the last Deponia game and well, it's more or less the perfect end to the series?

 

In this game I had to do some truly despicable things, but in this game I finally realized that is is I, THE PLAYER the one responsible for the horrible things happening, Rufus either is too ignorant or unaware to know that he's doing something horrible.

 

YOU see a cut-scene of a slime monster that sleeps with it's mouth open, RUFUS does not know it's a monster, so it's YOUR FAULT when you leave the children in it's mouth so you'll be allowed into a bar... only to return and see most of them have been eaten.

 

 

It's also full of examples of great cartoon logic, the only downside is the ending....

 

It's too open ended, Rufus falls to his doom, but he does that ten times a day, so how are we to know if he survives? He usually does! And somehow Cletus pretends to be Rufus and find a solution for Elysiums problems? How does that work? Cletus is no Rufus, he's likely to make things worse. And Goal does not seem that upset over losing Rufus, she does look into the distance possibly thinking of him, but that's about it...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last game I beat was Tomb Raider (The reboot). I hated the story though, just crazy cheesy and I couldn't stand the voice actor that much either. Then again I never really played the original games so I can't compare. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Beat Halo: ODST with Zeus co-op last night, it was great going back to that game. Kind of disappointed that it's not going to be remade as part of that Halo Xbox One collection, because the atmosphere/lighting stuff could look really great in a modern iteration of that engine. The pacing of that game actually really reminds me of Halo 4, with lots of periods of quiet and exploration punctuated with short combat encounters. Also, weird uncanny valley stuff with Nathan Fillion and Tricia Helfer!

 

In an unprecedented feat of game completion, I also beat Steamworld Dig (2 games in one day WTF!!!) last night. That game is really good, not exactly what I expected from outward appearances. In some ways it really is rooted in that Terraria-style digging thing, but it relies far more on RPG elements than I anticipated. It's just about as long as I'd hoped too, about five hours. I ended up buying every single upgrade and mining just about every mineral in the environment. Good stuff!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ODST is my favorite Halo, but strangely it's the only one that I actually prefer to play solo because I feel that the atmosphere of the game is better suited to being alone.  Not that it isn't fun in co-op.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last game I beat was Tomb Raider (The reboot). I hated the story though, just crazy cheesy and I couldn't stand the voice actor that much either. Then again I never really played the original games so I can't compare.

I despise the original games more than is humanly possible and love the reboot more than most people I know, so I don't think having played the originals would change much for you!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I despise the original games more than is humanly possible and love the reboot more than most people I know, so I don't think having played the originals would change much for you!

Me too!

I sort of like the reboot. The narrative was completely throw away, and Lara was kinda annoying. Still, the combat and the tombs were entertaining enough for me to finish it. Those QTEs made me rage quit so many times though. Man were they impossible to do on the PC.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked Lara. ):

The qtes were definitely atrocious on PC. Dota that mean they weren't on consoles? That'd be weird and sad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

She was always moaning!

Apparently they were way more forgiving on consoles. My friend had the Xbox 360 version and said he had no trouble with them. I on the other hand must have failed more times at the QTEs than at the games main mechanics.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Apparently they were way more forgiving on consoles. My friend had the Xbox 360 version and said he had no trouble with them. I on the other hand must have failed more times at the QTEs than at the games main mechanics.

 

I found them almost impossible until I realized that they always had the same button associated with the same action (blocking, punching, dodging) at which point I began to see the QTEs as more of an alternate gameplay mode with a different set of controls than the immersive cinematic interludes that I'm sure they were supposed to be.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played it on pc with a controller a made the qte events much simpler. I tried it again later on a keyboard and we ragey too

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Beat Halo: ODST with Zeus co-op last night, it was great going back to that game. Kind of disappointed that it's not going to be remade as part of that Halo Xbox One collection, because the atmosphere/lighting stuff could look really great in a modern iteration of that engine. The pacing of that game actually really reminds me of Halo 4, with lots of periods of quiet and exploration punctuated with short combat encounters. Also, weird uncanny valley stuff with Nathan Fillion and Tricia Helfer!

 

Yes, that was some good stuff and we cleaned that campaign up pretty quickly (around 5 hours or so by my count). The thing that stood out to me the most while playing through this game again was how stellar the soundtrack is. Probably my favorite soundtrack in the Halo series.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, that was some good stuff and we cleaned that campaign up pretty quickly (around 5 hours or so by my count). The thing that stood out to me the most while playing through this game again was how stellar the soundtrack is. Probably my favorite soundtrack in the Halo series.

 

Gotta love smokey sax

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finished F.E.A.R. last night. I really liked the mix of j horror and action movie influences. I also appreciated how most of the horror came from atmosphere and general creepiness rather than cheap jump scares. Seeing Alma appear in a corner, or Fettel move past a hallway and disappear kept me feeling way more unsettled than a monster jumping in my face would have. 

 

Also, I thought it was really clever the way the game used the flashlight to enhance the creepy atmosphere. Because I’m a huge pussy when it comes to horror games, I wanted to use my flashlight all the time to light up the dark, scary parts of the levels. The game discourages this because when enemy soldiers see your flashlight, you lose any element of surprise. In order to have a tactical advantage I found myself turning off my flashlight when I really didn’t want to, sustaining the dark, scary atmosphere of the environments. 

 

I did think the game dragged a little bit in the middle. I got pretty tired of fighting soldiers in office buildings, but overall it was really great. Next I’m gonna move on to the DLC.

 

I also finished Gone Home. I loved it. Great writing and pacing kept me eager to search the next room to find out what happened. It’s crazy how it paints such well rounded characters by showing you just a few key details about them.

 

 

And, last but not least, I finished New Super Mario Bros for the DS. It was a lot of fun, but it didn't have the exciting energy of Super Mario 3D Land. Still a solid Mario game though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did think the game dragged a little bit in the middle. I got pretty tired of fighting soldiers in office buildings, but overall it was really great. Next I’m gonna move on to the DLC.

 

It's funny that you call it DLC, because I remember F.E.A.R. Extraction Point as one of the last proper "expansion packs" I ever bought the old-fashioned way. Nothing else to add really, except that F.E.A.R. itself is a great game with only a few slow moments and overall the best gunplay from the traditional breed of shooter I've ever experienced.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I played one of those "dating sims" called "Duplicity", which is pretty bad and pretty dumb, but also fortunately very short.

 

Most of these games are about time management, raising stats and unlocking events. This game has only two bars, health and skill, yes, you heard, there is only ONE skill bar and it's only needed for one of the people you can date, and there are only two people you can date.

 

The best part? The game states that you are a doctor's assistant who is dating his clone... for science? So technically you are only dating one person?

 

The game insists it has several endings, but this game isn't worth the effort, thank God it's from a bundle. It was fun in a cheesy way at least. XP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last game I beat was Tomb Raider (The reboot). I hated the story though, just crazy cheesy and I couldn't stand the voice actor that much either. Then again I never really played the original games so I can't compare. 

If you want to get an idea what the old games were like I heartily recommend Tomb Raider Anniversary. It's a remake of the original that does a fantastic job preserving what made the original great while making it more playable.

 

I despise the original games more than is humanly possible and love the reboot more than most people I know, so I don't think having played the originals would change much for you!

Why do you despise them?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finished Bastion. I'd had it for a long time, I got to a point where I was spending time on the challenge levels not realising you have to upgrade your weapons to finish them so I got frustrated and quit. Picked it up again because I want to play transistor but feel bad not having completed this.

I really enjoyed it. The art direction is just fantastic. The story and action were nicely paced. I'm sure most people here have at least played it, but it's something I'd really recommend.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finished up Flower. I actually played through the last few levels passing the controller with some friends. Really enjoyed that game. The only flaws I think it had were that the environmental message was a bit heavy handed towards the end and occasionally the tilt controls are annoying. But oh boy, it is a pretty game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why do you despise them?

Because despite them being terribly unfun, a lot of people I know love them.

 

EDIT: I just realized that on the last page my phone autocorrect a "does" typo to "dota". My life is complete. I just finished the life video game. I won. I DID IT GUYS. GOODBYE FOREVER.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I beat Max Payne 3 this long weekend. Oh boy was that a video game. I honestly don't know what to make of it, really strikes me as similar to Kane & Lynch 2. Both games had better than average gameplay, bonkers stories that depended on you giving a shit about the main character's fucked up history, and weirdly exact atmospheric touches. Max is just a wildly unrealistic character in what is otherwise a strangely realistic world, if you ignore the literal hundreds of bodies that Max leaves in his wake. It seemed like at every turn, Rockstar was trying to remind you that he is a cartoon character - example, for the first half of the game after every single mission there's a two or three minute cutscene where Max drinks, pills, and smokes himself to being passed out in his apartment. Also, every time he picks up a bottle of pills in his environment he has a unique pithy remark about why he needs them.

 

So... yeah. I don't know. I don't really regret my time with it, it had some real moments that I enjoyed surrounded by weird moments of "goddamn this is a video game". My only real, direct criticism is that it seemed pretty long. Probably a good 10+ hours, which is really unnecessary for a linear shooter.

 

Honestly, the main reason I wanted to play it is because I've had it installed forever and it takes like 30 GB on my hard drive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've vacillated on if I actually want to play MP3 or not.   I have a lot of fondness for the originals (no clue of they hold up, haven't played them since they were relatively new), and so much about 3 just struck me as...off or weird somehow.  Like completely failing to nail the things that made the first two interesting. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

After playing through some downer zombie games (new Walking Dead ep, Last of Us), I felt like playing something that's a bit more relaxed, so I played through Riven over the weekend which I had picked up in some recent sale. I mean it's a Myst game so there's not really much to say about it, and the only reason I mention it is that it's got a number system puzzle that's nearly identical to the one in Fez, though deciphering it is a little more straightforward here. I'm curious if the similarity was deliberate or not.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now