Recently completed video games

[Zuzela]

I did NOT like 2 -- and 3 relies heavily on stuff from 2, however, with the DA:Keep you can see what choices are imported to give you an idea of what's what. 

 

I just... i really miss my Warden. She was the best, and they really toss her aside. The most frustrating thing is that i played thru DAO twice, once with my gut choices, and second time so i could be queen and run everything with Alistair claiming the throne. Apparently they make you warden go off adventuring or something and you get inane letters from Alistair being hopeless in 3. Goddammit. I get how much writing and scripting goes in to the game, but that doesn't mean I'm not frustrated.

 

Inquisition is a funny beast; I love Origins and have strange, unexplainable warm fuzzies towards DA2 and, for the first 10 hours or so, Inquisition didn't actually feel like it was set in the Dragon Age universe there was so little reference to the past games. It is sad how beloved characters in both games are either ignored or used largely for plot progression. Looking back I don't have the same connection to my Inquisitor as I do with my Warden, Hawke or Shepherd: she felt like a plot device rather than a character in development. I still very much enjoyed Inquisition, but it didn't feel like it had the same soul as the first two games or Mass Effect.

 

In other news: I beat (platinum-ed) Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and it's DLC Freedom Cry. It was a massive step up from ACIII, which I loathed for it's needlessly serious plot, inane characters and a complete backwards leap on the immensely fun parkour nature of the series. Black Flag was more light-hearted, the characters were more interesting (though I am super peeved about one decision which I shall not go into here for spoiler-y reasons) and I somewhat enjoyed the current-day storytelling - for once! Freedom Cry wasn't as good as it had very obvious game bloat in the form of mission locks until you complete certain milestones and liberating slaves took more time than it should have considering the length of the actual storytelling. Overall, I enjoyed my time in the Black Flag universe (Ubiverse? ).

[Patrick R]

Finished F.E.A.R.: Perseus Mandate. Was definitely just more of the same and felt pretty tedious, especially the bullet sponge boss-type enemies. 

[Cordeos]

In other news: I beat (platinum-ed) Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and it's DLC Freedom Cry. It was a massive step up from ACIII, which I loathed for it's needlessly serious plot, inane characters and a complete backwards leap on the immensely fun parkour nature of the series. Black Flag was more light-hearted, the characters were more interesting (though I am super peeved about one decision which I shall not go into here for spoiler-y reasons) and I somewhat enjoyed the current-day storytelling - for once! Freedom Cry wasn't as good as it had very obvious game bloat in the form of mission locks until you complete certain milestones and liberating slaves took more time than it should have considering the length of the actual storytelling. Overall, I enjoyed my time in the Black Flag universe (Ubiverse? ).

 

I really enjoyed the Boat parts of Black Flag and wish Ubisoft would just make a game that is entirely built around naval warfare without all that running around towns part. There really aren't any games I can think of the scratch that age of exploration ship combat itch. I will definitely pick up Assassins Creed Rogue soon.

[nel e nel]

I really enjoyed the Boat parts of Black Flag and wish Ubisoft would just make a game that is entirely built around naval warfare without all that running around towns part. There really aren't any games I can think of the scratch that age of exploration ship combat itch. I will definitely pick up Assassins Creed Rogue soon.

 

They made a mobile game - Assassin's Creed Pirates that was actually pretty fun. 

[Zuzela]

I really enjoyed the Boat parts of Black Flag and wish Ubisoft would just make a game that is entirely built around naval warfare without all that running around towns part. There really aren't any games I can think of the scratch that age of exploration ship combat itch. I will definitely pick up Assassins Creed Rogue soon.

 

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the ship mechanics - I thought they'd be fiddly and off-putting but I agree, they were really solid parts of the game. The most rewarding part of the game was defeating all of the legendary ships.

[Badfinger]

I really enjoyed the Boat parts of Black Flag and wish Ubisoft would just make a game that is entirely built around naval warfare without all that running around towns part. There really aren't any games I can think of the scratch that age of exploration ship combat itch. I will definitely pick up Assassins Creed Rogue soon.

 

Report back in about how Rogue is! When I saw it portrayed as more Black Flag I was ready to be extremely in on it, but wasn't in a position where it made sense for me to buy it.

 

I'd consider going back and picking it up, because I have no designs on ever playing Unity.

[Ewan]

I "finished" Batman Arkham Knight. I really didn't enjoy it early on, got into a groove somewhere in the middle but the last 5 hours or so way overdid it with the Batmobile and in Marvel movie style has about 6 different endings in the final third. It just kept...on...going. The parts are very well made but the sum of everything is a glut of nonsense and a far cry for the first game.

[illuminatedspace]

Just finished Please Don't Touch anything. Has some great art and interesting puzzles. My brothers and I were able to get 18 out of 22 endings without any hints. I beat it in 24 hours, but it was an all day, leave and come back to it kind of deal. Then I immediately went through and got the perfectionist ending by completing the game without any extraneous clicks.

I really like the style, the difficulty of the puzzles, and the soundtrack.

If you get creeped out easily, it is a little creepy sometimes.

[elmuerte]

AR-K (episode 1+2)

An adventure game, but quite bad. It's not really well written (including typos). The plot has a lot of holes. The puzzles make little sense. It's short. There are annoying gameplay bugs.

I did buy episode 3, hoping the up-going quality trend from 1 to 2 continues.

[elmuerte]

Finally finished Super Win The Game

It's the commercial sequel/full version of the free You Have to Win The Game. It's not like YHTWTG in CGA or VGA, but only in VGA. It still has the awesome CRT emultation. Finishing the game is not that hard, there are some difficult platforming parts, but it's non like the VVVVV stuff. If you want to 100% the game then there are a whole bunch of VVVVV elements you can do.

There is no annoying boss battle which takes a million retries. In fact, the final part of the game is relatively easy, which is nice.

Anyway, it's a fun "little" game. If you really like You Have To Win The Game you probably want to pick this one up.

[Tanukitsune]

Did you have to encounter a boss of sorts before the wizard? You don't fight him, I think you ride him to the wizard while dodging bullets? That still kinda counts.

 

Is it worth it to 100% the game? I left most temples with a gem or two I just couldn't find.

 

I beat Hexyz Force a JRPG that's pretty typical, but with two story lines, I only played one and it was interesting and left me wanting to play the other side.

 

The most unique feature about this game is not only do you only get one "main" weapon for the whole game, which can be upgraded with "force points", there is no spell to heal out of a battle and you must use force points to heal or find a "heal point" which are only next to save points in rare cases and most of the time need to purified and have a relatively tough boss battle. I have died a few times just trying to beat the healing point boss. 

 

I also like that the hero on the side I picked starts lazy and a bit unreliable becoming strong and responsible by the end.

[SecretAsianMan]

I finished up Grim Fandango Remastered the other day.  I even played with the tank controls.  I didn't have a problem moving around with them for the most part, but in a few places it was infuriating because Manny would sometimes automatically start moving toward the screen exit no matter which direction I was actually facing.  Overall the game is about as good and as hard as I remember.  It's a good thing that I still remember a lot of the puzzle solutions otherwise I think I'd have become frustrated much quicker.  I'm not really a fan of the "updated" look though.  If everything had been updated it would have been fine but seeing high res characters against low res backgrounds was very jarring.  The worst moment had to be when Sal is yelling at Manny during a cutscene.  His head has the new updated graphics but his body retains the old look, resulting in a very ugly mismatch.  I'm planning to go back and play it again with the commentary on.

[GavinTheAlmighty]

I recently finished up another playthrough of Fable 2.  I hadn't touched it in a while, despite it being one of my favourite games on the 360.  

 

I realize that from a distance, it's a gorgeous game, but up close and personal, it's fugly.  Character models look terrible, and facial expressions are unreadable.  Perhaps I've been spoiled with relatively recent games that have decent visuals - Splinter Cell Blacklist and The Last of Us being the most recent of these - but I even played through the original Mass Effect on PC and it was leagues ahead.

 

It's still fun, but it's not aging well.

[elmuerte]

AR-K: The Great Escape

Third episode in this adventure. It's not much better than the second. It plays like a bad adventure game from the mid/late 90s. The writing and puzzles are not really good. Worst part is that the overall story isn't really progressing. This episode did explain much more about this whole AR-K, which was really missing from the first two episodes.

I don't think I'll play the 4th episode, unless it's part of a humble bundle or something.

[syntheticgerbil]

I finished up Grim Fandango Remastered the other day.  I even played with the tank controls.  I didn't have a problem moving around with them for the most part, but in a few places it was infuriating because Manny would sometimes automatically start moving toward the screen exit no matter which direction I was actually facing.  Overall the game is about as good and as hard as I remember.  It's a good thing that I still remember a lot of the puzzle solutions otherwise I think I'd have become frustrated much quicker.  I'm not really a fan of the "updated" look though.  If everything had been updated it would have been fine but seeing high res characters against low res backgrounds was very jarring.  The worst moment had to be when Sal is yelling at Manny during a cutscene.  His head has the new updated graphics but his body retains the old look, resulting in a very ugly mismatch.  I'm planning to go back and play it again with the commentary on.

What cutscenes are you referring to? None of the cutscenes have the updated texture resolutions or lighting of the main game, they are supposedly just reencoded (and not even rerendered if I am udnerstanding right) to have as little compression as possible.

[Akidu]

Anddd I just finished Wolfenstein The New Order. I've been craving a fairly straightforward shooter/stealth game and TNO was what I was looking for.

 

I have got to say though why the hell was there no lunar combat ??? I mean you go out on the surface with all your guns and gear then you only get three drones to fight. In fact i'd have thought the moon would be at the climax of the whole game. Supremely bummed there was no low gravity gun play. In general I thought they didn't play with the awesome environments as i'd have liked... Like there wasn't much environmental variables or hazards even when it was perfectly set up.  Sublevel, diving level, train level etc all had way more opportunity. Though the guns lacked variety too.

 

There was a lot of eye rolling and weird bits in the cutscenes too but whatever.. video games. I did like bits and pieces though in particular how music was tied into to the plot.  I think a game like Wolfenstein should always have its tongue in its cheek and sometimes TNO does. Sometimes it tries to tell a somber serious story, or make me care about a character sincerely which will never work for me. The relationship between the protagonist and the love interest is bizarre. Lots of weird moments and at some points the game is just telling me "HE LOVES HER ALOT< HE REALLY REALLY DOES< PLEASE BELIEVE US" but I have no real understanding of why or what they like about one another. I cant find anything to relate to, both characters are pretty much blank. The side characters were more interesting I thought.

 

If I were making a game like this i'd take the tone and shift it away from the serious life message stuff and embrace the reality that it's about future space nazis a little bit more. I think you could still tell a strong relatable tale without a 100% serious tone. Most other medium do this fine but it seems so many AAA shooters seem to just ignore the absurd elements of their game rather than make use of it. Also the protagonist gets knocked out during a cutscene about a thousand times as well as being injured in the most total and absolute ways. Apparently shrapnel to the head is 14 years in a coma but a 3 ton rock is 14 seconds. I mean I know, video games.. but it's just so dissonant. Anyway it doesn't matter I don't really know shit so I guess disclaimer here.

 

Music and sound was great there was some amount of modern AAA tension strings and cheesy stuff but also a lot of unique bits. The chugging guitar riff thing which is usually boring as fuck had this moment at the end where the track goes nuts and no holds are barred. I thought it was cool that the composer was able to withstrain their use of that particular technique enough to have a really big pay off at the climax. The music came from a bunch of angles i'm not used to in these kinds of shooters. It was really powerful.That opening menu theme is fucking sweet.. I think it kicks in during the final level too and it feels amazing. 

 

I mainly mentioned negative stuff because its easier to do so I just want to say I still really enjoyed this game.

[chummer]

Report back in about how Rogue is! When I saw it portrayed as more Black Flag I was ready to be extremely in on it, but wasn't in a position where it made sense for me to buy it.

 

I'd consider going back and picking it up, because I have no designs on ever playing Unity.

 

I've finished this game and while part of it remains a haze (I went through it incredibly fast), I remember enjoying it. Totilo's review over at Kotatu highlights the best bits about it.

 

Edit: To elaborate a bit, it's more AC4 sailing (which I loved) and it also attempts to subvert some of the narrative and mechanics of AC, which is neat b/c of how entrenched that stuff has become. It doesn't fully commit to that subversion, but it's a little experiment I enjoyed.

[Smart Jason]

I finally went back to This War of Mine and completed a new game. I guess my "party," so to speak, wiped out within a day or two of the ending last time. This time I didn't play it as a strictly, whatever happens happens roguelike and save scummed when someone died and survived, although with about half of my people getting sad epilogues. I honestly don't see how it'd be possible to play the game as a pacifist without, at least, a catalogue of meta-knowledge. I consider that a problem with the design.

[Tanukitsune]

I just beat Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure, it's a very whimsical story about a girl who makes friends with monsters and then has to rescue them from a dark prince. 

 

Each level has you use your drill to clear paths, defeat enemies and maybe even find some secrets. If you find every item and defeat every enemy without dying in a level, you get gold medal which you can exchange for powerful accessories.

 

I couldn't help but to play on beginner's mode when it said I wouldn't slip on ice, I just can't turn down that offer, I hate slippery level. This might be the first game I've seen do this, I've seen games make platforming easier by adding more platforms, but completely removing something like slippery platforms? That has to be a first, right?

[Cordeos]

I finished Far Cry 4: Valley of the Yetis yesterday. It was well done if a little short. I like the FPS tower defense mechanics. I really want to try it out coop, the last two night would be a lot less stressful with a buddy. Also classic Far Cry moment: my first encounter with a Yeti was when I hit one with a truck.

[elmuerte]

Just finished Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

Like other have said, this game has none of that interesting "between missions" stuff from the New Order going on, or interesting story progression. Basically it's a classic FPS game from the later 90s early 2000 in it's set up, but with some modern things like the cover mechanic. It was ok, except for one big thing. The final boss battle is absolutely pure unfiltered shit. I died 18 times throughout the whole game, I think 10 times (or more) were during the boss fight. The boss fight in the New Order sucked, but this one is much more annoying. It took me 3 days to finally get through it.

[Turrican]

Journey.  

 

Never played it before and bought it for £9 on PS4.  

 

Absolutely sublime.  I finished the game in less than 2 hours and then spent the next 6 replaying it and getting all the achievements, enjoying and understanding the story more with each play through.  

 

Just game design and execution in its highest form.  

[Najadorel]

I just finish KOTOR II, never could finish because the last planet never could load on the original game, a bug with multicore processors!. Player over the weekend, finished faster than I remember but is still a great game, and now if you play it on Steam get the The Sith Lords Restored Content Modification which not game changer but subtler great addition. If you never played the game you should give it a try

[Zeusthecat]

Journey.  

 

Never played it before and bought it for £9 on PS4.  

 

Absolutely sublime.  I finished the game in less than 2 hours and then spent the next 6 replaying it and getting all the achievements, enjoying and understanding the story more with each play through.  

 

Just game design and execution in its highest form.  

 

Couldn't agree more. I've played through Journey countless times and it remains one of my favorite experiences. It really is the perfect length too where if you're in the mood, you can just sit down for an hour or two and go through the full game.

[Turrican]

Couldn't agree more. I've played through Journey countless times and it remains one of my favorite experiences. It really is the perfect length too where if you're in the mood, you can just sit down for an hour or two and go through the full game.

 

Have you ever played Brothers: A Tale of two Sons?